Podcasts about Continental Airlines

In this episode of the IC-DISC show, I speak with Tim Loney about his transition from airline industry professional to IT services entrepreneur. He shares his path from working at Continental Airlines through major mergers to establishing Solutions Information Systems, explaining how his experience with severance packages motivated his shift into entrepreneurship. We discuss the importance of business continuity planning, particularly for companies in hurricane-prone areas. Tim tells me about a Houston client whose facilities experienced severe flooding, highlighting how proper data recovery systems made a crucial difference in their ability to resume operations. Managing sensitive data is a key topic in our conversation, as Tim's company works with high-net-worth families, family office sectors, as well as companies in a variety of industries. He explains how word-of-mouth referrals have helped build trust with these clients who require careful handling of confidential information. The conversation turns to Tim's approach to business acquisition, where he focuses on purchasing IT firms from retiring owners. He describes his method of maintaining and growing these businesses post-purchase while sharing insights about how remote management tools have transformed IT services over the past 35 years.     SHOW HIGHLIGHTS I discussed Tim's career evolution from working in the airline industry with Continental Airlines and American Express to establishing his own IT services firm, Solutions Information Systems, in Houston, Texas. Tim shared insights on how his managed IT services company has established a national presence by utilizing robust remote management tools and enterprise-class processes. We explored the importance of business continuity and rapid data recovery, highlighted by a story of a Houston-based company that faced severe flooding and required effective disaster recovery solutions. Tim's firm specializes in managing sensitive data for high-income families in construction and family office sectors, emphasizing the importance of trust and credibility built through word-of-mouth referrals. We discussed Tim's strategy for acquiring small businesses from retiring owners, focusing on enhancing the value of these businesses post-acquisition to ensure continued growth. Tim reflected on his entrepreneurial journey from modest beginnings, emphasizing the significance of diversifying income sources and the evolving importance of data protection in the digital age. The episode concluded with an exploration of the evolution of office communication over the last 35 years, showcasing the technological advancements that have redefined the IT industry.   Contact Details LinkedIn- Tim Loney (https://www.linkedin.com/in/sis-tloney/) LINKSShow Notes Be a Guest About IC-DISC Alliance About Solutions Informations Systems GUEST Tim LoneyAbout Tim TRANSCRIPT (AI transcript provided as supporting material and may contain errors) Dave: Hey, good afternoon, Tim. Welcome to the podcast. Tim: Hi, Dave, good to see you. Dave: So where are you calling in from today? What part of the world are you in? Tim: I'm in Houston, Texas, just north of Houston, in the Tomball area. Dave: Okay. Tim: Up in our corporate headquarters for the company. Dave: Okay, and now are you a native Houstonian. Tim: I am not. I'm not a native Houstonian. I should be probably classified as a native Houstonian because I've been here for about 35 years or more. Dave: Okay. Tim: But my background is I migrated from Canada the day before my 21st birthday. Dave: Oh, you did. Tim: Yeah, I became a permanent resident here in the United States. And what caused you to want to do that? The economy was pretty bad in Canada at that time and I was working for a commercial airline that had gone through a severance package and they released me with my severance package and I said you know, maybe I should try another country, not just a job, but maybe another country. Dave: Okay, so when you came to Houston then did you stay in the airline? Tim: business I did. I worked for one of the large international airlines called Continental Airlines at the time, which has since been acquired by United Airlines. Dave: You know, to this day I can still tell a legacy Continental flight crew from a legacy United flight crew. Very different cultures, very different cultures, or, as I say, the Continental folks are nice and the United folks are not so nice. Tim: Correct, yeah, I was there during the heavy competition years between Continental Airlines and United. I was actually there in the process with Continental Airlines during a very large merger and acquisition of multiple carriers. We acquired Frontier, people Express and New York Air and put them all under the umbrella of Continental Airlines. So I was there during those years. Dave: Okay, so were you there in the late 90s. So were you there in the late 90s. Tim: I was there from 1985 to 1990. Dave: Okay, yeah, I was only asking because I'd worked at an executive search firm in the late 90s and we worked with Continental during their like, go forward initiative or move forward initiative. Tim: Yep the go forward plan with Gordon Blithoon. He was Yep. Dave: Yep, that was it. So then you left the airline business. What did you decide to go do then? Tim: So I left the airline business and I went to work for one of the largest credit card companies in the world called American Express. Dave: Okay, I think I've heard of them. Tim: Yep and because I had a lot of automation knowledge of how the airlines work. From an automation standpoint, American Express was interested in me and understanding the automation behind the airlines and travel agency systems and they brought me in to be a systems person for the airlines to help them in kind of standardizing a lot of procedures within American Express. Dave: Okay, well, that sounds like a fun opportunity. Tim: Yeah, very rewarding, very educational. I learned so much during my term at American Express. Dave: Okay, but you decided that at some point you wanted to unfurl your wings and see what you could do on your own. Is that right? Tim: unfurl your wings and see what you could do on your own. Is that right? Yeah, you know now that I look back at it. You know I was. I grew up in a family where you were encouraged to go work for a large organization and a big fortune 100 firm, and through your entire life, and leave with a gold Rolex watch and have a great retirement plan. Dave: Yeah. Tim: But as I followed that path, I found myself continuing to get severance packages over and in my experience with the Fortune 100s I received three or four severance packages and those packages kind of educated me on that. It was maybe not the right gig for me and, you know, I was smart enough to be able to exit out of the Fortune 100s and do something on my own, and that's when I decided to start my organization. Dave: Okay, and what's your company called? Tim: So my company is Solutions Information Systems Solutions IS to abbreviate it and we are a managed service provider of IT services across the United States, managing about 175 customers across the US oh wow. Dave: That's interesting. I would have thought you'd have your clients would all be in the Houston area. I guess this newfangled internet thing lets you serve clients remotely. Is that, I guess, how it works? Tim: Yeah, yeah, and we can talk a little bit about what makes us so successful, but the ability to manage and monitor and remediate issues remotely has come a long ways over the years that I've been in IT. Now it's pretty much if you can't do that, why are you in this industry, right? So yeah, and you know it's a lot of like the entire work from home program that the whole world has kind of moved to. We have that ability to do exactly all of that stuff, not only from our corporate headquarters, but remotely as well. If one of our employees needs to work from home, they can do remotely as well. If one of our employees needs to work from home, they can do that as well. So it requires a massive tool set, and I'll refer probably to our tool set a lot, because that's what makes us successful, right Is the tool set that I've been able to put together and build a toolbox full of tools to be able to manage, secure, maintain these infrastructures that we're responsible for. Dave: Well. Tim: I thought IT service firms were. Dave: I thought that was a commodity service. I thought they're all the same. Tim: Oh no, there's quite a bit of difference in how these managed service providers operate and I'll tell you, I would consider us probably in the top 100 nationally and probably the top three in our region of service providers, and the reason I kind of give us that grade and that's a grade that I've given us is that we've been at this for 25 years. I started this practice 25 years ago. I started this practice 25 years ago and over those 25 years I not only brought in enterprise class processes and procedures from my 10 years at American Express, but I've improved upon those processes and procedures over those 25 years. Dave: And we continue to improve on those processes. Okay. Well, what? Yeah, I'm guessing that you're. The clients tend to stay with you for a pretty long time. Is that like until they sell or go out of business or some significant event occurs? Absolutely. Tim: Yeah, and that and that's the type of client that we want to have in our portfolio, right? This is not a consumable product that you go and buy once and go away this is a partnership with our customers. Dave: It really is. Tim: You have to think about the IT infrastructure of any business out there. It's number one, a foundational piece of the business, and it is an instrumental piece in continuing to do business right. A lot of conversations I have are around data protection and security, and that's a lot of what we do right Is how do we protect the data that the customer has and how do we make sure that it remains secure and that nobody compromises that data or extracts that data or modifies that data that's on their infrastructure. Dave: Okay, and I'm guessing you're not trying to be the low-cost provider. Tim: We are not the low-cost provider. I wouldn't say we're the most expensive organization out there, but we are in the higher side, and the reason that we're the higher side is we bring a huge value to an organization. There is a lot of components within the IT support model that our lower competitors don't provide or don't understand, and those are the weaknesses within an organization that will cost them considerable damage to an organization if they get exposed right. Dave: Yeah. Tim: And then kind of go through those if you want to cover some of that stuff. Like let's just give an example of a business continuity plan right. If a company doesn't have a business continuity plan, that should be something that they should have in place, and they should have worked with their IT service provider or internal IT team to make sure that they've got a business continuity plan. If they don't, when an event happens, it's a total dumpster fire right, because they don't know what to do and they're very disorganized and it takes them an extremely long time to be able to recover, if they recover at all. So that's one example. Another example is compliance. There's a lot of compliance that's out there and that compliance is in place for a reason. Compliance is in there because somehow something got compromised and this is a compliance requirement that you now have to be in compliance with. It may be an access control compliance thing. It might be a reporting compliance to a legal agency. Dave: So talk to me about the first thing you refer to as the disaster recovery plan or the disaster recovery and business continuity. Okay, so my listeners love stories, so could you give me an example, like of one of your clients you know anonymously, that maybe went through a situation or maybe a company who was not a client but after they had an issue they hired. You guys give us a sense of like the elements of a really good you know continuity plan. Tim: Sure. So I'll give you an example. I had a neighbor that was in my neighborhood that you know. We would see each other at the neighborhood community pool. Our kids would play together, you know weren't real close to them. But you know you get into the conversation of having hey, what do you do by? The way, and you know, I told him I ran a managed service provider, an IT service firm, and we manage customer networks and we keep them secure. Dave: And he goes oh, okay, okay, Well, we got a guy. Tim: We got a guy he's good, he's been with me for five years. At that point, and you know, and wow, that's great. Well, if we need anything we'll call you, right, the conversation went away and that was about 15 years later. So the guy had been working for him for 20 years managing his stuff, managing his infrastructure, managing his backups, making sure again going back to data protection and security making sure that everything was safe and secure and we could recover it. Well, lo and behold, 20 years later he calls me up it. Well, lo and behold, 20 years later he calls me up, not him, but his wife calls me up, and his wife, you know, worked in the business for a period of time but it exited out. She called me up. She said by the way, I still have your cell phone number. I'm wondering if you're still doing IT, was their question. Dave: Okay. Tim: And I returned back and I said absolutely, I'm still doing IT. What's going on? She goes well. He was afraid to call you because he's embarrassed and we were in a very bad situation. This is a second generation builder supply company, probably doing annual revenue about $10 to $15 million in annual revenue. Dave: I said OK, what's going on? Tim: And she goes. Well, we've been ransomed and our data has been held for ransom and we don't know what to do. And our IT guy doesn't know what to do and he is really stressed out. And so the next step was is like well, I can jump in and I can help you. Let me know if you need my assistance. But these type of scenarios we've worked with before and we know how to be able to either negotiate with the criminals and negotiate the ransom to a point where you can actually pay it. If that's your only option, that's your worst option. But if we can recover your data from some sort of backup, we can go through the recovery process. Kind of summarize it we spent that particular client was not a client at the time and so they didn't have any of our backup or recovery procedures in place. They didn't have any kind of policy in place. They didn't have retention policies, they didn't have off-site backups. They had a lot of things. They didn't have offsite backups. They had a lot of things that were missing in that internal IT person's procedure. So what happened was is we came in and we immediately got on site and determined that they were using tape backup, and this is like way tape backup had expired like a long time ago. They had tape backup, they had ancient equipment, it was really. They obviously had put no money investment into their IT. Okay, the recovery for that client was about a week and a half and we were able to recover about 90% of their data. So it comes down to what we call RTO or recovery time objective. The recovery time objective is how long will it take us to recover your network based on our backup and recovery procedures? That particular customer we were able to get back up. Like I said, it was an extended period of time that they were out and they weren't able to do stuff. They were writing sales orders on paper and going back to a paper process. So they could continue their business, but we did get them back up and operational. We got them recovered and they became a customer and today we run very successful trials of the recovery system, as well as continue to make sure that their data is protected and secure. Dave: Did they end up paying the ransom they? Did not Because you got them close enough to 100%. Tim: We got them close enough where they had physical paper backup of the information that they were able to put back into the system. Dave: Okay, now help me understand the other end of that spectrum with somebody who was a current client that something like that happened to, and what was the difference as far as how long it took before you had them up and running? Tim: Well, you know, our current clients knock on wood have not experienced that. Dave: Because they've got a tighter IT infrastructure. Tim: Right, we've got the security and controls and again going back to the tool set to detect and have early detection of these type of events before they happen. So we have the security operations center that is constantly monitoring the security of the networks and the access to the networks and they look for anything that's kind of out of order. Dave: When something's out of order. Tim: then we identify it. We either isolate that system or we investigate it further and see is this a normal procedure that should be going or not? A normal procedure and a lot of this stuff is becoming part of AI now. Part of the AI capabilities is to be able to identify those things very early and stop them before they get any further into the network. So prevention is obviously a whole lot better than remediation. Right and that's what companies hire us to do is to prevent anything like that, a catastrophic event, from happening. Dave: Okay. Well, what about something that's more like a hurricane hits and wipes out their building? I assume you've had some kind of like natural disaster kind of thing where you've had to enact a continuity plan. Tim: Yep, yep, yep, absolutely so. Hurricanes here in the Gulf Coast of Texas, with the Gulf Coast of Texas being in a hurricane zone, we've had customers that their facilities have gone underwater. So one particular customer was on the south side of Houston and their facility went about five feet underwater. They, interestingly enough, had the server on a brick, thinking it was high enough. Well, it wasn't quite high enough, it was a foot off the ground, but it needed to be five feet off the ground. So that server went underwater and it was on when it went underwater. So it shorted out a lot of the components on the server, in which case, you know, they were like we don't know what to do In that scenario. We actually brought the hardware to our facility and we found out what component had failed and we replaced that component on the system and we were able to recover that system oh, wow, okay yeah, that's what we always want to do, is we want to try to use local recovery as much as possible just because of bandwidth or um, no, because of the time it takes to get the data transferred over from a replication process right. Gotcha If you're dealing with terabytes of data. You have to transfer that terabytes of data from either our data center facility or a cloud infrastructure, and that can be time consuming. That can be hours, if not days, depending upon the data. Okay, so some great stories. I mean, obviously we've had events happen. It's not uncommon for events to happen, but how we handle those events and how quickly we can recover from them is critical to a business to continue business for our customers and they can get back to business and be doing what they're doing selling things, manufacturing things, distributing things, whatever it is Okay. Dave: And are there any particular industries that you have, like you know, kind of particular expertise in where you know you would say that people in this industry might look out to you for yeah? Tim: There is. We're a very horizontal organization so we do have multiple industries that we play in. So we do play in the construction industry A lot of construction firms are in our portfolio, but also kind of an area where we've proven to have not only expertise in what we do but also the trust factor is in family offices. Dave: Oh, really Okay. Tim: Yeah, either high income families or ultra high income families. Obviously the privacy of those organizations, the privacy of the families, absolutely critical, and then the data that they're working with has high confidentiality. So, you know again, if that information was to leak out of the network or leak out of the system, then it would be a serious issue. So we've dealt with some of the highest wealth families in the world, oh interesting. Yep Obviously can't name them, but some brands that you would know, some organizations that you would know. It's amazing when I look at our portfolio, the amount of business like when I'm driving around town and I see companies around town and I'm like been in that building, worked in that customer, handled that particular customer, things like that. So yeah, you know, it's our high income or ultra high income. Families are probably a good percentage of our business. Okay, because they have multiple entities that we can support, consistent across all of those entities. So it's very standardized the way we do our business and very proceduralized so it makes it easy for them to understand. They get a quarterly report that provides them with the details and data that they know what we did for them previously and then we also forecast with a forecasting budget in the October November timeframe to provide them with a forecast so they can budget for their future IT needs and know what they're going to need replaced in the future. Dave: Okay, so was this just a case? You happened to stumble across, you know one of these family offices and then you know they run in the same circles and we're just got around that you guys were the go-to folks. Tim: I will say it has helped right In the. You know, in that particular market referrals are a huge thing. Our first family office we did stumble across. We didn't know we were working with an entity, one of their businesses, and then we, you know, they introduced us to another piece of their business and then they introduced us to the family office. You know we're having troubles with, you know, my buddy, my other firm over here, and we'd like you to kind of help in that area. So that expanded out quite a bit. And you know, again, there couldn't be. Our organization has to be the most trusted organization as a vendor that any company is going to hire, right? Sure, because you have to think about the access to the data that we have. We have access to absolutely everything. We're the administrator of your network, right? We have access to your email account. We have access to your email account. We have access to your employees' email accounts. We have access to your data, your financial data, your payroll data, your bonus data, all of the data that's out there on the network we have full access to. So you have to trust our team to the utmost in order to keep that information private, and I always approach a customer with. We're here responsible to secure and maintain that data. We're not here to look at what that data is. We don't know what that data is. Okay. Dave: Well, that's interesting here. I thought I figured you picked up that first client when you were on your mega yacht at the Cannes Film Festival. It didn't work that way. Tim: Huh, no it didn't work that way. No, it didn't work that way. I don't have a mega yacht and I wasn't at the festival, so okay, okay, yeah, not that I don't enjoy that stuff. I do have a house over at tpc, sawgrass and the players club and I do enjoy the country club life. You know I probably have the least expensive house in the neighborhood but I do enjoy the life. Dave: So nice, nice, I like it. So what do your clients tell you that makes your firm unique, like folks that have moved from another firm to yours, then they've been with you a while and I imagine you'll have a conversation hey, how's it going from your end? Are we meeting your expectations? I imagine you have conversations like that. What are they? What are? Are there any common themes? When they end up comparing you to the prior provider, they had, or how does that go? Tim: Yeah, there's a couple of scenarios there on why customers come to us and leave their current service provider right. One of the biggest things that I found with a customer that may be using a smaller service provider is they are really good at the tech stuff. They're not good at the business or the accounting side of the business, sure. So there's a delay in billing or an inaccuracy in billing and it's all of a sudden they get a stack of invoices three months later for work that was performed that they have no idea whether it got performed or what, and so there's a huge problem with the office operations of those particular service providers. So there's a pain point there and they're like I'm done, they come to me and they go, I'm done, this guy doesn't bill me. And then he bills me all at once, and then I got to try and back that information back into my financials and it totally screws up my forecast and my monthly reporting. So that's one reason that customers come to us. The other one is they don't get a response or the response is like unpredictable. So when they call in, they may get the guy right away, they may get the person like return their call the next day or three days later, so response time is really huge. I have a service desk here that is operated 24 hours a day, so our first level response is within minutes. So if you call my office, you'll get a response within minutes. If not on the first ring, it'll probably be the second or third ring. Dave: Oh, wow. Tim: Yeah, very rarely does any of our calls sit on hold or back up in the queue, so that's one way that customers come to us. The other way that customers come to us is that we have acquired eight other companies in the past 25 years. Dave: Oh, wow. Tim: Yeah, we completed our last acquisition in 2024. And we've gone out and found other service providers that may be struggling. They may not have the right business acumen to be able to run the business, so they're either marginally making money or they're losing money because they don't have the standard operating procedures that we have in place and the true business acumen to be able to run the service as a company. They've got customers, they're doing the work, they're getting paid, but they're not profitable. So we end up with firms like that that have come in through acquisitions. Dave: So yeah, I can see that and that's probably where your American Express background was helpful. Right Because you've had exposure to, you know, enterprise grade operations billing HR. Right operations billing HR right To where? Because American Express strikes me as just a well-run, well-oiled machine? Tim: Absolutely yeah, and I will say yeah, I will give them credit for that. You know it was a great run over there for 10 years and I learned not only about you know my job role and continuing to build on my experience in my job role, but how a company operates from a branding perspective, in branding your organization and keeping that brand consistent, but also in standard operating procedures and standardized deployment of systems. Right. I always refer back to not only my American Express days but the Southwest Airline days of standardization. If you can standardize the particular piece of your business that you're running, then it makes it so much easier. So we have standard software applications that we put out from a security tool set. We have standard equipment that we sell out to our customers, all on the Dell platform. My team is trained on the Dell hardware. They're trained on the tools that we use. The security tools, the management tools and all of those things integrate together to make a successful business. Dave: And again it goes back to enterprise level policies and procedures and way things that are, you know, repeating things that are successful you know, repeating things that are successful, okay Well, it sounds like like the first two parts of your success just seem mind blowing to me how you thought of this. But answer the phone when clients call and invoice timely Wow, I mean that's, that's quite a that's quite as. I mean I can't believe, to be honest, that you shared that secret sauce with me. I mean, my goodness, I mean that's. If you're not careful, there'll be other companies will start answering the phone and invoicing timely with that, you know inside knowledge. Tim: Yeah, I hope that we can improve the rest of the service providers out there, right. Dave: Sure. Tim: Competition is good. I like competition. It keeps us going. It gives us something to work towards as well. Dave: Yeah, so you talked a bit about some of the acquisitions and it sounds like you're kind of in a place where you're always open to the right acquisition. What are kind of the ideal characteristics of like the ideal acquisition? I'm guessing you're not going to try to acquire like E&Y's consulting group. I'm guessing you're looking for smaller operations than that. Tim: Yeah for sure you know. So an organization, the organizations we have acquired, have been anywhere from a half a million dollars to two million dollars in revenue. Those organizations the owners may be getting older, they may be getting ready to retire and they're not sure what they want to do with their business. What they do know is that they don't want to continue to run it Right and that it's marginally. They're making the same amount of money or less than if they had a corporate job Right. So it's sad to see, because they love what they do right and they want to place their customers in with a firm that has a similar culture, that takes care of their customers and really make sure that they're doing the right thing for their customers. So a firm that might be in a half million dollars to two million dollars in annual revenue, or the firm might be a five employee firm or smaller, and that they're getting to that point where they're kind of tired of running the organization and they'd like to transfer. They've taken care of their customers over the years and they've made relationships with those customers over the years and they like to put them with an organization that will take care of those customers and make it a seamless transition for the customer base sure, and I bet, I bet these sellers would probably be shocked if they were able to come in and look at the finances of their business like two years after you've acquired it. Dave: Right, because I'm guessing? Tim: Historically, yes, I will tell you, in probably at least half of those transactions that we've done in the either 12-month or 24-month payout period, they've made more money in that 12-month or 24-month period than they've made in the last three to four years. Dave: Oh, because that earn out ends up being a function of how much you bill over those 12 to 20. And you dramatically increase the revenues, so they're automatically getting participation in that. Absolutely. If they'd known that they would have sold to you 20 years earlier. They just wanted to work for you had their payout and then just become an employee. Right, they want to come out way ahead. Exactly, yeah. Tim: Yeah, now it's really good to see that. I mean, you know, that's one of the things that my competitors don't do. They try to come in and offer this ridiculous number for a business and then the earn out. They beat them up on the earn out and end up with anything. They end up with an initial payment and then maybe they'll get an earn out, maybe they they'll get an earn out, maybe they won't get an earn out, but they're going to tell them how horrible their organization was and how bad the customer base was and how it's not profitable and you know, it's just not how I do business. Dave: Yeah, and I'm having done. Did you say eight acquisitions? Correct, yeah, I'm guessing you've done enough now. That now you have the ability Correct? Yeah, I'm guessing you've done enough now that now you have the ability, the same way that I understand you know when Berkshire Hathaway acquires a at that same point. Now You've got enough success stories that you can point to those as another differentiator, right? Tim: Yeah, absolutely, absolutely. We're not at the Berkshire Hathaway point, but we got a couple under our belt and a couple of examples that we can refer back to and have some validation around our acquisition process. Dave: Yeah, because I'm just like, as I'm just playing through some hypothetical numbers, like you know, if a company had, say and you don't have to confirm these, but say a company was doing half a million in revenue, the profit is say you know 50 grand and you buy them, is say you know 50 grand and you buy them, and it wouldn't surprise me if, like, two years later, you know that revenue number doubled and the profitability number like quintupled probably, and or you just you know dramatic increase. Just because you know I mean, quite frankly, you just have a better run business model but they had you're able to plug them in and so that's absolutely our goal. Tim: Yeah, and so your win isn't so much we like to see play out right. Dave: Yeah, and so your win isn't like other folks where you promise the moon and then you figure out all of these ways to not pay them. It sounds like your process is just like hey, because in your mind, being a strategic buyer, that business is worth way more to you. You know two years later, once you've done your magic to it, that business is worth way more and so you're okay paying them on an earn out, on a growing revenue number that maybe they didn't even contribute to, because at the end you know, as a I mean like on the front end you might pay, say you know, one times revenue, let's say just to pull a number out but by the time you get to the end of it, if the business is doubled and the profitability is quadrupled, you really ended up paying only one third or one half revenue. And so all of a sudden, whether you know found a way to squeeze them to where the imputed value you paid was one third annual billings or it was half of annual billings really doesn't matter, because the real value for you is like, year three after the earn out. You've got this great profitable book of business that you know you didn't pay much for in comparison to what it's worth two, three years later in your enterprise. Is that right that's? correct, yep, absolutely but the reason you didn't pay much, though, in in all honesty, was because the business wasn't very valuable. Tim: And it really wasn't right. Dave: Yeah, I mean they had owner value. Tim: Street value had a zero valuation on it right. Dave: Yeah, they had probably owner concentration risk. They may have had customer concentration risk, poor processes systems. You know the type of company that you know. There weren't people beating their door down to buy their because, effectively, you're just buying a job. If you bought that business, all right. How much do you pay for a job? Most people don't want to pay very much for a job. Now, what do you look for in an employee, just like you know the most techie person you can find. Is that really all that matters? Tim: No, it's not necessarily you know the most skilled technical guy out there, right? So one of the strategies that we have and maybe I shouldn't share that because my competitors may hear it, but we are a strong supporter of our veterans, so we have veterans that work in our organization. We're probably a 75 percent veteran organization. Dave: Oh, wow, ok yeah. Tim: Yeah, and we enjoy that. They come to us with technical skills and abilities but we build upon those we really do Right and we develop those particular individuals to be much better at what they do. But having our veterans on our team has been hugely successful from a reliability standpoint, as well as a dedication standpoint and the understanding to be able to follow orders as given, right Okay. So that's how we've been able to do that and our retention rate is extremely high. I would say that our culture is very good. We're very family oriented. We're very you know when work has to get done, work has to get done. But we also realize that the family comes first and there's family things that come in the way that need to be addressed. Right. You can't. Your kid gets sick. You have to go take care of your kid, you can't be at your job, right? Those kinds of things and being able to balance that. That was one of my challenges at American Express. I was a new father in my ninth year at American Express and I realized that, even though it was written in the book and preached on the values of the company, when it came time to actually exercise that it wasn't as flexible as I had hoped I was like you know. This is another reason I kind of need to get out. I need to raise my daughter and I need to, you know, and I plan to have other children. So family values and longevity of employees, it makes a huge difference you have to think about. If you have an IT guy in your organization and they're only there for a year or two years, they've gained a little bit of knowledge about your business and how it operates and what computer systems are, what systems and software you're using in your business. They get intellectual knowledge right that walks out the door when that employee leaves or you release that employee. Dave: Yeah. Tim: With maintaining our staffing. I've got people on my team that have been with us 15 plus years and they have a history of our customers that is like you can't buy that right. Sure, you've got that knowledge of that network, of when it was built, like we've built some of these companies, so we know it from day one and what we've done to different applications and how we've modified them over the years. So just having that knowledge be maintained with your service provider is huge, so, and we can go back and look at you know, oh, here's a ticket from 15 years ago that I worked, that I resolved this issue, wow. Dave: And how do you know? You know, cause it sounds like the company has been growing both organically and through acquisition. How do you know when it's time to hire? Do you wait till? Like people are working a hundred hours a week in complaining and quitting. Tim: Is that? Dave: the point you say oh geez, we probably should get somebody hired and we should probably hire in a hurry. The first person we come across Is that your growth strategy? Tim: for your people? No, definitely not, definitely not. So we have a lot of KPIs in the business that we can measure the performance of our organization, and mainly that's around resource utilization. Okay, so we have a lot of tools in our toolbox that give us an indication of when an employee is overloaded or when they have too much on their plate, so we can shuffle that within the business and be able to see who's got the workload and who doesn't have the workload, be able to move things around within the organization. But then we can also look at our utilization levels and, number one, make sure that we're profitable with those utilization levels but also staff appropriately to those utilization levels and know when it's time right. It's like okay, we acquired a company with five big customers and we didn't get any employees with it. Do we have the bandwidth or do we need to increase our staffing? So we really have a lot of KPIs around measuring that to make sure that we don't stress our existing resources and we balance it out that our people are profitable but they're not overworked. Dave: Yeah, no, that makes sense. And then how do your new employees come to you? Is it referrals from other employees mostly, or no, we do have. Tim: I sit on the board for one of the technical colleges and I use that technical college as our you know more or less recruiting platform. We find the best of the students. You know the kids that are shining. You know they kids that are shining. You know they're showing up on time for their classes, they're interested in developing their skills and they're really, you know, the top students in the tracks right Okay. Yeah, and then we recruit them out of there. We recruit them in at our first level, our entry level, on our service desk team and we build them up in our organization over a period of time, so lots of opportunity for them to grow once they come into our organization. Dave: Yeah, that sounds like a great way to bring new folks on. You can train them the way you want trained with your processes and systems. Tim: And then keep them right. Keep them you can give them a growth path and keep them so that they can be. They can get better at what they do, get a higher compensation, be successful in life. There's nothing makes me happier as an owner than to see an employee grow from where they came in the day they started with us to being successful in life. Buying a home buying a car, having a family, all of those kinds of things right, those are really important for me. They're kind of like energy for me to see a person develop over the course of their career with our organization. Dave: Some of my guests. When I ask them, like what's the most satisfying or gratifying part of the job, it seems to fall into two categories. It's either the satisfaction they get from serving the customer or the satisfaction they get from watching their team grow. It sounds like you're probably more on that watching the team grow and that and then they. I think it was Herb Keller that had the idea of take care of your employees, and your employees will take care of your customers Absolutely. Is that right, that your satisfaction comes more from taking care of the employees, and then the happy customers are just an expected outcome? Tim: Yeah, that is a result, right, absolutely. So you know, when I started started this organization, I started in the spare bedroom of my house. Oh okay, I had two analog phone lines. One was for my phone and the other one was a backup phone line, but it was also used for my dial-up internet to be able to help, oh wow, remote into into customers. Right, and looking back, I walk in now to our operations center and we have a pretty impressive organization and a pretty impressive facility that we own. And walking in now I'm like, holy crap, what the heck did I build? Dave: right that's awesome. That's super satisfying right, super yeah I can imagine well I cannot believe how the time is flying by. I always tell my guests it's like the fastest hour of their life is being on the podcast. Tim: How are we going to fill that hour, Dave? Dave: Yeah, I know. So I've got just two questions just to wrap up. If you had a time machine and could go back and give some advice to like your 25 or 30 year old self, what advice might you give yourself? Tim: Ooh, that's a good question. I don't know. I don't know the answer to that. What do I give myself? I probably would have started my organization sooner. Dave: Bingo. That's the answer that 90% of the people have. Tim: Yeah, I would have started my organization sooner. I needed that enterprise expertise, but I would have started it sooner. Dave: Sure, yeah, it's yeah, because the funny thing when you're an employee and if you follow the career path that your family suggested is actually they think it's a low risk, safe career path. But it's actually a high risk path because you have a customer concentration issue, meaning you have one customer, your employer and, as you learned three or four times that if they decide they don't need you anymore, you basically lose 100% of your income. They don't need you anymore, you basically lose 100% of your income. So it's actually less risky to have you know, even if you're just doing like consulting and all yours, just like a contract employee working 10 hours a week for four different companies, doing whatever. I find that that's far less risky, because if one of the companies doesn't need you, then you know you've only lost a quarter of your revenue. Tim: Yeah, I call it a scenario of I get hired multiple times a month. I hope I never get fired, but occasionally I get fired. But it should have an impact. I like it Well. Dave: so here's my last question. So you're a naturalized Houstonian, like I, am Tex-Mex or barbecue. Tim: Ooh, I like both really well. But yeah, tex-mex thing. If I don't have Mexican at least once a week, I'm going through withdrawals okay, so Tex-Mex? Dave: yeah, now, one person answered that question. I borrowed this from somebody else. One person answered it. They told me about a Mexican restaurant that has great brisket and they make like brisket enchiladas and brisket tacos and brisket quesadillas and he said that was like the best of both worlds there. And I thought, boy, that sounds like it. Tim: Yeah, there's nothing better than a brisket taco, for sure. Dave: That is awesome, I make some of those myself. That is great. Well, hey, as we wrap up, is there anything? I did not ask you that you wish I had Tim. Tim: No, I'd like to close by saying I shared with my team today and I'm always trying to come up with something that I share with my team every day and today I came up with solutions as a defense system designed to protect the most critical assets of your business the data. I like to just kind of close with solutions I as a defense system designed to protect your most critical assets your data, think about think about if your business lost access to its data, regardless of the circumstance. If they lost access to the data, what would that do to your organization? That's what we protect from. That's what we protect from. That's what we protect from happening. Dave: Yeah, Charlie Munger talks about the number one key to recognizing a great business opportunity is finding a company who's riding a wave that's only going to grow and increase over time, Because really all they have to do is just stay on the wave. Well, that certainly has applied to you, right? Because 25 years ago you probably had some companies that said ah our data is not that important. You know, I've got a Rolodex with all my clients' phone number and email, and you know, so the importance of data has only increased during that time, right? Tim: Oh yeah, it's dramatically increased yeah. Dave: Well, it's also. Tim: Everybody trusts that data will be there when they're ready to use it. Dave: Yeah, well, and also the other fact is digitization right 25 years ago, most of their data may not have been digital, it may have been analog or paper or whatever, but now virtually everything is digitized, which makes the data even more important. Tim: I go back 35 years in this industry and when I go back and look at it, I replaced the inner office envelope. Oh yeah, people would type up a memo on a typewriter, put it in an inner office envelope and put whoever was going to and put it in their outbox and the mail guy would come by and pick it up. I replaced that guy. That's true? Dave: Well, that is awesome. Well, Tim, I really appreciate your time. This has really been fun and you've really given me kind of an insight into what makes a really well-run IT services firm operate. So I really appreciate your time. Tim: Yeah, I appreciate your time as well, Dave. Always good to chat with you and good to catch up and appreciate your time today as well. Thanks so much. Dave: All, right, yeah, you too. Special Guest: Tim Loney.

