Podcasts about was michael

What helps you bring your full and authentic self to your time in your studio? Are there certain activities or habits that help you get in the right mindset to start your day and get those creative juices flowing? If you’ve been around the Savvy Painter community for very long, you know that I am a huge fan of meditation and mindfulness. I have seen the direct correlation between self-exploration and creative expression. Here to help us explore the connection between creativity and our inner life is the artist, Michael Ryan.  Michael Ryan is an artist based in the Netherlands whose paintings have been exhibited nationally, as well as in the United States, Russia, and France. His artistic expression is influenced by being in the moment, and the act of paying attention. Ryan is especially inspired by what he observes around him. Primarily working with oils, pastels, and watercolors, he is fascinated by light, color, and the relationship formed between colors. His bold pieces are painted on metal or linen. I can’t wait for you to get to know Michael, I know you will get a lot of valuable insight from his perspective - make sure to check out images of his artwork located at the end of this post.  In sudden demand  Can you imagine going from just making it as an artist and a waiter one week to find yourself in another country with suddenly 50 commissioned portraits lined up? While that scenario sounds made up, it actually happened to my guest, Michael Ryan!  After a chance meeting with a Dutch businessman who offered to bring him to the Netherlands to paint the portraits of his two children, Michael was off to a new country and a totally new direction in his career. While some might find themselves intimidated by the sudden demand and clamoring for their work, Michael took it in stride. Looking back on this time in his career, Michael reflects on how much he really enjoyed capturing someone's essence on the canvas.  Finding your center  Over the years it has been an honor to speak with artists who come from all walks of life. It always intrigues me to hear how each one of my guests has managed to find their center. Some might call this their “Why,” or their “Purpose,” or their “Calling.” Some might just refer to finding their true self. For Michael Ryan, his working day begins early with yoga and long walking meditation. By taking this step early in the day, Michael finds his mind and body united, focused, and prepared for creative expression back in the studio. What practices have helped you find your center?  Trust yourself  As you navigate the challenges of a career as an artist, Michael and I encourage you to spend that time investing in your inner life. While some might not find as great a benefit as others, the investment is well worth it. What do you have to lose in taking the time to learn about meditation and other practices? You might just find that you learn some helpful insights about yourself along the way. Don’t let others direct your path, trust yourself - you won’t regret it.  Outline of This Episode [0:05] I introduce my guest, Michael Ryan.  [2:00] How did Michael end up in Amsterdam?  [7:30] 50 portraits in three years? [9:30] Learning the Dutch language.  [11:30] Was Michael intimidated by the tsunami of portrait commissions?  [15:30] What drew Michael back to New York?  [18:30] How did Michael deal with moving with all of his art and supplies?  [20:30] What is Micahel currently working on?  [24:30] Finding inner quiet before you enter the studio.  [38:00] Michael describes his series, “Shimmering Mess”  [44:00] How has the pandemic affected Michael’s time in the studio?  [48:30] Do you incorporate your emotions and thoughts into your art as they come?  [50:20] Trust in yourself.  Other artists mentioned on this episode Henri Matisse Wolf Kahn Sean Scully Resources Mentioned on this episode Website: www.mryan.nl Online gallery: www.singulart.com/en/artist/michael-ryan-22289 Michael hosts a yearly workshop in the Netherlands. He can be contacted via his website or his email address: blackbear8[at]planet.nl Connect With Antrese On Facebook On Pinterest On Instagram On Twitter

Ein Mann wie Michael Kurth hat im Leben viel kennengelernt und sein Erfolg kommt nicht von ungefähr. Aus diesem Grund hat uns ein spannendes Gespräch auch veranlasst über viele bewegende Momente zu sprechen und nicht nur an der Oberfläche zu kratzen. Was Michael zu neuen Lebenszielen aufbrechen ließ, was ihm unterwegs begegnet ist und was ihn antreibt, erfährst du im 2. Teil des Podcast-Interviews in Mind- & Bodyset.

In Folge Nummer 13 servieren Andreas und Umberto aka Stefan und Michael einen gemischten Salat mit allen möglichen Zutaten aus dem großen Bouquet des Lebens. Zu Beginn wird ein bisschen in der Kindheit geschwelgt und festgestellt, wie das Ranking von Jim Knopf, Urmel aus dem Eis und Löwenzahn aussieht. Außerdem ist Michael ein Peter Lustig Ultra wie es scheint. Kinder waren früher ja außerdem in erster Linie Arbeit und wir stellen fest, dass man mit der Namenswahl eines Kindes wohl zumindest den Musikgeschmack und die Credibility des Nachwuchses direkt prägen kann. Außerdem hat Michaels Mama Geburtstag und er braucht ein Geschenk. Stefan ist, was Geschenke angeht, zwar immer recht sicher, was er schenken will, nur das Timing bereitet ihm da öfter mal Probleme. Wobei es Michael da ähnlich geht. Immer versuchen auf Vorrat zu kaufen und dann nie machen ist sein Motto. Wir als anerkannte Fashionvictims sind uns dann auch wieder mal einig was die Dos und Don'ts beim Weg zum Briefkasten bzw. zur Mülltonne sind. Das Handy ist auf jeden Fall auch wichtigstes Utensil beim Toilettengang. Zwischen Faustzitaten und pubertären Gags liegt aber oft nur ein schmaler Grat auf dem ein Eichhörnchen zwischen den beiden Extremen hin sprintet. Was Michael aber überhaupt nicht gutheißt, ist dass Prof. Dr. Christian Drosten sich nun in den COVID-19 Urlaub verabschiedet hat - also muss er wohl wieder zum Tierarzt gehen. Da hilft wohl nur noch Bleiche trinken. Oder Bleach von Nirvana hören. Das in der Folge angesprochene Video findet ihr hier: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hEMm7gxBYSc und bei 4:45 bekommt ihr Gänsehaut. Dank Michales Exfreundin weiß er nun auch, dass er sich mit Kurt Cobain zumindest teilweise das Schicksal geteilt hat. Ein klarer Fall von too much information. Beim Möbelshopping ist Stefan außerdem noch ein Möbelstück mit einem recht besonderen Twist aufgefallen, da hätte jemand im Produktentwicklungszyklus vielleicht mal besser hinschauen sollen. In der beliebten Rubrik "Das Dümmste, was wir in den letzten 2 Wochen getan haben" verliert Stefan dann zum Schluss die Orientierung und Michael wichtige Körperfunktionen.

