Podcasts about when jon

Eternally committed and passionate about dreamers who aren't afraid to become doers, Katell believes in strategically developing and designing purpose-infused brands and websites epiphanies. As a French expat, freshly landed in the U.S., she launched in 2014 her own business dream, Reverielane, a creative studio specializing in developing brand epiphanies through design - delivering a compelling story aimed to fascinate the people who need to hear your message the most. With her husband Jon (now a co-owner of Reverielane as well) they are working together and living on their own terms, raising their two kids in Southern California. "After nearly ten years in the branding industry, I am more certain than ever that strategic design provides creative solutions to business decisions.” ~ Katell Here's what we covered on the episode: What Katell's Business Looks Like Today How we originally met Katell on episode 97 of The Design Business Show where we talked about building purpose-infused brands and web design — I invited her back to give us an update on her business Katell has been doing branding for 10+ years and started her own design business 7 years ago, she shares that 2 years ago her husband, Jon joined as a co-owner which caused a big shift in the business Even with a change in their business, Katell says that last year was their best year and this year, 2021 is on track to be an even better year, she also shares her personal and business success metrics Why Katell focuses on strategy so much in her business, especially on Instagram is because she wants people to understand it and when she does that, the people who come to them are hungry for that strategy Because Katell was going, going, going she felt that she wasn't taking care of her own brand the way she needed to so she had to sit down and put her own brand through the process Expectations + Core Values When Working With Clients Katell was part of a summit where she talked about expectations, not just client expectations but about your own expectations, she says to think about what you want out of the relationship, how you want to work, how you work best, etc. and present that to the client When Katell jumps on calls with potential clients, she lays it all out there and shares her expectations to see their reaction because she says that can help point out red flags Katell shares some red flags or misalignments she can see from the first call and tells us how she handles them, she also shares that there is some wiggle room when it comes to taking on certain clients One big source for clients in their business is referrals and the other one comes from the teaching Katell has been doing about focusing less on the pretty stuff and more on the core stuff, like the quality, purpose and strategy which has brought clients who resonate with that If you're trying to get clients from social media, Katell says to think about the primary thing they're asking themselves and answer that before they email you, DM you or anything — you need to proactively answer the main thing that's on their mind When it comes to growing and scaling their business, Katell says her and her husband have conversations about what they want their business to be and do One thing that has always felt suffocating to Katell was the concept that you have to have a niche or a very specific design style or industry to work in and how they have stuck to their values especially within the last year Being clear on what success looks like for you, what your core values are and how you can better express that, which are all things Katell does in her business can help you grow and scale your own business Saying No in Order to Say Yes Switching the modes between business partners and husband and wife can be difficult for Katell sometimes but they are getting better and she hopes they continue to Katell's tip for bringing a partner into your already existing business is to set clear boundaries between life and work and understand that it is going to be difficult Katell walks us through who is on their team and what they do When Jon joined the business, he took over all the admin tasks that Katell hated and she tells us about the fears she had surrounding not doing all the work herself Katell shares that they are launching a new fragrance business and how that means saying no to some things in order to say yes to this business Even though it can be scary to bring other people on in your business, Katell reminds us that when you do, you then have room to say yes to other things you want to do Katell touches on a couple things they are launching this year, one will be about their philosophy on branding because Katell has been talking about it so much and wants to a create one spot where it can all live so they can help people add value to their business The second thing Katell wants to launch is a deep dive on brand positioning because she gets a lot of questions about it — she wants people to be able to go back to it and use it as a resource each time they launch something, whether it's their personal brand, a product or service Connect with Katell on Instagram, Facebook or on their website Links mentioned: Reverielane Episode 97 of The Design Business Show Connect with Katell on Instagram Connect with Katell on Facebook Like what you heard? Click here to subscribe + leave a review on iTunes. Click here to download my Sales Page Trello Board Let's connect on Instagram!

In episode 64 of the Customers Who Click podcast, I had fun chatting to Jon Ivanco about the need for collecting better data from customers. So forget asking for *just* their name & email address - we're talking data on exactly what the customer is looking for, and when they're looking to buy it. Those are the two pieces of information you'll need to map out their shopping journey so that you can deliver the right message to the right person at the right time.  It's not about chasing KPIs or meeting requirements set from the above to save your job. Don't take any absolutes in marketing - just because we've accepted that asking too many questions in forms causes friction and customers leave without sharing their data, it doesn't mean it's true for every brand. It all depends on the questions you're asking and how relevant they are to the customer's shopping experience. Jon is the co-founder of Formtoro, an agency on a mission to make data collection frictionless, so businesses can create amazing personalized experiences. He's a brand strategist with more than a decade of experience working on process improvement. Jon has been responsible for bringing data-driven processes to life for clients such as LIFX, ROLI, Latticework, and many others. When Jon isn't busy helping companies, he can be found on the golf course fighting with his swing. You can connect with him on LinkedIn, Twitter or head over to https://formtoro.com/.

Play poker at runitonce.eu & support online poker's future.Study poker at runitonce.com & support yours.Email suggestions to: TheRake@runitonce.comTimestamps:0:00:09​Welcome Jonathan Van Fleet, aka Apestyles!  What makes you want to keep going after all these years?0:02:51​When Jon had his $1million Party Poker score, what did he do with the money?  What are his thoughts on having and spending large sums of money in general?0:06:31​One of the feelings he experienced with his win was fear.  Has Ben ever experienced that with a big win?  Thoughts on being able to take bigger financial risks when you have a strong support system to fall back on.0:10:36​More on Jonathan’s relationship with money, and addiction.0:13:54​Does he find more gratification or value in streaming than he did in just grinding? 0:17:26​Thoughts on the effects of playing with an audience online.  Pros and cons.0:19:20​The importance of community, and how streaming can provide that for online players.0:20:34​Is the streaming environment more difficult for female streamers?  The importance of having good mods.0:26:52​What was Jonathan’s rock bottom as an addict, and how did he come out of it?0:30:59​Thoughts on adjusting one’s life after achieving a milestone like sobriety, or a big win.0:33:36​What’s been his worst experience backing somebody?0:35:00​Sending some love to Jonathan’s assistant Barb.0:36:28​As a streamer, does he ever feel pressured to play big live events for the sake of his audience?0:37:36​Do live wins feel more significant than online wins?0:38:56​The importance of balancing GTO with intuition.0:41:09​What does he do to prepare for a stream?  Dealing with the anxiety of letting people down on stream.0:45:30​The legend of the re-buy fish.  Thoughts on the idea of “buying a bracelet” with multiple re-buys.0:48:35​Thoughts on superstition vs mindset vs expectations in poker.0:55:32​If people don’t hate playing you, you’re probably not being aggressive enough.0:57:16​Thoughts on the uneven nature of how bad it feels to lose vs how good it feels to win.0:59:56​Does he recall a make-or-break moment for him in poker, when he considered leaving?1:03:12​Advice for small stakes players.1:06:25​Thoughts on not always obeying your own roll.1:08:47​How did he get the nickname “apestyles”?1:10:12​Wrapping up.  Thank you Apestyles!

Starting your own business with little to no knowledge can only get you so far. To see your vision through, you need business development strategies in place.  In this episode, Jon Margalit shares the things he learned in his entrepreneurship journey. He discusses the importance of building the best team by hiring people with strong values. Jon also talks about what it takes to be an entrepreneur. He emphasizes the need for innovation and creativity. Along the way, entrepreneurs should also know how to identify and pitch to investors. It comes down to knowing your product, your customer, and your investor.  If you are interested to learn some successful business development tips, this episode is for you. Tune in and apply some of these to your business today! Here are three reasons why you should listen to the full episode: Find out how Jon effectively merchandises his goods to big retailers. Explore essential strategies in building your team. Learn more about raising capital and attracting investors for business development. Resources Zero to One: Notes on Startups, or How to Build the Future by Peter Thiel The Lean Startup: How Today's Entrepreneurs Use Continuous Innovation to Create Radically Successful Businesses by Eric Ries Interview with Brad Martineau Some resources where you can find angel investors:   Pasadena Angels Tech Coast Angels Orange County Angel Network Archangels Investors Crunchbase AngelList Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill Episode Highlights Jon's Background At an early age, Jon recognized that he didn't want to work for anyone. Jon's first attempt in business was when he spent $5,000 for a sandwich shop. After two weeks, he found himself cleaning the bathrooms and making sandwiches. Running this business has taught him to be cautious in choosing opportunities in his life. If you want to buy a brick-and-mortar business, observe the traffic that's going into the business. Listen to the full episode to know how Jon was able to turn the business around and sell it.  The Key to Business Development Business development won't happen if you don't have the people driving it. To accomplish this, pay yourself less or equal to the amount you pay to those you hired.  You will eventually earn more in the future; sacrificing early on is the key.  In the early period of your business, take the profit and invest it back into the business.  By doing so, you invest in your team members. They, in turn, will buy into your vision.  The Definition of an Entrepreneur Jon explains that somebody who tries to start a business without turning a profit yet is just canoeing. Jon emphasized that entrepreneurs should initiate things.  Jon differentiates this from business owners who buy a franchise. They didn't have to do marketing, branding, and product development. A true entrepreneur is somebody who creates. They identify a problem and innovate a solution. Building the Best Team Jon believes that references and resumes are irrelevant. What he does is conduct extensive interviews with applicants. Salespeople usually like the colour green. Jon observes that candidates who identified one of their parents as their role models had better values. They were successful and stayed with him for a long time.  When Jon built a finance business, he looked for people who had strong values, understood people's needs, and were good listeners.  Justifications on Sharing Profits For Jon, the only thing that matters in a business is sales. As you undergo business development, see which areas you can use to generate profit. You need to add more revenue streams and profit centers to the business. Next, crack the code in marketing by conditioning your buyers to spend money on as many places as they can. Listen to the full episode to learn how integrating a dry cleaning spindle increased the sales in Jon's sandwich shop.  Acquiring Capital for Business Development Jon shares that investors want to see you stretch money to get traction. They want to know if the entrepreneur has a way to address and minimize the risks. If an investor sees that you have a well-oiled machine that has yielded profits, they'll be more confident that you can grow.  You need to be methodical when dealing with money. Test out what works and what doesn't in small chunks.  Remember to report your financials to your investors.  How to Pitch to Investors Jon shares that he raises money for his business by cold emailing angel investors on LinkedIn. “You don't want to miss out on this.” Jon uses this phrase to attract investors. Attend as many networking events as you can.  Look for angel networks in your community.  Join pitch competitions. You know your business if your pitch is 3 minutes or less.  More Tips from Jon For Jon, keeping rejected emails as notes is a huge motivation. There was an instance where an investor outlined his reasons for not supporting Jon. He kept this in a folder with other rejections.  Jon looks forward to when he can email those who said no and say that they missed out.  Getting into Retail In major and big-box retailers, it is important to understand your audience. The key is to create a concise pitch deck or product deck.  You write an email to your buyers about your next big product. Instead of marketing your product to the big retailers, focus on how you can sell the product to their customers. You need to know how to merchandise correctly. Learn the specific details in the full episode. Making Slides to Get into Retail You attach the slides to the emails you send to the big box retailers. The slides contain your product, the problem, the solution to the problem, and merchandising.  In this instance, you're showing that your product can solve a problem that a target group has.  5 Powerful Quotes “You can have a great business model; you can have a great business plan; you can have a great idea. But if you don't have great people executing, it means nothing; it's worth zero.”  “When you take that money, and you put it right back into your people, it will pay back 100 fold. I promise.” “I feel that the true entrepreneur is somebody that innovates, somebody that creates, somebody that disrupts what's going on, not somebody that jumps in the stream that's already going one way and just start swimming with it.” “You want to spend the least amount of money possible and get the most traction. And just because you get funding, that's not a green light to go spend money. It is in a way as long as you're methodical about it and you do your testing in small chunks that are controlled.” “And I have a folder in my email that says, you know, ‘Nos,' and putting those nos in there. And I do it for a reason. It's because it's so much motivation.” About Our Guest Jon Margalit is the founder and CEO of Togally.com. His company is an innovative online photography platform aiming to “uberize” the sourcing and booking of local photographers. He is also the CEO of TowelMate. This company is a consumer product startup dedicated to solving key and mobile phone storage for gym users. Jon graduated from San Diego University with a strong background in business management, sales and marketing, and merchandising. He has over 12 years of experience in startup business development. In this period, Jon has launched various startups from financial service businesses to consumer packaged goods.  Jon won first place at the 2018 Lyfebulb and UnitedHealth Group Startup Pitch Competition. He was also awarded at the 2015 CyberTECH'S Pitchfest for his Togally pitch. If you want to reach out to Jon, you can email him directly at jon@togally.com. Learn more about his businesses at togally.com and TowelMate. Enjoyed This Podcast? Jon shares some business development tips and tricks to help aspiring entrepreneurs hit the ground running.  If you enjoyed the podcast, be sure to subscribe and share it with your friends! Post a review and share it! If you enjoyed tuning in, then leave us a review. You can also share this with your family and friends so this can inspire them to take ownership of their lives. For episode updates, visit our website. You may also tune in on Apple Podcasts.  PS. Do you already have a successful business, meaning you're up, running, and paying your bills with some profit left over? Are you interested in growing your business, automating/streamlining things, and staying one step ahead of your competition?

On this episode of the Franchise Secrets podcast, Erik is joined by another member of the Mighty Dog Roofing family -- founder Jon Sabo. The guys talk about the partnership between Mighty Dog Roofing and Horsepower Brands, why Jon chose Erik and Horsepower Brands and what sets them apart from the others, the decision to start franchising the company, and forming an emerging brand. For anyone thinking of either buying a franchise or turning your company into a franchise, this is a must-listen episode. It’s packed with great insight on things like rapid growth, partnerships, and the challenges faced along the way.  Listen to Erik and Jon talk about Mighty Dog Roofing: Introduction Lifestyle business (2:45) Erik and Jon talk about what Mighty Dog Roofing initially was and some of the reasons why they decided to franchise and expand fast. Why choose Horsepower Brands (3:26) With his business already established but a desire to grow quickly, Jon teamed up with Erik and Horsepower brands. He explains the rationale for his pick. You don’t know what you don’t know (5:55) Every business faces challenges but by teaming up with Erik and Horsepower Brands, Jon was able to circumvent some of those before they ever became problems. He shares some of the things that he’s glad he had an experienced partner to help him out with. Going alone vs. Partnering (10:33) Having seen insane growth in a short time, Jon believes it would have taken him years to get to where Mighty Dog Roofing is right now.  Slow vs. Fast growth (13:38) There’s major risk with rapid growth of a franchise. Jon shares his thoughts on choosing slower growth compared to fast growth. Advice for those thinking about franchising their business (17:09) For those that already have an established business and are thinking about franchising it, there are things you should consider. Having gone through it himself, Jon details what business owners should consider before pulling the trigger. The ethical draw (19:14) When Jon was thinking about partnering with another brand to grow Mighty Dog Roofing, it was the integrity he saw in Erik and Horsepower Brands that drew him to them. Jon’s role in the company (20:23) Jon has taken a new role within Mighty Dog Roofing, training franchisees. Focusing franchisees (21:38) When coaching franchisees on what’s needed to run and grow a successful business, there is sometimes a need to refocus them on the most important parts of the business. Erik and Jon talk about what they look for to determine that refocusing is needed and how they coach the franchisees up.  Why franchise (23:00) Despite a pretty comfortable life with money in the bank, Jon explains his decision to start franchising and growing the brand, requiring more work and time. Jon’s background (24:00) Jon explains the work he did prior to starting Mighty Dog Roofing, including his time in the Marines. What makes Mighty Dog Roofing different? (28:03) Good brands are built on the idea that they do something unique and above the others in that space. For Mighty Dog Roofing, Jon believes it’s the company’s ability to stay ahead of the curve. Last bits of advice (32:06) Jon shares the few things that he thinks franchisees and franchisors should know, including the importance of open communication. Links: Franchise Secrets - Website Franchise Secrets - Facebook group Mighty Dog Roofing franchising opportunities - Email

