Podcasts about first orion

Host(s): Abram Nanney, Shane Chism, and Sabir Abdul-Haqq (www.yourebs.biz)Guest(s): Josh Whitehurst of First OrionTopic: So, we've all done it before: your phone goes off, you pick it up, see a number you don't recognize, and mute the call to go back to whatever you were doing. After all, these unfamiliar numbers are probably all just scams and spam anyways. Today, we're joined by Josh Whitehurst from First Orion to discuss the headache these spoofers can cause consumers and businesses and what can be done to remedy the problem.Email your tech questions and opinions to: everydaytech@mpbonline.org Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Listen to an all-new NWABJ Report with host Roby Brock featuring an interview with Heartland Forward CEO ross DeVol and First Orion Chairman Charles Morgan.

First Orion branded calling with logos for enterprises, Podcast “If you're a brand, if you're a business and you're making phone calls, you can now brand your phone calls, not just with your name, but also now with your logo,” says Jeff Stalnaker, Co-Founder of First Orion. First Orion, Transaction Network Services (TNS), and TransUnion (NYSE: TRU) announced at Mobile World Congress, in October,  the availability of branded calling with logos across the top three U.S. wireless carriers. The partnership ensures branded calls with rich content are verified with end-to-end authentication, providing a secure method to help prevent call spoofing. With the addition of logo delivery to the portfolio of rich content, the partnership expects a continued increase in secure branded calling adoption before the end of 2024. In a joint statement at Mobile World Congress, the companies said, “Despite the many digital communication channels available, the phone call is the preferred channel for addressing personal, complex, and high-value business situations. Companies must consider leveraging the benefits of authenticated branded calling to build long-term brand affinity and improve engagement. This becomes even more vital to financial service firms that have experienced a dramatic uptick in fraudulent activity, which can negatively impact their brand and customers.” We've got to focus on restoring the trust. “Scammers and spoofers and all of the fraudulent activity in the voice channel have all made us scared. We're worried. And so businesses have lost interest in making phone calls. We've got 90 percent of the people of these phone calls go unanswered. We've got to focus on restoring the trust. And First Orion does that really with two primary offers. The first one is we work with the mobile operators and we're looking at all the calls and all the traffic trying to find the perpetrators, the bad guys. And we'll put something on your phone that says scam likely or some other advice of risk. And we don't want you to answer those. Don't answer those if you get them. And so that's stopping the bad guys. But along this journey of 16 years, we figured out that the better we get at stopping the bad guys, the more we realize we could do for the good guys. The more you know about legitimate businesses making legitimate phone calls, it helps you stop illegitimate phone calls. And so we launched this thing called Branded Calling a couple of years ago, and it absolutely makes a difference for businesses and certainly us as consumers when we know who's calling.” Visit www.firstorion.com  

Industry-leading partnership to deliver five billion authenticated, branded calls across the top three U.S. wireless carriers in 2024 Just after this month's MWC, we sat down with James Garvert, who's the Senior Vice President and General Manager of the Communication Solutions Team at TransUnion. We learn about their show announcement regarding branded calling. Earlier this month, First Orion, Transaction Network Services (TNS), and TransUnion (NYSE: TRU) announced the availability of branded calling with logos across the top three U.S. wireless carriers. The partnership ensures branded calls with rich content are verified with end-to-end authentication, providing a secure method to help prevent call spoofing. With the addition of logo delivery to the portfolio of rich content, the partnership expects a continued increase in secure branded calling adoption before the end of 2024. In a joint statement at Mobile World Congress, the companies said, “Despite the many digital communication channels available, the phone call is the preferred channel for addressing personal, complex, and high-value business situations. Companies must consider leveraging the benefits of authenticated branded calling to build long-term brand affinity and improve engagement. This becomes even more vital to financial service firms that have experienced a dramatic uptick in fraudulent activity, which can negatively impact their brand and customers.”

The Viral CEOJoseph Stinziano, President and CEO of First Orion, recounts the daunting moment in his career that transformed a crisis into a monumental success for both him and his organization.It involves Mark Cuban, legendary filmmaker Michael Bay, and a disastrous viral video. However, what emerged from this chaos was extraordinary.This demonstrates that even in the face of catastrophe, there can be a silver lining. It takes a visionary leader like Joe to step up, take charge, and seize the greater opportunity.Joe's had an incredible career including senior leadership roles with Samsung Electronics American, D&M Holdings, Sony Electronics, and AT&T.---Joe's organization, First Orion, provides "branded phone calls". Now this may not see that interesting at first glance, BUT consider 87% of people don't answer calls from unknown numbers. Branded calling can place your brand name on every outbound call. You get full control of your outbound call displays, no matter your business size.So their company's real focus is restoring trust between you and your customers by delivering customized call displays and eliminating unknown numbers. There getting significant business results by generating more revenue, boosting efficiency, and improving customer loyalty---Connect with Joe on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/joestinziano/Learn more about First Orion: https://firstorion.com/ ---You'll also discover:Optimizing Team Performance with “Desirability vs. Capability”How to Boost the Effectiveness of a Phone Call.Why a Phone Can Become a "Billboard".The Mantra He Leads By.What His First Job Taught Him about Leadership.Powerful New Tech Coming Soon.-----Connect with the Host, #1 bestselling author Ben FanningSpeaking and Training inquiresSubscribe to my Youtube channelLinkedInInstagramTwitter

