Podcasts about wista

In 2021, the International Maritime Organisation, together with the Women's International Shipping & Trading Association, launched a survey to collect some hard data on female representation in the global maritime industry. The second edition of the survey was published last week to coincide with International Day for Women in Maritime 2025 (which was celebrated on May 18th). But the results were hardly cause for celebration. Because while some progress has been made in terms of gender diversity in the maritime industry, the data in the 2024 edition suggests shipping is going backwards. The results of the 2024 edition showed 176,820 women working in maritime across both private and public sectors, an increase of 14% from the 151,979 recorded in 2021. But the global maritime workforce has grown considerably since the last survey, which means women now account for just under 19% of the workforce sampled, versus 26% in 2021. Female employees make up just over 16% of the workforce in the private sector, compared to the 29% recorded in 2021, and a drop was also seen in female representation in mid-management positions, declining to just 20% in 2024 from 39% in 2021. Lloyd's List reporter Joshua Minchin spoke to three female leaders in the shipping industry, including Wista president Elpi Petraki, to get their reaction to the survey results and ask whether in a time where DEI programmes are coming increasingly under threat, shipping needs to rethink its own diversity strategy. Joining Joshua on the podcast this week are: Elpi Petraki, president of Wista International Louise Proctor, deputy director, sub-division for planning and programming, Technical Cooperation and Implementation Division, IMO Heidi Heseltine, chief executive, Diversity Study Group

EVER wanted to know what it's like to operate ships where half the crew are women? Well, this week's podcast is going to tell you. Lloyd's List's principal analyst, Michelle Wiese Bockmann, spoke to Hafnia, the New York and Oslo listed shipowner about a trailblazing initiative that has seen them crew five product tankers with 50% women. But I also want to highlight some of the positive steps being taken to integrate women to a seafaring career and international maritime industry generally. But there's also an important piece of history to mark. Michelle catches up with the two women who founded the Women's International Shipping and Trading Association at the very same pub in London where its first meeting was held 50 years ago. It's important to highlight and recognise the treatment women receive at sea. But it's also important to highlight some of the positive steps being taken to integrate women to a seafaring career and international maritime industry generally.

In this podcast episode ... Women in the maritime industry are increasing both in numbers and their roles in this important sector. We talk with Lourdes Evans, President of the Connecticut chapter of WISTA to find out more. Plus we take a look at other stories from around the region.

Welcome to Maritime Unity on Yachting International Radio with host Eva Lianne Veldkamp. In this episode, we dive into the maritime industry's evolving landscape with Monika Lemajic, the President of WISTA Australia. Discover how Monika's diverse career in maritime asset management fuels her passion for promoting inclusivity. Monika shares the initiatives led by WISTA Australia to foster diversity, including impactful leadership and mentoring programs. Learn about the importance of creating inclusive environments, breaking down barriers, and supporting minority groups in the maritime sector. Join us for an insightful conversation on the positive changes and challenges in the industry, and how inclusivity can drive progress. Tune in and be part of the conversation on fostering inclusivity in the maritime community. Don't forget to like, comment, and subscribe for more insightful content on Yachting International Radio! For Monika Lemajic: Monika Lemajic To contact Eva: evalianne.com @eva_lianne - Instagram Eva Lianne Veldkamp - LinkedIn #MaritimeIndustry #Inclusivity #MonikaLemajic #WISTAAustralia #DiversityInMaritime #LeadershipPrograms #YachtingInternationalRadio #BreakingBarriers #SupportMinorities #MaritimeUnity

“You have to be a cold bitch or an easy lay”. Those words of advice were given nearly 50 years ago by the boss of a London-based shipping company to a young woman starting out her maritime career. That young woman went on to become one of the three founders of Women's International Shipping and Trading Association, known as Wista. The story was recounted at a Wista event in London back in 2019 to celebrate the progress made across the industry in diversity and inclusion. Since then, May 18 has been assigned as the International Day for Women in Maritime by the International Maritime Organisation. Women represent a large pool of talent that's been overlooked, according to Karine Langlois from the IMO. “Even just with my own observation, being at IMO for well over a decade now, the parity in the delegations that come to the IMO meetings have far more women in them,” she said. “We used sometimes to see and even for more technical meetings, we used to see men-only delegations, and now you see sometimes even entire delegations represented by women, so that is definitely a positive change even for us here at the IMO.” Anna Robinson, partner at London law firm Watson Farley & Williams said women are well represented in maritime law, and diversity differs when comparing offshore and onshore roles. “When you look at the targets, which the International Chamber of Shipping advocates, they're very conservative, which I think highlights the scale of the problem,” she said. “In three years, they're looking at 12%, in 20 years, we're still only looking at 25% (of the workforce). “I think it's right that they are realistic targets. And I think it's right to recognise there is no silver bullet. This is a long term issue. But the important point is that it needs to stay on the agenda for change. It can't just be a fashionable topic, across three or five years, we've got to keep the conversation going, which is why it's brilliant that we're having this discussion today.”

Roland, Bessie and Urve have travelled from Berlin and Estonia to talk about their passion to develop the perfect working environments to allow people to thrive. Berlin Adlershof is Germany's leading science & technology park. How do you plan such a layout, from historic buildings to new developments, and design their interior, to maximise personal happiness when working and high impact results? This is one of the questions at the heart of Roland Sillmann's management. As CEO of WISTA Management, which looks after Berlin Adlershof, his quest is to attract and retain the best talent to tackle the great challenges of today. In this endeavour he is aided by Dr. Bessie Fischer-Bohn, Head of Human Resources. Bessie's own career path is rather unusual. Having started with medical studies in her hometown of Berlin, she developed a deep interest in the psychological background to symptoms and illnesses, and then trained as a psychotherapist. Bessie went on to build a company, and was also a management consultant for a decade. Urve Liivak, from Tallinn, Estonia, is a former world-ranking gymnast (winning two silver medals in World Championships in Aesthetic Group Gymnastics). After suffering with her own depression and burn-out, Urve now designs interiors to maximise personal and team success. Roland believes that to ‘solve big challenges' the working environment is key. At Adlershof they want to attract impact driven people and the best talent. Bessie, Roland and Urve have worked together to design an ambience where employees succeed: perform, cooperate and stay healthy. All of this work is also part of a research project with Humboldt University's psychology department to see how working environments can continuously be improved. The designs include different zones such to inspire: concentrated work (calm offices for desk work) Discussions, meeting new people (the lounges) XR studio, 3D-Printer areas like a maker-space Relaxing ‘mind spa' Movement with swings “In an anxiety-free organisation, interpersonal anxiety is minimised so that team performance is maximised.” Bessie talks about the need for psychological safety to allow for the best ideas to flourish, and the constant health of a team. This is a mix of great leadership plus the physical environment to fit the demand of talent. Bessie is also passionate about being a role model in all domains of her life. She does so as a female scientist and as a bisexual. Bessie instigated WISTA's academy and also their diversity day. Please let us know about your own work environments - what's done well and what could be improved. It's always great to hear from you!

