Podcasts about ink magazine

Send us a text. We love to hear from our fans.SummaryIn this conversation, Janet Engel interviews Deval Patel, CEO and founder of the Lotus Ring, a wearable device that allows users to control various devices by pointing. The discussion covers the product's launch success, recognition at CES, and its unique benefits for older adults and people with disabilities. Deval shares insights from user experiences, including unexpected use cases and challenges with existing voice assistants. The conversation also touches on marketing strategies, product details, and future plans for the Lotus Ring.TakeawaysThe Lotus Ring has received fantastic reviews since its launch.Recognition by major publications like Ink Magazine highlights its impact.Meeting Stevie Wonder provided valuable insights into the needs of blind users.Unexpected use cases include helping older adults navigate their homes safely.Voice assistants often fail to recognize users with accents or speech impairments.Setting up smart home devices can be complex and time-consuming.The Lotus Ring offers a simple, app-free solution for device control.The product is designed to be user-friendly for older adults and their families.Battery life of the Lotus Ring is impressive, lasting up to six months.Future plans include expanding product offerings and potential family sharing options.Sound Bites"Isn't it wonderful what you've created?""Alexa only listens to my husband.""There's no need for an app.""You can take it with you wherever you go.""You can use it at any family member's home.""It's been an honor and a privilege."Chapters00:00 Introduction to the Lotus Ring01:04 Launch Success and Recognition02:13 Meeting Stevie Wonder and Insights on Blind Navigation06:08 Unexpected Use Cases for Older Adults08:35 Aha Moments and User Experiences12:21 Challenges with Voice Assistants14:29 The Complexity of Smart Home Setup15:57 The Versatility of the Lotus Ring19:08 Marketing Strategies for Older Adults21:31 Product Details and Pricing24:02 Future Plans and Family Sharing26:05 Battery Life and User Experience28:05 Conclusion and Future Updateswebsite: Lotus: Control Objects at Home by PointingSupport the showwebsite: https://homedesignsforlife.com/Email: homedesignsforlife@gmail.com

This past week we celebrated the life of one of my closest friends and former podcast guest, John Ruhlin, who we lost very suddenly at the young age of 44.  John left behind his wife Lindsay, and four daughters, Reagan, Blakely, Saylor, and Layton.  Please pray for his family and loved ones during this tragic time. To honor John and his legacy, we wanted to pull his episode from our archives and republish it today.  Whether it's your first time listening, or if you've heard the episode before, there is so much practical wisdom shared on how to love people and cherish relationships that it's worth listening again and sharing with those you love most.  Please enjoy the podcast, and God bless you all!   Get ready for a fascinating conversation with John Ruhlin! Today, John Ruhlin joins us to discuss Giftology, the science of gift-giving. John Ruhlin is the founder of Giftology and the world's leading authority on maximizing relationships and loyalty, both personal and business, through radical generosity. He is also the author of the best-selling book “Giftology” and a highly sought after keynote speaker. John and Giftology have been featured in and on Fox News, Forbes, Fast Company, Ink Magazine, and the New York Times. A short list of John's many clients include: Raymond James, the Chicago Cubs, and Caesars Palace. Even more, John is a loyal husband, a loving father of four, an amazing friend, and an all-around stellar human being living out a Born to Impact life firsthand. In this episode, we discuss: -Why gifts are so important -How to build your relationship plan -How to avoid giving bad gifts -Why unexpected gifts are best -The “look before you leap” of gift-giving And so much more. John's story will inspire you, encourage you, and pull you even closer to living the life you were born to live ... don't miss it. Even more, be sure to subscribe to the Born to Impact podcast to ensure you get notified as new episodes release each week! After listening, connect with John on Instagram @JohnRuhlin, and be sure to check out Giftology at https://giftologygroup.com/

Ever wonder what your arch-nemesis would say about you in a job interview? Or how you'd explain your choice between battling a hundred duck-sized horses or one horse-sized duck? Buckle in for a wild ride as we explore these eccentric interview questions and share bemusing HR anecdotes. This episode offers a chance to laugh, learn, and ponder some of life's most unusual queries. As we navigate the post-pandemic work landscape, Amazon's CEO, Andy Jassy's recent comments highlight the contentious decision of returning to the office or continuing remote work. Who truly owns your position? You or your company? We break down this provocative notion, deeply influenced by Suzanne Lucas's compelling piece for Ink Magazine. The stakes are high, and the choice is yours - adapt or move on. Lastly, we unravel the twisted tale of a travel rewards dispute that sheds light on complex workplace dynamics. Picture this - an employee accusing a travel assistant of stealing his reward points. Sounds simple, right? Think again. Dive into the murky waters of this controversy, and let's explore together the role of the company in such situations. As a palate cleanser, we've also got an amusing story about a candy bar reward system that led to a surprising career move. Get ready to join in our fun debate - would you rather have 100 duck-sized horses or one horse-sized duck? Trust us; this is an episode you wouldn't want to miss!Support the showWant to:* Share a dumb employee question* Share a crazy story* Ask us a question* Share a best practice * Give us feedback Our Link Tree below has links to our social media sites, Patreon, Apple podcasts, Spotify & more.Please leave a review on your favorite podcast player and interact with us online!Linktree - https://linktr.ee/jadedhr

There are more opportunities than ever to build sound into your brand. Thinking of ways to differentiate your brand try using sound in one way or another in association with your brand and drive more business to your company as a result.

Show Notes: Soren Kaplan, author of Experiential Intelligence: Harnessing the power of experience for personal and business breakthroughs, talks about his book, his experience as a consultant, and the software company he founded, Praxie.com, to digitize his consulting processes and help other consultants and Fortune 1000 clients scale their processes.  Soren decided to scale up his experience in executive education, leadership development, and innovation and strategy work, which led him to create the no-code software platform he uses to digitize his own consulting work processes and create annuity revenue streams.  SaaS as a Service Business Model for Consultants  Soren's team has done extensive work in work process digitization, and they realized that the best scalable way to do this is to create a platform that anyone can use to do it themselves or help others do it in a fast and easy way using no-code software. Soren talks about the first application and use case and how it helps consultants to access templates and  processes, and streamline workflow. Soren's innovation consulting experience led him to create a platform for running the innovation process for a large steel manufacturing company. He shares how the team has their customized process digitized in a workflow that their entire team can now use in a repeatable way. He explains that the software is a SaaS software as a service business model, combining consulting with work process design. Soren explains the innovation process: idea generation, validation, and implementation. The process involves evaluating the different dimensions of the first phase, selecting which ideas to move forward, and then evaluating the results. The process then moves on to validation, where the user evaluates the assumptions and moves them to the next phase. The digitized workflow allows individuals or teams to view their entire portfolio as a dashboard, showing pipeline, portfolio maps, and financials. Teams can work through their own product ideas and provide access to the dashboard for reporting. The application also includes tools for execution and dashboard elements for reporting.  A Branded SaaS App for Consultants Soren talks about the low cost of the digital application, as it digitizes hundreds of tools and templates. For example, a PowerPoint or Excel file can be converted into an interactive template online, making it more cost-effective for clients. The sales process is the engagement process, with the cost depending on the level of customization. The Praxie tool is similar to SaaS software, with a monthly fee per user. He explains how a consultant can use the platform to develop their own business process software, and how the pricing model is adapted to the user and the customization. The business model is being built with tools which allow consultants to build their own branded processes within it. Soren explains that the platform is built in the Google Cloud, which allows for easy security and billing. The platform also provides an annual fee for consulting clients, which includes technology and consultative support. The revenue share is determined by the number of users and the different apps available. Consultants can quickly build their own SaaS application for their branded processes and tools, and sell them. This becomes an ongoing, billable opportunity, making it profitable for the consultant.  Soren believes that having a software platform or application that supports best practices with clients is an opportunity to sustain the relationship. He suggests checking in quarterly or annually to check in on the process, modify and update it, and using the software to help build and sustain client relationships.  Soren talks about developing a robust portfolio of work, which now  includes writing for Ink Magazine, Psychology Today, Fast Company, and books on creating a culture of innovation and leadership for innovation. He also engages in consulting, developing business strategy, and creating innovative portfolios of products and services for companies. His speaking engagements often lead to consulting and sometimes a day or two-day stay with the leadership team. Experiential Intelligence Explained Soren explains the concept of experiential intelligence and how it combines IQ, EQ, emotional intelligence, and experiences. It is the intelligence gained from our experiences, which are broken down into three components: mindsets, abilities, and skills. Experiential intelligence is a combination of IQ and EQ, which are essential for leadership, change management, and alignment in organizations. In today's fast-changing world, the combination of these factors is not sufficient. Soren's book highlights the importance of experiential intelligence, which is the combination of IQ and emotional intelligence.  Experiential intelligence is a key factor in today's disruptive world, as it helps individuals develop their skills and abilities, as well as their ability to live with uncertainty or ambiguity. This experiential intelligence is not just about street smarts, but also about understanding the other dimensions of an individual's experience that are not yet recognized as such. Executive interviews often focus on a candidate's experience, such as their experience in a supply chain role. However, experiential intelligence can also be a valuable tool for leaders to understand their own mindsets and personal experiences. Experiential intelligence can be applied to both individual and team members, as it allows leaders to probe for life experiences that have shaped their abilities and contribute to the overall success of their teams. This can be particularly valuable in the hiring process and in the hiring process of existing teams. He explains that experiential intelligence is a valuable tool for leaders to understand and leverage their experiences, skills, and hidden assets, outside of their resume, to create a more effective and successful team.  Building a Robust Corporate Culture Soren emphasizes the importance of understanding and applying culture to create corporate culture. Culture is created from people's experiences, which reinforce assumptions about what is good or bad and the environment. Leaders can intervene by changing experiences and reshaping assumptions and culture. One way to do this is to look at and scale best practices within the organization. This involves identifying the experiential intelligence of both individuals and teams and highlighting their stories. This can be achieved through training, recognition, awards, and rewards. Another way to build teams is to recognize and leverage assets that may not be fully appreciated within teams. He shares the example of a Fortune 1000 company team after the COVID pandemic. This process allowed the larger department to identify new assets and apply them to their business strategy. This empowering process allowed people to surface their individual strengths, see how they contribute to the team, and apply them into the organization's future business strategy. Soren shares exercises that anyone can use to reflect on their own experiences and inventory their mindsets, abilities, and know-how. He suggests using this information to identify gaps, seek out other experiences, or realize their capabilities that they weren't fully utilizing, and he offers a personal example. He suggests thinking back on the experiences that have the biggest impact on their trajectory in life, whether they are difficult or positive. This can help them live with ambiguity, which is essential for startups and decision-making. Soren's experiences have helped him coach leaders and understand culture quickly. The next level involves dividing experiences into positive and challenging ones, focusing on the mindsets and skills that were learned from them. This baseline can be used to reassess how to use these experiences to improve performance, create new service offerings, or contribute to their team or others.   Timestamps: 01:10 Why Soren started Praxie.com 04:44 The product development process of Proxy.com 13:41 How the Praxie platform works for consultants 15:58 How billing works for consulting companies 23:47 Experiential intelligence and how it works 32:48 How leaders can intervene and reshape culture 37:48 Developing experiential intelligence through difficult and challenging experiences. Links: Company: https://praxie.com/ Website:SorenKaplan.com Unleashed is produced by Umbrex, which has a mission of connecting independent management consultants with one another, creating opportunities for members to meet, build relationships, and share lessons learned. Learn more at www.umbrex.com.  

Welcome to an episode where the secrets to successful book marketing are spilt with our special guest, Linda Radke from Story Monsters Inc. We're shining a spotlight on Linda's journey from a passionate educator to the creator of the Story Monsters brand, which offers a treasure trove of author services, including a book award program and an influential magazine. Tune in to gain insights on how you can increase your chances of getting your book reviewed at Story Monsters Inc. Ink Magazine and other platforms.Ever wondered how to market your books without breaking the bank? Linda shares her roadmap to successful budget-friendly book marketing. She also discusses her experience publishing the 60-Minute Shakespeare Series and how detective work played a crucial role in its success. If you're an author standing at crossroads, unsure about where to take your book next, Linda gives you the roadmap to reposition your book for multiple audiences and squeeze the most out of your events.But that's not all! Linda Radke provides some golden nuggets on securing funding for your book through grants and sponsorships. Follow Linda here: Website:          https://StoryMonsters.com Facebook:       https://Facebook.com/storymonstersllc Instagram:       https://instagram.com/storymonstersllc Twitter:             https://twitter.com/storymonsters LinkedIn:         https://www.linkedin.com/in/storymonsters/Linda Radke and Story Monsters LLC is offering The Writer's Parachute listeners a free 12-month digital subscription to Story Monsters Ink.https://simplecirc.com/subscribe/story-monsters-ink  click on APPLY PROMO CODE!!! PROMO CODE: 12MONTHS       Check out Linda's Books here:  https://www.amazon.com/Economical-Guide-Self-Publishing-Produce-Market/dp/B0C2S9ZMDM/https://booklocker.com/books/3095.htmlTo set up a consulting session with Linda: https://storymonsters.com/publishing-consulting

The Right Kind of Difficult (ft. Jon Acuff)On learning, growing, adapting, creating, and sharingOPENING QUOTE:“Be your version of funny. Don't be somebody else's version. So what happens is speakers read a book about public speaking and they go, "I got to tell a joke." And they tell a joke that isn't their joke. And it just feels like you're wearing your dad's coat at the eighth grade dance. It doesn't fit you. It doesn't create the moment you want.” -Jon AcuffGUEST BIO:Jon Acuff is the New York Times bestselling author of eight books and one of the most successful thought leaders on the circuit, which is why Ink Magazine named him one of the top 100 leadership speakers in the world. He's also a gifted comedian, recently fulfilling a dream by opening up for Dolly Parton at Ryman Auditorium. For over 20 years, he's helped some of the biggest brands tell their story, including the Home Depot, Bose, and Staples. His fresh perspective on life has given him the opportunity to write for Reader's Digest, Fast Company, The Harvard Business Review and Time Magazine.Links:WebsiteFacebookInstagramTwitterYouTubeLinkedInCORE TOPICS + DETAILS:[4:22] - The Right Kind of DifficultFinding your zone is about finding the right challengeHow do you know you've found your calling? When it's the “right kind of difficult,” the kind of challenge that has you excited to confront it, to take it on, to master it. Jon calls walking off stage the hardest part of his job, because he could stay there for hours — not because it's easy, but because it's hard in a way that thrills him.[6:17] - Content that Soars (and Sticks the Landing)Perfectly packaging ideas for your audienceJon is the first to acknowledge that almost no speaker or thought leader is delivering truly brand-new, never-heard-before ideas. But what separates bad from good and good from great is the way those ideas are interpreted, packaged, and presented in an unforgettable way.One example of this is Jon's concept of “soundtracks,” or the messages that live inside our heads on a daily basis. By taking the idea of internal monologue and presenting it in an instantly memorable way, Jon has created a keynote message (and book) that resonates with audiences everywhere.[15:41] - Be Funny by Being YouIll-fitting humor is like an ill-fitting suitJon emphasizes the importance of humor, while also emphasizing the risks of using humor that doesn't match your personal style. He likens it to “wearing your dad's coat at the eighth grade dance.” He goes on: “It doesn't fit you. It doesn't create the moment you want. If you're slapstick at a dinner party, be slapstick on stage. If you're dry at a dinner party, be dry on stage. Be your version of funny. Don't be somebody else's version of funny, because it won't work. You won't enjoy it."[26:30] - Rewriting Your SoundtrackHow changing what you tell yourself can change your lifeUse Jon's three-part question to see whether you have a broken soundtrack or repetitive thought. First: Is it true? Second: is it helpful? Third: Is it kind?If the answer to any of those questions is “no,” you're suffering from a broken soundtrack that's going to keep you from achieving both happiness and greatness.As a speaker, the first person you have to inspire is yourself.[34:39] - To Monetization and BeyondTurning ideas and expertise into content and incomeIf 2020 taught the speaking industry anything, it was that even if your business model starts on the stage, it can't end there. Jon has found myriad ways to expand his message and monetization — from treating writing books as a craft to trying out new media like podcasts, YouTube, and online challenges. He's still a speaker at heart, but he's also much more — and that means diverse audiences and income.RESOURCES:[1:20] Jon's BooksFollow Jon Acuff:WebsiteFacebookInstagramTwitterYouTubeLinkedInFollow Josh Linkner:FacebookLinkedInInstagramTwitterYouTubeABOUT MIC DROP:Hear from the world's top thought leaders and experts, sharing tipping point moments, strategies, and approaches that led to their speaking career success. Throughout each episode, host Josh Linkner, #1 Innovation keynote speaker in the world, deconstructs guests' Mic Drop moments and provides tactical tools and takeaways that can be applied to any speaking business, no matter it's starting point. You'll enjoy hearing from some of the top keynote speakers in the industry including: Ryan Estis, Alison Levine, Peter Sheahan, Seth Mattison, Cassandra Worthy, and many more. Mic Drop is sponsored by ImpactEleven.Learn more at: MicDropPodcast.comABOUT THE HOST:Josh Linkner is a Creative Troublemaker. He believes passionately that all human beings have incredible creative capacity, and he's on a mission to unlock inventive thinking and creative problem solving to help leaders, individuals, and communities soar. Josh has been the founder and CEO of five tech companies, which sold for a combined value of over $200 million and is the author of four books including the New York Times Bestsellers, Disciplined Dreaming and The Road to Reinvention. He has invested in and/or mentored over 100 startups and is the Founding Partner of Detroit Venture Partners.Today, Josh serves as Chairman and Co-founder of Platypus Labs, an innovation research, training, and consulting firm. He has twice been named the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year and is the recipient of the United States Presidential Champion of Change Award. Josh is also a passionate Detroiter, the father of four, is a professional-level jazz guitarist, and has a slightly odd obsession with greasy pizza. Learn more about Josh: JoshLinkner.comSPONSORED BY IMPACTELEVEN:From refining your keynote speaking skills to writing marketing copy, from connecting you with bureaus to boosting your fees, to developing high-quality websites, producing head-turning demo reels, Impact Eleven (formerly 3 Ring Circus) offers a comprehensive and powerful set of services to help speakers land more gigs at higher fees. Learn more at: impacteleven.comPRODUCED BY DETROIT PODCAST STUDIOS:In Detroit, history was made when Barry Gordy opened Motown Records back in 1960. More than just discovering great talent, Gordy built a systematic approach to launching superstars. His rigorous processes, technology, and development methods were the secret sauce behind legendary acts such as The Supremes, Stevie Wonder, Marvin Gaye, Diana Ross and Michael Jackson.As a nod to the past, Detroit Podcast Studios leverages modern versions of Motown's processes to launch today's most compelling podcasts. What Motown was to musical artists, Detroit Podcast Studios is to podcast artists today. With over 75 combined years of experience in content development, audio production, music scoring, storytelling, and digital marketing, Detroit Podcast Studios provides full-service development, training, and production capabilities to take podcasts from messy ideas to finely tuned hits. Here's to making (podcast) history together.Learn more at: DetroitPodcastStudios.comSHOW CREDITS:Josh Linkner: Host | josh@joshlinkner.comConnor Trombley: Executive Producer | connor@DetroitPodcastStudios.com

Joining the show today is civil litigator turned founder of Generation PR and the Ration Academy, Jennifer Berson! Jen's agency is award-winning and she champions the PR agency model for ambitious women seeking a satisfying, high-powered career that doesn't require the sacrifice of personal & family time to make a powerful impact. Jen is truly a powerhouse woman and has been recognized by  Ink Magazine, Forbes, Apple, Entrepreneur, PR Week, and more.Over the next 30 minutes, we dive into what a huge career transition looks like and what you need to have prepared in advance. Jen gives us a behind-the-scenes look at what it is like to grow and scale a boutique international digital agency. She also shares her favorite tips how prioritizing relationship building, media relations, and networking to grow her business. In today's episode, we cover:Tips for pitching yourselfKey factors for a career transitionThe importance of networking and building connectionsExamples of a CTA in pitching Niching down to focus on your strengthsCONNECT WITH JENNIFERIG: @jenerationacademyFB: https://www.facebook.com/groups/profitableprpros/WEBSITE: https://www.jenerationacademy.comFREEBIE: https://www.jenerationacademy.com/pr-insider-secretsCONNECT WITH HOLLY:• TEXT HOLLY FOR WEEKLY STRATEGY TIPS: 614-810-4236 or click here• JOIN THE CLUB: www.hollymarieshaynes.com/club (Use the code CTR10 at checkout to save 10%)• WORK WITH HOLLY: www.hollymariehaynes.com/workwith me

We're re-joined by the amazing Jack Moody to discuss the ins and outs of the writing process, from editing to submitting, marketing, and dealing with rejection in a "nose to tail" look at the parts of writing beyond getting words on a page. Jack Moody is a novelist and short story writer from wherever he happens to be at the time. He is the author of the novel Crooked Smile, the short story collection Dancing to Broken Records, and the novella The Monotony of Everlasting. He is a former staff writer for the literary magazine and podcast Brick Moon Fiction, and his work has appeared in multiple publications including Expat Press, Misery Tourism, Maudlin House, Punk Noir Magazine, Scatter of Ashes, Paper and Ink Magazine, Horror Sleaze Trash, A Thin Slice of Anxiety, Bear Creek Gazette, and The Saturday Evening Post. He didn't go to college.Follow him on Twitter and find his work here Want to submit your writing or be a guest editor? Email darkwaterspodcast@gmail.com Intro/Outro music: www.bensound.com Disclaimer: Any and all opinions expressed are the opinions of the participants and not of the organizations or institutions with which they are affiliated. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/darkwaters/support

Fast Company, NBC, TEDx, Entrepreneur Magazine Studying worldwide business trends now can be quite mind boggling & intriguing. The statistics also make a great dialogue! Fast Company, Entrepreneur Magazine, NBC & Ink Magazine have featured the "Millionaire ProfitEngineer" David Bullock. He's also had the pleasure of working with American Express, Dupont, Lending Tree and hundreds of small businesses. The World Economy & "Knowledge Work" for Business" is in the Spotlight! He serves as the President and CEO of CEO Mastery, Inc. and Executive Training and Business Development Firm. David is a degreed mechanical engineer with a thorough understanding of process control. A switch to sales resulted in over $100 million worth of goods and services sold in a seven-year period. The process design and sales experience came together in his work with Dr. James Kowalick as a certified TRIZ/Taguchi Ad Optimization Specialist. David has created very effective combinations of processes that lead to increased sales by up to 300%. His unique approach and proven success have made him an authority among internet marketing and business development experts. David is co-author of Barack 2.0, a case study of President Barack Obama's successful use of social media during the 2008 presidential campaign. David also served as Chief Marketing Officer for The Nurse Company. He is responsible for the growth and development of a online global Nursing Community. David's work has been featured in Entrepreneur Magazine, Black Enterprise Magazine, Nashville Business Journal, Fast Company Online, ZDNet.com and Inc. Technology. Further, David is an in demand speaker and addresses audiences internationally to bridge the gap between new technology and business development at all levels. To Find out more about David's current work visit: www.DavidBullock.comAll Rights Reserved © 2023© 2023 Building Abundant Success!!Join Me on ~ iHeart Media @ https://tinyurl.com/iHeartBASSpot Me on Spotify: https://tinyurl.com/yxuy23baAmazon Music ~ https://tinyurl.com/AmzBASAudacy:  https://tinyurl.com/BASAud

This week the I am reading from Danielle Oberosler's book 'The Haunted Guesthouse: A True Story' and Bonnie Jean Mitchell's book 'The Shift : A Lifetime of Contact Leading to Higher Consciousness'.Danielle OberoslerThe story of the haunted guesthouse, made famous on Paranormal Witness' The Pit, has finally come to an end. Truth is stranger than fiction. Find out how the exciting tale concludes and if the activity continues by reading the book by the homeowner who was in the center of the action for 13 years.BioI am a career tattooer, who wrote as a columnist for Skin & Ink Magazine. I started the Spotlight column interviewing tattooers usually with less than 10 years in the industry to add more variety to the magazine. I am a single mother who owns and works in my own tattoo shop. I wrote Monstar way before I ever thought about having a child, in my 20s. I actually took the writing job for Skin & Ink to try to network and meet someone who would publish my story. However, my columnist job was freelance, and even as an assistant to the editor I never met anyone in publishing. Along comes a pandemic, and my tattoo shop was shuttered for 10 months. I had the time to try to figure out self publishing an eBook in an attempt to pivot my career, and I took advantage of that time. l am very happy to finally have my story and my good friend Cynthia's illustrations available for purchase! She too has an industry that has come to a complete stop during the pandemic, which is designing fashion. We grew up together, and we loved The Dark Crystal and Brian Froud books. I hope anyone who purchases our book enjoys the story and the artwork that we had fun putting together.https://www.youtube.com/@UnOrdinaryMadeOrdinaryAmazon book link http://rb.gy/8luneBonnie Jean MitchellThis is the realization of who we are. The shift of consciousness is upon us. It is time for spiritual healing. We have entered the age of UFO disclosure and the secret government's Project Blue Beam. The controllers of this world will do anything they can to prevent humanity from waking up and claiming their true power. Will you be able to see the truth within the lie?I have worked with my spiritual family, including the pleiadians and other benevolent, multidimensional entities, to raise my own vibrational frequency to a higher state of consciousness. I share my story with all of you to help assist in the awakening of humanity. It is time for us to remember who we are, where we come from, and why we are here. Most importantly, the shift will bring us into a higher state of consciousness that will allow us to realize our true power as human beings: loving creators and manifestors of reality.This is your handbook, authored in exact synchronicity with the coming frequency shift, offering discernment between the false, satanic narrative and the true, natural awakening and spiritual ascension of mankind. It is time to let go of the old matrix system we were indoctrinated into. The controllers no longer hold power over us. Focus your attention now on manifesting what you truly want in your life. We are leaving behind lower vibrational frequencies and tuning into a new channel of love and light! We are creating this new world together.The Shift details the personal experiences and lessons of a life-long contactee. Along the way, you will learn about: the power of human consciousness and our eternal spiritual nature, raising vibrational frequency, opening the third eye, seeing the truth behind the false matrix system, filling your heart with love and standing your ground, a closer look into military abduction and U.S. patents, facing fear and fighting the controllers including military psychics, reptilians, demons, and dark magicians posing as religious and political figureheads.One of the most important aspects of The Shift is breaking the mind control we have been under our entire lives. We can now release this trauma, re-write our neural programming, and re-create ourselves in a natural way that will allow our highest selves, our true selves, to shine through and take control of our lives and reality on the Earth plane as we create a new world of love and light together.Bonnie Jean Mitchell is a life-long contactee and lightworker who collaborates with benevolent, multidimensional star people toward the highest vibrational frequencies that lead to a profound shift in conscious awareness and the uplifting of humanity. Are you ready for The Shift?BioBonnie Jean Mitchell is a life-long experiencer and contactee. She first saw the star people when I was four years old. It was really bizarre to me then, but I became accustomed to their visits over the years. I saw them throughout my childhood, and they were always friendly toward me. The star people are multidimensional entities who can move in and out of our dimensional space. They come in different shapes and sizes, but most can shape shift their bodies. The star people I am closest with are tall and thin with light-colored, almost white skin. Some have white or blonde hair. If I had to choose a label for them, I would call them Pleiadian, although I realize they are non-physical beings.When I was 19 years old, the star people became my full-time teachers. At night, they would take my conscious awareness from my physical body and transport it to a vibrational frequency where we could both work together for extended periods of time. I call this place the Alternate Reality. They put me through intense training for about five years. They taught me to face my fears and how to defend myself against psychic attack whether from human or alien. At the same time, I dealt with U.S. military trained psychics and military abduction. I was taught that we are in a war; a spiritual battle of epic proportions including factions from this world and other worlds, many of them non-physical but very real and all of us intricately connected.The star people taught me how to use my third eye as a tool to focus and direct energy. I practiced with them and fellow human students in the alternate reality for many years. I refer to this time as the Star People School. Whoever passed the gauntlet of psychic tests and challenges advanced to the next level of training. I eventually went on to learn how to use subtle energy to manifest reality. The most important reason for all the teaching is the Shift of Consciousness. This is the uplifting of humanity…when humans remember who they really are, where they come from, and what their true purpose is. Most importantly, humanity will remember how to control energy and manifest a beautiful reality. This is when the false matrix system collapses entirely and the world is reset.I have continued to work with the star people throughout my life with this cause in mind: to awaken humanity. I know the time is close, very close, when the Shift occurs. In fact, it has already begun. When humans wake up and break the hypnotic spell that was put upon them, the evil Controllers of this world will flee for their lives. This world is a temporary learning ground that we pass through on our way back home. We are eternal, spiritual beings who never die. We only grow and become better as we work toward higher consciousness. Can you feel the Shift happening within you? This is where it starts!My incredible experiences with the star people are documented in my two books, Journey with the Star People and The Shift. Consider signing up for my blog at www.alienabductionhelp/bloghttps://alienabductionhelp.com/Amazon https://rb.gy/y4nsfhttps://www.patreon.com/pastlivespodcasthttps://www.pastliveshypnosis.co.uk/https://www.patreon.com/alienufopodcast

This week I'm talking to Danielle Oberosler about her book 'The Haunted Guesthouse: A True Story'.The story of the haunted guesthouse, made famous on Paranormal Witness' The Pit, has finally come to an end. Truth is stranger than fiction. Find out how the exciting tale concludes and if the activity continues by reading the book by the homeowner who was in the center of the action for 13 years.BioI am a career tattooer, who wrote as a columnist for Skin & Ink Magazine. I started the Spotlight column interviewing tattooers usually with less than 10 years in the industry to add more variety to the magazine. I am a single mother who owns and works in my own tattoo shop. I wrote Monstar way before I ever thought about having a child, in my 20s. I actually took the writing job for Skin & Ink to try to network and meet someone who would publish my story. However, my columnist job was freelance, and even as an assistant to the editor I never met anyone in publishing. Along comes a pandemic, and my tattoo shop was shuttered for 10 months. I had the time to try to figure out self publishing an eBook in an attempt to pivot my career, and I took advantage of that time. l am very happy to finally have my story and my good friend Cynthia's illustrations available for purchase! She too has an industry that has come to a complete stop during the pandemic, which is designing fashion. We grew up together, and we loved The Dark Crystal and Brian Froud books. I hope anyone who purchases our book enjoys the story and the artwork that we had fun putting together.https://www.youtube.com/@UnOrdinaryMadeOrdinaryhttp://thetattooroom.com/same-waveAmazon book link http://rb.gy/8luneSpiritual Awakenings International Conferencehttps://spiritualconference.org/sai-conference-2023/https://www.pastliveshypnosis.co.uk/https://www.patreon.com/pastlivespodcast

In this illuminating episode of Innovation Storytellers, I sit down with the Wall Street Journal best-selling author, INK Magazine columnist, and Co-founder of Praxie.com, Soren Kaplan, Ph.D. Recognized as a top management thought leader by Thinkers 50 and Business Insider, Kaplan brings his profound expertise in new business models and disruptive innovation to the table. Kaplan, who previously led the strategy and innovation group at HP, shares invaluable insights into the world of startups, asserting that sales are the cornerstone of innovation. With a deep connection with customers and an understanding of their needs, there's more room for innovation. Not only does Kaplan discuss the power of sales and customer connection, but he also delves into the transformative potential of personal experiences. Drawing from his own past, he reveals how seemingly small events can significantly shape our beliefs and how these beliefs can both limit and expand us in different ways. Kaplan's journey highlights the importance of empathy in business and the value of understanding people's motivations. Moreover, Kaplan discusses the necessity of out-of-the-box tools for innovators and leaders, sharing how his platform Praxie.com provides instant, accessible solutions for lean startup work and business case creation. Today, Praxie is home to thousands of different tools that help 60,000 monthly visitors navigate their innovation journeys. Join us as we explore Kaplan's concept of 'experiential intelligence,' his philosophy of learning from failures and successes, and how he applies these insights to propel himself and others towards a more innovative future. Listen in as this Commodore 64 video game contest winner (at age 13!) shares his unique insights into the world of innovation. If you're an innovator at heart, this is an episode you won't want to miss!

