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Dr. Stuart Grant, founder of Archetype Medtech, shares his journey designing and delivering breakthrough orthopedic and surgical innovations across the UK, US, and China. Stuart recounts how an early internship led him into medtech, what kept him there, and how building the ASPAC Innovation Center in China helped accelerate a total knee instrument system that dramatically reduced time to market. He explains the leap from corporate leader to entrepreneur: planning for years, earning a PhD in Medtech Product Innovation, and building a consultancy that helps startups and scale-ups turn early clinical unmet needs into market-ready, regulator-approved devices through a network of experts and an “expertise for equity” model.    Guest links: https://archetype-medtech.com/  Charity supported: Sleep in Heavenly Peace Interested in being a guest on the show or have feedback to share? Email us at theleadingdifference@velentium.com.  PRODUCTION CREDITS Host & Editor: Lindsey Dinneen Producer: Velentium Medical   EPISODE TRANSCRIPT Episode 074 - Stuart Grant [00:00:00] Lindsey Dinneen: Hi, I'm Lindsey and I'm talking with MedTech industry leaders on how they change lives for a better world. [00:00:09] Diane Bouis: The inventions and technologies are fascinating and so are the people who work with them. [00:00:15] Frank Jaskulke: There was a period of time where I realized, fundamentally, my job was to go hang out with really smart people that are saving lives and then do work that would help them save more lives. [00:00:28] Diane Bouis: I got into the business to save lives and it is incredibly motivating to work with people who are in that same business, saving or improving lives. [00:00:38] Duane Mancini: What better industry than where I get to wake up every day and just save people's lives. [00:00:42] Lindsey Dinneen: These are extraordinary people doing extraordinary work, and this is The Leading Difference. Hello, and welcome back to another episode of the Leading Difference podcast. I'm your host Lindsey, and today I'm delighted to welcome Dr. Stuart Grant. Dr. Grant is a chartered engineer and the founder of Archetype Medtech, a consultancy and innovation studio helping medical device startups and scale ups transform early clinical, unmet needs into market ready products. With nearly 25 years of experience, Stuart has led global teams across the UK, US, China, and emerging markets delivering breakthrough innovations in hip, knee, shoulder, and trauma surgery. A highlight of his career was establishing the ASPAC Innovation Center in China, where he built R&D capability from the ground up and launched a pioneering total knee instrument system that dramatically reduced time to market. Passionate about advancing medical technology and mentoring future engineers, he bridges creativity, engineering, and regulation to accelerate safer, smarter medtech innovation worldwide. All right. Welcome to the show. It's so great to have you here today. Thanks for joining me. [00:01:57] Stuart Grant: It's lovely to be here, Lindsey. [00:01:58] Lindsey Dinneen: Yeah. Excellent. Well, I was wondering if you could start by sharing a little bit about yourself, your background, and what led you to medtech. [00:02:08] Stuart Grant: Yeah. So, I was actually, I'm obviously, as you can tell from my accent, I'm British, but I was born in Germany because my, my dad was in the military in the 1970s when I was born. So I was born actually in Berlin, which is quite interesting to be a place to be, grew up in. So I traveled around a lot here in the UK, in Germany with my dad getting posted everywhere. My mom's a nurse. So I was in medtech, not really knowing I was in medtech as a kid, but I, my family was, so yeah. And then obviously went to school, all the places I was at university. I went to university to do product design, and my goal was to be a product designer, a cool product designer, designing fancy products like Johnny Ive. And when I was looking for a job as a co-op, or an intern as you call them in the US, I was just really unsuccessful finding a job. I was doing a lot of interviews, getting turned down, sending my CV out a lot, and j happened just to advertise on the Board of University, and it said Johnson Orthopedics and no one really knew what that was in. And none of my fellow students at applied because they thought it would be designing baby bottles for putting talcum powder in and shampoo in and stuff like that. So they're like, "I'm not doing that job." So I desperately applied for it and luckily found out about all this medtech, and I've been here doing medtech for 25 years. So they gave me a job. I had to work hard to keep the job and get reemployed over and over again. But yeah, joining originally Johnson Orthopedics a long time ago is how I found out about medtech. I never knew when I was 18 that really it was a thing that existed. [00:03:47] Lindsey Dinneen: Yeah. So, okay. So you thought product design, and then when you got into medtech, what were some of the things that attracted you and that actually compelled you to stay and make a career out of it? [00:04:00] Stuart Grant: Ha. So I was a young guy with the student debts. What compelled me, I was getting paid to stay, but not to be too flippant about it, but, you know, when I was doing this engineering and design work in my early days in the CAD system, it was just so interesting. I was designing these products that were going into people or the instrumentation to make help the surgeon and going to these ORs and watching the surgeon do their job and trying to figure out how how I can make it better from their input was really interesting. I could apply it straight away, basically. In the early two thousands, there wasn't all these regulations and standards that slowed you down. So you could go and design an instrument, get it machined in the machine shop, get it clean, take it to the surgeon, he can use it, you know, probably be frowned upon 25 years later. But that's what we used to do and really adapt. And probably more interesting than going into product design and fast moving consumer goods where you're designing a, a kettle or a toaster or something, a plastic casing. It was actually much more interesting to do that. And I stayed because I spent four years here in Leeds, in the UK, was getting a bit bored and wanted to find something else to do, and then an opportunity came up in the US. So I moved over to Warsaw, Indiana, the orthopedics capital of the world, as you might know it. Worked there for, stayed there for seven years. Really enjoyed it.. People sort of bemoan Warsaw for being in the sticks in just a bunch of cornfields around it. But I enjoyed it. It's got, we had a good bunch of young friends there. I was in late twenties, early thirties at the time. There was Noah and Spikes. You'd go for a drink and some nice food. It was all right. I enjoyed my time and after that I was, after seven years, I was like, "Okay, what do I do next?" And I was looking around for jobs in medtech. Then another opportunity came up in and we were looking for people to go over and help set it up, train the staff on what MedTech product development was. And so I jumped to the chance and spent five years living in China, in Shanghai. After five years is your limit, so I had to come home. I couldn't stay. I wanted to stay, but they wouldn't allow me to. So, so I came back to the UK. And then started MDR for five years as leading the Joints MDR program, which was lots of fun, as you could probably tell, wasn't really R&D, was a lot of leadership and project management and dealing with a lot of people and a lot of problems on a day-to-day basis. And so, yeah, after that I I left J&J about three years ago and started my own product development agency. And we can talk about a little bit about that later. So that's where I am and where I got to. [00:06:50] Lindsey Dinneen: Excellent. Yeah, I definitely wanna talk about that as well. But going back a little bit-- and perhaps this is actually something that's occurred since you started your own company as well-- but are there any moments that really stand out to you along your journey of affirming that, "Hey, yeah, I actually am in the right place, in the right industry?" [00:07:12] Stuart Grant: That's a really hard one is sort of the, is the grass always greener somewhere else, type of question. Right? I guess compare, you shouldn't compare, but comparing to my friends at my university, my product design and what they've done and what I've done they've moved into the car industry a lot. Went to the car development and car industries always had its ups and downs and its problems. And you know, they've had some really cracking jobs working for McLaren and Ferrari and you know, but I think just the interesting things that medtech do that nobody really knows about is really what keeps me moving along and having conversations with people when they, you tell them like, "I used to design hips and knees and shoulders and things like that," and they're like, "Oh, my mother's got a hip and knee" and blah, blah, and you really talk about it. Actually, my mother does have a hip now and she's going in a couple months time to get the other hip done. I do know what brand she's got, so. [00:08:10] Lindsey Dinneen: See, that's really cool. Yeah. Okay. So, so, on your LinkedIn I noticed that you describe yourself as a fixer, a challenger, and a change maker, which I love. But I'd love to hear from you exactly what you mean by all those things as you have developed in your career, and now as you're doing, of course, your own consulting. [00:08:34] Stuart Grant: Yeah, so in Johnson and my colleagues are probably, I agree with this, I had a bit of a reputation of getting the more difficult projects. The, that's probably why I got MDR in the end 'cause I would always get the projects that had problems and I enjoyed that. I liked digging deep and solving the problem and wrangling everyone together and pushing everybody along to help. And that was actually one of the reasons why I moved to the US 'cause the original project I moved to was the project leader left and it was in a bit of a shambles. So I went over to sort of, sort of try and get it together and just ended up staying and working on multiple projects. So I like that. Really challenging, not just the engineering side. The engineering side is obviously really interesting, but the challenging project management and people management and process management in a big corporation, all of those things, people, product, process, all come together just to cause a big headache sometimes, you know, herding cats as say and going, trying to solve those problems as an engineer, always trying to solve these problems, right? So it's you're always trying to figure out how you can move forward. [00:09:52] Lindsey Dinneen: Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. So, okay, so that kind of brings us to the company. So what was it like going from employee to entrepreneur? Were you, did you feel ready and prepared for that leap? Or what has that transition and pathway been for you? [00:10:10] Stuart Grant: So I've, I was a long-term planner. I was planning for this for five years whilst I was working for Johnson. So I went and got, when I came back to the UK I started my PhD and I knew getting a PhD was a real way of building credibility immediately, right? Before you step in a room and have a conversation with you, if you've got a PhD in the subject you're about to talk about, people pay attention, hopefully. Right? So I did my, so I did my PhD in Medtech Product Innovation, what the process is. So I spent seven years part-time working for Johnson, getting my PhD, knowing that eventually in my mid forties, there'll be an inflection point, which usually isn't people in big corporations, right, that either stay to the end for until you're six, mid sixties. If you hit 50, usually stay for the next decade, right? Or you leave and do something else. And I was like, "Okay, 45, I'm gonna pull the bandaid, go in, get my PhD, set up my own company plan, get the plan to do it, get the savings," and so I was working on MDR and a new MDR was coming to an end, and then they'd have to find me a new project, which probably didn't exist. So I also knew that J&J would be like, "Ah, Stuart, you've been here for 23 years. There's not really anything of your level here." I'd be like, "Great, let's go." So this was all a, you always it's a big step, right? I have a family. I can't just sort of walk in, not come in the office anymore. So it was a big plan that my wife and I had for quite a number of years to execute. So it's still a struggle. I've been doing it for three years. It's still hard work, still building the company, finding clients, understanding what their pain points are and improving your picture and all those other things, still is still a challenge, but it's a new challenge. [00:12:06] Lindsey Dinneen: Yeah. [00:12:07] Stuart Grant: And as I say, as I said, when people worry about the risk, it's like I can easily just go and get a corporate job again as a move back and have all this new relevant experience. So it's a risk, but you have to balance that by the benefits. [00:12:21] Lindsey Dinneen: Yeah, calculated risk that you've planned for, so good for you. So, okay, so tell us a little bit about your company now and who you help and kind of where in the development or even ideation process that you can come in and really make a difference. [00:12:40] Stuart Grant: So, yeah, so Archetype MedTech is a product development, product innovation agency. And what we do, we usually work with startups or scale ups. Startup side, they'll have a proof of concept. They've already defined the unmet clinical need. They've sort of wrangled the technology and validated the actual technology does what it they're trying to make it do, but they just dunno how to make this a medical device product, right? They've they've got the technology, but they dunno how the product make a product that's sellable is releasable and it gets approved by FDA or here in the, i'll say here in the EU, I know I said in the UK, but MDR and I help them work out that product innovation strategy. So take them all through either they need to do the frontend innovation and understand their needs and the insights and the business case, and then the engineering requirements and specifications. The design and engineering part I help them with, and this is not just me. I have a network of experts, a sort of consortium of experts that come together and bring all these different specialties and then we help them with the testing, what testing they need to do, their risk management, usability, all that fun stuff. And then contact and help them work with the manufacturers. So contract manufacturers, then their regulatory approval. So really what we try to do is, 'cause we're bringing all this expertise as a group of people together, the entrepreneur, usually a salesman or surgeon at this point, who may be a university spin out, can spend a lot of time and money trying to find these experts, trying to find these resources, trying to understand the product development, the MedTech product development process, which is all written down in various books, but when you get down to the details, it gets really complicated. So what we do is help them go through that as fast and as efficiently as a possible, so they're not wasting capital fishing around for those experts. We already have that network of experts that we can bring in and take them through the process as quickly as possible. So that's what Archetype Medtech do for our clients. And has been successful. We have quite a number of clients, mostly in orthopedics and surgical 'cause that's my specialty in medtech. And what we also do, we just don't want to be a management consultancy firm. Well, we do if it's right, we share what we call expertise for equity. So we'll take some equity from the company, but we'll cut our day rates or maybe do it for free, do and help them go through the process as quickly as possible. That means we've got skin in the game, right? We're not just taking their money and going, "Great. This is great. Good luck on the commercialization. Not our problem." [00:15:29] Lindsey Dinneen: Right. [00:15:30] Stuart Grant: It is our problem. 