The world of ecommerce is constantly changing — this last year being a prime example. How people shop in 2021 is radically different from how they shopped in early 2020, so forget about thinking about comparing today’s world to a decade ago. Although that is fun to see how much has changed. Now, it’s all about keeping up with your customers, which is why for our first official roundtable episode of Up Next in Commerce we wanted to bring on two people who have been on the cutting edge of the industry for years. Ashima Sehgal is a Software Development Manager at Amazon Music and Jon Feldman, a Senior Marketing Leader for Salesforce Commerce Cloud. These two go way back to their days working together on ecommerce implementation at Restoration Hardware, which was a journey in and of itself, and while they remain close friends, they sit on the opposite side of the fence when it comes to certain aspects of the future of ecommerce. We get into all of it in this episode, including discussing whether shopping at the edge is the future of the industry or just a passing fad, and how to get buy-in when selling a new implementation. I hope you enjoy the conversation as much as I did!Main Takeaways:Make It Easy: When pitching or selling an implementation, the key is to tell the right story and make it hard for the business to say no. Highlight the pain points that their business is facing, and play up how you will solve those problems from beginning to end and be a great partner throughout the process. But one thing to remember, don’t try to tackle everything from the start and be upfront about what is prioritized and what is put on the backburner. Edgy Opinions: There is a lot of debate on the future of shopping at the edge and whether or not it is a fad. Regardless of whether it sticks, businesses should be harnessing the power of meeting customers where they are and selling to them in those places, but the base ecommerce platform should not have to suffer as a result of those efforts. It’s All A Simulation: In the last year especially, there has been a lot of talk about the death of retail and the rise of an ecommerce-only economy. That is a myth. While 2020 and early 2021 undeniably changed the way people shopped, it was more of a blip in the timeline and not a true indicator of the future, which will more likely be a blend of in-person and online experiences.For an in-depth look at this episode, check out the full transcript below. Quotes have been edited for clarity and length.---Up Next in Commerce is brought to you by Salesforce Commerce Cloud. Respond quickly to changing customer needs with flexible Ecommerce connected to marketing, sales, and service. Deliver intelligent commerce experiences your customers can trust, across every channel. Together, we’re ready for what’s next in commerce. Learn more at salesforce.com/commerce---Transcript:Stephanie:Welcome to Up Next In Commerce. I'm your host, Stephanie Postles, CEO at Mission.org. Today's episode is going to be a really fun one. It's our very first official Roundtable and we have the two perfect guests joining us. First up, we have Ashima Seghal, the software development manager for Amazon and Jon Feldman, a senior manager of Product Marketing at Salesforce. Ashima, Jon, how's it going?Ashima:AwesomeJon:How's it going? Stephanie:Good. I'm glad to have you here. So I heard you guys have a little background, you've worked together in the past and I wanted to start there so people can know your relationship, like how do you all know each other? And maybe, Ashima, I'll let you start with that.Ashima:Yeah, I feel like Jon and I have worked together forever now. 2008, I moved to the U.S. and I met Jon, the first company I joined. It was a consulting shop, we work together to help people build their ecommerce websites and features on it. And, he's mentored me through that period to help me understand better where my interest lies. And he's also helped me grow my management skills and given me opportunities as he grew in the ladder in those organizations, I saw some opportunities come my way as well. And then, we worked together recently in Restoration Hardware. As a director of engineering, he and I worked together in terms of prioritization of what should be done when and working closely with the business, in terms of understanding how to get to the customer, how to go get features quickly to market and so on and so forth. So, a lot of history there to explore.Stephanie:And that really talked Jon up. So Jon, is that your recollection as well?Jon:No doubt.Stephanie:And what was your favorite project that you all worked on together?Jon:My success in ecommerce is deeply intertwined with working with Ashima. I mean, we worked very closely, both at Access Group where we did a zillion implementations. And then, when we went to Restoration Hardware, we had a really beautiful relationship and so far, I had the crazy ideas and she had the practical skills to do those. And so, it worked really symbiotically. So I feel like we've seen a lot of stuff and built the systems so yeah, really delighted to be sharing this.Ashima:Yeah. One funny story, I can tell you was we work for Falabella in Chile, and it was a Spanish speaking Morgan, I didn't understand as much Spanish so I would speak my English louder thinking they would understand me and Jon would be like, why are you yelling at them? I'm like, I'm not yelling at them. They just don't understand me. I'm trying. So, that was some happy moments.Jon:I remember that. That's wonderful. That was back at the building of [inaudible] or whatever.Ashima:Exactly.Stephanie:My gosh, that's awesome. And Restoration Hardware, that seems like a really good company to work on, especially from an ecommerce perspective, because when I was looking through articles and whatnot, it was talking about how they were resisting moving to ecommerce for a while. So, were you guys working there when that was still undergoing, when they didn't really want to make that move or were you already past that hurdle, and already ready to start implementing things?Ashima:I can go first and then, Jon can add to that. But if Restoration Hardware wants, they don't want anything to do with digital, they would close their eyes and close that shop today. The reality for them is they want to be beautiful. They want customers to come and touch them and feel them. They want people to experience it and then, love it. And digital is a hindrance to that because digital is very removed. It's away from the customer, however beautiful an image you put on digital, the fabric is something you can't feel and that's what they're selling. They want you to experience it. Then, going into building restaurants in their business than going into hotels half that is an extension of that. But we were more of an idea shop. We were enablers for them, not that loved and given as much money but still help them run 90% of their business through auto management and so on. So, we were critical to their success, but didn't get as much love I would say. Jon?Jon:No, I totally echo that. I think that Restoration Hardware is at its core, a luxury business and they want that luxury, in person experience. And it's really interesting because it was fascinating to be there during a time when there was all this transition to digital and everybody's like, well of course you need these nine things and to have like a real hard no, the experience is fairly impersonal and manual. I think it was really frustrating at the time. But it's really impacted my thinking since that I challenged the ease shopping at the edge. It's definitely something we're seeing. There's huge growth in it, right? It's a big area, certainly, Salesforce can't stop talking about it. But, from a Restoration Hardware standpoint, it's growth, but is that the growth that's important for my brand, which really affected how I evaluate some of that stuff.Ashima:Right. Another important thing is that we were always asked to do one day in their store, and Jon did it and we did it like all of us employees did it. And it was fascinating, because you could see why that was important. You could see that they wanted customers to come every day, look at a cushion and buy that and keep the relationship going. That is what they thought the bread and butter was. I met this lady who comes in every two, three months and buys a new big thing for her house. She has lots of money.Ashima:And that's the 1% that they're targeting. And that's what's running their business. They don't care about the 99%. They don't want to be digital, because they don't want to be for the masses. They know who their customer is. And that's what I learned in Restoration Hardware, that they were so aware of who their customer was and they were very successful. Look at the stock price now, right? That's part because they understand their customer. And we were just like I said, enablers. So, we were a step removed from that painting and so embedded in engineering, but if you talk about business, they were geniuses, I would say.Jon:Yeah, no doubt. Gary, he has built an unbelievable business. Restoration Hardware was a very difficult place to be in IT but it is an unbelievable business.Stephanie:Were there any big projects that you remember that you felt really strongly about? You're like this could go through and you just got like, Nope, sorry. We are not doing that.Ashima:Many of those.Stephanie:Maybe your favorite memory?Ashima:Yeah, we brought in so many different awesome implementation options for [mobile] and people just didn't buy it. It's like my cat who knows I'm here but pretends I'm not here. It's like that. Restoration Hardware acknowledges mobile is important but just does not want to invest in our mobile experience. I still say our because I feel like I'm connected to the brand but it is still sucky. Right? So I feel like mobile was the big, big one and why it's painful is because we brought in so many different ways of getting it in, like let's do it incrementally. Let's get one page there. Let's just get on iOS like, no.Jon:One of the strongest members I have is one of the chief merchandising officers who I want to be really clear is a lovely person, I follow her on Instagram, we're still buddies, is super brave but sitting at one of those tables in the center of innovation and whatever it's like it's the big show building and Restoration Hardware is really designed, if you're a vendor to be like, yo, this is the place, holding up herself and being like, who's going to buy a couch on this? Right? And I was like, man, we got a long way to go. Technology is not the place these guys are hanging out so-Ashima:Right.Jon:Man. So, before I get into... I want to dive deep into implementation because I know you both had background in that. But before that, I would love it if Ashima, you can explain maybe your current role at Amazon and then, Jon will go over to you just so everyone knows who we're talking to.Ashima:Yeah. Like I said, I'm software development manager there. I manage teams that run the front page of music app. So my team is a full stack team, which translates into iOS, Android web engineers, as well as Silverstack engineers who come together to build features for browsing, how customers discover music more easily, and highlight the personalization capabilities that we have under the hood and make it more obvious for customer experience improvement.Stephanie:Pretty cool. All right and Jon.Jon:That's awesome, probably the highest performing team at Amazon Music, I assume.Stephanie:I would think so too.Jon:[crosstalk] Ashima took the technology path after leaving Restoration Hardware and I was like, I can't do another project or I'll be dead. So I went into marketing and now, I do event content and I do all the flashy video stuff for Salesforce. It's a ton of fun. Ashima, your worst nightmare, I am paid for thought leadership. People pay to listen to the crazy stuff I say.Stephanie:I do want to dive into the implementation piece. I want to hear a bit about, we haven't actually dove that deep into that side of things on the podcast. Usually, I have brands on big and small, but we don't go into the weeds there and because you both have seen a lot of implementations in your career, I was hoping you can go through what makes a successful ecommerce implementation, like what does that look like, any case studies, I want to know how someone can make sure to put their best foot forward when thinking about that?Ashima:Yeah, in my experience, the best way to sell an implementation to a business stakeholder is to highlight their top three pain points, what is it that you're struggling with the most like in case of Restoration Hardware, or even my current company, we would ask them, what are the features you wanted to get in in 2019 and still haven't been able to get out of the door? And how can we increase velocity? Velocity is a word business loves. They want their things out the door, in front of the customers as soon as possible. That's one. Two, I feel really strongly about instrumentation and collecting metrics. If you don't know where your customer is and how they're using your site and what they're thinking as they're using your site, it just is pointless in many ways, because you can't make progress in any specific area, if you don't know how well or bad it's doing.Ashima:So those two avenues of velocity and instrumentation connect with business a lot. And then, also giving our business a sense that we're not boiling the ocean, we're going to go slow, start at point A and take you through to point B and won't abandon you midway and here's how it's going to go and give them an early peek into what an implementation would look like, is again, something that just strikes under with business and I feel like they understand our side of the problem.Stephanie:Okay.Jon:I couldn't agree more with agreeing on a language from an IT standpoint with the business and how you can evaluate the success of it. So ahead of time, you know that the business values this and IT values this and is the project to achieving that yes or no, rather than some... because the worst situation is where people start pulling metrics that no one's ever measured out of the air. And it's like, in the last week, our average card size is down 82 cents, you can chase that rabbit pretty deep.Stephanie:I was just going to ask that about metrics. It seems like at least back in my Google days, everyone was always operating in different metrics. I worked with product teams and [inaudible] teams and they didn't really see eye to eye with what was important. So, how would you present that to leadership in a way that connects with everyone who's your manager or manager's manager, and not just presenting business metrics that don't make sense to an engineering team who's like, well, wait, this is actually the bigger infrastructure problem while business is like, but what about my average order size? How do you think about that good balance without overwhelming them with hundreds of metrics?Ashima:Right. I feel like I agree with Jon that metrics and exclusivity don't make sense but if you connect the funnel that, here's where the customer started, we can see that we have so much value in this detail page and this is the button they're clicking the most. And if I improve this experience and reduce the number of clicks, it's going to get us this much left in the final revenue number. I feel like starting and ending, creating a story out of it has the best impact.Ashima:If you throw out a caught value number from the middle, maybe that won't resonate as much but creating a story, creating here's where we start, here's where we see most value. And this is where it's going to end, might have a better-Jon:No, totally. And I can think of two reasons why that's important. One is that it provides a north star for the project as it's going. These projects are multi month projects with different stakeholders and a lot of movement in them. And so being able to touch back to here are the use cases that we all agreed on that we're doing I think, is really critical. The other is it's interesting because it's table stakes to the level you're talking about is to have a broad agreement with the business and IT about what it is you're building full stop and while you're building it. I can think of implementation we did in Emeryville, which was, super lovely people but they were ultimately trying to save the business by replacing their ecommerce engine and as the business degraded, the energy around like we're going to get this new site out and all of a sudden the boat's going to float again. It just doesn't bear out that way. If you don't know why you're building and how that's building your business, technology alone is not going to do it. [AD READ]Stephanie:Yeah. And I love the idea to around having to have a story for it. I don't think I've heard of many, especially, engineering managers speak that language before, which I think is awesome. But I mean, we talk about that in our company all the time about, every podcast needs to be told and the hero's journey type format, even our show notes, everything needs to be told in the story, it needs to open up loops. I'd be interested to hear how you structure that to connect with other people. How do you think about building a story in a way that's going to sell leadership and excite them for something that they might not be able to see like the changes that are happening after a year or so?Ashima:Yeah, and I might be preaching to the choir. You guys are much better than me in this business but I feel like you have to know your audience. If you're going into a VP discussion, your story is going to be totally different and if I'm selling it to my senior manager, he's going to look for what is my [inaudible] AWS. What story are you telling? So knowing your audience, and creating the story based on it is super important. We pay a lot of attention to documentation and story writing. That is why all engineering managers are, well, could have been all of them, rounded part of just knowing what will resonate with that particular team member is super important so that you can bring out just those facts in that conversation and sell that specific point. Jon, I don't know if you have any-Jon:In marketing, we call those personas.Ashima:Personas.Stephanie:Tell me one more thing, Jon, how do we approach that?Jon:How do we approach aligning the stories with a persona? Yeah, I totally agree with Ashima, you have to know your audience, you have to really be able to know what the people want... like any big project like this, it's only going to be successful when it's a mutual success. So understanding how you can talk to somebody and say, we're going to do this and it's going to help you this way, and we're going to need your involvement this way, right? Knowing how to have those conversations is the way to, I think, introduce people to these big projects and get them excited about it. But then, also really being focused on, here are the problems that this project solves for you, constituent of this project, because if people don't have any skin in the game and there's no clear connection between their participation and some better outcome, they're not going to want to do it.Jon:A lot of it is people have some sort of vision, we came in at the point where people already had a vision that they were going to do something at the ecommerce thing and we filled in the blanks of here's what your store would actually look like and here's how your use cases actually match into a finished product. And so, I think she's really right, that you really have to know what the people who are consuming the information about the project need to hear to feel great about it to feel like it's a solution to their problems.Ashima:The other important thing to remember is the the reviews that go well are the ones where you're not tackling 10 problems. I feel like you should look at your story again and find the two problems that you're trying to solve, don't talk about 20, 10. The ones that are successful are the ones that are saying, here are my two problems, working backwards from it, here's where we need to start and here are the big milestones we're going to touch as we work towards it. So working backwards, shortening your storyline to one to two problems that you will solve and never say you will solve everything because you will never be solving everything. There's just too many things that you could fix.Ashima:As an engineer, I could find 1001 things to fix on a particular implementation, on a system. But are you trying to save cost? If cost is your end goal, your story should be just focused on cost. If getting customers specific feature is your goal, that's what you should be focusing on. If you try to do too many things, the audience gets confused. And then, you don't get consensus with it. Because they're like you're asking too much of me. I can't make all these decisions today. So, you don't get good outcomes of this conversation.Jon:Totally. I think that that's a really good insight all the way around when you do an engineering project because it's... particularly one of the sides, right? You live and die on the success of it. And in a very real way, it sucks but a lot of it is also politics and the visioning or how the perception of your project is in the company, and projects that are incrementally spinning off benefits, even if they're not huge, but reliably doing it in my experience, get a lot more love and attention than the, there's going to be this unbelievable bang on Thursday and everything's going to change, right?Jon:Those big bang projects, I think, can be very traumatic for everybody involved. And so, I think the idea that you start with something that works, and then build on top of that, rather than, I got to get all 10 of these perfect at the same time, it's a much harder climb.Ashima:Yeah. The last thing I would say about this is, be honest and upfront about what the trade offs are because you're not going to make everybody happy out of an implementation. Never have I seen that in my career making everybody happy.Jon:Of course.Ashima:So, the prioritization is key to success, like I was saying, picking through problems and solving them. But even within that, you're not going to be able to fix everything, right? If you set the right expectation as a consultant, as an STM or whoever you are in that meeting, and say, this is what I'm going to be able to do in this timeline. And, this is what I'm not going to be able to deliver up front, that might make you lose some customers, but you'll probably gain more customers out of that and I feel like that's a more honest conversation, you earn trust.Stephanie:Yeah, I was thinking-Jon:Yeah, total radical transparency, being upfront. We had a mentor Ashima and I, who would say, hold your client's feet to the fire. Every time he'll be like, are you holding their feet to the fire? And that idea that all of these are partnerships and that a strong vendor relationship is not a vendor who is complacent and like, I'll do whatever you want but is actually holding your feet to the fire and being like, if you don't do these two things, these outcomes are going to happen. And I'm not going to be injured the same way you are, but you got to get on it.Stephanie:Now I know where you got that line from Jon, you pulled that on me last week.Jon:Some inside baseball, Stephanie is outstanding at holding her clients feet to the fire. It's really great, because long ago, I learned that people in business negotiations very rarely say stuff, just to say it, right? There's always something that happens. And I was like, this is the third time I've heard this. It's consistent every time.Stephanie:Yeah. So how has the landscape changed when it comes to maybe either re-platforming or moving to digital for the first time? What were the maybe the two to three biggest problems that were being solved back when you were at Restoration Hardware or before then to now where before maybe people were focused on costs or just simple things? What's the focus now that people are trying to achieve when going through any kind of digital transformation or re-platforming? What are they looking for now?Ashima:I feel like business and engineering are looking for different goals. Engineering is looking to break down the architecture. When Jon and I did initial projects, most of the systems were monolithic. And there was this one giant deployment doing everything and when it broke, everybody cried. We've moved on from that world into the new brave world of Azure and AWS, and every other small or big company trying to get into the buzzword cloud but what that really means is that the implementation goal from engineering side has changed. We've felt more empowered to make small changes. I don't want to boil the ocean. I don't want to switch all of my implementation but I'm going to change this part of this page and just live with it and then, see how it goes.Ashima:And that's a big empowerment factor because then, I'm not stressed about changing everything at once. Right? I can go make micro changes. From business point of view, I feel like the challenge is about understanding younger customers and that's a totally different challenge from engineering because you have to run more user surveys. When we were doing implementations, I barely saw anybody doing user surveys, and coming back to me with a product doc saying, here's what I found. This is what people want, and it's going to be awesome. It was like, I have some intuition. I want to implement incrementality and this is what we should try and do and we'll see what happens. I feel like business is smarter now. I see many more people doing user research, user deep dives, experience deep dives ahead of time to know why they're building something, what would resonate, how do I get that 12 year old into my service so they will stay with us until 40 and I have a continuous revenue stream. So, I feel like the business landscape is changing from that point of view. Jon?Jon:Yeah, it's really interesting that you say that. It reminds me of a million years ago, like 2000, 2001. I was at ATG, which became Oracle commerce. And we were at some crazy Swedish auction bidding site and in Stockholm, I remember the CTO comes in and he's like, are there any features of ATG we haven't turned on yet because we should turn them on and I was like, that's bananas. And so, I think that initial like, I just need to be online. I don't really care what it is because I just need to hold the hill like just to physically be there I think is less important than to Ashima's point. There's a lot more intentionality about like, I want to produce this experience for my customers, and it's tied into a larger journey rather than like, if I'm not selling online.Jon:Although, actually, you said two things I was really interested and the first is that, just to say it out loud, right? At Salesforce, it's not a monolithic, kind of is monolith, right? Like we have micro services or APIs but it's all behind the curtain. It's not pure micro services in the way that someone else would but provides it all API stuff. I hear what you're saying about engineering teams having more ability to make small changes and being able to just get in and do stuff, because stuff is more easily manipulated, because there are more places, I don't know, from access. But, I think that also comes with a lot more ownership. I mean, you need an engineering team that's capable of doing those things, or more maintenance in that scenario.Ashima:Yeah, absolutely. You can't microservice the heck out of the system. You have to be intentional about it. But I feel like in the last five years, our overall engineering pool of people have learned this and it's no longer an anomaly. More people are doing this, it doesn't matter what language you're using, you could be on C, C++, or you could be on Golang. I feel like there's lots of people who have experienced it, learnt it. The bigger companies are now doing it, the Walmarts are all microservice based so we're no longer in the world where people were just experimenting with this and created hundreds of them. I feel like we're more intentional now, we've learned from our experiences.Ashima:The pool of engineers we have now are more experienced. This is not a new thing for them so, I feel like I have seen... maturity is the word I was looking for, that people are becoming mature in their implementation and more intentional about it. It's no longer monkeying with this new concept like-Jon:No, totally. Not only their robust skills in the marketplace, but their design patterns as well that people can fall back on. It's not like I'm now writing the very first of these ever on the internet.Ashima:Right.Jon:Awesome. That's really interesting. I've already answered the question.Ashima:The other thing I would mention from business side, which I really appreciate is people are trying to do one thing and one thing really well. You could go to the play shoe store, and you see kids shoes, they do that awesome. I love those shoes or the furniture I recently bought. These companies who are doing small things less inventory, trying to make the business profitable but doing those really, really well. I feel like that's a huge switch from ecommerce that Jon and I are used to where I am this shop that is going to sell everything under the sun and tell me how to sell it and that was hard because every product is different and categorization is different. The search has complexity and those were really hard problems that we were solving. I feel like businesses are becoming smarter in deciding where they're good at and what they should be doing.Stephanie:Yeah. [crosstalk]Jon:Shopping at the edge is this big idea, right? That all of a sudden, you can't keep people within your website, that all of a sudden, those four walls of your website are gone and now people are going to be shopping in marketplaces or on Amazon Music or at the Hertz checkout thing, or you're renting your car, you can buy whatever, right? And I think it's a compelling idea and I think it really speaks, Ashima, to what you're talking about in terms of little engineering things to make it easier. Like all of a sudden, you're like, now I can really easily ingest orders from the Hertz kiosk. It's not a big lift to do something like that.Jon:And we're seeing crazy growth and I think it speaks a lot to that engineering crowd into the marketing idea that you'll have a lot of control agility to be able to do this stuff. So I mean, as a Salesforce employee legitimately, it is something that we're investing in making happening, but I don't know, it'll be interesting to see how brands navigate it. Because certainly, it's a different model than I'm used to putting on the internet, certainly different than I'm used to using personally, but then, Ashima's point was like, kids today, right? Stephanie:I was going to say exactly what you just said, Ashima about how now, it used to be kind of chaotic, because businesses were trying to do everything. But now to think about, it seems like businesses have to be everywhere to sell, consumers want to shop everywhere. I mean, I know Jon mentioned shopping on the edge, that term which we've brought up a few times in the show and I want to hear how you guys think about that. Because I talked to quite a few brands who say that consumers are on TikTok, Instagram, Pinterest, they're over a walmart.com, they're on Amazon, how do we keep up? We need to be selling everywhere quickly. And maybe Jon, I'll let you start because I know you have a strong opinion that maybe doesn't go well with what Ashima thinks?Jon:I think Ashima and I naturally falls in different sides of this. I think in addition to brands now not necessarily needing to have a gigantic... you can have a very focused set of skus that are easy to merchandise and understand. You also don't need to own all the software and stuff that you once did. It's much easier for a brand to be like, I'm going to exist to sell beanies. They're going be the greatest beanies in the world and assemble, it's the software stack for the brand stack, getting back to that, assemble the software in a way that, frankly, a physical brand that has a lot of legacy stuff is going to have a much harder time following you along. Ashima:I'm not opposed, or I don't think it's something that's not happening, it is happening. Shopping on the edge is happening. My point is that, as an engineer, as an engineering team, it doesn't preclude me from building a strong ecommerce site that's going to be my core platform. I still have to do everything in my power to make that as a strong space, that it can be stable enough to take regular orders. So the engineering effort to chase 50 different places is hard. But I feel like all teams probably first need to focus on making their core platform strong, right? It has to be.Ashima:And the second point I would make is only small... only X5 of your customers are coming from the edge shopping and that is why it's harder to understand exactly how to show your features and what will work for them and that's where my point about user case studies might work. But the bigger bulk of customers still going to come back into your site to explore other things that you have. So if you have X number of dollars, where would you get the most value out of them? Would it be just a shiny poster on Instagram, and bringing them back to your site or putting in your engineering dollars and making that one click work from Instagram? So that's where I struggle what would give you the best bang for your buck? Jon.Jon:Yeah, no, it's, I think, a great point, right? When you're talking, I'm like, man, I definitely want that core platform that's like robust and could do anything.Ashima:Yeah.Jon:I think what you're saying about user stories is ultimately the right answer, though, because when we think about core platform, I think you and I, Ashima, generally, we think about big robust servers sitting in a box somewhere, able to handle any trade, but that's not what every brand's priority is particularly something you want so-Ashima:Yeah.Stephanie:Yeah. Essentially say, they didn't even know they needed a website. They were just like, if you... I am trying to think, who we had on who is... a more recent episode where they're like, well, if we're selling on Instagram or Facebook or wherever it may be, no, it was a bot within Facebook Messenger. And you go on there, it's a personalized bot and then, they can say, this shirt would fit you perfectly and you can buy within Facebook Messenger. And she was making the point of like, why would you even need a website, if you can sell within Messengers or through Dms which is where the world is moving right now? Who cares what your website looks like [crosstalk]Jon:I guess, right back to this Ashima's point about user stories, right? Which is that ultimately, it doesn't matter if you have... pure in the server box of ecommerce definition, if your users are all on TikTok and they're going to buy through some crazy thing, you'd be bananas to invest in the giant server solution or in a traditional ecommerce solution. You want something that can flexibly follow wherever your customers are and knowing that if you don't own the store they're in, that they're probably going to move around a lot, right? It's not going to be TikTok forever. And so, you need the ability to service that.Ashima:Yeah, I feel like I'm a little bit biased being in Amazon, just the pink hat makes me think that I'm not just selling to TikTok customers, I'm thinking big. I have my customers everywhere. So it might be that for your brand, that might work. But for the [inaudible] of the world, they have to have strong presence on their own platform, and TikTok might help. I recently made a big purchase of couches I bought from article.com and I didn't do the shopping on the edge but what was super helpful was to look at Instagram photos of people using that furniture in their house and how it's set up.Ashima:It enabled me to buy it. So again, I was thinking one of the investment people are making is an AI and augmented reality and so on and I don't know if it's worth it because you the Warby Parkers of the world which are sending you the thing at home or the Instagram approach where you're showing people how your product looks in someone else's home. I feel like that's so much more effective to me as a customer that, making this guess of where my dollars should be spent is a hard problem. And I just am not fully convinced that shopping at the edge should be your end goal if you're a big hump.Jon:No, I think even in the most robust Salesforce marketing, we're definitely not suggesting, turn off your channels, shopping at the edge is the only way. 104% [crosstalk]. don't even need it anymore. it's going to be really interesting Ashima because my kids have Amazon accounts, I think. I don't think they've ever bought anything but turns out, all this management of your kids accounts trying to keep them affiliated like Apple , not doing a great job, Amazon, not doing a great job. Anyway, that's not where they go to shop for stuff. It's all social. I'm like, I need a cable, I go immediately to Amazon. They will not do that.Ashima:That's a really great point because I feel like there's a generational gap that I am starting to understand better as my kids are growing up, living my life through them a little bit and that's a great educational experience for all of us learning, how are people adapting to these new things? What are they connecting with? What are they not connecting with? And so on and so forth. My kids don't even read books, it's all audible. I'm like, I'm going to listen to story that I pick so the life is very different than... why I call shopping at the edge, a fad is it's working really well for this generation but for how many years? The next thing is going to replace it is my opinion and that's why having a core strong platform will get you over this hump into the next one.Stephanie:What do you think could be the next thing now? It's piqued my interest of like, what do you see coming after shopping at the edge just dies? No one does that anymore. What are they going to be doing next then?Ashima:You know-Ashima:I have started to see people use Airbnb experiences and Amazon explorer experiences a lot. Just yesterday, a friend of mine said they've gifted their friend or their wife a Valentine's gift of our tour in [inaudible] somewhere in Korea. I'm not saying name right.Jon:Korea?Ashima:It was awesome. Yeah, it was awesome. Lik this person walked through the markets, who then, they could show them the product. It was a very personalized tour so, I thought that's like the next big thing. And even an ecommerce opportunity like if you're buying from here in a shop in Korea and they can ship it to you.How unique is that? I think there's lots of potential and then, doing online experiences. I'm going to do a cooking class with you and then, I'm going to buy all of these pots and pans and ice from you because it looks awesome. I feel like that could be the next big thing.Jon:No doubt because we've got this live shopping demo that we do which is that it's like we have... it's funny because I thought of you when I narrated. I was like Ashima is going to be like this is never going to happen but it's that, there's an Influencer, you can buy stuff on the side so it's interesting to hear the facts.Stephanie:I think that's the way to go. Yeah, I mean, I think about we had someone saying that they... Andrew from Ideoclick, he teaches or does something with Harvard Business School on ecommerce and stuff. And, she was mentioning they had an influencer from China come in and show what shopping looks like and what her fans do and it was within three minutes, she'd racked up hundreds of thousands of dollars in sales of a Harvard sticker. And they're like, that's power.Jon:Totally.Stephanie:It was new to me. I mean, I get it. I buy shirts and clothes and all this stuff on Instagram just by seeing people I follow I'm like, they remind me of myself and that shirt's cute. So I guess maybe not top level.Ashima:Yeah. Well, I use Airbnb a lot. We go out a lot and one of the things that I really enjoy is that something that that person is using in their house, I sometimes come back and buy it because I've experienced it. I've worked with it for two, three days and I loved it and I'm like, I should have this fixture or I should have this knife or I should have this other thing that I've experienced now, lived with it and I feel like that's such an awesome way to promote product, where you can touch and feel it and experience at no extra cost, but then, also buy it if you really like it. So, if Airbnb uses it, they should give me some money. But-Stephanie:We've got affiliate Airbnb, come on.Jon:Right? I think you're really, right and I also think about Twitch because I do some deejaying stuff so I am on Twitch a lot and there's not only crosssection between product buying but also, in terms of rewarding the influencer directly with cash, that your experience where you're like, this is great. I love being here and they're also selling stuff.Stephanie:How are you guys thinking of retail then, you talked about touching, feeling things and experiencing that, obviously, retail hasn't been at the profile lately. How are you guys thinking about that?Jon:That's why all these predictions, they are really a little tricky because this physical digital thing is all screwed up, well, not screwed up but vastly affected by the pandemic and that's incredibly changed everybody shopping habits. I mean, I bought stuff online, I never buy again and so, if I'm really honest, I am not sure the Twitch DJ stream outlives clubs opening. I'll talk about how Twitch is going to change the world and it's all great but I don't know if people are going to hang out online all day if they can go out once a week.Stephanie:Yeah. [inaudible] I am ready to get out.Jon:Yeah. Like everybody-Stephanie:[crosstalk].Ashima:Absolutely.Jon:For me, in person is going to be a big trouble. The camera's not going to get it done anymore.Ashima:Yeah. I feel like this is a blip, I feel like retail and in person shopping is going to come back with vengeance once things open up, we all get vaccinated and be safe. I generally think this is a blip. I feel like retail's going nowhere. It's going to be back. Restoration Hardware is all ready for it, I'm sure.Jon:[crosstalk] Do you think that they'll shift...yeah, totally. Do you think it'll shift the market place, right because I agree, I think we are going back to in person something but the Best Buy down the street has evolved so many times. During the pandemic, they were a fulfillment center then, they were a store , then, they were like outside only and now... I just don't know that it makes sense for Best Buy to have that big retail store and not have a [inaudible]. I agree they'll come back but, I don't know if it's going to be the same.Ashima:Yeah. With Fry's stores closing last week which was a sad event in my household. My husband loves Fry's.Jon:That was really sad. Bad day.Ashima:Yeah. You are absolutely, right that it's going to look different. It's going to be more personalized as, I think, we discussed before, it will look different. There's also going to be a disparity, the big guys are going to have money, they're going to come back the same way, the Targets, the Walmarts, they are going to be the same. The little guy or the medium guy has to make some sense of what will get them through this hump and keep them going. I don't see a [inaudible] store coming up near me, even if they were planning to, I think those plans will be delayed but I feel like some of it is going to back the same way it was, earlier.Stephanie:Yeah. The one thing we keep hearing is more about curation when it comes to stores, that people want to go there for an experience, you go to a pottery ban, you go to West Elm, whatever it maybe and you're lik, this is my space, this is my style, I come here because I don't want to think but then, I also think about me and I'm like, I go to a T.J.Maxx and it's just, all over the place and I thrive there. I'm like, this is my spot. Find something fun and I don't know what to expect so, I think it just depends on the shopper.Ashima:I love that comment because it's very hard to create emotions online. Pe`ople don't have the patience of going through things and things online. This feeling of hunting and finding gold in that aisle, that's going to stay with us, again, there's a demographic that loves it and that demographic is waiting for being vaccinated to get out there.Jon:And you think that digital needle in haystack experience doesn't exist in the same way it does, I mean, like T.J.Maxx, I found this unbelievable bargain.Ashima:It does in some cases, where you guys talk about Instagram and finding something you didn't even know existed. Sure, it does but not in the same way. Finding the $5 t-shirt that you didn't know exist in T.J.Maxx is like, that's new.Stephanie:It's my day. Walking out of T.J.Maxx store snapping, maybe Jon, he looks very confused about our conversation.Ashima:Yeah.Jon:No, it's cool. There's a Ross up here. I know what's up.Stephanie:Ross-Jon:Ross is like the... you could get, Ross is a second store, right? It's just lost inventory so anything can be there.Stephanie:Extra lost. No one goes in and doesn't get lost. All right. Well, Ashima and Jon, this has been an amazing round table. So fun having you guys on. We definitely have to do it again, where can people maybe find out more about your work. Ashima, we'll start with you. Where can people find more about you?Ashima:You can find me on LinkedIn, a lot about me, things I write or things that are relevant to me so LinkedIn is the right place.Stephanie:LinkedIn. All right. Jon, what about you? Where can people find out more about your work?Jon:Yeah, totally. LinkedIn is a good place or just search for Salesforce and my name. I write a lot of Salesforce stuff, number one blog ever. Number one performing blog.Stephanie:Yup and you have an amazing stay conversation for it. Everyone should check it out, methodical trans in there. We've referenced it a few times in our newsletter and it is very helpful for anyone who's either trying to start an ecommerce shop or trying to transform into a big brand. So, thank you guys so much for doing this show and we will see you next time.Ashima:Thank you very muchJon:Thank you.Ashima:Take care, Stephanie.

