Podcasts about Polaris Project

Zed Williamson is the founder and CEO of TrackableMed. He explores his transition from the advertising world to the medtech industry, where he applies neuroscience and behavior change principles to optimize medical systems. Zed discusses the importance of bridging the gap between clinical information and human connections in healthcare, and shares insights from his two podcasts aimed at medical sales and private practice growth. This discussion is packed full of practical advice for leaders in all industries.    Guest links: https://www.trackablemed.com/ | https://www.linkedin.com/in/zedwilliamson/ Charity supported: Polaris Project Interested in being a guest on the show or have feedback to share? Email us at theleadingdifference@velentium.com.  PRODUCTION CREDITS Host: Lindsey Dinneen Editing: Marketing Wise Producer: Velentium   EPISODE TRANSCRIPT Episode 055 - Zed Williamson [00:00:00] Lindsey Dinneen: Hi, I'm Lindsey and I'm talking with MedTech industry leaders on how they change lives for a better world. [00:00:09] Diane Bouis: The inventions and technologies are fascinating and so are the people who work with them. [00:00:15] Frank Jaskulke: There was a period of time where I realized, fundamentally, my job was to go hang out with really smart people that are saving lives and then do work that would help them save more lives. [00:00:28] Diane Bouis: I got into the business to save lives and it is incredibly motivating to work with people who are in that same business, saving or improving lives. [00:00:38] Duane Mancini: What better industry than where I get to wake up every day and just save people's lives. [00:00:42] Lindsey Dinneen: These are extraordinary people doing extraordinary work, and this is The Leading Difference. Hello, and welcome back to another episode of The Leading Difference podcast. My name is Lindsey, and I am so excited to introduce you to my guest today, Zed Williamson. Zed is the founder and CEO of TrackableMed, a medical growth platform established in 2011 focused on delivering tangible results for healthcare professionals. He emphasizes that every system is perfectly designed to achieve its current results, and believes that by identifying and addressing system constraints, meaningful change can be achieved. Through TrackableMed, Zed applies neuroscience and behavior change principles to help private medical practices and medtech companies optimize their systems. He also shares actionable insights as the host of two podcasts, The Medical Sales Accelerator podcast, providing tips and secrets from the industry's top performers, and The Physician Growth Accelerator podcast, aiming to assist private practice physicians in balancing excellent patient care with successful practice management. All right. Well, welcome, Zed. It's so nice to speak with you today. [00:01:50] Zed Williamson: Thanks for having me. Appreciate it. [00:01:52] Lindsey Dinneen: Absolutely. Well, would you mind sharing a little bit about yourself and your background and what led you to MedTech? [00:01:59] Zed Williamson: Sure. So actually I come from the advertising world, which maybe seems strange. I thought it my life plan was climbing the corporate ladder, and I thought it was a really good idea, and then I realized I despised the industry. I just thought it was totally riddled with a complete lack of accountability to actual results. And it wasn't feeding my soul to, to be working in that space. And so I started a company called TrackableMed back in 2011 with the idea that we all are, we're working with humans have brains and brains are pretty predictable because of the understanding of neuroscience and cognitive behavior, bias and heuristics, and that we could create a company that would help medical practices grow by bringing in very specific patients. And that's when I was introduced to the medical device industry because the people and the organizations that witnessed the work we did for private medical practices first was that medical device space. And that really opened my eyes to this amazing industry where, unfortunately, patients don't know how much amazing technology there is out there. There's patients making uninformed decisions about treatment plans, and there's something better. In most every case, there's something better. So that really does feed my soul. And this idea that we kind of take ownership of it is our job to help people realize that they don't have to live the way they're living and that's really what fuels the organization. [00:03:28] Lindsey Dinneen: Yeah, well, that's incredible and very important, obviously. So I want to go a little bit further back in your personal story first, and then I definitely want to hear all about what you're doing now. But back at the beginning, could you have anticipated that you would end up in this field and doing the work that you're doing now? Or was this just a happy evolution over time? [00:03:48] Zed Williamson: I had major knee surgery when I was 16 years old and I thought physical therapy was really cool. Like I, that's where I thought I wanted to go. And too much math and science. So, so it was not the direction for me. And I really wrapped my head around human behavior, this idea that everything is so predictable. Our brains were built a long time ago to exist in a world that doesn't exist anymore, and when you understand the bias and heuristics of the brain, you can literally create and predict behavior. So that's why I went into that advertising space, because that felt like a better fit for that. The way I came back to medical was, I actually heard a commercial for a procedure that sounded really interesting, and it was a horrible commercial. And I just, I did some research and realized that no one who had what this procedure would fix would ever think that procedure would help them. But once I realized what that procedure was doing, it was almost like I had to carry the flag and run this up the hill, because there's people who don't know that this exists, and that's how I kind of dipped my toe in and learned, and then I just got honestly addicted to the curiosity around what else is there out there from a technology standpoint. [00:05:13] Lindsey Dinneen: Absolutely. So you started exploring what else was out there and then you formed your own company, which is a consulting firm and more. Could you speak a little bit about that and how the company has evolved over time too? [00:05:25] Zed Williamson: Yeah, so started TrackableMed in 2011 really to help those practices. And what we learned is that medical practices generally just kind of-- this may sound strange-- but they generally sit around and wait to see what patients show up. And there are some amazing technology opportunities out there. And even medical device reps will, like when I say this, they'll go, "Yeah, I hear that all the time." And that is that a lot of times physicians are looking for perfect patients to use technology. And it's because maybe they're new to it and they just, they want that perfect patient. So what we were good at is getting the perfect patient. And what we realized is the services we were providing direct to private practices also worked for medical device companies because if medical device companies took ownership of educating patients about the life they could be living, you really drove massive adoption of these devices. So if you think about a physician, the training they go through, generally they're not really big to change, right? That's kind of built into them. They spent a long time learning abnormal anatomy, normal anatomy. They see abnormal and they go, "Ooh, we've got to fix that." And that's their mindset. So when you're a medical device company and you have something that is better, and you know what I find is 99 percent of the people I meet in medical device are really passionate about getting the word out because it's better, right? It's like, we don't have to do it in the old way. You're doing a surgery that was done in 1942. There's something different now that's actually got better outcomes. So anyway, but physicians are biased against that change. We see a lot of biases that pop up in that behavior. But one of the quickest routes to changing that behavior is have patients ask for it. Because it removes the, kind of that bias that they're not doing something they were trained and they're actually now serving the patient. And so what we started doing with the Medical Sales Accelerator is working with medical device companies on creating programs to make it so patients were saying, "Hey, doc, do you do the blank procedure?" And that would help drive adoption. [00:07:39] Lindsey Dinneen: Yeah. Okay. That's incredible. So you have this consulting portion, which is huge. And then you also have podcasts. And I was wondering if you could share a little bit about your inspiration for introducing these podcasts to the world and what you hope to accomplish through these as well. [00:07:54] Zed Williamson: Sure. And the two podcasts are very different. The Medical Sales Accelerator podcast is about putting the spotlight on the best of the best in the medical device industry. We talk to authors that have written books that have really impacted the industry. Jeffrey Moore was one of my favorite episodes. That was awesome. And the challenger sale, like there's a lot of really cool stuff there. And what we really built it for is we wanted people, who had some windshield time, to be able to listen to something that was going to make their next interaction with their customer better. And so it's an interview style podcast. It's leadership in medical device. Sometimes it's sales leadership, sometimes it's authors, but it's all around this incredible industry and really just a conversation about these little tips and tricks that people are using that help them be more successful. And that's been great. That podcast is four, four and a half years old. So we've been doing it a long time and I've got some really good feedback. The other podcast is the Physician Growth Accelerator. And this podcast is not interview style. It is designed to give actionable tips to private practice business owning physicians. The episodes tend to be eight to 12 minutes and it's, you can walk away, implement something that you heard. We do share it with the medical device community as well, because a lot of times if you're a medical device rep and you have a piece of technology that's very similar to competitive to competitors, you're always looking to how can I bring more value? You know, what can I do on top of the technology? And so we found a lot of medical device reps will share episodes from The Physician Growth Accelerator to their customers because they witness firsthand what is going on in the practice that can be very frustrating. [00:09:54] Lindsey Dinneen: Yeah, well, both of them sound incredible, and I appreciate that you have two separate podcasts that are really impacting the industry. And I'm wondering, getting to speak with all these incredible people and hearing their advice and inspiration and things like that, what are some of the common themes you've picked out from these in terms of challenges within the industry that may be, you know, through these conversations, or even your own consulting work, that you can help solve? [00:10:17] Zed Williamson: Yeah, so I would say the biggest-- is such a good question-- the biggest challenge is something called curse of knowledge. And curse of knowledge is this idea that when you foundationally understand something, it almost automatically makes you worse at communicating it to someone who doesn't, right? And you see this in sales a lot, where a salesperson goes, "Oh, you know, this one's great because it's got the X942 va ba da ba." and the person buying has no idea what that means and you're not helping. And the thing that medical device very commonly miss, is they have this passionate route for the existence of their technology, the years, the effort, the expense, and they are thinking big picture, like it's really important that we achieve these things because we are changing lives. And then, they go to their customers, and they show them the X948, you know, vibidabidabada, right? And they're just trying to live in this world of, "Well look, this one has a number on it," or, and that's where we see the biggest challenge, is: physicians, surgeons, they're humans too, they connect with stories. They are actually in it to help patients. And that big disconnect is a challenge that you see almost every company face. Part of it is cause they're so excited about all the work they did that they're not using the foundation that got them through those speed bumps to actually help someone else wrap their head around the concept. You know, it's just like if you cook an amazing meal, the person who watched you do that appreciates it much more than if they just tasted the exact same meal just served to them. If they see the effort you went through and why you did slice the onion this way or whatever it is-- maybe that's a weird example-- but, it's the biggest myths that we see across medical devices. They get trained to clinical information and they go try to have clinical conversations because they think doctors are going to make a logical clinical decision. But humans are not logical. We don't do that. So that would, that would be number one. [00:12:24] Lindsey Dinneen: Yeah, that's absolutely core. And then how do you bridge that gap? Or how do you encourage people to think through bridging that gap between, yes, we love that you have all these shiny features that are very important, but they don't necessarily mean a whole lot to your end user just yet. So how can you help bridge that gap between all the shiny features that the engineering team wants to talk about versus how does this benefit that end user or the physician or whoever needs it? [00:12:52] Zed Williamson: So a lot of it is understanding truly what the bias that this person may have against changing. It could be that they're uncomfortable with change. It could be that they don't want to make a decision that potentially is worse than the current thing that they're offering. And if you understand what is holding this person back, it's going to put you in a better position to understand that perspective. But your conversation needs to be about aligning goals, asking questions. The medical device so often talks too much. They tell, as opposed to what's important, what's frustrating, what do you wish. "Tell me about a patient that it crushed you because you couldn't help them." So it's about connecting on the human side to see, is there actually a reason why this person should do something different? If you go to a neurosurgeon and they don't do disc replacements, and you just try to bulldoze in and say, "Hey, a lumbar disc replacement is better for a patient than putting in a cage," you're not getting anywhere with that person. But if you can talk stories of patients and help them understand from a life impact, because physicians only get to experience a blip in time in the health care journey of a patient, and it has to be that way. And if you can help them understand kind of the parentheses around the rest of that person's life, like what led that person to need this, and after they leave, what is their life going to be? And now, if your device influences what that impact is, that's where you have the most leverage. [00:14:37] Lindsey Dinneen: Yeah, absolutely. And so, you know, one thing that struck me as I was reading through what your company does and all the value it brings to the world, something that really stood out to me was you said something along the lines of you are passionate about balancing patient care with the business side. So what do you find in that particular realm are the gaps? Because obviously, like you said, these are very caring individuals, super smart, very capable people, and they're experts in their field. So how do you help them to marry that expertise with the business side? [00:15:07] Zed Williamson: Yeah. So, this goes back to bias and sometimes people will have a belief about something. Here's what's interesting about our brain. So someone may tell you that we can't control emotions, that emotions happen. And I would slightly agree with that. The reason I say "slightly" is because an emotion happens based on a belief and we can control our beliefs. And so what can happen is if someone believes that financial success is not good, then they are going to have an emotional response related to anything that goes down that path. But that is a belief that you can change. And, the biggest issue with business and healthcare is, there are organizations, unfortunately, that they're not seeing the patient in, from a standpoint of what we do. They're looking at a bottom line only, and that's why their organization exists, and I'm a believer that when you only focus on that, at some point, it's not going to go well. If you focus on the patient, but be smart around the structure you have to the organization, you can build something that's very financially successful that's helping more patients. You're building a moat around your business so that you can continue to help those patients and we're helping more lives. But it gets to belief first. If someone believes it's bad or wants to pretend they believe it's bad, because that's the thing too, then that creates that emotional response that really puts them in a position where they are going to have a hard time succeeding. And if you don't succeed on the business side, you haven't helped any patients. There are medical device companies who've gone out of business and it's not because their technology was bad, but they didn't go to market in the right way. And how many people did we hurt by allowing that to happen? You know, if we actually felt like there was value, then we need to take ownership of creating something that can really sustain and help as many humans as possible [00:17:23] Lindsey Dinneen: Yeah, and that's really great advice and insight, and you have this reoccurring theme, which is you have this psychology background and interest. Where did that element come from in terms of how did you continue to even elevate your own beliefs so that your emotions could also follow suit? But where did this whole thing come from that has allowed you to be so successful personally and then for your clients from that neuroscience and psychology perspective and background? [00:17:51] Zed Williamson: You know, the origin story of that stuff comes from a long time ago, me wanting to help clients and realizing that the advertising world was broken because they were awarding creativity, and creativity does not equal success. The advertising world actually really hurt themselves back in the late 50s, 60s, where they started giving awards for creativity and it changed the reason people did something. "So, hey, let me create something so I win an award." "Well, did it help the company that paid you?" "I don't know." That's not good. And so I've always been a believer that we really do exist in a state where we are always witnessing perfect outcomes of our current system. Someone might go, "Well, there's no such thing as perfection." And I don't mean it's perfect from my perspective, but the system was perfect at creating that outcome. If I go and walk into a room and stub my toe, me stubbing my toe was the perfect outcome of the system I operated: the light not being on, shoes not on, not paying attention. And so the same thing with behavior. And if we look at, you know, humans are pretty interesting from an organism. We have this fancy brain. We survived in a world we probably shouldn't have. We're not as strong. We don't have claws. We don't have big teeth. Most of us are not as furry. But you know, we still survived and it's because of the brain and the brain has this one thing to do: stay alive. It does not know a grocery store is around the corner. It does not know that when someone cuts you off, that it wasn't a saber toothed tiger trying to eat your family. So if we just allow this brain that did a really good job of keeping us alive, if we allow it to continue running, then we're limiting the evolution of ourselves from what we can really be aware of and understand. The idea that someone can make me angry is a really silly idea. It's not true. Anything you do, you can't make me angry. I have to believe something. Now you could do some things where you could maybe get a sense of what I likely believe and you might take some action and I would be angry, but I'm never going to give that power to you from the standpoint of you can actually make it so. You can't make it so. And, there's an example I like to use to just help people realize how much perspective is in our control. You're driving down a road. It's 45 miles an hour, and you see this stop sign up on the right hand side coming up. And this car pulls up to that stop sign and there's something about the car or the driver, and in your mind you go," They're going to roll this stop sign and I'm going to have to slam on the brakes." It just, it pops into your head. Everyone listening right now, I know it's happened to you. Sure enough, car pulls in front of you, you slam on the brake so hard everything in your chair or your seat hits the dashboard, your shoulders tense up, you get angry, maybe you say some things about this driver or the car, like, "I knew it." Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. And so people are feeling that right now. You weren't harmed. Okay, there was no accident. You hit the brakes. You might get to your destination three seconds later than you originally were. But here's the rest of the story. It was a mom driving and her child was in the back seat bleeding to death and she was going to the ER. Everybody's shoulders just went, oh. Wait, so now you're not angry, but nothing changed, right? You still hit the brakes. The stuff still hit the dashboard. You're still gonna be three seconds later than you were. But our brain is designed to treat things with this fight or flight. And when you can understand that everything you say to people can be more helpful. Every witnessing of other people's behavior can be more helpful. In a work environment, if someone acts defensive, it's probably not because of you, it's they're in a state where their brain is trying to tell them they're in danger even though they're not, and they don't know that the mom was rushing her kid to the ER. And so it was kind of like squeezing toothpaste out of a tube for me. Once I really wrapped my head around that understanding, I can't get it back in the tube, like it's now it's got to drive everything, right? Because there's so much value in it. There's so, I get really passionate because everybody on the planet can be experiencing more joy than they currently are without anything different in their life because it's purely perspective and understanding and knowing your own beliefs and then choosing, do I want that belief or does that belief actually serve me? Why do I believe that? Maybe I shouldn't believe that. So anyway, long answer. I don't know if I actually answered your question, but I kind of go off on a soapbox in those scenarios. [00:22:39] Lindsey Dinneen: Love it. And I really appreciate that particular illustration because I think that was the perfect way to capture how much responsibility we are able to take for ourselves and our reactions to things. And it's such a good reminder too, that in the daily we get to choose. We get to choose what affects us, what doesn't, what brings us joy, where we can give grace and patience in a circumstance that we maybe know nothing about. Yeah. I love that. So, you've gotten to speak with so many incredible people through your podcasts, through your consulting, and of course, you've worked with some pretty spectacular companies. What are a couple moments, or maybe a moment, that really stands out to you as just driving home the idea that, yes, I am in the right industry at the right time? [00:23:21] Zed Williamson: So I love learning. I am really curious. And I don't think that there is a way for me to learn more faster than being in this space. There's things that we know about just human behavior today that it wasn't known 15 years ago. The technology is incredible. I had the CEO of a company that's building a remote control pill that you swallow and they swim it around your stomach to be able to scan your stomach lining for cancer without an endoscopy. They could ship it to somebody and control it from the other side of the world. That is fricking cool. So there's so much unending opportunity. I think the exact, like I've always enjoyed history. I like learning, but I couldn't be in a role where that was my job. Like, "Hey, let's learn what already happened." I do like the context. I like thinking about humans, ancient humans doing things and how it affects us today. But I just think this space is, it's infinite from the standpoint of what's possible, what technology there is, the impact of that technology with the people that work in the industry, that work in health care and the patients. So it's just to me. It's just a vast place to play. [00:24:44] Lindsey Dinneen: It's so true, and you can't get bored. Or if you get bored, that's entirely your fault, I would say, because there's so much innovation. And you know, like we were talking about even before pressing play, there's so much care and dedication and passion in this industry to really make a difference, and that alone is inspiring to even simply bear witness to. [00:25:06] Zed Williamson: Yeah, absolutely. It's a big part of our entire organization. If anybody calls it up and says, "Hey, why do you guys actually do what you do?" Anybody would tell you it's to help people realize that they don't have to live the way they're living. And if you know that someone is about to have a procedure that is from 1942 and they have one that's better, we call it, and this might be strange to share publicly, but we call it "pulling kids out of traffic." Like you wouldn't walk down a street and go, Oh, look, there's that kid in traffic. "I should just let him." You would do whatever you could to pull the kid out of traffic. And that's what I think medical device is really positioned, that's what they should be doing. They should be seeing these patients that they're helping and really attacking it from that level of passion. [00:25:53] Lindsey Dinneen: Yeah, I love that. Yeah. And so, completely pivoting the conversation just for fun. Imagine that you were to be offered a million dollars to teach a masterclass on anything you want. It could be within your industry, but it doesn't have to be. What would you choose to teach? [00:26:10] Zed Williamson: Self awareness, 100%. The power your mind has and understanding that you are likely not under attack, that joy is not a destination. It's not a finish line. It's a decision. Man, if I could wave a magic wand and just make that where people really got it, it would be, that would be so cool. So I would definitely do that. And for a million dollars, man, I'd make it a pretty serious class. Lots of follow up, maybe even some role play for a couple of years. But the, yeah, that would be amazing. [00:26:43] Lindsey Dinneen: It would be amazing, yes. And I particularly like your magic wand idea. I think it would change the entire landscape of the world, so I'm all about that. Excellent. And how would you wish to be remembered after you leave this world? [00:26:58] Zed Williamson: "That he put aside his own discomfort and helping me realize what was possible." We have so many interactions with people and we can say like, "Oh man, you know, this person doesn't realize this." But then a lot of times the brain is saying, "Well, it's going to be uncomfortable if you bring it up." And so I think that cause I know I irritate some people and it's all, it's always out of love. But... [00:27:24] Lindsey Dinneen: Right. [00:27:25] Zed Williamson: ...but yeah, I would say that, "whatever he could to help me realize that there was more for me." [00:27:32] Lindsey Dinneen: That's powerful. I love that answer. Yeah. And then final question. What is one thing that makes you smile every time you see or think about it? [00:27:42] Zed Williamson: Mmm. My family. Two boys and my wife, Nico, Elijah, and Chantel. We just have so much fun. Late teenage boys, well, actually my oldest one is 20 now, but it's all about laughter. What's cool is the sense of humor is so powerful because there's literally-- this would really could annoy some people-- there's nothing that can't be funny, right? It's always belief, right? And if you can have that mindset, and my family does, so anytime we spend together laughter is going to be happening soon. [00:28:16] Lindsey Dinneen: Yeah. Well, it goes back to your whole thing about joy, too. If you choose joy, then there's also a lot more opportunity for laughter, too. Or it just comes a little easier, perhaps. [00:28:27] Zed Williamson: Yep. [00:28:28] Lindsey Dinneen: Excellent. Well, this has been an incredible conversation. I personally was not even expecting this deep dive into psychology, but I love it. It's fantastic. And I just really appreciate you sharing your passion and heart for the industry and for helping bridge the gap between the expertise and then reaching the people that they're intending to reach and having sustainable businesses so that people can continue to make a big impact with their work. So thank you for the work you're doing with the world. And thank you for your time today. I really appreciate it. [00:28:54] Zed Williamson: I know the work it takes to put into a podcast. So I appreciate what you're doing and appreciate you having me on. [00:29:00] Lindsey Dinneen: Of course. And we are so honored to be making a donation on your behalf as a thank you for your time today to the Polaris Project, which is a non governmental organization that works to combat and prevent sex and labor trafficking in North America. So thank you for choosing that organization to support, and we wish you continued success as you work to change lives for a better world. And thank you so much to our listeners for tuning in. And if you're feeling as inspired as I am right now, I'd love if you'd share this episode with a colleague or two and we will catch you next time. [00:29:36] Ben Trombold: The Leading Difference is brought to you by Velentium. Velentium is a full-service CDMO with 100% in-house capability to design, develop, and manufacture medical devices from class two wearables to class three active implantable medical devices. Velentium specializes in active implantables, leads, programmers, and accessories across a wide range of indications, such as neuromodulation, deep brain stimulation, cardiac management, and diabetes management. Velentium's core competencies include electrical, firmware, and mechanical design, mobile apps, embedded cybersecurity, human factors and usability, automated test systems, systems engineering, and contract manufacturing. Velentium works with clients worldwide, from startups seeking funding to established Fortune 100 companies. Visit velentium.com to explore your next step in medical device development.

In this episode of AML Conversations, John sits down with Sara Crowe, Strategic Initiatives Director, Financial Systems for the Polaris Project. Sara leads Polaris's efforts to partner with the financial services industry to implement a comprehensive and industry-wide strategy to intervene in the crime of human trafficking. This initiative aims to 1) disrupt human trafficking businesses on a global scale by using existing financial system structures and processes (such as anti-money laundering and economic sanctions frameworks) to decrease the profitability of sex and labor trafficking while increasing the risk to traffickers; 2) shift financing practices to reward businesses with good labor conditions; and 3) bolster financial resiliency of vulnerable populations and trafficking survivors through financial inclusion initiatives. During their discussion, John and Sara cover issues related to the crimes of human trafficking during the pandemic, the value of partnering with the financial sector and how to get engaged in any of a variety of projects supporting the detection and prevention of human trafficking.

Isabella Schmitt is a prominent life science, AI, and regulatory affairs leader, and was recently named one of the top 100 MedTech Leading Voices Worth Following on LinkedIn in 2025. Isabella shares her diverse career journey—from aspirations of neurosurgery to becoming a regulatory expert in MedTech and biotech. She emphasizes the importance of early regulatory involvement, strategic use of pre-submissions, and understanding the voice of the customer in product development. Isabella also discusses the critical role of communication skills in regulatory affairs and offers invaluable advice for aspiring professionals.   Guest links: https://www.linkedin.com/in/isabella-j-schmitt/ Charity supported: Polaris Project Interested in being a guest on the show or have feedback to share? Email us at theleadingdifference@velentium.com.  PRODUCTION CREDITS Host: Lindsey Dinneen Editing: Marketing Wise Producer: Velentium   EPISODE TRANSCRIPT Episode 048 - Isabella Schmitt [00:00:00] Lindsey Dinneen: Hi, I'm Lindsey and I'm talking with MedTech industry leaders on how they change lives for a better world. [00:00:09] Diane Bouis: The inventions and technologies are fascinating and so are the people who work with them. [00:00:15] Frank Jaskulke: There was a period of time where I realized, fundamentally, my job was to go hang out with really smart people that are saving lives and then do work that would help them save more lives. [00:00:28] Diane Bouis: I got into the business to save lives and it is incredibly motivating to work with people who are in that same business, saving or improving lives. [00:00:38] Duane Mancini: What better industry than where I get to wake up every day and just save people's lives. [00:00:42] Lindsey Dinneen: These are extraordinary people doing extraordinary work, and this is The Leading Difference. Hello, and welcome back to another episode of The Leading Difference podcast. I'm your host, Lindsey. And today I am so excited to introduce you to my guest, Isabella Schmitt. Isabella is a life science, artificial intelligence and regulatory affairs leader with expertise in navigating the intersection of science, technology, policy, and innovation. With a robust background in medtech and biotech regulations, she has contributed to over 200 projects ranging from hardware and software medical devices to AIML products. Isabella holds an MBA from Texas A& M and is pursuing advanced studies in AI management and policy at Purdue University. Known for her engaging communication style, she is a sought after speaker, author, and consultant on AI regulation and innovation. All right. Well, welcome to the show, Isabella. I'm so excited that you're here. [00:01:41] Isabella Schmitt: I'm excited to be here. I feel like it's been a long time coming as we just talked about a second ago. We've been needing to connect for a while so I'm glad we're finally getting to do it. [00:01:50] Lindsey Dinneen: Me too! Well yes. Thank you for taking some time today. And I wonder if you would be willing to start off by sharing a little bit about yourself, your background and actually what led you to medtech. [00:02:00] Isabella Schmitt: Yeah. So it's an interesting story because I actually have a pretty varied background in general. Like if we start back, back in high school, even so we'll go that far back, I wanted to be a neurosurgeon originally in life, and... well, originally I wanted to be marine biologist, but that was when I was in elementary school. No, I wanted to be a neurosurgeon probably from the time I was like, 14 to like, 21. And then I did a surgical externship and I didn't love it. And so then I had a quarter life crisis where I was just like, "What do I do? This is what I've wanted to do for so long." And then I found myself going into research, so I did a lot of lab work in primarily healthcare type things. So, with nanomaterials for oncology, you know, specific targeting of tumors and things like that. But then I found with that, I liked the design of the experiments and like the design of new inventions and all of that, but I didn't actually enjoy the lab work. So like the actual part of being a researcher was not fun for me. And so, I shifted gears, had a little kind of a stray off of the, this normal trajectory, I guess. And I was like, "Oh, well, maybe I want to do veterinary medicine." I love animals, so I did that for a little bit. And then I felt like there was always this drive for me to do something that felt good, aligned with my values, right? But was also intellectually stimulating so that I felt like I was constantly challenged. There was something new. It was very diverse. A little bit of ADHD there, right? So like I need, I need lots of inputs and stimuli. And so I, with veterinary medicine, I felt like I really liked this. It was ticking the sort of values box, but it wasn't really ticking the other boxes for me. And so then I kind of went back and was like, "Well, maybe I want to go to medical school. I'll revisit that." So I took a job at a pharma company, a midsize biopharma company. And I started off in the clinical research side. I didn't know anything about the industry at this point, 'cause they don't really teach you anything about biopharma or medtech in school. I don't even know what I thought about how products like drugs and devices got to market. I just kind of assumed someone was checking over that, I guess. And so I had no idea and I took the job thinking it was more truly clinical related. Like, I was going to be, I don't know what I thought I was going to be doing, but something clinical, and it was, it was a CRA position. But what they noticed about me, was that I started trying to analyze the patient data and I unblinded myself in doing that. And so they were like, okay, well, maybe you need to do something that's a little bit, not that there's, you know, that being a CRA is not intellectually stimulating, but not in alignment with exactly where I was. And so they put me towards regulatory affairs. And so I started helping kind of just general regulatory affairs. Then the guy that was running the product side of things, all the manufacturers and getting the product ready, was retiring. And so they promoted me to that position. And so what was happening at that time was I was getting intellectually stimulated. I was doing well. It had the diversity that I liked where it was ticking the altruistic box and helping people and it's, you know, scientific, it's medical, it's writing, it's reading, it's understanding. And so it was kind of scratching that itch for me, so I didn't go back to school. I well, actually I did, but that's later down the line. But I, I stayed there. That company got bought by Allergan and I left at that point and I went to a medtech startup company and that was my first foray into medtech. So I moved from biotech to medtech. And, you know, some of those things can translate, right? The cultures between biotech and medtech are very different, but a lot of the foundational knowledge of how you think about things can translate. So at that company, I learned more about medtech, but I could apply the biotech lens to it, which I think ultimately helped me from a strategic standpoint in the medtech world. And then I left that company and I started at Proxima, which was the company where I first met you. And I was like employee four there, and I ultimately built their regulatory consulting group and that whole kind of department from me to 15 people and over 200 projects. Loved working there. I did a lot of talking, BD, consulting, all kinds of things. I then started running their clinical department as well, and then I left Proxima and now I work at a AIML company as their VP of clinical and regulatory. So I manage all of their suite of products for global submissions and kind of all the clinical collaborations that are ongoing there. There's a long background, but it's a trajectory and I feel like people feel like they need to know what they're going to do at some point, like early on. And when you go to college, you're like 18, you don't know, and you barely know about what's out there, right? But you feel like 'I should know the answers to all of these things,' and you don't. And sometimes you find yourself in places that you didn't really expect and I know that a lot of people also want to get into regulatory affairs, and it is difficult sometimes to get your foot in the door. It's a competitive type of role largely because it, it is so diverse and stimulating and you have to have a lot of different types of skills to actually be successful in it. But, you know, what I would suggest people do is look for smaller companies to kind of go towards, because those are the types of companies that'll maybe take a chance on you with leadership that helps and guides you through that transition. So when I was running Proxima, I like to hire people kind of earlier in their career because one reason was selfish. You don't have to reteach or get them out of bad habits, right? And then the other part was I just liked kind of, I liked the, the helping and the molding and the growing of them. And it's really nice to see them be successful there or afterwards as they move on into other places. And we have lifelong relationships now. You know, I've left and I still talk to them and they still come and they ask me for advice about things. And so that's really nice. [00:08:42] Lindsey Dinneen: Yeah, that's incredible.,Well, first of all, thank you for sharing a little bit about your background. That was really cool to hear about your career trajectory and so many things popped up for, for me right away. But one of the things that really stood out was this idea-- I love how you talked about the fact that you don't have to know at the very beginning of your career or really, I don't know, even in the middle of it, is this what I'm going to do for the rest of my life? I mean, it's okay to kind of. stumble into a path you didn't expect and see where it leads you. And, I'm curious too, you know, you've had such an interesting, diverse background and you've had all of these different skill sets. So when you first started, I know throughout different places you've been, you've done a lot of business development, but can you share a little bit about the skillsets and the things that you've learned through business development that actually really do translate to... Yeah. [00:09:35] Isabella Schmitt: So, so business development is... so weirdly I had this sort of side thing where I was doing marketing work kind of just as like a side hustle for a bit. And so at Proxima, I really helped with market. So, business development and marketing, particularly for the consulting side of things reported into me as well. So I did a lot of that work, and I think in those cases, business development and marketing, if you're good at it, is all about communication, right? Like, it is about communicating effectively with other human beings, whether that's through talking to them or through writing. And understanding the audience that you're talking to, whether it's talking to them or through writing. So, you know, in a conversation, you get good at reading people, right? Like you can kind of hear what they're saying and you start to learn like, okay, this is their pain point. They're saying this one thing, but what I'm getting from it is this other thing that I know a little bit more about that they're not necessarily picking up on. And so you, you start to be able to take on more of an advisory role, I think? There's different approaches to sales and marketing, right? There's the hard sales approach where it's like sell, sell, sell, which is, there's nothing wrong with that. It's just not my approach to business development and marketing. Mine is much more advise, educate, relationship. What is it that you actually need? How can I meet your needs? And I think that skill set translates really well into regulatory affairs. There's different types of ways you can be involved in regulatory affairs. If you're doing high level strategy type things, you need to have these communication skills. You need to be able to see the forest and the trees and be able to redesign a forest if you need to. But there's also the very by the book administrative side of regulatory affairs where I think these skills probably aren't as necessary and there's nothing wrong with that. Some people really like that sort of structure. I'm not that way. So I really like the strategy communication talking aspects of it. And I think the business development and marketing, the crux of it all is the communication aspect. And that is incredibly important when you're pulling together regulatory submissions, and you're engaging with regulators, you need to understand your stakeholder there, who you're talking to, the audience, what they're interested in what they're not interested in and be able to read that in that instance as well because you want to give them enough information, but not too much information about what it is that they need to understand in order to clear or approve your product. For the people that I would bring in, you know, when they were early in their career, I think them being in a more of a consultative environment was probably beneficial to them in the long term because they had to learn those skills in the context of engaging with clients, right? And so we would do different things, you know, as they were training, I would be on the calls with them, but sometimes we'd do sort of like the mic in the ear thing, but through Teams, I would send them messages like, 'say this, ask them that.' And then I would explain, you know, or if I said something that seemed unexpected, you know, like that was a different direction from the conversation or they expected me to respond to something that I didn't respond to, I would explain it to them afterwards so that they could learn and kind of absorb those skill sets so that they could then take that forward and apply it whether it's with clients or with regulators, or just with teammates, whomever it is moving forward, they would understand the communication aspect is so incredibly important in the strategic side of regulatory affairs. [00:13:38] Lindsey Dinneen: Yeah. Yeah. Yes. Thank you for, for sharing more about that. I can absolutely see the critical importance of the communication skills, being able to translate, but, but building those skills. And honestly, it's probably just great advice across the board. You know, anyone, especially young in their career. Those are the skills to build. [00:13:57] Isabella Schmitt: Yeah. [00:13:58] Lindsey Dinneen: Yeah. [00:13:59] Isabella Schmitt: Yeah. [00:14:00] Lindsey Dinneen: So. [00:14:01] Isabella Schmitt: Nothing, nothing better than relationship building and communicate and clear communication in your personal life, in your professional life, everywhere. So, yeah. And I think, you know, it's interesting too because there are things about my childhood and growing up that also translated into having a skill set associated with communication and understanding people and dynamics that was like a long term training, you know, from being a little kid to now, which maybe not everybody gets and that's okay, but they can learn it. It's something that, it's learned. It's not innate. You can learn it at any point if you're willing. [00:14:48] Lindsey Dinneen: Yeah, I, I love that. So, you know, okay, so now you've had all this incredible experience. You've helped a lot of companies and, you know, regulatory affairs is your jam. What kinds of things do you see that are kind of common, perhaps stumbling blocks for, especially smaller medtech companies that are trying this for the first time and this is their big hurrah and it's really exciting, but what are some things that you see that, that maybe we could help mitigate? [00:15:16] Isabella Schmitt: Mm. Yeah, I think the first things that come to mind and it's kind of like two opposing flavors. One, is... and they're both around pre-subs, right? So pre-subs are the big talking point, I think, all the time, and you will often hear people say like 'just do a pre-sub 100 percent of the time.' I think generally, that's true. There are cases where you don't necessarily need to do a pre sub. But as you go into a pre sub, it's again about communication. You want to make sure that you're not saying something that you can't get yourself out of in the future. So, like, you know, oversharing or oversharing erroneously too. You can share things that maybe are not particularly relevant to what you need to convey but then can cause a flag that sticks in the minds of the reviewers. So you want to go to a pre sub typically with someone who has done them before successfully, and you probably want to find, if you're an innovative company that's doing this for the first time, someone who works with innovative companies a good bit more on the strategy side, even if they're not the one that's writing the pre sub, but that it is overseeing the sort of process with it. Like I said, there's, there's a very administrative side to regulatory affairs too, and there are people who can turn, turn, turn submissions out and that's great. But when you're dealing with an innovative type product, that sort of administrative part of it== it's still important, but it becomes less important-- because you're basically navigating a new landscape and you need someone who has done it before, who can kind of understand how the regulators, whether it's FDA or notified body might think about it so that you can convey the information adequately or answer their questions adequately too. The flip side of it is... so do a pre sub, but do it smartly. The flip side of that is don't do too many pre subs. So one of my friends in the industry and I were just talking recently about ' death by pre sub,' where you do so many pre subs that you've kind of painted yourself into this corner and you maybe don't want to be in that corner and you have to figure out a way to kind of claw yourself out of it. It, it can become very restrictive. So if you go, you know, if you're on pre sub eight, you're probably too far, too far or too deep in at that point. So you want to be smart about the pre-subs and generally speaking, I think that was the first comment, death by pre-subs is usually if you're not being smart about the pre-subs. And then I think people go in maybe without a pre-subs at all thinking that, "Oh, I have a 510 K. It's straightforward." Maybe they're using a predicate. If your predicate's really old, they may have changed their thinking on it, so you probably still want to do a pre-sub even if it seems straightforward. Those are the things that I think are are probably major pitfalls. I'd also say companies not involving someone with regulatory expertise early enough on, so even if you're not engaging with FDA, companies can get kind of stuck in a perpetual loop of product changing and advancement to the point that is detrimental and that a lot of that doesn't actually help in the long run, from a regulatory standpoint, understand your minimal viable product. And then from there, once you understand what that is, right, then you should really start engaging someone who has regulatory expertise. Or maybe you need someone to help you figure out what the minimal viable product is through, you know, some sort of regulatory lens as well. But I wouldn't spend 10 years going through design iterations and all of that before you get someone in to level set with where you are from a regulatory standpoint, [00:19:31] Lindsey Dinneen: Mm hmm. [00:19:32] Isabella Schmitt: And then I think shifting a little bit from regulatory, also involving regulatory and clinical, is understanding the voice of the customer. You design a product, you kind of want to design a product that people want and will use, because you can get through regulatory right? But if nobody wants that product, you've wasted years developing it, and a lot of money, and so getting with whoever the, the end user is going to be and understanding what their actual needs are and having them kind of look and touch and feel the product is, I think, incredibly important, even in the earliest stages, because you don't want to spin your wheels, designing something that nobody ultimately wants or can use. [00:20:19] Lindsey Dinneen: Yeah, absolutely. So design with the end user in mind, talk to the end user in mind, and then talk to an expert such as yourself to really help guide you through that regulatory process. And it sounds like the earlier the better just to start that process going so you have an idea of where you need to head. [00:20:39] Isabella Schmitt: Exactly, yeah. That's exactly right. Yeah. [00:20:41] Lindsey Dinneen: Yeah, excellent. So, you know, you have had such a very cool diverse background and, you know, you've been honored a lot. You're, you know, a Houston Woman to Watch. You have gotten a business award, multiple ones. You just recently got named to MedTech Leading Voices, you know, 100 MedTech Leading Voices. That was really cool. So congratulations. [00:21:02] Isabella Schmitt: LinkedIn's been blowing up from that. I was like, yeah, [00:21:06] Lindsey Dinneen: That's awesome. Yeah. [00:21:07] Isabella Schmitt: I haven't looked at it on my own LinkedIn yet. And it's, I opened it today. I wasn't on it all weekend and I had like 50... [00:21:14] Lindsey Dinneen: Oh! [00:21:14] Isabella Schmitt: ...requests. I was like, what? So yeah. [00:21:17] Lindsey Dinneen: Amazing. Well, congratulations! That's really exciting! [00:21:21] Isabella Schmitt: Yeah. [00:21:21] Lindsey Dinneen: You know, like, just looking back, could 10 year old Isabella have ever anticipated this is where you would be right now? [00:21:29] Isabella Schmitt: No. Well, you know, not exactly, but I was Student of the Year when I was 10, so maybe that was an early hint, I guess. [00:21:42] Lindsey Dinneen: I love it. [00:21:43] Isabella Schmitt: Yeah. [00:21:44] Lindsey Dinneen: Yeah. [00:21:45] Isabella Schmitt: Yeah, 10 year old Isabella I don't know. 10 was a weird age. [00:21:51] Lindsey Dinneen: Yeah. Fair enough. Fair enough. [00:21:54] Isabella Schmitt: I definitely wouldn't have seen myself in this industry and even, you know, 18 year old Isabella wouldn't have seen myself, because I didn't know it existed, [00:22:03] Lindsey Dinneen: Right. [00:22:04] Isabella Schmitt: But, you know, being highly on the business side of things too, because regulatory is very deeply integrated with all should be with all aspects of a product, right? And so I have to understand the voice of customer and I have to understand if there's a market for this and I have to understand the engineering and be able to translate all that information and, you know, and then on the other side of it with Proxima, I built the actual business. So, you know, I had to design pricing strategy and marketing stuff. And so I never really saw myself being so heavily involved in the business world and that may have like honestly come from, not to get all political or whatever, but like a lens of sort of my vision of business person was male, you know, and so I just didn't have a lot of exposure to women in, in business roles and I don't, I don't think I ever had imposter syndrome because I always felt pretty confident in my abilities. I felt more like the world of business was male dominated, which it largely probably still is. But, but I think that kind of maybe held me from having that vision. And I mean, surgeons are male dominated too, but I was thinking I was going to be a surgeon. So, so, but I also had a vision of the business world as being more like Wall Street kind of world. And you grow up, you know, and you learn new things and get exposed to new people. I'm very thankful for the people that I have met who have given me opportunities to, to shine, I guess who have trusted me, like Kevin with Proxima trusted me to build the department. The company that I work for now basically trusts me to do all the regulatory stuff. Obviously, hundreds of clients have trusted me with their regulatory, with their babies. So it's one of those things where it's a combination of your own aptitude, but also other people. And, and I think for me, and that's why I wanted to also bring in, you know, green people who are coming new into the industry, to give those people opportunities to live up to their potential too, because a lot of it is having the opportunity and having someone trust you in order to, to show what you can do or can't do, I guess, but you learn either way, right? Failures are learning opportunities too. So. [00:24:40] Lindsey Dinneen: Yeah. Well, I love that because you, you saw people, you know, 'cause sometimes it feels, especially as a job seeker, if you're young, or you don't have the industry experience, it just feels so invisible. So I love the fact that you were willing to do that. And then mentorship sounds like a really strong pull for you. Like, you very much care about that and helping the next generation of folks... [00:25:02] Isabella Schmitt: Yeah, yeah. [00:25:02] Lindsey Dinneen: ...find their footing too. So I love that. [00:25:05] Isabella Schmitt: I, I love doing that. And I was teaching at Rice. I would teach a lecture a semester at Rice when I was at Proxima, maybe I'm going to do it now, I don't know. And then A&M a little bit too, and so even just kind of meeting students, I just, I like to give people opportunities, so if people are listening to this and they want to understand how to get into regulatory affairs or really anything, I am happy to have a conversation. Lindsey will tell you that I might reschedule it, but I will have the conversation. [00:25:40] Lindsey Dinneen: I can attest to this. She will, she will. Absolutely. [00:25:43] Isabella Schmitt: I do want to do it. It's just, yeah. [00:25:49] Lindsey Dinneen: MedTech has become sort of, at least it sounds like your calling, for lack of a better word. And so I'm curious, you know, you are obviously very passionate. You are one of the leading voices in the industry. You are a thought leader. Along the way have there been moments where you just thought, "Wow, this really cinches it for me. I am in the right place at the right time doing the right thing." [00:26:11] Isabella Schmitt: I mean, I think, in general, I feel that way. I, I'm the type of person who, though, is kind of always looking to grow and advance and more and more and more. And so I think it's, it's always kind of a learning experience. I think I will stay in this industry till I die, but for for a long time and it kind of just like, it clicks in my brain. Like, it just, it sort of makes sense with how my brain works. But, you know, I have also expanded a little bit into AI kind of generally speaking as well. So, I work at an AI company now and I've worked with many AI products before. But I also am in a master's for AI, and I've been doing some policy work with it. So I, I try to, I try to go deep and broad at the same time, which I think is hard and maybe tends towards workaholism, workaholicism? But, but it keeps me stimulated and feeling like I'm productive and moving forward. And so, you know, I, I guess, to answer your question succinctly, I do think I've found a place that I really love. I think that I will continuously look to expand and grow, just how I am, whether that's in specific with regulatory affairs or whether it's spinning off another consulting company or whatever, you know, my own product company one day, whatever it might be. I think this space is what I like. And I, I like growth personally, and I like growing people and I like growing businesses. So I think all of that, I guess if there was a moment, honestly, Proxima. My experience at Proxima with growing, growing there, myself, the company, clients, employees, marketing, whatever it was that, that probably sealed the deal for me staying and not kind of looking to do something else. There was a short stint where I was very confused again before I started at Proxima. I was like, "I don't know if this is right for me." I was thinking about leaving the industry and going and doing psychology and all of that. And, I got the job at Proxima, it just kind of checked everything for me. And so I think that, that, you know, if you're a person that likes a lot of diversity, I think getting into a strategic regulatory affairs role, particularly if you're able to work with multiple companies is, is the sweet spot. But yeah, that was one of the best places I've ever worked, one of the best experiences I've ever had. [00:29:02] Lindsey Dinneen: That's incredible. Well, great. I'm so glad and thank you for sharing about that experience. Yeah, that's wonderful. So, okay, pivoting the conversation a little bit just for fun. Imagine that you were to be offered a million dollars to teach a master class on anything you want. It can be in your industry, doesn't have to be at all. What would you teach? [00:29:21] Isabella Schmitt: would I would probably teach AI policy with specific towards regulated industries. So meaning, obviously, medtech, biotech to o, aviation, aerospace defense. So I kind of want to take it, sort of a broad approach, of how we think about regulatory with regards to AI, and the differences in regulating that type of product versus more standard types of products. So, that would probably be what I would would like to do if I were teaching a master course. [00:30:06] Lindsey Dinneen: That sounds incredible and very needed, very timely. [00:30:10] Isabella Schmitt: Yeah, [00:30:11] Lindsey Dinneen: Yeah. Excellent. How do you wish to be remembered after you leave this world? [00:30:18] Isabella Schmitt: That's a big question. So, and it's a tough question. I want to have made an impact on the industry, on people's lives, on an industry because, you know, with AI, it could be multiple industries, I guess, too. Probably sticking closely with medtech. It's what I like, and it feels like the best again, like value kind of. I think if I were to like make up this dream scenario of where I ended up, eventually I would have my own product company. I would sell that off. I would probably start another consulting company that I helped people with still. And then I would do like philanthropic things with money. And largely focused probably on pediatric type devices, rare diseases and conditions, and probably veterinary medicine, which those areas I don't think get enough attention. I have a lot of experience with with pediatrics in particular and I think I would like to be able to work closely with getting more of those products to market. They're, you know, difficult funding opportunities there because such a small, still large burden, but such a small group of patients that the ROI is not typical of what you would see, you know, a lot of VCs investing in. So something like that, I think, and being remembered for those, those things, I think, would be great to me. [00:31:50] Lindsey Dinneen: Yeah. [00:31:51] Isabella Schmitt: Also, if I influenced policy in some kind of way that was fundamental, I think that would be pretty cool too. [00:31:57] Lindsey Dinneen: Absolutely. Yeah. Very cool. And then final question. What is one thing that makes you smile every time you see or think about it? [00:32:06] Isabella Schmitt: Oh, that's a good question. Not work related or work related? [00:32:10] Lindsey Dinneen: Oh, both, either. [00:32:12] Isabella Schmitt: I, probably my dogs would be, that's an easy not work related answer, although sometimes they drive me nuts too. So there's a spectrum of emotion with them, but generally dogs. Dogs are just the best. I'm, I'm a dog person. They're just so loving and understanding. Work wise, obviously, anytime I have a successful submission, or there's an exit, any success, it always makes me smile. So, and then, you know, I also really like-- I haven't been to many over the last year, just with the change and the dynamics of my world-- I love networking events. So, like, thinking about networking events, I just, I really enjoy those types of interactions. They've always been really fun. I've been thinking about going to them just for fun, just to see people again because it's been a while. And I used to love, like, my favorite thing was Medtech Innovator. So I'm answering this question, and I'm thinking of the answers I'm talking about. So MedTech Innovator, I love MedTech Innovator. It was almost like when you're a kid, and you go, and you have the summer off, and you don't see anybody or any of your friends, and then you go back to school, and you're sort of excited to see them again. That's what that community felt like, really to know the people there so well. So MedTech Innovator, that's my answer. [00:33:35] Lindsey Dinneen: I love it. Great answer. Great answer. Fantastic. Well, oh my word, this has been so much fun. Thank you so much for taking some time today just to share with me about your life and your experience and all the wonderful things that you're bringing to the world. I just really appreciate it. And, just thank you for your time. [00:33:56] Isabella Schmitt: 'Course, thanks for having me. [00:33:58] Lindsey Dinneen: Yeah, and we are so honored to be making a donation on your behalf as a thank you for your time today to the Polaris Project, which is a non governmental organization that works to combat and prevent sex and labor trafficking in North America. So thank you for choosing that organization to support, and I just wish you the most continued success as you continue to work to change lives for a better world. And just also thanks to our listeners for tuning in. And if you're feeling as inspired as I am, I'd love it if you'd share this episode with a colleague or two and we'll catch you next time. [00:34:36] Ben Trombold: The Leading Difference is brought to you by Velentium. Velentium is a full-service CDMO with 100% in-house capability to design, develop, and manufacture medical devices from class two wearables to class three active implantable medical devices. Velentium specializes in active implantables, leads, programmers, and accessories across a wide range of indications, such as neuromodulation, deep brain stimulation, cardiac management, and diabetes management. Velentium's core competencies include electrical, firmware, and mechanical design, mobile apps, embedded cybersecurity, human factors and usability, automated test systems, systems engineering, and contract manufacturing. Velentium works with clients worldwide, from startups seeking funding to established Fortune 100 companies. Visit velentium.com to explore your next step in medical device development.

