Podcasts about Accenture

Stacey Pool became Chief Marketing Officer at the fast casual restaurant chain Noodles & Co. just before the pandemic started. In this episode Stacey shares how she's leading this purposeful company through these unprecedented times. We talked openly about how COVID has taught us to be vulnerable as leaders, the balancing act of looking out for the wellbeing of our employees while still providing opportunities for professional growth, and using transparency and innovation to stay ahead of rising consumer expectations around the environment in an industry that's been hit hard by supply chain constraints. Stacey Pool Stacey Pool has served as our Chief Marketing Officer since January 2020. Prior to joining Noodles, Stacey held a variety of leadership roles at Vail Resorts, Inc., including Senior Vice President of Season Pass Marketing, Chief of Staff to the CEO, and Vice President of Digital Experience. During her time at Vail Resorts, she was responsible for Epic Pass brand marketing and delivering and executing the Vail Resorts digital experience. With over twenty years of experience in consumer marketing across multiple industries, Stacey has a strong track record of utilizing guest insights to deliver strong business results. Before joining Vail Resorts, Stacey was at Nike, Inc., where she defined the vision and strategy for the NIKEiD.com digital experience. Prior to Nike, she worked in consulting at Accenture, where she supported both Verizon Wireless and Qwest Communications. Stacey holds a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration from the University of Arizona.   Simon Mainwaring  Simon Mainwaring is a brand futurist, keynote speaker, and bestselling author. He is best known as the author of We First: How Brands and Consumers Use Social Media to Build a Better World and his upcoming book, Lead With We: The Business Revolution That Will Save Our Future; as the Founder and CEO of We First, an award-winning strategic consultancy that works with purpose-led companies to build their brand strategy, company culture, and impact storytelling; and as the author of the influential ‘Purpose At Work' column in Forbes and host of the podcast, Lead With We.   This episode of Lead With We was produced and edited by Goal 17 Media and is available on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, and Spotify. You can also watch episodes on YouTube at WeFirstTV.   Resources Learn more about Noodles & Co. at noodles.com Connect with Stacey on LinkedIn For case studies and other free resources about purposeful business, go to WeFirstBranding.com Simon's new book, Lead With We, comes out Nov. 9th and is now available for pre-order on Amazon, Google Books and Barnes & Noble. Check it out!

How to launch a product the right way with a three-time bestselling author, product designer, and the founder of an international marketing agency. Founder and CEO, Jesse Tevelow, is a three-time bestselling author, product designer, and the founder of an international marketing agency that has helped more than 50 companies and brands go to market. Their clients have raised more than $500 million to date. He also co-founded a game company that has leveraged in-app digital currencies to generate over $100 million since 2009 (Source). Tevelow's experience with digital currency spans over a decade, and his writing has been featured in publications like Bloomberg, Forbes, The Next Web, and Entrepreneur.   Today, he heads the team at Praise, which includes the former Global VP of Design for Coca Cola, a former member of the FBI, a finance manager from Accenture, a Boston University professor, as well as a robust technical and design team that has built and launched multiple large-scale projects. The entire Praise team shares a passion for innovation, and we're on a mission to bring digital currency to the mainstream.

"Our Happy Divorce" authors, Nikki DeBartolo and Benjamin Heldfond slid into the diner booth with me this week. Divorce is never easy but these two have figured out a way to make it work for their son Asher. We started our conversation talking about how Ben and Nikki met, when the sparks flew, and what brought them from San Francisco to Tampa, Florida. Making friends in a new city is hard and resentment is a tough emotion to shake when it starts building. I really appreciate the candor and self-awareness they both showed when owning how the years leading up to the divorce and the few after could have been handled better. We also talked about how they worked through the popular, though flawed, rationale many unhappy couples have: Stay together for the kids. We ended talking about the importance of counseling, the beauty of an open mind, and the power of clarity in communication. This was filled with just the right amount of couple bantering and deep-hitting realities. Excited for you to hear it!      About the Guest:  From weeknight dinners and homework sessions with their son to Christmas card photos and vacations, Nikki DeBartolo and Benjamin Heldfond have created a tight-knit, enviable family. They work and play well together, from the smallest daily tasks to the biggest life events—and it only took a divorce to get them there. Though their marriage has been over for nearly a decade, they still share a happy life with each other and their son Asher, along with their new amazing spouses and children. Ben and Nikki had hoped their wedding would start their happily ever after—but seven years, one child, and countless financial and familial entanglements later, their I do-s had turned into We can't-s. Armed with their fierce love for their son and a desire to give him the best, they realized they needed to find an alternative to the seemingly inevitable toxic divorce that loomed over their lives. Refusing to participate in the standard litigious legal divorce process, they devised a new strategy and worked to confront their hurt feelings and fragile egos head-on. Committed to putting Asher's needs first in every decision, they helped each other heal and build a future. Their happily blended family today is a testament to their commitment to a few core principles and their incredible son—during the divorce and beyond. In their stunning book "Our Happy Divorce," Ben and Nikki elaborate on the difficulties of their divorce experience, their individual pains and triumphs, and their unique approach to relationships and blended families. Their story is sure to inspire others to pursue something few believe possible…a happy divorce.   Connect with Ben and Nikki and learn more: https://www.amazon.com/Our-Happy-Divorce-Marriage-Together/dp/1631779974/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=Our+Happy+Divorce&qid=1568927277&sr=8-1 (Link to their book on Amazon) @ourhappydivorce on Instgram About the Host:  Friends! Here's a somewhat stuffy bio of me:   I am an author, professional speaker, coach, host, and entrepreneur. My first book, Leading Imperfectly: The value of being authentic for leaders, professionals, and human beings, is available wherever people buy books. I speak internationally to willing and unwilling attendees about authenticity, vulnerability, and leadership. My clients include American Express, General Electric (GE), Accenture, Yale University, The Ohio State University, and many others. As a speaker, I am doing the two things I loves the most: making people think and making people laugh!  I host my own events multiple times a year. They are 2-day events called Living Imperfectly Live (and sometimes they are 1-day virtual events). They are a space where humans from every walk of life can come together to be part of a community on the pursuit of badassery. The goal is to help attendees start living the life we say we want...

Shawnna Sumaoang: Hi, and welcome to the Sales Enablement PRO podcast. I am Shawnna Sumaoang. Sales enablement is a constantly evolving space and we’re here to help professionals stay up to date on the latest trends and best practices so that they can be more effective in their jobs. Today, I’m excited to have Sebastian from Accenture join us. Sebastian, I would love for you to introduce yourself, your role, and your organization to our audience. Sebastian Shimomichi: Definitely. Thank you for having me. I’m Sebastian Shimomichi and I am a management consultant at Accenture Singapore. I’m a consultant specialized in analytics and business development. I primarily focus on delivering marketing excellence for clients in Japan, Southeast Asia, and China, essentially as a global professional services company with leading capabilities in digital cloud. As a management consultant, I’m responsible for amplifying marketing effectiveness for our portfolio of clients in the Asia Pacific market. I essentially work closely with the clients' sales and marketing teams and identify opportunities to implement solutions we could bring on board to accelerating pipelines. ShS: Fantastic, Sebastian. I’m so glad that you’re able to join us today. Thank you for taking the time. We came across you on LinkedIn when you wrote an article around the importance of curiosity for business leaders today in order to solve problems. You mentioned in your introduction that you guys work specifically with marketing leaders and you yourself have been one. How do you embrace curiosity and how has this mindset helped you drive innovation? SeS: Wow, that was my article in Japanese on the topic of curiosity. I believe being curious about how sales and marketing teams can tackle business challenges, this is essential to the success of an organization. With the current pandemic at hand, it is becoming increasingly crucial for leaders to question how to ensure efficiency in how sales and marketing collaborate. For the longest time, many organizations took baby steps in digitizing operations in sales and marketing. However, with the pandemic disrupting how teams such as sales and marketing collaborate to achieve KPIs, leaders are now required to reevaluate how to accelerate digitizing the workplace and skill up their employees to keep steady momentum in achieving all of the small to big wins. It takes a curious mindset to observe what is not working and define how digitizing sales and marketing could succeed. By embracing a curious mindset, I believe sales and marketing leaders can evaluate exactly what data solutions and talent is needed to bring about success for an organization. All my years of being a consultant in the domain of marketing specialize in the Japanese market. I have witnessed Japanese clients from various industries scramble to digitize their marketing activities to maximize sales pipeline. The most commonly asked question from senior leaders at major Japanese corporations was how do we transform the way sales and marketing teams collaborate without impacting our sales performance? While it may be simple for an organization to implement automated solutions – CDPs, DMP, CRM, marketing automation, so on, it takes the right mindset to leverage digital transformation solutions and marketing to its full potential. A leader who embraces curiosity can look at the intersection between digitization and employees' state of mind from different perspectives. A true leader is often said to be someone who can make a judgment all while being empathetic. That’s true for a leader with a curious mindset. They would look to identify how employees could learn to relearn while gradually introducing digitized solutions within an organization to essentially keep that momentum and grow even further as an organism. ShS: I think that’s absolutely spot on. I think you’re right. I think especially in the past year, there’s been this massive wave to digitize everything that we’re doing. I think remaining curious is extremely important, particularly in these changing times. As a marketing leader myself, I’d love your perspective on this. How can marketing leaders help to inspire curiosity across their teams? What would you say the potential impact of that type of culture on an organization is as a whole? SeS: I briefly mentioned the notion of employees learning to relearn. As we attempt to make sense of changes brought about by the pandemic, we find ourselves learning how to work from home efficiently. In my current line of work, I lead a team of analysts and specialists to deploy skilled marketing programs to drive product awareness and adoption. When the pandemic came in at full force across the globe, we had to scrap a large portion of our 2020 growth strategy. We had to rethink the client experience as well, as the journey from awareness to conversion all was happening online. Instead of just having a small group of colleagues go back to the drawing board and build a strategy, we invited our extended team to brainstorm with us. We didn't ask what should change, but rather, what are the types of experiences you miss in the process of deciding to purchase a product? From this exercise, we were able to identify that personalized experiences were the most missed. This exercise we had was to adjust our strategy for 2020 and beyond. What we want to achieve is for our extended team to challenge the status quo constantly. What I mean by this is to have colleagues across the board, regardless of seniority, have a voice to share various perspectives. By fostering an environment where employees can voice their opinions on how marketing and sales achieve success, we can identify how to innovate the way we collaborate in a digitizing environment. In fact, by empowering our colleagues to feel confident in voicing their opinions, we have optimized marketing attribution models for our clients. For example, before the pandemic, marketing teams would deploy one-off programs to drive awareness and readiness through white papers, playbooks, and webinars. That alone was sufficient to accelerate the sales funnel. However, it is becoming increasingly important to offer a consistent, personalized experience to prospects. What I mean by consistent is to put into place a sequential client experience whereby marketing can measure its influence on the sales pipeline efforts and effectively redefine how we assess readiness and our buyer segments – essentially CXOs all the way to end-users. All of this is possible in making sure our team is in an environment where they can be curious in their domain and ultimately provide different points of view, which would lead to innovation. ShS: Absolutely. I think that’s fantastic. Marketing attribution is a very hard thing to get right, for those of you less familiar with marketing attribution analytics. I think that’s fantastic. Now, to shift gears a little bit I’d love to understand, I think from an audience perspective that is predominantly in sales enablement, this is one area within the organization, particularly on the revenue side of organizations, that marketing and sales enablement can very much relate. That’s with regard to collaboration. I’d love to understand from your experience, how can marketing best collaborate with cross-functional leaders across the business, such as sales enablement, to help solve problems and innovate for the business? SeS: Great question. While I firmly believe being curious and challenging the status quo is essential to bring about innovation, so reducing the steps in sales and marketing operations to produce output, it is also essential to be technically strategic. As organizations move to digitally transform the way marketing teams work to produce engaging content, marketers need to learn how to become technically strategic in building value for the organization and its customers. At the core of every successful collaboration initiative with cross-functional leaders is communication. However, as marketers leverage data to produce data-driven marketing positions, it is then critical for marketers to communicate how technology will maximize marketing strategies. This essentially would mean understanding nuances in third-party data to zero-party data – how lead data is ingested across platforms and systems and how leads are scored across the marketing funnel. Why is this necessary? It simply boils down to marketing being able to highlight how their mar-tech stack can contribute the team’s efforts in achieving KPIs. Let me walk you through an example. When I was based in Japan, I was a data and analytics manager at an advertising agency also responsible for the end-to-end development of an Asia Pacific-wide nurture campaign for a major high-tech firm that incorporated marketing automation, lead scoring, and web scraping to generate them graphic data insights for all incoming leads. The objective for the campaign was clear: increased sales readiness of incoming leads through personalized communications whereby each marketing communication would alter depending on user behavior on our client’s CMS or web forms. You can think of this as contact sales. Due to the scale of this, the budget required for this program was high for the marketing team on the client side. This is where I partnered with the marketing team to advocate for the program to various teams at our client’s company through effective communication and defining the value behind the program, so essentially not only discussing the technicals but rather how does that translate to success, we were able to deliver the offering. In fact, I’m being told that it’s still being run to this very day. On top of having communication at the core of success, I see that being able to translate technical, so systems platforms, etc., to how different teams within an organization will use them is just as important because you have to think of different perspectives and align them so that you can achieve buy-in. That’s one thing I think is quite important. ShS: I think that’s absolutely spot on, Sebastian, with cross-collaboration. One way that I’ve seen marketing and sales enablement often work together is to help to optimize the client experience. My last question for you has to do with another article that you recently wrote about the importance of omotenashi or hospitality in building long-lasting relationships with clients. What does that mean to display omotenashi in marketing today? SeS: Before I go any further, I think it’s important to unpack what omotenashi means. The best way to translate it in English would be hospitality, but it is generally believed that omotenashi is much more than hospitality. It is a philosophy in customer service. To practice the philosophy of omotenashi is to be selfless when giving the best service or experience. Let me paint you a picture of the Japanese corporate world. In Japan, marketing and sales teams at companies from various industries work tirelessly to gain the trust of their clients. In the west, it’s pretty common to have account-based marketing strategies whereby you attempt to have various buyer segments in an organization, engage with marketing content. In Japan, however, leaders carry a lot more authoritative power than their Western counterparts. The reason for that is that in a corporate culture in Japan, collectivism is preferred. This translates to Japanese companies attempting to narrow down their ABM strategies to key leaders within a specified division of a company, rather than the broader range of buyer segments. So, end-users, decision-makers, just straight to CXOs. In earning the trust of your clients, marketing and sales enablement closely collaborate to develop customer experiences that resonate with their prospects with omotenashi. Even if sales are in contact with prospects, the clients still expect to have a consistent customer experience throughout the entire lifetime of the company-client relationship. This means for sales and marketing to always identify opportunities to show omotenashi to prospects. Methodologies I have often seen these days are establishing private, VIP webinars hosted by marketing whereby sales enablement team members are on standby to participate in breakout sessions, which would often be broken out by a product function or particular solution for a given industry. In activities like this, it's not expected for sales to immediately land on a contract deal. Instead, through consistent customer experiences, the marketing and sales expectation is that prospects will trust the organizations' capabilities and vision. If a company can win trust from its prospects, those prospects, which will then be clients, will likely one day become loyal clients whereby they would not hesitate to spread the love by promoting the company. I have seen success in this domain whereby by implementing omotenashi in marketing and sales enablement, I’ve seen companies have 10-plus year relationships with their clients all due to that particular notion that in the customer experience journey, having omotenashi is very important. Now, a lot of the clients I’ve worked with in the past were in the cloud industry, especially in Japan. If I were to give a very rough estimate of the dollar value of such relationships in the cloud industry, I would say they contributed $2-4 billion a year. While I cannot comment on whether such an approach would work in the west, it does in Japan. It is often regarded as marketing excellence by key figures in the Japanese marketing industry as well. ShS: I love that concept. I absolutely agree. I think if it were applied in the west it could have significant business impact. Thank you for sharing that philosophy with our audience today, Sebastian, and thank you for joining us. SeS: Thank you. ShS: To our audience, thanks for listening. For more insights, tips, and expertise from sales enablement leaders, visit salesenablement.pro. If there’s something you’d like to share or a topic you’d like to learn more about, please let us know. We’d love to hear from you.

If workers are in short supply, why do employers continue to use digital gatekeepers that screen out millions of capable individuals? Joe Fuller joins his Managing the Future of Work co-chair and podcast co-host, Bill Kerr, to share insights from the project's research collaboration with Accenture on the “hidden worker” problem.

Chaitra Vedullapalli talks about how she was designated to be a housewife, but destined for greatness as one of the very few women in tech who are taking action to generate $1billion in net new global economic access for female entrepreneurs. She does this through her organization, Women In Cloud, and this is just the beginning.  Using the power of AI, Cloud, and IoT, Chaitra Vedullapalli is fiercely committed to empowering business owners to access the digital economy through cloud technology. She is an author, speaker, change leader who has technology patents and is a TEDx and United Nation speaker. Chaitra also sits on multiple private and non-profit boards, including the Microsoft Alumni Network and PACE. Chaitra is recognized as an Influential Business Leader with a passion to enable digital equity and access to achieve economic prosperity in our communities. She is the co-founder and CMO of Meylah, focused on helping customers to modernize their business with cloud solutions. Chaitra is also the Co-Founder & President of Women in Cloud, who drives global conversations with the United Nations and top corporations like Microsoft, IBM, Accenture throughout the U.S. Chaitra recently led the charge to build a 100M Global Partnership Network for Women in Cloud with UN Women, Sheroes, EQUALS Global, Microsoft Alumni Network, WIT Network, and 18 other global organizations. This partnership allows all the parties involved to access various resources, some unique to a particular organization, and build a strong dynamic global community of women. Timestamps: [1:41] How Chaitra got her start [4:15] The billion-dollar vision [5:39] 2018 and the birth of an idea [6:47] Three years later, and how Women in Cloud is going [7:29] Chaitra's grandmother, and the importance of economic access [10:54] COVID in India [13:25] The significance of setting up a framework for future success [14:11] Who inspires Chaitra [15:53] Chaitra's daily practice [17:44] The true value of technology [18:42] The value of a vision map in technology [19:54] Tips for working with a team [20:33] Value of investing in self-growth [21:10] Women In Cloud's four signature events [22:13] UN General Assembly event [24:12] How to take steps in the right direction [28:11] The value of having fun Useful links: Women In Cloud https://www.womenincloud.com Meylah https://meylah.com Chaitra Vedullapalli's personal website https://chaitravedullapalli.com/ Connect with Chaitra Vedullapalli on Linkedin https://www.linkedin.com/in/chaitrav/  Follow Patti Dobrowolski - Instagram https://www.instagram.com/upyourcreativegenius/ Linkedin https://www.linkedin.com/in/patti-dobrowolski-532368/ Up Your Creative Genius https://www.upyourcreativegenius.com/

