Keep learning. You may think you know everything there is to know in your business but there is always something you can improve on or learn more about. You should also spend time developing your leadership skills so you can successfully communicate your goals to your team.
As a part of our series called “Making Something from Nothing”, I had the pleasure of interviewing John Akhoian.
As CEO of Rooter Hero, a plumbing and HVAC company serving residential and commercial locations in California and Arizona, John Akhoian’s mission is to help others maximize their careers and live fulfilling, comfortable lives. He is the author of five books, including, “Creating 99 Millionaires,” “Values First: Principle Driven Leadership” and “Temporarily Broken: The John Akhoian Story.” For more information, visit www.rooterhero.com.
Thank you so much for doing this with us! Before we dive in, our readers would love to learn a bit more about you. Can you tell us a bit about your “childhood backstory”?
I was born in Armenia but moved to Hollywood, California when I was 3 years old in 1975. My grandfather was already here and helped my parents secure a visa to come to this country. We didn’t have much, so my family lived in a one-bedroom apartment until I was in high school and that’s when we bought a house in north Hollywood.
After living there for a little more than a year, my Dad had a heart attack and passed away. I had been attending North Hollywood High School and had to drop out to start earning a living to help pay the bills after my father’s passing. I began working in the trades for a family friend where I learned plumbing as an apprentice for $25 a day. I was eventually able to run his truck by myself.
Since the money I earned there was not enough, I started doing extra plumbing work on the weekends for my own clients. I was finally able to buy my own tools and go out on my own. I started my first plumbing company at the age of 19.
Now, I employee between 400–500 people with Rooter Hero, and we are the largest plumbing company in the state of California and it all started because I had to help make the mortgage so we didn’t have to move back into that one-bedroom apartment I hated so much.
Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share how that was relevant to you in your life?
My favorite quote is from the great businessman and motivational speaker, Zig Ziglar, who said, “If you want to achieve your goals, help others achieve theirs.”
Because of this quote, I have always tried to put other people first, find out what they want to accomplish, and determine how I can be of assistance to them. That quote is in the lobby of Rooter Hero’s office.
Looking at the quote reminds to always consider other people and put their needs first.
Is there a particular book, podcast, or film that made a significant impact on you? Can you share a story or explain why it resonated with you so much?
I’m an avid book reader, but the one that sticks out right now is “The Slight Edge” by Jeff Olson. I read it years ago, but its message about the habits of successful people still resonates with me. I still go back and listen to the audiobook from time to time.
I like a lot of books on leadership, such as “Good to Great” by Jim Collins and strive to be what he calls a Level 5 leader. A Level 5 leader displays both personal humility and indomitable will. I work on that every day.
I also enjoy the movie, “The Shawshank Redemption.” It’s just a powerful movie about determination and the will to succeed and how he makes a plan that develops over time.
Ok super. Let’s now shift to the main part of our discussion. There is no shortage of good ideas out there. Many people have good ideas all the time. But people seem to struggle in taking a good idea and translating it into an actual business. Can you share a few ideas from your experience about how to overcome this challenge?
I think taking an innovative idea into business requires a lot of thought. Running with an idea before it’s well thought out can be a mistake. You must consider the pros and cons. You also have to be prepared to let something go in order to make this new idea come to fruition. You can’t just continue to start new ideas, or you’ll forever be “doing” instead of “accomplishing.”
It’s also a good idea to consider how this new idea affects your team. You should discuss your new ideas with your team to see if it can be implemented and executed.
Often when people think of a new idea, they dismiss it saying someone else must have thought of it before. How would you recommend that someone go about researching whether or not their idea has already been created?
Never second guess yourself. Even if someone did come up with an idea before you, you can always come up with a new and improved version and make it your own.
Too often, people give up on their ideas too quickly before taking the time to research them and how they can be implemented.
My advice is that if you come up with an idea that works for you, pursue it. It doesn’t matter if someone has already thought of it, just take the idea and improve it so that it makes sense for you and/or your business to implement.
For the benefit of our readers, can you outline the steps one has to go through from when they think of the idea, until it finally lands in a customer’s hands? In particular, we’d love to hear about how to file a patent, how to source a good manufacturer, and how to find a retailer to distribute it.
In my business, the key is to test out your idea before you bring it to market. You can also involve your family and friends in the testing phase by either bouncing the idea off of them or having them physically test it with a tangible product.
When I think of something, I gather opinions and then test it to see if it’s something that is sustainable.
What are your “5 Things I Wish Someone Told Me When I First Started Leading My Company” and why?
Be patient. You can’t expect things to happen overnight. Work hard and give your ideas time to germinate and grow.
Try not to suffer from FOMO disease. When you have a fear of missing out, you think you need to try everything. It’s been my experience that you probably aren’t missing out on much.
Keep learning. You may think you know everything there is to know in your business but there is always something you can improve on or learn more about. You should also spend time developing your leadership skills so you can successfully communicate your goals to your team.
Hire slow, fire fast and value your employees. You should pay people well for the work they do and let them know their value to you.
Take time to plan before executing. Of course, this will take more time, but doing the groundwork for an idea to flourish will give you the foundation you need to make your ideas successful.
Let’s imagine that a reader reading this interview has an idea for a product that they would like to invent. What are the first few steps that you would recommend that they take?
The first thing you need to consider is what problem you want to solve. The greater the problem, the more the opportunity you have by providing a solution. Whether it’s through your personal experiences or as a result of market research, your first steps should be to ensure that your product or service can be properly implemented to solve that particular problem.
There are many invention development consultants. Would you recommend that a person with a new idea hire such a consultant, or should they try to strike out on their own?
I have always been a fan of seeking advice and assistance from professionals who know the subject matter. Of course, this is subjective because some people do better striking out on their own, but it’s been my experience that reaching out to those who have a greater knowledge in the field you are researching provides you with the background you need to succeed.
What are your thoughts about bootstrapping vs looking for venture capital? What is the best way to decide if you should do either one?
I’ve always bootstrapped, myself, but have had friends who sought out venture capital and were quite successful.
Both can work but you need to be realistic about it. If you decide to bootstrap your ideas yourself, you should know that it may take longer to reach the pinnacle but the results belong to you alone. If you decide to pursue venture capital, you will have a larger safety net but you will need to give up more of your ownership and control sooner than you would if you were funding the idea or business yourself.
Ok. We are nearly done. Here are our final questions. How have you used your success to make the world a better place?
I’ve tried to impart my experiences and knowledge to others who might be starting where I did years back. Hopefully, by passing along my advice on what works and what some of the roadblocks a new business owner might face will help them avoid the mistakes I made as I was building my business. It’s my hope that I help others succeed more quickly than I did because they are armed with knowledge.
You are an inspiration to a great many people. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger.
I would like to lead a movement of people who want to become lifelong learners. I truly believe that life only gets better when you get better and the way you get better is to learn. Whether you are learning more about new technologies in your industry or learning to be a better leader, you are continuing to challenge yourself with new knowledge, skills or methods to improve.
Is there a person in the world, or in the US, with whom you would love to have a private breakfast or lunch, and why? He or she might just see this if we tag them.
My first choice would be Christ. It would be an honor to sit with him to discuss faith and his dedication. But, if we are choosing someone now living, I would have to say that I would like to meet former President Donald Trump. I’d like to pick his brain on some of the challenges he had to overcome in moving from business to governing.
Thank you for these fantastic insights. We greatly appreciate the time you spent on this.
“Fail fast, fail often” — This is a core value to bttn as an organization and something that I always refer back to. We are trying to turn an established $300B+ industry on its head, which is no easy feat. This requires taking big swings, not little, measured swings. To make progress toward big, audacious goals, you must be willing to fail constantly. At bttn, we embrace failure and learn from it every day.
As a part of our series about business leaders who are shaking things up in their industry, I had the pleasure of interviewing JT Garwood.
JT Garwood started his career in Enterprise Sales at Microsoft and learned from some of the best and brightest mentors in the industry. He combines GTM expertise with vision and charismatic leadership to create trusted relationships with customers, partners, and advisors while inspiring the team. JT earned his Bachelor’s in Business Administration with a focus on International Business and a minor in Asian Studies from the University of San Diego and his Master of Business Administration from Syracuse University’s Martin J. Whitman School of Management.
Thank you so much for doing this with us! Before we dig in, our readers would like to get to know you a bit more. Can you tell us a bit about your “backstory”? What led you to this particular career path?
Starting my career at Microsoft in government sales was foundational to me leading bttn as CEO. I have always been drawn to sales and business,so it was not surprising when I felt the entrepreneurial side of my brain itch.
As the COVID-19 pandemic hit, news channels were full of stories about companies and hospitals being price gouged or defrauded when trying to obtain PPE and medical supplies. Wanting to explore this problem, I decided to start my first startup company. Our goal was to connect medical supply manufacturers abroad with hospitals and health systems in the United States via blockchain. While we sold that business within a year, the experience enlightened me to the healthcare industry’s issues in sourcing issues, supply chain, and transparency. Add in the extreme lack of customer service for the price of medical supplies, and it was clear there was a ripe opportunity to disrupt a massive industry, while improving efficiencies for everyone.
My co-founder Jack Miller and I decided to act, and bttn was born in March 2021.
Now, in September 2022, we are up to over 80 full-time employees, with +10,000 customers who have transparent access to over 2.5 million medical supplies from name-brand manufacturers. We are on a mission to reduce the cost of healthcare for all.
Can you tell our readers what it is about the work you’re doing that’s disruptive?
At its core, bttn is forcing the U.S.’s slow-moving, $250 billion-dollar medical supply industry to pivot by incorporating price transparency, technology and an easy-to-use user interface. We are building a modern way to purchase Grade A products at wholesale prices as a B2B retailer. Our online platform shows the prices of products — what you see is what you pay. By enabling selection, trust, and technology, we can offer price savings on medical supplies between 20–40% versus the incumbent model.
Every one of our incumbents — the reputable, big-name players in the medical supply industry — still play the old game: field sales reps, minimal-to-no price transparency, contracts, and MOQs. They don’t have an easy way for customers to easily purchase products online, on their own time.
Can you share a story about the funniest mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lesson you learned from that?
I’ll be the first to admit that I make a comical number of mistakes. But what separates good, successful entrepreneurs from others is the ability to be comfortable with failure and recognizing that it isn’t the end of the world — these are just learning moments.
I’ll never forget when my co-founder Jack and I went to raise our pre-seed round — our first actual capital raise. During the first call where we got commitment from the lead investor, they suggested that we raise the money via a SAFE. We didn’t know what a SAFE was, but we nodded our heads and agreed on the path forward. When the call ended, we opened our computers and proceeded to spend the next 24 hours researching and learning what exactly a SAFE is (God bless Y-Combinator and the internet)!
By the next morning, we could answer any question, comment, or concern regarding SAFE’s and had one ready to use for the raise.
We closed the round and secured $1.5 M in funding.
We all need a little help along the journey. Who have been some of your mentors? Can you share a story about how they made an impact?
I credit much of my success to having worked alongside and being mentored by some incredibly knowledgeable leaders.
One person who’s had a profound impact on not only myself but also bttn, is our President Steve Nielsen, who served as the former CEO of McKesson Medical and LABSCO. Steve doesn’t just bring a wealth of medical supply industry knowledge to the table, he also brings decades of leadership, customer excellence-based business building, and a genuine passion for helping others.
He left retirement to join the company because he believes that bttn has the power to disrupt the medical supply industry at large and reshape everything he knew to be true.
In today’s parlance, being disruptive is usually a positive adjective. But is disrupting always good? When do we say the converse, that a system or structure has ‘withstood the test of time’? Can you articulate to our readers when disrupting an industry is positive, and when disrupting an industry is ‘not so positive’? Can you share some examples of what you mean?
Disruption can be positive and rewarding of every stakeholder if done correctly. Typically, we see positivity in tech when disruption, improves processes and leads to innovations. To produce “positive disruption,” informed intention and strategic decision-making must play an integral role in the change.
As a student of marketplaces, Amazon’s impact fits squarely into “positive” disruption. Providing access and transparency to every item in the consumer goods space was a lofty goal, but they did just that. Amazon’s prices and convenience have saved consumers billions, while also enabling new categories of technology as the company has expanded.
Disruptors that don’t make it are those who are inundated with complex processes, unsustainable practices, and are hell-bent on doing things only one way.
To disrupt, you must be nimble.
The difference between your product or service and that of your incumbents matters — this is the real value your company brings to the market. You must know what you’re running towards, while simultaneously understanding that the boat that you’re currently on to get there might get a hole. At this point you can either throw in the towel and remain stagnant or figure out how to keep moving.
Can you share five of the best words of advice that you’ve gotten along your journey?
“Fail fast, fail often” — This is a core value to bttn as an organization and something that I always refer back to. We are trying to turn an established $300B+ industry on its head, which is no easy feat. This requires taking big swings, not little, measured swings. To make progress toward big, audacious goals, you must be willing to fail constantly. At bttn, we embrace failure and learn from it every day.
“Do things that don’t scale” — When you’re starting a company, you’re always presented with options on how to deploy your capital. Oftentimes, you’re presented with the best solution first. That might mean going with the big expensive CRM instead of manually managing sales opportunities when you first launch. That’s ok. Everything is fixable at an early stage; do as many things as possible that don’t scale until you have to change.
“Don’t stop”– Since bttn’s launch, there were countless times when things looked bleak. These were opportunities to stop, pause, and see how things would play out. The big secret to entrepreneurship is knowing that it’s just a matter of 1) doing it and 2) staying in the game for as long as you can.
“Embrace the suck” — As an entrepreneur, every day can feel like you’re waking up to get punched in the stomach. Growth and disruption are not easy. You will be challenged every single day. The power comes in being able to embrace the suck and see everything instead as a strength.
We are sure you aren’t done. How are you going to shake things up next?
The great thing about the healthcare and medical supply market is it’s filled with opportunities. While our current focus is providing affordable, bulk wholesale medical supplies online to medical practitioners, businesses, and consumers, it is by no means our only way to impact the market. The industry is wide open and ready for the taking.
As for what is next, bttn is going to continue scaling to lower the cost of healthcare for all. Our next strategic move, whether it be a new product, service, or expanded line of business, will directly support this vision. We want to be the one-stop shop for everything a medical practice or everyday consumer needs to buy. The more products that we can provide our customers with, the greater our impact will be.
Do you have a book, podcast, or talk that’s had a deep impact on your thinking? Can you share a story with us? Can you explain why it was so resonant with you?
I consider myself a lifelong learner with a huge passion for books, podcasts, and anything else I can get my hands on. Three books stand out to me as truly influential.
“Multipliers”- Liz Wizman
This book was my bible when I became a part of a large organization and started leading one of my first teams. It taught me how to optimize teams for what they are good at and multiply the results.
2. “The Hard Thing About Hard Things”-Ben Horowitz
I consider this essential reading for any entrepreneur. Ben has a way of sharing so plainly the challenges that you will face as a founder and leader at a startup.
Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share how that was relevant to you in your life?
As a major history and US President nerd, it would have to be “The Man in The Arena” by Theodore Roosevelt.
“It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.”
This quote has had a profound effect on everything I do. This is rocket fuel for an entrepreneur and encapsulates why we do it. This quote has propelled me to make many life decisions, from applying for big tech jobs to becoming an entrepreneur.
You are a person of great influence. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger. 🙂
I want to inspire people to pursue what they are most passionate about. Not just for a day or a year, but for decades.
By acting on an idea and helping solve a problem I’m passionate about, I’ve been lucky enough to surround myself with the right people to help bring my vision of transforming the entire medical supply chain ecosystem to life.
I’d love for people to pursue roles that get to the heart of their motivations so they can bring unparalleled passion and energy day in and day out. Imagine how much more we could achieve if we pursued what we were passionate about not just in improving our own lives but also in the lives of others.
Focus is key. This is how you get your creative ideas to flow easier. Formulate a continuous development plan because as your community grows, they’ll want to see consistency.
As a part of our series about cutting-edge technological breakthroughs, I had the pleasure of interviewing Tahem Verma.
Tahem Verma is the Co-Founder and CEO of mesha, an all-in-one smart money management tool for Web3 companies and DAOs. Mesha is a global platform that gives companies access to easy-to-use treasury and expense management tools to help Web3 teams scale their financial operations. Mesha enables startups to effectively manage their assets, access DeFi, and diversify tokens or earn yield. They provide startups with detailed insights into their finances and a corporate card program, allowing crypto-native teams to function seamlessly between the worlds of Web2 and Web3.
Tahem is a serial entrepreneur and previously founded the English-learning app Enguru. He received his BA at the University of Pennsylvania and MBA at Cornell Tech. He is also the host of the podcast Debug the Future, where he breaks down the fintech industry and helps audiences understand its potential and inner workings.
Thank you so much for doing this with us! Before we dive in, our readers would love to learn a bit about you. Can you tell us about the cutting-edge technological breakthroughs that you are working on? How do you think that will help people?
Mesha is the all-in-one smart money management tool for Web3 organizations such as DAOs, NFT projects, and Web3 startups. We provide a super easy-to-use treasury and expense management tool that helps teams scale their financial operations. Mesha helps Web3 startups with crypto assets, by actually managing those assets and securing them in a multi-signature wallet, which teams can access and use to make payments to vendors, DAO contributors, and employees. Users can also access DeFi solutions, so if they need to make token swaps because they’re earning in a non-stable currency, for example, mesha has streamlined this process for converting to a stablecoin. In addition, users get valuable insights into their finances. We also help bridge the gap between crypto assets and fiat payments with a corporate card program. You can think of mesha as a crypto-native bank and card program. Our goal is to let the best projects focus on building while we help them scale their financial operations, enabling the ecosystem to grow as a whole.
How do you think this might change the world?
A lot of Web3 teams overlook the traditional fiat rails that still exist. There are many bills that teams will need to pay in fiat, vendors that don’t accept crypto, and losses incurred while converting crypto to fiat. We’ve designed this global platform to expand the ecosystem and let innovators innovate. We have for too long seen Web3 teams and DAO contributors struggle with converting crypto to US dollars, making payments, and reconciling these transactions, so we make it a lot easier and a lot faster for them to do so. This means Web3 projects no longer need to hold their crypto in a centralized custodian. We underwrite users based on their decentralized wallet rather than their fiat bank account. What’s really exciting is that we enable Web3 projects to pay in fiat using their credit card while being able to pay back their balance in crypto, so we’ve designed the program to bridge the fiat requirements for crypto-native teams.
Was there a “tipping point” that led you to this breakthrough? Can you tell us that story?
As a Web3 company, I and my team suffered all the same problems. Converting fiat to crypto is a really complicated and tiresome process and to top it off it’s expensive. We realized the space is still growing and for the moment it’s quite broken. So, the tipping point was when we learned that we could make an impact and help teams focus on what they’re good at, which is building.
What do you need to lead this technology to widespread adoption?
It’s about executing and listening to our customer’s needs. That’s all that matters. With community-focused projects, it’s not enough to declare that you are all about the people. People want to see consistent growth because it’s an indication of how strong your team is and how dedicated they are the mission.
What have you been doing to publicize this idea? Have you been using any innovative marketing strategies?
We are community-focused, so we work with our communities, from Twitter Spaces to our Discord servers, to make sure they build with us, and because our community genuinely believes that our service is solving real-world problems, they spread the word about our project and the work that we do.
How have you used your success to bring goodness to the world?
It’s really important for us to give back and do our part because there are deep-rooted inequalities in the world. We donate one percent of whatever we earn to help female education around the world. Our community can vote to increase this percentage, but never decrease it. We hope that in the future mesha’s pledge will no longer be relevant- but until then, we will help empower girls in the world.
What are your “5 Things I Wish Someone Told Me Before I Started” and why?
Take your time with hiring the right people. Your team and company culture is key to a successful business, especially in Web3. You need people that believe in the vision and are willing to put in the work for the long haul.
Spend time talking to users before building. You can’t settle for the ideas in your head. You need to be talking to users consistently in order to understand what they want to get out of an experience, and you need to be fully transparent. If you’re not committed to active engagement with your users as a founder, then you’re already missing one of the core reasons to create a business with Web3 principles.
Focus is key. This is how you get your creative ideas to flow easier. Formulate a continuous development plan because as your community grows, they’ll want to see consistency.
Stay healthy and find balance. Finding a balance between your work and private life is vital to avoiding burnout. I realized that being dedicated to your job doesn’t have to come at the expense of having boundaries and [it’s important] to let go of the idea that you have to be able to do it all on your own.
Build relationships. Web3 is all about people coming together as a community and building relationships take a lot of time. Be clear with your intentions and foster an environment where people feel comfortable enough to self-signal their intentions.
You are a person of great influence. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger. 🙂
If more of us built for the world, and not for making money quickly, we could tap into the next wave of uplifting society and people around the world. We have the opportunity to change this narrative, and we should all start by uplifting those marginalized by society.
Meet The Disruptors: Arun Pattabhiraman Of Sprinklr On The Five Things You Need To Shake Up Your Industry
An Interview With Fotis Georgiadis
You start building out your growth, brand, and product marketing engines with subject matter experts and start driving more accountability across brand and revenue enablement functions.
As a part of our series about business leaders who are shaking things up in their industry, I had the pleasure of interviewing Arun Pattabhiraman is Sprinklr’s Chief Marketing Officer.
Prior to joining Sprinklr, Arun was Chief Growth Officer at Freshworks, where he led a global team of 400+ marketing, operations, and sales development professionals and played a critical role in helping Freshworks become the first Indian B2B SaaS company to list on NASDAQ in September 2021.
Prior to Freshworks, Arun ran global marketing at Disney+Hotstar, and also served as the CMO at InMobi, India’s first unicorn. Arun holds a Bachelors in Electrical Engineering from Anna University and a Post Graduate Program in Management from the Indian School of Business, Hyderabad.
Thank you so much for doing this with us! Before we dig in, our readers would like to get to know you a bit more. Can you tell us a bit about your “backstory”? What led you to this particular career path?
I didn’t always know I wanted to have a career in marketing. I actually started studying electrical engineering for my bachelor’s degree. But, I come from a family of musicians and artists, so creativity has always been in my blood. My dad is an English and Tamil poet. He used to be a writer in Ananda Vikatan, one of the oldest Tamil weekly magazines. He’s also a pencil portrait artist. My mom is a Carnatic musician. And my grandmother used to sing on All India Radio, the national public radio broadcaster of India.
Even though engineering was my major, creative activities filled up my free time. I sang music for a band, and loved creating pencil sketches. Towards the end of college, I realized that engineering wasn’t my passion, and that I needed a balance of art and science in my life. I shifted my career path and decided to get an MBA.
After my MBA, I spent three years at the telecom company Airtel before moving to the mobile advertising tech company InMobi. I joined InMobi during its early years and helped the company grow rapidly, which led to me assuming the role of global CMO. After nearly 7 years I moved on and soon joined Freshworks as the Chief Growth Officer, where I built several functions from scratch and played a critical role in helping Freshworks become the first Indian B2B SaaS company to list on NASDAQ in September 2021.
In early 2022 I was looking for my next challenge, and had an opportunity to join Sprinklr as Chief Marketing Officer. Sprinklr went public in 2021, and has tremendous growth potential as a B2B software company that helps the world’s most valuable brands break down internal silos in order to deliver seamless customer experiences on social media and messaging channels.
Can you tell our readers what it is about the work you’re doing that’s disruptive?
Tackling the challenge of making marketing a predictable, profitable area of growth for the business is something I’m focused on right now. Building a brand requires creativity, but translating that into a profitable area of growth for a business is tricky and requires analytical skills to predict where a business could land. It’s a complex science, and very difficult to strike a balance between brand-led growth and sales-led growth.
As companies transition from selling to SMBs to targeting mid market and enterprise companies, the sales motion typically moves from inbound to outbound. While most small and medium buyers can be attracted using inbound marketing techniques such as digital and content marketing, mid-market and enterprise customers need outbound sales.
In today’s parlance, being disruptive is usually a positive adjective. But is disrupting always good? When do we say the converse, that a system or structure has ‘withstood the test of time’? Can you articulate to our readers when disrupting an industry is positive, and when disrupting an industry is ‘not so positive’? Can you share some examples of what you mean?
I don’t think marketing leaders can come into a role with a standard disruptive playbook. And it’s actually a negative thing when people go into a role wanting to “disrupt” without deeply understanding the company. If the stage of company and market strategy is not aligned, disruption is not good.
Even the most astute leaders can’t figure out the transformation required before they understand the stage the company is at and where the company is on its growth journey.
There are four to five stages as a company goes from seed to scale. The first stage is what I like to call the growth stage. These are the early years of the company where marketing teams are largely focused on driving acquisitions.
The second stage is really brand establishment. Once you have product-market fit, you have a better understanding of what the value proposition is, and you are in a better position to define what your brand essence is.
Third stage is scaling and specialization. You start building out your growth, brand, and product marketing engines with subject matter experts and start driving more accountability across brand and revenue enablement functions.
Fourth or fifth stage is when your brand is well established and you can invest in customer marketing, driving cross-sell and upsell programs, and even referrals as a new acquisition channel.
For many companies, creating this sustainable growth playbook is incredibly disruptive if the company doesn’t have it in place.
Can you share five of the best words of advice you’ve gotten along your journey? Please give a story or example for each.
As a data-driven marketer, leaders want data all the time to make decisions. But, over a period of time, I’ve realized that the collective experiences in life always provide you with information you shouldn’t discount. When I look back at decisions I’ve made — sometimes moving sideways in my career instead of up — I knew that if I pursued my passion and stayed true to myself I would end up where I needed to be.
We are sure you aren’t done. How are you going to shake things up next?
I haven’t executed a massive rebrand yet, and I’ve always wanted to architect this, but I want to do it when there is a real need.
Predictions for 2023?
I think there is a movement against lead generation towards demand generation and capture. Every B2B company is so used to gated content that we’ve lost touch with the true art of creating demand. What about creating demand rather than just capturing demand?
There is a growing realization in the B2B space that there is a lot of value that gets added to things you do that can’t necessarily be measured precisely. On the other hand, we have tools like Sprinklr that are helping brands get much better at measuring the value of social and PR, and showing how it impacts the brand.
Do you have a book, podcast, or talk that’s had a deep impact on your thinking? Can you share a story with us? Can you explain why it was so resonant with you?
I’m not someone who reads many business books. I’m always interested in stories of people who have gone down different paths. For example, I love the Autobiography of a Yogi about Paramahansa Yogananda, because it’s an interesting look at the science of Yoga and the tradition of meditation — something that gets me out of my daily B2B marketing world.
Don’t be afraid to ask: Most people are willing to help out or give you advice along the way. Wether it’s a manufacturer or someone else in your same field, almost everyone wants to help.
As a part of our series about business leaders who are shaking things up in their industry, I had the pleasure of interviewing Suveria Mota.
Dominican Republic born, New York City raised, Suveria Mota launched SUVERIA in 2019. The first 100% vegan luxury lifestyle brand. As a former Hollywood actress in her post college years, her passion for the limelight, arts and fashion all came together in synergy when conceptualizing her brand.
A true trailblazer making strides with a vegan luxury brand, merging elegant designs with luxurious craftsmanship and tastefully timeless designs. Perfectly suited for today’s generation of modern compassionate fashionables. SUVERIA proves that vegan fashion can co-exist in the luxury market.
Thank you so much for doing this with us! Before we dig in, our readers would like to get to know you a bit more. Can you tell us a bit about your “backstory”? What led you to this particular career path?
Sure! Thank you for having me. I was born the Dominican Republic. My parents migrated with my sister and I to NYC when I was four years old. I lived In New York City until I graduated from college. Since a young age I had always wanted to be in Hollywood or in show business. After graduating college, I decided to move to Los Angeles and pursue acting. While in L.A, I had a few acting parts and then a big lead in a made for tv movie and that was great. However, after some time, I was feeling like acting wasn’t my passion anymore and decided to step back and take a break.
In the summer of 2015, I watched a documentary on cetaceans in captivity and it immediately changed the way that I viewed sea-quariums and parks that have animals performing acts for entertainment. I never went to them because I always felt uneasy, and then the documentary solidified my instincts.
After watching the documentary I became interested in animal rights and veganism. Which then led me to realize that my luxury items were all non vegan. Cleaning out my closet was the catalyst for how it all started.
Can you tell our readers what it is about the work you’re doing that’s disruptive?
When I started the brand in 2015 and launched in 2019, luxury in thevegan market wasn’t popular. Most people saw vegans or anyone interested in cruelty free products as a population that wasn’t included in the luxury conversation. I launched SUVERIA as a truly vegan luxury lifestyle brand. There were other brands that offered luxury vegan products but still offered other items with wool or silk, or vegan shoe brands but then didn’t have the luxury packaging or branding which is also part of the luxury experience in retail.
Manufacturers for example didn’t understand when I’d say, that I wanted to offer my customers packaging and the level of craftsmanship on par with their other luxury accounts.
Can you share a story about the funniest mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lesson you learned from that?
I’ll call this a funny mistake even if it’s not a “thing” per se. When I started I didn’t realize how important it is to include your followers in the process of creating a brand or product. That the buildup can also help you to see if anything needs to be changed before production. I’ve learned now to showcase any new products to receive feedback and also ask questions. It’s best to ask your customer base if possible at every stage. Tease to see how it will be received.
We all need a little help along the journey. Who have been some of your mentors? Can you share a story about how they made an impact?
From a far I look at other founders in the fashion industry as inspiration. Tom Ford for example is a living legend whom I admire. He started in the industry as a model and actor. I didn’t attend fashion school and so it’s easy to feel like one doesn’t belong if you don’t have the “credentials”. Knowing that Tom Ford was in the same field as myself before making his way into fashion is very encouraging and exciting.
In today’s parlance, being disruptive is usually a positive adjective. But is disrupting always good? When do we say the converse, that a system or structure has ‘withstood the test of time’? Can you articulate to our readers when disrupting an industry is positive, and when disrupting an industry is ‘not so positive’? Can you share some examples of what you mean?
Yes, disruption is good. Change is good. Only when we disrupt something is when we realize that the old way wasn’t right or working correctly. So many times because of a disruption we find better ways to do the same thing and better. Like many businesses having to pivot during the pandemic only to find better practices for everyone involved.
There’s also no harm in trying right? Let’s try this new disruptive way, and see how it goes, and if it fails, then there’s learning in that too.
In my field, deciding to use fabrics and textiles that don’t come from an animal, has contributed to manufactures finding new technologies and ways to make cruelty free materials. The disruption has gone as far as the most luxurious fashion houses who have been doing it their old way, to now they’re coming out with vegan sustainable offerings created in house.
Can you share five of the best words of advice you’ve gotten along your journey? Please give a story or example for each.
It’s not who you know, but who knows you. This one comes from my acting and modeling days. It’s imperative to meet people and place yourself in rooms where you can meet friends or good acquaintances in your field.
Dress for success: Dress for the life you imagine and dress
Perfectionism doesn’t exist: I’m a perfectionist at fault. I’ve learned that it is ok to let the idea that something has to be perfect all the time. I’ve delayed launching products until they were “perfect” only to have to tweek it down the road.
Don’t be afraid to ask: Most people are willing to help out or give you advice along the way. Wether it’s a manufacturer or someone else in your same field, almost everyone wants to help.
Sample, sample!: I received one sample box for our new shoe packaging and loved it. From just glancing at it, the dimensions were perfect and so I ordered many. Once I had orders and needed to ship, we realized that they were slightly too big for our mailing boxes! So we had to scramble and order them really fast which delayed our customers shipping.
We are sure you aren’t done. How are you going to shake things up next?
No, not done. My goal is to build a truly vegan luxury lifestyle brand. We’d like to offer homewares, jewelry, skincare. All with luxury in mind.
Do you have a book, podcast, or talk that’s had a deep impact on your thinking? Can you share a story with us? Can you explain why it was so resonant with you?
Yes, there are a few. Style Your Mind podcast by Cara Alwill, Overnight Success book and podcast by Maria Hatzistefanis and the book, The Widow Clicquot by Tilar J. Mazzero.
I’ve also watched countless of motivational talks on YouTube on entrepreneurship and veganism. I think that the idea is to find one online whenever you need a quick surge of motivation.
Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share how that was relevant to you in your life?
Audaces fortuna iuvat which losely translates to fortune favors the bold (brave). I’m a perfectionist and while that may be great for many things, it’s also a clutch. I tend to overthink and don’t take brave decisions when I should. I constantly remind myself of my younger days when I packed my bags and moved cross country without knowing anyone to follow my dreams.
You are a person of great influence. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger. 🙂
That we should all find out where leather, wool, silk, fur and feathers really comes from. The vast majority would be truly schooled and surprised. I think that education in that matter will greatly bring a lot of good.
My brand is also actively working to help with cetaceans in captivity and trying to change how people view shows with whales and dolphins. I’d love for a world were all animals are respected. Not just pets. Awareness of what cetaceans go through would be a great movement.
How can our readers follow you online?
They can visit the site www.suveria.com and click on their favorite social media platform.
This was very inspiring. Thank you so much for joining us!
Making Something From Nothing: James R Langabeer Of Yellowstone Research On How To Go From Idea To Launch
An Interview With Fotis Georgiadis
I wish somebody would have told me was that it just isn’t as fun as you think to be your own boss! You have nobody to blame, or go to for help. Try to find a mentor, or somebody that’s more experienced than you in a similar business or venture. Ask for their help — and take their advice!
As a part of our series called “Making Something From Nothing”, I had the pleasure of interviewing James Langabeer.
James R. Langabeer, PhD is a management strategist, entrepreneur, and professor. He has founded or led several successful companies, including a healthcare information technology company and a business intelligence software firm. He has also developed several large-scale community initiatives and programs as an endowed professor at UTHealth Houston. James is best known for his expertise on management decision-making and founded Yellowstone Research, LLC to provide strategy consulting for leaders in healthcare, supply chain, and consumer goods firms. He was named a finalist for the 2022 Success Magazine most influential leader award, and his writing has been published in Forbes, Psychology Today, and over 125 academic journals. His latest book is The Quest for Wealth: Six Steps for Making Mindful Money Choices (Routledge Press, 2022).
Thank you so much for doing this with us! Before we dive in, our readers would love to learn a bit more about you. Can you tell us a bit about your “childhood backstory”?
I was very fortunate to have been born overseas in Tokyo Japan, the middle child of an Air Force officer/Certified Public Accountant, and a loving and energetic mother. They were both from the heart of the Midwest in Peoria, Illinois. We moved around quite a bit, which showed me that growth in life is fed by new opportunities and new scenery. We shouldn’t get complacent, or remain in one place, literally or figuratively, too long. With a military family, you learn a lot about discipline, and I was also taught the importance of money and how to make solid conservative financial choices. Our parents constantly tried to model how important it was to exercise leadership, whether in your work or personal life. I tried to lead, travel, and take advantage of as many opportunities as I could to keep moving forward.
Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share how that was relevant to you in your life?
One thing my father used to always goes something like “a coward dies a thousand deaths, a hero only one.” He encouraged us to take chances, get out there, and do something despite potential consequences. He wasn’t afraid of much, and “action” was always preferable to inaction. I’ve been lucky because I believe that risk-taking is essential for innovation and entrepreneurship, so those early lessons have helped me immensely with my ability to get things done.
Is there a particular book, podcast, or film that significantly impacted you? Can you share a story or explain why it resonated with you so much?
I loved the short story “The Secret Life of Walter Mitty” by James Thurber. We read it in high school I believe, and then much later I saw the film version with Ben Stiller. The story made a lasting impression on me. At its core, I believe it is about the difference between dreamers and doers. There are some people who wish they had a better, more exciting, heroic life. And others who go out there and are brave and courageous. Most importantly, it shows that you can go out there and change your life, and make it all come true.
Also, I read in business school the book “Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance” by Robert Pirsig. I don’t remember much of it, but what stuck with me was the idea that you can be actually grounded in daily rational thinking (about consequences, the future, planning) yet still be present in the moment. That there can be a balance between being analytical and still be mindful. I think that’s really important for us, since we tend to think of things in extremes rather than harmony, and prefer one way over another. Since I focus on how people make big (strategic) choices, I like to know that you can be congruent between these perspectives.
Ok super. Let’s now shift to the main part of our discussion. There is no shortage of good ideas out there. Many people have good ideas all the time. But people seem to struggle in taking a good idea and translating it into an actual business. Can you share a few ideas from your experience about how to overcome this challenge?
I think this is completely correct. So many people think they have ‘killer ideas’, but don’t act on them. Some times, these are just re-do’s of what is already out there. But in other cases, people have really good ideas, but can’t figure out the first few steps. It’s really rare to find somebody with a good idea, that can actually pull it off. That’s why entrepreneurs who can get an idea to the commercialization phase are fairly rare. When I’m advising young entrepreneurs, the first thing I always ask them to do is to make a few notes, briefly detailing these points:
What’s the core concept?
Why does this inspire you?
Why is this unique?
What business problem or need does this solve, and for whom specifically?
Why are you the right person to tackle it?
How might this be monetized?
These just need to be a sentence or two for each point. I don’t recommend a detailed business plan at first. Details in a traditional business plan just bog people down in a writing exercise and make you think about the “practical” matters. Not having answers at first, is what you have to get comfortable with! So don’t worry about all details at first, try to remain conceptual. We tend to go right into the details, and gloss over the most important aspects. This creates too much focus on the wrong components of planning, which are virtually unknowable at this point. I see people worrying about their pricing strategy (how much to charge) when they really don’t even know who they are solving a problem for. These details will all come later, but first, start with the concept and the innovation.
Often when people think of a new idea, they dismiss it saying someone else must have thought of it before. How would you recommend that someone go about researching whether or not their idea has already been created?
People often dismiss their own abilities and their own originality. I think it’s because people are thinking about ideas for things in the wrong way. Even an incrementally better service, product, or even process enhancement can all be ideas that can be innovated. It’s not necessarily just one ‘big thing’. The best way to really know if this is a unique idea is to more carefully explore it. Write down the answers to the conceptual questions earlier. Try asking a few people what they think of this idea, especially those people who might have the need for the product or service you are thinking about. Then, as we all do, “Google it”. See what exists that is out on the public domains. I wouldn’t worry about a patent or trademark or legal matters at this stage — start by asking questions and doing some basic research.
For the benefit of our readers, can you outline the steps one has to go through, from when they think of the idea, until it finally lands in a customer’s hands? In particular, we’d love to hear about how to file a patent, how to source a good manufacturer, and how to find a retailer to distribute it.
Even before this, let’s talk about what’s most important — developing your ‘story’ about this big idea. You want to work on creating a compelling pitch that will seize people’s interest immediately, yet not too much where you lose them. Think of a 15 or 30 second pitch around your vision. Don’t try to confuse people. Simplify as much as possible, as if you’re talking to somebody who knows nothing about this! That is the most important thing — simplify your ideas, and what it could mean for them or others. Give people a reason to be excited and wanting to hear more.
Then, you’ll need to work through the mechanics. You have to have a solid grasp of competitive intelligence — who are the competitors in this area. Not only other companies but competing products that might fill the same need. What are the gaps today? You want to end up with an idea of the size of the market potential. What is the opportunity? What is the up-side?
Once you have this, people should get some validation on their ideas. You tossed the idea around to a few people earlier, but now you need to get serious with some research. A/B testing is a good way to try to see what potential customers might prefer, if you can narrow things down. Surveys, interviews, or small focus groups might help provide insight. Before investing a lot of your personal money, or that of an investor, validate that this makes sense to potential real customers.
Then think through what you need to make this happen from a value-chain perspective: Do you need to manufacture a product? Open a retail location? What suppliers would you need? What are the start-up to do this in the beginning, and and ongoing costs once fully scaled? What would a team or organization look like for this? This is the heart of the financial projections you’ll need to consider.
With all this information, you should be able to now create a revenue model. Think of a small pilot to deploy this, and always build in a lot more time than you think you need to get something out there. In my projections, I usually expect zero revenue for many months, and only expenses. You’ll need to make sure you have at least 6–12 months of expected expenses saved to get going. This is where you might need to consider financial alternatives: self-funded, angel investors, venture capital, or debt (loans).
See how easy it is to get mired down in details? There is a lot to plan. So take it one step at a time!
What are your “5 Things I Wish Someone Told Me When I First Started Leading My Company” and why?
The first thing I wish somebody would have told me was that it just isn’t as fun as you think to be your own boss! You have nobody to blame, or go to for help. Try to find a mentor, or somebody that’s more experienced than you in a similar business or venture. Ask for their help — and take their advice!
Second, I’d say to others don’t sweat all the details too early on. You just get too overwhelmed. At the same time, I wish I would have thought through financial alternatives earlier too. You might reach a point of financial ‘vulnerability’ or even desperation, where you think of don’t have any alternatives. I have found myself taking funding from companies that probably weren’t in the best interest, but I thought I had no other choices at the time. Strategic planning can help you prepare for these times!
I also think I under-estimated the value of a solid team at start-up. Whiel everything starts and stops with you, it’s not just about you anymore. It has to be about finding partners and employees that share your vision and can take it to the next level. When I started up a healthcare information organization, I brought in a few people immediately that could absorb the vision, and create passion and energy. This is essential to the first year of a new venture.
I sometimes wish I wasn’t always so frugal. For instance, now I know that spending money on outside consultants can be useful. I often find myself thinking through things by myself and probably didn’t reach the best option. If I would have spent a little money on an independent management consultant or market research firm, they could have played a more active role in helping me do the research, simulate alternatives, and come up with a better path forward. I strongly recommend the use of a consultant to help go through these steps from idea to implementation.
Lastly, I wish I had thought through this important question a little more closely: “what does success look like”. We get worked up with a few things, such as customer counts, or dollar volumes of sales. Yet, these aren’t the best indicators for most companies. Entrepreneurs often want to create a product and become rich, successful, or well-known — or just create a useful product or service. But articulating that a lot more clearly, with detailed performance indicators and specific goals, could help you gauge success better.
Let’s imagine that a reader reading this interview has an idea for a product that they would like to invent. What are the first few steps that you would recommend that they take?
The very first step is to be able to articulate the vision into a story. Work on refining the message so well that you can literally tell people what it is, what it does, and why they need it without seeing them yawn or turn away. This crafting of a compelling, yet concise, story is what successful entrepreneurs master. Think about your role this way:
Messaging. You own the story, the brand, and the vision.
Master Planning. The most important choices are yours to make. Develop and maintain a strategy blueprint.
Mobilizing. You have to think about your leadership team, resources, partners, and suppliers. These are all vital to early-stage success.
Momentum. Focus your energy on maintaining momentum and moving toward your 1, 3, and 5-year goals.
There are many invention development consultants. Would you recommend that a person with a new idea hire such a consultant, or should they try to strike out on their own?
No, not an invention development consultant. But, I would definitely consider using an independent consultant for helping do some of the initial research and providing advice on markets and competitors. You must own the vision the concept, but you can use a consultant to gather the intelligence and the research to create prototypes. Use a consultant to help you with revenue or cost projections. Or, use them to help work on validation and implementation. They can be worth their weight in gold, and allow you bandwidth to focus on what really matters — your message and momentum-building.
What are your thoughts about bootstrapping vs looking for venture capital? What is the best way to decide if you should do either one?
There are some advantages to both. Generally, for most people, I recommend using your own resources for as long as possible. You’ll hold on to more of your “sweat-equity” and future profits. But this can also limit growth considerably. For some types of companies, such as information systems or those requiring significant capital expenditures, it might be necessary to consider outside investors, such as venture capital firms (VC). VC funding can be great and can help the company sustain years of losses since they aren’t always focused on short-term profitability. I’ve gone through multiple rounds of funding, and each time, you lose a little bit more of your ownership. So make sure the growth of the firm outweighs this ownership devaluation. It’s a hard choice to make. In the end, do the one you feel most comfortable with and can sleep best with. If you go the VC route, make sure you do all the due diligence to find the right partner, future board member, and advisor. That relationship is key to your growth and success.
Ok. We are nearly done. Here are our final questions. How have you used your success to make the world a better place?
To me the most important societal areas we have to address with bold ideas are around mental health, homelessness, climate changes, substance use, and immigration. I have tried to create a few programs to address a few of these, but so much more is needed. One really successful project I have created is helping those who are struggling with substance use and mental health disorders, especially opioids. One of these programs, the Houston Emergency Opioid Engagement System (or HEROES) helps provide free integrated treatment and recovery services for people struggling with substance use disorders in Texas. We’ve helped re-build thousands of lives for individuals and their families. As with any initiative, I think it’s important to define a future state that is better than where you are, and do something rather than nothing. We need innovators in these areas, and I applaud the work of people like the Gates Foundation who are using their resources to combat important social issues.
You are an inspiration to a great many people. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger.
As somebody who is highly vested in the technology world, I’d have to controversially say that we need a better way to manage mobile technology has taken over our life. We need some kind of controls over how phones and technology are dominating our brains! We need better mental health interventions that can help reduce loneliness and suicide rates. I think mobile technology is one area which can be improved significantly.
We are very blessed that some of the biggest names in Business, VC funding, Sports, and Entertainment read this column. Is there a person in the world, or in the US, with whom you would love to have a private breakfast or lunch, and why? He or she might just see this if we tag them.
Being a big fan of great leaders and brand-builders, I would love to meet Oprah Winfrey. She’s so smart, always well prepared, and seems to know everything! Everything she touches turns to gold it seems, from her magazine, books, films, podcasts, and other business ventures. She is a terrific role model!
Thank you for these fantastic insights. We greatly appreciate the time you spent on this.
Howard Beader Of Catchpoint On How To Use Digital Transformation To Take Your Company To The Next Level
An Interview With Fotis Georgiadis
Automating manual processes — This is where there may have been a paper process in the past and I have seen many organizations transform this into a digital process across department across the enterprise.
As part of our series about “How To Use Digital Transformation To Take Your Company To The Next Level”, I had the pleasure of interviewing Howard Beader.
Howard Beader is the Vice President of Product Marketing for Catchpoint, where he’s responsible for driving the go-to-market strategy, solution marketing plans and tactics globally across Catchpoint’s solution portfolio.
Before joining Catchpoint, Howard was Sr. Director of Product Marketing for ServiceNow, where he was responsible for bringing Creator Workflows and the Now Platform to market, building the developer program & the CreatorCon event, and the ServiceNow App Store.
Thank you so much for joining us in this interview series. Before we dive in, our readers would love to “get to know you” a bit better. Can you tell us a bit about your ‘backstory’ and how you got started?
I got started in this space working for a small custom electronics manufacturer after implementing an ERP system end to end, which I didn’t think was anything special at the time, but it in fact led me to join SAP, and my career went from being a consultant to helping bring SAP BW to market, to then creating and launching SAP Mobile.
Can you share a story about the funniest mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lessons or ‘take aways’ you learned from that?
Early on in my career, I worked in the restaurant business and in one job, I worked in an open kitchen where the patrons could always see me. I was trying to look cool, flipping burgers in the air, and dropped one on the floor. Not thinking about it, I picked it up, put it back on the grill and eventually served it to a customer. Well, that customer had watched the whole thing, complained and of course I got in trouble. This experience defined a key lesson for me: that living and working with integrity is very important and it’s one of the traits that people remember you by.
None of us are able to achieve success without some help along the way. Is there a particular person who you are grateful towards who helped get you to where you are? Can you share a story?
There are a number of folks that have been a huge help throughout my career, but one of the most pivotal was Pascal Gibert who hired me to join his team at Microsoft. We then worked closely when he joined SAP, and later, he brought me into ServiceNow. Pascal taught me the value of building relationships across the organization, and that work can also be fun.
Is there a particular book, podcast, or film that made a significant impact on you? Can you share a story or explain why it resonated with you so much?
I am sure many are also inspired by by Geoffrey Moore’s books, Crossing the Chasm and Inside the Tornado. They continually resonate with me as I have always worked with new technology solutions in the enterprise software space, and the lessons learned are hugely valuable.
Extensive research suggests that “purpose driven businesses” are more successful in many areas. When your company started, what was its vision, what was its purpose?
When Catchpoint started, we were extremely purpose driven. It was about being the best cloud monitoring company in the space, by providing our customers with the maximum ability to test, analyze and identify issues before they cause problems.
Are you working on any new, exciting projects now? How do you think that might help people?
We are currently working on our upcoming Q4 launch, and there are many great new capabilities and enhancements which will increase network observability, improve usability, grow our global observability network, and expand integration and automation capabilities.
Thank you for all that. Let’s now turn to the main focus of our discussion about Digital Transformation. For the benefit of our readers, can you help explain what exactly Digital Transformation means? On a practical level what does it look like to engage in a Digital Transformation?
There are many definitions of digital transformation, but let’s keep it simple and call it automating a process digitally that was once manual. Most organizations had to dramatically accelerate their digital transformation journeys over the past few years due to Covid. This could involve a restaurant ensuring it’s easier for their customers to order and pay online and notifying the staff that they have arrived to pick up. Or it could be an enterprise moving an application or workload to the cloud from their own onsite data centers.
Which companies can most benefit from a Digital Transformation?
All companies can benefit from digital transformation, but those that adopt and go all in will see the benefits sooner than those that are just dipping their toes in the water.
We’d love to hear about your experiences helping others with Digital Transformation. In your experience, how has Digital Transformation helped improve operations, processes and customer experiences? We’d love to hear some stories if possible.
All of our customers today have achieved some level of digital transformation, and as a result, we have seen huge increases in site traffic, especially in eCommerce. Many of our customers (and we have 9 of the top 10 Forbes Digital Companies among them) have also come to realize that their DT is only as good as the resilience of the internet. In a brick-and-mortar store, you can still go in and buy something with cash if the internet is down, but for eCommerce, if there is no internet, there is no experience. At a time when the frailty of the internet is often demonstrated by slowdowns or outages, and so much of the digital delivery infrastructure that delivers the ultimate digital experience is beyond IT’s direct control, troubleshooting can be very difficult. The companies we work with recognize that they need a robust end-user observability solution to proactively monitor the entire digital delivery chain to determine if there are issues in different regions/states/countries and make necessary adjustments before their customers are impacted. We have a number of stories up on our website that speak to just this, including one close to my heart by my prior employer, SAP who use Catchpoint for their eCommerce platform to ensure internet resilience for their 2000+ customers.
Has integrating Digital Transformation been a challenging process for some companies? What are the challenges? How do you help resolve them?
I believe I just covered this above.
Ok. Thank you. Here is the primary question of our discussion. Based on your experience and success, what are “Five Ways a Company Can Use Digital Transformation To Take It To The Next Level”? Please share a story or an example for each.
Organizations can use Digital Transformation in a huge number of different ways. The top ones that come to mind are:
Automating manual processes — This is where there may have been a paper process in the past and I have seen many organizations transform this into a digital process across department across the enterprise.
Moving workloads to the cloud — Many companies still have critical applications running in their own data centers. Moving these to a cloud service (and benefiting from greater scalability, flexibility and efficiency) is a path to DT.
Re-define your processes — This is where it’s not just about automating a process, but rather re-thinking that process to leverage new digital capabilities.
Digital = Agile — Digital transformation doesn’t mean one and done, it’s more so a continuous process of innovation.
Shifting from a reactive to a proactive approach — The most successful organizations have made the shift from reacting to failures when they arise to constantly observing their systems, services and sites to catch any issue before it impacts the end user, and make the necessary changes proactively.
In your opinion, how can companies best create a “culture of innovation” in order to create new competitive advantages?
This is about building a growth mindset in the team and constantly learning as you go to leverage your differentiators.
Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share how that was relevant to you in your life?
This is one of my favorites: “Learn from yesterday, live for today, hope for tomorrow. The important thing is not to stop questioning.” — Albert Einstein
How can our readers further follow your work?
The best place to follow me is either on Twitter @hbeader or on LinkedIn.
Thank you so much for sharing these important insights. We wish you continued success and good health!
Todd Hedberg Of The Lacek Group On How to Effectively Leverage The Power of Digital Marketing, PPC, & Email to Dramatically Increase Sales
An Interview With Fotis Georgiadis
Resilience: Best-laid plans often don’t work out, especially with digital advertising. But embracing a “fail fast” mentality of refining and testing ad components leads to success. So much can be learned from digital ad platforms, even when response is much lower than anticipated.
Marketing a product or service today is easier than ever before in history. Using platforms like Facebook ads or Google ads, a company can market their product directly to people who perfectly fit the ideal client demographic, at a very low cost. Digital Marketing tools, Pay per Click ads, and email marketing can help a company dramatically increase sales. At the same time, many companies that just start exploring with digital marketing tools often see disappointing results.
As a part of this series, I had the pleasure of interviewing Todd Hedberg.
Todd Hedberg has 20 years of experience driving strategic marketing from client roles in the healthcare, financial, and medical device industries, along with agency work leading digital marketing client services. In his current role as the director of digital strategy at The Lacek Group, he provides strategic digital engagement recommendations to support clients’ loyalty program growth and performance. He holds an M.B.A. degree from the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul, Minn., where he also serves as adjunct faculty for the Executive Education program for advanced digital marketing certification courses.
Thank you so much for joining us in this interview series! Before we dive in, our readers would love to “get to know you” a bit better. Can you tell us a bit about your ‘backstory’ and how you got started?
My passion for marketing was ignited at a young age through seeing my mother manage large-scale marketing campaigns. Her experienced varied from Fortune 100 companies to rapidly growing startups. I found it fascinating how effective marketing can positively change perceptions and purchasing behavior with key audiences.
Can you share a story about the funniest marketing mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lessons or ‘takeaways’ you learned from that?
Early in my career I was working on direct marketing for a consumer medical goods company. My role was to support our partner clinics by executing their local marketing. I accidentally swapped mailing lists on a fall direct-mail campaign — sending a Florida clinic’s direct-mail promotion to a batch of New York zip codes. Lo and behold, several months later the Florida clinic was flooded with snowbirds bringing in the mail piece and looking to purchase. This accident unlocked an insight that most snowbirds wait to make purchasing decisions until they settle in their winter destination. Sometimes accidents lead to useful insights — which is a reminder to stay open to new discoveries, whatever the source.
None of us are able to achieve success without some help along the way. Is there a particular person who you are grateful towards who helped get you to where you are? Can you share a story?
I’ve been extremely fortunate to have managers who were committed to helping me reach my potential. A few years into my career, my manager encouraged me to take the next step in my growth by presenting to large audiences at customer training events — and I was nervous. In fact, the first time I co-presented with my manager I froze up during the introductions! Eventually, though, I flourished in these speaking engagement opportunities — gaining the skills and confidence to lead seminar rooms filled with hundreds of people on numerous occasions. That manager’s confidence — and prodding! — helped me grow in ways I wouldn’t have imagined, and I remain grateful.
What do you think makes your company stand out? Can you share a story?
The Lacek Group is best known for building many of the world’s most iconic loyalty programs. In fact, a new client came to us recently solely because they wanted to work with the agency that built the Marriott Bonvoy program, which Lacek still manages today. But I think it’s the culture and people at Lacek that truly differentiate us from other agencies. The level of collaboration among employees is unparalleled, as is the degree of trust in our leadership. These internal strengths shine through in our client work — so much so that many of our new clients come through recommendations from brand leaders who’ve worked with Lacek before.
You are a successful business leader. Which three character traits do you think were most instrumental to your success? Can you please share a story or example for each?
For me, curiosity and passion are the biggest drivers of success. The ever-changing digital marketing landscape really sparks those traits in me. I’m continuously immersing myself in innovations and exploring new and practical ways to apply to existing strategies. A third key trait I’d add is gratitude. After pausing much of the work I was leading in a previous role — due to the impact of the pandemic — I’m fortunate to have opportunities to help brands look forward again and thrive in our new, post-COVID business landscape.
Are you working on any exciting new projects now? How do you think that will help people?
Yes, the last few months have been filled with a variety of exciting new projects. I’ve been supporting work for clients looking to accelerate their growth and customer loyalty in industries that include electric vehicles, home siding, facial aesthetics, and more. I’m always fascinated by marketing commonalities — and idiosyncrasies — across apparently disparate industries.
Ok super. Now let’s jump to the main questions of our interview. As we mentioned in the beginning, sometimes companies that just start exploring with digital marketing tools like PPC campaigns often see disappointing results. In your opinion, what are a few of the biggest mistakes companies make when they first start out with digital marketing? If you can, please share an example for each.
A successful digital marketing strategy needs to be rooted in a strong sense of the target customer’s online behaviors and preferences. For example, in a past role I lead digital strategy for a hearing aid technology company. We determined that Facebook was a prime advertising channel, but Instagram was not, due to the age-related usage patterns. Thus, removing Instagram from our ad placements on Meta, ensuring only Facebook delivery, was critical to achieving a positive ROI instead of a negative one. We dove deeper to learn that news feed posts greatly outperformed Facebook Stories and other placements on the channel.
Also, search is a critical piece for achieving sustainable success in all industries, especially e-commerce brands and even B2B companies. The best way to achieve a high ROI with lasting results is a strong search-engine optimization (SEO) strategy. Not only knowing the right keywords to optimize for your target customers but also finding those nuggets of high search volume but low competition is vital. Brands who neglect SEO need their paid efforts to work miracles for them on a regular basis, often resulting in a high level of performance volatility.
This is especially important for the razor-thin line between success and failure. The biggest failures I commonly see with digital pay-per-click (PPC) campaigns is insufficient strategic planning to ensure proper campaign setup. Much like search-engine optimization, so much technical work is required during setup to ensure effective ad delivery. Reliance on the default platform settings and AI tools typically results in skewed keyword context and missed audience targeting.