Unlock the secrets to a thriving sales ecosystem where direct and channel sales don't just coexist, but amplify each other's success. Mike Coleman, the channel chief at First Orion, joins us to share his insights into how a robust partner ecosystem can catapult your market reach to new heights. If you've ever wondered how to foster a harmonious and effective division of labor between direct and channel sales, this conversation with Mike will illuminate the path. We also take a deep dive into First Orion's innovative branded calling technology that's setting the telecom world abuzz, enhancing call center connections and creating a win-win for agents and customers alike.As we peel back the layers of channel sales strategy, we confront the myths head-on, dispelling the fog around costs and average selling prices. The episode is a masterclass in the scalability of channel models, detailing the timing, balance, and strategic implementation that can redefine your approach to revenue growth. Mike, with his channel expertise, not only demonstrates how First Orion tripled its success through partnerships but also provides a blueprint for when and how to weave a channel strategy into your business fabric. For anyone interested in leveraging partnerships for sales acceleration, or simply curious about branded calling's impact on call center dynamics, this episode packs strategic gems you won't want to miss.Mike's LinkedIn ProfileFirst Orion websiteSupport the showThank you for tuning in to Channel Voices! If you appreciate this resource please consider supporting us. Thank you!To stay up to date follow us on LinkedIn and Twitter.You can of course contact us on our social channels or by visiting our website: www.ChannelVoices.comSubscribe to Channel Voices Scope, a monthly LinkedIn newsletter where we provide you with additional information accompanying the podcast. We hope you find this newsletter informative and useful for your career and organisation.We would also like to invite you to join our growing Channel Ecosystems Community on Twitter, a community of channel professionals exchanging ideas, sharing insights and learning from each other. Let's grow together!Until next time

Today on Up In Your Business with Kerry McCoy we're looking back on my interview with Charles Morgan, the founder, chairman and CEO, from 1972 – 2008, of Acxiom, the pioneering and leading data base company headquartered in Central Arkansas. An extraordinary entrepreneur and visionary, he is also really fun, outspoken, and a racecar driver. While many of his colleagues have retired, he is going strong with his newest company, First Orion, a consumer protection app for phone privacy. If you have a T-Mobil device, than you are using his technology. These days, Charles serves on the board of INUVO, a publicly traded, technology company for internet advertisers, and more recently released his second book Now What which follows his tell-all-book, Matters of Life and Data. Listen to find out how this IBM engineer turned his company from a 25 employee start-up to a publicly-traded, billion-dollar tech giant in just 30 years, and managed to become an author, race car driver and so much more along the way.

Organizations invest millions on developing a brand and a brand experience, and yet can end up disappointing consumers on something as simple as offering branding on their calls. With caller-ID spoofing and other scams on the rise, 86% of consumers agree that businesses should take measures to ensure their calls are properly labeled. This signals a huge demand and growth opportunities for the telecoms sector. In this podcast, Mike Otting, SVP of Platform and Wholesale at First Orion, we learn about how there's a mismatch between consumers who are expecting to easily identify calls from the brands they trust, and do business with, and the gap of too many of those same companies failing to brand their calls. With a sea of robocalls to deal with, that can take aways from all the other efforts to deliver great CX. First Orion is a global telecommunications solutions provider that is transforming the phone call experience for businesses, carriers and consumers through its industry-leading branded communication and protection solutions. Mike discusses this easily applied solution for enteprises and solid channel opportunity. Visit www.firstorion.com

“You're going to be met with resistance,” says Mike Otting, SVP of Platform and Wholesale at First Orion. With caller-ID spoofing and other scams on the rise, 86% of consumers agree that businesses should take measures to ensure their calls are properly labeled. This signals a huge demand and growth opportunities for the telecoms sector. In this second of a two-part series, First Orion's Mike Otting discusses how branded calling impacts consumers, and in turn, impacts agents. Agents working calls that are going out unbranded, are first encountering emotional barriers that consumers are placing around themselves. People will be guarded on a call where the origin of the call is not known. We learn how that can be improved with branded calling. First Orion is a global telecommunications solutions provider that is transforming the phone call experience for businesses, carriers and consumers through its industry-leading branded communication and protection solutions.  Visit www.firstorion.com

“Nearly nobody will answer a call from an “unknown caller”,” says Michael Coleman SVP, Enterprise Sales and Channel Chief, First Orion. Abusive use of cell phones by bad actors has drastically reduced the effectiveness of making outbound calls to customer cell phones. Large organizations with multiple outbound numbers, get stuck with “called unknown”, undermining large investments in contact centers, and much smaller but just as critical outbound calls from repair, delivery, and other typical outreach calls. In this podcast, Coleman discusses branded communication, including their Inform, Engage and other services, plus the technologies that enable them. The results enable a company to clearly identify itself to cell phone users, avoiding the cost and consequences of missed calls. Visit www.firstorion.com

We're seeing double this week on the Partner Channel Podcast. Host Tori Barlow is joined by both Mike Coleman, SVP of Enterprise Sales and Channel Chief at First Orion, and Mike Otting, SVP of Platform and Wholesale at First Orion. The trio talk all about what branded content is, and the kinds of challenges the First Orion partner team faced. Listen in and learn more!

