Podcasts about aol time warner

Think business is boring? What about when your streaming bill goes up, or your favorite restaurant files for bankruptcy? Do you ever wonder what's going on behind the scenes? Business Wars gives you a front row seat to the biggest moments in business, to explain how they shape our world. In the latest season, they explore the AOL Time Warner merger, a deal that became one of the most expensive and chaotic corporate disasters on record, one that permanently scarred both companies. Listen to Business Wars: The AOL Time Warner Disaster right now wherever you get your podcasts: Wondery.fm/BW_IFDSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

When AOL and Time Warner find a way around their differences, the biggest merger in history is on. But when rivals attack and tech stocks meltdown, AOL finds it must meet Wall Street expectations or watch its mega-deal derail.Be the first to know about Wondery's newest podcasts, curated recommendations, and more! Sign up now at https://wondery.fm/wonderynewsletterListen to Business Wars on the Wondery App or wherever you get your podcasts. Experience all episodes ad-free and be the first to binge the newest season. Unlock exclusive early access by joining Wondery+ in the Wondery App or on Apple Podcasts. Start your free trial today by visiting wondery.com/links/business-wars/ now.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Think business is boring? What about when your streaming bill goes up, or your favorite restaurant files for bankruptcy? Do you ever wonder what's going on behind the scenes? Business Wars gives you a front row seat to the biggest moments in business, to explain how they shape our world. In the latest season, they explore the AOL Time Warner merger, a deal that became one of the most expensive and chaotic corporate disasters on record, one that permanently scarred both companies. Listen to Business Wars: The AOL Time Warner Disaster right now wherever you get your podcasts: Wondery.fm/BW_IFDSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Think business is boring? What about when your streaming bill goes up, or your favorite restaurant files for bankruptcy? Do you ever wonder what's going on behind the scenes? Business Wars gives you a front row seat to the biggest moments in business, to explain how they shape our world. In the latest season, they explore the AOL Time Warner merger, a deal that became one of the most expensive and chaotic corporate disasters on record, one that permanently scarred both companies. Listen to Business Wars: The AOL Time Warner Disaster right now wherever you get your podcasts: Wondery.fm/BW_IFDSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Think business is boring? What about when your streaming bill goes up, or your favorite restaurant files for bankruptcy? Do you ever wonder what's going on behind the scenes? Business Wars gives you a front row seat to the biggest moments in business, to explain how they shape our world. In the latest season, they explore the AOL Time Warner merger, a deal that became one of the most expensive and chaotic corporate disasters on record, one that permanently scarred both companies. Listen to Business Wars: The AOL Time Warner Disaster right now wherever you get your podcasts: Wondery.fm/BW_IFDSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Think business is boring? What about when your streaming bill goes up, or your favorite restaurant files for bankruptcy? Do you ever wonder what's going on behind the scenes? Business Wars gives you a front row seat to the biggest moments in business, to explain how they shape our world. In the latest season, they explore the AOL Time Warner merger, a deal that became one of the most expensive and chaotic corporate disasters on record, one that permanently scarred both companies. Listen to Business Wars: The AOL Time Warner Disaster right now wherever you get your podcasts: Wondery.fm/BW_IFDSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Think business is boring? What about when your streaming bill goes up, or your favorite restaurant files for bankruptcy? Do you ever wonder what's going on behind the scenes? Business Wars gives you a front row seat to the biggest moments in business, to explain how they shape our world. In the latest season, they explore the AOL Time Warner merger, a deal that became one of the most expensive and chaotic corporate disasters on record, one that permanently scarred both companies. Listen to Business Wars: The AOL Time Warner Disaster right now wherever you get your podcasts: Wondery.fm/BW_IFDSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Send us a textGeorge Vradenburg is Founding Chairman of the Davos Alzheimer's Collaborative ( DAC - https://www.davosalzheimerscollaborative.org/ ), a pioneering worldwide initiative to prevent Alzheimer's disease, seeking to mirror the success of global efforts against infectious diseases.DAC is extending global research beyond its current focus on traditional Western European ethnic populations into the highly diversified populations of the Global South, where the vast majority of those with Alzheimer's live. By introducing lower-cost screening and diagnostic tools as well as new treatment and prevention modalities in primary care and community health settings, DAC is driving implementation of health system solutions that are appropriate for worldwide application. DAC also promotes the vital importance of brain health throughout the lifespan by addressing cardiometabolic and lifestyle factors, especially in early and mid-life. Absent effective action at scale around the world, by 2050, more than 150 million families and half a billion people will be personally impacted by dementia, creating a social, financial, economic, and global security disaster of historic proportions. DAC was launched in Davos in 2021 by the World Economic Forum and the Global CEO Initiative on Alzheimer's Disease. Mr. Vradenburg is also Chairman and Co-Founder of UsAgainstAlzheimer's ( https://www.usagainstalzheimers.org/ ), which he co-founded in October 2010 with his late wife, Trish, which is a non-profit organization dedicated to ending Alzheimer's disease. The organization advocates for increased research funding, policy changes, and provides resources for individuals and families affected by the disease. The organization emphasizes the importance of prevention, early detection, and access to treatment. Mr. Vradenburg was named by U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius to serve as a founding member of the Advisory Council on Research, Care, and Services established by the National Alzheimer's Project Act (NAPA Council) and has testified before Congress about the global Alzheimer's pandemic. Under Mr. Vradenburg's leadership, UsAgainstAlzheimer's co-convenes both the Leaders Engaged on Alzheimer's Disease ( LEAD - https://www.leadcoalition.org/ ) Coalition and the Global CEO Initiative on Alzheimer's Disease. Mr. Vradenburg is also a founding member of the World Dementia Council ( https://www.worlddementiacouncil.org/ ). Mr. Vradenburg has long been a dedicated member of Washington's civic and philanthropic community, serving as Chairman of the Phillips Collection for 13 years.Mr. Vradenburg is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and the Economic Club of Washington. He has served in senior executive and legal positions at CBS, FOX, and AOL/Time Warner.Important Episode Link - The Davos Brain House Video: A global call to prioritize brain health - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=azKVS6SxBy4#GeorgeVradenburg #UsAgainstAlzheimers #AlzheimersDisease #Prevention #EarlyDetection #Brainspan #Healthspan #BrainHouse #BrainEconomy #BrainCapital #WorkplaceBrainHealth #MentalWealth #SocialProduction #Advocacy #Philanthropy #STEM #Innovation #Science #Technology #Research #ProgressPotentialAndPossibilities #IraPastor #Podcast #Podcaster #Podcasting #ViralPodcastSupport the show

It's 1999 and America Online's the hot stock of the dot.com boom. But when AOL's CEO Steve Case gets nervous about the future, he settles on a bold plan: to buy media giant Time Warner in the biggest merger in U.S. history.Be the first to know about Wondery's newest podcasts, curated recommendations, and more! Sign up now at https://wondery.fm/wonderynewsletterListen to Business Wars on the Wondery App or wherever you get your podcasts. Experience all episodes ad-free and be the first to binge the newest season. Unlock exclusive early access by joining Wondery+ in the Wondery App or on Apple Podcasts. Start your free trial today by visiting wondery.com/links/business-wars/ now.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Today's Post - https://bahnsen.co/4f3mRWM Lessons from the AOL-Time Warner Merger: A Historical Business Failure In this episode of the Dividend Cafe, host David Bahnsen explores the infamous AOL-Time Warner merger of 2000, marking its 25-year anniversary. He delves into the history of both companies, the circumstances leading to the merger, and the reasons behind its failure. David underscores the importance of learning from past mistakes in the investment world and highlights the dangers of overlooking fundamentals and the human factors in business decisions. Drawing from his personal experience and extensive reading, David sheds light on the impact of corporate egotism, inflated valuations, and the lack of strategic alignment in this monumental $200 billion business disaster. 00:00 Introduction to Dividend Cafe 00:03 The Importance of Learning from History 00:59 The AOL-Time Warner Merger: A Historical Overview 03:56 The Rise and Fall of AOL 05:30 The Complex History of Time Warner 07:53 The Merger: A Recipe for Disaster 11:09 The Human Element in Mergers and Acquisitions 16:04 Financial Missteps and Overvaluation 19:12 The Aftermath and Lessons Learned 23:54 Conclusion: Principles for Future Investments Links mentioned in this episode: DividendCafe.com TheBahnsenGroup.com

When you're building something new, it's easy to get discouraged by how long it takes to gain traction. But if anyone knows how to stay in the game, it's Steve Case. In this episode, the AOL cofounder and Revolution CEO opens up about the grit, patience, and strategy it took to pioneer the internet—and why most success stories take a lot longer than people think. You'll hear how he built AOL through years of slow progress, what he looks for in entrepreneurs today, and how that iconic line, “You've Got Mail,” came to be. If you're feeling stuck or off track, this episode will help you refocus and recharge!You'll also learn: Three qualities of successful entrepreneurs The #1 mindset you need if your business is in growth mode A powerful leadership lesson from the disappointing AOL-Time Warner merger Why a one-size-fits-all leadership style might let you down Take your learning further. Get proven leadership advice from these (free!) resources: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠The How Leaders Lead App⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠: A vast library of 90-second leadership lessons to stay sharp on the go  ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Daily Insight Emails⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠: One small (but powerful!) leadership principle to focus on each day Whichever you choose, you can be sure you'll get the trusted leadership advice you need to advance your career, develop your team, and grow your business.

Das Wunderkind Alex Wright joins Perched On The Top Rope Host, Lee Walker III to discuss a wide variety of topics from being a second generation star and teaming with his Father, Steve Wright to signing his WCW Contract at the age of 18 and the struggles he faced moving from Germany to America.Alex Wright talks working with Triple H and his thoughts on this years WWE Hall of Fame Induction.Alex Wright also talks working with greats like Chris Jericho, Ultimo Dragon and even teaming with Disco Inferno and shares his thoughts on the difference of Eric Bischoff and Vince Russo!Das Wunderkind also talks being a second generational wrestler, talks WCW action figures and videogames.Alex Wright LinksOfficial Site of The Wright Stuff - Pro Wrestling School: http://www.prowrestlingschool.de Official Facebook Account of The Wright Stuff - Pro Wrestling School: http://www.facebook.com/TWS.ProWrestlingSchool Official Instagram Alex Wright: https://www.instagram.com/wrestling_alexwright/ Official Facebook NEW: http://www.facebook.com/NEW.Wrestling1 Official Facebook Alex Wright (Person of public interest): http://www.facebook.com/AlexWright.Wrestling Official Facebook Alex Wright: http://www.facebook.com/wrestling.alexwright NEW-Merchandise:https://sl-wrestling.de/produkt-kategorie/ligen/new/ TWS Wrestlingschule Merchandise: https://sl-wrestling.de/produkt-kategorie/ligen/the-wright-stuff/ Alex Wright Merchandise: https://sl-wrestling.de/produkt-kategorie/wrestler/alex-wright/ Official NEW Youtube Channel: http://www.youtube.com/user/NEW1Wrestling Official Twitter Account of Alex Wright: http://twitter.com/Alex_Wright_123 Official Xing Account of Alex Wright: http://www.xing.com/profile/Alex_Wright www.prowrestlingschool.deTime Stamp00:00 Intro00:30 Training with his Father, Steve Wright01:51 Teaming with his Father in CWA World Cup 199302:20 First match at 16 years of age in CWA03:45 Dad had first match at 15, list accomplishments04:30 Expectations as a second generation wrestler04:53 Had contract with CWA when WCW offered contract05:00 Getting discovered by going on Talk Show with Sting & Johnny B Badd05:39 Ric Flair giving Wright his first spot versus Paul Roma and what he wanted from Wright06:22 Bischoff offers Alex Wright a contract at 18 yrs old and how long he had to sign it07:30 Moving from Germany to USA, The struggles he faced08:59 Bagwell being the next youngest on the roster with him (ten yrs older)09:20 Under WCW Contract and didn't get paid (worked side jobs for $)10:05 Drove to WCW Office to confront Eric Bischoff and what happened11:05 Hardships, sleeping on hotel room floors11:45 Lockerroom hardships being the new guy12:18 Advice from Dad13:23 Being At The Big Event14:15 Training with Dad vs Training at WCW Power Plant16:25 Thoughts on Sarge17:05 Working with Triple H and Thoughts on HOF Induction20:20 2-14 guest trainer at WWE Performance Center21:08 Working in NJPW for Super Juniors19:04 Sabu in 1995 being the first to put him through a table22:53 Wrestling JBL in CWA and JBL legit hung him from his rope23:45 Wrestling Ric Flair 25:00 Chris Jericho and the Cruiserweights26:00 Wright wins Cruiserweight Title and first belt 28:00 Working with Ultimo Drgaon and winning TV Title30:21 Disco being injured during tag title run31:15 Teaming with Disco32:00 Berlyn being his idea and why32:42 Pitching ideas to WCW, nobody recognizing him40:54 Reflects on Berlyn debut and Vince Russo not liking it41:23 Working for Eric Bischoff vs Vince Russo42:30 Noticing the decline of WCW43:04 Russo makes David Arquette and him World Champion43:47 One of the rare few under AOL Time Warner, did WWE try and contact to hire Wright45:30 Sometimes wrestling seven times a night!46:16 WWE contacted him twice after WCW47:04 Having merchandise from action figures to WCW videogames49:02 NOT RETIRED! Starting The Wright Stuff Wrestling School51:51 Creating New European Championship Wrestling53:50 Giovani Vinci being a student56:00 Advice to released talents58:00 Plug New Show and Wright SchoolEND#WrestlingInterview #WrestlingCommunity #WCWnitro #WCWThunder #prowrestling Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/perchedonthetoprope/donationsAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Mark Friedler is the CEO of Gigex Inc., an IT and services company helping companies procure the best technology solutions for their needs, saving time and costs. A serial entrepreneur, he has founded four companies, including Gigex, the first cloud game download service, and GameDaily, which became the largest consumer games site before its acquisition by AOL/Time Warner. Mark's career spans pioneering roles in blockchain, esports, fintech, and enterprise cloud services, with contributions like launching IBM's TrustYourSupplier network and co-founding CryptoMondaysSF, a global fintech and blockchain meetup group. He is also an avid cyclist who once rode from New York to Seattle and introduced Sweden to chocolate chip cookie stores. In this episode… Technology expenses are skyrocketing, often ranking as the top or second-highest business cost. As companies grapple with these financial burdens, the quest for effective technology cost management becomes crucial. How can businesses make smarter decisions to reduce these costs while still harnessing the power of technology? Mark Friedler, a seasoned entrepreneur, shares practical strategies for tackling these challenges head-on. He emphasizes conducting a thorough technology audit to identify waste, right-sizing cloud usage, and adopting a hybrid model combining public and private clouds for cost optimization. Mark also highlights how leveraging AI for customer service can help you transform business operations, citing examples like omnichannel communication tools that improve user experience while cutting costs. Tune in to this episode of the Smart Business Revolution Podcast as John Corcoran interviews Mark Friedler, CEO of Gigex Inc., about technology cost management and identifying untapped business opportunities. The conversation explores Mark's journey from running a chocolate chip cookie business in Sweden to becoming a technology strategy consultant. He shares insights on blockchain, early internet innovations, surviving the dot-com crash, and the life-changing impact of a family crisis.

On Monday's show: The 89th regular session of the Texas Legislature begins tomorrow. We preview some of the issues and bills that will take center stage.Also this hour: The AOL/Time Warner merger 25 years ago was huge news then. And it didn't work. We discuss mergers past and present in the Houston area and why some work and some don't.Then, Meg Tapp from the Garden Club of Houston answers listeners' gardening questions.And Jeff Balke recaps the Texans' playoff game against the Chargers.

This episode was produced remotely using the ListenDeck standardized audio & video production system. If you're looking to jumpstart your podcast miniseries or upgrade your podcast or video production please visit www.ListenDeck.com. You can subscribe to this podcast and stay up to date on all the stories here on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Stitcher, Spotify, Amazon and iHeartRadio. In this episode, the host John Siracusa had a remote chat with Tom Burgess, Multi exit entrepreneur & President of SnippMedia.   He was a founder and exited Linkable Networks, Founder of Third Screen (acq by Aol/Time Warner) & founder of EchoMedia (acq by SoftBank)  SnippMedia is an SKU level rewards program and in his role as president he is responsible for leading SnippMedia's new Payments Media Network.  In this interview they discuss the difference between growing your own startup from scratch compared to starting one within a larger more established company.   Subscribe now on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Stitcher, Spotify, Amazon and iHeartRadio to hear next Thursdays episode with Ximena Aleman from Prometeo. About the host: John is the founder of ListenDeck a full-service podcast and video production company, which has produced over 1500 episodes of various podcasts. He is the host of the ‘Bank On It' podcast, which features over 600 episodes starring high profile fintech leaders and entrepreneurs. Follow John on LinkedIn, Twitter, Medium