If you could break down a very successful digital marketing campaign into a “blueprint”, what would that blueprint look like? Please share some stories or examples of your ideas.
A digital marketing road map should start with website and SEO development. No ads should run without a demonstrated ability to capture and convert leads organically. Implementing CRM capabilities for lead nurturing and scoring is also essential. If your brand relies on lead management for hand-off to distribution or retail partners to convert the sale, then that aspect needs to be established as well.
Once the bottom-of-the-funnel is leak proofed, it’s time to start running digital advertising campaigns to drive demand. The easiest and most effective way to start is social ads prioritized to the channels where your brand finds the highest organic engagement rates. Paid search can also begin at this point — but it typically takes a few months for a quality score to be established and campaigns to rise in page rankings. I generally take a wait-and-see approach with programmatic ad campaigns given the typically low ROI from display ads. If your brand is solely focused on awareness (and not ROI) out of the gate, which is usually a mistake, then programmatic may make sense. Though pay close attention to where those campaigns are running and their response rates.
Let’s talk about Pay Per Click Marketing (PPC) for a bit. In your opinion which PPC platform produces the best results to increase sales?
Google. I know there are stories of better success found for large brands on Bing and other secondary search engines, but I’ve rarely encountered that myself. Small and medium-sized brands don’t have massive budgets to own category searches, making secondary search engines less strategically helpful. Google’s plethora of viable platform options within the ecosystem are useful. For e-commerce brands, for example, ads optimized for Google Shopping and YouTube tend to have the greatest lift. Google Maps promotions are strong drivers of in-store traffic for retail stores. Analyzing the best placement of ad funds within Google is critical for any brand spending money on that platform.
Can you please share 3 things that you need to know to run a highly successful PPC campaign?
Channel opportunities: PPC extends into placement opportunities beyond standard search with maps, shopping, video, and more.
Keyword research: The best path to success is unlocking relevant keyword targets around your product or service that have high search volumes but low competition. Often that requires extensive research and testing to uncover those prime keyword opportunities.
Campaign optimization: Whether it’s adjusting campaign bids and content to meet audience behavior changes or platform algorithm updates, PPC campaigns require an always-on approach to conversion rate optimization.
Let’s now talk about email marketing for a bit. In your opinion, what are the 3 things that you need to know to run a highly successful email marketing campaign that increases sales?
Email strategy is fundamental to digital marketing. While best practices for content and layout have essentially remained the same over the last couple of decades, innovations in AI have changed the game. Brands that rely on email marketing as a key customer communication channel must embrace and leverage AI optimization tools for delivery time, imagery, natural language, and promotional offer personalization to every recipient.
Here are three key critical aspects of email marketing success:
Content: Does the message add immediate value to the recipient based on expressed interests? If not, don’t send it.
Cadence: Does the frequency of your emails drive greater engagement or unsubscribes? Paying attention to performance data often makes or breaks email marketing campaigns.
Tone: Given the reality that most people are flooded with marketing emails, can your email cut through the clutter to brighten their day? Whether your brand achieves 1:1 content personalization or not, knowing what tone to use helps generate opens and ongoing engagement.
What are the other digital marketing tools that you are passionate about? If you can, can you share with our readers what they are and how to best leverage them?
I love leveraging back-end marketing automation capabilities to deliver value at scale. This involves automated touch-point delivery across email and social as well as automation of core components of demand generation programs, such as lead routing and lead management.
Instilling personalization in lead-nurture and triggered-repurchase communications represents the apex of effective digital marketing. No matter if you use HubSpot, Marketo, MailChimp, or another automation platform, this practice is vital to achieving high performance over time.
Here is the main question of our series. Can you please tell us the 5 things you need to create a highly successful career as a digital marketer? Can you please share a story or example for each?
Humility: The digital marketing landscape changes every day. Expertise in any aspect of digital marketing is a mirage, but that’s what keeps it so exciting for me. In my teaching engagements at several universities, I have to regularly overhaul many of my platform strategy slides monthly to stay up to date with the latest best practices.
Curiosity: The digital world offers limitless possibilities. To stay curious, to keep seeking valuable insights, digital marketers need to continually ask “What if … ?”
Diligence: While digital campaigns move quickly, maintain a marathon mentality to drive sustainable success. Often small campaign insights captured after a few iterations unlock insights that catapult digital marketing efforts forward. Those key insights can’t be discovered without diligent review of analytics and research.
Resilience: Best-laid plans often don’t work out, especially with digital advertising. But embracing a “fail fast” mentality of refining and testing ad components leads to success. So much can be learned from digital ad platforms, even when response is much lower than anticipated.
Tenacity: This attribute is the most important, from my perspective, for driving ongoing results. Without a clear focus on execution strategies, the success of digital marketing campaigns, paid or unpaid, is often fleeting or sporadic. Leaving the heavy lifting to platform algorithms to guess the placement and targeting approach usually yields average results. High-performing campaigns, however, come from a tenacious desire to continuously revise and optimize based on key insights and opportunities.
During my time in the banking world, I inherited aggressively run PPC campaigns aimed at driving growth with retail banking products (e.g., checking accounts and mortgages). I was initially humbledby the deep level of understanding I’d need for these products’ user journeys to effectively hyper-target our messaging to trigger moments. My curiosityled me to further explore new journey moments around mobile banking that could drive consideration and conversions. Through my diligence in reviewing campaign performance analytics, I discovered a large percentage of the ad spend was dedicated to branded campaigns that produced a fraction of the conversions when compared to nonbranded campaigns. My resiliency proved pivotal for driving greater successes both with internal change management to garner approval to reallocate the branded campaign budget to new mobile banking-focused, nonbranded campaigns as well as overcoming initial flops with these new campaigns. Through my tenacity, these campaigns became a key driver of incremental conversions with new, younger audiences.
What books, podcasts, videos or other resources do you use to sharpen your marketing skills?
I love podcasts, especially when I’m driving or jogging. My mix spans a wide range of marketing topics, but I particularly recommend the Digital Marketing Podcast by Target Internet. The hosts blend a strategic and executionary view of digital marketing best practices. It’s refreshing to learn from those who understand the challenges and pains of implementing strategies to meet the latest trends. They provide quick-hit recommendations to get started with relative ease.
Thank you for all of that. We are nearly done. Here is our final ‘meaty’ question. You are a person of great influence. If you could start a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger. 🙂
I love this question. I think we need to direct our attention to the nature of public discourse on social media platforms to foster greater decency and useful dialogue. Nearly five years ago I wrote an op-ed on this topic for the Minneapolis Star-Tribune,“Can Brands Save Social Media?”It’s still highly relevant. The crux of the article is that while general social media users engage anonymously and nefariously on social media, cluttering it with negativity, brands thrive by behaving cordially and providing inspiration for their followers. I’d love to see more brands set an example. In addition, we may also want to enforce constructive content contributions in social media.
How can our readers further follow your work?
While I used to maintain my own blog on social media strategies,The Social Media Frontier, I have more regularly contributed to teaching engagements and the Thought Leadership content at The Lacek Group.
This was very inspiring. Thank you so much for the time you spent with this!
Ali Shalfrooshan of International Assessment R&D, Talogy On How Diversity Can Increase a Company’s Bottom Line
An Interview With Fotis Georgiadis
Diversity in the workplace has shown to lead to a higher rate of innovation and creativity. Innovation is critical for organizations as it enables them to differentiate their services and solutions from that of others. The wider set of perspectives that diversity brings can fuel a team’s ability to consider a wider range of approaches and identify more novel ways of doing things.
As a part of our series about “How Diversity Can Increase a Company’s Bottom Line”, I had the pleasure of interviewing Ali Shalfrooshan.
An award-winning business psychologist at Talogy, Ali Shalfrooshan has a true passion to help organizations improve performance through their people.
Ali believes that by identifying the right people and giving them the right development opportunities it can lead to a huge business impact for organizations. His expertise has enabled him to design, implement and deliver a variety of assessment and development solutions to help organizations thrive and get the best out of their talent.
Thank you so much for doing this with us! Before we dive into the main part of our interview, our readers would love to “get to know you” a bit more. Can you share a bit of your “backstory” with us?
I have always been fascinated by how humans work and the amazing machine that is our minds. From a young age, I wanted to understand the mechanics of what motivates us, how we think and how we feel.
As a teen, I didn’t really know that the career I currently have could exist, so at university I studied biochemistry, as I always loved science. Despite my day-to-day activities, being an IO psychologist does not require much laboratory expertise, or the ability to clone sequences of DNA, but I am always grateful for that chapter in my life as it provided an insight into the building blocks of how humans work at a genetic and biological level. It enabled me to appreciate how truly complex and magnificent the creation and maintenance of life is, and the fundamental importance of nurture, when it comes to our nature.
After a litany of job roles, I happened upon a work experience opportunity in IO psychology and the rest, in many ways, is history. When I discovered IO psychology, I found my calling, as the industry enables me to utilize the evidence in psychology, the medium of technology and the art of business to enable organizations to enhance their effectiveness via their greatest strength, their people.
Can you share the funniest or most interesting story that happened to you since you started your career? Can you tell us the lesson or take away, you took out of that story?
This is a great question. However, most of my funny work-related stories didn’t lead to any specific lessons, other than that people are very complicated and the universe has a sense of humor.
Arguably every interaction, project and experience has the power to provide a foundation for learning. However, working with organizations throughout the pandemic has been a great crucible for helping me truly understand what the meaning of work can be. In many ways the answers to many of the questions in life have already been answered, but only through our experience can we truly understand it. In my role where we support organizations globally, the lesson I truly learnt is that we have much more in common than we have differences.
Employees, wherever they are, not only like community but need it to truly thrive and feel alive. How we define community and connection may be different, but if you are an introvert, an extrovert, if you are in China or Finland, we humans are truly social animals and love metaphorically building things together.
Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you tell us a story about how that was relevant in your own life?
One of my favorite life lesson quotes is from Marcus Aurelius, “You have power over your mind-not outside events. Realize this, and you will find strength.” I love this quote as it encapsulates the power of how we think and is one that I deploy personally when feeling overwhelmed.
When working with organizations, the life lesson quote I use the most is “Diversity is being invited to the party. Inclusion is being asked to dance.” This is a quote by Verna Myers, which very succinctly describes the importance of both diversity and inclusion for organizations. It highlights what differentiates the importance of each element and why they are needed together.
With a personal lens, it is a useful reminder that when engaging with anyone, sometimes we all need to actively make people feel welcome, an invitation alone is not sufficient.
None of us are able to achieve success without some help along the way. Is there a particular person who you are grateful towards who helped get you to where you are?
I have been blessed to be surrounded by amazing people throughout my career as an IO psychologist. My managers have all been inspirational, values driven, and have taught me so much. I have also been surrounded by an amazing team, who have made me look great consistently, all of whom I am eternally grateful to. However, if I had to call out specific individuals Dan Hughes, Philippa Riley and Mary Mescal all deserve eternal kudos from me.
Despite all these amazing people, directly mentioned or alluded to, I inevitably must take this opportunity to thank my parents and my wife. Not only did my parents kindly create me and give me the gift of life, but they also enabled me to fail on numerous occasions, and despite some ‘interesting’ times, they never gave up on me and helped me find my calling. My wife has also enabled me to focus on my career and is my partner in crime. They have all supported me through thick and thin, and anything I have or will achieve is directly due to them.
What do you think makes your company stand out? Can you share a story?
Talogy is an organization that is comprised of genuine experts in their field, both in the world of psychology and in technology. This enables us to offer a very wide set of solutions around identifying and developing talent within organizations. What differentiates us is our deep expertise across a range of fields and our global nature, this enables us to deal with very specific challenges that other organizations may potentially not be able to.
The sheer range of clients and types of client problems that we deal with are reflective of that diversity of expertise that we have. We work with large corporates to small startups, and across so many industries for example manufacturing, aeronautics, government, social care, public safety, technology, banking, sports, pharmaceuticals, healthcare are all sectors that we work intimately in. We have helped measure human potential in so many ways including resilience, emotional intelligence, inclusion, competence, manual dexterity, cognitive ability, judgement, leadership, engagement, wellbeing to name a few.
Are you working on any new or exciting projects now? How do you think that might help people?
Over a decade ago, we developed a solution that helps enable people to build and develop their resilience, we have used it with many clients internationally with a focus on helping people effectively manage challenge and change. In many ways overcoming setbacks, have been a constant throughout human existence. The pandemic made the challenges that people experience feel more universal, and the true value of wellbeing became clearer to everyone.
During the pandemic and lockdowns, we made the solution freely available to our clients and delivered training and the solution itself for no cost, to help support people with their wellbeing, during that particularly challenging and surreal time.
The project we are working on now is to help enhance this solution, delivering something that can be used globally and enable people to develop their own resilience practice using our technology solutions. The hope is that this solution can make it easier for people to access the tools and protocols and learn about the skills that can enable them to overcome challenges and changes in their lives, so they can survive, adapt, recover, and fundamentally thrive.
How have you used your success to bring goodness to the world?
Being able to work with organizations, leaders, and employees as part of my role is a privilege. Fundamentally the workplace is not just where we get a paycheck, but also the way many of us can make meaningful change to the world around us. Therefore, helping organizations be more effective via their greatest asset — their people
I am very lucky to have a role where we can bring a little bit of goodness to organizations as part of my position. I also volunteer in order to bring some of the work we do to an audience that I don’t typically interact with i.e., people who are not currently working. Therefore, to bring greater goodness to the world I also try to support employability initiatives with younger people, who are still in education, as the knowledge within the psychological literature may have even greater resonance at this stage of our development.
Ok. Thank you for that. Let’s now jump to the main part of our interview. This may be obvious to you, but it is not intuitive to many people. Can you articulate to our readers five ways that increased diversity can help a company’s bottom line.
The research and evidence around how diversity can deliver organizational success is very clear. Diversity is sometimes perceived to be solely about ensuring your organization is reflective of underrepresented racial, ethnic and gender demographics. Despite this being a very important part of an organization’s diversity, the concept is much more complex and is reflective of a mix of experiences, identities, sexual orientations, ages, personalities, religions, ideas, and opinions. Ultimately what makes us who we are is very complex and so this needs to be accounted for when we discuss the topic of diversity.
There are many examples of the benefits of diversity, but I will highlight the core themes that seem to come up most regularly:
Greater Innovation:
Diversity in the workplace has shown to lead to a higher rate of innovation and creativity. Innovation is critical for organizations as it enables them to differentiate their services and solutions from that of others. The wider set of perspectives that diversity brings can fuel a team’s ability to consider a wider range of approaches and identify more novel ways of doing things.
According to research, more diverse and inclusive companies are 1.7 times more likely to be innovation leaders in their market. The study found a strong and statistically significant correlation between the diversity of management teams and overall innovation.
2. Better Decision Making:
Research has also shown that diverse teams are better at making decisions, estimating that diverse teams make better decisions 87% of the time, in comparison to non-diverse teams. A reason for this is that decision-making can be impacted negatively by the assumptions we make and our hardwired biases. Therefore, diverse voices can mitigate this and highlight potential blind spots.
Diversity in decision-making equates to profitability in the global economy as evidenced by a 70% likelihood of capturing new markets by companies with a diverse workforce. Companies with diverse teams are better able to meet the needs of a diverse customer base, which leads to another very tangible benefit.
3. Better Financial Results:
Many organizations with greater diversity in their leadership teams and organization show better financial performance. For example, 20 of the most diverse S&P 500 companies perform better financially over five- and ten-year periods, in comparison to non-diverse firms. These more positive financial results are arguably tied to the better innovation and more effective decision making referenced.
Harvard Business Review provided another example of compelling evidence when they surveyed more than 1,700 companies across eight countries (the U.S., France, Germany, China, Brazil, India, Switzerland, and Austria). What the research showed, was that companies with higher-than-average diversity had both 19% points higher innovation revenues and 9% points higher EBIT margins, on average.
4. Attracting Talent:
Organizations that are dedicated to making their workforce more diverse are seen as more human and socially responsible, which ultimately creates a better reputation in the market. Diversity in the workplace enhances employer brand and has been shown to attract top talent.
A survey by Glassdoor highlights this, where it reported that 67% of active and passive job seekers said that a diverse workforce is an important factor when evaluating companies and job offers.
5. Engaging Millennials and Gen Z:
Millennials and Gen Z are a significant proportion of the workforce and are a very important component of an organizations current and future success. Consequently, keeping them engaged and happy is critically important.
According to research by Deloitte, 83% of millennials and Gen Z candidates report being actively engaged when their organization fosters an inclusive work environment, versus 60% who report being actively engaged when their organization does not. Therefore, diversity can not only attract employees but ensure that they are able to deliver effectively at work.
What advice would you give to other business leaders to help their employees to thrive?
All industries are going through some significant changes at the moment. Organizations need to look at the big picture and focus on the activities and initiatives that truly create an inclusive and diverse culture, as a sense of belonging is going to be a significant differentiator. As described in the previous section, there are many benefits in creating a diverse workforce. However, it is worth noting that one change in strategy won’t make the difference — it needs a whole suite of changes.
Talogy’s ABC model of inclusion provides a useful framework to help leaders and employees support and advocate an inclusive culture. This model accounts for the fact that all of us are on our own ‘diversity and inclusion journey’ and that we may all be at different stages. The goal is to create an organization of allies, who are keen to promote and encourage diversity and inclusion. So that everyone, in all their uniqueness, can be treated fairly and work together effectively.
Without leaders acting as allies leading the efforts, organizational messaging and behavior can be incongruent and inconsistent. Therefore, they play a critical part in changing culture, and the ABC detailed below can help facilitate a culture that can help employees thrive.
Appreciate: inclusion is the antecedent of change
Allyship begins with an individual’s awareness and appreciation of the issues and experiences of others. This stage is reflective of an individual’s growth in awareness. It may involve an initial step of accepting that equity in society is something worth striving for. Individuals in this phase are identifying the challenges to create an inclusive environment, and becoming open to learn more about their need to act.
Build: an inclusive climate by behavioral change
This stage moves on from an individual gaining awareness and being open to address the challenges of inclusivity to directly building an inclusive environment. Individuals in this phase are helping to build an inclusive, fair and equitable climate by their actions. They are proactively building relationships with others, gathering diverse perspectives, empathizing, actively listening and communicating transparently.
Champion: change by acting as a catalyst for others
The last phase of allyship is one of advocacy. Individuals at this stage take their behavioral commitment to another level. They tend to look for opportunities to affect change formally and informally. To be successful at this stage, individuals need to be courageous, action-oriented, composed and willing to commit.
Having leaders act as allies who appreciate the challenges, are willing to build an inclusive culture, and are eager to champion the changes they would like to see in the world, will ensure the foundation for organizational change is possible
We are very blessed that some of the biggest names in Business, VC funding, Sports, and Entertainment read this column. Is there a person in the world, or in the US whom you would love to have a private breakfast or lunch with, and why? He or she might just see this 🙂
I would love to speak to David Zaslav, the Chief Executive Officer, and President of Warner Bros. Discovery. He has a stellar track record, and with the recent acquisition of Warner Bros has a very exciting challenge ahead. As a movie, television, and music nerd, I would love to understand how he is planning on leading during a time of significant flux for the media industry.
Warner Bros and HBO are some of the most important brands in media and have produced some of the most culture shifting entertainment over the years. I would love to understand more about his general approach to leadership, business and art, and get an insight into how he plans to execute his strategy.
How can our readers further follow your work online?
“Find your best technologist in the company and make them CEO.”
As a part of our series about “How To Use Digital Transformation To Take Your Company To The Next Level,” I had the pleasure of interviewing Mohannad Ali.
Mohannad Ali is the CEO of Hotjar, the Product Experience Insights software of choice for SMB and mid-market businesses. He brings a decade of leadership experience to the company, first serving as VP of Engineering at HelloFresh, and then joining Hotjar as their VP of Product and Engineering. With his talent for mentoring and developing distributed technical teams, Mohannad soon moved into the role of Chief Product and Technology Officer at Hotjar before transitioning to CEO. His cross-functional expertise allows him to speak to a variety of business development strategies, sharing pivotal insights on scaling organizations from early stages, high-growth, and implementation. Mohannad’s passions include radical transparency in remote work environments, of which he continuously replicates through his leadership practices at Hotjar.
When Mohannad isn’t connecting with and mentoring other Hotjarians, you can find him pursuing his passion for music by trying (and failing) to play the drums.
Thank you so much for joining us in this interview series. Before we dive in, our readers would love to “get to know you” a bit better. Can you tell us a bit about your ‘backstory’ and how you got started?
I started quite early in the tech space. From a young age I was interested in the internet, computers and so on. I was always fascinated by the whole technology side of things. I still remember the first day I got on the internet. I think I was about 10, or 11 and it opened a whole new world for me.
Pretty quickly I started making websites for fun as a hobby, building online communities — things like that. By 15 I was making money as a developer. That’s how I got into tech. A little by accident and a little from sheer interest. I didn’t even know that you could make money from it at the time, I just stumbled into it and enjoyed it.
As an engineer, I’ve done a bunch of different things. I began freelancing in Egypt doing a lot of agency work, but had my sights set on being able to work on a single product. There is an analogy I like to make, and it’s kind of like a football player who has been playing in a local league who wants to play in the European Champions League. So I was looking for an opportunity to join the startup scene in a city where there was a more interesting, growing tech scene. For me, that was Berlin.
I ended up working for a tech startup there that scaled quite rapidly. Through that experience, I was able to tap into another passion of mine, which was the more commercial side of tech and the product. I always thought of myself as an engineer who was interested in tech beyond just the technical side. That really grounded me as a whole I think.
Because of that experience and interest, I joined Hotjar to initially lead product and engineering but I ended up working closely with our CEO, my predecessor, to get heavily involved in the strategy and how we built the company. So when he decided to change roles and move into a chairman of the board position, he offered me the job and I haven’t looked back. I was very lucky to have this opportunity and that’s how I got here.
Can you share a story about the funniest mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lessons or ‘takeaways’ you learned from that?
So my previous job was in D2C subscriptions. I got into a leadership role quite early on in this role and . I think the funniest mistake I remember was in the early days when my team broke the checkout function of the checkout funnel. We didn’t notice that it had been broken for several days, and so for the next three days — customers could not buy anything. This was a good lesson in safety to fail. The CEO was not the kind of person who held mistakes like this against you or fired employees over these kinds of things. Instead, he showed us the numbers and shared how much money we lost over the weekend because of this mistake. How he approached this mistake was a big takeaway for me. It taught me that it’s okay to make mistakes and as leaders, we need to create that safety for our employees to fail but at the same time, allow them to learn and understand the magnitude of the work we are doing.
One of the things that I always think about in my line of work is how lucky we are to talk and learn from our mistakes. Facebook has this famous saying that goes something like: move fast and break things. And everyone talks openly about making mistakes. This is a luxury that most people in a lot of jobs don’t have. Imagine being a doctor or an architect, no one tells you to move fast and make mistakes while in tech, we have a unique opportunity to fail and try again and again.
None of us are able to achieve success without some help along the way. Is there a particular person who you are grateful for who helped get you to where you are? Can you share a story? and, you know, say that they’re funny and things like that.
The first person that comes to mind is my first and longest boss. He was the CTO of the company I worked for at the time. I was working hard and trying to prove myself, but he very quickly saw potential in me. He kept giving me one opportunity after the other, and because of this, my career trajectory was very, very steep. And it’s thanks to him believing in me and what I’m capable of. I really owe a lot to where I am today because of him.
Is there a particular book, podcast, or film that made a significant impact on you? Can you share a story or explain why it resonated with you so much?
There is a book by Marty Cagan called Inspired. In my opinion, this is the product manager’s Bible. It is timeless and I think if you really internalize the learnings and understand the points the author is trying to make in this small book, it can change who you are as a product manager and as a commercial person in general. So much of what’s in this book clicked in my mind and it has had a fundamental change in my success.
For example, one of the things that the author talks about is that there are two hard truths in product management. The first hard truth is that most of the ideas that we think will have an impact on the business or the customers will most likely not have that same impact. He says at least 50% of your ideas aren’t not going to work and good teams plan for maybe 75% of their ideas to flop. The second hard truth is that the few ideas that will work and have an impact on the business, they are unlikely going to work from the first iteration — you’re going to have to try it a few times until you really unlock it. What you end up seeing in current product cycles is a number of companies spending three months, six months, sometimes even nine months working on something only to have it dead on arrival when you release it to the customers. Customers don’t care for the idea and it makes zero impact.
If we really internalize all of these learnings from the book, we have to consider the risks, the assumptions, and the things we need to validate changes and products upfront so we can build products that consumers actually want and need. We also need to figure out how to do it fast so we can capture those learnings and move on. So instead of something taking months, it should really only take days or weeks.
The author tries to separate these hard truths into two areas of work, one that he calls discovery and the other delivery. Discovery is when you’re really optimizing for speed and validation of the assumptions you are making about how customers will interact with your product. Delivery is the next step now that you’ve validated your assumption, you can spend time working through your ideas and updates in a way that is scalable, maintainable and impactful. This book has fundamentally changed the way I think about work, especially in product and this is something I constantly share with my teams at Hotjar. Validating and empathizing with your users is key to building good products.
Extensive research suggests that “purpose-driven businesses” are more successful in many areas. When your company started, what was its vision, and what was its purpose?
When we start to think about why Hotjar exists and look to the origin story of how David founded and built Hotjar, you’ll see right away that it was always to inspire change through empathy — so together we can change the world for the better. This is our governing principle and the why across everything we do in a nutshell.. The way this is manifested or articulated has changed slightly over time but at its core, the mission remains the same.
When David, our previous CEO and founder, was building Hotjar, he was doing a lot of agency work for conversion optimization, and user experience improvements for his customers. He found himself using all of these really expensive tools to try and create real empathy with the user. As he continued using these tools, he felt that they were very exclusive yet essential, powerful tools to understand and connect with the users as you build products and online experiences.
Small and mid-sized businesses who needed these tools the most could not afford these tools so his vision was to take this and democratize it to make it more affordable for small teams. And even for the people who have the budgets for these solutions, it was important to make Hotjar accessible with a low barrier to entry for as many people as possible. That has been really the fuel for Hotjar’s growth and it has gotten to a point where we’re now collecting data from approximately one million websites today and providing product teams with the insights needed to understand and build empathy with their users to ultimately create better experiences.
Are you working on any new, exciting projects now? How do you think that might help people?
We just launched a product that will hopefully be one of many that we call Hotjar Trends. Hotjar Trendsis basically the story behind your customer data. If you look at traditional analytics like Google Analytics, you’ll get a snapshot of the user journey and their online interactions. But, with tools like Hotjar, you’ll actually be able to see the why behind it. For example, what are they clicking? Are they rage clicking versus normal clicking? Where are they going back and forth on your pages? What is sentiment like on your pages? But even then, these data points are super granular,
With Hotjar Trends, we wanted to complement this behavioural data with the option to start looking at aggregate data. Sometimes you’ll want to jump into very specific, granular behavioural data when building products but there’s so much value in having an aggregate view on that behavioral data as well. Aggregate data paints a bigger picture of trends over time and provides teams with a different lens of insights. For example with rage clicking, Hotjar Trends allows you to see where people are getting more frustrated or less frustrated over time — pinpointing what updates actually worked in the long run.We’re trying to create more powerful, aggregate analytics products that compliment our granular recordings.
Thank you for all that. Let’s now turn to the main focus of our discussion about Digital Transformation. For the benefit of our readers, can you help explain what exactly Digital Transformation means? On a practical level, what does it look like to engage in a Digital Transformation?
I think when it comes to digital transformation, it’s really important to acknowledge where we are today. In my opinion, this transformation alone, as a concept, doesn’t even cut it anymore. The customers have moved way past that. If you look at 10 years ago, when a lot of the businesses were moving online, customers were buying things or using services online to find specific items that were fundamentally better than traditional retail. For example, these online businesses had the widest selection and the best pricing. On Amazon, you have millions of items and options to choose from and you’re able to get a better price than in-store. It’s also more convenient to have your items shipped directly to your home compared to jumping in your car and driving to the nearest store.
Nowadays, almost all companies provide direct shipping. The expectations of the consumer have increased so much for the last few years that companies had to offer these options or else risk losing out on sales. So what businesses really need to do to stand out is to create experiences that truly delight your users. They need to understand what the customer needs are on a deeper level. How can you, as a business, be there for them at the right time and at the right place in the way that they expect you to show up? If you aren’t ready to participate in the ongoing digital transformation, you’ll be left behind.
Which companies can most benefit from a Digital Transformation?
A quote from a previous boss that I had that I think really answers this question is that there isn’t a situation today where a company is not a tech company. If you’re not a tech company, you simply can’t compete anymore.So really, when it comes to digital transformation, we’re getting to the point in 2022, where it’s becoming table stakes. It’s either you catch up or you get left behind. . I think it’s becoming not the question of how you can benefit from tech, but it’s more of a basic component of your business that is essential for survival.
We’d love to hear about your experiences helping others with Digital Transformation. In your experience, how has Digital Transformation helped improve operations, processes, and customer experiences? We’d love to hear some stories if possible.
There are multiple components to digital transformation. When we think about the business or the operations process as a whole, we also need to think about the customer experience. When you think about operations, software has replaced so much of what people think of as operations, whether it’s a company with an extensive supply chain and procurement network or even just logistics, technology has helped streamline businesses and in some cases, create purely digital businesses where most of the operations are happening through automated knowledge networks.
I think digital transformation is really important for businesses not only from an efficiency standpoint to match the higher pace of an ever evolving market, but to also have a much bigger impact on their bottom line. A lot of teams were able to make significant margin gains just due to automation and being able to create these efficiencies with digital transformation.
Creating more efficient structures will not just impact your margins and cost structure, but also impact the way your teams do and deliver work on a daily basis. People themselves are becoming a lot more effective and efficient with the right digital transformation. And when it comes to customer experience, of course, being able to use digital tools unlocks a new way to connect with your customers in a more personalized and faster manner. Customers are expecting a lot these days and the more convenience and speed you can provide them the better.
It’s very, very difficult to reinvent yourself at such a high pace, but companies that are able to focus on the right type of digital transformation will succeed. What most companies struggle with when it comes to digital transformation is they try to translate their analog processes directly into a digital equivalent. If your analog process was a bad process to begin with, going digital will just create a bad, digital process. It doesn’t fix the core problem so I encourage companies to not only transform with better tools and software, but also approach digital transformation with a digital-first mindset and process.
Has integrating Digital Transformation been a challenging process for some companies? What are the challenges? How do you help resolve them?
I think the challenges come from a combination of two things. One, as we mentioned before, is that companies are resistant to change for a long time. But another struggle I’ve seen in the tech industry is that there’s a gap between how fast the industry is moving and how fast the legislators are moving as well. A lot of the challenges we face in the tech industry are because the legislators are still operating in a context that is two decades old. Look at how long it took for digital signatures to become a valid form of identity proof. And even more so, how long did it take in different regions and countries due to legislation? If e-signatures are recognized only in specific jurisdictions and not others, what’s the point of having the innovation? Governments have a critical role to play in integrating digital transformation.
My advice would be to just be aware of what you can and can’t control. But also, don’t use what you can’t control as an excuse to not try at all, which is quite commonly the case. While you might feel sometimes there’s no point in doing it at all, there’s still a lot of gains that you can probably get from looking at the parts of your business that you can transform, and ultimately, it will be beneficial for you and for your customers.
Ok. Thank you. Here is the primary question of our discussion. Based on your experience and success, what are “Five Ways a Company Can Use Digital Transformation To Take It To The Next Level”? Please share a story or an example for each.
I’m going to share a bit of controversial advice that will also serve as my answer to the question. While I can think of five ways a company can take digital transformation to the next level, many companies that have been around for decades continue to struggle to implement any sort of digital transformation.
Marc Andreessen from a16z and the inventor of Netscape was once asked a similar question about companies who were struggling with the digital transformation promise and he said “find your best technologist in the company and make them CEO.” That’s how much he believed change needs to come from the top down and I agree with it. I’ve had friends in my network who’ve worked in big corporations for quite some time and it always comes down to the lack of political will at the top. There’s a lack of the right executive sponsors and the right executive decisions to make transformation possible so for me, I aim to always hire the right people, many times smarter than me, and ask them where they think opportunities for digital transformation lie.
In your opinion, how can companies best create a “culture of innovation” in order to create new competitive advantages?
First and foremost, safety to fail is the one factor that separates successful companies who have created a culture of innovation from declining companies. If you try to do difficult things, and try to do them fast, you will inevitably fail many times. Building a place where it’s safe to fail gives people the room to try something that may not seem possible at first. It’s important to share the notion that ideas can come from anywhere. Many companies are top down lead, where only the leadership team is expected to come up with the best ideas. Instead, leaders should aim to create an environment where everyone has access to information and has the ability to freely voice ideas and contribute to them properly.
On the other end of that spectrum. A lot of what companies are calling innovation is in my opinion, a waste because not all ideas are born equal. And what I mean by that is some people put in a lot of work, they do the homework by looking at the data, they understand their customers and then they form the model of their idea. They use data and insights to understand that this is something worth pursuing in the first place.Doing something just on gut feeling only, or just because it sounds cool, is often not enough for an idea to be truly impactful.
Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share how that was relevant to you in your life?
I can’t think of a specific quote, but perhaps more like a principle that I tried to live by. It’s this idea of trying to live life with no regrets, in a way. The fact is, you’ll try different things throughout your life and many people will say things like “take every opportunity you get and do everything you want” so you can live a life without regrets. But I don’t think that’s true.
I believe that your motivation to do something should not be driven by the fear of regret. Whether you do take a chance or you don’t, it should be because you chose to. Regardless of what choices you’ve made, there is no point looking back. What happened has happened. You can only look forward, and it’s and that’s the most important thing. You can take whichever lessons you need from the past, but there’s no point in getting stuck there.
How can our readers further follow your work?
They can follow me on LinkedIn, Twitter, and on my personal blog mohannadali.com, where I write business articles on the not-so-regular. To learn more about Hotjar you can visit Hotjar.com.
This was very inspiring. Thank you so much for joining us!
Scott Daigger Of Buddy Web Design & Development On 5 Things You Need To Know To Successfully Scale Your Business
An Interview With Fotis Georgiadis
Get operational back-up. As things ramp up, you’ll be busy with the day-to-day operations of serving customers, but as CEO, you’re also chief sales officer. When you have more prospective customers, you’ll be spending a lot more time on sales calls. And thus, you won’t be able to spend as much time on the day-to-day operations. So, whether that means more front line staff, more operational team members, a project manager, or chief operations officer, make sure you have people you can lean on to keep the business running smoothly as you’re pulled into more and more activities that will drive revenue growth.
Startups usually start with a small cohort of close colleagues. But what happens when you add a bunch of new people into this close cohort? How do you maintain the company culture? In addition, what is needed to successfully scale a business to increase market share or to increase offerings? How can a small startup grow successfully to a midsize and then large company? To address these questions, we are talking to successful business leaders who can share stories and insights from their experiences about the “5 Things You Need To Know To Successfully Scale Your Business”. As a part of this series, we had the distinct pleasure of interviewing Scott Daigger.
Scott is founder of Buddy Web Design & Development (www.BuddyWDD.com), an award-winning website development firm headquartered in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Scott is an alumni of the University of Wisconsin, with his undergraduate degree and MBA from UW’s School of Business. Scott’s professional background has been heavily focused on leading organizations and teams focused on technology development, start-ups, and innovation.
Thank you for joining us in this interview series. Our readers would love to “get to know you” a bit better. Can you tell us a bit about your ‘backstory’?
I’m originally from Wisconsin, went to UW-Madison for school, and spent a good portion of my career there. But, I’ve lived in Michigan for about 12 years now. My professional background is primarily in business operations and leadership, mostly focused on technology development, start-ups, and innovation.
What brought me to Michigan was around 2010 I was recruited to work for a large healthcare system in Grand Rapids and help lead up its innovations program. In that role, I worked with senior leadership, doctors, nurses, and clinical staff to help develop and launch new healthcare technologies, such as medical devices, software, and equipment.
That was a really cool job, but about three of four years ago, I started getting the itch for the next step in my career, and really wanted to focus more on software development. While I’d led up software projects before, I figured it would help my resume out if I learned some coding. So, I started learning web development on the side.
My intent at that point wasn’t necessarily to pivot and become a coder — I really liked the business side of things — but figured it would help out with my competency and credibility in software leadership roles. However, I ended up really enjoying web development. And, after about 6 months of learning and building out a portfolio, I actually started landing some freelance work on the side.
Around that time, I was feeling ready for a change and the next step. So, after discussing with my wife, I decided to leave my corporate job, and pursue freelancing. That’s how Buddy Web Design & Development got started.
Soon after I left my job, Covid hit, so that was interesting timing, and so my first year or two of freelancing was pretty up and down, balancing work with taking care of our daughter, who was starting virtual kindergarten at the time.
However, in the last year, things have really ramped up for Buddy. We’ve worked with bunches of new clients, grown our team, and really evolved from a solo freelancer to an actual team and growing business. It’s been a really fun and interesting journey, and I know we’re just getting started!
You’ve had a remarkable career journey. Can you highlight a key decision in your career that helped you get to where you are today?
Definitely. There actually was a key moment that kind of sparked all of this, at least with Buddy. Our family took a trip to Disney World back in the spring of 2019. Not sure if anyone else ever feels this way, but on the flight back home, I was having a little bit of the post-vacation blues, and was just thinking about what I was heading back to at my job. It was in that time of reflection I just sort of decided, what the heck, I was just going to dive in and start learning coding. It was something I’d dabbled with prior, but never really committed to. I wasn’t sure where it was going to lead, but I just decided that I wanted to pursue that, as I felt confident it would open up a lot of doors for me, even though I didn’t know what those would be at the time.
What’s the most impactful initiative you’ve led that you’re particularly proud of?
Coming from healthcare, where I was helping develop technologies to take care of patients and directly improve lives, the bar is really high when it comes to choosing just one impactful initiative. I had the opportunity to work across all sorts of patient types, but the ones that struck me the most were when we developed new products for babies in the intensive care unit. We developed several new technologies for neonates, in particular, and seeing them in person gives you a huge appreciation for how delicate they are, and how much care they need.
Developing websites is a pretty different realm, comparatively, but even so, it’s always really rewarding to help someone represent themselves or their business in a way they’re genuinely excited about. We recently launched a website for a local artist whose work is incredible, and he’s a genuinely great person, as well. Something that really struck me was when we first were working together, he mentioned he’d been doing art for over 20 years, but never felt proud of his portfolio website. Long story short, we were able to deliver an amazing site for him, and it was so nice to be able to help him finally have that online presence he feels excited about, and that really shows off his talents. Granted, it’s very different from something more literally life and death like in the hospital, but it’s still wonderful to really help people and make them really happy.
Sometimes our mistakes can be our greatest teachers. Can you share a mistake you’ve made and the lesson you took away from it?
One of my first freelance clients provided a great learning experience! I had a client that I was really excited to work with. She was working in an industry I was really passionate about, and she was looking for a new website that sounded really straightforward. Basically, she had identified a pre-built WordPress template she wanted to use as a starting point. The plan was just to use that template, integrate in her logo, text, and photos, and that was kind of it. Super simple, on paper.
However, it didn’t end up that way. As we got rolling, she had a minor request here and there, just to tweak the design a bit. “Could you move that here,” or “Could you add in this.” Each request in and of itself was usually pretty easy. The project overall, though, evolved from something incredibly straightforward, to the never ending abyss of “just. one. more. thing.” It became a bit excruciating. My intent was to offer excellent service and make sure she was happy, but by the end, I probably should have charged 3 times what I’d proposed. Our billing was project-based, not hourly. And, it ended up being a hugely customized build, rather than the very simple site that she initially laid out.
Fortunately, I got a good customer review, and after that, I developed a really robust and detailed client contract template. Now, I’m much, much better about scoping out projects and the workload entailed, and have language in writing that talks about scope creep or how to handle additional work or changes as they come up. I still learn lessons with each project, and adjust the client contract for future customers regularly, but that one was a biggie for lessons learned.
How has mentorship played a role in your career, whether receiving mentorship or offering it to others?
Mentorship has been incredibly important, as no one has a monopoly on all the right answers. I’ve been very fortunate through college and grad school, and throughout my career, to have people to offer advice and guidance.
Now that I’m more established in my career — and have lots of mistakes and lessons learned under my belt — it’s nice to be able to offer mentorship to aspiring entrepreneurs, as well. Something I actually really enjoy about my role with Buddy now is, while operationally we help customers with websites, graphic design, etc., when I’m on sales calls with entrepreneurs, I’m able to really dive into their business, their goals, and their operations, and help leverage my experience to help not only with a website, but providing more broad guidance and consulting that can help them out, beyond just the site.
Developing your leadership style takes time and practice. Who do you model your leadership style after? What are some key character traits you try to emulate?
One of my favorite quotes on leadership is from speaker and author Zig Ziglar: “People don’t care how much you know, until they know how much you care.” While I’m definitely not a perfect leader, I really focus a lot on hiring outstanding people, and giving them a lot of runway to just do their jobs exceptionally well. And for me, that means quality of character is equally, if not even more, important than technical skills, when adding people to the team. It’s really important to me that the team is made up of rock stars, and it’s awesome to set up a situation where each individual team member is a high performer, and knows they’re surrounded by other high performers. It really helps create a high performance environment.
As a leader, then, when you have confidence in your team, their quality of work, and their ability to get their jobs done, you don’t have to worry as much about the day-to-day stuff — provided you have your operations in good order — and it lets you focus a lot more on your team members as people, building culture, and their success and growth. It helps you put them first as individuals.
I think beyond building that sort of team dynamic and culture, though, other key characteristics or priorities I try to focus on are integrity, transparency, work-life balance, growth, organization, and having fun.
Thank you for sharing that with us. Let’s talk about scaling a business from a small startup to a midsize and then large company. Based on your experience, can you share with our readers the “5 Things You Need To Know To Successfully Scale Your Business”? Please give a story or example for each.
First, get your operations in order. Something we talk about a lot at Buddy when it comes to operations, is that every client and every project will have its own nuances and variability, so we want to control variability as much as possible as we can on the behind the scenes operational stuff. We want everything we do to be as stress free as possible for our clients and our team, so we are incredibly organized. For us, this means we have processes established and in place. We have a central project management tool we use, and we use the same process for each project. We have document templates we use. Files are all stored in the same places and same ways. The more you can get organized and in a very simplified, easy to replicate routine, the better you’ll be able to scale up and serve more clients.
Second, get operational back-up. As things ramp up, you’ll be busy with the day-to-day operations of serving customers, but as CEO, you’re also chief sales officer. When you have more prospective customers, you’ll be spending a lot more time on sales calls. And thus, you won’t be able to spend as much time on the day-to-day operations. So, whether that means more front line staff, more operational team members, a project manager, or chief operations officer, make sure you have people you can lean on to keep the business running smoothly as you’re pulled into more and more activities that will drive revenue growth.
Third, figure out staffing before you need it. As you scale up, things can get busy quickly. Ideally, your focus should be on driving sales growth and serving customers. Having to scramble to hire people adds stress, pulls you away from the day-to-day work, and also can pressure you to hire less qualified people, if you just need to get help ASAP. By comparison, plan ahead on what your future hiring needs will be, and get hiring and onboarding plans laid out well in advance. So, when it’s time to pull the trigger, you either have potential candidates lined up, or, you can move quickly to fill roles. This might even mean finding several part time team members early on, that could grow into full time employees as workload merits it.
Fourth, don’t take on more work — or different kinds of work — than you can knock out of the park. This one might be a little more relevant to service businesses, but the bottom line is, you’re only going to be as successful as your reputation merits. People want to work with companies that have great reputations. So, while it’s tempting to go after any paying customer, if you can’t do an awesome job for them, it might make more sense to pass. In scaling up, you still need to think about the long term prospects of your business. You’ll do way better in the long term by doing great work for each customer, rather than trying to serve everyone, and only doing mediocre (or poor) work. Bad reviews, or a bad reputation, is a killer.
Fifth, keep on top of finances. As you’re scaling, revenues and expenses will be evolving quickly. Be diligent about reviewing cash flows regularly to maintain projections, monitor costs and revenues. As much as you can, start building up a cash runway for downtimes, because startups will ebb and flow — growth is not a straight line upward. Remember, cash is king, so make sure you’ve got more coming in than going out, and build up the cash reserves for inevitable changes or downturns.
Can you share a few of the mistakes that companies make when they try to scale a business? What would you suggest to address those errors?
There’s one big thing I see happen a lot when entrepreneurs scale up their business, especially less experienced entrepreneurs, and that’s trying to do too many different things, too soon.
In more detail, what I see happen is an entrepreneur will launch a business, and focus extremely hard on getting that company up and running, getting the brand established, getting early customers, getting a team in place, etc. However, once they start getting traction, they then get a bit of “shiny object” syndrome. They start thinking they’ve made it, as things are trending up, and their focus starts gravitating towards “what if we offered this!” (insert new product or service, or business model, here). They start thinking about different service lines, new products, new spinoffs or whatever. In essence, they start to take their eye off the ball from that initial product or service.
Just hypothesizing here, but I wonder if it might be a personality thing, that some people are wired as “starters” — that is, they love coming up with an idea, getting it rolling, and then moving on to the next thing. However, entrepreneurship, and scaling up a business, is a long-term endeavor. It’s not as easy as just starting it up, and handing it off, especially when you’re a small business.
My advice here would be to be patient, keep focused on whatever it is that you’re getting traction with, before you get distracted. Make sure you have predictable revenue. Get operational procedures and protocols in place. Get your team built out, with redundancies and back-up plans in place. Really make sure your initial, core business is sustainable and self-sufficient for the most part, before you start taking on your next big idea or initiative.
Scaling includes bringing new people into the organization. How can a company preserve its company culture and ethos when new people are brought in?
The biggest factor in creating and preserving a culture is to lead by example. You need to walk the walk, and reinforce that in others. Catch people when they’re doing the right thing, and call them out on it — recognize them in a group, especially. For example, things like, “Jane, that was awesome how quickly you got back to the client and fixed their problem. That kind of responsiveness really helps set us apart.”
As the company grows, and you’re not involved with team members as directly anymore, you can reinforce culture in the hiring and onboarding process, through education, creating and reinforcing your mission and vision, and sharing stories and communication with the team that reinforce your culture and values. Really, it’s all about consistent communication and reinforcement, and also being congruent to make sure you, and the business, are actually doing what you’re saying you value.
Many times, a key aspect of scaling your business is scaling your team’s knowledge and internal procedures. What tools or techniques have helped your teams be successful at scaling internally?
As things have grown, we’ve created standard operating procedures and templates, and baked these elements directly into our project management software to help keep things organized, and make sure we don’t miss any steps. We have lots of templates that are easy to use, and are consistent across projects.
On a regular basis, we’ll debrief after we complete a client project, and check in on what went well, and where we can improve, and we’ll adjust our procedures accordingly. This helps us always get better.
Regarding software, operationally, we try to use just a few software tools that are all easily accessible online. This helps keep things simple, organized, and easily available.
We use Asana for project management, and we have a handful of templates and checklists we use consistently for each project. So, that helps us keep on top of things, and everyone knows what to expect, process-wise. We use Google Drive for documents, and Slack for quick communication throughout the day.
What software or tools do you recommend to help onboard new hires?
Really, we just use the same tools for onboarding as we do for our other normal day-to-day operations. We try to just use a few software platforms online to keep things simple. So, as part of onboarding, we share Asana and Google Drive with new team members, and teach them about how we use each, but our actual onboarding processes are stored there, as well — so, everything’s all in one place.
For communication, we do lots of video calls together early on for live conversations and 1-on-1 time to make sure the new hire is up to speed and has questions or concerns addressed quickly.
Because of your role, you are a person of significant influence. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most people, what would that be? You never know what your ideas can trigger.
Because of my own journey, I’ve been a big fan of what’s been dubbed “the great resignation.” So, rather than creating my own movement, I’m more apt to piggyback on that one.
For me, and my team members, we’ve found so much satisfaction in doing freelance work and creating our own business together. We have so much more skin in the game, and are able to create a culture and work style that works for us — and that fits into our lives — compared to the more typical corporate life.
In my own life — and I’ve consistently seen this with others — it’s amazing how much work affects our personal lives. Logistically, our personal lives tend to be defined as just that time before we commute to work in the morning, and after we get back home at night. Stress from work is brought home, and is shared — either directly or indirectly — with spouses, children, and family members. When the normal job is wearing on you, it affects everything.
So, I’ve been really happy to see people say “enough”, and prioritize their own lives, their desires, and their own personal wellbeing. I think companies can do a lot more to really recognize people as people, not just cogs in a machine. I think by people resigning in mass and pursing their own endeavors, freelancing, starting companies, et cetera — or even just demanding better balance from their employers — it’s good for everyone, as it resets the benchmark on what’s normal and what’s acceptable for work and work-life balance.
How can our readers further follow your work online?
We post regularly on our blog with relevant information at BuddyWDD.com/blog, and I also share updates, advice, and insights on my LinkedIn profile at Linkedin.com/in/scottdaigger.
This was truly meaningful! Thank you so much for your time and for sharing your expertise!
My non-linear career path gave me the strength and courage to look beyond how we do things today, and question how things can be done differently. This translates to my role at Darwynn, where we’re reimagining what the e-commerce and delivery landscape currently looks like, and being unafraid to provide an alternative solution to compete with existing big players in the industry.
As a part of our series about business leaders who are shaking things up in their industry, I had the pleasure of interviewing Reza Bafandeh.
Reza Bafandeh is CEO of Darwynn Ltd., a fulfillment solution that is building a world-class ecosystem that enables anyone and everyone to compete in commerce. With extensive experience across the fulfillment and operations sectors, Reza’s goal is to ensure every company has access to an innovative solution — no matter if they have one order or one million orders. He hopes to democratize the industry and break down barriers to allow businesses of all sizes to thrive.
Thank you so much for doing this with us! Before we dig in, our readers would like to get to know you a bit more. Can you tell us a bit about your “backstory”? What led you to this particular career path?
It’s often assumed that the pathway to becoming a CEO is to get straight A’s, pursue higher education and excel in academics. But we know this isn’t always the case. Steve Jobs, Bill Gates and Mark Zuckerberg all dropped out of school — and like these folks, I also led a different path.
As a child, I played chess competitively — participating in tournaments and learning the ins and outs of the game. It taught me a lot about strategy, patience and perseverance.
Fast forward to my teenage years, I ended up dropping out of high school. That led me to begin working on the front lines of sales and business development for a number of years before I decided it was time to go back to school and pursue higher education. From there, I earned both an accelerated Bachelors degree and a Masters degree — graduating from both with honours. I truly believe that the same qualities I learned through chess, is what helped me accomplish this academic achievement.
Once I completed my studies, I went back to building my career. This time bringing both academic and previous professional experience, I worked across the fulfillment and operations industries — spanning waste management, distribution, global deployments and last mile transportation. I also spent some time building multiple businesses of my own in areas such as consulting, health, and beauty.
Much like the way chess taught me strategy, patience and perseverance, my non-linear career path gave me the perspective to look beyond the status quo. While my experience may be diverse, one thing has remained consistent in my professional career — I’ve always been involved at the intersection of merchants and consumers, and fulfillment and operations is my bread and butter. I noticed gaps in the current infrastructure, and seeing the opportunity to innovate this complex industry is what led me to Darwynn.
Can you tell our readers what it is about the work you’re doing that’s disruptive?
At Darwynn, we’re democratizing the fulfillment landscape by lowering the barriers to commerce so any seller can compete — no matter how big or small. We’re seeing increased consumer demands for expectations like two-day shipping, but traditional supply chain logistics haven’t risen to the challenge. We want to be the alternative option for sellers to have more control over their orders, have transparency to their data and get insight into the fulfillment process.
Our complete multi-tenant, multi-channel and multi-temperature fulfillment ecosystem is fully automated and manages most avenues of a business. By integrating with all major platforms, including enterprise resource planning (ERP) software, we’re making fulfillment and logistics as simple as possible. Because we’re enabling fulfillment with technology, merchants and sellers are able to gain access to unmatched data and insights to drive their business forward.
We’re rethinking the way sellers manage logistics, and putting operational ownership into the hands of businesses with more transparency and control over their fulfillment needs. The goal is to become the most innovative, seller-centric platform of choice — whether they have one order or a million to fulfill.
Can you share a story about the funniest mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lesson you learned from that?
Dropping out of high school wasn’t a mistake per se, but a key learning experience for me. Looking back, it’s funny to see that I ended up going back to school, not only for a Bachelor’s degree, but for a Master’s as well. What others may find even more fascinating is that I actually spent some time giving back to education by becoming an instructor myself at my alma mater. It was in no way easy for me to go back to school, but studying business after having had some formal job experience gave me the drive, determination and confidence I needed to embrace academics, and apply those learnings to my career going forward.
We all need a little help along the journey. Who have been some of your mentors? Can you share a story about how they made an impact?
My father has been my main mentor throughout my life. Ever since I was a child, I’ve looked up to him — not only is he a loving father and a husband, but a great businessman, educator and role model. As a scholar with a PhD in Medical Nuclear Physics from the University of Massachusetts, his dedication to continuous learning and development has inspired my ambitions to get to where I am today.
In today’s parlance, being disruptive is usually a positive adjective. But is disrupting always good? When do we say the converse, that a system or structure has ‘withstood the test of time’? Can you articulate to our readers when disrupting an industry is positive, and when disrupting an industry is ‘not so positive’? Can you share some examples of what you mean?
Disruptors arise because we see a gap in the current market, or a problem with existing systems. I noticed a gap in the current infrastructure through my time working across fulfillment and operations, which led me to Darwynn.
Darwynn’s ecosystem will allow companies of varying order volumes to benefit from economies of scale because of our proprietary Automated Multi-Tenant Ecosystem. This allows for order consolidation within the fulfillment center, regardless of the merchant. By doing so, we’re putting sellers at the forefront while exceeding customer expectations. Furthermore, we’re creating a positive sustainability impact by decreasing the amount of packaging by combining orders and allowing greater efficiency for the courier. For example, when someone orders groceries and clothing from separate merchants, our platform can integrate these from the same consumer into one package, instead of one per merchant. This, to me, is positive disruption — one that benefits sellers by reducing packaging costs, the environment by reducing waste, and the end consumer.
Can you share five of the best words of advice you’ve gotten along your journey? Please give a story or example for each.
Here are some words of advice that have gotten me through my journey:
Don’t be afraid to dream big.
My non-linear career path gave me the strength and courage to look beyond how we do things today, and question how things can be done differently. This translates to my role at Darwynn, where we’re reimagining what the e-commerce and delivery landscape currently looks like, and being unafraid to provide an alternative solution to compete with existing big players in the industry.
There is no shortage of great ideas, what is missing is executing them This piece of advice resonates with me because I’m a big advocate for continuous learning. Not being afraid to pursue great ideas is critical to disrupting an industry and without execution, there will be limited opportunities to learn from failure or success.
Make yourself the obvious choice.
There are many ways technology can be adapted to help solve existing problems in the fulfillment and operations industry, but what sets Darwynn apart is the combination of our industry expertise and our technological capabilities. This has helped us build our state-of-the-art fulfillment centers and truly scale our business this past year. Our approach to developing a fully-automated solution is what differentiates us to become the obvious choice.
Business is a combination of war and sport.
As Darwynn grows, this piece of advice has stuck with me because it alludes to the importance of being able to challenge the status quo to be competitive, while balancing the role of a strategic and aspirational leader as CEO.
In the midst of chaos there is always opportunity.
Whether it was stores lacking inventory on their shelves or back-ordered items online, many saw the impact of global supply chains first-hand this year — no matter where they are in the world. This piece of advice resonates with me because my team has been able to seize this opportunity to build Darwynn — and I believe our recent pre-seed raise is a testament that there is a clear demand for innovation to improve the fulfillment and operations industry now more than ever.
We are sure you aren’t done. How are you going to shake things up next?
We’re shaking up commerce with our cutting edge technology and expertise in fulfillment, but we’re not stopping there. Our goal is to improve commerce in all aspects by disrupting supply chain and logistics as a whole — reimagining the way consumers receive goods from merchants and sellers whether online or brick and mortar.
Do you have a book, podcast, or talk that’s had a deep impact on your thinking? Can you share a story with us? Can you explain why it was so resonant with you?
I’m a big fan of audiobooks, and listen to 1–2 monthly. Most recently, I’ve been listening to Sapiens by Yuval Noah Harari and The Ideal Team Player by Patrick Lencioni. Books like these that challenge my thinking inspire me to continuously learn and grow, especially as a leader. When it comes to disrupting and innovating an industry, it’s important to me to be able to reflect and think differently about how commerce operates today and what the future of commerce could look like.
Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share how that was relevant to you in your life?
One quote that resonates with me is — “luck is for the unprepared”. As someone who didn’t follow the traditional trajectory from school to work, I’ve worked hard to get to where I am today. My experiences and education combined have prepared me to seize opportunities to succeed, whether luck is involved or not.
You are a person of great influence. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger. 🙂
Commerce (especially eCommerce) is heavily dependent on plastics and corrugated packaging. That’s why I think it’s important to reimagine the relationships between a seller, integrator, service provider and customer, and how the commerce journey can function without relying on so much waste. Eliminating packaging, not just minimizing it, is something I’m very passionate about, and the opportunities to innovate this industry by rethinking commerce is limitless.
