Podcasts about LensCrafters

Nuance Audio has officially introduced its over-the-counter (OTC) hearing aid glasses to the U.S. market. In this episode, recorded at the launch event in New York, Andrew Bellavia speaks with Davide D'Alena of Nuance Audio and EssilorLuxottica, and John Luna, about the product's development, regulatory journey, and plans for rollout.The glasses aim to assist individuals with mild to moderate hearing loss—particularly in noisy environments—and are now available through optical retail partners such as LensCrafters, Target Optical, and Pearl Vision. Distribution is also expanding to audiology clinics and additional markets globally.The conversation explores design choices, clinical validation, and how these devices may help address common barriers to hearing care.Be sure to subscribe to our channel for the latest episodes each week and follow This Week in Hearing on LinkedIn and X (formerly Twitter)https://twitter.com/WeekinHearinghttps://www.linkedin.com/company/this-week-in-hearinghttps://hearinghealthmatters.org/thisweek/

Today's crossword had OCEANS of great clues. To pick just three, we had 1A, Some pops, COCACOLAS (Mike's favorite beverage!); 12D, Fabulizes, SPINSAYARN (the answer was fine: the clue, divine); and 34A, Vulgarian, BOOR (Vulgarian sounds Shakespearean, but, alas and alack, the bard never penned it).Show note imagery: A few of a SEASCALLOP's many eyesWe love feedback! Send us a text...Contact Info:We love listener mail! Drop us a line, crosswordpodcast@icloud.com.Also, we're on FaceBook, so feel free to drop by there and strike up a conversation!

Bridget Lohrius is the Founder and CEO of SANDWINA, a full-service leadership consultancy and coaching company on a mission to unlock growth for progressive organizations and their people. For more than 20 years, Bridget has coached c-level executives from some of the world's largest and most recognizable brands, including Ulta, Walmart, McDonalds, CVS, Mars Wrigley, Lockheed Martin, Follett, and Lenscrafters (including five of Fortune's Most Powerful Women). She founded SANDWINA so that she (and her team) can provide a more progressive and results-driven brand of executive positioning, one-on-one leadership coaching, group coaching, team development, change management, ERG programming, and DEI consulting to a wider and more diverse pool of clients in need. 

Dr. William Fox attended David Lipscomb University in Nashville, Tennessee for his undergraduate course of study in biochemistry. He then attended The Southern College of Optometry in Memphis, Tennessee where he was inducted into the Phi Beta Kappa honor society and where he graduated with a doctor of optometry degree. Dr. Fox's externships were at the Biloxi, Mississippi Family Health Clinic, Indian Health Services Department of Ophthalmology, and the Portland Eye Clinic at Pacific University. His externship studies were in the diagnosis and treatment of eye disease and contact lens evaluations. Beginning his career in Atlanta, Georgia, Dr. Fox worked in the Ophthalmology Department, under Dr. Joe Citron, at Crawford Long Hospital. He started Fox Eye Care Group, located next to Lenscrafters, in 1991 in Greensboro, NC. The practice has since grown to 5 locations throughout North Carolina and including Winston Salem. Dr. Fox specializes in contact lens evaluations, diabetic eye exams, and overall family eye health evaluations. He is a 20+ year member of the American Optometric Association and the North Carolina Optometric Society. Dr. Fox was twice awarded the Horizon Award from Lenscrafters for a combination of professional skills and humanitarian endeavors. He was awarded the Wesley Jesson (now CibaVision) Contact Lens Fitter of the Year award in 1998. He continues to work with the Gift of Sight Foundation (now called OneSight) at home and abroad, helping the needy and disadvantaged. Dr. Fox is the treasurer on the national board of ALLDocs, the independent doctors of optometry next to Lenscrafters. Dr. Fox enjoys traveling, playing basketball, and surfing during his free time.

Dr. William Fox attended David Lipscomb University in Nashville, Tennessee for his undergraduate course of study in biochemistry. He then attended The Southern College of Optometry in Memphis, Tennessee where he was inducted into the Phi Beta Kappa honor society and where he graduated with a doctor of optometry degree. Dr. Fox's externships were at the Biloxi, Mississippi Family Health Clinic, Indian Health Services Department of Ophthalmology, and the Portland Eye Clinic at Pacific University. His externship studies were in the diagnosis and treatment of eye disease and contact lens evaluations. Beginning his career in Atlanta, Georgia, Dr. Fox worked in the Ophthalmology Department, under Dr. Joe Citron, at Crawford Long Hospital. He started Fox Eye Care Group, located next to Lenscrafters, in 1991 in Greensboro, NC. The practice has since grown to 5 locations throughout North Carolina and including Winston Salem. Dr. Fox specializes in contact lens evaluations, diabetic eye exams, and overall family eye health evaluations. He is a 20+ year member of the American Optometric Association and the North Carolina Optometric Society. Dr. Fox was twice awarded the Horizon Award from Lenscrafters for a combination of professional skills and humanitarian endeavors. He was awarded the Wesley Jesson (now CibaVision) Contact Lens Fitter of the Year award in 1998. He continues to work with the Gift of Sight Foundation (now called OneSight) at home and abroad, helping the needy and disadvantaged. Dr. Fox is the treasurer on the national board of ALLDocs, the independent doctors of optometry next to Lenscrafters. Dr. Fox enjoys traveling, playing basketball, and surfing during his free time.

Al & Eddie: Why is my dog licking herself? Al loves Lenscrafters and Do you use A-I? To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Al & Eddie: Why is my dog licking herself? Al loves Lenscrafters and Do you use A-I?--plus warm up To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

From 'Al & Jerry's Postgame Podcast' (subscribe here): Why is my dog licking herself? Al loves Lenscrafters and Do you use A-I? To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Today on a special edition of our show:Remembering Kent AllenEvolution of Global eCommercePioneers in Cross-Border TradeCurrent Trends and PlayersJim OkamuraPartner, McMillanDoolittle and co-founder, Global E-Commerce Leaders ForumJim has over 25 years of consulting experience focused on strategic planning in the retail industry. His work in retail innovation and digital transformation has resulted in industry-leading thinking on retailer best practices and strategy. Jim has published global and national retail studies and has been a featured speaker at the NRF, Shop.org, and many international conferences. In 2013 Jim co-founder the Global E-Commerce Leaders forum, a digital retail community and conference series focused on global growth strategies for consumer brands. Jim has developed growth strategies for clients such as Adidas, Bridgestone, Maurices, Dress Barn, Gap, DSW, LensCrafters, Nike, Neiman Marcus, Souris Mini, Timberland, Victoria's Secret, Lowes, Crate and Barrel, MasterCard, Walgreens, Marriott and Emart. Scott SilvermanCo-Founder CommerceNext; Co-Founder, Global Ecommerce Leaders ForumSilverman has been active in the retail and ecommerce industries for more than 20 years and is passionate about digital commerce and the innovation driving the industry. In 2013, Silverman co-founded the Global Ecommerce Leaders Forum, a forum and series of conferences for international and cross-border ecommerce. In 2017, Silverman co-founded CommerceNext, a community, event series and conference for marketers at retail and direct-to-consumer brands.Silverman began his career in ecommerce in 1999 where he led National Retail Federation's digital division, Shop.org, until 2010. During his time at NRF he launched the Shop.org Annual Summit and a number of research studies. He co-invented “Cyber Monday” in 2005 and was the founder of Cybermonday.com in 2006, a shopping site that has generated more than $2.5 million for NRF's Ray Greenly scholarship fund.In honor of Kent Allen:A digital commerce industry analyst for the last twenty plus years, Kent's research and thought leadership has strongly influenced the development of the global/cross-border ecommerce sector. Since collaborating with Jim Okamura on the industry's first international ecommerce benchmark study in 2008, Kent has published a wide collection of reports and articles chronicling the rise of global ecommerce ecosystems.Kent also leads strategy, industry analysis, thought leadership and content marketing initiatives that focus on omnichannel commerce and digital marketing innovations. His work includes executive research, industry speaking engagements, white papers and case studies, social content, webinars, and retail tours for retail and consumer goods executives. His latest focus, The Global Customer Journey Project explores how the online shopping journey differs in markets around the world.The Research Trust's industry marketing programs help innovative digital companies tell their story and build ongoing relationships with prospects, established clients and partners. Kent's practice provides a mix of strategic planning services, best practices research and market analysis for global brands and technology partners striving to better serve connected consumers around the world.

Andrew went glasses shopping yesterday and ended up having an overly emotional response to the whole process. Meanwhile, Luke made a huge stride in creating boundaries around life and work…AND he came up with a great idea for a Halloween costume with his girlfriend.  

