Podcasts about mcsquares

Join Tom & Joe as they interview Anthony Franco of mcSquares, who was on Season 11, Episode 23 of Shark Tank with an air date of 5/13/20. If you are an entrepreneur who wants to grow your business faster, check out www.growth10.com! And if you like the show, make sure to hit “Subscribe”, give us a 5-star rating and tell your friends… we appreciate your support!

I chatted with founder and CEO of McSquares (mcsquares.com), Anthony Franco, and on this episode, we discussed: :21 - The importance of creating a culture of employee empowerment. 3:54 - How he originally got involved in Effective UI and grew that to become one of the largest UI agencies in Colorado. 8:06 - His views on luck, and why it’s critical to have an ‘Opportunity Radar’. 11:03 - The importance of finding the ‘Hells yes!’ in opportunities that might not be an immediate ‘Hells yes!’16:37 - Making the transition from UI design to manufacturing whiteboards. 18:00 - The failed app that would eventually inspire the creation of McSquares. 21:57 - How getting “fired” from Effective led to the creation of McSquares. 25:26 - Why he poured his own money into funding the initial concept. 29:59 - His approach towards inventing new ideas. 32:18 - Why he thinks that most people shouldn’t become entrepreneurs. 40:23 - The most brilliant marketing idea he had that didn’t work. 43:18 - A huge risk he took early-on that almost cost the company. 47:00 - His process for deciding whether or not to give up on an idea. 52:23 - The best advice he gives to new entrepreneurs. Items we chatted about: Effective UI: The Book. https://www.oreilly.com/library/view/effective-ui/9781449380465/Connect with Anthony Franco on LinkedIn. https://www.linkedin.com/in/anthonyfranco/**If you enjoyed the podcast, would you please consider leaving a short review on Apple Podcasts/iTunes? It’ll take you approximately 37-seconds, and is a HUGE boost for us in terms of landing hard-to-reach guests. For a curated list of my favorite episodes, go to mikekilcoyne.com/podcastAnd sign-up for my newsletter at mikekilcoyne.com for weekly emails and insights on how to leverage creativity in this post-pandemic world.

News from: mcSquares, Prieto Battery, Boa Technologies, Coalfire, LogRhythm, Intelisecure, Red Canary, Swimlane and a lot more! Support us on Patreon! Fun swag available - all proceeds will directly support the Colorado = Security infrastructure. Come join us on the new Colorado = Security Slack channel to meet old and new friends. Sign up for our mailing list on the main site to receive weekly updates - https://www.colorado-security.com/. If you have any questions or comments, or any organizations or events we should highlight, contact Alex and Robb at info@colorado-security.com This week’s news: Join the Colorado = Security Slack channel Parker ranks No. 2 in Money.com list of Best Places to Live in America Colorado state workers ordered to take unpaid furlough amid state budget shortfall Denver startup mcSquares changes Shark Tank deal, sees growth amid Covid-19 Hercules Electric Vehicles and Prieto Battery, Inc. Establish Strategic Partnership for Battery Technology in 2025 Hercules Trucks | Business Wire Denver-based sports equipment company acquired for $454 million Coalfire - Offensive Security Testing Using Cloud Tools LogRhythm - New Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification (CMMC) Updates Intelisecure - Microsoft 365 Endpoint DLP: Is it Ready for the Enterprise? Red Canary - Nothing to hide: seeking out rootkits on enterprise systems Key Takeaways from Gartner’s 2020 Market Guide for SOAR… | Swimlane Job Openings: Lunavi - Manager of Information Security Western Union - Manager, Information Security IHS Markit - Sr. Principal Cloud Security Architect Vail Resorts - Infosec and Privacy Analyst Visa - Cybersecurity Analyst, Applied Cryptography Cognizant - SENIOR MANAGER, ENTERPRISE SECURITY OPERATIONS Red Canary - Security Analyst, Cloud Workload Protection (Remote) IronNet Cybersecurity - Vice President, Worldwide Sales Operations (US Remote) Upcoming Events: This Week and Next: NCC - [WEBINAR] Election Interference & Data Breaches - 10/1 ISACA Denver - ISACA COMMUNITY DAY - 10/3 ISSA C.Springs - October Online Series - 10/8 NoCo ISSA - October Chapter Meeting - 10/8 View our events page for a full list of upcoming events * Thanks to CJ Adams for our intro and exit! If you need any voiceover work, you can contact him here at carrrladams@gmail.com. Check out his other voice work here. * Intro and exit song: "The Language of Blame" by The Agrarians is licensed under CC BY 2.0

Cynthia Marquez: "Sometimes to begin a new story, you have to let the old one in." -Author unknown. Cynthia Marquez: I am Cynthia Marquez and I am a Tri-City influencer. Paul Casey: What specific behaviors must everyone on your team do every week to live out the vision and keep it alive? One of the only ways change happens in a company is if people change their behavior and align it to the vision. speaker 3: Raising the water level of leadership in the Tri-Cities of Eastern Washington. It's the Tri-Cities Influencer Podcast. Welcome to the TCI Podcast, where local leadership and self leadership expert Paul Casey interviews, local CEOs, entrepreneurs, and nonprofit executives to hear how they lead themselves and their teams so, we can all benefit from their wisdom and experience. Here's your host, Paul Casey of Growing Forward Services coaching and equipping individuals and teams to spark breakthrough success. Paul Casey: It's a great day to grow forward. Welcome listeners. Today I'm going to do a little teaching on leaving ripples in leadership, which we'll dive into after checking in with our Tri-City influencer sponsor. Preston House: Hi, my name is Preston House and I'm the local owner of Papa John's pizza right here in Tri-Cities. Jesus Melendez: I'm Jesus Melendez, Vice President and commercial lender with Community First Bank and HFG Trust. Preston House: When I moved here in 2009 with my family from Boise, Idaho, I knew I wanted to move from a franchise to a local business owner. I'd been working with Papa John's since I was 16 years old. So