Sex And Human Trafficker You Would Not Suspect. Her Police Father's Death by Suicide. She was the victim of human and sex trafficking during her childhood, by one of the most unlikely suspects. Plus, her father a Police Captain and Vietnam Combat Veteran died by suicide while she was a teenager. Her life was negatively impacted by all this trauma until her adult years. Now she shares how she built her life and how to recover with others. Follow the Law Enforcement Talk Radio Show and Podcast on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Newsbreak, Medium and most all social media platforms. Trauma has a way of shaping lives, but for Tammy Toney-Butler, it became the foundation of an incredible story of healing, advocacy, and transformation. From surviving familial sex trafficking to losing her police captain father to suicide as a teenager, Tammy’s journey is a testament to resilience and the power of faith. She shared in a recent podcast interview on the Law Enforcement Talk Radio Show and Podcast, available on their website and platforms like Apple Podcasts, Spotify and most major podcast platforms. The Unseen Face of Human Trafficking Human trafficking often evokes images of strangers or shadowy figures, but Tammy’s story sheds light on a darker, less-discussed reality: familial trafficking. Victims of familial trafficking are often preyed upon by people they trust the most. According to studies by the International Organization of Migration and the Polaris Project, family members are responsible for facilitating trafficking in a significant number of cases. Sex And Human Trafficker You Would Not Suspect. Her Police Father's Death by Suicide. Look for supporting stories about this and much more from Law Enforcement Talk Radio Show and Podcast in platforms like Medium, Newsbreak and Blogspot. Tammy’s experience reflects the complexities of familial trafficking, where abuse is normalized and hidden behind closed doors. “It’s not always a stranger,” she says. “Sometimes, the trafficker is someone you’d never suspect.” Listen to the interview as a free podcast on the Law Enforcement Talk Radio Show and podcast website, also available on platforms like Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and most major podcast outlets. Trafficking survivors often grapple with long-term trauma, and Tammy was no exception. Coupled with the devastating loss of her father, a Vietnam combat veteran and police captain who died by suicide, her teenage years were marked by pain and uncertainty. Recovering from Trauma and Finding Purpose In adulthood, Tammy confronted her past, transforming her pain into purpose. As a forensic nurse examiner and advocate, she worked tirelessly to support other survivors, offering trauma-informed care and sharing her story to raise awareness. Follow the Law Enforcement Talk Radio Show and podcast on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Newsbreak, Medium and most all social media platforms. Tammy’s advocacy journey took a new turn with the creation of Reflective Spaces Ministry, a nonprofit founded with her husband in Lee County, Florida. Their ten-acre healing sanctuary provides a safe space for survivors to address the mind, body, and spirit wounds inflicted by trauma. Sex And Human Trafficker You Would Not Suspect. Her podcast, Reflective Hour with Tammy Toney-Butler, available on multiple platforms like Apple, Spotify, and YouTube, amplifies survivor voices and offers a message of hope and healing. Tammy’s faith remains at the heart of her mission. Check out the show on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Newsbreak, Medium and most all social media platforms. Raising Awareness: A Call to Action Familial trafficking is often overlooked by law enforcement, child welfare agencies, and educators. Screening tools frequently fail to identify victims, and the issue remains underreported in media and public awareness campaigns. Tammy highlights the importance of addressing these gaps. It is available as a free podcast on the Law Enforcement Talk Radio Show and Podcast website, on Apple Podcasts, Spotify and most major podcast platforms. She points out that societal attitudes toward trauma, coupled with a lack of training for law enforcement, hinder progress. Her father’s struggles as a police officer underscore the broader need for comprehensive wellness programs for public safety personnel. Studies reveal high rates of psychological distress among officers, with significant risks of suicide. “Trauma affects us all, whether directly or indirectly,” Tammy says. “We must support those on the front lines, just as we support survivors.” Keep informed by following the Law Enforcement Talk Radio Show on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, MeWe, Pinterest, Newsbreak, Medium and other social media outlets. Spreading the Message Through Multiple Platforms Tammy’s story reaches audiences across various platforms, from the podcast interview on the Law Enforcement Tall Radio Show, to social media channels like Facebook and Instagram. Her books, including a memoir and healing devotional, are available on Amazon and Kindle, offering readers a deeper understanding of her journey and insights into recovery. Sex And Human Trafficker You Would Not Suspect. Her work as a speaker and advocate continues to inspire. She addresses topics like human trafficking, trauma, and healing in national and international forums, reminding audiences that no one is beyond hope. Her Police Father's Death by Suicide. Healing Through Faith At the core of Tammy’s mission is her unwavering belief in the transformative power of love and faith. As a prophetic healing evangelist, she brings a compassionate, trauma-responsive perspective to her ministry. “Healing is possible for everyone,” she says. “We just have to create the space for it.” Platforms like the Law Enforcement Talk Radio Show and Podcast website, Apple Podcasts and Spotify make these stories more accessible. From the pain of her past to the hope she offers others today, Tammy Toney-Butler’s story is a powerful reminder that recovery is possible, even in the face of unimaginable trauma. Her message resonates far and wide, offering a beacon of light to survivors and advocates alike. If you or someone you know is experiencing trauma or abuse, help is available. Reach out to trusted organizations or local resources for support. You are not alone. 3 things you can do to dramatically increase revenue offline and online. That's one of the things you will learn at Creative Con 2025. Meet me, John Jay Wiley the host of the Law Enforcement Talk Radio Show and Podcast At Creative Con located at the Intercontinental Hotel in Chicago February 21st through the 23rd. If you are an entrepeneur, business leader, author, podcaster or online professional of any type you'll learn how to take your business to the next level. Creative Con 2025 is the ultimate business and networking event. There is too much to list at Creative Con 2025. Get details at www.Cre8tivecon.com You can help contribute money to make the Gunrunner Movie. The film that Hollywood won't touch. It is about a now Retired Police Officer that was shot 6 times while investigating Gunrunning. He died 3 times during Medical treatment and was resuscitated. You can join the fight by giving a monetary "gift" to help ensure the making of his film at agunrunnerfilm.com. Be sure to follow us on MeWe, X, Instagram, Facebook,Pinterest, Linkedin and other social media platforms for the latest episodes and news. Learn useable tips and strategies to increase your Facebook Success with John Jay Wiley. Both free and paid content are available on this Patreon page. You can contact John Jay Wiley by email at Jay@letradio.com. Get the latest news articles, without all the bias and spin, from the Law Enforcement Talk Radio Show and Podcast on the Newsbreak app, which is free. Background song Hurricane is used with permission from the band Dark Horse Flyer. Find a wide variety of great podcasts online at The Podcast Zone Facebook Page, look for the one with the bright green logo. Be sure to check out our website. Sex And Human Trafficker You Would Not Suspect. Her Police Father's Death by Suicide. Attributions Nurses United Against Human Trafficking Reflective Ministry CNA US DOJSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Chad Bareither is the owner and principal consultant of Bareither Group Consulting. Chad shares his journey from working as a civilian engineer in the U.S. Army to becoming a Lean Six Sigma Master Black Belt and consultant for medtech and pharma companies. Chad discusses his process improvement framework, the importance of understanding both systems and people, and insights from his recently published book "Improve LESS." He also covers the transition from being an employee to an entrepreneur and the qualities essential for leadership in the industry.    Guest links: https://www.linkedin.com/in/chadbareither/ | https://www.bareithergroup.com/ | https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCTjC2ZBL3mqnriCeAIkmSlQ Charity supported: Polaris Project Interested in being a guest on the show or have feedback to share? Email us at theleadingdifference@velentium.com.  PRODUCTION CREDITS Host: Lindsey Dinneen Editing: Marketing Wise Producer: Velentium   EPISODE TRANSCRIPT Episode 045 - Chad Bareither [00:00:00] Lindsey Dinneen: Hi, I'm Lindsey and I'm talking with MedTech industry leaders on how they change lives for a better world. [00:00:09] Diane Bouis: The inventions and technologies are fascinating and so are the people who work with them. [00:00:15] Frank Jaskulke: There was a period of time where I realized, fundamentally, my job was to go hang out with really smart people that are saving lives and then do work that would help them save more lives. [00:00:28] Diane Bouis: I got into the business to save lives and it is incredibly motivating to work with people who are in that same business, saving or improving lives. [00:00:38] Duane Mancini: What better industry than where I get to wake up every day and just save people's lives. [00:00:42] Lindsey Dinneen: These are extraordinary people doing extraordinary work, and this is The Leading Difference. Hello, and welcome to another episode of The Leading Difference Podcast. I'm your host, Lindsey, and I am so excited to introduce you to my guest today, Chad Bareither. Chad is the owner and principal consultant of Bareither Group Consulting. He partners with med device and pharma company leaders to boost productivity. This is delivered through the Focus and Align Framework, the subject of his book, "Improve LESS.". Chad is a Certified Lean Six Sigma Master Black Belt and holds a Bachelor's degree in Mechanical Engineering from Michigan Technological University, as well as Master's degrees in both Industrial and Systems Engineering and Applied Statistics from Rutgers University. He has over 10 years of experience in the med device and pharma industries and almost 20 years of professional experience. All right. Well, welcome to the show, Chad. I'm so excited to talk to you today. [00:01:42] Chad Bareither: Yeah, thanks for having me on. [00:01:45] Lindsey Dinneen: Of course! I'd love if you wouldn't mind by starting off telling us a little bit about yourself, your background, and maybe what led you to what you're doing now. [00:01:54] Chad Bareither: Sure. So I started my career in the US Army as a civilian engineer. So my background's in engineering, mechanical, I have a degree in mechanical engineering and also industrial engineering. So I started out in the U. S. Army as a civilian doing acquisition projects. So we would design and then purchase componentry for our warfighters from various defense contractors. And so my role in that was quality. So understanding are we designing all of the elements correctly. Then when they're being produced, are they meeting our specifications? And then once they're in stockpile, do they continue to work before we hand them to the brave men and women that are defending our freedom. And so I worked there for a while and pretty early found my niche that I was really into process improvement. So I would visit defense contractors, and if we had an issue, what I was really seem to have a knack for was helping to understand the process and make it better. So we could either expand capacity or have better quality. And so that kind of bridged right into a unique program they were introducing at the time, which was called Lean Six Sigma, which is a corporate program for reducing variation and improving efficiency of processes and the corporation at large. So I was pretty lucky that these two things coincide at the same time is that I was finding my niche and they were rolling out a program that really focused in that. So I was able to get into one of those programs, get trained and certified. And then I followed that path on to several other industries, including med device, pharma, and then was also a corporate employee in some utility, electric, natural gas. After my last corporate engagement, I went off on my own and I began consulting. So delivering the same services I had internally to those larger organizations. But now I have the ability to target smaller or growing organizations. In my consulting engagements, if you combine corporate experience and consulting engagement, it's somewhere around eight industries that I worked in. But I really enjoy the work and the challenges in med device and pharma a lot more. There's the purpose behind it of serving patients, and there's also some really significant technical challenges that I just find are fascinating to learn about. So for the last-- oh, it's six years now-- I've been consulting delivering those services in various industries, but really trying to focus my space into the medtech arena. [00:04:46] Lindsey Dinneen: Nice. Well, first of all, thank you for sharing a little bit about your background. I appreciate it. And it's fascinating to hear how you started off with one focus and then it just continued to evolve and twist and turn into this amazing consulting career that you have now. So many questions, but the first is could seven year old Chad have possibly anticipated what you're doing now, since it's different than what you started off with. [00:05:15] Chad Bareither: Yeah, no, I think seven year old Chad probably wanted to be a professional baseball player. But if I zoom forward a little bit from that, once middle school and high school, I always. naturally gravitated to our math and science was thinking it was going to be engineering. And I did, I studied engineering and most of my day is not engineering. It's really understanding people. But what's fascinating is if I look back, I think what all of my engineering education taught me was really a system for solving problems, right? So the problems that we solved happen to be mechanical design or industrial design. Got it. But taking that mindset of problem solving and now saying, well, the systems that I work with on a daily basis with my customers are a little bit more complex because you have mechanical systems, but you also have people systems that are intertwined with that, right? So, whether I've worked across the spectrum and still do of research and development, clinical trials, manufacturing and post market surveillance and across that. You can have systems set up, but people still operate it. So, it's difficult to just analyze your way into the perfect solution. Even if I can show on paper that it works, like you still need to understand the people elements of it. So I think that's been the biggest evolution through my career is early on, it was like, "I don't understand why we're doing this. It makes sense on paper." And it's like the change management component of that has been really something I've been able to develop personally, I'd say, over the last 6 to 10 years. [00:06:51] Lindsey Dinneen: Yeah. And I'm curious, so bridging that gap between systems and people and understanding that what looks good on paper might not translate as perfectly into real life as one would hope, because we're people and people are complex. So were there certain learning opportunities that you had that helped bridge that gap of gaining your expertise and knowledge in that way? Or what led you to be able to do that so efficiently now? [00:07:23] Chad Bareither: Oof, well, you're assuming I do it efficiently now, so but I'd say I still believe we learn more from failures than we do from success, right? So, there are specific projects or engagements I can look back to. So I'll talk about one specifically. This was a medical device assembly plant. And the particular production line that we were working on, we were trying to increase capacity on, and we even had the team engaged, right? So we were doing everything right in terms of the engagement project, had the teams involved, understood their pain points. We were trying to make it easier for them. And then like on paper again, showed we could do the production line, with the main assembly line, with three operators instead of four. And so we were really pushing for that because being just transparent, looking back now, it's like the productivity gain would have looked really sweet to management. But we had the operators telling us like, "I don't think it's going to work. I don't think it's going to work that way." And we're like, " No, it's going to work," right and pushing for it. And I don't know, you, you get a little focused on your own goals or whatever you, however you want to phrase that. And yeah it was a struggle to launch. And they ended up having to cover some of that with overtime. They made some adjustments long term, but that was a big learning for me of, I mean, if the people actually doing that work eight to 10 hours a day are telling you it's not going to work, like you should probably pull back and either, you've got more explaining to do, more improvements to do, or you should just maybe listen to them a little bit more. But you know, there's other scenarios I can look at that were. You know, when I say failure, right? Not everything means it's a flaming dumpster fire, but sometimes you don't get exactly what you expect out of it. And a lot of it can, I can point back to and say, " Ooh, you know, I could have done a better job. It's not that the analysis was wrong. It's not that the tool we put in place or the management technique or the visualization, it's that we didn't have the right level of buy in or the right people buying in." [00:09:35] Lindsey Dinneen: Okay. Well, I, thank you. I appreciate your honesty and transparency. But I do think to your point, failure or whatever we perceive to be as failure because it didn't work out quite the way we hoped for, is such a powerful learning tool if you can take it and go, "Okay, here's what worked. Here's what didn't. Here's what I can do better next time." And you don't have to go, "Okay, that was a waste." It's never a waste if you can learn from it. [00:10:01] Chad Bareither: A hundred percent. And I think only in recent years, I'd say the last four to five years, that I've really gotten into that of more of a bias for action of, " What's the worst that's gonna happen?" And honestly, I'm not talking about changes that are gonna bankrupt a company, right? It's if you're changing the direction, but " Well, let's try it." So having a bias for action and thinking, just like you pointed out, that it's going to be a learning experience, right? So if you treat it more of an experiment, success isn't necessarily binary-- it was a success or it wasn't-- we learned something. Maybe we got better. Maybe we didn't. But that means the next round, the engagement that we talked about before we started recording, I'm just coming back from-- we had two weeks of not going so well. And then the last week there was finally a breakthrough. And it was like, but I'm comfortable with it. The team was getting disengaged and I'm like, "We're going to get there! You guys stay positive, 'cause I know we're going to get there." And the failures we learned, we know so much more about that process now than we did three weeks ago. [00:10:59] Lindsey Dinneen: Yeah. Yeah. And that brought up an interesting point. So persistence and the willingness or the bias to action, which I really liked the way you put that, the willingness to experiment is something that does take a level of comfort that maybe not everyone is so excited about. But I'm wondering what you have seen over the years as being some of the top qualities of a leader that contribute to that success and that willingness to experiment. [00:11:33] Chad Bareither: Yeah. So, it helps me to think about specific leaders when I, that are like embodying that rather than just speak generically about it. And there was an R&D manager that I work with, his first name was John, but really took the stigma of failure, and I think not even using that word as much, out of it, and just saying, " Let's try and see what happens." And kind of building that learning mindset of, I'd rather move fast and learn something than move slow and get it perfect. And in industries, especially like a bunch of the medtech fields, I know in some of the pharma clients I've worked with, they're looking at things like new technologies, new modality of disease and I'm not a scientist, but these are things that we've never done before. And so the mindset of trying to get it perfect-- like this leader I work with previously, John is like, "Why are we wanting to get it perfect? We won't get it perfect the first time. And if we try to, we're going to be moving too slowly." so that's kind of the first thing that I think of is taking the stigma out of failure and turning it more into trying, learning mindset, things like that. I think the other thing is keeping open communication. And what I mean by that is there's another leader I'm thinking of and his first name was Mickey. And trying to have more open conversations. Information can be used for power, in some cases, or if you're harboring information or knowledge, like, " I'm the conduit, right? So then I become what puts it all together." And he was big on breaking down some of those and having more open conversations about what we're learning and what works and what doesn't work. And I mean, you see teams grow together faster. And so then when you take those two qualities, if I take the stigma of failure off of the organization as a whole, and I work to build more open lines of communication and you build trust, right? So then I'm more, I don't want to say confident-- that's not maybe the right word to go after-- but there's less hesitancy, less fear, maybe. So not being confident doesn't mean I'm not fearful, but if I can take a little bit of that fear, a little bit of the stigma of failure out, I'm willing to try. I'm willing to go off on something new. And as we look at this industry of new advances in technology, new challenges of diseases, we're going to have to keep moving fast and do it in areas that are pretty uncertain. So those are some things that I think help, of saying that we're not going to get it right every time, opening up lines of communication to build trust in the team. And then we can really move faster to a shared goal. [00:14:08] Lindsey Dinneen: Yeah. I really like that. Thank you for that advice and insight. That's really helpful. So now with your own company, consulting, well, a couple of questions, but the first is what stage of business do you usually typically come in on? Or is there not necessarily a stage that's your sweet spot? [00:14:28] Chad Bareither: There's, I wouldn't say right now there's a stage where I could say I have a, a litany of business cases for one stage, so multiple stages. I work with some organizations that are still in-- I mean, so if you think about the business, the corporate stage, established businesses, so they're past what would that be? Series two funding. So commercialized product. So I'm either working with the R&D pipeline on next generation products, next innovation, or in the operation space of improving manufacturing operations are typically the two areas that I'm working in the most. [00:15:09] Lindsey Dinneen: Yeah. Was there an interesting learning curve going from being an employee to being an entrepreneur? [00:15:18] Chad Bareither: Yeah, so let me answer that two ways. The first is moving from being an internal employee to being a consultant, right? Because it's just a different, you're of a different role in the company, right? And then there's also to your point is great moving from being an employee to an entrepreneur. So if you don't mind, I'll kind of tackle both of those. The first is moving from employee to consultant is interesting. Because I was on the employee side when you would have consultants come in. And so leaving the bad taste in my mouth from some consultants we had worked in, they're there to make an impact so that they can either upsell their services or whatever. And I can remember being on engagement. So it's like pushing so hard and just, " I have to work with these people when you leave. So you're kind of creating a mess for us." And just trying to meet people more where they're at. But you know, there's an adage of "a prophet isn't recognized in their hometown." It's sometimes they just need someone from the outside to point out what everyone has showing. And I know that sounds simple, but sometimes you just need to come in and say, "Independent third party here. And yes, that is the problem." So it's nice that you have that sense of authority, but I am personally, I am very cautious about the fact of, look, these people need to live with the solution when I walk away. The worst thing in my mind could be helping a client solve a problem, and then it returned for them. So even if they did want to call me back, that would be seen as not ideal in my mind. I want to help them get to a solution that then they can buy in and sustain. So that, that first change is going from internal employee to consultant where, you do have to make an impact, a splash, a return on investment, whatever you say. But, I'm cautious to also say, but they need to adopt the change. They need to own it. It can't just be my great idea. The other side that you talked about is going from employee to entrepreneur, which is also an interesting transition. As an employee, there's some perceived safety and stability, and I say that just perceived, because depending upon the industry that you're in, as markets change and things like that, layoffs come, things of that nature. So job security is never a hundred percent, but there is some perceived job security and stability there. But as you get past the startup stage, you start to specialize, which means your job responsibility narrows, right? So in a larger organization, typically you become a specialist, but not very broad in thinking, and, and so that can be comfortable as well. You develop some technical expertise. Moving into the entrepreneurial space, which you probably have dabbled in a little bit as an, as a business owner yourself is, you are simultaneously the chief marketing officer and IT support and delivery services, and fill in the blank. So you're wearing a lot of hats. And it can be difficult to gravitate towards the stuff you're really good at. So, I am best at the delivery, the actual client engagements. But I recognize if I'm not doing sales and marketing, and building new connections like that, eventually that work goes away. So it's trying to manage yourself and not stay where you're comfortable, if that makes sense. And not just deep dive all the way down to specialty in one area and have to learn some of these things. Or, you know, find the right people to do it for you. [00:18:49] Lindsey Dinneen: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. That's very insightful. So you are also a published author and I was wondering if you could share a little bit about your book. [00:18:57] Chad Bareither: Yeah. So the name of the book I wrote in the fall of 2023, it was released, is called "Improve LESS" and intentionally thought provoking title that I got to it in a very roundabout way. The whole concept of the book started behind that, when I launched my consulting firm, I was still working full time as a corporate employee. So a friend of a friend asked if I can help. And I said, "Sure!" And that was a side gig. And then had another one come up and another one come up and then one of those clients wanted something more. And eventually I didn't have time to do a full time corporate job anymore. But then I had three clients that were all kind of different phases and asking for different things. And so I had one client that was really focused on strategy. And, " We need to align our strategy. We need a better way to cascade that in the organization." Another client that was really focused on process improvement. "We want to build our problem solving and process improvement skills for the organization." And I had a third client that really wanted to have better eyes on the business, so we would call it a daily management system, visualization of metrics and understanding the business so we can diagnose problems. Well, once you get good at strategy, then you actually have to go improve the processes. Once I'm pretty good at process improvement, I should probably align those strategically. Once I can see the problems in my business, I need to-- so essentially all of those three clients needed the three parts that were together. So I sat back and I said, "Well, this is starting to become a little bit of a mess. What would I do if I had a new client? What, where would I start?" So I started writing down the process really for my own benefit. And then working with a business coach, I was like, "I'm going to give this away as like a PDF or whatever." They're like, "No, you should turn this into a book." And I'm like, "Like a book?" And they're like, "Yeah." And I had no idea how to do that. So, you know, back to our conversation about entrepreneurs is, so I found someone who did. And I'm work with someone else, a publishing strategist helped me go through everything, which I thought it was pretty good, in terms of editing, that was not the case. So, went through some content editing and professional editing, and then, hired a professional illustrator from my hand drawn drawings. So, yeah, it was a journey, but that's how it started was me saying, " Well, what's my process?" And so really the purpose of the book is it is a framework. Anyone can pick it up and follow it. And I also tried to keep it short. I don't like to be very verbose in the communications to my clients because they need to understand it. So it's literally something that you could read in a weekend and start on Monday. [00:21:39] Lindsey Dinneen: I love that. Okay. So yeah. Yeah. So you've written this book, and you have your consulting firm, and what are you excited about coming up? Maybe both personally and professionally. [00:21:53] Chad Bareither: Yeah. Oh, I think it's easier for me to answer personally. So I'll start there. So my wife and I have three children and they're all pretty active in different competitive endeavors, gymnastics. We talked before, my middle daughter is a dancer, the two girls, the gymnast and the dancer, also play volleyball. And then my youngest son is on a baseball and a soccer team. And so, I mean, I just love supporting them in those. Now I say all that academics are also important. They're doing well academically. That's kind of the condition for doing the sports and stuff like that, but really pouring into them right now. It's It's going to sound so cliche, but our oldest is 13 right now. And some pictures came up, memories on my phone, and it's goes by quick. So personally, I'm just excited about in them right now. And they're turning-- I use this term and my coworker laughs at me-- but they're turning into real people, with their own personalities and their own likes, and it's frustrating at times because they have their own thoughts. Yeah. But it's fascinating right now. And just being able to spend more time investing in them is, is great. Professionally is exciting to really I'm niching back down into this medtech area, right? So I'm carrying a pharma client. I came off a pharma engagement. That was just at the beginning of this year and I've worked in other industries, but I'm just really fired up about the work, the technical challenges in these areas. So getting back into some client engagements that are med device and pharmaceuticals, and then, pharmaceuticals has stuff going on that I don't, I can't begin to understand. Bio therapeutic proteins and cell therapy stuff, which is-- it's fascinating technology, but it's still process, right? And so I might not understand the science, but I do understand process. And I've been able to help in those areas. And it's just, it's humbling to be contributing to the field. So I'm really excited to niche back down in that area and do some more work in this medtech field. [00:23:56] Lindsey Dinneen: Yeah. And when it comes to medtech, are there any moments working with clients that stand out to you as just confirmation that you are in the right place in the right industry at the right time? [00:24:10] Chad Bareither: Yeah. So, I know very little about cell therapy, but basically, you grow stem cells and you make them into other type of cells that would be beneficial. If there's people in cell therapy listening to this, you can correct me if I'm wrong. But I mean, it's just, it's mind boggling the science, but I was working with that group and so they were building up their pilot capabilities. And I'm looking at for more like an industrial engineering, manufacturing point of view, developing standard work. And so they're like, "Oh, this is so helpful." And I'm just thinking, I'm like, "I don't even understand what you guys do. So the fact that I can be of any contribution here is..." But I think, pulling back on that is, you need to invest in your strength. So here's, very skilled multi year experience, PhD scientists. And sometimes they just need someone to help them with structuring up the process flow and the capacities and the standard work that they need to do this consistently. And I'm good at that. And so this kind of harkens back to our conversations about entrepreneurship, right, of knowing what you're good at and knowing what you need help with. And I just, I know what I'm good at. And if I find clients that need help in that area, I'm thrilled to support it. But that was one engagement where it was like, "I understand about zero of what you just explained to me, but I think I can help you." [00:25:36] Lindsey Dinneen: I love that. That's fantastic. One of the things I've noticed and really appreciated about the medtech industry is everybody is really good about celebrating and acknowledging how we all fit into the efforts to make it successful. So even if you are not the scientist, or you are also an engineer, but say in my case, I'm not a scientist, I'm not an engineer, but I do have a marketing ability. And the respect mutually that occurs for everybody's contributions, I think is really special in the medtech industry. I'm wondering if you experienced that too. [00:26:17] Chad Bareither: Yeah. You know, I think there's definitely times it's kind of like a family, right? Families fight, the families get along together. There's definitely times where it's like people are like, "Ah, sales department doesn't know what they're doing," or and you're like, but at the end of the day, you recognize you do need all those parts. Unfortunately, these technologies and this research is expensive. So you do need to sell, right? I mean, that's a reality. So you're right. They do all need to get to, and if people slow down, I think you're right. Eventually everyone's, " Yes, we need all these parts to work." I think there's definitely times where people are having a bad time and they get a little grumpy and they're like, "That department doesn't know what they're doing." But it's, but no, I think all the departments are actually really good at what they're doing. So, you just look at the growth that you're seeing in the industry and the valuation of some of these companies and it's, they know what they're doing and they're serving a need that, that we have supporting our health and wellness. And so it's cool. It's really cool to see that all come together. I think you get a very interesting view of that at some of the smaller organizations 'cause there is a lot more of that trust and that team camaraderie, but even, you know, I worked for a fortune 500 company when I was in in med device, as a corporate employee. And you still have that, within the product teams, within the production teams, that they're there to support each other, they're there for the win. There's also a healthy dose of competition in the industry, I think, that makes it a really driven. So it's, it's fun to be a part of it's fast paced because of the personalities. It's fast paced because of the science. It's fast paced because of the competitiveness with other competitors in the industry. So yeah, it's a fun space to be in. [00:28:00] Lindsey Dinneen: Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, so pivoting the conversation just for fun, imagine that you were to be offered a million dollars to teach a master class on anything you want. It could be in your industry, but it doesn't have to be. What would you choose to teach? [00:28:17] Chad Bareither: Yeah. So this is maybe, I'm hopefully not being risk averse here, because I would teach something that I'm already good at teaching. So some of my favorite things to teach are structured problem solving. So most people that are in any type of leadership position got there because they were probably good at solving problems. And I think where we have challenges in, as organizations grow, is that not everyone solves a problem the same way. So how do you develop the new talent coming up to be like those next leaders? And you can't, you shouldn't just rely on individual people to be like, "We'll just find the good problem solvers and they'll go up." I've seen in organizations where you can really multiply, even exponentially grow, the pace of improvement by having structured problem solving in. So that's what I would do. Personally, that's DMAIC formatted problem solving. It's a five phase problem solving approach: Define, Measure, Analyze, Improve and Control. So that's something that I love teaching because I love the lightbulb moment that goes off in people's heads and we teach them that. There is a portion of that is statistics and I love teaching statistics because most people think this is going to be the worst thing ever and I tried to make it a little bit fun and they're like, "Oh, that was fun. And I learned something." And that's what fires me up. So yeah, it would be structured problem solving. That's what I would teach a masterclass on. [00:29:43] Lindsey Dinneen: Okay, I like it. And how do you wish to be remembered after you leave this world? [00:29:49] Chad Bareither: Oh, my. So my love language that I express as in service. Helpful, that's, I think that's the main thing. Whether it's in a client engagement or in the neighborhood or the family, I enjoy helping people. And so whether that's consulting on the launch of a new diagnostic device or helping someone repair their tractor, right? I enjoy engaging and learning with people and solving problems together. So I really like helping people. So I think I'd like to be remembered in that way. Helpful. [00:30:27] Lindsey Dinneen: Yeah, I like it. Absolutely. And then final question. What is one thing that makes you smile every time you see or think about it? [00:30:38] Chad Bareither: One thing. Well, I don't know. I've smiled a lot this week, seeing pictures of my kids when they were younger, because I don't know, maybe my iPhone's just paying tricks on me. It keeps showing pictures of my kids when they were little. So that's it. I think right now, just the point of life that I'm at right now as kids, two of my brothers just had babies as well. So little kids and just me realizing like my kids are never going to be that age again. I've been on travel and seen a lot of little kids in different cities, and it's sweet because it's so simple. Their world is so simple at that age. So I think it makes me smile just because the innocence is there. Yeah. I'm gonna stick with that. [00:31:17] Lindsey Dinneen: Yeah, great answer. It's, it's special to witness and it always brings a smile too. Especially little kids at airports that are dragging their tiny little backpacks or rollie bags behind them and they've got their best stuffed friend. Oh my gosh, it's so cute. [00:31:35] Chad Bareither: So one thing that's been interesting to see is when people have younger kids, and maybe they're misbehaving or maybe they're just excited, right? And the parents are kind of flustered. It's just it's, it brings a smile to my face. Not because the parents are flustered. It's just because I can remember being a parent and you make a big deal out of it, and it's man, but I just appreciate the innocence and the genuine joy that this small human is trying to have right now. And it's, I think, that's the thing right now in my life. That's bringing a smile every time I see it or think about it. [00:32:05] Lindsey Dinneen: I love it. I love it. Well, Chad, this has been an incredible conversation. I really appreciate your insights and advice and everything that you're doing. If anyone's listening and needs some outside support, please definitely get in touch with Chad. We are so honored to be making a donation on your behalf as a thank you for your time today to the Polaris Project, which is a non governmental organization that works to combat and prevent sex and labor trafficking in North America. So thank you for choosing that organization to support. And we just wish you the most continued success as you work to change lives for a better world. [00:32:42] Chad Bareither: Thanks a lot. And you got a lot going on. So I wish you continued success in all your endeavors as well. [00:32:49] Lindsey Dinneen: Awesome. Well, thank you so much. And thank you also to our listeners for tuning in. And if you're feeling as inspired as I am right now, I would love it if you would share this episode with a colleague or two, and we will catch you next time. [00:33:04] Ben Trombold: The Leading Difference is brought to you by Velentium. Velentium is a full-service CDMO with 100% in-house capability to design, develop, and manufacture medical devices from class two wearables to class three active implantable medical devices. Velentium specializes in active implantables, leads, programmers, and accessories across a wide range of indications, such as neuromodulation, deep brain stimulation, cardiac management, and diabetes management. Velentium's core competencies include electrical, firmware, and mechanical design, mobile apps, embedded cybersecurity, human factors and usability, automated test systems, systems engineering, and contract manufacturing. Velentium works with clients worldwide, from startups seeking funding to established Fortune 100 companies. Visit velentium.com to explore your next step in medical device development.

