Podcast appearances and mentions of jim flannery

We're driving the green with an inspiring guest and craftsman in the golf accessory game with Jim Flannery from Buckeye Bag Tags.Jim joins us to unpack the fascinating world of personalized golf products, the nuances of handmade craftsmanship, and the drive to create keepsakes that resonate deeply with golfers. We dive into Jim's organic journey from a hobbyist with no prior crafting experience to managing a thriving business, his innovative approaches to custom designs, and his aspirations to break into the pro shop market.Tune in as Jim shares his creative process, unique customer stories, and the heartfelt reasons behind his dedication to making meaningful bag tags. Plus, catch Jim's personal golf tales, his passion for Wingfoot's classic logo, and his dream courses, including Scotland's iconic links.Grab your favorite snack at the turn (maybe an Uncrustable) and join us for another engaging episode of The Hole Story Podcast.Visit https://buckeyetags.com/BestBall Links:•https://BestBall.com•https://linktr.ee/BestBallThe Hole Story Podcast Sponsors:•Caledonia Golf & Fish Club and True Blue Golf Club - Two Play Special - https://truebluegolf.com•Western Birch Golf Co. - Enter "BESTBALL" in the shipping cart for a free gift with your order - https://westernbirch.comInterested in becoming a sponsor of The Hole Story Podcast? Email info@bestball.com.

We'll all stop to watch Jim Flannery coach offense.

Marcin on his son Kasper's bone cancer & the flood damage to their home, Jim Flannery of OMC Claims speaks to Neil about flood insurance, and John Twomey former Paralympian & Chairman of Spinal Injuries Ireland. Tune into the Neil Prendeville Show weekdays from 9am on Cork's Red FM. May contain sensitive content.

Creighton and Omaha is pretty lucky to have Jim Flannery and Kirsten Bernthal Booth.

This week on the Mad in America podcast, we are joined by activist and artist Jim Flannery. Born and raised in suburban Weathersfield, Connecticut, Jim was committed at four mental hospitals across the United States. There he received the best care available in the modern world… torture, which included seclusion, restraints, forced drugging, coercion, and a psychiatric diagnosis. Later, he turned to the arts to speak out publicly about his experiences with the mental health system through performing stand-up comedy under the pseudonym Flim Jannery and now through music with his new album, "Sorry, It's Not Funny," which will be released on Friday, October 14. In 2020, Jim began hearing voices, which opened his eyes to what he terms a genocide against neurodiverse people. He shifted his creative efforts towards hip-hop, believing the genre was the best medium to communicate his perspective. You can hear the new album on the website jim-flannery.com. It's also on Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube, Pandora, SoundCloud, and Tidal. 

Tim Capper and Jim Flannery joins Dave and Marc to discuss the possible earth shattering development that the new XFL fronted by Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson is in “deep discussions” with the CFL about a partnership. VOC Nation takes you behind the scenes of your favorite moments in pro wrestling history. Notable show hosts include legendary pro wrestling journalist Bill Apter, former WWE/TNA star Shelly Martinez, former WWE and AWA broadcaster Ken Resnick, former WCW performer The Maestro, former TNA Impact talent Wes Brisco, Pro Wrestling Illustrated's Brady Hicks, independent pro wrestling and Fireball Run star Sassy Stephie, and more! Since 2010, VOC Nation has brought listeners into the minds of the biggest stars in pro wrestling and entertainment. Subscribe to the podcasts for free on most major directories, and visit vocnation.com for live programming. Subscribe on YouTube for the video version of the show: https://www.youtube.com/vocnationradionetwork Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Nick and Jim discuss online yoga instruction and how it could be successful.

