Podcasts about Jellyvision

It's YOUR time to #EdUp In this episode, YOUR guest is Michelle Sobel, President, Unify America YOUR host is Dr. Laurie Shanderson, Host, EdUp Accreditation Insights How did Michelle's diverse background, from the Jellyvision creative team behind "You Don't Know Jack" to digital health solutions, shape her approach to fostering unity & collaboration at Unify America? What is the Unify Challenge College Bowl, & how has it connected over 10,000 students across geographic & ideological differences for respectful conversations? From staying curious to perspective-taking, what skills & norms does Unify America focus on imparting to students to equip them for bridging divides? How are faculty incorporating the College Bowl into curricula across disciplines, & what benefits are they seeing in terms of student confidence & civic engagement? With a new "deep dive" format focusing on a single topic like gun violence, how might Unify's model be adapted for healthcare students to build cultural competence? As Unify America scales up with the goal of reaching every college student, what is Michelle's vision for the future of constructive dialogue on campus & beyond? Listen in to #EdUp! Thank YOU so much for tuning in. Join us on the next episode for YOUR time to EdUp! Connect with YOUR EdUp Team - ⁠⁠⁠⁠Elvin Freytes⁠⁠⁠⁠ & ⁠⁠⁠⁠Dr. Joe Sallustio⁠⁠⁠⁠ ● Join YOUR EdUp community at ⁠⁠⁠⁠The EdUp Experience⁠⁠⁠⁠! We make education YOUR business! --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/edup/message

In this light-hearted yet informative episode, Chrissy Krampert, Chief Strategy Officer at Jellyvision, shares the fascinating journey of Jellyvision, from its quirky beginnings in educational content and gaming to becoming a leader in healthcare benefits education with ALEX, their flagship product.She explains how ALEX leverages behavioral science and technology to simplify complex healthcare decisions for employees, turning confusion into clarity. Chrissy highlights how Jellyvision's tools help employees make smarter healthcare choices, ultimately saving employers significant costs. "We want to go to where there is furrowed brow and bring it to peace of mind," she says, encapsulating their mission.The discussion delves into the practical impacts of ALEX, from employees proposing to it during open enrollment to Jellyvision's strategic use of claims data to offer personalized healthcare advice. Chrissy emphasizes the importance of building trust and engaging employees with humor and simplicity. The episode also covers Jellyvision's future plans, including their partnership with Springbuk to enhance data-driven decision-making and the integration of AI for more precise recommendations. "We're able to establish that trust and guide an employee throughout the year to making better decisions," Chrissy notes, showcasing the influence of their innovative solution.Key Takeaways:Behavioral Science: ALEX uses behavioral science to engage employees, helping them understand and utilize their benefits effectively.Cost Savings: ALEX helps employers save on healthcare costs by guiding employees to choose and use the best-fit plans.Personalization: The integration of claims data and AI allows for tailored healthcare guidance, enhancing the employee experience.Engagement and Trust: Jellyvision builds trust through humor, simplicity, and personalized interactions, making healthcare decisions less daunting.Quotes:"We want to go to where there is furrowed brow and bring it to peace of mind." - Chrissy Krampert"People would rather do their taxes while cleaning their bathroom before they'd want to pick a benefits plan."Stay in Touch!Connect with Chrissy Krampert on LinkedInVisit JellyvisionLearn more about the Springbuk Activate Partner Marketplace and get other related resourcesGet the complete 2024 Employee Health Trends report and other related resourcesConnect with our co-hosts Nicole Belles and David Pittman Have feedback, questions, or suggestions for show ideas? Send them to us at podcast@springbuk.com. Please rate and review us on your favorite podcast platform, and share it with your friends and colleagues. We appreciate you and thank you for listening! Produced by David Pittman Theme music: "Overboard" by Stay Outside

Today we're sharing another insightful presentation from our most recent Innovative Executives League Summit, where Leon Chism, the Vice President of Engineering at Evolve, delivered a powerful lesson on collecting critical metrics for organization-wide success. As an experienced technologist and executive, Leon leads teams in unparalleled growth and innovation. In this presentation, Leon dives into how the collection of metrics examining speed and quality paired with human-driven evaluation and consistent reporting are the keys to success. In this episode, Leon first dives into DORA metrics and the significance of collecting and reporting those figures of speed and quality. He overviews the additional customization of the data he collects; in one example, he looks closely at aging reports to determine where processes are sticking and gains a live perspective on getting those tasks unstuck by allocating more resources. As the last place to observe metrics, Leon offers a compelling outlook on examining team balance and individual metrics. ("You want to measure the process and not the people.") In further support of optimizing processes and not people, Leon shares his perspective on leaderboards, comparison, and other human-oriented metric frameworks of note. In the final segment, Leon answers audience questions ranging from setting WIP limits (never too low), developer satisfaction, and key aspects of the communication around metrics to create a shared understanding and identify the value beyond the data. (02:16) – DORA metrics(07:39) – Aging Report(10:15) – Balance and individual metrics(12:22) – Metrics in the boardroom(13:35) – SPACE Framework(15:45) – Manual metric collection(17:19) – Developer satisfaction(18:48) – Gaming the metrics(20:26) – WIP limits(21:45) – Shared metrics and collaboration(26:00) – Hardware, software, firmware(27:05) – Communicating the metrics(28:26) – Value beyond the dataLeon Chism is the Vice President of Engineering at Evolve. As an experienced technologist and executive, he has led innovation and technology at Jellyvision, DialogTech, Rewards Network, Analyte Health, PowerReviews, and ORBITZ. He earned a bachelor's degree from the Gies College of Business at the University of Illinois Urbana-Campaign.If you'd like to receive new episodes as they're published, please subscribe to Innovation and the Digital Enterprise in Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. If you enjoyed this episode, please consider leaving a review in

A study conducted by McKinsey found that 35% of value on average is lost when implementing change initiatives. So how can you ensure maximum value during organizational change?Shawnna Sumaoang: Hi, and welcome to the Win Win Podcast. I am your host, Shawna Sumaoang. Join us as we dive into changing trends in the workplace and how to navigate them successfully. Here to discuss this topic is Heather Green, the Director of Enablement at Jellyvision. Thanks for joining us, Heather. I would love for you to tell us about yourself, your background, and your role. Heather Green: Hi, thank you so much for having me, and absolutely. I started my career in an individual contributor role in sales and worked my way up through sales leadership, but quickly found my passion for enablement early on. I’ve worked for small startups to multi-billion dollar consulting firms and through it all, I consider myself to be a bridge for the sales organization. In my current role here at Jellyvision, my goal is to provide our revenue team with really everything that they need to be successful, from net new business to retention, and that’s through our direct channel and partnership business. So my team works to bridge the gap for our revenue teams. Marketing, product, and operations and support our sales team in any way we can. SS: You mentioned you have an extensive amount of enablement experience. What are some best practices you have when aligning your enablement strategy with the strategic initiatives of the business? HG: Yeah, it can be a challenging one sometimes. I would say hands down building internal relationships with our business stakeholders is incredibly key to bridging those two gaps. Everyone has the ultimate goal of providing revenue at the end of the day and making us profitable, but each team has their own goals that might not overlap with each other. I found that it’s really important to have consistent transparency and ongoing communication to make sure that I’m working with these teams in tandem which causes minimum confusion at the end of the day with our revenue teams. So a strategic initiative could be launching a new product or feature, but then that could be in peril with another initiative that RevOps is perhaps launching something new with this system, so it’s too much at once. It’s really important that we get that buy-in from our leadership teams across the organization to make sure that everything from a product launch to new rep tech, to a marketing campaign, that it’s all working cohesively together. SS: That is amazing. And you did mention though, that it’s not always easy. What are some of the major challenges that you’ve come across in your career when it comes to effectively really bringing your enablement strategy to life? HG: It can be tough sometimes. There are definitely challenges associated with it, but where would the fun be if it was so simple all of the time? So, especially when it comes to enablement initiatives, it’s so very important for me to make sure that our leaders understand the value of the why behind the initiative and the what’s in it for me for the individual contributors and ultimately what our goals are going to be at the end and what everyone’s going to get back. By getting that leadership buy-in, we can get everyone on the same page. It’s oftentimes an uphill battle but I’m a big fan of throwing on my hiking boots and climbing, right? So each step when we’re rolling out a strategic initiative it’s a long-term play. It’s not a short tactical thing. Each step is learning more about what’s important to each leader and then how we can pivot and adjust to best meet their needs to make sure that we push it forward.SS: I love that analogy, too. Now, when you first joined Jellyvision, you noticed some key challenges with the team’s previous enablement platform. What were some of those challenges and what was really the impetus behind deciding to make a change?HG: Other than me adoring Highspot, right? I’ve been such a fan for many years and I was lucky enough to use it at other organizations. But coming to Jellyvision for me a few years ago, I was thrilled to see how extensively our team had invested in the tech stack.A lot of times you don’t think many organizations. So as an enablement leader, it was just music to my ears, but with our previous content management system and engagement platform, the first thing I did when I came in was I looked at it and I did an audit. I’m looking at the backend analytics, but then really seeingWho’s using it, who’s not, what the top performers were doing, what our lower performers in that middle ground were doing. The spoiler was that not a lot of people were using the platform, which, also hurts because as an organization, you’re making that investment and you need to see that return to keep it.And so by digging in, I started doing many different conversations with our revenue team and individual contributors to determine. What was the reason behind not using it? And the key feedback that we received is that it was just difficult to use. It was hard to find content. It was even harder to edit content. And so it was like, why would I do that when I can just go into my Google Drive and find what I need and then edit and send it that way? It was just resounding results that it was difficult and no one wanted to engage with it. But knowing the value of a platform like that, I was able to then start putting the seeds down for making a change. I knew we were coming up on a renewal in the upcoming six months. And so I started asking additional questions on if it did this with this work and kind of planting the seeds. And then finally got to a pilot point of taking it with our key top sales reps and showing them what Highspot could do. And then from there, we were able to move the conversation forward in making the change once they saw some of the key things that Highspot was able to offer us. SS: I think that is fantastic. And, in addition, I know that you did a lot of work to ensure that you had buy-in from leadership to prove why the change was needed. What were some of the things that you did to ensure that you were able to secure that buy-in? HG: Buy-in is imperative, right? Especially when budgets are tight and they’re getting tighter and tighter every single day. So for me, it was gathering all of that data from our reps. So not only the analytics in the platform that we currently had and how rough it was from an adoption standpoint but then the verbatims from our reps of saying, “Yes, if we could have a Digital Sales Room, it would mean the world because then I would be able to track with our broker clients or if I were able to be able to easily find something and edit it in the platform, I would use it.”So I pulled together a lot of the verbatims and then I put together the ROI breakdown of what we could see in the platform. We were lucky enough in the business case I put together to start Highspot three months before our previous contract ended. That way we could load everything into Highspot, and do a full content audit, so we were starting clean. That’s so very important too, because what you put in ultimately will drive what comes out. But that allowed us time to do that audit, load, and tag everything appropriately in Highspot. And so that way we had a really, and do enablement ahead of that as well, to start again planting the seeds that change was coming. And these are the cool things that you’ll be able to see with it for us to have that smooth transition once we ended our previous agreement.  SS: And since you guys have implemented Highspot, how have you overcome some of the challenges that the teams were previously facing? HG: Adoption can be difficult across the board, but with Highspot, luckily, our adoption has been significantly higher than what we received with our old platform. For us, I think it was consistently highlighting what was working, what top performers were using, and what they were seeing off of it, being able to track it back to specific deal conversations, and how they were able to move those opportunities forward through the content they were sharing. We also hold bi-weekly office hours where we share our best practices. And in those best practices, peer learning is incredibly important for us. Making sure that we’re sharing what’s working with our tools and oftentimes when you have one person see what someone else is doing and how it’s helping them, that also helps to drive it forward. We also offered consistent training from video courses to one-to-few to one-to-one sessions. Luckily we’re in a smaller organization where we can offer that level of support, but to make sure we’re overcoming any obstacles, if someone wasn’t using the platform, myself or one of my team members would reach out and say, “What’s the problem, what’s going on?” Oftentimes, it was just that they were uncomfortable trying something new, but after we showed them or they spoke to a peer and we had that connection, we’ve been able to get a much higher adoption rate. SS: Fantastic. And you guys do have incredible adoption. I think you guys are at about 89% recurring usage. What are some tips that you have for building trust with reps and helping them understand the value of the enablement programs that you’re delivering? HG: It’s really due to my team. Shout out to Max Costello, she’s hands on our Highspot champion, and we call her our enablement queen. She has done an amazing job with building trust within our teams. She’s the one who does many of those one-to-one and one-to-few sessions. We did many virtual sessions before the launch, Zoom training where we would walk them through the tool, show them the benefits show them how we could customize things. And then we were very lucky with our professional services agreement. We launched this in January right ahead of our revenue kickoff last year, and so we were able to have one of our Highspot reps actually come on site, and I think that was instrumental for us to be in person as a revenue group, and then have a Highspot person from the team there along with us as a leadership team and an enablement team all together in the room to be able to together walk through it, not just over Zoom. I know that’s not something everyone can do and we were so lucky for it. But then post revenue kickoff, holding those consistent office hours and again, sharing best practices and just staying close with our team I think has been huge for us in getting people into the platform. SS: You’ve mentioned a few times now during this conversation the importance of using data. And we’ve seen in our customer base that having data is key to building trust and improving value. And I know that you are very much a data-driven enablement leader. How do you measure the impact of your enablement efforts and how do you leverage Highspot to help? HG: Great question. Gone are the days of using our gut to make decisions and to determine what’s working and what’s not working. Although I’ve worked with many people who still feel comfortable in that way. For me, data is imperative. It tells us what’s working, and what’s not working, and it helps us craft a story. And to quote, Real Housewives of Salt Lake City, right? I need proof, timeline, and screenshots. That’s really where I come in when I’m speaking with my teams and I’m speaking with leadership on what’s working or where we should make adjustments. And that’s with every tool that we have, especially in the economy that we’re in today, every dollar invested needs to have a return. And if we’re not getting it, we need to figure out why. And a lot of that comes enablement team. So what are we doing to make sure that the teams are utilizing it properly? So for Highspot specifically, we report back monthly to marketing and to rev leadership. We have two separate meetings for marketing. We report back on what content resonates the most with our clients. So not only what our reps are sending, but what’s really being viewed. If we have a PowerPoint presentation that has. 30 slides. Gosh, I hope no one’s sending one that’s that large. But if a client’s only looking at, three to five of them, those are the slides that we want to focus our attention on moving forward. That’s what really resonates. And so for our marketing team, it’s been really helpful. Especially since we’ve just done this huge brand audit. And so we’ve really prioritized what pieces of collateral we’re going to adjust to the new brand outlines based on what’s been sent and what’s been engaged with. But then for our rev leadership, we’re able to then see, we’re able to tie the analytics back with how conversations are actually progressing from prospecting to opportunities, closed won or closed lost. And I think that shows a lot of value back into the platform. And again, we’re able to do a lot more one-to-one, one to few, given how small of an organization we are. We have about 60 sellers across our entire team. But telling that story with the data has been really helpful for us to show what’s working and then who we need to spend more time with to maximize their effectiveness as well. SS: What are maybe also some of the key results you’ve achieved since switching to Highspot? Do you have any wins you can share? HG: Our organization is a little different based on the technology that we sell. We offer a tool that helps individuals choose and use their benefits. And appreciate their benefits too. My marketing team would kill me if I didn’t throw that part in there. But we do, because of what we offer, we do 90% of all of our revenue right before the traditional open enrollment season. So truly 90% of all of the deals that our sales team is going to sign are signed between August through October each year, which then leaves many months where we’re not closing deals. We can create opportunities, but we don’t know how fully they’re progressing. So we were really excited this year to actually have that full end-to-end deal cycle from prospecting to opportunities closed won. We were able to pull some really awesome win stories in Q3 last year that we’re able to show what content was shared throughout the journey from prospecting before an opportunity was even created, and then from an opportunity being created to closed won, sometimes it’s a couple of weeks, a couple of months, but for a lot of time we’re doing prospecting, this time of year. So we’re looking for opportunities in February that are going to close and hopefully, August through October, and having that content to be able to show the journey has been able for us to streamline specifically with our master sales decks and our one-pagers and really when case studies are most relevant in being shared in the journey. And so I think that’s helped us a lot with bringing that to the masses and scaling what content is best to share when and we’ve tagged it appropriately in Salesforce now. So it makes it really easy when your opportunity is progressing the content that’s being shown to you. So it’s taking the thinking out of it at this point and made it really easy. So they know exactly what to share and when. SS: Heather, last question for you. What are some goals that you have for Jellyvision in the coming year and how do you plan to continue to evolve your enablement strategy to support key initiatives of the business? HG: Key initiatives are always changing. So we are going to continue to be nimble and pivot as needed. But this year we’re super excited to lean into the recent updates that Highspot has had. We’ve been very AI-forward at Jellyvision. Our CEO has really leaned in and encouraged us to lean in. So, I’m excited about the new updates to the platform. We’re actually doing a relaunch next month to our teams to roll out what that looks like. And then one of our major goals this year is to really maximize the usage of the digital sales rooms. Here we call them client microsites. That’s our internal language, but really maximizing what that looks like. That’s what it looks like for our reps to get more out of the platform as well.SS: Heather, thank you so much for joining us. I really appreciate it.  HG: Yeah. Thank you. SS: To our audience. Thank you for listening to this episode of the win podcast. Be sure to tune in next time for more insights on how you can maximize enablement success with Highspot.

