Podcast appearances and mentions of nick francis

What happens when curiosity, resilience, and storytelling collide over a lifetime of building something meaningful? In this episode, I welcome Nick Francis, founder and CEO of Casual Films, for a thoughtful conversation about leadership, presence, and what it takes to keep going when the work gets heavy. Nick's journey began with a stint at BBC News and a bold 9,000-mile rally from London to Mongolia in a Mini Cooper, a spirit of adventure that still fuels how he approaches business and life today. We talk about how that early experience shaped Casual into a global branded storytelling company with studios across five continents, and what it really means to lead a creative organization at scale. Nick shares insights from growing the company internationally, expanding into Southeast Asia, and staying grounded while producing hundreds of projects each year. Along the way, we explore why emotionally resonant storytelling matters, how trust and preparation beat panic, and why presence with family, health, and purpose keeps leaders steady in uncertain times. This conversation is about building an Unstoppable life by focusing on what matters most, using creativity to connect people, and choosing clarity and resilience in a world full of noise. Highlights: 00:01:30 – Learn how early challenges shape resilience and long-term drive. 00:06:20 – Discover why focusing on your role creates calm under pressure. 00:10:50 – Learn how to protect attention in a nonstop world. 00:18:25 – Understand what global growth teaches about leadership. 00:26:00 – Learn why leading with trust changes relationships. 00:45:55 – Discover how movement and presence restore clarity. About the Guest: Nick Francis is the founder and CEO of Casual, a global production group that blends human storytelling, business know-how, and creativity turbo-charged by AI. Named the UK's number one brand video production company for five years, Casual delivers nearly 1,000 projects annually for world-class brands like Adobe, Amazon, BMW, Hilton, HSBC, and P&G. The adventurous spirit behind its first production – a 9,000-mile journey from London to Mongolia in an old Mini – continues to drive Casual's growth across offices in London, New York, LA, San Francisco, Amsterdam, Barcelona, Sydney, Singapore, Hong Kong and Greater China. Nick previously worked for BBC News and is widely recognised for his expertise in video storytelling, brand building, and corporate communications. He is the founding director of the Casual Films Academy, a charity helping young filmmakers develop skills by producing films for charitable organisations. He is also the author of ‘The New Fire: Harness the Power of Video for Your Business' and a passionate advocate for emotionally resonant, behaviorally grounded storytelling. Nick lives in San Francisco, California, with his family. Ways to connect with Nick**:** Website: https://www.casualfilms.com/ YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@casual_global  Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/casualglobal/  Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/CasualFilms/  Nick's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nickfrancisfilm/  Casual's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/casual-films-international/  Beyond Casual - LinkedIn Newsletter: https://www.linkedin.com/build-relation/newsletter-follow?entityUrn=6924458968031395840 About the Host: Michael Hingson is a New York Times best-selling author, international lecturer, and Chief Vision Officer for accessiBe. Michael, blind since birth, survived the 9/11 attacks with the help of his guide dog Roselle. This story is the subject of his best-selling book, Thunder Dog. Michael gives over 100 presentations around the world each year speaking to influential groups such as Exxon Mobile, AT&T, Federal Express, Scripps College, Rutgers University, Children's Hospital, and the American Red Cross just to name a few. He is Ambassador for the National Braille Literacy Campaign for the National Federation of the Blind and also serves as Ambassador for the American Humane Association's 2012 Hero Dog Awards. https://michaelhingson.com https://www.facebook.com/michael.hingson.author.speaker/ https://twitter.com/mhingson https://www.youtube.com/user/mhingson https://www.linkedin.com/in/michaelhingson/ accessiBe Links https://accessibe.com/ https://www.youtube.com/c/accessiBe https://www.linkedin.com/company/accessibe/mycompany/ https://www.facebook.com/accessibe/ Thanks for listening! Thanks so much for listening to our podcast! If you enjoyed this episode and think that others could benefit from listening, please share it using the social media buttons on this page. Do you have some feedback or questions about this episode? Leave a comment in the section below! Subscribe to the podcast If you would like to get automatic updates of new podcast episodes, you can subscribe to the podcast on Apple Podcasts or Stitcher. You can subscribe in your favorite podcast app. You can also support our podcast through our tip jar https://tips.pinecast.com/jar/unstoppable-mindset . Leave us an Apple Podcasts review Ratings and reviews from our listeners are extremely valuable to us and greatly appreciated. They help our podcast rank higher on Apple Podcasts, which exposes our show to more awesome listeners like you. If you have a minute, please leave an honest review on Apple Podcasts. Transcription Notes: Michael Hingson  00:00 Access Cast and accessiBe Initiative presents Unstoppable Mindset. The podcast where inclusion, diversity and the unexpected meet. Hi, I'm Michael Hingson, Chief Vision Officer for accessiBe and the author of the number one New York Times bestselling book, Thunder dog, the story of a blind man, his guide dog and the triumph of trust. Thanks for joining me on my podcast as we explore our own blinding fears of inclusion unacceptance and our resistance to change. We will discover the idea that no matter the situation, or the people we encounter, our own fears, and prejudices often are our strongest barriers to moving forward. The unstoppable mindset podcast is sponsored by accessiBe, that's a c c e s s i capital B e. Visit www.accessibe.com to learn how you can make your website accessible for persons with disabilities. And to help make the internet fully inclusive by the year 2025. Glad you dropped by we're happy to meet you and to have you here with us. Michael Hingson  01:21 Well, hello everyone. I am your host, Mike hingson, that's kind of funny. We'll talk about that in a second, but this is unstoppable mindset. And our guest today is Nick Francis, and what we're going to talk about is the fact that people used to always ask me, well, they would call me Mr. Kingston, and it took me, as I just told Nick a master's degree in physics in 10 years to realize that if I said Mike hingson, that's why they said Mr. Kingston. So was either say Mike hingson or Michael hingson. Well, Michael hingson is a lot easier to say than Mike hingson, but I don't really care Mike or Michael, as long as it's not late for dinner. Whatever works. Yeah. Well, Nick, welcome to unstoppable mindset. We're glad you're Nick Francis  02:04 here. Thanks, Mike. It's great to be here. Michael Hingson  02:08 So Nick is a marketing kind of guy. He's got a company called casual that we'll hear about. Originally from England, I believe, and now lives in San Francisco. We were talking about the weather in San Francisco, as opposed to down here in Victorville. A little bit earlier. We're going to have a heat wave today and and he doesn't have that up there, but you know, well, things, things change over time. But anyway, we're glad you're here. And thanks, Mike. Really looking forward to it. Tell us about the early Nick growing up and all that sort of stuff, just to get us started. Nick Francis  02:43 That's a good question. I grew up in London, in in Richmond, which is southwest London. It's a at the time, it wasn't anything like as kind of, it's become quite kind of shishi, I think back in the day, because it's on the west of London. The pollution from the city used to flow east and so, like all the kind of well to do people, in fact, there used to be a, there used to be a palace in Richmond. It's where Queen Elizabeth died, the first Queen Elizabeth, that is. And, yeah, you know, I grew up it was, you know, there's a lot of rugby played around there. I played rugby for my local rugby club from a very young age, and we went sailing on the south coast. It was, it was great, really. And then, you know, unfortunately, when I was 10 years old, my my dad died. He had had a very powerful job at the BBC, and then he ran the British Council, which is the overseas wing of the Arts Council, so promoting, I guess, British soft power around the world, going and opening art galleries and going to ballet in Moscow and all sorts. So he had an incredible life and worked incredibly hard. And you know, that has brought me all sorts of privileges, I think, when I was a kid. But, you know, unfortunately, age 10 that all ended. And you know, losing a parent at that age is such a sort of fundamental, kind of shaking of your foundations. You know, you when you're a kid, you feel like a, you're going to live forever, and B, the things that are happening around you are going to last forever. And so, you know, you know, my mom was amazing, of course, and, you know, and in time, I got a new stepdad, and all the rest of it. But you know, that kind of shaped a lot of my a lot of my youth, really. And, yeah, I mean, Grief is a funny thing, and it's funny the way it manifests itself as you grow. But yeah. So I grew up there. I went to school in the Midlands, near where my stepdad lived, and then University of Newcastle, which is up in the north of England, where it rains a lot. It's where it's where Newcastle Football Club is based. And you know is that is absolutely at the center of the city. So. So the city really comes alive there. And it was during that time that I discovered photography, and I wanted to be a war photographer, because I believe that was where life was lived at the kind of the real cutting edge. You know, you see the you see humanity in its in its most visceral and vivid color in terrible situations. And I kind of that seemed like an interesting thing to go to go and do. Michael Hingson  05:27 Well, what? So what did you major in in college in Newcastle? So I did Nick Francis  05:31 history and politics, and then I went did a course in television journalism, and ended up working at BBC News as a initially running on the floor. So I used to deliver the papers that you know, when you see people shuffling or not, they do it anymore, actually, because everything, everything's digital now digital, yeah, but when they were worried about the the auto cues going down, they we always had to make sure that they had the up to date script. And so I would be printing in, obviously, the, you know, because it's a three hour news show, the scripts constantly evolving, and so, you know, I was making sure they had the most up to date version in their hands. And it's, I don't know if you have spent any time around live TV Mike, but it's an incredibly humbling experience, like the power of it. You know, there's sort of two or 3 million people watching these two people who are sitting five feet in front of me, and the, you know, the sort of slightly kind of, there was an element of me that just wanted to jump in front of them and kind of go, ah. And, you know, never, ever work in live TV, ever again. But you know, anyway, I did that and ended up working as a producer, writing and developing, developing packets that would go out on the show, producing interviews and things. And, you know, I absolutely loved it. It was, it was a great time. But then I left to go and set up my company. Michael Hingson  06:56 I am amazed, even today, with with watching people on the news, and I've and I've been in a number of studios during live broadcasts and so on. But I'm amazed at how well, mostly, at least, I've been fortunate. Mostly, the people are able to read because they do have to read everything. It isn't like you're doing a lot of bad living in a studio. Obviously, if you are out with a story, out in the field, if you will, there, there may be more where you don't have a printed script to go by, but I'm amazed at the people in the studio, how much they are able to do by by reading it all completely. Nick Francis  07:37 It's, I mean, the whole experience is kind of, it's awe inspiring, really. And you know, when you first go into a Live, a live broadcast studio, and you see the complexity, and you know, they've got feeds coming in from all over the world, and you know, there's upwards of 100 people all working together to make it happen. And I remember talking to one of the directors at the time, and I was like, How on earth does this work? And he said, You know, it's simple. You everyone has a very specific job, and you know that as long as you do your bit of the job when it comes in front of you, then the show will go out. He said, where it falls over is when people start worrying about whether other people are going to are going to deliver on time or, you know, and so if you start worrying about what other people are doing, rather than just focusing on the thing you have to do, that's where it potentially falls over, Michael Hingson  08:29 which is a great object lesson anyway, to worry about and control and don't worry about the rest Nick Francis  08:36 for sure. Yeah, yeah, for sure. You know, it's almost a lesson for life. I mean, sorry, it is a lesson for life, and Michael Hingson  08:43 it's something that I talk a lot about in dealing with the World Trade Center and so on, and because it was a message I received, but I've been really preaching that for a long time. Don't worry about what you can't control, because all you're going to do is create fear and drive yourself Nick Francis  08:58 crazy, completely, completely. You know. You know what is it? Give me the, give me this. Give me the strength to change the things I can. Give me the give me the ability to let the things that I can't change slide but and the wisdom to know the difference. I'm absolutely mangling that, that saying, but, yeah, it's, it's true, you know. And I think, you know, it's so easy for us to in this kind of modern world where everything's so media, and we're constantly served up things that, you know, shock us, sadness, enrage us, you know, just to be able to step back and say, actually, you know what? These are things I can't really change. I'd have to just let them wash over me. Yeah, and just focus on the things that you really can change. Michael Hingson  09:46 It's okay to be aware of things, but you've got to separate the things you can control from the things that you can and we, unfortunately aren't taught that. Our parents don't teach us that because they were never taught it, and it's something. That, just as you say, slides by, and it's so unfortunate, because it helps to create such a level of fear about so many things in our in our psyche and in our world that we really shouldn't have to do Nick Francis  10:13 completely well. I think, you know, obviously, but you know, we've, we've spent hundreds, if not millions of years evolving to become humans, and then, you know, actually being aware of things beyond our own village has only been an evolution of the last, you know what, five, 600 years, yeah. And so we are just absolutely, fundamentally not able to cope with a world of such incredible stimulus that we live in now. Michael Hingson  10:43 Yeah, and it's only getting worse with all the social media, with all the different things that are happening and of course, and we're only working to develop more and more things to inundate us with more and more kinds of inputs. It's really unfortunate we just don't learn to separate ourselves very easily from all of that. Nick Francis  11:04 Yeah, well, you know, it's so interesting when you look at the development of VR headsets, and, you know, are we going to have, like, lenses in our eyes that kind of enable us to see computer screens while we're just walking down the road, you know? And you look at that and you think, well, actually, just a cell phone. I mean, cell phones are going to be gone fairly soon. I would imagine, you know, as a format, it's not something that's going to abide but the idea that we're going to create technology that's going to be more, that's going to take us away from being in the moment more rather than less, is kind of terrifying. Because, I would say already, even with, you know, the most basic technology that we have now, which is, you know, mind bending, compared to where we were even 20 years ago, you know, to think that we're only going to become more immersive is, you know, we really, really as a species, have to work out how we are going to be far better at stepping away from this stuff. And I, you know, I do, I wonder, with AI and technology whether there is, you know, there's a real backlash coming of people who do want to just unplug, yeah, Michael Hingson  12:13 well, it'll be interesting to see, and I hope that people will learn to do it. I know when I started hearing about AI, and one of the first things I heard was how kids would use it to write their papers, and it was a horrible thing, and they were trying to figure out ways so that teachers could tell us something was written by AI, as opposed to a student. And I almost immediately developed this opinion, no, let AI write the papers for students, but when the students turn in their paper, then take a day to in your class where you have every student come up and defend their paper, see who really knows it, you know. And what a great teaching opportunity and teaching moment to to get students also to learn to do public speaking and other things a little bit more than they do, but we haven't. That hasn't caught on, but I continue to preach it. Nick Francis  13:08 I think that's really smart, you know, as like aI exists, and I think to to pretend somehow that, you know, we can work without it is, you know, it's, it's, it's, yeah, I mean, it's like, well, saying, you know, we're just going to go back to Word processors or typewriters, which, you know, in which it weirdly, in their own time, people looked at and said, this is, you know, these, these are going to completely rot our minds. In fact, yeah, I think Plato said that was very against writing, because he believed it would mean no one could remember anything after that, you know. So it's, you know, it's just, it's an endless, endless evolution. But I think, you know, we have to work out how we incorporate into it, into our education system, for sure. Michael Hingson  13:57 Well, I remember being in in college and studying physics and so on. And one of the things that we were constantly told is, on tests, you can't bring calculators in, can't use calculators in class. Well, why not? Well, because you could cheat with that. Well, the reality is that the smart physicists realized that it's all about really learning the concepts more than the numbers. And yeah, that's great to to know how to do the math. But the the real issue is, do you know the physics, not just the math completely? Nick Francis  14:34 Yeah. And then how you know? How are the challenges that are being set such that you know, they really test your ability to use the calculator effectively, right? So how you know? How are you lifting the bar? And in a way, I think that's kind of what we have to do, what we have to do now, Michael Hingson  14:50 agreed, agreed. So you were in the news business and so on, and then, as you said, you left to start your own company. Why did you decide to do that? Nick Francis  14:59 Well, a friend of. Ryan and I from University had always talked about doing this rally from London to Mongolia. So, and you do it in an old car that you sort of look at, and you go, well, that's a bit rubbish. It has to have under a one liter engine. So it's tiny, it's cheap. The idea is it breaks down you have an adventure. And it was something we kind of talked about in passing and decided that would be a good thing to do. And then over time, you know, we started sending off. We you know, we applied, and then we started sending off for visas and things. And then before we knew it, we were like, gosh, so it looks like we're actually going to do this thing. But by then, you know, my job at the BBC was really taking off. And so I said, you know, let's do this, but let's make a documentary of it. So long story short, we ended up making a series of diary films for Expedia, which we uploaded onto their website. It was, you know, we were kind of pitching this around about 2005 we kind of did it in 2006 so it was kind of, you know, nobody had really heard of YouTube. The idea of making videos to go online was kind of unheard of because, you know, broadband was just kind of getting sorry. It wasn't unheard of, but it was, it was very, it was a very nascent industry. And so, yeah, we went and drove 9000 miles over five weeks. We spent a week sitting in various different repair yards and kind of break his yards in everywhere from Turkey to Siberia. And when we came back, it became clear that the internet was opening up as this incredible medium for video, and video is such a powerful way to share emotion with a dispersed audience. You know, not that I would have necessarily talked about it in that in those terms back then, but it really seemed like, you know, every every web page, every piece of corporate content, could have a video