Summary: In the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, we've experienced a major shift in the industry dynamics that will fundamentally alter the economics of the financial industry and require changes in how banks and credit unions interact with their customers moving forward. On this episode we will cover how best to  stabilize operations in order to take control of and execute your business continuity plan, establish a plan of action with vendors and partners, and continuously assessing your execution plans and operating through a hierarchy of monitoring  Resources: On-Demand Webinars Referenced in this Podcast: How to prepare your FI for a Post-Pandemic Marketplace Websites: COMMERCE NOW Podcast Diebold Nixdorf Advisory Services Guests/Host LinkedIn Profiles: Scott Harroff Scott Weston Simon Powley Jim Flannery Transcription: Scott Harroff:                     00:16                     Hello again. This is Scott Harroff, your host for this episode of COMMERCE NOW. In the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, we've experienced a major shift in the industry dynamics that will fundamentally alter the economics of the financial industry and require changes in how banks and credit unions interact with their customers moving forward. Throughout April, May and June, my colleagues, Simon Powley, Jim Flannery, and Scott Weston hosted a series of webinars to help keep you informed and provide guidance during these unprecedented times.                                                                                 Today, I'm happy to have everyone here together again to discuss how technology investments will provide adequate return on investment as operations begin to stabilize. There will be a few focal points we're going to discuss today. Stabilization of operations in order to take control of and execute your business continuity plan and adhere to realtime guidance from federal state and local government. Next, establishing a plan of action with vendors and partners to align new realities and test new solutions and new processes. And finally, continuously assessing your execution plans and operating through a hierarchy of monitoring an objective key result dashboards to ensure nimble execution and shift the conversation to focus more on the technology we are seeing.                                                                                 While banks have been journeying through the paths of branch transformation and self-service strategy, these journeys have been accelerated by the coronavirus pandemic. One of the most notable changes to combat the impact of COVID-19 has been the push to self-service and digital channels for communication and customer interaction. Today, as we look to the transition of a new normal, let's explore the question of what's next. With that, welcome Simon, Jim and Scott. Thank you for joining me today for this very important discussion. Scott Weston:                   02:00                     Yeah. Thanks for inviting me. Jim Flannery:                     02:02                     Thank you, Scott. It's good to be with us. Simon Powley:                  02:04                     Yeah. Great to be with you today. Thanks, Scott. Scott Harroff:                     02:07                     Simon, to give our listeners a little bit of background, could you please start off by telling our listeners a little more about the webinar series the team delivered earlier this year? Simon Powley:                  02:16                     Yeah. Thanks, Scott. It was great. It was really a three-part series that we developed as we saw kind of the implications and what was happening in the industries. One of the things that we at our advisory services group really are tasked with is keeping our customers up-to-date on changes that are relative to the marketplace, and obviously COVID had a lot of impact on those. And so we worked diligently and got some good information.                                                                                 The first one really was about the impacts of location-based delivery channels. So what was really happening out there and some of the unique solutions that FIs have put into action as a result of this with digital automation being at the forefront of it. And then finally, how things were changing very, very quickly with personalized experiences and what the impacts were to operational efficiencies given this unparalleled time.                                                                                 The second one, Scott led, and that was really about learning from the COVID-19 experiences. What were the various stages of recovery that were going on? What kind of things that they could mitigate, financial institutions could mitigate in the short-term and how to really plan for the duration of this recovery and a general banking or industry outlook of what we could tell was happening in real time as a result of COVID.                                                                                 And the third was, what were the new expectations of customers as a result of this? We saw digital transformation and digital adoption really skyrocket throughout this, due to customers being forced in some cases to digital channels, and how to really capitalize and operate efficiently as a result of that. And finally, adjusting those branch workflows and new traffic patterns based upon those customer needs, which allows changes in roadmaps.                                                                                 And finally, at the end of that, Jim really put together some ideas or suggestions of what kind of technologies we're seeing come out of COVID-19 and how to prioritize or look at those based upon our level of expertise. One of the things I think that was really interesting throughout this, as we got into the webinars, is we were very interactive with the customers and had a lot of polling questions to really gauge what was on the mind and to make sure that we were seeing the same thing that our customers were. That, as we had really good attendance, was a great time to do that.                                                                                 One of the questions that we intentionally delivered on all three of them to see the consistency in how things were changing over the course of the webinar series was, when do you anticipate your organization will resume business-as-usual operations? And you can tell it's somewhat ambiguous intentionally to allow that perspective. And then gave them a myriad of answers that they could choose from. The interesting thing with this was that, in every webinar overall, overwhelmingly I should say, the results were that they expected that within the next three months, they would be back to business as usual, which really puts us into late summer or early fall timeframe, which was surprising to us. Scott Harroff:                     05:11                     Thanks for that, Simon. But as I listened to the governor of Ohio and a bunch of other news media feeds, it seems like things aren't getting better. They might even be spiking a little bit. So how do you see things progressing given that? Simon Powley:                  05:28                     Yeah. Well, it's a great question. I think there's a lot of things that are changing. I mean, I think from a health perspective, we won't focus on that here today. I think we'll focus more on the industry perspective, but certainly we're beginning to see, and we covered this too at our webinar, that there could be what we consider to be a second wave, or this could have longer-term implications to financial institutions and certainly our economy overall.                                                                                 In terms of getting back to normal and that specific question, what we're seeing specifically is I would say we're getting into a new normal. I don't believe, I don't think the group believes that we'll ever go back to the way things were, the way that the customers' interactions were, the channels that customers were using at that time, specifically branches, those kinds of things. I don't know that it'll ever go back to, but we are already moving into what I think we'll see and evaluate as a new normal.                                                                                 And so banks are very flexible. I've been very proud of them in terms of managing their operations and changing things and adjusting their operations accordingly, and they are functioning. And so what we're seeing is banks are really still evaluating their networks. In some cases, branches have not reopened, and in some cases we're seeing reduced hours. In some cases they're operating with less staff. And certainly with social distancing guidelines it is changing the operational role of the branch in these cases, but they are operating, I guess, in more of a new normal. And we'll continue to see that play out here in the future, and maybe we can get Scott Weston to comment on that a little bit more as we get into today.                                                                                 We're still seeing corporate staffs largely working remotely and distancing. And so we're still seeing just a handful of people at what traditionally would be a headquarters with many, many people in many, many operating groups to do that. And we don't know when or if that will return back to normal. In many cases, large digital providers, such as Google or Microsoft or those companies, are already announcing that they will not go back until sometime in 2021, or in some cases I'm hearing will never go back to the way things were or leverage their headquarters the way that they have in the past. And so those are certainly very consistent with what we're seeing in banking.                                                                                 Digital channels are really being leveraged by both bankers and their customers to operate, again, normally, or to not disrupt their operational roles or the way that they're interacting with their banks. And so you're seeing that transition and continue to modify and change a little bit.                                                                                 Finally, mortgage operations, for example, are functioning normal. They're very, very busy right now, given this unparalleled interest rate environment and still extremely busy. However, the interactions are different in more of a new normal way. Things are much more virtual than they used to be. Whether that's face-to-face meetings on Zoom or via Skype or certainly leveraging the telephone or even mobile apps in a much more effective way to track the status of your loan to provide documentation as opposed to handwritten documentation or bringing in paper to a branch in the past.                                                                                 