Podcasts about when ari

Ari Witt, the owner of Digital Nomad Designs, joins Julie and Corey to talk about her business and how she's chosen to grow by putting herself in uncomfortable situations. The show opens with Julie and Corey talking about some Office episodes and various social situations that are awkward before debating whether or not Julie is an introvert. When Ari joins, she answers the question about her biggest failure and how culture and core values need to be a part of the hiring process. Ari continues to discuss how 2021 is all about being uncomfortable, what being a boss is today, and the importance of taking care of yourself. Make sure to stick around to the end to hear Julie and Corey botch the outro. Connect with Ari on Instagram (@ari.witt) and through her website (www.digitalnomaddesigns.com) Check out our latest course on time management: TIME B.O.M.B. (sb-pace.mykajabi.com/time-bomb) Follow our podcast on Instagram (@bizquik.podcast), and if you want to learn more about SB PACE, head on over to our website SBPACE.com. You can also find us on the following social media platforms: Facebook (SB PACE) Instagram (@sb.pace) LinkedIn (@sb-pace) Twitter (@sb_pace) YouTube (SB PACE) You can buy our book, Seriously? Now What?! A Small Business Guide to Disaster Preparedness, on Amazon. BizQuik is a Traxler-Harris production. --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app

“My father was the person that prepared me most for his death.” When Ari – a sophomore at Cornerstone – shared that with me a few months ago, I was genuinely at a loss for words. We spend our lives brushing past each other in the halls, at church, or in the grocery store. But everyone has a story, some wisdom, or a piece of encouragement to share. In our fast paced, impatient world, we would all do well to take a moment to pause long enough to listen. God may just be trying to tell us something. A knock caused my attention to shift to the door. It was Ari, smiling, politely peeking in asking if it was a “bad time?” He wanted to speak in morning devotions and popped by to share what God put on his heart and ask how he could set that up. That one meeting turned into another. And then another… Our time morphed into chats where Ari shared thoughts and stories from a wide range of topics about life, the Bible, the world of teenagers, the internet, COVID and, perhaps most significantly, the lasting influence his father had on his life as a young boy and how he made it. What he was sharing was so strong, that we sat down and recorded a conversation that he wanted to share with you. In this discussion that Ari has dubbed “Walks with Dad” we invite you to join in and be blessed.

This is our second episode in the 6 part series all about Thinkific. Thinkific is a hosted learning management system. And if you haven't already listened to the first episode in this series, it was with Rob Balasabas who is one of the employees at Thinkific. He gives a fantastic overview of the platform. Today's episode is with bassist Ariane cap. Ariane teaches how to play the bass. It is absolutely imperative how she's using the platform and how we've extended the platform. Why do I say this? Because I have actually worked with her on her Thinkific course and other pieces of her business. And what's most important in this episode, if I do say so myself, is how Ari took the platform and made her own decisions. Her story is fabulous. It is inspiring! I am so so excited to kind of share Ari’s Thinkific journey with the audience as part of this series. As I said before, I have worked with Ari on her Thinkific course and other aspects of her business. She shared this, “It's fun to be on the podcast with you. And you've been a big part of my success.” At the time of recording this podcast it had been at least a year since we had worked together. It has been about a year and a half since Ari and I first started working on her Thinkific site together. But before we go any further, I’d like for you to get to know a little more about Ari. Ari is a bass player. She’s a musician, a performer, and composer. She has been teaching for a very long time as well. She loves being an educator. And she loves working with people. Ever since technology hit the scene, she’s been exploring ways of integrating that into the work she does.   It all started with a book that she wrote and self published in 2015, that became very successful. And on the heels of that she noticed, especially if you do something so visual, like learning an instrument, that it's really helpful to have video. So the first thing she did with the book was she created about 900 videos that explained some of the concepts that she had in the book. And she put those on YouTube. She thought to herself, “Well, everybody who is looking at those videos, that’s somebody who's already interested in my material and is aware of me.” She also had the advantage that she was a fairly well known player. A lot of people in the scene knew her already. She also had the chance to study with some very well known bass players such as Victor Wooten and such. So a lot of people were already aware of her or knew the name. But she thought, “Well, if all these people are looking at looking at my videos for the book, maybe there's more I can do.” And she started getting videos from people who said, “You know, your book is really great, but it would be so great to have some support going through it. Or can you show me some examples.” And she knows from teaching all her students for so many years, one on one, that there's this plethora of exercises that she could put them through, that would lend themselves really well for a course. So she thought, “Well, I got the book, and I got the 89 free videos that go with the book. And people keep asking for more. So why don't I put together a course?” She went on to explain, “And you know how it is when you have to self motivate yourself to do something. For example, the book, I wrote the book on writing retreats, because it takes a ton of discipline to get yourself to sit down and actually do this. So I really had to force myself to do that. And I knew that psychology worked for me, because I would do writing retreats one week, every month, or whatever it took, until I had it done. So I thought I'll do the same thing for a course.”