Category: Featured

Jeff Whitten Of ROKFORM On How To Create A Fantastic Retail Experience That Keeps Bringing…

Jeff Whitten Of ROKFORM On How To Create A Fantastic Retail Experience That Keeps Bringing Customers Back For More

An Interview With Fotis Georgiadis

Ship as quickly as you can. Customers love to get their products as fast as possible; you should be sending out their product that day or the next one after an order is placed after your pickup time.

As part of my series about “How to Create a Fantastic Retail Experience That Keeps Bringing Customers Back for More”, I had the pleasure of interviewing Jeff Whitten.

Jeff Whitten is the Founder and CEO at ROKFORM, the maker of premium handheld innovations for those who take action seriously. Through ROKFORM’s small but dedicated team, the company has bootstrapped their way to become a leader in the design and manufacturing of innovative consumer electronics products, including their patented twist lock and magnetic phone cases, mounts, and accessories. Prior to ROKFORM, Jeff was co-owner of a leading exhaust manufacturer in the powersports industry until he exited that business in 2016 to dedicate full time to ROKFORM. With more than 30 years of product design and manufacturing experience and more than 10 patents and co-patents across two industries, you can say that Jeff knows a thing or two about product development and entrepreneurship.

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 entrepreneurial journey started young. When I was just eight years old, I ran a paper route, washed cars, sold candy out of my backpack, and in high school I built and sold furniture. When I finished high school, I worked in construction and then as a mechanic for a road race team which later led me to owning half of the company. We designed and manufactured motorcycle exhaust systems, everything from bending, welding, fabrication, and assembly. I enjoyed this for almost 25 years and learned a lot along the way. We grew that business from a simple garage operation to one of the largest powersports exhaust manufacturers in the country. I ended up selling my ownership stake in 2016 to focus on ROKFORM.

During this time, I was playing golf as much as I could but my phone was constantly getting damaged on the golf course and I lost a couple phones out there, too. It would also get scratched or left behind in the glove box on my cart, or I would break a screen with the golf ball in my pocket. I had the idea to make a phone case that could easily stick to a golf cart, by testing with some off the shelf magnets and sticking my phone to the cart over an 18 hole round, the idea was born. We also felt the need to kill the giant claws that were holding phones in cars, we wanted a small simple solution that did not take up a lot of space and was not an eyesore. We solved that problem with the invention of the ROKLOCK Twist-Lock system. From there we just kept innovating on those features to create bike mounts, motorcycle mounts, golf accessories, and an entire suite of magnetic and or twist lock mounts. Our customers are cyclists, motorcyclists, golfers, outdoorsmen, first responders, military, police, and professionals who want more than just a basic cover for their phone.

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?

One of the biggest mistakes we made was trying to grow too big, too fast. For example, we were selling our phone cases at a big box store along with two mounts, a bicycle mount, and a stroller mount. We were talked into putting the stroller mount in the phone case section, which didn’t sell because people who are looking for stroller accessories are looking in the stroller section, not the phone case section. They also talked us into selling an iPhone 5 case a month before the iPhone 6 came out. We had a lot of returns and lost a lot of money. It ended up being a tough lesson but a good one. We no longer sell at big box stores as we’ve learned that we really like to have a connection with our customers and if something is going on, we can fix it quickly before it’s too late.

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 couple people that have been a fundamental part of my success. My dad is one of them, he really taught me the value of hard work, doing more than what you’re asked of, always leaving something better than you found it, and if you want something, you had better go out and find a way to earn the money.

Tony Robbins was another big influence on my life. He helped the most with goal setting. I’ve always been a goal setter, but he made me learn how to put it into an actual framework and be able to tie an emotional piece to it. So, in other words, why do you want that goal and why is it important and what’s stopping you?

Also, Keith Cunningham who I met at a Tony Robbins event. He’s one of the best business leaders I’ve ever come across. And the reason is he knows it so well and can explain it in a way that everybody can understand. I’ve run across many people who can’t do that. The biggest lesson he taught me is to remember that it’s not what you make, it’s what you keep, and that accounting is the language of business.

Lastly, our business coach Lee Froschheiser. He helped our team align ourselves in our business. Because of him, every team member is working in the same direction and knows what they’re responsible for and what they own. This has been huge for ROKFORM’s growth and success.

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?

One of my favorite films is Rocky because here’s a guy who had nothing but grit, determination, and a realistic goal. He had the mindset that he couldn’t beat his opponent but wanted to go the distance. Where that translates into business is you’re not going to beat everybody, but you can stay in business and make your customers happy. I mean that’s the goal, right? Make customers happy.

Some of my favorite books include The Road Less Stupid by Keith Cunningham, think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill, and 60 Minute CFO by David A. Duryee, in which I had the entire ROKFORM team read. I truly believe that your team should at least know the basics of accounting and why it’s important to the business.

What do you think makes your company stand out? Can you share a story?

What makes ROKFORM stand out is our products are not only unique but incredibly useful. Our latest iPhone 14 Case has a 4–5x stronger hold on all MagSafe® compatible accessories and any magnetic surfaces, and our G-ROK Wireless Golf Speaker is a portable Bluetooth golf speaker that instantly sticks to a golf cart and other metal surfaces.

We have some of the best customer service where we listen and care about our customers. Most of the time if I run into somebody and we start discussing work, they share a story with me about their interaction with our customer service team and how good of an experience it was. Customer service quality has been fundamental to our success.

Which tips would you recommend to your colleagues in your industry to help them to thrive and not “burn out”?

I believe that burn out can come from boredom and it’s usually when your business isn’t doing well. You don’t find many people who have a growing business with a great culture that is accomplishing great things who are burnt out. Burn out can also come when you’re trying to grow too fast. If you grow at a steady manageable pace and you have a good team in place where you’re really focused and aligned, you’re probably not going to get burnt out. It’s normally not the ones who grow the fastest, it’s the ones who grow a solid, sustainable, profitable business that takes care of their customers that win the long game.

I have been burnt out before and this is exactly what happened, the business wasn’t doing well, and it was because I was spending too much time being busy and not working on being strategic and seeing the larger picture. I had to slow down and stop doing a lot of things so I could focus on just the most important things that would move the needle for the company. My advice is to slow down and do less of the easy busy stuff and more of the high level, strategic work, and that’s the most difficult. There is no prize for the person who stays up the latest or works the most hours.

Ok super. Now let’s jump to the main questions of our interview. The so-called “Retail Apocalypse” has been going on for about a decade. The Pandemic only made things much worse for retailers in general. While many retailers are struggling, some retailers, like Lululemon, Kroger, and Costco are quite profitable. Can you share a few lessons that other retailers can learn from the success of profitable retailers?

A lesson to be learned for other retailers is to watch your service and your numbers. To be profitable is completely different than having a big top line. Don’t worry about the top line, worry about how much cash you have in the bank, what your margins are, and how customer service is operating.

The reason you started your business is to solve a problem for your customer, whether it’s a customer service problem or whether it’s a problem that they don’t know they have that your product or service is answering. Make the customer your focus and you increase your chance for success.

Amazon is going to exert pressure on all of retail for the foreseeable future. New Direct-To-Consumer companies based in China are emerging that offer prices that are much cheaper than US and European brands. What would you advise retail companies and eCommerce companies, for them to be successful in the face of such strong competition?

My advice to other smaller retail and eCommerce companies is to not worry about your competition and focus on your own business, product, and customer. Stand out by having a great customer service team, and a great product. Your product should be priced accordingly and fit into your margin requirements and not priced to compete with a low-priced generic item. You can differentiate yourself through great service and a great product without the need to worry about playing the low-price game. Very few ever win at that over time.

What are the most common mistakes you have seen CEOs & founders make when they start a retail business? What can be done to avoid those errors?

The most common mistake I see CEOs and founders make is they don’t value accounting, or know their numbers before they try and expand their business. Most people don’t know how much money they’re making and don’t have accurate financials. I have friends who did very well with their eCommerce business and decided to open a retail location without really thinking about the costs involved. If you plan to open a retail business, you better make sure that you know exactly how much you need to sell to break even and how much it’s going to cost to get those sales before opening. Second locations usually decline the fastest and take the longest to return.

My advice is to watch your numbers and talk to both your accountant and your team to find out as much as you can about what it’s going to do to your business if you open a storefront.

This might be intuitive, but I think it’s helpful to specifically articulate it. In your words, can you share a few reasons why great customer service and a great customer experience is essential for success in business in general and for retail in particular?

One of my recent customer service stories is when I moved houses. I hired movers and I like to help them with the moving process so it’s faster for everybody. So, I put everything on a pallet for them in a staging area but recommended unloading everything off the pallets since it wouldn’t have fit in the truck otherwise. They wanted to leave some stuff on pallets and so we did, consequently not everything they charged me to move fit. Once we were finished moving, I asked them to take the pallets and they could use them for their own warehouse, as they were too big to fit in my truck. They let me know they couldn’t take anything back without an extra charge. I ended up speaking to their boss letting him know I helped his movers by putting everything on pallets and used my forklift to make the process easier and faster. They didn’t care about that and stood firm in charging me extra for making their job easier and faster! They just didn’t get it. For something that would have cost him nothing, he lost referrals and a repeat customer. It’s normally quite easy to make a customer happy, but surprisingly few even try.

We have all had times either in a store, or online, when we’ve had a very poor experience as a customer or user. If the importance of a good customer experience is so intuitive, and apparent, where is the disconnect? How is it that so many companies do not make this a priority?

A good customer experience comes from the top leadership of the business. If the leader doesn’t enforce the importance of great service, and it’s not part of the company culture, it won’t happen. You need to train employees exactly how they’re supposed to treat your customers in exactly the way you want them treated. Employees won’t make customer service a priority if it isn’t a priority for the leader.

It’s not about telling your team “Treat every customer how you would like to be treated”, it’s about training the team to treat every customer how you as the leader would treat the customer. For example, a customer’s expectation at a Four Seasons is going to be a lot different than a Motel 6. If your employee had only ever stayed at a Motel 6 and then got a job at a Four Seasons and treated those customers like the Motel 6, you would likely have some unhappy customers paying $1,000+ per night at the Four Seasons. It is the job of the leader to create the framework of how customers should be treated and not the employee. This is called customer service training, very few know this, I know that my movers don’t.

Can you share with us a story from your experience about a customer who was wowed by the experience you provided? Can you share with us a story from your experience about a customer who was “Wowed” by the experience you provided? Did that “Wow! Experience” have any long-term ripple effects? Can you share the story?

Recently, we had a customer who bought an item through our Amazon store who was having an issue with the installation and was obviously frustrated. These types of alerts come through on my phone and it popped up on a Sunday. Issues like this are typically handled quickly by our customer service team but this one, I could feel his frustration as I’ve been there before. So, I immediately called him directly where we talked through his troubles, he ended up having the wrong item. I offered to either give him a full refund or send him the correct item free of charge that I would personally send for him. He asked who I was, and I told him I was the owner and CEO of the company, and he was pretty blown away.

Just by reaching out to a customer and making a call can instantly diffuse a situation when you listen and hear them. Always listen to your customers, anytime you can go above and beyond for a customer or just talk to them, you should.

A fantastic retail experience isn’t just one specific thing. It can be a composite of many different subtle elements fused together. Can you help us break down and identify the different ingredients that come together to create a “fantastic retail experience”?

When creating a fantastic retail experience, the most important step is when a customer heads to your website, make sure they fully understand what you’re selling and how your product will impact their life. Secondly, be able to answer all their questions and have enough visual elements that showcase the product in action. You can do this through photos, videos, or an FAQ format.

When you’re lucky enough to get their order, make sure you ship it as quickly as possible. Customers should have all their order information and an easy-to-find tracking number, which really should be automated. If a customer has a question, a customer service team should be standing by and be able to answer their questions through a chat function on the website, through email, and via phone. It’s important for a customer to know that there is a real person they can speak with.

Then, when they receive their order, the packaging should reflect the experience they’ve had so far. The box that it comes in should be nicely presented and packaged with care with detailed instructions included for the product if necessary.

Ok super. Here is the main question of our interview. Based on your experience and success, what are the five most important things one should know in order to create a fantastic retail experience that keeps bringing customers back for more?

A great website. If a customer comes to a website that doesn’t look good and the photos aren’t inspiring, you’re not going to win that customer.
Product pages need to answer all potential questions. Don’t leave the customer with any questions on how they might use the product. You can answer their questions through a written FAQ section, great copy, images and video.
Ship as quickly as you can. Customers love to get their products as fast as possible; you should be sending out their product that day or the next one after an order is placed after your pickup time.
Customer service. If a customer is going to call the company, then someone needs to answer and be prepared to answer product, company, or other relevant questions.
A terrific box opening experience. From start to finish, the customer should love their experience with you, and that includes great packaging.

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 have a few:

If everybody did just a little more than what they are expected to do, people around them would do the same.
Take responsibility for your own actions, don’t blame others and be a part of the solutions not the problems. We have a core value at ROKFORM and its being a “Problem Solver.” There are millions of “problem identifiers”, but it is the problem solvers that are always the highest paid and the most valuable to an enterprise, family, or friendship. If there were more problem solvers than problem identifiers, the world would be a better place.
Smile more and make someone feel better than they did before they ran into you. It was Maya Angelou who said, “People will forget what you said. People will forget what you did. But people will never forget how you made them feel.” Make someone feel good, be a problem solver and do a little more than people expect, these are things we can all be better at, and it will make the world a better place.

How can our readers further follow your work?

Readers can follow my work on LinkedIn and visit rokform.com to view our full range of products.

This was truly meaningful! Thank you so much for your time and for sharing your expertise!

Jeff Whitten Of ROKFORM On How To Create A Fantastic Retail Experience That Keeps Bringing… was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Deepak Ohri On 5 Ways To Create a Wow! Customer Experience

An Interview With Fotis Georgiadis

Every leader who wants to create a WOW customer experience needs to know himself first.

As part of our series about the five things a business should do to create a Wow! customer experience,I had the pleasure of interviewing Deepak Ohri.

Deepak Ohri, founder and CEO of lebua Hotels and Resorts is well-known worldwide as an award-winning entrepreneur who has transformed the luxury hospitality landscape in Asia and elevated experiential luxury hospitality. He was the first to create the world’s highest rooftop restaurant that earned two 2 Michelin stars and the first to develop the concept of a vertical destination. Under his leadership, Iebua has been named the World’s Leading All-Suite Hotel by World Travel Award and is rated within the top 1 percent of companies globally for customer satisfaction. International Hospitality Institute selected Deepak Ohri as one of the Global Top Most Inspirational Executives in Travel and Hospitality. Ohri is also the author of “A Bridge Not Too Far — Where Creativity Meets Innovation.” The key to his success is his ability to create incredible customer experiences.

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?

My backstory is very simple. I grew up in India in a very modest neighborhood. I believe my biggest advantage was that I was always a very curious child. There was a road that separated our modest neighborhood from the wealthier one. We were not supposed to cross the road, but I never understood why. I crossed the road and discovered that there were other types of houses. These houses were much nicer than the one I lived in. They had bathrooms and a fridge with a fascinating drink, Coca-Cola. This is the first time that I tasted such a cold refreshing drink. This is my backstory, to learn how to discover. I learned that curiosity and inquisitiveness opens our eyes to see things that we would not have otherwise. Our mind is exposed to possibilities. We start dreaming and once we start dreaming these dreams can become reality. Therefore, the art of discovery is my backstory.

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?

There are many funny mistakes that I have made in life. They seem really funny now. When I was 21 years old, I took my first flight. I was going from Mumbai to Goa which is approximately a 45-minute flight. Since it was the first time I had ever travelled, I wanted to make sure that I was the first one on the plane so that I could observe from the other passengers what to do; especially how to fasten the seatbelt. I was so determined to be the first on the plane that I pushed through all of the passengers and skipped the line. That would be really hard to do these days. When I was on the plane, in my seat, the passengers coming in were looking at me. The lesson that I learned is simple, if you do not know something be brave enough to admit it. We are not supposed to know everything in this world.

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? Can you share a story?

It is very true that I would not have been able to achieve the success I’ve had without any help. When it comes to help, we always look outside of our comfort zone. Many people helped me through my journey, but the biggest help I received was not outside of my comfort zone, but in my house, my late father. I am eternally grateful to him. He did not help me develop my career, but he helped me to be better person, a strong person who understands that power corrupts people, and who understands that one’s roots are the most essential in life. He made me understand that humility is the key to success, mistakes will happen, and it is important to learn how to admit it. He is no longer with us but his story, his wisdom and his lessons are always with me. I want to share a story. When I was a young child, I went with my father to the store. He needed to buy a new shirt for work. The price of the shirt was $0.50. While in the store, I wanted a toy; a milk van — toy car. I wanted to have it so much. My father decided to buy me the toy instead of his shirt. It was the most precious gift. When we got back home, my father informed my mother that he would buy his shirt in two months. This is when I understood what unconditional love is. The price of $0.50 might not seem to be a high price now, but it is still a lot in some parts of the world, especially for the family that cannot afford it. My father taught me to love people and not to hide the love. Today, I do not hide my love for education, helping people and being in front of people sharing my wisdom and my mistakes.

Thank you for that. Let’s now pivot to the main focus of our interview. This might be intuitive, but I think it’s helpful to specifically articulate it. In your words, can you share a few reasons why great customer service and a great customer experience is essential for success in business?

Every customer is a human being. Great customer experience can be explained in one word that I learned from my late father, RESPECT. When respect is given, it is then returned and that is the key to understanding great customer service. We cannot forget that until we pay respect to others, we will not get respect in return.

In today’s world of globalization, the simplest things are the most difficult things to do. The reason is that many times organizations look at what they believe are high level things instead of looking at a basic simple principle, such as respect. There are two types of organizations — principle based, and rule based. The organizations that create the best customer service are the ones that are a hybrid of both. These two need to be connected for the best customer experience and it is not easy to achieve. My message to every organization is that no matter how small or how big, start with respect first.

Do you think that more competition helps force companies to improve the customer experience they offer? Are there other external pressures that can force a company to improve the customer experience?

Competition and external pressure always force a company to improve the customer experience. However, in reality, the customer experience can be only improved if the person at the top truly wants to improve it.

Did that Wow! experience have any long-term ripple effects? Can you share the story?

I am going to respond to both questions with one answer. We all “WOW” our customers. I want to tell you how to wow a customer after a failure and how that customer can then become your best ambassador. One of our VIP guests from Japan was involved in a car accident. It was our car and our driver, the accident was just a small scratch, but because of the rules and regulations, the police had to be called to file a report. It was not our driver’s fault, but he could not drive away. This unfortunately, made our guest loose some time and be late for a very important meeting. His time was priceless. He called his credit card company Centurion, and the credit card company informed us. Our hotel manager was upset. How was it possible that we found out about the car accident from the credit card company. The customer arrived angry at the hotel because he lost time. We knew we could not compensate his time, but we decided to compensate his loss for the future. We awarded him a seven-day stay at our VIP suite and two first-class airline tickets. Not only he was surprised, but he liked this gesture, and this story became so viral that he became our best ambassador. Today, we welcome many prominent guests from Japan.

Ok, here is the main question of our discussion. Based on your experience and success, what are the five most important things a business leader should know in order to create a Wow! Customer Experience. Please share a story or an example for each.

Five of the most important things for every business leader in my opinion are:

Every leader who wants to create a WOW customer experience needs to know himself first.
There must be certain principles created in the organization that should never be changed.
It is essential to spend time with the team to make them understand.
The leader must have a measuring tool to understand where the gaps are in the customer experience.
Every time there is a customer complaint a leader should empower the team but also give personal final touches to the customers so that they understand it is top — down.

In one of the organizations, I worked at in the past, I presented my boss with a customer service report. He asked me how much time I spent on this project. I told him three days. He said that these are three days that we lost. He said that if I would have spent the three days on the floor talking to the customers, we would have created a real report. He took the report I created and threw it in the garbage bin. He knew very well how important customer service was and wanted to know about hits where we “WOWed” the customer and misses where we lost an opportunity.

In order to create a WOW customer experience, a leader needs to know himself first. Knowing yourself first means that leaders should know and create a customer journey and experience before the customer even arrives. Creating this customer experience is both the easiest and the most difficult task because it requires a lot of discipline. It is important to spend time creating a customer journey. The customer will follow us on how this journey should take place and we should be able to allow the customer to follow us through his/her subconscious mind. We must create a service process that matters, just like a GPS. Customers want us to show them the journey.

There must also be certain principles created in the organization that should never be changed.

I want to share an example how principles need to be followed. In one organization, the company decided to give laptop to each executive. One of them lost the laptop. So, the next day the mandate was to have all of the laptops fixed to the desks. We should never change because of one mistake. Yes, there will be always people who will take advantage or make mistakes, but the principle should remain the same.

In my organization, we trust our employees. We spend around $100,000 on customer experience reports. We have an option of a mystery audit, but we do not do that because why would we tell our employees that we trust them and then, check on them.

It is also important to have a tool to measure and understand gaps in a customer’s experience. We use artificial intelligence, technology, and qualitative and quantitative assessments to measure the gap in the customer experience. In one of the restaurants where I worked, the outcome of the measurement was that the quality and variety of food was not impressive. The menu had 300 items so how that could be possible? We decided to investigate further. We spent three days in the restaurant to find out. We discovered that our staff only knew five items on the menu well and so that was what they recommended and what our chef prepared. If there was anything else ordered, it was not fresh. Since the recommendations were always the same, the customers ended up eating the same things repeatedly. Once we discovered the issue, we spent time with the team so that they understood their roles in the customer experience. By doing this we were able to not only able to discover the gap between what we thought and what was actually happening, but also were able to improve customer experiences. Once again, the example given always has to be from the top — down.

Are there a few things that can be done so that when a customer or client has a Wow! experience, they inspire others to reach out to you as well?

Nothing, you need to leave the customer alone and they will do that on their own. Privacy is much bigger than the experience. We do not intervene in privacy.

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 want to only start one thing and that is a new definition of happiness. Happiness is an expression of management. It is not well-being, mindfulness, or meditation. It is an agreement with yourself based on your own acceptance, understanding and willingness to build a better tomorrow.

How can our readers follow you on social media?

Find me on LinkedIn, follow and connect with me. You can also follow my website: www.deepakohri.com

This was very inspiring. Thank you so much for joining us!

Deepak Ohri On 5 Ways To Create a Wow! Customer Experience was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Rav Panesar Of Rymindr: 5 Things You Need To Know To Create a Successful App or SaaS

An Interview With Fotis Georgiadis

Plan before but be reactive and flexible to which way your business is heading.

As part of our series about the “5 Things You Need To Know To Create a Successful App or SaaS”,I had the pleasure of interviewing Rav Panesar.

Rav Panesar is the founder and CEO of social-tech company Rymindr, a service which works through an app that automates and alerts users about important dates and events such as doctor’s appointments and deadlines for bills and payments, with the aim of helping people and businesses save money and time. He founded the company five years ago after researching how damaging forgetting dates can be financially. It has since gained hundreds of thousands of users.

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 developed a big interest in tech from a young age. This led me to study computer science at the University of Greenwich, and since then I haven’t looked back, working in the computer industry for 21 years now. In my early years working in digital technology, I founded Web Genies, a company that builds websites and web applications for businesses, which I later sold. I’ve worked for various corporate, bank and financial institutions, including the Financial Times and Thompson Reuters, on the design and implementation of apps and web technology, as well as specialising in blockchain. I also gained a certified scrum master qualification along the way, a methodology which I believe in and I continue to use with my team today.

Can you tell us a story about the hard times that you faced when you first started your journey? Did you ever consider giving up? Where did you get the drive to continue even though things were so hard?

In June 2016, I was involved in a car accident, suffering a spinal fracture and slipped discs that left me in excruciating pain. The recovery process was slow. For the first six months I saw osteopaths, chiropractors and physios but I could find no long-term relief. I was in constant pain, I struggled to even walk. It was eventually decided that I should have surgery on my spine, with the risk it could leave me paralysed. Thankfully I came out ok, but it took me about a year in total to recover, and my back still isn’t as strong as it used to be. This was such a challenging period for me but I was determined to turn it into something positive, to use the time I spent recovering productively, to use it to make a difference. And I did. It was during this time that the idea for Rymindr was formed and took shape.

So, how are things going today? How did your grit and resilience lead to your eventual success?

Running and building a business is hard, you will fall and fail, many times! Building up Rymindr to where it is now has not been plain sailing, but two things have really pushed me forward and empowered me not to give up. The first is validation from people, including our users, about how Rymindr helps them and what they get out of it. The second is the amazing feedback we get from people about the vision behind Rymindr.

It has been said that our mistakes are our greatest teachers. 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?

Let’s call this one, ‘right place, right time, maybe God’s listening?’ This is going back to when I first started. The vision behind Rymindr was to remind people, however at the start I wasn’t using Rymindr for myself as I really should have. One day, I was attending and helping at an event at our local Gurudwara (temple), but it turned out I had a meeting with a client on that same day. They called me on my mobile ‘reminding’ me of our meeting at the precise time I was helping to cook some food to serve people. Thankfully, the client saw the irony and funny side of it and was very understanding. I had my handsfree on and continued with the meeting while frying samosas.

This was when the automation of Rymindr started. I questioned myself, why did I not have a ‘Rymindr’ setup? Turns out people have too many things to keep track of in their lives and data entry or keeping diaries up to date and accurate can be tricky, time consuming and sometimes annoying. What was my takeaway? Lightbulb moments can manifest in the strangest ways, the trick is to spot them and realise this could be something special.

What do you think makes your company stand out? Can you share a story?

We define ourselves as a social technology business with a heart. I always wanted to create a business that would give back to society, and our aim is to develop services using the latest technology which benefit people. ‘Tech for good.’ The vision behind Rymindr is to create a win-win ecosystem that benefits anyone who uses it and make positive impacts on people’s lives.

Rymindr is used by people every day to keep track of important dates and events, and to save money. It offers services to help households save thousands of pounds every year. We work for our members to maximize those benefits and continue to grow to offer more useful services to help save more time and money.

My original idea when I started Rymindr was also to allocate a percentage of its revenue to good causes. The cause I have homed in on is school meals. I’m passionate about this. Hundreds and thousands of children in the UK are going hungry because they do not qualify for free school meals under government rules. Through my work with schools, I’ve heard too many stories of children being unable to pay for food. I’ve witnessed parents counting change on head teachers’ desks to ensure their child got a school meal. No child should go hungry. Without sounding too cliche, children are the future and while the government is doing what it can, I know through Rymindr we can have amazing impacts using innovative ways to create long term sustainable support. With each member of Rymindr Rewards we can fund two meals and we have plans to extend this to four soon. As more and more people use Rymindr every year, our mission to end child hunger gets closer and closer to being achieved.

We are helping schools in two ways. Most schools in this country are really struggling and underfunded. They lack adequate facilities and opportunities, and it’s a significant problem. To help, each Rymindr user can nominate a school. Once a certain threshold of nominations is reached, we fund services for that school and for staff members in addition to helping fund school meals.

Which tips would you recommend to your colleagues in your industry to help them to thrive and not “burn out”?

Having breathing space away from the business is just as important as working on the business. As the saying goes, time is one commodity which is not replaceable. Once it’s gone, it’s gone. It’s something I learned a little later into my business life and although I do not regret working hard, I now realise I have missed out on some very important things in my life, including spending time with the kids or meeting friends and family at events. Work hard, but use your time wisely, it’s not coming back.

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?

Absolutely! For me, support has come from close family and friends. There’s a saying which I read that has really stuck in my mind: ‘show me some of your closest family and friends and I’ll show you your future’. It’s so important to have the right people around you. In the early days of Rymindr, at the pre-concept stages, two people really got behind me. One is my amazing wife and the other is my friend Banty Singh. When I was at the stage where I still was 50/50 about progressing with Rymindr, it was Banty who gave me the push to get on the road, so to speak. In fact, his exact words were: ‘so what you waiting for, get going.’ I also draw inspiration from other people who have life and business experience. I’m constantly learning, and I thrive from listening and taking on board information from successful people who are humble and down to earth.

Ok, thank you for all that. Now let’s shift to the main focus of this interview. Approximately how many users or subscribers does your app or software currently have? Can you share with our readers three of the main steps you’ve taken to build such a large community?

We have hundreds of thousands of people using Rymindr every day, sharing and receiving millions of Rymindrs. Three steps,

Listen to your users.
Implement change that will benefit them or solve a problem for them.
Create moments where your users can’t help but tell other people about how they have benefitted.

What is your monetization model? How do you monetize your community of users? Have you considered other monetization options? Why did you not use those?

Our revenue comes from our subscription model, Rymindr Rewards. It’s a £60 annual subscription that has the benefit of pulling in the cheapest options and discounts for everything from MOTs to retail and services. The objective is to save our users hundreds if not thousands of pounds per year, especially beneficial given the cost-of-living crisis.

Thank you. Here is the main question of our discussion. Based on your experience and success, what are the five most important things one should know in order to create a very successful app or a SaaS? If you can, please share a story or an example for each.

Know your audience.
Listen to your users.
Know your product or service
Plan before but be reactive and flexible to which way your business is heading.
Know your tech or get expert advice from someone who does. It’s too easy and expensive to fall into a trap where you limit yourself with how your business can scale or develop.

Rymindr! Simple, that’s who we are and that’s what we’re doing.

How can our readers further follow your work online?

Follow me on Twitter @RymindrRav

Follow facebook on www.facebook.com/rymindr

This was very inspiring. Thank you so much for joining us!