This week we speak with Bill Raduchel, who has served as a high-level executive and strategic adviser for organizations such as Sun Microsystems, AOL Time Warner, Xerox, McGraw-Hill, and the Salvation Army. Over half a century working with systems, software, and networks, he has remained at the forefront of the technology revolution in media, education, and corporate governance including recognition at Sun as CIO of the Year and the top CFO in the computer industry and at AOL as CTO of the year. He holds more than fifty issued patents as well as a PhD in econometrics from Harvard, where he taught for five years with John Kenneth Galbraith. He has been writing software in some form since he turned fifteen years old in 1961. He is also the author of The New Technology State. This book is about society—how it has changed and what technology is enabling us to do to ourselves. [Repeat from April, 2024]For more on Bubble Trouble, including transcripts of the show, visit us online at http://bubbletroublepodcast.comYou can learn more about Richard at https://www.linkedin.com/in/richard-kramer-16306b2/More on Will Page at: https://pivotaleconomics.com(Times below correspond to the episode without considering any inserted advertisements.)The New Technology State: Redefining the Tech and Government Landscape00:00 Welcome to Bubble Trouble: A Skeptical Conversation00:46 A Journey Through Tech and Economics06:23 The Evolution of Technology and Its Impact on Economics08:02 The Writing Process and Insights into Bill's Book11:21 Exploring the New Technology State and Government Challenges17:43 The Intricacies of Tech Talent and Government Staffing19:53 Tech Debt and the Challenges of Modernization25:55 The Global Tech Landscape: Government and Private Sector Dynamics25:55 Wrapping Up Part One and Teasing Part Two25:55 Simplifying UK Government Websites: A Double-Edged Sword25:55 The Dangers of Centralization and Cybersecurity26:10 Big Tech, Government, and the Quest for Regulation27:59 The Talent Gap in Government and Tech Regulation Challenges29:15 Innovative Solutions andthe Power of Decentralization30:15 The Role of Startups in Tech Innovation and Employee Motivation31:59 Google's Management Revolution: Lessons in Innovation34:45 The Complexities of Regulating Big Tech40:05 Navigating the Future of AI and Government Regulation42:19 Economics, Education, and the Future Workforce44:56 Smoke Signals: Warning Signs in Tech and Regulation50:06 Credits Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Here is your Pro Wrestling Daily News Report for Wednesday, August 8, 2024. Running Time: 51 Minutes. Topics covered in this report include: Warner Bros. Discovery stock tanks (now down 70% since April 2022) after revealing $10 billion loss Does massive decline of WBD bring vibes of AOL Time Warner from 2001? Is a future AEW TV deal with WBD in jeopardy? DT explains why despite the terrible news, AEW fans should not worry about AEW TV futre Should Tony Khan and WBD wait until All-In event in Wembley to announce a new TV deal? WWE announcement of CM Punk, Randy Orton and other stars appearing on first two NXT events on CW Network sparks a bizarre response from many amongst IWC AEW Dynamite 8/7/24 TV results and 8/14/24 TV preview TBS interrupts Jack Perry promo on Dynamite with a Taco Bell commercial LOL  TNT announces new TV Show, 'TNT Overdrive' featuring stars from AEW Latest news on Lucha Bros' likely exit from AEW and signing with WWE Joe Hendry not scheduled for any upcoming NXT events  NXT Great American Bash: Week Two 8/6/24 TV rating and 8/13/24 TV preview TNA Impact Wrestling 8/8/24 TV preview WWE RAW 8/5/24 and SmackDown 8/2/24 ratings breakdown AEW Collision 8/3/24 and Rampage 8/2/24 ratings breakdown Britt Baker to appear in the final season of ‘Cobra Kai' on Netflix THANK YOU to everyone who reached out about the return of our Daily Pro Wrestling News updates. It's crazy to think the last time we did these daily updates was almost 20 years ago in late 2004. Kev Castle and I (Don Tony) are very appreciative of your support. Please continue spreading the Don Tony And Kevin Castle Show brand. That will help us continue growing and soon, we'll reclaim our top spot within the wrestling podcast community! RIGHT CLICK AND SAVE to download the AUDIO episode of WRESTLING DAILY NEWS REPORT (8/8/24) CLICK HERE for the COMMERCIAL FREE AUDIO episode of WRESTLING DAILY NEWS REPORT (8/8/24) CLICK HERE for the YOUTUBE VERSION of WRESTLING DAILY NEWS REPORT (8/8/24) CLICK HERE to access previous episodes for all Don Tony and Kevin Castle Show public content ==== CHECK OUT THIS PAST WEEK'S PRO WRESTLING DAILY NEWS UPDATES: WEDNESDAY 8/7/24 NEWS REPORT: CLICK HERE MONDAY 8/5/24 NEWS REPORT: CLICK HERE SUNDAY 8/4/24 NEWS REPORT: CLICK HERE FRIDAY 8/2/24 NEWS REPORT: CLICK HERE THURSDAY 8/1/24 NEWS REPORT: CLICK HERE Want to help promote Don Tony and Kevin Castle and get a special shout-down during the DTKC Show? Stop by Apple Podcasts and leave DT and Kev a review! CLICK HERE ==== DON TONY AND KEVIN CASTLE SHOW 08/05/2024 EPISODE - Download the episode here: http://tinyurl.com/dtkc20240805 - Enhanced YouTube Members Only Version (Full 2+ hour episode w/added pics and video): https://youtu.be/h_GEigPcjmc - Episode synopsis of topics discussed: https://wp.me/p7MT0R-5j0 ==== Remember: DON TONY AND KEVIN CASTLE SHOW streams LIVE every MONDAY NIGHT at 11:15PM after WWE RAW at DTKCDiscord.com.   ==== DON TONY AND KEVIN CASTLE *PATREON* AND *YOUTUBE CHANNEL MEMBERSHIPS* You can send additional support for Don Tony And Kevin Castle and help grow the brand, by becoming a member of DT/KC PATREON and/or YOUTUBE CHANNEL MEMBERSHIP FAMILY. Don Tony and Kevin Castle's PATREON has been around for over seven years! You can access all seven years of BONUS CONTENT right now including: Ad-Free episodes of all of weekly shows Weekly live Patreon podcasts hosted by Don Tony and Kevin Castle Thousands of Hours of Patreon exclusive shows never released publicly! (Over 7 Years of Patreon Exclusive Content!) Retro episodes of The Don Tony And Kevin Castle Show going back as early as 2004 (Retro Episodes added each week!) Predictions Contests, Giveaways and more! CLICK HERE to access now! YOUTUBE CHANNEL MEMBERSHIPS: Another option is to become a CHANNEL MEMBER over at YouTube. Get exclusive enhanced versions of weekly Don Tony and Kevin Castle Show, access to DT's weekly Patreon show, retro DTKC Show episodes, giveaways and more. CLICK HERE for more details and to join The Family! ==== CHECK OUT DON TONY AND KEVIN SHOW CONTENT ACROSS THESE PLATFORMS: CLICK HERE FOR APPLE PODCASTS CLICK HERE FOR SPOTIFY CLICK HERE FOR ANDROID CLICK HERE FOR AMAZON MUSIC CLICK HERE FOR GOOGLE PODCASTS CLICK HERE FOR PANDORA CLICK HERE FOR PODBEAN CLICK HERE FOR IHEARTRADIO CLICK HERE FOR DON TONY MERCHANDISE! ==== DON TONY AND KEVIN CASTLE: UPCOMING WEEKLY SHOW SCHEDULE (ET): DON TONY AND KEVIN CASTLE SHOW: LIVE Mondays 11:15PM on DTKCDiscord.com DT VIPATREON: Patreon Exclusive Show hosted by Don Tony LIVE Tuesdays 10:05PM on Patreon Channel at DTKCDiscord.com THIS WEEK IN WRESTLING HISTORY: Posted Thursdays 4PM at DonTony.com CASTLE/KNT CHRONICLES: Patreon Exclusive Show hosted by Kevin Castle and Trez LIVE Thursdays 8:30PM on Patreon Channel at DTKCDiscord.com THE SIT-DOWN w/DON TONY: LIVE Fridays at 10:05PM (after WWE SmackDown) on YouTube WWE/AEW PPV REVIEWS: (Airdates/Airtimes vary) THE DON TONY SHOW: Special Episodes (Airdates/Airtimes vary) PRO WRESTLING DAILY NEWS UPDATES: Pro Wrestling news updates posted daily ==== SOCIAL MEDIA / WEBSITE / CONTACT INFO: Twitter: https://twitter.com/dontonyd Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/dontony Facebook: https://facebook.com/DTKCShow YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/dontony Website: https://www.wrestling-news.com Email: dontony@dontony.com

EPISODE SUMMARY Join scientist and mindset & high-performance coach Claudia Garbutt and digital marketing agency owner Chris Pistorius as they talk about digital marketing for small businesses.   In this episode, we talk about: - The future of digital marketing and AI - ONE underrated marketing secret most small businesses don't know about - Connecting people, businesses & communities   EPISODE NOTES Chris Pistorius, a digital marketing agency owner, has revolutionized digital marketing with his tailored, impactful strategies. With a background that includes pivotal roles at online giants like Google, AOL/Time Warner, Dex, and MapQuest, Chris brings over 20 years of digital marketing wizardry to the table. His agency, celebrated as one of the top local marketing firms by UpCity, SEO For Growth, DesignRush, Expertise, and AgencyVista, specializes in catapulting small businesses to the forefront of their local markets.    Chris is not only a strategist but also an educator. He traverses the country to deliver seminars that translate complex marketing concepts into actionable wisdom. Each week, he shares his insights on his popular marketing podcast, where he discusses everything from enhancing online visibility to leveraging social media for business growth.   Author of "The Ultimate Guide to Internet Marketing for Dentists," Chris is dedicated to helping dental practitioners and other entrepreneurs flourish in the digital age. Residing in Denver, CO, Chris embodies the essence of a marketing expert who has mastered the art of connecting people, businesses, and communities.   Links: www.kickstartdental.com   https://www.youtube.com/channel/UClvXBKc6Wmcr-qL2v0JWmJg   https://www.facebook.com/kickstartdentalmarketing/  https://twitter.com/KickStartDental https://www.instagram.com/kickstartdental/  https://www.linkedin.com/in/pistorius/ https://pod.co/dentist-orthodontist-marketing-podcast   --------------------------    Are you sure you're getting the RIGHT amount of the RIGHT forms of magnesium to support your mental & physical health?   Check out the BiOptimizer Magnesium Breakthrough which combines 7 of the most bio-available forms of magnesium & get a 10% discount with my special code:   Go to bioptimizers.com/claudia   and use code claudia10 at checkout to claim your 10% discount. ------------ Click this link to listen on your favorite podcast player and if you enjoy the show, please leave a rating & review: https://linktr.ee/wiredforsuccess   Help me keep this show running and awesome: Hit subscribe and join the tribe! THANK YOU for your support! 

PROMOTION WARS The Monday Night War[1][2][3][4] or the Monday Night Wars, was an era of mainstream televised American professional wrestling, from September 4, 1995 to March 26, 2001, in which the World Wrestling Federation's (WWF; now WWE) Monday Night Raw (later Raw Is War) and World Championship Wrestling's (WCW) Monday Nitro were broadcast opposite each other in a battle for Nielsen ratings each week. It largely overlapped with the Attitude Era, a period in which the WWF used the term "WWF Attitude" to describe its programming from November 9, 1997 to May 6, 2002. The rating war was part of a larger overall struggle between the WWF and WCW, originating in personal animosity between respective owners Vince McMahon and Ted Turner. The rivalry steadily escalated throughout the 1990s to include the use of cutthroat tactics and the defections of employees between the two promotions. Throughout the war, the WWF and WCW would both adopt different concepts and narrative techniques. Meanwhile, both companies would establish both formal and informal partnerships with Extreme Championship Wrestling (ECW), with ECW performers either appearing on WWF and WCW shows while still under contract, or outright leaving ECW to work for one of the other two companies. While WCW was the dominant promotion for much of the mid-1990s, a variety of factors coalesced to turn the tide in the WWF's favor at the end of the decade, including a radical rebranding of their formerly family-friendly product into highly sexualized and violent shows geared towards older teens and adults. WCW ultimately ran into financial difficulties as a result of the amount of money they had promised wrestlers during a hiring binge in the early and middle part of the decade, which had been aimed at acquiring large portions of the WWF's talent roster. Behind the scenes, executives who had longed to see WCW removed from the Turner organization were eventually able to see it come to fruition after Turner Broadcasting's merger with Time Warner and their merger with America Online (AOL). With Turner no longer in control, corporate executives of the combined AOL Time Warner sold WCW's assets. Despite efforts to salvage the company, it was ultimately sold to McMahon, ending the Monday Night War. In retrospect, wrestling commentators have come to see the Monday Night War as a golden age of professional wrestling, along with the 1940s–1950s and 1980s booms, with the competition between the WWF and WCW bringing out their best quality product both in terms of creativity and the performances of their wrestlers.

For more than half a century, Bill Raduchel has been the Zelig of the technology world, involved in nearly everything and knowing everyone worth knowing. Bill has served as a high-level executive and strategic adviser for Sun Microsystems, AOL Time Warner, Xerox, and McGraw-Hill and negotiated deals with the biggest names in technology. Bill has worked with systems, software, and networks for decades at the highest levels and has remained at the forefront of the media, education, and corporate governance technology revolution.   LINKS   Book on Amazon - The Bleeding Edge   The Mojo Sessions website www.themojosessions.com   The Mojo Sessions on Patreon www.patreon.com/TheMojoSessions Full transcripts of the show (plus time codes) are available on Patreon.   The Mojo Sessions on Facebook www.facebook.com/TheMojoSessions   Gary on LinkedIn www.linkedin.com/in/gary-bertwistle   Gary on Twitter www.twitter.com/GaryBertwistle   The Mojo Sessions on Instagram www.instagram.com/themojosessions   If you like what you hear, we'd be grateful for a review on Apple Podcasts or Spotify. Happy listening!   © 2024 Gary Bertwistle. All Rights Reserved.  

Interview With CHRIS PISTORIUSKickstart Dental: Where Dentists Win Online#KickStartDental #DigitalMarketing #ChrisPistoriusHi, and welcome to the show!On today's show I have the pleasure of welcoming author and award winning digital marketing agency owner Chris Pistorius to talk about the tools and techniques that you can start using today to make digital marketing work in your business.Chris Pistorius is a digital marketing agency owner who has revolutionized digital marketing for dentists with his tailored, impactful strategies. With a background that includes pivotal roles at online giants like Google, AOL/Time Warner, Dex, and MapQuest, Chris brings over 20 years of digital marketing wizardry to the table. Chris' agency, Kickstart Digital, is celebrated as one of the top local marketing firms by UpCity, SEO For Growth, DesignRush, Expertise, and AgencyVista, specializes in catapulting small businesses to the forefront of their local Markets.Additionally, Chris is also an excellent educator. He travels the country delivering seminars that translate complex marketing concepts into actionable wisdom. Each week, he shares his insights on his popular marketing podcast, where he discusses everything from enhancing online visibility to leveraging social media for business growth.Author of "The Ultimate Guide to Internet Marketing for Dentists," Chris is dedicated to helping dental practitioners and other entrepreneurs flourish in the digital age. Residing in Denver, CO, Chris embodies the essence of a marketing expert who has mastered the art of connecting people, businesses, and communities.To learn more about the topics discussed, or to contact Chris directly, click the link below.Disclosure of Material Connection: This is a “sponsored post.” My Future Business is disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission's 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”

The history of World Championship Wrestling belongs to TKO Holdings, the parent company of World Wrestling Entertainment. WCW closed its doors when it was bought out by Vince McMahon on March 31st 2001. This vacuum in the industry stood for decades as many wrestling promotions efforted to fill the void left by the AOL Time Warner owned WCW.  But nobody rivaled the WWE quite like WCW. Which brings our guest Brandon Noel for tonight's special podcast. Brandon Noel, the man behind Destiny's Comix has spent the last few years preserving the hashtag WCW for hand-painted memories and highlights of WCW. We're going to discuss Brandon's love of WCW, his favorite moments, his favorite pieces, and of course the Blood and Paint Kickstarter he has started.  Links to Destiny Comix https://destinycomix.weebly.com/ https://www.facebook.com/DestinyComix/ https://twitter.com/DestinyComiX https://www.youtube.com/user/DestinyComics https://www.instagram.com/destinycomix/ Support Blood and Paint https://www.patreon.com/DestinyComix https://www.webtoons.com/en/canvas/flatfoot-mcgee/ Please Visit Our Sponsors

This week we speak with Bill Raduchel, who has served as a high-level executive and strategic adviser for organizations such as Sun Microsystems, AOL Time Warner, Xerox, McGraw-Hill, and the Salvation Army. Over half a century working with systems, software, and networks, he has remained at the forefront of the technology revolution in media, education, and corporate governance including recognition at Sun as CIO of the Year and the top CFO in the computer industry and at AOL as CTO of the year. He holds more than fifty issued patents as well as a PhD in econometrics from Harvard, where he taught for five years with John Kenneth Galbraith. He has been writing software in some form since he turned fifteen years old in 1961. He is also the author of The New Technology State. This book is about society—how it has changed and what technology is enabling us to do to ourselves.For more on Bubble Trouble, including transcripts of the show, visit us online at http://bubbletroublepodcast.comYou can learn more about Richard at https://www.linkedin.com/in/richard-kramer-16306b2/More on Will Page at: https://pivotaleconomics.com(Times below correspond to the episode without considering any inserted advertisements.)In this episode of Bubble Trouble, hosts Richard Kramer and Will Page engage in a deep dive conversation with guest Bill Raduchel, exploring his extensive 60-year career transitioning from chemical engineering to economics, and eventually into the tech and media industries. Raduchel discusses his views on conventional wisdom, the evolution of technology, and its implications on economics, suggesting that technology has outpaced neoclassical economic theories due to its scaling properties and the significance of information. He shares insights from his book and experiences, addressing issues like tech debt, government staffing challenges in the face of rapid technological advancements, and the potential impact of AI on the future of software development. The episode covers the dynamic between big tech companies, government regulation, and the inevitable challenges posed by significant shifts towards AI and increased power demands. Raduchel also presents intriguing ideas on innovating government structures and discusses the practicalities of managing a rapidly evolving tech landscape.00:00 Welcome to Bubble Trouble: A Skeptical Conversation00:46 A Journey Through Tech and Economics06:23 The Evolution of Technology and Its Impact on Economics08:02 The Writing Process and Insights into Bill's Book11:21 Exploring the New Technology State and Government Challenges17:43 The Intricacies of Tech Talent and Government Staffing19:53 Tech Debt and the Challenges of Modernization25:55 The Global Tech Landscape: Government and Private Sector Dynamics25:55 Wrapping Up Part One and Teasing Part Two25:55 Simplifying UK Government Websites: A Double-Edged Sword25:55 The Dangers of Centralization and Cybersecurity26:10 Big Tech, Government, and the Quest for Regulation27:59 The Talent Gap in Government and Tech Regulation Challenges29:15 Innovative Solutions andthe Power of Decentralization30:15 The Role of Startups in Tech Innovation and Employee Motivation31:59 Google's Management Revolution: Lessons in Innovation34:45 The Complexities of Regulating Big Tech40:05 Navigating the Future of AI and Government Regulation42:19 Economics, Education, and the Future Workforce44:56 Smoke Signals: Warning Signs in Tech and Regulation50:06 Credits Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Join us as we explore the career of Howard Shimmel across his years at Nielsen, MTV Networks, Simmons Research, AOL/Time Warner, Nielsen (again) and Turner Broadcasting.  Howard shares stories about how he tackled subscription pricing research for AOL/Time Warner, children's research at Nickelodeon and new ad format research for Turner.  It's an episode packed with life lessons.