Hibben has a variety of experiences at Source Intelligence, Braintree/Venmo, PayPal, and Jellyvision, now working as the fractional Head of People for scaling companies that recognize talent as their greatest asset and are ready to build modern people operations. She has an unwavering commitment to investing in people – the prerequisite to building a strong people operations, cultural identity, and high-performing company. Thank you Hibben!

Amanda Lannert, CEO of Jellyvision, joins the show to share how she is scaling employee support and personalized learning through simulated, friendly, human conversations. Amanda shares the tech to make this work, her history in this domain, and how AI will help in making things more accessible and personal.   CONNECT WITH US If you have any feedback or want to join in on the conversation, connect with us via LinkedIN, Twitter (@bobbyhollywood), or email our show at learninggeekspod@gmail.com.   DISCLAIMER All thoughts and views are of our own.

Wow, this one was all over the place. We discuss various current tech news, technical difficulties, and pro tips, and we have the Comedy Wildlife Photography Awards. Humane announced its AI Pin, and we discuss the usefulness of this type of product, AI or not. Watch on YouTube! Intro (00:00) Followup: The OpenAI Keynote (07:45) Hollywood actors strike ends with a deal that will impact AI and streaming for decades (11:50) Spotify brings audiobooks offering to US subscribers (13:30) Apple iPhone Spatial Video arrives in beta and looks amazing on Vision Pro (15:55) Dave's Pro Tip of the Week: Use the Tips app on iOS (21:15) Just the headlines: (26:15) WeWork seeks bankruptcy protection in stunning fall for a company once valued close to $50 billion Washington DC gives residents free AirTags to help track stolen cars After luring customers with low prices, Amazon stuffs Fire TVs with ads Las Vegas Sphere reports $98.4 million loss; CFO quits Nintendo is making a live-action Zelda movie Takes: Humane officially launches the AI Pin, its OpenAI-powered wearable (32:05) Sony just changed photography FOREVER With The a9 III (37:50) A quick look back at the official announcement of Microsoft Windows 1.0 40 years ago today (42:45) Microsoft pulls OneDrive update that would quiz you before letting you quit (45:45) Online retail hack selling miniature replicas (51:00) Bonus Odd Take: 2023 Winners and Finalists of the Comedy Wildlife Photography Awards (55:50) Picks of the Week:  Dave: BitCam from the Iconfactory - Episode 207: Safely Landing the Segue (58:25) Nate: Orion App from Lux and HDMI Capture Adapter (64:15) Find us elsewhere: https://notpicks.com https://www.notnerd.com https://www.youtube.com/c/Notnerd https://ratethispodcast.com/notnerd https://www.tiktok.com/@notnerdpod https://www.twitter.com/n0tnerd/ https://www.instagram.com/n0tnerd https://www.facebook.com/n0tnerd/ info@Notnerd.com Call or text 608.618.NERD(6373) If you would like to help support Notnerd financially, mentally, or physically, don't hesitate to get in touch with us via any of the methods above. Consider any product/app links to be affiliate links.

Today on the podcast, Troy Henikoff joins Bradley to discuss his new book, "Levers - The Framework For Building Repeatability Into Your Business." Get your copy at https://www.leversbook.com/.Troy Henikoff is Managing Director of MATH Venture Partners. Additionally, Troy is an active mentor with Techstars.Troy was a Co-founder of Excelerate Labs, which became Techstars Chicago in 2013. He also helps manage the FireStarter Fund, teaches Entrepreneurship at Northwestern University's Kellogg School of Business and is on the board of the Chicago-land Entrepreneurial Center.Prior to Techstars Chicago, Troy was the CEO of OneWed.com, the President of Amacai, and co-founder and CEO of SurePayroll.com. Troy built the technology for Jellyvision (creators of “You Don't Know Jack!”) and was the President of Systemetrics. His first company was Specialized Systems and Software. Troy has an undergraduate degree in Engineering from Brown University and a Masters Degree in Project Management from Northwestern.** JOIN THE PRIVATE LEADERSHIP PODCAST COMMUNITY! **This community has access to a seat at the live recordings for all Monday podcast episodes, monthly, live Q&As with our favorite podcast guests, a private community on Facebook, and more. It launches June 1st, 2023 - grab your spot using this link: www.club.capital/podcastThanks to our sponsors:Club Capital offers monthly accounting, tax, and CFO services for insurance agency owners. Learn more at www.club.capital.Coach P found great success as an insurance agent and agency owner. He leads a a large, stable team of professionals who are at the top of their game year after year. Now he shares the systems, processes, delegation, and specialization he developed along the way. Gain access to weekly training calls and mentoring at www.coachpconsulting.com. Be sure to mention the Club Capital Podcast when you get in touch.Autopilot Recruiting is a continuous recruiting service where you'll be assigned a recruiter that has been trained to recruit on your behalf every business day. Listeners of the Club Capital Leadership Podcast go to https://www.autopilotrecruiting.com and use the code ClubCapital to get started.