Rav Panesar Of Rymindr: 5 Things You Need To Know To Create a Successful App or SaaS was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Aaron Hensley Of Rise Executive Consulting On 5 Things You Need To Know To Successfully Scale Your…

Aaron Hensley Of Rise Executive Consulting On 5 Things You Need To Know To Successfully Scale Your Business

An Interview With Fotis Georgiadis

Be self-aware. You can’t rely on people telling you about yourself. You must lead with a high sense of who you are in every moment. If you are mastering this, you will be entuned to the culture you are building and will be able to pivot when needed. Many people can’t adapt or grow past their sense of themselves. They trap themselves. You cannot grow people past your own lid!

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 Aaron Hensley.

Aaron Hensley, President and CEO of RISE — an executive coaching consultancy spent 30 years leading and mentoring employees and business owners in one of the largest martial arts franchises in the United States; during which he owned and operated 12 of his own locations. As an owner/operator himself, he quickly learned his true passion was helping others discover and cultivate their own personal and professional vision — achieving their personal BEST!

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 am a 7th degree black belt and began my martial arts journey long ago training with martial arts legend Chuck Norris. As a martial arts practitioner of 39 years, I have met some amazing and inspiring people; created lifelong, lasting memories; and learned some of the best life lessons. For most of my adulthood, martial arts was not only my personal passion but also my career. I started my career with 1 martial arts school with 60 students and quickly grew from 1 school to 12; servicing 1200 families across Georgia, Tennessee, and South Carolina. This is where the real growth occurred, where I cut my teeth so to speak, learning how to grow and scale a company.

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?

A few years ago, with having success in the industry I was in; I looked around and asked myself if I was really living up to my potential or was it someone else’s version of success? In my gut I knew I could push further so I dug in and decided to get serious about my future. It was as if all my experiences and education finally matured in both my personal and professional life.

What’s the most impactful initiative you’ve led that you’re particularly proud of?

Over my career I’ve lead hundreds of students through the rank of Black Belt every year. That is an experience they will use to launch themselves into all levels in life. Playing a small part in that journey gives me so much joy.

The journey to black belt is typically a family financial and time commitment, therefore the accomplishment of receiving one’s black belt is often felt by the whole family. Becoming a black belt is an accomplishment intended only for those willing to demonstrate and live by the code of black belt: Modesty, Curtsey, Integrity, Perseverance, Self-Control, and Indominable Sprit. Each of these tenants are not only part of the BB code but are also character-building traits that support my overall strategic mission in everything I do.

Sometimes our mistakes can be our greatest teachers. Can you share a mistake you’ve made and the lesson you took away from it?

At one point, I scaled my martial arts business from 1 location to 3. I wasn’t ready. I was making the same amount of money for 3 times the stress and work. I questioned if I was cut out for entrepreneurship, and I had to swallow some pride and start the process over. With a lot of honesty (to myself) and hard work I was able to turn it around.

How has mentorship played a role in your career, whether receiving mentorship or offering it to others?

Mentorship has been a Game Changer! I have learned, through mentorship, self-made success stories are filled with guidance from someone that was there before you. This is a pivotal part in reaching a successful point in your business. My recommendation, lean on your mentors — they have already learned the pain points and can help you avoid them.

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?

As a leader, I aspire to be transparent, real, approachable, with a high level of intensity. Age and experience have given me confidence and allows me the ability to be more open — which is a great feeling.

One of my long-time mentors is business and finance mogul, Grant Cardone. His best leadership trait is being transparent and real! He stays current about where he is in his growth and makes you understand the journey and how to lead truly by example!

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”?

Passion. Hold fast to the passion you feel for your journey. Passion will keep you from questioning if it is the right journey for you. If you don’t have passion for what you are doing you will falter and give up on it, it will become a job. Scaling your business can come with risk; if you believe in your core, it is the right choice you will jump headfirst into its success.

Be self-aware. You can’t rely on people telling you about yourself. You must lead with a high sense of who you are in every moment. If you are mastering this, you will be entuned to the culture you are building and will be able to pivot when needed. Many people can’t adapt or grow past their sense of themselves. They trap themselves. You cannot grow people past your own lid!

Master the People Game. This is the hardest part of scaling your business because you can’t do any if this alone. You need people, more and more, and your ability to grow your people will grow your company. Learn to be a servant leader!

Take responsibility. Seems ever so simple. The reality is there will be plenty that you don’t know but will need to learn enough to be accountable in that area. Attract and hire great people, but don’t punt the responsibility of knowing about every function in your organization.

Vision — Lead from Inspiration. People want to work for companies and people that have a remarkable future. Are you telling the story about where you are going not where you are?

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?

Putting profits over the people. How? They cut the “expense” of people to appear more profitable. This quickly stalls growth, innovation, and productivity. Better to make sure you have alignment and people engaged and in right opportunities as the only way to scale is to have people working towards a common goal.

Scaling includes bringing new people into the organization. How can a company preserve its company culture and ethos when new people are brought in?

One is having a process in the hiring phase that seeks out those with similar core values. Next is having a strong culture intact, your own people will help remove anyone with ulterior motives. This goes totally with knowing your people and having alignment.

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?

We have used online training for continue education mixed with traveling and attending in person workshops. If people aren’t willing to grow, they have to go! That is our mantra. We encourage and help facilitate it.

Daily personal growth intention is required on our team.

What software or tools do you recommend to help onboard new hires?

Plenty of options out there and it can be confusing to decide if software is needed. For a small start-up, don’t overthink or get fancy, good ole spreadsheet with a timeline tracking works for on boarding.

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.

In the ideal sense, martial arts has the benefits of fitness and self-defense but its real purpose is self-enlightenment. I would love to help people find their vehicle for similar in their life. To know oneself!

How can our readers further follow your work online?
www.aaronhensley.com

@team_hensley

This was truly meaningful! Thank you so much for your time and for sharing your expertise!

Aaron Hensley Of Rise Executive Consulting On 5 Things You Need To Know To Successfully Scale Your… was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Making Something From Nothing: Woody Mawhinney Of Pawlicy Advisor On How To Go From Idea To Launch

An Interview With Fotis Georgiadis

Don’t go it alone: Starting a business is hard, and anyone who has started one will tell you this. If you are motivated enough to start a business, it’s easy to have the self-belief you can launch it alone — and some people can. But even the solo founders have a strong network of supporters they can lean on when the going gets tough.

As a part of our series called “Making Something From Nothing”, I had the pleasure of interviewing Woody Mawhinney, Co-founder and CEO of Pawlicy Advisor.

Woody Mawhinney is the CEO & Co-founder of Pawlicy Advisor, the leading pet insurance marketplace offering personalized product comparisons based on breed-specific attributes and total cost predictions for the lifetime of the pet. Having served over three million pet parents across the U.S., Pawlicy Advisor is recommended by the American Animal Hospital Association and has raised $20M in venture capital. Woody launched the company in 2018 out of Columbia Business School, where he received his MBA.

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 in an apple orchard in Maine, atop a local ski hill. It was the perfect ecosystem to foster curiosity and exploration: there was never a limit to hiking, running, biking, and nature walks. My mother was a teacher, and home-schooled my siblings and me until public high school. My education was largely hands-on and interactive. Instead of reading about renewable energy, we built model solar cars and boats; rather than hearing in a classroom about how the government operates, we visited the State House to speak with representatives. My upbringing fostered a sense of curiosity about why things operate as they do and how one can make a tangible impact on the world, and I’m thankful I had a supportive and smart educator in my mother who encouraged taking the less-traveled path.

Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share how that was relevant to you in your life?

Ultra swimmer Petter Attia was interviewed by Joe Rogan and asked, “Why do you do this?” Petter’s response is ingrained in my head: “Velocity means very little and acceleration means everything.” What Petter meant is you only feel when speed changes and he believes that emotionally, this is also true. He provides the example of how the feeling of crawling on the shore after swimming for 10–14 hours is amazing, but what makes it especially amazing is how six hours earlier, he felt like he was going to die. By challenging oneself and persevering through difficulty, the beauty of everyday life reveals itself more vibrantly. I’ve found this concept especially helpful to think about when I’ve wanted to procrastinate, when I’ve faced stress, or when I’ve felt complacent.

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?

In high school, I was gifted a book called “Why Not? How to Use Everyday Ingenuity to Solve Problems Big and Small.” Two decades later, I still keep this book close and routinely ask the question “why” and “why not?” It’s had a profound impact on my life. The premise is that some people have the notion that coming up with solutions for real-world problems is somehow reserved for the experts–that innovation is somehow beyond the capacity of a typical person. In fact, it taught me that looking for new and better ways of doing something is a skill to develop–a way of life. I frequently find and identify problems by tuning into moments of frustration or friction: my zipper caught on my jacket–sure, I could have pulled the jacket fabric tighter when zipping, but what if I didn’t have to in the first place? When I came up with the idea for Pawlicy Advisor, I found finding the right insurance coverage for my dog harder than my day job as a risk analyst supporting Homeland Security. So, I paused and asked myself, “Why can’t I compare my dog’s unique breed-related health risks to the insurance coverage options on the market?” “Why can’t I easily understand which insurance policy is the best price?” “Why does my veterinarian care about pet insurance but not know much about it?” “Why isn’t there a tool to help pet owners like me and a platform to help veterinarians like my vet?” “If I had unlimited resources, what would a solution look like?” You get the picture.

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 to take 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?

To transition from idea to launch of Pawlicy Advisor, I spent a long time developing a business model canvas (an approach that is widely taught) and testing my assumptions with customer-driven research and by pitching prospective customers as early as possible. The business model canvas is helpful in structuring your idea within nine company building blocks: (1) key partners; (2) key activities; (3) key resources; (4) value propositions; (5) customer relationships; (6) customer segments; (7) channels; (8) cost structure; and (9) revenue streams. Yet a business model is only as good as it is rooted in customer demand, and I am a big believer in speaking directly with prospective customers as early as possible. For example, I learned there was a need for a pet insurance marketplace because I walked from the length of Manhattan speaking with every pet owner I could find. They told me (1) if they had pet insurance, they didn’t know if they got a good deal or not; and (2) if they didn’t have pet insurance, it was because they didn’t know if it was worth the money. I then found that most of these individuals would take me up on my offer and trust me to compare options and find them the right pet insurance plan. Ultimately, a lot of entrepreneurs fall in love with building at the risk of not selling early or frequently enough. Engaging with customers at the outset increases the chance you are efficiently driving toward a productive and sustainable business.

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 would argue most ideas are not really original, and that’s okay. Sometimes fantastic solutions are derived from asking, “where else would this concept work?” Sometimes, the time when entering the market matters most and a failed idea in the past could be a successful idea moving forward. Obviously, risk can and should be reduced when intellectual property is involved. It’s always a good idea to search internet domains, trademarks, and patents to see what’s out there.

If you’re going to run a business, you should have the passion and discipline to become a leading expert on the topics most relevant to your business. I wasn’t a pet insurance expert before starting Pawlicy Advisor, but I became a licensed insurance producer in every state, joined the North American Pet Health Insurance Association, and participated in the National Association of Insurance Commissioners Working Group on Pet Insurance. You need that inherent hunger to learn and grow that will drive you during challenging moments in your entrepreneurial journey and allow you to think comprehensively when researching your idea.

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 named Pawlicy Advisor only after I had vetted the business idea thoroughly. I reviewed internet domains, trademarks, and conducted user surveys. When I felt like there was alignment on all three (available domain, no similar trademarks, and broad customer support), I incorporated the business. The advice I received early on was, “use a startup lawyer to incorporate the business and file IP,” rather than an internet legal service. Maybe things have changed somewhat from five years ago, but some startup founders I know have run into issues with the defensibility of their IP and the ease of scaling their startup because of user-generated mistakes that could have been avoided when filing their legal paperwork. In a similar vein, I used a registered agent to help me with major state filings.

As a marketplace, Pawlicy Advisor needed to solve for not only demand, but supply. We needed insurance partnerships to be able to sell insurance. I’m a huge believer in picking up the phone and communicating directly with decision-makers in key business relationships–I’ve found nothing more effective in business development. Early on, I used a free email domain research service to identify potential email addresses of pet insurance carrier CEOs, and I reached out to them directly, going straight to the top of my ideal partner organizations. I’m not necessarily recommending others take that approach, but I can say 100% of my emails received responses leading to scheduled calls with either the CEOs themselves or the individuals to whom they delegated. Those conversations were extremely valuable and productive because any action after the calls were supported by the organization’s leader.

I take a similar approach with key vendors and manufacturers. I rely on other leaders I trust and know or other leaders I don’t know yet, but I respect them to guide me to the right suppliers. For example, we needed to create boxes of marketing materials we could send to veterinarians, so I got an intro to a paper and packaging VP I respected who shared who their favorite vendor was. We have used this vendor for three years and greatly value that relationship.

What are your “5 Things I Wish Someone Told Me When I First Started Leading My Company” and why?

Understand and truly love the “why”: As an entrepreneur, you need to be resilient–resilient to hearing “no,” resilient to things moving slower than expected, resilient to something going wrong. Internalizing the “why” builds not only your resolve, but also your enthusiasm for your work, which can be a vibrant and powerful energy for yourself, your employees, external partners, and the public. Whenever I wake up, two of the first faces I see are Wilma and Wrigley, my two dogs. A simple hug to the two of them reminds me why I am in the business of helping other pet owners.
Don’t go it alone: Starting a business is hard, and anyone who has started one will tell you this. If you are motivated enough to start a business, it’s easy to have the self-belief you can launch it alone — and some people can. But even the solo founders have a strong network of supporters they can lean on when the going gets tough. Some of my most challenging days at Pawlicy Advisor occurred before I met Travis Bloom, my Co-founder, and Pawlicy Advisor’s CTO. In Travis, I found an expert in business areas where I fell short. I also found in him a confidant and leader I could lean on to drive the business forward.
Receive buy-in from your spouse and/or core support systems: There is a reason why actors, athletes, politicians, and awardees thank their families–often first–during receptions acknowledging their work. Even if you work up the courage to start a business and are prepared for the challenges ahead, your key supporters may not have internalized the journey the same way as you. My wife likes to joke she’s another “co-founder” of Pawlicy Advisor because of the stress I feel, she feels; the wins I recognize, she participates in; and the puzzles I solve, she often contributes. I overlooked how my wife married not only me, but my business. I can’t thank her enough for the support she has provided and the sacrifices she has made to support my dreams.
It’s a rollercoaster: Entrepreneurship offers some of the highest highs and lowest lows. One day you can be closing an incredible business partnership, and the next day you can be trying to get your business back online. I think some of the most even-keeled leaders are not only calm because they are skilled but because they have experienced the volatility of running a business, leading to reservedness during the highs and optimism during the lows.
Deals aren’t done until they’re in writing: Running a business is full of potential distractions, and it’s a leader’s job to keep the operations of the company pointed at true North, solving its most important needs and steering toward its most impactful opportunities. I’ve encountered countless distribution and investment opportunities that fell apart at the one-yard line. We have a saying at Pawlicy Advisor, which is don’t commit resources or revisit the roadmap until the ink is dry.

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 a minimum viable product and put it in front of a potential customer or user as quickly as possible. Nothing beats testing your idea “in the wild,” and if you aren’t embarrassed by the quality of the minimum viable product that you shared with the world, you probably waited too long to put it in front of people. Put any ego aside, and prioritize testing with the end-user at the risk of looking silly.

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 may depend on how technical or scientific the invention is. If the consultant has a stellar reputation, the price is right, and you need an expert to help you go to market, it may be worth it. At the earliest stage, more often than not, it’s cheaper and more valuable to go directly to prospective users and customers for their opinions than it is to go to a consultant. It can also be valuable to lean on your network and people you trust to recommend the right resources for you. Consultants sometimes do not have incentives that are aligned with your direct interests. Ruthlessly prioritize what you are focused on accomplishing and think of a consultant as only one resource to help you get there, not as the core strategy itself.

What are your thoughts about bootstrapping vs looking for venture capital? What is the best way to decide if you should do either one?

At the end of the day, no money is free money. If you accept outside capital, venture or otherwise, you are adding key partners in the business who may impact strategy, operations, and outcome. It’s your responsibility as a fiduciary to treat shareholders’ interests equally. Venture capital is a fantastic accelerant: you can fuel exceptionally quick growth, which can help you shoot for the moon. VCs are also exceptionally skilled at pattern recognition, which helps founders avoid tunnel vision and optimize their approaches. If you go the VC route, you need to be honest with yourself about VC economics. VCs aren’t in business for a 2x or 3x return. They are stewards of capital who invest because they believe you could be the next 50x, 100x, or 200x return. You should be aligned with that vision if you accept venture backing.

What’s most important is to have a clear vision of where you want to steer the business and what resources you need to get you there. Fundraising isn’t the milestone that particularly matters: progress toward achieving your core objectives matters more. What a bootstrapped business may not receive in terms of expertise, network, and larger balance sheet, it may receive in flexibility (including in an exit), ownership, and even possibly ROI. The truth of the matter is running a business is hard — many fail. ROI for the founders of a bootstrapped business and a business that has raised $50M in venture funding can look surprisingly similar when dilution is taken into account. I am amazed at how many venture-backed founders are jealous of bootstrapped founders and how many bootstrapped founders are jealous of venture-backed founders.

Ok. We are nearly done. Here are our final questions. How have you used your success to make the world a better place?

As we have grown, we have stayed true to our mission of making it easy for pet parents to do the right thing. We believe personalized advice from trustworthy experts ensures pets get the best care possible. Navigating pet care is hard: medical care is expensive and because pets are treated as equal family members these days, conversations pertaining to affording their care are naturally personal and emotional. I’m exceptionally proud of how our team has prioritized providing both pet owners and veterinarians with resources that allow them to care for the pets they and we all love. From a pet parent perspective, we’re saving them up to thousands of dollars over their pets’ lives and providing them peace of mind. From a veterinary perspective, we’re supporting some of their most delicate and impactful conversations that take place in a clinic (financial ones). As a pet parent myself, it’s a marvelous privilege to hear from veterinarians and pet owners about the positive impact we’re making on their clinics and furry families.

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.

My alma mater, Bowdoin College, instilled in me a philosophy that no matter what fields we pursue, we can make them more accessible and ethical by making space for empathy, understanding, and context–committing to and seeking out the Common Good. While broad, the concepts of civil discourse, active listening, the promotion of mutual understanding, free and respectful discussion, and honesty are key values that deserve protection. The intersection of tech and public discourse is a topic that’s currently buzzing in the news, and the discussion that’s occurring about the intersection of tech and free speech is valuable. My hope is it starts a public movement to better understand and address the ways technologies impact public discourse and opinion formation.

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.

Jon Stewart. I admire his contributions to the veteran and first responder communities. As a vegan and pet care founder, I admire his animal sanctuary work. And I’m a fan of his writing, comedy, and shows.

Thank you for these fantastic insights. We greatly appreciate the time you spent on this.

Making Something From Nothing: Woody Mawhinney Of Pawlicy Advisor On How To Go From Idea To Launch was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Jonathan Kroll Of Leadership Trainer On The 5 Things You Need To Be A Highly Effective Public…

Jonathan Kroll Of Leadership Trainer On The 5 Things You Need To Be A Highly Effective Public Speaker

An Interview With Fotis Georgiadis

Get To Know The Audience: Exceptional speakers, trainers, and facilitators never just show up and, poof, they are ready to go. We have work to do well before the clock strikes and it’s go time. Long before any training begins, we need to go on a reconnaissance mission. We collect data on the participants’ interests and desires so we can craft the experience to meets their needs and can be translated from the speaking and training engagement to their real-life leadership practice.

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 Jonathan Kroll.

Jonathan Kroll is a leadership educator and entrepreneur.

Jonathan began his career as a university administrator by focusing on leadership development, community engagement, and reflection initiatives. He has co-founded two leadership training businesses in addition to Leadership Trainer, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization that focuses on trainer/facilitator preparation. Over the last decade, Jonathan has facilitated hundreds of leadership workshops, retreats, trainings, conference presentations, and classes to 1,000s of participants across 4 continents. In addition to serving as the Executive Director and a Master Trainer with Leadership Trainer, Jonathan is an Assistant Teaching Professor and Program Director for the Professional Leadership Studies program at the University of Rhode Island. Jonathan has earned a PhD from Fielding Graduate University in Leadership with a focus in Group Mentoring. He coaches, consults, writes, teaches, and trains about leadership, mentoring, and training/facilitation. Contact Jonathan at: [email protected]

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 grew up in central New Jersey close to Princeton. I spent my entire childhood in that community before going to Quinnipiac University in Connecticut. It was through my involvement in clubs and organizations in both high school and college that I gained the confidence and cultivated the skills to serve as a public speaker and leadership trainer.

Can you share a story with us about what brought you to this specific career path?

In 2005, after earning my master’s degree, I volunteered in Nicaragua for six months. During this stint, I expected the experience to be light and breezy with plenty of time at the beach, exploring a new and different place, reading interesting nonacademic literature, and teaching a little bit of English. It ended up being heavy on the teaching and light on the ‘light and breezy’. I also started facilitating leadership trainings. I had an interest and, albeit limited skill set that matched the desire of people in that local community. Through this experience, I fell in the with the opportunity to facilitate the leadership training and development of others which led me down this career path.

Can you tell us the most interesting story that happened to you since you began your career?

The story I share is when I believe I embraced my identity as a public speaker and leadership educator.

It was a Monday. October 1st, 2012, to be exact. Not an ordinary start to the week in the slightest. On this particular Monday, I was serving as a Resident Director on an around-the-Atlantic Semester at Sea voyage. The shipboard community of students, faculty, and staff didn’t operate in the traditional five days of schooling and two days of weekend rejuvenation. Rather, courses were only held at sea on an A/B schedule. Classes were offered on either ‘A’ Days or ‘B’ Days. When we were in port, aside from some academic course-related excursions, we were invited to explore these ports and cities and countries at our leisure.

The context surrounding this Monday was far from ordinary. Per the original itinerary, on this particular Monday, we were supposed to be in Casablanca, Morocco. Weeks prior, though, two American diplomats — Ambassador J. Christopher Stevens and Information Management Officer Sean Smith were killed at the US Embassy in Benghazi, Libya. Shortly thereafter, the United States of America issued travel warnings to many Muslim countries in North Africa and the Middle East. Morocco was on the list. Semester at Sea decided to heed these US State Department warnings and, while in scramble-mode, shift our itinerary. On short notice, we extended our time in Cadiz, Spain and added Las Islas Canarias (The Canary Islands) to our voyage.

For every port-of-call, Semester at Sea offered extensive, albeit optional, in-country excursion opportunities. These were designed through Semester at Sea’s HQ and facilitated by our on-board Field Office during the voyage. These excursions were contracted well in advance through a significant vetting process of in-country vendors and tour agencies. Tenerife, the largest and most populated of the Canary Islands, served as our two-day docking station. Due to the circumstances, official Semester at Sea-sponsored excursion options were limited.

On this particular Monday, I would organize and facilitate a last-minute, half-day leadership retreat. I, and the Dean of Students of our voyage, Lisa Slavid, another incredible and wise leadership educator-mentor, collaborated to design and host a compelling and reflective morning experience. This leadership training was proposed to fill a gap. We wanted to offer something structured and leadership-developmental for the students of our voyage as an alternative to walking the city streets or visiting a nearby beach.

It was a solid program, especially under those circumstances. We prepared and arranged the four-hour experience in less than two days without having a physical location or pre-planned experiential activity training materials. We didn’t know how many students would actually be interested in participating nor did we provide any incentives like meals or course credits, but in the end it was a remarkable success. We are able to craft a meaningful, intentional opportunity to reflect on leadership and strengthen our capacities to serve as effective leaders.

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 was just starting out, I was coordinating a training engagement for a team. There were four of us and it was the first time we were all together. The planning went quite smoothly. Yet, when we got together for the training experience, I recognized we weren’t clear on clothing expectations. Most of us were wearing khakis and a polo. One team member thought it was appropriate to wear one of his ‘trademark’ jumpsuits. He was totally out of context and looked out his element. In the moment, I was incredibly frustrated by how we was representing the training team and our organization. Looking back, we often laugh about it and emphasize the importance of having a great pair of khakis just in case!

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?

Peter Magolda. Peter was a faculty member and mentor who was the first person to dedicate serious energy and attention to my writing and how I might sharpen my messaging. It is because of his guidance and support that I was able to strengthen my writing and gain confidence in my abilities to share a message. His encouragement has been instrumental in getting my first book published (Preparing Leadership Educators: A Comprehensive Guide to Theories, Practices, and Facilitation Skills) as well as how I perform as a speaker and leadership trainer.

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?

We will all face obstacles and failures. It is not a question of “if”, but “when” — and “how” we can effectively navigate those challenges. Most important is for speakers, trainers, facilitators, and educators to cultivate a growth mindset and see these failures as learning opportunities. The famed US Women’s Soccer Coach, Tony DiCicco, suggested we utilize failure as fertilizer — it can be fuel for tremendous growth, development, and improvement.

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?

I’m called to do this work. The guiding question that guides my work and frames my message is this: How can the next generations of leaders (i.e., the young people of today) effectively navigate the challenges we will all inevitably face if those responsible for their leadership training and development are ill-prepared? In short, they won’t. I believe that trainer/facilitator/speaker preparation is imperative because if we do not effectively develop the leadership skills and capacities of our future leaders, we won’t be able to navigate the leadership challenges we will all inevitably face. Trainer/facilitator/speaker preparation is about both the immediate skills development and enhancement of trainers as well as long-term generational change for their participants.

If we critically review our current leadership development programs, training opportunities, and speaking opportunities we’ll notice their severe inadequacies. They are not producing the leadership learning outcomes they espouse. Collectively, we are thirsty for leadership development experiences that actualize what they claim — to prepare us to be effective, just, and resonant leaders. The type of leaders who can nurture our own and others’ brilliance, illuminate human potential, and deeply connect with others in nourishing relationships so we can collaboratively do good in our organizations, communities, and the world. We keep pursuing leadership development and enhancement opportunities because nothing seems to quench this thirst to become the leaders we dream of being.

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 am most excited about Leadership Trainer’s Certification Program — my nonprofit organization’s flagship experience. Leadership Trainer’s Certification Program is a one-of-a-kind, immersive, engaging, hands-on, trainer preparation experience that is guided by four objectives:

Prepare participants to facilitate amazing and impactful trainings rooted in dynamic, culturally relevant, and learning-oriented facilitation techniques — specifically experiential activities and reflective dialogue;
Engage participants in purposeful critical self-reflection and identity exploration;
Utilize leadership scholarship to advance participants own understanding and practice of leadership;
Cultivate a community of other trainers and facilitators.

My focus, now, is better prepare speakers, trainers, and facilitators with the knowledge base and skills to be effective in their work.

Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share how that was relevant to you in your life?

“Those of us seeking to be inspirited by the call to make a difference in the world have no choice but to take the journey of self-discovery” (Dennis Roberts, Deeper Learning in Leadership, p. 129).

For those of us who are professional speakers, trainers, and facilitators, we are often moved to make a difference in the world. Yet, many us have yet to sincerely engage in the ever-important practice of purposeful self-reflection and discovery. For me, when I started to engage in this work, I was able to show up more authentically and powerfully in my speaking and training engagements.

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?”

Get To Know The Audience: Exceptional speakers, trainers, and facilitators never just show up and, poof, they are ready to go. We have work to do well before the clock strikes and it’s go time. Long before any training begins, we need to go on a reconnaissance mission. We collect data on the participants’ interests and desires so we can craft the experience to meets their needs and can be translated from the speaking and training engagement to their real-life leadership practice.
Engage In Personal Preparation: In addition to our content preparations, we need to focus inwardly so we can be our best selves when it comes time for the speaking engagement or training experience. We set our intention. We can ask a series of overarching questions to focus our attention: How do I want to show up to this experience? How do I want to engage and interact with the participants? How can I best serve these participants? What do I hope to accomplish through this experience? Once our intention is set, our personal preparation happens in multiple domains: emotionally, mentally, physically, and tactically. Emotionally, we ensure that we are fully present and focused on this particular experience and these particular participants. Mentally, we have a deep knowledge of the theme, learning outcomes, and material. Physically, we are well fed and hydrated and dressed appropriately for the audience and experience. Tactically, we have confidence in the flow of the speaking engagement and training opportunity.
Pay Special Attention to Energy & Pace: Our energy and pace are essentially our presence. We know, from our own experiences, that our participants more easily integrate our message into their practice when they feel a healthy, positive emotional connection. Our presence is the combination of our energy and pace. When our energy is low and pace is slow, it is a clear indication of boredom and lack of interest. Rather, we can leverage our positive attitudes and an engaging pace to show excitement, care, and dedication to this experience, these participants, and the topic being addressed. Timothy Koegle (2007), a presentation consultant and author of The Exceptional Presenter, suggests we find a healthy rhythm of speaking, pausing, breathing, and speaking. Speak. Pause. Breathe. Speak. Essentially, we want to deliver a message, offer an instruction, ask a question, or provide a response statement. Then we take a moment to pause and attend to the energy in the space
Be Sharp & Edgy: When delivering our message, we want it to be sharp and edgy. (As I like to quip, if we are not living on the edge, we’re taking up too much space!) Often, our speaking topics and themes can be generic. Communication, for example, is, well, highly communicated as a leadership training topic. It is so broad and popular. We want to differentiate our experience from others by providing a message that is novel and exciting for our participants. The topic isn’t going to change. Our message and delivery of it is what makes it edgy. We offer a new way to explore the topic, ask provocative questions about the theme, and share data that are sexy and intriguing. This is how we get our participants engaged — rather than participating in just another communication training. For some examples, depending on the audience and context, I might use a song for the group to listen to or a movie clip to watch as an entry point as we explore the topic, rather than the traditional approach of just me offering my reflections about healthy communication habits. Alternatively, I might share a personal story — or better yet, ask participants to think back on a time when they were poor communicators. By inviting a selection of participants to share their stories, both serious and comical ones — before asking the whole participant body to offer reflections on what they heard about poor communication behaviors — we center the training experience in the lives, wisdom, and insight of our participants while preparing them for immersive, participatory engagement with the material in the soon-to-be facilitated experiential learning activity. We can also use data to make a bland or overdone topic both sexy and intriguing. To continue with this communication example, I might use data from Project Worldwide’s 2019 study of 471 survey respondents. They found that 74% of people have stopped dealing with a company and moved to a competitor due to feeling the company was disorganized, 92% have had to repeat a piece of information to two or more people within an organization, 85% find it annoying to have to repeat information when working with other organizations, 96% think the organizations they deal with could improve when it comes to communication, and even though 89% believe that effective communication is extremely important, 80% of the respondents rate their own organizations’ communication as either average or poor (Project Worldwide, 2020). These data highlight intriguing information about communication that can be packaged and offered to our participants to spur dialogue and spice up our training experiences.
End On Time: Finally, a personal plea — conclude the speaking engagement or training experience at the designated and labeled time. When serving in this capacity, we make a commitment to offer a robust, dynamic learning experience in the time allotted. We always end on time. Even if participants are late and we begin 30 minutes behind schedule, we end at the scheduled time. This is a matter of respect and respecting the commitment we’ve made to ourselves and our participants.

