Podcast appearances and mentions of mark brian

Breakthrough expert Brian Biro challenges the notion of overachieving, suggesting we all have untapped potential waiting to be unleashed. Mark & Brian discuss how by honing in on elements we can control—vision, energy, and relationships—we can orchestrate personal and professional breakthroughs. Plus, discover how the simple act of putting on socks properly speaks volumes about the power of details and fundamentals.   ◩ About the Guest ◩ Brian Biro is a master storyteller, professional speaker, and best-selling author. Find out more at www.brianbiro.com    ⭐ Leave us a rating or review on your favorite podcast app. We actually read them!

Mark Thompson grew up loving radio, comedy, and with an appreciation for the absurd. These qualities made Mark uniquely qualified to create one of the most iconic morning radio shows in history. The Mark & Brian show started out in Birmingham, Alabama, but within a year, made its way to Los Angeles and 95.5 KLOS. It quickly became the #1 morning show in the #2 market. Mark & Brian were inducted into the Radio Hall Of Fame in 2020. Mark's memoir, Don't Bump The Record, Kid: My Adventures with Mark & Brian is out now, and he steps into our virtual studio to regale us with some of his (mis)adventures.

Mark Thompson grew up loving radio, comedy, and with an appreciation for the absurd. These qualities made Mark uniquely qualified to create one of the most iconic morning radio shows in history. The Mark & Brian show started out in Birmingham, Alabama, but within a year, made its way to Los Angeles and 95.5 KLOS. It quickly became the #1 morning show in the #2 market. Mark & Brian were inducted into the Radio Hall Of Fame in 2020. Mark's memoir, Don't Bump The Record, Kid: My Adventures with Mark & Brian is out now, and he steps into our virtual studio to regale us with some of his (mis)adventures.We are a proud member of Pantheon Podcasts.

Today marks the release of Mark Thompson's book & memoir “Don't Bump the Record, Kid.” Mark is a legendary radio personality and occasional actor, best known for the nationally syndicated Mark & Brian morning show, which aired on KLOS-FM/95.5 for 25 years. Mark & Jay Jay discuss the importance of going outside of existing formats - whether in radio, music, or any creative endeavor, & why it's important to disregard people's reactions/critiques when developing your craft. Hear all about Mark's unique journey and early years in radio, and share some of his favorite stories from his lifelong career in radio. Be sure to grab a copy of Mark's fantastic new book - “Don't Bump the Record, Kid." - 100% of the proceeds for his book will go to the rescue and the welfare of animals in Southern California. For more information and updates about the book, check out myadventureswithmarkandbrian.com Produced & Edited by Matthew Mallinger

Frank Murphy is joined by comedian and author Alex Stokes. Alex is known as “The Beer Comedian.” His “Waking Up in a Brewery” podcast can be found at https://www.facebook.com/wakingupinabrewery or through his website, https://www.beercomedian.com/  Frank got a little sunburned and a little bit of a sugar rush while recording a video at the Tennessee Valley Fair. The video will be on YouTube later this week. It includes “Nana's Gooey Butter Funnel Cake” and an appearance by Fairest of the Fair Katelyn Fedrick.  Alex credits Frank with getting him booked for a clean comedy gig at First Night Knoxville. Alex didn't have clean material at the time and had to write a new act.  Frank read that comedians can make a living by doing a clean act at the “three Cs” - corporate, college, and cruise gigs. Some comedians would rather work blue so they can shock the audience into submission.  Alex Stokes went into comedy full-time around the same time that his wife Jenny went to school to become a veterinarian for zoo animals. Her favorite animals are tigers. Frank went to a photo shoot with two live tigers and radio hosts Mark & Brian.  Frank performed in an improv show with Einstein Simplified at Creepy Con. He went backstage 30 minutes before showtime and felt out of place as the only person not wearing a costume. In the show, Frank had to play an expert on the movie Beetlejuice, which he has only seen once.  Alex found it challenging to improvise when he was pulled onstage for a bit with Einstein Simplified. He is used to preparing his jokes in advance. Alex says some stand-up comics hate improv. Frank knew a Vegas comedian who hated improv and prop comics.  Frank says improvisers prepare for their shows by learning the rules of improv. They avoid denials and questions, for example. They have to listen, accept, and support their scene partner.  Alex tells about the value of having an opening act to warm up and help gauge the crowd. Dive bar gigs are hard when the crowd isn't expecting comedy. One time another comedian got in a fistfight with an audience member right as Alex was about to go on. As Alex started, someone shouted out a reaction to the breaking news on the TV over Alex's head.  Frank asks Alex if he is sad to hear someone famous died. Frank says he isn't said to hear they died, he is sad that they actually died.  This episode is sponsored by The Middleburg Barn at Fox Chase Farm. The Middleburg Barn is a perfect venue with rustic luxury for your wedding or special event. Located 40 miles outside D.C and 25 minutes from Dulles Airport. Visit https://www.themiddleburgbarn.com/ or call (540) 687-5255.  Sign up for a 30-day trial of Audible Premium Plus and get a free premium selection that's yours to keep. Go to http://AudibleTrial.com/FrankAndFriendsShow  Come to the Secret City Improv Festival on September 30 and October 1, 2022 at the Historic Grove Theater in Oak Ridge, Tennessee. Use the discount code FRANK at checkout for 25% off when purchasing tickets at https://secretcityimprovfest.com/tickets  Find us online https://www.FrankAndFriendsShow.com/  Please subscribe to our YouTube channel at https://YouTube.com/FrankAndFriendsShow  and hit the bell for notifications.  Find the audio of the show on major podcast apps including Spotify, Apple, Google, iHeart, and Audible.  Support the Frank & Friends Show by purchasing some of our high-quality merchandise at https://frank-friends-show.creator-spring.com  Find us on social media:  https://www.facebook.com/FrankAndFriendsShow  https://www.instagram.com/FrankAndFriendsShow  https://www.twitter.com/FrankNFriendsSh  Thanks!

Kathryn asks Frank if they have Frank & Friends Show business cards. Frank has ordered some from Byron's Printing for a Valentine's Day event with Dr. Bass. The Frank & Friends Show is a media sponsor of this year's Akima Cabaret, a fun night of musical comedy, presented by the Akima Club of Knoxville. This year's theme is “The Roaring ‘20s - When Decades Collide.” The Akima Cabaret  is at the Mill & Mine on February 18 and 19. Proceeds benefit dozens of area charities. Get your tickets before they're gone at https://www.akimaclub.org  Kathryn has been lost in thought for the past few days. Frank says she should say she's meditating. She has a Marble City Opera production coming up on February 24. She calls herself a portfolio artist because she has a lot of different facets to her career. Frank put on some bronzer before recording a video on a Tuesday. He left the bronzer on when he went to perform with Einstein Simplified. Some of the guys referred to Frank's bronzer during their improv scenes. Frank thought it looked good and will wear it again this week. Frank was curious about a man buying hundreds of bananas at Sam's Club. He wonders why someone would buy so many bananas. Kathryn suggests that he might own several monkeys. Kathryn recalls that there is a tiger sanctuary in East Tennessee. Frank once arranged for some tigers from a sanctuary in California to be in a photo shoot with Mark & Brian of KLOS. Kathryn once petted baby lions in Africa. Frank mentions that Zoo Knoxville has baby lions. Frank asks Kathryn where she keeps her butter. She keeps it in the refrigerator. Frank and his wife Jere have been keeping their butter at room temperature. Jere wants a Polish butter dish for her birthday. Frank has noticed that the expiration dates on milk containers seem to be further away than they used to be. This episode is sponsored by BoneZones.com (don't forget the S). Buy books and other merchandise autographed by Body Farm founder Dr. Bill Bass at https://bonezones.com/  Look for Dr. Bass and Frank at the Rose Glen Literary Festival on Saturday, February 19, 2022. Details at http://www.roseglenfestival.com/  Support the Frank & Friends Show by purchasing some of our high-quality merchandise at https://frank-friends-show.creator-spring.com  Sign up for a 30-day trial of Audible Premium Plus and get a free premium selection that's yours to keep. Go to http://AudibleTrial.com/FrankAndFriendsShow  Find us online https://www.FrankAndFriendsShow.com/  Please subscribe to our YouTube channel at https://YouTube.com/FrankAndFriendsShow  and hit the bell for notifications. Find the audio of the show on major podcast apps including Spotify, Apple, Google, Audible, and now Facebook. Find us on social media:  https://www.facebook.com/FrankAndFriendsShow  https://www.instagram.com/FrankAndFriendsShow  https://www.twitter.com/FrankNFriendsSh  Thanks!

This is part two of a two part episode - featuring Mark Thompson & Brian Phelps, better known as Mark & Brian. They were on Los Angeles radio station, 95.5 KLOS for over 25 years and were one of the most legendary morning radio teams in the country. They were just inducted into the Radio Hall Of Fame and we caught up with them a week later. The boys talk about some of their favorite moments including best interviews, throwing rocks, what they have been doing since the quarantine, favorite characters, being on the air during 9-11 and their appreciation of the listeners.

Mark & Brian were known for their morning show on 95.5 KLOS radio in Los Angeles for more than 25 years! They just got inducted into the  Radio Hall of Fame and they (as always) have plenty to talk about.  The boys talk about the beginning of their career, working together, and some of the funniest moments, characters and interviews during their time in the radio business! 

Krisha is wearing a shirt borrowed from a friend's Oktoberfest costume. Frank says the shirt's pattern reminds him of Dorothy in the Wizard of Oz. Krisha says she would want to play the Scarecrow. Frank describes the live Wizard of Oz radio play he directed on KLOS-FM in 1998 with a star-studded cast. Frank also directed a recreation of War of the Worlds. A Mark & Brian listener posted the audio of it on YouTube: https://youtu.be/BrQnkPNGe6Y Krisha says her shirt is big enough that she could go “lampshading” or “risky businessing” or “Porky Pigging” in it. Krisha wants to know details about when Frank and his wife Jere were dating because she is dating for the first time after a long-term relationship. Today's episode is sponsored by BoneZones.com (don't forget the S) where you can buy books and merchandise autographed by world-renowned forensic anthropologist Dr. Bill Bass.   Sign up for a 30-day trial of Audible Premium Plus and get a free premium selection that's yours to keep. Go to http://www.audibletrial.com/KrishaAndFrank Please subscribe to our YouTube channel and hit the bell for notifications: https://YouTube.com/KrishaAndFrank  Subscribe to our podcast on your choice of apps including https://krishaandfrank.podbean.com/ Find us on social media: https://www.facebook.com/KrishaAndFrank https://www.instagram.com/KrishaAndFrank https://www.twitter.com/KrishaAndFrank Thanks! K&F

Mark & Brian were joined by special guest Nat Coombs from The Nat Coombs Show @thencshow to discuss the latest Week 4 action along with some of his favourite NFL broadcasting moments throughout the years.