aspect to it. And so we came back and had a few fits and starts and did some, I mean, we, you know, we made a series of hotel videos where we were paid 50 quid a day to go and film hotels. And it was hot and it was hard work. And anyway, it was rough. But over time, you know, we started to win some more lucrative work. And, you know, really, the company grew from there. We won some awards, which helped us to kind of make a bit of a name for ourselves. And this was, there's been a real explosion in technology, kind of shortly after when we did this. So digital SLRs, so, you know, old kind of SLR cameras, you know, turned into digital cameras, which could then start to shoot video. And so it, there was a real explosion in high quality video produced by very small teams of people using the latest technology creatively. And that just felt like a good kind of kick off point for our business. But we just kind of because we got in in kind of 2006 we just sort of beat a wave that kind of started with digital SLRs, and then was kind of absolutely exploded when video cell phones came on the market, video smartphones. And yeah, you know, because we had these awards and we had some kind of fairly blue chip clients from a relatively early, early stage, we were able to grow the company. We then expanded to the US in kind of 2011 20 between 2011 2014 and then we were working with a lot of the big tech companies in California, so it felt like we should maybe kind of really invest in that. And so I moved out here with some of our team in 2018 at the beginning of 2018 and I've been here ever since, wow. Michael Hingson  18:44 So what is it? What was it like starting a business here, or bringing the business here, as opposed to what it was in England? Nick Francis  18:53 It's really interesting, because the creatively the UK is so strong, you know, like so many, you know, from the Beatles to Led Zeppelin to the Rolling Stones to, you know, and then on through, like all the kind of, you know, film and TV, you know, Brits are very good at kind of Creating, like, high level creative, but not necessarily always the best at kind of monetizing it, you know. I mean, some of those obviously have been fantastic successes, right? And so I think in the UK, we we take a lot longer over getting, getting to, like, the perfect creative output, whereas the US is far more focused on, you know, okay, we need this to to perform a task, and frankly, if we get it 80% done, then we're good, right? And so I think a lot of creative businesses in the UK look at the US and they go, gosh. Firstly, the streets are paved with gold. Like the commercial opportunity seems incredible, but actually creating. Tracking it is incredibly difficult, and I think it's because we sort of see the outputs in the wrong way. I think they're just the energy and the dynamism of the US economy is just, it's kind of awe inspiring. But you know, so many businesses try to expand here and kind of fall over themselves. And I think the number one thing is just, you have to have a founder who's willing to move to the US. Because I think Churchill said that we're two two countries divided by the same language. And I never fully understood what that meant until I moved here. I think what it what he really means by that is that we're so culturally different in the US versus the UK. And I think lots of Brits look at America and think, Well, you know, it's just the same. It's just a bit kind of bigger and a bit Brasher, you know, and it and actually, I think if people in the US spoke a completely different language, we would approach it as a different culture, which would then help us to understand it better. Yeah. So, yeah. I mean, it's been, it's been the most fabulous adventure to move here and to, you know, it's, it's hard sometimes, and California is a long way from home, but the energy and the optimism and the entrepreneurialism of it, coupled with just the natural beauty is just staggering. So we've made some of our closest friends in California, it's been absolutely fantastic. And across the US, it's been a fantastic adventure for us and our family. Michael Hingson  21:30 Yeah, I've had the opportunity to travel all over the US, and I hear negative comments about one place or another, like West Virginia, people eat nothing but fried food and all that. But the reality is, if you really take an overall look at it, the country has so much to offer, and I have yet to find a place that I didn't enjoy going to, and people I never enjoyed meeting, I really enjoy all of that, and it's great to meet people, and it's great to experience so much of this country. And I've taken that same posture to other places. I finally got to visit England last October, for the first time. You mentioned rugby earlier, the first time I was exposed to rugby was when I traveled to New Zealand in 2003 and found it pretty fascinating. And then also, I was listening to some rugby, rugby, rugby broadcast, and I tuned across the radio and suddenly found a cricket game that was a little bit slow for me. Yeah, cricket to be it's slow. Nick Francis  22:41 Yeah, fair enough. It's funny. Actually, we know what you're saying about travel. Like one of the amazing things about our Well, I kind of learned two sort of quite fundamentally philosophical things, I think, you know, or things about the about humans and the human condition. Firstly, like, you know, traveling across, you know, we left from London. We, like, drove down. We went through Belgium and France and Poland and Slovenia, Slovakia, Slovenia, like, all the way down Bulgaria, across Turkey into Georgia and Azerbaijan and across the Caspian Sea, and through Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, into Russia, and then down into Mongolia. When we finished, we were due north of Jakarta, right? So we drove, we drove a third of the way around the world. And the two things that taught me were, firstly that human people are good. You know, everywhere we went, people would invite us in to have meals, or they'd like fix our car for not unit for free. I mean, people were so kind everywhere we went. Yeah. And the other thing was, just, when we get on a plane and you fly from here to or you fly from London, say to we, frankly, you fly from London to Turkey, it feels unbelievably different. You know, you fly from London to China, and it's, you know, complete different culture. But what our journey towards us, because we drove, was that, you know, while we might not like to admit it, we're actually quite, you know, Brits are quite similar to the French, and the French actually are quite similar to the Belgians, and Belgians quite similar to the Germans. And, you know, and all the way through, actually, like we just saw a sort of slowly changing gradient of all the different cultures. And it really, you know, we are just one people, you know. So as much as we might feel that, you know, we're all we're all different, actually, when you see it, when you when you do a drive like that, you really, you really get to see how slowly the cultures shift and change. Another thing that's quite funny, actually, was just like, everywhere we went, we would be like, you know, we're driving to Turkey. They'd be like, Oh, God, you just drove through Bulgaria, you know, how is like, everything on your car not been stolen, you know, they're so dodgy that you Bulgarians are so dodgy. And then, you know, we'd get drive through the country, and they'd be like, you know, oh, you're going into Georgia, you know, gosh, what you go. Make, make sure everything's tied down on your car. They're so dodgy. And then you get into Georgia, and they're like, Oh my God, you've just very driven through Turkey this, like, everyone sort of had these, like, weird, yeah, kind of perceptions of their neighbors. And it was all nonsense, yeah, you know. Michael Hingson  25:15 And the reality is that, as you pointed out, people are good, you know, I think, I think politicians are the ones who so often mess it up for everyone, just because they've got agendas. And unfortunately, they teach everyone else to be suspicious of of each other, because, oh, this person clearly has a hidden agenda when it normally isn't necessarily true at all. Nick Francis  25:42 No, no, no, certainly not in my experience, anyway, not in my experience. But, you know, well, oh, go ahead. No, no. It's just, you know, it's, it is. It's, it is weird the way that happens, you know, well, they say, you know, if, if politicians fought wars rather than, rather than our young men and women, then there'd be a lot less of them. Yeah, so Well, Michael Hingson  26:06 there would be, well as I tell people, you know, I I've learned a lot from working with eight guy dogs and my wife's service dog, who we had for, oh, gosh, 14 years almost, and one of the things that I tell people is I absolutely do believe what people say, that dogs love unconditionally, unless they're just totally traumatized by something, but they don't trust unconditionally. The difference between dogs and people is that dogs are more open to trust because we've taught ourselves and have been taught by others, that everyone has their own hidden agenda. So we don't trust. We're not open to trust, which is so unfortunate because it affects the psyche of so many people in such a negative way. We get too suspicious of people, so it's a lot harder to earn trust. Nick Francis  27:02 Yeah, I mean, I've, I don't know, you know, like I've been, I've been very fortunate in my life, and I kind of always try to be, you know, open and trusting. And frankly, you know, I think if you're open and trusting with people, in my experience, you kind of, it comes back to you, you know, and maybe kind of looking for the best in everyone. You know, there are times where that's not ideal, but you know, I think you know, in the overwhelming majority of cases, you know, actually, you know, you treat people right? And you know what goes what goes around, comes around, absolutely. Michael Hingson  27:35 And I think that's so very true. There are some people who just are going to be different than that, but I think for the most part, if you show that you're open to trust people will want to trust you, as long as you're also willing to trust Nick Francis  27:51 them completely. Yeah, completely. Michael Hingson  27:54 So I think that that's the big thing we have to deal with. And I don't know, I hope that we, we will learn it. But I think that politicians are really the most guilty about teaching us. Why not to trust but that too, hopefully, will be something we deal with. Nick Francis  28:12 I think, you know, I think we have to, you know, it's, it's one of the tragedies of our age, I think, is that the, you know, we spent the 20th century, thinking that sex was the kind of ultimate sales tool. And then it took algorithms to for us to realize that actually anger and resentment are the most powerful sales tools, which is, you know, it's a it's something which, in time, we will work out, right? And I think the problem is that, at the minute, these tech businesses are in such insane ascendancy, and they're so wealthy that it's very hard to regulate them. And I think in time, what will happen is, you know, they'll start to lose some of that luster and some of that insane scale and that power, and then, you know, then regulation will come in. But you know whether or not, we'll see maybe, hopefully our civilization will still be around to see that. Michael Hingson  29:04 No, there is that, or maybe the Vulcans will show up and show us a better way. But you know, Nick Francis  29:11 oh, you know, I'm, I'm kind of endlessly optimistic. I think, you know, we are. We're building towards a very positive future. I think so. Yeah, it's just, you know, get always bumps along the way, yeah. Michael Hingson  29:24 So you named your company casual. Why did you do that? Or how did that come about? Nick Francis  29:30 It's a slightly weird name for something, you know, we work with, kind of, you know, global blue chip businesses. And, you know, casual is kind of the last thing that you would want to associate with, a, with a, with any kind of services business that works in that sphere. I think, you know, we, the completely honest answer is that the journalism course I did was television, current affairs journalism, so it's called TV cadge, and so we, when we made a film for a local charity as part of that course. Course, we were asked to name our company, and we just said, well, cash, cash casual, casual films. So we called it casual films. And then when my friend and I set the company up, kind of formally, to do the Mongol Rally, we, you know, we had this name, you know, the company, the film that we'd made for the charity, had gone down really well. It had been played at BAFTA in London. And so we thought, well, you know, we should just, you know, hang on to that name. And it didn't, you know, at the time, it didn't really seem too much of an issue. It was only funny. It was coming to the US, where I think people are a bit more literal, and they were a bit like, well, casual. Like, why casual, you know. And I remember being on a shoot once. And, you know, obviously, kind of some filmmakers can be a little casual themselves, not necessarily in the work, but in the way they present themselves, right? And I remember sitting down, we were interviewing this CEO, and he said, who, you know, who are you? Oh, we're casual films. He's like, Oh, is that why that guy's got ripped jeans? Is it? And I just thought, Damn, you know, we really left ourselves open to that. There was also, there was a time one of our early competitors was called Agile films. And so, you know, I remember talking to one of our clients who said, you know, it's casual, you know, when I have to put together a little document to say, you know, which, which supplier we should choose, and when I lay it on my boss's desk, and one says casual films, and one says agile films, it's like those guys are landing the first punch. But anyway, we, you know, we, what we say now is like, you know, we take a complex process and make it casual. You know, filmmaking, particularly for like, large, complex organizations where you've got lots of different stakeholders, can be very complicated. And so, yeah, we sort of say, you know, we'll take a lot of that stress off, off our clients. So that's kind of the rationale, you know, that we've arrived with, arrived at having spoken to lots of our clients about the role that we play for them. So, you know, there's a kind of positive spin on it, I guess, but I don't know. I don't know whether I'd necessarily call it casual again. I don't know if I'm supposed to say that or not, but, oh, Michael Hingson  32:00 it's unique, you know? So, yeah, I think there's a lot of merit to it. It's a unique name, and it interests people. I know, for me, one of the things that I do is I have a way of doing this. I put all of my business cards in Braille, so the printed business cards have Braille on them, right? Same thing. It's unique completely. Nick Francis  32:22 And you listen, you know what look your name is an empty box that you fill with your identity. They say, right? And casual is actually, it's something we've grown into. And you know it's we've been going for nearly 20 years. In fact, funny enough for the end of this year is the 20th anniversary of that first film we made for the for the charity. And then next summer will be our 20th anniversary, which is, you know, it's, it's both been incredibly short and incredibly long, you know, I think, like any kind of experience in life, and it's been some of the hardest kind of times of my entire life, and some of the best as well. So, you know, it's, it is what it is, but you know, casual is who we are, right? I would never check, you know? I'd never change it. Michael Hingson  33:09 Now, no, of course not, yeah. So is the actual name casual films, or just casual? Nick Francis  33:13 So it was casual films, but then everyone calls us casual anyway, and I think, like as an organization, we probably need to be a bit more agnostic about the outcome. Michael Hingson  33:22 Well, the reason I asked, in part was, is there really any filming going on anymore? Nick Francis  33:28 Well, that's a very that's a very good question. But have we actually ever made a celluloid film? And I think the answer is probably no. We used to, back in the day, we used to make, like, super eight films, which were films, I think, you know, video, you know, ultimately, if you're going to be really pedantic about it, it's like, well, video is a digital, digital delivery. And so basically, every film we make is, is a video. But there is a certain cachet to the you know, because our films are loved and crafted, you know, for good or ill, you know, I think to call them, you know, they are films because, because of the, you know, the care that's put into them. But it's not, it's, it's not celluloid. No, that's okay, yeah, well, Michael Hingson  34:16 and I know that, like with vinyl records, there is a lot of work being done to preserve and capture what's on cellular film. And so there's a lot of work that I'm sure that's being done to digitize a lot of the old films. And when you do that, then you can also go back and remaster and hopefully in a positive way, and I'm not sure if that always happens, but in a positive way, enhance them Nick Francis  34:44 completely, completely and, you know, it's, you know, it's interesting talking about, like, you know, people wanting to step back. You know, obviously vinyl is having an absolute as having a moment right now. In fact, I just, I just bought a new stylist for my for my record. Play yesterday. It sounded incredible as a joy. This gave me the sound quality of this new style. It's fantastic. You know, beyond that, you know, running a company, you know, we're in nine offices all over the world. We produce nearly 1000 projects a year. So, you know, it's a company. It's an incredibly complicated company. It's a very fun and exciting company. I love the fact that we make these beautifully creative films. But, you know, it's a bit, I wouldn't say it's like, I don't know, you don't get many MBAs coming out of business school saying, hey, I want to set up a video production company. But, you know, it's been, it's been wonderful, but it's also been stressful. And so, you know, I've, I've always been interested in pottery and ceramics and making stuff with my hands. When I was a kid, I used to make jewelry, and I used to go and sell it in nightclubs, which is kind of weird, but, you know, it paid for my beers. And then whatever works, I say kid. I was 18. I was, I was of age, but of age in the UK anyway. But now, you know, over the last few 18 months or so, I've started make, doing my own ceramics. So, you know, I make vases and and pictures and kind of all sorts of stuff out of clay. And it's just, it's just to be to unplug and just to go and, you know, make things with mud with your hands. It's just the most unbelievably kind of grounding experience. Michael Hingson  36:26 Yeah, I hear you, yeah. One of the things that I like to do is, and I don't get to do it as much as I would like, but I am involved with organizations like the radio enthusiasts of Puget Sound, which, every year, does recreations of old radio shows. And so we get the scripts we we we have several blind people who are involved in we actually go off and recreate some of the old shows, which is really a lot of fun, Nick Francis  36:54 I bet, yeah, yeah, sort of you know that connection to the past is, is, yeah, it's great radio. Radio is amazing. Michael Hingson  37:03 Anyway, what we have to do is to train some of the people who have not had exposure to old radio. We need to train them as to how to really use their voices to convey like the people who performed in radio, whatever they're doing, because too many people don't really necessarily know how to do that well. And it is, it is something that we're going to work on trying to find ways to get people really trained. And one of the ways, of course, is you got to listen to the old show. So one of the things we're getting more and more people to do when we do recreations is to go back and listen to the original show. Well, they say, Well, but, but that's just the way they did it. That's not necessarily the way it should be done. And the response is, no, that's not really true. The way they did it sounded natural, and the way you are doing it doesn't and there's reality that you need to really learn how to to use your voice to convey well, and the only way to do it is to listen to the experts who did it. Nick Francis  38:06 Yeah, well, it's, you know, it's amazing. The, you know, when the BBC was founded, all the news readers and anyone who appeared on on the radio to to present or perform, had to wear like black tie, like a tuxedo, because it was, you know, they're broadcasting to the nation, so they had to, you know, they had to be dressed appropriately, right, which is kind of amazing. And, you know, it's interesting how you know, when you, when you change your dress, when you change the way you're sitting, it does completely change the way that you project yourself, yeah, Michael Hingson  38:43 it makes sense, yeah, well, and I always enjoyed some of the old BBC radio shows, like the Goon Show, and completely some of those are so much fun. Nick Francis  38:54 Oh, great, yeah, I don't think they were wearing tuxedo. It's tuxedos. They would Michael Hingson  38:59 have been embarrassed. Yeah, right, right. Can you imagine Peter Sellers in a in a tux? It just isn't going to happen. Nick Francis  