'cause we want a return on our risk and our investment as well. So, yeah, that's what we try to do. And along with that we do a load of pro bono work with surgeons in the NHS who have had ideas. We help them just get their idea a bit further along so they can start looking for funding and investment, and I can share that with you later 'cause it's a really important program that the NHS run it. If there's any mentors out there that want to get involved I can point them in the right direction. [00:16:00] Lindsey Dinneen: Actually that's fantastic and I would love to hear a little bit more about the organization and yeah, how people can get involved and help and what do they all do. [00:16:10] Stuart Grant: Yeah. So the NHS have set up this called NHS Clinical Entrepreneurs Program. This is not my company. This is a completely separate organization. And what it is, clinicians, anybody who works in the NHS-- you know NHS is a 1.6 million people who are employed in the NHS. It's a massive company organization. They come up with clinical needs 'cause they're in the problem and they start working out how they solve it, even through medical device or health tech or an app or anything, right? And they can go into this, it is basically the equivalent of an accelerator program over about nine months. And we have mentors like myself who work with those clinicians to help them develop their idea. So I've got a couple of clinicians that I work with. One is developing a neurosurgical device for helping him cut out tumors in the brain. At the moment, they use two tools. They use a scalpel and a cordy, a bipolar cordy, and they're very basic tools. And what he has to do, he's under a microscope, and he has to swap these one by one, does this scalpel to cut the vascularization of the tumor. Then he has to seal it. And he has to pass the nurse has to pass in these tools and he can't see a, see the nurse passing him. So he is like, "Can I develop a tool that's in one a scalpel and a bipolar" so he doesn't have to keep changing the tool in his hand? And you can know by the cognitive load and changing that tool in the field that these surgeries take eight to 12 hours to cut out a tumor from the brain. So he's saying every, he swaps his tool about 200 times and it takes three seconds. So you can start doing the maths. [00:17:59] Lindsey Dinneen: Yeah. [00:18:01] Stuart Grant: Yeah. And then the other, so the other is a doctor, actually, the doc is a neonatal doctor and he's trying to develop a langoscope for neonatal babies. The langoscopes at the moment haven't really improved in the last 60 years. The Muller blades, they're called, and they're the stainless steel things that basically adult ones have been shrunk down to baby size and changed a little bit. They're not very good. And when you've got a newborn baby who's struggling to breathe, the mother's there obviously upset, so the father's probably there and you're trying to get langoscope down their throat, it's not a great, it is a very stressful situation, so he's kind of developed a, trying to develop a better one, right? Even the simple things. These things are made of stainless steel and you put a piece of metal on a baby's tongue. A newborn baby's obviously never experienced cold before, so they obviously start freaking out and squirming and you're trying to get this thing down her throat. It's crazy. So I'm helping him to see if he can come up with a better solution. He's got a, got an idea at the moment. He's developed some prototypes and we're gonna help him get it, see if we can get it a bit further along, and hopefully get to the market and solve this real small unmet clinical need, but really important one. [00:19:16] Lindsey Dinneen: Yeah. That's incredible to hear about both of those stories. That is really exciting. I love I-- this is partly why I love this industry so much is the innovation coming out of it is always amazing. People care so deeply about making a difference and improving patient outcomes, and then to hear about those kinds of innovations, ugh, that's awesome. [00:19:38] Stuart Grant: Yeah. Yeah. So if there's any experts out there listening who wanna get involved in the N-H-S-C-E-P program, I know Australia does one too. So yeah, get involved and share your knowledge freely to some clinicians who wanna, who have found an unmet clinical need and wanna solve it, but don't know how to. [00:19:56] Lindsey Dinneen: Yeah. Love it. That's fantastic. So it, it seems like, you know, from your career trajectory and your continuing education all this time that you are not someone who sits still very well. And I think you mentioned this a little bit in your LinkedIn profile, you like to keep moving. So one of the things that I noticed that you do, and I'd love if you share about it, is you do lectures on the history of innovation. Could you share a little bit about that? [00:20:24] Stuart Grant: Yeah. So. I I really, so I sort of got into reading about innovate. I love reading innovation books, right, nonfiction, innovation books, which I got in about 10 years ago. I read probably one of the first one was "The Idea Factory," which is about Bell Labs. And that was how Bell Labs has invented the telephone system and invented the transistor, won a load of Nobel Prizes. Shockley and Bardine were there. They just had this crazy Medici effect going on in Bell Labs. The Medici effect when you collect everybody together in a small area and they just start bouncing ideas and coming up with some hugely creative solutions. And that comes from Florence when DaVinci and Michelangelo and Raphael were all kicking about Florence and they were all paid for by the Medici family, so this why it's called the Medici. There's a book about it actually called "The Medici Effect." So I started reading all this and started just going backwards in history and getting to the industrial revolution and how the industrial revolution happened. And going further back to these group of men called the Lunar Men who were in Birmingham here in the UK who basically, it was James Watt, who invented the steam engine, Wedgewood, who was the pottery guy. It is Rasmus Darwin, who was Charles Darwin's great-grandfather. Yeah. All these people, they were called the Lunar Man 'cause they met every month in the full moon and discussed ideas and I think probably got drunk. [00:22:00] Lindsey Dinneen: I mean... [00:22:03] Stuart Grant: So yeah, I just love reading it and you know, I love, I'm now a little bit of a brag. As of last month, I'm a fellow of the Institute of Mechanical Engineers, and that is quite prestigious that was created by George Stevenson, and George Stevenson was the guy who created the steam train. [00:22:23] Lindsey Dinneen: Okay. [00:22:23] Stuart Grant: So we took Watts' idea of the steam engine, put it on wheels, figured out how to work. And I love, I just love steam trains and that's very dorky of me, I know. But I love, as a mechanical engineer, just seeing all the bits move and actually seeing them chug around all the noise and the steam. And here where I live in Yorkshire, in the UK, up the road in York is the National Railway Museum, which all the steam trains are at. Darlington is west. George Stevenson had his the original railway, the Darton Stock Railway. So George Stevenson created the Institute of Mechanical Engineers 'cause he was a mechanical engineer and his son created the rocket the first really fast once, Robert Stevenson. So learning all this and then figuring out how, then I went back-- I'm, so this is a long answer to your question-- then I went back went back and like understood why the industrial revolution happened and it was all about the banking system here, how people could get capital. And then the legal system grew up to protect that capital. And then agriculture improved in the UK so people weren't just stuck on farms, subsistence farming. There was enough food being produced to support the population so the population could go and work in factories and obviously James Watt creating the steam power created more power. So people in horses and everybody didn't have to work so hard. And then there was politics involved with the Hugonos, which were the Protestant, the French Protestants came over and they had all, they had the ability to make all these machine parts, 'cause that's our skill. Some of them came to the UK and the others went to Switzerland. And that's where the watch industry in Switzerland created. And then, you know, and then the scientific approach and the enlightenment came in the UK and it all just sort of bubbled up into the industrial revolution and then cascaded through the 19th century and the 20th century in. Here we are in the 21st century. So I just love knowing that whole pathway of somebody said "We need more legal," and then somebody said, "We need more banking" and as startups, right, investment is the king. So it all started 300 years ago with the UK banking system. [00:24:35] Lindsey Dinneen: Fascinating. Oh my goodness. That is so interesting. Yeah. Okay. One other interesting thing I caught from your LinkedIn profile is that you are a painter, but you are an exhibited painter, yes? [00:24:51] Stuart Grant: Yeah, I, well, I try. [00:24:54] Lindsey Dinneen: Okay. [00:24:54] Stuart Grant: So yeah. Obviously I did product design right? And I did product design because at school, I was good at art and I was good at maths and physics. So I was looking around going, "What discipline do those three things fit together?" And it looked like it was product design. I was like, "Okay, I'm half an engineer, half an artist, not good at either." So about 10 years ago I decided to pick up art again. It was, started to go to classes and doing landscapes and actually sadly the industrial decline of Britain's, so the old buildings of the industrial revolution and stuff like that. So I paint that stuff. [00:25:36] Lindsey Dinneen: Oh, that's so cool. [00:25:37] Stuart Grant: Put it into exhibitions and sometimes get rejected, sometimes get accepted, and try and sell a couple so I can at least call myself an artist. [00:25:45] Lindsey Dinneen: There you go. I love it. Yeah. Well, and that creativity and that artistry does, you know, impact your work in general, because I think sometimes having that outlet actually spurs some just creative solutions outside of the box that, you know, might have not come to you immediately if you were just like, you know, head down, really working hard on this project. And then if you could take a step back do you feel that it helps you in that way at all? [00:26:15] Stuart Grant: Yeah. Yeah, it definitely does. Not thinking about work is and just having it percolate in the background and not actually, 'cause it's a very slow deliberate process painting, right? So it does, you just lose hours and hours painting something, which is really nice. Obviously I've got a, I've got a 5-year-old at the moment running around, so I don't do that much painting. I usually just reserve it for when I go to my art class on Wednesday nights 'cause trying to focus is not a thing for a 5-year-old. [00:26:46] Lindsey Dinneen: Yeah, That's fair. Okay. Well, all right, so pivoting the conversation just for fun. Imagine that you were to be offered a million dollars to teach a master class on anything you want. It could be within your industry. It also could be your history of innovation, but what would you choose to teach? [00:27:08] Stuart Grant: So I thought about this when you gave that question because I was like, "Well, I've already talked about the history of innovation and that can pretty boring." So my other boring side, when you do a PhD, you always wish you did another subject. That's the thing is like, I wish I studied that instead. So my, as you go through the PhD, you learn other things and you're like, "Oh, that's really interesting." And you go down rabbit holes and you're like, "Oh, well stop. That's not my job. That's not what I'm trying to do here." One of the ones was how technology and society are interlinked. So technology drives society, and we've got lots of examples of that. Steam engines, trains, telephones, electricity, light bulb, broadband, and now AI. And so technology affects society. Then society drives technology. They're a virtuous circle. Some people say it not virtuous at all, but they, that's what happens. And understanding how those two things, society and culture and technology all interact is really interesting to me. And obviously not all technologies are adopted. Some are abandoned. Sometimes the better technology is abandoned for an inferior technology for lots and lots of reasons. There's examples. In the eighties, it was VHS and beta max, Blu-ray and HD DVDs. And what else? The keyboard, QWERTY keyboard is meant to be terrible. And that was designed 'cause of typewriters at the time. So the keys didn't smash together, but obviously that's not needed anymore. So those things interest me and I like to study that more, but I like to study it. Thinking about medtech and how our technology in medtech has affected society and using that lens 'cause we also always talk about clinical needs, right? What's your unmet clinical need? What are you trying to solve here? But there's also a social and cultural need that you are maybe not addressing directly, but you are addressing it. And how that drives medtech, and you know, it's we talk about like medtech equality and democratizing medtech and making it more accessible, but there's always the flip size of medtech inequalities. The big one probably at the moment is robotic surgery. Hugely expensive. Only available to very few. So how will that filter through society? How does that affect society? Will it just be for the rich developed countries to use robotic surgery? How will that affect it going forward the next 10, 20 years? Because it uses a capital equipment, right? They can't be diffused through society very easily. So that, that's one thing I would like to study and sort of talk about a little bit more, 'cause I think it's really interesting, especially now AI is being talked about and how digitizing healthcare is gonna happen over the next decade. Interesting if we're overclaiming that at the moment and a lot of startups are overclaiming, what they can really do and is it gonna, is there gonna be a backlash? Who knows? Let's see. In our, maybe in a decade, I'll present a course on it. [00:30:23] Lindsey Dinneen: There you go. Okay. And time will tell. Alright. I like it. Very cool. Okay. And how do you wish to be remembered after you leave this world? [00:30:34] Stuart Grant: Yeah. My PhD was like, I would probably like, I'd like to remember my PhD findings, but I'm like, no, who cares? [00:30:44] Lindsey Dinneen: Oh. [00:30:45] Stuart Grant: I, I've got, of course, my family, making an impact on my, what I've done here with my family, but, and I was really thinking about this question earlier. I was like, "Well, I hope this isn't the end. I hope I haven't peaked." [00:31:02] Lindsey Dinneen: Yes, that's fair, okay. [00:31:06] Stuart Grant: So maybe the next 20, 30 years, hopefully I'll be remembered for something, I hope. [00:31:12] Lindsey Dinneen: Okay. To be determined. I like that. I like that a lot all right. [00:31:18] Stuart Grant: It's a positive. [00:31:20] Lindsey Dinneen: Yeah. It's, and it's a forward way of thinking that, you know, you don't have to limit yourself to what you've already done or accomplished or seen. Who knows? The world is exciting. Yeah. I like it. Okay. [00:31:33] Stuart Grant: Well, yes, I'm yeah, definitely. [00:31:35] Lindsey Dinneen: Yeah, all. [00:31:36] Stuart Grant: One of the things we're doing-- I was looking at the Australian MedTech market and really just trying to figure out what's going on to see if there's anything I can do there. And talking to my wife, we decided, 'cause my daughter's not at school yet, we decided, "Let's go to Australia for an extended holiday." And it was gonna be like a month and we'll start working it all out, like we're just gonna go for three months, March, April and May this year, to sort of experience Australia, experience the MedTech market, go meet a lot of people, understand and just sort of grow and try to understand another way of people. I know Australia, they've got a similar culture to the UK and the US. But they do, they are far away. So they have a different take on things. And I wanna see what a difference is and see if I can get involved. So we're off to Australia on the MedTech market, so if anybody's listening, reach out to me on LinkedIn. It'll be we'll hopefully when I'm over there, we are in Brisbane. We can meet up. [00:32:32] Lindsey Dinneen: Excellent. Yeah, no, that's really exciting. And I actually have a few people I can connect you with as well, so, yeah. Okay. And then final question. What is one thing that makes you smile every time you see or think about it? [00:32:48] Stuart Grant: Oh. I think it's, it is back to my old answers, it's back to the steam trains. I just love watching the mechanism going around. My, me and my daughter who's exhibiting engineering characteristics, shall we say. Love, we love going to the railway museum and running around 'cause you can go and touch the trains, you can get on them, you can get your hands greasy if you want to, if you touch the wrong bit of it. She loves seeing them. And they're just, so when these engineers designed all these big bits of metal, they didn't have FEA or CAD or anything. They just sort of took a guess at the curves and how it should look. And some of these parts they designed are so beautiful when you start looking at them, it just makes me smile, like there was a person, a man, we'll have to say a man, right, 'cause it was 200 years ago... [00:33:44] Lindsey Dinneen: Right. [00:33:44] Stuart Grant: A engineer who decided he was gonna make it like that out of wood. And they were cast into iron and they just they were just sitting in their shop and just did what they thought was right. And most of the time it didn't break. [00:34:00] Lindsey Dinneen: Most of the time. There you go. Yeah. That's great. I love that. Well this has really been a fantastic conversation. I'm so grateful for you joining me today and sharing just some of your history and you know, what you're looking forward to next. I think it's, I think it's really incredible when you get to combine all the different things, like you said. You've got sort of that design and problem solving and you've got the engineering and you've got all these cool things that just make you an incredible help to the MedTech industry. And we're excited to be making a donation on your behalf, as a thank you for your time today, to Sleep in Heavenly Peace, which provides beds for children who don't have any in the United States. So thank you for choosing that charity to support. Thanks for joining and thanks for everything you're doing to change lives for a better world. [00:34:52] Stuart Grant: Yeah, thanks, Lindsey. It's been a real pleasure talking to you. [00:34:55] Lindsey Dinneen: Yeah, absolutely. Thank you again. [00:35:00] Dan Purvis: The Leading Difference is brought to you by Velentium Medical. Velentium Medical is a full service CDMO, serving medtech clients worldwide to securely design, manufacture, and test class two and class three medical devices. Velentium Medical's four units include research and development-- pairing electronic and mechanical design, embedded firmware, mobile app development, and cloud systems with the human factor studies and systems engineering necessary to streamline medical device regulatory approval; contract manufacturing-- building medical products at the prototype, clinical, and commercial levels in the US, as well as in low cost regions in 1345 certified and FDA registered Class VII clean rooms; cybersecurity-- generating the 12 cybersecurity design artifacts required for FDA submission; and automated test systems, assuring that every device produced is exactly the same as the device that was approved. Visit VelentiumMedical.com to explore how we can work together to change lives for a better world.