I welcome Steve Anichini, the CTO and Co-founder of Disbelief to this episode. We start off discussing programming at a young age, taking a job after college, and then deciding to pursue a game development career with his first job at Jellyvision. Hear about working at Midway Games and Irrational Games and then starting Disbelief after layoffs. Learn advice about developing patience with yourself, others, project timelines, and not freaking out over deadlines. Steve then shares ideas for getting a first job, including the importance of debugging skills and learning more languages and game engines. We then discuss advancing as a programmer, including the importance of communication skills. Hear about some of his favorite projects, including Borderlands 3 and BioShock Infinite. We then dive into rendering and graphics technology, including real-time ray tracing and Unreal Five's Nanite. Hear about the threat and opportunity he sees in the industry, along with benefits and numerous concerns around AI.  Steve then shares a funny story about a John Woo's Stranglehold press event, some games he's playing, the company's journey towards an anti-crunch culture, along with strategies for not getting into bad situations. At the end he shares advice about never being too late to strike out on your own, giving yourself enough runway, and getting in touch with him online.  Bio: Steve Anichini has worked on many titles throughout his 24 year career, including Borderlands 3's PS5/XSX ports, Gears 5, BioShock Infinite, and John Woo Presents Stranglehold. He worked on tools and systems used in Blitz: The League, Psi-ops: The Mindgate Conspiracy, and Mortal Kombat: Deadly Alliance. At Disbelief, Steve focuses on systems and graphics programming, training, recruiting, and company strategy Connect With Links: * Disbelief website * Disbelief Career Page website * info@disbelief.com email * @solidangle@mastodon.gamedev.place Mastodon * Solid Angle blog Show Links: * Debugging: The 9 Indispensable Rules for Finding Even the Most Elusive Software and Hardware Problems Goodreads * Google Technical Writing Courses website * Nanite Virtualized Geometry in Unreal website * Lumen Global Illumination and Reflections in Unreal website * Midway's 2007 Game Event in Vegas website * Pentiment Xbox Game Dev Advice Links:  * Game Dev Advice Patreon - please support this work if you find it useful * Game Dev Advice Twitter * Game Dev Advice email: info@gamedevadvice.com * Game Dev Advice website * Level Ex Careers - we're hiring for lots of roles! * Game Dev Advice hotline: (224) 484-7733 * Subscribe and go to the website for full show notes with links Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Michelle Sobel is a digital engagement innovator. As the president of Unify America, a nonpartisan bridge-building organization, Michelle leads its team on a mission of replacing political fighting with collaborative problem solving. In 2002, Michelle co-founded Emmi Solutions, a patient engagement technology company, and in 2008 co-founded Analyte Health, a virtual care company which integrates lab testing in a telehealth setting. Before entering healthcare, Michelle was the Creative Director at Jellyvision, a maker of games and interactive conversations, and she was a film editor with credits including Merchant-Ivory's “Howards End” and “Remains of the Day.” She supports local Denver non-profit organizations as a member of Impact 100 Metro Denver and volunteers with local DECA high school chapters, mentoring students with an interest in pursuing careers in entrepreneurship. Read more about Unify America's College Bowl: https://www.unifyamerica.org/college-bowl --- Listen to Other ATN Productions: America in Focus: A weekly feature of the top TheCenterSquare.com stories of the week out of Washington D.C. with commentary from The Center Square editors and more! Everyday Economics: Join economist Dr. Orphe Divounguy and Chris Krug as they discuss global markets, inflation, and everything else that will help you understand the economic world around you. Future of Freedom: Future of Freedom is a bi-weekly podcast highlighting the work of the non-profits which are shaping the future of the freedom movement. Listeners will hear civil, intellectual conversations about why the organizations exist, what their mission is, and how they work to achieve it. Hosted by Scot Bertram. --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/americas-talking/support

Paul is back in the studio with Ben this week to talk about his passion for the Moops, which is NOT the sound produced by a cow after making a mistake!  We're joking, but if you know “the Moops” reference is from the 47th episode of Seinfeld, “The Bubble Boy,” then you are probably very familiar with this week's word… and a standout at most parties.  To Paul's delight, the show is liberally peppered with bits of trivia, and there's a lot to talk about.  Along with the aforementioned  “knowledge nuggets,” topics discussed include: the board game Trivial Pursuit, the “Jeopardy!” game show and it's current host drama, dictionary facts and differences, bar and handheld device trivia games, and a brief history of (and a sincere outpouring of love for) Jackbox Games!   00:00:21 - Ben calls it THE Trivial Pursuit, and Paul addresses Ben's misconception 00:03:08 - Gameshow aspirations, the computer that could play Jeopardy, and other oddities 00:06:47 - Memorizing things, they don't support the program, and entomology 00:08:57 - Distracted by kitty love, three roads meeting, the value of trivia, and one more thing 00:11:05 - Dictionary differences, the word literally, the OED, and why buy the cow… 00:13:32 - Ben splits hairs, audience dependence, and little known facts  are cool 00:16:35 - Paul's passion for trivia, generating interest in topics, and trivia is for everybody 00:20:02 - Trivial Pursuit… trivia, born of Scrabble, a trivia putdown, and troglodytes  00:23:00 - Ben's story of gaining respect through trivia, Waiting for Godot, and Ken Jennings 00:27:51 - Cutting out the talking nonsense, and does Ben sound like Ray Romano? 00:29:43 - The host drama, Ken's friendship with Alex, and be careful what you say 00:33:48 - Sharing the “Jeopardy!” host role, Ken's podcast “Omnibus,” and NTN trivia 00:36:08 - Ben's Onyx song reference, automated bar trivia, and Splam11's trivia nemesis 00:39:41 - Paul's sports trivia niche, learning facts on Jeopardy, and Jackbox at game nights 00:43:05 - Fortune cookies, Paul's issue with Trivia Crack, online trivia leagues, and the JCU 00:45:45 - Ben with the trivia league assist, say no to trivia drugs, and Gottleib pinball 00:47:49 - A brief history of (and some trivia about) Jellyvision and Jackbox Games 00:52:05 - Paul's recent experience with “Trivia Murder Party,” and Jackbox game diversity  00:54:40 - Fibbage, and a remarkably common yet revolutionary user interface  00:57:36 - Ben's experience with the game Tee KO in a What's Good Games livestream 00:59:47 - Paul's recent interest in art, “Complete the List” podcast, and closing thoughts

Harry Nathan Gottlieb is the Founder of Unify America, Jackbox Games, and Jellyvision. For the last 25 years Harry has focused on making learning and decision-making delightful and creating unique games that bring people together. With Unify America, he is now trying to bring Americans together to directly participate in solving big problems by deliberating multiple solutions together. --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/americas-talking/support

On this episode of the Executives' Exchange, Garry Cooper, Rheaply's Chief Executive Officer and co-founder, joins Amanda Lannert, Chief Executive Officer of Jellyvision. Tune in to hear Garry and Amanda discuss innovation, the transformation of Chicago's tech sector, and how Rheaply thinks about bottom-line spending and waste in their day-to-day operations. 00:55 – Introductions 2:02—Garry shares career path and guides North Star 4:09—Garry describes the influential person in his life and the role of education in his upbringing 6:45—Rheaply helping companies attain net-zero through technology 9:00—Garry discusses Rheaply's evolutionary and revolutionary sell approach  to businesses 11:03—The key to success for pitching for funding 13:30—Amanda and Garry discuss measuring Rheaply's impact and goal 15:55—Garry discusses Rheaply's vision and goals and business structure 18:30—Holding companies accountable publicly on a green scale and the future repercussions of not scaling a circular economy 22:34—Garry discusses systems change needed for more cities to have a circular economy 27:00—The key to keeping customers engaged is being human 30:33—Garry provides tips for organizations to reduce waste 33:25—One concept to take away from this discussion & advice for influencers, not the leadership that wants to change within their company 35:18—Saying yes more to Chicago's technology companies working to improve the world and being intentional in creating diverse boards in Chicago 37:14— The balance of work productivity, giving back, and personal time 38:41—Garry provides advice for younger self, recommended books, and ways to get involved with Rheaply   Guest Host: Amanda Lannert, CEO, Jellyvision Producer: Eva Penar, Chief Content & Communications Officer, The Executives' Club of Chicago Recommended Book: Speed & Scale by John Doerr rheaply.com Thank you to our podcast sponsor, Shure Incorporated. For nearly 100 years, Shure Incorporated has developed best-in-class audio products that provide high-quality performance, reliability and value. Headquartered in Niles, Illinois, our history of innovation and expertise in acoustics, wireless technology, and more enables us to deliver seamless, transparent audio experiences to a global audience. Our diverse product line includes world-class wired and wireless microphones, networked audio systems and signal processors, conferencing and discussion systems, software, a loudspeaker, and award-winning earphones and headphones. Find Shure on: Facebook LinkedIn Instagram    

Amanda Lannert is CEO of Jellyvision and has been a key figure in driving the company since its founding in 2001. Her focus at Jellyvision is on the company's strategy, improving processes to better scale operations, partnership development, and customer acquisition to continue fueling the company's growth. Under Amanda's leadership, Jellyvision has grown to serve more than 1500 mostly Fortune 1000 clients with ALEX, the most helpful employee decision support platform on the planet. In 2019, 18 million employees and $120 billion dollar's worth of premium decisions were entrusted to ALEX. Meanwhile, the company has been recognized as the Best Software Company and Best Culture by the Moxies, the Lighthouse winner by the ITA, a top 10 best place to work in Chicago by The Chicago Tribune and the #1 place for millennials to work in Chicago according to Crain's. Prior to joining Jellyvision, Amanda managed global brands for Kellogg's while at Leo Burnett, in addition to spending two years in a new business and new brand development think tank. She attended Haverford College and Edinburgh University.

Amanda Lannert is the extensively awarded CEO of JellyVision. In this episode, Amanda talks about how JellyVision pivoted over the years to become the company it is today; acclaimed for its results and it's culture. She delivers a good dosage of plain common sense that you can apply to your business and yourself. She also gets into the Chicago tech scene and speaks about patterns she has observed as an investor in the top performers in the sector.

Ep #110 - This week on the podcast, I'm joined by Lowell Ricklefs, the founder and managing partner of Traction Advising, a premier boutique M&A firm focusing on B2B SAAS companies between $5M and $20M ARR. Lowell has orchestrated acquisitions of over 30 technology companies, and specializes in helping founders find the right acquirer while negotiating the best deal. Lowell twice built the leading company in the insights data collection industry: at GMI (sold to WPP for $100M) and Toluna (sold to a private equity firm for $260M). He later co-founded FlexMinder (Healthcare IT sold to JellyVision). He was involved in over 12 acquisitions from the buy side. He knows how and why buyers buy, is an expert on selling small technology companies, and is able to negotiate better deals with a higher likelihood of closing. Lowell is hands on with every transaction from start to finish. Learn More About Lowell Ricklefs and Traction Advising: Visit the Traction Advising website: https://www.tractionadvising.com/ Follow Lowell Ricklefs on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lowellricklefs/ Also, please remember to subscribe, rate, and leave a written review for the show if you find value in it. Your reviews help this show to reach a wider audience and I appreciate everyone that has been leaving them. FOLLOW CHARLES GAUDET ON SOCIAL MEDIA: Follow Charles Gaudet on LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/in/charlesgaudet Follow Charles Gaudet on Facebook: https://facebook.com/charlesgaudet Follow Charles Gaudet on Twitter: https://twitter.com/charlesgaudet   VISIT THE PREDICTABLE PROFITS WEBSITE: https://PredictableProfits.com

Jimmy is joined by Amanda Lannert, much lauded CEO of Chicago-based Jellyvision, to discuss how Jellyvision is transforming their culture as we emerge from the grips of the pandemic. They discuss how COVID impacted Jellyvision's business, how she has embraced the mantra "purpose, and not presence," how they are re-thinking company communication, and what her team is now doing to invest in meaningful relationships.