Our guest this time, Cartwright Morris, teaches young executives and leaders to live life as an adventure. He does this to help them learn how to gain true confidence in their personal and professional lives.   Cartwright didn't start out himself as a very confident person. He will discuss his youth and growing up not really sure of life, where it would take him and what he was going to do with his future.   Eventually through circumstances, as so often happens with all of us, he discovers that he has a real gift of being able to help young men to discover how they can become better than they thought. He helps them to become leaders and confident. He will tell us things like the difference between confidence and arrogance. His discussion of what makes a good leader is invaluable for all of us to ponder.   I did ask Cartwright if his coaching programs today are strictly for men or does he coach women as well. No prejudice on Cartwright's part. As he puts it, he stays mainly on his side of the bridge, but he has coached women and he does recognize that women, like men, are indeed forged or molded by life.   I hope you will seek out his podcast, “Men Are Forged”. I know I plan to go have it a listen.     About the Guest:   Cartwright Morris is a speaker and certified leadership development coach for young professionals in sales/management. He equips each individual to live life as an adventure and make impact through gaining confidence in selling and leadership roles.   He has worked with hundreds of emerging leaders in the US and abroad. He has spent over 12 years managing and developing leaders at organizations like Calvert & Associates, The Center For Executive Leadership, JH Ranch, and Heaven in Business in California. He has over 2000 hours of coaching and mentoring while becoming a growing thought leader on how to confront the unknown and navigate business and life with confidence. Cartwright has developed his lifelong message into his keynote presentation and his 3 Month Coaching Program where he implements his framework for gaining confidence in the selling process, development of relationships, and everyday life. He hosts the growing podcast, MEN ARE FORGED. A podcast to empower men to be forged by their experiences, challenges, and hardships. Each episode shares the personal stories and insights from great men in business, family, and management who grew into leaders from their days of indecision and insecurity.   He spent much of his 20s and 30s living the single life as an adventure; traveling, exploring new places, meeting new people, and experiencing the outdoors. On March 11, 2022, Cartwright married his wife, Bethany, and they now explore together while residing in Birmingham, Alabama.   Ways to connect with Cartwright: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/cartwright-morris/ Youtube Page: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCjklTnT2LOd_06VLlth3DSg   ADDITIONS: Media Guide - Google Doc     About the Host: Michael Hingson is a New York Times best-selling author, international lecturer, and Chief Vision Officer for accessiBe. Michael, blind since birth, survived the 9/11 attacks with the help of his guide dog Roselle. This story is the subject of his best-selling book, Thunder Dog.   Michael gives over 100 presentations around the world each year speaking to influential groups such as Exxon Mobile, AT&T, Federal Express, Scripps College, Rutgers University, Children's Hospital, and the American Red Cross just to name a few. He is Ambassador for the National Braille Literacy Campaign for the National Federation of the Blind and also serves as Ambassador for the American Humane Association's 2012 Hero Dog Awards.   https://michaelhingson.com https://www.facebook.com/michael.hingson.author.speaker/ https://twitter.com/mhingson https://www.youtube.com/user/mhingson https://www.linkedin.com/in/michaelhingson/   accessiBe Links https://accessibe.com/ https://www.youtube.com/c/accessiBe https://www.linkedin.com/company/accessibe/mycompany/ https://www.facebook.com/accessibe/       Thanks for listening! Thanks so much for listening to our podcast! If you enjoyed this episode and think that others could benefit from listening, please share it using the social media buttons on this page. Do you have some feedback or questions about this episode? Leave a comment in the section below!   Subscribe to the podcast If you would like to get automatic updates of new podcast episodes, you can subscribe to the podcast on Apple Podcasts or Stitcher. You can also subscribe in your favorite podcast app.   Leave us an Apple Podcasts review Ratings and reviews from our listeners are extremely valuable to us and greatly appreciated. They help our podcast rank higher on Apple Podcasts, which exposes our show to more awesome listeners like you. If you have a minute, please leave an honest review on Apple Podcasts.     Transcription Notes   Michael Hingson ** 00:00 Access Cast and accessiBe Initiative presents Unstoppable Mindset. The podcast where inclusion, diversity and the unexpected meet. Hi, I'm Michael Hingson, Chief Vision Officer for accessiBe and the author of the number one New York Times bestselling book, Thunder dog, the story of a blind man, his guide dog and the triumph of trust. Thanks for joining me on my podcast as we explore our own blinding fears of inclusion unacceptance and our resistance to change. We will discover the idea that no matter the situation, or the people we encounter, our own fears, and prejudices often are our strongest barriers to moving forward. The unstoppable mindset podcast is sponsored by accessiBe, that's a c c e s s i  capital B e. Visit www.accessibe.com to learn how you can make your website accessible for persons with disabilities. And to help make the internet fully inclusive by the year 2025. Glad you dropped by we're happy to meet you and to have you here with us.   Michael Hingson ** 01:20 Well, hello, once again, glad you're with us. I am your host, Mike Hingson. And you are listening to unstoppable mindset. Today, we have the opportunity to chat with a person who is a speaker and a certified leadership coach. And what I like best about Cartwright Morris is that what he says he does is to help equip young men and executives to live life as an adventure. And I've always felt that life needs to be lived as an adventure. We shouldn't really make it a drudge. There are always challenges. There are always fun things you may not know what's coming next. But you know what? That's part of the adventure. So with that in mind, Cartwright, welcome to unstoppable mindset. And thanks very much for being here.   Cartwright Morris ** 02:07 Well, it's glad to be here. Michael, I'm excited to just be with you today.   Michael Hingson ** 02:12 Well, we're we're kind of glad you're here. And it's I think it'd be fun lots to learn about because I know you've been very much involved in helping people with sales and other kinds of things like that. And we'll get to all that, needless to say, but I'd like to start with hearing a little bit about maybe the earlier cart right growing up and all that kind of stuff where your your from what you did, and any secrets that you don't want to tell you can leave out but the rest we'd love to hear about.   Cartwright Morris ** 02:40 Yeah, well, it's funny. I'll always say I'm born and raised in Birmingham, Alabama. I mean, you know, sometimes I like to turn up my accent, especially if I talk to some people outside the South, kind of ham it up a little bit. But actually, I live three years my life in Canada, my dad was starting to branch of his family business up in Simcoe, Ontario, if you might knows where that is, that's near kind of south of Toronto. It's kind of halfway between Toronto and buffalo. So I got to experience a little snow in my life on a regular basis. And yeah, I grew up just, you know, playing sports, love sports, the average student average athlete generally. You know, I'd say my upbringing is pretty great. You know, as you get older, you realize as a man, there's little things that we miss, that I'm learning now as adult and trying to correct and redeem and figured out. But like I said, like you put in my intro about adventure. I think there's so many times as a kid, I always wanted to be grown up, wanted to be taken seriously. And now I feel like a lot of my 20s and 30s I was going back to the man, the value of play the value of adventure and discovery and curiosity is something that I wish I didn't diminish as a child and now's adult trying to get back. So   Michael Hingson ** 04:09 so when you lived in Toronto, did they teach you that the apparently the appropriate way to say it is Toronto.   Cartwright Morris ** 04:18 You know, I was so young that I had no idea that there was the correct way to say I think we all just said our Southern way. Yes is generally never the right way. I mean, I've got friends from Australia where I you know, who's far from Melbourne? And I always say Melbourne. And so I always get it wrong.   Michael Hingson ** 04:38 So well and of course depending on where you're from and where you've lived and what you know, it's either Houston or Houston depending on right where where you're whether you spend time in New York or down in Texas, and yes, I've not ever heard that. Somebody lynched somebody for saying how stung if they were down in Texas. But I'm sure that there is a lot of angst about that. But nevertheless, that's still what it is in New York is Houston, for whatever reason. I   Cartwright Morris ** 05:08 mean, I remember I remember being in New York and I got corrected on that very quickly. It's housed in   Michael Hingson ** 05:13 its house. And I don't know what the history of that is, I guess I should really go explore that. It's like in Massachusetts, it's not Worchester. It's Wista. Not even Worcester. It's Wista.   Cartwright Morris ** 05:29 It's so funny languages. It's funny, we all are separated by our common language and English, right? Depends on just where you are in the world.   Michael Hingson ** 05:37 Yeah. There's something to be said for all the accents. Of course, each, each place would say, well, we don't have an accent, you have the accent? Right, exactly. So there you go. Well, so where did you or did you go to college?   Cartwright Morris ** 05:53 So I went to college at a place called Auburn University, which is an Alabama for those who may not know that we, you know, in the south, we love our football and Auburn is the little brother team, you know, most people who can't follow college football. So I went to Auburn, bounced around agrees, you know, I mean, I would say it's a lot big part of my story. Michael is struggling through school trying to understand how to learn. You know, now I look back, there was probably a lot of mental health related stuff that I didn't know how but also just the not knowing my direction hurt me in college, too. I think I bounced around. I mean, I went from business to different other history major, to eventually settled on, I was like, oh, I'll just be a teacher and a coach and I signed up for kinesiology classes when I was going to get into PE, B, a PE teacher visit. So that was what led me there. And then I ended up getting a degree line, I believe in Auburn, because I'm one of those people who it just took too long, it took little more than four years to graduate. You know, I guess I missed the snow, I kind of dropped out of college, went and lived in Park City, Utah was a ski bum for a season with some friends and had some fun, Joy a little bit different way of living and but eventually came home and really felt like I needed a degree. And that led to me actually transferring and going to another state school in Alabama called University of South Alabama mobiel. And I transferred there ended up getting my degree in about a year and a half. And yeah, and then let that lead me back to Birmingham, which I did not want to go back. But that led me back there. So   Michael Hingson ** 07:47 when did you get your degree in finally?   Cartwright Morris ** 07:49 So health education, okay. So I'm still chasing that idea of, you know, you know, the, the, you know, he has a, that's what I always say, I tried to mentor guys more and more in the college. I don't know what Michael, your thoughts on on on edge or modern education system. But, you know, now I look back, I'm like, I wish I took some time to kind of figure out more what I want, because I really didn't know, at 18. But now understanding my personality, taking more personality tests, understanding my idea of flexibility and autonomy and my desire to be more adventurous being in a school system, from an eight to five job would have just drain me. And I probably would not be the best husband, I probably wouldn't be the best father, I wouldn't be the best employee because it just that understanding more of my personality, but that's what I thought, you know, at the time I was, you know, you know, I thought football was the greatest thing ever, and I can help young men be a football coach. And to be a football coach, you got to start somewhere in a school system. And P made sense, because I like being active. And so but now, thankfully, doors were shut and in that area, and my path kind of veered off, and which I'm very thankful for.   Michael Hingson ** 09:15 Well, you mentioned the modern education system. I think one of our biggest problems is that we do too much studying for the tests and not studying to learn and be creative. Yes. And I think that's the the biggest issue that we've we've somehow got to get away from that because it shouldn't be all about tests. And if we're not really teaching people to think I remember when I was a graduate student. In our one year our Ph D qualifying exam, or classical mechanics was administered by a postdoc who came from I believe he Dr. Price was from Berkeley, and he came down And, and taught well, he was a good teacher. And he gave the he created as as new faculty members are often forced, if they will say it to do create the PhD qualifying exam for classical mechanics. And one of the things that that he did was he had a test of 20 questions. And the first 16 Were all basically theoretical, philosophical, mostly conceptual questions, but not math related, right. And the last four, all dealt with math, Lagrangian dynamics, and other such things. And fewer people. I don't know whether anyone actually that year passed the test. And they the faculty heads called him in and said, What are you doing? Why did you create such a hard test? And he said, hard test. Let me show you something. He pulled out his freshman, classical mechanics test. And he said, This is the final I gave students at the end of the year, the only difference between that one and the qualifying exam was that the qualifying exam had the four math questions, which were all things that people learned, kind of in junior or or later, but not or in graduate school, but not in freshman, classical mechanics, the same initial 16 questions were on the test. And people didn't get them, because they were expecting math, and they were expecting a lot of stuff rather than really learning the concepts.   Cartwright Morris ** 11:43 Yes, I think there's something too just being problem solvers. There's there's too much of a linear thinking to education. thing. Yes. To your point with that test? Yeah. Yeah.   Michael Hingson ** 11:57 And, you know, on, they couldn't very well argue with him since he showed them what he did. But nevertheless, it's it's amazing that we, we miss so much, and all we do teaching concepts and basics, and oftentimes, don't really teach you to think,   Cartwright Morris ** 12:20 hmm, yeah, yeah. I mean, I think there is there's definitely like a desire of what to think in lots of different areas, but versus how to think how to process how to problem solve, how to think how to how to take on challenge challenges, I think that was something much of my talk first 25 years of life, as I learned how to avoid challenge, hardship struggle, and now later in life, you know, learning how to do that, and just, you know, self discover it's just so much and become more self aware is led to much more of my success than the other. Right.   Michael Hingson ** 13:00 Yeah. Yeah. Well, I think it's important to do that. And I think we really need to, to teach children youth to think and I think, when we honor teachers, a lot of times when we hear the teachers who get honored with one award or another, when we hear them talk, they do talk about how they really dedicated to their students and helping the students really better themselves. And you don't hear them talking about, we just study for the test.   Cartwright Morris ** 13:33 Yeah. Yeah, I think we always remember the teachers that did do that. Yeah, I do. Yeah. 100%. I said their name, the names of there's less than a handful. That really challenged me to think versus Hey, do this, you get this? Yeah,   Michael Hingson ** 13:53 maybe it was the time, but I think I had more teachers that really did do that, rather than doing the test, but I'm talking about growing up in the 50s. And in the 60s, and there was a lot more of that. And there was a lot less of those so called standardized tests. Right. And so that probably helped. And I had some teachers that really dealt with philosophy, my freshman teacher, Mr. Wilson, my freshman English teacher in high school. I remember once he was talking about just ethics and philosophy, but had nothing to do with the English stuff that we were supposed to be learning, but he took a few minutes, and he was talking about the fact that, you know, if I owe somebody a quarter, I'm going to be bothered until I can pay them back the quarter that I owe them. And that's the way it should be because if I make a commitment to borrow something and then pay it back, I better make sure that I do that. And I had a whole bunch of bunch of other teachers who were the same way. And I remember most all of my even up through high school teachers, and they all were were that way i really wish that we had more of that today rather than teachers being forced to do the things that they do. My niece is a kindergarten teacher. And she talks about all the crazy things that teachers have to do today that make absolutely no sense in terms of whole educational system, because what are they really teaching the kids or she tries to teach her students things about reading and writing, even in kindergarten, I'm amazed at what they get to learn that we didn't get to learn. But still, there are a lot of limitations put on them, which is very frustrating.   Cartwright Morris ** 15:32 Yeah, yeah. Because what's going to be the result 1020 30 years from now, right.   Michael Hingson ** 15:39 And that's what's scary. So you eventually got out of college, and you said, doors were closed. So what happened?   Cartwright Morris ** 15:47 So I, so I left college, and I was really excited about just possibilities of where I can move and where I could go and get a job and didn't want to go back to my hometown, but job opportunity came about, and Birmingham, and it was in kind of fitness and training and mixed with some sales and getting people to this new facility in Birmingham. And I felt like it was like a Oh, as a way to get my foot in the door, maybe in the athletic space in the training space. And ventually. Yeah, that lasted about six months. And I realized this wasn't for me. You know, doing sales, you become very, either self aware, or some kind of self not really reflected the opposite. navel gazing, I guess, is the best way to say it. And I learned a lot about myself. And I needed to gain confidence in myself, I didn't, I didn't need to dress from insecurity. So eventually then left that job and actually was like, I need to go find myself, I need to figure out who I am. And I need to not find it in my hometown, where I felt like I was, you know, sometimes that familiar? I don't know how, Michael, you're familiar with the hero's journey, Joseph Campbell. Yeah, where he talks about getting away from the familiar, I think I needed that in my life. And so I literally moved to this ranch out in the middle of Northern California. You know, it's straight up i Five from where you are in Atlanta, close to Oregon. And really just I was 26. I didn't, you know, didn't know anything, I hardly knew anybody there. And, you know, most of the people that are on staff are college students, 1920 year olds, and here I was this random 26 year old come in the middle of summer, and I was working maintenance. And it was the best thing I could ever want in need in that moment where I could literally just show up, do my thing, get done in a certain hour, work hard, just kind of have everything in front of me and not have this ambiguous idea of the unknown, and really kind of just show up and really be accepting of just who I was not who my parents were not the idea of what I could be how much money I made, who I knew, you know, it was just kind of when you get your hometown and that familiar, you can start projecting, I always say I was living in a lifestyle of outside in I was constantly living my life through the eyes of other people. How can I be funny enough, seem smart enough, seem good enough and project this idea, and of who I thought I should be or or thought my parents thought I should be, even though they weren't putting pressure on me to be a certain way. And I finally got away from all that. And we're in this place where people just didn't know me from Adam. And it was kind of it was refreshing. They accepted me, I finally I think I found community, really, for the first time in a long time. And I felt accepted. And I started it was kind of the beginning of where I am now. And it was kind of this just self belief of man, I am valuable. I do add to people's lives by the words I say in my actions and articulating those things by just journaling, spending time alone, being around this community who, like I said, Didn't that know all my background and my history will have a kind of high school athlete or was or what kind of student I wasn't college, they just knew me for me and who I was showing them and so that really set me up I feel like for where I am now. And that kind of got me in the right path.   Michael Hingson ** 19:55 what did that teach you being out there?   Cartwright Morris ** 19:58 With it. Thank you It really taught me how to do myself from an inside out approach. You know, Stephen Covey's got to talks a lot about this, that this, this belief, it's got us to everything, living our life and this conviction, starting from that as who I am and presenting that. And if it's not accepted, it's not we don't get angry, we don't throw judgment. We don't it's but we continually to discover and learn in any situations. And, and we can't, if it's like building that lifestyle from that place of inside out. And you really start living in truth, you start living in that place where you're you're not trying to be, you're not approaching life to be accepted. Acceptance is beautiful, I think all human beings, we need that we need that and be unconditionally loved. But I think we need that in the context of, hey, let me bring myself to the table and not try to adjust according to culture, I think I was a very good chameleon, I think I could perform and do little things just to fit in just to be right to make people laugh. And when you didn't have a positive response of me, I, you know, went into myself and beat myself up and judged myself and created a lifestyle where I think there's a lot of low grade anxiety that I was dealing with. That then led to me really not valuing what I had to bring others. And so I think really starting to live that inside out and valuing what I had to offer, I can really live in community holistically, and I could really add value, and I could then learn from my mistakes from my failures and not be crumble, you know, be destroyed by them, because I was really just learning more about what was inside me. So.   Michael Hingson ** 22:02 So you started really gaining some self confidence and learning self worth?   Cartwright Morris ** 22:06 Absolutely. 100%. Yeah.   Michael Hingson ** 22:09 So how long were you at the ranch in Atlanta.   Cartwright Morris ** 22:13 So I was I was there for really four months. And then I came back and the Oregon to my hometown, where more disorganization actually had a home base in Alabama. And so I continue to work with them on and off for the next four or five years. And was there it was in California, they actually had part of the organization was in Israel in the West Bank, I got to travel there and experience new cultures and be around just different people and as exposed to living in California where I met a lot of different people from different parts of the world and really expanded my worldview and helped me really see understand people, I think that's where I really started become a student of people, I really got so fascinated by people, just my natural curiosity through just being in the outdoors in California and, and out in the west, whereas kid, I used to love westerns, I used to love mountains and adventure and I got to kind of explore that, you know, living out there and being out there and but then it really and that other curiosity of just people understanding people where they come from different backgrounds where, you know, I just, you know, grew up in, you know, Birmingham, Alabama, and the Bible Belt, where things were kind of necessarily always rigid, but it was definitely the out, I lived in kind of a bubble. And that's an echo chamber, and I got to hear different perspectives and belief systems or worldviews, and it really helped me, if anything, just gain more empathy for others understand their point of view, but also reinforce, you know, what I believe in my convictions about this life and all that. And so it was, it was, it ended up being really fun. I always say with like, you know, the older you get, you know, I think as a young man, I think you think you know everything about everything. And you got all these convictions, you become pretty dogmatic and rigid of what you think is right. And, and they're pretty broad. But the older you get, those things start shrinking, and you start having less and less, but those things that have become less and less of your convictions you become they become more real and true. And you can base so much of your life on and you become everything else you become pretty open to and honest. And it actually becomes more fun to be around others and talk about these certain issues that you used to be just so rigid on.   Michael Hingson ** 24:50 I hear you and so you worked with that organization for a while and then Then what did you do? You obviously left that at some point.   Cartwright Morris ** 24:58 Yeah, so that led some me moving. You know, I really think this is a common thing in my life. I think this is a very much. It's why I resonate so much with Joseph Campbell's hero's journey. It was, but I really felt when I was leaving that organization and the middle of 2015. I was like, Am I like, I could go anywhere, I could do anything. I'm excited. Um, and just don't get sent me back home. I don't want to I don't want to be back in Birmingham, Alabama. Yeah, and I was. But it was interesting, this job opportunity opened up where I really, it's interesting, my heart really went out. And built all these life experiences I developed all I felt like these coaching skills and these ability to really help men in business and sales really go through the process that I went through in my 20s, and, you know, early 30s, to really help them apply some of these things in their business world. And I really felt a heart for the men that I knew in the city. And that's where my biggest network was. And that was, and so that really opened the door to work for this nonprofit organization here in Birmingham, Alabama, the Center for executive leadership, and it was. Yeah, and it was just man, the door kind of flung open and that move back here and work for that organization for six years and really hone my skills developed more of a business side being even a being in the nonprofit space. really helped me kind of figure out more and more of how do I actually add value to others? How do I really do this on a on a bigger scale than just, you know, in my community, but actually do it in a way that's helping those who may not even know where who I am? And so that's what ventually led me back to Birmingham? Yeah.   Michael Hingson ** 27:01 Well, and along the way, you also found a partner?   Cartwright Morris ** 27:07 I did, I did. Oh, it's funny, I was single. For a long time. You know. I was that's, you know, going back to my story, what I said earlier, Michael, of just outside, living outside in, I think that's another reason why I led me to this ranch, the ranch that I went to in California was you, you're in your mid 20s. And in the south, this is a very common thing as people are getting married. 2223 right out of college, and a lot of my friends were in their starting careers and building success in creating families and having kids and but for whatever reason, I couldn't find that person I wanted to spend the rest of my life with and it became frustrating you, you really do feel very exposed in a world where you know, everyone you know, is married, and, you know, any single person who resonates with that gets that and it can be difficult. But the person I end up finding, I wouldn't trade it for the world and kind of came from a place where I didn't, I never thought it would was a dating app. You know. And which is crazy story was I am a few years older, and my wife and she was she had, you know, Michael, I don't know if you know anything about these dating apps, which is funny. But it's the to put an age range. And she had her age range was like 28 to 34. And two weeks before my 36th birthday, she bumped it up to 28 to 35. And so I fit into that, and we met in two weeks before my 36th birthday. And we met and about a little over a year later, we were married. And man and I couldn't imagine anybody else. We're having a blast and loving life and hoping to have a kid on the way soon. So yeah,   Michael Hingson ** 29:15 my wife and I got married later than most people 32 and 33 years and as we always said, and we lived together for 40 years until she passed last November. But what we both always said and I still say is we were old enough that we really knew what we wanted in a person. And it wasn't something that was arrogance or whatever, but it's just out of maturity. We knew what we thought would be the kind of person that we could get along with. And not from a dating app. But one day, we were introduced by a common friend. And he and she and I And someone I was actually dating at the time went out to dinner. And I sat across from my future wife not knowing that was going to be the case. And the other two, were talking and we just hit it off. And then my friend moved. And so can Karen. And the friend that that we had in common. We're in touch. But he said, You know that I had my my friend had left. And suddenly I'm talking to Karen. This was in 1982. So I met her at the end of January. And by March, we were talking some. And then I went to Hawaii, with my parents in May of 82. And I was going to do some sales work over there. And I wanted to take them, they had never been to Hawaii. And Karen was traveling, and she did the the ticketing and all that. And the bottom line is, I called her twice from Hawaii every day. We were over there. And we were married in November of 1982.   Cartwright Morris ** 31:04 Oh, wow. That's great.   Michael Hingson ** 31:07 Yeah, as I said, we really knew what we wanted, or we thought we did. And I guess we were right, because we hit it off. And we were married for 40 years until she passed. So it was really a good marriage. And, and you know what it's like now, being married now for a little more than a year, you know, how you feed off each other? And you you enhance each other? A lot?   Cartwright Morris ** 31:29 Yeah. And I would say and what, for me what it's interesting, you hear this was so you know, I think being part of a good group of men and your life and have that your life, you hear the stories of their marriage life, and you kind of go, Okay, how would I handle that situation? And how would I want to be married to somebody who reacts in that way. And so that, like, to your point, I kind of understood more of what I wanted, and was able to, even in the dating process, kind of, I don't want to say throw out, like, you know, testing, like it was an exam, but there was definitely moments where I wanted to see how she reacted in certain situations. And   Michael Hingson ** 32:12 I'm sure that went both ways. Yeah.   Cartwright Morris ** 32:15 100%. And really find out if I'm marrying a mature person who values life that has the same interest as well as values. And, and we that's what we found. And so, yeah, so it's, yeah, it's been fun. It's interesting. It's in you, right, and it's never gonna be perfect. But that's the I think that's the joy. Right? Yeah. When it's, you know, you kind of figure it out together. So, and you want to be able to be with someone who is willing to do that, that's not just projecting some expectation onto you, and is willing to kind of just and build and go from there   Michael Hingson ** 32:51 and grow together. So you gained a lot of self confidence. So what, what's the difference between confidence and arrogance, because projecting confidence and truly being confident, I can see some people saying, well, you're just arrogant.   Cartwright Morris ** 33:10 See, I would say a lot of my life was trying to project myself as not being arrogant. But that's not necessarily confident either. I think that's it might, I would say the big difference between arrogance and confidence is arrogance is really trying to hide an insecurity. There's something you're trying to give provato you're trying to give an image that is hiding something that you're afraid someone's going to find out, where confidence is built on humility, you are 100% aware of what you're not, that you, maybe not 100%, but you are aware of what you're not. And you're okay with it. You're not trying to hide it. Like you are what like you're, you know, what you're good at, you're confident and that in the things that you're not you are willing to accept, to value that and other people were arrogant people, if there's something they're not good at, they will you know, they will be territorial in a way to others who are good at it, they will be feel insecure, they will feel a level of almost, what's the word? I'm looking at a scarcity mindset where like, you can't be good at that. Because I have to be I have to be known for that where confident people are good with other people that are good at what they do. And I think that's, that's a lot of what confidence we have to really think about that. It's grounded in humility. And you it's almost like holding two truths at once. You know, when people are, yeah, go ahead, Michael.   Michael Hingson ** 34:47 And the other part about it is it's it's not just the issue of humility, but even if somebody is better at doing what you do. If you're a competent person, then You look at it from the standpoint of, wow, this guy is great or this woman is great, what can I learn? And how do I learn to do some of those things? And do that, from a humble and curious standpoint rather than something where it's it's not humble, but rather, how do I show that person up?   Cartwright Morris ** 35:22 Yes, yes. Yeah. And that's, and that's where I think you go back to the outside in. I mean, we the scarcity mindset versus a more holistic mindset of, hey, we're doing this all together. And I think that truly confident people like being around other confident people earring and people don't like being around confident people. Right? They are. They're threatened by them.   Michael Hingson ** 35:45 Right? So how do you tell the difference? I think you're sort of alluding to it. But how do you tell the difference between someone who is truly self confident? And somebody who's just plain arrogant?   Cartwright Morris ** 35:58 Yeah. Well, generally, you can kind of get an idea and being around them. Like, I mean, I just think like, going back to just I liked the idea that just a lot of arrogant people there is there there's a you could feel they're threatened by other people. There's a scarcity mindset, there's a insecurity. And their outlets say that you we can all sense the difference between insecurity and humility, that there's a fear based mindset, there's a there's an anxiety in the atmosphere is probably the best word versus a humble person, they're present. They're there with you. You know, at depends on a lot of different situations. But you can just feel there's a level of maturity, a willingness to engage others, versus protect yourself from others. And so I think just especially like in a business concept, I mean, or even in, say, like a, say, like someone in sales that's trying to present an image that they're not, versus someone who's just confident in being who they are, where they're at. And I think that's something that that is generally can be summed up in my mind by just the presence of way they act, whether one's fear base versus one is presence based.   Michael Hingson ** 37:25 And like, what you just said about engaging yourself with others, as opposed to protecting yourself from others. How true?   Cartwright Morris ** 37:36 Yes, most of us Yeah, are very, it's really strange. And it takes a lot of hard work to get to that point, because I think a lot of us do grow in environments where it's it. You know, my favorite quote of any movie are sorry, show recent shows Ted lasso, he talks about, be, be curious, not judgmental, right. I think that mindset of like, we immediately judge people that are different that and so like that, we try to protect ourselves from them.   Michael Hingson ** 38:11 Yeah, and we've got to get away from the whole idea of being judgmental, there's no, there's no value in it really. And the other part about it, and I talk about trusts a lot is that it's like being open to trust. The difference between us and dogs is dogs generally are open to trust, they don't trust unconditionally, they do. I think love unconditionally, I think it's in their nature. But they don't trust unconditionally, but they are open to trust, unless something horrible is really happened to them. And the difference is, we tend not to be because we've been brought up in so many ways to think everybody's got their own agenda, and how can I trust this person? I'm not going to trust I'm going to build a wall, rather than exploring. Is there a way I can develop a relationship and a trusting relationship with this person? And the answer is, maybe there is, maybe there isn't. But you'll never know until you try with the idea that you leave yourself open to the idea of trust, anyway, somebody will earn your trust or they won't. And likewise, you will. You will earn their trust, and they'll earn your trust or that won't happen. And then that's a different story. But you've got to start somewhere.   Cartwright Morris ** 39:35 100% And, yeah, it's it's, I mean, I think you've always got to be willing to ask those questions or so why am I not willing to trust it's a valuable thing probably the one of the more valuable things in this life. I think you're right, like we all generally should, you know, should openly love others but the desire to trust one another is built, but you have to start with The willingness to have like, hey, if I really want to be in relation to this person, if I really want to build a business with someone or build a marriage, or there has to be some level of trust created, and what do I have to put aside to really, you know, build that?   Michael Hingson ** 40:16 How do we build competence and create confidence for our lives?   Cartwright Morris ** 40:21 How do we build confidence, create confidence? So I think it's going back to what a little bit what I just said is, you know, going back to my athletics background of like, watching film tape, right. I mean, that I would say, the first thing that's the obvious is, you got to do hard things, you got to be willing to do hard things, whether that's by choice, or hard things happen to you in life, like we all that's going to happen. I mean, as you know, Michael, like this is just this is, these are the things that are going to build confidence, but to really, to gain confidence in your life you had to on a consistent basis, you have to learn to do hard things. Well, how do we do hard things? Well, and I would say like, it's going back to my athletic start with evaluating how do I evaluate my thoughts and emotions? On a regular basis? Like how do i When at any given situation, I would say any competent person, great leader, top performer, I know, has the ability to really do this at a higher high speed. In their mind, when they go through something hard, they experience a negative emotion or a negative thought, they're able to process they have a filter to which they see the world, this is going back to what we talked about trust that generally, people struggle to get trust, they have a filter of how they see the world that everyone's out to get me. Right. And I think sometimes we have to continue to evaluate our filter, and process these things. Because that's how when we do hard things, when we go through something negative, we're able to adjust, I would say that's what I say, you know, when I experienced a negative emotion, you know, over 10 years ago, it was, I would become, like I said, navel gazing, I would look inward, I would shut down, I would collapse. And I wasn't willing to announce of trying to avoid those negative emotions versus like, I needed to evaluate it understand my thoughts and feelings, what was going on to actually grow and learn and, and so that's why we say start with evaluation, then there's, from there, that's clarifying your strengths and weaknesses, you really have to clarify, let's go back to humility thing, learning to really know what you're good at and know what you're not. I think that's a real confident person is very aware of both of those things. I would say that's a big part of my journey. I think some people hate personality tests, but to me, they've become really helpful because it's helped me understand myself, and not feel that constant anxiety to try to be someone I'm not. And I think it's allowed me to be more confident, show up more and be myself. And then I think the last thing is really important is always like says you got to learn to act boldly, from what you've learned from evaluating, clarifying. I always say Boldness is like your is courage, his little brother, it's real intense, real fast, not really sure where he's going, but you gotta be willing to act boldly, I think a lot of confidence follows those are willing to act boldly to be bold in their in their decision making to, to see forward movement, or not focused on the results. I think we've hit on that a little bit, Michael, especially with Edie, you know, like we talked about test taking comes all about making the test. It does not about the process. I think, people that won't be bold in the process, really not focused solely on the result. I think confident people really, they know good results are coming. So they're not focused on it. Because they know they can learn from failure. They can learn from hardship, they can learn from disappointment, they can learn from even pain and change. Like there's these constant things in our life that hard things are calm, but when we're really willing to evaluating, clarifying and then acting from them, we really can gain confidence in just about anything, whether that's in our relationships, or at work career, or just in life in general.   Michael Hingson ** 44:19 How do you define bold, you talk about acting boldly. What does that really mean?   Cartwright Morris ** 44:25 It Yeah, yeah, it's just I think, boldness is really willing to just step out outside your comfort zone. I'm trying to think who created it but the whole idea of here's our comfort zone, and then outside of it is growth, right? And then way outside of this panic, I think it's willing to step outside that comfort zone of your life that here, you know, you're not, you're not going to really gain confidence by being on the sideline by being comfortable by being safe. By doing things like you've always done it. It'll be like everybody else. I think bold people, confident people at you know, they act boldly by doing something that's a little bit uncomfortable. That's a little bit unknown. That's a little bit. That's why I always say life is, you know about adventure, I think we have to take that mindset. Be willing to just kind of play a little bit have a little fun. You know, Mike, I think this is really interesting, because I've thought of this the other day, because I watched the documentary, The rescue, about the 13 boys in Thailand who got stuck in the cave, right? And how, you know, they had trained Thai Navy SEALs, they had these people, they're extremely disciplined knew how to dive trained. This is their area of expertise and their job and their, and they struggled to figure out how to find the boys and rescue the boys and you they needed these men who basically do this as a hobby to rescue these boys like this is like what really Chet like, allow those boys to be rescued is where they realized is they needed the weekend or cave diver, the guy who does this for fun, who is willing to go into dark caves, wearing a mask and a snorkel and who has navigated this for the fun of it, I think is going back to what we said about adventure and play like these people willing in their free time and fun to do these crazy uncomfortable things. Because of the curiosity because of the adventure because of the fun, and I think And so that led to their expertise by just living life that way, doing something that allowed them to actually be experts in rescuing 13 boys that, you know, is a story that spread all over the world. And now, you know, I think there's a movie and a documentary about it. And and I think that really, when it comes to finding boldness, is that it's just the willingness to step out of your comfort zone, out of curiosity, and the desire to be better to explore, to, even to the past of having fun, I think everything I've done is fun is is is not all, you know, it's never really come out of my comfort zone. Yeah.   Michael Hingson ** 47:31 Well, the other part about all of that, is that when you are like the weekend diver, they're also more relaxed. Yeah, then they know more of what they're doing. Or they go into it with a confidence, as opposed to just a discipline like a seal diver or something like that, who may very well have good competence. But the weekend diver who goes in there comes from a different point of view. And there's value for that.   Cartwright Morris ** 48:03 Yes, 100%. And,   Michael Hingson ** 48:05 you know, talking about the whole idea of leaders and leadership, I think that true leaders do have a lot more confidence and a lot less arrogance, and some of their competence also helps them recognize maybe someone can do this particular job better than I and I'm going to let them do that. Because as the leader of the group, I'm responsible for the group being successful. And that means knowing other people's skills and recognizing when they may be able to take the lead, and get the job done better or help us all get the job done better.   Cartwright Morris ** 48:45 Yes, absolutely. Yeah.   Michael Hingson ** 48:49 So one of the things that strikes me as a relevant question is, why is it important to find the right people to gain confidence because you can meet a lot of people, but some are going to teach you more and truly help you more than others. So when you're really looking at it, why is it important to find the right people? And how do we do that?   Cartwright Morris ** 49:10 Yeah. I mean, that's, you know, that's, I would say, that's probably a lot of people out there like, yeah, how do I find those people? That is the hard part, right? I think, finding similar values and interests similar like way I was looking for a wife, but I would say when we start acting boldly and we start really understanding more of ourselves through evaluating and clarifying and then we act like we need to be around the right people that reinforce all that's happening into us. I think that's the beauty of being in a great network, a good community. Working in a in a healthy work environment is when we start really gaining confidence. We got people going, alright, you're on the right track. I love in my you know, men's cohort, my leadership cohort is really fun, because I always say I'm limited in my expertise. But also when you get a group of leaders in a on a zoom call or in the room and they start adding value to other people, and other person goes, Wow, that I needed to hear that, or that really resonated or that that really spoke to me, this person who gave it goes, Oh, wow, maybe I am on the right track, I'm gaining confidence in my voice, I'm gaining confidence, my actions and even my thought process. And so I think, you know, it's hard to really gain confidence on island, you know, I think that's where, when we really see where we're adding value from all that we're doing on, you know, internally and on the side, and that understand going through these situations, doing hard things, and understanding ourselves in it, and then acting more boldly from it, then getting the reinforcement from a, like I said, a community network or work environment really creates. Yeah, helps us gain confidence. I think also, the other piece of it is, is really being challenged, you know, I think that's something that's really helped me just, bro is just being around great people, I think you really, or end up in silos of just poor thinking and, you know, little action, you know, we end up saying the same, but when we get around people who are willing to, to work hard, do things differently, think differently, you know, it automatically, you know, by osmosis challenges us to do the same. And it's hard to stay the same. And you really have to go, Alright, how do I level up here, I don't perform at a higher level. And I think that generally reinforces confidence. And sometimes, you know, we, yeah, that happens that way.   Michael Hingson ** 51:59 I love the phrase, you said, it's hard to find confidence on an island. We're all together. And we, we really can learn a lot more. When we're around other people, even if they don't know they're teaching us if we open our minds to being willing to be taught or shown. I do believe that we're our own best teachers, but we have to be open to learning. And so I love that that phrase, it's hard to find competence on an island. I think that's great. Which is, which is really pretty cool. But you have clearly demonstrated the value of life being an adventurer, in a lot of different ways. Do you still work with executive leadership? Or are you out on your own now?   Cartwright Morris ** 52:48 No, I started my own coaching business, actually, this time last year? Yeah. So I'm doing Yeah. Coaching executives and sales professionals here in Birmingham, and, and some remotely? And yeah, I've been doing that for almost a year now. So   Michael Hingson ** 53:07 tell us more about all that. What, what you do? What's the the organization called? And all that sort of stuff?   Cartwright Morris ** 53:14 Yeah, so it's just J cart, right? Coaching. The J is my first name and who I'm named after my dad and my granddad. So it's a little bit of a nod to them, and their business acumen. But yeah, so I've been coached. So I really my coaching program is three months, it's kind of we go through that process of gaining confidence. And in my Men's cohort, so each beginning each month, we really talk through you know, a lot of these big issues, these kind of overarching content, and, and but then we really start getting into Alright, how's this resonating with you? How do you really walk this through, and that's what we do in my, your offer two coaching sessions in this coaching program, where we really start problem solving. All right, what are you going through, because I always say, like, leading and sales, you know, especially, like, these are hard things to do. These are not easy. That's what I like, I always say, like, Dang conference, you got to get to do hard things. So to do it, but you got to learn how to do them well, and so really, how do I help you in the midst of some of the hard things you're doing in your job and even at home? And it's funny, Michael, you know, we talked a little bit on marriage and it's some of my clients, what ends up happening is they come in for professional and help and later, you know, in some of their managerial stuff and ends up we end up talking a lot about their marriage, which is funny. So, but yeah, that's a lot of you know, that's what I do is really just a men's cohort with coaching on a monthly basis. And then really, yeah, I've created even just from from that a keynote that I love to, you know, speak to sales teams and help them out and and To create momentum and just in be a level of solution to problems in in specially in the sales world, which is just not an easy man, you know, I would say it's not easy, but I'm someone who loves autonomy, you know, it's probably the best place the best career path you can take. So   Michael Hingson ** 55:23 how would you define success today?   Cartwright Morris ** 55:27 Well, that's where I say it's changes. I think that's where I think we all have to wake up every morning, go. Alright, what does success look like today? I think sometimes, I mean, we go I mean, I keep coming back to my story, which I'm glad you got me to tell him I. It, it, I would say I wanted I was a square peg trying to fit in a round hole. I just desperately wanted to be this line of success, the rest of my life show up, be this person and fit in and everyone accepts me and feel successful. And I think that's just that's a very poor way to define success. And I think success has to be defined. By really, I mean, really kind of just growth it has to where every day am I learning? Am I becoming a better person? Am I connecting with people? Am I learning about people learning about becoming more self aware? And perfecting not only silly, perfect things I think perfect can be miscued, as well as, what am I really growing in excellence in my craft? And I would say Yeah, so I would say it's it for the most part. It's it's subjective. And but obviously, you know, it could change per year, it could change per month, it could change per day. But I think we're when really we learn how to find that for ourselves to our unique personalities, our unique gifting our unique, even career path and interests. That's sometimes we just at a young age, decide this is the only thing that's going to be successful, and we force it and then wake up, you know, in our middle age and feel angry, depressed and disappointed with the life that we have. I think there's a reason why it's because we've just been unwilling to adjust to define success, according to really what the day holds. So a   Michael Hingson ** 57:25 lot to be said for self analysis on a daily basis, isn't there?   Cartwright Morris ** 57:29 Absolutely. Reflection is so underrated. Underrated. Yes, I would say a lot of great leaders that I know are just they have the ability to reflect really well.   Michael Hingson ** 57:40 You talked a lot about sales and salespeople, what kind of advantages do you think salespeople actually have in terms in their personalities over the personalities of other professionals who are not salespeople?   Cartwright Morris ** 57:55 Yeah, you know, it's hard it is. You know, I think there is a desire to understand people I think you almost got to be an expert at people to be really good sales because you're gonna walk into any room and who you're selling to is going to be very different resonate if you try to come in and be big, gregarious person, which I think generally sales people are, they kind of can be extroverted. Real relational, have the ability to communicate at a high level, which are good things, but I think sometimes if we force those issues, or force ourselves on to say, this is not always going to work for the same people, so I think really, that learning to be a student of human beings and understand them and their needs, and really what I also is, you know, obviously this is any profession is really in sales you're trying to be whether you're, you know, a business owner or even just working for a company, as I say, in sales, you really have to be solution focused, how do I provide a solution for this person, for this company? For this business, am I offering that and that's where, you know, I think many people of all, I think every human being maybe has had a bad experience with the sales guy, where it felt salesy pushy, gross manipulative were here but over here like you really can we can you can also be a salesperson that's really wanting to add value and solutions for that and that really frees you up to show up and kind of be in a place where you're don't necessarily have to be all things all people or lets you frees you up to go the next next person go hey, thank you for the time and you continue to build a relationship and network but you can kind of move on and yeah, really continued. Continue doing your job. You But you have to be resilient. I think that's another thing. Michael, as you're, as I'm talking here is the willingness to deal with failure, I think there's a lot of jobs where fit like failure, like as an engineer, oh, my goodness, it was funny, I was on the driving range the other day, and somebody I had a golf driving range, and somebody hit a bad shot on the driving range you get, and they go, he turned to me, he goes, You know, every time I hit one of those, I'm just thankful I'm not not my operating room. Oh, it's like that mindset, like, failure is hard. And a lot of other professions. Like, being a surgeon or engineer, where versus in sales, it's like you have to be, it's almost like a baseball player where, you know, over, you know, over a third of the time, you're gonna fail. And you have to be willing to kind of build that resilience, understand yourself, and, you know, continue to gain confidence and be an expert, your craft and be more relational and solution or focus versus results. And me focused.   Michael Hingson ** 1:01:01 I would say also, that it isn't necessarily that a third of the time you fail. A third of the time, it may not go the way you planned, but the other side of it is, how do you embrace that? And how do you help the customer? I've had times that I've sold products, or tried to sell products, that would not work in my customer situations, and my bosses would regard those as failures. Why didn't you know what sooner? Well, there were strategies as to why. And maybe I couldn't possibly have but the other side of it is, I can also tell my customers, this is what will work for you. And that has turned into successes later on. Because we build trust. Tell me about the the concept of men are forged.   Cartwright Morris ** 1:01:46 So yeah, this is was a podcast I started and man, when was that? That was three, four years ago. Wow. It's crazy. And it really, it's just the mindset that I had to take on a lot of the stuff we've been talking about, Michael is the whole idea that life we are forged in life, whether things happen to us, or we choose to do something that these are things building us, shaping us, molding us. And we have to be willing to embrace that the whole you know, forging the definition of Forge right with it's obviously there's two definitions, right? There's like a forged check. There's the fraudulent that is portraying to present yourself as something you're not. And then there's the forged as an being molded and shaped by heat in hammering the hard things in life. And so that's where that concept kind of came from the mindset that I wanted to really take on, I didn't want to be the son, I was trying to present ourselves as something I was not. But I really wanted to embrace some of the more hard things, I avoided them for so long. And that led to really create a podcast, how do I encourage other men to do this, because I just saw this growing need that men had a similar mindset that I used to have, of just kind of passively going through life. And I think it really comes down to a lot of this, Michael, and I don't know if you felt this in your upbringing, but I feel like less and less, and maybe it's a western culture thing of there's just less and less of a rite of passage for men. You know, it's, it's very passive. It's not direct. It's not a older man coming alongside you. And, you know, we generally kind of have passive ways to looking at what manhood is now. And, and, yeah, part of me wanted to really kind of start creating content around that. And that's kind of why I started the podcast and interviewing some of these leaders and men in that I respect and admire and kind of get some of their wisdom and a lot of these areas.   Michael Hingson ** 1:03:49 Well, I think the whole idea of the decreasing rite of passage also comes from the standpoint of, we're not encouraging people to interact with each other. We're not encouraging people to have the, the tough or the relevant conversations. And so it does happen. Well, I've got to ask, do you ever deal with coaching women? I mean, our women are forged.   Cartwright Morris ** 1:04:13 Oh, I agree. I'm just one of those people. If you want to build a bridge, you got to start on your side, right? That's   Michael Hingson ** 1:04:18 true.   Cartwright Morris ** 1:04:21 Yeah, so I mean, I'm, I don't have any million coaching clients at the time, but I do coach women, I just, I am one of those people where I'm like, I'm not going to, I don't want to mansplain some of these concepts, and I just I empathize with the man. Right. And so that's why I chose men or Forge. And so it's definitely it's very true for all people.   Michael Hingson ** 1:04:45 Is the podcast still going on? It is yeah. So people can find you wherever podcasts are, are made available. That is cool. Well, if people want to reach out to you and learn about coaching that you do, and maybe see Are there ways you can help them and so on? How do they do that?   Cartwright Morris ** 1:05:02 So that you can go to Menareforged.com or cartwright-morris.com   Michael Hingson ** 1:05:08 and Morris are spelled   Cartwright Morris ** 1:05:11 sorry, yeah, Cartwright's, C A R T W R I G H T dash Morris, M O R R I S.com. Okay. And I mean, they're the same thing. It's, you know, either one. And so you really and I would say, go there, get on, get on my email list. And when you sign up for my email list, you get a video a little bit of about what I do, and you we can start a conversation from there. That's the probably the best way. But you know, when you find out more content about me, you're welcome to, you know, find me and reach out to me on LinkedIn.   Michael Hingson ** 1:05:46 Well, I hope people will do that. And I think that you've offered a lot of really relevant, interesting and poignant things for all of us to think about. And I hope that people will reach out to you and get a chance to know you better. And I certainly have enjoyed this in our previous conversation and want to do more of it. So we definitely need to stay in touch. And of course, if there's ever, any way we can be of help to you, you just let us know.   Cartwright Morris ** 1:06:14 Thank you, Michael. This is a blast coming on.   Michael Hingson ** 1:06:21   You have been listening to the Unstoppable Mindset podcast. Thanks for dropping by. I hope that you'll join us again next week, and in future weeks for upcoming episodes. To subscribe to our podcast and to learn about upcoming episodes, please visit www dot Michael hingson.com slash podcast. Michael Hingson is spelled m i c h a e l h i n g s o n. While you're on the site., please use the form there to recommend people who we ought to interview in upcoming editions of the show. And also, we ask you and urge you to invite your friends to join us in the future. If you know of any one or any organization needing a speaker for an event, please email me at speaker at Michael hingson.com. I appreciate it very much. To learn more about the concept of blinded by fear, plea