Host Tricia Pritchard sits down with Elaine Snyder to discuss how Sleep in Heavenly Peace provides beds for children who need them in our community. https://www.shpbeds.org/Facebook

Rachel Knutton, founder and CEO of Alluvia Studio, shares how a 30-year healthcare journey—from hospital marketing and public relations (PR) at HCA Healthcare to medical device commercialization, product launches, and sales—shaped her belief that everything in MedTech ultimately comes down to storytelling. Rachel explains how her “been there” experience in hospitals, cases, and value analysis environments helps her create messaging that's compelling, compliant, and built to endure. She also opens up about becoming an “accidental entrepreneur,” discovering unexpected fulfillment in leading people, and building an agency culture grounded in authenticity, humor, and joy.    Guest links: www.alluviastudio.com | www.linkedin.com/rachelknutton | www.linkedin.com/alluviastudio  Charity supported: Sleep in Heavenly Peace Interested in being a guest on the show or have feedback to share? Email us at theleadingdifference@velentium.com.  PRODUCTION CREDITS Host & Editor: Lindsey Dinneen Producer: Velentium Medical   EPISODE TRANSCRIPT Episode 073 - Rachel Knutton [00:00:00] Lindsey Dinneen: Hi, I'm Lindsey and I'm talking with MedTech industry leaders on how they change lives for a better world. [00:00:09] Diane Bouis: The inventions and technologies are fascinating and so are the people who work with them. [00:00:15] Frank Jaskulke: There was a period of time where I realized, fundamentally, my job was to go hang out with really smart people that are saving lives and then do work that would help them save more lives. [00:00:28] Diane Bouis: I got into the business to save lives and it is incredibly motivating to work with people who are in that same business, saving or improving lives. [00:00:38] Duane Mancini: What better industry than where I get to wake up every day and just save people's lives. [00:00:42] Lindsey Dinneen: These are extraordinary people doing extraordinary work, and this is The Leading Difference. Hello, and welcome back to another episode of The Leading Difference podcast. I'm your host, Lindsey, and today I'm delighted to welcome Rachel Knutton. Rachel is founder and CEO of Alluvia Studio, a strategic medtech marketing agency based in Tennessee that supports some of the largest medtech brands in the world. Her experience in healthcare spans 30 years, including hospital marketing and PR for HCA Healthcare, as well as various roles in medical device commercialization, sales and marketing. Right. Well, welcome to the show, Rachel. It's so nice to you for having me. Of course. I would love if you would start off by just, uh, telling us a little bit about yourself, your background and what led you to medtech. [00:01:36] Rachel Knutton: Yeah, so I actually have a pretty interesting background and I bet I'll cover a little bit more of it as we go through the discussion, but currently I have an MedTech marketing agency. We have 16 employees. been in business technically since 2011, so 14 years. And just really focused on this industry. My path to getting into MedTech actually came through HCA Healthcare. I started working in hospital world back in 1996. And actually it was accidental. I, you know, I was pretty new outta school, a couple years outta school and I'd answered an ad and I dove right into a really exciting world. It's, you know, of course headquartered here in Nashville. Learned all about hospitals. I supported I think eight different hospitals at that time that were in region, the Nashville region, doing marketing and public relations, walked into my first open heart surgery case, helped feed employees at midnight, handled all kinds of interesting PR events because we're hearing Nashville, a lot of country music stars might get hospitalized. And I did that for about 10 years. And then I ended up moving into devices a recruiter, and it's when Kimberly Clark Healthcare had gone into the medical devices arena through the purchase of Ballard. so honestly I really didn't know much about it. But I had, you know, I did have my MBA, I had been working in healthcare, which sort of met the qualifications at that time. And I got a early start in marcom. Learned so much, got back into the hospital through that role from the other side of the coin and I had the chance to do product management, launch a product, and then I moved into sales and sold the product a whole bag and then got back into the hospital, you know, working through the whole value EIS ecosystem and working with physicians and being in cases. So it's been a very interesting path for sure. [00:03:37] Lindsey Dinneen: Yeah. Yeah. Thank you for sharing that. And so I'm curious about a lot of things, but I'll start with this. So what do you find are some of the differences and similarities between marketing and PR for the hospital side of things versus the device side of things? [00:03:55] Rachel Knutton: I mean, certainly I think PR piece is a much bigger aspect, the community aspect. Um. Every hospital is such an important part of the community. So there's a heavy weight there on that. And then of course, the regional aspect of it. So whereas in the device world, you know, all targeting like very large geographies, maybe either the US or outside of the US. And so in the hospital world, that tends to be more regionalized. I would say. That's like one of the big differences for sure. And then honestly, hospital world, it's more business to consumer. is a lot of physician related marketing as you're trying to drive preference to, you know, using your hospital for surgeries or trying to recruit physicians, but it's a lot more B2C in the, medtech world. world. [00:04:44] Lindsey Dinneen: Yeah. Yeah. So, okay, so you mentioned know, you responded to an an ad and that led you to was sort of like, well, a say, um, synergy, whatever you wanna say. that was was marketing and communications something that you always had a passion for or what led you to kind of pursue that? [00:05:05] Rachel Knutton: Yeah. Well actually I was a little bit more of a writer. would say telling stories is origin story. So I wanted to work in magazines. This is back when we still did print and newspapers and things like that. And always wanted to work in the magazine um, industry and I, and it started out writing for a business magazine. Started working for an agency for Ford, doing writing for a sales focused magazine. And so it just sort of morphed into that. I would say in the marketing and PR world, we were telling stories about patient stories, pitching those to newspapers. We were telling stories about physicians doing new types of procedures employees, you know, trying to promote them within the hospital world. That's also important to that ecosystem. And so I think that's kind of where that transition happened. And I would say that's still what I do today. So it's taken a lot of different forms and product management and working in Excel files and figuring out demand forecast isn't really about telling stories what it is, right? Everything is about telling a story in the end. [00:06:06] Lindsey Dinneen: Yeah. Yeah. So it sounds like you have the strategist side, the analytical side, and the creative side, which doesn't always, you know, align. And so tell us a little bit about your approach maybe to, say, there's a client of yours that is interested in bringing a product to market, and story tell to help them achieve their goals, and within compliance, because obviously that's a component. [00:06:35] Rachel Knutton: yeah, I mean, that's certainly in our industry, you know, figuring out are the guardrails. course in marketing, I always think, you know, we, know the rules. But we're also going to make sure that we're not self-limiting within those rules. So I let the regulatory people and the legal people push back. But I know what not to risk, right? So I think one of the things that's very helpful is having sold devices, having launched devices myself, having worked in the hospital system, I spent a lot of time on the floors watching how devices are used. I spent time in ICU collecting data. I think really having been part of that environment helps feed the story building process. It's almost like a natural part of what goes into building that story. So because of that experience, because I've walked those halls, I've been in those shoes, I kind of know what some of those limitations are and that just automatically configures into the storytelling process. I know what the product managers are up against when they're trying to launch a product. And theoretically, I should know the right questions to ask and how they got to the product that they have today and how they've, you know, customer feedback has fed into that. And then how do we take that and make sure that the messaging meets the same requirements? Like you have a, you know, you have design requirements, well, your messaging should have the same requirements and achieve a goal. So I think that's the analytical side is making sure, does the message achieve the goal? Are we being very committed to what's the business objective? How is the marketing objective supporting that? And then is the, how is the messaging fitting into that? I think that's a very important part of the discipline. We also are very familiar with, you know, claims matrices and the importance of having, you know, data and research to support claims. And so kind of knowing that framework, I think is helpful when you're building messaging because helps you think through like, okay, here's how the client is going to need to organize the messaging. Here's how they're gonna have to reuse the messaging. You know, how can we be very consistent in how we roll that out so they're not having to go back through and through their approval process every time. It's really important part of the discipline in the medtech world that we have to deal with that industries as well, of course, but it's certainly very important in ours. [00:09:01] Lindsey Dinneen: Yeah. Yeah. I, I really appreciate that insight and I think, you know, it's so interesting to see-- you're totally speaking my language about the consistency of, it's something I've, I've preached so much is you have to be consistent with your messaging and your branding. And it's not like everyone has to have the same cookie cutter language, but when you're aligned, that really translates. [00:09:25] Rachel Knutton: And it works. this is, you know, I, think this is a little bit of a, it's not a pet peeve, it's a passion project rather of mine is to get people to be consistent because I think what happens is internally, people get tired very quickly of their messaging or their creative. And I do think you need creative variability. We know with AI you need some of that, like that's gonna be important. But probably your customer, your target audience isn't tired of it and they might not have even seen it yet. And it's that very old, like nine times someone has to hear a message. And so my favorite clients are the ones that work very hard to get the messaging right in the first place. They go through the discipline process of doing it, knowing why we're doing it, getting full buy-in from an extended team, and then just keep with it, with some obviously refinement and tweaking when you get customer feedback. But you know, sadly, I'm sure we've all had this instance where it's like, "Oh, Dr. like this ad. We need a new ad campaign." And it's like, "Well, that's okay. I'm really glad he noticed it." You know? That's all right. That, might be okay. So, it, I think that the best companies are consistent and, you know, one of our clients is um, intuitive Surgical, and one of the things that we see is like, of course there's fresh creative. Of course there's brand evolution, but the overall message is very consistent and that's, it's fun to see how fruitful that consistency has been for them. [00:11:06] Lindsey Dinneen: Yeah, absolutely. Love that. So you worked for other companies and then you took a leap and became an entrepreneur and a leader of your business. What was that like? Were you prepared, so to speak? I'm not sure anyone's actually prepared to be an entrepreneur, but you know, how did that go for you? [00:11:24] Rachel Knutton: Yeah. was certainly an accidental entrepreneur. Some lifestyle choices, particularly marrying someone in the military at the time when we didn't do Zoom calls forced me to look at my career path and go, you know what? I'm not gonna climb the corporate career ladder moving. At that time, it wasn't a thing. And I thought, you know, I'm gonna need to do consulting in order to, you know, support family and then keep my business going. So I had lifestyle reasons that I became an entrepreneur and wasn't really sure how it was gonna work out, to be perfectly honest with you. And, you know, felt like a lot of people say, "Well, I'm consulting," which just means they don't have a job right now. And I, I know, you know, nothing bad about saying that, that can be very true, but for me, I was like, this is actually something I'm gonna need to do. And I did it as a as a solo consultant for several years, and then when I, we finally settled down and stopped moving said, "Well, it's time for me to get some help." The thing that was really interesting to me is I never really wanted to manage people even when I was in the corporate world, I just wanted to do great work. I wanted to, you know, I, felt like people slowed me down. You know, I just, I'm like, "Just let me go. I'm a star player." And it was really nothing that I was interested in at all. And now I have, you know, all these employees and I spend a very large portion of my time managing people. And the thing that has been so surprising is how gratifying that is, how fulfilling it is. One, to, you know, go beyond your comfort zone and find, I've learned so much. I've made a lot of mistakes. I've thought about other leaders that I've been lucky to work with in the past and follow what they do. And maybe some people who had some tendencies that I try not to do or I'll check myself and go, "Oh, am I, you know, am I doing that?" But I think managing team, developing people is the most exciting piece of it. always loved helping clients, so as I started out in this venture, I had a couple of offers to go work full time for those clients, but at that point I had been helping a few people and I was like, "Well, I can't say no to to the guy at this company, I can't say no to her because she needs my help. And if I have a full-time job, I'm not gonna be able to do that." So I really just wanted to help as many people as possible and I felt like owning my own business will allow me to do that. Now that I have a team, we are able to help so many more people and that is really gratifying. The other thing is. Where I am, my community is outside of Nashville and we're a micropolitan, which means we're kind of just far away for our commute to Nashville to be impractical. We have a local university here, and so one of the things I wanna do early on was work with the local university talent for people who wanna stay in this upper Cumberland area and have a great profession. And it's somewhat limited still. It is growing, but there's not a lot of big corporate jobs. So what I love to do is I bring that corporate experience into my small business in terms of professional development, evaluations, how we coach people. And then I try to get rid of all this stuff that I didn't really care about working in the corporate land, you know, and increased flexibility. Let's not have politics and things like that, and so that people can just grow and flourish. And so it is, I'm very passionate about it. I love helping clients and I love helping my team, and so it's really like the best of both worlds for me. [00:14:58] Lindsey Dinneen: Yeah. Excellent. So you have an interesting name for your company and I would love if you would share a little bit what led to that? [00:15:07] Rachel Knutton: Yeah. Thank you for asking about that, actually. So when I was the first name for my company was called Good Day Marketing, and when I realized I was really going to stay in medtech, at that time when I launched it, I was like, well, maybe I won't do medtech. Maybe I'll just do other marketing. I was like, "Well, medtech is where people want me. This is what I know. I have expertise. This is where I need to be." It made a lot of sense. I was like, okay, I need to rebrand, and I had gone through a period of testing. And so I'm a Christian and I'm familiar with scripture. You know, where you're like, you get refined in the fire, you're refined like silver and like gold. And I was like, "Okay, I need to have something about gold." And I discovered there's a type of gold called alluvial gold. And it's the kind of gold that you find in riverbeds. And soil in uh, riverbed is very, very rich because you have so much, you know, marine life and you know, plant life flowing over it, but then there's gold deposited there, and I was like, "That's we do, right?" Like when we're working with medtech companies, there's so much rich content, there's so much intelligence and innovation baked into what they're doing. Our job though, is to find the pieces of gold that will really help them tell that story and distill that, right? And like purify it. And it goes through a refining process to make sure the message is really clear. leave the extra behind. And then once we get it into a good spot, we shine it and we just like make the best part of that messaging, pull that forward. So it just made a lot of sense for the agency to be called Alluvia Studio. [00:16:42] Lindsey Dinneen: That's, that's perfect. That's such a great story too. I love the intentionality behind it and the thought process of it. Um. So yeah, so you have some core values with the company, and I'm assuming this also derives from yourself, and three me were the values of authenticity, joy, and humor. Can you speak to those and how you came up with that? [00:17:06] Rachel Knutton: Sure. Well, authenticity is, I, I just can't not be authentic. So one of the things you and I had talked about before is, I have a hard time talking about myself. just am naturally a little bit humble and I have to ask other people to tell me what I'm good at, right? And they're like, "Well, such a thought leader. You know what this industry so well, you're so great at telling this story." And I think just being able to say, "Hey, I don't know how to frame myself is something that's just innate to me." [00:17:40] Lindsey Dinneen: Hmm. [00:17:42] Rachel Knutton: I think I wanna work that way with people. It means that if you need to have a tough conversation with a client, you can have it. something doesn't feel right, I wanna pick up the phone and say, "Hey, this didn't feel right to me. I don't like how this conversation went. I don't like how this project's going 'cause I don't, I sense that you're dissatisfied, I wanna talk about it, I wanna understand it." from the client side, that's how authenticity works. And then with my team as well. So, for me, their personal lives are very important. I know we all bring our personal life into our work. If we say that we don't, we're lying. And so I ask that, you know, if someone's having a rough day or going through something as much as they're comfortable, at least just let us know so that other people aren't impacted by maybe, you know, a down day or, or take it personally because you know how we all do that, right? We read into it, go, "Oh, did I do something to upset them?" "No, I'm just, I'm not here today." And so I just think it's really important one, and I want people to feel comfortable with them, to feel themselves. And I think it helps with like diverse perspectives well. And then fun. So like humor, fun to me are lumped together and I just think when you have fun at work, you do your best work. And reminded of a couple of stories with our clients. So a lot of times we think in medtech, like everything's so serious. Everything, you know, and it is, it's a serious business. We're doing important things. There's nothing flip about what we do. However, we're all human beings. And we all need to have fun while we're working together. So we like our clients to have fun working with us, and I like sharing things that are fun about me. I had someone just this week who is from a very high level financial position in a big company comment that he loved that I had a roller skater in my LinkedIn profile. Now, I never would've thought that, right? I never thought that person would have really appreciated that, but that just goes to show that we all need to have fun. And even if we're working hard, we just like work hard, play hard, like let's just, and when we're stressed, let's just laugh it off and keep going. [00:19:58] Lindsey Dinneen: Yeah, and the joy aspect, just curious because that is, uh, the huge core value of mine, and so I would just love to hear your take on it. [00:20:06] Rachel Knutton: It is my purpose life. I have identified that. I got go through a leadership development class about 20 years ago with Kimberly Clark, and we identified our purpose, and bringing joy into other people's lives was mine and what that means for me-- it is funny, early on in my career I, didn't think I was gonna work in medtech. I thought it was more in like hospitality, tourism, something, you know, that's fun, you know, obvious fun. But what I really realized is that joy, um, joy comes from completing a project, feeling very good about what you do. We are often a very important part when people are presenting about themselves. So they do a lot of presentations. They're presenting to their boss or to a board. We wanna make them look good. We wanna make them feel very confident and relieving that stress is a joyful experience for them. So for me it's very personal. know, as much as we can, we want to help them feel that and experience that, and that comes down to how we communicate with them. You know, let's laugh a little bit. Our job is to look good. We, this business is not about Alluvia. This business is about you, and we are here to be a partner with you in that process. [00:21:29] Lindsey Dinneen: Yeah. Oh my goodness. Yes. That resonates very much. Um, yeah, so, you know, you've you've had an amazing career and you've worked, like you said, on the hospital side, you have had the device side and now your own business. Are there any moments along your journey that really stand out as affirming to you that "Yes, I'm in the right place at the right time?" [00:21:52] Rachel Knutton: Definitely. When I started my consulting business, I wasn't sure that I was going to be in medtech. So I had been in the hospital world for about 10 years and I had been in medtech for about 10 years, and I thought, "Well, am I supposed to be doing something different?" You know, that's that's a nice time to like, and my relationships and my reputation drew me back in. So it was almost one of those like. I'm meant to be here because I do have the experience that people value and I do have a way of thinking that's very helpful for people and it's a unique perspective that help. And so through my consulting business, I ended up launching two more products through very large publicly traded companies. And I thought, "Well, okay, obviously I'm supposed to be doing this." [00:22:48] Lindsey Dinneen: Yeah. Yeah. Excellent. Yes, and I think makes sense too because it's, it's also rather niche, you know? So, so having the skill sets really play a good part into-- it's, it's-- basically what I'm trying to get at is it's not an necessarily an easy path. So it's helpful to have had that background to, you know, you've got the communications and the marketing, but also the nitty gritty of, you know, I remember when I first joined, you know, somebody would say a sentence and it was like, half of it was acronyms and it was, it's just such a steep learning curve, [00:23:21] Rachel Knutton: Yeah. Mm-hmm. [00:23:21] Lindsey Dinneen: Yeah. [00:23:22] Rachel Knutton: It's, it really, and it still is. I mean, there's no way to know about every specialty in the world or all of the, you know, technical or clinical issues that our clients customers need to deal with. But being able to figure out which parts you need to understand and which you don't, I think is good. Like, what do you need to filter? do you really need to go in order to help them communicate their message is. Is helpful. And I think having that experience does provide that filter. And you know, it's funny because I was thinking about your podcast and I love what you're doing with it. Like I love that you're trying to shine a light on our community and it is about so many people trying to help people and save lives. And yes, I mean, I work so heavily with the investor community and startup community that sometimes it starts to feel a lot like it's about money. think money follows great ideas, right? Because there's an economic value to an innovation that's gonna save our healthcare system money, save lives and outcomes and, things like that. So I think it's all important. One of the things that I've thought about though is. Our unique position is we help people that help people save lives. So, you know, we are not on the frontline innovating new devices. We are not really on the frontline working with the patients. But if they don't tell their story, if there's not awareness of their solution, if it's not implemented correctly-- we think, I think a lot about that at the at the sales level, having been in, in those shoes-- if those things aren't done correctly, then the patient's not gonna be helped and making sure that we make that as easy as possible. people don't really wanna think about marketing, right? Like they wanna think about the clinical aspect. They wanna think about the innovation and the know, technical issues that they need to solve. And new product development, but the marketing piece is really important. All [00:25:28] Lindsey Dinneen: Yeah. Yeah, and it's just a fun, well, it's really a special role to play, I think. And I've always felt really grateful for that because, right, if somebody doesn't know that it exists, then they can't buy it. And so even though my role is small in comparison to maybe the scientists and the engineers and everything like that, I still get to play a part, and I think that's just delightful. Yeah. [00:25:55] Rachel Knutton: Yeah. Yeah, it really is. And it's really helpful too. So, you know, running an agency, I have a lot of creative people. Well, in our industry, we don't get to be quite as creative as other industries, right? Because as you mentioned, you know, we have regulatory reasons and it's a slightly more conservative industry for sure and should be. We're always looking to figure out how do we inject that joy? How do we inject that fun and authenticity into something that still feels as professional, as innovative, and as buttoned up the product is, as the quality process has been, as the clinical study has been, but still, how do we have a unique voice within that? And so that's really helpful with my creative team too, to say, right, like our guy boundaries are a little bit different, but what we're doing is so much more important than selling a consumer product. Maybe like a luxury item or jewelry or marketing a, I don't know, something sexier, you know, like a vacation. I don't know. To me that'd be like the ultimate, send me around the world and have me market a travel. That'd be very good. [00:27:05] Lindsey Dinneen: You go. [00:27:06] Rachel Knutton: But at the end of the day, like it, it's making a really big impact and I think that's really helpful to help people in that. We're always looking for ways to try to get that experience. Like I'm always looking for ways to get experience from my team to be able to do that. I think that's probably my next big goal is like, how do I get them into the hospital? How do I expose them to what the day-to-day life is of a sales rep? You know? think that's really important in our industry to have some sort of exposure to feed on the streets in the hospital setting, how it works, what the sales rep has to go through to get the product implemented, how long it takes for it to actually succeed, right? Because it's not just one sale, it is a long process, a long journey, and an ongoing journey to make sure that that it sticks and that people understand how to use it. And I think having that like empathy or at least point of view can be really helpful to anyone marketing in our industry. [00:28:10] Lindsey Dinneen: Yeah. Yeah. I I really like that. That's, that would be a really helpful thing for anyone, especially if they're newer to the industry, to have that sort of boots on the ground, this is what it's actually like, kind of experience. [00:28:24] Rachel Knutton: Yeah. [00:28:25] Lindsey Dinneen: So, okay, so pivoting the conversation just for fun. Imagine that you were to be offered a million dollars to teach a masterclass on anything you want. It could be within your industry, doesn't have to be, what would you choose to teach? [00:28:39] Rachel Knutton: I think it would really be about this, like how to find joy. Like how to find joy in everything. You know, how do you cultivate a joyful outlook on life so that even when you're sitting in traffic or doing something you don't really love to do, how can you integrate that? You know, I think that one thing that's really important to me is my faith. So my values, I'm, Christian, and I really believe the only true joy that we have is when we have a relationship with Jesus Christ. And so that's not part of my business, that's part of my life mantra, but like if I could help people get to the real joy, that would be like the ultimate goal, right? If I can't get them there, if I can get them to, you know, experience joy in the day to day or experience joy in their trials, think that would be something worth, I'd do it for free. I don't even need a million dollars. a million dollars would be great. [00:29:34] Lindsey Dinneen: Yeah. Right. Excellent. Excellent. Yes. Okay. And then how do you wish to be remembered after you leave this world? [00:29:43] Rachel Knutton: I think it's that point I just made there, right, is that, maybe, I mean, it's so cliche, but I left things better than I found them. I left people better than I found them. And, you know, and ultimately, you know, if I lead them to Jesus, that is like the ultimate goal for me as a Christian. So for me, that would be a metric that if it was, you know, one person, if it was 1 million people, it doesn't matter. That's the goal. [00:30:13] Lindsey Dinneen: Yeah. Yeah. And then final question, what is one thing that makes you smile every time you see or think about it? [00:30:22] Rachel Knutton: It is my business. It really is. I mean, okay, obviously my family and my pets and things like that, but I really love coming to the office. This, we have our own building. Every time I come here, my spirits are lifted. I love seeing my team members and I love working with the clients and just hearing from them and building those relationships. Everything about this is so deeply personal to me that the money piece of it is like the very last thing that I think about. It's the last way that I run my business. It's the last way that I measure success. It's the last way I hire. It is really just follows that, that positive feeling of making an impact and having fun. I, it's just, I know it sounds crazy. We keep saying that, but I think it's really fun to do what I do. I'm [00:31:18] Lindsey Dinneen: Yeah. I love that answer. That's that's wonderful. And it, I think that's one of those affirmations that yeah, you are in the right place at the right time because you're having fun and you're joyful. I love that. [00:31:30] Rachel Knutton: Sometimes it's temping to work from home, and then I work from home, and then I come to the office. I'm like, "Why did I wanna work from home? It's so much lighter here. We have a disco ball here and I don't have a disco ball at home." [00:31:40] Lindsey Dinneen: Oh. Brilliant. I love it. Oh my goodness. Well, this has been such a fantastic conversation, Rachel. I so appreciate you and your time today, and I love the way that you bring joy and fun into medtech and into the lives of the people that you touch. And we're excited to be making a donation on your behalf, as a thank you for your time today, to Sleep in Heavenly Peace, which provides beds for children who don't have any in the United States. So thank you for choosing that charity to support. Again, thank you so much for everything you're doing to change lives for a better world. [00:32:18] Rachel Knutton: Thank you. This is a great interview, so I appreciate it. You made it easy. [00:32:23] Lindsey Dinneen: So glad to hear that. Alright, well thank you so much again, and thank you also to our listeners for tuning in and if you're feeling as inspired as I am right now, I'd love it if you'd share this episode with a colleague or two and we'll catch you next time. [00:32:40] Dan Purvis: The Leading Difference is brought to you by Velentium Medical. Velentium Medical is a full service CDMO, serving medtech clients worldwide to securely design, manufacture, and test class two and class three medical devices. Velentium Medical's four units include research and development-- pairing electronic and mechanical design, embedded firmware, mobile app development, and cloud systems with the human factor studies and systems engineering necessary to streamline medical device regulatory approval; contract manufacturing-- building medical products at the prototype, clinical, and commercial levels in the US, as well as in low cost regions in 1345 certified and FDA registered Class VII clean rooms; cybersecurity-- generating the 12 cybersecurity design artifacts required for FDA submission; and automated test systems, assuring that every device produced is exactly the same as the device that was approved. Visit VelentiumMedical.com to explore how we can work together to change lives for a better world.