This week: Guest Co-Host Charles Duncan, Fmr President, Norse Atlantic Airways; Guest: Frank Lorenzo, Fmr CEO, Continental Airlines; News: JetBlue, SkyWest, Frontier Q3 report; Frontier takes deliveries of new Airbus 320neo; Increased competition for LCCs; DOT new refund rule result for consumers; Canadian Transportation Agency proposes fining airlines per complaint; Listener input on SWA route structuring.

On this episode of The Ty Brady Way, Ty interviews Tom Tasker, a former Air Force and commercial airline pilot, who shares his remarkable journey through aviation and beyond. Inspired by his mother, the first female pilot south of Provo, Utah, Tom didn't initially aspire to fly but grew up surrounded by planes. Eventually, he joined the Air Force during the Vietnam War draft, where he flew cargo planes worldwide and developed a deep passion for aviation.    Tom reflects on his 23-year military career, including 11 years on active duty, where he gained valuable experience flying missions for the Air Force. After leaving the military, he transitioned into commercial aviation, navigating the challenges of deregulation, airline strikes, and bankruptcies during his time at Continental Airlines. Tom shares personal anecdotes about balancing his life as a pilot, reservist, and family man, including commuting between Guam and Tacoma, Washington, to maintain his pilot currency.    Tom also discusses his transition into the insurance industry after being forced into early retirement due to outdated FAA regulations. He explains how his aviation background, attention to detail, and adaptability prepared him for a new career helping others with Medicare Advantage plans. Ty and Tom wrap up the conversation by teasing a future episode, where they'll delve deeper into Tom's post-aviation journey.    As always, we would like to hear from you! Email us at thetybradyway@gmail.com Or DM us on Instagram @thetybradyway https://www.instagram.com/thetybradyway/

Todd Ault interviews Frank Lorenzo, the former CEO of Continental Airlines, Eastern Airlines, and Texas Air, and the author of Flying for Peanuts: Tough Deals, Steep Bargains, and Revolution in the Skies. This compelling business memoir provides an in-depth look at the airline deregulation years, detailing the high-stakes negotiations that contributed to Lorenzo's success. The book includes encounters with Carl Icahn and features a chapter dedicated to the sale of the Eastern Airlines Shuttle to Donald Trump, which eventually became the troubled Trump Shuttle. Don't miss this exciting interview with Frank Lorenzo, where he discusses the origins of the peanut fares experiment and the real reason behind the similarity between the artwork on the wings of United and Continental Airlines.    "Frank Lorenzo revolutionized an entire business category to something fairly biblical." - Todd Ault    "When I was working at TWA, I remember some of the guys telling me stories about Howard Hughes commandeering some of the new airplanes, taking one of [the airplanes] to the Bahamas and using it as a hotel, experimenting with it to see what the airplane was like." - Frank Lorenzo

On Thursday's show: We meet Bryan Brown, the new president of the Energy Corridor District.Also this hour: We talk with Frank Lorenzo, the former CEO of Continental Airlines, which was based in Houston, about his new memoir. It's called Flying for Peanuts: Tough Deals, Steep Bargains, and Revolution in the Skies.And we tour the latest renovations at Jones Hall.

Can you be strong by showing your weakness at work? Leadership isn't just about being strong and visionary, nor is it simply about being vulnerable. It's about balancing both. In today's workplace, leaders are faced with a unique dilemma—should they lead with authority or with authenticity? You need to do both. In today's Leadership Spark, I unpack the critical difference between being vulnerable and leading with vulnerability with insights from 140 CEOs I interviewed. We'll explore how the best leaders aren't afraid to show their gaps, but they take action to close them. From stories like Hollis Harris at Continental Airlines to Fleetwood Grobler at Sasol, you'll learn why sharing challenges without a plan can cost you the job, but leading with vulnerability can rebuild entire companies. ________________ Start your day with the world's top leaders by joining thousands of others at Great Leadership on Substack. Just enter your email: ⁠⁠https://greatleadership.substack.com/

In episode 74 of The TBD Podcast, Garrett sits down with Joe Lopano, the CEO of Tampa International Airport. They discuss the history of the airport, the TPA expansion project, and a new flight concept called "Air Taxis". This is an episode you don't want to miss! Joe Lopano was appointed on January 1, 2011 as Tampa International Airport Chief Executive Officer. A true visionary of the industry with more than 40 years of commercial aviation experience, he has led tremendous growth and service expansions at TPA. Prior to accepting the CEO role at America's Favorite Airport, he worked at the Dallas/Fort Worth Airport for 14 years as Executive Vice President for Marketing and Terminal Management and held leadership positions at Continental Airlines. 0:00:00 - Intro 0:01:35 - The History of TPA 0:08:42 - “Do Better Than George Bean” 0:12:34 - Why have design and ideas faltered over the decades? 0:14:31 - The Importance of Great Leadership 0:16:42 - Joe Lopano Backstory 0:26:14 - Becoming CEO of TPA 0:30:26 - Economic Impact of International Flights 0:31:52 - Backlash Against TPA Growth 0:35:40 - TPA Expansion Project 0:49:42 - Who Owns The Airport? 0052:33 - TPA Restaurants 0:55:32 - Air Taxi Drones 1:01:34 - TPA Expansion Continued 1:04:56 - Outro