Making Something From Nothing: Rob Martin of Icon Sports Management On How To Go From Idea To Launch
An Interview With Fotis Georgiadis
Less is often more. Don’t try to be everything to everyone or always try to perform every single service that your competitors offer. Instead, do everything you can to be the very best at what you do as people will come from far and wide to engage your services if you can truly give them that.
As a part of our series called “Making Something From Nothing”, I had the pleasure of interviewing Co-Founder and Managing Partner Rob Martin.
An MLB agent for more than 24 years, Co-Founder Robert (Rob) G Martin VI, Esq. of ICON Sports Management and Pastime With Purpose represents some of baseball’s premier talent. Martin has negotiated hundreds of MLB amateur draft contacts, dozens of MLB arbitration settlements, and numerous MLB free-agent deals. As the managing partner for an agency known for representing highly marketable athletes, Martin has negotiated some of the most innovative marketing and endorsement contracts in baseball’s history. Martin has been featured in numerous magazines from Slice to Boston College Law School magazine. He has also been a guest speaker at over a dozen Sports Law and Sports Marketing schools across the nation, a keynote panel member at the West Coast Sports Law Symposium and heard on several prominent radio shows including MLB Network Radio.
Rob Martin graduated Grinnell College with a Bachelors of Arts in Economics and worked for GSD&M Advertising in Austin, TX before co-founding ICON. After that, he graduated top of his class at Boston College Law School which is widely regarded as the #1 Sports Law school in the nation. Rob is also the father to three beautiful daughters.
Thank you so much for doing this with us! Before we dive in, our readers would love to learn a bit more about you. Can you tell us a bit about your “childhood backstory”?
When I was six, my parents moved our family from Albuquerque, New Mexico to the family ranch in Southeastern Oklahoma. I grew up on a beautiful piece of land that had green pastures, evergreen forests, four ponds, and beautiful mountain views where we ran cattle and had horses. My dad had a portable sawmill and built our homestead himself and my mom became the librarian at the local public school. Soon thereafter my Nana, Dr. Mavis D. Martin, retired and my dad built her a home above one of our ponds about 200 yards from our house that was just down the lane. What brought us together was the love for the American game of baseball. This passion for baseball that our family had created and after watching Field of Dreams together, my dad built me a baseball field in our pasture. We spent countless hours honing the craft each afternoon. My family and the ranch way of life taught me the value of a strong work ethic and a hard days’ work.
When I was in 7th grade my teachers nominated me to write an essay for a college scholarship competition sponsored by Ruth Norman and the Norman Family Foundation. After an interview process, shockingly the Norman Foundation offered me a full-ride scholarship to whatever college I chose to attend. Ruth and Dave Norman showed my family and I how much impact it has when you take time to remember your roots, choose to give back and create opportunities for others. There is no doubt ICON owes its early genesis to the mentorship of my parents, my Nana and Ruth Norman.
Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share how that was relevant to you in your life?
“There are no self-made people… All of us are bits and pieces of those whose lives have touched ours.” ~Frosty Troy
I loved this quote since I read it early in my high school career. No doubt my dreams and aspirations were significantly impacted by those around me at a very early age and I became determined to stay humble and try to pay it forward to others that my life might touch someday.
This concept became foundational for ICON as the inception of our agency began my junior year of college when I wrote a mission statement for a sports agency. The differentiating factor was that it represented role-model athletes with a philanthropic focus and utilized a partner non-profit to more effectively activate those athletes in their communities. The vision of how connectivity and purpose can intertwine to motivate people to stretch themselves beyond conventional expectations defines ICON and certainly aided in our early success. I mean, I really had no business getting clients when I was a 22 year old recent college graduate with no experience, no company, no mentors, and nothing but the concept of helping athletes live out a more fulfilling career path. So, instead of selling our experience, our agency capabilities, our industry connections or our company’s resources, we had to sell the idea of inspired action motivating people to fully embrace the potential they have to impact other lives. Fourntately, we were able to find some like-minded prospects and their families who put their trust in us and once we were able to illustrate how our approach truly added value, the rest was history.
Is there a particular book, podcast, or film that made a significant impact on you? Can you share a story or explain why it resonated with you so much?
Start with Why by Simon Sinek. A leadership mentor of mine shared Simon’s viral Ted Talk with me and, concedingly, I devoured the book. So much of what he articulated by what is known as the Golden Circle, clearly defined what I envisioned when I wrote the mission statement for ICON all those years ago. It also helped explain some of our early successes in this competitive industry when we had very little experience and were still growing our reputation in the industry. The idea that it’s not WHAT you do, but WHY you do what you do, that is what motivates people. In the long run it is how we’ve been able to establish ourselves among the industry leaders without following in the usual business model for the typical elite sports agency.
Ok super. Let’s now shift to the main part of our discussion. There is no shortage of good ideas out there. Many people have good ideas all the time. But people seem to struggle in taking a good idea and translating it into an actual business. Can you share a few ideas from your experience about how to overcome this challenge?
Phenomenal question. The first step is to identify your true passion and prioritize what matters to you the most. I believe so many people split their focus by not truly doing the tough work to prioritize what will bring them the most fulfillment. Then fully commit to doing the first thing first to make that dream a reality. This happens when you serve too many masters and try to be a jack of all trades. In my experience, and in researching my heroes, very few people have the genius to be phenomenal at everything. But the most truly impactful leaders became the very best at doing what they do and stopped at nothing until their vision became reality. Effectively you need to fully know yourself, identify your ultimate pursuit, and then fully commit to making it matter.
Often when people think of a new idea, they dismiss it saying someone else must have thought of it before. How would you recommend that someone go about researching whether or not their idea has already been created?
If you see an opportunity gap it typically exists or, at a minimum, a more optimal service could be offered. So you research your industry, speak to those involved and also on the periphery, and then hone your value proposition. If, after that intentional preparation, look for your first and best opportunity to prove your concept. That first success is key because you’ll learn a ton in the execution and it will also serve as a seminal moment for your endeavor.
For the benefit of our readers, can you outline the steps one has to go through, from when they think of the idea, until it finally lands in a customer’s hands? In particular, we’d love to hear about how to file a patent, how to source a good manufacturer, and how to find a retailer to distribute it.
I recommend spending considerable time looking into decision sciences and examining how people make decisions. Reading books (like Blink and The Challenger Sale) and listening to podcasts on marketing and presentations would be extremely valuable. In addition, many of our attorneys here at ICON have significant IP experience. So if you’re not an attorney, getting to know one with copyright, trademark, and patent expertise will be incredibly valuable. Such attorneys not only know how to protect you legally, but can be incredibly insightful in helping you hone your vision and your activation strategy BEFORE you launch it.
What are your “5 Things I Wish Someone Told Me When I First Started Leading My Company” and why?
Prioritize surrounding yourself with the right people first and then put them in the best positions to succeed within the organization. Cultural fit is more important than skill set or aptitude.
Passion and purpose need to be woven into EVERYTHING you do and NOTHING should be allowed into your culture or your business model if it doesn’t further these two foundational principles.
Aggressively seek out and ask for mentorship. You would be surprised how many successful people will be willing to lend advice and a listening ear if you just show dedication and respect in how you ask. This will accelerate your learning curve and often give you valuable allies in your industry. True leaders love seeing (and helping) others be successful as iron truly sharpens iron.
Less is often more. Don’t try to be everything to everyone or always try to perform every single service that your competitors offer. Instead, do everything you can to be the very best at what you do as people will come from far and wide to engage your services if you can truly give them that.
If something is not working, shut it down. Innovation and evolution is always alluring and can often be incredibly exciting, but if you try something, and it’s not working, shut it down and don’t waste incredible time chasing your tail. Time, afterall, is the most valuable resource you and your company have, so wasting it is a travesty!
Let’s imagine that a reader reading this interview has an idea for a product that they would like to invent. What are the first few steps that you would recommend that they take?
Research it online, contact an IP attorney and get an airtight NDA so you can protect yourself before sharing it with anyone that could possibly execute it faster or better than you. Again, time is the most valuable resource you and your company have.
There are many invention development consultants. Would you recommend that a person with a new idea hire such a consultant, or should they try to strike out on their own?
As I mentioned before, get a good IP attorney and take their advice. I cannot reiterate it enough. They will make everything easier and make sure that you will be able to succeed within your specified field.
What are your thoughts about bootstrapping vs looking for venture capital? What is the best way to decide if you should do either one?
Making great decisions with entrepreneurial finance has been a critical skill set of the world’s most successful innovators. Sometimes, going at it alone is the best way to develop your vision without other influences. Other times, getting an influx of capital to expand within the market is the smartest thing to do. Here is where tireless research, sound strategy and great mentors can be invaluable in helping you decide whether to keep your entire endeavor or choose the proverbial benefit of the smaller piece of a much bigger pie!
Ok. We are nearly done. Here are our final questions. How have you used your success to make the world a better place?
ICON’s entire niche market is representing role-model athletes with a philanthropic focus. We’re also the only certified MLB agency with our own parallel run 501(c)3 Non-Profit (Pastime with Purpose), so giving back is imbued in everything we do. We have an incredible team here at ICON and all our agents and attorneys endeavor to break the mold of what people think of when they think of sports agents. Furthermore, all our athletes are hand-selected for their character, leadership and interest in giving back to their communities. Pastime helps execute all our charitable impact and activates our athletes in their communities. I am extremely humbled to be a part of these athlete’s professional careers and proud of the genuine impact they make on the lives around them. Our favorite quote is “A life is not important, except in the impact it has on other lives” by the luminary Jackie Robinson and asserting that as a core principle of why we do what we do. It has helped associate us with some of the game’s greatest people. That, and the change they catalyze, is truly the biggest success of my professional career.
You are an inspiration to a great many people. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger.
Many of us are blessed beyond what we deserve. If we can truly embrace that gratitude we would all be more motivated to pay it forward. I’d love to see more companies truly make giving back a core tenant of their daily operations, but I also wish more people understood the impact they can have on other individuals just by looking for the opportunities they have to lend time, resources or a helping hand to someone who would not only truly appreciate it, but who would also choose to do the same for another someday.
We are very blessed that some of the biggest names in Business, VC funding, Sports, and Entertainment read this column. Is there a person in the world, or in the US, with whom you would love to have a private breakfast or lunch, and why? He or she might just see this if we tag them.
Elon Musk. I believe his unique combination of innovator and risk taker is an outlier and has changed the trajectory of our way of life more than anyone since Steve Jobs. So getting even 5 minutes of his time would be a dream come true for me.
Thank you for these fantastic insights. We greatly appreciate the time you spent on this.
Better business performance: Study after study has confirmed that companies with more diversity outperform less-diverse companies. Ultimately, greater diversity equals better business performance and higher profits for various reasons — increased collaboration, higher performing teams, better decision-making, inclusive products and higher market share.
As a part of our series about “How Diversity Can Increase a Company’s Bottom Line”, I had the pleasure of interviewing Tiffany Pires.
Tiffany is a senior consultant on diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging issues at employee listening company Perceptyx. She regularly researches DEIB-related issues in the workplace and works with Fortune 100 clients on crafting policy and action plans. Prior to that she worked as a consultant at talent management company Talent Plus. She has an MBA from UNC’s Kenan-Flagler Business School and a Master’s in Industrial and Organizational Psychology from East Carolina University.
Thank you so much for doing this with us! Before we dive into the main part of our interview, our readers would love to “get to know you” a bit more. Can you share a bit of your “backstory” with us?
For almost a decade, I’ve worked and studied in the Industrial/Organizational Psychology (I/O) industry. I help clients leverage data to discover insights and drive action– everything from coding qualitative interview research to conducting adverse impact analysis to measure if selection processes are negatively affecting historically marginalized groups, to designing large-scale listening programs for organizations with thousands of employees. Currently, I consult leadership teams on their employee listening strategy to help organizations create a more inclusive and engaged workforce that drives the success of their business.
Can you share the funniest or most interesting story that happened to you since you started your career? Can you tell us the lesson or take away, you took out of that story?
My interest in I/O Psychology piqued when I conducted research on people experiencing homelessness. It was truly a life changing experience for me. I had the opportunity to help people who had fallen or were experiencing tough times get back on their feet. I was able to do this by helping them hone in on their career goals and identify potential workplace challenges they might encounter and how to best navigate those.
This experience was a revelation for me. I realized that I/O Psychology has a tremendous capacity to benefit people who come from underprivileged backgrounds. Everyone deserves to have the tools they need to succeed in any aspect of life and it was extremely rewarding to help people get back on their feet however I could.
I entered the I/O Psychology field wanting to understand how to enhance our quality of life and workplaces, raise awareness, and overcome any challenges and blockades that groups might face. I hope to inspire individuals and organizations to rise to their highest potential by providing the tools and resources, so that, when met with opportunity, they are prepared.
What do you think makes your company stand out? Can you share a story?
Perceptyx gives organizations the opportunity to hear the voices of employees, who maybe haven’t always had a voice. We combine expertise with technology that allows us to look at the intersectionality of experience in a seamless fashion. It’s easy for organizations to only look at organization-wide data and assume that tells the whole story. In reality, that barely scratches the surface. The value of employee experience research is being able to get granular in the data to understand the unique experiences of individuals from different backgrounds within different groups of the organization.
For example, one customer I work with wanted to measure psychological safety in their organization, with the goal of creating an environment that’s conducive for creativity and innovation. When we analyzed the data, their scores were aligned with our overall benchmark scores, which would tell us that psychological safety is relatively strong in the organization. However, after diving into the results more, I learned that women felt significantly less safe to contribute their opinions. Women leaders especially felt their perspectives are not valued when compared to their men counterparts. Without our data and technology, we wouldn’t have been able to identify this pattern in our initial analysis.
Are you working on any new or exciting projects now? How do you think that might help people?
Currently, I lead a team that’s been revamping our best practice Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Belonging solution. This new solution includes a robust survey item set that touches on everything from organizational commitment, psychological safety, fairness and belonging. You can take this survey and tailor it to the needs of the organization based on their level of maturity in DEIB.
We also recently released our “Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Belonging: A Playbook for Listening & Action Planning” that outlines the entire process of creating and driving change through a DEIB survey. Ultimately, this solution can help organizations create an environment where their employees feel like they belong, can be their authentic selves and contribute to the organization in meaningful ways.
Ok. Thank you for that. Let’s now jump to the main part of our interview. This may be obvious to you, but it is not intuitive to many people. Can you articulate to our readers five ways that increased diversity can help a company’s bottom line. (Please share a story or example for each.)
Increased diversity efforts can help a company’s bottom line in many ways, but there’s five that stick out to me:
1. Innovation: Research consistently supports the idea that companies with a more diverse employee base and leadership teams are more likely to be innovative. Collaboration among diverse teams means bringing more ideas to the table and thinking outside the box. In a landscape that’s going through significant transformation, being agile and innovative will be more important than ever.
2. Culture enhancement: In the past, organizations often had the goal of hiring people who “fit” with their culture. What this translates to in practice is hiring people similar to those already in the organization’s workforce — reinforcing a monoculture. HR has shifted its focus to cast a wider net and bring in new talent who differ from the existing workforce on a variety of attributes. The result is that HR recognizes the benefit of managing cultural diversity. Since culture is a key aspect of employee experience, employees benefit from a culture that’s enhanced by differing opinions, collaboration, and mutual respect.
3. Talent attraction recruitment: Companies that focus less on who “fits” with the existing culture — i.e. those who are most like the current workforce — have the benefit of accessing a wider pool of talent. Of course, employees still need to have the right skills and experience for the position, but it’s important to look for candidates who can leverage their differences to enhance the organization’s culture. Diversity begets diversity, and applicants who see diversity in the organization are more likely to see how they can fit within the organization as well.
4. Improvement in key metrics: Things that matter to the organization such as engagement and the employee experience can be enhanced by diversity. As the organization strives to ensure that the work environment is inclusive — often a prerequisite for engagement — all employees (and the organization itself) profit. One of the benefits of hiring a diverse workforce is that it incentivizes the organization to focus on inclusivity and creates an environment in which all employees feel supported and can succeed. Diversity and inclusion enable high-performing teams.
5. Better business performance: Study after study has confirmed that companies with more diversity outperform less-diverse companies. Ultimately, greater diversity equals better business performance and higher profits for various reasons — increased collaboration, higher performing teams, better decision-making, inclusive products and higher market share.
What advice would you give to other business leaders to help their employees to thrive?
The first step to helping employees thrive is listening to them. Employee survey data is one of the most effective tools for mapping a path to improve the employee experience, and more importantly helping employees thrive. Unfortunately, there’s no one-size-fits-all approach. What’s most important to employees depends on many factors, such as the culture of the organization, their role, and individual differences. There’s no better way to help employees thrive than to ask the source themselves. Use that data to remove the barriers that are getting in the way of employees being successful.
What advice would you give to other business leaders about how to manage a large team?
Managing a large team means creating a space where team members can leverage each other to grow and develop, especially if in a large setting the manager doesn’t have the bandwidth to provide the individual development that each employee needs. Large teams that are rooted in collaboration are the most successful because they can leverage each other when trying to solve problems and in everyday learning. The environment of collaboration also has to have a foundation of psychological safety. Otherwise, team members may not feel comfortable raising their hand to ask for help or bring forth new and different ideas.
How can our readers further follow your work online?
Feel free to connect with me on LinkedIn, where I post regularly on the research that we’re conducting on DEIB. Also, visit our website at www.perceptyx.com.
Thank you for these excellent insights. We wish you continued success in your great work.
Authenticity by showcasing real stories and real people. Brands aren’t just relying on their typical content. They are introducing user-generated content, too.
As a part of our series called “The Future of AI Intelligence”, I had the pleasure of interviewing Maximilian Huc, Co-Founder, Brevity Pitch Inc.
Maximilian Huc attended Princeton University as a collegiate athlete and then earned a Masters Degree in Business Administration from the University of Virginia Darden School of Business. With experience co-founding multiple start-ups, Maximilian proved to be a perfect match for Ilera Healthcare post MBA, where he was tasked to create a world class sales organization from the ground up. Scaling revenue for 5M to 75M in two short years, Maximilian’s efforts proved instrumental in Ilera Healthcare’s eventual 9-figure acquisition. Setting his sights forward, Maximilian co-founded Brevity Pitch Inc., an AI-powered software guiding professionals to create persuasive pitches that sell. In short time, Brevity Pitch is set to become the #1 high stakes communications enablement software in the World!
Thank you so much for joining us in this interview series! Can you share with us the ‘backstory” of how you decided to pursue this career path in AI?
It was truly by happenstance. AI was something our team could leverage in trying to provide the best possible experience for our users within the Brevity Pitch software. It’s now an integral part of how the software functions, and will help users identify sub-optimal pitch language to the audience type they’re pitching or presenting to. It will also enable the user to recreate their content with the click of a button. All exciting things you must see for yourself when Brevity Pitch launches in October!
What lessons can others learn from your story?
The most important lesson I carry with me every day is to always exude relentless intent and belief in oneself — no matter the circumstance. I encourage others to remember that your path is uniquely yours, and no one else’s. Trust your instinct, trust your intuition, and follow that guiding light within yourself to manifest your dreams and make the world believers.
None of us are able to achieve success without some help along the way. Is there a particular person who you are grateful towards who helped get you to where you are? Can you share a story about that?
My family is undoubtedly my rock. Regardless of my successes or failures, they’ve always shown me unconditional love. I feel truly blessed for that. With that example set by my family growing up, I’ve always been determined to spread that same type of love and energy to others in need. Doing this has enhanced the substance and quality of my life in unimaginable ways. I thank my family for sharing this important lesson with me.
What are the 5 things that most excite you about the advertising industry? Why?
In no particular order:
1. Artificial intelligence and machine learning are making a real impact in terms of data analysis and efficiency.
2. Watching not reading! The introduction of short video ads have major stopping power. Shorter the video the better!
3. Authenticity by showcasing real stories and real people. Brands aren’t just relying on their typical content. They are introducing user-generated content, too.
4. Diversity! Consumers can now see themselves within an ad campaign. From same-sex marriages, and interracial couples, to people with disabilities. We are seeing more representation than ever.
5. Enforcing ADA guidelines. The Americans with Disabilities Act, or ADA, has not always been adhered to. Now we are starting to have more web accessibility and internet inclusion for everyone.
What are the 5 things that concern you about the advertising industry? Why?
1. Privacy concerns. You’re online behavior is being monitored and analyzed at all times.
2. Data breaches are a growing threat. Whenever we provide our personal information, we are not immune to having it shared in unwanted places.
3. Misinformation continues to be an menecing concern that is omnipresent within the advertising industry and there are few checks and balances to prevent it.
4. Predatory marketing is especially concerning when addictive or harmful products are being advertised to our youth.
5. The advertising industry is leveraging highly addictive social media platforms to reach the masses.
As you know, there is an ongoing debate between prominent scientists, (personified as a debate between Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg) about whether advanced AI has the future potential to pose a danger to humanity. What is your position about this?
Anything without checks and balances can pose a threat to humanity. Advanced AI is no exception. What we should truly be fearful of is human nature. Without responsible oversight and implementation, advanced AI could become a threat to humanity. However, I also believe in its potential to truly make the world a better place. It’s really up to mankind to make the right decisions, that should keep in mind “human” prosperity and longevity first.
How have you used your success to bring goodness to the world? Can you share a story?
In co-founding Brevity Pitch (brevitypitch.com), an AI-powered software designed to help professionals craft persuasive pitches that sell, the most meaningful motivator for its creation was my partner and my experience witnessing the disparities in opportunity that exist between lower-socioeconomic and more affluent environments. We knew there needed to be a solution to level the professional playing field and help individuals overcome common communication barriers. Moreover, witnessing friends and peers struggle because they lacked the acumen to navigate more professional settings became something that I wanted to change.
What is your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share a story of how that had relevance to your own life?
When I was a kid, I once asked my father to buy me a Philadelphia 76ers basketball jersey. I wanted to fit in with the rest of my peers in elementary school. My father looked me in my eyes, and said “Son, if you want to wear that jersey, make a team.” Those words really resonated with me because it taught me from a young age that the greatest rewards in life require hard work.
You are a person of great influence. If you could start a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger. 🙂
To empower the misunderstood. Brevity Pitch (www.brevitypitch.com) is a movement doing just that. My partner and I are confident that its implementation will transcend global barriers in the coming years. Knowing that there are 67 English-speaking countries worldwide, we see Brevity becoming the number one, high-stakes communications enablement software in the world; helping individuals find their voice by guiding them along the pathway to creating clear, concise, and compelling language through intuitive software.
How can our readers further follow your work online?
Brevity Pitch (www.brevitypitch.com) is officially launching this Fall to the masses. Make sure to subscribe!
Thank you for these fantastic insights. We greatly appreciate the time you spent on this.
I don’t just mean rest — I mean taking some time away from the business to review where you’ve got to, how you feel about it, and where you want to go next. It means looking at your strategy and really investigating whether it’s still working. It’s creating a new path, even if you use the original map, and then rising to the next challenge.
As a part of our series called “Making Something From Nothing”, I had the pleasure of interviewing Emily E K Murdoch.
Emily E K Murdoch, USA Today Bestselling Author of historical romance. Her background in academia has led to studying in the Bodleian Library, designing exhibits at the Yorkshire Museum, and researching for Ian Hislop/BBC documentaries. With over fifty books published, she now writes full time.
Thank you so much for doing this with us! Before we dive in, our readers would love to learn a bit more about you. Can you tell us a bit about your “childhood backstory”?
I was born and raised in South East England, in a home that respected learning and understanding greatly. My parents encouraged me to read widely and to be creative, and from a very young age I knew I wanted to be an author. Though there isn’t really a particular career track for being an author, history and literature became my obsession. I studied History and English at university, and then a Mediaeval Studies MA because I just couldn’t leave academia with a little more knowledge! I was always writing as a child, and I completed my first novel at twenty one.
Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share how that was relevant to you in your life?
“Tomorrow is a fresh day, with no mistakes in it.” I might have quoted that slightly incorrectly (!), but it’s by L. M. Montgomery, the author of the Anne of Green Gables series. I’m the sort of person who just has bad days sometimes, nothing seems to go right, and those are the days that I take off creative work, do admin and almost nothing else, and try again tomorrow.
Is there a particular book, podcast, or film that made a significant impact on you? Can you share a story or explain why it resonated with you so much?
I adore the podcast “Witch Please”, an intersectional feminist literary podcast focused on the world of Harry Potter. It’s easy to feel like reading becomes ‘work’ when you are an author, and this is one of the podcasts that has helped me lose myself entirely in a fictional world.
Ok super. Let’s now shift to the main part of our discussion. There is no shortage of good ideas out there. Many people have good ideas all the time. But people seem to struggle in taking a good idea and translating it into an actual business. Can you share a few ideas from your experience about how to overcome this challenge?
I think firstly you have to be certain that this is an idea that actually works. I know that sounds daft, but it’s easy to get lost in an idea that you become obsessed with, stuck in an echo chamber of your own making. Checking in with other people to sense check is always a good idea.
Then I’d recommend considering whether you are willing to dedicate the next few years of your life to this. Are you willing to eat, sleep, live, and breathe it? Are you happy to leave all other ideas behind and focus on this entirely?
And thirdly, consider what you may have to give up to achieve it. For example, being a full time author has been a dream of mine all my life — but I knew it wasn’t just going to fall into my lap. I worked a full time day job for 8 years while writing on the side (about 80+ hours a week) to get there.
Often when people think of a new idea, they dismiss it saying someone else must have thought of it before. How would you recommend that someone go about researching whether or not their idea has already been created?
I mean…is it a terrible problem if someone else has thought of it?
Okay, stay with me. Obviously you don’t want to be plagiarising — it’s a common fear in the creative world, and most people who are worried about it are likely not to fall into it, by definition. But one idea can be executed in a thousand ways.
Take my books as an example. How many Regency romances are there about bluestockings who fall in love with dukes? Hundreds. Thousands. Perhaps tens of thousands.
But every single one of them has been expressed differently. Explored differently. Imagined differently.
And that means there doesn’t have to be a gatekeeper saying, “Sorry, that’s enough bluestocking meets duke books.”
If it’s a good idea, then there will be people desperate for it. No one decides not to found a chocolate company because there already are hundreds.
For the benefit of our readers, can you outline the steps one has to go through, from when they think of the idea, until it finally lands in a customer’s hands? In particular, we’d love to hear about how to file a patent, how to source a good manufacturer, and how to find a retailer to distribute it.
The creative world is often missing in conversations about entrepreneurship, but at the end of the day, I create a product, package it up, and people buy it all over the world.
So I’m going to approach this as a digital entrepreneur.
First, I have an idea — usually in series, because I want to have a good experience for the reader as they go through the set. Then I outline, plot, and then write the book. Obviously it’s far more complicated than that, but it would be an entirely separate interview to go in detail! I have a course specifically for authors that is designed to help speed up this process.
Then the process goes in one of two directions. If I am self-publishing, I’ll need to commission a cover, work with an editor, then a proofreader. Then I get the cover and manuscript back, and I format them into a digital version that Amazon and other online bookstores require. After upload, I can start selling.
On the other hand, if I’m sending the book to my publisher, then I’ll send it over to them, and they are wonderful enough to do the rest of the process.
But of course, it doesn’t stop there. Getting the book into the hands of readers means finding the readers. I have a newsletter, multiple social media channels, a website, and take part in multiple promos. My publishers run ads, book promos, and more.
What are your “5 Things I Wish Someone Told Me When I First Started Leading My Company” and why?
You have to have passion but also organisation.
I always think that the best companies have a visionary and an administrator at the top. You need a big picture vision, an idea of where you’re going — but you also need to know how to get there. If you’re naturally leaning towards one, make sure you don’t neglect the other.
2. Good days will follow bad for no known reason.
It can be so frustrating to feel like you’re on a roll, but then everything just seems to tumble down. It’s not you. Honestly. At least, sometimes it is but most of the time, that’s just the randomness of the world. Allow yourself to wallow. Dust yourself off. Then keep going.
3. Holidays, vacations, and weekends are precious.
One of the challenges I found, as the only person in my company for so long, was rest. Rest, it turns out, is way more important than I thought! I didn’t have 2 consecutive days off in…eight years? And it was burning me out. Setting aside time to relax, switch off, and spend time with loved ones — and alone — is absolutely vital if you want your business to grow long term.
4. Never trust someone offering the world.
It’s so difficult to know sometimes who to believe when you’re out of your comfort zone, but trust your gut. If something seems to be too good to be true, then it probably is. Really question, and don’t worry about being too intrusive. If someone gets defensive if you probe into their promises, then their promises probably aren’t worth much.
5. Review, reset, and rise.
I don’t just mean rest — I mean taking some time away from the business to review where you’ve got to, how you feel about it, and where you want to go next. It means looking at your strategy and really investigating whether it’s still working. It’s creating a new path, even if you use the original map, and then rising to the next challenge.
Let’s imagine that a reader reading this interview has an idea for a product that they would like to invent. What are the first few steps that you would recommend that they take?
I know this probably sounds silly…but check that no one else has patented it before you! Intellectual property, patents, things like that — you want to make sure that you’re not accidentally treading on the toes of someone else. Even when these things are completely coincidental, you don’t want to be landed with a lawsuit. Most people don’t think of that!
There are many invention development consultants. Would you recommend that a person with a new idea hire such a consultant, or should they try to strike out on their own?
It really depends on their experience. If you have experience, theoretical and practical, then it might be that you can start off alone — but there’s never anything that can be created completely in isolation. You’ll always want to look to collaborate with experts in other fields.
But if you have no experience, or you’re not one hundred percent sure that you are the best person to go alone, then ask for recommendations and referrals. You want to be certain that who you work with has already succeeded at what you are asking them to do.
What are your thoughts about bootstrapping vs looking for venture capital? What is the best way to decide if you should do either one?
Well, I’m not a financial advisor! I bootstrapped: it doesn’t take a huge amount of money to start off as an author, but you still need to invest. Working with editors, formatters, proofreaders, cover designers, setting up a website…
It all costs.
But there will obviously be plenty of other launches that will require significant investment, and for those who don’t have ready money, venture capital may feel like the only option.
But it’s not — there are grants, bursaries, small investments, fellowships, support from creative industries or charities. You can take out a loan. You can crowdfund.
Venture capital might be an option, but it’s often difficult for people from marginalised backgrounds to be taken seriously by big faceless corporations. That’s why some of these alternatives, especially if combined, may make all the difference.
Ok. We are nearly done. Here are our final questions. How have you used your success to make the world a better place?
I’m really passionate about helping others up into the world that I’ve managed to enter. There weren’t any authors that I could ask advice from when I was young, and it was almost impossible for me to imagine what an author did every day, or how I could make it a part of my career.
So I’ve worked with Arts Emergency, an award-winning mentoring charity and support network. Our Network members share opportunities, contacts and advice, to offer work experience to young people who want to work in the creative writing industry. It’s actually been fascinating for me, I think I’ve got just as much out of it as my mentees have!
You are an inspiration to a great many people. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger.
More reading.
I know it’s a bit of a cliche, but I believe more reading will make the world a better place. More compassionate. More interested in the world around us and the people around us.
We are very blessed that some of the biggest names in Business, VC funding, Sports, and Entertainment read this column. Is there a person in the world, or in the US, with whom you would love to have a private breakfast or lunch, and why? He or she might just see this if we tag them.
I’d love to meet Dolly Parton. What a heroine she is! Everything she has created in the world has brought joy, and her dedication to getting children reading in America is truly inspirational.
Thank you for these fantastic insights. We greatly appreciate the time you spent on this.
Meet The Disruptors: Bertrand Nembot Of Billdr On The Five Things You Need To Shake Up Your Industry
An Interview With Fotis Georgiadis
Nobody will come save you: I lost my mother in 2019 and my world fell apart. She was my number one fan. I felt tremendously alone. Going through that grieving process made me realize that nobody, but myself, would save me from depression and that I needed to actively take care of my well-being.
As a part of our series about business leaders who are shaking things up in their industry, I had the pleasure of interviewing Bertrand (Bert) Nembot.
In 2011, Bert ventured into house flipping (buying, renovating, and selling property) for the first time. But he quickly realized the challenges within the industry, finding it difficult to source trusted contractors on the market.Through house flipping, Bert had first-hand experiences of working with contractors that didn’t deliver, including one general contractor going bankrupt, resulting in a loss of more than $20,000. After two years of flipping houses in the greater Montreal area, Bertrand devised a plan to improve the experience and process. Bildr was born.
Thank you so much for doing this with us! Before we dig in, our readers would like to get to know you a bit more. Can you tell us a bit about your “backstory”? What led you to this particular career path?
I was born and raised near Paris. My parents are from Cameroon and my upbringing was the good story of a kid raised by loving lower-middle income class immigrants: stay out of trouble, be great at school to make your parents proud and have a chance to shoot for a better life. After high school, I moved to Montreal to attend engineering school and graduated with a bachelor in mechanical engineering and a master in industrial engineering at Polytechnique Montreal.
I started my career as a strategy consultant before jumping into my first tech gig in 2015 at Uber. While at Uber, I held various positions in Canada and Sub-Saharan Africa: Operations Manager, Launcher and Head of Marketplace for Sub-Saharan Africa. I went deep into the inner details of launching and scaling a marketplace from 0 to 1, launching new services, products, and payment methods for 3 years.
After Uber, I joined a fintech startup called Branch that’s building a mobile bank in emerging markets where I held a Launcher role. I learned a lot about the global fintech ecosystem by literally studying the fintech landscape of the largest emerging countries in detail.
Those years building marketplaces and studying fintech ecosystems set the stage for creating my current company Billdr.
Can you tell our readers what it is about the work you’re doing that’s disruptive?
At Billdr, our mission is to make home renovation simple, transparent and efficient for everyone. Home renovation is a super stressful and time consuming experience for homeowners where the industry is plagued by a lack of transparency, efficiency and accountability. On the general contractors (GCs) side, they lack software tools to grow their business efficiently and serve their customers with excellence. Billdr solves both of these issues.
We’re building a market network or simply put the digital infrastructure to power the home renovation industry with three components: (1) a managed marketplace to streamline the experience between homeowners and GCs, (2) a Software as a service (SaaS) to automate the back office of GCs, (3) financial services built on top of the marketplace and SaaS.
Can you share a story about the funniest mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lesson you learned from that?
We launched the company in February 2020 and one month later, due to the spread of Covid-19, Canada entered quarantine for 3 months. Billdr has four co-founders and at the time of launching, three of us were living abroad and had left high paying tech jobs to pursue this. You can imagine all the voices in our head at the time: “What a dumb idea it was to leave our job and move to Canada to start a company only for society to enter in a pandemic!”.
However, little did we know that the pandemic forced us to reflect more on our business, product strategy and go-to market plans. The most important decisions of our first 18 months were made during the quarantine period between March to May 2020. Moreover, the pandemic drove a surge in demand for home renovations when society opened back up in June 2020.
We learned two big lessons between co-founders that carried us until today: (1) when the situation is dire, focus on what you can control, (2) magic happens when we work closely together even if our backs are against the wall.
We all need a little help along the journey. Who have been some of your mentors? Can you share a story about how they made an impact?
I’m fortunate to have amazing mentors surrounding me. I’d like to highlight two mentors: Jean-Nicolas Guillemette (JN) and Cherif Habib, COO & CEO of Dialogue (TSX: CARE).
JN hired me when I joined Uber back in 2015 when I was 25 years old. He’s been like a big brother to me ever since. He has provided me with precious advice to advance my career along the way even when I changed departments while at Uber. I always say that a key indication of a good leader is if people that report to you actively seek your advice, while also providing guidance after you’re no longer managing them. JN is that guy. JN was the first person I called when I had the idea of Billdr back in 2018 and he’s been a close advisor on the business since 2019. His impact on my life went beyond the professional side too. JN has been there for me when I went through the most challenging times in my personal life.
JN introduced me to Cherif and he was one of our first customers back in the summer of 2020. Cherif has played a tremendous role in helping me better navigate the role of CEO and how to improve my fundraising skills.
In today’s parlance, being disruptive is usually a positive adjective. But is disrupting always good? When do we say the converse, that a system or structure has ‘withstood the test of time’? Can you articulate to our readers when disrupting an industry is positive, and when disrupting an industry is ‘not so positive’? Can you share some examples of what you mean?
That’s a great question.
To me, disrupting a system is only good if the output produced by the system ends up being sustainably higher post-disruption for all stakeholders involved. And the key word here is the word sustainably.
For example, I believe that if we manage to digitize the home renovation experience, it will bring more transparency and efficiency to both homeowners and GCs, which will result in a lot of positive externalities:
Helps GCs handle more jobs with fewer resources and thus alleviating the current imbalance in a market that’s heavily undersupplied;
Benefits transaction flows, unlocking an entire suite of financial services for both homeowners and GCs; and,
Increases the size of the pie with more homeowners feeling less intimidated to perform renovations and hopefully create more jobs in the construction industry.
An example of a case where disruption wasn’t a complete positive for society was the creation of social media. We traded our time in person with people close to us and allocated that time to phones and trying to appeal digitally to strangers. Social media caused a disruption, especially within the advertising industry. A lot of good came out of it for businesses. However, I believe it caused a lot more harm to society. We traded our time in person with people close to us and allocated that time to phones and trying to appeal digitally to strangers.
Can you share five of the best words of advice you’ve gotten along your journey? Please give a story or example for each.
Nobody will come save you: I lost my mother in 2019 and my world fell apart. She was my number one fan. I felt tremendously alone. Going through that grieving process made me realize that nobody, but myself, would save me from depression and that I needed to actively take care of my well-being.
Be resilient: Five months after my mother passed away, we launched Billdr in February 2020 and the pandemic hit a month later. I learned that developing resilience is an unfair advantage as a founder.The ability to keep on moving forward despite going through some of life’s most difficult challenges makes you unstoppable.
Never chase, but attract: In Q2 2020, I started working on myself physically (4–5x per week in the gym), eating healthy, and mentally I started to recover from my depression. That’s when things started to click and ideas emerged to help propel the business forward and enticed investors along the way. Now I make it a priority to invest in myself in order to attract opportunities and supporters as I advance in this entrepreneurial journey.
Enjoy the journey and do not focus on the destination too much: As an employee, I used to focus so much on the next promotion. I’d work tirelessly over 80 hours per week and would get the promotions, but at a cost. By being too absorbed by work, I lost friendships. As a co-founder and CEO, I have to be honest and say that I’m still absorbed by work, but this time I have my best friends as co-founders so I get the best of both worlds (a real cheat sheet to learn how to enjoy the journey)!
Being kind is key, but don’t people please: In business and in life it’s important to be kind, give some of your time, and help another founder. One amazing connection will usually lead you to another one. I firmly believe, you reap what you sow. That said, being kind does not mean being a people pleaser. You also need to know to say no so that people respect your boundaries.
We are sure you aren’t done. How are you going to shake things up next?
Billdr is only two and a half years old and if all goes well this company will be my focus for the next 10–20 years. I will continue to work relentlessly until Billdr becomes the number one home renovation platform to get quick access to all the services homeowners need for their renovations and all the services for construction professionals to grow their business.
Do you have a book, podcast, or talk that’s had a deep impact on your thinking? Can you share a story with us? Can you explain why it was so resonant with you?
I learned about fundraising by listening to This Week in Startups (TWIS) in 2019 so I’d like to thank Jason Calacanis for building this podcast. I was in a gym in Jakarta the first time I listened to TWIS. It was early 2019. I was listening to episodes where Jason was explaining best practices for fundraising, which helped me a ton in structuring my fundraising process for our pre-seed round in 2020 and our seed round in 2021.
Today, my favorite podcast is The All-In podcast. As a founder, the podcast helps me better understand the perspective of investors — from assessing the quality of a company to the macroeconomic context, to how it could impact my company to keeping up with the most pressing news in tech & American politics.
If I had to recommend a book, I would say Siddharta. I read the book twice while I was depressed in 2020. It narrates the story of a man going through multiple life stages, seeking what the essence of life is, and its purpose on this earth. I was going through a similar process at the time, and reading the book helped me move forward with my life reflections.
Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share how that was relevant to you in your life?
Minimize regrets in your life: I’m keeping this thought very close to my heart as I move forward in life. Whenever I have an opportunity to see family or friends, to get coffee with someone new, or when I have to make an important decision I ask myself “will I regret not doing this activity, taking that call or making that leap of faith 5 to 10 years from now?” If the answer is yes, then I do it. If the answer is no, I walk away and never look back.
You are a person of great influence. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger. 🙂
One of my dreams is to create a tuition-free school program dedicated to high IQ children across Africa. I’d like to build a scout team actively seeking gifted children even in the most remote villages. My thesis is that if we actively seek and develop the most brilliant minds across Africa, they will be the ones driving innovation and economic development through entrepreneurship on the continent. Yeah you can think of this program as the X-Men for gifted children and I’ll be Professor X 🙂
How can our readers follow you online?
You can follow Billdr’s innovation on Instagram at billdr_renovation and my personal journal on Twitter: @bnembot.
This was very inspiring. Thank you so much for joining us!
Have confidence in yourself and listen to your instincts. At the beginning I would second guess myself and not trust that I knew what was right for myself and by extension my business. So I learnt a few things the hard way.
As a part of our series called “Making Something From Nothing”, I had the pleasure of interviewing Caroline Strecker.
Caroline Strecker’s Rag of Colts is a brand borne out of family history, love for British heritage and a passion for repurposing leather saddles that would otherwise be discarded in a landfill.
A few years ago, Caroline was having dinner with her friend David de Rothschild, when engrossed in conversation about bridle leather (the leather used in equestrian grade tack) she came up with the idea to create dog collars and leads made of repurposed leather. Born and raised in a family of artists and makers, armed with a childhood fascination for saddlery leather (Caroline’s great grandfather won the Gold in polo in the 1920s Summer Olympics) and entirely self-taught, she started experimenting with cutting and stitching until she created her first bag; out of necessity, just for her. A prototype was made. More bags followed, different shapes and styles for different clients, some well-known.
At Rag of Colts, Caroline makes everything by hand, from the very first cut, to the very last burnish. Each leather saddle is transformed into a unique bag, aged to perfection with its own one-of-a kind patina. The bags are each named after a family ancestor.
Thank you so much for doing this with us! Before we dive in, our readers would love to learn a bit more about you. Can you tell us a bit about your “childhood backstory”?
I grew up on my grandmother’s farm in Perthshire, Scotland. My grandmother was a force of nature and had very strong beliefs on how children should behave. She was a fierce disciplinarian but we also enjoyed incredible freedom and responsibilities some parents (myself included!) would probably consider beyond our years. Screens barely existed and were definitely banned anyway. We were kept very busy, and to some extent, put to work on the farm. She taught us all (my brother and my cousins included) to knit, to mend, to cook, to iron a shirt, to skin a rabbit, light a fire… to ride the farm ponies, take care of her flock of Jacob sheep.. the days were long and we spent almost all our time outside. It rains a lot in Scotland though so any inside time we were also occupied .. making things, mending things — sometimes we would spend hours just unravelling balls of tangled wool. She couldn’t stand ‘idleness’ and I think this really instilled in me a drive ‘to do’
Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share how that was relevant to you in your life?
My grandmother’s favourite quote and her take on just about any situation was ‘do as you would be done by’ and it’s something I always aim to live by.
Is there a particular book, podcast, or film that made a significant impact on you? Can you share a story or explain why it resonated with you so much?
Without wishing to seem ridiculously cliched, The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho is a book i return to and dip into often.
Ok super. Let’s now shift to the main part of our discussion. There is no shortage of good ideas out there. Many people have good ideas all the time. But people seem to struggle in taking a good idea and translating it into an actual business. Can you share a few ideas from your experience about how to overcome this challenge?
For me the idea for my business ( https://www.ragofcolts.com ) wasn’t a sort of ‘light bulb moment’ if that makes sense. It was gradual and organic. I started making bags almost by accident — then friends placed orders, then friends of friends .. and that was when I realised I might be able to make a business from what I was doing.
Often when people think of a new idea, they dismiss it saying someone else must have thought of it before. How would you recommend that someone go about researching whether or not their idea has already been created?
Sometimes I think too much research can be very inhibiting. I can only speak for my own creative experience- I did some research online, on Instagram etc. to see if anyone else was doing something similar to my idea — and there are hundreds.. thousands probably — of independent leatherworkers out there hand making bags .. but i couldn’t find anyone else using old saddlery and I also had confidence that the designs I was creating had merit.
For the benefit of our readers, can you outline the steps one has to go through, from when they think of the idea, until it finally lands in a customer’s hands? In particular, we’d love to hear about how to file a patent, how to source a good manufacturer, and how to find a retailer to distribute it.
This probably isn’t relevant to me because I haven’t done any of the above! I had the idea and just worked and worked until I got it right. I am still learning everyday and developing my craft. The joy of making is how continued experience and continued practice yields genuine results. I manufacture the bags by hand, myself and have kept everything in house. I have an assistant who I trained myself and I handle all the retail and distribution.
What are your “5 Things I Wish Someone Told Me When I First Started Leading My Company” and why?
I’m not sure I have five but I’ll try! Have confidence in yourself and listen to your instincts. At the beginning I would second guess myself and not trust that I knew what was right for myself and by extension my business. So I learnt a few things the hard way.
Value your own time — I think it’s easy to forget your own worth when you spend so much time investing every fibre of yourself into something — for free. I try to always have in mind what it would cost me to employ someone else to do what I do.
Take a break. I am a perfectionist and I find it hard to step away from my work and take time off. Even when not in my studio I am always mentally engaged with it — so it takes quite a lot to snap out of that head space. I have learnt that it’s really important to take time out. Not only to rest but also to refresh one’s perspective.
Let’s imagine that a reader reading this interview has an idea for a product that they would like to invent. What are the first few steps that you would recommend that they take?
Make it! Do it! Create a prototype … you learn so much in the process.
There are many invention development consultants. Would you recommend that a person with a new idea hire such a consultant, or should they try to strike out on their own?
I think that probably depends very much on the person and on the idea. I think it’s important to know your strengths and limitations. I think the most important thing is to have confidence and be willing to try. It’s ok if it doesn’t work!
Ok. We are nearly done. Here are our final questions. How have you used your success to make the world a better place?
Gosh I’m not sure I’m quite at that level but I do what I can! I choose a charity each Year to donate to — last year I supported Project Mama who do amazing work taking care of pregnant and post-partum displaced and refugee women. This year I am supporting Alzheimer’s Association.
You are an inspiration to a great many people. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger.
Be Kind … as my grandmother always said… do as you would be done by.
We are very blessed that some of the biggest names in Business, VC funding, Sports, and Entertainment read this column. Is there a person in the world, or in the US, with whom you would love to have a private breakfast or lunch, and why? He or she might just see this if we tag them.
I’ll have to have a think about this one !
Thank you for these fantastic insights. We greatly appreciate the time you spent on this.
Literal and metaphorical diversity translates to recognizing and interpreting market opportunities that a homogenous group may overlook due to a one-track mindset. Sometimes the homogeneous culture is intentional, other times it’s a victim to limited diversity due to the type of business ownership and geography.
As a part of our series about “How Diversity Can Increase a Company’s Bottom Line”, I had the pleasure of interviewing Sasha Laghonh.
Sasha is a Founder and Entrepreneur of an educational and entertainment platform that integrates self & professional development into nurturing meaningful outcomes. As a speaker, mentor and author, she partners alongside different clients, from individuals to organizations, to capitalize upon their talent. She is the host in residence for KreativeCircle.com and Global Ambassador for Style My Soul, a Lifestyle & Interests Community. To learn more, please visit www.sashatalks.com.
Thank you so much for doing this with us! Before we dive into the main part of our interview, our readers would love to “get to know you” a bit more. Can you share a bit of your “backstory” with us?
I come from a commercial, public and private, business background that after investing years working for third party entities, I now work alongside them in crafting healthy collaborations.
Can you share the funniest or most interesting story that happened to you since you started your career? Can you tell us the lesson or take away, you took out of that story?
When hosting a silent auction for a private event, I recall a participant had dropped a diamond bracelet on the table when submitting their bid. I thought it was an item that was unaccounted for that needed its own table for receiving bids. When we went to announce the winner for the bracelet, there came a loud shriek from the audience. The owner of the bracelet had spent two hours searching for the bracelet only to be found later. Things were sorted out but I won’t forget the look of horror on the woman’s face.
Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you tell us a story about how that was relevant in your own life?
“Success is not to be pursued. It is to be attracted by the person you become.” — Jim Rohn
Many people are conditioned in life to chase things when in fact it’s a detrimental and destructive philosophy. It’s sending the message that we’re not worthy of earning our desires that we must chase them. This is why most people struggle because they’re entrapped in this mental, emotional and physical chase leading them into oblivion. The fantasy and faux ambition is poisoning their being. Mr. Rohn’s wisdom resonates with me because creating and sustaining results is reflected by our self-development. If we exercise our free-will to release our manifestations, at least we’re doing so by choice.
None of us are able to achieve success without some help along the way. Is there a particular person who you are grateful towards who helped get you to where you are?
Addisu. I met Addisu, an entrepreneur, through a professional opportunity many years ago. We became friendly neighbors in the work building after a chance meeting. He shared his affinity for practicing wellness regimens as part of his daily lifestyle. Even though people around us didn’t understand our lifestyle interests, I recall him telling me to remain true to myself because my efforts would start to pay off. People told him that he was crazy for wasting time on these efforts but obviously they were wrong. He now owns multiple entities around the world. It all goes back to focus and learning to block unwanted noise.
What do you think makes your company stand out? Can you share a story?
Focusing on the human condition by leveraging the realities unfolding in our path. It’s important to develop ourselves by extracting lessons from our life experiences. Not everyone learns their lesson the first time around therefore it’s important to explore why. Individuals and businesses typically look outward for their answers when most of the solutions are situated under their roof. How does one learn how to recognize these opportunities? Not many businesses are ready to have uncomfortable conversations but if they truly desire solutions, Sasha Talks is available to explore opportunities to collaborate.
Are you working on any new or exciting projects now? How do you think that might help people?
This is an external project, not directly associated with Sasha Talks. As the Global Ambassador of Style My Soul (stylemysoul.com), I am raising awareness for global contributors to come forward and educate worldwide audiences on different aspects of life for how we can nourish our soul. There are commercial services available through their portal too. The team has managed to attract wonderful contributors from different industries and parts of the world from medical professionals to entrepreneurs in the recreational lifestyle & outdoor industry. The possibilities are limitless in how people can exchange their professional and life insights among a family friendly community.
How have you used your success to bring goodness to the world?
I’ve made it clear with the universe, when I’m doing well others around me are doing well because I can pay it forward through my creative endeavors and commitments. This includes being of service to the right people at the right time.
Ok. Thank you for that. Let’s now jump to the main part of our interview. This may be obvious to you, but it is not intuitive to many people. Can you articulate to our readers five ways that increased diversity can help a company’s bottom line.
Literal and metaphorical diversity translates to recognizing and interpreting market opportunities that a homogenous group may overlook due to a one-track mindset. Sometimes the homogeneous culture is intentional, other times it’s a victim to limited diversity due to the type of business ownership and geography.
The presence of diversity challenges people to learn and grow outside of their comfort zones to possibly address more strategic market risks to craft products and services that cater to a larger target market. Sticking to human stereotypes doesn’t deliver the best outcomes nor the best financial performances.
Hosting diversity provides an opportunity for people to grow outside of their comfort zones when it comes to personal and professional development. Developing some situational awareness outside of our mental, emotional and physical sphere can be overwhelming yet the rewards are greater when we understand a slice of the world better.
Welcoming lessons learned from a diversity perspective can also help us understand and refine business planning better to avoid business missteps as a local and global community. People learn from one another. Why are we keeping diverse talent at bay — especially in influential and visible positions? They hold the nuggets for introducing businesses to untapped opportunities. Listen and engage diverse talent to learn how to address the blind spots within a business.
Clear the rut. “It’s always been done this way.” Well, it’s time to change and grow. Some businesses love the rut because it makes them feel safe even when they are bottoming out on financial performance. Rip off the band-aid. Welcome better qualified diverse talent that is ready to work. Professionals who love the rut in third party businesses should be fired for enabling unhealthy business practices. Life is about change. Embrace the great possibilities that await you.
What advice would you give to other business leaders to help their employees to thrive?
Focus on the quality of communication. Do not discount the power of healthy collaborations and business planning through communication. Less emails, more day to day engagement through creative means.
What advice would you give to other business leaders about how to manage a large team?
When managing large teams, make sure there’s a justification for why it’s large. Collecting people within a team without a primary objective dilutes the value of time, talent and resources. Make sure the channels of communication run both ways because there exists many ideas as well concerns that can brew among a large headcount. Find valid ways to welcome engagement that can refine the cohesiveness of the team through overall performance. Large teams do not always yield significant financial performances in the market. Pay attention to the size of the team, of course context matters.
We are very blessed that some of the biggest names in Business, VC funding, Sports, and Entertainment read this column. Is there a person in the world, or in the US whom you would love to have a private breakfast or lunch with, and why? He or she might just see this 🙂
Ed Mylett. I love reading and listening to his work because he comes across as approachable. When I have some downtime, I like to catch up with people who are contributing good work and inspiring others to up their life game. He’s on my list!
How can our readers further follow your work online?
Wonderful readers are welcome to visit sashatalks.com. Drop a hello here.
Thank you for these excellent insights. We wish you continued success in your great work.
The Future Is Now: Christopher Kelly Of DroppTV On How Their Technological Innovation Will Shake Up The Tech Scene
An Interview With Fotis Georgiadis
I would say it’s important for people to maintain interests outside of work. People don’t realize how critical this is, and it’s something I wish I was able to do when I started my career at Goldman Sachs. Although it was an unbelievably great opportunity and experience, working there was tough — and it drove me to an all-consuming mindset that was not sustainable. When work is your whole world, you lose sight of what’s happening around you, making it difficult to maintain the very interests that might spark career growth down the line.
As a part of our series on cutting-edge technological breakthroughs, I had the pleasure of interviewingChristopher Kelly.
Christopher Kelly is the President of DroppTV, Inc. — the Web 3 enabler and “shopatainment” solutions leader based out of New York, NY. A skilled corporate finance strategist and seasoned growth specialist, Chris has many years of experience in the international finance and investment banking arena, having helped secure and structure financing for a variety of companies, countries, and organizations across the globe. In his current role as President, Chris led DroppTV’s successful $15MM Series A and have overseen the launch of its $75MM Series B funding rounds, signaling the company’s proven potential to seamlessly onboard the next billion brands and businesses into the Web 3 era.
Thank you so much for doing this with us! Before we dive in, our readers would love to learn a bit about you. Can you tell us a story about what brought you to this specific career path.
My journey to the world of tech was quite circuitous. I started in finance with a background grounded in investment banking. During this time in my career, I specialized in the field of commodity derivatives and worked on projects for a variety of companies, countries, and organizations. Bizarrely, this allowed me to start working with people in the Middle East, which would later have a huge impact on my career trajectory.
As I worked in the Middle Eastern market, I learned how underserved it was, specifically when it came to venture capital opportunities for investing in technology. Startups often complain about not being able to raise enough money, but when I was working with entities like Saudi Public Investment Fund (PIF), they would complain about the opposite. For the most part, U.S.-based tech investment opportunities would always come to them last. I was able to do my part to bridge this gap by helping them find lucrative, early-stage startup opportunities that were usually only available to Silicon Valley investors.
This was a pivotal turning point for me. I went from a relatively vanilla career in finance to helping introduce American early-stage tech opportunities to Middle Eastern money, which ultimately led me to Dropp Group (“dropp”). Similar to how overseas investment markets were behind the curve with respect to U.S. tech opportunities, American consumers were also slow to embrace and adopt new tech. While social commerce was growing considerably in eastern countries like China, the West was not catching on quite yet.
When I met dropp’s co-founder, Gurps Rai, he shared his vision to lead the charge in “shopatainment” — which would merge retail shopping with entertainment here in the U.S. I knew that my experience in corporate finance strategy could help make it a reality. Since we’ve joined forces, we’ve successfully completed a $15M Series A round of financing, with our $75M Series B round on the way soon.
Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you began your career?
There are so many moments that stand out, but there’s one particular memory that always makes me chuckle when I think about it. Last year, I had the privilege of speaking on the main stage of the Future Investment Initiative (FII) in the Saudi capital, Riyadh. FII is essentially known as the “DAVOS of the Desert.” I was asked to speak on stage with a microphone in my hand and just as I was to go up, they took my microphone and switched it for a headset. As I walked onto the stage, I remember feeling like Madonna on the front cover of Vogue. For the entire presentation, I couldn’t concentrate on anything I was supposed to say because I just kept thinking, “Do I look like Madonna right now?”
Can you tell us about the cutting-edge technological breakthroughs that you are working on? How do you think that will help people?
Our shopatainment technology remains at the cutting edge of content-driven ecommerce. Our object recognition and frame-by-frame analysis tool recognizes the products in moving content (whether it’s a video or social media content) and tags them accordingly in real-time. As a result, the technology enables people to select almost any item they see on movies, shows, or social media channels and allows them to purchase that item right then and there. It is truly revolutionary.
However, as a company, we are not only about revolution, but also evolution and continuous innovation. As such, we’ve been striving to enhance the consumer experience through content that is not only shoppable but also more community-driven and utility-based.
One example of this is our recently announced “Total Access NFT” project series — a music production experience done in partnership with famous musicians, where audiences that purchase the project’s NFT tickets can also become accredited executive producers of the final musical release (and even gain a percentage of the music’s royalties). It certainly takes the concept of the NFT to the next level. Until now, if you bought an NFT collectible from an artist, there was hardly anything else that you could do with it except resell it. We are changing the game by giving NFTs a more crucial role in making the consumer experience truly immersive and participatory. Our “Total Access NFT” projects signal the next step: allowing the creativity of content consumers to shape the very direction of that same content.