Meet Agapi Stassinopoulos Agapi Stassinopoulos is a best-selling author and speaker who inspires audiences around the world. In her previous book, Unbinding the Heart: A Dose of Greek Wisdom, Generosity, and Unconditional Love, she shares the wisdom from her life's adventures and experiences. In her new book, Wake Up to the Joy of You: 52 Meditations and Practices for a Calmer, Happier Life, she takes readers on a journey and inspires them to let go of what doesn't work and instead create the lives they really want. Agapi was trained in London at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art and then moved on to receive her master's degree in psychology from the University of Santa Monica. Her previous books on the Greek archetypes, Gods and Goddesses in Love and Conversations with the Goddesses, were turned into PBS specials.    She is currently conducting workshops for Thrive Global, a company founded by her sister, Arianna Huffington, to help change how we work and live. Agapi has spoken and conducted meditations at many organizations and companies, including L'Oreal, Accenture, SAP, LinkedIn, Pandora, Google, Nike, Weight Watchers, PepsiCo, Starbucks, Global Citizen Company, Museum of Modern Art, ABC Carpet & Home, Women's Health Magazine, Paul Mitchell, NYU, Gympass, and Hearst Communications amongst many others. She brings home the importance of self-care, practicing gratitude, generosity, and self-love to enhance performance and productivity so we can experience happiness and fulfillment. She divides her time between New York and Los Angeles and was born and raised in Athens, Greece. You can find Agapi at www.WakeUptotheJoyofYou.com Dual Citizenship: Being Part Human and Part Divine I loved this conversation with Agapi Stassinopolous. It was all about how to really show up in life, both in our humanity and in owning our divinity. I know I've struggled with this before, and we discussed how feelings like resentment, jealousy, anger, frustration, sadness, and disappointment can cause feelings of "I shouldn't be experiencing this now; I'm a spiritual being." The truth is we can't spiritually bypass our feelings and having all emotions is part of the human experience. The best remedy is compassion and kindness. Befriend your little girl, or little boy, that still lives within you and see what they might need to feel safe, heard, and listened to. As a spiritual being, the aim is to stay open-hearted to endure and experience all emotions and the bliss of presence. Agapi Stassinopoulos shared a way to handle challenging feelings; open your heart to the moment, breathe out and remember that right at this moment, you are being breathed in by the divine. In your breath are kindness, compassion, and comfort. That is the essence of existing as a spiritual being on this big blue marble.      Wake Up Your Joy We often have a hard time receiving, especially joy, because it seems selfish. This couldn't be farther from the truth. You have to go to places of discomfort and vulnerability to honor and love all parts of who you are. Who you are is a soul in a body. The essence within you is to be awakened and called forward. Joy is one of the purest ways to connect to your highest essence. Remember, waking up to joy is a process. Living in joy is another way to express yourself as a spiritual being. You don't have to bypass all your negative feelings, but be open to all the small moments of joy as they present themselves to you, and you will begin to find more moments exist than you previously noted.   Kindness Is The Way I love that Agapi said it is time to start romancing ourselves and do things that bring us joy and inner peace. Make your ego your ally and not your enemy. Claim your inner knowing and follow it with focus, faith, and trust. Through kindness, not through shaming ourselves, we can feel a greater divine spirit navigating and breathing us through our challenges. Slow down and notice the gaze of God, the divine presence that is always with you and shows up through kindness and compassion.   Final Thoughts Agapi Stassinopoulos was such a light and gave a lot of food for thought on how to awaken ourself to living as a spiritual being while acknowledging our human selves. It's important to note that while feeling our humanness is part of our journey here, we are also meant to recognize the joy we are blessed with. Stopping to observe the joyful moments, from tiny to more significant expressions, allow us to rise more fully into our spiritual beings, rising up into the higher vibration of joy.    To receive 8 of Agapi's top meditations, go to WakeUptotheJoyofYou.com or connect directly at agapi@unbindingtheheart.com.        Sacred Connection As always, this community is a sacred, safe place built on love and acceptance. It was created to help you evolve and expand into your highest self. Please share your wisdom, comments, thoughts. I love hearing from you and learning how you are being your truest, you-est you. Please join us in our Facebook group The You-est You® Community for Soul Seekers Join host Julie Reisler, author and multi-time TEDx speaker, each week to learn how you can tap into your best self and become your You-est You® to achieve inner peace, happiness, and success at a deeper level! Tune in to hear powerful, inspirational stories and expert insights from entrepreneurs, industry thought leaders, and extraordinary human beings that will help to transform your life. Julie also shares a-ha moments that have shaped her life and career and discusses key concepts from her book Get a PhD in YOU Here's to your being your you-est you! Connect with Agapi Stassinopoulos Website: wakeuptothejoyofyou.com Instagram: @agapisees Facebook: @AgapiStassinopoulos Twitter: @agapisays Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/AgapiStassinopoulos Enjoying the show? For iTunes listeners, get automatic downloads and share the love by subscribing, rating & reviewing here! *Share what you are struggling with or looking to transform with Julie at podcast@juliereisler.com. Julie would love to start covering topics of highest interest to YOU.   You-est You Links: Subscribe to the Podcast  Learn more at JulieReisler.com Become a Sacred Member at the Sacredology® Membership Join The You-est You® Community for Soul Seekers on Facebook Subscribe to Julie's YouTube Channel Book Julie as a speaker at your upcoming event Amazon #1 Best selling book Get a PhD in YOU Download free guided-meditations from Insight Timer Julie's Hungry For More On line Program (10 Module Interactive Course) 15 Days Of Gratitude To Change Your Life on InsightTimer

Buckle up, y'all because this episode is jam-packed with nuggets of wisdom that will stick with you long after listening. Today I kicked it in the booth with bestselling author, socially conscious entrepreneur, and speaker Laura Gassner Otting (aka LGO). We talked about finding what you love to do, defining success and what is enough for yourself, motivation vs. discipline, control, imposter syndrome, and a new way to think about confidence. LGO is incredibly entertaining, an excellent storyteller, and someone who offers a fresh perspective. This episode has a little bit of everything for everyone and is well worth your time. Not to mention, it starts out with some PRO tips for ordering at the diner. Check it out!   About the Guest:  Washington Post Best Selling Author and Motivational Keynote speaker, Laura Gassner Otting, inspires people to push past the doubt and indecision that keep great ideas in limbo because her presentations make listeners think bigger and accept greater challenges that reach beyond their limited scope of belief. She delivers strategic thinking, well-honed wisdom, and perspective generated by decades of navigating change across the start-up, nonprofit, political, as well as philanthropic landscapes. Laura dares listeners to find their voice, and generate the confidence needed to tackle larger-than-life challenges. She leads them to seek new ways of leading, managing and mentoring others. Laura's entrepreneurial edge has been well-honed over a 25-year career that started as a Presidential Appointee in Bill Clinton's White House, where she helped shape AmeriCorps. She left a leadership role at the respected nonprofit search firm, Isaacson, Miller, to expand the startup ExecSearches.com. Laura also founded and ran the Nonprofit Professionals Advisory Group, which partnered with the full gamut of mission-driven nonprofit executives, from start-up dreamers to scaling social entrepreneurs to global philanthropists. In 2015, Laura sold NPAG to the team that helped her build it, both because she was hungry for the next chapter and because she held an audacious dream of electing our nation's first female president. Along the way, while serving on Hillary Clinton's National Finance Committee, she was asked to do a TEDx talk which became so popular that it launched a speaking career. Laura has spoken across the United States and internationally to universities, companies, conferences, accelerators, TEDx, and the US Military. She is the author of Mission-Driven: Moving from Profit to Purpose (2015) and the Washington Post Best Seller Limitless: How to Ignore Everybody, Carve Your Own Path, and Live Your Best Life (2019). She lives with her husband, two teenage sons, and troublesome puppy outside of Boston, MA. Fun facts: I went to computer sleep away camp. I am running my fourth marathon in a week, having never run a mile in my life before I turned 39, and now the reigning lightweight indoor rowing champion of my age group. I have an irrational fear of whales.    Connect with Laura and learn more: myfourquestions.com lauragassnerotting.com @heylgo on Instagram About the Host:  Friends! Here's a somewhat stuffy bio of me:   I am an author, professional speaker, coach, host, and entrepreneur. My first book, Leading Imperfectly: The value of being authentic for leaders, professionals, and human beings, is available wherever people buy books. I speak internationally to willing and unwilling attendees about authenticity, vulnerability, and leadership. My clients include American Express, General Electric (GE), Accenture, Yale University, The Ohio State University, and many others. As a speaker, I am doing the two things I loves the most: making people think and making people laugh!  I host my own events multiple times a year. They are 2-day events called Living Imperfectly Live (and sometimes they are 1-day virtual events). They...

In the 26th installment of the Conversation Series, we speak with André Martin, Ph.D., Managing Director at Accenture.

If there's one good thing that's come from the pandemic, it's this: Scientists and drug manufacturers came together in record time and with a shared purpose to create a safe and effective Covid-19 vaccine. In doing so, they set a precedent for medical advancements. So, where do we go from here? In this episode, we'll talk about how biopharma companies can learn from last year's disruption and harness what Accenture calls ‘New Science' to rapidly discover and deliver revolutionary treatments and preparing for in the midst of regulatory and economic shifts. We'll speak with Chris Gibson, C.E.O. and Co-Founder at Recursion; Stuart Henderson, Global Industry Lead — Life Sciences at Accenture; and David Coman, C.E.O at Science 37.This week's guests: Chris Gibson, C.E.O. and Co-Founder at RecursionStuart Henderson, Global Industry Lead — Life Sciences at AccentureDavid Coman, C.E.O at Science 37

Today's guest is Bhaskar Roy of Fractal Analytics. Bhaskar previously held high-level analytical roles at Target and Accenture before joining Fractal Analytics and taking on more artificial intelligence projects. In this episode, Bhaskar discusses the conceptual and practical differences between analytics and AI projects for selling AI and delivery. He also talks about the similarities between these two types of projects. If you enjoyed this episode, be sure to check out Bhaskar's interview on The AI Consulting Podcast, where he discusses what it looks like to find the AI fit for clients in more depth. The AI Consulting Podcast is our newest podcast designed specifically for AI advisors, strategists, and consultants and is available on all major podcast platforms.

86% of the people surveyed (Consumer Content Report) say that authenticity is important when deciding what brands they like and support.In this episode, we're going to talk about the power of authenticity and branding.  Don't worry. It's going to be a good conversation. You're going to appreciate it. No matter what position you hold in your organization. Check out why it's so important to let the real you shine through....not the #authenticversionofyou.About Maria RossMaria Ross is the founder of Red Slice, a consultancy that advises solopreneurs, startups, and fast-growth businesses on how to build an irresistible brand story and authentically connect with customers. She is a keynote speaker who regularly speaks to audiences on marketing and building a standout brand that engages the right customers and drives growth. She is the author of Branding Basics for Small Business and The Juicy Guide eBook Series for Entrepreneurs.Maria started her career as a management consultant with Accenture and went on to build marketing and brand strategies for multiple companies, including Discovery Communications, Monster.com, BusinessObjects (now SAP), and many other startups and technology leaders, before starting her own business. Maria understands the power of empathy at both a brand and personal level: in 2008, six months after launching her business, she suffered a ruptured brain aneurysm that almost killed her. Her humorous and heartfelt memoir about what is was like to survive this health crisis, Rebooting My Brain, has received worldwide praise.Maria has made numerous media appearances, including on MSNBC, ABCNews.com, and Forbes.com; in Entrepreneur magazine; and on hundreds of radio shows and popular podcasts such as Entrepreneur on Fire, The Shameless Mom Academy, and Suitcase Entrepreneur. She writes a contributor column for Entrepreneur.com and has written for Huffington Post, MarketingProfs.com, Seattle Business, Life by Me, Inspire Me Today, Columbus CEO, among others.Resources mentioned:Website: www.red-slice.comInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/redslicemaria/Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/redslice/LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mariajross/Email: maria@red-slice.comBook: The Empathy Edge: Harnessing the Value of Compassion as an Engine for Success (www.theempathyedge.com)About the Lead with Levity PodcastThe Lead with Levity podcast is a show for leaders who care deeply about what makes/breaks the employee experience. Our guests are dynamic researchers, practitioners, consultants, and business leaders. We cover foundational elements that are needed to avoid forcing the fun. We also invite lively managers who lead with levity to show us how it's done. Thanks for joining us on this journey.Support the show (https://paypal.me/leadwithlevity)

How can workplaces create equality, inclusion and belonging for LGBTQ+ employees? That's the topic of this episode of the Business Group on Health Podcast, in which we speak with Beck Bailey, Managing Director of Inclusion & Diversity at Accenture. A nationally recognized expert on transgender inclusion policy, Beck says that he's working with his team […]

How can workplaces create equality, inclusion and belonging for LGBTQ+ employees? That's the topic of this episode of the Business Group on Health Podcast, in which we speak with Beck Bailey, Managing Director of Inclusion & Diversity at Accenture. A nationally recognized expert on transgender inclusion policy, Beck says that he's working with his team […]

Cyberespionage seems undeterred by stern warnings. DDoS hits the Philippine Senate. The US Department of Homeland Security intends to issue cybersecurity regulations for passenger rail and airlines. The US Department of Justice intends to use the False Claims Act to bring civil actions against government contractors who fail to follow “recognized cybersecurity standards.” An update on the Twitch breach. Josh Ray from Accenture looks at what's going on with Fancy Lazarus. Our guest is Sam Ingalls from eSecurity Planet on the state of Blockchain applications in cybersecurity. And what would it take to get you kids into a nice non-fungible token? For links to all of today's stories check out our CyberWire daily news briefing: https://www.thecyberwire.com/newsletters/daily-briefing/10/194

Digital transformation has increased exponentially in the healthcare industry over the past year, as organizations harness the power of digital to reach patients, accelerate research and develop new therapies to beat the global pandemic. Unfortunately, this digital transformation has been paired with an increasing cohort of highly capable cyber extortionists that have been using ransomware to compromise operations and hold patient data hostage to extract money from health organizations. As ransomware attacks become more rampant and advanced in our industry, the risk of an organization falling victim is more real than ever. In light of this reality, one question stands central for all of us: how do we make sure we are prepared to prevent and respond to a ransomware attack.

I don't even know if there are diners in the Canary Islands, but I do know that this week's guest, Geneviève Pépin, slid into this diner all the way from off the coast of Morocco. Geneviève and I started off discussing the magical foods that are poutine (because she's from Quebec City) and arepas (because they are delicious). Then she told me about how she went from being a loner as a child who wanted to be an artist to getting lost in the corporate world. In her 20s she became a voracoius traveler and wound up studying and then working in China for 6 years! I loved hearing about her experience in China, what she loved about the culture there, and what surprised her. Because she has lived in many places, Geneviève calls herself a free agent of cultural norms, so naturally, I had to ask how one does that. We then discussed some of her professional careers. She talked about getting your dream job and then realizing it was not right for her and then knowing when to leave. It was fascinating hearing her talk about coming to terms with your control issues and understanding your relationship with control. And we finished up by going back and forth about, as a coach, how do you spark change? Loved this one y'all!   . About the Guest: (Bio, Personal Links, Resource Links)   Geneviève Pépin is passionate about helping people go from busy & stressed to happy & productive, as a result of her own journey in the professional world. She is an accredited life coach (IAPC&M), certified mindset specialist, productivity and leadership development coach (Fortune 500 companies), and improv facilitator. Before coaching, Geneviève built her career internationally in event management and marketing, living, working, and traveling in 20 countries, in four different languages. She likes to enjoy a black espresso and a good laugh with friends, practice improv comedy, and spend time with her husband and two dogs in the beautiful Canary Islands that she calls home.   Connect with Geneviève and learn more: LinkedIn: https://bit.ly/GenLIProfile Website: https://nettolacoaching.com/ About the Host:  Friends! Here's a somewhat stuffy bio of me:   I am an author, professional speaker, coach, host, and entrepreneur. My first book, Leading Imperfectly: The value of being authentic for leaders, professionals, and human beings, is available wherever people buy books. I speak internationally to willing and unwilling attendees about authenticity, vulnerability, and leadership. My clients include American Express, General Electric (GE), Accenture, Yale University, The Ohio State University, and many others. As a speaker, I am doing the two things I loves the most: making people think and making people laugh!  I host my own events multiple times a year. They are 2-day events called Living Imperfectly Live (and sometimes they are 1-day virtual events). They are a space where humans from every walk of life can come together to be part of a community on the pursuit of badassery. The goal is to help attendees start living the life we say we want to live. Alas, you're here because of an idea I had a number of years ago and didn't think I was good enough to pull it off. I finally acted on it and alas Diner Talks with James was born! As you can see from what I do in my professional life, Diner Talks is alligned with everything I believe in and teach.  If this wasn't dry enough, and you would like to know more info about my speaking, events, or coaching feel free to check out my website: JamesTRobo.com. Let's Be Friends on Social Media! Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jamestrobo (https://www.instagram.com/jamestrobo) Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/jamestrobo (https://www.facebook.com/jamestrobo) LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jamesrobilotta/ (https://www.linkedin.com/in/jamesrobilotta/) YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/JamesRobilottaCSP...

Today's Guest Expert: Tom Stern Thomas Stern is a successful executive recruiter who works with many national and international companies, including Accenture, Bain & Company, Coca-Cola, Sony Pictures, Sutherland Global Services, NBC Universal Studios, and is the author of Fear Less, Sell More. In addition to running Stern Executive Search, Tom also created the syndicated […] The post Fear Less appeared first on Jake A Carlson.