BCK? Right. We get to learn all about that during our conversation this time with Milam Miller. Milam began life in Texas, but has moved around quite a bit over his life. He always has had some interests in sports as he will tell us.   During his time in New York years ago he dreamed of securing a job with his favorite baseball team, the New York Yankees. He decided that he didn't really want to see “the behind the scenes” of the Yankees or any other team. He ended up more on the sales and promotions side of sports.   His jobs eventually took him to the UK, but eventually, the pandemic happened. For the first two years of the pandemic, he went back to Texas. In 2022 his wife's job caused the two of them to move to Toronto Ontario where they are today.   As he looked for things to do at the start of the pandemic he hit on what became for him a watch phrase, “BCK”, (Be Confident and Kind) As he describes, what was a watch phrase for him has grown not only into a coaching business for him, but an actual movement. I leave it to Milam to tell us about that. I think why I say that there is no doubt that Milam is definitely unstoppable.     About the Guest:   “Be Confident & Kind” (or BCK) was a personal mantra that Milam Miller created in July 2020 in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic. Life was uncertain and he knew one thing to be true–showing up in a confident & kind manner kept his inner light burning bright.   What was once a private motivating statement is now a public movement. Milam launched BCK in order to offer his whole self to organizations looking to invest in its people.    BCK believes in a confident and kind approach to work, in which people are put before profits. A coachable workforce - that is already skilled and, hopefully, well trained - will, in fact, yield higher profit margins. Milam is an expert in encouraging leaders and cultivating collaboration amongst teams, especially innately competitive sales teams.   When he's not facilitating in the boardroom or on 1:1 coaching calls, Milam can be found teaching in the yoga studio. One of the greatest gifts in life is to be able to move somebody - whether that be physically, mentally or emotionally - to a place of transformation.     Ways to connect with Milam:   Website: https://www.bckconsulting.org/ LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/milam-miller-bck Instagram: @milamrmiller   About the Host: Michael Hingson is a New York Times best-selling author, international lecturer, and Chief Vision Officer for accessiBe. Michael, blind since birth, survived the 9/11 attacks with the help of his guide dog Roselle. This story is the subject of his best-selling book, Thunder Dog.   Michael gives over 100 presentations around the world each year speaking to influential groups such as Exxon Mobile, AT&T, Federal Express, Scripps College, Rutgers University, Children's Hospital, and the American Red Cross just to name a few. He is Ambassador for the National Braille Literacy Campaign for the National Federation of the Blind and also serves as Ambassador for the American Humane Association's 2012 Hero Dog Awards.   https://michaelhingson.com https://www.facebook.com/michael.hingson.author.speaker/ https://twitter.com/mhingson https://www.youtube.com/user/mhingson https://www.linkedin.com/in/michaelhingson/   accessiBe Links https://accessibe.com/ https://www.youtube.com/c/accessiBe https://www.linkedin.com/company/accessibe/mycompany/ https://www.facebook.com/accessibe/       Thanks for listening! Thanks so much for listening to our podcast! If you enjoyed this episode and think that others could benefit from listening, please share it using the social media buttons on this page. Do you have some feedback or questions about this episode? Leave a comment in the section below!   Subscribe to the podcast If you would like to get automatic updates of new podcast episodes, you can subscribe to the podcast on Apple Podcasts or Stitcher. You can also subscribe in your favorite podcast app.   Leave us an Apple Podcasts review Ratings and reviews from our listeners are extremely valuable to us and greatly appreciated. They help our podcast rank higher on Apple Podcasts, which exposes our show to more awesome listeners like you. If you have a minute, please leave an honest review on Apple Podcasts.     Transcription Notes      Michael Hingson ** 00:00 Access Cast and accessiBe Initiative presents Unstoppable Mindset. The podcast where inclusion, diversity and the unexpected meet. Hi, I'm Michael Hingson, Chief Vision Officer for accessiBe and the author of the number one New York Times bestselling book, Thunder dog, the story of a blind man, his guide dog and the triumph of trust. Thanks for joining me on my podcast as we explore our own blinding fears of inclusion unacceptance and our resistance to change. We will discover the idea that no matter the situation, or the people we encounter, our own fears, and prejudices often are our strongest barriers to moving forward. The unstoppable mindset podcast is sponsored by accessiBe, that's a c c e s s i  capital B e. Visit www.accessibe.com to learn how you can make your website accessible for persons with disabilities. And to help make the internet fully inclusive by the year 2025. Glad you dropped by we're happy to meet you and to have you here with us.   Michael Hingson ** 01:20 Well, howdy, everyone. I am Michael Hingson, sometimes known as Mike Hingson. We were just having a discussion about that our guest and I because if I say Mike Hingson People always want to say Kingson instead of Hingson. A little factoid but it's actually Hingson with an H. So I've learned to say Michael Hingson took a while to figure that out. But here we are. Anyway, I would like to welcome you to unstoppable mindset, where inclusion, diversity in the unexpected meet. We've got a lot of things about a lot of that today. I really appreciate you listening in and hope that you like what we have to go through today. I'd like you to meet our guest Milam Miller, who lives in Toronto, be confident and kind. And he's going to tell us about that as we go through the hour or so that we spend. But for now, Milan, I want to welcome you and thank you for joining us.   Milam Miller ** 02:13 Yeah, thank you, Michael for having me. I'm very happy to chat with you this evening. My time here in Toronto. I have learned how to say that Toronto, they kind of the words mumbled together. I'm getting better at it. I'm practicing.   Michael Hingson ** 02:27 It's not like in Maryland is Baltimore.   Milam Miller ** 02:29 That's right. That's right. Yeah, Baltimore. So yeah, it's a pleasure to be with you. I love your story and what this podcast is all about and anxious to dig into to BCK and what that means to me. And hopefully anyone listening today that might be intrigued by our mission.   Michael Hingson ** 02:48 Of course everybody always wanting to be different and all that. We know it's not pronounced Worchester in Massachusetts, it's Wista.   Milam Miller ** 02:56 There you go. I don't know that one. I haven't been there yet. But maybe someday I'll get oh, you should   Michael Hingson ** 03:00 go. It's less. It's actually Wister. But of course, when you live in Massachusetts, it's Wista.   Milam Miller ** 03:05 Wisdom is the same as is, as in Texas, we say wish to share sauce is like the Western sauce is the same thing or no.   Michael Hingson ** 03:14 Well, same spelling, but yeah. But in Massachusetts, it's when you live there, wisdom,   Milam Miller ** 03:21 wisdom. Okay, let's   Michael Hingson ** 03:21 see, you're gonna make it you might make it as a Massachusetts person yet. Well, thanks again for being here. Why don't we start by you telling us a little bit about you growing up and kind of the early myeloma and all that sort of stuff?   Milam Miller ** 03:35 Sure. Happy to, you know, rewind the clock. So I tell everyone, I am a Texan in Toronto. Originally, from the big great state of Texas, I grew up in a small town. I was actually born in a town that everyone knows called Waco, Texas. Unfortunately, it's made headlines for not always the best of reasons. Although I'd like to think Chip and Joanna Gaines and other people in the Waco communities have really put it on the map for delightful things like making your home more, more enjoyable to be in. So it's Chris, did   Michael Hingson ** 04:12 you ever know Chip and Joanna, you know, I   Milam Miller ** 04:14 can't say I haven't met them. So if this podcast reaches them, hey, Chip. Hey, Joanna. i Let's let's meet old friends. I love what you've done in the community. Yeah, I still have family in Waco. My grandparents had been married for 70 years. They're both in their 90s now and sharpest attack. I'm very grateful to have them in my life. They highschool sweethearts met at Baylor. My father comes from that side of the family. He also went to Baylor met my mom there and then here Here I am. So you would think that I would have gone to Baylor but we decided to move south to Central Texas and I became a Longhorn a proud one at that. So I bleed orange, the School of Matthew McConaughey and many others.   Michael Hingson ** 04:59 So I voc several years ago, or a couple of meetings at the San Francisco Lighthouse, excuse me, the Fort Worth Lighthouse for the Blind. And the CEO is from TCU. So I obligated to talk about Go Frogs, you know,   Milam Miller ** 05:16 there you go. That my mom is from Fort Worth and my in laws, actually, my sister in law and brother in law are both TCU alum. They were at the national championship this year. So I was happy to see them so much as it hurt a little bit that Texas wasn't back there. I was happy to see a Texas school make it that far.   Michael Hingson ** 05:35 Yeah. Well, I was disappointed that USC didn't go all the way. But you know, we try. There you go. There you go. There is next year.   Milam Miller ** 05:42 That's right. There's, you know, that's what gives Dallas Cowboys fans hope. There's always next year.   Michael Hingson ** 05:47 In Massachusetts. I lived there for three years. And I remember, every year when the Red Sox started their season. In the first game, if they lost, everyone started saying wait till next year. Hmm. Tough crowd. Tough crowd. That's right. So anyway, so you became a Longhorn? That's right.   Milam Miller ** 06:09 You've got it. I studied finance at Macomb School of Business at UT Austin. And I gotta be honest, Michael, it was not for me, I hated it. Without a shadow of the doubt, I, my dad was a finance guy. And I remember I recall a time there being a lot of pressure. Within the McCombs community, it had the top rated accounting program in the country. And it was a big pipeline to go to the big four accounting firms. And then many people, of course, studied finance, too, and wanted to go work on Wall Street. Coincidentally, I was in college in 2008, during the financial crisis, the big collapse. And I didn't honor that gut intuition that told me finance wasn't for me, I thought I wanted to do manage mix, I love people. And I was told that was too woowoo, or maybe not practical enough. And marketing, I found really interesting, but again, also was told there's so many marketers out there. So I didn't, didn't honor my own intuition. And that was a great learning lesson, in my own life, to, to get in touch with my intuition and not neglect it like I did at that point in time.   Michael Hingson ** 07:24 You know, we all too often tend not to, to pay attention to our intuition. To our own consternation, I love to use the example of I watch or not watch, but I play a lot of Trivial Pursuit. I haven't so much lately, but invariably, both for me and for other people. While we're playing it. Somebody asks a question. And the answer pops into a person's head, whoever's having the question asked of them, and they go, No, it can't be that easy. And they don't answer it that way. And invariably, what popped into their head was the right answer. Mm hmm. And that happens so often. It's all because we really do know more than we think we know. We just don't always tend to want to pay attention and recognize that maybe our intuition and God and all that are are really giving us the answers. So I'm glad that you learned a lesson from that.   Milam Miller ** 08:21 That's right. That's right. And I will say this, I don't know if I knew the right answer that point. But I knew what it was. And I knew it wasn't finance, right and it takes doing the work you're doing the classwork because I got a D in that class, if I recall correctly, that I was like this, this this thing for me. So it was a great experience to set me on a path that was more in alignment with my childhood dreams and aspirations, which ultimately led me not into finance, but into the sports career. And that's where I got my start.   Michael Hingson ** 08:54 And so what did you do in the sports world?   Milam Miller ** 08:57 Yeah, thank you for asking. Good question. So bad news. I'm a Yankees fan. I heard you mentioned the Red Sox earlier. And you're wearing my favorite color red today. So if you are a Red Sox fan, I apologize. My I'm a Dodger fan, but that's okay. Well, that makes more sense. But to all the Red Sox listeners out there, they've won a couple championships. You know, since then, you know, the the rivalry is, is maybe not as heated or the curse as it once was. Right. But I grew up in big Derek Jeter fan. And also being a fan of the University of Texas, Roger Clemens came over to the Yankees. And I still remember when I was a kid sitting right field behind Paul O'Neill, and just being in the bleachers, and I was like, This is so epic. And they were winners. They were they were a team. And there were so many great leaders on that team. Yeah. And I've always been enamored by by leadership and and teamwork. So I thought I'm gonna move to New York and work for the New York Yankees, done, signed, sealed delivered very clear and specific ambition. What unfolded for me was not that As our life life journey happens i Upon graduating ut I, my criteria for a job was twofold. Live in New York City and work in sports. My entry point into the industry was actually through an agency that did sponsorship activation. So if if modells is a sponsor of the New York Yankees, I know a lot of people know that retailer in the New York area. Or let's say it's Miller Lite as their official beer. I was handling a lot of those contracts, but more specifically in the golf space. Yeah. And what else? I'm sure you're thinking, Yeah, I've maybe I've got you on the edge of your seat. I actually had a colleague who worked for the Yankees, and she had come over to our agency and hearing her firsthand accounts of what it was like to to work for a family run business, this time burners, right and kind of the change of power at that time from Mr Steinbrenner passing away to his sons. I decided I made the conscious decision at that point in time. That that was my passion. And a lot of my favorite players I mentioned Derek Jeter, Mariano Rivera, Andy Pettit, they were all retiring and I didn't really want to see under the hood of the business side of things my passion in a lot of it I you know, it's come out in recent years the captain the the Docu series about Derek Jeter just about his his contract negotiation as he was aging. I thought maybe it's better I keep that my passion and I can go there and ignorance is bliss. And I cheer on my team without knowing the politics and inner workings of it being my my employer. And so, yeah, I was open to opportunities in New York's a great market to be in if you're open to opportunities,   Michael Hingson ** 11:46 yes. And so what did you do? Who,   Milam Miller ** 11:50 so what did I do? I did the work I was responsible for activating omega the or omega however you pronounce it the luxury timepiece company. I always tell people this is a fun case study. People know of omega from the Olympics. They've had a long standing association with the touchpads in the pools when Michael Phelps fingers hit the touchpad and he wins gold. Or when you same bolt leans across the line and wins yet another gold. So from a marketing perception, a lot of people thought of omega as a timekeeping company right there. They're accurate, precise, but they didn't think of them as a luxury timepiece, business. So trying to pull away market share from Rolex Omega decided to sponsor golf and activate around the major championships. So I would literally go around Michael and be wearing a red polo such as your own, because that's omegas brand colors, and I would set the Swiss clocks, and I'd put them on the first tee potensi the putting green and I had to make sure that they were on time and the most. The irony in all of this, Michael is that I am not a punctual person at all, I am chronically late, despite best efforts getting from point A to point B I always underestimate time. So it was kind of a running joke in my close circles and family. How the heck did you get that job, you are never on time. You got to just stretch and grow. That's it. That's it. And it did stretch me I was fortunate to travel all across the US to very remote golf, country clubs, golf course locations, and I loved it. It was it actually taught me to be on time. So I think I was on time for our call today, which is good news. It's more when transports involves that I struggle, but I've gotten better over the years so that was a good learning lesson for me.   Michael Hingson ** 13:44 So you went around to golf courses all over the country and set time pieces and made sure they were on time right? That's right I may go see   Milam Miller ** 13:53 Yeah, manage their brand identity and it was a wonderful program to work on. But it was very much rinse and repeat and I'm a type of person that there's a time and place for certainty but I also crave variety and while there was variety in the the the courses that these tournaments were held at, I was looking for a little bit more of a way for my extroverted self or outgoing self to be on actually the sales side and not just on the fulfillment side activating and managing but actually having a seat at the table negotiating the rights because I got to see what rights they got on and it got me curious a core value man like Well, why didn't you negotiate rights to that or why does this sponsor have that and we don't and so that's when I realized I wanted to make a jump into in a very niche and sponsorship sales in sports but really just working on behalf of a team are right told her similar to the Yankees but not the Yankees again, they're my passion, but somebody else and all that to say it is me being open to opportunity. I got connected with a gentleman and who owns a professional football club, aka soccer team overseas. And he sold me on his vision, which was to build a modern day Coliseum in Rome. That's where the team played. And coincidentally, I had gone there when I was 15. My sister graduated high school she was 18. And we did a trip for city I ever stepped foot in Europe, capital city, and the Eternal City at that. And I didn't even know the team existed when I was 15 years old. So to hear this owner laying out his vision for a new stadium I was I was bought in I was I was drinking quite literally from you know, the Roman Aqua docks, I was like, I want to take your your vision to market and sell that on your behalf and was fortunate to do so.   Michael Hingson ** 15:46 So when did this happen?   Milam Miller ** 15:49 So I went to work for the ownership group previous one of AS Roma spoiler alert, back in 2016. No, excuse me, actually, 2015 and 2015 is when I went to work for them. I moved abroad in 2016.   Michael Hingson ** 16:05 And how long were you there?   Milam Miller ** 16:07 Yeah, so there specifically is a tricky answer. Because I didn't actually move to Rome. I spent the majority of my time in Rome while I was sorting out a British visa. But this was around the time the Brexit vote happened and getting a visa was a very complex process. I also unfortunately did not speak Italian. So me being in Rome, was not the wisest business move being on the commercial side of the business. However, many European football clubs Manchester United being in Manchester, they had a commercial office in London and we saw an opportunity in the market to be the first Italian team to plant roots in London and so that's where I relocated to   Michael Hingson ** 16:53 Wow Well, that was was easier as long as you can speak the language so you you didn't have to learn how to do New Jersey Italian you know, forget about it and all that sort of stuff.   Milam Miller ** 17:06 That's right. That's right. I   Michael Hingson ** 17:07 learned didn't learn good Italian.   Milam Miller ** 17:09 Yeah, perfect, though. Everything was perfect.   Michael Hingson ** 17:11 That's a nice thing. Yeah. So how long were you over there? Because you're not there now.   Milam Miller ** 17:21 That's right. So I'm, I can hear my wife saying my lawn, land the plane, hurry up, move abroad. 2016 And, again, did the work you gotta you gotta be in it, live it to Yeah, to figure it out. And a lot of life happened in those years. And my sister was diagnosed with a brain tumor in 2017. That a lot of the forward progress I was feeling it kind of stopped it to be president and attend to those needs. In 2018, we made a really deep run in the UEFA Champions League, which is the top teams across not only Italy, in Germany and France and Spain, really all across Europe. They're they're playing one another so it was outside of our domestically. And we beat Barcelona they had a player you may know a guy named Lionel Messi, who today announced he's going to take his talents to South Beach, like another athlete did about a decade ago. And so Messi Messi is headed to inter Miami David Beckham's club. And we beat we beat FC Barcelona in the Champions League quarterfinals only to get knocked out in the semi finals by Liverpool, which also had a Boston based owner, my my, our ownership group was out of Boston as well. And so it allowed us on the commercial side of the business to really capitalize on the performance side, the momentum the team was having, almost going to the Champions League final to secure some sponsors. And that was a really, really fruitful time for us commercially. And we were still riding that wave until 2020. And you know what happened then?   Michael Hingson ** 19:02 Yeah, those little bugs started escaping from somewhere.   Milam Miller ** 19:07 That's right. That's right. Now there were other like challenges that the team I'd be remiss not to mention, but that's the nature I think   Michael Hingson ** 19:14 it's the nature I think any team and it's got its ups and downs,   Milam Miller ** 19:18 or any business for that matter. Even Yeah,   Michael Hingson ** 19:20 yeah. So where were you living at the time?   Milam Miller ** 19:23 So I was still in London when the pandemic hit and you know, I think about the, the rate with which my life the speed with which my life was moving at my goal, the travel we were doing living in London on Europe's back doorstep. I think that March, my wife's birthday is in early March. We had a ski trip planned and that ski trip did not happen at least for us. We we canceled I know some people ended up going and getting stuck and that's a story for another day. But yeah, we we were in the proper UK lockdown. On from middle of March until July when they lifted it and then there was a whole start stop situation from then on.   Michael Hingson ** 20:08 Yeah. And, of course, there were additional lockdowns and all sorts of challenges, because we were still learning a lot about COVID. I think we're still gonna continue to learn a lot about COVID. But we are a lot better situated than we were.   Milam Miller ** 20:24 Absolutely, absolutely. It was a time of unprecedented change. And I think, you know, from my, my story change is something that collectively we as humans went through, at least on this planet, the collective human experience of dealing with COVID. And it impacted us all in unique ways, different ways. And changes is hard. It's scary. And it's it's I think some people are still wrestling with the Yep, permanency of changes that cause myself included, my career changed drastically from that point onward.   Michael Hingson ** 21:03 Well, so when did you leave London and I guess, move to Toronto, or excuse me, Toronto?   Milam Miller ** 21:10 Yeah, there was an intervening step. We hopped home to Texas for two years, 2021 and 2022. This Toronto opportunity came about through my wife's employer, the same one she had in London, they've been very good to us and grown her. But Toronto is new. We've only been here since the start of the year. And I I've been at my own business for the last year, it was something I launched following a pandemic pivot that didn't work out. And then really realizing it was time to trust my gut instincts and that intuition that I got connected with in college. And by this point in my career, I was like, it's time to bet on myself and take a leap of faith. And so that's the you. That's how I got here.   Michael Hingson  21:57 So I have a couple questions, because I really want to get into change and all that. But I'm just really curious. Sure. It was announced a couple of days ago that the PGA and the other organization what is it? Live golf? Yeah, live golf. Yeah. have merged. What do you think about that, given especially all the furor over the last year, you've had enough connection with golf, and I assume you got to know, golfers and things like that. But what do you think   Milam Miller ** 22:24 about that? Yeah, you know, great question. This will be it's all still so fresh that yeah, that news was announced yesterday. I got. I saw it first. I get Wall Street Journal, email alerts. And I think I spit my coffee out, Michael. I was like, wait, what?   Michael Hingson ** 22:39 I saw it on a CNN alert. Why what?   Milam Miller ** 22:44 Yeah, yeah, I posted it on my Instagram pretty immediately, because I just was so recent. I do have friends who are played golf in college are professional caddies. I am friendly with players on the tour. I don't have close friends. But obviously it's you know, it's humans that do extraordinary things. And that's what they're out the golfers that are out there are all human and we're all on a work in progress. So what do I think about it? I think that it's really unfortunate if I'm honest, that again, I my calling card is leadership. I believe in dynamic leadership and servant hearted leadership. And without calling out certain names, I think there was pressure by the tour as a as a body a governing body and entity, not one person in particular. But I think the the tour is a collective as a unit, to keep people loyal because of the history and legacy of the body and to deter them from moving to a new flashy, different format that paid better or paid well, with also questions about where that money was coming from. And it was, in fact, sports washing. So it's for them to turn a blind eye now to that argument around sports washing, and is it clean money or dirty money to then take the money? It feels? Feels a little disingenuous, like I would if the PGA Tour were on this call or was listening to this. This podcast, I would say, what are your core values? What are your corporate values? And how did that influence or impact this decision making process?   Michael Hingson ** 24:26 I'll be anxious to see how it goes over time because I think we're only starting to hear the different sides of this and what it's going to do. But I know that the whole issue of flipped Golf was was all about money. And the the problem with a lot of professional sports, it seems to me is it's way too much about money. I appreciate that players and so on do need to earn a living and they and the better they are the more they ought to earn. But I also think that there is just so much based on money, that we're losing sight of the games And then the activities themselves. And it's just kind of the nature of the beast, I think it's coming into the NCAA now with of course, the better players who can now get money in, we're going completely away from the sports. And it's just becoming much more money oriented, I'm sure that there will be people who will disagree with me and yell at me, and, and so on. But when do we get back to the basics of the competition of the game, you know, in the Olympics have done the same thing and so many same things in so many ways to that. It's been be it's become very political with some countries and organizations have turned a blind eye to it. When do we get back to the basic core values, as you just said,   Milam Miller ** 25:46 Well, there's there's so many stakeholders involved in sport as we know it today. And as somebody who worked closely with sponsors for years, I can only imagine if I been representing either entity, pitching from a PGA Tour perspective of, you know, us, this is what we're about, as opposed to live golf, hey, we're new, we're going to do things different, we're going to do it better for you sponsors, we're gonna give you better access to players or whatever it may be, you know, they've, they've been at odds. So now that now that the two entities were competing against one another, now that they're, they're merging, let's think of it as a classic m&a deal. It's two different corporate cultures, it's two different sponsorship sales. Now, it's two different. So there's going to need to be a learning and development function or core curriculum to really refer to these two bodies, and also do it in the name of caring about your people, your employees, not just the players on the tour, that maybe you feel wronged because a lot of them do. But I just I worry that there could be layoffs in the name of efficiency and productivity. And that's so unfair for either entity and and skilled people that have talents that they could bring to grow the game, because I do think at the end of the day, some fans will be happy, this is a way to grow the game in a way that's that's centralized or organized. Sure. But there's a lot of stakeholders, again, that are going to be impacted by this. So just approaching it from a place of care, I think is really important.   Michael Hingson ** 27:24 I agree, I think it's going to be very interesting to see how golf as an overall sport, now changes. So we have one entity again, but it's a completely different entity by any definition. And I hope that it changes for the better, but I don't know enough to be able to comment on that. But I've hope that in the long run, or as they say, at the end of the day, that that people will find that it really was an improvement for golf. And that has to be by actions, not by words. So we'll see what happens.   Milam Miller ** 28:02 That's right. Time will tell. Time will tell. Yeah.   Michael Hingson ** 28:05 But you know, you, you talk about change. And we've we've both experienced a lot of change. And I hear people say all the time, the change is all around us. It's there. But yet, as you said, it's very hard. Why is changed so hard? What is it that we have learned or not learned? That makes change so hard? Especially even in the light of the fact that it's all around us all the time?   Milam Miller ** 28:35 Hmm. Yeah. It's such a good question. One thing I have Michael, I think people find change hard or exhausting or challenging is because it's outside of our comfort zones. As simple as that may sound, we we get so accustomed to doing something a certain way or conditioned to do it a certain way that it's, it becomes second nature, just what we know. And if that is taken away from us, or we're told there's a different way to do it. There's a bit of resistance or agitation. I'd love to know your perspective on this just given up being on this planet, you have a little bit more wisdom than me. Some years, you're a couple years ahead of me. But I yeah, I find that change is hard for people. Because once we get good at something that will that feels nice. And so to to change it up. If it's not serving us, we start to second guess or wonder if we've made the wrong decision, instead of sitting with the discomfort and agitation to a place of actually growing our comfort zones. And I think that that's really where where growth happens is out of our comfort zone.   