Keeping “Black Mirror” in mind, can you see any potential drawbacks of this technology that people should think more deeply about?
On the contrary, I would say that the transition from web2 to web3 actually signals an opportunity to put the control of data and technology back into the hands of the individual. A lot of what web3 is about is the disintermediation of the major platforms — that is, the ones that currently collect and control data flow. Sometimes, even our clients are held hostage by the distribution channels they work with when it comes to their ability to utilize first-party data in a timely manner. We are working toward a future where people are empowered by the value of their information and can ultimately get paid for it, while controlling and expanding the extent of their participation within any platform or technology.
I think many fear factors involving new technologies stem from what happened in the last technology cycle, where we essentially saw the abuse of the individual. Web3 returns that control back to the online user.
Was there a “tipping point” that led you to this breakthrough? Can you tell us that story?
Dropp’s origin story is truly compelling because it highlights how our founding team finally solved a long-standing real-world problem in media and ecommerce. For a long time, industry leaders wondered if we could get to the point where someone could interact in an ecommerce fashion with digital content — that is, to see an item of interest floating on the screen and be able to buy it without ever leaving the video or platform they were watching it on. We found out that for at least 25 years, many companies tried to build this “see it, want it, buy it” experience without much success.
The problem was that the technology (or technology stack) did not exist to support that kind of consumer journey, and the landscape did not allow for that kind of technology to flourish. We knew that some serious monetary investment and effort would be needed to bring it to life.
The tipping point came when we realized that there was no one else attempting to make this vision a reality anymore. We decided that we would be the first to solve this problem. After putting in millions of dollars into research and development, we not only turned this dream into a reality, but along the way, we discovered other innovations that are now implemented within our company’s offerings — from our digital twin augmented reality technology, our “NFT Total Access” series, or any of our other web3-powered solutions.
What do you need to lead this technology to widespread adoption?
Widespread adoption happens cyclically once you get what we call “tentpole” clients and consumers to use the tech. For every technology or platform that takes off — whether it’s an Apple product or the next big thing in a social media cycle — you always have early adopters. The current on-ramping from web2 to web3 represents yet another huge shift in technology. As a trailblazer in this transition phase, it’s our mission to drive and help marquee names get onboard. In turn, these blue-chip companies can lead the way for smaller companies to make the transition.
Getting these companies and other major influencers to use our technology also means that their communities will follow, which is what we are aiming for. We genuinely believe in our value proposition: which is to give them control over their data. I think they’ll be able to organically see the real-world value of this offering. Imagine no longer experiencing the continuous roll of ads that results from companies trying to monetize your data without your consent. That is the future we are striving to create.
What have you been doing to publicize this idea? Have you been using any innovative marketing strategies?
We are the only tech company in the world that has cracked the code of being able to create unlimited moments of interaction between users and content. We feel the best way to market our company and product suite is by allowing users to experience it all firsthand. We want to build consumer confidence and excitement in our products organically. So, we are excited to share a lot of the cool stuff we have been developing with them — and we are planning to soon roll out some experiential advertisements on social media platforms.
In the past, we have worked with movie studios to enable movie-goers to virtually walk through and immerse themselves in the setting of the movie scene they are currently watching (e.g., an ice cream shop). In a similar way, through interactive Reels, users will be able to explore how the content can be experienced in multiple directions. It will really depend on which screen elements they choose to interact with. We are happy to put our technology out there so they can explore and develop an interest for the rest of what we offer.
How have you used your success to bring goodness to the world?’
Throughout our careers, Gurps and I have always strived to elevate those around us. As venture capitalists and entrepreneurs, we see this as the primary way to truly promote progress and innovation at both the individual and societal level. That’s why we’ve brought on tens, if not hundreds, of young, particularly underprivileged kids to join our teams. By providing that initial opportunity, we have seen them grow and become young executives at different companies throughout our system, ranging from investment banks to jewelry companies.
We’ve also embraced more traditional charity work. For example, we’ve hosted turkey drives in Brooklyn during Thanksgiving. We’ve built facilities in the Caribbean. Perhaps the most thrilling work we’ve done in this realm was when we helped build a boxing gym for the local underprivileged youth in the Cayman Islands. We even helped put together an exhibition fight to promote the project and help bring money to the island. We are proud to say that we’ve done a lot of good in this area, and we’re excited about how our work can help bring about more positive change in the future.
What are your “5 Things I Wish Someone Told Me Before I Started” and why?
One of the lessons I learned late in life was the importance of networking. Networking is a skill set that every executive needs to develop and hone over time. But unfortunately, networking as an activity did not come naturally to me. What’s more, my career started in an era where there was a level of protectionism around one’s network. I remember when LinkedIn first arrived, I did not understand why anyone would put their entire network on a public platform, allowing everybody to see who they knew. But, of course, I couldn’t have been more wrong. I eventually realized that LinkedIn doesn’t inhibit one’s ability to network, it enhances it. So, the lesson that your “network is net worth” is something I wish someone would have driven home for me earlier. I would have definitely paid more attention to it from the start.
Secondly, I would urge people to cultivate their critical thinking. We try to teach our son as early as possible about the importance of critical thinking, because it’s easy to go through school, even all the way to university level, and blindly regurgitate the things you’ve learned and been told. We are moving into an era where everyone must think for themselves and be able to form their own ideas. There’s a growing trend of homogeneity in the messages we are receiving from various sources daily. You must develop a strong ability to critically analyze the information you consume and not just take everything you hear or read at face value.
Finally, I would say it’s important for people to maintain interests outside of work. People don’t realize how critical this is, and it’s something I wish I was able to do when I started my career at Goldman Sachs. Although it was an unbelievably great opportunity and experience, working there was tough — and it drove me to an all-consuming mindset that was not sustainable. When work is your whole world, you lose sight of what’s happening around you, making it difficult to maintain the very interests that might spark career growth down the line.
Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share how that was relevant to you in your life?
I think of the quote by Churchill, “Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts.” Although it can be cheesy to include a Churchill quote, I find this notion truly applies to the venture capital space, and to entrepreneurship overall. My team and I live by that quote every day. The ability to keep going is probably the most valuable attribute of being an entrepreneur.
Thank you so much for joining us. This was very inspirational.
The Future Is Now: Matt Waters of Unchained Music On How Their Technological Innovation Will Shake Up The Tech Scene
An Interview With Fotis Georgiadis
Trusted advisors are essential. Find people that you respect and are able to push back when you’re making a bad decision, and cheer you on when things are going well.
As a part of our series about cutting-edge technological breakthroughs, I had the pleasure of interviewingMatt Waters.
Matt Waters is an experienced professional musician, co-founder of Unchained Music, educator, holds a Masters in Music from UC Los Angeles, and is one half of the electronic/acoustic act, Intro to Music Theory. He is an owner of Hainan Music Productions, HMP Records, and is actively involved in building blockchain solutions for musicians.
In the past, he has performed and taught across four continents, formerly held the position of Professor of Low Brass and Co-Director of Bands at the Nanhai Conservatory of Music, as well as various other educational positions in Southern California. Before moving to China, he was an active freelance musician in Los Angeles.
He is currently residing in Denver and regularly performs in his spare time. Before the pandemic, he had recently finished an international music tour with Intro to Music Theory through China, New Zealand, and Thailand. Matt takes pride in a varied musical life, performing in concerts that range in style from classical to jazz, orchestral to solo, acoustic to electric, and everything in-between.
Thank you so much for doing this with us! Before we dive in, our readers would love to learn a bit about you. Can you tell us a story about what brought you to this specific career path?
I’ve been an independent musician my entire life, and as all independent musicians learn eventually, being an independent musician is not only about creating music. To manage my career effectively, I had to learn a little about everything- social media promotion, video editing, production, networking skills, etc. It’s a story that’s familiar to every independent musician out there, but it’s not the reason we started making music in the first place. Through my time in Southern California, it became exhausting to do all of the supporting work, and I took a break by moving to China to build a university music program out there. Slowly, I realized that helping other musicians was something that I was passionate about, and I started on the music industry path that led to Unchained Music being formed.
Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you began your career?
I’ve been an independent musician my entire life in some form or another, so it comes as no surprise that when I moved to Hainan Province, China with my co-founder Matthew Busch, we started a group called Intro to Music Theory that would tour the country. One of our most memorable gigs out there was in a place called RiYueWan, known as Sun Moon Bay in English, that is now a beautiful tourist destination, but back then was a little sleepy surf town. We showed up, and the owner pulled out a massive sub speaker that could have powered a party about ten times the size of the gig we were actually playing, but it was rusted from being in storage. We spent probably 4 hours pre-show rewiring this beast, and it turns out the amp they had couldn’t power it anyway after we finally had it working. Fun show even after all of that.
Can you tell us about the cutting-edge technological breakthroughs that you are working on? How do you think that will help people?
At the base layer, Unchained Music has built a no-cost distribution service that returns 100% of all streaming royalties to the artist through integration with a decentralized finance backend. This allows us to not only return a piece of the artist’s value back to them, but give them access to Web3, Cryptocurrency, and NFT tools that are missing from current platforms. In addition to all of this, we’re able to pay out these royalties via USDC, a stablecoin cryptocurrency, which allows us to work with musicians across the world that are unbanked or underbanked, and access music markets that are traditionally underserved by the current music industry.
How do you think this might change the world?
By realizing our vision at Unchained, we’ll be able to recenter the artist in the creative process, allow them to keep more of their value than is possible in the current iteration of the industry, and level the playing field for artists in markets that have a harder time accessing distribution. Using smart contracts and tokenizing this ecosystem allows us to broaden the access to tools that would otherwise be locked behind an application process or monopolized by labels.
Keeping “Black Mirror” in mind, can you see any potential drawbacks of this technology that people should think more deeply about?
In this world, code is law. Anytime we’re designing a system, we need to make sure that said system isn’t imbued with the preconceptions or biases of its creators, which could potentially create a system that disadvantages certain artists. Algorithmic bias is a possibility with code, and especially dangerous with immutable code on the blockchain.
Was there a “tipping point” that led you to this breakthrough? Can you tell us that story?
At the tail end of winter in 2021, my personal musical project was hired by Charged Particles to perform for their virtual event series featuring some incredible visual artists. In learning about their project that allows interest bearing tokens to be held inside NFTs, Matthew Busch and I became fascinated with the possibilities of a decentralized endowment. Could we use defi and compound interest to plant trees a la Grandmother Grove? Could this be applied to our own lives as independent musicians? The idea to effectively use the interest on royalties to fund the tech stack for music distribution came from those brainstorming sessions, and the rest is history.
What do you need to lead this technology to widespread adoption?
We need support and awareness from creators who want to take back more agency in their own lives as musicians. It’s not often that we have the ability to take back power from industry and return it to the little guy, but we do have such an opportunity here.
What have you been doing to publicize this idea? Have you been using any innovative marketing strategies?
At the moment, most of our signups have been coming from word of mouth through local music communities. Music has always been a local industry first and foremost, so making sure that Unchained Music is in there, music community by music community, supporting those musicians that are in the trenches trying to make a name for themselves is important.
None of us are able to achieve success without some help along the way. Is there a particular person who you are grateful towards who helped get you to where you are? Can you share a story about that?
I think the person I’m most grateful for is one of my co-founders, Matthew Busch. We met over 13 years ago at Pacific Crest Drum and Bugle Corps performing in summer competitions together, and we absolutely hated each other’s guts. Nine years after that point, we ended up moving to China together to start a university music program, started multiple companies together, as well as our personal house music duo, Intro to Music Theory. He’s been an incredible sounding board and reality check when I get too ahead of myself, whether in business or my personal life.
How have you used your success to bring goodness to the world?
In my mind, goodness is ensuring that we adhere to the golden rule that many of us learn as children. Treat others the way in which you want to be treated. Whether in business or my personal life, I try to build on that idea as a center point in my interactions with others, showing that there’s a way to be successful without being hard or inaccessible.
What are your “5 Things I Wish Someone Told Me Before I Started” and why?
Creativity is just as important as hard work, and it comes from having the mental space to daydream. Take breaks and give yourself permission to wander off mentally every now and again.
Spend time hiring the right people. With the right team and the right cultural fit, you’ll achieve so much more than if you had rushed the process.
Trusted advisors are essential. Find people that you respect and are able to push back when you’re making a bad decision, and cheer you on when things are going well.
Ask for advice. The process of building a company doesn’t have to be isolating all the time. Asking for advice both helps share the burden, and gets buy-in from those you’re asking for help.
Track track track! Every metric you have the ability to automate tracking for, do it. I’ve found myself in positions where we need a piece of historical data, and we don’t have it, or need to go back and dig for it. If we would have tracked it from the beginning, all of that tracking would have saved us quite a lot of time.
You are a person of great influence. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger. 🙂
I would love to inspire more people to understand that being better, personally, professionally, whatever it may be, is a matter of constant small improvement rather than large steps. If you wake up one day and are having trouble with something, pick a small way in which you can get better in that area and work on it. Even if you only improve a small amount over the course of that day, you’ve made progress, and thousands of those days will absolutely add up sooner than you know. Getting better at anything is a game of consistency.
Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share how that was relevant to you in your life?
“It is the artists of the world, the feelers and the thinkers who will ultimately save us; who can articulate, educate, defy, insist, sing and shout the big dreams.” –Leonard Bernstein
Systems can be put in place, be broken, be trampled, or ignored, but ultimately, it is the artists, the musicians, the tinkerers, and the inventors that will shape whatever comes next. When things break in my life personally or professionally, I don’t retreat into analysis, but instead into imagination and daydreaming of what comes next through music and art.
Some very well-known VCs read this column. If you had 60 seconds to make a pitch to a VC, what would you say? He or she might just see this if we tag them 🙂
Unchained Music is the platform that will bring millions of musicians into Web3 and the greater blockchain community. They need no knowledge of the space to get started, while reaping the benefits of access to Web3 tools that are aggregated nowhere else, all while opening up traditionally underserved markets that were previously inaccessible due to banking and money transfer issues.
Unchained Music is the foundation for the next iteration of the music industry.
Makers of The Metaverse: Zach Schleien Of Filteroff On The Future Of The VR, AR & Mixed Reality Industries
An Interview With Fotis Georgiadis
Aside from dating, the metaverse will provide people an environment to stay connected with family and friends in a more intimate experience than a FaceTime.
The Virtual Reality, Augmented Reality & Mixed Reality Industries are so exciting. What is coming around the corner? How will these improve our lives? What are the concerns we should keep an eye out for? Aside from entertainment, how can VR or AR help work or other parts of life? To address this, we had the pleasure of interviewing Zach Schleien.
Zach Schleien is the CEO & Co-founder of Filteroff. Zach launched Filteroff as a way to meet people, not profiles. Filteroff has now raised $2.5M from a Fortune 500 company and has run over 14K virtual speed dating events as well as in-person singles events for a variety of communities.
Zach’s passions lie in technology, health, and creating authentic connections. When he is not working, Zach loves to travel the world, listen to podcasts, and work out.
Thank you so much for doing this with us! Before we dig in, our readers would like to get to know you a bit. Can you tell us a bit about your backstory and how you grew up?
I grew up in Westchester, New York. For college, I went to Syracuse University. I started working on my first startup in my senior year of college and fell in love with building startups/technology. After graduation, I started working for Johnson & Johnson in IT while working on my startup in the evening and on weekends.
Is there a particular book, film, or podcast that made a significant impact on you? Can you share a story or explain why it resonated with you so much?
Tim Ferriss book The 4-Hour Workweek played a significant impact on me. I realized building a business is all about being efficient, outsourcing when needed, and putting your health first. I really learned to work on the most important things versus just staying busy.
Is there a particular story that inspired you to pursue a career in the X Reality industry? We’d love to hear it.
I would go on dates that I met from Tinder or Bumble, and literally 60 seconds into the date, I realized I didn’t want to be there as we had zero chemistry. Soon after, I would ask the dates that I would match with if they’d be open to video chatting. The one’s that agreed to chat over video was a valuable experience. I could tell if we had chemistry and whether we were attracted to one another. Video dating is the most efficient and authentic way to meet people prior to the first date.
Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you began this fascinating career?
We had a Jewish Syrian community contact us when we first launched Filteroff. They asked if they could run their own private event for their community. At the time, we didn’t have this capability. After coming to an agreement, we built the functionality for their community to run their private events. From that community alone, we created five marriages. We soon started introducing this self-service model for any sort of community to host virtual speed dating events for their members. Since then, we’ve added a slew of features such as ticketing, video introductions, custom branding, and more.
Can you share a story about the funniest mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lesson you learned from that?
When we first launched we hosted virtual events for a large community. Long story short our servers were not having it. I had to get on the phone with the organizer to try to calm him down. Luckily, our app is much more stable now and supports thousands of attendees at an event at any given time.
None of us are able to achieve success without some help along the way. Is there a particular person who you are grateful towards who helped get you to where you are? Can you share a story about that?
I’m very grateful to my co-founder, Brian. He provided me with a ton of coaching while I was raising our seed. He had been through the process in the past, so he had some valuable insight on questions to ask investors and how to present to them most effectively.
Are you working on any exciting new projects now? How do you think that will help people?
Right now, my focus is on Filteroff and helping people connect authentically. On the side, I have a PR course to help people learn how to get press. The site is PRFastPass.com
Ok super. Thank you for all that. Let’s now shift to the main focus of our interview. The VR, AR and MR industries seem so exciting right now. What are the 3 things in particular that most excite you about the industry? Can you explain or give an example?
For the next generation dating in the metaverse won’t be optional. There will be a blurry line between an in-person date and being on video. The audio will be spatial. The video will be immersive. And video dating will change as we know it.
What are the 3 things that concern you about the VR, AR and MR industries? Can you explain? What can be done to address those concerns?
Addiction to dating in the metaverse and not dating in real life, cheating in the metaverse, using avatars in the metaverse (leading to a ton of catfishing).
I think the entertainment aspects of VR, AR and MR are apparent. Can you share with our readers how these industries can help us at work?
Dating in the metaverse will help singles improve on how they date. It will provide singles practice so they can then use their skills in the real-world.
Are there other ways that VR, AR and MR can improve our lives? Can you explain?
Aside from dating, the metaverse will provide people an environment to stay connected with family and friends in a more intimate experience than a FaceTime.
What are the “myths” that you would like to dispel about working in your industry? Can you explain what you mean?
Online dating works! People care immensely about shared values, passions, and meeting like-minded people.
You are a person of great influence. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger. 🙂
I truly believe in the power of video. Whether or not you use Filteroff I highly encourage that you hop on a quick video chat before meeting up in-person. It’s a great vibe check and allows you to get to know someone briefly prior to the first date. This can prevent catfishing, will save you time, and will lessen bad first dates.
We are very blessed that very prominent leaders read this column. Is there a person in the world, or in the US with whom you would like to have a private breakfast or lunch, and why? He or she might just see this if we tag them 🙂
I’d love to have a breakfast with Tom Brady. He comes off as extremely authentic, has always had a chip on his shoulder, and brings his best self everyday. I admire his discipline and determination to be the best.
Thank you so much for these excellent stories and insights. We wish you continued success in your great work!
Meet The Disruptors: Dzhangar Sanzhiev Of MatchFamilies On The Five Things You Need To Shake Up Your Industry
An Interview With Fotis Georgiadis
“Do the right things and the results will follow,” which was once said by one of my very first managers early on in my career. I’m still following this advice, which helps me be persistent in what I’m aiming to achieve.
As a part of our series about business leaders who are shaking things up in their industry, I had the pleasure of interviewing Dzhangar Sanzhiev.
Dzhangar Sanzhiev is the founder of MatchFamilies, a recently launched app designed to help families make new friends with other families. Dzhangar has lived and worked in Thailand, Russia, Germany, USA and knows how challenging it could be to form a new social circle from scratch, especially as a family. From these life experiences, he launched MatchFamilies to help millions of families worldwide make new social connections, find like-minded people, socialize and make friends. Before founding MatchFamilies, Dzhangar had been focusing on growing better leaders within international HR consulting.
Thank you so much for doing this with us! Before we dig in, our readers would like to get to know you a bit more. Can you tell us a bit about your “backstory”? What led you to this particular career path?
I moved to Germany in 2016 with my wife and two daughters. We needed to build our social circle from scratch, and we found it to be quite challenging. Of course, you meet some people along the way and it’s mainly through kids — as kids make friends quickly and then you connect as families. But this process takes a lot of time and effort. Meeting like-minded families that completely match yours may take years. It depends on luck. So I thought, how can I help other families find their best friends quickly and easily using technology? That’s how the MatchFamilies app was born.
Can you tell our readers what it is about the work you’re doing that’s disruptive?
In our individualistic world there are very few social platforms that are focusing on families and their needs. For example, you could use Facebook to find some family friends, but it is populated with profiles of individuals, so you don’t know if a person is married, has kids or not, what are their interests etc. What’s special about MatchFamilies is that we are the first platform where people register as a family and can connect with other families based on their location, age group, family interests, kids’ age, languages they speak — details that are important to figure out if another family matches yours. We (married people) also want to socialize and make friends! There was no solution for families before we launched. Additionally, we are building more features to cover more needs families have — helping them save money and socialize offline with other families at our family-friendly events, where parents can chat while kids are being taken care of as well as help them connect with their best matches in their travel destinations. We are the first socialization and community platform for families worldwide.
Can you share a story about the funniest mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lesson you learned from that?
I created our first logo on my own. On the logo icon there was a kind of a typical family of four people, just like my family, inside a heart. Some people were asking if the app is a medical app solving heart problems. 😊Also, it was not reflective of our app’s inclusivity because it’s actually for families and couples of all genders, with or without kids, and for single parents who just want to socialize and find their village. So I hired a designer to create a more inclusive logo.
The lesson — don’t only rely on your own thinking, even in early stages. It’s good to involve more people, get more opinions, and feedback.
We all need a little help along the journey. Who have been some of your mentors? Can you share a story about how they made an impact?
I have a mentor who has been helping me along the way. His name is Tom Deutsch and he has been instrumental in expanding my network and finding the right people to talk to, as well as providing feedback and guidance, challenging my thinking and helping improve. Also, I participated in a startup accelerator program in NYC called Starta VC. Their mentors and coaches have shaped my thinking and provided incredible impact on where we are now — as a startup and on our strategy.
In today’s parlance, being disruptive is usually a positive adjective. But is disrupting always good? When do we say the converse, that a system or structure has ‘withstood the test of time’? Can you articulate to our readers when disrupting an industry is positive, and when disrupting an industry is ‘not so positive’? Can you share some examples of what you mean?
I think the disruption of the automobile industry could be an example of when it’s not so good, especially when considering climate issues and the Earth’s pollution. But that’s short-term. I hope moving forward the production of electric cars will not cause a negative impact on our planet even while they are trying to help save it. I think there are more positives in disruption than negatives, if it is executed wisely.
Can you share five of the best words of advice you’ve gotten along your journey? Please give a story or example for each.
“Do the right things and the results will follow,” which was once said by one of my very first managers early on in my career. I’m still following this advice, which helps me be persistent in what I’m aiming to achieve.
The classic Steve Job’s quote, “You have to work not 12 hours a day, but with your head” made me laugh when I first heard it, but I think it’s a good reminder to stay focused and thoughtful in what you are doing.
I think all parents, just like my parents, should teach their kids to “never give up”, if you really want something.
In my past roles in HR consulting, I used to get a lot of advice related to the importance of effective interactions, emotional intelligence, empathy, and building trust — all which provided tremendous impact on my success as a leader.
I’ve recently came across advice (somewhere on LinkedIn) directed to startup founders who are looking to raise venture capital investments. The advice was for startups to focus on growing their business and to spend less time on the search and outreach to investors, because if your business is doing well, they will find you on their own. I’m following this advice and hope it’ll bring the results 😉
We are sure you aren’t done. How are you going to shake things up next?
We are building the most value-centric platform for families. And families have a lot of needs, so we have big plans. We are currently looking for investors to help us execute on that vision.
Do you have a book, podcast, or talk that’s had a deep impact on your thinking? Can you share a story with us? Can you explain why it was so resonant with you?
A TED Talk by Harvard’s professor Robert Waldinger provided a lot of impact on my thinking. They conducted the biggest research on adult life and found out that “close relationships with friends and family” is what makes people the happiest, more than money or fame. These close relationships also help people live longer lives. Imagine you don’t have your friends and family nearby, because you moved to another city or country. That means that you don’t have what’s most important in your life. How crazy is that?
I thought that this problem is big enough for me to quit my old job and launch MatchFamilies.
According to research every 4th American feels lonely and isolated, so we have a lot of work ahead!
Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share how that was relevant to you in your life?
“Pursue your dream no matter what!t”) It helps me stay focused, positive and dedicated.
You are a person of great influence. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger. 🙂
A movement to support changes in education systems worldwide, so that kids learn subjects that they will really be able to apply in the real world in the future.
Meet The Disruptors: Angelo Ciaramello Of The Funded Trader On The Five Things You Need To Shake Up Your Industry
An Interview With Fotis Georgiadis
Success is the progressive realization of a worthy ideal. Anyone that is working towards a goal can be considered a success.
As a part of our series about business leaders who are shaking things up in their industry, I had the pleasure of interviewing Angelo Ciaramello of The Funded Trader, a proprietary trading firm, that’s gamified trading. The company works with experienced traders and allows them to purchase a challenge to display their profitability. The company includes an evaluation, and if they are able to pass, The Funded Trader will fund them up to $600k. The company has some traders making upwards of $100k in a single month, and they’ve paid out over $10 million in the past year.
Thank you so much for doing this with us! Before we dig in, our readers would like to get to know you a bit more. Can you tell us a bit about your “backstory”? What led you to this particular career path?
At 21, I found myself tired, burnt out and lacking the clarity to see the vision of what my future would be. I was finishing up an internship at my university, and realized I needed to prioritize my own well-being first in order to shape what my future would include. Upon graduating college, instead of taking a job like every other college student, I took 1 year off focusing solely on working out, doing yoga, reading books and finding the niche that he would be passionate enough about to build a business. In the 12 months to follow, I became certified in kettlebell training, read 50 books, and discovered the niche of retail trading. It was not all roses from there, as I needed to get a job in order to pay the bills and decided to start driving uber.
Upon meeting a sales rep while driving uber, I got my first job as a sales development representative for a shipping company. This is where I learned the foundations of email marketing and sales which would later be an asset to me in building his social media company.
Fast forward to 2021, I left my job in corporate America with one goal, to gamify the retail prop trading industry. In less than 12 months the company has paid out over $10 million dollars to retail traders across the world and I’ve gone from an entry level IT role to becoming a millionaire.
Can you tell our readers what it is about the work you’re doing that’s disruptive?
The Funded Trader is disruptive because we’re leveling the playing field when it comes to retail traders approaching the market. Too often, traders fall victim to undercapitalization, which leads them to take big risks and ultimately fail. By providing traders with capital, we are solving this problem and empowering traders to take a professional approach to trading the financial markets.
We have turned the retail trading industry into a true meritocracy where anyone with the necessary talent and discipline can make it.
Can you share a story about the funniest mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lesson you learned from that?
One of the largest mistakes I made when we first started was related to trading. Looking back on it, it was comical but at the moment it was not as much fun. Long story short, we made a decision which caused us to lose $100,000 in one day. In the span of hours! It was a pretty epic failure at the time, and the most I had lost in one day. The lesson I learned lied in how we handled it. We looked at it as an expense to the business and that if we were in position to lose that much comfortably, we were doing something right. In the end we have been a lot more focused on our risk!
We all need a little help along the journey. Who have been some of your mentors? Can you share a story about how they made an impact?
One of my mentors outside of business was a fitness instructor of mine, Phil Ross. He inspired me to instill discipline in my everyday life, and that it was not something that was a chore, but rather a tool to unlock the freedom and goals I set. It really changed my thinking to be a better person.
In today’s parlance, being disruptive is usually a positive adjective. But is disrupting always good? When do we say the converse, that a system or structure has ‘withstood the test of time’? Can you articulate to our readers when disrupting an industry is positive, and when disrupting an industry is ‘not so positive’? Can you share some examples of what you mean?
I would say that any time you are shifting an industry that brings more opportunity to its members, it should be seen as a positive shift. In our company, we look to bring more opportunities which will result directly in money made by our clients and at the core of this we believe that anyone can truly change their situation and leverage our platform to end up in a better position than they started. This is changing the game for everyone involved.
Can you share five of the best words of advice you’ve gotten along your journey? Please give a story or example for each.
Success is the progressive realization of a worthy ideal. Anyone that is working towards a goal can be considered a success.
We are sure you aren’t done. How are you going to shake things up next?
The plan for us is to really start to focus on broadening the market. We have grown at an exponential rate within our niche. The goal is to grow the entire industry through reaching new people. By introducing new people who are completely unaware of the opportunities that are available this could be an exponential opportunity for us and them to grow.
Do you have a book, podcast, or talk that’s had a deep impact on your thinking? Can you share a story with us? Can you explain why it was so resonant with you?
The number one book I ever read, The Magic of Thinking Big. This book made me realize that it’s not about where we are presently or where we’ve been. It’s about how we choose to show up to our current situations and where we BELIEVE we are headed.
You are a person of great influence. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger. 🙂
The movement I hope to inspire is embedded in thought. I believe that the society we live in is scared to chase their dreams. More specifically they are scared to bet on themselves when there is so much pressure to conform to what someone else tells them is a good life. You can be anything you want to be. We only get one shot at life and to waste the opportunity to actualize your dream is scarier than the risk to get there.
How can our readers follow you online?
You can find us on all social platforms at thefundedtraderprogram.com
This was very inspiring. Thank you so much for joining us!
Believe in science, and follow what it says. The nice thing about science is that even if you’re wrong the first time, you just learn and adjust!
As a part of our series about business leaders who are shaking things up in their industry, I had the pleasure of interviewing Sean O’Neill.
Founder of Toast! Supplements, Sean O’Neill has created a supplement to help you enjoy a night out while thinking about your health! A wrong diagnosis sparked Sean O’Neill’s desire to understand the effects of alcohol on the body and how hangovers aren’t really caused by dehydration but how our bodies metabolize alcohol. Focused on changing the way we view drinking, Sean O’Neill is here to debunk our theories and toast to our health!
Thank you so much for doing this with us! Our readers would like to get to know you a bit more. Can you tell us a bit about your “backstory”? What led you to this particular career path?
When I was in my late 20s a routine physical picked up elevated liver enzymes. I was told it was probably nothing, but follow up tests were required. Sitting in my home one evening, I got a call from my doctor’s office telling me I had “cirrhosis of the liver, because of your drinking”. Now, that turned out to be entirely wrong. I did not have cirrhosis. My liver was fine. But it would take months of frustration and fruitless theories to find that out, and in the meantime no doctor could explain how someone my age could possibly end up with cirrhosis, particularly given I wasn’t much of a drinker! So I started looking into research about alcohol and the liver, and found that a lot of clinical research had been done in recent years showing how natural compounds like milk thistle and green tea could help reduce alcohol’s damaging effects, while ingredients like prickly pear even showed effectiveness at reducing or preventing a hangover. This made me particularly frustrated when I’d ask a doctor “what can a drinker do to stay healthy” and get told “not drink”, because while that was certainly one solution, the research seemed to indicate that it wasn’t the only one. Once I got healthy I ended up in business school surrounded by a largely international class who often took various products before drinking, to reduce hangover effects. The international business students were willing to test out the ingredients I’d read about in clinical research. Soon thereafter, I decided to start Toast!.
Can you tell our readers what it is about the work you’re doing that’s disruptive?
Most people still think hangovers are caused by dehydration, and the majority of products are still based on that belief as well. However, clinical research has completely disproven that theory. Instead, the Before You Drink Gummies are based on the latest clinical research from our scientific advisor Dr. Joris Verster, founder of the Alcohol Hangover Research Group. His research has shown that a hangover appears to be caused by our immune system responding to alcohol’s inflammatory effects, with our individual genetic ability to metabolize alcohol playing a significant role as well. Unlike other products, we also recognize that people drink predominantly to socialize, relax, and have a good time, and we’ve based our products accordingly. Rather than pills, powders, or drinks, we’ve developed our solution to be an appealing and tasty gummy bear that’s shareable and fun; just like drinking. They’re the perfect toast, before you drink!
Can you share a story about the funniest mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lesson you learned from that?
While we ended up with gummies, it took a while to get there. We started with pills and powders, and it was always a challenge to convince people to try them. They were intrigued with the idea, but strange pills and powders caused a lot of understandable skepticism. So our first solution was to say “hey, why don’t we make a little drink like 5 Hour Energy”? Boy was that a mistake. We didn’t know how to make drinks. We ordered flavoring powder from a company and got powdered versions of our active ingredients and tried to make a drink and it was disgusting. Seriously, the single worst smelling, worst tasting, weird bubbling orange concoction ever. We quickly learned that it’s not as simple as throwing some flavoring on top, there’s a reason that people go to college for food science and learning how to flavor things. In making our gummies, we’ve partnered with experienced gummy candy makers to create gummies that aren’t just effective, but also have that gummy quality taste and chew people expect. We learned not to try and just go at it alone when you can work with experts!
In today’s parlance, being disruptive is usually a positive adjective. But is disrupting always good? When do we say the converse, that a system or structure has ‘withstood the test of time’? Can you articulate to our readers when disrupting an industry is positive, and when disrupting an industry is ‘not so positive’? Can you share some examples of what you mean?
Disrupting an industry is good when it’s not working right, or can be improved. One simple example is ordering an Uber versus a taxi. With Uber, you just entered a destination and someone came to pick you up, usually pretty quickly. No waving down taxis on the street, hoping they were empty, or sitting on hold with a dispatcher. That innovation by itself made Uber superior to other taxi companies. Of course, Uber disrupted a lot more than that, and one “not so positive” disruption was the impact on drivers. Driving a taxi has historically been a pathway for immigrants and other poorer individuals to move up to middle class; you start renting a taxi, you get up to owning your own, then owning your own medallion, then buying more, etc. There is no real ladder to climb while driving an Uber. You make what is often a sub minimum wage. You get no assistance with insurance. Worse yet, ride sharing apps like Uber have caused a huge increase in congestion and traffic, as they’re not just replacing taxi rides, they replaced lots of walks, bike rides, subway trips, etc. Disruption can be good, but it can have lots of unintended consequences.
Can you share five of the best words of advice you’ve gotten along your journey? Please give a story or example for each.
“You learn best by doing”. When I graduated college, I thought I was going to go into investment banking. I wanted to start a company eventually, I even had an idea, but I felt I needed more work experience first. Then I had an interview with a Venture Capital firm. I didn’t really know anything about startups, and my interviewer gave me a crash course, and told me that if it was something I wanted to do, taking a different job just for experience wasn’t the best way to go about it. I needed to just do it, because nothing would teach me what I needed to know faster or better. You learn best by doing.
Do you have a book, podcast, or talk that’s had a deep impact on your thinking? Can you share a story with us? Can you explain why it was so resonant with you?
I’ve always been a bit of a history nerd, and one book that’s always stuck with me is Xenophon’s Anabasis. It’s the, mostly, true story of a group of Greek mercenaries who lose their leadership and are forced to fight their way out of the heart of the Persian Empire. It’s really a story about leadership. How to lead, build morale, instill discipline, when to work by consensus and when to lead individually, and a lot more. Lots of people write books about leadership. Xenophon faced the most adverse circumstances possible, and successfully came out the other side.
We are sure you aren’t done. How are you going to shake things up next?
Without revealing too much, I’ll just mention that our scientific advisor Dr. Verster doesn’t just research hangovers. He also has been researching sleep problems for a number of years…
Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share how that was relevant to you in your life?
There’s no better way to learn than by doing. When I started my first company, I had no experience, no idea what I was doing, and I was starting a company in a field (tech) I had no background in…but I learned. Sure, you’ll make mistakes, and I made plenty, but you’ll learn more and faster than you possibly could any other way. If you have an idea, just go for it.
You are a person of great influence. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger.
Believe in science, and follow what it says. The nice thing about science is that even if you’re wrong the first time, you just learn and adjust!
How can our readers follow you online?
Toast! can be followed across social media @AlwaysToast. I personally don’t have social media, but I frequently contribute to our social media and newsletters.
This was very inspiring. Thank you so much for joining us!
Melanie Hicks Of Inked Elephant Publishing House On The 5 Things You Need To Be A Highly Effective Public Speaker
An Interview With Fotis Georgiadis
Practice but not too much. Practice is a key element to giving a quality presentation. But so is spontaneity and connection. If we practice to a point where we become robotic in our delivery, we will lose the energy and the connection with the audience will be lost.
At some point in our lives, many of us will have to give a talk to a large group of people. What does it take to be a highly effective public speaker? How can you improve your public speaking skills? How can you overcome a fear of speaking in public? What does it take to give a very interesting and engaging public talk? In this interview series called “5 Things You Need To Be A Highly Effective Public Speaker” we are talking to successful and effective public speakers to share insights and stories from their experience. As a part of this series, we had the pleasure of interviewing Melanie Hicks.
Dr. Hicks is an empathy driven leader with more than two decades of experience in workforce, education and nonprofits. Focused on the areas of human centered leadership, strategic planning, employee engagement and organizational culture, Dr. Hicks has worked with hundreds of clients over the course of her career including small to midsized companies, education institutions and nonprofit organizations.
Dr. Hicks is the author of the upcoming book Incongruent; Travel, Trauma, Transformation. Writing her first book at 10 years old, she has now been published in numerous magazines and websites including Forbes.com, Humanity Wine Co., The District, Doctor’s Life, Journal for Research Administration and Moc Ideja, a grassroots policy manual for lawmakers in Bosnia funded by the US Department of State.
Dr. Hicks holds a doctorate from the Askew School of Public Administration and Policy at Florida State University, a Master’s in Public Administration from the University of Miami and bachelors in Organizational Communications from the University of Central Florida. She is also a SHRM Senior Certified Professional.
In addition to her formal degrees, Dr. Hicks also holds two Diversity, Equity and Inclusion certifications and a lean six sigma yellow belt from the University of South Florida. As well as a Business Analytics certificate from Harvard Business School.
Her awards include the Rod Rose Paper of the year award for the Journal of Research Administration, the Joyce Keller Volunteer of the Year Award, the Florence Bayuk Scholarship for academic excellence; the University of Miami Outstanding Scholastic and Public Service Achievement Award.
Dr. Hicks formerly served as the Vice President, Education Solutions Group at MGT Consulting where she leads business development for PK12, Higher Education and Education Transformation Practice areas. Prior to joining MGT, Dr. Hicks served as Assistant Provost at the University of Tampa where she created UT’s first Office of Sponsored Programs and oversaw the University’s 52 department budgets, and all grants and contracts. She also taught courses in Social Entrepreneurship, Environmental Policy, Public Private Partnerships, among others.
Prior to joining the University of Tampa team, she served as the Director of Research for the Independent Colleges and Universities of Florida, an advocacy organization, and concurrently as the Managing Director of the Florida Independent College Fund, a 501c3 foundation. While at ICUF/FICF she implemented a four‐prong system for federal and state grant funding applications resulting in enhanced collaborative partnerships and led ICUF’s governmental affairs research for advocacy in Tallahassee and Washington, DC.
Dr. Hicks began her career as the Aide to Mayor of Tallahassee, a special projects coordinator with the Florida Office of Program Policy Analysis and Government Accountability and as an adjunct professor of Public Administration for Florida State University and Barry University.
Outside of her professional activities, her hobbies include writing, paddle boarding, biking, hiking, and is a certified yoga instructor. She also enjoys spending time with her husband Randy, stepdaughter, Lauren, and her fur babies, Eva & Molly.
Thank you so much for doing this with us! Our readers would love to get to know you a bit better. Can you tell us the story of how you grew up?
I had a fantastic childhood. I grew up in a small, middle-class, beach town in northern Florida. It was the kind of town where everyone knew everyone. Where multigenerational families were the norm. Where kids went off to college only to return to rinse and repeat the family legacy.
To look at me you would believe I am a walking carbon copy of my mother, a true mini-me. But to know me is to know I have my father’s stubborn nature and love of solitude. My father a career police officer, my mother a career teacher, we were the Webster definition of middle-class Americana. My brother joined the Marines when I was three years old, and my earliest memory of him was a family visit when I was thirteen.
Good fathers are always perceived as the backbone of the family, and mine was no exception. Stern, strong, quiet, and endlessly organized, he was the planner of great summer adventures that are still the most important parts of my childhood. If my father taught me to have a plan, my mother taught me to toss it out. Never-ending energy, generosity of spirit, and laughter that echoes long after it ends — these are the legacies of my mother. It was her influence that had our family pulled over on the side of a mountain in Colorado so I could touch — not just see — my first patch of snow. From my father, I was taught integrity, discipline, and hard work. From my mother, kindness, openheartedness, fearlessness, and football.
Love was abundant in our home and community. It overflowed daily with both words and acts of kindness from my mother and grandmother. My homelife held the kind of stability and care that so many can only dream of. We were far from monetarily rich, but what we lacked in finances was made up in love.
Can you share a story with us about what brought you to this specific career path?
Artistically talented as a dancer and singer, I spent my younger years in dance, theatre and voice lessons. I was ironically, unequivocally shy when out of a stage spotlight. But after first stepping onto a stage at age 3, I was hooked. And I have spent my life chasing stages ever since.
Over my career the look of those stages has varied. As a speechwriter and public policy advocate in my early career, to a professor and education consultant, to eventually a writer, workforce coach and motivational speaker. For me the venue or topic never mattered, it was about using my authentic voice. Sharing with others some version of how I saw the world, and hoping that lens helped them see the world just a bit different as well.
Can you share a story about the funniest mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lesson you learned from that?
I have a natural talent for improv, to “wing it” so to speak. More often than not, this strategy works just fine for me, but every so often, it is my downfall. Early in my career I was asked to be the Master of Ceremonies for an event where my boss, the Mayor, would be a keynote. Doing far less audience research than I should have, I planned an entire opening monologue which I envisioned would be both humorous and inspirational. Upon arriving at the event, I realized the audience was international dignitaries from our Sister City, none of my humor or local community references would be understood. I spent the 30 minutes before I went on frantically rewriting everything, I had planned on saying. The speech, while not a disaster, was certainly not prize-worthy. It was a lesson I will never forget. Knowing your audience is the absolute most important thing about being on stage. I might can “wing” the content but only if I know who will receive it.
None of us are able to achieve success without some help along the way. Is there a particular person who you are grateful towards who helped get you to where you are? Can you share a story about that?
I simply can’t narrow to one. I have had two mentors in my life that were absolutely life changing; Bob O’Leary and Fred Seamon.
The humblest man I have ever known, Robert O’Leary, is a tower of wisdom, experience, and grace. A Georgetown graduate, he began his career working on Capitol Hill on initiatives of societal importance like supporting the work of the National Organization for Women and the Equal Rights Amendment. Back in his home state of Michigan, he was the chief deputy director of the Commerce Department and later served as Governor Blanchard’s deputy chief of staff and the president of the Michigan Accident Fund. Recruited to Florida by Governor Lawton Chiles, his humility and authenticity made him a masterful change agent and the reinvention and restructuring guru of the Executive Staff. He was responsible for closing the Commerce Department, restructuring the Department of Health and Rehabilitative Services, creating Enterprise Florida and Workforce Florida, Redesigning the Labor Department, merging the Departments of Administration and General Services into DMS, and much more. But if you were to ask him, he’d simply say he was a guy in a closet office under the stairs.
I met Bob in in 2005 on my first day at ICUF. For our introductory first six hours, we sat in the glowing florescent light of the dreary office building on Monroe Street while he painstakingly walked me through the last fifteen years of ICUF policy stances, and I incessantly flipped a highlighter out of boredom and general fidgeting.
As the years ticked by, Bob and I developed a natural rhythm of working together. He was the big idea man; I was the practical implementation specialist. He would boldly devise plans well ahead of their time, and I would work tirelessly to translate those plans into a language to gain buy-in. He would think nothing of it if it were ignored while I would reel from perceived rejection. He would impart knowledge, and I would eagerly push the envelope. He would humbly push all the credit my way while we both knew I could never have completed the project without his guidance. His presence in my life loomed large both at work and in the chaos of my second marriage. I never felt judged, even when I failed, no matter which arena. We simply assessed the damaged, gathered the lessons to be learned, and focused on the next move.
As a big-picture thinker and future-focused leader, Bob was always ahead of the curve. He conceived problems and their subsequent solutions before others even sounded the alarm. His words and actions provided a powerful example of forging through doubtful voices of others and instead remaining steadfast toward the greater good ahead. Throughout my career, I have harkened back to this sentiment often. Work hard for what you believe in, even when no one appreciates it. They will eventually. Leaders often must perform the hard work of digging the trenches of new ideas, processes, or paths so that others may follow. In the end, if your desire is to leave this world a better place, then you dig, not with resentment of the extra work but with great exhilaration and pride, for you alone can later stand on the bank and revel in the water that flows behind.
While we stayed in touch after I moved from Tallahassee to Tampa, a decade later I still mourn the loss of our daily interaction. The six years we worked directly together did as much to mold my perception of life as any other chapter. He taught me to be steadfast but humble; to be fearless but grounded; to believe in what is possible, even if no one else does.
There is a distinct shift in the energy of the room when Dr. Fred Seamon walks in. It is unclear if it is his mile-wide smile or the warmth in which he greets everyone he meets like an old friend. Either way, Fred is a legend to anyone who has the pleasure of knowing him.
He began his career in late 1960s in the juvenile court system, and over fifty years later, he is still fighting for equality and diversity. While on the graduate faculty at Florida State University (FSU) and at the Pepper Institute on Aging, he conducted several major research studies related to diversity, equity, and inclusion in public employment and social and economic disparities among minority elderly populations. His experience includes providing diversity training to law enforcement personnel via the Florida Department of Law Enforcement Senior Leadership Program, the Florida Department of Highway Safety Management Fellows Program, and the Department of Insurance Executive Institute. He was recently an invited participant in the White House Conference Call for African American Stakeholders on COVID-19 and the CARES Act, April 2020.
Fred and I first crossed paths in 2002 when I arrived in Tallahassee as a bubbly doctoral student at Florida State. Active in the campus and broader community, his reputation of kindness-driven leadership proceeded him. However, it was more than a decade later that his impact on my life truly began. In 2018, I joined the consulting firm where he was a legacy employee. While the firm turned into a wilder ride than either of us ever imagined, Fred’s steady guidance was a constant calm I desperately needed. Even after I left the firm, his regular check-ins would bring a smile to my heart knowing I was cared for and cheered on.
All of Fred’s accomplishments pale in comparison to the living, breathing example of leadership he is as a man. He is the first to say yes to any opportunity that will add value to those he cares for, be that his family, company, community, or church. He will never ask of you what he will not do himself. He is the cheerful rally to a team that is down. He is the insightful influencer in times of controversy. And he is a voice of reason during times of distress.
Upon seeking his steady council for a decision weighing heavy on my heart, he was all too willing to put aside his busy schedule to listen, comfort, and reflect. The lessons he shared were powerful reminders. Be confident in the value you add. Set and keep limits on what you can healthily give of yourself. Be willing to walk away from what doesn’t serve you. There is always another door to open.
You have been blessed with great success in a career path that can be challenging and intimidating. Do you have any words of advice for others who may want to embark on this career path, but seem daunted by the prospect of failure?
Remember that life comes in chapters. There are no hard and fast rules about when you start something new or when you decide to change directions. Often, we attach far too much self-importance and self-worth to a title or an idea of who we want to be. And then we feel hesitant or ashamed if we want to make a change to that image. But the best parts of life are lived in the fluidity of the moment. Not to say don’t give your all to what is at hand, but rather be self-reflective and self-aware enough to know when a change is warranted and make it. Don’t waste time spinning your wheels in places or on jobs that do not serve you.
What drives you to get up everyday and give your talks? What is the main empowering message that you aim to share with the world?
Empowering women is at the core of my passions. Not only are we subject to many repressive external forces in society and the workplace, but we often have allowed those messages to permeate into our psyches and use them as excuses to have self-doubt and imposter syndrome. I want all humans, but especially those who feel the most vulnerable, to be confident, proud versions of their authentic self. The world would be better for it.
You have such impressive work. What are some of the most interesting or exciting projects you are working on now? Where do you see yourself heading from here?
I have three really exciting things taking off right now. First, I recently launched my own publishing house called Inked Elephant. In addition to bringing a more encouraging outlet to authors looking to publish their work, Inked Elephant Publishing House, is a social enterprise. I have a personal mission to use the tools at my disposal to make an impact and in this case that is writing and publishing. So for every paid client we have, we also tell pro bono stories of others doing good in the community and the proceeds go back to those causes. We have a goal to tell 10,000 stories by 2025.
Second, my memoir Incongruent; Travel, Trauma, Transformation is in the final editing stages and set to be released in Spring of 2023. I am thrilled to share this very personal story of global travel as my own healing method.
Finally, my consulting firm InPursuit has developed three new workshop series for businesses of all sizes honing in on the new normal in the modern workplace. From Human-Centered Leadership to Understanding the Multi-Generational Workplace, these workshops are highly interactive, full of the latest research and trends and FUN!
Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share how that was relevant to you in your life?
“We hold the keys to the cages we build around ourselves.” — Me
This phrase was uttered casually, without contemplation, when I was put on the spot for a signature piece of advice. It was a chilly hotel ballroom at a speakers’ conference in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. While I did not know it at the time, this phrase would come to serve as my personal mantra, helping me leave a toxic job, relaunch my company, begin speaking on stages again, and fulfill my passion of writing. When I remind myself that I already have the tools to overcome any obstacle or reach any goal, I can stay calm and keep pushing forward.
Ok, thank you for all that. Here is the main question of our interview. What are your “5 Things You Need To Be A Highly Effective Public Speaker?” Please share a story or example for each.
Be all In. If there is one thing I know for sure about being on stage, it is this. You must be all in. An audience can intangibly feel when you are holding back. When you are not giving them the full version of yourself or your message. I learned this very early in my childhood. I was fortunate to be cast in key roles for most of the productions I auditioned for. Until one day, I was not. I was given a very small part and young ego being what it was, I contemplated quitting. But then I had an instinctual thought, what if I play this small role so well that it is all the audience can talk about. And that is exactly what happened. Every night for weeks, I was the boldest version of that character possible, and the reviews noticed.
Say Yes And… The first rule of improv is to always say yes, and. Never say no. When an actor says no, they shut down the energy and the scene dies. This same concept can be applied to speaking on stages as well. It’s an attitude and a belief that you have the power to overcome any challenge that happens to you on stage. If you forget your words, just say “yes, and” and dig into your expertise to find a new way to connect you back to your words.
Practice but not too much. Practice is a key element to giving a quality presentation. But so is spontaneity and connection. If we practice to a point where we become robotic in our delivery, we will lose the energy and the connection with the audience will be lost.
Tune into your intuition. Speaking of audience, remember they are who you are there for. Their needs and what they WANT to hear should be your focus, not what you want to say. Use your audience research in advance and mingle that with your intuition when you reach the room. Do they need a laugh to lighten the tension? Do they need you to pull pack the curtain and show vulnerability? Get an authentic feel for what the audience is really needing in that moment and give it to them.
Be yourself! Trust me when I say, people can smell a lie from a mile away so just be yourself. I am a full body presenter. I use my arms and hands, I walk back and forth across the stage, I vary my voice, volume, and tone. That is who I am off the stage so it has to be who I am on the stage. I can make small tweaks based on space or microphones but in the end, I strive to always be my authentic self when I am on stage.
As you know, many people are terrified of speaking in public. Can you give some of your advice about how to overcome this fear?
Outside of the tips above, I would say the most important thing to remember is never let the 1 overpower the 100. In speaking, as in life, we are never going to please everyone. We must keep perspective. It is our natural inclination to focus on the one bored person in the audience playing on their phone. But we can train ourselves to overlook that person and focus on the other 100 in the room. They are with you. They are loving you. Don’t let the 100 down because you are distracted by the one.
You are a person of huge influence. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be?
I would tell people to go out and get dirty. Lots of people talk about impact, but few actually make the time in their lives to get out and do it. Throughout my life, I have followed a guiding principle of outcomes driven, impact focused. Roughly translating to work hard and give back. To that end, I have participated in more than 50 service projects in 20 cities and 3 international locations, not including the thousands of miles I have run or cycled in charity races.
From building houses in Nicaragua to building handicap ramps in Florida; from working on urban farms in Baltimore to working in an Ashram in India, there was no location too far or job too dirty to turn me away if I had the opportunity to help.
And along the way I have worked to be available to mentor others. I have helped mentor more than a dozen successful social enterprise businesses, and dozens of students, writers and speakers. And as much as I hope I have helped others, the truth is, these experiences have enriched my life more than I can express. They have made me the woman I am today.
Is there a person in the world whom you would love to have lunch with, and why? Maybe we can tag them and see what happens!
As a fellow author, traveler, childless woman, and survivor of trauma, I have always wanted to meet Elizabeth Gilbert. If you are reading this Elizabeth, I will meet you anywhere in the world and lunch is on me!
Are you on social media? How can our readers follow you online?
You can find all my social media, as well as, the InPursuit and Inked Elephant websites at my Linktree https://linktr.ee/MelanieSueHicks
This was so informative, thank you so much! We wish you continued success!
Pace yourself! You can only lead effectively if your cup is full. Leading from a place of emptiness, burnout or stress behooves no one.
As a part of our series called “Making Something From Nothing”, I had the pleasure of interviewing Sachi Singh, Rootless Founder and CEO.
With a decade of experience in international climate change solutions across non-profits, academia, and philanthropy, Sachi is well aware of what we’re collectively up against. In seaweed, she found a rare bright spot: a timeless ingredient with transformative potential for health, climate, and local economies. After a year of experimenting with different recipes, she became the founder and CEO of Rootless with the Daily Bite.
Thank you so much for doing this with us! Before we dive in, our readers would love to learn a bit more about you. Can you tell us a bit about your “childhood backstory”?
Absolutely! I grew up in Bangalore, India and moved to the US for college when I was 18. I continue to be very close with my parents (who live in Bangalore) and my younger brother (who recently moved to San Francisco, where I currently live). I recently realized that my mom and grandma have influenced the way I think about food and health. Growing up, I never paid much attention to Ayurveda, but I’ve started to think more deeply about it these days. I love and subscribe to the philosophy of food as medicine, consistency, and doing a little bit of good for your body every day.
Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share how that was relevant to you in your life?
I’m inspired by this quote by Helen Keller — ‘A happy life consists not in the absence, but in the mastery of hardships.’
This quote reminds me to disentangle the “pursuit of happiness” from “pursuing a life without adversity” and build the muscle of resilience.
Is there a particular book, podcast, or film that made a significant impact on you? Can you share a story or explain why it resonated with you so much?
I read Overstory by Richard Powers as I was quitting my job to start Rootless: that book could not have come at a more serendipitous time in my life. Centered around nine human stories, the book gives you a unique insight into the expansive lives and secrets of trees. As I embarked on this journey to reimagine the future of food, this book injected me with deep inspiration — about the resilience of nature and the kindness of the human spirit. Most of all, it made me feel hopeful. After a decade of working in the doom and gloom of climate change, Powers made me realize that stories could inspire people to think and behave differently — maybe even unselfishly.
Ok super. Let’s now shift to the main part of our discussion. There is no shortage of good ideas out there. Many people have good ideas all the time. But people seem to struggle in taking a good idea and translating it into an actual business. Can you share a few ideas from your experience about how to overcome this challenge?
Reflecting back, I think naivety and passion were the two most powerful tools in my toolkit when I started to build Rootless. I spent a decade of my professional life in the climate and oceans space, so my startup-CPG-food-regulatory learning curve was terribly steep. But when I quit my job, I knew I wanted to get more people to eat and grow sustainably sourced seaweed — with the belief that if we do this right, seaweed could be the future of food and farming. So I just built.
I started with consumer research and mapped out the landscape. Seaweed is such a potent source of nutrition, I wondered why more people don’t eat it in the US. This led me to a few design principles for our first product, The Daily Bite; I actually stumbled upon the base recipe for the bite pretty quickly. I then worked with a product team to commercialize the recipe.
The second big unlock was brand. I knew early on that I wanted to use the power of brand and digital marketing to reorient the customer from thinking about seaweed as only a snack or in sushi, to a real potent source of nutrition. In month 2, I wrote a cold love letter to Emily Heyward at Red Antler, which is arguably the best branding agency in the world. Soon after, we started to work together and built a compelling and coherent brand that I’m very proud of.
With the two brand and product foundations in place, I spent the next few months commercializing the product and working on a go-to-market strategy. After just one year, we launched to the market in January 2022.
Often when people think of a new idea, they dismiss it saying someone else must have thought of it before. How would you recommend that someone go about researching whether or not their idea has already been created?
Step 1: Find a starting point. I would argue that more often than not, entrepreneurs solve for problems they face themselves. This gives them a unique vantage point as they can be “their own first customer.” I would also encourage budding entrepreneurs to try to solve real problems instead of starting a company for the sake of it. It is a hard, fraught journey, and being deeply committed to your starting point will help you weather the storms.
Step 2: Talk to google, talk to people. I think diligent and extensive market research is critical. Define the pain point sharply; who else is experiencing this pain point? What is the profile of this person? Where do they live? What would make their lives easier etc.