Federico Sarsola es un diseñador de producto que trabaja actualmente en el sistema de diseño del Banco Galicia, conocido como uno de los bancos más grandes de Buenos Aires Argentina. Ha trabajado con compañías como Nokia, Accenture y Belatrix. Federico se considera como una persona que le encanta resolver problemas cotidianos y simplificar procesos complejos. Luego de la entrevista de Federico pasa por nuestro shop y adquiere nuestro ebook: Diseña Productos de Tecnología Financiera, Así que dale para commandzpodcast.com Si quieres mas contenido como este mensual subscríbete a nuestro Patreon en; https://www.patreon.com/commandzpodcast --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/commandzpodcast/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/commandzpodcast/support

Taylor Smith is the co-founder and CEO of Blueboard, the world's leading experiential rewards and recognition platform that helps companies celebrate their employees. The company was founded in 2014 and they currently have 150 employees around the world.  Employee experience and recognition has been at the forefront of conversations in the business world for a while now, but it's never been more important than this past year and a half. And one company that is helping leaders around the world find better ways to recognize, celebrate, and reward employees is Blueboard.  A different way to recognize and reward employees For many companies the way that they show appreciation to employees is through company-wide awards, swag like mugs and shirts, and gift cards. And while all of these things are good, it may not be what employees most want or need.  As Taylor shares, “People show up to work every day and what do they do? They're spending all their time and their energy, and they're giving it to their company, right. And a lot of us, you know, we'll work on long projects, we'll throw our lives into our work, because we're proud of it. But that often isn't reciprocated from our company.” Taylor and the Blueboard co-founder, Kevin, actually came up with the idea because of something that happened to Taylor while working for Accenture. At one point while working for the company Taylor was given a high visibility role working with the CFO of a large company. And during this project he really drove himself into the ground--he was working 80-90 hours a week, flying to Dallas every week for three months, he ate all his meals at the company cafeteria, and he wasn't sleeping much. He put everything he had into that project. And at the end of the project, Taylor's manager called Taylor into his office and told him he had done an amazing job on the project and he wanted to recognize the work he put in and he handed Taylor a $500 gift card. It was a very well-intentioned gift and it was not a trivial amount of money, but in the moment it didn't feel good to Taylor. Just considering all of the time and effort he put into the work and all of the time he spent away from home and his girlfriend, analytically thinking about it, it kind of made it feel that his time was worth $1.12 an hour to his employer.  Talking the whole situation over with Kevin when it happened Kevin asked Taylor what would have made him feel rewarded, what would have made him feel appreciated. After thinking about it Taylor said it would have been nice had his manager said, you have been spending a lot of time away from home and away from your girlfriend, here are some vouchers for you both to go for a couples massage this weekend to relax and recharge. And that is when the idea for Blueboard was born.  They realized that it made sense to use actual experiences and gifts of time to reward employees, but that in order to do that a leader would have to spend a lot of time figuring out the best thing to give, and then searching for local businesses who provide that service, and then purchase it, etc..And most leaders don't have extra time to do all of that. So they wanted to provide a service to leaders so that the process would be easy for them and rewarding for employees.  --------------- There are 6 trends that are transforming leadership forever do you know what they are and are you ready for them? Download the PDF to learn what these 6 trends are and what you should be doing about each one of them. These are crucial for your leadership and career development in the future of work! --------------- The biggest trend Taylor is paying attention to  One of the biggest things that Taylor and his team have noticed over the past year and a half is something that was already getting attention, but it increased during the pandemic and that is employee wellbeing. With most people working virtually, we have more people bringing their whole selves to work than ever before. We used to have a clear separation between work and personal life, that is no longer possible.  Companies are wrestling with how to support their people's well-being not just at work, but outside of work because they are so connected. We have to see all of the different facets of our people--they are not just employees, they are parents, spouses, significant others, and family members. They have hobbies and interests, they have hopes and dreams.  It dramatically changes your people programs when you start looking at your people as individuals who want and need different things.  Will we go back to the office? There has been a lot of discussion over the last several months about whether or not people will return to work in the office, or if most companies will continue to work remotely. Taylor is very interested to see how long it takes people to go back to work and what the whole transition period will look like. He believes that most companies will go with a hybrid form of work--some in-person and some remote--instead of going with one extreme or the other.  And while working remotely comes with convenience and flexibility, there is also value in connecting face to face with coworkers. “We could and should be more connected people than ever, but we feel more alone and isolated than ever. And to me going to a fully remote workforce is going to lead us further down that path, and I just don't think people realize that right now.” At Blueboard, even before the pandemic they had four day work days in the office and work from home Wednesdays. Employees were able to go to appointments or run errands or do housework on Wednesdays to break up their work day and accomplish things they wouldn't be able to in the office.  Why rewarding employees with experiences is so meaningful Blueboard has a lot of options for employees to choose from when they are rewarded by a leader--some are big, kind of crazy ideas like sandboarding in Morocco or chasing the northern lights in Iceland and some are small, but impactful like taking a course in a language you want to learn or training to become a yoga teacher or a one-hour surfing class.  There are so many things in life that a person might be interested in, but they just don't have the time or the resources to take the first step. So being able to start that journey because you are being recognized for your hard work is powerful. “We see hundreds of people a week doing things that represent one step towards something they've always wanted to do, whether that's taking a cooking class because they've always wanted to learn how to make pasta or they're taking a boxing class because that's the first step towards them getting in shape. Blueboard can represent just a small nudge and step in someone's life, that is then taking a big step in terms of who they are as a person. And at the end of the day, their company is the one that made that happen, how powerful and awesome is that? So that's why I love what we're doing.” ------------ Are you prepared for the Great Resignation? With the candidate-driven market heating up, you don't want to lose your top talent from a lack of meaningful recognition. Learn how meaningful employee recognition improves employee retention with this free guide! Get the latest insights on the Future of Work, Leadership and employee experience through my daily newsletter at futureofworknewsletter.com  Let's connect on social!Linkedin: http://www.linkedin.com/in/jacobmorgan8 Instagram: https://instagram.com/jacobmorgan8 Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/jacobm Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/FuturistJacob

GriftHorse will subscribe afflicted Android users to premium services they never knew they'd signed up for (and wouldn't want if they did). Facebook releases a static analysis tool it uses internally to check apps for security issues. Speculation about what put Group-IB's CEO in hot water with the Kremlin. A look from NSA about where the major nation-state cyberthreats currently stand. Malek Ben Salem from Accenture has thoughts on quantum security. Our guest is author and Wired editor at large Steven Levy joins us with insights on Facebook's internal research teams. And a short census of ransomware strains. For links to all of today's stories check out our CyberWire daily news briefing: https://www.thecyberwire.com/newsletters/daily-briefing/10/189

If you're on Facebook then there's a company you've probably never heard of that makes it bearable. Accenture. The little-known consulting firm is one of the biggest companies in the booming market of content moderation. But you'll probably never hear its name come out of the lips of Mark Zuckerberg or Sheryl Sandberg.When it comes to the world's largest social media site, you either love it or you hate it. But chances are you don't want to see a video of a dog skinned alive while you're checking in on people from high school. That's where Accenture comes in. AI gets rid of a lot, but sometimes a human has to make a call. The psychic cost of that work is devastating but it's worth a lot of money to Facebook.Here to help us understand the bizarrely secret world of Facebook's content moderation is Mike Issac of The New York Times. Isaac is a best-selling author who just co-wrote a story about all this titled The Silent Partner Cleaning Up Facebook for $500 Million a Year. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