Your nice hosts recorded this episode on an especially-timely Tuesday evening. It turns out that recording on an "off" day does goofy things to a podcaster's brain. Can you improve upon the game of "rock, paper, scissors"? How common are red stop signs across the globe? What noises does a wind serpent make? Do video games really give us choices? How many Kirby plushies does Stephen have? We're asking the tough questions here on Nice Games Club. Wordplay: Celebrating Writing in Contemporary GamesNickelodeon All-Star Brawl for Nintendo Switch - Nintendo.comMetroid: Dread - Nintendo.comDenver Botanical GardensRocky Mountain National ParkLucile's Creole Cafe (has a GREAT breakfast!) Deluxe Editions 10:04 Ellen Burns-JohnsonGamingMarketingPhysical GamesRock, Paper, Scissors: Deluxe Edition (on Kickstarter)Day of Dragons (in early access) Illusions of Choice 37:28 Mark LaCroixGame DesignJellyvision LabsJellyvision (history)  - WikipediaStop signs - WikipediaOperation LifesaverThe Illusion of Choice in Telltale Games' The Walking Dead - Adrian Froschauer, Ontological Geek

Your nice hosts recorded this episode on an especially-timely Tuesday evening. It turns out that recording on an "off" day does goofy things to a podcaster's brain. Can you improve upon the game of "rock, paper, scissors"? How common are red stop signs across the globe? What noises does a wind serpent make? Do video games really give us choices? How many Kirby plushies does Stephen have? We're asking the tough questions here on Nice Games Club.  Wordplay: Celebrating Writing in Contemporary Games Nickelodeon All-Star Brawl for Nintendo Switch - Nintendo.com Metroid: Dread - Nintendo.com Denver Botanical Gardens Rocky Mountain National Park Lucile's Creole Cafe (has a GREAT breakfast!) Deluxe Editions 10:04 Ellen Burns-Johnson Gaming Marketing Physical Games Rock, Paper, Scissors: Deluxe Edition (on Kickstarter) Day of Dragons (in early access) Illusions of Choice 37:28 Mark LaCroix Game Design Jellyvision Labs Jellyvision (history)  - Wikipedia Stop signs - Wikipedia Operation Lifesaver The Illusion of Choice in Telltale Games' The Walking Dead - Adrian Froschauer, Ontological Geek

Wepa! I'm Marina. I am a technologist, mom, podcast host, leadership coach, cruciverbalist and aquarian. ;) UNBOSSED is “Stories of Amazing Women in Chicago”. If you are a new listener to UNBOSSED, we would love to hear from you. Please visit our Contact Page and let us know how we can help you today! Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/marina-malaguti In this episode: Gabi is Co-founder and CEO of Trvlpage, a travel based social media app where you can share your travel experiences and plan a trip with your trusted network's recommendations. She is an avid traveler who spent 5 months post college traveling SouthEast Asia and South Africa. She studied Marketing at University of Illinois and attended Fullstack Academy where she learned software development. Before Trvlpage, she worked as a developer at Jellyvision. She has been the sole developer and CEO of Trvlpage since 2019. **USE CODE “UNBOSSED” TO BYPASS TRVLPG WAITLIST** Key Highlights/Tools: Woman starting a Tech Company Going through bootcamp Travel that molds you Being an entrepreneur Timestamp: 2:00 How Gabi and I met - we go back! 5:00 Gabi's story 9:50 Transition to Tech 16:00 What is a Dev Bootcamp 22:00 Traveling Abroad and her solo journey in Asia and Africa 27:00 Lessons Learnt while traveling 34:00 Stating Travel Page 40:00 Being the software developer and CEO of a company 47:00 Outros Memorable Quotes: Traveling can be a struggle but it can make you grow and learn like nothing else will Useful Links and Resources: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gabi-klapman/ Use Code UNBOSSED to bypass the waitlist https://www.trvlpage.com/ Join the Conversation Our favorite part of recording a live podcast each week is participating in the great conversations that happen on our live chat, on social media, and in our comments section. This week's question is: What challenges have you faced as a woman founder? Ask Gabi anything by leaving a question/ comment on Substack. Follow UNBOSSED Podcast Anchor: https://anchor.fm/marina-malaguti Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCDTz6_FepG04QTs1BjFLBjw/ Spotify: https://lnkd.in/eUhfH8E Apple Podcasts: https://lnkd.in/e7cWtBv Google Podcasts: https://lnkd.in/enjChPt Audible: https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/cea4c49e-6c7e-4dab-833e-eb57d204c493 Substack: https://thechicagowoman.substack.com/ And all others… --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/marina-malaguti/support

Scaling a company from $5M revenues to $50M to $250M isn't just about a great product. In fact, that's the easy part. Scaling a great team, which enables the business to scale, is far more difficult. So I sought out an expert to find out how it's done. Carter Griffin is General Partner of Updata Partners, the growth equity firm with $1 Billion in committed capital. He & team have invested in over 60 B2B software growth-stage companies. In short, he knows how to pour fuel on the fire when a company has $5M to 50M revenues. You know his investments. They include Built In, DataCore Software, Interactions LLC, Jellyvision, LendKey Technologies, Inc., Piano, Ruby. Scaling often comes down to the CEO (Carter likes to back “tenacious storytelling leaders”) Carter serves on the Board of Directors of Mindshare, a leading forum for 900 tech CEOs. He also serves on the Board of Directors of the Mid-Atlantic Venture Association In this 20-minute conversation, Carter reveals how he helps his portfolio companies put a Rockstar in every seat.

Amanda Lannert, CEO of Jellyvision will discuss how you grow a startup versus scale a large company and embody a strong organization culture that is all about behavior. Tune in to hear Amanda weigh in on the cadence of promotions and title changes and how to leverage workforce disruption for a happier life. 1:00 – Recap of moments before the shutdown 3:09 –Discussion on introversion from the pandemic 3:54 – Becoming CEO of Jellyvision 8:20 – Most surprising part of becoming CEO 9:39 – What comes first, title or promotion? 11:10 – Toughest decisions for leadership during disruption/crisis 17:10 – Building a strong company culture—startup vs larger organization 21:23 – Leading with purpose and creativity 23:35 – Discussion on Chicago's role in Jellyvision's success 25:51 – How can Chicago be better/different? 28:39 – Technology leadership, borderless leadership with remote work and long-term strategy 32:31 – Younger workers and blank slate opportunity – who will and won't take advantage of COVID reset? 35:20 – Breaking the concept of “the ideal worker” and changing the narrative 37:42 – Discuss Amanda's diverse educational background and concept of “learn how to learn” 40:29 – CEOs as lifelong learners, staying curious 41:33 – Discussion on wellbeing during the pandemic 43:22 – Amanda's hope & curiosity for the future Jellyvision Thank you to our podcast sponsor, Shure Incorporated. For nearly 100 years, Shure Incorporated has developed best-in-class audio products that provide high-quality performance, reliability and value. Headquartered in Niles, Illinois, our history of innovation and expertise in acoustics, wireless technology, and more enables us to deliver seamless, transparent audio experiences to a global audience. Our diverse product line includes world-class wired and wireless microphones, networked audio systems and signal processors, conferencing and discussion systems, software, a loudspeaker, and award-winning earphones and headphones. Find Shure on: Facebook LinkedIn Instagram  

Amanda Lannert is the CEO of Jellyvision, maker of benefits engagement platform ALEX. More than 1,500 companies (including 114 of the Fortune 500 and two-fifths of the country's 25 largest companies) use ALEX to help their employees understand complex topics, from choosing a healthcare insurance plan to saving for retirement or navigating a leave of absence.

"Talking Comedy with Joe"Steve and Kate interview Emmy -winning Joe Janes, who teaches comedy writing and improvisation at The Second City and Columbia College. He has written for SNL's "Weekend Update" and Jellyvision's "You Don't Know Jack.” He has published three books of his staged work, and his full-length plays include Metaluna and the Science of the Mind Revue and A Hard Day's Journey Into Night.  Joe is a regular contributor to the on-line magazine Literate Ape with his weekly satirical column The Minutes of Our Last Meeting.Make 'Em Laugh, Make 'Em LaughWe talk to Joe about his unique career path, what makes good improvisation, how he used the pandemic creatively for such projects as "Salt City,"  and if it's harder to be funny these days without offending somebody. Plus how to offend fans of the Monkees. And how to win an Emmy writing for a  show without ever setting foot on the set.  Popahallics #38 PlaylistAlways look on the bright side of life ... the humorous side, anyway. Our comedy-themed playlist features songs with the Oompa Loompas, Zero Mostel, Monty Python and more. Listen here.

Helen Calvin’s behavioral science background helped her come up with innovative solutions for Jellyvision. She got to the heart of user behavior and shares valuable insights about job interviews and career progress. In this episode, Helen gives you useful tips on how to excel in your career.Learn about the DOs and DON'Ts during the job interview process, what traits a company should look for to find the best fit, and much more useful information directly from Helen Calvin, the CRO at Jellyvision. In this episode of Taking the Lead, with host Christina Brady, you'll hear everything you need to know about job interviews, how to ask the right questions, and attract amazing people.

We continue a period on the Jewish calendar called the Omer — the 49 days between Passover and Shavuot that our tradition observes through a practice of counting, day by day, week by week. We imbue these days with meaning by assigning a different theme to each week that encourages self-reflection and self-improvement for the betterment of the whole community. In that spirit, we’re doing a series of interviews featuring people who have made their life’s work an extension of their lives’ purpose.Last week, we began with chesed, “kindness” with guest Rena Rosen (if you missed it, go back and take a listen). This week, we dive into the second theme of the Omer, gevurah, discipline or strength, with two very special guests: Mark Achler and Harry Gottlieb. Both of these entrepreneurs have spent decades earning their reputations for creativity, problem solving, innovation but importantly, menchie-ness, in business, and specifically in the tech universe. These guys are both the real deal; they practice what they preach, and they’re not above giving and receiving kind and loving feedback. Be sure to subscribe, rate the show and leave a review. As always, we want to hear from you.And to stay connected, follow Mishkan Chicago on Facebook and Instagram. Learn more about us here!About Our GuestsMark Achler is Managing Director of MATH Venture Partners. Prior to MATH, Mark was the Senior Vice President of New Business, Strategy and Innovation for Redbox. He is a serial entrepreneur who has co-founded four companies as well being a partner in an earlier venture fund called Kettle Partners. Mark has an undergraduate degree in Social Studies Education from Purdue University and is a frequent speaker, resource and ardent champion for the entrepreneurial community. He also teaches Entrepreneurship at Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Business. Finally, full disclosure: Mark is Mishkan’s outgoing Board Chair and is a quiet, behind the scenes, pillar of our community.Harry Gottlieb is the founder of Jellyvision and Jackbox Games. Specializing in user-experience technology, Harry created a product called ALEX®, which is now used by companies to help millions of employees select medical insurance and other employee benefits in a way that is simple and engaging. In his most recent venture, Unify America, Harry’s goal is nothing short of saving democracy. About Mishkan ChicagoMishkan is a spiritual community in Chicago reclaiming Judaism’s inspiration and transformative essence. Not bound by a particular location, we create radically inclusive spaces for Jewish spiritual practice and community, engaging, educating, and empowering people across the spectrum of identity, background, age, and belief.

