Podcasts about american brain foundation

Dr. David Dodick is back to help us better understand brain health. He is a distinguished professor, researcher, and advocate for research in brain diseases. He is also Chair of the Board of the American Brain Foundation.

Brain health is as important as heart health, mental health...all health. We continue exploring this important aspect of wellness with Dr. David Dodick, Chair of the Board of the American Brain Foundation.

We will be spending time focusing on brain health in 2024. We know about heart health. We know about mental health. It's time to explore Brain Health. It is a privilege to spend time with Dr. David Dodick, Chair of the Board of the American Brain Foundation. He is a leader in the world of brain health and he's going to guide our journey into the gray matter..

Dr. Gordon Smith discusses the remarkable contributions made by Dr. Griggs to the field of neurology. He emphasizes the significance of the Robert C. Griggs, MD, FAAN Endowment Fund in promoting research and innovation in the area of brain disease. Click the link to learn more about the Robert C. Griggs, MD, FAAN Fund.

Happy New Year, Neurophiliacs! We are thrilled to start 2024 interviewing the one and only, Dr. Aaron Berkowitz. Throughout the hour we covered Aaron's incredible journey into neurology, his work abroad and the process behind creating "One By One By One: Making A Small Difference Amid A Billion Problems," and the supply-demand mismatch of global neurology in developing countries. Dr. Aaron Berkowitz is a professor of clinical neurology at UCSF where he serves as a neurohospitalist, general neurologist, and clinician-educator at the San Francisco VA and San Francisco General Hospital.  He previously served as director of global neurology at Brigham and Women's Hospital and associate professor of neurology at Harvard Medical School. As Health and Policy Advisor to Partners In Health, Senior Specialist Consultant to Doctors Without Borders,  prior Chair of the AAN Global Health Section, and prior Co-Chair of the ANA Global Health Section, he has worked tirelessly to improve access to neurologic care and education worldwide. This work has been recognized by the Mridha Humanitarian Award from the American Brain Foundation in 2018 and the Viste Patient Advocate of the Year Award from the AAN in 2019. His work as a neurology educator has been recognized by the Residency Teacher of the Year Award from the MGH/Brigham Neurology Residency program in both 2018 and 2020, the O'Hara Excellence in Preclinical Teaching award from Harvard Medical School in 2016, appointment to the editorial board of Continuum, and frequent invitations to discuss neurology topics on the popular Clinical Problem Solvers podcast. He has published over 80 peer-reviewed articles, several book chapters including the neurology chapter for the Oxford Manual of Humanitarian Medicine, and four books including the neurology textbook Clinical Neurology and Neuroanatomy: A Localization-Based Approach and One by One by One: Making a Small Difference Amid a Billion Problems about his work caring for patients with brain tumors in rural Haiti.Follow Dr. Aaron Berkowitz on Twitter @aaronlberkowitz Follow the Neurophilia Podcast on Twitter and Instagram @NeurophiliaPodFollow Dr. Nupur Goel on Twitter @mdgoelsFollow Dr. Blake Buletko on Twitter @blakebuletkoSupport the show

“As you grow older, your brain is able to keep rewiring all the time. And so we have this impression that the flexibility of the brain decreases as you get older. But in fact, it's just because your brain's job is just to figure out how to get by in the world and do a good job in the world. And once you've figured most things out, like, oh, these are different kinds of personalities, and this is how I need to do something at work, and this is how I use email and phone and whatever, then your brain does less changing only because it has successfully done its job, and it doesn't need to keep changing. The brain changes when there's surprise, when there's something that happened that it wasn't expecting, then it changes up. So, you still have plenty of plasticity even when you're 90 years old. It's just that most people aren't using it at that point because they say, Oh, I got it. I know how things work.” So says David Eagleman, renowned neuroscientist, podcast host, and the author of many bestselling books about consciousness and the brain—along with more than 120 academic publications. Besides his perch as a neuroscientist at Stanford University, David is the co-founder of two venture-backed companies, including Neosensory, which is a pioneering wrist device that enables the deaf to hear. Yep, that's right. David is fascinating, and hopefully this conversation lives up to his capacity: We discuss the malleability of the brain to adjust to its inputs, the roots of synesthesia, how those who are born blind and deaf can now use touch to see and hear, and why we dream. Ultimately, we explore just how it happens that a brain trapped in a dark vault can create the vibrancy of our existence. David is a TED speaker, a Guggenheim Fellow, and serves on several boards, including the American Brain Foundation and the The Long Now Foundation. He is the Chief Scientific Advisor for the Mind Science Foundation, and the winner of Claude Shannon Luminary Award from Bell Labs and the McGovern Award for Excellence in Biomedical Communication. What's cooler? He has served as the scientific advisor to several television shows (including Westworld and Perception). Ironically—considering we both host podcasts and David is a neuroscientist—we had some technical difficulties during our conversation, but the hope is that this is not perceptible to you!  MORE FROM DAVID EAGLEMAN: Livewired: The Inside Story of the Ever-Changing Brain The Brain: The Story of You Sum: Forty Tales from the Afterlives David's Podcast: “Inner Cosmos” David's Website Follow David on Instagram David's Company: Neosensory To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

When an anonymous check for $100,000 arrived at the American Brain Foundation, their fundraising team was blown away. The organization certainly wasn't so large that this level of giving was typical. Who was this anonymous person, and what made them decide to give so generously?  In this episode, Jeff and Diana interview two members of the team at the American Brain Foundation (ABF) – Jane Ransom, Executive Director, and Lisa Dahlberg, Philanthropic Advisor – to learn how they responded to this unexpected gift. Their efforts to connect with this anonymous donor ultimately led to a multi-million-dollar commitment for ABF. Listen in to learn how a transformational gift like this is possible for your organization. Show Highlights: In this episode, you'll learn about…  How an anonymous gift led to a multi-million-dollar commitment The steps that ABF took to learn more about the donor's passions and goals The internal culture at ABF that supported this transformational partnership