How prepared do you feel to care for children and youth who have experienced abuse or assault? 1 in 10 Canadians (7.8%) over 15 report at least one instance of sexual abuse before age 15 (Stats Canada) Up to 88% of people being trafficked access health care (Polaris Project) - many don't disclose they are being trafficked Highest rates of intimate partner violence occur between age 12-24 (Stats Canada) Young people aged 15-24 years have the highest rate of sexual assault (Gov't of Canada) In this episode, we will explore the presentation of sexual abuse, sexual assault and sex trafficking in the pediatric setting and discuss trauma and violence informed care practices to guide paramedic care. We will also discuss:  - gaps and barriers to care in this population - practical tips to guide trauma and violence informed care including what not to ask  - role of the Sexual Assault Nurse Examiner and care available in Ontario through the Network of Sexual Assault and Domestic Violence Treatment Centers (SADVTC's)  - mandatory and consent based reporting  - prevelence and risks of strangulation in the context of sexual assault and intimate partner violence and the importance of thorough assessment and imaging  

In episode 3 of our economic empowerment season, Just Science down with Megan Lundstrom, the inaugural Director of the Polaris Project's Resilience Fund, to discuss how flexible cash assistance can support people who have experienced human trafficking. Direct financial assistance, such as stipends or grants, play an important role in supporting economic empowerment for people who have experienced human trafficking. They can be used to seed a small business, participate in a job training program, or further one's education. Listen as Lauren and Megan talk about the types of direct financial assistance available, and the benefits of these programs for people who have experienced human trafficking. This season is funded by the Human Trafficking Policy and Research Analyses Project. The views expressed in this podcast belong to the participants and do not necessarily reflect the views or policies of the Office of Planning, Research, and Evaluation, the Administration for Children and Families, or the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

National Human Trafficking Hotline:  Call for confidential help and info 24/7  888-373-7888Human trafficking is a multi-BILLION dollar criminal industry (Estimated at $5.7 billion in the US alone…and the US has some of the highest demand in the world.)  Human trafficking denies freedom to almost 25 million people around the world.  (and those numbers are notoriously under reported)  A 2017 study of cases reported to the Polaris-operated National Human Trafficking Hotline (https://humantraffickinghotline.org/en/human-trafficking) involved over 10,000 individual victims and nearly 5000 potential traffickers.  This is a HUGE problem.  Lauren Trantham (https://www.ridemyroad.org/) is working for survivors, photographing them, and telling their stories in an ethical and empowering way to raise money (over $400,000 at the point of publishing) for survivor programs.  She's also the Director of Communications for an amazing non-profit called The Epik Project (https://www.epikproject.org/) that is comprised of mostly men trying to eliminate human trafficking.  In this terrifyingly informative episode we talk aboutHow trafficking doesn't happen the way you think.  (Only 5% are forcefully kidnapped.  The rest are a lot more insidiously trapped)Some other social issues crossover with human trafficking: porn use, loneliness, and increases in suicideWhat Epik Project (https://www.epikproject.org/), a non-profit of men fighting human trafficking is doing, and how their Demand-Disruption program is not only interrupting sales in the moment, but addressing the larger issue of male loneliness that is inextricably tied to the human-trafficking problem, and how in the 10 years they've been doing this, they've interrupted over 500,000 potential human-trafficked sales.  In this episode, we talk aboutSome signs to watch out for.Her 10,000 mile motorcycle journey across the US to photograph survivors, her source of hope in this dark battle.How the Epick Project has adjusted their approach to their focus on reducing demandHere are some links that Lauren mentioned in the interview.Elevate Academy founded by trafficking survivor Rebecca Bender.  Donate today to help a survivor: https://elevate-academy.org/The Network works specifically with illicit Massage parlors: https://www.thenetworkteam.org/The Polaris Project is a main data collection hub for human trafficking: https://polarisproject.org/Exodus Cry Podcast : https://exoduscry.com/podcast/ National Human Trafficking Hotline:  Call for confidential help and info 24/7  888-373-7888       https://humantraffickinghotline.org/en/human-traffickingThe Brain on Porn research.  https://www.yourbrainonporn.com/relevant-research-and-articles-about-the-studies/Want more from Lauren?  https://www.ridemyroad.org/https://www.instagram.com/ridemyroad/ Lauren Tratham is an author, and speaker, business owner with nearly eight years of experience as a leader in the Anti-Human Trafficking Movement. She is the founder and Executive Director of Ride My Road, which has raised over $400k for survivor programs. As a photographe

Dasha Tyshlek, founder of StratCraft and strategic advisor to life science and healthcare tech companies, shares her inspiring journey from a dance teacher to a leading entrepreneur in MedTech. She discusses her passion for technology and problem-solving, and how she helps companies innovate and commercialize groundbreaking products. Dasha also highlights her podcast, "Biomedical Frontiers," which showcases transformative technologies and offers hope for the future of healthcare. Tune in for a compelling conversation on entrepreneurship, innovation, and making a difference in the world.    Guest links: http://stratcraftpartners.com | https://rss.com/podcasts/biomedicalfrontiers/ | https://www.engineering.virginia.edu/centers-institutes/coulter-center-translational-research/podcast  Charity supported: Polaris Project Interested in being a guest on the show or have feedback to share? Email us at theleadingdifference@velentium.com.  PRODUCTION CREDITS Host: Lindsey Dinneen Editing: Marketing Wise Producer: Velentium   EPISODE TRANSCRIPT Episode 034 - Dasha Tyshlek Lindsey Dinneen: Hi, I'm Lindsey and I'm talking with MedTech industry leaders on how they change lives for a better world. Diane Bouis: The inventions and technologies are fascinating and so are the people who work with them. Frank Jaskulke: There was a period of time where I realized, fundamentally, my job was to go hang out with really smart people that are saving lives and then do work that would help them save more lives. Diane Bouis: I got into the business to save lives and it is incredibly motivating to work with people who are in that same business, saving or improving lives. Duane Mancini: What better industry than where I get to wake up every day and just save people's lives. Lindsey Dinneen: These are extraordinary people doing extraordinary work, and this is The Leading Difference. Hello and welcome to The Leading Difference podcast. I'm your host, Lindsey, and I am so excited to be speaking with my guest today, Dasha Tyshlek. [00:01:00] Growing up, Dasha knew she wanted to become an entrepreneur, leading people to change the world through innovative products and services. Her love for technology and problem solving led her to study engineering science, focusing on biomedical engineering and product development at the University of Virginia. Today, Dasha is the founder, president, and chief strategic advisor of StratCraft, and is a strategic partner for growing life science and healthcare technology companies. Dasha has developed a strategy for advanced manufacturing spinouts such as Core Composites and MicroAnt GPS. She has led company wide strategy development and unique growth initiatives across multiple high tech industries, including biomedical device, pharmaceutical, translational research, automotive, financial, satellite, and defense. Dasha is the director and host of "Biomedical Frontiers: Stories with Innovators in Healthcare," a life sciences and biotechnology commercialization podcast hosted by the Wallace H. Coulter Translational Research Foundation at University of Virginia, and she is a lecturer [00:02:00] at University of Virginia's Biomedical Engineering Department. Due to her deep technical understanding and ability to forge complex, multi company partnerships and agreements, she is a sought after advisor to innovative companies working to commercialize their new technologies. All right, Dasha. Thank you so much for being here. Dasha Tyshlek: Lindsey, it's such a pleasure. Lindsey Dinneen: Awesome. Well, I was wondering if you would be willing to start off by just telling us a little bit about yourself and how you got started in the medical device field and what led you to what you're doing today. Dasha Tyshlek: Yeah, absolutely. I think one of the things that's been a defining trajectory in my life is, is entrepreneurial pursuit. And I actually started out, I think you and I connected on this earlier, as a dance teacher early on in my life and decided even in high school since I was learning dance to, to try coming up with my own dance aerobics programs and try to pitch that to local Golds [00:03:00] Gyms. And so that, that's been something I've, I've endorsed and participated in and tested out various forms of entrepreneurship over my life. But I'm also an engineer and I love interesting new technologies and the scientific approach to problem solving, kind of methodical, process driven, deeply curious ways of creating solutions. And so, when I started my engineering degree, I met some people who were entrepreneurial engineers. And that really excited me that you could be a technologist who is working on solving a problem and you're not doing it just to then maybe write a paper and hope somebody notices, but then you do the steps necessary, bring the team together, find the customer, and, and then do it, do that transition, that bridging. And so that really put me on a path even when I was studying to start exploring that. And I got to [00:04:00] participate with an organization called Venture Well, which is really famous for supporting STEM entrepreneurship even at undergraduate level. And at my university, I worked to create an organization that would help sprout kind of entrepreneurial innovation roots into the student community. So we created a Maker Space. We hosted a Medical Hackathon took people to startup trips to visit companies that were doing new technology developments. And, and also did some expos and speakers and things like that to expose students. And that had some really great success. A lot of people got very involved. A lot of the people that went through that with me are now entrepreneurs themselves-- not all medical device entrepreneurs, although most of them were biomedical engineers-- but all of them, very entrepreneurial, and working on some really interesting technologies now, so I think that's that's kind of the defining piece of where my career began. And then today I'm [00:05:00] consulting and helping companies, particularly companies with large portfolios of new technologies, who are trying to come up with ways to commercialize products, come up with that strategy for commercialization, taking one product, one technology at a time. Lindsey Dinneen: Wow, that is an amazing backstory. Thank you for sharing all of that with me. And it is so cool to see how, first of all the synergy, the fact that you did have a dance background as well. And you were so entrepreneurial, even back then in creating this program. So I do have to ask, did that program ever get sold to a gym or to anyone. Have you developed it? Did you fully do that? Dasha Tyshlek: Yeah, I actually had two Golds Gyms that I taught on a regular basis two different types of programs. And then since I was already a teacher with Golds Gym, they wanted to introduce some other dance programs from kind of well known brands. So they picked me as their [00:06:00] flagship dance instructor. So I actually ended up picking up some new classes and certifications through that. I also had a private class, just my dentist and her friends wanted to do dance, but they didn't want to enroll in a gym. So I was like, "Here, I'll come over, you know, everybody pitch in, here's the price and I'll just bring the gear and everybody dances at someone's living room." So we even had and they were all really busy women. So. So I think it worked well for them to just, you know, be in the neighborhood and use a living room rather than have to kind of travel. So you know, and, and we did, did some, there was two Golds Gyms, but there was also I was a substitute teacher and actually partnered with another dance trainer who was testing out ballroom dancing for people with disabilities. And so I was his like dance partner demo. So I just got to explore so many different opportunities through that and kind of see how you do business development and relationship management and new product rollouts and have to get, you know, prove that my class will bring in new [00:07:00] customers. So it was very fun. Lindsey Dinneen: Oh, that is incredible. I absolutely love that. Oh my goodness. So, so you have always had this entrepreneurial bent, but then of course, like you said you've also-- you're so curious. You like exploring you like learning new things and you're clearly not afraid to go out and pitch those ideas to whoever will listen. So I'm curious, how did you come to the pathway of "I want to be an engineer. I want to go to school for this and develop that skill set as well." Because it's not that they're not compatible. They obviously are. But a lot of times people don't necessarily put the two together. So I'm curious how that worked for you. Dasha Tyshlek: Yeah, when, when I was-- so, deciding to be an engineer was a little bit tough. I, I really like chemistry and I thought maybe to go into the chemistry side of things. But a lot of the people in my family are engineers. My grandmother is an engineer. Both my parents have kind of a practical math backgrounds. So, there was a lot of engineering in the [00:08:00] background of my family. And it seemed to me that the engineering focused a little bit more on kind of what's here and now, what you can build now. Science may be focused more on fundamental discovery. And so that that seemed to be kind of the difference for me is is I thought, "I'm probably like a little bit more like practical here and now rather than thinking in these like 20 year timelines." And so I think it was just a better personality fit. And then once I got into engineering school, that turned out to be really a great fit because I loved learning about the technology. I loved working with other engineers who were very building, creating, designing oriented. And the way that you look at problems and investigate in engineering is very similar to scientific approach, but also tends to be then, you have to then think through, "Okay, great, we found out how this spring works or something like that, but how do you use this spring to do something now in the world?" And so I, I love that [00:09:00] translation from kind of, "We have a technology, we have an approach to, it has to work for people in the world in reality." Lindsey Dinneen: It's so interesting because I love talking to people who are multi passionate and have a lot of different avenues that they have pursued over the years because I do think, overall, the more generalist you can be-- not that you shouldn't really hone in on some specifics-- but the more that you can have a lot of general experience and knowledge and skill sets, it seems to all end up working really well together in the end. And it helps you be a little more creative maybe when you're solving problems or approaching a new idea or a difficult conundrum and you're going, "Okay, well, you know what's interesting is, I have this background in science and engineering, and I have this background in dance and entrepreneurship and then blending it all together." I just love the stories of how it comes together. Dasha Tyshlek: One of the things I learned when I was [00:10:00] in engineering school is, for a lot of the projects-- so I took some project types of courses, and the first one I did that was like a year long course-- what I learned is, first semester, there was somebody to train me how to do the thing, but then everybody left the class, and I was the only one left. And so, the second semester on the project, I was basically spearheading, like, this kind of modeling project, and I had only been doing it for a few months. And I noticed right in that project that I was able to keep a team really organized, really clearly articulate goals, and at the end of the project, aside from the technical work that I was doing on it, I was actually the person synthesizing the results and communicating. And it led me to think, "Is there something there that's a real strength for me? And should I be doubling down on that?" And that, that's an area I've pursued a lot in my career is technology communication: clearly articulating what we're trying to achieve at the onset, developing requirements, [00:11:00] understanding the use case, et cetera. And then on the back side of it, once we've developed something, there's an entire kind of art and science to it, to talking about technology because there's a lot of detail. A lot of the people who work in the detail of the technology want to share that science and process. But a lot of the people who then make decisions want to hear other information about the technology that might not relate to how it works or how it was built. And so by, by actually having some of those experiences in engineering school, I was able to see that this technology communication and crafting of project goals was something that was really needed for engineering teams, and it really benefited when there was an engineer who was doing that, but you had to be in a different mindset and develop a different set of skills in addition to the design work. Lindsey Dinneen: Yeah, absolutely. Now, when you, and thank you for sharing that. I love that, that bringing it all together and again, how things work [00:12:00] together to help you. I, and I'm curious. So you are, you were so well prepared, from an outside perspective at least, to go out on your own and become this high level, amazing consultant for these companies. Did you also feel ready, or was it still this sort of leap of faith when you said, "Okay, I'm going to go in, full time for myself." Dasha Tyshlek: No, I was, I was very ready. I think, like any entrepreneur, I'm going through a process of discovery by learning exactly what it is my customer really needs help with, what industries and specific technologies I'm able to bring my skills to the best. And also what types of companies are looking for help I provide. So I can't say that I knew all of that information when I started out, but I had a good experience in, in the role I left. When, when I started my business, having had walked into an engineering company that had great innovative products, but was sort of [00:13:00] underperforming in the market relative to their potential and the quality of the technology they provided and going through the process systematically of creating a company strategy with them helping them understand what pieces were missing from their business development side, and working through the marketing and the business side of things to help them better articulate their technologies. But also taking a look at the portfolio of technologies and recognizing that some of the technologies there didn't quite fit their main business model, but were really valuable, helping them figure out a path to get those out to market separate of their company, but in a way that still contributed to the overall value of the business. And after I did that, I had several years of success and meaningful impact to look back on. And I said, "I've done it, I've proven it in one place." But in my experience doing this, I just kept meeting more and more companies [00:14:00] that struggled with a similar kind of problem. They had all the innovation. They had an amazing, talented engineering team, but they either lacked focus on which products had the most potential, or they would develop a lot of stuff that they didn't know how to move forward into the market. And so I could see the problem all around me. I was solving it. And so, after I've done enough at one company. I said, "Okay, I see the need and I know that I have the skills to solve it. Now I just need to kind of open that up and create a firm around this concept that helps other companies succeed in the same way." Lindsey Dinneen: Wonderful. Wonderful. Thank you for sharing. And so since starting your own consultancy, what has been maybe one of the most impactful, or things that really stand out to you as one of the most exciting things that you've gotten a chance to work [00:15:00] on? What kind of goes, "Oh, this is why I'm doing it this way in this industry." Dasha Tyshlek: Yeah. So, just generally, I get to meet so many interesting innovators who are changing, particularly healthcare. There are very interesting transformative technologies coming to the market that utilize virtual reality, that utilize AI technologies, to do things we weren't previously able to do in medicine to make me visualize your body in a way that no amount of human brain power could have done because of the way these models can work with data. But the project or the specific thing that I think I am most excited about in terms of its general impact is, it's called Biomedical Frontiers: Stories with Innovators in Healthcare. And it's a podcast i'm producing on behalf of University of Virginia's Coulter Center for [00:16:00] Translational Research. It's a center that focuses specifically on biomedical research that has potential for commercialization, or you could say translation, into the clinic, and they fund that research. They help with the business development efforts to bring that research into the world. And the podcast supports that mission by both highlighting the technologies that are a part of that portfolio, as well as that are connected to that portfolio, but also by educating people not only on the process of invention and the process of innovation in the medical and life sciences industry, but I think, very importantly, about what is coming: the hope and the good news about some of the incredible things that are coming to the market and to the world to help solve some of our intractable problems. So, I think in terms of human impact, that's probably the, something that I'm working on with, with a tremendous [00:17:00] vision that is available to all to participate in, to listen or, to be interviewed on. Lindsey Dinneen: Excellent, excellent. And can you just share a little bit too about your experience becoming a podcast host because you have kind of an interesting, unique story with that. And then how can people listen to this podcast? Where is it available? Dasha Tyshlek: Yes, of course. So public speaking and presenting technology, something that I've been interested in for a long time. And even before I started my business, in the Director of Marketing kind of roles that I've done, I've realized that video and audio communication, kind of deep diving in technology, helping create content that educates people because in a lot of engineering, even deep engineering technology areas-- you're working with other engineers who are deep in some technology area that you don't necessarily understand. There's a lot of miscommunication that happens because of that and podcasts are just such a [00:18:00] powerful way to bring more education and deep conversations about various topics, including very niche topics into the world. So I've kind of experimented with interviewing video interviews for some time now. But when I started my business, I was working alongside another business, Sales Chasers, and the founder of that business, Michelle Page, she and I were just kind of throwing around ideas. How do you grow your business? How do you find customers? What things we were interested in? We started kind of collaborating because you know, when you're starting a business, it's just you and headphones and your computer and it you know, you kind of miss-- especially if you're in a business development communicator role-- you're like, "Ah, I need people." I'm, I, I need some, some sort of co working to go on because it's, it's too lonely. So she and I were each other's co workers in that way, kind of similar stages in our, in our different consulting firms. So she and I decided to do a project called Go Go Grow, focusing [00:19:00] on business to business scaling with each of us coming up with some lesson plans on kind of key frameworks, tools, or ideas that are really important to business to business type of business growth. And so she and I developed that Go Go Grow together and put out a season focusing on kind of the fundamentals that we think are the most important, with some interviews of experts as well as some content that she and I kind of lesson planned together. And she's continuing on with that into other kinds of topics, but I was already working on this podcast, and I was teaching at University of Virginia, a class in the biomedical engineering department focused on engineers' professional development skills. And so when I was talking to my co lecturer who is the professor at the University and the head of the Culture Translational Research Center, he had this idea of "We should do a podcast." And I said, "Let [00:20:00] me help you. Can I please do this?" So I created a vision for what we could do, tying his foundations' mission and the goals that we were both pursuing in the class in terms of professional development for biomedical engineers. And then presented it to the engineering department, to the biomedical engineering department, and that's how we got started. Lindsey Dinneen: Amazing. Well, thank you for sharing that. And yes, please go check out her podcast. It's going to be just really informative. You'll learn a lot and you'll also get a lot of inspiration, like she said, about the fact that there's so many new amazing technologies emerging, there's a lot of reason for hope and optimism, and that's a good reminder, especially nowadays. So absolutely. Well, I'm curious, are there any moments or any one moment that stands out to you as just this [00:21:00] realization that you chose the right industry, you chose medtech for a reason, that it just kind of clicked into place, "Yes, this is why I'm here." Dasha Tyshlek: I think there's been a couple small moments, but each meaningful. I think when I got my first client that was really outside of my existing network. It was somebody I met through the work I was doing of developing my business, and not somebody who I'd previously known or worked with or anything like that. I think that was a real key moment. That's like a line that you cross. You're like, "Okay, this is not about my network or the people who sort of know me. My value and the skills are clear. I can clearly articulate them to somebody else, and somebody else can put the trust in me to help them deliver something." So I think that was one is that first client that's sort of outside of of anybody you knew at the moment you started your business. [00:22:00] I think the second one was really landing my first kind of big client, a company that really does a lot of technologies and they're not necessarily like a startup. They're mature. They have a lot of technology. They have a lot of process. That was, that was something that was like, "Okay, now I know that I'm starting to get into the kinds of companies that I'm envisioning helping and they are seeing the value that I can provide them back. So we're in agreement and it's starting to make sense." I think the third moment was when, so I have an analyst on my team. I also have some different suppliers and people, other consultants that I work with, so kind of distributed network plus starting to build my internal team. And the first time a client approached me to actually hire somebody, my junior consultant, from my team on a project based on something that this person did for a project that I was primarily working on. And so really starting to [00:23:00] see that some of the processes and systems and ideas I'm putting in place, that it's no longer just because of me, but now it's starting to say, it's because of the company and, and their skills that other people on my team have that, you know, knowing that I manage them and knowing their skills, they, they want to hire them and me because of them. Now I know that I'm moving beyond sort of sole openership and into-- there's a company here and we're developing a shared capability. So that sort of reinforces the vision and opens up a lot of possibilities. Lindsey Dinneen: Yeah. That is incredible. First of all, you know, congratulations because it's hard enough when you venture out on your own, but then to go ahead and have so much success and I'm sure-- you know, you have that daily grind so it's not always all sunshine and rainbows-- but to be able to grow your team and to have that moment of, "Oh my goodness, this is a company. It's not just me now, it's a company and there's other team members and we're all providing such [00:24:00] value to our clients." That is amazing. Congratulations. That is just the first step. So I'm really excited for you. Dasha Tyshlek: Thank you. Yes, me too. Lindsey Dinneen: Yeah, absolutely. Well, pivoting the conversation just for fun. Imagine you were to be offered a million dollars to teach a masterclass on anything that you want. It can be in your industry. It doesn't have to be. What would you choose to teach and why? Dasha Tyshlek: Oh, that's a tough one. I actually have a competing hobby that I would probably choose from, and that is how to set up a wonderful backyard garden that produces food and flowers for the season. I think we I think we need more backyard gardens and more gardeners. But I think I would have to spend that entire million dollars on getting people to attend. So maybe not the best choice of a million dollars, but professionally speaking, I think I would love to teach about setting up frameworks [00:25:00] for thinking about-- any kind of problem really-- but business development related problems. I think there's, there's a lot of really great frameworks out there teaching people how to use them in order to anchor your thinking and your decision making in kind of a shared understanding of priorities that requires a framework. So we could start with the frameworks that exist, but teaching people how to think outside the box and create their own framework for the situation, how to be basically their own strategy consultant in PowerPoint or on paper and help them think through problems that are complex and chaotic by creating frameworks would be, I think, really valuable to many people. I don't think it's taught very often. And certainly it's it's such a huge leg up on any kind of problem solving that you have to do to be able to kind of anchor yourself in a structure before you go and start making [00:26:00] decisions. Lindsey Dinneen: Yeah, I love that. I love that idea too, because especially something that you said really struck a chord with me about solving the idea of chaotic and overwhelming problems and creating a framework for that. There's so much of life is, I mean, life is a learning curve, right? So there's so many times where it might be very helpful to approach even a personal problem or a personal challenge that comes up with the idea of a framework where you can say, "Okay. Yes, this feels overwhelming and anxiety inducing, and whatever other big feelings you have about it that make it feel so overwhelming you can't even get started." But what if you think about it in terms of a framework and how could that help you take it out of all of the emotion, maybe, and help you transform it into, okay, this can be resolved is some creative problem solving strategy. I think that'd be amazing. Dasha Tyshlek: Yeah, and sometimes [00:27:00] when you put things in a framework, you discover that either pieces of information that you need to actually make a decision or a path forward are just missing. You put it in a framework, you're like, "Oh, of course, it makes sense, I'm missing this whole thing of information." Or, alternatively, so it can actually stimulate that aspect of creative thinking, but also it can prompt more idea generation. And, and I do find sometimes-- it's like the problem diagnosis-- sometimes if I come into a scenario where there's a lot of confusion about, "What do we do? How do we move forward? What product should we choose? What business model should we choose?" The first thing to do is to create a framework for decision making because, you go and you do the research and you get the information, you still don't know which one to do because the information by itself, you know-- unless the information's like there's zero opportunity here, but there's never information like that. The information's always that there's some pros over here, and some [00:28:00] pros over here, and some cons, and some cons. So without the framework you just drown in the amount of knowledge. Facts without a framework don't lead to a decision, they just lead to a lot of facts. So learning how to step back, when do you actually go back to a framework, and how do you create a framework for this situation, because sometimes it feels like you don't have a framework for this situation, the situation's unique. But you can then come up with your own framework, merging ideas from other frameworks, or utilizing your own creative skills to kind of draw up a structure within which you can make decisions. So. I think that would be, that would be a very fun master class. Lindsey Dinneen: It would be fun and super valuable So I'll sign up for that when you give that Well, how do you wish to be remembered after you leave this world? Dasha Tyshlek: I always focus on three areas of growth for myself. When people ask me what I want to be, I think "kinder, wiser, and more courageous" is what I want to be over time. And [00:29:00] so I would hope that, I don't know that those things have a definite end, but if I can be remembered as having worked towards that in a way that people felt in their lives, then that will be good. Lindsey Dinneen: Yeah, that's a beautiful answer and finally, what is one thing that makes you smile every time you see or think about it? Dasha Tyshlek: Flowers. I love, especially on the side of the road, when you're driving somewhere, and sometimes you see that nowadays on highways, there's been some wildflower planting. That's just so good. It's good for the environment, it's beautiful on the eyes, it's good for the bees. So, so always happy to see more flowers being planted for a more beautiful world. Lindsey Dinneen: Yeah. Oh, I love that so much. Great answer. Well, thank you so very much for joining me today, Dasha. This has been such a pleasure, and I'm just so impressed with you and [00:30:00] everything that you're bringing to the world to help these amazing companies become even more effective, and this creative problem solving that you bring to it with your frameworks and whatnot. So, I just want to say, you know, a huge kudos to you for everything that you're doing: the podcast, I hope that all of my listeners go and check hers out as well. And yeah, just thanks for being here. Dasha Tyshlek: Thank you for having me. Lindsey Dinneen: Of course. And we are so honored to be making a donation on your behalf as a thank you for your time today to the Polaris Project, which is a non governmental organization that works to combat and prevent sex and labor trafficking in North America. So thank you for choosing that organization to support. And we wish you continued success as you work to change lives for a better world. Dasha Tyshlek: Thank you very much, and thank you for that donation on my behalf. Lindsey Dinneen: Oh, yeah. And thank you also to our listeners for tuning [00:31:00] in. And if you're feeling as inspired as I am right now, we would love if you would share this episode with a colleague or two, and we will catch you next time. Ben Trombold: The Leading Difference is brought to you by Velentium. Velentium is a full-service CDMO with 100% in-house capability to design, develop, and manufacture medical devices from class two wearables to class three active implantable medical devices. Velentium specializes in active implantables, leads, programmers, and accessories across a wide range of indications, such as neuromodulation, deep brain stimulation, cardiac management, and diabetes management. Velentium's core competencies include electrical, firmware, and mechanical design, mobile apps, embedded cybersecurity, human factors and usability, automated test systems, systems engineering, and contract manufacturing. Velentium works with clients worldwide, from startups seeking funding to established Fortune 100 companies. Visit [00:32:00] velentium.com to explore your next step in medical device development.

the Protectors Foundation: https://theprotectorsfoundation.org/ We Defy Foundtion : https://wedefyfoundation.org Change Unchainedn: https://www.changeunchained.com OAR Rescue : https://ohioalleycat.org/adopt/A21 : https://www.a21.org Polaris Project: https://polarisproject.orgWarrors Heart: https://veterans.warriorsheart.com Operation Enduring Warror: https://www.enduringwarrior.org Warrors Heart: https://veterans.warriorsheart.com

In this episode, we look into a harrowing yet crucial topic—human trafficking. Joined by our special guest Theresa Flores, the founder of The SOAP Project, we explore the intricacies of combating this pervasive issue. Theresa, a survivor of human trafficking herself, shares her profound insights and the impactful work being done by her organization to rescue victims and raise awareness. We cover the operations and outreach efforts of The SOAP Project, from distributing millions of bars of soap labeled with hotline numbers to organizing large events in collaboration with local communities. Discover why states like Ohio rank among the top in trafficking cases, how traffickers are evolving to avoid detection, and the alarming reality of familial trafficking in rural areas. Additionally, Theresa emphasizes the critical role of media in raising awareness and the continuous efforts needed to support survivors, including prospective wellness programs and significant legislative advocacy. Memorable Moments00:00 Realized purpose: advocate against human trafficking.04:08 Moving a lot, lacking support, led vulnerability.08:15 Human trafficking, statistics, call for media attention.11:46 Providing help for human trafficking victims.14:47 Polaris Project helps victims of human trafficking.17:13 Rural areas have more trafficking of minors.24:42 Prostitution seen as choice, but often oppression.27:10 Neighbors can help spot and aid victims.32:40 Becoming a survivor advocate, changing human trafficking laws.33:25 Fought for laws against human trafficking, succeeded.36:49 Raised $30,000 for new dentures, future programs.41:02 Memoir reveals journey from trauma to empowerment.Top TakeawaysEngaging volunteers in efforts to combat human trafficking involves navigating and ensuring their safety in potentially dangerous situations.The SOAP Project organizes sting operations to help victims, signaling an active approach in rescuing those trapped in trafficking situations.Operating for about 15-20 years, the Polaris Project plays a crucial role in trafficking identification, with extensive reporting available online.Ohio ranks among the top five states for human trafficking due to its metropolitan areas, with familial trafficking also prevalent in rural settings.With the distribution of 3,000,000 bars of soap, the SOAP Project raises awareness nationwide, supported by a diverse team including law enforcement and community organizations.There is a critical need for balanced and empathetic media coverage that focuses on victims rather than sensationalizing their situations, thus addressing the real human cost of trafficking.The SOAP Project not only focuses on raising awareness but also on providing direct support such as hotline numbers on soap bars, connecting victims to local contacts, and offering wellness weekends for survivors.Combating human trafficking requires substantial financial resources, often sourced through community support, donations, and fundraising events to maintain outreach programs.Theresa Flores advocates for educational initiatives to inform youth about trafficking risks and legislative changes to protect victims and prosecute traffickers effectively.We would love to hear from you.Give us your feedback, or suggest a topic, by leaving us a voice message.Email us at hello@lookingforwardourway.com.Find us on Facebook.

Today on The Neil Haley Show, Neil "The Media Giant" Haley interviews Terry Crews. Terry Crews is the host of NBC's top-rated summer show “America's Got Talent,” currently in its 19th season. He also served as the host for franchise spinoffs “America's Got Talent: The Champions,” “America's Got Talent: All-Stars” and “America's Got Talent: Extreme, and is currently hosting the latest iteration, “America's Got Talent: Fantasy League.” Crews is an author, action-movie hero, sitcom star, children's book illustrator, talent show host and human rights activist. The three-time People magazine Sexiest Man Alive actor has starred as a series regular in three consecutive TV series that have surpassed the coveted 100-episode mark (the Golden Globe Award-winning series “Brooklyn Nine-Nine,” “Are We There Yet?” and “Everybody Hates Chris”). With a diverse film resume, Crews has co-starred in “White Chicks,” “The Expendables” franchise, “Sandy Wexler,” “The Ridiculous 6,” “Blended,” “Click,” “The Benchwarmers,” “The Longest Yard,” “Sorry to Bother You,” “Deadpool 2” and, most recently, “Rumble.” Crews recently launched Super Serious, a creative agency focused on providing entertainment through different mediums. As CEO and co-founder, Crews tapped Impossible Foods as his first branded partnership. Crews was named one of Time magazine's 2017 Person of the Year honorees as a Silence Breaker, speaking out against sexual harassment following the #MeToo movement. He released his memoir, “Tough: My Journey to True Power” in 2022 and added the title of children's book illustrator with the first-of-its-kind augmented reality book, “Come Find Me: Terry's Crew.” He dedicates his free time to keeping physically fit and works with several non-profit organizations, including Safe Horizon, Peace Over Violence and the Polaris Project. For his dedication in helping these organizations, he was awarded the UN Global Generation Award at the UN headquarters and continues to be honored by numerous organizations for his tireless advocacy in helping to combat sexual harassment and abuse, domestic violence and human trafficking. Crews has been married to his wife, Rebecca, for 30 years. The couple have five children. The Neil Haley Show is a captivating talk show hosted by the charismatic and engaging Neil Haley. The show airs on over 150 stations worldwide, reaching an impressive weekly audience of over 5 million listeners. Haley's infectious energy, insightful interviews, and ability to connect with his audience have earned him a loyal following across the globe.

My guest on this episode is Rikki Barton who has a passion for communicating essential messages to move individuals and communities onward in their goals. She is the Founder/Lead Consultant of Onward Consulting and holds the Missouri Advanced Prevention Specialist certification as well as international IC&RC certification. Rikki has over 14 years of prevention field experience and currently serves as a consultant to assist organizations, coalitions, and state/federal agencies in the areas of substance use prevention, suicide prevention, and mental health promotion. She has extensive experience working with community coalitions, providing training, grant writing, managing funding sources, and leading a team of preventionists. Rikki trains for CADCA in their youth and adult training programs as well as trains for National Council for Mental Wellbeing as an Adult, Youth, and Teen Mental Health First Aid Instructor. She holds a Bachelors degree from Pennsylvania State University and a Masters degree from Liberty University. In her free time, Rikki loves exploring the outdoors on hikes with her rescue dog, Oreo. Rikki recently returned from an epic adventure trip to Nepal, where she completed the Everest Base Camp trek (unfortunately, without Oreo). ·      Email: rikki@onwardconsulting.biz ·      Web site: https://www.onwardconsulting.biz ·      LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rikki-onward ·      Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/onward_consulting/ ·      Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/onwardconsultingllc The funder of this project, along with all other products of the Mid-America PTTC is the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. Although funded by SAMHSA, the content of this recording does not necessarily reflect the views of SAMHSA. The  National Center of Excellence on social media and Youth Mental Health serves as a centralized, trusted source for evidence-based education and technical assistance to support the mental health of children and adolescents as they navigate social media. https://www.aap.org/en/patient-care/media-and-children/center-of-excellence-on-social-media-and-youth-mental-health/ The internet has dramatically reshaped how we buy and sell everything – including each other. Social media has been used by traffickers to recruit victims, to proliferate their trafficking operations, and to control victims through restricting their social media access, impersonating the victim, or spreading lies and rumors online. A leader in helping us to understand this issue is the Polaris Project, they are a survivor-centered, justice- and equity-driven movement to end human trafficking.  https://polarisproject.org/human-trafficking-and-social-media/   

In this episode, PA Angela Meredith speaks with Clay, Kim, and Martine about how clinicians, particularly PAs, can be prepared to handle the issue of human trafficking.   Learn valuable information you can use to help patients who may be at risk, important factors to consider implementing at your facility, and useful resources you can utilize today. Don't miss this valuable conversation.   Guest: Angela Meredith, DMSc, PA-C Linkedin profile: http://www.linkedin.com/in/angelameredith   Resources for everyone:   National Human Trafficking Hotline - home base of 24-hour hotline: 888-3737-888. https://humantraffickinghotline.org/en   *This is also where you can download the decision-flow chart “Framework for a Human Trafficking Protocol in Healthcare Settings” at https://humantraffickinghotline.org/en/resources/framework-human-trafficking-protocol-healthcare-settings   Polaris Project - online training, human trafficking 101: https://polarisproject.org/human-trafficking/   Resources for clinicians:   American Hospital Association - includes ICD10 codes: https://www.aha.org/combating-human-trafficking   SOAR - AMA cat 1 CME credits, train.org  - SOAR to Health and Wellness: https://www.acf.hhs.gov/otip/training/soar-health-and-wellness-training And for online training: https://www.train.org/main/search?type=course&query=SOAR   Jones Day for reporting and educational requirements. Scroll down to access the pdf: https://www.jonesday.com/en/insights/2021/09/human-trafficking-and-health-care-providers   Coalition Against Trafficking in Women:  http://www.catwinternational.org

Human Trafficking: A Survivor's Story Evaluation and Credit:  https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/MedChat62 Target Audience             This activity is targeted toward primary care providers, advanced providers and healthcare clinicians.  Statement of Need  According to the American Public Health Association, the health system plays an important role in identifying and treating victims of human trafficking. Estimates show that approximately 80 percent of human trafficking victims are women, and health care providers are often the first professionals to have contact with trafficked women and girls. One study found that close to 50 percent of trafficked individuals saw a health care professional during their exploitation. Clinicians need to be aware of red flags that their patient could be a victim of human trafficking, best practices for screening and assessing patients for trafficking, and their response as a health care professional, and resources for assisting the victims. Providers should know how to screen patients for human trafficking; and what to do if there are indicators of a potential victim of human trafficking.   Objectives  At the conclusion of this offering, the participant will be able to:  Identify red flags of human trafficking and opportunities for victim identification that can be missed by the healthcare provider. Highlight communication strategies for identifying potential human trafficking victims from the perspective of a victim. Discuss the significance and impact of compassion to the patient in the delivery of health care.   Moderator Naomi Warnick, M.D., J.D. Pediatric Emergency Medicine Fellow UofL School of Medicine Department of Pediatrics Louisville, Kentucky Pediatric Hospitalist Norton Children's Hospital Louisville Kentucky Guest Kathleen:  Human Traffic Survivor    Commercial Support   There was no commercial support for this activity.  Physician Credits Accreditation  Norton Healthcare is accredited by the Kentucky Medical Association to provide continuing medical education for physicians. Designation  Norton Healthcare designates this enduring material for a maximum of 1.0 AMA PRA Category 1 Credits™. Physicians should claim only the credit commensurate with the extent of their participation in the activity. For more information about continuing medical education credits, please send an email to cme@nortonhealthcare.org.   Nursing Credits Norton Healthcare Institute for Education and Development is approved with distinction as a provider of nursing continuing professional development by the South Carolina Nurses Association, an accredited approver by the American Nurses Credentialing Center's Commission on Accreditation. This continuing professional development activity has been approved for 1.0 contact hours. In order for nursing participants to obtain credits, they must claim attendance by attesting to the number of hours in attendance.   For more information related to nursing credits, contact Sally Sturgeon, DNP, RN, SANE-A, AFN-BC at (502) 446-5889 or sally.sturgeon@nortonhealthcare.org.   Social Workers   The National Association of Social Workers, Kentucky Chapter (NASW-KY), is an approved provider for social work credits through the Kentucky Board of Social Work. This activity will provide 1.0 hours of required continuing education units. NASWKY#090123 For more information about social worker credits, contact the Norton Healthcare Center for Medical, Provider & Nursing Education at (502) 446-5955 or cme@nortonhealthcare.org.   Other attendees   Confirmed attendance hours will be recorded for all other attendees. Hours of confirmed attendance will be equivalent to the number of hours of one's attested attendance. For additional information related to confirmed attendance, contact the Norton Healthcare Center for Medical, Provider & Nursing Education at (502) 466-5955 or cme@nortonhealthcare.org.   Resources  National Human Trafficking Hotline      1-888-373-7888 or text 233733 Polaris Project – https://polarisproject.org HEAL Trafficking – Healtrafficking.org  Mental Health Lifeline - 988   Human Trafficking: Empowering Healthcare Providers and Community Partners as Advocates for Victims https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/34569887/ Human Trafficking in the Emergency Department: Improving Our Response to a Vulnerable Population https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32421500/   Norton Healthcare, a not for profit health care system, is a leader in serving adult and pediatric patients throughout Greater Louisville, Southern Indiana, the commonwealth of Kentucky and beyond. Five Louisville hospitals provide inpatient and outpatient general care as well as specialty care including heart, neuroscience, cancer, orthopedic, women's and pediatric services. A strong research program provides access to clinical trials in a multitude of areas. More information about Norton Healthcare is available at NortonHealthcare.com.   Date of Original Release |Jan. 2024; Information is current as of the time of recording.  Course Termination Date | Jan 2026 Contact Information | Center for Continuing Medical, Provider and Nursing Education; (502) 446-5955 or cme@nortonhealthcare.org    

Part One: Hidden Victims: A Guide for Healthcare Providers in Identifying Human Trafficking Victims Evaluation and Credit:  https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/MedChat61 Target Audience             This activity is targeted toward primary care providers, advanced providers and healthcare clinicians.  Statement of Need  According to the American Public Health Association, the health system plays an important role in identifying and treating victims of human trafficking. Estimates show that approximately 80 percent of human trafficking victims are women, and health care providers are often the first professionals to have contact with trafficked women and girls. One study found that close to 50 percent of trafficked individuals saw a health care professional during their exploitation. Clinicians need to be aware of red flags that their patient could be a victim of human trafficking, best practices for screening and assessing patients for trafficking, and their response as a health care professional, and resources for assisting the victims. Providers should know how to screen patients for human trafficking; and what to do if there are indicators of a potential victim of human trafficking. Objectives  At the conclusion of this offering, the participant will be able to:  Discuss the scope of human trafficking locally and nationally. Identify the red flags of human trafficking and screening questions to ask, so that a potential victim can be identified when they are accessing the healthcare system. Review the reporting and documentation guidelines for when a patient is suspected of being a victim of human trafficking. Discuss appropriate communication strategies, including trauma-informed communication, to best facilitate trust between provider and patient.  Moderator Kim Boland, M.D., FAAP Professor and Chair of Pediatrics Billy F. Andrew's Endowed Chair UofL School of Medicine Department of Pediatrics Chief of Staff Norton Children's Hospital Louisville, Kentucky Speakers Olivia Mittel, M.D., M.S. Professor and Associate Dean for Student Affairs UofL School of Medicine Louisville, Kentucky Pediatric Hospitalist Norton Children's Hospital Louisville Kentucky Naomi Warnick, M.D., J.D. Pediatric Emergency Medicine Fellow UofL School of Medicine Department of Pediatrics Louisville, Kentucky Moderator, Speaker and Planner Disclosures   The planners, moderator and speaker of this activity do not have any relevant financial relationships to disclose.  Commercial Support   There was no commercial support for this activity.  Physician Credits Accreditation  Norton Healthcare is accredited by the Kentucky Medical Association to provide continuing medical education for physicians. Designation  Norton Healthcare designates this enduring material for a maximum of .75 AMA PRA Category 1 Credits™. Physicians should claim only the credit commensurate with the extent of their participation in the activity. For more information about continuing medical education credits, please send an email to cme@nortonhealthcare.org.   Nursing Credits Norton Healthcare Institute for Education and Development is approved with distinction as a provider of nursing continuing professional development by the South Carolina Nurses Association, an accredited approver by the American Nurses Credentialing Center's Commission on Accreditation. This continuing professional development activity has been approved for .75 contact hours. In order for nursing participants to obtain credits, they must claim attendance by attesting to the number of hours in attendance.   For more information related to nursing credits, contact Sally Sturgeon, DNP, RN, SANE-A, AFN-BC at (502) 446-5889 or sally.sturgeon@nortonhealthcare.org. Social Workers  The National Association of Social Workers, Kentucky Chapter (NASW-KY), is an approved provider for social work credits through the Kentucky Board of Social Work. This activity will provide .75 hours of required continuing education units. NASWKY#090123 For more information about social worker credits, contact the Norton Healthcare Center for Medical, Provider & Nursing Education at (502) 446-5955 or cme@nortonhealthcare.org. Other attendees   Confirmed attendance hours will be recorded for all other attendees. Hours of confirmed attendance will be equivalent to the number of hours of one's attested attendance. For additional information related to confirmed attendance, contact the Norton Healthcare Center for Medical, Provider & Nursing Education at (502) 466-5955 or cme@nortonhealthcare.org.   Resources   National Human Trafficking Hotline      1-888-373-7888 or text 233733 Polaris Project – https://polarisproject.org HEAL Trafficking – Healtrafficking.org  Mental Health Lifeline – 988 Human Trafficking: Empowering Healthcare Providers and Community Partners as Advocates for Victims https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/34569887/ Human Trafficking in the Emergency Department: Improving Our Response to a Vulnerable Population https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32421500/   Norton Healthcare, a not for profit health care system, is a leader in serving adult and pediatric patients throughout Greater Louisville, Southern Indiana, the commonwealth of Kentucky and beyond. Five Louisville hospitals provide inpatient and outpatient general care as well as specialty care including heart, neuroscience, cancer, orthopedic, women's and pediatric services. A strong research program provides access to clinical trials in a multitude of areas. More information about Norton Healthcare is available at NortonHealthcare.com.   Date of Original Release |Jan. 2024; Information is current as of the time of recording.  Course Termination Date | Jan 2026 Contact Information | Center for Continuing Medical, Provider and Nursing Education; (502) 446-5955 or cme@nortonhealthcare.org  

An update since our original episode aired on May 9, 2023: The University of Austin is now accepting applications for their first undergraduate class starting fall 2024.  To mark this milestone, we are resharing our interview with founding president Panos Kanelos. The University of Austin is a new and promising institution set to open its doors to full time students in just over a year. The university is the brainchild of a few individuals who believe that an institution based on a new model is necessary. The school is committed to freedom of inquiry, a core tenet of any great university, that allows for the pursuit of truth. Today's guest is the founding president, Pano Kanelos, a distinguished academic that had a successful tenure at St. John's College. We discuss the university's mission, building new institutions, and how they fit within Austin's education and innovation ecosystems.Episode HighlightsThe University of Austin aims to become a new center for innovation and academic freedom in the city.UATX aspires to become the "Stanford to Berkeley" for Austin, complementing the University of Texas.By working closely with industry leaders, the university seeks to co-develop programs, offer internships, and provide support for student-led projects.The Polaris Project emphasizes real-world application and impact on pressing global problems, while fostering interdisciplinary collaboration among students.They want to inspire new institutions around the world by proving that it's possible to build a new university todayWhat's next Austin? “A dozen years from now, there is a thriving campus in the Austin area that is attracting scholars, practitioners, and young people from across the country and across the world who are building things that we haven't yet dreamed of.”University of Austin: Website, Undergraduate Application, X/Twitter, LinkedIn Austin Next Links: Website, X/Twitter, YouTube, LinkedIn

In this episode, I invited my friend and fellow podcaster Demi Wylde onto the podcast to discuss rape culture. Some of the topics discussed include the importance of advocacy, how porn is fantasy and not real sex, comprehensive sex education and the media we consume as children, and the connection between rape culture and the law. Subscribe today and join the conversation!   Demitri (Demi) Wylde is an author, content creator, and sex educator based out of Los Angeles, CA. He is the CEO of Wylde Heart Media, and hosts the podcast Hookup Horror Stories with Demi Wylde. His blogs "The Deviant Diaries" and "A Deviant's Guide to Sex" are available on his website. Demi is also an HIV, women's reproductive rights, and a certified human trafficking awareness advocate. To connect with Demi and his works, follow this link: https://linktr.ee/demitriwylde.   If you are looking to receive training on human trafficking with the Polaris Project, reach out to them here (https://polarisproject.org/training/).   Follow and Support the Podcast Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/heauxliloquy Twitter: @Heauxliloquy (https://www.twitter.com/heauxliloquy) Website: https://www.heauxliloquy.com Vernon's book: https://amzn.to/3vsZDm5 Vernon's IG: UrFavHeauxst (https://www.instagram.com/UrFavHeauxst/) Subscribe to the Viberator In My Pod - https://linktr.ee/heauxliloquy   Crisis and Psychological Resources Rape, Abuse, and Incest National Network https://www.rainn.org 800-656-HOPE (4673) National Suicide Prevention Lifeline https://www.988lifeline.org 800-273-TALK (8255) Text or call 988 National Domestic Violence Hotline https://www.thehotline.org 800-799-7233 Text START to 88788 Find A Therapist American Psychological Association (https://www.apa.org/topics/crisis-hotlines) Psychology Today (https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/therapists/family-marital) Therapist Locator (https://www.therapistlocator.net/) Access additional resources on Open Counseling (https://blog.opencounseling.com/hotlines-us/) Open Counseling also has a list of International Hotlines (https://blog.opencounseling.com/suicide-hotlines/)   Slaytor's Playhouse on the Web Slaytor's Playhouse: https://slaytorsplayhouse.com SP Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/slaytorsplay SP YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCfS8UcvYHLtiDsfqQqTLJeg Coaching services available through Slaytor's Playhouse (https://bit.ly/3Deizss) Donate to Slaytor's Playhouse (https://bit.ly/3qDGUTF)   Referrals and Affiliates If you are interested in signing up for Episodic Sound and accessing their list of royalty free music, please use my affiliate link (https://www.epidemicsound.com/referral/2mj5fk).   If you are interested in joining the podcasting world and creating your own podcast, check out PodBean (https://www.podbean.com/topheauxpod). Sign up today and get one month free.   Sponsorship Looking to sponsor the podcast? Email Slaytor's Playhouse at info@slaytorsplayhouse.com.   The Heuaxliloquy Podcast Media Kit (https://bit.ly/35U78Kg)   If you are an advertiser trying to reach a new market, check out PodBean Advertising (https://sponsorship.podbean.com/topheauxpod). Use the link to get up to $100 credits for running your first ad on PodBean.