And so those kinds of things are all things that continue to evolve that are much different and much more utilized than they were even just a few months ago. Currently, what I'd say is transaction levels are beginning to return a bit to more normal things. So when I think about this, I don't know that it's going back to the way things were, but they are functioning and operating. Scott Harroff:                     08:59                     Simon, I agree with you completely. The financial institutions that I interact with and I do business with, I'm definitely seeing a push towards self-service and definitely seeing a push towards digital channels for communication. It seems to me like the old playbooks are sort of kind of out the window right now. So a question to the group, what are you individually seeing your financial institutions focusing on? Because it seems like everybody's playing a slightly different game now than they used to. Jim Flannery:                     09:28                     Well, I will say that the priorities for financial institutions are still very similar to what they were. They've just been accelerated. They're still trying to improve efficiency, obviously generate revenue and enhance the customer experience, but they're doing this in a slightly different way right now. So we all know that they're going to be under a lot of cost pressures over the next couple of years as they are today, and one way to drive cost out of the network is to optimize your branch and ATM network.                                                                                 And when I say optimize, that could be consolidations, which will drive a lot of cost out, but it's beyond that. It's also making sure that they're still holding to those trends and priorities, but they have to do that in a more efficient way. So by doing that, they can relocate branches. They can reformat their branch network to kind of fit the demographics of the market, to fit how their consumers are actually using their branch network and their other channels.                                                                                 And part of this could be to open up some off-premise ATMs. So we're working with a number of clients right now, helping them do this. We're helping them close permanently some of these branches that they've closed over the past couple months due to COVID. And now we're helping them work through one, which branches should they just keep closed permanently, two, what is the impact to their consumers going to be, their customers and their members? And three, how do they offset some of the capacity issues that might be prevalent after that consolidation? So those transactions that were going to that branch are going to go somewhere, right? So are they going to go to other branches, or are they going to go to self-service channels?                                                                                 So in a lot of cases, adding off-premise remote ATMs to kind of offset those attrition numbers is a much cheaper solution than just keeping that branch open. And then the cost savings that they're going to collect from or gain from those branch consolidations, now they can reinvest that back into the network. And they can focus on more deposit automation, teller automation, video, having channel marketing, core integration, things like that that will hold true to those trends and priorities of generating revenue, improving the customer experience and such. But they're doing it in a more analytical or strategic way than they were before. And end of the day, everything's net positive for not only themselves, the institution, but also the customers as well. Scott Weston:                   11:57                     Yeah. And if I can add something to that. I think there's still a lot of unknown out there. I think the shift of consumer behavior to a lot of FIs are seen as maybe temporary, but they're expecting at least a portion of consumers to return to the branch. So I think there is probably a little bit of hesitation in pulling the trigger on big closures, consolidations that I think a lot of analysts earlier predicted, right, where we could see mass branch closures. Obviously, the role of the branches is going to change. It's going to be more sales and more service-oriented, less transactional. And was Scott's point, being able to optimize that as a touch point, making sure that it's an [inaudible 00:12:37] that's positioned within that branch is there to optimize the space and provide as much free time, we'll call it, for the staff to do those more complex things.                                                                                 So I think there's still some learning that has to happen. I mean, I bet there's certain markets that haven't seen the bottom yet. As Simon mentioned earlier, we're starting to see some data anecdotally come in from our customers, and year over year, it's bouncing back. It's still probably 15 or 20% off of where it was this time last year. But as more of the economy opens up, as we get more optimistic about what's going to happen with the vaccine, clearly we're going to see a lot of people returning to the locations that they were traditionally using, but they may be using them in a different way. Simon Powley:                  13:20                     I think that's really important. Let me ask this. Because you're talking to these financial institutions about optimizing networks and changing other transactional mix and so forth. Are these new concepts for them? Are they brushing off things to say, "I've been thinking about getting rid of this branch for a long time" and they're finally doing it? Is it that they're completely reevaluating their branch network, where we've never thought about closing branch before? That was kind of a way that we really focused on for our clients, and now they're reevaluating? What are you really seeing when you're talking to these financial institutions about this? Jim Flannery:                     13:56                     Yeah, it's really a mixed bag actually. There's more smaller FIs, say 20 branches or less, that are now considering consolidating a branch or two where they typically would not have done that before. Because a lot of the community banks, they pride themselves on customer service, and the expense of having these branches open was just a cost of doing business. But now their business models are changing a little bit.                                                                                 They might not be under the cost pressures today, but they can see that coming down the road, and the only way that they can maintain that high-level customer service that they've had in their business model and still grow the business in terms of adding replacement customers or replacement members, they have to have a better technical offering, and they have to have a self-service offering. And the only way that they can do that is if they squeeze some costs out of the network and then reinvest those dollars.                                                                                 But I think the smaller FIs, this is a new concept for them. They have not typically done this before, so they are reaching out to us for help, and they want to make sure that they're doing this in a strategic way to minimize the impact to their customers and their business. Scott Harroff:                     15:17                     So question for you guys. We keep hearing on the news that folks are choosing to stay home. Folks are choosing to not maybe go to work and maybe take care of children that are now home that are not in school. How do you see staffing models maybe impacting branch operations? Maybe someone who would come in every day that worked a teller line or worked in an office. How do you see that changing the model? Jim Flannery:                     15:45                     Well, I think to begin with, for the most part, most branches are going to require less staff. So starting with the frontline folks, the ones that are interacting with the public on a daily basis, clearly, we saw that early on a hesitation to have too much interaction with people, and the ability to social distance was important. And I think one of the technologies that we've talked about a couple of times, video-enabled ATMs where you have a video teller on a terminal, I think it really has an interesting future for this. Because there's at least a couple of institutions that I talked to that are sincerely looking at how likely is it that we could have our tellers work truly remotely and when they mean remotely, from home.                                                                                 So instead of having them maybe coming to a call center or having some sort of centralized place where you have a bunch of people reporting to take these video interactions, you're actually looking at setting these folks up at home, having them essentially work from their home as a teller.                                                                                 So there's at least one institution that's doing this at a very small scale but has been getting some press, which I think is pretty interesting. But I wouldn't count that out as being at least on a lot of banks' radar. It's something that could be very flexible and something that they could spin up quickly if required and really offer that attended service that we know was lacking early on in the lockdown, the pandemic, and being able to really be at the forefront of offering a Class A customer experience. Scott Harroff:                     17:14                     Thanks very much for that, Jim. So Scott, how do you see the changing staffing dilemma impacting branch operations and technology usage? Scott Weston:                   17:23                     The changing staffing operation model in branches will absolutely affect the way people self serve, right? So as branches tend to have less staff inside and their staffing model is becoming more of a consultative experience, that in itself is going to drive more transactions out of the branch.                                                                                 So if we think of ourselves as customers and we're doing deposits, we're doing withdrawals, we're doing transactions that could be done in a self-service manner in the branch, eventually the staffing model will continue to say, "Well, did you know that you could do this at the ATM? Let me show you how." So eventually that's going to change consumer habit, right? So the more times consumers will use a self-service device, the more they're going to feel comfortable with it, doing it by themselves later on. Scott Harroff:                     18:21                     And one thing that we heard directly from an FI is that they're being very careful about how many people they're bringing back because they almost want to subtly discourage long lines at the teller. So they're trying to get people to maybe adopt more self-service because if they go on the teller line and have to wait more than a couple minutes, and they don't want to make it too easy for customers to do simple transactions at the teller. They want to really almost nudge them to self-service by making it slightly uncomfortable for them.                                                                                 