At age 8, David Eagleman fell off the edge of a roof. While he was falling, he felt the world slow down, and he saw his life flash before his eyes. His fall made him want to study the neural basis of time perception in crisis situations, and years later, David became a neuroscientist and expert on topics like time perception, brain plasticity, and neurolaw. In this episode, David talks about sensory substitution, the plasticity of the brain, and the potential future state of the human experience. He also breaks down what he calls “livewiring.” David Eagleman is a neuroscientist at Stanford University and an internationally bestselling author. He is co-founder of two venture-backed companies, Neosensory and BrainCheck, and he also directs the Center for Science and Law, a national non-profit institute. He is best known for his work on sensory substitution, time perception, brain plasticity, synesthesia, and neurolaw. In his latest book, Livewired, he tells the story of brain plasticity.  In this episode, Hala and David will discuss:  - Why a childhood injury influenced David to study time perception - How we have evolved our senses based on our environment  - What a “half-baked” brain looks like - Brain Plasticity over time - David's “Mr. Potato Head” Model - The new discoveries of Neosensory - Why we dream  - How science and religion are related - What it means to be livewired - And other topics… David Eagleman is a neuroscientist at Stanford University and an internationally bestselling author. He is the writer and presenter of the international PBS series, The Brain with David Eagleman, and the author of the companion book, The Brain: The Story of You. He is also the writer and presenter of The Creative Brain on Netflix. He is the co-founder of two venture-backed companies, Neosensory and BrainCheck, and he also directs the Center for Science and Law, a national non-profit institute.  Beyond his 120+ academic publications, he has published many popular books. His latest book Livewired: The Inside Story of the Ever-Changing Brain tells the story of brain plasticity: how your forest of billions of neurons reconfigures every moment of your life. Eagleman is a TED speaker and a Guggenheim Fellow. He also serves on several boards, including the American Brain Foundation and The Long Now Foundation. He serves as the academic editor for the Journal of Science and Law, was named Science Educator of the Year by the Society for Neuroscience, and was featured as one of the Brightest Idea Guys by Italy's Style magazine. David's new podcast The Story Inside with David Eagleman will drop in the Spring of 2023 with iHeartMedia.  Resources Mentioned: David's Website: https://eagleman.com/  David's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/davideagleman/ David's Twitter: https://twitter.com/davideagleman  David's Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/davideagleman/ David's Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/David.M.Eagleman    David's Podcast: https://eagleman.com/podcast/ David's book Livewired: https://eagleman.com/books/livewired/ PBS series, The Brain with David Eagleman: https://www.pbs.org/show/brain-david-eagleman/ LinkedIn Secrets Masterclass, Have Job Security For Life: Use code ‘podcast' for 40% off at yapmedia.io/course. Sponsored By:  Shopify - Sign up for a $1 per month trial period at shopify.com/profiting Just Thrive - Use promo code YAP for 15% off sitewide at https://justthrivehealth.com/discount/YAP More About Young and Profiting Download Transcripts - youngandprofiting.com   Get Sponsorship Deals - youngandprofiting.com/sponsorships Leave a Review - ratethispodcast.com/yap Watch Videos - youtube.com/c/YoungandProfiting Follow Hala Taha LinkedIn - linkedin.com/in/htaha/ Instagram - instagram.com/yapwithhala/ TikTok - tiktok.com/@yapwithhala Twitter - twitter.com/yapwithhala Learn more about YAP Media Agency Services - yapmedia.io/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This week, Jeremy talks to Jim Essey, a business executive and board member of the American Brain Foundation whose family established the Sheila Essey Award for ALS Research. Jim reflects on the progress made in ALS research over the years and shares why he sees hope on the horizon.Learn more about the Sheila Essey Award for ALS Research at https://www.als.org/research/research-we-fund/fellowships/sheila-essey-award-als-researchLearn more about ALS research at https://www.als.org/research/research-we-fundThis episode is brought to you by The ALS Association in partnership with CitizenRacecar.