- Ariane Cap And so she started with just giving herself a deadline, put out a PayPal link, and told people there will be this course. She told them it'll start on this and this date. She woke up the next morning to surprisingly large amount of money in the bank by doing that, putting it out there. At the same time, she had started to do blogging. She had started to do some seminars with some other educators who were kind enough to see talent or meet me and liked what she did. They invited her into their platforms and encouraged her to go forward with what I you know, she was sort of had a loose concept of wanting to do. They were all very encouraging. And that made a huge difference. So she woke up that morning and had all this money in the bank. And she thought, “Wow, I haven't even created that course yet. But I have a deadline. So now I have to!” And so it ensued. She had about two months and half of that month was figuring out the tech and back end. And she didn't know anything about Thinkific. She didn't know anything about much at all except a little WordPress because that is how she did her blog. But then she decided she wanted to do the course on HER OWN platform. She created this very in depth, huge 20 years course that really goes in depth. And she just wanted over deliver and give people a ton of value. She was excited because it was all fresh and new. And she just wanted to go all in. And it turned into so much more work than she could have ever imagined. Then the tech was buggy and the launch went wrong, because the coupons weren't right. And the email got clogged up. Everything that could go wrong went wrong. So it was an extremely emotional and stressful period. But to make a long story short, the course did become a huge success. And lots of people signed up. She also had this idea that she didn't want to give them all the content at once. She wanted to drip out the content so that people didn’t jump ahead. Why? Because she knew how people learn. And I know how technology can either enhance that or how technology can slow that learning down and become an obstacle because technology lends itself to distraction. We know that from social media. She wanted to make sure she did what she could to keep people focused on the material. And so that's how she approached it. So she wanted the content to be addressed. And she wanted to come in every week. She wanted to go through the books. And she wanted to instruct her students to read those pages, watch those free videos, and then here are seven more areas where you can learn. She wanted it to be all nicely structured. There were these options and it worked really surprisingly well. Ari shared that course creators are being told to keep it simple at first and make a short course. And that's probably all good advice. Especially when she think about about her mental state back then. But she would also say that if you have a vision, and if you know what works then listen to that. She had a pretty good hunch this drip once a week would work. And so she followed that gut instinct and sent the tech to do what sheI needed to do. And it worked really, really well. She was super thrilled. And she had the course up for about two years on my her website. It was basically a membership plugin that she used. Ari shard that thing that's always so surprising, for course creators, is when you create something and you put it out, you think you're done right now I'm going to lean back. That's just customer email. It's like that's just the beginning. Because then things start going wrong. And the payment portal doesn't connect and installment payments don't work. And after about a year and a half, she saw that she was outgrowing my own platform. It was also slowing down my her website because it was huge. The course had so many videos/ They were all hosted on Vimeo, but still there was so much content on there. She figured she needed to move. And then she started looking for a different platform. And I looked at a lot of them. She looked at Kajabi. And she looked at a Teachable. She looked in depth. And she kept cycling back to Thinkific because they had a bulk import. That was huge for her, because she had so many videos. She didn't want to have to do these all manually. So she liked the bulk import, the layout, and the customer service. And she found somebody who could help me. And that process alone took about six months because the course was so big. She still kept it running on the old platform during that time. She kept telling people that new stuff was coming. And another thing was she wanted to have the ability to bookmark videos. She wanted people to be able to see what they had already seen. She wanted them to be able to slow down or speed up videos. And she wanted quizzes. The ability to have these things was a big one for her that I couldn't do on my membership site. And then she also wanted to do trainings as a coach. She wanted to bring in some coaching. Thinkific has this option where you can put in modules. And then so she would use that really heavily. You could get reward emails when you finish a module. Or you would get reminders to login and things like that. So that was all stuff that Thinkific could do and she couldn't do. She really wanted all the discussions as well. And that's when she moved. And as she was moving to Thinkific and that's when I came on the scene and had more ideas. Thinkific and their customer support is wonderful. When Ari wondered about certain things she may be able to do on the platform they said, “Well, you know, you could, but you probably have to know code.” And while she was pretty good at learning things, coding was always the one place she drew the line. So I was