So, I mean, it's not necessarily a strategy that a lot of banks are adopting, but I think you'll subtly see some FIs are, right? They're not overstaffing their teller line. They're certainly looking at what things the consumer is doing and looking at the cost of doing simple transactions, comparing it to what that cost would be at a direct channel and figuring there's a certain number of interactions that you just don't want to make it easy to happen at a person. Jim Flannery:                     19:19                     Yeah. I agree with you completely. I see people that I know that before would have walked into a branch once a week to go up to the teller to get their cash for buying groceries or doing other things, they are really thinking about, "Do I really want to get out of my car and put on a mask and go into that building and wait in line? Or huh, maybe I start using my drive-up ATM. Maybe I start using my phone." I am also seeing a lot of folks reconsidering what they used to do as customers and changing to something that maybe is a little bit risky for them. Simon, thoughts? Simon Powley:                  20:00                     Yeah. Well, I would agree. I take a little different angle on it. I agree with everything that you all are talking about, that we're talking about here today. The thing I think about is our financial institutions and especially those small to midsize financial institutions and how this really changes their customer journeys, their member journeys and the impact to their people.                                                                                 So from an HR perspective, training, onboarding, hiring the right talent all has to change because we still saw in many cases, traditional roles where we had tellers on a teller line. Whether we called them something or not, that was really their role, personal bankers, managers, those kinds of things. Now we're talking about much fewer staff. We have to talk about people that can be cross-trained to do multiple activities and handle things very differently, not just in the traditional sense of new account opening or getting someone to a loan specialist and handling transactions, but think about the digital capabilities that they now have to be subject matter experts on to be able to troubleshoot, help support and provide guidance on to customers, to show them how well this can be done to help protect them.                                                                                 And then also add on to that the COVID implications, how to socially distance and how to do those kind of things. So I think we've got to make sure that financial institutions, and what I'd recommend to our partners out there is, do not lose track of that. We've got to start with your people in terms of how they can drive that change and how they're molding to these operational efficiencies and changes that are happening in these journeys, both how the customers face and deal with those, but also the internal processes, how those are changing. So I think about it in terms of that as well. Scott Harroff:                     21:35                     Yeah, it's a delicate balance because you don't want to alienate good customers that have a preference for choice in how they interact, but at the same time, conscious of the broader whole of what the branch should be. Simon Powley:                  21:49                     All right, Mr. Harroff. One thing we haven't talked about, I think that's really important for us to consider is the security issues out there. You talked to us a lot about this internally. We should probably talk a little bit about what's going on out there from a security compliance standpoint. Can you tell us a little bit about that? Scott Harroff:                     22:06                     Yeah, sure, Simon. Happy to do that. There's a couple of things going on right now that are pretty relevant and relatively time sensitive. First, we saw the bad guys as the United States closed down, if you will. We saw a drop-off in bad guys out on the road and moving around and doing things at either point-of-sale terminals or ATMs. But as the United States opens back up again, what we're seeing from local law enforcement, state and federal law enforcement like the FBI and secret service, we're seeing the bad guys opening up their business as well. They're back out on their routes going up and down the East Coast and the West Coast, and Texas especially is having some challenges right now, especially in the Houston market. The bad guys are back at it as well.                                                                                 So as our financial institutions and our retailers consider how they're opening back up for business and considering how they're going to change their operations, I think now is a very good time for our financial institutions and retailers to sit down and say, "Okay, this is the security I used to have. Is this the security that I need going forward? Is my as-is environment really ready for the new to-be model? Should I be looking at what I'm doing and reaching out to an expert to consider what I should be doing differently, seeing what my peers might be doing differently and really building a roadmap for what I should be considering for security and fraud for the next six, 12 or 18 months?" That's one thing.                                                                                 And the second thing that we're also looking at is there's things that are happening right now that are pretty time sensitive. The migration to Windows 10, for example, is still ongoing. We're moving towards the end of the year where the Microsoft critical updates will be expiring in December. What's my thought on what I want to do after December of this year? If I still have an Optiva ATM, I have an old encrypting PIN Pad Version 5. That can only do Shaw 1 certificates. Should I be buying encrypting PIN Pad Version 7 so I could run Shaw 2? Have I had the conversation with my network to see if they support that? Have I reviewed what my network does for fraud?                                                                                 For example, we're seeing transaction reversal fraud coming up in the United States now where somebody will go to an ATM and they'll ask for $100, and the ATM dispenses $100. They take $80 out, and they leave a 20 there. The ATM retracts the cash, thinks that, okay, well, the customer must have driven off and not taken any of the cash. So it credits the account back immediately. Is my host really holding that debit transaction, if you will, so somebody goes to the ATM and verifies that I get $20 back or I get $100 back? So I really do think that now is a good time to reinvestigate my whole ecosystem around security and see it's what it should be in plans for the future. Jim Flannery:                     25:07                     Gentlemen, we've covered a lot of information, and we've given our listeners a lot of ideas to consider. And I really do appreciate your open and candid dialogue. We could go on with this conversation for quite a while, but I think this might be a good time to wrap it up unless somebody else has something to add. Simon Powley:                  25:24                     One of the things I'm interested, Jim, because I know our time is getting short here. You talked a lot about roadmaps. You talked a lot about the sequencing and what's the kind of technologies and put in there kind of your rating scale of what technology should be in there. And that's been really well received by our customers. What are you seeing changing from a roadmap perspective? I know we touched on video. Maybe you want to touch a little more on that. I think that's probably one. But who are you really seeing changing from roadmaps in the FIs that you're talking to? How are they changing things or what are the technology that they made moving up and prioritizing what they want? Jim Flannery:                     25:56                     Yeah. I think broadly you have to look at the shift in mentality on how they rationalize what to invest in. Historically, it's been all about payback ROI and what's the return. But as we moved through the COVID, what we found is that certain things took precedent, not because they had the best payback, but because they offered the greatest customer experience or offered the highest level of safety and security for both staff and consumers.                                                                                 So I think, first and foremost, I thought that was interesting. It was no longer about competing departments saying, "I want to do this. I want to do this. What's the cost? What's the benefit?" It became more of a, "What are some quick hits that we can do that are going to solve things now and then also set us up for future success?"                                                                                 So really, are there certain solutions that we can build off of in offering something now, but potentially make that into a greater part of our delivery strategy down the road. And I think we talked about some of those. I think the core integration, being able to utilize the ATM to directly tap into the accounts of the consumer and offer a broader range of transactions. That's something that you can do in pieces. You can start with some and add functionality as you go through it. Certainly video, and we talked about that a couple of times. That's one that we see.                                                                                 Well, and then the third one is really the marketing piece. We haven't really talked much about that. But this whole idea of using the ATM or self-service in general to do more of your communications. Historically, it's been primarily banners about products and rates, but really when you think about well, there's a big chunk of consumers that you're probably not seeing on a regular basis, they may not be engaged in mobile or web usage as a channel. So using the ATM to really communicate with those consumers, telling them what's happening as we move through things, what's the best channel to do certain interactions. There's a lot that you can really offer from that, that I think people take for granted. They assume that when we talk about the marketing communication on the ATM, it's all about product, pushing product when, in fact, it can be so much more than that. Scott Weston:                   28:04                     Well, Yeah, Jim, to build off that a little bit, I remember the conversation you and I had with that financial institution yesterday. One of our partners was they were actively involved as there was a line building at one of their locations, and they are actually out there troubleshooting and really interacting with their customers to figure out why are you waiting in line, right? What are the resistances that's making you actually want to stand here in this line under these circumstances to, in this case, cash a $54 check at the teller line? Can we move this to maybe taking a picture of this from a mobile deposit perspective? Can we get you cash back at the ATM of 40 to $60 that would cover that check?                                                                                 And that customer, as you recall, said, "No, I'm here. I've got my $54 check and I want $54." And so they're actively pursuing denomination selection as a result of that at their ATMs, because they're trying to solve for these kinds of nuances of how they can really help drive and adopt to that. So there is a lot of changes there, Jim. I think you're right. Scott Harroff:                     29:05                     With that, thanks again, Simon, Jim and Scott on behalf of all our listeners for joining us today. If you're interested in scheduling a conversation with anyone from the advisory services team, listeners, please visit dieboldnixdorf.com/advisoryservices or click on the link in the podcast show notes. Until next time, keep checking back on iTunes or however you listen to your podcasts for new topics on COMMERCE NOW.  