As you know, many people are terrified of speaking in public. Can you give some of your advice about how to overcome this fear?

We need to focus on our own breath and presence. Conquering our fear of speaking begins with focusing on deep full breaths.

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?

We need to focus much more intentionally on trainer and facilitator preparation. If we do not effectively develop the leadership skills and capacities of our future leaders, we won’t be able to navigate the leadership challenges we will all inevitably face. Trainer/facilitator/speaker preparation is about both the immediate skills development and enhancement of trainers as well as long-term generational change for their participants.

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!

Shaq! I’d love to have lunch with Shaquille O’Neal. He has earned his doctorate in leadership — I would love to explore his reflections on leadership. I also appreciate how eclectic his professional pursuits have been following his elite basketball career.

Are you on social media? How can our readers follow you online?

LinkedIn:

Instagram: JonathanKroll_PhD

This was so informative, thank you so much! We wish you continued success!

Jonathan Kroll Of Leadership Trainer On The 5 Things You Need To Be A Highly Effective Public… was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Ilgar Tali Of Smartist: 5 Things You Need To Know To Create a Successful App or SaaS

An Interview With Fotis Georgiadis

Know what your passion is, and you’ll be able to pick an industry that fits you. Once you’ve found something you’re passionate about, you’ll be able to stick with it for a long time.

As part of our series about the “5 Things You Need To Know To Create a Successful App or SaaS”,I had the pleasure of interviewing Ilgar Tali.

Ilgar Tali is the Founder & CEO of Smartist, the ultimate tech app for artists. Smartist was launched in 2021 and based in Miami, FL.

Smartist is the first app designed by artists, for artists as the next big leap in relationship between the art and tech worlds. Downloaded over 400,000 times in over 170 countries, Smartist makes it faster and easier than ever to digitally showcase artwork by using real dimensions and scaling onto pre-uploaded pictures of interiors. Its seamless design is easy to navigate. The app’s ability to stage artwork quickly and efficiently can do more than just drive sales — it can enhance social media content, boost engagement, set the stage for an artist’s online shop or help create a robust professional portfolio for any audience.

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 was born and raised in Baku, Azerbaijan. Since I was five years old, I’ve been drawing and painting, but graphic design is what I followed as an occupation. In 2014, I came to Missouri, USA, to learn English as a Second Language. While there, I started painting again after a break from my design career. I created an Instagram account and shared my new paintings with the world. It was then that I first thought about presenting my art in space so that people could understand the accurate proportions of each piece. Even though I’m a graphic designer by trade, it took me time to find a relevant image on the internet — usually an interior photograph — open it up in Photoshop®, add your artwork on top of it and make it look realistic. This process proved to be time-consuming.

I was offered an opportunity to exhibit my art in New York City. I visited NYC for my show and fell in love with the city, so I decided to stay there and explore creative opportunities. I had the chance to work for many different creative agencies, allowing me to improve my branding and UX/UI design skills. In addition, working with talented people has given me more confidence in my abilities.

Even though I was focused on my design career, I participated in a few group art shows that made me realize many artists struggle to market their art. Artists spend more time selling art than creating it. In addition, the majority of them have part-time jobs to make a living. I have a profound desire to help artists, which led me to start a contemporary art agency called Kontempo, representing talented emerging local artists and creating new opportunities for them in 2019. After curating two group shows in Manhattan and Brooklyn with hundreds of visitors, it became one of my most enjoyable activities. Unfortunately, due to Covid-19, we had to discontinue.

By the end of 2019, my passions and past experiences helped me connect the dots and inspired me to work on a new adventure that will have a more significant impact. I wanted to solve a problem in 2014, make visualizing art easier, and help artists sell art online faster. Studies show that when you display art using realistic visualizations, you are more likely to sell your art. As a result, Smartist was born at the intersection of a love for art, design, tech, and support artists.

In early 2020, I started assembling a remote team to help me research, design, and develop the app. During the lockdown, I decided to move to Miami, and after many months of hard work, we launched our first version on April 7, 2021. Since it was my first tech product, learning the ropes took me some time.

Today, we are proud that Smartist has made thousands of artists’ lives easier by saving their creative time and helping them market and sell art faster.

It’s hard for startup founders to get people to believe in them and their vision, not to mention the challenges they face when they don’t have any external funding. For me, it was most challenging when I got investor rejections while we were still in beta testing — it affected my motivation and self-confidence. So then, I’ve decided not to spend time raising capital but focus on the product and find other ways to fund the business and keep my inspiration high.

So, how are things going today? How did your grit and resilience lead to your eventual success?

I am grateful for all of the things in my life and the way they are going. Resilience and grit are two essential traits that can lead to success in many areas of life. Those with these traits persevere, maintain their determination in the face of challenges and adapt when situations get complicated.

When we make mistakes, it’s more often because we rush and lack knowledge, focus, or patience. For example, we worked on the app’s first version for over a year before releasing it to the App Store. Unfortunately, I made a mistake when I accidentally clicked the ‘Release’ button without final testing. As a result, the app had significant bugs and incorrect pricing plans.

What do you think makes your company stand out? Can you share a story?

According to thousands of 5-star reviews, Smartist is the market’s most powerful art visualization app. What makes us unique is that we update the app every two weeks with new additions to our content library, features, and bug fixes. We also listen to every user’s feedback and frequently implement their suggestions.

We believe that, together with our community of users, we can continually improve Smartist for all our users. We love our Smartist community, and we feel their love, too. That said, this is just the beginning for Smartist. We plan to continue developing innovative tools that empower artists and other creatives in every aspect of their lives and careers.

Which tips would you recommend to your colleagues in your industry to help them to thrive and not “burn out”?

Burnout happens when we try to do everything at once and forget the importance of priority. There are plenty of opportunities in every industry, but only some prospects have the same priority. So make the right choices by focusing on what’s essential today and remembering that FOCUS means following one course until successful. That’s the key not only to business but also to the life you want to create.

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?

First, I’d like to thank my mom for believing in me regardless of distance and events. Next, I’d like to acknowledge my small but fantastic team members — I couldn’t do it without them. Lastly, I want to thank the Universe for allowing me to manage my thoughts and doubts while keeping a positive attitude.

Smartist has been downloaded over 400k times by 175 countries. We are proud to have built a product that people love and share with their friends. To create word-of-mouth marketing, first, build something hard to ignore; second, make it affordable and focus on one marketing channel with the best ROI.

What is your monetization model? How do you monetize your community of users? Have you considered other monetization options? Why did you not use those?

Our business model is freemium. Users can use our app for free with limited features or purchase a premium subscription to unlock everything. Smartist is essential for artists who want to market their work effectively. Based on our survey, Smartists reported increased sales, connected with more potential buyers, received positive client feedback, and upgraded their art portfolios or websites after using our app.

Know what your passion is, and you’ll be able to pick an industry that fits you. Once you’ve found something you’re passionate about, you’ll be able to stick with it for a long time.
Define why your app should be built. You need to identify a need or problem that your app can solve. Is the problem worth solving? Is it a common problem? If not, you’ll have to think carefully about getting people to adopt and use your app regularly.
Create a solution for your users’ needs. Research your app’s competition and target audience to create a product that meets their preferences.
Design and develop a minimum viable product (MVP) that is easy to understand and allows you to test the app effectively.
Test your app with a small group of users before you release it to a broader audience. Make changes to the app based on their feedback, then test it again thoroughly to ensure that it is stable, reliable, and free of bugs and other issues.

Since childhood, society and our family have encouraged us to study different subjects and sciences. When we want to learn more about any topic, we research, analyze, find insights, and understand the case from the core. But why don’t we do the same about ourselves? The place we live in — our mind, body, and soul — should be explored just as thoroughly as any topic of interest. Knowing yourself well is essential to make choices that bring you happiness.

We tend to spend too much time worrying about things we cannot control. Instead, we should focus on transforming ourselves for the better. It is not only good for us but for everybody around us and the entire society.

I would start a movement for the most significant science — The Science of Self. The world would be better if we all tried to understand ourselves better.

How can our readers further follow your work online?

Instagram

https://www.instagram.com/smartistapp/

Twitter

https://twitter.com/smartist_app

TikTok

https://www.tiktok.com/@smartistapp

Website

https://smartist.app/

This was very inspiring. Thank you so much for joining us!

Ilgar Tali Of Smartist: 5 Things You Need To Know To Create a Successful App or SaaS was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

The Future Is Now: Anthony Capone Of DocGo On How Their Technological Innovation Will Shake Up The…

The Future Is Now: Anthony Capone Of DocGo On How Their Technological Innovation Will Shake Up The Tech Scene

An Interview With Fotis Georgiadis

The reality is that what is best for other people is also in your best interest. That’s the connection that most people don’t take the leap on. They just are focused on right now, “I can benefit by cheating, by lying, by stealing, by not caring about others — that’s what’s beneficial for me now.” But that lacks foresight and an understanding of the interdependence of the world. After even one interaction, you may very quickly become interdependent on the person you could have helped. It’s a very shortsighted approach. What is good is good for you.

As a part of our series about cutting-edge technological breakthroughs, I had the pleasure of interviewing Anthony Capone.

Anthony Capone has served DocGo’s (Nasdaq: DCGO) executive team since 2017; previously as CTO and CPO, currently as president, and as of 1/1/23, DocGo’s CEO. His sterling record of entrepreneurial excellence includes leading three companies from start to successful exit. In addition to his roles at DocGo, Mr. Capone is a member of the Forbes Tech Council, writing on topics at the intersection of healthcare and AI.

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?

Six or seven years ago, I’d just received a job offer from a multinational technology company and had only 24 hours to accept or reject the offer. At that time, there were two components I was searching for in the next part of my career. First was that I was able to help some portion of society in some way. And the second was that I would be intellectually stimulated the entire time. You’re lucky to have one of the two, but it’s very rare to have both.

I ran into Stan Vashovsky, DocGo’s CEO, and we struck up a conversation. He shared this idea he had to revolutionize the ambulance industry. I was fascinated. He told me if I was really interested in the company, I should fly to Los Angeles and see what was going on firsthand. So, only hours after meeting Stan, I was on a flight to LA.

When I got into that dispatch center, it was a wild scene. I sat down and I was like, “Yup, this is for me.” The benefits to society were obvious. The intellectual part — you’re solving a computer science problem, commonly referred to as the travelling salesman problem, which is one of the most elemental challenges you learn in computer science. It’s a resource allocation challenge. Every day, I’d get to solve one of the hardest problems in computer science to efficiently allocate resources.

I think I was in LA for less than 60 minutes before I called the other company and told them I didn’t want the offer. It was probably the best decision I’ve made in my entire life.

Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you began your career?

In the second year of the company, we switched nearly every single employee to a large bonus program. They were getting compensated not only for an hourly rate, but they were also receiving a very significant amount of compensation on a per-transport basis. Because of that, we had individuals that went from making minimum wage to making $60-$70+ thousand a year. And I remember one of them coming to speak with me.

He came in and said, “I’ve done it. I finally moved out of my parents’ house. I have my wife and my two kids, and we couldn’t afford our own place, so we had to live with my parents.” And he told me, “I didn’t feel like I could be a breadwinner, like I could support my family. Now I do. You gave me the ability to feel like I was valuable enough to warrant having a family.” He had tears in his eyes, tears of appreciation, it was a massively impactful event in my history here.

I’ve had that many times, and again, actually, just a week ago. I was riding the elevator and making conversation with a clinician, “Hey, how are you, what project are you working on, what are you up to?” And she goes, “Are you Anthony? Anthony Capone?” When I said yeah, and she asked if she could hug me.

She said, “I want to tell you thank you. This is the best job I’ve ever had in my entire life. I make more money than I ever have, plus I have a company that cares about me.” That was worth the world to me.

Can you tell us about the cutting-edge technological breakthroughs that you are working on? How do you think that will help people?

Remote patient monitoring (RPM), paired with DocGo On-Demand, truly reinvents the way that healthcare is thought about and delivered in America. We move from reactive situations being dealt with in expensive institutions to proactive situations within the comfort of the patient’s own home.

Everybody who is diabetic monitors their glucose, right? But having your glucose monitored and transmitted to a clinician who is looking at it in real-time can allow you to understand that maybe you have contraindications with some of your other medications and that those medications may need to be titrated relative to the trending analysis of your glucose levels. There’s a tremendous difference between monitoring your glucose and having a trained clinician look at it.

Today, we offer both ER readmission avoidance and RPM with a non-profit partner in Southern California. Because of our RPM and Treat On-Scene solutions, we reduced their year-over-year hospital readmissions rate by 20%.

How do you think this might change the world?

The largest portion of cost, and the area in which it is the most impactful to quality of life, is unnecessary hospitalizations. If we can only utilize hospitals when they’re needed and avoid them when they’re not, we can dramatically lower the cost of healthcare in the United States while also significantly improving health outcomes.

Keeping “Black Mirror” in mind, can you see any potential drawbacks of this technology that people should think more deeply about?

You cannot underestimate the importance of cyber security. Thankfully, I come from a computer science background and have a specialized view on the impact of technology and data. Information about the real-time vitals and real-time health of an individual has potential to be used for nefarious practices in the wrong hands.

Companies should be investing a considerable percentage of the income generated from these services into its cyber security practices. That’s why DocGo invests a significant sum into general cyber security practices and routine penetration testing. We also spent years obtaining our ISO 27001 certification to ensure that we’re held to the highest international security standards.

Was there a “tipping point” that led you to this breakthrough? Can you tell us that story?

DocGo is extraordinarily data-driven. After years of looking at our ambulance transportation data, it became obvious that a majority of the patients being transported could have been treated in their homes if there were better mechanisms to diagnose issues and provide on-site care. That motivated us to develop a solution that could safely and reliably keep people from escalating care due to acute decompensation.

RPM can help move people from a reactive health practice to a more proactive one. Part of the importance of integrating technology into the status quo of healthcare delivery is how significant these types of preventive measures can improve quality of life for patients.

What do you need to lead this technology to widespread adoption?

We need to educate the providers who are responsible for managing the patient population so that they understand this technology and its efficacy. Ideally, all patients will be enrolled and onboarded to these solutions through a trusted provider’s recommendation.

RPM technology can only be successful if a patient is also engaged in their own health strategy. We need to educate patients about the efficacy of RPM and giving both patient and provider real-time access to the data received by these devices. Education is the only path to widespread adoption.

What have you been doing to publicize this idea? Have you been using any innovative marketing strategies?

We partner with some of the largest sub-specialty organizations that manage polychronic patients. When someone can offer a solution that genuinely works for their patients, like the synergy we’ve found with our RPM and DocGo On-Demand mobile care, word spreads. Regarding innovative marketing, we’re focused on delivering a high quality, consistent care experience across all consumer touchpoints and producing positive results over and over and over again.

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?

Yes, Stan Vashovsky. I cannot overstate the importance of Stan in my life and the adventure I’ve been on with him in the last six or seven years. I’ve had the fortune of shadowing him, partnering with him and learning from him. I owe an enormous amount, all of my success, to Stan.

How have you used your success to bring goodness to the world?

The two most important things at DocGo are to provide is high-quality healthcare for the underserved and to ensure that our employees are compensated relative to their enormous contribution to society. Every day, I try to use my skills and knowledge to further those two goals.

What is your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share how that was relevant to you in your life?

“What is good is good for you.”

That’s something that took me a long time to believe. It took me about five years to get out of my Ayn Rand phase in life and move towards realizing that actually what she said is true, you should always be selfish.

The reality is that what is best for other people is also in your best interest. That’s the connection that most people don’t take the leap on. They just are focused on right now, “I can benefit by cheating, by lying, by stealing, by not caring about others — that’s what’s beneficial for me now.” But that lacks foresight and an understanding of the interdependence of the world. After even one interaction, you may very quickly become interdependent on the person you could have helped. It’s a very shortsighted approach. What is good is good for you.

Understanding not only that we are truly nothing but products of our own circumstance, but that we have free will to control that circumstance, is a critical part of building habits that are beneficial to your life.

How can our readers follow you on social media?

I am active on LinkedIn and always happy to connect with new people.

Thank you so much for joining us. This was very inspirational.

The Future Is Now: Anthony Capone Of DocGo On How Their Technological Innovation Will Shake Up The… was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Making Something From Nothing: Leigh Phillips On How To Go From Idea To Launch

An Interview With Fotis Georgiadis

Get references and call them for all your vendors and employees. Our first manufacturer didn’t have the capabilities needed to ensure consistency and excellence in our first run. Our new co-packer came with so many recommendations we were confident when we updated our product and that’s certainly been the case.

As a part of our series called “Making Something From Nothing”, I had the pleasure of interviewing Leigh Phillips.

After careers spent in computer programming, math, law, and then management consulting, Leigh set out to build something of his own. He started NextDay, a company that believes life is for living, and creates easy-to-trust, easy-to-ingest products to help people feel great. Launched a month before the start of the pandemic, Leigh faced unique challenges on top of starting a business. Now, Leigh worked to make NextDay available anywhere in the US and in hundreds of locations around the country, as well as the UK, South Korea, and Dubai.

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 in Raleigh, NC where my family encouraged business and entrepreneurship. Although we lacked connections to the corporate world, I started my first business selling candy on the bus in 1st grade. I’d give a few free pieces to the 5th graders so no one would mess with me and made a profit reselling after buying in bulk from Sam’s Club. My parents pushed me to get my first job at age 8, when I started making custom cabinets. In high school, I thought I wanted to follow in my dad’s footsteps and do computer programming, so I worked at a company writing apps for the government in Java while my friends worked at grocery stores and ice cream shops. I stayed local for college at the University of North Carolina.

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?

Le Petit Prince. While a children’s book, it doubles as a deep, meaningful book for adults that emphasizes the importance of friends and enjoying the time you have together. I always cherish the opportunity to connect with friends.

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?

Surround yourself with great people. Doing it alone is really tough, you need mentors, advisors, and most importantly colleagues you can count on.

Find an idea that motivates you beyond money. Someone has likely thought about your idea before and maybe even tried it. Sometimes 100s of times. If success is mission driven it’s easier to win — for NextDay, I want to help people feel great so they can connect with friends (or however they choose to live their life).

Get feedback and adapt. No matter how many people tell you it’s a great idea, once you build it, you will need to change it.

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 their idea has already been created?

No matter the idea, someone has probably already thought about it. When starting a company, you want to determine if there is room for your company in the market. You can be Pepsi to someone’s Coke even.

Try and assess whether you have the right market, the right product, and the right team. You really need two, and ideally three of these things.

For the market, I’d start by determining the size of the total addressable market and how fast it is growing. Is it attractive? Who are the key players (who make up 75%+ of the market)? Are they are consolidated (3–5 players) or fragmented)?

For product, does it solve the market need? Do you have the ability to “build a moat” around it? The moat doesn’t have to be patents or an invention, it could be great branding. Liquid Death didn’t invent the can or certainly water, but they are crushing the market with fantastic branding.

For team, do you have the right experience? Can you bring someone in that would add to your experience?

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? 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.

Our product started with an idea — feel great after a night out in a simple, easy-to-drink format. We first researched what ingredients had scientific support for their efficacy. Then it required working with food scientists, identifying suppliers, ordering ingredients and cans, and having them delivered to a co-packer (manufacturer in our industry). Each step along the way, you need to talk to people and assess whether you think they have the experience you lack and are committed to delivering excellence. You may not get it right the first time, but it’s important to evaluate each partner along the way so you know if you need to replace them.

Once your product is created, finding retailers (and distributors to fill at the retailers) requires a lot of cold emails and phone calls. We had less of an opportunity to go in person because of the pandemic, but that’s become an option again, and one that we use. We lay out why our product solves a need their customers have, why it’s an attractive product for them to carry, and how our distribution partners can fill them.

What are your “5 Things I Wish Someone Told Me When I First Started Leading My Company” and why?

All co-founders need to be full time. When we started, I was full-time, but my co-founder still had a day job. There are not enough hours in the day to make that work, and we realized he was really more of an investor and advisor, and when he had the time to commit full time again, he is playing a co-founder role.
Test your product at the smallest possible size. We manufactured 20,000 cans to start because that was the first economically viable option. In hindsight we should’ve down 1,000 cans and gotten feedback. Even though selling the 1,000 cans wouldn’t have made money, we would’ve learned about some of the issues with our first product that we now have corrected.
Get references and call them for all your vendors and employees. Our first manufacturer didn’t have the capabilities needed to ensure consistency and excellence in our first run. Our new co-packer came with so many recommendations we were confident when we updated our product and that’s certainly been the case.
Distribution matters! When talking to stores, the first question we get is who distributes our product. By working with great distributors, we can get retail space.
The highs will be higher and the lows lower than you expect. When you are working for someone else, you can leave the work at the door (or maybe a bring some home) but you can stop it. When you are working on your own company, it never stops. Ever.

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?

Try and make the lowest cost prototype possible and get some people who are willing to give you honest feedback to try it.

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’m biased towards striking out on your own. I’m sure they can help, and they probably have contacts that may help you (like distributors), but you are the person who will be most passionate and care about your invention. Find a cofounder that’s as passionate as you are instead.

What are your thoughts about bootstrapping vs looking for venture capital? What is the best way to decide if you should do either one?

If you can build a low-cost prototype, delaying as much as possible your raise is beneficial. When you have nothing and your valuation is low, money is most expensive. As your valuation grows, you can give away less to get more.

Ok. We are nearly done. Here are our final questions. How have you used your success to make the world a better place?

Through NextDay I want to help people feel great. I get texts all the time (often from distributors) about how the drink made them feel so much better. That makes me happy and want to keep pushing forward with growing the company and letting people know there is a way to feel great after a night out.

Spent an extra 5 minutes talking with friends and making new ones every single day.

Seth Goldman, the founder of Honest Tea and executive chairman of Beyond Meat. I think he’s done a really great job of creating products that are better for you / the environment and getting them into people’s hands to make their lives better.

Thank you for these fantastic insights. We greatly appreciate the time you spent on this.

Making Something From Nothing: Leigh Phillips On How To Go From Idea To Launch was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Making Something From Nothing: Nevena Rousseva Of Ladies of Leisure On How To Go From Idea To…

Making Something From Nothing: Nevena Rousseva Of Ladies of Leisure On How To Go From Idea To Launch

An Interview With Fotis Georgiadis

I wish someone told me that selling wine online has so many fragmented regulations. I quickly found out that each state has their own rules and regulations and we had to find a compliance company to help us manage them.

As a part of our series called “Making Something From Nothing”, I had the pleasure of interviewing Nevena Rousseva.

Nevena is the founder of Ladies of Leisure, a direct-to-consumer lifestyle brand transforming wine into a form of emotional expression while delivering great tasting, high-quality wine in fun, vibrant packaging. It’s wine that looks good and tastes good. Nevena’s career started at a fast-growing fashion start-up where she managed operations and learned the ins and outs of starting and running a cult fashion brand. She then moved to a corporate setting where she managed accounts for national retailers. After getting her master’s degree in Sustainability Management from Columbia University, she worked for a digital platform focused on sustainable fashion lifestyle where she focused on branding, marketing and translating complex sustainability issues into customer friendly marketing and educational assets.

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 Bulgaria and moved to the U.S. at the age of nine. Growing up my grandparents on both sides of my family had small vineyards in their backyards. Everyone back then made their own wine. Grape picking and wine-making was always a fun activity my parents, cousins, aunts, uncles and grandparents would do as a family. We, the kids, would pick grapes and run around playing. We got to stomp grapes and later hear the adults congratulate themselves on a good harvest. It was always fun. When we came to the U.S., we moved to the East End of Long Island, which is one of New York’s wine making regions. The vineyards there are densely packed and make for a charming drive through the region. I grew up across the street from a vineyard.

Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share how that was relevant to you in your life?

“The only constant in life is change”. I try to always remember this and remind myself of it when a change that feels uncomfortable comes along. You either adapt or you waste time and energy trying to deny change, which never works and ends up holding you back. Things are always moving forward, even if it’s in ways you may not like. The key is learning to adapt and finding ways to thrive. In the end, that is a reflection of you. There was a big change that happened at my first job out of college that I was not prepared for. I thought things would never change and then they did. I wasn’t ready for it and struggled. It took some time but I adapted and from then on, when I feel a change coming, I go into adapt mode instead of deny mode.

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 know this book can be somewhat controversial, but I loved and could not put down Atlas Shrugged. The breadth, depth and scope of the book took me by surprise as did the sexy and scandalous story between Dagny Taggard, Hank Rearden and John Galt. I loved the determination, the will and the focus the characters had. That book showed me that you can think really big. I also loved The Fountainhead, which I read after Atlas Shrugged. I loved Roark’s belief in his innovative architectural style and unwillingness to compromise and conform.

I think the way you bring an idea to life is through research and persistence. You have to research your idea to see if it’s viable, if it exists and if there is a place for it. Then, you have to research the market, who is out there, who you need to reach and who you need to contact to get your idea off the ground. Persistence is key, because all this takes time and effort to do. Developing the idea, the prototypes, the graphics, the pitch decks, the sketches, then contacting the people you believe would be interested, support you, help you — it all comes down to how persistent you are in doing these things to bring your idea to life.

It really depends on what the idea is, but the easiest way is by searching the internet and searching for different key terms and words that describe your idea. Search social media and search forums. If you have a revolutionary idea, you will want to search if it has been patented already. You can do that through the patent office’s website.

Once you have the idea, you have to present it to people. You have to create a minimal viable product to show what it can look like. You will have to do a marketing plan and a financial plan to figure out your costs and how much money you will need to bring the idea to life. If you don’t have the money, you will need to find someone to fund you, whether that’s friends and family, a bank, or an investor. You need to create a pitch deck that outlines the idea, the market, the customer, competition, financial forecasts and how much money you need. Once you secure the money, you have to find someone to make it for you.

If you want to patent your idea, then that’s a longer and more involved process. You have to find a good patent lawyer who will first do indepth research on whether your idea has been previously patented. You have to decide if you want a design patent or a utility patent. A design patent is just a patent on the design. A utility patent is a patent on the use of the product. A utility patent is better to get, but it’s also more costly and a longer process. Once the patent process starts, it can take months to years. You have to decide if you want to file nationally or internationally. I think it’s best to start nationally. The patent lawyer will write out the patent with your input. You have to also create drawings for the idea to include in your patent application. You will need to hire someone to do them if you can’t do them yourself. Once the patent is filed, you wait to hear from the patent office. They may challenge parts of your patent and you will have to explain and defend them. This can be a long back and forth process. While you are in the process of obtaining the patent, you can start to manufacture and sell your product with the label, “patent pending”.

Finding a good manufacturer can be tricky and you need to spend time researching them, talking to them, seeing what they have done and who they have worked with. You should have them make samples for you to see what their quality is like. Finding a retailer can be a similar process. You need to spend time researching the retailers you want to carry your product to understand how they select new products to carry. There is no set way of getting into a retailer. You really have to take time and research them to understand what their process is and even then, there is no guarantee they will choose to carry your products. There is always, of course, Amazon, but that comes with a whole set of different rules.

What are your “5 Things I Wish Someone Told Me When I First Started Leading My Company” and why?

I wish someone told me that it takes longer than you might think. When I started Ladies of Leisure I thought I would secure the legal documents needed faster than I actually did.
I wish someone told me that selling wine online has so many fragmented regulations. I quickly found out that each state has their own rules and regulations and we had to find a compliance company to help us manage them.
I wish someone told me that building a brand is not easy and takes time. Even though I kind of knew that, I didn’t know it until I started doing it from scratch. It takes a lot of time to get your brand in front of people.
I wish someone told me you have to work at your business everyday. It’s not easy coming home tired from your day job and having to work on your company, but it is necessary.
I wish someone told me that digital marketing can be frustrating. We did a campaign that we thought would work, but it didn’t. It felt disheartening not seeing the results you thought you would or feeling like you “don’t get the customer”, but we used it as a learning lesson.