when it came time to open my own location here in my own community, I knew I needed some financial guidance from an organization who understood my needs as a small business owner. Jesus Melendez: Small business owners often have a lot on their plate. Employment retirement plans, payroll, bills. Our mission is to become your financial partner for life and is motivated by providing people in our community like Preston, with all the information and support they need all under one roof. Preston House: It's really simple. No matter what I need, all it takes is one phone call, no automated prompts, no call waiting, it's just a local business serving another local business. Jesus Melendez: For more information on how Community First Bank and HFG Trust can help you get back on track visit www.community1st.com. That's www.community1st.com. Paul Casey: Thank you for your support of leadership development in the Tri-Cities. So, I like to mix in a training here once in a while in between the phenomenal guests that I get to interview here in the Tri-Cities who are spreading their great influence around. Today the leadership talk is leaving ripples in leadership. This came about a few years ago while I was doing a personal retreat day and I was sitting by the Columbia River in Columbia Park doing some monthly reflection. I love to do a personal retreat day every so often. It's sort of a windshield wiper of the brain. It's like hitting the reset button on your computer, and I get a chance to look at my goals and look at my one year vision for my life during that time, maybe play with some ideas. I've written a top 10 list of something to make better. I like to read during that time and reflect on my last year's journal. Paul Casey: Those are some of the things I do on a personal retreat. I was sitting there on the bank of Columbia watching a jet ski or a boat go by, it was during the workday so most people were at work at that time. There weren't many boats there, but I would get to see the ripples make their way to the shore towards me after several seconds after a boat or the jet ski would go by. The bigger the watercraft and the more they were moving around, the more impact of the waves that were created for me to enjoy. Since most people were at work or in school, there were long stretches of time without any waves at all. Paul Casey: This really made me think of the impact leadership, like a boat, has on our sphere of influence. I want you to think about yourself today and who is in your sphere of influence. The way I like to illustrate this when I'm live with a group is bringing a hula hoop. I don't know if any of you are expert hula hoopers. I'm not, but I use that as an illustration. I put little three by five cards and I tape them around the edge of the hula hoop. I try to use it as an example of who is in my own personal sphere of influence. So this is my family, these are my extended family members, my networking contacts here in the Tri-Cities, my current clients and my good friends. There are many others that are in that sphere of influence. It could be expanded to my LinkedIn network or my Facebook friends. Paul Casey: We are always being watched by the people in our hula hoop, those that are orbiting our lives. Some as briefly as only once and some for a long periods of time. If we choose to fade into the backdrop of our organizations or the Tri-Cities community or our homes, and to not be intentional about the short term and long term legacy we are leaving, if we just decided we're going to do our jobs and stay at home, there are really no ripples, or actually negative ripples, of impact on those futures. So our hula hoops sort of drop to the ground. It's not linking to any other hula hoops and causing us to be able to influence others for the positive. Paul Casey: Some of you might've lived with a disengaged parent growing up, or were even married to a disengaged spouse, or you have worked under a disengaged supervisor. What I have to say about that is there were no positive ripples being left, right? There was little impact on you other than not wanting to become like that. However, if you realize the potential impact you have as a leader and you embrace that every day, each one of those in your sphere builds a stronger hula hoop of their own with their people and that could be a great legacy for each one of us. So today I'd like to challenge you: don't let the ripples of your impact stop. Paul Casey: Why? Well, first of all, because business as usual is boring. No one wants to feel like just a spoke in the wheel of a machine. It feels like working without any greater purpose and then no one is inspired to pay it forward, which just perpetuates complacency or going through the motions. I think most of us would say, no one wakes up in the morning to go, "Yay! I get to go through the motions today." That's almost funny to think about. Paul Casey: So let's be real with each other and wave the caution flag at each other in order to keep us sharp in our leadership. When do ripples stop? I'll speak for me. Two categories, it's either a lack of courage or a lack of intentionality. A lack of courage is the desire to not make waves, like everything is just fine. I don't know about you, but give that “fine” response to your partner after they make dinner and see how joyful they respond. Paul Casey: For instance, enforcing your organization's policy takes courage as a manager. Now, our people might not like us when we do that. Giving constructive feedback may produce a frown and a "what do you know" attitude from a direct report. So we hedge, and we hold back. I want you to think about this, when you don't show courage as a leader or as an influencer, what is the rest of the team thinking? Paul Casey: Oh my goodness. In the last five years, I made a passive decision not to address an employee that the rest of the team began working around and I realized how much money and time was being wasted by having the wrong player on the bus. I looked inside and it was the fear of his hostile response that kept me from confronting him, which of course ended up confirming the decision. I mustered up the courage to