Step 3: find your unique POV. This is where step 1 comes in handy. If you do enough market research, and you are solving for a problem you experience yourself, you will likely have a unique perspective on how to solve it. Successful innovation is about the idea of course, but it is equally if not more in the execution. Even if someone has “had the idea” you have, you can still be successful if you bring the idea to market and/or scale innovatively.
For the benefit of our readers, can you outline the steps one has to go through, from when they think of the idea, until it finally lands in a customer’s hands? In particular, we’d love to hear about how to file a patent, how to source a good manufacturer, and how to find a retailer to distribute it.
Launching a physical product, especially food, is understandably more complex and takes more time than a tech product. Here are a few broad buckets:
Legal: First off, ensure you incorporate your company, register in the state you plan to do business, file a trademark for your brand name and wordmark.
Product: once you have a base recipe, you might have to work with food scientists to commercialize the recipe if you’re selling a consumer-packaged-good product that needs to be shelf stable.
Feedback and more feedback: highly highly recommend force feeding friends, family, anyone who is willing to try your product to get feedback while you’re in product development. Fun fact: if you’re successful, you will always be in product development!
Commercialize: once you feel good and ready with your product, you will likely need a manufacturing facility where you can either make the product yourself or one that will make the product for you. Finding the right co-man is key, as they are ultimately responsible for the product you launch with.
Packaging: this has the longest lead times, and always takes more time than you think it will. Ensure you run your final packaging by a lawyer to ensure you’re FDA compliant.
Go-to-market: All the while, you will need to think about how you want to sell your product. We decided to sell direct-to-consumer, so put a lot of time and energy into building our brand and website. Shopify is a great plug-and-play option for entrepreneurs looking to launch a digitally native brand. There is a lot that goes into a go-to-market strategy, but primarily, I would recommend: mapping out your customer persona (who are they, where can you find them, who do they trust), deciding the marketing channels you’re going to launch with (Instagram? Tiktok? Influencer marketing? Referrals? Facebook ads) and set aside a budget to test and learn.
Launch! Easy peasy. And this is just the beginning…
What are your “5 Things I Wish Someone Told Me When I First Started Leading My Company” and why?
Treat your naivety as an asset and not as a liability. I’m actually grateful for the naivety I went into this Rootless with; if I had known how difficult it would be, I would’ve thought long and hard before taking the leap into entrepreneurship.
Physical packaging and product take a LOT more time than you think they will take.
Feedback — especially the critical feedback — is a gift. As a founder, you need to take time to learn what your customers like and do not like about your product and brand.
Nothing will be easy, but nothing will be more fulfilling. When you decide to start a company, you are running from one fire to the next. Get comfortable putting out the fires with the least amount of damage done.
Pace yourself! You can only lead effectively if your cup is full. Leading from a place of emptiness, burnout or stress behooves no one.
Let’s imagine that a reader reading this interview has an idea for a product that they would like to invent. What are the first few steps that you would recommend that they take?
I think I’ve answered this question above.
There are many invention development consultants. Would you recommend that a person with a new idea hire such a consultant, or should they try to strike out on their own?
An early piece of advice I got when I was trying to commercialize my own recipe was: you don’t know what you don’t know. I think it is critical to surround yourself with the appropriate expertise when you’re starting to build a company or product. This can be in the form of paid consultants or mentors and advisors, but it is incredibly important to ensure you’re designing and deploying with technical experts.
What are your thoughts about bootstrapping vs looking for venture capital? What is the best way to decide if you should do either one?
Ah this is a tough question but it is entirely dependent on who the entrepreneur is, what kind of business they’re building, and what kind of access to capital they have. IF you have access to personal or family financial resources, bootstrapping is one way to build a prototype of the product and find product market fit. You can build what and how you want because you’re building with your own money. Early stage venture capital allows you to hire the right people to help bring your idea to life — but the expectations around growth can be shaped by your investor.
I think there’s no right or wrong way to do it, however the real issue is that not ALL people can access either form of capital to get their business off the ground. Women, and especially women of color, are notoriously underfunded by venture capitalists. Bootstrapping presumes some level of financial comfort.
Ok. We are nearly done. Here are our final questions. How have you used your success to make the world a better place?
It’s only been seven months since we’ve launched, so I can’t claim to have had huge success or impact just quite yet. That being said, I am extremely proud of the company we’ve built. We are hearing real feedback about how the Daily Bites are impacting peoples’ health — from improved energy levels and digestion to better thyroid health. Despite our size and stage, I believe we are a key player in the hyperlocal seaweed economy in the United States, and have the opportunity to shape the future of the industry. This is incredibly exciting to me.
You are an inspiration to a great many people. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger.
We are trying to inspire people to think differently about food, their health, and planetary health, all through seaweed. Seaweed is a uniquely abundant and nutritious crop that actively regenerates the environment in which its grown — making the ocean healthier for marine flora and fauna while potentially mitigating the impacts of climate change. However, less than 2% of the seaweed we eat in the US comes from within the country. We have a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to grow and shape this burgeoning blue economy and avoid the mistakes we made with land-based agriculture. We hope anyone reading will join us in this movement to make seaweed the future of food and farming!
We are very blessed that some of the biggest names in Business, VC funding, Sports, and Entertainment read this column. Is there a person in the world, or in the US, with whom you would love to have a private breakfast or lunch, and why? He or she might just see this if we tag them.
I’d love to have lunch with and learn from Kirsten Green, Founder and MD of Forerunner Ventures. I have been following her career and forecasts for a few years now — she has always been on the cutting edge of next-generation consumer concepts. I would love to pick her brain about how to build a brand that can inspire a true food systems transformation.
Thank you for these fantastic insights. We greatly appreciate the time you spent on this.
Dr. Cindy McGovern Of Orange Leaf Consulting On Five Things You Need To Build A Trusted And Beloved Brand
An Interview With Fotis Georgiadis
Examine the core values behind the company’s brand. It is increasingly important to customers to buy from businesses that share their values and to employees to work for an organization that has compatible values.
Dr. Cindy McGovern is the founder of Orange Leaf Consulting, which helps organizations, entrepreneurs, and individuals create dynamic and robust sales processes. Before launching her business, McGovern was a college professor of communication as well as a successful sales professional. She has worked with hundreds of organizations of all sizes and specialties across the globe and is now one of the most sought-after business and sales authorities.
Thank you so much for doing this with us! Can you tell us a story about what brought you to this specific career path?
I actually started my career as a college professor. That was my goal and why I went to grad school, but after a few years of teaching, I decided to take my experience in the fields of communication and education to the next level and joined a consulting firm. One day my boss told me he wanted to move me into sales, and I literally said, “Ick!” But he convinced me to give it a try and I realized that I had been selling my entire life. I just didn’t know it was “sales.” A lightbulb went off and I realized I needed to help others to come to the realization that sales is not just a business skill; it is a life skill. Eventually, I started my own business consulting firm to help companies grow by enlisting their entire teams as salespeople and as ambassadors for their businesses. That led me to write my first book, Every Job Is a Sales Job: How to Use the Art of Selling to Win at Work. As I traveled around the country speaking on that topic, I often talked about creating a personal brand as a way to sell yourself — in a decidedly “non-icky” way. That led to other speeches about empowering people to live their personal brands. That brought me to write a book on personal branding. It just came out. It’s called: Sell Yourself: How to Create, Live, and Sell a Powerful Personal Brand.
Can you share a story about the funniest marketing mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lesson you learned from that?
I thought I could look back at this story and laugh one day, but that day hasn’t arrived yet. So this is more of a cautionary tale than a funny story. Personal branding, at its core, is a sales and marketing tool. When I was working on my Ph.D., I didn’t really have a personal brand. Or, I should say, I thought I didn’t. I have long, blonde hair, and I enjoy getting dressed up and trying to look my best every day. Just weeks before I was set to graduate, one of my favorite professors pulled me aside to tell me that some of the people I had worked alongside for many years as I earned my degree might have stereotyped me into sort of a “dumb blonde” mold. I was so stunned; “dumb blonde?” I was about to get Ph.D.! They weren’t basing that impression on anything I did; it was all about my appearance! But that was a true a-ha moment for me. I realized that I needed to control the narrative about who am I and what I can do. I had never thought about a personal brand back then, but I quickly realized that if I didn’t create one for myself — and live it every day — others were going to decide for themselves what my brand is. So I created a personal brand that focused on how I always have been: professional, prepared, smart, educated, serious.” I didn’t cut my hair; I cut out the middleman when it came to deciding who I was and what I was I was “selling.” I never want anyone to even think for a second that I am a dumb blonde.
What do you think makes your company stand out? Can you share a story?
The thing that makes my company, Orange Leaf Consulting, stand out among our competitors is my own personal brand. I do a lot of coaching with company owners and their employees. As part of my practice, I strictly adhere to my personal brand, which includes, among other qualities, “honest, helpful, kind, in it for the client.” I am kind to people, and sometimes that means being willing to tell someone that their baby is ugly.
Some clients want me to come in and coach one or two times and that’s it, but I won’t do that because in the end, that really won’t help the business grow. Coaching is a process that begins with an evaluation of the company and its staff — and with coaching for the leaders, not just the employees. I could have agreed take these shortcuts and then sent my invoice and washed my hands of it, but I won’t do that. I’ve turned away potential clients because they’re not all in — and I know I won’t be able to help a business grow if the owner/leaders aren’t committed to it. I’d rather walk away from the sale than sell them something that won’t work. If there’s one thing that sells, it’s honesty, helpfulness, kindness and a focus on the client. That’s what sets me apart.
Are you working on any exciting new projects now? How do you think that will help people?
I’m so very excited about my new book, Sell Yourself. I wrote it because I wanted to help people with all the changes in the world right now. During the worst of the pandemic, millions of people quit their jobs as part of the Great Resignation. Now, those people are returning to their old jobs (the Great Regret), finding new ones, starting businesses, changing fields — basically starting over. Whenever someone is starting out or has new goals, it’s so important to create a powerful personal brand (the Great Rebranding?). Personal branding helps us sell ourselves during job interviews, for promotions and raises, and even to new and old friends and co-workers. This book will help readers realize that selling themselves actually involves making a sale. The most important sales tool we have in our effort to sell ourselves is our personal brand. Sell Yourself takes readers through creating a brand that is authentic, thoughtful and easy to live day in and day out. Then it stresses the importance of living that brand very consistently. And finally, it convinces readers that they need to use that brand to sell themselves — which is the most important sale they’ll ever make. So the book teaches them how to sell using the strategies of sales professionals.
Ok let’s now jump to the core part of our interview. In a nutshell, how would you define the difference between brand marketing (branding) and product marketing (advertising)? Can you explain?
Product marketing focuses on the features and benefits of the product or service you are selling. Brand marketing, to me, involves the story we tell about the product, the company or even ourselves. Stories sell. A great example is advertising for SUVs. I’ve seen ads for the same car that tell two completely different stories about it because the manufacturer wants to sell that car to two different audiences. In both ads, the maker is selling how roomy the vehicle is. But one ad shows an outdoorsy friend group fitting their mountain bikes into it while the other focuses on a young couple with a baby, a car seat, a stroller and a diaper bag. Same car — different story. Stories sell, and that’s an important truth not only for selling stuff but for selling people. Company leaders with thoughtful personal brands know how to present themselves in the best light to their own employees; to tell stories about their experiences, values and goals, and to use their personal brands to reflect well on the company. People — including employees — like to “buy” from people they know, like and trust. A company leader who presents as knowable, likable and trustworthy will have an easier time keeping employees loyal and motivating them to move the company forward than a leader with no stories to tell.
Can you explain to our readers why it is important to invest resources and energy into building a brand, in addition to the general marketing and advertising efforts?
I’d like to talk about why it’s important for individuals and employers to invest resources and energy into building their own personal brands. I’m being asked more and more frequently by business owners and leaders to coach their employees about personal branding. Businesses are realizing that the way their employees present themselves both on and off the job has a lot to do with their companies’ bottom line. An employee who complains on social media about a bad day at work can scare potential employees away. One who publicly disagrees with company policies can sour customers on the business’s brand. On the other hand, those who use their personal social media to be a brand ambassador for their employers does the opposite. And workers who talk up the company to friends, or other parents at a child’s soccer game — while keeping any negative thoughts to themselves — are building goodwill for the company in the community. Businesses can hire personal branding consultants to help their employees create personal brands that incorporate the company’s values and missions and that include “brand ambassador” as one of their own brand qualities. That strengthens the business’s brand.
Can you share 5 strategies that a company should be doing to build a trusted and believable brand? Please tell us a story or example for each.
First, examine the core values behind the company’s brand. It is increasingly important to customers to buy from businesses that share their values and to employees to work for an organization that has compatible values. Second, teach employees how to become brand ambassadors for the company. Create social media policies that ensure employees either do not post about work on their private accounts or that encourage them to promote the positive aspects of their jobs and the company’s brands. Third, recognize that every job is a sales job, no matter if the word “selling” does not appear in an employee’s job description. Train employees to make “unofficial sales” for the company by incorporating the company’s values into their own personal brands. Fourth, tell stories, and not just about products. Tell the stories of employees and customers who bring something special to the company’s brand or who have benefitted from it. Finally, ask every supervisor, manager and leader to live the company’s brand day in and day out. If the bosses do not model the company’s vision and values, employees and customers won’t buy into the brand — which could reflect poorly on product sales.
In your opinion, what is an example of a company that has done a fantastic job building a believable and beloved brand. What specifically impresses you? What can one do to replicate that?
Trader Joe’s is a great example of a company with a powerful brand. Ask anyone who works or shops there and they will recognize the grocery chain’s brand as “fun, quirky, easy to navigate, specialized, high quality, generic, red and reasonably priced.” They didn’t copy other grocery industry leaders, whose products are similar but whose brands are very serious and blander. But what I love best about Trader Joe’s brand is that it revolves not only around making happy customers but around employee satisfaction. It’s often mentioned as a great place to work by magazines. It expects employees to make the customer experience fun and in turn focuses on employee engagement. Think about it: Have you ever seen a Trader Joe’s commercial? Nope … because you don’t need to advertise a good party!
In advertising, one generally measures success by the number of sales. How does one measure the success of a brand building campaign? Is it similar, is it different?
It’s different. You can measure the success of your brand by the number of people you help and influence. You can measure it by the number of people who understand your mission, values, goals and philosophies. Success in branding is not as much about sales as it is about awareness. Do people say what you hope they will when they talk about your company and its products? Do they say what you hope they will say about you personally? Pay attention to that. When what you intend to present to others about your company or yourself is what others mirror back about you, that’s a true measure of success.
What role does social media play in your branding efforts?
I brand myself in two ways: as the founder and CEO of Orange Leaf Consulting and Orange Leaf Academy and as the author of two books that I hope can help people live happier, more successful lives. So I have two social media footprints: one to let everyone know about my consulting services, which contains content to help my clients grow their businesses; and the other to promote my books and help readers grow personally and professionally. I post on both frequently and I stick to my personal brand of “professional, qualified, helpful, kind and client-first” on both. I use social media not only to promote my services and books, but to offer tips, articles and retweets from others who can help them in business and in life.
You are a person of great influence. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger. 🙂
I would change the way people look at sales and take the “ick” out of it. Sure, some sales professionals are manipulative, pushy and even dishonest, but most absolutely are not. The reason it’s important for people to embrace sales is that if we all knew how to sell — even those who are not in the field of sales at all — we could use those skills and strategies to sell ourselves, sell our causes and sell for our companies — in an unofficial capacity. The fact is, everybody sells all the time. When you convince your child to eat vegetables, you have made a sale. When you request a raise at work and you get it, you’ve made a sale. When you ace a job interview and land the position, it’s a sale. When a client of your company who can get your product cheaper elsewhere but sticks with your business because of the way you treat her, you’ve made a sale. If everyone were comfortable selling themselves based on a personal brand that showcases their superpowers — the things about them that most others don’t have — we would all be happier and more successful. We are a stronger world when everybody brings their superpowers to the table.
Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share how that was relevant to you in your life?
I say all the time that nobody does this life alone. Everyone needs help with something, some time. Most of us need a lot of help from a lot of people. We need friends, colleagues, employees, relatives, neighbors, experts — so many people. But too many of us refuse to ask for help. Part of my personal brand is that I’m the first one to ask for help with projects that require different skills from mine, with expertise that is in a different field from mine, with technology that is more complicated than I have the skills for. I work with editors, social media specialists, videographers, webmasters and on and on. I don’t have the knowledge or the time to do everything myself. My motto: If you don’t ask, you don’t get. I encourage everyone to ask for help often. Your product will be better if you do, and the people whose help you enlist will appreciate your asking them.
We are blessed that very prominent leaders in business and entertainment read this column. Is there a person in the world with whom you would like to have a lunch or breakfast with? He or she might just see this, especially if we tag them. 🙂
Dolly Parton. She also has been accused of being a dumb blonde — and there’s not a dumb bone in that woman’s body. She even wrote a song called “Dumb Blonde.” I love this lyric:
“Just because I’m blonde Don’t think I’m dumb Cause this dumb blonde ain’t nobody’s fool”
Dolly Parton has perhaps the most visible and reliable personal brand of anyone in the world. When you think of her, you think big voice and bigger hair. Sparkly outfits. Funny and kind. When you see her on talk shows, that’s what you get. When you go to her concerts, same thing. Every single time. She has been quoted saying that she doesn’t wash her makeup off her face before she goes to bed because in case of an emergency that forces her out of her house or hotel room, she doesn’t want the firefighters and onlookers to see her looking like anything other than the Dolly Parton they know and love. She lives her brand, even in her sleep. I respect that!
Don’t be afraid of failures and don’t lie to yourself about when you have failed. Embrace that failure as a new notch on your belt in terms of knowing what not to do and directing you on a narrower path that is more certain to be successful. Don’t try to hang on to something that’s failing and let it go as fast as possible and move on to the next thing. For example, the original vision for Curios was to not only be for digital collectibles, but also physical collectibles. We realized that the two don’t mesh well, so we pivoted to only focus on digital assets.
As a part of our series about business leaders who are shaking things up in their industry, I had the pleasure of interviewing Grant Powell.
Grant Powell is the Founder of Curios, professional numismatist, and an ex-Googler. An expert in developing some of the most innovative technologies and digital products, some of Grant’s highlights include the first-ever live streaming platform for YouTube (for concerts such as U2, Alicia Keys, Coachella) and the first-ever application to integrate with Spotify’s web API for matching people based on their similar tastes in music. Grant is knowledgeable in a wide range of programming languages as well as being an expert in design and artistic direction.
Thank you so much for doing this with us! Before we dig in, our readers would like to get to know you a bit more. Can you tell us a bit about your “backstory”? What led you to this particular career path?
I’ve been a technologist since forever, 20 plus years now and as far back as the days when we used to have things such as “interactive agencies.” I started almost entirely self-taught and was able to get an internship early on at a company called Vision Art Interactive. Ever since then, I have been addicted to not just technology, but turning technologies into viable products that people enjoy using. I’ve incubated and launched several startups over the years, including Curiously (not to be confused with Curios), which is a music dating app and was the first app to ever integrate with Spotify’s Web API. I also built the first ever peer-to-peer lending platform called YouPawn, and the first ever live streaming experiences for YouTube –
which featured Alicia Keys, Bonnaroo, Coachella, Paul McCartney and many more live performances.
I am also a very serious collector and numismatist. In fact, I am the number one numismatist in the U.S. on Google searches (look it up). As a collector, I was very excited to learn about NFTs, and the ability to collect digital things. but, I was dismayed at how difficult it was. So I decided to build my own platform that would make it easier for people to create, sell, buy, and collect NFTS. That’s why I started Curios.
Can you tell our readers what it is about the work you’re doing that’s disruptive?
Our purpose is to drive mass adoption. We want anyone and everyone to be able to participate in Web3, blockchain and NFT experiences. It seems in this industry; people prioritize things such as the illusion of decentralization over inclusion and ease of use. Everything that we are building is for the purpose of lowering the barrier to entry, and making it easier for people to either create, or integrate them into their business, or invest in them.
We were one of the first ever NFT platforms to accept fiat or credit card payments as a means of purchasing NFTs and storing those NFTs in custody wallets so that users don’t have to go through the extremely complicated process of setting up their own crypto wallet. Many people pushed back on our implementation of these technologies initially, and now it seems literally every software or platform in our space is doing the same.
Ultimately, the most disruptive thing that we are doing is our vision itself — our vision of making things easy. One of our most disruptive features is our multi chain support. Using our simple web back end, anyone with zero knowledge of programming or blockchain can create / mint NFTs across six different blockchains in a matter of minutes. Our most powerful tool that anyone can use is our REST API which, for example, enables anyone who understands basic programming to be able to mint NFTs across the same blockchains with one simple API call. There is no other platform in the world who can offer that.
Can you share a story about the funniest mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lesson you learned from that?
I’ve been doing this a long time and one of the blessings I’ve experienced in growing Curios, compared to the other startups I’ve been involved in, is that we have made very few mistakes.
I guess you might call it a mistake that we used to pitch potential customers on things that we had not built yet and our vision of those things were often half-baked. For example, we used to talk about “private blockchain” functionality and how that was an important feature of our platform. And what’s funny is that I don’t even think a private blockchain is really a thing. Or maybe it is, by someone’s definition, but certainly not something in the that way we were pitching it. In the long run, I don’t think this was a mistake, as it was valuable for us to be constantly pushing out new visions for features that we intended to build into our application; whether or not you stick with those initial visions does not matter. In fact, much of what you originally envisioned for your company will not happen — you will pivot, and that is good.
We all need a little help along the journey. Who have been some of your mentors? Can you share a story about how they made an impact?
I’m always amazed by how much people are willing to help. And oftentimes, they ask nothing in return. We would have nothing if it wasn’t for our incredible advisors, mentors, and investors!
Jenny Fielding (co-founder of The Fund, and former managing director of Techstars NY) has been a guiding light for us since day one. In the world of tech startups these days, it’s not just about the technology — you need to make sure that you are building a product for the future. Jenny has seen hundreds, probably thousands of company ideas over her tenure in the startup world, and she knows exactly which things you need to focus on to build for success. There is no replacement for her level of experience and her lending us that experience has helped us stay focused and has largely contributed to our success to date. Jenny was the one who nudged me into the NFT space.
Dan Rice (co-founder and CTO of Bling Financial) is not only a technology genius, but an incredible problem solver. He has this uncanny ability to look at problems and situations from multiple perspectives, and offer a way forward that is unprecedented, efficient, and will ultimately leads to winning. Dan and I chat regularly and about once every three months, he’ll just drop a golden nugget of an idea into my brain that will lead to a great path of success. One time Dan even joined an early sales call with us to answer technical questions that we were uncertain about — we won the pitch!
In today’s parlance, being disruptive is usually a positive adjective. But is disrupting always good? When do we say the converse, that a system or structure has ‘withstood the test of time’? Can you articulate to our readers when disrupting an industry is positive, and when disrupting an industry is ‘not so positive’? Can you share some examples of what you mean?
It’s true that disruption is not always positive. However, you can’t have the good without the bad. Disruption is necessary and we must endure the downsides of bad disruption in order to be able to reap the benefits of good disruption. It’s hard to know what type of disruption will be bad until it has occurred, as hindsight is always 20/20. Instead of asking whether you’re doing “good” disruption or “bad” disruption, try asking yourself “What problem are you solving?” One of the classic mistakes by startups is that they’re creating a solution for a problem that doesn’t exist. If you are disrupting something, make sure you are doing it with the intention of solving an actual problem that does in fact…exist!
Can you share three of the best words of advice you’ve gotten along your journey? Please give a story or example for each.
Make your first dollar! One of the biggest reasons why we were able to raise money fast at a good valuation is because we have revenue and traction. But even more important is the fact that by pursuing that first dollar, you’re getting over the hump of building something that someone is willing to pay for. And that is a critical validator.
Progress, not perfection — many people will spend months or years envisioning what their product could be and want to have the perfect vision before they start building their product. I do the opposite. I start writing code and when my face is in the mud because what we built was built completely wrong, then I know with certainty exactly how it should have been built…and then I go rebuild it that way. If you were able to look at the past version of our website, it was embarrassing! Even our current website has a lot of room for improvement, but I don’t care. I could spend six months perfecting the next version but by the time I launch it, it will be outdated and irrelevant, and we will have to start the process again. Take baby steps to always improve and iterate infinitely.
Fail fast — this is a popular and important one. Don’t be afraid of failures and don’t lie to yourself about when you have failed. Embrace that failure as a new notch on your belt in terms of knowing what not to do and directing you on a narrower path that is more certain to be successful. Don’t try to hang on to something that’s failing and let it go as fast as possible and move on to the next thing. For example, the original vision for Curios was to not only be for digital collectibles, but also physical collectibles. We realized that the two don’t mesh well, so we pivoted to only focus on digital assets.
We are sure you aren’t done. How are you going to shake things up next?
Oh man, there is so much to do! As a Web3 suite of tools, our toolbox is never full. There are new tools that will be needed that we can’t even imagine yet, and I really look forward to building them in the future!
The way we are shaking things up is by bringing back democratization to digital assets. The future of blockchain, NFTs, metaverse, etc. is inclusive, easy to use, and open.
I often describe an NFT marketplace or a metaverse as a “walled garden.” Each of these walled gardens can only operate within itself. They often have their own currency, their own information format and any asset that you buy or collect within their ecosystem is stuck there — and cannot be taken anywhere else. We’re working on building open protocols that would create interoperability between each of these ecosystems so that digital assets could move freely — thereby significantly increasing their value and utility. So far everyone is telling us this can’t be done, and I think they are wrong.
Do you have a book, podcast, or talk that’s had a deep impact on your thinking? Can you share a story with us? Can you explain why it was so resonant with you?
I don’t have a book or podcast specifically that I would recommend. However, I do believe that it is paramount that you are always reading, listening, absorbing, and learning. But don’t always take what you read or hear as truth. You must take everything with a grain of salt and formulate your own ideas and paths forward. It will be these unique ideas and approaches of your own that will differentiate you from everybody else, and lead to your success.
Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share how that was relevant to you in your life?
Don’t count your chickens before they hatch! It makes me cringe when I hear people talking about something as if it’s already happened when I know in fact that there are a lot of ways in which this thing could not happen. Even something as simple as selling a house — if someone has made you an offer on your house, it is far from a done deal. Don’t bank on it.
One example of this for Curios is that we way overestimated our growth predictions initially and signed up for some services that we needed to use and ended up paying a huge amount of money up front in order to get a discount on a high-volume implementation. When that growth did not happen, we ultimately spent money for nothing. Lesson learned. In simple terms, consider licensing something monthly instead of paying for an annual license at a discount. You may find out after a couple months that you no longer need that thing.
You are a person of great influence. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger. 🙂
Of all the problems in the world, the one thing that keeps me up at night is the destruction of our own planet. We need to protect nature and one idea that I have for that is to continue to build vertical cities instead of horizontal cities. If we can centralize humans into smaller regions, we can limit our impact on the rest of the world and leave nature alone to flourish. I think there’s a lot of opportunity for innovation in the way of building efficient, highly populated, vertical cities. Have at it!
Meet The Disruptors: Joe Ferrer Of Mailbox Money Community Foundation On The Five Things You Need To Shake Up Your Industry
An Interview With Fotis Georgiadis
I personally also think about my own faith and focus on that, and I value the people around me, who help me make this bigger and better. And we just do the work, together.
As a part of our series about business leaders who are shaking things up in their industry, I had the pleasure of interviewing Joe Ferrer.
Joe Ferrer seeks to enrich the lives of others through micro-philanthropy. After years of giving and then hosting his own ‘random acts of kindness day’ on his 40th birthday, Joe identified a gap in the philanthropy world. People wanted to give, especially towards kindness, but they didn’t believe their donations would make an impact. He sought to fill that gap by making it easier for people to amplify their giving through a nonprofit called Mailbox Money Community Foundation (Mailbox Money). As the founder, he has helped distribute random acts of kindness to over 550 people in 18 months by engaging over 400 individual donors. This community of like-minded individuals has given away over $50K.
In his professional life, Joe is a Financial Advisor, celebrating 20 years in the profession. His successful career and personal journey inspired Joe to become an author. Joe shares the secrets of his success in his best-selling book Mailbox Money and he talks about living a life of purpose in the best-selling sequel, Journey to the 5th.
Thank you so much for doing this with us! Before we dig in, our readers would like to get to know you a bit more. Can you tell us a bit about your “backstory”? What led you to this particular career path?
I came from humble beginnings. I moved a lot. Sometimes money was super tight at home. I saw credit used as an extension of a paycheck rather than a tool to be careful with.
I knew from an early age that I didn’t want to have to fight to make ends meet and I didn’t want to struggle the way my parents did, so I learned how to be a frugal person.
Fortunately, I worked hard and ended up receiving a full football scholarship to Notre Dame. I’m really proud of that honor, but outside of that feeling I got on the field, I was able receive an incredible education. Another football player that is a Financial Advisor reached out to me and that’s how I chose my career, Financial Advising — because it spoke to my passion to be financially free and help others realize that gift as well.
Over the past several years, I’ve seen an explosion in my career and that led me to doing some wild things like authoring two best-selling books, and founding a nontraditional nonprofit, Mailbox Money Community Foundation aka Mailbox Money.
Can you tell our readers what it is about the work you’re doing that’s disruptive?
I admit, it’s not uncommon for a Financial Advisor to get into nonprofit work. Many are philanthropic givers and volunteers.
I think the difference is that I founded a nontraditional nonprofit that is truly disruptive. People are tired of giving the same way old, rich people give. But who said you have to be rich to be a giver? No one. It’s a lie people tell themselves! You don’t have to be rich to give. And people are looking for a way to give that speaks to them. So, this nonprofit, Mailbox Money, helps the “I’m not rich” people amplify their giving through micro-donations.
You asked how it’s distruptive. We shake things up.
First of all, members donate $10 every month. It won’t break the bank. Secondly, if anyone can give, then anyone can receive a random act of kindness. Why? Everyone needs kindness. So, we don’t only give to people in need, which is what most nonprofits do. Third, we don’t have a specific cause. Today we may surprise an animal shelter with $2,000 worth of supplies from their wish list. Tomorrow we may end up crashing someone’s home closing with a $500 gift. We give to all kinds of causes. Mailbox Money members are changing the world $10 at a time with impactful random acts of kindness.
Can you share a story about the funniest mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lesson you learned from that?
Ha! I remember thinking everyone would see a $10 monthly donation and automatically join the Mailbox Money community. I didn’t realize that even doing good is a competitive landscape and getting people to understand the impact and want to join would be so difficult.
The lesson I learned, is just do the work. The right people will find you when they’re supposed to.
Too often we get caught up in “right now”, but that’s because social and really society now, teaches immediate gratification. It’s just not reality when you’re running a nonprofit.
We all need a little help along the journey. Who have been some of your mentors? Can you share a story about how they made an impact?
We do all need help along the way. I’ve had a lot of people pour into me.
I think about Kevin Swan, Titus, Geoff Voorhees, Jerry Abbey.
The biggest thing is that you need to believe in yourself, but when you see someone else’s belief in you, from their vantage point, that’s an encouraging and motivating gift. I don’t think people understand the value of a mentor. When they give you their time, energy, and spend time with you, giving you access to their brain… Man, it makes a difference.
I remember one situation where my mentor drilled into me that you gotta keep your eye on the goal, even when it’s hard. Even when it feels like you can’t dig anymore, you dig harder and deeper. But that only works if you believe in yourself more than anyone else. That accountability and belief makes a difference. I’m encouraged when I see the faces and hear the stories of recipients of our acts of kindness. And when our members see those stories and know they helped make that happen, it just reaffirms what we are doing. It encourages me to keep digging.
In today’s parlance, being disruptive is usually a positive adjective. But is disrupting always good? When do we say the converse, that a system or structure has ‘withstood the test of time’? Can you articulate to our readers when disrupting an industry is positive, and when disrupting an industry is ‘not so positive’? Can you share some examples of what you mean?
Disruption can be good, and it can be bad, based on the long-term effects.
Disruption is good when you give people access to experience something they couldn’t before — and that thing is good. So Instacart, Mailbox Money, etc. It’s cool that your average person can have someone else grocery shop for them, right? It’s cool that we’ve been able to show people that they can give even if they’re not giving thousands of dollars. They can still make a difference.
Now, of course disruption can be bad when you break down a system to make it cheaper, but you also decrease the value of the service, product, or quality of life. For example, our patience and attention are growing smaller. Why? Because we have disruptions in industries we don’t think make an impact — but they do. Like being able to binge watch a TV show. Once a week, my youngest son and I sit down and watch the new episode of Bel-Air. My son knows we are gonna watch it and then talk about it. It’s one of our weekly times spent together. But if we sat down and watched it in one shot over two days, that weekly experience goes away, and it’s cheapened by just getting through the show. Even Netflix seems to be reigning some of that back — they did two releases of the new Stranger Things season. Disney+ is releasing episodes one at a time too.
Can you share five of the best words of advice you’ve gotten along your journey? Please give a story or example for each.
When I think about best words of advice I’ve gotten, just a couple come to mind quickly. Someone once told me to “just do the work” and I think about that all the time. Sometimes we want things to happen in a certain way we’ve imagine or at a certain time, but if you just keep your head down and do the work, things will happen when they’re supposed to.
I personally also think about my own faith and focus on that, and I value the people around me, who help me make this bigger and better. And we just do the work, together.
“Be the change you want to see in the world.” This is kind of crazy because I have not thought of it like this until now. I think Mailbox Money has made me a better giver and a better person, because I’m trying to be that kind person, and do good for others, and make a difference. Like I’m embodying the change I’m pursuing in the world. I wonder if when we are pursuing something, in our personal or professional lives, if we end up changing to embody that goal or greater good we seek.
We are sure you aren’t done. How are you going to shake things up next?
We want to go global. We’re in 19 states right now. However, I think we are made for more. I think Mailbox Money will make a massive difference, especially in areas where our money goes further. I think about the impact $10 can make in an international environment and how that will feel to the givers. Being able to see what your giving can do is important.
So, I want to speak to the global community of people that are looking for a more affordable way to give. I want those people to understand there’s an opportunity for them with us at Mailbox Money.
Do you have a book, podcast, or talk that’s had a deep impact on your thinking? Can you share a story with us? Can you explain why it was so resonant with you?
Oh man, I’m a reader. I love a good book, one that really tells a story and gives a lesson. Actually, Mailbox Money was a book before it was a nonprofit. The sequel to Mailbox Money is Journey to the 5th, which really digs into community giving. So yeah, I would say a lot of books influenced me on this journey — the journey of becoming an author and the journey of creating this disruptive nonprofit.
I think about The Alchemist, Celestine Prophecy, Rich Dad Poor Dad, Who Moved My Cheese? These are crucial books that bring you on a journey and tell a story. I really enjoy that style of writing, it makes me feel like I’m on a trip, my own journey and I’m learning these crucial, life-changing philosophies. Even with Rich Dad, Poor Dad, man, it’s just teaching in a unique way. I think I’ve retained a lot of what I learned because of that style of storytelling. Even the way I parent, the way I coach kids in football…
So, it’s not just the lessons I’ve learned…and there’s lessons in each of those books. For me, it’s about the storytelling in each of those books. That’s how you impact someone. You have to capture them with your storytelling and take them on that personal journey.
Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share how that was relevant to you in your life?
“What the mind can conceive, it can achieve.” The idea of believing. Having faith.
See it. Think about it. Believe in it. It may take a long time but it’s within your grasp.
The beauty of mastering your mind and training it to take you to where you want to be and then FURTHER. That’s the beautiful part of it when you go even further.
Think about Walt Disney. I’m sure a lot of what he envisaged has come to life, but I bet there is so much more now than even he imagined. Did Walt Disney imagine Disney Cruise Lines? Ya know? Did he imagine owning a private island for Disney’s cruise guests? His vision propelled the brand even further than his mind could fathom.
So, yeah, see it, think about it, believe in it. What the mind can conceive, it can achieve.
You are a person of great influence. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger. 🙂
I think Mailbox Money is that movement for me. That’s why I founded the nonprofit. We help people amplify their giving because we truly believe in a world where everyone can be a giver. And I genuinely believe we can get there by organized micro-philanthropy, but the best part is that if we can accomplish that, we will create a happier, more generous, kind, and united society — and we need that now more than ever. Not just here, but everywhere.
Think about it. Members of one global organization committed to giving in kindness, from the United States, Denmark, South Africa, Australia, Japan, India, Brazil, and the list is endless. Everyone contributing to random acts of kindness all over the world. That’s the vision. And someone here is doing something incredible for someone in Romania. And someone in Romania is doing something awesome for someone in Mexico. That’s the synergy we’re going for. That’s the potential.
How can our readers follow you online?
You can follow me on Instagram @Global_Mailbox_Money, on Facebook and TikTok at @GlobalMailboxMoney
That’s where we post our giving videos, and our fireside chats where we really dig into giving, mailbox money and micro-philanthropy.
This was very inspiring. Thank you so much for joining us!
The Future Is Now: Locke Brown Of NuID On How Their Technological Innovation Will Shake Up The Tech Scene
An Interview With Fotis Georgiadis
Not only do we believe the verification incentive is a good strategy, the rollout of the token itself is a way to get NuID into the hands of individuals globally.
As a part of our series on cutting-edge technological breakthroughs, I had the pleasure of interviewingLocke Brown, CEO and Founder of NuID.
Locke’s passion has always been pursuing greater efficiency in society’s most elemental interaction: exchange. It’s what drove him headfirst into mining Bitcoin in 2013, and to join the trading desk at Bill Gates’ private investment office, BMGI, in 2014.
While obtaining a B.A. in Mathematics and Economics and an M.A. in Finance from Claremont McKenna College, Locke developed software at Google and served countless roles at a multi-asset class-emerging market fund in Mongolia. He went on to co-found the blockchain working group internal to BMGI, which ultimately led him to recognize digital identity as the key area for foundational improvement necessary to usher in the next paradigm of global exchange.
Locke’s founding and leadership role at NuID has earned him board positions at a number of early and mid-stage startups in biotechnology, healthcare, and higher education. His earnest drive for efficient exchange extends to knowledge transfer and experience sharing across organizational boundaries, which he finds the key to effective exchange of the most valuable resource of all: time.
Thank you so much for doing this with us! Before we dive in, our readers would love to learn a bit about you. Can you tell us a story about what brought you to this specific career path?
My pleasure. There’s definitely not a single defining story that led me here — it was the culmination of many things including my interests and focus in math, finance, technology, and probably spending too much time in the crypto world in its early days. A lot of armchair philosophizing as well. But the most relevant story I guess, and I’ll keep this short, was serendipitously meeting Nolan Smith in Seattle when hiking one day. He was college friends with a high school friend of mine who came out to visit and ended up bringing us together. The rest is history. I was working at Bill Gates’ family office. He was at Microsoft. We ended up going down countless rabbit holes multiple days a week to the point we built out my basement and acquired four or five whiteboards — that’s where the magic happened, no question. That’s where the vision was born: in the cave, as we called it. Not sure if the best stories are PG though.
Can you share the most interesting story that’s happened to you since you began your career?
Definitely not… I’m joking. But really there are so many crazy things that have happened in the 5.5 years since NuID began and even more going back further. I can share some of the stories from my time in Mongolia at another point because those are probably the most interesting. Honestly though, this is a tough one because something interesting happens in my life almost every day (ask anyone I work with!).
Can you tell us about the cutting-edge technological breakthroughs that you are working on? How do you think that will help people?
So our core innovation/technology, “the NuID protocol”, provides what we call “zero knowledge authentication”. But I should back up for a second and give a tiny bit of context: our goal is to return data ownership to the individual by providing the tools for ordinary people to use cryptography in such a way that is easy and allows them to control their information online. We’re effectively a digital identity company, paving a way for people to have a self-owned — or sovereign — single digital representation of themselves that’s portable from service to service and allows them to control what and with whom anything is shared. Now this comes in many steps but our core tech (or secret sauce) is our approach from the authentication vector. If I could authenticate myself as someone else online, then that digital representation is useless because it can be compromised. So in solving digital identity, we first have to fix the way individuals are authenticated, which is what our core tech accomplishes.
The solution generates user-owned web credentials by converting authentication credentials into public ZKP parameters and persisting them using a blockchain. The solution is so-called “zero-knowledge” because no one, not even NuID, has the ability to see people’s login credentials: they never leave the user’s device. We’ll get into the broader implications of the solution, but people stand to benefit as it creates a portable and user-owned identity platform. We’ll talk a lot more about this in a few minutes. We’ve got a couple of whitepapers on our site that go into the detail, the code in our repo, and if you’re really curious you can look up our patents to see how it all works.
How do you think this might change the world?
I know it’s bold to say but the core of what we are trying to do will upend so many aspects of life: not just for industries but it will fundamentally change the way everyone interacts with the internet and digital services. At the most basic level: say goodbye to “forgot my password” sloggery and the chance of getting that cringeworthy email “SO AND SO HAS HAD A DATA BREACH AND YOUR DATA IS COMPROMISED”. Imagine having a handful or less of secure passwords that you know aren’t sitting out there somewhere waiting to be compromised, and being able to use them for everything.
I look at what we’ve built as a foundational protocol fit for giants to stand on. It’s a utility, much like your water or power providers in that it will work, you can rely on it, and you won’t have to think about or worry if it is going to be there for you in the morning. Even the way it’s designed is such that if for whatever reason NuID as a company disappears, the technology and credentials by it will persist.
Now it also has the wonderful benefit of unlocking so many other efficiencies: it’s really the missing piece (trusted user owned and portable identity) for so many other things: think digitized real estate titles (sorry, title search companies!), digital voting, and it’s the solution to the regulatory issue of the moment in the crypto world: NuID provides a solution for privacy-preserving accountability and audibility. Think KYC for decentralized exchanges and the like. This is a long answer but I’ll stop there for now.
Keeping “Black Mirror” in mind, can you see any potential drawbacks of this technology that people should think more deeply about?
For sure. And really that’s why I’ve dedicated the last almost six years and as much of my future as it takes to it: it’s to ensure this is done the right way. It’s past the point of no return that we are moving to have all the operational processes of life supported in some manner by digitization. That’s just happening. And ultimately someone, or government, or many of them, are going to be enacting solutions — quick fixes or not. But ultimately what we don’t want is it done wrong. If it is done quickly in a way that leaves open the possibility not just for compromisation or unintended consequences, what we don’t want is inequality baked in. The beauty of the decentralized method is the ability to be transparent, community driven, and fair. And that is at our core ethos. We don’t even have to be trusted. Don’t want to use our API for authentication? Fine, you can re-roll it yourself. Fuckery is amok and I want to put an end to that growing any further, particularly when it comes to my individual rights to information, sovereignty and so forth. What it’s really all about though is ACCOUNTABILITY FOR ACTIONS. Accountability for regulators, for people, for businesses, for overseers, and the like. But not sacrificing privacy to do so.
But aside from that, my biggest worry on this front is GROUPTHINK. Now I don’t have time to go into the depths of this here today, but ultimately the biggest risk I see is that some false “truth” is upheld by certain influencers, let’s say, and other people just go along and perpetuate it. This could cause the widespread upholding of something not really wanted. Anyway, I’d elaborate but that’s happening now already and I think — I know — this is a better solution than we’ve got. So we’ll take it a step at a time.
Was there a “tipping point” that led you to this breakthrough? Can you tell us that story?
I think there have been many. The first tipping point to going all in was meeting Nolan Smith. The second was having our idea deemed feasible by one of the world’s greatest cryptographers. Really there have been so many tipping points. One of them was probably when the IRS told me my birthday was a day different than it is and wouldn’t accept my tax return. And they are still happening: every single time I get locked out of something and can’t get back in. Or when I need TWO forms of ID to do something at the bank (But I am me: why do I need to have all of this?!). Or when the bank deposits my cash into a different William Brown’s account despite providing two forms of ID. I guess I’ll say it’s been a super-long drawn-out tipping point and I’m trying not to be fully inverted at this point.
What do you need to lead this technology to widespread adoption?
Education, buy-in, understanding… it’s all coming. And people are feeling the pains of the issue more and more. While we have been around since early 2017, we haven’t been ready to bring it to the world until just recently. That’s because unlike a commonly held mantra of “fail fast”, with authentication you can’t fail. It isn’t an option. And so we were meticulous. We were thoughtful. And we want to do things right. Like I’ve said: we want to offer a foundation for giants to stand on. And so now we’re here. And anyone that has looked for and tried to follow me on social media and things like that: you probably didn’t find much. So it’s interviews like these, it’s the launch of our five-years-in-the-making crypto token Kii coming in late September, and the identity-optimized ledger the KiiChain thereafter, that’ll help propel this into greater adoption. Couple that with the scaling out of our developer portal, our planned channel partnership initiative, and next year enterprise authentication sales: we will be bridging not only the web2 to web3 gap, but the traditional enterprise to crypto individualist to regulatory gap as well.
What have you been doing to publicize this idea? Have you been using any innovative marketing strategies?
Our core authentication protocol is applicable to so many different services and fields. We face a chicken and egg dilemma: the more services use it for authenticating users, the more valuable it becomes to users — and more users relying on it will make it more valuable for services. The goal right now is to get as many people as possible to register a NuID credential and to have an attestation associated with it representing that they have verified their identity. (To make it clear here: I could authenticate using my NuID credential with service ABC and they could go through the process of verifying my identity. But instead of then having to go through that process everywhere else a service requires my ID to be verified, service ABC could issue an attestation claiming Locke is Locke based on these factors on this date and so forth. Then when I go to service XYZ, instead of me having to provide them with all my sensitive information to go through the process again (and they face cost and liability to do this), they could request that I authenticate the attestation from service ABC, and if XYZ trusts the process of ABC, accept that — this is the essence of the portable identity).
So anyhow, we need folks to want to have a verified NuID credential. One unique way we are approaching this currently is by offering an incentive for folks to verify their identity in the form of 10 free Kii. As I briefly mentioned, we are in the midst of launching our long-awaited token Kii and built into the token itself is an allocation whereby the first 10 million people to verify their identity and receive an attestation for it will have 10 Kii issued directly to their NuID credential (which I hadn’t mentioned but has the happy benefit of serving as a crypto wallet since it is built on PKI and your auth secret is the private key to the public identifier being the public key. You can learn more about all this at kiichain.org where you’ll find a Kii-specific paper and other resources).
Not only do we believe the verification incentive is a good strategy, the rollout of the token itself is a way to get NuID into the hands of individuals globally.
On the authentication service side, we’ll be rolling out a channel partner program where developers and contractors will be able to earn up to 20% of the cost of the service for any of their clients they deploy NuID with. But more on that to come early next year.
None of us are able to achieve success without some help along the way. Is there a particular person who you are grateful towards who helped get you to where you are? Can you share a story about that?
Nolan Smith. After I had dragged him from Seattle to SF to NYC to Alabama at the start of this year, he has taken some time for himself but he deserves as much credit as I and has been my biggest inspiration. I want to also just mention Sam Meadows who was one of our biggest champions and a large motivator for me who recently passed.
How have you used your success to bring goodness to the world?
Haha, well I would say I’m in the process of having that “success” and true success will be bringing this all, which I think is good, to the world.
What are your “5 Things I Wish Someone Told Me Before I Started” and why?
There’s really nothing anyone could have told me to prepare me for this journey. Not that I would have necessarily done anything differently as I tend to find myself learning lessons for myself anyway (that’s half a joke). But in all reality, the few things I do wish someone had told me before I started are not things I’m going to share here — and I don’t want to not be candid.
You are a person of great influence. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger. 🙂
It’s all Nu baby! I’m not trying to influence people. I’m just trying to help alleviate the biggest inefficiency and informational asymmetry I feel exists in the digital space right now. People will want what we are building because it is going to help them remove at least some of the frustrations they face over and over again. The internet should be a tool for us as humans, to organize processes and heighten our experience in the real world and through our relationships.
Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share how that was relevant to you in your life?
I have two: one is by Alan Watts: “Planning for the future is only useful for those who live in the moment” and the other is “Be stubborn on vision and flexible on the journey” — it’s unclear who to attribute this to. The first one helped me find the balance between living in the now and constantly trying to plan for my future self. The second one is core to how I approach NuID and has a place in my mind whenever I’m making a tough decision that others may not understand. It’s easy to get caught in the immediacy, especially in this day and age. But it’s important to keep the true goal in mind and understand the sunk cost fallacy: just because we’ve been doing something doesn’t mean it’s the optimal thing to continue doing if a better path forward has presented itself.
Some very well-known VCs read this column. If you had 60 seconds to make a pitch to a VC, what would you say? He or she might just see this if we tag them 🙂
I’d say to reach out and ask me about the “development fund roundtable” I’m launching.
How can our readers follow you on social media?
I personally have spent probably less than a day engaged on social media in the last 10 years or so, but at NuID we’re active on Twitter and Discord: https://twitter.com/_NuID and https://discord.gg/akhBbEc8. Though I’ll probably refresh and begin posting some content on my website toward the end of this year at lockebrown.com
Thank you so much for joining us. This was very inspirational.
Meet The Disruptors: Sean Dickerson Of MADE Nightlife On The Five Things You Need To Shake Up Your Industry
An Interview With Fotis Georgiadis
Pretend that money doesn’t exist, decide what you would enjoy doing every day for free — and then figure out how to monetize that. If you find you like spending 8 hours a day on photoshop making clothing designs and you’re fulfilled by that process, not the result but the process, then designing clothes is the thing you need to figure out how to be paid for.
As a part of our series about business leaders who are shaking things up in their industry, I had the pleasure of interviewingSean Dickerson from MADE Nightlife.
Sean Dickerson, a well-known name in the Los Angeles nightlife scene, has paved the way in Hollywood as one of the top social industry curators. Dickerson has been hustling in the nightlife industry for the past 11 years while also playing a key role in hosting concerts and after-parties for notable celebrities and VIP guests in the city. Over the past decade, Sean has made his mark in the industry by leveraging his strong rapport with nightlife venues and personalities to create memorable and sought-after events. Currently, Dickerson hosts exclusive weekly parties and pop-ups, that offer one-of-a-kind curation and living innovation. Today, Dickerson plays an integral part in the MADE executive team. His accomplishments include curating guest lists that guarantee memorable nights and engaging a global audience with his efforts.
Thank you so much for doing this with us! Before we dig in, our readers would like to get to know you a bit more. Can you tell us a bit about your “backstory”? What led you to this particular career path?
I moved from Baltimore to Los Angeles when I was a teenager. Both of my parents had been actors for a time. They divorced when I was a baby. My father was a playwright, and I was raised my whole life around the theatre. I began acting at a young age, with aspirations to write and direct. You get introduced to an artist’s life, which is one consisting of late nights, and I was a child that was routinely up long past his bedtime. The adults would want to go out after a rehearsal or a performance and hit a bar or restaurant/lounge and here I am, an only child, with my single parent who couldn’t afford a babysitter, tagging along with the grown-ups.
As early as seven or eight years old I remember being too young to be in some nightspot, surrounded by musicians, actors, and writers while they argued about novelists or debated Meisner and Strasberg over scotch and sodas. There was always an excitement to this type of social environment that I remember being very drawn to. There was a romance to it. I loved the way it made me feel.
As I became an adult, I was attracted to the idea of not just hanging out in those settings but being in control of those settings, and how I could use my own inspirations to craft rooms where different types of interesting people could cross paths in and form a connection.
Can you tell our readers what it is about the work you’re doing that’s disruptive?
I think all creativity is disruptive when it’s introducing new thoughts and experiences.
It forces you to accept new feelings, and it will continue to until one becomes numb to it, until it’s been copied enough that everyone is doing it, and then it becomes stale and formulaic. At which point, you must create something new again and disrupt the monotony.
I think we’re seeing that currently with both the Drake “Honestly Never mind” album and the Beyoncé “Renaissance” album. I look at everything that’s artistic, from music, to film, to curating an evening as, “How do we guide you towards feeling greatness, whether that feeling is rooted in something that’s revolutionary, or it’s a feeling that’s rooted in nostalgia.”
Can you share a story about the funniest mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lesson you learned from that?
I had managed to get myself in with a bar owner in West Hollywood who had a gorgeous space that I wanted to do a weekly Wednesday night party in. I really hadn’t accomplished much at that point so for all my big aspirations around what I wanted this party to be, I didn’t really know how to execute it properly. I’ve never been interested in just having a party with club promoters. I reached out to some friends of mine who were managers for a couple of high-profile actors, and I offered them up the idea of us throwing this party together. These guys knew a lot of famous people and I thought “We don’t even need any promoters; the bar isn’t that big, just the three of us, and our relationships will pack this place out with beautiful women and celebrities” and all the other cliché fantasies that people have when they’re trying to throw a party in Hollywood.
Our first night was decent. Enough people
came to check us out that it wasn’t a complete waste of time, and we could build momentum for the next week. Surely the next week would become the magical, enchanted evening I was manifesting.
It wasn’t. We failed miserably. Not only did we take an L, but the three of us and all our “relationships” also couldn’t even fill that 100-person capacity room with more than 30 people the whole night. After giving us a chance with those first two weeks, the bar said, “Thanks but we’re moving on.”
What I learned was there’s a big difference between throwing a party somewhere versus starting a successful weekly event where you need to both look great and make money. You have to overkill a night if you want it to work. You think you only need to bring on two people to work with you, you need twelve. Really you need twenty. And you need club promoters. Men and women, do this for a living. Getting people to show up somewhere for you is legitimately one of the toughest jobs in the world to perform. And doing it nightly, weekly, is nearly impossible to do without burning yourself out. Try corralling human beings in a town of ten million that has endless options for places to eat and drink. You need more than just a cool rooftop or a celebrity entourage to see success. You need a team.
A big team. And that team needs infrastructure.
We all need a little help along the journey. Who have been some of your mentors? Can you share a story about how they made an impact?
I’ve had so many people make substantial contributions to this journey I’m on. Creatively, my father probably made the largest impression on me. I’m positive that my outlook on most things comes from his influence and I’m very grateful for him. In the hospitality space, I look at my partners at MADE; Mark Tung, Devrin Anderson, Milton Pittman, those guys have been dominant in that business for so long and their knowledge about how to do that successfully for decades is unmatched. I would point to guys like Tony LaPenna and Brian Toll at H. Wood Group and Pavan Pardasani at Tao Group also. They’ve always been so generous with their time, their resources, and their experiences, to guide me in ways that go beyond what most folks are willing to help you with.
In today’s parlance, being disruptive is usually a positive adjective. But is disrupting always good? When do we say the converse, that a system or structure has ‘withstood the test of time’? Can you articulate to our readers when disrupting an industry is positive, and when disrupting an industry is ‘not so positive’? Can you share some examples of what you mean?
I think all disruption is necessary and it may seldom be comfortable. At would point does disruption become destruction and when is destruction necessary? Destruction of prejudices, destruction of institutions. Those may be instances where we have to collectively go a step beyond disruption in order to eradicate them.
I guess the line has to be drawn somewhere in the sand between disruption and destruction, and whether over time you can have one without it becoming the other. I think you can, but we need both.
Can you share five of the best words of advice you’ve gotten along your journey? Please give a story or example for each.
The best advice I’ve ever received or given is to pretend that money doesn’t exist, decide what you would enjoy doing every day for free — and then figure out how to monetize that. If you find you like spending 8 hours a day on photoshop making clothing designs and you’re fulfilled by that process, not the result but the process, then designing clothes is the thing you need to figure out how to be paid for.
My father wrote every day. Whether he was being paid for it or not, he wrote.
He used to joke that a powerful film producer once said to him, “Remember, a writer writes.”
It was nonsensical in the context that it had been said to him but as a general life rule it applies so simply. Whatever you enjoy the process of should be what you give all your bandwidth to. I believe if you do that then the money will follow. Life is too short to spend it doing something you’re unfulfilled by for money.
We are sure you aren’t done. How are you going to shake things up next?
Right now, we’re working on Wale’s next album, and it sounds amazing. He’s genuinely one of the most talented people I’ve ever spent time with, and he belongs in the conversation with the greatest songwriters of his generation. I also did some work with Major League Baseball over the summer when the all-star game was in LA. That went well so we’re looking at future collaborations between us and that’s exciting for me as a lifelong fan of the sport.
Do you have a book, podcast, or talk that’s had a deep impact on your thinking? Can you share a story with us? Can you explain why it was so resonant with you?
There are so many books out there that have impacted me; pretty much anything David Simon has ever written is at the top of the list.
Geronimo Pratt “Last Man Standing”
William Goldman “Which Lie Did I Tell”
Peter Gatian “The Club King”
Joe Bastianich “Restaurant Man”
The Dalai Lama “How To See Yourself As You Truly Are”
Steven Pressfield “The War Of Art”
and the Insight Timer app. Heavy on the Insight Timer app.
Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share how that was relevant to you in your life?
The thing that the entertainment business and the hospitality business share in common is they’re both incredibly cutthroat. These people aren’t your friends. At least not the overwhelming majority of them. I remember being told once, “When you can accept the transactional nature of these relationships, then you’ll find peace.” That’s the best lesson I’ve ever received.
You are a person of great influence. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger. 🙂
I think normalizing meditation and teaching it as early as preschool, the same way we teach math and language, would have an overwhelming impact on how human beings process the trauma we experience. I wish I had found it earlier in my life and I feel the difference in how I process things when I’m practicing regularly versus when I’m not.
How can our readers follow you online?
Twitter/IG @sean_dickerson
This was very inspiring. Thank you so much for joining us!