About JackieJackie Singh is an Information Security professional with more than 20 years of hacking experience, beginning in her preteen years. She began her career in the US Army, and deployed to Iraq in 2003. Jackie subsequently spent several years in Iraq and Africa in cleared roles for the Department of Defense.Since making the shift to the commercial world in 2012, Jackie has held a number of significant roles in operational cybersecurity, including Principal Consultant at Mandiant and FireEye, Global Director of Incident Response at Intel Security and McAfee, and CEO/Cofounder of a boutique consultancy, Spyglass Security.Jackie is currently Director of Technology and Operations at the Surveillance Technology Oversight Project (S.T.O.P.), a 501(C)(3), non-profit advocacy organization and legal services provider. S.T.O.P. litigates and advocates to abolish local governments' systems of mass surveillance.Jackie lives in New York City with her partner, their daughters, and their dog Ziggy.Links: Disclose.io: https://disclose.io Twitter: https://twitter.com/hackingbutlegal TranscriptAnnouncer: Hello, and welcome to Screaming in the Cloud with your host, Chief Cloud Economist at The Duckbill Group, Corey Quinn. This weekly show features conversations with people doing interesting work in the world of cloud, thoughtful commentary on the state of the technical world, and ridiculous titles for which Corey refuses to apologize. This is Screaming in the Cloud.Corey: This episode is sponsored in part by our friends at VMware. Let's be honest—the past year has been far from easy. Due to, well, everything. It caused us to rush cloud migrations and digital transformation, which of course means long hours refactoring your apps, surprises on your cloud bill, misconfigurations and headache for everyone trying manage disparate and fractured cloud environments. VMware has an answer for this. With VMware multi-cloud solutions, organizations have the choice, speed, and control to migrate and optimizeapplications seamlessly without recoding, take the fastest path to modern infrastructure, and operate consistently across the data center, the edge, and any cloud. I urge to take a look at vmware.com/go/multicloud. You know my opinions on multi cloud by now, but there's a lot of stuff in here that works on any cloud. But don't take it from me thats: VMware.com/go/multicloud and my thanks to them again for sponsoring my ridiculous nonsense.Corey: This episode is sponsored in part by “you”—gabyte. Distributed technologies like Kubernetes are great, citation very much needed, because they make it easier to have resilient, scalable, systems. SQL databases haven't kept pace though, certainly not like no SQL databases have like Route 53, the world's greatest database. We're still, other than that, using legacy monolithic databases that require ever growing instances of compute. Sometimes we'll try and bolt them together to make them more resilient and scalable, but let's be honest it never works out well. Consider Yugabyte DB, its a distributed SQL database that solves basically all of this. It is 100% open source, and there's not asterisk next to the “open” on that one. And its designed to be resilient and scalable out of the box so you don't have to charge yourself to death. It's compatible with PostgreSQL, or “postgresqueal” as I insist on pronouncing it, so you can use it right away without having to learn a new language and refactor everything. And you can distribute it wherever your applications take you, from across availability zones to other regions or even other cloud providers should one of those happen to exist. Go to yugabyte.com, thats Y-U-G-A-B-Y-T-E dot com and try their free beta of Yugabyte Cloud, where they host and manage it for you. Or see what the open source project looks like—its effortless distributed SQL for global apps. My thanks to Yu—gabyte for sponsoring this episode.Corey: Welcome to Screaming in the Cloud. I'm Corey Quinn. The best part about being me—well, there's a lot of great things about being me, but from my perspective, the absolute best part is that I get to interview people on the show who have done awesome and impressive things. Therefore by osmosis, you tend to assume that I'm smart slash know-what-the-living-hell-I'm-talking-about. This is proveably untrue, but that's okay.Even when I say it outright, this will fade into the depths of your mind and not take hold permanently. Today is, of course, no exception. My guest is Jackie Singh, who's an information security professional, which is probably the least interesting way to describe who she is and what she does. Most recently, she was a senior cybersecurity staffer at the Biden campaign. Thank you so much for joining me. What was that like?Jackie: Thank you so much for having me. What was that like? The most difficult and high-pressure, high-stress job I've ever had in my life. And, you know, I spent most of my early 20s in Iraq and Africa. [laugh].Corey: It's interesting, you're not the first person to make the observation that, “Well, I was in the military, and things are blowing up all around, and what I'm doing next to me is like—‘oh, the site is down and can't show ads to people?' Bah, that's not pressure.” You're going the other direction. It's like, yeah, this was higher stress than that. And that right there is not a common sentiment.Jackie: I couldn't anticipate, when I was contacted for the role—for which I had applied to through the front door like everyone else, sent in my resume, thought it looked pretty cool—I didn't expect to be contacted. And when I was interviewed and got through the interviews and accepted the role, I still did not properly anticipate how this would change my life and how it would modify my life in the span of just a few months; I was on the campaign for five to six months.Corey: Now, there's a couple of interesting elements to this. The first is it's rare that people will say, “Oh, I had a job for five to six months,” and, a, put it on their resume because that sounds like, “Ah, are you one of those job-hopper types?” But when you go into a political campaign, it's very clearly, win or lose, we're out of jobs in November. Ish. And that is something that is really neat from the perspective of career management and career planning. Usually is, “Hey, do you want a six-month job?” It's, “Why? Because I'm going to rage quit at the end of it. That seems a little on the weird side.” But with a campaign, it's a very different story. It seems like a different universe in some respects.Jackie: Yes, absolutely. It was different than any other role I'd ever had. And being a political dilettante, [laugh] essentially, walking into this, I couldn't possibly anticipate what that environment would be like. And, frankly, it is a bit gatekept in the sense that if you haven't participated on a campaign before, you really don't have any idea what to expect, and they're all a bit different to, like, their own special snowflake, based on the people who are there, and the moment in time during which you are campaigning, and who you are campaigning for. And it really does change a perspective on civic life and what you can do with your time if you chose to spend it doing something a little bigger than your typical TechOps.Corey: It also is a great answer, too, when people don't pay close enough attention. “So, why'd you leave your last job?” “He won.” Seems like a pretty—Jackie: [laugh].Corey: —easy answer to give, on some level.Jackie: Yes, absolutely. But imagine the opposite. Imagine if our candidate had lost, or if we had had data walk out the door like in 2016. The Democratic National Convention was breached in 2016 and some unflattering information was out the door, emails were hacked. And so it was difficult to anticipate… what we had control over and how much control we could actually exert over the process itself, knowing that if we failed, the repercussions would be extremely severe.Corey: It's a different story than a lot of InfoSec gigs. Companies love to talk like it is the end of the universe if they wind up having a data breach, in some effect. They talk about that the world ends because for them it kind of does because you have an ablative CSO who tries to also armor themselves with ablative interns that they can blame—if your SolarWinds. But the idea being that, “Oh yeah, if we get breached we are dunzo.”And it's, first, not really. Let's not inflate the risks here. Let's be honest; we're talking about something like you're a retailer; if you get breached, people lose a bunch of credit card numbers, the credit card companies have to reissue it to everyone, you get slapped with a fine, and you get dragged in the press, but statistically, look at your stock price a year later, it will be higher than at the time of the breach in almost every case. This is not the end of the world. You're talking about something though that has impacts that have impossible-to-calculate repercussions.We're talking about an entire administration shift; US foreign policy, domestic policy, how the world works and functions is in no small part tied to data security. That's a different level of stress than I think most security folks, if you get them honest enough, are going to admit that, yeah, what I do isn't that important from an InfoSec perspective. What you did is.Jackie: I appreciate that, especially having worked in the military. Since I left the military, I was always looking for a greater purpose and a larger mission to serve. And in this instance, the scope of work was somewhat limited, but the impact of failing would have been quite wide-ranging, as you've correctly identified. And walking into that role, I knew there was a limited time window to get the work done. I knew that as we progressed and got closer and closer to election day, we would have more resources, more money rolls in, more folks feel secure in the campaign and understand what the candidate stands for, and want to pump money into the coffers. And so you're also in an interesting situation because your resourcing is increasing, proportional to the threat, which is very time-bound.Corey: An inherent challenge is that unlike in a corporate environment, in many respects, where engineers can guard access to things and give the business clear lines of access to things and handle all of it in the background, one of the challenges with a campaign is that you are responsible for data security in a variety of different ways, and the interfaces to that data explode geometrically and to people with effectively no level whatsoever of technical sophistication. I'm not talking about the candidate necessarily—though that's of course, a concern—but I'm talking organizers, I'm talking volunteers, I'm talking folks who are lifelong political operatives, but they tend not to think in terms of, “Oh, I should enable multi-factor authentication on everything that I have,” because that is not what they are graded on; it's pass-fail. So, it's one of those things where it is not the number one priority for anyone else in your organization, but it is yours and you not only have to get things into fighting shape, you have to furthermore convince people to do the things that get them there. How do you approach that?Jackie: Security awareness [laugh] in a nutshell. We were lucky to work with Bob Lord, who is former CSO at Yahoo, OAuth, Rapid7, and has held a number of really important roles that were very wide in their scope, and responsible for very massive data sets. And we were lucky enough to, in the democratic ecosystem, have a CSO who really understood the nature of the problem, and the way that you described it just now is incredibly apt. You're working with folks that have no understanding or very limited understanding of what the threat actors were interested in breaching the campaign, what their capability set is, and how they might attempt to breach an organization. But you also had some positives out of that.When you're working with a campaign that is distributed, your workforce is distributed, and your systems are also distributed. And when you lose that centralization that many enterprises rely on to get the job done, you also reduce opportunities for attackers to compromise one system or one user and move laterally. So, that was something that we had working for us. So, security awareness was incredibly important. My boss worked on that quite a bit.We had an incredible IT help desk who really focused on connecting with users and running them through a checklist so everyone in the campaign had been onboarded with a specific set of capabilities and an understanding of what the security setup was and how to go about their business in a secure way. And luckily, very good decisions had been made on the IT side prior to the security team joining the organization, which set the stage for a strong architecture that was resistant to attack. So, I think a lot of the really solid decisions and security awareness propagation had occurred prior to myself and my boss joining the campaign.Corey: One of the things that I find interesting is that before you started that role—you mentioned you came in through the front door, which personally I've never successfully gotten a job like that; I always have to weasel my way in because I have an eighth-grade education and my resume—Jackie: [laugh].Corey: —well, tenure-wise, kind of, looks like a whole bunch of political campaigns. And that's fine, but before that, you were running your own company that was a focused security consultancy. Before that, your resume is a collection of impressive names. You were a principal consultant at Mandiant, you were at Accenture. You know what you're talking about.You were at McAfee slash Intel. You've done an awful lot of corporate world stuff. What made you decide to just wake up one day and decide, “You know what sounds awesome? Politics because the level of civil discourse there is awesome, and everyone treats everyone with respect and empathy, and no one gets heated or makes ridiculous arguments and the rest. That's the area I want to go into.” What flipped that switch for you?Jackie: If I'm completely honest, it was pure boredom. [laugh]. I started my business, Spyglass Security, with my co-founder, Jason [Shore 00:11:11]. And our purpose was to deliver boutique consulting services in a way that was efficient, in a way that built on prior work, and in a way that helped advance the security maturity of an organization without a lot of complex terminology, 150-page management consulting reports, right? What are the most effective operational changes we can make to an organization in how they work, in order to lead to some measurable improvement?And we had a good success at the New York City Board of Elections where we were a subcontractor to a large security firm. And we were in there for about a year, building them a vulnerability management program, which was great. But generally speaking, I have found myself bored with having the same conversations about cybersecurity again and again, at the startup level and really even at the enterprise level. And I was looking for something new to do, and the role was posted in a Slack that I co-founded that is full of digital forensics and information security folks, incident responders, those types of people.And I didn't hear of anyone else applying for the role. And I just thought, “Wow, maybe this is the kind of opportunity that I won't see again.” And I honestly sent my resume and didn't expect to hear anything back, so it was incredible to be contacted by the chief information security officer about a month after he was hired.Corey: One of the things that made it very clear that you were doing good work was the fact that there was a hit piece taken out on you in one of the absolute worst right-wing rags. I didn't remember what it was. It's one of those, oh, I'd been following you on Twitter for a bit before that, but it was one of those okay, but I tend to shortcut to figuring out who I align with based upon who yells at them. It's one of those—to extend it a bit further—I'm lazy, politically speaking. I wind up looking at two sides yelling at each other, I find out what side the actual literal flag-waving Nazis are on, and then I go to the other side because I don't ever want someone to mistake me for one of those people. And same story here. It's okay, you're clearly doing good work because people have bothered to yell at you in what we will very generously term ‘journalism.'Jackie: Yeah, I wouldn't refer to any of those folks—it was actually just one quote-unquote journalist from a Washington tabloid who decided to write a hit piece the week after I announced on Twitter that I'd had this role. And I took two months or so to think about whether I would announce my position at the campaign. I kept it very quiet, told a couple of my friends, but I was really busy and I wasn't sure if that was something I wanted to do. You know, as an InfoSec professional, that you need to keep your mouth shut about most things that happened in the workplace, period. It's a sensitive type of role and your discretion is critical.But Kamala really changed my mind. Kamala became the nominee and, you know, I have a similar background to hers. I'm half Dominican—my mother's from the Dominican Republic and my father is from India, so I have a similar background where I'm South Asian and Afro-Caribbean—and it just felt like the right time to bolster her profile by sharing that the Biden campaign was really interested in putting diverse candidates in the world of politics, and making sure that people like me have a seat at the table. I have three young daughters. I have a seven-year-old, a two-year-old, and a one-year-old.And the thing I want for them to know in their heart of hearts is that they can do anything they want. And so it felt really important and powerful for me to make a small public statement on Twitter about the role I had been in for a couple of months. And once I did that, Corey, all hell broke loose. I mean, I was suddenly the target of conspiracy theorists, I had people trying to reach out to me in every possible way. My LinkedIn messages, it just became a morass of—you know, on one hand, I had a lot of folks congratulate me and say nice things and provide support, and on the other, I just had a lot of, you know, kind of nutty folks reach out and have an idea of what I was working to accomplish that maybe was a bit off base.So yeah, I really wasn't surprised to find out that a right-wing or alt-right tabloid had attempted to write a hit piece on me. But at the end of the day, I had to keep moving even though it was difficult to be targeted like that. I mean, it's just not typical. You don't take a job and tell people you got a job, [laugh] and then get attacked for it on the national stage. It was really unsurprising on one hand, yet really quite shocking on another; something I had to adjust to very quickly. I did cry at work. I did get on the phone with legal and HR and cry like a baby. [laugh].Corey: Oh, yeah.Jackie: Yeah. It was scary.Corey: I guess this is an example of my naivete, but I do not understand people on the other side of the issue of InfoSec for a political campaign—and I want to be clear, I include that to every side of an aisle—I think there are some quote-unquote, “Political positions” that are absolutely abhorrent, but I also in the same breath will tell you that they should have and deserve data security and quality InfoSec representation. In a defensive capacity, to be clear. If you're—“I'm the offensive InfoSec coordinator for a campaign,” that's a different story. And we can have a nuanced argument about that.Jackie: [laugh].Corey: Also to be very clear, for the longest time—I would say almost all of my career until a few years ago—I was of the impression whatever I do, I keep my politics to myself. I don't talk about it in public because all I would realistically be doing is alienating potentially half of my audience. And what shifted that is two things. One of them, for me at least, is past a certain point, let's be very clear here: silence is consent. And I don't ever want to be even mistaken at a glance for being on the wrong side of some of these issues.On another, it's, I don't accept, frankly, that a lot of the things that are currently considered partisan are in fact, political issues. I can have a nuanced political debate on either side of the aisle on actual political issues—talking about things like tax policy, talking about foreign policy, talking about how we interact with the world, and how we fund things we care about and things that we don't—I can have those discussions. But I will not engage and I will not accept that, who gets to be people is a political issue. I will not accept that treating people with respect, regardless of how high or low their station, is a political issue. I will not accept that giving voice to our worst darkest impulses is a political position.I just won't take it. And maybe that makes me a dreamer. I don't consider myself a political animal. I really don't. I am not active in local politics. Or any politics for that matter. It's just, I will not compromise on treating people as people. And I never thought, until recently, that would be a political position, but apparently, it is.Jackie: Well, we were all taught the golden rule is children.Corey: There's a lot of weird things that were taught as children that it turns out, don't actually map to the real world. The classic example of that is sharing. It's so important that we teach the kids to share, and always share your toys and the rest. And now we're adults, how often do we actually share things with other people that aren't members of our immediate family? Turns out not that often. It's one of those lessons that ideally should take root and lead into being decent people and expressing some form of empathy, but the actual execution of it, it's yeah, sharing is not really a thing that we value in society.Jackie: Not in American society.Corey: Well, there is that. And that's the challenge, is we're always viewing the world through the lens of our own experiences, both culturally and personally, and it's easy to fall into the trap that is pernicious and it's always there, that our view of the world is objective and correct, and everyone else is seeing things from a perspective that is not nearly as rational and logical as our own. It's a spectrum of experience. No one wakes up in the morning and thinks that they are the villain in the story unless they work for Facebook's ethics department. It's one of those areas of just people have a vision of themselves that they generally try to live up to, and let's be honest people fell in love with one vision of themselves, it's the cognitive dissonance thing where people will shift their beliefs instead of their behavior because it's easier to do that, and reframe the narrative.It's strange how we got to this conversation from a starting position of, “Let's talk about InfoSec,” but it does come back around. It comes down to understanding the InfoSec posture of a political campaign. It's one of those things that until I started tracking who you were and what you were doing, it wasn't something really crossed my mind. Of course, now you think about, of course there's a whole InfoSec operation for every campaign, ever. But you don't think about it; it's behind the scenes; it's below the level of awareness that most people have.Now, what's really interesting to me, and I'm curious if you can talk about this, is historically the people working on the guts of a campaign—as it were—don't make public statements, they don't have public personas, they either don't use Twitter or turn their accounts private and the rest during the course of the campaign. You were active and engaging with people and identifying as someone who is active in the Biden campaign's InfoSec group. What made you decide to do that?Jackie: Well, on one hand, it did not feel useful to cut myself off from the world during the campaign because I have so many relationships in the cybersecurity community. And I was able to leverage those by connecting with folks who had useful information for me; folks outside of your organization often have useful information to bring back, for example, bug bounties and vulnerability disclosure programs that are established by companies in order to give hackers a outlet. If you find something on hardwarestore.com, and you want to share that with the company because you're a white hat hacker and you think that's the right thing to do, hopefully, there's some sort of a structure for you to be able to do that. And so, in the world of campaigning, I think information security is a relatively new development.It has been, maybe, given more resources in this past year on the presidential level than ever before. I think that we're going to continue to see an increase in the amount of resources given to the information security department on every campaign. But I'm also a public person. I really do appreciate the opportunity to interact with my community, to share and receive information about what it is that we do and what's happening in the world and what affects us from tech and information security perspective.Corey: It's just astonishing for me to see from the outside because you are working on something that is foundationally critically important. Meanwhile, people working on getting people to click ads or whatnot over at Amazon have to put ‘opinions my own' in their Twitter profile, whereas you were very outspoken about what you believe and who you are. And that's a valuable thing.Jackie: I think it's important. I think we often allow corporations to dictate our personality, we allow our jobs to dictate our personality, we allow corporate mores to dictate our behavior. And we have to ask ourselves who we want to be at the end of the day and what type of energy we want to put out into the world, and that's a choice that we make every day. So, what I can say is that it was a conscious decision. I can say that I worked 14 hours a day, or something, for five, six months. There were no weekends; there was no time off; there were a couple of overnights.Corey: “So, what do you get to sleep?” “November.”Jackie: Yeah. [laugh]. My partner took care of the kids. He was an absolute beast. I mean, he made sure that the house ran, and I paid no attention to it. I was just not a mom for those several months, in my own home.Corey: This episode is sponsored by our friends at Oracle HeatWave is a new high-performance accelerator for the Oracle MySQL Database Service. Although I insist on calling it “my squirrel.” While MySQL has long been the worlds most popular open source database, shifting from transacting to analytics required way too much overhead and, ya know, work. With HeatWave you can run your OLTP and OLAP, don't ask me to ever say those acronyms again, workloads directly from your MySQL database and eliminate the time consuming data movement and integration work, while also performing 1100X faster than Amazon Aurora, and 2.5X faster than Amazon Redshift, at a third of the cost. My thanks again to Oracle Cloud for sponsoring this ridiculous nonsense. Corey: Back in 2019, I gave a talk at re:Invent—which is always one of those things that's going to occasion comment—and the topic that we covered was building a vulnerability disclosure program built upon the story of a vulnerability that I reported into AWS. And it was a decent enough experience that I suggested at some point that you should talk about this publicly, and they said, “You should come talk about it with us.” And I did and it was a blast. But it suddenly became very clear, during the research for that talk and talking to people who've set those programs up is that look, one way or another, people are going to find vulnerabilities in what you do and how you do them. And if you don't give them an easy way to report them to you, that's okay.You'll find out about them in other scenarios when they're on the front page of the New York Times. So, you kind of want to be out there and accessible to people. Now, there's a whole story we can go into about the pros and cons of things like bug bounties and the rest, and of course, it's a nuanced issue, but the idea of at least making it easy for people to wind up reporting things from that perspective is one of those key areas of outreach. Back in the early days of InfoSec, people would explore different areas of systems that they had access to, and very often they were charged criminally. Intel wound up having charges against one of their—I believe it was their employee or something, who wound up founding something and reporting it in an ethical way.The idea of doing something like that is just ludicrous. You're in that space a lot more than I am. Do you still see that sort of chilling effect slash completely not getting it when someone is trying to, in good faith, report security issues? Or has the world largely moved on from that level of foolishness?Jackie: Both. The larger organizations that have mature security programs, and frankly, the organizations that have experienced a significant public breach, the organizations that have experienced pain are those that know better at this point and realize they do need to have a program, they do need to have a process and a procedure, and they need to have some kind of framework for folks to share information with them in a way that doesn't cause them to respond with, “Are you extorting me? Is this blackmail?” As a cybersecurity professional working at my own security firm and also doing security research, I have reported dozens of vulnerabilities that I've identified, open buckets, for example. My partner at Spyglass and I built a SaaS application called Data Drifter a few years ago.We were interviewed by NBC about this and NBC followed up on quite a few of our vulnerability disclosures and published an article. But what the software did was look for open buckets on Azure, AWS, and GCP and provide an analyst interface that allows a human to trawl through very large datasets and understand what they're looking at. So, for example, one of the finds that we had was that musical.ly—musical-dot-L-Y, which was purchased by TikTok, eventually—had a big, large open bucket with a lot of data, and we couldn't figure out how to report it properly. And they eventually took it down.But you really had to try to understand what you were looking at; if you have a big bucket full of different data types, you don't have a name on the bucket, and you don't know who it belongs to because you're not Google, or Amazon, or Microsoft, what do you do with this information? And so we spent a lot of time trying to reconcile open buckets with their owners and then contacting those owners. So, we've received a gamut of ranges of responses to vulnerability disclosure. On one hand, there is an established process at an organization that is visible by the way they respond and how they handle your inquiry. Some folks have ticketing systems, some folks respond directly to you from the security team, which is great, and you can really see and get an example of what their routing is inside the company.And then other organizations really have no point of reference for that kind of thing, and when something comes into either their support channels or even directly into the cybersecurity team, they're often scrambling for an effective way to respond to this. And it could go either way; it could get pretty messy at times. I've been threatened legally and I've been accused of extortion, even when we weren't trying to offer some type of a service. I mean, you really never walk into a vulnerability disclosure scenario and then offer consulting services because they are going to see it as a marketing ploy and you never want to make that a marketing ploy. I mean, it's just not… it's not effective and it's not ethical, it's not the right thing to do.So, it's been interesting. [laugh]. I would recommend, if you are a person listening to this podcast who has some sort of pull in the information security department at your organization, I would recommend that you start with disclose.io, which was put together by Casey John Ellis and some other folks over at Bugcrowd and some other volunteers. It's a really great starting point for understanding how to implement a vulnerability disclosure program and making sure that you are able to receive the information in a way that prevents a PR disaster.Corey: My approach is controversial—I know this—but I believe that the way that you're approaching this was entirely fatally flawed, of trying to report to people that they have an open S3 bucket. The proper way to do it is to upload reams of data to it because my operating theory is that they're going to ignore a politely worded note from a security researcher, but they're not going to ignore a $4 million surprise bill at the end of the month from AWS. That'll get fixed tout suite. To be clear to the audience, I am kidding on this. Don't do it. There's a great argument that you can be charged criminally for doing such a thing. I'm kidding. It's a fun joke. Don't do it. I cannot stress that enough. We now go to Jackie for her laughter at that comment.Jackie: [laugh].Corey: There we go.Jackie: I'm on cue. Well, a great thing about Data Drifter, that SaaS application that allowed analysts to review the contents of these open buckets, was that it was all JavaScript on the client-side, and so we weren't actually hosting any of that data ourselves. So, they must have noticed some transfer fees that were excessive, but if you're not looking at security and you have an infrastructure that isn't well monitored, you may not be looking at costs either.Corey: Costs are one of those things that are very aligned spiritually with security. It's a trailing function that you don't care about until right after you really should have cared about it. With security, it's a bit of a disaster when it hits, whereas with those surprise bills, “Oh, okay. We wasted some money.” That's usually, a, not front-page material and, b, it's okay, let's be responsible and fix that up where it makes sense, but it's something that is never a priority. It's never a ‘summon the board' story for anything short of complete and utter disaster. So, I do feel a sense of spiritual alignment here.Jackie: [laugh]. I can see that. That makes perfect sense.Corey: Before we call this an episode, one other area that you've been active within is something called ‘threat modeling.' What is it?Jackie: So, threat modeling is a way to think strategically about cybersecurity. You want to defend, effectively, by understanding your organization as a collection of people, and you want to help non-technical staff support the cybersecurity program. So, the way to do that is potentially to give a human-centric focus to threat modeling activities. Threat modeling is a methodology for linking humans to an effective set of prioritized defenses for the most likely types of adversaries that they might face. And so essentially the process is identifying your subject and defining the scope of what you would like to protect.Are you looking to protect this person's personal life? Are you exclusively protecting their professional life or what they're doing in relation to an organization? And you want to iterate through a few questions and document an attack tree. Then you would research some tactics and vulnerabilities, and implement defensive controls. So, in a nutshell, we want to know what assets does your subject have or have access to, that someone might want to spy, steal, or harm; you want to get an idea of what types of adversaries you can expect based on those assets or accesses that they have, and you then want to understand what tactics those adversaries are likely to use to compromise those assets or accesses, and you then transform that into the most effective defenses against those likely tactics.So, using that in practice, you would typically build an attack tree that starts with the human at the center and lists out all of their assets and accesses. And then off of those, each of those assets or accesses, you would want to map out their adversary personas. So, for example, if I work at a bank and I work on wire transfers, my likely adversary would be a financially motivated cybercriminal, right? Pretty standard stuff. And we want to understand what are the methods that these actors are going to employ in order to get the job done.So, in a common case, in a business email compromised context, folks might rely on a signer at a company to sign off on a wire transfer, and if the threat actor has an opportunity to gain access to that person's email address or the mechanism by which they make that approval, then they may be able to redirect funds to their own wallet that was intended for someone else or a partner of the company. Adversaries tend to employ the least difficult approach; whatever the easiest way in is what they're going to employ. I mean, we spend a lot of time in the field of information security and researching the latest vulnerabilities and attack paths and what are all the different ways that a system or a person or an application can be compromised, but in reality, the simplest stuff is usually what works, and that's what they're looking for. They're looking for the easiest way in. And you can really observe that with ransomware, where attackers are employing a spray and pray methodology.They're looking for whatever they can find in terms of open attack surface on the net, and then they're targeting organizations based on who they can compromise after the fact. So, they don't start with an organization in mind, they might start with a type of system that they know they can easily compromise and then they look for those, and then they decide whether they're going to ransomware that organization or not. So, it's really a useful way, when you're thinking about human-centric threat modeling, it's really a useful way to completely map your valuables and your critical assets to the most effective ways to protect those. I hope that makes sense.Corey: It very much does. It's understanding the nature of where you start, where you stop, what is reasonable, what is not reasonable. Because like a lot of different areas—DR, for example—security is one of those areas you could hurl infinite money into and still never be done. It's where do you consider it reasonable to start? Where do you consider it reasonable to stop? And without having an idea of what the model of threat you're guarding against is, the answer is, “All the money,” which it turns out, boards are surprisingly reluctant to greenlight.Jackie: Absolutely. We have a recurring problem and information security where we cannot measure return on investment. And so it becomes really difficult to try to validate a negative. It's kind of like the TSA; the TSA can say that they've spent a lot of money and that nothing has happened or that any incidents have been limited in their scope due to the work that they've done, but can we really quantify the amount of money that DHS has absorbed for the TSA's mission, and turned that into a really wonderful and measurable understanding of how we spent that money, and whether it was worth it? No, we can't really. And so we're always struggling with that insecurity, and I don't think we'll have an answer for it in the next ten years or so.Corey: No, I suspect not, on some level. It's one of those areas where I think the only people who are really going to have a holistic perspective on this are historians.Jackie: I agree.Corey: And sadly I'm not a cloud historian; I'm a cloud economist, a completely different thing I made up.Jackie: [laugh]. Well, from my perspective, I think it's a great title. And I agree with your thought about historians, and I look forward to finding out how they felt about what we did in the information security space, both political and non-political, 20, 30, and 40 years from now.Corey: I hope to live long enough to see that. Jackie, thank you so much for taking the time to speak with me today. If people want to learn more about what you're up to and how you view things, where can they find you?Jackie: You can find me on Twitter at @hackingbutlegal.Corey: Great handle. I love it.Jackie: Thank you so much for having me.Corey: Oh, of course. It is always great to talk with you. Jackie Singh, principal threat analyst, and incident responder at the Biden campaign. Obviously not there anymore. I'm Cloud Economist Corey Quinn and this is Screaming in the Cloud. If you've enjoyed this podcast, please leave a five-star review on your podcast provider of choice, whereas if you've hated this podcast, please leave a five-star review on your podcast platform of choice along with a comment expressing an incoherent bigoted tirade that you will, of course, classify as a political opinion, and get you evicted from said podcast provider.Corey: If your AWS bill keeps rising and your blood pressure is doing the same, then you need The Duckbill Group. We help companies fix their AWS bill by making it smaller and less horrifying. The Duckbill Group works for you, not AWS. We tailor recommendations to your business and we get to the point. Visit duckbillgroup.com to get started.Announcer: This has been a HumblePod production. Stay humble.

Longtime friend and Emmy-nominated anchor and reporter, Joe Mauceri, slid into a Brooklyn diner booth with me for this episode! Joe and I talked about a few childhood memories and what kind of burger you're allowed to order in a diner. After asking Joe what he wanted to be when he was a kid, we learn about the home videos where his on-camera experience started and it was very cool to hear how he went from there to being a journalism/broadcast major at Syracuse. I asked Joe how he finds places to inject his personality when doing the news, which is typically quite serious and heavy. We also talked about the role that bias does and doesn't play as a sports reporter. The current state of the media in our country is fascinating. I asked Joe a few questions about being in the field of journalism and what advice he would give to newcomers. We rounded the conversation out with me asking Joe how he is raising his children to have an open mind and why being a Dad matters to him. One of Joe's quotes that I loved was, “I can't help you if you don't tell me the truth.” Another special diner talk in the books, y'all!    About the Guest:  Joe Mauceri is a Brooklyn Boy with a large extended family, but he's an only child. He is married to my amazing wife Erin and they have two awesome children Maddox 4 and Lucas 2. Joe lives four blocks from where he grew up, loves his mom's cooking and sports. Joe is a sports anchor and reporter for WPIX in New York City. He is also an entrepreneur who has started 3 businesses. Joe is an adrenaline junkie who has been sky diving, bungee jumping, and zip-lining. Last, but not least, he is a morning person, but works nights! Connect with Joe and learn more: www.dadhab.com instagram.com/joethereporter instagram.com/TheDadHabit About the Host:  Friends! Here's a somewhat stuffy bio of me:   I am an author, professional speaker, coach, host, and entrepreneur. My first book, Leading Imperfectly: The value of being authentic for leaders, professionals, and human beings, is available wherever people buy books. I speak internationally to willing and unwilling attendees about authenticity, vulnerability, and leadership. My clients include American Express, General Electric (GE), Accenture, Yale University, The Ohio State University, and many others. As a speaker, I am doing the two things I loves the most: making people think and making people laugh!  I host my own events multiple times a year. They are 2-day events called Living Imperfectly Live (and sometimes they are 1-day virtual events). They are a space where humans from every walk of life can come together to be part of a community on the pursuit of badassery. The goal is to help attendees start living the life we say we want to live. Alas, you're here because of an idea I had a number of years ago and didn't think I was good enough to pull it off. I finally acted on it and alas Diner Talks with James was born! As you can see from what I do in my professional life, Diner Talks is alligned with everything I believe in and teach.  If this wasn't dry enough, and you would like to know more info about my speaking, events, or coaching feel free to check out my website: JamesTRobo.com. Let's Be Friends on Social Media! Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jamestrobo (https://www.instagram.com/jamestrobo) Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/jamestrobo (https://www.facebook.com/jamestrobo) LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jamesrobilotta/ (https://www.linkedin.com/in/jamesrobilotta/) YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/JamesRobilottaCSP (https://www.youtube.com/JamesRobilottaCSP) Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/JamesTRobo (https://www.twitter.com/JamesTRobo) Thanks for listening! Thanks so much for listening to our podcast! If you enjoyed this episode and think that others could benefit from listening, please share it using the social media buttons on this page. Do you have some feedback or...