Nick and Jim talk about more businesses that Nick wouldn't start in if his life depended on it.

Nick and Jim dive into a few business ideas that Nick hates.

Jim Flannery is a founder and professor of entrepreneurship at University of Georgia in Athens GA. He gives his thoughts on big ideas and why they shouldn't be overlooked.

Have you ever wondered why soda at a movie theatre is $6 for a small and $7 for a large. Both are insane prices to pay for a coke, but marketers use the comparison to make us feel that $7 is a good deal. Tiny tricks like this are all around us and explored in Monetizing Innovation by Madhavan Ramanujam & Georg Tacke. This book looks at the tips and tricks of how we can innovate simply by changing the way we present features in our products and adjusting pricing to match a customers willingness to pay. It's a fascinating world and an eye opening read. Joining us this episode is guest co-host Jim Flannery and Director of Pricing and Packaging at Citrix, Brett Waldman.

Summary: In this podcast we discuss the utilization of self-service and teller automation technology and the implementation of recycling to drive more efficiency and to improve the overall customer and staff experience. Resources: Self-Service Reloaded Guide Diebold Nixdorf Website Blog: Rethink the ATM-Reload Your Self-Service Strategy Webinar replay COMMERCE NOW pocast website Transcription: Scott Anderson:               Hello. I am Scott Anderson, senior director of Evangelism, and I'm your host for this episode of COMMERCE NOW. On today's podcast, we welcome Diebold Nixdorf's Jim Flannery, global advisor for Banking Channel Transformation and Tim Hoover, principle product manager for System Solutions. We're together today to spend time talking about how cash automation, and in particular, recycling can have positive impacts on today's branch environment. As we all know, the cost and controls around handling cash is a major factor in branch economics. [00:00:30] Tim and Jim have joined me to discuss the utilization of self service and teller automation technology and the implementation of recycling to drive more efficiency and to improve the overall customer and staff experience. Let's kick this off. Jim, I'd like to start with you. As you spend time with financial institutions of varying size and location, what opportunities do you see to streamline the cash handling processes for both customer and staff journeys? Jim Flannery:                     Yeah, so any cash automation is going [00:01:00] to provide tremendous upside for a bank or credit union. Something like teller automation, which has been around for quite a while, we've seen lots of customers see efficiency gains, throughput improvements not only reduce cost but also provide a better experience for the customers, shorter queues, obviously shorter wait time, so those type of things. I think it gets a little more interesting when you start talking about self service recycling. Jim Flannery:                     In [00:01:30] the US and in Canada, we'll say it's been a little slow for the banks to adopt that, but we're finally seeing enough cash coming in where the migration of transactions from the teller line to the device, which have traditionally been on the more costly side for the banks to do, it's finally hitting that tipping point where we're seeing an opportunity to attack that CIT cost, that high cost of cash in transit, which has been a sticking point for many FIs that they want to see maybe reduce. Scott Anderson:               [00:02:00] Excellent, thanks very much. I think when we consider what's been happening over the last I'll call it five, ten years, technology has really come a long way in this regard. Tim, perhaps you can share with us your opinions around how recycling ATMs can augment the branch transaction processing. Tim Hoover:                       Sure, Scott, and essentially let the technology do the work. There's now, with this technology, the ability for accounting, denominating, bill fitness sorting, counterfeit [00:02:30] detection and all that can be done at high speeds like 10 notes a second through this technology. In addition, this technology is now coming on the fourth, fifth generation of product, and it's very secure, efficient and reliable. Scott Anderson:               Now that we've got technology and Jim, as you've said, there seems to be a little bit of take up hear in the North American space in particular and certainly this has been very prevalent globally, especially if we look at some western European [00:03:00] countries. I think about what traffic we see in the retail branches and some of the segments who place some real heavy demand on branch cash processes, really small and medium business come to mind in this regard. Tim, what advantages do you see with technology such as recycling ATMs compared to how we typically manage the segment over the counter or even with teller automation? Tim Hoover:                       Well, Scot, we've seen some surveys, recent surveys that have shown that merchants now are more willing to use this self service [00:03:30] technology for their daily or even weekly withdraw needs. They would expect and they've mentioned that there would be less waiting in lines at the branch during peak hours or Fridays. It would allow for immediate credit for their cash or check deposits and then this technology ... And for merchants, there would even be the possibility even to promote for this SMB customer segment that maybe [00:04:00] the use of technology at 24 by 7 vestibules that are let's say close proximity to their business may be in malls or outlets, those types of places. Scott Anderson:               Interesting, so really would I think probably improve how this small business customer would perceive the financial institution as giving them a little more access to automation to allow them to handle some of those cash deposits on a more frequent basis, so that makes a ton of sense to me. Jim, assuming [00:04:30] we have this opportunity to leverage recycling systems more holistically and to drive more transactions to self service, what positive impacts do you see for staff productivity and even consumer engagement? Jim Flannery:                     Yeah, so industry wide, we see roughly 30% of deposits are occurring at a self service channel, so for the most part, consumers have become comfortable with depositing checks either at the ATM or more recently on their mobile device, but [00:05:00] historically, cash has always been somewhat of a sticking point, getting consumers to deposit that cash for whatever reason was always more difficult. I think some of the it goes back to the envelope deposit days of ATMs, where the trust factor of not have a valid count or inventory of what was deposited was something that consumers just wouldn't part with. Jim Flannery:                     Now with recycling and having a growing set of consumers that are okay with cash deposits, we're seeing quite a few of those traditionally [00:05:30] cash deposits that were happening at the teller line or through the drive up teller now moving to the ATM. I think that really opens up two interesting points to be made is one, fewer transactions at the teller line allows the banks to be more judicious in how they staff their teller line, so being able to take potentially a small reductions in head count, which will reduce the cost of servicing. But I think the broader point is freeing up more staff time to spend with customers, having conversations, doing [00:06:00] investigative dialogue, where they can uncover potential gaps in products that consumer may be looking for, so really using that time that they're not spending head down, counting cash as a lower value transaction, now becomes an opportunity to cross sell and really have a more productive conversation that can deepen the relationship and hopefully create more satisfied customer. Scott Anderson:               Interesting. Just to play on that, I think one of things we probably need to consider then [00:06:30] in the branches is some good lobby leadership so that the small to medium business customers who are coming in with bulks of cash understand that the self service devices now with larger acceptance and even recycling can support them. Anything you would add to that sort of thought process? How important is it for banks to be thinking about, banks and financial institutions, around lobby leadership and directing these consumers to the right use case? Jim Flannery:                     Yeah, I mean clearly you need to understand the needs and the expectations [00:07:00] of the different segments, so in the research that we do, what we find is that generally younger consumers with above average income are kind of target audience for more advanced self service transaction and then as you get into older segments, and to some degree, segments of more modest income, their dependence on the attended teller, primarily the channel that has that extra help is going to exist. Jim Flannery:                     Your point on lobby leadership is spot on. Being able to identify [00:07:30] who would be a good candidate for introducing or demonstrating the self service deposit versus some consumers just aren't going to change their behavior and they're going to expect that I guess we'll call it hand holding for even a routine transaction. Jim Flannery:                     Now I think it becomes more interesting with the small business segment because traditionally when you look at the lower end of it, it's often the principle of the business that's doing most of the banking and their time is so important because they're running a business [00:08:00] and banking is not something that they enjoy doing. And when you think about recycling and having the ability to perhaps forgo standing in line at a busy time and use that device for despot is pretty intriguing. I think it becomes even more interesting when you start looking at other things that could enhance that, whether it's cardless or one-time use pins where they can send a runner to do the deposit where they'll get some sort of notification where they don't even have to go. They