on one of the few on one of the sites of a recommended tech personnel. And that vetted everybody very carefully and then Ari decided to work with me because it seemed I had the most to do with technology. Ari contacted me and I came up with even more ideas. I was like, “Well, you could actually put all this and then you can do that.” So in Ari’s eyes I had exactly the right ideas for her . So that's when we started collaborating. I have to say I love this story. Seriously, I really love the story, because what Ari just said is that she came to the platform with something fully developed. And there were places that it was stretching her and her team beyond what felt comfortable/ She didn’t want them to have to deal with failed payments. And she didn't have to deal with lost passwords and things of that nature. So she used that framework in mind as she was looking for a platform. And to sweeten the pot, the bulk import was important. It was so important. So it doesn't really matter if you've never created a course before or if you've got a full blown course. You find different reasons to gravitate to one platform or another. And so now that Ari is on Thinkific she’s doing all these other things. I know that one of the projects that she and I worked on was developing this whole drip schedule. We had to make it so that it made sense because what she wanted to do wasn't natively available within Thinkific. So we then we had bed. Yeah, I remember that. Oh, my goodness. So what we did is we took her 20 modules course and created 20 courses.That's right, we created 20 courses so that we would be able to do the drip in the way that she wanted it to be able to drip it. We also did a few other bits and pieces. I built a Zapier. I did all sorts of Zapier stuff/ I integrated her with Convert Kit so that everything worked smoothly with that. And then she was able to import all of her users over. Everyone was able to kind of come in where they needed to be. So if people were brand new purchasers, they'd come into module one. If they already had the content, we've made it available so that was an easy transition for them. We had to just do some digging in behind the scenes to make some of that stuff work. Not everybody is going to draw the line at no coding, some people may draw the line earlier on. There are going to be people that say, “I don't want to configure this thing. And I just want to create my content.” That’s really pretty cool. But for Ari, in this journey of creating all these online resources, she all in. She likes to use scheduling for her one on one teaching. And she uses zoom. She now has a three camera set up which allows her to show people where her fingers are and all that. But she never thought how much the technology would,in some ways, lead her into thinking “Oh, it's possible to integrate this with this? Well, that would mean that while they are studying their technique, we could give them a little video here. It’s just that the power of the technology for the user experience does something I had never really thought about...how much this can make or break the students sticking with the content.” - Ariane Cap Here is why Ari thinks that Thinkific is so great. There are ways to easily find things very quickly/ You can now you can mark what you've already watched. And you can easily see because her content is so huge. Think about it in terms of a book. We use a book marker or fold over a page corner to mark where we leave off. Ari and her students are able to do something similar to this inside Thinkific. They are able to easily go back to content they have seen if they get stuck. And they are able to pick up right where they left off. All while Ari can see where people are inside of these courses. It has been really helpful. Ari and I also integrated the forums for her course. This was something that Ari came to me saying, “I'd really love to have a forum. I'm having a cohort.” At the beginning of 2019, Ari was going to have a cohort of new users who were going to go through her course. They were all going to start at the same time. And she wanted to have a place for them to communicate with each other, to talk to her, to submit their assignments, etc . So we determined the best option was to do a standalone forum. So we built a forum on her hosting company. It was just on another sub-domain. So she had her Thinkific sub-domain and her forums on another sub-domain. With the magic of Zapier, when someone signs up for Thinkific, we automatically created them a user inside your forum. All they had to do was set up a password. So we didn't go all the way to single sign on, which is a functionality that is a higher level entity. But we made it so that it was super easy. All they had to do was go in and add a password and then get started. The whole idea of a forum and a place for people to communicate outside of the course is huge. I know even just recently over the summer, one of my friends and a past guest on the podcast actually asked what helps people get through their courses. And I think that's it! Community and forums and a place to connect is absolutely 100%, one of those facets! So why did Ari decide to go with a forum? Around the New Year, everybody's talking about New Year's resolutions. And she knows so many people sign up for courses and go in there with the best intentions. But she does know that also from what she does or learned as a coach, is that it usually works until the second week of January. And then we fall off the wagon. But research shows us that we have a much higher success rate, if we have peer support and accountability. We have more success if we know people are watching us. And she just kept thinking about how she could help people through this course. Here’s another thing that's great about thinking big. Ari can spy on her students. She can see how much they're doing. And because she knew that it was going to be easier for them if they had support since they had this fresh new year energy. So she thought, “Why don't