In today's episode of the IC-DISC show, I chat with Jane Howze, founder and managing director of executive search firm Alexander Group. Jane shares her remarkable transition from commercial lending and law into this male-dominated industry. Her insight into culture, growth, and talent acquisition provided invaluable counsel for aspiring leaders. We explore nuanced career shifts and hiring new teams, emphasizing integrity's strategic importance. Jane highlights fact-checking credentials for ethics and vetting, referencing a shocking case of credential fabrication. Our conversation sheds light on work evolutions, from mentorship changes to communication innovations over the years.   SHOW HIGHLIGHTS Jane Howze shares her career transition from a commercial lending officer and lawyer to the founder and managing director of the Alexander Group, a top retained executive search firm. We discuss the early challenges Jane faced in a male-dominated industry and her experiences at Korn Ferry, emphasizing her success in executive search. Jane and I reminisce about shared history at Korn Ferry, including nostalgic and entertaining stories from the early days of our careers. li>Jane emphasizes the importance of integrity during career transitions, particularly when handling professional references and avoiding misrepresentation. We touch on the strategic advantages of honesty and the repercussions of fabricating qualifications, as highlighted by a CEO's false claim of a computer science degree. The episode covers the evolution of workplace dynamics, mentorship, and the practical advice Jane offers for aspiring paid board members. Crazy industry tales are recounted, such as an adventure with a $700 car in LA and setting realistic client expectations in executive search scenarios. Jane provides insights into networking and career strategy, especially relevant during the Great Resignation and for those aiming for public company board positions. We explore Dave's innovative client communication strategies and the impact of networking, as well as the significance of crafting a board-specific resume. The episode concludes with a light-hearted exchange about "tours of duty" within a firm, comparing it to conscription, and reflects on the demanding but rewarding nature of our work experiences. Contact Details Email (jhowze@thealexandergroup.com) LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/in/jhowze1950/) LINKSShow Notes Be a Guest About IC-DISC Alliance About The Alexander Group GUEST Jane HowzeAbout Jane TRANSCRIPT (AI transcript provided as supporting material and may contain errors) Dave: Hi, this is David Spray and welcome to another episode of the IC Disc Show. My guest today was a very special guest. Jane Howes is the founder and managing director of one of the world's top retained executive search firms, the Alexander Group. Jane was actually my boss two different times about 25 years ago. As we talked about on the episode, she was both the greatest boss I'd ever had and my least favorite boss I ever had, sometimes in the same day. Jane has a wealth of knowledge on all aspects of culture building all aspects of culture building, firm building, growing a firm, picking the right people. We also took some stories down memory lane back from the days we worked together and when the firm was very young. This episode has a lot of great information for any executive or business owner who has any hiring responsibilities. Finally, if you've ever considered becoming a board member, jane has some great insights and tips on how to start your career as a paid board member. I hope you enjoy this as much as I did. Jane, welcome to the podcast. Jane: Well, Dave, it's wonderful to be with you. Dave: This is so. I was so excited for this, so I think I've told you this before. Jane, you were my all-time favorite boss and my least favorite boss, sometimes in the same day. Jane: And probably sometimes within 10 minutes of each other right. Dave: Perhaps, but you're the only boss I ever had twice. So I had left. I was gone a couple of years and then I was in a spot where I needed some contract work. This was before Uber, so I couldn't just go start driving my car around and you all were gracious enough to have me come back and it was wonderful. But I just want to thank you for all the opportunities you've given me, all that you've taught me. I've learned. I learned so much about business, communication, ethics, client service, so that served me the rest of my career. So thank you, jane. Jane: Dave, when you came back the second time, I was like our ship has come in. Dave Spray is back for more punishment, more reward, and I just feel really honored that our paths have crossed, because you could have been a great, you were a great recruiter, could have and still could. Dave, You're the best. Dave: Well, that's very nice of you to say so. Yeah, I enjoyed a lot of my time at the firm, so where are you calling in from today? Jane: I am in our Houston office today. As you know, we have offices in California, new York and DC. As you know, we have offices in California, new York and DC, but I will work out of Houston until it gets too impossibly hot to work out of Houston, as you know, and we'll head west. Excellent, well, that sounds great. Dave: Now, are you a native Houstonian? Are you one of those rare people born here that lives here? Jane: No, what's the saying? I got here as soon as I could, but I am from Birmingham Alabama and went to college in Memphis, tennessee, and my roommate from college was Houstonian and back in the day, you know, the Galleria had just been built and Houston was just this huge boomtown and I was glad to come here back in the infancy almost. Dave: Wow, and what did you do for work when you got here? Jane: I worked as. Are your listeners mainly in Houston, or are they scattered all over? They're all over the country in Houston or are they scattered all over? They're all over the country. Yeah Well, I worked for the largest bank in Houston and I was a commercial lending officer and attended law school at night. And then the story goes I practiced law and I left Houston and went to California and practiced law and then came back. So you know, kind of roads lead back to Houston. Dave: Ultimately, Okay, and then what? Did you just like have a dream or a vision or something that you needed to leave the law business and get into executive search? What prompted that? Jane: Well, a lot of practicing law, as I'm sure your listeners know, a lot of it is very compliance oriented, very regulatory oriented, and I'm not a regulatory kind of person. And I had gone from being a commercial loan officer, where my job was to deal with people all day, to being stuck in a law library reading compliance regulations. Oh my goodness, this is not good, this is not my personality. And read an article in Fortune magazine about Korn Ferry, the largest executive search firm in the world, and it was like the proverbial bolt of lightning went off. Dave and I was oh my gosh, I would be fabulous at this. I need to go work for Korn Ferry. And they had an opening back in Houston. So I left the practice of law in California and joined Korn Ferry in Houston. Dave: Wow, and you were, and I'm guessing that you were one of many women at the firm. I'm sure, right, this was the 80s executive search. Jane: Let's see there were 200 partners and two women, and the minorities were all in the Hong Kong office. Dave: Okay, I mean diversity was achieved, but there were like six men in the Hong Kong office. Jane: Okay, I mean diversity was achieved, but there were like six men in the Hong Kong office and that is not a knock on Korn Ferry that the executive search business was oh, we want to give a CEO search to somebody we've served in the military with, or somebody that we go hunting with, or somebody on our bowling, you know that kind of thing, and women just weren't in that place then. So it was definitely an early time and a good time to get into executive search. In retrospect at the time it seemed a little challenging. Dave: And you. So how did it go, did you? Was it all you hoped it would be? Jane: You know, the minute I started recruiting I was happy I knew I had found my calling. Before I got into search, I had always been one of the people that said I'd love to introduce you to this person, I'd love to fix you up with this person, and so I finally got in a position that you got paid for it which is great by two partners from KPMG who wanted to do recruiting of C-suite positions for their KP clients, and K wouldn't let them do it. So they formed Korn Ferry, and so I was lucky. It was kind of the early days of Korn Ferry they were maybe 15 years old by the time I joined them and global, so it was a really great move to learn the search business. Dave: You weren't there too long, right Before you felt the need to unfurl your own wings. Jane: Yes, that is true. I was wow. There are not many women partners here and I know I'm good at this and I know I can be successful at this. So, dave, I hooked up with another woman at Corn Ferry and the other big search firm is Russell Reynolds and we were like, well, let's start our own search firm, and I don't know that I would have done it by myself. But we started, really got going in 19, which is 40 years ago now. I feel like I'm the oldest living person alive still doing it. But we started and back then you didn't have the internet to do research and our first client was Grant Thornton the public accounting firm and the number two person at Grant met us and we went walking in their offices and there were no women audit partners then, or tax partners, and we went strolling in and he goes. Well, I believe in you all and I want you to help me build the firm. I'm going to do acquisitions, I'm going to do partner searches, I'm going to do campus recruiting, and we rode along for over 50 searches and practice acquisitions in our first years, which made it really a great foundation upon which to build. Dave: Oh, that's awesome. That is awesome, and that's been 40 years ago. Jane: Yeah, Dave, I probably tried to recruit you back in the days you were at Arthur Anderson. You were probably one of my recruits, even not knowing it. Dave: Yeah, you never know, you never know. And one of the is that when you started, the billing by the hour approach, or did that come later. Did you do that from the beginning? Jane: We started because, having been with a law firm where you're basically selling your time, we thought, well, we're going to be a different kind of search firm, we're going to bill by the hour. And it proved to be a great thing. And, dave, we were so cheap that people would go, you'll do, you'll take over all our campus recruiting for $50 an hour. And we were like, oh great, well, here's 10 colleges we don't want to go. You guys go, just do our recruiting for probably 10, 12, 13 years, which made it challenging because not everybody wants to fill out timesheets to the 10th of an hour, which we were. Dave: Yeah, no, but I remember when we would talk to potential clients, that was part of the pitch and the fact that they could do we could do all a card search for them. It's wrong as the source candidates, you know, we would just do that. And the other thing I loved was the independence that gave, because I know there were times that right late in the search we had three finalists and they would say, hey, we identified somebody on our own, can we throw them into the mix? And of course we were very receptive because we were just paid by the hour, like we didn't care. Whereas I think a lot of other firms, especially if there was a success fee component you know, would be very resistant to that, so I always thought that was great. What caused you to move away from that? Jane: Just the cumbers of it or just the greater tendency to do fixed. But you know, we started out doing lower level positions and as we built our reputation we were, frankly, we were leaving. Frankly we were leaving. We weren't great timekeepers and we kind of thought, well, let's still provide a win for our clients Because the big search firms you are obligated to pay the fee. Even if they find their own candidate, you're obligated to pay the fee. So what we decided was we will do a fixed fee. We will tell the client at the beginning of the search this is what your fee is. So it's not really tied to the compensation but the complexity of the search. So, for example, if we were doing a search in Fargo, north Dakota, in December, that might be a harder search. You know, with the pain in the bottom 10% of compensation ranges, that might be a harder search than doing a search in December in Florida, for example, or with the time. So we just pivoted I think it was in 2001 that we'll give you a fixed fee for the search, but it will be less usually than a third of total comp. So even if you put your own candidate into the process, you're still paying for it, but you're paying for a process, not a candidate. So we still had a competitive advantage. And it's interesting. Here we are today, in 2024, and some of the other search firms are now doing what we do. Some of our biggest competitors are going. Well, we'll give you a fixed fee if the Alexander Group's giving you a fixed fee. So it's interesting how it's turned out. Dave: But you were a disruptor in a number of ways in the industry. Jane: I mean it didn't seem like it at the time but now that I see other firms doing the same thing to try and compete effectively, they don't want to. They'd rather just get a third. But one of the things we tell our clients when they retain us is for your budgeting purposes, you're going to know how much the fee is and we'll have no reason to present the most expensive candidates because our fee is already in your budget and we're just going to be on your side of the table trying to find the best person at the most cost-effective salary compensation package. So I think it's a win and it's something that has worked for the clients. And you know the thing that and I know you know this we said it when you were there and we still say it 85% of our business every year is the same people and we're really proud of that because most search firms their repeat business is 6%. And why is that? And you know we laugh and say, well, we have an unstable product. You know and you know there's so many things that can go wrong when you're dealing with people, but we try and provide very I want to say a really strong relationship focus. I mean I tell clients. I don't want to just see you one time. We want a long-term relationship with you and that's really important to us and I think it makes a difference and I think the clients feel like we really care about being part of their team and that's really important to us. Dave: Yeah, that's great and I did experience that, and life's just more fun when you have happy repeat customers and clients Instead of people you try to squeeze for every last dollar for one time transaction. Jane: And you're well. I hope we don't have to see each other again. Right, you know it's like no, we want to be around for the long haul and I know you know this because but our first client from Grant Thornton, who's now 88 years old, is still a friend and a client and a mentor of the firm and we wouldn't really have it any other way. That means a lot to us. Dave: You know, one of the most valuable lessons you taught me was when I went into your office after I worked there about a year and a half and I just said, jane, I don't think this is for me and I don't know what I'm going to do, but I just want to set expectations. And you said hey, as long as you continue to do good work, you can stay. You know, as long as you want, right, I mean, just keep doing good work. And then the other thing you told me do you remember what you told me? You said, and it was very, it was good advice, but it was also clever on your end too. What did you tell me? Jane: I told you, no one will remember the job that you did, but everyone will remember how you leave. Dave: Yep, yep, that's so true and it's such simple advice, right? Because you work someplace for years and then all you really have to do to even make up for mistakes you made is just end on a really high note, right, you could have been a average employee, but just end on a high note and they'll all say, oh yeah, that change, she was great. She was great. We loved having her around. Jane: No, I remember that Because I mean I tell people I was not the best lawyer in the world, but I left, left. Like how do I transition my clients? How do I help train the new person? Can I be available after I'm gone? If I need to come in on a Saturday to help out? And I tell people when I make speeches no one will. You could be really bad at your job, but you can be a good, a great departing employee if you aren't a current employee. And that is just so true. And you know today, you never know when you're going to need a reference. Today, with everything so transparent, even if you don't give somebody as a reference, people will look on LinkedIn and say, oh well, I'm going to call this person and see how Betty was as an employee. So you're going to be found out, good or bad. So you might as well be the best ex-employee you can possibly be. Dave: I love it. Yeah, I know one of the things we did when I was with the team was we would do reference checks, and I think we would oftentimes do them even before the offer was extended. I forget. I think we did it both ways. Sometimes we did it subject to reference checks, sometimes we did the references first and I was always surprised. Every so often you'd find out people lied on their resume or exaggerated. But I imagine with social media and such, that's probably all gone away, right, nobody tries to get away with that anymore, I suppose do they? Jane: You know, dave, it's really interesting. Somebody asked me the other day what surprises you the most. That happens today, that happened 20 years ago. And the answer is exactly as you say. People still try and fudge. They'll say, well, I received an MBA when they did the coursework but didn't write the final paper. Or they'll be credit short of a college degree. Just last month we weren't at the final stages. But we try and check educational background and someone had on their resume they had on their LinkedIn received a bachelor's degree. And we check and there's no bachelor's degree. And they say, oh well, but I was only four hours short and I go. But four hours short does not a degree make, and I'm always surprised that. And people will have maybe a year gap where they're unemployed. And it's okay with COVID and all the changes that we have all gone through as a country, as a business community, it's okay that you have gaps, but it's not okay to misrepresent the gaps and sometimes you'll have people go. Oh well, you know, it was during COVID, I'll just kind of fudge it a little bit. And you're always going to be found out almost every single time, and I'm always surprised that people still do it, though, but even at the highest levels, dave, they still do it Like even like at the C-suite level, you mean. Yeah, at the C-suite level. You know, I wrote an article as a commentator for MSNBC 10 years ago because the CEO of, I think, hp said he had a degree in computer science, but it was a degree in history, you know, which is a pretty big difference. And I wrote an article saying and this was even before the proliferation of social media 10 years ago and I said you will be found out. This guy did, and it was very public and it was he got fired from H. It was a big deal and I was like do not let it stand. If you fudged, go fix it, fess up. Dave: The irony was, if he was, you know, at that level, he probably had graduated at least 25 years earlier. So the irony was his degree had no nothing to do with his current level. Yeah, nobody cared, except that he lied about it. If somebody lies about something that can be checked. What are they lying about that can't be checked, right? Jane: Exactly Well. And the other thing is, when you think about somebody's personal branding, wouldn't it make a great story? Hey guys, I don't know. I had a history degree and look how good I am. I'm running HP now and I had to leave the hospital. But to say he had a computer science degree. I mean it made no sense. But people do that still and I always tell people I know some of your listeners are small businesses where they don't have huge departments but one of the most important things you can do is do background checks and reference checks, unofficial and official, because people they never will stop doing it and no matter how many commentators tell them don't do it, they do it. Dave: Well, you know, I guess it's time for me to go update my LinkedIn. For all these years, jane, I've been telling the world that I was the CEO of the Alexander Group and you worked for me, so I think I'd better go fix that before it backfires. Jane: Well, you know, people always say how did you get the name the Alexander Group? And we, truly the name Alexander kind of has a masculine kind of connotation and you know, even when you were with us, dave, we would get calls once a week going Mr Alexander, please, yeah, and so so. So I think you just, I think not only did you say you were CEO, I think your name you've been passing off your name is David Alexander, right. Dave: That could very well be and I learned so much about presentation because, you know, when I was there, a lot of the the recruiters were young, you know, fresh out of college. The recruiters were young, you know, fresh out of college, and you know you and John did a great job of mentoring these folks and developing them. But it was always so interesting that, you know, we had a pretty casual environment and back then you would leave a message for a candidate and they would call back the main switchboard. I don't know we've, I don't think we even had direct dial numbers back then and they'd call back and switchboard. I don't know, I don't think we even had direct dial numbers back then. And they'd call back and here's this scruffy 23-year-old unshaven guy wearing, you know, birkenstocks to work, named you know Tom, let's say. And when the person would call back and they'd say, yeah, tom Smith, please you train the receptionist to say, oh, hold on. May I ask Mr Smith, you know who's calling you? know, just to I mean there's no harm in saying Mr Smith because that is his name, but why say, oh yeah, let me see if Tommy Boy's you know done, you know done having his afternoon tequila shot, right, I mean there's no use in. Jane: No, it was all about. It was all about the, you know, because we were so small in Scruffy and the other thing we would do would be to say I'd train the receptionist to go never say Mr Smith is not at his desk. Dave: Right, he is not at his desk. Jane: Right, he is not in his office and I will have one of his assistants call you back. Dave: Nice, nice, one of them. I like that. Jane: I know, I mean, you know, I just am blushing, thinking about what we did to make ourselves sound substantial. And there's Tommy Smith back in the back office, sound asleep at his desk, you know. Dave: Exactly. Jane: And sometimes I go, oh well, and sometimes you know candidates would call back. Well, is Tommy Smith calling me? And if I happen to be at the office late at night, you know some of it is the smoke and mirrors of making yourself sound like you're Well, I remember when I would like when you or John would be like traveling. Dave: I would try to book the mother BD. Right, you're interviewing folks in Kansas City, what other companies are headquartered in Kansas City or just other things. And one of the things that the things I did that I learned a lot about this is that even though you and John were based in Houston, if I was trying to set up Houston appointments, I would act as if you and John were based in San Francisco, like I'd say oh, you know Miss Howes will be in, you know she'll be in Houston for two days next week. You know she'll. she won't be in the San Francisco office, she'll be in the Houston office for two days Now the reality is you were going to be there for two weeks, but you were going to be there for those two days and it was what's the biblical saying you can't be a prophet in your own homeland. And I think it's still true to this day that expert from out of town and they rearrange their schedule for the person from out of town. Jane: Well, you know, there's a Buddhist saying that says the visitor from afar brings knowledge and I like that. Dave: I like that. Jane: And you know, sometimes I get asked to talk to college students about how our young people, about how do you find jobs, and my clients, kids, want to know how do we find a job. And I don't I'm not a career counselor but what I tell them is the further like if you went to NYU, say you're going to have more success calling NYU alums in Houston trying to get them to help you than you will in New York City. If you're a University of Houston graduate and you're in San Francisco, there's probably only 20 of you in the whole town and all people are hardwired to help people who come from afar. If there's a limited population and it goes kind of with that thing of being unique, like you know how many people come from Houston to San Francisco for a meeting. 20 years ago I mean it happened, but it wasn't every day that a head of human resources got that phone call right. Dave: In my business that it's easier for me to get an appointment in Syracuse, New York, if I'm going to be up there for business anyway. It's easier to get that appointment than it is with somebody in Houston, Because in Houston they're just like I'm busy this week, you know. Call me next month, you know, because you're so available. It's just like it seems like if you're meeting somebody for dinner, the closer the restaurant, the more likely you are. The closer the restaurant, the more likely you are to be late, or the more likely I am to be late, because if I'm driving 30 minutes I'm going to allow 45 for traffic and stuff, but if it's three minutes away, I'm going to leave two minutes before the dinner and then exactly a stoplight pot ad and then the parking lot's full and yeah no, it is, but it is something about the further something is away. Jane: And I remember one of the ways I built up our and some of our first clients. Most of our first clients were California companies because California had more. They were more used to women in doing C-suite searches. But you know, I was in California every two weeks for probably 30 years and I would call and go well, I'm from Houston, I'm a woman-owned search firm, I'm going to be in LA, can I come see you? And we got a lot of great clients like Wells Fargo, warner Brothers, yeah, a lot of McKesson company, because they were like oh, the visitor from afar they're coming to, they're coming from Houston and they're women in the search business Great, they're coming from Houston and they're women in the search business Great, you know. And I I spent a lot of time where people would go well, I have time tomorrow morning at 11 o'clock and I'm going to be there. And I quickly hung up the phone and called United and called Continental Airlines and started booking that airline ticket as fast as I could. Dave: Yeah, I do remember my listeners love stories. What are some stories of just interesting or amusing or candidate screw up things that come to mind where, yeah, I don't know a candidate showed up intoxicated or a candidate showed up and forgot to put pants on that day, you know. I don't know a candidate showed up intoxicated, or a candidate showed up and forgot to put pants on that day. Jane: You know, I remember way back in the early days one of my first big searches was a senior lending officer for a regional bank here and the candidate was great and it was. I was so excited and so I called the CEO of the bank after the interview and I said Rex, how did the interview go? He goes, jane, he didn't come. I said he didn't come. What the hell? Why didn't he come? He said, oh, it was okay. He drove through the teller window and passed a note to the teller to pass to me that he wouldn't. He changed his mind, you know, and you just go, who drives through the go in for the interview but drives through and says will you give this note, handwritten note on a scrap of paper I'm not coming. And so that was kind of the early days. A second story, and I mean it's crazy what we did back in the early days but one client wanted us to live in LA and take over all their staffing for it. This is when we were hourly billing and we were pretty cheap and they said, yeah, we'll get your room at the Biltmore Hotel in downtown LA. We want you there for a month and we're trying to figure out how to save money, because back then, you know, we just wanted to be and so we bought Dave a $700 car so we wouldn't have rental car charges, and we called it the gray ghost. It was a delta 80 and we drove this car and I am embarrassed to tell you, and I hope your listeners will think we were really creative rather than really cheesy but when we were done with the car, when we finished the search and the client actually is still a client in other iterations we just left the car at a Friday's Marina Del Rey and that was it, because it was on its last legs, you know, and we just that was it. We just left the keys in the car and that was it. Dave: That was it. We just left the keys in the car and that was it. You know you reminded me of something. A good friend of mine owes you his job because you just reminded me of something and I know I learned this from you. So it's really good friend of mine. Cpa, a classic, stereotypical CPA, introverted, not very outgoing but very technically sound, and he was working at a public accounting firm and he was kind of stuck at the senior level. He couldn't get promoted to manager, which usually happens after like five years. And there's a firm in town that I knew a guy there and they were looking for like a first year audit manager. So he was perfect for it. Looking for like a first year audit manager, so he was perfect for it. And so the three of us met for a drink at Papa Do's on Westheimer, over in the Galleria. But I told him ahead of time. I said Pete, he is. I'm just going to tell you right now, he's not Mr Personality. If you're looking for a glad handing, you know, outgoing salesman type, he's not the right guy for you. And so, of course, what did he say? No, we're not looking for a salesman, we're looking for a manager, right, somebody technically solid. So we met and afterwards we had a good time. And afterwards I said so what'd you think? And he said I'm glad you told me that he wasn't Mr Personality, because I was kind of prepared for it. And he did the same thing when they met with the people at the firm. He told them on the front end hey, this guy's not Mr Personality, but he's really smart. I think he can do the job. And 30 years later he's a senior partner at this Houston CPA firm and I know I learned that line from you. Now let me just tell you this person's not Mr Personality. Does that sound like something you might've said for? Jane: Yeah, well, you know what I mean. Part of what I look at a recruiter's job, an executive search person's job, is you tell the client what's wrong or what's missing, because they're smart and they're going to get it themselves. And if you tell them, you are adding value, you're being a consultant and you've managed expectations. So when we do a search, we write a paper, basically a report. These are the things that might not exactly fit, but these are the things that overcome what you are looking for. And which reminds me of one more story. I remember doing a audit partner search, for I think it was Grant Thornton up in St Louis and it was in Chicago actually, and so, as you recall, we would fly to the cities, park ourselves at a hotel restaurant and just sit there and make that our office. It was pretty soon, and so I got to O'Hare sitting down and my 3 o'clock appointment comes up at one o'clock and I go buddy, you're here a little bit early. He said, oh, yeah, yeah, I've heard great things about the Alexander group and I'm just going to sit at this next table and watch you in action. And I'm like, well, buddy, that's just not going, not gonna. And mentally I'm thinking well, buddy is no longer a candidate, but he wanted to sit and listen in on every other interview so he could get some good tips of how to interview himself, and anyway not a bad idea if he had just simply kept that information to himself. Right and not done it when I'd already started the interview. You know, I mean, I kind of lost two candidates right in one sitting. You know, you can't make this stuff up. Dave: That is something. I got a question somewhat related to search. Some of this conversation is about executive search. Right, we probably should have at least maybe a third of it about search. What about board members? So you know, I've got clients who ran, built, ran, sold $50 million revenue successful privately held companies, sold $50 million revenue, successful privately held companies. And they maybe think, yeah, I might like to be serve on a board. Now for somebody to be on a public company board do they need public company experience? Jane: You know, Dave, I think the question as I'm kind of rounding third base in my career and a lot of my peers are in their 60s and they're finishing, They've sold their private company, they retired from a public company. They, for whatever reason, they say well, you know, I'm going to retire, I'm going to, I want to be on a board. Can I get on a board? My answer is always this yes. However, it's a question of how much time do you want to spend to get on your first board? Once you get on one board, even if you're a private company executive, can you get on a public board, Asterisk, if you're willing to really work hard on at that. The average board tenure is 10 years. Board positions don't really turn over that much of a healthy company. So people get on a board and especially if it's a public board, there's incentive comp, there's options. It's not a hard gig for a lot of companies. So the answer is yes. And then what do you do if you want to get on a board? If you want to get on a board? Probably 70 percent of all board positions are not gotten through search firms. Does that surprise you? Dave: Maybe, yeah, maybe some. It's the network, the network of the other board members. Jane: Yeah, yeah, because people will say, oh well, I know somebody I'm going to, I'll go back to my UT alum group and see if they, you know, kind of knows around there. Or I'll see if, oh, I know a guy that works at Goldman Sachs, Maybe he knows somebody. I know a friend that's a part retiring from Ernst Young and I'll ask her. And so there's a lot of you know, with the call for diversity, search firms are becoming more involved but and doing more and 30% is still a lot to be putting out to search. But so the things that if any of your listeners are interested, I tell people, If any of your listeners are interested, I tell people, do a board resume. A board resume is different than a job resume. It's talking about your experience assessing risk, building a company, governance compliance, things that a board member would look at, governance compliance things that a board member would look at and the board members not looking at the details of you know, do you get two weeks or three weeks for vacation? They're looking at what's our strategic plan, the being the boss of the ceo, representing shareholders. So you want a board, one page board resume that talks about what you've done. That would be analogous to that. And then you really want to get on. A not-for-profit board Helps because, especially if it's big enough, there will be other corporate people there and you will make contacts. But it's really about making contacts. A lot of investment banks they don't use search firms when they take a company public. They have databases, they go through their contacts. Bankers know people. It's all about the three sources. I would say. If any of your listeners are saying I want to be on a board one day, do you know anybody in investment banking, private equity, public accounting, M&A law firms anybody like that and tell everybody you're looking for those recommendations. And then the last thing is a lot of your listeners are successful people who've had roles in companies that are entrepreneurial in nature, and a lot of them I know people that have taught an entrepreneurship class or a lecturer at Rice University here. And there's a lot of smart kids who are starting businesses. Let's not forget Google, Facebook, some of these companies that started from college kids, and I think that's a great avenue to think about when, if you're thinking about ways to get on a board. Dave: I like it. That's really cool. Well, speaking of rounding third base, I can't believe how the time has flown by. I have just a couple other questions for you. One is I've heard about this great resignation. For you One is I've heard about this great resignation. What has been your experience? Is this trickled up to the C-suite and the board level, or is this a problem that those people are having to deal with? People lower in the organization? Tell me about the great resignation from your perspective. Jane: Well, one thing hasn't changed. If you look at CEOs of Fortune 500 companies that are recruited from the outside, I would say they have a 50% chance of being there two to three years out. And why is that? Culture fit so the top. You will always have CEO changes, especially if they come from outside and they don't fit with the culture. What I think we are seeing and we see from our clients is post-COVID. There's been so many obvious changes but a lot of things that aren't obvious. People don't want to relocate as much as they might have pre-COVID. Why is that? Well, covid scared people in terms of my parents I've got to take care of my parents, I may have to have my kids at home for high school, and do I want to go to someplace new and have something like that happen? So I think you're having that we're coming out of. But you're also having middle range employees who aren't as loyal, and you know I always tease that a lot of the younger people today. If they have a bad Monday, they may be somebody someplace else by Friday. So I think there's not quite that dickiness of what you grew up with and I grew up with. Hey, you know we want to. You know we don't want to be a quote job hopper and I think people today don't care if they're job hoppers quite as much. And there's not that people are more willing. I think in COVID accentuated that where they're more willing to take risk. And, you know, maybe I'll be without a job for a month, two months, and yeah, I think we're seeing that. And what I tell small businesses that you know be focusing on long how do you make a culture that will keep people invested long term? And there've been a lot written on that and it's different for every company depending on where your location is and what your employee mix. But I think that's a really important thing that everybody's got to do in a bigger way. And also, lastly, dave, the emphasis on mental health, something that has changed dramatically in the last three years, where you know we've got to take care of people financially. And also, how are they doing? Because so many people were isolated during COVID and had mental health issues and people talk about that more, which we never did back in the day. You just bucked it up and, you know, kept making those source calls, dave, you know. Dave: For every six you made, you got to check off a tenth of an hour of work. Jane: Exactly. You had to make a left message with 10 people to get that six. I had it backwards. Dave: It was even harder than I remembered. That's why you get so excited if somebody answered the phone because that, even if you only talk 30 seconds, you got to put them down as a yeah, no, that's right they go no, I'm not interested and you go, that's OK. Jane: Awesome, ten minutes ahead here. Dave: That is great. So so I think the two questions left, so one. Is there anything that I did not ask you that you wish I had? Is there anything we did not talk about that you think we should have? Jane: No, you're a really good interviewer, Dave, which? Dave: I learned it from you. I learned it starts with interviewing candidates and it translates to other things. Jane: Well, I'm, you know, I'm really honored to be here, dave, because the people that you serve and that you do work for. I think it is much harder to run a smaller private company than it is a big company, because you've got to have employees who are multifaceted, You've got to have employees who have an entrepreneurial mindset, you've got to have employees who have an entrepreneurial mindset. So my hat is off to the work you do the clients that you serve, because it is a hard business. Dave: Well, I appreciate that. I love serving entrepreneurs, that is for sure. So here's the last question. This is a curveball one you may remember. When you asked if you need to do any preparation, I said no, we're just going to talk about your life story and you don't need any prep. But I promise you one curveball, and here it is. Are you ready? If you could go back in time and give advice to your 25 or 28 year old self, what advice might you give yourself? Jane: Yeah, oh, that is a great. That is a great question. Don't sweat the small stuff and it's all small stuff. Dave: Okay. Jane: And the things that you worry about about 90% of them do not materialize. Dave: Was that? Was it Mark Twain or Will Rogers? I always get their two quotes conflated. But one of them said I'm an old man, man, and in my life I've known a great many. I've known a great many difficulties, most of which never came to pass, or something to that effect yes, that's right. Jane: And Mark Twain, as you will recall from our time together, said I didn't have time to write a short story, so I wrote a long story, right? Dave: Exactly. Yeah, I learned a lot about incise writing and just I'm always amazed that people that just the simplest stuff that I never picked up in English class. Like you know, bob is a person who does XYZ, he's not. It's not Bob that does something, it's Bob. Bob's not a that, he's a who. Jane: That's, that's right and word choice, and. But you know I, you know I sound like a geezer, but you know stuff like that is. I mean a lot of people today really don't know that. I mean even you know I see at the executive ranks a lot of people who, who just, and you know, I think one of the things when I talk to people early in their career is learn to write, learn business writing out there. I mean especially now with Zoom and you can do business with people by email A lot of people. And if I get a resume from somebody that doesn't spell check or anything else. Dave, one final story, and it's so good and it reminds me. It does remind me of you for obvious reasons, but I don't know if you remember that we sent a letter out one time when you joined, maybe when you rejoined us, and we said Dave is from you know, arthur Anderson, a leading public accounting firm, but we left out the L of public. Do you remember that? Dave: I remember that does sound familiar. I remember somebody saying well, I don't know what it is, but we want some right, that's funny because, yeah, when you send out as many, as much written correspondence as the firm has for so long, it can't try as you might, it can't all be perfect. Just like I'm amazed when I read, like a bestselling book that sold 20 million copies and you find a typo. You're like but you know, when I talked to an author about that they said, yeah, there's, you know, 100,000 words in here, like you, just sometimes they slip through the cracks. Jane: Well, Dave, I the thing I remember about you and I always feel like I can learn something from everybody, even though there's an you're younger than I am. But even back when you were really young and with us, you were so effective at client communication and getting business. And do you remember that? You are the ones that taught us that people are hardwired to want to help, but you have to give them a way to help you. And you would come up with a list, Like, do you know people from any of these five companies? And people would look at and go, oh yeah, I can help you, I do know somebody from here. And what a great way to teach someone how to develop their own clients as to teach the client how to help the potential client or source how to help them. Dave: Well, that's one of the benefits of being a bad employee who changed jobs every year is I was exposed to a lot of things. I learned that in the financial services business and what made it so powerful was because in the financial services business you're always trying to get you know referrals to folks and if you just say, hey, jane, you know who, do you know who's looking to buy life insurance, probably nobody comes to mind. Nobody, because nobody's come up and said hey, I need life insurance. Do you know anyone? But what I learned in that is still helpful today. But instead, if you give somebody a list of 10 people and you say, jane, I'm going to be calling these 10 people next week, I'm just curious, can you tell me, is there anyone on this list you think's particularly great or you think really highly of? And they'd say, oh sure, let me borrow your pen. They check off the before names, you're like great. And then I would say, hey, by chance, if you happen to talk to them before next week, will you tell them I'm going to call them and they, of course, would say, sure, I haven't talked to this guy. I went to law school in five years. It's unlikely I'm going to talk to him this week, but sure, I'll tell him, okay. And then, finally, jane, when I talked to John Lamar, is it appropriate to mention that you know that we had a conversation? You know that he came up in conversation? Sure, yeah, no problem. So then, when I would call the person, it was so easy. Hey, john Lamar, by chance did Jane Howes tell you I'd be calling? No, how's Jane doing? I haven't seen her since law school. Boy, she's really wonderful, I like Jane. And so, yeah, you know Jane. Huh, yeah, I haven't known her a long time. I haven't known her as long as I've known you. Meaning I've met her for 10 minutes, but all of my dealings with her were first rate, all of them. And then just say, hey, you know, jane had some nice things to say about you and she thought we might benefit from knowing meeting one another. You know, know, when are you? It was amazing how well that. But it all started with just having a list to start with, because there's a difference between if somebody like, let's say, that conversation went poorly and john lamar called you back and said, hey, why'd you have? that dave spray guy call me. Well, if you can say, I didn't tell him to call you. He already had your name. He was going to call you anyway he just asked me. Jane: Anyway, great guy, yeah right. Dave: He just wanted to know if you were a jerk or not. And apparently I was wrong because you're gonna give me a hard time. All I did was say you were a nice guy and and now you're giving me a hard time, but yeah and and dave. Jane: What I remember the funny thing was john lamar are my 30 year partner. He went to a meeting with you and he said jane, dave pulled out the list. And I said he pulled out the list. And he said yes, and it worked and we just like we were so nervous about the list. But, Dave, it really worked. Dave: It is funny. And the irony is, the time you pull the list out is when the meeting doesn't go well. You know, like it's a brief meeting and they're like no, my best man at my wedding is a partner at Horn Fairy. That's where all of our search goes. We'll never give it to anyone else. Well, now you have nothing to lose by pulling out the list. I mean, if they on the spot want to sign you up for some searches, well, just keep the list in your pocket. But and the irony was the worse the meeting goes, the more helpful. Jane: They would seem to be right because they kind of feel bad that you flew away from houston. Dave: You flew all the way from houston out to see them and they can't help you. So now, sure, I'll look at your list. I'll give you some. Jane: But it's true, the list, dave, I mean that is a course in business development and we were like God, that list is not going to work. But it works, it absolutely does. Dave: Well, and you know when I first used that this shows what how I approach business development when I was in the financial services business right at Arthur Anderson attorneys were my best prospects. So this was like 1990, excel hadn't even been invented, they were using Lotus one, two, three. And I bought the Martindale Hubble legal director. You remember this thing? The blue, yeah. Maybe it was an yeah, but it was a blue thing and what I did that I was so proud of myself. I went through that and I created a spreadsheet and I knew one attorney in Houston and he was like a second year attorney at some place and he went to U of H and I played basketball with him and I went and I had lunch with him and I pulled out the graduates from like the top 20 law firms in Houston and I'm sorted by year in college. So the first list I gave him was all of the people who graduated from law school, the ones in his start class. And then I gave him a list of all the other U of H grads who were like a couple of years older to a year younger Same thing, who do you know? And then I made the call to them and then, jane, it got to be so crazy. I would go to like V&E and I would be there like I'd have like 12 meetings in a row, like, and they would literally walk me from one office to the next and they'd be like, hey, so who's next on your list? Oh, bob. Oh, he's a hoot, yeah, you'll enjoy meeting him. And so they would escort me into the office. It was like it was this introduction from one stranger to another one, but then the new person I would meet with. So you know, lauren introduced me to a guy who started with him that went to UT, so I would have all the other UT guys at his firm and at the other firms in town and it just exploded. Like in three or four months I was like the guy for all the third year attorneys at Baker Botts and V&E and Fulbright, but anyway, that is so fun, but it works, dave, and it's something you know. Jane: 15, 20 years later I still remember. Quote the list. Dave: Yeah, yeah, some great times. So, jane, thank you so much for not only inviting me to the 40th anniversary party that was just spectacular. Seeing some of my former colleagues, that was just great and just having the ability to be friends with you and your husband and John Lamar all these years is very special. I like to say there's only one ex-girlfriend I keep in touch with and there's only one ex-employer I keep in touch with, and that's you all when you are a VIP favored status. Jane: you work for us twice and we keep hoping that phone will ring the third time, dave, and it'll be the charm. Dave: Yeah, you never know. And I would jokingly say I did two tours of duty which you know doesn't really sound very complimentary to the firm. I must say, tour of duty has a certain negativity to it in a way, you know, conscription drafted. Jane: Yes, it's. At least it's not like prison sentence. You know I'll give you that. Dave: That is awesome. Well, Jane, I could talk all day to you. Thank you so much. I really appreciate everything. Jane: Oh, my pleasure, Dave. How much fun this has been. Dave: It has been have a great day. Jane: Thanks, Dave Bye. Special Guest: Jane Howze.