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I’m so happy to introduce you to today’s guest, Dr. Lisa Shulman. As I told her at the beginning of our conversation, had I found her work when I experienced the loss of my husband in 2006, I may not be doing the work that I am doing now. I thanked her for doing her work and for writing her book Before and After Loss because the way she describes the impact of loss and grief on the brain is truly life-changing for all of us. When I first found her book I thought, how come I didn’t know about this before and how come my community doesn’t know about her? Dr. Shulman and I have a wide reaching conversation about her own experience of grief when her husband died to her research and need to understand, as a neurologist, just what was happening to her brain as she experienced grief or as she calls it, emotional trauma.  Like me, she had much professional experience with grief before her own experience, so she anticipated that she would have an easier time than others because she had been close to the experience, but as she learned you don’t really know how it actually feels until you are walking in those shoes. Dr. Shulman explains why our Survivor self kicks in after emotional trauma to keep us moving through the world, and in many cases, high-functioning. It’s how we continue to go to work, take care of our children, maybe even make big life changes and take risks. It’s in this mode that we start to believe that we’re “ok” and so do the others around us. I had chills when she talked about the depression that comes with grief wasn’t the problem. The real problem as she understood and experienced it was the utter disorientation and loss of self-identity, one of the big invisible losses that I talk about in my book Second Firsts and in my Life Reentry classes. It took a long time for her to unpack and understand that was what was going on. Because, as you know if you’ve experienced the death of a loved one, you’re not only grieving the person that you lost but also the person that you were in relation to them.   “When you understand how the emotional trauma of loss impacts the brain, it normalizes the experience and you feel less alone. We are all having very similar experiences, right down to the kinds of dreams that we have.” ~ Dr. Lisa Shulman   Dr. Shulman explains that it’s the same brain pathways whether you are experiencing the death of a loved one, losing your job, or go through a divorce. No matter the loss, it’s alll tied up in the brain’s evolutionary patterns for our survival in the face of threat. Grief is felt in the same place of the brain no matter what loss you are experiencing. She approached her grief as a neurologist and wants to normalize the experience of grief for everyone. As she explains, when you understand how emotional trauma impacts the brain, it normalizes the experiences and helps us to feel less alone. While of course everyone’s experience is different, it’s also true that we are having very similar experiences, right down to the kind of dreams that we have.  Dr. Shulman wants everyone to know that the experience of loss is a normal response of the brain and that there are extremely powerful, tangible things that we can do for ourselves to promote our healing.  She believes that the more we understand that we can promote positive neuroplasticity for ourselves we can truly being to heal.  I hope that you’ll listen and let me know what you think of this conversation. Please comment below or share with me on social media. Please share it with your friends and family, and be sure to tag me if you share it on social media so that I can say thank you. I’m @christinarasmussen7 on Instagram and @ChristinaRasmussen2014 on Facebook.  More About Dr. Lisa Shulman Lisa M. Shulman MD is a neurologist specializing in Parkinson’s disease and other movement disorders. In addition to neurology, her diverse background includes training in health policy, nursing, and education. She is the Eugenia Brin Professor of Parkinson’s Disease and Movement Disorders and the Rosalyn Newman Distinguished Scholar in Parkinson’s Disease.  Dr. Shulman serves as Treasurer of the American Academy of Neurology and Director of the University of Maryland Movement Disorders Center. She serves on the Board of Directors of both the American Academy of Neurology and the American Brain Foundation. Dr. Shulman is Editor-in-Chief of Neurology Now Books and co-author of the reference book Parkinson’s Disease: A Complete Guide for Patients and Families, now in its third edition and translated in 3 languages.  She is the author or editor of 16 books, 30 chapters, 140 peer-reviewed publications, and 170 abstracts. Things We Mention In This Episode Book: Before and After Loss, A Neurologist’s Perspective on Loss, Grief, and Our Brain, by Dr. Lisa Shulman Website: Dr. Shulman at The University of Maryland Book: Where Did You Go? by Christina Rasmussen Book: Second Firsts by Christina Rasmussen Newsletter - Message In a Bottle: Sign up for Christina’s weekly letter Apple podcast reviews and ratings are really important to help get the podcast in front of more people to uplift and inspire them too, which is the ultimate goal. Thank you!