In this episode of Building Texas Business, I discuss John Marvin's transformative leadership journey as CEO and President of Texas State Optical (TSO). Founded in 1936 by the Rogers brothers, TSO evolved into a franchise operation spearheaded by John starting in the 1990s. Hear John's compelling account of reviving the brand, establishing the franchise association, and guiding the innovative physician-owned business model that has empowered young optometrists for decades. With the evolving eyewear landscape, our conversation analyzes consumer behavior shifts and their implications for strategic competition amid growing online retailers. We also explore the importance of supporting TSO's physician member network through mentorship and partnerships, especially given industry consolidation challenges. SHOW HIGHLIGHTS John D Marvin shares the history of Texas State Optical (TSO), founded by the Rogers brothers in 1936, and its growth into a franchise operation. We discuss how John Marvin revitalized TSO in the 1990s and his journey to becoming the president of the company in 2001. The episode explores the challenges and strategies involved in competing with online retailers in the eyewear industry, emphasizing the importance of convenience and well-stocked dispensaries. John describes the shift in optometry ownership trends, with fewer young optometrists interested in private practice, paralleling broader healthcare industry trends. We examine the strategic importance of building a physician member network to support optometrists and the criteria for network inclusion. The episode delves into leadership principles inspired by John C. Maxwell, highlighting the role of influence, trust, and accountability in effective leadership. John reflects on the transformative impact of setbacks, such as being fired, and how these experiences shape one's leadership journey. We explore the importance of forming strategic vendor partnerships and the role of mutual accountability in maintaining long-lasting business relationships. John emphasizes the need to adapt to industry shifts, including the rise of artificial intelligence, while fostering an innovative mindset among optometrists. The episode concludes with a discussion on the significance of understanding and meeting customer needs through effective consumer research, as a universal business strategy. LINKSShow Notes Previous Episodes About BoyarMiller About Texas State Optical GUESTS John D MarvinAbout John TRANSCRIPT (AI transcript provided as supporting material and may contain errors) Chris: In this episode you will meet John Marvin, ceo and President of Texas State Optical. John shares his views on how the fundamentals of leadership boil down to influencing and how having mutual accountability in your business relationships create win situations. John, I want to thank you for taking the time to join me today. It's really been a pleasure to get to know you before we got started here. John: Well, Chris, I appreciate the opportunity to sit down. I always love talking about business. Chris: Well, that's good, that's what we're going to do. So you're the CEO and president of Texas State Optical, or most people know it as TSO. That's right. Tell us a little more detail about what is the company, what does it do and what is it really known for in the market. John: Okay Well, texas State Optical was founded in 1936 by four brothers the Rogers brothers, in Beaumont, texas, and anybody who's been to Beaumont or familiar with Beaumont knows of the impact those four brothers had on that community and then in turn throughout Texas. Two of the brothers were optometrists and they opened pretty traditional optometry practice. And if you'll think about what else was going on in 1936 in Beaumont, it was the oil boom that was just blowing up, and so the one that originally came to Texas from Chicago all four of them were from Chicago called back home and said boys, you need to move down here. We got a big opportunity and they did, and consequently, over the next several years they built a large retail optical chain they called Texas State Optical, and one time in the early 60s it had reached over 300 locations. And one time in the early 60s it had reached over 300 locations and those were in New Mexico, oklahoma, arkansas, louisiana and Texas, and so that went on until, due to some legal issues with the state optometric group, who decided that they didn't want someone in the state running 300 locations, they passed some legislation that limited optometrists to only three locations and so they could subsequently, after a long legal battle had to sell off most of their property, but they kept the core of the business of the optical lab. They kept that and kind of a condition of buying. The practice was that you obligated yourself to continue to purchase items from them. But then in the late 60s the Rogers, having gone through this process of dissolving their ownership in it, decided to turn their attention towards real estate development and at one point they owned 25% of Caesars Palace in Vegas. They just got involved in other things and then consequently in the early 70s they sold the company to a large pharmaceutical company, gd Searle, who then subsequently sold the company in the early 80s to Pearl Vision. Most people are familiar with Pearl Vision, most people are familiar with ProVision and ran that until the late 80s when they sold it to a group of kind of investors who wanted to own it. They didn't really know how to run it than investors. So in I got involved in 1993 doing consumer research for the corporate office. My background at the time I had a company marketing management group and based here in Houston and it was a small marketing management and consumer research group and was doing work in other areas. But picked them up as a client and began to do a lot of consumer study for them and learned about the business. At that time it was somewhat distressed because of the leadership that had taken over from the Pearl Vision taken over from Pearl, and so there was a lot of unrest among the franchisees because at that time TSO was a franchise operation and so I helped them form a franchise association and then kind of on a part-time arrangement took on an executive director position within that while maintaining my consumer study and research stuff. And so that happened until the late nineties, when everyone was planning for the great millennium you know, the 2000 and Y2, right, right. And so we gathered everybody in my conference room over here and how, booty building, and down here in the galleria and they started you know, flip chart sheets, what do we want to accomplish? And blah, blah, blah, and and that the result of that was really, guys, you're not going to get any of this done unless you own it. And so we began to have some discussions about them buying the company, the, the franchisor, and that took about a year to negotiate, and during that process I was asked to come on as the new president and since and then we closed in June of 2001, and since that time I've been the acting and operational by president and CEO of the company, and one of the reasons that it appealed to me was it was the ultimate fixer-upper, because the company had really was kind of loosely held together but had an iconic brand, and so we started opening new locations with Young Optometrist and we're a brand license company. So we knew that the only way we could pick up a new customer, if you would be, if a young OD wanted to open their own practice and then we could help them do that. People that were established at the time and successful weren't interested in converting to a retail trade name, so we did. We opened up about 80 new locations and helped a lot of young ODs live a dream and had put together a whole turnkey system commercial realty contractors the whole nine yards. Chris: That's a fascinating history, you know, to kind of just see it grow so big in the beginning, get broken down and then almost come back together. Yeah with, I guess in 2001 you said, with these individual practice owners or franchisees becoming owners. John: That's, you know, kind of unique, especially for doctors yeah, it was a different approach to it, one of the reasons we can set it as a now. We never incorporated it as a cooperative, we incorporated it as for-profit. We simply chose to run it as a cooperative, which, by its nature of co-op, isn't intended to make money, right? So we could keep the services and the value of what we offer members very high because we priced it at a break-even point, and so it was very appealing to a lot of young ODs who needed that help without any experience knowing what to do. And, of course, we then had a retail trade name that had market appeal. So a lot of them benefited greatly by, as opposed, to, opening up under their own name and unknown in a community. Chris: Yeah, it gives it instant credibility with the brand name right. That's right. What are some of the things I guess that you know since that time in 2001, that you do and your team around you, to kind of help preserve that brand value, to make it marketable and enticing to these doctors. John: Well, part of it is the importance. An optometry practice as a small business has a very defined marketplace of about three radium miles Okay, so one. That's part of that is because there are so many options and the profession is a licensed profession and so there's a little bit of perception by consumers that it's a commodity. In other words, anybody who's got a license will be able to give you a good exam. Consumers at one time back in the 60s and 70s, thought mostly of wherever they got their exams. That's where they purchased their eyewear. Chris: Out of convenience, right Out of convenience. John: That's right. And in the 80s you had a much more proliferation of retail optical chains like LensCrafters and EyeMasters at the time and Pearl Vision, which were creating an awareness among consumers that you know what, I can get my exam in one location and I can buy my eyewear in another location, and so that added to that sense of commodity. And so what we've done is focus on a three mile marketplace. So instead of running one advertising campaign in Houston, we run 50 around each of our locations, and those are largely driven through community involvement, pay-per-click, you know, today pay-per-click In the beginning though, a lot of it was just getting to know your school nurse, getting to know the coaches in the league ball game, and so from a marketing strategy it was always hyper-local standpoint. And so if you go into some neighborhoods, everyone knows the TSO. If you go into an neighborhood where we have no location, maybe not so much, and that was done probably more just from a practical standpoint of cost than it was anything else, because you know Houston and Dallas. Where we're at in San Antonio, they're very expensive media markets and so if you've only got, you know, 20 locations in the DFW market to go in and try to buy television, advertising or something more traditional is prohibited, and so it makes a lot more sense because that's where people live and work. People ask me sometimes how do you go about picking your locations, your real estate stuff? And I said we tend to let Kroger and HEB do that for us. So, wherever they're at, we want to be close because that's a neighborhood. Chris: That's right. You figured they thought there were enough households to support a grocery store. So I like that, you know, uh, you know. There's a lesson there, though, for a business owner, an entrepreneur, in that you don't necessarily have to do all your own organic research if you don't know, aware what's going on, you can, you know, let someone else do some of that and just make sure that their end users look like yours, and that's right. John: They do a tremendous job, both of those companies, at understanding the market before they ever buy land or pour concrete. I'd hate to insult them by not taking advantage of all that good work they do. Chris: They're genius right, they're genius, that's right. You just mentioned, you said 30 different or 50 different marketing campaigns in Houston alone. I mean, how do you go about figuring out you know the right message for the right place? That must take a lot of work. John: Well, not so much I mean because the message in Sugar Land is the same as the message in the Woodlands. I mean people. While we, as as in our profession, try to complicate this, it's pretty simple from a consumer standpoint. They're looking for a place where they can get their eyes checked and buy a pair of glasses. But probably two-thirds of all of our revenue today come from a third-party payer. So that changes kind of the basic consumer behavior dynamic. But by putting out a message that really is focused on that group of people in terms of maximizing the value of those coverage benefits, that becomes real consistent and then it's a matter of just being louder than anybody else. Chris: Sure, while we're on the subject of that consumer and consumer behavior, what are some of the things that you have done over the last 10, 15 years to either combat the online competition, as you mentioned, because people get their eyes examined and they either go online or do something. How are you managing that and what are some of the strategies you found to be successful? John: Well, first of all, consumers are driven, and I think this may be generally true, but certainly our consumers are driven with the priority on convenience, and one of the reasons the online marketing purchase of eyewear is so appealing is its convenience, and oftentimes it's not a price issue as much as it is a convenience issue and assortment and selection. So one of the things that we focus on is to make sure that our retail dispensary that's what we call the retail store aspect of a practice is well inventoried with product and assortment price points, and then the ultimate differentiation is customer service and knowledgeable people, and so if you have selection pricing and knowledgeable people, it's a home run and you don't have to worry about it, because if you can make it convenient for them, then they're not tempted to go online. And because there's a lot of I don't know if you've ever bought a pair of shoes online, but all you need to do is have one bad experience with that and have to turn around, send them back and so forth and so on that people would really prefer to get it locally, where I got my, where they received their exam, and it's kind of hours to lose. So we try to make sure we don't give them a reason to leave. Chris: Yeah Well, it's an interesting analogy with the shoes, because I can relate to that and see that people like to try on shoes but also glasses right. John: What are these going to look? Chris: like, and if you're at a store with a good selection, it's all right there as opposed to ordering one or two online and knowing you're going to be returning something. Advert Hello friends, this is Chris Hanslick, your Building Texas business host. Did you know that Boyer Miller, the producer of this podcast, is a business law firm that works with entrepreneurs, corporations and business leaders? Our team of attorneys serve as strategic partners to businesses by providing legal guidance to organizations of all sizes. Get to know the firm at BoyerMillercom, and thanks for listening to the show. That's right, yes, well, that's it. So let's shift now kind of to this physician member network. What do you look for, if anything, as far as qualifying people to come into the brand, and then how do you help, kind of manage and support once they're in the network, if you will, to make sure that you're doing all you can to help them be successful? John: It's an interesting change we're seeing right now, especially in the last five to 10 years, and that is, the number of young optometrists who have an interest in owning their own practice is going away. Chris: It's really an interesting thing. John: One. It's very similar to what's going on in healthcare in general. You know, I was just talking to some people last week and I said you know when was the last time I asked them? I said do you have children? Yes, do you have a pediatrician? Yes, is that pediatrician private practice? Chris: No. John: It's owned by some big organization like Texas Children's, and what you're seeing in healthcare delivery at the provider level is a consolidation of these organizations and the disappearing of private practice, and we're seeing that now in optometry. And another big dynamic is 85% of all optometry graduates today are female, and in the 80s that number was just the opposite. It was very unusual in the 80s and early 90s to see women in optometry school. I mean they certainly didn't represent the majority. And so with that comes different priorities of practice. You know you don't have the hard-charging young guy who wants to go into small-town Texas and really build up a big practice or even a metro area. You have people that are much more interested in part-time, that I want to be able to step aside, raise my family, then maybe come back later, and so there's a whole different culture among the providers now coming in. So our organization as a business model relies on young optometrists wanting to own their own practice, and if that category is declining we've got to come up with some other plan here to maintain Sure. So one the opportunities we have are less. The vetting process is largely a discussion with very successful people. Our board of directors consists of nine doctors and three outside directors, but the nine doctors are all very successful. And so a young person does approach me and we talk, I want them to speak to one of our successful guys, and then their job is to kind of assess and come back to me and say, John, I don't know if she's ready, I don't know if he can do this, or I think this is a home run, let's go. And with their input and my discussion I've been doing it now long enough that I kind of get a feel for it Then we'll say let's go. And really it's a matter of they own everything. It's a matter of us guiding them through the process and then supporting them with just the knowledge they don't have about building a practice afterwards, and then lots of follow-up and hand-holding. Chris: And it's done. I think you said just as, basically a license agreement where they're licensing the name and brand and they get some support as a result of that as well. John: I mean contractually, I'm not obligated to support anything. Contractually I'm not obligated to support anything. All I'm obligated to do is to keep the value of the brand consistent with what they're paying for it. But I realized that if they're not successful, my brand value suffers. So we do all that we can to support them and help them be successful. Chris: So let's talk a little bit about your internal team. I mean, you've got a team I think you said 12, that's kind of help support you, that support these members. What have you found to be successful as you've gone through maybe trials and tribulations of hiring the right people, making sure you've got the right people in the right seat to kind of support the business and the brand? John: You know, that's a great question, because I, up until about 2015, I took a whole different approach to personnel than I did 2015 and on, and it was like I learned something, and that is I put together a group of really knowledgeable people in terms of their expertise in certain areas, but the quality that I had not paid attention to prior to that was they also had to be connectors. They had to be the kind of people that could say hey, chris, I know somebody you ought to talk to. And so because when a non-doctor walks into a doctor's office, even with the responsibility of helping, they carry a different level of credibility with that doctor than if a doctor told them something. If we go in and say, hey, listen, you need to be open Saturdays, because there's a lot of business on Saturdays, I don't want to do it. But if a doctor tells them, oh man, you got to be open Saturday, they'll listen to it. But if a doctor tells them, oh man, you've got to be open Saturday, they'll listen to it. And so our guys who are in the field, they do tactical training and support for staff, but when a doctor is facing an issue that they know the answer to, they in turn, seek out other leadership in the doctor community to say would you mind giving so-and-so a call Because I think you could help them get through whatever issue they're dealing with. And so that quality and frankly it's, you know it requires someone who doesn't have much of an ego. Sure, because you know I say this all the time like my old friend Ronald Reagan used to say, there's no limit to what you can accomplish if you don't care who gets the credit. Chris: Yeah. John: And so we take that approach, and ours isn't about trying to get a bunch of credit. Ours is about trying to lift up this organization and get these guys successful, and if we're simply a facilitator in information to how to do that, we don't have to be the initial provider of that information. Even if we know it, it comes much better from a colleague, and so that's one of the things that we put a lot of emphasis on is helping the network, help each other. Chris: So you know you were very quick to say 2015. Have you seen a dramatic improvement in the performance of the overall business since making that change and kind of focusing on the connector quality as being an additional important quality in the people you bring on? John: Very much so, because what Texas State Optical was in the beginning was a doctor-owned organization and doctors working with other doctors to help them grow a network and large business. We're trying to replicate that from the standpoint of, especially as the business, the structure we use I mentioned earlier as a cooperative. It requires doctor leadership to be active and engaged in running their own company, their owners of the company, and so, while I have certainly an important role in that, the more doctors that engage in the leadership of the organization, the better it is overall. And since we took that intentional effort in 2015, a couple of things too. We had a kind of an evolution of membership. I mean, we had a lot of our older doctors retire and sell practices, and then we had a whole influx of young doctors, and so we ended up in 2015 with an organization that was significantly different demographically, both age and gender. That was significantly different demographically, both age and gender. But we thought they need mentorship among the leadership in the organization, and so we worked at creating that for them, and it impacts not just clinical I mean, there's also that aspect of it they're learning clinically from friends but operationally, and so it made a big difference Very good. Chris: I know that you have supply agreements with certain labs and other things. Let's talk about some of the things that you found to be successful in maintaining, I guess, forming those kind of key strategic relationships for the business, and maybe some of the things you do to make sure that you foster and keep them strong of the things you do to make sure that you foster and keep them strong. John: Well, in the vendor-doctor community there is a kind of an assumption made by both sides, and one is the doctor assumes that the vendor's got more money than they know how to spend or what they've got all this money to spend, and the vendor assumes the doctor's not going to follow through on all the promises they make. So that's kind of where we start at the table, and so I think it's important and what we've worked at bringing to our relationships is mutual accountability, and we have found our vendor partners to be extremely invested in our success, but at the same time they've got a business to run as well, and so our success with them and that dynamic of that exchange or relationship cannot be at the vendor's expense. It's gotta be the classic cliche win type of thing, but you only get win if you have mutual accountability. And so in every agreement we have, here's what the vendor commits to and here's what the doctor community commits to. And then we have business reviews where we sit down and say here's where we're dropping the ball or here's where you're dropping the ball, and we hold that accountability does a long goes a long way to not only making the relationship productive but also building trust and longevity into those partnerships, because if you're making money with a partner, you don't want it to stop, right, you know? And that goes both ways If you're a doctor making money with a partner, you don't want it to stop, and if money with a partner, you don't want it to stop, and if you're a partner, you don't want to stop. So I found that type of mutual accountability and the willingness to be held accountable is critical to those relationships Very good. Chris: So you know. Talk a little bit about leadership. You've been running this organization for a long time now. How would you describe your leadership style and how do you think that's evolved over time? John: well, I would. I don't know if I've ever been asked to describe it, but I would say it's Maxwellian. Okay, and that means John C Maxwell, who is an author, has written a number of books on leadership and, in my opinion, probably is the most the best leadership author. I'm biased, of course, but I think he is. Forbes Magazine said that a few years ago, but basically his definition of leadership is influence. Nothing more, nothing less. It's just influence. And an example of that is if you walk into a room of people, you're naturally going to notice someone who's exercising influence on others, and it isn't an authoritarian way, it's in a trust and credibility way. And so if you're influencing, you're leading. If you're not, it doesn no matter what title you have. So an example is my when I explained how we use doctors to help influence other doctors. So that's a level of influence that doesn't come because I require somebody to do something. It it occurs because you're able to influence others to to make a difference. So I would. I'm a big believer in that. I'll plug his book. There are 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership. It's a classic, and so that's like a Bible. It's my business Bible in terms of leadership style. Chris: I was going to use that word because others and it's fair to plug books, because sometimes I ask people what's a book you would recommend. We hear a lot of good to great from people Sure, jim Collins. But what I love what you said if you're influencing, you're leading, because I say a lot of times a true leader leads without a title. John: Right, you're actually doing things without the title to demonstrate leadership, which is what you're talking about Exactly, and if you do have the title and can influence, it's a home run. It's a home run, yeah. Chris: So you've learned that through lots of trials and tribulations. I think we all learn through mistakes or setbacks Anything you could share with the listeners about a decision made that didn't go the way you thought but you learned from it and that learning kind of catapulted you made you better because of it. Setback, failure whatever word you want to describe Anything you could you care to share in that realm. John: Sure the. So I came to Houston. I was born and raised in Western Kansas and I was in Wichita born and raised in western Kansas, and I was in Wichita, kansas, in 1989, excuse me, in the late 80s, 84, 89 era and I was working for a large ophthalmology practice up there as a marketing administrator and in that role I attended a lot of national meetings in ophthalmology and during that meeting I met an owner of a large Houston ophthalmology and during that meeting I met an owner of a large Houston ophthalmology group who ended up offering me a job and I came to Texas. Due to some marketing challenges we were facing at that practice, I was introduced to Texas State Optical while I was at that practice and then left after about four years, left that practice and went to a consumer research firm here in Stafford and quickly turned around and went to Texas State Optical to see if they would like to buy some insurance I'm not insurance, buy some research and they did so. I ended up doing this large project for them but also ended up doing a ton of work for HLMP. During the time they were prepared to try to go to battle with Enron and this was like early nineties, right, and so everything was going well. And then I get fired from the research thing. Now I moved my family down from Kansas. I've been in the state about five and a half years and I get fired. I've been in the state about five and a half years and I get fired. And that was a big you know. Anytime you've been fired, that kind of devastates you Right, it shakes you up. Chris: Yeah, it does. John: But had that not happened, I wouldn't be doing what I'm doing Right, and so I have learned, and what pulled me through that is faith, Faith in God and faith in myself is faith, faith in God and faith in myself, and I felt like I can do, kind of what. There was a part of it, chris, that was liberating, because that was like, instead of thinking now what am I going to do, I was thinking now what am I going to do. I mean, it was a whole different frame of attitude and that subsequently ended up leading to the position I have today, through working with franchisees at Texas State Optical and so forth. Chris: That's a great story. Thank you for sharing. You bet A lot of people don't want to talk about, especially if they've been fired for something. But to your point on that, these other opportunities would have never presented themselves right, because you likely stayed in the comfort of the job and seeing where that takes you. You know there's so much that can come. John: Actually, I'd gone to that research firm. The owner of it had brought me there with the promise implied I mean not implied, but it wasn't in writing but the idea was that I would take over that firm at some point and it turned out that didn't work out Well you know a lot of what you, I think, describe. Chris: The undertone to that is the mindset you had in the wake of that setback. You know you didn't let it take you down. You're like like you said what am I going to go? Do I got all these opportunities and go? Explore and figure it out. John: So I had about 30 days before the next house payment came, so that you were acting quick, got to be decisive man. Chris: You can't be stewing on decisions forever, for sure, well, that and so you know that leadership, you know is forged and helped you get to where you are today. You know, when you, when you think about applying that mindset and that leadership kind of style, how does it help you kind of navigate the ups and downs of the economic cycles that we've experienced over the last 20 plus years? John: Well, you know, first of all is to understand which of these cycles are cyclical. That's a little redundant, but I mean, what is it we're going through that's cyclical. That you can. You know, business loves a stable and predictable environment. Right Now, the reality is it's ups and downs. But if it's ups and downs within a certain range of up and down, it's stable right, and you can prepare for it Certain tolerances right, yeah certain tolerances. What we've seen, not only in the economy and that's a whole different issue but what we've seen in the profession itself and the consolidation of private practice by private equity that's come into the marketplace, is we're seeing disruption like we haven't seen before. And I was talking to one of our board members doctor board members about it and we were just, you know, he was pointing out all of the things that are kind of out without from under excuse me, out of our control, and as we were talking about it, I had this thought and I told him. I said it's a great time to be alive and that because we're the ones that get to go through this, and in many ways I believe that our profession is going through a transformation that will take probably a 20 year period of time. But 40 years from now, optometry, I don't think, will look anything like it does today, and it's always bumpy to be in the middle of that turbulent transformation. The 80s were very steady, the 90s were pretty steady. It was in starting about 2010, 2000, that things started rapidly changing and then the acceleration with just technology and everything else is just gone, and then you've got now the whole world of artificial intelligence coming into play and it's. I consider it exciting, invigorating, challenging, but I mean what's? The alternative is to be bored right. Chris: Well, if you don't adopt and if you're not using it, you die use it you die, that's right. So I mean, you know, kind of it's a great segue to what are some of the things you do to kind of foster that maybe innovative mindset of how you're going to embrace the technological changes and use them in the business model to further the brand and the business. John: So I there's very little I can do without the support of the doctor, owner, community right. And sometimes there's a lot of indecision, because when you're not sure what to do, you're scared of doing the wrong thing. Chris: Sure, Well, it seems like you got a lot of opinions that out there too, right? John: You got a lot of them, and so what I have to do is to influence them through other people and through information, to get them to a point of being open enough to consider ideas that they might consider kind of sacrilege in some case. For instance, what is real common in most optometry practices today is what's called an autorefractor. It's a machine that people go through and it gives you a prescription, and the prescription is used by the doctor to zero in on where your visual acuity is right. Well, when that first came out, optometrists thought that was the end of the profession. Here's a machine that'll do what I'm doing. Optometrists thought that was the end of the profession. Here's a machine that'll do what I'm doing. And so there's a fear oftentimes of innovation. Right, that you have to assure people that there's a way to use this to our benefit, and that's what we're going through with artificial intelligence right now. One group is scared to death. It's going to replace them. The other group is glad they're old enough, they're probably not going to have to go through with it. And then you're looking for those people who say, hey, how can we utilize this to really to our benefit? Yeah, and once people feel that's safe enough to kind of try. Then the people realize that the fear is misplaced. Chris: So true, right, but it takes education, information and influence, as you said, to get people to get there so that they can adopt it One of the things that I teach my team to say. John: I mean to believe, and I say it all the time is we believe in everybody's right to make a bad decision. So if someone listens to us and they choose not to do what we're recommending and we know it's a good decision what we're recommending and they choose not to, it's their right. You know, I mean everybody's right to waste their own money. So that kind of patience is necessary with a group like ours. In many ways it's like working with a volunteer organization. Chris: Yeah, well, lots of challenges there, I'm sure. Well, john, this has been a great conversation. I really appreciate you sharing everything I want to ask you, I guess, going back to your days, you know, I guess growing up in Kansas what was your first job? John: A drugstore Rexall drugstore and I grew up in a town of 2000 people and my dad was the family physician of the community and so of course in a town like that in western Kansas the doctor and the pharmacist are close relationship. And so I got my first job at a drugstore, working a soda fountain, delivering prescriptions, restocking things. Like that had a blast and that really I learned a lot in that, not just like everybody learns a lot from their first job, but understanding. I was intrigued by Rexall. I don't know how familiar you are with Rexall, but Rexall was a national organization that gave private ownership of drugstores the purchasing power of a large corporate chain, and so my employer was the pharmacist. He owned the drug store and he stood up in the stand in the dais every day counting pills and chatting with people. So that was my first job. Chris: Very good. Well, you've been in Texas now since what the late? John: 80s. Chris: So do you prefer Tex-Mex or barbecue Barbecue? Okay. John: Barbecue Very good. My waistline prefers barbecue. Chris: And last thing if you could take a 30-day sabbatical, where would you go and what would you do? I don't know, Probably nuts. John: I just I've got to be engaged and I mean I don't have to be. I'm not select. I love business and I love the challenge it has. So I'm not I don't. You said earlier in our discussion about you were describing about the law firm. When I was doing consumer research, I did some healthcare work 12 Oaks Hospital was a client and so but I would tell people, is I specialize in a process, not an industry, because the process is the same and I would say that's what I really love about business, because when you boil it down to what I do and what you do and others that run businesses, it's the same process. It's understanding your customer and then directing how your services or products benefit that customer and communicating and the whole marketing scheme of promotion, price, product and place applies to every industry. And so I'd probably do something if I had 30 days. Like I said, I'd go nuts. Chris: Well, but I think what you just said there in the end is you have great insight and learning for business owners and entrepreneurs out there. You're trying to find their way. It's it is figure out what the consumer that you're catering to really wants and then deliver that as efficient as best you can that's why you know my, when I first got into consumer research, I thought this is like cheating. John: I mean you're actually going out and saying what do you want? They tell you, and then you give it to them. I mean it's like, it's amazing. Chris: Yeah, right, so well, this has been great, John. Thanks again for taking the time. You bet I really appreciate your invitation. Special Guest: John D Marvin.

Sophie Boulanger, co-founder of BonLook, dives into how the company shook up Canada's eyewear scene. Sophie talks about her entrepreneurial path, inspired by her family and shaped by her experiences at L'Oreal Canada and Luxottica. They delve into BonLook's inception and strategic decisions, including cutting out middlemen, expanding store presence, and picking prime locations, along with insights on hiring for retail. Finally, Sophie discusses why she sold BonLook, her future aspirations, and her intention to remain active in tech and entrepreneurship.- - - - - - - - - - - -BonLook website https://www.bonlook.ca/BonLook Instagram https://www.instagram.com/bonlook/Sophie Boulanger https://www.linkedin.com/in/sophie-boulanger-19b2b71/- - - - - - - - - - - -Show Notes:02:44 From corporate to eyewear entrepreneur04:57 Disrupting the eyewear industry10:51 Challenges and innovations in online retail13:09 The strategic shift to brick-and-mortar stores21:19 Building a successful retail team25:43 The financial anatomy of a retail store29:05 Optimizing sales per square footage30:22 Navigating challenges of underperforming stores32:06 The importance of real estate and lease negotiations35:10 Reflecting on a successful exit strategy- - - - - - - - - - - - Links DiscussedL'Oreal https://www.loreal.com/Luxottica https://www.essilorluxottica.com/Oakley https://www.oakley.com/Ray Ban https://www.ray-ban.com/Vogue Eyewear https://www.vogue-eyewear.com/LensCrafters https://www.lenscrafters.ca/SunglassesHut https://www.sunglasshut.com/Warby Parker https://warbyparker.com/- - - - - - - - - - - - Additional Episodes You Might Enjoy:How Slowtide Turned Towels Cool and Built a Multi-Million Dollar Business in the ProcessHow Product Seeding Helped Scent Lab Garner Millions in Earned MediaHow Deux Harnessed TikTok to Challenge Incumbents like Pillsbury, Nestle and Hostess- - - - - - - - - - - - Past guests on the Pop Up Report include Lanny Smith (Actively Black), Drew Green (Indochino), Ryan Babenzien (Jolie Skin Co). - - - - - - - - - - - - The Pop Up Report interviews DTC and CPG founders to uncover how they fostered and scaled their communities to create profitable businesses. Gain a deeper understanding of the tools, tactics and retention strategies that build true customer loyalty.Subscribe to the Pop Up Report on Substack or YouTube for more. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.thepopupreport.com

Episode 195:   “More blood, more nudity, more CGI-enhanced penises”  For this episode the guys ‘battle it out' in the debate arena for what is the Top 5 Gladiator stories in film and TV. Also considered is the best use of eyewear in film.·        Michael Caine breaks out his old glasses from 1965.·        Jim's humiliating incident  with John Lennon spectacles·        The gladiator story template·        The symbolism of the Terminator's shades·        What is the ‘Godfather of Gladiator Flicks'?·        “We didn't land on Lens Crafters. Lens Crafters was landed on us.”·        Ridley Scott surprises everyone with a genre-revitalizing tale.·        The time that Joseph hijacked Miss Mabry's English class to teach ‘true' Greek mythology.  