Today, I am joined by Rey Ortega, The Mad Cookie Man. Rey is a pioneer in the plant-based sector with over 30 years of experience. In 1994, he founded the Alternative Baking Company, one of the first vegan cookie brands on the market, which generated $1 million in sales in 1995. In 1997, he founded Sun Flour Baking Co. to create new flavors, tastes, textures, and nutrition products with a longer shelf life and higher profit margins. Sun Flour Baking produces raw and baked gluten-free cookies free of animal products. It also provides co packing, product development, consulting, testing, nutrition facts, graphic design, and wrapping in small batches. Clients include Continental Airlines, Sodexo Marriott Food Service, and Whole Foods. The company supports Farm Sanctuary, the American Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA), and In Defense of Animals (IDA).  Rey owned Garden to Grill, a vegan restaurant, for five years. With extensive knowledge across the entire product life cycle, he is an experienced formulator within the industry, has designed three facilities, and has sold millions of vegan cookies, keeping eggs and dairy out of the mouths of many. Besides owning ‌five plant-based brands, he has also published two children's books and is an expert at cannabis infusion for topical and edible products. To connect with Rey: sunflourbaking.comstartaveganbusiness.commsgreenfields.comFacebook.com/sunflourbakingcompanyInstagram @sunflourbakingcookies, @reyortega67X: @thecookiemanLinkedIn: Linkedin.com/in/rey-ortega-5710652 YouTube.com/@reyortega67BOOKSThe Organic Adventures of Tucker the Tomato (2003)Benji Bean Sprout Doesn't Eat Meat (2004) To connect with me:Follow me on Facebook and Instagram @didyoubringthehummus Join my mailing list and get 3 free recipes just for signing up! https://www.didyoubringthehummus.com/3recipepdf Join my Podcast Fan Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/didyoubringthehummus/ Book a free 30 minute call with me: https://www.didyoubringthehummus.com/book-online To be a guest on the podcast: https://www.didyoubringthehummus.com/beaguest ©2024 Kimberly Winters - Did You Bring the Hummus LLC Theme Song ©2020 JP Winters ⁠@musicbyjpw⁠ --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/kimberly-winters/message

Doha, Qatar - “Qatar Airways Cargo confirms that Mark Drusch has been appointed as Chief Officer Cargo effective immediately.” This in Qatar's Press Release: “with over 25 years in senior airline management roles, Mark is a well-known figure in the aviation world. His most recent role was SVP Revenue Management, Alliances and Strategy at Qatar Airways where he led the development and implementation of the company's revenue strategy as well as managing strategic alliances with key partner airlines. Prior to joining Qatar Airways, Mark spent 20 years at Delta Air Lines, Continental Airlines and Lufthansa LSG Sky Chefs as Senior Vice President where he led the transformation in commercial airline strategy execution, revenue management, network planning and alliances. In addition, Mark was CEO and co-founder of e-Rewards and e-Miles, leaders in online panel research and online advertising.” In other words, we are talking of a man with a distinguished background, were it necessary to remind the public. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/geoffrey-arend/support

  Doha,Qatar - “Qatar Airways Cargo confirms that Mark Drusch has been appointed as Chief Officer Cargo effective immediately.” This in Qatar's Press Release: “with over 25 years in senior airline management roles, Mark is a well-known figure in the aviation world. His most recent role was SVP Revenue Management, Alliances and Strategy at Qatar Airways where he led the development and implementation of the company's revenue strategy as well as managing strategic alliances with key partner airlines. Prior to joining Qatar Airways, Mark spent 20 years at Delta Air Lines, Continental Airlines and Lufthansa LSG Sky Chefs . --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/geoffrey-arend/support

My guest today is a pioneer in the plant-based sector with over 30 years of experience. In 1994, Rey founded the Alternative Baking Company, one of the first vegan cookie brands on the market, which generated $1 million in sales in 1995. In 1997, he founded Sun Flour Baking Co. to create new flavours, tastes, textures, and nutrition products with a longer shelf life and higher profit margins. Sun Flour Baking produces raw and baked gluten-free cookies free of animal products. It also provides co packing, product development, consulting, testing, nutrition facts, graphic design, and wrapping in small batches. Clients include Continental Airlines, Sodexo Marriott Food Service, and Whole Foods. The company supports Farm Sanctuary, the American Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA), and In Defense of Animals (IDA).  Rey owned Garden to Grill, a vegan restaurant, for five years. With extensive knowledge across the entire product life cycle, he is an experienced formulator within the industry, has designed three facilities, and has sold millions of vegan cookies, keeping eggs and dairy out of the mouths of many. Besides owning ‌five plant-based brands, he has also published two children's books and is an expert at cannabis infusion for topical and edible products.

Rey Ortega is a pioneer in the plant-based sector with over 30 years of experience. In 1994, he founded the Alternative Baking Company, one of the first vegan cookie brands on the market, which generated $1 million in sales in 1995. In 1997, he founded Sun Flour Baking Company. to create new flavors, tastes, textures, and nutrition products with a longer shelf life and higher profit margins. Sun Flour Baking produces raw and baked gluten-free cookies free of animal products. It also provides co packing, product development, consulting, testing, nutrition facts, graphic design, and wrapping in small batches. Clients include Continental Airlines, Sodexo Marriott Food Service, and Whole Foods. The company supports Farm Sanctuary, the American Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA), and In Defense of Animals (IDA). Rey owned Garden to Grill, a vegan restaurant, for five years. With extensive knowledge across the entire product life cycle, he is an experienced formulator within the industry, has designed three facilities, and has sold millions of vegan cookies, keeping eggs and dairy out of the mouths of many. Besides owning ‌five plant-based brands, he has also published two children's books and is an expert at cannabis infusion for topical and edible products. More about Rey and how to start a vegan business here.     It's Giving Tuesday! You can make a tax-deductible contribution to Responsible Eating And Living by clicking on this link.

Ken Bott is the definition of an expert in customer loyalty. Having worked for top brands such as Darden Restaurants, Bloomin' Brands, Intercontinental Hotels Group (IHG), and Continental Airlines, Ken has perfected his approach to developing strategies, organizations, and integrated marketing plans, focused on driving the bottom line. How does Ken do it? By not losing sight of the guest experience.On this episode, you'll learn from Ken about:Customer loyalty and advocacy Establishing a connection digitally What it takes to get a repeat customer More!Thanks, Ken!

With ample resources hidden in Continental Airlines' parent company, Texas Air Corporation, Lorenzo files for bankruptcy.

What happens when a biology teacher transforms into an NFL official? On today's episode, we're joined by none other than Craig Wrolstad, who has been making significant calls in the NFL since 2003.   Craig was my biology teacher way back in 1992 and our paths woudl later cross during my days playing quarterback at Central Washington University.  You will find the story funny....so listen for it!Venturing back in time, we explore Craig's formative years in Renton, the impact of his encouraging parents, and his passion for sports. We discuss how his father's job at Continental Airlines sparked his love for travel. The conversation takes an inspiring turn as we chart Craig's transition from teaching to officiating in the NFL. He also shares his teaching experiences, illuminating the drastic changes in education, particularly in science and technology.  Craig will tell a story about Brett Favre, along with his journey from the Pac-12 that led him eventually to the NFL.At the end of our conversation, we delve into Craig's advice for dads, the need for positivity and mentoring, and the power of instilling self-belief in kids.  We also highlight a pressing issue - the need for officials in youth sports. Craig lends his insight into how belief shapes our lives and perspectives.   The wise Bruce Brown also is highlighted in this episode, given the impact that he had on Craig and me.This episode is a must-listen for dads, sports enthusiasts, and anyone seeking an inspiring life story.Lattitude Sitka Our sea adventures cover fishing, wildlife tours, beach excursions, scuba diving, snorkeling, paddleDisclaimer: This post contains affiliate links. If you make a purchase, I may receive a commission at no extra cost to you.Please don't forget to leave us a review wherever you consume your podcasts! Please help us get more dads to listen weekly and become the ultimate leader of their homes!