Guest: Bill Raduchel, AuthorOn LinkedIn | https://www.linkedin.com/in/wjraduchel/____________________________Host: Marco Ciappelli, Co-Founder at ITSPmagazine [@ITSPmagazine] and Host of Redefining Society PodcastOn ITSPmagazine | https://www.itspmagazine.com/itspmagazine-podcast-radio-hosts/marco-ciappelli_____________________________This Episode's SponsorsBlackCloak

William Raduchel describes growing up in Houghton County, Michigan, as it evolved from a prosperous to a declining area. Starting from a local college, Michigan Tech, a school focused on engineering, on to Michigan State and then to many roles at Harvard, Bill gained a mastery of economics, computer science, and engineering. His career made fascinating transition from automating Harvard's admissions, to creating special software for economic analysis, to achieving top positions at McGraw Hill, Xeros, Sun Microsystems and AOL Time Warner. He explains why some companies grew with technology while others were unable to make technology work for their business success. Bill concludes with perspectives on the growth of Artificial Intelligence and its likely impacts. He explores these and other issues in his forthcoming book, The New Technology State.

SMV6: Refinery Ventures Managing Partner Tim Schigel shares how he found “Lightning in a Bottle” and hit $50M in revenues in 4 years at ShareThis.This episode of the SmartMoney Ventures Podcast features Tim Schigel, Founder and Managing Partner of Refinery Ventures who invests in early stage companies based on his own experience as Founder of ShareThis, where they hit $50M of revenues in 4 years.  Also as an investor in Advertising.com, they achieved $150M in revenues in year 5.  The story illustrates the immense value of having hands-on experience working in a company with an extremely rapid growth trajectory.  It can be a bumpy ride, but once you've experienced it, you'll never go back.  Tim Schigel is the Founder of ShareThis, Founding Board Member of Cintrifuse, a fund of funds, and Founder & Managing Partner of Refinery Ventures.  He is a recipient of the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year award.  Tim has invested in many successful companies including dotloop (acquired by Zillow), Advertising.com & Third Screen Media (both acquired by AOL/Time Warner), and BuzzMetrics (acquired by Nielsen). Tim holds a Bachelors of Science Degree in Electrical Engineering from Case Western Reserve University and serves on the Advisory Board of The Institute for Management & Engineering (TiME) at Case Western.  

Originally published August 2014Jan Brandt is a legend in the world of marketing. She singlehandedly led the famous AOL "carpet-bombing" campaign that put millions of AOL trial discs and CDs in everything from magazines to popcorn boxes to banks. AOL was able to leap to the front of the online pack, over competitors like CompuServe and Prodigy largely on the success of this campaign. Jan tells us how this strategy developed, the thinking that went into it and goes into great detail about what worked and what didn't. But she was also a very early AOL executive, so she is able to give us some fantastic background about AOL the company: its culture, its people and its visionaries–people like Steve Case. She takes us from AOL's beginnings, through its considerable growing pains (remember "America On Hold?") its rise to dominance in the dot-com era, and even gives us her perspective on the legacy of the AOL/Time Warner merger.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Bob Pittman is Chairman and CEO of iHeartMedia, Inc., the number one audio company in America. With over a quarter billion monthly listeners, iHeartMedia has a greater reach than any other media company in the US. The company's leadership position in audio extends across multiple platforms, including 850 live broadcast stations, its iHeartRadio digital radio service, influencers, social, branded live music events, and podcasts as the #1 commercial podcast publisher. Bob is the co-founder and programmer who led the team that created MTV. He has led some well-known transformations in television, music, real estate, internet and audio as CEO of MTV Networks, AOL Networks, Six Flags Theme Parks, Quantum Media, Century 21 Real Estate and Time Warner Enterprises and as COO of America Online, Inc. and later AOL Time Warner. He has also been inducted into both the Advertising Hall of Fame and the Broadcasting and Cable Hall of Fame; He received AdWeek's first ‘Media Visionary' award, was named one of Advertising Age's "50 Pioneers and Visionaries of TV" and "10 Marketers Who Changed American Culture”; He was also recognized as one of Life Magazine's “Five Original Thinkers of the 80s” as well as the eighth of Life Magazine's “50 Most Influential Boomers.” Can you tell us about your childhood and how it influenced your career path? What was the biggest challenge you faced in launching MTV, and how did you overcome it? How did you come up with the idea for iHeart Media, and what was your vision for the company? What has been the most rewarding experience of your career so far? Can you share a story about a time when you faced failure, and how you bounced back from it? How have you managed to stay relevant and adapt to changing media landscapes over the years? What advice would you give to aspiring entrepreneurs who are just starting out? How do you balance your personal life with the demands of your career? What legacy do you hope to leave behind with your work in media and entertainment? What are your future plans for iHeart Media, and how do you see the company evolving in the coming years? What are the most important lessons you've learned in your career, and how have they shaped your leadership style? Can you talk about a particular project or initiative that you're particularly proud of? How do you stay motivated and inspired to keep pushing boundaries and pursuing new ideas? Can you tell us about a time when you had to make a tough decision, and how you approached it? What do you think are the biggest challenges facing the media industry today, and how can they be addressed? --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/gamechangerslive/support

From its very inception, and for a couple of hundred years, New Orleans was a place people moved to from all over the world. Toward the end of the 20th century, things started to go in reverse. Every year since 1963 more people were leaving New Orleans than arriving here. Then, early this century, the tide turned again. Among the many reasons for this new wave of migration was something we hadn't heard in a long time: people were moving here to start a business. Both of Peter's guests on this edition of Out to Lunch today moved to new Orleans - one from Los Angeles, the other from New York - for very different types of businesses. Courtney Williams grew up in Jamaica and moved to New York City as a teenager. Courtney describes himself as, “Exhibit A for a great education.” After law school he became Director of Development at America Online. And then Vice President of Business Development at AOL Time Warner. Courtney was a part of the $165B merger between AOL and Time warner. One of the biggest mergers in history, it was the first connection between tech and entertainment and paved the way for everything that was to follow, from iTunes to Netflix. After his monumental success in corporate America, Courtney wanted to start a business that would utilize his knowledge and experience to make something more than money. He wanted to make a contribution to building a better world. To that end, Courtney founded a tech-driven education business called TORSH, which stands for Today's One Room Schoolhouse.  TORSH allows school principals and heads of college departments to monitor and mentor teachers. It creates an online meeting place where all of a teacher's records are collected and available. And it's a cyber-meeting-space where teachers can share resources. TORSH's clients include Notre Dame, Purdue, Johns Hopkins University, and many more. Courtney founded TORSH in New York. In 2014  he relocated the operation to New Orleans. Janna Hart Black grew up in Metairie. She moved to Los Angeles to pursue a career in the fashion industry. Like many people in LA, Jana became increasingly concerned at the overwhelming number of homeless people living on the streets. Wishing she could do something to help these folks while at the same time looking for a way to move back home, Janna made both of those wishes come true. In 2015 she and her husband moved to New Orleans, and Jana founded a company called Bonfolk, that makes socks. You may have seen Bonfolk socks, and more recently Bonfolk towels too. They have New Orleans-inspired designs - like potholes or beignets - and Louisiana designs, - like oysters or a swamp scene. For every pair of fashion socks Bonfolk sells, they give a pair of specially designed resilient socks to organizations that distribute them to homeless people. And for every towel they sell, they give a towel to a needy person, especially disadvantaged kids learning to swim. When doctors graduate from medical school, they're meant to be guided by the fundamental principle of medicine embodied in what's called the Hippocratic Oath. Basically, it's a declaration that says, “Do no harm.” There's no equivalent oath for small business owners. But it's fair to say that most people today who own their own business want to feel that, whatever they're doing, they're in some way making the world a better place. There's a name for this type of business philosophy. It's called “Social Impact.” Janna Hart Black and Courtney Williams are both great examples of entrepreneurs who build social impact consciousness into the very fabric of their business. Out to Lunch is recorded live over lunch at NOLA Pizza in the NOLA Brewing Taproom. You can find photos from this show by Jill Lafleur at itsneworleans.com.  See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Howie Klein is a fascinating man. We first met some 30+ years ago. At the time, I was doing music radio in Los Angeles and Howie was President of Reprise Records. When he saw the writing on the wall ahead of the AOL/Time Warner merger in 2000, he took the payout and got out just before everything started going to shit. Howie quickly pivoted and turned his energies toward electing progressives to office. He began blogging at DownWithTyranny.com, and formed the Blue America PAC with other progressive bloggers Digby and John Amato. And they're all still going strong. When I moved from music radio to progressive talk, Howie quickly became a regular guest, eventually joining me weekly. We've been at it for well over a dozen years already. You'd think we'd run out of things to talk about. But sadly, the state of politics today insures that we'll never be at a loss for topics - and politicians - about which to talk. Today, aside from wherever the conversation takes us, I'll definitely ask Howie about Dianne Feinstein. Howie lived in San Francisco back in the day and was friendly with Harvey Milk. I've heard that Harvey shared his private feelings about the former Mayor of SF, now the sickliest senator in Congress who refuses to stay home...

The NEW AEW deal with WBD, WWE has a helluva show in Puerto Rico, reexamining Cody's current WWE run, AEW sells a shit ton of tickets to Wembley Bryant on twitter and IG: @brysports Bryant on Tik Tok: @stanleyjackson23 Britt twitter: @BrittWhitmire Britt IG: @bdub4reelz Show twitter: @KatieVickAlive --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/katie-vick/support

Not all attractions stay put! Eric Bischoff came to fame by being the on air/off air "big cheese" at World Championship Wresting (WCW) during the Monday Night Wars with WWE. Eric navigates the the landscape that allowed him to propel himself to the top of WCW and the ultimate downfall with the disastrous AOL-Time Warner merger.  Does controversy really create cash? Want to know more about Bischoff-Hervey Entertainment? What's Eric's favorite theme park? All of this and more!   Follow us on Twitter: www.twitter.com/attractions_grp Watch the video version on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@theattractionsgrouppodcast Listen to the audio cast: https://linktr.ee/attractions_group Support the show through Buy Me A Coffee: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/AttractionsPod Check out Eric Bischoff's podcasts: https://www.youtube.com/@83weeks Buy Eric's book, "Controversy Creates Cash" - https://www.amazon.com/Eric-Bischoff-Controversy-Creates-Cash/dp/1416528547/ref=sr_1_1?crid=Q5KSSVF416HL&keywords=contracersy+creates+cash+eric+bischoff&qid=1683763359&sprefix=controversy+creates+cash+eric+bischof%2Caps%2C218&sr=8-1 Buy Eric's newest book, "Grateful" - https://www.amazon.com/Grateful-Eric-Bischoff/dp/B0BLR5CW2Q/ref=pd_bxgy_vft_none_img_sccl_1/131-1333940-6231907?pd_rd_w=ZaNzR&content-id=amzn1.sym.26a5c67f-1a30-486b-bb90-b523ad38d5a0&pf_rd_p=26a5c67f-1a30-486b-bb90-b523ad38d5a0&pf_rd_r=MY1ARX8797C2RPHK1QMB&pd_rd_wg=x4aUz&pd_rd_r=9f67d95b-6bb3-443c-979b-c288ef602ca0&pd_rd_i=B0BLR5CW2Q&psc=1

Steve Case is one of America's best-known and most accomplished entrepreneurs and a pioneer in making the Internet part of everyday life.Steve's entrepreneurial career began in 1985 when he co-founded America Online (AOL). Under Steve's leadership, AOL became the world's largest and most valuable Internet company, helping to drive the worldwide adoption of a medium that has transformed business and society. AOL was the first Internet company to go public, and in 2000, Steve negotiated the largest merger in business history, bringing together AOL and Time Warner in a transaction valued at $350 billion. To facilitate the merger, Steve agreed to step down as CEO when the merger closed.Following his departure from AOL, Steve founded Revolution, a DC-based investment firm with three funds that support the startup life cycle at every stage while focusing on backing companies based outside of Silicon Valley.*The Founder Hour is brought to you by Outer. Outer makes the world's most beautiful, comfortable, innovative, and high-quality outdoor furniture - ALL from sustainable materials - and is the ONLY outdoor furniture with a patented built-in cover to make protecting it effortless. From teak chairs to fire pit tables, everything Outer makes has the look and feel of what you'd expect at a 5-star resort, for less than you'd pay at a big box store for something that won't last.For a limited time, get 10% off and FREE shipping at www.liveouter.com/thefounderhour. Terms and conditions apply.*This episode is brought to you by “More Than Profit.” If you enjoy The Founder Hour, we think you'll enjoy this podcast too. It celebrates entrepreneurs, investors, and leaders that are living and working with purpose. The host, Bryce Butler, sits down with his guests and shares personal stories about what it's like to succeed…and even fail. But more than that, what motivates them beyond just profit to press forward in their work and as a leader.Check out “More Than Profit” wherever you get your podcasts or at www.morethanprofit.fm.*This episode is brought to you by Jason Wu Beauty, affordable luxury makeup infused with skincare ingredients. Founded on the idea that beauty should be effortless and chic, Jason Wu Beauty is about really showing yourself through the beauty products, not being covered up by them. Whether you prefer minimal, natural elegance or bold glamor, Jason Wu Beauty has the perfect products for you. With colors and shades that can be used with any skin tone, you can create countless looks to enhance your natural beauty and release your inner icon. You will feel beautiful, confident, and completely yourself. Jason Wu Beauty is clean, and always cruelty-free.Available now at Target, JCPenney, Shoppers Drug Mart, and JasonWuBeauty.com.

AOL & Time Warner (2001) — $65 billion loss. Daimler-Benz & Chrysler (1998) — $36 billion loss. Google & Motorola (2012) — $12.5 billion loss. These behemoths all failed when trying to integrate. Why? There are many reasons, but the biggest one is because they tried to run their integration like they ran their business. With 70-90% of integrations flat out failing, you can't follow what you've always done. An integration is not like running a business — integrations are temporary, timebound, and extremely flexible. Running your M&A integration like a business causes your customers to flock to your competitors in search of better service. Senior leaders and top talent have no choice but to leave. And you destroy any chance of receiving a positive return on your investment. In fact, you could leave the company worse off then if you did nothing — like with the previous examples. So, how do we avoid wasting millions of dollars — and destroying the company? In today's episode, I reveal the “Three Legged Stool” approach to enhance the odds of your M&A integration succeeding by a factor of 10:1. I also share why having Elon Musk or Jeff Bezos on your team isn't the answer to a profitable M&A. Listen now! Show Highlights Include: Why hiring your senior leaders (or project managers) to run your integration are both fundamentally wrong (1:39) How 12 week due diligence periods ethically blind you to glaring—and obvious—red flags about a business you want to acquire (7:34) Why integrations that don't focus on rigidity can actually sabotage your business  (8:56) How to enhance the odds of your M&A integration succeeding by a factor of 10:1 with the “3 Legged Stool” approach (11:22) For more about Joe Mosher, go here: https://moshercg.com/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/joemosher/

Collaborating in Community: Philanthropy's Role in Cultivating Equitable K-12 Learning EnvironmentsIn this special guest episode of 16:1, Katie and Chelsea are joined by Dr. Gisele C. Shorter, the Director of National Education Strategy at the Raikes Foundation, an organization with a mission to "[invest] in youth-serving institutions and systems to make them more effective in supporting and empowering all young people, especially those who have been most marginalized."Dr. Shorter discusses her work at the intersection of philanthropy and building equitable learning environments in K-12 schools, a role through which she empowers educators, policymakers, grantmakers, schools, support orgs, and communities to center the student experience. The discussion ranges from topics of classroom instruction, funding, and the science of learning and development to the educational policy initiatives that bolster community engagement and drive student success. Gisele and the hosts also explore the processes of defining goals and outcomes and measuring success with partner schools and educators, undertakings that can be difficult against a challenging cultural and political backdrop.The show concludes with a discussion of the ideal role of philanthropic partners in transforming educational experiences, a few questions about how Dr. Shorter sees her work evolving over the next decade, and a list of resources that she recommends for educators who are striving to build more equitable learning communities. Stick around for "What We Learned" if you're into trivia on transistors, maple syrup bottles, and a parting thought about doing the hard work of naming what's happening in our schools.Meet Dr. Shorter:Dr. Gisele C. Shorter provides strategy, policy, impact scaling and fundraising consulting services to non-profits, coalitions and advocacy groups to help them expand their reach and strengthen their impact.Gisele's career is rooted in a deep belief that an equitable society starts with an equitable education system. For 20 years, she has led large-scale community-based programs, research and policy initiatives to advance justice and equity, close health disparities, and ensure access and opportunities for Black and Brown youth and communities to flourish.Dr. Shorter has led youth development, education and community-based organizations through programmatic resets, large-scale culture change initiatives and strategic re-engineering. In 2018 she was recruited to the Raikes Foundation to lead the K-12 School & System Redesign portfolio focused on a commitment to grow the foundation's impact and to advance justice and equity in the redesign of our national public education system by leveraging the science of learning and development.The heartbeat of the K-12 portfolio is the Building Equitable Learning Environments (BELE) Network. Today she is responsible for impact and strategy coherence across the K-12, postsecondary, education fieldbuilding, and policy portfolios, as the Director of the National Education Strategy. She ensures grantmaking investments advance education policies and practices that support students furthest from educational justice, including those experiencing homelessness, foster care, and the justice system.Gisele began her career in the private sector with leadership experiences including Volume.com, an AOL Time Warner company, where she was Head of Research and ESPN, Inc. where she was a Program Management Associate. She has successfully leveraged her private sector experience, community connections, and academic training to drive positive change on behalf of the most vulnerable youth and communities.She is an adjunct professor and founding faculty member of the EdD in Leadership and Innovation degree program at NYU Steinhardt Department of Administration, Leadership, and Technology. She advises doctoral students on a wide range of complex problems of practice, from the role of philanthropy in China's evolving socio-political context to the role of district superintendents as agents for change.Dr. Shorter earned her Ed.D. from Columbia University Teachers College. She holds an M.P.A. from Long Island University and a B.A. from Amherst College. She is a Pahara Aspen Fellow and member of the Aspen Global Leadership Network.Sources + Resources:Raikes Foundation - Introducing Gisele C. ShorterBuilding Equitable Learning Environments NetworkThe BELE Resource LibraryNYU Steinhardt FacultyCenters for Disease Control and Prevention - Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACES)Search Institute - The Developmental Relationships FrameworkNational Assessment of Educational ProgressCommunities for Just Schools FundKingmakers of OaklandCouncil of Chief State School OfficersWestEDCollaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning (CASEL)The BARR CenterThe School Superintendents AssociationResource Equity Funders CollaborativeIpsos

