Podcasts about active network

In this episode of the Marathon Running Podcast, we sit down with Jay Holder, Executive Director of Running USA, to discuss the 2024 Global Runner Survey, sponsored by ACTIVE Network. This year's survey offers valuable insights into the behaviors and attitudes of runners in North America and beyond, with over 7,400 participants—94% of whom are based in the United States. Jay shares his key takeaways from the data, highlighting trends and opportunities that could shape the future of running events, brands, and the broader community. We also encourage listeners to explore the full survey, which is available for free to active members of Running USA, thanks to the sponsorship of ACTIVE Network. Log into your Running USA account to access this critical resource and discover how it can benefit you or your organization. Don't miss this conversation packed with insights and actionable ideas for anyone passionate about running!

This week, Dustin chats with Shawn Boom, CEO of Labster, about the transformative power of immersive learning technologies like virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR). Shawn shares how Labster is reshaping the educational landscape, particularly in STEM fields, by providing students with hands-on, immersive learning experiences. These technologies not only make learning more accessible and engaging but also help students gain the confidence they need to thrive in high-demand fields like healthcare and STEM. They discuss the challenges in education today, from shrinking student populations to the need for relevant, modern learning experiences.Guest Name: Shawn Boom, CEO at LabsterGuest Social: LinkedInGuest Bio: Shawn Boom currently serves as the CEO of Labster. Shawn's prior roles in the edtech industry include working nine-plus years with Blackboard, the online learning management system (LMS) now part of Anthology, where he held the position of global vice president. He previously spent five-plus years as director of sales for The Active Network, with a focus on the higher education market. Most recently, he spent nearly six years with K12 and non-profit focused fintech provider Vanco, serving as CEO and Executive Chairman. - - - -Connect With Our Host:Dustin Ramsdellhttps://www.linkedin.com/in/dustinramsdell/https://twitter.com/HigherEd_GeekAbout The Enrollify Podcast Network:The Higher Ed Geek is a part of the Enrollify Podcast Network. If you like this podcast, chances are you'll like other Enrollify shows too! Some of our favorites include Generation AI and I Wanna Work There. Enrollify is made possible by Element451 — the next-generation AI student engagement platform helping institutions create meaningful and personalized interactions with students. Learn more at element451.com.Element451 is hosting the AI Engage Summit on Oct 29 and 30Register now for this free, virtual event.The future of higher ed is being redefined by the transformative power of AI. The AI Engage Summit brings together higher ed leaders, innovators, and many of your favorite Enrollify creators to explore AI's impact on student engagement, enrollment marketing, and institutional success. Experience firsthand how AI is improving content personalization at scale, impacting strategic decision-making, and intuitively automating the mundane tasks that consume our time. The schedule is packed with real examples and case studies, so you leave knowing how to harness AI to drive meaningful change at your institution. Whether you're looking to enhance student outcomes, optimize enrollment marketing, or simply stay ahead of the curve, the AI Engage Summit is your gateway to the next level of higher education innovation. Registration is free, save your spot today.

Discover the keys to becoming a sales and leadership powerhouse as Jeff Fallis of GoFormz joins us for a riveting journey through his career, from humble beginnings to the pinnacle of sales success. Learn how mentorship, a strong work ethic, and the wisdom to carve your unique career path can accelerate your ascent in any industry. Jeff's remarkable story starts with selling hockey tickets in Arizona and evolves into spearheading the digital transformation for companies across construction and field service sectors, embodying the universal applicability of sales skills.    Step into the arena where sports and business strategies converge, offering a masterclass in leadership. In this episode, Jeff and I unpack the nuances of guiding a team through the highs and lows, setting the stage for a winning mentality. We tackle the tough aspects of leadership, from the personal growth that comes with transitioning from individual contributor to a leader, to handling the complexities of delivering difficult news during a crisis like the COVID-19 pandemic. Drawing inspiration from sports legends, we delve into the importance of resilience, role definition, and learning from failure to create a successful business playbook.    Cementing customer relationships and achieving lasting success hinges on the synergy between sales and customer success – a theme we explore with depth and insight. Jeff shares his philosophy that the sales relationship doesn't end at closing; it's only the beginning of an ongoing partnership that can make or break client retention. We reveal the strategies for setting clear expectations, the crucial first three months post-sale, and the benefit of a cohesive team-selling approach. New team members have embraced this philosophy, which keeps salespeople actively involved and supportive, solidifying the foundations of customer relations long after the initial handshake.  Jeff Fallis is the currently the Sr. Director, Head of Sales and Customer Success at GoFormz, a San Diego based company focused on enterprise software for digital forms and data capture. His career spans over 17 years in sales and technology, having held positions as an individual contributor all the way to Executive leadership. As the Vice President of Sales at Blast Motion for 5 years, another San Diego based startup, he helped lead the company's transition from early-stage sales to multi-millions in business. As the VP of Digital Media Sales at Pointstreak Sports Technologies, he was a member of the Executive team which successfully executed the sale of the company in early 2016. Prior to joining Pointstreak, he held the position of Director, Digital Media Sales at The Active Network, which filed an IPO in May of 2011 and was a 4x Presidents Club award winner. Throughout his career, Fallis has consistently built strong sales teams and effective strategic GTM plans in the technology sector. Fallis holds a degree from the University of Dayton (Dayton, Ohio), where he was an NCAA Student Athlete, Honorable Mention All-American and 3 year starter on the Football team. He also holds a Master's degree in Sports Business Management from The University of Tennessee, where he was a graduate assistant in the Athletic Department for 2 years before moving on to start his career in business. Mr. Fallis was born in Akron, Ohio and resides in Carlsbad, California with his wife Breana and their two children, Stella 3, and Clay 2.    Quotes: "In sales, the game never pauses. The ability to stay focused and disciplined underpins success in any competitive field."  "Mentorship has played a critical role in my journey. I've been fortunate to have strong mentors who have helped shape my career and leadership style."  "Sales is not just about closing a deal; it's about initiating a relationship that you continually nurture for long-term success."  "Adaptability and learning that you don't know everything are key lessons that I've carried from my early career roles to today."    Links:  Jeff's Linkedin - https://www.linkedin.com/in/jeffrey-fallis-a8441512/  GoFormz Website - https://www.goformz.com Get this episode and all other episodes of Sales Lead Dog at https://empellorcrm.com/salesleaddog/ 

You've probably heard of the power of compounding before, but do you know its true power and use that power to amplify your wealth?  In this episode, financial advisors Scott Kyle and Patrick Fischer break down compound interest and how to use it to grow your wealth with stocks, dividends, and options.  Scott is the CEO and Chief Investment Officer of Coastwise Capital Group, LLC, a boutique money management firm headquartered in La Jolla, CA. He is a co-founder of The Active Network, Inc. where he served as CFO and on the Board of Directors. Patrick is a Financial Advisor at Coastwise Capital Group, LLC. He began his career with Scott at G2 Capital Management in La Jolla in 2002 as an equity research associate. From 2004 to 2008, Patrick co-managed a systematic global macro hedge fund at Mellon Capital Management in San Francisco. The show notes can be found here: https://laceylangford.com/podcast/leveraging-compounding-to-profit