I create a version of the course, everybody who signs up between today and in three weeks will be added to this cohort, and you will be going through the course together.” This version of the course would be automated and really low key. Because if you ask too much, people are going to drop off. So we made it really really low key. People in this version of the course would have one week to pick an assignment that they really like. And then they would have one week to practice it. Then on that next Sunday, they were going to submit it as a video. And that's another thing I helped her with. Because recording a video, putting it in an iPhone, getting it on a computer and then uploading it in a Dropbox is a headache, right? I helped Ari implement this one click Record right into the browser. Every other week, they're submitting their homework. And we have a wonderful YouTube that's hidden from the world. So maybe we can get in there and see those submissions. And we can see what people are doing. We can even give them feedback. But this whole idea of accountability, that's where the forum was so great! Because in the forum with everybody, all their peers are watching, we're going to to commit and say, “I'm going to do exercise number three, and maybe number five is I get to it.” And then on Sunday, they have to submit that. They can submit it privately or that can submitted for everybody to see and critique and cheer them on. But it has just made a huge difference. And Ari had a lot of people to drop off of this version of the course which is to be expected. That's just normal human nature. But Ari had a diehard group of people who were sticking with it. A group of people who were panicking if they're a day late. And a group of people who are submitting and improving. Ari shared that it's just such a joy to see they're working hard. And it's just amazing to see their success. That was in beta. And at the time of this recording we're in August. So they've been at it since January. For Ari that is just amazing. Ari and her students also do monthly Q and A's. W alsoe do special cohort Q and A's. In the forum, they have all these questions floating about the bustling energy. And it's fantastic. And on the morning of this recording, she invited everybody into the forum. So the forum is now public. It has public places, but it also has cohort places. And those are private. This is for the cohort only. This first round was in beta, but she’s definitely going to be offering this again and maybe make small groups so that people really start getting to know each other. And the energy in there is just phenomenal. So she couldn't be more pleased! She and her students do it like a 20 unit course. They do it every other week. So that's 40 weeks! Ari is a music teacher. She knows she can make a difference in 40 weeks. Nobody wants to talk about 40 weeks They want something that they can play like a hero in a weekend or maybe a 12 week course. But 40 weeks? She knows that she can do a before and after assessment with those people that is mind blowing. I want the listeners to hear this right now. If you know your audience, and you know what you can do, there is no limit! You don't have to have “Learn How to Build a Website in a Weekend” course. That's a course that I have never been interested in creating. But the idea of, learn how to play the bass so that you can actually jam and feel confident and have expert eyes on your fingering. But it's gonna take you this full year. It's going to be a one year process. You set your New Year's resolution, and next year, you're going to have achieved it if you stick to the plan. There's no reason not to go big if it makes sense with what you offer and how you offer it. Let’s talk about using the Thinkific platform vs.a membership site on WordPress. Ari was importing over the course. And she was just looking at all these different types of lessons that were there. At first when she imported it over, she would have the videos and some text embedded in the same lesson. But then she changed that because she really wanted to know how much people are watching the videos, where they drop off, and if they do drop off what she can do to tweak that. And that’s something you can only do if you put the video as a separate lesson. So she rearranged the course so many times. And have we mentioned that her course is huge? That's 20 units. Ari is now offering confidence courses and training course. And she’s about to release core principles, which is a new course. She also has lots more in the pipeline. She loves the Thinkific platform because now she has the learning curve done. And it's just easy peasy as far as Thinkific is concerned. Ari was definitely surprised at how many things you can do. For example, with the quizzes, she can put 50 questions in there and she can tell Thinkific to only give that students 10 of them. To Ari this is awesome because then she can tell her students that they can do it again and they will get different questions. Ari was also suprise by how you upload files. She liked how Thinkific integrates, because she has a lot of booklets, sound files, and extra PDFs that come with the lessons. So she can bundle those together and it's a one click download at the end. And then you have the whole thing. She liked how you can integrate the sound files. For Ari they look really pretty. She just puts a SoundCloud link in there and it gets the player. She says that it looks really posh. It makes her old course look pretty shabby. Ari said it was all scroll city. You would have to scroll forever to find stuff. And you had to always go into different tabs. I can really appreciate that! That just gave a really good visual the audience right now. Because you know, that's the thing about sharing about these technology platforms, in this podcast capacity. You don't have the visual to go along with it. So I think that really helped everybody kind of get a really good idea of what it is with Thinkific and what I really wanted to do