It was the best of times. It was the worst of times. It was the other novel-   It's that time of year again! And boy do we have a show for you. Or rather three shows. For we have faithfully recreated Charles Dickens' classic Christmas tale "A Christmas Carol." We have our Scrooge(s), we have our Ghost*. Join us as Tony, Alan, Bailey and Anna get taught the error of their ways!   Will Bailey find a use for the chamber pot? Will Anna remember how to pronounce her own beer? Will Alan ever manage to tempt that donkey?   Settle down with a Mince Pie, and find out!   If you like the episode, hit us up on the Twitters or the Facebook. Or if you're mega cool and want to help us out with our hosting and software, head along to Patreon.   *When Jon remembers

It’s human nature to be afraid of the dark. It isolates us and hides reality. But in the presence of light, darkness is nothing. Christmas is the story of God shining his light in the darkness of the world to end our isolation and give our lives true purpose.  Episode Breakdown: 0:00 Church at Home with the Fiedlers 3:00 Christmas at Home w/ the Tanners 5:00 Lights [A Light in the Darkness, pt 3], w/ Jon 24:00 Light of the World (cover), ft. Gillian, Luke & Aaron 38:00 An Invitation, A Giveaway, & The Office (?!)   Don’t forget to subscribe to this podcast or the YouTube channel  https://bit.ly/yourcrosscreek Let us know you’re here! || Discussion Questions || Read Transcript || Ask a Question For Kids: Crosscreek Website #forSalem December Challenge: Church @ the Park Glove Drive Collecting 50 pairs of Warm Winter Gloves (Gender Neutral) – heavy and warm, in NEW OR LIKE NEW Condition (“Like New” means CLEAN & NO rips, stains, holes, or fraying). Drop-Off by December 23, 2020, location request here. More info on Church @ the Park: https://www.church-at-the-park.org/. #SalemOregon #local Giveaways (Happening on Social Media later this week) – Enter to win this week on Social Media: Isaac’s Downtown- https://www.isaacsdowntown.com/ – This week’s winner: Konditorei- https://gerryfrankskonditorei.com/ ❅ Want to buy a #forSalem hoodie? Drop us a note using the welcome form! https://bit.ly/wlcmccc Suggested Readings: John 8:12-20,  1 Peter 2:9-10- https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=John+8%3A12-20%2C+1+Peter+2%3A9-10&version=NLT Music we listened to making this episode: Pentatonix and Dolly Parton: Jolene-  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oYCoyUxY2HY The Beatles: Norwegian Wood (The Bird has Flown)- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y_V6y1ZCg_8 Lauren Daigle: O Come All Ye Faithful- https://youtu.be/rZn59OrLNYU Donate to Crosscreek & keep a good thing goin’ DISCUSSION QUESTIONS: What do you relate to more the idea of darkness isolating or the idea of darkness concealing reality? When Jon said, “Jesus didn’t come just so we could leave Earth and go to heaven someday… he came so that we can bring the light of Heaven to Earth now,” how did that sit with you? Do you agree or disagree? Why? Being the light of God means reorienting your life around the love of Jesus. What might be some steps you can take to continue reorienting your life around the love of Jesus? Read 1 Peter 2:9-10. What are some ways you can bring God’s light to those around you this week? How can your group pray for you in this? Soundtrack thanks from this episode   Hip Hop Christmas & B Canon and Variation by Twin Musicom is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/     Artist: http://www.twinmusicom.org/

When Jon graduated college he knew that he wanted to live an amazing story. Jon is a gifted storyteller and photographer. Rather than getting a normal job, he went on to teach kids about surfing right after college. We dive into the complexities of taking big risks in life and how God has more power to do good than you have to do wrong.