This episode of the CFO Playbook features an interview with Justin Lackey, CFO at Asset Panda, a powerful, highly configurable asset tracking and management SaaS platform on a mission to help the world work smarter.In his current role as the Chief Financial Officer, Justin oversees revenue operations, pricing, and data analysis, which are all transferable skills brought over from his previous positions as Director of Revenue Operations, and Manager of Pricing Strategy and Finance. Prior to Asset Panda, Justin held four separate financial analyst positions at ACTIVE Network, a premier global marketplace for activities and events. He graduated with a degree in general finance from Texas A&M University in 2017.In this episode, Justin talks about the importance of maintaining transparency in the new world of finance, navigating risk appetite when conducting business during black swan events, and adapting to and remaining motivated in remote work environments.--------Guest Quotes:“I like to look at everything as a revenue generating role, right? What are you doing to impact revenue? Whether it's a tweak you're making in our sales process, our marketing process, insights you're helping give them, there's a direct downstream impact on revenue for that. Becoming obsessed with that revenue side of the business, I think is important for any young analyst, any aspiring CFO.”“I think a really good quality for a CFO, CRO is, can you take a complexity and can you make it digestible, right? That is always the million dollar question of, okay, we have this set, this data set, this preexisting analytics set, right, of historical information. How do I put this into an action item and how do I deliver it so anyone can understand it?”“I think haste of pivot is super important. Boils back down to that data collection piece of, how long is too long for a project to kind of run its course, right? You have the opportunity to act much quicker based on leading indicators than you could've. It's not all about waiting until seeing the win rate anymore, waiting until seeing total revenue, right? You can kind of grab some of that upfront data, make some pretty educated guesses, and pivot quickly.”“There's a famous kind of mindset model that talks about the different zones that people can find themselves in. And there's a reactive zone and a proactive zone, along with a waste and a distraction zone, things like that. We spend a lot of time in that reactive zone today, but we're not necessarily using time in the proactive zone that can lead to efficiencies within that reactive zone. What am I doing day-to-day that really could be automated that's taking up a lot of my time, and how do I invest that time back into my personal life?”--------Topics:02:06 Justin's role and background07:53 The new world of finance13:22 Transparency in finance18:06 Addressing risk appetite22:08 Black swan events28:31 Remaining motivated in remote work33:51 Siege mentality in company leadership37:33 Tips for success in business--------Sponsor:This show is brought to you by Soldo, the brighter way to manage business spending and expenses. With Soldo, you can control every expense, track spend in real time, automate financial reporting, and then use those insights to fuel growth. Learn more at Soldo.com--------Links:Connect with Justin on LinkedInConnect with Fran on LinkedInThe CFO Playbook Listener Survey

In this episode we talk with Kate Ahlering, Chief Revenue Officer, with Calendly!   Kate Ahlering is the Chief Revenue Officer at Calendly, where she leads sales, sales enablement, revenue operations, and partnerships functions. Most recently, she was the Chief Sales Officer at Glassdoor, where she helped grow the company from less than $10 million in revenue to several hundred million and through a $1.2 billion acquisition. Previously, Kate held multiple positions in sales leadership at ACTIVE Network where she helped grow the company to more than $500 million in revenue and achieve an IPO. Earlier in her career, she held sales roles at Blackboard. She is a Limited Partner for Stage 2 Capital. She holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Political Science and a Master of Education in Leadership, Social Foundations, and Policy from the University of Virginia. Increase your show rates and close more deals with Calendly HERE See More of Kate HERE  

Episode 139- Representation Matters with Kevin Iwamoto Today, we are delighted to speak with another icon in our industry, Kevin Iwamoto!  Kevin has received many awards! He is the Chief Customer Officer of Bizly and is also a speaker, singer, and writer. He joins us today to talk about our industry, changing careers, and racism against Asian people and people from the Pacific Islands. We hope you enjoy listening to today's engaging conversation with Kevin Iwamoto! Bio: Condensed Bio for Kevin Iwamoto, GLP, GTP | Chief Customer Officer | Bizly Inc.:  Kevin Iwamoto is an award-winning speaker, industry influencer, author, educator, and subject-matter expert consultant in business travel, GDPR, SMM, the meetings/events marketplace, and personal branding. His progressive industry expertise is featured regularly in industry trade publications, such as Business Travel News (BTN), Northstar Meetings Group, and MeetingsNet. He was President and CEO of the NBTA (now GBTA) from 2001-2003 during the tumultuous 9/11 aftermath.  Kevin is the recipient of many industry awards and recognition, including the 2015 Travel Weekly Gold Magellan Award for Best Overall Industry Blog, which is now syndicated and featured as Industry Insights via Northstar Meetings Group online. Kevin is also the 2016 MPI RISE Award for meetings industry leaders, and in 2014 he received a rare honor from GBTA with a designation as Industry Icon. Throughout his career, he has also been included in numerous industry Top Most Influential Executive lists.  He has two published books to his credit, Strategic Meetings Management: From Theory to Practice published in April 2011, and, Your Personal Brand, Your Power Tool to Build Career Integrity, published in October 2016. Both are available via Amazon. Before joining Bizly, Kevin was Sr. VP at GoldSpring Consulting and VP of Industry Strategy at Lanyon, Active Network, and StarCite. As a buyer, he was a Sr. Global Category Manager for HP's global travel and meetings team and Sr. Travel Account Manager for Disney Worldwide Services. Kevin's journey Kevin received a scholarship from Hawaiian Airlines to attend the University of Hawaii's Travel Industry Management School and graduated with a Bachelor's degree in business. While at college, he made a living and contributed to his tuition fees by performing in nightclubs and working part-time for Hawaiian Airlines. His business degree helped him focus on the business side of his entertainment career. He did several recordings, collaborated with other local artists in Japan and California, and later created a label of his own. After retiring from live performing, he transitioned to a career in business travel, meetings, and events.  Regaining ownership Kevin recorded three vinyl albums. Many years later, he saw that others had placed his music online without his permission. During the pandemic, he finally had the chance to regain control by successfully monetizing his music after remixing and digitizing it, re-registering and re-copyrighting it, and then making it available on the internet. Racism In the 1980s, after moving to California, a high-profile manager informed Kevin that he would not represent him because there was no market for Asian or Pacific Islander performers. Kevin had grown up in Hawaii, where people were mostly Asian and Pacific Islanders. So that was the first time he ever encountered racism. Even though he chose to overlook that incident, he decided to stop performing, and look for something different.  From business travel to meetings and events Kevin moved into business travel and became a travel manager for various companies, including Walt Disney and Hewlett-Packard, where he successfully managed global travel programs for big corporations.  A corporate standard After that, he transitioned to meetings and events and wrote a book about initiating the Strategic Meetings Movement. He got a lot of recognition for that. Then he helped to institutionalize a corporate standard for how big corporations and enterprises should manage their meetings programs on a global level. After that, he took to the road to evangelize the corporate standard globally and won some awards along the way. The 9/11 President Two months after Kevin got elected as the president of the National Business Travel Association (now the Global Business Travel Association), 9/11 happened. The industry came to a halt, and Kevin and his board of directors managed to get business and leisure travel up and running again. Since then, he has become known as “The 9/11President”. No problem is unsolvable After pulling the travel industry out of the 9/11 global crisis, Kevin realized that no problem is unsolvable. Kevin's role at Bizly  As the Chief Customer Officer Head of Enterprise at Bizly, Kevin leads the customer and enterprise efforts and guides sales and customer success teams. Focusing on others Kevin has always focused on what is good for everyone else rather than what is good for him. Diversity equity and inclusion Kevin believes that DEI awareness occurs in people at different points in their careers. Some people get it when they experience racism directed toward them. Others get it after hitting a glass ceiling when trying to advance their careers and attributing it to racism. Overcoming scapegoating and racism Kevin points out that scapegoating is easy when people look different from you. People need to realize that second or third-generation Asian Americans are American on the inside.  Educating people about racism Kevin has realized that it is up to him to overcome his cultural programming, speak up, correct people, and take the time to educate racist individuals on why racism is not okay.  Representation Kevin feels that representation is essential for Asian American and Pacific Islander actors because, without it, most Asian American and Pacific Islander actors will never believe they can become lead actors. Fighting racism in the industry Representation starts with a voice. For Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders to have a voice within the industry, associations, or corporations, there should be a sub or separate group that accepts responsibility for education and awareness.  Mentorship Mentorship programs are vital for creating easier paths to the top for underrepresented individuals.   Connect with Eric On LinkedIn On Facebook On Instagram On Website   Connect with Kevin Iwamoto On LinkedIn Bizly  