This week the boys are joined by actor Tina Nikolova to discuss the new pricing models of our favorite- or most popular- streaming services, New York City's infrastructure, and the 2008 movie year, with our feature segment discussing The Strangers! While not mentioned in the pantheon of great horror movies, its relatability and stream-ability made it worthy of our conversation.  Find all of our Socials at: https://linktr.ee/theloveofcinema.  
Our phone number is 646-484-9298, it accepts texts or voice messages.  0:00 Intro + Streaming Prices + Gripes; 13:52 2008 + The Strangers; 53:04 What You Been Watching? Additional Cast/Crew: Bryan Bertino, Peter Sova, Liv Tyler, Scott Speedman, Glenn Howerton.  Dasein on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/artist/77H3GPgYigeKNlZKGx11KZ  Dasein on Apple Music: https://music.apple.com/us/artist/dasein/1637517407 Additional Tags: 2008, AirBnB, Surfing, Tubing, Los Angeles, Portland, Oregon, Hawaii, Dasein, Bonnie & Clyde,, Chinatown, Dies Ires, Rosemary's Baby, Febreze, Killers of the Flower Moon, Martin Scorsese, Leonardo DiCaprio, Robert DeNiro, Earnest, Lucy, Osage Tribe, Australia, Formula 1, Lewis Hamilton, Max Verstappen, Pierre Gasly, Fernando Alonso, Daniel Ricciardo, Oscar Piastri, Red Bull, Le Mans, Grand Prix, Writer's Strike, WGA, Queensland, Adelaide, Melbourne, The Philippines, Tokyo, Sony, Playstation, Simulation, Blood Diamond, The Spice Girls, Christian Horner, Downton Abbey, Nissan, Spotify, residuals, classic studio system, Duane Reade, Target, CVS, Bed, Bath, & Beyond, Walgreens, Apple+, Apple TV, Netflix, Amazon Prime, TikTok, Twitch, Stranger Things, Haas, Gunther Steiner, Concord, NC, New Jersey, Upper West Side, West Village, The Notebook, It, The Edge of Seventeen, LensCrafters. 

This week the boys' human spirit is alive as John turns into a meat waffle to give a mini review of The Holdovers, Dave's gotta go down with a gripe about Hulu and The X-Files, and Jeff takes the skin off the chicken to give us some 1991 context before we discuss re-watching Point Break, Kathryn Bigelow's original IP that would inspire the Fast & Furious franchise, without a doubt. If you'd rather surf then work and you don't want to sell meth like that other surf crew, put on some president maps, avoid the vault, and you'll be tubing all season long!  Find all of our Socials at: https://linktr.ee/theloveofcinema.  
Our phone number is 646-484-9298, it accepts texts or voice messages.  0:00 Intro; 03:48 The Holdovers mini review; 12:03 1991 + Point Break; 1:03:04 What You Been Watching? Additional Cast/Crew: Kathryn Bigelow, Keanu Reeves, Patrick Swayze, Gary Busey, John C. McGinley, Rock King, W. Peter Iliff, Lori Petty, James Le Gros, Bojeese Christopher, Chris Pedersen, Anthony Kids, Lee Tergesen, Mark Isham, Donald Peterman, Paul Giamatti, Alexander Payne. Dasein on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/artist/77H3GPgYigeKNlZKGx11KZ  Dasein on Apple Music: https://music.apple.com/us/artist/dasein/1637517407 Additional Tags: Surfing, Tubing, Los Angeles, Portland, Oregon, Hawaii, Dasein, Bonnie & Clyde,, Chinatown, Dies Ires, Rosemary's Baby, Febreze, Killers of the Flower Moon, Martin Scorsese, Leonardo DiCaprio, Robert DeNiro, Earnest, Lucy, Osage Tribe, Australia, Formula 1, Lewis Hamilton, Max Verstappen, Pierre Gasly, Fernando Alonso, Daniel Ricciardo, Oscar Piastri, Red Bull, Le Mans, Grand Prix, Writer's Strike, WGA, Queensland, Adelaide, Melbourne, The Philippines, Tokyo, Sony, Playstation, Simulation, Blood Diamond, The Spice Girls, Christian Horner, Downton Abbey, Nissan, Spotify, residuals, classic studio system, Duane Reade, Target, CVS, Bed, Bath, & Beyond, Walgreens, Apple+, Apple TV, Netflix, Amazon Prime, TikTok, Twitch, Stranger Things, Haas, Gunther Steiner, Concord, NC, New Jersey, Upper West Side, West Village, The Notebook, It, The Edge of Seventeen, LensCrafters.     

This week the boys are joined once again by DASEIN AKA Brandon Say to give us an update on his upcoming new music release and films of 1976, featuring Roman Polanski's follow-up to Chinatown, THE TENANT. After a spoiler-free mini review of KILLERS OF THE FLOWER MOON, we discuss this chiller about paranoia that makes you wonder a lot of things, namely why everyone in Paris in 1976 has an American accent.  Find all of our Socials at: https://linktr.ee/theloveofcinema. 0:00 Intro/DASEIN/Gripes; 09:42 Killers of the Flower Moon mini review; 20:53 1976 + The Tenant; 1:15:57 What You Been Watching?   Dasein on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/artist/77H3GPgYigeKNlZKGx11KZ  Dasein on Apple Music: https://music.apple.com/us/artist/dasein/1637517407 Our phone number is 646-484-9298, it accepts texts or voice messages.    Additional Cast/Crew: Roman Polanski, Isabelle Adjani, Melvyn Douglas, Jo Van Fleet, Lila Kedrova, Bernard Fresson, Claude Dauphin, Philippe Sarde, Sven Nykvist Additional Tags: Dasein, The Pianist, Chinatown, Dies Ires, Rosemary's Baby, Febreze, Killers of the Flower Moon, Martin Scorsese, Leonardo DiCaprio, Robert DeNiro, Earnest, Lucy, Osage Tribe, Australia, Formula 1, Lewis Hamilton, Max Verstappen, Pierre Gasly, Fernando Alonso, Daniel Ricciardo, Oscar Piastri, Red Bull, Le Mans, Grand Prix, Writer's Strike, WGA, Queensland, Adelaide, Melbourne, The Philippines, Tokyo, Sony, Playstation, Simulation, Blood Diamond, The Spice Girls, Christian Horner, Downton Abbey, Nissan, Spotify, residuals, classic studio system, Duane Reade, Target, CVS, Bed, Bath, & Beyond, Walgreens, Apple+, Apple TV, Netflix, Amazon Prime, TikTok, Twitch, Stranger Things, Haas, Gunther Steiner, Concord, NC, New Jersey, Upper West Side, West Village, The Notebook, It, The Edge of Seventeen, LensCrafters. 

Niccole Thurman is back on JJGo! for a conversation about famous internet dogs, a Lenscrafters commercial she was in, and a horrifying ad for a slot machine app starring Sharon Stone. Jordan wrote a brand new graphic novel called Youth Group which you can pre-order now from MegaBrain Comics, and if you pre-order from there you get $5 offGet your tickets to see Jesse Thorn and John Hodgman on the Van Freaks Road Show Tour 2023. Most importantly, if you are in the San Francisco Bay Area on Tuesday October 17th at 8pm, producer Matt Lieb and his wife Francesca Fiorentini will be headlining the Punch Line comedy club in San Francisco. Get your tickets NOW!You want a bumper sticker hand-packed personally by Jesse Thorn? Here's how it get one. Please send a 5 dollar bill in a self addressed stamped envelope to: Jordan, Jesse, Go! Sticker Offer 2404 Wilshire Blvd, #9A Los Angeles, CA 90057All proceeds will first go into a nice jug we have in the office, and then will be given to the organization Al Otro Lado. And for every person who posts a picture of themselves with the bumper stick using the hashtag #JJGO, Jordan and Jesse will each put a dollar in the jug.Go to ZipRecruiter.com/JJGo to try ZipRecruiter FOR FREE.