Ashley Logan is the Founder and CEO at Yakkety Yak, a full-service purpose-driven content marketing agency that provides blog writing, social media marketing, video production, and website design and development for brands and organizations that want to make the world a better place.  Ashley says that the agency's “sweet spot” is content creation and storytelling. She believes alignment with the greater good and “giving back” are two things that are necessary for changing the world. “You have to be purpose-driven,” Ashley says. “You have to stand for something.” A writer from age 5, Ashley graduated with an undergraduate degree in creative writing and landed a job selling for a private label candy manufacturer. She was  “a creative person trapped in a corporate world.” As she traveled around “slinging candy,” Ashley saw that widely different companies used the same words talk about themselves in the “digital space.” She decided she wanted a “bigger ticket” career and moved to commercial real estate.  To appease her creative drive, Ashley volunteered and created content for nonprofit organizations. Social media platforms were just starting to rise. She wondered, “How could you turn those social media engines into a marketing machine?” In 2012, Ashley finally understood that she needed to combine all of her “passions for business, storytelling, content, and nonprofit work.” She went back to school to pursue a master's degree in Journalism in a program renowned for teaching people how to write for target audiences.  Ashley officially launched Yakkety Yak in 2014 and took clients as they came . . . until she realized she could no longer tell stories and work hard for jerks. The agency now maintains a focus on content and storytelling for a far more restricted clientele:  Organizations that “do good” (nonprofits),  Have, as a component of their organization, the intention of “giving back” (perhaps a part of the company raises funds to donate to non-profits), or  Are amenable to adding a “do good” component to their organization (Yakkety Yak works with these organizations that do not yet have a purpose-driven mindset to help them define and build that “piece” into their company culture).  Ashley thinks it is important for its clients to inform people of their “contributions to the greater good” by “putting it out there in your story, putting it on your website, weaving it into your social media, holding your teams accountable, and shouting it from the rooftops.” She thinks high quality video will become an increasingly more powerful marketing vehicle. Ashley is working with a designer to “revamp” Yakkety Yak's office space with improved ventilation and flexible seating and intends to “open the doors” after Memorial Day. Ashley sees “the new office” as a safe place where “people can come and work if they want to escape” and gradually get people back together with flexible hours and a combination of in-person and remote work. She misses the “vibration” that comes from having a “team all together” but also notes that COVID has done wonders for work-life balance. Ashley is best reached on the agency's website at yakketyyak.com, where visitors can find links to all of the agency's social channels. Transcript Follows: ROB: Welcome to the Marketing Agency Leadership Podcast. I'm your host, Rob Kischuk, and I'm excited to be joined today by Ashley Logan. Ashley is the Founder and CEO at Yakkety Yak based in Chicago, Illinois. Welcome to the show, Ashley. ASHLEY: Thank you so much. I appreciate you having me here. ROB: Absolutely. Why don't you start off by telling us about Yakkety Yak and what makes the firm unique? ASHLEY: Yakkety Yak is a full-service content marketing agency based in Chicago. We do everything from blog writing, social media marketing, video production, website design and development – basically any mechanism to help our clients tell their stories, we work with them. I guess what makes us unique is that we focus on working with brands and businesses that care about doing good. We're a totally purpose-driven agency working with brands and businesses that want to make the world a little bit better. ROB: What does that look like when we actually get down to a client? What does a client look like who has this purpose-driven focus? Are there maybe some examples you can share of how they're getting out in the world? ASHLEY: Absolutely. That can be nonprofit organizations, of course. They fall into that category. We work with many patient-facing organizations like the American Migraine Foundation, the American Brain Foundation, and other brands in that category. But purpose-driven doesn't have to be nonprofit; it can be an organization whose culture focuses on giving back. They have volunteer events where they donate proceeds to a nonprofit organization. Ultimately, that alignment with a greater good is our sweet spot because one, it helps with storytelling, but also, in this day and age, giving back is such an important part of changing the world, making it a little better. ROB: Finding that sort of specialization and alignment can sometimes be a journey. How did you come to focus on that as a specialty? ASHLEY: That's such a great question. When I founded the agency back in 2014, we didn't have the luxury of selecting the types of clients that we worked with. I'm sure you've heard this a lot with your guests. We worked with some people that we probably didn't want to work with. Ultimately it came down to that if we're going to tell stories and work hard, we don't want to work with jerks. [laughs] So we didn't. We stopped working with jerks, and that's it in a nutshell. Is that terrible? ROB: No. I mean, who wants to work with jerks? I don't know anybody who says they do. I haven't heard that strategy yet. I'd be fascinated if we have somebody listening who has a strategy built around working with jerks and charging a premium for it. I'm here for that conversation. ASHLEY: [laughs] I love it. So that's really what it came down to. We also help businesses who don't have a purpose-driven mindset to build that into their company culture. Maybe they came to us and wanted to think about “How do we put our story out there in a way that has more employee retention, that we can attract more visibility from our clients?” We always say you've got to be purpose-driven. You've got to stand for something. So, we've also helped coach our clients into getting into this space, too. ROB: What does that transformation look like? Maybe an example of where a company was starting. The purpose is usually there, much like your own firm; you just have to find your way to it. ASHLEY: That's exactly it. Just setting the intention, putting it out there in your story, putting it on your website, weaving it into your social media, and holding your teams accountable too, and just shouting it from the rooftops. That's especially applicable to clients of ours that aren't necessarily nonprofits but are doing something to give back – make sure that their employees know about the work they're doing at an executive level and then down to a grassroots level. A little bit less in COVID time but coordinating fundraising events or teambuilding events around giving back. ROB: It sounds like it would almost pull you towards being involved in – if an organization didn't have core values, you might not even be working on marketing. You might be working almost on their internals before they get to the externals. Do you end up getting pulled in that deep? ASHLEY: Sometimes, yes, we do. But I think that primarily our sweet spot is in the content creation and the storytelling. That's where we really like to be. Certainly, we will help clients define their brand strategy, and that includes core values and messaging. But we definitely like to focus on the story element. ROB: Understood. You talked about not having as much of a focus when you started, but let's even go a little bit further behind that. What led you to have the sort of audacity to create your own job and create some other jobs along the way? How did you get into that lane? ASHLEY: I love that word. I love the word “audacious.” Let's see, I've been a writer for my whole life, ever since I was in kindergarten, I think. I won a Young Authors contest for a short story I wrote called “Crystal Met the Ogre.” I still have it. Kind of funny. But I've been a writer my whole life, and I loved to tell people stories, but I also had a knack for business and trying to create processes and connect people. After I finished my undergrad at University of Tennessee – I was a creative writing major; I worked at the school paper – I ended up in a sales position. I wasn't expecting that I was going to be in sales, but also that I was going to like it so much. I started off working for a candy manufacturer based in Chicago. It was a great