Delivering Happiness 2.0 - Behind the Scenes Look at Zappos with Head of Customer Research, Alex GenovIn 2009, Amazon bought a start up shoe company that broke the mold by selling entirely over the internet .  It differentiated solely on customer service.  The legendary stories of their obsession with #DeliveringHappiness (CEO Tony Hsieh's bestseller) shifted paradigms.Amazon paid for $2.1billion for Zappos.  Zappos is very much thriving today and poised for the next stage of its adventure.Join us for a fascinating peek into the world of innovation and "meaningful culture" in this episode with speaker, author, PhD, and wicked smart...Alex Genov, Head of Customer Experience Research, as he shares: - Reflections of working with the legendary CEO, the late Tony Hsieh.- Developing a culture of meaning. -Zappos' scrappy beginnings and how that translated to results down the road - The shift that's Zappos is undergoing right now from customer. service excellence to customer experience excellence - Zappos adaptive, which underscores Zappos is commitment to diversity and inclusion.  - His new book called, Forget the Customer, See the Person. All that and a sneak preview into a little standup comedy from Alex, which should be a lot of fun.  : )BioAlex Genov, Head of Customer Experience Research, Zappos.comAlex is an experienced customer research professional who applies his Experimental Social Psychology background and his passion for research, design, and innovation to solving important customer and business problems. His professional goal is to help teams create remarkable products and services which make people's lives easier and more enjoyable.Currently Alex is leading Customer Research for the Zappos Family of Companies.  In previous positions, he was responsible for research and usability of the products and services for companies like TurboTax (Intuit), State Farm Insurance, and the Active Network.   Alex has a PhD in Experimental Social Psychology and over 25 years of relevant experience – 5 years of academic research and over 20 years of customer research in the software industry.    Alex's areas of expertise include: defining and measuring emotions, the psychology of individual differences, usability, market research and consumer segmentation, customer experience research and strategy. Here's a link to his new book:Forget the Customer, See the Person: A business guide to deeper customer empathy in uncertain times and beyondhttps://www.amazon.com/Forget-Customer-See-Person-uncertain/dp/B0B14MBQRZContact me if: You have feedback you'd like to share about the podcast You would like to be a guest on the show You would like to book me on your show Email me at mark@empoweredcx.com

In preparation for Veterans Day, we are honored and excited to chat with Christy Brown and Becca Garrison of the National Military Family Association all about Operation Purple Camps. Tune in to learn about their efforts to provide summer camp experiences for military kids and families, as well as how you and your camp can get involved!  Thank you to our sponsor, ACTIVE Network. Show notes: National Military Family Association Operation Purple Camp Host an Operation Purple Camp Follow ACA @acacamps!

This week, I had the pleasure of speaking with Alex Genov, Head of Marketing Insights and Customer Research at Zappos. We discussed the tension between academic research and its application in organizations, and how the human aspects of research found in qualitative studies get overlooked. As Alex suggests, the key is fine-tuning the balance between the two, taking the time to understand where your limits and your customer's needs meet. That's where you'll find the practical, scalable solutions, instead of taking a cold average of human experience.

Delivering Happiness 2.0 - Behind the Scenes Look at Zappos with Head of Customer Research, Alex GenovIn 2009, Amazon bought a start up shoe company that broke the mold by selling entirely over the internet .  It differentiated solely on customer service.  The legendary stories of their obsession with #DeliveringHappiness (CEO Tony Hsieh's bestseller) shifted paradigms.Amazon paid for $2.1billion for Zappos.  Zappos is very much thriving today and poised for the next stage of its adventure.Join us for a fascinating peek into the world of innovation and "meaningful culture" in this episode with speaker, author, PhD, and wicked smart...Alex Genov, Head of Customer Experience Research, as he shares: - Reflections of working with the legendary CEO, the late Tony Hsieh.- Developing a culture of meaning. -Zappos' scrappy beginnings and how that translated to results down the road - The shift that's Zappos is undergoing right now from customer. service excellence to customer experience excellence - Zappos adaptive, which underscores Zappos is commitment to diversity and inclusion.  - His new book called, Forget the Customer, See the Person. All that and a sneak preview into a little standup comedy from Alex, which should be a lot of fun.  : )BioAlex Genov, Head of Customer Experience Research, Zappos.comAlex is an experienced customer research professional who applies his Experimental Social Psychology background and his passion for research, design, and innovation to solving important customer and business problems. His professional goal is to help teams create remarkable products and services which make people's lives easier and more enjoyable.Currently Alex is leading Customer Research for the Zappos Family of Companies.  In previous positions, he was responsible for research and usability of the products and services for companies like TurboTax (Intuit), State Farm Insurance, and the Active Network.   Alex has a PhD in Experimental Social Psychology and over 25 years of relevant experience – 5 years of academic research and over 20 years of customer research in the software industry.    Alex's areas of expertise include: defining and measuring emotions, the psychology of individual differences, usability, market research and consumer segmentation, customer experience research and strategy. Here's a link to his new book:Forget the Customer, See the Person: A business guide to deeper customer empathy in uncertain times and beyondhttps://www.amazon.com/Forget-Customer-See-Person-uncertain/dp/B0B14MBQRZContact me if: You have feedback you'd like to share about the podcast You would like to be a guest on the show You would like to book me on your show Email me at mark@empoweredcx.com