39:06 No, right, right. But yeah, no, it's so powerful. You know, they say radio is better than TV because the pictures are better. Michael Hingson  39:15 I agree. Yeah, sure, yeah. Well, you know, I I don't think this is quite the way he said it, but Fred Allen, the old radio comedian, once said they call television the new medium, because that's as good as it's ever going Nick Francis  39:28 to get. Yeah, right, right, yeah. Michael Hingson  39:32 I think there's truth to it. Whether that's exactly the way he said it or not, there's truth to that, yeah, but there's also a lot of good stuff on TV, so it's okay. Nick Francis  39:41 Well, it's so interesting. Because, you know, when you look at the it's never been more easy to create your own content, yeah, and so, you know, and like, in a way, TV, you know, he's not wrong in that, because it suddenly opened up this, this huge medium for people just to just create. Right? And, you know, and I think, like so many people, create without thinking, and, you know, and certainly in our kind of, in the in the world that we're living in now with AI production, making production so much more accessible, actually taking the time as a human being just to really think about, you know, who are the audience, what are the things that are going to what are going to kind of resonate with them? You know? Actually, I think one of the risks with AI, and not just AI, but just like production being so accessible, is that you can kind of shoot first and kind of think about it afterwards, and, you know, and that's never good. That's always going to be medium. It's medium at best, frankly. Yeah, so yeah, to create really great stuff takes time, you know, yeah, to think about it. Yeah, for sure, yeah. Michael Hingson  40:50 Well, you know, our podcast is called unstoppable mindset. What do you think that unstoppable mindset really means to you as a practical thing and not just a buzzword. Because so many people talk about the kinds of buzzwords I hear all the time are amazing. That's unstoppable, but it's really a lot more than a buzzword. It goes back to what you think, I think. But what do you think? Nick Francis  41:15 I think it's something that is is buried deep inside you. You know, I'd say the simple answer is, is just resilience. You know, it's, it's been rough. I write anyone running a small business or a medium sized business at the minute, you know, there's been some tough times over the last, kind of 1824, months or so. And, you know, I was talking to a friend of mine who she sold out of her business. And she's like, you know, how are things? I was like, you know, it's, it's, it's tough, you know, we're getting through it, you know, we're changing a lot of things, you know, we're like, we're definitely making the business better, but it's hard. And she's like, Listen, you know, when three years before I sold my company, I was at rock bottom. It was, I genuinely thought it was so stressful. I was crushed by it, but I just kept going. And she's just like, just keep going. And the only difference between success and failure is that resilience and just getting up every day and you just keep, keep throwing stuff at the wall, keep trying new things, keep working and trying to be better. I think, you know, it's funny when you look at entrepreneurs, I'm a member of a mentoring group, and I hope I'm not talking out of school here, but you know, there's 15 entrepreneurs, you know, varying sizes of business, doing all sorts, you know, across all sorts of different industries. And if you sat on the wall, if you were fly on the wall, and you sit and look at these people on a kind of week, month to month basis, and they all present on how their businesses are going. You go, this is this being an entrepreneur does not look like a uniformly fun thing, you know, the sort of the stress and just, you know, people crying and stuff, and you're like, gosh, you know, it's so it's, it's, it's hard, and yet, you know, it's people just keep coming back to it. And yet, I think it's because of that struggle that you have to kind of have something in built in you, that you're sort of, you're there to prove something. And I, you know, I've thought a lot about this, and I wonder whether, kind of, the death of my father at such a young age kind of gave me this incredible fire to seek His affirmation, you know. And unfortunately, obviously, the tragedy of that is like, you know, the one person who would never give me affirmation is my dad. And yet, you know, I get up every day, you know, to have early morning calls with the UK or with Singapore or wherever. And you know, you just just keep on, keeping on. And I think that's probably what and knowing I will never quit, you know, like, even from the earliest days of casual, when we were just, like a couple of people, and we were just, you know, kids doing our very best, I always knew the company was going to be a success act. Like, just a core belief that I was like, this is going to work. This is going to be a success. I didn't necessarily know what that success would look like. I just but I did know that, like, whatever it took, we would map, we'd map our way towards that figure it out. We'd figure it out. And I think, you know, there's probably something unstoppable. I don't know, I don't want to sound immodest, but I think there's probably something in that that you're just like, I am just gonna keep keep on, keeping on. Michael Hingson  44:22 Do you think that resilience and unstoppability are things that can be taught, or is it just something that's built into you, and either you have it or you don't? Nick Francis  44:31 I think it's something that probably, it's definitely something that can be learned, for sure, you know. And there are obviously ways that it can there's obviously ways it can be taught. You know, I was, I spent some time in the reserve, like the Army Reserve in the UK, and I just, you know, a lot of that is about teaching you just how much further you can go. I think what it taught me was it was so. So hard. I mean, honestly, some of the stuff we did in our training was, like, you know, it's just raining and raining and raining and, like, because all your kits soaking wet is weighs twice what it did before, and you just, you know, sleeping maybe, you know, an hour or two a night, and, you know, and there wasn't even anyone shooting at us, right? So, you know, like the worst bit wasn't even happening. But like, and like, in a sense, I think, you know, that's what they're trying to do, that, you know, they say, you know, train hard and fight easy. But I remember sort of sitting there, and I was just exhausted, and I just genuinely, I was just thought, you know, what if they tell me to go now, I just, I can't. I literally, I can't, I can't do it. Can't do it. And then they're like, right, lads, put your packs on. Let's go and just put your pack on. Off you go, you know, like, this sort of, the idea of not, like, I was never going to quit, just never, never, ever, you know, and like I'd physically, if I physically, like, literally, my physical being couldn't stand up, you know, I then that was be, that would be, you know, if I was kind of, like literally incapacitated. And I think what that taught me actually, was that, you know, you have what you believe you can do, like you have your sort of, you have your sort of physical envelope, but like that is only a third or a quarter of what you can actually achieve, right, you know. And I think what that, what the that kind of training is about, and you know, you can do it in marathon training. You can do it in all sorts of different, you know, even, frankly, meditate. You know, you train your mind to meditate for, you know, an hour, 90 minutes plus. You know, you're still doing the same. You know, there's a, there's an elasticity within your brain where you can teach yourself that your envelope is so much larger. Yeah. So, yeah, you know, like, is casual going to be a success? Like, I'm good, you know, I'm literally, I won't I won't stop until it is Michael Hingson  46:52 right, and then why stop? Exactly, exactly you continue to progress and move forward. Well, you know, when everything feels uncertain, whether it's the markets or whatever, what do you do or what's your process for finding clarity? Nick Francis  47:10 I think a lot of it is in having structured time away. I say structured. You build it into your calendar, but like, but it's unstructured. So, you know, I take a lot of solace in being physically fit. You know, I think if you're, if you feel physically fit, then you feel mentally far more able to deal with things. I certainly when I'm if I'm unfit and if I've been working too much and I haven't been finding the time to exercise. You know, I feel like the problems we have to face just loom so much larger. So, you know, I, I'll book out. I, you know, I work with a fan. I'm lucky enough to have a fantastic assistant who, you know, we book in my my exercise for each week, and it's almost the first thing that goes in the calendar. I do that because I can't be the business my my I can't be the leader my business requires. And it finally happened. It was a few years ago I kind of, like, the whole thing just got really big on me, and it just, you know, and I'm kind of, like, being crushed by it. And I just thought, you know what? Like, I can't, I can't fit other people's face mask, without my face mask being fit, fitted first. Like, in order to be the business my business, I keep saying that to be the lead in my business requires I have to be physically fit. So I have to look after myself first. And so consequently, like, you know, your exercise shouldn't be something just get squeezed in when you find when you have time, because, you know, if you've got family and you know, other things happening, like, you know, just will be squeezed out. So anyway, that goes in. First, I'll go for a bike ride on a Friday afternoon, you know, I'll often listen to a business book and just kind of process things. And it's amazing how often, you know, I'll just go for a run and, like, these things that have been kind of nagging away in the back of my mind, just suddenly I find clarity in them. So I try to exercise, like, five times a week. I mean, that's obviously more than most people can can manage, but you know that that really helps. And then kind of things, like the ceramics is very useful. And then, you know, I'm lucky. I think it's also just so important just to appreciate the things that you already have. You know, I think one of the most important lessons I learned last year was this idea that, you know, here is the only there. You know, everyone's working towards this kind of, like, big, you know, it's like, oh, you know, when I get to there, then everything's going to be okay, you know. And actually, you know, if you think about like, you know, and what did you want to achieve when you left college? Like, what was the salary band that you want? That you wanted to achieve? Right? A lot of people, you know, by the time you hit 4050, you've blown way through that, right? And yet you're still chasing the receding Summit, yeah, you know. And so actually, like, wherever we're trying to head to, we're already there, because once you get there, there's going to be another there that you're trying to. Head to right? So, so, you know, it's just taking a moment to be like, you know, God, I'm so lucky to have what I have. And, you know, I'm living in, we're living in the good old days, like right now, right? Michael Hingson  50:11 And the reality is that we're doing the same things and having the same discussions, to a large degree, that people did 50, 100 200 years ago. As you pointed out earlier, the fact is that we're, we're just having the same discussions about whether this works, or whether that works, or anything else. But it's all the same, Nick Francis  50:33 right, you know. And you kind of think, oh, you know, if I just, just, like, you know, if we just open up these new offices, or if we can just, you know, I think, like, look, if I, if I'd looked at casual when we started it as it is now, I would have just been like, absolute. My mind would have exploded, right? You know, if you look at what we've achieved, and yet, I kind of, you know, it's quite hard sometimes to look at it and just be like, Oh yeah, but we're only just starting. Like, there's so much more to go. I can see so much further work, that we need so many more things, that we need to do, so many more things that we could do. And actually, you know, they say, you know, I'm lucky enough to have two healthy, wonderful little girls. And you know, I think a lot of bread winners Look at, look at love being provision, and the idea that, you know, you have to be there to provide for them. And actually, the the truest form of love is presence, right? And just being there for them, and like, you know, not being distracted and kind of putting putting things aside, you know, not jumping on your emails or your Slack messages or whatever first thing in the morning, you know. And I, you know, I'm not. I'm guilty, like, I'm not, you know, I'm not one of these people who have this kind of crazy kind of morning routine where, like, you know, I'm incredibly disciplined about that because, you know, and I should be more. But like, you know, this stuff, one of the, one of the things about having a 24 hour business with people working all over the world is there's always things that I need to respond to. There's always kind of interesting things happening. And so just like making sure that I catch myself every so often to be like, I'm just going to be here now and I'm going to be with them, and I'm going to listen to what they're saying, and I'm going to respond appropriately, and, you know, I'm going to play a game with them, or whatever. That's true love. You know? Michael Hingson  52:14 Well, there's a lot of merit to the whole concept of unplugging and taking time and living in the moment. One of the things that we talked about in my book live like a guide dog, that we published last year, and it's all about lessons I've learned about leadership and teamwork and preparedness from eight guide dogs and my wife's service dog. One of the things that I learned along the way is the whole concept of living in the moment when I was in the World Trade Center with my fifth guide dog, Roselle. We got home, and I was going to take her outside to go visit the bathroom, but as soon as I took the harness off, she shot off, grabbed her favorite tug bone and started playing tug of war with my retired guide dog. Asked the veterinarians about him the next day, the people at Guide Dogs for the Blind, and they said, Well, did anything threaten her? And I said, No. And they said, there's your answer. The reality is, dogs live in the moment when it was over. It was over. And yeah, right lesson to learn. Nick Francis  53:15 I mean, amazing, absolutely amazing. You must have taken a lot of strength from that. Michael Hingson  53:20 Oh, I think it was, it was great. It, you know, I can look back at my life and look at so many things that have happened, things that I did. I never thought that I would become a public speaker, but I learned in so many ways the art of speaking and being relaxed at speaking in a in a public setting, that when suddenly I was confronted with the opportunity to do it, it just seemed like the natural thing to do. Nick Francis  53:46 Yeah, it's funny, because I think isn't public speaking the number one fear. It is. It's the most fit. It's the most feared thing for the most people. Michael Hingson  53:57 And the reality is going back to something that we talked about before. The reality is, audiences want you to succeed, unless you're a jerk and you project that, audiences want to hear what you have to say. They want you to be successful. There's really nothing to be afraid of but, but you're right. It is the number one fear, and I've never understood that. I mean, I guess I can intellectually understand it, but internally, I don't. The first time I was asked to speak after the World Trade Center attacks, a pastor called me up and he said, we're going to we're going to have a service outside for all the people who we lost in New Jersey and and that we would like you to come and speak. Take a few minutes. And I said, Sure. And then I asked him, How many people many people were going to be at the service? He said, 6000 that was, that was my first speech. Nick Francis  54:49 Yeah, wow. But it didn't bother me, you know, no, I bet Michael Hingson  54:54 you do the best you can, and you try to improve, and so on. But, but it is true that so many people. Are public speaking, and there's no reason to what Nick Francis  55:03 did that whole experience teach you? Michael Hingson  55:06 Well, one of the things that taught me was, don't worry about the things that you can't control. It also taught me that, in reality, any of us can be confronted with unexpected things at any time, and the question is, how well do we prepare to deal with it? So for me, for example, and it took me years after September 11 to recognize this, but one of the things that that happened when the building was hit, and Neither I, nor anyone on my side of the building really knew what happened. People say all the time, well, you didn't know because you couldn't see it. Well, excuse me, it hit 18 floors above us on the other side of the building. And the last time I checked X ray vision was fictitious, so nobody knew. But did the building shake? Oh, it tipped. Because tall buildings like that are flexible. And if you go to any tall building, in reality, they're made to buffet in wind storms and so on, and in fact, they're made to possibly be struck by an airplane, although no one ever expected that somebody would deliberately take a fully loaded jet aircraft and crash it into a tower, because it wasn't the plane hitting the tower as such that destroyed both of them. It was the exploding jet fuel that destroyed so much more infrastructure caused the buildings to collapse. But in reality, for me, I had done a lot of preparation ahead of time, not even thinking that there would be an emergency, but thinking about I need to really know all I can about the building, because I've got to be the leader of my office, and I should know all of that. I should know what to do in an emergency. I should know how to take people to lunch and where to go and all that. And by learning all of that, as I learned many and discovered many years later, it created a mindset that kicked in when the World Trade Center was struck, and in fact, we didn't know until after both towers had collapsed, and I called my wife. We I talked with her just before we evacuated, and the media hadn't even gotten the story yet, but I never got a chance to talk with her until after both buildings had collapsed, and then I was able to get through and she's the first one that told us how the two buildings had been hit by hijacked aircraft. But the mindset had kicked in that said, You know what to do, do it and that. And again, I didn't really think about that until much later, but that's something that is a lesson we all could learn. We shouldn't rely on just watching signs to know what to do, no to go in an emergency. We should really know it, because the knowledge, rather than just having information, the true intellectual knowledge that we internalize, makes such a big difference. Nick Francis  57:46 Do you think it was the fact that you were blind that made you so much more keen to know the way out that kind of that really helped you to understand that at the time? Michael Hingson  57:56 Well, what I think is being blind and growing up in an environment where so many things could be unexpected, for me, it was important to know so, for example, when I would go somewhere to meet a customer, I would spend time, ahead of time, learning how to get around, learning how to get to where they were and and learning what what the process was, because we didn't have Google Maps and we didn't have all the intellectual and and technological things that we have today. Well intellectual we did with the technology we didn't have. So today it's easier, but still, I want to know what to do. I want to really have the answers, and then I can can more easily and more effectively deal with what I need to deal with and react. So I'm sure that blindness played a part in all of that, because if I hadn't learned how to do the things that I did and know the things that I knew, then it would have been a totally different ball game, and so sure, I'm sure, I'm certain that blindness had something to do with it, but I also know that, that the fact is, what I learned is the same kinds of things that everyone should learn, and we shouldn't rely on just the signs, because what if the building were full of smoke, then what would you do? Right? And I've had examples of that since I was at a safety council meeting once where there was somebody from an electric company in Missouri who said, you know, we've wondered for years, what do we do if there's a fire in the generator room, in the basement, In the generator room, how do people get out? And he and I actually worked on it, and they developed a way where people could have a path that they could follow with their feet to get them out. But the but the reality is that what people first need to learn is eyesight is not the only game in town. Yeah, right. Mean, it's so important to really learn that, but people, people don't, and we take too many things for granted, which is, which is really so unfortunate, because we really should do a li