Michael Hingson ** 29:46 Yeah, I think the the issue is that our comfort zone needs to be broader. So I remember after September 11, I've talked about it here a few times. I started hearing people We'll say we got to get back to normal, we got to get back to normal, we got to get back to the way normal was. And I remember that I always reacted to that I always bristled at it, I didn't like it. But it took me a long time to finally realize that the reason I didn't like that comment was because normal would never be the same again. And we really need to recognize that that's really what change is all about. And so what we need to do is not necessarily look for a new normal, but instead, recognize that normal is evolving. And while we're comfortable doing things in a certain way, we get used to doing things in a certain way. If we don't explore how do we enhance that, and make that different way, or that way that we do things better, then we're going to be stuck in the same old way of doing things. So even talking about live golf in the PGA. Is that a good change? Is it a bad change and time will tell? It's a change? And rather than necessarily condemning it unless you know something that others don't? The bottom line is with any kind of change, we need to really explore and think about how we enhance because of change. And oftentimes, how do we be the ones to bring change into the world because something has to be better. I was the program director at our radio station. And one of the things that I did at the station when I was program director at K UCI when I was going to college was listen to all of our DJs. And some of them really sounded horrible. They just didn't sound good. And I thought, How do I deal with that? How can I get them to be better? How can I make them change? And I something that dawned on me is that I'm listening to them, too. They listen to themselves. And I went to them and I said, Look, I want you to record your shows. And I want you to go off and listen to them. And they wouldn't do that. And so what we did was to set up a system, I did it with Dave McHugh, our engineer, he set up a recorder in a locked cabinet. Because we had the locked cabinets where all the equipment was anyway. But anytime the mic was activated, the recorder would turn on. So we were able to make recordings of what the people said we didn't really worry about what's the music that wasn't what what we were worried about not evaluating but dealing with, we wanted the announcers to get better. And I would give them each a cassette member cassettes you don't hear you're not I don't know if you're old enough to remember cassettes. I'm a CD guy. There you go. So yeah, they're gone. But we would give them a recording of their week shows. And I said, You've got to listen to the shows. If you don't do that, then you're not going to be able to continue to be here. But you know what? People started doing it. And they started hearing what they sounded like. And by doing that, I was actually very amazed at the quality improvements in most people by the end of the year, when they decided that they would at least think about the change. And then they embrace the change. Because they started hearing themselves the way other people heard them. Some of those people went on into professional Radio One went to NBC and there are people Yeah, that was really great. But we we really, you're right, we get locked into our comfort zone. But the part of it that is the problem is we do get locked into our comfort zone. And we don't think about or explore ways to enhance or improve and maybe stretch our comfort zone. And that's kind of my thought.   Milam Miller ** 34:04 Totally I love that word enhance and also improve. I'm curious, what was the number one thing they changed? Or rather was there a through line of changing pitch tonality? What in perhaps there wasn't a through line? It was it was uniquely individual, but I I'm I want to know what that feedback you gave them resulted in.   Michael Hingson ** 34:28 It was different for different people, probably for most people, they started seeing a whole lot less, they actually started completing sentences more. They spoke in a more consistent way into the microphone. They became better speakers by any standard because they heard themselves and everyone was a little bit different. But those are the basic things they really became better speakers. And one of them actually is this is the main guy who does a lot of the work at one of the local planetariums. And he met was a good speaker anyway. But everyone got better when they started hearing themselves. When I speak, I listen to myself, because I want to hear what I say. And even today, I will listen to recordings of my talks. Sure, so that I can figure out anything that I can do to improve and we all don't like to hear ourselves talk. But I've learned that I'm also not my own worst critic, I think that's also a negative way to look at it. I'm my own best teacher. Because no one else can teach me I've got to be the one to teach myself, even if it's getting input from instructors and all that. I'm the one that has to teach. And so when I take the time to do that, I will get better. And as a result, of course, what that really means is, I change   Milam Miller ** 35:55 what a beautiful reframe not I am my own worst critic, but I have the power or capacity or potential to be my own best teacher. I love that. I love that. I love that. I think when we can also reframe change as being hard as being a means to you said the through line is they all got better changes a means for us to recalibrate, reevaluate, to improve, enhance or get better than we've become more willing to embrace it and build the new and improved or enhanced and evolved version of whatever it is,   Michael Hingson ** 36:29 right changes is something that is around us. And the other part about change is if we really look at something that is trying to get us to change whatever it is, if we truly recognize that there is a something there, then we can analyze that. And so I say to ourselves, do I really want to change this? But then you make it a real conscious decision. Now, things happen that we don't have control over. Did we have control over the World Trade Center terrorist attacks happening? No. Should we have I'm not convinced yet that we would have been able to know that. But it doesn't really matter. I didn't have control over it. The other people who were there didn't have control over it. But what we did have control over was how we chose to deal with it after it occurred.   Milam Miller ** 37:20 Amen. Amen. I love that. Just for anyone who's listening in my community, can you quickly share what you experienced on that day 911?   Michael Hingson ** 37:32 Well, I worked in the World Trade Center on the 78th floor of Tower One. And I was in the office because we were going to be conducting some seminars that day, to teach our reseller partners how to sell our products, when the plane hit the building actually flexed. Because tall buildings are like Big Springs, when it got vertical, again, a colleague's I'll fire above us. But I have spent a lot of time in the the year and a half before actually, September 11 happened, I spent a lot of time learning what to do in the case of an emergency and learning all about the World Trade Center. Because I was the leader of that offense. So I had to be able to function like any other leader would, which meant I had to know what to do and where to go. And even more so than most people because I didn't have the opportunity to rely on signs. So I learned at all. But what I realized much later was that was also helping me develop a mindset that said, you don't need to be afraid if there's an emergency, you know what to do. And you know what your options are as to where to go based on whatever the circumstances are. So don't panic. And I never realized that I learned that but I did. And so I was able to go down the stairs. I had my guide dog at the time Roselle and we traveled down the stairs all 78 floors. Mathematically if I recall, right, it was 1400 63 stairs. Wow. But you know was at least we were going down right?   Milam Miller ** 39:07 That's nice comic relief. I love that. But the   Michael Hingson ** 39:09 issue is that we we went down and we got out and then we were very close to tower two when it collapsed. That was a little bit different session situation because there I think I started to panic a little bit. But as I wrote in Thunder dog things happen that that helps to deal with that. And we did write a book later about a called Thunder dog the story of a blind man has guide dog on the train from Trust, which is available anywhere books are sold. So hopefully people will will get that and keep my current guide dog Alamo and kibbles we appreciate that. But you know, the the issue is that I discovered during COVID and I want to talk about your changes in COVID. And I discovered that while I talked about not being afraid I never really spent any time helping other people learn how to control their fear and as I put it not being blinded by fear when something unexpected happened So we're writing a new book about that. And it'll be out when it comes out. But the whole idea is to say you do have the ability to deal with whatever comes along, you can choose to create a mindset that will allow you to do that and not allow your fear to overwhelm you. It isn't to say, you aren't afraid, I guarantee you, we were afraid going down the stairs. But I used it as a positive motivator to be more observant to encourage my guide dog to go down the stairs. And the job of a guide dog, of course, is not to get lead, but to guide so the dog doesn't know where I want to go and how to get there. That's not the dog's job. But the dog's job is to keep us safe. But I knew that my dog was going to sense all the fear of everyone going down the stairs. So I had to encourage her to focus and do well. And we did, we got out. And we survived. And I've been a speaker, traveling the world talking about trust and teamwork, and dealing with change, and the human animal bond and moving from diversity to inclusion, one of my favorite speeches, but doing a lot of talks around the world ever since. So I'm a full time public speaker, and in addition to working for accessibility, so as a plug, and of course, to any of your friends who might need a speaker, let me know we're always looking for speaking opportunities. And it's been a while since I've been to Toronto, so I gotta get back there.   Milam Miller ** 41:22 There you go. Well, I I just, I think your stories so remarkable, Michael, and that you've used it to be of service to others across all those buzzwords that carry a lot of significance, right, and they hold real meaning to people. When 911 happened for me, I was in the fifth grade. And it was a year of change for me because it was actually the first year I transferred from private Catholic school to public school. And, you know, there's, there's a, what's the word I'm searching for, there's something in an 11 year old boy or girl, whomever at that age, that is striving to find themselves in a new environment, right. And so, when we talk about mindset, the mindset of a child at that time is hate. transferring schools, it's, it's maybe there's some grieving a sense of loss and welcoming in that and there's an opportunity to gain new friends are widening your circles, you know, bridge the gap between the two schools. So I just, I love that in the midst of all that adversity and things that you couldn't control. Your mindset was one in which it stayed calm and was able to self regulate is also I think, what came up for me is, is be able to get yourself to a place of, of safety.   Michael Hingson ** 42:49 My equivalent to your story is that when I was 13, I was in the eighth grade and was in November of 1963. And President Kennedy was shot. And we had to deal with all of that. Sure. It was a little bit more removed, of course, than being in the World Trade Center. But the next summer, I went and got my first sky dog and then went into high school and had to do the same sorts of changes that you did. And I did embrace it as I get to go into a whole new world. And I think that's the issue is that we learn to be so negative and pessimistic about things, rather than recognizing maybe life is an adventure. And we should really embrace more of the adventure. The internet is a great treasure trove of knowledge. And I love the net, I realized that there's a dark side to it, which I've never visited and don't have any need to. But it's like artificial intelligence and chat GPT and so on today, again, we can always look for the negatives. But why do we need to be negative about everything? Why don't we look for the positive things, recognizing that there are negative issues that we might have to deal with, but if we approach it the right way, one will take care of the other.   Michael Hingson ** 44:12 Of course, just because there's real issues going on doesn't mean they need to be approached from a negative mindset or Outlook i i think negativity is such a dream killer for lack of better word and um, if you can't tell already big glass half full kind of guy I on my report card, probably even that same fifth grade year, my teachers or whatever, enthusiastic, that was my calling card. I use enthusiasm as fuel, to embrace change to build the new and instead of fighting the old, how do we navigate this with more? Or how do I navigate this with more confidence and how do I navigate it with more inner kindness the way I'm speaking to myself in my own developmental journey, navigating the new so that's it I guess that fast forwards is back to present day what what happened during COVID. And the result of it Bck, my private coaching, speaking and consulting practice is the football club, I was working for Roma, we sold it during 2020 year. And I mentioned I made a pandemic pivot into sports media tried something out, I thought at that time content is king, everybody's at home. You know, this is a good place to be to negotiate live sports media rights. But unfortunately, that wasn't my reality. And you mentioned having agency to choose, I think that's so important. And if I could have gone back to college, and knowing that I had agency to choose a different major than I would have, and I would have done it with discernment and confidence. But in this case, it was the first time in my professional career that I realized, I have agency to walk away from this because I'm destined for something greater. And so I, after one year of of learning the business, I stepped away, I resigned, and it was actually empowering. Instead of I think so many people feel that quitting is a bad thing. And I, I like to think of do you need to grit through this? Or do you need to quit this because it's not in alignment with what makes you feel alive? And so in my case, I'd done all the grading I could do. It was time to quit not grit, and I started my own business BCK, which stands for be confident, and kind.   Michael Hingson ** 46:30 How do we get people to be more confident in a time of change or when they're when change comes to them? Sure.   Milam Miller ** 46:39 It's such a good question. I think in my own experience, and there's probably other perspectives on this. In the midst of so much newness, I like to find slivers of sameness. So whether that's a fitness modality that serves you, so in my case, I love going to a yoga class or a spin class or a Barry's Bootcamp class, a format that I know. And that brings me confidence that when I'm done, I know I'll feel better. In the midst of so much newness lean into things where you can have just like a little sliver of sameness, it will remind you that you are an expert in some things. And even though you may feel a beginner in whatever it is, I feel like a beginner finding the new grocery store in my neighborhood in Toronto. But in time, you will grow more confident of I prefer this one over that one, or it's worth the extra commute to go to that one, I know how to navigate it with confidence, get my groceries get in and out. So I tell my clients that confidence is a doing energy, it's action oriented. And if you're taking actions or steps, it will build your confidence in time, you just have to be moving in forward direction in a direction that's serving you. Because if you're languishing, then you're going to stay in that stuck or stagnant place.   Michael Hingson ** 48:01 Right. And it's all about moving. And as you're moving, thinking about what you're doing. The other part about it is really analyzing what we do, I'd love to tell people that I think one of the most important things we can do is at the end of the day, take a little bit of time just to do self examination, looking at what happened during the day, and even the good things. Could I have done it better. How did that go? Why did it go the way it did the bad things? Not? Why did I do so badly? But what do I do to make sure that that doesn't happen again? Or what really happened? self examination is such an important thing.   Milam Miller ** 48:44 It is Do you journal Michael?   Michael Hingson ** 48:47 No, I don't write things down just because, you know, it's, I write it down, it's still out of sight out of mind, I have to make a very conscious effort to then to go back and look at the journal. So I just tend to remember things a lot. Well, let   Milam Miller ** 49:00 me let me clarify, because that's probably good for listeners, do you Digital Journal or have any sort of voice memos that you record? And like listen back to kind of going back to the feedback thing or on the radio station? Or is it purely just a mental exercise for you,   Michael Hingson ** 49:16 me it's more of a mental exercise, I find that that works pretty well. If if something comes to mind, and I feel I need to to write it down somewhere, then I will record it. I'll make a note. And I have done that and gone back to it. Or if I want to remember something in six months, I will create a reminder, so it will remind me so I do some of that. But mostly, I just think about things at the end of the day. And I've learned to but I've learned to do that right? Sure. So I'm not saying that journal doesn't help. Journaling doesn't help, but I've learned to do it mentally. And so for me that has worked pretty well,   Milam Miller ** 49:56 of course and what a great way to get pushing yourself to to do that self examination that mindfulness practice. I work with my clients to have a very clear evening routine to set them up for success, so to speak the next day and then a morning ritual in the morning asking, what's my intention for the day, and then in the evening, Am I satisfied. And because I think so many people, their head hits the pillow, and they're thinking about what they didn't get done, which is a lack mindset, as opposed to being grateful for the things they did. And so a gratitude practice is something during the pandemic, I actually had to, I started experimenting with and writing down three things. I'm grateful that the sun came out today in London, I'm grateful I got to read 10 pages in my book, I'm grateful that we cooked a delicious home cooked meal, you know. And it's, it's those little simple things that remind you have how abundant and special your life is, even if you're living in lockdown in a global pandemic. Yeah.   Michael Hingson ** 51:02 And the reality is that we can take a much more positive approach to anything that we do. But it's a conscious decision to do that. And there's no reason for us to be so negative. The problem is, we also do have so many political leaders and other people who we regard as role models who are very negative, and that doesn't help either. And so we have to be able to learn to step back and say, Wait a minute, do I really want to model that when it's so negative? Or do I want to look at alternatives and that doesn't mean that you look at things through, as they say, rose colored glasses, but it does mean that you need to recognize that there is much more value in positive advancement than running things down and being negative?   Milam Miller ** 51:50 Absolutely. I think being able to discern what works for you, is so important in life. And that goes back to my own gut instincts. It's great for things to be modeled. But that doesn't mean we can carbon, copy everything, we have to really get curious and play scientists on ourselves to figure out what works for us. Because I think sometimes if we look to too many role models, we lose sight of our own intuition. And we're no longer operating according to our code of conduct, but another and it leaves room for disappointment when they let us down or judgment. And we're not being discerning of our own experience in the fact that we're all human. We're all figuring it out.   Michael Hingson ** 52:34 Well, you talk about inner kindness, and it's, it's an important thing. We need to learn to be kind to ourselves, and we yeah, we don't do that.   Milam Miller ** 52:46 So I call myself a recovering perfectionist Michael, releasing a lot of the Type A expectations of myself the shoulds. And speaking kindly of you said it best earlier I can be my own best teacher, instead of I. I'm speaking critically of myself. So I remember the first couple months I moved here in Toronto, it might have been the first couple weeks in fact, I had taken one of those blender balls, you know, like a protein shake with me. And it was so cold out I didn't have gloves on. And I dropped it and of course the way the water bottle hit it cracked and my protein shake went everywhere. And I thought oh man, I just cracked my my blender ball like I'm gonna have to go buy another one and I noticed this negative self talk I was engaging in and then I caught myself I just said oh, well you know next time wear gloves. It's it's it's a thing it can be replaced. All good. Yeah, your hands are sticky, but you still have your fingers like Oh, well. And so embracing the oh well. Like I'm I'm not perfect. I wasn't intended to be perfect has been so liberating in my own journey. Yeah.   Michael Hingson ** 54:00 We we need to recognize all sides. But we need to really remember that. We have control over how we deal with things. And that's that's ultimately it, you know that there are some changes that are very overwhelming. I mean, the World Trade Center, the pandemic and so on. How do we deal with protecting our own mental health during these kind of incredible seasons of change?   Milam Miller ** 54:28 I love that question. Just as a as an advocate for mental health, especially for men, because I find women do a really good job of asking for help. Opening up being vulnerable men have a tendency to wanting to be stoic or not show any cracks in the facade, hold it in or playing to traditional gender norms. I need to be the provider. I can't show any emotion just just do. And so we all have Mental taking care of our mental health is important to everyone. And in times of change, it can seem on the surface like this is overwhelming. This is a lot. But really when we look underneath I almost think of like the tip of an iceberg asking ourselves, what am I really experiencing? What am I feeling, and taking measures that calm that anxiety, whether it's going on a walk, cooking yourself a nutritious meal, I find that you know, past seasons of life, when I when we moved him to Texas, during the pandemic, we were so excited for fast food for Chick fil A and things that maybe I've been deprived of for a year. And then I started noticing my mood, and I tell friends, clients, food affects your mood. So it's taking care of ourselves with what we're eating, how we're, we're moving is so important, I think not just for what may seem like physical health on the surface, but really, it actually does impact our mental health too.   Michael Hingson ** 56:05 Well, you you've said it several times, doing things like taking a walk, and so on. The reality is that we do better again, when we step back, we're in the middle of something, we feel overwhelmed. If we can step back and gain perspective, then we learn how to deal with it. And that's the other part about it. We're so conditioned to work hard work all the time, and not do any kind of self analysis that we don't learn to step back when the people who do best are the ones who truly can step back unplug. One of my favorite stories is when BlackBerry was still around the BlackBerry device and so on. Sure, the company one day, had a server failure, and everybody's blackberries died, they didn't work, Research In Motion, just wasn't getting anything to anyone. And I heard a few days later that there were even people who committed suicide because they couldn't connect at 12 o'clock at night. You know, and they didn't have any control over that we don't learn to step back and deal with some of those issues and put it in perspective, which is what it's all about. Well just change her mental health. Do you think?   Milam Miller ** 57:28 Before I answer that, I want to address that case study you share because I find that fascinating and present day. I'm hearing so many Gen Z, the cohort below my millennial cohort are purchasing razor flip phones and other sort of non smart devices which I want to be clear I think is great if that if taking that measure helps protect your mental health go for it. Because we live in such an instantaneous society, what you call stepping back, I call reconnecting to myself, disconnecting from my smartphone and reconnecting to myself. It's as silly as it sounds, we learn it on the playground, I think or in some family, some households, like take a deep breath. You know, if we take three deep breaths, we it's scientifically proven and back that we will feel a sense of calm and can come back to our sense of self or reconnect ourselves. So all that to say to answer your question, do I think change is bad for our mental health? Absolutely not. I'm gonna go with with false that's that's fictitious. And I'll tell you why. Change is scary. And it's it's, it's it's not intended to be. But that's our brain trying to protect us and keep us in that comfort zone. And like we talked about earlier, if we can realize that the brain is actually just trying to be our friend and whatever, freeze fight flight mechanisms going off. It's saying proceed with caution. But it's not saying don't proceed at all. It's saying, try on the change, see if it works and in time, you'll grow more comfortable with it, you'll see if it's if it's if it's if it's working for you. And then worst case, you can always change your mind and go back I think in society, we forget that part two if, if maybe we get it wrong, or we want to go back there's no shame in doing that. And so kind of releasing the expectation of, of changes incessant, it's, it's, it's around us, and we can always change our mind again.   Michael Hingson ** 59:33 And there's nothing wrong with that. That's right. The The reality is that the whole idea behind change is you can you can look at it and as you said you can then change again and go back to the way it was or you'll probably never go back to exactly the way it was because even if you discover that whatever change you tried, doesn't really work. It still gave you more knowledge. So you're still a different person than you were Oh,   Milam Miller ** 1:00:00 absolutely 100%.   Michael Hingson ** 1:00:03 And I think that's really kind of important to, to remember, it's something that we we need to learn. I, I've had a lot of changes happen in my life. And you know, we all have my latest probably huge changes my wife passed away last November, I didn't really see it coming until very close to the time that it occurred. But now I live alone. Except I have a cat who wants to be petted every time she wants to eat. So I get her ministrations every day. And even in the middle of the night, she'll wake me up saying Phoebe. And I'll do that once. I've told her you only get it once a night. And I have of course, guide dog Alamo. So I have some company here and other people who come and help. But it's a it's an incredible change. And I've heard other people when they had a loved one pass? How could you do that to me, I'm mad at you for doing it. And I cannot say in any way shape or form that I resent Karen's passing, I didn't like it. I'm very sad about it. I also tell people that I will not move on from Karen, I will move forward. But I won't move on. Because I'm not going to forget her. And I'm sure that she's watching from somewhere. And if I misbehave, I'm going to hear about it. So you know, I have to do that. But the reality is that it's still a huge change. And what it really did for me, was caused me to learn to remember and use tools that I didn't have to use so much while we were married for 40 years. And that now I might have to use some of those skills in a different way. Sure. But, you know, change happens. And one of the things that I feel is important is you can't be angry at change, you decide what you want to do with it.   Milam Miller ** 1:01:57 How do you want to respond to it? Yeah. What a beautiful way to to honor your your wife, Michael, Your late wife, I am curious, the new tools, or rather maybe old tools that you've had to revisit by by doing it on your own and moving forward? Not moving on from her? Has that brought you a sense of newfound confidence or self efficacy? If I can? I don't, I wouldn't. I don't maybe I don't want to do it alone. I would prefer to have her here. And I'm confident and every day taking a new step. And you're actually I'm curious what that looks like for you?   Michael Hingson ** 1:02:34 Well, I think you just described it very well, the reality is that I also did travel a lot while she was alive. So I'm used to not always being home. But the the other part of it is that I'm reminded that I do have the skills to be able to function and do things and be able to live and move and grow. And I'm going to continue to do that. And I think in part that's also honoring her.   Milam Miller ** 1:03:04 Yeah, amen. live, move and grow. I love that.   Michael Hingson ** 1:03:09 So it is kind of an important thing to do. So   Milam Miller ** 1:03:14 thank you for sharing that. Michael. I know it's grief is so complex. And it's it's not a linear process. So I really commend to you for opening up in this forum. It's it gives people permission to open up about similar loss. Well, thank   Michael Hingson ** 1:03:30 you I you know, I will always honor her and remember her and that's the way it ought to be. Amen. If there were one thing that you could change in the world, what would it be?   Milam Miller ** 1:03:42 Hmm, how long can my list be? I know you said one one thing I'm thinking of Christmas like Hey, Santa Claus, I want world hunger. Where do we start? You know I I've always been fascinated by people and human connection. What makes the Earth Spin on its axis isn't super heroes like spinning planet Earth. It's It's It's we make the world go round with the decisions we make. And not just the things we do but the the way in which we embody doing it like our actual beings. So I think I would, I would love for there to be more harmony that starts, from leaders from leaders around the world. And that may sound a bit like woowoo like world peace, but I really believe that if we lead from servant hearted leadership, if everyone believed they had the capacity to lead and tapped into cultivating confidence and kind to actions, then this would be an even better planet planet to live on.   Michael Hingson ** 1:04:56 Well, I absolutely agree with you if we really want would go back to the whole idea of servant leadership, servant hearted leadership, and truly brought that into being around the world, it would be a much better thing. But unfortunately, you know, right now we've got too many people who are in it for them. And, yeah, they're not, they're not recognizing how much better they would be if they truly learned to be the servant leaders that they probably could be. And if they can't do that, then they really shouldn't try to be leaders. And we need to recognize that and feel empowered to say to them, if you can't really be a servant, to lead appropriately, then we're not going to accept that, and we're not going to acc