Matt Ehrlichman is the CEO, Chairman, and founder of Porch Group, a Seattle-based vertical software platform for the home. Porch's mission is to help home services companies grow and through these relationships to help make the home simple, from moving to maintenance and everything in between. Prior to founding Porch, Matt created his first technology startup, Thriva, in his dorm room at Stanford University, where he also received his Bachelor of Science in Entrepreneurial Engineering and Master of Science in Management Science and Engineering. In 2007, he sold Thriva to Active Network for $60 million and went on to become Active Network's Chief Strategy Officer, where during his five-year tenure, Active grew from $60 million to more than $420 million in revenue and an initial public offering in 2011. Matt currently lives in Seattle with his wife and three children.  See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Having an efficient sales process in place can be the difference between a high-performing and an underperforming sales organization. 48% of participants from underperforming sales organizations said they didn't have a strictly structured and enforced sales process (Source: Harvard Business Review). Chris Ochs is a sales process optimization expert. He's currently the VP and head of sales at Factoreal, a marketing, automation, and customer engagement platform. Chris is also many other things. He is an entrepreneur, senior sales executive, public speaker, and endurance athlete with 20 years of management experience in companies ranging from organic food, software-as-a-service, online event planning, and email deliverability.  Chris is also the managing partner of CK-HS Consulting, a management consulting company. His company works with small businesses to improve operations and finances and increase the customer base. He has completed more than 50 triathlons, including two Ironman races. An Early Sales Journey Chris started hustling as a kid. He sold Girl Scout cookies for his sisters. When he got into Junior High, he made $200 a week selling lollipops. He was selling so many lollipops that the Dean of Boys suspected he might be selling drugs. That was when Chris realized he liked making money.  However, his real enabler was his first job. Right after college, he started selling Cutco knives. The job helped him make lasting connections but more importantly, it made him realize that he hated losing in sales. One day after he lost a sale, he called his manager frustrated to tell him about a customer who couldn't see how valuable the knives were. His manager told Chris he would teach him so that this would never happen again. This was the start of Chris's sales education. He started learning about sales as a process,  science, consumer psychology, behavior, and methodology. When he left the company 12 years later, he was one of the top managers in the history of the company. Building Sales Processes for Start-ups Chris spent the next 2 years helping a friend with a new companyーReturn Path. It was also one of the first companies in the space of digital marketing and data analytics. Even though he had no understanding of the technology, he built out their entire sales process till the company had achieved great success.  Chris's next stop was at ACTIVE Network, a global marketplace for activities and events that connects participants and activity organizers. When he first joined the company, Chris had a sales team of 24 people covering the U.S. and Europe, but they had not implemented a sales process. He was shocked when they told him it was taking them 3 days to respond to a sales lead.  He developed and refined a sales optimization process and strategy. By the end of the year, the company implemented it. Chris managed to increase deal velocity and the average order. The following year, the company witnessed $3 million of growth.  Despite the fact that the entire events industry began to shrink after that, Chris's department was the most profitable in the company. They were able to contribute $4 million of profit to a company that only posted $2 million of profit. In other words, the company would have had a $2 million loss without Chris's division. After Chris left ACTIVE Network, he worked with a friend to develop and implement a sales process for an organic food company in San Diego. Once again, Chris found himself in a business that he knew nothing about. But, this didn't stop him from implementing a sales process and shifting the company from one that lost $50,000 a month to a company with 12% growth month over month for the following year.  Business School and a Sales Consulting Company Chris started business school at UCLA where he specialized in finance, international management, marketing, and entrepreneurship. After he graduated, he looked around and realized that not many people in Los Angeles knew how to sell. So, he started his sales consulting company that specializes in driving sales through market analysis and sales force effectiveness.  Chris helped more start-ups get off the ground until most recently he joined Factoreal as Head of Sales. He feels that he has come full circle with his current job where he can put to use everything he's learned over the years.  Sales Optimization Strategies I asked Chris to tell us about some of his sales optimization secrets and strategies.  Sales is a Science Before Chris started business school, he always looked at sales as a science. We would also benefit from looking at sales this way, and viewing it as a process with inputs and outputs. When we do a presentation well, we're building value. We're presenting a solution that solves a problem. That's when we get a “yes” and close the sale.  Understand the Customer's “Why” We should ask ourselves “why would our ideal customer buy our products?” If we're not sure of the answer, then we haven't done enough probing. That's when we need to go back to the process before we can move any further. It's too expensive to neglect those steps because if we continue, we will get a “no” and the sale will be lost. We need to focus on providing value first. Chris believes it's important to know what drives our customers. When there's an objection, we need to dig deeper and try to uncover this objection. He recalls when he used to work with the organic food company selling goji berries to the Category Manager at the Whole Foods Market in Venice, California. Chris's customer cared much about leaving work at 3 pm to avoid the traffic jam, so he came to work at 5 am every day. Chris understood this, and when his customer asked for a meeting, Chris told him he would meet him at 5:20 am. His customer was so impressed, and it made him see that Chris took his work and their business seriously.  Chris showed his customer how buying his product would help reduce his customer turnover, increase his revenue, and become more profitable. Above all, Chris told him he wouldn't have to justify why he had to leave work early anymore.  Customers Asking for a Discount When the customer asked for a discount, Chris moved the conversation to another value proposition, offering to do a promotion for him in his local area instead. It would help drive more people to his customer's store, hence increase the traffic and sales.  “The reason it seems that price is all your customers care about is that you haven't given them anything else to care about.” Seth Godin  Build Rapport Before Asking the Tough Questions We can't approach a customer and ask them about their marketing budget before we've broken the ice and provided value first. After they've seen the value we can offer them, they'll be willing to answer some of the tough questions. Key Takeaways Thank you so much Chris for sharing your stories and knowledge with us today. Here are some of my key takeaways from this episode: An efficient sales process can be the difference between a high-performing and an underperforming sales organization.  Sales should be regarded as a science. The output we get is the result of what we feed into the process.  It doesn't matter if we don't understand a certain technology or are working in an unfamiliar industry. These things can be learned. What matters is having a solid sales process. Before we can uncover our customers' objections and passion, we must first build rapport with them.   Strive to understand the core why's of our target audience.  Connect with Chris Ochs If you enjoyed this interview and want to connect with Chris Ochs or connect with him, you can find him on LinkedIn at linkedin.com/in/chrisochs, visit his consulting company website www.ck-hs.com, or Factoreal website www.factoreal.com.  Want to be a Better Digital Monetizer? Did you like today's episode? Then please follow these channels to receive free digital monetization content:   Get a free Monetization Assessment of your business   Subscribe to the free Monetization eMagazine.   Subscribe to the Monetization Nation YouTube channel.   Subscribe to the Monetization Nation podcast on Apple Podcast, Google Podcasts, Spotify, or Stitcher.   Follow Monetization Nation on Instagram and Twitter. Share Your Story What strategies have you used to optimize your sales process? Please join our private Monetization Nation Facebook group and share your insights with other digital monetizers. Read at: https://monetizationnation.com/blog/68-how-sales-process-optimization-can-transform-profitability/ 