This episode we are chatting with author Danielle Oberosler! Danielle is a career tattooer and has written as a columnist for Skin and Ink Magazine. In 2021 she published her book "The Haunted Guesthouse: A True Story" in which she recounts the incredible 13-year journey into the paranormal that started when she bought a new home and guesthouse with a sorted past including biker gangs, satanic rituals, and Charles Manson! In 2015 her story was featured on the TV show Paranormal Witness in an episode titled "The Pit". You can find more information about Danielle Oberosler and her haunted journey at the links below!   https://www.facebook.com/danielle.oberosler https://www.amazon.com/stores/Danielle-Oberosler/author/B08W2NVW7T?ref=ap_rdr&store_ref=ap_rdr&isDramIntegrated=true&shoppingPortalEnabled=true https://www.audible.com/author/Danielle-Oberosler/B08W2NVW7T https://www.instagram.com/danielleoberosler/ https://www.youtube.com/@UnOrdinaryMadeOrdinary   The Unseen Paranormal and Host Eric Freeman-Sims on the interwebs https://www.unseenparanormalpodcast.com/ https://www.facebook.com/eric.freeman.1048 https://www.instagram.com/theunseenparanormalpodcast/ https://twitter.com/TheUnseenPara https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC7Nm2o2t_a1TlqDgqlpxxUg https://www.facebook.com/groups/1048687775648517 https://www.facebook.com/UnseenParanormalPodcast            

This episode we are chatting with author Danielle Oberosler! Danielle is a career tattooer and has written as a columnist for Skin and Ink Magazine. In 2021 she published her book "The Haunted Guesthouse: A True Story" in which she recounts the incredible 13-year journey into the paranormal that started when she bought a new home and guesthouse with a sorted past including biker gangs, satanic rituals, and Charles Manson! In 2015 her story was featured on the TV show Paranormal Witness in an episode titled "The Pit". You can find more information about Danielle Oberosler and her haunted journey at the links below!   https://www.facebook.com/danielle.oberoslerhttps://www.amazon.com/stores/Danielle-Oberosler/author/B08W2NVW7T?ref=ap_rdr&store_ref=ap_rdr&isDramIntegrated=true&shoppingPortalEnabled=truehttps://www.audible.com/author/Danielle-Oberosler/B08W2NVW7Thttps://www.instagram.com/danielleoberosler/https://www.youtube.com/@UnOrdinaryMadeOrdinary   The Unseen Paranormal and Host Eric Freeman-Sims on the interwebs https://www.unseenparanormalpodcast.com/https://www.facebook.com/eric.freeman.1048https://www.instagram.com/theunseenparanormalpodcast/https://twitter.com/TheUnseenParahttps://www.youtube.com/channel/UC7Nm2o2t_a1TlqDgqlpxxUghttps://www.facebook.com/groups/1048687775648517https://www.facebook.com/UnseenParanormalPodcast            This show is part of the Spreaker Prime Network, if you are interested in advertising on this podcast, contact us at https://www.spreaker.com/show/5862293/advertisement

What if the qualities we look for in our salespeople - being agreeable, friendly, and eager to please - are actually hindering our sales and costing us profits? In this thought-provoking podcast, sales expert Jeremy Miner challenges the conventional wisdom that a happy and accommodating sales team is always the most effective. With decades of experience in the sales industry, Jeremy brings a fresh perspective to the table, showing how a different approach can "pull your clients in" and avoid the common pitfalls of traditional sales techniques that often trigger resistance in potential customers. From door-to-door sales teams to high-level boardroom negotiations, the insights shared in this podcast have the power to transform the way you think about sales and revolutionize the way you do business. So join us as we explore the fascinating world of sales psychology and discover how to unleash the full potential of your sales team. Get  access to a free mini-course called the NEPQ 101 Mini-courseSign up here: www.salesrevolution.pro   I had the opportunity to spend quite a bit of time with some very, very, very successful people, and we were talking about legacy and what we want our legacy to be. What do we want to leave behind after our days are over? And a really interesting. Comment was brought up, and this is something that I think I need to share with everyone because it's something that not very many people think about. We all think about all of the success, and we all think about what we're going to leave behind and how great it's going to be for whoever it is, whether that be an organization, our families, or whatever it might be. We're proud to leave all of them. Things are behind to the next generation. This one particular topic, though, really stood out and made me realize that, yeah, you know, I have some work to do in this area as well. As many of you know, my father passed away when I was 16. He drowned in Cape Hatteras. And I'm not gonna get into all the details as to what happened afterward, but essentially this idea, this concept that was brought up was something that I lived through as well, and the idea is so simple. All you have to do is just put instructions in place for whoever it is that you might. Giving your assets to afterward. Tell them bank accounts, tell them, you know, plans who, who has what information, how, if you have a business, how does the business run? Who is responsible for what? Just planning out and giving that information to you. Heirs can be incredibly, incredibly powerful and they will thank you over and over and over and over again for having the foresight to be able to put all of that information in place and have it in one area so that people know and understand it.  On Invest in Square Feet, we unlock the secrets of wealthy entrepreneurship. I'm Matt Shields and my mission is to help business owners just like you, protect your wealth so that you can invest passively in multi-family real estate. Okay, so today we're going to have a really interesting conversation with a sales professional named Jeremy. If you've heard of him before, you probably know that he has some, we'll call it unorthodox ways of selling, and we'll get into this, but most sales trainers, most salespeople approach sales with a very. I guess the happy type of mindset. You want to be the person that is very upbeat and positive when you approach whoever it is that you're trying to sell to. And Jeremy teaches a completely different idea, and I can tell you from experience that this does work. This does get you more. Engaged with your sales prospect, so I'm not gonna spoil it. I'm not gonna go any deeper than that. Jeremy's gonna dive into the entire process, and how you can increase your sales, and it is completely unintuitive to what most people believe.  I remember the sales manager was like, Hey, Jeremy, just remember when they opened the door. You gotta be really excited, be really enthusiastic, and start talking to 'em about all the great things this is gonna do for them. But I noticed from the very first door, That I was getting all these objections every time I, the more excited I was, the more turned people, people were, more turned off, the more excited I was. We can't afford it. We don't need it. We already have a company for that. Uh, we already talked to you guys last month. I need to talk to my spouse. Let me think it over. Can you call me back a week, a month, or a year later? And I remember probably about seven to eight weeks in of that if I remember. There was this one time I was, I was standing on the curb. I was actually sitting down. I still remember cuz my legs, like when you, have you ever done door-to-door sales? Sure. Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. You know, when you go around door to door for 10 straight hours, your legs start to get pretty damn tight. Mm-hmm. , right? Like, it's, it's a, it's a workout in itself and you're talking like the middle of July, full humidity, sweat, drench down your back, you're at nine o'clock at night. And I remember one particular, it was a Friday night. I was sitting there waiting for the sales manager to pick me up. I'd worked 12 hours that day and made zero sales. So when you make zero sales in a straight commissioned sales job, that means you make $0. You can be better off working at McDonald's. That whole week I'd made zero sales, so I'd worked 60 plus hours, made $0, and I remember setting there, just barely married. Child on the way, how can I go home to her and say, we don't have enough money to pay our rent in a couple of weeks, we're gonna have to move in with your parents. Mm-hmm.  live in the basement. It's gonna be one of those guys. Okay. Yeah. My pride, I did, I had too much pride to do that. Okay. And I remember thinking like, you know, maybe. Maybe selling just wasn't for me. Maybe I just wasn't a salesperson. I was not born. I need to get a real job. Okay. And I remember, uh, when the sales manager picked me up that night, he popped in a Tony Robbins cd, cuz 20 plus years ago, people, believe it or not, listen to things that are called CDs. Mm-hmm, he popped in the CD and I might be butchering it, but he said, he said something to the fact that, that most people. For the simple reason, they don't learn the right skills that are necessary to succeed. They don't learn the right skills. Now, I went on to say that everybody's taught skills, but the people who fail are the ones who were not taught the right ones. And when I heard that it was like this. It was like the kind of the. Maybe the heavens open up to me like there's this light, light bulb moment, like, you know, like the God was speaking to me and sent down his messengers. That may be what the company was training me and what I was learning from some of the old sales gurus. Maybe they just weren't the right skills. Maybe they were outdated. Maybe they just didn't work. Very well with today's prospects. I never thought that that could even be a possibility. I was so new in sales, I just didn't know what I didn't know. Mm-hmm... And at the same time, my degree that I was going to school for magically thought heaven's behavioral science, and I was getting a minor in human psychology.   Okay, which is kind of important to understand in sales. I don't think most salespeople understand the psychological impact, of the way the brain thinks. And so I was learning from my professors that the most persuasive way to communicate was here the theory, but from the gurus, they were teaching.   It was over here. It was like completely opposite. So I'm like, how do I take the theory of behavioral science and how the brain makes decisions to do something or not? How do I take that and put that into a sales process? Mm-hmm... So that was my whole thing at that point. How do I do that? So I started learning how to use techniques that work with humans. So instead of pushing my prospects that trigger sales resistance that most salespeople are taught, I started learning from just the way human beings interact and the way they think. Psychology to get my prospects to pull me in where I didn't have to push when I started learning that skill. Selling became very, very easy and extremely profitable from that point. Are you with me? Yeah. Yeah, yeah,  yeah. So, so walk through an example of that, like, right? So I would imagine that when you first started out selling whatever it was you're selling, you know, as you know, knock, knock, knock on the door. , you know, Hey, you know, ma'am, we're, we're here, we're selling, you know, this product, and it's, you know, gonna be great. You, you're gonna get this and this and this, and Oh no, I don't want it. I don't want it. As you said, you went through all the different objections. What, what did that turn into after you started realizing this? How did that, how did that pitch change, would you say?  Yeah, and it's obviously different door-to-door than if you're selling B2B or more inbound leads. Outbound leads, which I can give different examples for that as well. But you know, what I started noticing is that the more I looked and acted and talked like a salesperson, The more resistance I was getting from the prospect. Mm-hmm... So I started thinking, even in those days, 20, it was about 22 at that point, how do I reduce that resistance? So I'm not competing with that in the first minute. Because if you're competing with sales resistance the very first minute, it's so hard to overcome that. You're just competing with objections the whole time. It, just makes selling so stressful when it doesn't have to be. So how do I reduce resistance? So as a door-to-door salesperson, which is gonna be different than if. Selling to a boardroom meeting. It's a little bit different there, but what I started doing is I'm like, Instead of wearing all these nice clothes that my sales manager taught me I should wear and like nice watches and jewelry. Cuz that just smells like what, right? Sales. Salesperson. Salesy. Yeah, exactly. Salesy. How do I, how do I get them to view me not as a salesperson, even in my wardrobe? So I'm like, okay, what I'm gonna do is I bought like a $10 Walmart watch. Cause I didn't have any money anyways. It wasn't like I was doing a fancy watch, but I bought like a $10 Walmart watch. I remember I put a tape. On my side of my, of my, my pants, I wore just cargo khakis. I wore a white New Balance grandpa shirt. Do you know what I'm talking about? The white new balance, like when you become grandpa age, you start wearing the white new balance cuz you want the cover. I started wearing those as a 22-year-old Okay. Just a regular polo shirt. Very basic. Had the company logo on there, and then I'm like, okay, what other things can I do? I got a metal clip.  like this with like a survey thing on it, so mm-hmm. , I think I'm more like a meter reader. And then I went and got a lime green and an orange construction vest. I'm not kidding when I say this. And just that alone, when they came to the door, lowered resistance cuz they didn't view me as a salesperson trying to sell them something. So instead of being up in their grill like I was, I was more back and I was sitting here like, Looking around the home, you know, kind of looking around like, I'm doing a survey, and they come, they're like, oh yeah, how can I help you? And I'm like, yeah. Are you guys the, um, are you guys the, the homeowners here very like, confused, like Yeah, yeah. We're the homeowners. What's going on? Immediately? Instead of like triggering sales resistance that most salespeople do in the first 10 seconds, I'm triggering curiosity. Okay. Just that alone, man. I could go into a lot more, but just that alone, right there almost, I call it the confused old man, because when you hear a confused old man, what do you wanna do? You wanna help you help. Exactly. Exactly. Help, right? You wanna help the confused old man? That's a great analogy. Just by that lowered sales resistance by 80, 90%. And then if you have the right questions to ask at the right time, you trigger to be more cur. One thing we all have to understand, this is just behavioral science 1 0 1, within the first seven to 12 seconds of any sales interaction you are involved in. Mm-hmm. , whether that's. Door to door, whether that's on a cold call to a company, whether that's presenting to a board of directors, whether that's in a home selling B2C or an inbound lead. You're setting here like we are on Zoom. Your prospects subconsciously, we cannot even help it the way our brain works. Are already picking up social cues from you. They're picking up on your verbal and nonverbal and body language cues from your tonality and what you were saying and or asking that triggers their brain to react. This is scary. If we don't understand this, react in one of two ways. Okay? So if we come across as aggressive, overly assumptive, and needy, you know what I mean by needy, right? You can tell when the salesperson needs the deal, right? Hey, do you have two minutes of your time or I can? Nobody believes you're only gonna take two minutes of time. You're needy and you come across attached. And you don't know the right questions to ask. It triggers the brain to go into what we call fight or flight mode. You've heard of fight or flight mode, right? Sure, absolutely. Everybody has. But does anybody know what triggers fight or flight mode? Most people don't. And as a salesperson, you probably want to understand what triggers fight or flight mode. So you eliminate that so you don't trigger fight or flight mode cuz then you're just competing against the Great Wall of China, I call it. Mm-hmm... It's like the great wall of objections you have to then break down. I'd rather not have a wall at... I'd rather just have complete openness so I can do that. So that's where the prospect, when you trigger fight or flight mode, as everybody knows they do what They get defensive. Mm-hmm. , that's flight mode or flight mode is they try to get rid of you and they say things like that, oh, I forgot about the appointment. Hey, I'm too busy. Can you call me back later? Oh yeah. Call me back Saturday night at 10:00 PM Okay, I'll call you back Saturday. And then they never answer. Right? Yeah. Or, you know, after we, we just don't need it. Uh, we're good. We already used somebody for that. How much is this gonna cost me within the first 30 seconds? You're just, you're triggering that. Okay. Now, once you learn how to work with human behavior, okay, we call that neuro-emotional persuasion question. It stands for n e p  q, and you learn how to come across more. In your conversations now when I need, when I say neutral, that means you're unbiased. You're not quite sure if you can even help yet. How? How could you even know if you could help it? Like if somebody comes to you and says, Hey Jeremy, I appreciate you. Let's say you're going in front of a boardroom meeting and they're like, Hey Jeremy, this sounds really good. Somebody you haven't even met yet. A decision maker. You've met with three or four other decision-makers. Now you're coming in, there's eight. Four of them don't even know who you are. And they're like, Hey, we are to use a vendor for this. Why should we go with you? What would most salespeople say when they heard that? What do you think they would say? Yeah, they would, they, they start going, oh, we're the  best at this, or You should go with us because we've been ranked the number one in customer service and we've, JD Associates ranked us, and our clients are this and this and this. That's why you should go with us and our competitors. It's in one ear out the other. Because why? Because every salesperson says that. So they just associate you with everyone else trying to stuff their solution down their throat that's ever tried to sell them something. So what I wanna do is I want to disarm that person. I want them to let their guard down.  because if I can get them to let their guard down, then they become open to what I'm offering. Mm-hmm. , if I can't, very hard to make a sale. Okay. Or it just prolongs the sales cycle by 10 times. Okay. So if they say something like that, I'm just gonna lean back and say, well, I'm not quite sure that you should yet. Yeah. You know, we'd have to understand a little bit. About what you're using right now in X, Y, Z areas, just to see if we could even help, because there are some firms where there's just not much we can do for them, and they're sometimes better off staying with who they already have. So for example, we need to understand and then boom, I want you to watch when you do that, the body language and the demeanor of the prospect when you say, well, why should we go with you? Well, I'm not quite sure that you should yet. , if you pause two or three seconds, they're gonna be like, mm-hmm. Yeah. You can just tell them, it's just it, you take over the status in that room. Mm-hmm. , because experts and authorities don't need the sale. They already have all these clients that are getting results. They don't need you. In fact,, when you do that, it's almost like they view you much differently. They're like, Okay. Maybe I should listen to this person. He doesn't seem needy. Mm-hmm. , because when you feel that somebody's needy, let's say you're, you say you're single and you're chasing after somebody, you're really interested and you just keep chasing them in the beginning, what do they typically do? Yeah. They're gonna run away. They run.  Yeah. But if you act like you don't need them, what do they typically do? Yeah. Then, then they're all over. Yet they, yeah. They want that. Pull you in more. It's the same thing in sales. I, I don't know why nobody's putting that together yet... It's just. Human Psychology 1 0 1. That is so interesting. So, You know, obviously, again, this, this can go in all kinds of different directions depending on exactly what you're trying to sell and the, the, uh, the, the platform or the median that you're trying to use it in. But do you have, a framework or a structure that you would say, you know, works pretty well in pretty well? You know, any situation too. Again, ki that that opening comment, that opening remark, is it, is it essentially, you know, I'm, I'm not sure you  should or, so biggest, the biggest problem with most companies and their salespeople is that their salespeople do not have a structured sales process that everyone in the company is following. everybody's doing their own thing. They're just winging it. And then the, the owners, the, the sales management are wondering why, oh, y you know, they're losing 30% of their staff every six months having to replace 'em. They just, there's no se there's no sales structure that actually works. Mm-hmm.  the reason why, our company has grown so fast, like Inc. Uh, I mean, it doesn't really matter, but Ink Magazine ranked us the fastest, or Inc. 5,000 list, ranked as the number one fastest growing sales training company, not overall. , but number one, fastest growing sales training company in the United States last year in just our third year. The reason that is, is because our sales structure, our methodology that we train companies, n e PQ works for any industry. Mm-hmm... When people say, well, I don't know. I know you train this company in that company, in this industry, but I don't know if it'll work for me. I sell X, Y, Z, and Z digits, and it has to be sold a certain way. I just don't know. All we simply say is, do you sell to human needs? Mm-hmm. ? Yes. Now, do the human beings you talk to, do your prospects talk to, or do they have problems? Yes. Or do they have at least emotional needs? Yes. Does your solution solve those problems and emotional needs? Yes. Then what we train you would actually work for what you sell, okay? Mm-hmm... So we use a methodology called N E P Q which stands from neuro emotional persuasion. Persuasion questioning. So from the start of that conversation, okay? From what we call connecting questions, which take the focus off you. Put it on them. Mm-hmm.  from situation questions that help you and the prospect find out what their real situation is from problem awareness questions. This is all structured, okay? It's not out of order. It's in a structure because it persuades them the most. It pulls them into the most problem awareness questions that help the prospect find out what their real problems are. One thing we all have to do, and we all know this, is that most of your prospects when you initially start talking to them, don't even know that they have a problem. , or maybe they know they have a problem, but they don't really know what the problem is. They know that something's wrong, but they don't know what the real problem is, or most of them don't really understand the consequences of what happens if they don't do anything about solving the problems. So when you learn what we train you, not only are you able to help them find that one problem. but you're also helping them to able to find two or three or maybe four other problems they didn't even realize they had. And when you're able to do that, not by telling them that you tell them what their problems are, it does what one ear out the other. You're biased, you're the salesperson. Your questioning allows 'em to see. How bad their problems really are, and it builds a massive gap in their mind from where they are. We call that their current state or current situation compared to where they want to be. We call that their objective state. Now, what's the gap in between all of these newfound problems that your questioning skills allow them to see they have, that they didn't know they had before? When you're able to do that, they start to view you. They don't view you like all these other salespeople trying to push something down their throat. Yeah. They view you as the expert, the trusted authority in the market that they're going to buy all of the time. So problem awareness questions help you and them find out what their real problems are, and the root cause of the problem. See, most salespeople can help them find a problem, but they're not able to help the prospect realize what the root cause of that problem is, and then most importantly, how those problems are affecting them. , personally, I'm talking even CEOs of Fortune 500 companies, how those problems are affecting them personally, the business personally. Okay. Then we wanna move into a stage called solution awareness questions that allow them to see what their future's gonna look like once all these newfound problems are solved. So they're like, oh my gosh, this is what my future's gonna look like for me, for my business, for themselves personally, depending on what you sell, B2C or b2b. And then we wanna ask what's. Consequence questions that allow them to see what the consequences are, the ramifications are if they don't do anything about solving the newfound problems, okay? Mm-hmm. , then we're, if we're in B2B sales, we're then either going to transition into the next step. That could be a demo. The next step could be a proposal. The next step could meet the board. The next step could meet the next decision-maker. Just depends on what your next step is in your sales cycle. B2b, if you're in b2c, If it's a one-call close, say you sell life insurance or something, just as an example, be the next step presentation. Okay? Or maybe it's a two-step next-step demo. Then the close just depends on your industry, and your process. We teach all of that. And then how do you present? How do you present back where it emotionally connects the dots? So instead of boring your prospects to death with like a 50 mm-hmm.  slide deck. About, here's our corporate office. It looks so fancy. Here are our awards. Nobody cares about that. I hate to tell you this. Nobody can give an S h I T about what your corporate office looks like or how many awards you won. They can Google that themselves and look at your company website. They do not care. You are just boring them. We wanna connect the emotional dots of their problem. , the root cause and where they want to go, and how our solution will actually solve those problems and give them where they want to go. That's what they care about. Mm-hmm... And that gets 'em to think results-based thinking. Over price-based thinking, because if you get 'em to think price-based thinking, you're dead. They're just gonna negotiate you down. You get 'em to think results-based thinking. They will gladly pay way more to your company to solve their problems and get them what they want. If they can feel like you can get them the best result, they will gladly pay way more. I can assure you that. Mm-hmm... Mm-hmm... And then we wanna ask what are called commitment questions that get them to commit to take the next step and purchase what you're offering to solve their problems. So that would be the sales structure.  in an overview, bunch of boring nerd stuff. I know. No, no.  I, I, I love that and I, I, I'm, I'm curious. Um, I, I think that a lot of people will go in, as you said, they've got their 50-page or 50-slide deck thing Correct? And go into this pitch and here's who we are, and we did this, and we have this and, and all of this fi Yeah. And finally, in the end, they get to whatever it is that they're, you know, they're, they're trying to sell with your approach. Would you, would you say you're selling in a boardroom? Would you walk in and, and, you know, start going into that? We're  gonna have a presentation up on the board, but we're also gonna take him... It's not like we're just going into the boardroom and that's the first meeting we've had. Yeah, it's typically a first-call discovery. If you're selling b2b, for most industries, the first call's gonna be a discovery call with some type of C-level executive. That might be part of the decision-making process, probably not right. And then you're navigating. You have to learn the right questions to navigate through the organization and bring in the other decision-makers. Forbes had an article the other day, about the average company in the United States of America, we're not even talking Fortune 500 or Fortune 100, just the average size company has 6.7 decision makers and or influencers. Now, even if it's not a decision-maker, what happens if you're selling some type of software? Let's say that you're selling cyber. And you're selling to a bank, say Wells Fargo for example. I'm just throwing out some. In some companies, not only do you want to get involved, the decision makers, let's say the CFO, F, or the CEO make the ultimate decision, I dunno, or the department, but let's say the CTO O is gonna be the one that's gonna have to train. their staff on how this new software works. They don't make the decision, but they're the ones responsible for training the staff. Do you think you probably want to get that C T O and the department head over there involved because do you think they can influence the ultimate decision maker on what they decide to do? Hell yeah. Because, the ultimate decision maker might not be down in the trenches and even know what their problems are. They might have zero ideas, they're over the company. They don't know what's going on in the cybersecurity part. So not only do you have to get the decision makers involved, you have to get the influencers because that c t O might feel his job is gonna be threatened by this new software. They could feel like it's gonna take too much to install it, it's gonna take too much to operate it, and then they. Shoving it off to the decision makers and dissuading the decision maker, and then the sales loss. So you have to know how to navigate and bring those other people in. But if you're in a boardroom, typically there's gonna be even other decision makers in there who don't know anything about you. You go in there and just go through a presentation, you're, it's like you're wing it. You're hoping and praying that something you said in the presentation is gonna stick and they're gonna magically buy. Uh, we call that. , you know, it's a drug. I love it. So many salespeople take where they hope and pray something they're gonna to say is gonna stick. And that's a hard and unpredictable way to close sales. It just, you have no control. So we wanna go in with that sales process. It might be an abbreviated questioning process, but we're gonna start off that instead of like, Hey, going right into our pitch. We might come in and be like, now John, I know, I know we've, we've met and we've talked about X and Y and Z. Let's, let's do this. We prepared something to go through on how we could. You know, the challenges, that Jim and Laura brought up the other day, but just so I don't go over things that they might have already discussed with you, what would everybody like to cover today? Just to see if we can actually help. Mm-hmm... And then I want to get like, well, we wanna cover this and we wanna cover that. And I'm like, okay, now I know where to go. And then I'm gonna ask more questions about that. I might start going through the presentation, but I'm also gonna stop and ask situation and problem awareness questions while I'm going through the presentation. So instead of a 50-slide deck, I might have that down to 10 or 12. My questioning skills are really pulling out more emotion. Cause that's where decisions are made decisions. And then I can close that. Dig you with me.  Yeah, yeah, for sure. For sure. That makes perfect sense. Um, if you, if you could draw a picture of. Some of the results that you've gotten, right? Like what, what a salesperson's results might have looked like before they were going through your training. Look like after,  I mean, I could, we have over 7,000 testimonials, in the last 28 months. So, we train every industry. So Forbes says there are 158 industries and then subsets of those, we're in all of those at this point. So, uh, we have, we trained over 351,000 salespeople in the county. In, the last three years, over 7,000 testimonies. The hard part about getting testimonials from salespeople is they never wanna. Yeah, how they're outselling everybody three to one. It's like pulling teeth. Like we don't, we don't even ask people anymore. People just come into our Facebook groups or ads and they'll post like, Hey, I started going through N PQ a year ago and my income went from 5,000 a month in commissions. Now I'm making 25,000 a month in commissions. Selling the exact same thing. Or, you know what? We have this home improvement company and we were doing 5 million in sales two years ago, and last year we did 47 million in sales, like massive results. You know, that's why we're ranked so high on, the INC 5000 list because you can't have that type of growth as a company without getting crazy results for your clients. Mm-hmm... And that's kind of why it's spread from, you know, fortune 100 companies. We even have a few of those clients now, all the way down to celebrities like Ryan Sirhans, one of our clients, the Million Dollar Listing New York guy, we train all of his salespeople that sell real estate, and lead generation coaching programs.  Man, you know, wasn't that a great conversation? I know that I learned so much, and I hope that you did as well. So in today's episode, we learned just how important it is to approach the sales process from your customer's point of view. What is it that they're concerned with? What is it that they are interested in learning and fixing on their own? We learned how that typical, happy, upbeat characteristic that most salespeople have can actually be creating sales rejection before the conversation even starts. Success in sales is all about building relationships, and when you approach the sales call from a way where you are truly trying to understand what it is that the customer is struggling with, and what are their concerns, you're going to build a much, much deeper, more lasting relationship. If you're interested in learning more from Jeremy, I suggest that you check out some of his Facebook groups. Jeremy gives away a tremendous, tremendous amount of value for free in those groups. But he also has a free course@salesrevolution.pro where you can sign up and again, you get a free course called N E PQ 1 0 1 mini course, and he says that there are a few questions included in that mini-course, and just including those few questions alone to your sales process is going to increase your sales. And don't forget, if you wanna understand what the wealthy do, head over to invest in square feet and sign up for our newsletter. We include more content in that newsletter from our guests, and you can only get that from that newsletter. That is also how you learn about different investment opportunities in real estate and technology that we personally invest in. We drop every Wednesday and we are available on whatever podcast platform it is that you use.  

Pop up convo “Royal Ink Magazine “ --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/willie-gray-harris/support

Show Notes John Livesay is the pitch whisperer - he helps people calm down and deliver a winning pitch. He believes that the best way to win more sales is to tell a story that includes your own personal story, a company story, and then turning a case study into a case story. He was approached by Anthem insurance to be their sales keynote speaker and ended up staying for their improvisation session to help people with their pitches. Ink Magazine dubbed Jordan a pitch whisperer after she gave an example of how she helped a client tell a better story. She was working with Olympus medical, who had a piece of equipment that could make surgeries go 30% faster, but they couldn't understand why more doctors weren't buying it. Jordan explained that people buy emotionally and then back it up with logic, and then she asked the client some questions. The client told a story about how their equipment had helped a doctor at Long Beach Memorial put a patient's family out of their waiting misery. The other doctor saw himself in the story and decided he wanted the equipment. The client was amazed and said they had never thought to make the patient's family a character in the story. 4 Steps to Effective Pitches John Livesay talks about his process for pitching and how he uses a four step structure to make his pitches more effective. He gives an example of how he used this process to pitch for an airport renovation project. He first paints the picture with the who, what, where, when. Then he highlights the problem and the stakes involved. Next, he provides a solution. Finally, he brings the story to life with dialogue that allows the listener to see themselves in the story. The speakers discuss the importance of focusing on the problem statement when seeking independent consultants. They tell a story about a fictitious client, James, who needs the caliber of consultant found at a big firm like McKinsey or Bain, but without the full team. James exhausts her personal network and then has trouble finding the right person. The speakers argue that this is a problem that their company, UpWork, solves. Pitching Tips for Independent Consultants In this conversation, John Livesay discusses some tips for independent consultants who are pitching their services to potential clients. He stresses the importance of selling yourself first, as people are more likely to buy into your energy than anything else. Additionally, he talks about the importance of using stories to connect with potential clients, as this will help them to see themselves in your experiences. Will Bachman and John Livesay discuss the importance of finding a mentor, and how to go about finding one that is a good fit. They advise against simply posting a request for a mentor online, and instead recommend reaching out to people you know personally or have worked with before. They also suggest stacking multiple problems to solve, in order to make the mentee more attractive to potential mentors. Cold Email Subject Lines John Livesay, a sales trainer, recommends focusing on empathy, listening, and storytelling when making cold calls or emails in order to build an emotional connection with the person you're trying to reach. This will help you earn the right to have a meeting or conversation, rather than be seen as an annoyance. The conversation discuss tips for writing cold email subject lines and John Livesay shares his tip of funneling potential contacts on LinkedIn. He believes that by staying connected with potential contacts, it won't feel like a cold email when you do reach out. Links: https://johnlivesay.com/ https://www.youtube.com/channel/UChWp7P-2gv2a-nppJpXswoA https://www.amazon.ca/Successful-Pitch-Conversations-Invisible-Investable/dp/0982285353 https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/the-successful-pitch-with-john-livesay/id982063571 https://www.joinbytext.com/ Timestamps 0:01: What is a pitch whisper? 4:18: How to find the right story to sell. 9:15: The importance of telling the best story. 11:55: How did you get into the field of consulting? 18:50: How do you find the right person? 23:34: How to open your email with a compelling pitch? 28:07: What's a great open?  Unleashed is produced by Umbrex, which has a mission of connecting independent management consultants with one another, creating opportunities for members to meet, build relationships, and share lessons learned. Learn more at www.umbrex.com.  

 Discover why you need to shift from an opportunistic to a strategic standpoint for your business Learn more on how you can avoid investing in a good solution but the wrong time which can save you tons Find out why working too hard can't really promise you the right next step for your business Resources/Links: Want more FREE tips and tools on how you can be confident about your next step? Click here: Getbillsgift.com Summary Have you been working hard on your business but feel like nothing's working to make it grow? Want to know how you can ensure that the step you'll take is actually the right one? It's not always about taking the opportunities, but rather, being strategic about the next step you'll take. You definitely don't want to waste your energy on actions that won't work– so how can you ensure that the next step you take is the right one? Bill Prater is the Founder and CEO of Business Mastery and the Creator of Scaleology. Bill earned his reputation as America's Business Alchemist by helping business owners and entrepreneurs break free of inertia and accelerate into the future they dream of. Dive into how you can master your business, focus on the right strategies, and ensure that your next step will be a success through the help of Bill! Check out these episode highlights: 02:24 – Bill's ideal client: The ideal client is an entrepreneur or small business owner that's focusing on providing services to companies that sell business-to-business or B2B. 02:42 – The problem he helps solve: So, the primary problem that I help people solve is to get out of, if you will, running their business from an opportunistic standpoint, and instead convert that into being more strategic about the steps they're taking day-to-day. 03:26 – The symptoms of the problem: There are several, but let me give you kind of what I find to be the top three. And that would be that number one, they find that whatever they do, from a marketing or sales or a staffing standpoint, they don't seem to move the needle. 04:47 – Clients' common mistakes before consulting Bill: The most prevalent one is being, let's use the word seduced or romanced, by some sort of a sales message they get either by going to a webinar, for example, or reading an ad in Ink Magazine or something, and they'll say, “Gee, that really sounds like the solution to my problem!” 07:30 – Bill's Valuable Free Action (VFA): Well, one of my philosophies is to focus on the vital few and ignore the trivial many. Now, an exercise that I do every single day, and I'd like to recommend that our listener, Tom, do this. And that is every day, either at the end of the day or the first thing in the morning, is to just think, “As a result of everything I did yesterday, am I closer to or further from my long-term vision?” 08:17 – Bill's Valuable Free Resource (VFR): Want more FREE tips and tools on how you can be confident about your next step? Click here: Getbillsgift.com 09:11- Q: Bill, how in the world can you deal with such a diverse group of clients? A: And the answer is because, at the highest level, everything is the same. Tweetable Takeaways from this Episode: “Focus on the vital few and ignore the trivial many.” -Bill PraterClick To TweetTranscript (Note, this was transcribed using a transcription software and may not reflect the exact words used in the podcast) Tom Poland 00:10 Welcome, everyone, to another edition of Marketing the Invisible. I'm joined today by Bill Prater. Bill, good day from Down Under. Sir, where are you hanging out? Bill Prater 00:18 Phoenix, Arizona, Tom. Tom Poland 00:20 And the question on everyone's lips is how do you get your frickin hair so perfect every single morning? It's even better than mine! Bill Prater 00:26 Well, I use a razor. You just use clippers. Tom Poland 00:30 Yes. Well, my wife uses the clippers. Bill Prater 00:33 Ah! Tom Poland 00:33 Yeah, my hairdresser lost a client the day he just decided to get some clippers and shear my hair off completely. I think my wife could do that. Phoenix, Arizona, do you golf? Bill Prater 00:47 I golf. I live on a golf course. It's gorgeous! Tom Poland 00:51 Amazing! Bill Prater 0:51 And yeah, absolutely. Tom Poland 00:53 Because it's kind of like Phoenix is almost the Gulf and capital of the US, I think. Bill Prater 00:57 Well, actually I live on three golf courses. Tom Poland 00:59 Where else in the US can you live on three golf courses? All right. So, folks, we'll get off sports and hairstyles and back to Bill and his expertise. He is the founder and CEO of Business Mastery, which is a fabulous community that may- perhaps more on that later. He's also the creator of Scaleology. He earned his reputation as America's Business Alchemist by helping business owners and entrepreneurs break free from inertia and accelerate into the future they dream of. Bill's got very specific intellectual property around scaling businesses. And I know a lot of people say they have but Bill has got a well-developed intellectual property of methodology around this. How many years you've been helping people grow businesses, Bill? Bill Prater 01:47 Well, you're in the- from a consulting standpoint, the answer is 23. But prior to that, I used to raise money for people I own an investment banking firm. Tom Poland 01:57 Right, so you're on the periphery on the edges of the heart of financing, for probably, well, another 20 years on top of that. But 23 years specifically focused as a consultant, coach, and mentor. Thanks for being here. Your expertise, I'm sure, is going to prove to be valuable to a lot of our listeners. The title today, folks, is, “How to Make Sure Your Next Step is the Right Step”. Bill, our seven minutes start now. Question number one, who is your ideal client? Bill Prater 02:24 The ideal client, Tom, is an entrepreneur or small business owner that's focusing on providing services to companies that sell business-to-business or B2B. Tom Poland 02:36 Right. So, the people that are selling services to the B2B companies. Tell us about the problem you solve, that's question two. Bill Prater 02:42 So, the primary problem that I help people solve is to get out of, if you will, running their business from an opportunistic standpoint, and instead convert that into being more strategic about the steps they're taking day-to-day. And so, the problem really is helping people avoid a bunch of missteps, mistakes, and going down the wrong path far too often. Tom Poland 03:09 Right. So, let's go then to symptoms. Questions three, six minutes left. If someone's listening to this, how would they know they should be finding out more about what you do? What's going on in their life, or their business that kind of gives them a heads up and go, “Yeah, I've got those symptoms. I need help with that”? Bill Prater 03:26 There are several, but let me give you kind of what I find to be the top three. And that would be that number one, they find that whatever they do, from a marketing or sales or a staffing standpoint, they don't seem to move the needle. That wherever they are, whether it be 500,000 of annual revenue or 500 million annual revenue, it seems to be stuck at that point on and on. So that's kind of number one. Number two, they find that they're personally drawn into doing every single thing in the business. Now, if you're a solopreneur, you expect it every single day and you hope one day I'll get out of that. But if you've got a team of five or six managers and you're still getting sucked into the day-to-day, then you know something's wrong. So that's number two. And then number three, is that you realize that for some reason or another, you finally understand that no one really is ever going to buy your business because you personally are too important to do it. Tom Poland 04:32 Well, that's an expensive system. That's a painful symptom. Let's go to mistakes that people- so four and a half minutes left. What would you say are some of the common mistakes that some of your best clients made before they found out about your solution? Bill Prater 04:47 So, Tom, the most prevalent one is being, let's use the word seduced or romanced, by some sort of a sales message they get either by going to a webinar, for example, or reading an ad in Ink Magazine or something, and they'll say, “Gee, that really sounds like the solution to my problem!” And so, the mistake they make is, they go and invest their time and treasure in it, only to find out, it may be a fantastic solution, but it's the wrong timing for them. So that's the most frequent problem. And then all the manifestations from that all the frustration that comes out of it, getting mad at themselves for not being more insightful and strategic, and so forth. Tom Poland 05:35 So, is that like, putting the solution, you know, not understanding the context of the problem, and just finding something that sounds like a good solution, but they haven't defined the problem? Is it rushing into something that's tactical before they figure out the strategy? A couple of questions in there, but what would you say? Bill Prater 05:52 Well, actually, it's really a lot of both of them. So, they know this, most business owners, and entrepreneurs, know the symptoms. So, for the symptoms, we went through, and, you know, many people see. Well, the symptom is they're working too hard. They're involved in too many day-to-day activities. If they've tried to sell their business, they end up either not getting any buyers, or the offers they get are too small. So, they know that's the symptom, but what they don't understand is that the solution is the way they're going about, if you will, running their business from a very high level. It's interesting that the tendency of people when they're trying to solve a problem, Tom, is to dive into the problem and dig deep. In fact, you can hear those like drill down. No! The best solutions arrive when you are able to, what I call it, chunk up, get higher and higher and get a bigger perspective, then will the symptoms go away and you start seeing little flares, little fires are going on. And those are the problems. Tom Poland 07:07 Yeah, and a lot of us have experienced that when we've been buried in business. And we've gone away for two weeks on holiday. And we come back and we, suddenly, be able to see the big picture, because we haven't been drilling down, we've been having a break. So, let's go to question five, only two minutes left, so I better hurry up. One top tip, it's not going to solve the whole problem, but it might give people a bit of a start. Bill Prater 07:30 Well, one of my philosophies is to focus on the vital few and ignore the trivial many. Now, an exercise that I do every single day, and I'd like to recommend that our listener, Tom, do this. And that is every day, either at the end of the day or the first thing in the morning, is to just think, “As a result of everything I did yesterday, am I closer to or further from my long-term vision?” The answer is binary – yes or no. Don't dwell on what in the world happened. But the next thing is most important. What's one thing I can do tomorrow, one vital single thing, that moves the needle the farther way down the road? That's the daily exercise. Tom Poland 08:16 Every single day. Thank you for that! Folks, worth rewinding and writing that one down, if you haven't already captured it. 45 seconds left. Question six is one valuable free resource we can direct people to. I'm going to give this to, folks, and you can explain to them, Bill. www.ceoa.circle.so. So ceoa.circle.so. Bill, what are folks going to find when they get there? Bill Prater 08:17 Now, let me even make it simpler for people, Tom. Getbillsgift.com. Tom Poland 08:35 Great, getbillsgift.com. And what are they going to find there? Bill Prater 08:57 Well, what you're going to find there is a free membership, for as long as you like it, in the business master community, which is my signature program. Tom Poland 09:07 And question seven, what's the one question I should have asked you, but didn't? Bill Prater 09:11 Well, a lot of people have asked me, “Bill, how in the world can you deal with such a diverse group of clients?” And the answer is because, at the highest level, everything is the same. Tom Poland 09:24 So true. Bill Prater, thank you so much for your time and your wisdom, and your insights. Cheers! Bill Prater 9:30 You're very welcome, Tom. I'm happy to be in your program. Tom Poland 09:34 Thanks for checking out our Marketing The Invisible podcast. If you like what we're doing here please head over to iTunes to subscribe, rate us, and leave us a review. It's very much appreciated. And if you want to generate five fresh leads in just five hours then check out www.fivehourchallenge.com.