Ashley Pope is an incredible woman by any standard. She grew up mostly in the Ventura area of Southern California. She went to school graduating like any high school senior. She tried college and found that it wasn't for her. She had been working at a department store while in high school and for a bit after that including when she decided college was not her forte.   She spent a few years working in sales for an ophthalmological company before opening her own spice and tea shop in Ventura at the age of 23. During this time her son was born. At the age of two, he was diagnosed as being autistic. Ashley learned how to be a fierce advocate for him and joined forces with Autism Society Ventura where she now serves as president.   Ashley sold her business and took a position with the Ventura Chamber of Commerce to have the time to devote to her son's needs.   Life wasn't done throwing curves at Ashley. In 2020 she was feeling some health issues of her own. She thought they were stress-related. After a STAT MRI's ended in a diagnosis of Multiple Sclerosis she now had not only to advocate for her son but for herself as well.   You will see from listening to Ashley that she is as unstoppable as it gets. She is by any standard the kind of person I am honored to know and I do hope we will hear more from her in the future.     About the Guest:   Ashley Pope is 33 years old and lives in beautiful Ventura, California with her husband Carlos and their 10-year-old son, Gavin. She is employed by the Ventura Chamber of Commerce as a Membership Development Manager. She feels fortunate to get to work with the business community, including small businesses and non-profit organizations. Ashley is an entrepreneur, having owed a spice and tea store Downtown Ventura for 6 years before selling it, all before the age of 30. During that time, she was acknowledged for being a young business owner, most notably in the Wells Fargo Works national competition and by the National Association of Women Business Owners when she was awarded Young Entrepreneur of the Year in 2015.   Ashley is also a passionate volunteer. She has worked countless hours as a volunteer for Autism Society Ventura County- a role that doubles as a hobby! She is currently the President of the organization and has served on the board for 6 years. The projects that bring her the most joy are centered around workforce development, advocacy, changing the local narrative around Autism one family at a time, and obtaining large grants to put on new meaningful projects and programs in Ventura County. Ashley is also a 7 year Rotarian with Rotary Club of Ventura East.   In 2015, when her son was 2 years old, he was diagnosed with Autism. This diagnosis rocked her world and sent her family on a quest for services and to understand what this meant for her son. Acceptance wasn't immediate, but it was fast. Ashley became a passionate advocate and began to help other families whenever she could. This quest for more led her to Autism Society Ventura County, where she was able to combine her energy with other advocates for greater impact. She credits the organization with empowering her with the knowledge and experience to be the best mom she can be. By the end of 2016, Ashley was known in her community as a disability advocate.   In 2020, Ashley came into another challenge. She had been experiencing some strange medical symptoms that she wrote off as stress induced. She was shocked when STAT MRI's ended in a diagnosis of Multiple Sclerosis. Ashley didn't know much about the condition, only that it was debilitating. She quickly learned that unlike Autism, there wasn't much fun or interesting about progressive multiple sclerosis. She is currently in the process of coming to acceptance of her own limitations and grappling with her sense of self as her ability to do a lot changes.   Through her experience with her son, Ashley has learned that the ability to communicate is a gift and is motivated to share her story, even when she feels vulnerable.   Ashley loves to read, spend time with her family, and loves her 2 cats Scarlett and Pebbles and her dog Donut.   Ways to connect with Ashley:   Instagram: VenturawithAshley Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ashley.pope.10/     About the Host: Michael Hingson is a New York Times best-selling author, international lecturer, and Chief Vision Officer for accessiBe. Michael, blind since birth, survived the 9/11 attacks with the help of his guide dog Roselle. This story is the subject of his best-selling book, Thunder Dog.   Michael gives over 100 presentations around the world each year speaking to influential groups such as Exxon Mobile, AT&T, Federal Express, Scripps College, Rutgers University, Children's Hospital, and the American Red Cross just to name a few. He is Ambassador for the National Braille Literacy Campaign for the National Federation of the Blind and also serves as Ambassador for the American Humane Association's 2012 Hero Dog Awards.   https://michaelhingson.com https://www.facebook.com/michael.hingson.author.speaker/ https://twitter.com/mhingson https://www.youtube.com/user/mhingson https://www.linkedin.com/in/michaelhingson/   accessiBe Links https://accessibe.com/ https://www.youtube.com/c/accessiBe https://www.linkedin.com/company/accessibe/mycompany/ https://www.facebook.com/accessibe/       Thanks for listening! Thanks so much for listening to our podcast! If you enjoyed this episode and think that others could benefit from listening, please share it using the social media buttons on this page. Do you have some feedback or questions about this episode? Leave a comment in the section below!   Subscribe to the podcast If you would like to get automatic updates of new podcast episodes, you can subscribe to the podcast on Apple Podcasts or Stitcher. You can also subscribe in your favorite podcast app.   Leave us an Apple Podcasts review Ratings and reviews from our listeners are extremely valuable to us and greatly appreciated. They help our podcast rank higher on Apple Podcasts, which exposes our show to more awesome listeners like you. If you have a minute, please leave an honest review on Apple Podcasts.     Transcription Notes Michael Hingson ** 00:00 Access Cast and accessiBe Initiative presents Unstoppable Mindset. The podcast where inclusion, diversity and the unexpected meet. Hi, I'm Michael Hingson, Chief Vision Officer for accessiBe and the author of the number one New York Times bestselling book, Thunder dog, the story of a blind man, his guide dog and the triumph of trust. Thanks for joining me on my podcast as we explore our own blinding fears of inclusion unacceptance and our resistance to change. We will discover the idea that no matter the situation, or the people we encounter, our own fears, and prejudices often are our strongest barriers to moving forward. The unstoppable mindset podcast is sponsored by accessiBe, that's a c c e s s i  capital B e. Visit www.accessibe.com to learn how you can make your website accessible for persons with disabilities. And to help make the internet fully inclusive by the year 2025. Glad you dropped by we're happy to meet you and to have you here with us.   Michael Hingson ** 01:21 Well, hello once again. And yep, you are absolutely right. This is unstoppable mindset. We're inclusion, diversity in the unexpected meet. And it's always fun when we get to have a lot of all of that kind of stuff on here. I'm your host, Mike hingson. We're really glad you're here with us today. And today we have a guest Ashley Pope, then Ashley would be a person I would describe as an unstoppable mom advocate and she'll tell you all about why that's the case. But that's a good description to start with. Anyway, we've been working on getting this all set up for a while and we finally got it done. And here we are. And Ashley, thank you for coming on. And welcome to unstoppable mindset.   Ashley Pope ** 02:03 Thank you so much. I'm so happy to be here with you today.   Michael Hingson ** 02:06 And I am not really if you want to get technical everyone totally pleased with Ashley because she lives in Ventura, California, and I wish I were there. But no Victorville is really okay. Ventura is a nice seaside town, and there's a lot of value in being there. And it's a wonderful place and not too far from where I live. So I could get a ride there within a couple of hours or so. So not complaining too much. Right, Ashley?   Ashley Pope ** 02:33 That's right, Ventura Great.   Michael Hingson ** 02:35 Well, let's start by maybe learning a little bit about kind of the earlier Ashley, you growing up and all that kind of stuff. And we'll, we'll take it from there.   Ashley Pope ** 02:44 Yeah. So I grew up right here in Ventura, California, which is about halfway between Santa Barbara and Los Angeles and super sunny, beautiful place to live. And it's a wonderful place to grow up. And I have a brother and a sister and you know, my parents, we all just grew up here and and I think I think the universe all the time for allowing you to grow up and such a gorgeous place with wonderful people. I really don't think there's anywhere better in the world. And then, shortly after high school, I just jumped right into actually working full time before high school even ended. And I just always have had a really strong work ethic and a really big passion for whatever work I was doing. I never expected that I would find myself in disability advocacy, that's for sure. This is where I landed and I'm grateful to be here as well.   Michael Hingson ** 03:43 So you didn't go to college?   Ashley Pope ** 03:45 No, I did for a little bit. I went to MIT for college. Okay, great. Yeah. And I dropped out. I have I have a short attention span so I knew pretty quickly that college was not my thing. It was really hard for me to sit down and sit still I've always learned better by using my hands and my mind and getting out there and I chose the work route which you know, pros and cons but no regrets at all.   Michael Hingson ** 04:14 Well, and that's really the issue isn't that you are you're happy with what you're doing? There are no regrets. You can always do shoulda, coulda, woulda, and what good does it get us anyway?   Ashley Pope ** 04:24 Absolutely. I actually bought a business at the age of 23. A retail store in beautiful downtown Ventura. And I consider that to be my college experience. I had it for six years. And there's there's no business experience like that experience, that's for sure.   Michael Hingson ** 04:43 And what happened to the business? I sold it. See there you go. So you beat the odds first of all, because they say that typically most startups don't last five years. Not only is it yours last but then you sold it. So you can't do better than that. Unless you wanted to stay in it and there are a lot of reason Since not to necessarily do that, as I'm sure we're gonna discover, but what were you doing? You said you were working even in high school?   Ashley Pope ** 05:08 Yeah, I worked at Macy's. So when I was in high school, my parents moved to Sacramento, my dad's job got transferred. And I kind of refused to start new in high school and opted instead to do homeschooling and ended up working full time at Macy's, while homeschooling for a year, and then I moved back to Ventura to graduate, and kept the job. And shortly after graduating high school, I went on to work at LensCrafters, which was a great management experience and really taught me a lot. I think my days at LensCrafters really helped to prepare me for advocacy in a lot of ways it you know, just working with people who have vision impairments, or have medical issues and need the glasses to see it was really enlightening for me honestly, that to think somebody could lose a pair of glasses or break a pair of glasses and then be unable to see the world and maybe not have the accommodations that they needed to pick glasses right away. Rather, it was financial or transportation restraints, just to have somebody kind of be left without resources for maybe a week before they could get in for an appointment. It was really it was enlightening. For sure. It's pretty cool to to witness that.   Michael Hingson ** 06:39 It's kind of an off the topic question. But I'm just curious, it sort of pops into my head. How do we get people to recognize that eyesight is not the only game in town, and even if you lose your glasses, it's not the end of the world.   Ashley Pope ** 06:52 I mean, I think it is the end of the world in first moments, right? In the first moments, in the first moments, you see, oh my gosh, I can't work, I can't drive. I can't be an effective parent. I can't help my kid with their homework. It's like you have to learn how to deal with what life gives you. But if you only have a week to figure it   Michael Hingson ** 07:15 out, oh, yeah, that's not a lot of time.   Ashley Pope ** 07:19 But you're absolutely right. I mean, that's one thing I did not learn from LensCrafters. But maybe I learned later down the road, is that these things are not life or death. Right? It's, it's not. It's not the end of the world. You're absolutely right. But it's the end of that person's world when they have a week worth of plans that they can no longer make. It feels like the end of their world. And perhaps that's an issue with America and with the world as it is more than it is the way that those individuals were thinking,   Michael Hingson ** 07:54 Yeah, we teach. We teach people so much that I say it's the only game in town and I and I understand why for most people, it really is because that's what they know. The other part about it, and we talked about it here every so often is that somehow we've got to get away from using the term vision impairment, because for visual impairment, because we're not impaired. And people who don't hear well would shoot you if you said they were hearing impaired because they recognize it impaired means you're really comparing it with something, rather than saying, hard of hearing. And likewise, with people who are blind or low vision, that's a much better way to put it than blind or visually impaired visually, we're not different and impaired as also an inappropriate thing. But we're still a long way from getting people to understand that language. And that doesn't help people thinking that it's the end of the world. But I appreciate it. And and the reality is it's an education process. And hopefully over time, it will be something where we'll have better revolution.   Ashley Pope ** 08:58 Thank you, Michael, it. It is an educational process. And there's so many, we've we're always changing and always evolving. And that's something I didn't know I do remember prometrics at one point telling me that we should never say blind, right? And it seems like we've gone backwards or gone forwards but like it's like what used to be acceptable for a while was no longer acceptable, such as like person first language. That's another thing with autism. Like you don't say autistic, you say a person with autism. And then now we're going back to know the person that is who they are. That's part of their culture that they want to claim and part of their identity. So now we got to stick. And we always want to be respectful of the language that one wants to use in the language that's culturally appropriate and no, that's super valid. And thank you so much for for sharing.   Michael Hingson ** 09:55 Well, in the case of blind for example, and I think there are reasons why optometrists should ophthalmologists think that I'll get to that in a second. But the real issue is that blind and low vision is and or are characteristics. And the issue isn't politically correct or not the issue is accurate and how it really classifies people. And that's why the whole idea of impaired is a problem. From my perspective, the optometrist, you talked about his blind impaired, why is that any different than being blind, you know, a, maybe a better way to put it is that guy's light dependent, and he'd be in a world of hurt if the power suddenly went out in his office, and he didn't have a window to allow sunlight in. But he didn't have a smartphone right close by to be able to turn it on for a flashlight. And most people in the world are like dependent. And that's all they know, that I don't expect everyone to necessarily get to the point up front where they're experts and won't panic. But they sure also ought not to assume that just because some people aren't like them, that we're not just as capable. And of course, that gets back to the whole issue of disability does not mean lack of ability, which is something you understand very well. Absolutely. So you sold your business. Cool. That was great. What was your business?   Ashley Pope ** 11:26 It was a spice and tea store, downtown Ventura, and it's very much still there and the new owners are not new anymore. It's been four years. They are absolutely amazing. The store is called spice topia. And it's right on the 500 block of Main Street, downtown Ventura, and I love the tan family. If you drop in, you should definitely spend a lot of money and and visit the family.   Michael Hingson ** 11:52 Well, only we'll go with you. We'll have to get to Venter and do that. I've been a great fan of some Well, vibrant British teas, but I like green tea and other other teas as well. I've never been the coffee drinker and I don't know why. But I've always been since I started drinking hot drinks more of a tea drinker. Of course, I can always be spoiled with hot chocolate, but that's another story.   Ashley Pope ** 12:15 Same same. I love chocolate bars. I'm not so much of a coffee drinker anymore, either.   Michael Hingson ** 12:21 Nothing wrong with hot chocolate.   Ashley Pope ** 12:24 Especially with whipped cream. Yep. Absolutely. Do it.   Michael Hingson ** 12:28 Make it with milk? Yep. We, my wife and I in the winter would get Starbucks cocoa from Costco. And we would make it with milk never water. And so always tastes great. Yeah, spoiled me. I might just have to have some anyway today just because. Well, that comes later. But meanwhile, so what did you do after you sold the business?   Ashley Pope ** 12:59 So this is another point when I had a business, I always had another job kind of outside of the business. Because as you said, small business is hard. And retail is hard. So that was always kind of a side project for me, that I had for a long time. When I went into business, my son was just about a year old. And within another two years he was diagnosed with autism. And so I tried to kind of let go of the job that I had and went to go work my retail store and then ended up with a different kind of job sticking with the optometry ophthalmology field. I would do outside sales for LASIK and cataract surgeons. And yeah, stick with the field stick with what I knew. And then the Chamber of Commerce here in Ventura was hirings. Oh, I've actually worked for the chamber for about seven years. So there was some overlap between selling my business and the time that I worked for the chamber. The time came in 2019, I really was just beginning to feel the squeeze of having a child with special needs, doing my volunteer work that I love to do, and of course, having a job and a business. So something had to go. And I really took a good hard look and thought, what do I want to do? Do I want to quit my job? Do I want to stay in the business? And I ended up deciding to go ahead and sell the business. And that was a really great decision for me. A very wise decision in terms of especially not knowing what was coming next, which I know we're gonna get to about what less than a year after selling I was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis. And so that was really telling why I was having some of the issues that I was having, focusing, holding conversations with fatigue EEG, all of these symptoms that I had been having just in case I was overstressed overworked, which I was, but not really answered some of those questions, and I was really grateful that I made the decision that left me with health insurance versus the one that maybe wouldn't have. So.   Michael Hingson ** 15:16 So the job that you had at that time was the Optima logical one or the optical one or what? No, with the chamber with the chamber. Okay, great. Yeah. So you got health insurance. So you had two different sets of challenges, because clearly MS is not anywhere near the same kinds of issues as as autism. And now suddenly, you had to deal with both. Is there a husband in the picture?   Ashley Pope ** 15:39 There is? Yeah, my husband, my son's dad, he is a stay at home dad, actually, to this day, really supportive also than I assume? Yeah, he's really supportive, and definitely the primary caregiver for my son being that I was working. So that's it. It's been great just being able to lean on him.   Michael Hingson ** 16:03 And, and he does that, which is so cool. Because he cares enough to do that. And so he's able to deal with your son and, and you when necessary. Oh, absolutely. I see you a lot on a lot of different ways. But with the MS and all that, does your son go to school?   Ashley Pope ** 16:23 He does. So he goes to a special education program that's been a typical school, he does have a inclusion where he sometimes goes into the general education classrooms. And he goes to public school.   Michael Hingson ** 16:38 How's he doing?   Ashley Pope ** 16:39 He's doing great. My son is so awesome. He's really positive. He's really smart. He's really happy. He has a hard time with language, both understanding complex instructions or complex ideas even. And then also verbalizing, complex feelings, emotions, he talks a little bit but mostly about, like his needs and his wants. But I really learned that there's a lot of different ways to communicate. And he's, he's a happy kid. So we're really grateful for that. Does he read? He is super good with reading? He does. He doesn't read so much. Books. And the comprehension is still a challenge. But he definitely reads words and is really good with spelling. That's he has been fascinated with the alphabet, since he was like, nine months old. He's been super drawn to numbers and letters and colors and shapes. And that's actually, I think, a pretty common thing with autism.   Michael Hingson ** 17:50 Well, that's cool. Does, does he? Have you ever tried to explore the concept of listening to audiobooks? Or is his listening comprehension just not there yet.   Ashley Pope ** 18:02 He's never really shown interest. He's just barely starting to show interest in cartoons, which is funny, because, you know, so many parents are like, Oh, too much screen time for the kids, like, you know, you don't want him glued to the TV all day. And for us, we're like, thrilled that he wants to watch cartoons and you can kind of like, maintain a focus on it. I know so many people who learn English through watching cartoons, and maybe you know, grew up on learning Spanish only. And were in households that didn't speak English at all. And were able to pick up English through cartoons. So I'm a big believer that this can be a positive thing for him. And it gives me hope, also, that he's interested in the stories being told and in the characters. So I'm interested to see where that will land.   Michael Hingson ** 18:53 Well, so of course, the issue is you're getting something out of it. And clearly, you can see that so that's a really positive thing. Needless to say. Absolutely. Yeah. So he, he watched his cartoons to see what kind of games does he play?   Ashley Pope ** 19:10 Plays, you know, it's he, he likes to do things his own way. So you can usually find him like jumping on the trampoline, he likes to go for walks, he runs around on the beach, and terms of games. He's just not into it. And we try to pull him into like, you know, our space and get him to engage in these different ways. He loves doing LEGO sets, which is really fun. The booklets like, really, really well, he does better than I do. I'll be like trying to help him and put something on backwards and he's like, no, no, like, he'll like take it from me and fix it. So it kind of comes back to that whole, you know, shapes, numbers, colors, letters thing he's really drawn to what's concrete. Which is interesting because for me, that's so not who I am as a person. So it's been fun to learn alongside him and watch the way that he learns. Just because it's so interesting and different from the way that I learned.   Michael Hingson ** 20:18 Well, clearly, there is a lot of awareness there. And that's probably the most important thing. So you may not know just what's going on in that mind. But there's something that that is going on. And he's aware of his surroundings. And I wish more people were aware of their surroundings in so many ways.   Ashley Pope ** 20:38 Yeah, he'll pick out like, the tiniest little thing and hyper focus on like, one, you know, little tiny toy or one little thing in the carpet, or whatever it might be. In so many ways, it's like he'll he'll fully get immersed in one little part of his day. And it's a really beautiful thing to watch that at attention. And that focus is really rare.   Michael Hingson ** 21:11 You've talked about autism or autistic awareness, as opposed to acceptance. Tell us about that.   Ashley Pope ** 21:17 Yeah, so autism acceptance is a term that's been used for decades, or autism awareness, I'm sorry. So autism awareness is basically like, what is autism? What are the first signs that you should reach out for help if you see these, you know, first things not talking, not smiling, not engaging, no eye contact, they have like this big long list of things for parents. And to know those things is to be aware. So society pushed that for a really long time, autism awareness, autism awareness. And just in the last maybe five years, Autism Society of America, as well as Autism Society of Ventura County, and several other organizations have said, Okay, we've kind of met awareness, people know, what is autism, people know someone with autism. People have heard the word autism. So what does it mean? What's the next step? And autism acceptance is really not only being aware of what autism is, but being accepting of who the unique individuals are, who have autism, and also taking a good look at how does our world work? And how do we make sure that it works for these populations? So for instance, in like workforce training, and education and inclusion, pretty much from birth to end of life? How do we build a world that is more inclusive? And that has been the focus now on acceptance more than awareness?   Michael Hingson ** 23:02 Yeah, it makes sense. And we'll know when there's true acceptance when people recognize that just because someone may be happens to be autistic, that doesn't make them less of a person, it means they're going to do things in a significantly different way. But doesn't mean they're less.   Ashley Pope ** 23:23 Yes, absolutely. That's the goal. We are noticing the differences and honoring the differences, and accommodating the differences when necessary. But that we're recognizing that they are just as much human and have just as much right to find their happiness and passions in the world. We're not just creating cookie cutter programs for kids that are so not cookie cutter. And we're definitely not pushing adults into cookie cutter dogs, or cookie cutter programs. And we honor the diversity of everyone else. We hope that we can honor that diversity across the autism spectrum as well.   Michael Hingson ** 24:06 Do we really know what causes autism?   Ashley Pope ** 24:09 We don't. We don't know what the causes are they they, you know, some genetic factor for sure. environmental factor for sure. But they still haven't identified what exactly causes autism. And one thing that I love most. And what really drew me to Autism Society, is that we really don't talk or work on causes or cures at all. We only focus on providing programs and making the world a better place. As a mom. I remember getting that diagnosis and seeing so many organizations that are talking about you know, finding a cure or figuring out what the cause is so that we can eliminate it and just being like, well, that doesn't really help me. Now, it doesn't help my son now like we don't we're not trying to You know, change, that he has autism, it's part of who he is, in a sense, even very early on, I knew like, I don't want to take his wonder or his joy away from him, like, I'm not trying to make him not jump in spin. That's clearly what's making him happy. But I also just want to help him whatever that looks like. And so I was really attracted to an organization that uses their donations, to help those who are already living versus looking at 20 years ahead, to see what they can figure out about causes or cures. And there's a lot of controversy there as well around even finding a cure for autism, because more and more we're learning that it's, that is the genetic makeup, it's a different wiring of the brain, it's a different way of thinking, and it's not wrong, it's not something to be fixed, it's something to be accommodated. So there's a lot of that feeling out there as well that focusing on a cure or a cause is perhaps not the right focus for the time.   Michael Hingson ** 26:10 Well, or using the words we use a little while ago, or you use a little while ago accepted. There's nothing wrong with acceptance.   Ashley Pope ** 26:18 Yeah. It's trying to convince someone that you are accepting, when in the next breath, you are looking to fix what you feel is broken. So   Michael Hingson ** 26:30 that's the issue what you feel is broken. Yeah. Which is, which is all together a different issue. What do you want parents and other people to know about having a child with autism, you must have life lessons, that would probably be valuable for people to hear about.   Ashley Pope ** 26:50 Yeah, for first getting a diagnosis, what I would tell parents is, it's definitely not the end of the world, that there are a lot of positives that can come from, even from the diagnosis, this child is still the same child, and they still have just as much to offer the world and your family as they did, before they got that diagnosis, or the moment they were born, or the moment you dreamed them up. There is still just as much value there. And I would also say that, you know, cry if you need to cry, but then wake up the next day and get to work. Because there's a lot to do, there's a lot of services to find, there's a lot to learn. And the longer you take to process, whatever feelings you need to process, whatever your your grief process looks like, quicker you can get through it. And the faster you can get to work, the better off your child will be. And the more likely they are to be able to be independent to some capacity in this world. So that's a really important message. And then for the rest of the world, I would just say that individuals with autism do deserve the same access and the same experiences. It's shocking, what we sometimes hear, right? In terms of like, well, that program exists, like isn't that enough? Or these services in the community are available? We have one inclusive Park, is that not enough? Why do you need them all to be inclusive? It's like, No, it's not enough, we deserve the same access. And so I will continue to fight those fights, not necessarily for you to park just one idea or one example. But in every area everywhere should be accessible. And the idea that we put any type of limitations on a child or on a person due to a diagnosis or disability is just not okay. So that's it gets.   Michael Hingson ** 29:03 It gets back to what we talked about earlier, blindness being the end of the world or not, and it doesn't matter whether it's being blind or have been being autistic or whatever. It is something that we've got to get to the point of saying get over it. Where's the real problem? The real problem is us who think there's a problem rather than there necessarily really being a problem.   Ashley Pope ** 29:29 The way I put it is the problem is with the world. There's nothing wrong with my son. The problem is with what the world has available for or does not have available for the way that the world perceives, or the way the world thinks about my son. That's the problem. It's not him. And so I think that's a really important piece for people to recognize is that it's the world that falls short never, never ever child and Never the person with a disability.   Michael Hingson ** 30:04 Yeah, and the reality is that we can get over it. And we can move forward. So well, let's let's talk about Gavin a little bit more. So he's 10. What do you expect will be Gavin's future? At some point, will he go into the workforce and have a job? You know, given his level of autism was I'm not going to call it a disability, because it's no more a disability than being able to see as a disability, but, but he is autistic. What, what will that mean in terms of him being able to ever work or be on his own and so on?   Ashley Pope ** 30:47 Here, as the world would say, and this is another term, not, we don't really use, but he does have a lot of needs. And so sometimes in the autism community, we'll hear, Well, is he low functioning, or is he high functioning, or somewhere in the middle, and that is another category of words that we want to kind of let go of using because just because somebody is high functioning doesn't mean that they don't really struggle with things related to their autism. And just because somebody is low functioning, doesn't mean they don't have anything to offer the world. And that the way that we perceive low functioning and high functioning are not, they mean, really very little to like, the actual experience that that person is having. So we've tried to get away from using that language. And my son does have a lot of needs, and he will hopefully be able to work if that's what he is driven to do. He is really interested in things that I think would be good qualities to have as an employee. He's super happy. He's really good at like keeping things organized and clean, you'd make a great merchandiser, for instance, however, he is easily distracted, and he's not really so into direction at this point in his life. He's also 10. So you never know. So to answer that question, I don't really know, I guess it could be anywhere between having a day program or volunteer opportunities up to being like, a legal engineer, I don't know, could be anywhere. So we're not so sure. Um, fortunately, he has a lot of family support. And we've gotten a lot of the supports and systems in place for him, so that he will be okay financially, and with people around him that care for him, he will never be fully independent, which is hard to say or think about. But that's just the reality of it. And a lot of you know, a lot of people in this world won't. So how are we as society, protecting the interests and the rights and the safety of those amongst us who will never be fully independent, or independent, even partially independent, they'll always need someone   Michael Hingson ** 33:27 kind of almost really submit that most all of us really need someone, and that none of us are totally independent. Probably some people would disagree. But the reality is that we all are interdependent on each other in so many ways, and I don't see a problem with that.   Ashley Pope ** 33:45 Yeah. I hear you. I think, obviously, there's levels and you're right. Everybody's independent, in some sense, but But yeah, it's dependents will be a little bit more   Michael Hingson ** 34:01 payments will be a little bit more than, than a lot of people and so on. You know, but he may end up being a great card shark in Las Vegas. We'll see.   Ashley Pope ** 34:10 That's right. You never know, either. Maybe   Michael Hingson ** 34:12 they'll be supporting you. Yeah,   Ashley Pope ** 34:14 it's very true.   Michael Hingson ** 34:16 Does he have any siblings?   Ashley Pope ** 34:19 He does not. So. But no siblings. He's,   Michael Hingson ** 34:23 he's, he's a lot to concentrate on. Right? Yeah. He and her husband for you?   Ashley Pope ** 34:28 Yes. That's enough for me. Yeah, that's   Michael Hingson ** 34:32 a lot of work all the way around. Or your husband has you and he and Gavin to concentrate on and that's a lot for him too. So that is my wife. My wife and I chose not to have kids. We chose to spoil nieces and nephews. So at the end of the day, we could ship them off to home.   Ashley Pope ** 34:49 Nice,   Michael Hingson ** 34:50 worked out well. Yes, it did. Well, we valued each other we valued our togetherness. She was in a wheelchair. And so as I always told people she read, I pushed worked out really well. And so we work together, we relied on each other. And that's, that's as good as it could possibly be as well. So I appreciate though the the fact that we all do happen to be interdependent in one way or another. Absolutely, which is pretty cool.   Ashley Pope ** 35:23 It is really cool.   Michael Hingson ** 35:25 Well, so for you. What, when? When are you when you discover a parent who has encountered autism? And we've talked some about that, but do you have any other advice or any other kinds of words of wisdom that you want to pass on for parents to think about,   Ashley Pope ** 35:48 um, I sometimes come across parents who won't want to tell their child that they have autism. And I think that that's cruel. For lack of a better word, we'll hear that these kids are having a hard time socially, emotionally, maybe with learning. And parents will just be like, oh, you know, I don't, I don't want to give them the label. I don't want them to, you know, feel like they're living with this or under this. Yeah. And we oftentimes hear from adults with autism, that it answers so many questions to have the diagnosis. And so I think that being able to give them the gift of knowing as early as possible, and have them grow up around the word and around being proud of having a different mind, and aware that their mind is different. And there, they may have some struggles, like they may learn a little bit different, or they might have some social issues or difficulties or differences. But that the family loves them and that they are proud of who they are. And that autism is something to be proud of. Because in a lot of ways, it's also a superpower. And look at all the things that you're great at. That is a better approach, and just not addressing it at all, can be really hurtful   Michael Hingson ** 37:21 to that whole thing of living with autism or whatever, it's the same thing about what we were talking about with blindness or any other kind of so called disability. The reality is we've got to get beyond these words that really are only hurtful and not accurate anyway.   Ashley Pope ** 37:39 Yeah, it's, it's a gift to be able to grow up knowing and to find your pride and sense of self, within the life that you have, you're not going to have another one, it's not going to change, you know that you're not going to one day wake up and not have autism. So just live with it. And you loving that about your child empowers them to love themselves, regardless of any difficulties that they may have.   Michael Hingson ** 38:09 And they're going to know that you love them. And if you don't, they're going to know that. It's it's something that so often we don't understand. Children and and other people in general, really observe instinctively as much as anything else. And they know when you're blowing smoke or when you're genuine, whoever you are, and whatever you do. And I, and it's, you know, I learned it a long time ago, I have been very much involved in sales. And I learned a long time ago in sales. They know when you're faking it, they know when you're telling the truth. And you can try to pull the wool over people's eyes. But the reality is, it doesn't work. People really can sense it. I was interviewing someone actually on a recent episode, who was talking about self confidence, and we talked about confidence and arrogance. And one of the points that he made was with arrogance, it's usually because there's an insecurity and you can bluster and, and do all sorts of things. But the reality is, if you're truly confident in yourself and what you're doing and so on, that shines through and people can tell the difference.   Ashley Pope ** 39:27 Very true.   Michael Hingson ** 39:29 And so love is extremely important. And I'm I'm really glad to hear that you can can really support that in the you guys are doing that and Gavin's gonna certainly appreciate it and give it back in return and that's is important as anything else.   Ashley Pope ** 39:46 Yes, he is so happy and and I think lucky. Just how much support he has. And we don't put him in situations where We don't feel like he is fully accepted and embraced and loved. Ever. So if there was a teacher that I felt was not fit, then we would find a new one. It's like those types of situations, because we can't. I want him to be happy and to live that fullest life. And in order to do that he needs to be around people who believe that he can and that he's worth that,   Michael Hingson ** 40:25 who believe in Him. Uh huh. Well, so I want to talk more about you in terms of your diagnosis and so on. But first, what do you do for the chamber,   Ashley Pope ** 40:39 I do membership development. So I meet with different businesses and organizations and people around the community and bring them into the chamber. I also do a lot of the events work, so help to organize events. It's really awesome to be able to connect with the business community on a really deep level. It's a really supportive community here in Ventura. We have a ton of nonprofits who do really great work, and the business community really comes out and supports them. So I'm really in a position to uncover unmet need, and also to find organizations and people who can help to meet that need. And it's one of the things I'm most grateful for when it comes to my job. Oh,   Michael Hingson ** 41:25 percentage wise, how many businesses are in the chamber? And when not only in winter? But typically speaking? How does that work? Do most businesses join their local chambers?   Ashley Pope ** 41:38 So our chamber has 700 businesses as members, we represent over 25,000 employees. So it's a really big network. Every chamber is different. They're all operated independently, they all have different initiatives, different boards of directors. So Chamber of Commerce in one city could be doing completely different things than a chamber of commerce. And another one. So yeah, I mean, Fincher is is fantastic. And chambers in general, do networking, business advocacy, it just kind of depends city to city. I love today, a lot of small businesses join. It's hard to give like a percentage or, yeah,   Michael Hingson ** 42:22 yeah, I was just curious. I didn't know whether that was even an answerable question. Because unless you have some real way to track every single business, it's it's kind of hard to tell.   Ashley Pope ** 42:33 Yeah. And there's a lot of businesses that do. Like, if you looked at a business license list, you would see a lot of businesses that pull like a one day permit or do business in the city, but aren't actually like based in the city, and so no different than hard to measure for sure.   Michael Hingson ** 42:51 In our post COVID world or sort of post COVID world do you find there are a lot more home based businesses and there used to be   Ashley Pope ** 43:02 a lot of businesses have gone virtual. Although that is slowly but surely, people are getting back into the offices. So back to the physical location, we saw it with big tech first, a lot of big businesses called their people back. And now there's data coming out around productivity, not in the favor of the work from home people. So I think we'll continue to see that those commercial spaces will fill back up. But that will always be able to do some things hybrid and have zoom meetings. And definitely people are working from home when they're sick now, which is a nice change because people used to go to work sick. And now that's kind of unimaginable, you wouldn't go to work sick, that's the worst thing to do ever. So definitely some positive change there. They will be really interesting to see what happens in the next 510 years. If the work from home thing sticks at all.   Michael Hingson ** 44:04 I hope it sort of sticks I think what what you just said is true that there there's this whole work life balance but even in addition to that there's virtual verse is in person life balance and the fact is that there's there's value in letting people do some of their work at home. It's great to get away from the office and the inherent pressures that that provides and do some of your work at home. My job is pretty much all at home except for a few times and when I go speak places of course, and I love to go speak in person because I get to interact with audiences even in ways that I can't virtually but between that and then working with accessibly I actually get to go to accessory in Israel this year, which will be fun. And I go to a couple of conventions a year but the I'm used to working at home, and a lot of my sales life, I did remote offices. So sometimes I was at home and sometimes I was in the office. So I kind of got trained to be able to do it and be disciplined to work at home, which is not something that a lot of people are totally used to yet, but I hope that they get there and that they recognize that there's value in having a little bit of both.   Ashley Pope ** 45:24 I hope so too. I really hope that for our community and for America, especially we're known as workaholics and and not to take enough time, at home or enough time to self. On one hand, the ability to work from home, I think causes people to continue to work when they're done working at the office. But we just have to find the balance there. And we have to be able to maintain some of the positive that came out of COVID as negative as it was there was a silver lining there. Yeah. We kind of toggle back and forth on being able to maintain that as a society or not. And I know for sure in Ventura, but I think that's been kind of a worldwide struggle of do we want our employees to be able to work from home a day, a week or five days a week? Or do we want everybody back in the office? And when do we want things to go back to the way that they were. And every business has different needs. And every manager manager is different, but it's definitely still a demand. This next generation Gen Z, I believe we're calling them they are not going to go work in any setting for 40 hours a week. So there's that generation that's going to change things, and a lot of ways, but definitely the workforce, they're not willing to work. Eight to fives like we were. So that's   Michael Hingson ** 46:57 well, and the reality is that normal will, you know, people can talk about getting back to the way we were but normal will never be the same again. And there have been there are, there's always change. There are times in our history where there have been quantum sudden changes. I mean, September 11 was one which of course I'm very familiar with, but the pandemic is another one and there have been others that are dramatic changes, normal will never be the same again. And there's nothing wrong with not trying to get back to the way everything was before. Because if we do that, then we're going to play in forget what we learned. And so we don't want to do that.   Ashley Pope ** 47:42 No, we don't want to do that.   Michael Hingson ** 47:46 So you had your own diagnosis, you talked about Multiple Sclerosis, and so on. How did you're learning to be an advocate for Gavin, and all that you learned about Gavin and his experiences and adventures? How did all that help you? Because now suddenly, it hits even closer to home for you?   Ashley Pope ** 48:09 Yeah, it was definitely a mind switch. I learned so much through advocating for my son. So being able to immediately know, okay, like I can get through this. I've been through other hard things. And I just need to know what's out there. And I need to find the resources and absorb all of the information that I can and find people who can help. And I'll be okay. So that was kind of my initial thought I immediately reached out to the Multiple Sclerosis Society thinking okay, well, if Autism Society has gotten me this far, breastfeed, MS society that can help as well. And we did there was a lot of help there. There's not a lot of answers with a mess, there's more questions than there are answers. And that has been one of the most difficult things for me. I do find peace through information and through knowing what is going to happen knowing what's gonna come next. And that really went out the window with Ms. I would say with my son, there's this constant belief that things are going to improve and they have improved and they'll continue to improve will continue to learn and older and learn new skills and we can be there for him and with him. And a mess is different, rather than things are going to get better. It's kind of knowing that things are going to get I don't want to say well worse but it is a progressive, debilitating conditions. So   Michael Hingson ** 49:56 unless, unless of course somebody finds a way to birsa Cure,   Ashley Pope ** 50:00 yes, a cure. And that is part of the mission of the MS Society is to find a cure and restore what's been lost, which is awesome. So yes, fingers crossed, but I do have to prepare for more needs down the line. And already in the last few years, I've lost some strength in my hand, and in my right hand and my left foot. So it's just becoming, finding a different level of acceptance. So in a lot of ways, I did it, I don't think I really went through the same. I call it a grief process, I feel like there should be a better word because you don't you grieve when somebody dies. And as we've already talked about, nobody's dying. So but it is that same kind of process, right? Where like, okay, things have just changed, I'm kind of going to grieve things as they are, or denial, or denial, right. And he goes through like the same process of like denial, and, you know, the bargaining and anger or whatever, whatever. So, of course, I went through a little bit of that with my son early on. But I felt like with that mess, it was just like, so much easier to just get straight to acceptance. And I talked to a therapist, and I was like, I know, this sounds crazy, but I think I just like, the whole process. And I think it's because fairly recently in the last decade, I already went through something that's it's not similar, but it's still similar in a way like, they're, they're not connected, but I feel like I was just immediately able to be like, okay, Ms. Like, what is it? How do we deal with it and what comes next, and I just kind of skipped, like, all of these stages of grief or whatever we want to call it these stages that people usually go through when they get news like this. And that I think, was interesting. And I do think it was directly related to the work that I've already done around accepting things as they come being okay with not having all the information. The fact that I'll always be an advocate for my son, but that job is never going to be able to retire from that job. Not that I would ever want to, but it made it easier in a way to find the information and just to move through to where I can have an impact. And I was ready to share pretty early on. I didn't make it super public. But because I was on immunosuppressants during COVID I wasn't shy about telling people like hey, you know, if you're if you feel sick at all, or if you haven't been vaccinated, these are my limitations in that I just started on immunosuppressants. So I did feel really vulnerable in those early days, especially before I knew what immunosuppressants meant for me and during a pandemic.   Michael Hingson ** 53:01 Did you get vaccinated and all that stuff?   Ashley Pope ** 53:03 I did. But with the, the drug that I'm on, it actually greatly reduces the effectiveness of the COVID vaccination, it kills the B cells like that you're the COVID vaccine attaches to to get to its destination. I'm not a scientist, so forgive me if I said that wrong. But basically, I didn't have the cells to carry the vaccine. So I did get it. And then off the boosters, and I, you know, I did all the things, but it was very clear, like, that may have been just basically a shot of water for you, and may or may not have actually worked for you. So I was nervous about dying, because I feel like it's fair to be. But I think, yeah, it just it really did change the way that I think about it, these processes that we go through because I didn't handle it so different at time. And it also the vulnerability, I think is the biggest thing for me that I had to deal with. That was different from my son. Because as a mama bear, you know, you defend your kid at all costs, you get out there and you make things happen for your kid. But when it came to advocating for myself, I found that I would kind of lose the words when it would come time to talk to the doctor, I found myself kind of been like, oh, you know, it's not these things are not that bad or kind of stretching. Like if they'd asked me a question like, how can you do this? I would so want to say like, yeah, I can do that I can do this and that and this hasn't changed that much and just kind of predict things in a positive light. So I kind of had to start thinking like I have to advocate for myself as if I'm advocating for somebody else because it's really hard for me to say that I need help.   Michael Hingson ** 55:00 The same process does fit. We, I was in New York on March 5, of 2020, to do a speech and flew back early on March 6, because of COVID. And also, my wife had been diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis in 2017. So she was on medications to suppress part of her immune system to help deflect or deal with the RA. So we immediately went into lockdown, and just stayed home. And, and then when the vaccinations when the vaccines came out, we started taking them. And in fact, I, we both were all up to date. And then I learned that being over 65 I could get another vaccination recently. In fact, I could have gone in late February, but I didn't know it then. But anyway, I just went in today for another vaccination, because I'm going to be doing some traveling and I'm going to do everything I can to make sure that I can be as protected as possible. And I recognize that the vaccine doesn't keep you from getting COVID. But it certainly mitigates it a lot. So my intention is not to get it. I also don't mind wearing masks. I've been on airplanes for long periods of time with a mask doesn't bother me. And it doesn't seem to bother my guide, dog Alamo. He doesn't look at me differently, because I happen to wear a mask, so I'm not going to worry. Yeah. But you know, the fact of the matter is that it's something that is part of our world. And there's nothing wrong with it.   Ashley Pope ** 56:43 Yeah, I may be on the same drug as your wife. Actually. They're both autoimmune conditions. So she took her brinsea Oh, no, I'm mine for Tuckson. So but probably still do the same things. amatory processes similar. Yes, different different parts of the body, tissues, whatever.   Michael Hingson ** 57:03 Same concept, in a lot of ways. Well, so obviously, you have a disease that's very progressive, and I do hope that we find cures for that and other things, or, or at least things to improve it for you as time goes on. But how for you? How has your own diagnosis really affected? How you deal with being an advocate, and how you encourage others to advocate for themselves? You've I think you've hit on some of that. But if you want to summarize, you know, you're, you're now having to be a double advocate, if you will, how is your own diagnosis help with that?   Ashley Pope ** 57:46 Yeah, I think the vulnerability has been good for me, in a sense, I don't think I've ever truly felt vulnerable in my life. Until I got my diagnosis, even through my son's diagnosis, I always have been like that I can handle it, I can handle it, I'll do it. I'll make it happen type of person. And feeling firsthand, like things need to change so that I can live a fulfilling life is a much different place to come from then, even when you're advocating for your own kid. There's a sense of, it's probably, I would think how someone feels when they have a child with special needs. And there they are ending. Like nearing the end of their own life. They probably feel like oh my gosh, who's gonna protect my, my kid, if I can't, and I know that a lot of parents feel that as they age. But this was my first experience with like, oh, I have something that can impact my ability to do what I want to do in my life. And it just made me more I think sensitive, and I have a lot more empathy for people and their unique situations now, because it's a situation that I never could have imagined myself in until I found myself in it.   Michael Hingson ** 59:21 Yeah. What do you want people to know about? Somebody who has a progressive, debilitating diagnosis? How do you? What do you want people to think about that? And what would you like them to do?   Ashley Pope ** 59:37 I see. A lot of people don't know how to respond. Social relationships can become a little bit strained. Because things change in your ability. Like in my case, my ability to say yes to everything. I really had to stop saying yes, which I should have stopped doing a long time ago. But I'm definitely like I've said a couple of times there. In this conversation, I'm a doer. And I had to start saying like, No, I can't, I can't take that on, I really need to prioritize that I'm going to prioritize. And there have been some people in my life who didn't like that so much, or felt that like, I was changing, which I have changed. Obviously, these situations have changed who I am a little bit as we should, I would just say, just be a friend. And don't be afraid to ask how somebody is doing. Don't stop checking in and just, you know, do what you would want somebody to do for you in that situation, which is not to disengage. And then general public. I would say that one in four adults in their lifetime will have a disability. So when you vote, and when you advocate for things to be a particular way, keep in mind that that could be you or someone that you love, that has some kind of condition or extra need. And so we should always take care of each other and consider that things should be accessible to all once again, kind of circling back to that, you know, we can we can do so much better with our resources in this country. And it's rarely the wrong decision when it allows more people access, whatever, whatever it is that we're looking at, that's just a very general statement. But if you're looking at opening the world to more humans who live on it, then that's probably the way to go. Because it's just the right thing to do.   Michael Hingson ** 1:01:53 And I think the most important thing you said is be a friend, there's nothing wrong with different. There shouldn't be, even if the different is something that maybe you've been taught is a bad thing. Is it really? And yeah, Multiple Sclerosis is progressive right now. But we've seen so many modern kinds of progresses in so many ways. Who knows, and autism the same thing, or blindness or even being a politician? I'm sure there's a cure for that. But I haven't found that one yet, either. So that's another story. But the bottom line is that, in reality, we're all different. And you're right. 25% have what's considered a typical disability, although I've made the case before that everyone has a disability who lives on this planet. And for most people, it's like dependents. But you know, the bottom line is that we all have different challenges. And we all by the way, have gifts that we get to use, if allowed the opportunity. And that's the most important thing. And I'm really excited about hearing and having had the opportunity to hear all the things that that you do and get to do. So what are you going to write a book about all this?   Ashley Pope ** 1:03:09 You know, that was something that I was actually in the process of writing a book when I was diagnosed with autism. And I set it aside, and I just was like, so everything changed. In that moment, I have written quite a bit around diagnosis and accepting of diagnosis and how to be a friend in diagnosis. Rather, it's been a friend to, you know, parent who has a newly diagnosed child, or what that looks like mostly around autism, because that's my experience. And then I had this experience, and I really just had to set it aside and kind of find my, my opinion, and my, my thoughts. But who knows, maybe down the line right now, I'm just trying to juggle everything I juggle. But we'll see, you know, you never know, they may,   Michael Hingson ** 1:04:05 you may find that sitting down and writing about some of it will be a help to you. And you now clearly have a whole new dimension that you can add to it, I would think it'd be very powerful, which isn't to say just drop everything and do it. But you might certainly sit down and continue to write thoughts because those then that will help you. I know for me, people have asked if I've ever gone to therapy after September 11. And my response is I hadn't but I started getting requests for television and radio and newspaper interviews and so on and chose to accept those if it would help people move on from September 11. And I got to teach people about blindness and guide dogs and all that. And I've realized over the years that literally going through hundreds of those and talking about September 11 Being asked the dumbest and the most intelligent questions, was invaluable at learning to deal with it, and to talk about it, and I wouldn't trade those experiences for anything. And so it is, you know, I do know that writing is a valuable thing. You know, we wrote thunder dog, which I actually started in 2002. And it took over eight years to complete. But right from the beginning, I started writing a lot of my thoughts, and that was helpful. So even just writing things down, although you may not ready to be ready to put them in a book might be helpful.   Ashley Pope ** 1:05:33 Yes, absolutely. Or, you know, there's also like voice recording and just getting your thoughts out, I think is really important. So I am a big proponent of therapy and talking and learning, right learning and sharing, I find a lot of peace and volunteering and giving back and talking to other parents and giving people resources. And just learning obviously, even today, it's been a learning experience. I've learned something new about you know, your, your experience, and it's, it's all empowering.   Michael Hingson ** 1:06:15 It is and, and you, like all of us can choose how we deal with our gifts and what we know and what we do and what we use. And so I'm sure it's all gonna work out well for you. And I'm really glad that we had the chance to do this. If people want to talk with you, is there any way they can reach out to you or interact with you?   1:06:36 Sure, I would say let's enact first by email. And the email I will give is my Autism Society email. It's Ashley a s h l e y at autism ventura.org. That's a s h l e y autism a u t i s m Ventura, v e n t u r a.org.   1:06:58 And Ventura really means in parentheses hingsons jealous. But that's another story. That's great.   Ashley Pope ** 1:07:05 If anybody is it, is it it's a fantastic place and also a good place to live. It's a good place to live for people with autism because there's great services California in general, has more than a lot of other states. And a mess wise now I'm like, sorry, sorry, family, I can't go visit you. Unless it's less than 87 or 87 degrees, it's probably pushing it like 85 degrees. But I've always been so spoiled here in Ventura, because it's like, we pretty much live between 65 and 73. Like, doesn't change much from there. That's where this town's is all year long. So really good for somebody with an autoimmune condition for sure.   1:07:49 There you go. Well, I want to thank you for being here. And I want to thank you for listening. So if any of you would like to chat with us about this, please feel free to email me. You can reach me at Michaelhi, m i c h a e l h i at accessibe  A C C E S S I B E.com. Or go to our podcast page www dot Michael Hingson m i c h a e l h i n g s o n.com/podcast. But wherever you're listening, please give us