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 main one is research. Research if the product is already out there and if it’s not, research if there is a need for it and if it would be a viable business. Then, try to make a prototype or a minimum viable product.

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 don’t think consultants are worth it. I think it’s better to do your own research. All the information is out there. I think it’s better to spend the money on creating a prototype.

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 think bootstrapping is easier than finding a VC and depending on your idea, VCs may or may not be interested. Again, I think you need to research if there are VCs that invest in what you are trying to create. If there are, you need to pitch them and there are no guarantees. If you can bootstrap and create something that gains some traction, you then have a much better pitch for VCs or other sources of money.

Ok. We are nearly done. Here are our final questions. How have you used your success to make the world a better place?

At Ladies of Leisure, we donate a portion of each purchase to nonprofits. We have pre-selected three organizations across women’s rights, the environment and education. We let the customers choose where to send a portion of their purchase.

Well, there are three. Equality for women, education for everyone and protecting our planet and the environment which we need for our survival. That’s why at Ladies of Leisure, we donate to nonprofits in these three areas.

Sarah Blakely. I love how she took her idea for Spanks and built it into a billion dollar empire. It was an idea that people didn’t get at first.

Thank you for these fantastic insights. We greatly appreciate the time you spent on this.

Making Something From Nothing: Nevena Rousseva Of Ladies of Leisure On How To Go From Idea To… was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Dave Bennett Of pCare On How To Use Digital Transformation To Take Your Company To The Next Level

An Interview With Fotis Georgiadis

Select Use Cases to Start — When it comes to new digital solutions, it’s important to uncover quick wins that will generate revenue right away and provide a stronger ROI. Look for ways you can optimize your current financial models and consider where the strongest need is first.

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 Dave Bennett, CEO of pCare.

Dave Bennett’s visionary approach to patient engagement, digital and mobile technologies, and IT integration ensures continuous innovation of the #1-KLAS ranked pCare platform and a company culture dedicated to delighting customers. Prior to joining pCare, Dave served in a variety of executive roles at ViiMed, GetWellNetwork and StayWell. Dave holds a CISM certificate from ISACA and is an active member of the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS), The American Health Information Management Association (AHIMA), Information Systems Audit and Control Association (ISACA), and the American College of Healthcare Executives (ACHE).

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 involvement in the business side of healthcare stems from witnessing my parents’ passion for their careers. My father was a businessman and operated various supermarkets in our area. My mother was a nurse, which immersed me in the world of healthcare from an early age.

After attending the Citidel and a few years in the army, I attended the Medical University of South Carolina and earned a master’s degree in Health Sciences. That was the true springboard to my career. I started out in molecular biology research and then transitioned into computer coding. A few years down the road, I turned toward the business side of healthcare. First, I worked in sales and marketing and then eventually became a chief technology officer, and now the chief executive officer of a healthcare technology company.

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?

Back in the early 1980s, I was just starting out on the business side of healthcare and was a sales representative for a biotech company. My job was selling to the research lab at the National Institutes of Health (NIH). I was excited about the opportunity, but I mistakenly made it all about me and the company. Instead of listening to a researcher’s needs, I was overly confident that I could explain to the researcher the wisdom of doing business with me. The truth? I was terrible. I didn’t sell a thing with this approach.

Luckily, I connected with a more experienced sales representative from another company, and he took me under his wing. At lunch one day he asked how everything was going, and I spilled my guts. I told him that I felt like I had to be the worst salesperson ever, to which he simply gave me the best advice. He told me to flip the script and make it about the prospective client instead of myself. He advised me to become well-versed in what these organizations were engaged in and how my company could help them reach their goals. It sounds so basic, but I really needed to hear it. Following his advice, I got the biggest sale of my career by reviewing a poster presentation on tumor necrosis. The researcher saw me and asked me what I thought. I don’t remember exactly what I said but it was enough to get me invited to his lab and introduced to his team, which led to a lot of new business.

At pCare, we’ve built our business by being patient-centric for over 70 years. This lesson I learned in the 80s was really the same thing — the importance of listening, of empathy, and putting the other person first.

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?

That’s a great question as well as a difficult one for me to answer. There isn’t one person to attribute this to — it’s not a story of one particular person but a lifetime of chances from others. Over the course of my career, I’ve been blessed to be surrounded by various people who saw promise in me and decided to help, give advice, or mentor. What I’ve taken from each person is the need to pay it forward. I recognize and appreciate that others helped me, so I look for others who show promise and see how I can share advice or provide mentorship. Now, as a leader, I make it my mission to surround myself with diverse people, people who are smarter than me, and those who have the drive to succeed.

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 Medic: The Miracle on Hacksaw Ridge. This qualifies as a book and also a film. It’s the story of Desmond Doss — a 7th Day Adventist who wanted to serve in the army despite being a conscientious objector and refusing to carry a gun. The military tried to transition him out of the service due to his conscientious objector status and he experienced little support in the platoon. He persevered though, because he felt he could still serve his country and fellow man as a medic. While at the bloody battle of Okinawa on Hacksaw Ridge, the U.S. troops were in retreat, yet Doss decided to stay behind. His choice to stay saved 78 men, for which he won the Medal of Honor. After the war, he went home, married his high school sweetheart, and lived a relatively quiet life.

What I take from this is the need to never give up in the face of adversity; to stick to your guns and do what you know to be the right thing no matter what. And do it humbly. I believe that doing the right thing is its own reward.

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?

In today’s rapidly evolving healthcare landscape, our team at pCare seeks to lessen the daily challenges faced by healthcare professionals. Throughout hospitals and healthcare facilities, teams must deliver excellent care, provide top-tier patient experiences, ensure the latest technology, and keep staff safe, productive, and satisfied — all while maintaining profitability.

That’s why we listen to the needs of the industry and design our solutions to hardwire the quadruple aim: provide cost effective solutions while meeting the ever-changing demands of today’s healthcare consumers and recognize the operational realities managed daily. From the beginning, we’ve simply sought to improve patient outcomes and make the work of healthcare teams safer and more efficient. This has become even more of our focus throughout the pandemic. As teams and facilities are experiencing staff shortages and resource constraints, we continue to enhance our end-to-end stress-free Patient Engagement Ecosystem to further benefit the patient, staff, and facility.

Are you working on any new, exciting projects now? How do you think that might help people?

pCare is uniquely positioned to help our clients on both ends of the spectrum — on the hardware and software sides. While our Interactive Patient Care System, or IPS, has won the Best in KLAS award — for best software solution in the IPS category — we also provide a full-service solution. More and more, architectural firms are contacting us on the front-end and having pCare create Computer-Aided Design (CAD) plans to help design what the future hospital will include from the comprehensive audiovisual (AV) perspective.

Over the last few years, we’ve increased our efforts with architectural firms to develop hospitals of the future. Among others, these efforts have led to the innovative designs of the new MetroHealth Glick Center in Cleveland, OH and Hackensack University Medical Center’s Helena Theurer Pavilion in Hackensack, NJ. At the new Helena Theurer Pavilion, which is anticipated to open by year end 2022, each room is equipped with a 65” Smart TV running pCare’s Interactive Patient System, including a Digital Whiteboard displaying key patient and provider information, TV entertainment, Real Time Feedback, and Dietary Integration for Meal Ordering.

The patient engagement integration also includes a bedside tablet to navigate the system, Room Connect, the powerful smart display that shows key patient information at the entrance of their room, and VideoConnect, allowing for family video visits, consultations with doctors, and language interpretation. The Helena Theurer Pavilion additionally features pCare’s extended audiovisual services, including Physiological Boards to display vitals, Status Boards at the nurses station, and Full Conferencing and AV for the auditorium.

The new designs at the Helena Theurer Pavilion and the Glick Center are meant to enhance the patient experience in its smart technological design and support innovative and compassionate care to benefit their communities.

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?

That’s a great question. The term digital transformation has turned into a bit of a buzzword, with a variety of different meanings ascribed to it. At the basic level, digital transformation means the process of implementing emerging digital technologies in order to modify a company’s essential operations, processes, and services.

When I think about the digital hospital of the future, I’m referring to digital transformation. It’s more than just using technology. It’s about new ways of delivering value, and that’s true of all digital transformations in any industry. For pCare, it’s about leveraging technology to streamline and improve care for all stakeholders. It extends from the ability to self-schedule appointments on the front end to using advanced analytics and Robotic Process Automation (RPA) to settle claims on the back end. In all industries, it’s not about removing the human component, but using technology at every step to optimize the experience for all parties. So, for example, a patient in a bed can use the TV remote control to manage the room lighting or temperature without requiring assistance from a nurse. Another example is when a nurse enters a patient room, the door sign surfaces critical patient information that will help staffers deliver better care to the patient. Again, it’s about new ways of providing value. It’s more than just using technology.

Which companies can most benefit from a Digital Transformation?

Digital transformation is something that all organizations and industries can benefit from. When companies consider undertaking this type of transformation, the primary drivers or considerations are cost and customer experience/expectations, both of which are only growing.

Despite inflation and the threat of a potential recession, companies are still experiencing the impact from the great resignation. While labor costs are ballooning, millions of jobs are still unfilled. Digital transformation holds the promise to re-engineer processes to automate jobs that are increasingly difficult for staff or non-value-added tasks. When compared, these are typically tasks that can be done cheaper, better, faster, i.e., with fewer errors through automation. This enables optimal deployment of a shrinking yet higher skilled labor force, digital natives with expectations that existing technologies will be utilized at their jobs. In most industries, the customer (or patient) is a significant part of the equation. We know that within the healthcare environment, one of the top priorities of the C-suite is addressing rising healthcare consumerism. Again, the demand is for the experience integrated with the latest/most remarkable technologies.

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.

From the start of the company, we’ve believed in the four Is: innovate, interact, integrate, and inclusive. This has led our team to work with a wide variety of healthcare organizations to help navigate their digital transformation. Our pCare Engagement Platform is comprised of a suite of applications designed to help healthcare teams seamlessly collaborate with patients and families across the care continuum. Built on an open architecture, we implement a scalable solution to fit into the healthcare environment. It’s designed to increase staff efficiency and benefit operations while improving patient outcomes and experience.

As we’ve worked with facilities to implement this technology, we’ve witnessed firsthand the value the system and overall transformation bring to the full care continuum. Our API integrates with the electronic health records (EHR), so the system can dispense educational videos to patients based on the reason they were admitted into the hospital. By gaining answers to learning verification questions, the nursing staff understand how best to educate patients on their care management. That’s one value aspect brought by the transformation: focused education. Of course, in terms of entertainment, there is TV programming. We also offer a package of on-demand, theatrical movie releases, relaxation videos, music and spiritual content, audiobooks, photo share, and host video calls with friends and families using the TV. Throughout these use cases, the patient has multiple options to decompress, relax, and learn during their stay to get them in a healing state of mind.

As it pertains to empowerment, a suite of integrations with Health Information Technology (HIT), such as facilities, communications, dietary, pharmacy, etc., allow the patient to manage non-clinical aspects of their admission. For example, the patient can change the room’s temperature, lower the lights, order a meal, and place a service request without needing facetime with a nurse. It gives the patient a sense of control in an unfamiliar environment and relieves the nursing staff from doing non-clinical tasks. To further benefit the nursing staff, we also offer a digital patient room whiteboard and digital door signs, which conveniently convey critical information to family and staff — such as daily schedules, precautions, patient repositioning, and the current care team. It also automatically updates the hospital IT systems without manual inputs from staff. It’s a great time saver for staff and gives peace of mind to patients and their loved ones.

Has integrating Digital Transformation been a challenging process for some companies? What are the challenges? How do you help resolve them?

Our technology allows an easy, cost-effective implementation process, but there can still be challenges around evaluating what technology is necessary (it can vary at every healthcare facility). To ensure the best success ahead of a digital transformation, evaluate who your patient or customer is, what they’re seeking, and how the available technology can best assist their care and experience as well as the overall impact on facility operations. Following those considerations, I advise any company considering a digital transformation to ensure that they have the right team in place to handle the transformation process. Your success will be that much more certain when you bring together clinicians, patient engagement and experience specialists, data analysts, technical developers, administrators, and representatives from the relevant departments to share their input. Each of these viewpoints are crucial and offer a different perspective.

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.

Understand Your Customers — This sounds obvious, but the key is to really focus on your customers. Get a better understanding of their demographics, why/what they’re seeking from your organization, their comfort level with different technologies, etc. Do you have a firm grasp of the customer journey and an understanding of what would best fit in or enhance the experience? For a healthcare organization, we recommend surveying patients or reaching out to a Patient and Family Advisory Council to get their input on what your patient community may be seeking. The information you collect can help you decide on the customer experience you want to initially implement.
Evaluate the Total Cost of Ownership — As with any significant venture, you want to conduct your due diligence. When looking to enhance the customer experience and implement a digital transformation, consider the software costs including implementation, monthly SaaS charges, and any integration fees. In hospitals, there are also technology costs to consider including telecommunication upgrades and new hardware such as webcams or tablets. Finally, there are the staffing impacts including the clinical staff that you will want to interact with patients on the new platform and the support staff needed to ensure the system is available when you need it. It’s important to consider each aspect in your decision.
Select Use Cases to Start — When it comes to new digital solutions, it’s important to uncover quick wins that will generate revenue right away and provide a stronger ROI. Look for ways you can optimize your current financial models and consider where the strongest need is first.
Get the Right Team in Place — Collaboration drives the optimal experience for all stakeholders. Your success will be that much more certain when you bring together the right team. For healthcare facilities, that can be clinicians, patient engagement and experience specialists, data analysts, various department heads, and technical developers to share their input on what they need for success. Furthermore, a strong project manager to drive the initiative forward can ensure all parties continue to work toward the shared goal of improved customer/patient journey and engagement.
Choose a Technology Partner that Adapts to Your Needs — Being trapped in a one-size-fits-all solution will only frustrate your IT and clinical staff and hurt engagement. Don’t waste time trying to adjust your workflows to technology — choose a technical solution that adjusts with you. Look for a strategic partner that can support multiple modalities so you can engage customers where they are and how they want to be involved. You want to be sure the technology is flexible so you can adapt your model and scale from simple to complex. A good rule of thumb is to ask about their open APIs to ensure you will be able to embed care and support across all customer touchpoints. And finally, make sure you are not opening the door to a future competitor who may try to drive customers to their own providers.
As a bonus: Plan to Measure the Results — Plan to measure the results of your digital solution to determine where you can adjust to better meet the needs of your staff and customers/patients. In the healthcare industry, decide what provider utilization metrics you need to monitor to evaluate if you have the right mix of clinicians and support staff available and whether they are using their time efficiently.

Started before the pandemic and validated over the past 2.5 years, the six steps outlined above provide a solid framework for implementing new digital solutions that deliver the optimal experience to customers while supporting efficiency and satisfaction. Additionally, when done right, you are also future-proofing your solution by allowing it to both scale and flex to emerging technologies.

In your opinion, how can companies best create a “culture of innovation” in order to create new competitive advantages?

The best way to create a culture of innovation is to first create a culture of collaboration. It’s important to remember that no one has all the answers, and it’s helpful to bring in various points of view and perspectives. Then, listen. This leads to new ideas.

As a vendor in healthcare, the only way to succeed is to tap your customers and hear their perspectives and needs — and then leverage the knowledge to benefit them. If you want to know what is happening on the front lines with clinicians and patients, you have to let the people you want to serve help you define their needs and opportunities. By identifying the problems, you can create and validate your solutions. You cannot innovate without collaboration.

Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share how that was relevant to you in your life?

“Everything is possible.” If you work hard and focus, success is out there for anybody. This is the lesson I took from Desmond Doss in Hacksaw Ridge. It’s why I’ve been able to do a variety of things from molecular biology to sales, from coder to marketing to CEO. If you put in the time and effort and truly focus on your passion, you really can achieve so much — almost anything — from a personal goal like running a marathon to profession goals like running a company. If you are open to learn and open to the effort; willing to try, willing to work, willing to fail, and willing to persevere, you can do anything.

How can our readers further follow your work?

Yes, readers can learn more about our work at pcare.com. They can also follow along with our technology on Twitter (@pCarebyTVRC) and LinkedIn.

Thank you so much for sharing these important insights. We wish you continued success and good health!

Dave Bennett Of pCare On How To Use Digital Transformation To Take Your Company To The Next Level was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Thomas Taylor Of E-Sign On How To Use Digital Transformation To Take Your Company To The Next Level

An Interview With Fotis Georgiadis

Business survival — digital transformation can future proof your business. During COVID and beyond, strikes and postal services have been affected. By helping numerous healthcare providers provide contactless prescriptions and consultations, our technology has allowed vulnerable people to access the medicine they need.

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 Thomas Taylor.

Thomas Taylor, Founder & Managing Director of electronic signature company E-Sign. He is an expert in digital identities, digital transformation, sustainability, security, eID and citizen services via government access. Thomas had led many digital transformation projects, including, most recently for the Palestinian Ministry of Telecommunications and IT to play a key role in the project to shape the Palestinian digital economy.

I took my Bachelors of Mechanical Engineering and Manufacturing at Liverpool John Moores University, before designing and creating electronic submersible pumps for oil reservoirs, so my background is in engineering. Most of my jobs have been about problem solving and making something better. Whilst I was in the fire service working as a firefighter, I saw the inefficiencies with paper-based document processes and came up with the idea for my business and developed it from there. E-Sign is now 10 years old.

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?

When we first pushed the platform live in the early days, I was doing some maintenance in the background on the SQL database, the raw brain, heart and soul of any platform. Usually there is a management interface over it so you can’t break the SQL, but in my enthusiasm to make changes, I overrode it and went straight into the database. I made a slip of the finger and I highlighted and hit the spacebar in a filename, which created a white space — an invisible character — in the code. The whole system went down. The developers worked around the clock for three days to try and find the error and an invisible character is hard to find! The valuable lesson I learned from this is patience — do not rush into doing things, especially where large data sets are involved when you’re not aware of the ramifications. Doing things quickly can easily lead to making mistakes. I’m aware of the huge responsibility now that our customers place in us to handle their data with the highest levels of security. And indeed, as the business has grown, we cannot afford to make any mistakes or have any downtime — our clients — who range from hospitals, universities and public sector organisations — don’t have downtime. We can’t be offline.

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?

When I started E-Sign, I didn’t have a lot of confidence in business. Rich Dad (entrepreneur Robert Kiyosaki) explains how, depending on how you make your living, you belong to one four quadrants labeled with a letter: E, S, B and I. On the left-hand side of the plus sign are the E and S quadrants. The E stands for “employee” and the S for “small business or self-employed.” All my life I was an employee and never felt like a Director or a decision maker. I was very inexperienced, but I was lucky to be living in a city where there were incubators and places to help. One day, I

googled “help with starting up a business in Liverpool” and two people — Pacific Stream and Ray Haigh and Roy Jones came up. I contacted them and, to this day, I believe they were instrumental in helping me start this business. Ray did my financials and told me how to conduct myself and Roy helped me to write a business plan and guided me through everything and gave me a place to work. We started at Elevator Studios then moved on to Basecamp in Baltic Creative. They had a network of MSIF finance connections and other people in other universities that were helping nurture startups at that time. E-Sign is a product of all that. This has reaffirmed my desire to base the business in Liverpool and give back as much as we can to the local community. With that in mind, all our staff members commit two days / year of voluntary service to charities, we sponsor community rugby and football teams and we donated iPads during Lockdown to local schools.

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 can recommend lots of really good books! I’m a really big fan of the For Dummies range, for example Marketing for Dummies. When you’re starting out, those books are brilliant as references. Our product was ahead of its time in terms of QR code technology, but one book that really helped me to understand the market and the requirement for what we were building was called Consumption Economics by J.B. Wood. Trailblazers by Marc Benioff, CEO of Salesforce (whose dad ran a business out of the back of a Volvo estate car) helped us develop our Business Value Map process which is the framework for the whole business infrastructure. We often work with customers who ask us for one thing or think they need a certain solution — but they need something else. Our process helps us (and the customer) to understand what is really going on and spec out the requirements. My favourite book that really helped develop our product is Don’t make me think by Steve Krug and Rocket Surgery Made Easy by the same author is pretty good as well.

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?

The business was inspired by the idea that there had to be a better solution for securely signing documents that was easier than paper flying around or waiting for a letter or important document to come to you in the postal service.

I’d had things go missing in the past, like finance documents or contracts that were time sensitive and critical. I thought to myself “there’s got to be a simpler way”. The idea was a digital solution that would replace what was a centuries old process — the postal service.

Watching Liverpool’s redevelopment and improvement over the years and its improvement influenced me — I thought “we can make things better”. When I was a kid, my dad worked for Royal Mail and I saw the struggles with that. I probably picked up on the frustrations. I worked for many years in the fire service and public sector, so I had a deep understanding of the challenges with inefficiencies of paper-based processes. The fire service also instilled a great sense of discipline — we always had to leave everything in a better condition than we found it — even after the worst fires we would clean the station so much you could eat your dinner off it — everything would also be pristine and perfect!

I have three sons and I always tell them to leave things in a better state than they find it. This is becoming increasingly important as the effects of Climate Change show, and I’m proud that E-Sign gives businesses a demonstrably sustainable solution.

Are you working on any new, exciting projects now? How do you think that might help people?

We are working on digital transformation and citizen services for international governments in places like Ireland, the Middle East and the UK. A lot of governments and large enterprises have reached a similar point in their digital transformation journey where they need a higher assurance level on security and accountability.

An example of this is a project that we are delivering in Palestine for the Palestinian Ministry of Telecommunications and IT to play a key role in the Digital West Bank project to shape the Palestinian digital economy. Funded by the World Bank, it will give Palestinian citizens sound digital infrastructure and access to digital services; as well as address education, health, agriculture and governmental services. Ultimately, this will enable the creation of a strong digital economy, contribute to reduction of poverty and the improvement of everyday life for Palestinians.

The other side of this is citizen empowerment; we’re empowering people to have direct control over their digital identity and use only select identifying data to access their services. We are creating the secure infrastructure to do that in many places across the world.

We’re also working on some high security projects in the UK that protect national infrastructure, as well as helping organisations to expand their digital journey and put more accountability on employees so that any documents can be traced and tracked.

We often hear the words ‘digital transformation’ and think of this massive journey or organizational change. This isn’t the case. In its simplest form, digital transformation means taking a process in your business and using technology (often in the form of software, or complemented with a software) to improve that process with increased efficiency.

With E-Sign for example, we use our software to implement digital document management and esignatures. This can be a small process where a private landlord sends out tenancy agreements electronically and only needs to do this once or twice a year, or it can be for a global organisation that is digitising its document management processes at multiple locations, spanning thousands of documents. But the outcomes (both large or small) are the same… Improved customer experience, reduced costs and almost instantaneous transaction completion.

We have in-house digital transformation experts that map out client requirements and accompany them through the entire journey to ensure its success.

Which companies can most benefit from a Digital Transformation?

We benefit every business and industry that is typing or writing or using documents or transactions that need accountability and security — which is every company and every industry! We help to digitise this approach and then we enable customers to build an ecosystem that will complement and work alongside their other digital services.

Additionally, since legal frameworks have changed, nearly every government recognised that they need to accommodate digital transformation and write it into their digital frameworks

We have so many stories, but here are a select few that we’re proud of:

We helped a nationwide pharmacy digitise prescriptions for clinically vulnerable people who can’t leave their houses, enabling them to access their medications.

We helped a global engineering brand with their long-term UK infrastructure for sustainable energy — giving them full control over their supply chain, due diligence and maintaining security and audit trail.

We helped the National Clinical Homecare Association (NCHA) adopt a digital approach to prescription processing, giving operational advantages, regulatory compliance, and improvements to patient safety. Prescription process time was reduced from two days to two hours (80% reduction) as well as:

9,172kg CO2 equivalent reduction over 12 months (inclusive of paper, envelopes).
£95,324.44 annual savings from kWh reduction (based on mailing).
510 trees can work on reducing carbon dioxide emissions from other sources.
Qualitatively, staff reported an improved audit log and reduction in delays due to multiple staff being assigned to prescriptions in case of absence.

One of the UK’s top universities now uses us to globally deliver documentation and the infrastructure platform to provide e-service and eConsent for clinical trials online for diseases such as covid-19 and Monkeypox.

Has integrating Digital Transformation been a challenging process for some companies? What are the challenges? How do you help resolve them?

The biggest blocker is if a company has grumblings and resistance to digital transformation internally, as well as interdepartmental communication issues / the presence of silos. We go in and break down the barriers, hand holding through the process to make sure that all departments are on the same page.

The other one is a lack of understanding of regulations within their industries — we have to educate them. This means having to be on the ball about every aspect of our industry and constantly researching changing regulatory requirements. I sit on eIDAS platforms and work with decision makers in legal frameworks to keep up to date with them — they change as quickly as software develops.

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”?

It will always reduce your costs — if you invest the time (mostly time, even more so than money) and implement a digital service properly and effectively then you’re automatically going to win on costs. Recent research we have conducted with Liverpool John Moores University, shows that medium-sized law firms would save approximately £400,000 annually by reduced printing costs, completing administrative tasks quicker and minimising storage costs for paper documents.
Instantly improves your customer experience — a customer only needs to click something as opposed to print and scan and send back. People don’t have much patience these days — they want the path of least resistance. Keeping your customers happy means retention. A client of ours who provides security locks for high end apartments in London gave us feedback that their end customers were much happier with their service once digitisation of documentation was adopted.
Business survival — digital transformation can future proof your business. During COVID and beyond, strikes and postal services have been affected. By helping numerous healthcare providers provide contactless prescriptions and consultations, our technology has allowed vulnerable people to access the medicine they need.
Verification — our secure technology can instantly verify someone and ensure there are no safeguarding issues, for example for candidate vetting selection during an HR process.
Industry compliance — when GDPR hit, we were inundated because businesses realised that you had to comply with data processing standards and stay on the right side of it. Our secure software enables our clients to be compliant and accredited with standards such as ISO9001, often a requirement of tenders and procurement.

I’ll give you a bonus number 6! Sustainability. By adopting digital signatures, each day less and less trees are getting cut down for paper and there are less wagons on the road. We have a carbon counter that enables our clients to see how much carbon they are saving by adopting E-Sign. Sustainability is key for all companies now — whether in making net zero targets, or attracting younger staff members, or winning new business.

In your opinion, how can companies best create a “culture of innovation” in order to create new competitive advantages?

Not being afraid to embrace change. We have weekly roundtables with both our teams in Liverpool and the Isle of Man, where we all proactively come up with ideas to take the business forward.

Surround yourself by people who are brighter than you. Have respect and neutrality in your workspace that allows people to communicate and speak up when they think about a good idea. We give people responsibility, we allow everyone to take part.

Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share how that was relevant to you in your life?

One of my favourite sayings is by the TV presenter Jake Humphrey, who said “never sit in the comfy chair” — try and push yourself to do different things. Don’t be lazy. I’m always telling my sons not to get complacent.

How can our readers further follow your work?

By following:

https://www.e-sign.co.uk/

https://www.linkedin.com/company/e-sign/

https://twitter.com/eSignHQ

https://www.instagram.com/esign_uk/

Thank you so much for sharing these important insights. We wish you continued success and good health!

Thomas Taylor Of E-Sign On How To Use Digital Transformation To Take Your Company To The Next Level was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Andrew Marotta Of SmartBear On 5 Ways To Create a Wow! Customer Experience

An Interview With Fotis Georgiadis

Fail fast and iterate faster: Not every idea is a winner, and that’s OK. More often than not, I learn more from my failures than my successes. As cliche as it may sound, brushing off failures and rising up to try again is the hallmark of a great marketer. It’s okay to fail as long as you brush off your shoulder and spring back into action to iterate, iterate, and iterate again until you land on a winning solution. It is equally important that on your climb to the top of the mountain, you celebrate the small wins and give yourself the recognition and self-praise needed to persevere forward.

As part of our series about the five things a business should do to create a Wow! customer experience, I had the pleasure of interviewing Andrew Marotta.

Andrew Marotta is Growth Marketing Manager at SmartBear, a leading provider of software development and visibility tools. Since joining the company in 2020, Andrew has changed the game for SmartBear’s self-service go-to-market motion, implementing best-in-class marketing strategies using complex tools and programs to grow various e-commerce businesses. Andrew has also made improvements to his products’ lead flow that has led to an improvement in sales qualified leads by 7% YoY. Based on his accomplishments, he was recently nominated for a BostInno Under 25 Award. Previously, Andrew held marketing operations roles at Sovos and Bullhorn. He has a bachelor’s degree in big data and business analytics and master’s degree in management and organizational leadership from Suffolk University.

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 fell into the world of marketing entirely by accident, but I sure am glad I did. If you asked me five years ago what I thought I would be doing today, I probably would have said, “I want to be a financial analyst at a mutual fund company,” and described myself with any adjective other than creative. At that time, I saw the idea of work in true black and white and thought of that as my only roadmap. Boy, was I wrong, and thank goodness for that. I was first exposed to marketing in a marketing operations role, which entirely changed my outlook for the better and quickly debunked the false narrative that marketing is only for the creatives in advertising.