Ep 309 | Aired 8/26/2022 I was thrilled to interview Mr. Charles Morgan on Up In Your Business with Kerry McCoy. Most everyone knows Mr. Morgan as the Founder, Chairman and CEO, from 1972 – 2008, of Acxiom, the pioneering and leading data base company headquartered in Central Arkansas. He is, without a doubt, an extraordinary entrepreneur and visionary, but he is also fun, outspoken, and A RACE CAR DRIVER! While many of Mr. Morgan's colleagues have retired, Charles continues to leave a legacy that only a few can with his newest company, First Orion, a consumer protection app for phone privacy. And more recently Charles released his second book Now What which follows his tell-all-book, Matters of Life and Data. Like so many successful people Charles finds business creative, he says he likes working and collaborating in groups, and he is a risk taker, evident by his love of racing. Along with Mr. Morgan's need for speed, he builds RACE CARS too (of course).

Your phone flashes “Unknown” or the name of a person or company you don't know. Just another spam call, to be ignored. Meanwhile, a nation whose industries and services have gone remote, have never relied more heavily on their ability to contact customers in real time. In this podcast we explore a possible solution: Branded Communications. Nick Andrews, Director of Channel Sales and Partnerships at First Orion discusses INFORM and ENGAGE, which allow companies to place their name, logo and reason for calling on the call recipient's mobile device at the time of the call and in the call log afterward. First Orion is one of the fastest-growing telecommunications companies and helps businesses reach customers more effectively by equipping them with the ability to brand their mobile phone communication and deliver secure, trusted connections – adding value to the phone and revolutionizing the way customers engage with their brands today. Hundreds of companies worldwide utilize First Orion's industry-leading Branded Communication solutions. In addition, First Orion's Communication Protection suite offers scam, fraud, and spoof protection solutions to hundreds of millions of consumers and processes more than 100 billion calls annually for major phone carriers. Visit www.firstorion.com

Sherri Schwartz is the Interim Chief Marketing Officer at First Orion, previously serving as the company's VP, Communications & Product Marketing. With over 15 years of experience in sales, corporate communications, product marketing, and leadership, Sherri is responsible for creating and accelerating the company's marketing strategy and brand recognition across the globe.Visit: https://firstorion.com/Episode Summary:Sherri Schwartz — Interim Chief Marketing Officer at First Orion — joins Connor to discuss the “why” of product marketing, how to build a product marketing team, and how a background in sales can help B2B marketers. Learn why product marketing must come before sales, the benefit of sales experience, how B2B differs from B2C — and how it doesn't.Key Takeaways:-In a startup, product marketing should come before sales. Product marketers understand the target market and the industry. They provide product teams with the data and knowledge they need for building out the product and give sales teams a story to tell.-B2B delivers a product to a business, and the business delivers it to the consumer. The core of B2B product marketing is the end user's “why.” Sales experience makes it easier to keep end users in mind.-B2B marketing is much different than B2C. B2B is about creativity and storytelling.Join our free B2B Mentors networking and mastermind group: https://www.activeblogs.com/liveevent/

In this episode of the Arkansas Inc. Podcast, First Orion Chairman and CEO Charles Morgan discusses the technology industry in Arkansas, his history as a tech pioneer in Arkansas, workforce development for tech companies, and building a pipeline of tech workers for the future.

Sherri Schwartz, Interim Chief Marketing Officer at First Orion, talks with Jeremy Shere, founder & CEO of Tribal knowledge Podcasting, about storytelling.Highlights:How Sherri uses stories to get an audience's attention on a productBasic elements of a strong storyHow podcasting allows Sherri to deliver stories to consumers in a convenient wayLearn more about First OrionConnect with Sherri on LinkedIn

In this episode of Be EPIC, Matt is joined by Charles Morgan, a University of Arkansas alumnus, CEO, chairman of First Orion, and Arkansas Business Hall of Fame inductee. Charles was working in big data before anyone knew what big data was and has continued to scale companies and develop leaders. Listen as Charles recounts his extensive career in big data and how writing his many books helped others to understand big data. 821361

For our third season, we focus on how leaders use data for change. Whether it's building data teams or using data as a constructive catalyst, we interview subject matter experts from industry to dive deeper into these topics.Have you ever had a spam call automatically blocked for you? You can thank First Orion for that - in one day they blocked or scam tagged over 108 million calls - just on T-Mobile alone! In this episode, we have the pleasure to chat with Charles Morgan and Kent Welch, CEO and CDO, respectively, of First Orion to discuss Arkansan data culture, First Orion's one hundred day program, and team culture.See more at databricks.com/data-brew

The Jeffs talk with Charles Morgan, CEO of First Orion. Learn all about organizational innovation with topics that include:          • How leaders set up a culture of innovation in their companies          • Bringing apprenticeships into the worlds of technology & data science          • Innovations happening now at First OrionFirst Orion Follow Us on Facebook, Instagram, or TwitterGet in touch InnovationJunkie.com 