In episode 109, Coffey talks with Kim Sawyer about the importance of leading by coaching.They discuss the true meaning of being a coach; how management mentality is different from coaching; the definition of leadership from a coaching perspective; building a coaching relationship as a leader; the skills are necessary to become a successful coach; the ROI of learning and implementing a coaching relationship; what a coaching culture looks like in the workplace; and the difference between mentoring and coaching.Good Morning, HR is brought to you by Imperative—premium background checks with fast and friendly service. For more information about our commitment to quality and excellent customer service, visit us at https://imperativeinfo.com. If you are an HRCI or SHRM-certified professional, this episode of Good Morning, HR has been pre-approved for half a recertification credit. To obtain the recertification information for this episode, visit https://goodmorninghr.com. About our Guest:Kim Sawyer has over twenty years of diverse business experience; he has started businesses, led companies, and been involved in almost every aspect of a business enterprise.Under Kim's guidance, theWealthSource® coaches and facilitates key business people, teams and enterprises to create extraordinary wealth – in all its forms. They accomplish this primarily by means of individual coaching, their Success-Group™ team coaching program and Enterprise Coaching™, their program to build a “Coaching Culture” in an organization. In addition, theWealthSource® facilitates meetings, management retreats and learning events and provides specialty training in coaching and leadership skills.Kim is also a highly sought-after professional speaker who speaks frequently to companies and industry organizations across the country.Kim's professional mission is to integrate the development of emotional, relational and business competencies to enhance bottom line performance.To achieve his mission, he has created a diverse set of proprietary tools for responding to often dauntingchallenges and changes.Kim is known for challenging and guiding people to consider new perspectives, alternate ways of thinking and innovative actions. He coaches from the larger context of the client system, integrating considerations of the team and organization and engaging team members and chain of command in the process and successful outcome of the coaching.In the first phase of his career, Kim founded, served for ten years as the C.E.O. of, and in 1998 profitably sold his company, Muscles for Hire, L.L.C., a commercial and residential specialty service provider. In 2000, Kim took that expertise in leadership, professional and business effectiveness, and entrepreneurship, and founded theWealthSource®, an executive and enterprise coaching firm.Kim holds a BBA in Entrepreneurship from the University of Houston and an MS in Organizational Development from the University of Texas. He is an ICF Certified Coach and Certified Birkman Consultant. He has been published and interviewed in the Houston Chronicle and other news publications, appeared on CNN Business Radio.Kim has a keen interest in philosophy, spirituality, poetry, science, and technology. He has traveled broadly and served his country in the US Army. Kim resides in Houston, TX with his True Love, awesome young son, and two cuddly pit bulls – a wonderful family whom he loves deeply.A representative sample of Kim's clients include: Continental Airlines, JP Morgan Chase Bank, British Broadcasting Corporation, IBM; Chevron, Trans-Ocean; AET Tankers, Spectra Energy, Winstead, Sechrestand Minick Law Firm, Rice University's Jones School of Business, The City of Lake Jackson, Texas, The Council on Alcohol and Drugs – Houston and numerous regional entrepreneurs.Kim Sawyer can be reached at https://www.theWealthSource.com  https://www.linkedin.com/in/coachkimsawyer About Mike Coffey:Mike Coffey is an entrepreneur, human resources professional, licensed private investigator, and HR consultant.In 1999, he founded Imperative, a background investigations firm helping risk-averse companies make well-informed decisions about the people they involve in their business.Today, Imperative serves hundreds of businesses across the US and, through its PFC Caregiver & Household Screening brand, many more private estates, family offices, and personal service agencies.Mike has been recognized as an Entrepreneur of Excellence and has twice been named HR Professional of the Year. Additionally, Imperative has been named the Texas Association of Business' small business of the year and is accredited by the Professional Background Screening Association. Mike is a member of the Fort Worth chapter of the Entrepreneurs' Organization and volunteers with the SHRM Texas State Council.Mike maintains his certification as a Senior Professional in Human Resources (SPHR) through the HR Certification Institute. He is also a SHRM Senior Certified Professional (SHRM-SCP).Mike lives in Fort Worth with his very patient wife. He practices yoga and maintains a keto diet, about both of which he will gladly tell you way more than you want to know.Learning Objectives:1.  Understand the differences between a management relationship and a coaching relationship.2.  Learn strategies and guidelines to build a coaching culture in an organization.3. Analyze the ROI of implementing a coaching culture.

In the spirit of summer, we're taking a break from creating new content this August. We'll be back in September with fresh content, but in the meantime, we hope you'll enjoy some of our listeners' favorite episodes! Dale Easdon is currently CEO of Klosterman Baking Company. At the time of this episode's recording (way back for episode 15!) he was CEO of Snap Kitchen.  Dale Easdon is on a mission to scale clean eating without compromise. As the chief executive officer of Snap Kitchen, he is responsible for taking the company's omnichannel business model to the next level. Under his leadership, the team is focused on introducing quick store pickup, healthy meal planning, and home delivery—all driven by the new digital app. Previously serving as the chief operating officer, Easdon's tenure has been marked by an expansion to a state-of-the-art kitchen, wholesale growth, and a proven track record for building winning teams who focus on performance-based leadership. Dale's commitment to cooking fresh hand- cooked meals to scale is a true differentiator for the brand. Before joining Snap Kitchen, Dale spent time at Taylor Farms, where he served as the chief operating officer. He also spent over eight years at LSG Sky Chefs, holding multiple positions within the company, including chief operating officer for the UK office. During his time at LSG Sky Chefs, Dale was responsible for various roles, including managing over 9,000 employees, strategic deployment, operational excellence globally and his final assignment which had him managing the US market with revenues of $850 million. Prior to LSG Sky Chefs, Dale spent over nine years as a senior director of food services at Continental Airlines during the business turnaround under the leadership of Gordon Bethune. Dale graduated from Manchester University and The Royal Institute of Public Health and Hygiene. He built his career driving lean manufacturing with training alongside The Porsche Group in Germany, where he also attended the Porsche Academy for Lean Logistics. Dale, originally from Scotland, lives in Austin with his wife Linda, and he is the proud father of four children.

Episode #325: Today I sit down with the accomplished businessman and philanthropist, Rick Walker, and we get deep into the world of leadership and learning.Rick, who has achieved remarkable success in his career, shares his valuable insights on how his commitment to leadership has played a pivotal role in his accomplishments. Join us as we explore the profound concept of "Humility is the Mother of Giants" and unravel the true essence of leadership, which lies in understanding and empowering people.Throughout this engaging conversation, we navigate the intricate dynamics of leadership and shed light on the significance of continuous learning. Uncover practical strategies and timeless wisdom that can elevate your leadership skills and propel you towards unparalleled success.The Let's Go Win Podcast gives it's listeners inspiration, actionable advice, and thought-provoking discussions that will empower you to unleash your true leadership potential. Join JM Ryerson and Rick Walker as they redefine the concept of leadership and demonstrate why it is truly about the people. Get ready to embark on a transformative journey that will revolutionize your perspective on leadership and empower you to make a positive impact in both your personal and professional life.Subscribe now to the Let's Go Win Podcast and embark on a path of growth and empowerment.Bio:Rick Walker boasts an impressive 25-year tenure in the commercial real estate industry, establishing himself as a prominent figure since 1997. Throughout his career, Walker has demonstrated his entrepreneurial spirit by founding notable companies within the commercial real estate space. Among his notable ventures are CXRE, a reputable brokerage firm, GreenEfficient federal consulting, and Stratiq Capital, a successful private equity firm.Under Walker's leadership, his team has effectively managed an extensive portfolio encompassing 5,000,000 square feet of office and medical space throughout Texas. Their expertise and dedication have enabled them to execute over 100 real estate transactions in 2021 alone, catering to esteemed clients such as the Department of Defense and the General Services Administration.Walker's professional achievements extend beyond his entrepreneurial ventures. He holds a LEED-AP accreditation in LEED for Building Operations and Maintenance, showcasing his commitment to sustainable practices within the industry. Furthermore, he has previously served as Chairman of a distinguished organization boasting a team of over 2,000 members. Additionally, he oversaw the operations of a charitable foundation with an impressive $250 million in assets under management (AUM).In a bid to share his knowledge and engage with influential personalities, Walker unveiled the popular Conversations at the Mansion with Rick Walker podcast. Through long-format sit-downs, he has engaged in thought-provoking discussions with renowned individuals, including Former US Secretary Ben Carson, US Senator Mike Lee, Famed Attorney Tony Buzbee, Donald Trump Jr., and former CEOs from esteemed companies such as Burger King and Continental Airlines.Walker's innovative approach and unwavering dedication have solidified his position as a trailblazer in the commercial real estate industry. His remarkable achievements and ability to foster meaningful connections with influential figures continue to inspire and shape the landscape of the industry.Contact Rick: Website: https://rickwalker.comFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/RickWalkerTXYouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC3V74xC3Qv8HZchgn_tYWoA

Frank Lorenzo takes over Continental Airlines. 

Gordon Bethune took an unlikely path to becoming a leader in the airline industry. A self-described "hoodlum," Bethune dropped out of high school, joined the Navy, and became an airplane mechanic. With that experience, he gave Continental Airlines a tune-up, pulling it out of bankruptcy and guiding it through the deep uncertainty that followed the September 11th attacks.

The Cyrkle  band was formed by guitarists and lead singers Don Dannemann and Tom Dawes (who also played bass guitar), and Jim Maiella (the original drummer), who all met while studying at Lafayette College in Easton, Pennsylvania. Dannemann enlisted in the US Coast Guard in 1966. The other members were Earle Pickens on keyboards and Marty Fried on drums. They were originally a "frat rock" band called The Rhondells but were later discovered and managed by Brian Epstein, who was best known as manager of the Beatles. Epstein found out about the band when his business partner, New York attorney Nathan Weiss, heard them in Atlantic City, New Jersey, on Labor Day of 1965. Epstein became their manager and renamed them, as a reference to the circular roundabout known as Centre Square, located in downtown Easton. John Lennon provided the unique spelling of their new name. They were produced by John Simon. In the summer of 1966, they opened on 14 dates for the Beatles during their US tour. On August 28, they headed the opening acts performing prior to The Beatles at Dodger Stadium. The other artists who appeared were Bobby Hebb, the Ronettes, and the Remains. Before touring with The Beatles, the Cyrkle had an engagement at the Downtown Discothèque in New York City. They were also on the bill for the final Beatles concert at Candlestick Park on August 29, 1966. The Cyrkle is best known for their 1966 song "Red Rubber Ball", which went to No. 2 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. It sold over one million copies, and was awarded a gold disc. It was co-written by Paul Simon, of Simon and Garfunkel, and Bruce Woodley of The Seekers, and was released by Columbia Records. Later in 1966, the band had one more Top 20 hit, "Turn-Down Day" (No. 16). After the release of their debut album, Red Rubber Ball, they recorded a second album, Neon, in late 1966, and a movie soundtrack, The Minx, in 1967 (not released until 1970). They followed that with various singles and then disbanded in mid-1968. Both Dawes and Danneman became professional jingle writers after the Cyrkle disbanded. Dawes wrote the famous "plop plop fizz fizz" jingle for Alka-Seltzer. Danneman wrote jingles for Continental Airlines and Swanson Foods. He penned the original 7Up "Uncola" song. Dawes produced two albums for the band Foghat, Rock & Roll (1973) and Energized (1974), and co-wrote the song "Wild Cherry" on the latter. Marty Fried left the music business to attend law school and graduated from Wayne State University in Detroit in 1972. He worked as a bankruptcy attorney in suburban Detroit. Earle Pickens became a surgeon (retired) in Gainesville, Florida.

Have you ever wondered what goes into the process of getting your mail to you through cargo and freight? How do they make revenue? And how does data analytics come into all of this? Catch the latest TAS episode to hear it from Judson Rollins. Meet Judson Rollins Judson's Role as a Commercial Innovator at Propel Revenue Judson Rollins is the Managing Partner at Propel Revenue. Propel Revenue helps cargo and freight carriers increase margins via greater pricing power, optimal asset utilisation, and reduced selling expense. Propel delivers tailored, cutting-edge strategies backed by data and best practices from a wide variety of transport providers. Judson's Other Work in Pricing Over the past 15 years, Judson Rollins has helped 20+ passenger airlines and cargo transport companies optimise their pricing, customer segmentation, route networks, and capacity. Previously, he has worked with Leeham Company, Air New Zealand, SkyWriter Aviation, Boeing Commercial Airplanes, and Continental Airlines, aiding in strategy and consulting. On top of that, Judson speaks regularly to industry groups and other audiences who want to learn more about pricing for airlines. He often gives interviews and writes content for media worldwide. Data Analytics, Cargo and Freight, and Revenue In this exclusive analytics podcast episode, Judson shares: His favourite country he's worked so far and his best experiences travelling for work His current role as a Managing Partner at Propel Revenue Where airlines are today in terms of data analytics and digital transformation compared to a few decades ago The best time to redeem tickets for travelling with airlines How this transformation with airlines translates into the transformation needed in cargo Convincing the industry to invest more in data collection Getting traction in the industry as a startup A use case from a time when data analytics has helped to up revenue in the cargo and freight industry The challenges organisations often face when trying to implement data analytics to improve revenue in cargo and freight Data-driven roles in cargo and freight If you are a leader or data analytics professional in the cargo and freight industry looking to improve revenue through data analytics in your company, this is the episode you do not want to miss. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/analyticsshow/message

In this episode of the Leadership in Aviation Podcast, René Banglesdorf sits down with Sally Glenn-Lee, a successful aviation leader with over 50 years of experience in her career. Sally talks about her experiences working at Purdue Airlines, American Airlines, Continental Airlines, Hawaii Express, Regent Air, Transtar Airlines, Branniff Airways, Thompson CSF, and JetBlue Airways, where she currently works as a Field Generalist. She discusses her career path and how she got to where she is today, the importance of embracing new challenges to help find your passion, and the keys to hiring top talent and encouraging the next generation of aviators.

This week: Gordon Bethune, former CEO, Continental Airlines; Welcome Scott McCartney as Ben's new co-host; Southwest's Christmas Crisis - Blame IT? 2023 predictions; What to expect from the DOT this year; Changing loyalty programs; Listener "Old Croakey" thank you to Chris Chiames.