In my senior year of college, I realized the days of sitting in class would be coming to an end, and I needed to start planning what I wanted to do next. With little sense of direction for what I felt my calling would be, I made a list of things I know I like to do and my strengths, and I realized I thrive in situations that rely on data analysis, deductive reasoning, and strategic problem-solving. Hours of scrolling through LinkedIn and Indeed later, I arrived on a listing for a marketing operations role, a business function I had never heard of before. Fate struck when I decided to review the role, the only marketing role I had even considered in the swatch of what I believed would be my calling as a financial analyst, and I was instantly lured in with the job description. My naive assumption that all marketing roles were straight out of a scene of “Mad Men” had been disproved. For the first time, I realized there is an entire world of marketing where I can flex my analytical muscles and grow in the greenspace of opportunity far beyond the bounds of work as a financial analyst. I found myself quickly re-wiring, observing the gray space that is “Marketing” as I started my first role at Bullhorn in Boston and instantly knew I had landed in a career where I was meant to be. The everchanging terrain of the marketing world is what fills me with excitement every day and challenges me to seek out new and innovative ways to deliver value to our customers.

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?

If there is one thing SmartBear loves, it’s webinars. Putting together webinars is no slight task and becomes a rather grandiose production from generating titles and abstracts, to putting promotional content and graphics live to orchestrating the involvement of product marketing and solution engineers as keynote speakers. Rarely, if ever, do things go according to plan or 100% perfect every time, but the audience never knows and the show always carries on. However, I found myself in quite a tricky situation in my early days at SmartBear where in my haste to get a webinar program promoted and live, I forgot to ensure my product marketing counterpart was available to join the session and kick off the presentation. Showtime crept in, and I realized it was too late to draft my colleague and that I would have to run the introduction as best I could before handing the reigns over to the solution engineer running the product demo. Fortunately, the content I would be delivering was very high level, introducing who SmartBear is and how we meet the needs of developers across the software development lifecycle. In hindsight, the five minutes of improv I had thrown myself into were indistinguishable for the usual routine my counterpart would have done, but I have never let go of that mistake and have learned from it to double and triple check before every campaign that all contributors are accounted for and aligned on expectations so I never resort to that last minute panic again.

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?

Arielle Daigle, my boss and Senior Director of Growth Marketing at SmartBear, has been my biggest, unwavering supporter, and I would not be where I am without her. Her guidance, compassion, and support have built the foundation of my career, and I cannot thank her enough or express enough gratitude. She embodies what it truly means to be a leader, a coach, a mentor, and a friend. Arielle is the most ideal role model for how to command respect, lead with confidence, and build team comradery. I am so fortunate to have been a student to her incredible tutelage and relentless support on my quest to become an expert in customer experience and product led-growth. From day one, she has worked tirelessly to move mountains to challenge my growth and ensure I am given visibility. As I progress in my career, I aspire to become even a fraction of the incredible leader and person that she is.

I would be remiss to not also praise Ariel Harrington, Director of Product Marketing at SmartBear, who has been my right-hand woman every step of the way. Ariel has never failed to prioritize my growth by including me in a wide array of projects that few people early in their career would have the opportunity to take part in otherwise. From launching new products to crafting dynamic, persona-based messaging, Ariel has been one of the best teachers that I have the privilege to work with. Ariel’s commitment to delivering timely and effective go-to-market programs has imprinted on me and inspires me to go deeper and be more strategic in every initiative.

Customer experience is everything! If nothing else, a business exists to enrich the lives of its customers, so why wouldn’t an incredible customer experience be the cornerstone of its values? When I think of a great customer experience, I think of empathy and how I can best put myself in the shoes of our end-users. I ask myself questions like, “Does this program make sense for where the user is in their journey?” and “Does my message convey excitement or provide enrichment?” Failing to employ empathy at every step of the journey is a risk marketers cannot afford. In my experience, meeting users where they are has led to the greatest success in scaling our user base, creating brand-advocate power-users, and promoting a supporting onboarding to adoption journey.

It is very unfortunate that customer experience is often the first line item to be cut when organizations are focused on hyper-growth. Where many organizations fail to insulate themselves from vulnerability is the inattention to storyboarding an ideal customer journey that focuses on the creation, delivery, and protection of value. When organizations become too obsessed with growth without acknowledgment of what is required to excite, educate, and empower users, customers will inevitably churn out of frustration or inability to grasp the full value of the product. Organizations that fail to prioritize customer experience are caught in a recurring loop of new user acquisition and failed retention. By focusing on what is required to deliver excellent onboarding guides, nurture programs, and adoption support, organizations are chartering a path toward true hyper-growth by building brand advocates and power users who are likely to evangelize the product and be cross-sold into the rest of the company’s portfolio of offering.

Absolutely! I have learned more from our competitors than I have ever expected to. I think the cliche of, “competitors are out to get you,” could not be any more untrue. I have been extremely fortunate in building working relationships with many of my counterparts at competitor companies where we have been able to exchange ideas and share our own approaches to the same challenges. At the end of the day, we are all chasing the same target but with a different set of tools. Why not learn from each other? It is my colleagues working for competitors who inspire me to bring my A-game each day and to never stop tinkering with new innovative ways to delight customers.

Can you share with us a story from your experience about a customer who was “Wowed” by the experience you provided?

The best anecdotes of successful customer experience have been shared with me directly from our solutions engineering team who spend extensive time with new customers onboarding tools into their tech stack. A large part of this past year has been dedicated to ramping up the use and deployment of in-app messaging to create bespoken paths of feature adoption and onboarding support for both new and existing customers. The primary goal of this program was to help shore up time for our solution engineers by empowering users with self-service learning where they experience gradual onboarding as they navigate through the product layer by layer. The hallmark success of this program proved itself in the feedback from our solution engineers stating that the quality and level of onboarding support required in their weekly sessions had elevated beyond the introductory, “How to set up X,” and “Where to view Y,” which had grown to be tiresome, and other rudimentary topics. With a plethora of new in-app onboarding guides, the volume of human-to-human onboarding sessions decreased dramatically as more users were enabled with independent in-product learning resources. Additionally, our solution engineers provided incredible feedback that the human-to-human onboarding sessions that remained have elevated to higher level discussions inquiring guidance for more advanced features that users previously rarely discovered.

Did that Wow! experience have any long-term ripple effects? Can you share the story?

Our in-app messaging strategy is one that I am constantly refining, tweaking, and optimizing to ensure we are delivering the right message to the right user at the right time in the right area of the product to maximize their consumption. As such, the most impactful measure of success I rely on is measuring the rolling time-to-value of the 10 core features our product team has defined as flagship features that indicate a sticky user. Through ample trials and tribulations of short copy versus long copy, video pop-ups, in-app knowledge centers, retargeting guides, tool tip highlights, and training certification courses, we have successfully moved the needle to a 20% increase in time-to-value for new customers adopting core features in their first 90 days of product onboarding.

Trust the data: Data is your best friend whether you are starting from scratch building onboarding guides and adoption programs, or looking to identify areas of optimization to accelerate customer experiences. Trust the data to validate your assumptions and avoid shooting in the dark when it comes to understanding what your customers need. Understanding where customers are gravitating in the product and where they are falling off is crucial information to understanding where you can add value via in-app messaging, email nurtures, or other engagement programs.
Inquire users for feedback: The best marketers are those who lead with curiosity, empathy, and a desire to be effective stewards to users. When possible, engage your users for anecdotal feedback or what they are enjoying in the product and where they would like to see improvement to better uncover the full value of your offerings. No matter how amazing, innovative, or shiny a new idea may be, it is only as valuable as its reception and impact on the user-base. Marketers who are stewards with profound understanding of the wants and needs of their users are best equipped for delivering long-lasting customer experiences that delight.
Foster cross-functional relationships: Marketing can lead the charge in customer experience, but at the end of the day, the initiative involves much more than Marketing and requires active participation from Sales, Product, Engineering, and many others. Establishing dialogue with each cross-functional team is so important to setting yourself up for success. No matter how well-versed you are with your product offering or how many years of experience you have in Marketing, establishing collaborative relationships with your cross-functional counterparts is necessary. Without a doubt, your peers likely have their own lens on how to deliver excellent customer experiences; leverage them for insights into how you can bring their ideas to life.
Take the risk and experiment: The job of a customer experience architect is never over. Now, that may sound daunting to some, however, that elates me beyond words. The challenge is never over and no solution is viable forever. Being comfortable with the uncomfortable is so important to being a successful marketer. A willingness to take on risk and appetite for ambiguity is the best way to grow and uncover new ways to accelerate customer onboarding and retention. The approach I default to is, “Yes, this is great, but how can I make this better for tomorrow, for next week, for next month….” Push yourself to your limits; you will be surprised where you end up and proud of the work preceding you.
Fail fast and iterate faster: Not every idea is a winner, and that’s OK. More often than not, I learn more from my failures than my successes. As cliche as it may sound, brushing off failures and rising up to try again is the hallmark of a great marketer. It’s okay to fail as long as you brush off your shoulder and spring back into action to iterate, iterate, and iterate again until you land on a winning solution. It is equally important that on your climb to the top of the mountain, you celebrate the small wins and give yourself the recognition and self-praise needed to persevere forward.

Are there a few things that can be done so that when a customer or client has a Wow! experience, they inspire others to reach out to you as well?

Transcribing customer success stories into “customer spotlight” stories has been an incredibly successful and impact program that SmartBear runs on a quarterly basis where we highlight the triumphs of various customers through webinars. During these segments, our customers own the conversation where they share how they were introduced to the product, how their onboarding journey faired, and how they knew they found a match with SmartBear. The customer spotlights have been by far one of the most effective ways for my team to broadcast not only the success of our customer experience-driven marketing but the very real value we are bringing to market. After each quarter’s customer spotlight, like clockwork, we get unsolicited requests from other customers eager to share their incredible journey which truly validates how solid our customer experiences are that our customers are eager to share, unprompted, their stories with other customers and prospective buyers.

As a career-learner who spends most week nights and weekends taking any and every course and certification I can find, I am a huge advocate of academic growth. I strongly believe in the democratization of learning and ensuring knowledge bases are within reach to anyone seeking resources. Fostering shared learning and providing a platform for other career-learners to teach-back, exchange ideas, and find psychological safety in their environment are incredibly valuable characteristics of successful organizations. My late-stage career goal is to become an adjunct professor to continue my love of learning as well as helping others to reach their highest level of performance. If I can impart any wisdom: never stop being curious and inquisitive, the best ideas come from a mind that never rests, and the lessons you will uncover along the way will shape your career in ways you would never expect. I would love to start a movement where many others have access to life-long learning.

How can our readers follow you on social media?

https://www.linkedin.com/in/andrew-marotta/

This was very inspiring. Thank you so much for joining us!

Andrew Marotta Of SmartBear On 5 Ways To Create a Wow! Customer Experience was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Venk Korla Of HGS On 5 Ways To Create a Wow! Customer Experience

An Interview With Fotis Georgiadis

Fine-tune customer experiences based on segmented customer needs: Improve loyalty and brand relationships via personalized customer journeys based on segmentation and prediction models. Lead from a place of empathy. Truly understand your customers and the moments that they are in. If I book an airline ticket, I don’t want to open the app and see a generic ad to buy another plane ticket, I want to see an ad for a hotel in the place I am flying to.

As part of our series about the Five things a business should do to create a Wow! customer experience, I had the pleasure of interviewing Venk Korla.

Venk Korla is President & CEO of HGS, a global leader in the customer experience (CX) lifecycle, digital transformation, and business process management. A visionary entrepreneur and technologist, Venk has a proven record of delivering outstanding shareholder returns through innovative growth strategies and strong execution. Before joining HGS, Venk was Founder & CEO of Element Solutions and also served as Director of Software Engineering for Rush University Medical Center in Chicago.

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 went to engineering school in India and started my first company in the technology space doing electronics work when I was 19 years old. I built that up and sold it, then started another company selling computer parts. After school, I transitioned to the U.S. in the early 2000s and started consulting for an e-commerce company. After a couple of different entrepreneurial ventures, I realized that online digital experiences were calling my name. Focusing on the online experience was relatively new, so I really leaned into the solutions and offerings that would shape a better experience for retailers and even the healthcare space. My consulting company was ultimately sold to HGS and that’s what brought me here today.

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?

Back in the day when projectors were still a thing, I showed up to a presentation, ready to give it my all. We wanted to essentially hold a live whiteboarding session at a small Chicago hospital, so to better control the light from the projector, I taped a small journal to the light not knowing that it would begin to smoke within twenty minutes. Luckily, no fire broke out and I can say that we got the deal as a result of our quick thinking. Or maybe it was because we didn’t let our mistakes define us and we kept rolling under pressure. This helped me learn two foundational things that are pertinent to technology: always be agile, and always be ready to adapt. In the technology space, this is particularly helpful.

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 multiple people that have helped shaped my career, but early on in my career, when I first came to the U.S., there was a man that helped me through a particularly rough patch in which I was contemplating quitting because I was feeling so overwhelmed and not getting enough recognition. He told me to take the responsibility as a challenge and that the rewards will indeed come later.

Exceptional customer service and a great customer experience are essential for business success as customers increasingly demand greater speed, service, and convenience and have a wider array of options to choose from in today’s competitive marketplace. Companies should focus their efforts on providing better, more personalized CX at every phase of the customer journey — from attraction to retention and even attrition — to differentiate themselves from competitors.

A positive customer experience creates a vital relationship between the customer and the brand that ultimately boosts brand loyalty and trust, reduces customer attrition, creates happy customers who advocate for the brand, and increases overall revenue.

The disconnect between understanding the importance of a good customer experience and effectively making it a priority often lies in activation and how to employ the necessary steps to provide a positive experience from awareness to purchase and beyond. Technology plays a key role in creating a great customer experience each time a customer interacts with a brand. This can include simple tools such as the use of dedicated landing pages and customized emails, as well as more complex CX technologies like intelligent chatbots and AI-based algorithms that can help companies understand customer preferences.

As companies work to improve their customer care and experience solutions, it’s more important than ever that they respect and value their customers’ time. In the world of CX, every second counts. As organizations work to make their customer service more efficient, many have deployed AI-driven chatbots and are working to strike the right machine-human balance. Not only can chatbots dramatically shorten wait times and expediently route customers where they need to go, they can reduce the time and workload burden for human employees and free them up to handle more complex interactions.

Companies need to further understand that customer experience impacts the way they make buying decisions, creating a greater need for companies to focus on providing more than just a high-quality product or service, and consider the customer experience at every touchpoint with their brand.

Yes, more competition forces companies to improve the customer experiences they offer because the best experiences consumers have with one brand quickly become the de facto new expectation for customer experiences with every brand. For example, each time Netflix personalizes the selection of content and makes the experience a little easier, or Amazon personalizes product recommendations to make shopping a little quicker, the bar on customer expectations across the board rises.

General advancements in technology create another external pressure for companies to improve the customer experience. As customer expectations increase around personalization and providing a tailored customer experience, business marketing strategies seek to keep up with technological advancements to accomplish this.

Can you share with us a story from your experience about a customer who was “Wowed” by the experience you provided?

HGS manages billions of customer interactions every year, so I have many memorable “wow” moments to draw on. A couple that stand out include:

We worked with a Fortune 10 retailer that was struggling with a social strategy that would resonate with the digital needs of today’s new-age customers. Faced with a lot of negative sentiment about their customer service which adversely affected their bottom line, the retailer sought to revamp its social strategy. HGS Digital offered a level of hyper-personalization and in-channel conflict resolution, along with highly trained agents doubling as brand ambassadors. Combined with efficient crisis management and smart routing of queries, this engagement helped resolve more than 35,000 customer queries within 24 hours, for a savings of $200k annually.

We also helped a client that is one of the largest, private multinational players in the pet wellness and Rx space to optimize the digital CX by refreshing its website with more relevant and engaging content, streamlining the patient portal, and providing the option to start the purchase cycle and schedule appointments online. By evangelizing a customer-focused approach to website design and development, supplementing the marketing and analytics team with strategy and dashboarding support, and developing a personalization strategy to optimize both the .com and e-commerce experience, HGS was able to help our client wow customers, resulting in 32% increase in e-commerce revenue, 9% increase in orders, and 27% increase in appointment bookings.

Did that Wow! experience have any long-term ripple effects? Can you share the story?

Our Fortune 10 retail client is a retail industry leader that operates a chain of hypermarkets and grocery stores. With a massive worldwide presence, the client needed a social media partner that could support its growing business needs and address the demands of today’s digital customer. With hyper-personalized conversations being the key to new-age customer experiences, it was imperative to not just have a solid social media presence, but a brand voice that transcended communication channels.

The client received more than 10 million social media mentions a year. With such a large volume, the business challenge focused on filtering the noise to find actionable posts that provide the most ROI. HGS Digital set out to provide an end-to-end social engagement solution, bringing together the right people, processes, automation, and analytics to address these obstacles. The success of the project ultimately lies in the synergy between customer experience and marketing — better resolution means better customer sentiment, which also means that every dollar spent on social is amplified, not diminished by poor customer experience.

After the first two years working with HGS, the retail client was able to filter the number of non-actionable social mentions via enhanced automation, which enabled them to increase the average response rate by 35% and decrease the average response time from 12 hours to just 30 minutes. This has resulted in a cost avoidance of $12M+ and more than 400,000 customer mentions addressed annually through social channels, bringing long-term value to the client’s social media customer experiences.

The growing imperative of providing an amazing CX remains top of mind for many businesses. Successfully implementing an effective, autonomous CX initiative that wows customers requires some of the following strategies:

Design the right CX journey: Utilizing technology that can learn, refine processes, and integrate human intervention to add value. The key here is to understand the audience fully and how they will help define the overall journey. Everyone is familiar with needing to essentially fast before a surgery, but what if the healthcare space created a journey that would send you in context reminders/texts about your specific healthcare situation. If you need to fast 8–10 hours before your 8 am surgery, imagine getting a text at 6pm the night before reminding you that you should eat/drink something because you’re coming up on your deadline before you need to fast. It’s a game changer!
Strike the right balance of technology and people: Build businesses that have the flexibility to scale, agility to adapt, continuously learn using AI, and secure for the future. As previously noted, you need to be agile, but adaptable. We live in a world where technology is always changing and if you aren’t educating yourself, you’ll get left behind. How can you move forward if you’re stuck in the past?
Leverage data to create personalized and targeted offers: Build algorithms around purchase propensities and recommend unique products for each customer. Using data is in the best interest of any company because it’s about understanding the customer so innately that they know exactly what the customer wants before the customer knows what they want. Like most, I’ve bought a washer and dryer and then I get a flyer in the box that says register your product. But what value do I get by registering? You need all this information and then what? What if instead of a flyer, there was QR code that would allow me to scan, register and then I get specific text reminders on when to service/change filters etc.? It’s a more personalized approach that gives me the opportunity to get things I didn’t know I needed. We focus so much on marketing, and not enough on providing an experience that truly matters to that specific customer.
Fine-tune customer experiences based on segmented customer needs: Improve loyalty and brand relationships via personalized customer journeys based on segmentation and prediction models. Lead from a place of empathy. Truly understand your customers and the moments that they are in. If I book an airline ticket, I don’t want to open the app and see a generic ad to buy another plane ticket, I want to see an ad for a hotel in the place I am flying to.
Deliver a human-centered chatbot experience: Automate customer communication to provide greater control over their resolution journey via shortened experience times and greater satisfaction in resolution outcomes, which can lead to longer-term brand loyalty. Customers in general would rather be self-sufficient than call for help. We have mobile apps, texts, websites etc. that have made it easy for customers, and chatbots are a part of that experience. Chatbots are extremely useful for private requests/tasks. They can help with private information that you can’t necessarily get from a self-service perspective like requesting a lost credit card be replaced. They are most useful in places where there’s no need for empathy, places where there is a clear resolution — it’s a simple transactional journey.

Are there a few things that can be done so that when a customer or client has a Wow! experience, they inspire others to reach out to you as well?

When a customer or client has a Wow! experience, the primary thing companies can encourage to inspire others is to provide a positive review or endorsement. Customers are more likely to recommend something if they have had a good experience with the brand and, in turn, a majority of consumers today are influenced by reviews and endorsements, which play a big role in purchasing decisions.

Another method to inspire continued brand engagement is through an active presence on social media. If a company can effectively interact with and respond to reviews of their products and services through social media, it can create more brand awareness and goodwill that can motivate others to reach out and foster brand loyalty.

My particular expertise is in retail, so I’d like to ask a question about that. Amazon is going to exert pressure on all of retail for the foreseeable future. New Direct-To-Consumer companies based in China are emerging that offer prices that are much cheaper than US and European brands. What would you advise retail companies and eCommerce companies, for them to be successful?

Amazon is exceptional at strengthening the bond between customers and its brand, along with curating bundles of product content based on customer behavior. For retail and e-commerce companies to be successful today, they must leverage the benefits of hyper-personalization and keep the customer as their focal point, and that means creating personalized experiences in all channels, including email, SMS, push, and in-app mobile experiences. An omnichannel approach provides shoppers with an integrated customer experience, whether they are shopping online from a desktop or mobile device, calling in via phone, or physically browsing in a brick-and-mortar store.

The majority of today’s consumers purchase products and services using mobile devices. Mobile commerce now accounts for nearly two-thirds of all online shopping, so it’s critical to create ‘commerce anywhere’ experiences that allow for on-the-go, real-time interactions in order to remain competitive and drive success.

Increasingly, successful customer experience depends on how well retailers are digitally connecting to their consumers. Understanding how technology can act as a tool for retailers to create innovative and unique experiences will be the key to adjusting to shifting customer expectations.

How can our readers follow you on social media?

Readers can follow HGS online at hgsdigital.com and teamhgs.com (@teamhgs). I can be found on LinkedIn at linkedin.com/in/venk-korla-844924 or on Twitter @venk_korla.

This was very inspiring. Thank you so much for joining us!

Venk Korla Of HGS On 5 Ways To Create a Wow! Customer Experience was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Richard J Kramer: 5 Things You Should Do To Optimize Your Wellness After Retirement

An Interview With Fotis Georgiadis

Exercising — Staying active by exercising is a fantastic way to maintain your health after retirement. It not only gives your well-being a boost but also allows you to live independently as you age. Now that you have more time, it’s simple to develop an exercise plan that works for your schedule.

As a part of my series about the “5 Things You Should Do to Optimize Your Wellness After Retirement” I had the pleasure of interviewing Richard J. Kramer, M.D.

A retired gastroenterologist from San Jose, California, Dr. Richard J. Kramer received his medical degree from the University of California, Irvine, School of Medicine. He practiced GI in private practice for 25 years in the San Jose/Los Gatos area before joining the GI faculty at Santa Clara Valley Medical Center in 2003. Shortly after retiring in 2015, Dr. Kramer and his wife moved to Mirabella at ASU in 2021 where he discovered a mutually beneficial opportunity to both fill the retirement void he faced and help prepare students for life after graduation. Dr. Kramer is the founder and director of ASU’s fast-growing pre-med mentoring program designed to provide students with meaningful, real-life experiences.

Thank you so much for doing this with us! Our readers would love to “get to know you” a bit better. Can you share with us the backstory about what brought you to your specific career path?

When I was 6 years old, I had Rheumatic Fever, which in those days (about 1953) was treated primarily with Penicillin (to which I became allergic) and bed rest. I was hospitalized right before the Christmas and New Year’s holidays and was not able to see my parents for more than two hours each day. I remember Dr. Morris Dirdack, a good friend of my parents and the physician that delivered me, took great care of me. He and the nurses became incredible role models for me and after nine months of complete bedrest, I decided that I was going to return the wonderful ability to help people by becoming a physician.

Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you started your career?

Being a gastroenterologist, I saw incredible patients and situations. One of the most interesting stories is from when I was an attending physician at a teaching hospital associated with Stanford University. My students and I were asked to see a consultation for abnormal liver tests after repeated admissions without a diagnosis. When seeing the patient, I noticed a rash on the palms of his hands. I only had 10 days of dermatology training in medical school, which was normal, but one of the only things I remembered, was that any rash located on the palms and across the creases on your palms was Syphilis! The students had missed this completely, not having examined his skin and palms. They learned their lesson that day when the tests came back, and we cured him with a shot of Bicillin. The one thing I remembered from school helped save the patient’s life and taught the students two things: (1) to do a thorough exam and (2) nothing you learn is worthless and can be tucked in the back of your mind for later use!

Can you share a story with us about the most humorous mistake you made when you were first starting? What lesson or take-away did you learn from that?

I don’t want this to sound egocentric, but I did not, thankfully, make any mistakes at all that I know of, except for agreeing to see one patient that I regret seeing to this day. She caused me no end of grief!

The person that made the biggest impact on my career was my very first attending physician when I became an internal medicine resident, Dr. Michael Knauer. On the very first night of my residency, I ended up being on call and aside from not knowing anything about the hospital, my fellow residents were all reporting to me about their patients, so they could go home. I was the one responsible for covering all the patients on the internal medicine service for the next 24 hours! During that shift, I cared for 17 admissions and consulted on several ER patients, many of them quite sick with most of the patients in the ICU who were bleeding acutely from their GI tract. The next morning, 24 hours after starting my residency and my first on-call in the hospital, I had successfully written (in those days, handwritten) a resident’s admission note on every patient that I had admitted, except the last one. In addition, I saved and stopped the bleeding on all the ICU GI patients under my care. I also completed consulting on all ER patients that were requested. At 9 a.m., Dr. Knauer, my attending physician for that month, came in to make rounds with me and my two interns. After that horrible night on call for the first time, and being more than exhausted, he criticized me in front of everyone for not having written a note yet on the 17th patient that I admitted — even though I had seen the patient, stabilized them, and had written orders. He was hardnosed but taught me an incredible amount of medicine and ultimately, we became friends. It was he, who was a gastroenterologist, who convinced me to follow that career path instead of general medicine or surgery, which I was contemplating. And that led to the rest of my professional career!

What advice would you suggest to your colleagues in your industry to thrive and avoid burnout?

Balance your life. Manage your practice so you have quality time off with your family and can be there for all the important life events. Most importantly, make sure you enjoy your field and the way you are practicing your medicine! Unless a patient was so critical, I couldn’t leave, I always went home to be with my wife and kids and attended all their sports, activities, etc. Once they were in bed, I would go back and finish hospital consults, if needed. I made sure I was there for everything. You need to make time to relax, enjoy your life and escape the daily routine.

What advice would you give to other leaders about how to create a fantastic work culture?

Enjoy what you are doing. There is nothing worse than waking up every morning and not loving what you do! Understand that your coworkers also have a story and on a bad day, understand that there are two sides to every story! Treat everyone like you would like to be treated!

Ok thank you for all that. Now let’s move to the main focus of our interview. From your point of view or experience, what are a few of the reasons that retirement can reduce one’s health?

Retirement can affect your psychological and physical health if you don’t exercise and keep yourself physically fit. You also need to keep your mind active by doing new things, not the same old stuff you do every day, like classes, learning new hobbies, volunteering and helping others. Those that live the longest, are usually the people involved in their community, revered for their accumulated wisdom, and adhere to a healthy diet.

Can you share with our readers 5 things that one should do to optimize mental or physical wellness after retirement? Please share a story or an example for each.

Optimize Lifelong Learning — Be involved with education and mentor students, it’s a two-way street. I currently reside at a senior community on the ASU campus in Tempe, Arizona called Mirabella at ASU. An intergenerational community fueled by lifelong learning and collegiate energy, residents have access to an extensive variety of unique educational offerings including classes, activities, art and music programs and so much more. Shortly after moving in, I initiated a pre-med student mentorship program that has grown extensively over the last couple of years. They give me as much, if not more than I give in our relationship.
Exercising — Staying active by exercising is a fantastic way to maintain your health after retirement. It not only gives your well-being a boost but also allows you to live independently as you age. Now that you have more time, it’s simple to develop an exercise plan that works for your schedule.
Mindfulness — Retirement is supposed to bring some of the happiest years of our lives. We no longer must work every day or deal with stressful demands from our job. We can just relax and enjoy life. However, a recent study found that there is a growing trend of retirees who are unhappy in their retirement. We need to keep this unhappiness in check. This is the time of our lives we have looked forward to. Mindfulness in the form of meditation, whether that’s daily, weekly or even monthly, can help retirees achieve a relaxed state of mind and increase overall happiness.
Hobbies — Having a passion — whether it’s making or collecting something, volunteering or traveling, or whatever it may be — can enhance a retiree’s mental and physical health. I have done sleight of hand and magic since I was 6 years old. Since retirement, I have taken up more of my magic and am working out a way to continue doing some of the sleight of hand, even after developing difficulty with fine movement of my fingers. I still love doing this. We also really enjoy music (I take electric vibraphone lessons; my wife, Leslie, takes piano and guitar lessons and sings in a chorus), traveling and reading. It is so important to have hobbies even while working over the years. Being able to fall back on those when retiring will bring much pleasure.
Diet — While healthy eating is important at any age, as a senior, a healthy, balanced diet is more important than ever. It helps you stay active, independent and helps avoid malnutrition, which unfortunately seniors are more susceptible to. Transition to retirement is a major event followed by significant alterations at psychological and physical levels in a person’s life and it profoundly affects health. Specifically, obesity accelerates aging by shortening telomere length, compromises the immune system, and speeds up the early onset of age-related conditions, e.g. diabetes, heart disease, stroke, etc.

In your experience, what are 3 or 4 things that people wish someone told them before they retired?

How much I would enjoy life. Mentoring pre-med students has given me more pleasure than one can imagine!
I wish they had warned me that I would start waking up so early in the morning. I always looked forward to retirement, so I could get up when I wanted to, be able to turn over and go back to sleep if I wanted.
In retirement, I have more doctor’s appointments than imaginable. This can become your social life if you aren’t careful. I wish I was more prepared for this, so I wouldn’t have fought it for so long and just accepted it as a fact of my new life!

