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Gail Sussman-Miller founded Inspired Choice in 2001. She took the title of Chief Obstacle Buster which describes her perfectly. Gail lived her entire life in Chicago Illinois until she and her husband moved to Sarasota Florida in 2019. While Gail grew up thinking she should be a teacher along the way she decided she did not wish to teach youngsters. She recognized that her talents were put to better use teaching and coaching adults. She makes it quite clear that she has fun and great joy working with adults. She will say that some people want to be coached and some who think coaching for them is not necessary. I would say that Gail urges people to approach the coaching experience with an open mind. She is, as you will hear, quite successful at her work. About the Guest: Gail Sussman-Miller, Chief Obstacle Buster at Inspired Choice, helps women leaders leverage, rather than squelch, feminine power and abilities they don't realize they possess, so they live their most authentic, joy-filled life. She is an expert at guiding women to deliberately choose their thoughts and beliefs to design desired experiences and results. Gail's techniques shape new perspectives that reduce stress, discomfort and procrastination which increases decisive action, inner peace and resilience amidst the uncertainty of life. The bottom line is increased freedom and more joy! Clients find Gail's perspective-shifting techniques, practical tactical action steps, and spiritually-inspired wisdom indispensable. Her rare gift, shared by 7% of leaders assessed, is she senses and sees things few people see, speaks that truth and offers actionable ways for participants to thrive and fulfill their soul's desires. The biggest demand and focus of Gail's coaching is strengthening the efficacy and collaboration in challenging conversations and relationships by combining truth, authenticity, and vulnerability. Professional background. Gail has been teaching executives and women at all levels to turn obstacles into opportunities since 2001 as a coach, facilitator, speaker, and trainer. She received her training as a professional coach at the Coaches Training Institute (CTI) in 2001. Gail is certified in the EQi-2.0 emotional intelligence assessment by MHS, a well-known publisher of psychological assessments. Prior to founding Inspired Choice, Gail delivered computer job training for visually-impaired adults and spent 13 years at Andersen Consulting (Accenture) in Marketing, Knowledge Management and Technology Coaching. After a lifetime in Chicago, Gail made Sarasota, Florida her home in 2019. www.inspiredchoice.com Ways to connect with Gail: Gail@inspiredchoice.com www.inspiredchoice.com http://www.linkedin.com/in/gailsussmanmillerr https://www.facebook.com/GailSussmanMiller/ About the Host: Michael Hingson is a New York Times best-selling author, international lecturer, and Chief Vision Officer for accessiBe. Michael, blind since birth, survived the 9/11 attacks with the help of his guide dog Roselle. This story is the subject of his best-selling book, Thunder Dog. Michael gives over 100 presentations around the world each year speaking to influential groups such as Exxon Mobile, AT&T, Federal Express, Scripps College, Rutgers University, Children's Hospital, and the American Red Cross just to name a few. He is Ambassador for the National Braille Literacy Campaign for the National Federation of the Blind and also serves as Ambassador for the American Humane Association's 2012 Hero Dog Awards. https://michaelhingson.com https://www.facebook.com/michael.hingson.author.speaker/ https://twitter.com/mhingson https://www.youtube.com/user/mhingson https://www.linkedin.com/in/michaelhingson/ accessiBe Links https://accessibe.com/ https://www.youtube.com/c/accessiBe https://www.linkedin.com/company/accessibe/mycompany/ https://www.facebook.com/accessibe/ Thanks for listening! Thanks so much for listening to our podcast! If you enjoyed this episode and think that others could benefit from listening, please share it using the social media buttons on this page. Do you have some feedback or questions about this episode? Leave a comment in the section below! Subscribe to the podcast If you would like to get automatic updates of new podcast episodes, you can subscribe to the podcast on Apple Podcasts or Stitcher. You can subscribe in your favorite podcast app. You can also support our podcast through our tip jar https://tips.pinecast.com/jar/unstoppable-mindset . Leave us an Apple Podcasts review Ratings and reviews from our listeners are extremely valuable to us and greatly appreciated. They help our podcast rank higher on Apple Podcasts, which exposes our show to more awesome listeners like you. If you have a minute, please leave an honest review on Apple Podcasts. Transcription Notes: Michael Hingson ** 00:00 Access Cast and accessiBe Initiative presents Unstoppable Mindset. The podcast where inclusion, diversity and the unexpected meet. Hi, I'm Michael Hingson, Chief Vision Officer for accessiBe and the author of the number one New York Times bestselling book, Thunder dog, the story of a blind man, his guide dog and the triumph of trust. Thanks for joining me on my podcast as we explore our own blinding fears of inclusion unacceptance and our resistance to change. We will discover the idea that no matter the situation, or the people we encounter, our own fears, and prejudices often are our strongest barriers to moving forward. The unstoppable mindset podcast is sponsored by accessiBe, that's a c c e s s i capital B e. Visit www.accessibe.com to learn how you can make your website accessible for persons with disabilities. And to help make the internet fully inclusive by the year 2025. Glad you dropped by we're happy to meet you and to have you here with us.   Michael Hingson ** 01:21 Well, a pleasant hello to you. Wherever you happen to be today, you are listening to unstoppable mindset, and my name is Michael Hingson. You can call me Mike if you want. It's okay as well. I am the host of unstoppable mindset, and today we get to chat with Gail Sussman-Miller, who is are you ready? Here it comes, Chief obstacle. Buster, I love that, and she is the chief obstacle Buster at inspired choice, which is an organization that she founded. She has been a coach for, wow, 23 years. You started in 2001 I think you said, And so anyway, this will be a fun conversation. She's got lots to talk to us about, and we've been talking for the last few minutes about how to talk about some of the visual stuff to an audience that isn't necessarily going to see it. And that isn't because the people who aren't going to see it are blind. It's because they're not watching this, but listening to it on a podcast site, so you guys get to experience things the way some of the rest of us do. But anyway, Gail, welcome to unstoppable mindset. We're really glad you're here.   Gail Sussman-Miller ** 02:32 Thanks, Michael. I'm honored to be here, and I've had fun getting to know you as we get ready for this. Yeah,   Michael Hingson ** 02:39 well, and it's been good to get to know you and get a chance to really chat. Let's start, if we could by maybe you telling us sort of a little bit about the early Gale, growing up and some of that stuff, always a good way to start right. That could take an hour, but I'll leave it up to you. It reminds   Gail Sussman-Miller ** 02:54 me of the movie, I think was called the jerk that Stephen Martin was in, and he starts out saying, I was born a poor, black child. Started with his anyway, so I grew   Michael Hingson ** 03:10 up. I was born, I was born modest, some people have said, but it wore off. But anyway, you were born in Chicago, and I was born in Chicago.   Gail Sussman-Miller ** 03:20 Yeah, I grew up on north side, so yes, I'm a Cubs fan.   Michael Hingson ** 03:25 I was south side, and I still love the Cubs, Hopelessly Devoted   Gail Sussman-Miller ** 03:29 and lived my entire life actually in the city limits. Sometimes people say they're from Chicago to give people a reference, and they really live in the suburbs. So I loved, I would say all Yes, actually, all my residences were within two miles of Lake Michigan, and I love being near water. So grew up. I'm the the eldest of two girls, and close to my cousins, really great, close family. And then I went to college at Northern Illinois University, got a degree in teaching elementary and special ed at a time when there was a surplus of teachers, and I wasn't sure I wanted to do it as a career. And then I learned later in life that I love teaching, but actually prefer teaching adults. So it's been an interesting evolution of I would say most of my jobs were just good enough. I was one of millions who believed you live for Fridays and work is something you do to make money because you have to. And it wasn't until I was in my 40s that I found my ideal dream. Work, which is coaching and speaking and teaching, and I came home to a profession that I thought was just for me. It was perfect. It was great. And in the last five years, almost five years, we've been in Sarasota, Florida, made some permanent move and happy ever since, so   Michael Hingson ** 05:26 until you were in your 40s, were you teaching school or what were you doing? No,   Gail Sussman-Miller ** 05:30 I never became a teacher. It just wasn't. I didn't enjoy my student teaching. I did enjoy trying to parole and contain and control 2025 kids. I love children, so that was why I thought, Well, it's interesting. When I went to college, I had no strong calling for a profession, so I enrolled in teaching as the Lacher of evils, if you will. It just was like, well, compared to being a scientist, computer engineer, or you name it, this, I like kids and I like teaching, I just didn't like the combination.   Michael Hingson ** 06:15 So what did you do for jobs?   Gail Sussman-Miller ** 06:20 Oh, we'll see if I can remember, there was a period of time where I worked for an educational publisher, because I thought, Okay, I have a teaching degree. Maybe this will be interesting. It was not. I spent some time even working as a temp because I was good at computers and word processing, as it was called in the day. Yes, and it's so funny, Michael, I actually need my resume in front of me to tell you things in sequence. But the funny thing was, each thing led to something else. I think of my life as walking through a doorway and then going down a hall with lots of doorways, and then I choose another doorway, and that leads to another hall with doorways, and that's how I wound up where I am. So at one point, I think it might have been after the education publisher. There were, there were literally, I'm I'm being this is proof how meaningless some of my jobs were. But I did spend four years in Chicago at the chicago lighthouse at the time, called Chicago Lighthouse for the Blind and Visually Impaired. I think they've changed their name now, and I taught transcription skills and typing to adults who then went on to get jobs and get placed. And that was the most gratifying thing I did, and that's where I realized I much prefer teaching adults   Michael Hingson ** 08:01 you created a an interesting analogy, one that I subscribe to a lot. I think that each of us go through life making choices, and if you really sit down and think about it, you can trace your life back to and through the choices that you make. So you did a variety of things, and you discovered something with each choice and each thing that you went off and did, I can trace my life back because of the choices that I made. And I also studied teaching. I got a secondary teaching credential. And I actually thought of teaching, but then an opportunity to take a job in technology, actually working with Dr Ray Kurzweil and the National Federation of the Blind, with the development of the Kurzweil Reading Machine came along, and that led to working for Ray, and I was going to do human factors and continuing to do some of the work I did when we were all originally developing the first machine. But then after about eight months, I was confronted with a choice of either leaving the company or going into sales. And I decided, I love to tell people I lowered my standards from science and went into sales, which is not true, but I didn't lower my standards, as it turns out. But what I what I discovered, and I always liked teaching, I always liked explaining, and what I discovered was that the best salespeople are teachers. They're counselors. They really are involved in understanding what a customer's needs are, and then teaching that customer about how to get those results, hopefully with their products, I've had some situations where the product that we had wasn't the right solution, and of course, from. One standpoint that's an ethical issue to deal with. Do I say it's our product won't work, or do I still try to sell it? My belief has always been, you take the ethical choice and I are a few times where we specifically said our product won't work, but here's what will but whenever that occurred, we developed a level of trust that then led to other opportunities later on, but teaching people and really advising and counseling was something that I enjoyed, but I but I hear what you're saying about teaching adults. The question I would ask you is there are a lot of people who say that adults tend to be locked in and are much harder to teach than children. What do you think about   Gail Sussman-Miller ** 10:44 that? Oh, wow. I don't think that's ever it's funny in a way. I don't think that's ever crossed my mind.   Michael Hingson ** 10:54 It's like teaching language. You know, children learn language and additional languages.   Gail Sussman-Miller ** 11:00 Yeah, I would agree there. What I mean by that is, and what I thought you were going to ask me, so maybe I'll answer it anyway, is what I liked more about working with adults, and I like being able to hold the adult accountable and responsible for their learning and for asking questions, for speaking up, all of that. It depends, I suppose, if the adult, if the person I'm working with, wants to be in the training slash coaching learning situation or not are very there was only one period of time as a contractor where I was matched with people without my meeting them or knowing them. Normally, my clients come to me and then I get to we see if we have a fit in both ways. So there were a few times where people were assigned to me and didn't necessarily want to have coaching. But what I'm a master at is helping people look at their perspectives and shift them for their greater good. So it almost always worked out that I could say or get to help them see this is going to benefit you, whether you ask for it or not. And let's figure out what it is you would most like to get out of it. Yeah? So enlisting, yeah, enlisting them, engaging them. And then I, I don't think it's ever been a challenge. In my opinion,   Michael Hingson ** 12:36 my wife was a teacher for a number of years, and she liked teaching third graders more than older kids, because she said a lot of the older kids had already developed their attitudes, whether taught by their parents or whatever, and developed habits that weren't necessarily positive. And as a result, it was harder to work with them than it was to work with third graders, because third graders were at an age where she could get them to to think and to focus, and was able to get them to look at and hopefully learn the things that she was trying to Teach, whereas older kids she felt didn't do that nearly as well. So that was an interesting observation that she had. And eventually she she left teaching because, well, here's a story. She was going to do a Valentine's Day party for her class, and she made a deal with the students. The parents were going to bring goodies and they were going to come and all that in the park. That. And the party was supposed to start at two o'clock, and she made a deal with her students, and I don't know whether it was that morning or before, but she said, we'll start the party when you all get your work done. Okay? And everybody agreed. Well, at two o'clock, kids had been goofing off and so on, so the party didn't start. The parents had to wait outside, and it was like about 20 minutes late for the party to start. The kids finally finished the stuff they were supposed to do, and one parent pitched a real hissy fit and had her well, took her to the principal's office. The principal called her in and said, what's going on? The parents are not happy with what you did that day. And Karen brought the students in, who were the children of the parents, and the parents complained that she was too hard on the students and all that. And so Karen then said, Okay, kids, what was the arrangement that we had? And they all said we were supposed to get our work done before the party could start. Why didn't we start the party on time? We didn't get stuff done and that was it. You know, the principal told the parents, go away, go away. It is accountability. And Karen. Is really always great at accountability, and I love the concept of accountability, and when you're creating teams and so on, the most basic fundamental is all about being able to hold each other accountable. And you don't do it because it's a personal thing, or you have an ax to grind, it's because the whole team agrees that those are things that everyone can do. So I agree with you, accountability is important. That's great.   Gail Sussman-Miller ** 15:29 I also think that if motivation is important, so your wife used the party as a motivator, and with adults, if they really want to change their results, then this is and I don't, I don't dictate how to do it as much as help them figure out how they're going to do it,   Michael Hingson ** 15:52 absolutely, absolutely. So   Gail Sussman-Miller ** 15:56 it's fun. It's fun. I have a blast, and some people are a term coaches use is coachable. Some people are more coachable than others. And usually I can kind of assess that early on. And sometimes it's we go as far as they're willing to go. They may also not be emotionally ready to go any further   Michael Hingson ** 16:22 well. So in 2001 you discovered that you really wanted to teach adults more, and you started your organization. And so inspired, choice came to be. Tell us more about that and what it is and how it's evolved over the years.   Gail Sussman-Miller ** 16:43 So I'm actually it's kind of funny. I was I got married in 2000 came back from my honeymoon to find out I'd been laid off. I spent 13 years at Anderson Consulting, which became Accenture, just as I was leaving, and I, I don't even remember, I think I had seven different jobs in 13 years. They there was a lot of shifting, and one or two I enjoyed the most because they had a lot of teaching. So I enrolled in a couple of programs. Chicagoans will recognize this name, maybe, you know it the Discovery Center was on Lincoln Avenue. We've hired that so I took a class that introduced coaching there. And I said, this is interesting. I'm actually still friends with a couple people that were in that classroom, and then I went to a two day conference held by the local Chicago chapter of the International Coach Federation. And then I was hooked, totally hooked. So after being laid off, I spent some time looking for a job, and then I asked my husband if it was okay with him if I decided to pursue this training and then career and coaching. And he said, Sure. So that's where it started, and in 1997 I'm rewinding just a little, I did a two and a half day women's personal growth weekend, and started to do the deepest personal growth work I'd done, I would say, in my life, I'd done therapy for years, but didn't find it as effective as this. Two and a half days really moved the needle. And one of the women who was staffing that weekend, I saw her at a local event for that organization, and I mentioned I was unhappy about a few things. She said, Well, I think I can help you. And I hired her. Lo and behold, she was a coach. I didn't even know it, and it was immensely helpful to me. That's how I really got familiar with coaching. And then the two day, two and a half day weekend, and then all of that. So that's when I realized it was like a career design just for me. No one else was perfect. It was my orientation. Was not telling people what to do, it was helping them empower themselves and realize their best way. So I started my business very slowly. I didn't know anything about being a business person. I had no clue I was the least bit entrepreneurial, and it evolved slowly, but in the beginning, I kind of like thinking of as a sandwich on the bottom layer. The first piece of bread was about seven years working with women who were in the. Own businesses, helping them realize and find their best marketing method. I just love thinking about marketing, and then that led me to develop a workshop of my own called How to love networking, which most people do not love. It used metaphors, taking what they love to do most in their life, like, let's say cooking or knitting or travel, and how to network the way they do that activity they love. That led to my being discovered by a senior executive organization helping people network. So they asked if I would lead their Chicago meetings, and I did for about seven and a half years. That shifted me and put me in front of senior executives who were looking for jobs, and I taught networking and help them present themselves well within the meeting. And many of them needed additional help, so I was hired into that kind of coaching. And my whole career, my whole business shifted from helping women on marketing to helping executives with their job search, which is, by the way, still marketing.   Michael Hingson ** 21:22 It is, how? How do you teach networking? What? What is that?   Gail Sussman-Miller ** 21:28 I'll answer that in a minute, but my brain needs to finish this one. Okay, okay, brain, go ahead. My brain will be busy working on it. After about seven years of teaching these executives, helping them in their job search and promoting themselves and networking, I came back to working with women, and that's what I've been doing, working with women leaders on how to be a more empowered, truthful, authentic and vulnerable leader. So that just had to bring you up to the present. So how do you teach networking? It was helping to debunk what networking is, and I like to define networking as simply connecting with like minded people for the greater good. It's all about connection. What do you have in common? How getting curious? I mean that one of the basic concerns people had was always walking into a room like a networking event, and maybe there's 10 people, there could be 40 people. How do I start a conversation? How do I describe myself? And people being very attached to the outcome, I have to meet someone who's going to be helpful to me. I worked with some people who wanted to literally walk in the room, grab the microphone and say, I'm a tech engineer. Can anyone hire me? Like, Oh my gosh, that is not going to get you there, no, but very, you know, end result oriented. So it had a lot to do with understanding human nature, how to have these conversations, how to describe themselves well and talk about the outcomes they deliver, and to be of service help others. First things you've heard before, but it was usually getting at what their obstacle was. What was their obstacle to the process,   Michael Hingson ** 23:29 makes sense, and and it and it is always a challenge. If let's take your example. I'm a tech guy who will hire me, shows in so many ways, probably what that person isn't looking at and needs to look at, and certainly could use a lot of teaching and coaching. The question is, of course, would they be interested in doing it? And that's, that's, of course, what you address and what you deal with. Some people are coachable, and some people aren't, and some people will be once they discover what being coachable is all about.   Gail Sussman-Miller ** 24:15 Yeah, then a case like that, sometimes it's people that kind of urge, like, you know, I don't want to make small talk. I always say, Well, then don't make small talk. Make big talk. Ask important questions. Don't talk about the weather or how good the weenies are wrapped in the in the dough and the hors d'oeuvres. But they are impatient, perhaps because they're desperate, because they're afraid. I always wind up on the emotional undertones of what is going on. How long have you been in job search? Have you been turned down a lot what's going on? How confident are you? How well can you talk about what you do? Well. How well do you do in relationships having nothing to do with job search? What you know, are you good listener? All those things. So it's, I would say it's interesting about job search that at some level, people might not be at their best depending on how comfortable they are with the process, because it is not linear,   Michael Hingson ** 25:27 yeah, and even if you're turned down for a job, do you ask? Why? You know? Are you willing to learn? And again, some people are and some people aren't. Right, right when I talk, when I talk with people about being as when I talk with people about being a speaker and and even sometimes they say we're considering you. And then if they come back and they say we went a different direction, I will ask why. I'd love to learn a little bit more. I don't, I'm not quite that blunt. I'll say something like, I'd like to learn a little bit more about what the process was and what led you to the choice that you made. If you would please take the time to let me know. And again, it's, it's a it's a process. I haven't generally heard that. Oh, you're not a good speaker, or whatever. And I suppose some people might not want to say, but usually it's we had somebody who went a different wanted us to go a different direction, or, I mean, any number of things, or we changed our mind about the theme for the event, which has happened more than once any number of things. And so you you take every, every opportunity, and you learn what you can.   