Straddling both sides of the sales and marketing worlds, the Senior Director of Marketing for First Orion (a company change since the podcast was first recorded), Sherri Schwartz took her experience as the number one sales rep in a male dominated industry, and turned it into a highly successful career in both sales and marketing. Get ready for a Marketing and Sales, Over Cocktails episode filled with high-end advice for both sides of the sales and marketing aisle. With experience in startups, military sales, and fintech, Sherri shares her brilliant advice and experience navigating the ecosystems of sales and marketing and getting them to work together.  In this episode, Sherri and I dive into what it’s like to thrive in the sales bro culture; what it means to be a sales champion to the marketing team, and how to get ahead with hard work and extensive preparation.  You'll also hear:●       How her sales and marketing background helps her integrate the two teams.●       Why she uses educational meetings to get key constituents together.●       Her perspective on building a marketing system for startup companies.What’s Inside:●       What to do when you’re building a startup’s marketing from the ground up and you don’t have a benchmark from the previous year to measure against your success.●       If you feel like your sales pitch is stuffy, I’d encourage you to start a TikTok account. ●       Why you should monitor the words people use to discover you so that you don’t miss out on what consumers want.Mentioned in this Episode:MarketingandSalespodcast.comThe 7 Secrets to Selling More By Selling LessShoot me a question on Allanger.comSherri Schwartz on LinkedIn

Patricia O’Connell interviews Sara Hurst, CEO of Bella’s Kitchen, on the origin of Bella’s Kitchen, how Sara runs it, and Sara's plans for it. Sara shares more about her family background of successful entrepreneurs in El Salvador. Sara is grateful for her family, friends, and professional resources that help her to succeed in this new venture.   Listen in to this encouraging account of growing a business by meeting a real food need for busy mothers. Key Takeaways: [:29] Patricia O’Connell welcomes Sara Hurst to CEO Stories with This is Capitalism and asks about Bella’s Kitchen. [:53] Bella’s Kitchen offers convenient, healthy meals for kids and families. It is based on baby-led feeding. Babies try different foods with this method. This also avoids overfeeding babies when they don’t want to eat anymore. [1:35] Sara started the business in April 2020, at the beginning of the pandemic. Sara came up with the idea when she started feeding solid foods to her daughter, Isabella. She started researching how to introduce new foods to her baby and she found the concept of baby-led feeding. She decided to feed Isabella with that method. [2:35] Sara found out that baby-led feeding takes a lot of cooking and meal preparation for one baby. [3:18] Sara found canned or frozen choices, mostly pureed foods in the grocery store but she wanted fresh foods for Isabella. She also wanted Isabella to have a variety of foods to develop her palate and not become a picky eater. [3:57] As she was introducing Isabella to solid foods, Sara was going to the office daily, and Isabella was spending the day in daycare. Sara explains how the business idea of a meal service for busy mothers came out of her food preparation experiences for her baby and her experience serving healthy foods at parties. [6:16] Sara had seven children, from babies up to age 11, at her first photoshoot for Bella’s Kitchen. It was a scary moment for her; Sara knew that if the children didn’t like the food, it would show on their faces. They all liked it and the photoshoot went well. [6:55] Sara had her friends and their children try different recipes for taste and serving size. Sara also used her background in marketing to conduct surveys to make sure she was serving the needs of other parents, not just her own needs. [7:44] The more Sara thought about bringing her recipes into a business, the more ideas came to her for new recipes and products. She was determined to make a business out of her concepts. Her husband and friends also encouraged her. [8:45] Sara worked the numbers to see what she could afford to lose if the business didn’t work out. [9:10] Sara decided three months would be the appropriate trial period to test the business model to see if she would start making a profit. She knew the worst that could happen would be losing her startup money and having her pride hurt. [9:27] Over the last year, Sara worked on branding, the marketing plan, recipes, packaging, and permits. One big step was finding a commercial kitchen. She set a launch date in March, and then COVID-19 hit. [10:00] Sara explains how she went from hesitation over starting a business during a pandemic to moving ahead with her launch in April. [10:52] Sara works full-time outside of her role at Bella’s Kitchen. She explains how she fits everything into her schedule. Sara’s mother had raised three children as a single mother, working full-time while running a side business; she was a great role-model for Sara. Sara’s husband takes care of their children while Sara runs meal production. [13:17] Sara always wanted to be an entrepreneur like her mother. She loved cooking, but having worked in the food industry, she noticed that there’s not a lot of margin in a restaurant, so she knew she didn’t want to have a restaurant. [13:45] When Sara thought of Bella’s Kitchen, she knew that was the business she wanted. [14:09] Sara has noticed that sometimes both men and women think the idea of Sara running her business is “cute.” They underestimate her business vision and drive because she is a woman. They think it’s a hobby. [15:38] Not just for Bella’s Kitchen, but also for different caterers, people think the business is a little thing, run out of a kitchen. Sara works out of a commercial, licensed kitchen. Sara prices her meals just as any business prices their products and services. [16:29] Sara took business classes to learn about a business plan. She reads a lot and listens to a lot of podcasts. Sara worked with the Arkansas Small Business and Technology Development Center; they helped her with local market research, what license she needed, and how to get licensed. [17:52] Sara’s advice to people looking to make a business: you need to have more than an idea. There needs to be a problem and your idea needs to solve that problem. Some great ideas don’t necessarily serve a market purpose; you might not be able to find the customers you need. Don’t just think of your idea, but your clientele. [19:09] Sometimes people with good ideas don’t give enough time for the idea to flourish. [19:57] This is Sara’s first business. She doesn’t know if it will be her last. [20:21] Sara is doing the recipes and the cooking, in a commercial kitchen. [20:34] Sara wants Bella’s Kitchen to get as big as it can get. Sara credits the CEO of First Orion, where she works full-time, with understanding that people have their own passions. If Bella’s Kitchen gets so big she has to devote her attention to it full-time, then so be it. Sara talks about giving her full attention to each career. [21:52] Sara organizes her vacation schedule on a spreadsheet! Sara took the Birkman personality assessment at work and she is completely a “doer.” [23:06] Sara’s mom is proud of all her children’s success. She set a great example for them. Sara’s maternal grandfather is also a successful entrepreneur who now owns a coffee plantation. Sara shares his story. [24:34] Bella is 21 months old, so she has time to develop her entrepreneurial streak. She is already a photo model for Bella’s Kitchen. [25:10] Sara says you can’t have it all. Each decision is a deliberate choice. WIll she workout or will she work on her friendships? Each day she devotes time to what matters for that moment. You have to make time for yourself. Sara takes at least an hour every week to think just for herself, not for her family and business roles. [26:55] Sara reviews the support she has received from family and the Arkansas Small Business Center. Sara’s sister and nephew are the best trial customers for Sara. Sara thanks her friends, and her monthly book club where Sara shares ideas for honest feedback. [28:04] Sara hopes one day to have Bella’s Cookbook. [26:23] Sara shares Bella’s Kitchen website (bellaskitchenus.com), Facebook (@bellaskitchenus), and Instagram (@bellaskitchenus) links (links below). [28:31] Patricia thanks Sara Hurst for being on the podcast — This is Capitalism.   Mentioned in This Episode: Stephens.com Bella’s Kitchen Bella’s Kitchen on Facebook Bella’s Kitchen on Instagram Sara Hurst on LinkedIn Arkansas Small Business and Technology Development Center Arkansas Department of Health First Orion Birkman Personality Assessment  

