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In this episode of Art of the Kickstart, we interviewed the MAÄT 1.0 Legging co-founders, Beth Godfrey and Fiona Devaney. The MAÄT 1.0 Legging is a yoga legging with built-in padding to protect your knees so that every yoga practice can be seamless and distraction-free. Designed with the fit and flexibility of wetsuit padding and the edgy aesthetic of motorcycle gear, the MAÄT 1.0 Legging provides comfort and is made to flatter. Learn how Beth and Fiona raised over $37,000 for their Kickstarter campaign with the support of over 220 backers. Topics Discussed and Key Crowdfunding Takeaways How Fiona's background inspired the design of the MAÄT 1.0 Legging The different ways Beth and Fiona drew inspiration during the design process How the MAÄT 1.0 Legging's Kickstarter campaign transpired Fiona's thoughts on pursuing entrepreneurship An inside look into the product design of the MAÄT 1.0 Legging Links MAÄT 1.0 Legging's Kickstarter Campaign MAÄT 1.0 Legging's Preorder Link Let My People Go Surfing: The Education of a Reluctant Businessman by Naomi Klein The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle Sponsors Art of the Kickstart is honored to be sponsored by The Gadget Flow, a product discovery platform that helps you discover, save, and buy awesome products. The Gadget Flow is the ultimate buyer's guide for cool luxury gadgets and creative gifts. Click here to learn more and list your product - use coupon code ATOKK16 for 20% off! Transcript View this episode's transcript Roy Morejon: Welcome entrepreneurs and startups to art of the kickstart, the podcast that every entrepreneur needs to listen to before you launch. Roy Morejon: I'm your host, Roy Morejon, president and founder of Enventys Partners. The world's only turnkey product launch company that has helped over 2000 innovations successfully raise over $400 million in capital since 2010. Each week I interview a crowdfunding success story, an inspirational entrepreneur or a business expert, in order to help you take your startup to the next level. This show would not be possible without our main sponsor ProductHype. A 300,000 member crowdfunding media site and newsletter, that's generated millions of dollars in sales for over a thousand top tier projects since 2017. Check out producthype.co to subscribe to the weekly newsletter. Now, let's get on with the show. Roy Morejon: Welcome to another edition of art of the kickstart. Today. I'm super excited because I am talking with co-founders Beth Godfrey and Fiona Devaney. They are the co-founders of MAAT Legging. This campaign actually just launched, so they're super stressed out, but super excited. So I'm really excited to have you guys on the show and talk about this amazing product. So Beth and Fiona, thank you so much for joining us today on the show. Fiona: Thank you for having us. Beth: Yeah, thanks for having us. Roy Morejon: All right. So like I said, you guys just click the button. So how does it feel? Fiona: Relief. I mean, it's exciting, but I feel relief because I mean, Beth is on the west coast, but she was working later. We both worked till really late, just double checking, triple checking, and then this morning got back at it. So it just feels good. I think I'm speaking for all of us. We feel like we did the best we could. We checked everything. We took our time. We did our research and it feels good for me. And I think it's the same for you, Beth? Beth: Yeah, I learned more than I ever thought I could about dimensional weight and international shipping and how that all works. So that's been great. Roy Morejon: Nice. Beth: [inaudible 00:02:13]. Roy Morejon: Let's jump in I guess a little bit and give our audience a little bit of background, right? We're getting ahead of ourselves because we're so excited about the launch, which is active right now on Kickstarter. But let's talk about the product.

"Give her the 'D'!!!!!" ~ Beth, Sex CheerleaderHave you and your partner talked about having a threesome? 2/3 of our show have had one and you know what? Just the discussion of the possibility can be a really hot time, you know? So Beth, Tina and Aaron devoted an entire episode to it, covering lots of randomness including:2 poles, one hole

Hey all - So Beth is out sick this week so I decided to put out one of our Patreon episodes to preview what it is that we do over there. This is Episode 6 - Reefer Madness with Tabby and I think you'll enjoy it. Cheers!Support the show (https://www.patreon.com/TheNostalgiaGroup)

What your all here for - Joining us today is Beth McKenzie; IRONMAN & 70.3 Champion, Chief Creator of Wyn Republic and Malo Republic triathlon apparel lines, mother of two and wife to Pro triathlete Luke McKenzie and SHE. Has just announced she’ll be doing her FINAL Pro Triathlon race in Challenge Roth This summer. With a legendary lineup expected here at Challenge Roth this summer Beth has been training harder now more than ever to make her last race an epic one and I am excited to have her here to talk about it! This will be her first-time racing Challenge Roth BUT this isn’t her first time at the event. Back in 2014 she watched her husband Luke compete in the pro field from the sidelines with her 6-week-old daughter. If any of you watched We are Triathletes movie on Challenge Roth then you’ll recognize Luke was one of the athletes they highlighted in the movie and followed him along his journey to Roth! So for the first time listeners, a bit of a backstory here with the Road to Roth Series – at the beginning of August 2019 I announced that I’ll be doing my first full distance triathlon at Challenge Roth in 2020, and since then, I found that a lot of listeners were actually on a similar path; whether it was with Roth or another race; but they too were on their crazy journey to their first full distance triathlon and looking forward to hearing content specific to the full distance! Of course, never having actually done the distance before, I figured everyone could benefit the most in a series where I interview top professional triathletes and coaches that will be able to provide a ton of training tips specific to the full distance as well as give us the motivation and insight we need to help us maximize our performances come race day! So Beth has joined us here today as we delve into her thoughts and anticipation on what could be one of the most memorable races of her career. This will be her final pro triathlon race and she is aiming for a speedy sub-9 hour goal so I hope you join me in cheering her on and sending her positive vibes and warm wishes for her race! Some other themes we explore include her incredible story behind her triathlon & athletic-wear apparel brands, training throughout pregnancy, getting into triathlon without a swimming background in her late 20’s, and we even go over some sound training advice and motivation that you can use for your next race! This is an awesome podcast episode so I hope you enjoy it as much as I did; and now… let’s get into it!