Gail Sussman-Miller ** 26:50 That makes sense. Yeah, yeah. It eventually. What led me at some point, I think the pretty sure the people were under and their fear and working with that, I think that some point that may have been what helped me decide to move on and instead of and practice what I preach. Really am I coaching this target audience out of passion, and I was starting to lose my passion. And I said, you know, I've been feeling a hankering to go back to working with women, and as I did the work on myself, this is not a surprise, but I was doing a lot of work on myself. To stand in my power more to really tune into my feminine energy and to spirituality. And it was all guiding me to say, you're not following your heart and soul passion. And then that led me right back to where I started, and working with women. There you go on on deeper issues. So it's been wonderful,   Michael Hingson ** 28:09 by the way. What kind of work does your husband do?   Gail Sussman-Miller ** 28:14 Oh, well, it's really interesting. He might have lost track how many years, but he's about a 45 year stock trader, and started out on the Chicago Board of Trade floor. Then around the time I met him, he, as they call it, went upstairs, became an upstairs trader, electronic only, and now, for maybe the last eight years, nine years, he's teaching traders and investors how to read the cycles in the stock market chart analysis and some emotional issues for traders. Traders psychology. And he created a membership for people that want to get involved at a deeper level or a lighter level. And he does training videos. He does. He's actually got a live show that he does once a month, and it's all about education and analysis, some really technical but this gorgeous, beautiful charting that he that he invented, of looking at where the rhythms are. I could go on and on about this, but I think that's probably all your listeners want to hear, because it gets great, really technical. And for those who are a little geeky, if you have ever heard of the Fibonacci formula, even the market follows Fibonacci cycles. Well,   Michael Hingson ** 29:52 the reason I asked the question was you said earlier, when you decided to start your business, you asked him, and he said, Yes, and that. Immediately made me wonder, what kind of a guy is he that he was willing to be open, and clearly, he's an intelligent person. He observes a lot, and so it makes perfect sense that that he would be the kind of person who would support and agree with decisions that you could make and do make, and the fact that the two of you communicated about it is, I think, the most telling thing. It's great when a couple shares and essentially really decides together.   Gail Sussman-Miller ** 30:36 Well, I can't wait to tell him what calls over. He's uh, currently relaxing by the pool after his Friday, his Friday live show. But the interesting thing, or, or, and the three, the two and a half day training I told you that I did in 97 he did the men's version, which is a little more popular. It's called a little has more notoriety. It's called new Warrior, and he did that in like three months before I met him, and that changed his life. So, communication skills, self awareness, taking responsibility, all of that, that was what drew me to him and that, and we've been growing those skills ever since, no taking responsibility if you get triggered, and not blaming the other person. Yeah, understanding a lot of emotional intelligence, a ton of emotional intelligence. In fact, we both got certified in a tool published by MHS, and it's a emotional intelligence assessment.   Michael Hingson ** 31:46 Well, you've been coaching for a while, needless to say, 23 years. What are the most common issues that women leaders ask for support on?   Gail Sussman-Miller ** 32:01 There's usually one common thread, and it's about, how do I have this conversation? I need to tell this employee they're not doing well, but I don't want to hurt their feelings. I'm not getting along well. Things are not going smoothly with one of my direct reports. I don't know how to approach that. Or there I have some clients who are in a male dominated industry and a male dominated firm, and they may be the only woman in the room. How do I dan in my power express myself and communicate where very often, male and female communications can be different. So how to how to tell, have the conversations, how to tell the truth, what they think is the truth, without worrying about hurting people's feelings or having a lot of fear come up and how how to move through the discomfort. It might be speaking up more than they're used to. It might be saying no, it might be setting some limits and being honest with some risk. So it's almost all connected, but those are usually the general themes,   Michael Hingson ** 33:29 yeah, and it's unfortunate that there have to be risks just to being able to speak up where as if it were just men in the room, probably the same issue wouldn't be there, but we're still way too patriarchal, I think, in a lot of ways, and that tends to be a problem. I love it when people are willing to speak up and be open. I think it's it's so important to do that.   Gail Sussman-Miller ** 33:57 Well, I can tell you that while I was still coaching on job search, most of my clients were men, and they had plenty of fear about speaking up plenty it is really not so gender biased, especially networking or interviewing, or how am I going to answer that question, or all of this strategizing. Well, if they say this, then I'll say that. Or instead of what I have come to learn to not only do but to enjoy, is to just be be in the moment. Yeah? Like I often joke, I like being put on the spot. Yeah, I mean, you asked you, and I talked about some things we might talk about today, but I'm ready for you to ask me anything, and I think that's exciting. And if I don't know the answer, I'll say so, but, but I've learned to love honesty in that kind of Troy. And that's what I help my clients do, yeah, and I can think of, oh, sorry, let me just finish this one, thinking of this one client, he wanted to get promoted. He liked his company a lot. He was doing well, and he was going to go to this meeting where they're going to be all appears of his, and then the next level up of management, and he was making himself a little nuts preparing, like I said, if they go on this topic, I've got my notes, and if they go to this topic, I've got my notes. And I helped him to see how he could he didn't need he was over, preparing, spending a lot of time that he didn't need to. And this concept of showing up, show up, be present, answer the questions from what you know, and the words don't matter as much as the energy. It's about saying what you feel and what you believe and say that proudly. So he started doing that, and he couldn't believe the shift. And there's a there's a woman. Her name is nalima bat. I've heard her speak, and she has a meditation that helps get to the point of saying there's nothing to defend, there's nothing to promote, and there's nothing to fear. God practically just want to sigh at that, yeah, oh, that's so reassuring. And then you just show up because you're you've got the ability you know you you're ready. You're always ready.   Michael Hingson ** 36:43 We just don't always think we are, because we overthink things. You know, the biggest problem with fear is we focus so much on the what ifs and that we create our own fear, rather than, as you just said, really living in the moment and and using the knowledge that you have, trusting your your gut or your brain, and, yeah, speaking up and doing the things that you know, really that you should do. And the reality is, you do know what you should do, but we are so focused so often on what if that we've lost a lot of those skills. They're there to be redeveloped. And I wrote a book that's going to be well, it'll be out in August of 2024 it's called Live like a guide dog, true stories from a blind man and his dogs about being brave, overcoming adversity and walking in faith. And the idea is to help people learn how to control fear. It isn't to be fearless, because fearless is a very powerful thing, but you don't need to let fear overwhelm you. You need to use it in a positive way. And one of the things that I learned and talk about in the book is that living in the moment is one of the most powerful things that we can do. That isn't to say you don't develop strategies and spend some time strategizing, but if you do it to the point where you drive yourself crazy and you don't really listen to yourself, that's a problem.   Gail Sussman-Miller ** 38:21 You used a really important word there trust and we have this is a topic that I'm warning you. Michael could go pretty deep, so I'm going to try to stay at the top, because it can. It's so enmeshed, I have come to appreciate that as humans, we have to, let's call it two minds. We have our ego, fear driven mind that, from our cave days, is there to protect us. That's the the ancient reptilian part of our brain that's there to make sure that we have our fight, flight or freeze response if we see a big wooly mammoth today, our fears are very different, but we're not worried about a lion or a tiger around every corner, so we have this protective, fear driven way of thinking that you can also refer to as ego. That is the what if negative and I need to be careful. What if I don't get promoted? What if someone thinks this? What if a lot of women worry? What if I sound too outspoken? We've got all that worry side, and that's one mind. The other is love driven, and it is for many people. It is about faith. It is about beliefs that there is the. Our powers greater than us, and that it isn't what one side, the ego, human protective side, is very tied to body identification with the eyes, ears, nose and touch, all of that what we hear the other side is spirit identification, and and that there, there's magic in the world. There's mystery, yeah, and it is not 100% all up to you. People will feel your energy. There are, there's, whatever you want to call it for you, divine, the universe, spirit. There are other forces at work, and that that's where, if we can trust that it doesn't all rest on our shoulders, not all within our control, either, but we, one side is powerless. This side, to me, is where you have your power. I need to do my best, and I can show up.   Michael Hingson ** 41:00 We don't always have control over what happens, but we always have control over how we deal with what happens, and that's the part that we have to make, the choice to address. And the example I always give with that is the World Trade Center. We had no control over it, and I no one's convinced me yet that we could have figured it out, but each and every one of us moves forward from the World Trade Center, and we have the choice to make of how we deal with what happened that day. We can hate love, we can use it as a way to move forward and help others and ourselves and so many different things that we have a choice to do. Well,   Gail Sussman-Miller ** 41:45 I hope so here do, yeah, yeah, big time.   Michael Hingson ** 41:50 And I think it's the important thing that we we need to do. Let me ask you this question. You have a tool that you use to help men and women improve their results. And do you want to talk about that some?   Gail Sussman-Miller ** 42:04 Yeah, and it's all about what you were just talking about. It's all about perspective and it all and the power of our thoughts. So very typically, when I work with people, I'm sure you see this, and the people you talk to, people want to change their results. So they say, Well, if I want a better career, I want this, or I want that, I need to change my actions, my behavior. And usually that's where it stops. Is okay. Want a job, I'm going to go look for a job. I'm going to do this, do that, do these steps. I want to get promoted. I'm going to start showing up like this or that, and then it sometimes doesn't work, or they're too afraid, so they do some shortcuts, or they aren't showing up fully in their strength and their ability and their power. So what I help people realize is before you go take those changed actions to get new results, there's something that happens before the action, and that is, you look at choices options, you think about your options first, and then you choose one or two, and you do those actions before the choices, even before you look at a list of choices, there's an emotion or a feeling. If your job search is motivated by fear, then your options that you look at might be somewhat desperation driven, and then your behavior, and then the results you get. If we I'll stick with job search as the example. What triggered those emotions? Where do those come from? So even before the emotion, there's some kind of a belief, and before the belief we have thoughts, and I like to kind of put those in the same bucket, thoughts that we hold on to long enough become beliefs we can have fleeting thoughts, like I think I can fly, but then when we we look at what we believe. So there's often a trigger at the beginning of the whole process. I need a job. I've just been laid off, and the thought or belief is this is a tough market. No one's going to want to hire me. I didn't get enough to a high enough level, or my resume is not going to be impressive. That creates the emotion of fear. Fear leads to limited options, like, I'm not even ready to talk about my skills. I'll just go apply online. That's it. I'll send out like 50 resumes online. Online is never the best way to find a job, and it's usually. Maybe 20% of the best strategy. So we look online, and then the result is, that's our action. The result is, maybe we get called for one or two interviews. So now we're annoyed This isn't going well, that thought, that belief now starts a whole nother chain reaction. This isn't going well. I'm never going to find a job more anger and frustration and fear, and we make new choices, take more action, and the results may not change. So what you can do with this is interrupt the whole flow and choose a different thought, a different belief. And one possibility for this kind of a person would be, I've had a reasonably good career. I have a lot of skills, maybe if I ask for some help, I can present myself in a different way, or I'm really focusing too much on the negative, and a new belief might be if I tell my story in a more positive way, and if I can calm myself down, I know I'm hireable. I know I can do well, and that would bring a new emotion of some positivity, some maybe even a little spark of joy, some contentment. I don't know if we could go all the way to happy and we look at making different choices. Who can I ask? Who do I think describes themselves really well? Who has a lot of confidence? Maybe a good friend of mine can help me, and we look at a bunch of choices. I've heard that networking is more important than looking online, but I don't, I don't think I can network well. Who do I know that networks well, and then we take different action, like maybe talking to one of those friends, or working with a job search office or a coach, and we get different results, and that then feeds the formula again. Then we're like, okay, that worked. I'm on the right track. I got more interviews. I'm hireable, and it keeps circulating and circulating.   Michael Hingson ** 47:28 Yeah, and the example you just gave, the reality is, all too often we talk ourselves into a bad situation or a not positive situation, because we do the what ifs and we don't look at options. And I think it's so important to think about the more positive things. And the reality is, Gandhi put it very well when he said interdependence is an ought to and ought to be as much the ideal of man as a self sufficiency. And the point is, is so true that we're all part of the same world. We're all part of the same process, and the more we work together, and the Learn More we learn to work together, the better it will be. Yes,   Gail Sussman-Miller ** 48:17 and interestingly, maybe building on your What if concept, there's, there's a, there's a game I sometimes play with people, if you can picture like the chair you're sitting in is, is center center point. What if negative moves to your left every time you answer? Well, what if I don't get a job? Well, what if I go hungry? What if I'm broke? What if, and you keep moving left, left, left, further, or you can come back to center and move to the right, well, what if I get some help, and that leads to a job? And what if this, and what if this going positive, and you just notice where, where are you in the center? And the minute you go, what if, positive two or three steps, but you have a negative thought, it takes you back to the center. So it's just a way of paying attention. Am I? Am I going up with my What if, or in this case, to to the right, or am I going? What if negative they can go either way,   Michael Hingson ** 49:26 well. And the issue is, you take two or three steps to the right or movements to the right, and then a negative thought comes along again. You have the choice and the control of how you deal with that negative thought of that as a negative thought, I'm not going to let that control my life. It might be good point. Glad you brought that up negative mind, but that's not going to help me progress, and that. That's the part that I think a lot of people don't learn how to deal with very well. We're way too negative oriented in our world. It seems, sometimes seems to me,   Gail Sussman-Miller ** 50:12 Well, it's interesting, because that's the human protective ego side bringing up the fear based thought, like, Ooh, wait a minute, you're feeling a little too cocky so you could get hurt. Let me throw a monkey wrench in here. Well, what if? And then here comes the negative thought. And we really those thoughts are so powerful, they influence not just our emotions and choices and action and results, but they they influence what what we believe, and we actually vibrate that to other people. I'm sure you know our listeners and and you have walked into a room and said something with with other people, and you just feel something in the air someone's like, did you just walk in after an argument two people had or something doesn't feel right. We really do vibe off each other. And using continuing to use the job search metaphor, depending on how you come in the room to meet someone that wants to have a conversation with you, you set the tone you really we have that power. It's takes a lot of practice, though, to catch like you said, Oh, thanks, negative mind, because it is worth thinking. It is trying to protect you, and especially your very young child. All our coping mechanisms, we taught, we were taught them or developed them, and it's gotten us this far, but it may not be serving you anymore, or   Michael Hingson ** 51:54 you you haven't learned how to put a barrier or a stop to those things, and that's the the part that's missing. Can you give us an example? Tell us a story about someone who you've helped with, with the whole process and what happened?   Gail Sussman-Miller ** 52:12 Well, this is kind of fun, and this has happened a couple times. To tell you about I'm trying to decide which story to tell you, because I'm also thinking about protecting confidentiality. So maybe this is a little easier one. So I have a client who, right now is actually a month from today, is her 65th birthday, and she's thinking was came to me thinking about retiring. She She and I worked together, I don't know, maybe 10 years ago, and she came back, and she was in a lot of either or thinking, so I'd like to make a decision, and may 12, be retired, but I still really love what I do. She's a musician, and I know she would enjoy my telling her story, and I still get a lot of pleasure out of it, but I don't want to work so many hours. She's used to kind of just saying yes to every gig that comes along, sure I'll play for you. Sure, sure. So part of our work was about what is your desired outcome? What do you really want? Do you want to stop working and cook and visit with people and go on trips? No, I really still like working, but I don't really trust myself to not work all the time. So we wound up shifting using a similar thought formula. Her current belief was it's either work or play. That was it. So that led to feeling overwhelmed and afraid, and that led to her making choices to postpone it, which is really a choice. She didn't take action. And the result is, well, I'm getting even closer to that 65th birthday, and I have no decision. And we shifted to the concept of what about work and play, that there were way to set ways to set limits. We came up with some criteria, all based on joy. Which gigs bring you the most joy? Oh, well, that's easy. I get to play this instrument, not that one within 25 miles of my home, for people that I really like, Okay, now we have, like, a thought filter, a choice filter for choice filter, right, right. It has to meet this criteria, this one and this one. Oh, but then I'll hurt the feelings of people I say no to we worked on that. Well. Now. I just talked to her yesterday, she said no to like, two or three gigs. Said yes to six. She's working fewer hours, and now she's exploring, what do I want to do with my time off? She's never taken much time off, and now it's just plugging in some time for my husband, some time for learning new recipes, some time for practicing my instrument, and now she trusts herself to only say yes to the gigs that bring joy. And   Michael Hingson ** 55:32 why did she say no? Why did she say no to some   Gail Sussman-Miller ** 55:38 they they were on holidays, which she's used to sacrificing holidays. And she said, Nope, I want Easter with my husband and my family. I'm saying no,   Michael Hingson ** 55:50 that's my point. Yeah, and yeah. And it was limits. It   Gail Sussman-Miller ** 55:54 was setting limits. Maybe she'd worked with them before and they didn't pay on time, or it was out of her driving limit, or something about it, there's no one else in the room with her making the decision. Something about it didn't feel right, like it's just trusting instinct, but there were some clear cut yeses and clear cut nos instead of I need to please everyone, so I have to say, yes, yeah,   Michael Hingson ** 56:26 which is so cool.   56:28 Yes, it's so fun. Well, what's   Michael Hingson ** 56:30 the best way that people can explore working with you?   Gail Sussman-Miller ** 56:33 Well, I think that when we share this video and the audit the recording, that folks will have my email but let me give it to you now. Yes, please. My email address is Gail, G, A, I, L, at, inspired choice.com, that's I n, s, p, i, R, E, D, C, H, O, i, c, e.com, you can also call me good old telephone, 773-477-4012, still have my Chicago area code. There you go. And my website, if you want to learn more, is www, dot inspired, choice.com,   Michael Hingson ** 57:20 and through the website, and I would assume that through the website, they also can contact you. There's contact information on the site and so on.   57:28 Cool.   Michael Hingson ** 57:31 Well, this, I think, has been a lot of fun to do, and I think it's so important that people learn that they can discover better how to make choices, and that you're out there to help. And I still love chief obstacle. Buster, I think that's such a great title.   Gail Sussman-Miller ** 57:52 And Michael, I just want to add that I'm happy to always set up a zoom and meet with people and explore the possibilities and see it has to be a good fit on both sides and like, am I even someone who is coachable, or is this something that would even work for me? So that's always the first step.   Michael Hingson ** 58:16 Exploration is always a good thing. Yeah. Well, I want to thank you for being here, and I want to thank you all for listening and watching us today. I hope that this has been informative and useful and helpful, and that you will take advantage of the services and skills that Gail has to offer and that you'll reach out to her. I want to thank you for listening, and as always, really appreciate all that you're doing with unstoppable mindset and attending our different episodes. I'd love to hear from you. You can reach me by email at Michael H i, at accessibe, A, C, C, E, S, S, I, B, e.com, or go to our podcast page, www dot Michael hingson.com/podcast, Michael hingson is m, I C, H, A, E, L, H, I N, G, s, o, n.com/podcast, wherever you're listening, please give us a five star rating. Really would love to get that. It really is one of the wonderful things. When people give us a rating, we hope it'll be five star. But whatever you rate us, please review and we'd love to hear your thoughts and your comments. If you know of anyone else who ought to be a guest on unstoppable mindset, please encourage them to reach out, or you reach out and introduce us. Love it. Gail, you as well. If you know anyone else who ought to be a guest, please let us know. Thank you today. Michael, well, I want to thank you again, and we really appreciate you being here. Thanks very much for all of your time. Thanks.   **Michael Hingson ** 59:54 You have been listening to the Unstoppable Mindset podcast. Thanks for dropping by. I hope that you'll join us again next week, and in future weeks for upcoming episodes. To subscribe to our podcast and to learn about upcoming episodes, please visit www dot Michael hingson.com slash podcast. Michael Hingson is spelled m i c h a e l h i n g s o n. While you're on the site., please use the form there to recommend people who we ought to interview in upcoming editions of the show. And also, we ask you and urge you to invite your friends to join us in the future. If you know of any one or any organization needing a speaker for an event, please email me at speaker at Michael hingson.com. I appreciate it very much. To learn more about the concept of blinded by fear, please visit www dot Michael hingson.com forward slash blinded by fear and while you're there, feel free to pick up a copy of my free eBook entitled blinded by fear. The unstoppable mindset podcast is provided by access cast an initiative of accessiBe and is sponsored by accessiBe. Please visit www.accessibe.com . AccessiBe is spelled a c c e s s i b e. There you can learn all about how you can make your website inclusive for all persons with disabilities and how you can help make the internet fully inclusive by 2025. Thanks again for Listening. Please come back and visit us again next week.