confront, and it was interesting that he resigned before I even got it out of my mouth. So of course, none of those things are on your outcomes list when you thought of all the reasons why we choose fear instead of courage. Paul Casey: Lack of intention is the other one. Squirrel. We all joke about “squirrel” because those with ADD are probably chuckling right now. How many have ever not prepared for a one to one with an employee or a client until seconds before the meeting? Be honest. Yes, I have too. I try to do my one-to-ones and there's always time where I ask about how they're doing personally. By not taking 30 seconds to review the last notes, I've put my foot in my mouth by asking an insensitive question about their family member that they deeply shared something about the last time. Bad leader. All their sharing I'm sure felt invalidated that I didn't take a moment to plan out the session and at least recall that we had done it already. Flying by the seat of our pants never gets maximum results. Let's say that one again, flying by the seat of our pants never gets a maximum results. Paul Casey: Okay. So, let's self-evaluate, because that's what humble, want-to-get-better leaders and volunteers do. Ripples stop when you and I, as leaders, no longer do nine things. Here's number one, when we no longer invest in people. You can view your job as a leader, as a marathon runner, just you and the open road against the rest of the world, but it's critical to the success of your organization to quit that event, the marathon, and instead sign up for the relay race. I watched my son and daughter, when they were in middle school, try out the relay. They were pretty fast kids. I was fast when I was younger too. I loved the little sprints. I didn't really like the long distance stuff. So kudos to you that love to run. But it was so fun to watch the relay race because it's like the only team part of track and field. Everyone is interdependent on each other. Paul Casey: By the way, I love that word interdependent. I don't know if you've got a simple definition of that word, but it's really all of us in a big mosh pit of productivity and teamwork and synergy working together, playing off of our strengths and mitigating our weaknesses. It's a great word. Paul Casey: So I want you to think about that relay race for a minute. You've got to stay in your lane in a relay race, right? So your lane, you might have some policies or some industry standards that you have to follow, or you get disqualified when you step out of that lane. Another thing about a relay race is we have a zone to pass the baton. In leadership, I think we've got a certain time with each person to impart knowledge and to give feedback to that person before they move on to something else or we move on to something else. Paul Casey: Another thing about a relay is we must pass the baton while we are both moving. I mean, I guess you didn't, you wouldn't have to do that, but as you know, you would lose. I think about this when it comes to investing in people that we're both busy, I'm busy, the person I'm developing, my mentee, might be busy and that could really crowd out development time, career development, personal development, professional development. We also must have a prearranged rhythm for the hand-off. You see relay teams practicing in the center of the infield with their hand-off. That pre-arranged rhythm for you and your work might be what priorities to pour into. Maybe that's at orientation when a new person comes onboard, after 30 days, after 60 days. What's that rhythm for when you do hand-offs? Then we both run fast for the team when it's our turn and hopefully with everybody doing their job, that interdependency really plays out into success. Paul Casey: I don't know about you, but it gives me great pride. When I pour into someone and they shine. That is one of the rewards of leadership. So number one, ripples stop when you and I, as leaders, no longer invest in people. Number two, when we no longer take care of ourselves and you begin to show signs of burn-out. Years ago, there was a illustration of a speaker, he had a guy hold out a water bottle that was about half full. When the man stood up and put his arm out with a water bottle, he said, "How much water do you think is still left in the water bottle?" And everybody was guessing, eight ounces, six ounces, 10 ounces. Paul Casey: The speaker said, "You know what? It's not how much is still in the water bottle. It's how long that this gentleman holds it without putting his hand down." He said, "If I have him keep that up there for another five minutes, he's going to start scowling at me and saying, 'Can we be done with this illustration now?' If I keep him up there for an hour, he's going to have a sore arm tomorrow. And if I make him keep it up there for six to eight hours, we're going to have to call the paramedics because his arm is going to go numb." So it's really not about how much is on your plate, it's how long you hold it without relief, without taking a break. So I'm going to encourage each of you to have a replenishment strategy. What do you actually do to recharge your batteries? Because our bodies and our minds were not made to stay in overdrive for too long. You cannot pass on what you do not possess. It's a scary thing when we run on empty, because then we've got nothing to give out. Paul Casey: All right, number three, ripples stop when you and I, as leaders, no longer keep learning. Keep learning. Let me be blunt, as soon as you stop learning, you stop leading. I'll say it again, as soon as you stop learning, you stop leading. I don't care how many years you have been doing what you are doing. There is always another idea, always another method, always another growth area to work on. It's your job to discover it. Paul Casey: So, you have to make, just like a replenishment plan, you have to make a personal and professional growth plan. Maybe that includes reading leadership books, reading industry magazines, going to favorite blog posts where you get inspiration, or a favorite podcasts, like this one. I'd be happy to send you a list of the ones that I listen to because I