with this series. I think Ari is really helping to do that. Ari helped showcase how powerful it is, when you're using a hosted platform that has so much support. You're not just buying a hosting platform. And you're not just buying a blank slate. You're buying a blank slate that you can do anything you want to do on it with an entire support system and an entire development team. These people want to help you succeed. That's really what you're getting with Thinkific. And that's why I love having clients on Thinkific as often as possible. Not every client makes sense for Thinkific. And we go through the one on one process to make sure that it is truly the right platform for them. But Ari has really shown and highlighted the power of choosing the hosted platform. And I really appreciate that it wasn't even prompted. This is where Ari tells us even MORE about what she likes about Thinkific. She also likes all these integrations that Thinkific has set up. For example, she can use one tool and then go into Convert Kit. And Thinkific also helps you with the marketing. She shared one fun example of Thinkific helped her with marketing. She likes to do early birds. And she likes to do specials. This is especially true when she is building a course. It's helpful to have an idea up front about how interested are people going to be in that sort of thing. So she likes to do early bird pricing. There is a coupon that she gave people and they could use it and get 50% off or something. She was thinking that when they would purchase, there would be a small icon indicating the person has a coupon. And they would have to click that and then put the coupon code in. Of course, what happens the first day? Half of her people didn't see the coupon! She was getting angry emails!. So she went to Thinkific and asked for help in making that icon bigger! And they actually said don't, because it's about your course, it's not about the coupon. People are just overlooking that field. So what ended up happening was that I just took a little screenshot and made a big pink arrow and showed people what they needed to do. She refunded everybody who overlooked it. What Ari just highlighted there is the fact that Thinkific cares! They really truly cared about what you were putting out there. I have some clients who have lower priced courses. hey have $10- $30 courses and they have coupons that they want people to use the coupon. So for a couple of my clients, we made it so that that link wasn't hidden. We made it so that the coupon code field was visible. And we made it so that there was a field you didn't even have to click them. And then on some of these clients, we even went so far as that “enter coupon code ABC XYZ here” to get the current price. Those are the kinds of things that you can do. But I love the fact that Thinkific explained to Ari the rationale and they helped you do even better in your students eyes. Because then instead of just making it bigger for then to see, Ari took a picture of this icon and showed them that you are going the extra mile for them by showing them what they need to do. And that immediately put you in their good books. And then they already see that she cares about them. Then they are more apt to see what she's providing in this course. This has been so insightful. Next week in episode 3 and 4 of this series, I have two really interesting interviews for you. They are with newer users of the Thinkific platform. So Ari was a great story of how someone's used the platform successfully. Next week, we're going to talk with two people who are using the platform for the very first time and don't necessarily know everything that's going to come, It’s a really great place. If you are thinking about starting with the platform, you have to listen to these episodes so that you can see yourself in their shoes. Be sure if you haven't yet, subscribe to the podcast in your podcast app. And episodes 3 and 4 of this series will drop next week. Thanks for listening to the Tech of Business podcast. If you enjoyed the show, please subscribe, share, rate, and review on Apple podcasts, Stitcher Radio, Overcast, or wherever you download your favorite shows. Connect with Jaime: Instagram: @techofbusiness Twitter: @techofbusiness Facebook: @yourbiztech LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jaimeslutzky/ Email: jaime@techofbusiness.com Connect with Ari: Website: Ari's Bass Blog Facebook: Ariane Cap Musician Website: Arianecap.com To listen to the first episode in this series "Your Student Experience in Online Courses with Rob Balasabas" click here.

Kelli Tanghe and Team Ari: Pushing for Inclusion, One Race at a Time Kelli Tanghe promised herself that when her daughter Arianna, who has cerebral palsy and is legally blind, took her first steps on her own after years of therapy, she’d lace up her sneakers and start to run. Little did she know the journey that would follow. When Ari entered middle school, she voiced her disappointment being left on the sidelines in gym class and desire to compete in sports just like her older brother and sister. In order to get Ari off the bench and into the action, in 2012, Kelli pushed her daughter in her wheelchair in a 5k race. Since, they’ve crossed over 60 finish lines together, including multiple marathons, all while raising awareness for the inclusion of physically challenged and assisted athletes. Kelli is able to push herself through the miles thanks to encouraging words from Ari, who feels like her “disability disappears” when she races with her mom. Tune in as Kelli discusses how, even with the obstacles, Arianna blesses her life and inspires her every day.   Join us every other week on Women's Wealth: The Middle Way®, a radio show aimed at helping women navigate questions about work, money, and family. You can find us on http://www.womensradio.com/author/lhurd, and https://womenswealth.podbean.com, on the SoundCloud Apps for iPhone and Android, https://soundcloud.com/womenswealthmiddleway and Spotify. See you in two weeks!