Reinvention for 23-year-olds with nothing to lose is relatively easy. At 40, it's brave. Here's how to do it well.At 23, Nick Francis left the BBC, drove a Mini to Mongolia, and stumbled into building a creative business now in 9 countries. Back then, it didn't feel brave. No mortgage. No kids. Nothing to lose.As Nick says: "If you quit your job in your 40s, with kids and responsibilities - that's brave."Here's what struck me: midlife reinvention isn't about starting over. It's about starting better.In your 40s, you're not building from zero. You have:Clarity about what you actually want (not what you think you should want)Skills that compound in unexpected waysNetworks built on real relationshipsResilience from surviving previous challengesThe 23-year-old has energy. The 40-something has intention.Nick's line stuck with me: "We often overvalue the risk of doing something different, and undervalue the risk of continuing to do what we've always done."If you're questioning your next chapter, you're not having a crisis. You're seeing an opening - an opening to thoughtfully design your next chapter.This conversation is special because Nick not only shares deep wisdom on reinvention - he also acquired my company last year. Shownoteshttps://howtolive.life/episode/102-building-a-business-with-heart-with-Nick-FrancisFor Folks Affected by Restructuring4 Week Career Transition Program. https://www.sharadlal.net/thrivethroughtransition How to Live NewsletterGo deeper with articles every 2-3 weeks. No spam. https://sharadlal.substack.com/ Leave us a messagehttps://howtolive.life/contactAbout Sharad Lalhttps://www.sharadlal.net/Follow usLinkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sharadlal24/Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/PodcastHowtolive/Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/podcasthowtolive/