Ep 201 | Aired 7/15/2020 Today on Up In Your Business with Kerry McCoy we're looking back on my interview with Charles Morgan, the founder, chairman and CEO, from 1972 – 2008, of Acxiom, the pioneering and leading data base company headquartered in Central Arkansas. An extraordinary entrepreneur and visionary, he is also really fun, outspoken, and a racecar driver. While many of his colleagues have retired, he is going strong with his newest company, First Orion, a consumer protection app for phone privacy. If you have a T-Mobil device, than you are using his technology. These days, Charles serves on the board of INUVO, a publicly traded, technology company for internet advertisers, and more recently released his second book Now What which follows his tell-all-book, Matters of Life and Data. Listen to find out how this IBM engineer turned his company from a 25 employee start-up to a publicly-traded, billion-dollar tech giant in just 30 years, and managed to become an author, race car driver and so much more along the way.

Jeff Stalnaker of First Orion helps ensure Coronavirus-Related Calls Get Answered 

In this episode of the Startup Junkies Podcast, Haley Allgood and guest host Jeff Standridge join Charles D. Morgan, a visionary leader whose five decade long career has brought Arkansas technology companies to the global playing field. Long before data science was a trending career, Morgan lead the Acxiom Corporation from 25 employees in the 1970s to over 7,000 by making decisions on data and developing database marketing solutions for some 50 of the top Fortune 100 companies. In his current role of Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of First Orion, Charles is leading a growth stage startup of over 200 employees, using real time data to increase transparency in telecommunications and block spam callers.