love podcasts. Maybe it's getting feedback from your employees more often, literally asking them for more feedback. You could ask questions like, "What do you need me to do more of, to do less of, or to continue?" Maybe it's joining a mastermind group or a networking group to push yourself by having people ask you difficult questions and staying accountable to them. Paul Casey: It's basically the old life and death cycle, which on one side, if you picture the St. Louis arch, on the left side of the arch you start with birth and there's some kind of new exciting thing that you're going to pursue whether it's a relationship or a new job or a new initiative at work, a new project. Then you keep moving up to growth, and that's going great and things are starting to hum on all cylinders. You're trying stuff, some's working, some not. The team is strong. You're playing with ideas and then you keep going up and you get to this place where it's like "Now we've got it. We've got the systems. They're all working. We're bringing in money. The team is cohesing and if we're not careful right there, if we don't have a personal and professional growth plan for ourselves and our teams. Paul Casey: Then we start heading over to the death side of the life death cycle. And that's where we get complacent. We become more of a settler than a pioneer in the old West. We start saying, "Eh, we sort of like it here, let's not try anything new. Let's not mess with success. Let's not break anything. Let's just keep going at this level and sort of rest on our haunches a little bit." Paul Casey: If we're not careful, we slip into decline and that's where we start fighting with each other. Now it's all about the form to fill out and not the mission and the vision to pursue. People start turning on each other. All the new ideas get shut down. Very quickly we slip into death. Death is like the divorce of a relationship or bankruptcy or when businesses have to close their door or somebody gets fired. We want to make sure that we keep growing so that none of those things happen. Paul Casey: Number four, ripples stop in leadership when we fail to recast the vision and show your people's role in the vision, because if you don't do it, it's like you're one of those remote control cars bumping into walls and then restarting. It's one of the five practices of exemplary leadership to inspire a shared vision. I often break out my binoculars when I'm doing this live, because I'm trying to show that it's "I have to see the vision first and then I have to be able to put those binoculars in front of everybody on my team to show them where we're going until they feel like they've got it, then I have to keep the binoculars in front of them." Paul Casey: George Barna said "Every 21 days your people forget the vision." Holy cow! Every 21 days your people forget the vision. That means today, someone on your team is on day 22 and starting to go, "Oh, I don't know, why am I doing this? Maybe I should look for another job." You've got to keep the vision in front of them and think about the vision speech. Probably the best vision speech of all time was Martin Luther King Jr.'s “I have a dream” speech. If you ever get a chance to look through that again, I won't read that to you today, but think about the techniques he used to inspire in that speech. It was just so compelling. Paul Casey: Bringing the vision back up to your teammates is like coming at the same priorities in a variety of different ways. Maybe it's take care of the customer, take care of the team, take care of your branch or your crew, but you're using a variety of different tools and ways to bring it forward yet again. Maybe it's how you strategically reward your team. Maybe it's bringing in a guest speaker who says the same things that you say, but differently. Maybe you watch a video clip, whether that's YouTube or a TED Talk. Maybe you make a rap out of your mission statement. I don't know, but visioning is never done and so we need to keep doing it. Keep putting that in front of the team to inspire them of this is the big why. I'm reading the book again now by Simon Sinek, Start with Why. Really that is way more important than how and what. Paul Casey: All right, before we headed to number five in our list, a shout out to our sponsors. Preston House: Hi, my name is Preston House and I'm the local owner of Papa John's pizza right here in Tri-Cities. Jesus Melendez: I'm Jesus Melendez, Vice President and commercial lender with Community First Bank and HFG Trust. Preston House: When I moved here in 2009 with my family from Boise, Idaho, I knew I wanted to move from a franchise to a local business owner. I'd been working with Papa John's since I was 16 years old. So when it came time to open my own location here in my own community, I knew I needed some financial guidance from an organization who understood my needs as a small business owner. Jesus Melendez: Small business owners often have a lot on their plate. Employment retirement plans, payroll, bills. Our mission is to become your financial partner for life and is motivated by providing people in our community like Preston, with all the information and support they need all under one roof. Preston House: It's really simple. No matter what I need, all it takes is one phone call, no automated prompts, no call waiting, it's just a local business serving another local business. Jesus Melendez: For more information on how Community First Bank and HFG Trust can help you get back on track visit www.community1st.com. That's www.community1st.com. Paul Casey: All right, let's dive back into number five, which is that leaders start blocking those ripples from having influence when they do not have hope. You must have hope in order cope. I like that rhyme. Hope to cope. Paul Casey: You yourself must believe in what you were doing and that you're making a difference in order to cast that to your people, because teams become shadows of their team leaders. Yes. Teams become shadows of their team leaders. When I think about that, I go, "Yikes!" My team is becoming like me, which could be a really great thing if you think about the influence, the