Of course, we all want a healthy bank account. Having a good amount of dollars within easy grasp is helpful in the case of emergencies or for medium-sized purchases where you don’t want to have to liquidate assets. But is it counterproductive to have too much cash on hand? We’ll explore that idea and other pressing questions about the role that cash plays in financial and retirement planning. Important Links Website: http://www.yourplanningpros.com Call: 844-707-7381 ----more---- Transcript Of Today's Show: Speaker 1: Hey everybody, welcome in to Plan With The Tax Man. Thanks for tuning into our podcast. As always, with Tony Mauro talking about all things investing, finance, retirement, taxes, all that good stuff here on the show. As always, we appreciate your time. And Tony, buddy, what's going on? How are you? Tony Mauro: I'm good. Glad to be back from the holidays and getting busy. Speaker 1: I know, yeah, it's been hectic already. So we are in, this is our first, technically, this is our first podcast of the new year. So obviously the new year kicked off a little heavy, a little busy. So lots to catch up on and get into. We've got several things we're going to talk about. But before we jump into our main topic, let me ask you a question. Speaking of the new year, IRS contribution limits changed. Tony Mauro: Yeah. Speaker 1: So let's discuss that real quick. $6,000 for any type of IRA, 7,000 to 50 and older. Correct? Is that right? Tony Mauro: That is correct. Speaker 1: What else have we got? Tony Mauro: We've also increased the limits for the 401ks and some other retirement plans. Speaker 1: Okay. Tony Mauro: They're doing a $500 increase. 19,500, and then if you're 50 plus, all the way up to 26,000. And they've also bumped up the contributions on the Seps and the Simples and even the HSA. So, I would encourage everybody to check with their financial advisor or their tax man or woman to see what those are. Because those are an important piece of hopefully what you're doing to save for retirement. Speaker 1: Yeah. And it seems like they do this, what, about every other year it seems like we're touching on the fact that it's $500 bumps or so. Because I don't think it was last year, was it? Tony Mauro: They didn't do much last year, but generally they're doing something every year, just bumping them up for probably just inflationary purposes. Speaker 1: Right. Tony Mauro: Which, like I say, for those of us that are at or near those limits, I always encourage people that if they can to, you bump yours up too. Speaker 1: Right, right. Tony Mauro: Bump up the limits. Yeah. Speaker 1: Yeah. And a lot of times people feel like they're maybe behind the eight ball. I think we all get to let's say 50 and we're like, "Yeah, I probably should be putting more away." While it may not necessarily set you for retirement, let's say for the example of the 26,000 if you're 50 plus. I mean if you did that for the next 10 to 15 years, let's say from 50 to 65, that's a pretty good chunk of change you're able to put away. Tony Mauro: True. It sure is. You take the 260 and then you add a little bit of some sort of reasonable rate of return to that. And yeah, by 65 it's going to be well worth your time and effort to do that. It, more than likely if it's invested properly, diversified and all that, it's going to be well worth more than the 260 that you started with. So. [Crosstalk 00:02:33]. Speaker 1: I mean, you're probably somewhere, what, 300 to maybe 450, maybe even a half a million dollars depending on how it's invested and how the markets do over that time obviously. But certainly half a million dollars goes a long way towards a healthy retirement. Tony Mauro: It goes a long way. Speaker 1: That's [crosstalk 00:02:47]. Tony Mauro: I tell you once I turned 50 you really start thinking about that more than you ever have. So. Speaker 1: Very true. Very true. All right, so folks, again, the contribution limits have increased yet again. So, if you are not working with Tony and you're checking out the podcast, give him a call and see how he can help you out with getting yourself planned correctly for retirement. That's what he does at Tax Doctor Inc. Of course, he is an EA and a certified financial planner as well. Speaker 1: All right, so let's get into our main topic on this first one here, our podcast today. And we are going to talk a little bit about good old cash. Good old Benjamins. You've got to like the Benjamins. Tony Mauro: You've always got to like having a lot of cash. Most people wish they had more. Speaker 1: Oh, very true. All right, so we all want a healthy bank account, right? We all feel that definitely. I mean I get it. And we all have like this, I don't know, it's like a magical number that somehow seems to exist in each person's head that they want to see in their savings account or in their... Whatever, right? Like, "Oh, I don't feel comfortable if I don't have X dollars." Or whatever the case might be. And of course, like you said, we always want more. Speaker 1: But it can be counterproductive, especially again, from our standpoint here on the podcast, we're typically talking to retirees and pre-retirees. So, too much cash can get you in a little bit of trouble there because it's, not necessarily trouble, but it's just not being effective. It's not doing as much as you'd like it to do. Speaker 1: So, with that in mind, what are some of the possible uses of cash that make it a good idea to have that sufficient amount on hand? And are we talking about simply an emergency fund, Tony? Are we talking about above that where we're just, it's basically just sitting there doing nothing. Tony Mauro: Well, I think we're talking about above that. What I've seen in most people is the first thing they'll do is say, "Well, I do have a savings account." But it's just one account and that's supposed to cover their emergency fund when things break down in the house, their vacations, their Christmas fund. And so to me, I think it's more important to break off into separate accounts for every little thing. You should have your emergency fund in one account that should be funded for, if you are working, the emergency happens, you lose your job. Speaker 1: Gotcha. Tony Mauro: You've got to have living expenses for so long. But you should break up your "home repairs" fund, your travel fund, and then fund those just like you were in your own little mini business. So that way you know how much you've got to have in each of those every year, so that you don't have to stress out about when the dishwasher goes out or you want to take a vacation. Things like that. Tony Mauro: So I think the more of those you have and can fund properly over time, you're going to be much less stressed about cash. Now above those things, I don't think you should have just another, say, 40, 50... I've seen people with as much as $100,000 sitting in a checking or savings because there's just no earnings on them. Speaker 1: Yeah. And that's the counterproductive side, right? It's just basically you're losing money safely. Tony Mauro: Yeah. You're losing money safely. And if you've got all those other things covered, you probably should move that into something that at least gets you a little bit of earnings. Even if it's a CD money market, some short term type of thing. Speaker 1: Right. Yeah. I mean because when was the last time anybody had $100,000 emergency? I mean, I guess some people do depending on your lifestyle, but still. Yeah, that's not, I mean, and again, I get it. There's an emotional component to looking at it and going, "I just feel better seeing X number of dollars." Speaker 1: So that begs the question then, how much is an appropriate amount to have? I know it varies from person to person. Is there, I don't know, is there... I know for emergency funds sometimes some people will say 6 months worth or 12 months worth of expenses should you lose your job or whatever. I don't know. What's your thoughts? Tony Mauro: Well, my thoughts for emergency fund, it really runs along the general consensus with most planners is 3 to 6 months of your living expenses for an emergency fund. The key there though is that should only be for emergencies. We shouldn't be tapping that for vacations and my car breaks down. Because I think you should have a separate fund for that and that should be, everybody's different but 5, 7, $8,000 in that one, just to cover things that come up. Then beyond that, again, I'm a big different funds guy. I'm the old Dave Ramsey, the old envelope system. I like to have a fund for everything and a little bit gets allocated to each one and then I'm covered. Speaker 1: Right. Tony Mauro: But most people don't think like that but I try to get them to think like that. Because then that way once you have all that covered, you shouldn't really have a lot of cash on hand other than to pay your expenses and go out and I call it have fun with. Speaker 1: Now I hear people say stuff like any other investment, no more than 5 or 10%. You'll hear things like that as well. Tony Mauro: Right. Speaker 1: Does that fall in that same line? Okay, so you've got your buckets for your different things, emergencies and whatnot. And then additionally, sitting in cash, let's be smart and not do more than 5% or so, because again, it's not working hard for you if you have much more than