experience. I was 22, had half the country as my territory, was flying all over, slinging candy. But I wanted a little bit more of a high-volume sale, and I moved into commercial real estate. Through that experience, I was a creative person trapped in a corporate world and interacting with people at the C level. What I found was that all of these brands and businesses didn't know how to talk about themselves. They were all innovative. Every single one of them called themselves “innovative.” All of them called themselves “streamlined.” I realized it was a problem that in this digital space, people didn't have the words to differentiate themselves from one another. You could close your eyes and hear across multiple industries and see people using the same exact words to describe themselves, with no differentiation. So that was an observation. In the meantime, I was volunteering for nonprofit organizations in Chicago and helping them with content creation. This was that sweet spot when social media was just starting to go from being that you needed a .edu email address to that anyone could sign up for Facebook at this time. How do you turn those social media engines into a marketing machine? I cut my teeth on that through nonprofit work and ultimately decided that I was onto something and needed to combine all of my passions for business, storytelling, content, and nonprofit work. So I left my career in commercial real estate and went back to school to earn a master's in journalism from Northwestern University's Medill School of Journalism. They have a great program for writing for a target audience. I simultaneously founded Yakkety Yak, and the rest is sort of history. ROB: That's a great upscaling moment on the writing there. I like that. I wonder a little bit – I'm just going to pull on a thread here that's a little random, but we'll see where it goes – if you don't mind me asking, what was the candy? Who were you selling to, and what made it desirable for them to buy this candy? ASHLEY: [laughs] It was a private label contract manufacturing. That's what we pitched. I worked with Cost Plus World Market and Harry & David, and we were doing premium toffees. We would produce it for them under their own private label brand. Coming from Chicago, we'd make the candy and then it would be in like a Harry & David package, for example. They also did those really beautiful Christmas candies, ribbon candies. That was it. No chocolates and no gummies, but pretty much everything else. It was cool. There was a factory. The CEO of the company gave me my first job out of school, tolerated me, trained me in sales. He actually passed away a couple of years ago, and he just made such a positive impact in my life, giving me this opportunity. It was pretty cool getting to walk through the candy factory and make friends with the factory workers and be part of creating something from end to end. ROB: That's very cool. Those are typically, in my reckoning, pretty high end, nice candies. It's a creative process. It's not what it sounds like at first when you say sales. I think we all sometimes miss doing tangible work, something you can put your hands on and something you can see sitting on a shelf. ASHLEY: Yeah, it was cool. And it was fun. It was my first experience in business. We would go to these candy conferences, and I was the youngest by far. I was the only female, interacting at Happy Hour with the good ol' boys who'd been in the business for 40 years. It was fun. It taught me a lot about how to defend myself. It taught me a lot about how to keep composure as a woman in business and overcome challenges. That experience grew me really well for commercial real estate, which was a little bit more of a cutthroat type of industry. ROB: Right. You went from a boys' club to a mean boys' club. ASHLEY: [laughs] I did. ROB: Even trickier. Maybe a little bit gentler in a more creative space. But I think what's interesting is the through line is, as we all know as an agency owner, you are selling, but it sounds like a common thing across your sales experience is you're really helping people get what they want – which is much easier than trying to convince them they need something they're not aware of. ASHLEY: I think so, yeah. ROB: Very interesting. Ashley, as you reflect on – you said 2014 was the starting of Yakkety Yak? ASHLEY: I have two dates. 2012 is when I founded the agency and I went back to school, and I had a few very small clients at the time. But 2014 is when I hired my first employee and Yakkety Yak became my full-time job. So I use that as my real date. ROB: Got it. Over the course of that 7+ year time, what are some things you've learned that you might do differently if you were starting from scratch? ASHLEY: That's a great question. My journey has been really interesting. I built the agency from scratch. I had no outside investors. I'm pretty risk positive; I'm comfortable in a space of jumping and leaping to the next level. It doesn't make me nervous. I don't spend a lot of time dwelling on mistakes made because I do believe that every experience leads you to the next, and you've got to build upon it and take with you the tidbits that help make you stronger. For example, looking at my career trajectory, the candy business, while I knew it wasn't my life's passion, that sales experience helped take me to the next level. Any adversity that I faced in commercial real estate, I took that with me to become a founder and CEO and be gutsy as hell. But one thing that stands out for what I would do differently is I think in the area of hiring. I have worn every hat in the agency, and I wish that I'd had more help sooner because that would've helped me scale faster. I haven't mentioned this part yet, but I've got three really little kids – and a COVID baby. It would've been great – when my second son was born, it was 2018; I was 38 weeks pregnant, and I had an employee resign, which meant that I was not going to get any maternity leave. I had my baby on a Tuesday and I was back to work on Monday. If I had built a deeper bench, then I would've been able to have a little bit more balance early on. ROB: What do you think it was that prevented you from building up that team? ASHLEY: I think when you're an agency starting out and you're competing in a market like Chicago – we have some major players here. I'm going up against, from a benefits standpoint, a salary standpoint, and a credibility standpoint, some powerhouses. It took a little bit of time to earn some credibility and name recognition. People, I will say, do remember the name Yakkety Yak, so I am proud of that. Recruiting top talent takes time and building up a team and building that referral network where people say “Hey, that's a place where I really want to be and where I want to work.” ROB: Got it. What were your first couple of hires when you went from a team of one to a team of more? ASHLEY: Oh gosh, one of my first hires was – and he's still one of my favorite employees; he moved back to California and is doing some really great things right now – a graphic designer. I had the way with the words, and I was bringing in the business but also doing a lot of the content creation, and Curtis was doing the graphic design elements. And then support from a writing standpoint, so I eventually started to be able to outsource that and build a team. I shouldn't say outsource; I mean delegate. That's the word I mean. And finally, 2018 was a breakthrough year for me where I finally was able to build – we had more than 15 people. Now we're a team of 20. It's great to have such amazing talent at the agency now. I wish that I had done that sooner. But when you're bootstrapping your own business, it's kind of part of the deal, I think. ROB: Congratulations on that growth. You mentioned a COVID baby, so I'm sort of expecting, by your story, that maybe you did get some maternity leave this time around? ASHLEY: [laughs] I didn't. Well, lesson learned from the second child, but we were in crisis – not crisis, but I didn't think that it would be good for me to have no visibility to my team when we're all suddenly working remotely and in the middle of a global pandemic. So, I made sure to still be around for internal purposes, but I did remove myself from some client-facing work for a period of time. I had my baby Memorial Day weekend, and by Labor Day my clients were seeing me on the regular again. ROB: Got it. I can definitely see a case for visibility to a team in a time where everybody's in uncharted territory. ASHLEY: Sure. ROB: Where are you and your team in terms of office? Did you have an office, do you have an office? Are you going to have an office? Are you keeping the same geographic footprint moving forward? How are you thinking about physical space in the context of Yakkety Yak? ASHLEY: That's such a great