Co-Founder & CEO Events.com, Co-Founder: Active.com, Former Chairman & Owner: Triathlete Magazine, TEDx Producer, Chairman: La Jolla Foundation. Co-Founder of active.com (The Active Network). Co-Founder, CEO, ActiveEurope.com (Active Europe Network) Active went public before selling: Vista (1.05 billion), subsequently sold several divisions: Global Payments (1.2 billion) 22X Ironman triathlete.

 We were blessed to have one of the industry’s TOP thought leaders in experience design with us today!In this episode, we discuss “intentional event design” with our guest, Tahira, and what goes into designing a transformative experience. We talk about an article Tahira wrote for MPI about the distribution challenges we have with food and our events and we question how the industry can help achieve zero hunger. We also discuss the state of event technology and innovation./// Guest BIOS  Tahira Endean CMP, DES, CEDWriter, speaker, connector, collaborator.Tahira is designing people-centric, purpose driven events, living in Vancouver, BC. She is head of Events at SITE global (Society for Incentive Travel Excellence). The more complicated the event seems, the more useful she will be to you! Developing events for our industry peers allows her to bring creative energy to events and use the combination of ubiquitous technology and human nature to create relevance for our participants. Tahira’s book, Intentional Event Design, Our Professional Opportunity, was written from two decades of experience producing events and designing environments where trust is nurtured, driving growth for participants and organizations. She is an Instructor, Certified Event Designer, and Digital Event Strategist. http://intentionaleventdesign.caMatthew Donegan-RyanGeneral Manager at Swapcard. Empowering face to face meetings at events through artificial intelligence powered apps.Matthew Donegan-Ryan has been a pioneering entrepreneur in the event industry since 2005. Matthew has a history of creating and growing innovative event technology businesses and spurring widespread adoption by meeting professionals.Matthew has helped lead two previous companies to successful acquisitions: CrowdCompass by Cvent and Thriva by the Active Network.******************************************************************************* GET SOCIALTwitter Inside Events Podcast: https://twitter.com/TheEventProfs Twitter Swapcard: https://twitter.com/Swapcard Twitter Megan Powers: https://twitter.com/meganpowers Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/swap... Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Swapcard/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/swapcard/******************************************************************************

Our guest is Alexander Genov. Alex holds a PhD in experimental social psychology and currently leads customer research for the Zappos Family of Companies. In previous positions, Alex was responsible for research and usability of the products and services for companies like Turbo Tax, State Farm Insurance and the Active Network. Join us as we explore Zappos' exceptional customer service culture, the power of transparency and trust, and why it's imperative that retailers get to know their customers at an individual level. Hosted by Julia Raymond Researched, written and produced by Gabriella Bock Edited by Trenton Waller

There’s a chance you’ve been scrolling through your social media outlet of choice, doing some online shopping or reading your favorite email newsletter, when you see an advertisement for something that seems like it’s speaking directly to you. You’re wondering how the all-knowing internet knows you need this thing — but it does. And you do. That’s digital marketing. Digital marketing is any marketing that is done on a digital channel, such as, social media, mobile apps, email, websites, search engines — and even podcasts. Digital marketing can be a useful tool for park and recreation agencies that want to promote their programs, special events and other offerings to a broader audience. Letting your community know about the things you offer can be exciting — and increase the impact your agency makes — but it can also be a little overwhelming, whether you’re new to marketing or not, because there are just so many programs and services out there. On today’s episode, we’re joined by Stephen Gendreau, Director of Advertising and Media Operations for ACTIVE Network. ACTIVE Network — which provides digital marketing services, as well as event and participation management — is one of our partners for this year’s Parks Build Community renovation of Catherine Street Park in Baltimore, Maryland. We chat with Stephen about what digital marketing means for parks and recreation, as well as the most important thing you need for your digital marketing efforts to succeed (hint: it’s data). Key takeaways from this episode: Data and understanding your audience are essential to a successful digital marketing campaign and will help you deliver the right message to the right audience at the right time. Pixels — such as Google Analytics or other analytics services — on your website can help you understand who is visiting your site and who is interested in specific offerings. Meeting your community where they are online (social media, search engines, etc.) can help you engage with audiences that are typically harder to reach. Don’t get complacent in your marketing efforts — just because something worked this time, doesn’t necessarily mean it will work in the future, and vice versa. Use the data you collect — rather than feelings or observations — to make your marketing decisions To learn more about how to build and execute effective park and recreation marketing and communication campaigns that will help you better connect with your community, check out the NRPA Marketing and Communications Certificate. And, if you’re going to be at the 2019 NRPA Annual Conference in Baltimore, be sure to attend the Marketing Certificate Program pre-conference workshop!

Podcast recapping on the Active Network Management charging Webinar by Paul McGimpsey (SP Energy Networks)

On today’s Heavy Networking we talk with sponsor Netrounds about measuring network performance and user experience through active testing. Netrounds' software generates synthetic traffic to measure actual performance of critical services, provides assurance that KPIs are being met, and identifies where problems occur. The post Heavy Networking 441: Active Network Testing And Service Assurance With Netrounds (Sponsored) appeared first on Packet Pushers.

On today’s Heavy Networking we talk with sponsor Netrounds about measuring network performance and user experience through active testing. Netrounds' software generates synthetic traffic to measure actual performance of critical services, provides assurance that KPIs are being met, and identifies where problems occur. The post Heavy Networking 441: Active Network Testing And Service Assurance With Netrounds (Sponsored) appeared first on Packet Pushers.

On today’s Heavy Networking we talk with sponsor Netrounds about measuring network performance and user experience through active testing. Netrounds' software generates synthetic traffic to measure actual performance of critical services, provides assurance that KPIs are being met, and identifies where problems occur. The post Heavy Networking 441: Active Network Testing And Service Assurance With Netrounds (Sponsored) appeared first on Packet Pushers.