When Ari and Gavi started Indiewalls, a company that wanted to manage sales of art on cafe walls, they hadn't fully thought through just how difficult it would be. But that turned out to be for the better: Because they were willing to dive into this crazy industry, they were able to meet people who wanted art, understand the marketplace, and then transform into an entirely different company. This is the story of how they began with an idea that didn't work, and pivoted into one that does.

When Ari and Gavi started Indiewalls, a company that wanted to manage sales of art on cafe walls, they hadn't fully thought through just how difficult it would be. But that turned out to be for the better: Because they were willing to dive into this crazy industry, they were able to meet people who wanted art, understand the marketplace, and then transform into an entirely different company. This is the story of how they began with an idea that didn't work, and pivoted into one that does.

Ari Page is the owner and CEO of Fund&Grow. Fund&Grow helps small businesses and real estate investors get significant funding (up to $250,000 and more) at zero percent interest via creative credit card financing. To date, the Company has raised over $350M in credit for its small business clients. When Ari acquired the Company in 2009, revenues were modest and the company was rife with customer service issues. Due to his ingenuity in finding creative ways for small businesses to acquire funding, Fund&Grow grew 450% in five years, despite the great recession. Today, customer satisfaction is at an all-time high, and the company boasts an A+ Better Business Bureau rating. Ari’s approach to employees, affiliates and vendors is the same – treat people with kindness, respect and care, go out of your way for them, and everybody wins. It’s this attitude that has given Fund&Grow outstanding relationships with major financial institutions such as Chase and Bank of America, as well as Nationally Renowned Speakers and Affiliates such as The Icon Builder David T. Fagan, Bryan Ellis Investing, Jerry Norton, Kent Clothier, Mitch Stephen, Lex Levinrad, GrowThink, Financial Freedom Foundation, Merchant Banking Resources and many others. These win-win relationships have allowed the Company to achieve year-over-year growth with minimal advertising expense. Under Ari’s leadership, the Company has invested heavily, and successfully, in systematizing processes and in using technology to streamline everything from financial reporting to customer service. Civic minded, Ari believes in giving back in proportion to what one has received. To that end, the Company engages in various philanthropic endeavors, including One Percent for the Planet, which has companies like Fund&Grow donate one percent of their gross revenues to environmentally conscious causes. Ari resides in Spring Hill, Florida with his wife, Maja, and their two children. What you’ll learn about in this episode: New & exciting software improvements at Fund & Grow Why you need to keep stake within your company Why you don’t need business credit cards to get funding How Fund & Grow does the card stacking process for you The key to keeping card stacking off of your personal credit report How you can improve your chances of getting approved for a business credit card account Why using unsecured credit is the way to go The power of being able to use your own credit & utilizing banks to build it How customer relations management software can benefit you How the amount of funding is skyrocketing, even for people with low credit scores Resources: REInvestorSummit.com/Funding REInvestorSummit.com/PATLive REInvestorSummit.com/Grow REInvestorSummit.com/aof REInvestorSummit.com/100

When it comes to understanding what is coming in the future of work, there are few people who have more relevant insights than Matthew Brimer. Matthew is the co-founder of General Assembly, a pioneer in education and career transformation that specializes in teaching people today's most in-demand skills. This conversation with Matthew is intriguing, hitting on many themes having to do with the future of work and what you can do to position yourself for success, so be sure you listen. ## Outcome oriented education that tees you up for real-world skills and employment. General Assembly is all about outcome-oriented education. What does that mean practically? It means the GA team approaches education not from the standpoint of a standardized curriculum, but rather from the perspective of what the desired end-goal is. They do so by staying abreast of what companies are and will be looking for in terms of employee skills and talents in years ahead. That enables General Assembly to stay on the cutting edge of what students need to learn. Find out why Ari and Nick have begun working alongside the General Assembly team, on this episode of Leverage. ## Why everyone needs to think more entrepreneurially about their career. When Ari asked Matthew Brimer about the future of work, he said that he's pretty certain that everyone in the workforce is going to need to learn how to think entrepreneurially about their career. He's not saying everyone should become an entrepreneur, but that everyone needs to learn how to push the envelope, be creative, and take risks in order to discover the things about their field and their skillset that make them uniquely suited for particular