Yinz Are Good shares the *good* news going on out there and celebrates the good people who are making it happen: The people who are lifting others up, who are taking care of their neighbors, the people who are saying, “What can I do today to make our world a better place?”.Our guest today reached out to us from the other side of the country - from Idaho, to be exact - and boy, are we glad he did. Let's start with this: our guest's work has been recognized on Mike Rowe's Returning the Favor, CNN Heroes (where he was a Top 10 finalist!), NBC Nightly News with Lester Holt, Good Morning America, The Today Show, People Magazine, and even American Ninja Warrior. His name is Luke Mickelson and his work is the nonprofit, Sleep in Heavenly Peace (SHP).What began as a single act of kindness has grown into a global nonprofit with a simple but powerful mission: “No kid sleeps on the floor in our town.”. Today, SHP has more than 400 chapters across 47 U.S. states and 4 countries. They build  beds for kids who need them and wait until you hear how many beds they have made to date…it is astounding. Tressa had the great joy and honor of chatting with Luke via Zoom (she couldn't quite make it over to Idaho). This is a conversation about taking care of one another, about how listening to your inner voice - your gut - can propel you to new and unexpected chapters of your life, and about how saying “yes” to unexpected opportunities can literally change the lives of strangers. Sleep in Heavenly Peace (SHP): https://shpbeds.org/Sleep in Heavenly Peace on IG: @shpbeds Sleep in Heavenly Peace on FB: @Sleep in Heavenly PeaceWatch Tressa Tries…DICK'S House of Sport on YouTube⁠ here⁠.This episode is brought to you by ⁠DICK'S Sporting Goods⁠ — your one-stop shop to get everyone moving. From cozy winter gear to fan favorites for all Pittsburgh families — every season starts at DICK'S.–⁠⁠https://www.yinzaregood.com/⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠FOLLOW US on social media:Instagram:⁠⁠⁠ ⁠@yinzaregood⁠⁠⁠⁠ Facebook:⁠⁠⁠ ⁠@YinzAreGood⁠⁠⁠⁠Have a story of generosity or kindness to share with us? Want a Kindness Crate dropped off at your business or school? Email us at ⁠yinzaregood@gmail.com.