 Discover why you need to shift from an opportunistic to a strategic standpoint for your business Learn more on how you can avoid investing in a good solution but the wrong time which can save you tons Find out why working too hard can't really promise you the right next step for your business Resources/Links: Want more FREE tips and tools on how you can be confident about your next step? Click here: Getbillsgift.com Summary Have you been working hard on your business but feel like nothing's working to make it grow? Want to know how you can ensure that the step you'll take is actually the right one? It's not always about taking the opportunities, but rather, being strategic about the next step you'll take. You definitely don't want to waste your energy on actions that won't work– so how can you ensure that the next step you take is the right one? Bill Prater is the Founder and CEO of Business Mastery and the Creator of Scaleology. Bill earned his reputation as America's Business Alchemist by helping business owners and entrepreneurs break free of inertia and accelerate into the future they dream of. Dive into how you can master your business, focus on the right strategies, and ensure that your next step will be a success through the help of Bill! Check out these episode highlights: 02:24 - Bill's ideal client: The ideal client is an entrepreneur or small business owner that's focusing on providing services to companies that sell business-to-business or B2B. 02:42 - The problem he helps solve: So, the primary problem that I help people solve is to get out of, if you will, running their business from an opportunistic standpoint, and instead convert that into being more strategic about the steps they're taking day-to-day. 03:26 - The symptoms of the problem: There are several, but let me give you kind of what I find to be the top three. And that would be that number one, they find that whatever they do, from a marketing or sales or a staffing standpoint, they don't seem to move the needle. 04:47 - Clients' common mistakes before consulting Bill: The most prevalent one is being, let's use the word seduced or romanced, by some sort of a sales message they get either by going to a webinar, for example, or reading an ad in Ink Magazine or something, and they'll say, "Gee, that really sounds like the solution to my problem!" 07:30 - Bill's Valuable Free Action (VFA): Well, one of my philosophies is to focus on the vital few and ignore the trivial many. Now, an exercise that I do every single day, and I'd like to recommend that our listener, Tom, do this. And that is every day, either at the end of the day or the first thing in the morning, is to just think, "As a result of everything I did yesterday, am I closer to or further from my long-term vision?" 08:17 - Bill's Valuable Free Resource (VFR): Want more FREE tips and tools on how you can be confident about your next step? Click here: Getbillsgift.com 09:11- Q: Bill, how in the world can you deal with such a diverse group of clients? A: And the answer is because, at the highest level, everything is the same. Tweetable Takeaways from this Episode: “Focus on the vital few and ignore the trivial many.” -Bill PraterClick To Tweet Transcript (Note, this was transcribed using a transcription software and may not reflect the exact words used in the podcast) Tom Poland 00:10 Welcome, everyone, to another edition of Marketing the Invisible. I'm joined today by Bill Prater. Bill, good day from Down Under. Sir, where are you hanging out? Bill Prater 00:18 Phoenix, Arizona, Tom. Tom Poland 00:20 And the question on everyone's lips is how do you get your frickin hair so perfect every single morning? It's even better than mine! Bill Prater 00:26 Well, I use a razor.

Bradley Akubuiro's parents raised him to have a deep and strong work ethic. His father came to the United States from Nigeria at the age of 17 and worked to put himself through school. As Bradley describes, both about his father as well as about many people in extremely impoverished parts of the world, such individuals develop a strong resilience and wonderful spirit.   Bradley has led media relations and/or public affairs for Fortune 50 companies including Boeing as it returned the grounded 737 MAX to service and United Technologies through a series of mergers that resulted in the creation of Raytheon Technologies. He also served as an advisor to Rev. Jesse Jackson Sr. and to the Republic of Liberia post-civil war. Today Bradley is a partner at Bully Pulpit Interactive, an advisory firm founded by leaders of the Obama-Biden campaign.   As you will see, Bradley is a wonderful and engaging storyteller. He weaves into his stories for us lessons about leadership and good corporate communications. His spirit is refreshing in our world today where we see so much controversy and unnecessary bickering.   I look forward to your comments on this episode.   About the Guest: Bradley is a partner at Bully Pulpit Interactive, an advisory firm founded by leaders of the Obama-Biden campaign. He focuses on corporate reputation, executive communications, and high visibility crisis management and media relations efforts, as well as equity, diversity, and inclusion matters for clients. Bradley has led media relations and/or public affairs for Fortune 50 companies including Boeing as it returned the grounded 737 MAX to service and United Technologies through a series of mergers that resulted in the creation of Raytheon Technologies and has also served as an advisor to Rev. Jesse Jackson Sr. and to the Republic of Liberia post-civil war. A nationally recognized expert in his field, Bradley has been quoted by outlets such as The Wall Street Journal, CNBC, and The Washington Post, and his columns have been featured in Business Insider, Forbes, and Inc. Magazine, where he is a regular contributor. Bradley is a graduate of the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University, where he currently sits on the Board of Advisers and serves as an adjunct member of the faculty.   About the Host: Michael Hingson is a New York Times best-selling author, international lecturer, and Chief Vision Officer for accessiBe. Michael, blind since birth, survived the 9/11 attacks with the help of his guide dog Roselle. This story is the subject of his best-selling book, Thunder Dog.   Michael gives over 100 presentations around the world each year speaking to influential groups such as Exxon Mobile, AT&T, Federal Express, Scripps College, Rutgers University, Children's Hospital, and the American Red Cross just to name a few. He is Ambassador for the National Braille Literacy Campaign for the National Federation of the Blind and also serves as Ambassador for the American Humane Association's 2012 Hero Dog Awards.   https://michaelhingson.com https://www.facebook.com/michael.hingson.author.speaker/ https://twitter.com/mhingson https://www.youtube.com/user/mhingson https://www.linkedin.com/in/michaelhingson/   accessiBe Links https://accessibe.com/ https://www.youtube.com/c/accessiBe https://www.linkedin.com/company/accessibe/mycompany/ https://www.facebook.com/accessibe/       Thanks for listening! Thanks so much for listening to our podcast! If you enjoyed this episode and think that others could benefit from listening, please share it using the social media buttons on this page. Do you have some feedback or questions about this episode? Leave a comment in the section below!   Subscribe to the podcast If you would like to get automatic updates of new podcast episodes, you can subscribe to the podcast on Apple Podcasts or Stitcher. You can also subscribe in your favorite podcast app.   Leave us an Apple Podcasts review Ratings and reviews from our listeners are extremely valuable to us and greatly appreciated. They help our podcast rank higher on Apple Podcasts, which exposes our show to more awesome listeners like you. If you have a minute, please leave an honest review on Apple Podcasts.     Transcription Notes Michael Hingson  00:00 Access Cast and accessiBe Initiative presents Unstoppable Mindset. The podcast where inclusion, diversity and the unexpected meet. Hi, I'm Michael Hingson, Chief Vision Officer for accessiBe and the author of the number one New York Times bestselling book, Thunder dog, the story of a blind man, his guide dog and the triumph of trust. Thanks for joining me on my podcast as we explore our own blinding fears of inclusion unacceptance and our resistance to change. We will discover the idea that no matter the situation, or the people we encounter, our own fears, and prejudices often are our strongest barriers to moving forward. The unstoppable mindset podcast is sponsored by accessiBe, that's a c c e s s i  capital B e. Visit www.accessibe.com to learn how you can make your website accessible for persons with disabilities. And to help make the internet fully inclusive by the year 2025. Glad you dropped by we're happy to meet you and to have you here with us.   Michael Hingson  01:21 Well, hi, everybody. Thank you for joining us on unstoppable mindset today, we have Bradley Akubuiro with us. Bradley is a partner in bully pulpit International. He'll tell us about that. But he's been involved in a variety of things dealing with corporate communications, and has had a lot of adventures. He deals with diversity, equity and inclusion. But most of all, before we started this, he had one question for me. And that is, how much fun are we going to have on this podcast? Well, that really is up to Bradley. So Bradley has some fun.   Bradley Akubuiro  01:56 Michael, thank you so much for having me is is going to be a ton of fun. I'm really excited. Thanks for having me   Michael Hingson  02:01 on. Well, you're you're absolutely welcome. And we're glad that you're here had a chance to learn about you. And we've had a chance to chat some. So why don't we start as often and Lewis Carroll would say at the beginning, and maybe tell me about you growing up and those kinds of things.   Bradley Akubuiro  02:18 Yeah, I'd be happy to do that. And, you know, I think it would be remiss if I didn't start off talking about my parents a little bit before I talked about myself. My dad grew up in the Biafran war in Nigeria, Civil War, Nigeria. And you know, while he was going through school, they were bombing schools, and it wasn't safe for adults to be out. And so, you know, he was the guy in his family at six years old, who was taking crops from their plantation. They grew up maybe about six hours outside of Lagos, Nigeria, and was moving, you know, some of these crops two miles away, to sell in the marketplace. And you know, at a very early age was learning responsibility, not just for himself, but for the family.   Michael Hingson  03:02 Wow. Which is something that more people should do. So what what all did he do? Or how did all that work out?   Bradley Akubuiro  03:09 Yeah. Well, you know, this was a really interesting time in Nigeria's History, where you had a lot of folks who were in this circumstance, and my dad was a really hard worker, his parents were hard workers before him, his father was a pastor. And so he had a certain level of discipline and support in his household. But, you know, he knew that he had this kind of onus on him. So grew up at a time then where not only do you have this responsibility, but a big family, brothers and sisters to take care of. He was the guy who was chosen later, you know, flash forward a few years, to come to the United States, to be able to find an opportunity here in this country, and to be able to always hopefully, give back to his family.   Michael Hingson  03:59 So he came, and How old was he? When he came here?   Bradley Akubuiro  04:03 When he got to the States, he was about 17. So came to New York City, not a lot going on there. And, you know, he had to put himself through   Michael Hingson  04:15 school. Did he know anyone? Or Was anyone sponsoring him? Or how did all that work? He had a little   Bradley Akubuiro  04:20 bit of family here, but he had to find his own way, get a full time job at a gas station, and work to figure out what this country was all about, but also how to be successful here.   Michael Hingson  04:32 Where did he stay when he got here then   Bradley Akubuiro  04:36 got a little apartment up on the kind of Washington Heights Harlem area of New York, little hole in the wall and, you know, continue to work to pay that off while he was trying to pay off school. So not easy, but at the same time, you know, a really, really great opportunity for him to kind of start fresh and create some opportunity for himself and family.   Michael Hingson  04:58 So did he tell him at least With a little bit of money, how did all that work? It's funny, he   Bradley Akubuiro  05:04 asked that question. He did come with some, but it wasn't a lot. Let's start off there. But you know, what's interesting about that is, you know, he put himself through undergrad, put himself through a master's program, you know, and was doing a PhD program over at University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia. And at Penn, he blew through his entire life savings and one semester. And so, you know, was on a great path. You studying engineering, and, you know, a semester and he's like, Oh, what am I going to do ended up going across the street to Drexel, where they were able to bring him in and give him a scholarship, as long as he was one a TA, which he really enjoyed doing. And he was able to put himself through the PhD.   Michael Hingson  05:50 Wow. So he started there as a freshman then   Bradley Akubuiro  05:55 started, so he went to several different schools started in New York. Yep, sorry, started in New York at Hunter College, did a master's program at Clark Atlanta University in Atlanta, and then came up to do his PhD at Penn. And then went to Drexel, and went to Drexel.   Michael Hingson  06:12 He moved around how, how come? What, what took him to Atlanta, for example? Do you know?   Bradley Akubuiro  06:18 Yeah, well, it was the opportunity. You know, one of the things that he had learned and had been instilled in him growing up, which he's passed on to me is, you follow the opportunity where it's and as long as you're not afraid to take that risk and take a chance on yourself and your future that will ultimately more often than not pay off in the end. And so he followed scholarship dollars, he followed the programs that would have an opportunity for him. And he went exactly where it took,   Michael Hingson  06:45 and what were his degrees in.   Bradley Akubuiro  06:47 So his master's degree was in chemistry, his PhD was chemical engineering. Wow. Yeah. What did he What did he do with that? So well, you know, the world was his oyster, I suppose, in some ways, but you know, he ended up you know, going into a couple of different companies started with Calgon, carbon and Pittsburgh, and spent a number of years there and on later on to Lucent Technologies, and fiber optics. And so, you know, he's moved on to a number of different companies, engineering roles, eventually got his MBA and has been, you know, employed a number of different places and continued over his career to work in a number of different geographies as well, whether it's like going to Pittsburgh, New Jersey, Atlanta, Massachusetts. They're now living in Rochester, New York, which I've never lived in. But it's a very charming place. It's, yeah.   Michael Hingson  07:44 It is. It is a nice place. I've been there many times. Yeah. And for customers and so on, it's a fun place to go. Well, he obviously learned in a lot of ways, some might say the hard way, but he learned to value what was going on with him, because it was the only way he was going to be successful. So nothing was handed to him at all, was   Bradley Akubuiro  08:10 it? That's right. He had a very strong family foundation. And he definitely learned a lot from his parents and from his family, and they were very close. So I think that he would say that's what was handed to him, but he certainly didn't give any get any leg up.   Michael Hingson  08:26 Right. Well, that's a good thing to have handed to you, I guess. Well, how did he meet somebody from Gary, Indiana, which is a whole different culture.   Bradley Akubuiro  08:36 Well, this becomes a love story pretty quickly. That's an article.   Michael Hingson  08:42 You can embellish how you want.   Bradley Akubuiro  08:46 Oh, my parents actually met somewhat serendipitously. They were at two different schools. My mom was going to school in Alabama, Alabama a&m. My dad was going to school at the time and Clark, Atlanta and Atlanta. So about four hours apart, Huntsville, Atlanta. My mom's roommate was dating my dad's roommate. And so my mom agreed to come with her roommate to go and visit her boyfriend at the time. She happened to meet this strapping young Nigerian man in Atlanta, and they ended up hitting it off and as fate would have it, the other two their respective movements didn't make the distance but they had a budding romance that ended up lasting now at this point several decades.   Michael Hingson  09:37 Wow. So they're, they're still with us.   Bradley Akubuiro  09:41 They're both still with us   Michael Hingson  09:42 both going strong. That is, that is really cool. So what do you think you learn from them?   Bradley Akubuiro  09:48 I learned a number of things. You know, I learned first of all, and you heard my father's story, resilience. He has learned to take whatever is thrown at been thrown at him. Be able to not only take it in stride, which I think is good, but more importantly, to turn it around and channel it and to use it to his advantage, no matter what that might be. And he's instilled that in me and my two sisters, two sisters, ones, older ones younger. And that's, that's really been important. You know, when it comes to my two parents, the things that they value a ton are education, family. And when you think about the world around you, how are you leaving it in a better place than you found it. And if you can really focus on those handful of things, then you are going to have a very fulfilling and successful life. And that's how he measured success. I've taken that away from them.   Michael Hingson  10:41 He doesn't get better than that. And if you can, if you can say that I want to make a difference. And that I hope I've made at least a little difference. It doesn't get better than that does it?   Bradley Akubuiro  10:53 That's exactly right. So then   Michael Hingson  10:55 you came along. And we won't we won't put any value judgment on that.   Bradley Akubuiro  11:02 Thank you for that we   Michael Hingson  11:03 could have for Yeah, exactly. But actually, before I go to that, have they been back to visit Nigeria at all?   Bradley Akubuiro  11:11 Yeah, absolutely. And unfortunately, the most recent time that my parents took a trip back was the passing of my grandmother, a handful of years ago. And so that brought them back. But, you know, one of the things that I'm hoping to do, and I haven't done it yet, is just spend some real time out there. I've got plenty of family that's still there. So go in and spend a little time in Nigeria that's longer than a quick in and out trip. I spent some time and we've talked about this before Michael, but in West Africa, generally in Liberia. And that was a great experience. But there's not quite like going back to where it all began with your family.   Michael Hingson  11:49 No, it's still not home. Right. Well, so you you came along. And so what was it like growing up in that household and going to high school and all that?   Bradley Akubuiro  12:03 Well, there's a couple ways to answer that. Go ahead. Well, let's put it this way, I we have a very close family bond. And so you know, when you think about the folks who have finished your senses, who laugh at your jokes, because they think it's funny, and if you hadn't told that joke, first, they probably would have told that joke, the kind of family we have. It's a great, great dynamic. And so I was very fortunate to have grown up in that household with parents who truly, truly embraced that that side. You know, it was also a tough household. You know, my parents were very strict, my father, especially coming from this immigrant mindset, and this Nigerian culture, I mentioned the value of education. What I didn't mention quite, but might have been a little bit implied, and I'll say it more explicitly is anything less than an A was entirely unacceptable. There were a number of times where I found myself on the wrong side of that. And, you know, we grew up in different times, as my parents were trying to provide the best life they could for us, and a number of different urban settings. And, you know, one, one period of life for me was particularly studying in high school, where, you know, the school district of Springfield, Massachusetts at a time graduated about 54% of the students that went through that system. And so you're thinking about one in two kids who don't make it out of high school, much less make it the college, much less have a successful and fulfilling career in life. And my father, especially, but of course, both my parents want us to do absolutely everything in their power to ensure that those would not be our statistics that we would be my sisters, and I would be able to have every tool at our disposal to be successful. And they work hard at that, despite the circumstances.   Michael Hingson  14:08 So how were they when I'm sure it happened? It was discovered that maybe you had some gifts, but there were some things that you weren't necessarily as strong as other things. How did that work out for you?   Bradley Akubuiro  14:21 I want to be very clear, the list of things that I wasn't quite as good at, especially in those days, was long enough to stun you. So you know, it we we work through it together, right? I think one of the things that I admire most about my parents now that I maybe didn't appreciate enough growing up was just the amount that they leaned in, and we're willing to be hands on and helping with our education. And so my father would give us times tables when we were in elementary school and make sure that we worked through them. And if we didn't get them quite right, we would do them again, and we do them again, and we do them again. And And I remember a time when I was in the fifth grade where my father had me up until 1am, doing math problems. And, you know, I was thinking to myself, I cannot imagine doing this with my kids, when I was at that age, and then I swore at that time that I never would, I'll tell you what my blood now I swear that I definitely will maybe not till 1am, I think there's probably a more reasonable time. But to be able to invest that level of effort into making sure that your kid has everything they need to be successful. I just have I admire the heck out of it.   Michael Hingson  15:36 I remember a couple of times, I think one when I was oh seven or eight, when we were living in California, and going back to visit relatives in Chicago, or driving somewhere. And my dad said to me, and my brother who was two years older, you guys have to learn the times tables. And we spent time driving, just going through the times tables. And it took me a little while. And a couple of times, I tried a shortcut that messed me up. But eventually I got it all figured out. And he said, when you say the times tables correctly, we'll give you 50 cents. And they did when I got the time two times tables, right? They did. And also, I was learning algebra from him. My dad was an electronics engineer. And so he really worked because I didn't have books in braille early on until I was in the fourth grade, I had to study with them to a large degree. So he taught me a lot more than the schools were teaching little kids as it were. So I learned algebra early, and I learned to do it in my head, and still do. And in high school, it got me in trouble in my freshman year, because my math teacher said, Now whenever you're doing things, you have to show your work. Well, you know, I kept trying to tell her that, for me, showing my work in Braille isn't going to do you any good. I can tell you what I do and how I do it. And she wouldn't accept that and she was going to fail me literally fail me in math. Until one day I wrote out, I think one of the problems and I think just in case she took it and went somewhere where she could find somebody to read Braille. I wrote it out correctly. But I got to see an algebra one because of that one thing. By the way, after that, I never got below an A in math. She was insistent that you had to show your work, and wasn't flexible enough to recognize that there are a lot of ways to show your work. Oh,   Bradley Akubuiro  17:35 yeah. Well, that's part of the challenge, and not to make this an entire commentary on our education system. But there are so many different ways to your point to get to the right answer. And I don't think there's nearly enough flexibility in our system in many cases, except for those who really, truly tried to find it and create that environment for their students. But at a at a you know, broader look, there isn't nearly enough flexibility to appreciate that we're going to have many different ways to get these answers.   Michael Hingson  18:04 I think that really good teachers, and there are a lot of good teachers. But I think the really good teachers make that leap and allow for flexibility in what they do. Because they recognize everyone learns differently. But the big issue is, can you learn and can you demonstrate that you learned?   Bradley Akubuiro  18:24 Yeah, well, that's what we're all striving for.   Michael Hingson  18:27 It is I was pretty blessed going through school, especially in high school, a lot of the times, I would stay after school and extra period to study in the library because again, not everything was available so that we actually had people who would read material to me or give me information that was written on boards that I didn't get any other way. And usually, the teachers would come in, we would set up days and they would come in and give me tests. And what was fun about that was we would go through the tests fairly quickly and spend most of the hour chatting and I got to know a number of my teachers that way and that was so valuable for me. One of them especially Dick herbal Shimer, I still know and you know, he's going to be what 85 I think it is this year, and he will be at five I think August 28. We still keep in touch, he came to our wedding. And he tells me that I'm getting to be closer in age to him and I point out that I'll never be as old as he is. And he tries to convince me that mathematically I'm getting closer and I say 13 years is still 13 years.   Bradley Akubuiro  19:35 Hmm, yeah, don't let them don't let them try to get you. That's   Michael Hingson  19:39 right. It's not gonna work.   Bradley Akubuiro  19:42 was gonna ask you if you had a favorite teacher because I feel like teachers, if you put together this for many years have such an incredible impact on you and how you see yourself.   Michael Hingson  19:52 I remember a lot of things from a number of my teachers and I can tell you the names of most all of my teachers. I remember in my freshman year English, our teacher was a Mr. Wilson has actually Woodrow Wilson was his name was an older gentleman. And one day we were sitting in class and he was just talking about philosophy. And he's talking about people's ethics. And he said, and I remember it that, you know, a good example is, if you need to borrow a quarter from somebody, be sure you pay that quarterback, where does that come in English? But nevertheless, those are the kinds of things that he said, and other teachers said various things, and they stick with you.   Bradley Akubuiro  20:36 Yeah, no, it's so true. I mean, for me, my favorite teacher was Darlene Kaffee. She was my fourth grade teacher, taught all kinds of, I mean, touch everything you learned in fourth grade. But the most important thing for me was, she gave me confidence in my writing ability. You know, I had always enjoyed writing, but I never really thought of myself as someone who could potentially be a writer. And she was the first person who sat me down and said, Hey, look, you submitted this assignment. And it's really good. You could be a writer one day, and you know, she had me write poems, you had me write a number of different things that weren't class assignments. But there were things that she was like, Hey, if you want to do this, then you got to practice it. And I learned so much from her. But the most important thing I took away was that confidence in my ability to do these things.   Michael Hingson  21:27 Yeah, yeah. And that's one of the most important things that good teachers can bring to us and not tear you down, because you don't necessarily do something exactly the way they do or want. But if you can demonstrate you learn that is so cool.   Bradley Akubuiro  21:42 Yeah, it is. Yeah, it is. So,   Michael Hingson  21:47 as I said, I keep in touch with declarable Shimer won his 80th birthday, I flew to Nebraska where they live and surprise him for his birthday, which was nice. That's awesome. Yeah, it was a lot of fun. And hopefully, we'll get back there one of these days soon. Meanwhile, I'll just give him a hard time on the phone.   Bradley Akubuiro  22:08 Cathy's out here listening when I'm not going to surprise you don't listen to Michael. But if I show up, then I'll have a cake or something.   Michael Hingson  22:17 Yeah, exactly. Well, so. So what was high school like for you? I think you said there were some things that happened in high school.   Bradley Akubuiro  22:26 Yeah, high school was a I mean, when you think about formative man, this was a formative experience for me. So it was between my sophomore and junior year of high school, when one of my very best friends a guy who I consider to be like an older brother to me, was shot and killed in the drive by shooting. It was devastating. You know, I had a period over a few months, where not only was he killed, and I found out about it, 45 minutes after I'd left town to take my older sister, with my family to college and 22 hours away. So this wasn't something he did every night. And I likely had been with him had we not been on that trip. But you know, he unfortunately passed that night with a 45 caliber bullet hole in his heart. You know, my experience with school with with life that I mean, it really took a turn at that point. Because not only had I lost somebody who was very close to me, but the police didn't catch the guy who did it. In fact, they caught a guy who was a friend of ours that had absolutely nothing to do with it, and put him through absolute hell, only to find out that he wasn't responsible for this, any of us could have told you that right up front. You know, that was a terrible time. You know, a couple of months later, Michael, we had another one of our close friends who was shot and killed. And the girl who was with her at the time was shot in the leg trying to get away. And you know, and another month and a half after that another one of our good friends was you know, shot in his own driveway trying to get into his car and head to the grocery store. And it wasn't safe for us. And it was a really, really challenging time, just to exist, much less to try to focus on school and to focus on other things that are going on. How could you do that? When you didn't know if when you left in the morning, you were going to be able to make it home at night?   Michael Hingson  24:32 Why was there so much crime? Well, that's   Bradley Akubuiro  24:36 a million dollar question. You know, there's so many factors that go into it. And since then, I've spent a lot of time thinking more about the kind of, you know, macro factors, but it's a very specific on the ground situation at that time was there was a gang war between two rival gangs, street gangs in the city. And my engineer who I just referred to lived right in the heart of Eastern Avenue, which is the home of the app and Springfield became there. And across State Street was Sycamore and a number of different folks and rivalries had kind of established then. And so, you know, this was not that there's ever, you know, really sensical reasons that, you know, these things happen. But this was as nonsensical as it could be, you know, people who are killing each other and dying for reasons that if you were to ask those who survived now, why they would ever pull a trigger and situation like this, they probably couldn't really tell you or maybe even remember.   Michael Hingson  25:38 So it wasn't race or anything like that. It was just the whole gang environment, mostly.   Bradley Akubuiro  25:45 Yeah, that's right. And at the time, you know, you think about the economic factors that go into this. And I talked about this in the context of Chicago all the time, because that's where I live now. And the situation is just as salient here. But if you were to be on the west side of Chicago, Northwestern most neighborhood within the city limits of Austin, you would be in one of the poorest and one of the most dangerous zip codes in the industrialized world. If you were to go two miles over to Oak Park, one of the suburbs just outside of the city. It's one of the wealthiest in the region, and it is an amazing neighborhood, and the infrastructure across the board when it comes to the education system, and the amount of money per pupil. If you were to look at the crime statistics, if you were to look at the policing, if you were to look at any measure of quality of life, it is night and day different, but it's separated by a couple of streets. And that to me is unfathomable.   Michael Hingson  26:52 It is crazy. Chris, you also have some really serious gangs back in Chicago. You know, the notorious was the cubs in the Sox, for example.   Bradley Akubuiro  27:03 That's right. And you know what the competition? beaters? You don't get in the middle of those two sets of fans?   Michael Hingson  27:09 Ah, no way. and never the twain shall meet, period. That's right. That's very many people who will say they're fans of both.   Bradley Akubuiro  27:20 I don't think that's legal, actually. Ah,   Michael Hingson  27:23 that would explain it. I'll tell you sports fans are really tough. I remember when I lived in Winthrop, mass right outside of Boston. And every year, I would on opening day, I'd be somewhere in Boston. And if the Red Sox lost immediately, basically everybody on the news and everyone else just said wait till next year. Yeah, they were done. It was no faith at all. It was amazing. And and I remember living back there when Steve Grogan was booed off out of the Patriots game one year and just I'll tell you, they're, they're amazing.   Bradley Akubuiro  28:04 Well look at the dynasties they've gotten now. Unbelievable. Although, you know, I live with a die hard. Tom Brady fan. My fiance has been a Patriots fan since the beginning. And it's been a complete complete nightmare trying to figure out are we watching the Patriots? Are we are we watching the Buccaneers? And are we Tom Brady fans are Patriots fans? You know, it's a little bit of everything in that house. But I can't ever say that I'm not happy. I am a fully dedicated supporter of all things. Somebody in SNAP, otherwise, I'm in a   Michael Hingson  28:39 lot of trouble. It is safer that way. Well, I have gained a lot of respect for Tom Brady, especially after he left the Patriots. And not because I disliked the Patriots, but because of all the scandals and the deflated footballs and all that sort of stuff. But he came back and he proved Hey, you know, it's not what you think at all. I really am good. And he continues to be good.   Bradley Akubuiro  29:03 Yeah, it's 100%. Right. Well, and that to make this, you know, given a broader topic about Tom Brady, he gets plenty of press. But you know, the fact that he was able to say, All right, you have decided that I'm done in this sport. You've decided I'm too old to play this sport, but I have not run to the end of my capability. And in fact, I've got a lot more to offer this game. And he went and he took it with someone who would respect that and the Buccaneers and he won another championship. I mean, you can't you can't make this up.   Michael Hingson  29:38 No, absolutely. You can't. And so we'll see what the Rams do this year. I liked the Rams. I grew up with the Rams, Chris, I'm really prejudiced when it comes to sports and probably a number of things because we've been blessed out here in California with great sports announcers. I mean, of course, Vin Scully, the best of all time in baseball, and I will argue that with anyone But then Dick Enberg did a lot of football and he did the rams and he did the angels. And of course we had Chick Hearn who did the Lakers, their descriptions and the way they did it, especially Vinnie just drew you in. And I've listened and listened to announcers all over the country and never got the kinds of pictures and announced me announcing and announcements that I got by listening to people in California, so I'm a little prejudiced that way.   Bradley Akubuiro  30:31 Well, and you shouldn't be you absolutely should be. And I will say this, the power of storytelling that these folks that you just described are able to wield is phenomenal. And it's a skill that I actually wish more folks had and more different industries. Because if you can tell a strong compelling story, you can make it visual, you can bring people and like that the power it has to bring people together, and to motivate them to act is just unbelievable.   Michael Hingson  31:01 Johnny most was a was a good announcer a pretty great announcer in basketball, but not really so much into the storytelling, but he had a personality that drew you in as well. Well, that counts for a lot. It does. I remember living back there when the Celts were playing the rockets for the championship. And the Celtics lost the first two games. And Johnny most was having a field day picking on the rockets and so on. But Moses Malone, Malone was criticizing the Celtics and said, You know, I can go get for high school people. And we could beat these guys. Wrong thing to say, because then the Celts came back and won the next for Johnny most really had a field day with that. That's what happens. Yeah, you don't open your mouth. Alright, so you went to Northwestern, that's a whole different environment.   Bradley Akubuiro  31:59 Totally different environment. And, you know, I gotta tell you, I owe a ton to Northwestern. The exposure, it gave me two more global mindsets, people come to that university from all over the world, all kinds of different socioeconomic backgrounds, and looking to do so many different things, the academic rigor of the institution, and the resources that were at our disposal, were so incredible that it completely changed my experience. And frankly, the outlook I had for my own self and career. How so? Well, I'll put his way I went to school, for example, at the same time, as you know, students who had some similar backgrounds to the one I did, to being in school at the same time, as you know, Howard Buffett is the grandson of Warren Buffett, and you know, Bill polti, you know, whose grandson of, you know, the polti, you know, the namesake of Pulte Homes, and you know, literally billionaire families. And so you start to realize, if you can sit in a classroom with folks like this, and with all of the opportunities that they've had, the education, they've had private schools, things along those lines, and these are good friends, by the way, you know, when you can do that, and then realize, hey, you know what, I can keep up, I can do this. And then you know, you are receiving, you know, grades professors who support you opportunities, in terms of internships, all of these things, and realms that you never even considered possible even just a year or two earlier. It truly broadens your horizons in ways that I don't even think I could have appreciated before I was into it.   Michael Hingson  33:44 Wow. And that makes a lot of sense, though. We're all we're all people. And we all have our own gifts. And the fact that you could compete is probably not necessarily the best word because it implies that there are things that we don't need to have, but you are all able to work together and that you can all succeed. That's as good as it gets.   Bradley Akubuiro  34:05 That's exactly right. And I do find compared to a lot of places, Northwestern have a very collaborative culture. I found that, you know, from faculty, the staff to students, everybody was very interested in seeing everybody succeed. And you know, we believed truthfully, that all of us could there's enough room on the boat for all of us.   Michael Hingson  34:29 What was your major journalism? No surprise being Northwestern?   Bradley Akubuiro  34:36 Yeah, I was I was a big, big, big proponent of the journalism school and actually still remain affiliated. I'm on the faculty over there and sit on the board of the journalism school and have loved every second of my time, wearing the purple t shirt.   Michael Hingson  34:52 There you go. Is my recollection. Correct? Wasn't Charlton Heston, a graduate of Northwestern?   Bradley Akubuiro  34:57 You know, I don't know the answer to that but I will wouldn't be surprised if it really seems,   Michael Hingson  35:02 it seems to me, I heard that he was doing something where he was he was doing something for Northwestern, as I recall. But that just strikes my memory.   Bradley Akubuiro  35:12 Yeah, there's some very remarkable graduates from that organization.   Michael Hingson  35:16 So you were involved, as I recall, in our conversations about and about such things in dealing with minority enrollment, and so on, and you met some pretty interesting people during your time there. Tell me about that, if you would?   Bradley Akubuiro  35:32 Yeah, no, absolutely. So my freshman year, we will actually, this was my sophomore year, we actually only brought in 81 black freshmen. And that was the lowest number in terms of black enrollment in a given year at Northwestern since the 1960s. And so, you know, the university was looking around and trying to figure out what what is it that we're doing? And where are we missing the mark? And how do we not only attract black applicants, because we were able to get folks to apply? The challenge was to actually get them to choose to matriculate. And where are we losing folks in the process. And so, you know, I had been really, really interested in participating in some of the work around minority recruitment enrollment, from the time that Northwestern had recruited me, because I recognized my background wasn't necessarily what you would consider to be orthodox for the folks that got into schools like this. But they took a real hard look at me and said, We think this guy can be successful here. And I wanted to encourage others who might not necessarily think of Northwestern as an option that was attainable to them, and I don't even know about it, to really start to understand the opportunities that could be available to them. And so I was, you know, flying to different schools, not only in the Chicago area, but back in places that looked a lot like where I grew up, and telling, you know, folks, Northwestern wants you, and you should really give it a shot. And so that was a fascinating time for me, and my own development, that space.   Michael Hingson  37:11 So what did you do for the school and dealing with the whole issue of minorities in that time?   Bradley Akubuiro  37:19 Yeah, there were a handful of things. You know, there's there's one was how do you create programs that channel some of the frustration that a lot of students who look like me had, and so a number of folks, actually, this is the spirit of college students, gotten together, you know, put up signs and decided to kind of protest. And so instead of going through, and just kind of registering our anger, what I did was work with the admissions office. And I did actually formally work as a work study student and worked on some of the stuff, it wasn't just volunteer, but take this energy that the students had, and create programs like a pen pal program, like a fly in programs, some volunteer initiatives that we can have, that would allow students who are upset about the outcomes, to help change those outcomes by direct engagement with those who might come to Northwestern, and really improve our metrics for the following year. And we were able to do that, both in the African American and Latino communities. What did   Michael Hingson  38:23 you discover? Or what did the university discover about why people might apply, but then didn't matriculate. And then how did you turn that around?   Bradley Akubuiro  38:32 Yeah, there were a couple of things. So one was, for students who are getting into places like Northwestern, very commonly, we saw that they were getting into places like University of Pennsylvania, Stanford, Harvard, a number of other universities at the same time, particularly if you were to think about the minority students who are applying and getting in, and what those schools had, that Northwestern didn't quite have, was full need blind admissions processes, which Northwestern did adopt. But the short version of this is, if you got into one of those schools, you are probably going to be able to get if this if your circumstances required a full ride. And so, you know, the economic opportunity was really significant. And you were at a disadvantage. If you were a student who was interested in going to Northwestern, or any of these other schools that was really good, but couldn't you couldn't afford to go and you're gonna go to the place that you could afford to go and maybe that's your local school, or maybe that's one of these other schools, but we had to really do something to create the funding to ensure that these folks could go to the school and do it at a at a rate that wasn't going to break the bag.   Michael Hingson  39:49 And you found ways to do that. Well, I   Bradley Akubuiro  39:52 certainly didn't do it alone, but the university   39:55 there see University found ways to do that. Yes, that's right.   40:00 We started up a commission. So a number of students, myself included, foreign petition at the time, Marty Shapiro, who was the President of University took this issue very seriously as a economic scholar, and genuinely his background is in the economics of higher education. And he started at the school as president, while I was in again, my sophomore year, as a lot of these things were kind of taking shape and taking hold. And as one of the most successful leaders that I've met, invited us in students, the leaders in the university who are focused on this, and we had asked for a taskforce to focus on this. And he set one up, and he chaired it. And it was focused on how do we create opportunities for access, particularly for this community that had need, but wanted to be here. And, you know, one of the things that he did pretty early on in his tenure, was to establish a fund that was going to be dedicated to programs to financial need to a number of different things that would directly address this community. And we built on it from there.   41:14 Wow, that's, it's great that you had a strong champion who was willing to be farsighted enough to help with that, isn't it?   Bradley Akubuiro  41:22 Absolutely. It would not have been possible without that.   Michael Hingson  41:25 So you met as I recall you saying Jesse Jackson, somewhere along the way? in that arena, especially since you're in the Chicago area? That makes a lot of sense.   Bradley Akubuiro  41:35 Yeah, you know what I'm starting to put together thanks to you hear that this was a pretty big year for me.   Michael Hingson  41:41 To see, I'm getting impressed. So I did about yourself.   Bradley Akubuiro  41:50 You know, it's funny. But yeah, there was a convergence of things. And so in this particular year, I did meet Reverend Jesse Jackson. And this started a relationship that's been incredible and life changing that remains to this day. But the way that it happened, Michael, is that there was a woman Roxana Saberi, who had been taken political prisoner by Iran, and she worked for the BBC. She had been a former Northwestern middle student. So a number of us who are part of the journalism program, Adele had decided that we were going to get together and as college students are wanting to do, we decided to protest and hopes that we would, on our campus in Evanston, get the State Department to pay more attention to this particular issue. And hopefully, it takes negotiating for her really seriously. And while I have no idea whether, at the time Secretary Clinton saw anything we were doing, my guess, is probably not Reverend Jackson, who to your point was just on the other side of Chicago did. And the connection there is Roxanne's buried, did her first interview with the BBC as a professional reporter with Reverend Jesse Jackson. And he was committed to advocating for her release. And so he actually reached out to us, via the university asked a few of us to come down and join a press conference with him, where he intended to go and negotiate for her release on humanitarian grounds. And I participated in that with another student. And it was absolutely phenomenal and led to so many doors being opened for me.   Michael Hingson  43:35 Wow, what your were you in school at the time?   Bradley Akubuiro  43:38 So this was my sophomore year. Great, great. Again, still part of the great sophomore year. Yeah, and I continue to work with Reverend Jackson, throughout the remainder of my time in college and for some period after college. But there were a number of things, but it all tied back together, because the issue that Reverend Jackson was advocating for at the time that spoke most deeply to me, was this issue of college affordability and access, and you have this program called reduce the rate, which was all about reducing the interest rate on student education loans, because we had bailed out banks. And you know, the autos and so many others, rates of zero to 1% and said, Hey, you're in trouble pass back when you're ready. We'll make it cheap and affordable for you to do that. But we never granted that level of grace to students who are supposed to be our future. And instead, we were breaking their backs was, you know, interest rates of six to in some cases, as high as 18%. Without any, you know, kind of recourse you get stuck with these things for life.   Michael Hingson  44:47 And people wonder why we keep talking about eliminating the loans today or lowering the interest rate and the reality is, as you said, students are our future and we should be doing all we can to say point that that's absolutely   Bradley Akubuiro  45:01 right. I still firmly believe that and, you know, our loan system, and frankly, the cost of education is just crippling. It's, it's, it's crazy. And this is for multiple generations. And I'm sad for what the future will look like if we can't figure this situation out.   Michael Hingson  45:23 Yeah, we've got to do something different than we're doing. And it's just kind of crazy the way it is. It's extremely unfortunate. Well, so you got a bachelor's? Did you go get any advanced degree or?   Bradley Akubuiro  45:36 Well, I did actually attend Northwestern. For a good portion, I masters that integrated the integrated marketing communications program over there. And that dovetails really well into where my career ultimately went and where it currently resides. But you know, Northwestern was the educator of choice for me.   Michael Hingson  45:57 So, career wise, so what did you then go off and do? Since you opened the door? Yeah.   Bradley Akubuiro  46:03 So you know, it's been a number of different things. And this will sound disparate, but it all comes together. I went, after working with Reverend Jackson to Liberia, and I spent time in Liberia working for the president of Liberia on postwar kind of reestablishment of a democracy, which was a big thing. And frankly, way above my paygrade, I got an opportunity to work on it, because I had spent time working with Reverend Jesse Jackson, and that will come back in a second. But there was a student who was doing his PhD program at Northwestern, who had been who is I should say, the grandson of a former president of Liberia, who had been killed in a coup in October. And I had been friends with him, I knew that I wanted to get to West Africa to do some work, particularly around education and social programs. And he connected me with his mother who had been deputy minister of education. And I had been fortunate enough to create an arrangement that I was really excited about to go to Monrovia, and Liberia, the capital city, and to spend some time working on programs out there. And when she found out that I worked with Reverend Jesse Jackson, she called the president and said, This could be a great opportunity. And they cooked up a program where I would actually champion and work on establishing a program and policy around leadership development, and capacity building for the country post Civil War, which was, again, an absolutely amazing and life changing experience, really hard.   Michael Hingson  47:45 What was the world like over there? And what was it like for you being from a completely different culture as it were than over in Liberia?   Bradley Akubuiro  47:53 Well, the first thing I'll say is, if you live in the United States, and you believe, you know, poverty, you ain't seen nothing yet. Because, you know, one of the things that you will find in countries like Liberia, and some of the places and post war, Eastern Europe and the 90s, and different kinds of places is, there is a level of resilience and a level of spirit that is built into society that comes almost entirely from experience with incredible hardship, just absolutely incredible hardship. And Liberia at the time that I was over there was amongst the, you know, five poorest countries in the world, after what had been 14 years of concrete civil war and 30 years of civil unrest. But the people that I met could not have been better spirited, and just nicer, more optimistic and incredible people.   Michael Hingson  48:52 So how long were you over there?   48:54 I was over there for less than a year and spent some time doing consulting, even after I came back to DC, but was on the ground for less than a year.   49:03 And when you came back from Liberia, what did you go off and do?   49:07 When I came back from Liberia and I want to, you know, couch this and my rationale, I had worked for Reverend Jesse Jackson on these big kind of global programs that that presidents and heads of state and you know, business leaders and all these different folks went over to Liberia and got this chance to work on, you know, kind of reinstituting a democracy and meaningful ways with the president who later on became a Nobel Prize, Peace Prize Laureate. And you know, what I came to realize, Michael, was that my opportunities were quickly outpacing my experience. And so what I said is, let's now try to find a place where I can get some of the fundamentals some of the framework for a lot of the work that I had the opportunity to do. And the place that I chose to go is Booz Allen Hamilton is a management consulting firm and you One of the largest public sector practices in the world. And so I went in with the intention of really being able to shore up my skills. And what happened? Well, hopefully they'll tell you that I was successful.   Michael Hingson  50:11 Okay, good.   Bradley Akubuiro  50:16 It was a really fascinating time to be there. You know, Booz Allen, had a lot of significant contracts. This was the time of the Affordable Care Act's passage. And so, you know, at the time that I went over, I got to work almost exclusively on ACA, and a lot is talked about in terms of the legislative kind of process to get that accomplished. But what is talked a lot less about is the actual opera operationalization of it, and what that looks like to stand up state health exchanges, and different states to actually entice somebody coming from, you know, a psychiatry program at top medical school, that choose to put on a uniform and go to a base at, you know, an Air Force base or an army base, and provide clinical care for those who are returning from war in Iraq and Afghanistan. And all of these were provisions of the bill. But actually implementing those things, was a very tall order. And so I got an opportunity to really kind of roll up my sleeves and work on a lot of that work. And that was incredibly formative work.   Michael Hingson  51:22 So it was a real challenge, of course, to get the Affordable Care Act passed. I remember in 2009, I was speaking at a an event for a companies whose hospital boards and leaders of the staffs of the hospitals in the network, were getting together and I went to, to speak, and talk about some of my experiences and talk about disabilities and so on. The person right before me, was a medical expert. He was, it was a person who talked about the whole concept of how we needed to change our whole idea and environment of medical care, and what we really needed to do as a country and so on. And he had been involved in every president's investigation of how to change the medical synth system. Ever since I think he went this was 2009, I think he went back to Nixon, Oh, wow. He, he said it all came down to the same thing. And he said The best example is, he was doing this as part of the team for Bill Clinton. And they talked about what needed to be done, how to change the medical system, and everybody bought into it, and so on, until it got down to specifics of saying what it was going to cost. And that they needed to deal with some of the provisions that eventually went into the Affordable Care Act. And he said, As soon as the politicians got a hold of it, and said, This is a horrible thing, you're gonna cause too much controversy, the President's would all run. And that's why no one ever got anything accomplished. And he also said that Obama was probably going to get something passed. And he actually predicted almost to a tee, if you will, what was going to pass. And that's exactly what passed and what didn't pass. And he said, later, we'll actually start to worry about the cost of, of medical coverage in this country, but they're not really willing to face that issue yet. And he predicted we would be able to do something by 2015. Well, that hasn't really happened yet, either. And now we're maybe making a little bit of a dent. But it was very fascinating to listen to him predict, based on so many years of expertise, what was going to happen.   Bradley Akubuiro  53:46 Yeah, I mean, that's incredible. And I will say, a lot of times the policy takes a backseat to the politics on these things. And it takes so much, you know, Will and kind of moral fortitude to get in there and drive these things, particularly when there's interests on the other side of it. But you know, I'm with you. We're not quite where I think you predicted we'd be in 2015. But driving towards it now. And hopefully we'll make more progress.   Michael Hingson  54:16 Yeah, we're slowly getting there. So what did you do after Booz Allen Hamilton?   Bradley Akubuiro  54:21 Yeah, so the things that I really love the most about that work during that time that the the change in a lot of that kind of management strategy was the change communications aspects of it. And so I knew that I wanted to get more fully into communications. And so the next few jobs for me, were discretely corporate communications, if you will. And so I got an opportunity to follow a mentor to a company called Pratt and Whitney jet engine company, you know, builds jet engines from from fighter jets to, you know, the big commercial airplanes that we fly in, and love that experience. It's moved to kind of the corporate side of that company to United Technologies in time and worked on a number of different mergers and acquisitions, including the spin offs of Otis, the big Elevator Company to carry air conditioning both of these which spun off into fortune 200 publicly traded companies their own, to ultimately what became you know, the merger with Raytheon. Raytheon? Yeah. Yeah, exactly. It most recently produced Raytheon technologies. And so a really, really fascinating set of experiences for me there. And then   Michael Hingson  55:35 you along the way, also, I guess, we're part of the formation of bully pulpit international with the Obama Biden administration.   Bradley Akubuiro  55:44 You know, I wasn't part of the founding, this all kind of happened in parallel with folks who I have a ton of respect for who I now work with bully pulpit, interact was formed in 2009, with a number of folks who came out of that Obama campaign, and then White House. And it started in the kind of digital marketing, digital persuasion space, and all of the kind of, you know, really amazing tactics and strategies that they learned on that campaign, particularly, as social media was starting to become more popularized and more mass adopted, they said, how do we start to apply some of that stuff, as you think about not only other campaigns, but to foundations and advocacy groups into corporations? And you know, you flash forward 1213 years now, and this is a fully operational 250 person agency, where we're focused on, you know, how do you help organizations of all types, you know, really express their values and find their voices on these really key important issues. But also, how do leaders make really tough decisions on things like, you know, Roe v. Wade, and what that means for their employee base, and what they're going to do policy wise, and how they're going to communicate around that afterwards? On through gun reform, and what folks do if you know, you are operating, and buffalo or in Texas, when you know, some of the massacres that happened earlier this year happen. And this has been, you know, really fascinating. And I came over here after being chief spokesperson for Boeing. And it's been really fun to reunite with some old friends and folks who have been doing this kind of work for a really long time now.   Michael Hingson  57:37 So Boeing, so when did you leave Boeing   Bradley Akubuiro  57:41 left Boeing, a year, just shy of a year and a half go   Michael Hingson  57:45 around during the whole 737 Max thing?   Bradley Akubuiro  57:49 Well, you know, interestingly, you bring this up, I was brought over to Boeing, in response to the 737. Max, you know, I was asked to come over and to really think about what does a world class Media Relations organization look like? That is going to be transparent, accountable, and 24/7? Around the globe? And more than anything, after you've had, you know, two accidents on the scale that they had, you know, how do we really become more human and how we interact with all of our stakeholders, internal and external on a lot of this stuff? And that was a really, really, really challenging, but rewarding process to be part of and to help lead?   Michael Hingson  58:33 How do you advise people? Or what do you advise people in those kinds of situations, you had a major crisis? And clearly, there's an issue? What do you what do you tell corporate executives to do? And how hard was it to get them to do it?   Bradley Akubuiro  58:49 Yeah. So on the first part of that question, it really comes down to being human, you got to put yourself in the shoes of the people that you're trying to communicate with, and to, if you are a person who lost a loved one, on a plane that went down outside of, you know, Addis Ababa, and Ethiopia, if you if you were, you know, one of the people who lost your, your spouse or your kid, you know, the last thing you want to hear from a company is, you know, we did things right, from an engineering standpoint, what you want to hear from that company, is, we are so sorry that this happened. And we're going to do absolutely everything in our power to ensure it can never happen again. And here are the steps we're taking and here's what we're going to do to try to make things right and you can never completely make things right. In that circumstance. You can at least be understanding.   Michael Hingson  59:48 I remember 1982 When we had the Tylenol cyanide incident, you know about that. Yeah. And if For us, and what was the most impressive thing about that was within two days, the president of company was out in front of it. And as you said, being human, that's a corporate lesson that more people really should learn.   Bradley Akubuiro  1:00:18 Yeah, it's a difficult thing to do. Because I think, and this isn't just lawyers, but it's easy to blame it on lawyers, the natural reaction is to immediately think, well, what's my liability going to be? What are people going to think if they think that I actually did make this mistake? And how do I cover it up? And how do I try to diffuse responsibility? And that is exactly the opposite of what you should do. And this isn't just good communications. This is good leadership.   Michael Hingson  1:00:44 Good leadership. Yeah,   Bradley Akubuiro  1:00:45 that's right. And we need more people to really understand that to your point.   Michael Hingson  1:00:50 Well, and with with Boeing, it sounds like if I recall, all of the stuff that least that we saw on the news, which may or may not have been totally accurate, there were some issues. And it took a while to deal with some of that to get people to, to face what occurred that necessarily things weren't going exactly the way they really should have in terms of what people were communicating and what people knew and didn't know.   Bradley Akubuiro  1:01:15 Yeah, well, then you ask the question, how difficult was it to get the senior executives to get on board with the new approach. And what I would say is, and this goes back to some of we were talking about earlier, the top down kind of approach to this, and what's happening and the most senior role matters the most. And the CEO who came in this was after the former CEO was was like, you know, the chief legal officer, the head of that business, and a number of different executives, you keep going on, had exited the company, the new CEO, who came in they've Calhoun, currently is still the CEO, they're brought in this new wave, this refreshing new approach and culture, and was all about how do we ensure that we are being accountable, and that we're being transparent, because that is what matters in this circumstance. And so with that license to operate, it was a lot easier to come in and convince folks Well, this is how we should approach this from a media perspective, from a communications staff perspective, and across the board, with our customers with regulators, cetera, et cetera, et cetera. Because everybody was on board that this is what we needed to do. And frankly, it's the only way to not only repair our reputation, because this is 100 year old company has been at the first of so many different things historically, from an aviation standpoint, and helped truly invent modern flight. So how do you create a reputation that people expect coming out of that, but also to respect again, those who trusted the company, because when you step on a fly, you know, you know, as Michael, when you stop on a flight, you don't want to think about whether it's gonna make it to the other side or not. You want to trust that it's gonna make it to the other side and focus on what you got to do when you get there and everything else in your life. And people had for a brief period of time lost that faith. And that is what we were really trying to restore.   Michael Hingson  1:03:15 Do you think you were pretty successful at getting faith and confidence restored,   Bradley Akubuiro  1:03:20 I think we've made a good start at bone still remains a client. And I would say that the work that is ongoing is going to take time, because it takes five seconds to lose your reputation. It takes a long time to rebuild it and to regain trust. And I think the company is committed to what it needs to do to do that. But it is a journey.   Michael Hingson  1:03:44 What do you advise people today you do a lot of consulting, and you're in