Finding your mission in life is no easy feat, but Ken Mifflin cracked the code. Join us today as we unravel the steps of his remarkable journey toward discovering purpose. While not labeling himself as "retired," Ken has skillfully redefined his life around activities aligned with his deepest values.   As a seasoned management consultant and aspiring author with a background at Procter & Gamble, McKinsey & Company, and Andersen Consulting/Accenture, Ken provides unique insights into navigating the transition from a career to a purpose-driven post-professional life.   From his voluntary contributions to his family life in Greenwich, CT, Ken's story offers valuable perspectives on purposeful living in the next chapter. Get ready for an insightful exploration of intentional living, career transitions, and the art of crafting a meaningful retirement journey.   We discussed:   Why your past career is preparing you for what you do in retirement The creative endeavor Ken is working on now (and how it's different from his career) Why we feel pressure once we've discerned our mission in life How Ken juggles responsibilities while nurturing his passion project Why you have to intentionally look for a path in this next chapter  

Ep. 44 – RX Group Vice President Sarin Bachmann: Taking Luxe to the Next Level RX Group VP Sarin Bachmann shares her experience as a member of senior leadership team at RX, a public company that produces more than 400 events covering 43 sectors in 22 countries. She shines a light on the RX jewelry portfolio that she oversees — one of the few at RX that includes several events like JCK, Luxury and JIS, as well as digital and print media products for the JCK brand — JCKonline.com and JCK Magazine. We talked about: Her recent appearance as a speaker on the stage at the recent UFI Global Congress in Las Vegas where she talked about risk management and her experience with events during hurricane season in Miami, home of JIS How her team was able to achieve an impressive 24% increase in attendance at the JIS Fall Show in October in Miami Beach: Marketing the destination and capitalizing on the bleisure trend Bringing back in person: How she led the team that produced the first show for RX US in March 2021 in the jewelry sector that soared during Covid What's hot in digital in her portfolio: Everything, but especially the launch of a holiday gift guide The theme for the 2024 JCK show at the Venetian in Las Vegas: Love … she revealed What she's looking forward to in 2024: Adding a sustainability summit at JCK, which is on pace to sell out again  Giving back to the industry through the JCK Industry Fund, which has awarded more than $300,000 in grants this year  Our Guest Sarin Block Bachmann, Group Vice President of RX, is a member of RX's Senior Leadership Team and oversees RX's jewelry portfolio including JCK, Luxury, and JIS events along with the digital and print elements of the JCK brand—JCKonline.com and JCK Magazine.  One of RX's largest and most important events globally, JCK has thrived under Bachmann's leadership. Bachmann directly manages JCK while overseeing Event Leaders on both Luxury and JIS and has steered JCK to become an industry leading, award-winning event in the trade show industry, and the most important jewelry buying and educational event globally for the jewelry industry. Luxury, the curated, invitation-only event taking place alongside JCK has also been reimagined under Bachmann's portfolio as the event for the luxury jewelry community.  JCK and Luxury bring over 30,000 industry professionals together, including 18,000+ vetted attendees from over 100 countries and 2,000 exhibitors, ranging from designers, manufacturers, and gemstone wholesalers to packaging companies and technology service providers. The show covers 1.2 million square feet of exhibition space at the iconic Venetian Expo and The Venetian Las Vegas.  Under her leadership in event strategy, planning, execution, sales, attendance, acquisition, marketing, public relations, operations and special events, Bachmann has achieved all-time high ratings for both exhibitor and attendee satisfaction, loyalty and net promotion for both JCK and Luxury, increasing scores between 15 to 20% and over 30 points in NPS overall.  Furthermore, under her strategic and creative direction, JCK has led the way in becoming a top experiential event that attendees not only consider necessary for their business but also eagerly anticipate attending. In the digital realm, Bachmann led the team in bringing JCK to the industry virtually in 2020, with the JCK Virtual show being a pioneer in launching digital offers in light of the pandemic limiting face-to-face events. In March of 2021, Bachmann led the team to bring back the first show for RX US, JIS, and continued to forge the team ahead in bringing back in-person JCK and Luxury events in August as some of the first large scale trade shows returning to face-to-face, all to great success.  New to Bachmann's achievements are leading the JCK team in exceeding pre-pandemic 2019 show levels before most shows, in both sales revenue, attendance, and much higher NPS and customer satisfaction scores, with the 2022 edition marking a milestone year in the event's history and winning Trade Show Executives Gold 100 “Greatest Trade Show” of the year award. This was then followed up under Bachmann's leadership with the 2023 edition continuing to grow to a sold out show floor and increasing attendance once again. As a member of RX's senior leadership team, Bachmann plays a critical role in shaping event leaders across RX US, leading bi-monthly Event Leader meetings where key issues are discussed and best practices are shared across the division leaders.  Bachmann also leads the way with activations and experiences, playing a crucial part of JCK and serving as a model for other B2B events, along with increasing the focus on DE&I in all the industries she serves forging partnerships with key members of diverse groups including the Black in Jewelry Coalition and leading by example at her shows and RX.  Bachmann utilizes her experience in change management by serving as the Executive Sponsor and liaison for the show teams with the digital team during RX's roll out of a new registration system across RX US. Bachmann currently serves on the executive boards of the American Gem Society, Jewelers' Security Alliance, 24 Karat Club of New York, Women's Jewelry Association and UFI Global Congress Advisory, as well as on the GEM Awards committee and chair of the JCK Industry Fund committee.  Ms. Bachmann holds a BS in Business Administration from the University of Albany and the prestigious honor of having been invited to participate in the GE Management Development Course. She was also one of a select few to be chosen for the Reed Elsevier Business University.  Her career trajectory began in consulting as a Process Design Consultant with Andersen Consulting (Accenture). She expanded into communications as a Six Sigma certified Master Black Belt for General Electric at NBC and later became the Director of E-Business for NBC's Broadcast and Network Operations Division.  Now serving close to two decades in show management, Bachmann is a well-rounded and well-known professional, highly regarded throughout the jewelry and trade show industries. When she is not achieving record breaking results in the industry, Bachmann is spending time with her husband, visiting her two sons in college, taking a workout class, or relaxing on a beautiful beach. Awards & Accolades for JCK and Luxury under Bachmann's Leadership (Present – 2019): Trade Show Executive – 2023 Gold 100 Grand Award “The Greatest Trade Show” of 2022  RX GLOBAL – Building Business Awards: 2022 Show of the Year  RX USA – Team of the Year Award 2022 Trade Show Executive – 2022 Fastest 50 in all three categories for JCK – Attendance, Exhibitors, Square Feet, and all three shows JCK, Luxury & JIS receiving Fastest 50 Awards AEO Excellence Awards (UK) Short List Finalist for 2022 Best International Show – Americas  Trade Show Executive – 2022 Gold 100 Grand Award “The Show Must Go On” for 2021 event Tradeshow News Network (TSNN) 2022 Comeback Award, Outstanding Attendance for 2021 event Trade Show Executive – Grand Award Gold 100 “Return to Normal” for 2020 event Tradeshow News Network (TSNN) Best of Technology Award for JCK Match program 2019 Podcast Host: Danica Tormohlen  An award-winning journalist who has covered the trade show industry since 1994, Danica Tormohlen is VP of Content for Tarsus Group, which was recently acquired by Informa for $940 million. In her role, she oversees content for Trade Show News Network, Corporate Event News and Exhibit News Now. These leading media brands publish websites, newsletters, social media channels, video, podcasts and online and in-person programming for the trade show, corporate event and exhibition industries. Tormohlen currently serves as a board member for Women in Exhibitions Network North America chapter. She has been a speaker and moderator at major industry events, including the TSNN Awards, IMEX, IAEE, SISO, UFI, ESCA and Large Show Roundtable — to name a few. Thank you to our sponsor!  Zenus What if you could prove your event is working with hard facts and learn how to make it even better? With Zenus's Ethical Vision AI, you can protect your budget and have detailed reporting. Learn how that's all possible at Zenus.AI  