In this episode, Elizabeth Frazee, CEO and Co-founder of TwinLogic Strategies, and Chani Wiggins, Principal at TwinLogic, join host Scott Maberry to discuss what's likely on the horizon for the 118th Congress, including prospects for the debt limit and the potential for bipartisan action on a farm bill, tax extenders, and immigration reform.   What We Discussed in this Episode: What are the biggest challenges and opportunities for global business coming out of the 117th Congress? Does a divided Congress set the stage for gridlock? Can you explain the connection between the budget, the debt limit, and the appropriations? What can we expect from the U.S. House of Representatives in light of the new leadership and rules package? What is the Sinema factor in the U.S. Senate? In terms of immigration reform, what does business need to see fixed? On taxation, is there bipartisan support for tax extenders? What does the makeup of the current Congress mean for the farm bill? How might the Republican-controlled House approach oversight? What will oversight look like in the Democratic-controlled Senate? What's the big takeaway for business in regard to the 118th Congress? If you had a crystal ball, what would it tell us about the 2024 elections?   About Elizabeth Frazee As Co-Founder and CEO of TwinLogic Strategies, Elizabeth Frazee is a 30-year veteran of Washington D.C. politics and was recently named a Top Lobbyist by The Hill. She worked for over a decade in senior positions on Capitol Hill, spent years as an executive, leading government relations for tech and entertainment companies, and since 2003 has consulted for companies, trade associations and nonprofits.   After working for her home state Senator from North Carolina, Elizabeth served as press secretary for the House Energy and Commerce Committee. An attorney, she completed her congressional service running the legislative office of Representative Bob Goodlatte. Once in the private sector, Elizabeth was director of government relations at the Walt Disney Company. She joined AOL in the late 90s as vice president of public policy and ran its Congressional team. In 2003 she left AOL-Time Warner to build the private lobbying practice that became TwinLogic Strategies in 2009.  Elizabeth is an expert at managing issue campaigns and running industry coalitions. She delivers results for her clients by combining a thorough understanding of policy, communications, and politics with an impressive network of relationships.      About Chani Wiggins As a Principal with TwinLogic Strategies, Chani Wiggins draws on 20 years of federal government experience to assist clients with various policy interests in Congress and within the Administration.    Chani spent 11 years on Capitol Hill, serving as Senator Claire McCaskill's (D-MO) Legislative Director, former Senator Mark Dayton's (D-MN) Deputy Chief of Staff, and former Congressman Bart Stupak's (D-MI) Legislative and Communications Director. She was also a senior policy aide for Senator Tom Harkin (D-IA) and professional staff on the Health Education and Labor Committee. She later served as Assistant Secretary for Legislative Affairs at the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. Since September 2010, Chani has represented clients with priorities in national security, telecommunications and technology, and energy policies. She also serves as a strategic advisor for the Government & Technology Services Coalition (GTSC), an organization of small and mid-sized company executives that develop and implement solutions for the federal homeland and national security sector. Chani is known for building relationships on both sides of the political aisle, co-founding the Bipartisan Legislative Directors Group in 2007 to find common ground among the Senate's 100 Legislative Directors.     About Scott Maberry As an international trade partner in Governmental Practice, J. Scott Maberry counsels clients on global risk, international trade, and regulation. He is also a past co-chair of the Diversity and Inclusion Working Group for the Washington D.C. office, serves on the firm's pro bono committee, and is a founding member of the Sheppard Mullin Organizational Integrity Group. Scott's practice includes representing clients before the U.S. government agencies and international U.S. Department of Treasury Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), the Department of Commerce Bureau of Industry & Security (BIS), the Department of Commerce Import Administration, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), the Department of State Directorate of Defense Trade Controls (DDTC), the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ), the International Trade Commission (ITC), the Committee on Foreign Investment in the U.S. (CFIUS), He also represents clients in federal court and grand jury proceedings, as well as those pursuing negotiations and dispute resolution under the World Trade Organization (WTO), North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) and other multilateral and bilateral agreements. A member of the World Economic Forum Expert Network, Scott also advises the WEF community in the areas of global risk, international trade, artificial intelligence and values.   Contact Information  Elizabeth Frazee Chani Wiggins Scott Maberry   Thank you for listening! Don't forget to SUBSCRIBE to the show to receive two new episodes delivered straight to your podcast player every month.   If you enjoyed this episode, please help us get the word out about this podcast. Rate and Review this show in Apple Podcasts, Amazon Music, Google Podcasts, Stitcher or Spotify. It helps other listeners find this show.   This podcast is for informational and educational purposes only. It is not to be construed as legal advice specific to your circumstances. If you need help with any legal matter, be sure to consult with an attorney regarding your specific needs.  

HBO started as an experiment. It was a way to get people to switch from getting TV over broadcast antennas to cable by offering events you'd otherwise need tickets to see: boxing, plays, movies. That's where the name Home Box Office comes from. But it grew from there in surprising ways: HBO was a major innovator in satellite distribution, in working with cable operators around the country, and of course in programming. The company's taste and style has influenced and shaped culture for a generation now. And importantly, HBO did it without any real data: the cable companies owned all the subscribers, so HBO made decisions through instinct and experience. The amazing thing about HBO is that it has stayed true to itself through an absolutely tumultuous set of ownership changes and strategy shifts. If you're a Decoder listener you know about the chaos of AT&T and HBO Max and the sale to Discovery to create Warner Brothers Discovery, but it's so much twistier than that. I talked through all of those twists with Felix Gillette and John Koblin, authors of the terrific book It's Not TV: The Spectacular Rise, Revolution, and Future of HBO. Felix and John also peeled back the curtain on your favorite HBO shows from Sex and the City to Game of Thrones. Before we get into the episode, I have to do our usual set of disclosures: I'm a Netflix executive producer. We made a Netflix show called The Future Of. You should watch it. I'm hopelessly biased in favor of the show we made. Also, Vox Media has a minority investment from Comcast. They don't like me very much. And I worked at AOL Time Warner. I quit to start The Verge.  Ok that's that. Let's get into the interview—it's a good one. Transcript: https://www.theverge.com/e/23352141 Credits: Decoder is a production of The Verge and part of the Vox Media Podcast Network. It was produced by Creighton DeSimone and Jackie McDermott and it was edited by Callie Wright.  The Decoder music is by Breakmaster Cylinder. Our Editorial Director is Brooke Minters and our Executive Director is Eleanor Donovan. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

As part of its impartiality plan, this week the BBC published its report looking at the broadcaster's coverage of taxation, public spending, governmentborrowing and debt. The authors found no evidence of bias towards one particular political position, but there were things "that put impartiality at risk". Paul Mason discusses the report's findings and reflects on his own experiences working at the BBC and Channel 4."Newsnight had famously missed the AOL /Time Warner merger, the biggest merger in history - didn't think it was a story."Support the podcast by subscribing here.Find all our podcasts here Get bonus content on Patreon Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In episode #107 your favorite CEOs Taylor Graham and Chloe Willemsen are sitting down with an entrepreneurial force to be wreckened with... Nancy Jarecki Nancy has always played by her own rules. She's the innovator behind the multiple award- winning company bettybeauty, inc., was born in Kansas, studied art in Texas, and moved to Los Angeles to pursue a career as an artist. Recognized as one of the up and coming Southern California artists by LA Weekly, Nancy showcased her art at numerous shows and in corporate art collections. As Nancy continued on her entrepreneurial path in Los Angeles, she was tapped in early 1986 by the creators of a startup cable network to help develop and launch a cable network called Movietime. The following year she was an instrumental part of the launch team for the network now known as E! Entertainment Television. During this time, Nancy met her husband, Andrew Jarecki, who was visiting Los Angeles to launch his company, MovieFone. She soon moved to New York to join him, helping him develop the business, and starting their new family. In 1999, the Jareckis sold MovieFone to AOL Time Warner started a movie production company as well as moved their family to Rome, Italy, where they were completing work on the Oscar-nominated film Capturing the Friedmans documentary. While in Rome, where they lived for two years, Nancy had an experience that gave her the idea to start her own innovative beauty products company, bettybeauty, inc. Visiting a hair salon, she noticed women leaving with small “take home” bags. When she inquired as to what they were, the receptionist told her they were a bit of extra hair color for “the hair down there – to make it match!” Realizing that women across America would love a commercially-available product to color this important area, Nancy began developing the first safe color for the hair down there to fulfill this unmet need in the beauty market. Now know as the popular and award winning specialty hair color kits. Nancy's creation of these innovative products won her multiple awards in 2007 and 2008; ‘Innovator of the Year' by Independent Cosmetics Manufactures and Distributors. As well as winning the 2008 prestigious Cosmetic Executive Women's, ‘indie' award*. (*considered the Oscars of the beauty industry). Nancy also suffered a massive brain aneurysm and made a miraculous recovery from her near fatal death. She is now working on a book dealing with the subjects of adversity, spirituality and business. To check out Betty Beauty's products and website click HERE To get 30% off your Zencastr Professional account click HERE Feel free to stalk your hosts a little further: Chloe: @chloeelizabethcreative Taylor: @taygrahambiz and @sociallytaylored To check out the official CEOish website click HERE To ask us a question or request a guest, connect with us on Instagram and Twitter @ceoishpodcast or email us at ceoishpodcast@gmail.com

Bob Pittman desperately needed $10 for his first flying lesson but was turned down for a job at a retail store and another at Piggly Wiggly. Refusing to take no for an answer, he walked into his local radio station and managed to snag a position that paid $1.65 an hour – never imagining that this perseverance would set him up to become not only a pilot, but the co-founder and former CEO of MTV Networks, COO of AOL Time Warner, CEO of Six Flags, CEO of Century 21, and a co-founder and CEO of iHeartMedia – the leading audio company in the United States whose broadcast reaches over 250 million Americans every month. In this episode, Randall and Bob discuss:- Bob's experience growing up in the segregated South- Leaving your comfort zone to identify problems and find solutions- How Bob's passion for aviation led him to the radio industry- The necessity (or not) of a college degree- Moving a company from a $20 million operating loss to turning a profit within 18 months- How companies can create a brand without spending millions on marketing- Why success and failure are the same thing- The critical importance of marketing- The great opportunities in working for a company nobody's ever heard of- 3 key elements to success- And other topics…Bob Pittman is a rockstar radio and TV programmer, marketer, investor, and media entrepreneur. He is currently co-founder, CEO, and Chairman of iHeartMedia, the leading audio company in the United States. iHeartMedia owns 863 radio stations, reaches over 250 million people every month, and had $3.85 billion in revenues over the last 12 months.Bob is also the former COO of AOL Time Warner after its $180 billion merger, the former CEO of Six Flags Theme Parks, the former CEO of Century 21 Real Estate, and the former CEO of Clear Channel Outdoor, one of the world's largest outdoor advertising companies. He is a founding member of the Pilot Group, a New York-based private investment firm whose investments include Huffington Post, Zynga, and Facebook. Bob is also a co-founder of Casa Dragones Tequila, a host of a podcast called Math and Magic Stories from the Frontiers of Market, and is also a dedicated philanthropist among many other organizations.Resources Mentioned:Incognito, by David Eagleman: https://www.amazon.com/Incognito-David-Eagleman-audiobook/dp/B0053ET3WO  New York's Public Theater:https://publictheater.org/Rock and Roll Hall of Fame:https://www.rockhall.com/Time Magazine's Man of the Year:https://time.com/Sponsors:Sandee – https://sandee.com/Bliss: Beaches – https://www.amazon.com/Bliss-Beaches-Randall-Kaplan/dp/1951836170/Want to Connect? Reach out to us online!Website – https://insearchofexcellencepodcast.comInstagram – https://www.instagram.com/randallkaplan/LinkedIn – https://www.linkedin.com/in/randall-kaplan-05858340/

Bob Pittman desperately needed $10 for his first flying lesson but was turned down for a job at a retail store and another at Piggly Wiggly. Refusing to take no for an answer, he walked into his local radio station and managed to snag a position that paid $1.65 an hour – never imagining that this perseverance would set him up to become not only a pilot, but the co-founder and former CEO of MTV Networks, COO of AOL Time Warner, CEO of Six Flags, CEO of Century 21, and a co-founder and CEO of iHeartMedia – the leading audio company in the United States whose broadcast reaches over 250 million Americans every month. In this episode, Randall and Bob discuss:- Bob's experience growing up in the segregated South- Leaving your comfort zone to identify problems and find solutions- How Bob's passion for aviation led him to the radio industry- The necessity (or not) of a college degree- Moving a company from a $20 million operating loss to turning a profit within 18 months- How companies can create a brand without spending millions on marketing- Why success and failure are the same thing- The critical importance of marketing- The great opportunities in working for a company nobody's ever heard of- 3 key elements to success- And other topics…Bob Pittman is a rockstar radio and TV programmer, marketer, investor, and media entrepreneur. He is currently co-founder, CEO, and Chairman of iHeartMedia, the leading audio company in the United States. iHeartMedia owns 863 radio stations, reaches over 250 million people every month, and had $3.85 billion in revenues over the last 12 months.Bob is also the former COO of AOL Time Warner after its $180 billion merger, the former CEO of Six Flags Theme Parks, the former CEO of Century 21 Real Estate, and the former CEO of Clear Channel Outdoor, one of the world's largest outdoor advertising companies. He is a founding member of the Pilot Group, a New York-based private investment firm whose investments include Huffington Post, Zynga, and Facebook. Bob is also a co-founder of Casa Dragones Tequila, a host of a podcast called Math and Magic Stories from the Frontiers of Market, and is also a dedicated philanthropist among many other organizations.Resources Mentioned:Incognito, by David Eagleman: https://www.amazon.com/Incognito-David-Eagleman-audiobook/dp/B0053ET3WO  New York's Public Theater:https://publictheater.org/Rock and Roll Hall of Fame:https://www.rockhall.com/Time Magazine's Man of the Year:https://time.com/Sponsors:Sandee – https://sandee.com/Bliss: Beaches – https://www.amazon.com/Bliss-Beaches-Randall-Kaplan/dp/1951836170/Want to Connect? Reach out to us online!Website – https://insearchofexcellencepodcast.comInstagram – https://www.instagram.com/randallkaplan/LinkedIn – https://www.linkedin.com/in/randall-kaplan-05858340/

Bob Pittman is Chairman and CEO of iHeartMedia, Inc., the number one audio company in America. Prior to iHeart, Bob has just had the most amazing career as a co-founder and programmer who led the team that created MTV. He has also led some of the most incredible turnarounds as CEO of MTV Networks, AOL Networks and Time Warner Enterprises and as COO of America Online, Inc. and later AOL Time Warner. In Today's Episode with Bob Pittman We Discuss: 1. From Flying Lessons to Radio: How Bob first made his way into radio at the age of 15? What does Bob know now that he wishes he had known when he started his career? What is the most painful lesson Bob has learned in his career that he is pleased to have learned? 2. Decision-Making in Leadership: How does Bob structure all decision-making as CEO today? Why does Bob ensure that all decisions are made within 24 hours? What are the pros and cons? How does Bob prevent consensus decision-making? How does Bob create dissent in a discussion? How do the best leaders know when to kill a project? What do most do instead? 3. Tactics vs Strategies: Why Plans Are BS! What is the difference between a tactic and a strategy? When is the right time to change your strategy and tactics? What have been Bob's biggest lessons on how to get teams on board with tactical changes? Why does Bob believe that plans are BS? When can they be useful? 4. The Secret to Messaging and Storytelling: What does Bob believe is the universal truth to successful consumer messaging? What has changed and what has not changed in the way companies tell stories to their customers? Is there a difference between a great product and a great company? What are examples? What excites Bob most about consumer habits today? 5. Bob Pittman: AMA: What does Bob believe is the success to successful parenting? How has it changed? How does Bob analyze his own relationship to money today? How has that changed? Why does Bob not believe in legacy? What do people get most wrong when it comes to ego?

An in depth, fascinating conversation with one of the most important entrepreneurs in modern American business. This is a MASTER CLASS in business - hear directly from the founder of AOL - the man who is one of a handful of people responsible for the birth of the internet. Case reveals never-before-heard his struggles early on as he built AOL against all odds and how he overcame them, why women and people of color are being left behind by venture capitalists in the U.S. entrepreneurial market and what his solution is to correct that. Case has unique insight into what makes someone a successful entrepreneur and what doesn't and much more. This is a RARE opportunity to hear from one of the country's most brilliant business visionaries. 