A new face on the podcast this week as Daniel Kelly joins Mark & Brian from Florida to discuss his path to the NFL and joining the NY Jets as a scout. Daniel's story is a great listen and read in his book whateverittakes.com

Welcome to the Comic Shenanigans Podcast! For episode 724, Adam Chapman welcomes Mark Waid & Brian Augustyn back to the show! Mark & Brian delve into their work together on both ARCHIE 1941 and ARCHIE 1955 Mark's first appearance on Comic Shenanigans was episode 620. Brian's first appearance on Comic Shenanigans was episode 622. This episode was recorded November 11 2019. Download it now! If you want to help support Comic Shenanigans, follow this link! http://www.podbean.com/patron/crowdfund/profile/id/mzvwg-3c

On this episode of the Craft Industry Alliance podcast we're talking about running a fabric, notions, and gifts company with my guests, Mark, Brian, and Josh Dunn of Moda and United Notions. Mark Dunn got his start in the fabric industry in 1966 working with his father William Dunn at Sewing, Sales, and Services which they founded together.  In May of 1975 when Mark was 29, he moved to Texas to start United Notions Inc.  He started with a five-man operation where he would take orders in the morning and fill them at his warehouse in the afternoon. In 1991 he started Moda Fabrics, a company that created a new product category of precuts with their famous Jelly Rolls.  Brian Dunn started working at United Notions during the summers and officially started full time in 1986.  He managed and operated the Denver warehouse for 15 years as Vice President of Operations until they closed that warehouse down to consolidate all of their warehousing in their home state of Texas.  He moved back and has handled all fabric buying since then.  Josh Dunn started with the company 8 years ago after graduating from the University of Southern California with a major in Photography and business administration.  At Moda Fabrics, he is the director of international sales.  +++++ This episode is sponsored by Mitzie Shafer at Jittery Wings Quilt Co. Mitzie has authored and illustrated a new book titled Improve Your Practice: Free-Motion Quilting. She believes that quilting your beautiful quilt top doesn’t have to be frightening once you learn to stop fighting with it. Visit jitterywings.com and use the coupon code WHILESHENAPS to get 20% off your own signed copy. +++++ Please note that this show used to be called the While She Naps podcast. The name has changed, but the content and host have stayed the same.   To get the full show notes for this episode, visit Craft Industry Alliance where you can learn more about becoming a member of our supportive trade association. Strengthen your creative business, stay up to date on industry news, and build connections with forward-thinking craft professionals. Meet with show host, Abby Glassenberg, each month for our Craft Business Roundtable, get access to courses and webinars taught by industry leaders, and much more.