Brendan Schwartz is the Co-Founder and CTO of Wistia, software that makes it easy to find, engage, and grow your audience with video. Victoria talks to Brendan about the latest updates on the platform, interesting problems he found that Wistia was able to remove and help his team get to speed and velocity, and the personal value that drives his decision-making. Wista (https://wistia.com/) Follow Wistia on Twitter (https://twitter.com/wistia) or LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/company/wistia/). Follow Brendan Schwartz on LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/in/brendanschwartz/), Twitter (https://twitter.com/brendan), or visit his website (https://brendanschwartz.com/). Follow thoughtbot on Twitter (https://twitter.com/thoughtbot) or LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/company/150727/). Become a Sponsor (https://thoughtbot.com/sponsorship) of Giant Robots! Transcript: VICTORIA: This is the Giant Robots Smashing Into Other Giant Robots Podcast, where we explore the design, development, and business of great products. I'm your host, Victoria Guido. And with me today is Brendan Schwartz, Co-Founder and CTO of Wistia, software that makes it easy to find, engage, and grow your audience with video. Brendan, thank you for joining us. BRENDAN: Thanks so much for having me. VICTORIA: And I believe this will be your third time, at least, on the Giant Robots Podcast, right? BRENDAN: Yes, I think this is my third appearance. Thank you for having me back. VICTORIA: Yes. BRENDAN: Is there anything I receive? What is it when you host SNL in a [crosstalk 00:39]. VICTORIA: You get a jacket. BRENDAN: A jacket, yeah. VICTORIA: Yeah, we should. BRENDAN: [laughs] VICTORIA: We should do a Giant Robots jacket or something from returned guests. I love it. So it's been great to follow along your journey here. So, for those who don't know, like, what is Wistia? And I'll say, just a precursor, that thoughtbot is a client of Wistia. So we use it ourselves. But why don't you just give us a little bit about what is the product and what makes it different? BRENDAN: Sure. And thank you so much for being a customer all these years. You kind of hit it at the top, but we help businesses of all sizes thrive with video. And so we serve mostly marketers. To dive a little bit into the history of the business, we'll be around seven...is that right? 17 years. It sounds like a long time when I say it out loud, [laughs] 17 years this June. And, for most of our history, we were, I'd say, a video-hosting platform for marketers. So if you want to put video on your website, track who's watching it, how they're watching it, and integrate that data with your other marketing systems, that was our focus and what we did. And over, I'd say, the past two years, we've brought in that focus to help businesses with all aspects of their video marketing from creating video...We recently introduced a live video product for webinars and for live events last fall. We just launched last week, which I'm very excited about native video recording in the Wistia platform. So you can record your webcam and your screen. And there's also a very simple video editor in the platform, which has been really powerful for folks to make small adjustments to content or to atomize content, take out highlights or sections of things, and to be able to publish them to their audiences. VICTORIA: Thank you for providing that context. And I'm curious if there were any, like, environmental or market forces that pushed you in that direction with the latest updates on the platform. BRENDAN: So, like I mentioned, we...in a large part, our success came (We're a relatively small team.) it came from being focused. And so for, you know, that decade or more, there were a lot of things that we had heard from the market or from customers. Like, live video was an obvious one we had been asked for a really long time. When will Wistia do live? When will Wistia do live? And, you know, our approach to that is we want to be really good and excellent at the things that we do and be focused. And I think that has served us well over the time that we've existed. And some of that came out of; I'd say, the really early days of the company where...it's funny, [laughs] we've always built Wistia, you know, sometimes we say in the shadow of YouTube, so YouTube and seeing YouTube. My co-founder was the first person who showed me YouTube in 2005, I think it was, and that was part of the inspiration to start Wistia. We are both really into video. And we saw that and having video be more accessible on the web, we knew was something that was going to change the world. There was a question...this sounds kind of dated nowadays to say, but there was a question if you were starting a business, you know, let's say, in 2006 or 2007 or '8, right? What are you going to do when Google enters your space? [laughs] It was a funny one for us to answer because we said...well, I forgot when YouTube was bought by Google. It was maybe in 2006 or something like that. Like, Google is already in our space, and it's free. So that was always an interesting challenge. And the way that we were successful there [laughs]...obviously, YouTube is at a much larger scale [laughs] and level of success than Wistia is. But to the extent we have a business at all against a very well-known and free competitor from those early days, it was being really focused on our customers and keeping the product footprint fairly small. Our business changed a lot during the pandemic. There were some obvious things, right? Video was used a lot more. So existing customers had a lot more usage. We saw an influx of customers, people who maybe were late to adopt video in their organization, and then that became a much obvious way that people could reach their audiences and grow. So that was something of a tailwind for us. And then it also forced us to kind of take a step back and look at the market in general with clear eyes. It was a funny moment, I think, for me and my co-founder because in the years leading up to that, you know, it had been like 12,13 years of doing Wistia, and it felt like we had solved a lot of problems in the product. We were still building new things, but they were for the most mature part of our audience or the most advanced marketers, which was pretty fun. But it felt like a lot of the problems had been solved. We were always, like, is the product done? Is the product complete? And when we took a step back and looked at the market, what we had found was that we had kind of just, like, got ourselves into this, you know, more mature corner of the market. But in a large part, because of COVID, so many businesses, existing and new businesses, were very new to video and were using video in new ways. And people who had been using video, their solutions to do that were super fragmented. You'd have one product that is providing...[laughs] You might have a different product you're using for internal meetings, video meetings, and that's different than a live event product, that's different than a webinar product, that's different than where you might publish your videos or host your videos, which is different than how you'd, like, analyze your performance. And as video became more important to organizations, that fragmentation of the solutions was something that was super painful. And we had heard from a lot of people who were Wistia customers and people who were not...having this as an all-in-one platform was something that they really desired, which I was also kind of, you know, we were, like, cynical about a little bit, right? Because if [laughs] you're in the world of product, it's like you can ask, you know, if you had a magic wand, what would you want? And someone says, "Oh, I want it all in one. And if you could just do everything for me, that would be so great." You know, it's hard to say, is that what people really want? And what gave us more confidence at that was, correct, is when we started digging into some of the details and hearing about existing workflows that existed that marketers have to deal with, including ourselves. We do a lot of content marketing. A lot of the really interesting things you could do in a product that is all in one it opens up new opportunities. And you could just imagine...you've hosted a webinar before. Almost always, it's the best practice that you host a webinar; after you're finished, you probably have a good marketing asset there. You should publish it to your website. You usually need to do some light editing. Maybe you're going to take off the Q&A before you publish it. And you put it on your website. And then, a while later, you're like, was this effective? Did it work? And then you have to, you know, probably have a spreadsheet somewhere. You have to go into the tool used to host the webinar to figure out who was watching it and [laughs] who registered. Did they attend? And then where's the data for how it performed on your website? How many people watched it? Did you get subscribers if you were, you know, had an email gate on that content? It's cumbersome, and it's a mess. And then, you know, the most motivated people who are well-resourced have the time to do that and analyze the performance. But then a lot of marketers who are on smaller teams they just don't have time to do that, which means a lot of content gets under-utilized or under-marketed. So a lot of evidence and motivation to change what we were doing and expand the product footprint. So that had us make a big investment in our product design and engineering teams, and we almost...we doubled them in about 18 months. And then that kind of set us on this journey that we started maybe two years ago to greatly expand what we're doing. VICTORIA: Well, that's great. So just to play that back, staying close and focused on your customers almost had you to a point of being stable with your product until COVID happened. And you have this increased demand for video that opened it up to almost have Wistia be like a startup again and create a whole new feature branch, right? BRENDAN: Yeah, that's exactly right. And that was really fun and motivating. I mean, we...that early-stage energy and not having all the answers to things where stuff is a little bit, you know, less-researched, and it's faster paced is something that I really like. That was a big shift for the company. So there was some, I don't know, I think we had some self-doubt a little bit if I'm honest, of, you know, when you've been so focused for so long. Like, can we do this? Like, will we be able to create something really good with this expanded footprint, and what resources that take? And is it going to take shifting the culture and mindset of the team, like, in ourselves? But, I don't know, that's kind of why I started the [laughs] business in the first, like, the adventure and not knowing what's next is very appealing. So that's been the fun part of it. VICTORIA: And how did you go about shifting that mindset? Or even what was the moment where you realized that you needed to go after this shift? And how did you start lobbying everyone around you to get on board? BRENDAN: A lot of those customer interviews and market interviews, we worked with an outside firm. We worked with Boston Consulting Group, who was a really great partner. We have obviously worked with folks outside. We hadn't worked with somebody; I'd say, at that scale in terms of kind of, like, tie-in with our company strategy today. But that was really helpful to have a partner, especially to push us. We got to something different than we had been doing, I mean, not dramatically so. But it was expanding what we were doing. So that was really helpful. It helped...that put some structure around it to what we had, and the whole company knew this was happening and was along for the ride. So I'd say the communication and getting to a clear strategy was something we did pretty well, and telling that story internally. I'd say where we didn't do as well [laughs] and were maybe late to make some decisions is how the culture would need to change to support that strategy. Again, like I said, we've doubled the product design and engineering teams. That is now feeling in a pretty good spot, but that was a lot of growth for us. And was, I'd say, pretty messy along the way. So the beginning, I'd say, was clear, and I think communicated well. And then I feel like in the middle it was, I don't know, a big mess where we got maybe a year in, and we're like, wow, we have this new strategy, but we really haven't executed much on it. Some of these things we're building are taking a lot longer than we thought. Our velocity doesn't feel great. Like, maybe we didn't plan some of this stuff out. Like, we've hired a lot of people, but, like, are they productive yet? And so, yeah, I think we were in a pretty [laughs] tough spot maybe last summer. We were a year into this strategic shift, but it didn't feel like we were really moving against it as much as we had hoped. VICTORIA: It makes sense that it would take some time to change strategic direction and then get to that high-velocity point that you would expect. Were there other blockers that you found you were able to remove to get the team back up to that high velocity on delivering features for clients? BRENDAN: [laughs] Well, it's funny that you say that. I wish; I mean, that is pretty obvious, I think, and obvious in retrospect. But, for some reason, when you're in this, or when we were in this, you're impatient, and you want it faster. And I think probably [laughs] having some clear expectations would have made the ride a little smoother along the way for this. I feel like I have to remind myself of this pretty frequently. I mean, Wistia is not big. We're 180 people or so but certainly bigger than...I can think back to various other sizes. Doing that strategic shift it takes time for leadership, let's say, or me to shift my mindset about some of those things. And then once you've changed your mind, you kind of... it's easy, or at least for me, to discount the time it took and all the information it took to lead to that, which needs to cascade through an organization. And so that's where some of that impatience...or just the piece you said about, yeah, it makes sense that this would take time. I was like -- VICTORIA: [laughs] [inaudible 11:56] BRENDAN: [laughter] You're like, once you've got it, you're like, wow, this is so exciting. Let's go. Let's go. And everybody is like, what are you talking about? VICTORIA: Yeah. My background has been in, like, Federal IT consulting. So you're used to kind of the pace of things being a little slower. And I think people forget that as an organization gets to any amount of size, that kind of bureaucracy tends to creep in. And, like you're saying, the information just needs to cascade down throughout everybody. I think my original question was, were there any blockers or interesting problems you found that you were able to remove and help your team get to that speed or velocity you really wanted? BRENDAN: Yeah, there were a lot. I think most of them and most of the hardest ones to move centered around cultural change, and they weren't necessarily so clear at the onset. And so, you know, one thing that kind of partway into the strategy change that became clear is, and you had said it, it's like going from, you know, basically thinking of ourselves as being in a late stage or more mature market to being in an early-stage environment. And the type of culture that, you know, succeeds in those worlds is different. One thing that we've learned along the way at Wistia that we have employed and I think been successful with is this concept that when you update your strategy as a company, you should be thoughtful and, like, make conscious updates to your culture and values. And so much is that...so you're saying culture is the way that you work. You want that to be in support of strategy. And I remember when I first heard this concept, and we were earlier into our journey. I was like, what is this, like, corporate nonsense? Culture is just this, like, intangible, you know, it's this sum of how everyone works. And it's, like, this beautiful symphony of values. [laughs] It was a more kind of, like, idealistic [laughs] view of it or more organic view of it, which I think is reasonable. But you can also be intentional about your culture. So when we wrestled with that the first time...this was many years ago when we updated. I forgot even what the strategic changes at the time. But we updated our values, and we set about making a conscious cultural change. So when we changed the strategy this time, we did the same thing. I'd say we were a little bit late doing it, like, getting to it. But we did do it. And so some of that was there were certain things...so, for instance, being so focused. We had a really lean team. And we were optimizing for things like predictability of outcomes and needing to be correct. So, for instance, if you're only going to make...let's just, like, say, on the product side. Like, if you're only going to be able to ship or do, you know, a few big improvements to the product per year, like, you're well served to kind of go slowly and make sure those have a reasonable chance of success. This was, like, the culture and the mode that we were in. That doesn't really work very well when you're in an early-stage environment where things are pretty unpredictable and things are moving really quickly. So that was an example of something that we kind of identified, and we're like, we're going to need to change this. So it was this shift from teams feeling the need to be correct and really well-researched about something to moving towards; I'd say, you need to talk to a lot of customers to build customer intuition in order to make decisions faster. But that shouldn't be the case that; for every product decision you need to make, you have to talk to 5 or 10 customers to validate that. You should be able to build an intuition to be able to make those decisions faster, and we should be more tolerant of failure. And so, we should work in a more incremental style. I mean, some of this is, like, super familiar to anybody [laughs] listening to this, right? It's like a more agile style. So work more incrementally, like, work incrementally towards great as opposed to, you know, this big thing that's going to be super polished and correct from the jump. VICTORIA: I think that's really interesting. And it's not necessarily wrong to be so thorough in your changes when you're in that steady state, and you, like, know what clients you have, and you have a pretty well-defined product. But it's interesting that it took quite a bit of effort, it sounds like, to shift back into a flow state where you're incrementally doing changes very frequently to get that new product and find those new customers that you're targeting. BRENDAN: And it continues to be. We've made a lot of progress on this. And maybe it's helpful...I don't know if it's helpful to folks listening to dive into some of the details of how we went about making those changes. It's still really difficult, right? There's a lot of things in tension. So I'd say in our previous mode, one thing we were pretty good about is when something was released, it was well-tested. It was high quality. It was, like, well-communicated. Throughout the org, people knew what was coming. Obviously, there were hiccups with that, but, like, that's the side of the spectrum that we were on there. And then in this mode where we're building faster and more incrementally, we have a lot of internal tension in terms of quality, like, is this good enough? Is this first version good enough? Are we going to make a bad first impression? And so, obviously, you do this for a...it's a set of trade-offs, right? There's no free lunch, but that is still very much we're trying to find the right balance. VICTORIA: Right. So, like, in your role as CTO, how do you make people feel comfortable failing [laughs] [inaudible 17:06] describing. BRENDAN: Some of this cultural change, I think, it's been interesting to go through because some of the properties of how we had been working are, you know, things that are part of the way I like to work. Like, it makes me uncomfortable to release something that you know the flaws in it. And that's an old kind of startup advice that I think is generally right. Like, if you release something and it doesn't make you a little bit uncomfortable, you have waited too long. [laughs] Advice is very easy and abstract. It's hard to apply. Like, there's a huge spectrum there of, like, how uncomfortable [laughs] you want to be. But I will say that that's been something that's been, yeah, hard to reconcile with. And I guess that the piece that I'm able to do in my role is, like, remind folks where we're headed, right? So the first version can be a bit rough. What matters is what happens after that. So, if we're quick to listen to customers, to fix those things, to correct that, and people can see that momentum, I think that matters for a lot. And I think that's, like, something...I've been telling that story repeatedly. Internally, I've had other leaders, and that's what we've really been leaning on is, like, we've adjusted how we're delivering customer value. And that we're going to push things out that might be a little bit more raw, but where we ultimately are going to get them to and get them to quickly is something that we're really proud of. So that has helped. And then, I'd say we still haven't figured out, which is, again, like, in these smaller increments, things can be a failure, and that's okay as long as we learn something and correct and move forward. And one thing that's been a little bit tricky to recognize, too, is there's some places where you have some experiment, and you're not actually sure if there's a market or if there's a need for a feature. So you might do something, and it really doesn't land well. And then you learn something about the market or the customer base and say, okay, that isn't what people needed. But, in a lot of places that we're building product, like, let's say, take live video, for example. [laughs] When we launch a live video product, it may be a failure. Like, the first version may not be completely right or may be a failure. But the customer need for [laughs] a live video for a webinar exists, right? So that's not the type of failure that you go, oh, I guess there's not [laughs] a market there. Or, it's like, you go back and say, okay, how do we need to improve this to make it work? I don't think we have the right language internally around that. You know, there are certain areas where it's like a failure, and then it's like, okay, we've learned not to do that again. And there's other areas where it's like, we're going to keep...[laughs] not we're going to keep failing. I mean, there are goals to succeed, right? But we're going to keep improving this until we get it to work because we know there is a market here, and there is a customer need. VICTORIA: Making a culture where it's acceptable to run experiments [chuckles] and as long as you're learning from the failures. And honestly, it sounds like you all are very connected to your customer. Like, you're talking to them regularly. You're testing out features with them and getting that feedback. And that sounds like that's really what you want to focus on and want your whole team to focus on. BRENDAN: Yes, yeah, exactly. Mid-Roll Ad: As life moves online, bricks-and-mortar businesses are having to adapt to survive. With over 18 years of experience building reliable web products and services, thoughtbot is the technology partner you can trust. We provide the technical expertise to enable your business to adapt and thrive in a changing environment. We start by understanding what's important to your customers to help you transition to intuitive digital services your customers will trust. We take the time to understand what makes your business great and work fast yet thoroughly to build, test, and validate ideas, helping you discover new customers. Take your business online with design‑driven digital acceleration. Find out more at tbot.io/acceleration or click the link in the show notes for this episode. VICTORIA: You mentioned a little bit about your values. So, what would you say is, like, your most important personal value that drives your decision-making at Wistia? BRENDAN: So, like I mentioned, we've changed our values over time when we've changed strategy. And we think of our values as a decision-making framework, not as a set of things that we value. For instance, if you go on our website on wistia.com, I think about/values, about/company. It's somewhere. And you can see our values. It's not a list of everything that Wistia values or even the things that we value the most. For example, Wistia has, like, creativity is something that I value a lot that is very built into Wistia's culture that we value a lot, but it's not a listed value. It used to be at one point, and then we found that as a decision-making tool, it wasn't very helpful. [laughs] If you're faced with a decision, and you say, okay, one of the values is creativity, how do I make this more creative, right? VICTORIA: [laughs] BRENDAN: That's not usually the question you want to ask. So we have, over the years, shifted towards the values are a decision-making framework. And I'd say the one value that has stood the test of time in there is simplicity, which is not unique to Wistia, but it's something that I care a lot about personally. It's served us well as a business. It's almost always harder to get to a simple solution or answer than it is to get to a complex one. It takes a lot of failure. Sometimes there isn't a simple solution, but I think it's always worth the pursuit of trying to find one. And that's served us well in keeping a focused and easy-to-use product. I think that's fairly self-evident [laughs] why that matters to customers. And it's something that I think it's hard to do as you grow, and add, and get bigger. And it's an important feature of the product. And it's an important feature of, I don't know, companies' internal policies or the employee experience. The simpler something is, it's easier to understand. I think the more someone who works inside your company can wrap their arms around more of that context or, you know, more of the product, more of the all the ins and outs of how it is to work there, the better informed they'll be, the better faster they'll be able to make decisions, and the better work they'll be able to do. So, yeah, simplicity, minimalism, those are things I think that have served us well over the years. VICTORIA: Oh, I appreciate that. I could see how that could apply to how you're writing your code, or how you're designing a feature, or even your pricing structure. BRENDAN: Yeah, and I don't think...we definitely don't always get it right. So, you know, all of this is aspirational, but I think it's the right thing to aspire to. VICTORIA: Right. Oh, I'm familiar. [laughter] It's like that, I mean, the Marie Kondo, like, keeping it simple and organized. It's definitely aspirational [laughter] in my personal life as well. But that makes sense. Okay, I have a fun one for you. What is your favorite viral video style that you think people should do more of on Wistia? [laughs] BRENDAN: Oh, whoa. That's a hot-button one. [laughs] I think we have long said...this, like, feels like it takes me back to when we first started Wistia. The term viral and viral video was a new thing for the internet, I guess because video on the internet was still fairly new. I've always been on the side of this, like, hardworking video. And most of our customers are B2B businesses, so these are, like, marketing teams at B2B companies. I'm sure a lot of people who are listening to this have seen some very cringeworthy, you know, attempts at a viral video made by various corporations. Those usually don't land well. There are some people out there maybe that can crack this and make something that is viral through some art and science, but most everybody else cannot. VICTORIA: [laughs] BRENDAN: It's like, not something that can be kind of, like, bottled and captured. So we've always been on the side of, like, be authentic, be yourself, make these harder-working videos. But -- VICTORIA: I think that's generally good advice for businesses that was, like, maybe don't try to just do viral trends...[laughs] Like, make your own authentic content. But you personally now, like, yeah, if you were going to do whatever the latest TikTok trend is, which one would you pick? BRENDAN: You know, okay, maybe here's one. So we have always been, as I described it, on the side of, like, do not do this. It is, like, almost always going to be cringe-worthy. But do you remember...I don't know what year this is from, the Harlem Shake. It was mostly kind of a business trend, right? You'd play this track, the Harlem Shake, and have, like, when the beat dropped, it would go from normal office to everyone dancing in a costume. VICTORIA: Oh, that's fun. BRENDAN: So it was, like, a fun trend. But it was...we were and still are, I'd say, fairly, like, anti-trend. I don't know what, you know, like, contrarian when it comes to marketing trends or things like that. But then, when this happened, we were like, this will be really funny. We should set a calendar reminder to do this, like, ten years in the future. Actually, the last onsite that we had; unfortunately, it was the last day. Our head of production [laughs] who, like, we kind of had this, like, running joke of he randomly saw a news article. I think that it was the 10-year anniversary of the Harlem Shake [laughs] or whatever. He's like, oh, this would be...this is the perfect time to do this, now that it's so, so, so out of vogue. But, you know, people, like, maybe have fond memories of it. And now this is so out of fashion. I think it could be funny to do it. [laughs] VICTORIA: Yeah, right. You don't want to do it just because it's the trend. But if it fits your personality and your business, then I think it would make sense. BRENDAN: Yeah. VICTORIA: I've heard that there might be a Wes Anderson style. [laughs] And I wanted to do a Wes Anderson goes to RailsConf video, but I'm actually meeting this -- BRENDAN: Did you do it? VICTORIA: I didn't do it. I'm not actually good enough. I think tomorrow I'm meeting with the Wistia customer success team. [laughs] I'm going to ask them to help me. BRENDAN: Oh yes, we'll help you. VICTORIA: Yes. BRENDAN: I do like...that trend is nice. That feels like a; I don't know, like, less aggressive. I've seen a lot of those, and they don't feel, I don't know, cringeworthy to me because maybe it's a nice shell in which to put some personality and content, as opposed to -- VICTORIA: Just being goofy or whatever, yeah. [laughs] BRENDAN: Yeah, I don't know exactly how to describe it. But I think that one works better. Yeah, someone at Wistia did that the other day in the office, and people enjoyed it a lot. That was more for, like, internal consumption. But those ones are nice. VICTORIA: Yeah. Well, I like the idea of bringing some of these editing tools to marketing teams where they can maybe not create viral videos all the time but do a lot of very highly editing and having it all in one place as well. Like you mentioned, I do run webinars, [laughs] and I'm familiar with the bouncing around between different tools to get everything to work. And there's even sometimes, like, security issues with different types of video-hosting tools. So I think there's a lot to offer for a marketing team who may not have as many resources to do the individual pieces. BRENDAN: Yeah, that's a story we've heard, yeah, from a lot of customers. And we have a lot of video resources internally because we're a video company, and we invest a lot in that. But even so, yeah, if you talk to folks on our marketing team, they'd say it's hard to get those resources, especially if you have something small that you want to do. I think it's always better if the person who has the need can easily do the thing themselves, right? More and better work gets done that way versus if it's, like, this chain of having to, like, ask other people because then you're like, should I really ask? It's like, do I want to, you know, spend social capital or budget on this thing? Will it work, will it not? But you can be, I think, faster and also experiment more when you have those tools available to you. VICTORIA: Yeah, no, that makes sense. Because I don't know if it's worth [laughs] me spending my team's time to make this Wes Anderson video, but I want to do it for fun. So we'll see if I can do it at RubyKaigi next week. BRENDAN: You should. That's great. That's, like, the perfect example of it because I feel like, yeah, well, maybe not. You might be sheepish to be like, yeah, I'm going to spend, like, ten grand with this, like, contractor to make this Wes Anderson...and to be like, what do you...what? What are you doing? VICTORIA: [laughs] That makes sense. BRENDAN: But if you do it, I think, you know, it's very likely it'll be really well-received, and you'll learn something about your audience. And then that could, like, blossom into, you know, a whole bunch of other things. I feel like that's been the case for us in our content marketing. We've long said, and this is, like, much more commonplace now, but one of the advantages of having a video producer in-house, like, is exactly that you now are employing someone full-time. And so you've, you know, like, maybe knocked off, like, the major pieces of content that a business would make with video, some of the obvious things. But then it's exactly what you're talking about that, oh, we could take a risk, and we could try this. And that's where you learn and figure out new things and things that are different than your competitors might be doing or more creative approaches. VICTORIA: Oh, That's great. You know, something I like to ask everybody who comes on the show, and it will be super interesting since you've been on a few times before, but if you could go back in time to your younger self when you first started Wistia, what advice would you give yourself? BRENDAN: Patient...One funny thing of when we started Wistia, we had really unrealistic expectations. I don't think that's [laughs] unique when starting a business when you're young. But yeah, I was 22 or 23, as was my co-founder, Chris. And we really honestly thought—this is, like, this is cringeworthy to say—that we would either be really successful and, in six months, build this great business and sell it to Facebook or now Meta, right? But that was, like, a hot company at the time. So we'd be wildly successful and sell to Facebook in six months, or we would fail in obscurity. That was, like, our honest-to-goodness business plan, which is so naive. [laughs] And here we are, you know, 17 years later and having a wonderful time. So I guess I would say, I mean, it's the most cliché advice, and you're young, and you never listen to stuff like this, but it's, like, enjoy the journey. [laughter] Things haven't always been easy. And there are, you know, hard challenges and, like, times filled with self-doubt. But even in those moments, if you have support from people around you, if you can learn to enjoy the growth and the journey, that is what keeps you motivated to do something for a long period of time. And usually, you know, people who stay focused on something for a long period of time you figure it out and can be successful. This sounds like the most generic advice as I say this out loud. VICTORIA: [laughs] BRENDAN: It really is. Enjoy the journey. [laughs] VICTORIA: Enjoy the journey. But I think that's common. And even actually talking with Chad a few weeks ago and interviewing him about thoughtbot, is his younger self would tell him to have more fun [laughs] during the whole process and really enjoy it. And I think it's also interesting that you had either the most optimistic and the most [laughs] pessimistic as options and, like, nothing in between [laughter] that you expected would happen. Which is funny because I have people ask me, like, is there still money in building apps and building new products? And it's like, yeah, like, it feels like there's these big people in the space, and they're doing everything you could think of possible. But there's still niche market that you can pursue [laughs], right? And there is still the ways that you can differentiate yourself as a product. BRENDAN: Yeah, I think that's exactly right. What advice would you give to your younger self? VICTORIA: Oh, me? I think, you know, probably something similar. Like, I feel like all of the times in my life where I've been, like, what am I going to do next and been really stressed out about it, within, like, three to six months, I found a new job, or I found something better where life improved a hundred-fold. [laughter]. So I think that's something even now I like to keep in mind is, like, if things turned down badly, like; usually, things turn around in a few months after that, [laughs] and a lot of times for the better. And that's, you know, true with, like, moving to California across the country from DC a few years ago. And yeah, a few other points like that. I think the other part I think about is who I might have invested more time in and who I would have invested less time in. And like what you were saying, like, having the support of people around you, and finding the people who really have your back and support you, and, for people who don't, maybe letting go a little sooner. [laughs] BRENDAN: Oh, interesting. Yeah, that's good advice. Yeah, I feel like both of those things are things I should probably remind myself of more frequently. [laughs] VICTORIA: Right? And have more fun, which means...there's another quote I heard that's, like, when people travel back in time, they're worried about changing a small thing that will affect the future. But people don't think that they can make small changes now that will affect their future big time. BRENDAN: Oh, that's a good one. I haven't heard that. But that's a good one. VICTORIA: Well, super cool. Just to kind of really summarize or go back to some things we mentioned already about video, just how important do you think video really is to marketing in the current landscape for businesses? BRENDAN: I mean, [laughs] I'm a very biased party, but I think it is becoming increasingly more important. I think it is the default way a lot of people want to consume information. This is a whole other tip that we didn't talk about with what's happening in the world of generative AI. And I'm sure a lot of people listening to this have voice cloning and how good those things have been getting. I think it's going to make the value of authentic connections in video much more important in the short and medium term. And there's some challenging questions about how do you tell what's real in an environment where we've gone past the uncanny valley in terms of generating, you know, an avatar of me or you with the perfect voice clone? But I think people are going to rely a lot on video to break through. VICTORIA: Yeah, that makes a lot of sense. It's going to be just more video world [laughs] as it goes. What does success look like for Wistia six months from now and even five years from now, the longer term? BRENDAN: I think for six months from now, so there's a lot of new areas of the product that we've added. And, in the next six months, we should be able to make pretty substantial progress to have those parts of the product have really solid adoption and repeated usage by customers. I think that's what success looks like, which we're seeing it now for our editors, probably the farthest along, that it has really good adoption among the customer base, and repeat usage, which I think is, like, a really good sign of success for a product. Live is still really early for us. You don't get a lot of shots if something goes wrong with a live event. [laughs] You know, I'd be pretty quick to look for another platform. And that's a pretty mature market where there are a lot of really strong competition. I think if we can get to a place in six months where we've got, you know, a few hundred customers using that every week or every month, we'd feel like we're on a path towards success. And the five-year version, I don't know, we recently started making three-year goals for the company a few years ago that have been pretty helpful to have as an anchoring. We have not made a five-year goal. But the thing I'm very excited about right now and what we're doing is, again, like, live is a small example. The market for live itself is much bigger than the market that traditionally Wistia has been in, and just in terms of video hosting, which itself has always grown a lot over the years. And it's itself a big market, as is video recording and creating video. So we have entered into a bunch of new markets that are all really quite large. And it's pretty humbling to be in a spot where I feel like we have a really solid base with a lot of in-depth knowledge of marketing and our customer to be able to build a really excellent product for that set. We're playing in a much bigger market than I ever thought we would. VICTORIA: It's like, success already achieved. [laughter] BRENDAN: Well, I don't know. It doesn't feel that way. It doesn't feel that way. But -- [laughs] VICTORIA: Maybe next time you come on the podcast, you'll have another success story to share with us. [laughs] BRENDAN: I hope so. Yeah, I feel like that's always the case, right? It's like, yeah, there are moments where we're certainly very proud of what we've been able to achieve. But most of my time is spent [laughs] in the headspace of, you know, why are we so slow? Why is the product not good enough? Why are we, you know, like, all the stuff that's going wrong, right? Which drives you to be better and is exciting. VICTORIA: Right. That makes sense. Well, hopefully, this helps remind you all the good stuff that you all have done so far, too. BRENDAN: [laughs] VICTORIA: I'm really excited to hear about just how your values drive your decisions and then how that goes to the rest of the team and how closely you're listening to your customers, too, on the product. I think those are all just really great cultural examples and ways to build great products. So, thank you for sharing your story with me. And you can subscribe to the show and find notes along with a complete transcript for this episode at giantrobots.fm. And if you have questions or comments, you can email us at hosts@giantrobots.fm. And you can find me on Twitter at @victori_ousg. This podcast is brought to you by thoughtbot and produced and edited by Mandy Moore. ANNOUNCER: This podcast is brought to you by thoughtbot, your expert strategy, design, development, and product management partner. We bring digital products from idea to success and teach you how because we care. Learn more at thoughtbot.com. Special Guest: Brendan Schwartz.