can send somebody else and it can be after hours or it could be during busy [00:08:30] and you won't have that waste of time spent standing in line. Scott Anderson:               That's a great point and I think it's important as the financial institutions think about this for some of those small and medium businesses, getting the message to those business owners, even if they aren't the ones coming into the branch is critical, so it's a marketing this would be important. As I think about some of the things that I've seen globally, I've had the opportunity to witness what I'd call cashless branches or branches where cash is completely automated [00:09:00] in parts of Europe and Asia Pacific. From both of your perspectives, what considerations do you think financial institutions need to be mindful of to ensure this success. Jim, maybe you can start off on this one. Jim Flannery:                     Yeah, so cashless branches in the US or in North America in general, they're not as prevalent for a host of reasons, but I think if you are going to look at that as a potential path for a branch network, certainly having a hub and spoke concept where you do have full service [00:09:30] branches that fill the advanced things that consumers are looking to do, but using cashless branches to serve the more routine transactions. When we look at this for FIs as a service, what we're often looking at is the demographics of the people using that branch is a location where you have that high concentration of high self service consumers that are okay with that. They don't necessarily need that additional attention for simple things. Jim Flannery:                     Making sure [00:10:00] that that's part of the equation, the analytics that's really going to drive the decision. I think also, at the same time, understanding if you're converting a full service branch or a traditional branch too of something of a cashless branch, deciding on the design and how the space is going to be used is going to be crucial, in particular for larger branches, where minimum going from 4,000 square feet to 1,500 square feet, so what do you do with the rest of the square footage? How do you either convert that to something [00:10:30] that has revenue generating capabilities or how do you reduce the size of that branch to reflect the role and function of that branch within the network? Scott Anderson:               Interesting, and I think that's something obviously a lot of the western European banks have already figured out, because of the cost of real estate. North America's really trying to catch up on that I see your points of view there. Tim, what would you add to that perspective and cashless branches? Tim Hoover:                       Well, just not only [00:11:00] the advanced planning on the demographic and the placement and in the size, but then you get into another six months of planning on just the execution, so think about the cash and transit, think about the processes associated with not only cash replenishment but the cash in transit, the withdrawal of that cash and making sure that all those processes are determined, how the balancing is going to occur, because it will be different. Tim Hoover:                       Then even probably the bigger [00:11:30] one is just thinking about the consumer now. This will be a big change. You just don't want them to walk into a branch and see no people or just have a bunch of machines lined up and now clue what's going on. It has been helpful and we've seen in the past a greeter in a lot of cases that can talk to the consumer about, "Hey, we've changed our design. We're now self service. Anything that you could do in this branch before, you can now do through the self service. Come with me. What kind of [00:12:00] transaction would you like to do? Let me show you how you can do it." Tim Hoover:                       That helps in supporting certain consumer transactions if required. We've also seen, and it's been helpful, branches that have been sending out in advance, they're electronic or maybe some physical mailings talking about the changes, what's going on. You just don't want to have the consumer blindsided the first time they come into that location. In add to that even, there are on screen [00:12:30] text modifications or icons that can help a consumer actually do that transaction and we've seen even some labeling, additional labeling help with the consumer. Scott Anderson:               Interesting. I agree. I think swinging the pendulum too far too fast is probably not going to be effective and you need to make sure that the consumer is feeling comfortable, that the typical tell that they've dealt with daily or weekly is still a part of the equation. They're just maybe engaging with the consumer a little [00:13:00] differently and maybe even being a little bit more advisory versus just be transaction processing. I think that's a really interesting point. When we talk about all of this though, I think one of the big elephants in the room is going to be how do these financial institutions begin to process a road map or define a road map and a return on investment for this type of technology and solution. Jim, what are you seeing, how are you kind of guiding some of these financial institutions down that path? Jim Flannery:                     Yeah, so the ROI and [00:13:30] the whole road map is of course extremely important for any transformation exercise that banks undertake and I think moving to something like a cashless branch is definitely a big change for an FI, so clearly being able to quantify as much as you can about the currently what's happening at that branch, what the expect ions are for how much of the volume is going to move to self service and which parts actually may move to other branches. We've often seen that when you do something extreme [00:14:00] like that, a lot of consumers will just go to the next location that has people, so you have to be a little careful making sure that the populist that's going to use that branch are the target segments that are going to embrace self service. Jim Flannery:                     From the ROI perspective, obviously there's some pretty obvious cost saves that most FIs are expecting to see, but I think what becomes more interesting is the things that are a little bit more difficult to measure or monetize, which I think need to be part of that conversation. I think [00:14:30] a lot of FIs get too hung up on just the cold, hard numbers, when in fact there may be additional pieces that really are overall more beneficial to some degree of just that cost saving. Jim Flannery:                     I'm talking mainly about the things that are around the consumer's acceptance and their satisfaction with the new space and also you can't understate the staff's satisfaction as well, being able to create an environment where the employees are more comfortable [00:15:00] and they thrive at their job and you can really get the most out of people who have maybe skills that are being underutilized in a more traditional branch environment. Jim Flannery:                     I think being able to incorporate those pieces also should be part of the equation. At the end of the day the ROI has become, in our opinion, a must have. Every project that we have worked on where we have a big capital investment, the first thing people ask me, "Well, where's the ROI? Let's see the ROI." So being able to create that is definitely going to be [00:15:30] important. Scott Anderson:               Interesting, great. Thank you for that. That's probably the one thing that a lot of FIs need to think heavily about, but it is possible. We've seen a lot of FIs globally be able to achieve this with some great success. Tim, what or technological advancement should we expect from physical touchpoints such as recycling ATMs? What's coming down the pike? Tim Hoover:                       Well, there are a number of ones coming down the pike. Probably the first is serial number capture and [00:16:00] that essentially means on the deposited notes, picking up on the serial number and in the case that it's needed, that can help in aiding any sort of counterfeit investigations or maybe stolen notes that were deposited at a certain ATM, at a certain location, but probably the bigger once is just thinking about predictive analytics, not only from the maintenance side of saying, "Hey, I can see maybe that this one sensor needs to be [00:16:30] adjusted or needs to be changed out," but we can do more from a predictive analysis and then possibly adjust that sensor remotely or definitely then if it's something that can't be adjusted remotely, dispatch a technician in order to perform that repair. Tim Hoover:                       Also from the predictive analytics standpoint, just that the physical tracking and showing how consumers are conducting their transactions, [00:17:00] whether that's in a daily or weekly manner, at times of day, all that can be done now and is all inherent to the technology. Scott Anderson:               Great, so that really helps financial institutions fine tune how theses solutions can get rolled out, which I think is probably another important factor as they're thinking about this in a more holistic way, just making sure that that take up and that comfort with both consumers and the staff is there so that they endorse this. [00:17:30] Really, gentlemen, you've given us some interesting and compelling things to think about today and with that, I think this is a great place to wrap up this discussion for now. Jim and Tim, I really appreciate your points of view and sharing your thoughts with us and thanks again to all of you for joining us today. Scott Anderson:               If you haven't already done so, please check out our self service reloaded guide and learn more by surfing to dieboldnixdorf.com/driveroi for more information. Finally, to learn more about other relevant topics like these, log onto dieboldnixdorf.com [00:18:00] or click on the link in the podcast notes shown below. Until next time, please keep checking back on iTunes or however you listen to our podcast for new topics on COMMERCE NOW.  