Since 2013 Quiet Light's average transaction size has grown up to ten times. Back in those days, there were no private equity firms poking around the e-commerce space for these listings. Today it is a completely different story and more often than not we're seeing private equity firms come into the buyer spectrum. In fact, once a business reaches a certain size, it is more likely than not that a seller's potential buyer is going to be in the private equity space of the buyer pool. Today we are going to dissect the PE process a bit further. We'll delve into the process, the advantages and disadvantages, and give a general education on the subject for those who are curious about it how it works. Today's guest, Brian Rassel, is Vice President of Private Equity with Huron Capital. He's responsible for sourcing, evaluating, and analyzing investments made by his firm. Brian delves into ways he finds that e-commerce has entered into almost sector of investment that his group is involved in these days. Prior to joining Huron Capital, Brian was an Associate at Prophet, a global growth strategy consulting firm. Prior to Prophet, Brian was a consultant with New England Consulting Group where he led project management in their private equity practice for buy-side clients. Brian is sharing his wealth of private equity experience and how PE is entering more and more into the e-commerce space. Episode Highlights: How Brian defines private equity. How PE funds traditionally start up and get solidified. The difference between small, medium and large equity funds. The holding periods that private equity funds usually need to secure capital. Is PE all about acquiring to grow and sell or is there a category for buy and hold? Do evergreen funds exist? The difference between platform and bolt-on investments. Three things funds do to generate deal flow and types of business spaces they favor. The behind-the-scenes processes of putting a deal together. How many people are involved in the deal on the PE side. The backend investors committee and if that hinders the deal for the seller. Why time commitment is actually a good thing. How many deals Brian's PE firm evaluates per year. The defined process that gets them through the numbers. The growth potential for e-commerce – multiple appreciations and the role of private equity. Brian frames an ideal acquisition structure based on the general private equity model. Why the buyer/seller fit really matters. How private equity can work for sellers who want to get their business to the next stage. Transcription: Joe: Back in 2013 Mark I closed 23 transactions. It was a busy year for me. Do you have any idea what the average transaction size was? Mark: I … what do I guess? Well, it's you so I'm going to say like seven million dollars. Joe: I love putting you on the spot because you do it to me all the time. The average transaction size— Mark: You got to be like 250. Joe: It was 125. Mark: Holy cow. Joe: 125; very small. Mark: Okay. Joe: And at that time there were no Private Equity Firms poking around the e-commerce space for these smaller listings. Today it's a completely different story and my average transaction size was 10 times that last year. And a lot of buyers or a lot of sellers, the question I get asked all the time are who are your buyers? And it's a mix of everyone but more often than not now we're seeing Private Equity Firms come into this space. And I understand you had an expert in that area on the podcast. Mark: Yeah private equity is a topic that's coming up more and more frequently with sellers especially on the higher end of that revenue spectrum that we really work with. And it makes sense because once you get to a certain size of business your buyer is more likely than not going to be at least somewhat in the private equity place … area of the buyer pool. In addition, we've talked before … I had Ryan Tansom on and we talked about selling to a strategic buyer versus a marketplace buyer. And obviously, people always look at this especially at the higher ends and say I kind of want to have a strategic buyer. Well, one thing to keep in mind here is that this is kind of a spectrum right? It's not binary; you're either strategic or marketplace. But when you get into that private equity world, private equity is almost always going to be something of a strategic play. So I thought … look this private equity world is something that people keep asking about let's actually start to dissect it a little bit. So Brian and I talked and we spent probably about half of this interview just kind of going over what is private equity. How does that work? What is the definition of this? What are the sizes of it? And really just trying to ask some of those silly questions that maybe you kind of wonder about but don't want to ask because you don't want to sound like you don't know what you're talking about. And so we went over a bunch of those questions but then we also went over what does the process looked like. What does it look like to sell to a private equity firm? What are the drawbacks to it and what are the benefits of it as well? And really it's kind of a general education podcast but I think also … and maybe more importantly for those of you out there who are thinking about selling down the road and you're looking and trying to peg the different values that you want to get from an exit and maybe you think well I want a 10 million dollar exit or a 15 million dollar exit, if you get to that point what's it going to look like to sell to a private equity and what do you need to do to really make yourself appealing for a Private Equity Firm? And how does the deal change when you're signed to private equity as well. So we really covered a lot of ground in about 30 minutes. Brian is super knowledgeable obviously. He works in this space. And I really appreciated him coming on the podcast because … again I just downloaded a ton of information. Joe: Well let's get right to it. Mark: All right Brian thanks for joining me on the podcast. I really appreciate you coming on. Brian: Yeah I know. It's great to be here. Thanks for hosting. Mark: All right so I don't expect people to listen … my guests to have listened to the podcast in advance and I know … I don't know if Joe's been doing this, he records like 9 out of 10 episodes and I don't know if he's continued on the tradition but we like to have our guests introduce themselves mainly because you know your story better than I know your story and I figure it's a little bit easier. So why don't you give just kind of a quick 30 second to one minute rundown on who you are? Brian: Yeah I'm Brian Rassel. I'm a vice president with Huron Capital Partners which is a middle market private equity firm based at Detroit Michigan. The firm is 20 years old and has invested in … we're typically enthralled buyout investors where we'll buy a majority of a business and have done that through five successive fawns starting back in 1999. And the industries that we play in are business services, consumer, and specialty manufacturing. You know it'd kind of be interesting how I got to know you Mark for those listening is that believe it or not all of those basins are being affected by e-commerce or different kind of SaaS business models that are internet based. And I'm taking it upon myself to maybe be the person of the firm who is trying to understand those influences on all of our companies and make sure that we're in a position to incorporate those changes that are going on out and new coming at large number and being done by a lot of people who probably listen to your podcast and make sure that we're bringing more of the [inaudible 00:05:51.4] in the businesses we own so that they can be successful today and be well into the 21st century. Mark: All right, well I got a lot of questions for you because this world of private equity is encroaching or coming into the internet business acquisition world more and more. And whether it's because at Quiet Light our deal value is moving up or private equity is starting to look at different price ranges and maybe this convergence of these worlds and also private equity looking more in the online space is just becoming an increasing topic that we're seeing more and more of. We're also seeing individuals that have started up on their own raising funds to do large acquisitions or to string acquisitions together. Brian: Yeah. Mark: So what I'd like to do and I already kind of told you this in our conversation before I hit record, I'd like to go over some of the basics here of the private equity world and how it looks in the Internet space as well. And then know a little bit more about your fund and some of the things that you guys are doing over there and all that. So a quick shout out to Chris from Centurica and Rhodium I know that we've talked about him so much that it's almost as if he's a sponsor. He's not. But this is again how we got introduced. You spoke at the Rhodium and then you and I had a chance to speak after that and a good conversation. So thanks Chris for the introduction again. So let's start out really really basic here. How do you define private equity? Brian: Private equity is capital … private capital being put to work in private businesses. And so I like to name [inaudible 00:07:22.6] for folks who really don't know much about it a little quick stat just kind of on the US economy. There are half as many publicly listed companies as there were in 1996 or 1994 something like that. So even if the value of the public markets is larger the amount of places you can park that capital in the public markets is small in the total number of listed names. Private equity is a big part of either big institutionally managed money. Whether that's from insurance companies, [inaudible 00:07:52.4], pension funds, universities, those kinds of things. This is their way to go participate in the forces of economy that are still private companies that they can't get access to otherwise unless folks like me help them get access to it. It also includes folks that can kind of go into different flavors of private equity but depending on the size from the bing capitals of the world down to very very small funds that are more entrepreneurial. There's sort of every flavor under design in certain family offices and other things like that. That would be private equity, pooled private capital going into private businesses. Mark: Well how did these funds start-up traditionally? And I imagine that there's a lot of ways that they can start up. You've listed a number of sources of money and I think sometimes we forget just how much money there is in some of these places. So yeah [crosstalk 00:08:46.6]. Brian: For sure I mean there's just [crosstalk 00:08:49.4] I'm going to get this off, I'll be wrong by a hundred billion dollars. But I think something like 600 billion dollars flowed into private equity firms last year. So these … and the source of a fund or the way a fund works is that a fund manager like the folks I work for here where I'm a part of, they go out and they make their pitch about how talented their professionals are and what their track record is and the fact that they can get access to great deal flow and great opportunities, places to put private capital where it will go earn a reasonable return. And they raise this money from these other institutional or independent investors. It could be high in net worth individuals or anybody like that but … so they get started that way. They'll hold this farm estate back to the 1960s and there are new ones being created all the time. And frankly, as hedge funds have declined I believe in a large way in popularity just because of the efficiency of public markets there's been more and more money directed towards these private pools of capital and the private equity market. And when I say private equity I mean both kind of traditional buy-out funds for more mature businesses that have healthy positive cash flows on the one hand and on the other hand I mean venture capital is the son segment of private equity. And that might be for really really high growth businesses like the next dewberry of the world or whatever it might be. Mark: Right, absolutely. Okay, that makes a lot of sense. And as far as the breakdown as to sizes what would you consider to be a small private equity firm and what are we talking about in terms of their capitalization rates when they start up? What would be the difference between the small, medium, large type of firms? We can get an idea for how much money we're actually dealing with? Brian: So I would say just kind of from my understanding again all this caviada being dead this is sort of Brian Rassell's take on private equity and my interpretation and may not really be the opinions of United Capital, I can only speak for myself as an individual but they have a dedicated fund. And when I say dedicated fund these are groups of people that other folks, other investors have made a promise and a pledge that is legally binding and written their name at the bottom that that dedicated fund, the small one might be 50 million dollars. That'd be very small. Folks who are trying to invest less than that, generally speaking, have something more akin to a pledge fund. They have a number of people that they can pass the hat with to raise money in a deal by deal basis versus having committed capital to go invest in five, six, 10, 12 companies in that particular fawn. So just kind of … back at the envelope type map that you can think of is every firm should have plus or minus roughly 10 investments that have enough diversification in it. So a 50 million dollar fund is looking to put five million dollars to work in the 10 different companies. And that would be the equity capital going to those companies. There's oftentimes a mix of equity and debt coming into those companies and we could talk about that later. And then a midsize fund might be three or four hundred million up and pawn up to the 2KR's of the world or Apollo or the very big managers who are doing 15 billion dollar funds and so all different world. Mark: Very. Brian: They're taking hotels private or something like that. Mark: I was going to say they're buying something completely different than your Amazon business. Brian: Yeah that's right. It's a whole different world. Mark: All right you talked about you have successive funds. In my understanding again is that we go through these rounds of investment that coming up. We had Andy Jones from PrivateEquityInfo.com on and he talked a lot about the holding periods that private equity looks for. Can you just again quickly touch on that? We're kind of doing private equity 101 here. Brian: Yeah. I didn't hear Andy's remarks but just as it relates to a whole period I would think of it just to be linear about it that a private equity firm once our capital is raised [inaudible 00:13:01.9] the time that it takes to raise that money they committed capital or even the past they had capital they're going to take that money and let's just use this fictional 50 million dollar fund. And they'll take something like four years to deploy the first 80% of it. And the goal would be you take 20% of that money and get it into a new platform company. Companies they had no money in before. In the first year or the next year next 20%, next year next 20%, next year next 20% thus 80%. The point at that point you can't do necessarily new investments you're reserving that last 20% for either a company that's struggling that you need to give more money to to keep it going or to do an add on investment to buy something else and add it on to something that's in the portfolio. That might take four or five years to really deploy the majority of it and then another four to five … you know an investment from year one that you only … you're exiting that investment three to seven years later and let's just use five as kind of a round middle of the road number there. So an investment from year one is maybe gone in year six so it's being harvested. It could be sooner, it could be later. And the investment that was your last platform investment from year four might be heading out the door in year eight or nine. So fund life is something like eight to ten years. It can be longer. And a traditional as you kind of draw it up on the whiteboard like I have