This week two F1 fans and a gamer head back to the theaters on $4 movie day (& Dutch Gran Prix day) to discuss GRAN TURISMO: Based on a True Story (2023). Directed by Neill Blomkamp, written by Jason Hall, and Zach Baylin with a story credit for Alex Tse, the film stars David Harbour, Orlando Bloom, Geri Horner aka Ginger Spice, Dijon Hounsou, and Archie Madekwe as Jann Mardenbororough, the real life gamer-turned-racer who served as his own stunt double for this film! We had a lot of fun and enjoyed this while also calling out some of the formula. Take a ride with us! Dave also talked a bit about Blue Beetle. Find all of our Socials at: https://linktr.ee/theloveofcinema.  
Our phone number is 646-484-9298, it accepts texts or voice messages.  0:00 Intro/Blue Beetle mini review; WGA/Amazon/Drug Store Gripes, 12:47 Movie Discussion; 37:58 Spoilers; 59:30 What You Been Watching? Additional Cast/Crew: Jacques Jouffret, Takehiro Hira, Darren Barnet, Josha Stradowski, Daniel Puig, Maeve Courtier-Lilley, Pepe Barroso, Niall McShea, Nikhil Parmar, Thomas Kretschmann, Akit Kotabe, Saddam Ueda, Wai Wong, Lindsay Pattison, Emilia Hartford, Maximilian Mundt, Sang Hein Lee, Will Buxton Additional Tags: Australia, Formula 1, Lewis Hamilton, Max Verstappen, Pierre Gasly, Fernando Alonso, Daniel Ricciardo, Oscar Piastri, Red Bull, Le Mans, Grand Prix, Writer's Strike, WGA, Queensland, Adelaide, Melbourne, The Philippines, Tokyo, Sony, Playstation, Simulation, Blood Diamond, The Spice Girls, Christian Horner, Downton Abbey, Nissan, Spotify, residuals, classic studio system, Duane Reade, Target, CVS, Bed, Bath, & Beyond, Walgreens, Apple+, Apple TV, Netflix, Amazon Prime, TikTok, Twitch, Stranger Things, Haas, Gunther Steiner, Concord, NC, New Jersey, Upper West Side, West Village, The Notebook, It, The Edge of Seventeen, LensCrafters. 

In this podcast episode of "Sold In 60," hosts Richie Rich and Dillan invite Cher Desi, a guest with experience in the timeshare industry. They discuss Cher's introduction to the industry, her training process at Westgate, and her strategies for learning and growing in the industry. Cher emphasizes the importance of continuous learning and adapting to the industry's ups and downs. She also shares insights on being a successful sales representative, including presenting oneself professionally, being honest, and staying updated on area growth and attractions. The episode concludes with Cher offering advice for those considering entering the timeshare industry and addressing objections that arise during sales. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/richard-roberts4/support

Enjoy this insightful conversation with Dean Butler, founder of Lenscrafters. From P&G, he learned to market products. One of Dean's big lessons was "come up with something provocative." For Lenscrafters, we said, COME WATCH US MAKE YOUR GLASSES. Give your customers permission to believe. Let them experience a delivery system. Dean helped pioneer experiential retailing. His collaborative team sped up the delivery process and customers would watch, wait (less than an hour), and eventually wanted their goods faster. This helped usher in convenience, speed to be satisfied, and the eventual success of giants like Amazon. What other industries work under a mysterious veil? How can you and your team collaborate to create a breakthrough solution like Lenscrafter?