We get the chance to talk with the great human being that is Jack Moody about his body of work, simultaneously writing and editing, whether being compared to Bukowski is a compliment, and sea-born killing machines. We also get a preview of his new novella The Monotony of Everlasting. Jack Moody is a novelist and short story writer from wherever he happens to be at the time. He is the author of the novel Crooked Smile, the short story collection Dancing to Broken Records, and the forthcoming novella The Monotony of Everlasting, out October 1st, 2022 with Anxiety Press. He is a former staff writer for the literary magazine and podcast Brick Moon Fiction, and his work has appeared in multiple publications including Expat Press, Misery Tourism, Maudlin House, Punk Noir Magazine, Scatter of Ashes, Paper and Ink Magazine, Horror Sleaze Trash, A Thin Slice of Anxiety, Bear Creek Gazette, and The Saturday Evening Post. He didn't go to college. Follow him on Twitter and find his work here Want to submit your writing or be a guest editor? Email darkwaterspodcast@gmail.com Intro/Outro music: www.bensound.com Disclaimer: Any and all opinions expressed are the opinions of the participants and not of the organizations or institutions with which they are affiliated. --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/darkwaters/support

Jack Moody is a novelist and short story writer from wherever he happens to be at the time. He is the author of the novel Crooked Smile, the short story collection Dancing to Broken Records, and the forthcoming novella The Monotony of Everlasting, out October 1st, 2022 with Anxiety Press. He is a former staff writer for the literary magazine and podcast Brick Moon Fiction, and his work has appeared in multiple publications including Misery Tourism, Maudlin House, Punk Noir Magazine, Scatter of Ashes, Paper and Ink Magazine, Horror Sleaze Trash, A Thin Slice of Anxiety, Bear Creek Gazette, and The Saturday Evening Post. He didn't go to college. In this very wild episode, we talk about weird celebrity encounters, Taylor Swift, 9/11, and The Monotony of Everlasting. It takes us 20 minutes to get to these topics because we go on a strange horror movie tangent but when we get to music and literature it gets very rad! You can hit up his Twitter: jack_is_moody OR His website: https://linktr.ee/jackmoody Intro beats by God'Aryan Support Textual Healing with Mallory Smart by contributing to their tip jar: https://tips.pinecast.com/jar/textual-healing

Jack Moody is a novelist and short story writer from wherever he happens to be at the time. He is the author of the novel Crooked Smile, the short story collection Dancing to Broken Records, and the forthcoming novella The Monotony of Everlasting, out October 1st, 2022 with Anxiety Press. He is a former staff writer for the literary magazine and podcast Brick Moon Fiction, and his work has appeared in multiple publications including Expat Press, Misery Tourism, Maudlin House, Punk Noir Magazine, Scatter of Ashes, Paper and Ink Magazine, Horror Sleaze Trash, A Thin Slice of Anxiety, Bear Creek Gazette, and The Saturday Evening Post. He didn't go to college.

Is your portfolio prepared for a recession?   Simon Severino is a Business Strategy Advisor who has executed hundreds of go-to-market strategies with B2B teams around the globe in his 19 years of entrepreneurship. After 17 years of strategy execution from NY to Sydney, he created the Strategy Sprints® Method, a practical method to run an agile and resilient company.  He has fired himself from client work and now enjoys working above the business.   In this episode, he shares how you could prepare your business for a recession and thrive. He also talks about the strategies you could implement in your business to increase revenue and investments. [00:01 - 04:29] Opening Segment Welcoming Simon to the show The one big problem that Simon fell in love with [04:28 - 15:57] It's More Than Just Business   Here are common company problems that Simon thinks are easy to solve: Revenue  Focus on organic marketing and less on paid ads perform activities that increase conversion  Improve monthly cash flow by paying marketing partners on a performance-based instead of a monthly retainer Investing Build your cash during a recession and take advantage of many investment opportunities How to identify weak assets versus strong assets Weak assets - something that deteriorates in value Strong assets - limited supply but high demand Opportunities in recession: Buy competitors and strong assets for a cheaper price [15:56 - 23:18] Prepare Your Business for a Recession The investing system that makes Simon gain more market share during a downturn How to prepare yourself for opportunities The critical move you should be doing right now to keep up with recession and stagflation Increase your business resilience Simon shares the only three things you can control: Daily habits, weekly habits, and your monthly habits [23:19 - 24:40] Closing Segment Reach out to Simon! Final words   Tweetable Quotes   “Earnings is one part, that's the revenue part. Liquidity and cash flow is what will keep you in the game.” - Simon Severino “Real wealth is of course created during recessions.” - Simon Severino   “Prepare yourself for the opportunity, so when the opportunity comes, you know exactly what to do.” - Simon Severino   -----------------------------------------------------------------------------     Connect with Simon on LinkedIn or check out strategysprints.com if you want to know how you could scale your business faster. Find his book, Strategy Sprints, on Amazon and leave him a review!       Connect with me:   I love helping others place money outside of traditional investments that both diversify a strategy and provide solid predictable returns.     Facebook   LinkedIn   Like, subscribe, and leave us a review on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, or whatever platform you listen on.  Thank you for tuning in!   Email me → sam@brickeninvestmentgroup.com Want to read the full show notes of the episode? Check it out below: [00:00:00] Simon Severino: How do we create an investing system? Because this is important, it starts before you start building your cash position before the recession. So you build cash in the bull market. And when you're in the bear market, you have now an increased cash position.   [00:00:28] Sam Wilson: Thank you to everyone who is a dedicated listener to the How to Scale Commercial Real Estate podcast, just want to give you a heads up that today we had some audio issues on actually three or four episodes that we recorded in a row. They were such good episodes, and the guests were so kind, of course, to share their time and insight with us that I couldn't ask them to rerecord it. So we're gonna go ahead and publish these episodes, I am aware of it. The audio is not what I like to put out. But being a daily show at some point in time, we're gonna run into a hiccup along the way. And today is one of those days where I get to share my mistakes and hiccups right along with you. But again, it's a great episode, you can hear the guest a lot better than you can hear me, and it's just part of what it is that we do. Nevertheless, here it is. Thanks so much for tuning in. Certainly appreciate it.    [00:01:12] Sam Wilson: Simon Severino helps business owners in SaaS and services run their company more effectively with results in sales that soar. Simon, welcome to the show.    [00:01:22] Simon Severino: Hello, everybody. Happy to be here.   [00:01:23] Sam Wilson: Simon, thanks for coming on today. We're having some major tech issue on my end, my sincere apologies. But appreciate you working with me here today. And making sure we get this episode in. You're calling all the way in from Vienna, Austria.  I certainly appreciate you taking the time to on today. There are three questions, Simon, I asked every guest who comes to the show: in 90 seconds or less, can you tell me where did you start? Where are you now? And how did you get there?   [00:01:50] Simon Severino: Well, it's easy. 21 years ago, I did fall in love with one big problem, which is how do you solve the go-to-market problem? So landing products in the right market and dominate the market? How do you do that? How do you launch etcetera? It's a big problem, right? How you dominate the market? And I did fall in love with that problem. And I did nothing else for 21 years. Every day I have been, you know, immersed in those problems with teams around the globe, from New York to Singapore. And that's what I do. And so there's they started asking for more. And I had some templates and some stuff working. And now it's a global business. But it started really just by Simon solving the big go-to-market problems of teams. And that led to more teams. And that leads to learning and knowing more and having more knowledge and more tools in that space.   [00:02:49] Sam Wilson: What was the thing that kind of turned you on to that idea that, hey, there's a go-to-market problem, whatever it is, you know, there had to have been a moment where you go, Wait, there's a problem here that I can help solve.   [00:03:01] Simon Severino: So I want to spend my life on exciting things that are intellectually stimulating, and that are tougher for most people to solve because I'm competitive. But I don't want to do something that everybody can do. I want to find the edge. Where can I be slightly better than whatever there is right now? Because that creates interest for me and energy. So I'm, in my free time, I'm a triathlete. So I like to explore my limits and to go a little bit beyond because that keeps me awake, keeps me healthy, keeps me moving, right? And so the intellectual stimulation of one big market domination problem. I love that and sometimes have to be five days, six days, seven days in one room with a team, like a team of BMW. Before we came out with the Born Electric strategy, we were days, multiple days in one room, before we get out, we need a plan. But we don't have a plan how to beat Audi, there is no plan, we have to create one. And so that's intellectually stimulating, it brings me to the limits and beyond hopefully, so it makes me a little bit of a smarter person or a better person because I couldn't use something, I could learn something and I could improve the quality of something. That makes me proud. And then I go home and I'm a better dad and I'm a better husband. That's basically the loop that motivates me.   [00:04:29] Sam Wilson: What are some of the key and I think about this as it pertains to commercial real estate and for us that are scaling a business and growing in our own right we are we have our own go-to-market problem. Because we can have some really tremendous asset. We could have you know even the financing lined up but one of the components of this business is that we always need passive investors. We always need to be expanding our investor base when it comes to our company. What are some things that we commonly see inside of companies, big and small, that you can say are the common problems as they go to market with their products, right? Got an amazing asset I need people to invest in. I just need to find investors. What are some common things that you see inside of every company you work with where you say, man, these are things that are easy or reasonably easy to solve. [00:05:23] Simon Severino: So we have revenue problems, and we have investing problems. So the first problem is how do we generate multiple reliable streams of income, that ideally are passive, or become passive at some point. And then the second problem is alright, and now that we have those profits, how do we keep them around in an environment that is deteriorating, like the current recession, inflation, then the losing of purchasing power of most currencies, and even an even in real estate, the last, wonderful place where you, you would have value going up even that might be at the end of a certain cycle, and reach a moment where it's not that easy anymore to increase your wealth by just putting it there. So first, problem revenue. When you create multiple revenue streams, we help people especially in this path conditions, wherever right now, like we have right now, to spend less time on marketing less time, in paid, especially paid marketing, we basically happen to stop paying for marketing and find sales activities that bring in more cash faster in a more organic way. So you can do that with different systems or joint venture systems, you can have multiple system, outreach system, cold calling, you can have email systems, you can have a ton of systems that you implement, you have to find your own. But the important thing is that you focus on three things. So basically, you go through your list of activities, what do you have on your, on your plate right now, and just pick the ones that contribute to those three things. They either raise by 25%, the conversion rates from your existing conversations, so same conversations, but 25% more closed deals, or they have you increased by 25%, the frequency of your sales, so shorter sales time, from awareness to closing. Or they increase by 25%, the price that you can charge for the same thing that can be done with better positioning. There are eight things in the book Strategy Sprints, where I walk people through to do those eight things so you have better positioning, takes you 10 days, 7-10 days, then you have a better positioning. And then you can increase by 25% your price for the same thing because there is a higher perceived value and the lower risk of working with you. Because you're better positioned. So you're de-risking the process for the other side. And then they can pay more. Now, if you increase those three things by 25%, there is compounding magic, it creates plus 99% revenue. And that's what you want on the revenue side, you can double revenue in 90 days by just doing these three things. In the book, I explain exactly how you do that. It's Strategy Sprints on Amazon. And we can go into the depths if you want of some parts of it here. But basically, you pick the three things that raise conversions that make sense time faster and that make you charge 20 represent more for the same thing. You focus on those three things. That's what I will do in a recession because that keeps your cash flow high and keeps your liquidity. And this is what you want to have in a recession. Who stays in the game?  Even Walmart today had problems because they don't have enough earnings. But earnings is one thing. Will Walmart stay in the game? Yes. Why? Because they have liquidity and cash flow. That's what you need. Earnings is one part, that's the revenue part, that liquidity and cash flow is what will keep you in the game. So you don't have to worry for Walmart, the stock will go down for a while. But the liquidity and cash flow is what makes the difference so they will still stay within   [00:09:25] Sam Wilson: That really I think insightful because we are I think entering and maybe I'm self-creating the problem, but I think we are entering a recessionary phase. And a lot of businesses, I remember for us in 2008 you know, I saw a lot of businesses in the industry I was in just completely go out. I'd say 90% of my competition died, and we certainly suffered pretty hard times ourselves in the business I was in. We weathered the storm, but I've thought a lot about this, but gosh, in the next recession, how, how am I going to position ourselves and our company to take market share? I think that's one of the things that happens in a recession is that it provides incredible opportunities for those who are prepared to really expand their, what they own in the marketplace. And I said,  Man, the next, the next go round, this is one thing that I'm hyper-focused on, is growing our company by leaps and bounds because there's just new opportunities that present themselves like a good solid recession for you to take more money. So talk to us about that. I know you've said that the three strategies, and one of them is kind of like focusing on revenue, what are some other strategies that you are actively coaching your clients on right now for expanding the company on the time of recession?   [00:10:41] Simon Severino: The opportunities in recessions are to buy competitors and to buy strong assets for a cheap price. So before we go to investing, one last thing we have to check are our costs. How can we turn the costs, the main costs, let's say personnel, etc, contractors, suppliers, how can you turn your main costs from fixed costs into variable costs? For example, a PR agency, instead of paying them 4k per month, say, hey, I want to be in Ink Magazine, I'm gonna pay you 3k for being in Ink, and I'm gonna pay you 7k for being in Harvard Business Review. And 40k for being in the New York Times. Instead of a monthly retainer, you do that performance-based, which means you are de-risking your site, and you're also keeping them on their toes, which is better for everybody. And so you are distributing the risk 50-50. Same thing with SEO agencies, they land high-quality backlinks, you pay them $200 and low-quality backlink you will pay $70 Instead of paying them $1000 per month. So creates those situations where if you have more work, you pay more, if you have less work, you have less costs, that makes you resilient. Now with that cash flow, we have improved your cash flow, and we have reduced costs. Now we move to the investing side. And this is where stuff gets exciting. Because real wealth is of course created during recessions. And these, you know, your competitors will have a liquidity crunch, will have a cash crunch. If they don't do the last four things that we were talking about, they have a liquidity problem. Now they will come to you and say can you buy us? So there will be opportunities. How do we create an investing system? Because this is important. It starts before you start building your cash position before the recession. So you build cash in the bull market. And when you're in the bear market, you have now an increased cash position. So what do I do in a bull market? In a bull market, I am 25% in real estate, in commercial real estate. It's is the best. And I'm 25% in stocks. And I'm 25%, me personally, in digital assets, in crypto. And I am 25% cash. So that's my general way, but I build those 25% up during the bull run because I skimmed the profits from stocks and from crypto when they run up. And so I layer out some of the profits. And that increases my cash position. Now before the recession comes I will be that the 27%, 8% 30% cash, ideally 35% cash this week. So if you had that, and I am doing that, since November that I'm selling so profits. November selling profits, December selling profits, January selling profits, and then it was over. The party was over, but I have increased the cash position. And now July, I am buying this week. I am buying. I'm looking for stocks, I'm looking for cryptos, I'm looking for, of course, competitors that I can buy. This is why you build the cash position because now this is shopping time if you are ready. And then there are strong assets and there are weak assets. This is something that I learned quite late. We don't learn this in school, unfortunately. We should. So weak asset is something that deteriorates in value. So you buy a car, that's the worst thing that you can buy because like one week later, it's worth less. So why should I buy a car? And the opposite of it is a strong asset. For example, real estate, prime real estate, prime commercial real estate in a limited area like in Miami Beach, in Manhattan, New York, that's an strong asset. Because we are trying to try to build in Miami and you will see it. It's limited and everybody wants it. And that combination, limited supply and high demand. That's a strong asset. And now you might go through your assets and identify some of those for me, it's commercial real estate in prime zones. It was gold. It's not working so much anymore. Right now, it's more Bitcoin probably. It's not completely sure. But that's where my bets go. I think Bitcoin is limited enough is enough in demand, but we will see if that's true, right? It's a bet right now. But it's limited in supply. Some energy companies right now, if you look at coal, natural gas, there is some limited supply in Europe for energy, that might be something you want to play with. But when do you build your cash position in the bull market? So that was up until November. And now it's time to buy and to deploy your cash and then to go low cash for the next bull run.   [00:15:156] Sam Wilson: Right. Yeah, absolutely. I like how you have broken down your own personal portfolio there. And also, like what you said there are when it comes to taking fixed expenses, you know, when things start getting tougher in the economy, taking fixed expenses, converting those variable expenses, making sure that people are more of a performance-based trajectory. Is there a way that people should be thinking in terms, you mentioned some of that on the marketing side of things, but is there is there a strategy or something that comes to mind when you say, Hey, here's just kind of a broad way to take more market share in a recessionary environment?   [00:16:36] Simon Severino: Yeah, the difference is, how much cash did you skim from your profits during the bull runs? Because that's exactly now your possibility, your liquidity that you can add, that's what you can do right now. And so the opportunities come, all of a sudden, like this week, will be full of opportunities. We have earnings coming up from Google, Amazon, etc, Walmart have just earnings and boom, down 10% after earnings. So there will be opportunities. I hope I can buy some Berkshire this week or some Amazon because they will have heavy dips after announcing earnings, but we don't know. So I'm ready. That's why I call it an investing system. Because you see, it's not just a one-time thing. It's you to prepare yourself for the opportunity, when the opportunity comes you know exactly what to do. You have some price goals, you have some enter zone, some exit zones, and you have a way of checking in which part of the cycle are you. Is this now an uptrend and downtrend? Is it a 10-year cycle? Is it a one-year cycle, what kind of cycle is this?  And so when should I layer in, when should I layer out, when to increase the cash position and when to decrease the cash position, when to deploy it, when to be in the market? Because generally being in the market beats timing the market. Most people cannot time tops and bottoms. It's better to be long-term, like 40 years in a market. And imagine if you have bought 40 years ago if you had bought Apple, now you would be very happy. And so just stick around with something that is fundamentally strong. That's definitely better. And then you might have a 20% maybe have a trading position where you go in and out of things as the opportunities arise. For example, competitors, you cannot really plan that at some point, some supplier that you are working with will say I can't work anymore. And then you might say, well, I can buy you. So these things happen spontaneous and quick. And you can use them but you can prepare for them. That's why I call it an investing system.   [00:19:00] Sam Wilson: Right now, I think what you mentioned there was, it was again, skimming the profits over the year in the bull run. One of the other things I think that you pointed out was interesting, obviously, no one can time the market. But when we see things softening, and certainly we're seeing that in, in the commercial real estate sector. You know, just I've just finished a call with somebody here before you and I jumped on, and he was talking about how you know now that now they're getting what they call for offers on multifamily real estate, whereas before there were no call for offers. It was 20 people bidding on the same asset. And his contention was that we're down to at least we have a third of the buyers in the market maybe now that we did six to nine months ago, which to me, that just screams gosh, now's the opportunity, or at least the beginning of the opportunity to go out and, you know, continue to acquire, which that again, I love your point there that being in the market is more important than attempting to time the market. I think that was really, really sound advice. So certainly appreciate that. Is there any other things that come to mind when you think about this and you think about entering and recessionary slash inflationary, potentially stagflation environment that you're telling your clients right now you say, Hey, here's some, other than stacking cash, are there any other things coming to mind you where you say this is the critical move that people should be making right now.   [00:20:22] Simon Severino: Yes, simplify your business. So in the book Strategy Sprints, we start with the first chapter how you simplify your business. So you go through the activities that you do, and you identify your winning horses, you will have probably four or five up to 17 different things that you actually offer for three to four different segments of people. That's an average, when we're working with so many hundreds of entrepreneurs, that's an average. In average, they have 17 different offers, at different prices, what we call for ideal clients. And so simplifying a business means pick the winner from your offer, and pick the winner from your ideal clients. So now you simplify. Now, your sales becomes easier,  your marketing can work better for sales, and your operations are easier. Now every week, you can improve by 1% your operations. This makes everything, you know, frictionless and effortless, now your people are happier, they will stick around longer. Now you are happier because you have now something that works actually. So you can relax, it works also a little bit more independent from you. And it all starts by simplifying. We call it the value ladder, where you start mapping out your business in a specific way. And in chapter one, I show examples and there are clients of us explaining how they did it, to simplify their business, because when you've simplified it, now you can manage it better. And it's much more resilient. And the second part is you go through the costs and make them variable costs. So with all your contractors, you start having performance-based contracts, and weekly check-ins, weekly progress reports that they are actually meeting those goals because then they will get paid. You increase the resilience of your business. And that is the only thing in your control. 95% is not in your control, market is not in your control, sales is not in your control. So what is actually in your control? I always say it's just three things, your daily habits, your weekly habit, and your monthly. Daily habit is how did you allocate your time today and d what will you delegate tomorrow? What will you automate? What will you systemize? The weekly habit, getting your sales numbers, marketing numbers, operations numbers reported every seven days in a simple dashboard. Monthly habit is doing a strategic analysis, what is the market doing what our competitors doing? Do we need to change something? Where do we cut costs? Where do we reinvest? These three things, daily habit, weekly habit, and monthly habit are the only things that are always in your control, recession, bull run, stagflation, whatever, war, these three things are always in your control. The rest is actually never in your control.   [00:23:19] Sam Wilson: I love it. I love it. Simon, thank you for taking the time to come on today. This was certainly insightful. I love everything you shared with us here today. It is a great timing on this episode, just getting people to think about how to expand their companies and how to really take market share in times of, you know, potential recession. So certainly appreciate it. Thank you for that. If our listeners want to get in touch with you learn more about you and or get a copy of your book, what is the best way to do that?   [00:23:45] Simon Severino: So I hang out at strategysprints.com. And the book is on Amazon. It's called Strategy Sprints. And it tackles the biggest problem, the marketing problem, the sales problem, the operations problem, the hiring problem. And if you go, if you buy it on Amazon, leave me a review. I'm super curious how you experienced the book.   [00:24:06] Sam Wilson: Awesome. Certainly, I will make sure I get a copy of that myself. Simon. Thank you again for coming on the show today. I certainly appreciate it.   [00:24:13] Simon Severino: Thank you. Keep rolling everybody. 