behind me here is sort of a five year hold. Now there's … I've seen many that are much much shorter and many that are much much longer but those are the fat parts of the [inaudible 00:14:36.2] if you want. Mark: Sure. So is private equity … is the goal of all private equity companies to grow and sell? So acquire, grow, sell, or are there other strategies? Buy it and hold for long periods of time? Brian: There are certainly evergreen funds out there. They're much more … when I say evergreen they have the ability to hold and recycle the capital. They may be designed to have heard of a number that has committed capital from particularly family offices that never want to do the tax consequences of becoming liquid in an investment and actually realizing the gains so they're structured to reinvest the money that they make. Or if they sell something to quickly find someone else new for it to go into. Now that would be a more unique situation. And then certainly family offices there's a number out there that looks for longer hold periods and there are certain funds that are designed for a longer hold period. Mark: All right so this is going to be again another basic question but I want to make sure our terms are all well-defined here. We hear these terms of platform versus bolt on or add on investments. Just real quick the difference between a platform investment versus a bolt on. Brian: Yeah I'll just keep it simple. I'll say anything that is a brand new business, new industry for that firm to go into. They don't currently own something in that space. Whether that's a tiny initial acquisition or a big one that would be the platform investment. So let's just say with a … I don't know Internet broker pencils, I'm just making this up, all right? And they don't have any other investments in the internet broker pencils space and they invest in a company in that space that would be the platform [inaudible 00:16:17.1] that. And maybe there are 10 companies that make … that do internet broker pencils and they buy two other ones of their competitors and they make it bigger or somebody [inaudible 00:16:25.3] and now they're putting it all together those might be add-ons to that original entity that they purchased or recapitalized. That's what we mean. It doesn't necessarily have anything to do with size which can be confusing. Sometimes you start with something small and you get the opportunity and do an add-on that's much bigger than the original investment. So it's more just where is the starting point in you can do a space or an industry. Mark: And if we think about the terms it makes sense right? Brian: Yeah. Mark: You build on top of the platform and you add-on top of the platform. So it makes … that makes complete sense. Brian: Or bolt-on, yup that's where the nomenclature comes from. Mark: Or bolt-on, absolutely. It's amazing when you dig in to definitions it's like the terms actually have a meaning and it makes sense. Brian: They do. Generally, they come from somewhere. Mark: They come from somewhere. There's logic to this stuff. I love it. All right so now I'll get into questions that I'm starting to be genuinely interested in and that is how does a fund develop a thesis or an entire direction to go after a particular platform investment? I mean if you're selling blue widgets and also if somebody comes and says no you don't need widgets what you really need are sprockets, if you don't do anything with sprockets at all how does that enter into a fund's psyche at all? Brian: There's really three things that we're doing here to generate the sort of deal flow and the ideas and spaces we want to go into. So here I'll speak more from Huron Capital. There are other firms who follow a similar philosophy potentially. So the first is businesses we didn't know about but are being represented by a broker or an investment banker like yourself Mark who … those are opportunities that are coming to us. They are being listed. They're being actively shopped around. We may have never thought of the sprocket industry before or we didn't know too much about it or we read materials on it and we say it has a lot of characteristics and things we like; great cash flow, seems very resilient, seems countercyclical, if the economy goes down it'll still do well, it's a leader on its space, any of those kinds of things. Those are opportunities that come to us and that is more of a passive thing. And then we get active once we realize that it fits a lot of criteria and we believe we could be successful with it. And that sets into motion a whole chain of things where we kind of prove out of the pieces that we might like this business and we try to get educated. The second that we spend a lot of time on is networking with executives from a broad, broad variety of industries. Those people know where there are spaces that are changing. And generally speaking, change creates opportunities. Change creates winners on one side and losers on the other side. And less be to the losers but you need that kind of disruption to create any sort of sort interesting investment outcome. The study ID is probably the market's sufficient enough that the study ID is not going to return the greatest returns. So we've spent a lot of time with executives unless I knew them about spaces that could be interesting and trying to listen to areas they know about and start to build some [inaudible 00:19:37.4]. And then even more proactively than that there's a lot of opportunities where we meet the executive who has a view of one particular thing they want to do here at Huron it's got a registered trademark or the like of the firm. We call that an exact factor investment where we will actually flip the process and say we really believe in the sprocket industry. We met Phil who is going to be our perspective CEO in the space and he has this vision that is going to totally turn the industry [inaudible 00:20:11.5]. To do that we need to go find the platform, we call that like getting fuel behind the wheel. We need to find a car to fulfill the drive. We believe he's the best driver in that industry. And we will do all the work, we'll go write a hundred page white paper on it to prove to our investment committee why it's such a fabulous opportunity and Phil is the greatest operator in this space. And then we will commit dollars into going and finding businesses in that space and find Phil the car he can drive and we'll get off to the races that way. So it starts with a commitment from our farms for a certain amount of money behind Phil to go do an acquisition more and more in this space. So it … I guess ranges from that passive we find things and then we get educated too. We educate ourselves as much as possible and align ourselves with an executive who can execute and work the process the other way. Mark: Cool. All right that [inaudible 00:21:04.07]. So let's talk a little bit about the process that goes on behind the scenes when you are evaluating an opportunity. And I think for a lot of potential sellers this sort of conversation is going to be really insightful. So let's say we have somebody that they have an e-com business, 30 million in revenue, eight, nine million in earnings on an annual basis and they've got a couple of private equity firms looking at their business. Where does that start and what is the process going through? And you can talk about maybe Huron's process and then if there are variations that you know as well. The number of people that are going to look and touch that deal as it goes through the steps. Brian: Yeah. Mark: What are some of those behind the scenes looks? Brian: Yeah so once you've got that moment where there's a couple of firms interested there's going to be an incredible amount of information about the business across insurance, benefits, compliance with laws and regulatory statutes, information about the market; anything the business can possibly produce about itself, fairly every file that's off the shelf that they have, every non-disclosure agreement they have with somebody that they on boarded or employment agreement, every contract they have with a customer, or maybe it's an industry where you don't have a lot of contracts with customers but you have a lot of contracts with suppliers. All that information needs to be made available for these perspective buyers to digest. And the more they can be made available, the more that that's organized into different pockets of legal, employee, insurance, benefits, all of that, the better. It's going to save the company a lot of time from serving requests versus being proactive by getting that stuff out there. And you know well everything here all the buyers be under a non-disclosure agreement and that's just a very kind of well-oiled machine around making that information available to give your last few buyers down to the one you would like to choose and have them under a Letter of Intent. And that starts to be an exclusive relationship where the buyer is going to spend a lot of money in due diligence and in exchange for spending that money, they would like the exclusive right to [inaudible 00:23:19.3] business for a period of time. 60 days … 90 days where they engage and here is where it starts to get to be a lot more kind of in your trousers and really analyzing your business but they're going to engage in quality of earnings earned to go and understand did you actually produce the amount of revenue, if you put it in the right time periods, if you really counted for every cost etcetera. They're going to engage legal professionals who are going first to sort of just again a full work up of registration, compliance, [inaudible 00:23:51.9] and then those folks are going to work on the actual transaction documents as well as a host of other advisors. And that would be like again a 60 to 90 day process. It could be 30 days on the short end. There are firms who can do it in that time particularly if you're a smaller business and an add-on to a much larger or a very simple business. Mark: So how many people are we talking about there that are going to be involved in the process? Outside of the consultants like a Q of E … a quality of earnings report that's going to be an outside accounting firm right? Brian: Yeah. Mark: So we're not going to— Brian: Okay so from the acquiring firm? Mark: Mm-hmm. And we can start at the beginning. We can start at your interns that are digesting deals. That's going to be part one. Brian: Sure call it four and they're going to be answering to the remainder of their firm particularly their investment committee. Ideally, it's a tighter team and there's four and if it's an add-on expect more. So you'll have the management team of that kind of platform investment as well. So four to eight and then when you get to the advisor well now you're talking 20 something more. Mark: Right, getting all those outside advisers. Now one of the things I know people get worried about during this process is you start out again with that guy who's that in deals up front and he sees some he passes it on to the team and they end up liking it so now you're dealing with a handful of people that are asking the questions digging deep in that due diligence right? Pages and pages of collecting information possibly even submitting an offer because on the surface things look okay. Brian: Yup. Mark: There seems to be these back end investors committee as well which can also kind of wash the deal far in the process. What would you say to people that get kind of frustrated when they hear that and they think do I really want to work with private equity because there are so many people that could potentially disrupt this deal? Brian: So I would think about the time investment to it. So the private equity firm is in no way interested in wasting any of their time. Huron looks at something like little over a thousand deals a year. That takes a lot of time and we're very thoughtful about moving things to the funnel and connecting our firm's resources to evaluating an opportunity. So if somebody is spending the time I would tell the listeners that they are encouraged. If everything checks out the way I told to them so far or they've written so far about that business then there are absolutely no issues. The firm, an organized and real firm is going to be thoughtful and time is kind of their most valuable resource and they're set up to be able to make a number of staged gates kind of we're interested and we're not interested. We're interested subject to confirm affirmation I want two and three. And you can have a very quick conversation like you and I are having now to say is this the case is this not the case? Here's a big concern we have, should we be worried? And they will both take your answer and that gives them that kind of gumption to proceed. And they'll probably have to go validate that as well later. And that validation just has to support what's been told to them. But they are also making a big commitment with their time in the same way that the seller is and I would take it as genuine on their part that they're not looking for it to fall apart. It's just things do. Certain deals fall apart because new information becomes available. I've seen that happen a number of times where the seller learns things about their business or thinks about their business in a way they hadn't before and can agree that that's a genuine risk and may be something they want to work out within a course of another year and then they might be back to market. Mark: Yeah, that happens often. We see that all the time even in the amount of work that we put a seller through upfront it pales in comparison to what you guys are going to be doing in your actual dig deep due diligence. And the number of times that we have people come back and tell us that was a lot of work but that was really useful. Brian: Yeah. Mark: I have learned a lot about my own business, right? Brian: Yeah a great advisor like somebody like you and using a broker who's been through and understands the questions that are going to be asked is going to save a tremendous amount of time. And we call folks like you Mark a river guide we're using on our side and we love them. Sellers use them too because they're that much more prepared for the process. Mark: Yeah. And I can tell you like the one thing that … I'm going to play both sides here, I would say the one thing that can be difficult with working with private equity is because there are so many people that can come in with a dissenting viewpoint. You're not trying to … convince is a bad word but show the opportunity to one person and have them agree to it; you're having to show a number of people. But the great thing and I love working with private equity on is that it's completely unemotional throughout the process. Brian: Yeah. Mark: I mean it really is does this check the boxes we needed to check and if it doesn't we're going to find out as quick as we can. You said something, I was going to ask this question, you guys evaluate you said about a thousand deals per year? Brian: Yeah the pipeline you think about now it's working its way down at the top of the funnel and so we're a thousand and then that's working its way down to 250 that real solid time is being spent on and then 75 that we're spending real tons of resources and traveling around to visit them … maybe 80. Now I'll get these numbers wrong this is kind of directional and then down to the 30 or so that are getting a Letter Of Intention and we'll close 22 transactions a year. Mark: Yeah so that's an amazing amount of data to be pulling in. And you guys have criteria at every stage I assume that you're looking for up front? Brian: That's right. Mark: Okay. All right that makes sense. Do you publish those criteria? I know we get a lot of just the very broad stuff sent to us. Brian: We don't only because it's just so bespoke for every company. There are so many things that really are as you just said that are check the box and we're highly confident that we will go confirm later. We're highly confident that's not an issue and we are trying to get to it very, very quickly. The three or four things we want to make sure are the reasons we're most excited and confirm that that is factual and that was going to continue. Whatever that might be; on the customer relationship or the recurring purchasing