My guest today is Chris Heivly, Co-Founder of MapQuest and a Venture Partner at Atrium Capital. He serves as Managing Partner at The Startup Factory. He is the founder of the Big Top Job Fair. Previously, he was Executive Vice President of Ultimus Software. He served as a Board Member at Momentum. Prior to Ultimus, he was Chairman of Agular Systems after serving as its Chief Executive Officer and President. Before Agular, he served Rand McNally as President and led Andersen Consulting (Accenture). Earlier in his career, he was Vice President of 77 Capital Corporation.  The topic is his book Build The Fort: Why 5 Simple Lessons You Learned as a 10 year-old Can Set You Up for Startup Success. In this episode of Trend Following Radio we discuss: MapQuest journey How AOL became successful Evolution of technology Financial crisis Microstrategy Startup success Jump in! --- I'm MICHAEL COVEL, the host of TREND FOLLOWING RADIO, and I'm proud to have delivered 10+ million podcast listens since 2012. Investments, economics, psychology, politics, decision-making, human behavior, entrepreneurship and trend following are all passionately explored and debated on my show. To start? I'd like to give you a great piece of advice you can use in your life and trading journey… cut your losses! You will find much more about that philosophy here: https://www.trendfollowing.com/trend/ You can watch a free video here: https://www.trendfollowing.com/video/ Can't get enough of this episode? You can choose from my thousand plus episodes here: https://www.trendfollowing.com/podcast My social media platforms: Twitter: @covel Facebook: @trendfollowing LinkedIn: @covel Instagram: @mikecovel Hope you enjoy my never-ending podcast conversation!