In this episode of Retcon Air, Bryar and Shelby break down Underworld, a supernatural based flick that you need to add to your calendar if you haven't seen it.  Table of Contents Intro: - The Amory: 1:30 -What is Shelby into right now? - Shelby is reading Dune and playing Animal Crossing! :o 1:40 - Bryar is playing hella Overwatch and Final Fantasy XIV 2:14 - Writers Room: 2:20 - A brief history of Underworld the Movie 2:40 - Deep Impact: 3:05 - Top Positive Review: 3:32 - Top Negative Review: 4:45 - There and Back Again: 6:04 - Chapter One: The Hidden War of the Lycans & Vampires 6:10 What does Bryar think of the Werewolf transformation VFX 8:51 What does Shelby think of the VFX? 9:15 World, meet Seline / Kate Beckinsale - 11:00 Underworld does tend to switch storylines an awful lot 12:01 Shelby likens the Lycans lair to Bioshock 12:35 The class war between the Vampires and the Lycans 12:50 The history of Mythical Creatures 13:40 Michael Corvin begins 13:50 The badass floor shot 16:18 The gross ass blood vile scene 17:40 Michael and Seline escape 19:30 We’re reminded on how politics work in the vampire order 21:00 Seline starts to question her Kraven 21:50 Seline breaks protocol and gets chewed out by Victor 24:07 Bryar tests his voice acting career 24:40 Seline finally punches the doctor in the face Victor turns on Seline 27:00 Scene change, Seline helps herself 28:30 So. Many. Scene. Changes. 29:00 Michael begins his first transformation 29:30 Seline finds evidence 29:50 They decide to experiment on Michael...cuz why not? 30:30 Seline is given a dark path back to the Mansion 30:45 The tragedy of Lucian 31:38 New weapons hit the marketplace 32:48 The whip training 34:00 Lucian is a force to be reckoned with 35:10 Victor and Kraven come calling 36:15 Seline confronts Victor 38:46 Michael’s body goes through...changes 38:95 Was Michael underwhelming as the Hybrid? 42:10 - If We Could Retcon 44:15 - What would Bryar Retcon? 44:20 Bryar would change Kravens Character 44:46 Shelby thinks that for as old as Kraven is, he acts very immature 45:30 Why do Vampires only wear tight leather or victorian era clothes? 46:50 Bryar would like some of the animations cleaned up a little bit. 47:20 - What would Shelby Retcon?48:50 Shelby would change the Lycan Costumes and Michaels Transformation Her expectations were a little to high 49:10 Would’ve been cool to tie a piece of the original human form into the Lycan. So you could better distinguish them other than just size. 50:10 What does Lucian fully look like? 50:30 How did the Lycians gain control over their transformation? 52:10 Closing Thoughts 53:41 #Underworld #UnderworldMovie #Underworld2003 #KateBeckinsale #MoviePodcasts #UnderworldMoviePodcasts #retconair

We're joined by Kwame Boateng to dicuss the recent allegations against Michael Jackson that are shown in the documentary Leaving Netherland. Did he do it? Is this a money grab? Was Michael just plain weird? Subscribe for more. Follow us on socials: @alljustpeanuts And individually: @jonaravelo @joshhhim @marcelo_1105 @thehumanstudent

This is what Coppola did when they made him a financial offer he couldn't refuse. 1974's "The Godfather Part 2" which would go on to win a slew of Oscars including Best Picture. A first for a sequel. Cinephile and comedian Rick Ramos joins Steve to discuss it all. Is this better than the original? Who is better...Deniro, Pacino OR Bruno Kirby? What do Hannibal Lecter and Tom Hagen have in common? Did it's success and raves doom us with sequels for everything? Was Michael always kind of a jerk? How well can Diane Keaton take a punch?  All these questions and more get answered on this week's Mazan Movie Club.  "The Godfather Part 2" on IMDb Rick Ramos on everything Steve Mazan on Facebook The Home of the Mazan Movie Club Steve's Corporate Comedy Website    