question and something that's so relevant right now. We have this awesome office in a loft building right near the train station, Union Station in Chicago, and it's great. I love the space. It's got that brick and timber feel, lots of natural light, open area. But we jammed a lot of people into that space. I'm currently working with a designer, Lauren Ashley Allan. She's a really awesome up-and-coming designer. We're revamping and rethinking our space so that it is comfortable for people when we return to work. Flexible seating options is what we're focusing on, in addition to little booths so that people who are a little more conscious or want more privacy can work in a confined space that has ventilation. The goal is that we're not going to mandate that the team come back to work, but we are going to open our doors after Memorial Day, and I'll be there and give people a place that they can come and work if they want to escape and gradually start getting people back together. I think what I've been noticing is I miss the vibration, like the good vibes that come from having a team all together. So, we're putting some thought and intention into how we're designing the space, and we'll move forward from there with some flexible hours, combination of remote work and in-person. ROB: Right, but you're probably not going to have folks moving to Portugal and being fully remote, that you could think of? ASHLEY: I don't think so. [laughs] ROB: [laughs] It sounds like you're being very intentional about your space, which is compelling, and it sounds like even within the office environment, you're really differentiating that work environment. Knowing Chicago, knowing where you are, you have a benefit of accessibility and transit and that urban lifestyle for those who choose it. And obviously, in Chicago, you can get into the city from very, very far out on a train if you want. And then not knowing the specific block you're on or whatever, during normal times, there's probably a good vibe, good places to grab lunch together, grab Happy Hour together. It's not just some nameless office park. ASHLEY: Right, exactly. That camaraderie is just important. I really felt for people – especially those who are in there, mid to late twenties, single, living by themselves, and stuck at home during COVID. That's a lot for people. I think that we've got a lot of healing to do as a country when it comes to finally starting to emerge back into everyday life. I want to be there and I want to create a safe space for my team to come in and get work done and feel welcome and safe and so we can continue doing the excellent work that we've been doing and build off of that energy. ROB: That sounds excellent. How's your team thinking about that? I know everybody's all over the spectrum, at least from people I know. Some people would be in a closet together tomorrow and some people are waiting until they get a shot or even longer. What's the range of what you're seeing? ASHLEY: A range, you're exactly right. I'm giving people space to make the decisions on their own for now. We continue to check in on it. I've said that in 2021, at this point, we're probably not going to do a mandate to go back to work. But we will open the doors and encourage people to come in if they want to. The beauty of the transition that's taken place from a remote workforce standpoint is that now we see that we can work remotely, that if you've got to coach your kid's softball team in the afternoon, you can work from home, and that's going to be fine. We're going to be able to connect, and no one's going to miss anything. I think this has done wonders for the work-life balance, and I hope at least at Yakkety Yak, that's a trend we're going to really continue to let permeate our office culture. ROB: I love the intentionality of it. I'm a little bit jealous. I'm a little bit more of a “ready, fire, aim” sort of person. Over the course of the past year, the last four people we've hired have all been remote, and we're going to figure it out later. I'm hoping that late fall/early winter, we'll get together and visit one of our team who lives down in Chile. It's completely different. Walking away from the office and loading the furniture into our basement kind of made it real, you know? ASHLEY: How did that feel for you? ROB: I am very comfortable with the change. The thing I don't like in my basement is there's no people there. There's fresh air and light. It's a little rustic, shall we say. I do miss the getting together, but if part of it means that instead of being in the office and doing little things, we get to do something more pronounced like spending a week in Chile and getting some different gatherings, I'm interested in it. It's a change of pace for sure. Ashley, when you think about the future of Yakkety Yak, the future of marketing and how you're working with businesses that give back, what are you excited about in the future that's coming up? ASHLEY: I couldn't be more excited about video. We are doing some really, really, really incredible work when it comes to especially the patient space, telling people's stories about how they've been impacted by various health conditions, diseases, disorders. I love using video as a mechanism for storytelling, regardless of the target audience. There are so many cool things now with TikTok and how to use visual elements to show a progression, and people are doing that every day in their homes as amateurs, and how that's going to translate to professional level videos I think is something that is so cool and something you're going to see exploding in marketing space over the next 18 months. ROB: One thing I wonder about, if you have an opinion on it, is when I think about audio and the way it's going, I see a lot more attention going into the sound on versus sound off experience and accommodating people who might be muted. What direction do you see that going? Are we going towards where every video's going to adapt, or are we going to where we're assuming that so many people have some sort of Bluetooth headset in that they're going to have audio on? How is that trending? ASHLEY: That's a really great question. I'm going to answer it in two parts. One, I think that the pandemic has shown everyone the importance of quality A/V, like when you can't hear someone on Zoom or there's a delay in a recording when you're watching things virtually. I think that high quality video and audio is something that's more of a priority than it's ever been. With that said, I think it depends on the platform. We wouldn't necessarily, for a virtual fundraiser or virtual event, have all of the text scrolling at the bottom of the experience, but when it comes to ads and what's happening when people are scrolling through Instagram, I think it's absolutely vital to have the words there because people are scrolling through Instagram in their beds at night when they're not necessarily wearing headphones and they don't want to wake up their partner, or they have babies that they're feeding and don't want to scare the babies. That's my personal experience, but I think it applies across a multitude of scenarios. And people are multitasking, too. They might have one window open or be on a conference call or a Zoom call and scrolling through Instagram. You can't have that dependence on the audio in those scenarios.  So, when it comes to social media, the text is vital. When it comes to other experiences where you're holding people's attention for a little bit longer, then I think you're okay without it.  ROB: Very, very interesting. Thank you for illuminating the topic. Ashley, when people want to find and connect with you and with Yakkety Yak, where should they go to find you? ASHLEY: Our website is the best spot to find us because you've got links there to all of our social media channels. You can find us at yakketyyak.com. The spelling isn't necessarily intuitive. ROB: How did you choose the spelling of Yakkety Yak? ASHLEY: [laughs] I don't know. I think it was probably the domain that was available at the time. But it was important that we were Y-A-K and not Y-A-C-K, so we went from there. ROB: Perfect. Ashley, thank you so much for joining the podcast and sharing your experience. I definitely wish you the best as you get that revamped office up and humming and get everybody back working together in person. ASHLEY: Thanks, Rob. I really appreciate your time today. This was fun. ROB: Thank you so much, Ashley. Bye. Thank you for listening. The Marketing Agency Leadership Podcast is presented by Converge. Converge helps digital marketing agencies and brands automate their reporting so they can be more profitable, accurate, and responsive. To learn more about how Converge can automate your marketing reporting, email info@convergehq.com, or visit us on the web at convergehq.com.