Hello, I'm Marina. I am a technologist, mom, leadership coach, cruciverbalist and aquarian ;) UNBOSSED IS... “Paths To Success of Amazing Tech Women in Chicago” To interview the ONLY ~40 women CTOs (out of over 700+ CTOs) in the Chicago area To interview the few female CEOs of Tech companies in Chicago To interview women in critical political positions in Chicago To focus on other women in positions of Tech leadership in/from the Chicagoland area To inspire other women and help them see themselves in these positions, so that we can step toward closing the gender & racial gap in technology I welcome you to ask questions, participate, and join me as we explore these topics by emailing me at marina@unbossed.io or visiting www.unbossed.io Available on- Youtube:https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCDTz6_FepG04QTs1BjFLBjw/ Spotify: https://lnkd.in/eUhfH8E Apple Podcasts: https://lnkd.in/e7cWtBv Google Podcasts: https://lnkd.in/enjChPt And others.. Today's Episode: Interview with Amanda Lannert, CEO at Jellyvision Amanda Lannert is CEO of Jellyvision and has been a key figure in driving the company since its founding in 2001. Her focus at Jellyvision is on the company's strategy, improving processes to better scale operations, partnership development, and customer acquisition to continue fueling the company's growth. Under Amanda's leadership, Jellyvision has grown to serve more than 1500 mostly Fortune 1000 clients with ALEX, the most helpful employee decision support platform on the planet. In 2019, 18 million employees and $120 billion dollar's worth of premium decisions were entrusted to ALEX. Meanwhile, the company has been recognized as the Best Software Company and Best Culture by the Moxies, the Lighthouse winner by the ITA, a top 10 best place to work in Chicago by The Chicago Tribune and the #1 place for millennials to work in Chicago according to Crain's. Prior to joining Jellyvision, Amanda managed global brands for Kellogg's while at Leo Burnett, in addition to spending two years in a new business and new brand development think tank. She attended Haverford College and Edinburgh University. Amanda was named CEO of the Year at the Moxie Awards in 2014 and 2015, Woman in Tech in 2016, Woman of the Year for the Chicago Rotary Club of 2018, and was recognized as 2016's Industry Champion by the Illinois Technology Association. She has been profiled in the Chicago Tribune and Crain's. Amanda is also active in Chicago's startup community, serving as a board member of SpotHero, KnowledgeHound, NowSecure and Popular Pays, as a Council Member for the Zell Fellows Program at Kellogg, and as a member of ChicagoNEXT. She also serves as “Super Mentor” for Chicago incubators Impact Engine and TechStars, where she was also named Mentor of the Year. Amanda is quick to laugh and enjoys a good cupcake. Book Recommendations: The Culture Code: The Secrets of Highly Successful Groups - Daniel Coyle A Little Life: A Novel Audible Logo Audible Audiobook –Hanya Yanagihara --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/marina-malaguti/support

Dave Duke (Co-Founder and Chief Community Officer at MetaCX & Host of the Revenue Revolutionaries Podcast) recently joined Eric Gruber (CEO of Personal ABM) on the Stop the Sales Drop podcast to discuss how we need to reboot the complete customer lifecycle to win, protect and expand key, tier 1 accounts. Listen to this conversation to uncover:1. What the typical prospect and customer experience is like, why it's leading to inaction, a no-deal and customer churn --- and what the experience can look like.2. How sales and marketing do not have "new" customers in mind -- and the outcomes they want to achieve. The key to greater revenue growth is to sell the outcome and renew and expand on proof.3.  The correlation between accounts renewals/expansion -- and how sales and marketing set the tone out of the gate.4.  How we can align sales, success, and delivery teams around real business impact that the customer can see.5. How you can keep VPs engaged after the deal is signed.6. How and why the customer acquisition, retention and expansion conversations need to be differentiated. If you like this conversation with Dave Duke and Eric Gruber, then you will want to register for our Reboot Friday series. Dave will be part of a "Rebooting the Customer Lifecycle" panel along with Jake Sorofman (President at MetaCX) and Anna Phalen (SVP of Sales and Account Management at Jellyvision.)Click here to sign up for our Reboot Friday panel series.

Godard Abel (CEO, G2), J Schwan (CEO, Kin + Carta), Amanda Lannert (CEO, Jellyvision), and Justyn Howard (CEO, Sprout Social) discuss their new approach to office space and company culture and leadership lessons learned during the pandemic.

Brynn Michelich is the Chief of Staff at Jellyvision, the makers of ALEX, a software platform built to help people make smart decisions about their health, benefits, and finances. On this episode of Aspiring Ops, Brynn shares her journey from a Project Manager to the Chief of Staff role, the challenges a new Chief of Staff can expect, and why volunteering for everything helped set her up for success.

Nearly every company faces a critical moment early on where they realize what they originally came up with isn't exactly what's best for the market or for their own growth, and as a result, they pivot. Usually, this is a slight product change. In Jellyvision's case, it was an entire overhaul of an already-successful business model. After years of doing well as an agency, they realized if they really wanted to fulfill their mission they had to pivot from agency to a SaaS company. Their CEO Amanda Lannert steps to the mic in this week's episode to share what kind of conversations they were having, and what they did to successfully pivot to an award-winning SaaS company with hundreds of employees.Find Amanda online:Twitter: @AmandaLannertFind Jellyvision online:Website See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

With a thirst for helping companies discover opportunities for improvement, Helen Calvin has been on a mission to help organizations thrive throughout her career.   As the CRO at Jellyvision, her love for interviewing and hiring has shaped her employee development strategies and influences the way she empowers the Jellyvision customer and revenue teams to pursue greatness.  Tune in to hear Helen offer up some great advice on this episode of Revenue Revolutionaries. Episode Key Takeaways1. Being insatiably curious is the best way to understand and serve customers - Helen shares her perspective on the importance of using curiosity to understand and serve customers.  She stresses this by giving a couple of examples of questions you can ask to understand the customer’s mindset while keeping a pulse on the problems that are impacting the customer the most. 2. Think about the needs of your employees in order to effectively serve and retain customers - Helen believes the best path to retaining and growing customers is to think about customers through the lens of employees. The starting point for delivering value to customers and partners is through protecting employees.  If employees are in go standing with the company organization they will serve customers well. 3. There is both safety and risk in the CRO role - The CRO role is pretty black and white for Helen as she clearly knows if she’s doing her job or not through the revenue metrics (the safety) that are used to run the business.  She also knows that there is nowhere to hide (the risk) as the numbers speak for themselves.  She predicts that CROs will start to take on more responsibility within organizations in the coming years.  Aligning teams across the organization relative to revenue will become more important to ensure the functional areas and leaders are in lockstep and understand their role in the revenue equation.   4. If you’re not voting for yourself, the vote is unanimous - As Helen reflects on her relationship with her mom she encourages us to place bets on ourselves.  “You’re in control of your future” she explains.  It’s important that we all have faith that there will be brighter days in 2021 and to make that happen we need to take care of ourselves and each other to ensure that happens. 5. ‘Great’ likes to work with ‘great’ - Helen has made a point to focus on people development throughout her career to get the most out of her teams. This has been a key strategy for her to ensure that she builds the strongest team and culture.  She believes in setting high expectations while creating an environment for autonomy to allow for people’s talents to shine through.  Leaders must provide their teams with the right tools alongside high expectations to give them a chance to be great and work with others who have similar ambitions. 

I'm so excited to welcome this phenomenal game composer who has worked at Jackbox Games (nee Jellyvision) since it sprang from the mind-loins of Harry Gottlieb in 1995. Starting out as a writer, he meandered into editing, directing, sound effecting, and finally music composition. He's had a hand in every game Jackbox has created and is one of the most innovative and creative composers I've had the pleasure of chatting with! I'm excited for this new season of Composer Talk starting with this conversation! The composer is... Andy Poland Check out the music for Jackbox Party Pack 7 here: https://jackboxgames.bandcamp.com/album/the-jackbox-party-pack-7-soundtrack --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/composertalk/support

Troy Henikoff is a Managing director of the venture capital firm, MATH Venture Partners and also a board member of many organizations such as JioBit, Retrium, EatStreet, CardFlight, Chicagoland Entrepreneurial Center, and has also been a founder, founding member, or CEO of several notable companies such as SurePayroll, Onewed.com, Jellyvision and many others Tune into today's episode to be a part of this entrepreneur turned VC life and experience.

Brynn Michelich, Chief of Staff at Chicago-based Jellyvision, joins Scott to talk about the panic surrounding COVID-19's impact on businesses everywhere, what Jellyvision has had to change and what they haven't, how to maintain and improve team culture and keeping the team productive in our new normal.

Amanda Lannert is the CEO of Jellyvision, the maker of interactive benefits communication software ALEX. Since taking over Jellyvision's helm in 2011, Amanda has played a key role in the company's success: she spearheaded Jellyvision's pivot from a services agency to a profitable software-as-a-service company, growing the company's customer count by 250% in the last three years.   Amanda was named CEO of the Year at the Moxie Awards in 2014 and 2015, Woman in Tech in 2016, Woman of the Year for the Chicago Rotary Club of 2018, and was recognized as 2016's Industry Champion and 2018's CEO of the Year by the Illinois Technology Association.

How can data inform rapid growth? Last week, Cassidy sat down to talk about this exact topic with Jeremy von Halle and Jessica Watts, co founders of Mud City, a sales and operations agency. Prior to starting Mud City, they worked together as go-to-market VPs at a fast-growing company called Jellyvision. And like Cassidy mentioned in their episode intro, due to their time at Jellyvision and it's impressive growth trajectory they're considered "celebrities" here in Chicago. If you want to hear more, subscribe to Leading with Data on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or here.

It’s good to know what happened, it’s better to know what will happen. But in a year like this year, historical data means nothing. The current pandemic is unprecedented and has thrown a wrench in forecasting models all over the world (ours included) Revenue Operations leader at Jellyvision, Zack Blois, joined us on this week’s episode to talk about the problem with relying too heavily on historicals. We discuss: Why you can’t always rely on historicals When it’s okay to make a data-driven pivot Tips for Revenue teams during transformative times If you want to hear more, subscribe to Leading with Data on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or here.

It’s good to know what happened, it’s better to know what will happen. But in a year like this year, historical data means nothing. The current pandemic is unprecedented and has thrown a wrench in forecasting models all over the world (ours included) Revenue Operations leader at Jellyvision, Zack Blois, joined us on this week’s episode to talk about the problem with relying too heavily on historicals. We discuss: Why you can’t always rely on historicals When it’s okay to make a data-driven pivot Tips for Revenue teams during transformative times If you want to hear more, subscribe to Leading with Data on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or here.

How can data inform rapid growth? Last week, Cassidy sat down to talk about this exact topic with Jeremy von Halle and Jessica Watts, co founders of Mud City, a sales and operations agency. Prior to starting Mud City, they worked together as go-to-market VPs at a fast-growing company called Jellyvision. And like Cassidy mentioned in their episode intro, due to their time at Jellyvision and it's impressive growth trajectory they're considered "celebrities" here in Chicago. If you want to hear more, subscribe to Leading with Data on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or here.

Are you getting all of the mileage you can from your workplace benefits? LOTS of people are likely leaving money on the table by not layering benefits correctly, and TODAY we'll make sure you aren't one of them. Today Amanda Lannert, CEO of benefit-expert company Jellyvision, joins Joe to share best practices when it comes to increasing the mileage from your benefits. During Joe and Amanda's conversation, we'll walk through every benefit in the package and detail how to make better decisions about not just health insurance, life insurance, and disability coverage, but we'll also talk about flex spending accounts, health savings accounts, dependent care accounts, pet insurance, legal plans, supplemental hospital coverage, dental, and more. What's your retirement plan? We'll kick off our headlines segment by sharing the very scary retirement plan that far too many Americans are relying on. If you're reading this, you just might be the saver in your group of friends... and after you hear today's statistics you'll want to make sure your friends aren't including YOU as THEIR emergency plan. Plus, in our second piece, one lucky man found a 9-caret diamond in a public state park. As it turns out, it doesn't matter how you come into money, the IRS will find you, and they'll get their due. (On the other hand... public roads are nice too). We'll finish the show with a Haven Life Line question. Brian's company started offering withdrawls on after-tax contributions. Brian plans on using the mega back door Roth IRA instead of a 529 plan for his two-year old. He wants to pull out the contributions only and let the growth be used for retirement savings. Brian asks: what do we think of his plan? Of course, we'll also give Doug will some air time to deliver his trivia! Enjoy!

Betsy Kamler, Director of Client Engagement sits down with Dustin Johnson, Sr. Broker Account Executive with Jellyvision  to discuss how ALEX can serve as a virtual benefit advisor to help drive greater benefit understanding and help employees make smarter decisions. 

ETAO Podcast, Episode 90 Warren Arnold has been with Jackbox Games since they were Jellyvision, having worked first on the Facebook iteration of You Don’t Know Jack, and later on every Jackbox Party Pack, including the forthcoming seventh one. Here he talks about the peculiarities of Jackbox Games’ design process, the finer points of comedy … Continue reading "We All Just Want Attention, with Warren Arnold"

Every Friday, we share one of our favorite interviews with a previous guest. Today's episode features Amanda Lannert, CEO of Jellyvision. Amanda shares Jellyvision's long, rocky history, how they finally found the perfect product-market fit, and how those moments of adversity created the massively successful company that we see today. --- You can subscribe to our weekly newsletter at mission.org and find us on the socials at @TheMissionHQ. 