Host Steve Mazan interviews the man who made him a godfather, comedian Cash Levy, about that poor decision AND Francis Ford Coppola's "The Godfather" film.  Does any movie Show rather than Tell better than this? Is this the greatest cast of all time? Was Abe Vigoda ever young? Was Michael ever innocent? Is Duval ever bad? Was Prince a fan? Is this a man's film? All these questions and more get answered on this week's Mazan Movie Club podcast. "The Godfather" on IMDb Cash Levy on Twitter Steve Mazan on Facebook The Home of the Mazan Movie Club Steve's Comedy Website  

Michael Turbanisch ist Experte für nachhaltiges Networking und gibt im Interview seine besten Tipps zum Thema Netzwerk aufbauen. --- Bitte hier öffnen und weiterlesen! ►► Lorenzo live erleben ►► https://bit.ly/2LI7XFX (Klick) Mehr zu Michael: Website: https://nochmalvonvorn.com/ Podcast: https://apple.co/2DiJTub Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/user/Tubi73 ╠════════════════════════════════════════════════════════╣ Mit seinem Kredo "Die einzige Konstante ist die Veränderung" ist Michael Turbanisch heute ein echter "Hidden Champion", der Menschen inspiriert und mit seinem erfolgreichen Podcast "Noch mal von vorn" neue Wege und Ideen präsentiert. Im Interview zum Thema Netzwerk aufbauen spricht er vor Allem über seine Geschichte und zeigt damit, dass ein natürlich und ehrlich aufgebautes Netzwerk der Schlüssel zum Erfolg ist. Viel Spaß mit dem Interview! Inhalt: 0:01 Anmoderation 3:35 Lorenzos und Michaels erste Begegnung 5:33 Wie Michael zu dem gekommen ist, was er heute macht 18:53 Die besten Schritte zu einer positiven Veränderung 30:38 Was Michael mit dem Claim "Lead like a Rockstar" verbindet 31:53 Welcher Musiker Michael in seiner Jugend am meisten geprägt hat 41:40 Michaels Botschaft an Dich gesungen ╠════════════════════════════════════════════════════════╣ Connecte Dich mit Lorenzo: ►► Website: http://lorenzo-scibetta.de/ ►► Facebook: http://bit.ly/2I8o3Id ►► Instagram: http://bit.ly/2vI5A1W ►► Podcast: https://apple.co/2G1NTgy Rockige Grüße und bis zum nächsten Video, Dein Lorenzo #interview #netzwerkaufbauen #michaelturbanisch #lorenzoscibetta

Michael Turbanisch ist Experte für nachhaltiges Networking und gibt im Interview seine besten Tipps zum Thema Netzwerk aufbauen. --- Bitte hier öffnen und weiterlesen! ►► Lorenzo live erleben ►► https://bit.ly/2LI7XFX (Klick) Mehr zu Michael: Website: https://nochmalvonvorn.com/ Podcast: https://apple.co/2DiJTub Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/user/Tubi73 ╠════════════════════════════════════════════════════════╣ Mit seinem Kredo "Die einzige Konstante ist die Veränderung" ist Michael Turbanisch heute ein echter "Hidden Champion", der Menschen inspiriert und mit seinem erfolgreichen Podcast "Noch mal von vorn" neue Wege und Ideen präsentiert. Im Interview zum Thema Netzwerk aufbauen spricht er vor Allem über seine Geschichte und zeigt damit, dass ein natürlich und ehrlich aufgebautes Netzwerk der Schlüssel zum Erfolg ist. Viel Spaß mit dem Interview! Inhalt: 0:01 Anmoderation 3:35 Lorenzos und Michaels erste Begegnung 5:33 Wie Michael zu dem gekommen ist, was er heute macht 18:53 Die besten Schritte zu einer positiven Veränderung 30:38 Was Michael mit dem Claim "Lead like a Rockstar" verbindet 31:53 Welcher Musiker Michael in seiner Jugend am meisten geprägt hat 41:40 Michaels Botschaft an Dich gesungen ╠════════════════════════════════════════════════════════╣ Connecte Dich mit Lorenzo: ►► Website: http://lorenzo-scibetta.de/ ►► Facebook: http://bit.ly/2I8o3Id ►► Instagram: http://bit.ly/2vI5A1W ►► Podcast: https://apple.co/2G1NTgy Rockige Grüße und bis zum nächsten Video, Dein Lorenzo #interview #netzwerkaufbauen #michaelturbanisch #lorenzoscibetta

Survivor Ghost Island returns with a special double boot episode! To the shock of the castaways not only were two people safe from being voted out, but they would have two separate tribal councils. Will the survivors take this chance to vote out a power player? Was Michael able to successfully evade the vote by convincing others he will play an idol? Did Malolo make a mistake in selling out Des? Find out Wednesday night as Jim Early presents another edition of the Missyae Podcast: Survivor Ghost Island recap show! Call in at (657) 383-1308 to get your voice heard about this week's episode!