that. It's just sitting there. Tony Mauro: That's right. I generally use between the 5 and 10 when we're doing planning. After, if we can get clients to use the different buckets and/or envelopes, then yeah, after that you've got enough to pay your bills every month. And you have a little bit of a cushion just in case. Then the rest should be working for you somehow. Speaker 1: Okay. Well I'm going to jump to this last question here because I think the other one we've already answered. So for maybe a client or a potential client, Tony, that comes in and talks with you, who's gotten used to having a large amount. Let's say that $100,000 person we were just talking about. And you're trying to talk with them about, okay, this is just too much sitting there. What's a way they can invest more efficiently without necessarily giving themselves a heart attack because they're watching... Let's say they're jumping into the market right now, obviously when it's new highs every other day it seems like. What's some smart ways to maybe peel that ridiculously too much cash back? Any ideas there, something you can share with us? Tony Mauro: Well, I would say the first thing is, of course, before you even put the money in, is decide on some conservative type of investment, if you will, just to get started. Of course, and everybody's different, it depends on their goals and their risk appetite and all that. But all that being aside and once you have that determined, really, I still like the old fashioned dollar cost averaging, so that depending on what you are going into, you're not just throwing $100,000, let's say into a bond fund for example. Speaker 1: Right. Tony Mauro: And then all of a sudden rates go up and the prices of the bond fund go down and then you can't figure out what happened. And that's, again, too much stress. We have all this stuff coming at us already every day. We don't need that. So that's what I recommend, is just going slow and especially in high markets, like you said, no reason to just jump on in. Speaker 1: Well, it's, what is the adage, how do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time. Tony Mauro: A little bite. Yes. Speaker 1: Yeah. So same thing. If you do have way too much cash sitting there, don't just, and you're working with an advisor and they're deciding to do that, yeah, like you said, don't maybe just go ahead and just break it all down. Do things gradual too. Because that will help you deal with the stress or the would be "heart attack" of seeing it all go down. It's not necessarily going down, it's just going into different, hopefully, allocations and investment vehicles that are just going to make it work a little harder for you. Because I mean, interest rates are still, let's be honest, they're still pretty much garbage. Tony Mauro: Yeah. Speaker 1: So, you're not getting anything at the bank, right? Tony Mauro: No. You're not getting anything there. And we talk about, a lot about having it work for you, but at the same time preservation of principal, return of principal is, at least for most of our clients, is the number one goal. Speaker 1: Right. Yeah, I was talking with somebody a while back and they were talking about, they look at their money as different types of... Well how did they word that? Kind of different groupings of the military, like the soldiers, if you will. And each soldier, each division of money has its job to go out and conquer, so on and so forth, and be effective in recruiting more soldiers. So making more money basically. Right? Speaker 1: So you want to have jobs... Your money needs to have a job just like you have a job. What's its job, what's it doing and is it being effective in growing? And of course, some of that stuff's going to sit there. But again, if you have too much, you have what we call lazy money and you're just losing purchasing power and all that kind of stuff. Speaker 1: So that's the idea of not getting too enamored with the Benjamins. We all like looking at him, that's for sure. But we want to make sure that we're being effective and not just having too much cash, and it's sitting around not doing us any good. Speaker 1: So that was our main topic this week on the podcast with Tony. If you've got questions or concerns, as always, make sure you check them out online. You can go to yourplanningpros.com. That is yourplanningpros.com. Subscribe to this podcast while you're there at Google, Spotify, iHeart, Stitcher, lots of different platforms that you can choose from. We make it easy for you to hopefully share that as well as subscribe. And if you do have questions, always, always, always check with a qualified professional before you take any action. And you can call Tony if need be at 844-707-7381. That's 844-707-7381. Speaker 1: All right, my friend, now I've got an email question here before I let you go this week from Beth in West Des Moines. And Beth says, "Tony, I could sell the house right now for a half million and I only owe a thousand, a hundred thousand, excuse me on that. So, and I'm 57 but I'm thinking about selling it, downsizing and then using that extra cash, roughly 400,000 or so to retire now. Is that a bad idea? Tony Mauro: Well, I would say without knowing any more facts right off the top, yes. I wouldn't agree with that idea at all. Speaker 1: Okay. Tony Mauro: But there could be other extenuating circumstances. But off the top of my head, so you sell it for 500, you owe 100, so you're going to net 400,000. Granted, assuming she's lived there for two of the last five years, the gain's not going to be taxable. So throwing that aside, your first inkling is well, 400,000, that sounds pretty good. But at 57 there's a lot of life left [crosstalk 00:00:13:09] Speaker 1: A lot of retiring years, yeah. Tony Mauro: Yeah, ahead of you. And even if you can put that money to work at let's say 4 or 5%, that's going to be depleted, assuming you live to 75, 80 years old, which is the norm these days. So, if it were me... And then we're not even addressing the fact that you've got to put some of that money maybe into another place, unless you go back into a mortgage, which I don't particularly like. So I don't know how much you'd even have there to even invest. It sounds good right off the top, but I think there's more to think about there and I would definitely get some advice on that. Speaker 1: Yeah. And there's, I mean, granted she doesn't mention, we have no idea if she has any other savings set aside or retirement accounts, a 401k. We're assuming that maybe she probably does. Tony Mauro: Right. Speaker 1: So there's probably some other things in there. So definitely need some more information. And the one piece that I would definitely toss out there, Beth, as well as what are you going to do from a medical standpoint from 57 to 65? Tony Mauro: Exactly. Exactly. I mean, if you're retiring from somewhere you can't get on Medicare, so you're going to have to- Speaker 1: That's 8 years, man. Tony Mauro: ... go out and purchase insurance. Speaker 1: That's a long time. Yeah. Tony Mauro: It's expensive and so you're going to have to take that into account. So again, you've got to plan all that out and take all that into account. And then if it's still a good idea, if you think it is, then you can make that decision with all the facts. Speaker 1: Well, and Beth, you may already have answers to some of these, you just didn't share those with us. So based on this information, I would definitely say talk with your advisor and spend more time chatting about that. And look at all your numbers or reach out to Tony as well. Speaker 1: And I was thinking about it, we mentioned the medical side, Tony, it's so funny now that things are so out of skew. Remember how it used to be that if you said, "Well, I'm going to have to do COBRA for a certain amount of time." You're like, "Oh my gosh, it's going to be so crazy expensive." Isn't it wild that COBRA is not the craziest option now because things are so out of control. Isn't that nuts? Tony Mauro: It's crazy. I think, we still have to fix this- Speaker 1: Oh no, for sure. Tony Mauro: ... as a nation because it's just, it's out of control. Speaker 1: Mm-hmm (affirmative). Yeah. I was looking at some stuff the other day and it was somebody was pointing out that COBRA's not the worst option. I was like, "Wow, who would've thought that?" Tony Mauro: Yeah. Speaker 1: So there you go. So Beth, all right, so check into those things. Definitely the medical side as well, because eight years is a long time to not have something in place. Speaker 1: All right, so that's our show for this week. Thanks so much for tuning in to Plan With The Tax Man. As always, please, please, please subscribe to the podcast. We certainly would appreciate it. Share the message with someone who might benefit from that as well. That's just basically sharing the podcast with them and see if they can enjoy a little, a few nuggets of useful information that we do here from time to time on the podcast. Speaker 1: And Tony, my friend, thanks so much. I'll catch you in a couple of weeks. I hope you have a good one. Tony Mauro: All right, take care. Speaker 1: We'll talk to you next time here on Plan With The Tax Man with Tony Mauro, Des Moines' professional alternative at Tax Doctor Inc. Don't forget to go to yourplanningpros.com. That's yourplanningpros.com.