In this episode we cover the book that changed how software companies build product, interact with customers and measure success: The Lean Startup. A staple of MBA students, product managers and every startup company trying to build the next big thing. The Lean Startup, has built a new lexicon of terms you must know to work in the high tech industry: MVP, Pivots, Innovation Accounting. Join us as your co-hosts Chuck and Gunnar bring their unique views of Product vs. Engineering, as they cover this book. Also, joining the podcast is guest Jim Flannery, founder of Four Athen's a startup accelerator in Athens, GA, who has also worked as an Startup Catalyst at Atlanta's famous ATDC startup accelerator and currently teaches Entrepreneurship at the University of Georgia. This conversation get's interesting as Jim drops the mic with the question: "Can entrepreneurship be taught?"

The panel for this week’s episode includes: Emma, Martin, Neil, and Shelby, along with special guests Julie Bond Genovese and Karin Harvey-Olson. The topic that they have chosen to discuss is Living with Special Needs. If you want to learn more about living with disability and special needs, here is a great video to watch: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w-Sh8ZuGbMI (Also check out Zach Anner’s YouTube Channel here: https://www.youtube.com/user/ZachAnner For more information about Julie Bond Genovese, please visit https://nothingshortofjoy.com/ and https://www.facebook.com/NothingShortOfJoy/ For more information on the YEAH (Youth for Education, Advocacy and Healthcare) Council, please visit https://yeahnh.org/ and https://www.facebook.com/YEAH-Council-267404923281292/ Special Guests: Julie Bond Genovese Hi friends! I’m Julie, mom to two teen boys, partner to my hubby Bill, author of my award-winning memoir, Nothing Short of Joy, an inspirational speaker, creative living coach, artist and life-long student of personal growth. In 2005 when I went to sign my son up for kindergarten, I was overwhelmed by the rules and underwhelmed by the love. The reality of giving up our previously unfettered life to the system was crushing. So we took the leap. Funny thing – the difficulties in being born a dwarf prepared me, in essence, to live and flourish outside the lines. Unschooling has inspired my family to unfollow the current educational Belief Systems (BS) and instead follow our own inner truth and the enthusiasm, wisdom and wonder within our kids. We’re learning how to use challenges as a springboard to spirit, to live a more wholehearted life and to create a joyful world we feel proud to call home. You can find me at www.nothingshortofjoy.com Karin Harvey-Olson Karin Harvey-Olson is a homeschooling/unschooling mother of 4 children. She works part time as a facilitator for a youth council on disability rights and special healthcare needs. In addition to that Karin and her family provide care for a deaf young adult who lives with them. She is also a certified leader for Attachment Parenting International, and a certified Baby-Wearing instructor. When not working or spending time with her family, Karin pursues her many passions, including Music, Theater, Attachment parenting, homesteading, natural family living, and all things Disney! You can read about Karin and her family on their blog, www.harvey-olson.net Recently Karin has also started a band with her husband and kids, and you can hear them at fb.me/SquareCirclesBand. www.harvey-olson.net The Youth for Episode #23 Emma Emma is 14 years old and going into high school. She has 4 cats and a dog, and loves music, art, books, and learning new things. Martin Martin Harvey-Olson is an unschooled kid who is all about creative expression through music. He has been following his passions for years – cosplay, art, martial arts, gymnastics, but most of all music. He has taught himself to play multiple instruments, and is working on mastering multiple musical styles and genres, although his favorite is Rock/Alternative. https://www.facebook.com/Hangmans-job-966463330136159/ Neil Neil Karkhanis is 14 years old and attends South Jersey Sudbury School, a democratic free school where the students decide how to spend their time. He enjoys discussing politics, education, world events and nutritional science. He has been involved in community theater since the age of six. He spends a few months out of the year living in Tampa, FL and the rest in New Jersey. He’s very excited to have this platform to share views and ideas with others. Shelby My name is Shelby – I am 13 and I live in Colorado. I am homeschooled and I have an interest in art. Producers for Youth on Subjects of the World are Anne Boie, Jim Flannery, Martin Harvey-Olson, and Tanya Sharkey. Podcast sponsored by the Peer Unschooling Network: https://peerunschooling.net

The panel for this week’s episode includes: TBA. The topic that they have chosen to discuss is Society’s Treatment of Celebrities. The Youth for Episode #25 TBA Producers for Youth on Subjects of the World are Anne Boie, Jim Flannery, Martin Harvey-Olson, and Tanya Sharkey. Anne Boie Anne Boie is an entrepreneur and partner in work, family and play to her husband, David Leahy. She is a dedicated unschooling mother of the four Leahy children, ages 4- 16. The Leahy family has lived in Suburban Dallas, Rural Grayson County, Texas, and several years ago after the birth of their fourth child, they decided to pursue their dream of a more exciting urban location, as close to New York City as they could manage financially. After researching several options with the help of their children, they chose Hackettstown, New Jersey, located between New York City and Philadelphia, and moved their warehouse of more than a million Lego bricks, two dogs, three cats, four children, one Nana (David’s mom) and all their belongings halfway across the country. They have been happily living there for 3 years now, and are always eager to meet and talk to both experienced and new unschoolers. Anne was very excited to take on the role of co-producer of the For the Love of Learning show, as a means of exploring ideas about education from people all over the world, and to help create a better world by showing parents that there is another way, they don’t have to blindly follow the crowd when it comes to education and raising happy children. She is even more excited to take on this new role as lead producer for Youth on Subjects of the World. This amazing group of young people will give you hope for the future of our world. Jim Flannery At first glance, Jim’s career may seemed scattered across different fields and topics. However, an emerging theme he’s noticed in his work is to empower people who are powerless. This may sound cliche, so let’s try to be more specific: Jim wants to unlock doors and liberate people who are trapped inside. More specific? He wants to help students trapped in school, elderly people trapped in nursing homes, psychiatric patients trapped in institutions, and inmates trapped in prisons. To achieve these lofty goals, Jim brings many different skills to the table. For example, he is an experienced startup entrepreneur, trained biomedical engineer, strong public speaker, self-taught web developer, self-satisfying comedian, eccentric physics teacher, and mediocre painter. To keep himself sane, he likes reading, rock climbing, skateboarding, and traveling. While he doesn’t mind fighting alone, success requires a team. Let’s talk about coordinating our efforts to create a better world. Martin Harvey-Olson Martin helped create Youth on Subjects of the World, along with Neil Karkhanis, Marley Richards, and Anne Boie. He is now a big part of our team of producers. Tanya Sharkey An unschooling mom, I’m colorful, passionate, and eternally seeking truth. Queen of TMI:-) Say it like it is, wear it on my sleeve, can’t be fake, the word is always on the tip of my tongue and I can’t figure it out. Like to always have a destination on the calendar. A proud cat-lady, love the universe, fresh air, the wind blowing my hair, authenticity. An information junkie, and always on a quest to reduce our family’s carbon footprint to the best of our ability:-). Sponsored by the Peer Unschooling Network: https://peerunschooling.net