Dan and Alex the work from the American Brain Foundation and all they’ve been doing to find cures for brain diseases.  This week they are joined by Gina Belafonte, the daughter of the legendary Harry Belafonte.

Dan & Alex are joined by Jane Ransom of the American Brain Foundation.  They discuss Jane’s work and funding research for brain disease, the difference between certain brain diseases, and keeping a positive approach to the many challenges faced.

1. Featured Article: “‘Is there a neurologist on this flight?’ An update”2. What’s Trending: paraneoplastic neuronal intermediate filament autoimmunityDr. Jason Crowell talks with Dr. Joseph Sirven about his NCP paper entitled “‘Is there a neurologist on this flight?’ An update.” In the second part of the podcast, Dr. Stacey Clardy focuses her interview with Dr. Andrew McKeon on paraneoplastic neuronal intermediate filament autoimmunity.DISCLOSURES:Dr. McKeon has patent applications pending: Septin 5 and MAP1B as markers of neurological autoimmunity and paraneoplastic disorders; his Consultancies include Grifols Medimmune Euroimmun with no personal compensation received for these activities; he has received research support from Medimmune, Inc Euroimmun Grifols. Dr. Sirven has served on scientific advisory boards Commercial- Advisory role for Eisai, Upsher - Smith Non- profit- Epilepsy Foundation, AAN, FAA; has has funding for travel or speaker honoraria for Epilepsy Foundation- travel; has served on Editorial Boards for Epilepsy.com; has published royalties for Up to Date 2010 Clinical Neurology of the Older Adult, LWW, 2008; has completed projects for Medscape; is on the Board of Directors of the American Brain Foundation; has supported research for Government Entities, NINDS sub Investigator and supported research for Foundations and Societies, Epilepsy Foundation. Dr. McKeon has patent applications pending: Septin 5 and MAP1B as markers of neurological autoimmunity and paraneoplastic disorders; his Consultancies include Grifols Medimmune Euroimmun with no personal compensation received for these activities; he has received research support from Medimmune, Inc Euroimmun Grifols.

  Ben has always chased his dreams, finding his way from a small river town in Minnesota to a Super Bowl championship field.  He has established himself as a prominent corporate and motivational speaker in the areas of leadership and culture. Both of his programs, The Champion’s Way™ and The MVP Program™, stem from lessons he learned in the locker room with Hall of Fame coach Tony Dungy and in the huddle with future Hall-of-Famer Peyton Manning. Both programs illuminate dynamic ways to succeed in business and life. ”I believe, as a speaker, that vulnerability equals connectivity. This is why I approach my keynote presentations with a mission of bringing you on an emotional journey through my life, into a hall-of-fame huddle, and onto a field of high-impact lessons.  All our lives tell a story, and this is how I tell mine!” Ben has found success in many realms, sitting on the prestigious board of the American Brain Foundation, authoring Counting the Days While My Mind Slips Away with Simon and Schuster, and releasing award-nominated albums as a professional singer. However, without question, Ben would tell you his greatest accomplishment is being a husband to his beautiful wife and a father to their four daughters. Purchase Ben's book on Amazon: http://amzn.to/2fSAjmW Purchase Ben's album on Amazon: http://amzn.to/2xj0ElP Watch Ben's music video on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gOX-kSJ7PI4 Episode sponosred by: Minnesota Functional Neurology DC  

Show description/summary:1) Neurology® Clinical Practice: Barriers and Facilitators to ER Physician Use of the Test and Treatment for BPPV2) What’s Trending: New crowd-funding research initiative from ABFIn the first segment, Dr. Jim Siegler talks with Dr. Kevin Kerber and Dr. William Meurer about their Neurology® Clinical Practice article on ER physician use of the test and treatment for benign paroxysmal positional vertigo. In the second part of the podcast, Dr. Andy Southerland focuses his interview with Dr. Robert Griggs and Jane Ransom on the new crowd-funding research initiative from the American Brain Foundation. Disclosures can be found at Neurology.org.DISCLOSURES: Dr. Siegler serves on the Resident and Fellow Section Team for Neurology, and has received research support from NIH (U10 StrokeNet grant, 2017-2018).Jane Ransom is Executive Director of the American Brain Foundation.Dr. Kerber received funding for travel from Elsevier Inc. and the American Academy of Neurology; receives royalties from the publication of the book Clinical Neurophysiology of the Vestibular System, 4th edition; is a consultant for the American Academy of Neurology, University of California San Francisco (including work on a project funded by AstraZeneca), and Best Doctors, Inc.; receives research support from the NIH; received speaker honoraria from American Academy of Neurology and University of California San Francisco and loan repayment award from the NIH; reviewed legal records of Phil Pearsons, MD, JD and National Medical Consultants.Dr. Meurer serves as Decision Editor for the Annals of Emergency Medicine; serves as Methodology Statistics Reviewer for Academic Emergency Medicine; and has received research support from the Massey Foundation for TBI research. Dr. Griggs has served on scientific advisory boards for National Hospital Queen Square, Marathon Pharmaceuticals, Taro Pharmaceuticals, and Sarepta Pharmaceuticals; has served on the data monitoring and safety board for PTC Therapeutics, Inc.; serves on the editorial board for NeuroTherapeutics and Current Treatment Opinions in Neurology; serves as Correspondence Editor for Neurology; receives publishing royalties from Andreoli and Carpenter’s Cecil Essentials of Medicine (Eighth Edition, Elsevier), Cecil Textbook of Medicine (multiple editions, Elsevier), and Evaluation and Treatment of Myopathies (2014, Oxford); has consulted for Marathon, PTC Therapeutics, Sarepta, Taro Pharmaceuticals, Idera Pharmaceuticals, and Strongbridge Pharmaceuticals; receives data royalties and research support from Taro Pharmaceuticals and Marathon Pharmaceuticals; has received research support from NINDS (T32 NS07338, 5U01NS061799, 1R13NS084687), the FDA (R01 FD003923), Parent Project Muscular Dystrophy, Inc., and the Muscular Dystrophy Association; and is the recent past Chair of Executive Committee of the Muscle Study Group.