Teman Del, healing atau jalan-jalan jadi kesukaan banyak orang, melihat alam ataupun berkunjung ke tempat wisata. Namun orang-orang ketempat wisata tidak jarang membawa makanan yang sampahnya masih terbuang dengan sembarangan. Berikut ini yuk kita dengar kombur (komedi batak seru) yang membahas tentang jaga kebersihan tempat wisata. --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/delfm-radio/message

This In Conversation episode of the Maritime Podcast marks the IMO's first International Day for Women in Maritime on May 18, 2022. Elpi Petraki , Operations, Chartering & Business Development Manager at ENEA Management and President, WISTA Hellas discusses the work underway and the work still left to do to improve diversity in our industry both ashore and at sea. We then lean on Elpi's expertise and experience to explore the short sea shipping market in Europe, and the challenges facing operators there as regulatory burdens on the fragmented market increase. If you like the show, make sure to subscribe and follow https://bit.ly/3vyvzqK (The Maritime Podcast). Feel free also to recommend the show to a friend or colleague that you think would enjoy it.   For all the news on the shipping and maritime industries make sure you check out https://bit.ly/3kwFGWI (Seatrade Maritime News). To learn more about sponsorships and digital marketing opportunities, https://bit.ly/37Uxflx (click here).

The World Maritime Technology Conference took place in Copenhagen from April 26th to April 28th 2022 (It should have taken place last year but the pandemic put things on hold).During the event five members of WISTA (Women's International Shipping and Trading Association) Technology and Futures Committee were in the audience and taking part in sessions. I cornered them for 20 minutes to talk about where WISTA stands today and the difference it is, and can make.Around the table are:Federica Maiorano (WISTA Monaco) SpotShipSofia Fürstenberg Stott (WISTA Sweden) Fürstenberg Maritime AdvisoryBeverley Mackenzie (WISTA UK) BIMCOJocelyn Hansen (WISTA Denmark) SearoutesKatia Corfini (WISTA Italy) GoversiliaA full transcript of the show can be found onhttps://fathom.world/aronnax-podcast-technology-and-the-future-of-shipping-with-wista/ Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/aronnax. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

With over 15 years of experience in Maritime Emergency Response and Business Development, Lindsay Malen–Habib, Manager Client Services, Resolve Marine Group, knows all there is to know about salvage.  Lindsay is the first guest on the Shipping Podcast with a second appearance. If you want to listen to her first interview, search for episode #54 or her name Lindsay Malen.  Lindsay was elected as the first woman on the leadership committee of the American Salvage Association. She was appointed its first female President, where she was responsible for the growth of the organization, working with members, and up keeping relationships with USCG, SUPSALV, NOAA, BSSEE, and Congress amongst other tasks.  We have a long conversation about salvage, diversity, the profile of our industry, WISTA (of course) and the next generation.  Enjoy!   

It was really nice to connect with Sarah and hear about her story. From humble beginnings with a Canon AE-1 Program to a Pentax 67 she jumped into the world of large format with a Wista 4x5 before moving into the wild world of 8x10. We talked about how photography is an interesting tool to use to connect with community and her experiences with it. If you missed the live you'll have a good time listening to the recording. Thank you for hanging out with me Sarah :)Here is a little more about her."Blurb: Sarah Stellino is a self-taught large format film photographer based in Madison, Wisconsin. She is a queer woman who is passionate about helping folks within the LGBQTIA+ community feel seen and worthy through portraiture. Sarah is currently in the beginning stages of creating her first large body of work - Queering Rural Spaces - which aims to challenge the assumption that queer culture begins at the doorstep of urban cities. In her portraiture practice, she primarily uses large-format black and white film, and enjoys taking a hands-on approach to her portraits by developing her own film and making prints in the darkroom."Follow Sarah at https://www.instagram.com/sarahstellinophoto/Photography Chat is a weekly Instagram Live @merlindb hosts every Thursday at 5pmPST/8pmESTGive me a follow if you want to see the episodes live https://www.instagram.com/merlindb/Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/photographychat/donations

In this latest episode In Conversation of the Maritime Podcast Claudia Ohlmeier, President of WISTA Germany, talks to Marcus Hand, Seatrade Maritime News Editor, ahead of the WISTA International AGM and Conference in Hamburg. The conversation takes a preview of some of the topics to be discussed at the conference with a particular focus on the environment and issues around people and diversity in the maritime industry. Claudia and Marcus discuss how the maritime industries are changing with regard to people and diversity and meeting the future needs of the sector. They also talk about the progress shipping is making on decarbonisation, how it is changing business models and what needs to be done. On a lighter note Claudia explains to listeners about the unique venue for this year's WISTA International AGM and Conference.

In this episode, Bruce sits down with Chris Meador of Wistia, who joined the tech startup during a period of growth and transformation to reimagine their marketing strategy as they continued to scale. In this episode, we chat about how to revamp marketing practices and effectively transitioning marketing team to adopt a customer-first, insights-driven approach for all campaigns, leading to wins like increased lead volume increases and double digit revenue growth. We also chat about Chris' history working with Facebook, and what it means to create a "job" within a job.

Yihharn Liu is an exterior yacht designer and the 2019 winner of the The Young Designer of the Year awardYihharn is the first woman to win the prestigious Yacht Design Award. She says that winning it fully opened the door for her in the yachting industry. Since then she has inspired thousands to follow her path and become yacht designers.She works as a Yacht Exterior Designer at Winch Design, and her responsibilities include exterior design, general arrangement, and more.  FOLLOW YACHT FEMME:https://anchor.fm/yacht-femmeInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/yachtfemme/YouTube: http://bit.ly/YT-YachtdameFOLLOW YIHHARN:Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/yihharn.liu/LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/yihharnliu/@yachtfemme @yihharn.liu#womeninmaritime #maritime #humansatsea #shipping #womenatsea #family #merchantnavy #worldmaritimeday #ship #instashipping #lifeatsea #sea #maritimewomen #iamonboard #womenoffshore #sealife #wista #womeninshipping #shipspotting #merchantmarine #womenempowerment #marineengineer #imo #merchantnavyday #ni #shipsandseas #instasea #diversityandinclusion #nauticalinstitute #yachting

Today I’m delighted to be joined by Cusack and Co, an innovative maritime law firm who are building a much-needed space for likeminded individuals and companies to do law differently. As top carriers continue to merge, shippers need personalised ocean carriage contracts to protect their businesses, now more than ever. So Cusack and Co, led by the dynamic and inimitable Alison Cusack, provide a range of both proactive and reactive services to help shippers compete and stay protected in a global market. Today Alison, Founder and Principal Lawyer, joins me to chat all about exactly what Cusack and Co do, the importance of empowering shippers and of driving better business.   IN THIS EPISODE WE DISCUSS: [05.53] Alison’s background, her passion for maritime law and why she founded Cusack and Co. “You see the engine room of the world's economy when you work with cargo ships.” [12.51] A closer look at exactly what Cusack and Co do and its ideal customer. [20.20] How Cusack and Co makes legal services accessible, through affordability and transparency. “I’m a lot cheaper than one wrong shipment!” [25.09] Why Alison designed the CLAMs claim bot system, and what it means for an SME’s typical claims process. [32.02] The importance of WISTA, Women's International Shipping & Trading Association, and why the industry needs to make some changes to better embrace equality. “The industry isn’t evolving fast enough to give women the space and opportunity to shine – and our industry is only as amazing as our people.” [39.21] Case study: how Cusack and Co helped a customer to swiftly lift a cargo lien and get back to business. [43.14] The future for Alison, and for Cusack and Co.   RESOURCES AND LINKS MENTIONED: Head over to Cusack and Co’s website to find out more and discover how they could help you too. And, get 10% off with our totally exclusive discount code, only for Let's Talk Supply Chain listeners: LTSC10 Connect with Alison on LinkedIn, or follow Cusack and Co on Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, or find them on Clubhouse @shippinglawyer. Check out our other podcasts HERE.

In this episode, Despina Theodosiou Theodosiou, President, WISTA International and joint CEO of Tototheo Maritime reflects on her career as we address one of the industry's most topical issues – gender equality.

Meet Rhea Rouw Owner and Founder of Yachting International Radio. She oversees the production, distribution and marketing of 15 original weekly shows. Rhea created Yachting International Radio two years ago after over two decades of experience in Radio, Newspaper and Television, and is now reaching over 200K people worldwide in the Yachting and Boating Industries. Rhea looks to disrupt the traditional and outdated world of yachting, by providing a voice to others without access to uncensored platforms. Along with her many contributors, they are creating content that is moving the industry forward championing equality and diversity. FOLLOW YACHT FEMME:https://anchor.fm/yacht-femmeInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/yachtfemme/YouTube: http://bit.ly/YT-Yachtdame  FOLLOW RHEA:Instagram:@yachtinginternationalradioLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rhea-rouw-6221b4b3/#womeninmaritime #maritime #humansatsea #shipping #womenatsea #family #merchantnavy #worldmaritimeday #ship #instashipping #lifeatsea #sea #maritimewomen #iamonboard #womenoffshore #sealife #wista #womeninshipping #shipspotting #merchantmarine #womenempowerment #marineengineer #imo #merchantnavyday #ni #shipsandseas #instasea #diversityandinclusion #nauticalinstitute #yachting

Meet Jenny Matthews, Chief Mate 3000GT, Co-Founder of She of the Sea and a leader in diversity and inclusion efforts in Yachting.She of the Sea was launched in 2018. It strives to move the industry past the outdated status quo and embrace talent, passion and dedication regardless of gender, race, ethnicity or orientation. Jenny also recently co-created 'LegaSea', the first industry wide yachting mentoring program.In 2020 Jenny finished her studies in Sustainability Leadership and Corporate responsibility, and was appointed  Chair of the Maritime UK Pledge and Charter Group.FOLLOW YACHT FEMME:https://anchor.fm/yacht-femmeInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/yachtfemme/YouTube: http://bit.ly/YT-Yachtdame FOLLOW SHE OF THE SEA: https://www.instagram.com/_sheofthesea_/https://www.facebook.com/sheofthesea1#womeninmaritime #maritime #humansatsea #shipping #womenatsea #family #merchantnavy #worldmaritimeday #ship #instashipping #lifeatsea #sea #maritimewomen #iamonboard #womenoffshore #sealife #wista #womeninshipping #shipspotting #merchantmarine #womenempowerment #marineengineer #imo #merchantnavyday #ni #shipsandseas #instasea #diversityandinclusion #nauticalinstitute #yachting

Meet Captain Lisa Roland, a Canadian with a very important challenge coming up and an equally important cause to support. Find out her journey to get to where she is and what is her driving mission now that she has achieved her goal of Captain. Lisa and her partner Nini Champion are taking on one of the most difficult challenges of their lives and raising money for children that are aging out of care in Canada.The Talisker Whiskey Atlantic Challenge"Rowing to change livesThe challenge of rowing an ocean reflects the struggles faced by youth in foster care. Unable to see the destination, we row on, we batten the hatches to ride out a storm, unsure of how off course it may blow us. Through pain, tears, or trepidation, we continue to paddle, stroke by stroke; a self supported vessel across a vast and unforgiving ocean."With the funds raised, Team Ocean Grown will set up the Bridges Over Water grant fund within HomeBridge to finance youth aging out of the foster care system to pursue careers in the maritime sector.Applicants will receive funding for courses and education, benefit from the incredible LegaSea mentorship program for ongoing job counselling support and be eligible for industry job placements.For the HomeBridge Youth Society:homebridgeyouth.caTo support the challenge:oceangrown.co#womeninmaritime #maritime #humansatsea #shipping #womenatsea #family #merchantnavy #worldmaritimeday #ship #instashipping #lifeatsea #sea #maritimewomen #iamonboard #womenoffshore #sealife #wista #womeninshipping #shipspotting #merchantmarine #womenempowerment #marineengineer #imo #merchantnavyday #ni #shipsandseas #instasea #diversityandinclusion #nauticalinstitute #yachting

Sanjam is dynamic and perserverant in her cause. She founded MaritimeSheEO and is on her mission to increase the presence of women in leadership positions in the maritime industry. She feels this is what could provide equal opportunities for women at all levels, specially at the entry level. An unwritten rule to not take women in can only be negated with women in leadership positions. She also runs Sita shipping or the Ladies compartment where she walks her talk In this conversation, she takes us through dinner table conversations at home, her inspiration to set up the WISTA in India and also what led her to take up a study to make a business case for gender diversity. She also talks of a very interesting MaritimeSheEO conference coming up on 23rd November. You could register for it here: https://myonvent.com/event/maritime-she-eo https://www.maritimesheeo.com/ Sanjam can be reached on twitter @SanjamSG. MaritimeSheEO : https://twitter.com/MaritimeSheEO --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/abhijith-balakrishnan/message

This weeks episode features my friend Bethany aka the dopest stylist in LA. We talked about how terrible the LA dating scene is for black women, Haitian men, The tea on what happens behind the scenes in the entertainment industry, Our faves being trash in person, Interactions with IG "celebs," and some dating stories! Once again shoutout to Duncan for creating the new logo! Go follow him on IG for SERIOUS inquiries @Duncan_Hatch. Let him know Wista told you. My IG: itswista Bethany's IG: BethanyBankston If you have questions, advice or topics email me at: Email: lemmetellyousomethin@gmail.com Follow on Soundcloud : Lemme Tell You Somethin' Twitter: LTYSPODCAST Facebook: Lemme Tell You Somethin' Subscribe and Review on Apple Podcast: Lemme Tell You Somethin' Follow on Spotify: Lemme Tell You Somethin'

This weeks episode features my lovely guest Sami. We are ranting about Boston, Going to college in Boston, Dealing with people from Western Mass, Virgos, Growing up as a Plump kid, Companies being fake woke and Why y'all need to stop smoking hookah during a pandemic. The new logo is finally here! Shoutout to Duncan for creating the new logo! Go follow him on IG for SERIOUS inquiries @Duncan_Hatch. Let him know Wista told you. My IG: itswista Sami's IG: @LevantineLibra If you have questions, advice or topics email me at: Email: lemmetellyousomethin@gmail.com Follow on Soundcloud : Lemme Tell You Somethin' Twitter: LTYSPODCAST Facebook: Lemme Tell You Somethin' Subscribe and Review on Apple Podcast: Lemme Tell You Somethin' Follow on Spotify: Lemme Tell You Somethin'

Wista 4x5 DX. Comments? Send them to me at info@kennethwajdaphotographer.com and find me on the web at KennethWajdaPhotographer.com, on IG at www.instagram.com/kennethwajda/ and on YouTube at HeresToGoodLight.com - We can post our photo assignment photos and connect on the Daily Photography Blog FB Group at www.facebook.com/groups/2151928021601330/ --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/kenneth-wajda/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/kenneth-wajda/support

In this episode Captain Price talks about Chernobyl, spending the night inside the exclusion zone, and hiking mountains. You know that abandoned, very creepy, and radiated city close to Chernobyl that is the writing material for our nightmares? She spent the night there! Also, how does a girl that girl that grew up in land locked Colorado grow up to be a tug boat Captain in Houston Texas? Why is Crossfit so damn hard? What is it like to climb a huge volcano in  South America? We also talk about WISTA, high school maritime programs, and swimming in open water. In this interview you have two people from opposite ends of the spectrum. One who watches way too many shows on Netflix (me) and the other that chases her dreams, around the globe, on a regular basis. You can contact the show at theshipslogpodcast@gmail.comDon't forget, if you find value in listening to the podcast you can support it on Patreon.com for a reasonable price.Smooth sailing.Support the show (https://www.patreon.com/theshipslogpodcast)

Find out what all this is about in the first episode of the WISTA Podcast. - Connect with me on IG @anesu.noelle & keep updated with everything else I am doing! Music used in this podcast is not my own. Artist Name: Ikson (Think U Know (Official)

Authentigration and The Ocean Opportunity Lab are collaborating to bring to you a brand new podcast series called - “Women who change the World''. On this podcast series, we will be talking about how these amazing women leaders are making and creating impact, their perspective on leadership and the future and the importance of diversity.At Authentigration, we are happy to collaborate with TOOL as we try to connect the world one step at a time and share stories of amazing authentic global leaders and individuals who are changing the status quo. We want to give our listeners a great opportunity to learn more about how we can all make a difference at an individual level and as well as collaboratively together. Our first guest on this series is Birgit Marie Liodden, founder/CEO of The Ocean Opportunity Lab.Birgit Marie Liodden is an activist for transparency, diversity and entrepreneurship, a dedicated spokesperson for young professionals and women in global shipping, Founder of YoungShip International, and initiator of Nor-Shipping/YoungShip’s Young Entrepreneur Award and WISTA’s Waves of Change conference. She is also the co-founder & responsible person for Maritime Meet-up mentoring program for maritime female talents & leaders. Note: This episode has been edited by students in the Bachelor study of international communication at the Highschool of Østfold, Thomas Voukelatos and Ida E.Støten.