The panel for this week’s episode includes Arthur Velwest, Gavin Sharkey, Lachlan Sabourin, Keilon, and Neil Karkhanis. The topic that they have chosen to discuss is the Apocalypse. If you are able to tune in LIVE, the Youth can also answer your questions LIVE. The Youth for Episode #18 Arthur Velwest Arthur Velwest is a 20 year old unschooler who has spent much of his life pursuing self taught education. Currently in the childcare field, he would be happy to talk to anyone at any time about unschooling. Gavin Sharkey This is Gavin Sharkey. He is 15, lives in Brooklyn, and aspires to be a photographer. He has spent the past two years teaching himself photoshop and photography, and doesn’t intend to stop any time soon. Lachlan Sabourin I am a 14 year old World Schooler. I’m an artist and an actor. I’m a transgender boy and have been happily out for a while now. I have a few siblings and they are my inspiration and my daily challenge. And I enjoy long walks on the beach… Keilon Sabourin Most of my childhood was spent in foster homes and between families, which evolved into a period of homelessness after coming out as FTM transgender. After seven years of traditional education, I found the philosophy of child-led learning, then proceeded to pull myself out of school after presenting an hour long presentation to my principal on why the education system is a sham. In my unschooling journey, I found my love of writing, acting, poetry, 1800’s children’s literature, India, linguistics, beekeeping, Gujarati dance, yoga, piano, and, most importantly, I found my family. I was adopted shortly after I turned 18 by a wonderful unschooling family and now have stability and complete support for the first time in my life. Neil Karkhanis Neil Karkhanis is 14 years old and attends South Jersey Sudbury School, a democratic free school where the students decide how to spend their time. He enjoys discussing politics, education, world events and nutritional science. He has been involved in community theater since the age of six. He spends a few months out of the year living in Tampa, FL and the rest in New Jersey. He’s very excited to have this platform to share views and ideas with others. Producers for Episode #18 are Tanya Sharkey and Jim Flannery. Tanya Sharkey An unschooling mom, I’m colorful, passionate, and eternally seeking truth. Queen of TMI:-) Say it like it is, wear it on my sleeve, can’t be fake, the word is always on the tip of my tongue and I can’t figure it out. Like to always have a destination on the calendar. A proud cat-lady, love the universe, fresh air, the wind blowing my hair, authenticity. An information junkie, and always on a quest to reduce our family’s carbon footprint to the best of our ability:-). Jim Flannery At first glance, Jim’s career may seemed scattered across different fields and topics. However, an emerging theme he’s noticed in his work is to empower people who are powerless. This may sound cliche, so let’s try to be more specific: Jim wants to unlock doors and liberate people who are trapped inside. More specific? He wants to help students trapped in school, elderly people trapped in nursing homes, psychiatric patients trapped in institutions, and inmates trapped in prisons. To achieve these lofty goals, Jim brings many different skills to the table. For example, he is an experienced startup entrepreneur, trained biomedical engineer, strong public speaker, self-taught web developer, self-satisfying comedian, eccentric physics teacher, and mediocre painter. To keep himself sane, he likes reading, rock climbing, skateboarding, and traveling. While he doesn’t mind fighting alone, success requires a team. Let’s talk about coordinating our efforts to create a better world. *Sponsored by the Peer Unschooling Network: https://peerunschooling.net

The panel for our fourteenth episode includes Martin Harvey-Olson and Neil Karkhanis. They have chosen to change it up a bit for this exciting episode. Episode 14 will feature an interview with friend and fellow advocate for freedom Jim Flannery. *DISCLAIMER* During the interview, the panelists discuss some ways to “Fight the System”. The panelists, the producer, nor CCN obviously do not recommend or endorse any member of the public to try any of these methods. Jim's Bio: At first glance, my career may seemed scattered across different fields and topics. However, an emerging theme I’ve noticed in my work is to empower people who are powerless. This may sound cliche, so I’ll try and be more specific: I want to unlock doors and liberate people who are trapped inside. More specific? I want to help students trapped in school, elderly people trapped in nursing homes, psychiatric patients trapped in institutions, and inmates trapped in prisons. To achieve these lofty goals, I bring many different skills to the table. For example, I am an experienced startup entrepreneur, trained biomedical engineer, strong public speaker, self-taught web developer, self-satisfying comedian, eccentric physics teacher, and mediocre painter. To keep myself sane, I like reading, rock climbing, skateboarding, and traveling. While I don’t mind fighting alone, success requires a team. Let’s talk about coordinating our efforts to create a better world. Visit the Peer Unschooling Network (https://peerunschooling.net) and meet unschooled teens now! The Youth for Episode #14: Martin Harvey-Olson Martin Harvey-Olson is an unschooled kid who is all about creative expression through music. He has been following his passions for years – cosplay, art, martial arts, gymnastics, but most of all music. He has taught himself to play multiple instruments, and is working on mastering multiple musical styles and genres, although his favorite is Rock/Alternative. https://www.facebook.com/Hangmans-job-966463330136159/ Neil Karkhanis Neil Karkhanis is 14 years old and attends South Jersey Sudbury School, a democratic free school where the students decide how to spend their time. He enjoys discussing politics, education, world events and nutritional science. He has been involved in community theater since the age of six. He spends a few months out of the year living in Tampa, FL and the rest in New Jersey. He’s very excited to have this platform to share views and ideas with others. *SoundCloud podcast is sponsored by the Peer Unschooling Network. https://peerunschooling.net

Eric and Tim are joined in the coaches office by Jim Flannery, longtime varsity assistant and older brother of Eric. The group chats about the role of an assistant coach, growing up in the Flannery home, perparing for the playoffs and some stories from last weekend's '98 state champs reunion.  And, as mentioned on the show, here is the link to support Coach Flannery and the St. Baldrick's fundraiser: https://www.stbaldricks.org/participants/mypage/959078/2018    

June 12th was a very special Booth 61. This was our first show with out of town guests. My good friend for the past 2 years and the Founder of Four Athens and the Four Athens Angel Fund brought one of the companies currently in the Four Athens space. Athens, Georgia is on fire with […] The post Jim Flannery, Founder of Four Athens & Art Recesso, Co-Founder of Instructive Insight appeared first on Business RadioX ®.