Sometimes we get so wrapped up in doing what we love that we forget that our work is still just work (even if it's the most fun job in the world). This week, Anne & Lau are joined by special guests Aria Lapides, Carol Alpert & Daniel Marion to discuss how & why community support is so important. Building a creative family includes building support systems outside of your professional circle. This may include your family, friends, and even other voice actors who you can count on for help. The voice-over industry is a small world, and it's important to build relationships with fellow actors and creatives. They will help you grow, learn, and encourage you when things get tough. It can be hard to separate our egos from our projects but being able to do this allows us to accept criticism more easily. Tune in to join this VO Family… Transcript >> It's time to take your business to the next level, the BOSS level! These are the premiere Business Owner Strategies and Successes being utilized by the industry's top talent today. Rock your business like a BOSS, a VO BOSS! Now let's welcome your host, Anne Ganguzza. Anne: Hey everyone. Welcome to the Vo BOSS podcast and the business superpower series. I'm your host Anne Ganguzza, and today I am excited to bring back my very special guest co-host Lau Lapides. Hey Lau, how are you? Lau: Hey, I'm great, Anne. How you doing? Anne: I'm doing amazing. We have a VO Family with us today. I am very excited. . Anne: Well you know, I think having people that support us in our businesses is so very important to our success. And I don't know honestly where I would be if my husband in the beginning had not given me his full support in launching our business. For an entrepreneur, launching a business, especially coming from a corporate background, I was used to getting that check every other week. And I had a very stable, I was gonna make this amount of money, and I was dependent on that to pay the bills. And going into the entrepreneurship of my VO business, all of a sudden things became very woo, I don't know what's happening today. I don't know what's happening tomorrow. When's my next job coming? And I'll tell you, the support of my husband was just invaluable and the support of my family too. I mean, I know there's so many of my students who will tell me stories about their families don't support them or -- I myself had my mother, God bless her. But she would say to me every once in a while 'cause she didn't understand exactly what I was doing. And she would say, you know, honey , when you get a real job, I think it's gonna help. You know? And I would be like . I would be like, It's okay. Mom, I'm an entrepreneur. And it was funny because it was hard to explain to people who don't understand the entrepreneurship lifestyle. Thoughts? Lau: Uh yes. And it's almost unexplainable. I mean you cannot -- it's truly a lifestyle business. It's one that you live and you experience and you have to be suited for it. Not everyone is suited for it. Many people want a nine to five job. They want Benny's, they want pension, and God bless them, and I'm happy that they know that. Like I'm one of those people that knows I don't want that. So you have to be okay with not being okay a lot. It's really important. Remember that famous book from the 70s, "I'm Okay, You're Okay," that famous psychology book? Well, we're not always okay. And so that's the little edginess, that's the little on the edge of the cliff that a lot of us love the dopamine kick and get excited by the risk taking of it all. So yeah, you have to be cut out for it, right Anne? Anne: Absolutely have to be cut out for it. Or if you're not cut out for it, you gotta get used to it pretty darn quick. It's always one of of those things. There's a lot of highs. There's a lot of lows. For me getting used to the lows and kind of driving through them, and we've talked about this on previous podcasts, really is a mental exercise in pushing good energy out there so that you can survive. So let's introduce the VO Family that we have here today. Now Lau, these are part of your VO Family, so let's have you introduce them. Lau: Oh, I would love to. So I have Carol Alpert, who we were talking about on another podcast. I don't think Carol was here. So I love talking about her when she's not here because then I can kvell, which is Yiddish for like just give her honors and awards and accolades and kudos, because everyone needs a Carol. Like if you could buy a Carol, you would buy it, put it on layaway. It doesn't matter how much it costs, it's so worth it, because she is my friend, my family, my support system. She's a sister I never had, so I can't say enough about Carol. Carol: Thank you. Lau: Professional actress and VO talent herself in her own right. And I'm thrilled to have her as part of our Family going in our 14th year. And we have Dan Marion with us from Texas who is just the bestest of the best, fantastic person. And you know, we haven't actually known Dan too, too long. I don't know, maybe a year, year and a half. But yet there's always this feeling with people that come into your non-blood related family that you've known them forever. And he's like one of those people that even across the Zoom waves and even across the states, we feel like he's part of us and one of our family, and that we support 100% in every way. Pro VO, part of our MCVO division family as Carol is as well. So that's thrilling, and he's a wonderful coach as well as has technical prowess as well. And then Aria Lapides, who is in the house and she is my everything. Anne: She's in the real house. Lau: She's in the real house 'cause she's like, I call her my better half. She is my daughter but has turned into my business partner and my best friend and really just a spiritual little fairy cohort for me to keep me floating, and to keep me imagining, and to keep me together in this whole crazy business we've created. And in her own right is now a professional actress and filmmaker and photographer and is really incredible visual and performance artist. And so she's a big part of our Family. Anne: Fantastic. So you have coworkers, you have two coworkers and a family member. So first of all, let's talk -- Aria. Being a member of the family, what's it like for you being a part of the business and being part of the support for your mom and in this voiceover industry? Aria: Oh wow. That's a big question, especially 'cause it's not just voiceover, it's so many things. It's all in acting and everything that you guys said is so true, the importance of having people to support you. Because in this industry, it's so blind. Like when you're sending a voiceover audition or a casting audition or a acting audition, it's blind. So all you have is your support team and how much they're pushing you and how much they're being truthful with you. And I could say that, you know, even though it's like I'm supporting my mom, which I do, of course, it's like she's supporting me just as much if not even more. Like she supports me in everything. And it's so important because there's so many different aspects from technical to the actual acting values that have to be there to, well what happens when I do get the job? Like what do I do? Yeah, I would say that it's a really amazing because I've been able to grow up in an industry that's very creative, very cool. Like really, really cool. Um, I know some people have family businesses that are a supermarket. So it's really cool to be in one that's very creative. Things are very open, you can coach, you -- I mean I've dived into filmmaking and producing acting reels and working with actors and, and I gotta say, it, it is really so cool to see like my mom every single day like have new ideas and new things that she's doing all the time. Like she's always so active and she's, she's right. It's a lifestyle business. She's almost never not working, which is wild. Lau: And you know, Anne, what's really amazing here is that both of my children, my son's Sage, who's incredible -- he's not in the industry, he's in a totally different industry -- were homeschooled. And so I was bringing them up as I was starting the business and running the business, which was crazy. Like it was crazy town. You can't imagine. So who knew this crazy little girl who was like throwing legos at me one day, it would kick in that she would be coaching clients and she would be directing a film shoot and she would be voiceover auditioning for Pixar. And it feels like that happened overnight. Like that just happened overnight. It's like how you and I feel about our clients. Anne, it's like you see the grooming of that throughout the years of the rapport, the relationship, the trust, the back and forth. And then all of a sudden it kicks into something in high gear that you see all of your hard work and investment in your business come alive. And I've seen that in Aria literally since a little tiny girl to now like the business has just created this whole human being that knows so much for someone who's only 19. Anne: Yeah. Lau: Incredible. Anne: Now, I'm gonna ask do you two disagree at times? I mean -- Lau: Yes. Anne: -- family wise or work wise? Lau: Yes. Anne: And how does that play out? How does that interact with your businesses? Aria: Can I start on this one? Anne: Of course. Aria: 'Cause it's so funny that you say that because, yeah, because like especially in like let's take filming for instance, it's so hard. And that's so interesting that you asked that 'cause me and my mom were having this conversation last night of like being able to let go of control and knowing that you are not your work. Like even my mom's business is not her. I mean me and my house is separate from me filming, me acting, me doing anything that's a separate entity from who I am. And there's like this level of separation that you have to do to be able to give over the control to a director or to your mom or to a casting agent to be like, that's a beautiful image. That's a beautiful take on this, but it's completely different, and we need you to do that. And it's like separating your ego from your work. And it's a really, really tough thing to do, especially from a young age, 'cause you're like, wait a second, I thought my ego was the thing that was driving these creative things that are happening. But it's like, no, no, no, no. It's just an idea. It's constantly shifting and changing. So the more that you are flexible with it, the more you can get better at it really. Yeah. Lau: Anne, I wanna jump in on that one 'cause that's a fantastic question. I'm actually gonna answer that super straightforward because Aria recently secured new agency representation, really big out of LA. And one of the meetings they had with me because I'm her momager, and for those people who don't know what a momager is, it's a manager, a legit manager who's also a mom. Or it could be a dad, like a dadager. But I'm a momager. One of the first questions they asked of me in private was, do you guys fight? And he comes from the, literally the school that I come from where we're in the same program together. And I looked at him and I said, yep, 'cause I'm also her coach for all of of her auditions. And he said, how does that play itself out? How do you guys remedy that, whatever. And are you honest with her? See this is good for the VOs to be listening to because if they deal with the manager or if they're dealing with a family member, they have to like start having these lines of demarcation. Like what works for their personal relationship and what works for their professional relationship. And I leaned over and I said, yep. Because I tell her the truth, because I want her to be the best. If, if she sucks, I'm gonna be the one to tell her before anyone else does. And he said, great, I'm glad to hear that. So we'll probably take her on then. Now if I had said no, she's the best thing since sliced bread, I would never fight with her. In fact, she needs to be a star. In fact you -- they wouldn't have taken her. They would not have taken her. And this is like the deal for all VOs when you're dealing with agents and and managers and the like. It's like be honest. Like be honest. You don't wanna be the person who's a difficult person, who is always causing conflict. And we're certainly not that. But you wanna be honest and transparent about, yeah. When you're working hard on your craft, there's a lot of rocky road, there's obstacles, there's just agreements, there's arguments. Yeah. There is, and how do you work through it? How do you problem solve it? That's what we're hiring you for. That's why we wanna work with you. Not because you're sitting in a place where you're angry or you're not talking to each other, it's not working out. But a place where you go through that wall and you get to the other side of it. And I believe that's what Aria and I has done through the years to be successful. Anne: I just wanna say congratulations and kudos on that. And what you said I thought was so important was getting to the other side, right? Because you're friends, you're work partners, you're family, there's going to be times where there's probably going to be arguments, there's going to be anger, there's gonna be hurt. And you have to be able to get to the other side of that so that you can move forward. And I think that was such an important point that you bring up, Lau. Absolutely. Lau: Yes. And there have been many times, and I'm sure parents who are listening to this right now with their children who may be in the industry, or they're in the industry, or they're both in the industry, sort of swimming through those very muddy waters thinking what do I do? What do I do? And I've been advised many times by pro saying, Lau, you need to not work with her. It's really important. Don't work with her. Don't bring her into the business. Don't manage her because you wanna have a good relationship with her. And I said, no, no, no, no, no. If all the families through all the generations could work together, we can work together. It's just going to be a little bit more challenging, but we gotta be able to problem solve that. 'Cause your family and your Family should be the most trustworthy people that you surround yourself with. Not that you can't get awesome friends in the world, but they're the people you come back to and home to and confide to. And so you don't wanna lose that. You don't wanna cut that off just because we are blood-related. Anne: So let me just direct a question back at you, Lau. How has Aria helped you grow? Lau: In every way. I mean like it's immeasurable. I can't even tell you just from the idea of being, or the fact of being her mother has opened up so many doors in me as a person, as an actor, as a woman that I would not have experienced if I had not experienced her. Not easy, very difficult road, but very, very, very spiritual. The path less taken in a lot of ways, in how we melded this whole thing together, and adjust my stroke of luck I think that I had a daughter who had such immense talent in these fields. Because just because someone grows up in the industry and on a Hollywood set or wherever doesn't mean they have talent for it. It means they're connected. So she has immense talent, and much of which has nothing to do with me. Like she's a visual artist. I'm not a visual artist. She's an amazing visual artist. Aria: Even if you are talented, that's just such a small part of it. Because if we were all just talented, then you know, we would all be in Hollywood. But it really takes that group of support. I mean, you know, Carol came to the studio for me to help shoot one of her tapes, and then I'll ask someone to help you reader. And it's because we've got such a tightknit -- I mean even the new talent inner circle membership that's created a completely new community of people, of voiceovers and people who are actors and stuff. To have a community of people, to reach out, to ask what do you think about this, And ask different questions, it's so important. Because I'll say this, when my mom's not coaching me, my agency can tell. Anne: Mm, okay. Aria: They can tell. Lau: That is true. I do wanna say though, based on Anne's question, which I think is a brilliant question and a hard one to answer, is that she echoes back to me what I have taught her and given to her through the years. So I know that it actually happened. So there's a documentation that happened, and she teaches me all sorts of things that I didn't teach her that I need to learn. Anne: Yeah. Yeah. Lau: So it's now an -- Anne: That's wonderful. Lau: -- reciprocal relationship professionally and personally that she authentically knows so much more than I do in so many ways, that I'm growing constantly as a person, as an artist, as a business person, just learning. 'Cause I think it's a myth that we're not, not learning from our kids or not learning from youth. It's really we're learning so, so much from them, we're just maybe not aware of it or we're not acknowledging it. Right? So I'm very aware of it, that there's so much that she and others in that generation as well are giving back and teaching that -- Anne: Oh yes, absolutely. Absolutely. Lau: -- going back. So it's measurable, it really is. I would say she's singlehandedly brought the business to a whole other level that it may not have gone to without her. Anne: That's fantastic. So now, Carol. Carol: Yeah. Anne: You have a professional and a personal relationship with Lau. I'm not sure which happened first. So let's talk about your story. What about prior to meeting Lau and prior to working with Lau, how was your support system? Did you have a support system? And then what happened when you connected with Lau and how has that helped you? Carol: Sure. Sure. And it's funny, I was thinking about that before. So I had a very long career in the airline industry. I worked for about 22 years, and then I had left, I took an early retirement. They were offering that -- it was Continental Airlines, they were offering at the time. I was a sandwich. My sisters and I are sandwiched. So there was a little bit of taking care of the parents. My, my kids were younger, the whole thing. And you know what, you just went and had and did it. And I'd always thought about voice over work. And so I did a little bit of that, did some dog care too because it was easy enough. I'm like, Oh good now at least there's that cushion. And then I, I met Lau. We live one town apart and there was a different location of the studio. It's still in the same town. She was offering a Meisner class. Now when I first started voiceover work, now mind you, I don't have an acting background. And so I'd learned all the technical stuff. I had done a demo, but I wish I knew Lau then and learned what I learned then of what I know now. 'Cause it's just leaps and bounds. So I had gone in, done the master, then I really realized how, gosh, there is just a universe of things that I need to know. And so from then on I had joined the studio, and you know, like they say the rest is history. This is what, 14 years now, Lau, 13? Lau: A long time. Carol: The studio was about a year old. The studio was about a year old when I came. And so it's been a long time. And then -- Lau: How old was Aria, Carol, when you came in? Aria and Sage, how old were they? Carol: So you know what, 'cause she's the same age as my daughters Juliana -- they're friends. So I don't know. She was what? Six maybe? Lau: Six. Six. Carol: Something like that. Six, yeah. Lau: Wow. Carol: So that was kind of the same thing too. So my, I was still involved with school too. You know, you were doing everything with that. And my husband's freelance too. He's a strength coach in fitness. So we were both doing freelance things, but it worked out. You make it work. Like you said, you have your family support. You have your expectations. Anne: I was gonna say, so you had good family support. That's fantastic. I just know it makes it dif -- my husband has a corporate job and I left my corporate job to go into my own business. And so that was a different kind of support relationship. But that's fantastic. I mean your husband kind of already knew what it was like to work freelance. And so I think you had a good support system there because if you were going into just from the beginning trying to build up your business, it takes some time. I mean, right, there may not be work right away. And I think that that is the critical moments in those low points, right? When you're, did I get the gig? Am I good enough? I mean all those questions I think we ask ourselves in the beginning of our careers, is this really for me? I know that's what I asked myself all the time. Had, had I not had the support of my husband kind of saying, it's okay, I believe in you. Just keep plugging away at it, I think I might have quit early on. Carol: Yeah. And that's why I said to myself, let me just get something else on the side too. 'Cause I needed to know that I was doing that as well. But it was the opposite. I was the one with the corporate job before and everybody in my family, we were independent. They're like, oh, how could you go in? You know, wasn't nine to five. 'Cause it's the airlines and there's no set hours -- you know, the hours are everywhere, but you just knew that you wanna do it. And it's just, the timing was good with that as well. And so all these years. But one thing that Lau had said too, you know, you're right. You go to the audition, what do I do? There is a huge vacuum of like, oh yeah, you can learn how to do voiceover work. That's such a surface thing. There isn't a lot, except from people like you, people like Lau who say, look, when you get in, well before Covid, when you go to the recording studio and you're asked to do the audition or if you're at home and you're doing this, what is the etiquette? What do I do? What are my expectations? One of the first times -- 'cause I did on camera as well, and I was getting work with on camera more than voiceover. So I didn't do as much. I always used to say, I said, gee, I wonder how I did? I was craving feedback. And I'm like, you know, where's Simon Cowell when you need him ? I was like, if I don't, if I stink, I stink. I didn't have that. And now when I first got it with Lau, I'm kind of like, am, am I in the right business? Because I wasn't used to it, but I was craving it. And then I realized I really needed it. And you may not wanna hear it, but let me tell you something. You grow and you grow and you grow. And so you really need that. And I think there's a little bit of a, of a misstep or a failure out there right now. 'Cause you know, everybody's so internet, you go on YouTube , you know, Yeah. YouTube's great for a lot of things, but you know what? You really need that guide and the trust. The trust that someone's gonna say to you, no, don't submit that audition. Yeah. That is not a good audition. Anne: Lau's not gonna pull any punches. That I know. Carol: Exactly. Anne: That I know about her. I don't know her as long as you do, but I know she's not gonna pull any punches. Carol: . No. Anne: She's gonna be truthful and honest, which I think that's so important, you know, coming from a source within the industry that can give you reliable feedback. And your family members, they might be trying to say it's okay, you know, I thought it was great. That kind of support. That's a different kind of support, right? At least you know they're on your side and they're not saying, well we gotta pay the bills or I thought you were gonna make all this money. Or there's lots of different family support out there. . Carol: But you know Anne, it's funny you said with the support. So my husband would like, sometimes I'd have to have him just hold the camera. I'm like, just record. Or how does this sound? No, it sounds fine. Not my daughter though. She'd be like, what was that? You know? She's the same age as Aria, and they're kind of the same on that too. But thank God. But I wanted to also say it's also finding people that you can trust. See, I may not be having a good gig or I may not be having a whatever, but I'm trusting the people that are giving me the feedback because they're not doing it. They're not making it about them; they're making it about me. And that's the crucial point. Like they're not gonna say, like Lau's not gonna say, Oh you're just starting voiceover. Let me give you five lessons. And you don't do this either, Anne, but how many are out there where it's the snake oil, and it's just like, no, you are not ready. You need to do this. Your breathing's off or whatever the thing is. So the trust is crucial. Lau: I wanna jump in Carol. I wanna say something about Carol ,again talking about her as if she's not here. I love doing that. . So the thing about Carol that made her very unique, first of all, she was very recognizable to me because we had a similar background in the way in which we grew up, and we were at the similar stage of raising children as well. So we had a lot in common. So it went from a client-coach relationship fairly quickly into a friendship, which much of the time doesn't happen for many reasons. And I wanted that. I accepted it, I wanted it, I welcomed it. But what I noticed about her work ethic, which I had not seen in most people I had met, where she has a conservatory style work ethic. And even some in conservatory don't have it. That is, she works like just a horse. Like, and that's part of our background. We both come from a Jewish background, grandparents who had nothing, came from the old country with nothing in their pockets, didn't expect a thing, and worked their tootsies off. So she came in with this work ethic that she did not want anything. She did not deserve anything. And if she didn't earn it, she's not gonna take it. And she was that everything person that would do anything at any time for anyone. And I'm telling you, even to this day, I can count on one hand the people that I know like that. Because most are very self-centered, self-driven and think about themselves first. Carol is very selfless and comes from a high work ethic of let me put someone else before me and let me fix it and get it done. And if I don't know how to do it, I'm gonna do it. I'm gonna do it for you and I don't care. And I'm telling you, that is priceless. It's worth more than any diamond that you could find in your lifetime because that's the person you trust, you love, but also the person who comes straight from the heart, and that's something we're missing in our world. I'll be honest with, we're missing a lot of that in our world. That's self-centered, lack of narcissistic kind of, let me think about my community around me and do as much as I can for them before I do for myself. Anne: Well, I think honestly that just creates the good karma. It just comes back around. And I think that that can be very much a part of your success in your career, in life. This VO BOSS podcast was part of a giving back. And I hope that, you know what I mean, it becomes that sort of a thing that it becomes support. It can become a Family, so to speak, for the community. And it can just be something that can just continue to give back. And I get so much from it myself, from people that I've met that have listened to the podcast, and I've gained some wonderful relationships and some wonderful members of my Family. So. Lau: And that's why we adore you, Anne, and we completely support you in this. We're all working right now together. We're not getting paid. It's a Saturday. It's -- Anne: I know. Lau: Because we love what we do. We love each other. Carol: I'm so excited -- Lau: We love what we do. Yeah. Carol: You were one of the bigger names I first heard about. I'm like, Anne Ganguzza! Anne: Aw you guys. Thank you. Lau: So great. We gotta get Dan in here. I wanna hear from Dan. Anne: Yes. Lau: Dan. Anne: Let's talk to Dan. Dan, tell us your Family story and then how you got involved with Lau. Dan: Well, this is interesting because if it wasn't for you, I wouldn't be involved with Lau. When I first started, I contacted you, and you listened to my demo. And the biggest thing that I had was whether or not I was good enough, whether or not I had the right sound, whether or not I had any talent whatsoever. And especially considering, and I know this is taboo in many circles, so slap me around now -- but I produced my own demo. And you were shocked at the quality of that home produced demo. But you gave me so much positive feedback, it encouraged me to submit to a few agents, and Lau was one of the first ones I submitted. Anne: There you go. Wow. Dan: So if it wasn't for you, this is karma coming around as far as trial. Okay? Anne: I did not know this story. Aria: This is literally full circle. Dan: You're welcome. Anne: Wow. Yeah. Dan: And part of that apprehension, you know, I know what you and I had discussed during our consultations that we had, and you were very patient with me. Thank you very much. But it came into a fear on top of that, when you're first starting out, it's a money issue. Am I to the point where I consider anything I do an investment or an expense? And that's a big thing when you're an entrepreneur. Right? Anne: Sure. Absolutely. Dan: I was so petrified that everything was going to be an expense and not an investment, and I wasn't smart enough then. So being with Lau, one of the nice things is she gives me that kick in the ass when I need it. And I do, 'cause I was always the one giving the ass kickings in everything that I did. Everything. I ran construction crews, on the shop floor, airport security, Lau enforcement, I was a training officer to running large scale global projects for a defense contractor. So I was always the alpha male. When you worked for yourself and you're unsure, that alpha male gets diminished. I don't care who you are. Anne: What a good point. Yeah. Dan: It gets diminished. Anne: Yeah. Dan: So it's not necessarily validation, but you need a shoulder and a support system to help you. And sometimes we get stuck on high center, so when you get stuck on high center, you need somebody to push you over that ridge and get you the rest of the way. Right? And that's what it was. And you've talked about it on your podcast too, where diversification is huge, especially during the down times. Like right now I'm going through a downtime now for me. So I took it upon to get marketing coaching. So that's prompted me to open things up. Video and and audio production. That's something else I can offer when VO is lagging behind. So all those things I get encouragement from, from the entire VO community, but especially the ladies here, 'cause I know I can be open and honest with them. And I'm gonna get open and honest feedback. But they expect the same outta me as well. Anybody who's coached with me knows that I'm gonna tell you how it is. I won't sugar coat it, because there's no point -- to me that does more damage. Anne: Sure. I agree. Dan: But Lau also opened that door for me for coaching. She let me sit in, offer opinions on, on several things, and once you get me going, I don't shut up . So I think that was part of it too. But now I coach regularly for her. And I also continue to coach because it should be a cradle to grave learning experience. I should never stop learning until I'm dead. Anne: Yep. Lau: That's right. Dan: But the most rewarding thing about the coaching is watching somebody else flourish in what you have helped them do. Anne: Sure. Dan: And I don't know if you've read lately, but there's a lot of back and forth about some of the coaching posts, and one of the things is you have to be able to have that fulfillment. It can't just be the snake oil salesman where it's just I want, I want, I want. It has to be a total giving experience, completely because we lose money when we coach. Coaching gigs pay a lot less than VO gigs. Anne: Yes. this is true. Dan: So, it has to be a passion. So yeah. But being a part of the Family -- and that's why it was so great when Lau told me about today. I said, Oh, this is a unique opportunity because for me today it has come full circle. It really has in in that aspect of it as far as Family goes. So thank you all. Lau: And Dan is a really gifted coach. I mean like talk about having talent, like talent does play a part in our success. Everyone has different levels of talent. It's incredibly subjective. And it's in the ear or the eye of the beholder. But there's no question he's a very gifted person in this industry, both technically and emotionally. And we love having him with us. And I wanna share one moment, Anne, of the personalization that you and I have spoken about for the past weeks and how important it is in building the relationships with each other. And that is my son, who's a US Marine, is going into law enforcement. And I'm constantly trying to find mentors for him, which isn't always an easy thing. And early on when I first met Dan and I had learned about his background in law enforcement, I said, oh, I'll ask Dan, maybe he could meet with him on Zoom for a few minutes just to give him a little bit of wisdom. He was just right there. He had no problem doing it. He was excited to do it. He was looking forward to that. And you know, this is a teenage kid he doesn't even know. And when he did that, when he was connecting in that way, I said, this is a father, this is a grandfather, this is what we say in Yiddish -- a really good, full-hearted human being. And those are the people that we always wanna be connected with in our universe. Because those are the people, whether you're working or not working, whether you're coaching or not coaching, whether you're making a lot of money or not, they're the people that build you up in your heart and in your spirit. And that goes a long way, much farther than money oftentimes. It goes a long way into why we live this life and why we stay together and connect. And he's just one of those people . Anne: And when I talk about success in your business, we're not just talking monetary success. It's success all around. And I do believe that having that support, having that love, having that openness and overwhelming, what I've heard today is honesty and willing to give -- I think that is one of the most important characteristics we can have, and be for someone to fully support them in this industry, and help them reach success in so many ways. So BOSSes out there, if you are struggling right now, find your Family. We're here at VO BOSS to help, and I'm here to help. I can connect -- I know a few people, I know a few good people that are sitting right here that I can help connect and anything that I can do, and I know you guys, it has just been a wonderful conversation. I thank you so very much for everything that you guys have contributed to today's discussion. I think it's so valuable. I love this Family. I love this Family. All: We love you. We love you. Anne: Thank you. Lau: And I should say one more thing before we go, and that is, just remember everyone you help, everyone you work with, everyone you connect with in these ways, a little tiny piece of you lives inside of them and goes where they go. And so we think, how do we fix the world? How do we help people? How do we do it? Just do it one person at a time. Because that person is gonna hold you inside of them if you're meaningful to them. And boy, will that explode over the universe, and it's one person at a time. Anne: Yeah. And speaking of making an impact, guys, if you would like to contribute to the growth of our communities in ways that you never thought possible, take a look at 100voiceswhocare.org to learn how. I'd love to give a huge shout-out to our sponsor, ipDTL. Here we are connecting like BOSSes. Find out more at ipdtl.com. You guys, have an amazing week, and we'll see you next week. Thanks so much, everyone. Carol: Thanks, everyone. Aria: Thank you, adios. Lau: Thanks, Dan. Carol: Good week. Anne: Bye. >> Join us next week for another edition of VO BOSS with your host Anne Ganguzza. And take your business to the next level. Sign up for our mailing list at voBOSS.com and receive exclusive content, industry revolutionizing tips and strategies, and new ways to rock your business like a BOSS. Redistribution with permission. Coast to coast connectivity via ipDTL.