In this second episode of the week, we're doing an earnings and news roundup. We're talking about the recent Toast IPO and earnings from Carnival, Costco, Hive Blockchain, Nike, Adobe, Vail Resorts, Blackberry and Accenture. Tickers of stocks discussed: TOST, CCL, HIVE.V, NKE, ADBE, MTN, BB, COST, ACN https://thecanadianinvestorpodcast.com/ Canadian Investor Podcast Twitter: @cdn_investing Simon's twitter: @Fiat_Iceberg Braden's twitter: @BradoCapital Buy us a coffee ☕️ ❤️: https://ko-fi.com/tcipod See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Ryan Scott is a serial entrepreneur and real estate expert. Early in Ryan's career, he was a consultant for Accenture and IBM. There he developed strong affinities for the overlapping importance of shrewd investing and disruptive technology. Here's he parlayed this experience into his successful rental management group called, Aspire Fund.   Quote: “If you take Flagstaff, there's a crazy housing shortage not unlike elsewhere…even with what's going on in the market now,  there just simply isn't enough affordable housing and if there is affordable housing it's not somewhere people are as proud to live. So f we look at housing needs you know sub 150K…that's a good indication.” “The other path we didn't talk about today which I'm happy to chat about with folks is the shipping container home space, and that's another angle of innovative affordable housing kind of like tiny homes—and not just parts but multifamily.”   Highlight: 01:40 - Ryan tells listeners how he got into the real estate space. 06:23 - Ryan discusses Aspire Fund and what they do. 07:36 - Ryan talks about Aspire Fund's business model for tiny homes. 10:07 - Ryan talks about his fund's operations for Airbnb. 12:32 - Ryan provides insight into budgets and price points for tiny homes. 16: 18 - Ryan discusses the type of debt that's available today. 21:00- Ryan dives into the challenges of scaling his business model and gauging a new market. 24:02 - Ryan breaks down outsourcing and management.   Guest Website: https://www.aspirefund.co/   Recommended Resources:  Check out our company and our investment opportunity by visiting www.SunriseCapitalInvestors.com  Self Directed IRA Investment Opportunity – Click Here To Learn More About How You Can Invest With Us Through Your SDIRA  Accredited Investors Click Here to learn more about partnering with me and my team on Mobile Home Park deals!  Grab a free copy of my latest book “The 21 Biggest Mistakes Investors Make When Purchasing their First Mobile Home Park…and how to avoid them MobileHomeParkAcademy.com  Schedule your free 30 minute "no obligation" call directly with Kevin by clicking this link https://www.timetrade.com/book/KV2D2  

As algorithms become ever more significant to and embedded in our everyday lives, ever more accessible introductions to them are needed. While several excellent technical and critical treatments have emerged in recent years, i had not come across a book for the general public that would provide a deep sense for the intuitions and motivations behind their development. Chris Bleakley's new book offers this and more: conceptual rigor woven into historical vignettes in a style that i believe general readers will find truly enjoyable to read. Poems that Solve Puzzles: The History and Science of Algorithms (Oxford UP, 2020) is itself a quite poetic book, in which echoes of ideas and variations on themes can be heard throughout. Its stories encompass the early hypothetical and mechanical computers, the charactered rise of weather forecasting, the origins (and lulls) of machine learning, and the sensational competitions between master game players and artificial intelligence. The book traverses a long historical arc, but each episode is a quick read, remarkable in their ability to convey depth and rigor in crisp, plain language. It was a delight to talk with Chris about these and other aspects of his book. Suggested companion works: --Simon Singh, The Code Book --George Dyson, Turing's Cathedral: The Origins of the Digital Universe --Greg Kohs (director), "AlphaGo" Chris Bleakley is Head of the School of Computer Science at University College Dublin. He graduated with a BSc (Hons) degree in Computer Science from Queen's University, Belfast, and a PhD degree in Electronic Engineering from Dublin City University. After college, he was employed as a software consultant by Accenture and, later, as a senior telecommunications researcher at Broadcom Eireann Research. Cory Brunson is an Assistant Professor at the Laboratory for Systems Medicine at the University of Florida. His research focuses on geometric and topological approaches to the analysis of medical and healthcare data. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/intellectual-history

As algorithms become ever more significant to and embedded in our everyday lives, ever more accessible introductions to them are needed. While several excellent technical and critical treatments have emerged in recent years, i had not come across a book for the general public that would provide a deep sense for the intuitions and motivations behind their development. Chris Bleakley's new book offers this and more: conceptual rigor woven into historical vignettes in a style that i believe general readers will find truly enjoyable to read. Poems that Solve Puzzles: The History and Science of Algorithms (Oxford UP, 2020) is itself a quite poetic book, in which echoes of ideas and variations on themes can be heard throughout. Its stories encompass the early hypothetical and mechanical computers, the charactered rise of weather forecasting, the origins (and lulls) of machine learning, and the sensational competitions between master game players and artificial intelligence. The book traverses a long historical arc, but each episode is a quick read, remarkable in their ability to convey depth and rigor in crisp, plain language. It was a delight to talk with Chris about these and other aspects of his book. Suggested companion works: --Simon Singh, The Code Book --George Dyson, Turing's Cathedral: The Origins of the Digital Universe --Greg Kohs (director), "AlphaGo" Chris Bleakley is Head of the School of Computer Science at University College Dublin. He graduated with a BSc (Hons) degree in Computer Science from Queen's University, Belfast, and a PhD degree in Electronic Engineering from Dublin City University. After college, he was employed as a software consultant by Accenture and, later, as a senior telecommunications researcher at Broadcom Eireann Research. Cory Brunson is an Assistant Professor at the Laboratory for Systems Medicine at the University of Florida. His research focuses on geometric and topological approaches to the analysis of medical and healthcare data. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/new-books-network

As algorithms become ever more significant to and embedded in our everyday lives, ever more accessible introductions to them are needed. While several excellent technical and critical treatments have emerged in recent years, i had not come across a book for the general public that would provide a deep sense for the intuitions and motivations behind their development. Chris Bleakley's new book offers this and more: conceptual rigor woven into historical vignettes in a style that i believe general readers will find truly enjoyable to read. Poems that Solve Puzzles: The History and Science of Algorithms (Oxford UP, 2020) is itself a quite poetic book, in which echoes of ideas and variations on themes can be heard throughout. Its stories encompass the early hypothetical and mechanical computers, the charactered rise of weather forecasting, the origins (and lulls) of machine learning, and the sensational competitions between master game players and artificial intelligence. The book traverses a long historical arc, but each episode is a quick read, remarkable in their ability to convey depth and rigor in crisp, plain language. It was a delight to talk with Chris about these and other aspects of his book. Suggested companion works: --Simon Singh, The Code Book --George Dyson, Turing's Cathedral: The Origins of the Digital Universe --Greg Kohs (director), "AlphaGo" Chris Bleakley is Head of the School of Computer Science at University College Dublin. He graduated with a BSc (Hons) degree in Computer Science from Queen's University, Belfast, and a PhD degree in Electronic Engineering from Dublin City University. After college, he was employed as a software consultant by Accenture and, later, as a senior telecommunications researcher at Broadcom Eireann Research. Cory Brunson is an Assistant Professor at the Laboratory for Systems Medicine at the University of Florida. His research focuses on geometric and topological approaches to the analysis of medical and healthcare data. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/history

Canary Cry News Talk ep. 393 - 09.24.2021 - MAELSTROM M3DIA: Microchip Surveillance, Sustainability DNA, Scientific Civil War, Transhuman Crypto  - CCNT 393 Our LINK TREE: CanaryCry.Party SUBSCRIBE TO US ON: NewPodcastApps.com SUPPORT: CanaryCryRadio.com/Support MEET UPS: CanaryCryMeetUps.com Basil's other project: Ravel Podcast   INTRO 2:03 Gonz Eye Doctor visit Mrs. Habibic snaps photo of license plate “MMMGONZ” Twitter to enable Bitcoin tipping, NFT authentication (Verge) Wall Street glitch showed Bitcoin drop to $5,400 (Futurism, China FUD) Clip: UK Thang, Kroger shooter   FLIPPY 22:20 Flying microchip the size of a grain of sand (NPR)   GREAT RESET 31:19 Accenture and WEF to manage “Sustainability DNA” for companies to be ESG compliant (Yahoo) Note: European Central Bank warning about Climate Change (Bloomberg) Africans say “Vaccine Apartheid” at UN (YourBasin) Note: UN 2030 Agenda 3, Global Health   COVID 19 JINGLE/PANDEMIC SPECIAL 55:39 Rochelle: CDC Chief overrules FDA, boosters pushed through (NY Times) Melbourne Media Blackout (Clip of police house check) Clip: Switzerland protesting lockdowns and mandates  Note: Over 3,100 doctors and scientists have signed the Rome Declaration against Pandemic Dallas school counselor “did everything right,” dies of C19 (Dallas Morning News) Tangled history of mRNA jabs (Nature) [Long article, Dr. Malone, highlights]   I AM WACCINE Study advising against giving children the jab

Canary Cry News Talk ep. 393 - 09.24.2021 - MAELSTROM M3DIA: Microchip Surveillance, Sustainability DNA, Scientific Civil War, Transhuman Crypto  - CCNT 393 Our LINK TREE: CanaryCry.Party SUBSCRIBE TO US ON: NewPodcastApps.com SUPPORT: CanaryCryRadio.com/Support MEET UPS: CanaryCryMeetUps.com Basil's other project: Ravel Podcast   INTRO 2:03 Gonz Eye Doctor visit Mrs. Habibic snaps photo of license plate “MMMGONZ” Twitter to enable Bitcoin tipping, NFT authentication (Verge) Wall Street glitch showed Bitcoin drop to $5,400 (Futurism, China FUD) Clip: UK Thang, Kroger shooter   FLIPPY 22:20 Flying microchip the size of a grain of sand (NPR)   GREAT RESET 31:19 Accenture and WEF to manage “Sustainability DNA” for companies to be ESG compliant (Yahoo) Note: European Central Bank warning about Climate Change (Bloomberg) Africans say “Vaccine Apartheid” at UN (YourBasin) Note: UN 2030 Agenda 3, Global Health   COVID 19 JINGLE/PANDEMIC SPECIAL 55:39 Rochelle: CDC Chief overrules FDA, boosters pushed through (NY Times) Melbourne Media Blackout (Clip of police house check) Clip: Switzerland protesting lockdowns and mandates  Note: Over 3,100 doctors and scientists have signed the Rome Declaration against Pandemic Dallas school counselor “did everything right,” dies of C19 (Dallas Morning News) Tangled history of mRNA jabs (Nature) [Long article, Dr. Malone, highlights]   I AM WACCINE Study advising against giving children the jab (Science Direct) Who is dying from C19 in CA? (Mercury News) [“Fear can be a motivator…”]   BREAK (producer party) 2:13:33   POLYTICKS 3:30:25 Clips: Biden WH Presser on Boosters and Economy House passes $1 billion to support Israel Iron Dome (AP) Right Wing (Pro Israel): AOC roasted for crocodile tears after House passes Iron Dome (Fox) Newsom Science: Newsom signs $15 billion climate, fire package (Mercury News) Cuomo: Former ABC News Producer accuses Chris Cuomo of sexual harassment (HuffPo) Biden say Border Patrol Agents “will pay” (CNN)   BIBLICAL 4:07:53 Sodom and Gomorrah destruction scientifically verified? (Yahoo)   TRANSHUMAN 4:15:32 New crypto called “Transhuman Coin” hopes to enhance life with science and tech   ADDITIONAL STORIES Kroger shooter identified as Uk Thang, third party vendor, fired (Local 24) Satanist going to push back on Texas abortion laws (Wa. Times) Robot arm (Flippy) that performs lung cancer surgery (Healthline) Boyfriend of Gabby Petito wanted for bank fraud, not murder (My Sun Coast) Washington Post wanting to help people with their privacy () Bruce Willis licenses himself as Deep Fake (Market Research) Footprint suggests humans early arrival in America's (NY Times) [Dr. Judkins inquiry] Security of Russia's biometric system questioned (IntelliNews) Why Mary Trump might be in trouble (NBC) Majority of voters think Trump was better president than Biden, poll (Newsweek) Waccines: US to donate 500 million more doses (NBC) Nurse in short supply, mandates might make it worse (NPR) CoWin jab passport works, UK says it doesn't (Times of India) Peer Reviewed study of woman with AIHA after mRNA jab (Wiley) Serious group of scientists study suggesting slowing down jabs (Trial Site News) Soluble Circulating IgG Immune Complexes cause of serious sufferers of C19 (BioRxiv) Teacher with 3 Pfizer jabs hospitalized from C19 (Newsweek)   PRODUCERS ep. 393: Dame Lynne Lady of the Lakes, Scott K, Alex G, Heatheruss, Gail M, Aaron A(J), JC, Runksmash, Sir Sammons Knight of the Fishes, Sir Casey the Shield Knight, Doughty the Coyote, Malik W, Jezreel J, Autumnation, GiantsBane16, Brandt W, Shagan, Juan A, Veronica D, Big Tank, Ciara, Sandra K   TIMESTAMPS: Rachel C   JINGLES: Marty B LeirBag3000   ART: Dame Allie of the Skillet Nation Sir Dove, Knight of Rustbeltia Ryan N Aaron J   MEET UPS: Veronica D

O seu podcast sobre o mercado americano.

In this episode, we are excited to host our first-panel discussion of three Reede Scholars from the class of 2000. We are joined by Dr. Kimberly Wyche, who will be the new Senior VP for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion at ASHTO, Dr. Dora Hughes, Senior Advisor at CMS/CMMI, and Dr. Tamarah Duperval-Brownlee, Chief Health Officer at Accenture. These dynamic women share their professional journey in Health Equity and the importance of addressing the issue in multiple sectors at all levels of leadership. We also discuss what balance means when considering yourself, your family, and the community that you serve. --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/reede-scholars/support

Ransomware hits a second US Midwestern farm co-op. The US House hears from the FBI that Russia seems not to have modified its toleration of privateering gangs (at least yet). A new APT, “FamousSparrow,” is described. REvil seems to have been--surprise!--cheating its criminal affiliates. Josh Ray from Accenture with an update on the Hades Threat Group. Our guest is Tim Eades of vArmour on the urgent need to update cyber strategies in healthcare. CISA issues a new warning, this one on the Conti ransomware operation.  For links to all of today's stories check out our CyberWire daily news briefing: https://www.thecyberwire.com/newsletters/daily-briefing/10/184

This week in the booth is networking expert and Twix connoisseur, Tollisha Joseph. We spent our time talking about how to form relationships, how to stand out in a room full of people, and how to get out of our own way. We talked about boundaries and values, and she shared advice for looking to your past to help you figure out what you should do with your future. We rounded out the episode by talking about conversation strategies and the role of being either interested or interesting, and how to balance each in order to maximize the relationship. We ended on an analogy about having to pee, and you're going to just have to tune in for that nugget of gold. This was a great episode with so many points and takeaways – you aren't going to want to miss it!   About the Guest:  Tollisha Joseph is the CEO of “The Official GLUE” a consultant agency that is driven by the heartbeat of human connection. Tollisha turned her frustration around professional networking into a successful business that teaches individuals how to master the art of effective networking and leverage it to increase visibility and revenue for their businesses. She's created success by teaching small and midsize businesses the art of effective networking and getting them on the “YES” side of their business. Connect with Tollisha and learn more: https://sociatap.com/TheOfficialGlue (https://sociatap.com/TheOfficialGlue) About the Host:  Friends! Here's a somewhat stuffy bio of me:   I am an author, professional speaker, coach, host, and entrepreneur. My first book, Leading Imperfectly: The value of being authentic for leaders, professionals, and human beings, is available wherever people buy books. I speak internationally to willing and unwilling attendees about authenticity, vulnerability, and leadership. My clients include American Express, General Electric (GE), Accenture, Yale University, The Ohio State University, and many others. As a speaker, I am doing the two things I loves the most: making people think and making people laugh!  I host my own events multiple times a year. They are 2-day events called Living Imperfectly Live (and sometimes they are 1-day virtual events). They are a space where humans from every walk of life can come together to be part of a community on the pursuit of badassery. The goal is to help attendees start living the life we say we want to live. Alas, you're here because of an idea I had a number of years ago and didn't think I was good enough to pull it off. I finally acted on it and alas Diner Talks with James was born! As you can see from what I do in my professional life, Diner Talks is alligned with everything I believe in and teach.  If this wasn't dry enough, and you would like to know more info about my speaking, events, or coaching feel free to check out my website: JamesTRobo.com. Let's Be Friends on Social Media! Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jamestrobo (https://www.instagram.com/jamestrobo) Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/jamestrobo (https://www.facebook.com/jamestrobo) LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jamesrobilotta/ (https://www.linkedin.com/in/jamesrobilotta/) YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/JamesRobilottaCSP (https://www.youtube.com/JamesRobilottaCSP) Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/JamesTRobo (https://www.twitter.com/JamesTRobo) Thanks for listening! Thanks so much for listening to our podcast! If you enjoyed this episode and think that others could benefit from listening, please share it using the social media buttons on this page. Do you have some feedback or questions about this episode? Leave a comment in the section below! Subscribe to the podcast If you would like to get automatic updates of new podcast episodes, you can subscribe to the podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or Stitcher. You can also subscribe in your favorite podcast app. Leave us an Apple Podcasts review Ratings and reviews from...