positive influence; that could also be a bad thing if we're in a funk and we're casting a negative shadow. Your people don't deserve a discouraged leader. The stakes are just too high. So convince yourself every day that I'm going to be a dealer of hope. That's what Napoleon said, he said, "Leaders are dealers in hope." If you can't bring you’re a-game every day, I would say you got to get out of leadership, because like I said, those stakes are too high and you're casting that shadow on the rest of your team. Paul Casey: Number six, ripples stop in leadership when we don't hold people accountable. When we don't hold people accountable, you're sending a message, "I only expect what I inspect." You've probably heard that human nature will gravitate back to the path of least resistance. They let one thing slip and then another, and then you wake up one day at point Z, wondering how it's gotten out of hand. Like how did it get to this place? Because what you tolerate increases. So we have to keep showing our team how they're doing on their targets. We have to keep pursuing continuous improvement. There has to be accountability and trust. Paul Casey: I've upped it at workplaces where I've led and one of the processes we've undergone was rewriting everyone's job description, making it as crystal clear and simple as possible, narrowing it down to the four pillar responsibilities: these are the four things that this job must accomplish to really make it add the most value to the company or the organization. Then, from those pillars, developing goals on an annual basis, and I'm really advocating now more on a quarterly basis, because we underestimate how much we can get done in a quarter. Then along the way, coaching, updates, and feedback from supervisors to their direct reports and then at least annual performance evaluation. So everybody has that feedback of how am I doing? So holding people accountable is huge. Now it would be, of course, best if people would hold themselves accountable and hold their peers accountable, but as a leader, at the least at the end of the day, you're responsible for it all. Paul Casey: Number seven, ripples in leadership stop when you fail to keep it fun. So if you're more of that otter expressive personality, you're like, "Woo hoo!" you finally got to mine, because otters always say, "Woo hoo!" about everything. If it isn't fun, we aren't doing it right. I used to go to Pike Place Market in Seattle. I don't know when the last time was you've been there, but the fish guys in Pike Place Market, they actually wrote a book years ago called Fish. They had their little philosophy and one of those is to play in their four principles of leadership. They throw the fish to each other and say "Four crabs headed to Montana," and they throw it across and they try to get you all cuddled up with a fish, a slimy fish to make you jump back. Of course, they're just trying to sell fish, but it really is a great principle of having fun. Paul Casey: When we adopted the fish philosophy one year at a team I was on, we would throw the fish to each other. You know, it was of course a stuffed animal fish, but that was one way we passed it on to each other to recognize each other for the good things we did above the line of duty. You could put punch balls on door handles. You can play games in team meetings, or even virtual team meetings. You can give silly awards to each other when you have your all hands meetings, just find some ways to keep it fun. Of course you want to put your playful people on the staff fun committee. I heard one large company had the Fun Czar. The Fun Czar, that'd be a great job. Paul Casey: Okay. Number eight, ripples stop in leadership when we forget to praise people for jobs well done. When we forget to praise people for jobs well done. Now, yes, people are responsible for their own motivation. I do believe that. I can't motivate anybody, sometimes they call me a motivational speaker, but I can only inspire, that goes back to that number four that we talked about. People are responsible for their own motivation. Yes. However, we can influence them to stay engaged at the highest levels. I think that is a leader's job is to keep putting another hot coal on the fire. Most people say they don't get enough positive reinforcement at work. They just say they need more. So you have to view everyone as encouragement deprived, like they're just not getting enough encouragement. Paul Casey: Now what gets rewarded gets done. That's the number one management principle, what gets rewarded gets done. So if you want more of something, you praise the heck out of it until they get more of that. So think about at work right now, even with your own children at home if you have kids at home, what do you reward? Because whatever you're rewarding, you're probably going to get more of. Sometimes we reward the wrong things. Paul Casey: Number nine, finally, ripples stop in leadership when we failed to evaluate, adjust, and plan for success. When we fail to evaluate, adjust, and plan for success. Anything worth doing is worth evaluating. In another life I was a teacher and an elementary school principal. I taught a seminar on assessment, way back when, to teachers at a convention, because my experience was only getting graded and getting graded too heavily on the end of chapter tests. Do you remember this, where at the end of the chapter, it's like your whole grade for the quarter was based on this end of chapter test? Paul Casey: I was trying to persuade my colleagues way back when. Now they do it way better, but back then I was trying to persuade my colleagues to do more regular, less weighted assessments, both graded and non-graded throughout the week in order to determine if the material was actually getting learned. And why, of course, to do this? It's so that you can course correct. If a student is not getting it after a couple of days, wouldn't it be great to know that right away and not wait three weeks till the end of chapter tests, which they would fail. It's the same with adults. We have to get feedback from our people on what's going right, and what is not going as good as it could be. And