Podcast appearances and mentions of tony hsieh what

Our Guest Aki Iido is the Head of Mobile at Zappos Family of Companies. He holds lead link roles to the mobile and engineering circles, as well as a CTO role. Here are the highlights of our conversation with our guest: Getting to know Aki’s background from being originally from Japan but born in Guatemala, having a Japanese dad and a mom from Central America. He also shares going to college in the US, getting a job in LinkExchange which was acquired by Microsoft, and his initial hesitations in joining Zappos. How Aki was led by his roommate, who was then a Computer Science major, to the engineering space. The pivots and transitions that he made when he worked in Zappos and some challenging things that they had encountered such as learning new systems and tools, and doing some back end work such as developing workhouses systems. Coming from this, Aki then shares the take aways that he learned from all the experience in modernizing the supply chain. How it is working the full gamut of the business from the internal to consumer-facing facets of the business. The big things that are prohibiting scaling in mobile and how he takes advantage of the new agonies and leverage on these experiences. The exciting aspects in working in the mobile team and the pros and cons in developing in two platforms, Android and iOS. Aki shares the biggest ability that you should have get the biggest return such as the need to look at the data, understanding where the user need is by reviewing your web server logs (how many visitors are checking your site is, what mobile devices do they use and what platform are they in) and using these to improve your user experience and make your decisions. Looking at data and seeing that most of the traffic is coming from mobile, Aki suggests what experiences retail should be natively building for a better web experience and how you should go about planning your strategy to have the least investment impact. Rapid Fire Questions What is your definition of innovation? Always look ahead. Embrace and drive change. Never be scared and try to have fun. Would you put more emphasis on the idea or the execution? How would you weigh each of them and why? If the execution is terrible, no matter how good your idea is, that’s not going to help you. Execution is 99% and 1% is idea. What is your biggest learning lesson on your journey so far? Apart from learning and solving problems, working with folks who are passionate in what they do, that’s when you see great things happen. What is your favorite business book? Delivering Happiness: A Path to Profits, Passion, and Purpose by Tony Hsieh What is your favorite digital resource? Safari Books iTunes What is your favorite app and why? Zappos Apple TV app What is the coolest thing that you are working on right now that you want everyone to know about? We are excited about all of our apps as we are making big investments and changes in this area so check out Zappos mobile.

Our Guest Mina Aiken is the Director of Customer Experience at Taylor Stitch where she focuses on creating the most humanized online shopping experience possible. She oversees all e-commerce, customer service and logistics. She believes that educating your customer and telling your brand story in an inclusive way makes a happier individual and a lifetime value customer. Here are the highlights of our conversation with our guest: Getting to know Mina and how much she loves what she is doing, her favorite hobby during her free time: designing wedding invitations, and how it was like growing up in sunny Florida. How she came to be an ambassador for customer experience and hospitality at a young age initially because of her first job being in the restaurant industry and how her love for talking to adults and working with this crowd grew naturally. She also shared how her passion for provenance and to share the story behind a product or service to gain someone’s trust and how that led her to the field of brand development. What led her to take on the lead role in Taylor Stitch’s Customer Experience department, how she got hired, how the company grew after she joined and the things that she, and her team, focuses on a day to day basis. Attributes which make Mina effective in her role and some scenarios she had encountered wherein the customer was the one who gave them something that she didn’t know they wanted. The biggest changes in the industry that she had experienced so far including going digital and managing the e-commerce experience. She expands that customers nowadays expect to get something they want in a very timely manner, the increasing demand to interact with someone human when they have a question and making an interaction personal to someone who is on the other side of the globe. The omni-channels that Mina thinks are the key to retail and the importance in delivering consistent messages across channels, establishing trust and making the customer feel that they are connected to the brand at all times. Pain points the she sees in the industry, which needs to be addressed from the back end to the customer-facing sides such as Returns and Exchanges. In her perspective, how the major uptake in mobile influences the industry including the amazing things it has done in the field of retail, opening brands up to millions of potential customers, tracking, and the creation of completion which pushes for better customer experience. How social media, such as Instagram, can help humanize your brand and what she thinks about Snap Chat Periscope. Mina shares how she is most excited see how mobile experiences can be improved as better mobile technology can mean better shopping experience. On the business side, she continues how eager she is to see how technology will develop real time analytics for ongoing sales and customer engagement. Rapid Fire Questions Would you put more emphasis on the idea or the execution? How would you weigh each of them and why? You start with a great idea but to give that idea real shape, you got to hustle. People will then see how clear your idea is, what you are doing to perpetuate that and they want to be with your team, then some real muscle can push your idea forward. An idea is nothing without that muscle behind it and blind execution is just a waste of time but an idea has to come first. 60% for idea and 40% for execution. What is your biggest learning lesson on your journey so far? Listen to your customers. They will tell you everything that you need to know about what they want. What is your favorite business book? Delivering Happiness by Tony Hsieh What is your favorite digital resource? Google Search Engine What is your favorite app and why? VSCO What is the coolest thing that you are working on right now that you want everyone to know about? We are currently building a community of Taylor Stitch influencers. It’s in the early stages and will start to take some shape this summer.