Charles Morgan is a lot of fun to be around and to learn from. He learned about business first from working with his father, starting when he was a little boy. As IBM’s top systems engineer for the entire state of Arkansas, Charles sold Sam Walton his first IBM System 360 Mainframe, which allowed Walmart to take off. He’s a pioneer of big data, having built one of the first companies in the industry, Acxiom Corp. And now, at a time when most of his contemporaries are retired, he’s having fun being a very hands-on CEO at First Orion, whose Privacy Star app is blocking literally billions of scam calls. But then, he has also driven the 24-hours at Daytona, and at most of the other major tracks around the U.S., too. He has the X-rays to show for it.   Key Takeaways: [:25] Ray Hoffman introduces the guest, Charles Morgan, First Orion CEO. [1:30] What shaped Charles and gave him the confidence to take on the risk that allows the reward in capitalism? Charles credits the DNA he inherited from his father and grandfather. He says a family history of starting businesses helps. He wasn’t afraid of entrepreneurism and worked in the family business. [2:32] Charles doesn’t think it was courage that drove him but just the understanding that entrepreneurism is what he ought to do. [2:39] Charles sees capitalism as the freedom to pursue your own talent and interests in a business sense that allows you to be all you can be for yourself, for your creative side, and for your family. That is also, for Charles, the essence of the joy of life. [3:09] Charles would not do well in a controlled environment with little or no self-direction. [3:30] Why is Charles, at age 76, still heavily involved as a CEO? He says his wife is pleased that she is free to do lunch with whomever she wants, as Charles is at work! [4:18] Charles is a geek at heart and loves problem-solving. His enjoyment in racing comes from the technical problem-solving of getting a car setup right. Charles has designed some race cars. [4:39] Charles likes people problem-solving and business problem-solving; coming up with a really good organizational strategy can be an exciting thing. Innovation, producing results for the customer, and putting the right person in charge of each area, are important for small companies like First Orion or large companies like Acxiom. [5:09] Business is and always has been a ‘people game.’ [5:12] Charles still loves technical problems. He is still programming prototype software for the solutions First Orion offers. Charles wakes up at 5:00 a.m. and goes to his computer to work on the current problem for an uninterrupted couple of hours. Then he goes to work at 9:00 a.m. [5:57] Charles says we all decide what to do with our lives. He believes retirement is the freedom to be able to get up every day and do what you love to do. Everybody’s job ought to be retirement every day, from the age of 21 on. [6:32] In Charles’s first book, Matters of Life and Data, he said his businessman father understood reward but not risk. His father had the vision for opportunities but did not understand how to make them happen —  how to get the right people doing the right things, and where to take the right risks. He didn’t achieve the level of focus he needed. [7:23] In his father’s hardware business, he diverged from hardware to wood doors and frames, aluminum windows, and plywood. He tried to be all things to all people. He didn’t have the discipline to decide how his business would grow and where he would get the resources to grow it. It was helter-skelter. [7:59] His father knew the reward he wanted was a successful business but he couldn’t organize it very well. [8:16] At age 17, at the direction of his father, Charles took a truck and drove his 15-year-old brother from Fort Smith to the Andersen Window factory in Philadelphia for Charles to pick up a load of windows and pitch to the Andersen brothers an improvement on their window design. His father had sent a letter to Andersen about it.[9:44] The Andersen brothers had a conference room prepared for them, with the company engineers ready to hear his presentation. Charles explained it to them and they were very interested to see if they could incorporate the idea into their windows. [10:12] That night, Charles and his brother headed on a train to New York City for two plays their father had bought tickets for them to see. They picked up the tickets at will-call. After two nights in New York, they took the train back to Philadelphia and drove back to Fort Smith with their window order. [10:52] In 1966, Charles started his first career job at IBM. He was made the top systems engineer for IBM for Arkansas. [10:59] In Charles’s book, What Now?, he recalls a lesson he learned early on from a senior IBM executive. He was told never to burn bridges with someone at work, whether it’s a poor employee or a bad boss. Respect them as human beings. Circumstances change and you may work together again. Decades later, that advice still serves. [12:05] Charles made his first investment in First Orion/ PrivacyStar when a representative presented it to him as a concept of putting software into the switching systems of telecoms’ networks to allow individual customers of the telecom to block numbers that they didn’t want to call them. [12:43] The obstacle ahead of them was that the telecoms weren’t interested in granting network access to outside software engineers. So that idea didn’t work. [12:56] The idea came at a time when Charles expected he would be leaving Acxiom and he was looking for something “to dabble with.” Charles moved to Dallas and invested in First Orion with $1 million with Jeff Stalnaker, the COO. At first, Charles was not expecting to become extremely involved with the investment. [13:44] Charles talks about how he left Acxiom, as the face of the company. He had been getting tired of the process of running a company of that size and new regulations, such as the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002, added to the burden. A large investor, Jeff Ubben, brought a proxy battle, then joined the board and started trying to oust Charles. [15:58] Charles was tired of the conflict. He invested in First Orion to get his mind off the struggle on the board at Acxiom. [16:24] Going into First Orion/ PrivacyStar, Charles didn’t keep in his mind how long it took and how difficult it was to build up Acxiom. But he did remember some of the things that didn’t work, so he was able to avoid some of the early mistakes. [17:27] As the most dominant company in the direct marketing industry, Acxiom got a little cocky at the influence they had. As CEO, Charles could call on executives at any level and knew all the senior guys at major corporations. His son tells him, “You were kind of a big deal!” [17:50] Charles wrote in his first book, “A good entrepreneur knows what he doesn’t know.” At the beginning of his involvement with First Orion, Charles didn’t know the telecom industry, nor did he know how little the man dragging him into it knew about the telecom industry; most of his claimed knowledge was actually stuff he’d made up. [18:28] Charles asked his friend, Bill Connor, to meet with the man from First Orion. The meeting didn’t happen until after Charles had put in the $1 million. Bill told him “Well, I hope you’re successful,” but didn’t say what he thought — that the man was a fraud — until Charles cut off the relationship with the man. [19:31] Charles wrote in his book that “We had no idea of the vastness, the complicatedness, the downright convolutedness of the systems that we were stepping into.” Charles says the networks pre-date IT. There is layer upon layer of technology that all has to work together. Somehow, phone calls get through. [20:25] First Orion has had to integrate their technology into those networks, thanks only to a bunch of amazing people. The systems, to this day, are very complicated. First Orion interrogates every single phone call to every user of T-Mobile today, to see all its characteristics, to try to figure out if it’s a scam call. It’s a complicated process. [21:19] Today, PrivacyStar is able to block or identify about 90% of scam calls. If you used to get 30 scam calls a week, that cuts it down to three scam calls. They’re heading to cutting it down to one or fewer a week. They are covering 62 million customers and they see every call that is made to them. [22:08] There is about 2K of data for each incoming call. This includes where it came from, where it’s going, and the routing that gets it there, the equipment that sent it, and other characteristics of the call. [22:28] PrivacyStar does not get involved in the voice call itself, and they are careful not to transmit outside of the network the call is being made to, to protect personal information. The only data they take outside the network is not identifiable to the person receiving the call. [22:53] In ten years, First Orion has come a long way. Eighteen months after Charles’s initial $1 million investment, the company was out of money. Charles had a big decision to make. His gut told him to put more money into it. His worst-case scenario told him he could lose another few million and it would not impact his lifestyle significantly. [23:53] Charles doesn’t make decisions out of fear, or because he has to. He says people make terrible decisions at times of dissolution of marriage or bankruptcy or another financial nightmare. People should not make decisions at the time of trouble. [24:25] Charles made the decision that he believed in First Orion for the long-term. The idea was adapted to mobile technology instead of the originally planned wire-line network software. [24:38] In 2000, Charles started getting excited about mobile technology. In 2009-2010 Charles realized that this little computer you put in your hand was going to change the world. They started with a Blackberry app and realized there would be a lot more mobile devices. [25:19] A successful entrepreneur or executive needs to be inspired by dealing with multiple difficult issues. If problems worry you to death, you probably ought to be doing something else. When Charles sleeps, he does not want to lay awake worrying. [25:53] Don’t sit and mope about something — do something about it! Sometimes it’s better to do something, even if it’s wrong. You can’t be frozen by indecision. Take action to move toward a solution. Hit problems head-on. [26:37] A good entrepreneur has got to move quickly — measuredly but quickly. [26:56] Charles describes how he went from observing to taking over the company. It came down to the decision to either stop putting money into it to lose or to take over with a plan to turn the company around. He planned for First Orion to make a profit by December of 2013, and they did it. [28:19] You can’t direct that kind of change from over the fence. [28:24] It was a problem for Charles to win over the non-believers at the company. Charles came up with a very specific plan with the detailed changes he was going to make in how they organize and approach things. He declared he would take on the task cut their IT cost in half. He delegated other problems at the company to other staff. [29:19] Charles cut the IT cost by more than half, trading pay cuts for stock options. He wants everybody to be a partner and not an employee. Putting stock in their hands with options does that. [29:39] You can’t just have good technology. You can’t just have good people. You need good products, good service, and other things. For a small company, these are even more important. [29:51] Charles is audacious, meeting with senior people like he has a right to have a relationship with them. In the early days at Acxiom, Charles took it on himself as a challenge to meet with senior people at Citi. He kept pushing the relationship higher and higher to the head of the credit card department. The relationship is important. [31:27] Now, First Orion’s service is important to the senior-most people at T-Mobile and the carriers. So they are getting the same kind of relationship with them. John Legere, T-Mobile CEO, knows very well who First Orion is and has some dialog with First Orion President, Jeff Stalnaker. There is regular communication with top executives. [32:00] First Orion first thought they were providing a service. Now they see themselves as a data analytics company, using data analytics to make the phone experience better. Charles compares the services of Acxiom and First Orion. It’s all about the data. [33:26] First Orion uses a massive AWS footprint to do a lot of analytics. They use software in the network that takes the AWS data and builds a knowledge base to compare each phone call against. They do this comparison about 175 million times a day. They send the results of the comparisons back into AWS to update the analytics. [34:24] They update the analytics every six minutes. It is very challenging to stay ahead of the scammers. The carriers themselves built into the system, for their own reasons, the ability to obscure the source of a call. This was before scam calls were common. [35:42] First Orion has 50 people continually iterating the software. It can never stop. [36:02] Scammers today are sending texts and emails with a scam fraud alert phone number for the recipient to call and get scammed. People fall for it in amazing numbers. [36:29] First Orion has blocked or tagged 10 billion calls. The savings to the customers at T-Mobile is now in the billions of dollars. [37:08] Charles talks about how he recruited some of the early employees to Acxiom, telling them they would have fun and he would do everything he could to make sure they became millionaires. [37:24] A lot of the reward Charles got between Acxiom and First Orion is being able to help people out. Acxiom made quite a few millionaires. At First Orion, Charles has given out 25% of the company as stock options to the employees. Stockholders will make a lot of money if First Orion is successful. [38:01] First Orion is looking to monetize. They are generating good cash flow. Charles would like to start buying people’s stock back from them and allow them to monetize significant numbers of dollars and not have to wait until the company is sold. Charles does not really want to run a public company again. [38:38] What is it about Arkansas water or the soil that has nourished a disproportionate number of very successful entrepreneurs, including the Fords, the Waltons, the Stephens, the Tysons, the Dillards, the Murphys, and the Morgans? Charles used the working title “It’s in the Water” for his book, Now What? as he was fascinated by that. [39:12] Charles did research the topic and interviewed some of the big names. There is something about the culture of Arkansas that allows success to happen. Charles doesn’t want to preview his next book, but that will be in it! [39:54] Charles Morgan is capitalism, and This is Capitalism.   Mentioned in This Episode: Stephens.com Charles Morgan IBM Sam Walton Walmart Acxiom First Orion PrivacyStar App for iPhone PrivacyStar App for Android 24 Hours at Daytona Matters of Life and Data: The Remarkable Journey of a Big Data Visionary Whose Work Impacted Millions (Including You), by Charles D. Morgan Andersen Windows Now What? The Biography Of A (Finally) Successful Startup, by Charles D. Morgan Jeff Stalnaker Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 Jeff Ubben Bill Dillard T-Mobile Citi John Legere Amazon AWS Companies based in or started in Arkansas This Is Capitalism