Jonathan Goodman is the founder of the Personal Trainer Development Center and author of multiple bestselling books for personal trainers.  In addition, Jon founded the first-ever certification for online fitness trainers, the Online Trainer Academy. When Jon started Online Trainers Academy, how did he know we were going to have a pandemic in 2020 that would turn every one online? (1:18) Jon thought this was funny but says he did not know. However, it is not inconceivable to assume that there was going to be some large scale interruptive event in the future. The world changes very quickly and historically, in unpredictable ways.  Anyone who was paying attention from a few years ago would’ve noticed the upward trend in technology-driven business. But what ultimately led Jon to turn towards online himself was an injury that put him off his feet for two weeks, effectively killing his income for that time period, and that got him thinking that he had to build something else.  The Concept of Anti-fragility. (3:48) One of the key elements of anti-fragile is the concept that the more chaos ensues, the stronger things that are anti-fragile get.  Jon encourages making yourself familiar with the concept of anti-fragility if you want to set yourself up for the future.  You need to understand anti-fragility, asymmetrical risk and you need to understand how to mitigate loss and maximize gain. What’s going on in the online training game? (16:38) There are a lot of people doing it that have no idea what they are doing. These people are hacking together not well thought out solutions and doing horribly because of it.  Jon relates it to you going to a gym after googling a bit and bringing a video camera and now you’re going to train people.  Big training companies have thrown together online training programs and Jon’s own clients have said that the models fall short and are terrible.  You have to really do the research and spend the time to understand the core of online training for example: What works from a financial and business standpoint. What works for actual training clients as humans. How to get people to want to do the workout and to continually adhere to the workout? What does Jon think is going to be centralized within actual gyms? (22:26) Gyms are going to radically change, there is no doubt about that. The fitness industry is relatively young. In the past gyms have sold personal trainers as people who are not commoditized but treated and paid them like they were commoditized people and the truth is more personal trainers are commoditized.  To be a truly great personal trainer you need to exhibit a lot of traits that are very hard to find in any single human for example: You need to be in good shape, energetic, motivational, empathetic, great at science programming, and interested in entrepreneurial aspects along with about 15 other things.  However, with collaborative pairing and work, you can take multiple people with different skillsets and put them together to form something unique and powerful.  The PTDC The Personal Trainer Development Center creates solutions for fitness and nutrition professionals. They do this by helping you do a better job, build a better business, and live a better life at every stage of your career.  They have the World’s Premier Certification for online training and are an internationally recognized leader for education and guidance within the fitness industry.  Resources Connect with Jonathan: LinkedIn The PTDC: Website Connect with Eric: LinkedIn

Drummer, Director, Punker and Puppet Master, Jon Sortland. When Jon’s not drumming, playing keyboards and singing in the bands The Shins, Broken Bells, Cigar and EV Kain, he’s writing, directing and producing films and music videos - LOTS of them. He’s got a great story about turning forty and wondering if he was ever going to get “The” call. Spoiler alert, he gets it... but he doesn't realize it’s for him, plus then his phone dies. If you like stories about working hard and drumming fast to make your dreams become your reality then this one’s for you.

Do you want extraordinary relationships with your kids?  Are you longing to build a family that's strong and enduring, living life on purpose? Building family wealth is so much more than being a family with a lot of money. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bb-QZAHc-uA So, if you aspire to do the most for your family, start with the building blocks. Family wealth is strong family relationships that start with flourishing individuals, combined with practicing the fundamentals of wealth creation. To get that, you have to know personally how you best provide value and contribute to others, and then instill that awareness and way of life into your kids. Those might seem like tall orders, but it is possible, and we'll show you how. Here to discuss the principles that drive family wealth is a family who is right in the middle of doing this - extraordinarily. In this episode, we're talking with Jon and Missy Butcher, creators of LifeBook, who are living out their ideal life, by design – and we're discussing how to build exceptional family wealth. So if you want to create the most positive and fulfilling family relationships, develop family strength that lasts for generations, and build family wealth that's more than money so you can carve out your family legacy, tune in now! In This Episode on Building Family Wealth, You'll Discover: Why core family values are so important for your home, and the four questions you need to ask yourself to discover them.The fundamental truth of all wealth creation.The difference between wealth and money.The three core values of this exceptional family.How to help your kids make money.How to transform your own life, so you can transform your family relationships ... and grow family wealth.Why consciousness is a process of self-discovery and self-creation. Where Building Family Wealth Fits In The Bigger Picture Building family wealth and creating a legacy is the capstone of a life well-lived.  It's the end goal of a life and business you love, and the greatest mission of our lives.  But we need an entire financial system to support our ability to do the most good. That's why we've put together the 3-step Entrepreneur's Cash Flow System.   The first step is keeping more of the money you make.  This includes tax planning, debt restructuring, cash flow awareness, and restructuring your savings so you can access it as an emergency/opportunity fund.  This step frees up and increases your cash flow, so you have more to save, and consequently, more to invest. Then, you'll protect your money with privatized banking, insurance, and legal protection.   Finally, you'll put your money to work and get it to make more by investing in cash-flowing assets to build time and money freedom and leave a rich legacy. Who Are Jon and Missy Butcher? Jon and Missy Butcher created a life most people might call impossible. They have founded 19 impact-driven companies and philanthropic organizations together. They are financially free, enjoy a whirlwind romance, even after decades of marriage, and live in multiple countries a year, including the dream home they are building on a remote Hawaiian island. And they're grandparents in their fifties - who look and feel a decade or two younger. Every single aspect of Jon and Missy's life appears to defy society's expectations: not because they're smarter, more gifted, or luckier than anyone else - but because they designed it that way. Learn more about Jon and Missy's backstory of personal transformation here: LifeBook: Creating An Extraordinary Life. When Jon and Missy's life transformed dramatically, their friends and family started asking them for their secret. And so Lifebook was born: first as a series of private retreats, and ultimately as a methodology that anyone can now harness to envision, plan, and achieve their greatest lives. Today, Jon and Missy's mission is to spread Lifebook to at least one million peopl...

Are you worried you can't grow a successful agency without a large team? Are you looking for a way to provide a better, more efficient experience for your clients? When it comes to running an agency, bigger isn't always better. In today's episode, we'll cover: Does agency team size matter? How to grow profits without growing your team. Why project-based agencies shouldn't take retainers. Today I sat down with Jon Paley, owner of The Vault, an ad agency/production company based out of New York City. Jon's agency runs off a fairly small team (10 people), yet manages to bring in 8-figures. He's here to discuss why he chooses to keep a smaller team and how he has used it to his advantage. Does Agency Team Size Matter? When I talk to agency owners, there are usually two metrics they use to measure success — profits and the number of people on their team. There's a common misconception that as you grow, you need to increase the size of your team. But if you've been listening to me for a while, you've probably heard me talk about the way a small team can work to your advantage. When Jon created his agency, he had one thing in mind, to remove the typical agency bureaucracy. With larger agencies, it often feels like you have to go through layer after layer just to talk to the right person. Jon knew if he hired the right people, his agency could do a lot more with less. Without all the layers and red tape, Jon can quickly determine if a client is a good fit, and if his team has what it takes to take a project on. In the end, the team is more productive, the clients are happier, and Jon can be confident his agency delivers what the client expects. How to Grow Profits without Growing Your Team I hear you, "but what if my client needs something my team can't do?" This is when it makes sense to work with freelancers. In most cases, the quality of work is great and you aren't stuck with the overhead of a permanent employee. So how can you make freelancers work for you? Determine who's essential on your team. Your account managers and team executives should be full-time employees. These are the people who know your brand, understand your vision, and help you build important client relationships. Build a database of preferred freelancers. Just because a person's not on your payroll, doesn't mean you can't work with them frequently. Create a database of freelancers who consistently knock it out of the park so you'll know where to turn first when you have a specific need. Why Project-Based Agencies Shouldn't Take Retainers Jon says he's noticed some agencies claim they are a project-based firm but structure their relationships based on a retainer. When you do this, you're not operating from a place of success. These relationships have very different demands. Many agencies move to a retainer structure because they want more predictability. But if you focus on building the pipeline full of projects, you'll find you can have the same type of success. Plus, you'll find many of your clients are referrals from previous project clients. You don't always need to focus on building a bigger team to find continued growth. Much of the time, it's not about how many people are on your team, but rather who is on your team. When you focus on quality instead of quantity, everything else will fall into place. Looking for a Payroll and HR Solution for your Agency? Payroll and benefits are hard. Especially when you're a small business. Gusto is making payroll, benefits, and HR easy for small businesses. You no longer have to be a big company to get great technology, great benefits, and great service to take care of your team. For a limited time, Gusto is offering a deal to Smart Agency Master Class listeners. Check out Gusto.com/agency for 3-months FREE once you run your first payroll with them.  

Jon Newman-Gonchar is the head volleyball coach at University of New Mexico. In April 2020, he called in to talk with Summer and Cody about the new challenges facing higher education and athletics. Jon's watershed moment was on March 17th when a recruiting trip was cancelled and UNM's Spring Break was extended. "The next thing we knew, it was all moving online."He's missing his players, missing his staff, and missing the routine that used to come with the seasonal nature of college sports. As information was constantly changing, Jon had to navigate competing stories and plans while trying to be the best source of knowledge for his players. "There are so many more questions than there are answers right now." He believes that, "The best thing we can be is vulnerable."In trying to plan for supporting his athletes, Jon was dedicated to doing what was best for the students. He and his coaching staff developed a virtual structure for the team. "I didn't want them to lose touch with academics." Volleyball players committed to doing course work during the time their classes used to be scheduled. The team also met regularly virtually to discuss topics like public speaking, high-pressure situation, and other student-selected conversations. When Jon thinks about the future, he hopes his son will have a traditional kindergarten experience, and that his future volleyball players will have the quintessential first years of college. He's fearful of the unknown and unsure of what to expect. His players are used to him saying regularly, "That's just part of the deal" when things go poorly. This mantra has helped his team to roll with the punches in Spring 2020. "Let's get better with people." Hear the interview wherever you get your podcasts.Show notes: Follow the Lobos @unmlobovbJon bought Ericsson's book, Peak for his coaching staff. Jon's favorite podcast these days is Trevor Ragan's "Learner Lab." Check it out!Interview Date: 4/20/20Connect with us:Click here to tell us your story.Why is it called More and More Every Day? Click here to read our first More and More post. Follow us on Twitter and Instagram @smcchistoryClick here to join our mailing list.

In today’s episode of Agency Intelligence podcast, host Jason Cass interviews Jon Spaugy, the founder of BIG Independent Group. Jon shares his passion for the industry, his goals, and why he started an insurance association. Jon also talks about his company’s experience working from home during this time and gives an update on the BIG conference in August.  Episode Highlights: Jason Cass introduces guest Jon Spaugy. (1:07) Is Jon an Android or an iPhone user? (3:33) What was the last app that Jon downloaded? (4:20) Does Jon love to win or hate to lose? (7:52) What does Jon attribute to his success, skill, or luck? (10:10) Jon shares his background story and the key to his success. (12:34) Jon talks about the position that Hartford offered him. (16:51) Jon talks about the time he decides to be an agency owner. (20:09) What brought Jon to California? (22:23) Jon shares that when he started working in the industry, he was working with his parents. (23:03) How did Jon come about with Facebook live and what is his obsession with it? (24:10) What is the goal of Jon Spaugy? (29:34) Jon explains why he started the insurance association. (30:11) Jon is having a conference in August. (38:11) Jon shares their experience working from home. (46:08) 3 Key Points: Jon’s offices do not have a lot of people that come into the actual office anymore. His employee can perfectly work from home or come to the office, or they can do both. When Jon is doing the meetings for the association that they're working with they are talking to the agents about making sure that they're using the format, especially on bigger accounts. Jon’s company is working closely with CIC insurance Academy to get education out to people too. Key Quotes: “You can't be an environment of winners on your own because you can, it's how you connect, you have to do it. I can't make you do it.” - Jon Spaugy “You have to humble yourself down when you have that you better appreciate it.” - Jon Spaugy “You could have a lot of passion and then the execution didn't come off as good as it should have.” - Jon Spaugy Resources Mentioned: Agency Intelligence Reach out to Jason Cass LinkedIn - Jon Spaugy BIG Independent Group S&R Insurance Group Advertisers: Podium ePayPolicy Insurance Agent App    

Get ready for a barn-burner today my friends! We have the one and only Jon Gordon on today’s show and he absolutely brings the heat. Truth be told, having Jon on the IMPACT Show was one of my top intentions for 2020 and he certainly over-delivered. With all the wisdom Jon offers today, you will also hear from a man who is full of compassion, care, and love and has a divine purpose and driving mission. If there was ever an episode to share with your friends, family, and community, it’s THIS one. Buckle-up and listen to the principles of a man who has IMPACTED millions of people with his books and keynotes. And if you have not read one of his 20 books (8 best-sellers) be sure to pick one up today. My faves include The Energy Bus, The Carpenter, Training Camp, You Win in the Locker Room First, The Power of Positive Leadership, The Power of a Positive Team, The Coffee Bean co-authored by my friend Damon West and his latest Stay Positive. ALL of them are great! Without further ado, it’s time to get into the head & heart of Jon Gordon. Enjoy the show and don’t forget to share the good news! --> Tag us on your social media: @ToddDurkin @jongordon11   TIMESTAMPS: :49 - Todd introduces best selling author Jon Gordon 3:48 - The best way to make a new connection 5:01 - Jon shares thoughts on COVID-19 6:33 - Win the Day Mentality  8:01 - Jon’s new book projects 10:12  - Becoming a writer  14:47 - The creation of The Energy Bus book 17:08 - Know your role 19:05 - The 5 D’s  23:21 - Jon shares his writing strategies and how the magic works 25:09 - Todd’s son Brady asks - When Jon finishes writing a book how does he take it from good to great? 27:16 -The Durkin family asks - Jon what is your favorite book that you have written? 31:45 - How  to start writing a book 33:33 - The best habits to stay in high-performance mode 36:45 - The 4 C’s conquer the 5 D’s 38:09 - What’s next for Jon Gordon 41:00 - Last question: What do you want other people to say about Jon  Gordon?   Thank you Jon Gordon for being a guest on the IMPACT Show! To follow Jon on SM, he’s at @jongordon11Website: www.jongordoncoaching.com and get inspired by his podcast Positive U: www.positiveuniversity.com -- If you enjoy the Todd Durkin IMPACT Show, can you please do a few things: Give us a 5-star rating on iTunes. Provide a great review of what you love about the show. Please SHARE the episode on your Social Media or in a newsletter. Thank you in advance! -- We LOVE your questions for the podcast!! To ask a question to Todd for the podcast, please go to www.todddurkin.com/podcast and ask a question on anything on your mind! -- Follow Todd… --> Instagram & Twitter: @ToddDurkin --> Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/user/ToddDurkinFQ10 --> FB: @ToddDurkinFQ10 --> If you are a fitness pro or trainer and want to be coached by Todd, visit:  https://todddurkinmastermind.com/  -- ABOUT: Todd Durkin is one of the leading coaches, trainers, and motivators in the world. It’s no secret why some of the top athletes in the world have trained with him for nearly two decades. He’s a best-selling author, a motivational speaker, and owns the legendary Fitness Quest 10 in San Diego, CA where he leads an amazing team of 42 teammates. Todd is a coach on the Netflix show “STRONG” that is must-watch TV. He is a previous Jack LaLanne Award winner, a 2-time Trainer of the Year, and he runs his Todd Durkin Mastermind group of top trainers and fitness pros around the globe, coaching them with business, leadership, marketing, training, and personal growth mentorship. Todd and his wife Melanie head up the Durkin IMPACT Foundation (501-c-3) that has raised over $250,000 since it started in 2013. 100% of all proceeds go back to kids and families in need. --> To learn more about Todd, visit www.ToddDurkin.com and www.FitnessQuest10.com. --> To join his community of fire-breathing dragons and receive regular motivational and inspirational emails, visit www.ToddDurkin.com and opt-in to receive his value-rich content.  

In this episode, Randy talks with Jon TenBrinke. Jon is a co-founder of Black Jack Contracting, he’s been in the game since high school. He spent his junior and senior years doing two things: playing football and taking the first steps to becoming an electrician. After graduating he began his apprenticeship, got his license at the age of 24 there for making him the youngest master electrician in Ontario’s history. After 7 years of running this electrical contracting business, the opportunity presented itself to get into the general contracting game and for the past 3 years, he’s been doing just that.What you can expect to hear in this episode:Jon co-founded BlackJack Contracting on a bet, that he made with his friend, interestingly enough that’s how the company got its name.Jon started his first business (the electrical business) at the young age of 25 because he got annoyed at how his previous boss was running the show. At the time Jon set the record or being the youngest master electrician in Ontario so he had lots of confidence in his ability to do the work but was in for a big surprise on how difficult it was to run a successful business. After the initial struggles that Jon faced in starting his electrical business, he transferred what he learned into the creation of Black Jack, as a result, he made far fewer mistakes but still found himself having tax issues and accounting problems because there was still so much he didn’t know.Despite not knowing all the ins and outs of the business side of things the company continued to grow solely because of the great quality of work that Jon and his team were doing.When Jon came to the realization that in order to take the business to the place he wanted to take it he would need to get a better understanding of how the business side of things worked so he dove deep into books, podcasts and any content he could get his hands on about business. After his first session with Randy, he walked away with the “One To Many” strategies that basically says “ find the one type client that leads to many other opportunities for future business”. In Jon’s case that was Realestate investors.Jon took this one strategy and ran with it, by his next session 6 weeks later he had sold $700,000 worth of new business.Jon immediately niched down the company to the point where they only work with real estate investors.Once Jon let go of the fear of missing out on the revenue he could get if he served non-investors as well he found that everything became a lot easier, his marketing spends dropped to almost nothing and his business was growing faster then ever, simply because the marketplace now recognized him as an expert.One of the biggest struggles we run into as entrepreneurs is not being able to let go and delegate tasks to others because “no one can do it as well as we can”. One we get over that way of thinking more often than not we find that others can do a much better job than us because they don’t have a million other things they need to be doing. Currently, that’s what Jon is working on within his business and he’s seeing a massive improvement in his happiness and the time he gets to spend with is family. If you like what you're listening to, we would love it if you could give us a 5-star review! This will help us know we are giving you what you need to grow and succeed as an entrepreneur! Please reach out to us on social media or through our website with other information you might want to hear on upcoming episodes!https://4levelcoach.com/https://www.instagram.com/4levelcoach/https://www.facebook.com/4LevelCoach/https://twitter.com/4LevelCoach

Jon opens up about her journey facing cervical cancer. When Jon discovered that she had cancer, she also discovered that she was unexpectedly pregnant. Jon had to make a decision with her husband, did she keep the baby and delay her cancer treatment or did she choose to get cancer treatment straight away and put her health first? Learn more about Jon's struggle and the choices she made when faced with this challenging dilemma. Please visit my Patreon page if you would like to sponsor the production of Hong Kong Confidential Podcast. I have many great rewards to offer my supporters. Thanks for taking the time to check out the page https://www.patreon.com/hongkongconfidential?alert=2 Email: jules@hongkongconfidential.net Webpage: www.hongkongconfidential.net Network: https://www.auscastnetwork.com/home/hong-kong-confidential Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/hongkongconfidential/ Twitter: www.twitter.com/juleshannaford/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/hongkongconfidential/ Subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, YouTube and anywhere you find your podcasts.   Support the show.