Is there a particular book that made a significant impact on you? Can you share a story?

Not really. I’ve read a lot, but I think the book “The Power of One” by Bryce Courtenay made an impact on me. The ability to succeed is in everyone and not a matter of luck or life circumstance. You can put yourself in the right places at the right time and create your own luck.

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 would try to move people to respect each other more and learn to compromise. I’d love to bring people that are so far apart in opinions today together and guide them to a place where they are able to talk to each other civilly. I think we did a little better in years past.

Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Do you have a story about how that was relevant in your life?

My favorite Life Lesson is: “The best job in the world is the one that you would love to wake up and do every day, even if you don’t get paid for it!” I have the ability to live this lesson today with our move to Mirabella at ASU. I have been given the opportunity to continue working with passion without concern for my income! Retirement gives you the time and chance to explore new opportunities that provide an exciting way to retire with meaning and the ability to provide all that wisdom, experience and passion we retirees can contribute to the world.

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 if we tag them 🙂

I actually have two people that I admire and would love to meet:

President Barack Obama, I think is one of the most brilliant, sincere, and educated people in the world. He is someone who really wants to make a difference!
The second person I would love to spend time with is Comedian Billy Crystal. He is a remarkably intelligent, capable, funny entertainer in the world today, besides being an incredibly nice human being and family man! Oh, but to spend time eating and talking to him!

Thank you for these fantastic insights. We wish you only continued success in your great work!

Richard J Kramer: 5 Things You Should Do To Optimize Your Wellness After Retirement was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Makers of The Metaverse: John Marx Of AIA, Form4 Architecture On The Future Of The VR, AR & Mixed…

Makers of The Metaverse: John Marx Of AIA, Form4 Architecture On The Future Of The VR, AR & Mixed Reality Industries

An Interview With Fotis Georgiadis

A sense of creating community through activation strategies that fully engage people in virtual environments.

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 for other parts of life? To address this, we had the pleasure of interviewing John Marx, AIA.

John Marx, AIA, is the founding design principal and Chief Artistic Officer of Form4 Architecture, a San Francisco firm that creates prominent buildings, campuses, and interiors for Bay Area tech companies such as Google and Facebook, laboratories for life-science clients, and workplaces for numerous other companies. Marx and Form4 are the recipients of 215 design awards. Named a Laureate of the American Prize for Architecture in 2017, Marx lectures and writes internationally on the topics of design, placemaking, and emotional meaning in architecture. He is the author of Wandering the Garden of Technology and Passion and Études: The Poetry of Dream + Other Fragments.

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 have always had a multi-disciplinary focus, striving to be an architect, artist, and poet. My first love was drawing, then painting, both media for the creation of imaginary worlds. In the Midwest, where I grew up, these were not considered suitable for making a living. When I was seven years old, after an illuminating career day in grade school, architecture became my chosen focus as it promised to be a creative profession.

After graduating from the University of Illinois, I worked for a variety of firms. In 1998, I joined two colleagues in founding Form4 Architecture in San Francisco. There is a certain freedom that comes from owning a small office that permits one to explore design in more creative and adventurous ways, and ultimately to advocate for change through design and writing. Throughout my career I have tried to maintain a balance of architecture, art, and poetry in the way I approach design, perhaps evidenced by my corporate title of Chief Artistic Officer at Form4 Architecture.

This comes from taking a deeply philosophical point of view about the connection between architecture and humanity. As we take a step out each morning, we are confronted by a balance dynamic with the world. There is a moment, in the lives of most artists, where we realize we exist in relationship to a complex world, a world of paradox — of abundance and scarcity, of pleasure and pain, of epic beauty and inexplicable tragedy. For me, this means adopting a reflective approach to marshal what abundance life gives you in order to create positive change in the physical world.

While architecture has been my primary focus, this creative dynamic has come full circle with the 2020 publication of Études: The Poetry of Dream + Other Fragments, a book of my watercolors and poetry, which won the 2021 James Gates Percival International Prize for Literature.

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?

Snow Crash by Neal Stevenson, published in 1992, is a science-fiction novel that coined the word Metaverse. The book’s powerful main character, Hiro, had an ordinary pizza-delivery job in the physical world but was one of the most powerful people in the Metaverse. I found that notion very compelling.

Is there a particular story that inspired you to pursue a career in the X Reality industry? We’d love to hear it.

I co-taught a class at UC Berkeley with Yehuda Kalay beginning in 2000 called “Placemaking in Cyberspace.” We included Snow Crash as part of the curriculum. We assigned it to the class because the book explores the parallel natures of existence: physicality, virtuality, and their intersection.

As background, I’m interested in placemaking as a way to define the role of the physical 3D-experience environment in the virtual world and the idea of creating activation. This goes to place theory, which relates to the Metaverse.

Place theory is based on three things, a triumvirate necessary to create “place”: people, physical context, and physical activities. Those three things, when they come together in the right mix, produce place. Place is an enduring, significant, enjoyable, and emotionally engaging relationship with a particular environment that has the three qualities (people, context, activities). Those qualities can vary.

For example, Venice, Italy, is a very strong place. It’s strong on physical context with historical culture and the beauty of the canals. But in terms of activity, the activity is tourism — eating, visiting ancient things. Venice in some ways is a dying city. It’s been criticized as being an authentic version of Disneyland, but Venice is in essence a museum. Very little new culture is produced there; Venice currently struggles to find its voice. While the mass numbers of tourists create a certain kind of vibrancy, it’s a city based on consumption of historic culture rather than the production of new culture. All great cities in their golden moments produce more culture than they consume.

People, context, and activities don’t have to take sides, but you have to have sufficient quality and sometimes quantity of these three aspects. You might be at a café in an Italian piazza that lacks activation; 200 years ago it was full of people, now it’s a parking lot. There’s no place there anymore. Even though the physical context still has some charm, there’s no activity and no people.

Now, how do you apply all this to the virtual environment? That’s what my Berkeley class was about, modeled on the idea of Snow Crash. But there is a dynamic: the richest activation in the physical world normally involves food and drink. The challenge is how to create activation and engagement without having food or drink. When your primary thing in the physical world is gone, you’ve got to try to make up for it with other activities. Shooting games are popular; their first-person environments are very compelling. In the Berkeley class, we created environments that were non-violent. But games can be a form of activation — for that reason we excluded shooting games. However, game-based learning where you use your mind and memory is very engaging. People have applied game theory to almost anything: education, shopping, entertainment, and even world-building.

We haven’t even scratched the surface of the Metaverse yet. If you exclude games, shopping is another activator. Amazon made shopping easy. Amazon has not made shopping fun. If you can make online shopping fun, people are going to go because it’s engaging. My contention is that we’ll solve this in the third dimension. The technology is almost there. We need a 3D environment where you go to a place, see other people, feel like you can pick up the object, you can try on clothing, or you can virtually test the car or whatever you’re interested in buying. It needs to be tactile.

To make it fun, you need to have other things going on beyond what you’re looking for. That experience of discovery is an activator.

So the first stage of a virtual-experience portal might focus on shopping, because economics motivate change. The reason this will be compelling is we’re trying to get people to buy things online. The intention is to create a balance of experience where you can also buy things. It’s that balance of those things together that will make the Metaverse compelling.

The second part is community. Imagine you go to an online, 3D place that’s full of your friends. Online 2D communities, including Facebook, Instagram, and Slack, are very compelling (Twitter, not so much). But these 2D spaces are very limiting in the immersive quality of the experiences. It’s like the difference between reading a travel book about Paris versus actually going to Paris. So what if these social communities offered compelling virtual environments? You can meet your friends and go shopping together in both a virtual and physical Paris, even though most of you might be in other cities across the world.

Whoever adds how people can engage with their social community while shopping, learning, and entertaining will take over the world. The Metaverse is like a tidal wave that will crash over all of us. The analogy: We’re on a surfboard, we’re looking toward the shore, we’re on a nice wave that’s just the right size. But while we’re focusing on the shore, we don’t see that the wave rolling in behind us has grown to 500-feet tall. All we notice is that the sun is suddenly gone, but we think it’s from a cloud. We just have to catch the big wave and hope we don’t drown.

Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you began this fascinating career?

I’m a veteran “Burner” and have designed several installations for Burning Man. I draw inspiration from how people interact with each other and the built environments at Burning Man, then use those observations to add as much humanity to physical architecture as possible. The same approaches apply to placemaking in virtual environments.

My most recent project for the festival is called The Museum of No Spectators (MoNS), originally designed for Burning Man 2020. The premise is that everyone in the museum becomes an active participant, creating art that is then displayed to inspire other visitors. When COVID caused the festival to be delayed, I collaborated with digital artist Tomek Miksa to re-imagine MoNS as a virtual experience. It was online for more than a year, literally in the Metaverse.

MoNS was also included in Black Rock City VR’s Virtual Worlds in 2020. With my artistic co-lead Absinthia Vermut, we activated MoNS with poetry readings, storytelling, art on the wall, and even a 2021 New Year’s Eve dance party. You could experience it with or without Oculus goggles, using the Altspace VR engine.

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?

In retrospect, it might have made more sense to conceive MoNS as a virtual experience instead of intending it to be the latest in a series of Burning Man experiences I designed to be built at Black Rock Desert. When Burning Man 2020 was delayed for COVID, we pivoted instead of mothballing the project. Since we already had multiple 2D renderings of the project, we took what we had and, in the true spirit of Burning Man, collaborated with other artists to re-imagine the museum in the Metaverse. We came full-circle this August at Burning Man 2022 and were able to compare the actual experience to the born-from-necessity virtual one. Never intending MoNS to be anything other than a Burning Man installation, the funniest part of the process is that the project was named one of Designboom’s Top 10 digital and virtual experiences of 2020 in the entire world, alongside Bjarke Ingels’ Vancouver House and virtual tours of leading museums.

None of us is able to achieve success without some help along the way. Is there a particular person who you are grateful toward who helped get you to where you are? Can you share a story about that?

The person who had the greatest influence on my career was architect Charles Warren Callister, whom I worked for in the 1980s. Warren integrated poetry into his architecture, and largely focused on high-end residential and large community developments. He taught me how his practice was based on the concept that architects were artists, and architecture is an art form — a commitment he followed throughout his long career.

Warren’s interest in art and emotional meaning applies to the Metaverse, which is an idea platform for self-expression. The Metaverse has the opportunity to create a great deal of resonance within the context of emotional meaning and human engagement. The hope is that we can create lovable environments, which was Warren’s goal as an architect. That’s the link to all future environments — lovability.

Are you working on any exciting new projects now? How do you think that will help people?

We were invited to participate in a paid competition to design environments in the Metaverse as part of an international team of about 60 people from various parts of the creative community. That project is under NDA, but it’s basically a large research project based on experience design in both physical and virtual forms about various ways environments can benefit people.

Relative to Warren Callister, Form4 Architecture collaborated with his office on the design of the Episcopal Church of St. John the Baptist in Aptos, CA. It marked Callister’s final project before his death in 2008. Because of our existing relationship with the church’s board and clergy, Form4 was asked to design a columbarium, which we call “Intertwined Eternities,” to occupy a 4,000-square-foot garden of decomposed granite located behind the existing church. Form4’s approach was to contribute a poetic and meaningful addition to honor Callister’s legacy and complete the next phase of the church campus. The architects sought to create a design that is lyrical, poetic, rigorously modern, and emotionally engaging.

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?

1. Seeing how the technology will progress to the point of opening up all of the possibilities for the Metaverse. Visual, aural, and tactile elements are emerging, and there’s more to come. Every month reveals something new. For example, Lensa portrait imagery in an AI context lets you become a better version of the person you are, in essence raising your self-image. Midjourney creates worlds that don’t exist but are very compelling, places you aspire to dwell in. The ability of AI to almost instantaneously create alternative universes will be very powerful in an experience-based Metaverse. There is still a long way to go in order to achieve the environmental quality needed to be compelling, but the rate of change is astounding and should get here very soon.

2. The potential for shared experiences and discovery is exciting. Attending virtual concerts with both actual and online friends is one intriguing example. In addition, the Metaverse offers an opportunity to powerfully extend a sense of community across the entire globe in a fundamentally safe environment.

3. Although entertainment and associated e-commerce will likely be the Metaverse’s foundation, the educational ramifications are enormous. Lecture-based pedagogy could be totally replaced by experiential learning in the Metaverse.

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?

1. The industry doesn’t have mass appeal yet, although COVID helped build momentum very quickly. People aren’t racing from work to put on their VR goggles; AR is a more comfortable technology, with Pokémon Go being a prominent example of overlaid experiences in the physical world. But just as social media mushroomed from kids on MySpace into what’s now the primary communication and commercial platform for many people, the Metaverse should experience massive growth in the near future. Enthusiasm for the blockchain/crypto/NFTs is also helping build momentum. MR might accelerate the transition, with people wearing goggles and blending physical and digital activity.

2. Hardware cost is a barrier to entry, although economies of scale will likely bring prices down as more goggle options enter the market. Some people are building VR rooms where you don’t need goggles but are in a purely immersive virtual space.

3. Interaction seems to be the Metaverse’s largest hurdle. Fundamentally, there’s potential to make it highly engaging and participatory. How do you physically engage with an environment versus experiencing it purely as a spectator who has influence over what you’re seeing?

4. AI and the Metaverse both ask us to question what it means to be human on a deeply fundamental level. This is a critical challenge to world cultures that we have historically not been good at resolving. There are issue of ownership of the fundamental OS, and social media has shown us the ease at which societies can be manipulated. We will need to address these issues collectively, and it may require some thoughtful consideration of poets, philosophers, and artists to navigate what it means to be human.

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?

Architects have used digital design tools for more than a generation. Drafting with pencils gave way to CAD, which evolved into BIM (Building Information Modeling), where we can simulate design’s effects on performance. Applying VR, we now take our traditional building renderings and animate them to create virtual walk-throughs.

Another example is how newer technologies even allow architects to actually hear how different interior materials and their arrangement absorb noise. We can demonstrate to the client the difference between a 45-dB design and a 65-dB one, with BIM providing the cost analysis for both scenarios.

I don’t know that we’ll be able to virtually test office furniture for comfort and ergonomics in the foreseeable future, but the VR technology will definitely evolve architecture. Also, virtual real estate is creating a demand for architecture in the Metaverse. We’re interested in those conversations — but aren’t quite ready to accept crypto for our fee!

Are there other ways that VR, AR and MR can improve our lives? Can you explain?

One of the problems with remote working is the lack of a sense of shared experiences. You’re talking on Zoom but you don’t feel together. VR, AR, and MR can give us that sense of being in the same place at the same time, sharing the same environment. I spent a fair amount of time meeting people virtually in MoNS through Black Rock City VR. Everyone had an avatar. It was a much deeper and personal experience than a Zoom call. VR/MR is close second to physically being together compared to other tech-based forms of remote communication.

What are the “myths” that you would like to dispel about working in your industry? Can you explain what you mean?

We’d like to dispel the myth that architects will be replaced by AI. To put it in context, tract homes and gray-block industrial parks have possibly downgraded architects’ importance in the general public’s perception. The Metaverse could reverse that. At our best, architects are trained to design spaces that elevate people’s work and private lives through a uniquely human passion and vibrancy, while integrating required features for useability, health, and life-safety. Virtual buildings allow us to take what we’ve learned about how people interact with their physical environments and design beyond the envelope. In the Metaverse, the architect’s role is going to increase multi-fold to create experience-rich and texturally engaging environments where people want to be. We don’t have to worry about gravity, building codes, green materials, and other physical realities in order to design virtual cities. The primary question for architects, from a cultural perspective, is are we capable or interested in designing “lovable” enough environments to engage the Metaverses users. This is a very different type of client/user group from what we are used to in the physical world.

We feel that architects are uniquely suited to designing “built” spaces in the virtual world. At my firm, Form4 in San Francisco, we have designed what we feel are lovable buildings and spaces since 1998 — many for the Silicon Valley tech companies that are leaders in Web 3.0. There aren’t a lot of architects who can say that they started working in and teaching about the Metaverse 23 years ago: I co-wrote papers with UC Berkeley professor Yehuda Kalay on “The Role of Place in Cyberspace” (2001) and “Architecture and the Internet: Designing Places in Cyberspace” (2005). They describe the criteria for making cyber places different: hyper-reality spaces, abstracted reality, hybrid virtual spaces, and hyper virtuality.

What are your “5 Things You Need To Create A Highly Successful Career In The VR, AR or MR Industries?”

These are all discussed in more detail above:

1. An understanding of the theory of place (people, context, activities).

2. A sense of creating community through activation strategies that fully engage people in virtual environments.

3. Combining social networks and e-commerce.

4. The realization that you’re still in a physical place that someone designed when you’re experiencing a virtual reality. The triumvirate of people, activity, and context is critical, even in a virtual environment. You need to be somewhere.

5. A desire to create lovable places — environments people look forward to experiencing.

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 most powerful force for change is technology. Innovation, through technology, has created undeniable changes in the world by its very existence. These are foundational changes; they affect everyone in some way over time. As much as technology changes the way we do things, it does not always affect the fundamental core of the human condition. The change created by technology is not truly effective unless people care about each other.

If I could inspire a movement that would change the world, it would be one that encourages you to embrace community and kindness through participatory art. This is a profoundly powerful spark, that, in turn, will inspire you go out and change the world in myriad unimaginable ways. The Metaverse expands this beyond physical communities to a global scale. The Metaverse has limitless potential to facilitate the balance of self-expression and a sense of belonging to various groups.

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 🙂

Because Google is such a visionary company, I’d like to sit down with Sergey Brin. I’m particularly interested in the concept of creating a physical portal into the Metaverse, possibly at an aircraft hangar Google owns in Mountain View. The sheer size and scale of this hangar could provide a profoundly compelling place to create a major portal to the Metaverse. This is how the physical and virtual worlds can overlap in a symbiotic relationship.

Thank you so much for these excellent stories and insights. We wish you continued success on your great work!

Makers of The Metaverse: John Marx Of AIA, Form4 Architecture On The Future Of The VR, AR & Mixed… was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Alexander Falatovich Of Identity Digital On Five Things You Need To Create A Highly Successful…

Alexander Falatovich Of Identity Digital On Five Things You Need To Create A Highly Successful Career In The Cybersecurity Industry

An Interview With Fotis Georgiadis

Don’t be afraid to fail. A career in cybersecurity is about constantly encountering new and challenging problems, which almost inevitably results in some failures. If you are not willing to make and learn from mistakes, a career in cybersecurity may be a struggle. We learn so much from failure. At the start of my career, I had never written corporate policies nor used the NIST CyberSecurity Framework. Still, I took on the challenge, making some mistakes along the way, and ultimately succeeded.

The cybersecurity industry has become so essential and exciting. What is coming around the corner? What are the concerns we should keep an eye out for? How does one succeed in the cybersecurity industry? As a part of this interview series called “Five Things You Need To Create A Highly Successful Career In The Cybersecurity Industry”, we had the pleasure of interviewing Alexander Falatovich.

Alexander Falatovich (Fal-uh-toh-vich) of Identity Digital brings over a decade of experience from the domain name space, having led large legacy generic top-level domain (TLD) anti-abuse programs as well as facilitated the successful launch of dozens of descriptive TLD anti-abuse programs. He is a member of multiple industry groups and collaboratives, such as the Anti-Phishing Working Group and InfraGard. He has earned his Certified Ethical Hacker, Certified Incident Handler, and Certified Cyber Security Architect certifications to accompany his bachelor’s degree in intelligence analysis from Mercyhurst University with a minor in Asian studies and a graduate certificate in Homeland Security & Defense from Pennsylvania 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. Can you tell us a bit about your backstory and how you grew up?

I’m from a small town in Northeast Pennsylvania, about as far from anything associated with cyberspace or information technology. My parents were teachers. They gave me many opportunities to try activities I enjoyed, like basketball, while ensuring I put forth the effort in school. I did well in math and science but really enjoyed the social sciences. I eventually went to college at Mercyhurst University, at the time Mercyhurst College, to study Intelligence Studies because I wanted to work in the US Intelligence Community. While I spent four years enjoying all the natural wonders of Erie, Pennsylvania (Spoiler: snow and cold), I added an Asia Studies minor that allowed me to mix the logical-centric elements of intelligence analysis with the more spiritual components of many Asian cultures. The job market wasn’t great when I graduated, so I did some temp work before eventually getting my first job, not in government as planned, but in cybersecurity near Philadelphia. Since then, I bounced to Baltimore for a little while before ending up where I am now.

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 called ‘How to Cook Your Life: From the Zen Kitchen to Enlightenment ‘offered many valuable ideas. Even more so in an industry like cybersecurity, where many days are long and stressful. It’s a manual about cooking in a monastery and the spiritual training involved, but it can apply to so much of life. The concept of moving meditations resonates with me. Many of us do this without realizing it. People tend to think of meditation as sitting in silence, but it is about being conscious of your being and being present. I find it calming, whether while washing dishes or something more work-related, such as diving through a spreadsheet full of domain registration details. Be present in those small moments, and the world opens up.

Is there a particular story or incident that inspired you to pursue a career in cybersecurity? We’d love to hear it.

So funny enough, I never intended to pursue cybersecurity growing up or even in undergrad. I got into it out of necessity. But there was something that struck me that made me stay. About two years into my career, talking to friends and former classmates (some who filled positions I had wanted) I realized how much of a difference working in cybersecurity and the impact some of the anti-cybercrime work I was doing had and could make. I grew up with some technology, but the way society was moving, even back in 2013, if I wanted to help the public, staying in cybersecurity was right for me.

It has been said that our mistakes can be our greatest teachers. 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?

There was one instance when I was responding to a report by a member of the public concerning material on a domain in one of our top-level domains (TLDs). They believed the domain was involved in supporting terrorism. As an enthusiastic cybersecurity greenling, I gathered information and submitted it to the FBI portal since that seemed the right thing to do. I had forgotten about it until two FBI special agents showed up two days later with my CEO, wanting to speak with me about a report filed. I had made the unglamorous mistake of not informing key leadership. Understandably, the leadership team was very surprised and not in an “oh, that’s so thoughtful” way. After the agents left, I got a friendly but stern lecture stating I wasn’t wrong to report the case but to notify our legal team next time. Lesson learned. Communicate with your legal team when you are engaged in any activities with serious legal implications. This protects you so you don’t put yourself or the company in an undesirable position.

Are you working on any exciting new projects now? How do you think that will help people?

Without getting into the details, exciting projects are in the works to take advantage of some technical registry and DNS data we have access to; data that nobody else has in such volume and as comprehensive in scope. It involves the ability to more rapidly and accurately identify domain names registered for cybercrimes, such as phishing, and learning where legitimate domains may be compromised to be used in similar abusive behavior. This will help people by reducing the uptime of malicious content. Studies repeatedly show that most of the damage in cyber attacks happens within the first few hours of a domain being deployed. Faster, accurate detection can lead to faster mitigation and, by extension, fewer victims of cybercrime.

Ok super. Thank you for all that. Let’s now shift to the main focus of our interview. The Cybersecurity industry seems 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?

It’s an exciting time for the cybersecurity industry and the implications beyond. What excites me most is how accessible it is despite some negative elements in some communities. It is also increasingly diverse as one of the few areas where someone with no experience in technology can become a practitioner using free, open-source materials. This allows people from all kinds of backgrounds with different perspectives to join. I see the community adding needed voices via initiatives on social media like #sharethemicincyber and organizations of women in cybersecurity. Those voices profoundly impact creating a more fair and unbiased technological future.

The second thing that excites me is the growth potential in cybersecurity. You don’t need to look far to see the constant demand for more cybersecurity professionals, including in companies and spaces that you wouldn’t have just a few years ago. A report in CyberSeek underscores this, stating that nine of the ten top months for cybersecurity demand for the last decade came in the previous year. There’s a tremendous opportunity to find your niche and make an impact.

And finally, the third thing I’d single out is how amazing it is to be part of an industry when there is so much potential revolutionary technology starting to hit the mainstream that needs securing and protecting. Whether looking at one of the many text-to-image AI generators or visiting a website using a descriptive domain with a top-level domain I don’t commonly see, we’re constantly presented with new cybersecurity challenges. To me, that’s a gratifying part of cybersecurity work.

What are the 3 things that concern you about the Cybersecurity industry? Can you explain? What can be done to address those concerns?

You can’t have light without dark, and there are certainly concerns about the industry. Many are related to topics I just highlighted as positives. One area of concern involves gatekeeping in the community. Hiring can be overly focused on who is “qualified” or actually “doing cyber.” This can take many forms. For instance, considering anyone without a particular certification as not serious or a fit for cybersecurity if they don’t come from a network engineering background. Sometimes companies block aspiring new professionals by requiring certifications or experience far beyond what the job posting would require. We can call out these types of behaviors. However, it’s a culture change, and that takes time. I believe this will diminish as we continue to grow as an industry and some old guards retire or phase out.

My second concern is that so much new technology needs to be secured. Still, standards and regulations are lagging. While there is progress in many frameworks and industry bodies maintaining those, legal gaps strain the community and the public. For example, Internet of Things products can be challenging to secure. When you have lawmakers who are not comfortable with technology, it is a receipt for disaster. We need the community to support technology-aware politicians and engage in the process. Many elected officials didn’t grow up with the cyber resources that are so present these days. They can’t legislate properly without industry engagement to secure those technologies.

Lastly, I worry about the number of questionable, overpromising buzzwords companies use that sound great to an executive but fail to provide the protection they claim against the constantly shifting threat of cyber threat actors. Many new startups and security consulting firms are popping up doing great work. Others take advantage of the growth and demand for cybersecurity skills prioritizing profit over security. I’m not saying anyone needs to work for free. Still, when data breaches and compromises at one entity have such strong ripple effects on other organizations, they weaken the wider community. Beyond possibly advocating for standards and regulation, we can address this by being open and honest with our colleagues in the community. If you experience objective underperformance or questionable behavior by a vendor or provider, share that with your peers. Collective understanding and demanding better from providers allows us to strengthen the industry and produce better products and services.

Looking ahead to the near future, are there critical threats on the horizon that you think companies need to start preparing for? Can you explain?

Even though many threats are on the horizon, a couple stand out to me. First, hyper-realistic misinformation and disinformation campaigns target organizations, investors, and customers. With advances in machine learning and AI-generated content, particularly videos involving synthetic media, hostile actors can spread damaging stories about an organization that can lead to financial pressure. This could take the form of consumer boycotts or even violence from lone wolves of fringe ideologies. If an organization doesn’t have the means to identify and respond to this risk scenario, it will struggle to react if the threat becomes real.

Another current and growing threat involves attacks on multi-factor authentication. The “Oktapus” phishing attacks are an example. This large-scale campaign targeted Twilio, Okta, and other companies to receive text messages containing links to phishing sites that mimicked the Okta authentication page of their organization, which harvested Okta credentials and two-factor authentication (2-FA) codes. Many companies and vendors are using less secure second factors like SMS OTP or have likely not educated their users about hackers targeting their traditional credentials, such as username and password, and their second-factor authentication. Even though these security measures are better than nothing, companies must move away from these weaker second factors and adopt social engineering-resistant solutions such as hardware tokens and WebAuthn. Many companies, even major organizations that likely know better, still use these less secure mechanisms. Most companies are just lucky because there are still plenty of non-MFA-enabled accounts. Because of that, attackers haven’t had to switch to targeting MFA-enabled accounts for many attacks.

Can you share a story from your experience about a cybersecurity breach that you helped fix or stop? What were the main takeaways from that story?

I haven’t explicitly been part of responding to a cybersecurity breach, but I can speak to having potentially prevented some. My primary role involves mitigating domains used by cybercriminals and cyber attackers to victimize individuals and organizations. As part of that role, I am frequently in contact with the private sector, law enforcement, and national security colleagues. In some instances, I’ve received direct, timely intelligence regarding domain names registered specifically to target employees of organizations of interest to particular nation-states. I evaluate and neutralize the domains so they can’t be used in spear phishing attacks. My main takeaway from this story, which is true for so much of cybersecurity, is that networking with peers and colleagues across the space is essential. We only have visibility into a slice of what is happening online. Identity Digital has a robust domain abuse mitigation program. Yet, our partners often bring items we don’t see to our attention. This is because of their specialized focus on a particular threat actor. Collaboration is key to a more robust defense; no organization is an island.

As you know, breaches or hacks can occur even for those who are best prepared, and no one will be aware of it for a while. Are there 3 or 4 signs that a layperson can see or look for that might indicate that something might be amiss?

This is so true; IBM released a finding that in 2022 it is taking almost nine months to identify and contain a breach, so there’s an excellent chance someone other than the company may notice first. For the layperson, a breach identification can be challenging because they need to determine whether it is isolated (i.e., the user’s account was compromised) or organization-wide. However, it is doable if you’re attentive to details. One way is to use available services that check for compromised assets in data dumps. Many identity protection services offer some form of monitoring. But other free options, such as ‘Have I Been Pwned,’ can give individuals some insight into whether their credentials were posted following a breach. An average user may also discover a violation if they notice strange account activity. This can include more serious actions like unauthorized purchases or more subtle things like outgoing messages you didn’t send. Alternatively, if the individual is getting spammed with account notifications, particularly if they have MFA enabled, there is likely something amiss. It might be just that their account was compromised, but if they use a long, strong, unique passphrase, that may be unlikely, short of a data breach.