All the news to know for Thursday, September 20th, 2018!  Today, we're talking about everything from flooding after Florence and Mark Cuban's apology to Amazon Go stores and "The Kelly Clarkson Show."  Those stories and many more in less than 10 minutes. Award-winning broadcast journalist and former TV news reporter Erica Mandy breaks it all down for you.   Then, hang out after the news for the bonus "Thing To Know Thursday" expert interview. This week we're talking with Nate Mook. He's the Interim Executive Director for World Central Kitchen, the non-profit organization founded by Chef José Andrés to leverage the expertise of chefs and implement smart solutions to hunger and poverty. Mook is helping in the aftermath of Hurricane Florence and helped create and lead the #ChefsForPuertoRico effort in the aftermath of Hurricane Maria, which hit Puerto Rico a year ago today. For more info and links to all the stories referenced in today's episode, visit https://www.theNewsWorthy.com and click Episodes.   Today's episode is brought to you by Hello Fresh. Get a total of $60 off at www.HelloFresh.com/NewsWorthy60 and use promo code NEWSWORTHY60.       Sources:    Florence Updates: AP, Reuters, CNN, WSJ   Decision Deadline: WSJ, FOX News, CBS News, PBS   Mark Cuban Pays, Apologizes: ESPN, Reuters   Scam Calls Increase: The Washington Post, First Orion   High-Tech Car Convenience: WSJ   Amazon Go Stores: Bloomberg, USA Today Amazon's Scout: CNBC, TechCrunch   “The Kelly Clarkson Show”: The Tonight Show, People America's Got Talent Winner: America's Got Talent, USA Today  