… Do not underestimate the challenges and the time it takes to get your business off the ground and to break even. Of course, it is good to be excited when starting your own business, but don’t forget to be realistic as well.
As a part of our series called “Making Something From Nothing”, I had the pleasure of interviewing Will Chen.
Will Chen is the Founder and CEO of P.L.A.Y. Prior to founding P.L.A.Y., he spent several years as a management and strategy consultant working across different industries where he advised companies on executive matters such as business turnaround, competitive benchmarking, financial and operations modeling, sales and operations planning, and lean manufacturing, etc. In 2009, his life changed when a very special pug named Momo entered his life, and the determination to find a dog bed good enough for her soon turned into feelings of disappointment. So he set out to design stylish pet beds that truly met the needs of modern pet parents, while helping stores stand out from the competition. Momo was the inspiration for P.L.A.Y. — and is now the company’s CPO (Chief Pug Officer) — which has since expanded into an empire of pet products. That same spirit to never settle for less when it came to his own pup inspires everything here at P.L.A.Y. That’s why he’s still focused on the essentials after 10 years of business! Better beds. Higher quality manufacturing. Great designs. Planet-friendly materials. All at a reasonable price. It might sound like a lot of work, but to his team, quite honestly, it feels like P.L.A.Y.
Thank you so much for doing this with us! Before we dive in, our readers would love to learn a bit more about you. Can you tell us a bit about your “childhood backstory”?
I was born in Hong Kong and later went abroad at age 12 to attend boarding school in Singapore. I came to the States to attend college in Michigan, and later made my way to San Francisco. I’ve been able to travel and live all around the world, and for someone like myself who loves traveling and sightseeing, that has been a real privilege.
Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share how that was relevant to you in your life?
My favorite life lesson comes from Michael Jordan when he famously said, “I can accept failure, but I can’t accept not trying.” For me this encapsulates my belief in the necessity of motivation and ambition, as I believe that in order to attempt something or to make something happen, you must have no excuses.
Is there a particular book, podcast, or film that made a significant impact on you? Can you share a story or explain why it resonated with you so much?
A book that left a real impression on me and my trajectory would be Shoe Dog: A Memoir by the Creator of Nike, Phil Knight. I felt like this book was a great window into seeing how an empire like Nike started from humble beginnings as a small business, and how Knight was so candid about the stress and struggles of running what he didn’t know at the time would become a global empire. One of the themes I took with me from this book is that there are no objectively wrong or right ways to make the best decision for your business, and that there are many differing ways that all depend on you and how you want to develop your business.
Ok super. Let’s now shift to the main part of our discussion. There is no shortage of good ideas out there. Many people have good ideas all the time. But people seem to struggle in taking a good idea and translating it into an actual business. Can you share a few ideas from your experience about how to overcome this challenge?
The first piece of advice I would offer would be not to get stuck dwelling on high level ideas. It might not be as alluring as pitching an out-of-this world idea, but you must first spend quite a bit of time on logistics. Is your product new? If it is, what niche does it fill? If it isn’t, what sets it apart from competitors? You must also be prepared to work heavily with numbers, be prepared to pour over finances, expenses, and profit margins. And finally, it is good to have some realistic perspectives, you may not break even or turn profits for some time, that is all part of the growing pains of getting a new idea or business off the ground.
Often when people think of a new idea, they dismiss it saying someone else must have thought of it before. How would you recommend that someone go about researching whether or not their idea has already been created?
You will need a good team of people who you trust and are in tune with the current market. Together, you can research more thoroughly and confirm what is out on the market. A piece of advice: think critically about if no one has done this, is it a good concept?
For the benefit of our readers, can you outline the steps one has to go through, from when they think of the idea, until it finally lands in a customer’s hands? In particular, we’d love to hear about how to file a patent, how to source a good manufacturer, and how to find a retailer to distribute it.
This can be quite a long process, as you will often need to go through product development a number of times. This means taking an idea into product design, creating and testing samples, taking and reworking edits into the design, and repeating these steps as many times as it takes for you to reach the quality and style that you are hoping to achieve. The process becomes more complicated after this stage, where you will need to find trustworthy and reliable attorneys, manufacturers, and your core startup team. When all is said and done with product development and the building of your trusted team of coworkers and manufacturers, you can then begin marketing your product with tradeshows and listing it on wholesale platforms to finally get it in the hands of your consumers.
What are your “5 Things I Wish Someone Told Me When I First Started Leading My Company” and why?
There are only two things I wish I had been told prior to starting my own company. First and foremost, would be to not underestimate the challenges and the time it takes to get your business off the ground and to break even. Of course, it is good to be excited when starting your own business, but don’t forget to be realistic as well. The second is to be trusting, but always independently verify. This is mainly for logistical reasons, as you want to trust your manufacturing, fulfillment, back of house, and front of house teams, but it is best to also verify their capabilities to ensure that you do not experience delays/problems in one of these areas, which could then cause a domino effect.
Let’s imagine that a reader reading this interview has an idea for a product that they would like to invent. What are the first few steps that you would recommend that they take?
First, ask yourself, “Does this product solve a problem or help others?” If the answer is yes, then you can start moving from conception, to logistics, and begin researching how much your product will cost to make, and what would be a fair asking price. I would also highly recommend looking into the U.S. Patent office to make sure that before you begin developing, you are not infringing on existing patents. Finish this initial stage with a thorough business plan on paper before you start to take things further.
There are many invention development consultants. Would you recommend that a person with a new idea hire such a consultant, or should they try to strike out on their own?
I cannot speak to this question, as we did not use consultants when starting this business. I would recommend considering how much time you will be devoting to starting your new venture, and factor in whether you want to start off full time or part time into your decision about whether or not to hire a consultant.
What are your thoughts about bootstrapping vs looking for venture capital? What is the best way to decide if you should do either one?
There are pros and cons to both approaches. On the one hand, by bootstrapping it, you will be able to maintain more control over your processes and products, but will experience a more organic growth i.e., slower growth. With venture capital, you get that faster growth, but you may feel that there are certain expectations around growth. Of course, there is no wrong or right answer, but for many businesses, developing fast and capturing the market shares they need/want is a big priority, so make the choice that suits your business plan best.
Ok. We are nearly done. Here are our final questions. How have you used your success to make the world a better place?
Our products bring humans and their pets happiness, comfort, and warmth, and to me that in and of itself makes the world a better place. We are also very proud to be one of the few pet industry brands to be B Corp certified, meaning we must meet rigorous standards of social and environmental performance, accountability, and transparency. We are dedicated to making the world a better place through our company-wide environmentalism and charity efforts, including recycling over 11 million plastic bottles and founding our own charity and scholarship initiatives (Warm Bellies Initiative and Scholars Helping Collars Scholarship). We are pleased with our robust donation program, which spotlights 501c3s that benefit animal welfare organizations, and provides thousands of dollars of in-kind product donations each year.
You are an inspiration to a great many people. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger.
I truly believe in the B Corp mission of people using business as a force for good, and would love to see other business move towards this mindset. I believe that by transitioning to more environmentally friendly practices, investing back into the community, and fostering a respectful and equitable workplace, a business can create real good in the world. I also believe that the more companies who adopt these policies, the more informed consumers will be to make ethical choices.
We are very blessed that some of the biggest names in Business, VC funding, Sports, and Entertainment read this column. Is there a person in the world, or in the US, with whom you would love to have a private breakfast or lunch, and why? He or she might just see this if we tag them.
If I can pick a celebrity whom I can meet with, I would love to meet the tennis legend Roger Federer. He was a big part of why I fell in love with the sports in the 2000’s and besides his countless on and off-court achievements (to me he is without doubt the G.O.A.T.). I am also a fan of his sportsmanship, work ethics, longevity, and the ability to balance between family and professional commitments. More importantly, I am an admirer of how he uses his influence and reach to help the less fortunate children in Africa through his foundation.
Thank you for these fantastic insights. We greatly appreciate the time you spent on this.
‘Don’t trust all the advice’. When we started to pivot into retail from the restaurant industry, everyone advised us not to. Had we listened to people, we would not be where we are today. Some other best words are: take risks, trust your instincts, It’s your journey so take ownership and don’t share too much!
As a part of our series about business leaders who are shaking things up in their industry, I had the pleasure of interviewing Olivier Roy.
Olivier Roy is Co-Founder and CEO of Leav. After working with a number of organizations in Canada and abroad, he combined his passion for technology with his experience in marketing, and created Leav, a solution to a problem faced by most in-person shoppers: long retail lineups.
Thank you so much for doing this with us! Before we dig in, our readers would like to get to know you a bit more. Can you tell us a bit about your “backstory”? What led you to this particular career path?
My entrepreneurial journey began at age 16 when I was started a video production company with a friend. We spent three years traveling across the globe directing commercials and building our client roster. I then went on to work with a Montreal-based technology firm, and that is where I developed a passion for tech. Just before starting Leav, I had the opportunity to work in video production once again, this time for the Quebec government and foreign nations, with my high school friend Evgeny Grachev.
Can you tell our readers what it is about the work you’re doing that’s disruptive?
We created Leav, a revolutionary tech solution that offers a comprehensive mobile shopping platform giving customers the ability to manage their purchases in-store by simply scanning a QR code. It takes five seconds to checkout with Leav as compared to an average of five minutes with the traditional method, making the experience 10x faster.
Can you share a story about the funniest mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lesson you learned from that?
Making mistakes and learning from them is a part of any and every entrepreneurial journey, especially in the initial phase. An example of a funny story was when we opened our first store in Montreal. We ordered very expensive tech products from a vendor without researching them. We realized that all of the products were extremely overpriced after having committed to buying them. While we saw the light side of our mistake, it came a huge cost and had we done more research, we could have saved a lot of money!
We all need a little help along the journey. Who have been some of your mentors? Can you share a story about how they made an impact?
We have had many mentors who have helped us in some way or another along the journey but there are two that stand out: Charles Sylvestre — He was our first advisor and has been guiding us from the get-go. We discuss every critical decision with him, from plan of action, how to maximize cashflow and minimize expenses, how to raise funds etc. In fact, we still have a weekly call with him to seek his advice as to where we should focus our energy and next steps. The other mentor that deserves a special shoutout is Carl Boutet. He is a retail expert who was really amazed by the Leav technology we developed. He gave us great insights into the retail industry, connected us with more retailers, and informed us about the existing technology in the market and a great deal of other support.
In today’s parlance, being disruptive is usually a positive adjective. But is disrupting always good? When do we say the converse, that a system or structure has ‘withstood the test of time’? Can you articulate to our readers when disrupting an industry is positive, and when disrupting an industry is ‘not so positive’? Can you share some examples of what you mean?
Disrupting an industry with a revolutionary idea which opens doors for a conversation is always good but we need to be thoughtful about the impact it will have on the said industry. Sometimes it might not be in lines with our expectations and the specific industry we are targeting might not be ready for it. We always need to think what we are doing, if we are taking the right approach towards it and if it is solving a current need. In our case, we are working towards a very critical pain point of in-store shoppers today — checkout lines. But had we done this 7–8 years back, it would have been too soon for this kind of technology and at that time, it would not have been relevant and ‘positive’.
Can you share five of the best words of advice you’ve gotten along your journey? Please give a story or example for each.
‘Don’t trust all the advice’. When we started to pivot into retail from the restaurant industry, everyone advised us not to. Had we listened to people, we would not be where we are today. Some other best words are: take risks, trust your instincts, It’s your journey so take ownership and don’t share too much!
We are sure you aren’t done. How are you going to shake things up next?
Leav will revolutionize the landscape of in-store shopping by providing an extremely smooth Phygital experience!
Do you have a book, podcast, or talk that’s had a deep impact on your thinking? Can you share a story with us? Can you explain why it was so resonant with you?
I mostly listen to retail podcasts. Feel free to reach out if you want my top list! For books, I would recommend Zero to One by Peter Thiel. Other than that, I simply follow investors and industry influencers on LinkedIn and Twitter!
Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share how that was relevant to you in your life?
Just do it — Nike
You are a person of great influence. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger. 🙂
From personal experience, I never went to school. So, if you’re someone who feels that you want to do something of your own, do it! Create your own job and make sure to put your heart and soul into it. Even if you want to be a good student, do it part-time. It’s the best way to learn in life.You are going to fail multiple times but when you succeed, you’ll be a better version of yourself.
Always remember our mistakes can be our greatest teachers.
As a part of our series called “Making Something From Nothing”, I had the pleasure of interviewing Patricia Kayanga .
Patricia Kayanga is a first-generation immigrant from Uganda. Her family came here under unfortunate circumstances but was blessed to know a better life. They wouldn’t have been here if it wasn’t for the sacrifices of Patricia’s mother after her father’s murder. Beyond getting Patricia the training and education to be the woman she is today, her mother is also the brain behind the business idea. After complaining about the many expensive underwears, Patricia ruined because of her unpredictable cycle, Patricia’s mother encouraged her to create something that works for her that she could dispose of. Patricia started dreaming and created Ohhs, biodegradable disposable underwear made from bamboo and non-woven fabric. Patricia wanted to create a product that felt good with a business structure that served a greater purpose. While researching the market, Patricia found that millions of girls drop out of school due to menstrual stigmas within their communities or simply a lack of resources. Patricia realized that if she didn’t have the opportunity to come to the states, she might have been one of those girls. As Patricia remembered her past and purpose became to make a difference in a girl’s life one day at a time while creating something simple for every woman. Patricia’s business motto is, “we are inspired by women for women.”
Thank you so much for doing this with us! Before we dive in, our readers would love to learn a bit more about you. Can you tell us a bit about your “childhood backstory”?
I was born in Uganda. For the most part, life was good and easy. I had no worries I could think of besides trying to fit in at school. That’s until the age of 6, when my father was murdered. Everything changed. It was the first time I remember feeling like an adult. Very few children don’t see images of their slain father and manage to maintain their innocence. With no clue who killed my father, my mom took us to live with her relatives in a different region, and she fled to the United States with a few dollars to her name.
For four years, she worked and saved to bring us to the states. When we came, we didn’t have much. I remember some family friends bringing us their old clothes. I struggled to fit in at school for some time. Somehow, I convinced myself that if I practiced sounding American enough, the kids would stop teasing me about my accent or calling me “ an African booty scratcher.” I would go home, watch Fresh Prince of Bellaire, Full House, and Moesha, and practice my American accent. The kids at that school never forgot, but we changed addresses which meant a change in school, so I put my new accent to good use there. The kids in my new school were much likable, and I wasn’t the only African in school. There were many others like me. In high school, I learned to stand tall in my identity as an African Immigrant, and in college, I celebrated it and shared my culture with others. Today, I’m a naturalized American from Uganda. I call America and Uganda my homes. One made me, and the other raised me to be who I am today.
Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share how that was relevant to you in your life?
My mom often said to my siblings and I, “banna bange muli banaku” when one of us misbehaved or got out of line. “Banna bange muli banaku” roughly translates to “my children, you come from sorrow.” She was telling us to be better, do better, because where we come from, there’s nothing to fall back on but pain and sorrow. This quote has pushed me every time I felt like I couldn’t make it and helped me focus on the road ahead, not behind me.
Is there a particular book, podcast, or film that made a significant impact on you? Can you share a story or explain why it resonated with you so much?
Becoming by Michelle Obama via Audible is a book that significantly impacted my life — listening to her story resonated with me because I don’t come from much like Michelle. I also had many thoughts of self-doubt and wondered if I belonged. In front of that doubt was the future first black FLOTUS. Sometimes it’s easy to forget that the people we look up to are human, and they share similar stories to us. If she can persevere through Princeton and Harvard, then the White House, and still rise to the top, so can I in my journey. I love her story.
Ok super. Let’s now shift to the main part of our discussion. There is no shortage of good ideas out there. Many people have good ideas all the time. But people seem to struggle in taking a good idea and translating it into an actual business. Can you share a few ideas from your experience about how to overcome this challenge?
In the early stages of launching my business, one thing that motivated me to create my product was that I wanted to have a say in what was being invented. I understood that the disposable underwear line didn’t need to be perfect, and I couldn’t afford to wait for someone to start anything for me, so I took on the challenge. My career in IT has taught me about the beauty of iterations where one can continue to enhance a product throughout its lifetime. I constantly had the mindset of “what’s the worst that could happen,” and any rejection I got, I saw as an opportunity to climb above it. That truly helped me get through the early stages of inception to manufacturing.
Often when people think of a new idea, they dismiss it saying someone else must have thought of it before. How would you recommend that someone go about researching whether or not their idea has already been created?
Google should be everyone’s first starting point. Once you’ve exhausted everything, your next stop is the Trademark and Patent repository. It’s important to review each piece that may seem close to your idea and document it. Doing thorough research will help you identify what is missing for you to start innovating. If you do not have the time to do the research, I’d suggest hiring a trademark or patent attorney to take on that responsibility.
For the benefit of our readers, can you outline the steps one has to go through, from when they think of the idea, until it finally lands in a customer’s hands? In particular, we’d love to hear about how to file a patent, how to source a good manufacturer, and how to find a retailer to distribute it.
I meditated on the idea of my business for about three years before I decided to take a leap and commit. After a long trip to Bali for my birthday, I was triggered to commit to bringing my idea to fruition. The journey to Bali was long, and I wanted a change of underwear to feel mildly fresh, but I didn’t have a lot of options while in transit. That trip inspired me to stop waiting. I quit my job and focused primarily on researching and developing my business. Having the idea was the easy part.
After I had a prototype complete, I began the process of patenting. At first, I thought I could do it on my own. After all, I quit my job to focus on this full-time. But after hours and days of research on whether that was a good idea, I decided it may be best to speak with a lawyer. I’d gotten a subscription with legal zoom and used the service to meet a lawyer for legal advice. Paying someone specializing in patents was optimal because it removed my worries so that I could focus on the business. I could not begin to imagine how I would maneuver the entire process by myself. My lawyer help me to create a patent in the US and is now in the middle of securing a patent in China.
The process of finding manufacturers has been an interesting one. A SCORE mentor advised me to go to Trade Shows. I attended my first one last year, and it was pretty informative, and I got a lot of leads. So I’d recommend trade shows as an avenue to start getting your feet wet with manufacturers. I also recently joined NuOrder. It is a Business to Business (B2B) marketplace where you can find multiple buyers for your products. It’s been such a phenomenal experience learning all these things from inception to now, but I honestly would not have known these things had it not been for me getting out of my way, researching, networking, and listening to what matters. Tuning out the negative has also been integral to my growth as an entrepreneur.
What are your “5 Things I Wish Someone Told Me When I First Started Leading My Company” and why?
Always remember our mistakes can be our greatest teachers.
Trust and believe in your goals.
You don’t need to know it all, nor do you not need to have it all.
Rejection is part of the journey but not a determinant of the end.
Every investment should yield a tangible ROI.
There’s a blueprint for starting a business, and then there’s the reality. The reality is much rawer and filled with vulnerabilities. When I first launched, many people had ideas of what I should do and what I needed to change. The pandemic had just hit, and suddenly, what I had envisioned was gone. I felt lost and defeated. I was beginning a business venture in an industry and climate I did not quite understand. I just had a business plan with a vision. Over time, everyone’s input seemed to make more sense than mine, and I began to lose trust in myself. Imposter syndrome started to show up. Suddenly, I was no longer an expert in my own business. Everyone else was besides me. I felt my world crumbling. That’s a time I never want to relive, but through my business coach Jeffrey Shaw, I learned to pick myself up, trust and believe in my journey. I reminded myself that I didn’t need to know it all, have it all figured out, and that rejection was a part of the journey, not a determinant of the end.
When I started this journey, I felt I couldn’t handle the business alone and needed partners. So I recruited a couple of my friends to join me. I was so excited, and running Ohhs didn’t feel like such a daunting task anymore. Pretty soon, I realized that my dream differed from thoe of my partners. While they had great intentions for me, their priorities were elsewhere. I started seeing my motivation diminish through their lenses and knew I had to sever ties. I lost a friend and maintained the other business partner as a sister in the process. The loss hurt, and it still does sometimes because I wish it could’ve ended on a positive note for all of us.
Let’s imagine that a reader reading this interview has an idea for a product that they would like to invent. What are the first few steps that you would recommend that they take?
I would recommend two vital steps. The first step is to research what is out there and determine how to improve it. The second step is to understand your market. The third step and most important is to learn how to market to that target audience. Your marketing strategy doesn’t have to be perfect, and you can always enhance it as you grow.
There are many invention development consultants. Would you recommend that a person with a new idea hire such a consultant, or should they try to strike out on their own?
Unfortunately, I haven’t heard of an invention development consultant or used them to say otherwise. I firmly believe that if you have an idea, find a way to make it a reality. If it means finding a mentor, do that. If it means hiring a consultant, then do that too. However, you must note who you surround yourself with and what they will influence.
What are your thoughts about bootstrapping vs looking for venture capital? What is the best way to decide if you should do either one?
Bootstrapping is complex but can be rewarding. The benefits of bootstrapping are straightforward; of course, it’s 100% yours, and you own all of it, but it’s your money. I suggest you ask yourself, “what will I sacrifice to fulfill my dream?” With venture capital, you have the backing of another entity and its funds, so you are bound by the rules they set forth. But the same question remains; what will you sacrifice to fulfill your dream? Ultimately, one has to decide what will get them to their final destination of meeting their goals (monetary, mission-based, or both).
Ok. We are nearly done. Here are our final questions. How have you used your success to make the world a better place?
When I started Ohhs, I knew there was a gap and need for the product I was creating but didn’t fully understand the massive opportunities and ventures this product could create until I dove deeper into my research. Millions of school-aged girls drop out because of their periods. Data also shows that “80% of female students have missed all or part of a class or know someone who had to miss class because they did not have access to menstrual hygiene products.”
Had I not been fortunate to come to the states from Uganda when I did, I could have easily been one of those girls who dropped out of school because of period stigma. This stigma is why part of our brand’s mission is to partner with nonprofits that provide menstrual resources to school-aged girls and women.
So far, we’ve donated to 17 organizations across the globe. Additionally, for every box we sell, we donate a pair to a local women’s shelter in the DC, Virginia, and Maryland areas. Our goal is to extend our reach across the nation and the globe.
You are an inspiration to a great many people. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger.
It would be for people to help us provide Ohhs to all shelters and refugee camps worldwide. Every purchase gets us closer to that, but a partnership with organizations in the humanitarian sector would be a dream come true. Underwear is a basic need that people should not worry about during hard times.
We are very blessed that some of the biggest names in Business, VC funding, Sports, and Entertainment read this column. Is there a person in the world, or in the US, with whom you would love to have a private breakfast or lunch, and why? He or she might just see this if we tag them.
If I could have a private breakfast or lunch with Sara Blakely, I’d be at a loss for words and in awe. I recognize neither seems like a good recipe for a good lunch for her, but I imagine I’d be out of my shell of pure mystification after a few glasses of Prosecco. I’m often told that my story reminds people of Sara Blakely Spanx’s story. Her story has inspired me in so many situations that I felt like I could not concur. It would be an honor to speak with her in an intimate setting.
If I were allowed to sit down with two people, my other choice would be Meghan Markle. It would be a dream to meet her. Her work as an ambassador to the UN is one of my dreams. Her ability to stay on the course even when it feels impossible is captivating. Watching her face adversity and scrutiny from the media during these past few years and still maintaining her smile and air of warmth has been inspiring. I often wonder how she does it — being in front of millions where some profess disdain for her but barely know her. She faces it with grace, and I aspire to be like her. Whenever the fear of rejection plagues me, she’s truly an inspiration to persevere through it. I’d love to pick her brain about the humanitarian sector over a few drinks.
Thank you for these fantastic insights. We greatly appreciate the time you spent on this.
“Please and Thank You” — really, I know it’s basic, but if your mother were listening to you in the business world, you’d want her to be proud right? I can certainly say that maintaining a level of politeness through all business dealings can be a game changer. It is likely that things will go wrong at some point, and sometimes relationships can get tense, with a supplier, an investor, or even an employee. By maintaining a level of polite protocol, you can be sure that you have put your best foot forward, even in a discussion that can get away from you. Wrap it up and close with a thank you. It’s just right.
As a part of our series about business leaders who are shaking things up in their industry, I had the pleasure of interviewing Drea Groeschel.
Drea Groeschel is a lifelong entrepreneur and pioneer, most recently spearheading and co-founding Better Than Booze, a revolutionary social beverage company featuring a line of flavor-forward, buzzy mocktails with hemp-derived CBD and THC. As an ardent advocate for healthier and non-alcoholic ways to relax, she is shaking up social drinking ideals and showing that plant-based beverages offer a mellow buzz but without the dreaded hangover. Groeschel, holding multiple patents for her inventions in consumer products and awards for her merchandising, jumps into the beverage industry with a diverse background. From the gift/home business to the beauty industry, where she most recently led a subscription company and licensed her products, she now puts her talents towards creating her new favorite bubbly beverage. Rooted in her belief that daily life should be filled with simple joys that make life better, Groeschel finds her passion in creative product development, supply chain transparency, consumer goods marketing, and choosing partners who share her vision of sustainability and female empowerment.
Thank you so much for doing this with us! Before we dig in, our readers would like to get to know you a bit more. Can you tell us a bit about your “backstory”? What led you to this particular career path?
I’ve been an entrepreneur all my life. I grew up in a family who owned their own businesses, so from a very early age I saw the creative journey that my father and mother went through launching businesses. I understood, even as a child, that it was very difficult to own your own business, but it was also about creating your own destiny, which was appealing to me. I’ve gone from selling lemonade on my parents’ front lawn at 8 years old, to developing a clothing line manufacturer, to launching home products and even a beauty products subscription company. Now, I’m full circle back to selling beverages. It’s not lemonade, and I have a lot more experience! I simply love the challenge of starting something new. There are 4 main steps that I go through each time I start something: 1. the creation of the brand, 2. development of the product, 3. manufacturing of the product, and 4. taking it to market. I just love each phase!
Can you tell our readers what it is about the work you’re doing that’s disruptive?
There are two things that are disruptive about my work. The very ingredient structure of this beverage line we’re launching is inherently disruptive. We’re launching a Hemp derived CBD beverage that contains THC, the amount of which is under the legal limit of .3%. We live in a country where we have villainized cannabis, and this has led to a prohibition structure not dissimilar to the 1920s with alcohol. The regulatory structure is difficult to follow and there are changes every month as states determine their own legal stance under the federal 2018 Farm Bill. Much of my work is looking at the future landscape of retail distribution and how we can become a leader and good partner for retailers and distributors under such challenging regulatory conditions. In order to disrupt, we must be selling something that people want and, at the same time, be a leader in a shifting culture. I think we are there. People want to positively change their perception of cannabis/hemp, what products we use it in…and who uses it. The other disruptive aspect is that I’ve taken a space mainly dominated by men, marketed to men, and unfortunately often stigmatized for “the stoner culture” and I’ve completely changed the way we are positioning this market. We’re really the exact opposite. We speak about our brand differently with a level of sophistication and maturity, and present ourselves to the market with a more toned-down visual presentation. It’s more elevated, geared towards the working professional. We aren’t shouting at people to get high and party all night. Instead, we’re encouraging those who are looking for a way to unwind to enjoy a safe, quality, super tasty beverage, like they would their favorite glass of wine or cocktail. It’s no different in my eyes. So, we’re literally doing the exact opposite of what is associated with marijuana and the stoner culture. You won’t see our brand in smoke shops. We won’t have pot leaves on the packaging. We are focused on what it’s like to be a working professional who wants to enjoy libations with friends and family to relax…and not worry about getting a hangover. That’s a bonus!
Can you share a story about the funniest mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lesson you learned from that?
I have been involved in multiple start-ups and, in my eyes, one of the most dangerous things is not knowing what you don’t know. If you don’t know what it is that you should know, then it’s hard to set out to learn and ask questions… because you didn’t even know you needed to know it! This has cropped up over the years for me and I have a great sense of humor about it. I’m industry agnostic so I’ve dealt with a lot of different types of products. Having two decades of experience in product development has given me an edge in understanding how supply chains work and manufacturing, but every time I launch into a new category of products, I’m back to the learning curve, because, let’s face it, developing a makeup brush is different than a beverage! One of the funniest things I continue to do is Googling industry speak on the fly while on a conference call. Every time I start a new venture in a new product category, I have come to expect that there will be a whole new lingo. It’s like a new language! I often have to write down all the acronyms that go along with that specific industry. Recently, I was on a conference call with two gentlemen for a production planning meeting. The co-packer asked if I had a pal. A pal? I couldn’t think of what that was, time was ticking, and the airwaves were dead silent while I searched furiously online for a “pal” in the food and beverage industry. After a long, awkward silence I had initiated by not knowing what he was talking about, the other man chimed in and said, “Don’t worry Drea, I’ll be your pal”. They then explained they were asking for my Process Authority Letter. Which determines and certifies the amount of pasteurization needed. We got a good laugh out of it. Yup, I’ll never forget what a PAL is now!
We all need a little help along the journey. Who have been some of your mentors? Can you share a story about how they made an impact?
We all DO need help along the way, which would lead me smack into Mark Montgomery, the co-founder of NuSachi Inc, chairman and multi-exit entrepreneur. Mark is an over-the-top high-energy, high-level thinker, one of these people that is 10 steps ahead and you’re still back on step 1. Mark is truly unafraid of pushing boundaries and talking to people about his strategy and vision. He’s committed to the business vision and is relentless about networking that vision to those who can support the journey. He understands that it takes a village to raise a company, that you can’t do it alone. He’s a big reason why I decided to join forces with NuSachi and co-found the Better Than Booze brand. Whenever I’m looking to play it safe or take my foot off the gas for a moment, he is right there to push me ahead and keep the momentum. I’m not great at asking for help — many of us aren’t — and every week during our weekly call, Mark will ask “how can I help you?” This simple question snaps me out of my “not asking for help mode” and I’m encouraged to actually ask for help. No one gets big without a lot of help along the way. Mark understands this and is my catalyst to get out of my own way!
Of course, I can’t count out my parents as the best mentors of my life. They’ve stuck by me through all the different paths I’ve chosen on my entrepreneurial journeys. They’ve seen me fail, they’ve seen me succeed, and whether I’m up or down they are my confidantes. It’s nice to have a mentor that you can expose and reveal yourself to, no matter the circumstance. Only then, at your most vulnerable moment, when you speak the raw truth are you getting true raw feedback. We don’t worry about hurt feelings. My parents will just tell me how they see it. I think that’s an important mentor to have, because sugar coating is exactly that, just a coating, and wears off eventually. I’d rather have the hard opinions right up front. Thick skin is part of the job.
Is disrupting always good? When do we say the converse, that a system or structure has ‘withstood the test of time’? Can you articulate to our readers when disrupting an industry is positive, and when disrupting an industry is ‘not so positive’? Can you share some examples of what you mean?
In general I think disrupting is great. But when people are disrupting just for disruption’s sake, I think that’s when it goes bad. A lot of time and energy can go into a product or service business and the true disruptors are not trying to break a mold just to be disruptive, they are looking to solve a problem, to shift life as we know it. From Bezos to Musk and even smaller companies like Sistema.bio, which is working to provide renewable energy methods in third world countries, they are all pushing the idea that life doesn’t have to be as we’ve known it to be, but can be better, and innovation can be utilized for positive change. Therefore, I would argue that the leaders of disruption are pushing a mindset and a new way of life. Disruption falls drastically short when the person pushing the disruption is simply doing it for attention or to be considered a “disruptor.” Social media has created an ecosystem of people desperately trying to gain acceptance by pushing how unique or unusual they are, constantly trying to be different. This is a faux, or manufactured, sort of disruption. There is a famous quote “nothing is more common than a man’s quest to be unique.” — unknown. So true!
What are five of the best words of advice you’ve gotten along your journey? Please give a story or example for each.
“Keep showing up” — My dad always used to say that, if you’re not there when it’s not there, you won’t be there when it is! He was using fishing as an example for how to handle showing up in life, and it’s just so true in all phases of my evolution. Back when I lived in LA , practically a lifetime ago, I was struggling as a musician. I really wanted to be a rock star…who doesn’t? I ran into a famous studio engineer who had dealt with all the big acts and I had asked him for his advice. He told me that, whether I was pursuing a dream of music, or other career or family relationships, to just keep showing up. He then went on to tell me how many people stop showing up — they are late, they bail, when things get hard, etc. I’ve applied “just keep showing up” to just about everything in my life. Because more than half of the competition will leave when things really get tough. But just showing up is half of the equation and probably one of the easier things to do. So, motivate yourself to show up for one more day, show up for the call you don’t want to take, show up for the anniversary party that is an inconvenience, just keep showing up!
“Please and Thank You” — really, I know it’s basic, but if your mother were listening to you in the business world, you’d want her to be proud right? I can certainly say that maintaining a level of politeness through all business dealings can be a game changer. It is likely that things will go wrong at some point, and sometimes relationships can get tense, with a supplier, an investor, or even an employee. By maintaining a level of polite protocol, you can be sure that you have put your best foot forward, even in a discussion that can get away from you. Wrap it up and close with a thank you. It’s just right.
“Say no” — this is a classic one and I think it takes people a while to get it, but when they do, they are empowered. If you are constantly saying yes to others and committing to things outside of your priorities, you will likely fall short of your own personal happiness goals. Saying no to additional commitments is ok, and you’ll find that when you do say no, other opportunities will open for you. It’s a great word!
“Don’t be too attached to the outcome” — this is a great one. Often, we can get so attached to an outcome that we begin to build expectations that are unnecessary. We then feel like failures if we don’t achieve the planned outcome. However, if we don’t carry the anticipation of the outcome being the only way forward or the concern that the desired outcome is the only path, we then find additional paths and other opportunities that we otherwise may not have considered. Changes in the expected outcome can actually yield a better outcome sometimes! So just because something doesn’t go as planned, it’s ok, regroup and try again!
How are you going to shake things up next?
Oh, I have big plans! Recently I reduced my alcohol intake by quite a bit. I switched to non-alcohol and hemp-based beverages. By lowering my alcohol intake, I feel better, my body is happier, and it certainly gave me pause to think “why am I drinking this alcohol stuff that doesn’t make me feel good and has negative known consequences?”. So, I’m advocating for a healthier way to relax and enjoy oneself with libations that aren’t using alcohol. It just makes sense. This is especially true for those of us over 40 who are seeking new ways to relax while still maintaining a level of control in our lives. I mean, I can’t roll into work with a hangover and sunglasses. Those days are long gone. We can’t do what we did when we were in our 20s, nor do we want to. We have important careers and many of us have families. With my new brand, Better Than Booze, I’m going to shake up social drinking ideals and show people that a plant-based beverage can be super delicious, better than your regular cocktail — you’ll still get a little buzz, and yet you won’t suffer the downsides of the booze. Let’s make better choices, be healthier and still have fun! Yes, we can!
Do you have a book, podcast, or talk that’s had a deep impact on your thinking? Can you share a story with us? Can you explain why it was so resonant with you?
This is a tough question, I listen to a lot of podcasts and read a ton of articles. I don’t think there is one that is specific but there is a subject that gets my attention: AI. With technology continuing to disrupt our lives, it will be up to us, as the human race, to determine in what ways we use it and in what intentional ways we decide it is not for the best. I think these conversations are important. We’ve seen that there are two sides to the coin with social media and AI inclusion will be no different. I’m certainly a capitalist, but at some point monetary gain can’t be the only goal, I think it will be paramount to the planet and the people who populate it, to think clearly about the choices we are making and when we let go of the reins and let technology steer the bus. I look forward to the future and hope that we can be responsible shepherds for generations to come.
What is your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? How is it relevant to you in your life?
Hands down “The Man in the Arena” — Theodore Roosevelt. This quote is relevant to probably just about every entrepreneur out there. We often feel misunderstood in our quest to build our vision, and so it’s a fight every day to achieve something great, but ultimately it is you and you alone who must bring it to fruition.
If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be?
I would inspire people to roll their sleeves up and get going on whatever it is they are trying to achieve. Too many people are spectators. So, it could be a degree, a healthier life, home ownership, a new business, really anything that is eating up head space. Dreams are achievable. Often people don’t know what to do first, or where to get help. Even the smallest of steps will eventually build a path, even if you’re not sure how to get there. You don’t need to achieve public accolades or put up a faux appearance or other mechanisms of “I’ve made it” before you have. Social media is a constant pressure to appear successful, happy, and well-achieved. But I’m here to tell you that you do not need to gain approval from others to pursue what is meaningful to you. Align your energy to where you are most happy, and yes, this can be a daunting task. Just put one foot in front of the other and each week try to do one thing that will help you move the needle in the right direction, even if it is a seemingly small thing to accomplish. It’s still a step forward and that’s what it takes. You can do anything! So, get going!
How can our readers follow you online?
You can follow me @dreagresh or follow our beverage journey @betterthanbooze and our official website at drinkbetterthanbooze.com
This was very inspiring. Thank you so much for joining us!
Meet The Disruptors: Nick Falcone Of Rentyl Resorts On The Five Things You Need To Shake Up Your Industry
An Interview With Fotis Georgiadis
Loyalty; Every mentor I’ve had that was someone who I felt was good had a consistent trait of being loyal and instilling trust.
As a part of our series about business leaders who are shaking things up in their industry, I had the pleasure of interviewing Nick Falcone.
Nick is an experienced Chief Executive Officer with a demonstrated history of working in the hospitality industry. He is skilled in Budgeting, Sales, Customer Satisfaction, Hospitality Industry, and Team Building. Nick is a strong business development professional with a Bachelor’s degree focused in Business/Managerial Economics from Florida State University.
Thank you so much for doing this with us! Before we dig in, our readers would like to get to know you a bit more. Can you tell us a bit about your “backstory”? What led you to this particular career path?
I grew up with my biggest mentor and hero being my Father, who is a very successful real estate developer. He started his career in the hospitality industry and taught my brothers and I that without those experiences he would’ve never progressed to what he was able to accomplish throughout his career. With these inspirations my brothers and I started our career in food and beverage and have now expanded into resort hospitality.
Can you tell our readers what it is about the work you’re doing that’s disruptive?
Our business Rentyl Resorts is one of the first to position homes in a resort setting versus a standalone home listing. This experience provides guests with a full resort experience while being able to stay in large homes versus the traditional hotel room. For example, imagine walking out of your house and down to the resort water park while some of the family is at the resort spa and the rest is at the house ordering in home dining from the restaurant, Rentyl brings this experience to life. We are also one of the first companies to work with developers to create “built for rent” and resort amenities specifically for short term resort rentals versus long term rentals. We also have a very unique loyalty platform that will be a trailblazer in the loyalty industry by allowing users to gain points for their largest purchases in life such as real estate and utilize these points on daily transactions or vice versa.
Can you share a story about the funniest mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lesson you learned from that?
I remember that when we first started our resorts, we were so excited for our first guest to arrive. I was personally at the home to inspect and make sure that everything was perfect. We received a call the night of the arrival with a complaint and the guests were very upset about not having water to drink in the home. We were confused at first because we knew we stocked the home with bottles of water and the fridge has a water filter. It was explained that the country these individuals were from only drank boiled warm/hot water and we didn’t have the best device for heating up the water. That night we went to the store and bought the new items to accommodate these guests and made it a standard for future homes. We received a great laugh over water temperature and getting so excited, to worried, to happy after the guests were positive with the recovery. We learned that every guest has unique needs and the importance of knowing our guests so we can accommodate better. This is a big area in which we now develop software in house to enhance the business by having more customer data to make better service decisions proactively.
We all need a little help along the journey. Who have been some of your mentors? Can you share a story about how they made an impact?
One of my best mentors is my Mom. I don’t know where to start with all of the ways she’s made an impact on my life. She is always there for my family and my brothers, and their families and I’ve never really appreciated all that she does more than now since I have kids of my own. The way she has provided us with love, care, and guidance is something that inspires me both in my personal and professional life.
In today’s parlance, being disruptive is usually a positive adjective. But is disrupting always good? When do we say the converse, that a system or structure has ‘withstood the test of time’? Can you articulate to our readers when disrupting an industry is positive, and when disrupting an industry is ‘not so positive’? Can you share some examples of what you mean?
I think when you utilize the term disruptor in a business conversation its usually talking about a company that has come up with a breakthrough way of doing something that has been done before but in a different way that leads to much better performance, efficiency, and/or consumer satisfaction. Disruptors can lead to a negative connotation when those efficiency’s led to layoffs of people, price gauging, or the business model is one in which it effects other industries negatively.
Can you share five of the best words of advice you’ve gotten along your journey? Please give a story or example for each.
Loyalty= Every mentor I’ve had that was someone who I felt was good had a consistent trait of being loyal and instilling trust. Persistency= My mentors have told me to stay persistent and that things are never as good or bad as they seem so stay the course and never give up. Strategic= I’m a huge believer that situations are won or loss in the planning phase which leads to better execution. This is one of the hardest things to keep consistent as a company grows. Teamwork= The best performance I’ve seen is when there are clear roles and responsibilities that come together in a unit to produce maximum results. Innovative= Again, I’ve had mentors push be outside my comfort zone to innovate the business and take to another level of creativity on how we can strategically position for future growth. I do believe that technology will lead the way for the future of business, and we have invested into this space by having an internal software development team to create and customize our software to the specific needs.
We are sure you aren’t done. How are you going to shake things up next?
As stated in one of the previous questions, we have a loyalty platform we’ve developed and are currently launching in small phases that we believe will revolutionize the loyalty industry. We are very excited about that and we are also really excited about a few great brand partnerships that we are going to announce in the near future for the Rentyl Resorts Brand.
Do you have a book, podcast, or talk that’s had a deep impact on your thinking? Can you share a story with us? Can you explain why it was so resonant with you?
I was around 8 years old and my Dad had brought me to a restaurant where he was having a lunch meeting. I remember that he was negotiating a deal with someone, and they had agreed to the deal by the end of lunch of had a handshake that would lead to quickly turning documents the next day. Today, this may not be the reality anymore but what this taught me was to treat my partners correctly and if we both come out on top it can lead to a lot more future business together.
Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share how that was relevant to you in your life?
“Be brave enough to write every one of your goals down, but I’m going to tell you something, life is going to hit you in your mouth and you gotta do me a huge favor, your WHY has to be greater than that knockdown.” By Eric Thomas. I love this quote for multiple reasons: 1. I’m a big believer in having the proper motivation to wake up every day consistently with the goal of being the best at what you do whether that is personal or professional. It’s one thing to do something for a short period of time but with the proper motivation you can turn that into a consistent effort. I also love this quote as it has its background in boxing which is something that stems back to my Grandfather who was a boxing coach and a sport my family loves to do for exercise and watching as fans.
You are a person of great influence. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger. 🙂
I’m a big believer and advocate in investing in children. There are so many children in our country that are without health, parents, education, proper influences, or opportunities and if I could start a movement, it would be for people to take time and money to provide more for children in need. I also think it’s important to inspire youth to have an attitude that anything is possible.
Meet The Disruptors: Jung Lee of Fête, Jung Lee NY, and Slowdance On The Five Things You Need To Shake Up Your Industry
An Interview With Fotis Georgiadis
Be authentic and Be you — As a creative, one of the most important things is being yourself and letting that come through. I think about this every day in my work.
As a part of our series about business leaders who are shaking things up in their industry, I had the pleasure of interviewing Jung Lee.
Jung Lee is one of the most sought-after event designers in the world, creating spectacular celebrations for a discriminating roster of clients–both corporate and private. Since establishing FÊTE in 2002, her events have been admired by guests and industry peers for raising the standard. Born in South Korea and raised in New York City, Jung comes from a humble background, citing her family’s work ethic as an elemental part of her personality. She found her footing in design by building high-end gourmet shops; later, refining her eye as a residential real estate developer. Aware that the modern sensibilities driving interior design had yet to infiltrate events, Jung knew she could put a fresh and modern spin on celebrations. She continues to be deemed a best wedding planner by VOGUE and BAZAAR. Her eponymous home decor store, Jung Lee NY, offers inspiration for everyday living and entertaining. Jung is also the founder of Slowdance, the preeminent luxury wedding registry on the market. Her eponymous home decor store, Jung Lee NY, is a reflection of her everyday lifestyle. A curator of joy, Jung is also the founder of Slowdance, the preeminent luxury wedding registry on the market.
Thank you so much for doing this with us! Before we dig in, our readers would like to get to know you a bit more. Can you tell us a bit about your “backstory”? What led you to this particular career path?
For over a decade I have traveled the world designing my clients’ most sacred events, from intimate parties to milestone celebrations.
I entered the event design industry in 2002 as a way of offering an inspired alternative to run-of-the-mill events. I have a passion for design — the individual for whom it reflects, the mood it sets and the experience it creates. I first discovered this when I became involved in residential and commercial construction. I noticed that I saw balance and proportion differently than most, and had a knack for combining visual beauty with efficiency and function. I see a space and immediately understand what it should be. So we took this approach to event planning. We tap into our customers’ individual tastes and interests to create an extraordinary environment.
I remember as a child going to Pottery Barn and Gimbels (which is no longer around) and watching my mother carefully select the perfect bowls and serving pieces. Later in life I got into my family business and led our food store buildout. This included projects like selecting logos, signage, layout, how customers would experience the store and seating area, and more. After I went into home spec building construction and loved that. I love to imagine how families would live and enjoy the spaces that I create.
Now, I have decided to share my passion more broadly for your own entertainment and lifestyle at home. With a concept store in New York and an online store, I am delighted to now offer you inspiration for everyday living. Whether you are ordering takeout for two, or cooking a holiday meal for twenty, the fundamentals are the same: make it personal and have fun. From lighting and ambience to tabletop and decor, a keen eye for balance and proportion can transform any space…even your own!
Can you tell our readers what it is about the work you’re doing that’s disruptive?
I think it’s how we think about interior spaces in a unique way. For example, using art beach towels — framing that as the artwork in a pool house or anywhere. After doing this for so many years, we know what looks good and continue to figure out clever ways to achieve that aesthetic and impact. The way I entertain is not prescriptive — it’s organic and effortless, but fun!
Can you share a story about the funniest mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lesson you learned from that?
Our first event in Southern Italy, I had asked my Italian vendor where our shipment was, he replied in Italian and said it’s in the “Deposito “. Of course I didn’t speak Italian and thought he kept asking where our deposit was. I replied saying that we had already paid and just needed our shipment. So here I am panicking thinking they didn’t receive our deposit, and our shipment was delayed. Come to find out that deposito in Italian means storage area, and he was trying to tell us that’s where our shipment was located.
We all need a little help along the journey. Who have been some of your mentors? Can you share a story about how they made an impact?
I’m lucky as there have been so many but specifically two of them have made the greatest impact. The first is Sylvia Weinstock. She was a mentor and total badass disruptor. The second is Mark Ingram who also is a badass disruptor!
In today’s parlance, being disruptive is usually a positive adjective. But is disrupting always good? When do we say the converse, that a system or structure has ‘withstood the test of time’? Can you articulate to our readers when disrupting an industry is positive, and when disrupting an industry is ‘not so positive’? Can you share some examples of what you mean?
I’m fortunate that in my creative industry, being a disruptor is usually a positive thing. I understand that this may not be the case in all industries though. For me, one example of this is Fine China. I think Fine China feels unapproachable to most couples but the way we present it makes it desirable and a must! This allows us to be a disruptor in the space and present something in a truly unique way.
Can you share five of the best words of advice you’ve gotten along your journey? Please give a story or example for each.
Be authentic and Be you — As a creative, one of the most important things is being yourself and letting that come through. I think about this every day in my work.
Loyalty — Be loyal to yourself, your work and those around you.
If someone or something is not working, cut the losses once you know. We’ve all been in positions where you know something isn’t working. Trust your gut.
People will always remember how you make them feel — Maya Angelou — Kindness goes a very long way
Be creative — there are always ways for you to stand out, you just need to think about how you can be creative in what you do.
We are sure you aren’t done. How are you going to shake things up next?
I want to open another Slowdance in another market and build a hotel from there! I love the curated experience of a hotel along with the hospitality. Owning a hotel would allow so many people to experience this curated experience in a unique way.
Do you have a book, podcast, or talk that’s had a deep impact on your thinking? Can you share a story with us? Can you explain why it was so resonant with you?
I was listening to Deepak Chopra telling a story of how he gave everything up, shaved his head, had to beg for food, and didn’t have shoes. He said one of the hard things was walking in the streets barefoot. His teacher said that when he is walking, he should focus on the foot that’s up, the one not in pain. This was really impactful for me. It’s so important to focus energy on the positive and draw strength from that. It’s such a simple thing of the discipline of focusing.
Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share how that was relevant to you in your life?
“There is always a solution to a problem, there is no such thing as we can’t figure it out, yes we can”. Throughout my events I’ve made the impossible possible. When there is a problem you can’t just quit and I’ve implemented this into my life, there really is something you can do even if you have to improvise. Also, it never hurts to have a plan A, B, and C.
You are a person of great influence. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger. 🙂
I think there are SO many things I’d like to do to better the world around me. It feels limitless as long as I’m adding joy to every element and creating memories that last a lifetime that’s what’s important
How can our readers follow you online?
Thank you! Feel free to follow me on instagram @Jungleeny
This was very inspiring. Thank you so much for joining us!
Meet The Disruptors: Prasanth Nair Of Double Gemini On The Five Things You Need To Shake Up Your Industry
An Interview With Fotis Georgiadis
Don’t fake it until you make it. That said, I’ve spent a long time thinking I was an imposter. Be the sun, and the entire solar system will fall into your orbit. In the same vein, be authentic, because if you’re anything else, you will never be.
As a part of our series about business leaders who are shaking things up in their industry, I had the pleasure of interviewing Prasanth Nair.
Prasanth Nair is the founder and product architect of Double Gemini, a productivity transformation company that designs processes to improve productivity. He is an expert in the fields of productivity processes, project management, and change management. His creativity, determination, attention to detail, and ability to connect with people at all levels, puts him in high demand in the productivity marketplace.
Thank you so much for doing this with us! Before we dig in, our readers would like to get to know you a bit more. Can you tell us a bit about your “backstory”? What led you to this particular career path?
I’ve always had a knack for processes. I’m good at taking complex things and simplifying them to help people and processes move forward. Going back to my university days, I had the mentality that if I am going to use my time, I should use it wisely. So, I would build processes for studying, and figure out the most efficient way to take an exam.
This desire for maximum efficiency and productivity followed me throughout the various jobs I held post-college, from pizza delivery driver to produce stock boy. I’d ask myself, “what’s the most efficient way of moving this produce around?” I always found it fun to work these types of problems out.
When I moved to New York in 2000, I started Double Gemini, which at the time was primarily a project management firm. Simultaneously, I was working on launching software companies, but as the contracts and projects for Double Gemini got bigger and bigger, it soon became clear that project management was my sweet spot. In 2004, I built my signature email organization process the Stack Method, when I felt overwhelmed by the number of emails constantly flooding my inbox. Email was killing my productivity and stressing me out. I needed a better way.
Can you tell our readers what it is about the work you’re doing that’s disruptive?
Essentially, I’m advising workers to take the way they traditionally conduct business — from how they view and respond to emails to how they schedule their day — and completely turn these processes on their head. For example, the program I developed, Stack Method, views emails as actions, not messages, and focuses on organizing emails into action type to help workers tackle their tasks in the most efficient way.
My philosophy is that whatever I do in my personal and professional life should also be helping to move humanity forward. To that end, our vision at Double Gemini is to accelerate humanity’s ability to solve the world’s greatest problems. We exist to create environments that improve productivity. And when we work with a team or organization, we can help them accelerate the pace at which work is done in a really significant way.
Can you share a story about the funniest mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lesson you learned from that?
As I previously mentioned, Double Gemini started out as a project management firm, and we were managing initiatives upwards of $60 million. Along the way, I built out a set of techniques to help me and my team stay organized and productive — techniques around writing emails, managing meetings, spearheading projects, organizing files, etc. I had clients periodically ask me to teach them these techniques, but it never occurred to me that they would be valuable as a stand-alone solution.
That is until one day, my colleague Micaela said, “maybe the universe wants you to move in that direction.” A lightbulb went off, and I realized I had completely missed my calling. It wasn’t project management, but productivity. I took her advice, and 11 years later we are a thriving productivity transformation firm helping people across the world. It’s ironic how the things that are most valuable are sometimes the things we take most for granted.
We all need a little help along the journey. Who have been some of your mentors? Can you share a story about how they made an impact?
I’ve had many — maybe even countless — mentors along my journey. I truly believe that everyone has a little bit of genius to offer, if you get out of the way and listen.
Here are just a couple of those mentors who truly made an impact.
Joe Coughlin, former CEO of Coughlin Logistics, proved you can completely shift an organization’s trajectory by buying into a philosophy. While all organizations boast a “customer first” viewpoint, he truly lives and breathes it. He wove this philosophy into the DNA of his company and it changed everything.
Mike Gustafson, president of Search Discovery, reads and studies more than anyone I’ve ever met, and he’s extremely humble about it. What’s more, he has created a learning organization. His employees are required to regularly learn new things, take exams with 100 percent pass rates, and apply what they’ve learned. As a result, he’s built the strongest team of data analysts, scientists and engineers on the planet.
In today’s parlance, being disruptive is usually a positive adjective. But is disrupting always good? When do we say the converse, that a system or structure has ‘withstood the test of time’? Can you articulate to our readers when disrupting an industry is positive, and when disrupting an industry is ‘not so positive’? Can you share some examples of what you mean?
The word “disruptive” is thrown around a lot today, but I think to truly be disruptive, you not only have to do things differently, you have to do things better — and in the process create positive societal change.
One example I’d consider to be a positive disruptor is 3D printing in medicine. While the application of 3D printing hasn’t become as wide-spread as perhaps originally predicted, the technology is game changing for the health care industry. 3D printing has allowed doctors to offer more personalized medicine, provide better patient care and realize more positive outcomes.
Can you share five of the best words of advice you’ve gotten along your journey? Please give a story or example for each.
Humble. I’ve seen over and over that once your ego gets in the way, your progress stops. Stay humble and you’ll always learn.
Joy. To so many people, everything is serious and their work and lives are reflective of that. I think that viewpoint constricts us. It’s so much more rewarding — and you produce remarkably better work — when you start from a point of joy.
Attention. Attention makes everything better. Attention to listening makes your relationships better. Attention to your work improves the quality of your output and outcomes. Attention to yourself gives you deeper insights on who you are and what you can become.
Grit. I once took an honors college calculus course. A good portion of the students were smarter than me, but I outworked them and got the only A. Grit and determination are more important than intelligence.
Be. Don’t fake it until you make it. That said, I’ve spent a long time thinking I was an imposter. Be the sun, and the entire solar system will fall into your orbit. In the same vein, be authentic, because if you’re anything else, you will never be.
We are sure you aren’t done. How are you going to shake things up next?
Our mission at Double Gemini is to help the world move forward by making it a more productive place. Looking ahead, we’d like to partner with organizations that are trying to solve the world’s most pressing problems, from climate change, to health crises, to food and water shortages. We’ll offer our transformation services pro bono and train their teams on how to work in a more accelerated, efficient and lower-stress way.
Do you have a book, podcast, or talk that’s had a deep impact on your thinking? Can you share a story with us? Can you explain why it was so resonant with you?
I identify with Andy Raskin’s view of organizational success. I regularly read his column in Medium, and one such piece that particularly resonated with me is called, “How Great Sales Narratives Drive Urgency.” Within it, he discusses one way of creating a sense of sales urgency, which he calls the “Undeniable, Relevant Change in the World.” The idea is that while businesses may be OK with the status quo, what will happen to them if the world around them is evolving, but they don’t adapt?
This is a philosophy that guides me in the work I do every day — sure, the processes your company or your employees are using may work now, but are they being pushed to their maximum potential? And are they agile enough to adapt to changes, or are they so set in their ways that a change in process could be their downfall? Our hope is that by helping businesses achieve productivity transformation, they’ll be better equipped to handle changes to their industry, or to the world at large.
Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share how that was relevant to you in your life?
“From the point of view of one who creates, everything is a gamble, a leap into the unknown.” — Yayoi Kusama, contemporary Japanese artist.
It means don’t be afraid, because creators must be fearless. Focus on creating, not on the results. The outcome is out of our hands, and that’s OK. I find it particularly inspiring. It gives me license to try and do things that have never been done before.
You are a person of great influence. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger.
Thank you for the kind words. I have always been driven by the desire to create a better world — and I’ve found that my way of doing that is through what I call a productivity movement. The workforce is experiencing massive productivity losses due to the destruction of attention and the lack of collaboration. Employees are expected to multitask to an impossible degree, which only leads to a decrease in productivity. And with companies moving to hybrid or remote workplaces, models of collaboration have completely changed.
There is a productivity void that needs to be filled, and the mission of Double Gemini is to help create environments that improve productivity bydesigning processes to maximize individual attention and team collaboration. We’ve seen that when organizations overlay these processes, they achieve a complete productivity transformation by maximizing employee knowledge and output and creating equal access collaboration between employees working inside and outside of the office.
This was very inspiring. Thank you so much for joining us!
The Future Is Now: Ben Conway Of VNTANA On How Their Technological Innovation Will Shake Up The Tech Scene
An Interview With Fotis Georgiadis
Trust your gut and act quickly.
As a part of our series about cutting-edge technological breakthroughs, I had the pleasure of interviewingBen Conway.