or … whatever it might be. And then at the same time the three or four things that are kind of we're concerned that could be deal killers. We believe we're spending the time because we think that's going to turn out to be true or we need to get to a yes no about is this a real problem very, very quickly. And so you know it's just they're different for every business. Mark: Yeah I know a lot of people listening right now you guys are buyers that are out there looking to acquire. So technically Brian you guys are somewhat of competitors although I think that you operate at a range that a lot of our buyers wouldn't. But I think one thing interesting that they should hear is this idea of having this defined process number one and then number two the amount of deal flow that you have to look at. I've talked to buyers that been out there looking for a year, year and a half but then you find out the number of deals that they're actually looking at doesn't really … this is a numbers game. I mean it's purely a numbers game. Brian: It is and one thing I want to say on that numbers game for us and it may be different for some of your buyers or not is that we're looking for situations that are great for us and we're also looking for situations where the seller in some ways choosing us. Now I don't want to overstate that but I do want to say that there has to be a great fit in every piece and why we're a better owner than someone else for that business. Some angle that we have, some affinity we have for what they do, or some prior experience or something. Otherwise and it could be a little different for particularly small businesses. Maybe it's a little bit less like that and it doesn't need as much of the chemistry but that's a big part of what we're looking for, for sure. Mark: And we talk about that a lot on these pockets. I know you guys are probably tired of hearing Joe and I talk about the need for a buyer being a good fit. And we talked a lot about this general concept of being likable because sellers do eventually choose and for most of these sellers they do have a choice. I mean right now it's a seller's market. They do have a choice of who they're going to work with. I want to talk about the exciting stuff. Let's talk about the actual deals; the money. Brian: Sure. Mark: Why is selling to a private equity something that people should be excited about? Brian: I think I spoke a little bit about this at Rhodium but I just … I see then the difference in multiples that are paid for businesses that are exclusively e-commerce or SaaS based businesses. Those multiples are so much lower than what private equity firms are paying for more traditional businesses out in the economy. And I believe that those worlds will come together. And I believe that businesses that are a hybrid of both or have excellence in both and are flipping both worlds are going to be extremely, extremely valuable. Because on the one hand, they have the relevance for the future, it's coming from kind of the types of businesses that you represent. And also they have that anchor of the traditional business that makes them more under writable and it makes them more predictable because it's a less dynamic place that they're out in. And so that's where I think private equity firms in the coming two, three, four, five years are number one going to become much more comfortable with standalone e-commerce business models that are exclusive that and there are going to be people participating from the much more kind of like formal private equity world participating in your markets. And then I think there's going to be a convergence where a lot of more traditional business models are going to look for the influence and the DNA as well as the revenue and the profits but the influence and the DNA and the growth that comes from the types of businesses you work with Joe. And I think that means that the market that you're playing in, the multiples will rise there. For every dollar of earnings they'll be more valuable in the future and I believe that's for now in a very significant way in 2018. Mark: Yeah and we talked about this this idea of multiple appreciation that we see. And a lot of it reaches over to the fact that this is where private equity starts to play right? So we often talk if your EBIDTA is less than a million dollars per year the … just again for the sake of a multiple, it's going to vary for each business but maybe 3 … maybe 3.5 would be the multiple on that EBIDTA depending on the type of business that you have. But once you start getting up into two, three, four million dollars of EBIDTA now we start seeing the multiples jump up in the different ranges. And the reason for this again is that we're no longer playing as much with an individual investor who really has a much higher risk profile because they don't necessarily have the entire team behind them or a portfolio behind them to be able to take some of that risk but also get the staff in the background and all the resources in private equity. Brian: Yeah. Mark: So let's talk … I am not going to pin you down because it would be a really bad idea for you to say hey we generally paid 25x on earnings which I know you don't. What does a deal structure often look like? Because I know these deals structures do change as well when we're talking about a private equity acquiring a small company. What does an ideal acquisition look like for you in terms of its structure of cash that the owner is going to be getting, maybe equity or debt that you would hope that they stay around and I'd also like to address the idea that a lot of private equity likes to have or prefers to have an owner stay on board with the new company and why that's a good thing also for that owner to think about that. So that's a lot; the general structure, the ideals for a structure. Brian: Okay so let's keep this out of your space and let's just talk about the general PE model. When deals were cheaper a couple of years ago you might get a higher ratio of debt than equity in a deal but for this sake, I'm just going to make it 50-50. I think that more reflects the market today in terms of underwriting. But let's take a deal where a private equity firm is paying at least eight times. That's still a relatively rich multiple. I could have said six but let's use eight times. So we're paying four times the earnings in their own cash that they're talking and they are going and putting the company on the hook or raising four times and they do it. Private equity firm does it but on behalf of the company of debt for the business to take on. So let's say it's a business with 10 million dollars of EBIDTA. So it's an 80 million dollar transaction and a firm like Huron is putting 40 million of equity and raising 40 million of debt in that transaction. And that 40 million of equity can come either from Huron or some portion of it could be rolled over from the seller. If that seller has no debt on the business today, no capital leases or anything else that could be thought of as indebtedness over the normal trade payables. And in your day to day you've got cash coming in and cash going out; that thing that keeps the shop running. And they have no debt on the business theoretically on the day of closing they're getting a check for 80 million dollars. If they choose to roll over some of that … let's just say 10% of the purchase price, eight million of it I would argue that a private equity firm or somebody like me would take that as them stating a high degree of confidence in the future of the business that they want to continue participating and have a relatively [inaudible 00:37:34.7] portion of their net worth tied up in that outcome. Or that they see the opportunity to turn that eight million into 16 or whatever it might be that there is a great opportunity to continue driving growth and equity value in that business. They'll … I start there that the rollover investments are very useful because if you're saying you want to do no roll over whatsoever and you just want to walk away from the business it's not conveying a lot of confidence in the future of the business. There are certainly reasons to do that but it's not conveying a lot of confidence in the future of the business. And where somebody might have been agreeing to pay you eight if you were rolling over and giving that kind of tacit support for the business going over, they might kind of say this is we're not so sure. It makes them a little more nervous and it might be a seven times deal. So you may actually be shooting yourself in the foot in terms of the total proceeds you perceive. Again so it's an 80 million dollar deal, 40 million of debt, the seller is choosing to roll over. They got their 80 million dollar check, it doesn't work like this you're actually [inaudible 00:28:28.9] but they got their 80 million dollar check and maybe we wrote one back for eight and so Huron holds 32 million of the equity and that seller holds eight million of it. So Huron owns 80% of the business and they own 20% and we've got some obligations to pay. That would be kind of the middle of the road structure. There's certainly a lot more that happens as it relates to creating incentives for management teams and that's a very, very big part of what we do to make sure that if we do well they do well and vice versa so that we're all talking in terms of growing the underlying equity value of the business. And that can often be very different for a business that didn't have that before. And it was just solely kind of the founder driving it or minding the growth of equity value. We believe in creating a broad base of ownership so that we're all on the same page. Mark: Yeah. Brian: Our management team is on incentives exclusively through their salary or bonus or both. Mark: Right so one of the things that I've talked a lot in the past especially on like the main street sort of deals is this almost dichotomy and it really shouldn't be set up as a dichotomy of a marketplace based sale where you only have an investor looking to acquire business in a strategic sale where you have a company that it would effectively be like an add-on acquisition in your world right? They already have the sort of strategic advantage to acquiring that company. Within your world, it seems like so much of what you do is going to be the strategy based type of acquisition anyways. Brian: Right. Mark: So it's like you're not going to do an acquisition unless you think that you have a strategic advantage. And when we … you and I talked out in Las Vegas back last October one thing that you talked about quite a bit was we want to pour gasoline on the fire that's already existing. So whatever that might be and so as a seller who's out there thinking about this and saying man I've been growing my business like crazy but I'm investing all this cash back into acquiring more inventory and expanding the product line and I'd like to take money off the table and then keep growing it. This is that perfect sort of handoff to a private equity because you can say you know what you [inaudible 00:40:54.0] your income statement rich in cash flow pour. Brian: Yup. Mark: We got cash. We'll help you out there. You're going to get some cash on the table and then let's grow this from a 30 million dollar business to a hundred million dollar business. Brian: Right. Mark: And so there's an incentive there for that owner to double dip that [inaudible 00:41:11.7]. Brian: Absolutely. Particularly in situations … we see this all the time where additional capital is going to be an accelerant to growth. So capital is what we have and we're trying to find a smart place to put it work and if that means we can buy a business and continue and support that business with more dollars and we believe in the strategy and what's going on in the way it's being operated there's nothing … that's the easiest dollar for us to put out versus the whole re-under writing process of a new investment. And then for that seller to have all their eggs in one basket … I don't care what their life situation is they could be in their 30's and just want to diversify or they could be somebody who's looking at kids who are about to go to college and it just doesn't make sense to have 100% of their net worth or close to it tied up in their business. And if they could diversify a little bit or generate a little bit of cash but their vision hasn't changed at all that's a great situation to bring on a strategic partner like a private equity firm. And that's where that [inaudible 00:42:11.9] fit it really matters and the chemistry between the seller. For the most part, you're not going to sell it to a private equity firm, they don't want to be in the business or definitely not in the business of operating these companies. So round the business and investing in them helping to bring the right resources to it and bring the right capital solutions or capital availability all that. Helping them set strategy and all the other things but the actual day to day operations. So it's not going to be for your sellers or for buyers [inaudible 00:42:45.1] sellers who are looking to exit the business and hand it off somebody else private equity is not going to be the right solution. But for those companies that they either want to go to be a division of something larger and they think they can be a great cross selling opportunity or the way they've built their mousetrap if just they had more to sell in the same way, and I'll say like let's say you're the number one muffler seller online and you also want to do transmissions and drive cams and stuff but you don't have the capital and you don't have the ability to go source and expand that way, going and selling to a larger entity and being that e-commerce division is a very powerful idea. Or just continue and do your own business and double down … accelerate the organic growth, private equity firm could be a great partner. Mark: Yeah, we're just about out of time in fact we've gone a bit long but one thing I wanted to emphasize here, you said that capital obviously is the resource you guys have and are able to invest and I know a lot of people that I talk to say look I don't really need money from this, the business is making money and I feel good about this. But what I find when I actually start to dig in with these guys is I say well what would it take to move to that next level. Oh well, I would have to hire out this other division or create this other division and you know okay but what's the obstacle to that? I don't want to invest in it. It often comes up. Okay, that's the area where a firm like yours can also come in and say well look we have the capital to be able to invest in this. You know what you need; do you want to invest in it to get to that next stage? And even if that means bringing in someone and you can help with that let's do it. Exactly we can do that and we could— Brian: Not to mention that I think we find that often business owners are willing to do one out of their five ideas that are like that and were willing to do all five knowing that three won't work but two should work out beautifully and we're willing to go [inaudible 00:44:39.4] the bodies of the business and the capital and have the appetite to take two steps backward to take four forward and understand that they're not going to all work. And where maybe an independent owner would do those sequentially, try idea one it wasn't really working, didn't feel pleased with making that investment and losing that cash flow, fired that new sales person who was supposed to do something else. We're willing to go do things faster and make sure that that doesn't hover around in the business and the core of what we're interested in the first place. And so we'll work through that with the business owner by giving them that support and the dollars needed to make that happen. Mark: Brian, I really appreciate you taking the time here [inaudible 00:45:19.8] some of the small questions I had but really good to get those things— Brian: No it's my pleasure. It's fine. Mark: So thanks again and maybe we'll have you back again in the future at some point. Brian: That sounds great. Yeah, I enjoyed it. Thanks, Mark.   Links and Resources: https://www.huroncapital.com/member/brian-rassel/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/brianrassel  