Every once in a while you run across an innovation that just makes you say “wow”. It captures the imagination of what it can make possible, and problems it can solve. At Makeup In New York, we talked with Eric Zembrod (CEO) and Shea Gallardo (Packaging Development) at Wista Packaging, which hails from Brazil. Wista has launches the lightest airless system available in the market: THE SAGE  AIRLESS SYSTEM. Because  the system  allows you the use of  standard equipment for filling tubes without added complexity, it has no additional inner chambers, inner pouches or pistons, reducing the weight of plastics, there’s no pump, it uses a sugar cane based resin, it is recyclable, available for a wide range of filling capacities , and even washable under the running water without risk of contamination, this integration of an internal valve system can revolutionize the way  formulas are applied and delivered, and protected, offering new possibilities in effectiveness and shelf life alike. It was a real learning moment of discovery and consideration of what can be possible.

Riding Shotgun With Charlie #051 Jared Yanis Guns & Gadgets I met Jared in November 2017. I just came back from the Gun Rights Policy Conference in Dallas. I heard about the 2A Capital Rallys. Every state was putting on a rally at the state house in every state capital. I reached out, asking to speak, and I heard back from Jared Yanis. He was the man that was organizing everything. He’s started a YouTube channel reviewing guns and gadgets, hence the name, then the format turned. Guns & Gadgets is now “YOUR Source for 2A News!!”. He covers lots of laws that are coming down the pike from ERPO laws to magazine capacity bans to everything in between. Jared has been doing the channel on YouTube for several years. He’s got all the social media outlets and stays on top of them like you wouldn’t believe. He, too, didn’t start out wanting to be a “YouTuber”, but its been going well for his channel with over 95,000 subscribers. You, too, should follow the link below and subscribe to it. Jared and I head to the city of Worcseter, MA (pronounced Wuss-ter or Wista). We see some Wista driving and head thru the infamous Kelley Square. We talk about his new AR pistol build a new 1911 he’s getting. And some of the fun or pitfalls of having a YouTube channel. And how he went to New Orleans on vacation and stayed with a SWAT job! You can find Guns & Gadgets at the following. YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/GunsGadgets GunStreamer: https://gunstreamer.com/@Guns_and_Gadgets Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/guns_and_gadgets/ G&G Store: https://shop.spreadshirt.com/GunsGadgets Please check out and support our sponsors: Keyhole Holsters: Veteran Owned, American Made http://www.keyholeholsters.com/ Dennis McCurdy, Author, Speaker, & Small Business Guru http://www.find-away.com/

A little bit about Geir Isene, he is a nerd from Norway. Yes I said that! He loves mathematics, astronomy, astrophysics, particle physics, chemistry, hardware and software. He is the most diverse person I’ve had on my podcasts to date. What’s most awesome is that he helps people, he is a coach and mentor who inspires others to reach their goals and potentials. If you would like to learn more about him, you can visit his website. https://isene.org  Geir held a workshop at the annual WISTA conference (WISTA being the “Women’s International Shipping & Trading Association”) and after leaving Tromsø he launched the podcast: Women will be last to be replaced by robots and AI - that title intrigued me to listen to his episode and after I asked him to be on my show. Since the points he made concentrated on men, I asked, So how will men stay significant? Listen to the episode to hear what was said. The music on this podcast “Clouds” was produced by Geir Isene.

Joanne Kelleher studied at the Institute of Chartered Shipbrokers and in her Master's degree study she asked 37 Maritime Professionals what they want from their industry leaders and got some interesting results. Joanne shared her insights in an article on LinkedIn, which I found very interesting, so I decided to try and meet Joanne for an interview and she agreed and that is what we speak about in this episode, the 104th.  Do we have the leaders we deserve in the maritime industry? Traditionally, there has been an authoritarian leadership with clear commands, there is only one Captain on the ship! Is that changing? What kind of leaders does the #nextgen of shipping people want from a leader? How can the industry meet the requirements of the young generation? Is there a new leadership on the horizon?  Joanne and I really get into the nitty-gritty of leadership, diversity, WISTA, female leaders, participatory leadership and being a leader in different cultures. I would really like to start a discussion on this topic. What is your view?  In addition, what do you think of the new logotype and the new artwork? After 100 episodes it was time for an update. New & fresh, I would say.  Thank you for listening. Should you wish to support my job, please visit www.patreon.com/ShippingPodcast

In today's episode, we speak with Jeff Pelletier, from Basetwo Media.  Jeff has a long history with video production.  The Inbound Video Marketing Playbook: Using Video to Attract, Convert, Close and Delight  Video can be a powerful tool to help attract and convert leads, to close prospects, and delight your customers. But for your video marketing efforts to be effective, your videos must be contextual and platform specific, focusing on each stage of the Buyer's Journey. In this practical guide, we'll walk you through the different ways that you can use video within each step of the Inbound Sales & Marketing Methodology, including tips and best practices on the production, distribution & optimization of your videos, as well as how to measure success. If you enjoyed the Master Modern Marketing podcast, please subscribe, rate and review the show. You can also keep in contact with the show sponsor, Farmers Marketing, at www.FarmersMarketing.ca, or www.facebook.com/farmersmktng. To be a guest on the Master Modern Marketing podcast, please apply at www.FarmersMarketing.ca. Read the transcript here:  Jeff Pelletier:                Don't try to solve major problems with video. So, focusing less on these big-picture strategies, and think more about the low hanging fruit, some of the quicker wins. And the way that I look at that is, look at what's already working, and try to boost those results using video, as opposed to trying to solve problems. Because I think we often see video as potentially like a magic bullet where we're trying to say like, we need more leads, let's make a video, right, and that's just such a bigger problem than just a video's not going to solve. You still have to think about how you're going to convert those leads, and what channels are you going to use the video on. So, there's a lot wrapped in there. Lionel:                          Hi, folks, this is Lionel Johnston with a Master Modern Marketing podcast, and that was Jeff Pelletier with Basetwo Media. Video is literally everywhere. Let me share some stats with you from YouTube and Google. The total number of people who use YouTube is 1.3 billion. YouTube is the second most visited website in the world. 300 hours of video are uploaded to YouTube every single minute. Almost 5 billion videos are watched on YouTube every single day, and this is also quite amazing. The average viewing session is over 40 minutes, and that's up over 50% year over year. So, people are spending a lot of time all at once on YouTube. So, it's clear that there's a huge audience and a huge potential for producing video and getting exposure on YouTube. But at the same time, there's also a lot of competition, so what that means is you need to make some darn good videos. Many small and medium-sized businesses have embraced video, but there's a lot of room for growth. For example, currently, only 9% of US small businesses use YouTube, so lots of opportunity for improvement there. That brings us to Jeff Pelletier with Basetwo Media. He has a long history and experience with video. I am confident that you will be glad you invested time with us in listening to this podcast. So, let's cue the intro, and let's dive right in. Announcer:                   We really love marketing, telling stories and sharing ideas with others to help them achieve their goals. If you enjoy growing businesses through digital marketing or would like to learn how to take your knowledge and skills to the next level, you're in the right place. Welcome to the Master Modern Marketing podcast with your host Lionel Johnston. Lionel:                          Jeff, welcome to the Master Modern Marketing podcast. How are you doing today? Jeff Pelletier:                I'm doing great. Thank you. How about you? Lionel:                          Oh, I'm doing fantastic. Thank you, very much. So, I really appreciate you taking the time to speak with me today and share your expertise with our audience. Jeff, you'll remember it was a few years back, we actually had met on an unexpected layover in the Mississauga airport. We were flying back from a HubSpot conference and got delayed by weather, and we were able to share a couple of drinks together, and from my experience, we found that we had some similar mindsets and ideas on business, and I really enjoyed my time talking with you, and we've kept in touch periodically since then. So, looking forward to being able to catch up and really dive deep on the topic of video in the modern world. Jeff Pelletier:                That was a great chat that we had at the bar there in the hotel, and yeah, I was really interested at the time to hear what you were doing with video in-house working client side. So, I mean, that's something we can talk about today is some of the changes with video being done in-house more and more. So, I learned a lot from our conversation that night too. Lionel:                          Yeah. I remember at the time, and I'm looking for an update, but you were just transitioning a little bit of some of the services that you're offering to people, and how you were looking at the services that people really needed in the current environment. So, Jeff, if you could just introduce yourself. Say your name and your company, and if you have any interesting anecdotes you'd like to share with everyone, that would be great. Jeff Pelletier:                Sure. Well, my name's Jeff Pelletier. I founded and still run a video production and marketing agency called Basetwo Media. We're based in Vancouver, BC, and we work with clients primarily in the Vancouver area, and increasingly across Canada. I also do a lot of writing, and speaking and consulting with clients, coaching around video marketing strategy. I also volunteer and lead the HubSpot user group here locally, and we recently launched a video marketing meetup, as well. So, have a lot of fun kind of sharing my experiences, and tips and tricks there, as well. Jeff Pelletier:                And I recently just published a book, my first book called Inbound Video Marketing Playbook, which is available on Amazon. Lionel:                          Congratulations. Jeff Pelletier:                Yeah, thank you. I do a lot of running, I'm a trail runner, so that's kind of my alternate life here. When I'm not working, I'm usually spending time in the backcountry, and I shoot little kind of films myself for my YouTube channel. I just did a big race in Italy, a big 200-mile race in the Alps, and I'm working on a documentary from that, as well. Lionel:                          Wow. Wow, that's great. You've had lots on the go. Jeff Pelletier:                I've got lots on the go, yeah. Yeah. Lionel:                          Yeah, for sure. Jeff Pelletier:                I like to keep it, yeah. Lionel:                          So, let's dive right in here. Really, the first topic I wanted to dive into was just the prevalence of video in the modern world, that video really is everywhere, yet I still notice there's a lot of businesses that are slow to embrace video, or they aren't really sure where to get started. So, do you find the same thing in your world, and if that's the case where businesses are slow to adopt video, why do you think that is? Jeff Pelletier:                Well, over the last few years, I mean, I've seen a bit of a shift where I would say most businesses now are using video, or at least understand the benefits of using video, whether they've successfully adopted a video into their marketing communications. As far as say the customer journey of awareness and consideration, we're past awareness, we're past having to preach about why you should be using video, and we're now into sort of typically we center our content and a lot of the questions that we answer with clients. It's more about how they can use video, whether it be producing video in-house, working with an agency, or freelancer.              I think most businesses understand that they can and should be using video, but the challenge really is in the implementation. It's in getting results from the video, and I think that's where a lot of our customers, prospects that we speak to, as well as our existing customers, seem to sometimes struggle. Lionel:                          I believe, if I remember correctly, you were mentioning that a lot of your clients are really in the medium size to large space. Is that correct? Jeff Pelletier:                Yeah. I mean, as far as Vancouver is concerned, we do typically work with the larger companies in town, which on a global scale, I guess comparatively aren't that large, but we work with a lot of enterprise-based clients. So, typically, our customers are doing quite a bit of video. So, our work is all project based, but it tends to be work that we're doing on a regular basis.              And then, we do have a mix of smaller to medium size companies, as well, mostly in technology who are using video quite a bit in their marketing. And then, increasingly, we are working with some smaller companies, as well, where their budgets might not be there to outsource work to us, but we are working in a more consultative fashion, and actually helping people to get setup, both with the equipment and a strategy for doing video in house, and I think that's really where the opportunity is now for a lot of businesses, is to start looking at how they can use video in house. The way you would write your own blog content, potentially. Lionel:                          Yeah. That's very interesting, and that was actually one of the comments you made, Jeff, when we were in Mississauga before that really intrigued me was that the core of your business at the time was producing high quality video for businesses, but you also, yeah, were recognizing that businesses were doing some video, but yet they really had a lot of opportunity for improvement. And even things that you could point out, for example, like having captions on their videos, or using video hosting like Wista in addition to YouTube when appropriate. I thought that was a pretty interesting angle where you could really ramp up a business's video presence, but really just by sharing some information and tactics, and them not needing to have an entire huge team to be able to make a big impact. Jeff Pelletier:                Yeah. I mean, as a professional, but also as an agency, our goal is to help our clients get results from video, which 9 times out of 10 means producing the video content ourselves. But increasingly, that's where we're becoming more of a consultant, and it's all the stuff leading up to the video project, or even on the backend on the hosting that the optimization, the distribution, that's often where the results come from, as well. So, yeah, increasingly, we are becoming more of a consultancy, and long-term, that may be where we end up. Jeff Pelletier:                As video becomes more ubiquitous, but also more cost effective to be done in-house, we likely will end up transitioning that way, as well. If that's the best way we can serve our clients, then that's where we'll continue to move towards. Lionel:                          I see. Well, that's definitely good to hear that we're beyond the days where we have to explain the value of video, and people recognize that, and they're just looking for ways to [inaudible 00:09:24], or they're just looking for ways to introduce that to their business. So, that ties back with the next topic I wanted to look at, which was really what does a modem video strategy look like? This may be where your book comes in, Jeff, but could you explain a little bit about what that should look like if I was wanting to design a modern video strategy? Jeff Pelletier:                Well, on the one hand, I think there is room for what we may call a video strategy or a video marketing strategy. But on the other hand, I really see video as a tactic, one that supports other strategies. Video shouldn't be created in isolation in that way. So, for example, you might already be blogging, and video is a great way to take that to the next level. But at the end of the day, blogging itself is just a tactic, right. It's part of a concept marketing play, an inbound marketing strategy.             So, inbound marketing can include video as a tactic. Outbound sales can include video as a tactic. The video itself isn't a strategy, it's only a tactic that supports existing strategies, and I think that's the part that I think a lot of companies when they approach an agency like us, or when they're considering doing video in house, they're in that consideration phase trying to figure out how to best approach using video, that's often the part that I think people miss, is that video isn't a box that you check and a list of assets that you just need as part of your marketing where you say, "Oh, we need a corporate video. Let's get a website, let's get a video, let's get a brochure." Instead, it's best used to support existing strategies, and I think that's really the key to success. Lionel:                          Oh, that makes a lot of sense. So, thanks for taking the time to explain the difference in a strategy and how it should be seen as a tactic. So, for a small, or again in your case, a medium and large size business, where should they really get started, and are there three to five factors that they should really focus on when they're getting up and running, and adding video as a tactic to their business? Jeff Pelletier:                Yeah. I mean, typically, so if you look at sort of a strategic marketing communications framework, the first question we always ask our clients is, is why? Why video, why now? So, what problem are we trying to solve, or what opportunity are we hoping to address by using video. And before we even talk with the tactic of video, we really want to understand the underlining. Is this part of a campaign? Is this part of a brand new strategic initiative? Again, are you just now implementing inbound marketing, and video's going to form a part of that? So, we really try to get the groundwork, and that's really where all businesses should start. It's let's look at this strategically. What's the problem? What's the opportunity?           Video is super powerful. It is a really powerful tactic, can help to demonstrate. It can help to humanize, tell stories in ways that I think a lot of other tactics can't do quite as well. But it's also a really expensive tactic, right. Whether you're doing it in-house, or whether you're outsourcing it, it's one of the more expensive marketing communications mediums. So, there's a lot of reward potential, but there's also a lot of risk when approaching video.             So, with that in mind, I think you need to approach it as a bit of an experiment. You do have to, like anything it can take time. If you just start a new blog, it takes time to develop your voice, and your positioning, and even your process for generating that content. And video is kind of the same thing, so it's expensive. It's not just a one-time thing where you're getting to check that box, and you're done. So, with that in mind, I usually recommend that businesses don't try to solve major problems with video. So, focusing less on these big picture strategies, and think more about the low hanging fruit, some of the quicker wins. And the way that I look at is, look at what's already working, and try to boost those results using video, as opposed to trying to solve problems. Because I think we often see video potentially like a magic bullet where we're trying to say like, we need more leads, let's make a video, right. That's such a bigger problem that just a video's not going to solve. You still have to think about how you're going to convert those leads, and what channels are you going to use the videos on. So, there's a lot wrapped in there.      So, we kind of see using video as a way to sort of boost what's already working. It's kind of like steroids, like you have to be going to the gym for steroids to work. But if you want that extra edge in competition, whether it's ethical or not, you can use steroids, and give yourself that extra boost. And video's kind of the same way, it just happens to be legal and it happens to be ethical. But you still have to be going to the gym, right. You still have to be getting some preliminary results if you want to boost it with video. And I think that's really the best place for smaller businesses who are likely on a limited budget to see some quick wins. So, an example would be you've been blogging for a year or two quite successfully, and you want to take that up a level, you can start using video in your blog posts as a way to see if you gain additional traction, maybe some additional engagement. Or even take it another step, and look at developing a YouTube channel strategy, which is really just blogging on steroids. It's video blogging. But of course, you wouldn't want to start with YouTube, because it's more expensive, it's more time consuming, more resource intensive, and blogging on its own is hard enough without having to introduce video production into it. So, again, looking for, I think, things that are working where we ...  then say, okay, what happens if we now spend a few thousand dollars in video, can we get an additional 25% of whatever it might be, conversions, leads, whatever the result is we're hoping to boost? Lionel:                          Great advice, sir. I like the steroids analogy, and I guess one thing that I thought about that analogy specific to the gym is that you can't just go to the gym one time and bang out 1,000 push-ups, and all of a sudden, you're in shape. So, I bring that up in the sense that you may have customers that they say, "Well, I've made my corporate video, now what," or I'm just waiting for the leads to come in, and they haven't come in yet, and we made our video. Do you ever come across any of that with clients? Jeff Pelletier:                Well, that's just it. We've been doing this for quite a few years. We're on our 15th year of business. Admittedly, in those first maybe five or six years, we were making videos that we had ... we wouldn't ask the tough questions. We would make the corporate video, it would be put on YouTube, and you know, fast forward two or three years later, the client's maybe got 150 views, and most of those were probably by accident. It was people stumbling on the video, and not taking any results after seeing the video.            So, yeah, you definitely get a lot of that, and I think that's where we are now. I think we're sort of in that stage where, like with websites, everybody initially needed a website. Well, now, everybody has a website, but now it's about growth marketing, it's about getting more out of our websites, and figuring out really what are we trying to achieve. And video is in that same stage. Everybody's kind of typically made a video at this point, and often what's stopping them from making more videos is that they just don't know how to measure the results in the first place, even if they were getting them, and then try to boost those results, and justify spending more money on more video. And truly, I think that's the worst thing that can happen, is you make a video, you get no measurable results, so you just don't make another one for two or three years. Basically, you wait until that video is so outdated that you're forced to make a new one, and to check that box again. And I always kind of like to joke with clients, like, my goal is to get you as much measurable results as possible so that you come back, and you double down, and you spend more. Lionel:                          Interesting. I know we've talked about all different types of videos from a sales rep sending a personalized video to someone, corporate style, or even a commercial style video. How can businesses owners start to look at some sort of metrics and results? How do they place a value on the video that they're producing? Jeff Pelletier:                Well, yeah, and I think again if we look at the strategic ... the way that video as a tactic can fit into that strategic frameworks, I would say what are you already doing that's working, and what are the results currently, right. What's our baseline? Because if we're going to use video, and we want to measure the change, the effect it's going to have, we need a baseline.            So, again, you might be looking at your email marketing, and email's a great way to use video. It's a super powerful channel, but it's also noisy. We get a lot of email, so video's a great way to stand out. So, if you're already sending emails to a big newsletter list for example, we'd say let's measure the baseline for say the average open rate on an email, as well as the click through rate. And then, maybe we would make a video that was intended to help boost those two things, as well as possibly conversions on a landing page. So, you would have a nice big image in your email, highly optimized sort of one or two calls to action at most, and you can even do an AB test with a version of that one email with a video, and one without. And now, we can measure what's the difference in the open rate. So, including the word video in your subject line, for example, can even just boost the open rate of an email. What's the difference in the click through rate? So, including an image of a video in the email that takes you to a landing page where the video would play. Including that image can improve the click through rate. So, again, we've measured that before and after with and without a video. And then, on the landing page itself, does the video help with whatever your goal is there? Conversions, et cetera. So, you can measure that on a case by case basis with AB split testing, but you could also measure that against your baseline. So, okay, we've been using video in email for a while, have the average open rates and click through rates gone up? So, how was it given our marketing a boost, and to what degree? And at the end of the day, if you can put a dollar value on that, even better. So, what is a conversion sale lead in a form? What is that worth? And if we boost that by 25%, we'll work backwards now. How much has that video generation in terms of leads, and ultimately, sales? Lionel:                          That makes a lot of sense, so thanks. So, this is a big question, of course, and it can be across the board, but what are some general ranges of cost for a business? I'm sure you get asked that question quite a bit. So, everything from a small team and they're insourcing everything to going to a large professional team outsourcing it. What are the different categories of videos, and typical cost if that's something you're able to speak to? Jeff Pelletier:                Yeah, I mean, and that's almost always the first question when somebody contacts us. They'll say, "What does a video cost, and how long does it take?" I hesitate to fixate on that, because video is best approached as more of an iterative process. So, again, if you're going to say we want to add video to our blogging, our blogging strategy, the question then would be, well, how often do you blog, and how often do you want to make videos? If you want to add a weekly video where you're ... and in fact, here's a good example. We worked with a client named Kintech, and they produce content that's designed to reach an audience to position themselves as experts in footwear and orthotics. So, they sell footwear and they create custom orthotics. And they want to be the store and the service provider that you think of the next time you need footwear or orthotics for your feet. And so, they do this by answering questions that people are searching for around shoe reviews, around foot health, and they have a great blog, and they wanted to add video to that. And so, they approached us, and they asked that question, how much would it cost to make a video for the blog? And when dove in, we realized what they really meant was how much would it cost to make a weekly video or a monthly video for the vlog. And at that point, we said, well, look, we're not going to charge you whatever it is, 3, 10, 30 thousand dollars per video, that would be ridiculous. We need to help you develop a strategy where you're, like with the blogging that you're doing internally, you need to be producing this video internally. So, we helped them to produce that in-house, and their goal was to have at least one if not two to four videos produced per month. Jeff Pelletier:                And so, we kind of worked backwards from, well, what would success look like here? And as an experiment, we want to benchmark, we want to add video, and then we want to measure the results. What's the best result that it would give us, and what would that mean to our bottom line? And what is...the minimum acceptable result? And we kind of helped them establish a budget by thinking that way. So, they budget 2 to 4 thousand dollars a month say per video. And then, based on that, we could then say, okay, well for that amount of money, we maybe can't help you make the videos, but we can train you on how to make them yourself. No, they won't be quite as high production value, but do they need to? At the end of the day, as long as your content's valuable, I think that's one of the shifts we've seen with video, is that sometimes it doesn't matter about the production value, as long as the audio is clear, the image is somewhat clear. You can shoot video on an iPhone. Depending on your goal, depending on your audience, as well, and the channel. That content might actually perform better than if it was highly produced. And so, for them, that was a real win. Now, for other clients, some of our enterprise level clients, they will come to us with a very specific communications objective where it's less about a program, it's less about an ongoing strategy. It's a specific campaign, and they're saying, you know, we need to reach a broad audience, or we're communicating to our 10000 employees across the country, whatever it might be. There's a very specific message a very specific window that they're going to use that asset. And so, in that case, and they're saying, you know, we've tried doing this in different ways, or we will be doing this in a few ways, one of them is video. In that case, we usually will help them establish a budget just for that one video, and we'll produce it for them. We're usually looking at maybe $10000 and up. So, that's usually kind of the threshold for us on a project level, and many projects are closer to the 30 to 50 thousand dollar range when it comes to these large enterprise organizations. Lionel:                          I see. But one of the differences is that they're often trying to match a certain ... you know, there's branding guidelines. And also, a lot of the dollars that are being spent there actually aren't going on screen. So, we're not creating fancy animation. Often, we're just doing a lot of work in terms of revisions and project management, just because of the nature of these large organizations. It can just take a lot of time to get work done and approved. Jeff Pelletier:                And so, to them, the value equation there. They're okay paying a little bit more because they understand it's difficult to get these projects done with a bureaucratic organization. Whereas for smaller businesses, I think that's less of an issue. They really want to make sure the money is going to ... as much of its going on screen as possible, and that often means not working with an agency, not paying for project management, and all those kinds of things, and working with freelancers. Jeff Pelletier:                So, you can get videos done for as little as a few thousand dollars. Again, as much is very quickly in that 10 to 30 thousand dollar range. But I would sort of say for a smaller business on a limited budget, to focus more on spending the money on working with a consultant to make sure that you are approaching, or the video program if you're doing ongoing video. So, you're approaching it in the right way. You're also spending a few thousand dollars upfront on consulting and then look at ways to work with, say, interns, or to hire cheaper labour where you can, or even just doing things yourself to produce video content in-house. But it's all going to be found on that sound strategy initially. That's the biggest thing. Lionel:                          That's great advice, and it sounds like, Jeff, if I were starting a new business, that you would be able to come in, and actually teach me how to do things properly, but also help me know how to build my team over time, as well, right. Which resources can they to continue to add, and where to spend money, and where to save some money as you're mentioning, as well. Jeff Pelletier:                Exactly, yeah. Going back to Kintech, that's one way we worked with them where, first of all, all made a case for them doing things more in-house, and then we helped them buy the equipment, we trained them on using the equipment. We recorded that training for future onboarding. We found the locations in their offices to film in, and then we helped them get set up with a template with graphics that they could just reuse. And then, we do a monthly phone call where we talk about the challenge they're having around everything from production to distribution and optimization.              It took a while, right. The first six videos are going to be somewhat embarrassing, but by the time you're on your 16th video, you're doing quite well, and it's sort of that teach a man to fish kind of thing, right. So, they're off to the races now, and they've been doing it for close to two years, and they've seen great results. But more importantly, they have sort of this sustainable strategy where they don't have to keep coming back and paying for each video.              Now what they do is bring us in for sort of the odd higher value campaign where they're saying this is not something we want to do in-house, this is something that we feel should be invested in, and we'll look at that on a campaign by campaign basis. But yeah, things like blog content. You mentioned personalized video, which I think is a huge opportunity for sales teams. A lot of that stuff is being done in house, and should be done in house, and I think we're going to see more and more of that happening. Lionel:                          Yeah. Well, thanks a lot for sharing that specific example, and the businesses that we work with a lot as our clients are people that are interested in working with us. Everything you just described, when I look at the discussions we've had with them on other topics, it seems like that would just be a great fit, and something that they would whole heartedly embrace. So, I can see why you've taken your business down that path.                       On a related topic with your shoe client here and their business, one of the things that have come up in discussions with various clients is the topic of professionalism. What are your thoughts there? Because we can, insert cases, there's a lot of live video, and Instagram live where it can be just off the cuff, and doesn't need to be professional, or maybe it does, and then there's also other corporate clients that really want a very polished and professional look. Can you speak to the difference between the different channels if appropriate, and where someone should be more professional or less professional? What are your thoughts on that topic? Jeff Pelletier:                Yeah, and I think video is a great example of a tool that can be used really well. It can sort of exposes things unintentionally, or it can expose you and make it more authentic intentionally. If you're blogging, and you're trying to really have an authentic voice, and you really want to show the team behind your company, and build that trust, and really show ... humanize, humanize your brand. Video can really help there. But I think that's also what scares a lot of organizations, is that it sort of pulls back the curtain, and some people aren't comfortable on camera, and they might just not have that voice established yet. They might not be comfortable with that level of authenticity.              And that's where you see the more traditional highly produced videos, or potentially an animated video. Often, we see animated explainers where it's more about the product, and it's less about the team. And in that case, you're telling stories through animation, typically.             But I mean, if you are sort of leaning more towards that authentic voice, that's where video works really well, and I think you alluded to this. Look at the channel first, right. So, we often will say, when we're looking at how can we use video to support an existing strategy, the logical next question is 'what platform?', and 'what's the context?' So, if you want to use video to boost your Instagram strategy, and maybe do more video, and likely this would be done in house with more Instagram stories, you'd have to look at, well, why are you using Instagram? Who's your audience? Are you using it for recruitment, are you using it for lead generation? What's your goal, and who are you speaking to? And that should then inform that voice. So, if you're saying, "We use Instagram because we want to use it for recruitment, we want to show the behind the scenes look at our company," for example. That's how we Instagram ourselves. Then, that probably leads you to the logical conclusion that it should be more authentic and personal content.              And so, that's that. Yeah, you'd shoot it on an iPhone, you'd have fun with the videos. Maybe you'd show people being silly, you'd show people having fun at work. Whereas a lead generation video, if you're selling a software product, that tone maybe wouldn't be appropriate. That's where you are more polished. If you show somebody, it's more of a spokesperson. You use more animation.           So, I think the platform ... I'm not sure that there's necessarily best practices for using video on those platforms as much as it's about start with the platform first, and how are you using that platform, what's your goal? And the video content should be exactly like the rest of the content that you're putting on that platform in the case of Facebook or Instagram. Lionel:                          You've spoken about this a number of different ways here, and if we look at, from a client's perspective, working with a contractor like your company, are there any best practices that they can utilize to get the most out of your services? Are there ways that they could reduce the amount of rework, or make the process more efficient, more effective? Do you have any thoughts on if I'm the small the business owner, me being a business owner, what could I do to be a good client, basically? Jeff Pelletier:                Yeah, I think it depends on ... I mean, I really see there being two different types of service providers when it comes to video. There's the agency side of things, and that's like our team, for example. And then, there's more of the freelancer that you might work with, or you might assemble a team of freelancers. And I think that you need to be clear on who you're higher, which end. You could say it's a bit of a spectrum, but really, the reason there's a distinction there, I find, is that a freelancer, say a videographer, is going to do exactly what you ask of them. They might push back a little bit. They might ask some questions along the way. But if you say, "Hey, I need you to come and film for a day on Tuesday, and I need you to bring some lights and a couple of microphones," they'll do exactly that.               When you work with an agency, most agencies will say, like hold on, let's go back 10 steps. I know you want us to come and film on Tuesday, but why? What are we trying to accomplish here? And they'll often help you to approach your project in a different way where appropriate. Typically, an agency will do everything from the script writing through to the post production, and even help with distribution. So, you're getting more of a team approach. Now, that team approach costs more. It's more [inaudible 00:32:42], of course, but you get a lot more value if that's what you're looking for. If you want a turnkey solution, somebody's who's going to come in, and sort of handle the entire process for you, hold your hand throughout that entire process.              Whereas the freelancer approach, you're really going to have to ... you know, you're essentially the producer if you're hiring a videographer. And then, if you then hire a freelance editor, again, you're the producer. You're the connection between that videographer and the editor. The agency would likely have a producer.             So, when it comes to the freelancers, I mean, I think you really need to be ... again, if you've worked with a consultant, and you've developed a strategy, and you've maybe even gotten some initial results, it's more likely that you can work with those freelancers, especially if you want to learn about video, and really get into nuts and bolts. And in that case, I think you just need to communicate really clearly and manage expectations with those individuals.         When you're working with an agency, I think that's more where it's about coming in with a bit more of an open mind, but being super clear on your goals. So, instead of being clear on what exactly you want, and being prescriptive, you just, I think, need to have a really clear idea on what it is exactly you're trying to accomplish. And that's the way the agency's going to provide the most value. Otherwise, I think the worst thing you could do is work with an agency, hire an agency, and be prescriptive. Because now, you're missing out on all this potential, right, for them to say, well, actually here's how we approached this for another client, or here's potentially a better way to do this, or maybe, hey, you shouldn't be making video at all, how about do this instead and come back to us in a year, and we'll help you at that point. And a good agency partner should be honest with when and how they can help you the most.               So, I think it's just being clear. Are you hiring a freelancer, and having to be prescriptive, or are you looking for a partner who's going to help you more strategically? Otherwise, you might just be trying to ... and especially when you're hiring somebody, you have to be clear. Are you comparing apples to apples, or are you comparing the price of a freelancer to the much higher price of an agency, but expecting agency level services from that freelancer? And that's not going to work out well. Lionel:                          For sure. That's a great distinction between the two camps there, and all the more reason why it's important to work with someone to be able to talk through these questions, and make sure that all the I's are dotted and T's are crossed before you get too deep into a project. As I'm sure you've seen, and you know with design projects, especially video, things can go sideways quickly if you don't take the time at the beginning to get on the right path. Jeff Pelletier:                Yeah, and that's often like, there's less scope creep that often happens, and I know that's ... a lot of clients say they have the fear of that, right. Especially, when you're getting billed by the hour. It's very easy for that clock to just keep running, and you get quoted one thing, and then the invoice ends up being double. And that's where I think, again, clarity on what your objectives are is really important. Where we've seen projects go awry is when if a client is being prescriptive, and saying we want a six minute video featuring, you know, we want these people talking in it, we want to film on location here, and do this, this and this, and yet they're not clear on the reason for that, and how they're going to measure those results, we're no longer able to advise on how to approach the project to pushback in any way. So, what'll happen is you end up with, maybe the video's supposed to be 3 or 4 minutes, and it ends up being 8 or 9 minutes, because different people come in out of the woodwork, and now sales is saying, hey, well, we want to talk about the product. And HR's saying, oh, but we also want to use this for recruitment. You know, let's talk about our company, and why you should work here. And leadership is saying, well, we want to be in the video, because we should, you know ... and so, you end up with this big kind of all these cooks in the kitchen kind of throwing in their own ingredients, and you end up with this big mess that doesn't work for anybody. It's this nine minute video, it's not clear what your message is, it's not clear who your audience is, and that's the kind of video that you end up throwing on YouTube, and getting no results from. Lionel:                          Right. Jeff Pelletier:                So, again, it kind of comes back to that clarity, because if you were to say, "We need a video to help improve conversions from this landing page, here's exactly the persona of our target audience, here's what they know so far about the product, here's the context, and here's exactly what the call to action is," we're then, as an agency, able to help you to pushback when you need to. So, when HR says, "Oh, can you also talk about the benefits of working here?" We can help you to remind them, sorry, guys, this video is only to convert traffic on this landing page. This is not the HR video, we'll get to that later. So, really having clarity around your objectives, what success looks like, help you to reign those projects in, and avoid all that scope creep in the first place. Lionel:                          I can see how all of those things can happen by dealing with any given client, of course. Just to wrap things up though, one term that you've used a number of times is inbound, and inbound marketing and inbound video. At the beginning of our podcast, you spoke about the book that you've written. So, could you give us all some background on what is inbound marketing, and how does it tie into video, and tell us a bit about your book, and we'll find out where we can get it? Jeff Pelletier:                Sure. Well, inbound marketing is ... I know, Lionel, as you know, having come back from the HubSpot conference where we met. HubSpot is a software platform who have really helped to coin the term and really develop the market, but at the end of the day, inbound marketing is about attracting customers to you. So, it's attracting leads, it's converting those into sales [inaudible 00:38:11] leads, and moving them kind of through that helping them buy essentially, as opposed to going out and trying to sell. So, it's sort of the inverse of an outbound sales approach.               Typically, we see a lot of content at the top blogging, video potentially, where you're really not trying to sell a service, you're trying to answer your question, you're trying to address ... if somebody's looking for, they recognize they have a problem, they're beginning to look at solutions. And in our case, again, that might be the benefits of video, or how to use video on different platforms. And then, as they move down that journey, they're going to start to look at those solutions. In our case, again, maybe it's should I be producing video in house, or working with an agency?             And at some point, again, with us, they're likely going to land on our website, and they've decided they're going to work with an agency, which is the question of, which agency? And so, as an agency, our goal would then be to ...  to start that relationship as early as possible. So, if we're the ones to have provided that top of funnel and beginning of customer journey awareness content, if we're the ones who explain the benefits of video, and help them through that journey, we're more likely to be the person they choose at the end of that journey, as well.               So, that's kind of the foundation, right. And so, video fits into that, and so that's where we sort of use the term inbound video marketing. So, the foundation is an inbound marketing strategy, but we're using the video at potentially any of those touchpoints along the way. So, you can use it during the awareness stage, you can use it during conversions. You can even use it once you've started working with a customer for onboarding and retention. You know, helping them to maintain a happy customer. You can delight them with video, as well.   So, video works throughout that entire customer journey and throughout the entire sales funnel, and that's what the book that we published is based around. It's called The Inbound Video Marketing Playbook. InboundVideoMarketing.com, or it's available on Amazon. And basically, just talk about kind of a lot of things we talked about today. We talk about how to use video strategically and tactically at each of those stages. We talk about whether to hire somebody externally, or to do it in-house, when that's appropriate, as well as how to do that. So, how to choose a freelancer versus an agency. All the legalities that you need to watch out for when you're producing video. We have some resources in there about doing video yourself, and what gear to buy. Some of the websites that you can use as tools.                And then, all the way through distribution and measurement. So, we really try to approach the entire thing. It's packed with content. It can be dry at times, but it's also a good reference book for anybody who wants to sort of begin their journey into using video in their marketing. There's lots of stuff in there even if you're not doing inbound marketing. We talk a little about using it for outbound sales, as well. Lionel:                          Great. Well, thanks for the overview of that. It sounds like really anyone that is in the process of thinking about ramping up video or introducing video to their business, it sounds like the book would be a great place for them to be able to start and make sure they get off on the right track, Jeff. Jeff Pelletier:                Yeah. Lionel:                          Yeah. One of the things I'd like to do actually, Jeff, if it's okay for you, with our audience is to be able to have. How about we'll pick out a random commenter, and we can send them off your book for free, what do you think about that? Jeff Pelletier:                That's a great idea, yeah. Happy to do that. Lionel:                          Okay. So, for anyone that is thinking about adding or ramping up video in their business, please leave a comment, or a question, or your one experience on video, and we'll be able to pick a random commenter, and reach out to you by email, and we'll send you a copy of Jeff's book. So, thank you very much for offering that Jeff. Jeff Pelletier:                Yeah. No problem at all. Thanks, Lionel. Lionel:                          So, Jeff, thanks once again for sharing your knowledge on the Master Modern Marketing podcast. For all of the small and medium sized businesses out there, if you would like to join us on this podcast, and start capitalizing on the digital world, for all of the small and medium sized businesses out there, if you would like to join us on this podcast, and start capitalizing on the digital world, please apply now to be a guest. Basically, we will conduct a short audit, and sit down with you on this podcast, and talk about what things are great in your business, what opportunities there are to improve, and actually have a live coaching call, as well. So, at the end of that podcast, you'll know exactly what you need to do to be able to take your business to the next level. So, you can apply at FarmersMarketing.ca if you'd like to be a guest. So, Jeff, again, as we talked about at the beginning of the podcast, you've got a ton of things on the go there, both in your personal life and in business, so I appreciate you taking time out of your day today to be able to share your expertise with our audience, and hopefully, we can talk more about this in the future, and I hope that our listeners will reach out to be able to get more information from you, and potentially even work with you in the future, as well. Jeff Pelletier:                Yeah, glad to do it. Thanks. It's been fun, and if anybody does have any questions, or wants to get in touch, you can do so at InboundVideoMarketing.com. Lionel:                          So, InboundVideoMarketing.com. Jeff Pelletier:                That's right. Lionel:                          Right on. Thank you. And for everyone else listening, until next time, onward and upward. We'll see you on the next podcast. Announcer:                   The Master Modern Marketing Podcast, with your host, Lionel Johnston. A podcast for lovers of marketing and growing small businesses. If you enjoyed today's podcast, please rate and review, and we'll catch you next time on the Master Modern Marketing Podcast.  