In this episode of the Nonprofit MBA Podcast, host Stephen Halasnik speaks with Luke Mickelson, founder of Sleep in Heavenly Peace, about how a small garage-based Christmas project grew into a nearly $30 million nonprofit operating across the U.S. and beyond. Mickelson shares the key inflection points behind that growth, including realizing the scale of child bedlessness, transitioning to a formal nonprofit, leveraging a major media moment from Returning the Favor with Mike Rowe, and—most importantly—building the right governance structure, systems, and processes to sustain rapid expansion. The conversation explores why treating a nonprofit like a real business matters, how a "franchise-like" chapter model with a single EIN enabled scalable growth while preventing mission creep, and how COVID ultimately helped the organization slow down and professionalize operations. Mickelson also discusses the critical distinction between visionary founders and operational leaders, the necessity of investing in talent, and why long-term nonprofit success depends on strong leadership, clear roles, and disciplined execution of best practices.  

We are kicking off season three with a great episode! This episode features Sleep in Heavenly Peace, which provides beds, bedding, and mattresses to children lacking proper sleeping arrangements. My guests today are David Sodders, President of the Hillsborough, NH Chapter, and Jim Graves, President of the Rochester, NH Chapter. Two passionate and dedicated people. I hope you enjoy this episode and learning more about Sleep in Heavenly Peace.For more information, please visit https://tinyurl.com/5t4y92wuIf you are local, here are the sites for David and Jim's chaptershttps://shpbeds.org/chapter/nh-hillsborough-co/https://shpbeds.org/chapter/nh-rochester/For more on the Dose of Good Podcast, visithttps://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61552349588905https://www.instagram.com/dose_of_good_podcast/https://www.youtube.com/@DoseOfGoodPodcastWe are now on TIkTok! - https://www.tiktok.com/@doseofgoodpodcastYou can also email doseofgoodpodcast@gmail.com

Lukes mission started while he was teaching his Boy Scouts about giving and helping others by makin 3 beds for 3 children that didn't have any beds!!This story of how "Sleeping in Heavnly Peace" got started is truly a reminder that no matter where we come from we can do things to help others.Luke is a guy from Idaho that hunts, fishes, coaches football & many other things. But his true passion is that no child will go without a bed.Learn more about Sleep in Heavenly Peace on his website. https://shpbeds.orgSupport the show

Heavenly Peace — Pastor Jason Burns This Christmas, we're reminded that while the world may never experience lasting peace, Jesus offers a deeper gift—peace for our souls. As the Prince of Peace, Christ brings rest, identity, and strength that hold us steady through unavoidable circumstances and uncontrollable worries.

PETE KELLEY, Lead Pastor / Christmas Eve / Luke 2.1-20

Join us as Pastor Justin preached from Luke 2 about the peace that the presence of Christ offers to us.

Heavenly Peace by AllSaintsPetersham

Send us a textOn this week's episode of the Today is the Day Changemakers Podcast my guest is someone whose story will stay with you long after the episode ends: Luke Mickelson, founder of Sleep in Heavenly Peace. Luke's journey is nothing short of extraordinary. He didn't create a nonprofit — he sparked a national movement.Featured on The Today Show, Good Morning America, Hallmark Channel's Home & Family, NBC Nightly News with Lester Holt, and recognized as a Top 10 CNN Hero, Luke has been sharing a truth most people never even consider:There is a crisis happening in America that we don't talk about.Not every child has a bed.Since 2012, over 250,000 children have received brand-new beds because of Sleep in Heavenly Peace and its army of volunteers. Yet the need continues to grow.We talk about hunger.We talk about clothing.But we rarely talk about the child sleeping on a cold floor…or a blanket in the backseat of a car…or a couch they share with siblings.Luke has seen those children.He has delivered beds to those families.And he has witnessed the look on a child's face when they receive something many of us take for granted — a safe, warm, comfortable place to sleep. A moment that restores dignity, hope, and childhood itself.And here's what makes this story even more powerful:Luke didn't seek out this mission — it found him.A simple act.A moment of paying attention.A heart that refused to look away.That is all it took to ignite a movement.Today, with national partners like Lowe's and DeWALT, SHP has chapters across the country — but many communities still have none. The need is everywhere. Which is why Luke speaks so passionately about starting new chapters in towns, cities, and states nationwide.In this unforgettable episode, we discuss:·         The moment that changed Luke's life — and thousands of others·         The emotional reality of child bedlessness in America·         What it feels like to hand a child their very first bed·         Why heart health — emotional and physical — is intertwined with service·         How YOU can start a Sleep in Heavenly Peace chapter and help change livesThis isn't just a story — it's a wake-up call.A reminder that one act of service can ripple into something life-changing.Let's make sure no child sleeps on the floor in our towns — or any town.#TodayIsTheDayPodcast #LukeMickelson #SleepInHeavenlyPeace #Changemakers #Service #Leadership #NonprofitImpact #EveryChildDeservesABed #CommunityAction #BeTheChange #Sleep #Bedlessness #Community #Volunteers #Lowes #DeWaltSupport the show

In week one of the Arrival series, we explore what it means to find “Heavenly Peace” in a world filled with comparison, overload, and hurry. Discover how Advent helps us look backward, inward, and forward—and how creating margin in our time, emotions, and finances opens the door to the true peace Christ brings.

Discover heavenly peace as prayer frees you from anxiety, distraction, and needless entanglements, drawing your heart into divine stillness. 

Guest: Adrien LewisOrganization: CarePortalPosition: Founder and PresidentTopic: information about CarePortal, matching needs with churches and organization who can help meet them, and the announcement of an extended partnership with Sleep in Heavenly PeaceWebsites: careportal.org, shpbeds.org

Guest: Adrien LewisOrganization: CarePortalPosition: Founder and PresidentTopic: information about CarePortal, matching needs with churches and organization who can help meet them, and the announcement of an extended partnership with Sleep in Heavenly PeaceWebsites: careportal.org, shpbeds.org

In this episode, Rick shares his interview with Luke Mickelson, the Founder and Executive Director of Sleep in Heavenly Peace (SHP) — a global nonprofit ensuring that no child sleeps on the floor in their town.From humble beginnings as a small-town farm kid in Idaho to becoming a CNN Hero and national changemaker, Luke's story is one of faith, humility, and action. What began as a simple act of kindness — building a bunk bed for a child in need — has grown into an international movement impacting hundreds of thousands of children.Luke opens up about his personal journey of purpose, the moment that sparked SHP, and how service and community can transform lives. He also shares how one small decision to help others can ignite a ripple effect that changes entire communities — and the world.This episode is a MUST-LISTEN!

From building beds for children in need and making sandwiches for hungry neighbors to spreading holiday cheer through handwritten cards, hundreds of Syracuse University students give back to their community every year through their involvement with their Recognized Student Organizations.Now, it's time to honor the passion of these student leaders through the Fall 2025 Student Organization Challenge, which awards valuable funds to the student groups with the most unique donors and the most social media interaction during October. Last year, the Syracuse University Volunteer Organization (SUVO) captured the Fall 2024 Challenge, while OrangeSeeds claimed the Spring 2025 Challenge. Every child should have access to a bed when they go to sleep. That's the driving force behind the SUVO's annual bed-building project. Student leaders like Ryan Edwards '26 have helped build 132 beds over the past two years, partnering with the local Sleep in Heavenly Peace chapter to get them to Central New York children who need them.On Service Saturdays, Nolan Singh '28 and his OrangeSeeds peers partner with nonprofits like We Rise Above The Streets Recovery Outreach, the Salvation Army and the Nottingham. These efforts culminate in “The Big Event,” the University's largest student-run community service project.With the Fall 2025 Challenge in full swing, Edwards and Singh stopped by the "'Cuse Conversations" podcast to share why they give back, how volunteering has shaped them as leaders and why every student should volunteer.

Julia Barrett – Sleep in Heavenly Peace – Jackson County Chapter President Sleep in Heavenly Peace – Jackson County is a local chapter of the national nonprofit with one simple mission: no child sleeps on the floor in our town. We build and deliver fully furnished twin beds complete with mattresses, pillows, and bedding to […]

Julia Barrett – Sleep in Heavenly Peace – Jackson County Chapter President Sleep in Heavenly Peace - Jackson County is a local chapter of the national nonprofit with one simple mission: no child sleeps on the floor in our town. We build and deliver fully furnished twin beds complete with mattresses, pillows, and bedding to […] The post Julia Barrett with Sleep in Heavenly Peace appeared first on Business RadioX ®.

Welcome to the podcast! I'm joined by Dave Hardwick & Mark Allison from Sleep in Heavenly Peace, an amazing nonprofit organization that ensures no child sleeps on the floor. Their mission is simple but powerful: building and delivering beds for kids in need. Let's dive into their story and how you can help make a difference.

Luke shares the journey from that first bed build with his church youth group to leading an international movement powered by volunteers, local chapters, and companies eager to make a difference. More than just building beds, they are a community working together to restore dignity, comfort, and hope, one child at a time.If you've ever wondered how a single act of kindness can create a wave of positive change for so many, Luke's conversation will beautifully demonstrate this. Luke Mickelson transformed a simple family project into Sleep in Heavenly Peace, an international organization that has provided over 300,000 beds to children who were previously sleeping on floors. What began as a bunk bed built with Boy Scouts in his Idaho garage has evolved into over 400 chapters across four countries, addressing the hidden crisis of "child bedlessness" that affects approximately 3% of children in every community.Let's enjoy his story. Returning the Favor with Mike RoweCNN HeroesCNN Heroes All-Star TributeNBC Nightly News with Lester HoltThe NBC TODAY ShowHallmark Home and Family ShowStrahan, Sara and Keke –GMASend BEHAS a text.Support the showTo Share - Connect & Relate: Share Your Thoughts and Shape the Show! Tell me what you love about the podcast and what you want to hear more about. Please email me at behas.podcast@gmail.com and be part of the conversation! To be on the show Podmatch Profile Ordinary people, extraordinary experiences - Real voices, real moments - ​Human connection through stories - Live true storytelling podcast - Confessions - First person emotional narratives - Unscripted Life Stories. Thank you for listening - Hasta Pronto!

How do we raise kids who look beyond themselves and become true agents of generosity in a self-centered world? In this heart-stirring episode of Christian Parent/Crazy World, Catherine welcomes an extraordinary guest whose story proves that one small act of service can ignite a global movement. Luke Mickelson—founder of Sleep in Heavenly Peace—shares how a simple urge to meet a need in his own community became a mission to ensure that “no kid sleeps on the floor in my town.” What began as a Christmas service project in his garage alongside his children and Boy Scout group has since grown into a national nonprofit providing hundreds of thousands of beds—literal safe havens—for children in need. Luke Mickelson’s journey began in a small Idaho town with an ordinary Saturday, a crisis of faith, and the realization that kids in his own community were literally sleeping on the floor. Instead of writing a check, Luke rolled up his sleeves, gathered some tools, and invited his own children—and a group of energetic Boy Scouts—to build a bed from scratch. That humble act of service didn’t just meet an immediate need, it filled a void in Luke’s life and eventually sparked a nationwide movement that has provided over 300,000 beds to kids in need. Key insights and moments from this episode include: How parents can teach their kids generosity by modeling it and making service hands-on and family-focused The importance of taking ownership for the brokenness in our own communities—and the power of the motto, “No kid sleeps on the floor in my town” The surprising scope of child bedlessness in America—and why so few people are even aware this need exists What it feels like to step out in faith and put everything on the line for a God-inspired calling Why meaningful service is the antidote to the emptiness that so many parents and children feel How ordinary community members (including retirees, families, and youth groups) can get involved in building and delivering beds—or even start a Sleep in Heavenly Peace chapter Practical ways to help, from raising awareness, volunteering, donating, or simply showing up for one kid in your town Luke's credentials as CNN’s Top 10 Hero, as well as his features on NBC News, PBS, and Mike Rowe’s Returning the Favor, uniquely position him to speak to the transformative power of hands-on generosity. His story is a forceful reminder that “God’s hands are your hands”—and that taking action, not just dreaming, is what transforms lives. Whether building beds, delivering hope, or finding creative ways for your family to serve, this conversation will equip and inspire you to become the hands and feet of Christ in your neighborhood. Guest Bio: Luke Mickelson is the founder of Sleep in Heavenly Peace (SHP), a nonprofit that builds and delivers beds to children in need. What started in his garage as a holiday project in 2012 has grown into a global movement, with over 350 chapters in four countries and more than 250,000 beds delivered. As the cause kept growing, Luke left an 18-year career to devote himself fully to the cause. SHP now has volunteers devoting 550,000 hours on average every year. Built on the belief that giving a bed is about more than comfort — it’s about dignity, purpose, and connection. Key Links: Learn more and get involved: shpbeds.org DONATE to SHP Watch Sleep in Heavenly Peace on Mike Rowe’s “Returning the Favor” Free parenting resources: catherine@catherinesegars.com Takeaway:You don’t need to change the world—just meet a need around you with your kids by your side. Faith comes alive when paired with action, and generous families don’t just bless others…they find the fullness of life God intends. Don’t miss this motivating and deeply practical conversation—perfect for families who want to model Christ’s love in real, tangible ways. Discover more Christian podcasts at lifeaudio.com and inquire about advertising opportunities at lifeaudio.com/contact-us.