If you only think of fast food restaurants when you think of Franchising, then this podcast will completely shift your mindset. Jon Ostenson is on the show to demystify how Franchising works, how it can be used to scale your current company, as an investment asset class to grow your wealth, or as a way to start your entrepreneurial journey (on 3rd base). Jon got his start in corporate America working for Accenture before he left to become President of a Shelfgenie - a national brand with 200 locations. Now, Jon is the CEO of FranBridge Consulting, a franchise investor himself, author of 'The Franchise Path', and international speaker specializing in the area of non-food franchising. What You Will Learn Franchising can be a strategy to grow your brand with other people’s money Why franchising is a great alternative to starting from scratch Why franchising forces the owner to view their business as a financial asset You don’t have to go into a industry that you know - or have experience in Franchising could mean faster scalability The importance of additional support for franchisee’s and how it relates to royalty free Where success comes from as a franchisee Why markups are super profitable as a franchisor and how to make it a win-win for everyone People love the “non-sexy” spaces Getting started on the FDD (franchise disclosure document) and how to begin your franchisor endeavour Why outsourcing your sales team from the start is a great idea as a franchisor How the franchise industry can play a part in the generational wealth transfer Bio: Jon is a consultant, investor, author, and international speaker specializing in the area of non-food franchising. He draws on his experience as both the President of an Inc. 500 franchise system and as a multi-brand franchisee in serving clients across these capacities. Jon serves as CEO of FranBridge Consulting where he helps clients understand all aspects of non-food franchising in the process of introducing them to opportunities from the over 300 high growth brands that he represents. Additionally, Jon oversees FranBridge Capital where he and his partners own 17 territories across 5 property service franchises. Jon is the author of 'The Franchise Path' and is a frequent contributor and thought leader for publications on the topic of franchising and franchise investments. Prior to FranBridge, Jon was the President of ShelfGenie, a national franchise system with 200 locations. Prior to ShelfGenie, Jon was the Vice President of Sales for Carter’s Inc., responsible for over $350M in annual sales. Jon began his career as a Consultant with Accenture, often working Internationally on behalf of clients. Jon has BBA and MBA degrees from the University of Georgia and lives in Atlanta, GA where he and his wife have 3 children and are active in the community. Quotes: - "Private equity has been looking for places that will get a decent return without taking insane risks..." - "Private Equity is getting more aggressive in the Franchising space because - by the nature of the industry - the companies have to build sustainable business models that are scalable." - "Most people, when they think about franchising their company, think that their only revenue stream is through franchise fees." - "When becoming a franchisee, you understand that you have all your marketing material, sales assistance and technology in place. However you need more than proven systems In order to succeed. Just like starting a business from scratch, you need to hire rock star players to be the face of your company." - "Food is not the only option when it comes to buying a franchise. Especially now a d

The pandemic compelled consumers worldwide to drastically shift their views on what's important, particularly with the businesses they patronize and the products they use. The majority of consumers are rethinking not only their purchasing habits but also what they prioritize in life, a recent Accenture survey of more than 25,000 consumers in 22 countries showed. How can companies contend with these shifting priorities and turn consumer uncertainty into consumer growth? In this episode, we'll speak with Kevin Quiring, Managing Director and North America Customer Sales and Service Lead, Accenture Strategy; and Nevine El-Warraky, Managing Director, Accenture Interactive. We'll also hear candid interviews from consumers about their recent experiences and shifting expectations. This week's guests: Kevin Quiring, Managing Director and North America Customer Sales and Service Lead, Accenture StrategyNevine El-Warraky, Managing Director, Accenture InteractiveLearn more and find the transcript at Accenture.com/BuiltForChange

Cyber electioneering, in Hungary and Russia, the latter with some international implications. The Mirai botnet is exploiting the OMIGOD vulnerability. A shipping company deals with data extortion. Government websites have been serving up some oddly adult-themed ads. Malek Ben Salem from Accenture has thoughts on quantum security. Our guest is Padraic O'Reilly of CyberSaint to discuss concerns about the Defense Industrial Base. And no, there's no such thing as the Elon Musk Mutual Aid Society. For links to all of today's stories check out our CyberWire daily news briefing: https://www.thecyberwire.com/newsletters/daily-briefing/10/181

Patch your Zoho software now--vulnerable instances are being actively exploited. Maximum engagement isn't necessarily good engagement: the hidden hand of the trolls replaces the invisible hand of the marketplace of ideas. Politics ain't beanbag, Russian edition. An indictment emerges from the US investigation into possible misconduct during the 2016 elections. The costs of coin-mining. Josh Ray from Accenture on protecting critical infrastructure. Our guest is Tony Pepper from Egress with a look at Insider Data Breaches. And don't mix investment advice with matters of the heart. For links to all of today's stories check out our CyberWire daily news briefing: https://www.thecyberwire.com/newsletters/daily-briefing/10/180

Dis belangriker as ooit dat besighede hul denkwyses wysig om aan te pas by die nuwe normaal. Dit beteken dat die wonderlike wêreld van tegnologie optimaal benut moet word. Met ‘n kwarteeu se ervaring juis in die lewering van tegnologie oor ‘n verskeidenheid van industrieë, het De Wet Bisschoff homself onderskei as ‘n sakeleier van formaat in Afrika. Met ‘n MBA verwerf aan die NWU se Besigheidskool, is De Wet die direkteur van Accenture se Afrika-operasies, en hy gesels onder andere oor die ongelooflike besigheidsgeleenthede wat voorheen onontginde lande soos Rwanda en Zambië bied.

In the booth with me this week is the storytelling, improv-loving, eggs benedict-hating, Mike Ganino. He's lived 79 lives, and because he's an efficient storyteller we got to hear about most of them. We talked about everything from his time as a flight attendant (including month-long layovers in Hawaii and dating for drinks), his leading role in a personal injury lawyer commercial, his evolution to public speaking, and his newest role as a stay-at-home dad. He shared a powerful story about coming out and dropped some insightful notes about finding your thru-line in life to recognize your innate talents. By the end, we were those two dudes in a booth crying into our milkshakes… the Diner Talks special! You're going to love Mike's stories and little nuggets sprinkled throughout -- you're not going to want to miss this episode.   About the Guest:   Mike Ganino is a storytelling + public speaking expert who hosts The Mike Drop Moment podcast. He's been named a Top 10 Public Speaking Coach by Yahoo Finance, and California's Best Speaking and Communication Coach by Corporate Vision Magazine. He is an author, former Executive Producer of TEDxCambridge, and has been named a Top 30 Speaker by Global Guru, Mike's worked with organizations like Disney, American Century Investments, American Marketing Association, and UCLA. Mikes a new Dad, a coffee snob, and chronically late.   Connect with Mike and learn more: www.mikeganino.com www.Instagram.com/mikeganino About the Host:  Friends! Here's a somewhat stuffy bio of me:   I am an author, professional speaker, coach, host, and entrepreneur. My first book, Leading Imperfectly: The value of being authentic for leaders, professionals, and human beings, is available wherever people buy books. I speak internationally to willing and unwilling attendees about authenticity, vulnerability, and leadership. My clients include American Express, General Electric (GE), Accenture, Yale University, The Ohio State University, and many others. As a speaker, I am doing the two things I loves the most: making people think and making people laugh!  I host my own events multiple times a year. They are 2-day events called Living Imperfectly Live (and sometimes they are 1-day virtual events). They are a space where humans from every walk of life can come together to be part of a community on the pursuit of badassery. The goal is to help attendees start living the life we say we want to live. Alas, you're here because of an idea I had a number of years ago and didn't think I was good enough to pull it off. I finally acted on it and alas Diner Talks with James was born! As you can see from what I do in my professional life, Diner Talks is alligned with everything I believe in and teach.  If this wasn't dry enough, and you would like to know more info about my speaking, events, or coaching feel free to check out my website: JamesTRobo.com. Let's Be Friends on Social Media! Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jamestrobo (https://www.instagram.com/jamestrobo) Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/jamestrobo (https://www.facebook.com/jamestrobo) LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jamesrobilotta/ (https://www.linkedin.com/in/jamesrobilotta/) YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/JamesRobilottaCSP (https://www.youtube.com/JamesRobilottaCSP) Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/JamesTRobo (https://www.twitter.com/JamesTRobo) Thanks for listening! Thanks so much for listening to our podcast! If you enjoyed this episode and think that others could benefit from listening, please share it using the social media buttons on this page. Do you have some feedback or questions about this episode? Leave a comment in the section below! Subscribe to the podcast If you would like to get automatic updates of new podcast episodes, you can subscribe to the podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or Stitcher. You can also subscribe in your favorite podcast

En tant que fils de buraliste, Arnaud a l'entrepreneuriat dans le sang. Il a fait centrale Paris et une spécialisation à HEC en dernière année. Arnaud voulait entreprendre mais n'ayant pas une grande confiance en lui, il a eu une approche très méthodique de la chose. Il a donc commencé sa carrrière chez Accenture et a ensuite choisi son entreprise en fonction de sa géographie, car il voulait revenir en Bretagne. C'est donc lorsqu'il était au Crédit Mutuel de Bretagne qu'il a eu l'idée de créer Symphonis, aujourd'hui connu sous le nom de Fortuneo. Suite à cela, il sera chef de plusieurs entreprises sans en être jamais actionnaire. Depuis 2 ans, il a changé de vie en quittant ce statut si prisé. Je ne vous en dis pas plus. Je vous souhaite la bienvenue dans l'univers d'Arnaud Giraudon. >> Pour découvrir tous les liens pour suivre Arnaud, rdv sur pourquoipasmoi.co  >> Pour en savoir + sur le programme Trouver sa mission de vie et écouter sa petite voix, c'est par là   (100% finançable avec le CPF) >> Pour découvrir le livre "Et si je changeais de métier", c'est ici.   >> Pour suivre l'aventure sur instagram, c'est là.  