Wish you could get inside the head of IT prospects so you'd know what to say to earn their attention? Wish granted. In this episode of Inside Selling, Tom Wallace, former VP of Information Technology at Jellyvision, talks about the prospecting mistakes he's seen and what it takes to earn his attention.

Wish you could get inside the head of IT prospects so you'd know what to say to earn their attention? Wish granted. In this episode of Inside Selling, Tom Wallace, former VP of Information Technology at Jellyvision, talks about the prospecting mistakes he's seen and what it takes to earn his attention.

This week, on Inside the Skev, we sit down with Harry Gottlieb. For the last 25 years Harry has focused on making learning and decision-making delightful and creating unique games that bring people together. In this episode we discuss Harry’s latest initiative which is Unify America, which  is working to help us see that we are far more unified than we believe, and that there is a way to address our greatest, most intractable problems in a spirit of unity and cooperation. We also discuss Harry’s ventures of founding Jackbox Games and The Jellyvision Lab.This episode was recorded prior to the Coronavirus pandemic reaching the United States, but it gives us examples of how to come together and use Harry’s ideas and technologies to still stay together during these times. Inside the Skev is a one stop shop for all things Skokie and Evanston hosted by Aaron Masliansky. Currently there is a special section on the website for interviews with people in the community talking about how they are adapting to the pandemic within the community. Be sure to follow Inside the Skev on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter for the latest updates. Be the first to know about local events, new podcast episodes, real estate and the latest stories about the great people in these towns by going tohttp://www.skevanston.com. Sign up for the newsletter and reach out to Aaron at aaron@skevanston.com with any questions or suggestions. 

Amanda Lannert raised $20 million in venture capital for Jellyvision, a SaaS (Software as a Service) platform that helps employees make financially sound choices about their benefits. Lannert gives smart tips for other women trying to make headway. Lannert managed global brands for global advertising giant Leo Burnett before becoming CEO of Jellyvision. She completely changed the direction of Jellyvision with her sharp instinct and talented team. Lannert’s pivots come from reading the marketplace and not being afraid to adapt in order to survive — a huge feat for anyone following the tech crash of 2001. (Yes, Lannert has been at the helm for that long!) The company has grown to serve hundreds of mostly Fortune 1000 clients with ALEX®, the most helpful employee decision support platform on the planet. In 2017, nearly 17 million employees and $101 billion dollars’ worth of premium decisions were entrusted to ALEX. How did she do it? Find out on this episode of SheVentures.

Wait...so you don't love open enrollment?! Look, we get it. This can be a very hectic time not only for you as an HR professional or employer, but for your employees who are trying to effectively navigate a confusing process. Tune in to hear from Spencer Sanz, Account Executive over at JellyVision, as he talks about how we can make Open Enrollment a better experience year-round through constant communication that's both effective and engaging.

Here it is! The grand effin’ finale of Jellyvision’s Talking Better! And in this episode, we’re going out with a bang (and a number of other four letter words) as we try to figure out when it is (and definitely isn’t) okay to swear at work. We’ll hear some choice opinions on the matter from our special guests Edward Moses, Jody Evenson and Carl Hauck...but beware, if you’re listening at work...you may want to listen to this episode with headphones firmly on.

Amanda Lannert is CEO of Jellyvision, one of Chicago’s fastest growing tech companies that serves 1400 customers with ALEX, the most helpful employee decision support platform on the planet. Jellyvision’s been recognized as the Best Software Company and Best Culture by the Moxies, the Lighthouse winner by the ITA, and a top place to work in Chicago by The Chicago Tribune and Crain’s.

In this episode, we take a closer look at the secret motivations behind saying nice things, and the eternal turmoil of having nice things said about you. Why IS it so hard to just accept a simple compliment? And are you a total monster if you don’t regularly give out compliments to the people around you? We get some hot answers to these questions and more from Katie Gore, Founder and President of Speech IRL and hear some terrifying, true compliment tales from Jellyvision’s own Ania Klimiuk, Alex DiFabio and Amy Isaac.

You know those conversations you really, really don’t want to have? When you have to confront, correct, or let someone down? Nobody WANTS to have a difficult conversation, but as we learn from Marriage and Family Therapist David Klow, there are ways to make these chats a little less difficult for everyone involved. Also in this episode: we talk to Jellyvision guests Billy Kalb and Amelia Estrich to find out how they’ve dealt with difficult conversations in the workplace, and George and Shawn foolishly reveal to the world their own tactics and tricks for tackling tough talks.

Let's face it: BDRs isn't a role that is known for tenure. It's not known to be a role that people get and stay in for years at a time. The average tenure for an BDR is a mere 16 months.  So how do you keep your BDRs engaged, active, and excited about what you're doing at your organization? Amidst the onslaught of cold calling, ghosting, and unreturned emails, how do you make sure that your BDRs know that what they're doing matters? Sara Colombo, Director of Business Development at Jellyvision, was a guest on the Sales Engagement podcast recently and had some fantastic thoughts around this topic of BDR retention, and what it looks like in her world at Jellyvision.

Revenue operations professionals are on a never-ending journey to holistically look across the entire customer journey and align go-to-market teams. From an operations perspective, this makes it crucial to see things end-to-end and think strategically through long and short-term benefits in order to agnostically enable every team. Listen to learn what operations pros from Showpad and Jellyvision determine as the fundamental initiatives that organizations need to think about in order to achieve revenue efficiency and growth. Panelists covered: - How to create alignment across sales, marketing, and customer success - How to collaborate on metrics across go-to-market teams - How to select tools needed to increase performance

Have you ever read through healthcare plans in an effort to sign-up? They're generally pretty important, but given how jargonistic and dense they are, they can be a real snooze-fest. That's where Jellyvision comes in. This week's guest, Bob Armour, is CMO of a company that creates a software named Alex that helps people make sense of their healthcare benefits and select the best plan by communicating with them in plain english.   The efficacy of Alex speaks to a few types of effective communication, but a big portion of it, ties to how Jellyvision helps companies communicate with their employees. Whether discussing a new campaign, product, or in this case, health benefits, effective internal communication is absolutely crucial. If done well—and in this episode, Bob shares some tips for success—employee communications can help make employees love their jobs, treat their customers well, and advocate for the company. Check out the full interview to learn more! This episode is extremely relevant in today’s market. Be sure to listen in! Subscribe on Apple Podcasts- Stitcher - or Podsearch What You’ll Learn What it takes to communicate effectively with employees Jellyvision’s software, Alex, communicates with employees on healthcare. It talks to the users about demographics and needs. Alex creates the illusion that someone is truly listening behind the screen and reacting in human ways. In employee communication, you need to really listen and react in a human way - customized, with a personal response. Bob also says that to succeed in communicating with his customer’s employees about benefits, his program must strip away the jargon associated with healthcare, insurance, and 401ks. Employees need to make the right decisions, but they have to understand what they are talking about to make a decision. By speaking in a simple way that employees can understand, they can make better informed decisions. Employee engagement: how to succeed and measure success Bob shares that Jellyvision helps its clients market Alex internally to their employees. Clients are provided with resources such as pre-written emails, collateral for signing up, and content to help them effectively communicate with employees. Jellyvision helps HR departments focus on what employees have to gain by using Alex, not just a message of “you should sign up for benefits.” Jellyvision helps customers measure success with its software. It isn’t important to Jellyvision to just sell Alex. They want to know how many of their customers’ employees have been helped by the software. Bob encourages listeners to align their company’s marketing efforts with the goals they are hoping to achieve. For example, Jellyvision chooses to measure how helpful they were as employees signed up for benefits. The Do’s and Don'ts of employee communication Bob says to be straightforward and to use humor in employee communication. Put the details somewhere else where those who would like to read more can access them and dig in, but don’t clutter the main message. Be helpful, and don’t be boring or condescending. Avoid using jargon at all cost. Your own employees are also a meaningful tool in crafting a measure to communicate with others. They can offer feedback on whether wording is confusing or relatable. Timeline [2:19] All about Bob Armour [11:44] What it takes to communicate effectively with employees [17:14] How Jellyvision works with HR departments to make sure employees see Alex [26:38] How Bob advises customers to measure their employee engagement [31:07] Your own employees feedback in crafting your message is huge [34:36] What not to do when communicating with employees Connect With Guest: Bob’s Bio on Jellyvision’s Website Connect with Bob on LinkedIn Follow Bob on Twitter Resources & People Mentioned Alex Demo Video Connect with Drew http://renegade.com/ On LinkedIn On Twitter On Facebook On Instagram

Isn't it exciting when you've got a ton of leads at the top of your funnel? They make their way through the different steps you've set up and you eagerly watch as they inch closer to the bottom. But just as you're getting ready to bring out the demo or agreement, they shut the door. What went wrong? They seemed like the perfect customer based on your qualifications and yet they didn't bite… Jeremy von Halle knows this feeling all too well. He's the senior director of revenue operations at Jellyvision where he helps people understand and choose healthcare/benefits packages. It's a complicated industry, but he's out to make it a little bit easier for companies and their employers.  Working at Jellyvision, he realized why the right customers weren't taking action and purchasing their product; it was all about the timing. So he began implementing strategies to help his business development reps spend less time on leads that wouldn't bite because the timing was wrong.

Jellyvision CEO Amanda Lannert has been leading the organization since 2000.  ALEX, Jellyvision's primary product, is a fun, smart, and empathetic employee communication platform used by over 1,000 companies including many of the Fortune 500.  ALEX helps over 17 million employees understand and enroll in their employee benefits (amongst other things). In this interview, Amanda shares how culture is not only at the core of the company but how it bleeds into the products Jellyvision creates and how those products are delivered. Listen in for unique and truly groundbreaking insights on how to make your next meeting amazing, what a "humanistic selling experience" looks like, and what the single most forgotten truth in business is. Shout outs to Daniel Pink and Chip Conley Resources mentioned: Optimize Me The Culture Code - by Daniel Coyle The CEO Next Door - by Elena Botelho & Kim Powell Find Amanda Lannert: https://www.linkedin.com/in/amandalannert/ Visit Jellyvision and ALEX: https://www.jellyvision.com/  

We cover diversity and inclusion with interviews from, Bhatki Patel, 3D Artist at Facebook who did work on Marvel’s Black Panther among others, and Amanda Lannert, CEO at Jellyvision here in Chicago. In the latest segment of “Marry Mary” we continue to guide Mary’s life journey to find true love. Rockstar 3d designer and animator Bhatki Patel, offers insight on better inclusion at meetups to lead to more connections, advice for how design teams can add more diversity to their networks, and more. Our feature interview is with friend of the show, Amanda Lannert. She shares her perspective on diversity and inclusion, how Jellyvision became a 50% female workforce, and how they leverage diversity and inclusion statistics to lead to employee satisfaction in the workplace. This week's music feature is Chicago's own Wade Andersen Today's show is brought to you by: Brad’s Deals Brad’s Deals is more than just online shopping, they're a diverse community of techies, fashionistas, comic artists, yoga teachers, and bagel lovers who share a common goal—give consumers the best deals and experiences every day. Run on innovation, fun, and lots of coffee, Brad’s Deal is an award-winning company passionate about bringing tech and opportunities to the community. Listen to Season 1: http://bytesoverbagels.com/shows

Episode 36: We spoke with Amanda Lannert, CEO at Jellyvision. We discuss why pivoting your company is necessary sometimes, how to find product market fit, and how to survive long enough until you do. --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/besttechie/support