You'll really enjoy our talk with Greg Brenneman. Getting insight from a leader in aviation, business, and investment gives us a great and broad perspective as we innovate at the intersection of tech and flight.  Some of you may know Greg as the President of Continental Airlines and an extraordinary airline and turnaround leader, some as a CEO or Board member of a number of large companies, and some know Greg as Executive Chairman of CCMP Capital Advisors, a leading private equity firm. What we discuss: ·         Greg shares his perspective on the aviation industry today – and how it has evolved in the last several years and the extra level of discipline that COVID brought to the airline industry.·         We discuss how technology has evolved over the years, and listen to the opportunities Greg believes could be addressed by today's technology companies.·         Listen to his perspectives on advanced mobility – how he would view advanced mobility if running an airline today – and the many near and long-term opportunities for advanced mobility. ·         And for AAM companies who intend to be both OEMs and operators; what to be aware of and pay attention to. ·         Listen to what he looks for in companies he's about to invest in – and the leadership of those companies.·         And the first steps Greg takes when running a company or turning around a company – and the lessons from his one sheet of paper.·         And listen to the advice he gives to the innovator and the business leader.Thanks again Greg!

Gordon Bethune took an unlikely path to becoming a leader in the airline industry. A self-described "hoodlum," Bethune dropped out of high school, joined the Navy, and became an airplane mechanic. With that experience, he gave Continental Airlines a tune-up, pulling it out of bankruptcy and guiding it through the deep uncertainty that followed the September 11th attacks.

Welcome to the Instant Trivia podcast episode 629, where we ask the best trivia on the Internet. Round 1. Category: The Times They Are A-Changin' 1: Ian Astbury of The Cult joined Robbie Krieger and Ray Manzarek for the retooling of this band "of the 21st Century". The Doors. 2: In 2004 Veritas software's marketing dept. made news when it banned this type of communication on Fridays. e-mail. 3: Beepcard Inc. is developing a talking 1 of these, slightly thicker than normal, that asks for your password. a credit card. 4: Alison Bartlett, who plays Gina, a kindly vet on this PBS show, got overexposed with Steve Buscemi on "The Sopranos". Sesame Street. 5: As the "M" word indicate, TMS uses these to stimulate the brain and treat neuropsychiatric conditions in a non-intrusive way. magnets. Round 2. Category: Sean Connery Films 1: He was a London publisher who loved a Russian girl in "The Russia House" and a Russian sub captain in this. The Hunt for Red October. 2: Connery caught the Best Supporting Actor Oscar for this 1987 film. The Untouchables. 3: In this 1992 film, Connery finds and loses a cancer cure in a rainforest. Medicine Man. 4: As Danny to Michael Caine's Peachy, Connery was this title character in a 1975 John Huston film. The Man Who Would Be King. 5: Although he's Scottish, the luck of the Irish got Connery cast in this 1959 Disney film about the wee folk. Darby O'Gill and the Little People. Round 3. Category: That's So "Continental" 1: It met for the first time in at Carpenter's Hall in Philadelphia on September 5, 1774. Continental Congress. 2: Its main hub cities are Newark, Cleveland and Houston. Continental Airlines. 3: Abbreviated CBA, it includes teams called the Yakima Sun Kings and the Gary Steelheads. the Continental Basketball Association. 4: The theory of the slow tectonic movement of plates across the Earth. continental drift. 5: To cartographers, it's known as CONUS. the Continental United States. Round 4. Category: You Hit Me In The Face! 1: In a battle between this talk show host's nose and a chair, he got a "20/20" view of his nose being broken. Geraldo Rivera. 2: Beverly Hills cop Paul Kramer got a real slap in the face when she said no thanks, dahling, to a 1989 ticket. Zsa Zsa Gabor. 3: "She's my sister (slap); my daughter (slap)"; forget it, Jake, it's this 1974 film. Chinatown. 4: Love-struck in "Moonstruck", she struck Nicolas Cage to get him to "Snap out of it!". Cher. 5: In a 1994 boxing match, Danny Bonaduce bloodied this "Puppy Love" singer's nose and won a decision. Donny Osmond. Round 5. Category: Astrology 1: The only sign of the zodiac that isn't represented by a living thing. Libra. 2: Venus rules this 7th sign of the zodiac, but don't let that unbalance you. Libra. 3: Perhaps appropriately, this quick-tempered sign is symbolized by an animal that stings it prey. Scorpio. 4: This sign is represented by a maiden carrying a sheaf of wheat. Virgo. 5: 2 of the 3 most important positions in any natal chart. the sun, the moon, and your rising sign. Thanks for listening! Come back tomorrow for more exciting trivia! Special thanks to https://blog.feedspot.com/trivia_podcasts/

Al Spain has over 50 years of operations leadership. His background reflects a career spanning general aviation, military, airline, and corporate aviation operations. Most recently, Captain Spain served as a founder and Senior Vice President Operations of JetBlue Airways Corporation in New York. He retired from JetBlue in 2006 and prior to JetBlue, he was Vice President Flight Operations for Continental Micronesia Airlines, a subsidiary of Continental Airlines. Captain Spain retired from Continental Airlines in 1998 after serving in Flight Standards and Training Division as well as a Captain in line flight operations. He was the FAA designated Director of Operations for both Continental Micronesia and JetBlue. He was domicile Chief Pilot for Oceanic Contractors, a privately owned airline operating in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. Most recently, Captain Spain served on the Board of Directors of Pinnacle Airlines, Inc. He has recently served the US Federal Government's Joint Planning and Development Office (JPDO) as an Independent Assessment Team member. He also was a member of the National Academies of Science, National Research Committee on Research and Development for Wake Turbulence and NAOMS review committee. He recently served on the FAA Safety Team (FAAST) as a Safety Representative. He is currently involved with Civil Air Patrol at the Wing and National levels, is working with Unmanned Aircraft System development, and is also a member of the Association of Unmanned Vehicles International. Mr. Spain holds a Bachelor of Science degree from Louisiana Tech University and a Master of Business Administration from Concordia University (Montreal, Canada). He is a Senior Member of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, has served as a member of the Industry Advisory Board of MIT's Global Aviation Industry Program, and was a member of the Aviation Department Advisory Committee of the State University of New York at Farmingdale. Captain Spain served on the board of The Low Country Economic Development Alliance and the Beaufort County Airports Board. He previously served on the Aviation Management Advisory Board of Auburn University and is a member of the National Association of Corporate Directors. Captain Spain flew as a combat pilot in Vietnam (Forward Air Controller) and among his awards are the Bronze Star, Purple Heart, and Air Medal for Valor. His last military assignment was as Chief, Flight Evaluation Branch, USAAVNS.

When you leverage your heritage in your marketing strategy, you create new opportunities to cultivate meaningful connections with your consumers. Melissa sits down with Yvonne “Bonnie” Garcia, Founder and CEO of MarketVision to talk about her groundbreaking career in Hispanic marketing.About Yvonne:Yvonne “Bonnie” Garcia founded MarketVision in 1998 after 22 years in corporate marketing because she saw a void in shopper, promotional, and grassroots marketing that would engage multicultural consumers. Since then, she has expanded the business from “three Latinas and a telephone” into a multi-million-dollar Culture. Inspired. Marketing® firm that uncovers cultural insights through research to make meaningful connections with clients' brands or services. MarketVision has 25 employees at its San Antonio headquarters and satellite offices in New York and Mexico. The firm has created culture-based marketing initiatives for such clients as Coca-Cola, Centers for Disease Control, ConAgra Foods, Continental Airlines, Copa Airlines, FCA Chrysler, Fisher-Price, General Mills, Girl Scouts of America, HEB, Hershey's, J.M. Smucker Company, Kraft Foods, MassMutual, Mazola (ACH Foods), MillerCoors, Mondelez International, Northwestern Mutual, TIAA, University Health System, USAA, U.S. Bank, United Airlines and GO RIO. Topics covered: - Understanding the power of Hispanic marketing- Opportunities for growth and areas of improvement in the cultural marketing shift- Gaining the respect of the Hispanic community- The growing Hispanic market- What inspired Bonnie's "Dale Ganas" book- Advice for LatinasActions to take:- Leverage your background- Go where the numbers are- Respect and acknowledge your heritage- Understand what people care about- Be fearlessResources mentioned: - MarketVision- Coca-Cola- The U.S. Census- Selena Coca-Cola ad- "Technology and Spanish Translations" PRSA article- Selena Coca-Cola TV spots- "Dale Ganas"- "Smart Talk: Public Relations Essential All Pros Should Know"- MVW Communications- PR Pro Gear

Welcome to the Instant Trivia podcast episode 570, where we ask the best trivia on the Internet. Round 1. Category: "Sick" 1: It's junior's longing for mommy and daddy his 1st time away at summer camp. homesick. 2: Beanie's friend Cecil was this type of sea serpent. seasick. 3: Tool a loyal communist would use to cut wheat. sickle. 4: Thoroughly fatigued and bored, or a Fats Domino hit of 1958. "Sick And Tired". 5: Compartment in ship used as dispensary and hospital. sick bay. Round 2. Category: "Cut" Once 1: Dining utensils. Cutlery. 2: Someone known for telling jokes or playing pranks. Cut-Up. 3: A flat, boneless piece of veal, for example. Cutlet. 4: A murderer, or an aggressively dangerous person. Cutthroat. 5: A small, lightly armed patrol boat. Cutter. Round 3. Category: That's So "Continental" 1: It met for the first time in at Carpenter's Hall in Philadelphia on September 5, 1774. Continental Congress. 2: Its main hub cities are Newark, Cleveland and Houston. Continental Airlines. 3: Abbreviated CBA, it includes teams called the Yakima Sun Kings and the Gary Steelheads. the Continental Basketball Association. 4: The theory of the slow tectonic movement of plates across the Earth. continental drift. 5: To cartographers, it's known as CONUS. the Continental United States. Round 4. Category: Military Wives 1: Her married life began in military housing in San Antonio in 1916; 37 years and 22 moves brought her to the White House. Mamie Eisenhower. 2: This widow of a slain Israeli general and prime minister now speaks out on the need for Middle East peace. Leah Rabin. 3: In 1998 activist Doris Mozley testified on pensions before the House committee on these "Affairs". Veterans Affairs. 4: A few weeks before their 1864 wedding, his fiancee Elizabeth called him her "old fellow with the golden curls". (George Armstrong) Custer. 5: That's the former Beatrice Ayer, gazing up at this husband of hers. General George Patton. Round 5. Category: Grimm Fairy Tales 1: His fee the first time was a necklace, the second, a ring, the third, the firstborn child. Rumpelstiltskin. 2: In the story "The Wolf and the Seven Little Kids" the kids were these animals. goats. 3: She pushed the witch who lived in the edible abode into the oven. Gretel. 4: Her punishment for letting a prince into the tower was a haircut and a one-way ticket to the desert. Rapunzel. 5: When the king's daughter dropped her golden ball down the well, this animal retrieved it. the frog. Thanks for listening! Come back tomorrow for more exciting trivia! Special thanks to https://blog.feedspot.com/trivia_podcasts/

Shortly after takeoff on March 1, 1978, the flight crew of Continental Airlines Flight 603 hears a loud boom and knows instantly what that sound means: it is no longer safe to takeoff, and instead, the takeoff will be rejected. But now, the plane won't stop. Join Shelly for this incredible episode of Take to the Sky: The Air Disaster Podcast as we walk through the events that unfolded on the runway and how the investigation uncovered flaws in the design of many aircraft components meant to keep passengers safe. Don't miss a single legacy: join our Patreon for exclusive air disaster stories, layover episodes, and surprises!   Visit our website at taketotheskypodcast.com for show notes and our merch store!

Ripple - XRP Buyback 10k - 35k per - Hinman's Speech and ETHGate - Where do we go from here? ________________ ABOUT JIMMY VALLEE James E. Vallee (“Jimmy”) – Founding Partner and Managing Director – Valhil Capital, Co-Founder, and Chairman – Deltawave Energy and Publisher – Astrolight Media. Prior to founding Valhil Capital, Vallee enjoyed more than two decades as a Partner in three global AmLaw 100 law firms, advising public and private companies, master limited partnerships (MLPs), investment banking firms, sovereign wealth, and private equity funds in more than US$100 billion of worldwide M&A transactions and securities offerings, including OGE Energy Corp. in its $11 billion midstream merger with CenterPoint Energy, Continental Airlines in its $8.5 billion all-stock, public-to-public merger of equals with United Airlines, and Micron Technologies $5.2 billion NAND Flash joint venture with Intel. Mr. Vallee holds a Bachelor of Sciences (summa cum laude) from Lamar University, a Juris Doctorate (cum laude) – Texas Tech University School of Law, and an Associate – Audio Engineering – Full Sail Center for the Recording Arts. Mr. Vallee is the former Chairman – of St. Francis Episcopal School (Houston), and Board Treasurer – Academy of Finance, SBISD (Houston) and presently serves on the board of directors of several Valhil portfolios companies, including Navexwan Global Commodities, Astrolight Media, and Deltawave Energy. Vahil Capital https://valhilcapital.com ________________ Chapters coming soon Compiled by Hans Loaded https://twitter.com/hansloaded ________________ SUPPORT ON THE CHAIN JOIN THE CHANNEL https://otc.one/join OTC MERCH https://onthechain.shop BUY US A COFFEE https://otc.one/buy-us-a-coffee Support ON THE CHAIN (Our version of Patreon) https://otc.one/support -------------- ON THE CHAIN SUBSCRIBE TO THE OTC PODCAST: https://otc.one/podcast Subscribe to our other Youtube Channel: https://otc.one/onthechain On The Web: https://onthechain.io Follow OTC on Twitter: https://otc.one/otc Join our FREE Telegram Roundtable channel: https://t.me/onthechain_roundtable -------------- JEFF Follow Jeff on Twitter: https://otc.one/jeff -------------- CHIP Follow Chip on Twitter: https://otc.one/chip Listen to Chip's music http://nojoyyet.com​ -------------- DISCLAIMER: All opinions expressed by content contributors that appear on OTC are solely expressing their opinions and do not reflect the opinions of OTC, its affiliates, or sponsors. Content contributors may have previously disseminated information on a social media platform, website, or another medium such as a podcast, television, or radio. OTC, Content Contributors, Affiliates, or Sponsors are not obligated to update or correct any information. The content contributors are sharing the information which they believe to be reliable. OTC, its affiliates, or sponsors cannot guarantee the accuracy of the opinion shared, and viewers, readers, and listeners should not rely on it. Opinions expressed are not financial advice. Please consult a licensed financial advisor before making any financial decisions. You must research before you invest in anything. Do not invest based on what someone else is doing or not doing, or based on other people's opinions. #XRP #Ripple

Imagine being connected to an infinite source of loving energy and feeling whole, happy and content. Imagine experiencing life as a source of limitless creative possibility. Susyn Reeve contends that all of us have a wellspring of limitless creativity and drive within to achieve that sense of fulfillment. In THE INSPIRED LIFE: Unleashing your Mind's Capacity for Joy, publishing in November by Viva Editions, Reeve, with Joan Breiner, offers proven tools to access your inspiration, no matter how deeply buried. Directed to those of us who need a push to open our minds and hearts to the vast creative potential and possibility alive in each moment, THE INSPIRED LIFE urges readers to wake up from the trance of life on automatic and appreciate what they do have. The book reframes breakdowns as stepping-stones to breakthroughs, with inspiring stories and quotes, practices and exercises to access the power of your mind to live a life truly guided by your gifts, talents, skills and abilities. Educator and coach Joan Breiner provides the science behind how the brain works with a spiritual focus, and how to create new brain pathways that allow for habits of thought to support the life you desire. Every chapter ends with an "Inspired Life Action," a simple exercise that reinforces the concepts discussed. An example of one of the "Inspired Life Actions" is Accepting What Is:Practice accepting "what is." When you are talking about the situations in your life-whether they appear to be fortunes or misfortunes-simply describe them as "what is" without attributing blame or "good" or "bad" meaning to them. Notice of your tendency is to automatically focus on drama and what your experience is when you stick to the facts. As meaning making machines, humans have a tendency to automatically tell stories that reflect our beliefs about ourselves, our relationships and our lives. Notice what beliefs are being expressed through your stories.Living an inspired life is an inside job that begins with making a choice, with saying, "Yes, I choose an inspired life." THE INSPIRED LIFE: Unleashing your Mind's Capacity for Joy will show you how. Susyn Reeve is the co-founder of Self-Esteem-Experts.com and the award-winning author of CHOOSE PEACE & HAPPINESS. She has 35 years of experience as a coach, corporate consultant, and InterFaith Minister. Her clients have included American Express, New York University, Exxon, Continental Airlines, The Metropolitan Museum and Young Presidents Organization.******************************************************************To listen to all our XZBN shows, with our compliments go to: https://www.spreaker.com/user/xzoneradiotv*** AND NOW ***The ‘X' Zone TV Channel on SimulTV - www.simultv.comThe ‘X' Chronicles Newspaper - www.xchroniclesnewpaper.com

Imagine being connected to an infinite source of loving energy and feeling whole, happy and content. Imagine experiencing life as a source of limitless creative possibility. Susyn Reeve contends that all of us have a wellspring of limitless creativity and drive within to achieve that sense of fulfillment. In THE INSPIRED LIFE: Unleashing your Mind's Capacity for Joy, publishing in November by Viva Editions, Reeve, with Joan Breiner, offers proven tools to access your inspiration, no matter how deeply buried. Directed to those of us who need a push to open our minds and hearts to the vast creative potential and possibility alive in each moment, THE INSPIRED LIFE urges readers to wake up from the trance of life on automatic and appreciate what they do have. The book reframes breakdowns as stepping-stones to breakthroughs, with inspiring stories and quotes, practices and exercises to access the power of your mind to live a life truly guided by your gifts, talents, skills and abilities. Educator and coach Joan Breiner provides the science behind how the brain works with a spiritual focus, and how to create new brain pathways that allow for habits of thought to support the life you desire. Every chapter ends with an "Inspired Life Action," a simple exercise that reinforces the concepts discussed. An example of one of the "Inspired Life Actions" is Accepting What Is:Practice accepting "what is." When you are talking about the situations in your life-whether they appear to be fortunes or misfortunes-simply describe them as "what is" without attributing blame or "good" or "bad" meaning to them. Notice of your tendency is to automatically focus on drama and what your experience is when you stick to the facts. As meaning making machines, humans have a tendency to automatically tell stories that reflect our beliefs about ourselves, our relationships and our lives. Notice what beliefs are being expressed through your stories.Living an inspired life is an inside job that begins with making a choice, with saying, "Yes, I choose an inspired life." THE INSPIRED LIFE: Unleashing your Mind's Capacity for Joy will show you how. Susyn Reeve is the co-founder of Self-Esteem-Experts.com and the award-winning author of CHOOSE PEACE & HAPPINESS. She has 35 years of experience as a coach, corporate consultant, and InterFaith Minister. Her clients have included American Express, New York University, Exxon, Continental Airlines, The Metropolitan Museum and Young Presidents Organization.******************************************************************To listen to all our XZBN shows, with our compliments go to: https://www.spreaker.com/user/xzoneradiotv*** AND NOW ***The ‘X' Zone TV Channel on SimulTV - www.simultv.comThe ‘X' Chronicles Newspaper - www.xchroniclesnewpaper.com

It's 09/03/98! Really just music from Matthew Sweet, Super Furry Animals, Hole — maybe an ad for SeVan II ®. Oh, and Él Farto calls in from the Airfone on his Continental Airlines flight. Definitely not a recon mission into a shadowy underworld. And no food-based vandalism. Pretty basic, really. Doesn't end on a note of ominous struggle or anything.

Our guest is Greg Brenneman, one of the most influential CEO's, business leaders and corporate turnaround specialists in America. He is the lead director of the board for The Home Depot, along with CEO of CCMP Capital and past CEO of Continental Airlines and Burger King. He's also the author of Right Away and All at Once, and we discuss how to lead change, being a great board member, the 5 F's to succeeding in life, the keys to turnaround and more. Plus, check out the 5 Things from the Internet list. Make sure to visit http://h3leadership.com to access the list and all the show notes. Thanks again to our partners for this episode: Chemistry Staffing—helping churches of all sizes find the right leaders to add to their team. Get your FREE helpful download designed to help you understand what's going on in the ministry workforce fueled by The Great Resignation at http://chemistrystaffing.com/H3. Plus, sign up for a FREE 30-minute consultation to learn how to attract top talent to your church at http://chemistrystaffing.com/H3. And, Vive Media—unlimited creative services for your Church or non-profit at http://vivemedia.co. Vive is your outsourced creative director all-in-one. Need help with graphic and website design, video editing, content development or social media strategies? Partner with Vive Media. Save $100 off your first month by using the code H3Leader when registering at http://vivemedia.co.