roles. It's going to cause the workforce to be more agile, but more specialized, which is what Matthew believes the future will demand. Find out more of Matthew's thoughts about the future of work, on this episode. ## Experimentation is part of the game as you move forward on the success journey. Gone are the days of rote, mechanical roles in a static workplace. As technology and commerce advance at increasingly higher rates those in the workforce will be required to flex, adapt, and experiment, even in well-established roles. Matthew Brimer says that experimentation is part of what will enable people to discover their unique fit and thrive in the ever-changing future of work. As co-founder of General Assembly, Matthew has a unique perspective on this topic that you'll want to hear, so be sure to listen. ## To be more effective, intentionally and diligently surround yourself with people who raise the bar. Matthew Brimer is a person who knows that growth doesn't come from staying in the same environment you've always been in. That's why his advice about how to be more effective began with intentionally surrounding yourself with people who push you toward growth. He pointed out that great things are seldom done in isolation and those who achieve great things in their lives are those who are constantly interacting with others who are on the same trajectory. You can hear all three of Matthew's recommendations for how to be more effective, on this episode of Leverage. ## Outline of This Episode - [0:03] Welcome to Matthew Brimer - a guy who's a bigger deal than he realizes. - [2:40] Why Matthew is on the cutting edge of technology and education at the same time. - [4:55] What is Daybreaker and why did Matthew even try such an out of the box thing? - [10:30] How Matthew starts his day and manages time as his most important resource. - [14:30] How Matthew chooses the kind of companies he will serve as an advisor. - [16:39] Matthew's thoughts about the future of work. - [22:47] Why the valedictorian of the will not be the high achiever of the future. - [26:40] Matthew's biggest startup failure: they made every mistake in the book. - [35:00] What was the MVP for General Assembly? - [39:30] Matthew's top tips for becoming more effective. ## Resources --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/lessdoing/message

None of us want to waste our lives on trivial things. That's why we care about productivity and working effectively. Geoff Woods says it's therefore vital that we discover the most important thing we need to accomplish at any given time. It's the singular focus that has enabled him and the organization he works with to become a world-class leader in their industry. Geoff is on the show to chat about his life-changing experience over the last year as CEO of the new “One Thing” company alongside Jay Papasan and Gary Keller. What he shares on this episode is simple but powerful. You won't want to miss it. ## The most important thing is the most important thing. There are many things that crowd into our lives, seeking our attention and energy. But the most important things are simply that - the most important things. And Geoff Woods would argue that we don't have the capacity to effectively focus on more than one thing at a time. That's why we must simplify our “to dos” - boiling them down to one main thing that deserves our focus. It's not easy to explain in a short paragraph, but you're in luck - because Geoff explains it in detail, in this conversation, so don't miss it. ## You don't have the right to think of tasks down the line until you complete the first task. I huge mindset shift included in “The One Thing” approach to productivity that Geoff Woods describes on this episode, is that even though you may have decided upon steps you need to accomplish to move you toward a certain goal, you haven't earned the right to work on or consider the things that are later on your list until you've completed those listed first. This concept is at the heart of doing the most important things first so that you are more productive and eventually successful at accomplishing your greater goals. Find out how it works, on this episode. ## How can you identify your “one thing?” One of the hardest aspects of productivity is the process of discovering what things are actually the most important to accomplish. Geoff Woods has learned from his mentor, Gary Keller that a singular focus on one thing until it is accomplished, makes him productive at an accelerated rate and moves the needle to a greater degree. How do you discover what is most important for you to do? And is it always a major task, or can it sometimes be a simple, small one that simply must come first? Geoff explains the powerful “One Thing” approach in detail, on this episode. ## When you say “yes” to other people, you're saying “no” to yourself. When Ari asked Geoff for 3 pieces of advice to those who want to be more effective, Geoff's first piece of advice was that most people need to learn how to say “no” to more things. He made the point that when you say “yes” to other people, you're saying “no” to yourself - and more specifically, to the things you've determined are most important for you to accomplish. Geoff has a great way of explaining the nuances surrounding these kinds of decisions, so be sure you give yourself the opportunity to learn from him by listening to this