After a company is made aware of a data or security breach, what are the most important things they should do to protect themselves further, as well as protect their customers?

Companies aware of a breach should initiate their incident-response playbooks, which should include plans for involving legal and public relations personnel. The organization should try to understand what they are dealing with and avoid making incomplete assessments or downplaying the incidents. This could muddy the waters as customers and observers follow the event. If appropriate, working with law enforcement can bring additional support and resources and should be considered for critical infrastructure. One key element that helps protect customers is being clear about what is happening and what steps have been taken to secure their data. When you leave your customers in the dark or provide unclear updates about what has been done, you leave them more susceptible to scams and attackers looking to exploit your already painful situation. An example of this was the Equifax breach, and their eventual site to allow users to check if they were impacted spawned multiple phishing campaigns and scams because the messaging wasn’t unified.

What are the most common data security and cybersecurity mistakes you have seen companies make? What are the essential steps that companies should take to avoid or correct those errors?

One of the most common mistakes is for companies to have a false sense of security with only one security tool or feature deployed. There’s a lot of “fire and forget” regarding cybersecurity efforts, and the reality couldn’t be further from the truth. The DMARC Record a company implemented doesn’t stop criminals from spoofing its domain to customers if it has the policy configuration set to “none.” And that fancy threat-intelligence platform purchased isn’t automatically “Mission Accomplished” once deployed; it requires ongoing maintenance and tweaking. Threat actors are constantly updating their approaches, poking and prodding our defenses. This means companies need to actively maintain their defenses. One way to avoid this mistake is to ask a few questions about anything you’re doing for cybersecurity:

What are we seeking to protect against with this?
Is that happening with how we are currently using it?
What is it *not* providing us with?

By asking these questions, a company can at least understand current cybersecurity maturity to determine wether that’s acceptable to its risk appetite or if it may need to invest in additional measures.

What are the “myths” that you would like to dispel about working in the cybersecurity industry? Can you explain what you mean?

The biggest myth is having to be super technical to get into cybersecurity. If you want to eventually get a technical cybersecurity role, there are plenty of resources to skill up for it. But many non-technical roles are also offered. Training is available in cybersecurity policy, standards and auditing, security awareness, and more. Understanding the technical elements to some degree is a boon, but you don’t necessarily need to understand how to exploit vulnerabilities or reverse malware to get into cybersecurity. If you look at all the options on CISA’s NICCS career pathway tool, you see how diverse the options are.

Thank you for all of this. Here is the main question of our discussion. What are your “Five Things You Need To Create A Highly Successful Career In The Cybersecurity Industry?

First, there’s no one way to have a successful career in the cybersecurity industry because everyone’s journey is different. With that in mind, these five things helped drive my success as well as others in the community:

Don’t be afraid to fail. A career in cybersecurity is about constantly encountering new and challenging problems, which almost inevitably results in some failures. If you are not willing to make and learn from mistakes, a career in cybersecurity may be a struggle. We learn so much from failure. At the start of my career, I had never written corporate policies nor used the NIST CyberSecurity Framework. Still, I took on the challenge, making some mistakes along the way, and ultimately succeeded.
Next, make time to give back to the community. Even if you feel you don’t have anything to contribute, someone can always benefit. Many people who have risen in the community are willing to take that chance and share what they know to help others. This contribution can come in many ways. For example, mentoring those new to the space, giving a talk, participating in a panel discussion, or reviewing résumés. These roles present an opportunity to grow and strengthen your knowledge. I’ve been fortunate enough to talk about my career and experience in cybersecurity with colleagues and youth groups. The benefits always outweigh the work put in.
Find your passion in the industry and master it. There are so many paths in cybersecurity it is impossible to master everything. Every job has a less enjoyable aspect. Still, strive to find a cybersecurity area that satisfies you. Once you find that, learn everything you can and moderate levels of understanding on related topics. Going to one extreme or the other, deep specialization or shallow jack-of-all-trades, can place obstacles in your growth trajectory. For many years, I wore all hats, but as the team grew, I could find what I really enjoyed, cybercrime investigations, and focus on investigating and disrupting those operations.
Find your tribe and your mentors. Cybersecurity is a team sport in every operation. Whether you are part of a team with dozens of teammates or a single staffer in a small startup, your success depends on working with others. Having peers that support and guide you can be invaluable, particularly if they have more experience. I am so thankful to the friends I’ve made by participating in industry groups like the Anti-Phishing Working Group and public-private partnerships like the NCFTA; it’s produced some amazing opportunities that led to unexpected discussions and collaboration.
Build a reputation of transparency, reliability, and integrity. The cybersecurity industry is one giant community with some subgroups, but there’s so much intermixing you can’t pretend to be someone you are not and expect nobody to find out. Be transparent in your intentions in interactions. Demonstrate being reliable and recognize when you won’t be able to deliver. Operate with integrity even when nobody seems to be watching. Someone almost always is. A former professor told our class the worst thing someone could do to risk a peer’s chances of getting into the intelligence community was to portray them as untrustworthy. I know of vendors passed over and collaborations that never materialized because one party had ethical, integrity-related concerns about a member of the other party. People talk up those who represent the best of our industry and share warnings about those who tarnish it.

And I can only pick one? That’s an exclusive brunch when there are so many people doing fantastic work I’d love to meet. But if the rules say I can only pick one, I will go with Jen Easterly, the current Director of CISA. She’s been amazing since she stepped into the role, continuing a lot of the great work Chris Krebs had begun and strengthening our critical infrastructure. Looking at her background and how she handles incredibly important and challenging tasks, I believe it would be an insightful conversation. Plus, she seems very genuine, which makes talking over a meal more enjoyable. It’d be particularly appealing because, being in the domain name space, we play such a critical role in the operation of the internet; I find myself feeling an affinity with CISA and many of the more “traditional” critical infrastructure sectors that people think about.

Thank you so much for these excellent stories and insights. We wish you continued success in your great work!

Alexander Falatovich Of Identity Digital On Five Things You Need To Create A Highly Successful… was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Miranda Jiggins Of Total Boss Wealth & Wellness On 5 Things You Need To Know To Successfully Scale…

Miranda Jiggins Of Total Boss Wealth & Wellness On 5 Things You Need To Know To Successfully Scale Your Business

An Interview With Fotis Georgiadis

Boundaries! Very necessary. In the past, I had no idea what a boundary even was. Lol. They are your “rules”that everyone in your circle must follow. No time disrespect, no negative energy and no dumping are great examples of boundaries — especially the no time disrespect boundary. Just being aware is a great place to start with the boundaries!

Miranda Jiggins is a very high energy and passionate business owner, coach, bestselling author and event host. She has been fully running her business since 2019, and absolutely loves helping others embrace their true, deepest desires, and make those desires become a reality, plus so much more! Miranda and her cat, Mr. Whiskers, live in Ohio and will be relocating to Texas in January.

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’?

Hi! Thank you so much for having me — I am so excited to be here! Hmmm .. where to begin! Well, I started my business in 2018, and became fully self employed in 2019. My very first mentor, Betsy McNally, helped me get started in the fitness industry with my first business — my fitness business! I started taking a few clients on the side, and it eventually grew where I was able to leave my car sales job, and run my biz full time.

January of 2021 I had my rock bottom moment. I have had a few “significant” moments in my life, however, January 2021 was THE one that changed everything. After hiring my current coach, Stacy Raske, doing a bunch of inner work, completely re inventing myself as a person and pivoting my business, I came out of that difficult situation stronger than ever! I launched a business coaching side to my business, my Total Boss Wealth & Wellness brand, and I launched four total boss events for high performers — three yearly national events and one international.

have scaled my business twice in one and a half years, and am preparing for a 3rd scale first quarter of 2023. If I can come out of a very mentally challenging situation stronger than ever, anyone can! You just have to REALLY dig deep, be your authentic self, be brave, and the rest will fall into place. I also love all animals, reading and bodybuilding!

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?

Yes! My rock bottom moment — January of 2021. During that time, I thought my entire world was collapsing. I seriously thought I was going to be stuck forever and there was no way out. That is the most scary, frustrating, annoying and undesirable feeling. However, now that I am on the other side, with the help of my coach, Stacy, and my business owner mastermind group, Apex, I am extremely grateful for that moment, as I truly would not be where I am today without it. Everything happens for a reason, even if we aren’t seeing it at the moment — I fully believe that with all of my heart.

What’s the most impactful initiative you’ve led that you’re particularly proud of?

My line of Total Boss Wealth & Wellness events! I launched these events on a whim, because I ran all of my bank accounts to $0 (that happens in the entrepreneur world), and needed to do something in order to make a payment. Lol.

I never dreamed that due to the above circumstance, my events would be where they are today, AND the impact they are making. I am so privileged to provide so many people with the opportunity to speak on stage and make their dreams come true, plus, the responses I get from event attendees — they tell me that they go home so inspired, and have made massive personal and professional shifts afterwards. The most rewarding feedback on the planet — I am just so grateful!

Sometimes our mistakes can be our greatest teachers. Can you share a mistake you’ve made and the lesson you took away from it?

The biggest mistake I have made — keeping people in my life (could be a team member, client, friend or family) who are no longer aligned. This has been the hardest thing for me. I want to help everyone succeed, and one of my gifts is seeing the potential in others. However, sometimes if a person isn’t a positive influence in your life, or isn’t progressing, it may be time to gently part ways. I have been told this by my coaches for years, but, truly did not start living this practice until one year ago. My biz and others around me have elevated significantly faster without people who may no longer be aligned. Extremely difficult, but necessary.

How has mentorship played a role in your career, whether receiving mentorship or offering it to others?

YES, 100%! I believe mentorship is extremely necessary. I have invested thousands of dollars into my coaching, plus I am a coach to others — it is very needed in order to grow personally and professionally. The most rewarding is definitely being a mentor to others. Generally, we mentor people who are just like our “old selves”. It is so fulfilling for me to help someone out of their shell, embrace their true selves, and get to work on their deepest desires that they have had for so long — and watch those desires come to life! I am smiling as I am typing that — it is the best. It also helps me reflect and grow, which allows myself to serve others at my highest self!

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?

Leadership styles definitely take time — my current leadership style is very different from my past leadership style. I feel as if my leadership style is a mix between my coach’s plus my own. I have learned things from my coach, and have put my own twist on them! You also learn and develop as you go!

I try to emulate a “balance” between “masculine” energy and “feminine” energy. I feel as a female entrepreneur, there is a time and place for everything. I am HUGE for fairness between EVERYONE — clients, team members, event attendees, etc. Additionally, boundaries are huge — they are the necessary foundation / secret sauce to both leadership and growth.

Absolutely!

In my opinion, in order to successfully scale:

Leveling up personally. I really had to work on myself, before my business grew. It sounds backwards (the “generic” way is to “work harder” — that is false. You MUST grow personally in order for your business to grow. For example, having a routine, breaking bad habits, working on a scarcity vs abundance mentality, boundaries, etc.
“On” the business time vs “In” the business. This was huge for me — I used to work 80–100 hours per week “in” the biz, and I didn’t take a day off for 4.5 years. That is crazy! It took one year, but I decreased that to 12–15 hours per week “in” the biz time, the rest “on”, and my business instantly scaled — we will hit 6 figures this year. On vs in is key!
Your network is your net worth. I have made a point to be around / invest into being in rooms with very established business owners / founders / entrepreneurs. There is a mindset shift that is needed when you are scaling, and being around others who have done the same thing has made a huge difference.
Delegating or eliminating / automating $10 / hour tasks. How you spend your TIME is critical — money is a renewable resource, time is not. In order to scale, I had to take a look at how I was spending my time and make some major shifts.
Boundaries! Very necessary. In the past, I had no idea what a boundary even was. Lol. They are your “rules”that everyone in your circle must follow. No time disrespect, no negative energy and no dumping are great examples of boundaries — especially the no time disrespect boundary. Just being aware is a great place to start with the boundaries!

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?

The top mistake I see when companies try to scale is not being flexible with the path / direction in order to reach the end goal. It has been my goal to reach 6 figures for my business, however, it took way more than just fitness coaching in order to do that. If I never listened to my intuition / decided to launch other things, I never would have reached my goal. I always say — keep the goal the same, however, be flexible and open with the path it takes to get there!

In order to work on flexibility in your path (I feel as if this is very difficult for most), you have to fully trust yourself. It also helps to create a “fears map”, and create an action plan if a fear while on this new path comes to life. It REALLY helps with confidence while taking new steps into new territory! Most of the time, your new path turns out way better than you could have imagined. You just have to trust yourself and the process!

Scaling includes bringing new people into the organization. How can a company preserve its company culture and ethos when new people are brought in?

Culture is everything!! Formulating your hiring questions off of your culture. For example, if team bonding night outs are a part of your culture, asking your applicant if that type of idea lights them up! Also, having your mission statement and core values posted everywhere. Whenever a new person comes into our ecosystem, whether they are a client or team member, I immediately send them the core values and mission statement sheet! Most importantly, as a leader, it is our job to lead / be an example of our culture at all times.

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?

Communication and making sure your team is comfortable, and understands why you are doing things is key with internal scale! For some people, growth / change can be scary. However, if everyone is on the same page and understands why some things are in a pivot, then the team success rates should be much higher! Group huddles, weekly team “kick off” meetings, and team member appreciation gifts / prizes are all amazing tools!

What software or tools do you recommend to help onboard new hires?

SOPs! SOPs are the #1 tool — they stand for systems, operations and processes. Whenever I implement something new, and assign it to my VA, I ask him to create an SOP for the task while he is doing it. Then, the SOP is created and stored, so, the steps are written out for the next person. A lifesaver!

Love this! I believe a movement of “celebrating your wins and growth” would be amazing. In my opinion and my experience, people are so hard on themselves — especially us high performers, we are our own worst critics, by far. When we take time and give ourselves permission to celebrate our wins, even if they are “smaller”, it makes us feel accomplished, in a great mood, and therefore are able to be creative and get more tasks done! Most importantly, the more light we see in ourselves, the more light we see in others — that is the best part.

How can our readers further follow your work online?

Find me on Facebook or LinkedIn! Miranda Jiggins

This was truly meaningful! Thank you so much for your time and for sharing your expertise!

Miranda Jiggins Of Total Boss Wealth & Wellness On 5 Things You Need To Know To Successfully Scale… was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Makers of The Metaverse: Omar Gull Of Race Kingdom On The Future Of The VR, AR & Mixed Reality…

Makers of The Metaverse: Omar Gull Of Race Kingdom On The Future Of The VR, AR & Mixed Reality Industries

An Interview With Fotis Georgiadis

Since the industry is new and technology is disruptive, it is crucial to surround yourself with people who share the same passion for the field. Whether you are an entrepreneur or work for a company or startup, there are constant obstacles that you have to overcome. Hence it is crucial to have a clear goal and unshakable vision to keep building daily.

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 Omar Gull.

Omar Gull is a blockchain entrepreneur and award-winning marketing professional. Omar is the founder and CEO of Metaverse game Race Kingdom (https://racekingdom.io). He is an engineer and entrepreneur specializing in blockchain, cryptocurrency, real estate and marketing.

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 was born and raised in Jammu & Kashmir, India. My father is an Engineer and that inspired me to pursue an education and career in that field. My engineering degree has helped me in developing strong analytical ability and, at the same time, a deeper understanding of other business verticals. However, working miles away from civilization and people was not for me. So I pursued a Masters in Communication, launched my career as a marketing professional and entered consulting followed by real estate. Post an exciting real estate stint in India, I moved to Dubai and led the sales for Emaar and Damac properties — the largest developers in the Middle East. I had the opportunity to lead sales & marketing for a USD 1.5 billion international business vertical spread across 8 countries. I have always been an advocate of the use of technology and spearheaded many transformational initiatives that led to millions in sales. I recently started my journey as a blockchain entrepreneur in the GameFi space.

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?

I have taken a film-making course where I learnt to detach from the movies and books emotionally. So I don’t spend much time watching movies or reading books. However, I do enjoy reading biographies. Recent favourite is Shoe Dog by Phil Knight.

Is there a particular story that inspired you to pursue a career in the X Reality industry? We’d love to hear it.

Everyone building and scaling a million-dollar company in the metaverse is inspiring. That is the appeal and advantage of startups in general, they are scalable as they are technology-based. I am also fascinated by the merger of the virtual and real worlds. Whether in fashion, gaming, real estate, education or even medicine.

Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you began this fascinating career?

If you have ever played any Web3 game, you know how complicated it is to start playing it as you have to go through several platforms, get NFTs separately in a marketplace, connect wallets, etc. On the one hand, most Web3 games have complex concepts, even the simplest ones. On the other hand, there is a vast camel racing market which is untapped. So the idea of Race Kingdom came to me — a metaverse camel racing game with a simplified concept and onboarding process. Our team is working on building the Netflix of Web3 gaming.

We have already launched our token $ATOZ which is performing strongly despite the bear market. Our latest development is camel NFTs. As we are the first camel racing game in the metaverse, you check them for yourself: https://racekingdom.io/nfts/. We also won the Best Utility NFT 2022 Award by Gulf News.

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?

Not sure if it is the funniest, but the biggest lesson I learnt was to understand the game mechanics. Gaming devices have the data loaded on the disk, so you cannot create heavy graphics. Technology is behind the vision. Hence, we must match current devices’ capabilities while developing metaverse-based games.

It is Jeetu Kataria, the co-founder and CEO of DIFX — Digital Financial Exchange. DIFX is our strategic partner supporting us tremendously and sharing its resources generously. We wouldn’t be where we are without DIFX’s support. Recent events show that an exchange must be safe and not lend the customers’ money to third parties. That’s why I trust DIFX, a fully insured cross-asset platform that uses FireBlocks as a custodian. Sharing values, ethics and business approach helps build sustainable Web3 projects.

Are you working on any exciting new projects now? How do you think that will help people?

We are working on the mental health supporting metaverse game. There are 14 negative emotions, and the game helps to cope with them in a seamless and fun way. Of course, it is not a substitute for medical treatment but definitely a tool to prevent people from going into the rabbit hole of negative emotions.

Metaverse-based games coming on Apple store and Google play. That will increase the customer reach exponentially and ensure mass adoption.
Metaverse use for education. This technology can make learning a next-level, immersive experience.
Conventional game developers like Esports and PSP going into the metaverse. That would make the industry grow faster. It could even escalate the development of soft and hardware for the metaverse.

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?

I would highlight one, but the most important one, in my opinion. The gaming engine is not advanced. Hence, most games are boring unless they are in arcades. People have beautiful game concepts that cannot be executed, which causes trust damage. The lack of experienced resources makes scaling up very difficult and expensive.

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?

Technology has yet to be as advanced to help us at work. Good use of VR could be providing an immersive environment for remote work, collaboration, training, as well as efficient product development. Also, testing or building new products can be done in various physical scenarios without wasting actual physical resources. For example, one of the pillars of the Dubai Metaverse Strategy unveiled recently by Sheikh Hamdan aims to create digital twins, a virtual representation of an object or system. It is applicable in real estate; you can design and model in the metaverse before bringing the vision into reality.

Are there other ways that VR, AR and MR can improve our lives? Can you explain?

Definitely healthcare and education. Once technology is advanced, it will cause a revolution. Some benefits of telemedicine include better access to care and lower travel expenses, especially in rural areas.

What are the “myths” that you would like to dispel about working in your industry? Can you explain what you mean?

I would dispel the most crucial “myth” of P2E being unsustainable.

Sustainability depends on how tokenomics and gameplay are designed. For us [Race Kingdom] it was the primary goal to build a feasible business model. Moreover, the DAO system will allow active players and community members to initiate, discuss and vote on different segments of game development. Compared to some competitors, our tokenomics is independent of the vicious cycle of continuously enticing new players. Our game is self-sustaining through community members earning and spending through in-game revenue channels.

Also, when online games first emerged, people were sceptical too. Then it was the same with free-to-play, which drew scepticism. People thought it was not sustainable. People also thought mobile games were low-grade. But look where mobile gaming is now.

That’s the trajectory we see with metaverse games. At the beginning of any innovation, people always complain and don’t understand the benefits, but slowly with more success and better games proving the concept, there’s an inevitable transition.

What are your “5 Things You Need To Create A Highly Successful Career In The VR, AR or MR Industries?”

For most people, AR & VR were probably introduced to them through games & products like Pokemon Go and the Oculus headsets. This technology is still in its early stages, with new developments coming out regularly. Thus, learning at this initial stage of development will be crucial in developing a successful career in this field. Here are my outtakes:

Knowledge is key

With so many innovations and developments coming out, it’s essential to stay up to date with the latest technologies and software that are the building blocks of VR, AR and the Metaverse. Even as simple as following the topic on social media, attending webinars and conferences will help you understand the latest trends within the industry.

2. Know your software

The software side will require experience with 3D modelling and design software, integrated development environments, and programming languages such as .NET and C#. Furthermore, graphics programming and even game development are valuable skills to have.

Even if you are only interested in the business side of things, you still need to grasp the basics of this software to explain to your audience and potential investors the utility and process of development.

3. Develop Experience

It’s important to stay curious and open-minded. Immersive tools and techniques are no longer confined to game studios. These skills can now be applied to numerous industries, including real-estate, automotive, events, marketing, and film. So don’t hesitate to build your experience in various fields to get a broader understanding of how this technology is used in a practical setting.

4. Join the larger online community

The industry is still small and pretty contained, so don’t hesitate to contact companies or individuals whose work you admire. If they can’t offer a job, perhaps they can provide advice. Joining groups on professional social networks can also be beneficial as you can network and meet colleagues or even future employers.

5. Build your own circle

Since the industry is new and technology is disruptive, it is crucial to surround yourself with people who share the same passion for the field. Whether you are an entrepreneur or work for a company or startup, there are constant obstacles that you have to overcome. Hence it is crucial to have a clear goal and unshakable vision to keep building daily.

I strongly believe in the power of education and that it is the best way to get out of most troubles. So, if I could inspire a movement it would be around education.

It is Donald Trump, one of the most successful businessmen. He defied the odds to beat Hilary Clinton. His campaign’s cost-per-vote acquisition was much lower than Hilary Clinton’s. Also, during his era, there were no wars…

Thank you so much for these excellent stories and insights. We wish you continued success in your great work!

Makers of The Metaverse: Omar Gull Of Race Kingdom On The Future Of The VR, AR & Mixed Reality… was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Meet The Disruptors: Adam McMullin of AvaSure On The Five Things You Need To Shake Up Your Industry

An Interview With Fotis Georgiadis

Innovation is invention at scale. To accomplish things at scale, your organization needs to be aligned and have everyone rowing in the same direction.

As a part of our series about business leaders who are shaking things up in their industry, I had the pleasure of interviewing Adam McMullin.

Adam McMullin is the CEO of AvaSure, a pioneer and market leader in acute virtual care and patient safety monitoring, helping a thousand hospitals and health systems large and small create safer environments for patients, families and caregivers. A proven leader in healthcare technology for more than 15 years, McMullin most recently served as CEO at FDS, Inc., a leading provider of pharmacy software solutions. Prior to that, he was CEO at Voalte, a provider of clinical communications technology for healthcare systems. McMullin was also a senior executive at Hillrom, where he delivered innovative solutions to support clinical workflows and improve patient safety. He began his career at IBM, working in consulting, strategy, marketing and sales.

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 our readers what it is about the work you’re doing that’s disruptive?

Staffing shortages, financial pressures and something called the experience-complexity gap — which is when experienced nurses who retire are replaced by new and relatively inexperienced nurses — are motivating hospitals to explore technologies that enable more efficient and better care.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, providers and patients became accustomed to the convenience and flexibility of virtual care. As a result, interest in virtual care for health systems has never been higher. For the first time, health systems are seriously looking at how many jobs can be redesigned to be more efficient and effective by integrating virtual and in-person resources.

AvaSure provides scalable virtual care solutions with deep analytics combined with deep clinical change management and support so our customers can improve patient care while controlling costs more efficiently.

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 was younger and in my first leadership role, I was so focused on trying to do things correctly that I was viewed as sort of mechanical. During town hall meetings, the sales leader would honor anyone who helped with anything customer related. He’d write their name on all these footballs and then throw them out into the audience.

At the very end of one sales meeting, he announced, “We have a special award for our CEO, who I know is passionate about the business, but always a little tight. So, I got him a can of WD-40 with his name on it to help remind him to stay loose.” That message has always stayed with me.

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?

When I first got into healthcare, a couple of mentors that were pretty impactful for me were Melissa Fitzpatrick and Mike Gallup.

Melissa is the former chief nurse officer for Duke. She took me under her wing and made it her job to help me understand how clinical care is delivered and the importance of bridging the gap between the IT world and the clinical world. She really helped me understand what it was like to walk in the shoes of the nurses we serve every day.

From Mike I learned about not accepting the status quo and executing with speed. Mike is the kind of person that if you have a problem and you’re choosing between option A and option B, he always looks for option C. He steps back from problems versus simply accepting the status quo and comes up with newer and better options. Do not be constrained by the resources you think you have, find the right answer, and then find the resources. That’s what I learned from Mike.

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?

One of the things that’s so important about humanity is that we’re always striving to get better. If we become complacent because something has stood the test of time, then we’d miss opportunities to find new solutions and keep improving.

Take nursing, for example. They’ve had a bedside model that’s worked reasonably well for decades until the nursing shortage happened. While that shortage undeniably has created challenges, it also spurred innovative efforts to ensure nurses are working at the top of their license to avoid burnout. And now we have found a way to address the nursing shortage using our TeleSitter® and TeleNurse™ solutions. I just don’t see the negative side of disruption.

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 five best words are: alignment, communication, transparency, humility and execution.

Innovation is invention at scale. To accomplish things at scale, your organization needs to be aligned and have everyone rowing in the same direction.

That won’t happen, however, unless an organization’s leaders are able to clearly articulate a vision and strategy. Being able to succinctly communicate a long-term vision is critical for sustainable success.

A big part of communication is transparency around what’s working and what’s not working. Employees respect and appreciate honesty. Transparency breeds trust, which in turn engenders loyalty. In organizations where workers respect and trust leaders and buy into the collective mission, “quiet quitting” isn’t a problem.

People also respect humility and the ability of leaders to admit mistakes. This self-awareness and willingness to acknowledge when something isn’t working is essential to making sound decisions. Conversely, hubris inevitably leads to miscalculation and disaster.

Finally, urgent execution is critical to success in healthcare. You have to be evolving and moving the ball forward constantly to meet the needs of patients while operating the business side efficiently. A huge part of execution is scalability and flexibility. We saw during the pandemic how many provider organizations were able to leverage virtual care technology almost overnight to continue treating patients, while those providers who couldn’t saw a sharp drop in revenue.

We are sure you aren’t done. How are you going to shake things up next?

We plan to use machine learning and artificial intelligence (AI) in a practical way to automate more things in the care environment, to have a second set of computer eyes on the room, and to improve the delivery of care. Do we know if a patient is about to get out of bed and they’re a falls risk? Do we know if an IV bag needs to be replaced? Has the patient been visited recently? There are some practical things we can do with AI that will allow better care to be delivered more efficiently.

Is there 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?

My mother was born in London during World War II and my grandfather served, so the leadership during WWII has always fascinated me. I have read many books about Winston Churchill, most recently “The Splendid and the Vile.”

What I found most interesting is that you realize even though Churchill was projecting confidence to the public and his aides, he was just like everyone else during the war who was feeling the stress and depression. Everyone had to get out of bed each morning and put on their pants the same way. When we lionize people, it makes them seem different from us. This book really kind of humanized Churchill for me.

No matter how hard something seems in my life, I always reflect on the fact that others have had to lead through much more difficult times. Thus, we owe it to our teams, customers and stakeholders to step up and bring our A-game.

Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share how that was relevant to you in your life?

I’m not really a quote person, but I do try to make sure I pull out the best from every situation, whether positive or negative, to see how I can be a better person and a better leader for those around me.

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. 🙂

Our technology solution is currently in the top 10 health systems in the U.S. and in 1,000+ hospitals in United States and Canada. We want to bring more virtual care and AI care to more people across the globe. We need to make virtual nursing a global practice so that nurses can practice at the top of their license.

How can our readers follow you online?

Follow me on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/adampmcmullin/

and https://www.linkedin.com/company/avasurellc/posts/?feedView=all

This was very inspiring. Thank you so much for joining us!

Meet The Disruptors: Adam McMullin of AvaSure On The Five Things You Need To Shake Up Your Industry was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

The Future Is Now: Miles Parry On How Their Technological Innovation Will Shake Up The Tech Scene

An Interview With Fotis Georgiadis

Always remember that everyone is just as important as one another. We just have different roles and responsibilities. Everyone on the team has the same objective to succeed, no one is too senior to roll up their sleeves and get their hands dirty.

As a part of our series about cutting-edge technological breakthroughs, I had the pleasure of interviewing Miles Parry.

Miles Parry, Co-Founder and CEO of MPCH Labs, has extensive experience building highly secure solutions to protect sensitive data and assets. Miles has worked as a trusted consultant for a variety of government organizations, such as the Ministry of Defense, the Financial Conduct Authority, and the Foreign Commonwealth Officer. Before MPCH, Miles founded and built Vo1t (now Genesis), a high-security service that safeguards valuable digital assets trusted by some of the world’s largest companies. At MPCH, Miles is focused on delivering military-grade security infrastructure and cryptographically approved business process management across economic sectors.