Nick Francis, Founder and CEO of Casual Films and author of The New Fire: Harness the Power of Video for Your Business, is driven by an insight from famous WWII photojournalist, Robert Capa, who said, “If your photos aren't good enough, you're not close enough.” The same is true with your corporate videos. If you're not connecting with your customers, you're not close enough to their story. In this episode, you'll learn how to create high-definition brand storytelling by truly understanding your audience and telling your story from their point of view. Craft your brilliant brand story strategy in minutes, not months, and instantly create compelling content that converts customers with the StoryCycle Genie™ #StoryOn! ≈Park

Learn why Nick Francis bet everything on a new business model—and about the new strategic narrative he built to make sense of it for his team, his investors, and his customers. With my mom on a rare vacation, my sister steps in to take the intro call.

In this episode, we sit down with Surfing for Daisy, the Asbury Park-based Alt. Folk Rock band making waves with their heartfelt songwriting and rich instrumentation.The band—Nick Francis (vocals/guitar), Mike Bernabei (guitar), Steven Filippone (drums/percussion), Cam Seidel (bass), Dan DiSantis (guitar/vocals), and Katie McCarty (keys/vocals)—shares the story of how they came together, the journey behind their recently released debut album, Surfing for Daisy, and the meanings woven into their songs. We also dive into how they've consistently been building their fan community, and their upcoming Spring Tour.Surfing for Daisy also performed an incredible acoustic session live in the APV Studio which you'll be able to enjoy as well! Tune in for an inside look at the creative process and beautiful music of one of Asbury Park's most exciting rising bands!https://www.surfingfordaisy.com/homeMusic Recorded & Mixed by Doug Dresher Asbury Park Vibes Podcast Available on Spotify, Apple, Google, iHeart, Audible, and PandoraHosted by Diane DiMemmo & Doug DresherCopyright 2020-2025 Asbury Park Vibes. All rights reserved.

Would you like access to our advanced agency training for FREE? https://www.agencymastery360.com/training How do you measure your agency's success? Awards and accolade? Top-line revenue and big name clients? What if we told you a more focused and lean approach could be the best path. Today's featured guest realized the importance of finding a "sweet spot" in the agency world, so he moved to focusing on quality over quantity. He talks about the challenges of maintaining a small client roster and the benefits it brings. In his business model, his agency is providing consistent, high-quality work and building strong partnerships. Learn valuable insights on leadership, innovation, and the importance of a good relationship building. Nick Francis is the Chief Visionary Officer of The Franchise Group, a strategic marketing and creative agency that does a comprehensive range of services, including video production, web design, graphic design, and event production. He recounts his journey into the agency world, beginning with the support of a boss who became a mentor and surviving the housing market crash and the pandemic. Nick discusses how he built a culture that has created remarkable retention rates at his agency and why his network is his most important tool to keep a full client funnel. In this episode, we'll discuss: Adapting and innovating in uncertain times. Redefining success instead of chasing awards. Retaining talent longer than the industry average. Subscribe Apple | Spotify | iHeart Radio Sponsors and Resources Smart Pricing Table: Today's episode of the Smart Agency Masterclass is sponsored by Smart Pricing Table, an award-winning proposal software built just for marketing agencies and designed to handle your unique challenges and cut down the time you spend on proposal as much as 90%. Go to smartpricingtable.com/smartagency to see if this is the missing piece your agency needs. Schedule a demo and get 50% OFF for the first two months. Building an Agency with the Right Mentorship Nick began his career working in the film industry, later transitioning to the ad world, and eventually ending up at a company that blended both worlds working in video production and events. As part of a small team of five people, Nick worked on the creative development side from writing scripts to pitching ideas. His work attending events led him to form a network of people in that space who needed similar services. Soon he started bringing in new clients for the agency. Nick's boss noticed he' had mastered nearly every aspect of the business except financial management. He took the unusual step of sharing budgeting expertise with Nick and actively encouraging his independence. In 2006, Nick launched his own agency, bringing along a big client that sustained his business through its crucial first five months. It's a very unique case scenario to start your agency with your former boss's support and even taking a big client with you, but that relationship was pivotal in Nick's journey, with him continuing to be his mentor to this day. Adapting and Innovating in Uncertain Times Running an agency that focuses mostly on the events industry, Nick's business practically disappeared with the pandemic and the lockdowns. Suddenly, the agency lost a devastating 35% of its revenue that year. Instead of panicking, they quickly adapted to online events for a while. They moved to building a full broadcasting suite at their office to help clients get their message out in a time when they couldn't do so at live events. Initially, they faced resistance with clients still being more interested in traditional event experiences. However, as they persisted in promoting the benefits of virtual engagement, they found success in reaching a wider audience. It was a bold move that took some time to gain interest but it was the right call to keep the business going during those uncertain months. Redefining Success Instead of Chasing Awards The agency industry tends to be heavily focused on growth and competition, which affects how owners see their own milestones and overall success. The pressure to grow fast and beat their competition leads many owners to chase awards over personal fulfillment. But why should success be defined by outside metrics rather than personal satisfaction? For some, a lean, focused approach yields greater satisfaction more than a huge, impersonal operation. In Nick's case, after navigating the turbulent times of the housing market crash, he and his team adapted by becoming an extension of their clients' teams rather than merely functioning as external vendors. This shift allowed them to forge deeper connections with their clients, emphasizing collaboration and shared goals. After years of growth, he and his team started to consider the advantages of focusing on bigger clients who sign longer contracts and usually represent less hassle for them. On one hand they were thinking strategically about the future of the agency but on the other the agency just naturally moved in that direction based on what clients were looking for. Retaining Talent Longer Than the Industry Average Many owners believe if the business isn't growing employees will see stagnation and eventually leave. Instead, Nick advocates for balancing professional development with personal wellbeing as a different metric of success. His approach has yielded remarkable results, particularly with entry-level hires who typically remain with his agency for three to four years—far exceeding the industry standard. This success in retention stems from a deliberate focus on creating a fulfilling work environment. Nick has found that employee satisfaction most commonly correlates with feeling valued and finding meaning in their work. Career goals are important, of course, but as long as you continue to challenge your employees and innovate they'll stay inspired and motivated to do good work. You Never Know When You're Building a Relationship After nearly two decades in the industry, Nick has cultivated a powerful professional network that serves as his agency's primary source of high-value clients. In his view, a good network is everything and building and nurturing relationships should be not just a supplementary aspect of business but a fundamental aspect intertwined with growth, opportunity, and resilience. Nick advises agency owners to remember that genuine engagement with others leads to unexpected opportunities. By being fully present and attentive, it fosters deeper connections that later evolve into fruitful collaborations. You never know when you're building your next relationship, so approach networking not as a transactional but as an organic process of connection-building. Do You Want to Transform Your Agency from a Liability to an Asset? Looking to dig deeper into your agency's potential? Check out our Agency Blueprint. Designed for agency owners like you, our Agency Blueprint helps you uncover growth opportunities, tackle obstacles, and craft a customized blueprint for your agency's success.

Seeking valuable insights on startup success and leadership strategies for CEOs?

How Nick Francis of The Franchise Group Build an Award Winning AgencyLinks And Resources:Lucas James LinkedInYouTubeTwizThanks so much for joining us this week. Want to subscribe to How to Scale an Agency? Have some feedback you'd like to share? Connect with us on iTunes and leave us a review!