1) Anti-LGI1 encephalitis: Clinical syndrome and long-term follow-up2) What's Trending: Interview with Ben Utecht about his recently published book titled: Counting the Days While My Mind Slips Away: A Love Letter to My Family3) Topic of the month: Neurology Today story about NEJM published paper on thymectomy for patients with myasthenia gravisThis podcast for the Neurology Journal begins and closes with Dr. Robert Gross, Editor-in-Chief, briefly discussing highlighted articles from the print issue of Neurology. In the second segment Dr. Lara Marcuse interviews Dr. Maarten Titulaer about his paper on the clinical features and long-term follow-up of anti-LGI1 encephalitis. Dr. Ted Burns is interviewing Mr. Ben Utecht for our “What's Trending” feature of the week about his recently published book titled: “Counting the Days While My Mind Slips Away: A Love Letter to My Family.” In the next part of the podcast Dr. Ted Burns interviews Dr. Gil Wolfe about a Neurology Today story on the topic of thymectomy for patients with myasthenia gravis.DISCLOSURES: Dr. Titulaer serves on the scientific advisory board for MedImmune; serves as an editorial board member for Neurology®: Neuroimmunology & Neuroinflammation; received funding for travel from Sun Pharma; receives research support from Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research, Dutch Epilepsy Foundations and ErasmusMC fellowship.Dr. Ted Burns serves as Podcast Editor for Neurology®; and has received research support for consulting activities with UCB, CSL Behring, Walgreens and Alexion Pharmaceuticals, Inc.Mr. Ben Utecht receives honoraria from the American Academy of Neurology and the American Brain Foundation, Spokesperson Agreement.Dr. Wolfe serves as an Associate Editor of Muscle and Nerve; serves on the scientific advisory board for Grifols, Baxalta, Argen X and UCB; receives honoraria for serving on the speakers' bureau of Grifols and Baxalta; receives research support from CSL Behring.

Join host Amy Zellmer as she chats with NFL Indianapolis Colts SuperBowl champ, Ben Utecht, about his newly released book, and how he is losing his memories after muliptle concussions.  As an influential advocate for brain health, Ben served as the national spokesperson for the American Academy of Neurology and currently sits on the prestigious board of the American Brain Foundation.  Ben was given the AAN’s most esteemed honor, the Public Leadership in Neurology Award, in 2014.  Also at that time, Ben released a music video for his song “You Will Always Be My Girls,” written as a love letter to his wife and daughters with the goal of emotionally connecting people to the importance of their memories.  The video has impacted the lives of many, garnering over 1.3 million YouTube views to date. Ben can now add “author” to his résumé, with the release of his new book Counting the Days While My Mind Slips Away, published by Simon & Schuster.  The book is the first memoir from a former NFL player who left the game as a result of concussions.  It takes the reader on a heart-felt journey through the ups and downs of Ben’s life with faith, family, and football.  Ben has a message of hope that has reached a nation-wide audience, inspiring people to value every moment to its fullest. Read Amy's Huffington Post article about Ben and his book: www.huff.to/2bcotf5 This episode is brought to you by MFNC Brain Rehabilitation 

1) Editorial Titled: The Terrorist inside My Husband's Brain2) e-Pearl topic: X-linked myopathy with excessive autophagy3) Topic of the month: Neurologic prognosis following cardiac arrestThis podcast for the Neurology Journal begins and closes with Dr. Robert Gross, Editor-in-Chief, briefly discussing highlighted articles from the print issue of Neurology. In the second segment Dr. Ted Burns interviews Mrs. Susan Schneider Williams about her editorial on learning to deal with her husband's (Robin Williams) Lewy Body disease. Dr. Adam Numis is reading our e-Pearl of the week about X-linked myopathy with excessive autophagy. In the next part of the podcast Dr. Andy Schomer concludes his interview with Dr. Eelco Wijdicks about prognostic models and clinical findings of myoclonus.DISCLOSURES: Dr. Ted Burns serves as Podcast Editor for Neurology®; and has received research support for consulting activities with UCB, CSL Behring, Walgreens and Alexion Pharmaceuticals, Inc.Mrs. Schneider Williams serves on the board of directors for the American Brain Foundation.Dr. Numis serves on the editorial team for the Neurology® Resident and Fellow Section. Dr. Wijdicks receives royalties from the publication of several books.

1) The clinical spectrum of Caspr2-antibody associated disease2) What's Trending: Interview with Lenore Launer about how hostile attitudes and effortful coping in young adulthood can predict cognition in later life 3) Topic of the month: Neurology Today story about five mentally stimulating activities associated with a lower risk for mild cognitive impairmentThis podcast for the Neurology Journal begins and closes with Dr. Robert Gross, Editor-in-Chief, briefly discussing highlighted articles from the print issue of Neurology. In the second segment Dr. Jeremy Lanford interviews Dr. Maarten Titulaer about his paper on the clinical spectrum of Caspr2-antibody associated disease. Dr. Ted Burns is interviewing Dr. Lenore Launer for our “What's Trending” feature of the week about her paper on how hostile attitudes and effortful coping in young adulthood can predict cognition in later life. Dr. Ted Burns interviews Drs. Janina Krell-Roesch and Gregg Day about a Neurology Today story on the topic of five mentally stimulating activities associated with a lower risk for mild cognitive impairment.DISCLOSURES: Dr. Titulaer serves on the scientific advisory board for MedImmune; serves as an editorial board member for Neurology®: Neuroimmunology & Neuroinflammation; received funding for travel from Sun Pharma; receives research support from Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research, Dutch Epilepsy Foundations and ErasmusMC fellowship.Dr. Ted Burns serves as Podcast Editor for Neurology®; and has received research support for consulting activities with UCB, CSL Behring, Walgreens and Alexion Pharmaceuticals, Inc.Dr. Launer receives research support from the National Institute on Aging Intramural Research Program.Dr. Day received funding for travel from Pfizer, Canada for Future Leader in Dementia award; receives Research support from Avid Pharmaceuticals, American Brain Foundation, Clinical Research Training Fellowship, Eugene M Johnson Jr, Weston Brain Institute Postdoctoral Fellowship; and holds stock options in ANI Pharmaceuticals (2014-2015).