My guest today is Chris Heivly, Co-Founder of MapQuest and a Venture Partner at Atrium Capital. He serves as Managing Partner at The Startup Factory. He is the founder of the Big Top Job Fair. Previously, he was Executive Vice President of Ultimus Software. He served as a Board Member at Momentum. Prior to Ultimus, he was Chairman of Agular Systems after serving as its Chief Executive Officer and President. Before Agular, he served Rand McNally as President and led Andersen Consulting (Accenture). Earlier in his career, he was Vice President of 77 Capital Corporation.  The topic is his book Build The Fort: Why 5 Simple Lessons You Learned as a 10 year-old Can Set You Up for Startup Success. In this episode of Trend Following Radio we discuss: MapQuest journey How AOL became successful Evolution of technology Financial crisis Microstrategy Startup success Jump in! --- I'm MICHAEL COVEL, the host of TREND FOLLOWING RADIO, and I'm proud to have delivered 10+ million podcast listens since 2012. Investments, economics, psychology, politics, decision-making, human behavior, entrepreneurship and trend following are all passionately explored and debated on my show. To start? I'd like to give you a great piece of advice you can use in your life and trading journey… cut your losses! You will find much more about that philosophy here: https://www.trendfollowing.com/trend/ You can watch a free video here: https://www.trendfollowing.com/video/ Can't get enough of this episode? You can choose from my thousand plus episodes here: https://www.trendfollowing.com/podcast My social media platforms: Twitter: @covel Facebook: @trendfollowing LinkedIn: @covel Instagram: @mikecovel Hope you enjoy my never-ending podcast conversation!

Mike Morris is a Vice President in the Business Consulting group at EPAM. He leads the Atlanta-based consulting team and has responsibilities across multiple clients. Mike has over 24 years of consulting experience, having started with Andersen Consulting (Accenture). He enjoyed 15 years with North Highland, where he led the Atlanta office and served as a Group Vice President. Mike also was the co-founder and CEO of Broadgreen Solutions, which he led from 2015 up through the integration of the Broadgreen team with EPAM in 2020. Broadgreen Solutions was a Certified B Corp, which gave away 10% of its consulting time to non-profits and social entrepreneurs. Mike's consulting career has allowed him to work with CTOs and CIOs on strategic technology programs, help business executives refine their strategies and processes, and drive successful execution of large-scale change initiatives. Mike is currently on the board of directors for Hands of Love USA and High Tech Ministries. As an active leader in the Atlanta community, Mike was a member of Leadership Atlanta's Class of 2012 and High Tech Ministry's Ambassador leadership development program. Mike previously served as President of the Notre Dame Alumni Club of Atlanta, board member of the Technology Association of Georgia (TAG), and as an advisory board member for Career Spa. Mike graduated from the University of Notre Dame with a B.A. in Economics and Political Science. Mike and his wife Kendra live in greater Atlanta with their three children. In his free time, Mike enjoys cooking, travel, trail running, and backpacking.   Chat Highlights Why did you come to the decision to found Broadgreen Solutions as a certified Benefit Corporation and give away 10% of your consulting capacity to non-profits, social entrepreneurs, and B Corps? As a B-Corp, what did you find were the greatest advantages as it related to your mission as well as your for-profit objectives for the company? How did you identify your purpose to fund clients and choose which projects to work on pro-bono? What questions do you still have today about how to have the greatest impact as a certified B-Corp? What possibilities would you imagine there being if more for-profit companies made the same kind of commitments to pro-bono work with a meaningful social impact? Get In TouchFollow Mike on LinkedInEPAM website About Our SponsorThis episode is brought to you by Inspiredu, a nonprofit organization that's bridging the digital divide by putting technology into the hands of underserved Atlanta communities. The need for technology devices and access has accelerated due to the pandemic and Inspiredu makes a positive impact on helping marginalized learners. Through its partners and supporters like you, they help students flourish into 21st-century scholars. Learn how you can support their mission at iuatl.org.Follow Inspiredu on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In this episode, Jeff and Denny discuss: Narrowing your niche to stand out in your industry.  All things work for God's purposes. Giving of yourself and your time. Preparing for transitions and focusing on encouragement.   Key Takeaways: Do your actions support what you say your values are? There is a difference between a checklist and a relationship. You do not want to treat your family like they are just an item on your to do list. Your team needs your emotional support, not just your money. It is easier to ask for money or to fail than to change. But change is where you will find happiness and growth.   "Don't just give your money. Give your time and your wisdom." —  Denny McGuire About Denny McGuire: Dennis “Denny” McGuire, The Woodlands, TXEntrepreneur, Impact Investor, and MentorAfter a successful initial career with State Farm, Andersen Consulting (Accenture), and Andrews & Kurth, followed by a very humbling bankruptcy, Denny co-founded TPI, an outsourcing advisory firm serving global 1000 corporations. Starting with only the float on an American Express Card, for almost 20 years he led the firm's development of new service offerings, global expansion, and $170M+ revenue growth. In 2007, TPI was acquired and Denny expanded his focus with non-profits, impact investing, and mentoring. He is currently on the Boards of Child Legacy International, an organization working to redefine “Possible” in Malawi, Africa, and Panther Creek Inspiration Ranch, an organization partnering horses with people to transform lives. He has also served on the Boards of Star of Hope, Living Water International, HBU, and UMMEED a Mumbai, India-based organization serving children with developmental disabilities.Denny and his wife, Marty, have been married for 49 years. They live in The Woodlands, TX  near their two daughters, seven granddaughters, and one grandson. Denny is a former Army officer and Vietnam veteran. Connect with Denny McGuire:Child Legacy International: https://www.childlegacy.org/Clean Water Climb: https://www.cleanwaterclimb.net/Inspiration Ranch:  https://www.inspirationranch.org/   Connect with Jeff Thomas: Website: https://www.arkosglobal.com/Book: https://www.arkosglobal.com/trading-upEmail: jeff.thomas@arkosglobal.comTwitter: https://twitter.com/ArkosGlobalAdv Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/arkosglobal/LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/arkosglobaladvisorsInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/arkosglobaladvisors/