Всем салют! Готовы танцевать?) Готовимся)) Сегодня танцуем под классный диско,фанки хаус. Ритм и мелодии под которыми вы точно не останетесь неподвижными ))) Всех обнял,поднял,покружил,поставил на месте! Всем диско ! 101 1. The Rolling Stones - Mess It Up (Purple Disco Machine Remix) 2. Les Bisous, Laurent Simeca & Stephan M - Let's All Chant 3. Jess Bays ft. Kelli-Leigh - Real Love 4. BLONDISH, Eran Hersh, & Madonna - Sorry (Franky Rizardo Remix) 5. Paluma - Rapture 6. Milk Bar - House Is A Feeling (Extended) 7. Block & Crown - Donna's Yem 8. Sagan - STOMP! (All Night) (Extended) 9. BLOND ISH - Call My Name 10. House of Prayers - Out of Touch 11. Shad Jaxon - Shake Yourself 12. Word of Mouth UK - It Ain't Easy 13. Jame Starck, Yvvan Back & Zetaphunk Ft. Alfreda Gerald - Heds Alright 14. Nick Francis & Antonio Niespolo - Chinatown 15. Harlem Dance Club - Can't You Feel It (Original Mix) 16. Marco Lys & Luca Garboni x Celeda - Music is the Answer (Kovalenco Gennadi Blend)

Roma won their third game in a row on Sunday when they won 4-1 over last-placed Cagliari. Houssem Aouar, Andrea Belotti, and a brace from Romelu Lukaku guided the Giallorossi past Claudio Ranieri's men: John and Andy react to the performance and rate how worried they are about Paulo Dybala's potential injury layoff.Thank you to our newest Patron, Nick Francis, and to all of our Patrons who make this show possible. You can support RomaPress by going to Patreon.com/RomaPress, benefits include: early access to episodes, extras episodes, and plenty more.Our websites:RomaPress.netItalianFootball24.com

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I sat down with Nick Francis, the Co-Founder and CEO of Help Scout. A few years ago I worked directly with Nick and his team to tighten up their positioning and brought him on to share their story. Together we discuss: • What the positioning of Help Scout looked like during the early days • How their positioning evolved over time • Why they utilized outside help • How he took the sales narrative he worked on with me and turned it into a pitch • How their strategy has changed as they've moved upmarket — In This Episode, I Cover: (00:00) About my guest, Nick Francis (02:05) The origin story of Help Scout (04:50) How Techstars informed their messaging early on (06:00) How they differentiated themselves from other help desk companies (08:28) Where early inbound customers came from (09:58) Copycat competitors, and how Help Scout thinks about competition (11:57) Identifying key differentiators (13:20) Why they decided to bring in outside help (me) and what they learned (15:29) The evolution of their sales pitch (18:42) Why you should always test your sales pitch first (20:27) Who was responsible for building the sales pitch (21:24) Signals it was time to revisit the pitch (24:58) The future of Help Scout (26:27) How the product itself reinforces their positioning (28:42) How their strategy has changed as they've moved upmarket (30:17) Why positioning is so important — Where To Find April Dunford: Podcast Website: https://www.positioning.show/ Personal Website: https://www.aprildunford.com/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/aprildunford/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/aprildunford/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/aprildunford — Where To Find Nick Francis: Website: http://nickfranc.is/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nickfrancis1/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/nickfrancis?lang=en — Referenced: • Help Scout: https://www.helpscout.com/ • Techstars: https://www.techstars.com/ • David Cohen: https://www.linkedin.com/in/davidgcohen/ • Zendesk: https://www.zendesk.com/ • Intercom: https://www.intercom.com/ • Front: https://front.com/ Production and marketing by https://penname.co/

Any employer branding team is constantly trying to stand out in their markets and earn people's valuable attention. So it's important to see what's happening inside, and outside, the employer branding/marketing space. The Employer Marketing Perspective is a new regular slot in the podcast that looks at great working in the employer and consumer spaces. First up is Josh Tumbridge, Commercial Director at Crunch Digital Media as he shares three of his favourite campaigns from the last 12 months. We cover a load of things in just 31 minutes...

Which content trends must employer brands focus on to be a success in 2023, and beyond...especially when businesses need to succeed when economies are struggling? This is the topic of Episode 68 of the Employer Content Marketing Pod. And it's a must-watch/listen for employer brand/marketing of talent acquisition teams. I chat with Nick Francis - Co-Founder of Casual - about future content trends and what they mean for businesses and their brands. A brand's content is as important as anything else in your business, and Nick will tell you why. And how to leverage key content trends for your business. ✅ Brands as broadcasters ✅ The creator economy ✅ Producing content that people love ✅ Content as an investment, not a cost Casual have produced 1,000s of videos in the employer and consumer marketing spaces for over 15 years, so Nick is well placed to talk about this important topic. Thanks for watching. Thanks for listening. Chris Le'cand-Harwood Host of the Employer Content Marketing Pod Director - Strategy & Production Lead at the Content Marketing Pod Ltd --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/employercontentmarketing/message

In Part 2 of this Future Content Trends mini-series, I chat with Nick Francis - Co-Founder of Casual - about which brands are winning with these content trends. We talk about some great examples - from Mr Beast to The NBA to Formula 1 and Nick shares why they are winning. And, most importantly, Nick talks about what brands can learn from these successes and apply them to their own content in 2023, and beyond. Casual have produced 1,000s of videos in the employer and consumer marketing spaces for over 15 years, so Nick is well placed to talk about this important topic. This is a must-watch for employer brand/marketing of talent acquisition teams. Links of content mentioned in this episode: ✅ Mr Beast https://www.youtube.com/user/mrbeast6000 ✅ NBA - Hoop Cities https://youtu.be/r_EUkDJnGkM ✅ Drive to Survive https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eokeG5lVAWY And here's Nick on LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/nickfrancisfilm/

The Daver is joined by lifelong friends & South St. Paul Boys, Police Chief Nick Francis & Adam Carter of WCCO Radio. They talk about their early concert experiences, as well as shared ones they've had together, as well as their love for the art of karaoke. Sponsored by Aquarius Home Services (https://aquariushomeservices.com/), Star Bank (https://www.starbank.net) & Minnesota Propane Association (https://discoverpropanemn.com/).

The Daver is joined by lifelong friends & South St. Paul Boys, Police Chief Nick Francis & Adam Carter of WCCO Radio. They talk about their early concert experiences, as well as shared ones they've had together, as well as their love for the art of karaoke. Sponsored by Aquarius Home Services (https://aquariushomeservices.com/), Star Bank (https://www.starbank.net) & Minnesota Propane Association (https://discoverpropanemn.com/).

Today I'm interviewing the Founder and CEO of Volley, Josh Little.  Josh's experience in sales and marketing at three Fortune 500 companies provided him with a strong foundation in leadership, storytelling, collaboration above all, communication. His newest company, Volley, was built upon that foundation. Volley helps teams communicate better and escape the problem of "Death by Meetings" by implementing asynchronous verbal conversations, which fill in the gap between text-based tools like Slack and video-chat apps like Zoom. Josh's work has been highlighted in TechCrunch, Mashable, Entrepreneur, Inc., and Forbes.  Let me know what you think.... Want to learn about remote work from 60+ real-world remote work experts including?: Nick Francis, CEO Help Scout, Laurel Farrer, Co-Founder Distribute Consulting, Andy Tryba, CEO Crossover, Pilar Orti, Founder Virtual Not Distant, Darcy Boles, Dir Of Culture & Innovation TaxJar, Steli Efti, CEO - Close, Elaine Pofeldt, Freelance Writer, Sarah Park, President Meet Edgar, Alina Vandenberghe, Co-Founder Chili Piper, Derek Andersen, CEO Startup Grind, Michelle Dale, CEO Virtual Miss Friday Stitcher   Google Podcast  iTunes  Spotify Please subscribe to the remote work life podcast and you'll learn how to: > get clarity on your career direction > master online and in-person job interviews > find unadvertised or hidden jobs > use LinkedIn to network with hiring managers > thrive in a remote work culture > stay connected and develop and support your remote teammates Let's connect: On Facebook   On LinkedIn   On Instagram  On YouTube

Hey CX Nation,In episode #163 of The CXChronicles Podcast we welcomed Nick Francis, Co-Founder & CEO at Help Scout based in Boston, MA. Help Scout is designed with your customers in mind. Provide email and live chat with a personal touch, and deliver help content right where your customers need it, all in one place.The customer experience is simple and training staff is painless, but Help Scout has all the powerful features that you need to provide great support at scale. With best in-class-reporting, an integrated knowledge base, 50+ integrations and a robust API, Help Scout lets your team focus on what really matters: your customer portfolio.Help Scout is trusted by 12,000+ customers in over 140 countries, including Buffer, GrubHub, AngelList, and Timbuk2. In this episode Nick and Adrian chat through how Help Scout tackles The Four CX Pillars: Team,  Tools, Process & Feedback + share some of the tips & tricks that have worked for the team over at Help Scout as they've built & grown their team & customer portfolio.**Episode #163 Highlight Reel:**1. Getting CX Right helps your company build trust, makes people happy & helps you grow 2. Betting on the best available talent over geography to make a world-class remote team 3.  Investing in your business intelligence solution early & piping every possible data set into it4. Why everything in your company needs to be documented to build optimal living playbooks 5. Building your MVP Voice of Customer (VOC) Task Force to optimize your CX/CS effortsHuge thanks to Nick for coming on The CXChronicles Podcast and featuring his team's work and efforts in pushing the customer experience and success space into the future.Click here to learn more about Nick FrancisClick here to learn more about Help ScoutIf you enjoy The CXChronicles Podcast, please stop by your favorite podcast player and leave us a review. This is the easiest way that we can find new listeners, guests and future customer focused business leaders to tune into our weekly podcast. And be sure to grab a copy of our book "The Four CX Pillars To Grow Your Business Now" on Amazon +  check out the CXChronicles Youtube channel with all of our video episodes & customer focused business leader content!Reach out to CXC at INFO@cxchronicles.com for more information about how we can help your business make customer happiness a habit!Support the show (https://cxchronicles.com/)

Nick, husband of Liz Francis from episode 11, talks to Max about being the only neurotypical in the village, and what neurodiversity has taught him. He's a lovely man, so why don't you tell him so @NickF_1 on the twitter. 

Today I'm interviewing one of my favourite guests of all time on the podcast, Elaine Podeldt. She is a freelance writer, editor and ghostwriter who has worked with publications including The Economist, Fortune, Money, Inc., CNBC, Crain's New York Business, Forbes and others.  If you're fed up with the corporate grind and want a guide to getting big results from a small business then stay tuned ... ... because Elaine is also author of the brand new book "Tiny Business, Big Money: Strategies For Creating A High-Revenue Microbusiness" !  (AVAILABLE FROM FEBRUARY 15TH 2022) I recommend getting a copy if you're looking to create a business to change your life. And while you're at it pick up a copy of Elaine's other business book titled "The Million-Dollar, One-Person Business". Let me know what you think.... Want to learn about remote work from 60+ real-world remote work experts including?: Nick Francis, CEO Help Scout, Laurel Farrer, Co-Founder Distribute Consulting, Andy Tryba, CEO Crossover, Pilar Orti, Founder Virtual Not Distant, Darcy Boles, Dir Of Culture & Innovation TaxJar, Steli Efti, CEO - Close, Elaine Pofeldt, Freelance Writer, Sarah Park, President Meet Edgar, Alina Vandenberghe, Co-Founder Chili Piper, Derek Andersen, CEO Startup Grind, Michelle Dale, CEO Virtual Miss Friday Stitcher   Google Podcast  iTunes  Spotify Please subscribe to the remote work life podcast and you'll learn how to: > get clarity on your career direction > master online and in-person job interviews > find unadvertised or hidden jobs > use LinkedIn to network with hiring managers > thrive in a remote work culture > stay connected and develop and support your remote teammates Let's connect: On Facebook   On LinkedIn   On Instagram  On YouTube

Today's guest is the CEO of Remote, Job van der Voort and during this episode, we talk about asynchronous work and answer key questions including: Why business leaders should care about adopting async work practices How they can approach and address an over-dependence upon meetings Let me know what you think.... Want to learn about remote work from 60+ real-world remote work experts including?: Nick Francis, CEO Help Scout, Laurel Farrer, Co-Founder Distribute Consulting, Andy Tryba, CEO Crossover, Pilar Orti, Founder Virtual Not Distant, Darcy Boles, Dir Of Culture & Innovation TaxJar, Steli Efti, CEO - Close, Elaine Pofeldt, Freelance Writer, Sarah Park, President Meet Edgar, Alina Vandenberghe, Co-Founder Chili Piper, Derek Andersen, CEO Startup Grind, Michelle Dale, CEO Virtual Miss Friday Stitcher   Google Podcast  iTunes  Spotify Please subscribe to the remote work life podcast and you'll learn how to: > get clarity on your career direction > master online and in-person job interviews > find unadvertised or hidden jobs > use LinkedIn to network with hiring managers > thrive in a remote work culture > stay connected and develop and support your remote teammates Let's connect: On Facebook   On LinkedIn   On Instagram  On YouTube