Alexander Genov but will be affectionately refer to him as Alex for the purpose of this interview. Alex is an experienced Customer Research Professional who applies his Experimental Social Psychology background and his passion for research, design and innovation to solving important customer and business problems. His professional goal is to help teams create remarkable products and services which make people's lives easier and more enjoyable. Currently, Alex is Leading Customer Research for the Zappos Family of Companies. In previous positions, he was responsible for research and usability of the products and services for companies like Turbo Tax also known as Intuit, State Farm Insurance and the Active Network, he has over 15 years of relevant experience, 5 years of academic research and over 10 years of customer research in the software industry. Alex received his Ph.D. in Experimental Social Psychology from Clark University and his areas of research include defining and measuring emotions, individual differences, usability and consumer segmentation.    Questions   Tell us a little bit about yourself and your journey What is does Social Psychology mean and how does that connect to customer experience? Talk a little about your research that you have found, what works, what doesn’t as you pointed out individual differences and that customers are the same. Why do you think it’s important to invest in research to help you grow your business and become more customer centric? What is one online resource, website, tool or app that you absolutely cannot live without in your business? What are some of the books that have had the biggest impact on you? What is the one thing in your life right now that you are really excited about – something that you are working on to develop yourself or people? Where can our listeners find you online? What is one quote or saying that you live by or that inspires you in times of adversity?   Highlights   Alex Genov pointed as it says in his bio that his background is in psychology, that his passion is understanding people. And more specifically his specialization is understanding emotions and how we define emotions, how we measure emotions, how people experience emotions, the area of emotions is not as simple as it sounds. On the face of it we all experience emotions, we all talk about it but what I found through many years of deep research and study of emotions is that it differs not only how we talk about emotions but how we experience them and measuring them is a tricky thing. That's his specialty and also another area of expertise he brought from said psychology was individual differences and that's something he believe deeply in which is that not everybody not all people are different. And by the same token not all customers are different. In his career, he has been trying to help companies understand customers as people and understand the individual differences that are important for each specific industry and in each specific product. He was initially headed to be a Professor but soon gave up the idea because he didn't want to be poor for many many years. He kind of sold out to the software industry but he has no regrets. It's been an interesting challenge and a lot of fun experiences trying to bring rigor to research in the industry but also to make it practical. So, that's been the biggest challenge for him all along is to make it to kind of walk that fine line, keeping that balance and keeping the organization honest in terms of research but also being practical and not being too academic and kind of obstructionist in that way.   Alex Genov stated that there are many areas of psychology when you start specializing in it. So, one area for example is, Social Psychology and other area is Personality Psychology which is a bit more focused on the individual and other area is Clinical Psychology so these are people who help people with mental problems and so on. He picked Social Psychology because it was the most interesting to him and when he was studying it all the really fun experiments from the 50’s and 60’s that really kind of make jaws drop nowadays but they were all designed to understand people in the sense that how is our behavior determined and motivated by the real or imagined presence of others. That's the definition of social psychology. The methods that he brought with him to the industry or essentially the methods of scientific psychology which are based on the empirical method of research. And the most kind of defining feature of that is the question “How do you know?” When we talk about something and we say, “I believe this and that to be true” some people may be fine by saying, “I feel it in my gut and that's what I believe” or they say. “I know from experience and I know it to be true” but an empiricist will say, “Well how do you know?” “Do you have the data to look at and to measure?” An empiricism is basically this belief that we all have to have some kind of shared experience to be able to determine that something is the case. So, for example, if he asked you what the temperature is and you tell him 72 degrees then you can both look at the thermometer and agree that that's the case. When it comes to emotions you can see how becomes tricky to say ok how do you feel and then you feel happy but many times we don't have direct access to our emotions or we cannot articulate them or we don't want to share them. So that's where it gets tricky how do you measure, how you define emotions. For example, you can define them by the facial expressions which is a behavioral indicator, you can define it by overt behavior, are people jumping with joy literally right or are they running away? Also, you can always ask them how do you feel but again one of the principles of research that brought that led him to the industry was to measure the same thing using different methods and to triangulate the results so that we have a higher degree of confidence that what we're saying when measuring is exactly what we intended to measure. He doesn’t want to get too technical but that's basically the background.   Yanique mentioned that we talk about Zappos all the time in workshops and people think about Zappos as the Customer Experience guru in the Retail Market especially in the online space. They basically came in and they transformed how retail business is done online. The fact that they have a 365 day return policy, if you call them somebody is going to answer the phone even when you go on their website, unlike other websites, every single page on their website has their telephone number at the top. So, at the end of the day when somebody has an issue or when a customer has an issue whether it is to make a request or it is to query a product or service that they have already engaged you for a lot of times they want to speak with a live human being and sometimes it's so hard navigating on these organizations websites some of them don’t have a phone number, they have this contact us page where you have to type out your entire request or issue and then wait for somebody from their company to respond to you. So, the fact that Zappos actually makes themselves available by providing a telephone number on all their pages really sets them apart.   Alex Genov agreed and stated that he joined Zappos about 4 years ago and he can take absolutely no credit in it's incredible success over the years. He has contributed something in the past 4 years but indeed the company was formed early on based on the belief that it will be successful only if they make their customers happy, employees happy and the vendors happy. That was the focus. When Tony Tsheish started investing in the company, basically he was intensely focused on the customer experience and on making this very new behaviour which is buying shoes online as easy as possible. We're talking about 15 - 16 years ago. They realized that in that kind of business things usually will sometimes go wrong and you cannot prevent that but what you can do is to do everything to make it right by the customer. So, one of the initial defining moments was one day something went wrong with an order and a customer was not happy but then they went out of their way to make it right and then that person wrote an e-mail and in the subject matter, she started by using the word, “WOW.” Bear in mind, this is 15 - 16 years ago. Now everybody's talking about wowing customers. But that was so long ago and then at that point they realized this is going to be our defining characteristic, is going to be customer service and at a time when everybody is considering service a cost to be cut. Zappos said, “That's who we are and we're going to invest in that.” That's really counter-intuitive in a way thinking has let it success because the whole belief is that we're selling shoes that are also available in other stores or in other places. And if we do all the same things that other retailers do and if we compete on price and we can be done on cutting costs then we're just going to be another retailer. And you know what's happening with retail nowadays, this was decided so many years ago. Sometimes it's really because he’s a proponent of the online experience. Sometimes there's intense focus on customer service is going to be a point of frustration because he’s thinking can we focus a bit more on the website. But then you'll realize what the roots are and also, we have a saying at Zappos that “Zappos is a customer service company that just happens to sell shoes right now.”   Yanique mentioned that if businesses looked at their companies like that, “I'm just an airline” or “I'm a customer service company that just happens to be in the airline business transporting people from one location to the next for all different reasons, weddings, business, vacation.” And they realize that their focus is on service because without these customers we have no business. I think it would really change the mindset and propel, it would be like a paradigm shift in how we as customers experience business.   Alex agreed and stated that it will help to have some competition, some industries are more much more like monopolies right. And they have less choice than there is much less pressure to not be customer centric in general. One question in the outline about what business owners can think of and what's going to make them successful - it's very simple, it's just focus on the customer and of course you have to have your business plan and you have to have your operations to be excellent. You cannot be focusing on the customer and giving away free product and you know you're going to be in business for maybe 3 days, you will have very happy customers but very short-lived success. You need to have your financials work but beyond, he loves Zappos because it's a company that's focused on purpose before profit. And it’s a very subtle but very important difference, if you say that you’re in there for the profit then you’ll be making all those decisions that ultimately end up hurting customers. If you are saying that you’re here for that purpose then but also make sure that you are making profit. Ultimately, if you're making customers happy they will be loyal customers and they will be telling others about your business. Alex stated that another thing that sets them apart is that they don't do a traditional advertising. They don't pour billions into TV ads for example, but people know about Zappos from word of mouth, from things that they do that benefit the community. And they have a very strong Social Media Presence. So that's another lesson for entrepreneurs and for business folks. Focus on the customer, focus on the community, do good things for the community and for the customer and then you're going to have those customers that are not only customers but they're going to be your ambassadors they are going to spread the word about you. So, it's going to be saving a lot of money on advertising essentially and marketing.   Alex stated that if you're a small company you cannot really afford PHD’s and specialist to do this for you but you can do it yourself to a large degree and then why is it important? If you want to make some customers happy, now we talk a lot about personalization, a lot about meeting the customer needs or the jobs supposed to be done then you don't know your customers. You're probably going to be basing decisions on your own experience and if you are lucky to have a lot of customers just like yourself, so be it then you have to do any research. If you want to differentiate yourself you need to understand a little bit of the competition but mostly the customer. There are different types of businesses, for example, we are a corner coffee shop, then you're going to be providing the staples, you may walk around the neighborhood see what the other coffee shops charge and you're going to price your offering accordingly and then there's not much to research about, what people need is coffee, pastries. Alex stated that one of the books he read recently that influence him is one from Harvard professor called Clayton Christiansen and he's been talking about jobs to be done for a long time, customer jobs to be done and it's a variation of user needs or wants but it's much more specific in the sense that he's saying customers are hiring you and your product to do specific jobs and if you do the jobs, they'll continue hiring you, if not they are going to fire you and your product. So, the example he gives is a big breakfast chain here that they wanted to grow their milkshake business. They were getting a hard time selling more milkshakes so they hired this company to really observe people and how they buy milkshakes and then they talk to people and all they found was that the same person stopping by in the morning and stopping by in the afternoon had different needs when it comes to milkshakes. So, in the morning they were on their way to work, pretty long commute and they needed a little bit of nourishment like breakfast but also, they needed something to keep them occupied in the car sitting there bored. And so, they designed these milkshakes with something to do with nutritional value but also with some chunks of stuff in the milkshake so that you know people would just drink the milkshake and have something like some more sensation in their mouth. In the afternoon, when the people stopped by after picking up their kids from daycare and so we had kids in the backseat making noise and shouting, angry and so So, they are buying milkshakes for them and the job to be done was to give them some nutrition but also to keep them quiet back there. They were designed not only the milkshakes but also the straws so that they're thinner so the milkshake last longer. And you understand the whole point of this is that if you didn't observe people in action and didn't talk to them about why are you buying this and what are you trying to achieve with that milkshake, then you will be in the dark. Some things are pretty straightforward like opening a coffee shop with the staples but even then, if you're really customer focused then you'll know your customers and when they come in you know that this person, they have their usual and you offer them that. Or maybe they're upset, talk to them about what’s bothering them, bartenders are great at that. They solve these emotional jobs to be done like a friend for somebody who is a little bit down maybe or doesn't get anybody to talk to at the moment. The point is all of this is based on knowing people understanding people and if you're just focused on your business and your numbers and you don't see your customers as people but just as walking wallets then ultimately, they'll find another place that treats them better. So, you have those basic needs and wants. When he was talking about individual differences is when it gets to be bigger businesses that now start serving millions of people or different types of customers for example, if you are a B2B business and you're selling something to a company, you have different interactions, for example the CEO who is going to be signing the cheque ultimately. And interacting with some procurement person who is responsible for implementing the system. And then you may or may not interact with the end user but they're all different user groups and they all have different mindsets and they're going to have different interactions with the system. So that's a very simple form of segmentation based on role in a company. For Zappos for example, to some extent gender plays a role of course because all men's shoes are different from women's shoes, clothing. They dress somewhat differently. When he was working for Turbo Tax for example and it's a financial, Do-It-Yourself financial product. Gender made no difference in terms of how finances are kept, if anything women are much better at keeping finances than men but when it came to how we understand the product you think about finances there was no different so for each business it's going to be a bit different. Just to finish the coffee shop example and maybe some of the audience have some customers that are vegan now so you have the vegan customers and you have the ones that are not. So that will be kind of a surprise and delight for your customers to say, “Do you want regular milk? or you want soy milk?” But that's another example of maybe your segment based on taste and health preferences and so on.   Alex shared that in his tools of the trade like analytics programme. He uses SPSS too because everybody at Zappos does hands on work. And there's no more managers there now and it's a different self-organization kind of environment. A lot of his work is hands on work. They have a really powerful survey tool, they do a lot of surveys with our customers and with prospects - general population, US shoppers. They collect information that way and then he uses an analytics tool called SPSS to do the analysis. They also collect a lot of text data and it's very challenging to analyze sentiment and he’s talking about large volume. Like 600,000 reviews on the website or even they do a survey when they get to 2,000/3,000 verbatim comments from customers in text form. It's very difficult to analyze, now they’re starting to explore a tool that is a very powerful text analytics tool developed on technology from the MIT media lab and so you have the best scientists there working to develop this kind of artificial intelligence to extract meaning for example from text. And it's not as simple as just counting the number of times a word appears. That’s extracting meaning what the word is connected to water. He mentioned that Google is amazing, Google is like this really powerful software company if you have to find anything you Google it and find it right away.   Alex shared that one of the key influences for me is this Italian designer called Roberto Verganti. He wrote several books but one of his key books is called Design Driven Innovation: Changing the Rules of Competition by Radically Innovating What Things Mean and his main idea is that you need to understand customers as people and that's been his kind of mission in the past couple of years as don’t really just study customers as shoppers in the process of shopping or in the process of calling but understand them holistically as people. He has been advocating for this sort of radical innovation which is that a dual meaning of what things mean for people and that's very hard to do but it's going to guarantee the biggest success. One of his examples is this company that was the leader in candles, a few centuries ago. A couple of centuries ago they were there for a hundred years, they were the best, made candles and then electricity came along. And instead of them changing the meaning of what they were doing they continued to focus on the light, how long does the candle was lasting, how safe it is. And then of course they disappeared, they went out of business. Alex asked – “Can you guess one Candle company that is thriving right now?” Yanique replied – “I cannot…” A candle company that is thriving now is called the Yankee Candle Company, it's very big in the United States but the reason why they're so successful is that because they change the meaning of what a candle means, it's not used for light but it's used for mood and they made it smell good but you see how they changed the meaning because the other company was focused on safety and they didn't want the candle to smell right and then it lost its purpose. That’s all he talks about, understanding what things mean for people. Another example is this kettle for boiling water and they made this kettle that looks pretty cool but also was emitting the sound when it was ready, it kind of whistle and the meaning there was not only was it a tool for boiling water but it’s a signal for the family to gather around the table. You would think it’s a simple object and then people pay US $500.00 for this. It’s the shape, the meaning. A good question for all the listeners is the business they’re in, are they innovating on that level versus just making things better the way they are, keeping the same meaning but making it better. “Are you innovating or are you making things better the way they are?” [Question to ask yourself as a business owner]   Alex stated that at work he is excited about a couple of big programs they are doing which is the Voice of the Customer, they are enabling their customers that go on their website and don’t call on the phones to give them feedback and for the organization to be able to consume that feedback, so they are working hard on that. Again, exploring text analytics, it’s going to open their eyes, it’s just a ton of data that has been left unexplored. In his personal life, he went back to a passion of his which is Martial Arts after many years of not doing much and in Las Vegas there are Shaolin Monks teaching and that’s super exciting for him. There is one authentic Shaolin Monk visiting to hold a seminar and he’ll be taking some time off work to do that.   Alex shared listeners can find him at – LinkedIn - @alexgenov   Alex shared that what inspires him in times of adversity in his professional life is thinking about the customer and Zappos is a part of Amazon and Jeff Bezos is talking about customer obsession and then in his personal life, is this idea of no hacks, it’s just perseverance and hard work. Links Design Driven Innovation: Changing the Rules of Competition by Radically Innovating What Things Mean by Roberto Verganti