In part 1 of my conversation with Michael We speak about his Hall Of Fame Mom, The athletics he enjoyed growing up and The Green Bay locker room and more, Was Michael born to play Football? Miss his calling in Basketball? Is Bret Favre obnoxious with a blow hown? Find out the answers to these questions and more on this edition of Come Get Sum!!! @moneyismike05 hemichaelmontgomery.com https://vimeo.com/204756265 https://vimeo.com/149441056    

Michael Shaw is the host of The Conversation, a podcast about the contemporary arts. He talks with various artists, collectors, dealers, curators and more on the show. Michael has been running his show since 2011 and he talks about some of the upcoming challenges he is likely to face with growing his podcast. Michael also shares on how he has developed such a loyal following over the years; to the point where people donate to his show. Show Highlights 07:00 – Michael talks about sound gear. 09:05 – When did Michael launch his show? 12:05 – Does Michael have a lot of technical experience? 16:00 – Michael prefers a great conversationalist vs. someone who has done well in their career. 20:35 – Does Michael go out of his way to get the people he admires on the show? 22:35 – It’s better to respect the guest more than their career choices to create an amazing show. 25:00 – I talk about the two shows that left me kind of star struck. 27:05 – Michael knows people are tired of Marc Maron, but the man inspired him to create a podcast. 28:45 – It’s all about finding the right balance between being really personal vs. being constructive. 29:10 – How did Michael learn to be a great interviewer? 30:40 – Was Michael curious growing up? He says not really. 31:20 – It’s about process as well as curiosity. Having a good process can really make things happen. 31:40 – Michael believes great shows happen when he and the guest are both in the moment together. 37:15 – Most people don’t have the ability to engage in a conversation. We just stare at our phones instead. 43:00 – Michael talks about artists and different styles. 46:35 – What kind of challenges has Michael faced as an artist? 50:35 – Michael has some pretty loyal and dedicated fans. 51:00 – It’s hard to go out of your way to donate to a podcast. 54:35 – I talk about the relationships I have developed with my listeners. 57:00 – Podcast content is undervalued and successful art is overvalued. 59:10 – Michael talks about his mentors. 01:02:35 – What’s Michael’s fondest memory of New York city? 01:03:30 – What has Michael changed his mind about recently? 01:08:25 – It’s an interesting balance between being burned out vs. needing that social contact and stimulation 01:09:15 – Michael depends on his guests for referrals. 01:11:35 – At a certain point, Michael felt like he was just a tool.   FULL SHOW NOTES: http://www.podcastjunkies.com/82      ★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

  Highlights of my conversation with Colin Hewitt ·         Insights into pitching and attracting the right venture capital ·         The impact on the business of working with an investor ·         Experience of being part of the Xero add-on eco-system ·         Forming CodeBase a co-sharing space and the Edinburgh start-up scene   Note: After this interview was recorded Float won Xero Emerging Add-on Partner of the Year 2014 Transcript Heather:        Welcome Colin to Cloud stories. We’re so pleased to have you here. Colin:              Hi Heather, good to be here. Heather:        What’s the weather like in Edinburgh at the moment? Colin:              Well it’s a little bit cloudy at the moment. We had a good stretch probably about a week of good weather. It’s come to an end unfortunately today but we’re hoping that’s it’s just temporary. Heather:        Sensational. So Colin, I’ll start with a really hard question upfront. Who is your favourite superhero and why? Colin:              My favourite superhero? Well, I’m not sure if you have the same superheroes as you do in Australia but I was always like a big Spiderman fan. Heather:        Sensational, that’s Scottish Spiderman version. Colin:              Scottish Spiderman, of course, yeah. I like the way he had a spider sense, you know, how the spider sense was tingling. That’s always a good line and sometimes I think have that as well. Heather:        The spider sense. That’s a good heading for a story about you. Sensational, thank you for that Colin. Can you share with us what your business [Float] does Colin? Colin:              Yeah, so our business Float is a piece of software that we’ve designed to try to help business understand a bit more about their business. Really the main thing that we focus on is how much cash is in the business and what your bank account’s going to be at any point in the future. So we think that’s one of the most interesting or the more interesting parts of the business. You can get lots of insightful management reports but sometimes you just want to know, can I afford to pay for this and will there be enough cash at the end of the month to pay the salaries? That’s what we focus on at Float. Why is it important to have a forecast or a cash management system in place? Colin:              Yeah, I mean the story of where we got Float from is I used to have a web design agency, and we were always asking that question of, you know, is there going to be enough to do X or Y, and having to go back into a spreadsheet was a painful process because it was always out of date and we always felt well, hold on I can answer your question in a couple of hours when I’ve put in all the figures. So yeah, having a forecast is really … is definitely important but certainly it can be a bit of a pain to manage if you don’t have it updating automatically. Heather:        I know that spreadsheet pain. When did you start your business Colin? When did you start this business which is Float. Colin:              So Float … there was kind of an overlap period. We started as a side project while we were running the other business, so I think we started in about 2010. It was me and my co-founder. So he was working on it in his spare time. I had the idea, I had the spreadsheet and I said, “This is what I’m looking for,” and he thought it would take about three months. So four years later, we’re still working on it. It was a sort of gradual start but my co-founder came on board full time I think in around the beginning of 2011. Then I sold the web agency in the beginning of 2012. So we’ve probably had about just over two years being full time on Float. Heather:        Sensational. Did you come from a numbers background? Colin:              Not at all. I actually flunked my Maths A level exam. Heather:        You didn’t need to share that with us but it was interesting you said coming from a web design business into numbers which a … Colin:              No, absolutely. I guess where I came from was I was the one who was having to deal with the numbers. We were using spreadsheets to run our business and I thought our spreadsheet was pretty darn good. I’d worked on it quite hard and it did everything that it needed to do. It just took so long and we actually started using cloud accounting software. We used a package initially called Free Agent which is great for our really small business, also another Edinburgh company, and then we just realised that it was amazing to have a lot of that stuff automated all of a sudden and in the cloud. It took a lot of pressure off me but then it didn’t have the forecasting part that was really important to me, so we still had to use the spreadsheet for