Ryan Phelan is a partner and patent attorney at Marshall Gerstein. He discusses his journey from a background in computer science and fintech to becoming a prominent IP attorney serving clients in the MedTech industry and beyond. He shares insights on the importance of protecting intellectual property, especially for startups, and the burgeoning role of AI in medical technology. This succinct yet fascinating conversation highlights the critical intersection of law, technology, and medical innovation. Guest links: https://www.marshallip.com | https://www.patentnext.com/  Charity supported: Sleep in Heavenly Peace Interested in being a guest on the show or have feedback to share? Email us at theleadingdifference@velentium.com.  PRODUCTION CREDITS Host: Lindsey Dinneen Editing: Marketing Wise Producer: Velentium   EPISODE TRANSCRIPT Episode 058 - Ryan Phelan [00:00:00] Lindsey Dinneen: Hi, I'm Lindsey and I'm talking with MedTech industry leaders on how they change lives for a better world. [00:00:09] Diane Bouis: The inventions and technologies are fascinating and so are the people who work with them. [00:00:15] Frank Jaskulke: There was a period of time where I realized, fundamentally, my job was to go hang out with really smart people that are saving lives and then do work that would help them save more lives. [00:00:28] Diane Bouis: I got into the business to save lives and it is incredibly motivating to work with people who are in that same business, saving or improving lives. [00:00:38] Duane Mancini: What better industry than where I get to wake up every day and just save people's lives. [00:00:42] Lindsey Dinneen: These are extraordinary people doing extraordinary work, and this is The Leading Difference. Hello, and welcome back to another episode of The Leading Difference podcast. I'm your host, Lindsey, and I am so looking forward to my conversation today with Ryan Phelan. Ryan is a partner and patent attorney at the Chicago based intellectual property law firm, Marshall Gerstein, where he counsels medtech companies on protecting their valuable IP. Ryan ultimately believes that AI is an important technology to embrace, but cautions medical device and related companies to approach it pragmatically, developing a policy to govern and protect intangible assets and innovation. All right. Well, thank you so much for being here, Ryan. I'm so excited to speak with you today. [00:01:29] Ryan Phelan: Yeah. Thank you for having me. Thank you, Lindsey. [00:01:31] Lindsey Dinneen: Of course. Well, I'd love if you'd start off by sharing a little bit about your background and what led you to medtech. [00:01:39] Ryan Phelan: Sure, absolutely. So I'm an attorney by trade. And I started off in probably a different place than most people in MedTech, but I have a computer science degree and I worked in industry first for Accenture, doing a lot of programming and consulting in the FinTech world. So, high frequency trading and programming some pretty complicated data algorithms in order to trade stocks and bonds and securities, and things like this. That let me see aspects of intellectual property that people were doing with respect to the code I was writing. So I got curious with IP and law, and that led me to law school, Northwestern Law, in pursuing a joint JD, MBA program, which I finished in 2010. And I went into IP law with a passion for technology, pretty much in the computing space. And then in the last decade or so, IP practitioners, not unlike doctors, like to practice in specific areas and one of the ones that I focused on is software medical devices. And so that, that kind of led me into the realm of medtech. [00:02:48] Lindsey Dinneen: Very nice. Okay. So you have had such an interesting career trajectory and I'm wondering, back in the day, say you're a six year old Ryan, could six year old Ryan have predicted that you would be a lawyer and particularly intellectual property? [00:03:04] Ryan Phelan: Absolutely not. I mean, first of all nobody in my family, at least immediate family, was a lawyer. And so going to law school was not on the radar. I grew up in Louisiana in a small town, basically farm life, so certainly technology and stuff like that wasn't available in the city. But I did have a passion for things that were tech. I was certainly a kid that loved to take things apart and put them back together and build all kinds of Legos and stuff like that. So that basic kind of STEM acumen or desire was always there from the beginning. And so, as I, I grew up and got exposed to more things, certainly in college, it became kind of a passion. And so, I ended up doing that. We did have some medical issues in my family, including cardiac and cancer and stuff like that. So, those types of things always hit home with me and you're getting to a chance to kind of lean into medtech, at least on the software side, with medtech devices that include or incorporate medical technology became very interesting to me personally. [00:04:07] Lindsey Dinneen: Yeah, of course. And so going back just a smidgen when you decided to go into law and you know, you've come from this background that was the software engineering and you've got this fintech background and you have all of these amazing skill sets already, what led you specifically to say, "Okay, I want to focus on intellectual property, and so this is going to be my, my sweet spot." [00:04:33] Ryan Phelan: Yeah. So when you go to law school, you get exposed to a lot of different classes. In fact, in your first year law school, you're required to take a bunch of baseline courses like criminal law and all these things. And so you quickly figure out what you like and what you don't like. And so for me, a computer science degree is always kind of the beating heart of what I loved. And so I wanted to, I tended to like, classes that were up that alley, so to speak. And the IP course that I took was definitely there because it was all about technology, inventions, people making things, and how those inventions played out in court. So I found my greatest joy in law school to be in those classes. So I spoke up the most in class and did the best. There's common saying that "you should do things that you love because you never have to work a day in your life" kind of thing. So I always try to think about that, and certainly fun today because I practice in IP and picked that direction. [00:05:27] Lindsey Dinneen: Yeah, absolutely. So, in addition to all of the other credentials you have, you are also a published author and you are a speaker. And I would love if you would share maybe a little bit more about how you got into being a thought leader as well in your industry and how that path has taken you. [00:05:51] Ryan Phelan: Yeah, for sure. It's the same kind of thing. I've always liked to write as well. And I feel that when I write about something, I really get to understand it. And so in my field, there's a lot of stuff happening all the time. Like a court will come out with a new case, an IP and medtech or AI or something like this, and I really like to dig into it to figure out how can I use this court decision as a tool for clients, or how does this change things up? What will clients ask me questions going forward, or how can this be an interesting topic to either write about or to speak about? And so, I try to learn when I'm reading, and then I write it, and that teaches me, and I think and hope that others get a benefit from that too when I publish, so. [00:06:34] Lindsey Dinneen: Yes, of course. Of course. And you are also, if I'm not mistaken, an adjunct professor. So, first of all, do you sleep? And second of all, tell me more about this as well, please. [00:06:47] Ryan Phelan: Yeah, so I'm an adjunct professor at Northwestern Law. I teach a course on patenting software inventions. I do sleep because it's only once a year for a power week. You know, I think it's like three days out of the year. There's the long classes, they're like a few hours each, but we pack in several 30 minute core sessions into a day. So one day, maybe we'll go for three hours or two hours. And, you know, we will get the benefit of several weeks of coursework by doing all of that at once in those three days. And so, I teach on that. We teach fundamentals of patenting softwares and inventions, which includes medtech software devices. For example, the FDA classifies software, medical inventions in, in, in certain ways, like their software as a medical device where you have the software only such as, you have database with medical data and you're either formatting it or storing it or processing in some unique way, or you have software in a medical device where you actually have a physical device. It's a cardiac device where the software is running or at least partially running that device. And so we talk about ways to, to patent those inventions primarily with US law. So. [00:07:59] Lindsey Dinneen: Very nice. So specifically thinking about your medtech clients, because I know you probably have clients in many industries, but specifically in medtech, what are some of the common mistakes you see medtech companies making? Especially say, you know, an earlier startup or something like that, when maybe they haven't thought through an aspect that really should be thought through a little bit earlier in the process. What are some common things that you see that people should be aware of? [00:08:27] Ryan Phelan: Yeah, I mean, easily one of them is not filing a patent application early. And if they are a startup company and they have their biggest selling product, or what they think will be their biggest selling product, and they don't file a patent application on it, that could be bad because you have one year to get to the patent office with that, at least in the U. S. to file something once it's been publicly disclosed. And if you miss that deadline, then effectively you're allowing your competitors to copy it. And if you're a startup company, the last thing you want is for your product to become extremely successful and then a big Fortune 500 company gets wind of it, figures out you don't have a patent, and then just starts making it themselves and it takes away your market share. So that would be, you know, I think that's every inventor of startups like worst nightmare, right? So, getting that patent on file before the deadline is pretty important. [00:09:22] Lindsey Dinneen: Yeah, of course. Now, I noticed you had recently written an article on LinkedIn about when to file this patent. And I know part of maybe some concerns that might arise are, "Well, we don't necessarily want this to be in public awareness yet." So how do you walk that line between "This is our IP, we're really trying to keep it very tight," versus, "But I also need this protection, this legal protection." So how do you navigate things like that? [00:09:54] Ryan Phelan: Yeah, so the point at which you need to make your invention publicly available or to disclose it because you need to, you know, maybe you're going to pitch competition and you need to show your invention on like a PowerPoint deck in front of hundreds of people. Then that's probably a good point to start thinking about filing a patent application if you're still developing it, and it's like in your basement, so to speak, and nobody's seen it. It's still secret then. You don't need to necessarily file a patent application at that point. Although, there's a funny thing in patent law where, if you have an idea, sometimes there's somebody else thinking about it too, and the first one to get the patent office, wins, and so, you certainly don't want to wait around too long and find out years later that you filed your patent application the day after somebody else. This actually happened with Thomas Edison and the light bulb and he had lots of fights about the other person that was claiming the same thing that lost, and we don't remember his name today because of that. So anyway, so that's one thing to keep in mind when you're starting out. [00:10:54] Lindsey Dinneen: Yeah. Well, and speaking of those kinds of stories, are there any that particularly stand out to you as you've worked with all of these incredible clients who have seriously life changing products they're creating. Are there any that really stand out to you in your memory as affirming, "Oh my goodness, this is why I'm here. This is why I'm doing what I'm doing." [00:11:17] Ryan Phelan: Yeah, for sure. One that stands out is one in the opioid or the narcotics market. In my family, we have an individual who is unfortunately affected by this. And so, I had a client that reached out to me to create a VR program that helps to eliminate or to reduce cravings in this field. And that one was really impactful because using technology and non pharmaceutical way in order to reduce cravings for people that are struggling with addiction of some type, I felt to be very important. So I thoroughly enjoyed working with that inventor and helping to, to create that patent application for that invention. [00:11:59] Lindsey Dinneen: Yeah, of course. Yeah. Thank you for sharing about that. I think sometimes those really personal connection kinds of stories are the ones that really stick in your mind because it, it helps to have this moment of realization, like you know that what you do matters, of course, but then having that extra layer of confirmation that "Yes, this is helping somebody who could literally be a family member or a close friend or relative" is really impactful. [00:12:25] Ryan Phelan: Exactly. [00:12:26] Lindsey Dinneen: Yeah. So considering all of the industries that you currently serve, and of course, you have this incredibly varied background, which can only be wonderful to draw on from this rich history and experience of yours. What are some interesting crossovers you see between industries that can be useful in terms of, maybe one industry approaches something in a way that you've seen could actually really benefit folks in medtech or vice versa. Are you seeing trends like that? [00:12:59] Ryan Phelan: Yeah, absolutely. I mean, one of the biggest ones that I can think of now is artificial intelligence coming into play with medtech. I mean, certainly, medtech kind of runs the gamut of, you know, like, like we mentioned before software only to physical devices that incorporate software. And so AI is interesting because you can load it and AI model onto one of these physical devices, or you can have an AI model that's medtech based sitting on a server somewhere that can help doctors look or find particular cause or whatnot like that, based on symptoms that a patient may walk into, or maybe there's a device, like a needle, that allows that has an AI model on it that helps with injection or something like this. And so, these AI tools are becoming smarter. And I think that they help in the field of medtech and they require a different level of expertise with these inventions to not only create them because they're complex, but also to bring them to market because they require specific FDA regulations. Even the FDA right now is trying to figure out AI. They have approved several AI devices, but it usually comes down to, you know, is your AI device going to change in the near future because you're going to update the model? And if so, does that change it enough to require like a new submission? So the fact that AI moves so rapidly doesn't really mix well with the FDA's process of approving the device and having it set in stone at that approval state. [00:14:30] Lindsey Dinneen: Yeah. So where do you anticipate that this will take medical devices? Do you think it'll become so naturally ingrained in many of them that it's just sort of part of our reality, or do you think we'll still have those --what do we want to call them-- not AI functionality devices? [00:14:48] Ryan Phelan: Yeah, I think both will exist. You know, certainly a spectrum of these devices, right? Certainly there's surgical tools that exist now that have hundreds of years, or a hundred years, just in different, maybe better forms. So, those will stay, stick around. The AI assisted ones, I'm sure will find their niche, and live alongside the the existing tools. [00:15:10] Lindsey Dinneen: Yeah, absolutely. If you could narrow it down, what would be maybe your top piece of advice for a MedTech startup founder from your perspective, in your role? [00:15:23] Ryan Phelan: Yeah, I guess the number one would be again to, you know, make sure you're not giving away your crown jewels. Have your patent filed before you step out. If you're trying to raise money, just be careful that you're not sharing information publicly. You have to share with a potential investor, consider an NDA or if they won't sign an NDA, you can file a provisional patent application with the patent office. That shows that you have something on file before you talk to others. And as long as you describe the invention sufficiently in the four corners of your provisional application, then that's often the best way to protect yourself going out. So I think, as an IP attorney, that, that would be the number one advice that I would give a startup company in the medtech space. [00:16:10] Lindsey Dinneen: That's incredible. Thank you for that. That's really appreciated advice. So, it's so interesting because when I was looking at your LinkedIn profile, of course you have all of this incredible experience, and one thing actually really stood out to me, and that was that at least at some point you have been a and --I'm sure you've done this throughout your career multiple times-- but a pro bono lawyer for Lawyers for the Creative Arts. And I was curious about that and how you got involved, and can you share a little bit about that journey? [00:16:40] Ryan Phelan: Yeah. So LCA or Lawyers for the Creative Arts is an organization here in Chicago that deals with artists of limited means. You know, usually they have some type of basic issue that they want handled and it mainly deals with IP. Typically, I work on a different capacity for these because I see them as like kind of fun learning opportunities. I usually work in the copyright space and the clients that I work with need help either filing a copyright for maybe a piece of art that they've created, or maybe have a question about how their IP is being used or sold in some way, and they need to figure out if their IP has been infringed. And so, we'll work with them in a pro bono capacity to help write a letter to a company or to file a copyright registration and things like that. [00:17:28] Lindsey Dinneen: Well, as a, as my side thing as also an artist, I just want to say thank you because it is so great that you're doing things like that for the artist community. It is not always easy. So, oh, that's great, appreciate it. Yeah. So as you look towards your own future, what are you excited about say in the next year or two? [00:17:50] Ryan Phelan: Very excited to see how, I guess, AI is playing out with medtech. You're seeing regulations and guidelines coming out that The United States Patent and Trademark Office and also the Copyright Office about how these laws will impact artists. I've sat on a panel with the Copyright Office and the United States Patent and Trademark Office as they're thinking through these decisions and putting out these guidelines. There is questions about, is the new administration going to change things up with respect to guidance and guidelines that have come out. So, you know, artists are looking at AI is like a tool, like a paintbrush. And the law is kind of looking at it, obviously from the legal perspective and it doesn't seem like those two things are aligned yet. There's common in, in history that the law typically lags the technology by, you know, a decade or two or more. And so that's certainly the case with AI. For example, there is a famous -- I wouldn't call it a case-- but a denial of a copyright registration at the copyright office for a gentleman that had created an AI piece of artwork, won the Colorado state fair, I think in 2022, and tried to file a copyright registration, but was denied. And he told the copyright office, basically he had entered in 500 plus prompts in order to generate, or at least partially generate, this work of art, but was still denied . Not because of his effort, just because of the way the law is written under current copyright statutes. And so, things like that seem to be, at least from a policy perspective, incorrect. And so it'd be great to see exciting how this plays out. Will Congress care enough to change it or how will artists be impacted under these types of laws and policy considerations going forward? [00:19:35] Lindsey Dinneen: Yeah, absolutely. So pivoting the conversation a little bit just for fun, imagine that you were to be offered a million dollars masterclass on anything you want. It can be within your industry or part of your amazing background, or it could be about something entirely different. What would you choose to teach? [00:19:55] Ryan Phelan: Yeah. Wow. You know, I guess I would teach what I'm currently teaching. Cause I, I do enjoy the class I teach now. I'm at Northwestern, my alma mater, which I love. It's down the street from the office, get to go in same place where I went to school and teach the law and things that I do every day, which is patenting software inventions, including the medtech space. If I could get a million dollars to teach what I do now, that would be wonderful, in this hypothetical, so. [00:20:22] Lindsey Dinneen: Right. I love it. Excellent. And how do you wish to be remembered after you leave this world? [00:20:30] Ryan Phelan: Wow. I hope people remember me as someone who was fun loving and enjoyed tech and hopefully brought some information to the world that helped them in some way. [00:20:42] Lindsey Dinneen: Yeah, of course. And final question, what is one thing that makes you smile every time you see or think about it? [00:20:51] Ryan Phelan: Oh, wow. I guess there's a lot of stuff. I also like to do some type of sports. Currently, the ski season is ending, so I certainly enjoy skiing, so when I see or think about that's one of those things, and now coming is the golf season, so I transitioned into that. We're looking forward to some good weather here, finally, in Chicago. It was 80 degrees last week, and it snowed yesterday, so things are changing from golf to ski season, but one of those is always fun, so. [00:21:17] Lindsey Dinneen: That's awesome. That's fantastic. Yeah. If folks who are listening are in a position, would there be a way for them to get in contact with you and then how early should they do that actually? [00:21:31] Ryan Phelan: Yeah. There's multiple stages. They can get in touch with me anytime they want. You can always find me at our firm's website, Marshall Gerstein. Or if you want to, you can go to patentnext.com, just patent and the word next. com. That's my blog that I write on typically, and it has my contact information there, including my email address. [00:21:51] Lindsey Dinneen: Perfect. Well, thank you so much. Well, Ryan, it has been a joy to speak with you today. I really appreciate you sharing a little bit about your career and your insights, your advice, especially appreciate that for MedTech founders who might, you know, not quite know where to start with this whole legal element that they really need to consider. So I really appreciate you sharing kind of when and how to do that. And we're excited to be making a donation on your behalf, as a thank you for your time today, to Sleep in Heavenly Peace, which provides beds for children who don't have any in the United States. So thank you for choosing that charity to support. And thank you again so much for being here. This has been a wonderful conversation, and I just wish you the most continued success as you work to change lives for a better world. [00:22:41] Ryan Phelan: Thank you, Lindsey. My pleasure. Happy to be here too. Thank you for having me. [00:22:44] Lindsey Dinneen: Of course. And for our listeners, thank you so much for tuning in. If you're feeling as inspired as I am, I'd love it if you'd share this episode with a colleague or two, and we'll catch you next time. [00:22:56] Ben Trombold: The Leading Difference is brought to you by Velentium. Velentium is a full-service CDMO with 100% in-house capability to design, develop, and manufacture medical devices from class two wearables to class three active implantable medical devices. Velentium specializes in active implantables, leads, programmers, and accessories across a wide range of indications, such as neuromodulation, deep brain stimulation, cardiac management, and diabetes management. Velentium's core competencies include electrical, firmware, and mechanical design, mobile apps, embedded cybersecurity, human factors and usability, automated test systems, systems engineering, and contract manufacturing. Velentium works with clients worldwide, from startups seeking funding to established Fortune 100 companies. Visit velentium.com to explore your next step in medical device development.