Modern Agile stickers everywhere are helping Modern Agile stick.  Dean Chanter of Capital One recalls his Accidental Experiment with Modern Agile (cake for every release!).  Bob and Dean talk through the power of the laptop sticker, evolving and “upskilling” ScrumMasters, and Lean roots.   Transcript Bob Payne: [00:00:05] Hi I'm your host Bob Payne and i'm here with Dean Chanter and Dean you're from, You're at Cap One.   Dean Chanter: [00:00:11] Yeah, Currently at Cap One.   Bob Payne: [00:00:14] You're doing some work with scaled Agile and you're saying you sort of accidentally started applying Modern Agile. I'm super curious about that journey.   Dean Chanter: [00:00:25] I did it was very interesting so I joined Capital One about seven months ago, was with Intel for about 13 years before that, and when I first got to Capital One everybody had a Modern Agile sticker on their laptop there was actually a bunch on my desk. So I just slapped one on my laptop. I had heard about it before I got the Capital One but Intel was a big SAFehouse and so that was kind of how we did things there and made a lot of sense and so, maybe three or four months ago, my gallbladder decided that it no longer needed to be in my body and so's listening to Josh's podcast and listen to things and he and John Cutler were talking.   Bob Payne: [00:01:02] Okay, yeah I've had Josh on my podcast.   Dean Chanter: [00:01:04] Yeah. So Josh asked John -he's like What do you think about Modern Agile. What do you mean to you. And John was like you know what. It really makes me feel like we can try anything and we don't have to stick to one framework another. And I realized then that some of the things I have been doing it kept on with my teams was just that right. I had a lot of teams that were Scrum Teams and Kanban teams and we had ARTs so we had you know single teams but they needed... They were looking for a refresh right.   Dean Chanter: [00:01:37] You know some new ways of thinking about things that we brought in things like product discovery. We started looking at cycle time. Right. We just we started celebrating everything. Right. We had cake for every release we had you know just how.   Bob Payne: [00:01:54] Dangerous when you're a real DevOps...   Dean Chanter: [00:01:56] Exactly. Exactly. Well that was one of the things we went from releases that were on average and they say average because it wasn't a true cadence of about six to eight weeks. We're now releasing twice a week. OK. You know just because of trying to setting audacious goals right. Right. Using that we want to really use more frequently. Right. And once we set that goal we started working through the different things and different challenges that it takes to get through. We actually even if we don't have content for release on a particular day that we're supposed to be released, we'll still do the release. The reason is is because it allows us to go through those motions right and should identify more ways to we found things by doing that that maybe we should leave - blue green releases right. So maybe we should leave green up a little bit longer so we could fail back if we need to. Eventually, you know the goal there is eventually getting to where we could do continuous delivery if we wanted to.   Bob Payne: [00:02:56] Yeah. That's great. So I'm so curious how you got the big batch of stickers. Did Josh come to CapOne and.   Dean Chanter: [00:03:03] He did.   Bob Payne: [00:03:04] Okay.   Dean Chanter: [00:03:05] So Josh came to camp while he was a keynote speaker. CapOne does a technology agile conference internally once a year.   Bob Payne: [00:03:13] I've spoken that years back yeah.   Dean Chanter: [00:03:15] I wasn't there for that yet but that's how the stickers ended up on my desk. So.   Bob Payne: [00:03:21] Yeah I have been doing a series of of of talks using modern agile as a sort of framework to look at Lean and depending on where I go and how how I either call it. "No one gives a shit about your practices" or "disrupting the cult of the cult of practices". I'm a scrum trainer but fundamentally believe that scrum is a starting place and the goal is not to like do scrum. The goal is to get into this. You know this idea of experimentation learning and changing and and so you know I was an old XP extreme programmer guy. So you know I've known Josh for a long time and you know that talk really. It was actually that sticker was the deflowering force.. It's probably not appropriate to say but I had always had Virgin Macs with no stickers on them until that one made it on my last Mac.   Dean Chanter: [00:04:31] That was the first sticker I put on my cowpat on issue laptops. Have it if you have a habit of putting stickers on stuff for me is like yeah I'm fine. I agree. I agree. You know that's actually one of the things so I do manage a group of Scrum Masters right, and ScrumMaster is fhe title that Capital One gives them you know I looked at, look at them more than just that, right? They're team coaches, I've got a couple that work as a scaled coach right? As well, and so-   Dean Chanter: [00:05:05] That was one of the things that we spent a day together back in March you know kind of strategizing you know our improvement areas that we wanted to go with the team right. And so that's one of the things that I mentioned to them right is that you know if you look at it from that Modern Agile lens you know then I'm asking you to balance that coaching and the delivery right and ,. And one of the things we talked about is like sometimes as you know agile coaches all too often want to wait for that big moment and that big huge coaching opportunity, that next retro or their next delivery, right? So one of the things I talk to them about is sometimes coaching in the moment and being a player with your teams is actually the best opportunity for that coaching moment. I actually got one of my Scrum Masters now who is actually a performer on the release. So since we've got teams that are applying good DevOps practices right the teams are the performers on the release and so she's actually the performer. What.. and the reason for that is that it allows him to have an extra person separation of duties or his since she's not coding that she can have that access to that prod environment. But it's a lot harder to identify a lot of areas of waste that the teams were seeing because she's got that different lens.   Bob Payne: [00:06:20] And when you get when you get even further down the dev ops path you'll be able to deploy without access to prod.   Bob Payne: [00:06:27] Exactly. Have an auditable..   Dean Chanter: [00:06:33] Yes. That is the goal.   Bob Payne: [00:06:35] Yeah.   Dean Chanter: [00:06:36] But in the meantime it's allowed the ScrumMaster to provide value in ways that they haven't in the past.   Bob Payne: [00:06:43] Right, You know just you know I like to poke at stuff. It's kind of what I do.   Dean Chanter: [00:06:50] Oh yeah.   Bob Payne: [00:06:52] So you were working with. Well my friend Beth Wong.   