that. But yes, I wasn’t a numbers person naturally but I’d kind of come to this out of necessity. Then I found I kind of had a little bit of pleasure just about getting everything to match up to the penny but it probably took me a lot longer than it would for some other people. Yes, numbers weren’t my strong point. I had no background in accounting, and when we spoke to some accountants about forecasting and read about forecasting, it all seemed very complicated. We just thought, “Gosh, it’s got to be simpler than this.” Even some of the language, just clarifying, was a helpful starting point. Yes, so we really approached it from a non-accounting point view and then tried to get back to some of the corporate language from accounting as we’ve gone on. Heather:        That’s an interesting perspective to take it from certainly. I’m a great believer that everyone can get their numbers, so it’s exciting to hear someone coming from a different side but sort of coming to the numbers party. Where did you get the name Float from? Colin:              Good question. So what we really like … for me the concept of cash flow is like a wave, you know. Sometimes you’re up and sometimes you’re down and when we look at our cash flow graph, it is much more like a wave; we’d get high points in the month and then low points. It was always trying to make sure that the low points weren’t too low. So we sort of have this nautical theme, you know, riding the waves of cash flow and making sure you don’t sink and all this kind of thing. We explored a lot of nautical themes, thinking about life boats, binoculars so you’re looking out over the horizon and all that kind of thing. So we really like the nautical concept of now beginning your way through the business. Yeah, we’d also liked concepts that were about flow, so it was flow, flow, flow. Then we sort of thought, “Float, that works, you know.” Then somebody pointed out that there is also a concept of cash float in a business, you know, you’ve got enough cash in a till to get you started at the beginning of the day. So it all came together pretty nicely for us. Heather:        Serendipity. Colin:              Yeah, we’ve played with the few different variants but Float was the one that stuck. Heather:        So what are the waves off coast of Edinburgh? Colin:              Well, unfortunately they’re not great for surfing because it’s sheltered but if you go up to the north of Scotland, I think you’ve got some of the best waves in the world. But yeah, for the Edinburghers’, it’s not a great … you don’t get a lot of great waves unfortunately. Heather:        So you weren’t inspired by looking at your window and seeing the floating boats coming? Colin:              Well, I also grew up with the North Coast of Ireland, so I was quite used to being in the sea. Heather:        Yeah, I think it’s always good to have a name that has that connotation attached to it. Colin:              When we started off the business, we actually had a lot other parts in the graphics. It was a lot more fun and we’ve kind of grown up a bit but we had light houses and sharks and all those kinds of stuff. View the other Float logos here: http://blog.floatapp.com/2013/11/01/7-steps-to-our-new-logo.html Heather:        I went and had a look at those. Colin:              Did you? Yeah. Heather:        So if listeners are listening, go and have a look at floatapp.com blog. I think if you just do a search for logos, there’s a list of all different logos that you’ve got there. So you’re based in Edinburgh, what’s the internet connection like there? Colin:              Yes, it’s great actually. Scotland seems to have … they’ve really invested in that. We’ve just moved into a new building with a lot of other start-ups called CodeBase in Edinburgh. It’s right next to the Edinburgh castle. Heather:        Oh wow. Colin:              We’ve got a fibre line directly into the building and we get about one hundred megabytes up and down which is incredible. It really makes a big difference just having that consistency. Heather:        That’s amazing. That’s really good. So you’ve moved into Codebase, is that an incubator or a sharing spacing? Colin:              Yeah, so it was interesting, I actually spent a bit of time over in Boston and went to see some incubators there, one called Techstars. Came back to Edinburgh and just said, “Look guys, there’s no point all being on our own. If we were in together, there’d be a lot of synergy, a lot more sharing of knowledge.” Just at that time a building came up and about fifteen start-ups all decided to move into it together. We worked on it, we painted it, we stripped out the carpet. It was a really good experience for the local sort of start-up community. Heather:        Sounds like a reality TV show. Colin:              Yeah, it was. It was a really interesting time just sort of getting the work together and the community forming. That was about two years ago. Then from that building, once there was enough start-ups in that building, we realised we could do with more space and we found this other building which is obviously huge. So there was lots of room to expand. There are about 300 people in here now. Heather:        Oh my goodness. Colin:              Yeah, they’re all working on sort of technology start-ups and a lot of shared talks at lunch time. It’s really … if you’ve got a problem with something or other, we can go and ask somebody else who’s an expert from another company. It’s great, we really love being in here. Heather:        Sensational. So if someone is in the start-up innovation space and they’re visiting Edinburgh, should they pop down into Codebase? Colin:              Definitely, yeah. Heather:        Is that a sort of okay. There’s an open invitation, arrive at the door? Colin:              Yeah, come and see us. You can come and work in our office if you need a desk for an afternoon. Yeah, Codebase is great. It’s really helped Edinburgh and sort of set us up as one of the main start-up hubs in Scotland. It makes such a difference to your business having all these around. Heather:        No, it certainly does. I liaise with some of the ones locally to us and the people in there say that it moves them ahead so much faster than if they were at home doing it, which is interesting. It’s the ideas, I guess, and the connections that you’re making and the inspiration that you’re gathering. Sensational. Now, I have to ask, while this interview is taking place, the Glasgow Commonwealth Games are on at the moment, have you travelled across to them? Colin:              You know what, I haven’t. Heather:        You’ve got to go. You’ve got to go. Colin:              I watched the opening ceremony on TV. That was probably the main investment that I’ve given in my time to the Commonwealth Games. Not that I don’t enjoy it but it’s just been such a busy couple of weeks. Yeah, and apparently it’s quite difficult to get tickets. Edinburgh and Glasgow are … Heather:        Just go to the town. Enjoy it. Colin:              Yeah, there’s a bit of a rivalry between Edinburgh and Glasgow. Heather:        I know. Colin:              They’re about 40 minutes away. I think it’s always a sort of thing of which one should really be the capital city of Scotland. Maybe we’ll go over for a day just to soak up the vibe. Heather:        Soak it up. Colin:              Yeah. Heather:        I know that … I went to the Sydney Olympics Games which is slightly different but it was amazing. We just got the crappiest tickets to anything we could and we really, really enjoyed it but I