Watch the video version of this show on YouTube »Matthieu Rouif is the co-founder and CEO of PhotoRoom. PhotoRoom enables anyone to create studio-quality photos on their iPhone. Before founding PhotoRoom, Matthieu was the Senior Project Manager at GoPro. Matthieu is also the co-founder and CTO of HeyCrowd, and co-founder and CEO of As-App.Matthieu earned his graduate degree in materials science and engineering from Stanford University, and his bachelor's degrees in economics, and physics from École Polytechnique. While at École Polytechnique, Matthieu was a member of the skydiving team and debate team. Matthieu also served as a Parachutist Commando Officer in the French Air Force.Matthieu started developing apps in 2009 as a student at Stanford, and subsequently started two iPhone app companies. He was part of the Replay app team when they won App of the Year in 2014. Matthieu started PhotoRoom after leaving GoPro in 2018.In this episode, you'll learn: Matthieu's retention strategies for keeping app users subscribed Innovative and clever ways to get users to demo your app Balancing your app's pricing and features How churn can be an asset Links & Resources YC HeyCrowd GoPro Photoshop Zenlea Shopify Poshmark Depop Corel Matthieu Rouif's Links Matthieu on Twitter Matthieu on LinkendIn PhotoRoom is hiring! 10 Tools to Ship an iOS App in 2 Weeks PhotoRoom's Website PhotoRoom API PhotoRoom on Twitter Follow us on Twitter: David Barnard Jacob Eiting RevenueCat Sub Club Episode Transcript00:00:00 David:Hello, I'm your host, David Barnard. And with me as always, Jacob Eiting, RevenueCat CEO. Our guest today is Matt Rouif, co-founder and CEO at PhotoRoom, the app for removing backgrounds and creating studio quality photos right from your phone.On the podcast, we talk with Matt about how his time at GoPro led to founding PhotoRoom, how churn can actually be an asset, and how being locked in Apple's basement led to one of PhotoRoom's biggest marketing wins.Hey, Matt. Thanks for joining us on the podcast today. How are you doing?00:00:48 Matthieu:Great. Hey David, Hey Jacob.00:00:51 Jacob:Hi, it's nice to finally meet internet/virtual face-to-face. We've known each other for a little while. I've become fortunate to know you kind of through RevenueCat, but not actually know-know you. So, it's nice to finally put a face to the name.I was looking back through my email and I think the first I ever heard of you was from our mutual friend, Cisco, if I say that correctly?00:01:23 Matthieu:Yeah, Francisco.00:01:24 Jacob:Francisco, who shared with me a blog post that I had seen that you wrote where you talked about RevenueCat as part of your stack. Since then, I think we talked as you were thinking about going into YC, and then after YC, I put in a little bit of money, so this is a good opportunity to check in on my investment.I'm super excited to dive in, because there's a lot of questions. I kind of have followed you guys and kind of seeing some of the stuff you've been doing, but I don't know, like the behind the scenes decision making processes and like, and all that stuff. So yeah, I'm excited to hear the story firsthand.00:02:04 David:Yeah, but before we get into PhotoRoom, you've got quite a history in app development. So, I want to go back to the beginning and talk war stories. A lot of people were in the industry way back when. Jacob and I both started really early as well. So, you got your start during the Stanford class and you were actually a teaching assistant at Stanford at the time, right? I'm kind of stealing your story, but yeah. Tell me, tell me how you got into it.00:02:34 Matthieu:Yeah. Actually I wasn't a teaching assistant in physics. I was doing a master's in physics at Stanford, right at the moment of the first iPhone class. And, I actually went to Stanford because I was fascinated by the entrepreneurship. And I had this business idea of printing photos and sending them.And that seemed a lot easier not to buy hardware, but just use the iPhone which just started at that point. So, I was at Stanford, there was the iPhone class. I wanted to do a photo app. So, see, 12 years later....00:03:05 Jacob:A 12 year overnight success.00:03:07 Matthieu:That's what they say. Exactly. And, yeah, I got, I actually, I got started, programming.I was doing physics before, and I didn't know anything about programming. So I took a class with a friend that went through the basics, and I just wanted to push products on apps. And I found that the iPhone was the best at that point. And actually the photo app became something else.The first company I started back in grad school and they became like a ski resorts app. I shipped, we had all of the major ski resorts. And, It was a great, I did that for two years and a major ski resorts and, yeah.I started an apps company after that, one called HeyCrowd around a social network. So like we had surveys that you could answer to with polls, like, a bit like Instagram stories now, and that didn't work so well compared to the ski resort, but, yeah, I got into iPhone apps right since the beginning.00:04:18 Jacob:I remember the Stanford course. It was on iTunes U that was mass disseminated or was it the later one?00:04:25 Matthieu:No, it was the one that it wasn't Stanford U. There was a, the guy from Fitboard during the class. I don't know if it was doing that.00:04:42 Jacob:Yeah. I remember. I remember it being like the moment when we were like, oh, this is going to go mainstream. Right? Like, because up to that point, you had to learn iOS by doing basically Mac OS. That was like the one point there was the big nerd book you learned Mac OS, and then the SDKs came and you like tried to learn quickly, like what worked and what didn't.But, if you were like me who came from no Mac programming, there was really no iPhone entry into it. I remember when the Stanford course came out. It was like one year too late for me. Because like at that point I had already done a lot of stuff, but it was still really great.I still watched the whole thing. I remember watching it. But it's interesting. We have the same path. I don't know if we ever talked about this, but I was studying physics in undergrad as well. Yeah, I didn't go to Stanford, but I went to a small state school instead, just cause, you know. But yeah, kind of similar story where like I was in, I wasn't in grad school, but I was physics, undergrad.Didn't really know what I wanted to do. I really loved physics and the math and all that stuff, but like, there's a stronger economic pull, let's put it that way, to work on apps. That was the same story for me. Like took a little bit of what I had learned, writing code for experiments and things like this, and then kind of started making apps.And then, yeah, the rest is history.00:06:06 Matthieu:Yeah. I think one of the introduction to physics is like how fast data applies to the real world from science to real world. And you don't find that in a, like a physics job where you kind of find that back in, like a software development where you like, can we solve a math problem, a computer science problem, and you can directly apply it to real00:06:25 Jacob:Yeah. Or like, even with business modeling and stuff too, you know, you think about how a business moves and like what number moves this number. And there's no physics there. You're not approximating a physical system, but some of the same principles apply. Right. You're like trying to find some laws that are underlying it and work from there.So yeah, I found it hasn't been terribly unrelevant, but, but yeah, that's interesting. What else, what else do we have in common? Let's keep going.00:06:48 Matthieu:Yeah, sure.00:06:49 David:Well, actually, I, I want to jump in. I want to get to PhotoRoom, so we're actually going to skip over. You've done a lot now. So after, after that you went to replay and replay was like onstage at a keynote. And you're the co founders that you were working with, you know, as, as you joked, before we started recording, spent a month in the basement and apple, as everyone does before a keynote.But then you ended up at GoPro working on imaging. so just tell me about that. Leaving GoPro. I mean, Great company done a lot of innovative stuff. but tell me about leaving to start a PhotoRoom and what the inspiration, I guess we've heard part of it, you know, 12 years of working on imaging and wanting to build a photo app.But yeah. Tell me about the founding of, of.00:07:36 Matthieu:Yeah, I, I, so GoPro is an amazing company, but it's more marketing and hardware. And, I really wanted to, I grew a bit frustrated about like how we could, do better software. Yeah, a few frustration from that I, as a product, I was product manager by them. So I was like frustrated with the design tool, like a Photoshop and, and, you kind of have to move to, and by that time you had to move to California to move the stuff.And I was based in there in Paris and I decided to stay there with the family and, and kind of, we had an amazing missionary team at GoPro in Paris, but it's really difficult to. To change the paradigm of a kind of a software, like a, if it works from a kind of more deterministic way. So I kind of realize that it's really tough to ship a new software with new paradigm, and we've mentioned our new insights.So I thought there was a big opportunity with the new, new hardware coming on, the iPhone formation, learning the new, the new, yeah, this new kind of way of thinking about software. And, I left the GoPro to start a company and we've just ideas in mind. And I also, at the time realized that there was a. A lot of apps, you know, like after 10 years on the app store, you kind of know the tricks of the app store. And I knew there were a lot of apps in the top of the photo apps that were around razor and background eraser. I realized like, okay, if they're just kind of a, you know, I say scam, but it's certainly scam, but all these apps that are built quickly, there must be some demand around it.And so that's, I started with the background remover idea. Like I saw that there was a mission learning team at GoPro that there was some background removal, paper and all that. Okay. There must be some demand. Let's ship something quickly and see how it goes. And that's kind of the nice thing of like 10 years of development, you know, the right tool to go fast and just shipped a prototype in two weeks.We've actually referring at, by then I have a blog post on like the 10 tools I use there and, And, yeah, it was, it went super fast, super fast to the store and we have some machine learning and, on-device machine learning by then. So it's as a, and it kind of caught up, like you tried a dozen ideas on some kind of stay on the wall on some, like, and just stay on the wall.00:09:43 Jacob:So at the time it was called BGE app background app. Right. was the focus initially, did you have like a big scope for it or was that your entry? You were like, Hey, I know that they there's these photo apps that kind of suck that are doing this background thing. I think we can do it better. And like, let's see where it goes from there.Or did you have like a bigger plans or longer term aspirations? 00:10:04 Matthieu:I think there was, an understanding that people kind of needed that and the tech tech was 10 X better as they say. So it was really interesting, but I didn't, I mean, we didn't have the full plan for that. It's really a few months in that we are understood with Elliot the kind of the market fit.And we understood also like this idea of, and we call it, we translate pixels into concept that makes it much easier to, to, to edit. So w for the room is the best for digital for entrepreneurs. And the idea is that instead of using mask and layers and pixels, you just like, the machine learning, understanding what are the.The big cells and they just tell you, okay. A cat. So we call it cat to catch up on the cat. And you should have actions that are relevant to a Catholic changing the fur color. if it's, if it's a piece of clothing, it should be the texture of the clothing. If it's a, if it's a kind of graphic change of color, you know, kind of, it makes it much more accessible than what exists in like 10 year, 20 years, software that exists by for the editing.00:11:03 Jacob:So, so yeah, I mean, I think that sounds like a very much a pitch and a story that somebody would be taught at Y Combinator. So I'm curious, like what I'm curious, like, how did that evolve? Like how so you, you, you, you guys launched the app in the, I remember I was talking in like the spring of 2019.00:11:20 Matthieu:Yeah. Like may 2019. Exactly. 00:11:22 Jacob:And then, you started YC in the fall or the winter?Yeah.00:11:25 Matthieu:No, we actually, so we started YC in the following summer. We were supposed to do the winter batch after that. So seven months. And, we, we couldn't because our visa issues, at some, with the family, I couldn't move to, to, to YC. Yeah. 00:11:42 Jacob:Can tell you there's one way to solve that problem.A global pandemic.00:11:49 Matthieu:Exactly. Yeah. That's exactly right. So we did it involve, I think we shipped super fast. We failure my co-founder who is like a, like a machine learning genius. and we follow early on the YC startup school, which is kind of the, first step to. And, and so what does it help you? It kind of, you measure the, yeah, the progress.So, how much customer you're talking to, Ahmed, how much money you made and how happy you are doing what you do. And so that's kind of how we iterated 00:12:24 Jacob:You were 00:12:25 Matthieu:Months. 00:12:26 Jacob:During, startup school or 00:12:28 Matthieu:Yeah, the school kind of asks you every, every week, discussion and you make sure you make progress on that. I think these are the right question to make progress on your business.And here's, what's kind of, kind of natural, like two months later. So we started in may, may, June on that, application for YC where I probably in September, like, so, so we did like all summer, we did the startup school scheme and then framework and made some progress on that. And we got the YC application in September and the interviews actually in Paris, In, I think November.00:12:57 Jacob:And then, ha had you, I guess like, your, your aspirations or your reasons for applying, I guess, are in some ways, self evident to somebody. You know, obviously you don't need to convince me, but for the listeners, I, what was your, yeah. What were your motivations? Like? Why did you, well, I guess for one there's, you know, I don't know.I always hear there's a couple of reasons, right? Like sometimes it's prestige, like people want to the prestige of YC, sometimes it's, it's the help, which I honestly think is the, the, the best reason. Cause I, you know, it's, it was honestly really good for us, but then there's also like, you know, it's, it's a great way to springboard venture back.Thing, right as well. So like, did you have like strong reasons? Was it all of the above or what was the motivation for, for getting on the venture? 00:13:44 Matthieu:Yeah, that's a good question. so I think number one reason was, ambition. I think like a lot of your brain startups, you Batara, can be not ambitious enough. And I think if you're ambitious, like YC is really a way of, the alpha taking the ambitious path. Okay. Then how to make it like a business and a product that has a strong impact, like on a very large number of people.So that was, that would be my number one. I think then it's kind of the learning. we are at the beginning of the company, we sit for failure, then what's what kind of is the most important, you know, for their culture. And we talked about it also. And, one thing we really value is learning fast and I think YC kind of helps you, you probably a lot of like, you learn so much faster because you're at the right contact.So it's, I mean, it's. It's on the partners. Like every time we have a office hour, almost every time, like, wow. Blown away, there is like also Atlas. I get the right investors, I mean on the revenue, on the like mobile subscription and like, yeah, like you like auger from Blinkist, like, someone from, John from Spotify.So that's really helpful and also extra connection like we have in AI, we have the VP of AI and locale Facebook, and I don't think we could reach this network with, with. 00:15:01 Jacob:Yeah, the network thing is depends on, you know, what your background is. Obviously you had been in the peninsula, but still it's hard to be really deeply networked and still it's hard to. Invest in your engineering skills. Right. And like your IC skills and invest in a network at the same time, which was kind of my world.Like I had an okay network, but like, it wasn't super well networked. So YC was like a big like boost to that. Right. You could get interest to people. You could get a little bit, it's still, a who, you know, game Silicon valley is still in a lot of ways or the broader concept. 00:15:33 David:Before we move on. I wanted to talk to us a little bit more about the, about the ambition of PhotoRoom, because, and this is something I think is, would be really relevant to a lot of our listeners who are, are building apps in the space. And, and I, as an indie developer for 12, 13 years, feel like I've, I've, I've worked too much with, with blinders on.Not thinking about the bigger opportunity. So like the first app I launched was trip cubby. It was a model it's log tracking app, to get reimbursements from taxes or get reimbursed from your company, for your mileage. And I just, I treated it like a little tiny indie business, lifestyle, business, and everything else.Meanwhile, 00:16:19 Jacob:IQ00:16:20 David:IQ built a huge 00:16:23 Jacob:Probably launched about the same time. Right. I would think. 00:16:26 David:No, they launched much later actually, which is even again, it's like I had a multi-year lead as kind of the, how to do that 00:16:33 Jacob:Assuming the market was there. Like my, like you probably came when the market was finally there, 00:16:37 David:Starting to grow, but yeah. But what's so cool. Is that, I think there's so many opportunities in the app store that people overlook that seem really niche. Like you just started out replacing backgrounds in photos, 00:16:50 Jacob:And now you're going to be the next generation Photoshop. Is that a good one? Is that a good pitch? I don't know what the 00:16:54 Matthieu:Yeah. 00:16:57 David:What, what's the ambition that, where that took you from, okay.We can replace background images too. This is, could be a huge business because we're, un-bundling one of the like key parts of Photoshop, which is a massive business. So what, what, what is the, what was the ambition and what is the ambition that you feel that this, this can be such a big thing. 00:17:21 Jacob:How did you, how did you convince yourself of that? The ability to do that?00:17:25 Matthieu:Yeah. 00:17:25 David:Yeah.I mean, it's, it's amazing.00:17:27 Matthieu:I think it's, well first like working on photo, video editor, like I realized that, I mean, video is big. Like we got, I think we free-play then named quick by GoPro. We got to $100 million. It's kind of tell you like, and most people, they are still using like photo collage. So everyone's working on photo and video is too complex for most people.So like, if you get 100 million for a video, then it's probably like any good, like yeah. Project improvement like 10 X product improvement on photo must get like 1 billion users. And I think it's like, that's one of the YC model, but it was really starting from a pain point of myself, like creating the assets for actually for the app store.Like you have to create a PSD. And I was like, you spent so much time on non creative task. And I was like, I want to make that much simpler. And I think the big heart moment was kind of talking to the user. So, and also like talking, yeah. Talking to people like we kind of build in the open and people told us, it's like, yeah, Yeah, it's a, it's like a actually it's like programming, like a U instead of you're you're doing like, object oriented, editing, like you understand what kind of objects you have and you make actions that are relevant to that.And that's, that's kind of done myself, like really burning myself away. Like it's much simpler. Like you have an object and you, you offer it to the user. What's the logic for the subject lines, Photoshop. It's such a pain to learn. Like I think everyone would remember is kind of the blown away part of Photoshop, but also the pain it is to understate.00:18:51 Jacob:And it hasn't gotten easier in 20 years. Like the only way now you can paint on a sphere or something like, there's nothing like new, I still open it and it's comforting. Cause I learned in CS two or whatever, and it's all still the same, but like, I don't think it's necessarily, like, I think, I think there's even a broader near you.I'm going to make your, your $10 billion company, a trillion dollar company. But I think there's an even broader narrative there around just like the future of software and how machine learning. Further like narrows the gap between like in software, like programming, not in the traditional sense, but like telling a computer what to do and the computer telling, like asking us or like bringing us like the things it can do.And you see this in like varying degrees of it working well. Right. like Gmail, like suggesting like absolutely insane sounding replies that I would never say, like, that's kind of that, but, but I think that's all maybe a little bit too far, but I think what you guys are doing, it's really great. You know, like segmenting photos, like giving people those tools, like taking, especially for a tool like email it's like writing, like, I don't know.An AI assistant to like, say, thanks like I can, I got that. Thank you. But for, for, yeah, like, like cutting backgrounds out and like setting up. Yeah. Just building like, things that to a human, because we're so visual in the way we think seem really basic, right? Like I want the cat in front of a blue background, right?Like that. Just tell the computer and it can do that right now. The existing tooling is like very manual and very skills driven. And you guys are bridging that gap. So like yeah. Who knows something? I don't know. Maybe photos, aren't the end of it for you guys, maybe next you just start tackling the next software domain.Right? I, you know, I don't know that we'll get to 10000000001st and then we'll worry about the trillion dollar.00:20:28 David:And that's the really magical thing about your app and your onboarding that I wanted to ask you about. So exactly what Jake was saying. When I think of removing a background and I've worked in Photoshop literally since the nineties, late nineties, I'm old. but it's, I've tried that like a hundred different times.And even in the most modern Photoshop, I don't even know how to do it. I expect it to be. I downloaded PhotoRoom and in like three taps, your onboarding is magical because you don't get in the way of the person having a desire to get something done. And then seeing it happen. So in like three tops from opening the app, I see a background removed and it was just like00:21:16 Jacob:Okay. 00:21:16 David:Instant, like mindblowing experience. 00:21:19 Jacob:Yeah.00:21:20 David:This thing that like, I know it's so hard and I think of needing professional tools and needing to be a professional to even figure it out. It just happens magically after three or four taps in your app was that I assume that was very intentional. Did you have different onboardings before and kind of iterate to that point?Or what led you to just such a focused get the person to that?00:21:45 Matthieu:Yeah, that's a good grade. She was our interview. I think, we like, if we, especially in the beginning every week, we'd go to McDonald's and pay a meal to student or anyone. And they like the tagline for McDonald's and Frances com. Everyone can come in and come as you are. So we really met like tourists students professionals, and like doing user interview.We got so frustrated. I think that people didn't get to the step of removing background that kind of like00:22:12 Jacob:Oh, so you would give them an unlogged out like a brand new device and like, watch them go through onboard.00:22:17 Matthieu:We would like pay the meal initially for downloading the app. We'd like first ask you three, four questions about their photo usage on their, on their phone. kind of ask them to download the app and yeah. Blinded as yeah. And, and we were like came sneaking. We just were, we were just iOS at the beginning.So try to find people with iPhones and not Android, and that was stuff, but yeah, I mean, people usually stopped before and they don't understand something and like to build trust with them, we figured out like the best is to short tech. So I can we get to the point where. We actually have all these people, we try the app that actually see the bag, the magic effect of Futterman like, so like taking a white sheet of paper, we valued microphone and like thinking, how can we do that?And it got to like adding that as early as possible in the onboarding. I think that's, that's, that's fine.00:23:06 Jacob:I think, I remember now reading about the McDonald's testing and your, your, YC application and being like. That's the moment I knew these guys were going to make it, I guess like it's was brilliant, right? Like I, I don't know how much user testing, like real good user testing is. If you do it in some sort of like professional context, it's probably really weird and like expensive and like hard.And this is dead simple, super scrappy. Right? People don't do it because I don't know nerds. Don't like talking to people like we don't like, you know, it's, it's, it's tough to put your, your app in front of somebody and see them. Not, it's one thing to read like bad retention numbers on amplitude is another thing to like, see somebody actually churn and like, but honestly that's the best way to learn.Like this is the best way to like, get really actionable feedback. So, I'm sure that was, that was super beneficial.00:23:53 Matthieu:Yeah, it's a, it's a trick from Zenly. So the social network and maps, like that really is, one of the best, app in embarrass and they, and we apply that and yeah, it requires some. It's not easy, I must say. But, you really, you learn so much and the pain today is more like we have more qualified users.So it's really easy in the beginning when you're in your photo apps and people just as the app and everyone has photos. So it's easy to explain. Then you want to like talk to your kind of retain user. It's difficult to get them at the McDonald, but now we're friends with all the vintage shops around the block.So in Paris, so we get.00:24:28 Jacob:So that, yeah, that was I kind of my question I wanted to ask. I'll just slide it in now, but like I've noticed, I don't know. I don't know if you had this intention initially, but it seems like you've found a new. Even amongst these apps in something I would say commerce or even e-commerce it seems like a lot of people use these, use your app to take photos of objects, to use as like advertising or gone Shopify.Is that, is that true and statement or am I just like misreading investor updates?00:24:56 Matthieu:No, it's totally true. Actually, it's not. The interesting thing is it came from a personal lead, like using, as you say, Photoshop and wanted it much easier for me, but I wasn't clear who was using the CRA's background apps. I'm talking to like user at McDonald's. We realized like there was all these reselling apps, especially in the Europe and the U S where people.Yeah, they're just like selling Poshmark on vintage in Europe and they, there is no app that's focusing on their photo need. Like everyone's doing like selfies or I dunno, whatever lens on video you can make or, but, no one's in it helping them. And it actually came from the user interview like, oh, that some user told us like, oh, my girlfriend would love that she's selling on Depop.And, and we kind of like it after multiple user asking us in support. asking us, and in talking at the user interview of my goal, we realized that, oh, that's a niche that we should kind of focus on. So that's Allie Kim, 00:25:51 Jacob:Was that pre YC, like pretty early in the process.00:25:55 Matthieu:And it came in a few, just not in one day, but it, I think early, after being taken at twice a 00:26:02 Jacob:Okay. 00:26:03 Matthieu:Like early 20, 20,00:26:04 Jacob:So then my next question, I guess, is like, how do you decide then? So you have a car for strong product. You, you, you might have like varying. This is, I think this is very common for a lot of apps and companies is like, you have probably different levels of product market fit depending on the market.Right? So like maybe broadly across all users of iPhone, your product market fit may not be as strong. But then when you look at this one niche, like maybe it's really strong. And then I think some. End up in a situation where you have to kind of decide, like, do I want to go for this maybe less fit, broader market, or maybe a tighter market with a stronger fit that I'm starting out with.Did you have that internal conversation? And then did you make an active decision? Like we're going to focus on this and then yeah. And then what's the plan after that? Like, or is that the forever plan?00:26:48 Matthieu:I think we, the easy part is as a product guy, I'm really convinced that our usage is really deep. Like we're starting from a different Lego brick, like, okay, you don't need it mask or square pixels, you edit like objects. So, I mean, any app that kind of want to copy that Nike that's to stop doing what it does today.So it's kind of the thing that relates to the missionary understanding excelled in the beginning. So we were confident. Digging into this usage and this product paradigm and like product basic block is interesting. And then we decided to focus on the pro usage and, and it's difficult as a follower. You want to serve everyone at the beginning, we were even doing a video plus photo, like in December of 2019, we dropped the video, just for animation.And then we dropped kind off the casual use case to focus on the pro and, and it's, it's been helpful. You're not like giving up on the other users. You, I mean, some of the features, they're still going to use it, the other, the casual, the people doing memes from, from the app, but she just like when you build features, you think about them.And I, around that, I think YC is helpful because. like if you reach local maximum from one vertical, like product market fit, then you investing so much on the take. It gets better than the, all the local maximums or, or adjustment. Like you can reach them after, and it's not a big deal and kind of believe and believing and trusting that helps you on, on like a, okay, we're going to focus on this one for, let's say three months and we say,00:28:14 Jacob:Yeah. I mean, I think that's a really good point in that I think can trip up people early in the process is that you think. That making an active choice to close yourself off to part of the market as a mistake. Cause you're like, well, I want to serve everybody or, well, I want to, you know, I want to have the most broad appeal I can cause it does, it feels wrong, right.To not serve a use case. but often tactically it's a bad choice because yeah, in the early days, anything. Hey find any users that love your product, even if it's a small group, there's, it's a, it's a closer step to like, get your foot onto that than it is to try to get sustainability on like mediocre product market fit across the broad market.Because then also it makes, yeah, it makes your McDonald's discussions easier. Well, maybe you don't have McDonald's discussions anymore. It makes your product discussions easier. Cause you can say like, okay, these are pilot. We're not going to do all this stuff. We're going to focus on this stuff, which gives you more of a loss city.I just really feel there's so much to getting that velocity early. Right. Like getting something that's like moving and growing and getting fast. And I think that's one of the things, I mean, I don't know, I won't, I won't docks you guys on retention numbers and stuff, but you know, when you have a, I'll just say that when you have a pro user base, that's using it for something non casual retention gets easier, right.Like have a reason to come back. And so if you, I mean, there's not that many apps like that. That on it's hard, it's hard, it's hard. It's rare to find mobile apps that have that opportunity. Right. So when it's there, you need to take it00:29:45 Matthieu:Yeah. 00:29:46 David:How do you think about pricing for that value creation? Since, since those that kind of pro segment really probably gets a lot more value than you're even currently charging. because they're actually making money with your product. Like how did you think through your print pricing? And did you iterate to this point from a more kind of consumer pricing to them to a, I mean, to me it feels like you're in the middle still of somewhat consumer-friendly and really honestly, probably cheap for a professional use case.So how did you land on your current price?00:30:24 Matthieu:Yeah, to be honest, it's like most of the photo apps. I mean, when we started and maybe it's different, they are all pricing like 10 bucks a month and that's kind of given by, I guess, Spotify Netflix, like it's kind of the, the glass ceiling of the price of subscription, even for prosumer. And, and we kind of iterated on the under yearly from 40 bucks to 69 bucks, in, in the U.So we didn't like, we kind of landed on that quite early. you don't want to alienate the user, especially if you put the up-selling in the onboarding, like, to be too expensive. I think we have a major opportunity though, to like address the more advanced business and the more than one person in a shop, it's just, it's really difficult to build this a B2B case in in-app like, you don't have that many apps that use that in the up-sell of the phone.So you probably have to show it like. The the first price, to every user and on the pro you probably can to brigade them after, I think it's something we can do later, like focusing on the product for now and make it simple as much as you're like, if you start with two prices, like the support, basically it is going to go crazy.We still do the support of the users. That's something we try to maximize for simplicity here.00:31:37 Jacob:I mean, it's a good point to make, especially too. It depends on, depends on your cashflow constraints as well. Just like how much, how extractive you want to be, how much you want to push it. Right. because you know, when you have good retention, like there's an argument, an argument to be made to not mess that up by because you're raising your price will hurt your attention, right?Like it's kind of at least on paid, right? Like more expensive. It is. People are going to churn more. and if you're compounding your total, like paying subscribers, that might be more important and then extracting an extra, an incremental $2 or $10 or whatever from each user, right. It might be better off just to keep them happy and longterm.And that's what makes it, I don't know, pricing just so complicated. It's about finding that equilibrium to maximize like the longterm area under the curve and not just, not just like the individual LTVs.00:32:27 Matthieu:Yeah, exactly. I think there was one. yeah, we, you want to talk to, like, you don't want to. Expensive at the beginning, you should have too expensive. Like one of the really source of feedback was also our support. And like, if you're too expensive, you get less pro. And the goal, I mean, the reason we launched after two weeks with was like the feedback from process so much more valuable than the feedback from, for users.I mean, you still want people to pay, like, just stop at 500 bucks in long month is going to be like, there's no way people are going to pay for that. So, and I was actually talking on Twitter that like, we actually put forth first a monthly plan because we wanted people to churn and be able to talk to them.So there was really a focus on learning from the 00:33:07 Jacob:Interesting. 00:33:08 Matthieu:Early days.00:33:09 Jacob:Yeah, I've always. Yeah. The, the short, I think, long, the annual subscriptions obviously have a bunch of benefits to, to, to app developers, but you do end up flying blind for a very long time. Right. Until you really know what those numbers look like. So if you're on monthly, purely, it does kind of simplify things early on.Which is another case to be made for just not over thinking your pricing, like initially, right? Like you guys launched just with the monthly and it was fine that you added, I don't know when you added an annual product, but you brought it in when the time. 00:33:40 Matthieu:I think the logical, so learning from GoPro and replay days is the pricing is quite elastic. So you double your price, you divide by two, the number of pros like minus plus 10%. And so, so it doesn't, I mean, it's, I mean, when you get bigger, it's way of doing experiments on pricing, but in the early days it's worth, it's not worth like taking too much time on that.00:34:01 Jacob:Yeah. I mean, it's good to know if you have an elastic curve, it means you're pretty close to, to the optimum already, right?00:34:06 David:Did you start from day one at that $10 a month price point?00:34:10 Matthieu:I think we were at eight or nine. it's pretty much like every pro for the pro apps. Like not selfies was at that on the photo and it's, and I think. The co, I mean, it goes from Spotify on Netflix. Like, everyone's like a, it's like if comparing industry report, they tell you a comparing you to Spotify on that fixed anyway.So it's a, I think it's a good, like a way to start on as they increase the price, they increase kind of the time of all the possible ATV of all the apps, which is really good. Thank you.00:34:40 Jacob:If they don't take care of it, inflation will don't worry. 00:34:43 David:But, but that's just amazing two weeks, to an MVP that you could charge $8 a month for, and people actually paid it.00:34:50 Jacob:Well, 12, 12 years in two weeks, David, if00:34:52 David:Well, right, right, right. No, no, that's a great point. But the point being that there, there are still opportunities that when you have experience and domain knowledge, that it's not the, the programming, it's not the, it's not such a monumental task to build something that's really valuable to people in this space on mobile, that you can build something good quickly with that experience.00:35:17 Matthieu:The first app was really crappy though. Like I think we 00:35:20 David:Yeah. 00:35:21 Matthieu:A few weeks before having our pay first paid users.00:35:23 David:Gotcha. I did want to talk a little bit about your marketing, so, What did you do at launch? Did, did you get a little pressed? Did you, you know, talk to apple, how did you get that initial code?00:35:35 Matthieu:So yeah, we were super, I mean, apple has been super supportive to us. I think. Before GoPro, GoPro acquired replay. so we play was, app of the year, senior as, elevate. So 00:35:46 Jacob:You guys at the year in France, is that what the00:35:48 Matthieu:No, so so I have a card, I brought the screenshot that, 00:35:52 Jacob:The U S 00:35:53 Matthieu:So we didn't, yeah, we didn't, get the U S we didn't get the U S and north America, and it's kind of a private, taser, but it's, we got like most of the Europe and Asia. And, yeah, and then I was seeing like the star that elevate their they're thinking the other U S and we should get that. 00:36:14 Jacob:It was good for you that we hadn't localized maybe 00:36:18 Matthieu:Yeah, 00:36:19 Jacob:That was the thing we were like only English at the time.00:36:22 Matthieu:Well, elevate is such a difficult business to localize. So I think it's a photo video is easy to localize it. Yeah.And, and so we got like, we got the keynote, so, and we kind of, I mean, the app is really good at marketing. using the latest technology of, apple in, like the metal and using the lasers, the GPU, I kind of build a relationship from there, with the apple team and also like learning AR that's kind of the narrative of apple, like to showcase apps.Leveraging the latest technology. They do their marketing through developers and that's awesome for us. Like it's super opportunity. And so what was that? When we started, it was well, we're using a Carmel to do the background removal and we did use like really early on in September of 2019, we use our KPIs to remove the background, to do some live preview of the photo.And so we got into, there is an accelerator inference in the biggest, like sexual life is one of the biggest things. Accenture and apple has a program there and we got in there and they helped us and like marketing and, and business, during the summer. And we had some tech workshop and in September we got Macy's, marketing from the using Eric.He, three, I think, API APIs. So I think all the days was marketing through, using the latest tech software and hardware from.00:37:42 David:And where did it go from there? Yeah. So after, after you've, you've gotten some traction in some of those early customers. did you jump into paid user acquisition 00:37:52 Matthieu:No. 00:37:54 David:Of, of, paid to, organic growth?00:37:58 Matthieu:Yeah. So we got into, we didn't do paid until like, we really got traction and market fit. So early 20, 20, and we started to have some, we got Gary V tweeting about us, like a video, farmer. So that was like a viral video demoing the app. And we kind of, I mean, the thinking was if some videos of demoing for term or viral, it probably works so-so as ad.So we kind of use these viral videos and try ads on that. Started ramping up, I think before YC, Facebook ads. So in April of last year and, it kind of, yeah, it was a good, channel of acquisition for us. And we always had in mind, like, we don't want to spend too much, we wanted to have it under control, but the payback was really good.So we kind of, added mix like, I don't know, it was three 17, maybe at that point in between the, between paid 30% beta and the 70%. And, yeah, organic and so that we ramped that up and I think it wasn't a good time to all this marketing and we kind of fast in that, at that point, because there was a COVID, the beginning of the COVID and all marketing was going down.So it was super cheap to try stuff there. 00:39:09 David:Yeah. 00:39:09 Matthieu:So I tried to be a part of these tick on that an influencer. I like a lot of times. So like all of that, we were at the right time and at the right moment for that day,00:39:17 Jacob:So how much, like are you balancing? I mean, obviously there's always so much you're balancing as a founder. but you know, how much are you thinking about investing back in the app and like broadening your appeal, making it better new markets, like new platforms versus. The scale of approach, like how can we scale marketing and, and continue to grow?Or is it like 50, 50? Like, do you have a top priority right now? Or, or how has the, like, how has your, your mind thinking about like your biggest growth levers?00:39:48 Matthieu:Yeah, we try to try to have a higher, level kind of privacy laws. So let's focus on retention or let's focus on this specific kind of users. So, in the U S for just three months, and we tried to align product and growth, on like a three months of that. And so that's kind of. that's yeah, that's how we think about it with Elliot and, and try to have it on growth and on product and kind of put us to talk more to these kinds of users, so to improve on, on these kind of shoes or just, just niche for instance.And, I don't know if people are selling on this marketplace for a month and then we'll see maybe another nation, another country, but still improve the experience for everyone.00:40:29 Jacob:And are you thinking about marketing in terms of like specific people selling on specifics, like marketplaces, like the you're actually going like channel by channel that, that, that, that closely. And does that inform like features or does that inform creative or how does that feed back into your part?00:40:44 Matthieu:Yeah, we're good. We're getting into that. Like we tried to understand bearer by a persona use case. What's the LTV and what's the retention is, and I think we are at the scale where we start to do that, but before it was like a general, a general creative for everyone and kind of demo the value of the app.And we were super lucky that our creative we're working for them. And I think like now, like the way marketing works, it's, like a. Facebook or Google are doing most of the optimization and you're more into like, what can I add up my creative so that it fit the focus I want to do for it. I don't know if the U S so I'll be a make sure you're in English.I'll make sure if you're like looking at multiple countries, try not to be too localize. I think there is a Netflix called neutralize, or they have a specific wording on making the, the artwork or the creative, not to localized, not to English, for instance. Okay. So you just content that's good. So it's kind of, that dictate kind of what we try to do with growth and marketing.00:41:39 David:That's great. Well, I have a million more questions, but we do need to, to wrap up. We're going to put links into the show notes to find you on Twitter and LinkedIn and, and PhotoRoom is such a great name, easy to Google, easy to find on the App Store. but you're also hiring, what, what positions do you have open?00:42:02 Matthieu:We're hiring a lot. We're hiring on growth and paid acquisition, hiring project designer, iOS developer, Android developer. And the way we think about the team is really to have a, like, we are 10 people, and we have a strong impact to millions of users. So, really leveraged like a small team, high impact.I think it's possible because of apps. So, we're looking for really senior people for that, and mostly in Europe. So we have like a, two, three days a month, in the Paris HQ, but, you can work from anywhere in Europe.00:42:35 Jacob:Yeah. And I'll, I'll second that. I think working on this product would be really interesting. Purely based on my insider knowledge as an investor and your friend, but for real, I mean, a lot of apps don't, you know, get to the point you have. You've got a lot of tailwinds and I think actually, the upsides are go far beyond the App Store.The future is very, very, very big. And you guys are ambitious. So take these jobs. Thank you.00:43:02 David:Yeah. 00:43:03 Matthieu:Yeah. We were thinking be everywhere. We stopped for a while, but we were like mobile first, not mobile only. And we have the web app web tool that we launched last week. We have an API for any developer that wants to remove the background. We have photo and attribution, and have the module folks using it.So it's really, I think we want to be close to the entrepreneurs, and we want to communicate through pro images that sell. And so sometimes it's not an app, it's just a photo and button. And so you can use the API for that. So, yeah. 00:43:33 Jacob:It's pretty great when you have a good product market fit, it just gets really fun. 00:43:37 Matthieu:Yeah. And we have that kind of, now that we have money, we kind of, we have like super smart people on the machinery team. So, we have the best thing on the market to do that. And that's super exciting. Now we're shipping new machinery next, I think next week. And it's going to be awesome. I can't wait to see the result on the analytics.00:43:52 David:That's amazing and 10 people. I thought you were bigger. I guess you want to be, you want to be, 15 or 20 with all the postings you have. 00:44:01 Jacob:That's why I'm really bullish on this market, David.00:44:04 Matthieu:Yeah. 00:44:04 David:Yeah, 00:44:05 Jacob:A small team can do a lot of stuff in this space. It's crazy.00:44:07 Matthieu:Yeah, It's00:44:08 David:It is crazy. Well, thank you so much for being on the podcast. It was great chatting, and thanks for sharing your insights, Matt. 00:44:13 Jacob:Yeah. We'll have to catch up again in two years to see how, see how it's going. 00:44:17 Matthieu:Yeah, of course. With pleasure. Thank you guys.