In this episode, Mike and Dave are joined by a triathlon business legend, Jack Caress. For over 30 years, Jack Caress has been producing and marketing participant sports events around the world. He is the founder and President of Pacific Sports LLC. Since the firm’s inception Pacific Sports has produced over 430 multisport events throughout the world. Jack is a co-founder of Triathlon Business International and until recently, Jack served as the organization's President.  From it's inception in 2010, TBI has developed the industry group for the sport of triathlon worldwide.   Some of TBI's most prominent accomplishments include:Five U.S. ConferencesTwo Global Conferences (London 2013, Roth 2015)TBI Triathlon Pavilion at Interbike and the Interbike Triathlon AwardsU.S. Market Research Study (with special thanks to my colleague Gary Roethenbaugh)ITU & TBI 2012 Olympic Games Reception in London presented by Active Network at Hyde ParkFounding of the Ron Smith Award (a personal mentor and pioneer in our sport) and the best in industry awardsWorking with the founders and board of Triathlon Industry Association (TIA) in the UK and the launching Triathlon Business JapanBREAKING DOWN THE U.S. TRIATHLON MARKETPLACEThis Triathlon Research Study is the Most Insightful Report into the U.S. MarketplaceOrder it here: http://triathlonbusinessintl.com/market-research-survey.htmlJack recently resigned his role as President of TBI so that he can serve on the Board for the Southern California Committee for the Olympic Games (SCCOG) and the Los Angeles Sports Council where he will lend his leadership and expertise to help Los Angeles secure the 2014 Summer Olympic Games.Jack is also the founder of the US Open Triathlon being held in Rockwall, TX on October 18, 2015 and has provided Octane listeners with the code OSOT15 to save 15% on the registration fee for the US Open.Support the Fuel Your Fire PodcastPLEASE RATE THE FUEL YOUR FIRE PODCAST HERELike the Facebook PageFollow Us on TwitterFollow Us on InstagramFollow Dave on TwitterFollow Randy on TwitterFollow Mike on TwitterSupport the Podcast by doing your shopping on Amazon.com. It’s that simple.No hidden or additional fees. We just get a few cents every time you head over to Amazon using this link.Also…Get your Gatorade Endurance from your local running or triathlon specialty store or at Amazon.com. If your local store doesn’t have it, ask them why. Train with what is on course at over 350 running events around the country and at Ironman Triathlons, Gatorade Endurance.Also, be sure to check out all of our other episodes at octane-athletics.com.If you get value from the show and want to tell us you appreciate us, how about popping for a bottle of water, a cup of coffee or a sandwich. Would you do that? If so, become an Octane Patron and pledge $1, $5, or $10 to the show.