digress. We enjoyed it and it created a lot of memories for us. It didn’t matter what it was, it was such a good vibe, and you can’t work all the time. Colin:              I will take your wisdom and put it in my diary. Heather:        Sensational. So Colin, late last year you received a significant investment of a £110,000 from Rob Dobson, the tech incubator. Now, Rob Dobson for the listeners, I hope I’m saying his name correctly, was the founder of a mobile phone software company. So with this investment; What insights do you have to share with our listeners who may be keen on attracting a significant investment into their business? What insights do you have to share to them about that? Colin:              That was a good time for us but it was also a very hard time because we’d been pitching for a while, probably about a year of trying to raise some funding. The first piece of advice was that we were probably initially pitching to the wrong audience. The investors that we were pitching to weren’t software based, that was not where they made their money. I think it’s difficult to always understand the software business if that’s not your background. So, when we spoke to Rob, it was a completely different kettle of fish. He really understood it, he really got the prospect, and having run a business himself he understood the pain points. So definitely aligning the investor with the story of your own business is really important and will save you a lot of time. The other thing would probably be making sure you tell a good story. Sometimes it’s easy to kind of play … I find you can play yourself down and certainly in the UK, we don’t like to brag. We can kind of say our … you know, “The business is okay and we’re doing all right.” Actually, you need to tell the story in a way that’s going to caught their imagination and make them want to be a part of the story. Yeah, I’m really thinking a lot … we’re actually going into another funding round pretty soon and just thinking about how do we tell the story? It is a great story, you know, it’s something we’ve put our lives into and we’ve got a real passion about. It’s all about telling that story and really painting the picture of the possibilities of the future. We want to grow a great company and think this product can be wide reaching and really make a difference in the lives of business owners. So yeah, it’s all about putting that compelling story together so that investor can get excited about it as well. What tips do you have about sharing your story? Do you work through a process of that? Do you work with someone to help you do that? Does it just come to you while you’re drinking? Colin:              Well, I think if you sit down and really think it through it terms of where did the idea come from, what really gets me excited about this, what’s my dream for this company, and you start really tapping into some of the bigger picture stuff first of all … especially for me, it’s easy to get bogged down in the details, you know, how you’re going to do something. Then that tends to become quite small picture, like we’re going to add this, we’re going to add this feature next month and then we’re going to hire one more member of staff, and then we’re … you’re thinking through a very specific plan whereas the story has to come from a much deeper place of the beginning of where the idea came from to the end of where you can go to. If that’s not an exciting enough story then it brings up a few questions as well. One thing I find helpful is actually asking other people, to say, “How do you perceive the story of Float? What are you seeing?” Then sometimes they’ll say, “Well, I think this is incredible that you guys manage to go for so long without raising any money,” or “I think, you know, what you’ve achieved with a small team is amazing.” Then you sort of think, “Oh yes, that’s a good point, I didn’t realise that.” So having other people feed back to you what they perceive the story will help you understand things that are actually true but you’re missing or you’ve neglected to include. Actually I had a breakfast with Rob yesterday and he was sort of saying, “I was getting prepared for this next funding rounds, here’s some of the ways that I see this, this product is innovative, the space is really hot right now and there’s all this activity happening, there’s more and more people moving into the market.” You know, just hearing him describe it makes you think, “Oh yeah, that’s true.” When you’re in it for four years, you sort of … it becomes you don’t get the same perspective, so having another perspective is really helpful. Heather:        Is Rob Scottish or is he American or is he something else? Colin:              Yes, he’s English. Heather:        Oh he’s English, okay. Colin:              So, unlike many good Englishmen, he’s moved to Edinburgh with his wife. There are so many people that I meet here who I ask them where they come and they say it was because of a woman or a man. So they moved up after he sold his business. You know there are some great schools up in Edinburgh and they have some family up here as well. They looked around and decided Edinburgh was the city. Yeah, it was good for us. Heather:        Sensational. So Rob Dobson has joined your firm as a director. Apart from the money and the investment, how has he impacted … how has he becoming a director impacted Float? Colin:              I’m a big fan of Rob because I think … we spoke to a few other investor and they all have very different agendas. Rob manages to walk the line very well between pushing us and not interfering too much, so it doesn’t ever feel like we’re working for him but he really provides us sort of mentoring and just a constant push, you know, because sometimes it’s easy to kind of not have that when you’re running the business if you don’t have a board set up. So Rob really just pushes us, he was pushing me the other day about how much money we want to raise, how fast we want to grow. It’s easy for me to think that the first step is about survival and the small picture, and he sort of lifts us out of that and says, “No, I think we can do more here. I think there’s more potential.” So Rob really brings a different perspective, especially because he’s been there before. He’s done it, he’s grown a business, he understands the process, and that gives him a lot of credibility in terms of if somebody else was saying that from he hasn’t been here before and done that, you don’t tend to listen to them the same way.  