The COVID-19 pandemic had a dramatic impact on the airline industry as travel advisories and bans grounded planes across the globe. As travel opened up, airlines took on new challenges with health and safety concerns. And, today, airlines, like other industries struggle to hire the full workforce needed for success. Jon Roitman, chief operating officer of United Airlines, is in a unique position to discuss all of this as a guest of the VOE Podcast. Roitman is responsible for all airports flight operations, technical operations and network operations. He is also responsible for safety across United's global network. The VOE Podcast is an extension of Voices of Experience, the signature speaker series at the University of Denver's Daniels College of Business. Keep tuning in each month for more business insights from Daniels' alumni voices of experience. Transcript: Kristal Griffith: Hello, and welcome to the VOE Podcast, an extension of Voices of Experience, the signature speaker series at the University of Denver's Daniels College of Business. I'm your host Kristal Griffith from the Daniels office of communications and marketing. We'll be unpacking topics at the intersection of business and the public good with CEOs and other business leaders from the Daniels community. Let's dive in. Joining me today is Jon Roitman, chief operating officer of United Airlines. In this position Jon is responsible for all airports flight operations, technical operations, and network operations. He is also responsible for safety across United's global network. Imagine those responsibilities during a pandemic. Jon has been in the airline industry for 25 years working for United and Continental Airlines. He served in the U.S. Army from 1985 to 1992 and he happens to be a graduate of the Daniels College of Business receiving a masters in real estate and construction management in 1997. What an interesting background. Jon, welcome to the VOE Podcast. Jon Roitman: Thank you, Kristal. I appreciate the invitation. Kristal Griffith: Absolutely. We're honored to have you. So kind of I think the first thing we've got to ask you is how on earth you've gotten to where you are, right? You have such an interesting background. You have a bachelor's degree in engineering from West Point. You have a master's degree from the Daniels College of Business in real estate and construction management. So to me that seems so different than a COO of United Airlines, but I'm guessing you can make some sense of it for us. So how did you get where you are? Jon Roitman: Thanks, Kristal, and thanks for that first question. So first of all yes, I went to West Point and sort of time in the military as well. And when I got out of the military I decided I wanted to be a real estate developer and was fortunate enough to attend the Daniel's College of Business, which I really enjoyed. And at that time this sort of tells you that you never know what's going to happen in life because at that time I was recruited by Continental Airlines, which was based in Houston at the time, to come into their construction and design group to build airports and for a youngster, a young adult back then that sounded really exciting. And I knew there were flight benefits and all those cool things. So I pursued that opportunity after getting my degree at Daniels and started out doing really exciting things and designing construction around the world specifically to building airports. At the time Continental was really growing in Latin America so I spent a ton of time in Latin America and it was a lot of fun. But I only really did that short period of time because of the background I had in the military there were some leaders at Continental at the time that thought maybe I had an operational mindset because I had experience in that. So they drew me into the operation side of the business pretty quickly and 25 years later I've progressed up to operations to the chief operations officer r...

1 December 1993; Northwest Airlink (Express Airlines) BAe Jetstream 31; Hibbing, MN: The aircraft had a controlled flight into terrain about three miles (five km) from the runway threshold during an an excessively steep approach in conditions of snow and freezing fog. Both crew members and all 16 passengers were killed. 3 December 1990; Northwest DC9-14; Detroit, MI: The DC9 was taxiing in fog and strayed onto an active runway where it was hit by a departing Northwest 727. One of the four crew members and seven of the 40 passengers were killed. There were no fatalities on the second aircraft. 13 December 1994; American Eagle (Flagship Airlines) BAe Jetstream Super 31; Morrisville, NC: The aircraft crashed about four miles (seven km) from the runway threshold during an approach at night and in icing conditions. The flight crew incorrectly thought that an engine had failed and subsequently followed improper procedures for single engine approach and landing. Both crew members and 13 of the 18 passengers were killed. 20 December 1995; American Airlines 757-200; near Buga, Colombia: The aircraft crashed into Mt. San Jose at night at about the 9,000 foot level while descending into Cali, Colombia after its flight from Miami. All eight crew and 155 of the 159 passengers were killed in the crash. Colombian civil aviation authorities report that at the time of the accident, all navigational beacons were fully serviceable and that the aircraft voice and data recorders did not indicate any aircraft problems. 20 December 2008; Continental Airlines 737-500; Denver, CO: The aircraft, which was on a scheduled flight to Houston's Intercontinental Airport, departed the runway during takeoff and skidded across a taxiway and a service road before coming to rest in a ravine several hundred yards from the runway. The aircraft sustained significant damage, including a post crash fire, separation of one engine and separated and collapsed landing gear. There were about 38 injuries among the 110 passengers and five crew members, including two passengers who were seriously injured. 26 December 1989; United Express (NPA) BAe Jetstream 31; Pasco, WA: A combination of an excessively steep and unstabilzied ILS approach, improper air traffic control commands, and aircraft icing caused the aircraft to stall and crash short of the runway during a night approach. Both crew members and all four passengers were killed. 28 December 1978; United Airlines DC8; Portland, OR: The aircraft ran out of fuel while holding for landing and crashed landed. Of the 184 occupants, two crew members and eight passengers were killed.

The aircraft involved in the accident was a McDonnell Douglas DC-10-10, registered N68045, which had made its first flight in 1972. The captain was 59-year-old Charles E. Hersche, who was operating his last flight before retirement. He had been with Continental Airlines since 1946 and had logged 29,000 flight hours, including 2,911 hours on the DC-10. Hersche served with the U.S. Air Force from 1942 through 1953 during World War II and Korean War. The first officer was 40-year-old Michael J. Provan, who had been with Continental Airlines since 1966 and had 10,000 flight hours, with 1,149 of them on the DC-10. The flight engineer was 39-year-old John K. Olsen, who had been with the airline since 1968. He was the least experienced member of the crew with 8,000 flight hours, 1,520 of them on the DC-10. The aircraft began its take-off from Los Angeles International Airport at around 9:25 am. During the takeoff roll, the recapping tread of the number-two tire on the left main landing gear separated from the tire and the resulting overload caused that tire to blow out. That, in turn, imposed an overload on the number-one tire on the same axle, resulting in a second blowout almost immediately after the first blowout. Pieces of metal from the rims of the failed tires then damaged the number-five tire on the left main gear, causing it to also blow out. Although Captain Hershe initiated the abort procedure at 4 knots (7.4 km/h; 4.6 mph) below V1 speed, it became apparent the aircraft could not stop within the confines of the runway. This was the direct result of the partial loss of braking power following the failure of the three tires on the left main gear, and also because the runway was wet. The captain steered the aircraft to go off the end of the right half of the runway in an effort "to go beside the stanchions holding the runway lights", thus avoiding a collision with the approach light stanchions, which were positioned immediately beyond the end of the runway.  About 100 feet (30 m) beyond the end of the runway, the left main gear broke through the nonload-bearing pavement, which caused it to collapse rearward. Portions of the failed gear punctured fuel tanks in the left wing, immediately starting a fuel fire on the left side. The aircraft slid to a stop about 664 feet (202 m) beyond the departure end of the runway. Because of the fire on the left side of the aircraft, all passengers evacuated on the right side. All four emergency evacuation slides on the right side of the aircraft were affected by the heat and failed at some point during the evacuation.  Flight 603's flight crew and an off-duty pilot worked quickly to guide passengers to alternate exits as the slides failed, actions later commended by the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) for saving lives and reducing the number of injuries.[1]: 38  Passengers who were still on board after the last slide failed were forced to either jump to the ground, or use a slide rope deployed from the first officer's cockpit window. Of the 186 passengers and 14 crew on board, two passengers died due to burning and smoke inhalation. Moreover, 28 passengers and three crew members were seriously injured during the evacuation. Two of the seriously injured passengers died as a result of their injuries about three months later. A large portion of the aircraft's left section was destroyed. The aircraft subsequently was written off as a hull loss. The accident represents the second fatal accident and fifth hull loss of a McDonnell Douglas DC-10. During its investigation, the NTSB found the number-two tire failed because it threw off its (recapped) tread. The number-one tire then failed because it was overloaded and had fatigue in its ply structure. The number-five tire then failed, because it was hit with a piece or pieces of metal from either the number-two or -one wheel. The failure of that third tire on the left main gear probably contributed to the gear breaking through the nonload-bearing pavement beyond the end of the runway, which in turn caused the gear to collapse and puncture the fuel tanks. Additionally, the NTSB stated: "The tires on the aircraft may have been operated in the overdeflected condition, since the average inflation pressure was less than the optimum pressure for maximum gross weight." The NTSB made recommendations to the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), including that the FAA prohibit mounting on the same axle different models of tires, which had different load-bearing characteristics and also that greater load-bearing characteristics be required in tires manufactured in the future. The NTSB also issued a series of recommendations regarding improvements to aircraft evacuation safety, including development of more durable and fire-resistant slides, and the placement of evacuation ropes at emergency exits for use in the event of slide failure. After the investigation of this accident was completed, the FAA made a number of rule changes improving runway performance, including updated tire rating criteria, performance standards, and testing requirements. In addition, the FAA mandated changes to the design of evacuation slides to increase their capacity, improve fire resistance, and inflate at a quicker speed.

In this episode of Chicks Who Fly, I get to have a conversation with Memphis-based retired FedEx Captain, Patricia Kessler. Patricia was first exposed to aviation when she married a man who had always wanted to take flying lessons and she sat in the back seat during a lesson. That sparked her love for flying. Patricia soon got a job w the Dept of Defense, joined the Army Reserves and applied to a reserve squadron at McGuire Air Force base and joined a military flying club near Philadelphia where she began her pilot training. After her time in the military, Patricia flew for People Express Airlines, and when they were bought out by Continental Airlines, she moved on to Fed Ex, where she would become a Captain and stay for 25 years. This lady has flown all over the world and we get to talk old-school flying stories, challenging approaches, challenging aircraft, favorite places she's seen in the world, cool airports, flying unusual cargo, insane airline policies that they could never get away with in this day and age, how she landed the job at FedEx and so so many great, fun, surprising and entertaining stories of flying and life. Don't miss this interview with this awesome lady! --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/inaia/support

Nous sommes le 25 juillet 2000... Michèle Fricheteau, 47 ans, propriétaire de l'hôtel Hotelissimo à Gonesse s'active. Dans quelques minutes, c'est tout un bus de jeunes choristes britanniques qui va arriver. Il est 16.42. Dans le même temps et à quelques kilomètres de là, le Concorde AF4590 décolle de la piste 26 de l'aéroport Paris-Charles de Gaulle. Direction New York pour les 100 passagers et 9 membres d'équipage. Dans la cabine de pilotage de cet avion mythique, le commandant de bord et son co-pilote ont senti un choc : une lamelle en titane, perdue peu avant sur la piste par un DC-10 de la compagnie Continental Airlines, vient de faire exploser une roue. Ecoutez Jour J avec Flavie Flament du 21 octobre 2021

In this experience, Vinod shares his story of his flight back from Tokyo to Vancouver after the Summer Olympics. As mentioned in previous experiences, Vinod acquires a lot of stuff when returning from the Olympics. He had a lot more luggage than when he left for Tokyo. He arrived at Narita, having to make his way back across the terminal. The first half of the terminal was empty – but then there was a mass of athletes from the US and Canada – at holiday volumes. There was a lot of studying the queues, where to go and wondering if he was in the correct queue. An interesting thing happened on the luggage scale – did Vinod's bag lose weight? The duty free shops were ram-packed full of athletes, trying to buy something to take home – since they had been restricted to the athlete accommodations. All of these bodies had to empty somewhere and since the flights were all boarding in the same area – it got hectic and busy really fast. The crowds were too large to hear the announcements over the public address system. Finally, after Vinod's plane arrived, delay information was placed on a visual display. Meanwhile, Vinod had Japanese Yen coins to spend – where better than at one of many vending machines. And why not ice cream? Vinod returned to the hold area – flights were ready to start boarding, so Vinod got to the front of the queue. What's this United Boeing 737 doing at Narita? Vinod asked Geoff to do some digging into why that plane was there – and discovered a Micronesian legacy from Continental Airlines. Vinod was on one of Air Canada's original 787s, and the meal service got processed very quickly. Compared to his flight to Tokyo, mixed drinks were available on this flight. Looking from his premium economy seat through the curtain, Vinod could see that the business class experience was elevated from when he had flown to Tokyo. Vinod arrived at Vancouver and given his unique status as a non-athlete at the Olympics it caused some confusion about testing. This process has improved and is now quite efficient. Vinod shares a tip about what you need to do if you don't want your bag to auto-connect. Vinod appreciated the distancing in Canada and was thankful he didn't need to spit in a tube after waiting six hours. News Items: simpleflying.com article "Miami Becomes First US Airport To Test COVID-19 Detector Dogs." breakingtravelnews.com article "Amadeus trials auto bag drops at Heathrow airport" simpleflying.com article "GOL Made To Pay For Female Employees' Cosmetics." If you have a story about overseas travel during COVID-19, COVID testing on arrival, or other experiences that you would like to share, please email us at stories(at)seat1a.org or find us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. If you wish to support the show financially, we are on Patreon. Show notes are available online at http://podcast.seat1a.org/

A heavy crosswind pushes an aircraft off the runway during takeoff. Continental Airlines Flight 1404 is getting ready for takeoff when they notice a strong crosswind. The winds are below the maxium speed allowed, but as they begin takeoff, the wind becomes too powerful and the aircraft rolls off the runway. How powerful were these winds and why couldn't the pilots fight it? Find out on this episode of Black Box Down.  Sponsored by HelloFresh (http://hellofresh.com/blackboxdown14 and use code blackboxdown14) Gabi (http://gabi.com/blackboxdown) and The Jordan Harbinger Show (http://jordanharbinger.com/start)  Take Our Survey!: https://bit.ly/blackboxdownsurvey Find us on social media and buy our merch here! https://linktr.ee/BlackBoxDownPod Black Box Down Crash Simulator: https://roosterteeth.com/watch/black-box-down-1 Tales From The Stinky Dragon: https://link.chtbl.com/stinkydragon

Imagine being connected to an infinite source of loving energy and feeling whole, happy and content. Imagine experiencing life as a source of limitless creative possibility. Susyn Reeve contends that all of us have a wellspring of limitless creativity and drive within to achieve that sense of fulfillment. In THE INSPIRED LIFE: Unleashing your Mind's Capacity for Joy, publishing in November by Viva Editions, Reeve, with Joan Breiner, offers proven tools to access your inspiration, no matter how deeply buried. Directed to those of us who need a push to open our minds and hearts to the vast creative potential and possibility alive in each moment, THE INSPIRED LIFE urges readers to wake up from the trance of life on automatic and appreciate what they do have. The book reframes breakdowns as stepping-stones to breakthroughs, with inspiring stories and quotes, practices and exercises to access the power of your mind to live a life truly guided by your gifts, talents, skills and abilities. Educator and coach Joan Breiner provides the science behind how the brain works with a spiritual focus, and how to create new brain pathways that allow for habits of thought to support the life you desire. Every chapter ends with an "Inspired Life Action," a simple exercise that reinforces the concepts discussed. An example of one of the "Inspired Life Actions" is Accepting What Is:Practice accepting "what is." When you are talking about the situations in your life-whether they appear to be fortunes or misfortunes-simply describe them as "what is" without attributing blame or "good" or "bad" meaning to them. Notice of your tendency is to automatically focus on drama and what your experience is when you stick to the facts. As meaning making machines, humans have a tendency to automatically tell stories that reflect our beliefs about ourselves, our relationships and our lives. Notice what beliefs are being expressed through your stories.Living an inspired life is an inside job that begins with making a choice, with saying, "Yes, I choose an inspired life." THE INSPIRED LIFE: Unleashing your Mind's Capacity for Joy will show you how. Susyn Reeve is the co-founder of Self-Esteem-Experts.com and the award-winning author of CHOOSE PEACE & HAPPINESS. She has 35 years of experience as a coach, corporate consultant, and InterFaith Minister. Her clients have included American Express, New York University, Exxon, Continental Airlines, The Metropolitan Museum and Young Presidents Organization.******************************************************************To listen to all our XZBN shows, with our compliments go to: https://www.spreaker.com/user/xzoneradiotv*** AND NOW ***The ‘X' Zone TV Channel on SimulTV - www.simultv.comThe ‘X' Chronicles Newspaper - www.xchroniclesnewpaper.com

Fun fact: 1 out of 3 wedding dresses in the US are sold by David's Bridal, making the company the market leader for wedding attire. This week on the podcast, we're chatting with Kelly Cook, the EVP of Chief Marketing and IT Officer at David's Bridal. Before joining David's Bridal in 2019, Kelly held leadership roles at Pier 1 Imports, DSW, Kmart, Continental Airlines and more.In this conversation, Kelly and Jim talk about the bridal company's simple yet powerful mission statement: "Existing For Magical Moments." Plus, Kelly discusses how that ethos was put to the test last year during the COVID-19 pandemic—and how David's Bridal is constantly evolving to make sure they serve "her" (the customer) and centering all of their efforts towards that goal. Support our sponsor Deloitte and experience their guidance on resilience for brands in navigating the COVID-19 pandemic. Learn more at Deloitte.comSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

How a quest to put sound in a couple of games in the mid-1980s led to a revolution in computer game audio design and production. *** These are, in a sense, the sounds of a revolution in video game history, the sounds of a change so profound that it opened the door to entirely new genres. They're digitised audio samples, a recorded analogue waveform converted into a digital signal — and then back into analogue audio through your headphones, in this case, via a couple of Macintosh games from 1985 and 86.  We take this capability for granted nowadays, as we use our voice calling apps and record videos with our smartphones. But you only have to roll back the clock 35 years to get to a time when this sort of technology was beyond the reach of the masses — when digital audio was something only used by specialist researchers and archivists and cutting-edge or experimental sound engineers. And when the thought of using it on an off-the-shelf personal computer was almost unheard of.  But then the Apple Macintosh came out in January 1984. And Apple's so-called "computer for the rest of us" had a secret capability that would unlock this door to digital audio for the masses.  Featuring interviews with tech entrepreneur Charlie Jackson (Silicon Beach Software founder and Airborne designer) as well as former Silicon Beach Software VP of R&D Eric Zocher (who later worked as an executive at the likes of Adobe and Microsoft). Adapted from a chapter on Silicon Beach Software in my book http://secrethistoryofmacgaming.com/ (The Secret History of Mac Gaming). You can find more of Dick Noel's music https://www.discogs.com/artist/821726-Dick-Noel (via Discogs) and https://archive.org/search.php?query=%22dick%20noel%22 (the Internet Archive). And about his life in https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/dick-noel-dead-singer-known-as-king-jingles-dies-at-90-1052144 (a brief obituary at The Hollywood Reporter). A partial transcript of this episode is available at https://lifeandtimes.games/episodes/files/20 (https://lifeandtimes.games/episodes/files/20), along with all of the show notes and past episodes. Music and Sound Effects credits: A Dreamer's Holiday by Dick Noel with Ray Anthony and His Orchestra https://www.freesoundeffects.com/free-track/explosion-3-466448/ (Explosion) https://www.zapsplat.com/music/barpub-small-ambience-busy-with-people-talking-and-laughing-1/ (Crowd noise) Continental Airlines ad from 1969 Game audio clips taken from: Airborne (Mac, 1985) Dark Castle (Mac, 1986) The Three Stooges in Brides is Brides (arcade, 1984) Galaga (arcade, 1981) Donkey Kong (arcade, 1980) Ground Zero (Mac, 1984) Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis (DOS, 1992) Dragon's Lair (arcade, 1983) PowerMonger (Amiga, 1990) Phrase Craze Plus (Mac, 1986) Spaceship Warlock (Mac, 1991) Spike (Vectrex, 1982) Sinistar (arcade, 1983) Shufflepuck Café (Mac, 1988) Elite (BBC Micro, 1984) Alley Cat (Atari 8-bit, 1983) Choplifter (Apple II, 1982) Ant Attack (ZX Spectrum, 1983) King's Quest (PCjr, 1984) The Black Cauldron (DOS, 1986) Manic Miner (ZX Spectrum, 1983) The Manhole (Mac, 1988) At the Carnival (Mac, 1989) Air Ace 2 (Amiga, 1989) Uncharted 2 (PS3, 2009) Mercenaries 2 (PS3/Xbox 360, 2008) Everything else is my own work Thanks as always to my supporters on Patreon — especially my $10+ backers Vivek Mohan, Simon Moss, Wade Tregaskis, and Seth Robinson. You guys keep me going, and we never would have gotten close to this point without your help and encouragement. If you'd like to become a supporter, for as little as $1 a month, head to https://www.patreon.com/lifeandtimesofvideogames (my Patreon page) and sign up. Support The Life & Times of Video Games PayPal donations (any amount) — https://paypal.me/mossrc (paypal.me/mossrc) Patreon subscription (minimum $1 a month) — https://www.patreon.com/lifeandtimesofvideogames...

Colgan Air Flight 3407, marketed as Continental Connection under a codeshare agreement with Continental Airlines, was a scheduled passenger flight from Newark, New Jersey, to Buffalo, New York, which crashed on Thursday, February 12, 2009. The aircraft, a Bombardier Dash-8 Q400, entered an aerodynamic stall from which it did not recover and crashed into a house in Clarence Center, New York at 10:17 P.M. EST (03:17 UTC), killing all 49 passengers and crew on board, as well as one person inside the house. This episode of The Cornfield Meet: Transportation Disasters is brought to you by Em Jae and Mel Bee! Contact us here: Web Page: http://cornfieldmeet.show Email: thecornfieldmeet@gmail.com Follow us here: Soundcloud: http://soundcloud.com/thecornfieldmeet Facebook: http://facebook.com/thecornfieldmeet Twitter: @CornfieldMeet Instagram: thecornfieldmeet Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/thecornfieldmeet Platforms: Rate. Review. Subscribe. You can find us on iTunes, Overcast, Soundcloud, Stitcher, Pocket Cast, Spotify, iHeartRadio, Podcast Addict, Google Play, TuneIn, Castbox and Podkicker. Theme Music: Created by: Michele Sargent Theme music pulled from: https://youtu.be/-xwQdteqao0 Artist: Unknown

Oscar Munoz became CEO of United Airlines in 2015 — and almost immediately suffered a heart attack. He recovered to oversee the airline's labor negotiations, continue the work of merging United's corporate culture with that of Continental Airlines, and guide the company through a period of bad publicity. During a visit to Stanford Graduate School of Business, he discussed issues ranging from gun control to the airline's carbon footprint — and why it's so important to learn to listen. Stanford GSB's View From The Top is the dean's premier speaker series. It launched in 1978 and is supported in part by the F. Kirk Brennan Speaker Series Fund. During student-led interviews and before a live audience, leaders from around the world share insights on effective leadership, their personal core values, and lessons learned throughout their career. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.