Mark & Brian discuss an easy-to-remember method of structuring your leadership rhythm called The Cycle of Winning. Spotify: http://ow.ly/vy1n30mgWf7 iTunes: http://ow.ly/eiYO30mFEa1 GooglePlay: http://ow.ly/Bw2d30mqGG9 #gapology, #gapologyradio

Mark & Brian close out the overview of IMBAR by covering Behavior, Action & Results along with the IMBAR Pathway and some of the pitfalls people can avoid in the pursuit of a dominant mindset.

Addiction, substance abuse and the resulting professional and personal fallout can destroy careers and lives. As another wonderful addition to our Wellness Podcast Episodes, Mark had the opportunity to connect with Brian Cuban, Dallas-based attorney, Addiction Recovery Advocate and author of The Addicted Lawyer: Tales of the Bar, Booze, Blow, and Redemption. Brian reflects on the reasons behind addiction and his journey toward recovery. They also delve into the point where choice ends and addiction takes over. And in a profession that doesn't necessarily champion vulnerability, Brian emphasizes the strength in laying it all out there to find that path toward healing. If you or someone you know works in the legal profession and is struggling with addiction, please connect with your state or local bar's Lawyer Assistance Program. The ABA offers a national directory on their site to connect legal professionals with this confidential service. To learn more about all areas of attorney wellness, visit the National Task Force on Lawyer Well-Being's Resource Page, featuring the report and more information on what is happening in your state. ALPS In Brief, The ALPS Risk Management Podcast, is hosted by ALPS Risk Manager, Mark Bassingthwaighte. As a note, the sound quality on this recording is not optimal. Please don't let that dissuade you from listening to this important conversation. Transcript MARK: Hello. This is Mark Bassingthwaighte. I'm the Risk Manager here at ALPS, welcome to another episode of ALPS In Brief, the podcast that comes to you from the historic Florence building in beautiful downtown Missoula, Montana. I'm delighted to be able to introduce just a very special guest today. I'm very privileged and excited to have the opportunity to speak with Brian Cuban. Brian is, I would assume is known to some of you. He's the younger brother of Dallas Mavericks owner and entrepreneur Mark Cuban. But more importantly, Brian is a Dallas-based attorney, author, and addiction recovery addict. He is a graduate of Penn State University and University of Pittsburgh School of Law. MARK: Brian, I am interested in visiting with you in no small part because of the more recent book, The Addicted Lawyer: Tales of the Bar, Booze, Blow, and Redemption. And it's my understanding you've done quite a bit of speaking on this topic of addiction and recovery. Not only throughout the United States but I believe internationally, if I'm not incorrect. BRIAN: That is correct. And let me, one small correction. MARK: Yes! BRIAN: Addiction recovery advocate, not addict. MARK: Good catch! Mea culpa there, it's a slip of the tongue. Maybe ... can we briefly just start having you, for those that don't know your story, can you share for our listeners a little bit about your story? BRIAN: Sure, well let's start out with I've been in recovery for 11 1/2 years from alcohol, cocaine, and from an eating disorder, bulimia. MARK: Mm-hmm (affirmative). BRIAN: My drinking started in high school, it progressed through high school, and got a lot worse in law school and I discovered cocaine when I moved to Dallas - in a bathroom in a hotel in Dallas. And I became heavily addicted to cocaine and alcohol. Three failed marriages, one where I get a free set of steak knives, and they all failed related to drugs and alcohol. Two trips to a psychiatric facility and near suicide in 2005, finally finding recovery. I failed the bar exam twice, both failures relating to my being more interested in drugs and alcohol than practicing law. An interesting little anecdote from that I tell, the first time I took the bar exam, my study aids were a fifth of Jack Daniels, an 8 ball of cocaine, which is 3.5 ounces that I'd bought that same day. Needless to say I didn't pass. MARK: Right, yeah. Wow. Can I...I'd love to hear, I mean this is, this is pretty heavy news. And it's, my word, being you've really seen some dark places in terms of how I hear your story. When I think about others that are in various stages of addiction and dealing with challenges, I think one of the problems that people face, and please correct me if I'm wrong about this, but there's this fear of what others will say, for instance if I'm struggling with something if I say okay I have an alcohol problem, or I have a mental illness, or I have some other type of addiction, that people are going to view me as perhaps weak, unable to cut it, you know, these kinds of things. In other words, there are social stigma's in play. These...we fear that. I think people at times feel very shameful personally about having these kinds of struggles. May I ask how did you personally find the strength to pull out of all this, to move forward, not caring perhaps? I'm not sure of the social stigmas. But what was the strength, what enabled you to come out the other side of this? BRIAN: That's a great question. And the answer's complex, but to simplify it down, my quote-on-quote "aha" moment was standing in the parking lot of a Dallas psychiatric facility for my second time and at that moment realizing that I was probably going to lose my family if I did not find recovery. And there is really, you know there's my wife, there's my family and you know nothing is more important to me than family. MARK: Yes. BRIAN: And I wasn't going to lose their love but families distance because they have nieces, I mean because they have their children, my nieces and nephews. They don't want someone who is high on cocaine and drunk hanging around them. And so distancing occurs. And families realize whoa there's this gray area between love enablement and recovery, where okay, where does enablement end and recovery begin. And I think that all finally it had come together and I realized that standing in that parking lot and that was the moment when I said, okay I need to take that first scary step forward and release the shame, release the stigma, ‘cause if I don't, not only will there not be a third trip back, because I'll probably be dead. MARK: Yeah. BRIAN: But I will lose everything that is dear to me. Why that happened in April 2007 in that moment, and not say in the summer of 2005, or when my brother came into my house and I had a weapon on my night stand, I was going to take my own life, I don't know. That moment is different for everyone. But that is what was going through my mind at that time. MARK: So what I hear you saying, and I think this is a wonderful message, am I correct that you got to a point where you say 'at some point I realized my family, that people that are in my life, are simply more important to me than getting high'. Is it that, I think it's more complex than that, but... BRIAN: It's more complex, but I can tell you that was the trigger at that moment. MARK: Okay. BRIAN: When we talked about everything that came before that you have to talk about trauma, you have to talk about childhood, a lot of bullying. You know with my relationships at home. And we have to remember that when I talk to lawyers and I talk to law students about the struggling they are facing in that moment, nothing happens in a vacuum. I've had lawyers and law students tell me, and I am the first person they have ever told, about bullying, about childhood trauma, about sexual abuse, about physical abuse. And I of course I am not qualified to talk to them about those issues. I have resources that I refer them to, like the Lawyers Assistance Program, they can see a counselor. But there's a much bigger, there is a trigger in that moment, and then there is everything they thought of to that moment. Does that make sense? MARK: It does. Absolutely, it does. Let me kind of take this a little further in a different way. I see, you know again, in my, I'm a lawyer, I'm a tech geek, I'm not a physician, I'm not trained in drug counseling and these kinds of things. BRIAN: Neither am I. MARK: But my limited understanding of addictions is that a lot of these behaviors get their start, and then I think, become cemented because people will turn to whatever drug of choice it is as a coping mechanism. It for instance masks the pain, masks the fear, whatever it might be. And now being 11 plus years into recovery you, just like everybody else, we continue to have challenges and struggles and like these kinds of things. What have you done in terms of replacing an unhealthy coping mechanism looking at alcohol or cocaine as an example. How do you deal now? What is the healthy way? How are you coping? BRIAN: That's a great question. And lets deal with a current real life example. I am not disclosing this to make people feel sad but its - life and death is real. My father died 2 weeks ago today, at 92 years old and we were very, very close. I was just at the cemetery visiting him before this podcast. That is trauma right? MARK: Yes it is. BRIAN: That is something that 12 years ago I absolutely would have turned to the cocaine. Gone out and gotten hammered. Done who knows what in order to mask that pain. But I learned that doing that to mask that pain, one, is not going to bring my father back. MARK: Yes. BRIAN: Two, was going to set me on a path that he wouldn't want. That my family wouldn't want. And that would end up with me back at that psychiatric facility or dead. So I had to learn to deal with trauma on life's own terms. Whether that is the passing of a loved one. Whether that is the passing...whether that is the bullying of my childhood. Whether that is any type of thing that we try to mask. Right, you go into a high school and you talk to students who were smoking weed or all kinds of polymorphic drug use. And you ask them why, they may not be able to articulate it that they are masking. Masking pain, they're masking rejection, they're masking the need to be accepted. So that starts in high school and this need to use a substance to mask goes on to law school, to college, through college, to our law practice. So what did I learn in that moment in 2007, well I learned that I needed support. To support, my first support was 12-step. MARK: Okay. BRIAN: I am not promoting 12-step. I am not saying that is the way for everyone. But it wasn't even a way that I particularly wanted to embrace. But I knew I had to take some step, and I needed support, and I needed to be able to be with people who understood exactly what I was going through. So I walked into that alcohol based 12 step and Alcoholics Anonymous is the most well-known of those. MARK: Yes. BRIAN: And that was April 8, 2007. And so 12-step has been one of my ways, and the first thing I did, other than relying on the love of my family when my father passed, I went to a 12-step meeting. That is how I cope. And I'm hopeful in counseling. I have been seeing a psychiatrist for 15 years. MARK: I find this a very positive message of hope. What I hear you saying is, or how I'm responding to what your saying is, as an addict you make this choice to fall back on something that numbs, that masks, that hides the pain and all these kinds of things. But now you've realized, and you've identified the same problems that might send you there but you realize that you have choices. And you have people that can be supportive because no one is expected to go through, and should have to go through all kinds of...you're not alone in other words. And I think the world of addiction for, again what I hear and understand, is this loneliness thing is very central and is in part something that drives the poor decision making. You've come out this other side and, and, support ... I love the message. BRIAN: I also want to be careful about how we frame choice. MARK: Yes okay. Please. BRIAN: There's this saying that addiction, and I believe in the disease model, some people don't, I do. MARK: I do too. BRIAN: Addiction is not a choice, but recovery is. Recovery is about choices. Okay. MARK: Yes. BRIAN: And people get kinda caught up on this and it is a very kind of volatile issue. If you asked me, was the first time I did a line of cocaine a choice? Of course it was a choice. I chose to do it. Now was it choice influenced by a lot of childhood trauma and a lot of self loathing issues, a lot of issues on how I viewed myself? But it was a choice. But when I did that line of cocaine and suddenly for the first time in my life, for 15 seconds, looked in the mirror and finally loved myself. MARK: Yeah. BRIAN: The process that took over in my brain told me I need to do that again and again and again to continue to love myself was not a choice. MARK: Yes. BRIAN: That is the difference. I want to be sure we frame choice properly. MARK: And I appreciate, and I absolutely agree with you and understand. I think that's a very important point to make. Can we sort of assume for a moment that somebody is listening to this podcast that may have some level of addiction, some struggle, and is sort of responding to this 'well this is kind of interesting but it doesn't apply to me, I don't really have a problem, counselors are for...they're all trying to fix themselves you know, they don't know what they're doing, they're just head games'? You see where I'm trying to go. That there's all kinds of excuses not to try to acknowledge that we have a problem. And people can get, for the lack of a better term, stuck. And at times stuck for years. And that's where I presume some distancing comes into play and all kinds of things. What would you say to this individual? BRIAN: I think for the most part the odds of it going away are more slim, that it's only going to get worse, this is proven out. Okay. Addiction is a progressive disease. That it is okay to reach out to someone to seek help. MARK: Okay. BRIAN: I would encourage that person to take a real-life stock of what's going on in their life, day-to-day life. How is your relationship with your wife? How is your relationship with your children? How is your relationship with your partner at the law firm, or your friend? What is actually going on in your life? Where does it stand? Because there is no such thing as high function. Because there is no such thing as high functioning, okay. There is only a degree of decline of functioning. And the biggest issue I see in the legal profession because we don't like to be vulnerable, is waiting for the consequences to catch up to the problem. Are you going to take stock of it now? And at least take one step forward to make your life just a little bit better. However you define that outside of drugs and alcohol. Whether it's your wife. Whether it's your children. Whether it's what's doing on at work. Are you going to do that or are you going to wait for the consequences to eventually catch up to what's going on as it gets progressively worse. And that will happen. And all of the sudden it's worse. All of the sudden its malpractice. All of the sudden it's a bar complaint. All of the sudden you're facing suspension, disbarment. All of the sudden you are unemployed. Why wait for that? Take that first step now. Call your Lawyers Assistance Program. It's confidential. MARK: Yes, yes. And I really appreciate your sharing that idea. I think so many people are a little bit afraid of talking to these various Lawyer Assistance Programs because there is this fear that there's gonna be some...its gonna get out. These are confidential situations in terms of communications and what not. And my experience in terms of the people that are involved in running these programs are just down to earth, rock solid, good people that had been there. BRIAN: And you know what, no matter how much I say it, there's gonna be a demographic of lawyers who aren't going to be using them, cause they are just convinced in their mind. We don't have enough time but I have a funny anecdote about that, they're just convinced in their mind that they are an arm of the state bar, they are not confidential and that is going to get out. Let me tell you what is not confidential is when you wait for the consequences to catch up to the problem and that's your name in the back pages of your bar journal. MARK: You are so right and I love that. But that's the reality. That's what's coming if this isn't addressed. You're absolutely correct. You're absolutely correct. Well listen Brian I really appreciate your taking the time today to share a bit of your story and to spend a little time here with me on the podcast, it really has been a pleasure. I hope at some point to have another opportunity. You're the kind of guy I'd love to just sit down and enjoy a nice glass of Italian sparkling water or something, and just have a nice meal and some great conversation. That would be just wonderful. BRIAN: Let me end with one more thing. MARK: Yes please. BRIAN: A lawyer or even a law student who is listening to this who is struggling out there but thinks they're coping, 'I'm coping, I'm doing okay'. Ask your wife if you're doing okay. Ask your children if you're doing okay. Ask your partner if you're doing okay. Ask your...ask an associate if you're doing okay. Ask a friend of yours if you're doing okay. You will get a different answer than you think. MARK: Yeah, yeah. And then have the courage to listen. BRIAN: And have the courage to listen. You have to be able to drop that wall and be ready for the response. Because dropping the wall won't...allowing yourself to be vulnerable is one of the hardest things we can do in the legal profession. Because we're used to...we're trained to take advantage of that, right, in our profession? MARK: That's right. BRIAN: It's not something we allow ourselves to do. To self-explore. MARK: Yeah, yeah. I appreciate that, that's solid, solid advice. Well we are out of time here. I do want to say to all of you listening in I hope you found something of value in today's conversation. Please feel free to reach out any time if any of you listeners have any thoughts in terms of topics or other folks that you'd like to listen to, in terms of have them join us on the podcast. Thanks for listening and have a good one. Bye bye.    Brian Cuban, the younger brother of Dallas Mavericks owner and entrepreneur Mark Cuban, is a Dallas based attorney, author and addiction recovery advocate. He is graduate of Penn State University and The University of Pittsburgh School of Law. Brian has been in long term recovery from alcohol, cocaine and bulimia since April of 2007. His first book, Shattered Image: My Triumph Over Body Dysmorphic Disorder,” chronicles his first-hand experiences living with, and recovering from, twenty-seven years of eating disorders, and Body Dysmorphic Disorder (BDD). Brian's most recent, best-selling book, The Addicted Lawyer, Tales of The Bar, Booze, Blow, & Redemption is an un-flinching look back at how addiction and other mental health issues destroyed his career as a once successful lawyer and how he and others in the profession redefined their lives in recovery and found redemption. Brian has spoken at colleges, universities, conferences, non-profit and legal events across the United States and in Canada. Brian has appeared on prestigious talks shows such as the Katie Couric Show as well as numerous media outlets around the country. He also writes extensively on these subjects. His columns have appeared and he has been quoted on these topics on CNN.com, Foxnews.com, The Huffington Post, Above The Law, The New York Times, and in online and print newspapers around the world. Learn more at www.briancuban.com.