Emylee Williams and Abagail Pumphrey are the brains behind Boss Project, a community aimed at helping entrepreneurs flourish and create a financially free life without all the stress and hassle of traditional business tactics, allowing them to live life first and put career second.Boss Project has been featured in Forbes, Marie Claire, and Ink Magazine. Their mission is to help people realize you don't need to hustle to have it all!

In this episode, we have a guest speaker Tom Bilyeu. Tom is someone I consider to be both a peer and a mentor who tremendously helped me in my journey – singularly, I can point to him and three other people who have led me to the place I am today. Through absorbing their content, being mentored by them, being in their communities, groups, programs, and the whole nine. He is the person in my life; I hope (A) will continue to be that person in my life, but (B) also become a person in your life outside of me, and this shows Think Unbroken that you can also look towards. Tom is a filmmaker and serial entrepreneur who chased money hard for nearly a decade and became emotionally bankrupt. He realized that the struggle is guaranteed, but the money is not, so you damn well better love. The struggle to that end, he and his partner sold their technology company and founded Quest Nutrition. A company predicated not on money but rather on creating value for people. The company's mission was to end metabolic disease, one of two pandemics facing the planet, despite not focusing on money. According to Ink Magazine, quest exploded, becoming a billion-dollar business in roughly five years, making it the second-fastest-growing company in North America. If you align yourself with the right people, your life will change, your life will transform, your life will be different, but you're going to have to invest time, effort, energy, or money because if you want a moment like this moment that I'm having in real-time that you're about to experience with a person that from me, changed my life forever. When you understand what you are capable of doing, you will be fucking limitless. The only way you're ever going to understand what you're capable of doing is by facing your fear, gaining skills that have utility, leveraging those, and building the thing that points you towards the direction you want to go in your life. That is the only fucking way that this works. I'll tell you right now. If you never listen to another podcast in your life, listen to this one because we have a parlay and a back-and-forth that I know will bring a tremendous amount of value to your life. So make sure that you're subscribed to the Think Unbroken podcast on all the channels. Make sure you subscribe to the newsletter because that's where I'm going to be putting the information. You can go to coaching.thinkunbroken.com, check out the courses and things of that nature. -Be Unbroken. Learn more at https://www.thinkunbrokenpodcast.com/

In this episode, we have a guest speaker Tom Bilyeu. Tom is someone I consider to be both a peer and a mentor who tremendously helped me in my journey – singularly, I can point to him and three other people who have led me to the place I am today. Through absorbing their content, being mentored by them, being in their communities, groups, programs, and the whole nine. He is the person in my life; I hope (A) will continue to be that person in my life, but (B) also become a person in your life outside of me, and this shows Think Unbroken that you can also look towards. Tom is a filmmaker and serial entrepreneur who chased money hard for nearly a decade and became emotionally bankrupt. He realized that the struggle is guaranteed, but the money is not, so you damn well better love. The struggle to that end, he and his partner sold their technology company and founded Quest Nutrition. A company predicated not on money but rather on creating value for people. The company's mission was to end metabolic disease, one of two pandemics facing the planet, despite not focusing on money. According to Ink Magazine, quest exploded, becoming a billion-dollar business in roughly five years, making it the second-fastest-growing company in North America. If you align yourself with the right people, your life will change, your life will transform, your life will be different, but you're going to have to invest time, effort, energy, or money because if you want a moment like this moment that I'm having in real-time that you're about to experience with a person that from me, changed my life forever. When you understand what you are capable of doing, you will be fucking limitless. The only way you're ever going to understand what you're capable of doing is by facing your fear, gaining skills that have utility, leveraging those, and building the thing that points you towards the direction you want to go in your life. That is the only fucking way that this works. I'll tell you right now. If you never listen to another podcast in your life, listen to this one because we have a parlay and a back-and-forth that I know will bring a tremendous amount of value to your life. So make sure that you're subscribed to the Think Unbroken podcast on all the channels. Make sure you subscribe to the newsletter because that's where I'm going to be putting the information. You can go to , check out the courses and things of that nature. -Be Unbroken. Learn more at 

“I didn't wake up and decide it's time to build a crowdfunding platform for a global community of 1.8 million Muslims. I didn't even think about being an entrepreneur.” This week I sit down with Amany Killawi, who has had such a unique and inspiring journey to where she is now, an honoree by INK Magazine's top female founder. Amany is the co-founder and COO of LaunchGood: a global crowdfunding platform for campaigns, projects and creative ideas. She is a social worker turned social entrepreneur who through LaunchGood has raised over 15 million for 1,500+ projects, impacting 70+ countries. One thing I loved about this episode was the comparison of a fixed mindset versus a growth mindset. Amany is a true, acting growth mindset leader who has allowed space of transition and evolution in her career. This episode is particularly inspirational for anyone interested in a transition be it for an organizational change, or positional change, I encourage you to listen, learn, and take the change. Thank you Amany! https://youtu.be/ZZZwigJKA-8

In this episode, Chris takes us through his entire career and life journey. He touches on his relationship with God and how he polished his Christianity. He is also a multi-star Energy star partner of the year and believes nothing happens by chance, everything takes a lot of effort and design. Chris is into investing in people where he has built a strengths culture into his company. Where he does a strengths assessment to help identifies top 5 talent themes out of 34 themes where it makes it easy to assign employees tasks that they are compatible with. He is also a great believer of content marketing where he likes being helpful, generous and focused in content that really does good for his company. This episode has a lot of juice that you won't be happy missing. This Cast Covers: Chris Heinz is a multi-star year energy start partner of the year (1:54) Nothing happens by chance, all it takes is effort and design (2:40) Chris' company has recently been named being the best workplace by INK Magazine (3:39) Chris is also a strength learning partner at Pen State (11:08) I am a one man show (12:57) Chris as a Chief Peoples Officer, and how he handles people in the workplace (17:54) Additional Resources: Chris Heinz on LinkedIn @chrisheinzco on Instagram Website: chrisheinz.co Enneagram & Strengths on Facebook Chrisheinz.com/study for association study Suggested Video: Everything you've ever heard, everything you've ever tried, and everything you've ever done -- it's all wrong. https://jesstiffanyconsulting.com/wrong Jess Tiffany is an author, speaker, strategist, podcast host and marketing consultant. He is a #1 International Best Selling Author (Growth Hacking: Strategically Grow Your Business Connections from Zero to 10K in 365 Days), Marketing Strategist, C.E.O. of MNU e-learning and MNU Digital (Minneapolis Digital Marketing Agency). As a business and marketing strategist, Jess is very passionate about his in-depth service offerings like finding businesses $50k in hidden revenue opportunities in under an hour. Upon request, Jess coaches businesses to higher revenue, lead generation strategies, joint venture creation, unique proposition isolation, and implementations. Jess utilizes over 100 dynamic business strategies to cause mass growth in company sales and profits. For those who are unable to work with Jess, he does offer an online version called the 52 Week Industry Domination Training. This program has been called “the most powerful and dynamic client attraction program ever created!” Jess Tiffany's other platforms and resources To have Jess speak or train your organization on revenue generation, LinkedIn Optimization and Marketing, or Social Selling. https://jesstiffany.com/speaker/ See the beta of a new coming social media platform that is making social media fun again. https://jezster.com To grab our free LinkedIn Marketing Cheat Sheet go to https://mnudigital.com/linkedin-marketing-cheat-sheet/ To Check out our online e-learning system go to https://jesstiffanyconsulting.com/guidedtour --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/jess-tiffany/support

Fast Company, NBC, Entrepreneur Magazine Studying worldwide business trends now can be quite mind boggling & intriguing. The statistics also make a great dialogue! Fast Company, Entrepreneur Magazine, NBC & Ink Magazine have featured the "Millionaire ProfitEngineer" David Bullock. He's also had the pleasure of working with American Express, Dupont, Lending Tree and hundreds of small businesses. The World Economy & "Knowledge Work" for Business" is in the Spotlight! He serves as the President and CEO of CEO Mastery, Inc. and Executive Training and Business Development Firm. David is a degreed mechanical engineer with a thorough understanding of process control. A switch to sales resulted in over $100 million worth of goods and services sold in a seven-year period. The process design and sales experience came together in his work with Dr. James Kowalick as a certified TRIZ/Taguchi Ad Optimization Specialist. David has created very effective combinations of processes that lead to increased sales by up to 300%. His unique approach and proven success have made him an authority among internet marketing and business development experts. David is co-author of Barack 2.0, a case study of President Barack Obama's successful use of social media during the 2008 presidential campaign. David also served as Chief Marketing Officer for The Nurse Company. He is responsible for the growth and development of a online global Nursing Community. David's work has been featured in Entrepreneur Magazine, Black Enterprise Magazine, Nashville Business Journal, Fast Company Online, ZDNet.com and Inc. Technology. Further, David is an in demand speaker and addresses audiences internationally to bridge the gap between new technology and business development at all levels. To Find out more about David's current work visit: www.DavidBullock.comAll Rights Reserved © 2021 Building Abundant Success!! Join Me on ~ iHeart Radio @ https://tinyurl.com/iHeartBAS Spot Me on Spotify: https://tinyurl.com/yxuy23ba

Please join host Patrick Sprehe as he welcomes Chris Haghirian to Center Cuts. Chris discusses his life growing up in St. Joseph, some early music experiences with his family, his exposure to the music industry in Lawrence, his career at The Kansas City Star and INK Magazine, the genesis of the Middle Of The Map festival, his career at The Bridge, and his most recent role at SprayKC. Chris also shares his thoughts about what makes KC special, and how we can develop resources to aid touring musicians. https://bridge909.org/shows https://www.facebook.com/SprayKC Each episode will focus on the guest's life, career in the music industry, great things about Kansas City, and areas of need in the KC music industry with suggested courses of action for improvement. Hope you can join us!

MAKING BANK is now a weekly YouTube TV show - iTunes Podcast uncovering the Mindset and Success Strategies of the Top 1% so You Can Amplify Your Life & Business. Subscribe to iTunes: bit.ly/JoshF_Itunes SUBSCRIBE for weekly episodes and bonuses: bit.ly/JoshFSubscribe   === SUMMARY ===

MAKING BANK is now a weekly YouTube TV show - iTunes Podcast uncovering the Mindset and Success Strategies of the Top 1% so You Can Amplify Your Life & Business. Subscribe to iTunes: bit.ly/JoshF_Itunes SUBSCRIBE for weekly episodes and bonuses: bit.ly/JoshFSubscribe   === SUMMARY ===

Get ready for a life changing conversation with Michael Hyatt!   Michael Hyatt is the founder and chairman Michael Hyatt and Co., which helps leaders get the focus they need to win at work and succeed at life. He is a New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and USA Today bestselling author of several books including: Free to Focus, Living Forward, Platform, as well as his upcoming brand-new book “When at Work, Succeed at Life: 5 Principles to Free Yourself from the Cult of Work.   He has also been featured by the Wall Street Journal, Ink Magazine, Fast Company, Business Week, and Entrepreneur Magazine. In addition, Michael is a highly sought-after speaker and thought leader who has spoken in front of literally millions of people over the course of his career.   Even more, Michael is a loving husband, a father of 5 daughters, grandfather to nine grandchildren, and an all around incredible human force for good who is leading a born to impact life firsthand.   In this episode, we discuss:   -The dangers of overworking -How to build a healthy work life balance, you can have both!   -How to allocate your time   -Why resting is not a reward deserved by a job well done   -Actionable steps to unlock your 30-hour work week   And so much more.   Michael’s story will inspire you, encourage you, and pull you even closer to living the life you were born to live ... don't miss it.   Even more, be sure to subscribe to the Born to Impact podcast to ensure you get notified as new episodes release each week!   After listening, please check out Michael’s book: Win at Work and Succeed at Life, check out his website at: https://michaelhyatt.com/, and visit his Instagram: @michaelhyatt

He is an international business strategist, speaker, author and extreme athlete. And his consulting firm solves complex marketing and business strategy problems for savy companies all over the world. Dow Jones calls his Edgy Conversations blog one of the sales sites on the internet. It's read by +30M people around the world and The Wall Street Journal praise his writing as one of the most influential sales and business blogs. His insights have been published in Business Insider, Forbes, Vanity, Vanity Fair, CNBC and countless other news, radio, podcast and TV outlets. He's been profiled in Business Week, Ink Magazine, BBC, Fox News, The Today Show and Business Insider. And has been the featured guest on dozens of radio programs, and has published hundreds of articles on progressive business strategy. He even wrote a book called 'Edgy Conversations' that he says accidentally, became a worldwide bestseller and he continues to share his insights from the stage as a keynote speaker and honest blogger and podcaster. Most days, you're gonna find him heads down working on breakthrough strategies for his clients at Edgy Ink, a highly focused, invite only, business strategy, execution company based out of Silicon Valley.

Fast Company, NBC, Entrepreneur Magazine Studying worldwide business trends now can be quite mind boggling & intriguing. The statistics also make a great dialogue! Fast Company, Entrepreneur Magazine, NBC & Ink Magazine have featured the "Millionaire ProfitEngineer" David Bullock. He's also had the pleasure of working with American Express, Dupont, Lending Tree and hundreds of small businesses. The World Economy & "Knowledge Work" for Business" is in the Spotlight! He serves as the President and CEO of CEO Mastery, Inc. and Executive Training and Business Development Firm. David is a degreed mechanical engineer with a thorough understanding of process control. A switch to sales resulted in over $100 million worth of goods and services sold in a seven-year period. The process design and sales experience came together in his work with Dr. James Kowalick as a certified TRIZ/Taguchi Ad Optimization Specialist. David has created very effective combinations of processes that lead to increased sales by up to 300%. His unique approach and proven success have made him an authority among internet marketing and business development experts. David is co-author of Barack 2.0, a case study of President Barack Obama's successful use of social media during the 2008 presidential campaign. David also served as Chief Marketing Officer for The Nurse Company. He is responsible for the growth and development of a online global Nursing Community. David's work has been featured in Entrepreneur Magazine, Black Enterprise Magazine, Nashville Business Journal, Fast Company Online, ZDNet.com and Inc. Technology. Further, David is an in demand speaker and addresses audiences internationally to bridge the gap between new technology and business development at all levels. To Find out more about David's current work visit: www.DavidBullock.com All Rights Reserved © 2020 Building Abundant Success!! Join Me on ~ iHeart Radio @ https://tinyurl.com/iHeartBAS Spot Me on Spotify: https://tinyurl.com/yxuy23ba

Get ready for a fascinating conversation with John Ruhlin!   Today, John Ruhlin joins us to discuss Giftology, the science of gift-giving.    John Ruhlin is the founder of Giftology and the world’s leading authority on maximizing relationships and loyalty, both personal and business, through radical generosity.    He is also the author of the best-selling book “Giftology” and a highly sought after keynote speaker. John and Giftology have been featured in and on Fox News, Forbes, Fast Company, Ink Magazine, and the New York Times.    A short list of John’s many clients include: Raymond James, the Chicago Cubs, and Caesars Palace.   Even more, John is a loyal husband, a loving father of four, an amazing friend, and an all-around stellar human being living out a Born to Impact life firsthand.   In this episode, we discuss: -Why gifts are so important-How to build your relationship plan  -How to avoid giving bad gifts -Why unexpected gifts are best  -The “look before you leap” of gift-giving   And so much more.   John’s story will inspire you, encourage you, and pull you even closer to living the life you were born to live ... don't miss it.   Even more, be sure to subscribe to the Born to Impact podcast to ensure you get notified as new episodes release each week!   After listening, connect with John on Instagram @JohnRuhlin, and be sure to check out Giftology at https://giftologygroup.com/.

I interview my dear friend Tech Guru Sridhar Solur—responsible for life-changing technology in our world like the wearables, and we talk about using technology for the greater good. He emphasizes on the importance of creating products that address a need, the humanization of Artificial Intelligence (AI), and how institutions will adapt in the future including education (MOOCs), the process of bioinformatics in healthcare, e-Commerce, among others. He also talks about the era of mobile as the era of equalization when anyone has the opportunity to launch a startup and be connected with other communities. Sridhar Solur is the Founder of HP's Cloud/Mobile Printing business, Mobile Incubator. He’s also the former head of all products and Engineering for Digital Home at Comcast. He was Chief Product Officer, EVP/GM at SharkNinja working on Appliances, Foodtech and Robotics and Board Member of IOTC. He’s also the Head of Business and led the creation of Shark’s first advance navigation robot—SharkIQ Robot. In addition he was the Top 20 IoT influencers by Ink Magazine and Mentor to 500 Startups and an Alchemist Enterprise Accelerator. Sridhar holds a Master of Business Administration from Boston University and a Bachelor of Science/Bachelor of Engineering in electrical engineering from the National Institute of Technology in India. Follow Sridhar Solur on Twitter.com/sridharsolur Connect with Sridhar on LinkedIN: https://www.linkedin.com/in/solur Intro and Outro Music: Hearts on Fire by Immersive Music Connect with me for inspiring and educational content on Instagram.com/warriormonk, Facebook.com/thewarriormonk, and Twitter.com/warriormonkiam Read more about the Warrior Monk mission here: www.thewarriormonk.com The repository of Warrior Monk Conversations podcast episodes are found here: https://www.thewarriormonk.me

We have special guest Gods Ink; poet, host of Words I Never Said, creator of Ink Magazine. Gods Ink and Becky The Poet touches upon today's issue and moving into more poetry conversations.

Get ready for a thrilling conversation with Akshay Nanavati.   He is a Marine Veteran, Bestselling Author, Speaker and Coach dedicated to helping people turn their biggest fears and darkest places into the biggest and most meaningful triumphs in their life. Akshay’s work helping people live a limitless life has been featured all over the media including Entrepreneur Magazine, Forbes, Ink Magazine, Fast Company, and CNN.   He is also an adventurer having run ultra marathons, climbed the Himalayas, and skied 350 miles across the world's second largest ice cap. Akshay is the author of the best selling book “FEARVANA: The Revolutionary Science of How to Turn Fear into Health, Wealth and Happiness”. The book has a forward written by the Dhali Lama where he said, “Fearvana inspires us to look beyond our own agonizing experiences and find the positive side of our lives.” We discuss:   -How Akshay rose above his drug habit -Akshay's experience serving as Marine Corps infantry -Why you should follow the advice you're giving others -Why fear is not a bad thing -When stress and anxiety become the source of your strength   And so much more.   Akshay Nanavati’s story will inspire you, encourage you, and pull you even closer to living the life you were born to live ... don't miss it.   Even more, be sure to subscribe to the Born to Impact podcast to ensure you get notified as new episodes release each week!   After listening, connect with Akshay on Instagram @fearvana and be sure to get your copy of “FEARVANA” on Amazon.

Are you willing to step out of your comfort zone just to improve on something that you want?  Everybody might say that they want change but few are actually willing. We don't do it unless we want to or unless something in our life prompts us. In this episode, understand the great margin between knowing how to change from truly wanting to change.  ----- Automated Transcript Below: Dean Soto 0:00 Hey, this is Dean Soto, founder of freedom in five minutes.com and Pro Sulum.com, P-R-O-S-U-L-U-M.com and we're here again with another freedom in five minutes episode. Today's topic is this, people say they want change, but do they really mean it? That and more coming up. What is up guys? How's it going? Oh man, another great day, another great day to be alive. Another great day for the freedom in five minutes podcast and I'm going up the hill and I'm seeing my chickens. Chickens what are you doing outside the fence? You going out of here guys, get back inside the fence. Let's go. Let's go. So, had a really amazing thing happen couple of days ago. So one of my, one of my customers really, there, they are a really cool software service that is in a billion dollar industry and they use our virtual systems architects to help people in their industry to, to grow massively very quickly and so, so I'm going uphill so I'm going to be all winded and so it's, it's it's interesting because the, I, I’m looking at my chickens I'm getting all you know flustered. Chickens you’re making me flustered girls but uh yeah, it's interesting because out of the blue, they posted on Facebook how amazing our services and how it's really transformed their business. And so they referred like literally like 30 people to us. And which was really cool. And so I got about 30 emails from people. 30 emails that were referrals, who all said, oh my gosh, you know, these guys, you know, obviously they're amazing. They, they're one of the top people in this Facebook group. They're, you know, they're doing millions of dollars and yada yada, yada. They've been in Ink Magazine, and I think it's Forbes. And, and so they're like, yeah, we'd love to, you know, schedule a time to, to talk right? Well, out of the 30, guess how many signed up or not signed up, how many actually took the time to schedule a call? Because it's not it's not exactly the easiest to just schedule a call. I actually try as I, so out of 20, so 20, so 20 of them, I used one questionnaire, 10 of them, I used another questionnaire, the first, the first questionnaire, the former questionnaire was a much bigger, much more questions. A lot more questions I should say. The, and the other one was a lot less questions and out of the 30 guess how many actually signed up to schedule a talk to see if they are a good fit? Probably you’re thinking 15, 20. Four, four people scheduled and I even had one person literally just canceled this morning their scheduled call. Now, am I hurt? Am I like, oh my gosh, how dare they, how dare they cancel? How dare they. No, partially because the whole, the, the, the, what's it called the form is meant to weed out a lot of people but in the decade plus of doing this, I've definitely realized that people say they want change, myself include, myself included. People say they want change but more often than not, are they willing to, to actually do it? No, and so for, even with, even with customers, existing customers sometimes it is very difficult to get them to even spend five minutes because it's five minutes a day, right? Five minutes a day and you can literally transform your business, grow your business, quadruple your business I've seen in 30 days, maybe even 60 days depending on your industry by spending five minutes a day. But a lot of people, myself included, are comfortable doing things the way they are doing it. And it might be painful, it might, it might be something that's unhealthy for their relationship for their, for their actual physical health, for their spiritual health, for their business. They might even be losing money because of this thing or losing a ton of time because of whatever it might be, but they're comfortable with it. I see this in the restaurant industry. You know, Paul is my business partner. And he's in the restaurant industry. And I'm like, dude, you guys are archaic. I cannot believe, honestly cannot believe at when I look at what some of the things you guys do, why you still do it this way and it keeps your margins so, so razor thin. I don't know why anybody would want even be in the food service industry. And so, and so when you look at why people do what they do, a lot of the times, a lot of the times they say they want to change, but they get some kind of fulfillment out of the, the thing that they're doing that they say they actually don't want to do. There is some kind of fulfillment. There's something that makes them feel, you know workaholics do this all the time, something that makes them feel important. Something that makes them needed. Something that makes them feel, feel, feel as though things are getting done. This is my, myself included. So what I do, my habit, I can tell you right now, my habit is, because my business is so systemized and for the most part automated, 99% of it, I will have it but so my habit is I will start looking for different business opportunities to start, right? It might be some kind of affiliate marketing thing. It might be this or might be that. Well it, it can be a whole host of things. But I will go and try and try and start a whole new business for whatever reason. And what usually happens, wasted time, wasted time. But, that wasted time what I think is actually wasted time is an indicator that something is not being that, that is, that, that's my comfort zone, is starting new things. Trying to find that, that next sense of security, right? Rather than focusing, sitting and focusing on what is actually working and growing, right? So I have to be, it is actually hard for me to stop with the new business opportunities, but whenever I do, that's when the change happens. That's when the big stuff happens. That's when, when I see massive growth, the growth in my business. So why is this important? You are comfortable doing things that aren't necessarily the best for you. You have habits, I have habits, we all have habits of thinking that this is the way it's supposed to be. This is what's going to make me money. This is what's going to improve my love life. This is what's going to improve my family life. This is what's going to improve my spirituality. And when we see something that's not working, we say, oh, yeah, gosh, I want to change that so badly. And it's like the rubber band effect, right? You stretch a rubber band, whack, it goes right back to where you were sometimes even worse than where you were. So often, this is why people pay for high value coaching. This is why people pay for, pay me 10s of thousands of dollars to automate their business because it forces them. Once they paid, there's no turning back, right? I mean, they can do that, they can start and refuse to do what I say and waste all that money, or they can actually do it. But there's no turning back, right? It’s why people pay for stuff like this because they know that they're not going to do it unless they feel some kind of they, they put their all, their chips all in, right? So what are you doing right now? What are you doing right now that's purely out of comfort? Maybe it's onboarding clients, maybe you're, maybe you are doing sales. And you're, you're the one scheduling workshops, or you're the one calling leads, or you're the one doing developing the lead lists. When you don't have to. Some of our clients come from simply cold emails that are built off of lead lists that are built by virtual systems architects from Pro Sulum, P-R-O-S-U-L-U-M.com. Where none, where none of this stuff was done by me. What are you doing right now? What are you doing right now that's purely, because that's the way everyone does it. That's the way we've always done it. I want you to just look at what you're doing right now and see that, and, and, and see what you're doing and know that there is a better way. That is why it's so nice when you work with people who are outside of your industry. One of the worst things you can do is have people in your industry consult you because they're used to the same thing too. So, what are you doing right now that's purely out of comfort. Just see what it is so you have the information and now you can start making the decision to do something about it. So this is Dean Soto, freedom in five minutes.com, go check that out. There's, there's process, process scorecard there, masterclass and if you want a virtual systems architect, someone who you can literally no joke, literally spend five minutes a day, showing them something, they'll document the whole thing and then they'll do it. So you never have to do it again. You can literally transform your business in 30 to 60 days into something magical. If you've, that sounds amazing to you, go to Pro Sulum.com and schedule a call with me or one of my team and we'll make it happen. But until then, this is Dean Soto with the freedom in five minutes podcast and I will catch you in the next episode.

Since 2008, Gaspar Insurance Services has been a full service insurance agency with clients nationwide. CEO and founder Tim Gaspar is passionate about helping people and providing a much needed service to their clients. INK Magazine named Gaspar 6th fastest growing insurance agency in California. In this episode, director of franchise relations, TIm Feddersen, reveals the underbelly of business and how Gaspar can protect your investment at every turn. This is a really insightful interview for both Franchisees and Franchisors.