In Part 2 of our Halloween Spectacular, the gang comfortably and thoroughly examines a certain rubber toy before introducing surprise guest, improv comic and femme fatale Katie Dunn! Katie talks about how she got bit by the improv-bug, as well as the origins of her and Ball’s friendship, and the prophetic tarot readings that may have sealed his future. Its all fun and games when Katie and Paco get swept into an Irish brogue-off, but soon the gang gets earnest about race relations, racial intelligence, dating, and parenting within the entertainment industry.   Tags: Katie Dunn, Halloween, Improv, Tim Truehart, Jellyvision, Irish Brogues, Tarot Cards, Pocket Pussy, Equality-Mecca, Segregation, Laugh Index Theater, Monetize, Artrepreneur, Joaquin Phoenix, Joker, Heath Ledger, I’m Still Here, Racism, Parenting, Renee Zellweger, Katherine Zeta Jones, Tay Diggs

Our Guest On episode 1 of Elevatd Life, we have Morgan Meredith a Senior Release Manager at Jellyvision! This episode really dives in to how careers can take many twists and turns but at the end of the day if you keep working at your craft and constantly apply yourself you can jump and right where you want to be. Morgan went from studying hearing science and sound acoustics to working at Yello in Chicago, IL and now leading the Release Management team at Jellyvision. She gave awesome thoughts around overcoming imposter syndrome and building up her technical skills. Our Highlights How to go from a non-traditional major (Speech Acoustics) to becoming a Release Manager for a team of 2. Ways to "zoom out" in a new role and find pain points you can work to solve, whether that's through new processes or clearer structure and expectations. Where do you go after being a Release Manager? For Morgan, that's developing her programming skills to one day land in a Dev Manager role. It's all about initiative. How 'imposter syndrome' is real pain in the tech industry and ways to overcome it. Find Morgan Blog https://www.morgan-made.com/ Twitter @mo_leigh Links for clicking Stephanie Hurlburt - find her online Lara Hogan for posts on how to organize meetings - find her work online Thoughts on becoming a self-taught engineer by Lexis Hanson - read here Camille Fournier, The Manager’s Path - buy the book here FlatIron School (if you’re interested in programming) - check them out here FlatIron Scholarships to receive aid for tuition - read more here AWS Learning: A cloud guru solution architect course - course here Women in Tech chat - join here Follow Elevatd Life Twitter @elevatdlife Instagram @elevatdlife

Our Guest On episode 1 of Elevatd Life, we have Morgan Meredith a Senior Release Manager at Jellyvision! This episode really dives in to how careers can take many twists and turns but at the end of the day if you keep working at your craft and constantly apply yourself you can jump and right where you want to be. Morgan went from studying hearing science and sound acoustics to working at Yello in Chicago, IL and now leading the Release Management team at Jellyvision. She gave awesome thoughts around overcoming imposter syndrome and building up her technical skills. Our Highlights How to go from a non-traditional major (Speech Acoustics) to becoming a Release Manager for a team of 2. Ways to "zoom out" in a new role and find pain points you can work to solve, whether that's through new processes or clearer structure and expectations. Where do you go after being a Release Manager? For Morgan, that's developing her programming skills to one day land in a Dev Manager role. It's all about initiative. How 'imposter syndrome' is real pain in the tech industry and ways to overcome it. Find Morgan Blog https://www.morgan-made.com/ Twitter @mo_leigh Links for clicking Stephanie Hurlburt - find her online Lara Hogan for posts on how to organize meetings - find her work online Thoughts on becoming a self-taught engineer by Lexis Hanson - read here Camille Fournier, The Manager’s Path - buy the book here FlatIron School (if you’re interested in programming) - check them out here FlatIron Scholarships to receive aid for tuition - read more here AWS Learning: A cloud guru solution architect course - course here Women in Tech chat - join here Follow Elevatd Life Twitter @elevatdlife Instagram @elevatdlife

As the CEO of Jellyvision, a 400-person software company, Amanda Lannert has won just about every “best CEO” award in Chicago, and is someone I've admired for years. In this 12 minute interview, Amanda admits the one lesson she wishes she learned earlier as a leader. Watch or listen to the full interview… Claire: Hi, everyone! I'm Claire Lew,… Read the full article

Check out Josh's conversation with Sara Colombo, Director of Business Development at Jellyvision.

Our First Mobile Podcast Yes, we’ve been mobile podcasting for a bit, but this episode is actually our first official one. We recorded this back in February as we drove down to Podfest in Orlando. We recorded a bunch, actually, and we’re finally ready to start releasing them. This one was recorded with Jennifer Crawford, host of the JellyVision Show and organizer of DC Podfest, and her husband Thor, who is an up-and-coming podcaster. We recorded in the lobby of the Hyatt where we were staying, sans script, but when has THAT ever been a problem? Let’s start! Should It Be Illegal For A Woman To Refuse To Take Her Husband’s Last Name? Yes, that’s how this episode starts. Jennifer read an article that surveyed women who suggested it should be. And we all think that’s pretty nuts. Jennifer and Thor have a solution: name swapping! A woman takes her husband’s name, and he takes hers. Paperwork all around! Why Podcasting? We want to know: what makes Jennifer tick? One day she wasn’t podcasting, and then she was. So, why podcast? Jennifer says she’s always been a fan of the underdog. In 2008 she opened a coworking space for creatives – artists, writers, performers. But she wanted more people to know about these artists and help them expand their audiences. In an effort help her underdog artists get more exposure, she started a podcast. She started out live streaming, thinking, “How hard can this be?” And for Jennifer it turned out to not be very hard at all, because she’s no stranger to bootstrapping. She doesn’t need fancy equipment or the best mic or the coolest camera. She just needs an idea and the determination – both of which she has plenty. She wasn’t thinking five-year plan. She wasn’t thinking of process or editing. She just went with it, then went from live streaming to audio (which turned out to be simpler and more portable). And now, 200-plus episodes later, she’s still going. According to her, she even surprised herself. So How Much Money Is This Making Her? Well, technically… none. Jennifer does it for the passion. She hasn’t tried to monetize in the traditional sense, but she has certainly seen benefits. She’s met people who have helped her in various business situations. She’s made friends. She’s used it to help the clients of her social media company generate business. She’s used her podcast to generate business for herself, and even though that’s not usually what “monetizing” means, it certainly brings in the money, and that’s the key. In fact, Jennifer thinks monetization is overemphasized in the podcasting community. People tend to think they have something of value and then over-value it, thinking that advertisers will be flocking to their show. People think it’s easy and they’re going to quickly get their 15 minutes of fame. Sadly, this is a myth perpetrated by people who sell the idea that everyone can make money and all it takes is knowing a few simple steps. Part of the problem is that the “experts” are constantly pushing monetization. Buy my thing, my webinar, my book, and learn how to make a lot of money. Give me money so I can tell you how to make money. Jennifer shares our view of business, meaning that if you’re running one, you should be selling a product or service. Does that sound obvious? Well, if you’ve been around the internet you know that a lot of what passes for a “product or service” is really someone selling you “inspiration”. They start a Facebook group so they can “inspire you”, throw some motivational quotes at you, then sell you a webinar or book on how to start your own Facebook group based on their success starting a Facebook group. Jennifer calls it a snake eating its tail. Sounds about right. It’s an old story, but it infiltrates podcasting, too. But we also think people podcast because they love podcasting. Now if only they could ignore “the experts!” Should You Be “Vanilla” To Attract A Larger Audience And More Advertising Dollars? If you use bad language or say controversial things, you’re going to have a smaller audience. You probably aren’t going to command big advertising dollars. Does that matter? Is it better to have a smaller, niche audience who loves you, or a big one that advertisers love? Jennifer says it comes down to who you are as an individual. As for her, she would rather be homeless than give up her creative freedom. She never wants sponsors because she feels she’d be responsible to them and would lose some of her creative freedom. Plus ads are really annoying. And with the “skip ahead 30 seconds” button, I tend to push the button whenever one comes on. That breaks the flow of listening and dilutes the experience. So ads don’t work for Jennifer or for us. But that’s us. We also collectively believe that everyone has to figure out what fits for them. Not All Value Is Monetary For Jennifer, her podcast is a bit cathartic. Plus, she gets to meet a lot of great people. And once in a while, the best reward: an email from a listener who says the episode resonated with them and helped them get through a difficult situation Like Jennifer, we love being able to say we created something. We’re proud of our accomplishments in podcasting, even if they’re not perfect. Some people believe that you need a plan and a goal and an exit strategy. You need benchmarks and if you don’t hit them, it’s time to rebrand, start over, quit, come up with something new. But we don’t buy it. We think that if you’re doing something that matters to you, if you’re getting what YOU want out of it (and not what someone told you to want) then that’s what important. Jennifer says something that’s podcast music to our ears: she doesn’t like formulas. Doors open, she says, because you’re doing something. There are other opportunities to be had. Thanks to podcasting Jennifer has now put on a podcasting conference that she never would have done before, and has a whole new skillset that she brings to her business. Jennifer Makes It Sound So Easy So we want to know if starting something new always came easy for her or if she had to learn that. Jennifer tells us that she grew up poor, which means she was unburdened by choices. Her resources were limited so when she wanted to make something happen, she learned to do it any way she could. When you can’t solve problems by writing a check, you’ve got to get creative. Jennifer actually likes being underfunded. In fact, of all the businesses she’s run, the only one that failed miserably was the one she went into with money. And she lost it all, and then some. When it comes to podcasting (and business), people get hung up on “things.” The mic, the sound, the time of day. Sometimes you have to just go out there and do your thing. Be careful about taking opinion as fact. There’s no such thing as “the best mic.” Or the right episode length. Or the best time or day or tone or topic. That’s true in podcasting, and it’s true in business and life. There is only, as Jennifer says, “the best fit.” And what fits for you may not be what fits for someone else. Now get out there and do your own thing. Listening To Podcasts Ralph mentions a podcaster who he listens to, who says that he doesn’t listen to podcasts. And we all think that’s crazy. How can you be part of a community and not support it? Especially one as niche as podcasting. I usually find people to be supportive, but there are definitely outliers. If you’re a creative person, you have to be supportive in the creative community. If you’re a podcaster, you should absolutely be listening to other podcasts. How about listening to your own episodes? Should you? Of course! You should be listening for continuity, for how well you interact with guests, to your own speech patterns so you can improve yourself. If you hire someone to edit for you, we think that’s smart for saving time and for being consistent about getting content out even if you don’t have time to do it yourself. But it’s a good idea to edit your own episodes for at least a little while. You can learn the nuances of how you speak and communicate, and be more connected to what you’re producing. Then you can be a lot smarter about what you hand off to editors. Thor edits the JellyVision show and he’s perfectly happy behind the scenes. This is the first time he’s been on mic, in fact! But he does have an idea for his own podcast. Near his home there are woods where homeless people live. And he wants to do profiles on them, find out how they got there and ask them about their lives. Jennifer says homeless people feel invisible because people don’t make eye contact, don’t talk to them, in fact, try to avoid them. But they deserve to have their voices heard. She’s excited about helping Thor get started. Sounds like a brilliant idea to us, but Thor is more about thinking than jumping in like Jennifer, so he hasn’t gotten started yet. We throw down the gauntlet and make him put a date on the calendar. As of now, we haven't heard anything, but we’re still nagging. We’ll let you know if and when it happens. Show him some encouragement! Links To Stuff Listen to Jennifer’s totally fun and creatively inspirational podcast, the JellyVision Show Find out more about DC Podfest and join us in November for a ton of fun and learning

Currently the SVP of Customer Success at Jellyvision, Helen Calvin has used her unique background to create a non-traditional approach to hiring, building and scaling teams.