Violinist Andrew Finn Magill  has an eclectic, genre-crossing new album called “The Polaris Project.” Horror writer Jamieson Ridenhour is the writer and co-creator of the popular fiction podcast "Palimpsest." The two Asheville artists split this episode of The Overlook. Ridenhour and “Palimpsest” actress and co-creator Hayley Heninger celebrate the upcoming fifth season of their show with a performance Oct. 26 at the Black Mountain Center for the Arts. Magill launches his album with an Oct. 27 concert at the Wortham Center for the Performing Arts.Get five news headlines from around Asheville in your morning inbox. No ads, no spam—simple as that. Subscribe for free to the First Look newsletter from The Overlook. Support The Overlook by joining our Patreon campaign!Advertise your event on The Overlook.Instagram: AVLoverlook | Facebook: AVLoverlook | Twitter: AVLoverlookListen and Subscribe: All episodes of The OverlookThe Overlook theme song, "Maker's Song," comes courtesy of the Asheville band The Resonant Rogues.Podcast Asheville © 2023

Haven Tyler is a Senior Client Relations Executive in medical device development at Boston Engineering and an aspiring interior designer in her spare time. In this episode, she discusses her innate curiosity about the world, why she decided to focus primarily on the medtech industry, her passion for furthering women's health, the power of mentorship, and the time she starred in a horror film. Guest links: https://www.boston-engineering.com/industries/medical/ | https://www.linkedin.com/in/haventyler/ Charity supported: Polaris Project Interested in being a guest on the show or have feedback to share? Email us at podcast@velentium.com.  PRODUCTION CREDITS Host: Lindsey Dinneen Editor: Tim Oliphant Producer: Velentium   SHOW NOTES Episode 015 - Haven Tyler Lindsey Dinneen: Hi, I'm Lindsey with Velentium and I'm talking with MedTech industry leaders on how they change lives for a better world. Diane Bouis: The inventions and technologies are fascinating and so are the people who work with them. Frank Jaskulke: There was a period of time where I realized, fundamentally, my job was to go hang out with really smart people that are saving lives and then do work that would help them save more lives. Diane Bouis: I got into the business to save lives and it is incredibly motivating to work with people who are in that same business, saving or improving lives. Duane Mancini: What better industry than where I get to wake up every day and just save people's lives. Lindsey Dinneen: These are extraordinary people doing extraordinary work, and this is The Leading Difference. Hello and welcome to The Leading Difference podcast. I'm your host Lindsey, and I'm excited to introduce you to my guest today, Haven Tyler. Haven is a senior client relations executive at Boston Engineering, a consulting and technology development firm based in Boston. Haven brings over 30 years of a consulting experience to her clients and she has worked with such consulting firms as IDEO and Continuum. Haven appreciates the variety in her work, especially the broad range of technical business and regulatory challenges her clients face. In her varied career she made the personal professional shift eight years ago to focus on medical device development because of the impact her teams have on improving patients' lives. The path her current role has not been traditional. Haven has a BA from Sarah Lawrence College, studied history of art and fashion, and is an aspiring interior designer in her spare time. Along the way, she also had a short-lived acting career and starred in a horror film in her senior year in college. What knits it all together is an innate curiosity in the world around her and solving tough problems. Well, hello, Haven. Thank you so very much for joining us today. I am so excited to learn more about you. Thanks for being here. Haven Tyler: Oh, Lindsey, thank you for inviting me. I'm excited to go through this with you. Lindsey Dinneen: Yeah, absolutely. Well, I was wondering if you wouldn't mind starting by just telling us a little bit about yourself and your background and maybe how you got into the industry. Haven Tyler: Oh, sure, I'd be happy to. So I have to say, in perfect honesty and transparency, my path to where I am has not been a straight one. So it's quite varied. I started out by going to college in New York. I went to a small liberal arts school called Sarah Lawrence. And I studied art history actually. But I think that the thing that education, and also in my family, that was instilled was the sort of innate sense of curiosity. So I think that's a thread that runs throughout my career. I ended up in the Boston area and started actually working for an industrial design firm and learned about industrial design, which is something that was totally new for me. So I'm clearly more of a visual sort of design person, but I've appreciated the sort of messiness of the creative process and the complexity of problems and I've really always loved that kind of, there's a problem and everyone's brainstorming and coming up to a solution as a group. So that's always been something that I've really enjoyed and I learned a lot from an industrial design perspective. And I was really lucky I got to work at some pretty amazing places. I was able to work at IDEO as their Head of Business Development on the East coast in what I would consider the halcyon days, if you will, of design and design thinking and innovation. And, you know, a lot of those words are buzzwords now, but we were actually living them, you know, back in the day. And that was just such an exciting sort of heady time . And it really just opened up my eyes to how our work could make a difference in the world. And at that point I was professionally focusing on a range of products including consumer products as well as some medical. But then during the course of basically 30 years, at some point, maybe about eight or nine years ago, I had reached a sort of apex in my career and in my life and just really thinking about what my-- "legacy" is a big word and it's not exactly how I was thinking about it. I don't know what the correct word is, but I was thinking about what difference I could make in the world. And that's when I made the professional and personal decision to shift to focus just on developing medical devices. And at Boston Engineering, I've been able to do that, which has just been a great privilege to be on the team. And I've loved the complexities of the problems we face and our clients face on a daily basis. I have things that come across my desk that are fascinating and they're disease states that you didn't know about, and understanding about that and sort of diving into what those patients experience, what the doctor's experience, what the hospital's experience in terms of purchasing equipment, what our clients experience in terms of their business needs and their regulatory hurdles and reimbursement hurdles, and the challenges are really complex. And that's what I love is cuz then you have lots of different people with lots of different areas of expertise contributing. I hope that helps answer the question. That was a long-winded, long-winded answer, I apologize. Lindsey Dinneen: No, I love it. I love that your story is not linear and that you have so many different really interesting twists and turns in your path. I think that's really exciting. And then, I really appreciated the sort of theme of curiosity is being what kind of ties it all together and I'm sure keeps you interested and motivated every day. Haven Tyler: It does. And you know, it's interesting because in preparation for this, I've been thinking about how I ended up where I am. And I grew up in an academic family in New Haven, Connecticut, and my parents were-- their upbringing, they were born after World War II, so it was like forties and fifties. So their upbringing was very strict and restricted. And then when it came to their own children, it was the seventies and the eighties, so it was hands off parenting. It was very different than it is today. But it was also explore your bliss, like find your passion. There was never a sense of you're gonna have to pay the rent or have a career. There was no thing involved. Lindsey Dinneen: So, so that was a wonderful thing growing up and maybe a slightly rude awakening as an adult, or were you prepared? Haven Tyler: Well I think I was prepared in the sense that they instilled a sense of, "you can figure it out." You have the tools to figure anything out, no matter what it is. And it was a question of perseverance and grit and, all of those things. So, I think that it was definitely a little bit of a rude awakening, but you could figure your way out of it. Lindsey Dinneen: That's fair. I think no matter how prepared you think you are, you're not, anyway, you know, it's always a learning curve, but that's what keeps life interesting. Haven Tyler: Exactly. Yeah. It's interesting too because I love the fact that if you had asked me at 20 or 21, when I was graduating school, where do you think you'd be? This is not what I would've predicted at all. And I'm also grateful for that because I've ended up in a place that's really great and I, I couldn't have made that up. I couldn't have fantasized that. So, I think that the fact that I get to go to work every day and feel like possibly I'm being helpful to the planet or the world, and maybe we can make a difference in people's lives. And I work for a company that has a ton of integrity and they believe that, they really do. It's not just some kind of byline. It's something that the whole group lives and breathes and that's pretty incredible to be able to say that, right? So, I feel lucky to have landed in a place that feels authentic, you know? Lindsey Dinneen: Yes. I completely agree. That's one of my very favorite parts about being in the industry is knowing that even if your role is a little bit on the fringes, perhaps it's not the actual engineering of the product, but you're still helping to talk about the product and introduce it to the world, or however you fit into it, you're still making a difference. And I think that's a really powerful motivator and makes it fun to come to work every day because you just know inherently that you're doing good. So that's really special. Haven Tyler: It is special and I don't think everybody gets to say that, you know? And I have friends who do a variety of different things and I have friends I've known since I was a kid and they're scratching their head going, "you do what for who," you know? How did you get there? And I was like, "I know it doesn't really make a ton of sense, but it's really where I should be." And I don't know if everyone gets to say that. Lindsey Dinneen: Yeah. It's a special situation when you do, for sure. And especially if you've been through other seasons of your life when perhaps you didn't feel quite as connected to what you were doing. All work is valuable, but sometimes, your personal connection, if it's not there, makes it a little bit harder to be excited about getting up every day and going to work. Haven Tyler: Yeah. And there was a large part of my career where there was a a focus on really sexy products, if you will. But they were more based in the consumer realm. I loved being a part of that. And it was really cool. And it definitely had its attractions. But at the end of the day, I was like, I'll be walking down the aisle in Target or whatever with my kids going, "Yeah, I helped make that," and I just, I don't know, it wasn't moving the needle or helping the way I wanted to help. So I think that kind of spurred me on to look at medical a little bit more closely. Lindsey Dinneen: Yeah, absolutely. Is there a particular moment or series of moments that stand out to you because it clearly confirmed that this was the right next career choice for you? Haven Tyler: Yeah, I think you're right-- the word "series" is probably the best. It's a lifetime of experience, and I can say this now cause I'm getting towards the tail end of my career. I had some health concerns in my own family that we had to address and I think my gratitude for the help that we got living in the Boston area-- I mean-- how fortunate are we to live in that area? You know? So I have access to some of the best minds and medical community. And I grew up in a medically privileged environment. My stepfather is a medical doctor. And our pediatrician was Uncle Sid and Uncle Sid would just like come on over to the house, and it was just amazing that you had access like that. And anyway, my, my appreciation and my gratitude for the people who are helping me and helping my family through a couple of different medical things was really profound, and it gave me a new line of sight into how complex that world was and how complex it was to get to the point where you were able to receive that kinda help. So I think that was definitely an aspect of things. I think that also having certain people put into my life. So certainly working with my colleague, Paul O'Connor, who heads the medical business unit at Boston Engineering, that has been a really wonderful partnership, and I appreciate working with him. And he's, he has much more experience and depth in the medical arena than I do. But I think that we have a skillset that really complements each other and I rely heavily on him for aspects of building our business. And I hope that, I hope the inverse is true. So, I think, having a combination of those types of things. I think one thing I wish that I had, and this is something that I talk to my own children about, is finding a mentor. And I didn't have that. So everything I did was really either sort of self-guided and I was just following my curiosity. Or something got put in front of me, and maybe it was fate, maybe it was, who knows? Something was in front of me. I think that large part of that was the product of my upbringing, of the sort of "follow your passion" kind of thing versus the " I'm trying to find a different kind of balance for my own children" and thinking about it with them as they're embarking on their careers. And maybe there could be a little bit more planning involved than there was in my career. Yeah, so I think the value of having mentors in your life, professional mentors, is something that could really be a great tool. Lindsey Dinneen: Yeah. Oh, a hundred percent agree. And that brings me to-- I'd love to hear some of your advice for perhaps somebody who is interested in coming into the medtech field. Maybe as a, either a young career person who would be interested in growing into a leadership role or somebody who is switching careers. Is there any advice that you would relate to that person to help them as they begin that process? Haven Tyler: Yeah, I think, the notion of a mentor is really the strongest drum I would beat in that regard. I may not also be the best person to ask that question just because I've always been on the consulting side of things. I have not been a part of a larger corporation, like a big med device firm. So I don't really have that perspective necessarily. I do know what I hear at conferences. I do think, and I'm gonna really stress this, that we need more women. I think that the more women we can have in medtech leadership, the better. I've been going to a number of conferences and doing my own research and women's health has been sorely underrepresented for a long time. I think we're getting slightly better and I think we're talking about women's health in a different kind of way, which is fantastic. But the numbers of research and development dollars that are spent globally on women's health is very low. I mean, I think the percentage is about 2%, which somebody said at a conference is a rounding error. I would love to see that change with the next wave of leadership and I would love to see more women writing checks and making those decisions to expand those conversations and learn more about the different phases of women's health that we go through cuz there are topics that we talk about and there are topics we don't, and I think there's been a decent amount of conversation around women's health, particularly around childbearing years. But, the topic of, let's just say menopause, is one that's very complicated and I think it's a potentially huge market. So from a business perspective, I think big companies should perk up about that. But I think we need to know more because I think that we don't know enough about that. It's not necessarily a disease state, if you will, but there are lots of varied symptoms with that phase of life and it can be quite confusing. So, I'd love to see that improve. So I guess, mentorship. If you're a younger person, maybe be a little bit more strategic with the help of someone who can guide you through so that you can attain the goals that you, you want to achieve. Lindsey Dinneen: Yeah, absolutely. Mentorship is such a wonderful gift when you find a good match and are able to learn from that person and benefit basically from their own experiences and things that they would've done differently looking back or whatnot. You know, you talked a little bit about how-- because you didn't have a mentor-- you were self-taught and self-motivated or whatnot. And I'm curious: you have such a interesting eclectic background and you've had lots of different experiences. So how do you personally prioritize your own continued learning and growing, cuz obviously that's just been part of your life along with your curiosity, but I'm just curious how you prioritize it. Haven Tyler: Oh, it's such a funny question because it's, it's not even a question of prioritization. It just happens. I'm just a curious person. I mean, I'm constantly taking classes that may have nothing to do with my professional life. I think I mentioned I'm pursuing a certificate in interior design because I like it. It's just interesting to me. Color and how colors relate to each other, and color theory. I go down these little rabbit holes that I think are very interesting and I go from there. I love architecture, I love gardening. It's never a dull moment, unfortunately for my family. But yeah, I mean, it's always been that way. It's definitely fun. So I know a little bit about a lot of things which I think has actually served me well in my particular role, because my role at Boston Engineering is to identify where opportunities might be, develop the appropriate program, and I get engineers to help me with that. And that's creative in a way 'cause if you're looking for an opportunity, I'm looking for the negative space, right? I'm looking for where the hole is and, can I go in there and, is there a problem there we can help solve? And so, as I said, it's messy, but it, it ends up being not messy once you find the solution, if that makes any sense. So no, I don't really have any sort of prioritization. The one thing that I have gotten better at though is, and I think Covid taught us all a lot, but it's just personally that I've gotten better at is boundaries. So, I start my workday at a specific time. I end my workday at a specific time. And so that allows me to have the space to do the other things I get curious about. So, during Covid, I personally found it a little hard because I think like a lot of us, there was a lot of fear. We didn't know what was coming around the corner from a health perspective, from an economic perspective. It was just scary for everybody. And so I was just very driven. And I think that while it's great to be driven, it can also be unhealthy. So, yeah. Lindsey Dinneen: I'm just chuckling because I relate to that so much. Haven Tyler: Yeah, exactly. And you can burn out and burnout's not good. I have a 18 year old who is going to be a college freshman, and she's incredibly driven. And she's just a good student. I've never had to check her homework. I've never had to do anything. And she can burn out. And I, I see this cycle in her and I think she's getting much better at having a balance, but I think left to her own instincts, that's where she goes. And so while that's a great thing in a lot of ways, how do you temper that, so, yeah. Lindsey Dinneen: Yeah. And that is a really hard balance. But like you said, trying to put in some specific boundaries really does help. It sounds like you are boxing yourself in, but it's actually a freedom generating exercise. Haven Tyler: Absolutely. I do think that one of the things that I've learned over life is that because I have three children and I, I've been a single parent for most of my children's lives, and taking care of myself was something that I didn't do very well for a long time. And making that a priority is really important. And that can come in many different forms. That can come with, I need to get enough sleep, I need to drink enough water, I need to exercise, I need to make time to walk the dog or sit outside in the woods or whatever it is that I need to do, to be able to do everything else effectively. It's like that analogy where they give you the instructions on the airplane. And it never made sense to me that you would put the air mask on yourself first before the child. And I always thought that was just the complete opposite. I was like, "this is crazy." And then the reality is no, if you can't breathe, you can't take care of your child. So if you're a crazy person and you haven't slept and you're not eating well and you're not exercising, then you're not gonna be able to take care of anyone else. So, that's been something that has been a priority for a number of years for me. And like finding those balances and saying to people who need my time, like, "Yes, I really want to talk to you. That is very important. I have to get back to you in an hour." Or whatever that is. " But I can't have that conversation right now. I want to have that conversation, but let's do it in a little bit." And creating those guardrails has been helpful. Lindsey Dinneen: Yeah. Yeah, that makes a lot of sense. Yeah. And not to pivot too dramatically, but I really do have to ask you about your short-lived acting career. Okay. First of all, how did this even come about? And second of all, what was that experience like? Haven Tyler: Yeah. So it's, it was a little surreal, but yes. So I, as a part of my schooling, I took my senior year in Italy for art history. It was just an amazing experience. And that's one thing I encourage everyone to do. Try and study abroad if you can, or live abroad for a little bit. Anyway, while I was there, I was doing a lot of, and I had been doing while I was in school in New York, a bunch of kind of modeling and that was a great way to make money, but it was painfully boring. So I wanted to get out of that, but I still needed to figure out a way to support myself. So, an American woman, who I met in Rome through a friend, was a casting agent, and she said, "You know, let me send you on a few things." And she sent me on one audition and it was funny because my mother, who is a dean of a college at Yale, she's like a serious person. She had flown in, we were gonna spend two weeks together and she had flown in and I said, "Oh, before we go, I have to go on this audition." And she is looking at me with her blue eyes going, "What the heck is this?" And I said "No, no, no, it's fine." And we went into this place that kinda looked like a dentist office, but it had these big posters with monsters. And these guys come out and they don't speak any English and they say, "Come with me." And so I go back there and all I had to do was scream. So my poor mother was waiting in the lobby and all she hears is me scream. And so, I got the part. But I think that largely had to do with the fact that I had red hair and freckles and Sigourney Weaver was a thing at the time and the movie was a very specific genre. It was sort of a mashup, which was common then. It was a mashup between sort of "Aliens" and "Terminator." Anyway, it was just an absolute blast. I'm so grateful I had the experience. I am a horrible actress. But it was just really fun. And we spent two months filming in abandoned nuclear power plants. We spent a week in Venice filming overnight. I mean, it was just incredible. Lindsey Dinneen: Yeah. Oh my gosh. Thank you for sharing about that, because that is an amazing story and such a unique opportunity. I love that you did that. Haven Tyler: It was very fun. And I think two years ago, it was the 30th anniversary or something of the film release, and it has this unusual kind of, but very fun, cult following cuz it's this bad, bad horror movies. It was a part of a big drive-in movie theater movie festival up in upstate New York. So we all went, my family all went, we had our beach chairs and we got to watch it. And we had posters and signing autographs. It was just, it was very funny. Lindsey Dinneen: That is amazing. I love it. I love it. Well, okay. That is fantastic. Just for fun, imagine someone were to offer you a million dollars to teach a masterclass on anything you want. It can be in your industry or related to your education, but doesn't have to be. What would you choose to teach and why? Haven Tyler: That's a really fun question, and it's a big question. I think it would be a combination of teaching people to be their authentic self, and curiosity and creativity, all jumbled up together. And how to explore those and find them in yourself. Lindsey Dinneen: Yeah. So when you say finding your authentic self, is there a specific thing that you would highlight? Or how would you talk more about that? Because I think that's an important thing that, that isn't always talked about as much. Haven Tyler: Yeah, I think that I'm fortunate to have landed in a place professionally where I feel comfortable being myself. I think that when you're starting out your career, there's this feeling that you might misstep or you might make a mistake, and you clam up, you don't speak up, because you are concerned that you might say something wrong or you might embarrass yourself. Or you know, I mean, and I was guilty of this too. I'm not saying this with any judgment. I just think that it's, it's a natural thing. But to encourage people to feel, especially younger folks, to feel more confident in sharing because like 99.9% of the time us old folks in the room, we wanna hear what you have to say. But to let go of that fear to allow yourself to, to shine, whatever the topic is. Lindsey Dinneen: Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. And I think that's especially something-- in fact, I was just having a conversation about this yesterday of the tendency and I think-- maybe not all women, but a lot of times for women-- especially the tendency to shrink and not show up as your full, authentic self. Not because you don't want to, but because you're not sure if you're gonna be accepted or if your opinion's gonna matter or count or any of those things that, that kind of keep you a little bit more quiet when actually you have a voice. You have things to say. And your contribution matters. Haven Tyler: Yeah, it absolutely matters. And I've had the privilege of having younger folks on our teams and having these conversations with them and then once they start to feel encouraged and more supported, the solutions and the things that the ideas they have are just fantastic, really great stuff. And I see this with my own children as well. I love talking to my adult children. I'm like, "Wow, that's really interesting that you thought about it that way." Or they'll know something profoundly different than I do. And I think it's fascinating. So I would encourage people to find a place where you feel safe enough to be able to express yourself that way. Lindsey Dinneen: Yeah, and I absolutely agree with you. And conversely, I think that's a good reminder also for leaders to, to provide that space, to provide that encouragement for especially younger folks to speak up and that it's safe, it's accepted. So kind of on both sides, like yes, encourage the younger career folks to, to speak up more and also encourage those who do have the privilege of being in leadership to do their part to foster that environment too? Haven Tyler: Absolutely. And I think it's our responsibility to do that, actually. Lindsey Dinneen: Yeah. Well, you know, you mentioned legacy a little bit earlier and that ties in very well to one of my questions, and that is, what is the one thing you wish to be remembered for after you leave this world? Haven Tyler: So again, a very big question. I think I would really appreciate if people could think of it as like, "Oh, she was helpful." I don't need to be a rock star. I don't need to be a shining star. I just wanna be helpful. Lindsey Dinneen: Yeah. Love that. Yeah. And then final question, what is one thing that makes you smile every time you see or think about it? Haven Tyler: Oh, my dog. A hundred percent. Lindsey Dinneen: Okay. Tell us about your dog, because I love dogs. Haven Tyler: No, she's a total punk. I love her dearly but she hates people except for us. And she's just, yeah she's wonderful, little cuddle bug. But she's a Boston Terrier, but she's sort of the wrong colors. They're normally black and white and she's brown and white, and so she's a little offbeat, which makes me like her even more. Lindsey Dinneen: I love it. She is her own dog. Haven Tyler: Exactly. Lindsey Dinneen: That's fantastic. Well, I love hearing your stories and your insights and your advice. Thank you just so very much for taking the time today to speak with me and for sharing just a little bit about yourself and what's important to you. I just really value that. So, so thank you. Haven Tyler: Thank you, Lindsey. I appreciate this, and I appreciate before we jumped on the recording, you describing your motivation for starting this podcast. And I think that it's really important the work that you're doing, and I think that getting at the underlying motivations for people being in this industry is really interesting. I mean, yes, at the end of the day, it is a business and we do live in a capitalistic society. I mean, that's just like baseline. However, within that there's a lot of choice that people have to make, and how you go about achieving those goals can be very different. And I think that on our side of the fence, on the consulting side of the world, none of us are ever going to be the next Bill Gates. But it's such a motivator to think that, " Okay, this might make a difference in somebody's life." And it just gives me goosebumps to think about, like that we can say we helped make that. It's really pretty cool stuff, so I'm glad to talk about it. Lindsey Dinneen: Yeah, absolutely. Well, we are honored to be making a donation on your behalf as a thank you for your time today to the Polaris Project, which is a non-governmental organization that works to combat and prevent sex and labor trafficking in North America. So thank you for choosing that organization to support and really appreciate that, and we just wish you continued success as you work to change lives for a better world. Haven Tyler: Thank you so much, Lindsey. Lindsey Dinneen: Absolutely. And thank you also to our listeners for tuning in ,and if you're feeling as inspired as I am right now, I'd love it if you'd share this episode with a colleague or two, and we will catch you next time.  The Leading Difference podcast is brought to you by Velentium. Velentium is a contract design and manufacturing firm specializing in the development, production and post-market support of diagnostic and therapeutic active medical devices, including implantables and wearables for neuromodulation and other class three indications. Velentium's core competencies include electrical design, mechanical design, embedded software, mobile apps, contract manufacturing, embedded cybersecurity, OT cybersecurity, systems engineering, human factors and usability, and automated test systems. Velentium works with clients worldwide from startups seeking seed funding to established Fortune 100 companies. Visit velentium.com to explore your next step in medical device development.

A criminal history, two-court rulings, and another death. After a shocking arrest details about who Homer Lee Jackson was begin to surface. Decades after the murders, it appeared that the women and their families would finally get justice. But before the case ever made it to trial, two court rulings changed everything. Polaris Project: http://polarisproject.org/ Report Suspected Human Trafficking http://humantraffickinghotline.org/ Least of These on Facebook: https://m.facebook.com/leastofthesepodcast/ Least of These Discussion Group: https://m.facebook.com/groups/288046119723080/?ref=pages_profile_groups_tab&paipv=1 Least of These on Instagram: www.instagram.com/least_ofthese/ Support the show and get your episodes ad free at: https://www.patreon.com/leastofthesepodcast Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Five murders, five miles and an unexpected arrest. From 1983 to 1993 five young, black, women from North Portland were murdered. At one point police in Seattle believed the killings could have been the work of The Green River Killer. But police in Portland denied that the murders were connected. And a killer remained on the streets for over three decades. Polaris Project: http://polarisproject.org/ Report Suspected Human Trafficking http://humantraffickinghotline.org/ Miracle Brand Upgrade your sleep with Miracle Made! Claim your FREE 3 PIECE TOWEL SET and SAVE over 40% by going to trymiracle.com/LEAST Use promo code LEAST at checkout! Better Help: This episode is sponsored by BetterHelp. Give online therapy a try at betterhelp.com/LEAST and get on your way to being your best self. Least of These on Facebook: https://m.facebook.com/leastofthesepodcast/ Least of These Discussion Group: https://m.facebook.com/groups/288046119723080/?ref=pages_profile_groups_tab&paipv=1 Least of These on Instagram: www.instagram.com/least_ofthese/ Support the show and get your episodes ad free at: https://www.patreon.com/leastofthesepodcast Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

What if you could use emerging technology to combat one of the world's most horrifying crimes - human trafficking? Our guest today, Chris Armated, a master's of science in homeland security and published researcher, reveals how we can utilize technology to bring about change. A veteran and a former candidate for the US House of Representatives, Chris shares his incredible journey and his commitment to ending this scourge, while Ashley Lawson lends her voice to the issue, sharing her experiences and concerns about human trafficking in Texas.Weighing heavy on our hearts is the stark reality of how sex trafficking disproportionately exploits non-white women and children, with Native American women being particularly at risk. The predatory nature of this crime, accelerated by factors like immigration, poverty, and homelessness, is further explored as we delve into the grim details of abduction and forced servitude. But it's not all darkness; we also arm you with strategies revolving around group dynamics, situational awareness, and self-defense to help you and your loved ones stay safe.Bringing our discussion to a close, we highlight how we can extend our support to victims and raise awareness about this crime that lurks in the shadows. From shining a light on the commendable work of the Polaris Project, to advocating for increased government funding for organizations that aid victims, we stress the impact that even small steps can have. Tune in to our conversation, not just for an in-depth understanding of human trafficking, but also as a call to action against this terrible crime.Support the show

In this episode, I invited my friend and fellow podcaster Demi Wylde onto the podcast to discuss sex work. Some of the topics discussed include defining human trafficking and how it works, the evils of exploitation, the difference between sex work and sex trafficking, and how legalizing sex work fights human trafficking. Subscribe today and join the conversation!   Demitri (Demi) Wylde is an author, content creator, and sex educator based out of Los Angeles, CA. He is the CEO of Wylde Heart Media, and hosts the podcast Hookup Horror Stories with Demi Wylde. His blogs "The Deviant Diaries" and "A Deviant's Guide to Sex" are available on his website. Demi is also an HIV, women's reproductive rights, and a certified human trafficking awareness advocate. To connect with Demi and his works, follow this link: https://linktr.ee/demitriwylde.   If you are looking to receive training on human trafficking with the Polaris Project, reach out to them here (https://polarisproject.org/training/).   Homework assignment is to watch Good Luck to You, Leo Grande   Follow and Support the Podcast Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/heauxliloquy Twitter: @Heauxliloquy (https://www.twitter.com/heauxliloquy) Website: https://www.heauxliloquy.com Vernon's book: https://amzn.to/3vsZDm5 Vernon's IG: UrFavHeauxst (https://www.instagram.com/UrFavHeauxst/) Subscribe to the Viberator In My Pod - https://linktr.ee/heauxliloquy   Crisis and Psychological Resources Rape, Abuse, and Incest National Network https://www.rainn.org 800-656-HOPE (4673) National Suicide Prevention Lifeline https://www.988lifeline.org 800-273-TALK (8255) Text or call 988 National Domestic Violence Hotline https://www.thehotline.org 800-799-7233 Text START to 88788 Find A Therapist American Psychological Association (https://www.apa.org/topics/crisis-hotlines) Psychology Today (https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/therapists/family-marital) Therapist Locator (https://www.therapistlocator.net/) Access additional resources on Open Counseling (https://blog.opencounseling.com/hotlines-us/) Open Counseling also has a list of International Hotlines (https://blog.opencounseling.com/suicide-hotlines/)   Slaytor's Playhouse on the Web Slaytor's Playhouse: https://slaytorsplayhouse.com SP Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/slaytorsplay SP YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCfS8UcvYHLtiDsfqQqTLJeg Coaching services available through Slaytor's Playhouse (https://bit.ly/3Deizss) Donate to Slaytor's Playhouse (https://bit.ly/3qDGUTF)   Referrals and Affiliates If you are interested in signing up for Episodic Sound and accessing their list of royalty free music, please use my affiliate link (https://www.epidemicsound.com/referral/2mj5fk).   If you are interested in joining the podcasting world and creating your own podcast, check out PodBean (https://www.podbean.com/topheauxpod). Sign up today and get one month free.   Sponsorship Looking to sponsor the podcast? Email Slaytor's Playhouse at info@slaytorsplayhouse.com.   The Heuaxliloquy Podcast Media Kit (https://bit.ly/35U78Kg)   If you are an advertiser trying to reach a new market, check out PodBean Advertising (https://sponsorship.podbean.com/topheauxpod). Use the link to get up to $100 credits for running your first ad on PodBean.