Enjoy this insightful conversation with Dean Butler, founder of Lenscrafters. From P&G, he learned to market products. One of Dean's big lessons was "come up with something provocative." For Lenscrafters, we said, COME WATCH US MAKE YOUR GLASSES. Give your customers permission to believe. Let them experience a delivery system. Dean helped pioneer experiential retailing. His collaborative team sped up the delivery process and customers would watch, wait (less than an hour), and eventually wanted their goods faster. This helped usher in convenience, speed to be satisfied, and the eventual success of giants like Amazon. What other industries work under a mysterious veil? How can you and your team collaborate to create a breakthrough solution like Lenscrafter?Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/success-made-to-last-legends--4302039/support.

This Mother's Day weekend Dave, John, and Jeff gush about Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret, the sensational second feature film by writer/director Kelly Fremon Craig, adapted from the 1970 novel by Judy Blume. Starring Abby Ryder Fortson, Rachel McAdams, Kathy Bates, as three generations of ladies in this coming-of-age teen dreamed about accepting religion, friends, and the tribulations of adolescence, it's honestly hard to talk about this movie without gushing about it, so please crack open a beer and get into the discussion with us!  We also gripe about producers messing over writers despite having (and losing) billions of dollars, as well as pharmacy stores a la CVS and Duane Reade locking up all of their supply but then their staff being nowhere when you need anything… something has to be done before Amazon swallows them up! Find all of our Socials at: https://linktr.ee/theloveofcinema. Our phone number is 646-484-9298, it accepts texts or voice messages. Intro: 0:00; WGA/Amazon/Drug Store Gripes, Movie Review: 13:57; Spoilers: 37:26; What You Been Watching: 1:04:03 Cast/Crew: Kelly Fremon Craig, Judy Blume, Hans Zimmer, Tim Ives, Abby Ryder Fortson, Rachel McAdams, Kathy Bates, Benny Safdie, Elle Graham, Amari Alexis Price, Katherine Mallen Kupferer, Kate MacCluggage, AIdan Wojtak-Hissong, Landon S. Baxter, Echo Kellum, Simms May, Zack Brooks, Jecobi Swain, Idol Young, Wilbur Fitzgerald, Mia Dillon, Gary Houston, Oona Flaherty, Nick Moore, James L. Brooks Additional Tags: Judy Blume, The Handmaid's Tale, Margaret Atwood, Australia, Writer's Strike, WGA, Queensland, Adelaide, The Philippines, Spotify, residuals, classic studio system, Duane Reade, Target, CVS, Bed, Bath, & Beyond, Walgreens, Apple+, Apple TV, Netflix, Amazon Prime, TikTok, Twitch, Maria Bakalova, Stranger Things, Pete Davidson, Wedding Crashers, Concord, NC, New Jersey, Upper West Side, West Village, The Notebook, It, The Edge of Seventeen, Hailee Steinfeld, LensCrafters, petty crime, violent crime. 

In episode 293, Kestrel welcomes Jenna Hanson and Jon Hershman, the cofounders of Revival Eyewear, to the show. Offering an extensive collection of deadstock vintage glasses and sunglasses, Revival Eyewear is dedicated to reminding us that it's possible for old things to be elevated in both quality and style.  “I fell in love with the glasses and the idea that these were vintage but brand new. I had never in my life heard of that concept — deadstock, new old stock. It was so fascinating to me. At Jon's shop in PB, I would take them out of their cases and just be like — what is this? This is a YSL from the 1970s, it has its original packaging, I can't believe this exists.” -Jenna Another niche (yet massive) realm of the fashion industry that we rarely discuss is the GLASSES industry. I'm talking sunglasses and eyeglasses – which I would say are a very integral part of the world of fashion and style. This week's guests started a company where they sell unworn deadstock frames from the ‘60s to the ‘00s. If they were made so long ago, how were they never worn? Where have they been sitting, waiting to find a face to wear them? Well, we get into that. Also, we get into the mud about the powerful Italian conglomerate that owns SO MANY PIECES of the eyewear industry – from insurance companies to eyewear brands to manufacturing to retail eyewear stores. It's amazing the stronghold this megacompany has on today's eyewear industry. Just as we talk about with the fast fashion industry, the eyewear industry has lost much of its quality luster. We often refer to the planned obsolescence of our era, and how — “They just don't make them like they used to.” Well, my guests actually have the knowledge to articulate what makes vintage glasses so different from their current counterparts. What has changed in how they're made today, and what aspects of craftsmanship made them so elevated back n the day? We also touch on the massive waste that the glasses industry is generating, considering the materiality and disposable approach to manufacturing them today. It's wild to think that the styles made today may never be considered *deadstock* or deemed worthy to resell.  Quotes & links from the conversation: “Meet the Four-Eyed, Eight-Tentacled Monopoly That is Making Your Glasses So Expensive”, article in Forbes, that explores some of the power of Luxottica “Eyeglass Start-Up Ready to Battle Industry Titan, Sets Sights on Online Growth”, article in Yahoo Finance, that explores some of the power of Luxottica “We went to a conference last year called Vision Expo, and it was literally just Luxottica everywhere — so they own lenses, they own the lens manufacturer, they own the frame, they own the insurance, they own the places to sell the glasses. I don't know how it gets any more monopoly than that. They own LensCrafters, Sunglass Hut, Target Optical, Pearl Vision, they own the big online store EyeBuyDirect, they own the insurance company EyeMed, and then, just about all of the brands that are inside of a LensCrafters or Sunglass Hut like RayBan, Oakley, Persol, Oliver Peoples - everything basically that you can find inside those stores, they also own those brands.” -Jenna & Jon (20:58) Revival Eyewear Follow Revival Eyewear on Instagram >

It was an unseasonably warm January afternoon in Baltimore County, Maryland when 18-year-old Woodlawn High School senior Hae Min Lee left school in her gray 1998 Nissan Sentra and headed out to pick up her six-year-old cousin from kindergarten before going to her job at the local LensCrafters. But sometime after leaving Woodlawn High School and before picking up her little cousin, Hae Min Lee vanished into thin air. Less than a month later, maintenance worker Alonzo Sellers was driving back to his job at Coppin State College and drinking a beer when he realized he had to use the bathroom, and it couldn't wait. Mr. Sellers pulled over on the side of the road and walked deep into the woods to relieve himself, at which point he made a gruesome discovery. According to his later testimony, Mr. Sellers said quote, “when I looked down I seen something that looked like hair, something that was covered by dirt. And I looked real good again, and that's when I seen what looked like a foot” end quote. Alonzo Sellers had stumbled upon the body of Hae Min Lee, she had been strangled to death by the bare hands of her attacker, and within a few weeks, the police would make an arrest for her murder. But, the suspect was a person that no one would have suspected capable of such a horrific crime, the ex-boyfriend of Hae, a sweet and smart 17-year-old named Adnan Syed. But, stay with us, because, it's complicated… Try our coffee!! - www.CriminalCoffeeCo.com Become a Patreon member -- > https://www.patreon.com/CrimeWeekly Shop for your Crime Weekly gear here --> https://crimeweeklypodcast.com/shop Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/c/CrimeWeeklyPodcast Website: CrimeWeeklyPodcast.com Instagram: @CrimeWeeklyPod Twitter: @CrimeWeeklyPod Facebook: @CrimeWeeklyPod Ads: Now, as a special offer, you can get $15 off your purchase of a Skylight Frame when you go Skylight Frame dot com and enter code CRIMEWEEKLY. That's right. To get $15 off your purchase of a Skylight Frame just go Skylight Frame dot com and enter code CRIMEWEEKLY. That's S-K-Y-L- I-G-H-T-F-R-A-M-E dot com, promo code CRIMEWEEKLY. PDS DEBT is offering free debt analysis to our listeners just for completing the quick and easy debt assessment at www.PDSDebt.com/crime. That's P-D-S-D-E-B-T.com/crime. Take back your financial freedom today by visiting PDSDEBT.com/crime. This holiday season, trade late nights for silent nights and get started with Stamps dot com today. Sign up with promo code CRIMEWEEKLY for a special offer that includes a 4-week trial, plus free postage, and a free digital scale. No long-term commitments or contracts. Just go to Stamps dot com, click the microphone at the top of the page, and enter code CRIMEWEEKLY. Right now, BÉIS (base) is offering our listeners 15% off your first purchase by visiting BEISTRAVEL.com/CRIMEWEEKLY. Go to BEISTRAVEL.com/CRIMEWEEKLY for 15% off your first purchase. That's B-E-I-S-TRAVEL dot com slash CRIMEWEEKLY.

It was an unseasonably warm January afternoon in Baltimore County, Maryland when 18-year-old Woodlawn High School senior Hae Min Lee left school in her gray 1998 Nissan Sentra and headed out to pick up her six-year-old cousin from kindergarten before going to her job at the local LensCrafters. But sometime after leaving Woodlawn High School and before picking up her little cousin, Hae Min Lee vanished into thin air. Less than a month later, maintenance worker Alonzo Sellers was driving back to his job at Coppin State College and drinking a beer when he realized he had to use the bathroom, and it couldn't wait. Mr. Sellers pulled over on the side of the road and walked deep into the woods to relieve himself, at which point he made a gruesome discovery. According to his later testimony, Mr. Sellers said quote, “when I looked down I seen something that looked like hair, something that was covered by dirt. And I looked real good again, and that's when I seen what looked like a foot” end quote. Alonzo Sellers had stumbled upon the body of Hae Min Lee, she had been strangled to death by the bare hands of her attacker, and within a few weeks, the police would make an arrest for her murder. But, the suspect was a person that no one would have suspected capable of such a horrific crime, the ex-boyfriend of Hae, a sweet and smart 17-year-old named Adnan Syed. But, stay with us, because, it's complicated… Try our coffee!! - www.CriminalCoffeeCo.com Become a Patreon member -- > https://www.patreon.com/CrimeWeekly Shop for your Crime Weekly gear here --> https://crimeweeklypodcast.com/shop Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/c/CrimeWeeklyPodcast Website: CrimeWeeklyPodcast.com Instagram: @CrimeWeeklyPod Twitter: @CrimeWeeklyPod Facebook: @CrimeWeeklyPod Ads: Bright Cellars is giving Crime Weekly listeners an exclusive Black Friday offer of $50 off their first box and $20 off their second box ($70 value). Take advantage of this limited-time offer by going to brightcellars.com/crimeweekly. That's B-R-I-G-H-T-C-E-L-L-A-R-S.com backslash CRIMEWEEKLY. Bright Cellars, helping you discover wine you'll love. Prose is the healthy hair regimen with your name all over it. Take your FREE in-depth hair consultation and get 15% off your first order today! Go to Prose dot com slash crimeweekly. That's P-R-O-S-E dot com slash crimeweekly for your FREE in-depth hair consultation and 15% off. When your day is feeling stale, just ask: what will today spin? If you're 21 or older you can join millions of players around the world. Download Slotomania, the #1 FREE slots game, on the App Store or Google Play Store and get one million free coins. That's Slotomania on the App Store or Google Play Store for one million free coins. Now, as a special offer, you can get $15 off your purchase of a Skylight Frame when you go Skylight Frame dot com and enter code CRIMEWEEKLY. That's right. To get $15 off your purchase of a Skylight Frame just go Skylight Frame dot com and enter code CRIMEWEEKLY. That's S-K-Y-L- I-G-H-T-F-R-A-M-E dot com, promo code CRIMEWEEKLY.

It was an unseasonably warm January afternoon in Baltimore County, Maryland when 18-year-old Woodlawn High School senior Hae Min Lee left school in her gray 1998 Nissan Sentra and headed out to pick up her six-year-old cousin from kindergarten before going to her job at the local LensCrafters. But sometime after leaving Woodlawn High School and before picking up her little cousin, Hae Min Lee vanished into thin air. Less than a month later, maintenance worker Alonzo Sellers was driving back to his job at Coppin State College and drinking a beer when he realized he had to use the bathroom, and it couldn't wait. Mr. Sellers pulled over on the side of the road and walked deep into the woods to relieve himself, at which point he made a gruesome discovery. According to his later testimony, Mr. Sellers said quote, “when I looked down I seen something that looked like hair, something that was covered by dirt. And I looked real good again, and that's when I seen what looked like a foot” end quote. Alonzo Sellers had stumbled upon the body of Hae Min Lee, she had been strangled to death by the bare hands of her attacker, and within a few weeks, the police would make an arrest for her murder. But, the suspect was a person that no one would have suspected capable of such a horrific crime, the ex-boyfriend of Hae, a sweet and smart 17-year-old named Adnan Syed. But, stay with us, because, it's complicated… Try our coffee!! - www.CriminalCoffeeCo.com Become a Patreon member -- > https://www.patreon.com/CrimeWeekly Shop for your Crime Weekly gear here --> https://crimeweeklypodcast.com/shop Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/c/CrimeWeeklyPodcast Website: CrimeWeeklyPodcast.com Instagram: @CrimeWeeklyPod Twitter: @CrimeWeeklyPod Facebook: @CrimeWeeklyPod Ads: You've earned your fun time. Go to the App Store or Google play to download Best Fiends for free. Plus, earn even more with $5 worth of in-game rewards when you reach level 5. That's Friends, without the r—Best Fiends. Go to HelloFresh dot com slash crimeweekly65 and use code crimeweekly65 for 65% off plus free shipping! Help your family share their story this holiday season with StoryWorth. Go to StoryWorth dot com slash crimeweekly today and save $10 on your first purchase! That's S-T-O-R-Y-W-O-R-T-H dot com slash crimeweekly to save $10 on your first purchase!  PDS DEBT is offering free debt analysis to our listeners just for completing the quick and easy debt assessment at www.PDSDebt.com/crime. That's P-D-S-D-E-B-T.com/crime. Take back your financial freedom today by visiting PDSDEBT.com/crime. This holiday season, trade late nights for silent nights and get started with Stamps dot com today. Sign up with promo code CRIMEWEEKLY for a special offer that includes a 4-week trial, plus free postage, and a free digital scale. No long-term commitments or contracts. Just go to Stamps dot com, click the microphone at the top of the page, and enter code CRIMEWEEKLY.

It was an unseasonably warm January afternoon in Baltimore County, Maryland when 18-year-old Woodlawn High School senior Hae Min Lee left school in her gray 1998 Nissan Sentra and headed out to pick up her six-year-old cousin from kindergarten before going to her job at the local LensCrafters. But sometime after leaving Woodlawn High School and before picking up her little cousin, Hae Min Lee vanished into thin air. Less than a month later, maintenance worker Alonzo Sellers was driving back to his job at Coppin State College and drinking a beer when he realized he had to use the bathroom, and it couldn't wait. Mr. Sellers pulled over on the side of the road and walked deep into the woods to relieve himself, at which point he made a gruesome discovery. According to his later testimony, Mr. Sellers said quote, “when I looked down I seen something that looked like hair, something that was covered by dirt. And I looked real good again, and that's when I seen what looked like a foot” end quote. Alonzo Sellers had stumbled upon the body of Hae Min Lee, she had been strangled to death by the bare hands of her attacker, and within a few weeks, the police would make an arrest for her murder. But, the suspect was a person that no one would have suspected capable of such a horrific crime, the ex-boyfriend of Hae, a sweet and smart 17-year-old named Adnan Syed. But, stay with us, because, it's complicated… Try our coffee!! - www.CriminalCoffeeCo.com Become a Patreon member -- > https://www.patreon.com/CrimeWeekly Shop for your Crime Weekly gear here --> https://crimeweeklypodcast.com/shop Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/c/CrimeWeeklyPodcast Website: CrimeWeeklyPodcast.com Instagram: @CrimeWeeklyPod Twitter: @CrimeWeeklyPod Facebook: @CrimeWeeklyPod Ads: Right now, get twenty percent off your Bare Necessities order when you go to BARE NECESSITIES dot com and use code crimeweekly20. That's code crimeweekly20 at BARE NECESSITIES dot com to get twenty percent off. BARE NECESSITIES dot com, code crimeweekly20. Some exclusions apply. Right now, BÉIS (base) is offering our listeners 15% off your first purchase by visiting BEISTRAVEL.com/CRIMEWEEKLY. Go to BEISTRAVEL.com/CRIMEWEEKLY for 15% off your first purchase. That's B-E-I-S-TRAVEL dot com slash CRIMEWEEKLY  Helix is offering up to 200 dollars off all mattress orders AND two free pillows for our listeners! Go to Helix Sleep dot com slash crimeweekly. With Helix, better sleep starts now. You deserve one less thing to worry about. Let Daily Harvest take care of the fruits + veggies for you. ! Go to DAILY HARVEST dot com slash crimeweekly to get up to forty dollars off your first box! That's DAILY HARVEST dot com slash crimeweekly for up to forty dollars off your first box! DAILY HARVEST dot com slash crimeweekly.

Brick and Mortar retail at holiday? Well there is nothing better.  It's exhilarating and at the same time, can be stressful.  Today's guest, Jim O'Toole, has mastered the art of winning at holiday as a multi-unit leader and he shares his secrets with us!   James is a successful multi-unit leader who has spent time working for some of the most iconic brands like The Gap, Pottery Barn, Banana Republic, Lenscrafters and others.  He even spent time working  with me at Running Great Stores!   You are going to love his perspective on how to create a successful holiday season for both your team and your customers.  His positivity is contagious and his tips are easy to implement. I know you will love hearing Jim's ideas and be excited to take them back to create a winning holiday season!  Enjoy the listen! p.s. To get a recap of the podcast, visit runninggreatstores.com and click on the Knowledge Center and then Podcasts! xoxo, Rachel --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app

It was an unseasonably warm January afternoon in Baltimore County, Maryland when 18-year-old Woodlawn High School senior Hae Min Lee left school in her gray 1998 Nissan Sentra and headed out to pick up her six-year-old cousin from kindergarten before going to her job at the local LensCrafters. But sometime after leaving Woodlawn High School and before picking up her little cousin, Hae Min Lee vanished into thin air. Less than a month later, maintenance worker Alonzo Sellers was driving back to his job at Coppin State College and drinking a beer when he realized he had to use the bathroom, and it couldn't wait. Mr. Sellers pulled over on the side of the road and walked deep into the woods to relieve himself, at which point he made a gruesome discovery. According to his later testimony, Mr. Sellers said quote, “when I looked down I seen something that looked like hair, something that was covered by dirt. And I looked real good again, and that's when I seen what looked like a foot” end quote. Alonzo Sellers had stumbled upon the body of Hae Min Lee, she had been strangled to death by the bare hands of her attacker, and within a few weeks, the police would make an arrest for her murder. But, the suspect was a person that no one would have suspected capable of such a horrific crime, the ex-boyfriend of Hae, a sweet and smart 17-year-old named Adnan Syed. But, stay with us, because, it's complicated… Try our coffee!! - www.CriminalCoffeeCo.com Become a Patreon member -- > https://www.patreon.com/CrimeWeekly Shop for your Crime Weekly gear here --> https://crimeweeklypodcast.com/shop Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/c/CrimeWeeklyPodcast Website: CrimeWeeklyPodcast.com Instagram: @CrimeWeeklyPod Twitter: @CrimeWeeklyPod Facebook: @CrimeWeeklyPod Ads: When your day is feeling stale, just ask: what will today spin? If you're 21 or older you can join millions of players around the world. Download Slotomania, the #1 FREE slots game, on the App Store or Google Play Store and get one million free coins. That's Slotomania on the App Store or Google Play Store for one million free coins. This holiday season, trade late nights for silent nights and get started with Stamps dot com today. Sign up with promo code CRIMEWEEKLY for a special offer that includes a 4-week trial, plus free postage, and a free digital scale. No long-term commitments or contracts. Just go to Stamps dot com, click the microphone at the top of the page, and enter code CRIMEWEEKLY. You deserve one less thing to worry about. Let Daily Harvest take care of the fruits + veggies for you. ! Go to DAILY HARVEST dot com slash crimeweekly to get up to forty dollars off your first box! That's DAILY HARVEST dot com slash crimeweekly for up to forty dollars off your first box! DAILY HARVEST dot com slash crimeweekly. PDS DEBT is offering free debt analysis to our listeners just for completing the quick and easy debt assessment at www.PDSDebt.com/crime. That's P-D-S-D-E-B-T.com/crime. Take back your financial freedom today by visiting PDSDEBT.com/crime.