The charity, Sleep in Heavenly Peace, is helping children get their own beds to sleep in so they don't have to sleep on the floor. It's seeking more volunteers and donations to help provide those beds. Student Reporter Cody Miller talked to Levi Shaffer, the Rexburg Chapter Director about this non-profit.

We learned to be careful what you put in your mouth today with the Ill-Advised News. We get into weird anniversaries, hacks you can’t believe people don’t know about, and we get into the latest sports news. Jerry from Sleep in Heavenly Peace joins us to talk about their big event this weekend, and we put Anthony through a spelling bee of words that sound dirty but aren’t. Support the show and follow us here Twitter, Insta, Apple, Amazon, Spotify and the Edge! See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

When it comes to leadership, efficiency isn't always the goal—especially if it means leaving people out of the process. In this episode, CNN Hero and Sleep in Heavenly Peace founder Luke Mickelson shares how “inefficiency by design” became a powerful strategy for building both beds and belonging. We explore what it means to lead through service, why volunteer experience matters as much as the mission, and how to turn purpose into action—one meaningful step at a time.  Resources:Sleep in Heavenly PeaceLooking for a community of leaders where you can tackle real challenges, share wins, and grow together—without office politics getting in the way? Join Leadership Thought Partners, a coach-led, group-directed space launching in July—early bird pricing ends May 31, 2025 at strongleadersserve.com/ltp! Connect on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/teri-m-schmidt/Get 1-on-1 leadership support from Teri here: https://www.strongleadersserve.com/coachingSet up an intro call with Teri: https://calendly.com/terischmidt/discoverycall

Sponsored by Eco-Cool HVAC What if one simple act of kindness could spark a global movement? In this powerful episode, Rich Bennett talks with Luke Mickelson, founder of Sleep in Heavenly Peace, who left behind a successful sales career to build beds for children in need. What began in his garage in 2012 has grown into a nationwide nonprofit with chapters in nearly every state and several countries.Luke shares the emotional story behind the first bed build, the inspiration from his own upbringing, and the "two-by-four moment" that changed his life. It's a story of faith, purpose, and the power of taking action when you feel called to serve. Guest: Luke Mickelson Luke Mickelson is the founder of Sleep in Heavenly Peace (SHP), a nonprofit that builds and delivers beds to children in need so that "no kid sleeps on the floor in our town." A former executive vice president in sales and marketing, Luke left a lucrative 18-year career to pursue his calling. Since 2012, SHP has delivered over 300,000 beds worldwide and mobilized over half a million volunteer hours. Named a CNN Top 10 Hero and featured on Returning the Favor with Mike Rowe, Luke's story continues to inspire countless others to take action in their communities. Main Topics: ·         Luke's personal “two-by-four” moment that inspired SHP·      Send us a textPre-order your copy today Join us for “One Song,” a benefit concert by the Big Infinite to support the Ed Lally Foundation's mental health and suicide prevention initiatives. This special evening will feature heartfelt music and person stories, fostering connection and well-being among attendees. Come together to celebrate unity and healing through the power of music.One Song Benefit Concert for the Ed Lally FoundatEco-Cool HVACYOUR FRIEND IN THE SUMMERS & WINTERS! Heating & Air Conditioning Service and Repair, Furnace & BoilDisclaimer: This post contains affiliate links. If you make a purchase, I may receive a commission at no extra cost to you.Support the showRate & Review on Apple Podcasts Follow the Conversations with Rich Bennett podcast on Social Media:Facebook – Conversations with Rich Bennett Facebook Group (Join the conversation) – Conversations with Rich Bennett podcast group | FacebookTwitter – Conversations with Rich Bennett Instagram – @conversationswithrichbennettTikTok – CWRB (@conversationsrichbennett) | TikTok Sponsors, Affiliates, and ways we pay the bills:Hosted on BuzzsproutRocketbookSquadCast Contests & Giveaways Subscribe by Email

Send us a textWhat would compel a successful executive to walk away from his career to build beds for children? For Luke Mickelson, it was the shocking discovery that kids in his community were sleeping on the floor. That realization sparked a mission that has since transformed into Sleep in Heavenly Peace, now the world's largest bed-building charity with 400+ chapters across four countries.Luke's journey began in 2012 when he learned about a family whose children had no beds. What started as a simple project with his Boy Scout troop quickly revealed a widespread, silent epidemic. More than 7 million American children don't have proper beds, affecting their health, education, and self-esteem. "I tell people it's kind of shocking that child bedlessness is even a thing," Luke shares, "but it represents greater than 3% of the total population."The emotional heart of Luke's mission crystallized when he delivered a bed to a little girl named Haley, who had been sleeping on a pile of clothes in an empty house. "She started hugging us and hugging the bed and kissing the bed," Luke recalls. Watching her mother's tears of relief cemented his determination: "No kid's gonna sleep on the floor in my town if I have anything to do with it."What makes Sleep in Heavenly Peace remarkable isn't just the number of beds they've built—over 300,000 since 2018—but their community-based approach. Each chapter operates locally, with 90% of donations staying in the community where they're received. Volunteers experience profound satisfaction from both building beds (what Luke calls "the happiest volunteer is the sweatiest and dustiest") and delivering them to children whose lives are transformed by this simple necessity.The ripple effects extend beyond better sleep. Children gain confidence, improve academically, and feel worthy of friendship and connection. "These kids don't have blankets sometimes to put over their heads to hide from the monster in the closet," Luke explains, highlighting how a bed represents security that many take for granted.Ready to make a difference? Visit shpbeds.org to find your local chapter, volunteer, donate, or even start a chapter in your community. As Luke learned firsthand, "True joy is found in serving others. When you stop looking at yourself and start seeing how you can help other people, your problems don't go away, but they just don't seem as heavy."

Luke Mickelson is the founder of Sleep in Heavenly Peace, a nonprofit that has built and delivered more than 300,000 beds to children in need across the world. With nothing but hope, hammers, and heart, Luke traded his corporate success for a movement rooted in dignity, compassion, and community. Today, Luke shares how one “tiny moment” changed everything. From witnessing a little girl named Haley receive her very first bed to walking away from a steady career to serve full time, Luke is proves that a willing heart and a power drill can change lives... starting with your own. My friends, if you need a reminder that purpose can begin with the simplest of actions, this conversation is for you. You'll leave this episode with a deeper belief that your tiny moments matter, and that one small "yes" can transform a community.  

This week, Mike welcomes Luke Mickelson, the founder of the nonprofit organization Sleep in Heavenly Peace. Mickelson shares the poignant story that led him to build his first bed for a child in need, leading to the creation of Sleep in Heavenly Peace. What began as a simple act of kindness has grown into a global movement. Today, SHP has over 400 chapters in 4 countries and 46 U.S. states, delivering beds to nearly 300,000 children in need. Luke has personally trained and mentored hundreds of chapter leaders, sharing his blueprint for community-driven change and empowering others to serve with heart and purpose. In this episode, Luke discusses the emotional moments that fueled his passion, such as delivering a bed to a young girl named Haley who had never owned one, and the realization of the critical issue of child bedlessness. The interview also emphasizes the joy and purpose found in serving others and how small actions can lead to monumental change. Luke details how volunteers and donations have played a critical role in the organization's success, outlining ways listeners can get involved, from building beds to spreading awareness or even starting their own chapter. Tune in to be inspired and learn how you can make a meaningful difference in your community!   Resources Mentioned in This Episode: Donate to Sleep in Heavenly Peace   Connect with Luke: Website Facebook Instagram LinkedIn X   Connect with Mike: Linktree   SPONSORS: Social Chameleon | Transform Your Podcast   AFFILIATES: Libsyn: First Month FREE with Promo Code BEGREAT Riverside | This interview was recorded on Riverside   Want to become a show sponsor or affiliate? Email mike@socialchameleon.us   Copyright © 2025 Mike'D Up! with Mike DiCioccio | For permission to use this content in any way, please email mike@socialchameleon.us

In this heartwarming episode of The Proven Entrepreneur Show, host Don Williams sits down with Luke Mickelson, the inspiring founder of Sleep in Heavenly Peace, a nonprofit organization dedicated to ensuring no child sleeps on the floor. Luke shares his incredible journey from building the first bed in his garage to leading a global movement that has delivered nearly 300,000 beds to children in need across four countries.Discover the powerful story behind the mission statement "No kid sleeps on the floor in our town," and learn how a simple act of kindness transformed Luke's life and the lives of countless children. Luke discusses the challenges and triumphs of running a nonprofit, the importance of community involvement, and the impact of being named one of CNN's Top 10 Heroes in 2018.Don and Luke delve into the significance of passion and purpose in entrepreneurship, the value of humility and leadership, and the future goals for Sleep in Heavenly Peace, including ambitious plans to expand globally and reach more children in need. This episode is filled with motivational insights, touching anecdotes, and practical advice for anyone looking to make a difference in their community.Tune in to hear about:The origins and mission of Sleep in Heavenly PeaceLuke's personal experiences and the emotional impact of delivering beds to childrenThe growth and expansion of the nonprofit organizationThe role of community and volunteerism in solving child bedlessnessStrategic goals and future plans for Sleep in Heavenly PeaceThe importance of following your passion and making a meaningful impactFeatured:Guest: Luke Mickelson, Founder, Sleep in Heavenly PeaceHost: Don Williams, The Proven Entrepreneur ShowEntity: Sleep in Heavenly Peace: A Non-profit OrganizationDon't miss this inspiring conversation that highlights the power of compassion, community, and entrepreneurial spirit. Listen now and be motivated to take action in your own community!