This episode of the Endurance Sportswire podcast is a little bit different. As you know, one of the biggest events in triathlon is the Ironman World Championship in Kona, HI. In today’s episode we will be speaking with Rob Klingensmith, VP of Media and Marketing at Active Network to find out specifically what happens behind the scenes and how you get business done at one of the triathlon’s most iconic events. If you are itching to go to Kona and need to convince your boss, or are already heading over there and want to be prepared to get business done, this is the episode for you.

Ultimate Sports Parent Radio interviews Kristin Carroll, vice president of corporate and consumer marketing for Active Network, about a recent survey that provides details about what motivates kids to participate in sports. Some interesting surprises!

Ultimate Sports Parent Radio interviews Kristin Carroll, vice president of corporate and consumer marketing for Active Network, about a recent survey that provides details about what motivates kids to participate in sports. Some interesting surprises!

It's been awhile. I have just made a major transition in my life, moving down to San Diego to take a job with a company called The Active Network. I've been here for 3 weeks, and life has been moving pretty quickly here for the last month, and that is unfortunately why I didn't make a post in March. So, to kick off April, I bring to you my first Electro House Mix, which I really like. Some tunes I have wanted to play for a while, but could never find the right place for them. The track by Funkerman is my current favorite tune, I think the vocals and the buildup make up a classic Electro Sound and its a tune to dance to. Enjoy this mix!Tracklist:1. Dirty South & M.Y.N.C. Project - Everybody Freakin (Original Mix)2. Jay Lumen - Postcard From Alexandria (Original Mix)3. Gold Ryan - Clean Track (Original Mix)4. Funkerman - Speed Up (Original Mix)5. Junkie XL - More (Matthew Dekay Mix)6. Sander Van Doorn - Riff (Original Mix)7. Those Usual Suspects - Greece 2000 (D.O.N.S. & DBN Remix)To Listen To This Mix, ClickHERETo Subscribe To This Podcast, ClickHERE