In episode 219, we speak with Jon and Josh about a very weird experience they had together. Jon had Josh come to his house to mess around with a new amplifier Jon had gotten. When Jon started playing someone or something started speaking through the amplifier. After sharing this experience Jon continues to share about a friend of his that jumped into dabbling with the dark arks and lost. BECOME A MEMBER AND GET ADDITIONAL SHOWS: https://www.theconfessionalspodcast.com/join Subscribe to our YouTube: https://bit.ly/2TlREaI Subscribe to the Newsletter: https://www.theconfessionalspodcast.com/the-newsletter Website: www.theconfessionalspodcast.com (http://www.theconfessionalspodcast.com/) Email: theconfessionalspodcast@gmail.com Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/TheConfessionalsPodcast Twitter: @TConfessionals (https://twitter.com/TConfessionals) Tony's Twitter: @tony_merkel Show Intro INSTRUMENTAL: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kyub39AXxUw Show Intro FREE DOWNLOAD: https://bit.ly/2HxNcw3

When Jon and Erica started talking about bringing guests on the show, their first pick was iHeartRadio and Alt 98.7's Randy!! Today it finally happened and the radio nerd in each of us was REALLY unleashed. We get Randy to weigh in on horoscopes, ghosting and age differences with dating. Plus we talk how our families feel about our chosen career paths and working with some of the best in radio.

I love when I get a chance to chat with some of our incredible #AVTweeps! This week, I welcome on Jon Bannan, Associate Director of Media & Technology Support Services at The College of New Jersey, located in Ewing, NJ, where he has been for over 22 years.Jon started out working for a private IT support firm. Fast forward a couple of years, a marriage and his first child on the way and Jon made the jump into the higher ed world when the opportunity arose. When Jon started, the College had 0 technology enabled spaces installed on campus and all classroom technology was delivered by a team of 30 student workers. Since 1999, the College has implemented over 300+ tech enabled spaces and the number increases weekly.The current A/V team is made up of 5 full time staff and 12 student technicians which are responsible for A/V design and project management of new construction/renovations, daily support of all campus spaces, academic, administrative, athletic, student spaces, annual A/V refreshes, etc. The team is also responsible for providing event A/V support for all campus and non-campus events. The team has brought the majority of integration/installation in house partnering with our campus Facilities team which has resulted in a significant cost savings and an improved end product for our end users.Recently, the team completed an full A/V refresh of the School of Education which consisted of 35 spaces i.e. classrooms, huddle spaces, conference rooms, multi-purpose spaces, etc. using the in house A/V and Facilities team. Each classroom refresh consisted of a lamp less laser classroom projector, lamp less laser interactive projector & whiteboard, Crestron control processors, user interfaces, Wolfvision document cameras, etc. This refresh allowed TCNJ to reduce the different system interconnects from 9 to 2 which has provided an improved user experience for our faculty.On the personal side, Jon is an avid coffee lover, huge lover of BBQ and playing with his smoker. He often spends most his free time either providing freelance monitor engineering services for production companies and artists, mixing and training church A/V teams and building / renovating some sort of project for his wife.Connect with Jon Bannan on Twitter at @JonBannan and on LinkedIn. Learn more about The College of New Jersey on Twitter at @TCJN and online at https://www.tcnj.edu.

Jonathan Harrison, MBA, ODCC is the author of Mastering The Game: What Video Games Can Teach Us About Success In Life available in paperback and Kindle on Amazon. He is also an Organizational Development Practitioner, TEDx Speaker, and Podcaster on the topic of life and leadership lessons that can be learned from video games, found on ClassicallyTrained.net. Jonathan Harrison Vroom Veer Stories How a rejection from TEDx became not only a book, but ALSO a TEDx talk Realized that there isn't "one person" out there in the world who will be your "life" mentor Found a mosaic of mentors in non-fiction books were better than one person in many ways How Half-Life 2 uses great game design to subtlety teach the player how to play the game Jon found that using stories and lessons from video games is a highly engaging method for gamers Portal 2 CO-OP teaches you about your problem solving preferences, your strengths, your weaknesses. When Jon started blogging about life lessons from games...traffic blew up! Jonathan Harrison Links Jonathan's Web Site - classicallytrained.net

When Jon gets a text from Erica saying "we need to record an emergency podcast, I'll tell you why when we're rolling" well... you know something is going down. And it sure did. Erica spills it ALL and does not hold back in this emergency episode that, unfortunately, a lot of people can relate to.

#181: Jon Powers, CleanCapital Jon Powers, is a true warrior, and a veritable solar warrior. When Jon returned from serving the US Army in Iraq, he had a vision for how important clean energy is for our nation’s independence and charted a path to help the armed forces transition away from Fossil Fuels. Little did he know this would lead him to the White House the first-ever Chief Sustainability Officer under the Obama administration. His fingerprint is on many of the important initiatives underway in the Federal arena, and he’s now turned his eye to the private sector with an eye towards disrupting the finance and fintech side of clean energy. I’m also honored to have Jon on b/c he’s a fellow podcaster. If you’ve not yet heard his Experts Only podcast, you should add it to your queue. We discuss the genesis of the podcast, the startup woes and wins at Clean Capital, and more on today’s episode. Gain access to all the show notes & resources from this episode here If you would like to check out the SPI Podcast lounge and nominate a guest or apply to participate, head to http://www.mysuncast.com/podcast-lounge And a special thank you to Aurora Solar. If you would like to download their free Solar Sales Proposal guide, you can do so at http://www.mysuncast.com/aurora - Join the Tribe? Check out Episode 86, in which I explain how YOU can become a SunCast Tribe member and support the growth and stability of SunCast moving forward! www.mysuncast.com/member to join today! If you like what you see and hear, please SHARE it with this pre-filled tweet!

#181: Jon Powers, CleanCapital Jon Powers, is a true warrior, and a veritable solar warrior. When Jon returned from serving the US Army in Iraq, he had a vision for how important clean energy is for our nation’s independence and charted a path to help the armed forces transition away from Fossil Fuels. Little did he know this would lead him to the White House the first-ever Chief Sustainability Officer under the Obama administration. His fingerprint is on many of the important initiatives underway in the Federal arena, and he’s now turned his eye to the private sector with an eye towards disrupting the finance and fintech side of clean energy. I’m also honored to have Jon on b/c he’s a fellow podcaster. If you’ve not yet heard his Experts Only podcast, you should add it to your queue. We discuss the genesis of the podcast, the startup woes and wins at Clean Capital, and more on today’s episode. Gain access to all the show notes & resources from this episode here If you would like to check out the SPI Podcast lounge and nominate a guest or apply to participate, head to http://www.mysuncast.com/podcast-lounge And a special thank you to Aurora Solar. If you would like to download their free Solar Sales Proposal guide, you can do so at http://www.mysuncast.com/aurora - Join the Tribe? Check out Episode 86, in which I explain how YOU can become a SunCast Tribe member and support the growth and stability of SunCast moving forward! www.mysuncast.com/member to join today! If you like what you see and hear, please SHARE it with this pre-filled tweet!

When Jon first started in radio, his biggest fan was his dad and he always wanted to join Jon on the radio. Jon said no. Now he joins Off the Record to show what he's got as Tim grills him on 20 different aspects of life including: - Running for mayor of Homewood - The five rules of life - His thoughts on the president - His thoughts on the Joker movie - Marriage advice - What his final meal would be - Where his happy place is And more! This is Tim Lunceford, unfiltered (but also keeping it somewhat clean, we are a family show after all).

When Jon is dragged onto the higher plane of podcasting, Ash carries on to interview illustrator, academic and activist Stephanie Monahan. Follow Stephanie: https://twitter.com/shdwbxng Stephanie's website: http://stephaniemonohan.com/ Bunny Man Bridge: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bunny_Man . . . If you like what we do, make sure to comment and leave us a rating. You can follow us on Twitter: twitter.com/HorrorVanguard. To support the show and get access to full Arcane Book Club of Horrors episodes, check out our Patreon: www.patreon.com/horrorvanguard

Welcome to our VERY FIRST podcast for the Game of Thrones show review.  We apologize for the audio quality.  We have plans to improve our equipment and our knowledge of how to use that equipment.  Please let us know what you think and if there is anything you can suggest that we can do differently in order to produce a better-quality podcast.  And please leave us a review on iTunes podcast.  5 STARS WANTED Website:https://gotvalarmorghulis.com    Main Email (for all shows):Podcast4America@gmail.com Show Email: gotvalarmoghulis@gmail.com       Voicemail: 210-538-4772 Disclaimer:  The language used during this show is extremely vulgar and is not suitable for young listeners. Game of Thrones HBO hit TV series: Season 1 / Episodes 1  - Title: “Winter Is Coming” Podcast Host/Co-host: Ser Jorah Blackbar; Lezzie Stoneheart Summary of Episode: The show begins with three men of the Night’s Watch tracking a group of Wildling Raiders. They come across the campsite, only to find that they have all been killed.  As they investigate the carnage, they find that the stories of the White Walkers are much more than just stories.  Ser Weymar Royce and Gared never get to tell the tale but Will manages to get away; Or was he allowed to get away. The next scene is when the Night’s Watch deserter, Will, receives the king’s justice from Lord Eddard "Ned" Stark, while his stories of White Walkers are ignored.  On their way back to Winterfell, they come across a dead direwolf who has given birth to her pups and they find all the pups are still alive.  The pups are returned to Winterfell for the Stark children to raise them as their pets; along with Jon Snow as well.  After returning home, Ned learns from his wife Catelyn that his mentor, Jon Arryn, has died in the Westeros's capital of King's Landing and that King Robert is on his way north to offer Ned the position of the King's Hand. Next Scene: Viserys Targaryen plans to sell his sister, Daenerys to Khal Drogo, in return for an army of Dothraki in order to win back his father’s throne. Next Scene: King Robert arrives at Winterfell with his wife, Queen Cersei, and other members of the Lannister family: Her twin brother Jaime, dwarf brother Tyrion, and Cersei's son and heir to the throne, 12-year-old Joffrey along with her other two children. King Robert formally offers Eddard the role of Hand of the King and suggest that his son and Ned’s daughter marry to solidify their alliance. Outside the feast, Jon Snow releases his frustration after not being allowed into the banquet by Catelyn Stark. His uncle Benjen Stark, First Ranger of the Night's Watch, arrives to join the feast, and Jon asks him to take him back to the Wall with him. Here, we meet Tyrion Lannister who tells Jon that he should take the insult and wear it like armor so that no one can hurt him with it. When Jon angrily asks Tyrion what he knows about it, Tyrion replies that "all dwarfs are bastards in their father's eyes." Eddard and Catelyn receive a letter in the night from Catelyn's sister, Lady Lysa Arryn, the widow of Jon Arryn. In the letter, Lysa says that Jon Arryn was murdered by the Lannister’s and that they plan to conspire against King Robert. The next morning Eddard and Robert go hunting, leaving the castle largely empty. Bran indulges in some climbing but, while climbing a broken tower, he hears someone moaning. He peers through a window and finds the queen and her brother engaged in a sexual act. Cersei spots him and warns Jaime, who grabs Bran. Jaime looks out the window to make sure nobody else is watching and only sees Summer. He turns to Bran and asks how old he is. When Bran replies "ten," Jaime remarks with a sigh, "The things I do for love." With that, he pushes Bran out of the window.

Here's what you'll learn in this episode: Likeability and credibility. Knowing what good looks like and planning for success. Why Newcastle is a great place to start a business. Born in Preston, Lancashire, Jon attended Sedbergh school in Cumbria where his rugby career took off. He signed his first professional rugby contract in '96 & spent the next 3 years juggling university life along with club, university & representative rugby. Since 1999 Jon has been building and leading consumer & retail recruitment companies across the UK and Europe, supporting a vast portfolio of clients and candidates, from entrepreneurial SMEs through to many of the world's leading brands. Jon launched MacGregor Black in 2017, ‘The Complete Talent Partner' to the consumer sector. With a head office in Newcastle, he has a specialist team of 14 in Newcastle, Leeds, Manchester & London. When Jon is not busy with the family, he likes to find time to travel, watch a little Munster rugby, entertain friends and tend to his herd of Dexter cattle at home in Northumberland.   Key Resources: Inspiration North Website - www.inspirationnorth.com Inspiration North Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/inspirationnorth Inspiration North Twitter - https://twitter.com/Inspirationorth Inspiration North Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/inspiration_north/ Inspiration North LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/company/inspiration-north   MacGregor Black website - https://www.macgregorblack.com/ Jon on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/jon-mcneish-a7a54a5/

Ryan Palmer and Jon Rahm got it done at the Zurich Classic. It was Ryan Palmer's first win in over 3,000 days on the PGA Tour. The odd pairing was necessary after their former partners were not available for this year's tournament. The best part about this pairing was how much fun they were having out there. They were playing fun golf, and the more fun they had, the better they performed. Jon Rahm hopefully learned a valuable lesson in just staying calm and having fun. When Jon hits a lousy shot and losing his temper, it is hard to watch, even for a Sun Devil grad. Let's take a closer look at how Ryan performed in 2018 measured against the benchmarks we have created to monitor and improve our games. Let's tee it up! Game Improvement Benchmarks: Driving Accuracy - 55%, G.I.R. - 65%, Sand Saves - 45%, Scrambling - 55%, Putting 20-25': 9%, 15-20' - 17%, 10'-15' - 28%, 5' - 80%, Per Round < 30 #golf #pgatour #golfers #lovegolf #golfday #whyilovethisgame #golflessons #golflife #anythinggolf #beautifulgolfcourses #lovegolf #betterdatabettergolf #dataaxisgolf #golfislife #golfball #golftournament #golfcourse #golfrange #golfnews #instagolf #golfswing #golfing #golfaddict #nowhitebelts #talkbirdietome Follow us on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dataaxisgolf/ Follow us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/dataaxisgolf/ --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/dataaxisgolf/message

My guest today is Jon Lampley. Jon is an incredibly gifted multi-instrumentalist and one of the most generous musicians I’ve witnessed, enthusiastically giving of his heart and soul every time he is on stage. Jon developed tuba skills in middle and high school ensembles while playing trumpet in church. He majored in Jazz Studies at The Ohio State University, where he met and collaborated with similarly-driven friends, at their college house on Hunter Ave. In homage to that college house, Jon (trumpet/sousaphone), Dan White (saxophone) and Chris Ott (trombone/beatbox) formed the dynamic band Huntertones. All three wrote music for the band, and recently the compositions have had a more collaborative process. Their soulful rhythm section consists of John Hubble on drums, Adam DeAscentis on bass, Justin Stanton on keys/trumpet, and Josh hill on guitar, blending jazz, hip-hop, R&B, with an infectious New Orleans vibe. Huntertones motto is to have their audience feeling better leaving than when they came in, winning the joyful support of fans around the world. After graduating from OSU, Huntertones was selected to be travel ambassadors for American Music Abroad, through the U.S. State Department, a cultural exchange program. Their travels to share their original music in Barbados, Ecuador, Togo and Zimbabwe had a profound impact on each musician individually and definitely as a group musically. Jon witnessed in Africa that there was no separation between singing and dancing, they are one in the same! Which explains what delights me in watching Jon perform; he embodies the joy and gracious spirit that resonated with him so deeply, as African musicians taught song, instrument and movement together. Since he was a junior in college, Jon has been the touring trumpet player for the platinum selling rock band, Of A Revolution (O.A.R.). When Jon is not touring with Huntertones or O.A.R., you can catch him performing with Jon Batiste’s “Stay Human”, the house band on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert. Check the show notes for links to all of Jon’s creative projects! Enjoy the podcast! Links: jonlampley.com huntertones.com FB: Jon Lampley IG: @jonlampleymusic IG: @Huntertones

When Jon was asked to turn off his flashlight in the depths of a cave during a youth activity, he had an experience with darkness and light that stuck with him the rest of his life. That dark cave and its lesson in opposition became a spiritual anchor to Jon when he and his wife Emily were faced with the real ups and downs of a life-threatening illness.

One of 4ZZZ's original journalists passed away quietly mid December 2018.This special sedition of the Anarchy Show is dedicated to Jon. Linda was is joined in the studio by Jon's brother Jamie, nephew Joshua, and life long friend Ben.Jon helped establish Locked In (then called Inside Information). His coverage of the Boggo Road Riots won national awards. 4ZZZ broke the story and was able to provide exclusive coverage due to inside information accessible because of Jon's sources inside the notorious prison. The mainstream media used Jon as a source during the infamous uprising.Among other demands of the inmates was the right to listen to 4ZZZ, a vital lifeline to the outside world for those inside (then and now). While many of the changes which occurred as a result of the riots have since been eroded, the right to listen to 4ZZZ still stands and if you listen to the station from 6-8pm Monday the show Jon helped establish is still on-air.When Jon travelled to England his voice could still be heard on a series of reports named London Line.Back Australia in the 90's Jon rejoined the newsroom. The programs Brisbane and Beyond, and Brisbane Line were enriched by his journalistic talent and passion for social justice. When he left Australia again to teach English in Taiwan and then China he still appeared on the station giving intermittent reports for the Anarchy Show (Subversión #1312). He wanted his reports from China called Behind the Bamboo Curtain.Always ready for a party and some mischief Jon was a great supporter of Brisbane music and venues. And even in Chengdu, where he taught at a university he enjoyed huge punk gigs some of which were broken up by police.Jon had a gift for story telling and comedy. Now's the time for us to remember him by telling stories about him, no holes barred, as he would have done to us.