The Salesforce Summer 18 release is nearly upon us! It's available in Sandbox previews and will be coming to a production environment near you in a few weeks! Mark & Brian go over the release notes, not quite all 494 pages. We pull out some of the interesting features coming out that Admins may be interested in.   Show Overview 00:00 Last Time on WizardCast 01:09 Introduction 02:28 The Joke 02:58 Sponsor/Affiliate mention - Get 1 month free of Libsyn podcast hosting with promo code: podmagic 03:37 Summer Relase Notes!!!! Excellent! 03:55 Classic only features 04:10 It's Better in Lightning 07:10 Search Updates, Search More! Search Specified Items! Synonyms! 09:45 Einstein GA Forecasting, Lead Scoring, Opportunity Scoring! 12:30 Campaign Features in Lightning! 13:25 Topics! Topical Topic on Topics 14:45 Dependent Picklists: Path, Record Detail, Kanban! 15:40 Lead Conversion: Convert to multiple Accounts 16:50 A drag of a features 17:10 Person Accounts in Lightning 17:50 Duplicate Management on Custom Objects 18:50 Lightning Report Builder Generally Available 21:50 SUB FOLDERS!!!! & other reports and dashboard updates 24:50 Well it's about TIME field, generally available 26:30 FLOW and Process! You get a flow and you get a flow! 40:00 Critical Updates 44:30 GDPR, Filter Field History Reports! 48:19 Product Schedules, Manage Libraries in Lightning 49:00 List Views & Kanban for Tasks plus multi-task creation 50:00 Lightning Email Templates! 51:40 Close Case Action with Internal Comments 53:00 Omni Channel Configuration in Lightning Experience 53:10 Field Service... Read the release notes! 53:30 Lightning Knowledge Migration Tool 54:00 lightweight Service Cloud Mobile App 54:30 Wrap Up, seriously read the release notes on Dev, Communities, Security 55:10 Midwest Dreamin 2018 Announcement. Know the Flow Code & live Podcast recording! 56:10 Dungeons and Dreamforce Spring Edition over at the Cloudforce Collective. Fun and Charity events! 57:00 Closing Credits, Thanks Sandy Simpson for being our intern 59:05 Post Credit Scene Links in This Show Salesforce Release Notes Release Webinar Trailhead Community Release Readiness Group Dungeons & Dreamforce Spring Charity Event at Cloudforce Collective HELP US SPREAD THE WORD! We'd love it if you could please share #WizardCast with your twitter followers. Click here to post a tweet! https://ctt.ec/23f7u Participate In The Show! Share an IdeaExchange idea for our Ideas Highlight episodes! http://bit.ly/ideahighlight Share a question for Parker Harris http://bit.ly/parkerquestions Ways to subscribe to The WizardCast Click to Subscribe via iTunes/Apple Podcasts Click to Subscribe via Stitcher Subscribe via RSS FEEDBACK You can ask your questions, make comments, bad jokes, and your requests! Contact Us via Website Leave of Voicemail 608 492 0321 Email wizardcast@thewizardnews.com   Affiliates & Sponsors Libsyn podcast hosting:  Get a free month with promocode: podmagic Audio and Music provided by: Cherry (Instrumental Version) (Josh Woodward) / CC BY 4.0 Sounds from: http://www.freesfx.co.uk

Do you ever have to call Salesforce Support? Do you wish you could make Salesforce mobile a better experience for your users? Would you like to talk with a Salesforce Product Manager? Then you want to listen to this episode as Mark and Brian talk with Cheryl Feldman. Cheryl Feldman is an MVP, User Group Leader, Admin for a large Enterprise company and so much more. You may have read about Cheryl when Trailhead featured her story: https://trailhead.salesforce.com/trailblazers/cheryl-feldman  There's even a better chance that you've seen her photo on the login page. Show Overview 00:01 A very dramatic retraction about Dashboards 01:28 Introduction 02:25 Joke from Amy Oplinger https://twitter.com/SalesforceAmy/status/966836693192998912 03:00 Public Service Announcement due to Budget restraints 04:18 Fake Sponsor: Podcast anonymous 04:35 Libsyn Affiliate: 1 month free with promo code: podmagic 05:17 Coffee Break AI on a poor adopted Enterprise platform Https://twitter.com/petercoffee/status/963129134078615553 09:06 Introducing Trailblazer Cheryl Feldman 10:00 Only the best bosses... Happy place on earth 10:47 Mobile escapades 12:48 Lightning now and shout out to Michael Orr https://twitter.com/orrdeal 14:50 Mobile only page? 17:45 Specific Lightning Components to make Salesforce Mobile amazing 19:00 Flows in mobile with the Flow Action 21:44 Shameless plug: Using Flows in Actions https://thewizardnews.com/2017/10/18/favorite-salesforce-winter18-feature-flow-object-action/ 22:45 Cheryl's list for must need for mobile: Mobile only pages and login as other user on mobile 28:44 Interacting with Salesforce Support 29:14 Cheryl's tips for interacting with Salesforce support 32:55 Simulator on Chrome for mobile 38:00 Working with Salesforce Product Managers 41:00 Product Managers in the Trailblazer community 48:25 We Love & Miss you Shawna Wolverton. 53:20 What one question would you ask Parker Harris? 55:43 The First time Cheryl met Parker Harris 56:45 And now you're on login Page/How she found out she was on the login page 58:47 If Brian & Mark were Sesame street's Bert and Earnie... who is who? 49:42 When Marc & Parker are on stage at Dreamforce, which WizardCast host is Marc and which is Parker? 1:02:32 Why Cheryl feels unworthly of being on the podcast. It's a Star Wars thing. 1:04:20 Star Trek Vs Star Wars, Salesforce vs Microsoft Dynamics 1:05:20 A girl things Mark & Brian are super cool BECAUSE we watched Star Wars 1:07:35 Closing Credits and Kudos to Jean Hawthorn as intern via @WizardCast_pod 1:08:00 Tell us your ideas, your questions for Parker! Submit Questions for Parker Harris: http://bit.ly/parkerquestions Submit Ideas:http://bit.ly/ideahighlight 1:09:19 After Credits Scene   HELP US SPREAD THE WORD! We’d love it if you could please share #WizardCast with your twitter followers. Click here to post a tweet! https://ctt.ec/23f7u Ways to subscribe to The WizardCast Click to Subscribe via iTunes/Apple Podcasts Click to Subscribe via Stitcher Subscribe via RSS Participate In The Show! Share an IdeaExchange idea for our Ideas Highlight episodes! http://bit.ly/ideahighlight Share a question for Parker Harris http://bit.ly/parkerquestions FEEDBACK You can ask your questions, make comments, bad jokes, and your requests!  Contact Us via Website Leave of Voicemail 608 492 0321 Email wizardcast@thewizardnews.com Audio and Music provided by: Cherry (Instrumental Version) (Josh Woodward) / CC BY 4.0 Sounds from: http://www.freesfx.co.uk  