At the Opening Oceans Conference, organised by NOR Shipping, I met with Paul Holthus, CEO of the World Ocean Council, WOC, who was one of the keynote speakers. Paul founded WOC when he saw that shipping and the ocean environment are both inseparably linked, but with the former having a dramatic effect on the latter. Listen to Paul speaking about how the Young Ocean Professional network works, through referrals and introductions and how this network is growing. More than 35,000 volunteers are collaborating to reach the SDG:s and now WOC is also focussing on female leadership, working together with Women's International Shipping & Trading Association, WISTA, amongst others. What do you think when listening to Paul? I am interested in hearing your view, I am @lenagothberg in all social media channels, or you can go to www.shippingpodcast.com and make a comment. Thank you for listening.

I held a workshop in Tromsø - north of the arctic circle - at the annual WISTA conference (WISTA being the “Women’s International Shipping & Trading Association”). The topic of my workshop was “Digitization, robots and AI. Why women will be the last to be replaced by robots and AI”. I was having a fun three hours with 25 smart and inspiring women. And to sum it up, I decided to wrap it all into a podcast. Link to the blog post: https://isene.org/2018/10/Podcast-WomanAndAutomation.html

Charlie & Mike Follo drive around central Massachusetts and hit the big city of Worcester (pronounced "Wista" to the locals!). Mike runs Down Zero Training.  DZT teaches a number of courses from basic firearm safety, shooting fundamentals, pistol/revolver basic, intro to IDPA, and much more.   His website is downzerotraining.com/. Our conversation on this ride covers Mike learning to hunt as a young boy, taking up bird hunting because he can't keep quiet, and how to get a senior discount at Dunkin Donuts! If you want to see the interview, please check out youtube.com/c/ridingshotgunwithcharlie. Thanks for subscribing and listening. Find many other podcasts on the Self Defense Radio Network: All Your Pro-Freedom Podcasts In One Place at selfdefenseradio.net/

Meet Lindsay M. Price, who operates and manages a harbour tug within large, busy ports and channels on the Texas Gulf Coast. She is confident with vessel handling and emergency procedures, ensures seaworthiness at all times, by regularly conducting maintenance of the vessel and all operational equipment onboard and she manages a crew of 6 people. We chat about Womens' International Shipping and Trading Association, WISTA, and how important it is with role models and people to look up to. It is important for Lindsay to speak about the maritime industry to young students and cadets, she wants to show that whatever you decide to become, your dreams can come through.   Follow Lindsay on Twitter @tugboatgal or on Instagram @organicallyhappy  Thanks for listening, please spread the word about the Shipping Podcast and engage either on the website www.shippingpodcast.com or in social media. 

Meet Hannah van Hemmen, a young scientist and engineer who works as a marine surveyor at MARTIN OTTAWAY. She talks about what it's like to be young in an old fashion industry with cutting edge technology and which she thinks gets too little attention. Hannah has got some really good ideas how the shipping industry can become more visible, why not take her up on the idea of a female surveyor as the new MacGyver? She also speaks about a book called The sole of a new machine.  Hannah also speaks very fondly about WISTA, Women's International Shipping and Trading Association, where she is a member of the New York Chapter, WISTA USA. I have appeared on International Podcast Day (30 sept) and on Gott Prat (if you understand Swedish) please feel free to comment on those events.  I need your help! Please answer 5 questions in an audience survey https://survey.libsyn.com/shippingpodcast and I will be so grateful!  Thank you for listening! Join the conversation and comment either on Facebook, Twitter or the website www.shippingpodcast.com 

Välkommen till ett gott prat om digital nyfikenhet och internationellt affärsnätverkande med gästen Lena Göthberg och programledare Maria Gustavsson. ---   Lena Göthberg beskriver sig själv som en nyfiken, enveten människa som springer längst fram och är nyfiken på nya saker. I programmet pratar vi bland annat om lärdomar efter livsomvälvande upplevelser, värdet av ett internationellt nätverk efter 25 år inom sjöfarten och hur hon arbetar med världens enda podcast som lyfter fram människorna inom sjöfartsbranschen. Och vad är Ships in Pics? --- Läs mer om Lenas arbete på Gigs by Lena G och om Shipping Podcast på sajten, Twitter och iTunes. I sociala medier pratar du med Lena på Twitter och Instagram. Lena berättar också om Ships in Pictures och nätverket Wista, Women’s International Shipping & Trading Association. --- Gott prat hittar du även: - På sajten gottprat.se. - I sociala medier på Facebook, Twitter, Instagram och Google+. Prenumerera, sätt betyg och dela gärna vidare. Tack! #gottprat --- Programledare är Maria Gustavsson. Redigering av Maria och Janne Gustavsson. Design av AD Julia Åhall. Musik av Rikard Jedborg, DJ Insidiouz. --- Välkommen tillbaka för mer gott prat!

Karin Orsel is a 45 year old Shipowner, Ship manager & Entrepreneur who thinks it is very important to engage and get involved in the international trade associations within the shipping industry - how else can you influence upcoming regulations, gain knowledge and have a heads-up?  Listen to how she took a leap of faith 1994, at the age of 23, started a shipping company with one client, 6 vessels and 50 crewmembers and how that has grown into a substantial ship owning and ship management company, MF Shipping Group, today employing more than 1,000 crewmembers on 52 vessels. This episode of the Shipping Podcast covers a lot, 90 % of everything within shipping I would say; why is a ship called "she"? What is the responsibility of the Godmother of the ship? How Shipowners does chose which flag to fly? SECA, how do that effect the industry? Unmanned ships? Are there only 0.6 % female seafarers in the global merchant fleet?!  Well, you have to listen, this is a real titbit, either you are a mariner or a non-mariner, promise you! Help spread the word about the Shipping Podcast through all channels possible! That will get more people interested in all the exciting things within our industry! Kudos!  

You are meeting 8 shipping business women who attended the Women's International Shipping and Trading Association, WISTA, International AGM & Conference in Istanbul, Turkey October, 7-10, 2015 and Consuelo is the final one. Consuelo Rivero, Shipping Agent at Ership in Huelva, Spain, has been the Secretary of the WISTA International Executive Committee for the last six years and she is the most loyal fan of the Shipping Podcast, always supporting and giving feedback! Consuelo speaks about her job what it's like to be a shipping agent and how few female Captains she has met during her 22 years in the maritime industry.  Thank you for 2015, best wishes for a prosperous 2016 - and don't forget to spread the word about the Shipping Podcast! 

You will be meeting 8 shipping business women who attended the Women's International Shipping and Trading Association, WISTA International AGM & Conference in Istanbul, Turkey October, 7-10, 2015. Sanjam Gupta, Director Sitara Shipping Ltd, India is the President of WISTA India and also a member of the WISTA International Executive Committee, EXCO. She is the founder of WISTA India and in this episode she tells the true story of how she got upset to be the only woman attending gatherings within the maritime cluster in India, making her google for Women in Shipping and through the website find WISTA International.  Sanjam thinks that the industry needs to come together and promote shipping to younger people enabling them to enter and contribute to the developments.  You can do your part to promote the shipping industry by taking the time to write a review on iTunes for this podcast. You find the place if you visit the iTunes Store, where you subscribed (or will subscribe) to the Shipping Podcast. Kudos to everyone who does this!   

You are meeting 8 shipping business women who attended the Women's International Shipping and Trading Association, WISTA International AGM & Conference in Istanbul, Turkey October, 7-10, 2015. In this, the nineteenth episode, I meet with Joan Nuijten-Muller, the current President of WISTA the Netherlands and HR Manager at the family owned tugboat company Multraship B.V. Joan is sharing her passion for the shipping industry, which she tried to leave, but couldn't, and her thoughts that the success factor for their company is that they personally know all their staff, both sailing and on shore.  Thank you for listening to the Shipping Podcast, you are welcome to comment on our website if you liked what you heard! Also L O V E reviews on iTunes!   

You are meeting 8 shipping business women who attended the Women’s International Shipping and Trading Association, WISTA International AGM & Conference in Istanbul, Turkey October, 7-10, 2015.  In the 18th episode of the Shipping Podcast, Jeanne Grasso is in the hot seat. Jeanne is a maritime lawyer and Partner at Blank Rome LLP in Washington DC. She was just listed as number 4 of the Top 10 Lawyers 2015 named by Lloyd's List recently. Jeanne works with the regulatory side of shipping and she sees a very busy future with all the new legislation showering the shipping industry. We have a really nice chat about the benefits of being a member of WISTA, why organisations benefit from having they employees as members of WISTA and of course the fact that WISTA USA I hosting the 2016 WISTA International AGM & Conference onboard the Holland America Line new Cruise Ship KONINGSDAM in November. If you love what you hear, give us a high-five in social media - or make a comment on our website, that gives more people the possibility to explore all the interesting people within the shipping industry! Thank you for listening!

You will be meeting 8 shipping business women who attended the Women's International Shipping and Trading Association, WISTA International AGM & Conference in Istanbul, Turkey October, 7-10, 2015. In this episode you meet Sylvia Boer, a young woman who decided that she had to work within the maritime industry after having watched her father work in this international and dynamic industry - shipping grew into my veins as she puts it. How do you market a shipyard? Is there a difference working with marketing & communications for a newbuilding yard and a repair yard?  Why is it important for Damen Shipyard that Sylvia is a member of WISTA the Netherlands? We cover that and then some in this chat about the future of shipping! Join the conversation, post a comment or start in any of the social media you feel comfortable with, someone has to start!  Twitter: @Shippingpodcast Facebook: Shipping Podcast  Website: ShippingPodcast.com

Ben is joined by trepidatious producer, Thom Obarski, to talk all things media at thoughtbot, compare working in tech to entertainment environments, and bestow some beginner advice on starting one's own podcast. This episode of Giant Robots is sponsored by: Digital Ocean: Simple and fast cloud hosting, built for developers. Use the code GiantRobots for a $10 credit towards your new account. Links & Show Notes Levelator Ben, transcribed & annotated Seth Godin Episode of Giant Robots Original Producer Position Posting Acitve thoughtbot Podcasts Thom on IMDB thoughtbot Youtube (Warning, a welcome video autoplays if you're not already a subscriber) Ben's first blooper reel Robots at Play Video Playlist Thom's Investment Time Wistia Wista on Giant Robots Mou Podcasting for $0 Down- Submitted talk proposal Podclear Thom on Twitter

Today I started playing with Wista Video Hosting. This company understands their audience, what they need, and they make it easy to use and the have a GREAT job of holing your hand virtually the process. Here is a video I made showing the back end of wista. Realize I just stared using the service, and this is my first impression http://schoolofpodcasting.wistia.com/medias/vlfk4ozsn5 Their interface is awesome. Their support seems to read your mind and answer your question before you ask it. They aren't trying to help you make better videos (that's your job). They are helping you make your videos be shared (or lock them down tight) with a simple point and click interface. The one thing I really like is you can see not only how many times the video was played, but how far people watched. That is crucial. You can see if it was replayed. This can point out two things. 1. The video is great - and people watch again and again 2. The video is missing the point, and people need to watch it again because they are confused. I am really impressed. Wisita Vs Vimeo Let me say I am a happy Vimeo user. Comparing the two, it seems like Vimeo is has a split personality. One one hand they want you to watch videos on Vimeo, and on the other hand they are a Video hosting company (with tools to help you share, brand, and protect). Their interface is just not as good. Yes, the have help. It's not as intuitive. One scenario that might be happening here is I've been a Vimeo user for about a year (so I forget their first impression). It just seems like there are features I'm not using (royalty free music for my video) that kind of clutter up the place. Where is my call to action? Where is my email integration? These are  features I will use (and may exist, but I'm unaware - but I don't think so). Wistia has a great tool, and as a trainer, are doing a great job of making me understand how to get the most out of their product. After playing with Wistai for 10 minutes this morning, I'm going to be checking to see when my Vimeo account renews. That is another issue, Vimeo only allows you to order their Pro service in yearly intervals ($200). Wisita is $25 a month for the features I need (Small Business Account). This means that Wisita is $8 more a month (but I pay in smaller amounts over time), but if I'm getting more subscribers, I'm getting more sales, then Wisita could easily pay for itself.