In this episode of “Keen On”, Andrew is joined by Azeem Azhar, the author of “The Exponential Age: How Accelerating Technology is Transforming Business, Politics and Society”, to discuss the widening gap between AI, automation, and big data―and our ability to deal with its effects. Azeem Azhar is an award-winning entrepreneur, analyst, strategist, investor. He produces Exponential View, the leading newsletter and podcast on the impact of technology on our future economy and society. Azeem is a strategist, analyst, product entrepreneur, influencer and writer with a passion for all things technological. Currently he is also Senior Advisor in Artificial Intelligence to the CTO of Accenture, a member of the World Economic Forum's Global Futures Council on Digital Economy & Society, Advisory Member of HFS Research & Advisor at CognitionX. Visit our website: https://lithub.com/story-type/keen-on/ Email Andrew: a.keen@me.com Watch the show live on Twitter: https://twitter.com/ajkeen Watch the show live on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ankeen/ Watch the show live on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/lithub Watch the show on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/LiteraryHub/videos Subscribe to Andrew's newsletter: https://andrew2ec.substack.com/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Mark Mirchandani and Brian Dorsey are together again this week for an episode all about cloud migration using Txture and Accenture. Our guests Matthias Farwick of Txture, Patrick Niesel of Accenture, and Jason Purvor of Google help us understand their roles in cloud migration with some formal introductions to start the show. Txture helps companies assess their migration capabilities, providing insights to what will be necessary in the process and how viable cloud migration is as an option. Accenture works with Txture to augment the planning of migration strategies for clients. Jason helps us understand how Google uses the information gleaned from these assessments to help customers understand what the journey to Google Cloud will look like for their business. Txture provides good data which helps Google and clients make better decisions, not just in migration, but for the future health of the project while operating in the cloud. Our guests share the challenges of cloud migration and detail how these three powerhouse companies work together to overcome hurdles. From information gathering and budgeting to security and implementation, Txture, Accenture, and Google help companies understand their specific obstacles and develop a plan. Matthias uses a large banking client as an example to walk our listeners through a typical cloud migration process that takes advantage of Txture, Accenture, and Google. Jason details the process customers go through with Google as they establish their cloud environments and make decisions about the future of their projects. Through the analysis of four layers, Google helps customers think through this highly technical and involved migration process. Matthias describes the three assessment steps Txture applies to the process as well, and how these multiple-company analyses work together to create a solid cloud project now and continue to improve the project in the future. Matthias, Patrick, and Jason offer advice for companies considering a shift to the cloud, stressing the importance of preparing good data and keeping time predictions realistic. Company-wide cooperation is an important tool in the success of a cloud migration as well. Matthias Farwick Matthias Farwick co-founded Txture, a software for large scale cloud application assessments and modernization programs that is currently expanding to the US. Matthias is an avid mountaineer and skier. Patrick Niesel Patrick Niesel has been working within Accenture focusing on cloud transformations and in particular on application assessments. Jason Purvor Jason Purvor is a data centre exit strategist engaged in large scale migrations and “all in” transformations. He formerly ran CloudPhysics EMEA supporting Googlers with high resolution data center assessments. Cool things of the week What is Cloud SQL? blog Save money and time with automated VM management and suspend/resume blog Cost optimization using automated VM management docs Interview Txture site Accenture site Cloud Insider site Txture Cloud Transformation site Data Centre Transformation with Google site Cloud Maturity Assessment site Google Cloud Adoption Framework whitepaper Accenture-Google Business Group site The Txture Cloud Transformation Platform site Cloud Center of Excellence blog The 6Rs of Cloud Transformation blog Cloud-to-Cloud Assessment blog What’s something cool you’re working on? Brian is working on a video series called VM End to End with Carter Morgan.

Violet De Ayala was my first business mentor. She is a first-generation Cuban-American first-generation, Violet struggled to find her place in her new world but soon met success with grit, determination, and goal-setting. Meet Violette De Ayala Violette de Ayala is a Cuban American serial and Social Entrepreneur, Founder of FemCity®, and the International Best-Selling Author of The Self-Guided Guru© Life Lessons for the Everyday Human. She has been quoted in Success, Forbes, Entrepreneur, CNBC, Fast Company, Thrive Global, Medium, Yahoo Finance, Yahoo Small Business, Authority, Business Insider News as a small business expert. Violette has also been seen in featured campaigns in People, InStyle, Real Simple magazines in addition to bareMinerals "Women We Love" Series. In addition, she was selected by Isaac Mizrahi for the Malibu Collection campaign and had her personal love story featured on Good Morning America. She served as part of The White House: Women Environmental Leaders Program and was a commissioned Keynote speaker for Accenture's International Women's Month Event, the SBA Regional Women's Conference, Beconet, and Luxury Brand Partners. She's also volunteered as a Program Facilitator and Mentor for the United Way and Girl Scouts of South Florida. She was also featured as Top 27 Entrepreneurs for Hire on Upwork 2019. FemCity has been seen in Gilt, Vogue, Forbes, AP, Mashable, and Fast Company and has over 80 locations in the US, Canada, and the Islands. Violette is a Member of the NationSwell Council, Entrepreneur Leadership Network and a Contributor for Entrepreneur.com. She was a Moderator for the Global Women Empower 2020 Summit and NationSwell's "The Great American Lie" Discussion. Violette also was a Panelist in the SBA of South Florida Research + Development Panel 2021. Starting and Growing Businesses Starting, growing, and scaling several businesses, Violet ended up in the coaching sector. She looks at life and understands that everything we need is out there. “When you are an immigrant, the narrative that you are acquiring, the stories being shared are of those people that arrived with nothing and achieved great success.” Many people will tell you that you'll fail as an entrepreneur. Listen in to find out Violette's amazing backstory, how she scaled and grew her business and her background as an immigrant coming to America to achieve her dreams! You'll also learn: How to find your grit when you're struggling The importance of systems in your business Ideas for partnering and cross-promoting Goal planning Why you want to review your company data Refuting negative stereotypes Understanding your financial liability For more information, visit the show notes at https://www.amandaabella.com/grit-growth-and-goal-planning-with-violette-de-ayala

The Meris botnet continues to disrupt New Zealand banks, and has turned up elsewhere, too. Mustang Panda compromised Indonesian government networks. North Korean operators are using social media to soften up their prospective targets. Al Qaeda sympathizers marked the twentieth anniversary of 9/11 by calling for--what else?--more 9/11s. Malek Ben Salem from Accenture on deep unlearning, our own Rick Howard is in, talking about the latest episode of CSO Perspectives on adversary playbooks, and REvil seems to be back in business after taking what some of its hoods call “a break.” For links to all of today's stories check out our CyberWire daily news briefing: https://www.thecyberwire.com/newsletters/daily-briefing/10/176

As the founder and CEO of Outfield Leadership, Dave McKeown speaks, coaches, and trains organizations to build cultures of authentic, results-driven leadership, moving from execution to excellence. When I heard the name of Dave's business, I immediately thought of baseball, but then I wondered what would the outfield have to do with leadership? So, of course, I asked him. The first thing you need to know is that while Dave lives in California today, he grew up in Belfast, Northern Ireland, towards the back end of the turmoil there. Those early years probably influenced his views of leadership and the outfield? Well, you can find out by listening to today's podcast episode, if you are curious. When he graduated from high school, Dave spent two years doing volunteer work and traveling throughout India, Australia, and the United States. Returning to the UK, he went to Glasgow Scotland to study business and became quickly interested in the human side of business. His Dad was a consultant in the leadership development space which also sparked his interest. After graduation, he worked for the global consulting firm, Accenture in Hong Kong. Later, he moved to become the COO and then President of Predictable Success, a boutique consultancy focusing on helping complex businesses achieve scalability. Dave then moved to the US and joined his Dad's consulting business. Four years ago he started Outfield Leadership. Today, Dave helps individuals, teams, and organizations achieve results by doing ordinary things extraordinarily well. He is also the author of The Self Evolved Leader, Elevate Your Focus and Develop Your People in a World that Refuses to Slow Down, a practical guide to help you elevate your focus, develop your people, and get more done. In this week's Work From The Inside Out podcast, learn more about Dave's  journey: ​​Dave writes a weekly column for Inc.com. He enjoys connecting individual and team performance to improved business results with a particular focus on fast-growing, complex organizations. Learn more and connect with Dave here:  https://www.facebook.com/davejmckeown/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/davemckeown/ https://twitter.com/davemckeown https://www.instagram.com/davemckeown1/ https://www.outfieldleadership.com/

Jobs aren't like keys--You don't just lose them, they get taken away from you. Some people are worried about losing their jobs to technology, but what really happens is that their jobs get taken away because of technology. There are two ways this can happen. The first way is if the company consciously decides it wants to replace humans with robots and that it no longer wants humans running the organization. Thankfully, what we've been seeing is the opposite. We see organizations like Accenture that automated 10,000 jobs but didn't lose a single person. They upskilled all of their employees. The second way is if you let AI take your job. This happens if you just watch the world change and do nothing. You have to become a perpetual learner. You have to learn how to learn. You need to be able to apply those things frequently and do it quickly. You need to future-proof yourself. You can't rely on companies and educational institutions to teach you everything you need to know to be successful. ------------ This episode is sponsored by my friends over at Perceptyx Perceptyx helps enterprises get a clear picture of their employee experience with a continuous listening and people analytics platform aligned to key business goals. With the industry's largest portfolio of survey types – including engagement, DE&I, lifecycle, 360 feedback, pulse, and more – now you can see not only what's going on today, but how to move forward tomorrow with insights and prescriptive actions for every level of the organization. Given our unique blend of technology, domain expertise, and ‘above and beyond' customer service, only Perceptyx makes all this possible. It's why 30% of the Fortune 100 already rely on Perceptyx and why 95% of the organizations stay with us year after year. Learn more or request a personal demo today at www.perceptyx.com  ---------- Now more than ever we need to take a step back to define what it means to be a leader and what great leadership looks like. But this isn't easy to do. In fact, many business leaders struggle with this. You cannot become and build what you don't define. In the PDF you will get a framework you can follow and also see how some of the world's top CEOs define leadership. Click here to get the PDF. Get the latest insights on the Future of Work, Leadership and employee experience through my daily newsletter at futureofworknewsletter.com  Let's connect on social!Linkedin: http://www.linkedin.com/in/jacobmorgan8 Instagram: https://instagram.com/jacobmorgan8 Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/jacobm Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/FuturistJacob

Breaking into the US market for alcohol has always been hard.  Archaic rules such as the 3-tier system and differing regulations by state make it a complex web of rules and regulations to be in compliance.  The increasing consolidation of the distributor channel has made it even harder for smaller players to enter.  MHW's goal is to make that simpler, giving producers the ability to enter the market and take control of their own destiny.  They provide outsourced importation, distribution, and back-office / compliance services so their clients can grow and execute their sales & marketing plan.  Listen in as Gabe Barkley, CEO of MHW, gives us a rundown of how they do this and how it compares to traditional importation and distribution.  Detailed Show Notes: MHW backgroundLeader in import, distribution, and back-office services for wine, spirits, and beer (beverage alcohol)Founded in 1934Objective: enable rapid growth of new producers and importers for the US and EU marketsPlays mostly in the import and distribution tier of the 3-tier system in the US (3 tiers = producer, distributor, retailer; import being in-between producer and distributor)Has wholesale licenses in 4 markets - NY, NJ, CA, & FLGabe's backgroundPassion for wine started when he lived in Rome in collegeWorked in wine retail after collegeLeft wine for consulting (Accenture, Deloitte)Helped Kevin Sidders launch Vinconnect (listen to E51 for details)Partnered w/ PE Fund post business school to partner w/ MHW (4 years ago)MHW Core ServicesProvides the “pipes” for selling into the US and EU, does not buy and sell the wines like a traditional importer/distributorMain Services: Certificate of Label Approval (“COLA”) - winery or client's name on back label “imported by” not MHWRegister brands for sale in each marketTax reportingCompliance requirementsLogistics - pay taxes, customs clearance, duties, warehousingFulfillment of orders to wholesalers or retailers in wholesale marketsInvoice retailers and collect paymentNot a single boxed service, tailor services for each marketClientsTheme: they want to invest in growth in the US & EU marketsThey cover wine, beer, and spirits4 years ago - 40% spirits, 40% wine, 20% beer2021 - 50% spirits, 45% wine, 5% beerServes both domestic and international clientsDomestic - outsource compliance and logistics for