Yeah. Heather:        Absolutely, yes. It’s interesting because the newspaper headline that ‘a small tech has received a large amount of funding’, you sometimes think, “Oh, that’s going to be good,” or “That’s going to be bad.” So it’s always good to get your insights in finding that right person and you obviously have done that and it’s working out really well for your business. When these people do it, the passion, which is their baby, their small business, is taken in another direction and it’s kind of heart breaking. Colin:              I think that we looked at another investor at the same time as Rob and it was much … you can tell that the incentives were much different for the other investor because he was looking for board fees and consultancy fees. He was going to take a very active role. It’s a very different place when they’re seeing it as a monthly income, whereas Rob’s never taken anything from the business. He just really wants to see it succeed. Heather:        That’s sensational. I hope we don’t get an influx of people going and harassing Rob after this. He sounds like the greatest man in the world. Colin:              Yeah, he’s a good investor. I’ve definitely introduced a few people to him. He seems to manage to see everybody. He picks the ones that he likes but we need more people like Rob up here. Hopefully there are a few Edinburgh companies that are going to be having a few big exits soon. We’ve got a great company called SkyScanner here that are doing quite well, and everybody is hoping that they’re going to get their IPO away soon and make few people some money so they can go back and invest it into the start-ups here too. Heather:        Sensational. So your product, Float, integrates with Xero. What has your experience been as being a part of the Xero add on ecosystem? Colin:              Yeah, it’s been amazing really. When we started building Float for Free Agent, we felt Free Agent was the best piece of software out there. We felt that Xero was nice but it was a bit bland. At the time, there were roughly about the same number of users in the UK but what Xero managed to do in terms of growth over the last three or four years has just been incredible, and we realised that at some point we have to get this integration with Xero built. That actually took us about a year to do. So it was really a big investment of our time and resources to rethink how Float was going to work because there’s such a larger … Xero has a lot of larger companies. Free Agent is typically freelance … freelance one or two people businesses, so the volume of transactions is quite small. We moved to Xero. It was the big investment of our time but we really recognised that they were the ones that were leading the way. The degree I think about Xero is the support that they give to us and the encouragement and saying … that feeling of, “We’re going to help promote you. We want this to work, the add-ons Market page, the add-on support team. Yeah, everything has been really good there, and just a willingness to promote the add-on, that was really a step up for us. We probably saw about a ten times increase when we launched for Xero in terms of signups. It was a big step up for us. Heather:        Sensational. Did that affect your infrastructure then? Colin:              Yeah, it did actually because we launched it in September at Xerocon in London … Heather:        Oh, okay. Colin:              Last year and basically we soon realised that a lot of the larger companies weren’t able to … we weren’t able to get all the information displayed in time before the browser timed out, we were trying to load everything in at once. So we had to then take another couple of months to rebuild Float in order to allow for these much more significant companies, some turning over upwards of a million dollars a month. It was a big change for us, so we have to rethink the whole thing. In terms of hosting, we host it on the cloud and it’s really … that wasn’t such a big issue. We can scale that really easily now which is such an advantage for cloud businesses that were … you know, before we might have to have upgraded our servers and changed everything around, and now that’s really not been the problem. It’s more just been about how we build the software and how we handle the page load speeds and all that kind of stuff. So if Xero releases an update, say it releases an update next Sunday, do you have to do something in your backend or is that okay? It’s just goes with the flow? Colin:              Yeah, it’s fine. Nothing that Xero do on the actual Xero app should affect us because they have their API teams separately. It’s really only when they change something in the API that affects us. More often than not, the API is a little bit behind what the main office is doing, so we’ll only get access to certain data, you know, typically a couple of months later. There hasn’t been, touch wood, there hasn’t been problems yet in terms of Xero changing something, that we haven’t come across. Generally it has been changes for good so we get more and more information that we need. Because that’s always been the thing with cash flow forecasting is it requires a vast amount of data to achieve it. That’s always been the thing, trying to get that in the right place. Colin:              Yeah, there are a lot of transactions that we need … we actually forecast right down to the transaction level. So we’re building up a whole report based on your transactions. It’s not a report that we can just pull out of Xero. We have to only start from scratch and build out ourselves, so we put in a lot of information. As I said, that’s a challenge. I know you use Xero in your business; do you use any of the add-ons from the Xero eco space in your business? Colin:              Yeah, I’m a big fan of Receipt Bank. It’s something that … I met the guys a few times up in Edinburgh first actually. Didn’t really feel the need for a time, and I think I was chatting to Michael at Xerocon and just thought, “I’m going to give this a try,” and really haven’t looked back since then just in terms of processing all my expenses. Now, we’ve actually upgraded to the business version and we send our invoices as well. You know, it just saves me so much time. So we’re looking for a system … we’re looking for a complete system basically where we don’t have to have any much touch on the bookkeeping side of things. Receipt Bank is a big part of that and, you know, they’re improving all the time as well. Heather:        Yes, they’re definitely evolving. Was Michael wearing his kilt at Xerocon? Michael:         No, I haven’t seen that. Heather:        Haven’t you? Every time he wears the kilt, he wins a prize. That’s the theory. Colin:              Ah, I’ll have to bring my kilt over then to the Xerocon Australia. Heather:        Yes, you will. Oh my goodness, if you turn on a kilt, you definitely win a prize. Colin:              That’s it. Heather:        That’s the rule. Colin:              That’s the secret, okay. Heather:        Michael’s obviously not sharing that secret. Colin:              No, he hasn’t. Heather:        There are many photos of him in a kilt at Xerocon. Colin:              Okay. Yeah, so the other one we’ve been looking at is a new one that you probably won’t have heard of. It’s more in the UK but it’s called CreDec. What they do is they connect into … they set up a box payment system, so in Xero you can just mark all your bills as paid on a certain date and they’ll actually then set up a box run and it will just go automatically for you when you approve it. That’s quite a nice one to have when you go into your bank account and sort of do all the pay run and pay all the bills. Heather:        So it kind of creates a bank file does it and then extracts the income and pays … extracts the money and then pays it? Colin:              Yeah. Heather:        Okay, and what was the name of that again? Colin:              It’s called CreDec I think. Heather:        Okay, sensational. Colin:              They’re pretty new. They’re also Edinburgh based. I’m not sure if they’re just the UK at the moment but the concept of having that complete system is really great. Heather:        Yes, it is. I don’t recall them being … hearing of them in Australia but I’ll check and I’ll include them in the notes for show listeners. So, in your business, can you share with us any other useful tools you actually use in your business that other listeners may benefit from? Colin:              As a product business, we feel that customer support and feedback are absolutely crucial. So we use a product called Intercom to do that. It’s a relatively new product