Etienne Nichols is a mechanical engineer, PMP-certified project manager, the host of the Global Medical Device Podcast, and the builder of the Greenlight Guru MedTech Excellence Community. In this episode, he shares a plethora of advice and great stories, including why gratitude and curiosity matter so much, how writing helps you to identify what you truly believe, his passion for furthering the medtech industry, and how an article he read changed his life.  Guest links: https://www.greenlight.guru/podcast | https://www.greenlight.guru/etienne-nichols-thankyou | https://www.linkedin.com/in/etiennenichols/  Charity supported: Polaris Project Interested in being a guest on the show or have feedback to share? Email us at podcast@velentium.com.  PRODUCTION CREDITS Host: Lindsey Dinneen Editor: Tim Oliphant Producer: Velentium   SHOW TRANSCRIPT Episode 009 - Etienne Nichols Lindsey Dinneen: Hi, I'm Lindsey with Velentium and I'm talking with MedTech industry leaders on how they change lives for a better world. Diane Bouis: The inventions and technologies are fascinating and so are the people who work with them. Frank Jaskulke: There was a period of time where I realized, fundamentally, my job was to go hang out with really smart people that are saving lives and then do work that would help them save more lives. Diane Bouis: I got into the business to save lives and it is incredibly motivating to work with people who are in that same business, saving or improving lives. Duane Mancini: What better industry than where I get to wake up every day and just save people's lives. Lindsey Dinneen: These are extraordinary people doing extraordinary work, and this is The Leading Difference. Hello and welcome to The Leading Difference. I'm your host Lindsey, and I am excited to introduce you to my guest today, Etienne Nichols. Etienne is a mechanical engineer and PMP certified project manager with a wealth of experience in the medical device industry. He's worked with Fortune 500 and startup medical device companies and has taught classes on quality management systems and design controls for Regulatory Affairs Professional Society and American Society for Quality. He is a frequent speaker at MedTech conferences, the host of the Global Medical Device Podcast, and the builder of the MedTech Excellence Community. Thank you so very much for joining us, Etienne. I'm so excited to have you here on this show today. Welcome. Etienne Nichols: Thank you. I'm excited to be here as well. I'm super pumped to be with you today. Lindsey Dinneen: Awesome. Well, I would love, if you wouldn't mind starting by just telling us a little bit about yourself and your background and how you got to where you are now. Etienne Nichols: Sure. I guess if I was to break down as simple as possible, I'm the host of the Global Medical Device Podcast, and I say that partly because we just interviewed Dan Purvis, the CEO of Velentium on his book, "28 Days to Save the World." Loved that, but, anyway, just had to throw that out there because I'm just such a big fan of you guys as well. Okay. To your question, specifically, my background, the word background can meet a lot of things. I just finished a book called "Livewired" by David Eagleman. He's a neuroscientist at Stanford. He basically says, our brains aren't so much observers of reality, but filters. So we filter out our past, we hone in on certain things. Okay? I say all that to say when I think of background, I imagine a picture of Mona Lisa, what's in the background? You think Mona Lisa, what's in the background? Only things that matter to Da Vinci. So I'd like to tell you a quick story. It might not seem super relevant, but this is a story of kind of help shape who I am. When I was in my early twenties, I thought I was in love, but it turned out that it wasn't meant to be. So as an early 20 something without a fully grown prefrontal cortex, I did what any self-respecting Oklahoman would do. I signed up for Terry Don West School of Bull Riding. Terry was a world champion bull rider 1985 to 2003, and he had a school outside in Henrietta, Oklahoma. So I went there. I was the only city kid there. After a few rides, like I literally got on multiple bulls and I got on one where it laid down in the shoot, it was bucking around and laid down in the shoot and it, it was dark down there. And my brain immediately said, "abort mission, jump outta here, jump outta the shoot." And I jumped out and I was terrified. Terry ran over, he yanked me by the collar, he stuck his gloved finger in my face, and he said, "you never ever ever get off a bull in the shoot." And so I, I'd say that story to say, when I think about background, that was a pivotal moment in my life when I thought, you never give up. You know, no matter how dark or scary it is, you never give up. So that, that was one of the things that before I was engineer, that was one of the pivotal moments.  I'll talk about my real background, I guess that's more traditional. I'm a mechanical engineer by trade. Before coming to MedTech, I worked in aerospace, the steel industry, so both regulated and unregulated. I'm gonna close my window because I actually have a rooster right outside my window. Lindsey Dinneen: I've been enjoying him. Etienne Nichols: But I've worked in manufacturing regulatory. I actually got my project management, professional certification on a regulatory project product development. Finally was a project manager of a drug delivery combination product. So, all of those things before I came to Greenlight Guru, which is where I am now. I've worked with dozens of companies to help them set up and implement their quality management system. And so as I mentioned before now, I manage the Global Medical Device Podcast. So it's been a really fun ride. Lindsey Dinneen: Awesome. Yeah. And a very eclectic ride. It sounds like you have come at this in a very unique way. Okay. I would love to hear a little bit more about your story on joining Greenlight Guru, because I recently read a post on LinkedIn about it. I just thought, "wow, what a great story." I'd love if you'd share that with us. Etienne Nichols: Sure. This was several years ago. I was working as a project manager for a drug delivery combination product company. I walked into the VP of Engineering's office. He and I were talking about some things that were going on, and I thought, I need to do a little bit of research. I went back to my computer. I started looking for an article, and that was when I first stumbled across Greenlight Guru. I came across the article, "DHF Versus DMR Versus DHR." It's a helpful article because FDA and their acronyms, if you're familiar with those. So after reading that article, I did what anyone would do. You know, you reach out to the author, thank them for their writing. And so I, I reached out to Jesseca Lyons who was the author on LinkedIn, and I told her I really appreciated the things that she had written, and she just responded, "yeah, you're welcome." The very next day she posted, "Hey, we had a great quarter last quarter, and by the way, we're hiring" and I thought "hiring?" So I clicked on the link and it looked really interesting and I just applied on the whim. I was not looking for a new job. I wasn't interested in getting a new job, but I wanted to learn more about this person and their company. And after my first interview with her, she literally put a Zoom meeting on my calendar that afternoon. Three days later I had an interview with Tom Rish. Four or five days later, I had an interview with Fran Cruz, who was the VP of Customer Success at the time. And I basically had an offer in less than 10 days, I I believe.  So, Jessica and I joke about that article changing my life a little bit, but it's a really good article. But it's been a fantastic ride and I've really enjoyed my time at Greenlight Guru. And I'll say one other thing, it felt like a big risk at the time to move because I was in a great position. I loved the company I was working for. I really respected the CEO. But after looking at this company, it felt like a risk, but the more I thought about it, it was so in line with what I really loved doing: content creation, interacting with customers directly, and the potential to get on stage and speak on the podcast or at conferences. I felt like it was a bigger risk not to take this job. So this is something that I would throw out to some of the listeners is you may be facing different career steps and there's always a risk no matter what you do, but you always have to think about the risk of not taking a risk. And I think that's something we sometimes forget. So I dunno if that answered your question. That's the story as least as it's coming to me at the moment. Lindsey Dinneen: No, That's a great answer. Yeah, I love those collisions, I like to call them. All of a sudden, things work out, but it takes intention, right? You read an article and then you reached out to the author and that led to a series of events, and here you are. But, I just love when those, those kinds of things happen. Those stories are my favorite. Etienne Nichols: Yeah. It makes me think-- oh, I'm probably gonna butcher this-- but the definition of luck is when preparation meets opportunity. Lindsey Dinneen: Yes. Etienne Nichols: And I think if you're always preparing, you, you may or may not be lucky. The opportunity may or may not arise, but when they do, you know, you almost have an obligation to take that sometimes. Lindsey Dinneen: Absolutely agree. Yeah. A theme that I have picked up on from following your work on LinkedIn and whatnot is gratitude. And I would love if you would share just a little bit maybe about your philosophy behind it, because it seems like something that you often express gratitude, whether it's to the author of an article that you appreciated or it's to an interviewee that had a particularly inspiring thing to share. I just have noticed that theme throughout your work, and I would just love to hear your perspective on it. Etienne Nichols: Wow. I actually got like little chills when you were saying that because I don't think anybody, nobody's ever mentioned that or called that out. So I'm glad that's showing through, for sure. I'm really thankful, I'm thankful that's showing through. It's funny, let me rewind to a period in my career that I thought this was one of the toughest parts of my career. It, looking back, it was one of the toughest. I was in a situation where I was leading a project that if this project did not succeed, many, probably dozens of people would be laid off because the company wouldn't be able to support them if this project didn't succeed. That was my perception. And I think even looking back, I think it's accurate. So, I was really stressed at the time. We were working 60 plus hours a week, me and my team, And during that time, I honestly thought a lot about giving up. I never gave up. I told my wife, no matter how hard it is, I've gotta finish this. And then, if it's still difficult, after we're done, we're gonna move on. And that is what happened. We brought the project to fruition and moved on. But during that time, I remember standing outside a conference room and I stared at an empty whiteboard and I looked at that whiteboard and I thought someone should put something in there. So I put just a question. "What is your definition of success?" I believe that was the first question. A few days later, I walked by again and lots of people had answered that with their different definitions, and I thought, huh? I took a picture, went home, and I wrote a memo. I said, "what is your definition of success? This is what you said." I went back to work and I sent this out to, I don't know, 20 different people. I didn't know who had answered on the whiteboard and I wrote a lot of these different things and people kept telling me you know, appreciate you translating our words into this memo. Just kinda your giving it your own thoughts. By the time I left that company, I had over a hundred people who I was, you know sending a Monday memo to, and I learned somewhere along the way that people don't mind getting a little bit of encouragement. During that time, the way I was able to get through the stress was every morning I would write that Monday memo. I would think about those things people were saying, and I would try to focus, what am I really grateful about these people? And that's really what helped me get through. So, that was kind of a circuitous way of answering your question, so I'd like to be a little bit more succinct here in the, my last couple phrases here. There is, there's a lot of scarcity in the world, but gratitude really shows you what you have. When you start looking and comparing your life to other people's, it's easy to wish you had this, wish you had that. When you're grateful for what you have, you start recognizing all the things that you do have. And so it's more of an abundance mindset. So that's been my philosophy. I believe gratitude is at the heart of of an abundance mindset. Lindsey Dinneen: Yes. I love that. Thank you for sharing that. And that story is pretty awesome. So was that maybe the start of your content creation journey? Etienne Nichols: Yeah, I do think that. Oh,, if you'll let me go through another story, which is Lindsey Dinneen: Yes, please. Etienne Nichols: When it comes to content creation I'm a big believer in writing and having a writing practice of some sort. So, to answer your question just directly, yes. that was the beginning and I learned the value of writing every morning. In fact, at that time I was very disciplined. I have three kids now, I'm not quite as disciplined. I would get up at 4:45 every morning. I would go work out and then I would stop at a coffee shop on my way to work. I would write for 30 minutes, and then I would go to work. That was before the pandemic, coffee shops closed. And it was before kids and all these different things, but that's when I started writing. Fast forward to Greenlight Guru. I was working with different customers and I was loving what I was doing. Occasionally I would post on LinkedIn just a long form article about, this is something I learned about, I don't know 21 CFR part 820.40 document controls. Why do you need to show a Rev A to Rev B? Why do you justify those changes? All these different things. I've just wrote an article about that, and I would do that every now and then. Well, while I was in that position here at the company at Greenlight Guru, the CMO, Nick Tippmann reached out to me and said, "Hey, we're thinking about building a community and we want you to build the community. I've been watching what you post on LinkedIn." So this is a guy I'd never met before. He's within my company, but he saw what I was doing on LinkedIn, the content creation. At the same time, the founder of the company, Jon Speer reached out to me and said, "Hey, I've watched some of the things you wrote on LinkedIn. Wondered if you'd be interested to be a co-host on the podcast." And so these are two separate situations happening at the same time because of the content creation. Now I'd been writing for years up until this point. And I'll tell you one more thing about writing is it helps you identify what you truly believe, what you actually think. You may think something, but once you write it out, you may change your mind or tweak it slightly. And so that really helps. And so I've been doing this for multiple years and it got me to a point where two different people approached me and I was able to accept that, and it's been really fun. Lindsey Dinneen: Yeah. I love that story. When you had the opportunity to do the podcast, was that something that you felt immediately comfortable taking on? Was that something that took a little bit of a learning curve, or how did that work for you? Etienne Nichols: The way I would describe it was terror. I had never met the founder of this company. And not only was I meeting the founder, we were interviewing the best in the field-- people like Mike Drews or your CEO, Dan Purvis. Every time I saw those names on my calendar, the pit of my stomach would ball up and I'd go through some breathing exercises, do some squats, whatever. And it's okay, we could do that. But, when you get scared like that, to me, you, you have to qualify it a little bit, but a certain amount of that fear, to me says this is the right direction for me. And the same thing happened at multiple points in my career that sort of confirmed this is the right thing and that little bit of fear is one of 'em. You can look at it as fear, but you can also be excitement because I'm reaching beyond my grasp, and if I keep reaching, I'll grow and I can actually reach this thing. So that's how I looked at that. Lindsey Dinneen: Yeah. Yeah. I love that. I was once told by a friend that she felt that whenever you were nervous it was because you cared. And so use that nervous energy to do a really good job because it can be harnessed, right? That fear, that, that nervousness, but it's not a bad thing, it's just along for the ride. It's there to help give you a little extra boost and that's okay. And I've always kinda liked that. Etienne Nichols: So I'm curious about you because I love talking to other podcasters, so I just, if we could flip the script just for a minute. I'm curious how you handle that nervousness or is, are there any specific things you do? Lindsey Dinneen: That is a great question. Yes, I still do get nervous. And it does depend on the situation, but I think one thing that I have learned is that being yourself, being just normal and natural and a little vulnerable and a little bit not polished is actually a lot more relatable to people than being perfect. And I'm not perfect. My interviews will never be perfect, but I can do my best and I can be me. And the more that I embrace that, the more comfortable I am. Etienne Nichols: Oh, yeah. I think that's great. The one thing that I I can't remember who told me this but curiosity-- you talk about like what is the opposite of love? Is it hate? Some people may say hate, but I actually think it's indifference. Indifference to me is the opposite of love. So what's the opposite of cowardice or being afraid? The opposite of that isn't courage, because you have to be afraid in order to have courage. To me, the opposite of being afraid is curiosity. Someone may disagree with me, but that's the way I banish fear is, man, be really curious. " Why did I react that way? Or what are they really trying to tell me?" And instead of thinking, oh, this person's title is this, and this, I'm like, "what are they actually saying?" This is really interesting. So that's how I look at that. Lindsey Dinneen: I love that. That's great advice too, just in general because curiosity allows you to explore and exploration is always a success, right? It doesn't lead to failure, it's just a way to learn more about the world around you. Etienne Nichols: Absolutely. Lindsey Dinneen: Well, okay, so you have mentioned that there have been a couple of moments along your journey that I guess confirmed to you that this is the right path. But I'm curious, specifically in the medtech industry, what is it that drives you, that gives you that passion to continue doing what you're doing? Etienne Nichols: Yeah, I can tell you a couple different things. So the spark I would say happened when I was in college. I broke my arm and it was a go-karting accident. And I went to school with arm in a cast. But before I got my arm in a cast, the guy's name was Garrett Watts, the hand doctor who put me back together, and he knew I was a mechanical engineering student. He talked to me about the Synthes DePuy, I don't can never pronounce that word, but the little piece that was going to be placed into my arm with different screws and talked about the physics of it really fascinated me. I thought, man, as a mechanical engineer, I could contribute to this industry. That would be great. That was a spark. Then when I met my wife, she has had a pacemaker since she was 11. So, I've seen her through multiple surgeries to get new pacemakers. And every time I see that, it's man, I am so thankful somebody developed this medical device. There have been other times when I had to watch a loved one go back to the OR, and just talking to the surgeons afterwards and learning about the things that they have to go through. I want their life to be easy. I want them to be able to do their job efficiently. And so I really am passionate about the medtech industry for those reasons. You know, I love all of the things that go into engineering. I will never be the best at those things. And I kind of had to realize that somewhere along the way. The people who are really the best at anything are the people who do it for a living and also do it for a hobby. And those are the people you want in your life in different roles leading technically and things like that. But when it comes to MedTech, I realize I could be passionate about this product because I know the end user is going to be truly affected by this. Not only some unknown person, it could even be my wife, my son, anybody I love could be affected by this. To me, MedTech is really personal, and that's what confirmed this industry. For different roles, I see myself as, I just want to help the industry and so whatever role I can be in, whether that's mechanical engineer or a project manager, or a regulatory consultant or a podcaster. However I can help further the industry to where we work more efficiently and more streamlined in a way that produces safe and effective medical devices. That's the role I want to be in, whatever that role is. Lindsey Dinneen: Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. You've mentioned having opportunities to be in leadership roles, to lead teams, and we've had that discussion in regards to gratitude specifically, but I'm curious, how would you define leadership? Or what does it mean to you? Etienne Nichols: That's a good question. And so two things come to mind. And they're actually both books, and so you don't have time to quote an entire book, but all my best thoughts came from someone else. And so even that's a line from someone. But the two books I could think of first one is "Leaders Eat Last," I believe it's by Simon Sinek. And it's really the idea that leaders are meant to build others up. In fact, actually, a third book comes to mind. That's "28 Days to Save the World" by your CEO dan Pervis. That's a fantastic book. I really recommend that one as well. And I'm not just saying that because it's your, it's your guy. He covers so much ground in that book. It really was something that you almost need to read multiple times. But the second book that I recommend is "Captain Class" by Sam Walker. So he talked about the captains of teams. So usually when we think of a leader, we might think of the CEO, we might think of the executive team, and those certainly are incredibly important. But the "Captain Class" by Sam Walker, he's actually a sports journalist, if I'm remembering all of this correctly. He analyzed all of the great sports dynasties, not just someone who wins one off, but he gave certain parameters as to what he would define as a team sport and a team and a dynasty, and all those different things at the beginning of his book. But he talks about " what do they have in common?" And he looked at the coaches, he looked at the budget, he looked at the manager, he looked at the location, all these different things. And the thing that he found that was really consistent across all of these dynasties was the captain of the team. It might not be the best player. It might not be the person who's most outspoken, but it's that person who brings a certain energy and can recognize when things are going sideways or things are changing, and he somehow tweaks the team in such a way that they can reorient and get back on track. So you want your best player shooting hoops, shooting those free throws. They don't have to lead, they just do what they do. Put your best players in the positions where they can excel. But the captain, like I said, they may not be the best player. They may not be the best person on the team, but they're the person who's kinda like the glue, who gels everybody together. And so those two different concepts are what I think of a real good leader. Number one, leaders eating last, and the second one being that glue who's able to look at a bird's eye view and determine what direction we need to go in, what attitude adjustment needs to happen. I'll give you one more little anecdote that you may have heard before, say you have a bunch of people working their way through a woods cutting with axes trying to get through the woods. The manager is the one running around saying, "Hey, do you have the right ax? Do you need this sharpen? Do you need this? Let's help you out." It's still a servant role, but the leader is the one who climbs the tree and looks up and says, "Hey guys, I think we need to go in this direction." So that's the leader in my mind. Lindsey Dinneen: Yeah. So the visionary and the person who is the cheerleader and motivator and helps bring people together towards a vision. Etienne Nichols: Yeah, so my, my dad actually told me something once that he probably got this from someone else, I'm not sure, but he said, " you know, Etienne, a leader without followers is just a guy taking a walk." And some of us are just taking a walk, but a leader is someone who people are willing to follow too. So yeah, there's lots of different facets. It's a good question. Lindsey Dinneen: Yeah. So you mentioned curiosity before, which I think is a really important theme. And so I'm wondering how that plays into your continued growing and learning as a leader yourself. Obviously, you have had a bunch of different roles even within the industry and through various companies and I'm sure each one of them has prompted you to learn and grow in different ways. So, how do you continue to prioritize that these days? Etienne Nichols: Yeah, that's a good question. I've gotta speak to your question about curiosity first. In every role that I've been in, one of the things that's really important to me is to understand how this role that I'm working in interacts with every other role in the organization. I'll give you a quick anecdotal story, I guess, for that. I was at one company where they put me in a cubicle that was right outside the break room, and that's a terrible idea. You do not put an engineer right outside the break room. The people had to walk out of the break room and either turn left or right or go straight into my cubicle. Since I was new, they told me that my cubicle was cursed. Nobody had managed to be there for more than three months. And nobody knew why. It's just cursed. I'm like, okay. Well, I figured out pretty quick why. It's because I started writing down how many people came into my cubicle to say hi to me, and it was in the 30 to 50 people a day and I was not getting things done. Just a few minutes with each person, and that becomes hours a day. So I realized quickly that this is a problem or an opportunity. And so I tried to treat it like an opportunity. The next engineer who came into my desk or came into my cubicle, I said, "Hey, can you help me with this thing I'm working on my spreadsheet?" And they said, "oh yeah, you just do this, and this." And my 15 minute task turned into a one minute task. And so that happened multiple times. Pretty soon I was getting more things done than pretty much anyone else on my row. And so being curious about what that person knew was really important to me. And I realized it clicked in that role early on in my career. And I said, man, I need to learn what everybody in the company does. And so I started actually making a running list of who is everyone in the company and who do I know. And I put a check mark next to their name and I said, "okay, I gotta meet this person and find out what they know. Meet this person, find out what they know." It wasn't all me. When I came to that company, this is actually a really fantastic practice that this manufacturing company had done. They gave me a list of every machine in the entire company. And so we had multiple buildings, you know, out there. And they said your first job is to find every machine, learn who runs it and what product it touches and how that machine interacts with that product. And that's a big homework assignment. So if I wasn't interested, that would've been hard to accomplish. So, between my situation being outside the break room and my forced interest in the manufacturing floor, I decided to make it a personal goal of mine to meet everyone in the company and to learn exactly what they do, a little bit selfishly, to see if I could make my job a little bit easier to learn what they knew and so forth. And so that really helped. And that really reinforced the importance of curiosity. Lindsey Dinneen: That's a great story and I'm sure you looking back are also quite aware, obviously of how things evolved in your own career. But it's fun to hear it from an outside perspective and go, okay, I see how certain things that you did, maybe just because you were curious, led you to be in a position now where you are comfortable-- maybe still get nervous-- but in general comfortable talking to all sorts of different people cuz hey, you were just going around meeting everybody, learning what they do anyway. Etienne Nichols: Oh yeah. It's crazy to look back. When we look back, we can connect the dots easily, but when you're in that soup, you're in the moment you're like, oh, my life is a mess. You're not really exactly sure. But yeah, yeah, you nailed it, that's true. Lindsey Dinneen: Yeah. And then nowadays your continued learning and growing as a leader in the medtech industry? Yeah. Etienne Nichols: So the way I answer that, the way I prioritize it is it's true. We all, we only have so much time in a day. It's difficult to get those things in. I try to double dip as much as possible. And so what I mean by that is, let me give an example. The best way to learn something is to teach it, right? When I was approached, I looked at myself, I said, "Etienne, you don't have what it takes to do these things." And that was just my honest assessment of myself. But I said, but I'm gonna take this on and I'm going to get what it takes. And so, after I was in the role a little bit, I started looking at the different conferences I could potentially go to learn more about these things. And you might make the argument, okay, going to a conference. That's a continuing improvement, right? You can learn there. Well, that wasn't good enough for me. So, I have a specific story about this. There's a conference called CMX. It's the number one conference for community building, I believe. I found that and I thought, "okay, I want my company to send me to this conference, but I don't just want them to send me, I want to speak on stage, even though I've been in community for only a few months." I'm going to come up with a problem that I've faced and a problem I've solved, and I'm going to write a proposal for me to speak at this conference. So I sent it in. I sent my proposal in and they wisely said, "no, but you can moderate a panel." I thought, "okay, well that's good enough." So I went to the industry. I moderated the panel, but because I was speaking and I was gonna be on stage, I now had access to all of the voices in the industry who were speaking. So I sent them all messages, tried to socialize with them prior to going to that event. And I now have dozens and dozens of really valuable connections in the industry to that specific subset of an industry. So that's one example. Another example I'd give is double dipping. I gotta describe something real quick. So there's something that I learned early on. Have you ever heard of " The Seven Spoke Wheel of Life" by Zig Ziglar? Lindsey Dinneen: I don't know that I have. Etienne Nichols: Oh, man, you've got to check that out. Lindsey Dinneen: Okay. Etienne Nichols: So I learned this in college, lets see if I can remember them all. But see, he has the Seven Spoke Wheel of Life. Essentially, what he says is there's seven spokes. You have family, career, intellectual, social, financial, physical and spiritual. I think I did it unless I repeated something. So all seven of those spokes essentially make up your life. If you have a broken spoke, you have a flat tire, just think of it that way. So I looked at that and I said, "okay, well, I go running with different people and we usually chat about the same old thing." So I said, I'm gonna start using this Seven Spoke Wheel of Life as much as possible. And so the next guy who I went running with, I told him about the seven spokes. I said, why don't we pick a different spoke every time? We'll just talk about that while we run our 10 mile run or whatever it is. And so we would do that and we'd cover more ground. And so when I say double dip as much as possible it's making those different spokes cross over each other. So that was, let's say, intellectual. Maybe I'm gonna meet with some engineers to go running. So that's a physical thing. That's an intellectual thing. It's a social thing. I have now met three needs in one interaction. Or maybe I'll go to a coffee shop in the morning. I have a book club that I meet with every week to discuss a book that we're talking about. So there's a social interaction, there's our intellectual interaction and it forces me to be reading. If you can double dip, even the podcast-- I get to practice my public speaking. I get to extend my career perhaps. But also meet with people like you, Lindsey, and other people in the industry, and it's really fun. So double dip as much as possible and don't feel bad about it. Lindsey Dinneen: Oh, that's great advice. I really like that. I like, I like the double dip because that's a little better than multitasking, right? Because we're actually not wired to do that. But I really like your idea of combining a couple of different things together for the win. So. Etienne Nichols: Yeah, and I love that categorization. It helps me anyway to kinda have that seven spokes, so you kind of differentiate for yourselves. Okay. This truly is doing multiple things. it's beneficial for me anyway. Lindsey Dinneen: Yeah, absolutely. Just pivoting a little bit, just for fun. Imagine someone were to offer you a million dollars to teach a masterclass on anything you want, doesn't necessarily have to be in your industry, but it could be. What would you choose to teach and why? Etienne Nichols: A million dollars! Oh, okay. Well, So the thing that comes to mind for me is listening and I know it's a soft skill. And if I thought long enough, maybe I could come along something technical and specific to medtech. But for right now, listening comes to mind. So few people really listen. And sometimes I struggle with this myself, but most of the time we're just waiting for our turn to talk and you've actually done a really good job. I'm actually pretty impressed with your capability and your listening. It's really cool, Lindsey.  But a lot of times when we think we're listening, we're coming up with that next thing to say, but instead if we're able to ditch those lines and listen with your whole body, your whole mind, your whole soul, make this person in front of you the most important person in your life. That changes everything because what I've realized is people are willing to give me the amount of attention I give them and not a whole lot more. And so, you've really gotta learn to listen to, to really succeed. Lindsey Dinneen: Yeah. I love that. And actually to your point, I'm curious how do you manage that as a podcast host and when you're moderating panels and things like that because part of your job does entail a certain amount of preparation. So how do you balance the two? Because you, you wanna get to the questions that are important for you, but then you also, of course, wanna be actively listening so that you can have a real conversation. Have you found a good way to balance that? Etienne Nichols: It is really difficult. If anyone ever says moderating a panel or moderating a podcast is easy, I don't know that they really know what they're talking about. It takes a lot of focus. I go back to a quote, I guess, I think it's, was it Eisenhower who says "planning is everything, plans are nothing." And when you go to a, an interview like that or a panel is a good example. I'm glad you mentioned that. When you go to a panel, you probably have a list of questions that you want to get to, but it's hard for our brains to remember every one of those little points that we want to ask. So if you instead focus on the overarching theme that you want to cover, and this is the advice I give people, is focus on the overarching theme and then when you're talking to those people, you have your initial question, you'll ask that question and they'll answer, really listen, because most likely the gold is somewhere in that question that they asked. I'll see if I can think of a example. If they're answering a question about the time that they, took a company public and it was pretty stressful at the time. They managed to get it public. They signed all the papers and now they're retired, but they're really excited because now they're advising other people. I'm like, okay, there's something stressful. I heard them say that. I wanna know, what did your wife think when you decided to take that public? What did your executive team, or what did the people who work for you think? I may have a list of questions, but I really want to dive in and just treat it like a conversation keeping in mind the overarching theme of the panel. So I dunno if that answers your question, but that's how I approach it. Lindsey Dinneen: Yeah, I really like that. And something that came to mind as you were talking about the overarching theme was sort of in tandem to that-- maybe the idea of what do you hope the audience will gain from it? So if you have that perspective of I want the audience to feel inspired or I want them to know more about this particular topic by the end or whatever, then that can help guide the conversation too. Especially if it doesn't go quite the way you anticipated. Etienne Nichols: Yes. I love that you said inspired or I want to make them feel inspired because that's a really good point. I told someone this recently, man, everything on the panel you could probably Google. Sometimes there's really good tidbits, but for example, Dan Purvis and I, we did the the interview a few weeks ago and it was a fantastic interview and you could go and read his book and maybe get a lot of the anecdotes that he told us about. But you're not gonna get the feeling of passion for the industry or excitement for the future and all these things. And so, that's really what a lot of these live events will give you. It gives you a feeling to move you forward and we think, "oh, that's wishy-washy. We're technical, we're engineers," but you can't forget that we're humans. We're driven in a certain way. And so these interactions that make our job easier, a lot of that is softer skills or softer experiences and not necessarily hard technical things. As important as those are, you have to have the things that pull you forward. So I love that you mentioned that inspiring the audience and things like that. Lindsey Dinneen: Yeah, definitely. So speaking of inspiration, I suppose, what is the one thing you wish to be remembered for after you leave this world? Etienne Nichols: I think it's interesting that we even want to be remembered. When I'd step outside myself and look at myself, I'm like, why do you wanna be remembered? But you do. And so I can't really get rid of that. That's fine. So when I think about that, the answer I think I would have is the strength of my kids. I heard someone say this once. See if I can remember exactly how it goes. I want my son to be the strongest man at my funeral. It's my job to make that happen. When I think of being remembered, I think about being remembered through my kids. There's another ancient writing that goes something like, "like arrows in the hands of a warrior so are the children of one's youth." So being a good dad, that's probably the most important thing to me in my life. Lindsey Dinneen: Yeah, absolutely. And then final question, what is one thing that makes you smile every time you see or think about it? Etienne Nichols: Oh, It would have to be my daughter. She's 13 months old now, and if a rainbow could become a person, that person would be Darcy, my daughter. Lindsey Dinneen: That's wonderful. I love it. Oh my gosh. Thank you so very, very much for joining me today. This has been so much fun. Speaking of inspiration: lots of it, lots of great advice and your stories are fantastic. So thank you so much for sharing all of that with us. Etienne Nichols: Absolutely. Yeah. Thank you so much, Lindsey. I really appreciate you inviting me onto the podcast and excited to work together in the future. Lindsey Dinneen: Yeah, and we are honored to be making a donation on your behalf as a thank you for your time today to the Polaris Project, which is a non-governmental organization that works to combat and prevent sex and labor trafficking in North America. So I really appreciate you choosing that organization to support and just again, thank you so much. We just wish you continued success as you work to change lives for a better world. Etienne Nichols: You're so welcome. Take care. Lindsey Dinneen: Of course, and thank you also to our listeners for tuning in and if you're feeling as inspired as I am right now, I'd love it if you share this episode with a colleague or two and we will catch you next time.  The Leading Difference podcast is brought to you by Velentium. Velentium is a contract design and manufacturing firm specializing in the development, production and post-market support of diagnostic and therapeutic active medical devices, including implantables and wearables for neuromodulation and other class three indications. Velentium's core competencies include electrical design, mechanical design, embedded software, mobile apps, contract manufacturing, embedded cybersecurity, OT cybersecurity, systems engineering, human factors and usability, and automated test systems. Velentium works with clients worldwide from startups seeking seed funding to established Fortune 100 companies. Visit velentium.com to explore your next step in medical device development.

In this episode we're joined by Claudia G. Interiano-Shiverdecker, Ph.D., LPC-A, Devon E. Romero, Ph.D., NCC, LPC-A, and Priscilla Rose Prasath, Ph.D., LPC, MBA from the research lab Counselors Against Sex Trafficking. They talk about their work at CAST, and share some key information about sex trafficking, its impact, and what counselors need to know to best serve clients who have experienced this particular form of trauma.    To learn more about their work and the competencies they have developed, you can find the Counselors Against Sex Trafficking at www.castrl.com. Our guests recommend the Polaris Project (www.polarisproject.org) for more information about sex trafficking.  If you or someone you know is experiencing sex trafficking, we recommend contacting the National Human Trafficking Hotline. They can be reached by phone at 1-888-373-7888, or you can text them at 233733. Their website www.humantraffickinghotline.org also offers a live chat feature and additional resources.  Read the transcript here.

The University of Austin is a new and promising institution set to open its doors to full time students in just over a year. The university is the brainchild of a few individuals who believe that an institution based on a new model is necessary. The school is committed to freedom of inquiry, a core tenet of any great university, that allows for the pursuit of truth. Today's guest is the founding president, Pano Kanelos, a distinguished academic that had a successful tenure at St. John's College. We discuss the university's mission, building new institutions, and how they fit within Austin's education and innovation ecosystems.Episode HighlightsThe University of Austin aims to become a new center for innovation and academic freedom in the city.UATX aspires to become the "Stanford to Berkeley" for Austin, complementing the University of Texas.By working closely with industry leaders, the university seeks to co-develop programs, offer internships, and provide support for student-led projects.The Polaris Project emphasizes real-world application and impact on pressing global problems, while fostering interdisciplinary collaboration among students.They want to inspire new institutions around the world by proving that it's possible to build a new university todayWhat's next Austin? “A dozen years from now, there is a thriving campus in the Austin area that is attracting scholars, practitioners, and young people from across the country and across the world who are building things that we haven't yet dreamed of.”Episode linksUniversity of Austin: Website, Twitter, LinkedIn Austin Next Links: Website, X/Twitter, YouTube, LinkedIn

Our very first guest, JoJo Platt, is a longtime consultant serving the neurotech community through the commercialization process. In this episode, JoJo discusses her eclectic background, views on leadership, the future of neurotech, and how good-natured "revenge" is one of her primary motivators.  Guest links: http://theplattassociates.com/ | https://www.joyventures.com/ | https://neurotechreports.com/ | https://skrapspodcast.com/  Charity supported: Polaris Project  Interested in being a guest on the show or have feedback to share? Email us at podcast@velentium.com.  PRODUCTION CREDITS Host: Lindsey Dinneen Editor: Tim Oliphant Producer: Velentium   SHOW TRANSCRIPT Episode 002 - JoJo Platt Lindsey Dinneen: Hi, I'm Lindsey with Velentium and I'm talking with MedTech industry leaders on how they change lives for a better world. Diane Bouis: The inventions and technologies are fascinating and so are the people who work with them. Frank Jaskulke: There was a period of time where I realized, fundamentally, my job was to go hang out with really smart people that are saving lives and then do work that would help them save more lives. Diane Bouis: I got into the business to save lives and it is incredibly motivating to work with people who are in that same business, saving or improving lives. Duane Mancini: What better industry than where I get to wake up every day and just save people's lives. Lindsey Dinneen: These are extraordinary people doing extraordinary work, and this is The Leading Difference. Hello and welcome to the Leading Difference Podcast. I'm your host, Lindsey, and I'm excited to introduce you to my guest today, Jojo Platt. Jojo is a longtime consultant serving the neurotech community through the commercialization process. She works with academic labs, neurotech startups, and others to advance neuro technologies into the hands of patients. Jojo is the US Partnership's lead for Joy Ventures. She works with Neurotech Reports, co-hosts the Skraps podcast, and serves on many organizing committees of the industry's most influential conferences and meetings. And I am so thrilled that she is joining me today. Welcome to the show, Jojo. Thanks for being here. JoJo Platt: Thank you for having me on. I'm really excited to be on the other side of the mic this time. Lindsey Dinneen: Oh yes, that's right. Please tell us a little bit about yourself and your background to get started, if you don't mind. JoJo Platt: Sure. I work specifically in the field of neurotechnology that's even more narrow than medical devices. I prefer to think of it as a different focus than just pure, broad speaking neuromodulation and I've been consulting to academic labs, startups, government offices, universities, kind of everybody in the neurotech space for about 15 years now, and a lot of people find it challenging to really fully understand what I do. So I keep it broad because I do a lot of different things. I like to think about all of the scientists and technologists who have spent their entire lives honing and perfecting their science and technology skills. And I come in on the other side of that and help them on the business side. So if they're ready to translate, if they're thinking about creating a spin out, if they wanna optimize their research for future licensing and spin out, there are things that can be done even at the academic level that can make a big difference into how technology or therapy commercialized. And I do everything except for accounting and housekeeping. Lindsey Dinneen: Amazing. So I am curious, do you mind delving a little bit more into how you help bridge the gap between a company or an individual who is looking to develop new technology? And what have you found is the most needed aspect of that sort of bridging the gap process or how do you feel that your consulting and your services are able to help these people? Because I know you're making a difference, but I'm curious as to what things you find are the most common, and where people can use that assistance from a different perspective? JoJo Platt: The field overall, especially the commercialization side of the equation is still relatively young. I know, spinal cord stimulators coming out Tom Mortimer's lab and all of that in the sixties and some of the cardiac pacemaker technologies, those have been around for a long time. But when you get into some of the neural interfaces, be it in the central or peripheral nervous system, those are on the newer side. So we still have a lot of technology founders or technical founders, or scientific founders, which is fantastic. There's nobody who knows the technology and the science better than these folks. But like I said before, they're classically trained on the science and technology side of things. So there are tons of resources out there that can help prepare them to be a CEO or a founding CEO. But they still need a lot of support and whether they find that they need help in making their business case as they're pitching for financing to VCs, helping them hone that pitch, whether it's in support of market research, helping them determine what's the best path to market sometimes. I primarily like to focus on FDA cleared or FDA approved devices and I definitely favor implanted devices over wearables, but there are definitely fantastic wearable technologies. That's all to say that direct to consumer is something I can appreciate and admire, but that's not an area of expertise for me. So I'll help them look at the regulatory pathways, reimbursement pathways. I either do that on my own or I also work very heavily with a team at Neurotech Reports, Jim Cavouto and Jeremy Koff, who both have excellent track records in Neurotech as well. Lindsey Dinneen: Yeah. That is wonderful. And so when you are helping these folks, these scientists-- I think we talked in a previous conversation about how sometimes the business aspect, like you said, you can learn a lot about how to be a CEO and there are certain things that maybe come a little bit easier than others, but in terms of, say the marketing side of things or how to translate the science into a more widely understood-- if you're going to explain it to your grandma kind of thing. You have a really interesting background that didn't necessarily start in the science field. Do you mind exploring a little bit about how that helps you translate between the two? JoJo Platt: Sure. I have a very long sort of meandering journey into a lot of different areas. I started out my first, I like to call it my first real job, my first office job was a one person of a two person accounting team at an internet backbone technology company. And that's to say, because this was in the mid to late nineties, it wasn't part of the dot com boom so much as it was, anytime you watch video on the internet, that call and response of the video packets that get delivered to you are still done even now, 25 years later on the internet backbone which is video delivery optimization. So we were basically solving how to stream video on the internet when the internet was operating at basically a 14 4k speed. So accounting, I thought that's what I wanted to do. That was my degree program at the time, and I was in school and working and being a single mom and all that. And we went through an IPO, which was an amazing learning experience, but it was a lot of work. I'd go to the office at six in the morning. Work till six at night. Go to class, go home, see my daughter, go back to work until about two o'clock in the morning and they go back at six and it burned me out. We were a startup and the hours were long, so, after the IPO I was processing some expense accounts and I kept seeing all of these marketing expense reports come in. I'm like, "you guys went to dinner where? You spent what? You did?" And I'm just like, "wait, let me get this straight: you're having this much fun and I'm sitting here behind a desk processing your expense reports." So I said, "this is over. I'm going over to marketing." And so I was still in school, so I changed my major and finished that up on the comm side of things. I don't tend to refer to what I do now as marketing or communications. Because it's only a part of what I do, and also because those words tend to scare a lot of scientists. They don't believe in self-promotion. And they just find the marketing and communication side of things, PR and that sort of thing, quite unsavory. So I don't talk about it in those terms, but that is a little bit about what I do and especially, my own, I guess you'd call it a brand. I don't know that it's brand so much, but it just happened. So yeah, from accounting to marketing, I went through the dot com bubble in the early two thousands with the community site that was the early competitor to MySpace and earlier than Facebook even. So we raised a lot of money. The founders burned through all of it. That crashed. I decided at one point I was gonna kinda have an early retirement 'cause I had done well with my IPO and then got bored. I've done consumer electronics, was working with a technology company trying to solve the whole Napster problem with copyright protection for music. And we were a finalist in the industry competition that was gonna lead to an industry standard of content protection. And then just a month or so before it was all finalized, iTunes came out with a 99 cents song, which between the lawsuit against Napster and an affordable easy, one click way to get music, that pretty well solved the problem for the most part. So that one went away.  then from there I ended up, this one's a really strange one. From there I ended up going and working at a nonprofit that had, before my arrival, they had fallen afoul with the IRS and it wasn't-- the nonprofit needed some closer management. For the most part it was doing okay. It was doing what it was supposed to be doing. For, again, for the most part, its problem was that the founder was a person of interest in his other business dealings. So IRS and the Department of Justice figured they were gonna "Capone" this guy. Basically go after him and get him for anything that they could, whether it was directly related to the insurance schemes that he was running or if they could get him some other way. So I jumped in, became the court appointed trustee for the foundation and helped the DOJ and the IRS Criminal Investigations Division actually put this guy in jail. So that was kind of, it was a little scary at times. But it was fun. And at the end of the day, I got to help give away 47 million dollars to a lot of different charities. And one of the things that we wanted to look at was sepsis research, because one of our board members, his daughter passed away very quickly and very unexpectedly from sepsis. So we wanted to support sepsis research. And found out that Kevin Tracy at the Feinstein Institute in New York was doing a lot of really exciting work in sepsis and I started helping them out on a consulting basis on some of the sepsis activities and then some Parkinson's research initiatives that they were working on. And as they were getting ready to launch the Center for Bioelectronic Medicine, they just kept pulling me on board for project after project and kept consulting on that helped them launch the center with some very good friends of mine. I'm glad to say it's still a very successful research entity and putting out amazing work. And we launched a journal by the same name. And part of my responsibilities there were to really understand and know the players in the field of neurotechnology and find out what they were working on and see if I couldn't help to facilitate collaborations, whether it was research or further down the road into the commercialization spectrum. And that's how I fell into neurotech. It's a very long, very circuitous, bumpy road. Lindsey Dinneen: Yes. But it's an amazing backstory and it has led you to a whole new chapter really, and new opportunities that you probably couldn't have imagined when you first were even in school. Thinking ahead, what's my life gonna look like? So that's... JoJo Platt: I'm still waiting to find out what it is I'm gonna do. Lindsey Dinneen: That's amazing. Yeah. Well, I'm curious, is there a particular moment that stands out to you because it clearly confirmed that this chapter was the right next step for you? I know you had mentioned the importance of working on the sepsis research and supporting that initiative and things like that. Obviously that was something that was important to you, but I'm curious, as you've continued along this path, is there just something that stands out where you thought, "yes, this is the right next chapter for me" and why? JoJo Platt: I don't think there was a single moment. I think somebody asked me a similar question at a conference earlier, I guess last fall, and, "Why are you doing this?" And, "What got you involved or what keeps you here?" And I think part of it is still really true. That part of it is revenge. Don't get me wrong, I went to a very excellent high school, but my science teachers saw in me a very, very strong lack of scientific ability. I didn't apply myself in my science classes and they all begged me never to take a science class again-- just get through this one and don't take any more science than is required. So I think the part that keeps me here most is that I'm not a scientist and I'm not a technologist. I've definitely learned a lot from everyone that I've had the good fortune of working with or seeing some of the amazing talks that I've seen over the last 15 years. But I can have an impact and not be a scientist or a technologist. And I think that inspiration keeps me going. And I'll be on stage with some of the world's most important neurotechnologists, and I always make sure and take a picture and then send it back to my science teachers and say, "See, I did okay". Lindsey Dinneen: I love it. JoJo Platt: Yeah. There might be a little spite there, but just, all good fun. Lindsey Dinneen: Good natured. JoJo Platt: Yes. Yes. Lindsey Dinneen: That is seriously amazing. I definitely have a little bit-- I'll put it this way-- I have enough rebel in me where if someone says that I can't do something, then I have to prove them wrong. JoJo Platt: Right. Lindsey Dinneen: It's just -- we're gonna figure out how to do this, might not come easily, but we'll figure it out. JoJo Platt: Yeah. And I don't think I would've gone out of my way to do that had I not stumbled into this field, but the fact that I'm here now, I'll leverage that a little bit. Lindsey Dinneen: Yeah. Yeah. Amazing. Well, how would you define leadership? Or what does leadership mean to you? JoJo Platt: To me leadership is not so much telling people what to do, but making sure that your team is inspired to follow you. And I think that difference is one thing that's really important between a boss and a leader. Also why I don't have employees. I think that bringing on the right team members for the right problems and empowering them to do their jobs is probably, a pretty inspiring leadership principle. And the people who have that gift are people toward whom I gravitate, just sort of in, in my own personal fandom of that capacity. And when I see that I like to highlight that and foster that. But I think I know my own weaknesses, which are anything in the area where HR would have jurisdiction, I'm the worst nightmare. And I love being a collaborator, but being a leader is a gift that I think I'll let others take the helm for that one. Lindsey Dinneen: Oh, that is fair. I appreciate that perspective. Well, what is your best piece of advice for someone interested in obtaining either a leadership role within the med tech industry, or since you talked about being in more of a collaboration role or a collaborator role, what is your best piece of advice if someone's looking to do something similar to what you do in helping bridge this gap in helping assist these amazing people bring their ideas to reality? JoJo Platt: I think one of the greatest parts about the neurotech field is that we're still young enough that there are opportunities everywhere, and I know we're going into a bit of a shrinking right-sizing economic exercise, and that some of that will include some painful moments for a lot of people. But I think from my experience, it's better to correct than to crash. So I'm optimistic about where we are in that, and I think that we are truly at the point in the field where there's a legitimate reason to say, if your dream job in neurotechnology doesn't exist, go and create it. And I think this space is open to so many different areas of expertise. So we need people in finance and business management, administration, operations, systems management. And yes, marketing is actually starting to become a legitimate and respected division of a lot of different companies. So that's good to see. But you can really come from any field and contribute to neurotechnology. And one of the things that I see a lot are people who have a hybrid blend of expertise. So they might be neuroscientists by training who went through an MBA program or an MBA candidate who has strong engineering background. Those are the kinds of cross talented people that we're really gonna need. And I think we are seeing a lot more interest from the sort of traditional business categories of contributors to the point of we need more qualified CEOs in our field, and we need more people in finance that really understand what the technology implications are. A lot of my clients really are focused on and need regulatory and reimbursement experts. There's a need for people who have organizing backgrounds. For instance, next week in DC, Paradromics has been instrumental in putting together our BCI days going to talk on Capitol Hill about export controls on brain computer interfaces so that sort of organization and lobby expertise. So I think that if you have a passion in terms of what it is you want to do and you want to apply it to the field of neurotechnology, there are so many opportunities that didn't even exist even 24 months ago. So I think we're growing quickly and it's exciting to bring new people into the field and help accelerate and propel these fascinating and really potentially hugely impactful technologies. Lindsey Dinneen: Yeah. What do you see as being some of the most exciting trends in this field moving forward? JoJo Platt: Well, brain computer interface is definitely one. There are some really great players in the field. BlackRock Neurotech has been the leader in the field and out of the, I think we're-- I think we're right around 40 or 40 plus humans who have been implanted with brain computer interfaces. And well over 30 of those people have BlackRock technology implanted. But we're seeing some really great newcomers with novel ideas, novel technologies. Paradromics, who I previously mentioned, is one and Synchron has been getting a lot of attention for their vascular approach to a BCI. Precision Neuroscience just closed a big round last week. And Motif Neurotech is exciting. That's a new technology out of Rice and it's a minimally invasive brain computer interface. And their first indication is major depressive disorder. Inner Cosmos is going after the same indication with their minimally invasive approach. They're both exciting to watch. And I think BCI obviously gets so much more attention because of Elon Musk's involvement in the field. Lindsey Dinneen: Yeah. Well, I am excited to also continue to learn about the new developments coming up. It is a crazy time. I joke about this a lot, " what a time to be alive." But seriously, it is so exciting to see what's coming up, what's possible these days just is amazing. It's mind blowing. So thank you for sharing some of your insights with that. JoJo Platt: My pleasure. It's a fine line. You wanna talk about the potential, but you also have to be reasonable in managing expectations, especially with a patient population that needs the therapy. Promising and underdelivering is something that everybody is very focused on maintaining that integrity. There was a talk couple weeks ago where the CFO of BlackRock Neurotech said, "we like to focus on the "art of the possible" and being sure that we're not over representing what is today possible and what will may eventually become possible." And I like that. That to me, is very responsible communications. Lindsey Dinneen: Yeah, absolutely. So I'm curious, how do you prioritize your continued learning and growing as a leader, as someone of influence within your industry. How do you prioritize your continued growth? JoJo Platt: I've just been so lucky to meet and engage with so many really exciting researchers, whether they're on the science or technology side. And I'm at the point where a lot of what comes in front of me, people will send to me directly and they're like, "Hey, Jojo, this just came out." Or, "this is a publication that's coming out next week. Let's see if we can amplify it." So a lot of my sort of choices are spoon fed to me. And then that sends me down a rabbit hole. I mean, there's so much to discover. Anywhere you look it's out there. So I should be more strategic about it. If you have something that you think is really important that you think the community wants to know about, I do invite people to send it to me. And if I have a chance to amplify it and call attention to it in any small way, then I'm grateful for that opportunity. It helps me see different things that I might not otherwise. Lindsey Dinneen: Yeah. Well, and that's a great segue into, I'd love to learn a little bit about your podcast. Is that one of the tools that you use to amplify some of those things? Or is that completely separate? JoJo Platt: It's a little bit of both, so. Okay. The podcast is scraps with a "K," S-K-R-A-P-S, and that's because a lot of scientific exploration and inspiration comes at the bar talking to your colleagues and you write your idea on the back of a scrap of piece of paper. And the other reason it's called Skraps is cuz it's "spark" spelled backwards. Anyhow, my co-host for that is Arun Sridhar and he's the former head of Discovery at Galvani Bioelectronics. So he brings the scientific rigor to the podcast and I'm the cheeky monkey who gets to be a little sillier. But we've done a little bit of everything. It is a hobby for us and we like to highlight people that have inspired us in different ways. But we also are sure to try and make it fun. So we've done everything from human composting. Shortly after Covid hit, we had the graphic artist who did the rendering of the Covid molecule, the gray ball with the spikes that is everywhere, which was a fascinating story. She literally got woken up outta bed in the middle of the night in January 2020 and they said, "We've got something, you've gotta come down here and draw this for us." So that's an interesting thing. Okay? So I'm like, "You wanna just put me on speed dial next time you get one of those calls and tell me about it?" But we've done everything. They're incredible leaders in, in science and research. On the show we did a 10 part series on psychedelics in research. That was about a year and a half ago now. So that was at the vanguard of the psychedelic research revolution. So we did a pretty comprehensive history back to early human use all the way through the obvious fifties, sixties, seventies with MK Ultra and then what's happening in research today and how some of the people who are benefiting from psychedelics and psychedelic therapy. And then now we're in the middle of a series on the vagus nerve in neurotechnology. So we just do a little bit of everything, whether it's a topic or a person or a personality. We try and keep it fun. Lindsey Dinneen: I love that. That's awesome. Okay, well, for fun, imagine someone offered you a million dollars to teach a masterclass on anything you want-- doesn't have to even be in your industry. What would you choose to teach and why? JoJo Platt: Oh, that's a good one. I don't know that I would be qualified for that. I've always thought of myself more of a jack of all trades, master of none . I'm a boy scout. I'm prepared for anything, but I'm maybe not the master at any one thing. And I think that's what I love about so many of the people that I encounter, is that they've dedicated their whole educational career, their professional career to one particular thing and they can teach the master classes and I'll sit back and watch and then post about it. Lindsey Dinneen: What a fun answer. Okay. Well, do you think you could then teach a masterclass on how to be prepared for anything because you never know what will come your way? JoJo Platt: I do have my shortcuts, like when I really get in over my head with a neuroscientist, I can start talking about engineering, and same thing if I get in over my head in an engineering conversation, I'll switch over to neuroscience or something. And if I get really flustered, I'll just say "The mitochondria is the powerhouse of the cell!" and walk away. Lindsey Dinneen: Brilliant. JoJo Platt: So yeah, you always wanna have a couple catchphrases that'll get you into or out of any conversation. Lindsey Dinneen: All right. I like it. Yeah. I need to develop a few more of those, I think. What is the one thing you wish to be remembered for after you leave this world? JoJo Platt: I hope that when I'm gone that the people that I've known and had the privilege of being associated with, either professionally or personally, oftentimes both-- that they always knew that I was there if they needed help or if there was some way that I could contribute to their success, that would be the greatest highlight of my day. I'm not the one doing the hard stuff, so I'm here to help the people who are, and if that's how I'm remembered, I wouldn't hate that. Lindsey Dinneen: Yeah. I love that. Well, final question. What's one thing that makes you smile every time you see or think about it? JoJo Platt: But one of the things that, I find wonderful, full of wonder, fill me with wonder, are really the pieces of science that you don't realize, or mathematics or engineering that are all around you all the time, and if you know where to look or how to find them, you start to see. I have a fascination with Fibonaccis. So if you start to read and learn about the Fibonacci Sequence and how it's applied and where it's found in nature, where it applies in mathematics, how it affects what we view as aesthetically pleasing-- there's "The Great Wave of Kanagawa," which is a Fibonacci Sequence. It's an old Japanese block print that is perfectly aligned with the Fibonacci spiral. So things like that. Things that blur the line between mathematics and science and beauty. I think that's pretty inspiring. That makes me smile. Lindsey Dinneen: Oh, I love that. That's beautiful. Well, I just wanted to say thank you so much for joining us. Thank you for sharing about your background and all the fascinating things that you have done that have led you to where you are right now. And who knows what you're gonna do in the future, but it is so fun to hear about it. So thank you for being so open sharing all those wonderful things. And we are honored to be making a donation on your behalf as a thank you for your time today. It's going to Polaris Project, which was Jojo's choice, and that is a non-governmental organization that works to combat and prevent sex and labor trafficking in North America. So thank you for that, Jojo. Thank you so much again for your time. We wish you just the most continued success as you work to change lives for a better world. JoJo Platt: Thank you. Thanks for having me on. I really appreciate it. Lindsey Dinneen: Of course. And thank you also to our listeners for tuning in, and if you're feeling as inspired as I am right now, I'd love it if you'd share this episode with a colleague or two, and we will catch you next time.  The Leading Difference podcast is brought to you by Velentium. Velentium is a contract design and manufacturing firm specializing in the development, production and post-market support of diagnostic and therapeutic active medical devices, including implantables and wearables for neuromodulation and other class three indications. Velentium's core competencies include electrical design, mechanical design, embedded software, mobile apps, contract manufacturing, embedded cybersecurity, OT cybersecurity, systems engineering, human factors and usability, and automated test systems. Velentium works with clients worldwide from startups seeking seed funding to established Fortune 100 companies. Visit velentium.com to explore your next step in medical device development.