In this heartfelt episode, Alex Quin sits down with Luke Mickelson, the founder of Sleep in Heavenly Peace, a nonprofit on a mission to end child bedlessness. What began as a small garage project has transformed into a global network with 350 chapters across four countries and over 250,000 beds delivered. Luke shares how a single community need shifted his perspective on success and led him to walk away from a high-paying career. Learn about the pivotal moment that inspired the movement, the scale of the issue, and the grassroots strategies that helped SHP thrive.Episode Outline[00:00:03] Intro: Meet Luke Mickelson and SHP's impact[00:02:15] How Luke discovered child bedlessness[00:07:40] The first build: From garage to mission[00:12:10] Personal transformation: Fulfillment through service[00:16:50] Early challenges and Facebook's unexpected role[00:23:10] First delivery: The story of Haley[00:29:05] Scaling SHP: People, process, and passion[00:34:45] Child development and the effects of bedlessness[00:39:20] Redefining success and building community[00:44:00] How to get involved with SHPWisdom NuggetsFrom Couch to Action: Real change begins the moment you move from wanting to act to actually doing something. Luke's story highlights how powerful a few inches of movement—off the couch—can be.Local First, Impact Global: SHP's model focuses on keeping support local. This not only solves immediate community issues but fosters long-term engagement and ownership.You Can't Scale Alone: Empowering others and letting go of control was key to SHP's expansion. Trusting people with clear responsibilities created a thriving, scalable nonprofit.Redefining Wealth: True success isn't the size of your paycheck—it's the impact you leave behind. For Luke, fulfillment came from service, not status.Simple Fix, Big Problem: Child bedlessness is a solvable issue that most people don't even realize exists. A $300 bed can drastically improve a child's life and future.Power Quotes:“No kid is gonna sleep on the floor in my town if I have anything to do with it.” - Luke MickelsaonMeet the Guest:Instagram: [https://www.instagram.com/shpluke/]Website [https://shpbeds.org/]Connect With the Podcast Host Alex Quin:Instagram: (https://www.instagram.com/alexquin)Twitter: (https://twitter.com/mralexquin)LinkedIn: (https://www.linkedin.com/in/mralexquin)Website: (https://alexquin.com)TikTok: (https://www.tiktok.com/@mralexquin)Our CommunityInstagram:(https://www.instagram.com/hustleinspireshustle)Twitter: (https://twitter.com/HustleInspires)LinkedIn: (https://www.linkedin.com/company/hustle-inspires-hustle)Website: (https://hustleinspireshustle.com)*This page may contain affiliate links or sponsored content. When you click on these links or engage with the sponsored content and make a purchase or take some other action, we may receive a commission or compensation at no additional cost to you. We only promote products or services that we genuinely believe will add value to our readers & listeners.*See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Luke Mickelson is the Executive Director of Sleep in Heavenly Peace, a non-profit that believes all children deserve a safe, comfortable place to lay their heads, joins the podcast. One Republican, one Democrat, one black, one white, both devoted Christians that love the Lord and one another! Follow each week as Bill and Odell Find Common Ground! To learn more, please visit our website http://www.thecommonground.show/ This podcast is produced by BG Podcast Network. For advertising inquiries, please reach out to J.southerland@bgadgroup.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Host David Cozart talks with Brad and Leslie Hinrichs about our March-April mission emphasis, Sleep in Heavenly Peace. To learn more about this organization, visit their website: https://shpbeds.org/chapter/tx-waco/

Sleep in Heavenly Peace is helping solve the "bedless" problem in the United States for Children. In this episode,  Adam Torres and Luke Mickelson, Founder of Sleep in Heavenly Peace, explore the bedless problem in the United States for children. Follow Adam on Instagram at https://www.instagram.com/askadamtorres/ for up to date information on book releases and tour schedule. Apply to be a guest on our podcast: https://missionmatters.lpages.co/podcastguest/ Visit our website: https://missionmatters.com/ More FREE content from Mission Matters here: https://linktr.ee/missionmattersmedia Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

On this MADM, Buffy Loveday is sharing about the passion that her and her husband, Kevin, have for the work of Sleep in Heavenly Peace as they provide beds for children in need in their community. Listen & share. Sponsor: Bob Sykes Bar B Q BobSykes.com

Thanks to Monica Agate, who I met while Uber driving, I was connected with Buffy Loveday with Sleep in Heavenly Peace - TN, Sumner Co! On tonight's show, I will be talking with Buffy about how the Sleep in Heavenly Peace effort impacted her husband, Kevin, in a powerful way and the teams that have been built because of their passion for providing beds for children in need.

It's Christmas Eve Tuesday, December 24th, A.D. 2024. This is The Worldview in 5 Minutes written by Kevin Swanson and heard on 125 radio stations and at www.TheWorldview.com.  Filling in for Adam McMannus I'm Ean Leppin. National Association of Realtors Attacks Free Speech The US National Association of Realtors has slammed a Christian realtor in Virginia for his stance taken for the cause of righteousness. Wilson Fauber was declared guilty by the NAR ethics panel for “harassing speech” and “hate speech.”  Fauber's social media posts espoused traditional Christian views on marriage and sexuality. He shared comments from Franklin Graham and other Christian leaders online. In a statement released by the Founding Freedoms Law Center (FFLC), Fauber said: “In 44 years as a realtor, I have loved and served all people. Regularly, I hear from other faith-based realtors that live in fear of being similarly prosecuted for their faith, and potentially losing their livelihoods, if they don't hide their faith well enough."  Fauber's attorneys are seeking out other legal options in the case. In an interview with CBN News Fauber's attorney with the Founding Freedoms Law Center, Michael Sylvester said this concerning the case. SYLVESTER: “If speaking the Bible is hate-speech, we've really reached a new low, because we used to value our professions because of the values that they bring into society. So, we really need to say, 'no' to large-scale private censorship, and allow free speech again, instead of the censorship that we're seeing.” So what are Wilson Fauber's plans in pursuing this legally? FAUBER: “I'm adamant about pursuing the case. I believe the Lord has called me for such a time as this, to be His voice on this particular matter. [H]e has given me His peace. I feel strong about this, and I'm going to do everything I can to expose everything that is going on, and try to right the wrong, because this really isn't just about me. The National Association of Realtors has over 1,500,000 paying members, and so we're all under the same ordinance and these policies that are very binding on our lives 24/7. And, I don't think that that's right.” Jesus said, “Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness' sake, For theirs is the kingdom of heaven. 11 Blessed are you when they revile and persecute you, and say all kinds of evil against you falsely for My sake. 12 Rejoice and be exceedingly glad, for great is your reward in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you. Biden Pardons Murderers The President of the United States, Joe Biden, has issued clemency for America's worst criminals. He has commuted the sentences of 37 out of 40, the murderers convicted in federal courts over the years, reclassifying their sentences to life without the possibility of parole. The victims of the 37 include law enforcement officers and children. Some were guilty of murdering multiple victims, including drug lord, Kaboni Savage who lived up to his name - responsible for the murder of 12 people. Having pardoned 65 individuals, and commuting sentences of 1,634 others, President Biden has issued more pardons than any president in a 4 year term. U.S. Gives Over $2 Billion to Taiwan U.S. President Joe Biden has authorized up to $571 million of defense assets for Taiwan's defense program. That will take the US contributions to Taiwan in 2024 to $2.7 billion — the first major support for the island country since 1970. In response, China's Foreign Ministry issued a statement laced in threats, quote, “To aid “Taiwan independence” by arming Taiwan is just like playing with fire and will get the US burned.” Taiwan's GDP is about 6% that of communist China, with a population of 1.6% of China's. Taiwan's free market has enabled about 4 times the productivity of the communist nation.  American View of China at an All-Time Low The average American's view of China has hit an all-time low, positivity dropping from 53% in 1986 to 26% in the 2024 survey. The Surveys have been conducted by the Chicago Council on Global Affairs since 1978. Majorities of Americans want to limit the growth of China's power, view China as a US rival, and say US-China trade weakens US national security.  Communist China's portion of the World Gross Product has expanded from 2.05% in 1980 to 19% in 2024. The US share of the World Gross Product has remained about the same — around 25%. El Salvador Pressured to Allow Abortion In 2013, an El Salvadoran woman with health problems lost her baby by C-section. She had earlier requested an abortion, but could not get it in a pro-life country. The mother's life was intact, but the case was appealed to a progressive, multinational court called the Inter-American Court of Human Rights (IACHR). The court found the government of El Salvador “responsible for violating the American Convention on Human Rights,” and ordered the nation to “amend existing medical protocols” to allow for abortion in similar cases. Remember Those Suffering From Hunger This Christmas, remember those suffering from severe hunger — Haiti, Sudan, South Sudan, Congo, Chad, Niger, and Somalia.  As of October 24, Somalia had “the second-highest undernourishment rate (over 51%), and the third-highest child mortality rate (over 10%)”North Korea has the highest undernourishment rate in the world. Starvation problems have reached 2008-2009 proportions, according to a report from the World Health Organization.  Story of the Author Behind "Silent Night" On December 24, 1818, Father Joseph Mohr of Oberndorf, Austria, was dealing with flooding in his chapel, and a damaged organ. He walked three kilometers to visit his organist friend, Franz Gruber, with a request. . . that he compose a Christmas tune to accommodate 6 verses of a poem he had written two years earlier —- to be accompanied by a simple guitar later that evening. Gruber returned two hours later with the music of a Christmas carol that would be included in almost every Christmas Eve service for the next two hundred years. Silent Night. Holy Night. All is Calm. All is Bright. Round Yon Virgin Mother and Child. Holy infant so tender and mild. Sleep in Heavenly Peace. Silent night! Holy night!. . . Shepherds quake at the sight! Glories stream from heaven afar, Heavenly hosts sing Alleluia! Christ the Saviour is born! Christ the Saviour is born! A blessed Christmas to our listeners, as we celebrate the birth of the very Son of God, the Savior of the world!  “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved.” Close And that's The Worldview on this Monday, December 23rd, in the year of our Lord 2024. Subscribe by Amazon Music or by iTunes or email to our unique Christian newscast at www.TheWorldview.com. Or get the Generations app through Google Play or The App Store. I'm Ean Leppin feel free to email me contact@eanvoiceit. Seize the day for Jesus Christ.

Celebrate the Savior who brings peace to every heart and every season. In Part 4 of this series, Pastor Miles reflects on Joseph's faith. Life is bright when we trust God's plan, stand on His promise that Jesus saves, and fulfill His purpose through obedience, as Joseph did in embracing his role in God's divine story.

12pm - At the Sleep in Heavenly Peace as the Sabres return to practice.

12:30pm - The Executive Director of Sleep in Heavenly Peace joins the show on what their non profit does for the Western New York community.

Full show live from the Sleep in Heavenly Peace facility.

Celebrate the Savior who brings peace to every heart and every season. In Part 3 of this series, Pastor Miles shared a powerful message reminding us that true peace is found in God's perfect timing, His provision, and our new identity in Christ. From Galatians 4:4-7, he highlighted how God sent His Son at just the right time to redeem us, adopting us as His children. What an incredible reminder of God's faithfulness and love this Christmas season!

Celebrate the Savior who brings peace to every heart and every season. In Part 2 of this series, Pastor Travis celebrates Christmas as the "Holy Night" when God gave us Jesus, calling us to reflect His holiness. He reminds us that Jesus guides us as the Wonderful Counselor, strengthens us as the Mighty God, loves us as the Everlasting Father, and redeems us as the Prince of Peace, urging us to honor Him this season.

The famous words of Silent Night give us a tender moment every year where we consider how to "Sleep in Heavenly Peace." But was the moment of Jesus birth peaceful? How do we have a heavenly peace while we are on Earth?

What is Advent peace? Does it mean inner peace, world peace, or maybe peace with God and others? In this second episode of the Good Faith Advent series, Curtis Chang is joined by Good Faith contributor and author Andy Crouch to explore the true meaning of the peace promised by Jesus' coming. Together, they challenge common assumptions about peace, examining familiar Christmas messages through the lens of Scripture and the historical context of Christ's birth. By reexamining some familiar hymns and traditions, Curtis and Andy invite listeners to consider an Advent peace that acknowledges suffering and speaks into the hard realities of the holiday season—and everyday life. Make a year-end tax deductible gift to Redeeming Babel: HERE Send your Campfire Stories to: info@redeemingbabel.org   Listen to Songs For the After Party, get sheet music, lyrics, and prayers for your church.   Referenced in This Episode: Watch Curtis and Sar Billups' Advent conversation about hope Read about Pax Romana (Roman Peace) Explore Simeon's words to Mary Read about the Wales Window of Birmingham, Alabama Buy & Read Fleming Rutledge's The Crucifixion: Understanding the Death of Jesus Christ Read one woman's account of the Camino de Santiago Read the story behind Silent Night Read the story behind O Little Town of Bethlehem Read about the Massacre of the Innocents Watch Curtis' conversation with Amy Low Watch/Listen to The Lord Will Have His Way   Explore Andy Crouch's work: Check out Andy's website Check out Andy's work at Praxis Read Andy's book: The Life We're Looking For

Celebrate the Savior who brings peace to every heart and every season. In Part 1 of this series, Pastor Travis reminds us that seasons of waiting are opportunities for growth and faith. Don't waste the wait—trust God's process, surrender to His timing, and pray with expectation. What feels silent now can become a "suddenly" breakthrough when we align our hearts with His plan.

And the story of how it was revealed in the most beautiful way possible, while serving with Sleep in Heavenly Peace! This couple has led their Gadsden, Alabama chapter to delivering 1,656 beds to kids without them. Support the show: https://www.normalfolks.us/premiumSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

And the story of how it was revealed in the most beautiful way possible, while serving with Sleep in Heavenly Peace! This couple has led their Gadsden, Alabama chapter to delivering 1,656 beds to kids without them. Support the show: https://www.normalfolks.us/premiumSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.