In this episode, Jeff and Denny discuss: How Denny's time in the military changed his life.  The power of kindness through all hard things. Blessings of tithing and joy in generosity. Lessons in encouragement.   Key Takeaways: Live life on the principle that everybody makes it to the top, whatever it takes, and nobody gets left behind. When all things have been exhausted, God will provide and take care of you if you have been faithful in your giving. God has unique messages for each of us and they are all given in His time. God allows things to happen in your life that will allow Him to use it for good to a greater level than you could do alone.   "You can't always help, but you can always be an encourager." —  Denny McGuire About Denny McGuire: Dennis “Denny” McGuire, The Woodlands, TXEntrepreneur, Impact Investor, and MentorAfter a successful initial career with State Farm, Andersen Consulting (Accenture), and Andrews & Kurth, followed by a very humbling bankruptcy, Denny co-founded TPI, an outsourcing advisory firm serving global 1000 corporations. Starting with only the float on an American Express Card, for almost 20 years he led the firm's development of new service offerings, global expansion, and $170M+ revenue growth. In 2007, TPI was acquired and Denny expanded his focus with non-profits, impact investing, and mentoring. He is currently on the Boards of Child Legacy International, an organization working to redefine “Possible” in Malawi, Africa, and Panther Creek Inspiration Ranch, an organization partnering horses with people to transform lives. He has also served on the Boards of Star of Hope, Living Water International, HBU, and UMMEED a Mumbai, India-based organization serving children with developmental disabilities.Denny and his wife, Marty, have been married for 49 years. They live in The Woodlands, TX  near their two daughters, seven granddaughters, and one grandson. Denny is a former Army officer and Vietnam veteran. Connect with Denny McGuire:Child Legacy International: https://www.childlegacy.org/Clean Water Climb: https://www.cleanwaterclimb.net/Inspiration Ranch:  https://www.inspirationranch.org/   Connect with Jeff Thomas: Website: https://www.arkosglobal.com/Book: https://www.arkosglobal.com/trading-upEmail: jeff.thomas@arkosglobal.comTwitter: https://twitter.com/ArkosGlobalAdv Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/arkosglobal/LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/arkosglobaladvisorsInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/arkosglobaladvisors/

People are averse to change. It's a thing. It's a thing that affects even those of us who consider ourselves highly educated and/or very smart. Nobody likes disruption or, even worse, the prospect of disruption and the uncertainty that goes along with that. Nobody likes to feel like the rug just got pulled out from under them or that they've lost control of something, especially something important like their health benefits or how they care for patients. Changes to health insurance and healthcare, from any angle, are fraught with stress. A big reason for this is because health and healthcare are filled with so-called “one-way-door” types of decisions and decision points. If I cannot get the care I need today, or if the care I want to provide today to a patient does not go as desired, I feel like the door is one-way: Once I make a decision, I cannot go back. I can't click “undo” on that and go back through the door and arrive at yesterday. Health decisions, therefore, have a very “you got one shot at this” kind of feel. And it's that, right there, that just upped the ante considerably in the stress department for employees and then also for any clinician who is working with patients. It's life or death, and this is why making changes either to the insurance side or the care side of the equation feels like they will be so disruptive. It's a big reason why some self-insured employers or even fully insured employers won't mess with the status quo benefit designs or switch up their EBC (employee benefit consultant) or their ASO/TPA (Administrative Services Only/Third-Party Administrator), even if everybody in the entire company is currently complaining about the price and complexity of said status quo (it's kind of like the devil that you know) and even if it's possible to offer employees overall better-quality care at lower prices, meaning that everybody in the company could get a raise funded by the sometimes massive savings that could be had. I just heard a union leader the other day, and she said that every worker would have an extra $5000 in their pocket if their healthcare costs were what they should be. So, for many employers, the prospect of disruption is just too much. It's not in the CHRO's (chief human resources officer's) job description to open that Pandora's box. Nobody gets fired for doing what they did last year—I guess, until they do (one straw or another is gonna break the camel's back, after all). But in the meantime, we have this fear-induced festering inertia. Let me just point out one thing: Implicit in everything that I just said is the notion that one day everyone will have their familiar insurance card snugly tucked in their wallet, and then the next day, it will be ripped from their bloody fingers in a violent and unexpected fashion. Or, let's talk about provider organizations now. Say one's trying to move from the world of fee for service to the world of value-based payment structures with downstream risk, or direct contracts with employers. To do this well, let's chat about one aspect of this that health systems seem to struggle with that's been a topic of some conversation lately. There's an article cautioning that “practicing at the top of one's license” and its attendant need for team-based care is a giant fail and/or a money grab, or it could be. And it could be both of these things, don't get me wrong. Team-based care isn't a homogeneous construct. It would be like saying that all movies are bad because Super Baby Geniuses 2 was such a dog.   I mean, team-based care—pretty much like team-based anything—if it's not implemented well, nobody on the team knows what they're supposed to be doing and nobody is accountable. There's no infrastructure supporting it. There was no testing or iteration or discussion about the intent. No one actually on the proposed teams was even consulted about the whole idea. And so, everyone starts to suspect, maybe rightfully or maybe not, that it's all financially driven and a cost-cutting exercise. On the show today, my guest, Ashleigh Gunter, warns about all of these exact things. You switch something up without going through the proper steps and stages, everybody gets very suspicious. And, nothing for nothing, their suspicion could be the least of the leader's problems. The initiative's ensuing failure maybe should be their biggest concern. Which is a shame if something was done in the spirit of better patient care, for example, because there's tons of research on the immense power of well-functioning teams as just continuing this one example. And there's just as much research and well-proven case studies showing that innovative benefit designs can be a 365-degree win when they cut out wasteful spending and navigate employees and plan members to high-value care. For all of these reasons and more, I wanted to get Ashleigh Gunter, who is an expert in change management, on the show to talk about how to succeed when you want to change something as touchy as healthcare and health insurance. This all really goes back to the show with Matt Anderson, MD, MBA (EP266) and what Robert Pearl, MD, writes about all the time. It's a skill we all need to learn to lead change. Many of us had to learn this the hard way because we see our vision so clearly and we want to make it a reality as fast as possible, but the result of our enthusiasm might be that we skip implementation steps that are really not optional.   As Thomas Edison said (and I love this), “Having a vision for what you want is not enough. Vision without execution is hallucination.” So, to transform anything effectively, we have to put as much effort into the implementation as we do into the strategy. If we don't do that, then sadly, despite all of the best intentions, whatever we're trying to do is not gonna work and it might be labeled disruptive. So, I couldn't be more pleased to have learned a thing or two from Ashleigh Gunter about change management that avoids this disruption label. Ashleigh Gunter is president of Translucent Healthcare Consulting. She also is an expert in change management as aforementioned and how to help align employees and staff so that an organization can move forward together. According to Ashleigh, there's five steps to effective change management that will ensure success: Having great leadership Creating a case for the change Finding champions, engaging people who have to change so that they can contribute and be supportive Overcommunicating Measuring how things are going and also celebrating small triumphs You can learn more at translucenthc.com.  Ashleigh Gunter, president of Translucent Healthcare Consulting, combines her experience, an understanding of organizational culture, and a practical mindset to meet her clients' needs. With over 30 years of management consulting experience, Ashleigh has deep expertise in advising in the dramatically changing healthcare market. Ashleigh specializes in helping her clients drive change within their health plans, resulting in increased employee engagement, improved human resources experience, and reduced cost for both the employer and the employee. She believes in challenging the status quo by creating direct relationships between employers and providers. Ashleigh has been a key contributor to several community-owned health plans in states from Washington to Virginia and has been credited with being key to employee participation and support of the plans. In working for Andersen Consulting/Accenture, Deloitte Consulting, and The Gunter Group, Ashleigh has provided advice and consulting support to Fortune 100 C-suite executives over her career. She has an MBA with a focus in strategic management and organizational change from the University of Texas at Austin and a bachelor's degree in business administration from the University of Denver with a concentration in finance. 07:46 How does change management go wrong in healthcare? 08:27 “Communication [of change] in and of itself isn't change management.” 10:03 What is change management? 11:06 What does great leadership look like in change management? 12:29 “Leadership sets the tone.” 12:38 What makes change management so hard? 13:27 “What's the company reason to make this change happen?” 15:57 What are change champions, and why do you need to create them when changing your benefit plan? 19:18 Why is it important to overcommunicate change? 22:46 Why is it important to measure your successes and communicate those after a change? 24:14 How does change management work on the provider organization side? 28:53 “You want to ensure you are educating the operational folks.” You can learn more at translucenthc.com.  Ashleigh Gunter of Translucent Healthcare Consulting discusses #benefitdesign and #deliverymodels on our #healthcarepodcast. #healthcare #podcast How does change management go wrong in healthcare? Ashleigh Gunter of Translucent Healthcare Consulting discusses #benefitdesign and #deliverymodels on our #healthcarepodcast. #healthcare #podcast “Communication [of change] in and of itself isn't change management.” Ashleigh Gunter of Translucent Healthcare Consulting discusses #benefitdesign and #deliverymodels on our #healthcarepodcast. #healthcare #podcast What is change management? Ashleigh Gunter of Translucent Healthcare Consulting discusses #benefitdesign and #deliverymodels on our #healthcarepodcast. #healthcare #podcast What does great leadership look like in change management? Ashleigh Gunter of Translucent Healthcare Consulting discusses #benefitdesign and #deliverymodels on our #healthcarepodcast. #healthcare #podcast “Leadership sets the tone.” Ashleigh Gunter of Translucent Healthcare Consulting discusses #benefitdesign and #deliverymodels on our #healthcarepodcast. #healthcare #podcast What makes change management so hard? Ashleigh Gunter of Translucent Healthcare Consulting discusses #benefitdesign and #deliverymodels on our #healthcarepodcast. #healthcare #podcast “What's the company reason to make this change happen?” Ashleigh Gunter of Translucent Healthcare Consulting discusses #benefitdesign and #deliverymodels on our #healthcarepodcast. #healthcare #podcast What are change champions, and why do you need to create them when changing your benefit plan? Ashleigh Gunter of Translucent Healthcare Consulting discusses #benefitdesign and #deliverymodels on our #healthcarepodcast. #healthcare #podcast Why is it important to overcommunicate change? Ashleigh Gunter of Translucent Healthcare Consulting discusses #benefitdesign and #deliverymodels on our #healthcarepodcast. #healthcare #podcast Why is it important to measure your successes and communicate those after a change? Ashleigh Gunter of Translucent Healthcare Consulting discusses #benefitdesign and #deliverymodels on our #healthcarepodcast. #healthcare #podcast How does change management work on the provider organization side? Ashleigh Gunter of Translucent Healthcare Consulting discusses #benefitdesign and #deliverymodels on our #healthcarepodcast. #healthcare #podcast “You want to ensure you are educating the operational folks.” Ashleigh Gunter of Translucent Healthcare Consulting discusses #benefitdesign and #deliverymodels on our #healthcarepodcast. #healthcare #podcast   Recent past interviews: Click a guest's name for their latest RHV episode! Doug Hetherington, Dr Kevin Schulman, Scott Haas, David Muhlestein, David Scheinker, Ali Ucar, Dr Carly Eckert, Jeb Dunkelberger (EP360), Dan O'Neill, Dr Wayne Jenkins, Liliana Petrova, Ge Bai, Nikhil Krishnan, Shawn Rhodes, Pramod John (EP353), Pramod John (EP352), Dr Eric Bricker, Katy Talento, Stacey Richter (INBW33), Stacey Richter (INBW32), Dr Steve Schutzer (Encore! EP294), Lisa Trumble, Jeb Dunkelberger, Dr Ian Tong, Mike Schneider, Peter Hayes, Paul Simms, Dr Steven Quimby  