It was an unseasonably warm January afternoon in Baltimore County, Maryland when 18-year-old Woodlawn High School senior Hae Min Lee left school in her gray 1998 Nissan Sentra and headed out to pick up her six-year-old cousin from kindergarten before going to her job at the local LensCrafters. But sometime after leaving Woodlawn High School and before picking up her little cousin, Hae Min Lee vanished into thin air. Less than a month later, maintenance worker Alonzo Sellers was driving back to his job at Coppin State College and drinking a beer when he realized he had to use the bathroom, and it couldn't wait. Mr. Sellers pulled over on the side of the road and walked deep into the woods to relieve himself, at which point he made a gruesome discovery. According to his later testimony, Mr. Sellers said quote, “when I looked down I seen something that looked like hair, something that was covered by dirt. And I looked real good again, and that's when I seen what looked like a foot” end quote. Alonzo Sellers had stumbled upon the body of Hae Min Lee, she had been strangled to death by the bare hands of her attacker, and within a few weeks, the police would make an arrest for her murder. But, the suspect was a person that no one would have suspected capable of such a horrific crime, the ex-boyfriend of Hae, a sweet and smart 17-year-old named Adnan Syed. But, stay with us, because, it's complicated… Try our coffee!! - www.CriminalCoffeeCo.com Become a Patreon member -- > https://www.patreon.com/CrimeWeekly Shop for your Crime Weekly gear here --> https://crimeweeklypodcast.com/shop Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/c/CrimeWeeklyPodcast Website: CrimeWeeklyPodcast.com Instagram: @CrimeWeeklyPod Twitter: @CrimeWeeklyPod Facebook: @CrimeWeeklyPod Ads: Right now, BÉIS (base) is offering our listeners 15% off your first purchase by visiting BEISTRAVEL.com/CRIMEWEEKLY. That's B-E-I-S-TRAVEL dot com slash CRIMEWEEKLY  Go to HelloFresh dot com slash crimeweekly65 and use code crimeweekly65 for 65% off plus free shipping!

It was an unseasonably warm January afternoon in Baltimore County, Maryland when 18-year-old Woodlawn High School senior Hae Min Lee left school in her gray 1998 Nissan Sentra and headed out to pick up her six-year-old cousin from kindergarten before going to her job at the local LensCrafters. But sometime after leaving Woodlawn High School and before picking up her little cousin, Hae Min Lee vanished into thin air. Less than a month later, maintenance worker Alonzo Sellers was driving back to his job at Coppin State College and drinking a beer when he realized he had to use the bathroom, and it couldn't wait. Mr. Sellers pulled over on the side of the road and walked deep into the woods to relieve himself, at which point he made a gruesome discovery. According to his later testimony, Mr. Sellers said quote, “when I looked down I seen something that looked like hair, something that was covered by dirt. And I looked real good again, and that's when I seen what looked like a foot” end quote. Alonzo Sellers had stumbled upon the body of Hae Min Lee, she had been strangled to death by the bare hands of her attacker, and within a few weeks, the police would make an arrest for her murder. But, the suspect was a person that no one would have suspected capable of such a horrific crime, the ex-boyfriend of Hae, a sweet and smart 17-year-old named Adnan Syed. But, stay with us, because, it's complicated… Try our coffee!! - www.CriminalCoffeeCo.com Become a Patreon member -- > https://www.patreon.com/CrimeWeekly Shop for your Crime Weekly gear here --> https://crimeweeklypodcast.com/shop Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/c/CrimeWeeklyPodcast Website: CrimeWeeklyPodcast.com Instagram: @CrimeWeeklyPod Twitter: @CrimeWeeklyPod Facebook: @CrimeWeeklyPod Ads: You've earned your fun time. Go to the App Store or Google play to download Best Fiends for free. Plus, earn even more with $5 worth of in-game rewards when you reach level 5. That's Friends, without the r—Best Fiends. Once you try Pretty Litter, it'll be the only litter you ever use. Go to  Pretty Litter dot com slash crimeweekly to save twenty percent on your FIRST order. That's Pretty Litter dot com slash crimeweekly to save twenty percent on your first order. Right now, get up to 55% off your subscription when you go to BABBEL dot com slash CRIMEWEEKLY. That's BABBEL dot com slash CRIMEWEEKLY for up to 55% off your subscription. Babbel—Language for life.

It was an unseasonably warm January afternoon in Baltimore County, Maryland when 18-year-old Woodlawn High School senior Hae Min Lee left school in her gray 1998 Nissan Sentra and headed out to pick up her six-year-old cousin from kindergarten before going to her job at the local LensCrafters. But sometime after leaving Woodlawn High School and before picking up her little cousin, Hae Min Lee vanished into thin air. Less than a month later, maintenance worker Alonzo Sellers was driving back to his job at Coppin State College and drinking a beer when he realized he had to use the bathroom, and it couldn't wait. Mr. Sellers pulled over on the side of the road and walked deep into the woods to relieve himself, at which point he made a gruesome discovery. According to his later testimony, Mr. Sellers said quote, “when I looked down I seen something that looked like hair, something that was covered by dirt. And I looked real good again, and that's when I seen what looked like a foot” end quote. Alonzo Sellers had stumbled upon the body of Hae Min Lee, she had been strangled to death by the bare hands of her attacker, and within a few weeks, the police would make an arrest for her murder. But, the suspect was a person that no one would have suspected capable of such a horrific crime, the ex-boyfriend of Hae, a sweet and smart 17-year-old named Adnan Syed. But, stay with us, because, it's complicated… Try our coffee!! - www.CriminalCoffeeCo.com Become a Patreon member -- > https://www.patreon.com/CrimeWeekly Shop for your Crime Weekly gear here --> https://crimeweeklypodcast.com/shop Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/c/CrimeWeeklyPodcast Website: CrimeWeeklyPodcast.com Instagram: @CrimeWeeklyPod Twitter: @CrimeWeeklyPod Facebook: @CrimeWeeklyPod Ads: Go to https://Surfshark.deals/crimeweekly and use code crimeweekly to get 83% off a 2 year plan plus 3 extra months for free! Helix is offering up to 200 dollars off all mattress orders AND two free pillows for our listeners! Go helixsleep.com/crimeweekly. With Helix, better sleep starts now. Go to dailyharvest.com/crimeweekly to get up to $40 off your first box! Switch to Amazon Pharmacy and save time, save money and stay healthy. Learn more at Amazon.com/crimeweekly

Touch my bosom please and watch us morph into decrepit grandmas. Bippity Boppity Bitch. Tara Reid smells like pumpkin spiced lattes and learn how Ashley got kicked out of Lenscrafters.

Given the challenges in our country, like COVID, and the current state of Canadian optometry, Canada still has a solid market from a business perspective. As a profession, Canadian optometry still has a high demand for doctors to grow because of the elements which play a massive role in the industry. In the fifth installment of The Future of Canadian Optometry Series presented by Aequus Pharma, Dr. Sian speaks with Mr. Alfonso Cerullo about his perspectives on the profession's future. Mr. Cerullo shares his thoughts on the following topics: independent vs. corporate optometry, what increasing access to care means, the value of the eye exam, and emerging technology. Tune in to this episode and be sure to check out the entire series of interviews with leaders from various large organizations in the Canadian optometry space.Love the show? Subscribe, rate, review & share! http://www.aboutmyeyes.com/podcast/

On tonight's episode my guest discusses their time with Luxottica/Lens Crafters We all know how frustrating working in the retail/grocery and service industry can be. From low wages to ridiculous job expectations we are here to shine a light on the horrors that exist after you punch the clock. Subscribe for more industry related content: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCa3J... //Recommended videos: ️ The Traits of a Toxic Boss – https://youtu.be/pasMOQFVxM8️ Justice for Evan | The organizers speak – https://youtu.be/LDyXD5OmAGI️ An Evening with Senator Jeff Brandes of Florida – https://youtu.be/r7acO4wozEc️ Mental Health in Retail | Why your stories matter – https://youtu.be/c2iWxR1pNHE️ “Please Don't Be a Karen This Year” – https://youtu.be/n4QrKqw9mGU --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/theretailwarzone/support

Dr. Gelb discusses how his practice, within LensCrafters, allowed him to fulfill his mission to provide patients with state-of-the-art vision care. He envisioned and helped produce the full-length documentary, Eyes Wide Open. The film delivers the resounding message that the eye holds the secrets to our hidden health. He also hosts a podcast that interviews key opinion leaders within the health industry, aimed to educate patients and professionals on the role optometry plays in preserving patient's overall health. His insight into leadership is thought provoking.

AKASHI MEDIA PODCAST Live with Variety Chenevert. Commentary America's State Health Care Pays for jobs for Miscreants. If you are one like many who has state health insurance then your insurance makes jobs available to state prisoners to design your eyeglasses. Your eyeglasses are not always being designed by LensCrafters unless they hired a former inmate who did it while incarcerated. Many America's State jobs are created for people incarcerated in the rehabilitation system to obtain job skills such as manufacturing jeans like Levis and even an opportunity to get a education at prestigious universities such as NYU New York University. Some post inmates become entrepreneurs and start businesses and even become chefs. --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/akashimediapodcastlive/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/akashimediapodcastlive/support

Wake Up Tucson live remote from Caffe Torino in Oro Valley in support of the Joe Erceg for Oro Valley Town Council campaign. Primary election polls showing a large percentage of undecideds...how accruate is polling we're seeing? Spam under lock and key in New York because of rampant theft. Tucson isn't far behind as someone walked into Lens Crafters and stole thousands of dollars worth of sunglasses. Can lawmakers and cities just meet the "do no harm" standard?

Why are spectacles so expensive? The sheer scale of EssilorLuxottica, the world's biggest maker of eyewear and lenses, might have something to do with it. On 21st September, 2007, they paid $2.1 billion for the last major designer brand they didn't already own: Oakley. Their empire now includes Dolce and Gabbana, Versace, Burberry, Ralph Lauren, Tiffany, Persol, Ray-Ban and DKNY. But they don't just make frames: they also own many opticians, including LensCrafters; a situation critics suggest has resulted in them effectively operating a price-fixing monopoly.  In this episode, Arion, Rebecca and Olly revisit the feud between Luxottica's billionaire founder Leonardo Del Vecchio and Oakley's James Jannard; ask if luxury eyewear can be considered an ‘essential' product; and explain why, the next time you buy a bottle of booze, you might have less choice than you think…  Further Reading: • ‘Leonardo Del Vecchio, the Italian billionaire defying old age' (Financial Times, 2019): https://www.ft.com/content/1fcf395e-eb39-11e9-85f4-d00e5018f061 • ‘Meet the Four-Eyed, Eight-Tentacled Monopoly That is Making Your Glasses So Expensive' (Forbes, 2014): https://www.forbes.com/sites/anaswanson/2014/09/10/meet-the-four-eyed-eight-tentacled-monopoly-that-is-making-your-glasses-so-expensive/?sh=7ec0514c6b66 • ‘60 Minutes: Do you know who makes your glasses?' (CBS, 2012): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yvTWjWVY9Vo For bonus material and to support the show, visit Patreon.com/Retrospectors We'll be back tomorrow! Follow us wherever you get your podcasts: podfollow.com/Retrospectors The Retrospectors are Olly Mann, Rebecca Messina & Arion McNicoll, with Matt Hill. Theme Music: Pass The Peas. Announcer: Bob Ravelli. Graphic Design: Terry Saunders. Edit Producer: Sophie King. Copyright: Rethink Audio / Olly Mann 2022. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Here is some hard truth... The company will be fine without you. The nonprofit you volunteer for will be fine without you.  Your family WILL NOT be fine without you.  Yes, we need to work hard. Yes, we need to serve. However, we can't overwork and overserve at the expense of our family. This was just one of many pieces of wisdom that this week's podcast guest shared. Amy Connor has been a Brand Manager at P&G, then Vice President of Marketing for Lenscrafters. Amy is also a wife, a parent, plus on the board for a local private school. So, Amy understands a demanding schedule. Her wisdom of how to overcome the demands of the world, yet still win in your personal and spiritual life is very helpful. I hope you enjoy the episode as much as I did!   In this episode, you'll discover…  Key trait to win at both work and home (1:10) How do you find the time to be a mother, a wife, and a business owner (8:06) What were your struggles with your identity when you decided to leave your corporate job (23:49) What are some guardrails you have in your life to make sure you are taking time for yourself (27:36) Amy Connor's Bio Amy Connor is CEO & Owner of CMO-OnLoan™, an organization that serves privately-held, mid-market companies in Dayton, Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky.  Connor and her team help business-to-business companies that don't have a marketing leader by building, implementing and growing revenue-generating marketing systems. Their purpose is to build the region by fueling mid-market company success. For more than 20 years, Connor drove growth with her ability to quickly assess business opportunities and lead strategic and actionable roadmaps in world-class companies like The Iams Company, Procter & Gamble and Luxottica. After a successful corporate career, including her role as vice president, marketing for LensCrafters, Connor started CMO-OnLoan in 2016. Since then, Connor and her team have served many companies throughout a broad range of industries in the region.    Connor is a sought-out speaker, providing relevant insights to business leaders and organizations, including the Goering Center for Family & Private Business, Mason Deerfield Chamber, P&G Alumni Symposium, Xavier University MBA program, American Marketing Association, Association of National Advertisers, SCORE, and Vistage.    What's Next?  Speaking of getting an ROI on your life….. The Confident and Consistent Leader Challenge has had AMAZING results to help leaders identify where and how to be intentional. I can't wait to hold the next one on April 25th and help leaders create, and build  better habits! Are you going to take the leap and join us? 100% money-back guarantee if you don't move forward. Go here to learn more, see endorsements of previous guests, plus register! Are you crushing it at work but struggling at home? If you want to learn how to win at home, then go to https://CoryMCarlson.com/subscribe and download your free copy of “10 Ways To Win At Home.”

Fred Heim is a Navy veteran, having served 5 years as an aircrew member aboard an SH60 helicopter conducting anti-submarine warfare (AW) and search and rescue (SAR). As a SAR rescue swimmer Fred was part of the special operations community. Fred deployed to the middle east during Operation Desert Storm. Fred discharged from the military in 1994 and today is the co-founder of VERT Fitness Product Accelerators. Fred has established himself as an award-winning brand strategist with experience in the sports, fitness/wellness, medical, and nutrition. Fred has managed the creation of numerous products including several as a global PLM for Nike. With specialties in business development, consumer narrative and positioning, some of his previous partners include The Food Network, Red Bull, Johnson & Johnson, LensCrafters, and Rollerblade. PODCAST - LISTEN, WATCH, AND SUBSCRIBE https://linktr.ee/TransitionDrillPodcast CONNECT WITH FRED https://www.linkedin.com/in/frederickheim/ https://vert.fit/ https://www.instagram.com/househeim/ https://www.instagram.com/battledinner/

Why are eyeglasses so expensive? The answer is simple, one company not only makes them, but they also own the stores where they are sold. The company is Essilor Luxottica, and they are the maker of Ray-Ban, Oakley, and now Costa Sunglasses. They also own LensCrafters and Sunglass Hut. Keri and Jeni discuss this and Jeni's recent experience, shopping for new glasses and why the price seems to be the same, with or without insurance. References: https://youtu.be/voUiWOGv8ec https://youtu.be/Mx1dMvbT5Fw https://www.essilorluxottica.com/brands Please make sure to subscribe so you don't miss an episode and as always send in your questions or comments to HonestlyUnfiltered@keriandjeni.com Connect with is on social media @keriandjeni for Twitter, Instagram & Facebook. Check out our website and blog at http://www.keriandjeni.com/ (www.keriandjeni.com) Do you like what you hear? https://www.buymeacoffee.com/keriandjeni! (Buy Us a Coffee!)

House Meeting is a weekly improvised roommate meeting comedy podcast. In the tenth episode, roommates and best friends Kelly, Eddie, and Franklin (Tony DeFeo, Marcus Haugen, Jerry Burgos) meet the mysterious Madame Tremaine, (Melissa Parker Caron)! Listen along as she tells the boys about her wretched step-daughters, Eddie becomes the guy at Lens Crafters' muse, Franklin grows a unique online following, and so much more! Download wherever you get your podcasts! Also, check out more of the talented comedian and actor Melissa Parker Caron! If you are having some roommate issues of your own and you'd like "House Meeting" to weigh in, send an email to housemeetingshow@gmail.com and we will give you the best advice (we can) on the show! --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/housemeetingpod/message

Sam Wiles (Fight Island podcast) zooms in to talk AMC, going to the Americana and Galleria on his breaks from work, Westdale and Coral Ridge malls in Iowa, all things LensCrafters, and MORE! JOIN THE MALL TALK PATREON: https://www.patreon.com/malltalkpod/ BUY MALL TALK MERCH: https://www.teepublic.com/stores/malltalkpodcast FOLLOW SAM: https://www.instagram.com/samwiless/  https://twitter.com/VoteSamWiles FOLLOW MALL TALK: https://www.instagram.com/malltalkpod  https://twitter.com/malltalkpod 

I had the pleasure of having a conversation with Artist and Designer Peter Robinson, better known around the world as “Ten Hundred” ). He specializes in bright, colorful, imaginative character work which has been exhibited in iconic global art hubs as Seattle, Portland, Denver, Los Angele, Japan, and Brazil.   Ten Hundred pulls inspiration a wide variety of sources such as cartoons and anime, street art and graffiti, childlike imagination, comics, world cultures, religions, and folklore. Ten Hundred is not only an accomplished and sought after street mural artist, but his commercial demand is growing with a client list thet includes Amazon, Nordstrom, Converse, Jet Blue, Lenscrafters, and Monster  I first stumbled upon Peter's work on YouTube where he publishes art tutorials and documents his travels and his very diverse art career to his over 280,000 subscribers.  With some of his videos getting close to 5 million views, it's clear that this artist has some things really dialed in. We didn't just talk about art and process in this interview. Peter tells us about getting over drug addiction and hitting rock bottom. We talked about what it takes to make it in the arts and what hustling really looks like. "Ten Hun" walks us through his early days as a musician and working at Guitar Center and how he re-invented himself into a globally recognized  artist, teacher and successful YouTuber. I hope you love this in-depth interview with Artist and Designer, Ten Hundred. Check out TenHundred on: YouTube | Instagram | Patreon Connect with The Shifting Perceptions Podcast: • Shifting Perceptions Website : http://shiftingperceptionspodcast.com Join Our Mailing List :https://app.monstercampaigns.com/c/dolkqadw7ny14cxfu2dr/ Facebook : https://www.facebook.com/shiftingperceptionspodcast Instagram : https://www.instagram.com/shiftingperceptionspodcast Twitter : https://twitter.com/ShiftingPodcast Connect with Jay Alders: https://jayalders.com https://facebook.com/jayalders https://patreon.com/jayalders https://instagram.com/jayalders https://twitter.com/jayalders https://youtube.com/jayalders https://pinterest.com/jayalders Connect with Chelsea Alders: https://ommamasdoulas.com https://sundreamsproductions.com https://www.instagram.com/chelseaalders https://www.instagram.com/ommamasdoulas https://www.instagram.com/sundreamsproductions