Why haven't you scored a raise recently or grabbed that next bar on the better job rung? Well, your wait is over, because Gary Burnison, author of Lose the Resume, Land the Job, joins us to help you increase your income potential, enjoy your career more, and rock your next raise! We'll talk about how a skunk helped Gary realize many of the dilemmas facing people, and how NOT to answer questions during your next interview...and of course, much more. In our headlines segment we'll throw a surprise your way. An age group you don't expect is conned more often on the phone than any other...and it isn't the group you think. How do you make sure you aren't taken advantage of by scammers? Jonathan Sasse from First Orion joins us to talk about how to figure out that someone is really secretly after your wallet instead of the person they pretend to be. We'll also cover a recent spring cleaning story. While you're cleaning out the attic and the garage...what about your wallet? What should you clean and what should you keep? We'll discuss that on today's show. Plus, as always, we throw out the Haven Life line to Talha, who wonders about the best ways to start investing if you just entered the workforce? Should you diversify or crank up the risk since you're just starting out? Also, we answer a letter from Shawn, who wonders about moving money from a traditional IRA to a Roth IRA? What are the rules? Of course, we'll have Doug's trivia and more fun on today's show.   Thanks to Blue Apron for supporting Stacking Benjamins. Check out this week’s menu and get $30 OFF —WITH FREE SHIPPING—by going to BlueApron.com/SB. Thanks to MagnifyMoney.com for sponsoring Stacking Benjamins as well. MagnifyMoney.com saves users on average $450 when they compare, ditch, switch and save on credit cards, student loan refinancing, checking, savings and more. Check out MagnifyMoney.com for your savings.    

First Orion, a corporation with a significant intellectual property portfolio dedicated to phone privacy and preference, have an app known as PrivacyStar™ application for BlackBerry® smartphones. PrivacyStar can be downloaded by visiting www.PrivacyStar.com. PrivacyStar will be available via other smartphones and telephone carriers beginning early next year. PrivacyStar is a simple-to-use yet powerful privacy app that enables users to take complete control of their phones by reporting potential telemarketing violators to regulatory enforcement authorities, blocking any and all unwanted callers, using Caller Lookup to identify unknown callers and providing the flexibility to change their privacy preferences directly on the BlackBerry or on their own synchronized personal web portal account. The new PrivacyStar app is the first and only mobile privacy app that helps authorities identify and locate potential telemarketing violators. PrivacyStar captures detailed information about possible violations including date, time, number and identity and allows the user to provide this information to law enforcement authorities for investigation. “While federal and state Do Not Call programs have been successful, we believe that millions of unwanted calls and telemarketing violations occur each day in the United States,” said Jeff Stalnaker, president of First Orion. “A major contributor to this problem is the inability to identify and quickly shut down violators. PrivacyStar not only empowers callers to immediately decide who can no longer call them, it also provides regulatory agencies with new capabilities to identify and shut down the worst violators. Another very popular feature offered by PrivacyStar is the Caller Look-up feature that allows users to find the name associated with a phone number with a simple keystroke.”