To support independent ski journalism, please consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. This podcast hit paid subscribers’ inboxes on June 25. Free subscribers got it on June 28. To receive future pods as soon as they’re live, please consider an upgrade to a paid subscription.WhoRusty Gregory, CEO of Alterra Mountain Company, owner of the Ikon PassRecorded onJune 23, 2022About Alterra Mountain CompanyOwned by: KSL Capital and Henry Crown and CompanyAbout the Ikon PassHere’s a breakdown of all the ski areas that are party to Alterra’s Ikon Pass:Why I interviewed himIn its first five years, Alterra has gotten just about everything right – or about as right as any ski company can as it Starfoxes its way through an asteroid belt filled with Covid and empowered workers and shattered supply chains and The Day After Tomorrow weather patterns and an evolving social fabric and the sudden realization by U.S. Americans that there’s such a thing as outside. The company changed the name of one of America’s iconic resorts, managed a near meltdown of its Pacific Northwest anchor, met Covid as well as it could, and continually tweaked Ikon Pass access tiers to avoid overwhelming partner mountains while still offering skiers good value. Oh, and adding Sun Valley, Snowbasin, Chamonix, Dolomiti Superski, Kitzbühel, Schweitzer, Red Mountain, Mt. Bachelor, and Windham to the pass – all since Covid hit.If it’s all seemed a little improvisational and surprising, that’s because it has been. “I have a great propensity for enjoying chaos and anarchy,” Gregory tells me in the podcast. That explains a lot. In the frantic weeks after Covid zipped North American skiing shut in March 2020, angry skiers demanded concessions for lost spring skiing. Vail released, all at once, an encyclopedic Epic Pass credit plan, which metered discounts based upon number of days skied and introduced an “Epic Coverage” program that secured your investment in the event of everything from a Covid resurgence to the death of a beloved houseplant. Alterra, meanwhile, spun its plan together in four dispatches weeks apart – a renewal discount here, a deferral policy there, an extension six weeks later. “We’re continuing to strengthen our offerings,” Gregory told me on the podcast mid-way through this staggered rollout.In other words, Dude, just chill. We’ll get it right. Whether they ultimately did or not – with their Covid response or anything else – is a bit subjective. But I think they’ve gotten more right than wrong. There was nothing inevitable about Alterra or the Ikon Pass. Vail launched the Epic Pass in 2008. It took a decade for the industry to come up with an effective response. The Mountain Collective managed to gather all the best indies into a crew, but its reach was limited, with just two days at each partner. M.A.X. Pass, with five days per partner, got closer, but it was short on alpha mountains such as Jackson Hole or Snowbird (it did feature Big Sky, Copper, Steamboat, and Winter Park) and wasn’t a season pass to any ski area. The Ikon Pass knitted together an almost impossible coalition of competitors into a coherent product that was an actual Epic Pass equal. Boyne, Powdr, and the ghosts of Intrawest joining forces was a bit like the Mets and the Red Sox uniting to take on the Yankees. It was – and is – an unlikely coalition of competitors fused around a common cause.The Ikon Pass was a great idea. But so was AOL-Time Warner – or so it seemed at the time. But great things, combined, do not always work. They can turn toxic, backfire, fail. Five years in, Alterra and Ikon have, as Gregory tells me, “dramatically exceeded our expectations in every metric for the fifth year in a row.” While Rusty is allergic to credit, he deserves a lot. He understands how complex and unruly and unpredictable skiing and the ski industry is. He came up under the tutelage of the great and feisty Dave McCoy, founder of the incomparable and isolated Mammoth Mountain, that snowy California kingdom that didn’t give a damn what anyone else was doing. He understood how to bring people together while allowing them to exist apart. That’s not easy. I can’t get 10 people to agree to a set of rules at a tailgate cornhole tournament (the beer probably doesn’t help). Everyone who loves the current version of lift-served skiing – which can deliver a skier to just about any chairlift in the United States on a handful of passes (and that’s definitely not all of you), and has inspired an unprecedented wave of ski area re-investment – owes Gregory at least a bit of gratitude.What we talked aboutThe accidental CEO; Alterra’s “first order of business was to do no harm”; Rusty’s mindset when the Ikon Pass launched; the moment when everyone began believing that the Ikon Pass would work; reflections on the first five years of Alterra and Ikon; the challenges of uniting far-flung independent ski areas under one coalition; “every year we have to make the effort to stay together”; the radically idiosyncratic individualism of Dave McCoy; what it means that Ikon has never lost a partner – “there’s no points in life for losing friends”; Alterra doesn’t like the Ikon Base Plus Pass either; Covid shutdown PTSD; the long-term impact of Covid on skiing and the world; the risks of complacency around the Covid-driven outdoor boom; why Alterra’s next CEO, Jared Smith, comes from outside the ski industry; how the Ikon Pass and Alterra  needs to evolve; preserving the cultural quirks of individual mountains as Alterra grows and evolves under new leadership; “we dramatically exceeded our expectations in every metric for the fifth year in a row”; the importance of ceding local decisions to local resorts; “I have a great propensity for enjoying chaos and anarchy”; the current state of the labor market; Ikon Pass sales trends; “having too many people on the mountain at one time is not a great experience”; staying “maniacally guest-experience focused”; Crystal Mountain’s enormous pass price increase for next season; why Deer Valley and Alta moved off the Base Pass for next season; Mayflower, the resort coming online next to Deer Valley; the Ikon Session Pass as a gateway product; why Alterra pulled Mammoth, Palisades Tahoe, and Sugarbush off the Mountain Collective Pass; Sun Valley and Snowbasin joining Ikon; Ikon’s growing European network; whether Alterra would ever look to buy in Europe; “we’re making constant efforts” to sign new Ikon Pass partners; “we’re very interested in Pennsylvania”; I just won’t let the fact that KSL owns Blue and Camelback go; “Alterra needs to move at the right pace”; whether we will ever see more Ikon partners in the Midwest; why Alterra hasn’t bought a ski area since 2019; whether Alterra is bidding on Jay Peak; and thoughts on Rob Katz’s “growth NIMBYism” speech.Why I thought that now was a good time for this interviewGregory has been Alterra’s CEO for about four and a half years. That seems to be about four and a half years longer than he wanted the job. In 2017, he was enjoying retirement after four decades at Mammoth. As an investor in the nascent Alterra Mountain Company – a Frankenski made up of Mammoth, Palisades Tahoe, and the remains of Intrawest – he helped conduct a wide-reaching search for the company’s first CEO. He ended up with the job not through some deft power play but because the committee simply couldn’t find anyone else qualified to take it.His only plan, he said, was to do no harm. There are, as we have seen, plenty of ways to make multi-mountain ski conglomerates fail. Boyne alone has managed the trick over the extra long term (a fact that the company does not get nearly enough credit for). The years after Gregory took the job in February 2018 certainly tested whether Alterra and Ikon, as constructs, were durable beyond the stoke of first concept.They are. And he’s done. At 68, confined for the past half decade to a Denver office building, I get the sense that Gregory is ready to get away from his desk and back in the liftline (or maybe not – “I will be so pissed if I have to wait in a line,” he tells me on the podcast). He’s earned the break and the freedom. It’s someone else’s turn.That someone else, as we learned last month, will be Jared Smith, Alterra’s current president. Gregory will move into a vice chairman of the board role, a position that I suspect requires extensive on-the-ground snow reporting. Smith, who joined Alterra last year after nearly two decades with Live Nation/Ticketmaster, has plenty to prove. As I wrote in May:Gregory was the ultimate industry insider, a college football player-turned-liftie who worked at Mammoth for 40 years before taking the top job at Alterra in 2018. He’d been through the battles, understood the fickle nature of the ski biz, saved Mammoth from bankruptcy several times. Universally liked and respected, he was the ideal leader for Alterra’s remarkable launch, an aggressive and unprecedented union of the industry’s top non-Vail operators, wielding skiing’s Excalibur: a wintry Voltron called the Ikon Pass. That such disparate players – themselves competitors – not only came together but continued to join the Ikon Pass has no doubt been at least partly due to Gregory’s confidence and charisma.Smith came to Alterra last June after 18 years at Live Nation and Ticketmaster. I don’t know if he even skis. He is, by all accounts, a master of building products that knit consumers to experiences through technology. That’s a crucial skillset for Alterra, which must meet skiers on the devices that have eaten their lives. But technology won’t matter at all if the skiing itself suffers. Alterra has thrived as the anti-Vail, a conglomerate with an indie sheen. Will the Ikon Pass continue to tweak access levels to mitigate crowding? Will Alterra continue its mega-investments to modernize and gigantify its resorts? Can the company keep the restless coterie of Boyne, Powdr, Jackson Hole, Alta, Taos, A-Basin, Revelstoke, Red, and Schweitzer satisfied enough to stay united on a single pass? For Alterra, and for the Ikon Pass, these are the existential questions.I have been assured, by multiple sources, that Smith does, in fact, ski. And has an intuitive understanding of where consumers need to be, helping to transform Ticketmaster from a paper-based anachronism into a digital-first experience company. Covid helped accelerate skiing’s embrace of e-commerce. That, according to Gregory, is just the beginning. “Different times require different leadership, and Jared Smith is the right leader going forward,” Gregory tells me in the podcast.Alterra’s first five years were a proof of concept: can the Ikon Pass work? Yes. It works quite well. Now what? They’ve already thought of all the obvious things: buy more mountains, add more partners, play with discounts to make the thing attractive to loyalists and families. But how does Alterra sew the analogue joy that is skiing’s greatest pull into the digital scaffolding that’s hammering the disparate parts of our modern existence together? And how does it do that without compromising the skiing that must not suffer? Is that more difficult than getting Revelstoke and Killington and Taos to all suit up in the same jersey? It might be. But it was a good time to get Gregory on the line and see how he viewed the whole thing before he bounced.Questions I wish I’d askedEven though this went long, there were a bunch of questions I didn’t get to. I really wanted to ask how Alterra was approaching the need for more employee housing. I also wanted to push a little more on the $269 Steamboat lift tickets – like seriously there must be a better way. I also think blackout dates need to evolve as a crowding counter-measure, and Vail and Alterra both need to start thinking past holiday blackouts (as Indy has already done quite well). I’ve also been preoccupied lately with Alterra’s successive rolling out of megaprojects at Palisades Tahoe and Steamboat and Winter Park, and what that says about the company’s priorities. This also would have been a good time to check in on Alterra’s previously articulated commitments to diversity and the environment. These are all good topics, but Alterra has thus far been generous with access, and I anticipate ample opportunities to raise these questions with their leadership in the future.What I got wrongWell despite immense concentration and effort on my part, I finally reverted to my backwater roots and pronounced “gondola” as “gon-dole-ah,” a fact that is mostly amusing to my wife. Rusty and I vacillated between 61 million and 61.5 million reported U.S. skier visits last year. The correct number was 61 million. I also flip-flopped Vail’s Epic Pass sales number and stated at one point that the company had sold 1.2 million Epic Passes for the 2021-22 ski season. The correct number is 2.1 million – I did issue a midstream correction, but really you can’t clarify these things enough.Why you should consider an Ikon PassI feel a bit uncomfortable with the wording of this section header, but the “why you should ski X” section is a standard part of The Storm Skiing Podcast. I don’t endorse any one pass over any other – my job is simply to consider the merits and drawbacks of each. As regular readers know, pass analysis is a Storm pillar. But the Ikon Pass is uniquely great for a handful of reasons:An affordable kids’ pass. The Ikon Pass offers one of the best kids’ pass deals in skiing. Early-birds could have picked up a full Ikon Pass (with purchase of an adult pass) for children age 12 or under for $239. A Base Pass was $199. That’s insane. Many large ski areas – Waterville Valley, Mad River Glen – include a free kids pass with the purchase of an adult pass. But those are single-mountain passes. The Ikon lets you lap Stratton from your weekend condo, spend Christmas break at Snowbird, and do a Colorado tour over spring break. The bargain child’s pass is not as much of a differentiator as it once was – once Vail dropped Epic Pass prices last season, making the adult Epic Pass hundreds of dollars cheaper than an Ikon Pass, the adult-plus-kids pass equation worked out about the same for both major passes. Still, the price structures communicate plenty about Alterra’s priorities, and it’s an extremely strong message.A commitment to the long season. On April 23 this year, 21 Ikon partners still had lifts spinning. Epic passholders could access just nine resorts. That was a big improvement from the previous season, when the scorecard read 20-2 in favor of Ikon. Part of this is a coincidence – many of Alterra’s partners have decades-long histories of letting skiers ride out the snow: Killington, Snowbird, Arapahoe Basin, Sugarloaf. Others. But part of it is Alterra’s letting of big operational decisions to its individual resorts. If Crystal Mountain wants to stay open into June, Crystal Mountain stays open into June. If Stevens Pass has a 133-inch base on April 18… too bad. Closing day (in 2021) is April 18. The long season doesn’t matter to a lot of skiers. But to the ones it does matter to, it matters a lot. Alterra gets that.That lineup though… The Ikon Pass roster has been lights out from day one. But as the coalition has added partners, and as key mountains have migrated from Epic to Ikon, it has grown into the greatest collection of ski areas ever assembled. As I wrote in March:Whatever the reason is that Snowbasin and Sun Valley fled Epic, the ramifications for the North American multipass landscape are huge. So is Alterra’s decision to yank its two California flagships and its top-five New England resort off of the Mountain Collective. Those two moves gave the Ikon Pass the best top-to-bottom destination ski roster of any multi-mountain ski pass on the continent.Good arguments can still be made for the supremacy of the Epic Pass, which delivers seven days at Telluride and unlimited access to 10 North American megaresorts: Whistler, Northstar, Heavenly, Kirkwood, Park City, Crested Butte, Vail, Beaver Creek, Keystone, and Breckenridge, plus Stowe, one of the top two or three ski areas in the Northeast.But many of Vail’s ski areas are small and regionally focused. I like Hunter and Jack Frost and Roundtop and Mount Brighton, Michigan, and their value as businesses is unquestioned, both because they are busy and because they draw skiers from rich coastal and Midwestern cities to the Mountain West. But the Epic Pass’ 40-some U.S. and Canadian mountains are, as a group, objectively less compelling than Ikon’s.The Ikon Pass now delivers exclusive big-pass access to Steamboat, Winter Park, Copper Mountain, Palisades Tahoe, Mammoth, Crystal Washington, Red Mountain, Deer Valley, Solitude, and Brighton, as well as a killer New England lineup of Killington, Stratton, Sugarbush, Sunday River, and Loon. The pass also shares big-mountain partners with Mountain Collective: Alta, Arapahoe Basin, Aspen Snowmass, Banff Sunshine, Big Sky, Jackson Hole, Lake Louise, Revelstoke, Snowbasin, Snowbird, Sugarloaf, Sun Valley, and Taos. For pure fall-line thrills and rowdy, get-after-it terrain, there is just no comparison on any other pass.In large parts of America, it’s become impossible to imagine not buying an Ikon Pass. The lineup is just too good. Epic still makes more sense in many circumstances. But for the neutral party, aimed primarily for big-mountain destinations in a city not defined by access to a local, the Ikon is telling a damn good story.Podcast NotesRusty and I talked a bit about the huge jump in Crystal’s pass price for next season. Here’s a more comprehensive look that I wrote in March, based on conversations with Crystal CEO Frank DeBerry and a number of local skiers.We also discuss Mayflower Mountain Resort, which is to be built adjacent to Deer Valley. Here’s a bit more about that project, which could offer 4,300 acres on 3,000 vertical feet. The developers will have to overcome the ski area’s relatively low elevation, which will be compounded by Utah’s larger water issues.Rusty explained why Alterra pulled Palisades Tahoe, Mammoth, and Sugarbush off the Mountain Collective pass ahead of next ski season. Here were my initial thoughts on that move. A tribute to Mammoth Mountain founder Dave McCoy, who died in 2020 at age 104:Previous Storm Skiing Podcasts with Rusty or Ikon Pass mountain leadersThe Summit at Snoqualmie President & GM Guy Lawrence – April 20, 2022Arapahoe Basin COO Alan Henceroth – April 14, 2022Big Sky President & COO Taylor Middleton – April 6, 2022Solitude President & COO Amber Broadaway – March 5, 2022The Highlands at Harbor Springs President & GM Mike Chumbler – Feb. 18, 2022Steamboat President & COO & Alterra Central Region COO Rob Perlman – Dec. 9, 2021Jackson Hole President Mary Kate Buckley – Nov. 17, 2021Crystal Mountain, Washington President & CEO Frank DeBerry – Oct. 22, 2021Boyne Mountain GM Ed Grice – Oct. 19, 2021Mt. Buller, Australia GM Laurie Blampied – Oct. 12, 2021Aspen Skiing Company CEO Mike Kaplan – Oct. 1, 2021Taos Ski Valley CEO David Norden – Sept. 16, 2021Alterra CEO Rusty Gregory – March 25, 2021Sunday River GM Brian Heon – Feb. 10, 2021Windham President Chip Seamans – Jan. 31, 2021Sugarbush President & GM John Hammond – Nov. 2, 2020Sugarloaf GM Karl Strand – Part 2 – Sept. 30, 2020Sugarloaf GM Karl Strand – Part 1 – Sept. 25, 2020Palisades Tahoe President & COO Ron Cohen – Sept. 4, 2020Alterra CEO Rusty Gregory – May 5, 2020Boyne Resorts CEO Stephen Kircher – April 1, 2020Sunday River President & GM Dana Bullen – Feb. 14, 2020Loon Mountain President & GM Jay Scambio – Feb. 7, 2020Sugarbush President & COO Win Smith – Jan. 30, 2020Boyne Resorts CEO Stephen Kircher – Nov. 21, 2019Killington & Pico President & GM Mike Solimano – Oct. 13, 2019Future Storm Skiing Podcasts scheduled with Ikon Pass mountainsBoyne Resorts CEO Stephen Kircher – September 2022Sun Valley VP & GM Pete Sonntag – September 2022The Storm publishes year-round, and guarantees 100 articles per year. This is article 69/100 in 2022, and number 315 since launching on Oct. 13, 2019. Want to send feedback? Reply to this email and I will answer (unless you sound insane). You can also email skiing@substack.com. Please be patient - my response may take a while. This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.stormskiing.com/subscribe

Pat Mullin and Mark Radulich present their continued look at the history of WrestleMania; The Mania of Wrestlemania 17! On this episode we're looking at the end of "The Monday Night Wars." After WrestleMania 2000 ended, Austin and the Undertaker came back from injury and joined The Rock in an extended feud with the McMahon-Helmsley faction. This era also saw the rise of Kurt Angle into a main event attraction. The Dudley's, The Hardy's, Edge and Christian would battle each other in year long feud that would culminate in what would eventually be known as Tables, Ladders and Chairs. The Radicalz would rise to prominence with Chris Benoit in the title picture. While the WWE was riding to untold heights, WCW was in a tailspin from which it could never recover. We'll talk about the AOL Time Warner merger and what it meant for WCW. Plus Vince Russo's influence on WCW's creative, how the NWO was WCW's greatest success and curse, Eric Bischoff and what exactly led to WCW being bought by WWE, thus ending The Monday Night War right before WrestleMania 17. Grammarly Ad: 1:07:20 Amazon Music Ad: 1:53:20 For a 30 Day Free Trial of Amazon Music Unlimited head to http://getamazonmusic.com/w2mnetwork. Amazon Music is free. Amazon Music Unlimited is not. And for the Grammarly special offer, go to http://getgrammarly.com/w2mnetwork. Check us out on the player of your choice https://linktr.ee/markkind76 Also check out the W2M Network Discord https://discord.gg/fCYpG5dcT9

AARP Innovation Labs' Rick Robinson, VP of Product Development, and Sasha Spellman, Startup Collaboration Director, discuss their 9-month journey since launching The AgeTech Collaborative™. Connecting industry leaders, investors, test beds, business services and startups, the platform generates big new ideas and sends thriving products into the $8 trillion age-tech economy. About Rick Rick Robinson is VP of Product development at AARP Innovation Labs. He has been VP of Startup Engagement at Innovation Labs since 2018, where he leads a team working with disruptive startup companies to develop impactful age-tech solutions. The Lab was recognized by Fast Company magazine in 2020 as one of 10 most innovative teams. Rick has been a digital media executive, successful startup founder, and product leader creating customer experiences for the world's largest media companies and nimblest startups including Urgent.ly (co-founder), Digital City, AOL, AOL Time Warner, Webs.com, Sprint/XOHM, National Geographic Digital and Politico. He has spoken in the mobile, local, and social spaces at the United Nations, CES, SXSW, CTIA and has been cited by a variety of publications including The Wall Street Journal and Washington Post. About Sasha Sasha Spellman is the Startup Collaboration Director at AARP Innovation Labs. In this role, Sasha is leading the efforts for the AgeTech Collaborative™ - a B2B community platform designed to support the age-tech ecosystem to connect innovative early-stage startups with investors, testbeds, corporations and more. Prior to AARP, Sasha was at Consumer Technology Association where she fostered entrepreneurship and growth of small business by managing the startup program at CES called Eureka Park. She helped grow investment of early-stage startups from 100 startups at CES 2012 to over 1200 startups at CES 2020. Key Takeaways The AgeTech Collaborative moves AARP into a more assertive position. In addition to providing information and research, the organization actively pulls people together to make a significant impact in this space. The Collaborative categorizes technologies into three buckets: health, wealth, and self. Health is care of body and mind, wealth offers solutions for savings and planning, and self helps add fun and fulfillment to people's lives. There are five major stakeholders in the age-tech ecosystem: industry leaders, test beds, the investment community, business services and startups. Criteria for startups accepted into the accelerator include strong founders, particularly those who have a strong idea attached to a personal issue, and a willingness to be flexible in terms of market fit.