Today's guest is Corine Tan.  Corine is Co-Founder of Kona, the wellness platform for remote teams. Since January 2020, Corine has interviewed 550+ remote managers about their experiences and compiled their interviews in an extensive report (https://bit.ly/3hFcI5f). She writes and speaks regularly on emotional intelligence and empathetic remote leadership. Her work has been featured by Yahoo, Entrepreneur, TechCrunch, Harvard Business School, Forbes, BuiltIn, and more. Want to learn about remote work from 60+ real-world remote work experts including?: Nick Francis, CEO Help Scout, Laurel Farrer, Co-Founder Distribute Consulting, Andy Tryba, CEO Crossover, Pilar Orti, Founder Virtual Not Distant, Darcy Boles, Dir Of Culture & Innovation TaxJar, Steli Efti, CEO - Close, Elaine Pofeldt, Freelance Writer, Sarah Park, President Meet Edgar, Alina Vandenberghe, Co-Founder Chili Piper, Derek Andersen, CEO Startup Grind, Michelle Dale, CEO Virtual Miss Friday Stitcher   Google Podcast  iTunes  Spotify Please subscribe to the remote work life podcast and you'll learn how to: > get clarity on your career direction > master online and in-person job interviews > find unadvertised or hidden jobs > use LinkedIn to network with hiring managers > thrive in a remote work culture > stay connected and develop and support your remote teammates Let's connect: On Facebook   On LinkedIn   On Instagram  On YouTube

In order to become the leaders we were born to be, we must first be willing to radically inquire within. By cultivating a deep growth mindset, we're able to mature and develop not only as leaders but as humans. Getting curious about our blind spots in leadership and seeing clearly our strengths and weaknesses as well as understanding how we are perceived is the basis for any leadership development plan. We cannot grow if we don't understand the work we have to do. In this episode, Andy Crissinger sits down with Courtney Joyce, coach and 360° Program Director, to talk about Reboot's approach to 360 reviews and why they are so incredibly powerful for leaders who are looking to take their development to the next level. The pair connect with Nick Francis, CEO of Help Scout, to chat about his 360s experiences, and the impact they've had on his personal and professional growth. Leave us a review on Apple Podcasts! Follow our step by step guides: - How To: Leave a Review on Your Computer: - How To: Leave a Review on Your iPhone: Never miss an episode! Sign up for our newsletter to stay up to date on all our episode releases.

Sharon Koifman is obsessed with remote management. Over the past twenty years, he's built and run three fully remote companies. Sharon grew up in an entrepreneurial family and was heavily inspired by his father who first introduced Sharon to the idea of working remotely.  These days Sharon runs DistantJob, a unique recruitment agency geared specifically for finding full-time remote employees who work from all over the world. The key difference in his approach is that he wants to show how remote work benefits businesses. His book, Surviving Remote Work, reached number one bestseller status on Amazon. https://www.linkedin.com/company/distantjob-agency/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/distantj/ https://distantjob.com/  Want to learn about remote work from 60+ real-world remote work experts including?: Nick Francis, CEO Help Scout, Laurel Farrer, Co-Founder Distribute Consulting, Andy Tryba, CEO Crossover, Pilar Orti, Founder Virtual Not Distant, Darcy Boles, Dir Of Culture & Innovation TaxJar, Steli Efti, CEO - Close, Elaine Pofeldt, Freelance Writer, Sarah Park, President Meet Edgar, Alina Vandenberghe, Co-Founder Chili Piper, Derek Andersen, CEO Startup Grind, Michelle Dale, CEO Virtual Miss Friday Stitcher   Google Podcast  iTunes  Spotify Please subscribe to the remote work life podcast and you'll learn how to: > get clarity on your career direction > master online and in-person job interviews > find unadvertised or hidden jobs > use LinkedIn to network with hiring managers > thrive in a remote work culture > stay connected and develop and support your remote teammates Let's connect: On Facebook   On LinkedIn   On Instagram  On YouTube

Luke Szyrmer Founder of Align Remotely has managed or participated in remote only knowledge work teams for almost a decade. Most recently, he lead a program of approximately 30 distributed across 13 time zones and 8 different locations. Over the last 9 years, he has lead teams building software, running marketing and sales, and launched a bestselling book called Align Remotely. In many cases, with people he never met or spoke to in person. Now that everyone has been thrust into a similar situation, he is keen on helping other leaders come to grip with this pandemic, by sharing what has worked well for him in the past. About the podcast and community  Welcome to the Remote Work Life Podcast, where real-world remote work CEOs and leaders talk about how they hire, network, collaborate and thrive. Join me and more than 5000 followers in customer success, marketing, product and engineering to learn skills you need to work online from anywhere. I am your Host, Alex Wilson-Campbell - I'm an Employment Coach and Tech Recruiter on a mission to help you gain clarity and direction in your career AND uncover hidden jobs through one-to-one and group coaching.  

Nick Francis, Director at GIRI Training and Consultancy, joins us to discuss surviving as an engineering consultancy. During the episode, we cover: being flexible, being useful in terms of type A, B, and C work, the need to evolve quickly, and surviving as an engineering consultancy.

And On Today's Episode …  Today's guest is Victoria Bond CEO of Space HR. Space HR are an employee engagement agency - super charging business performance through highly engaged teams. "We've built an employee engagement survey platform that works via WhatsApp and is perfect to give everyone in a business a voice." And today we discuss why engagement of a remote team is critical to success and how to overcome the challenges of engagement in remote teams. Giving everyone in your team a voice. Let me know what you think. About the podcast and community  Welcome to the Remote Work Life Podcast, where real-world remote work CEOs and leaders talk about how they hire, network, collaborate and thrive. Join me and more than 5000 followers in customer success, marketing, product and engineering to learn skills you need to work online from anywhere. I am your Host, Alex Wilson-Campbell - I'm Interview Coach and Tech Recruiter on a mission to help you gain clarity and direction in your career AND uncover hidden jobs through one-to-one and group coaching.  

And On Today's Episode …  Today's guest is Dee Coakley, Co-Founder & CEO @ Boundless - They're removing the barriers to scaling teams internationally, allowing companies to employ anyone, anywhere.   And I'll be asking: What are the Implications of employees working in another country short term?  What are the Implications of employees working in another country long term? What are the options for employing internationally? Boundless recently reached a major milestone and received  VC investment of > £2 million.  Click here to find out more  Let me know what you think. About the podcast and community  Welcome to the Remote Work Life Podcast, where real-world remote work CEOs and leaders talk about how they hire, network, collaborate and thrive. Join me and more than 5000 followers in customer success, marketing, product and engineering to learn skills you need to work online from anywhere. I am your Host, Alex Wilson-Campbell - I'm Interview Coach and Tech Recruiter on a mission to help you gain clarity and direction in your career AND uncover hidden jobs through one-to-one and group coaching.  

And On Today's Episode …  FROM THE ARCHIVE: In this episode, I share the complete conversation I had with John Eckman, Chief Executive Officer at 10up, a distributed digital agency with a focus on building great web publishing experiences on open source platforms, primarily WordPress. Listen in to learn how John has built a great distributed team and what the greatest challenges he and his team have faced along the way. Check here to review 10up's latest jobs https://10up.com/careers/  And check John's talk entitled 'Distributed, Not Disconnected' >> https://www.youtube.com/embed/PmqgK_yE_Co?start=7143&end=9210 Let me know what you think. About the podcast and community  Welcome to the Remote Work Life Podcast, where real-world remote work CEOs and leaders talk about how they hire, network, collaborate and thrive. Join me and more than 5000 followers in customer success, marketing, product and engineering to learn skills you need to work online from anywhere. I am your Host, Alex Wilson-Campbell - I'm Interview Coach and Tech Recruiter on a mission to help you gain clarity and direction in your career AND uncover hidden jobs through one-to-one and group coaching.  

And On Today’s Episode …  This is the remote work life business spotlight where I highlight top remote businesses, innovations and tech to help you navigate the world of remote work. Today I'm featuring Recharge who are hiring right now check the link for more details... https://rechargepayments.com/careers/ I'm your host Alex Wilson-Campbell, I'm an interview coach and tech recruiter on a mission to help you gain clarity and direction in your career and uncover hidden jobs through one to one and group coaching. About the podcast and community  Welcome to the Remote Work Life Podcast, where real-world remote work CEOs and leaders talk about how they hire, network, collaborate and thrive. Join me and more than 5000 followers in customer success, marketing, product and engineering to learn skills you need to work online from anywhere. I am your Host, Alex Wilson-Campbell - I’m Interview Coach and Tech Recruiter on a mission to help you gain clarity and direction in your career AND uncover hidden jobs through one-to-one and group coaching.    

And On Today’s Episode …  If you're searching for your next remote role have thought about how you're going to find your next role?  In this episode, I'm going to share the most important skill you'll need to master in order to find a remote role. Let me know what you think. About the podcast and community  Welcome to the Remote Work Life Podcast, where real-world remote work CEOs and leaders talk about how they hire, network, collaborate and thrive. Join me and more than 5000 followers in customer success, marketing, product and engineering to learn skills you need to work online from anywhere. I am your Host, Alex Wilson-Campbell - I’m Interview Coach and Tech Recruiter on a mission to help you gain clarity and direction in your career AND uncover hidden jobs through one-to-one and group coaching.  

And On Today’s Episode …  On today's show, I'm sharing a conversation on diversity in business that I had with the Managing Director of Good Talent, Leon Richards. Let me know what you think. About the podcast and community  Welcome to the Remote Work Life Podcast, where real-world remote work CEOs and leaders talk about how they hire, network, collaborate and thrive. Join me and more than 5000 followers in customer success, marketing, product and engineering to learn skills you need to work online from anywhere. I am your Host, Alex Wilson-Campbell - I’m Interview Coach and Tech Recruiter on a mission to help you gain clarity and direction in your career AND uncover hidden jobs through one-to-one and group coaching.  

And On Today’s Episode …  This is the remote work life's 'remote voices' where I highlight top remote leaders and CEOs to help you navigate the world of remote work. Today I'm featuring Pilar Orti Dir Virtual Not Distant and she shares some of her tips on the best attributes of remote managers. Let me know what you think. About the podcast and community  Welcome to the Remote Work Life Podcast, where real-world remote work CEOs and leaders talk about how they hire, network, collaborate and thrive. Join me and more than 5000 followers in customer success, marketing, product and engineering to learn skills you need to work online from anywhere. I am your Host, Alex Wilson-Campbell - I’m Interview Coach and Tech Recruiter on a mission to help you gain clarity and direction in your career AND uncover hidden jobs through one-to-one and group coaching.  

And On Today’s Episode …  Another one from the archives: We’ve scoured the planet to bring you the very best location-independent leaders, not to mention the very best in remote businesses. Edgar is yet another example of a remote business that’s paving the way for people like you to work just the way they want. And Edgar President Sarah is another example of a Remote Hero who wants to help your career move forward. In this enlightening session, she shares her communication, marketing and hiring chops to help you to use your own communication and marketing skills to shine when making applications for your next opportunity. Social media is a key component of your online presence and Sarah will share tips on how to make a real impact so you’re ready when the inevitable happens - and recruiters and hiring managers review your profiles. About the podcast and community  Welcome to the Remote Work Life Podcast, where real-world remote work CEOs and leaders talk about how they hire, network, collaborate and thrive. Join me and more than 5000 followers in customer success, marketing, product and engineering to learn skills you need to work online from anywhere. I am your Host, Alex Wilson-Campbell - I’m Interview Coach and Tech Recruiter on a mission to help you gain clarity and direction in your career AND uncover hidden jobs through one-to-one and group coaching.  

And On Today’s Episode …  IMHO Steli is one of the leading speakers out there right now! If you’re looking for an inspiring, invigorating and captivating coaching session then I’m pleased to say we have it right here.  Like it or not, deep down, you know that selling yourself is the key to unlock your next opportunity. Well, fortunately for you this Remote CEO and sales Hero will share expertise that helped him secure million dollar backing (to launch and scale his business) to help you sell yourself better.  So I urge you to subscribe and listen up, because this killer coaching session will help you strike a chord in meetings, interviews networking events or wherever! About the podcast and community  Welcome to the Remote Work Life Podcast, where real-world remote work CEOs and leaders talk about how they hire, network, collaborate and thrive. Join me and more than 5000 followers in customer success, marketing, product and engineering to learn skills you need to work online from anywhere. I am your Host, Alex Wilson-Campbell - I’m Interview Coach and Tech Recruiter on a mission to help you gain clarity and direction in your career AND uncover hidden jobs through one-to-one and group coaching.  