then the more we do this, the more frequent we do this, we can make course corrections in this evaluation process. Paul Casey: I heard that a missile is off target for 85% of its journey. It continually course corrects until it gets to its target. That's the same with us. We don't know all the things at the front end of any kind of strategy so we have to keep course correcting by getting that feedback and then iterating off of it. Paul Casey: Okay. So those were our nine things for when ripples stop, when our influence stops in leadership. Let me review those one more time. First of all, invest in people. Second one is take care of yourself so that you don't show the signs of burn-out. The third one is to keep learning with a personal/professional growth plan. The fourth one is to recast the vision and make sure you show every person on the team their role in that company vision. The fifth one is to have hope in order to cope. Number six is to hold people accountable because what you tolerate increases. Number seven is to keep it fun or else we're not doing it right. Number eight is to praise people for jobs well done, because what gets rewarded gets done. And number nine is to evaluate, adjust, and plan for success. Paul Casey: So really this all boils down to this, your perspective. In fact so much in life boils down to our perspective, you can view a ripple making in leadership as a burden. Like I have to do this. I picture like this, this big, like anvil or water jug on my back, like I have too many responsibilities. I'm not worthy in leadership to do this. Why am I doing this? People are ungrateful. That kind of perspective. Wow, what a downer, or you can view it as a blessing, as a privilege, as an opportunity. It's a get-to, not a have-to. So instead of taking that water jug and carrying it as a burden on your back and being a martyr, you bring that water jug to the front and it's like pouring that water into the cups of your team for their refreshment and for your own refreshment. Paul Casey: It's the same load. Whether the water jug’s on your back or it's in front of you and using it to serve others, it's the same load but it's different in perspective. I mean, listen to the difference like, "I am responsible for the development of those under my supervision," or "I'm responsible for the development of those under my supervision." One is viewing it as a drudgery, the other is used as an opportunity. Like, "Oh, I've got these company values to model" or "Man, I get to, I get to model these company values." "I have these new goals that I got to achieve." "Hey man, I've got a whole new set of new goals to achieve." "I have this issue again, to confront and to deal with," versus "I got this issue to confront deal with so things can get better." "Team building? Yeah, it's one of my core responsibilities in my job description," or "Team building, that's going to be great. It's one of my core responsibilities." "It's time to go to work," or "Whew, man. It's time to grow forward, it's time to go to work." Again, just from my tone, I was trying to demonstrate your perspective. Paul Casey: Ripple making doesn't have to be a burden; it is a blessing, a privilege and an opportunity. So I'll close with this, leaders are disruptors. They do mess with people's lives, and that's why it's tough, but it's also very rewarding at the end of the day when you've put your stamp on those you impact and you've left a positive ripple in your awake. Paul Casey: So think about what's your takeaway from these nine things, which one was it? What's a good reminder to put back into action and hopefully that's a way that you will be able to grow forward this week. Let me wrap up our podcast today with a leadership resource to recommend. It might be just for your personal organization system, many of you have a whiteboard in your office or your home office, and it's a great place to map out all of your projects. I just bought these little mcSquares. There are a little squares that you can peel off the back and put onto your whiteboard and they stick there. And these can be like the headers for the various projects that you have, or you could put them at the top almost making like a spreadsheet on your whiteboard and you can take these off and you can move them around so you don't have to keep writing the same thing over again. It looks like mcSquares, M-C-squares, is where I got it, just bought it on Amazon. I'm looking forward to putting it into practice when I do my weekly review this week. Paul Casey: Again, this is Paul Casey, I want to thank you all for being with me today as I did this training on ripples in leadership and I do want to thank our Tri-Cities influencer sponsor and invite you to support them for making this possible so that we can collaborate and help inspire leaders in our community. Paul Casey: Finally, one more leadership tidbit for the road to help you make a difference in your circle of influence. It is from Yoyo Ma, he's a jazz musician. He said, "Passion is one great force that unleashes creativity, because if you're passionate about something, then you're more willing to take risks." Paul Casey: Until next time, K.G.F., keep growing forward. speaker 3: Thank you to our listeners for tuning in to today's show. Paul Casey is on a mission to add value to leaders by providing practice, tools, and strategies that reduce stress in their lives and on their teams so that they can enjoy life and leadership and experience their key desired results. If you'd like more help from Paul and your leadership development, connect with him at growingforward@paulcasey.org for a consultation that can help you move past your current challenges and create a strategy for growing your life or your team forward. speaker 3: Paul would also like to help you to restore your sanity to your crazy schedule and getting your priorities done everyday by offering you his free Control My Calendar checklist, go to www.takebackmycalendar.com for that productivity tool or open a text message to 72000 and type the word "Growing." Paul Casey: The Tri-Cities influencer podcast was recorded at Fuse SPC by Bill Wagner of Safe Strategies.  