Christine Johnson has worked as an Associate Professor with a specialty in TV Production for The State University of New York for fourteen years and at Western Kentucky University for two years. Before her academic work, Christine was a Producer/Director in the TV industry for over fifteen years, producing live sports entertainment programming worldwide, first for WWE and then for AOL/Time Warner. In addition, Christine had several other opportunities, producing packages for: The Jay Leno Show, Extra, and the feature film “Ready to Rumble: starring David Arquette and Oliver Platt. During her tenure at The State University of New York, she produced two video projects in conjunction with the Geology Department that was recognized and distributed to conservatories nationwide. In addition, she ran the University Television Station for 12 years. In the summer of 2015, she had the privilege of working as a Field Producer with the Les Paul Foundation for their red carpet event, “The Les Paul 100th Anniversary Celebration," at the Hard Rock Café in Times Square. The project and Christine were awarded a Bronze Telly. (https://vimeo.com/133774005) She has served as an advisor to the National Broadcasting Society Chapter for nine years, and during that period, her students won over 80 Regional and National Awards. In addition, Christine served as Marketing Director for the National Office of NBS and, in 2014 and 2018, was awarded "Professional of the Year." Christine has established and continues a trusted relationship with various recruiters/department heads of different national television companies throughout the years. As a result, many of her students have benefited and secured positions with these production companies as full-time employees or interns. Education MFA​Reinhardt University​​In progress ​   (Creative Writing) MA​Texas Christian University​2003 ​   (Media Arts) BS​Texas Christian University​1988 ​  (Radio/TV/Film) Teaching and Research Area Basic and Advanced TV Production​​Field Production Television Station Management​​Television Station Operations Producing​​​​​Directing @thechristinejohnson @ihaveathingforshoes www.marlanasemenza.com Audio: Ariza Music Productions Transcription: Vision In Word Marlana: Christine Johnson has an impressive resume and TV production, producing live sporting events, packages for the Jay Leno Show extra and a feature film. She was also a field producer for the Les Paul 100th anniversary celebration, serves on the National Broadcasting society chapter board, among other things, and has helped many students go on to have careers in the industry. Welcome, Christine! Christine: Thank you, Marlana. Marlana: So, here's the thing, a lot of people think TV production, movies, all that kind of stuff, it's got to be a glamorous world, is it? Are you going to burst our bubble? Christine: I'm going to burst your bubble, it's glamorous that you get to travel. But unfortunately, my travel kind of was hotel, arena, airport. There were occasionally, we got to go in early, I would go into like San Francisco early so I can visit my friend Allison, and my brother lives there at the time. So, there were like some perks to it, but two productions very hard, very long hours. We're talking 12 to 15 hour days, and you know, you're crawling around on the floor. Well, in my case, if you're at an arena, like you're crawling around trying to find places to shoot. So, it's definitely not glamorous, I can kind of sum it up the way my mom used to say to me, why don't you ever buy nice clothes? Because I crawl around on the floor and get dirty while I'm not. So, I'm not getting nice clothes.  Marlana: When you first started out, what about the industry surprised you? And were there stuff that you weren't really prepared for? Christine: I would say the majority of it, I...