Alfredo Ramirez is the Co-founder, President, and CEO of Vyopta, a company that transforms the way organizations deliver collaboration experiences by providing insights that improve user experiences, employee engagement, and business outcomes — they make virtual collaboration work. Alfredo is a seasoned entrepreneur with direct experience building early-stage software technology companies. Previously, Alfredo co-founded Vitalz (Oracle) and Daman Consulting. He also held positions at Andersen Consulting (Accenture) and Trilogy Software and was Vice President of Sales and Marketing at Reddwerks (Dematic). He has a bachelor's in electrical and computer engineering from The University of Texas at Austin. In this episode… As a leader of an organization, you define the goals you aim to achieve and decide on what strategies and plans to execute to achieve those goals. You also have to think about the possible challenges and obstacles you may face and find the right employees and partners to join you on that journey. However, sometimes the go-to-market strategies you start with may not ultimately take you in the right direction. As they built Vyopta, this is where Alfredo Ramirez and his two co-founders found themselves. Rather than continuing with the business model they started with, they pivoted in a new direction to keep the business profitable and sustainable. They phased out the legacy client branches of the company and concentrated on the one product performance software application that was most in demand. Later they found themselves in the throws of the pandemic and had to pivot again. Throughout the course of the business, the founders found themselves in multiple disruption situations but always found ways to adapt. In this episode of the Skunkworks Podcast, Eric Bourget interviews Alfredo Ramirez, the Co-founder, President, and CEO of Vyopta, about the strategies he uses to stay agile around product-market fit for his company. Alfredo also talks about his revenue model, the major redesign of his platform, and the effects of the pandemic on the company.

Who is Paul Detlefs of The Traction Group?Paul has a lifelong passion for entrepreneurship (he had three small ventures before he turned 16) and especially for helping entrepreneurial business owners and their teams achieve their dreams.He has spent his entire business career advising and guiding small and mid-sized businesses and their owners, and has worked with more than 200 companies. He spent his first 24 years at Andersen Consulting/Accenture, where he became Managing Partner of a Middle Market consulting group. He worked in a wide variety of industries, including manufacturing, distribution, construction and professional services. He also led projects in business systems design and implementation, business process improvement, and supply chain management, including implementation of LEAN manufacturing on the factory floor.In 2002, Paul founded The Prestwick Group, a consulting and advisory firm focused on small and mid-sized businesses and their owners. Through Prestwick, he ran several peer advisory groups and coached his members individually. He also provided people assessments and performance development coaching, and created a proprietary job benchmarking and recruiting process. As a small business owner himself, he has lived through many of the same challenges and issues that his clients face.Paul began using EOS® with his clients in 2010 and became a certified EOS Implementer in 2012. He acts as a “guide” for companies on the EOS journey, serving as their teacher, facilitator, and coach—roles that he loves and that he developed well through his previous experiences. He sees EOS as a unique and powerful synthesis of many great ideas that he has used and shared with his clients over 35+ years, plus great implementation tools and processes.Paul is a graduate of DePauw University and holds an MBA from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business. He serves as a board member and mentor for SBAC Empower, an organization focusing on enabling entrepreneurs and small business owners in some of Chicago's less-advantaged neighborhoods. In his spare time, he loves to bike and golf, and he revels in his new role as a grandfather.MORE RESOURCES FROM HUGHES INTEGRATEDVideo Courses5 Ingredients to a Website that Works One Week to Better BusinessDIY Guide:5 Mistakes Small Businesses Make with Their Marketing EventsWin a free marketing review Apply to be a guest on our podcast  

Mike Morris is a Vice President in the Business Consulting group at EPAM. He leads the Atlanta-based consulting team and has responsibilities across multiple clients. Mike has over 24 years of consulting experience, having started with Andersen Consulting (Accenture). He enjoyed 15 years with North Highland, where he led the Atlanta office and served as a Group Vice President. Mike also was the co-founder and CEO of Broadgreen Solutions, which he led from 2015 up through the integration of the Broadgreen team with EPAM in 2020. Broadgreen Solutions was a Certified B Corp, which gave away 10% of its consulting time to non-profits and social entrepreneurs. Mike’s consulting career has allowed him to work with CTOs and CIOs on strategic technology programs, help business executives refine their strategies and processes, and drive successful execution of large-scale change initiatives. Mike is currently on the board of directors for Hands of Love USA and High Tech Ministries. As an active leader in the Atlanta community, Mike was a member of Leadership Atlanta’s Class of 2012 and High Tech Ministry’s Ambassador leadership development program. Mike previously served as President of the Notre Dame Alumni Club of Atlanta, board member of the Technology Association of Georgia (TAG), and as an advisory board member for Career Spa. Mike graduated from the University of Notre Dame with a B.A. in Economics and Political Science. Mike and his wife Kendra live in greater Atlanta with their three children. In his free time, Mike enjoys cooking, travel, trail running, and backpacking. Chat Highlights Why did you come to the decision to found Broadgreen Solutions as a certified Benefit Corporation and give away 10% of your consulting capacity to non-profits, social entrepreneurs, and B Corps? As a B-Corp, what did you find were the greatest advantages as it related to your mission as well as your for-profit objectives for the company? How did you identify your purpose to fund clients and choose which projects to work on pro-bono? What questions do you still have today about how to have the greatest impact as a certified B-Corp? What possibilities would you imagine there being if more for-profit companies made the same kind of commitments to pro-bono work with a meaningful social impact? Get In TouchFollow Mike on LinkedInEPAM website About Our SponsorThis episode is brought to you by Inspiredu, a nonprofit organization that's bridging the digital divide by putting technology into the hands of underserved Atlanta communities. The need for technology devices and access has accelerated due to the pandemic and Inspiredu makes a positive impact on helping marginalized learners. Through its partners and supporters like you, they help students flourish into 21st-century scholars. Learn how you can support their mission at iuatl.org.Follow Inspiredu on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Mike Morris is a Vice President in the Business Consulting group at EPAM. He leads the Atlanta-based consulting team and has responsibilities across multiple clients. Mike has over 24 years of consulting experience, having started with Andersen Consulting (Accenture). He enjoyed 15 years with North Highland, where he led the Atlanta office and served as a Group Vice President. Mike also was the co-founder and CEO of Broadgreen Solutions, which he led from 2015 up through the integration of the Broadgreen team with EPAM in 2020. Broadgreen Solutions was a Certified B Corp, which gave away 10% of its consulting time to non-profits and social entrepreneurs. Mike's consulting career has allowed him to work with CTOs and CIOs on strategic technology programs, help business executives refine their strategies and processes, and drive successful execution of large-scale change initiatives. Mike is currently on the board of directors for Hands of Love USA and High Tech Ministries. As an active leader in the Atlanta community, Mike was a member of Leadership Atlanta's Class of 2012 and High Tech Ministry's Ambassador leadership development program. Mike previously served as President of the Notre Dame Alumni Club of Atlanta, board member of the Technology Association of Georgia (TAG), and as an advisory board member for Career Spa. Mike graduated from the University of Notre Dame with a B.A. in Economics and Political Science. Mike and his wife Kendra live in greater Atlanta with their three children. In his free time, Mike enjoys cooking, travel, trail running, and backpacking.   Chat Highlights Why did you come to the decision to found Broadgreen Solutions as a certified Benefit Corporation and give away 10% of your consulting capacity to non-profits, social entrepreneurs, and B Corps? As a B-Corp, what did you find were the greatest advantages as it related to your mission as well as your for-profit objectives for the company? How did you identify your purpose to fund clients and choose which projects to work on pro-bono? What questions do you still have today about how to have the greatest impact as a certified B-Corp? What possibilities would you imagine there being if more for-profit companies made the same kind of commitments to pro-bono work with a meaningful social impact? Get In Touch Follow Mike on LinkedIn EPAM website About Our Sponsor This episode is brought to you by Inspiredu, a nonprofit organization that's bridging the digital divide by putting technology into the hands of underserved Atlanta communities. The need for technology devices and access has accelerated due to the pandemic and Inspiredu makes a positive impact on helping marginalized learners. Through its partners and supporters like you, they help students flourish into 21st-century scholars. Learn how you can support their mission at iuatl.org. Follow Inspiredu on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

On Time for Success - Business Owner Dads Edition This week we are interviewing Chris Fowler of Amada Senior Care Get to know Chris: Chris is the owner of Amada Senior Care St. Louis. A+ certified by the Home Care Standards Bureau, the mission of Amada Senior Care St. Louis is to enrich the lives of our clients, their families, our staff and the senior community in which we serve. Our goal is to set the standard of care in our industry by creating an innovative and customized senior care experience. Amada offers four types of services for seniors and their families: in-home senior care, senior housing advising, home monitoring, and financial care coordination (help with long-term care insurance and other funding options for senior care, such as the veteran’s aid and attendance benefit). Before Amada, Chris came from an extensive healthcare background. As an executive with Express Scripts, a Fortune 25 organization and the largest Pharmacy Benefit Manager in the U.S., Chris led both client facing teams as well as product management teams at the forefront of a series of strategic initiatives that had widespread impact on the pharmacy industry. Prior to Express Scripts, Chris served in various industries including Consulting and Healthcare Information Technology at Andersen Consulting/Accenture and Cerner Corporation. Healthcare is very close to my heart. Two of my grandparents as well as my mother have required in home care prior to their passing. When it came time to start my own business, I wanted something more than a smoothie shop, or trampoline park, no disrespect to those businesses, but I wanted to provide a vital service and influence others in a positive way, while helping the greater good in our local community. Chris lives in Webster Groves with his wife, and three children.