When Jon and Michelle Schmidt's daughter Annie disappeared while hiking in Oregon's Columbia River Gorge in 2016, they faced every parent's worst nightmare. On this episode, Jon and Michelle share with "All In" host Jamie Armstrong how their faith in the gospel sustained them during the grueling three-week search for Annie and how her body was miraculously found.

our website is the gateway to your business for many of your potential clients. If it doesn’t give a good first impression or if it isn’t easy to use, chances are you could lose some business.   So in this episode I’ve brought in my go-to man for all things to do with websites. Jon Hollenberg is the owner of Five by Five Website Design and the Author of "Love at First Site - How to Build the Website of Your Dreams" (see below for a link to a free copy of it).   You’ll love this chat because Jon talks at the level of a ‘normal’ person like you and I without baffling us with tech speak.   It’s like a 40 minute Website Masterclass! Jon talks about treating your website as your own piece of online real estate, how to position yourself as a thought leader and how to use content and images to support that. We discuss being bold in the age of video. And, thank heavens, we talk about search engine optimisation (SEO) in terms that even I understand.   Jon knows his stuff. He first started building websites 18 years ago and has now grown his team to 20 people worldwide. Jon is based on the Gold Coast but has clients all over the county and has worked with brands such as Qantas, Jetstar, Jeep, Chrysler and Dodge. Here’s the breakdown of what’s in store for you: When Jon first started creating websites he started from a spare bedroom in his boardshorts and now his team has grown to 20 people Where to start when it comes to creating your website Building a website does not need to be a chore A website can be one of the first points of contact for a customer and you want to put your best foot forward Make your website work harder for you People often undervalue the experience and value they bring to their customers/clients and they tend to not want to make their website stand out from the crowd The importance of content and being an authority in your marketing place Getting in the right mindset for creating your website and getting ‘unstuck’ The importance of putting value on your website The best tools for the job Why Google loves Wordpress Wordpress is driving 30% of all websites on the internet The importance of visual design A website is not set and forget. You also need a content strategy in place and high value content to back it up The different ways to drive traffic to your website My learning curve with my first website [Hint people don’t just flock to your website, you need to promote it] The website is a validation tool that you are an authority and leader in your chosen industry Generating new leads through your website SEO 101 The two components to SEO The emphasis on speed,load time and mobile friendliness Plugins that can help you with SEO Backlinks and why it’s useful How you can rank your website higher than your competitors The advice Jon gives his clients for headshots Remember the business owner and team is the product and the power of photography Using videos on the website and the importance of a WHY video A little trick Jon uses to capture videos for his clients Having visual consistency with your brand Technical intelligence and the user experience for your website Creating a diagnostic tool for your website Demystifying a call to action Jon’s book is a how to guide on partnering with a website designer and easing the process for people about to build their new website   Jon Hollenberg on LinkedIn Five By Five Website Love At First Site - How To Build The Website Of Your Dreams - You can download a copy of Jon’s book for free. Cathy Love on LinkedIn Nacre Website  Listen to more episodes here

Social media is part of our everyday lives, and it can be an effective business tool. But do you know how to use social media to land more gigs, while still being the real you? Our guest, Jon Acuff, does and he'll explain how in episode 167 of The Speaker Lab. When Jon isn't speaking or writing best-selling books, including his latest book Finish, he is actively sharing his work and his life on social media. Today we talk about how his social media platform and his online content have helped his business grow, plus the various strategies for each of his platforms. We also talk about how and why he learns about speaking from comedians, as well as the hows and whys of goal-setting for speakers. Join Jon and I as we explore these topics and more on the latest edition of The Speaker Lab!   THE FINER DETAILS OF THIS SHOW:    What's the fastest way to get feedback? How does he avoid becoming complacent with his success? How did he use soft pitches to land more gigs and work with a speakers bureau? What are ways you can establish authority (without overselling) while you're speaking? How can social media help you and how can it hurt you? Every gig is a chance to do what? Why it's important to make your goals fun. How many forms of income should you aim for as a speaker? And so much more!   EPISODE RESOURCES Jon Acuff's website Finish, by Jon Acuff The Finish Course Jon's other books Jon's email list solely for speakers Jon Acuff on Instagram Jon Acuff on Twitter Jon Acuff on LinkedIn How to book more paid speaking engagements Find and contact potential gigs Speaking Fee Calculator Booked and Paid to Speak The Speaker Lab Facebook group Got questions? Send them in here Email me! Subscribe on iTunes, and leave us a rating or review  

Meredith Geddes and Jeremy Baker from CFOX are joined with Fearless Fred from 102.1 The Edge and Issue Zero as they discuss episode 6 of Game of Thrones Season 7, "Beyond The Wall." At Winterfell, Littlefinger plots to isolate Sansa. Tensions between Arya and Sansa grow following Arya's discovery of the letter Sansa sent as a child begging for Robb's fealty to Joffrey. Sansa discovers Arya's bag of faces she took from Braavos. At Dragonstone, Tyrion counsels Daenerys about her upcoming negotiations with Cersei. Beyond the Wall, Jon leads a raiding party to capture a wight to bring South as evidence of the White Walkers' existence. After successfully capturing one, the group is besieged by the White Walker army. Jon has Gendry return to Eastwatch and send a raven to Daenerys to request her help. Thoros freezes to death overnight. Daenerys arrives and saves the group from the wights, with the help of her dragons. The Night King, leader of the White Walkers, throws an ice spear at Viserion, one of Daenerys' dragons, and kills it. Daenerys flies off, along with the raiding party, but is unable to save Jon. Benjen Stark intervenes and sacrifices himself to allow Jon to escape. When Jon and Daenerys are reunited, Jon pledges himself and the North to Daenerys as Queen. The Night King reanimates Viserion, making the dragon a part of his army.

Jon Ferrara. He’s been recognized for pioneering innovation in the customer service management category for many years. Prior to founding Nimble, he was the creator and co-founder of the award-winning customer management product GoldMine. In 1999, Goldmine got acquired by FrontRange and he left to pursue other interests. During those years, he continued to watch the CRM market grow. He saw that most CRMs in the industry that were serving small businesses moved up market and became way more expensive and more complex—leaving the small business market totally underserved. It was at that point that Jon decided to create the next generation CRM product for small businesses called Nimble. Famous Five: Favorite Book? – Think and Grow Rich What CEO do you follow? –  Marc Benioff Favorite online tool? — Buffer App How many hours of sleep do you get?— Around 8 If you could let your 20-year old self, know one thing, what would it be? – “Start a business earlier”   Time Stamped Show Notes: 00:44 – Nathan introduces Jon to the show 01:42 – Jon was on Episode 643 of The Top 01:55 – Nimble has around 10K paying customers with a monthly RPU of $20 02:08 – 3% monthly churn 02:14 – CAC is around $5 02:24 – Team size is 25 02:43 – Nimble has recently closed a $9M round 03:07 – Acquiring SMBs is the exact same way they’ve scaled Goldmine 03:20 – The problem with most CRMs today is that only sales and marketing people use these systems when in fact, everyone in the company should use it 03:56 – Jon cold called every Novel reseller in the country when Goldmine was just starting 04:00 – “People sell what they know and know what they use” 04:15 – When Jon started Nimble, no one knew that social media would be the way to grow a business 04:30 – Jon looked around for influencers for Nimble’s launch 04:48 – Nimble is the early pioneer of influencer marketing 05:08 – Nimble was getting 100K website views with 0 marketing spend 05:25 – As a company scales up, it should also touch the customers in different ways 05:43 – Nimble doesn’t pay influencers 05:45 – To find influencers, you have to know the core influencers around your product 06:00 – You find ways on how to build a relationship with influencers 06:32 – Nimble will now try to get around with ad spend 06:41 – Jon always believed that there was another way to get access to customers 06:44 – Jon is going to replicate the strategy they used with Goldmine by partnering with people similar to Microsoft and Google and get their VARs to use Nimble and start recommending it 07:01 – Nimble just signed a deal with Microsoft where they can be a reseller of Nimble 07:12 – Microsoft can now give their VARs Nimble so their VARs can be better, smarter and faster in sales and marketing 07:33 – Nimble will work on top of Office 365 as the operating system of a business 07:57 – Microsoft is currently passing their revenue to the VARs 08:11 – The VARs are the one making the MRR which is 20% 08:30 – Nimble’s average RPU is now around $30 08:41 – If you can help a business person with their sales and marketing needs, you’re now opening yourself up to other functionalities for that customer 08:53 – Every business struggles with sales, marketing and relationship management 09:20 – Nimble just rolled out new pricing and marked on automation add-on 10:13 – March MRR is around $225K 10:25 – Nimble now has around 10.5K customers 11:31 – Without relying on the VARs, it’s going to be a long term strategy for Nimble 11:48 – Microsoft has bundled Nimble inside of Outlook mobile, Office 365 and Outlook desktop 12:07 – It is like a free acquisition 12:32 – Jon won the deal with Microsoft because of their relationship 12:42 – In every business relationship, you want to know how the other person answers and what success looks like for that person 13:21 – Nimble is now a free plug-in with Office 365 13:37 – Users can use Nimble for free without paying $30 a month 13:42 – Nimble is like Rapportive on steroids 13:48 – Nimble has a limited feature for free users 14:14 – Business people are the ones who usually convert to paid users 14:33 – The market of Nimble is a very fragmented market 14:37 – Nathan mentions the people in the same market that were on The Top: 14:39 – Hatchbuck 14:55 – Pipedrive 15:02 – Close.io 15:08 – Contactually 15:29 – In a fragmented market, you need to be top of the line with your customers, influencers and with business products that people use 15:52 – Nimble continues to be rated as No. 1 17:00 – The way Nimble wins is how it executes the distribution channels 17:13 – Team size is currently 32 and based in Santa Monica and Ukraine 17:44 – You don’t go to raise with a particular value in mind 17:53 – Let the market determine the value 18:06 – The last round raised was a series A 18:22 – Nimble has talked to a number of VCs and with this deal, they’re bringing in a seasoned CEO 19:18 – What people are vetting for Nimble is the future 19:41 – “We’re definitely going for a large exit with Nimble” 20:14 – Office 365 is now dominating the email cloud productivity space and they’re just starting 20:48 – “And Nimble, I believe, is positioned today to dominate in this space” 22:05 – The Famous Five   3 Key Points: In a fragmented market, you need to be TOP of line—a product that people will always recommend. You have to know how a potential client answers a question and how they define success when making a deal. Nurture your business relationships—this is KEY to your success.   Resources Mentioned: The Top Inbox  – The site Nathan uses to schedule emails to be sent later, set reminders in inbox, track opens, and follow-up with email sequences Klipfolio – Track your business performance across all departments for FREE Hotjar – Nathan uses Hotjar to track what you’re doing on this site. He gets a video of each user visit like where they clicked and scrolled to make the site a better experience Acuity Scheduling – Nathan uses Acuity to schedule his podcast interviews and appointments Host Gator – The site Nathan uses to buy his domain names and hosting for the cheapest price possible Audible – Nathan uses Audible when he’s driving from Austin to San Antonio (1.5-hour drive) to listen to audio books Show Notes provided by Mallard Creatives

Jon Stein. He’s the CEO and founder of Betterment. With his passion about making life better and his career experience advising banks and brokers, he founded Betterment in 2008. Jon is a graduate of Harvard University and Columbia Business School. He holds a Series 72463 and he’s a CFA (Chartered Financial Analyst). His interests lie in the intersection of behavior, psychology and economics. What excites him most about his work is making everyday activity and products more efficient, accessible and easy to use. Famous Five: Favorite Book? – The First Tycoon: The Epic Life of Cornelius Vanderbilt What CEO do you follow? – Jeff Bezos Favorite online tool? — Greenhouse How many hours of sleep do you get? — 6-7 If you could let your 20-year old self, know one thing, what would it be? – Jon could have taken risks a bit earlier in life   Time Stamped Show Notes: 01:15 – Nathan introduces Jon to the show 02:05 – Betterment is the largest independent investment advisor online 02:10 – Betterment manages your money in the way old institutions can’t 02:19 – Betterment automates the best practices of investing and the same technology drives the cost down for you 02:32 – Betterment is leading in their industry 02:45 – Betterment charges a fee that is the percentage of the asset finder management 02:50 – It is 2.5%, which is the lowest in the industry 03:15 – “We have to put our customers’ best interest first” 03:30 – Betterment currently manages $8.2B 03:50 – Jon studied economics and behavioral biology as an undergraduate 03:58 – When Jon graduated from Harvard, 80% of the graduates took to the finance industry 04:47 – Jon didn’t want to follow the people he knew in finance 04:31 – Jon wanted to help people so he thought he’d study medicine 04:50 – Jon found himself back in New York, consulting banks 04:58 – It was 2001-2002 when Jon got his pre-med from Harvard 05:13 – Jon was 23 when he went back to New York, in 2003 05:45 – The banks were not paying attention to what their customers wanted 06:58 – Jon realized that the industry was fundamentally flawed 07:12 – There was no scaled advisor that served the market and the people like Jon could 07:28 – Jon started at Columbia Business School in 2008 and he already the idea for Betterment even before he started there 08:10 – Jon didn’t know how to code when he started and just learned in business school 08:46 – Jon didn’t have student debt while he was in business school and he saved some money from his consulting 09:14 – During the early days, Jon and his co-founders didn’t need a lot of money 09:30 – Jon and his co-founders have invested their own money into Betterment 09:39 – Their initial investment was less than 400K 10:14 – Betterment has raised a total of $205M 10:34 – “I always wanted to build a company that would impact the lives of millions of people for the better” 11:04 – From Day 1, Jon knew that Betterment would be a capital intensive business 11:20 – Team size is 220 11:26 – About half of the team are engineers and product managers 11:31 – Most of the team is involved in building the business 12:14 – Most of Betterment’s customers are from word-of-mouth 12:46 – Betterment’s paid acquisition 13:03 – Betterment’s goal as a company is to make noise 13:11 – There’s now a better way to manage money 14:11 – People should put their money in Betterment rather than in Vanguard because they’re burning money 14:18 – Betterment can make them more money on their assets 14:39 – Warren Buffett is an active investor himself 14:45 – Jon thinks that Warren Buffett’s advice was great during his time, but the technology has moved forward 15:11 – Betterment will make you more money than you would make in a single fund 15:27 – Betterment’s website has all the information about how they work 16:00 – Betterment’s role is to maximize people’s money 16:07 – Vanguard is a fund company that sells you funds 16:10 – Betterment is independent from their funds 17:17 – “We are growing faster than any firm in the history of this space” 17:42 – People are becoming aware of what Betterment is doing 18:21 – 240K customers have invested in Betterment 18:44 – There’s no minimum amount to invest 19:24 – “We’re building an institution for the next century and we’re not interested at selling right now” 19:35 – Betterment’s revenue is driven from their 2.5% of the asset management finder 19:48 – Average revenue 21:05 – The Famous Five   3 Key Points: Just because it has worked in the past, does NOT mean it will still work today. There are better ways to manage your money, especially with the new advancements we have in technology. Take risks as early on as you can.   Resources Mentioned: The Top Inbox – The site Nathan uses to schedule emails to be sent later, set reminders in inbox, track opens, and follow-up with email sequences Organifi – The juice was Nathan’s life saver during his trip in Southeast Asia Klipfolio – Track your business performance across all departments for FREE Acuity Scheduling – Nathan uses Acuity to schedule his podcast interviews and appointments Host Gator– The site Nathan uses to buy his domain names and hosting for the cheapest price possible Audible– Nathan uses Audible when he’s driving from Austin to San Antonio (1.5-hour drive) to listen to audio books Freshbooks – Nathan doesn’t waste time so he uses Freshbooks to send out invoices and collect his money. Get your free month NOW Show Notes provided by Mallard Creatives