News from: McSquares, Pax8, UM Systems, Ping Identity, Coalfire, Webroot, Optiv, and a lot more! Support us on Patreon! Fun swag available - all proceeds will directly support the Colorado = Security infrastructure. Come join us on the new Colorado = Security Slack channel to meet old and new friends. Sign up for our mailing list on the main site to receive weekly updates - https://www.colorado-security.com/. If you have any questions or comments, or any organizations or events we should highlight, contact Alex and Robb at info@colorado-security.com This week’s news: Join the Colorado = Security Slack channel Denver again climbs up in ranks as top tech city in North America 7 rural Colorado startups vie for $250K in pitch competition Whiteboard startup featured on ‘Shark Tank’ takes 25K square feet in Thornton Denver cloud tech co. pushes forward with rural hiring, sees benefits of its PPP loan Colorado company UM Systems tops $1M on Kickstarter for UV filter mask Everything You Need to Know About API Security in 2020 So Long, Privacy Shield Cyber News Rundown: ATM Jackpotting Attacks Rise Optiv’s REST API “Goat” | Optiv FTC Holds Workshop on GLBA Safeguards Rule Job Openings: LogistiCare- Chief Information Security Officer (VP) SugarCRM - Director IT Security and Compliance Ntirety - Risk, Governance & Compliance Manager Ball Aerospace - Cyber Security Professional Associate AWS - Program Security Officer Western Governor's University - Program Chair - Cyber Security Western Union - Identity and Access Management Governance and Compliance Leader TTEC - Cloud / Systems Engineering Architect -- Remote / Telecommute Carbonite - Advanced Threat Research Analyst Upcoming Events: This Week and Next: Emerging Tech Fan - The Intelligence Explosion Hypothesis - 7/28 C.Springs ISSA - August Online Series – Session 1 - 8/6 View our events page for a full list of upcoming events * Thanks to CJ Adams for our intro and exit! If you need any voiceover work, you can contact him here at carrrladams@gmail.com. Check out his other voice work here. * Intro and exit song: "The Language of Blame" by The Agrarians is licensed under CC BY 2.0

Recruiting and Consulting Firm @Riderflex Podcast Presents: @Anthony Franco, Founder, mcSquares - "Advice For Entrepreneurs" Riderflex.com | 888-964-5876 Riderflex is a global Recruiting and Consulting Firm. We give Career Advice & Job Interviewing Tips on this podcast. Learn more about Anthony Franco at: https://www.linkedin.com/in/anthonyfranco/ Learn more about mcSquares at: https://www.mcsquares.com/ Learn more about Steve Urban: linkedin.com/in/stevepurban/ Send questions and suggestions for future topics to podcast@riderflex.com #mcSquares #stickynotes #SharkTank #startup #entrepreneur #leadership #solutions #whiteboards #interview #podcast #Founder #riderflex #recruiter #executiverecruiter #recruitingfirm #techrecruiter #headhunter --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/riderflex/support

Anthony Franco is a serial entrepreneur and currently the founder of mcSquares, a whiteboard company that appeared just this past week on ABC’s Shark Tank. Anthony has sold four companies and in this open and frank discussion, covers why entrepreneurship is not the route for everyone, his plans for mcSquares, and what it’s like pitching on Shark Tank landing an investment from Kevin O’Leary.

In this episode of PWTA, we sit down with Anthony Franco of McSquares. Anthony is a serial entrepreneur with 4 other startups, all with successful exits (2 to public companies). He has won 74 Technology Awards, 62 Design Awards, 37 Innovation Awards, 35 Marketing Awards, 27 Mobile Awards and 24 Business Awards. Get your whiteboards ready for a great episode with Anthony Franco of McSquares!  Resources: McSquares Website - https://www.mcsquares.com/ McSquares on Amazon - https://amzn.to/2WvSHFa McSquares WeFunder - https://wefunder.com/mcSquares_The_Ar... REBL Jane: https://rebljane.com/ Vortic Watch Company: https://vorticwatches.com/

In this episode of the TeacherCast Podcast, we take a look at some pretty awesome “Unplugged EdTech” in the form of interactive whiteboards known as mcSquares. For the last year, I have been a big fan of mcSquares and have actually been using them to teach the EduTriplets how to write their names. The simple yet durable form factor of mcSquares makes it not only easy to use in class, but very easy to store away when not in use. There are several things that you can do each day with your mcSquares from basic writing and drawing activities to complex programming and coding planograms with your students.  In this episode, you will learn 3 ways to use http://www.mcsquares.com (mcSquares) in the classroom. Elementary SchoolOne of the easiest ways to use mcSquares is as a simple dry erase board. Both version 1 and 2 are built from combining a front and a back form surrounding a sheet of paper. This paper can be interchanged with anything you wish to use as a template for whatever project you are working on. For my children, I like to cut out pages from their favorite coloring book and they can use mcSquares and it's clear outer marker board to color their favorite characters over and over again. Middle SchoolBecause each square magnetically can stack on top of each other, mcSquares make a great tool in any foreign language class. Verbs have never been able to be conjugated this easily before! High SchoolBecause mcSquares creates a grid of removable, modular tiles on your board, they make the perfect assistant in your