On this episode Dr. Heidi interviews Christopher Carfi, Sr. Director of Content Marketing at GoDaddy on the evolution of branding, content and building tools that resonate. Christopher Carfi heads up global content marketing for GoDaddy. Over his career, he spent nearly ten years as part of the advanced technology group at Andersen Consulting/Accenture; has headed up product, marketing, and product marketing groups at a number of early stage companies, has been a startup founder; and was part of the early team at Ant’s Eye View, which was acquired by PriceWaterhouseCoopers. He joined GoDaddy in 2014. He holds a degree in computer science from Northwestern University and an MBA from Carnegie Mellon, is originally from Chicago, and currently lives in Silicon Valley with his family.  Website: https://www.godaddy.com Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/ccarfi Twitter ID: ccarfi Instagram : ccarfi This episode is also celebrates the launch of Dr. Heidi Forbes Öste's, new #1 Bestselling book, Digital Self Mastery Across Generations, Print edition now available from all on-line booksellers, and for order in local book sellers internationally.

Elena Donio has been Chief Executive Officer of Axiom Global, Inc. since November 2016. Prior to this role,  Donio served as President of Concur Technologies, Inc., from 2014 to 2016. She has also served as a Senior Manager at Deloitte & Touche and as a Senior Consultant at Andersen Consulting (Accenture). She holds BA in Economics from University of California, San Diego. Axiom is the global leading alternative legal services provider. With over 2,000 employees across three continents, they provide talent and technology to help legal departments adapt to a demanding new era. More than half of the Fortune 100 use Axiom to deliver legal work. What is the role of a CEO? Donio’s time is mostly allocated around communication. They have a distributed workforce, 1400 attorneys around the world. They have 15 offices; in addition, many work in home offices, or at client sites. She makes it a practice to think about how to make sure at a leadership level that people understand the organization’s priorities. Donio and other leaders at the company make sure they have listening posts up everywhere, so can hear the vibe. Axiom has some unique workplace practices including company-wide meetings – called a huddle. They have huddles 5 or 6 times a year. They live stream them across the company, feature interesting things going on in different departments, do fireside chats, and find that the leadership learns from the questions. The company also hosts trivia nights, happy hours, and pride month. Their offices have open floor plans, lots of orange, great art and books everywhere. But they are not big on huge employee perks. Donio says, “I really believe that the highest performers are people that have really rich and full lives. And so the idea isn’t to reward people to be in and sitting at a desk all day long”. What is it like being a female CEO? Donio says she feels that she hit the jackpot at Concur. She was surrounded by people that believed in her. She also had family that encouraged her along the way and it gave her enough courage to take on the challenge. She also found that at times throughout her career, the people at the top were people she did not want to emulate. They did not have a family or outside life. But there were a few moments in her career that she saw it was possible. Advice for those lower level employees to broach a work/life balance? Donio’s advice for lower level employees who want to change their work/life balance is to understand that the managers around you may not have the life experience to create the right kind of environment, so you need to initiate those conversations. Be open and honest with your leaders. The solution may not be as crazy to achieve as you think.   As a manager, sit down and understand what people are trying to solve for. Ask, where do you need to see change in your life? Are you looking for more time for child? More time for self? Do you feel guilty for working so much? You will find that it is usually more than one thing. Then get tactical. What would be sustainable? Would work from home on Fridays be enough? Saying no to a new project? Get specific. It can be simple pivots and shifts, it doesn’t have to be momentous. Then work with managers to be creative. Things you will learn: Aspects of being a female and CEO How to deal with tough situations The function of AI in law practice Why huge perks aren’t a focus for Axiom The story behind the red folder that helped Elena make the decision to move from Concur to Axiom Contact: LinkedIn Axiomlaw.com

Charles Thomas is creating a more beautiful and connected world. He is a program director for the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation. He invests foundation funds in journalism, in the arts, and in the success of the city of Charlotte - one of the cities where the Knight brothers once published a newspaper. Charles is the former founding executive director of Queen City Forward, a hub for social entrepreneurs. His work included launching the organization and building programs to support social entrepreneurship and civic innovation. Charles is also a professional photographer and artist who earlier in his career served as director of education for The Light Factory Contemporary Museum of Photography and Film. He began his career working as a consultant for Andersen Consulting (Accenture). Charles earned his bachelor's degree in economics from Duke University.  This episode is perfect for anyone interested in grant-making and community building, and a personal quest to create greater equity and connection in the world. Charles explains what he does as a program director and the mission of the Knight Foundation. He shares the conversation the Knight Foundation is having behind the scenes about their investments and what Knight is seeking to accomplish. He talks about how Knight is exploring the impacts of Artificial Intelligence on journalism and concerns about computer-generated news and commentary. Charles reveals what is top of mind for him as he sits at the Knight Foundation table, the typical day of a program director, and what makes for a good grant application. He shares his strategy as a program director for Charlotte and the challenges and opportunities he is facing in his role. He discusses what he would fund if he was investing his own monies and how and why he wants to get better at his job. He talks about what's frustrating him at work, what he's learning to do, and what he knows now about himself now that he didn't know when he took the job. Charles describes growing up, being raised as an only child by a single mom, and how the absence of his father influenced him. He reads from an article he wrote about the Keith Lamont Scott shooting in Charlotte and his hopes and vision for the city. He shares his mission and purpose and what sustains him. Charles discusses what's important in life and his sense of destiny.  After the conversation, host Mark Peres adds a personal word that begins this way, "This is what I know about Charlie Thomas.  He has a larger vision of himself based on a more beautiful and connected world..."  To learn more, visit On Life and Meaning. 

When GoDaddy hired Christopher Carfi at the start of 2014, it caught my attention. GoDaddy was a company that, at one time, I thought I would never want to be a customer of. I didn’t like the brand, didn’t like marketing, didn’t like upselling, didn’t like the old CEO. But after Blake Irving was hired as CEO, I noticed positive change. That was nice, but they still didn’t have my business. When they hired Christopher, it caught my eye because here was an experienced community mind that I respected joining a company I once didn’t. I watched their continued cultural shift and their embrace of community. Through 5+ years of solid work, GoDaddy has washed away that old perspective I had and, somehow, they won me over, where my previous registrar, Enom, had neglected me. I am now a GoDaddy customer. Christopher joins the show to talk about this shift, plus: What community means in a world where we’re interacting with Alexa and Google Assistant How community fits into content marketing The things we can learn from Burning Man, which Christopher is a veteran of Our Podcast is Made Possible By… If you enjoy our show, please know that it’s only possible with the generous support of our sponsor: Higher Logic. Big Quotes “Working with and engaging with communities and community members and customers and prospects and employees is an ongoing, iterative, never-ending process, as opposed to a campaign.” -@ccarfi “[Content marketing for community means] being able to provide a platform for our community members to share their stories, whether they are on the blog, whether they are interacting in our online community that we have onsite, whether they are interacting with each other in other spaces like WordCamps, for example. Those are all different facets of that kind of community engagement and where community and content intersect, and the interesting stories, the things that are really engaging for customers and prospects, and really energizing for us, are hearing all of those great stories and making sure that we can help to really be an amplifier of those stories.” -@ccarfi “If the only metric that you’re looking at is first month sales from traffic that came in from Google via SEO and search, the results are just not going to be there, because it doesn’t work that quickly. If you look at the arc of the amount of time it takes, it’s three months, six months, nine months, in some cases, before a piece of content really starts to catch on. And I think community is the same sort of thing. “If you’re planting a garden and you want a whole bunch of great things for Thanksgiving in the fall, well, you don’t plant them in October.” -@ccarfi “Looking at things in a year-over-year type of frame, as opposed to week-over-week, is the place you need to get to really start to see, ‘Oh, wow, this investment [in community] – and it is an investment – it takes that long to really start to mature and start to get the benefits.'” -@ccarfi About Christopher Carfi Christopher Carfi heads up global content marketing for GoDaddy. Over his career, he spent nearly ten years as part of the advanced technology group at Andersen Consulting/Accenture; has headed up product, marketing, and product marketing groups, at a number of early stage companies; has been a startup founder; and was part of the early team at Ant’s Eye View, which was acquired by PriceWaterhouseCoopers. He joined GoDaddy in 2014. He holds a degree in computer science from Northwestern University and an MBA from Carnegie Mellon, is originally from Chicago and currently lives in Silicon Valley with his family. You can follow him on Twitter at @ccarfi. Related Links Sponsor: Higher Logic, the community platform for community managers Christopher on Twitter GoDaddy, where Christopher is director of content marketing, but was initially hired to lead community efforts Amazon Alexa-powered devices Community Signal episode with Maggie McGary, showcasing the program’s independence Community Signal’s new Patreon page Lee LeFever of Common Craft, who first introduced Christopher and Patrick Community Signal episode with Lee LeFever Managing Online Forums, Patrick’s book Wikipedia page for Swipp, where Christopher worked before GoDaddy, after spending most of his career on the agency side Bob Parsons, GoDaddy founder and former CEO Blake Irving, current GoDaddy CEO Andy McIlwain, who works in content and community at GoDaddy Community Signal episode with Andy McIlwain of GoDaddy Enom, the domain name registrar Patrick is tranfering away from GoDaddy Discount Domain Club, of which Patrick is a member Brad Williams, CEO of WebDevStudios Community Signal episode with Brad Williams GoDaddy Pro, aimed at web designers and developers who build and maintain websites for clients SmartLine, a GoDaddy service allowing businesses to create a second phone number GoCentral, a GoDaddy service that helps people to easily build a website Auguste Goldman, chief people officer at GoDaddy Steven Aldrich, chief product officer at GoDaddy GoDaddy Community WordCamp Central, where you can find out more about WordCamp, a community-organized series of events focused on WordPress HomePod, Apple’s new smart speaker x.ai, an AI-powered scheduling assistant, that Patrick thought was a real person at first Blade Runner, the 1982 movie featuring “replicants,” robotic androids that present as human Burning Man, an annual gathering that represents a “global community with citizens on six continents” GoDaddy Garage, one of their content marketing efforts   Transcript View the transcript on our website Your Thoughts If you have any thoughts on this episode that you’d like to share, please leave me a comment, send me an email or a tweet. If you enjoy the show, we would be grateful if you spread the word. Thank you for listening to Community Signal.