As the top-ranking apartment building broker at Marcus & Millichap - NYC, Shaun Riney has closed over 850 buildings since starting in 2009 with a selling value of over $3.5 Billion Dollars specializing in seller-representation of investment properties in NYC. He is an active member of Greenpeace, UNESCO, and the Polaris Project, an organization preventing human trafficking worldwide.His passions outside of real estate include traveling, scuba-diving, cycling, mountain biking, and spending meaningful time with friends and family. He regularly competes in Triathlons and is a dedicated mountain hiker and has spent considerable time climbing in the Pyrenees Mountain Range of Southwest Europe, the Tramuntana Mountains of Mallorca, The Nā Pali Coast of Hawaii, the Adirondacks, White Mountains of New Hampshire, and the Catskills. He is a sports enthusiast, an avid soccer player and Captain of the Brooklyn Football Club (BKFC).Riney is a graduate of Boston University and currently resides in Williamsburg, Brooklyn.Media Links:Instagram - @ShaunRiney1Website - www.newyorkmultifamily.comFollow me on instagram to see how I make my deals & grow my realestate empire! https://www.instagram.com/allonavgi/Check out my other social accounts here:TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@allonavgi?lan...Linkedln:https://www.linkedin.com/in/allonavgi/Twitter: https://twitter.com/allonavgiFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/everythingAl...YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/user/AllonAvgiSpotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/6dxNrujg4Feevqqmru76MTApple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/talk-shop-with-allon-avgi/id1547359926Allon Avgi is the Founder and CEO of AVGI. Allon started AVGI at 21years old when he acquired his first real estate investment in Long Island, New York. Allon has since developed a diverse real estate holdings company that has reached $50,000,000 in rental properties within only 4 years using his own money and that of a select few individuals. As he starts to open AVGI's investments to outside capital and build strategic partnerships, he has ambitiously set a target to acquire and manage a $1 billion real estate portfolio by the time he is 30 years old.

An astounding Polaris Project study on needs of survivors of human trafficking had us asking if adults who were born into cults and those who were trafficked have similar needs. Join Whisper and her trusty sidekick Jemima as they discuss the study, Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) and the stigma surrounding "big stories". You know, the ones that make the room go quiet.Support the show

It is estimated that there are over 49 Million people in modern slavery across the world on any given day - and that includes the United States.  January is Human Trafficking Prevention Month where government agencies along with private and public partners bring awareness to modern slavery.  This includes public transit agencies as well as private trucking firms. Si eres víctima de trata de personas o sospechas que alguien lo es, hay ayuda. 1-888-373-7888  También puede enviar un mensaje de texto con HELP o INFO al 233733. Se hablan más de 200 idiomas y la ayuda está disponible las 24 horas del día, los siete días de la semana, los 365 días del año.If you are a victim of human trafficking or suspect that someone is, there is help. 1-888-373-7888 is the number of the National Human Trafficking Hotline. You can also text HELP or INFO to 233733. Over 200 languages are spoken and the help is available 24-hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year.

January is Human Trafficking Prevention Month, so for the next few weeks, we'll be talking about joining the fight and spreading awareness of human trafficking, slave labor, child trafficking, sex trafficking, and more.    Resources: DHS - Blue Campaign - One Voice. One Mission. End Human Trafficking https://www.dhs.gov/blue-campaign/what-human-trafficking   National Human Trafficking Hotline https://humantraffickinghotline.org/en   The Polaris Project https://polarisproject.org/human-trafficking/   U.S. Department of Labor - Bureau of Labor Affairs - List of Goods Produced by Child Labor or Forced Labor https://www.dol.gov/agencies/ilab/reports/child-labor/list-of-goods   National Center for Missing and Exploited Children https://www.missingkids.org/ourwork/impact#childsextrafficking   Connect with Dr. Cherie: https://www.instagram.com/drcherie_holisticcoach/  www.instagram.com/passionatestewardshippodcast https://lcconsultingandcoaching.com/  Free 30-minute Radical Self-Care Audit https://calendly.com/clindsay-chapman-1/radical-self-care-audit

Is it possible to help prevent sex trafficking through using horses? That's what we explore in this episode as we visit with Yolanda Schlabach, Executive Director of Zoë Ministries, an organization that provides healing, safety, and advocacy for those impacted or potentially impacted by sex trafficking.More Information/Resources:Zoë MinistriesPolaris ProjectEquine Mentorship ProgramCovenant Eyes offers a clear path to freedom through trusted relationships and free resources. TRY COVENANT EYES FREE FOR 30 DAYS: (Promo Code: FreePodcast)Stay up to date on the latest news and guests on The Covenant Eyes Podcast by signing up for our newsletter: https://learn.covenanteyes.com/podcast-newsletter/Try Covenant Eyes for FREE today!Use Promo Code: FreePodcast ...

Sex trafficking is when victims are manipulated or forced to engage in various forms of sexual activity for someone else's financial gain. Sex trafficking does not necessarily involve movement or transportation, a person can be trafficked and go home and sleep in their own bed at night (Polaris Project, 2021). Our guest, Sean Wheeler lives and works in Colorado. He was sex trafficked from around age 5 until age 9 and he experienced other forms of abuse for some 15 years, including having been used in child pornography. In this episode he shares how it all began, the grooming methods that were used, how he lost his voice and the emotional scars that he has been working through. Today, Sean speaks out on the issue of child trafficking and is in the process of setting up a safety house for male victims. Watch episode on Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EOys9V5dD6s&list=PLqaZCWiJ5r3f2uzVqRzeaEPPlp0nj7u3v&index=1 Sean's book "Wretch": https://www.amazon.com/Wretch-Haunted-Shadows-Rescued-Jesus/dp/1498486738

A gold credit card, Facebook Messages, and latex gloves. On Monday, September 16th, 2019 utility workers in Gary, Indiana stumbled upon the body of a young girl. Months passed before investigators  finally identified the victim as 14-year-old, Takaylah Tribitt. Facebook messages and evidence at the scene also led detectives to a man named Deonlashawn Simmons. What the investigation uncovered about Simmons was jaw dropping. If you or someone you know is a victim of human trafficking or at risk of becoming a victim resources are available 24/7 in the US at the National Trafficking Hotline: CALL 1 (888) 373-7888 TEXT "BEFREE" to 233733 For information and resources visit the Polaris Project: https://polarisproject.org/ CRIMEAHOLICS PODCAST: https://audioboom.com/channels/5078740 CRIMEAHOLICS FACEBOOK GROUP: https://www.facebook.com/groups/CrimeaholicsPodcastDiscussionGroup CRIMEAHOLICS ON INSTAGRAM: https://www.instagram.com/crimeaholics.podcast/?hl=en CRIMEAHOLICS ON TIKTOK: https://www.tiktok.com/@crimeaholics.podcast?lang=en Get your episodes Ad-Free at: https://www.patreon.com/leastofthesepodcast  LEAST OF THESE ON FACEBOOK: https://m.facebook.com/leastofthesepodcast/ LEAST OF THESE DISCUSSION GROUP: https://m.facebook.com/groups/288046119723080/?ref=pages_profile_groups_tab&paipv=1https:// LEAST OF THESE ON INSTAGRAM: instagram.com/least_ofthese

During this month's second episode of Conversations with Friends, I am interviewing Jill Demisse! Jill is making an impact in women's lives around the world by partnering with them through Trades of Hope. Jill shares how Trades of Hope has allowed her to help women rise out of poverty, escape human trafficking, and provide women with an opportunity to provide for their families. If you feel the Lord has placed a specific need on your heart to make an impact, do what you can with what you have! Do not underestimate the little that you are able to give, because God is able to move in even the small things! Connect with Jill: Jill Demisse on instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jill_demisse/ Jill Demisse on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/jill.demisse Jill Demisse Trades of Hope: https://tradesofhope.com/order/P19362/?u=JILLDEMISSE&event=P19362 #choosinghappilyeverafter #CWF #makeadifference #tradesofhope #nicolevangelder Ways to get involved: Trades of Hope: https://tradesofhope.com/our-story Global Vision: https://www.globalvisionsinc.com The Apparent Project: https://apparentproject.org Harvest107: https://harvest107.org A21: https://www.a21.org Polaris Project: https://polarisproject.org Charity Water: https://www.charitywater.org Teen Challenge: https://teenchallengeusa.org 

CONTENT WARNING: Sexual Exploitation and Human Trafficking Megan Lundstrom is the Co-Founder and Director of Research at The Avery Center, an organization that creates trauma-informed services backed by survivor-led sex trafficking research. Megan has consulted for the Department of Homeland Security and Polaris Project and has created and delivered training and educational presentations in the academic community as well as a variety of organizations including the Commercial Sexual Exploitation Institute at Villanova University Law School. Ms. Lundstrom's research on cultic theory was internationally published through United Nations University and presented at the International Cultic Studies Association annual conference. She holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Finance and a Master's degree in Sociology from the University of Northern Colorado. Megan shares with Rachel the intimate details of her story of survival, explaining how her upbringing in a legalistic Christian cult contributed to her vulnerability to sex trafficking. Throughout their emotional conversation, Rachel and Megan unpack the characteristics of high control groups pointing out the similarities in the playbook of sex traffickers. They explore her healing journey so far and the story of how she came to co-found the Avery Center and work towards restorative justice. Before You Go: Rachel points out how incapable law enforcement can be in their pursuit of sex trafficking perpetrators, and explains the importance of prioritizing survivors' needs while navigating the changes necessary in the policy and practice of law enforcement. More info on The Avery Center here: https://theaverycenter.org/ More on Megan's story here: https://www.elle.com/culture/a36898189/0086-0088-megan-s-account-august-2021/ Thanks to all of our newest Patreon supporters: Amrit K Khalsa, Natalie Zett, Maria Campbell, Mo Hellbender, Ruth Crossman, Ms.Kyle, Kerry Ose, and Amy Tiemann!! To help support the show monthly and get bonus episodes, shirts, and tote bags, please visit: www.patreon.com/indoctrination Prefer to support the IndoctriNation show with a one-time donation? Use this link: www.paypal.me/indoctrination You can help the show for free by leaving a rating on Spotify or Apple/ iTunes. It really helps the visibility of the show!

Hey everybody welcome back to another episode for Uplifting With Liv. In this episode, I will be talking about a heavy topic which is Human trafficking. This is a problem affecting men, women, and children around the world. In the episode, I will be talking about the organization I choose to do research on, and later in the episode, I will be getting interviewed by Michael J. Cleverly who is a journalism student at Cedarville University. https://polarisproject.org/ --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/uplifting-with-liv/message

How does it happen? Can it happen to you? Polaris Project on Grooming: https://polarisproject.org/blog/2021/02/love-and-trafficking-how-traffickers-groom-control-their-victims/ --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/boughtbythehour/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/boughtbythehour/support

SpaceX is looking to push the boundaries again in the company's quest for interplanetary travel. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Demand Project's vitally important work of fighting human trafficking. What the Demand Project does for the Tulsa area community is just so amazing. We recently sat down with Kristin so that she could share what the organization is all about and why her work is so invaluable. The Demand Project was founded due to a story Kristin heard in 2004 of a horrible incident that was recorded and shared online for others to watch. It was so awful that Kristin felt that she had to do something about it. The organization was formed to cover the gaps in the system, help prevent sexual exploitation from happening, protect those who need it, and help victims recover when awful things do happen. The Demand Project can hold presentations just about anywhere to help people better understand the extent and nature of the problem of human trafficking. They host an Aware Workshop that works with parents and teaches them how to keep kids safe online and out on the streets. There, you can learn how to identify and fight sexual exploitation—if you see something, then having the resources and knowledge to say something can make all the difference. Kristin also recommends that anyone who is serious about learning how to combat these issues check out other, similar organizations like Shared Hope, the Polaris Project, and the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. “Having the resources and knowledge to say something can make all the difference.” If you'd like to get involved, the Demand Project could use the extra time, money, and resources to keep up the good fight. They're always looking for house guardians for their campus, respite care, office assistance, and much more. Visit www.TheDemandProject.org to learn more about who they are, what they do, and all the ways that you can lend a hand to keep our children safe. And if you have any questions or would like to hear more about how you can become more active in the community to help keep the Tulsa area wonderful, don't hesitate to give us a call at the Wolek Group. We'd love to have a conversation with you!

What the hell happened this year anyway? More COVID? Tom Brady's still good at football? Well at least Britney is free now. Join us as we furiously google the events of this year to recap what happened.This month we are supporting  the Polaris Project in their effort to fight against human trafficking. Donate now to help support!https://polarisproject.org/(Episode contains explicit material)

Emcee Dan runs us through our biggest bracket yet to determine what takes the title of Greatest Christmas Song of Them All! We also have our first drinking episode in a looong while and enjoy some Rumple Minze to get in the holiday spirit...and Weez may get a little too into the holiday spirits, if you know what we mean. We hope you enjoy off key singing, because there's a lot of it.This month we are supporting  the Polaris Project in their effort to fight against human trafficking. Donate now to help support!https://polarisproject.org/(Episode contains explicit material)Beach NeedZ Get all of the things you need for the beach through Beach NeedZ! Everything is Organic & Reef Safe!

It's here: the climax of the Polite Disagreements Podcast. Listen and be blown away.This month we are supporting  the Polaris Project in their effort to fight against human trafficking. Donate now to help support!https://polarisproject.org/(Episode contains explicit material)Beach NeedZ Get all of the things you need for the beach through Beach NeedZ! Everything is Organic & Reef Safe!

We were going to do an episode on dogs...then our stomachs got the best of us so we decided to decide what the best sandwich on earth is. And before you ask, hot dogs and tacos aren't included, that's a debate for another day. What's the best sandwich? A cuban? A reuben? A...we're out of rhymes. Listen and find out.This month we are supporting  the Polaris Project in their effort to fight against human trafficking. Donate now to help support!https://polarisproject.org/(Episode contains explicit material)Beach NeedZ Get all of the things you need for the beach through Beach NeedZ! Everything is Organic & Reef Safe!