Dean Chanter: [00:06:58] Yes. So that's another interesting thing. So Beth and I are actually kind of paired together with the teams that we're working with. OK so where I'm providing that more tactical delivery focused management of the scrummasters, Beth is actually paired with me as a true coach. Right. And so she doesn't have that accountability to the product. And so she she and I are able to do things that having a single RTE in a scaling house wouldn't be able to do. So Beth is able to run workshops and you know she was able to bring in someone and worked with them and that's how we started our lean product discovery is because I was able to stay focused and she was able to coordinate those types of workshops. Another thing that Beth is is able to do. She's actually run in a technical coach and so that's one of the ways that we're accelerating that automated release goal that we have for this.   Bob Payne: [00:08:00] Yeah. Yeah. I loved working with Beth and I know she's she's excited to be the guys now.   Dean Chanter: [00:08:05] So yes it's a great partnership.   Bob Payne: [00:08:08] Yeah. Super. So what else is exciting for you lately?   Dean Chanter: [00:08:13] I mean definitely as we're evolving you know our scrum masters you know and what we call upskilling them. Right.   Bob Payne: [00:08:21] So we've got some folks on my team that you knew six seven years ago as CapitalOne went through its original agile journey right went to see some class and you know they're great at following those rules.   Bob Payne: [00:08:35] You probably are not aware of. In 2005 they started a huge agile journey.   Dean Chanter: [00:08:43] I've heard that.   Bob Payne: [00:08:44] It's been swept out and then.   Dean Chanter: [00:08:46] Exactly as a multiple and in depending on what Capital One is a large organization depending.   Bob Payne: [00:08:52] Are we talking card?   Dean Chanter: [00:08:53] So I'm in card, right. Exactly. So different journeys there but the teams I've been working with I've been five or six years is kind of about as far as they can look back.   Bob Payne: [00:09:05] Right.   Dean Chanter: [00:09:05] And so again kind of going back to that me asking my team to be that more player coach. So we're looking at different ways of kind of seeing the way the teams work right. Right now they're working through Mary Poppendick's original book.   Bob Payne: [00:09:22] Yeah.   Dean Chanter: [00:09:23] Right. So one of the interesting things about me and my journey started with Intel and so Intel being also not only a product development team but also a manufacturing to Jamie Flinchbaugh in the intel years and years ago long before I started there.   Bob Payne: [00:09:40] Right right.   Dean Chanter: [00:09:40] And turn into a lean house.   Bob Payne: [00:09:42] Right.   Dean Chanter: [00:09:42] And so   Bob Payne: [00:09:44] Lean manufacturing. It's always ironic to me that many of the organizations that do really amazing lean logistics are lean manufacturing and I'm not saying this about Intel because I don't actually have firsthand knowledge. They look at agile they're like you know we can't do that. That's not it's not you know it is really ironic that it is they do have the same same roots.   Bob Payne: [00:10:10] You know clearly manufacturing is a different is a different thing than product development.   Dean Chanter: [00:10:18] Right.   Bob Payne: [00:10:19] And. But but lean product development has also been around for you know almost 75 years.   Dean Chanter: [00:10:27] Exactly. So and that's where my journey started right. Is is in then so. It's almost like if you talk to the folks at Toyota about Lean manufacturing right now. What is lean? this is jus t what I do. So, at Intel, for me that's what it was right. You know I.   Bob Payne: [00:10:43] They don't fetishize lean in the way that scrum teams fetishize Scrum.   Dean Chanter: [00:10:47] They don't.   Bob Payne: [00:10:53] My Precious Scrum.   Dean Chanter: [00:10:53] Exactly. Exactly. And so you know I you know we you know when I was running a team.   Bob Payne: [00:10:57] I'm the agile golem.   Dean Chanter: [00:10:59] yeah yeah yeah exactly. So when I was running at my first team team ride of developers and we had daily stand ups and we committed to you know we committed to the goal for that day and the next day we talked about you know how we go towards that goal right. Even if we were working on a bug right. We didn't commit to finishing the bug. We committed to the experiments that we were going to run that day. Right. So when I transitioned to Agile you know it just kind of made sense for me right now come in the CapitalOne that I think it's kind of flipping the coin. I feel like that's a lot of the things that we're working through as a team evangelist. At least in my area is bringing some of those thought patterns.   Dean Chanter: [00:11:41] Identifying the waste and running experiments right and less about any one particular process or and other. Metrics is another thing that we are bringing and doing which has been very interesting as well.   Bob Payne: [00:11:55] Cool experiment to learn rapidly.   Dean Chanter: [00:11:57] Absolutely.   Bob Payne: [00:12:00] And in fact the only one I have a little trouble explaining to executives is the make people awesome, because they don't care. Many of them don't. If they could go to the boards and saying yes we're we're we're we're selling the customer crap, we're torturing people and we've got higher revenues you know.   Dean Chanter: [00:12:25] And that's definitely a shame but.   Bob Payne: [00:12:27] It is. It is. But I've I've enjoyed I've enjoyed you know Josh's poke in the eye and you know I think it's going to stick.   Dean Chanter: [00:12:41] I think so too.   Bob Payne: [00:12:42] Yeah because it's a sticker because he often makes a joke how do you make. How do you make an idea stick? Turn it into a sticker.   Dean Chanter: [00:12:50] Turn it into a sticker I haven't heard him say that but I like that. Well I like what he's been saying lately. right. He was at LeanAgile US in February and I got a chance to see his keynote there right. He opened the keynote. Are you curious as I say that's what I took back to my team. Right. You know are we curious? You know and another one of the things he said there is I know have you identified a ceremony or practice on your team and just gotten rid of it to see what would happen. Right. And that's another one of the challenges that I gave to my team as well.   Bob Payne: [00:13:24] Yeah I mean you know Toyota doesn't.. They'll throw stuff out left and right that you know. Lean is the machine that eats itself to make itself better.   Dean Chanter: [00:13:37] Yes.   Bob Payne: [00:13:37] And I don't think Agile is there yet but that's that's one of my goals. So I really love you know he framed it in a way that pulled together many of the thoughts and conversations a lot of us had been having. And so I'm happy to carry that torch for him for a little while.   Dean Chanter: [00:13:58] I almost kind of I don't know if it came on the cusp of or maybe there has something to do with it but I feel like a lot of the fights that you see you know on Twitter or blog spaces you know around Scrum vs Kanban, estimates or not... I feel like a lot of that has calmed down recently. I don't know if it's if there's a correlation there. But at least for me that's what I see.   Bob Payne: [00:14:25] I think there's more correlation than causation would be my guess. I think people are just worried about you know foreign policy being run on Twitter. So no estimates or mob programming thing is just..it's like Oh my God I can't believe we were arguing about that stuff.   Dean Chanter: [00:14:40] Yeah maybe.   Bob Payne: [00:14:46] So thank you very much for coming in and appreciate it and hope you have a great talk.   Dean Chanter: [00:14:52] Yes. It was fun.   Bob Payne: [00:14:53] Great.  