The Locked On Rays crew has some fun on today's show-- by discussing which products/goods/services current Rays players should have endorsement deals with. Like, why isn't Bass Pro Shop calling Austin Meadows, or Lenscrafters calling Kevin Kiermaier??Enjoy the show and want to grow your business? Text the word ADVERTISING to 33777 or visit lockedonpodcasts.com/advertisingFollow the podcast on Twitter @LockedOnRays and send us a voice memo or e-mail comments/questions to lockedonrays@gmail.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Serial entrepreneur Randy Scott founded Novamin, a toothpaste using the bio-glass technology invented by Larry Hench (featured on “Glass that Grows,” 9/25/18). Bio-glass is a ceramic that essentially fuses with bone and cartilage in your body. Randy says the key to starting a biotech company is “to fall out of love with the science” and instead understand the economic model that makes the invention relevant. His father, “a prototypical entrepreneur,” sometimes did well and sometimes did not, but his mother successfully ran a small business. Probably as a result, Randy as a child was always “inventing fictional businesses in my head.” TRANSCRIPT: Intro: 0:20 Inventors and their inventions. Welcome to Radio Cade, the podcast from the Cade Museum for Creativity and Invention in Gainesville, Florida. The museum is named after James Robert Cade who invented Gatorade in 1965. My name is Richard Miles. We’ll introduce you to inventors and the things that motivate them. We’ll learn about their personal stories, how their inventions work, and how their ideas get from the laboratory to the marketplace. Richard Miles: 0:39 Glass that Grows part two. Welcome to another episode of Radio Cade in which for my guest today is Randy Scott, who’s the founder and CEO of a company called Novamin and also partner at Health Quest Capital. Welcome, Randy. Randy Scott: 0:53 Thanks, Richard. Richard Miles: 0:54 So listeners who have been with us for awhile will remember that we did a show with David Greenspan called Glass that Grows. It was the technology invented or discovered by Larry Hench, who was a material science researcher at the university forward back in the sixties and seventies. And there’ve been various applications of that. So David Greenspan talked about one application and Randy you are involved with another one. So before we get into anything else for maybe our listeners who didn’t catch the David Greenspan episode, if we could go back over, what was it that Larry Hench discovered kind of in real simple terms and then maybe just a little bit about why is there more than one way to use this core technology? Randy Scott: 1:39 Yeah, sure. So the material that Larry Hench invented, was called bioactive glass or just bioglass for short. And the, the thing that makes us different than regular glass is we think of regular glasses, something that is sort of permanent and nonreactive and what have you, bioactive class is different in that it reacts in the presence of anything that’s aqueous, including body fluids. And it doesn’t stay permanent like window glass or you know, something you’d drink a beverage out of or whatever. It actually reacts and it releases calcium and phosphorus and some other things into the environment around it. And then it actually attracts those things back to itself. And it forms a crystal structure that is essentially the same as what bones and teeth are made out of and the body. And so you could imagine if this process takes place inside the body, then the resulting crystals that form to the body just looks like it’s part of the body. And that’s what made bioglass unique was that once it got put in the body and it went through this reaction, which happens very quickly then the body did not distinguish between its own tissue and this new material. So it became the first material that was not just invisible but was actually recognized by the body as this is part of myself. Richard Miles: 3:11 Interesting. So when, when Larry Hench developed this, did he right away know that there was gonna be multiple ways in which this could be used or you know, at what point did Larry or other people say, hey, this can be used for a lot of different things. Cause there are several different applications where, when did that Aha moment come in terms of application of the technology? Randy Scott: 3:31 Yeah. And that actually did come later. So when Larry first kind of started working on this, he was trying to solve the problem of how can we make new bones to put into the body. So replacing whole femurs or whatever, right? You know, the whole bones and it was all born out of a conversation that I think David referenced in his interview with a Vietnam War general that Larry met on a bus and said about all these, you know, soldiers that were victims of land mines and that kind of thing. And so that was the problem he set out to solve because you can’t just put a piece of metal in there or piece of plastic in the body or whatever. And that kind of large piece and expect it to be successful residing in the body for a long time. Didn’t really work out for that very well though, because glasses at the end of the day, one of the things we all know about glass is that it breaks easily. So you put it in a load bearing large situation like that, it’s going to break eventually. But somewhere later down the road, some other researchers also at University of Florida got the idea of what if we ground this up and to… you know, just kind of granules, think like salt or sugar or something like that. And could we put it into bony defects and have those have the material convert in such a way that the body would then heal around it as if they were bone chips or something that the body might normally remodel into new healthy bone. And sure enough, that worked. Uh, and so that really became the first viable commercial application for it. And then somewhere later down the road, a researcher at the University of Maryland who had done just some animal studies for Dave Greenspan and Larry Hanson and some of the other folks that were doing some work in the area, he got to thinking, he was a dentist by training, although he was to sort of pay his bills or whatever he was running animal studies, and he got to thinking, well, you know, teeth get these tiny little defects in them. And I wonder if we grounded up, instead of being, you know, the size of a salt crystal or a sugar crystal, what if we ground it up into super fine powder, then we put it into those defects somehow. Would it cause the teeth to also kind of regenerate themselves or heal or whatever. And so he experimented with that and sure enough it did work and there were some other challenges that came to using it in that way, but conceptually it did work in the laboratory at least. And that was more or less like I think where I came into the story, which was thinking about the kind of dental applications and in particular thinking about, you know, incorporating this into toothpaste and how might it improve the performance of toothpaste. Given that one of the things we want our toothpaste to do is to prevent us from getting, getting cavities or even better fill the cavity that has already happened in these kinds of things. Richard Miles: 6:39 So Randy, so you said that this professor is the one who thought it might apply to teeth. And at that point you sort of got in the mix and you’ve had since then had a distinguished career in sort of identifying companies and helping entrepreneurs. So with all that you’ve learned now, you know, as you started Novamin, kind of walk us through what were some of the first things you had to figure out as you’ve got this, this technology that you believe works and believe has an application. And what was the first thing that you did? Did you call up your parents, say “I’m rich.” You know, “Hey, I’m buying your house and car. I’ve got it all figured out.” Or what are, what are kind of the first initial steps you took and then if you can sort of summarize what were those early years like in terms of, of getting a good idea into the marketplace and starting to grow that. Randy Scott: 7:30 Yeah. So the key on any of these things is to fall out of love with the science and instead trying to understand the economic model that makes whatever the invention is or whatever relevant. And that’s one of the pitfalls I think a lot of inventors, and especially I would say academic inventors kind of fall into because they’re scientists by nature. And so they love the beauty and the elegance of the science. And I would say the early folks with what became Novamin with the bioactive glass had you know, some of those same kind of challenges of just trying to set the science and the beauty of the science aside and think about the economic part. So, um, you know, in our case it was figuring out that, okay, the really, the only way this was going to make a difference to the population as a whole but also to the business world was if we could figure out a way to incorporate it into something like toothpaste where he could use large volumes and it would touch lots of people. And so we, you know, kind of stopped spending time and energy and money on, on the science of the Novamin so much and started more figuring out on how to solve the problems of using this in a toothpaste formula and have it feel right and taste right and not go bad on the shelf and all those kinds of things. But anyway, to come back to your question for, you know, entrepreneurs, one of the biggest mistakes or whatever shortcomings that I see as a venture capitalist is that they are completely in love with the science and they’re not yet in love with the economic model because, you know, at the end of the day, investors like VCs want to invest in businesses not in science or an idea. Richard Miles: 9:18 Interesting. We’re going to come back to that. I’m sort of fascinated by that initial stage and then, you know, even after that. Sort of how do you get to the next stage of attracting serious capital and getting it into big markets. But let’s, let’s circle back and talk a little bit about you, Randy. Sorta, what were you, let’s go back to pre success Randy. Right. Let’s go. What were you like as a kid? Did you already… were you four years old and you had the best damn lemonade stand on the block outselling all your competitors or what, at what point did you figure out you had some sort of skill or attraction to business or you know, making things work, that sort of thing? Randy Scott: 10:00 Yeah. So I was kind of a business junky actually as a kid and that I was always inventing fictional businesses that I was running. I wasn’t so good at the follow through, maybe of… Richard Miles: 10:16 Where were you in 1980s and tech. Okay. Alright. Randy Scott: 10:20 But, yeah I would just, one week I’d be had to have my own newspaper and the next week I’d have my own boat dealership or something. It just kind of each week I kind of invented a new business idea in my head. Richard Miles: 10:37 And what age are we talking about roughly? Randy Scott: 10:39 Oh, this would be pretty young. I mean, this would be elementary school kind of ages. And so I was always sort of daydreaming around these types of things. Richard Miles: 10:49 But then that series A round for the boat never took off in the first… And so what were you like in high school. Did you join like the junior achievement or those sort of business type clubs or what were you drawn to it at that age? Randy Scott: 11:06 Yeah, in high school I finally actually started paying a little bit of attention in class, which helped some later so I actually got into college and that kind of stuff. But yeah, you know, I was the editor of the newspaper. I was editor of the yearbook. I guess I was kind of a natural leader, you know, a couple of clubs. If I got in a club, I usually ended up being the president of the club or something like that. Not by design necessarily, but I think I’m by nature, you know, I’m pretty good at figuring out what needs to be done and then just going off and doing it as opposed to you know, waiting for instructions. And I think that’s one in the context of a club or something like that in high school that almost automatically makes you a leader. Cause most of the people aren’t there to do anything other then socialize I guess. But it’s also probably the traits of a good entrepreneur. Richard Miles: 11:58 So any of this sort of genetic or from family background, do you have a long line of successful sort of business types in your family or what did, what did your folks do for instance? Randy Scott: 12:07 Sure. Yeah. So my dad was very much… both of my parents were small business people. Well, my mom had a store now that she started from scratch that was successful in the little town we were in but then my dad was more of the sort of prototypical entrepreneur, which was, you know, every couple of years it was a different business. Sometimes they would not do very well and maybe we’d have to move into a smaller house or something like that and then of course something would do really well and we’d have new cars and all that kind of stuff for a year or two. And he was very active in the kind of environmental sort of stuff, which is interesting cause you don’t think about that so much back in the 70s or even late 60s, but he invented a device for recycling industrial wastewater for example, that was installed in the Maxwell House coffee plant up in Jacksonville. I remember as a kid, we always had to have Maxwell house coffee in the, in the household, which became awkward when my first job out of college was with Folgers coffee. Somehow my parents didn’t disown me despite that. But he was also into paper recycling, built the first municipal waste to energy plant in the United States up in Ohio. So, yeah, he was always doing something. Also built a lobster processing plant. So there was random stuff built in here in between all the other stuff too. Richard Miles: 13:31 So it sounds like you kind of grew up in an environment where taking risk or sort of that sort of, it was not, at least not strange to you. I don’t know if it was pleasant, but it was not strange. Randy Scott: 13:43 Yeah, absolutely. In fact, the strange thing if anything was I got out of school and I went to work for Procter and Gamble, which was this big, you know, Fortune 15 company or whatever. And I think that was weird to my parents because they sort of just didn’t really understand the idea that you’re going to go work for a big company where you’re expected to work for your whole career and whatever. Of course, I didn’t work there for my whole career, obviously, but that was a bigger adjustment than the idea of starting a business and taking the kind of risk. Richard Miles: 14:12 And if I remember correctly you had a stint in the Caribbean with a distributor ship, a beverage distributors, is that correct? Randy Scott: 14:21 Yeah. Close. Yeah. So after P&G I worked for a brief time with Lenscrafters when it was a startup and left with one of the founders there and we went down to Grenada. Where you spent some time, Richard also might’ve even overlapped at the same time? I’m not sure if we figured that out and went down to Grenada, you know, a few years after the American invasion with the idea that we would, um, help, uh, you know, do the patriotic thing and help them build their economy and have a little fun at the same time. And we went down with the intention of buying a rum distillery that was for sale down there. And, uh, we actually got outbid on the distillery by some British rockstar. I don’t actually remember who it was. And so we just bought a bottle of the local rum at the store and went to the beach to drown our sorrows before flying out the next morning and we cracked open the bottle and we thought, “Wow, this stuff tastes better than anything we could have made ourselves anyway.” So the next day we delayed our flight. We went and we met with the old family that owned the distillery and had been there for, you know, a hundred years or 200 years. I have no idea. And I got the rights to it and we kind of created a new brand called Webster Hall Plantation Rum. And it was going to be the first super premium rum in the US it’s kind of mid eighties. And started importing it. And then I immediately went to my then girlfriend, now wife and told her that we were going to be multimillionaires cause I only needed half a percent of the US rum market to be rich. Richard Miles: 15:53 It’s the oldest line in the book right now. Randy Scott: 15:55 And I get reminded of it every day, almost. It didn’t work out. Richard Miles: 16:00 But so it seems like our careers have had similar trajectories. We’ve done a lot of really different things, which means either we’re really good at a lot of stuff or were good at nothing. We got to keep finding a new job. So I’m a little ADHD perhaps. Randy Scott: 16:14 Exactly. Richard Miles: 16:14 So let’s come back to Novamin, and I remember you telling me a story that I still tell people about what it’s like to build a new company, a small company, and you’re starting to take on more employees. And you told me the story of how when you first started you thought it was sort of your duty to share every jot and tittle of information with all of your employees. You want to be transparent, let them know what’s going on. And finally at one point, one of them came to you and said, “Randy, stop! This is exhausting to know, you know, every, every twist and turn in the company’s history.” And then that’s when you learned, you know, maybe some things I need to keep to myself for a while as the CEO and founder. Can you describe a little bit what that’s like after you sort of pass through that initial valley of death in terms of you got your initial financing, you’re trying to grow the company to the next stage, but you still got a ways to go before you’ve developed a company DNA or a culture within that. What is that like? Randy Scott: 17:14 Yeah. One of the things that that particular episode taught me was that not everybody is geared to ride the roller coaster of a startup and, you know, until a company gets to be, I would say maybe, you know, 20 or $30 million in revenue or something like that, the companies are very sensitive to any kind of little event feeling at least like an existential crisis. You know, one customer bailing out on you can be fatal in a lot of cases or whatever. So every piece of bad news tends to create a bad day and every piece of good news creates a giddy day. And so you really do end up with this, you know, big rollercoaster ride and you have to be able to, uh, kind of control that emotion if you will. And not everybody can do that. And you know, if you’re building a company, you’re going to have to hire people that are good at being in a startup and people that maybe aren’t good at being in a startup, but you need them anyway. And so you have to manage them differently. And you have to recognize that they’re not like you. They don’t necessarily feed off of that roller coaster. They actually get beat down by that roller coaster. Richard Miles: 18:32 Now, Novamin had a successful exit. Right? It did well. Randy Scott: 18:36 Yeah. Richard Miles: 18:36 Does having taken part in that sort of life cycle of starting the company and extinct successfully, uh, I imagine that it helps you in your current job, right, where you’re trying to pick winners and losers. You’re evaluating companies every day or at least every week, I imagine. And you’re trying to decide where’s the best place to put your fund’s money. Um, do you recognize yourself in some of these business owners that you talk to? And if you could develop that a little bit and tell me, you know, what are you looking for without giving away your trade secrets? So I don’t start a fund of my own right. Um, what are the basic core elements that you’re looking for, you think to yourself, “This could be a good deal.” And, conversely, what are sort of the red flags where if you see him, it’s like “check please,” you know, “I’m done with this conversation.” Randy Scott: 19:22 Yeah. Right. Um, so I definitely do see myself and sort of the Novamin situation in a lot of the companies that we look at. So, uh, in that sense, it definitely plays into how I think about companies. I think that, uh, yeah, a couple of things that we look for. Uh, first off is, uh, you know, if I think about the Novamin experience, for example, one of the things that I think really worked for us in terms of being able to exit successfully was we had a technology that was going to be potentially very valuable to a, um, a relatively short list of, uh, of existing players in the space. So it was kind of an oligopoly if you will, of, you know, kind of four or five major toothpaste companies. And we knew more or less from the beginning that we were going to have to get one of them to buy the company. And, uh, but we also knew that we could create conditions where all of them could look at it as a real potential game changer, both up and down, meaning it could damage their business or really help their business and that would make it sort of irresistible, we believe, to get one of them to come in and buy, which is exactly what happened when glaxosmithkline bought it against bids from Procter and Gamble and Unilever and others. And so, um, you know, we’d love to find those kinds of situations because as investors ultimately just investing in a business keeps it successful and grows. But if it remains private and all that, it’s very difficult for us to then create returns for our investors, which are pension funds and that kind of stuff because we have to be able to exit our investment typically in three to five years for the economics of the whole situation to work out. And that means that there has to be an MNA event, somebody has to buy the company or it has to be an IPO or something like that. And if you look at it, IPOs are sexy, but there really aren’t very many IPOs relative to the number of venture investments that get made. So it’s going to have to be this MNA thing in most cases. So we spent a lot of time looking at that back end of the deal, coming into it. Um, and then I’d say, you know, it’s something that is the kind of the quick turn off as the entrepreneur. That’s in it for the CEO because it’s not always the original founder, but that’s in it for their deal. And so if they start negotiating their own deal before you’ve even made the commitment to invest, then you know, pretty much they’ve got the wrong mindset for this and it’s not going to be a pleasant relationship and that one will end it pretty quick. Richard Miles: 22:01 So that sounds like the ones you’re looking for, are the ones really ready to let it go, negotiate a price and, and walk away from it. Or is there something else here that I’m missing? You’re saying negotiate their deal. What does that mean? Randy Scott: 22:13 I mean negotiate their personal deal. Like, yeah they’re focused on their salary and all that kind of stuff at the early stages. You know, we, we are looking for, you know, the CEO’s and the entrepreneurs that, you know, their first priority is the success of the company. Uh, and that ideally believe that whatever they’re doing is actually important to the world, even if they didn’t make or nobody made money on it, that it’s still somehow important to the world. You know, we are, we’re focused exclusively on healthcare for a reason because, you know, we’re not just trying to come up with the next sort of fun, entertaining Chotsky or something like that. Uh, we’re, you know, doing all this work so that we can also have some residual benefits or, you know, additional benefits beyond the profits that are made. Richard Miles: 22:56 So Randy, I usually offer all of my guests an opportunity to dispense wise sage advice. So, uh, if you want to end right here, we can, but… if you saw, you know, a young Randy Scott, uh, and there are plenty of those in Gainesville, sort of, you know, the type, right? We both seen them, they’ve got a great idea. They’re full of enthusiasm. Uh, you know they’re sleeping on somebody’s couch or somebody floor, and they are convinced they’re going to make it. And you have given advice to those folks, but what do you tell them, uh, what are the, you know, the three things you say, “Hey, here’s what you really need to be doing now.” And then are there things you say “And here are the things you need to quit doing?” How do those conversations go with sort of young entrepreneurs, uh, in Gainesville or anywhere where you deal? Randy Scott: 23:48 Some of them are things we’ve already talked about. “Hey, you know, you’ve got to focus on the, you know, how’s this going to be a business as opposed to, uh, you know, this has great science or great idea that needs a home.” Uh, so, you know, really getting them to understand what I, what I described to them frequently as “follow the money.” And in fact, I do a little kind of a Jerry Maguire riff sometimes off of that that you may have seen before. But, uh, you know, it’s really about following the money and if you can follow the money all the way from, you know, both the ends of the entire business chain and you understand everybody that has to touch the product, touch an element of the product, pay for the product, sell the product, all that kind of stuff, and understand everybody’s economic motivation and the deal. And after thoroughly understanding that, then you’re going to be able to understand your place in that ecosystem, if you will. And a lot of things I think will come into focus, uh, at that point once you do that exercise. And it’s amazing the number of entrepreneurs that have never thought about it beyond, you know, the little sliver of the ecosystem so to speak, that they’re occupying. So I think that’s the main thing. Another thing is just being patient and recognizing that no matter how bad things might look at a given moment in time, they can turn around 180 degrees in a very short period of days or hours or whatever sometimes. That it can all happen very quickly in a positive way. And you’ve got to just kind of keep the faith and um, stick with it. Richard Miles: 25:22 Sounds like good advice. So, Randy, thanks very much for joining me today. You know, reminding listeners that the companion episode to this one is Glass that Grows with David Greenspan, which we also talk about the same technology but a different application. But I’m glad that you could complete the picture for us today, man. Randy Scott: 25:39 Great. Thanks, Richard. Great to be here. Richard Miles: 25:41 Thanks for listening. I’m Richard Miles Outro: 25:46 Radio Cade would like to thank the following people for their help and support. Liz Gist of the Cade Museum for coordinating and inventor interviews. Bob McPeak of Heartwood Soundstage in downtown Gainesville, Florida for recording, editing and production of the podcasts and music theme. Tracy Collins for the composition and performance of the Radio Cade theme song featuring violinist Jacob Lawson. And special thanks to the Cade Museum for Creativity and Invention located in Gainesville, Florida.

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