And On Today’s Episode …  Another one from the pre-covid archive:Are you trying to figure out what separates the good remote companies from the not so good? Or, are you wondering what’s it’s like to work for a fully remote business. Maybe you’re wondering which opportunities suit you and you’re not having success with your applications.  Remote Hero Darcy tells us how she made her dreams -of travelling while working - come true by positioning herself to transition into a remote career path. HINT: she didn’t use a job board. And she reveals some of the crucial tools - many remote companies use - that could help you stand out when applying for a remote position. About the podcast and community  Welcome to the Remote Work Life Podcast, where real-world remote work CEOs and leaders talk about how they hire, network, collaborate and thrive. Join me and more than 5000 followers in customer success, marketing, product and engineering to learn skills you need to work online from anywhere. I am your Host, Alex Wilson-Campbell - I’m Interview Coach and Tech Recruiter on a mission to help you gain clarity and direction in your career AND uncover hidden jobs through one-to-one and group coaching.  

On this episode of Protect the Hustle, Help Scout's Nick Francis discusses the importance of values in operating a company.

And On Today’s Episode …  This is the remote work life's 'remote voices' where I highlight top remote leaders and CEOs to help you navigate the world of remote work. Employees and entrepreneurs can learn a lot from business leaders and CEOs.  Today I'm featuring James Haigh , Director of We Are Sweet and he reveals his mindset and thought process in setting up his remote business. Let me know what you think. About the podcast and community  Welcome to the Remote Work Life Podcast, where real-world remote work CEOs and leaders talk about how they hire, network, collaborate and thrive. Join me and more than 5000 followers in customer success, marketing, product and engineering to learn skills you need to work online from anywhere. I am your Host, Alex Wilson-Campbell - I’m Interview Coach and Tech Recruiter on a mission to help you gain clarity and direction in your career AND uncover hidden jobs through one-to-one and group coaching.  

In this episode, I chat with Nick Francis - Chairman and Co-Founder of Casual Films - about how to write a winning brief. I've had Nick on the pod before to talk about his book - The New Fire, Harness the Power of Video for your business. We flick through the book again, this time on the chapter - How to write a winning brief. Nick and his team have been involved in producing over 10,000 videos for businesses, so he's well placed to give you the key ingredients for creating a great brief for any videos you have in the pipeline. If you want to check out Nick's book in more detail, pop over to his website https://www.newfirebook.com/ Thanks for listening. Chris Le'cand-Harwood Director & Strategy Lead, Content Marketing Pod Ltd https://www.contentmarketingpod.com/ --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/employercontentmarketing/message

What content would you create if you thought like a broadcaster? This was a question I posed to listeners in Episode 6 with Nick Francis, co-founder of Casual Films. As the world comes out of lockdown we've joined forces to come up with a framework to help you reset your approach to creating content that engages people in a post-COVID world. Nick kindly invited me onto his Better Video Podcast last month to talk about the framework to help you change up your content. Thanks for listening and please do share your thoughts on how you are approaching content for a post-COVID world.  Chris Le'cand-Harwood Social Media & Content Marketing Consultant www.lch.social --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/employercontentmarketing/message

Content marketing is extremely valuable in employer marketing.  What is it? It's a strategic marketing approach focused on creating and distributing valuable, relevant, and consistent content to attract and retain a clearly-defined audience — and, ultimately, to drive profitable customer action (Content Marketing Institute). That's why I wanted to continue the chat I had with Nick Francis in Episode 2 about a section of his book, The New Fire - Harness the power of video for your business.   He wrote about brands as broadcasters. When brands think like broadcasters what happens to their content? And what does this mean for employer branding? About my guest: Nick is a communications strategist, author and filmmaker. His company, Casual Films produces over 2,000 films a year for some of the world's most influential brands. They have worked in 45 countries and had their work translated into 35 languages, winning over 100 awards in the process. From Casual's first job on the road to Mongolia in a clapped out Mini their spirit of adventure has led them to offices in London, New York, LA, San Francisco and Amsterdam. He previously worked for BBC News and has studied, read, written and presented extensively about video, storytelling, brand building and communication. He is a Founding Director of the Casual Films Academy charity which trains young people in filmmaking through producing videos for charitable causes. Useful links discussed in the episode GoDaddy's YouTube Channel as a great example of YouTube's Content Structure: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCgH_SmWw9WianYyOB5Y6tEA Red Bull and their standout commitment to behaving as a broadcaster: https://www.redbull.com/gb-en/ EY and their apprenticeship content: https://ukcareers.ey.com/students/career-advice/apprenticeships Rolls-Royce and their myth-busting apprenticeship videos: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H8btA5jWuxM If you want to find out more about Nick's book then pop over to his website: https://www.newfirebook.com/ Thanks for listening. Chris Le'cand-Harwood Social Media & Content Marketing Consultant www.chrislch.com Sponsorships: off for this episode --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/employercontentmarketing/message

Cisco predicted that 82% of the world's consumer internet traffic will be video by 2021. What does this mean for business? In this episode I chat with Nick Francis about his book: The New Fire - Harness the power of video for your business. We talk about why video is so important, the power of stories and how talent acquisition professionals make the most of video. Nick is a communications strategist, author and filmmaker. His company, Casual Films produces over 2,000 films a year for some of the world's most influential brands. They have worked in 45 countries and had their work translated into 35 languages, winning over 100 awards in the process. From Casual's first job on the road to Mongolia in a clapped out Mini their spirit of adventure has led them to offices in London, New York, LA, San Francisco and Amsterdam. He previously worked for BBC News and has studied, read, written and presented extensively about video, storytelling, brand building and communication. He is a Founding Director of the Casual Films Academy charity which trains young people in filmmaking through producing videos for charitable causes. Useful links We talked about some great storytelling examples from Netfilx: https://www.chrislch.com/post/netflix-do-diversity-stories-naturally If you want to find out more about Nick's book then pop over to his website: https://www.newfirebook.com/ Thanks for listening. Chris Le'cand-Harwood Social Media & Content Marketing Consultant www.chrislch.com --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/employercontentmarketing/message

David Gold, Nick Francis and John Majefksi host the premier episode. They discuss collecting and their own wrestling collections! Enjoy!

Discover why values are the cornerstone of remote work success in this must-listen episode of the Remote Work podcast. Join us as we explore the insights of CEOs, leaders, and entrepreneurs who reveal how defining, articulating, and living by core values can transform the culture of a remote team. Through the lens of Nick Francis's experiences, we unpack the profound impact of actively participating in a company's culture and how values play a pivotal role in your career, confidence, and overall job satisfaction.Listen to a compelling narrative about Good Talent, a values-led remote recruitment business that chose integrity over profit by turning down a lucrative client. We'll share practical advice for remote employees and freelancers on how to align with your team's values for sustainable, harmonious professional relationships. Tune in to grasp the essential lessons on why embracing the right values isn't just beneficial—it's indispensable for thriving in the remote work environment.Refer a Remote Work Expert As a Guest On The ShowClick here remoteworklife.io to subscribe to my free newsletter Connect on LinkedIn

Discover the secrets to cultivating a thriving remote work culture from industry leaders like Nick Francis, CEO of Help Scout. Join me, Alex from Remote Work Life, as we unpack the deliberate strategies behind successful remote teams. Learn how CEOs and founders are fostering a sense of belonging and combating imposter syndrome through intentional team-building and transparent communication. Insights from Deloitte's research underline the importance of consistent effort, and there's no better way to understand this than through real-world examples from top remote-first companies.Engage with your remote team like never before by mastering the art of virtual "water cooler" moments. Whether you're a manager looking to boost team morale or a team member wanting to feel more connected, this episode will provide actionable tips for active participation. I'll also share how intentional engagement can transform your remote work experience, making you feel empowered and included. Don't miss out on this essential discussion that will equip you to excel in a virtual workspace. Connect with me and our community on LinkedIn and Facebook to stay engaged and get your questions answered in upcoming episodes.Refer a Remote Work Expert As a Guest On The ShowClick here remoteworklife.io to subscribe to my free newsletter Connect on LinkedIn

Unlock the secrets of thriving in a remote work environment as industry leaders Nick Francis of Help Scout, Sarah Park of Meet Edgar, and Steli Efti of Close join me, Alex, on a journey through the technological landscape that supports remote businesses. Discover how their innovative software solutions revolutionize customer interactions, social media management, and sales processes. Learn firsthand about the indispensable tools that streamline remote work, with a special spotlight on Calendly and its ability to effortlessly coordinate meetings. This episode promises to equip you with the knowledge needed to master essential tech tools and boost your productivity in a remote setting.Building a robust remote work community is more crucial than ever. Dive into the next chapter where we discuss the importance of networking and community building in the remote work sphere. I'll introduce you to our vibrant Facebook group, "Remote Work Life Accelerator," a space designed to foster connections among remote workers and businesses. Stay connected with fellow professionals, share your insights, and look forward to more engaging content. Plus, don't forget to link up with me on LinkedIn to share your thoughts on future episode themes and guests. Together, let's thrive in remote work and ensure no one feels isolated.Refer a Remote Work Expert As a Guest On The ShowClick here remoteworklife.io to subscribe to my free newsletter Connect on LinkedIn

As the CEO and Co-Founder of Help Scout, Nick Francis talks about being self-aware of all the things that you don’t know as a leader, hiring people in a remote culture, having and recognizing your own flaws, and that the real measure of a good leader is what happens when you’re not around. Every few… Read the full article

FROM THE ARCHIVE: Ever wondered how you can scale a solo business to a million-dollar success while maintaining a balanced lifestyle? In this episode of the Remote Work Life podcast, we promise actionable insights from Elaine Pofeldt, the acclaimed author of "The Million Dollar One Person Business." Elaine shares her journey from freelancing to achieving remarkable financial milestones, all while raising a family. Learn the key traits that contribute to the success of solo entrepreneurs and how you, too, can transform your remote career into a lucrative venture.Freelancing is far more diverse than tech and AI roles, and we explore this expansive landscape in depth. From writers and web designers to attorneys and accountants, discover the various ways professionals are carving out successful freelance careers. Whether you're a seasoned professional seeking flexibility or a small business owner looking to hire reliable talent, we provide practical advice on leveraging word of mouth and testing freelancers with smaller projects. Adaptability and modern hiring practices are essential in today's dynamic work environment.Technology is a game-changer for solo entrepreneurs aiming for million-dollar revenues. We highlight the importance of accessible tools like scheduling apps and CRMs, and how automation can streamline your business operations. Elaine's book serves as a guide, emphasizing the need for documented processes and strategic focus. Plus, don't miss our special promotion for the upcoming Remote Work Life Summit, where you'll hear from remote work leaders like Nick Francis and Steli Efti. Register now to access a wealth of knowledge and elevate your remote work life!Refer a Remote Work Expert As a Guest On The ShowClick here remoteworklife.io to subscribe to my free newsletter Connect on LinkedIn

Nick Francis is the co-founder and CEO of Help Scout, a simple help desk product designed for small and medium-sized businesses. Help Scout was founded in April 2011 and now powers over 8,000 support teams in over 140 countries. The Show Notes Help Scout HelpU Basecamp SalesForce Shopify MailChimp Gmail TechStars "Do More Faster: TechStars Lessons to Accelerate Your Startup" by Brad Feld & David Cohen David Cohen on Twitter Katie Rae on Twitter Nick on Twitter Omer on Twitter Enjoyed this episode? Subscribe to the podcast Leave a rating and review Follow Omer on Twitter Need help with your SaaS? Join SaaS Club Plus: our membership and community for new and early-stage SaaS founders. Join and get training & support. Join SaaS Club Launch: a 12-week group coaching program to help you get your SaaS from zero to your first $10K revenue. Apply for SaaS Club Accelerate: If you'd like to work directly with Omer 1:1, then request a free strategy session.