Jeff Le has had a career at the highest levels of public policy and politics at the state, federal and international levels. A recognized thought leader in political advocacy and representation, his analysis and opinion-writing have been featured in The New York Times, POLITICO Magazine, USA Today, The Washington Post, FOX News, The Hill, Roll Call, Forbes, and local and regional newspapers in 30 states.=================Welcome back to another episode of create a new tomorrow. I am your host, Ari Gronich. And today I have with me, Jeff Le, and I've been looking forward to having this conversation for a long time. Jeff is a two-time tour guide in Afghanistan. He's an ultra-marathoner. He's in the political arena. And that's the thing that I really want to talk to him about. But this is a guy who's recognized as a thought leader, as in political advocacy. He's been featured on Politico magazine, New York Times, USA Today, Washington Post, I mean, Fox News, all kinds of stuff. But Jeff, I'm gonna let you tell a little bit more about yourself. And where it is that, you know, you feel like your history has met your present, and is like pushing your future forward. Jeff Le2:36Thanks for having me. Ari. Flattery will get you everywhere. So, thank you for that very warm introduction. You know, when I talk about my life, I really must take time to talk about my parents, first and foremost, not just because they love each other very much, and here I am. But also, because, you know, it's their bravery and passion that allows me to be an American today. Right. So, they were Vietnamese refugees after the fall of Saigon. 46 years ago. 3:25Yeah, they were refugees in, you know, Thailand and the Philippines and escaped Vietnam and communism on a 32-foot raft. So, you know, when they made it to the United States in 1981, after six years, a year later, I was born. And that came with great rights, but also responsibilities. And growing up in Southern California. My parents had a gardening company. And it's important to highlight because it was my first job. My first job at eight years old was being the gardener's kid, and mowing lawns in the weekends. I learned two things about this. Number one, manual labor sucks. And education is really important, two people treat you based on what they think of you based on what you do. And so, understanding that we're only equal in concept, but maybe not in reality is an important lesson learn at a young age. I say all that because a lot of my professional and personal life was driven on this understanding. And I would break my life chapter into three chapters, and we can talk about each of them. Yeah, the first was a chapter in the international affairs arena, right? I got to work and travel and 85 countries around the world. There was so much to see and do, including, you know, what you referenced was, you know, my time in Afghanistan, you know, working in the international development, economic space, but also working in the human rights and advocacy, is base. And obviously, recent events in Afghanistan, are quite tragic and horrible. We'll talk about that. After that experience, it made me ask for mentally, what was I doing for the country back home? And so, the second chapter of my life was in politics, but you know, really with a stronger emphasis in state and local politics. I got to work for the governor of California specifically for five years. Jerry, yes, great way for Jerry Brown, Jerry Brown, the governor of California, so that the current governor of California, the previous governor of California, and which, for me was fascinating, because when Jerry Brown was governor, California, in the 70s, and early 80s, my parents arrived here. So it was so fascinating that their son could be advising the governor of California, the same governor, who was governor when they landed. So, think about that, from that, you know, the world is an interesting circle. And I was really proud of the work that I got to do in California, as you know, I mean, California, you know, covers some really interesting issues and technology and innovation. Ari Gronich5:53California is crazy state. Jeff Le5:55There's a lot of stuff to talk about, right? Fires, floods, you know, Silicon Valley, Hollywood, I mean, your amens, I mean, there's so much stuff that comes from there. And also what's not talked about the largest veteran community in the country, and 30 military installations that are sort of the backbone for our efforts in the Pacific, not talked about, but it's very important. Think about not just from a national security perspective, but also from a local economy perspective, having those installations there, those work I really got to work in really proud of. And now in this phase, I work in technology. And I'm really focused right now on housing, and really focused on reducing barriers for people to get to affordable safe housing, at a time where you have potentially millions of people being evicted, through no fault of their own. So, you know, for me, my goals have really been focused on trying to support empower the most marginalized at a time where the haves and have nots grow, what can we be doing to be smart and thoughtful about this, and not throw the baby with the bath wash. Ari Gronich7:09Absolutely. So let's start to unpack some of this stuff a little bit. We're gonna go back, I actually I had a girlfriend. Long time ago, she had a tattoo on her butt that looked like a shipping label. It's said made in Vietnam. She had been a refugee who had escaped on a boat, like a rowboat, almost to Thailand. And so I find that interesting, because I know what it's like what it was like for her parents, who did the escaping, you know, and all of that what they faced and possibilities that they faced in order to escape a place. And where I'm going to draw the parallel in a minute is not necessarily to the Vietnam, but it's to Afghanistan, and all the refugees that are being forced, you know, to leave their home. And so, we'll draw that parallel as well. But what I want to get to at the first is, is that eight-year-old boy, who is being aware of the fact that your equality is not necessarily equal in the eyes of the people. So, I want to just kind of unpack this this one little bit for a second, let's talk about equality. And if there should even be anything called equality, and if so, what would it look like to you? So, let's just.  Jeff Le8:49Yeah, it's funny. So, under the law, there is supposed to be equality, right? In society, that's certainly not necessarily the case. There is something very important which is equity. Equity is important. Yes. Equanimity too. Those two concepts are very important. And so, I believe in equality of, there's an equality of opportunity and potential. Outcomes are different. Outcomes or outcomes. But we also must acknowledge that, there are some folks that are born on third base. There are some folks that are born on first base, and there are some folks that are selling hotdogs in the stands. It's it is different. And so, where you start does affect how you play the game. Right? Like if you're playing Monopoly and you got Boardwalk and Park Place to Start, it probably affects the way you probably can maneuverer. And I can tell you that my you know, my parents coming to the United States with nothing, I can't say we had Boardwalk and Park Place. I think we were just happy to have it. Have a token on the board. Right, we're happy to be here. And very much at least in an Asian American Pacific Islander angle, particularly Vietnamese American one, there's one very much filled with gratitude, a gratitude that we get to be here and that we get to chase, the thing that you and I have talked about, which is the American dream. The American Dream, though, isn't the dream for your parents, the American Dream is the possibilities for your children. That's what that is. Because, you know, very few, you know, these refugees you cited and Afghanistan, they're here are like being resettled. They are not going to be the direct beneficiaries of the American experience and the opportunities here; their kids will be. That is the American dream. The parents will have to live with the trauma of what they lost and what they'll never get back. And I know we discussed like, oh, how lucky these Afghans are to make it. The survivor's guilt. That's real. And they're separated from their family, their friends, their loved ones, everything they've ever known. So, they're always going to be knothole. So, I think there's this notion when we talk in society about like, oh, these refugees are taking advantage of things. Oh, they're just trying to find a way to, you know, further themselves. No, it's a last resort. It is a last resort. I mean, you think about what makes you happy? It's your community. It's the people around you. It's the sense that you're living in your skin. Ari Gronich11:27You know, it's funny to me, as you're talking, I had a thought, right? How many people do I know that I grew up with? Who have never left? The place that we grew up. Quite a few. And how difficult it is for somebody, just to willingly choose to go move somewhere, even just out of city. Not just out of state but out of city. You know, how many people do I know that have lived on the same block. You know, as their parents lived, and their grandparents lived the same block the same neighbourhoods. And when I hear somebody say, you know, these people are, they're being forced. What I want to see happen, right. When I hear you say, they'll never be whole, what I want to see happen is block parties. I want us to be, you know, the 50s, again, when we welcomed the world, right, onto our blocks into block parties, and we actually understand and listen and question like, What was that experience that you went through so that people can become whole? Jeff Le12:52Yeah, I mean, you're totally right. I think this first off, I mean, if you look at the founding of America, America is a nation of immigrants and refugees, by the way, seeking refuge. In the only scenario of options last, right, if you look at the history, right? We focus so much on the Mayflower. There are many other May flowers for many other generations that we never talked about. It's not as luxurious, right? But the reality is that you, we have a culture that has a connection to cultures of many. And part of our strength, if you talk about from innovation, what makes America so powerful, is that we have these viewpoints, perspective skills and abilities from all around the world that come here, the best of the best. And then they use those talents and skills to create things that change the world. That creates that new tomorrow. Right? If you look at, you know, for example, let's just talk about, let's say the vaccine, for example, one of the things that people don't talk about who worked on the science of these vaccines, right? The research and development are on the backs of immigrants, doing the lab and bench science. So, you know, America benefits from those talents. And to your point, we have to recognize, it takes a whole of society to put people in the best position to succeed. They deserve to have an at bats, whether they strike out whether they get a single, I couldn't tell you.Ari Gronich14:23So, hold on a second. Let's again, I'm I like to unpack some of this. I don't agree. With the premise that all people should have an equal starting ground. Right. And say that because I'm going to have a different brain than you have different set of skills than you. I'm going to have abilities that you will never have. You will have abilities that I will never have. And I disagree with the philosophy of any possibility of starting from an even ground. Now, here's, here's to say, if I had $100 million, okay, my brain would know who I need to put that with. So that I could get things moving forward, somebody else's brain that's given $100 million is going to spend it on junk that's not going to move anybody forward or anything forward, another person is going to spend that 100 million totally different, right? They're going to actually like maybe go to classes and learn and gain a skill and do good in the world. So, money, or resources or family, like, you might have a much larger family of resources than I have, my family might have more money. So, I don't believe that there's ever going to be a time possible in which we have an equal starting point or equanimity in relationships, it have equanimity and other things. Jeff Le16:09Well, I think historically, that's right. I mean, again, like we talked about my family's history in the United States is 39 years. Right. So, the starting point is different versus, you know, someone that's been here since their family has been here since 1840s. Whether we can agree that's different, and totally agree that there's different skills and abilities. I think it's the case of how do we best put people in positions, you know, to fulfil their talents and potential? I agree with you. Not everyone is gonna be a starting pitcher. Not everyone is going to be even playing that sport. I totally agree. But I do think on the services part, like the thing you talked about for society, right? Having that openness to learn to understand that benefits everybody, and that benefits a stronger country as a whole. Ari Gronich17:01Yeah. But also. I guess what I want to get to is, can we agree on a solution, right? That starts us from a place of maybe not equanimity. But at least not fight or flight. Right. So having somebody not necessarily have to worry about survival skills, survival instincts, surviving in general. And that's where I believe that if we could get away from the nervous system being triggered into this fight or flight response constantly, right? Meaning, we give people a way to have shelter, have clothes, have food, have the things that are necessary to sustain a life. That starting point, at least, is a starting point that will allow people to move in a quicker fashion, right? But to your point, at eight years old, you started a job. At seven years old, I started a job. Right. Mine was paper boy, and we did lawn mowing for like five bucks a lawn. Five bucks a lawn, I think back then. It was like three bucks a lawn. Right. And so, here's the other part of that. So, I'm going to be my own devil's advocate on this. The struggle is what made you who you are, right? That having to work that early, the being forced into an a non-equal position, right. Whereas somebody who's wealthy, whose kids are wealthy, they don't have to do anything, they don't have to learn, they don't have to think they don't have to, and they'll lose anything that they're given pretty darn quickly. So, there's, the dichotomy in my in my head, and we give people an equal footing ground as far as like survival. And will that have an opposite effect of taking the struggle away that makes people really forged in strong?   Jeff Le19:32Yeah, so I think you know, if you think of that, you know that Maslow's hierarchy, right. So, if you reduce the existential crises, then it can allow people to forge and foster in the other ways. I think there's three factors I think about first is, you know, just personality, right. I think there's the things that are born innately like you were talking about earlier. Alright, that is a factor. The second one, I think, is really helpful is exposure to other people? So, I mean, if you think about, you know, everyone remembers their third-grade teacher, right? Like there are people that influenced your life in a unique way. Even if it doesn't seem like it's going to be changing your life, those people are really important that you can't really control for right is the quality of your teacher or the quality of, you know, important figures in your life? The third is luck. And that, I think, to the point you, I think you imply it, I think that's fair. We live in a society that tells us that if you work hard to do these things, and you're successful, and that, alternatively, if you don't work hard, you will fail, and that's on you. So, when we see people fail, we just assume they didn't work hard enough. That might not necessarily be true. So, it's like that. That's an interesting premise here on, you know, this path dependency of like this dichotomy of if you do this, you do this, if you do this, this happens. Ari Gronich20:56See, I don't I don't believe that hard work means anything. Right. I've seen housekeepers who, I mean, like, go 10 hours, 12 hours a day, they work their butts off, and they're making, you know, five bucks an hour, so to speak. 10 bucks, whatever the minimum nowadays. And I see CEOs who do absolutely nothing all day, right? Who make massive amounts of money. So, I don't believe that it's equal hard work for outcome, right? It's what you create as value. It's how much value you're providing to the world. Right? So, the value you provide to the world is gonna depend on your personality, as you said, it's going to depend on your skill set your, you know, your history, but all but mostly your mindset skill set, isn't that correct?  Jeff Le21:57It is and again, also, the degree of understanding systems. So, this is the other part like we were talking about, from, you know, the welcoming, I view, the welcoming is also an education on, how do you navigate? I think about my parents in the first two years, they were trying to figure out the DMV. I think everyone struggles, the DMV in some way. But imagine, you've come from this conflict, and you've been in transit. And now you're here and you have some sort of social network or you're working through, but then they're like, Oh, you have to get driver's license. Like, what is that? How does that work? So, there's also like, the quicker one can pick up the system. And as we talked about, I think really gifted creatives in this space, we'll learn the system, maximize what that looks like, and then break it. Right. I think that's where it gets really interesting. When you're starting in a position of the basics, you're not talking about breaking systems just yet, right? So, I think anything you can do to, again, expedite the ability to get people administratively in the points you talked about with this, you know, this hierarchy. That is helpful, because it will help for people's transition. to not feel like they don't belong here. Or at least you pretend you belong here.    Ari Gronich23:22So, belong here, an interesting phrase. So, I'm a firm believer that I should have the free ability to travel about the universe as I see fit. Right? I don't think I should have to have a passport. I don't think that there should be borders of any kind. I don't, you know, let me play. I'm gonna play this out. Like, yeah, well, your goal on here, I don't think there should be any limits. To me traveling around the globe. I look on a world view of Earth from space. And there aren't any of those, you know, barriers or lines that we've put onto the globe. Yes, you can see the Great Wall, but that still doesn't delineate the country, it only delineates one place. But the point is that this is earth, right? We all belong. If we live, if we exist, we belong on this earth. And so, stopping people from traveling, creating all these borders, what does that do psychologically? To somebody's mind, right? I have a friend in London right now. And he had to get permission from the government to fly out of London to come to the US because of COVID right otherwise There would be a $7,000. Fine. Okay, in order to travel around the country around the globe around whatever, you had to get permission. I think that that's wrong. You've been to 85 countries. Right? You've travelled the world. You have seen, I'm sure more amazing things than 99% of all people. Because you've been to more places that, you know, most people have, like, like we said before, never lost their block, never got off their block, let alone travelled 85 countries. So, what do you think of belonging to the universe belonging to Earth, right, belonging in general? And how this whole issue can get alleviated? If we stop the nationalism thought? Jeff Le25:56Yeah, yeah, um, I want to react really quickly about some insights. When you travel to different countries, I have two universal principles. And then we'll talk about the nationalism question that you raised. The first is in the travels, I got to experience and see with all the different people. Principle number one that I found is that regardless, where I went, who I met, how I met, what I saw, the people who had the least always gave the most, that's irrespective of nationality, irrespective of label, gender, you name it, I thought it was incredibly powerful. And from a humanist perspective, like just very inspiring, especially in places of the most hardship, I found people to be absolutely the most resilient, the most resistance to negativity, but also willing to sacrifice in a way that was in almost inhuman in some ways. Second principle, the more I travel, the more I miss home. And there's something about home that is important. And I struggled to understand what was it about home that it was, was it? Was it air conditioning? Was it my cereal in the morning? Was it the ease of driving on the right side of the road? What was it? And what I concluded was, it was a sense, where I didn't have to constantly translate in my head, a situation or scenario. And I think when you're what you're talking about, from a big picture perspective. When you talk about these barriers, or borders or labels, you're talking about haves and have nots. And you're talking about people that are deemed X and people that are deemed Y. And it's never done in a way that's done with rigor, right? It's just a label, right? It's based on what you talked about. It's based on nationality or passport, or it's based on a classification. It's not based on the individual, right, with rare exception, like your friend is a rare exception to get that exemption, for example, largely based by Guile in relationships.      Ari Gronich28:07But he's spoken in front of parliament in the United Nations. So, he's been a guest on this show. I mean, that will get him. Well, we'll get him anything, Jeff. Jeff Le28:18Besides a cosmic karma. But to your point, though, you know, I do think the nativism part is dangerous, because it irrationally puts people into intellectually lazy buckets. That is dangerous from not just from an everyday life perspective, but from a policymaking perspective. Right. And, you know, as you know, that the government, there might be well intended actions or options. But implementation is always the question. And then there's always exceptions to the rule. That is the question. And so, it can be really hard to right size solutions for the most people possible. Understanding that is far from perfect. But fundamentally, one of the issues that I see here is the policy makers that use rhetoric to score political points, mainly campaign dollars, to then advance their own personal interest without actually doing good for the others around them. That is, and maybe that's human nature. I don't know, we can debate that. I would argue it's not because I've seen the most giving people on planet Earth. So, it's hard. It's hard to see the difference. But unfortunately, in the system, we're in Ari. It's very much driven on. There's only so much pie, and I'm going to claim the pie for my people versus some of us believe that. Actually, you can go in the kitchen and make pie and we'd all be better off. So, it's an interesting debate. Ari Gronich29:55Yeah, there's plenty of pie. I always say to somebody who thinks that there's a lack of anything in the universe. Say count handful of sand grain, just a handful. Just count them. See if you can, if you can't, you probably don't have a lack in the world, right? How about counting the hairs on your head? Can you count how many hairs are on your head or pores or on your skin? Right? We don't have a lack of for anything. In fact, we have an abundance of so much. Part of what I feel is like going to a restaurant where there's a menu, that is five pages versus a one page menu, right? One causes anxiety. The other cause, you know, creates ease. I only have these choices. Yeah, this is all that I can do. Right. Whereas the universe right now, is the smorgasbord, we have this thing called the internet that allows you to have a buffet of all you can eat of your own topic, right? And so like, for me, I'm the kind of person who gets a little piece of everybody's, right. And I want a little I want to try a little bit of everybody. So, I don't get stuck in my own thoughts.  Jeff Le31:17Well, also you don't get stuffed either. Right. So, you get to enjoy the taste without having to deal with that coma after so that's a smart strategy. Ari Gronich31:25Right. But, that's how I like my people. You know, diverse. That's how I like my life is to have diversity to have levels.    Jeff Le31:41Go outside to see different and I would also say difference. Right. Because I think one of the killers that we were talking about with nativism, is people just all go in their corners, right? And that creates groupthink. And groupthink is a killer. That's the thing that we need to be breaking. And I'm really, I really admire the way you sort of look at life in that you want to be exposed to as many things as possible. Not as little.  Ari Gronich32:06Cancel Culture sucks. Let's just get it out. Like anybody who's cancelling anybody. You should be ashamed of yourself. Really, like down and dirty. You should be ashamed of yourself, cancelling people cancelling things that you have no idea about who they are, you never asked them a deep question, or found out why and you're cancelling them. I find it disgusting. It's actually like, I find that that whole concept, completely disgusting. Anybody who's an American like it's going against the Constitution, which is free speech, the idea of free speech, right? So, let's just like I'm just getting that out of my system. At the onset, right? Cancel culture sucks. So that being said, what's the solution? So, I like solutions. I'm all about solutions. These days, we've talked a lot about problems. Yeah. I want to get to some solutions with you. Okay. So, let's go to Afghanistan, for instance, and what's going on there. You had two tours. And you kind of have an insider's perspective. So, let's get perspective on that location. Jeff Le33:27Yeah. I mean, obviously, Afghanistan has been in the news. What's fascinating about Afghanistan, is it's one of the most complex histories on planet Earth. I mean, just where it's located in the world is one of the busier more complex neighbourhoods, you can you just take a look around the neighbourhoods, it's busy. And what I learned from the years I was there, that one, one really important lesson, which is super helpful for both empathy, but also humility, is the longer you're in a place, the less you understand. And I think that's the case in many countries in many parts of the world. Ari Gronich34:04Unpack that. Explain that. Jeff Le34:05So, there's layers of complexity. And let's say, you know, you want to understand the United States. So, you stay here for a semester, or you stay here for a couple weeks. All right, you have a good handle. You stay here five years, what did you really learn? Oh, my goodness, there is way more to unpack than one thought. That's very much the case in a foreign country that is in a conflict, an active conflict zone, and you're trying to figure out, how do we promote better relations? How do we, you know, ensure more prosperity and economic development? How do we build things? And also, more importantly, how do we get rid of the bad guys? Which by the way, there's that construct of good guys bad guys, which we can talk about that. The great part about that experience two things one, I got to be outside of the Capital for lots of parts of it. And that's helpful because the country isn't just The State Capital or the nation's capital, just like if you look at the United States right now, you know, there's Washington and there's everything else. Everything else is quite different than Washington very much as hasten Kabul and everywhere else and understanding that the local differences matter. But more importantly, the local sensitivities, the local people, local constructs are different. That helps you get a sense of what's possible. And the only way I could do anything Ari was with hiring local people who were invested in trying to promote a better Ari Gronich35:33Hold on one second, I'm gonna pause you.  Ari Gronich35:57Jeff, I'll be right back. I just got to do something real quick.  Jeff LeYeah, of course. Ari Gronich36:40Sorry about that, my ex is coming to pick up stuff for my son. Jeff Le36:52Understand, understand. That's complexity. Ari Gronich36:56Yes. All right. So where were we? Jeff Le37:01We were talking about FSM. Yeah. I guess, to say, if you want to be successful, in a country, like that, you need to have local buy in. And you need to have local staff who are committed to building a very different country. That's not an easy sell. But when you do have folks who are interested in stronger prosperity or having closer Western alignments of the world, when they're all in, you're all in, here's the thing. They make a choice. That choice isn't just a job decision. That's a life and death decision. That's the difference Ari. So, the choose to support the Americans, like just how my parents supported the Americans. If you don't win, you lose. And that's what unfortunately, has been the case here in the last six weeks following the withdrawal of American troops from Afghanistan. And I think we can agree 20 years is a very long time. And we can agree that 20 years, what did that give us? Those are fair, valid, thoughtful, important questions that we should and absolutely need to learn from. But speaking at a human level, knowing that the vast majority of my local staff, people that made sure I was okay, made sure our troops were okay. That they're not going to be okay, now. That is crushing to me. Because they're the unlucky ones, the ones that won't make it to United States, and 46 years ago, my parents were the Afghans. And so, I feel a tremendous sense of both heartbreak, guilt, and shame, knowing that we couldn't do everything we really could do. You'll hear Ari, people say that, oh, we did the best we could. It could have been way worse, you know, right. And listen, I would love to go down the multiverse to determine the other scenarios I'd love to. But the reality is in the universe you and I live in today. There are family members of my former staff that have already been killed, or people are hiding in a hole in the ground or deciding which land border are they going to cross over? That's the questions right now. And that's a difficult thing to accept for me. Putting aside the strategic questions, which we can talk about, of course, that's that that is well deserving, but just on a human level. It's something I haven't been able to shake. I don't sleep very well, to be honest with you. I tried to do the best I could and continue to try to support visa applications, whatever the case might be through our process, which is a 14-step process. And it's hard to know that even the greatest most powerful country in the history of the world, still can't get the stuff, right. Ari Gronich0:02So, I'm gonna unpack a little bit because the humanity part, right, so let's just kind of talk about that in a way, that is more of a strategic thing. Right? So, we're in a country 20 years.What were we doing there? And what should we have been doing there? Right? Those are the two questions that I asked like, what were you doing now? And what could we have been doing differently? Or better or whatever? Because the way I see it, and I say it on the show all the time is we made this shit up, we could do better. So, there's not a single thing on the planet that we've created as humans, that can't be improved upon or optimized more. So, I try to take out the judgment. Just put in. Okay, what are the facts? No, what did we do? And what should we have been doing to be more optimized? And then the last question on that is, people who are extremists? Are they ever going to not be extremists? And if so, what are the things that we're doing? To cause them to not be extreme? Jeff Le1:16Hmm, yeah. The $64,000 question, among other things, actually, we'll call it $2 trillion, because that's how much it costs $2 trillion question. So, the first question of what were we doing there? I mean, the whole point of being there was to ensure that terrorists or extremism would not be able to attack the United States, homeland, and soil, that was the original cause and effect, right, 20th anniversary of 911 just happened, the whole idea is we were going to go to these places of safe harbour or against the bad guys, we're gonna kill all of them. And then they'll never mess with us again. That was the idea. So that's like phase one, right? Well, here's the thing. Phase two became, oh, well, okay, that's done now what? And you had two challenges. This, there was sort of a school of thought of, oh, we should build democratic institutions and shared economic values and alignments. In a place where you have no idea of understanding. That's a challenge. And then the second piece of that was, oh, by the way, we'll do this, we'll review it every year. So, it's not 20-year war, it's 21 year worse. That's how I viewed it. And guess what, when you have the handoff from one to another, it takes time to it's like Groundhog Day, right. And that's what unfortunately happened. And regardless of what the troop numbers were, or the casualties or the strategic value of x or y, it just did not change the fact that there was not a clear NorthStar of how we were going to do what we're going to do. And what was success. So, the second point, right, what can we've done better? What is success? Number one defining success, so you can meet success and move on, fundamentally did not happen. And that is shocking, because you would think the politicians would understand   Ari Gronich3:09So there was no end goal. Jeff Le3:12Not sighted with consensus. Ari Gronich3:16Okay, no analytic that we could measure that says that is success. Now it doesn't seem like military intelligence to me. Jeff Le3:26No, I mean, listen, if success have superiority in the air on the ground, we're going to do that. That's not the issue. The issue is after all the bombs and toys that is the issue. Listen no one's gonna doubt American military superiority? Ari Gronich3:42Oh, what I'm saying there was no target. There was no goal, you're shooting a gun at nothing. Jeff Le3:48How do you shoot and this is the challenge. How do you shoot a gun at ideas? How do you shoot a gun at better governance? Right. This is a fundamental challenge that we're talking about, about the Maslow's hierarchy earlier. You know, what people really wanted. They wanted things to function. And the Afghan government though, the United States and Western Allies were supporting, we're not doing the basics. Some of that is incompetence. Some of that is massive corruption. Some of that is a lack of capacity. Some of it was lack of will. All of those things are a recipe for people saying, you know, what, maybe these Taliban people aren't so bad. So, the point you brought up very thoughtfully. Extremism. So, is it extremism or just wanting the basics? What is it and there are some folks like, you know, the horrible people that murdered our troops in the evacuation. Those folks are definitely there's nothing you can give them or sell them. Right. That's, that's a that's a very different premise. That's, unfortunately something that usually ends with a bullet. But for the vast majority Have the locals and communities even to help most of Taliban forces are probably thinking, You know what, I just want to have a place where I can raise my family, I can have money come in, and I can do the basics. And that basis would be ensuring that my kids a better life than me, kind of sounds like, you know, what my parents were thinking about when they came here. So this inability to deliver was going to be the downfall. And in 20 years, they couldn't deliver, therefore, we couldn't deliver. And without any metric for success, we were destined for failure. That's what happened.       Ari Gronich5:37Okay. So, I don't know that I agree that people just want to survive and have the basics, like the Taliban, for instance. Right? If they were to do absolutely nothing right now. Not hurt anybody, not assume their control. They would probably have the basics. The thing people want control, and that control gives them a sense of safety. And that sense of safety, just like any gang on any block in South Central, or, you know, or anywhere else, Chicago doesn't matter. Any gang, any mob, any mafia, any family of people that choose a certain way of living to be a violent way of living. It's not just about survival. It's, it's about control. Jeff Le6:36Well, I will premise and say this, that it's really important to distinguish the Taliban is not a monolith. So, when you say the Taliban, I mean, that's like, it's a lot of different groups, right? It's more of a federation, that might be a better way to describe them. And the point you raised about power and control. Yeah, that's at the top. That's at the top. If you're talking rank and file, it's a little different. You know, you hear stories of Taliban folks asking about, you know, what it's like in Australia. You know, it's a very interesting dynamic, right? They've been fighting for 20 years. That's all they know. And they're talking about, hey, what, you know, do you didn't even go to Australia? is a fascinating question. But to your point, yes. It gets back to who's in power? And then the accumulation of power and resources? Yes. But if we're talking the everyday person who is, you know, just trying to figure things out, I think it's a little different. But. Ari Gronich7:40But so then we get to my big premise is silence is a bully's best friend. So, we got to get loud, right. So, what it sounds like, if I break it down to the smallest point, is it sounds like the bully in the in the school yard? Right? Whether the bully in the schoolyard wants control over the kids for lunch money? Or the Taliban or the Federation? One's control over its people? Yep. So, it creates a dialogue that incites its people, right. It still is a bully. So, the question that I have is, why do we let the bullies win? Jeff Le8:35We let the bullies win, because we are convinced that there's no other way or option? Right? To your point, to because if you're just looking at the numbers, the majority, it's the silent majority. Right. And these places, why don't they just overthrow them? Right. I think that's the question. Ari Gronich8:52That's, really the question is, why do we allow that to happen?       Jeff Le8:59Well, it's similar to I think, what I see with bystanders in general, right? So, you see something horrible happen, and the people just stand around, right? Let's say there's a car accident, not always, but I'll give you an example. Two weeks ago, I was walking back from a work meeting, and someone had a really bad car accident. And so, I call 911. You know, what's crazy? Is no one else thought to do that. There are about 20 people. And these are all folks have a variety of lobbyists in Washington DC, you have to assume people have phones and this sort of stuff, right? Why is that somebody doesn't do something? And so, it's a really interesting question of like, you know, from an actor or a decision maker perspective, like what compels people to go outside of their bubble, outside of their world to something much bigger, to potentially put themselves to exposure or risk right. And the game theory of it in theory is that if everybody does it, they're in a better position. Right, and in theory, in this case, we can get help for someone who was in a bad car accident. Ari Gronich10:07Yeah, you got 30 kids, or you got 30 kids in a class. One is a bully. So, 29 of them says, Hey, we're not going to be bullied by you. You can be our friend, but we're not going to be bullied by you. Defuse the situation, right? Jeff Le10:23Yeah, some of that, too, is a question of, you know, who's really the boss here. And if you have conditions where the teacher is not around, maybe that is more likely to happen. So, I mean, using your schoolyard analogy. Ari Gronich10:37Right, but in the schoolyard analogy, right, you got the principal and the teachers, right, that those are the bureaucracies. It's like to me, it's like Hamas, and the Palestinian government and the PLO, right. They're all different organizations, but it's like the superintendent, the district teacher, and. Jeff Le10:58and the school board or the school board, and Ari Gronich11:01All those people are the people who are fighting, and all these students are the people who are getting the grunt of the fighting, they're getting screwed because of these people. right. So that's where I go, like, how do we get and just in general in society. How do we get people? And you know, you're part of the Homeland Security, I'm sure been part of some peace talks of some sort. How do we get people to stop going against their own self-interest? And to rise up and say, Hey, we could do peace, there's enough of us to make it peaceful. You don't want to be peaceful? But   Jeff Le11:46Yeah, the first thing I would say is, so many of us need the validation to do so. It's really interesting. Like, if someone told you, hey, Ari, I need you to do this for all of us. I think you would do it. If you sort of sat and thought about and said, you know, what, it all over interest. But in these sorts of situations where there's not a natural leader, it's very hard. And so, it gets back to like this principle of how do you become a better bystander, which then allows you to act? How do you act? And I want to think that you and I in that situation, we will look around, say, Hey, we're gonna take the bull by the horns, we're gonna do this. But it's not always the case. And in the Afghanistan context, there's long standing history, long, long, thin history of previous conflicts, battles won and lost. But usually, a history that says, hey, the writings on the wall. Let's acquiesce now. So, we can all live to fight another day. That is a long-standing history as well. So, there are some of these like cultural historical forces that are at play here. So that's maybe something beyond the school yard because I guess it's based on where the school yard is. Ari Gronich12:57Right? I love having the discussion about you know, what human nature is? Because I don't think it changes between country to country or civilization to civilization as much as we think it does. I think cultural, Yeah, we have certain cultural differences on how much we've technologically grown in our civilization, right? So, US has the landmass, to create lots of web manufacturing, and, you know, things like that. So, we have a lot of technology that we've created, because our landmass has allowed that. A lot of other countries haven't built those. So, they're still living in a more tribal, you know, situation. Jeff Le13:45Well, I would say, too, I mean, if you're talking about geography, right, it helps to have two oceans, you have two oceans, you're probably thinking about things differently from a security perspective, right. So that's, that's fair. That's fair. Ari Gronich13:57So, we're gonna go into some other topics. But hold on one second. All right, so Asian hates, You and I talked about this a little bit. I'm gonna break it out into just hate in general, because I kind of feel like, doesn't matter if you're Irish, Jewish, Black, Latino, Asian, right. There's always somebody who's hating on somebody. And usually, it's a lot of people hating on one person or one group of people. But it doesn't really matter which group depends on where you live. It's everywhere. When I was in Greece, it was the Albanians, you know, Albanians are coming in and taking our jobs. Okay, so everybody's got their Mexicans, so to speak, the people that they consider to be entering and taking So let's talk about the hate and lack.         Jeff Le15:04Yeah, I mean, if we've talked about hate broadly, this is actually a great starting point. The FBI recently released their hate crime report. Last year was the highest year of reported hate crime in 12 years. And that's among all groups. But it was interesting because there's a significant outlier with Asian Americans. So, if you're talking about, like, who's the latest to get picked on Asian Americans, but it's not to say that other groups aren't being picked on, it's not to say that Asians have never been picked on and are suddenly being noticed. Right. But it was very starkly if you if you look at data and evidence, there was a stark outlier. And that was certainly in Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders throughout the country, even in a place and people will say, well, you know, maybe that's just, you know, places that aren't as sensitive to groups. Well, in California, which is a pretty diverse place, hate crime was up over 100%, year over year. So, this is a place where 40 million people from pretty much everywhere, this is majority minority, the longest place where you have Asian Americans, the longest history of Asian Americans in the US, right? Chinese Japanese came here in the 19th century, railroads, economy, that sort of thing. So really close, long-standing histories of different groups and they had it pretty bad during that time. So, I think big picture, something was happening. It certainly didn't help that there is rhetoric that said that viruses came from certain places that probably didn't help. And, you know, I'd like to think that words don't matter. But they, they do. Because words are the thing you can't kill, like we talked about, right? You can't like point a gun to an idea. If there's an idea that says this group is the reason for your detriment, or your discomfort, and that's why you have to wear a mask. I think it's very complex. And as we just talked about there, there's always underlying things. Long standing past, right. And those fissures, with enough pressure become chasms. And this was a trend we saw across country, it certainly happened to me. It's not, you know, when acts of hate happened to me in the last 18 months, it wasn't new. It was just more blatant, right? It used to be like, Hey, your English is really good. Or, Hey, can you like with your eyes with the shape? Can you see like, do you see better on the science? Or like, Hey, do you eat dog? It's that sort of stuff, where it's like, I can laugh it off, right? A recent story I'll give you that happened to me. Two guys went up to me and we're like, hey, a Buddha. You know, can we rub your belly for good luck? And the thing is, Ari this is not the first time I've been asked, so I haven't answer Ari Gronich17:57Budda is my nickname it has been since I was nine years old  Jeff Le18:01Well, you and I share that. Ari Gronich18:04I got these these big ear lobes. Jeff Le18:05Yeah, me too. Me too.   Ari Gronich18:08I've been told that there Budda ear lobes. Jeff Le18:11I think they're lovely. I love your ear lobes. So, but you know, I have a response to this answer. And that is, Listen, I'm not a genie. So, if you rub my belly, you don't get any wishes. And as an Asian American, you're taught your entire life to defuse tension to blend in quickly. Because the alternative is, the communist government will kill you. So, you know, you're you come from a position of gratitude, right? You're happy to be here, you're just happy to be here. You just want to live your life. But you live in your life, having to sort of know the cost of doing business and existing here is dealing with that stuff. Right. Having people ask you about strange things from time to time, right, including what does a dog taste like? So, you know, that's something as early as age nine, age 10.  Ari Gronich18:59Yeah, I had I had similar being Jewish, you know, all kinds of things. I was told that I killed I personally killed Jesus and I shouldn't be alive. Like, literally, my entire life was, you know, grew up being told, you're Jewish, you're your Jesus killer. You know, and then I started practicing Buddhism and now I'm a Jewish Buddhist that that was even worse. Jeff Le19:23Well, yeah, because they don't know how to box you then. Ari Gronich19:25Right? And then I started studying the Quran. I mean, I was 7,8,9 10 years old, 12 years old, and I'm studying these religions druidism, paganism and studying all this stuff. And I get labelled. So, I understand. Let's go back Asian American concentration camps, so to speak. We had those in our country tournament. Jeff Le19:45Yeah. Ari, when we had internment, in the US.  Ari Gronich19:49Right, we built you guys built the railway system in the early 1900s, late 1800s. That that allowed for us to build to travel the world, right? Around the country.  Jeff Le20:02And Ari to your point on the internment camps during World War II. Did you see any? Did you hear of any Italians or German Americans?    Ari Gronich20:10No. Jeff Le20:11Yeah. So, I mean, the difference does matter. Ari Gronich20:16Right. Difference absolutely matters. Jeff Le20:21No good. Ari Gronich20:24I'm like holding up the mic. This is how we do it Jeff Le20:28Hey, you're getting your reps in. Ari Gronich20:36Anyway, I'm just gonna hold this for the rest of the time because it's come apart. Jeff Le20:43Yeah, I know. Sounds like you need. It's time for new mic. Ari Gronich20:46So, hate in general. And, you know, but part of what I wanted to talk about with regards to Asian hate, specifically, and foreign hate specifically, is the concept of human trafficking. Okay, part of Homeland Security. So, you have a little bit more inside track down. Human trafficking. But this seems to be an issue of color, so to speak. I don't really hear too much, except for maybe Russian, Ukrainian. in whiter countries. But it also seems to be something that is perpetuated by the people who live there not necessarily the outsider, white ghost devil that is coming out and doing it. So, let's talk about that a little bit.  Jeff Le21:52Sure. I mean, if you're talking about so I would say illicit trade in general. Yes, is perpetrated by local economic interests. So, let's start with that. There's a marketplace for that, right. So, whether it's heroin and opium, or in trafficking in persons, there's a market for that. And that's part of the reason why it happens. It's so just acknowledging the global trends for vice is profitable, especially when it's banned, right. So, from a contraband perspective is even more lucrative for some of these groups. So, your point, it is a global phenomenon. It is not bound by borders and that way, you're right. It's mainly global, South driven. And in, you know, communities that are not of European descent, with the exception of Eastern Europe, there's some stuff you'll see, particularly in Moldova, Ukraine, I mean, I would say more underserved parts of those parts of the country, right. And so, there are elaborate efforts of logistics that happen, because everyone's incentivized to find the best conduits for this. And that's irregardless of regime. But one of the big things is, you know, that's used as a strong ploy is they talk about it as an employment opportunity for somebody. And then employment opportunity turns into force imprisonment. That's the scenario that you hear quite a bit, especially if it's someone that's like, 16,17, 18. And they're trying to provide for their family in a situation that there are very few avenues for them. Ari Gronich23:37Sorry, I'm listening, and I'm fixing at the same Jeff Le23:40Yeah, no, no of course, I'm sorry, you had this look like you want to ask me questions. I'm like, Okay, I'm ready for the question. Ari Gronich23:45Yes. So, let's talk about the so we have an economic reason, typically, in lower income areas that breed the idea of human trafficking. And so, who are the people who are doing the taking? Who are the people who are doing the trafficking? Jeff Le24:07Sure. So, if you're talking about the, if you're talking about the Syndicate, right, so it's, I wouldn't say these are pretty elaborate sophisticated organizations. Federation's, if you will, of people who have a hierarchy, bosses, turf incentives and bonuses. And the folks who are in the taking business are your sort of rank and file. And they're incentivized because of their own survival questions. And there's a triangle to the top, like we've actually talked about in some of the themes that we discussed, right? There's a power dynamic, and people are using that as a opportunity as a survival mechanism. And it doesn't have to be even in the traffic person that we're talking about it's also the trafficking of, of people to try to make it to other countries, right? Specifically, you know, the coyote types, right, and let's say in Latin America to get people, the United States, there's economic incentives. And I would say, these are not exactly people that you know, how to say, have strong lawyers, or, you know, you can trust a handshake deal. And it's usually an exorbitant amount of money that's then leveraged. So that the person then becomes not just imprisoned physically, but in prison, and in their mind that this is sort of, there's no way out. You've already gotten as far as you go. Ari Gronich25:40So the crux of the Asian hate started with the shooting in the massage parlour. Being that I'm a sports therapist, and I've been a massage therapist and all that stuff I had, I had a reaction to this. And because I know that the majority of these massage parlours are actually the home for home, for people who have been human trafficked from China from Asia, in some respects. It hit me a little harder, because I'm like, you know, these people are literally here, they're living typically inside of the places that they work. And like, you know, caught kind of beds or whatever. And, and so that kind of got my interest. Right. And so, I just want to talk about that part of what it is that people if we're you know, the citizenry, right, and we're looking for ways to help with Homeland Security with human trafficking with, you know, stopping this stuff, what are the things that people can look for? Jeff Le26:59Yeah. So first, so I would say in terms of, you know, some of the Asian hate, I would say, it goes further back, I think, to your point, you know, the shootings in Atlanta. I think it really shocked so many people, because of what you talked about this realization that these were very marginalized women in situations of likely objects hopelessness. And what does that say about our society that we sort of nonchalantly. Look away? Ari Gronich27:35Right. Oh, I mean, we literally were, we don't nonchalantly look away. We see a neon sign that says open. And it's a massage place. And we pretty much know that that is a happy ending place. You know, I mean, in the industry, at least, we kind of stay away from neon signs in the open. But we have the Homeland Security, we've got the government, we've got police, we've got all kinds of things. And in LA, I remember, when you go to get a massage license, there was one set of inspectors who are licensing the massage for everybody else. And then one set who was inspecting for the Asian American or Asian massage parlours that were basically turned into sex shops. And so, it's a systemized thing as well. Right? Jeff Le28:29Yeah. And into your point, right. There are some things that are folks are incentivized in some ways to look at other parts of it rather than the true nature. What's your IMO? So, you know, let's talk about from a regulatory perspective. Right. And I'll talk about it from a taxation issue. I'll talk about it from a health inspection. Question, right. One thing that well, two things first, and I know it sounds really, it seems so unlikely in the world we live in. But you'd be surprised. You'd be surprised just how important it is to raise the issue with your local person, your local elected official, because it's so rare that they will get an inquiry about this. I mean, think about the inquiries that your local politician's person gets usually about the trash, or about like a noise of a complaint or violation. But if you say something like that, the thing you're talking about with the neon sign, actually, it does stand out because that's not your normal complaint. So, to the point we talked about, it's a CSA. And it is surprising how little people are willing to do that, partly because they're scared of having to deal with more of a time suck or more paperwork that comes with that. Being a good citizen. That's, I mean, honestly, one part about it, and having a real discussion with people in your community about the subject. Again, it's something people would argue there's a million things to worry about. Right? The second thing and this is a group, I really admired a group called the Polaris Project, which works on Trafficking in Persons. They have pretty strong trafficking hotline and other services that they provide, especially for people that have recently got out of that situation. And that's really the heart issue. Right. The one issue is the root issues, the root issues are really tough. But if you're talking about the individual, the human level getting out, how do you put them in a situation where they can acclimate and integrate? Especially knowing that you're strong trauma, that might come from that exploitation? Ari Gronich30:37What are the incentives that come through Homeland Security for actually policing, you know, human trafficking? I mean, getting rid of the sweatshops that are in the US getting. What is it? What are the incentives for Homeland Security to actually go and do this stuff? Jeff Le30:57Well, I mean, there's first and foremost that the political incentives, the political incentives, and just being snarky about it, that the press release is really nice. They should be doing more of that they're not the big challenge, honestly. Ari, is scale. It's the question if you remove one, what happens, right? And it will most likely, because if economic incentives just become harder to get to. So, it's like, okay, you knock out one nest, and then five others happen, right? So, before you have an activity before the government says, Okay, we're gonna work on this issue is we're going to have a war against sex trafficking or war against trafficking persons issues. Fundamentally, you need to commit the resources, the time the investment, and, frankly, trust in a community. Because at the end of the day, it's the community folks who understand really the ins and outs and who's, who's a real barrier, who's a real player, because the government coming in? I mean, they don't know Adam, for me. Right? Right. And so, you do need the local buy in to have that disruption. Ari Gronich32:05sounds the same as Afghanistan and needing the local. Jeff Le32:10It's well, it's a human, it's a community, it's a universal community question, right? It's people coming from the outside coming in, it's gonna affect your life. Who's gonna? Who wants change to happen? How do you work together to do it? And how do you do it where everyone is safe? Right, very hard, especially if there's shadowy players involved, who have firepower and incentives to make sure you disappear. That is pretty scary. The government will say, we have other fish to fry, too. So that's the other thing, the government say, hey, we're focused on cybercrime. We're focused on, you know, insider trading, you know, things like this, which, I mean, from an economic perspective, I mean, those are pretty important things are taken from a human level. It's largely because at the end of the day, these are the most vulnerable people and they're not prioritized, Ari Gronich33:08Right? So, then we'll take it away from the government's rules and responsibilities, right? We put it on the people, what can the people do? Who might be passionate about these things? What can they do specifically, to end this when they see it, to recognize it when they see it, etc?      Jeff Le33:27Well, I think one thing is to have open conversations about it. So, like, from what I see there's very little active discussions in the public space on this topic. I don't know what you've seen. I haven't seen much of it. And maybe it's because we're just overwhelmed. Ari Gronich33:43I happen to have two friends who own two separate human trafficking non-profits. Jeff Le33:50Yeah, I think that's an exception,  Ari Gronich33:52I am. You know, it becomes on my mind, when I see Afghanistan and the refugees coming over, I think of human trafficking. To what they're going to be subjected to. Yeah. If they come over, and we don't say, Welcome to our neighbourhoods, let me get you a job. Let me help you. If we don't do that, what's going to happen is they're going to become traffic. Right? They're going to they're going to be exploited in some way. So, I'm looking at it like, Where can I see this as a solution that we can, you know, take on the run right now? You know, I'm tired of I'm tired of talking about problems. Really tired about talking about prompts because I don't see enough people actually doing the solving of them. They're talking a lot. They're making all kinds of plans in their heads. But there's nothing being done that's substantial, specific, targeted, that has a buy in of massive amounts of people, right? That's where I'm like, where do we go to get this? Whether it's our medical system, whether it's human trafficking, whether it's the environment, whether it's whatever it is, right? We have things that we know for a fact. Right? The chemicals that are in our food are causing cancer and killing us killing our health, yet we don't take it out of the food, we don't create the incentive, right? If the incentive was that the people needed to be healthy, that's the incentive, then everything has to happen in a way to make that happen. And otherwise, you don't get paid. Right? So, you only get paid when people get healthy in the medical system. When that caused all the fraud to disappear. Literally, the system would have to morph itself just to fit that one incentive. Same thing, I believe, with human trafficking. So, anything I believe with all these other things, there's one thing and it's the incentive that we give it. Jeff Le36:03Yeah, I would say I

I sit down with Human Trafficking Survivor and Advocate Eliza Bleu. We will discuss the issue in depth, and what you can do to help end it. All Profits from this stream will be Donated to the Polaris Project and Rights 4 Girls.Here are other links of places you can go to donate below. Human Trafficking Hotline: 1 (888) 373-7888 https://rights4girls.org/ https://polarisproject.org/lgbtq-communities-and-human-trafficking/ https://blackandmissinginc.com/ https://nationalsurvivornetwork.org/Find Eliza at: Twitter: elizableu Locals: https://eliza.locals.com/Find my other content at: https://www.sarahigdon.com/pages/links Twitter: SaraHigdon_ IG: SaraHigdon_ And Everywhere Podcast are hosted Get full access to TRANSform To Freedom at sarahigdon.substack.com/subscribe

In January 2018, 19-year-old Caitlin Denison boarded a plane from Reno, Nevada to Midland, Texas. The following day, she briefly spoke with her sister but hasn't been heard from since. Though the man she traveled to Midland with was found and questioned after Caitlin was reported missing, Midland authorities had no cause to arrest the man – no evidence that he'd harmed the missing young woman. Months after Caitlin vanished, a video that went viral raised the family's hopes that she'd been found, but those hopes were dashed as that mystery unfolded. The following year, a potentially grim discovery further sullied those hopes. Caitlin Marie Denison is still missing.If you have any information about the disappearance of Caitlin Marie Denison please contact the Texas Department of Public Safety's Missing Person's Clearing House at 800-346-3243 or Midland Crime Stoppers at 432-694-8477.Please consider donating to the fund to find Caitlin at gofundme.com/f/help-find-caitlin-denisonFor factual information about human trafficking and to find out how you can help, please visit the Polaris Project at polarisproject.org/You can donate to law enforcement investigations that need funding or upload your DNA into a database used only for law enforcement investigations at DNAsolves.comIf you don't have DNA data from a consumer testing site, you can get a kit at connect.DNAsolves.comYou can support gone cold and listen ad-free at patreon.com/gonecoldpodcastFind us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram by using @gonecoldpodcast and on YouTube at: youtube.com/c/gonecoldpodcast#WhereIsCaitlinDenison #Midland #MidlandTX #PermianBasin #Texas #TX #GoneCold #GoneColdPodcast #TexasTrueCrime #TrueCrime #TrueCrimePodcast #Podcast #ColdCase #UnsolvedMysteries #MissingPerson #Missing #Vanished #Disappeared

Do you believe in the notion of women supporting women? Do you have a desire to take on the shield maiden role for other women? This is exactly what we discuss with the one and only Gina Stryker. You'll get to hear her big mission that evolved as she discovered the prevalence of human trafficking through food distribution.  Some nuggets of gold in this interview: 1. We who have been given abundance in our lives have a duty to give back to underserved2. Raising awareness to others and also our children to make a difference 3. Some ways we can make a difference and combat human trafficking Resources to check out:US National Human Trafficking Hotline (sponsored by Polaris): TEXT - BeFree PHONE - 888.373.7888Truckers Against Trafficking - https://truckersagainsttrafficking.org/The Polaris Project - https://polarisproject.org/Trust Conference by Reuters - http://www.trustconference.com/   We wanna hear from you! Share with us your "Soul Signment" for the week at @soulascendpodcast. Wanna enjoy the perks of becoming a Soul Ascend Street Team Member? Visit us SoulAscendPodcast.com/StreetTeamJoin us for the Soul Success Summit www.soulascendpodcast.com/events

As promised in the last episode here is a review of A24 Zola. Please see my previous post reading the infamous Zola tweets that inspired the film. Make sure you see the movie in theaters and most importantly donate to Polaris Project. A non-profit organisation that works to end human trafficking in the US. Although there was a happy ending for our heroine and antagonist, that isn't the case for many girls trafficked in the US and around the world. Lastly, fuck feminism them hoes never loved us. Womanism for the win!

Living sustainably in a world where fast fashion and fast food exist is not easy. In fact, it's something that can cause burnout really quickly! But the good news is, it's not solely up to us. The world isn't going to be changed by one person doing things perfectly. It's when we all take small steps together that our collective efforts make an impact. This was a message I needed to be reminded of, so my interview with Haley couldn't have been more timely! This fashion lover and small business owner is on a mission to make sustainable and ethical living more accessible to us all. When Haley Jaeger first learned about the crisis of human slavery around the world, she knew she had to do something about it. As a creative gal with a passion for fashion, starting a socially conscious fashion brand seemed like a logical step. However, she quickly realized that the markup of the fair trade items she was selling was something that even she couldn't afford! This is when the idea of sustainable-ish living, or as she calls it - “the messy middle” - was born. Haley's shop now features a larger variety of guilt-free items that cater to all kinds of price ranges. Oh, and not to mention that it's all beautiful! We'll be talking more about “the messy middle” in Part 2 next week with Haley, but for now she's sharing about her journey as a business owner and conscious consumer and also telling us about some of the ways she likes to live more sustainably. And this isn't just for the fashion lovers, either! All of us as consumers have something to learn and ways that we can be more mindful in our purchasing patterns, and Haley provides a safe place to do just that. Links from the show: Atonement Design: https://atonementdesign.com/ Polaris Project: https://polarisproject.org/ (https://polarisproject.org/) Chews Happiness: https://shareasale.com/r.cfm?b=1709783&u=2650427&m=101836&urllink=&afftrack= Connect with Mackenzie: Instagram: @theheartfelthippie // @the.enlightenme.podcast Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/theheartfelthippie/ (https://www.facebook.com/theheartfelthippie/) Website: http://www.heartfelthippie.com (www.heartfelthippie.com) Email: mackenzie.heartfelthippie@gmail.com Connect with Haley: Website & Newsletter: https://atonementdesign.com/ Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/atonementdesign Instagram: @atonementdesign Ambassador Program: https://ambassador.atonementdesign.com/

As the BFGs investigate Daggerford they learn more troubling news about the Cult of the Elder Eye as Vaas deals with his dark and troubled past, both of which cause a storm of emotions and fear. CW: Human trafficking. D4 sometimes deals with content horrors that parallels the real world and in doing so we hope to bring light to these issues to help put an end to them through our stories by spreading awareness of how to fight against it. If you have any information on Human Trafficking please call the National Human Trafficking Hotline: 1-888-373-7888 or Text 233733 or you can chat online or tip anonymously at www.humantraffickinghotline.org/chat Donate to the Polaris Project, at www.PolarisProject.org. They are a nonprofit, non-governmental organization that works to prevent human trafficking in North America.

TikTok is a hotbed of viral misinformation about trafficking. Jessica AKA BloodBathAndBeyond is trying to change that. You’re Wrong About’s Micheal Hobbes’ episode: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/disinformed-were-wrong-about-trafficking-w-michael-hobbes/id1520715907?i=1000518893578 Follow Jessica on TikTok: https://vm.tiktok.com/ZMeV4t1Hb/ For more information about trafficking, check out the Polaris Project: https://polarisproject.org/

Warning: The following contains discussion of domestic violence, human trafficking, and sex trafficking, which may be disturbing for some listeners. Listener discretion is advised. You're listening to episode #95 with Megan Lundstrom. In this episode we talk about Megan's personal story with sex trafficking, as well as signs to look for, and red flags when it comes to human trafficking. Megan also dispels some myths that many people have bought into when it comes to sex trafficking and conspiracy theories that are currently rampant. Learn more about Megan: Megan Lundstrom is the founder and Executive Director of Colorado-based, nationally serving non-profit, Free Our Girls since 2014. The organization is dedicated to the economic empowerment of survivors of domestic sex trafficking and specializes in programming and advocacy in rural areas. Ms. Lundstrom is also the Co-Director of Avery Research & Consulting, an agency dedicated to survivor-centered academic applied research on the commercial sex trade. Ms. Lundstrom began consulting with Larimer County's Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Children's Multi-Disciplinary Response Team in 2017 and has remained a steering committee member through the present. Ms. Lundstrom has been a consultant for the Department of Homeland Security's Blue Campaign, and Polaris Project on On-Ramps, Intersections, and Exit Routes, as well as Integrating Survivor Voice into Research. She has created and delivered numerous training and educational presentations both in the academic community as well as for agencies such as UC Health, Planned Parenthood, Delta Airlines, American College of Nurse-Midwives, United States Department of Agriculture, the Colorado Organization for Victims Advocacy, Girls Education and Mentoring Services, and the Commercial Sexual Exploitation Institute at Villanova University Law School. Megan is currently a fellow for the Office for Trafficking in Persons' Human Trafficking Leadership Academy. Ms. Lundstrom was awarded a Certificate of Appreciation from the Colorado Front Range Anti-Trafficking Coalition, and Free Our Girls was awarded the Education and Innovation Award in 2018 from Group Publishing and the Right on the Money award from the Consumers United Association for Taking Flight, the organization's economic empowerment direct service program and financial literacy curriculum for survivors of commercial sexual exploitation. Ms. Lundstrom's research on cultic theory was internationally published through United Nations University's Delta 8.7 and presented at the International Cultic Studies Association annual conference, both in 2018. Megan holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Finance and is currently pursuing her Master's degree in Sociology, both from the University of Northern Colorado. Connect with Megan Lundstom: Megan's Facebook- https://www.facebook.com/iamaveryday (https://www.facebook.com/iamaveryday) The Avery Center Facebook- https://www.facebook.com/theaverycenterorg (https://www.facebook.com/theaverycenterorg) The Avery Center Instagram- https://www.instagram.com/theaverycenterorg/ (https://www.instagram.com/theaverycenterorg/) Want more of The We Podcast? To listen to more awesome episodes on Loudspeaker.fm or on any of your favorite podcasting apps. The We Spot is your go-to place for intentional growth, connection, authenticity, and encouragement. We would love to connect with you! Find us on: https://www.facebook.com/thewespot (Facebook) https://www.instagram.com/thewespot/ (Instagram) https://www.thewespot.com (www.thewespot.com) Thank you for listening and being a part of this community! It means a lot to us! Editor's Note: We fully understand that not all people involved in platforms like OnlyFans and PornHub are victims and everyone has a right to their own sexual expression. Some of the claims about these platforms have been disputed. And, as in everything there are two sides of the coin. In this episode we... Support this podcast

Warning: The following contains discussion of domestic violence, human trafficking, and sex trafficking, which may be disturbing for some listeners. Listener discretion is advised. You're listening to episode #95 with Megan Lundstrom. In this episode we talk about Megan's personal story with sex trafficking, as well as signs to look for, and red flags when it comes to human trafficking. Megan also dispels some myths that many people have bought into when it comes to sex trafficking and conspiracy theories that are currently rampant. Learn more about Megan: Megan Lundstrom is the founder and Executive Director of Colorado-based, nationally serving non-profit, Free Our Girls since 2014. The organization is dedicated to the economic empowerment of survivors of domestic sex trafficking and specializes in programming and advocacy in rural areas. Ms. Lundstrom is also the Co-Director of Avery Research & Consulting, an agency dedicated to survivor-centered academic applied research on the commercial sex trade. Ms. Lundstrom began consulting with Larimer County’s Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Children’s Multi-Disciplinary Response Team in 2017 and has remained a steering committee member through the present. Ms. Lundstrom has been a consultant for the Department of Homeland Security’s Blue Campaign, and Polaris Project on On-Ramps, Intersections, and Exit Routes, as well as Integrating Survivor Voice into Research. She has created and delivered numerous training and educational presentations both in the academic community as well as for agencies such as UC Health, Planned Parenthood, Delta Airlines, American College of Nurse-Midwives, United States Department of Agriculture, the Colorado Organization for Victims Advocacy, Girls Education and Mentoring Services, and the Commercial Sexual Exploitation Institute at Villanova University Law School. Megan is currently a fellow for the Office for Trafficking in Persons’ Human Trafficking Leadership Academy. Ms. Lundstrom was awarded a Certificate of Appreciation from the Colorado Front Range Anti-Trafficking Coalition, and Free Our Girls was awarded the Education and Innovation Award in 2018 from Group Publishing and the Right on the Money award from the Consumers United Association for Taking Flight, the organization’s economic empowerment direct service program and financial literacy curriculum for survivors of commercial sexual exploitation. Ms. Lundstrom’s research on cultic theory was internationally published through United Nations University’s Delta 8.7 and presented at the International Cultic Studies Association annual conference, both in 2018. Megan holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Finance and is currently pursuing her Master’s degree in Sociology, both from the University of Northern Colorado. Connect with Megan Lundstom: Megan's Facebook- https://www.facebook.com/iamaveryday (https://www.facebook.com/iamaveryday) The Avery Center Facebook- https://www.facebook.com/theaverycenterorg (https://www.facebook.com/theaverycenterorg) The Avery Center Instagram- https://www.instagram.com/theaverycenterorg/ (https://www.instagram.com/theaverycenterorg/) Want more of The We Podcast? To listen to more awesome episodes on Loudspeaker.fm or on any of your favorite podcasting apps. The We Spot is your go-to place for intentional growth, connection, authenticity, and encouragement. We would love to connect with you! Find us on: https://www.facebook.com/thewespot (Facebook) https://www.instagram.com/thewespot/ (Instagram) https://my.captivate.fm/www.thewespot.com (www.thewespot.com) Thank you for listening and being a part of this community! It means a lot to us! Editor's Note: We fully understand that not all people involved in platforms like OnlyFans and PornHub are victims and everyone has a right to their own sexual expression. Some of the claims about these platforms have been disputed. And, as in everything there are two sides of the coin. In this Support this podcast

Hi 414 fam! Welcome back to another week! this week's convo is a bit more serious than some of our past episodes as we talk about human trafficking. It is also SO timely because tomorrow (02.25.2021) is Shine A Light On Slavery Day by the End It Movement! We'll see you in 2 weeks! Until then, know you are SO loved and you are here for such a time as this! If you want to connect, here are the links! 414 Pod: https://www.instagram.com/414podcast/ Carl: https://www.instagram.com/carl_has_not/ End It Movement: https://www.instagram.com/enditmovement/ Polaris Project: https://www.instagram.com/polarisproject/ A21: https://www.instagram.com/a21/ --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/pickingmoredaisies/support

It's been a minute so I thought I would take some time to catch up with you! In this episode, I talk a bit about garden plans, my plans for (eventually) reworking my wardrobe, and offer some thoughts on productivity, working too hard, and being too hard on yourself. Links to everything I mention in the show...ICTSOS: https://ictsos.orgLook for the Helpers podcast: https://ictsos.org/category/podcast/Raise My Head Foundation: https://raisemyhead.org/Polaris Project: https://polarisproject.org/ My flower seeds (and yarn!): https://superseeds.comThread and Butter Vintage: https://www.instagram.com/threadandbutter.vintage/ Anemone VT: https://www.instagram.com/anemone.vt/- - - Let's get in touch!Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/moth_and_rustFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/mothandrusthandmadeCheck out more of my tutorial videos at https://www.youtube.com/c/mothandrustdiyIf you're interested in supporting the show, please check out my Etsy shop where you can find handmade accessories, clothing, patterns, art, and more:https://mothandrusthandmade.etsy.comYou can also shop my original fabric prints and more here:https://www.spoonflower.com/profiles/mothandrustMusic courtesy of Jay Someday;find their music at: https://soundcloud.com/jaysomeday

Our Social Media https://polarisproject.org/​ Polaris Project above is a link to donate to stop sex trafficking. https://support.savethechildren.org/s...​ Save the Children is a link above to donate to stop sex trafficking We have hit the fianlly of this episode and it's a crazy one. If you didn't hate these crazy jerk's after episode 1 (I know I sure have from word go) then this episdoe will for sure bring you around to it. They are scum of the earth and deserved every single thing that got. Personally in child murder or rape cases I believe prison is to nice for them, like i say in this episode they need to have the same punishment done to them as they do to children. And sorry if you don't agree, come at me. HAHA! In the end though these two did die behind bars and were never able to hurt another child again, and it was all thanks to the brother in-law David.

Raleigh Sadler is the Executive Director and Founder of Let My People Go and author of Vulnlerable: Rethinking Human Trafficking. Growing up in church, he talks about his experience with Christianity at a young age and how he never felt like he mined the depths of the Gospel. Raleigh reached a turning point in his faith journey where he started to look outside of himself and to his neighbor. He began to see that we can not just declare the gospel, we must declare and demonstrate the gospel. Listen to hear Raleigh’s faith journey and the path God has laid for him in caring for the vulnerable through Let My People Go. Resources:Have any comments or questions? Email Simply127@127worldwide.org Let My People Go https://lmpg.org/ Book:Vulnerable: Rethinking Human TraffickingBy: Raleigh SadlerHuman Trafficking Hotline: 1-888-373-7888International Justice Mission: https://www.ijm.org/Shared Hope International: https://sharedhope.org/National Center on Sexual Exploitation: https://endsexualexploitation.org/Polaris Project: https://polarisproject.org/

There are an estimated 20 - 40 MILLION people in modern slavery around the globe today. Isn't that mind-blowing?! This week's episode is a deep dive into human trafficking. It's on everyone's radar, but it's not talked about enough. Veronica intensely researched and provides listeners with myths, legislation background and hard-hitting numbers on this terrible tragedy hitting families around the world. Brittany offers practical tips (especially as a mom of two little girls!) and insight on training she's received to battle human trafficking. If you or someone you know is a victim of human trafficking, please reach out to the U.S. National Human Trafficking Hotline by calling 1-888-373-7888 or text "BeFree" to 233733. Helpful organizations battling human trafficking are: - Polaris Project, plolarisproject.org // @polarisproject - Operation Underground Railroad, ourrescue.org // @ourrescue FACT CHECK: - Veronica made a comment that 20 million people could be a Denmark, however, the population of Denmark is around 5.8 million people, so that would be approximately 3.4 Denmarks. - Brittany also commented that 20 million people could be a few state of Indiana's, and she is correct. Indiana's population is approximately 6.7 million people, so that would equate about 2.9 Indiana's. --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app

Lillian Agbeyegbe is the Community Engagement Manager on the Strategic Initiative on Sex Trafficking team. She is the lead on a Safety Net Expansion Initiative for Polaris Big Fight that seeks to reduce sex trafficking in 25 cities across the United States over the next ten years. At Polaris, Lillian was the lead author of “Human Trafficking at Home: Labor Trafficking of Domestic Workers.” She also contributed to other publications including “Human Trafficking on Temporary Work Visas: A Data Analysis 2015-2017” and “On-Ramps, Intersections, and Exit Routes: A Roadmap for Systems and Industries to Prevent and Disrupt Human Trafficking.” Lillian earned her Doctor of Public Health degree from the University of North Texas Health Science Center, and her Masters of Public Health (MPH) in Community Health Education from The City University of New York-Hunter College. She earned her Bachelor of Science (BSc) in Economics from the University of Lagos, Nigeria.  