Has the stupor worn off yet? Election Day was last Tuesday, and we'll be living with the results for years. But Beth Osborne, a former Hill staffer and U.S. DOT official now at Transportation for America, says the changes on the Hill are no big deal: Nothing was getting done anyway. So Beth, Jeff, and I examine the prospects for a new transportation bill. One is due in May, and it's a Republican House and a Republican Senate that will preside over it. Will lawmakers raise the specter of devolution of transportation funding to the states? Will they suggest that the Highway Trust Fund should just be used for highways? Of course they will! But the conversation won't end there.  Even the short-term extensions aren't as easy as they used to be, and that could make the politics of a long-term bill a little easier to manage. Some people blame the end of earmarks for the difficulty passing a bill, but Beth makes the point that you can't very well turn a transportation bill into a Christmas tree for every member of Congress when there's absolutely no money. We don't have a crystal ball, but here's everything you need to know to make an educated guess about how the next six months will play out -- this, and our coverage of the ballot initiatives, governors' races, Senate leadership shakeup, and the new top transportation Democrat in the House. Do you subscribe to this podcast yet? You've got three choices: iTunes, Stitcher, and the RSS feed.

Audio File:  Download MP3Transcript: An Interview with Beth Marcus Former Founder and CTO, Zeemote Date: January 22, 2010 Entrepreneurial Heroes Interview with Beth Marcus [music] Lucy Sanders: Hi, this is Lucy Sanders, I'm the CEO of the National Center for Women in Information Technology or NC WIT, and this is another in our podcast series with women who have started IT companies, very successful women I might add... Larry Nelson: Boy, I'll say. Lucy: ...that have started IT companies. With me Larry Nelson from W3W3.com. Hi Larry. Larry: Hi, I'm really happy to be here. This is going to be an exciting interview. Lucy: Well, and these interviews have been very well received at W3W3. Why don't you tell us a little bit about that. Larry: Well we host a special channel, "Heroes for NC WIT, " and we get a tremendous amount of traffic from, everything from small business owners to C level, high level executives from enterprise size companies and it's very interesting and the thing that we like about it so much it's really helping support a push for more young girls to get into IT. Lucy: Well, very good. Well, you know this interview is going to be no exception to our great interview series. Today we're talking with Beth Marcus, who is the CEO, the founding CEO of Playsmart, a new venture for her, she's a serial entrepreneur. She's founded a number of companies including Exos which she sold to Microsoft on the middle of nineteen nineties. And she is, I think easily one of the most technical people we've spoken to in this interview series with a history at MIT, and a PhD and patents and very, very impressive technical entrepreneur. Welcome Beth. Beth Marcus: Thank you. Lovely to be here chatting with you. Lucy: Well we are really interested first to find out a little bit about Playsmart, your new venture. And we understand it is really geared towards having safe environments for children on the Internet. Can you tell us more about it? Beth: Sure. It's a complete media solution for kids, ages one to eight. It allows them to be entertained, educated, connected to other family members around the world and allows the parents to control what's happening with the kids' interaction with those environments and make it totally safe. No commercials are passed to the kids. Once they get into the Playsmart system which can run on any PC or netbook they can't get out of it accidentally or otherwise and they can't get to any content or interaction that their parents don't pre-approve. Lucy: That's pretty interesting. Larry: Boy I'll say. I've got seven grandchildren, I'm happy to hear that. Beth: In fact, one of the features that some of our investors are interested in is Skyping to grandchildren that you can do through Playsmart. All you do is click on a picture of your grandparent and it makes the call for you. Lucy: Oh, that is really cool, you know. My mother's on Skype too and you know she, I mean I actually think the other end could use some help with that, you know? Larry: Yes, I agree. Beth: Yeah. Lucy: I mean she loves Skype. Beth: My daughter is how I got involved in this. I do a lot of advising of other start up CEO's and I thought I was going to be taking a break from being a CEO and just help a bunch of other people, and an entrepreneur came to me and said, you know, "Let me show you what I've got, " and it was for kids and I have a five year old. So I said, "Susie, let's play with this thing, " and she said, "Oh, this is so cool." You know and her interaction with it is what convinced me to get involved with the company and become a CEO. Lucy: You know, we've had a couple of people we've interviewed whose children have helped them form the idea for their next venture or at least encouraged them to get involved. That's really interesting. So Beth give our listeners a sense of how you first got into technology. I mean you have a very extensive technical background as I mentioned before. What first interested you in technology? Beth: A million years ago when I was in school I liked science and math and I played around with computers. And I'm probably going to give away my age, but wrote programs in Basic that ran on paper tape into a terminal. Lucy: I did that too. So don't feel bad. Beth: And then, I ended up going to MIT because they had a lot of interesting science and math. And what got me into more core technology was freshman year at MIT they have a seminar series that you do, typically in January and I took aluminum bicycle frame building because I loved bikes and I thought that would be cool. I had never seen a machine shop, I didn't know what welding was. I had never done any of the stuff and through that seminar I got fascinated by making stuff and ended up being in mechanical engineering. Lucy: Well and we noticed you were judge for First Robotics which I think further extend... Beth: Ten years, which is a lot of fun. Lucy: Yeah, you're love of making things. Larry and I both judge as well with First, so it's a great program. So what technologies do you look out there today across the technical space? What technologies do you find really cool and interesting today? Beth: Of course the last company I was in was the mobile space so I think the evolution of mobile devices into computers that you carry around with you is very interesting. I mean, when I started Zeemote in 2005, when I said, "These are the computers you're going to carry with you 24/7" the potential investors looked at me like I was from Mars. Larry: Yeah. Beth: And now people do. Lucy: They certainly do and in fact the number of people are looking at mobile devices as a real tool to help third world developing countries as well. Larry: Awesome. Beth: Well, they don't have land lines. Lucy: Exactly. Beth: And even though we have them, a lot of people don't use them anymore. Larry: Yeah, let me kind of switch gears here for a second. Two part related questions. One is, why are you an entrepreneur? And what is it about entrepreneurship that makes you tick? Beth: Well, I think it's a challenge. The first company I started, I remember we had built some high end controllers, exoskeleton controllers for robots in space for NASA and other people. And I got this idea that we ought to be able to take this technology and make it into a consumer product. And I was giving a talk at a Virtual Reality Conference and somebody from a not to be named defunct computer company said, "Well if you can't spend two hundred and fifty thousand dollars on a reality engine you shouldn't be doing VR." And I said, "We're going to do it on PC's and we're going to make a hundred dollar joystick and everyone's going to use them but they're not going to know that it's VR." And that sort of a challenge where somebody says, "Oh you can't do that." [laughter] Or even sometimes why would somebody want that. And then you put it in front of them and they go, "Oh wow. That makes my life easier"or "That makes my health better." You know. That exciting to me. Lucy: It's a very incredibly important point I think, you know, maybe I'll just digress a moment and say that you know there's always this tug of war in any corporation big or small between the business side and the technical side and often I think the business side can't necessarily see the power of technology until a technologist puts it in front of him. And... Beth: That's why I advise all the companies that I get involved with to get those prototypes built as quickly as possible with as little money