Doug Bernstein is the GM at Bleacher Report's House of Highlights. We discuss what he learned from launching his own fantasy sports website, predicting the future of sports fandoms, how he convinced Turner and Bleacher Report to buy House of Highlights, why he's inspired by Faze Clan and 100 Thieves, and fulfilling his destiny as a sports media savant. Subscribe to our newsletter. We explore the intersection of media, technology, and commerce: sign-up linkLearn more about our market research and executive advisory: RockWater websiteFollow The Come Up on Twitter: @TCUpodEmail us: tcupod@wearerockwater.com---EPISODE TRANSCRIPT: Chris Erwin:Hi, I'm Chris Erwin. Welcome to The Come Up, a podcast that interviews entrepreneurs and leaders. Doug Bernstein:Very early on in House of Highlights' lifespan, I became a really big fan of the account. I think we had about 500,000 followers. At this point, we would have these quarterly board meetings, and I ran through this deck, which outlined our pivot to social, and on the last slide, I had something that I really did not want to be a throw away, but I kind of was like, there's a good chance this is going to be a throw away, was like was this pitch to acquire House of Highlights. Luckily enough, the people in that room, again, didn't dismiss it. They were like, "Okay, make it happen." Chris Erwin:This week's episode features Doug Bernstein, the GM of House of Highlights, which is part of Bleacher Report. Doug grew up in Long Island and actually predicted a sports media career in third grade. In just middle school, he was making his own football cards. And while in college, accidentally ended up running the school paper and public access TV channel where he cut his teeth learning how to sell ads, be on camera and inspire a team. Then Doug got his real digital education when he went to AOL to run sports and news blogs. There, he realized that the next fandoms would be powered by user generated content and social media. So, he made the jump to Bleacher Report. Chris Erwin:At Bleacher, he ended up leading the acquisition of House of Highlights and now runs one of today's most exciting sports media brands. Some highlights of our chat include what he learned from responding to 400 blogger emails per day, how he convinced Turner to double down on digital, why he is inspired by FaZe Clan and 100 Thieves and fulfilling his destiny as a sports media savant. Alright, let's get into it. Doug, thanks for being on The Come Up podcast. Doug Bernstein:My pleasure, very excited to be here. Chris Erwin:Let's zoom back a bit and let's talk about where you grew up and what your household and parents were like. So I think you mentioned you grew up in Long Island, is that right? Doug Bernstein:That is correct. So I grew up in a town called Garden City, which is a suburb of New York City. It was me, my brother who's three or four years younger than myself and my mom and dad. And we just grew up in a really, really big sports household. A lot of my earliest memories are in and around sports. My dad loves to tell a funny story like when I was one, he was supposed to watch me and he got stuck on the WFAN call radio. My mom came home, I had a wet diaper crying, screaming, and he was still online to talk about the Yankees. I grew up playing a lot of soccer, watching a lot of basketball, playing soccer, basketball, and lacrosse. And then really just became infatuated with the Giants, the New York Giants, at a very, very young age. Chris Erwin:I was actually going to ask, what were the teams of your household? Who did you guys root for? Doug Bernstein:I am a very big and loyal diehard New York Giants fan. My brother has been more Jets but also somewhat of a colors guy. Like if they had good colors, he'd go in that direction. And my dad has always ... We've never had a set team, but I've always been a really, really big Giants fan to the point that I think it scared my parents when I was younger. I remember when I was in the third grade, the Giants had a loss and I put a note under my door. I went upstairs, put a note under my door and was like, "I'm not coming out until the start of next season. Knock on my door, put rice crispy cereal at the door, I'll eat it, but I'm going to stay in my room until the start of next season." Chris Erwin:How long did that last for? Doug Bernstein:I think it lasted until the next morning. I think my parents gave me a full Sunday, we're not going to bother him, and then Monday, "You got to go to school." We went to a lot of St. John's basketball games growing up, and that was a really formative experience. I loved going to those games with my dad and with my brother and being part of that atmosphere. Chris Erwin:What did you like about the live experience? Doug Bernstein:It was just everything. It was so cool to be able to watch the games, but also I think what I really gravitated towards was the people and the connections that were being made. So, every year, there'd always be the same older couple that would sit right in front of us, the same people that would sit behind us, next to us, and kind of those friendships and that comradery. I even remember when you're in kindergarten, first grade, these people you see them and then you see them again all the way through middle school. It's a really unique experience to have that. I grew up in a very non-religious household, so we rarely went to church, we rarely went to temple. Chris Erwin:The sports arena was your temple? Doug Bernstein:Exactly. So sports was that place where you congregated. I always remember when I'd go to church, there'd be that moment where you take people's hands and say peace be with you. And I would always feel like when I was at a game, it was the heightened version of that where you're clapping, people going crazy and having that feeling. So, I love being able to go to games. I think that was really, really formative for myself. Chris Erwin:You're going to games with your family I imagine through your early years and in middle school, was there a feeling like I'm probably going to end up in sports in my career in some way? When was that early glimpse? Doug Bernstein:I remember in second grade I would have to write journal entries, and I would write these five-page journal entries every Monday about the Giants recap. And then every Wednesday would be this three-page recap on the St John's game. And the teacher was like, "Why are you writing such long things about these sports when you're supposed to write about what you ate for breakfast and what you did with your friends?" So I remember that very distinctly standing out. I remember very distinctly in third grade, and my mom saved it, we were supposed to write about what it was we wanted to do when we were older, when we had a real career, and I wrote be a professional soccer player or work for ESPN. So I really was not good enough to be a professional soccer player but did end up working for ESPN. Doug Bernstein:And I was really lucky that I have parents that fostered it where we went to Bristol when I was in fourth grade and visited the ESPN campus. All of our vacations, we went to watch Duke in North Carolina. I don't know how my mom tolerated all this. We went to watch like US soccer in San Diego. A lot of our vacations as a kid were geared towards going to these sporting events. Chris Erwin:Oh wow. Doug Bernstein:It was really fun. I didn't really have a great context for work because my grandfather had started a company, my dad worked for that company, my uncles had worked for it. So there was always this, "Oh, that's the path is we worked for this family business." Chris Erwin:Was it sports-related at all? Doug Bernstein:No, no. I like to say they make like widgets. They may start off making fuses for TV, they make computer components, just a lot of little electrical equipment type stuff. So it was the furthest thing from my interest area. But as I got older, I was lucky enough to break into sports and not have to pursue that. Chris Erwin:I think you had also mentioned too, did you, at an early age, have to create your own basketball cards and fantasy football mag? So you had some sports entrepreneurship in you at an early age too? Doug Bernstein:I'm definitely putting my sports nerd hat very heavily right now. I was going through all our old boxes of cards, when cards was having a big resurgence of late, and I stumbled across a Kobe that should've been worth 40,000 but the edges were dented, that was heartbreaking. But I also stumbled across all these cards that I would make. Tim Duncan, Randolph Childress, Samaki Walker, all of these guys, Vince Carter, Antawn Jamison, I would made ... They didn't make college basketball cards, so I would make their card. I'd have an index, I'd get the magazine. I'd print up a little ... Like cut out the picture, find all their stats, write the stats on the back, give them a little bio. When I didn't have the pictures, I would draw. I liked to do a lot of art as a kid, so I would do that. I'd make little fantasy magazines and things of that nature which were always really fun. Chris Erwin:Were these just for you or were you selling these to your friends? Doug Bernstein:I'd sell them to my brother basically. Chris Erwin:Keep it in the family. Doug Bernstein:Right. Me and my brother would constantly be collecting basketball cards, trading them. And then we would build little teams that my dad or my dad's friends would then judge. So we did a lot of that. We played backyard basketball. In my mind, what I mean is like, "Okay, we're playing backyard basketball, but we need to make a league out of this." I was making jerseys in the fifth grade for all my buddies to play in this not official backyard basketball league. So I've kind of always had that in me. Chris Erwin:I didn't realize that you had such a creative bent to you as well. Very interesting to hear this. I look at you as the data, analytics and strategy mind behind House of Highlights and a lot of the work that Bleacher Report is doing, but hearing you, that you're making jerseys, making sports cards and like drawing characters and all that, it's incredible. Doug Bernstein:Yeah, it's funny. If you were to talk to any of my high school teachers or my wife, I think they would think it's comical that I started in the data and analytics side because I think I got a two on AP stats and got like a five or four on AP art. So I think they very like, "Wait, what? That doesn't really jive." But yeah, I think what has helped me a little bit with the data and analytics side is being able to interpret it more creatively and be able to have ... I always wanted to be more on the editorial side, whether that's a writer or a talent, but I couldn't write that well, I wasn't that great of a talent, I was a terrible talent. And then what I always had was I always had ideas, so I figured, "Hey, if I can't do that, let me at least come up with ideas." And then nobody wanted to listen to me, so I was like, "All right, well, got to have it rooted in something." That's how the numbers came about. Chris Erwin:Got it. Well, look, I think you got to test some of your editorial and talent muscles when you were in Pomona for college. So I think you made a decision that you wanted to pursue this sports media career. So you went and did media studies at Pomona, and you went from the East Coast to the West Coast to do that. Tell me about when you were at undergrad, what type of work were you doing? What type of work were you doing outside the classroom, and how was that inspiring your future sports career? Doug Bernstein:I was a media studies major at a small liberal arts school in California, which is really, really fun and enjoyable, but it's not giving you the most preparation for a post-graduate life. If you want to dissect 1970s cinema, you're in great shape, but there's only so many jobs where you're going to be able to do that after college. For me, I enjoyed school, and I think Pomona was a great college to be able to study media, play some sports, but I think I really found what it was that I loved once I was able to start doing things outside of the classroom. My first experience with that was I was on a soccer team, a teammate came up to me after practice one day and said, "Hey, do you want to work for the school paper?" I said, "Oh man, I'd absolutely love that. I'd been thinking about sports writing and stuff like that for a while, that'd be great." Doug Bernstein:So he was like, "Okay, meet me under the campus bookstore, we'll get going." And I meet him under the campus bookstore, and I'm all ready to meet the team or whatever, meet my editor. And he's like, "Hey, here are the keys. This is the office, the whole staff quit. This thing is yours." So, that was a real baptism by fire, inheriting a college newspaper. I think it was like $5,000 in debt, which at that time, $5,000 in debt felt like $500,000. And then being able to lay out a vision for what I wanted the paper to be, build a staff, execute against it, do some sports writing, like- Chris Erwin:I have to ask, in that moment, did you get more excited where like, okay, there's a little bit of shock value here, I'm going to have to build this from scratch, but I'm going to make it in my own vision. And I know what that looks like, and I'm going to recruit people that are excited by this and all the above or was it like, I'm not sure if I actually want to take this on? Doug Bernstein:No, I was way more excited. I was like, this is way better. I wasn't very enamored with the traditional school papers, like a lot of the stuff that they were covering. So, we ended up pivoting and doing a lot more music and movie reviews, a lot more things outside of the school. Chris Erwin:It's like Bill Simmons and The Ringer, it's integrating sports and pop culture. Doug Bernstein:Exactly. I was in school in 'O3/'04 when I started doing this. I think our first cover was the ultimate movie bad-ass was a 64-bracket ultimate movie bad-ass thing. So that was really, really fun and that was it exactly. It was like, man, I get to see out the vision or the creative that I would like for this to be and that was really, really exciting. And the ability to not just do the creative side but also really, really beneficial that I also had to do the business side. So I had to sell ads, go to the local pizza store, go to the local laundromat. Chris Erwin:Oh, so you were door-knocking? Like you had to drive revenue for the business as well and help pay off the debts? Doug Bernstein:Yeah, we had to make phone calls. We had to get ad sales, had to like pick up checks and like get a chicken parm at the same time. So yeah, definitely had to do like all of that and it was fun because it was an independent college paper. It wasn't like supported by the school itself. So it was like ... You really had like a P&L that you had to drive for and it was a great experience for a 20-year-old to be able to do that. Chris Erwin:Did you get college credit? That sounds like the best way to learn how to build like a sports media organization. Doug Bernstein:I did. I ended up getting school credit. So I think the second half of my junior and senior year, the second half of my junior year and my senior year, a lot of my credits were coming from like independent work. So I think I got credit from doing the school paper. I believe I got ... We had a public access college [inaudible 00:13:57] channel that had long been dormant, so I started to be like oh man, what's this? This looks pretty fun. I had a friend who's a faculty advisor, like the world's nicest man. He was 80-something years old. He worked at the theology school adjacent to where we were and so, I was like, "Oh, is there anything I can do for the school television channel?" He's like, "Yeah, just run tapes back and forth, upload like a thumb drive and make a PowerPoint of like what's happening this week, who's speaking." And I was like, "Oh, that's great." Doug Bernstein:And then when I went to meet him one time, they had an abandoned TV studio and I was like, "Wait, you have a TV studio here?" And he was like, "Yeah." I'm like, "Nobody uses it?" And he was like, "No, nobody's used it in years." And I was like, "If me and my buddies come and clean it out, can we use it?" And he was like, "Go for it." So me and my buddies spent a Saturday and Sunday cleaning the whole thing out. It was like a three-camera studio, had like a switcher in the other room and we cleaned the whole thing out and every Sunday, for the remainder of the year, we filmed. Two of my buddies did a politics show and then me and one other buddy did a sports talk show. Chris Erwin:Wait, how did you learn how to use the studio? Of like using the switcher and like the multi-cam operation, who taught you that? Doug Bernstein:This guy, the guy who had been like this really, really kind man to go out of like empathy on us and would come like Sundays after church and would help us learn how to film and learn how to do the switchers and I would go home and then whatever Mac editing software I had at the time and edit together really pretty crudely but it was decent enough. Again, it was just a really, really fun learning experience to be able to have done that and then was able to do that and then get credit for internships that I was able do to during school as well. Chris Erwin:I also had to ask, I think you had previously mentioned that you had some, I think, leadership pillars or philosophies that you had printed in the office at the school paper and I think you still have a copy of this or you still use these pillars today. What is that? Doug Bernstein:It's like actually like ... I mean I don't mean to take time to get it but it's like 10 feet from me, I do have the little five-page write up of like the guiding principles for that school paper that are very applicable 15 years later to overseeing House of Highlights and I think as part of those leadership principles, a lot was about like laying out a very clear and concise vision, allowing everybody to really understand their roles but also kind of like this mantra that I've had and that I've kind of liked a lot was you don't have to like each other but you always got to root for each other. And when you think about that, with any team or any organization, sometimes there's an expectation that oh, we all have to be friends, we all have to love each other and it's like, that's not really the case. I think the best case scenario is that you're all swimming in the same direction. Somebody's failure is your failure and somebody's success is your success. Doug Bernstein:I'm a big believer that like negativity is contagious and positivity is contagious and when you set the framework that what you have to do at the core is root for each other, so when we're like, any person that we interview with, the last thing I tell them is like this is our guiding principle for when you join our team is like you're not going to like everybody, we don't always get along with our coworkers but you really, really, genuinely do have to be rooting and pulling for them and that's been something that I think has worked pretty well for us and myself today, I think. Chris Erwin:Doug, you are so speaking my leadership language. I use the word positivity often and I agree and a similar value for us is we have always strived for excellence and that might require having difficult conversations with clients or with team members. I've learned, as a leader, that if you always introduce a shared objective, which is, look, we're working to do excellent work or to create something amazing, so I'm going to give you some candid feedback for how you can be better, for how we can be better, then it always lands differently. So, I really like how you think about it and I also like whenever you're recruiting someone to your team that you're making that expectation very clear upfront and it also kind of ... It has like a good sports vibe to it as well. Doug Bernstein:Right, exactly. Chris Erwin:So, let's talk about all this incredible college experience and then your early career starts and I think the first job you land at, if I'm right, is at the NFL in around 2007. Doug Bernstein:That's correct. So yeah, I had done an internship at the Tennis Channel in Santa Monica, which was really a great introductory experience, just all the internship stuff, logging tapes, doing research, learning to use Excel spreadsheets, all that stuff. Did another internship at NFL Films which, again, was a little bit more of the same. Again, a little bit more baptism by fire. I remember I went on my first shoot. I didn't know if I wanted to be in programming or production. I went on a production shoot. They said, "We have a shitty job for you." I said, like, "All right, I'm down. Let's do it." First big internship opportunity, they said, "There's dog shit in the backyard. Can you go pick it up?" And I was like oh, okay. Maybe being a TA is not for me. Doug Bernstein:And then I did an internship the second semester at ESPN Classic Now, so I felt really prepared for coming out of school and then like most graduates, it's harder to get a job than you would expect. I think it took me about four to six months to finally land something and that was after school. So I spent a lot of time over that final senior year trying to get a job and getting a break into sports is a really, really tough industry. And I remember I met with a friend's father who was like ... I told him I wanted to work in sports and he legitimately laughed in my face. He was like, "Okay, good luck. Have fun. Talk to me when that doesn't pan out." So, I was like, "Oh no, is that true?" Doug Bernstein:But was fortunate enough to kind of land at the NFL and was just a great way to get my foot in the door basically. Players get a percent bonus based on number of plays they're in. So, I was responsible for the monotonous job of keying in ... Like you had a picture and you key in who was in that play, like get their number, 89, 78, and then just doing that for every play of an NFL game. Chris Erwin:Players get a bonus for the more amount of plays that they're in? You're talking from like a media coverage point of view or just from like playing on the team point of view? Doug Bernstein:Like a tight end, right? If you're in a certain percentage of snaps, you'll receive a bonus, like a performance bonus. So the team can't do it and then whatever, agent, player, whatever, their reps aren't going to do it, so they have the league, as a neutral agent, do this. So, I think it's a little-known thing but I don't know if it still exists but at the time, for every NFL game, this is a great job, there's somebody that just goes behind each field goal and takes a picture of the left side of the field, the center and the right side, zooms out, takes one more and then there are people that just key in those players. So the thing about sports is there's always these little jobs that people aren't aware of and that it is just taking whatever chance you can get that helps propel you to that next step because maybe you are in the NFL office, you do see the commissioner. You do get to send emails and experience things. So, it was fun. I was there for a couple of months before bouncing over to ESPN. Chris Erwin:At these low-level jobs, were you getting more excited about entering into sports media? Were you getting a little disenchanted a bit or was it no, it's like hey, I like this but I just need to find my path and the role that I'm in is like not it but I'm going to get there? What were you feeling in that moment? Doug Bernstein:Well, I'm excited to have a job, right? You're just like very appreciative and grateful for a job. It was, I think, a six-month role, so I was like man, I really got to find something full-time. So it was like that appreciation but also combined with angst of being able to find that full-time role and trying to land in a spot that felt like more ... It was like growing your career, which is kind of what that position at ESPN ended up being. Chris Erwin:I think you end up at Versus for a little bit but then you end up at AOL as a product manager at Fleaflicker, right? So, what was that role as a product manager? Because that seems like an evolution of what you had been doing. Doug Bernstein:Honestly, I was a customer service rep. A product manager sounds way better but the way I backed into it is kind of funny. I worked at ESPN for a year and basically was cutting games down for replays. If you're ever up at two in the morning watching a college football game, I'd watch it live and then cut it down or I'd re-air SportsCenters, screen SportsCenters for re-airs, like Brazilian and all these other languages, really fun. It was like seven at night to seven in the morning and I always had this window where I would get ratings numbers. So I started to really dive into the analytics of the ratings and was like very, very curious about it just how my brain works. It was like if there's a [inaudible 00:22:37] game, how does that perform? If it's two top-10 teams, how does that perform? If it's close, how does that do? If it's a blowout, how does that do? Doug Bernstein:And I started doing this research late at night by myself just to kill time, and I might as well do something with it, so I forward it on to some people within ESPN, like oh wow, this is actually pretty interesting. And they started to share it and started ... I would have interview opportunities within ESPN that were kind of in ratings or research, but I was a very ambitious 22-year-old kid. My wife came up to Bristol in Connecticut, which isn't the world's most exciting place. It wasn't for her. So that's why I bounced over to Versus where I was able to kind of do the ratings and the analytics side, kind of go into TV programming with where I wanted to land and as I was doing the TV programming, I ran into a couple of challenges. Doug Bernstein:One, Versus which is now NBC Sports, Hunting and Fishing Network, I'm a Jew that's never hunted or fished, so that wasn't the world's best fit and also just I struggled in the role. Like it was a very ... A role that required a lot of attention to detail, like real minutiae and that was something that I wasn't like the best at, wasn't given that much autonomy, which is probably right for a very, very junior level role and kind of struggled and as I was doing that, I was having a hard time ... They were looking to move to Philadelphia. I'm a New York sports fan. There's no way I'm moving to Philly. Doug Bernstein:So I had kind of like this couple of months where they were just kind of unwinding things at that office and wanted to kind of keep my brain really engaged, so I created like the world's worst fantasy website is how I describe it. It had a good name. It was called Keyboard GM and I aggregated fantasy football rankings from different websites. And I went, oh, this is cool. Like maybe, I could do something in digital. I love digital because I was always doing that fantasy football stuff and kind of learning to code a little bit and build like a really janky website. Doug Bernstein:I also was doing a sports blog with a couple of buddies from ESPN and this was early mid-aughts sports blogging and really, one of the challenges on the TV side, was if you had an idea, it'd be like three months to get in front of the right person, three months of like sounding it out. Best case scenario, it gets approved. It's like six months of production and then it's on the air and it's like the difference between a 0.1 or a 0.12 and it's like man, that is a tough process. And when I was doing the digital stuff with my buddies, we would just create articles that we wanted to read every day and if they resonated, we'd be like oh, that's awesome. Let's do more of that. If they didn't, we'd scale [inaudible 00:25:11], we'd be like okay, let's not do that again. Chris Erwin:This is all on Keyboard GM? Doug Bernstein:So, there was Keyboard GM, which was the fantasy football website and I had ... I think it was like sportsblog.net, going way back for you, [inaudible 00:25:21] sportsblog.net and then that was like that was where we just kind of blogged. So there were two separate things that I was doing in the digital space. I was in this period where I was just trying to find something to continue to work in sports. Ideally, wanted to get into digital. My mom sent me this job, it was like a product manager at a fantasy football website, and I was like all right, let's go. It'll be great. Chris Erwin:She sent you a newspaper clipping with like a red circle around it? Doug Bernstein:Yeah, pretty much. It really was a customer service rep job at first and people always like to say they started in the mail room and be like that lot, right? I always like to say I started in the digital mail room because this is like a classic AOL thing where they bought a fantasy football website. They didn't tell any of their existing users. They just transferred them over to this new website. So, I was answering like 400 to 500 emails a day from customers about, "Hey, why are you transferring me? Where's my lineup? Where's my all this?" But it was a really kind of rewarding experience. I learned a lot about how to interact with your audience, your customer, your consumer. Doug Bernstein:When you're playing in the world's most detailed fantasy football league where it's like 32-team keeper league with full IDPs, like you really have a level of understanding for your users that kind of is not surface level. Like you get to know users on a one-on-one basis. You get to know who your fans are, how to cater to your super fans, how to understand what really is an issue and what really isn't an issue and work side-by-side and there was a programmer that founded it, a guy named Ori Schwartz, who was really beneficial in that he talked to me about what a roadmap is, which is something that I had no idea before, right? And really coached me up on the way of the digital world in a product and how to think not just of this week or next week but three, six months, a year out and then also taught me a lot, become somewhat thematic over the course of my career is about being a startup within a bigger organization. Doug Bernstein:So, Fleaflicker was kind of this very small startup within AOL sports and within this mess of AOL Time Warner ecosystem and then that has played out really similar when like Bleacher Report got acquired and it's like okay, a lot [inaudible 00:27:33] and then when we acquired House of Highlights, I had the same thought. Like I hearkened back to it and was like oh wait, what worked for Ori, this one guy, was like just a lot of autonomy and freedom and not trying to be micromanaging. And when we acquired Omar and House of Highlights, it was that same mindset. Doug Bernstein:So, I was able to do that fantasy football side of things for about a year or two and then what happened was, because I had the analytics [inaudible 00:28:00] ratings research background, they said, "Hey, could you start pulling numbers for Fleaflicker, the fantasy football website?" And I said, "Sure, would love to." And then because nobody else was doing that and digital analytics didn't exist at the time, they said, "Hey, can you start doing it for sports?" And I was like, "Absolutely, would love that." And then before you- Chris Erwin:I just love how you're so positive and excited about trying new things. Chris Erwin:Hey, listeners. This is Chris Erwin, your host of The Come Up. I have a quick ask for you. If you dig what we're putting down, if you like the show, if you like our guests, it would really mean a lot if you can give us a rating wherever you listen to our show. It helps other people discover our work and it also really supports what we do here. All right, that's it, everybody. Let's get back to the interview. Chris Erwin:How did you create a culture and a mindset where like today, at House of Highlights, you trial so many different revenue streams and products for fans, right? Sports creator competitions, like talent and street wear collaborations to create new merch designs for different leagues and teams and I'm like, where do these ideas come from and how'd you get there and I'm hearing you talk about your entire history and career, you're like oh yeah, I'm going to learn how to run a school newspaper, learn to be a writer. I'm going to learn how to run like a TV studio and be on camera. I'm going to learn analytics. I'm going to start my own digital blog and fantasy blog. Like so now, I get it. And so again, you just jump into this new opportunity in data analytics with a very opened and ambitious kind of point of view. So, okay, I just wanted to note that for the listener. So, now what happens? Doug Bernstein:Yeah, so I mean I wanted to learn, right? My mom was bugging me about going back to like business school or grad school or whatever it might be, and again, I just loved digital media, like just my own internal self was like why does this happen? Why does this happen? Like what if you did this? Like how do you grow a sports website was of immense interest to me. So at a time, we were living in the city. My office was about five blocks from where I lived and my wife [inaudible 00:30:09] commuted into Queens. So she would have to leave for work at about six o'clock. Doug Bernstein:So I would go with her every morning and then I'd be in the office by six o'clock and this is AOL. People aren't strolling in till like 9:30, 10:00. So for three and a half, four hours, I had the office to myself basically and I was responsible for creating a daily report that looked at 40 different properties but it was like AOL cut it up every way, like puppies, kittens, kids, dogs, like you name it, they had it and really was able to understand like that was my [inaudible 00:30:41] essentially, was like come in every day, and I'd study the metrics for home page topic from search topic, from engagement, what articles did well, what articles didn't do well, what writers did well and just every single day or five days a week was responsible for like not just churning out this report but also really starting to like internalize what correlated to the numbers. Doug Bernstein:And I spent a lot of time sitting with the editorial team and there was a really incredible editorial team at AOL at the time, guy named Randy Kim, and I just had too many ideas than I knew what to do with and I needed to check myself and learn like okay, well, this is what the writer's thinking about, this is what the editor's thinking about, this is what the editor-in-chief is thinking about, these are all the things that we've done in the past and why your idea doesn't work, this is what the designer thinks about, and I think really learning before doing helped me a lot in that role. Doug Bernstein:That was a big thing was there were people that would come in straight out of grad school that were, I'm sure, way smarter than me and way better with numbers but I think one of the things that worked to my benefit was that I had spent an inordinate amount of time listening and learning and gaining the trust of the people that I was going to be working with. So when I gave a recommendation based on numbers, it wasn't just like oh, here's the numbers, right? It was like where here's a number guy, like again, this is like money ball days where like get the number guy out of here. It was like really trying to be deferential, especially at first and I put a big focus on like I would say like not try and be a weatherman breaking into the numbers but trying to be a doctor. Doug Bernstein:Not just saying like hey, the temperature was this, it's going to be hotter or colder, like up or down but really trying to be prescriptive in terms of saying like okay, this is the problem. This is what's going on and these are potential solutions for how you can solve it. Chris Erwin:I think a theme of your career is making sports more engaging and relatable for younger audiences. So, I think like as you start to look at some of the analytics from these 40 different AOL properties, what were like a couple revelations that you were getting call it in like either the mid-aughts or in around 2008 to 2011 that maybe you were seeing that others weren't? That you leadership was like whoa, Doug, you really get this in a unique way, what was that? Doug Bernstein:So a lot initially was focused on search and I think a lot of it was that had traditional newspaper people that thought of things a certain way. So you write one story on one topic at a particular time and what we were starting to see, especially on that search perspective was, the interest wasn't just when the editorial staff dictated it, right? So if we did a mock draft, an NFL mock draft mid-season, like historically, you only did mock drafts like the week before the draft. Like it was like sacrilegious to be able to do a mock draft like anymore than like a week or two out but when I was like, hey, if we could do a mock draft at the mid-point of the current season, I think it would do really well or at like the end of the college football season, we would see that do really, really well. And I was like oh wow, like there's a level of interest and engagement here that's not being met yet. People were interested in it. They were searching for it but there was nothing there for them. That was a big one. Doug Bernstein:And then the other big one was just like if a news story broke, for a while I worked really close with the AOL news team. So like if a tornado happened or anything that is newsy, politics, whatever, traditionally, they would just write the one AP-style recap and what we started to do is say like okay, well, let's not just write the recap, let's write like five ... And now these are so commonplace that like it seems silly but at the time, nobody was really doing this, the five things you need to know on this topic, breaking down like who is this person that was at the center of this. Not just having one story of recapping a news event but having like a template of 10 to 20 different stories that depending on like is this a tier one event or a tier three, you'd be like okay, we need five stories on it and these are the five potential stories that you could do. Chris Erwin:So like early inspiration for Buzzfeed. You were like one of the first listicles. Doug Bernstein:Right, it was. It was like, at the time, Buzzfeed was struggling with SEO and I remember thinking, it was like it's not that hard. They were doing a lot better in a lot of other stuff but yeah, like at that time, like I think some of the stuff at AOL was doing ... And Bleacher Report and Huffington Post were like very early days like digital media optimization, SEO optimization. Chris Erwin:Got it. You just brought up Bleacher Report and I think that that's a great segue actually into your transition to the company, which I think happened in 2011. So tell me like what caused the move, what was the impetus and then what was your first role there? Doug Bernstein:Yeah, so the impetus was two-fold. So partially, was based on my current situation. So I was at AOL and they had shuttered AOL Sports FanHouse, which was their internal AOL sports brand and I was working on everything but sports, doing analytics and that just didn't sit quite well. I was constantly reverting back to thinking about what can I be doing in sports and then on the flip side was over the final couple of months that AOL Sports FanHouse was around, I was responsible for looking at our Comscore reports and I would see in Comscore, our competitors and who was doing what. Every month, I would see Bleacher Report coming up and I would see next month, them coming up and I was like, oh, this is really interesting. Doug Bernstein:One of my friends from college went to school with a couple of their founders, so I was familiar with it and yeah, I worked with a guy at AOL Sports who ended up going over there as an editorial lead. He said, "Hey, we're in the market for somebody to do analytics and I think you would be an interesting person for it. Would you be open to it?" And I was like, "Absolutely. This feels perfect." Chris Erwin:So, you jump over to Bleacher and I bet you're thinking you're really into sports and digital. It's an early stage company. Because I think Bleacher was started around 2005, if I remember correctly. Doug Bernstein:Yeah, probably, like yeah, around there, '06, '07, like '05, '06, '07. Chris Erwin:Got it. Doug Bernstein:Like when it was actually like official, official is probably to be debated but somewhere around there for sure. Chris Erwin:So, it was probably like in your mind, like the ability for you to shape the company as well, to get in early? Doug Bernstein:I was employee number 40, which at the time, I didn't really contextualize but now, being a little bit older, it's really special to be in on a company at that level. To me, it felt really well-established but again, having a little bit more perspective on it now, I can see how nascent it really was. I remember when I would tell people I work for Bleacher Report early on, I don't think anybody knew what I was talking about. So, that was really great and I was doing the analytics at AOL and had some ability to kind of be a part of decision making but really, it was still from like an arm's length and I think they were being very kind to me. But then, when I went to Bleacher Report, I was kind of shocked, to be honest, that like it was the exact opposite where it was very analytics driven, very much about optimization, very much about giving the fan what they wanted, in particular the younger fan. Doug Bernstein:So, Dave Finocchio, who found it, was one of the founders of Bleacher Report and has been just an incredibly brilliant guy, has been really, really instrumental to my career and Rory Brown, who was my first boss at Bleacher Report, my boss and me were really close. Again, another brilliant guy. They both were really critical in establishing a culture that was very much about let's try things, let's look at numbers and let's try to have fun, I guess, in the process and it was just a perfect fit for somebody like myself that had all of these ideas of what I wanted to have covered in sports and those were shared by Rory, Dave and Bleacher Report as a whole and then be able to go off and kind of execute that and grow it and build it and keep growing it and keep building it and like fail a ton, was super, super exciting. Doug Bernstein:It was just like an incredibly exciting time to be at Bleacher Report as it was growing from like when I got there, I want to say like sub-10 million uniques to, I think, we reached a point where it's like 40 million uniques and I think when we got there, it's like eight million search visits a month to a point where it had 60 million and to be a part of that growth was really incredible. Chris Erwin:And so, for our listeners, what was Bleacher Report when you started? Doug Bernstein:Yeah, so when I started at Bleacher Report, it was just a sports website with about 100% user generated content. Those were the initial iterations. I think pretty quickly into me coming aboard, we started to have a little bit of an internal team where it wasn't all user-generated. There were people that we staffed to write certain stories. We began to build out a newsletter product which then ultimately became an app but when I think I started, it was just strictly a website that was largely driven by user articles and that was it. That was the main crux of it. Chris Erwin:Fast forward to today and Bleacher Report is a multi-platform media brand that's acquiring live rights and has acquired sub-brands like House of Highlights and there's probably other things and you're doing creator competitions and so much more. We'll get to that story but okay, about a year in though, you were then acquired by Turner, which is kind of like you leaving the Turner ship and then kind of like going back through this. When that was announced, were you part of those deal talks at all or you just found out? What did you feel? Were you excited or were you like kind of confused about why is this happening? Doug Bernstein:I don't remember if I ... I think I was more excited than not, I think I remember that. And it's funny because I was like at AOL Time Warner and then I left and then I immediately got put back on AOL Time Warner. I think I've been in like four iterations of Time Warner. So I think I was mostly excited, a little bit of trepidation because when you join a bigger media company, you don't know exactly how that's going to unfold, how [inaudible 00:40:47] is going to be and I think pretty quickly was like reassured that it was going to go well. So, there were people, David Levy, Matt Hung, Lenny Daniels, who really believed in Bleacher Report and the vision of Bleacher Report and allowed there to be autonomy for Bleacher Report to just continue to grow. Doug Bernstein:So, it was like very similar [inaudible 00:41:08] like everybody was like okay, they acquired it but they just wanted to give it more infrastructure and resources to do what it was already doing. It felt like the same with Bleacher Report. It wasn't like somebody came in and was like, "Okay, now produce a bunch of TV shows." It was just like keep growing the digital presence that you have, like keep connecting with the younger audience and I think within a year, I felt really good about that acquisition. Chris Erwin:That mandate of keep growing a digital presence, clearly that's worked well for you because I think when I look at your career profile, you had three promotions in the first four years there. So it seems like your career was really taking off. Like did you feel that you're like hey, I think I've really found my groove here and I feel my career entering into like a new inflection point? Doug Bernstein:I think yes and no. Again, I think like it's all happening really quickly and at the time, Bleacher Report was really young. So like I think I started at Bleacher Report, I was like maybe 24 or 25 but the founders and the people running it were like 26 and 27 maybe, I think mostly 26. So there was kind of like this natural cadence, like every year we would grow, every year we would get bigger and we would take on ... The team would grow with it. So, I was kind of along for that ride and everybody was relatively young and inexperienced, so it wasn't like in a more traditional company, your promotion cycles are harder to come by but there, it just felt like okay, this is it. Doug Bernstein:I also think the promotion and everything was very rewarding and satisfying and I'm very grateful for it but at the same point, like I think myself and the team was like just really, really dead set on growing it. Like all the other stuff was like a little bit secondary. Can we hit these milestones? Can we unlock further VC investment? Can we get acquired? Even more so than that, like can we build a big audience? Like we always wanted to chase and be as big or better than ESPN. It was always about this case and everything else was kind of just like a byproduct that was happening alongside it and I think that chase was where the majority ... That chase and the audience was really where the majority of the focus was. Chris Erwin:That chase though, Bleacher Report really evolves from a sports web, call it like 1.0 brand to like a dominant social media first kind of like multi-media company. And I think there was a big House of Highlights acquisition in 2016. So as part of this chase, was there something happening that led you to be like hey, look at what Omar is doing, like we need to be part of that, we need to own that and were you one of the first identifiers as like hey, we need to make a move here and maybe we should be acquisitive? Doug Bernstein:Yeah, no, 100%. I mean that's exactly essentially the story. So, I think we were having some early success on social and then I kind of moved into a role of kind of overseeing the larger social org and I think, over the course of the 12 months, we went from kind of like a second and third player in the sports space behind some of the bigger names and then we fast forward a year and we were just so maniacally focused on delivering the best social sports experience that when we picked our heads up in 12 months, we weren't only the best in category among sports accounts, we were like not only the best with digital media, young digital media accounts, we actually were like top two or three on Twitter. We were like over all. It was like Justin Bieber and then us at the time in terms of overall accounts. The same on Facebook, we were one of the top most engaged with accounts on Facebook and then Instagram. We were pretty early on Instagram. Doug Bernstein:And we're starting to reach a point where we were a little bit more mature and the business is kind of solidifying itself. We had been around for a couple of years and Instagram was really new and I started to think a lot more about like okay, we've always been a challenger brand. We've always been trying to unseat the established leaders. Who is going to do that for us? As we're so focused ahead, where's the risk and the risk was like somebody catching us from behind and I was really the mindset that Instagram was going to be, and this is like '15 and '16, where it was like still only photos for a while, it just transitioned to video and just like 15 second video. It was like we always went to where the audience was and the audience went from web to social and then inside social, from Facebook to Twitter to Instagram. Doug Bernstein:So, like okay, well, we got to figure out Instagram. Very early on in House of Highlights lifespan, I became a really big fan of the account, I think when it had about 500,000 followers, led the acquisition, pitched it when it had 750,000 followers- Chris Erwin:So, you pitched it to your internal leadership like we should acquire Omar and this company? Doug Bernstein:At this point, we were having ... I think Dave, I think, had transitioned out for a bit. We would have these like quarterly board meetings and I ran through this deck, which outlined our pivot to social, kind of the social monetization business that we're looking to build and the store that we've developed in and around that and on the last slide, I had something that I really did not want to be a throwaway but I kind of was like okay, there's a good chance this is going to be a throwaway, it was like was this pitch to acquire House of Highlights. Doug Bernstein:Luckily enough, the people in that room, again, Rory Brown, Matt Hong, Dave Finocchio, this guy named Sam Parnell didn't dismiss it. They were like, "Okay, make it happen." And really gave the green light to go about and do it and if you want to have fun, I would encourage you to try to pitch to an established [inaudible 00:46:40] company's legal, finance and HR departments why you want to acquire an Instagram account, which again, people thought Instagram was just like posting rainbows and things like that, of a kid that, at the time, was 20 years old, yet to graduate college, was taking a decent amount of content that he didn't have ownership of and had no revenue other than selling pocket like watch ads for like 15 minutes. That was definitely a very boring pitch for a lot of people. Chris Erwin:So, did you have to go pitch like AOL Time Warner leadership as well? So, like the Bleacher Report team was like, all right, Doug, yeah, go get the higher ups involved and like make it happen? Doug Bernstein:I got the green light from Bleacher Report leadership to go and pursue it and then I had to get Bleacher Report finance people onboard and all that but ultimately, I think, Dave and Rory and other people were responsible for getting the deal done. It wasn't the world's biggest deal, so I think they were just like okay, kid, go and do it. We're not sure we really understand it but you seem really passionate about it and you guys have a pretty good track record. Chris Erwin:Who reached out to Omar in the beginning? Did you kick off the conversation? Doug Bernstein:I reached out to him. I think I sent like an overly generic or vague message that was like hey, big fan of your account. I'm from Bleacher Report. We'd love to talk. I think he thought I would come to like copyright him like out of existence. Chris Erwin:This is on Instagram? Like you slid into his DMs? Doug Bernstein:No, no, he had an email on House of Highlights. [inaudible 00:48:10] it was like, again, a couple hundred thousand followers, so [inaudible 00:48:13] was like a readily available email address. So I emailed him and he responded like basically like ... I think I still have it, I got to find it. It's like hi, what do you want? And I want to talk about ways in which we could potential partner and we got him on a call like, I think, literally that day or the next day and I think I told this story but it is funny because I call him up, we're having a great conversation for a couple of minutes and like he just knocks me dead in the track. He's like, "I got to hang up. I got to go. [inaudible 00:48:44] just signed free agency," and like hung up on me, and I was like oh my god. Doug Bernstein:At first, I was like this is a little rude. Like [inaudible 00:48:51] at Bleacher Report. This kid's like 20 years old. Like he thinks he's like basically applying for like an internship kind of but he wants to do an internship with Miami Dolphins and he hangs up on me and I was like, oh man, this is not great. And then I thought to myself for a second, it's like, that's actually exactly who I want to be working with. Somebody that's like so focused on their audience, so focused on the brand that they're building that they're just going to hang up on like a prospective job opportunity or partnership opportunity and from there, we just got along really well. So, we talked over the intervening months and was able to acquire it on January 1 on that year and the rest is kind of history. Chris Erwin:Has that purchase price been disclosed? Doug Bernstein:No, and it will not be disclosed. Chris Erwin:Don't worry, this is not the podcast where I'm going to force you to say it. That's awesome. All right, so Omar comes in and it's like okay, getting the deal done is part of the battle but then it's actually like executing against the vision and so this, again, is like you're an up and coming executive and so the teams are looking at you like hey, Doug, you just made this deal happen but now like, let's call like reap what you've sown, right? Like what are we going to do here together? And so were you responsible for setting the plan and making this all come to life? Doug Bernstein:Yes, I mean I became the general manager of House of Highlights relatively shortly after we acquired it. My first job and the way I looked at it, and I referenced it earlier, was really about playing defense. So, for me, it was about I just want to put Omar, who is like basically a savant when it comes to this stuff, in a position where he is not beholden to anything other than growing this [inaudible 00:50:28]. So, basically I was like a left tackle and I would say like 50% of my job was just to allow him to continue to do exactly what he was doing but with the rights of the NBA and with the [inaudible 00:50:42] process for acquiring the user-generated content. So, obviously, I have an analytics background and knew the platform intimately and the two of us would just be insanely dedicated to growing the account. Doug Bernstein:Like nobody was more dedicated than Omar. Like he lived and breathed it and we would be texting every night at like two in the morning, being like do we need to do this, do we need that? What about this post? Trying to find UGC. Really, really didn't even think about monetization of think about anything other than let's grow this audience. That was it. Like everything for the first, I want to say, two years was only about audience and engagement. Like that was the 100% focus. Chris Erwin:What did you learn reaching out, acquiring a company, really like a personality and then integrating it to your org and being the leader here and the advocate? What was something that like surprised you and then also something that's like hey, this is how I became better from this experience? Doug Bernstein:Ooh, that's a really good question. I think in terms of what surprised me is I had somebody that had been primarily on the analytics and content side and I hadn't really done a lot of the business side of it and I think I had kind of that church and state divide and a little bit of oh, come on, the business side, look at this audience, like you could figure this out. And I think that was one of the things that I really matured on and had to learn how to get better at and was surprised by was just the amount of attention that you have to put into the fundamentals. Myself and Omar flew around the country the first year like going to Seattle, like Oregon and L.A., and all over to pitch the House of Highlights brand and it was that story and being there and really it's like going to the pizza guy and calling [inaudible 00:52:30] chicken parms for the newspaper. Doug Bernstein:It's like that where it's like you really got to be part of the sale. You really have to understand how does this business make money? How does it scale? How do we build a support staff? All my jobs previous to the Bleacher Report, whether it's at ESPN Classic Now or AOL Sports FanHouse or Versus, like basically everybody just got let go at a certain point because the audience wasn't there. I really wanted to make sure and I think this is one of the things that was also really key to that experience was not getting too far ahead of yourself. Doug Bernstein:People have a real tendency that it's like oh, where do you want to be in five years? And like really hot media digital startups that were like oh, we're going to take over the world, we're going to do this, that and the other, and I remember sitting with Omar and being like, "Dude, the most important thing is that like first and foremost, that we're around. That we don't take that for granted. That we're building a business that's sound and that's sustainable and that could employ people and be successful, not just for the next year or two years but really be successful for the next, hopefully, 20 to 50 years." Doug Bernstein:And that was a really, really big part of it was trying to build a foundation for a business that made sense and that wasn't just like trying to chase every trend or trying to spend every potential dollar but really trying to be really disciplined and focused. Chris Erwin:Yeah, and that could even lead to conflict with the team that you acquired, like with Omar, for example. You're the GM. You have a vision for this. This needs to integrate well into the company. We need to be here for the next 20, 30 years and you have to put your foot down on that, right? And the company was trusting you to make that happen? Chris Erwin:I liked your answer. That was definitely very compelling. So, I'm now curious, fast forward to House of Highlights and Bleacher Report today and I think a lot of peers and a lot of companies look at what you guys are doing, Doug, being like this is like this whole test/learn/iterate/improve culture that clearly like you've had in your 15-20 year career. That is something that you definitely deploy as a leader of this like multi-platform sports brand and so I'm curious, what's a quick snapshot for listeners of like here's some of the big recent moves that we've made but I'm also curious to hear like when you talk about really catering to Gen-Z sports culture, what are you not doing that you guys should be? What are you thinking about next that caters to this like the next generation of fandom? Doug Bernstein:The way we look at it is like we see ourselves as really being on the front lines of what's resonating with a younger sports audience every day across TikTok, YouTube, Instagram. We're posting anywhere from like 10-25 posts and all of those posts serve as like signals to help better inform what our strategy needs to be in the moment but also going forward. We also do a ton of research to just better understand the space and what we've really started to see and I think you've kind of hit on this earlier, at House of Highlights what's kind of this middle ground is this fundamental shift from publishers towards personalities and a big part of the acquisition of House of Highlights was recognizing that shift and trying to find a hybrid and kind of Omar being something that ... And House of Highlights being something that sat in the intersection of like publisher/personality. Doug Bernstein:And what we've seen is this shift increasing. So, I was just looking back at like a doc from 2018 where we lay this out where it's like we were really early to social and Instagram. We really want to be early to this shift towards personalities and in particular, the creator space. So we've had a lot of success this past year of starting to create content in partnership with creators. So we've done our live creator competitions. So, we have done dodge ball was our most recent one. It ended up as kind of the number one YouTube global trend, which we were really excited about. We have a Grand Prix coming up we're really excited about. We've also started to do VODs. We did VOD versions of these competitions. So we did a Highlight House Gridiron or football where we [inaudible 00:56:41] into a house and had them compete to determine who's the ultimate football creator. We're doing another one for basketball. Doug Bernstein:So, for me, it's really about doubling down on what's working and I think that is where we see is working. I think one of the hallmarks of my career is just kind of like building off of success is part of that [inaudible 00:57:02] process is we've never gotten to a hundred before we've gotten to like one to two to five to 10 to 25, 50 and 100, right? So there's this ramp up and I think that's what we're really seeing is we're really seeing this shift, right? If you look at, I think, 10% of Gen-Z aspires to be a professional athlete today where at 35% aspires to be a creator, 50% follow a creator on social media versus only 35% follow a team, athlete or league. So, fandom has shifted and we're trying to orient ourselves around that shift in fandom and not just kind of go along for the ride but really kind of lead that and we've developed really, really good relationships with creators. Doug Bernstein:So, we're not just trying to parachute in now that creator economy is a buzz-y term. A creator likes Supreme Dreams who is now as big a creator as there is, I've known Mark and his family for the last four or five years. Kenny Beecham and Through the Wire, who've become really big and influential in basketball, we have worked with them for three years. So, you really have to put it in ... And Dan Levitt, who I know is on this podcast. Chris Erwin:Oh yeah, done a lot of interviews with Dan. Doug Bernstein:[crosstalk 00:58:17] personal friend and incredible business man. We've been establishing relationships in this space for a long time. Chris Erwin:Well, that's a good point. When you say, Doug, that we've really been investing in relationships with creators, a lot of people ask, well, how do you do that? What does that include? And look, that's a really long conversation but if you were to list out like here's how we approach creators differently, here's like the two to three quick hits, what does that look like for House of Highlights and Bleacher Report? Doug Bernstein:It looks like this, so one is live creator competitions on a scale that nobody else is really doing them. I think that is a big, big part of it. I think the second is creator commentary, right? Historically, sports commentary has been driven either by two categories, one is former athletes or two is traditional journalists and what we've seen over time and particularly of late, is a new class really come in and own that and play a major part in that. Now, people seek out creators for their thoughts and their commentary in and around sports and we've worked really well in that. So I think that's kind of the second category. I think those are the competition angle, the commentary, those are kind of the big one and twos of it and then also the incubation. Doug Bernstein:We've incubated creators internally. For example, we have a creator on our team named The Broadcast Boys. They went from zero to 2.2 million followers on TikTok and we've helped incubate them to success. We've worked with a creator named [inaudible 00:59:46], another TikToker who's closing on a million who we've helped incubate to success on those platforms and then really give them the opportunity to shine, help them connect to a bigger and broader audience t