Zach has the pleasure of speaking with Porter Braswell, co-founder and CEO of Jopwell, to learn more about the company and to hear his story behind its creation. Jopwell is the leading career advancement platform for Black, Latinx, and Native American students and professionals - check them out! Porter shares a bit about the work Jopwell is doing to encourage inclusive cultures within institutions that black and brown folks are trying to enter and a whole lot more.Connect with Porter on LinkedIn, Instagram, and Twitter!Check out his book, Let Them See You: The Guide for Leveraging Your Diversity at Work, on Amazon!Learn more about Jopwell at their website, and connect with them on social media! LinkedIn, Instagram, Twitter, FacebookTRANSCRIPTZach: What's up, y'all? And welcome to Living Corporate. You know what we are. We're talking about real talk in a corporate world. Now, look, I come on here, and I typically will say "What's up, y'all?" But to be honest with y'all I'm a little nervous, 'cause, you know, every time we come at y'all we're coming to you with a really great guest, but this guest is a little bit--you know what? Let me not do that, 'cause we've had a lot of really great guests, right? Like, we've had J. Prince. We've had Chris Moreland. We've had Jennifer Brown. We've had DeRay Mckesson. You know, we've had some big names. We've had Chilla Jones, the battle rapper. We've had people, right? We've had CEOs, executives. We've had Accenture - we spotlighted them a couple months ago. So okay, let me not get too starstruck, but a personal hero of mine, somebody I've been admiring from afar, we have Porter Braswell on the show today. Yo. Listen, if you don't know about Porter Braswell, Porter Braswell is a Yale graduate and former Goldman Sachs associate who co-founded Jopwell.com, the leading career advancement platform for black, Latinx, and Native American students and professionals. Braswell frequently speaks about diversity in the workplace with Jopwell's corporate clients. He's been profiled in Fast Company, Forbes, TechCrunch, Vanity Fair, and Ad Week, and has received numerous rewards and recognitions, such as LinkedIn's Next Wave, Top Professionals 35 and Under, Ink Magazine's 30 Under 30, Fast Company's 100 Most Creative People in Business, Vanity Fair's--look, I'm getting loud, just getting excited, talking about all of this dude's accolades, but I'm really excited to have him on the show, and so with us--we have him, man. Porter, what's going on? How are you doing, man?Porter: [laughs] That's a very generous introduction. I appreciate it.Zach: Well, look, it's great to have you on the show, man. Look, not to put too much sauce on it, but, you know, you're the man, right? You graduated from Yale. You know, you hooped all four years. Now, I have a question for you, 'cause I looked all around--were you, like--you look like a two-guard. What was your position?Porter: [laughs] I was a point guard. Definitely the point guard.Zach: Okay. Now, look, were you the--now, let me ask you this, were you the POINT guard, or were you, like--like, what style? Are you a facilitator? Or are you more like the--or are you kind of like a Russell Westbrook type where you're just out there?Porter: Well, you know what? So I was a scoring guard, and if I could go back in time I would've made me way more of a facilitator, recognizing that, you know, almost 6'1", I'm not gonna go to the league as a scoring guard, and so--I feel like nowadays people draw their inspiration from, like, a Steph or whatever, but when I was growing up it was Allen Iverson and, like, you scored as a point guard. And you still score as a guard now of course, but--Zach: But it's different though.Porter: Yeah. You know, like, a step-back three-point shooter. Like, you can get away with that now. When I was playing, you had to go to the hoop and finish. Zach: Yeah. No, you're absolutely right.Porter: Yeah. I would've [?] my game after other people, [laughs] but it worked outZach: [laughs] Well, look, let's talk about this, right? So, like, you know, what point did you realize that diversity, inclusion and equity was, like, important enough to transfer and transition from Goldman Sachs to create Jopwell? Like, was there a specific moment that rung out to you? Like, what did that look like?Porter: Yeah. So basically when I was--when I was working at Goldman, at the time I was there for about three years, and I was a product of the diversity recruiting efforts starting back in high school. In high school I spent two summers interning at Morgan Stanley via diversity recruiting initiatives, and then at Yale I spent three summers interning at Goldman Sachs, all via diversity initiatives, and so my whole life, up until that point in time, was about diversity and inclusion, and that's where I found my opportunities. And buying and selling currencies, while fulfilling, it wasn't the fulfillment I was looking for. I wanted to do something that I felt was more impactful, something that I felt I was uniquely qualified to do and something that was solving, like, a real pain point--solving a real challenge that people or companies were facing. And so with those ingredients, I took a step back and recognized that diversity recruiting and inclusion was a massive pain point for corporate America. It was something I was uniquely qualified to solve, and I was incredibly passionate about it, and so I decided that my life's focus was gonna be on building more diverse and inclusive organizations and doing it through a tech company - that became Jopwell, and I think that's really important because we took a traditional non-profit model but made it into a for-profit tech thing because we're solving real pain points of companies, and we wanted to basically build a competitive atmosphere, like any other tech company, where you're disrupting an industry and you want to win at it. And so we took that approach, and, you know, I'm very thankful that my life's work and my passion and my actual day-to-day job all align with each other.Zach: ["ow" sfx] Man, I'm really thankful for it too, right? Like I said--I told you, like, right before we got on, like, it's been incredible because Jopwell hasn't really been around that long, right? Like, y'all launched in 2014, right? But at the same time, like, it was so disruptive, right? Like, it was, like, so--I remember when Jopwell came around, and I just remember, like, literally--three years ago even--I was just looking around and I was like, "What is this?" And I signed up. I'm in the Well, you know what I'm saying? Like, I'm engaged, right? But you're right, the platform itself doesn't come across--and I think it's interesting balance, right? Because y'all are providing, like, a profit service, but it doesn't come across like y'all are--what's the word? Like, bartering in people, right? Like, you're actually building community while connecting these folks to, like, opportunities. Like, that's really cool to me.Porter: So the foundational thing of what we do is that we build community, and we can only build community if we are very authentic and understanding of the community, which we are given I'm from the community. Zach: Right.Porter: And that is a hard thing to do, and if you can build the trust of a community, then you can represent brands behind it. And so Jopwell has been able to carve out this area where brands recognize they need to rely on us to authentically connect and engage with this audience that we are a part of, and in doing so we want to deliver the most incredible experience and opportunities for the community. So as long as we keep the community at the center of what we do, we'll be fine as a business, but we're not transactional. We don't think of the community in that way. Like, again, we are from and a part of the community, so we know the pain points, and so we've just--we took a different approach, you know? I think that's the simplest way to describe it. We took a different approach. We took a step back. I'm not from a recruiting background, and I think that helped me, because we looked at this problem in a way in which others didn't look at it before.Zach: Man. You know what? It's 100%, 'cause it's interesting because I don't think--it's easy to, like, understate that when you come up in, like, these corporatized recruiting platforms, it just--it naturally skews your perspective and creates blind spots for you. It doesn't matter what your particular--I mean, your ethnicity and gender plays a part in that, but I'm just talking about the culture of recruiting is often times so regimented that it creates a variety of blind points that you're not necessarily even thinking about--like, recruitment experience--as much. Like, you're thinking about it from a "check the box" perspective, but there's that personal touch that rarely is really considered. And so 100%. I definitely agree that you not having that formal recruiting background gives you a bit more insight. Porter, it also reminds me that, like, the people who are often best suited to solve for inclusion efforts for black and brown people are often black and brown people, right? Like, you had--you were a hooper at Yale. You then were a Goldman Sachs employee and a Rising Star, and then you still, because of your experiences and your insights and your passions, were able to shape that into having really unique insights, enough that you were able to create a whole platform from that. Do you know what I mean?Porter: Yeah. Well, I think that everyone has a unique story, and everybody has unique contexts in which they come to the table with, and it's a responsibility of diverse individuals to expose others to the different contexts. Now, for me, that allowed myself to build the business, but that doesn't have to manifest itself in a business. Like, leveraging your diversity as an asset, you could just expose people to a different way of thinking, which helps any organization, which is the power of diversity of course. So leveraging your diversity doesn't have to lead to a business, but leveraging your diversity can lead to disruption and change, and that is a responsibility that diverse individuals have, and for me I felt that responsibility to build this platform.Zach: So, you know, you talked about this, and it's a really good segue--you know, Porter, it's almost like you're media-trained. It's almost like you do this often, you know? But you talked about leveraging your diversity. That reminds me really of your latest book, "Let Them See You: The Guide for Leveraging Your Diversity at Work." It was just published. And this book carries a theme of personal responsibility, and of course that's critical, right? So, like, talking about how you leverage your diversity to create, to your point, disruption, change, within whatever context that you're in, but with that in mind, can we also talk about the work that you've done personally, and the work Jopwell is doing, to encourage inclusive cultures within these institutions that black and brown folks are trying to enter?Porter: Yeah. So writing a book is a really interesting process. [laughs] I'll start by that, saying that. So when I wrote the book, I decided that I wanted to write a book to professionals of color, because that's, again, what I'm--that's what I know. That's the group I'm a part of. And when you write a book, what's really difficult is that you have to pick one audience [to?] talk to one reader, and you have to make sure that you are speaking in a way that the reader can follow you. So when I chose to write this book, I chose my audience to be the Jopwell member. I chose to write to a professional of color, and in that conversation I am basically mentoring and saying, "As a person of color, regardless of your environment, this is how you leverage your diversity as an asset, and you have a unique opportunity to do so." What I wasn't able to do in the book was talk about what companies can do to create environments where people can actually leverage their diversity as an asset, because if you try to [?] in one it becomes very complicated. You can't--the reader can't follow along. So the book is about what we as professionals of color can do, but now there needs to be a conversation about what can companies do to create environments where this can actually happen? And so a lot of what we do from a Jopwell perspective to companies is that we discuss with them different strategies and ways to think about building diverse, inclusive, and equitable environments, and it really starts [at] the top down, meaning that, like, the senior most people, the CEO, the board level, they have to be committed and bought in. Companies have to clearly define and articulate what diversity even means in the context of their organization. Are you talking about ethnicity? Are you talking about gender? Sexual orientation? Socioeconomic background? What are you talking about? Because to build a culture that is inclusive--well, inclusive of whom? You know? And I think that's a really important concept. And then how do you measure if it's working? And so there are a lot of steps that companies have to take. Unfortunately, a lot of companies don't feel comfortable having uncomfortable conversations and they want to jump to solutions without really thinking through "What does success look like?" So at Jopwell, when we work with a company, we take them through those stages. We work with them to define what success looks like. And diversity and inclusion is not, like, a 1-year initiative. It's gonna be ingrained in your culture moving forward. So it's a long-term play, and so there's a lot of work that we do with companies that's less tech-focused--it's a lot of human capital--but because we're doing that at work, we can help the community find opportunities that they should be able to thrive in.Zach: And so let's talk about that. I want to press a little bit more on what you said about, like, you know, you stated that a lot of times--that part of the inclusive culture for folks to actually leverage their diversity well is in organizations being comfortable having uncomfortable conversations, and I've noticed that too, that, like, a lot of times if you mention the word race, or you mention the word gender, or you mention any of these words that indicate other, you're right, organizations will often kind of go to, "Well, we're just gonna do this, this, this, this, and this." It almost becomes, like, a--like they're putting out a fire, right? It's more reactionary and it's not solution-oriented, and you talked about people being comfortable with those uncomfortable dialogues. What does it look like for Jopwell to help organizations work through some of that discomfort?Porter: Yeah. So what we tell companies is that if there's something that's happening in the world or in the country that disproportionately affects a certain community and you have that community as employees within your organization, how do you express that in a way that's, like, non-polarizing or non-political? Because you should treat your colleagues and your peers as you would want to be treated. So if you're from a community and something's happening within that community that's, like, on national news and you don't address it as an organization, like, of course that employee won't bring their whole self and their authentic self to work, and if they don't bring their authentic self and their whole self to work you're not gonna get the most out of them. So how do you create [environments] where these potentially uncomfortable conversations can occur in a way that it's respectful and that employees understand that the workforce that you work in is very inclusive and these conversations are just a part of the fabric of what makes the organization's culture special? So, like, let's start small, right? And so thinking about topics and news conversations that are happening, how do you start to address those things? Now, we've seen many companies do really interesting things on the back of our recommendations when these things occur. Some companies have hosted town halls where they bring all hands, and, you know, it's a conversation of what's going on and what's the position of a company around certain topics that they cannot ignore. And the feedback has been incredible, naturally so, from the attendees, because they felt like they were seen for the first time. And then again, like, if companies aren't used to doing those things, it can be potentially uncomfortable. So that's an important concept.Zach: And kind of going into that, right? And I shared this a little bit earlier. What excites me about Jopwell is that it's not a job board - it's actually a community, and I talked about this earlier, but it's a community built by and built for underrepresented folks, and, like, that comes with a lot. So I think about Living Corporate--and Living Corporate and Jopwell are not the same, right? Like, the missions are different, but there's some similarity in that we exist as a resource for underrepresented voices, and I think that comes with a lot. I think for Living Corporate it's unique because we're really just here on, like, the employee side. Like, we're just here to amplify voices, but we're not--we don't necessarily have, like, the same connected, like, broad community that you have, and we're also of course not managing, like, tons of corporate relationships, and so I'm really curious about, like, what does it look like for you and your team Porter, to manage the emotional labor of, like, carrying and advocating for and building this platform to amplify and support black and brown folks while at the same time managing, like, the business relationships that come with that?Porter: Yeah. So it can get very complicated, but we always--because [we work?] for the community, the community knows what to expect from Jopwell and companies know what to expect from Jopwell. So we don't speak to the community any differently than we talk to companies, and we don't talk to companies any differently than we talk to the community. Like, we are very consistent in who we are. For us, we always do what we believe is the best for the community, and Jopwell takes stands on things that we feel passionately about that affect the community, regardless of what companies think. So a perfect example is during the last election, when Trump won, we knew, positive or negative, there was gonna be a very strong reaction from them. So even though we're a tech company, we knew we had to host a town hall, or create a forum, where people can share their perspectives and how they feel. So we hosted a town hall in New York City. We had, you know, several hundred people show up. No real agenda other than hearing the perspective of the community, and people shared how they felt, and just providing that forum, I think, was beneficial, and we felt that we had a responsibility to the community. So we know if we're thinking these things, others are thinking these things at work, so there needs to be an outlet where they can have these conversations about all of the stuff that's going on. And so, again, we have to be very committed and very--and always bring it back to we are a community-first class [?]. The two things that we believe are best for the community--again, as long as we're consistent and then companies know that, the community knows that, and Jopwell will always do what's best for the community.Zach: Man, I love that, man, you know? I just--and I appreciate it, and it feels--like, to your point around consistency, like, it's really cool--'cause I've seen other... I don't know. It's just interesting, right? And, like, I've talked about this to other, like, diversity and inclusion leaders. I think that we're seeing this pattern of some of these spaces becoming a bit more authentic in their language and in their presentation, and I really do believe that Jopwell is leading the cause in that, right? Because a lot of times when you have, like, these spaces that are, like, led by predominant majority folks, they can sometimes come across lukewarm or silent on certain spaces, and then it--like, it creates an inconsistent brand, because it's like, "Okay, well, if you're for diversity and inclusion, you should have a voice on this topic because it's impacting the people that you claim to advocate for." And I do recall content coming out around the election, and I do remember just being, like--feeling really affirmed by that. So question for you - you talked a little bit about forums. You recently hosted Jopwell's first ever summit, Jopwell Talks. It looked like an awesome event. Can you tell us a little bit more about the day and what you hope attendees took away from the summit?Porter: Yeah, absolutely. So we were so thrilled to host that event. Basically, Ryan and I, my co-founder and I, we've gone to diversity and inclusion conferences time after time after time over the last, you know, 4.5 years or so of building Jopwell. It was frustrating to me that I didn't leave feeling inspired [for, like, what] tomorrow brings me, and we are incredibly fortunate that throughout the Jopwell journey there have been many mentors and celebrities that have joined the movement with us, and we felt that we could provide these trailblazers [?] a stage to share stories of how they got to where they are and the things they've learned along the way that the audience can recognize that there's no linear path to success and that these individuals that we can highlight, we felt that it's not often that you get access to these folks. So we wanted to create an incredible environment, so we rented out the Brooklyn Museum. We wanted to have the most outstanding speakers, so we went after [sticks?] - Gayle King, Dr. Michael Lomax, Antonio Lucio, the CMO of Facebook, Edith Cooper, [?]. I mean, just incredible folks. [?] loved hosting it. And from these individuals, we were able to share their story and highlight them in such a way that the audience could follow along and let the conversations breathe. So we didn't have panels. There were no breakout sessions. It was amazing content from amazing individuals, and we crowd-sourced some of the questions. You were involved in this incredible environment listening to these folks, and what I've received as feedback from people, they left feeling motivated and excited to [see] tomorrow, and they saw these folks, and that was the goal of the day, and so we're very thankful that people were excited to attend and that they wanted [to be a] part of it, and, you know, we plan on doing a lot more moving forward.Zach: Man, that's incredible. And look, Porter, you know that we appreciate you. Super thankful that you were able to join on the platform. In fact, you know, it's pretty customary. We got to. You know, we typically drop air horns. We drop 'em at the beginning, but I got too excited and nervous 'cause you're on our show and so I didn't drop 'em. So I'ma go ahead and drop the air horns right here--[air horns sfx]--and I'ma go ahead and give you a Flex bomb--[Flex bomb sfx]--and I'ma give you some coins, 'cause you been dropping dimes. [coin sfx] And I just want to thank you, man. I appreciate you. Thank you so much. Before we let you go though, any parting words or shout-outs?Porter: No, [but] I appreciate the work that you all [do]. You know, the more that we lift each other up, the more opportunity exists for everybody, and this is not a zero-sum game, and I get very frustrated when I'm the only person of color in a room, and--again, the conversations need to keep happening, and that's the only way we're gonna start changing things. So thank you for building this and for allowing individuals to hear stories at scale. It's what I need and needed when I was thinking about what I wanted to do next, and it's not often where you can get access to folks and really hear their authentic stories. And so it's an incredible platform that you're building and, you know, thank you for doing that.Zach: Oh, my gosh. Man, I'm about to blush over here. Yo. [laughs] Listen, y'all, it's been Zach. You've been listening to Living Corporate. We are real talk in a corporate world. You make sure you check us out on Twitter at LivingCorp_Pod, Instagram at @LivingCorporate. Make sure you just check us out anywhere. You know, just Google us, you know what I mean? We're not Jopwell level, but we're out here. You just Google "Living Corporate." You want to check out our website? Check out livingcorporate.co, livingcorporate.net, livingcorporate.org, livingcorporate.tv, living-corporate--please say the dash--Porter, do you know we have all the livingcorporates except livingcorporate.com, man? We've got all them domains. I'm trying to get it, man. Australia has livingcorporate.com, but we're gonna get there one day, man. Let's see here. I think that does it for us. This has been Zach again, and you've been listening to Porter Braswell - general beast, but specifically for this podcast, CEO and co-founder of Jopwell. 'Til next time, y'all. Peace.

In this episode, I’m talking with Jasmine Diane, who is a nationally recognized lifestyle blogger at JasmineDiane.com with a heart for teaching women how to boss up. She has been blogging for over 7 years, working with brands like Dove, Starbucks, Pepsi, KC Fashion Week and more. Most notable she was featured in Marie Claire magazine and named one of Kansas City's "30 Under 30" Honorees in 2017 by Ink Magazine.   Along with these honors, Jasmine was honored as this year's Young Advertising Professional of the Year at the Journey Awards, hosted by the American Advertising Federation of Kansas City. Additionally, she was honored as City of Truth Church's Salt & Light Award for her infectious joy and positive attitude. Jasmine regularly hosts networking brunches, known as “Brunchin’ with Jas” for young professionals in Kansas City. Over the past two years, she has hosted over 250 young professionals and was featured on the cover of Ink Magazine’s Brunch Edition last summer.  I’m so excited for Jasmine as she continues to walk in her purpose as a wife and business owner and to see what else she has up her sleeve!  During this episode, Jasmine discussed:   How looking for something to do after a breakup in college led her to where she is today How she didn’t let a lack of resources stop her from pursuing blogging  Insecurities that she has had to overcome along the way and how  Her struggle with post-grad depression The My Girl Stories Movement Her transition into being a new wife Some of the things she’s passionate about right now And so much more! Tune in now to hear how Jasmine juggles it all with style.  MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE:  Follow Jasmine on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thejasminediane/ Follow My Girl Stories on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mygirlstories Check out Jasmine’s blog and other resources: https://www.jasminediane.com/ Check out the My Girl Stories Movement and Shop: www.mygirlstories.com Jasmine Diane’s Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thejasminediane/ Jasmine Diane’s Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/thejasminediane/ Jasmine Diane’s Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/thejasminediane/ I’d love for you to leave a review and stay connected with me @kristinsuttonlpc over on Instagram! www.instagram.com/kristinsuttonlpc Have any questions for me or just wanna show me some love? Send me an email: hello@kristinsuttonlpc.com  

In this episode Ink Magazine’s Carlos And Ross discuss the art of DJing with Richmond’s own DJ Boygirl. The conversation touches on the history of DJing, issues that can arise from the art form, and the topic of whether or not curation itself can be considered a complete form of artistic expression. If you like the episode, consider giving us a review, saving the show to your downloads, or just shooting us a message! We’d love to hear from you. Music by Carlos L. Check out DJBoyGirl's music here: https://soundcloud.com/djboygirl Thank you for reading all the way to the end of this bio. Now that it’s just the two of us, I was wondering how you’re feeling today. Go on, it’s just us now. I love you.

Fast Company, NBC, Entrepreneur Magazine I find studying worldwide business trends very intriguing. The statistics always make a great dialogue! Fast Company, Entrepreneur Magazine, NBC & Ink Magazine have featured the "Millionaire ProfitEngineer" David Bullock. He's had the pleasure of working with American Express, Dupont, Lending Tree and hundreds of small businesses. The World Economy & "Knowledge Work" for Business" is in the Spotlight! He serves as the President and CEO of CEO Mastery, Inc. and Executive Training and Business Development Firm. David is a degreed mechanical engineer with a thorough understanding of process control. A switch to sales resulted in over $100 million worth of goods and services sold in a seven-year period. The process design and sales experience came together in his work with Dr. James Kowalick as a certified TRIZ/Taguchi Ad Optimization Specialist. David has created very effective combinations of processes that lead to increased sales by up to 300%. His unique approach and proven success have made him an authority among internet marketing and business development experts. David is co-author of Barack 2.0, a case study of President Barack Obama's successful use of social media during the 2008 presidential campaign. David also served as Chief Marketing Officer for The Nurse Company. He is responsible for the growth and development of a online global Nursing Community. David's work has been featured in Entrepreneur Magazine, Black Enterprise Magazine, Nashville Business Journal, Fast Company Online, ZDNet.com and Inc. Technology. Further, David is an in demand speaker and addresses audiences internationally to bridge the gap between new technology and business development at all levels. To Find out more about David's current work visit: DavidBullock.com © 2019 BuildingAbundantSuccess!! Join Me on iHeart Radio @ https://tinyurl.com/iHeartBAS Join Me on Facebook @ Facebook.com/BuildingAbundantSucces

In the wake of Davos 2019, the World Economic Forum, tensions are running high. Large companies are being scrutinized for reaping huge tax breaks while not giving back to the community. CEOs are trying to balance a board's expectation of making fiscally responsible decisions and also maintaining a culture of trust and creativity. Should tech entrepreneurs be tasked with fixing the world? Is it their responsibility?        TRANSCRIPT: [0:00:17] PJ Bruno: What's up guys? Welcome back to Braze for Impact, your weekly tech industry discuss digest. I'm PJ Bruno, and I'm thrilled to have with me today two very close buddies. Across from me is Boris Revechkis, product manager here at Braze, and also I believe descendant of Rasputin? Is that-   [0:00:34] Boris Revechkis: That's accurate, yes. What's up everybody?   [0:00:36] PJ Bruno: Cool. Here he is. And to my right, your left, we have also a good friend of mine, Ryan Doyle, who's recently become an AE here at Braze. He is the legitimate country boy turned bonafide city boy. How you doing here Ryan?   [0:00:50] Ryan Doyle: How y'all doing? Yeah, no. Only recently, seven months now.   [0:00:54] PJ Bruno: Wow.   [0:00:54] Ryan Doyle: Yes.   [0:00:54] PJ Bruno: What a turn.   [0:00:55] Boris Revechkis: Doyle Farms.   [0:00:57] Ryan Doyle: Doyle and Son Farms.   [0:00:58] Boris Revechkis: Doyle and Son Farms.   [0:00:58] Ryan Doyle: Remember where you came from.   [0:00:59] PJ Bruno: That's right.   [0:00:59] Boris Revechkis: Love it.   [0:01:00] PJ Bruno: How you guys doing? I know, Boris you're fighting a cold-   [0:01:03] Boris Revechkis: I'm getting some cold.   [0:01:03] PJ Bruno: And somehow you made it here today, I love that.   [0:01:05] Boris Revechkis: I'm hanging in there, doing it for the podcast.   [0:01:09] PJ Bruno: God, that's the commitment we need to see more of, kind of across the board.   [0:01:12] Boris Revechkis: I may faint. I may faint during the podcast, but if I do, just go on without me.   [0:01:16] Ryan Doyle: We'll keep going yeah.   [0:01:17] PJ Bruno: Yeah, we'll edit it out. We'll edit out your faint-   [0:01:19] Boris Revechkis: Perfect.   [0:01:19] Ryan Doyle: I can do your voice.   [0:01:21] PJ Bruno: Ryan, how you doing buddy?   [0:01:22] Ryan Doyle: I'm doing fantastic. Just meetings, meetings, meetings, deals, deals, deals.   [0:01:26] PJ Bruno: Cool.   [0:01:26] Ryan Doyle: They really crack that whip.   [0:01:27] PJ Bruno: They do, don't they?   [0:01:28] Ryan Doyle: Yes.   [0:01:30] PJ Bruno: You told me yesterday you had a cool little prospecting adventure and a weird experience.   [0:01:35] Ryan Doyle: Yeah, you want me to talk-   [0:01:36] PJ Bruno: Can you share? Yeah, yeah. Give a little splattering of it.   [0:01:39] Ryan Doyle: So, just the background on it was, I had a prospect who came to Braze because they were launching an app. That app had to do with paying with your face. It's a facial recognition technology. They wanted to put in coffee shops, so when you walked in you wouldn't swipe, tap, nod, whatever, you would just grab your drink and go. So I walk up to this guy's office, and there's a camera, and a screen that shows me my face, and it pulls down a match from the internet of my face. Like with a little rectangular box and some matrix-y numbers side by side, and it says, "Welcome Ryan Doyle." I'm like, "Oh, this is weird." So I go in, and he's telling me about the launch. They're talking about these pieces of third party data that they've been using at this coffee shop downstairs to test this out. Where someone will come in and they'll say, "Hey Boris, welcome back. Do you want this latte? Your significant other loves it too." Or, "Maybe you'd like to try this," or, "How's your dog?" or, "How's your child?" On the creepiness scale, they found that mentioning someone's dog was much creepier than mentioning how their children were.   [0:02:45] PJ Bruno: Yeah.   [0:02:46] Ryan Doyle: Yeah, but, they ran into the issue of, a couple of people they talked to about their dogs, their dogs had passed away.   [0:02:51] PJ Bruno: Oh God.   [0:02:52] Ryan Doyle: Doesn't happen as frequently with children I suppose.   [0:02:55] PJ Bruno: You hate to see that.   [0:02:56] Ryan Doyle: You hate to see it.   [0:02:57] Boris Revechkis: That's all very disheartening.   [0:02:59] PJ Bruno: I mean, you got to walk that line between personalizing and not going too personal.   [0:03:03] Ryan Doyle: Too personal.   [0:03:04] PJ Bruno: I feel like that's same thing goes for conversation in general. Anyways, thank you Ryan for that little tid bit.   [0:03:09] Ryan Doyle: Yeah. It was an interesting night on the live.   [0:03:12] PJ Bruno: That's good. That's good. So we got a lot to get to today. Really excited to jump in. Our first article, Amazon Isn't Interested in Making the World a Better Place by Kara Swisher from New York Times. This is, we all know that, I mean, most of us probably know at this point if you live in New York City that Amazon pulled out of their second HQ that they planned to have in Long Island city. Boris, you're a Long Island city boy.   [0:03:37] Boris Revechkis: I am. I'm a Long Island city resident.   [0:03:39] PJ Bruno: Were you excited to potentially have them move into the neighborhood?   [0:03:43] Boris Revechkis: Not particularly, and I don't think there were many in the neighborhood who were. Yeah, I have a lot of mixed feelings. Obviously, we working in tech, in some sense, have a horse in the race, but I don't know that they really considered the effect on the surrounding community. Obviously the backlash reflects that.   [0:04:04] PJ Bruno: Yeah.   [0:04:04] Ryan Doyle: Yeah.   [0:04:05] Boris Revechkis: I think they could've done a lot better job in laying the ground work for that. A few weeks ago, I tweeted, which seven I think, at least seven people read that Amazon should just take some of the benefit that they were getting in taxes and just plow that into the subway system. Just be like, "Here. Love us."   [0:04:24] PJ Bruno: Right.   [0:04:25] Boris Revechkis: Then, "Okay, fine. Now we have, okay, we have common interest."   [0:04:28] PJ Bruno: Exactly.   [0:04:28] Boris Revechkis: Be a part of the community. Contribute.   [0:04:30] Ryan Doyle: It's a corporate good will.   [0:04:30] PJ Bruno: It's as easy as that. Right?   [0:04:31] Boris Revechkis: Yeah. Kind of like get the public on your side, and it just didn't seem like they really cared what people thought about the whole situation.   [0:04:37] Ryan Doyle: They were shopping for a deal.   [0:04:38] Boris Revechkis: Yeah. Pretty much.   [0:04:38] PJ Bruno: I guess so. Yeah, I think a lot of the uproar came up, I think Miss Swisher put it so well in her article. "In an era when all kinds of public services are being cut in the city's infrastructure is crumbling, why is a trillion dollar corporation getting so much?" Then it was finally revealed how much, $3 billion in tax breaks.   [0:04:57] Boris Revechkis: Yeah.   [0:04:58] Ryan Doyle: I think-   [0:04:58] PJ Bruno: So people were kind of up in arms.   [0:05:00] Boris Revechkis: This is really reflective, I think, of the whole, and this second article we'll talk about later, the whole combination of these factors where you just have a system that's sort of out of wack. The incentives that drive progress are now driving outcomes that are clearly undesirable. Like, this article doesn't hold back in that regard, but like I love the phrase "modern [hellscape]". Like shooter for to San Francisco is a modern [hellscape], which is, that's strong language.   [0:05:24] Ryan Doyle: That's really strong.   [0:05:25] Boris Revechkis: That's strong language and-   [0:05:27] PJ Bruno: Pretty polarizing.   [0:05:29] Boris Revechkis: Yeah. Obviously she's talking about genuine problems, but is that direction we want to go in, or is that something we want to try and tweak the system so that we don't get pushed in these directions? I do think that the Amazon move into the city was something that would exacerbate the kind of issues that would push us in that direction, in the direction of problems like San Francisco has.   [0:05:50] Ryan Doyle: There was like an argument on the other side of it where the incentives that we were handing out as a city to get them here, we're far, far below what we would gain in economic incentives. Part of the argument was like, "Well, we're not giving them anything tangible. There's three billion in tax credits and what not," so it's not money that exists-   [0:06:07] Boris Revechkis: A future tax, yeah revenue.   [0:06:09] Ryan Doyle: And ready to put somewhere else, but I feel like my personal notion is that that money does come from somewhere. It comes from us in our future taxes, and part of it did come out of New York state incentives to bring new businesses here. It would've retired 1.5 billion out of a $2 billion grant that companies get for moving business to New York state. I just think part of the sentiment that I agree with is maybe people in general are tired of this trickle down notion where we put up a big amount of money, or some type of incentive with the hope that it would come back to us. I think we've just been fatigued with that type of situation over and over.   [0:06:45] PJ Bruno: Yeah. I think that's spot on.   [0:06:48] Boris Revechkis: In terms of concentrating the wealth too, we can, ideally, we would just replace that same activity by encouraging many other smaller companies to come to New York instead of one giant company. And trying to encourage the same type of outcome, but by spreading that tax revenue, or rather, break around to other companies and other industries.   [0:07:11] Ryan Doyle: I mean, Braze is here. We're about to move to a new office in New York City. Where's the incentive? You know?   [0:07:16] Boris Revechkis: That's true.   [0:07:17] PJ Bruno: Where's the tax breaks guys? I was surprised to see Amazon buckle so quickly. You know? It just seems like at the first sign of scrutiny, boom, they're out. Now it seems like they just want to bolster their office in D.C. I was very surprised that they didn't-   [0:07:33] Boris Revechkis: I think it becomes like a no-win scenario for them, because having to fight back all the negative attention if they tried to negotiate, the publicizing of the negotiations would probably be very damaging I think. So I think they decided it was just, "Why do this?"   [0:07:47] Ryan Doyle: Yeah, and I wonder if they'd had so little investment in New York already. I mean, it was just in word that they were coming here. So far, this deal is only how old that another city might've reached about, but, "Look, here's the incentive, we can provide. If New York doesn't want it, we'll give it to you."   [0:08:02] Boris Revechkis: Right.   [0:08:02] Ryan Doyle: Maybe that's yet to be announced. I thought I heard Nashville somewhere out in the ether that that might be the other location they go to.   [0:08:09] Boris Revechkis: But it's also, it's not like they're not here. Right? They have an office here. They have many employees here. They're going to continue hiring and expanding in New York and their existing office. So it's not like all or nothing. It's so-   [0:08:19] PJ Bruno: They have a foot hole.   [0:08:20] Boris Revechkis: Right.   [0:08:20] PJ Bruno: They didn't feel like they were losing much I guess.   [0:08:22] Boris Revechkis: Right.   [0:08:22] Ryan Doyle: Yep.   [0:08:23] PJ Bruno: Well, I for one, being an Astorian, and that's in Astoria for those of you who don't know.   [0:08:28] Boris Revechkis: Nice.   [0:08:28] PJ Bruno: I'm thrilled that there's not going to be so much congestion, and it's not going to turn into a complete circus on my train.   [0:08:35] Ryan Doyle: Your apartment's going to stay nice and cheap.   [0:08:37] PJ Bruno: You know what? Let's hope so. As long as I can not have a lease, and as long as my landlord just keeps all the stuff off the books, you didn't hear that here.   [0:08:47] Ryan Doyle: Yeah, we're going to cut that out.   [0:08:48] Boris Revechkis: Yeah, we'll take that out. We'll take that out in post.   [0:08:50] Ryan Doyle: That's fine.   [0:08:50] Boris Revechkis: Perfect.   [0:08:52] PJ Bruno: Perfect. All right, well let's move on to the big topic this week. As you guys know, Davos, which we all know at this point is the knight, former smuggler in service of Stannis Baratheon from Game of Thrones-   [0:09:06] Boris Revechkis: The onion knight. Man, I love the onion knight.   [0:09:07] PJ Bruno: I'm just so curious, like what's going to happen to him in the final season. That's what I really want to know.   [0:09:11] Ryan Doyle: I've never watched Game of Thrones, and you really lost me there for a second.   [0:09:15] Boris Revechkis: Wow.   [0:09:15] Ryan Doyle: I feel like I want to wait for it to all be released.   [0:09:18] Boris Revechkis: Can we just edit Ryan out of the entire podcast?   [0:09:19] Ryan Doyle: No, no, no. See, I've got the plan. They're going to release all of Game of Thrones. I'm not going to deal with all this anxiety and anticipation. I'm just going to watch it when I feel like it.   [0:09:27] PJ Bruno: You're really good at planning anxiety out of your life these days. Like, any time you identify it-   [0:09:31] Ryan Doyle: That's why I'm hanging out with you last.   [0:09:33] PJ Bruno: Wow. I noticed that. The patterns are starting to, this is a loaded moment.   [0:09:37] Boris Revechkis: This is a loaded moment. I'm not watching the last season, I'm just saying. I can't I refuse to watch it until the books come out.   [0:09:41] PJ Bruno: You can't do it?   [0:09:42] Boris Revechkis: I need the books. I need the books. Give me the books. Are you listening George R. R. Martin? You're out there, aren't you? I know you're listening to this podcast. Finish the damn book.   [0:09:52] PJ Bruno: Let me course correct a little bit. Davos, of course we're talking about the world economic forum that went down just last week I believe. There's this great article that Tim Leberecht did for Ink Magazine called Purpose Washing, Hustle Culture, and Automation: Business at a Crossroads. It's just a really good, I mean, I love his opening statement here, so let me just read it for you guys to get us in the zone. "Business leaders today must constantly wrestle with opposing forces. They must embrace data, and at the same time listen to their gut feelings. They must cater to efficiency pressures, and also create a culture of trust and creativity. They must ensure short-term profit, while thinking about the long-term impact of their business, acting as 'civic CEOs', stewarding 'woke brands'. Now some may call this ambidexterity, or others schizophrenia. At any rate, it's not surprising that being stuck in the middle of such dichotomy breeds uncomfortable tension and conflicting rhetoric. Double agendas can lead to double speak." You guys read this one, right?   [0:10:58] Ryan Doyle: Yeah, that's heavy.   [0:10:58] Boris Revechkis: Sure did.   [0:11:00] PJ Bruno: Oh, it's heavy. I mean, any initial thoughts? Ryan, you want to kick us off here? We're going to edit you out, but just go ahead.   [0:11:09] Ryan Doyle: Just on the whole topic of Davos, there was ... I just found it so interesting, like its kind of come to the head as like our own New York representative, who was kind of in this Amazon fight. Like Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has been talking about this certain type of marginal tax rate, and those things get brought up at Davos. People laugh at it, but it was the reality for a long time in America to have a very high tax rate marginally on a certain group of users. So, just to hear these topics brought back up right now, and then at Davos, it all just seems so timely. Then was kind of kicked off, I think again yesterday when that Tucker Carlson-   [0:11:50] PJ Bruno: Thing with Fox News.   [0:11:51] Boris Revechkis: So beautiful. Can I just call out how amazing it was that you said, "Users," instead of, "Tax payers"?   [0:11:56] PJ Bruno: Nice.   [0:11:56] Boris Revechkis: Love it. That's Braze life right there.   [0:12:00] Ryan Doyle: I just got out of a sales conversation, so let me reset. Let me reset.   [0:12:03] PJ Bruno: Rewire.   [0:12:04] Boris Revechkis: We have 300 million users in this country.   [0:12:07] PJ Bruno: You got any hot takes from the article here?   [0:12:09] Boris Revechkis: There were a lot of big ideas in this article. A lot of it was about inequality in general, which is, you know, that's a trip. We can spend a lot of time on that. A lot of it was about AI, and refers back to what we were talking about earlier with that company doing face recognition, and privacy, and responsibility. Like in the quote you read, the pressure, the tension between using data, and exploiting data, and making people uncomfortable. I thought it was interesting that the Microsoft CEO had come out in favor of a US version of a GDPR, which is very cool.   [0:12:38] PJ Bruno: Yeah.   [0:12:39] Boris Revechkis: I mean obviously, I think at Braze we're very much behind that idea.   [0:12:42] Ryan Doyle: We would love that.   [0:12:42] Boris Revechkis: We would love that idea.   [0:12:43] PJ Bruno: Yeah.   [0:12:44] Boris Revechkis: Yeah. I think that speaks to that sort of idea of responsibility. Right? Don't use data in ways that makes people uncomfortable when they're picking up coffee.   [0:12:52] Ryan Doyle: Don't mention their poor, dead dog.   [0:12:55] Boris Revechkis: Yeah, exactly. Maybe what we need is actually some legislation to create some barriers, some boundaries so that collectively we're not cringing when we walk by an advertisement and it's asking us about our last doctor's visit.   [0:13:09] Ryan Doyle: Jeez. Well, if I could just add in, I think one of the reasons we haven't had legislation is, this was in one of those articles that kind of attack myth that's been going on for a long time. That Silicon Valley is here to save the world. All these tech founders come in, and they have an idea that will not only benefit us in a business sense, but, "We are going to change the world to be a better place." Maybe that's why legislation has been so slow to get up behind it, because we not only know what people are doing with our data because it's such a new occurrence, but we kind of trust these people who say that they are going to change the world for the better. So, I think we're starting to see for the first time that might not be the case.   [0:13:49] PJ Bruno: But that's the thing. Does that mean that if you decide to start a company and become a tech entrepreneur, it is now on you to make the world a better place? Like, obviously I think if you have the means, you should try to give back, but does that mean it's just a given? It's inherent anytime a tech leader tries to start something new? Is it, "Well, you know, keep in mind you must be giving back"? You know, or is it just like, "You need to pretend to give back"?   [0:14:15] Boris Revechkis: Question for life.   [0:14:16] PJ Bruno: Question for life.   [0:14:17] Ryan Doyle: I think because, is it our duty as human beings to always try to make the world a little bit better of a place? Not just tech founders PJ.   [0:14:24] PJ Bruno: Jeez.   [0:14:26] Boris Revechkis: Jeez. Personally, I don't know whoever believed that the full T-tech industry would unequivocally and unambiguously make the world a better place without making profit first. Like, our society, corporations, businesses, are economy is structured around organization which are obligated to increase value to shareholders.   [0:14:49] PJ Bruno: Right.   [0:14:50] Boris Revechkis: Put the shareholders interests first. Like, that's how our society is organized. It's great that tech founders want to make the world a better place. Anyone who does want to, it's great, but the reality is that when a company becomes large enough, and then also becomes publicly traded, you are obligated to make certain kinds of decisions. That's the way our society is structured. An interesting counter pointer alternative to that approach would be something like a B corporation, which is something that's come up in like the last decade or so, which is kind of cool.   [0:15:22] Ryan Doyle: What's that?   [0:15:23] Boris Revechkis: It's like a non-profit that basically has come up with this, so they're like S corps and C corps. They're like the, C corps are the most common and all that. This is like a non-profit that says, "We'll certify you as a B corporation," which means you're not just looking out for your share duty to your shareholders, but you're also incorporating into every decision you make, you're impact on the community, on the environment, on society at large. It's very difficult, and not a lot of huge brands have done this yet.   [0:15:51] Ryan Doyle: Are their any examples?   [0:15:53] PJ Bruno: I was about to say-   [0:15:53] Boris Revechkis: Like Ben & Jerry's.   [0:15:54] Ryan Doyle: Like an honest corporation?   [0:15:54] Boris Revechkis: Kickstarter is a B corporation I think.   [0:15:56] PJ Bruno: Ben & Jerry's?   [0:15:58] Ryan Doyle: Of course they are.   [0:15:58] PJ Bruno: I knew I liked those.   [0:15:59] Ryan Doyle: Yeah.   [0:15:59] Boris Revechkis: It's not widely popular yet, but because it's really onerous, because you're now saddling like your board and your whole organization with this responsibility, because you're not just here to make us money. You're here to think about your impact on everyone, your employees, your customers, your surrounding community, the environment, etc., etc.   [0:16:14] Ryan Doyle: Right.   [0:16:15] Boris Revechkis: In conjunction with your financial responsibilities and interests. So it's not easy, but the idea being that we're trying to change the incentives, or this is an attempt to change the incentives corporations to do better.   [0:16:28] Ryan Doyle: We don't have to legislate that as a norm, but it would be cool to incentivize those types of bigs, just to have a little more people who are thinking in that mindset.   [0:16:37] Boris Revechkis: Yeah.   [0:16:37] Ryan Doyle: Yeah.   [0:16:39] PJ Bruno: Sorry. One of the things they picked out from this article, that I thought was an interesting thing, was the idea of reinventing capitalism. Is it a business or a government affair? I mean, I'm curious to know what you guys think, because my instinct is that it should be ... Maybe I'm just more regulation prone, because at this point, there's like a lot of bullies in the game with a lot of money and a lot to lose. We need to level the playing field a little bit, but yeah. I mean it just, I don't know. Who's it on?   [0:17:13] Ryan Doyle: I think that it has to be a dance, because it takes two to tangle. Right? Business is not going to have a direction without regulation, and regulation won't have anything to regulate without the growth of business.   [0:17:23] PJ Bruno: Yeah.   [0:17:23] Ryan Doyle: I just read this interesting book on Teddy Roosevelt, and some of his first run-ins with monopolistic industries, and how he really came to be known as the trust buster. It's just interesting this dance that happens where there might be a little give with business, and then government does a little take, but then government gives a little over here. Then there's a little more take by business. So, I think it's definitely something that happens in parallel. I just think that we might be asking it because business seems to be moving faster at the moment.   [0:17:52] Boris Revechkis: Yeah. I think there's sort of this ideal that is always pushed that from the very start of a company to the point where it's Amazon's size, it can operate under the assumption that growing is always good, and representing a larger share of your market is better always. But ultimately, we have to recognize that, in a purely mathematical dynamical system sense, when you get that big your constraints are now different. You're not just like a fish swimming through the sea. You can now touch the edges of the sea. Right? You're like, it's a fish tank now and you're a big fish, and every motion of yours, you're hitting the walls and you're crushing other fish.   [0:18:35] Ryan Doyle: That's a good way to put it.   [0:18:35] PJ Bruno: Yeah, it is.   [0:18:35] Boris Revechkis: Also, you have to, the rules of the game have now changed. The rules, as far as government is concerned, have to account for that. You can't just treat that big fish like a tiny fish in the ocean.   [0:18:46] PJ Bruno: Yeah.   [0:18:46] Boris Revechkis: With where the limits are, pretty much unreachable once you've started to actually hit the edges of the tank, like the rules of the game need to change. Otherwise, things will go wrong. I think that's just pretty much what monopolies are and why that happened 130 years ago, 140 years ago, and why we're running into it now with tech companies. Government is behind in this industry because we have people who ask Mark Zuckerberg in congressional hearings how his company makes money. They have no idea what they're talking about, and they're just completely out of their depth. Therefore, we're now in a situation where these companies are just occupying such a vast proportion of these industries, that their every decision rocks the boat, to use another ocean, water.   [0:19:28] Ryan Doyle: I like how it metaphors dude.   [0:19:29] PJ Bruno: Doesn't resonate with me.   [0:19:30] Ryan Doyle: I'm a big fish in a small tank.   [0:19:34] Boris Revechkis: So, yeah. I mean, we just have to, we have to come to the terms of the fact that we need to, and even the companies themselves need to realize like, "Hey, you're not just a company anymore that's striving to get more customers and generate more revenue. You have such an outsize influence on your surrounding society that you have to think ahead." It's like the same thing with climate change. You can't, not to invoke another massively complicated and heavy topic-   [0:19:58] Ryan Doyle: You're not getting deep enough here yet.   [0:19:59] PJ Bruno: We'll save it.   [0:19:59] Ryan Doyle: Yeah, we'll save it.   [0:20:00] Boris Revechkis: Like, you have to be aware of your outputs and what you're doing to the surrounding area. You can't just keep throwing poison into the river and assuming it'll wash away to the ocean, when now the whole river is tainted, and the ocean is tainted, and whatever, whatever.   [0:20:13] Ryan Doyle: Still talking about metaphors.   [0:20:14] Boris Revechkis: Total a metaphor.   [0:20:15] PJ Bruno: Yeah. A little real life too.   [0:20:18] Boris Revechkis: Yeah.   [0:20:18] PJ Bruno: Cool. I mean, any closing thoughts from you two before we wrap her up?   [0:20:23] Ryan Doyle: I mean, I just had one question in all of this to ask Boris, because we touched a little bit on AI and machine learning today. I wanted to ask with Boris, specifically his role here has to do with AI and machine learning. I guess, how do your moral obligations play into your day-to-day role or how you see yourself in the AI industry and learning industry? Do you ever think about the impact your decisions or your work has, and if so, how do you try to exercise judgment in the work you put out?   [0:20:53] Boris Revechkis: I mean, the short answer is absolutely. The more involved answer that we may or may not have time for-   [0:20:59] Ryan Doyle: It's a big closing question.   [0:21:00] Boris Revechkis: It is. It is.   [0:21:00] PJ Bruno: I love it.   [0:21:01] Boris Revechkis: The bottom line is that we have to, you know. Braze as a company, I think, embraces the idea that we have to be responsible with our choices and we have to consider their impacts on people. So, we have to be mindful of how we allow our own customers to use data to influence their relationships with their own end users in a way that is responsible. To use another analogy, here we go again, the way I like to think of it, if you were just like a general store owner in the old west. Your customers are coming in, and you have a business, and you're trying to see where you're making money, where you're losing money. You would find your best customers, you would try to figure out what they want, and you would cater your business to insure your own livelihood and well being. So in a lot of ways, our customers are trying to do the same thing, but they're trying to do it for millions of their own customers. So of course they can't do it, and they can't have an army of people trying to parse all the data and interactions that they have with all their customers. You need machines. You need algorithms to go and figure out what the patterns are so you can say, "Oh, this pool of customers like products x, y, z. We should focus in this area. We should cater to these customers. We should communicate with them more. Here are the customers that are disaffected. They're not interested in us anymore. Why are they not interested? We need to do better." Right? It's like those common sense questions that any business own would ask, we're now just using machine learning and AI. We're helping our own customers use machine learning and AI to answer those questions, just at a scale that's unmanageable to do without those tools. Again, long answer, but as long as we're doing that without using data in a way that would clearly make people uncomfortable and would leverage data that they don't want us-   [0:22:36] Ryan Doyle: We'll use data we didn't have the right to use.   [0:22:37] Boris Revechkis: Exactly. So I mean, GDPR is really like almost the shield for this. Right? Like, "Hey, we're just not going to use data in ways that is irresponsible or that people don't want us to do in order to further these ends." But when people are explicitly told what's going to happen to their data, and how we and our customers are going to use it, and they're okay with that, great. That's sort of what it comes down to.   [0:23:01] Ryan Doyle: Thank you for answering that.   [0:23:02] PJ Bruno: Yeah, I appreciate that too.   [0:23:03] Boris Revechkis: Yeah.   [0:23:04] PJ Bruno: I want to close it out real quick. I think this article is so good, and I really love the closing paragraphs. So this is how he summed it all up. "A perfect storm is brewing: the agony of old systems, the void left by less and less trustworthy tech platforms, the disruption of the labor markets by the fourth industrial revolution, and the critical importance of reinventing capitalism and redefining the meaning of meaningful work. In the middle of conflicting agendas, CEOs will have to make tough choices. The most responsible of them know they will have their role to place in tackling all these issues, but are also humble enough to realize that, now more than ever, business can't do it alone." Is that a cough drop?   [0:23:51] Boris Revechkis: Sorry. I had to get a cough drop.   [0:23:52] PJ Bruno: All right. Well, signing off, this is PJ Bruno.   [0:23:56] Ryan Doyle: This is Ryan Doyle.   [0:23:57] Boris Revechkis: And Boris Revechkis.   [0:23:58] PJ Bruno: You guys take care. Come see us again sometime. [0:24:00]