Ben Conway is co-Founder and COO of VNTANA, a SaaS platform that makes 3D asset management and distribution incredibly easy via the industry’s only fully automated 3D optimization and content management platform. Ben has delivered “world’s-first” mixed reality experiences for brands like Microsoft, Intel, Adidas, & Nike across the globe and has been working in the mixed reality space for over nine years. Ben was named to the Forbes 30 Under 30 list in 2018, with VNTANA named to the Inc. 500 list the same year. As COO, Ben oversees all operations and sales for VNTANA’s software platform with a particular focus on retail & apparel clients like VF Corp, Diesel, & Hugo Boss.
Prior to co-founding VNTANA, Ben was District Manager at Fortune 300 human resources management software company ADP, where he became a top sales performer. He is a graduate of the University of Southern California’s Lloyd Greif Center for Entrepreneurial Studies, with a BS in Business Administration-Entrepreneurship.
Thank you so much for doing this with us! Before we dive in, our readers would love to learn a bit about you. Can you tell us a story about what brought you to this specific career path?
One thing is sure about VNTANA, the journey has not been straightforward. I’ve always been drawn to building things — complicated things. When I was a kid all my Christmas presents were erector sets, Legos, or K-Nex. As a grown-up, that turned into holograms and interactive 3D experiences. In our first iteration of VNTANA, we were building life-size interactive hologram experiences for brands like Lexus, Nike and Adidas. To create those experiences, we would receive massive, 3D models of each product. They were way too big to run in game engines, so we would have to manually optimize every file. We realized there was an even bigger opportunity — what if we can figure out a way to automatically optimize these 3D files and provide a content management system to manage and distribute them? What I love about this industry is that there’s always something new to learn and I get to work with companies that are building the technologies that will change the way we interact with one another and the world around us.
Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you began your career?
A story that I tell all the time is about our very first paid job as a company. I don’t know if it’s the most interesting, but it certainly is the most memorable. We had been hired by an agency whose client was Microsoft to put on a hologram concert at a venue in Chicago. We had never done this before. On the day of the event, nothing was working, and we were drowning. I spent the entire day rehearsing how I was going to tell the client that the event wasn’t going to happen, and we had spent all of their money, but we put our heads down and just kept going. 5 minutes before doors opened, we got everything to work. When I pressed the play button on the computer, it was one of the best feelings I had ever had. It felt so good to have imagined something just a year ago and see it come to life, despite many at the time thinking we definitely weren’t qualified to be working at that scale. I think it inspired me to keep pushing the boundaries and tackling new and harder problems.
Can you tell us about the cutting-edge technological breakthroughs that you are working on? How do you think that will help people?
One of our core technologies is our patented optimization engine, which allows us to automatically reduce 3D file sizes by up to 99% while still maintaining ultra-high visual fidelity. The goal here is to be able to optimize 3D assets for any platform and any channel automatically, without requiring a human to visually inspect the assets. To date, we have made huge breakthroughs in the fashion industry, and we are continuing to expand into other verticals while adding the ability to optimize more file types in more specialized ways. This saves 3D artists hours of time and also allows brands to deploy their products in 3D and augmented reality on e-commerce BTOB channels and the meta-verse. Scaling the production, optimization, and distribution of 3D content is critical for brands over the next decade as they begin to access and deploy more immersive digital experiences.
How do you think this might change the world?
There’s been an enormous amount of discussion around the metaverse and the future of immersive technologies. A critical component for the development of the metaverse is having digital versions of physical products. In the same way that Netflix or Youtube will adjust the quality and resolution of a video that you’re watching depending on your internet speed and device screen size, 3D models of products will need to be optimized for the device you are accessing the metaverse or another immersive experience from. Our technology is truly the only fully automated solution that can handle the automatic optimization & distribution of the millions of 3D models that will populate the metaverse.
Keeping “Black Mirror” in mind, can you see any potential drawbacks of this technology that people should think more deeply about?
The biggest thing that people need to worry about is too much of a good thing. Having access to the internet on your phone is great, but I think we all agree that spending all day mindlessly scrolling is not healthy. The same will be true of immersive 3D experiences.
Was there a “tipping point” that led you to this breakthrough? Can you tell us that story?
I’d say that the tipping point for us came in the middle of 2019. For years, we were trying to build a business that would scale and continue to push the boundaries of what is possible with 3D experiences. We were on track to have our best year yet and were generating millions of dollars in revenue, but it felt like we were pushing a boulder up a hill. Although we had automated much of the process of creating an interactive hologram experience, there was always customization involved and we always ended up spending a good deal of time manually optimizing 3D assets. The lightbulb moment for us came after a difficult project where we spent a lot of time looking for a more automated solution that could help us, but we couldn’t find anything. That’s when we realized there was a massive void in the market that was only going to become more pronounced over the next few years, and our team was perfectly poised to fill it.
What do you need to lead this technology to widespread adoption?
We are already quickly heading in the right direction. The more compelling end use cases there are for 3D content, the faster brands will move towards developing their products in 3D. Massive conglomerates like VF Corp (Vans, Dickies, The North Face) have made enormous strides in their digital product creation process, which has allowed them to create novel experiences in Fortnite and Roblox that are paying real dividends.
What have you been doing to publicize this idea? Have you been using any innovative marketing strategies?
We’re finding that having genuine conversations on social channels is working really well for us. There is so much noise and frankly nonsense right now in the 3D space. There are a lot of big promises being made that are going to lead to disappointment, because in some areas the technology just isn’t there yet. Having authentic conversations that are grounded in what’s possible today has been resonating with our customers. People are looking for actionable information that they can trust.
None of us are able to achieve success without some help along the way. Is there a particular person who you are grateful towards who helped get you to where you are? Can you share a story about that?
I am extremely grateful to my mom. More than just advice, she has always been there to listen to me and pick me up when I’ve been knocked down (and you get knocked down a lot in entrepreneurship). She has also jumped right in to help. Many years ago, when we were initially trying to figure out exactly what VNTANA would be, we had a demo scheduled to showcase some of the technology we were working on. We had almost no money at the time and were attempting to build our own projection screen and freestanding projection rig on a very small budget. We were literally pouring concrete into buckets in the garage and my mom was right there to help. When the day of the demo came, she helped us load into the venue and then, like the good mother she is, she went out and got sandwiches, so all the guests were fed.
How have you used your success to bring goodness to the world?
I try to provide mentorship whenever I can to other founders. I often don’t have the answers, but I know what mistakes I’ve made in the past and what I wish I knew when I was starting my career. Being an entrepreneur can be incredibly isolating. You often feel like you need to be positive all the time and constantly keep your foot on the gas pedal. The reality is that you’re a human and you get tired and discouraged and burnt out just like everyone else. Having a peer who has been there has been so important for me personally and I want to pay that forward.
What are your “5 Things I Wish Someone Told Me Before I Started” and why?
This is going to take way longer than you think. Take care of yourself.
When I started the company, I thought we’d be an overnight success. I was wrong. I often treated the journey as if it were a sprint rather than a marathon. This has led to burnout in the past, which can be really difficult to overcome. Life is short and outcomes aren’t guaranteed. It’s important to make sure you’re taking care of yourself so you can stick it out for the long haul.
Say no more often.
It’s so easy to get distracted and trick yourself into thinking that you can do it all. I have wasted lots of time and effort trying to tackle multiple markets and customers at once. Focus is so powerful. You really need to understand your customer to be successful and the only way to do that is through focus.
Trust your gut and act quickly.
Almost every time my gut sensed something was wrong, it was. It’s super easy to rationalize inaction, whether it’s with employees, investors or something else entirely. The longer I’ve waited to act on it (firing someone, having a difficult conversation, etc.) the worse things have gotten. When your gut senses something is off, it is.
Breathe deeply, not everything is an emergency.
In the world of start-ups, where you are trying build the plane while you’re flying it, everything can feel like an emergency. Hastily made decisions have almost always come back to bite me. Don’t let emotions cloud your ability to make clear decisions. Not everything requires you to send an email right away.
A good mentor is worth their weight in gold.
Going it alone is really hard. Make finding mentors and peers who have the right experience a priority. A good mentor can accelerate your development way faster than you would be able to do by yourself. An important caveat here is that a mentor isn’t just someone who is more experienced than you. If you don’t trust them or connect with them on a personal level, move on. Bad advice is way worse than no advice.
You are a person of great influence. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger. 🙂
I would just encourage people to ask themselves in every interaction, “am I acting from a place of fear or a place of love?” I think so much bad behavior is driven by fear. Whether we make a negative comment about someone else because we’re afraid that we’re not good enough or smart enough, or we try to exert control over someone because we’re fearful of change. I think fear is at the heart of a lot suffering in the world. If we all took a deep breath before we acted or spoke, asked ourselves this simple question and answered it honestly, the change in the world would be dramatic.
Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share how that was relevant to you in your life?
“I am what I am. I don’t worry about anything that I can’t control.” Tom Watson
There are so many things that we cannot control, and I have spent many late nights worrying about them. Letting go of what I can’t control and focusing on the areas where I can have an impact has made me happier and more productive. I don’t spend a lot of time focusing on my deficiencies but instead try to find what I’m naturally good at and improve.
Some very well-known VCs read this column. If you had 60 seconds to make a pitch to a VC, what would you say? He or she might just see this if we tag them 🙂
Covid accelerated everyone’s need for 3D content management, but IT infrastructure was built for 2D only. Every platform requires different 3D specifications, which is expensive and time consuming to enable. VNTANA solves this with automated software. VNTANA is a first-of-its-kind 3D Infrastructure Platform, which can add 3D capabilities to any platform (including PLM, DAMs, and marketplaces) at a fraction of the cost and time. VNTANA’s fully automated, patented 3D optimization software reduces 3D file size by up to 99%, instantly converting existing 3D design files into the file types and sizes needed for any end use case and delivering those optimized files through the industry’s fastest-loading, highest-quality 3D web viewer. We are trusted by brands like Hugo Boss, Diesel, VF Corp and others and are on track to grow over 300% this year.
Manage yourself. I am responsible for understanding and managing my own bias, prejudice, stereotypes, and reactions to differences.
As a part of our series about “How Diversity Can Increase a Company’s Bottom Line”, I had the pleasure of interviewing Dr. James Rodgers.
Dr. James Rodgers is recognized as a thought leader and the leading strategist in the field of diversity management. He provides high-end executive coaching, D&I advice and counsel to senior executives and offices of Diversity. His major clients have included J&J, Prudential, IBM, Southern Company, Coca-Cola, and the High Museum of Art. He is a fellow of the Institute of Management Consultants and the co-author of Diversity Training That Generates Real Change.
Thank you so much for doing this with us! Before we dive into the main part of our interview, our readers would love to “get to know you” a bit more. Can you share a bit of your “backstory” with us?
After graduating from Howard University, I started my career as a fast-track executive in the telecom industry. I worked in nearly every function in that industry from engineering to marketing to project management to executive education. I had the privilege to work directly with a number of the highest-level executives in the company. I learned a lot about how to run a major global enterprise. I left corporate life and started a consulting practice at first focusing on issues like TQM and management training. I eventually was invited into the field of diversity management and have been a leader in that field for over 35 years.
Can you share the funniest or most interesting story that happened to you since you started your career? Can you tell us the lesson or take away you took out of that story?
After I got my MBA, my boss came to me and asked me to facilitate a meeting of the entire department where we would decide how to position our role in the company. He called it a strategic planning session. I had never done such a thing, but I said yes. It was a huge success. I discovered that facilitation was a gift I had, and it led me to pursue a career as a professional facilitator and coach. Years later, one of my colleagues who was a part of that session, told me that was the best and most productive planning session he ever participated in and he was then a state President.
Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you tell us a story about how that was relevant in your own life?
There is an old South poem called Keep a goin’. It reminds me constantly to stay with my life path despite distractions, downturns, or barriers. At one point early in my business I was near broke, no contracts on the books, and no viable prospects. But I just kept a goin’. One month later, I was introduced to a client that led to one of the biggest contracts of my consultancy.
None of us are able to achieve success without some help along the way. Is there a particular person who you are grateful towards who helped get you to where you are?
Three women come to mind. My wife Sharon stayed with me and encouraged me during the lean years. Dr. Maureen Hunter provided professional grounding when my practice was staring to take off. My co-author for the new book, Laura Kangas has been an advisor and encourager as well as a business partner for over 25 years.
What do you think makes your company stand out? Can you share a story?
Especially in the field of D&I, my company is acknowledged as the leading strategy provider. We maintain a business-related posture even with so-called soft skills work. I am one of the only CMC, technology geek, and politically agnostic practitioners in the field. I know business and I know what senior executives need.
Are you working on any new or exciting projects now? How do you think that might help people?
I have published three books; two in the business genre, one in the spirituality genre. I see direct parallels between those sectors. Inspired by my friend and mentor, Marshall Goldsmith (author of Triggers, and the Earned Life), I am planning a series of personal growth books based on my years of observation of people grappling with the toughest most vexing issues humans may face. I anticipate titles like Seeking Similarities and Finding Truth by Paying Attention.
How have you used your success to bring goodness to the world?
I feel good that I have been able to hear back from people who have been touched by my ministry. Laura (Kangas) and I comment in the new book that we have witnessed people make life changing discoveries, cathartic transformations, and release of faulty conditioning as they experience our learning sessions.
Ok. Thank you for that. Let’s now jump to the main part of our interview. This may be obvious to you, but it is not intuitive to many people. Can you articulate to our readers five ways that increased diversity can help a company’s bottom line.
D&I has to be presented as a practical discipline if it ever hopes to penetrate the business community. My experience with TQM, Six Sigma, LEAN manufacturing, and other sound management principles reminds me of what it takes to get the sustained attention of business managers.
Make it simple
Make it practical
Make it outcome-oriented
Make it work
Make it go away
What advice would you give to other business leaders to help their employees to thrive?
I was asked 25 years ago what we need to do to make the workplace more diversity friendly. I said then that we need to develop better people managers. If you want to get real value from diversity and inclusion efforts, focus on front line managers. We tend to put the burden on executive leaders to transform the work environment so that everyone feels a sense of belonging and feels free to contribute to their fullest potential. That is not their role. That is the role of managers. Remember, when people quit, they are not leaving because of the company MVVS or culture; they are leaving because of a toxic relationship with their manager.
What advice would you give to other business leaders about how to manage a large team?
D&I is a team discipline. Teams are made up of individuals (not groups). Treat every individual as an individual. There is no formula for managing women versus men. In my first book, I outlined seven principles for managing a team of diverse composition, They are:
Believe they can. I believe every employee can give 100%. It is my responsibility to help them do it.
Get to know them. I bear the greater responsibility for developing positive relationships with my employees.
Manage yourself. I am responsible for understanding and managing my own bias, prejudice, stereotypes, and reactions to differences.
Adapt your style. I must adapt my style and behavior to get the best from each employee.
Use your power. I have the power and ability to provide what my employees need.
Ask! Each employee knows how he/she wants to be treated. If I want to know, I have to ask.
Be fair. I understand that treating people equally does not mean treating them the same.
We are very blessed that some of the biggest names in Business, VC funding, Sports, and Entertainment read this column. Is there a person in the world, or in the US whom you would love to have a private breakfast or lunch with, and why? He or she might just see this 🙂
Jerry Jones, business investor and owner of the Dallas cowboys. To me he exemplifies what effective leaders do. When the NFL is under pressure for high profile missteps, Jerry never skirts the issue. He comes on TV and states or restates the direction the league is going. He is not distracted by media hype or frustration. He very plainly states the direction and invites people to follow.
How can our readers further follow your work online?
LinkedIn (James Rodgers)
Website (jamesorodgers.com)
Book page (Diversity Training That generates Real Change)
Newsletter subscription (Mailchimp)
Thank you for these excellent insights. We wish you continued success in your great work.
Meet The Disruptors: Luke Fleury Of Fleury Properties On The Five Things You Need To Shake Up Your Industry
An Interview With Fotis Georgiadis
Think Big
Be Accountable
Have Integrity
Be Passionate
Adapt
As a part of our series about business leaders who are shaking things up in their industry, I had the pleasure of interviewing Luke Fleury.
Luke Fleury is from Newport Rhode Island. He attended The University of Rhode Island where he graduated with a Bachelor’s degree in Economics in 2017. After graduation, he started his own Real Estate Development Company — Fleury Properties where he purchased homes and flipped them for a profit. Shortly after he joined a local Country Club — The Aquidneck Club where he met successful investors who would lead him to create the vision for Dibbs.
Thank you so much for doing this with us! Before we dig in, our readers would like to get to know you a bit more. Can you tell us a bit about your “backstory”? What led you to this particular career path?
I first learned that I wanted to pursue a career in real estate back while attending the University of Rhode Island. I was an economics major and in my free time, I’d watch HGTV. I found that I was constantly inspired by house flipping shows and seeing the transformations that those homes would undergo. I’ve always had an entrepreneurial mindset — when I graduated in 2017, I purchased my first flip. Throughout this time, I found that I was paying high-interest bank rates. I decided that I would seek investors who would work with me as a mutually beneficial relationship while cutting out those high costs. I met Rob Desantis, a serial entrepreneur and former co-founder of Ariba. In our many conversations, he inspired me to want more than just real estate developing and investing. He pushed me to find an issue in my industry and come up with a solution — this is ultimately what lead me to create Dibbs.
Can you share a story about the funniest mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lesson you learned from that?
During my first house flip, I underestimated the costs involved in renovating the home. There were surprise issues with the house (as there are with many older homes) that I did not anticipate when budgeting for the project. Also, I purchased my first house with little money down and at a higher interest rate. It being my first time, I made silly mistakes that could have been avoided looking back. Thankfully it all worked out and I still sold the house at a profit from what I purchased and put into it but had things been even slightly different, I could be in a completely different place in my life than where I’m at now. My suggestion is to do your research. Account for higher than expected costs, research the market trends, hire trustworthy contractors or employees, and have enough time available in your investment. Projects can take longer than you hope for and it’s good to have prepared yourself for it.
We all need a little help along the journey. Who have been some of your mentors? Can you share a story about how they made an impact?
I have been lucky enough to have multiple mentors throughout the different stages of my career and life. My dad has and will always be my biggest mentor. He is a well-respected member of the community and watching him help and lead others has truly impacted and pushed me to be the best I can be both in my career and personal life.
In recent years, I have been extremely fortunate to connect and be mentored by some of the best.
Rob Desantis. Rob was one of the original founders of Ariba and helped propel Ariba from zero to $250 million in revenue in just four years. I met Rob while playing golf at The Aquidneck Club in Rhode Island. I joined the club because I was hoping it would leverage my networking opportunities and allow me to connect with investors for my real estate and development company. While it did this, the conversations I had with Rob is what led me to create Dibbs. He understands firsthand how to scale start-ups and has been instrumental in bringing the vision for Dibbs to life. Rob is now a co-founder of Dibbs and truly has been a mentor I can learn and grow from.
Rob has been nothing short of generous in connecting me with his network of advisors, investors, friends, and colleagues. Shortly after meeting Rob, I was introduced to Zack King. His background in software engineering has helped our development team create a scalable product with an easy-to-use interface for the construction industry.
In today’s parlance, being disruptive is usually a positive adjective. But is disrupting always good? When do we say the converse, that a system or structure has ‘withstood the test of time’? Can you articulate to our readers when disrupting an industry is positive, and when disrupting an industry is ‘not so positive’? Can you share some examples of what you mean?
They say “if it’s not broken don’t fix it” however, I am not sure that is true anymore. Today technology has allowed people to do things faster, easier, and with more knowledge. If the old way is causing you frustrations why not find a solution?
Our app — Dibbs is disrupting the construction industry. The construction industry for years has been bidding and finding materials manually. It’s a time-consuming process but no one has looked to change it. A study by Visual Capitalist found that 70% of companies in the industry believe that those who do not adopt new technologies will go out of business and 62% admit that the industry lags behind others in adopting new technologies.
Although difficult, change is something that should be embraced especially when it comes to technology. It’s time to disrupt.
Can you share five of the best words of advice you’ve gotten along your journey? Please give a story or example for each.
Here’s a few that we’ve integrated into our core values.
Think Big
Be Accountable
Have Integrity
Be Passionate
Adapt
These words have been comforting when facing major decisions. It helps to go back and think of what we are really trying to do and sticking to our values as a business and team.
We are sure you aren’t done. How are you going to shake things up next?
Growing Dibbs nationally. I want nothing more than for every contractor and tradesman in the US to use Dibbs as their go-to tool for construction projects. The same goes for homeowners, I want Dibbs to be a recognized household name and resource for renovation services. I truly believe that our product makes people’s lives easier and better.
Do you have a book, podcast, or talk that’s had a deep impact on your thinking? Can you share a story with us? Can you explain why it was so resonant with you?
There are a few that have really resonated with me in my personal life as well as with my business. Firstly, the Bible. There are so many thoughtful life lessons and best practices that I often go back to in my personal life. Grant Cardone, a top real estate investor has a podcast that I listen to often. He is brutally honest in his advice and really gets you to think big and think creatively. Thinking big has become one of our core values at Dibbs. Lastly, one of the books that has truly helped in my business career is one of our advisors, John McMahon’s best-selling book — The Qualified Sales Leader. This book has a ton of amazing sales strategies that get you to really think about your product as a whole and how to create actual value for your customer. This has helped me tremendously to focus on automating every aspect of the bidding process for the construction industry. Without doing this we would only provide a small value to our users.
Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share how that was relevant to you in your life?
There are a few that I live by — especially when I am feeling negative or down which in the entrepreneurial life does happen.
The first is actually from Meek Mill “On your worst day, you’re still living better than somebody on their greatest day” This is something I am consistently reminding myself of when I am feeling down. When the going gets tough, someone else in the world would happily trade places with you and deal with your current struggles compared to their day-to-day struggles.
The next two are quick quotes that really push me to be better and positive in my everyday life:
“Try and fail but don’t fail to try” — John Quincy Adams.
“Pain is temporary, pride is forever” — commonly attributed to Lance Armstrong.
You are a person of great influence. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger. 🙂
My nonprofit dream has always been to open up a charter school for children and young adults up to college with physical and social disabilities. I would start it in elementary up to college by providing sports programs for them, social gatherings, helping them get into the workforce as they get older, as well as housing and to help with their overall social skills to help them in a society that can be so difficult for them otherwise. I would want to raise money for the first school and then charter them all over the country from donors all over.
Makers of The Metaverse: Tsvetta Kaleynska Of Merse Advisory On The Future Of The VR, AR & Mixed Reality Industries
An Interview With Fotis Georgiadis
Believe the unbelievable, have a great imagination and always think big pic.
The Virtual Reality, Augmented Reality & Mixed Reality Industries are so exciting. What is coming around the corner? How will these improve our lives? What are the concerns we should keep an eye out for? Aside from entertainment, how can VR or AR help work or other parts of life? To address this, we had the pleasure of interviewingTsvetta Kaleynska.
Tsvetta Kaleynska is an internationally recognized marketer, TV commentator, SaaS consultant, and author on the topics of A.I. and technology and their impact on international development and safety. She is a founder of two boutique consultancies with headquarters in New York — RILA GLOBAL CONSULTING and Merse Advisory. Kaleynska has won multiple awards for her work, including a silver Stevie Award for “Women Helping Women Globally”; she works closely with the Peace Corps, the European Commission, and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, focusing on establishing a safe online environment for adolescents, promoting female empowerment, and equality.
Thank you so much for doing this with us! Before we dig in, our readers would like to get to know you a bit. Can you tell us a bit about your backstory and how you grew up?
Thank you so much for virtually having me! I was born and raised in Veliko Tarnovo, Bulgaria — a beautiful town in central Bulgaria, surrounded by beautiful mountains filled with centuries-long history. Born during the last year of communism, I was named after my grandmother and as unique as my hometown, my name means “flower” in Bulgarian. I graduated from the language high school in my hometown, where I studied French and Spanish and had the unique opportunity to pursue my higher education in the United States. In 2008 I moved to New York City on an academic scholarship. I graduated from St. Francis College with degrees in Marketing Management and International Business and Economics. After that, I completed my Master’s in Public Administration at Baruch College and started my dynamic career in the business world right in the heart of New York.
Is there a particular book, film, or podcast that made a significant impact on you? Can you share a story or explain why it resonated with you so much?
A book that shaped my mindset in my early 20s is the famous book called “The Secret” by Rhonda Byrne. It truly had a significant impact on my life as a quote stuck with me ever since I read it. The quote reads: “Instead of focusing on the world’s problems, give your attention and energy to trust, love, abundance, education, and peace.” The moment I read that line I felt a strange feeling of both agreement and disagreement with it. I felt likeI had to take care of my mental health but also realized I would never abandon my drive and passion for helping people. I always followed the motto that if we don’t strive to change the world, no one else would. This is why I was beyond honored to start my work with a nonprofit for female empowerment in the Balkans. The GLOW camp, abbreviated from “Girls Leading Our World” is a Peace Corps initiative that aims to unleash the full potential in adolescent females between the ages of 14–18 and to develop them as future leaders. I have been part of this organization for almost two decades now and always strive to encourage adolescent girls to believe in themselves.
Is there a particular story that inspired you to pursue a career in the X Reality industry? We’d love to hear it.
I have always been fascinated with Artificial Intelligence, machine learning, analytics and software. I have also always believed that AI and Virtual and Augmented Reality would be the future of the world and our generation’s impact on world history. The Metaverse and VR/AR, robotics were the only interception where I was able to combine my passion for technology and helping advance society through technology. Prime example of how VR/AR can improve life-saving fields is medical education — one can literally learn to become a doctor from anywhere in the world and learn from the best live. This is also why I chose to co-found Merse Advisory, a boutique consultancy helping brands make sense of the Metaverse.
Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you began this fascinating career?
For many years I worked at a large media agency in New York City, which offered various products and services. At first, my work involved a lot of writing, which was somewhat unnatural to me, given English is not my first language. I knew that in order to build my career from the ground up I had to step up my game, my English skills and to prove myself in the Big Apple. Since I began my career, I have been able to translate a client goal into a strategic framework and business strategy. The best outcome and story from my work has been the launch of virtual and augmented realities which have benefited people in impoverished countries. It was an incredible honor to be able to understand the client’s vision, create the strategy for it, and then be able to tell the story through visual and augmented boards, as well as a story which was shared online.
Can you share a story about the funniest mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lesson you learned from that?
I wouldn’t even know where to start. Throughout my career, I have received numerous lessons and made funny mistakes. One of the most memorable one I can share was the time I set up a fundraising page with the goal of raising a few thousand. The thousand I had placed was in the wrong currency though. Of course, we hit our campaign goal in no time as the exchange rate was 1 to 1000. The lesson I learned then was to pay attention to detail as excellence can only be achieved through the small details. Although I am the type of person who doesn’t like to make mistakes, I somewhat enjoy it now, as every mistake makes me a better person, friend, and professional.
None of us are able to achieve success without some help along the way. Is there a particular person who you are grateful towards who helped get you to where you are? Can you share a story about that?
When I was younger, I always thought my strong motivation for my achievements will never leave me. But moved abroad things drastically changed. I then realized how important it is to have a trusting and experienced mentor by your side. I am incredibly lucky to be surrounded by remarkable mentors, cheerleaders, and to have a great support system and the best mentor I’ve had has been my loving mom. I am incredibly thankful to her for the amazing example she has given me. Needless to say, I wouldn’t be here without her in many senses of the phrase. She is also the strongest person I know, who has built her career up during communism when females were mostly expected to be housewives. Women like my mom, who have managed to be a successful mother, wife, entrepreneur and a dreamer are the ones we really need to celebrate!
Are you working on any exciting new projects now? How do you think that will help people?
With the extraordinary advancement of technology, the Metaverse, and virtual reality will inevitably be a part of our lives very soon. With the multitude of possibilities in Metaverse applications come the many complex questions. That is why I co-founded Merse Advisory — to provide clients with the best possible technologies and global experts in the virtual space. We work across a few super interesting projects both in virtual and augmented reality, however I’ll have to come back to Authority Magazine in a few months and share them once we’ve completed them!
Ok super. Thank you for all that. Let’s now shift to the main focus of our interview. The VR, AR and MR industries seem so exciting right now. What are the 3 things in particular that most excite you about the industry? Can you explain or give an example?
With our world becoming more and more digitized every day, new changes, improvements, and innovations are awaiting us at every turn. In the last couple of years, technology has developed so rapidly that no one would have believed we would live in such a digital life. But innovation never stops and Web3 and the Metaverse can begin a new era of revolution. Being online and digital can make our lifestyles and work way easier.
Firstly, I believe that the VR, AR, and MR industries bring a whole new level to simplicity in our digital journeys. I think the rapid innovation of different apps will inevitably make our lives easier even more than they are now. For instance, VR technologies can be a key element in the social life of some, especially for those with physical incapabilities. By entering the VR world, they can feel more freedom by accomplishing undone activities. Secondly, these technologies will not only be a new provider of highly interactive social life, but also a huge opportunity for businesses. VR, AR, and MR technologies can provide companies with important data circulation which will arise new paths for entrepreneurship developments. Thirdly, this industry will bring more potential in terms of advancement of education and medicine. This is one of the reasons I am so passionate about it as technologies can bring new paths for human development in terms of not only social interaction and entertainment but also learning and teaching.
What are the 3 things that concern you about the VR, AR and MR industries? Can you explain? What can be done to address those concerns?
As many others in the industry, a concern I have is related to human interactions and how the Metaverse can affect those in the future. In that light, I am also proud to be a builder of the Metaverse in order to ensure that I help evolve human interactions and not hinder them. I can list many more concerns I have related to technology, but they are mostly related to both [physical and digital safety.
I think the entertainment aspects of VR, AR and MR are apparent. Can you share with our readers how these industries can help us at work?
As we saw with the Covid-19 pandemic, the whole world had to adapt to a new digital environment and online workplace. This showed how valuable VR, AR, and MR technologies can be. We discovered ways to be more productive and efficient both at work and in learning / education. When speaking about the latter, VR, AR, and MR advancements gave new opportunities to teach audiences virtually in a digital, safe, and interactive environment. Think of students who do not have access to education or who are in countries where that is not accessible — VR, AR, and MR can provide an amazing opportunity for education to evolve and be implemented anywhere. For instance, nowadays thanks to inventive and innovative technologies, doctors can practice and improve techniques and surgeries virtually. This could give a huge advancement in the development of medicine.
Are there other ways that VR, AR and MR can improve our lives? Can you explain?
The possibilities are beyond our imagination. Besides the ones I mentioned before, another aspect that VR, AR, and MR can improve our lives is saving the planet by reducing carbon footprint. Nowadays you can literally visit any place you wish to see, even if it is on the other side of the world. One can travel using VR tools and preserve the planet and carbon footprint.
What are the “myths” that you would like to dispel about working in your industry? Can you explain what you mean?
It is normal there are some misconceptions about the industry; a common myth to dispel is that the Metaverse already exists and is fully functioning. I am happy to share that is not the case and the Metaverse is in the process of being built 🙂
What are your “5 Things You Need To Create A Highly Successful Career In The VR, AR or MR Industries?”
Having a stellar tech stack knowledge.
Understand and stay ahead of Industry trends.
Being flexible and open minded as the industry changes nonstop.
Believe the unbelievable, have a great imagination and always think big pic.
Be positive and think big!
You are a person of great influence. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger. 🙂
As the times we live in aren’t easy, I think it is vital for us to save humanity in terms of caring more about our planet and people in general. This is why I believe in volunteering and helping poor regions improve their infrastructure, access to food, technology, among others. If I had the power to bring a movement with that force, I would definitely fight for establishing a stable and effective educational access in poor regions and empowering the young generation.
We are very blessed that very prominent leaders read this column. Is there a person in the world, or in the US with whom you would like to have a private breakfast or lunch, and why? He or she might just see this if we tag them 🙂
Among the top people I would like to have breakfast with is Sara Blakely. What an inspirational leader she is! I am amazed by how intelligent, fearless and hard-wrking she is. A true female leader who built her empire all by herself and now strives to help those in need. 🙂
Thank you so much for these excellent stories and insights. We wish you continued success in your great work!
After you analyze and validate your idea, one of the most important things you can do is surround yourself with successful people you trust who have your best interest in mind. Build a team of advisors who are experts in their field, ask them questions, and listen to what they have to say. You’d be surprised at how far a LinkedIn message could go in these cases.
As a part of our series called “Making Something From Nothing”, I had the pleasure of interviewing Dr. Vivek Lal.
Dr. Lal is a physician-scientist entrepreneur with more than 20 years of experience in lung research, clinical management, and healthcare entrepreneurship. He is the founder and CEO of ResBiotic and serves as the Director of the Pulmonary Microbiome Lab at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, which is funded by the National Institute of Health (NIH) and American Heart Association (AHA). A neonatal intensivist and pulmonary biologist by training, Dr. Lal has authored more than 100 original scientific publications, chapters, and abstracts, including groundbreaking articles on the critical role of the microbiome in chronic lung diseases.
Thank you so much for doing this with us! Before we dive in, our readers would love to learn a bit more about you. Can you tell us a bit about your “childhood backstory”?
Absolutely. I was born and raised in Andaman Islands, India, where my mother and father instilled in me the importance of hard work and success. My journey into medicine started when I was 17 years old. I moved to the U.S. to pursue research and higher education in the field of medicine. I’ve always been an entrepreneur at heart, and it was my mother’s dream for me to become a doctor one day. I hadn’t exactly envisioned that for myself, but helping others quickly became a passion and led me to where I am today: an ICU physician and pulmonary microbiome scientist at the University of Alabama at Birmingham and the founder and chief executive officer of ResBiotic.
Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share how that was relevant to you in your life?
“If you ever wonder how to do something, just start and you’ll end up looking back wondering how you did it.”
I’m not sure of the source, but this is a quote my father always told me, and it has pushed me to accomplish things I would have never thought possible. Throughout my life, I’ve found it true that if you have an idea, the key to success is getting started. As I look back on the milestones I’ve achieved as a physician-scientist and entrepreneur, I realize so much happened because I dared to take action.
Is there a particular book, podcast, or film that made a significant impact on you? Can you share a story or explain why it resonated with you so much?
The Hard Thing About Hard Things by Ben Horowitz is a book that I often reference. Many business books tell you things you probably already know, but this one gives a raw look at what it takes to build a company from the ground up and get it to survive. Being the CEO of a company is rewarding, but it doesn’t go without serious challenges. As Horowitz says, “The only thing that prepares you to run a company is running a company.” You don’t have to own a company to benefit from this read. It’s an excellent book for anyone who wants to grow as an entrepreneur.
There is no shortage of good ideas out there. Many people have good ideas all the time. But people seem to struggle in taking a good idea and translating it into an actual business. Can you share a few ideas from your experience about how to overcome this challenge?
I really believe that ideas are a dime a dozen, and frankly, the greatest idea could be worth nothing if there’s no execution. Everyone has an idea and an opinion, but few take action to make those ideas come to life. You don’t have to knock it out of the park with the idea, but you just can’t sit with it. As I said, the key is actually getting started. A moderate to good idea complimented with an excellent execution plan will get you far.
Often when people think of a new idea, they dismiss it saying someone else must have thought of it before. How would you recommend that someone go about researching whether or not their idea has already been created?
It’s critically important to do your due diligence in the research. The internet has everything these days, making it extremely easy to discover if someone is already working on your idea. Patent searches go a long way in the beginning stages, and this is something you could do on your own. Subject matter expert interviews can also be helpful. In other words, find experts in the field and see what they have to say. This is also a great way to start making connections. Nevertheless, you’re not disqualified if someone else has done something before you. Ultimately, it’s about execution and your solution could be better.
For the benefit of our readers, can you outline the steps one has to go through, from when they think of the idea, until it finally lands in a customer’s hands? In particular, we’d love to hear about how to file a patent, how to source a good manufacturer, and how to find a retailer to distribute it.
After you analyze and validate your idea, one of the most important things you can do is surround yourself with successful people you trust who have your best interest in mind. Build a team of advisors who are experts in their field, ask them questions, and listen to what they have to say. You’d be surprised at how far a LinkedIn message could go in these cases.
Once your idea transitions to invention, you must act quickly to protect your work with appropriate patents. The resB® Lung Support formulation was the product of years of research in my lung microbiome lab and our Chief Medical Officer’s lung protease biology lab at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, so we were fortunate to have the support of the university in securing a patent. If that type of resource is not available to you, there are good patent lawyers who can help.
Choosing the right manufacturer is also a critical step in safely getting your product into the hands of consumers. Hold every company you outsource to the highest standards with manufacturing is at the top of that list. This is where LinkedIn outreach was really key for me in the early days of ResBiotic. I didn’t have any experience in this space, so I reached out to industry leaders to learn more about my options. I found some incredible advisors who helped us navigate the process — avoid potential missteps, adopt best practices, hold ourselves and our partners to the highest standards. I’ve taken similar steps for distribution as we are now securing local and large chain retailers to distribute resB® Lung Support.
There are many invention development consultants. Would you recommend that a person with a new idea hire such a consultant, or should they try to strike out on their own?
I believe you should always complete your own analysis of the process before making moves to bring other parties into the conversation. Getting validated expert help early in the process rarely hurts, but you must have a foundational understanding that you’ve developed independently. At the end of the day, it is your idea, and you will eventually know more about it than anyone else.
What are your thoughts about bootstrapping vs looking for venture capital? What is the best way to decide if you should do either one?
Deciding between the two is very business and founder specific. It depends on your goals: how fast do you want to grow, what is your exit strategy, and what is the timing of it? Bootstrapping is extremely important for a startup in the initial stages, but there should not be a fear of equity dilution and venture funding if you want fast growth. Both bring their benefits to the table, and there’s no wrong way to do it.
How have you used your success to make the world a better place?
As a pulmonary physician scientist, I often ask myself, “how do we improve the future of respiratory health globally?” My definition of success is making the world a better place. So ResBiotic is a mission driven business, introducing what I believe is a better paradigm for lung health. In a time where respiratory risks lurk behind every corner, we need a way for people to care for their lungs proactively and holistically. We need to destigmatize respiratory issues and normalize a level of care for our respiratory systems. The innovation that makes all this possible is our understanding of the airway microbiome and the dynamic connections between gut and lung health.
ResBiotic began at the bedside by observing that the airways exhibit a microbiome as early as a baby’s birth. Since then, there have been years of research at my lung microbiome lab and our Chief Medical Officer’s lung protease biology lab at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. We explored the gut-lung axis concept and how gut bacteria communicate with different organs, including the lungs. From there, we created what is now resB® Lung Support and acted quickly to make our innovation available to anyone who actively thinks about their respiratory health.
If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger.
One of the most important things to me is making the world a better place for those who will come after us. When I think about breathing, I think about how air pollution could affect the future generations. There’s the saying “leave it better than you found it,” and I believe that to be true for our planet.
Is there a person in the world, or in the U.S, with whom you would love to have a private breakfast or lunch, and why? He or she might just see this if we tag them.
Several people come to mind, from world-renowned physicians to some of the world’s most successful entrepreneurs, but there is an athlete who always has more than impressed me, and that is Michael Phelps. His work ethic and drive for success are nothing short of admirable. He is quoted as saying, “If you want to be the best, you have to do things that other people aren’t willing to do.” He leads by example in this; not only does he own swimming, he is the most decorated Olympian of all time, and he did it all with asthma. I would love to sit down with him to ask a few questions and hear about his journey as an athlete with respiratory disease. Who knows, he may be interested in giving resB® a try!
Thank you for these fantastic insights. We greatly appreciate the time you spent on this.
Organizations that increase levels of inclusion in their culture are proven to increase levels of engagement which directly impacts workplace safety, reduces employee turnover, improves employee productivity, customer loyalty and profitability.
As a part of our series about “How Diversity Can Increase a Company’s Bottom Line”, I had the pleasure of interviewing Monique Nelson.
Monique Nelson is an Experienced Chief Executive Officer with a demonstrated history of working in the marketing and advertising industry. Skilled in Digital Strategy, Integrated Marketing, Advertising, Event Management, and Strategic Partnerships. Strong business development professional with a MBA focused in International Marketing and Finance from DePaul University.
Thank you so much for doing this with us! Before we dive into the main part of our interview, our readers would love to “get to know you” a bit more. Can you share a bit of your “backstory” with us?
I was born and raised in Crown Heights and Bed-Stuy Brooklyn. I attended LaGuardia High School performing arts as a voice major. In my senior year I was awarded the Posse Scholarship, and Inclusive Leadership Scholarship, to attend Vanderbilt University. I left Nashville, TN and moved to Kaukauna, WI where I was an Account Rep at International Paper, Nicolet, Specialty Paper plant. After a few years, I took my talents to Chicago, where I joined Motorola’s Global Brand Strategy Group and travelled the world. I spent significant time in Korea, China, Brazil, Italy, UK and UAE. This time, as you can imagine, allowed me to see and truly understand that culture mattered and as a marketer, I needed to be constantly informed about culture and how our product would be having both a positive and negative impact.
During my time at Motorola, I obtained my MBA from DePaul University in International Marketing and Finance.
After almost 8 years at Motorola, I returned to NYC and began my career at UWG as an Account Director and Head of Brand Integration and Entertainment. This role allowed me to learn the client service part of the business along with bringing my mobile and digital first knowledge to the agency and our clients. Both Byron and I knew that digital would drive the engagement of communities and would need to be culturally relevant.
I loved the business so much that my family and I bought the controlling stake in UWG in May 2012 when founder Byron Lewis retired, and I have been Chair and CEO for 10 years. I am so proud of the heritage of the agency, but also of the innovative, smart and empathetic team I have built to take on the challenges and the triumphs of the communities we serve for today and the future.
Can you share the funniest or most interesting story that happened to you since you started your career? Can you tell us the lesson or take away you took out of that story?
While I was launching the Motorola Rokr E1 we worked with some pretty amazing artists like Common, Questlove, Iggy Pop and the unbelievable Madonna, it being the first mobile phone with music embedded with 100 songs from Apple in September 2005. Madonna was releasing new music and we decided to use her song for the campaign. Well, we were only supposed to use a snippet of the song and not the entire song but somehow the entire song was released worldwide during the launch event. Needless to say, a lot happened to get the music down and relaunched. Lesson here “Don’t leak an unreleased Madonna song ☺ ”. Very stressful moment and I truly recognized that closing the communication loop is imperative to have excellent outcomes.
Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson” quote? Can you tell us a story about how that was relevant in your own life?
Decisions about are made in rooms without you! Everywhere you go, there you are!
None of us can achieve success without some help along the way. Is there a particular person who you are grateful towards who helped get you to where you are?
There are so many but here is a short list:
Jonathan and Dorothy Nelson — Parents, what more do I need to say?
My husband and two boys — My “why” for making the future better for 3 Black men.
Elena Panizza — My fantastic boss in Milan Italy taught me to truly be comfortable with being uncomfortable.
Michael Ainslie — My Mentor from college, Former CEO of Sotheby’s, continues to show me the ways of a CEO.
Byron Lewis — Founder of UWG, he taught me vision and mission is critical to sustainability and purpose drives everything.
What do you think makes your company stand out? Can you share a story?
We were purpose driven before purpose was a thing! We are consumer/customer- centric, and our relationship is always reciprocal with the communities we engage.
Are you working on any new or exciting projects now? How do you think that might help people?
I am excited about working with student athletes and am proud to be working with the first NIL Summit in Atlanta at the College Football Hall of Fame, June 13–15th. I am excited for these young athletes to be equipped with tools and resources to become content creators, investors and hopefully entrepreneurs. It is important for them to know their worth now that they can monetize. Helping young people succeed is paramount for our future and college athletes are a special community of dedicated, talented, smart and savvy people that deserve our support after years of denial.
How have you used your success to bring goodness to the world?
I certainly hope I have. I am oversubscribed but it is so hard for me to say no, especially when it comes to our community’s youth.
I serve on the following boards:
DPAA DEI Board — I recently did a webinar on how to attract and retain diverse talent
Posse Foundation, NY advisory Board
Eagle Academy Foundation
Brandeis University — DEI committee and Academy Committee
Member of the Brooklyn Links, Incorporated- Fundraising Chair for Salute to Youth Scholarship Program
UWG has a long history of giving and community. We support HBCU’s, minority businesses through supplier diversity, and support nonprofits in any ways we can.
Ok. Thank you for that. Let’s now jump to the main part of our interview. This may be obvious to you, but it is not intuitive to many people. Can you articulate to our readers five ways that increased diversity can help a company’s bottom line? (Please share a story or example for each.)
Risk Mitigation 1 — effective diversity programs can serve as a mitigant against lawsuits and other costly compliance related issues.
Risk Mitigation 2- effective diversity programs can protect a brand against costly “Public Blemish Incidents.” In the case of Cooper v Cooper and the Central Park Bird Watching incident, Franklin Templeton lost over $12B in market cap in under three days.
Organizations that increase levels of inclusion in their culture are proven to increase levels of engagement which directly impacts workplace safety, reduces employee turnover, improves employee productivity, customer loyalty and profitability.
For complex business challenges (not run of the mill issues), teams with diversity of demographics and culture/backgrounds consistently provide superior solutions when addressing these complex business issues.
In B2B and B2G Sales, corporate, government and other buyers are demanding suppliers to have strong diverse workforces, supplier programs, and are also now demanding that client service teams have diverse representation; those organizations lacking these fundamental requirements are not even being afforded the opportunity to compete for RFP deals.
What advice would you give to other business leaders to help their employees to thrive?
During this time employees are asking for environments that are inclusive and safe. Creating safe space for employees to express themselves and create community is so important. Whether you have ERG’s clubs, buddy systems, mentorship programs, happy hours or safe space hours — it is important especially in this hybrid environment that we understand where people are not only with the work but with their complete selves. Lastly, being very thoughtful, that mental health is real!!!!
What advice would you give to other business leaders about how to manage a large team?
Large teams must be managed in smaller teams. The best thing to do with large teams is to understand what is common and should be addressed universally as well as what is special and should be managed at the department, competency, or regional level. Once this is established, insert a feedback loop so best practices, innovations and learnings can be shared at both the large team level and small team level.
This allows for better metrics, faster problem solving and stronger performance.
We are very blessed that some of the biggest names in business, VC funding, sports, and entertainment read this column. Is there a person in the world, or in the US with whom you would love to have a private breakfast or lunch, and why? He or she might just see this 🙂
Simone Biles and Naomi Osaka. I am so proud of their strength, resilience, and brilliance. They are truly inspirational, and it would be an honor to spend time with them.
How can our readers further follow your work online?
Culture in its most basic definition is how employees experience their leaders, policies and each other. Generally speaking, most tech companies are below talent benchmarks in terms of balanced representation and diversity in their employee base. This means there should be some efforts underway to correct that representation gap, from both hiring and retention angles.
As a part of our series about “How Diversity Can Increase a Company’s Bottom Line”, I had the pleasure of interviewing Jeremy Chou.
Jeremy Chou currently leads Marqeta’s core Recruiting and Sourcing teams, in addition to heading up DE&I for the Oakland-based fintech company. Prior to joining Marqeta, Jeremy spent eight years at Google, where he built and led a series of technical sourcing and recruiting teams. He has a Bachelor’s degree in Economics from Stanford and lives in Danville, CA with his wife, Celina, and their 1-yr-old Bernese mountain dog, Francis.
Thank you so much for doing this with us! Before we dive into the main part of our interview, our readers would love to “get to know you” a bit more. Can you share a bit of your “backstory” with us?
As a first-generation immigrant to this country and now a Bay Area resident for over three decades, I was incredibly fortunate to be able to break into the tech industry and Silicon Valley very early in my career. After graduation and a short stint in IT Sales, I stumbled into the recruiting field, initially specializing in sales and executive search before moving to engineering-focussed roles. I then embarked on a 5-year tour inside Google’s recruiting organization, holding a wide range of sourcing and recruiting leadership roles. This ultimately led me to find a niche at the intersection of diversity and technical recruiting. It was the start of a 3-year journey helping build Google’s Diversity Staffing function from the ground up, alongside some of the brightest and most impassioned diversity leaders and thinkers in the industry.
After wrapping up my 8-year anniversary at Google, I made the bold decision to start a new journey, in a new industry here at Marqeta. I came to Marqeta to build out a new team and function by leveraging my experience in recruiting and diversity. I learned quickly that I would be the one gaining from the company, its sets of leaders and people. With brand new challenges in a new environment and a completely different pace of execution, the journey has been fast and like nothing I’ve experienced before. Now, a year in and with an unbelievably powerful team in place, we’re marching forward on our mission to write the future of global money movement.
Can you share the funniest or most interesting story that happened to you since you started your career? Can you tell us the lesson or take away, you took out of that story?
A few years ago, my team and I were signed up to participate in an intern and new grad career fair. As I was entering the hall and headed toward our booth, I struck up a conversation with a student headed the same way. They asked me “…so, which graduating class are you in?”. Being mistaken for a student left me amused and yes, slightly flattered. But it also strangely transported me back to when I was, in fact, a student like him, wandering the hall at my first intern fair. I remembered so vividly the anxiousness and nerves but also the excitement of being in that state of mind.
The majority of hiring I’ve led over the years has involved some element of intern and university recruiting. Often overlooked by companies, establishing an Early-In-Career program that’s in tune with this growing, and constantly changing, talent pool can really accelerate your corporate brand. It benefits your culture, internal mobility/progression, and investing in the next generation of leaders for your industry.
I’ve learned that early career recruiting and the candidate experience you create must be uniquely different in terms of approach and structure. Many in our field have deep subject matter expertise in building and scaling these programs. A staffing organization isn’t complete without one.
Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you tell us a story about how that was relevant in your own life?
“If you wish to be out front, then act as if you were behind.” -Lao Tzu
Of all the wonderfully inspiring quotes about drive and persistence, this one speaks to all of the competitors out there. The undersized athletes, the underestimated talent, the undermined and underscored. Through sports, academics and now my career, I’ve always worked to prove myself and chase the impossible. I believe you’ll never show up hungrier or more determined than when you play with a chip on your shoulder. This message of staying humble and focused while being unapologetically relentless in your pursuit has served me my entire life, especially in the last several years of my career. In a valley of over-achievers and industry bar-setters, standing out and setting yourself apart can be a long and trying journey. The recipe I’ve followed is simple; find those who are the best at your craft…learn how they set their bar…then set an even higher one for yourself. It may take you years to reach but it’s all the motivation true competitors need.
None of us are able to achieve success without some help along the way. Is there a particular person who you are grateful towards who helped get you to where you are?
There are far too many names on this list but one I’ll be forever indebted to was the leader who first gave me my first shot at managing a team. I couldn’t be more grateful for how she kick-started an unbelievably rewarding career as a people leader. Being far from the obvious choice for the job, she saw the potential in me and risked her own reputation in order to give me a chance. I’ve tried my best to follow her example and make her proud. She knows who she is…Thank you, J.
What do you think makes your company stand out? Can you share a story?
At Marqeta, we back up what we say we’re going to do with action. For example, when the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, our leadership team immediately rolled out our new healthcare policy to support every Marqetan, no matter where they lived in the US. Instead of simply communicating our support to employees, our leadership team took action and ensured employees knew they would have their certain travel expenses covered. Through examples like this, I get a sense of how we strive to live by our “Marqeta Cares” corporate value. We continue to take action to support the diverse needs of our employees, customers and communities.
How have you used your success to bring goodness to the world?
I’ve dedicated my career to helping break down barriers in tech for new and emerging talent pools, specifically talent that had been historically excluded from the tech industry. Silicon Valley still remains an insider’s club in many ways, as many tech companies struggle to sustain progress with diversity efforts and programs. However, despite the nominal improvements in workforce representation, the establishment of a central DE&I function and practice has finally become a standard for companies, and this is a very good thing. I’m proud to say I’ve been a part of that change. And while we still have a lot of work to do in the years ahead, being able to watch our practice grow and mature beyond a novelty gives me tremendous hope for the future.
Let’s now jump to the main part of our interview. This may be obvious to you, but it is not intuitive to many people. Can you articulate to our readers five ways that increased diversity can help a company’s bottom line.
Having seen and been a part of operationalized DE&I at both a big tech giant (Google) and now a recently IPO’ed high-growth fintech like Marqeta, I believe the bottom line impact really does vary based on company size and sector. That said, there are a few constants that I hold true across all players, large and small, in tech: Impact on your Customers, Corporate Culture & Communities
Customers typicallywant to work with companies whose values, operating principles and viewpoints are not in direct opposition to their own. This is especially true for the suite of publicly-traded, high market cap companies most often sought after by B2B tech players. In the B2C space, ‘customers’ are obviously the end users of that particular tech and they, too, will spend their customer loyalty points on businesses who will provide the value(s) they need and support. A company’s commitment to DE&I and how that commitment is messaged, sponsored and operationalized now frequently sits at the center of every company’s value(s)-based branding and ethos. This can have a direct impact on every aspect of the customer experience, from acquisition and satisfaction to retention and loyalty.
Culture in its most basic definition is how employees experience their leaders, policies and each other. Generally speaking, most tech companies are below talent benchmarks in terms of balanced representation and diversity in their employee base. This means there should be some efforts underway to correct that representation gap, from both hiring and retention angles. A firm commitment to DE&I, along with a well-published strategy is no longer the same choice or matter of opinion, as it may have been 10 years ago. It is now almost considered a minimum requirement of any company’s mission statement and set of values. Not to mention an expectation of its leadership and executive teams. Variance is found in how that strategy is funded and the extent to which the employee base truly believes it’s as important as their leaders tell them it is. I see better culture equal to better and more efficient hiring, a better employee experience, and better retention rates. Transitively, lower talent acquisition and retention costs equal an improvement to bottom line.
Communities have more influence over customer spending and decision-making than ever before, and we don’t expect this to change anytime soon. Previously known as the “word of mouth” effect, the modern consumer experience is now impacted by various spheres of influence; from social media sites/groups and alumni associations to professional organizations and identity-based collectives. These emerging communities of consumers will often elect to buy products and services that don’t just address their individual and community needs but actually caters to them, their beliefs and values. Having an employee base as diverse as the users a company aims to serve is a great starting point. Next, is building a go-to-market strategy that is specifically tailored for that diverse customer/user base. Finally, a user experience that retains that base against competitors and alternative choices. In a world where users belong to multiple communities and are paying close attention to how businesses cater to those communities, it becomes highly important that businesses understand how to engage, support and maximize their community brand and reach.
What advice would you give to other business leaders to help their employees to thrive?
One of the best pieces of feedback and advice I ever received as a leader was to check my own assumptions. As leaders and people managers, we’re often expected to have the answers and/or guide our teams to growth and success. The problem is that the advice we give is often rooted in a core set of assumptions and truths that we rarely examine ourselves. Sometimes, an experience or outcome can shake these assumptions- and it’s critical in those moments to zoom out and observe what may have become a blind spot for you; or even worse, an unconscious bias.
I remember first hearing a senior executive admit, in a public forum, that they had made a huge mistake, driven by an incorrect set of assumptions. It gave me chills. Not only did I gain a tremendous amount of respect for that leader, but it allowed me the space to examine and admit my own mistakes. Continuously checking your assumptions, and admitting when they were wrong and needed to be changed is a vulnerable but powerful moment. It can be extremely difficult to identify, change and admit, but it can also inspire deep trust and unshakable followership.
What advice would you give to other business leaders about how to manage a large team?
Someone once took a chance on me and hired me for a role above my experience level. I’ve tried to adopt that same faith in people as a leader and it’s yet to steer me wrong. My advice, especially when building a new management layer, would be to take chances on people who appear motivated to take on more. While it may be tempting to hire an external candidate with 10 years of role-related experience, take a thorough and continuous inventory of the talent you already have and be willing to bet on those who may be itching for an opportunity to stretch. The ‘less risky’ candidate from outside may serve you well in the short term- but that rockstar leader on the bench may be a key in unlocking the entire team’s potential. A culture infused with internal mobility and progression drives loyalty, motivation and results.
We are very blessed that some of the biggest names in Business, VC funding, Sports, and Entertainment read this column. Is there a person in the world, or in the US whom you would love to have a private breakfast or lunch with, and why? He or she might just see this 🙂
Any of my closest friends would tell you I’ve been an avid Lupe Fiasco fan since I first heard his first mixtapes decades ago, so it’d be hard to pick anyone over my favorite musician of all time. That said, I’d love to sit down with Adam Grant and pick his brain over breakfast. Having learned so much from his writings and talks these last few years, I have no doubt I’d leave a better leader and person.
How can our readers further follow your work online?
Enabling our people: When our people can be their real and authentic selves, they perform better. This has been demonstrated time and again. We know through our engagement surveys that when our team members feel safe and valued for who they are, they are more engaged, they have a sense of belonging and loyalty to the wider team. They want to do right by a company that does right by them.
As a part of our series about “How Diversity Can Increase a Company’s Bottom Line”, I had the pleasure of interviewing Mary Haddock-Staniland.
Mary has worked for decades as an executive helping to ensure diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging are not simply add-ons for culture but are woven into the fabric and DNA of a business. Mary is an expert in talking about how adopting a ‘beyond binary’ approach and being proactive about DEIB, can not only benefit businesses, but allow companies to connect more with their customers. Mary is believed to be the first to hold the executive role in DEIB throughout New Zealand at Timely, an EverCommerce solution. She has since been promoted to the role of the first Global SVP of DEIB at EverCommerce.
Thank you so much for doing this with us! Before we dive into the main part of our interview, our readers would love to “get to know you” a bit more. Can you share a bit of your “backstory” with us?
Well, as I get older of course the backstory gets longer. I was born in small town New Zealand, in a region called the Taranaki.