Steve Sims, the colorful legend behind The Bluefish. Steve’s the founder of a luxury concierge company that can arrange anything from singing with Journey to getting married in the Vatican. Listen as Steve and Nathan talk about the secrets of engaging people and making impossible things happen. Famous 5 Favorite Book? – The Cat in the Hat What CEO do you follow? — Tony Hsieh What is your favorite online tool? — I actually use a pad and pen Do you get 8 hours of sleep?— No! If you could let your 20 year old self know one thing, what would it be? — Everything will be all right. Just keep on going, and keep your word. Time Stamped Show Notes: 01:30 – Nathan’s introduction 02:13 – Welcoming Steve to the show 03:20 – Steve got into the concierge business after being a club doorman 03:50 – “I don’t lie...like me or don’t like me” 04:15 – 99% of Steve’s clients are entrepreneurs 04:50 – “I psychoanalyse the shit out of them” 05:40 – One guy wanted to meet Journey: we got him onstage singing with them 06:20 – I always know someone who’s got a contact 06:50 – A ‘chain of credibility’ 08:20 – “When I went in based on money, I made bad decisions” 09:00 – I always pay people: a favour is expensive in the long run 09:30 – Journey event raised money for Autism Speaks 10:10 – People never want to think they’ve been sold 10:50 – What engages people is stories and emotions 11:20 – The business-entertainment conference that Nathan’s planning 13:00 – Connect with Steve at Ugly Sims 17:11 – The Famous Five 3 Key Points: Keep your promises. If you say you can get something done, you’d better get it done. Be yourself. People will like you or they won’t - don’t bother trying to bullshit them. Think creatively about what motivates people. Money isn’t always the answer. Stories, emotions, connections, contacts...there are a lot of ways to make things happen. Resources Mentioned: Freshbooks - The site Nathan uses to manage his invoices and accounts. Host Gator – The site Nathan uses to buy his domain names and hosting for cheapest price possible. Leadpages – The drag and drop tool Nathan uses to quickly create his webinar landing pages which convert at 35%+ Audible – Nathan uses Audible when he's driving from Austin to San Antonio (1.5 hour drive) to listen to audio books. Show Notes provided by Mallard Creatives  

Drew Taylor, founder of AstroPrint - a software and app ecosystem described as “the Android of the 3D printing world”. Listen as Nathan and Drew talk 3D printing, making money, and how to dominate an emerging niche. Famous 5 Favorite Book? – Crossing the Chasm What CEO do you follow? — Tony Hsieh What is your favorite online tool? — Trello Do you get 8 hours of sleep?— Absolutely not If you could let your 20 year old self know one thing, what would it be? —I don’t know. I’m a fan of taking life’s lessons as they come. Time Stamped Show Notes: 01:11 – Nathan’s introduction 02:00 – Welcoming Drew to the show 02:30 – AstroPrint started because Drew saw that 3D printing software needed to improve 03:00 – Two products: software, and cloud-based app store 03:25 – Free for personal use; charge for commercial use 03:50 – 70/30 split on profits from app store 04:10 – Founded in 2015 - with a different idea 04:45 – $150k total revenue in 2015 05:00 – 9 team members 05:10 – Raised $500k in convertible note 05:50 – Fundraising with accelerators including BetaSpring and 500 Startups 06:20 – How do you get enough sales to dominate? 06:45 – Partnering with larger companies 07:30 – Can provide the entire software base for existing printers 09:00 – Adds value to machine by connecting it to an app system 11:00 – Consumer revenue is entirely from app sales 11:50 – Currently almost no revenue from app sales - expected to take off around 2017 14:00 – Would be happy with a pre-money valuation of $10 million 14:30 – Currently in the middle of a fundraising debt round 16:40 – Famous Five 3 Key Points: Be creative about making money - what revenue models are working in other areas? How can you generate multiple revenue streams from one product? Accept that your start-up idea will change as you sound out the market. Learn from what doesn’t work. Don’t worry about making mistakes when you’re young - it’s all part of growing. Resources Mentioned: Freshbooks - The site Nathan uses to manage his invoices and accounts. Host Gator – The site Nathan uses to buy his domain names and hosting for cheapest price possible. Leadpages – The drag and drop tool Nathan uses to quickly create his webinar landing pages which convert at 35%+ Audible – Nathan uses Audible when he's driving from Austin to San Antonio (1.5 hour drive) to listen to audio books. Show Notes provided by Mallard Creatives