Troy Henikoff is the Managing Director at Techstars Chicago, a Managing Director at MATH Venture Partners, and a Professor of Entrepreneurship at Northwestern University's Kellogg School of Business. If you haven't heard of Troy yet, he is one of the biggest figures in the Chicago tech scene and has been instrumental in getting Chicago tech to where it is today. He is also one of the nicest guys you will ever meet and a hard core cyclist.  Prior to launching Techstars Chicago, Troy was a serial entrepreneur. He was the CEO of OneWed.com, President of Amacai, and co-founder and CEO of SurePayroll.com. Troy built the technology for Jellyvision (creators of “You Don’t Know Jack!”), was the President of Systemetrics, and his first company was Specialized Systems and Software. Troy has an undergraduate degree in Engineering from Brown University and a Masters Degree in Project Management from Northwestern. In This Episode You Will Learn: How cold is too cold when biking to work The story of how Troy got into entrepreneurship How Excelerate Labs came about The story of creating BB8 for Star Wars What the application process is like for Techstars How to find the right balance between tenacious and coachable Which entrepreneurs get the most out of Techstars  What the timeline looks like for their 90 days in the program What goes into making a perfect pitch in front of 500 venture capitalists What companies really excite him Why Mark Achler and Troy started MATH Venture Partners Whether or not there is a signalling problem by only investing in some of your accelerator companies Why Groupon would have been impossible to build in San Francisco Why you have to be honest with yourself first Selected Links From The Episode: Michael Krasny, Founder of CDW Alex White, Founder of Next Big Sound David Cohen, Founder of Techstars Sam Yagan, CEO of Shop Runner Brad Feld, VC at Foundry Group Sphero Fitbot Casey Jenks, Founder of Fitbot Favorite Books: The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die by Chip Heath Venture Deals: Be Smarter Than Your Lawyer and Venture Capitalist by Brad Feld Sponsored By: Propllr: a Chicago public relations firm that helps startups and innovators build credibility and awareness for their companies, people, products and services.

On our way Episode 50, Nick G. is graciously joined by friend of the show and unbelievable gal, Jennifer Crawford, host of the JellyVision Show Podcast to remember what it felt like to turn 21. However, every 21 year-old takes on a different path. Some set themselves on finishing 21 shots in one night. Others shape their universe by starting a successful business. Go figure... The “Are You Listening?” Podcast of this show is a rerun of sorts. Our friend, Dana Buckler, host of How Is This Movie Podcast and soon to be History in the Moment Podcast is worth a repeat segment winner. You can download the show everywhere you can find our show. A great show from a great podcaster. Check out Jennifer and Tim of the JellyVision Show Podcast: https://overcast.fm/itunes744456885/the-jellyvision-show-podcast FIND Social Media Rescue - Social Marketing Heroics for Small Business on the web and Facebook! https://www.facebook.com/socialmediarescue/ SHARE and RATE our show!  The TDI Podcast can be downloaded and streamed on almost every podcast player out there, on both Android and iOs. TO MAKE IT EASY TO FIND, click on these links to find the show on: iTunes, Stitcher, Overcast, Our Host Feed on LIBSYN.Com, & GooglePlay Store FOLLOW THE COMMUNITY on FACEBOOK at the The Dependent Independent Podcast Page  SUBSCRIBE to our YOUTUBE Channel! We post our MiniSodes every other Thursday. Check out Nick G.'s SUBSCRIBER videos on our YouTube Channel on The Dependent Independent Podcast YouTube Channel Follow Nick G. on Twitter: @Dependent_Nick  Email the Show @ thedependentindependent@gmail.com 

Amanda Lannert is the CEO of Jellyvision, which makes ALEX, an interactive decision-support tool that talks you through traditionally boring and confusing human resource decisions like picking health insurance and makes them fun and engaging. The Jellyvision of today has one of the more interesting founding stories, which Amanda describes in the beginning of this episode. It was born from the ashes of You Don't Know Jack.  Amanda was named CEO of the Year at the Moxie Awards in 2014 and 2015. Under Amanda’s leadership, Jellyvision has doubled its revenue three out of the last four years. In This Episode You Will Learn: How Jellyvision got into the B2B space The value of a liberal arts background in tech How Jellyvision got its first customers Keys to selling to big businesses How their product evolved and what eventually led to growth How important humor is to their brand Whether their diversity is intentional or accidental How they are trying to improve diversity How they attempt to identity redact interviews How to build a strong culture across team members of different generations The impact of remote workers on their culture How Jellyvision caters to introverts in an extroverted office Amanda’s favorite interview questions How they ended up with a room dedicated to a massage chair Why Amanda would like to see more audacious dreams from Chicagoans How to find mentors What is the best bang for your buck networking Selected Links From The Episode: Harry Gottlieb, Founder of Jellyvision Jai Shekhawat, Founder & Former CEO of Fieldglass Troy Henikoff, Techstars Chicago Managing Director Mark Achler, VC Math Ventures Hyde Park Angels YPO Chicago ITA A Few of Amanda's Favorite Books: A Little Life by by Hanya Yanagihara Behind the Beautiful Forevers: Life, Death, and Hope in a Mumbai Undercity by  Katherine Boo Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us by Daniel H. Pink Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion by Robert B. Cialdini

In this episode of strggl, I interview Amanda Lannert the CEO of Jellyvision. Over the last 10 years, she tells her story as running a business as an outside hire, to CEO, twice. One snippet, it took 7 years to grow into the powerhouse they are today. Hear how it wasn't easy, here is her story.

Jennifer Crawford is the host of the JellyVision Show Podcast where each week, she leads optimistically pragmatic discussions of the ways in which other creative entrepreneurs can move themselves forward in their endeavors. Tony talks to Jen about how her upbringing and provided a "reverse blueprint" for her entrepreneurial career, her work with the JellyVision Show and DC PodFest, DC's first podcast convention taking place next month November 6-8 at the Wonder Bread Event Space. Jen also spills the beans on the topic of Jelly, the handle she picked to use on her show, which is rooted in longstanding admiration (but also envy!) of DC events/culture maven Phillipa PB Hughes. Subscribe to the JellyVision Show Podcast (http://thejellyvisionshow.podbean.com/) in iTunes and purchase tickets to DC PodFest at http://www.dcpodfest.com/.

  LOOOOOOK! You can be creative.. and awesome.. and still be in the thick of your battle to change the world. You don't have to be rich to celebrate success through passion. Assuming you are not a serial killer, and that you are a good person, you should celebrate your uniqueness. – Jenny Jelly All of us are climbing the mountain, armoring ourselves with the Muse while battling resistance.  It's good to keep a warm tribe around for the journey, and Jenny Jelly and Tim Trueheart are filling that bill. If you want to laugh, fist pump, find massive inspiration, experience failure, taste the creative rose, or even wonder down a road of recovery from alcohol or other substances.. you best be wobbling your ears to this episode RIGHT NOW! You can tell by the length that Jenny, Tim and I had a massive blast when recording this. It is super random, super real, and a gigantic rollercoaster through the struggles of real creatives. Jenny and Tim are the creators of The Jelly Vision Podcast, and they are dedicating their lives to teaching and inspiring within this beautiful canvas we call MOTHA EARTTTTH. To defeat Godzilla with their talents… Tim: I am going to use my blackness and unite all my black brothers and Godzilla just has to go the other way. Jenny: Find a commonality, like I have remarkably short arms, so I will show them to Godzilla who also has short arms and we can hug each other! Advice… You cannot be a fake if you are named Trueheart. Assuming you are not a serial killer and you are a good person, you want to celebrate your uniqueness. (Jenny's) Keep in mind that not all roller coasters are safe, you could plummet to your death. (Jenny's) Use the fear to fuel creativity. (mine) Interview Links JellyVision.com Jenny Fukumoto's Website Jenny Fukumoto's LinkedIn Jenny Fukumoto's Twitter Handle Tim Trueheart's Website Tim Trueheart's Twitter Tim Trueheart'sFaceBook Highlights  7:58: How Tim and Jenny started this 5-year relationship from how Tim catapulted Jenny into hosting and Jenny just found that she loved it! Jenny was optimistically starting her “brick and mortar business” when Tim, of all the joints in the world had to walk into Jenny's and as they say, the rest is history. Though she had to give up the joint after the landlord lost his patience, what she started here was what gave her solid foundation for the eventual online business. Listen to her interesting experiences as she shares the triumphs and pitfalls of a true brick and mortar business as opposed to the ephemeral online website business. What Tim and Jenny built in their dogged pursuit for business survival in the financially strapped atmosphere of 2008 has actually lived on in the artists and their creations who became members of their thriving community back then. It is a heartening story of entrepreneurs who never say die but just move on to occupy a different body when the first one dies out. 18:55: I brainstorm with Jenny and Tim on great learning scenarios to enable children and parents learn about setting up a business, maintaining it, improving on it or just being aware of the benefits that a particular skill offers. Listen to us as we bounce ideas off each other on how to make a brick and mortar place turn up revenue while being a place where parents and kids can truly get value for their money through its classes, lectures or workshops. There are awesome ideas about doing multi potentialitites and being able to do more than one thing and be ahead of everyone! Listen to us share ideas about getting started, what it takes to put the foot forward and start that journey. Jenny has “The Tens” to help her start on whatever course she wants to go/do and her explanation of what this is all about can make a listener want to try them out immediately! 34:07: Listen to the new angle about addiction and recovery. Tim discusses self-mastery and recognizing resistance. We really have an important discussion here about addiction and how to make mental adjustments so people can channel anxiety, anger or boredom and come up a winner over them. There is also an interesting side comment here about Arnold Schwarzenegger insight on being focused to the point of completely forgetting how it affects the people around us. 43:07: Hey, guys! Listen to my take on getting started on anything – especially on resolving to do something that is not exactly giving instant gratification. I share my experience on resolving to get out of a 15k debt that I thought I can work off in 5 years but now I have almost 8 grand in just 5months and there is a certainty that this will all work out right and I in a few more months I do not have to sleep dead tired, enslaved to a debt. This is a truly powerful example of being focused and I share how I did it! 58:17: Tim and Jenny share some of their thoughts about the people they have encountered in the 5 years they have been doing their podcast. It is interesting that both completely agree on the basic traits that their guests have in common to sustain their focus. There is 1 trait that stands out among these people and Tim has a pretty insightful comment about it.

Suzanne Muchin leads Mind + Matter Studio in Chicago. She and Amanda Lannert, CEO of Jellyvision, were tired of the trend pieces and think pieces about the problem of women being underrepresented in tech businesses that didn't focus enough on tangible solutions. So they published a list of the five things they're dedicated to actually doing to help boost women in the workplace. Suzanne joins us in studio to explain the piece in detail.

Josh Braun, VP of Biz Dev at Jellyvision, talks with us about getting into the mindset of being a good salesman, which is really being a good servant. His process is all about treating people like people, and he shares his techniques for research, development and the art of the sale. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

On Episode #49A of the Party Gamecast featuring the Party Game Cast Bruce is joined by Mike, Rocki, Chris, Maureen, Marty and Mom to talk about the cell phone game Space Team and start our discussion of the Jackbox by talking about You Don't Know Jack 2015.  This is part one of a two parter, we had to split the full episode into two pieces because it was so darn long. Also in this episode, explanations are given by Mom of ALL GAMES, which WE think is quite funny, but let us know what YOU think.   TOPICAL DISCUSSION  5:36 Correction of rules issues in episodes #47 and #48  8:41  Letters from the Mailbox  What the Food!?! 16:53 Dark Chocolate Covered Lays 18:31 Milk Chocolate Flavored Pringles 23:28 Herrs Toffy flavored potato pop chips GAMES 32:07 Space Team 49:20 You Don't Know Jack 2015   You can find info for Space Team here: http://www.sleepingbeastgames.com/spaceteam/ and for the Jackbox here: http://jackboxgames.com/ Thanks for listening!

Composer Jason Knox stops by to talk about his work writing music for Jellyvision, various theatre productions, the evolution of loops and recording technology, and more.  Plus you get to hear real world leaf blowers and other outdoor noises!   We also discuss Oranges & Lemons by XTC!

We're not gonna lie: guests from Capcom, GRIN, Gamasutra, and Jellyvision make this hands-down the craziest Bombcast ever.