as possible and get it into the hands of the end users. Because there's where you're going to find out are you smoking something and convincing yourself there's a market or does somebody really care about this. Lucy: Absolutely. Beth: And you learn so much that most entrepreneurs will tell you that the thing that they thought they were starting their company on is not the one they made money on. And it's the ones who iterate and spend time with the consumer whether they're a consumer or a corporate customer or whatever kind of customer, the ones that spend the time and listen to the customer are the ones that figure it out and succeed. Lucy: That is a really important point and I think, looking forward, we may have to ask you again a month from now but you know we do a Toolbox series as well and I think that it would be great to hear your advice for entrepreneurs because that advice around prototyping is excellent. Beth: I was going to be writing a book this year. Lucy: [laughs] Now you are running a company. Beth: Company...My God. I spent some time on it this summer capturing things like that and interviewing other entrepreneurs and then I said, "OK, I got to put this aside until I do this center and I'll come back again." Lucy: I think it will be fabulous because of your technical background. I'm sure you'd have some really valuable insights there. Beth: And I am a published poet. So... Right in the way that is intelligible to the rest of the world. Larry: So now there is a third interview. Lucy: A third... [laughs] Larry: A poetry. Lucy: Yeah. You are really digging yourself into a hole. So, along the lines of entrepreneurship, we found that many entrepreneurs can point to a particular person or a group of people who influence them or help them along their way as an entrepreneur. Who are your role models and how do they influence you? Beth: I think the first person who got me the sort of excitement at making stuff work was this professor in MIT Woody Flowers who was involved in the First Robotics Company. Lucy: Absolutely, I have seen him. I have never met him. Beth: But he was an early mentor of mine and I became a judge for this mechanical engineering design contest while I was still a student. And then that's sort of got me excited about the excitement of innovating and trying new things and testing your ideas. And then when I went to start my first company, I joined the MIT enterprise forum and there were a number of people there who I had no idea even what a business plan was. And I was going to write one to raise money. So I listened to other people talk about their businesses and I got some of those people to help me write my first business plan. And then later on, a man named Don Spero started a company called Fusion Systems down in the DC area that successfully flowed against the Japanese and the patent area. Kind of taught me about intellectual property and the value of it and also mentored me generally because of his long experience in running companies. And then when I was running Exos and I realized that I was out of my debts from a management point of view. I hired a guy named [indecipherable 10:03] to come in and run my company. And he became a mentor of mine and he is still to this day a friend. So all along the way, I think the lesson for an entrepreneur is to talk to anybody you can everywhere about what you are doing and try and connect with them because you never know when you are going to stand next to the person who is going to get you a deal like I did when I was in a party in MIT. And I stand next to Bob Metcalf who introduced me to the Logitech guys that told me what product to build for an Exos to get an exit. Or whether I am going to hire somebody who turns out to be my mentor and teach me about business that leaves the exit in the company. Larry: Wow. Beth, let me ask this question. First of all, you just mentioned about you are going to write a book this year but now you are running a company instead. It took me three years to write a book that I just had published called Mastering Change. So I just want to let you know that you can do that too. Beth: Yeah but I have a five year old and a puppy. Larry: Yeah, I got you. [laughs] Beth: So I said my daughter is most important, my business is second most important and the rest will just have to wait. Larry: There you go. I agree with that. Lucy: Although I could throw little barb in here and say Larry is a five year old but... [Larry clears his throat] Go ahead Larry I was... Beth: Anything about relationship in any of that. So? Lucy: [laughs] Larry: I have been married for 40 years. What are you going to do? Beth: Adolescence. I am not married so... If any of your listeners want to apply for the job, I take resumes. Larry: We make a little commission on this... Lucy: Yeah... [mumbles] Larry: Yeah. Speaking of all that stuff, what is the toughest thing that you ever had to do in your career? Beth: I think the first time I had to fire people was probably the worst moment because at Exos we started out as a medical company and we grew to a million and a half in revenues selling orthopedic rehab devices using our technology. And we realized we probably sold all the units that whatever be sold because we were teaching people how to turn on the computer not have a measure motions and force in patients. They didn't care about that. They use a plastic protractor and so we figured that out and we had to restart the company, went from 32 people down to about eight in one day. Lucy: That's tough. Beth: And I believe that I had helped outplace...anybody who wanted to be outplaced in great jobs elsewhere, and I am friends with some of the people who left the company at that point for years. And some of my hired again into other companies. I feel good about it. I remember at the end I closed my door and I just cried because these were my friends. Lucy: We hear that a lot from entrepreneurs. I think that is a very tough thing to...not just let people go but it is theirs loss and also downsizing the company and restarting it. That is all tough stuff. Beth: Yeah. Perhaps to tell you that I learned in that experience that if I had done it sooner, everybody would have been happier. Both the people who did not fit the business we are getting into and the investors and everybody would have done better. So, my advice to entrepreneurs is don't be afraid to hire but don't be afraid to fire the person who is the wrong person for the job. You are not doing them or you any favors by keeping them around if they are not working. Larry: Yeah. Lucy: It is the truth. We have learned that lesson unfortunately in the Telecom downsizing. Well that's great advice and it gets us to our next question about advice for young people about entrepreneurship and you have given us some perils already. And I wander around online and I found some presentation you made about naming your company. What I found was pretty interesting. Beth: That is a new one. [laughs] I give that to an MIT class because I am still on the faculty there. So occasionally faculty members will call me up and ask me to come, give lecture to their class and the senior mechanical engineering design class didn't have a clue how to name their product. So I came and I gave a lecture. Lucy: That's good. I can't wait for your book. And so, what kind of advice would you give to budding entrepreneurs that you haven't already told us? Beth: I think the most important thing that I talk to any entrepreneur that I coached from day one is why are you doing this? What are your personal goals? What are your financial goals? How does that fit with your family? And if you evaluate that first and write it down and keep it in front of you and then say, is what I am doing today serving my goals, the company's goals and my family's goals? And when those things start to not match, that is when you get into trouble. And if you don't bother to figure it out first, then you don't have a road map because I made this mistake. I ran a company called Glow Dog which was a failure. It was a failure because we were just about break even and about a million plus in revenue and our Christmas shipments were on the water on 911. We had just grown to the size where we need to manufacture in China instead of the United States in order to compete and they were in the container on the ocean and they could not get in the United States so there was no Christmas. And we had to sell the assets and fold the company because I didn't feel like there was going to be a return on investment if I brought in more capital. But what I didn't think about when I started that company was what was the right size for this business and did that kind of a business match what I personally wanted to do? It was just interesting. People loved the product. They were reflective coating for people and pets. And you walking your dog at night, you don't get run