I grew up in a family where my mother accepted me and supported me as best as she could with limited resources, and a father, who didn’t accept me and was abusive, and he fortunately left us. I still haven’t connected with him, so that’s an unresolved issue that I have come to terms with. I battled through secondary school, I couldn’t hide who I was, it was there for all to see, and I was bullied for that. It was the 80’s and it was a completely different landscape then.
I think those experiences, with my father and at school really tested me, and made me a lot tougher. It was either going to do that or break me. We then moved to Auckland (the big city) and I eventually started my professional career as an Executive Assistant. I was so very lucky to have a boss who saw beyond who I was, and looked simply at what I could do, what I had to offer. Working for him, I learned so much. I ended up being his point person on the ground immediately after the Christchurch earthquakes, organising logistics for our Company in an extremely challenging environment. I stayed down there for months with that work and it was a once-in-a-life time experience.
I then spent time in a global advertising agency, Ogilvy & Mather leading HR and People Experience, before being given the opportunity to become the head of membership for the NZ national body for workplace diversity and inclusion.
That brought me into contact with Ryan Baker, one of the founders of Timely and he was just amazing to work with. He quickly made it clear he would like me to join the Timely team and help them along the DEIB journey, and I haven’t looked back. I think the reason I have stayed at Timely and now EverCommerce is because they are totally genuine and committed to this work and that excites me.
Can you share the funniest or most interesting story that happened to you since you started your career? Can you tell us the lesson or take away, you took out of that story?
I think the interesting thing I have experienced over the years is that often it’s the people you’d least expect who accept you and perhaps the ones who you’d expect to accept you, who don’t.
That amazing boss I had as an EA, was ex-Navy, a man’s man, self-made, and quite a drinker. But he was one of the most accepting people I’ve come across. On the flipside I had an experience in a 5-star hotel a year ago, in my capacity as a customer, where despite correcting the concierge, he would continue to use the male pronoun when addressing me.
In a customer centric industry like that, I was amazed at how ill-equipped their people were, the lack of awareness that was present, in that environment. And that concierge has quite literally cost that hotel a good customer.
Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you tell us a story about how that was relevant in your own life?
One of my heroes is Oprah Winfrey, and I was fortunate enough to meet her when she came to New Zealand. She says “Excellence is the best deterrent to racism and sexism.”
I choose to expand on that and believe excellence is the best deterrent to discrimination of all sorts. Because of this, I have always tried to be the best I can be at whatever I am doing. By giving my “all” I prove to the world that I deserve my place in society.
I am not asking for any favours for myself, and I’m not asking for favours for any minority, I’m asking for everyone to be given a fair chance, an opportunity.
None of us are able to achieve success without some help along the way. Is there a particular person who you are grateful towards who helped get you to where you are?
That is absolutely true, I have been fortunate to have four significant people in my professional life who actually valued the contribution I could make by bringing my unique perspective and abilities to a role. Indeed, these individuals placed a value on my unique identity, and I think they knew that through my life experience, being me, I would not take anything for granted, I would be giving it my best shot.
I think as leaders, one of the great privileges we have is opening doors, creating opportunities for minorities, and adding that uniqueness and different perspective to our operations.
What do you think makes your company stand out? Can you share a story?
I think what makes EverCommerce stand out in this field is that we are working to weave DEIB into our very fabric.
This work is not viewed as a bolt on, or a specific project. It is viewed as how we do business, how we are. I guess what illustrates this most clearly, is that this work is very much being led from the top.
In my role as Global SVP of DEIB, I work closely with our CEO, and he demands tangible progress along this journey. He also understands that there is no endpoint to this work. The world changes, new issues of equity and inclusion eventuate, there is always something that can be done better.
One of the challenges we do have is that we are spread across different countries with different cultures and values.
It is not enough for “headquarters” to impose DEIB policy on these solutions. Our duty is to engage and bring these different people along on the journey.
Are you working on any new or exciting projects now? How do you think that might help people?
This year we did a huge push for Pride month. We publicized it and we held a discussion panel. We made Pride a real opportunity for engagement with our teams.
We did a similar piece of work with a multi-denominational calendar earlier in the year. What we find is that we are not only making a connection with a particular minority group, but we are also improving the connection between other team members as well.
The positive nature of this type of engagement, with the underlying message that all are welcomed and valued, applies to everyone.
In parallel with our efforts for a Pride message, within Timely, we launched the pronouns feature in our app, allowing our customers and their clients to choose the pronoun they want to be recognised as when they visit our customer. This was and is seen an incredibly progressive step in the right direction to achieving true inclusion and adding real value for our customers.
How have you used your success to bring goodness to the world?
I am a big believer in telling the message. Increasingly in this role I am being given the opportunity to speak to audiences, do an interview or write an article. These are fantastic opportunities to engage and bring more people on the journey. Open eyes and improve understanding. Once people realise this isn’t a zero-sum transaction, that everyone gets to win from this work, it takes a lot of the reservations away.
Certainly, western society has made great strides in the area of DEIB over the last 30 years, and that has happened because champions have been out there talking to it, raising the issues and doing the policy work that underpins change. I am hugely optimistic about future progress and want to be a part of continuing this work.
Ok. Thank you for that. Let’s now jump to the main part of our interview. This may be obvious to you, but it is not intuitive to many people. Can you articulate to our readers five ways that increased diversity can help a company’s bottom line.
Bringing a broader perspective: Adding diversity of thought and experience to the decision-making process equals better quality decisions. A good example of this is a company my husband operates in, that has often had a fractious relationship with the Union representing their workers. That company brought in a lady to head up their industrial relations, and the tone changed almost overnight. The “them vs. us” mentality went away, and that relationship is now much more cooperative. It’s not perfect by any means, but there is a huge improvement.
Customer engagement: Certainly, with a lot of EverCommerce clients in the hair and beauty space, there is a lot of diversity. People from all different parts of the gender/sexuality spectrum, and a wide variety of ages. These clients want to see that their suppliers reflect who they themselves are. At its most basic level, this means their interactions with EverCommerce are through relatable people, but it also shows through in the culture of EverCommerce. Our diverse teams tell the story that we are accepting, and that we value difference. This shows through strongly in our customer loyalty. I know a certain hotel that could benefit here.
Opportunities to recruit the best: Because EverCommerce embraces and values difference, we recruit from the broadest pool of talent. And it’s not just about us being willing to hire, it’s also about being known as a safe and accepting space that values the unique contributions that are made by people with different backgrounds. We become a place that a wide variety of people want to work at.
Enabling our people: When our people can be their real and authentic selves, they perform better. This has been demonstrated time and again. We know through our engagement surveys that when our team members feel safe and valued for who they are, they are more engaged, they have a sense of belonging and loyalty to the wider team. They want to do right by a company that does right by them.
Retention: EverCommerce exists in a competitive recruitment and retention space. We know that it’s not enough to recruit good people, we also need to retain the good people we already have. High retention rates are so much more beneficial than high recruitment rates. Increasingly people are concerned with the whole employment package, not just the money. This goes to a company’s culture.
I have experienced the effect of developing a strong DEIB culture, followed by improved engagement, followed by improved retention and loyalty.
What advice would you give to other business leaders to help their employees to thrive?
“Doing Diversity, Equity, Inclusion & Belonging in the workplace well, means we will do well because of it.”
Embracing a culture rich in DEIB is crucial to securing the future, the people who make up any organisation’s teams are by far, their most important asset. Enabling that human resource is essentially what we bring to the table.
A strong DEIB culture, through having a reputation for embracing all our team members as their authentic selves, we not only attract a wider pool of talent, but we become an employer of choice as well.
Not only is it the right thing to do: Everyone should have the right to work in an equitable and inclusive environment. Regardless of any business benefits, it’s just the right thing to do and reflects the world we want to be a part of.
Inclusion is not complex. Inclusion takes work. It takes personal reflection, unlearning and relearning.
It takes a growth mindset and a commitment every day to be a better human than yesterday.
What advice would you give to other business leaders about how to manage a large team?
Understanding the importance of what DEIB means is key to a solid foundation.
Diversity is a fact: People and communities are by their very nature, distinct and different.
Equity is a choice: Equity (of opportunity, of respect, of differences) does not occur magically. We all tend to gravitate towards what we know, but when we do this, other people become excluded. To counter this tendency, a conscious choice needs to be made.
Inclusion is an action: Once the pursuit of equity is chosen, we need to make real change.
Belonging is an outcome: And as far as I’m concerned, this is the most important of the letters to understand and appreciate. I know what it’s like to feel like I’ve not belonged. The point I’m making here is where minorities no longer must feel gratitude for being included, or where the majority have to make a conscious decision to include them. This is a culture where minorities are simply an integral part of the tapestry along with everyone else.
We are very blessed that some of the biggest names in Business, VC funding, Sports, and Entertainment read this column. Is there a person in the world, or in the US whom you would love to have a private breakfast or lunch with, and why? He or she might just see this 🙂
For me personally, Michelle Obama is a person who inspires me. Her amazing ability to connect and make everyone feel valued. I think her time as first lady was just an amazing example of what can be achieved when you grab the opportunity. So yes, Michelle? If you are out there, I would love to share lunch.
How can our readers further follow your work online?
Either on LinkedIn or Twitter. Search for Mary Haddock-Staniland
Thank you for these excellent insights. We wish you continued success in your great work.
Meet The Disruptors: Richard Dávila II Of Livingston Hearing Aid Center On The Five Things You Need To Shake Up Your Industry
An Interview With Fotis Georgiadis
Everyone needs development. Some people need more than others. You must be confident that when you put someone in a teaching role they can do it effectively. If you choose the wrong person it can be damaging to growth.
As a part of our series about business leaders who are shaking things up in their industry, I had the pleasure of interviewing Richard Dávila II.
Richard and his wife and kids live in Lubbock, TX. He is the President and owner of Livingston Hearing Aid Center and is based at the Gainesville, TX location. He received his education from the University of Texas, McCombs School of Business and Texas Tech University. Received training from Texas Board of Examiners in Fitting & Dispensing of Hearing Instruments, New Mexico Speech, Language Pathology, Audiology and Hearing Aid Dispensers Board. Richard is Board Certified in Hearing Instrument Sciences and Audioprosthologist. He is a member of the IHS, International Hearing Society.
Thank you so much for doing this with us! Before we dig in, our readers would like to get to know you a bit more. Can you tell us a bit about your “backstory”? What led you to this particular career path?
Well, that’s an interesting story. My backstory is a story of commitment and discipline more than a story of entrepreneurial spirit and blazing new trails. When I was 17, my father, who owned Livingston Hearing Aid Center, died of a massive heart attack. Never had a sick day in his life; just woke up one morning, while driving to work, and had a heart attack at the wheel.
That was it. Gone in the blink of an eye.
It was the summer before my college entrance, and to say I was shocked would be an understatement. I had plans to head into pre-med, but what I thought would be my plan turned out to be someone else’s plan, and my plan fizzled into empty aspirations because when my dad passed away, I went to work.
As a teenager responsible for supporting my mother and two sisters, I knew I had to learn about the hearing industry fast. Looking back, I realize that the urgency and pressure were a gift. It accelerated my progress and fueled my curiosity. I poured my love of science and objectivity into hearing science. Instead of believing or thinking that the grass was (or might be) greener on the other side, I believed the grass was greener where I watered it. And that’s what I did.
We had two offices at the time, and working in those offices taught me people would never accept the solution for better hearing (a hearing aid) if they didn’t accept that they had a problem, to begin with. For the first 10 years of my professional career, I focused on influencing patients to experience the gift of better hearing.
Eventually, I realized I could only help so many people by myself — there were only so many hours in the day, so I shifted my focus of influence from patients to other hearing healthcare professionals. I first expanded in my backyard.
We were all in the same locations, and I began to learn how to overcome the challenges of managing other professional team members. Once I learned how to manage/influence others in my own office, I expanded to another city, another city, and another city. I spent the next 10 years opening offices and working with other hearing healthcare professionals as far as I could drive and get home on the same day. My sister eventually joined the family business after she graduated with her Doctorate in Audiology, and we worked together expanding into the Southern United States.
We started in Albuquerque and El Paso then moved into the Dallas market shortly thereafter. We’ve spent more than a decade dedicated to increasing access to hearing healthcare for older adults.
Livingston has grown from two locations in the West Texas panhandle to now, having 93 offices in 4 states and a team of over 300 people, all of whom are living into our mission to serve better than anyone so that we can fulfill our purpose to enrich life through better hearing.
Can you tell our readers what it is about the work you’re doing that’s disruptive?
We are committed to valuing the hearing healthcare provider’s role in the success of a patient’s hearing journey. Not only that, we believe in total hearing healthcare. We invest in state-of-the-art technology and testing equipment that you would not find in a traditional hearing clinic.
We are excited to be moving into new territory with cognitive screening as we identify the connections between audition and cognition. We are facilitating conversations with patients and their primary care physicians and other specialists surrounding the patients’ overall health.
Recent studies show hearing impairment is a risk factor for cognitive decline and dementia and that early management of hearing loss may delay or slow the onset or advancement of the disease. So, as hearing healthcare providers, we are on the front line when it comes to identifying risks and certain medical conditions that may affect your hearing or cognitive health.
But how do you get people interested in their hearing health? Through our innovative hearing technology and online social media presence, we have been disruptive to our industry, to say the least.
Let’s start with TikTok. Anytime you can generate 70 or 80 million views for one video while in the hearing healthcare and hearing aid business, you are disrupting! It has given us a surprising platform to bring awareness to hearing health, and the value of communication, and hopefully, open the door for future conversations about the connection between audition and cognition to millions of people worldwide.
Can you share a story about the funniest mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lesson you learned from that?
I don’t know if it was funny but given where I am now, I think looking back I certainly could classify it as funny so I will go with this one: I traveled to Austin to take a licensing exam shortly after my father died. It was right after I turned 18. You had to be 18 to be licensed in Texas. While taking the practical exam I realized I was not prepared. I had no idea what they asked me to do in certain parts of the exam. Rather than fumble through it, I simply said, “Well, I have never heard of that so that is my cue to pack up and head back home.”
And that’s what I did. I just packed my bags and headed home.
My uncle, who was in the same business, was also my mentor. He told me after my father died if I ever needed anything to call him and he would help me. Well, I had not done that during my preparation. I had elected to do it all on my own.
And the result? I fell short. I called my uncle and he told me, “Come to my office and spend some time with me and I will prepare you for your next exam.”
Well, the experience changed my life. You see, my uncle was a teacher. He explained things most simply. When he spoke, knowledge transferred. It was unbelievable. He was the very definition of a teacher. He taught me all that I needed to know to pass the exam.
I learned two lessons: One, that I needed to be comfortable asking for help. I needed to be less prideful. Two, I learned that the cure for the fear of failure is a failure. After I failed the exam I learned that I survived and when I arrived more prepared the second time. I gave it another try and succeeded. Lessons learned.
We all need a little help along the journey. Who have been some of your mentors? Can you share a story about how they made an impact?
I didn’t make many mistakes early on in my professional career. In fact, for the first 12 years, I would claim that I did not make any mistakes–not one. Zero.
I don’t say that with arrogance. I say that because I had a true mentor in my uncle, who was willing to share his knowledge with me. He told me, “Call me if you ever need anything” after my father passed away and every time I called him, he would take the time to teach me. It began with patient management. Every time I ran into a patient management problem, I would call him. I would provide him with the testing information and he would tell me what to do.
It was incredible. He had 25 years of experience at the time and every time I called him he would say, “Oh this is what you need to do. This is what you need to say.” And it worked. It worked every time. Needless to say, I called him every day. Yes, every day for 10 years. The questions changed over the years. I became proficient at understanding and practicing hearing sciences and managing patients. Soon I was calling him about business decisions. For example, when people would come to my office and try to sell me a certain type of advertising campaign and I would call my uncle and he would say, “Don’t do that. I tried that in 1989 and it doesn’t work.” I would immediately call the representative back and say, “Sorry, can’t do it.”
As my team grew, I would call my uncle and ask him about each obstacle I encountered when managing people. He would say, “Oh yes, that happened to me also and this is what you need to do.” What he told me to do was work every time. You see, while I was learning hearing sciences, my uncle was opening new offices.
He had more than 20 offices by the year 2000 when I started my expansion. So, leaning on my uncle’s expansion experience, I spent the next 10 years expanding all over west Texas and eastern New Mexico. My uncle was right by my side the whole time.
It is why I can say that for the first 10–12 years, I didn’t make any mistakes with confidence because my uncle was always there for me. My uncle retired in 2013. I talked to him almost every day up to his retirement.
I miss talking to him. He never stopped sharing his knowledge. He is the reason I am where I am today. He gave me the blueprint for success. All I had to do was follow the blueprint. I will, and do, take credit for the execution and there is something to be said about that.
Over the last 10 years, as I have become a mentor to others, I have realized that there is a big difference between knowing what to do, and doing it! Doing it is the hard part — so again, I’ll take credit for the execution, but without his influence, I wouldn’t be where I am today.
In today’s parlance, being disruptive is usually a positive adjective. But is disrupting always good? When do we say the converse, that a system or structure has ‘withstood the test of time’? Can you articulate to our readers when disrupting an industry is positive, and when disrupting an industry is ‘not so positive’? Can you share some examples of what you mean?
Let’s look at the positive. I discussed our social media impact earlier. Using TikTok to highlight hearing healthcare to tens of millions of people is about as positive an impact as you could ever imagine. I mean, let’s be honest, hearing aids have had a negative stigma for years. It has been a very common obstacle that we have had to overcome. So getting a conversation started about ears and hearing with these wax videos and then providing patient testimonial content that reveals the life-transforming benefits that occur with hearing aids is a needed tipping point to highlight our most “social” of the five senses; our sense of hearing.
The added attention to the industry and real people talking about their experiences with hearing aids in real-time is about as positive as it gets.
This new method of sharing content is pretty disruptive and I think very positive.
It turns out that for a disruptor to be “positive” for any industry, at a minimum, it must be positive for one segment of those within the industry itself. It is most effective and most positive when the segment benefiting is the patient/consumer.
Can you share five of the best words of advice you’ve gotten along your journey? Please give a story or example for each.
1. You will never learn anything more thoroughly than you will if you teach it:
Have you ever taught a Sunday School class? I know I’m supposed to be answering the questions but follow along with me on this one. When you read the Bible it is usually broken down into chapters in each book. In each chapter, there are stories told. These stories are usually made up of several verses. When you read the verses the first or even second time they can be very confusing. The passage may be talking about a vine and how it grows. As you begin to dive deeper and gather information from commentators you come to realize that the vine is not a tree at all–it is talking about Jesus; he is the vine.
It isn’t until you teach it that you obtain the deepest knowledge of the subject. I believe that if you can’t explain something in simple terms, in a manner that almost anyone would understand, then you do not truly know the material.
So, I have always believed in teaching at all levels of business. Teaching hearing sciences. Teaching patient management. Teaching sales. Teaching Marketing. Teaching, teaching, teaching.
2. Just because you know how to do something doesn’t mean you know how to teach it:
Not everyone is a teacher. Like most things, teaching requires skill, and not everyone is cut out to be a teacher so be very cautious about whom you allow to teach others on your team.
Everyone needs development. Some people need more than others. You must be confident that when you put someone in a teaching role they can do it effectively. If you choose the wrong person it can be damaging to growth.
3. A positive attitude is a choice:
Look, life comes at us sideways sometimes and we get to choose what our attitude is when we encounter difficulties. A positive attitude matters when dealing with problems and the circumstances of life. I always feel like I’m going to be parking in the front row. I always feel like the dice are going to come up 7 or 11.
Having a positive attitude is half of the battle in life.
4. Luck favors the well-prepared:
My uncle taught me to never let the other guy work with me. He was the hardest working guy I ever met. He always got up at the crack of dawn. So guess what? So did I. Every morning I felt like it was a race to see who would contact the other guy first. I knew that if I mimicked his work ethic I could be successful like him. There were times when I would hear my phone go off at 5 a.m. and I would jump up out of bed and get to my computer to respond (as if I was already at the office). I remember one time he emailed me at 5 a.m. with a simple question: “You up?”
I leaped out of bed and responded. “Yes sir, I’ve been here for about 15 min.” And the day began. I have never asked him but I felt like he might have been doing the same thing at times. If my memory serves me correctly, I feel like if I ever messaged him super early he always responded the same way, “Yep, I’ve been here just a few minutes longer than you.” Hahaha!
5. If you are sleeping like a baby each night, you don’t have enough on the line:
I spoke about being well prepared and sometimes preparation comes to you in the middle of the night in the form of sheer terror.
I think my uncle and I both experienced it; your body would just wake you up and you’d immediately think, “What if there is a median at that location in Albuquerque? What if customers can’t get into the parking lot from both directions? Did I check that? That could be a deal breaker.” It’s 4:30 a.m. and I’m up now. I have to go to the office and check that out.
When you are growing a business everything is on the line.
The more you grow, the more there is on the line. When the Christmas party was a single 5-top table at Outback Steakhouse, I could count on one hand the number of people who were depending on me. As you grow, the people depending on you multiply exponentially. Subsequently, that leads to many nights when you wake up in a panic because of something racing through your mind. At that point, there is no chance of going back to sleep unless you act.
We are sure you aren’t done. How are you going to shake things up next?
I am going to stay focused and do what we do best.
We are going to deliver experiences for patients that can’t be replicated online or through the mail. We are going to continue to create unsubstitutable experiences and great relationships with our patients, and we are going to do it in more places.
We have no plans to stop our expansion.
Do you have a book, podcast, or talk that’s had a deep impact on your thinking? Can you share a story with us? Can you explain why it was so resonant with you?
The best book, or rather the book that has had the most impact on me over the last two years, was Tools for Titans, by Tim Ferris.
This book has had a big impact on me. The book is a compilation of the tactics, routines, and habits of billionaires, icons, and world-class performers. It turns out the routines of people who perform at the highest levels have certain similarities. Much like with my uncle, I feel like mimicking the actions of high-performing individuals can lead to similar outcomes; successful ones.
I can’t recommend a book right now any more.
Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share how that was relevant to you in your life?
Hang a lantern on your problems.
I believe in talking about shortcomings. You see, I dislike strongly (hate) falling short. I do not like when we fail as a company. When we do, though, there is an opportunity to get better and I love getting better.
I can look at shortcomings or failures positively, which is in my nature. You will very rarely hear me talking about our successes. I talk mainly about where we are struggling, and where there is room for improvement.
It is this focus on failures and shortcomings that keep improvement right in my line of sight at all times. So when I find a problem, I shine a big light on it until we improve, and then work to ensure we have processes in place to protect against it from happening again.
You are a person of great influence. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger. 🙂
The movement I would like to inspire is one where we all believe that people, at their core, want to do their very best and they want to succeed, they just need to be empowered to do so.
The best feeling in the world is waking up and realizing that you have reached higher than you ever thought you could reach. It is waking up and feeling like you have accomplished more than you ever dreamed you could have accomplished.
I know it is the best feeling in the world because I feel it daily. I’d love to start a movement where people are focused on empowering others to feel this same way. All people are capable, they just need to be empowered, they just need to be inspired.
Someone just needs to believe in them.
How can our readers follow you online?
@livingstonhac on Facebook
@livingstonhac on Twitter
@livingstonhac on Instagram
@livingstonhac on TikTok
@richarddavilaii on Twitter
This was very inspiring. Thank you so much for joining us!
Makers of The Metaverse: Adam Sidwell Of Future House Studios On The Future Of The VR, AR & Mixed Reality Industries
An Interview With Fotis Georgiadis
Creative Mindset — You’ve got to have some kind of artistic eye and some kind of ability to tell a story that would work well in VR. You’ve got to understand how to use the medium and understand how it differs from film, video games, commercials and mobile games. You have to think in VR and have that ability to say “How do I use the medium in a way that it’s never been used before?” That is exciting.
The Virtual Reality, Augmented Reality & Mixed Reality Industries are so exciting. What is coming around the corner? How will these improve our lives? What are the concerns we should keep an eye out for? Aside from entertainment, how can VR or AR help work or other parts of life? To address this, we had the pleasure of interviewing Adam Sidwell, Founder of Future House Studios.
A storyteller, technologist, and entrepreneur with expertise in multiple mediums, Adam Sidwell is the Founder and Creative Director at the Future House family of companies. Future House Studios and Future House Publishing work in concert together to develop creative content for the Metaverse: virtual reality, real-time content creation, animation, games, books, film, television, and more.
With over 15 years experience building iconic CG for major motion pictures such as I,Robot, the Academy Award-winning King Kong, Pirates of the Caribbean III, I Am Legend, Speed Racer, Transformers II, the Academy Award-winning The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, Tron, Thor, Ender’s Game, Pacific Rim, Warcraft, and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II at world-class VFX studios such as Industrial Light + Magic, Weta Digital, Digital Domain, and Mirada, Adam’s roots are in building and directing the art and technology so that teams can bring animated characters to life.
Thank you so much for doing this with us! Before we dig in, our readers would like to get to know you a bit. Can you tell us a bit about your backstory and how you grew up?
Thanks for having me! I was born and raised in Modesto, California — A tiny town in central California, famous for being where George Lucas went to high school. The high school was across the street from my Dad’s office and I loved Star Wars growing up, so it was really cool to know that I was in the place where Star Wars was born. That was always on my mind. I grew up loving art and became inspired by what George Lucas did with the Star Wars franchise, until one day I lived out my dream by working for George at Industrial Light + Magic.
Is there a particular book, film, or podcast that made a significant impact on you? Can you share a story or explain why it resonated with you so much?
It would have to be Star Wars. In addition to the hometown connection I share with Star Wars, the technology that went into that story, and building those roles has always resonated with me. Walt Disney and the work that he did on Snow White and Sleeping Beauty to bring the first animated films to life was incredible. Bringing those impossible things to life made me want to be in that industry.
Is there a particular story that inspired you to pursue a career in the VR and AR industry? We’d love to hear it.
Honestly, I’ve always just had a fascination with turning the impossible into the possible. I have an appreciation for the way that engineering, technical aspects, creative aspects, and storytelling all have a place in the VR/AR industry, and ultimately wanting to be someone who successfully merged all of that together is what inspired me to pursue a career in the VR and AR industry.
Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you began this fascinating career?
I worked on the second Transformers film with Michael Bay. Michael Bay has exceptionally exact standards that he requires when directing movies. That gives his films such a unique visual look. I was working on the Pretender bot Decepticon in Transformers 2, and had to go through several iterations until he finally approved it. The animator next to me was on version 136!
It was then years later that Future House Studios had the opportunity to work with Dave & Busters, VR Studios and Dark Slope, and we had to go through some of the same iteration process to hit the G1 original Transformers look that would match the aesthetic that Dave & Busters was looking for. I was able to recall all of those creative moments and the ability to execute creatively years later. But this time instead of on the big screen, it was in VR in an immersive Metaverse Experience. It’s fascinating how certain parts of your career come back to you later. It’s a culmination of the film, art, character creative and technical work all coming together in one — which is fantastically fun.
Can you share a story about the funniest mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lesson you learned from that?
When I first started out, I was at a Digital Domain working as a Pipeline Technical Director and my role was to write tools for the iRobot character pipeline. I was writing scripts and tools that were being used by an army of animators on the show, and they all had to process their animation work through this one tool. One day, I left out a backslash which made the whole facility and animation publishing come to a halt — we were all working in this large warehouse and suddenly you could hear shouts and frustration as things began to break down.
I quickly made a fix and things were back up and running again. I learned that you need to be very exact about checking your work — I had people counting on me and the clock was ticking. The big thing I took away from that was that what you do matters; it always affects other people.
None of us are able to achieve success without some help along the way. Is there a particular person who you are grateful towards who helped get you to where you are? Can you share a story about that?
One person that immediately comes to mind is a Technical Director and VFX Supervisor named Steve Preeg — he was one of the guys who would yell at me if my code broke. He was tough as nails, and he shouldn’t have had time to tolerate the rookie that I was at the time, but he taught me incredibly well. The whole time I thought he hated me, but at the end of the year he recommended me for a job as a Character Technical Director at Weta Digital and told me if I worked there, I could work anywhere. I certainly would not be where I am today without his help — it was incredible that he helped me so early on in my career.
I need to also mention a producer named Chan Park. He hired me for my first real-time VR job at a company called Within, working under Chris Milk. I had to convince Chan that I was the right guy for that job as I was pretty far along in my career but didn’t have any real-time VR experience in a professional sense, but I knew I would work hard and could solve the problems if given the opportunity. He took a chance on me, hiring me for my first VR role and we worked really well together. A couple of years later, when Chan started to work at Wave, he gave me a call to work together again on some of their virtual concerts and that is part of what helped launch Future House Studios — so I’ll always be very grateful to Chan for that.
Are you working on any exciting new projects now? How do you think that will help people?
We are in the midst of some very exciting AR and VR projects, and we’re excited to share more when we can on our LinkedIn page.
Ok super. Thank you for all that. Let’s now shift to the main focus of our interview. The VR, AR and MR industries seem so exciting right now. What are the 3 things in particular that most excite you about the industry? Can you explain or give an example?
Technologies Are Merging: One of the things that is most exciting to me now is the merging of these technologies — we’re seeing pass-through on headsets. AR and VR are starting to merge in the next iteration of the Oculus. What I’m excited to see is the version beyond that, where we’re walking around with a headset that we can use for VR but then it can switch to AR seamlessly, allowing incredible experiences that make the two into one, and give us immersive worlds at a moment’s notice.
True Immersion: I love the way that we can go into worlds, and unlike a film or video game on a screen, we feel like we’re there. The sense of presence and awe when you’re playing together with other people is remarkable. I still get excited to bring someone into a headset who has never seen VR before. It’s that WOW moment that is still impactful and mesmerizing. I love having people over to my house to try new experiences and you see grown men screaming, because they’re so terrified of the reality that VR gives to them — everyone comes away with this adrenaline and euphoria, sometimes the two combined, because they have just transported themselves to a different world. What’s really exciting to me is that as Unreal engine gets better, as the hardware gets better, we’re going to see a lot of opportunities for us to make even more realistic and immersive worlds and then play with them in a very cool way.
Metaverse Interoperability: The next thing that excites me about AR/VR/XR is this whole idea of the Metaverse and the interconnectivity with each of these things. To me, it’s fascinating if I can have a shared avatar that walks from world to world and experiences all of these different worlds that different people have created, just like we hop from web page to webpage with a hyperlink, I would love to feel like all of these worlds are interconnected and interoperable in a way that really feels like we’re going from planet to planet. That to me, means that we have an entire universe to explore.
What are the 3 things that concern you about the VR, AR and MR industries? Can you explain? What can be done to address those concerns?
Big Promises for Tech Still In Its Infancy: Having the tools to be able to create what is actually possible. There’s so much of a promise on what the Metaverse is, but the technology is still in its infancy. When sci-fi writers sit down to write about the grand metaverse, or we read about “Ready Player One,” it’s easy for everyone to construe what that is but it is so much harder to actually build it and we just don’t have the tools for it right now. We have tools to build miniature slices of it but not the full thing and people are really starting to feel like the metaverse isn’t real. We’re still several years out from what has been promised; however, it doesn’t mean that there aren’t a lot of fun experiences that can happen already and a lot of things that are very very worthwhile and exciting in the Metaverse. Are we going to have a photo-realistic experience where we have 30,000 avatars simultaneously in battle with a giant robot outside of Anorak’s castle? No, that’s not going to happen right now because we don’t have the processing power or the algorithms worked out to make that happen. I worry about people getting burned out on this idea of the metaverse before they realize that it is still several years away from being the level that has been described in fiction.
Will It Be TOO Good?: Second worry I have is that if we make it too good everybody will want to spend 24/7 in a headset — that would change the way we interact with people and change the way we connect with others.
Egalitarian Utopia Dream World: My final concern would be that there has been such an idea in many descriptions of the metaverse that there is this grand, perfect egalitarian utopia, where everyone gets along and everything is free — it’s wonderful. I’m concerned that in some of these grand visions and dreams, we’re actually not acknowledging human nature, we’re not acknowledging that there has to be some kind of economy that develops. There will be, for better or for worse, just like in every other system, some levels of hierarchy that develop because there will be people that are experts, people that own the tech, people that are better at building than others. I think if we try too hard to remove human nature from the equation, then we will end up breaking the whole thing. There has to be a commercial, economic incentive from brands — things are going to have to cost money somewhere — otherwise we won’t be able to pay for the metaverse and the creators behind it, and there needs to be money from it, for that. We have to develop a fair economy so that creation can thrive and creators can earn money for themselves.
I think the entertainment aspects of VR, AR and MR are apparent. Can you share with our readers how these industries can help us at work?
Definitely. So I think one of the main examples that is very clear, which the pandemic taught us, is that we can use VR/AR/XR to interact with each other, when we couldn’t before. Future House Studios has been able to bring people together from all over the world, which we have done with multiple companies, where they haven’t seen each other for years and we can put them in the metaverse, and they feel like they are there together, playing and laughing with one another and getting that emotional connection of being present with each other when they haven’t had that in a long, long time. We recently developed the interactive environment for NICE Interactions Live which helped business executives connect in the metaverse — and even featured appearances from former President George W. Bush and George Clooney.
I think some of the things that Microsoft is doing with the Hololens and their mixed reality is really fascinating because you can have digital twins. For example, let’s say you’re examining a car engine, and you need to have a meeting with the engineers to discuss the car, but the engineers are on the opposite side of the world. The person dealing with the actual engine physically in the garage can wear a hololens to project what he sees, which is then being represented as a digital version in VR to someone who is far away. At the same time, the person who isn’t physically there can have his avatar, which matches him, in the AR version of the headset for the person in the garage. VR/AR can all mix together and help us be geographically agnostic, meaning we can overcome some of those communication issues that would otherwise occur. This technology is as amazing and promising as email was at a time when we were sending letters via snail mail.
Are there other ways that VR, AR and MR can improve our lives? Can you explain?
Commerce. Human connection. Work.
One of the best ways to do that is to be able to communicate and be present with those friends and family that we haven’t seen, that are far away and that we can sit down with them. There are a lot of people that aren’t able to see or be with their parents, yet they could put on the VR set and be in the same room and sit next to them on the couch. It has a lot of the same emotional and body language cues that we recognize as humans, how close someone is, how close they are to you, which you don’t get with Zoom or other systems.
The way we shop can be more convenient and immersive. Video games have proven to have an incredibly high level of engagement. The metaverse allows those same levels of engagement with brands. The way we socialize can bring together those who are far apart, yet it feels like they’re right next to you. The way we work can allow talent from all over the world, where before it was limited mostly to just geographical areas. We’ve even built our physical office in 3D to allow our team members from across the world to visit and meet there, just like the local team members. The way we play can put us into these amazing worlds more than ever! The possibilities are endless.
The public is going to encounter a tipping point where devices and applications will become so ubiquitous, and so convenient, they will need and want to use AR/VR daily to enter the metaverse. It may be the way they interact with customer service, or test out a new travel location before they book, or view an overlay of a city block to find directions to their destination. The expansion of AR/VR will only come as the devices are simple to use, comfortable, and necessary. You can see that with some of the smart AR glasses in development. VR Headsets are getting smaller and more comfortable. Convenience will drive mass adoption and make them part of everyone’s lives day to day.
What are the “myths” that you would like to dispel about working in your industry? Can you explain what you mean?
People are going to assume that the Metaverse and VR is already hyper-realistic and that it is already at the level of Call of Duty video games — it’s not there yet, we’re still a ways off.
Other rumors I could dispel are the fact that a lot of people who haven’t used VR before are worried or believe that they are going to get sucked into VR and AR headsets and never want to take them off, spending all day on it and getting sucked into the matrix, as you could say. Ultimately, I think that’s a non-issue as most VR experiences are only made to last 20–30 minutes, if that. You’re going to find that VR is highly exciting and interesting, but it’s not currently designed to keep you in the headset all day long — imagine it like a 20 minute matrix and then you go home. Games tend to be something you can play all day whereas VR doesn’t usually lend itself to sucking you in all day. It’s about diving into the immersive experience to feel something different and then removing yourself from it. Most experiences are not designed for full-day experiences, especially because there are a lot of limits on how nauseous and disoriented you get after a while so most people want to take it off after 20/30 minutes. However, right now there are a lot of smart engineers trying to find solutions to combat those problems, so maybe there will be a time where you do want to stay in it all day — but we’re certainly not there quite yet.
What are your “5 Things You Need To Create A Highly Successful Career In The VR, AR or MR Industries?”
1. Curiosity — You’ve got to want to learn how it all works. You’ve got to want to try different games, want to learn the technology, you’ve got to learn to code and how it works, you’ve got to learn how the animation works, the game engines. How does Unity work? How does Unreal work? How does this version of a headset differ from another? What does foveated rendering mean? What are the things that need to be improved upon and what can be improved upon in the headsets and the games? You need to ask questions and want to find out answers because you love it.
2. Tenacity — You have to have the ability to stick to it. It takes long hours to find out those answers, read your tutorials, do tests, and download the software. You have to be willing to put the time in to truly do great work. When you get it wrong, try again and iterate. You may fail 1,000 times, but you might find success on trial 1,001.
3. Creative Mindset — You’ve got to have some kind of artistic eye and some kind of ability to tell a story that would work well in VR. You’ve got to understand how to use the medium and understand how it differs from film, video games, commercials and mobile games. You have to think in VR and have that ability to say “How do I use the medium in a way that it’s never been used before?” That is exciting.
4. Analytic Mindset — In the analytical sense, you have to think like an engineer and break down the problem. You can have a great idea but you have to think how you would convey that idea and make it work. That’s a huge need currently as we have creatives and clients come to us saying “we want to do this and that with our brand” but at FHS we breakdown for them what is possible currently, and help match the scope with the engineering ask so that we can actually get to building them an experience as quickly as possible.
5. Connections — You can’t work all alone in your room on this! You have to get out there and get experience, find work and make yourself enticing to an employer. Whether you want to start a company or be an artist within your career you need to get that first job/experience because you will suddenly meet 20/30/40 people who are in the VR industry. They will remember you if you do good work. They will become a part of your network and they can and will help you out later in your career — it’s critical for success.
You are a person of great influence. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger. 🙂
I think if I could inspire a movement it would be to inspire people in VR to realize that there is a gap between who we are and what we can become. When we’re in VR and we start our imaginations working on what it would be like to be a hero, to do good in the world, to do good for others around us — that’s why we game, we game because we want to become something more than what we are. If through VR we could tell the stories that inspire people to become good things, that in real life are going to make us the best humans we could possibly be and take on that responsibility, that’s what I believe VR could become and that’s what I want to see it become.
We are very blessed that very prominent leaders read this column. Is there a person in the world, or in the US with whom you would like to have a private breakfast or lunch, and why? He or she might just see this if we tag them 🙂
I’d love to sit down with Tim Sweeney, the CEO of Epic Games. Aside from Epic Games being such a powerful influencer of change in the gaming community, I think Tim is incredibly forward-thinking in terms of how games affect our lives. From the young preteen who loves to play Fortnite up to how Unreal engine is going to support and enhance our work, our play, our learning and the automation of things, he’s consistently ahead of the curve. He sees Unreal engine not just as a game engine, but as a reality development engine, and I am impressed with how he’s able to see a vision of the future and that he’s actively helping transform that into a reality.
Thank you so much for these excellent stories and insights. We wish you continued success in your great work!
… Especially in a remote environment, poll employees as to their preferred mode, whether it’s zoom or phone or…other. For maximum impact, let the managers and reports arrive at this together, giving them a shared goal, building trust and infusing the remote process with a measure of autonomy.
I had the pleasure of interviewing Dani Ticktin Koplik.
Dani Ticktin Koplik is the founder of dtkResources, a boutique executive coaching /leadership consultancy in New York City. As a CEO Whisperer, she partners with senior executives to grow their leadership practice, equipping them with the skills and insight to create dynamic, innovative, resilient, regenerative and humane cultures built to withstand uncertainty, ambiguity and crisis.
Deploying a growth mindset and her marketing sensibility, she’s known for her bold, strategic, critical thinking, her ability to see through obstacles and her fearlessness in interrogating legacy assumptions.
A long-time champion of diversity, equity and inclusion, Ms. Koplik — differentiated by her training in the neuroscience of leadership, bias and racism — is a potent and ‘wholistic’ resource, fortifying leaders committed to embedding DEI, not as a program but as a cultural lens.
Ms. Koplik elects to work with leaders of agile and entrepreneurially-minded firms/organizations/associations, boards and mid-stage start-ups resolute about effecting change in real time. As a thought leader, she shares perspectives in posts, articles and her upcoming podcast ‘Against the Grain.’
All engagements and programs, customized to meet the unique needs of each client or organization, are designed for maximum take-away, immediate implementation and sustained impact.
Among industries served: accounting, advertising, banking, data analytics, entertainment, higher education, law, non-profit, pharma, private equity, real estate, venture capital.
Thank you so much for joining us! Our readers would love to “get to know you” a bit better. Can you tell us a bit about your ‘backstory’ and how you got started?
I took the ‘scenic route.’ The family business was law and that’s where I was headed. Until it wasn’t. I switched gears, honoring my creative side and ventured into the movie industry, doing advertising, marketing and research. In that business, bad behaviors and bad bosses abound so I turned it into a learning opportunity about business plus the idiosyncrasies of human behavior, what motivates people, what engenders cooperation or conflict, what gets them to ‘yes’… or what shuts them down.
This incubated while I stepped away to raise my children. Fortunately, my curiosity about how to move through those human behaviors led me to what I was meant to do: executive coaching, leadership consulting and professional development. When I left the corporate world, it was partially my bailing out: at that midpoint in my career, I didn’t have the skills to double down and advance. So I poured myself into helping women take control, advance through ranks and assume board assignments. The lane got crowded so I organically expanded my scope, offering the same neuroscience based skill development to other historically marginalized or excluded groups. The 1:1 work was satisfying but my impact increased, as I added public speaking, a more systemic approach and created proprietary professional development programs.
What do you think makes your company stand out? Can you share a story?
A few things. My:
understanding of the hard science — the neuroscience — of why we act as we do.
creativity — ‘I don’t even see the box;’
dot-connecting; gap/obstacle spotting.
entrepreneurial sensibility.
business acumen; truth-telling; agile thinking.
bespoke (not homogenized) work, and…
growth mindset.
These distinguishing assets are critical in helping clients navigate constant uncertainty, crisis and tectonic change,
Often, this lands me in the future that others don’t yet see. Fifteen or so years ago, large corporations commissioned research to determine how to stop hemorrhaging women mid career. It’s a 10 year saga so, briefly, the researchers initially recommended institutional changes designed to retain women. Because I bailed from my career, I saw it differently: it wasn’t about palliative tweaks — table stakes, really — it was about skill development and executive readiness, which I raised with some corporate sponsors of the research. My thinking was sidestepped so when they gauged progress five years later, the needle hadn’t moved off the meager 17%. Next interval, same results but another new ‘solution.’ No change. Finally, after getting it wrong twice, they came around to the concept of executive presence. Voila!
I suppose there’s validation in my early idea eventually taking root but validation should be beside the point. Better: keep probing what’s missing and why.
Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you started your career?
About eight years ago I was retained by a financial services company, working first with a handful of investment professionals. As the engagement expanded, my aperture widened, giving me different perspective of what was at stake: this was not just about individual coaching but very much about understanding the host context, the culture, the ecosystem. This ‘wholistic’ approach was so effective and so much more comprehensive that it’s now baked into all my engagements. Coaches are taught to bet catalysts, that change is reserved for the client. Not in my experience: every engagement teaches me something, supplementing my tool box and expanding my value.
Can you share a story about the funniest mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lesson you learned from that?
Instead of a funny mistake, I can cite one rookie error. I attended an HR association meeting, expecting to prospect for HR clients but found the event filled with other coaches there for the same reason. In those early days, I felt very insecure among potential competition so I shut down. Scarcity mentality at work. Over time, I realized there are infinite slices of pie, growth that impacted personally as well as professionally. I can chuckle now!
What advice would you give to other CEOs and business leaders to help their employees to thrive and avoid burnout?
We’re still in the time of Covid which requires CEOs, business leaders and employees to pivot rapidly, often in unexpected ways. The changes, combined with rampant uncertainty are experienced in the brain as depleting threat. To allay threat and avoid burnout, leaders must supply what employees have most missed: autonomy, social connection, clarity, transparency and compassion. In order re-engage employees so they thrive-not-just-survive, employers must ensure physical and psychological safety; prioritize employee experience; embed a growth mindset; provide time and space for reflection and mitigate bias and micro aggressions to create a diverse, equitable and inclusive culture. While crises might subside, the human issues still gather speed so to succeed, leaders have no choice but to evolve their leadership practice. So much is new but it’s still lonely at the top. Get support, it’s out there.
How do you define “Leadership”? Can you explain what you mean or give an example?
Leadership, formerly strictly about commanding and controlling employees to accomplish objectives, had to respond to changing needs and younger generations. In recent years, the model has softened and expanded, allowing leaders to create more human and humane workplaces. Leaders who build great, complementary teams no longer need subject matter expertise or to rule with an iron fist; in fact, today’s successful leaders understand, incorporate and deploy a vital set of social skills, including EQ, vulnerability and compassion. We’re still living through crises that continue to impact all so remaining transactional and failing to respond to the needs of their most valuable asset — their people — will result in poorer collaboration, innovation and performance as well as setting them back in the war for talent. Employees are savvy consumers who vet potential employers based on leadership behavior, corporate missions and social responsibility.
In my work, I often talk about how to release and relieve stress. As a busy leader, what do you do to prepare your mind and body before a stressful or high stakes meeting, talk, or decision? Can you share a story or some examples?
This is about regulating emotions and metabolism to enable perspective-taking. Breathing — slow, measured and deep — is an on-the-spot, grounding option. If there’s room and/or privacy, folks can siphon off nervous energy by actively shaking out their limbs. I former client always panicked prior to presenting, even when the stakes were low. The psychological causes are above my pay grade but attending to the physical and metabolic restored his composure: once the nervous system cools, emotions reset and a sense of cognitive control returns. Another strategy is an ‘if-then’ plan: if they challenge this assertion, then I will counter with… If I start to lose my audience, then I can walk around, I can pause, I can reboot, rethink and most importantly, gain perspective.
Another strategy is to reframe the negative self-talk; for example, I was booked to address a women’s economic conference about confidence. My perspective was unorthodox and I was confident this would open eyes. Except, just prior to my talk, a world-renowned poet did her kick-off thing and what happened to me? Ironically, confidence pooled at my feet. Momentary panic: how can I ever follow that? After her, I got nothing. I took a breath, slowed my heart rate and reframed: she had expertise in poetry so brava. I, on the other hand, possessed a different expertise. She owned hers and I could own mine. Result: this real experience of two minutes ago became my intro, modeling the lesson with vulnerability (often thought to be the antithesis of confidence) and authenticity.
Ok, let’s jump to the core of our interview. Can you briefly tell our readers about your experience with managing a team and giving feedback?
Back when, I was a new director with responsibility for a small team. I seriously knew nothing from nothing and likely had poor management skills, including how to give feedback. I did my best but always felt lacking. Eventually, I shifted gears and set out to understand and acquire the skills I lacked; teaching and coaching around them became the core of my practice.
Since I had been the lab rat, the learning was personal…and very sticky. Now, not as a manager but as an advisor to managers, execs and leaders, I teach feedback skills and offer best practices for both the giver and the receiver.
This might seem intuitive but it will be constructive to spell it out. Can you share with us a few reasons why giving honest and direct feedback is essential to being an effective leader?
Simply, all leaders — those responsible for successful outcomes and difficult decisions- have blindspots and so, must depend on reliable, direct feedback not just from metrics but from trusted advisors. Successful leaders solicit feedback early and often for additional perspective and as a hedge against their own blindspots. The key, though, is that if leaders depend on direct and honest — not sycophantic — feedback they must create the space for others to offer it without fear of retribution.
To expand, the same applies
for example, instrument panels are feedback, the mirror is feedback, the scale is feedback. We may not like what we hear or see but, in these cases, the feedback is without judgment: human brains use shortcuts to assess friend or foe, making givers vulnerable to snap or unfair judgments and receivers prone to shutting down.
But to open the discussion:
The traditional feedback practice is so often loathed by giver and getter alike. But the truth is, it’s essential in everything we do.
For leaders, honest and direct feedback is essential both for their decision making and in developing a productive and engaged workforce. Still, feedback can be honest and direct…yet ineffective.
For greater efficacy, consider the following:
delivering feedback is a skill that can and should be taught (it’s a function of great communication.) When delivery is unskilled, it can and does backfire.
There’s an outsized focus on error over improvement. As Marshall Goldsmith suggests: why focus on the past…especially a failed past. Instead, focus forward on development and improvement. This doesn’t mean neglecting lessons of the past or sugar coating realities, it just means errors or transgressions should be framed so the recipient understands the feedback as constructive, as in their best interest rather than punitive.
To optimize the feedback process, it’s critical for managers to gut check their own and the system’s unconscious biases. It’s also important to understand perception lags behind reality: the recipient may have already made some changes but because we see what we expect, reviewers may be assessing from old information.
Everyone benefits when feedback is valued as a cultural norm rather than a once-a-year horror. Eight years ago, I developed Dynamic Inquiry, an alternative to the annual review and designed to make feedback less threatening but more useful and timely. Ideally, feedback conversations should be baked into the day-to- day. Some of the benefits: issues are surfaced in real time, citing recent, not year-old, examples; the threat level for both parties remains low, so productivity is improved not impaired; the frequent exchanges build trust, increase engagement and motivation, assist in retention and most importantly, result in smaller, immediate course corrections, again, benefiting everyone.
In short, it behooves leaders to professionally develop their teams by offering candid and direct feedback. Of course, there are caveats because unskilled feedback can backfire, throwing an employee into a threat state and causing the leader anxiety: the truth is that feedback, as typically delivered, is anxiety-provoking for both the recipient and the giver. In the end, this is counterproductive, often negatively impacting the trust, allegiance, motivation, engagement and performance of an employee and the authority/popularity of the leader. It’s a truism that employees often leave companies because of a ‘bad boss,’ who is tantamount to a poor leader. This is particularly significant as we try to lead through the double whammy of the great resignation and the war for talent.
Historically, the process of feedback has been top-down but that has necessarily shifted: now, offering just-in-time feedback through employee surveys, polls, town halls has become an essential tool in the push for, among other things, corporate diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) initiatives. Measuring progress along the DEI front can be elusive and will take time to play out so companies are using these feedback processes to take the pulse, to get a directional idea of what might or might not be working.
More generally, upward feedback — objected to strongly by some — is a topic for a whole other article. I just like that it’s being used diagnostically for matters of real importance.
One of the trickiest parts of managing a team is giving honest feedback, in a way that doesn’t come across as too harsh. Can you please share with us five suggestions about how to best give constructive criticism to a remote employee? Kindly share a story or example for each.
Regrettably, preparation for delivering quality feedback is given short shrift. In fact, giving feedback is more often thought of as a chore, a ‘comes-with-the-territory’ than as a skill. But it it’s absolutely a skill and a critical component of effective and conscious communication. Above all else, keep feedback succinct, specific and generous.
Some suggestions:
Treat feedback as the skill it is, both emphasizing that it’s a critical component of effective and conscious communication and respecting its power. With great power comes great responsibility. One quick anecdote from the annual review chronicles: I had to talk two investment executives off the ledge when raw verbatim feedback was forwarded to them in error. Aside from that being a feedback no-no, the subjects, struck in the solar plexus by pointed, gratuitous remarks, were unable to process anything constructive and were left with resentment, hostility and desire for retribution. Words are powerful.
Have the person with day-to-day responsibility for an employee deliver the feedback. When more senior executives get involved, both employee and executive are at a supreme disadvantage: the employee goes in already in a self-conscious threat state and the more senior executive delivers feedback without benefit of context, complexity, personality. There needs to be a connection — rapport as well as trust — for any feedback to be meaningful. As an example, I worked with a professional service firm where the partners delivered feedback across levels, including to the most junior positions. Always lots of complaints from below: they don’t know me, they don’t see my work, they don’t see how I interact with colleagues or whether I show team leadership, etc — all of which is deemed less useful and ‘unfair.’ They have a point, especially in a remote environment where bridging distance is both a matter of place and connection. The closer the connection delivering the feedback, the more natural the intimacy and the more candid the conversation.
Especially in a remote environment, poll employees as to their preferred mode, whether it’s zoom or phone or…other. For maximum impact, let the managers and reports arrive at this together, giving them a shared goal, building trust and infusing the remote process with a measure of autonomy.
Always operate from a growth mindset which importantly focuses on progress as much as performance (critical in times of crisis and emotional stress.) Nothing succeeds like positive reinforcement so it’s best to acknowledge improvement, discuss what the employee could be doing more of and set achievable benchmarks. I might then ask the employee, given what they should do more of, which of their habits or practices might be impeding their forward momentum. The best learning happens when the subject makes the suggestion themselves. In the event that something egregious is committed or there is a major error, great leaders and managers deal with it on the spot.
Ditch the traditional annual performance review which belongs in the trash heap of bad ideas. When feedback is given in real time rather than at 6 or 12 month intervals, it results in enhanced trust, more truth-telling, more vivid examples, much smaller, more effective course corrections and more immediate benefit for the individual, the team and enterprise.
Can you address how to give constructive feedback over email? If someone is in front of you much of the nuance can be picked up in facial expressions and body language. But not when someone is remote. How do you prevent the email from sounding too critical or harsh?
It’s not really answering the question but relying on email to deliver developmental feedback is a supremely dangerous and damaging proposition. Email is an imperfect, often errant, means of communication, as it — yes — misses visual cues but also carries no tone and or inflection, making it so easy to misunderstand and misinterpret intent. And don’t even try humor which tanks more often than it hits. Bottom line, If the goal of feedback is to interrupt a negative action or effect positive change, email is a poor, detached and often cowardly vehicle. It’s ok for a quick congratulatory note but if there’s more serious feedback to be shared, at the very least, pick up the phone. Better still, would be zoom.
In your experience, is there a best time to give feedback or critique? Should it be immediately after an incident? Should it be at a different time? Should it be at set intervals? Can you explain what you mean?
Let’s start with the worst times to give feedback: just before a weekend, just before a vacation or if something is very raw. Especially over the last 2+ years, employees are threatened by tremendous uncertainty and the loss of autonomy. It’s just not humane to give difficult feedback or a critique at a time when an employee should be restoring and replenishing. Besides, there’s nothing to be done until work resumes.
If the issue is sensitive and raw, best for everyone to take a breath and agree to discuss at a later date. That said, I argue strenuously for eliminating anything that looks like annual feedback which has distinct liabilities and the potential to negatively impact employee, leader and enterprise. Of course, just the idea of an annual review weighs heavily on all — on the feedback receiver who has to hear and process a year’s worth of (negative) stuff in one gulp and on the giver who has to: 1. recall potent examples that may be in the distant past and 2. devote a ton of time to re-creating and commenting on a year’s worth of performance.
So, while this can cause discomfort for both parties and often serve to demotivate rather than motivate, the enterprise suffers too: think of all the lost time between the transgression and the conversation and then the conversation and the remediation.
But the Dynamic Inquiry I referenced takes a different tack, making frequent and timely feedback part of daily culture. When feedback is routinely offered — or requested -in real time, the issue is fresh, with current examples but more importantly, it provides for smaller course corrections right away. Everyone wins — the employee sees feedback not as something to be feared but as something to welcome, the boss benefits from a less arduous task and increased trust and the enterprise benefits by increased productivity and engagement. Defensiveness fades away as feedback is normalized and becomes part of the daily practice. In developmental terms, it’s almost impossible to measure change in a day so I recommend complementing the daily practice with in-depth quarterly conversations to track progress on articulated goals.
How would you define what it is to “be a great boss”? Can you share a story?
What it takes to be a great boss has been shifting under our feet even before our recent crises…but the crises accelerated the change. Now, in the biggest shift, great bosses must start by knowing themselves, tolerating discomfort and uncertainty, owning their fallibility and vulnerability, modeling behavior, communicating early and often and so importantly, transparently communicating fairness and genuine compassion. All this plus maintaining vision (in today’s parlance, the purpose) and company ethos.
Sadly, it’s probably easier to rattle off a list of poor or un-evolved bosses but I do think crisis and adversity made space for very courageous bosses to rise like cream to the top. A recent example is my colleague, Janet M. Stovall, Global Head of DEI at Neuroleadership Institute. Always a ‘diversity pragmatist,’ a radical inclusionist, a TED talker and a truth-teller, she saw an opportunity — in the wake of the murder of George Floyd — to set the record straight, leading the way (publicly and within the organization) on this defining issue. She’s smart, a fabulous communicator, straightforward, fearless and compassionate with a deep understanding that for us to approach equity, we must both accommodate and celebrate difference.
You are a person of great influence. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger. 🙂
The movement would not be one of action — actions come and go -but rather one of rest, reflection and release. We’re all trying to cope with and prevail over so many challenges — personal, political, professional — that we can’t be our best as a person, a leader or an influencer if we don’t step back, recharge and get right with ourselves.
Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share how that was relevant to you in your life?
My favorite quote is very potent and remarks so simply on our shared humanity: ‘No one can make you feel inferior without your consent.’ — Eleanor Roosevelt. Drop mic.
How can our readers further follow your work online?
I share my often provocative thinking on LinkedIn, on my website [email protected], on my upcoming blog and podcast ‘Against the Grain’ and in my occasional newsletter ‘Covid Bites.’ Readers can also reach me at [email protected]. Conversation is always welcome
Thank you for these great insights! We really appreciate the time you spent with this.