Creating Powerful Podcast Interviews – Episode 147   I want to teach you how to create powerful podcast interviews like the pros.   There are many reasons we interview guests on our podcasts. They are content experts They know more than we do Guests add depth to the conversation Interviews can expose your show to others Interviews can cross-promote your products Guests add additional content to your show   If you are like me when I started, you probably feel a bit overwhelmed. I felt like I was a kid playing dress-up. Did I really belong with the professional interviewers? I wasn't big time. Impostor syndrom was definitely kicking in.   You can learn how to be a better interviewer and be more confident. We can avoid making fools of ourselves We can battle the impostor syndrome We can look smarter by surrounding ourselves with smarter people   If you have been with me for awhile, you probably know my story. I am a bit of an introvert. I never dreamed of interviewing big stars.   My family had little money as I was growing up. However, I was surrounded by entrepreneurs. My mom baked wedding cakes in our kitchen to earn extra money for us. My sister owned a marketing firm. My aunt was a restauranteur. My uncle owned a jewelry store. My other aunt owned a craft store. Owning a business was in my blood.   My first business was selling gum at school out of my locker. I purchased a couple cases at a white elephant sale and made some extra 6th grade cash. I also earned money as a magician for kid birthday parties when I was in middle school. As kids, we would turn our garage into a magic show theater or haunted houses for neighborhood kids.   As I got older, I started selling christmas cards door-to-door from the back of Boys Life Magazine to earn slot car tracks and stuff. There was always something I was selling for scouts, band, and hockey.   Selling was just a means to an end. I never had any intention of selling as a career. In 7th grade, I set my sights on getting my architecture degree. My middle school and high school classwork all led to pursuing my college degree in architecture. However, I hated presenting in front of a crowd. My design presentations was the one part of my degree I dreaded most.   While pursuing my architecture degree, I became the music director of the college station. I started in radio part-time by accident. My brother worked for a station. He wasn't home one day when his boss called looking for someone to work. He offered me a job. That lead to my first full-time job in radio paying $12,000 a year.   Since starting my career in radio, I have had the pleasure of interviewing Natalie Merchant of 10,000 Maniacs, Sarah McLachlan, Mariah Carey, Lady Gaga, the Samples, Big & Rich, Jason Aldean, Miranda Lambert, Carrie Underwood, and more. Never in my wildest dreams did I imagine I would be here.   The radio stations I have run have also had huge success. One of the stations I program was named Station of the Year. The morning show I coach was named Personality of the Year. We have hit #1 in the ratings 3 years straight … twice with 2 different stations in 2 different demographics.   This success didn't come easy. I learned from some of the best talent coaches in the business. Bill McMahon developed the Authentic Personality. Tracy Johnson coached Jeff & Jer in San Diego. Mark St. John originally put together Mark & Brian who had huge success in Los Angeles. There have been many others.   Over the 25 years I've been doing this, I have learned the traits of great interviewers. I have distilled that knowledge down to a process that is easy to learn and implement in your show.   I call it Powerful Podcast Interviews   POWERFUL is the acronym for the 8 attributes of great interviews. P – Prepared O – Obvious goal – know where we are going before we leave the station W – Warm & comfortable – get your guest comfortable E – Energetic – maintain momentum & get to the action quickly R – Resourceful – give your listeners something more – lead magnet F – Fun – the reason we do what we love U – Unique & authentic – give them something the internet cannot while being real L – Let them shine – make your guest the star   Do you wish you could sound more prepared, more organized and more like a true, professional broadcaster during your interviews?   Do you fear people will see you as someone simply trying to play the part of a professional?   Would you like to have more credibility while sounding like an expert rather than someone with a little knowledge of your topic?   I have been there. What started as something fun to make college money suddenly turned into a career.   Here I was, a college kid studying architecture, trying to pretend I was a professional broadcaster.   I had no idea what I was doing. It was all trial and error.   Now, 25 years later, I am trying to help podcasters avoid the growing pains I suffered learning by diving head first into the deep end and quickly figuring out how to swim.   The mistakes I made were plenty. By sharing my scars and battle wounds, along with the processes, tips and skills I have learned over the years of interviewing, I can help you fast track the road to great podcast interviews.   Over the past 20 years, I have been coaching radio talent and more recently podcasters with their shows. I have helped many radio shows reach the top of the ratings. My show has also been at the top for years.   Would you like me to show you how to create powerful podcast interviews step-by-step?   Would you like me to show you how to put each of these steps into action to make your interviews more effective?   I am looking to gather a handful of serious podcast interviewers to take part in an interactive interviewing workshop. During this intimate workshop, I will teach you each step in the Powerful Podcast Interview system and you will also have your interviewing questions answered.   You will come out of the workshop with a custom development plan and checklist for your interviews. You will learn how to turn your interviews into traffic for your show and website. You will have a preparation checklist for show. You will learn ways to make your interviews more entertaining and engaging. You will walk away with the key “dos and don't” for every interview. I'll even teach you how to be interviewed on other show. That's just the start.   This workshop will be 5 consecutive Saturdays beginning January 7, 2017. Each session will last roughly two hours as we get through each step of the system.   Paying for coaching is a difficult decision to make. You are investing in something difficult to measure.   When you pay for coaching, it isn't like buying a tank of gas. You can see, feel and measure the benefit of buying a tank of gas.   To measure the benefit of investing in coaching services, you need to believe in yourself.   I want to help you take that first step. You have heard the overview in this episode. We have just scratched the surface. This workshop will dive deep into each step.   Look, my coaching isn't for everyone. Podcasters that are serious about improvement and truly believe in themselves usually receive the most benefit. It takes commitment. And, it is priced to ensure only those committed take advantage of the opportunity.   My coaching fee is typically $95 per hour.   5 two-hour sessions would typically cost $950. However, I want you to succeed. I want to see you get committed to your improvement.   This five-session workshop will only cost you $97.   As a bonus, and to help jump start your transformation, I will include a free, digital copy of the Podcast Talent Coach Workbook. This book walks you through all of the Podcast Talent Coach worksheets with detailed instructions.   LET'S MAKE IT EASY   To get you started, to help you see the power of podcast coaching, I'll give you a money-back guarantee. If after the first two-hour session you don't think the workshop is for you, just let me know and I'll refund your entire tuition. No questions asked.   There's no risk to you. If you don't benefit, you don't pay.   Am I crazy?   Not really. I offer this workshop, because I am a talent coach. I help podcasters transform their information into engaging entertainment and turn their podcasts into powerful, profitable relationships. Over the past 25 years, I've guided many broadcasters and podcasters to great success.   There is a good possibility my knowledge and experience can help you and your podcast. This workshop is designed to help us both.   I plan to record all five session to create a interviewing course that I will sell for not less than $200. That is twice what you will pay without the question and answer opportunity. Without the free workbook.   With that said, please understand that I am not offering a sales pitch in disguise. I promise not to pressure you or pester you in any way at all.   Now, WAIT A MINUTE.   Before we go any further, you need to know that I cannot help everyone. That is why I am limiting this workshop to 12 serious podcasters. I can only be of benefit to people who:   1. have a podcast 2. are actively creating new content and interviews, and 3. are dedicated to making a few adjustments & improvements   If that isn't you, enjoy my free content. I completely understand, and we'll still be friends.   However, if you have the desire to transform your interviews and create a powerful, engaging podcast, here is what you need to do next.   If you meet this criteria, and you want to join me in this powerful interviewing workshop, no strings attached, simply e-mail me today. Send your request to join to Coach@PodcastTalentCoach.com.   I will review all requests on Saturday, December 16, 2016. I will then select the 15 or so podcasters to join me in this workshop.   Thanks for being part of this journey. E-mail me today at Coach@PodcastTalentCoach.com.   Let's begin transforming your interviews today.  

Why We Do Podcast Interviews – Episode 141   I was out for a bit. “Summer vacation.”   Actually, a change in my employment. You know I have programmed radio stations for the past 20 years. Well, recently my employer thought my skills were strong enough to take over our entire market.   I was recently elevated to Sr. Vice President of Programming for our 7-station cluster in our market. I now oversee the programming of all 7 radio stations with a few program directors working under me.   As I got up to speed with my new role, along with helping my coaching clients, the podcast took a little pause. We are now ready to roll again.   Thanks for those that reached out. Especially Dave Jackson, Alex Exum and a few others. It meant a lot.   POWERFUL PODCAST INTERVIEWS LIKE THE PROS   Why do we interview guests on our podcasts?   There are various benefits to having guests on our shows.   They are content experts They know more than we do The interview adds depth to the conversation Interviews can expose your show to others, such as your guest's tribe Your guest can cross-promote your products Interviews add additional content to your show   It is possible to become better at conducting interviews. When you work to improve, your entire show will benefit.   As you learn to be a better, you will naturally become a more confident interviewer. We can avoid making fools of ourselves and battle the impostor syndrome with a little work and education.   By conducting strong interviews, we can look smarter by surrounding ourselves with smarter people. This is a huge benefit of interviewing.   Growing up, I never envisioned myself creating a life in radio interviewing stars and other big names. I was quite introverted all the way through college. Radio became my career by accident.   Our family had little money while I was growing up. My family was full of entrepreneurs. They were all around me, because we were all trying to make ends meet.   My first business was selling gum at school. In junior high school, I bought a case of gum at a white elephant sale. I took that gum to school and sold it out of my locker. That was pretty decent money for a sixth grader.   As a kid, I also did magic shows and built haunted houses in our garage for the kids in the neighborhood.   Those early days of business lead to selling door-to-door as a kid. I sold anything I could. I sold for popcorn and Christmas cards for Boy Scouts, ornaments and calendars for band, candy for hockey and on my own. I sold sold all kinds of stuff.   It wasn't the selling I enjoyed. It was the reward at the end that kept me going.   That reward was similar to the motivation I used when learning to speak in front of a crowd and interviewing others. I loved the outcome.   My radio career began while I was getting my architecture degree in college. I hated presenting in front of a crowd. However, it was a required part of the program.   As I was getting the degree, I was offered a part-time job running the board at a radio station in 1989. I then became music director of the college station. That eventually turned into a full blown radio gig.   My first full-time job in radio paid $12,000 per year. That wasn't much. In fact, I had two other jobs just to make ends meet.   Over the years, I have interviewed Natalie Merchant, Sarah McLachlan, Mariah Carey, Lady Gaga, the Samples, Big & Rich, Jason Aldean, Miranda Lambert, Carrie Underwood and many others.   I have also taught others to interview. Radio stations I have programmed have been named “Station of the Year”. Shows I have coached have been awarded “Morning Show of the Year”. By learning the skills necessary to interview and engage, I have been #1 in the radio ratings 3 years straight … twice with 2 different stations in 2 different demos.   My success can directly be linked to my training over the last 25 years. I have learned from some of the best talent coaches in the business. Tracy Johnson coached Jeff & Jer in San Diego to huge success. Mark St. John launched the morning careers of Mark & Brian in L.A. There have been many others.   Over the 25 years I've been doing this, I have learned the traits of great interviewers. I have also distilled it down to a process that is easy to learn and implement in your show.   Would you like me to teach you? I just need to know what you would like to learn.   I would love to help you refine your interviewing skills. In the long run, my goal is to create an interviewing course.   To get this started, I need to know what you need to know.   How can I help you become a better interviewer? E-mail your questions to coach@PodcastTalentCoach.com.   When it comes to interviewing, where do you need help? What do you struggle with the most? Where are your hurdles?   I will incorporate your questions into the next few episodes. What would you like me to cover.   E-mail your thoughts and questions to me at Coach@PodcastTalentCoach.com.   You can find my podcast and other tools to help you create great content at www.PodcastTalentCoach.com.   Let's turn your information into engaging entertainment.