but it’s absolutely fantastic in terms of it lets us send automatic messages to users, it does all our internal communications with the users, and we can send out newsletters. It makes building newsletters really easy as well and it also uses our support system, so anybody can write to us from within the app and we can assign that to one of our team and everyone can track their responses as well. It’s kind a like Zendesk from that point of view but also MailChimp. Also it’s having the auto messages going on at fixed periods during the trial is a useful part of it as well. This can be in-app notifications that just pop up on the screen or they can be emails. It’s a great way just for us to say, “We pushed a new feature,” or “We’d love to get some feedback on this if you’re interested, get in touch,” that kind of thing. We really try to maintain a close relationship with our user and that’s a tool that I think is fantastic if you’re a product company. You’ve got a web based product. That’s one thing we use. We use Evernote quite a bit just to track all our documents and keep little notes of things rather than trying to have a complex filing system where you have to dig around for a lot of things. Evernote seems to work pretty well. We use an app called Trello to do our product management and bug tracking. Have you heard of that one? Heather:        Yes. Colin:              It’s like a sort of card based thing, you can drive them around. That kind a keeps us organised. Those are kind of the main ones. I’m always looking for new tools to bring us up to the weekly integrating but it can be a bit of overkill as well. Heather:        Yes, there can be and sometimes you have go and test one for a while to see whether it’s actually going to fit in with what you’re doing. You can see how it fits in for other people but the way you’re doing it, you either have to perhaps change your methods or sometimes they just fit right in. I have one last question for you Colin. Colin, what would you say to a 17 year old about to leave school who wants to be the next Colin Hewitt? He wants to found a tech space, he wants to found a tech company, he wants to attract funding, and he wants to live the dream?   Colin:              Wow, there are a couple of things. One is you need to discover what it is your passionate about and don’t try and fit yourself into some mould that isn’t you because that’s just not going to work. I think for me, I find … at 17, I would have said, you know, “Go to university if you can. Go and get some experience,” because I didn’t have a clue at 17 that I wanted to do a tech company. It was actually after university that I worked freelance for a bit and then came up with that concept. “Spend a little bit of time in America,” I think because there’s a really … there’s a real sort of positive can do attitude you can pick up over there which is actually where I get the courage and the idea to start my first company. Heather:        How old where you when you started your own company? Colin:              21, 22, and it was just that can do Californian attitude, people saying, “Yes, go for it, why not.” I kind of came back to went, “Yeah.” That’s the attitude. It’s always about the level of passion and energy that you can muster because there will be hard times and you have to kind of be able to ride those out. The other thing I think is for us ending up with Float was something we found because we worked in a business. I’d say that it’s an evolution. If you do something you love then it’s often within that process you’ll actually find a real problem that needs solving. That was the case for me but I think that often guys at 17, the apps that they come up with, the ideas that I’ve heard are all very much around something like you want to go out with your friends and you don’t know where they are so you want to be able to have an app that finds your friends. That’s just not … the chances of you solving that problem socially on a B-C level, is going to be really difficult. Whereas actually if you go and work in an industry, it’s much easier to solve a problem that there’s a niche of people that have rather than trying to be the next Twitter or Foursquare or something along this lines. So I think at 17, you’re going to perceive a very different view of the world. Building up experience and working with good people and sort of learning what you like and what you don’t like about the way other businesses run is a good principle but also not to get sucked in. One of the things I was tempted to do is just go and get a job straight out of university with a big software company. I kind a resisted that and I’m glad I did because I think you can get sucked in for a quite long period of time when you get comfortable, and then you don’t want to try anything new. So if you’re not feeling it, sometimes holding off and just taking some time is a good option rather than jumping in. Heather:        Excellent. Thank you so much for sharing your story with us here Colin today. We really appreciate it. It was really interesting. Colin:              Yeah, pleasure. Heather:        If people want to get in touch with you, they can go to your website at floatapp.com or they can go and knock on the door of CodeBase. You’ll be there with a cup of tea waiting for them. Colin:              Yeah. Heather:        Thank you so much. Colin:              No worries Heather. Good to chat. Mentions ·         Float website http://floatapp.com ·         Float logos http://blog.floatapp.com/2013/11/01/7-steps-to-our-new-logo.html ·         CodeBase http://www.thisiscodebase.com ·         Sky Scanner http://www.skyscanner.com ·         Receipt Bank http://www.receipt-bank.com ·         CreDec http://www.credec.com ·         Intercom https://www.intercom.io ·         Evernote https://evernote.com ·         Trello https://trello.com Contact Heather Smith http://www.heathersmithsmallbusiness.com/ https://twitter.com/HeatherSmithAU/ https://www.facebook.com/HeatherSmithAU   http://www.linkedin.com/in/heathersmithau

On today’s episode of Daytime Confidential Luke, Jillian and Regan discuss the latest in All My Children, As the World Turns, The Bold and the Beautiful, Days of our Lives, General Hospital, One Life to Live and The Young and the Restless storylines and news, including: Who should Annie be with on All My Children, JR or Scott? Luke is enjoying the fact he has three AMC couples he can root for. Carly and Lucinda work together to stick it to Craig on As the World Turns. Holden rides to Molly’s rescue after she is attacked. Did Brooke and Oliver have sex on The Bold and the Beautiful? If they did how will their actions impact their future. If they didn’t, was this the best red herring B&B’s given us in a while? Victor and Vivian tied the knot on Days of our Lives. Jillian loves DAYS lately, but will the show be able to keep it up? EJ and Arianna have lots of chemistry, should they be given a chance to become a couple? James Franco’s mother joins him when he returns to General Hospital. Was Michael raped while in prison on GH? Guza weighs in on his controversial storyline. One Life to Live casts Ford’s brother and the DC gang speculates if there is a connection between Ford’s attack and his new family. Lauralee Bell returns to The Young and the Restless as Cricket. Victor Newman and Jack Abbott go grave digging to uncover the truth about Adam on The Young and the Restless. Sharon ends up in the hospital after getting sprayed by a crop duster. The DC gang also chooses their Performer of the Week, Honorable Mentions and Dishonorable Mentions.