Craig goes through some of the free training he offered this week on setting up and securing Wi-Fi, Firewalls, and Back-ups.  He has some video training on each of these on his website but they will be coming down soon.  So, go check them out.   During the next four weeks, he will be offering a master class on DIY Security.  If that is something that interests you -- you might want to sign up. These and more tech tips, news, and updates visit - CraigPeterson.com --- Transcript: Below is a rush transcript of this segment, it might contain errors. Airing date: 02/16/2019 Expert Cybersecurity Secrets - Introduction Craig Peterson: 0:00 Hi everybody, Craig Peterson here. This is almost Week 1000. That's that is a lot of weeks of radio shows. And today we are going to be talking about security and securing your business and your home computers. Now, this is a really important show today because it coincides with a week worth of training video, straight training, hours of training that I produced this week. We did a live session on Thursday as well with Q and A's and I have it all up through tomorrow for you to watch. We're covering some of the top toughest things that you need to do. Explain the technology. I started with Wi-Fi and what you should be doing. How to secure your networks to keep the bad guys out. How to secure yourself when you're on the road. I went on to firewalls, and when you should and should not use the built-in firewalls, on your computer systems. And then on Wednesday, I got into more detail. As we delved into really something I think a lot of people overlook, and that's backups. Did you know, more than 70% of the time, businesses cannot restore their data from backup even when they have a backup because it fails? So on Wednesday, I went through the 3-2-1 strategy of backups. Grandpa, father, and son on top of the 3-2-1 and explained how to do it. And then on Thursday, I went into more depth and went through three more topics. This is a lot of training and it's absolutely free. Now it is going away tomorrow. Okay.  And the reason I'm doing that is twofold. One, these topics change security is constantly changing, you know, from my weekly newsletters that security is a huge deal and constantly evolving. So part of what I talked about this week is how to automate it. How to make it so that everything is automatically updated, automatically upgraded because it, because of the changes, you've got to do that as well as how the most professional tools out there allow you to tie your computer network into the one that I use over a billion endpoints that are being constantly monitored and have humans behind it to find if there's any problems. So that then allows you to be within one hour of the latest attacks, the latest vectors that are out there. All of that is changing constantly. So that's the first reason I'm taking it down tomorrow.  And then the second reason is, if I don't give you guys an incentive, I've learned this right? 1000 weeks of shows. We're talking about decades, right? So I've learned that unless you set a deadline, things don't happen. And that happens with me too, right? When Well, how do you get something done? You set a deadline, right? If it wasn't for the last minute, nothing would get done. So, you need to go out there right now. That's what this is about. That's why I spend time every week on the radio explaining what's happening, why it's happening. And this week, I've got another one here. This is from the HIPAA journal. This is a ransomware attack on a podiatric office. Bobby, Bobby Yee and he has 24,000 patients. The protected health information is all locked up at the medical records encrypted. They tried to do restores, and then you do pay the ransoms. That's something else we cover and you know, I work with the FBI, infra guard. I do the webinars for the Infragard program. And I help the people that protect our nation's infrastructure keep their data safe. So you're getting a lot of experience behind this and it's going to be absolutely huge for you. So I'm going to pull a little piece out of one of this week's programs and play it here for you. You can still get this today if you go to my website http://CraigPeterson.com. You'll see it right there on the top of the homepage and you can watch these videos this training and you can watch the replays and you can get a lot of the benefit. Of course, you're not comfortable asking questions live, but because you're a radio show listener, you can ask me questions anytime. 855-385-5553 But this training will go down, okay. It is not going to be remaining up on my website. And there's a lot of good reasons for that. I really need you guys to do this because that's the only way that you're going to be able to keep your businesses safe. So let's get right into this. Here's a little bit of the training from this week. Hi, everybody. Before we go further here in the training, I want to tell you a little bit about my backstory. How did I get to the point I'm at today? Well, it's not the 1990s anymore. The 1990s is when I got first hit with malware and almost lost my company. And the bottom line is you can't be complacent anymore because you can't stay in front of the hackers. You know, you might use some of the right tools today, but tomorrow you will not be using the right tools because the continually changing that's part of what I didn't realize because cybersecurity is one of the areas of business that you don't want to attract attention to. And one of the areas of business that, frankly, you have to have automated, and they have to have in place that's going to make sure that none of your data stolen, and I think you're going to have to agree that keeping your business safe isn't always as simple as people sometimes make it seem. And that's where I was back in the 90s. Keeping your business secure comes with real challenges. You've got to go on Google and YouTube research; what the hackers are doing, then you have to research on how to deal with it out of the millions of possibilities. You have to narrow it down to something manageable, affordable, something you can do yourself; then you have to lay it all out which machines need which software? Do you need to change out or upgrade your firewall, your routers, your switches or other computers? You've got to go and buy the right software. You've got to install it on all the machines. You've got to configure it correctly so that it's going to work for you. Then once all of this is in place, and all of the research is done, you're going to have to maintain it by doing updates and upgrades, sometimes daily. Then there's the fake updates, the ones that pop up and you can't decide if it's real or not. Right now, there's a huge fake a scam out there that says, hey, you've got to upgrade your Flash player. I'm sure you've seen that. So once you've got everything up and running up to date, you're going to have to monitor it. Are there logs you should be monitoring? What are these logs even mean? Is your computer slow because of a hack underway? Or is it just because of the latest version of the software that blew up on you? It all becomes so complex that you really can't do it anymore. Well, you can't figure it all out. You can't design that you can't lay it out. You can't install it; you can't monitor it. But there are some solutions. That's why. In this video, I'm going to demystify the process of securing your computers and your Wi-Fi. It's going to save you a lot of time, money and frustration. It's also going to keep you safer. So in this first video, I'm going to share a framework that I developed after years of trial and error. It's called the expert cybersecurity framework. And it's a framework that's going to serve as a tremendous resource to you to eliminate the guesswork and frustration out of trying to secure your systems and provide you with expert advice if you run into problems. Listeners on my radio show know that I'll answer questions almost any time and I do that daily. Now maybe you've already been hacked. Or perhaps you're hoping to understand better the basics of cyber security and what you need to do to help secure your business from the hackers, but maybe you need a little bit more help to make the right choices. Either way, you're in the right place because, after this first video, you'll be able to confidently secure your wireless data. Yeah, Wi-Fi can be secure. I developed the Cybersecurity Framework because I saw so many businesses who were struggling business people who were wearing 100 hats trying to get everything done and then lost everything because of a breach. Businesses who couldn't afford high-end consultants to solve the problems that small and medium businesses face every day in cybersecurity. For example, I saw a distributor who was starting to make it big in the food and beverage distribution market. They had a couple of dozen computers, but they only had antivirus software and a firewall and router that was provided by their cable internet company. They struggled every time because they kept getting hit by the latest virus or malware. Then I also saw a $10 million a year manufacturer trying to up-level their cybersecurity. They were struggling because they didn't have any professional cybersecurity resources that they could rely on. And cybersecurity software and hardware decisions were being made by somebody in purchasing. They didn't have a solid roadmap to follow. And when they got hacked, they had to shut down all operations, manufacturing, sales, distribution, and support for weeks. It cost them millions. Do either one of those stories sound familiar to you? You know, I could go on, but I knew that people needed clarity because in full transparency that was my story too before outlining the expert cybersecurity framework and the specifics for each step. You might be wondering how I got into all of this and figured it out. Let me tell you so you can understand a little bit more about where it's all coming from.  Back in September 1991, it had finally become legal to do business on the internet. And so I did. I'd been helping develop the networking protocols for more than a decade. And I wanted to help get businesses online. So I did, we got busy building websites there. And 91 through 93, we were setting up email servers, we even built a lottery system with a daily million dollar drawing. Some of these companies are of course, or companies that you would recognize some of these websites are still alive today in their fifth, sixth, seventh, eighth generations. We didn't have the time to worry about yet another security problem, so we stuck with the basics. After all, who would come after us we were just a small company building websites. Then, along came Robert Tappan Morris. His father worked for the NSA, the National Security Agency, and he'd been writing code for the government to use to probe the internet. So Junior decided that he'd steal his father's NSA code and use it himself. I got nailed, and there was no one there to help me. This was the early-mid 90s. I spent days trying to figure out what had happened. I had anti-virus software. My machines weren't that far out of date; I'd applied patches from time to time. Does that sound like something that you've done? Right? It's typical, right? I just wasn't technical when it came to malware back then. I decided that I had to invest in myself and my business. I had to learn about cybersecurity fast, and I had to clean up the mess that Junior had left behind for me. I had to save my business. Once I got our cybersecurity under control, I started seeing massive growth in my business. With my attention now fully focused on growing my business building and maintaining the websites, I was able to quadruple my staff and income over the next few years. Finally, I could focus and get back to work. But it took getting cybersecurity under control before I could spend some serious time on my business once again. So today I'm running cybersecurity webinars for the FBI Infragard program. I'm a keynote speaker. I do breakout sessions at conferences I've spoken for Ink Magazine more than once for their CEO symposiums I've helped more than 5000 businesses ranging from fortune 100 companies all the way on down to mom and pop operation. Today I'm a sought after cybersecurity expert with more than 25 years of experience and almost daily media appearances. And I don't stay up late at night any more worried about some hackers stealing my business and destroying what I worked a lifetime to build. But the story doesn't stop with me. Everything I'm about to share with you is the exact plan I follow to secure my systems as well as that of my client. I'm going to reveal to you expert cybersecurity secret that I've never revealed before. And it's the plan that led me to experience more than 20 years of hack-free, virus-free, ransomware-free business. More importantly, this means I'm free to work on my business without constantly looking over my shoulders or wondering what I'm going to have to remove next. And that's what I want for you. You will be watching this video if you weren't concerned about cybersecurity, that's why I make things easy for you. So here we go. So that's a little bit of the training of my intro as to what I am doing, how I got to where I am at to today where obviously I've been studying and working on cybersecurity now for over 25 years. I guess that's a long time and I you know, I, as I told you, this is all free training. There are hours of it. It's not one of these hard-sell type things by any stretch because there's no offer at all until the very, very end, so I think you will enjoy it. I've had tremendous feedback. I'm just shocked and amazed and grateful to everybody who reached out to tell me what they got out of it. How good it was and how much I appreciate it. So again, you'll find it at http://CraigPeterson.com. It is up through tomorrow. So go there. Now there are hours of this stuff about how to secure your business, how to secure your home computers, how to be secure when you're on the road, what do all of these terms mean? How do you use them? So whether you're just a small business, kind of starting out trying to do more than just use that antivirus software thing came with your computer and hey, I get it right. Most people that's all they use. And frankly, that's all they know about. And these antivirus companies don't care about you. They just want to sell yet another copy of the software and hope you never call them with any problems. So I'm trying to help you get beyond these problems, and they-they are very real, and you're in this spot because they put you there.  So I get it. So if you're just somebody new starting, you're going to learn a lot. And if you're somebody who has an IT guy or gal who is trying to take care of things, but man, are they underwater, they just don't. There's too much to do. They need a little help, maybe a little bit more training, they are going to find some real gems in this training. So sign them up for it, send them an email with the link say, hey, check this out. Follow up on this because we're going through some of the best things I've ever put together, frankly, and these are my top tips, and I walk you right through it hand in hand, showing you exactly what to do. I've got screenshots and explanations of everything. It is phenomenal stuff. So that happened Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday this week. And if you meant to sign up and follow along, it's not too late today. It will be too late tomorrow, so make sure you check it out right here on http://CraigPeterson.com. So let's talk about a couple of breaches. I've been doing kind of breach podcast lately as well. And I mentioned at the beginning of the show today, this ransomware attack on a podiatric, I guess, podiatric offices I've heard it pronounced both ways. And they had 24,000 records with personal health information, protected health information. This is common if you're a medical practice at all. Having 24,000 Records is nothing, and this is an attack that took place and their medical records were encrypted. Now under the HIPAA regulations you I, think it's only two hours that you can your computers can be down because part of the reason for that is what if you're patient ends up in the emergency room, needs extreme care and you can't look up the records, right? It's a very, very big deal. And the law says you have to have those records available. So getting them attacked and encrypted by ransomware means that first of all, you can't access those records. So the patient is going to be upset. And frankly, patients have died because of this before. So it's a big deal for doctors to have people's full names, addresses, contact, phone numbers, their sex or birth date, social security number, health insurance information to have that all stolen. It's also a big deal to have all that data encrypted. Think about a regular business to have it all encrypted because now you've lost your sales records, you've lost your customer information, you've lost your orders, everything and as I mentioned earlier, nine, or excuse me, a little more than 70% of businesses cannot restore their backups. Because when they try, the restore fails. And I see that all the time. So that's one of the things that I cover this week. How to do effective backups so that you can be sure that your backup itself isn't encrypted, because I've seen that before as well. So that was what we covered on Tuesday.  Now we had hackers who also got into a wireless network and were able to monitor what was going on. And once they're in the wireless network, they had access to the server because the server for the businesses on the same network as the wireless they hadn't segmented their network and they hadn't locked down there Wi-Fi and there are ways to do that as well. And we use in fact logins for Wi-Fi, that are restricted to specific machines. We use that in businesses that have financial information that might not want to have it out and what business doesn't have that? So they got in, they can get at their bank record and were able to transfer the funds out of the bank. You know, it only takes 90 seconds once they have access to your bank account to get that money out of the country. And some of these hacker groups are so sophisticated. They've set up their banks in their home country. So 90 seconds later, the money is wired out of your bank to their bank, literally their bank in the foreign country. Do you think their banks are going to cooperate with trying to get that wired money back? Of course, they don't. And how did they do that? Well, they did that via Wi-Fi, a Wi-Fi breach and that's what we covered on Monday is how to prevent Wi-Fi breaches. The other Wi-Fi problem that we repeatedly see nowadays is we see piggyback on Wi-Fi wi. So you are, for instance, at an airport and you're using the VPN. And that VPN is connected to the office, and now they're piggybacking on your VPN to get to the office. And now the malware that was on the laptop at your house that you took home is now effectively in the business network because of the VPN and then spread and spread ransomware throughout the business. That's what we covered on Wednesday. What are the most effective ways to stop ransomware? And we explained firewalls and how they can stop the spreading. How Microsoft ships with firewalls, as does apple. But is it turned on? Is it configured right? Well, half the time, the answer's no. The other half the time the answers kinda. Okay, so that's what we covered on Wednesday, we went into a lot of details on that. And then on Thursday, we went into the seven top things you can do to prevent ransomware and not have them hit you as well as data breaches. So it has been a very busy week, and the reason I'm talking about this so much as I really want you to secure your network can you don't have to use me. You don't have to hire my company. It really doesn't matter because you can do this yourself. And that's exactly what I'm doing in this training. I'm showing you step by step what to do. So you don't have to go online. Get millions of Google results. Get hundreds of thousands of YouTube results is you're searching to find out what's the best anti virus? What's the asked for ransomware or what's the best for spyware? What's the best for worms? What's the best for on and on and on. It's all there. And I'm serious. This is I I'm sorry to beat a maybe a dead horse here. But there's still a lot of people that haven't taken advantage of this. And that might be you. So the way to do that goes right now to http://CraigPeterson.com. It's right at the top of my homepage. Now, if you're a home user, I've had a lot of people ask questions. Is this right for me? And the answer is yes, it is because the same types of concepts that apply in a business most of those also apply to homes as well and home users. So you can check that out as well. As a home user, I don't care. This isn't to try and sell you, and you're not going to all of a sudden get a page that requires you to pay money. This is free. Believe it. And I know one radio now there are so many sponsored radio shows. So, many radios show that are trying to just plain old sell you something. I'm trying to help. It's real. So check it out at http://CraigPeterson.com. I have helped over 5000 businesses. Now. It's probably in the neighborhood of 5500. I think it with securing their networks, getting them on the internet, making sure they have the right kind of presence. And they're all the way as you heard from the replay of one of these videos from this week. I've helped everybody from a small office, a home office all the way up through fortune 100 actually fortune 50 companies. So I know that this is going to be valuable because it's what I use with them. It's what I've used myself, and it's multiple layers of security. That's what you have to have. Just having an anti-virus package or having a via firewall isn't going to do any good.  Just using the router and firewall that comes with your internet connection is nowhere near good enough right there. There's a lot to know and a lot to understand. And if you have any questions, listen, people, I'm here for you. I am. And I have so many testimonials from people saying that it's true. I you know, I should start recording some of them. But if you have any questions, there are two ways to reach me easily. And I'll help you anytime, anyway I can. I'll even do a little research for you online. If there's something that's specific to you. But you know what, 95% of the time it's not just you. Everybody has similar problems, but you can reach me via text. This goes right to me and my team 855-385-5553. So get out of paper and pen or get out your phone and write this down. Email, you can just email me@CraigPeterson.com. If you want to invite me to speak at one of your events. I can do that. I charge for keynotes obviously, but I am trying to help out when it comes to all of these local companies that might need a little bit of a little bit of encouragement. Various groups. I speak to all of the time. Spoken many times everything from Rotary Clubs through a high tech council. I'm glad to help you out and glad to speak. Again, 855-385-5553 that goes to me and my team and you can send me any question you want. And I'm more than glad to help out I have been there I have suffered before, and I'm more than glad to help you out 855-385-5553 and me@CraigPeterson.com. Make sure you watch these videos are going down tomorrow. I don't have them on YouTube. You're not going to find them anywhere. 855-385-5553 and http://CraigPeterson.com. Hey, have a great week. Fingers crossed. You don't get hacked this week, and I'll be back next week as well. Take care. Bye-bye. ---  Related articles: Robocalls And Phone Scams Are All The Rage In 2019 Microsoft: Drag Internet Explorer To The Trash. No, Really Unopened Copy Of Super Mario Bros Video Game Sells For Record $100k Cut The Cable — Great Deal On Streaming “Stick” Dad Fell For A “Tech Support” Scam Two In Three Organizations Not Convinced They Can Avoid A Breach Ransomware Gang Infects Customers Of It Support Firms Amazon Filed A Patent Application For Tech That Could Link You To Your Identity And Job --- More stories and tech updates at: www.craigpeterson.com Don't miss an episode from Craig. Subscribe and give us a rating: www.craigpeterson.com/itunes Follow me on Twitter for the latest in tech at: www.twitter.com/craigpeterson For questions, call or text: 855-385-5553

Tips on how to grow your audience with machine learning with Patrick McKenna We help people expand their audiences so that they don't see a diminishing return. And it's not just how to grow your audience, it's also finding those interests that actually work for your audience and your brand. The good news is that if your business is growing, and hopefully it is, the artificial intelligence that you're building isn't going to eliminate your employees. In fact, you may need more employees. They may be just shifting in direction, but there's still plenty to do. The main products for us are analyzing buying metrics and audience metrics. What you get out of that data if you haven't broken those things out in the platform is very little. You're not really sure what specifically worked when you don't know specifically what worked on the keyword side or the interest side per age group and per device. One of the tricks you need to watch out for on Facebook is if you put up a couple pieces of creative in there, Facebook will make a decision really quickly as to which one is performing better. And you need to kind of wait a little bit and give that second piece of creative a little bit more statistical significance because Facebook will pick a winner really fast. And you may throw a really nice piece of creative out the door too quickly. And so you need to be testing, you always need to be testing. The platform guys want to make this sound really easy. Google wants to make it sound really simple to go and measure and use their ad manager. I get really excited about this direct to consumer situation. We call it the DTC, the dollar shave. Gwyneth Paltrow's brand, Jessica Alba. _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ HOW TO GROW YOUR AUDIENCE WITH MACHINE LEARNING [just click to tweet] HOW TO GROW YOUR AUDIENCE WITH MACHINE LEARNING And it's not just how to grow your audience, it's also finding those interests that actually work for your audience and your brand. _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ Doug: Well, welcome back listeners to another episode of Real Marketing Real Fast. Today, we're going to be talking about testing, testing. No, the microphone is working fine, testing your advertising. So how do you know what's working, what's performing, what's moving the sales dial, what audiences are working on Facebook? Are they the same audience as working in LinkedIn, are the same audiences that are working on Instagram or YouTube or Google ads. So we've got a guest who is a specialist in this space, and they use machine learning and artificial intelligence to guide your path and guide their clients' path to making the right decisions. And significantly in many cases, it's going to be lowering the cost of advertising and acquiring a customer. So I'd like to welcome Patrick McKenna to the studio today. He is the founder and CEO of a company called Strike Social. It's a global technology enabled digital advertising agency based in Chicago. Doug: Patrick has more than 30 years of experience in business development and technology consulting for major corporations. I'm sure you'll gather that when you listen to the episode, he co-founded and sold a telecommunications company, WCI in 1996. And then he was recruited to Microsoft as part of a 50 person team to develop the internet, audio and video industry. So by the end of Patrick's 12-year career at Microsoft, he had developed Windows entertainment division that now employs 40,000 people. So Patrick has spent his career mentoring and investing in startup companies. And in 2013, he founded the Strike Social, which was named the number 17 fastest growing private company in the US in 2017 by Ink Magazine. So Strike Social, develops artificial intelligence or AI-powered software and services for digital advertisers across industry verticals with over half the Fortune 500 companies benefiting from his solutions.

DESCRIPTION   Today we are going through all the essential stages of creating a successful brand in a really interesting discussion with Kiri Masters and Brian Smith, the founder of UGG. Although Brian sold UGG a little while ago, he has some really amazing stories to share about growing the company into an internationally recognized brand, what he went through along the way and how he dealt with retailers or copycats. Brian is also the author of the book “The Birth of a Brand” and he was kind enough to share with us several insights that he included in his book. Tune in and learn more about Brian’s experience with growing UGG.   Though Brian spent several years studying accounting, he wasn’t very passionate about this field and decided to explore his entrepreneurial side by going to California to find something innovative and bring it back to Australia. After following his dream of surfing in Malibu for a couple of months, one day, while sitting on the beach, Brian realized that the water started getting cold and chilly winds began to blow. Pulling on the sheepskin boots he'd brought with him from Australia, Brian had a breakthrough. He realized there were no UGG boots in America! Though everyone knows the popular UGG brand now, it took quite a long time for Brian to tap into the consumer mind and understand how to sell the products he produced. In this interview Brian explains what he did to grow his company into the iconic brand that it has become today. We hope you enjoy his insightful journey.       KEY TAKEAWAYS Brain tells the story of how his brand was born. The first year's sales were only twenty-eight pairs of boots. How he managed to break into the consciousness of the public. Brian noticed a theme years later while writing a book when the brand had grown into the millions. The theme of Brian's book was that you can't give birth to adults. Brian explains his analogy of giving birth to adults. The stage where most entrepreneurs give up. Every business goes through a stage of infancy before the orders start coming in. If you start out with a really unique product or service, the business is bound to pass through the infancy stage and move into the teenage years. The potential danger of getting into national distribution too quickly. Brian explains the life cycle of every business. Brian's book, “The Birth of a Brand”, highlights all the stages that a business goes through. The UGG brand has gone on to gross a billion dollar per year for the last six years in a row. The different stages and turning points that Brian experienced as his brand become more and more popular. Brian broke through when he started taking pictures of pros surfing at iconic surf locations to create really powerful images for his ads. Advertising and marketing became a passion for Brian. The importance of advertising the emotional side of the benefits of your product. Brian's reaction to the copycats who started coming in. When Brian sold the company it wasn't about the product, it was all about the brand. Brian taught his staff not to obsess about their competitors, but rather to "get out first and run faster". The strategy of going for the lowest price is not always the best way to go. Staying ahead of the competitors. There is a value implication to being more expensive. How the UGG brand got into the back door of retail through the surf market. The methodology of marketing has really changed with the internet age, so you have to think and react much faster. A product that Brian sees as the new UGG brand is the Sash Bag. The power of utilizing an existing market to sell products. The importance of building personal connections. On the 30th of October, Brian has a big ad coming out in Ink Magazine to launch the audio version of his book. Brian's book is still as relevant as when it was first published. Go to Amazon on October the 30th and look for The Birth Of A Brand - it's a roadmap for every entrepreneur.   MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE   “The Birth of a Brand” by Brian Smith. The Sash Bag, another UGG style product. Leveraging Storytelling & User Generated Content with Lexi Cross.