over, right? Well, it turned out our customers were fashion stores in Tokyo who liked the logo I designed. I didn't even know it was reflective and it was a 33% margin business in an industry that is not very protectable and that I had no expertise in. What was I doing, doing this business? So, I raised a bunch of money to make a big play, before I realized that this really was a brand company, not a technology company. I raised the right amount of money for a technology company to get launched, but it turned out technology didn't matter, and to make a brand like Tommy Hilfiger or Ralph Lauren, you need tens of millions of dollars. Lucy: Absolutely. Beth: ... and you need expertise, which I didn't have. So, if I had understood my own personal goals and what kind of a work environment I wanted, and what the end game looked like at the beginning, I probably wouldn't have made those mistakes. Because Glow Dog could have been a very profitable, between $2 and $10 million dollar clothing company and pet product company, if that was its goal. It wouldn't have raised as much money. It wouldn't have spent as much money, and it might still be around today. Larry: You obviously didn't know all your life that you were going to become an entrepreneur and since we're... Beth: I thought I was going to be an academic. Larry: There you go, see... Lucy: Well, you're that too, so there you go. Larry: A little change. Beth: So, I'm an academic. I play at academia. [laughter] Beth: I actually have on one occasion taken money from MIT to teach a class, and I realized that it was not for me. Because along with taking the money, comes a lot of faculty meetings and policies and procedures, and entrepreneurs don't really love those things. What's good about a company that's under 25 people is you don't need a huge amount of that stuff to be successful. Larry: Right. Beth: Some people are really good at structure and organization and detail, and that's not me. Larry: Not you, no. Well, then, what were the characteristics that made you really become a successful entrepreneur? We want to reach out this way, because we have many young people and employers and parents, who want to know what secrets they should look at when it comes to entrepreneurism. Beth: Certainly, like anything else it can be taught, and it can be learned over time. So, if you want to be an entrepreneur and you don't really understand what it is, go get a job or an internship with an entrepreneurial firm and get to know that person who started the company and watch them. Do it a couple of times. You'll learn whether it suits you or not. But in terms of what I think gives me an advantage; first of all, unbridled optimism to the point of stupidity at times. [laughter] Larry: I love it! Beth: You know, "You can't do that! You can't do that!" "Sure I can! Sure I can!" You know there is a limit, you beat your head against the wall a few times and you walk away, but hammering on and being tenacious at getting your objective. If it doesn't happen the way you think, you think of a second way. If it doesn't happen that way, you think of a third way. Maybe you don't end up accomplishing what you set out to do, but in the course of trying to accomplish it, you figure out where the real value is. So, it's a combination of being tenacious, and also being aware and being willing to change, and willing to take advantage of what God, the world, whatever, has presented to you in terms of opportunity. So, if you're trying to build widget A, and nobody wants widget A, but in order to make widget A, you had to make a fixture. And it turns out loads of people want that fixture, well go sell a fixture. Don't keep trying to sell a widget that nobody wants. Lucy: Exactly. I like that, 'unbridled optimism on the verge of stupidity.' I am just going to have to remember that one. Larry: I was looking in a mirror when you said that, yes. Beth: Also, you have to be able to learn from everybody around you. Lucy: That's totally right. Beth: Willing to talk about what you do in a pleasant way, not obnoxious, but to anyone who will listen. Because you never know where you're going to learn something, or who's going to have, "Gee. I know the guy who started that company that you want to have buy your company" or "Gee. I had a company like that, and we made this mistake" and so you can learn to avoid that mistake. Lucy: Absolutely. Beth: Or somebody you want to hire. And don't be afraid to hire people who know a lot more than you do. Lucy: Totally. Beth: It's a matter of risk right. If you're an investor, and I've done some investing as well, you look at what's the total risk package for this business. And anything, absolutely anything you can do to reduce the risk is a good thing. And so the more experience you have that's relative to the business you're in, even if you don't know it yourself or understand it. It's going to reduce that risk. Lucy: Well and that's great advice I think. It's all pointing towards another interview I think Larry. Beth: You could have me talking for days. Lucy: I know. No, no ...I've got all kinds of plans for you know now. So you've already mentioned to us that you are a published poet and we know you're a judge for many years with First Robotics. What else are you doing to bring balance into your professional and personal lives? Beth: Well, I mean it's a struggle. I mean I'm a single mom, so there is no such thing as balance in my life. But, I do things like, I've got a calendar I just printed out this morning because I wasn't sticking to my exercise routine. And just like my daughter gets stars for reading books and she turns it in at school every month. I'm going to have her help me put stars on my calendar for my exercise. Lucy: Oh, that's nice. Beth: And I have family dinner night, where I cut off work early usually on Fridays, so that I can cook a meal. And we can sit down and eat together because it doesn't happen that often. And when I was growing up that was something that was somewhat absent and I wanted my daughter to have that, and I wanted me to have that too. Because, there is this idea that, when I was in the beginning of my entrepreneurial career, I obsessed about the business 24/7 and drove myself nuts. You know, I hardly slept, and that's not the best way to be productive. As I've gotten older, I work smarter. And so I do everything that I can do to make every minute of my time incredibly effective. If I'm having a bad day and I'm not productive. I'm not going to hammer my head against the computer or the telephone, which is where most of my work happens. I'll go and do something nice for myself for an hour. You know, call a friend, go have a coffee, or do an errand I need for my home. Go do some food shopping and come back. And then I'm refreshed and renewed. I listen to books on tape at night as I'm falling asleep so that I can't think about business at night. I love novels and I love fiction. So that for me blocks out my ability to think business. Lucy: That's a great idea. Larry: Yeah, it really is, wow. You know Beth, you have achieved so much in so many different ways. Going back to your first company that you ended up selling to Microsoft and all the other Wins and that challenges along the way. You've achieved a lot what's up for you next? Beth: I would like to have a huge exit in Playsmart. So if anybody is listening who wants to buy a company like that, that's the goal. To build this to where there is enormous excitement about the product and many, many families are using it. And then get a bigger company with huge resources behind it. And then I'll be happy to step back, finish my book and invest and advise in others. Lucy: Wow, and we would love to see you write that book. Larry: Boy, I'll say. Lucy: That would be I mean great, great advice here and we thank you for taking time to talk to us. I want to remind those who are listening to this interview that they can find it at W3W3.com. Larry: That's right and we'll have it up also on our blog as well as our podcast directory so you can download it 24/7. Lucy: Well, I'm pleased to pass it... Beth: And if there are there any moms of kids interested in Playsmart. That's at Playsmart send me an email, I'll make sure you find out about a product when it's out this summer. Lucy: Absolutely, and we'll have that as well in the bio up on the site. So everybody can find it when they come to download the podcast. Very good, well thank you very much. Larry: Thank you. [music] Series: Entrepreneurial HeroesInterviewee: Beth MarcusInterview Summary: Beth Marcus has been Founder and CEO of several successful startups, most notably EXOS, Inc., which was venture-backed and sold to Microsoft in 1996. Since then she has been involved in 14 start-ups in a variety of fields as a founder, investor, or advisor. Release Date: January 22, 2010Interview Subject: Beth MarcusInterviewer(s): Lucy Sanders, Larry NelsonDuration: 24:00