In this segment, you will hear from David Somerfleck a Digital Marketing Executive with 25 years of experience. You will get a walkthrough of How & When to PIVOT in Business During the Pandemic because if you aren't doing that then your will pay for it in the end do to playing it safe. It is time for you to level up in all areas in your life. WHO IS DAVID? David Somerfleck is a digital marketing executive with 25 years' experience working for marketing and advertising agencies where he served as project manager, helping guide multi-million-dollar brands as well as everyday business owners alike toward increased profitability. David also was a Certified Small Business Mentor off and on for 10 years through the U.S. Small Business Administration where he advised hundreds of small business owners, nonprofit administrations and senior staff, and startups in how to grow their business quicker and easier. Additionally, David was trained in political campaign marketing (called "messaging") by a consortium of The White House Project, the Colorado Department of Education, and the Center for Progressive Leadership - and later went on to advise several political campaigns. David has written for AOL/Time-Warner, spoken to a standing-room only audience at Microsoft, taught social media marketing at Johnson & Wales University, taught workshops for the WordPress Foundation and is the author of "The Road to Digital Marketing Profits" as well as a collection of poetry. He's also the host of The David Somerfleck Podcast where he interviews guests on topics related to digital marketing trends, global cultural and economic shifts, business innovation and ways we can all better channel our creativity. DAVID'S CONTACT INFO dms@dms.blue https://dms.blue DAVID'S GEM “If you have built castles in the air, your work need not be lost; that is where they should be. Now put foundations under them.” –Henry David Thoreau. GENESIS'S INFO GEMSwithGenesisAmarisKemp@gmail.com https://linktr.ee/GenesisAmarisKemp SUPPORT https://www.buymeacoffee.com/GenesisAKemp CALL TO ACTION Subscribe to GEMS with Genesis Amaris Kemp Channel, Hit the notifications so you don't miss any content, and share with family/friends. **REMEMBER - You do not have to let limitations or barriers keep you from achieving your success. Mind over Matter...It's time to shift and unleash your greatest potential. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/genesis-amaris-kemp/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/genesis-amaris-kemp/support