Have you ever sent a text message and immediately wished you could recall it? Today’s guest, Maci Peterson invented the technology to do just that! She’s also the CEO and Co-Founder of On Second Thought, a which is the definitive delay recall mechanism for mobile communications platforms. I met Maci years ago at a pitch competition (that she won, by the way) where she debuted her company On Second Thought. I remember being impressed with the way she rocked it, and she hasn’t slowed down since. Maci name has been on several notable lists including BBC's 100 Women, Ink Magazine's 30 Under 30, and Washington's Business Journal's 40 Under 40. She has also been profiled by Forbes, NPR, The Washington Post, Buzzfeed, Black Enterprise, Fox and others. Plus, she’s a frequent lecturer, subject matter expert, and adviser on entrepreneurship, innovation, and diversity initiatives. Notable Moments: Learn about the rollercoaster of securing patents Hear how Maci’s background in film now helps her in a way she never imagined Maci shares the initial ideas that sparked On Second Thought Listen to the affirmations Maci says she received while developing this technology Understand that even if it looks like someone has it all together -- they don’t! Learn to repurpose skills and backgrounds you have for your new ventures Links Mentioned In This Episode: *this post may contain affiliate links...for more info, please see my full disclosure* On Second Thought on Social Media: Instagram | Twitter | LinkedIn Maci Peterson on Social Media: Instagram | Twitter | LinkedIn

What an honour it was to interview such a heavy hitting, successful leadership expert and business person. Gordon Tredgold has numerous successes under his belt, including being heralded as one of the worlds greatest leadership and business experts by multiple organizations, including Ink Magazine. He has written the book FAST – 4 Principles Everyone Needs to Achieve Success and Drive Results and today we’re really going to take a serious look into what it takes to succeed. Gordon’s leadership blog is literally world-famous, so make sure you check it out at https://gordontredgold.com/blog/ and while you’re there, check out some of his other programs and material that will help launch you into success! And make sure you also do yourself a huge favour by buying his books. You can find them at https://www.amazon.com/Gordon-Tredgold/e/B00GS1HYYA , and grab a couple copies- you’ll want to share them.

What an honour it was to interview such a heavy hitting, successful leadership expert and business person. Gordon Tredgold has numerous successes under his belt, including being heralded as one of the worlds greatest leadership and business experts by multiple organizations, including Ink Magazine. He has written the book FAST – 4 Principles Everyone Needs to Achieve Success and Drive Results and today we’re really going to take a serious look into what it takes to succeed. Gordon’s leadership blog is literally world-famous, so make sure you check it out at https://gordontredgold.com/blog/ and while you’re there, check out some of his other programs and material that will help launch you into success! And make sure you also do yourself a huge favour by buying his books. You can find them at https://www.amazon.com/Gordon-Tredgold/e/B00GS1HYYA , and grab a couple copies- you’ll want to share them.

Learn how local businesses can market on a shoestring budget Know how to leverage existing customer base to have more sales Know the importance of long-term business planning to overcome sales challenges on a fraction of marketing cost   Summary   Jeff Slutsky is the President and Founder of Street Fighter Marketing in Kansas City which specializes in teaching businesses how to market, promote and increase sales on a shoe-string budget.   He has authored and published 10 books, 3 audio albums, and six video training programs. With a background in both advertising and public relations, Jeff Slutsky had an opportunity to practice what he preached when he became part owner of a nightclub and later a health club. With the marketing dollars now coming out of his own pocket, he soon began to discover and develop result-oriented, low-cost tactics to build sales. This unique combination of shrewd thinking, innovative problem solving, budgeting on a shoe-string, and a lot of hard work, came to be known as Street Fighting which received a great deal of national media attention including The Wall Street Journal, USA Today, Success, Ink Magazine, CNN. In this episode, Jeff shares how to advertise, promote and market on a community level to increase sales without spending a lot of money. Check out these episode highlights: 00:26 - all about Jeff Slutsky 01:50 - Jeff defines his ideal client 02:17 - problems Jeff solves for his small business owner clients 03:09 - symptoms of Jeff's client's problems 04:05 - common mistakes that small business owners make when they try to advertise their services and products 04:20 - what is the Shiny Penny Syndrome? 04:50 - Jeff's Valuable Free Action (VFA): Leverage on existing customer base 05:40 - Jeff's free Valuable Action Resource (VAR): www.streetfightermarketing.com 05:40 - Jeff's most Valuable Free Tip (VFT) Tweetable Takeaways from this Episode: The problem is that advertising costs more than ever before, there is a lot of choices and it just does not work for a lot of small businesses. We are trying to share with people how to market, promote in their local level on a shoestring budget. I focus on getting people in the front door. The problem is what we call the Shiny Penny Syndrome, what is the next big thing. So they are trying to get more likes on their social media that does not necessarily translate the dollars in the bank. Instead of using the expensive advertising media, everybody has their own customer bases, find ways to work together. Take a more long-term approach. Things do not work overnight. You have to test things. Resources/Links: www.streetfightermarketing.com

Phil Singleton interview Melissa Roberts. Melissa Roberts helps entrepreneurs find the resources they need to grow their businesses–whether that’s space, education, mentoring or connections to capital. She serves as the VP of Strategy and Economic Development at the Enterprise Center in Johnson County, a Kansas City-based non-profit organization. There, she oversees the ECJC’s marketing and communications strategy, educational programs and public policy efforts. Melissa has been honored as one of the “30 Under 30” to watch by Ink Magazine and a “Next-Gen Leader” by the Kansas City Business Journal. To learn more about educational programs for entrepreneurs at the ECJC, visit www.ecjc.com. Check out a blog post by Phil Singleton on ECJC's web site: 10 SEO Tips for Startup Companies

Why you've got to listen to today's episode: · Learn how local businesses can market on a shoestring budget · Know how to leverage in existing customer base to have more sales · Importance of long-term business planning to overcome sales challenges on a fraction of marketing cost Summary Jeff Slutsky is the President and Founder of Street Fighter Marketing in Kansas City which specializes in teaching businesses how to market, promote and increase sales on a shoe-string budget.   He has authored and published 10 books, 3 audio albums, and six video training programs. With a background in both advertising and public relations, Jeff Slutsky had an opportunity to practice what he preached when he became part owner of a nightclub and later a health club. With the marketing dollars now coming out of his own pocket, he soon began to discover and develop result-oriented, low-cost tactics to build sales. This unique combination of shrewd thinking, innovative problem solving, budgeting on a shoe-string, and a lot of hard work, came to be known as Street Fighting which received a great deal of national media attention including The Wall Street Journal, USA Today, Success, Ink Magazine, CNN. In this episode, Jeff shares how to advertise, promote and market on a community level to increase sales without spending a lot of money. Check out these episode highlights: 00:26 all about Jeff Slutsky 01:50               Jeff's defines his ideal client 02:17               problems that Jeff solve for his small business owner clients 03:09               symptoms of Jeff's client's problems 04:05               common mistakes that small business owners make when they try to advertise their services and products 04:20               what is the Shiny Penny Syndrome? 04:50               Jeff's Valuable Free Action (VFA): Leverage on existing customer base 05:40               Jeff's free Valuable Action Resource (VAR): www.streetfightermarketing.com 06:20               Jeff's most Valuable Free Tip (VFT) Tweetable Takeaways from this Episode · The problem is that advertising costs more than ever before, there is a lot of choices and it just does not work for a lot of small businesses. We are trying to share with people how to market, promote in their local level on a shoestring budget. · I focus on getting people in the front door. · The problem is what we call the Shiny Penny Syndrome, what is the next big thing. So they are trying to get more likes on their social media that does not necessarily translate the dollars in the bank. · Instead of using the expensive advertising media, everybody has their own customer bases, find ways to work together. · Take a more long-term approach. Things do not work overnight. You have to test things.  Links www.streetfightermarketing.com  

President of Story Monsters LLC and publisher of Story Monsters Ink magazine, Linda Radke joins host Jiggy Jaguar to discuss all the latest with her renowned magazine. Linda also shares expert advice on how you can tell your story!!   **Linda F. Radke is the president of Story Monsters LLC and publisher of Story Monsters Ink® magazine. For more than 30 years, she has been ahead of the game in producing and marketing award-winning books for all ages. Clients and the media describe Radke as an industry leader in creativity, innovation, and customer service. She has received numerous publishing, public relations, and marketing awards, including being named “Book Marketer of the Year” by Book Publicists of Southern California. Tireless in her efforts of helping authors make their dreams a reality, Radke's motto is, “You can't compromise on quality. Do it right or don't do it all!”   www.buildgrowandenjoy.com

Finding a job can take a lot of work. But what if you could get in front of a recruiter--someone who is paid to find great employees? Like a fairy godmother, couldn't a recruiter make your wish for a dream job come true? And by doing so, save you a lot of time and effort? The truth is, recruiters can make a big difference in your job search, but they can't do it all. In this 32-minute episode you will learn: What recruiters do, who they work for, and how they get paid How to find the right recruiter for you and your industry How to start a relationship with a recruiter or recruiting firm What you should (and shouldn’t) expect from a recruiter This week’s guest: Steve Potestio (@Potestio)Partner and CEO, Mathys+PotestioPortland, OR       Listener question of the week: How can I keep up with new media jobs? Do you have a question you’d like us to answer on a future episode? Please send your questions to Cecilia Bianco, Mac’s List Community Manager, at cecilia@macslist.org. Resources referenced on this week’s show: Mashable.com - 20 Tools to Show Off Your Portfolio The Deeply Graphic Design Podcast Social Media Examiner Mashable.com Inc. Magazine Forbes Technology SnapChat Canva Free Online Photo Editor Hootsuite Social Media Management Edgar Social Media Management The Business of Strangers (2001) Mathys+Potestio Find Your Dream Job in Portland (and Beyond): The Complete Mac’s List Guide If you have a job-hunting or career development resource resource you’d like to share, please contact Ben Forstag, Mac’s List Managing Director, at ben@macslist.org. -- Thank you for listening to Find Your Dream Job. If you like this show, please help us by rating and reviewing our podcast on iTunes. We appreciate your support! Opening and closing music for “Find Your Dream Job” provided by Freddy Trujillo, www.freddytrujillo.com.   FULL TRANSCRIPT BELOW:  Mac Prichard: Welcome to Find Your Dream Job. We're the podcast that helps you get hired and have the career you want, and make a difference in life. I'm Mac Prichard, your host. I'm the publisher of Mac's List. On today's show, we're discussing how to work with an executive recruiter. Looking for a job is hard work. You know that. We've all been there. Before you set on to your first application or you go to an interview, you need to confirm your career goals, and you have to update your online profiles. You need to network. You need to do lots and lots of networking. Again, that's a lot of hard work. Not surprisingly, many of us, including me, have wondered, "Isn't there another way--an easier way--that lets you cut to the front of the application line?" What if you could get in front of a recruiter, somebody who is paid to find great employees? Like a fairy godmother, couldn't a recruiter make your wish for a dream job come true, and by doing so save you a lot of time and effort? Recruiters can make a big difference in your job search, but they can't do it all. This week, we're talking to a recruiter, Steve Potestio. He's one of the best in the business. He works with digital firms and writers, graphic designers, and other creative workers all across the country. Steve is going to share with us what recruiters can do and what they can't do, and how you can make the most of that experience. First, let's check in with the Mac's List team. Joining me as always in our downtown studio here in Portland, Oregon are Ben Forstag, our management director, and Cecilia Bianco, our community manager. Hello Ben and Cecilia. Cecilia Bianco: Hi Mac, how are you? Ben Forstag: Hi Mac. Mac Prichard: Good, I'm doing well. Confess, have you had that fantasy that the phone is going to ring one day, and it will be a recruiter offering you your dream job? Ben Forstag: During my last unemployment stint, which was about four months long, I had that fantasy every day, or that hope at least. Mac Prichard: How about you Cecilia? Cecilia Bianco: I actually really haven't, but I've talked to a lot of recruiters through my job at Mac's List, and I think it's a dream a lot of people have. Mac Prichard: There is real value when working with a recruiter. They can make a huge difference, but like anything, you don't want to rely in just one strategy alone. I've never actually been approached by a recruiter about a job, though I have been contacted by different recruiters looking for candidates. Cecilia, you're out there in the community a lot. What's been your experience working with recruiters? Cecilia Bianco: They're always just looking for it seems very specific people to their agency. Anytime I get an email from one of them, they have almost an exact person in mind with certain experience. Mac Prichard: I find that too. I also find that they contact people like us, because they're looking for recommendations about trusted candidates, people who fit that criteria. Even if the phone rings, and they're not offering a job, but if it's a recruiter at the other end of the line, I think there's a real value in building that relationship. We'll talk more to Steve about that later in the show. Before we do that, let's check in with Ben, because when it comes to online career resources, Wikipedia has nothing on Ben Forstag. Every week, he explores the internet looking for blogs, podcasts, and other tools you could use in your job search. Ben, what have you uncovered for us this week? Ben Forstag: Mac, given the theme of today's show, I wanted to share two different resources that I thought might be particularly useful to anyone exploring a career in creative services, so graphic designers, writers, anyone who does creative things for a living. The first one is a blog post I found on the mashable.com website. Cecilia, I know you go to Mashable every day. Cecilia Bianco: Often. Ben Forstag: This is a site that's about all things digital and media. It's a great tool. This blog post comes from 2013. It's 20 Tools to Show Off Your Portfolio. If you're going to be working in the creative industry, that really means you need to present your work on the web so that everyone could see what you do. The online platform you use to show off your work might be just as important as the material you're showcasing. As you can imagine, it doesn't matter how good the work you put on it is if your website looks dated, or if it doesn't work. That's going to not reflect well on you as a professional. This blog, the 20 Tools to Showcase Your Portfolio, it outlines 20 different platforms you could use to showcase your art, your writing, whatever creative output you have. I'll admit, I don't have a portfolio myself. Cecilia, I know that you do. What platform do you use? Cecilia Bianco: I actually have a customized WordPress platform, but I think about every single journalism school student at University of Oregon all used this Cargo Collective. It's definitely one of the easiest tools to make one. Ben Forstag: Mac, when you're looking at candidates for contract work or vendors, is there a given platform that you prefer, or is it just whatever you find? Mac Prichard: One feature I like about LinkedIn is there is portfolio section. I don't think it's on your list. LinkedIn is always a stop for an employer who is checking on the candidate. In addition to the good ideas on your list, I would encourage candidates to think about using the portfolio section of LinkedIn. Ben Forstag: On LinkedIn, you can add projects now. I know I uploaded some magazines that I edited in my previous job there. That's a great tool as well. There are 20 different platforms here that they suggest. Some that are more known, some that might be new on the scene, tools like Carbonmade, Behance, Dribbble, that's with three Bs, Dunked to Viewbook, and Cargo Collective. Again, this is post is on Mashable. It's 20 tools to showcase your portfolio. It's another blog with a really long URL. We'll include this in the show notes, or you can Google it on Mashable. The other resource I want to share with you is a podcast I discovered recently. Mac Prichard: Another podcast, you're listening to other podcasts. Ben Forstag: I'm cheating on the podcast. When you're done with this podcast, when you've downloaded them all, and listened to them all and rated us positively, you can go check out this other podcast. It's called the Deeply Graphic DesignCast. This is a podcast for graphic designers, web designers, and visual designers. It's produced by a graphic design studio in LA called The Deep End. The episodes explore different design-related topics from finding better clients to online portfolios, hot trends in design, and making sure you get paid for your work, things like that. I've always had a fantasy of monetizing my hobby of painting, and so I like hearing these things on how other people are doing stuff in the creative arts. Don't worry Mac, I'm not going anywhere. I'd get to sell a single painting in five years. Like our podcast, they answer listener questions. The nice thing about this podcast is it's been around since 2011, and they regularly produce episodes. They've got 95 episodes. It's about one every week. It's a great resource, a fun little podcast, entertaining. I suggest you check it out. Again, the Deeply Graphic DesignCast, and we'll have the link to that in the show notes. Mac Prichard: Those are great suggestions. I didn't know that you painted. I look forward to seeing some of your paintings one day. Ben Forstag: I'll bring you over to the studio someday. Mac Prichard: Do you have an idea for Ben? Just write him. You can reach him at ben@macslist.org. We may share your idea on the show. Now, we want to hear from you our listeners. Let's turn it over to Cecilia, our community manager. Cecilia, what's the question of the week? Cecilia Bianco: Our question this week is, "How can I keep up with new media jobs?" To get a new media job, the most important skill you can have is knowing how to tell a visual story. New media has largely turned into visual communication. As we all know, in this office, we've done presentations about this. Being able to use the tools and platforms available to tell a visual story is the key thing. You want to be comfortable with video editing tools, even if it's just a simple as iMovie on your Mac computer. I know Ben is a pro at iMovie. Also photo editing tools such as the Adobe suite with InDesign and Photoshop. There's also a lot of online tools that are free and easier to manage than Adobe. Overall, the more skills and tools you master, the better off you're going to be. Mac and Ben, I'm sure you both have some go-to resources to keep up with new media. Do you have any favorites? Ben Forstag: To be honest, my resource for all thing social media are probably my teenage nieces and nephews. They know about these things well before I do certainly. I remember a few years ago when my nieces were trying to show me about Snapchat. At that time, I thought, "Well, this is the silliest thing I've ever seen. Why would you ever need to know this?" From what I've been told, this is now a platform that lots of professionals are using. I know my favorite baseball team has a Snapchat account. I know several serious journalists do Snapchat accounts. It's a serious thing. I guess what I'm saying is I should be listening more to my nieces and nephews, take what they say seriously. Cecilia Bianco: Definitely, Snapchat has become important along with a lot of other platforms. With new media, there is always a new platform that people are jumping on and using. To stay up to date with those, you need to have some go-to resources beyond your nieces and nephews probably. I would suggest a few E newsletters such as the Social Media Examiner. Ben mentioned I'm a big fan of Mashable, Ink Magazine. The Forbes technology section is also great. Mac, do you have any to add? Mac Prichard: I just want to support your point that it's so important to keep improving our skills. One trend I see in social media platforms is tools that used to be standalone applications increasingly are being incorporated into Facebook, Instagram, and the other big popular apps. As we reach out to people online, taking advantage of those tools gets a lot easier, because they're much more intuitive, and simpler, and easier to use than say Photoshop even three to five years ago. Cecilia Bianco: I agree. With some of the platforms like Canva is basically Photoshop, but it's free. It's very easy to use. You can teach yourself in an hour. It can be really intimidating to try and learn those tools, but I think if you set small goals like signing up for new newsletters, or mastering a new skill every month, it becomes a lot more manageable. Mac Prichard: That's excellent advice, breaking tasks down into smaller achievable pieces, whether it's mastering a new skill or taking the next step in your job search. Ben Forstag: I know we've talked about social media tools in previous episodes, but let me just ask you Cecilia. If you had to pick the top three that someone should be comfortable using, what would those top three social media tools be? Cecilia Bianco: I would definitely pick at least one photo editing, one video editing, and then probably one management tool. Canva for photos, iMovie for videos, and maybe HootSuite or the new Edgar social media management tool would be key. Ben Forstag: Thanks. Mac Prichard: Great advice. It's very telling and right on target that two of the three you mentioned were visual tools, because so much online communication and so much media work now is all about visuals except of course this podcast. There is that. These segments by Ben and Cecilia are sponsored by the Mac's List guides. We're the publisher of a new book, here at Mac's List. It's called land Your Dream Job in Portland and Beyond. You'll find in our guides, the tools you need to get the job you want. We tackle the questions that are on your mind. How do I find about hidden jobs? What can I do to standout when I'm competing against dozens of other people for the same position? What do I need to do next to manage my career? In our book, there are eight chapters. You'll find experts who share insight or knowledge about how they learn about jobs that are never posted, and what you can do to interview and negotiate like a pro. Check it out for yourself. You can download the first chapter of the book for free. Just go to our website. The address is macslist.org/macslistguides. Steve Potestio co-owns Mathys and Potestio. It's a recruitment firm for the creative and digital industries. His company has offices in Portland, Austin, and Los Angeles. Steve knows how recruiters work. He's worked with more than 100 agencies, and he's helped place thousands of professionals into jobs. He's also been a copywriter, a graphic designer, a project manager, an account manager, and he was the director of operations for a large digital agency during the dot-com era. Steve, that's quite a background. Steve Potestio: Thank you. Mac Prichard: Thank you for joining us. Let me start with one example I think people have in their heads when they think about recruiters. I'm going to into the way back machine. There is a wonderful movie starring Stockard Channing. It's called the Business of Strangers. It came out in the early 1990's. It's about corporate intrigue, and it reflects popular ideas about corporate culture in those years. In the plot, Channing is a high-powered executive. She hears rumors that she's about to lose her job. The first thing she does is she picks up the phone, and she calls a recruiter. They both traveled to an airport. They have a meeting in the lounge. He brings his briefcase, and he reaches into it. There he has job openings that pay six-figure salaries. They talk about what position she might take next if she indeed loses her position inside the company. That's one way people think of recruiters. What would you say to that popular image, Steve? Steve Potestio: I'm laughing because if that was the case, that would be cool that we just have a briefcase full of jobs. That's cool. That is I think a common misperception of our industry. We are actually out there beating the bushes every day trying to build relationships with companies so that we do in fact have opportunities. We're not walking around with briefcases full of them. We're not having any clandestine meetings. Actually, a good recruiter would probably do a little bit more than the recruiter in the movie. That is really establishing a relationship with the individual, and talking about their needs and what they're looking for, and what's a good fit for them prior to opening up that briefcase, and just start trotting out a bunch of jobs. Mac Prichard: Let's put aside the Hollywood image. Let's talk about how the business really works. Tell us about the recruitment business and how you look for candidates, and what you're looking for. Steve Potestio: One thing about a recruiter to realize is the recruiter serves two masters. On one side is the individual, the candidate that is looking for a job. On the other side is the hiring company, the business client. A good recruiter is trying to build relationships, and understand both equally so that they are able to put the two together successfully. Generally, the client company, the hiring company is the firm that pays our bills if you will. It is natural that recruiters could lean toward that side, and really focus more on servicing that side. I think the best recruiters really walk right down the middle of the street. Mac Prichard: You talked about the firms that you work for. They're the ones who are paying you. How do you get paid? I know there are different forms of compensation for recruiters. Steve Potestio: There are different types of recruitment. There is different types of, I guess, logistical types of jobs. You're going to see recruiters that work on full-time salary positions only. You're going to see recruiters that will also work on contract type assignments, and then recruiters that will work on both. Some of it is what situation are you looking for as an individual, and then finding the recruiter that works within those situations. If you're looking for a full-time job, the recruiter is paid if a candidate that they have introduced is selected and hired by that client company. That client company will pay that recruiter or recruiting firm a fee for having found that individual. Recruiters work on what's called contingency placements. They do not get paid until they have successfully placed someone into a job. Mac Prichard: I think the other approach is called the retainer. Can you talk about the differences between a firm that works on retainer versus contingency? Is there any advantage to a job seeker to work with one firm over another? Steve Potestio: Being a good recruiter, the candidate probably won't necessarily know the difference if that recruiter is on a retainer or on a contingency. That should be something that they don't really necessarily even have insight into. A retained search generally is limited to executive level, C level types of positions. Most companies will not pay for a retained search if they are looking for staff level or management level unless again it's an executive suite level position. For example, in my business, we haven't had a retained search in probably five years. Mac Prichard: I'm often asked when I meet with people informational interviews, and this is a question Cecilia who talks to our community all the time also receives: how do you approach a recruiter? Getting back to that image of the fellow with the briefcase, even if that's not the reality, there are advantages in having a relationship with the recruiter. Walk us through how someone should find someone in their field, and how they might approach a recruiter. Steve Potestio: One of the most important things is finding someone in your field. The reason that is so important is because the recruiter should understand you, and your background, and your experience better than someone who may be has not been exposed to the type of work that you do. Finding someone that understands the type of work that you do is pretty key. They should then also have a client business hiring company relationships in that same industry. They're going to be potentially more equipped to be able to assist you. Then it's just a matter of reaching out to that person, whether it's LinkedIn or email or a phone call. Again, I reference maybe good recruiters and maybe not so good recruiters, but I think a good recruiter is somebody who is looking out for your best interest, and maybe willing to talk to you even if they don't have something immediate that potentially fits their needs or your needs, an immediate potential job opportunity fit. A recruiter should invest the time to meet with you, get to know you, because they may have that opportunity for you in one week, or one month, or three months. Some recruiters fall into the trap of only working on what's in their immediate workload, and not looking down the road. Mac Prichard: Look for a way to establish a long-term relationship with the recruiter. Let's back up Steve. I'm just thinking of our listeners. They love actionable ideas. They want practical instruction about concrete steps they can take next. Imagine that one of our listeners is sitting in front of a computer. They want to find the recruiter in their field. What do they do next? Do they go to Google? Do they go to LinkedIn? Walk us through how you would actually identify say a recruiter in your field? I know you work with digital creatives, designers, writers, and similar professions. Steve Potestio: On my LinkedIn account, I have an ability to do advance searches. If you don't have that ability, I think you have to pay for that. I would go to Google, and I would Google and find out the companies. Then I would go to LinkedIn, and I would look at the company profiles, and I would look at the recruiter profiles, and again, trying to find individuals or recruitment firms that specialize in your area. Mac Prichard: I'm a writer. I sit down, and I Google executive recruiters, or recruiters, writers, the community where I live in, whether it's Portland, Oregon, Chicago. I know you have offices in Austin and Las Vegas as well. Up pops the name of several firms and recruiters, how do I approach these people? Do I send an email? Do I make a phone call? What's the practical way of doing that? Steve Potestio: I'll back up again too. The first thing that you should be doing is looking at your own toolbox, and making sure you're ready to contact the recruiter. That recruiter, one of the first things they're going to do is they're going to examine your resume. They're going to examine your background. They're going to go on to your LinkedIn profile. If they see things that are a mess, or they're not seeing the type of professional that they feel that they can comfortably represent, they may be less inclined to respond to your inquiry. Again, a good recruiter and a good recruitment firm will respond to every single person that reaches out to them, but many don't. Mac Prichard: What is helpful to you as a recruiter? What kind of requests do you like to receive? After people have paid attention to the basics, and they put their LinkedIn profile in order, do you like to get a phone call, an email? What works best? Steve Potestio: An email works best because that enables the recruiter or the recruitment firm to take a closer look at the individual's background, and to really assess their ability to help that person. A phone call, they're still going to ask for some time to dig a little deeper into the individual's background. I don't want to discourage people from not picking up the phone, but the recruitment firm really needs to evaluate their ability to assist the individual. If they don't feel like the individual has the right background, and they in turn don't have the right client base to assist that individual, they should hopefully be pointing them in a different direction. A lot of it is really evaluating their ability to help that person. Mac Prichard: That's the best way to approach you. What mistakes do you see people make when they attempt to work with recruiters? Steve Potestio: I don't know the mistakes that they make when they initially reach out, but I think people need to have realistic expectations of what a recruiter or a recruitment firm can do for them. We cannot manufacture job opportunities for them. We may have that briefcase full of job openings, but if none of those job openings match that individuals' background and what they're looking for, then it doesn't matter that we have a briefcase full of job openings. They're not the ones for you. People just need to be realistic that yes, we are out there doing everything we can to build relationships with clients so that chances are greater that we may have opportunities for you, but it's never a given. Mac Prichard: A number of possibilities, people can approach you all, begin to build a relationship. There might be a suitable opening, and it might actually lead to a job offer. In other instances, people may go down that path, and not get an offer, or there may not be openings at the moment. For those who don't get a job out of this process, what's the best way to build and maintain a long-term relationship with the recruiter? Steve Potestio: I'm glad you asked that. I've been doing this, gee, longer than I've carried a [inaudible 00:27:29] over close to 20 years. Smart candidates and smart recruiters do look at it as a long-term ongoing proposition. There are many people that I have placed into jobs. They have in turn called me and asked me for new hires for their department or their company. In turn a couple of years down the road, they may be a candidate again. A good recruiter would want to invest that time and would want to keep tabs on your career. I think being a good candidate working with the recruiter, you keep that recruiter up to date in terms of what you're doing on your own. Again, a recruiter or a recruiting firm is one avenue that you should be pursuing. It's definitely something to pursue, but it's only one avenue in your job search. Mac Prichard: I'm glad you made that point, because I think sometimes people tend to put all of their eggs in one basket, whether it's focusing on a recruiter or one opportunity at one organization, which could be attractive, but you'd never know what might work out. It's always good to be pursuing how to find several different opportunities. Steve Potestio: What happens when you don't is it's the old image of the person at home waiting for the phone to ring on Friday night to see if they're going to get that one date that they've been after. That one person doesn't call. Will stay home for the night? Maybe that's a bad analogy, because then that means that person is pursuing many, many, many potential suitors. Maybe that's a bad analogy, but at the same time, the job seeker does need to pursue many different avenues unless they want to just be in a long and prolong job search. Mac Prichard: That's an excellent point to stop at. Steve, how can people learn more about you and find you online? Steve Potestio: Our website is a great way to connect with us. We actually are also very active on social media. We have a very vibrant Facebook page. We do a lot of tweets. Our website actually posts a lot of information that is similar to Mac's List geared toward professional development and helping people. Really, that's the best way to connect with all of the various channels that we are trying to put information and content out to. Mac Prichard: That's terrific. Thank you for your time Steve. Steve Potestio: Thank you Mac. I appreciate it. Mac Prichard: We're back in the studio with Ben and Cecilia. There's a lot of food for thought there from Steve, wasn't there? Ben Forstag: There was. Cecilia Bianco: Definitely a lot of questions I had about recruiters, he covered it all. Mac Prichard: I just want to thank you all for nodding knowingly. I expect you don't know who Stockard Channing is. Ben Forstag: No idea. Cecilia Bianco: I have no idea. Mac Prichard: You had to be there back in the 1990's. She was huge. Ben Forstag: I was there just, I guess, not paying attention to movies. Mac Prichard: I went too far too many movies. Actually, I was looking up this movie. I couldn't find it in the Wikipedia. I had to find it elsewhere. It's obscure, but well worth the watch. It does underscore a popular image we have of recruiters. I think Steve has helped us understand that working with the recruiter can be valuable, but you don't want to rely just on recruiters. Ben Forstag: I thought the most interesting was how recruiters get paid. I didn't really know that much about recruiting. I always had this vague idea that they would take a percentage of my salary. I don't know where I got that notion, but it's good to know that the job seeker is not the person who's paying for that service. It's usually the employer. Cecilia Bianco: I agree. I have that question too. I've always wondered what the actual breakdown was. It was interesting to hear exactly where the money goes and how they make their money, because it seems in my opinion that recruiters usually cater a lot to the job seeker, but really, their paying customer is the employer. Mac Prichard: One thing to keep in mind if you're contacted by a recruiter. Steve talked about this. The recruiters that are hired on contingency, a company may work with two or three recruiters for the same position, so a recruiter can be an advocate for you. If however you don't get hired or one of the candidates doesn't get hired, they don't get paid. It can be a tough business. Again, working with the recruiters can be rewarding, and we encourage our listeners to explore that. Steve had some very practical ideas about next steps you could take if you want to do that. Thank you for listening. We'll be back next week with more tools and tips you can use to find your dream job. In the meantime, as always, visit us at macslist.org. You can sign up there for our free newsletter, where you'll find more than 100 new jobs every week. If you like what you hear on our show, help us out by leaving a review and a rating at iTunes. We're determined to crack the top 10 list in the career section of iTunes. To do that, we need your help. Please take a moment, and we'd appreciate it. This will help others discover our show and share the information. Thanks for listening.  

Jason Hartman invites Jeff Desjardins on to the American Monetary Association podcast today to talk about the neat infographics Jeff's company produces. Jeff is the president of Visual Capitalist and many of his infographics have been featured on Ink Magazine, Business Insider, Wall Street Journal, and other news outlets. Jason and Jeff talk about Visual Capitalist, Bitcoin, and more on today's episode.    Key Takeaways: 2:15 – Jeff explains what Visual Capitalist is.  5:45 – The infographics that Jeff's company produces are usually based on complex topics people have a hard time grasping.  8:30 – Advertising with Visual Capitalist is more cost effective than on more main stream media websites.  10:40 – Jeff talks about his favorite infographic that he and his team worked on.  14:50 – Jason and Jeff talk about Bitcoin in this segment.  15:45 – Jeff explains the hype cycle in technologies.  19:55 – Jason would love to be wrong about Bitcoin, but you simply can't invest in it just yet.  21:00 – A lot of people learn best visually, so Jeff would like to produce more content for them in the future.    Mentioned In This Episode: http://www.visualcapitalist.com/

Fast Company, NBC, Entrepreneur Magazine I find studying worldwide business niche, branding & trends very intriguing. The statistics always make a great dialogue! Fast Company, Entrepreneur Magazine, NBC & Ink Magazine have featured the "Millionaire ProfitEngineer" David Bullock. The World Economy & "Knowledge Work" for Business" is in the Spotlight! He serves as the President and CEO of CEO Mastery, Inc. and Executive Training and Business Development Firm. David is a degreed mechanical engineer with a thorough understanding of process control. A switch to sales resulted in over $100 million worth of goods and services sold in a seven-year period. The process design and sales experience came together in his work with Dr. James Kowalick as a certified TRIZ/Taguchi Ad Optimization Specialist. David has created very effective combinations of processes that lead to increased sales by up to 300%. His unique approach and proven success have made him an authority among internet marketing and business development experts. David's work has been featured in Entrepreneur Magazine, Black Enterprise Magazine, Fast Company Online, ZDNet.com and Inc. Technology. Further, David is an in demand speaker and addresses audiences internationally to bridge the gap between new technology and business development at all levels. To Find out more about David's current work visit: www.DavidBullock.com www.CEOMasterySeries.com Join My Facebook Page ~ facebook.com/BuildingAbundatSuccess