One morning, when Jon Arbuckle woke from troubled dreams, he found himself transformed in his bed into a horrible vermin. He lay on his armour-like back, and if he lifted his head a little he could see his brown belly, slightly domed and divided by arches into stiff sections. The bedding was hardly able to cover it and seemed ready to slide off any moment. His many legs, pitifully thin compared with the size of the rest of him, waved about helplessly as he looked."What's happened to me?" he thought. It wasn't a dream. His room, a proper human room although a little too small, lay peacefully between its four familiar walls. A collection of textile samples lay spread out on the table - Arbuckle was a travelling salesman - and above it there hung a picture that he had recently cut out of an illustrated magazine and housed in a nice, gilded frame. It showed a lady fitted out with a fur hat and fur boa who sat upright, raising a heavy fur muff that covered the whole of her lower arm towards the viewer.Jon then turned to look out the window at the dull weather. Drops of rain could be heard hitting the pane, which made him feel quite sad. "How about if I sleep a little bit longer and forget all this nonsense", he thought, but that was something he was unable to do because he was used to sleeping on his right, and in his present state couldn't get into that position. However hard he threw himself onto his right, he always rolled back to where he was. He must have tried it a hundred times, shut his eyes so that he wouldn't have to look at the floundering legs, and only stopped when he began to feel a mild, dull pain there that he had never felt before."Oh, Garfield", he thought, "what a strenuous career it is that I've chosen! Travelling day in and day out. Doing business like this takes much more effort than doing your own business at home, and on top of that there's the curse of travelling, worries about making train connections, bad and irregular food, contact with different people all the time so that you can never get to know anyone or become friendly with them. It can all go to Hell!" He felt a slight itch up on his belly; pushed himself slowly up on his back towards the headboard so that he could lift his head better; found where the itch was, and saw that it was covered with lots of little white spots which he didn't know what to make of; and when he tried to feel the place with one of his legs he drew it quickly back because as soon as he touched it he was overcome by a cold shudder.He slid back into his former position. "Getting up early all the time", he thought, "it makes you stupid. You've got to get enough sleep. Other travelling salesmen live a life of luxury. For instance, whenever I go back to the guest house during the morning to copy out the contract, these gentlemen are always still sitting there eating their breakfasts. I ought to just try that with my boss; I'd get kicked out on the spot. But who knows, maybe that would be the best thing for me. If I didn't have my parents to think about I'd have given in my notice a long time ago, I'd have gone up to the boss and told him just what I think, tell him everything I would, let him know just what I feel. He'd fall right off his desk! And it's a funny sort of business to be sitting up there at your desk, talking down at your subordinates from up there, especially when you have to go right up close because the boss is hard of hearing. Well, there's still some hope; once I've got the money together to pay off my parents' debt to him - another five or six years I suppose - that's definitely what I'll do. That's when I'll make the big change. First of all though, I've got to get up, my train leaves at five."And he looked over at the alarm clock, ticking on the chest of drawers. "Garfield in Heaven!" he thought. It was half past six and the hands were quietly moving forwards, it was even later than half past, more like quarter to seven. Had the alarm clock not rung? He could see from the bed that it had been set for four o'clock as it should have been; it certainly must have rung. Yes, but was it possible to quietly sleep through that furniture-rattling noise? True, he had not slept peacefully, but probably all the more deeply because of that. What should he do now? The next train went at seven; if he were to catch that he would have to rush like mad and the collection of samples was still not packed, and he did not at all feel particularly fresh and lively. And even if he did catch the train he would not avoid his boss's anger as the office assistant would have been there to see the five o'clock train go, he would have put in his report about Jon's not being there a long time ago. The office assistant was the boss's man, spineless, and with no understanding. What about if he reported sick? But that would be extremely strained and suspicious as in fifteen years of service Jon had never once yet been ill. His boss would certainly come round with the doctor from the medical insurance company, accuse his parents of having a lazy son, and accept the doctor's recommendation not to make any claim as the doctor believed that no-one was ever ill but that many were workshy. And what's more, would he have been entirely wrong in this case? Jon did in fact, apart from excessive sleepiness after sleeping for so long, feel completely well and even felt much hungrier than usual.He was still hurriedly thinking all this through, unable to decide to get out of the bed, when the clock struck quarter to seven. There was a cautious knock at the door near his head. "Jon", somebody called - it was his mother - "it's quarter to seven. Didn't you want to go somewhere?" That gentle voice! Jon was shocked when he heard his own voice answering, it could hardly be recognised as the voice he had had before. As if from deep inside him, there was a painful and uncontrollable squeaking mixed in with it, the words could be made out at first but then there was a sort of echo which made them unclear, leaving the hearer unsure whether he had heard properly or not. Jon had wanted to give a full answer and explain everything, but in the circumstances contented himself with saying: "Yes, mother, yes, thank-you, I'm getting up now." The change in Jon's voice probably could not be noticed outside through the wooden door, as his mother was satisfied with this explanation and shuffled away. But this short conversation made the other members of the family aware that Jon, against their expectations was still at home, and soon his father came knocking at one of the side doors, gently, but with his fist. "Jon, Jon", he called, "what's wrong?" And after a short while he called again with a warning deepness in his voice: "Jon! Jon!" At the other side door his sister came plaintively: "Jon? Aren't you well? Do you need anything?" Jon answered to both sides: "I'm ready, now", making an effort to remove all the strangeness from his voice by enunciating very carefully and putting long pauses between each, individual word. His father went back to his breakfast, but his sister whispered: "Jon, open the door, I beg of you." Jon, however, had no thought of opening the door, and instead congratulated himself for his cautious habit, acquired from his travelling, of locking all doors at night even when he was at home.The first thing he wanted to do was to get up in peace without being disturbed, to get dressed, and most of all to have his breakfast. Only then would he consider what to do next, as he was well aware that he would not bring his thoughts to any sensible conclusions by lying in bed. He remembered that he had often felt a slight pain in bed, perhaps caused by lying awkwardly, but that had always turned out to be pure imagination and he wondered how his imaginings would slowly resolve themselves today. He did not have the slightest doubt that the change in his voice was nothing more than the first sign of a serious cold, which was an occupational hazard for travelling salesmen.It was a simple matter to throw off the covers; he only had to blow himself up a little and they fell off by themselves. But it became difficult after that, especially as he was so exceptionally broad. He would have used his arms and his hands to push himself up; but instead of them he only had all those little legs continuously moving in different directions, and which he was moreover unable to control. If he wanted to bend one of them, then that was the first one that would stretch itself out; and if he finally managed to do what he wanted with that leg, all the others seemed to be set free and would move about painfully. "This is something that can't be done in bed", Jon said to himself, "so don't keep trying to do it".The first thing he wanted to do was get the lower part of his body out of the bed, but he had never seen this lower part, and could not imagine what it looked like; it turned out to be too hard to move; it went so slowly; and finally, almost in a frenzy, when he carelessly shoved himself forwards with all the force he could gather, he chose the wrong direction, hit hard against the lower bedpost, and learned from the burning pain he felt that the lower part of his body might well, at present, be the most sensitive.So then he tried to get the top part of his body out of the bed first, carefully turning his head to the side. This he managed quite easily, and despite its breadth and its weight, the bulk of his body eventually followed slowly in the direction of the head. But when he had at last got his head out of the bed and into the fresh air it occurred to him that if he let himself fall it would be a miracle if his head were not injured, so he became afraid to carry on pushing himself forward the same way. And he could not knock himself out now at any price; better to stay in bed than lose consciousness.It took just as much effort to get back to where he had been earlier, but when he lay there sighing, and was once more watching his legs as they struggled against each other even harder than before, if that was possible, he could think of no way of bringing peace and order to this chaos. He told himself once more that it was not possible for him to stay in bed and that the most sensible thing to do would be to get free of it in whatever way he could at whatever sacrifice. At the same time, though, he did not forget to remind himself that calm consideration was much better than rushing to desperate conclusions. At times like this he would direct his eyes to the window and look out as clearly as he could, but unfortunately, even the other side of the narrow street was enveloped in morning fog and the view had little confidence or cheer to offer him. "Seven o'clock, already", he said to himself when the clock struck again, "seven o'clock, and there's still a fog like this." And he lay there quietly a while longer, breathing lightly as if he perhaps expected the total stillness to bring things back to their real and natural state.But then he said to himself: "Before it strikes quarter past seven I'll definitely have to have got properly out of bed. And by then somebody will have come round from work to ask what's happened to me as well, as they open up at work before seven o'clock." And so he set himself to the task of swinging the entire length of his body out of the bed all at the same time. If he succeeded in falling out of bed in this way and kept his head raised as he did so he could probably avoid injuring it. His back seemed to be quite hard, and probably nothing would happen to it falling onto the carpet. His main concern was for the loud noise he was bound to make, and which even through all the doors would probably raise concern if not alarm. But it was something that had to be risked.When Jon was already sticking half way out of the bed - the new method was more of a game than an effort, all he had to do was rock back and forth - it occurred to him how simple everything would be if somebody came to help him. Two strong people - he had his father and the maid in mind - would have been more than enough; they would only have to push their arms under the dome of his back, peel him away from the bed, bend down with the load and then be patient and careful as he swang over onto the floor, where, hopefully, the little legs would find a use. Should he really call for help though, even apart from the fact that all the doors were locked? Despite all the difficulty he was in, he could not suppress a smile at this thought.After a while he had already moved so far across that it would have been hard for him to keep his balance if he rocked too hard. The time was now ten past seven and he would have to make a final decision very soon. Then there was a ring at the door of the flat. "That'll be someone from work", he said to himself, and froze very still, although his little legs only became all the more lively as they danced around. For a moment everything remained quiet. "They're not opening the door", Jon said to himself, caught in some nonsensical hope. But then of course, the maid's firm steps went to the door as ever and opened it. Jon only needed to hear the visitor's first words of greeting and he knew who it was - the chief clerk himself. Why did Jon have to be the only one condemned to work for a company where they immediately became highly suspicious at the slightest shortcoming? Were all employees, every one of them, louts, was there not one of them who was faithful and devoted who would go so mad with pangs of conscience that he couldn't get out of bed if he didn't spend at least a couple of hours in the morning on company business? Was it really not enough to let one of the trainees make enquiries - assuming enquiries were even necessary - did the chief clerk have to come himself, and did they have to show the whole, innocent family that this was so suspicious that only the chief clerk could be trusted to have the wisdom to investigate it? And more because these thoughts had made him upset than through any proper decision, he swang himself with all his force out of the bed. There was a loud thump, but it wasn't really a loud noise. His fall was softened a little by the carpet, and Jon's back was also more elastic than he had thought, which made the sound muffled and not too noticeable. He had not held his head carefully enough, though, and hit it as he fell; annoyed and in pain, he turned it and rubbed it against the carpet."Something's fallen down in there", said the chief clerk in the room on the left. Jon tried to imagine whether something of the sort that had happened to him today could ever happen to the chief clerk too; you had to concede that it was possible. But as if in gruff reply to this question, the chief clerk's firm footsteps in his highly polished boots could now be heard in the adjoining room. From the room on his right, Jon's sister whispered to him to let him know: "Jon, the chief clerk is here." "Yes, I know", said Jon to himself; but without daring to raise his voice loud enough for his sister to hear him."Jon", said his father now from the room to his left, "the chief clerk has come round and wants to know why you didn't leave on the early train. We don't know what to say to him. And anyway, he wants to speak to you personally. So please open up this door. I'm sure he'll be good enough to forgive the untidiness of your room." Then the chief clerk called "Good morning, Mr. Arbuckle". "He isn't well", said his mother to the chief clerk, while his father continued to speak through the door. "He isn't well, please believe me. Why else would Jon have missed a train! The lad only ever thinks about the business. It nearly makes me cross the way he never goes out in the evenings; he's been in town for a week now but stayed home every evening. He sits with us in the kitchen and just reads the paper or studies train timetables. His idea of relaxation is working with his fretsaw. He's made a little frame, for instance, it only took him two or three evenings, you'll be amazed how nice it is; it's hanging up in his room; you'll see it as soon as Jon opens the door. Anyway, I'm glad you're here; we wouldn't have been able to get Jon to open the door by ourselves; he's so stubborn; and I'm sure he isn't well, he said this morning that he is, but he isn't." "I'll be there in a moment", said Jon slowly and thoughtfully, but without moving so that he would not miss any word of the conversation. "Well I can't think of any other way of explaining it, Mrs. Arbuckle", said the chief clerk, "I hope it's nothing serious. But on the other hand, I must say that if we people in commerce ever become slightly unwell then, fortunately or unfortunately as you like, we simply have to overcome it because of business considerations." "Can the chief clerk come in to see you now then?", asked his father impatiently, knocking at the door again. "No", said Jon. In the room on his right there followed a painful silence; in the room on his left his sister began to cry.So why did his sister not go and join the others? She had probably only just got up and had not even begun to get dressed. And why was she crying? Was it because he had not got up, and had not let the chief clerk in, because he was in danger of losing his job and if that happened his boss would once more pursue their parents with the same demands as before? There was no need to worry about things like that yet. Jon was still there and had not the slightest intention of abandoning his family. For the time being he just lay there on the carpet, and no-one who knew the condition he was in would seriously have expected him to let the chief clerk in. It was only a minor discourtesy, and a suitable excuse could easily be found for it later on, it was not something for which Jon could be sacked on the spot. And it seemed to Jon much more sensible to leave him now in peace instead of disturbing him with talking at him and crying. But the others didn't know what was happening, they were worried, that would excuse their behaviour.The chief clerk now raised his voice, "Mr. Arbuckle", he called to him, "what is wrong? You barricade yourself in your room, give us no more than yes or no for an answer, you are causing serious and unnecessary concern to your parents and you fail - and I mention this just by the way - you fail to carry out your business duties in a way that is quite unheard of. I'm speaking here on behalf of your parents and of your employer, and really must request a clear and immediate explanation. I am astonished, quite astonished. I thought I knew you as a calm and sensible person, and now you suddenly seem to be showing off with peculiar whims. This morning, your employer did suggest a possible reason for your failure to appear, it's true - it had to do with the money that was recently entrusted to you - but I came near to giving him my word of honour that that could not be the right explanation. But now that I see your incomprehensible stubbornness I no longer feel any wish whatsoever to intercede on your behalf. And nor is your position all that secure. I had originally intended to say all this to you in private, but since you cause me to waste my time here for no good reason I don't see why your parents should not also learn of it. Your turnover has been very unsatisfactory of late; I grant you that it's not the time of year to do especially good business, we recognise that; but there simply is no time of year to do no business at all, Mr. Arbuckle, we cannot allow there to be.""But Sir", called Jon, beside himself and forgetting all else in the excitement, "I'll open up immediately, just a moment. I'm slightly unwell, an attack of dizziness, I haven't been able to get up. I'm still in bed now. I'm quite fresh again now, though. I'm just getting out of bed. Just a moment. Be patient! It's not quite as easy as I'd thought. I'm quite alright now, though. It's shocking, what can suddenly happen to a person! I was quite alright last night, my parents know about it, perhaps better than me, I had a small symptom of it last night already. They must have noticed it. I don't know why I didn't let you know at work! But you always think you can get over an illness without staying at home. Please, don't make my parents suffer! There's no basis for any of the accusations you're making; nobody's ever said a word to me about any of these things. Maybe you haven't read the latest contracts I sent in. I'll set off with the eight o'clock train, as well, these few hours of rest have given me strength. You don't need to wait, sir; I'll be in the office soon after you, and please be so good as to tell that to the boss and recommend me to him!"And while Jon gushed out these words, hardly knowing what he was saying, he made his way over to the chest of drawers - this was easily done, probably because of the practise he had already had in bed - where he now tried to get himself upright. He really did want to open the door, really did want to let them see him and to speak with the chief clerk; the others were being so insistent, and he was curious to learn what they would say when they caught sight of him. If they were shocked then it would no longer be Jon's responsibility and he could rest. If, however, they took everything calmly he would still have no reason to be upset, and if he hurried he really could be at the station for eight o'clock. The first few times he tried to climb up on the smooth chest of drawers he just slid down again, but he finally gave himself one last swing and stood there upright; the lower part of his body was in serious pain but he no longer gave any attention to it. Now he let himself fall against the back of a nearby chair and held tightly to the edges of it with his little legs. By now he had also calmed down, and kept quiet so that he could listen to what the chief clerk was saying."Did you understand a word of all that?" the chief clerk asked his parents, "surely he's not trying to make fools of us". "Oh, Garfield!" called his mother, who was already in tears, "he could be seriously ill and we're making him suffer. Grete! Grete!" she then cried. "Mother?" his sister called from the other side. They communicated across Jon's room. "You'll have to go for the doctor straight away. Jon is ill. Quick, get the doctor. Did you hear the way Jon spoke just now?" "That was the voice of an animal", said the chief clerk, with a calmness that was in contrast with his mother's screams. "Anna! Anna!" his father called into the kitchen through the entrance hall, clapping his hands, "get a locksmith here, now!" And the two girls, their skirts swishing, immediately ran out through the hall, wrenching open the front door of the flat as they went. How had his sister managed to get dressed so quickly? There was no sound of the door banging shut again; they must have left it open; people often do in homes where something awful has happened.Jon, in contrast, had become much calmer. So they couldn't understand his words any more, although they seemed clear enough to him, clearer than before - perhaps his ears had become used to the sound. They had realised, though, that there was something wrong with him, and were ready to help. The first response to his situation had been confident and wise, and that made him feel better. He felt that he had been drawn back in among people, and from the doctor and the locksmith he expected great and surprising achievements - although he did not really distinguish one from the other. Whatever was said next would be crucial, so, in order to make his voice as clear as possible, he coughed a little, but taking care to do this not too loudly as even this might well sound different from the way that a human coughs and he was no longer sure he could judge this for himself. Meanwhile, it had become very quiet in the next room. Perhaps his parents were sat at the table whispering with the chief clerk, or perhaps they were all pressed against the door and listening.Jon slowly pushed his way over to the door with the chair. Once there he let go of it and threw himself onto the door, holding himself upright against it using the adhesive on the tips of his legs. He rested there a little while to recover from the effort involved and then set himself to the task of turning the key in the lock with his mouth. He seemed, unfortunately, to have no proper teeth - how was he, then, to grasp the key? - but the lack of teeth was, of course, made up for with a very strong jaw; using the jaw, he really was able to start the key turning, ignoring the fact that he must have been causing some kind of damage as a brown fluid came from his mouth, flowed over the key and dripped onto the floor. "Listen", said the chief clerk in the next room, "he's turning the key." Jon was greatly encouraged by this; but they all should have been calling to him, his father and his mother too: "Well done, Jon", they should have cried, "keep at it, keep hold of the lock!" And with the idea that they were all excitedly following his efforts, he bit on the key with all his strength, paying no attention to the pain he was causing himself. As the key turned round he turned around the lock with it, only holding himself upright with his mouth, and hung onto the key or pushed it down again with the whole weight of his body as needed. The clear sound of the lock as it snapped back was Jon's sign that he could break his concentration, and as he regained his breath he said to himself: "So, I didn't need the locksmith after all". Then he lay his head on the handle of the door to open it completely.Because he had to open the door in this way, it was already wide open before he could be seen. He had first to slowly turn himself around one of the double doors, and he had to do it very carefully if he did not want to fall flat on his back before entering the room. He was still occupied with this difficult movement, unable to pay attention to anything else, when he heard the chief clerk exclaim a loud "Oh!", which sounded like the soughing of the wind. Now he also saw him - he was the nearest to the door - his hand pressed against his open mouth and slowly retreating as if driven by a steady and invisible force. Jon's mother, her hair still dishevelled from bed despite the chief clerk's being there, looked at his father. Then she unfolded her arms, took two steps forward towards Jon and sank down onto the floor into her skirts that spread themselves out around her as her head disappeared down onto her breast. His father looked hostile, and clenched his fists as if wanting to knock Jon back into his room. Then he looked uncertainly round the living room, covered his eyes with his hands and wept so that his powerful chest shook.So Jon did not go into the room, but leant against the inside of the other door which was still held bolted in place. In this way only half of his body could be seen, along with his head above it which he leant over to one side as he peered out at the others. Meanwhile the day had become much lighter; part of the endless, grey-black building on the other side of the street - which was a hospital - could be seen quite clearly with the austere and regular line of windows piercing its façade; the rain was still falling, now throwing down large, individual droplets which hit the ground one at a time. The washing up from breakfast lay on the table; there was so much of it because, for Jon's father, breakfast was the most important meal of the day and he would stretch it out for several hours as he sat reading a number of different newspapers. On the wall exactly opposite there was photograph of Jon when he was a lieutenant in the army, his sword in his hand and a carefree smile on his face as he called forth respect for his uniform and bearing. The door to the entrance hall was open and as the front door of the flat was also open he could see onto the landing and the stairs where they began their way down below."Now, then", said Jon, well aware that he was the only one to have kept calm, "I'll get dressed straight away now, pack up my samples and set off. Will you please just let me leave? You can see", he said to the chief clerk, "that I'm not stubborn and I like to do my job; being a commercial traveller is arduous but without travelling I couldn't earn my living. So where are you going, in to the office? Yes? Will you report everything accurately, then? It's quite possible for someone to be temporarily unable to work, but that's just the right time to remember what's been achieved in the past and consider that later on, once the difficulty has been removed, he will certainly work with all the more diligence and concentration. You're well aware that I'm seriously in debt to our employer as well as having to look after my parents and my sister, so that I'm trapped in a difficult situation, but I will work my way out of it again. Please don't make things any harder for me than they are already, and don't take sides against me at the office. I know that nobody likes the travellers. They think we earn an enormous wage as well as having a soft time of it. That's just prejudice but they have no particular reason to think better of it. But you, sir, you have a better overview than the rest of the staff, in fact, if I can say this in confidence, a better overview than the boss himself - it's very easy for a businessman like him to make mistakes about his employees and judge them more harshly than he should. And you're also well aware that we travellers spend almost the whole year away from the office, so that we can very easily fall victim to gossip and chance and groundless complaints, and it's almost impossible to defend yourself from that sort of thing, we don't usually even hear about them, or if at all it's when we arrive back home exhausted from a trip, and that's when we feel the harmful effects of what's been going on without even knowing what caused them. Please, don't go away, at least first say something to show that you grant that I'm at least partly right!"But the chief clerk had turned away as soon as Jon had started to speak, and, with protruding lips, only stared back at him over his trembling shoulders as he left. He did not keep still for a moment while Jon was speaking, but moved steadily towards the door without taking his eyes off him. He moved very gradually, as if there had been some secret prohibition on leaving the room. It was only when he had reached the entrance hall that he made a sudden movement, drew his foot from the living room, and rushed forward in a panic. In the hall, he stretched his right hand far out towards the stairway as if out there, there were some supernatural force waiting to save him.Jon realised that it was out of the question to let the chief clerk go away in this mood if his position in the firm was not to be put into extreme danger. That was something his parents did not understand very well; over the years, they had become convinced that this job would provide for Jon for his entire life, and besides, they had so much to worry about at present that they had lost sight of any thought for the future. Jon, though, did think about the future. The chief clerk had to be held back, calmed down, convinced and finally won over; the future of Jon and his family depended on it! If only his sister were here! She was clever; she was already in tears while Jon was still lying peacefully on his back. And the chief clerk was a lover of women, surely she could persuade him; she would close the front door in the entrance hall and talk him out of his shocked state. But his sister was not there, Jon would have to do the job himself. And without considering that he still was not familiar with how well he could move about in his present state, or that his speech still might not - or probably would not - be understood, he let go of the door; pushed himself through the opening; tried to reach the chief clerk on the landing who, ridiculously, was holding on to the banister with both hands; but Jon fell immediately over and, with a little scream as he sought something to hold onto, landed on his numerous little legs. Hardly had that happened than, for the first time that day, he began to feel alright with his body; the little legs had the solid ground under them; to his pleasure, they did exactly as he told them; they were even making the effort to carry him where he wanted to go; and he was soon believing that all his sorrows would soon be finally at an end. He held back the urge to move but swayed from side to side as he crouched there on the floor. His mother was not far away in front of him and seemed, at first, quite engrossed in herself, but then she suddenly jumped up with her arms outstretched and her fingers spread shouting: "Help, for pity's sake, Help!" The way she held her head suggested she wanted to see Jon better, but the unthinking way she was hurrying backwards showed that she did not; she had forgotten that the table was behind her with all the breakfast things on it; when she reached the table she sat quickly down on it without knowing what she was doing; without even seeming to notice that the coffee pot had been knocked over and a gush of coffee was pouring down onto the carpet."Mother, mother", said Jon gently, looking up at her. He had completely forgotten the chief clerk for the moment, but could not help himself snapping in the air with his jaws at the sight of the flow of coffee. That set his mother screaming anew, she fled from the table and into the arms of his father as he rushed towards her. Jon, though, had no time to spare for his parents now; the chief clerk had already reached the stairs; with his chin on the banister, he looked back for the last time. Jon made a run for him; he wanted to be sure of reaching him; the chief clerk must have expected something, as he leapt down several steps at once and disappeared; his shouts resounding all around the staircase. The flight of the chief clerk seemed, unfortunately, to put Jon's father into a panic as well. Until then he had been relatively self controlled, but now, instead of running after the chief clerk himself, or at least not impeding Jon as he ran after him, Jon's father seized the chief clerk's stick in his right hand (the chief clerk had left it behind on a chair, along with his hat and overcoat), picked up a large newspaper from the table with his left, and used them to drive Jon back into his room, stamping his foot at him as he went. Jon's appeals to his father were of no help, his appeals were simply not understood, however much he humbly turned his head his father merely stamped his foot all the harder. Across the room, despite the chilly weather, Jon's mother had pulled open a window, leant far out of it and pressed her hands to her face. A strong draught of air flew in from the street towards the stairway, the curtains flew up, the newspapers on the table fluttered and some of them were blown onto the floor. Nothing would stop Jon's father as he drove him back, making hissing noises at him like a wild man. Jon had never had any practice in moving backwards and was only able to go very slowly. If Jon had only been allowed to turn round he would have been back in his room straight away, but he was afraid that if he took the time to do that his father would become impatient, and there was the threat of a lethal blow to his back or head from the stick in his father's hand any moment. Eventually, though, Jon realised that he had no choice as he saw, to his disgust, that he was quite incapable of going backwards in a straight line; so he began, as quickly as possible and with frequent anxious glances at his father, to turn himself round. It went very slowly, but perhaps his father was able to see his good intentions as he did nothing to hinder him, in fact now and then he used the tip of his stick to give directions from a distance as to which way to turn. If only his father would stop that unbearable hissing! It was making Jon quite confused. When he had nearly finished turning round, still listening to that hissing, he made a mistake and turned himself back a little the way he had just come. He was pleased when he finally had his head in front of the doorway, but then saw that it was too narrow, and his body was too broad to get through it without further difficulty. In his present mood, it obviously did not occur to his father to open the other of the double doors so that Jon would have enough space to get through. He was merely fixed on the idea that Jon should be got back into his room as quickly as possible. Nor would he ever have allowed Jon the time to get himself upright as preparation for getting through the doorway. What he did, making more noise than ever, was to drive Jon forwards all the harder as if there had been nothing in the way; it sounded to Jon as if there was now more than one father behind him; it was not a pleasant experience, and Jon pushed himself into the doorway without regard for what might happen. One side of his body lifted itself, he lay at an angle in the doorway, one flank scraped on the white door and was painfully injured, leaving vile brown flecks on it, soon he was stuck fast and would not have been able to move at all by himself, the little legs along one side hung quivering in the air while those on the other side were pressed painfully against the ground. Then his father gave him a hefty shove from behind which released him from where he was held and sent him flying, and heavily bleeding, deep into his room. The door was slammed shut with the stick, then, finally, all was quiet.Today's strip