episode. ## Outline of This Episode - [0:03] Ari's introduction to Geoff Woods and his history. - [1:41] What is “The 1 Thing” concept Gary Keller has written about? - [2:05] The life-changing year Geoff has lived alongside Gary Keller and Jay Papasan. - [4:37] The framework for identifying your “one thing” in each area of life, and how to choose which one to start with. - [6:03] How big or small should your “one thing” be? - [8:22] The vital nature of systems to recruit amazing, talented people. - [11:07] How the KW team uses their “411” tool to identify the big tasks to do each week. - [13:30] Using the “one thing” approach to work effectively as a team. - [14:48] Geoff's top 3 pieces of advice in order to be more effective. ## Resources Mentioned - [The Mentee Podcast](http://menteepodcast.com/) - [The One Thing Podcast](https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/the-one-thing-p --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/lessdoing/message

Team trust is an important aspect of every business. But do you know exactly HOW important? On this episode of Leverage, Ari and Nick discuss the issue of trust on teams with their friend, Aaron Schiff. Aaron is one of the people who inspired Ari to become an entrepreneur in the first place - you can hear that story at the beginning of the conversation. But Aaron has also become a master at building a very successful remote team and infusing it with the trust that makes it work well. Get all the details on this episode. ## What happens when a team trusts each other? The short answer is that success happens. But there's more to it than that. Trust is what enables team members to communicate effectively, to work harmoniously, and to work toward common goals. There are so many implications of team trust that it took an entire episode to talk about it, and you can hear that conversation between Ari and Nick, and their good friend Aaron Schiff, on this episode of Leverage. ## OK, so it's vital to build team trust. So, how do you do it? Trust is a commodity that isn't easy to come by. It takes time because it requires that you demonstrate your trustworthiness to others repeatedly. But there are ways to speed up the process. On this episode, Aaron Schiff describes some of the things he's done to infuse his team with trust for each other and for him - things like transparency in compensation, collaboration in the creation of systems and policies, and more. Aaron's got a knack for this kind of thing so you'd be wise to hear what he's got to say. It will undoubtedly challenge you to think outside your normal box as well as help you come up with your own ways to build trust on your team. ## It's the CEO's job to build a team culture that fosters trust. When Ari asked his guest, Aaron Schiff, what his primary role is now that his company - Matic Insurance - has gotten larger, Aaron pointed to three main parts he plays in the company's success. One of the things he shared is that it's his responsibility to steward the company vision that provides a healthy and enabling team culture. There's a lot to it but Aaron isn't shy about sharing the details, so be sure you make the time to listen to this episode of Leverage. ## Always question what you believe to be 100% true about yourself. It's usually not. As always, on this episode, Ari asked his friend and guest, Aaron Schiff for three pieces of advice to be more effective. Aaron pointed to the fact that most of us are not as self-aware as we believe we are. In his words, “Always question what you believe to be 100% true about yourself. It's usually not.” He's pointing out that when you're willing to see yourself in a new light you're able to sidestep some of the issues that make for poor team communication and degrade team trust. You'll enjoy hearing Aaron's insights about team trust, so don't miss this episode. ## Outline of This Episode - [0:08] You need to meet Aaron (and Nick's) best friend - Aaron Schiff. - [2:34] Aaron's story - the companies he's built, worked for, and where he is now. - [6:58] Sometimes, being first makes you the winner. - [8:20] How Aaron has structured his team. - [9:15] The vital nature of trust in effective teamwork. - [12:39] Finding the right developers to create the platform. - [15:02] The unique role Aaron plays in the company now. - [16:25] How Aaron gets his company together in the Ukraine. - [19:07] The road ahead for Matic. - [19:53] How consumers can use the Matic tools. - [21:41] The tools used to run the company. - [31:21] Aaron's 3 pieces of advice to be more effective. ## Resources Mentioned - Aaron's company - [https://maticinsurance.com/](https://maticinsurance.com/) - Aaron on LInkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/aaronschiff/ - Aaron(at)getMatic(dot)com - [Slack](https://slack.com/) - [Google Hangouts](https://hangouts.google.com/) - [Wheel Decide](http://wheeldecide.com/) - [Google Drive - Google Docs](https: --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/lessdoing/message

Ari Lamstein  is a graduate of the FREE Blogging Course and one of the many who took all the knowledge and advice seriously. When Ari emailed me about the success of his new product I knew I had to interview the guy. About 2 years ago, he was working at a real estate company and had a lot of data. He started working on a software/data science project. Check out the full interview with Ari.