coding or programming classroom. Each student can create a block of code (as seen on “Scratch Programming”) and together you can use the squares to learn video game programming. From the ArchivesIn 2016, mcSquares was https://www.teachercast.net/2016/03/25/looking-non-tech-classroom-check-mc_squares-today/ (featured on the TeacherCast Podcast). Check out our recording below. Links of Interesthttp://www.mcsquares.com (www.mcsquares.com) http://www.mcsquares.com/youtube (www.mcsquares.com/youtube) http://www.mcsquares.com/facebook (www.mcsquares.com/facebook) http://www.twitter.com/mc_squares (http://www.twitter.com/mc_squares) https://vimeo.com/mcsquares (https://vimeo.com/mcsquares) Follow our PodcastThe TeacherCast Educational Broadcasting Network | http://www.twitter.com/teachercast (@TeacherCast) Follow our HostJeff Bradbury | http://www.twitter.com/jeffbradbury (@JeffBradbury) What are mcSquares?mcSquares are personal, hand held whiteboards that easily snap together on a wall to create a larger, collaborative system that is infinitely flexible and completely customizable. About our GuestAnthony Franco Along with founding 7 different successful companies and holding multiple patents, Anthony has held leadership positions in creative direction, feature film post-production, technological architecture, advertising production, enterprise product development, computer aided design, hospitality management, and physical product manufacturing. Most notably, Anthony founded the large, Denver-based consulting firm, EffectiveUI, the world's first and leading user experience and digital product development firm. EffectiveUI is responsible for the creation of hundreds of award-winning digital products for many of the world's most recognizable brands. O'Reilly publish a book based exclusively on our philosophies and practices, titled “Effective UI: The Art of Building Great User Experiences in Software”His most recent start-up, mc squares, was born from lessons learned in running brainstorming workshops within fortune 100 conference rooms. The company has just come out of 2 years of product R&D and has released its first iteration in a long line of collaboration systems. Join the ConversationOur favorite part of each week is participating in the great conversations that happen on our live chat, on social media, and in our comments section. This weeks

Jeff sits down with Travis and Anthony from mcSquares, a dynamic new edtech tool that brings personalized non-tech learning back into the classrooms. About mcSquaresmcSquares are personal, handheld whiteboards that easily snap together on a wall to create a larger, collaborative system that is infinitely flexible and completely customizable. Links of interesthttp://www.mcsquares.com (www.mcsquares.com) http://www.mcsquares.com/youtube (www.mcsquares.com/youtube) http://www.mcsquares.com/facebook (www.mcsquares.com/facebook) Twitter: @mc_squares Vimeo: https://vimeo.com/mcsquares (https://vimeo.com/mcsquares) About our GuestsAnthony:   Along with founding 7 different successful companies and holding multiple patents, Anthony has held leadership positions in creative direction, feature film post-production, technological architecture, advertising production, enterprise product development, computer aided design, hospitality management, and physical product manufacturing. Most notably, Anthony founded the large, Denver-based consulting firm, EffectiveUI, the world's first and leading user experience and digital product development firm. EffectiveUI is responsible for the creation of hundreds of award-winning digital products for many of the world's most recognizable brands. O'Reilly publish a book based exclusively on our philosophies and practices, titled “Effective UI: The Art of Building Great User Experiences in Software”His most recent start-up, mc squares, was born from lessons learned in running brainstorming workshops within fortune 100 conference rooms. The company has just come out of 2 years of product R&D and has released its first iteration in a long line of collaboration systems. Travis: Travis' is a UNC Chapel Hill Alum with a masters in education from UNC Charlotte. His formal career started in education where he taught for 2 years as a Teach For America Corps Member in North Carolina. Following this experience, Travis became the HR Manager for a rapidly growing network of non profit charter schools in Colorado. Since then, he has led implementation projects as an independent consultant for Denver Public Schools and learned a lot about individualized learning in the classroom. When he's not geeking out about the newest uses of technology, he can usually be found with a cup of coffee in his hand hanging out with his wife, two kids, and two dogs in Boulder, Colorado, where every day feels like a vacation watching the sun set and rise (and more often than not, the snow fall!) over the gorgeous Rocky Mountains. Recorded in 2016

Live from Denver Startup Week, Luke and Danny sit down with two finalists from the Pitch-Off Event. First, Kevin Krauth, CEO and co-founder of Orderly Health, joins Turnpikers to discuss his experience starting his company in Colorado. Orderly Health is a chatbot platform that answers medical insurance questions. Second, Anthony Franco joins to discuss mcSquares, a company he founded and currently serves as CEO of. McSquares are handheld whiteboards that easily snap together on a wall to create larger collaborative systems so that meetings are more productive and learning is more engaging.