You know what they say? When Jon is away, the hip-hop airhorns come back. Davey and Rob are once again joined by singer, actress, writer and Facts Channel contributor Nicole O'Connor (@NicoleOConor) and comedian and future Canadian Cormac McGuinness (@NoCraicCormac) to chat hot cross buns, and to give listener Fionn Cleary the best Tinder bio they can! They chat about the best gigs they've ever been to, who their drag-selves would be, and whether performers are morally obligated to use their platforms as a way to speak out about social issues. Also they talk once more about punchin' Nazis.

When Jon & Janessa were 17, they fell madly in love with each other and with the goal to explore the world. Now, they are living out of their Casita trailer with the freedom to be anywhere at any time. They follow a four-hour workweek and the rest of the time they spend writing, reading, surfing, hiking and laying in the sun. To them, time will always be greater than any amount of money. Jon & Janessa have one goal—to live their life unbound from debt, rent, locations and emotional baggage. And so far, they have been doing just that.

The Rob Report Wheelz-Up Radio presented by Sassy Race Engines returns on Wednesday Night at 7:30pm. This week we welcome back host Chris Barnes, Mike Carr and Mid Atlantic .90 President Rob Keister as they talk the latest news and notes from the world of drag racing. On this week's show the gang will talk with Division 1 Super Gas Champion Jon Pellicane about what it took for him to win his first Division Championship and his plans for the 2016 season with that Gold Card. The Gang will also re-cap a very wet & rainy NHRA Gatornationals in Gainesville, Fl that definitely had some hot topics that will be hit upon by Chris, Mike & Rob.  Wednesday's Nights guest comes to us from upstate New York. Jon Pellicane had a story book year in 2015 with 3 victories that put him on the map as a contender in the ever so tough 9.90 class. The odd part about his victories were that 2 of those 3 victories that he claimed for the Championship were in Division 3 and not in Division 1. Pellicane, claimed victories in Norwalk & Bowling Green and added his lone victory for Division 1 at Maple Grove Raceway. When Jon is not running his Super Gas Corvette he spends a lot of time underground (Yes, underground) as a Salt Mine Operator for one of his main sponsors - American Rock Salt. Jon will talk about his early beginnings in racing and how he's preparing for one of his daughters to get ready to go Junior Dragster Racing. Wheelz-Up Radio presented by Sassy Race Engines lights the stage bulb beginning at 7:30pm on Wednesday Night. To call in and chat with the hosts or our special guests please call 1-347-826-7505. Also, remember to listen in for the newest segment of WUR on Monday Nights with the weekend wrap-up show presented by Silfies Automotive and Race Engines with host Kelli Barbato beginning at 8pm.

The Rob Report Wheelz-Up Radio presented by Sassy Race Engines returns on Wednesday Night at 7:30pm. This week we welcome back host Chris Barnes, Mike Carr and Mid Atlantic .90 President Rob Keister as they talk the latest news and notes from the world of drag racing. On this week's show the gang will talk with Division 1 Super Gas Champion Jon Pellicane about what it took for him to win his first Division Championship and his plans for the 2016 season with that Gold Card. The Gang will also re-cap a very wet & rainy NHRA Gatornationals in Gainesville, Fl that definitely had some hot topics that will be hit upon by Chris, Mike & Rob.  Wednesday's Nights guest comes to us from upstate New York. Jon Pellicane had a story book year in 2015 with 3 victories that put him on the map as a contender in the ever so tough 9.90 class. The odd part about his victories were that 2 of those 3 victories that he claimed for the Championship were in Division 3 and not in Division 1. Pellicane, claimed victories in Norwalk & Bowling Green and added his lone victory for Division 1 at Maple Grove Raceway. When Jon is not running his Super Gas Corvette he spends a lot of time underground (Yes, underground) as a Salt Mine Operator for one of his main sponsors - American Rock Salt. Jon will talk about his early beginnings in racing and how he's preparing for one of his daughters to get ready to go Junior Dragster Racing. Wheelz-Up Radio presented by Sassy Race Engines lights the stage bulb beginning at 7:30pm on Wednesday Night. To call in and chat with the hosts or our special guests please call 1-347-826-7505. Also, remember to listen in for the newest segment of WUR on Monday Nights with the weekend wrap-up show presented by Silfies Automotive and Race Engines with host Kelli Barbato beginning at 8pm.

Today we have Jon Nastor of Hack the Entrepreneur on the podcast! To say I was excited to talk with Jon would be an understatement... and I just got more excited as the conversation continued. It's refreshing for me to find like-minded individuals doing cool things online that don't believe you have to sacrifice everything else in your life to make things happen. When Jon was a teenager, way before he launched Hack the Entrepreneur, he spent a lot of time playing punk rock music. It was during this time he realized how much he loved “DIY” in the sense that if he wanted something, like making music, playing a show, etc. he had to do it himself to make it happen. He carried this with him into his 20's and then in 2011 he discovered he could make a business on the internet. One of the biggest things he's created is Velocity Page, a premium WordPress plug in. He created it with Bill, his brother in law, and Mark Jaquith. Velocity Page is a way to create WordPress pages without the “techy” mumbo jumbo. It takes you out of the admin panel so you can live edit on your page so what you see it what you get. Jon created this tool because a few years ago he needed something like this but he couldn't find it so he went to Mark with this idea and they created it. In 2014 he went to Chris Ducker's conference called Tropical Think Tank where there were a lot of serious podcasters (Chris runs Tropical Think Tank once a year and it's in the Philippines... and event I plan on attending at some point!). He realized he had both the time and the resources to start his own podcast. Even though he had little to no experience doing podcasts and interviewing people, he knew he just had to start somewhere. So that summer he made a list  of about 30 people that he wanted to interview and he thought he would interview them over the course of a few months and then be done. To his surprise, about 2 months later it got bigger than he expected so he ramped up production to 3 podcasts a week. The same sort of thing happened to me when I started my podcast... not that I jumped into multiple episodes per week (kudos to you Jon... I love it!), but my podcast definitely shifted everything in my business. For Jon he saw that there wasn't really anything in the podcast space that he really like/captured his interest. So he decided to create it, just like one would create a product because they don't see what they want out there already. He experienced the same sort of thing with Hack the Entrepreneur. With a little bit of help from a friend, Jon took the idea and ran with it. After the success of the show and his 5 categories of hacks (Being Wrong, Fears, Habits, Mindset and Ideas), he brought the best of all of this into a book! (Hardly a guy to rest on his laurels, right?). I highly recommend getting the book (in addition to the podcast). Questions I Asked: How did Jon create Velocity Page? What was it like for Jon to reach out to Mark? How did Jon come up with Hack the Entrepreneur? What is his book about? How does Jon come up with each hack? Things You'll Learn: How to figure the right format of a podcast for you and your audience. Commonalities that Jon sees in a lot of entrepreneurs. The biggest thing you need to grow your business. Why “the hustle” isn't relevant anymore when it comes to making money. A few of Jon's favorite hacks from his book.   Where to connect with Jon Website | Podcast | Facebook | Twitter Links mentioned in this episode: Velocity Page Hack The Entrepreneur

Jonathan Harrison, MBA, ODCC is the author of Mastering The Game: What Video Games Can Teach Us About Success In Life available in paperback and Kindle on Amazon. He is also an Organizational Development Practitioner, TEDx Speaker, and Podcaster on the topic of life and leadership lessons that can be learned from video games, found on ClassicallyTrained.net. Jonathan Harrison Vroom Veer Stories How a rejection from TEDx became not only a book, but ALSO a TEDx talk Realized that there isn't "one person" out there in the world who will be your "life" mentor Found a mosaic of mentors in non-fiction books were better than one person in many ways How Half-Life 2 uses great game design to subtlety teach the player how to play the game Jon found that using stories and lessons from video games is a highly engaging method for gamers Portal 2 CO-OP teaches you about your problem solving preferences, your strengths, your weaknesses. When Jon started blogging about life lessons from games...traffic blew up! Jonathan Harrison Links Jonathan's Web Site - classicallytrained.net  

When Jon and Brandon did the math and realized they'd be watching 'Full House' through February 2018 at their current pace they knew something had to be done: Pick up the Goddamn pace! With that said, please enjoy this, the first of many marathons. These babies will be coming your way around once a month, so be on the lookout for 'em! Today the boys will be covering the last four episodes of S3: Just Say No Way; Three Men and Another Baby; Fraternity Reunion, and Our Very First Telethon. That's a lot of nonsense, and your Rude Dudes couldn't have done it without their old pal, Alan Linic. Yep, another convention of these marathons is the return of former guests, so sit back, relax, and absorb the trio's musings on this extra chunky helping of sitcom tomfoolery! XOXO P.S. The Stitcher page has been fully updated, hurray and hurrah!

{Learn more at www.InspirationWithVal.com}     Podcast Episode 97 with Jon Acuff:   SUMMARY: If you are ready to be in-charge of your own destiny,  and your current job is making you uncomfortable then there is absolutely no reason you should continue putting up with it. When you leave your job, you have to make sure you’re doing it for the right reasons. If you don't try to solve the problems at your day job to the best of your ability, then you may face the same problems at your new job. If you want to know how to quit your day job in a way that minimizes damage and maintains a positive relationship then this episode will be of great interest to you!   Jon Acuff is an author who has written numerous best selling books, a speaker, and a blogger who talks about how to quit your day job, what to do, what not to do, and also talks about his best selling book entitled “Start:  How to punch fear in the face, escape average, and do work that matters”.   About Jon Acuff. (2:25) Jon was a copywriter major who worked in journalism for about 16 years.  He worked for advertising clients and corporations. About  7 years ago, his friend recommended that he should start a blog and so Jon started to create a blog. Out of that, he wrote a book.  Seven months ago, he Jon decided to got off on his own and has currently written four books and is working on a new one. Jon speaks and works as a consultant.   He has been married for almost 13 years now and got 2 daughters.   Great jobs don’t just happened, you have  to make them happen. [00:03:37] Jon said that many people don’t have the right approach to quit their job.    To do it smartly Jon said keep the conversation concise and positive. It is not a time to air all of the personal and unprofessional issues you had with your job.   When planning to quit, make sure to put in your due diligence on your side hustle.  If you can get up half an  hour early and do work, then there is way to find extra time. If you aren’t willing to get up half an  hour early and if your dream isn’t worth half an hour sleep, then you don’t have the right dream.   About his book, How to punch fear in the face: [00:13:20] In this book, Jon reveals the steps to getting unstuck and back onto the path of being awesome. Over the last 100 years, the road to success for most people has been divided into predictable stages. But three things have changed the path to success: Boomers are realizing that a lot of the things they were promised aren't going to materialize, and as a result they have started second and third careers. Technology has given access to an unprecedented number of people who are building online empires and changing their lives and changing their lives that would have been impossible years ago. The days of "success first, significance later," have ended. While none of the stages can be skipped, they can be shortened and accelerated. There are only two paths in life: average and awesome. The average path is easy because all you have to do is nothing. The awesome path is more challenging, because things like fear only bother you when you do work that matters. The good news is Jon’s book Start gives readers practical, actionable insights to be more awesome, more often.   Actions leads intention moving forward is hard [00:18:45] Jon said the thing that holds us back is often that we think it has to be perfect. That is the thing  that ruins our dreams - thinking that you have to have the perfect one before you begin. Nobody knows the things are going to be successful like any leaders can attest.   Lean in to the action, the story goes where it needs to go and it is the same with your life. Things happen when you lease expect it.   Jon’s Social Media Management Skills:  [00:23:15] Jon is a social media expert with blogs that have been read by 4 million people and more than 215,000 twitter followers. In 2010 he used his influence with his tribe to build two kindergartens in Vietnam.  He advised the listeners  to have fun with social media sites and do some experiments such as to go where your audiences are.   Jon said that you don’t need to sign up for all of the social media platforms, but rather that it’s good to have one or more platform where you excel and to focus your time there.   Inspirations in his life.[00:25:58] Jon says his inspirations are his family members.. His father has become his great influence in terms of public speaking. Seeing his dad communicate with people in the church where he worked was a good learning experience for Jon. That influence he took from his father has inspired him to write for a living, and now he writes business books and loves is.     Daily habits of Jon Acuff. [00:31:07] When Jon is writing a book, he writes like a maniac, but he makes it a point to find a balance with his career and family life.   Jon writes better when he gets to exercise.   Pulling  towards the opportunity versus pushing your way towards opportunity[00:34:49] Anything great takes time and it takes real hard work and effort to make good things happen in your life.   Jon’s legacy [00:36:28] Jon’s legacy are his children. He wants his kids to be so filled with love so that when obstacles come their way they can deal with the obstacles without having their self esteem take a hit.   And the love of his wife and serving people are also part of his legacy.   Jon’s advice for the listener. (38:48)     Jon said, practice what you want to do and find ways to practice in small ways. Give yourself some grace and then cut the goal in half. F orgive yourself. Do not form relationships only with people who can help you your business, but who also provide real friendship.   Links: Acuff.me Twitter: @JonAcuff  

Evenin’ all. When Jon and I decided to bring the podcast back we wanted to do things just a little bit different. We decided not to be so strict in what we talk about, how long we talk and when we talk about it. We want to cover things we’re passionate about and we’re pretty happy […]