Lillian Agbeyegbe is the Community Engagement Manager on the Strategic Initiative on Sex Trafficking team. She is the lead on a Safety Net Expansion Initiative for Polaris Big Fight that seeks to reduce sex trafficking in 25 cities across the United States over the next ten years. At Polaris, Lillian was the lead author of “Human Trafficking at Home: Labor Trafficking of Domestic Workers.” She also contributed to other publications including “Human Trafficking on Temporary Work Visas: A Data Analysis 2015-2017” and “On-Ramps, Intersections, and Exit Routes: A Roadmap for Systems and Industries to Prevent and Disrupt Human Trafficking.” Lillian earned her Doctor of Public Health degree from the University of North Texas Health Science Center, and her Masters of Public Health (MPH) in Community Health Education from The City University of New York-Hunter College. She earned her Bachelor of Science (BSc) in Economics from the University of Lagos, Nigeria.  

We discuss the myths and misconceptions surrounding human trafficking as well as what it is and how to look out for it. To report, please call 911 or the Polaris Project at 1-888-373-7888 or text BeFree to 233733 or chat live at https://polarisproject.org/ linktr.ee/blackbirdadvocacy References and resources: https://polarisproject.org/myths-facts-and-statistics/ https://www.ice.gov/sites/default/files/documents/Report/2017/CSReport-13-1.pdf https://hopeforjustice.org/national-slavery-and-human-trafficking-prevention-month/ https://hopeforjustice.org/spot-the-signs/

Thank you for joining us for Episode 2. On this week’s show we have Amanda Hinski, MBA sharing her tips for productivity during a pandemic. Amanda is an Executive Leader and a contributor for Forbes.We talk about “should I even be productive in a pandemic?”, tips on how to manage your to do list, and balancing productivity with the rest of life.You’ll hear Amanda at the end of the show say she hopes that that people will start analyzing their own productivity through a research mindset to help discover themselves.We jump right into the conversation kicking off with Amanda addressing “should I even be productive during a pandemic?”. Key moments in the conversation2:37 - Should I be productive during a pandemic?11:13 - The emails never end15:38 - Best practices for your to-do list (where we reference “Getting Things Done” by David Allen)25:15 - How are you managing all the change that is happening?30:50 - How do you balance being productive with perfectionism?You can follow Amanda on twitter at @AmandaHinski. You can find more about Amanda at AmandaHinski.comYou can find us on social media by searching for Redefining the Company. You can also visit our website, where you can send us questions or ideas about content you are interested in.You can find Dan on Twitter @danredefining. This show’s ad space is dedicated to the Polaris Project. The Polaris Project is devoted to educating the world on human trafficking.

This week, we find out just WHO is on Harry's bed while the dinner party goes on downstairs! It's Dobby, the house elf! That's right, we crash straight into the topic of Jo working slavery into the series, how does the Ministry of Miss Magic know that underage wizards have performed magic at home, and finish with a brief discussion on the insanity of putting bars on a window (SEE SOMETHING, SAY SOMETHING). Slavery in the United States didn't simply end in 1965 with the Emancipation Proclamation. Unfortunately, thousands of people are trafficked each year in the United States, either sexually or into forced labor. The Polaris Project seeks to gather research on cases of trafficking in the United States and push institutions to end the practice through legislation or other means. We have donated this week in honor of the thousands here and millions around the globe who are forced into servitude for which they have no where to turn. We urge you to learn more information at polarisproject.org. Thank you to Ope...Matt for their review on Apple Podcasts! Rate! Review! Subscribe! Twitter & Instagram: @hpanxious The Snow Queen by Kevin MacLeod Link: https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/4511-the-snow-queen License: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ We are a proud member of the Not A Bit Network Notabit.net IG: @notabitnetwork

In our final episode of the 3-part series addressing sex trafficking and the work being done by Ho`ōla Nā Pua,  Joy Winquist, the director of programs at Ho`ōla Nā Pua joins the discussion with Dr. Graham Taylor. Joy is a clinical social worker advocating for counseling individuals with complex trauma survivors of child abuse, neglect, and trafficking survivors. Throughout this episode we get an understanding of what therapeutic care and a clinician's treatment look like for those coming through their program.  For more information about Ho`ōla Nā Pua visit: https://hoolanapua.org/The National Human Trafficking Hotline is (888) 373-7888 or visit: https://humantraffickinghotline.org/Rebecca Bender visit: https://rebeccabender.org/Rachel Thomas visit: https://www.worldwithoutexploitation.org/survivor/rachel-thomasDr. Sue Johnson visit: https://iceeft.com/about-dr-sue-johnson/Dr. Bruce Perry visit https://www.commcare1.org/post/dr-bruce-d-perry-on-trauma-informed-careBessel van der Kolk, MD visit https://www.nicabm.com/faculty/bessel-van-der-kolk/Polaris Project visit https://polarisproject.org/

In the second episode of the 3-part series addressing sex trafficking and the work being done by Ho`ōla Nā Pua, Tim Hitchens, the Education Program Manager at Ho`ōla Nā Pua, talks with Behavioral Health Today about gateway traps and sex trafficking (those things that we may not realize, but are contributing to sex trafficking). Together Tim and Graham dispel myths and assumptions surrounding the belief system around sex trafficking and ask for us to be mindful of the impact of our actions. For more information about Ho`ōla Nā Pua visit: https://hoolanapua.org/For information about Shared Hope International visit: https://sharedhope.org/The National Human Trafficking Hotline is (888) 373-7888 or visit: https://humantraffickinghotline.org/Polaris Project visit: https://polarisproject.org/Culture Reframed visit: https://www.culturereframed.org/Jackson Katz visit: https://www.jacksonkatz.com/Demand Abolition visit: https://www.demandabolition.org/Tony Porter: A Call to Men visit: https://www.ted.com/talks/tony_porter_a_call_to_men

Human trafficking is not a new issue. It is one of the worst sins of humankind, and sadly one of the most prevalent, as well. It's not a fun topic to discuss, but we need to know the realties of life for many people. Even in the darkness of the subject matter, I hope you'll find some inspiration and hope in my conversation with Seth Johnson. We also discuss how we can make a difference in our world by simply being aware and willing to help. Here are some of the organizations Seth recommends looking into and considering donating to or working with: Internation Justice Mission (IJM) - https://www.ijm.org/ Wellspring Living - https://wellspringliving.org/ Polaris Project - https://polarisproject.org/ Love146 - https://love146.org/ --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/jonathan-tony/support

Being the hot button topic human trafficking currently is, we decided this week to take some common myths around trafficking and set the record straight. We also discuss the spread of misinformation on trafficking and how it can actually harm the advocacy work that is already being done. Stay up to date with our episodes and happenings by following us on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/TouchySubsPod, on Twitter at https://twitter.com/touchysubspod, on Instagram at https://www.instagram.com/touchysubspod/ and please email any questions or feedback to TouchySubjectsPodcast@gmail.com.For more information on human trafficking visit the National Human Traffficking Hotline at https://humantraffickinghotline.org/ call them at 1-888-373-7888 or visit the Polaris Project at https://polarisproject.org/.If you or someone you know wants assistance please call the National Sexual Assault Hotline at 1-800-656-4673 or visit https://www.rainn.org/.Music credits: The Vendetta by Stefan Kartenberg (c) copyright 2018 Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution (3.0) License. http://dig.ccmixter.org/files/JeffSpeed68/58628 Ft: Apoxode The views and opinions expressed in this podcast are the host's own and might not represent the official views and opinions of the agencies in which they represent.

Human trafficking is a humanitarian issue. Here's why. | The Migration Data Portal reported that 164 countries are locations of exploitation | the United States is within the top 10 | In 2019, the Polaris Project worked on 11,500 situations of human trafficking, including 22,326 individual survivors, nearly 4,384 traffickers and 1,912 suspicious businesses | Follow the upcoming articles in our series at novelhand.com | Follow us on Instagram: @novel.hand | Migration Data Portal: https://migrationdataportal.org/themes/human-trafficking | Polaris Project: https://polarisproject.org/myths-facts-and-statistics/

Trigger Warning: physical /sexual abuse, slavery, and child torture. We begin with idiotic banter and spontaneous beat-boxing from Remy and Ben as they chat about how Rick and Morty continues to inspire this podcast, Remy's new obsession with Madison Beer, and a deep dive into the Call Her Daddy scandal, ultimately both questioning: could this all be a hoax a la LonelyGirl15?? Then we jump back in time to September when Remy and Charlotte had the extreme honor of interviewing Katie Ford at Nanny's. Katie (former CEO and Chairman of Ford Models) tells us about how she sold Ford in 2007 to work as founder and CEO of the non-profit Freedom for All, which focuses on fighting sex trafficking, debt bondage, forced labor and child labor. We discuss how Freedom for All and their partner organizations have been able to save over 10,000 people but also discuss the tragic number of people who still need help being freed from various forms of suffering. Finally we discuss what growing up with models all around her house was like (Katie's parents started Ford Models in 1946) and what giving up the business meant to her.    If you or someone you know is in trouble (sex trafficking/modern slavery/ etc.) contact: The Polaris Project 888-373-7888   Follow Katie on Instagram @FreedomForAll Follow Ben and Charlotte at @BennyDNYC and @Charkasstic Follow us at @howcumpodcast and Remy @RemyKassimir Sign up for access to extras for only $5 at patreon.com/howcum Check out our website for live shows & merch! Thanks  Buffy.  $20 off your Buffy comforter at buffy.co promo code howcum

The gang tackles the complicated questions around sex trafficking and the legalization of prostitution. They talk about the Equality Model with survivors. And everyone holds their breath while Keith speaks. Warning: This episode features graphic depictions of sexual abuse and violence. Discretion be advised.   To learn more about sex trafficking, visit Polaris Project - https://polarisproject.org/ To get help if you or someone you know is impacted by this issue, call Polaris Project's National Human Trafficking Hotline - 1 (888) 373-7888 Find out more about the work done in NYC by Empower Clinic- https://www.empowergyn.org/ - and Sanctuary for Families - https://sanctuaryforfamilies.org/

Tommy Green is a long time friend of TFC Roseville, and is an active voice in the fight against Human Trafficking. In this episode we discuss everything from who the victims of human trafficking are/can be, to how you can partner in helping fight this battle. -To learn more about Run Against Traffic visit iRunAgainstTraffic.com -To learn more on The Polaris Project visit PolarisPorject.org-To learn more about Rev Group visit TheRevGatherings.comNew episodes every Monday. To learn more about the Family Church visit TFCroseville.com

Join us as we learn about the in's and out's of the world's largest criminal enterprise. Special Guest Gabriella Aspuru teaches us what's going on, and how to help bring about awareness and hope. Important links: National Human Trafficking Hotline: 1 (888) 373-7888 Polaris Project: https://polarisproject.org A21 & Walk for Fredom: https://www.a21.org/index.php?site=true Love 146: https://love146.org End it Movement: https://www.enditmovement.com "I am Jane Doe" Movie: https://www.iamjanedoefilm.com (Also Currently Available on Netflix) The Underground CT: https://www.theundergroundct.org Link to Oppose the D.C. Bill 23-0318 Community Safety and Health Amendment Act of 2019: https://actnow.io/dzXnEYx --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/takeadive/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/takeadive/support

GUESTSophie James is a Master of Arts candidate in the department of Sociology at the University of South Florida. In her academic research, she examines trends in human trafficking and critically analyzes how systems create and combat sexual exploitation, specifically the onus that is placed on survivors to navigate aid and resources. Her other research interests include gendered violence, immigration, human rights discourse, and critical race theory.She is a research assistant on several evaluative projects based in south Florida that monitor how well commercially sexually exploited youth’s needs are met by anti-trafficking service providers and the child welfare system. Her classical training in academia and lived experiences as a trauma survivor guides her commitment to advocate for equity so there are no barriers in a survivor’s journey to healing.OVERVIEWWith her research and life experience, Sophie chops it up with BrownTown on the state of human trafficking (HT) in the real world, in academia, and in popular culture. Sophie quickly shares how she came to formally study HT and the journey that got her to the "raging Black feminist" point she is now. With that, we take to academia and the issues within both the unrepresentative, non-contextual, and just plain old statistics around HT (see Polaris Project) as well as the privileged players who are conducting much of the research. As BrownTown learns more about the world of HT in all its complexities, nuances, and problems (from that fact that exists to the institutions that are supposed to abolish it), the gang contextualizes how all the -isms compound the trauma for those already marginalized and how the Black body is, once again, disregarded (see Cheryl Nelson-Butler's "The Racial Roots of Human Trafficking" and 1910 "White Slavery Act"). From problematic language in HT discourse to high-profile cases to even labor trafficking and US visa policy, we see a disproportionate relationship between victims that are more visible and the bodies most affected.Sophie and BrownTown eventually followed the money and discuss the connections between the non-profit industrial complex, funding anti-human trafficking work, and the dominant narrative, frequently co-opting #MeToo for the gain of carceral feminists. Sophie makes it clear that authenticity, true allyship, and leaning into the discomfort that we all experience is necessary for us to change these systems we so often antagonize. The team take on a  serious topic in stride while enjoying each others' company for the first time ending on the very important conclusions that Netflix is cheaper than therapy (for now) and David's grandma is the realest.--Follow Sophie on Instagram, and Twitter!--CREDITS: Intro/outro music by Fiendsh. Audio engineered by Genta Tamashiro featuring Justin G Zullo.--Bourbon ’n BrownTownSite | Become a Patron on Patreon!SoapBox Productions and Organizing, 501(c)3Facebook | Twitter | Instagram | Site | Support

On Monday, federal prosecutors charged Jeffrey Epstein with sex trafficking and conspiracy. Court documents show Epstein sexually abused and exploited dozens of underage girls in the early 2000's. Despite over a decade of such allegations, he has avoided major jail time. Is Epstein’s case an example of a bigger problem in the United States? And if so, where are the victims coming from, and why hasn’t more been done to combat child trafficking?

Ms. Angela “Angie” Martin the Founder and Director of Levite Production where the “mission is to give eyes to the blind and ears to the deaf.” Ms. Martin left home at the age of 16 with hopes of a better future.  She joins Reid Street Smart to talk about her journey; her role in the fight against the current crisis Human Trafficking in the Atlanta-metro region; how her early childhood helped shape her current career path and what can be done to help eliminate sex trafficking of teens specifically during major events like the Superbowl coming to Atlanta this February.  In the wake of the #MuteRKelly movement, it is imperative that we give attention to people like Ms. Martin that are directly involved with protecting our children from predators. Atlanta was named by the FBI as one of 14 US cities with the highest rate of children used in prostitution, according to Polaris Project. In Georgia, 12,400 men purchase sex with young women in any given month. Approximately 100 adolescent females are sexually exploited each night in Georgia. For Information of how to support Angela Martin at Levite Production please visit the website at leviteproduction.org listen below.   leviteproduction.org thereconciliationmovement.org instagram/@fab4leviteproduction instagram/@newmartin3551 FB/Angie Martin FB/Levite Production FB/Fab4theproduction   Human Trafficking Information: http://humantraffickingsearch.org/   BeTrue Media Website: http://betru.media/ BeTrue Media Instagram: Controlling_the_Narrative BeTrue Media Twitter: @reidstreetsmart

Stacey Diane A. Litam Ph.D. is back on the show to help us understand how to recognize and respond if you suspect someone is being trafficked or if someone has been trafficked. In this second episode, of a two part series, Stacey lists the signs someone is being trafficked, the challenges in identifying perpetrators, the problems with idolizing "The Pimp Game" and ways traffickers use conduct of control and controllability to gain access to victims. Braxton and Stacey talk about domestic trafficking and ways teachers, therapists, and parents can best report suspected trafficking. Stacey explores what therapy has been helpful to survivors of trafficking and best ways to respond to survivors.  Stacey reports her findings on the way we use language in working with survivors of sex trafficking and how it affects the way therapists, teachers and parents view/react to a person.  (End Sex Trafficking) https://sharedhope.org/ , Polaris Project: https://polarisproject.org/get-assistance/national-human-trafficking-hotline Leave Birds and Bees an iTunes review Leave a Stitcher Review Birds and Bees Facebook Page Listen from our webpage

Braxton interviews Stacey Diane A. Litam Ph.D. to better understand sex trafficking. In this first episode, of a two part series, Stacey defines human trafficking and who is at risk for sex trafficking, the risk factors, and recent research in sex trafficking. Braxton and Stacey talk about recruiting techniques traffickers use to gain control of the person. They explore the profile of a trafficker and how complex leaving a trafficker is for someone who has been recruited. They discuss how the media portrays sex trafficking and how Taken has helped bring awareness to the issue and where this representaion is problematic. Stacey explains the latest research on survivors of sex trafficking and those who are at high risk for being trafficked. She points out ways you can help reduce risk factors in your children and ways to keep them safe. Get ready for the next episode where Braxton and Stacie discuss how to recognize signs of trafficking and what you can do if you believe someone you know is being trafficked. (End Sex Trafficking) https://sharedhope.org/ , Polaris Project: https://polarisproject.org/get-assistance/national-human-trafficking-hotline Leave Birds and Bees an iTunes review Leave a Stitcher Review Birds and Bees Facebook Page Listen from our webpage

In this episode of the Red X Podcast, Nicole and Lance speak with Karen Diers the director of Refuge for Women in Las Vegas that provides housing and restoration services for women who are victims of sex trafficking. In the news, a Smallville actress is arrested on human trafficking charges. Lance tells the story about seeing the movie, Upgrade, a sci-fiction (Lance’s favorite) with his wife, Cheryl. The main character finds out how AI changes his life. A lot of the cars in the movie help date the movie to the near future. Cheryl didn’t enjoy it quite as much as Lance because of some violence. But overall, Lance gives it a thumbs up! Nicole recounts a trip to DC to meet with NC senators’ reps about Erin Wallin’s proposal for getting higher restitution for child pornography victims. Erin is an attorney in TN and was a guest on the Red X Podcast, episode 009. Nicole and Erin are going back to DC in July to talk to more senators next month. On this episode’s icebreaker, Lance asks Nicole trivia questions about animals. This taps into Nicole’s area of expertise. How would you do on this matching quiz? Answers are: Bat, Frog, Elephant, Giraffe, Hippopotamus, Kangaroo, Koala, Ostrich, Sloth What animal has fingerprints that look human? Which animal can’t jump? Which animal can be hypnotized by turning it over and rubbing its belly? Which animal takes 2 weeks to digest his dinner? Which animal always turns left when it leaves its home? Which animal has no vocal chords? Which animal has an eyeball bigger than its brain? Which animal when in a group is called a “mob”? Which animal kills more humans than any other mammal? [caption id="attachment_151" align="alignleft" width="270"]Allison Mack as Cloe Sullivan[/caption]In the news-- You might know 35 year old Allison Mack as Cloe Sullivan, one of Clark Kent’s best friends on the TV series, Smallville. Or maybe you know her from the Show 7tth Heaven or Disney’s Honey We Shrunk Ourselves. But the actress is probably now most well-known for her arrest on trafficking charges in March of 2018. According to Fox News, Allison Mack was seen running after Keith Raniere as police were pulling him from his $10,000 a week villa in Mexico where the two had been hiding out.   Raniere was a co-founder of the self- help organization NXIVM that many have called a cult. He is accused of holding women as slaves both for sex and labor. Mack is named the primary recruiter of the women. She was nicknamed “Pimp Mack”; Allsion denies allegations. Frank Parlato, a former publicist to NXIVM, it was Mack’s idea to brand the women near the groin area. [caption id="attachment_152" align="alignright" width="336"]Mack allegedly suggested branding NXIVM women[/caption]Another Smallville actress, Kristin Kreuk has also be accused of recruitment for the organization, but she denies having done so. Kreuk says quote    “When I was about 23, I took an Executive Success Programs/NXIVM ‘intensive,’ what I understood to be a self-help/personal growth course that helped me handle my previous shyness, which is why I continued with the program,” Kreuk wrote on twitter. “I left about five years ago and had minimal contact with those who were still involved.”  Raniere created a system of women using psychological manipulation who were considered masters and other slaves. USA Times says: “Members believed that Raniere could heal them of emotional traumas, set them free from their fears and attachments, clear patterns of destructive thinking. Some believed he could heal them sexually too. An ex-member said quote “This is the white-collar spiritual path,” “You’re on the monk’s path, but you’re not wearing a red robe with a shaved head.” Mack was apparently one of Raniere’s slaves but also deeply involved in the organization and luring other women into the pyramid scheme. Most of the members were from wealthy families seeking empowerment. Trafficking does not always look like what you expect. Nicole interviews Karen Diers, the Las Vegas City Director for Refuge for Women. Refuge for Women is a national organization that started almost a decade ago. Karen says it began in KY as aftercare for women who had been victims of human trafficking and the program has spread to various cities around the country and continues to grow. Karen says that human trafficking is not so different than what they see in LV, but that because LV receives so many tourists and is a major hub for trafficking routes, the crime is prevalent in the city. In fact, LV has 7 major trafficking routes and Karen explains that it is “big business” to exploit a woman. [caption id="attachment_149" align="alignleft" width="252"]Karen Diers - Refuge for Women Las Vegas[/caption]Sadly, the women are treated as resources. While drugs and alcohol can run out, an exploited woman can be sold over and over again. A typical Refuge for Women applicant most often comes to the home through some rescue intervention—either in jail or in a police of FBI operative. Las Vegas is ramping up helping first responders identify victims. Once identified, they can be sent to a shelter for protection from their pimp and be given the basics of what they might need such as protection, food and clothing. Then they can find a restoration home like Refuge for Women so they can recover from trauma. Karen says that most clients are high school graduates, single moms, who have been sexually abused and often think of suicide. A lot of the women have children from their pimps or abusive relationships. A lot of times, the women don’t have the children with them though. They might have been taken away and put in social systems or are living with other family members. Through restoration, mothers and children can be reunited. Karen says “Human trafficking is not partial”. Women of all different backgrounds, with or without children have become trafficked. And traffickers see their victims as reusable commodities. Karen believes that every woman should live her dream. Refuge for Women gives them a chance.     One reason that Refuge for Women is successful is that the city of Las Vegas meets regularly with law enforcement, non-profits, first responders and service providers so that the city can be united in their fight and response to human trafficking. Karen doesn’t believe in reinventing the wheel or doing what another organization is already doing. For example, Refuge for Women focuses on restoration and doesn’t go into the entertainment industry to help women get out—The Cupcake Girls does that and offers the women counseling services and resources. Nicole asks what does Refuge for Women do to ensure safety? Karen says they take safety seriously for themselves as well as for their clients. Whether or not a trafficking victim stays in LV for restoration or is sent for care outside the state depends on multiple factors. Was she under coercion from someone else? Was her trafficking gang related? The home is kept confidential and the women are watched 24 hours a day 7 days a week. No social media is allowed. Volunteers and staff must agree to confidentiality statements and background checks. Refuge for Women has only had one situation since their inception 9 years ago in which there was a threat to safety. Many times, the trafficker will not pursue a victim once she is in a restoration home because she is viewed as “expendable”—she can be replaced with another victim. But safety is top priority. In fact, Refuge for Women just put a retired law enforcement officer on their Board to advise on best practices for safety.   [caption id="attachment_153" align="alignright" width="293"]Refuge for Women Las Vegas[/caption]Nicole asks what advice Karen would you give to another area that would like to replicate what they are doing in LV to combat trafficking? Las Vegas has a mayor’s faith initiative that has helped bring many of the churches on board. Karen says it’s important to just get out and start finding out who’s doing what. It’s like a spider web with a network of providers serving the community’s different needs. It’s doing the work and going out and learning who’s doing what. The process of learning about community needs and resources can begin just with a simple google search. Refuge for Women counts on people having a heart for trafficking victims and wanting to serve them. Nicole says that it was pretty easy to find Refuge for Women because she went to Polaris Project and looked up resources.   In spite of growing number of resources, Karen says there are only 680 beds open for women are done with the “life” in the entire country. If victims are able to go through a program like Refuge for Women, it’s so successful. If survivors do the work of restoration at Refuge for Women for 9 months in the home and then another 3 months of working a job, there is a 95% success rate of women not returning to “the life”. Women go through self care courses, financial education and even some basics like how to do laundry. In one case, Refuge for Women had a girl who had been trafficked for 16 years; she didn’t know how to care for her body or how to keep herself safe. She had others teach her how to cook, how to shop, how to do her budget, how to get a job. Karen says they ask survivors, What do you want to return to? What was your dream and how can you achieve it?  Refuge for Women returns women to their dreams. Restoration at Refuge for Women has three phases. The first is healing and involves psychotherapy ad group therapy. They have to fight hard every day for recovery. They have to deal with the past trauma, sexual abuse, foster care experiences. Many times women were gang raped or have experienced a vulnerability from an early age. Survivors don’t know their power or what a proper relationship looks like. Refuge for Women has to teach women how to rebuild trust. They do so through classes, recovery meetings, relationships and the therapeutic atmosphere. The second stage is vocational preparation. Women must learn how to maintain life through the tools they’ve been given. Are they going to go back to school or receive additional training? The third and final stage of restoration is to gain employment. Refuge for Women partners with Dress for Success, which helps them develop their resume, practice interview skills and offers them professional clothes for a job interview. One woman who completed the program is a great example of success. She had been trafficked for 16 years. Refuge for Women had someone locally that could give her teeth as she was in serious need of dental care. Another person removed her cancerous skin lesions. This woman’s pimp had branded her with his picture as a tattoo, and another service was able to have it removed. Another woman wanted to be restored to an adult child as well as younger child that had been removed from her and she was reunited. A whole family was restored in this case. It’s not just the heart, body, and mind, but families that receive restoration because of the work of Refuge for Women. It does take a community for restoration--dentists, doctors, tattoo removal services, mentors, vocational supporters, and more. But it also takes finances to run a home. Refuge for Women requires $400,000 to run a home each year and ensure 24 hour a day staff. Women enter the home with zero cost to them. And the home requires a vibrant and dedicated volunteer base. Karen says there is nothing more beautiful than to see a woman’s restoration play out. If you support refuge for $100 a month, you can “adopt” a resident. You can send her a birthday card, you’ll know her favorite music, color, and preferences to support her through encouraging letters. Visit www.Rfwlasvegas.org to learn more. The best way is to view the media kit, a one-stop shop for learning statistics, testimonials, seeing an actual house tour, and video. You can also support their upcoming fundraiser at Top Golf. Contact Refuge for Women if you have questions or would like to learn more about upcoming homes that will be opening! Nicole and Lance reflect on the dearth of beds around the country and the need for more. The needs are intense, but the restoration of a woman can mean restoration of an entire family and a stop in the cycle of exploitation.  

Stephen Lankester-Cox went missing on November 18, 2004. He was last seen leaving his mother’s house where he resided in Acworth, Georgia. As he was leaving, he told his mother that he wouldn’t be gone too long. Police suspected foul play was involved almost immediately as rumors swirled around the community about Stephen being murdered. No body was ever found and no suspects have been charged with his disappearance or murder. Police have stated that this is a criminal investigation and continue to investigate leads.Joshua Sharpe of the Atlanta Journal Constitution spent three years investigating the twists and turns of this perplexing case. Josh was interviewed in this episode about his findings in his investigation of Stephen’s disappearance. Josh also shared his theories as to what really happened to Stephen Lankester-Cox.This case is one of the most heartbreaking cases that I have investigated to date. This story has so much information that I chose to break it up into 2 episodes. I encourage my listeners to read Josh’s article at http://specials.myajc.com/vanished/.If you have any information regarding the disappearance of Stephen Lankester-Cox, please contact the Cherokee County Sheriff’s Department at 678-493-4200.Tune in on June 11, 2018 for Part 2 of this story. Featuring an interview with the Cherokee County Sheriff’s Department and a heartbreaking interview with Stephen’s Mom, Sherrie Lankester.Southern Gone has decided to donate a portion of our donations that we receive from our listeners to a very worthy cause. The Polaris Project is an organization dedicated to eradicating modern slavery. Please help us reach our end of the year goal of $2,500 by going to our website at www.southerngone.com and hit the donate button. Please leave your name for a shout out on a future episode. Any amount will be appreciated as we at Southern Gone feel strongly about supporting this very worthy cause.If you have your own thoughts or theories about this case that you would like to share, please email me at southerngone@gmail.com. We are now on iTunes, Google Play, and Stitcher. If you like what you hear, please leave us a 5-star review to help us garner more exposure. Be sure to follow us on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram! For everything Southern Gone, be sure to check out our website at www.southerngone.com and sign up for our email list for updates, fun facts about the podcasts, and podcasts recaps.

Leine checked her watch as she waited for the target to emerge from the concrete block building. Practical as only Soviet-style architecture could be, nevertheless the crumbling façade gave the impression of faded power, like a once-famous tenor now down on his luck and sucking on throat lozenges in order to save his voice... Ah, the glamorous life of a jet-setting assassin... -- DV Berkom, A Killing Truth Looking for breathless, non-stop action with a smart, powerful woman kicking down the doors? Are you in for a treat! DV Berkom's thrillers have it all. DV and I chat about her two series, the Kate Jones Thrillers and the grittier Leine Basso Crime Thrillers. You can find out more about both series and DV herself on her website, right here. You can also find her on Twitter, Facebook, and Pinterest.  DV and I talked about her adventures, her writing, and the development of both series. We also discussed some of the injustices that, in her novels at least, are righted by a powerful woman. Chief among those is Human Trafficking -- a horrific problem, but one we are not powerless to fight -- as was recently illustrated by the Alaska Airline attendant who recognized that a teenage girl was being transported against her will.  If you need it, or ever encounter someone who does, the National Human Trafficking Hotline is (888) 373-7888. You can also text "BeFree" (233733) to reach the Polaris Project. Also, the State Department has "15 Ways You Can Help Fight Human Trafficking" including a guide for parents and educators on how Human Traffickers Target Children. There are many organizations doing wonderful work; you can find local groups or check out some national groups like Polaris and GEMS. I also have to give a shout out to the wonderful Peg Brantley, whom I interview here, and whose latest book, Trafficked, also works to increase awareness of the problem. Mysteries and thrillers are wonderful escapism and DV's books are wildly entertaining. How awesome, too, that the information they bring out may save some lives. As always, if you'd rather read than listen, here is the transcript. Enjoy! -- Laura *********************************************************************************** Transcript of Interview with DV Berkom Laura Brennan: DV Berkom is the USA Today bestselling author of not one, but two action-packed thriller series, each featuring a kick-ass woman: Leine Basso and Kate Jones. DV’s writing is high-octane, powerful, and direct -- much like her two heroines. DV, thank you for joining me. DV Berkom: Thank you for having me here. LB: So, you started out as a political science major. What was the plan at that point? DVB: Well, I was going to become a lawyer. LB: Really? DVB: Yes. And I started running around with that crowd, I guess you'd call it, and realized that wasn't really where my heart lay. So I decided that the best thing I could do was take off and move to Mexico and live on a sailboat for a while. LB: That's an interesting leap to make. DVB: [Laughter] Yes! Yes, kind of. It was one of the only things I could think of to do to really get my head back on straight. Because I didn't want to really move into that -- it was more like a game, like you're playing a game, when you're an attorney and I didn't feel like, that that would be something I would be really good at. I think it was a better thing for me to take off and have some time alone to think. And doing it in Mexico on a sailboat is a really good place to do. LB: That's an adventure. DVB: Mmm-hmm. Yeah. And that started several years of moving, oh, probably every six months to a year. Different places, different jobs. It was really great training for becoming a writer. LB: It's interesting that you mention that being a lawyer felt like it would be a game. Because reading your novels, it's so high-octane and it feels like it's a game in that everybody has a counter-move.

Kenyon Laing, a gender-based violence expert, answers questions about human trafficking and if it’s a likely motive behind Jennifer Kesse’s disappearance. Polaris Project: https://polarisproject.org National Human Trafficking Hotline: 1 (888) 373-7888 Social: @unconcludedpod Web: http://unconcluded.com Email: unconcludedpod@gmail.com Support on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/unconcludedpod Music by Lee Rosevere & PC III / CC BY NC: http://creativecommons.org

James Dold joins Judithe for the first episode of The Get InPowered Podcast. Judithe calls him a “Creative Justice Designer” but he's spent his entire career as an advocate for those most in need of allies. From his start with the Polaris Project, an anti-human trafficking organization, to his current work ensuring that the justice system serves the youngest members of our society better and more equitably, James Dold is “InPowered” and empowering others on a daily basis. “We're all more than the worst thing we've ever done. And that's particularly true when it comes to children.” Learn how James' personal story and background helped lead him to his current mission and efforts, and stay tuned to The Get InPowered Podcast in two weeks for the conclusion of this interview.

World Footprints will take listeners on a journey that follows the North Star today from slavery to navigating the oceans. Many Americans are familiar with the slave revolts led by John Brown and Nat Turner, but the story of the greatest act of slave resistance in American history took place in 1811 and has remained largely untold, until now. Daniel Rasmussen, acclaimed author of American Uprising: The Untold Story of America’s Largest Slave Revolt has pulled back the curtain on a long neglected period in New Orleans and he joins World Footprints to discuss his research and provide a glimpse into the history of slavery in the South and our nation’s path to Civil War. Then, Bradley Myles, Executive Director and CEO of Polaris Project joins World Footprints. Named after the North Star that guided slaves towards freedom along the Underground Railroad, Polaris Project has been providing a comprehensive approach to combating human trafficking and modern-day slavery since 2002. Polaris Project has created the National Human Trafficking hotline in order to combat human trafficking. Finally, meet SEAsoned chef Victoria Allman. Many people have wondered what it’s like to live on a super-yacht that cruises the oceans and docks in exotic ports around the world and Victoria Allman tells all in her new book, SEAsoned: A Chef’s Journey with her Captain. Victoria joins World Footprints to offer a first-hand account of her journey as a yacht chef with her husband Patrick on his first assignment as Captain. From their comical adventures with their inexperienced crew, and dysfunctional passengers to the violent storm, rapidly flooding engine room and great mouth-watering recipes, SEAsoned offers a great adventure & cookbook.

We’re back, CHIKARMY! After a nice little break, it’s time for a new episode of CHIKARA in 15. This week: I run down the cards for the season premiere double shot at the Wrestle Factory, “Days of the Phoenix” and “Five Senses”; I talk about National Pro Wrestling Day and how you can support the Polaris Project; I run down the standings for the Grand Championship and Campeonatos de Parejas; I let you know about the extension in time for the CHIKaption Competition; In a special weekly feature, I give you an update on my situation, how it impacts this show and Chattin’ With The CHIKARMY going forward, and a quick announcement on new projects; In CHIKARA in the Media, I give a shout out to Steve Sutton’s new spoiler-free results from Seasons 4 and 5, I talk about my appearance on the Indy Mayhem Show, and the latest CHIKARA Special podcast is up featuring special guest Todd Joerchel! Plus, don’t forget to check out complete recaps of every season over at The CHIKARA History Project! Thanks for all your support, CHIKARMY! Keep an eye out for Chattin’ With The CHIKARMY and the new projects coming soon to the site and our new YouTube channel! CHIKARA in the Media: Steve Sutton’s spoiler free results from Seasons 4 and 5 Indy Mayhem Show 104: Indy Wrestling Evolves CHIKARA Special: “On The Juice” CHIKARA History Project

Did you know that in 2014 the most popular venue for human trafficking was hotels and motels? It’s true, and it’s one of the reasons to know the signs of human trafficking. Here to share her expert advice on the matter is Audrey Roofeh of Polaris Project, an organization devoted to ending human trafficking and… The post EP #14 – Human Trafficking and how to Recognize the Signs at your Property appeared first on Hospitality Academy.

August 7, 2014 - Read the full Your Mark on the World article and watch the interview here: http://bit.ly/1y7M8BV. Subscribe to this podcast on iTunes by clicking here: http://bit.ly/ymotwitunes or on Stitcher by clicking here: http://bit.ly/ymotwstitcher. Every year in the United States 100,000 children are victims of sex trafficking. Everyone’s Kids is a nationwide campaign to raise money and awareness about the plight of these kids. Razoo will host a nationwide, one-day crowdfunding giving day to raise money to bring an end to this tragic practice on September 16, 2014. More about Everyone’s Kids: On September 16, 2014, individuals, fundraisers, and nonprofit organization will unite for Everyone’s Kids, Everyone Gives Day, a national, 24-hour giving day that will mobilize hundreds of organizations and thousands of people on a single day across the country to help fight child trafficking in the United States. At TED 2013, a group of influencers were challenged to tackle the issue of domestic child sex trafficking. On March 17th, 2014—one year later—the Everyone’s Kids, Everyone Gives campaign was launched to raise much needed funds for the nonprofits who work to combat trafficking every day. The campaign includes a Razoo Day of Giving, a national public relations campaign, and powerful public service announcement that will raise awareness of this important issue, and inform the public about the National Human Trafficking Resource Center Hotline. Everyone’s Kids, Everyone Gives is a national initiative that includes partners from the technology and media industries who have joined forces with leading nonprofit organizations such as Polaris Project and Walk Free (among several others) in order to fight the illegal enslavement of an estimated 100,000 children annually who are trapped in the U.S. commercial sex trade. image Lesley’s bio: Lesley Mansford is the co-founder of Everyone’s Kids and the former CEO of Razoo, the fastest growing crowdfunding platform for causes, with over $230M raised for nonprofits. She is a seasoned CEO, marketer and entrepreneur with over 20 years of experience in interactive entertainment with companies like Electronic Arts. She was co-founder and COO of pogo.com, the largest online casual games community acquired by EA in 2001. In the same year she received the Superstar award from Ad Age. Lesley speaks regularly on the power of online to democratize philanthropy. She is a powerful advocate around issues like women’s entrepreneurship and child sex trafficking in the US. Her board positions have included The Leukemia and Lymphoma Society, The Leadership Institute for the Ecology and the Economy and Women’s Initiative for Self Employment.

Episode 72 of the Ending Human Trafficking Podcast is the continuing installment of episode 71: A Dozen Myths About Human Trafficking. The Polaris Project compiled a list of myths and misconceptions many believe about human trafficking and GCWJ Director Sandie Morgan and Westminster Police Department’s Deputy Chief Derek Marsh discuss these myths and misconceptions from Polaris…

World Footprints will take listeners on a journey that follows the North Star today.  Many Americans are familiar with the slave revolts led by John Brown and Nat Turner, but the story of the greatest act of slave resistance in American history took place in 1811 and has remained largely untold, until now.  Daniel Rasmussen, acclaimed author of American Uprising: The Untold Story of America’s Largest Slave Revolt has pulled back the curtain on a long neglected period in New Orleans and he joins World Footprints to discuss his research and provide a glimpse into the history of slavery in the South and our nation’s path to Civil War. Meet Bradley Myles, Executive Director of Polaris Project.  Named after the North Star that guided slaves towards freedom along the Underground Railroad, Polaris Project has been providing a comprehensive approach to combating human trafficking and modern-day slavery since 2002.  Polaris Project has created the National Human Trafficking hotline in order to combat human trafficking.  Finally, SEAsoned chef Victoria Allman shares what it’s like to live on a super-yacht that cruises the oceans and docks in exotic ports around the world in her book, SEAsoned: A Chef’s Journey with her Captain.  Victoria offers a first-hand account of her journey as a yacht chef with her husband Patrick on his first assignment as Captain.  From comical adventures with inexperienced crew, and dysfunctional passengers to the violent storm, rapidly flooding engine room and great mouth-watering recipes, SEAsoned offers a great adventure & cookbook.

The Polaris Project compiled a list of myths and misconceptions many believe about human trafficking, particularly what is human trafficking, who are the victims, and how victims are identified. GCWJ Director Sandie Morgan and Westminster Police Department’s Deputy Chief Derek Marsh discuss these myths and misconceptions of human trafficking. Deputy Chief Marsh worked  on Orange…

World Footprints will take listeners on a journey that follows the North Star today.  Many Americans are familiar with the slave revolts led by John Brown and Nat Turner, but the story of the greatest act of slave resistance in American history took place in 1811 and has remained largely untold, until now.  Daniel Rasmussen, acclaimed author of American Uprising: The Untold Story of America’s Largest Slave Revolt has pulled back the curtain on a long neglected period in New Orleans and he joins World Footprints to discuss his research and provide a glimpse into the history of slavery in the South and our nation’s path to Civil War. Then, Bradley Myles, Executive Director and CEO of Polaris Project joins World Footprints.  Named after the North Star that guided slaves towards freedom along the Underground Railroad, Polaris Project has been providing a comprehensive approach to combating human trafficking and modern-day slavery since 2002.  Polaris Project has created the National Human Trafficking hotline in order to combat human trafficking.  Finally, meet SEAsoned chef Victoria Allman.   Many people have wondered what it’s like to live on a super-yacht that cruises the oceans and docks in exotic ports around the world and Victoria Allman tells all in her new book, SEAsoned: A Chef’s Journey with her Captain.  Victoria joins World Footprints to offer a first-hand account of her journey as a yacht chef with her husband Patrick on his first assignment as Captain.  From their comical adventures with their inexperienced crew, and dysfunctional passengers to the violent storm, rapidly flooding engine room and great mouth-watering recipes, SEAsoned offers a great adventure & cookbook.  

Human trafficking is "modern-day slavery." And if you think it isn’t happening near you, think again. The United Nations estimates nearly 2.4 million people may be the victims of this crime. Lawyer2Lawyer co-hosts and attorneys, Bob Ambrogi and Craig Williams take a legal look at this troubling issue with Professor Bridgette Carr from the University of Michigan Law School, Attorney Ann Johnson from Houston, Texas and Mary C. Ellison, Director of Policy for Polaris Project.

Suffolk University, Suffolk University Law School, Boston, Sex Trafficking, Film and Law, Polaris Project, Human Rights Law, International Human Rights of Women, Brattle Theatre, Sex Trafficking Victims, Domestic Sex Trafficking, Prostitution

[IT] 3DDRESD: Talk di presentazione del progetto BiRF all'interno del gruppo Polaris, con particolare attenzione al lavoro di tesi di Marco svolto presso la UIC

[IT] 3DDRESD: Talk di presentazione del progetto TAM all'interno del gruppo Polaris, con particolare attenzione al lavoro di tesi di Massimo svolto presso la UIC