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 background began in consulting for governments specializing in physical and cyber intelligence and security. I have an affinity for new technologies and I like to think outside of the box. When I discovered Bitcoin in 2011, I began mining Bitcoin in my mother’s basement- which is an electricity bill I still haven’t paid her back for. I entered the space very early and since then have been an angel investor and advisor for layer 1s and 2s. From 2015–2020 I founded and ran Vo1t, a secure cold storage custodian that was acquired by DCG. It eventually became Genesis Custody, which is one of the largest crypto custodians in the world. I became the global Managing Director of Custody at Genesis.

All accounted for, I have gone from shaking the tin for change for a small start-up, to be a well-regarded start-up company, to one of the most dominant crypto custodians in the world. During this process, I witnessed the maturity of our industry and developed an understanding of new-world technological advancements. I saw a lot of start-ups devoting energy and resources to fixing individual bits and pieces of the industry, but there was a problem: they weren’t thinking outside the box to address the underlying problem of how to actually harness the benefits of MPC. And this is the origin of MPCH Labs. MPC is not actually a technology, it’s a concept. People have taken this concept and made their own iterations of technology. Essentially, I witnessed other companies shoe-horn MPC tech into crypto wallets, cutting corners to enable speed to market, to subsequently capitalise on market hype. This application is cryptographically centered around a private key which means these developers have to change iterations to support new assets, which results in a continuous change of their production environment. This creates massive problems at scale. MPCH Labs applies a singular method of authentication on wallet approval which enables the largest institutions to utilize our service at scale. The MPC6 engine enables authentication and authorization capabilities cryptographically bound by 6 layers, allowing us to be adopted by multiple industries with different use cases. Our first product is Fraction, a secure wallet not just for crypto, but all digital assets as a whole. We listened to the market and digested all the lessons learned. We know what the traditional markets want, we know what the new age markets want, and we have built functionalities for both. We are using recognised and certified technologies and hardware such as HSMs to ensure the likes of governments, financial institutions, military, etc. can utilise the MPC6 engine for multiple applications.

We also recognise the importance of compliance and are therefore in process of being properly audited so that the MPC6 engine can scale and support institutional adoption.

Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you began your career?

Technically you want these moments to be rooted in success stories, but this one meeting was a bit of a disaster. There was one event where I was sitting with a top-tier bank in front of their senior department heads. Despite how intimidating the environment was, I found it really enjoyable because this particular meeting came with a eureka moment. My co-founder and I were going back and forth explaining variable tools and answering questions when the meeting turned a little sideways. Everyone we were presenting to started speaking over each other and arguing with one another. You had a security manager interrupting an operations manager who had just cut off someone from the innovations team. They were each insisting how our technology could resolve problems they had for years. They were so busy describing how our technology could help their business, my co-founder and I ended up leaving that meeting without achieving the goal of educating the attendees of our product. This was a breakthrough moment for us because it made us realise that the problem space exceeds the financial services industry and expands into multiple problems that can be solved by our engine, hence where MPC6 engine became modular to access multiple industries.

Can you tell us about the cutting-edge technological breakthroughs that you are working on? How do you think that will help people?

We have built our company to be considerate of the product and issues in front of us to ensure we build our solution correctly. The MPC6 engine has 6 layers all built to be modular and cryptographically work together agnostic to an industry. As such, the breakthroughs we experience occur on a weekly basis, and it’s not just one; it’s multiple. We are witnessing new functionalities and capabilities we didn’t even expect where possible. Our eyes continue to be opened to new problems we can resolve across different industries.

How do you think this might change the world?

Did you know the common denominator of all cyber hacks in the world is a breach/failure of the authentication layer? This breach/failure has led to a loss of client data, sensitive information, personal funds, you name it. It’s imperative we have this conversation because authentication is occurring on encrypted calls, logging on to a computer, swiping your pass at the office, and even unlocking a phone; it’s in just about everything in our everyday life. MPC technology can empower governments to have fair processes in voting, it can secure corporate operations, and it can even assist in the adoption of digital money. MPC technology can aid distressed countries that are in need of financial support, prevent large-scale data loss, reinforce cyber defense, and the list goes on. Authentication may be boring, but it’s relevant and important. At MPCH Labs, we seek to support multiple businesses across a variety of industries strategically with better systems.

Keeping “Black Mirror” in mind, can you see any potential drawbacks of this technology that people should think more deeply about?

The common thread in each Black Mirror episode I’ve seen was about technologies governed, monopolized, and controlled by an authority responsible for these devices. We are trying to reinforce the control of the people. We want to mitigate situations where certain corporations, for example, may try to centralize their control. All entrepreneurs in the tech space should be asking themselves how they can steward their technology to the right hands in the right way.

Was there a “tipping point” that led you to this breakthrough? Can you tell us that story?

Through the rigorous process of being an early entrepreneur learning how to raise funds and finding the right tool sets, there were multiple points where I saw different issues within the industry. I’ve seen a lot of companies seek to monopolize and lose touch with their objective. I watched them use their community to increase their position while forgetting where they came from. My journey is replete with learning from the flaws in our industry and we listened to those stories where companies didn’t quite have the pulse on what their customers were looking for. In just having these discussions and explaining the thesis behind MPC6 and Fraction, we’ve had a large number of institutions wishing to become design partners to help us test our initial product. Despite a bear market and the recession, we’ve been fortunate to get endorsed with our most recent raise. Between the outsized interest in companies wanting to be design partners and our Series A raise, these are good indicators we are on the right track. MPCH Labs not only enables us to service other industries, but it also allows us to build out a community of champions that can churn out specialists to adopt our technology and fix flaws in other industries themselves.

What do you need to lead this technology to widespread adoption?

I’m a strong believer in practicing what you preach. We often offer our technology to potential clients and let them see for themselves if our tech can do what we say it can. We are fortunate to have a large pipeline who want to adopt our tech from a variety of disciplines, especially on the blockchain-based asset side. Our prerogative, above a marketing plan, is to show industry players the questions they should be asking themselves and the problems they will face. This all goes back to the foundation of the blockchain community: it’s about a community that looks after one another. We seek to empower other companies with more than just our capabilities. We want to primarily educate them. This is the cycle that leads to adoption.

What have you been doing to publicize this idea? Have you been using any innovative marketing strategies?

We want to be publicized by recommendations; we want to be known for our reputation. We seek to make our marketing not simply about selling others on our tech, but by education. From there we can build and improve. We also try to practice what we preach by testing and utilising decentralized solutions, such as mastodon and mirror.xyz.

First, my wife. Without her, I wouldn’t be able to fly around the world, work late, work early hours, go to data centers, drive across countries and multiple states, or any of it. I wouldn’t be able to achieve anything if I didn’t have my support network at home. She has done and sacrificed so much to enable me to do what I’m doing. She is the most important person in my life. Second, my co-founder Cat Le-Huy. We are yin and yang. He allows me to be like a mad scientist who can think outside the box and use my dyslexia to build these technologies and solutions. He is the one with the enterprise at scale mind. He’s able to bring to life my crazy experience into something that can be accepted and understood. Being a founder is very hard and very lonely, so having that person to keep you level-set when you are pulling your hair out is crucial. The next two are my investors, Emil Woods and Murtaza Akbar who saw promise in myself and Cat. So much more than the financing, they mentored us and shared their wealth of experience in building companies of their own. They supported us through very difficult times and ultimately were invaluable to how we built the structure of our business. I personally see them as my mentors. Without any of these four people/pillars, I wouldn’t be where I am today.

How have you used your success to bring goodness to the world?

I am lucky to be the representative of a very strong company of 70 talented individuals. Ultimately, I measure our success by the team’s success. With that being said, what I’m most proud of is the ability to offer these people opportunities. I was not an academically savvy student, given my severe dyslexia. I was told I wasn’t smart throughout the entirety of my schooling. It only took one person to see my promise, Harpreet Johal at the FCA. Harpreet offered me an opportunity to display what I knew and as I did, it changed my life. He nurtured and guided me through my early years, and I’m keen to pay that forward. The best people in our business have been those who just needed one shot to prove how capable they were. These people have changed their own lives; all I did was give them the opportunity to do so. Degrees and certifications are valuable, but it’s a person’s mentality and drive that’s most important.

What are your “5 Things I Wish Someone Told Me Before I Started” and why?

First is to look past the problem you are trying to solve and find the root issue to solve. The second is to choose your investors carefully. Money is important, but smart money is more valuable. Make your investors work for their next allocation. Third is to surround yourself with people better than you, not just “yes people”. Fourth is to build a strong culture and look after your people. You may be the captain of the ship, but a ship without a crew will inevitably crashes. Finally the fifth, always remember that everyone is just as important as one another. We just have different roles and responsibilities. Everyone on the team has the same objective to succeed, no one is too senior to roll up their sleeves and get their hands dirty. Though these five phrases appear simple, they are quite difficult to practice/maintain, but will pay dividends in the long term.

I would love to tell people that it doesn’t matter if you’ve been kicked out/haven’t done great at school. If you have a great idea and surround yourself with the right people, anything is possible. But be aware, if it were easy, everyone would do it. If you are given an opportunity, you are going to have to be persistent. Only then can you succeed. Lots of people are given opportunities and they shy away because they say they don’t have enough money, don’t know investors, or don’t have a team. I would tell that person to surround themselves with good people who can change that perspective. There’s no such thing as being too late or too early in this process, if you have the right idea and drive to make it happen, it will happen.

Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share how that was relevant to you in your life?

My quote is this: “Why the hell not?” A lot of people have great ideas and they ask themselves why they should follow through on them. I say, why the hell not? If there’s an opportunity, go for it. What if you shake the tree and apples fall? I tell my team this everyday and it’s enabled the mentality that we are the sum of all our parts, not just the Miles and Cat show. If someone has a great idea, why the hell not? Let’s do it.

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 🙂

MPCH Labs is an industry agnostic, game-changing cryptographic authentication infrastructure that has already revolutionized government, military, and now entering the financial services space. We are aware and have proven this technology has the ability to change all industries. The challenge we face is prioritizing which industry we want to change next. We don’t just want VCs with money, we want VCs who have access to different industries we can enter and resolve issues for. As said before, we like smart money.

How can our readers follow you on social media?

https://twitter.com/mpch_lab

Thank you so much for joining us. This was very inspirational.

The Future Is Now: Miles Parry On How Their Technological Innovation Will Shake Up The Tech Scene was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Métier Creative: Nicole Birman, Michelle Varkonyl, Natalie Mathers and Jasmine Motala: Five Things…

Métier Creative: Nicole Birman, Michelle Varkonyl, Natalie Mathers and Jasmine Motala: Five Things You Need To Build A Trusted And Beloved Brand

An Interview With Fotis Georgiadis

Stay true to who you are and what you believe in, and stand for it at every opportunity.

As part of our series about how to create a trusted, believable, and beloved brand, I had the pleasure to Interview Nicole Birman, Michelle Varkonyl, Natalie Mathers and Jasmine Motala.

Nicole Birman, Managing Director at Métier Creative, Michelle Varkonyi Director, Client Services at Métier Creative, Natalie Mathers, Head Of Art at Métier Creative and Jasmine Motala, Associate Director, Strategy.

Thank you so much for doing this with us! Can you tell us a story about what brought you to this specific career path?

NB: Interestingly, Métier is made up of women that come from different corners of the industry. Our CEO, Erin, is a serial entrepreneur and her experience building Coveteur — telling brands’ stories through the publication’s lens, led her to start Métier — so we could help brands tell stories through their lenses. My background is rooted in fashion and luxury advertising having started my career at a top NY-based fashion agency going on to cut my teeth in-house at Ralph Lauren. Members of Métier bring with them experience from the event & production world, e-comm and digital advertising, architecture and industrial design as well as more traditional advertising agency work.

What do you think makes your company stand out? Can you share a story?

NB: There are so many agencies out there and we actually spend quite a bit of time in self-reflection and strategy-mode — especially as we near the end of the year — thinking, planning and plotting for the one to come. When we talk about what makes us different a few key themes come to mind: First and foremost, we are the consumer. We work with brands and take on projects that are relevant and interesting to us; we are the target audience… who better to answer a consumer problem than the people you’re trying to target? Second, we lead with gut and intuition. It can almost feel taboo to say that, amidst the pressure to become more data-centric, but it’s something we take a lot of pride in. Taste isn’t something that can be measured and that ‘skill’ — if you can even call it that — is inherent to how we build our team. Last but certainly not least, we take a ‘Four Seasons’ approach when it comes to our client relationships. We view each relationship as a marriage — with that comes open & candid communication, trust and honesty, and some late night FaceTimes every now and again!

Are you working on any exciting new projects now? How do you think that will help people?

MV: Earlier this quarter, we wrapped a project with Maybelline titled Brave Together. It’s their global mental health platform that brings attention and awareness to people’s daily struggle with anxiety and depression. Métier worked with Maybelline’s Global Content team to not only create social-first assets for their platforms to educate people on what to do when faced with anxiety and depression, and specific resources but also to connect with creators all over the world to help them share their stories and experiences in a meaningful way.

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?

JM: Branding is long-term thinking that focuses on building your brand’s world (identity and reputation). Advertising is shorter-term creative that focuses on getting your products/services noticed through culturally relevant stories.

NM: To me, branding is the true, overarching story and identity of the brand. Whereas advertising is all the iterations of that story. If branding is the north star then advertising is all the little stars that surround it.

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?

JM: A brand’s value lives in the perception and power of its consumers. The most successful brands will claim their message in the minds of its audience, and those that resonate will choose you over the rest. You can then bridge perception and reputation to profit and loyalty, which is why investing in brand building is so important for overall, long-term success.

NM: Consumers are (rightfully) full of skepticism. They’ve been bamboozled by flash in the pan advertising before and now they know better. So they question everything. When you invest time into building a rock solid, clear minded brand story you make your brand more believable. The longer and more consistently you live your brand’s truths, the less doubt consumers will have about you.

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.

JM:

Solve real problems and needs of your target audience.
Build against goals promises you can actually deliver on.
Be as clear and concise as possible.
Stay true to who you are and what you believe in, and stand for it at every opportunity.
Create a strong identity that can become instantly recognizable.

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?

JM: I’m impressed by brands like Nike, Hermès and Goop because they never stop pushing the boundaries and surprising. They know who they are, what they stand for and what their superpower is — and they consistently prove that every chance they get. Never fearful of upsetting someone and just doing what feels right.

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?

JM: Brand building campaigns are usually measured on community sentiment. I.e. your hero brand message getting across/adopted clearly, shifting mindsets/behaviors, positive word of mouth, social media shares & buzz, or resonating with diverse communities beyond a singular group.

What role does social media play in your branding efforts?

JM: Humanizing your brand and socializing your positioning into stories that resonate with the masses. Social media is one of the best ways to build, understand and get closer with your community and customers on a more personal level.

NM: Social opens up the floor for your brand’s community to speak back to you. It fosters the type of two way conversation that only social can. These conversations can go on to inform how future content and campaigns come to life, grounding them in what the brand’s community really wants from or thinks about them.

NB: Mentorship has always been a central fixture for us. It’s something that Erin has always instilled — we joke that her office is basically a revolving door of youngins who are eager to embark on their own career journeys. We decided that we want to make this ‘open door policy’ — public. We’ll be launching Maison Mentors in early 2023 — a new program unlocking the wide-world of brand building within the spaces of fashion, beauty and lifestyle. As a united house, uplifting new and diverse voices has long been a part of our DNA. Now, we’re bringing together some of the industry’s best to create opportunities for participants to discover their path, build relationships and have impactful conversations that lead to new ways of thinking, dreaming and doing. Stay tuned for launch 👀👀👀

Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share how that was relevant to you in your life?

NB: “Harmony is the pleasing arrangement of different tones, voices or instruments, not the combination of identical sounds. Creative tension makes beautiful music.” — Adam Grant. Adam is a brilliant organizational psychologist and I follow him for daily nuggets like this one. It’s so highly relevant to what we do at Métier, both internally within our teams and externally with our clients. Some of our best work stems from healthy debate and productive disagreements. When the team or the brand is pushed to reach outside of what’s comfortable, that’s where the magic lies!

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. 🙂

NB: ADAM GRANT! ^^^

How can our readers follow you on social media?

@metiercreative on Instagram

Thank you so much for joining us. This was very inspirational.

Métier Creative: Nicole Birman, Michelle Varkonyl, Natalie Mathers and Jasmine Motala: Five Things… was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Meet The Disruptors: Eldad Postan-Koren Of Winn AI On The Five Things You Need To Shake Up Your…

Meet The Disruptors: Eldad Postan-Koren Of Winn AI On The Five Things You Need To Shake Up Your Industry

An Interview With Fotis Georgiadis

It is all persistence. Holding your emotional situation, keeping on a positive mindset, and keep pushing. Grit is the best tool for entrepreneurs. We got the first yes from investors after 40 told us no. Each No is a knockout you need to raise from- faster, stronger, better.

As a part of our series about business leaders who are shaking things up in their industry, I had the pleasure of interviewing Eldad Posten-Korn.

Eldad Posten-Korn, Founder and CEO of Winn.AI, considers entrepreneurship in all fields as part of his DNA.

He was the first COO of DreaMed Diabetes where he built it from the ground up and was responsible for the company’s initial commercialization efforts (Sales, Marketing, Customer service, and CSM). Before helping launch DreaMed, he focused on Value Creation at OurCrowd — a company that enables accredited investors to join top VCs, Angel Investors, and Strategic Partners in accessing fully vetted deals. In addition, he founded two NGOs (Shavot and The Sky is the Limit); served as the Hebrew University Student Union’s Chairman, and is a proud veteran Naval Officer.

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?

Hi, I’m Eldad Posten-Korn, 37, the founder and CEO of Winn.AI, a startup that builds an artificial intelligence-based personal assistant for salespeople. The company has been operating for about a year, raised $17 million as an initial investment, and has 25 employees. For the past decade, I’ve also been an active entrepreneur, and in recent years, together with my heart surgeon wife Roni, we co-founded ‘Shavot’, a non-profit organization for girls’ leadership.

The idea behind Winn.AI came after leading sales at DreaMed Diabetes, where I also started as the first field salesman. The professional pain I experienced firsthand at DreaMed, is the same one we’re solving with Winn.AI today.

Can you tell our readers what it is about the work you’re doing that’s disruptive?

The modern sales workflow is broken. As a leader you’re crafting a ‘sales playbook’, a collection of processes and content to support the ideal sales process, but then your actual salespeople aren’t embracing it. Why should they? The individual salesperson is already investing about a third of their time in following tedious administrative protocols, which they feel are counterproductive on many occasions. Winn.AI’s solution is all about bridging that gap. Our product join’s the sales person in their day-to-day sales meetings, and automatically tracks & captures the meeting minutes, thus enabling the salespeople to focus on their customers and not their keyboards.

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 the ideation phase, I also “dated” potential co-founders. I remember one of those dates, an hour and a half where I took maybe 10 minutes of talking. I wanted to run away. He generously came with me to the car. I got in a drive as fast as I can out of there.

We all need a little help along the journey. Who has been some of your mentors? Can you share a story about how they made an impact?

We were lucky enough to gather some great people around us, and we have some very inspiring advisors and investors. One of our VP Sales angels visited Israel and we were discussing the company name which was Liger back then. He said your bottom line value should be to improve the win rate. This was the moment we decided to change the name to Winn.AI.

Interfering with salespersons in our daily conduct is not good. Adding another system for them to enter, and changing the way they are used to working is a negative type of interference. This is the main reason I built Winn.AI as an augmentation of other existing systems. This will effectively disrupt the sales force where disruption is needed and welcomed.

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 is all persistence. Holding your emotional situation, keeping on a positive mindset, and keep pushing. Grit is the best tool for entrepreneurs. We got the first yes from investors after 40 told us no. Each No is a knockout you need to raise from- faster, stronger, better.

We are sure you aren’t done. How are you going to shake things up next?

It feels like we’re just getting started. In the coming months, we’re going to add more ecosystems where we see high demand, and next year we’re going to officially launch our free product so that every salesperson on earth could immediately try our product. Our mission is to provide our users with an experience that they’ve never had before, and we feel the huge appetite in the sales market for such a product.

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? [Meitar]

Gandhi’s books are all great inspirations for me. I admire his crystal clear view of the world but more than this I appreciate the fact he 100% believed in leading by example. This was his force power.

Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share how that was relevant to you in your life?

“Don’t offer help — give help” that’s what my parents taught me at a young age Since then, it has been etched in my mind.

At around the age of seven, a water pipe burst in our house and I just took a mop and started raking. They said, “leave everything is fine”. And I told them, “you taught me that help should be given and not offered.” That is the greatest gift that my mother and father gave me — to have a sense of responsibility, for myself and my environment.

Bridging the gender gap. Actually, I founded this movement called Shavot. Shavot lets girls strengthen their sense of self-worth and provides them with tools that will enable them to fulfill their aspirations.

The nonprofit runs several nationwide programs that encourage girls to develop positive self-esteem and to believe in themselves in the long run. Through meaningful experiences, combining elements of goal-setting, self-feedback, and learning about inspirational women.

With Shavot, participants discover new strengths, aspire to reach higher goals, and achieve them.

How can our readers follow you online?

https://www.linkedin.com/in/eldad-postan/

https://www.facebook.com/eldad.postan

https://twitter.com/EldadPostan

This was very inspiring. Thank you so much for joining us!

Meet The Disruptors: Eldad Postan-Koren Of Winn AI On The Five Things You Need To Shake Up Your… was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Alison Martin Of Engage Mentoring On How Diversity Can Increase a Company’s Bottom Line

An Interview With Fotis Georgiadis

Companies with a strong diversity program attract the very best talent. Building a diverse workforce will ultimately make your business more appealing to job seekers and existing employees alike, making it easier to attract top talent.

As a part of our series about “How Diversity Can Increase a Company’s Bottom Line”, I had the pleasure of interviewing Alison Martin.

Alison Martin is the Founder and Managing Director of Engage Mentoring, whose mission is to transform workplace cultures by leveraging software that provides access to meaningful relationships.

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?

Sure! I currently run a technology company that created a mentoring software and training program, but my background was actually in nonprofit work and I have a heart for impact. In fact, I had started a nonprofit to provide mentorship opportunities for women and was looking for software to support it. When I didn’t find what we were looking for, I contracted a developer to create a mentoring software and that is how Engage Mentoring was born just over 10 years ago.

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 exited the traditional workplace more than 10 years ago to start my own company at the age of 34 at what was really the beginning of a promising career as a nonprofit Executive Director for a large voluntary health organization. I don’t know if that is funny or interesting, but for me it required so much courage and the encouragement of a trusted mentor. I am so glad I made the leap.

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?

Things don’t happen to you, they happen for you. I believe things happen for a reason and you can learn powerful lessons when things don’t go the way as planned. This has been the case many times in my life and my career as I reflect back on it. Growth and learning always happened as a result of things not going according to plan AND those situations were usually shuffling in even greater opportunities. I try to remind myself to look for the lesson in everything.

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?

So many people! I was so fortunate to have met so many incredible people along my journey who saw my leadership potential and poured into me from a mentoring perspective, but I think the first boss who really took me under her wing and gave me the feedback I needed to grow was a woman by the name of Pat. Pat was the type of woman who never pulled any punches and you knew exactly where you stood with her, which wasn’t always a good thing. I learned so much from her about executive presence, speaking confidently, and navigating workplace politics from her and I am so grateful to have had her as a mentor early in my career.

What do you think makes your company stand out? Can you share a story?

We stand out in our company values, which are we are smart, adaptable, fun, determined, and passionate about people. This has helped us create a culture of employees with whom those values resonate and I see them carried out every day.

Are you working on any new or exciting projects now? How do you think that might help people?

We are launching a new leadership mentoring program for HR and Diversity professionals. These individuals are so critical to the success of any company and we are thrilled to offer a unique program designed to grow their leadership capacity, meet new people, and build lasting relationships.

How have you used your success to bring goodness to the world?

Mentoring programs, by nature, bring goodness to the world by allowing participants a safe space to learn while building a relationship between mentor and mentee, but I am proud to share we give back too. We have developed partnerships with universities and nonprofits which allow us to sponsor college students into our corporate mentoring programs at no cost to the student. It is our way of giving back by impacting the next generation of talent.

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.

1 — Companies far outperform their competition when they are more diverse. In fact, according to McKinsey & Company, the most diverse companies outperform their less diverse peers by 36% in profitability.

2 — Diverse teams are more productive. One study by Gartner revealed that a highly diverse environment can improve team performance by up to 30%.

3 — Having a diverse workforce helps attract a diverse pool of customers. Building a more diverse business, including by improving hiring practices to be more inclusive, as well as by working with diverse suppliers, can help improve a company’s reputation among customers. If businesses want to appeal to a broader customer base, that likely means they will have diverse customers, and it can help to be known as a company that accurately reflects the diversity of those they serve.

4 — Companies with a strong diversity program attract the very best talent. Building a diverse workforce will ultimately make your business more appealing to job seekers and existing employees alike, making it easier to attract top talent.

5 — The more diverse a company is, the more likely they are to retain their talent too. A vital part of the diversity retention requires company leaders to mentor diverse talent. At Engage Mentoring, we believe access to relationships in the form of mentoring is not a “nice to have”, but a critical strategy when looked at through the lens of diversity.

What advice would you give to other business leaders to help their employees to thrive?

Pour into them as a mentor. Get to know them, make time for them, and be willing to share your perspective. Mentoring is a powerful way to shortcut learning and help employees achieve their greatest potential.

What advice would you give to other business leaders about how to manage a large team?

One critical strategy in managing a large team is leveraging peer mentorship. Peer mentorship is an often overlooked strategy, but by aligning members of your team with your top performers in a mentorship capacity, it alleviates the pressure for the leader and helps develop the leadership capacity of your top performers and ensures your team has a mentoring culture — that is, they know how to pour into one another and know how to access the resources they need in order to succeed.

Sara Blakely for sure! I am a huge fan of hers.

How can our readers further follow your work online?

They can connect with me on LinkedIn or visit our website at Engagementoring.com

Thank you for these excellent insights. We wish you continued success in your great work.

Alison Martin Of Engage Mentoring On How Diversity Can Increase a Company’s Bottom Line was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

JT Giri Of nOps On Five Things You Need To Create A Highly Successful Startup

An Interview With Fotis Georgiadis

A Strong Vision and Mission — Startups need to have a clear vision that guides their business decisions and is something that stakeholders can easily understand.

An experienced technologist and serial entrepreneur, JT Giri’s passion is building and managing modern infrastructure solutions that help companies innovate faster. His experience with cloud started with Amazon EC2 in beta in 2006 where he worked with cloud-first, early adopters. He has been doing DevOps for more than 10 years, hands-on as a DevOps consultant, network engineer, systems architect, and sysadmin, helping solve complex operations challenges for Silicon Valley-based startups and enterprises.

He started nClouds in 2012 with a singular focus: empowering customers to deliver innovation faster. Now, nClouds is an award-winning AWS Premier Consulting Partner with deep skills, a long list of credentials , and lots of successful, innovative clients.

He founded nOps to productize the cool cloud management IP they initially created at nClouds to help fast-moving, cloud-native DevOps teams that need instant visibility to changes in their cloud environments.

When I first got into IT, I got a job as a network engineer in a data center. The best part of the job was configuring servers so they could talk to each other; the worst part was cabling and racking servers.

One of my friends told me about Cloud. Amazon had launched a very early version of Cloud. I started learning how to run workloads on Cloud. After a few months, I posted on Craigslist; the post’s title was Cloud Ninja. After that, I started getting Cloud migration gigs, I began migrating companies to the cloud. I was at the right place at the right time when cloud computing became a big thing.

What was the “Aha Moment” that led to the idea for your current company? Can you share that story with us?

My “Aha Moment” came when I noticed how quickly cloud spending continues to grow. It’s easy to provision resources on the cloud, but it can be incredibly difficult to optimize resources. All of the time engineers spend on learning AWS pricing plans is time away from building and developing features to delivering value to the end customers. I wanted to build a product to reduce cloud costs on autopilot so companies can focus on innovation.

Was there somebody in your life who inspired or helped you to start your journey with your business? Can you share a story with us?

My inspiration for starting my business journey began with my first job in IT, where I worked as a network engineer in a data center. While I enjoyed the challenge of configuring servers and routers and working with Linux systems, I hated all the cabling and racking of servers that came with it. When AWS launched its cloud offering, I suddenly had the opportunity to work with resources without having to worry about hardware, allowing me to focus on what I’m good at. Without this shift in technology, I may have never been able to pursue my entrepreneurial dreams. This story is a testament to the power of innovation and how it can create opportunities for new businesses.

What do you think makes your company stand out? Can you share a story?

Our company stands out from the competition because of our focus on innovation. We are dedicated to developing groundbreaking technologies and experience to optimize our customers’ AWS spending. We measure our success by the amount of money we are able to save our customers. Instead of operating like a “cloud tax” where vendors get paid regardless of the results we strive to create products that consistently provide value to our customers. By focusing on innovation and cost-efficiency, we can help our customers achieve success even in the most competitive markets.

How have you used your success to bring goodness to the world?

Our success allowed us to create jobs and new opportunities. I strive to give people a chance to pursue their dreams and shape their own futures. In addition, by creating tools and technologies that help automate mundane tasks, I’ve been able to free engineers to focus their efforts on more important, innovative tasks. I believe in empowering people with the tools they need to make an impact in the world.

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?

I can share four character traits that I believe have been most instrumental to my success: curiosity, willingness to take on uncomfortable tasks, investing in personal health, and surrounding myself with people who are smarter than me. My curiosity has helped me develop new ideas and think outside the box when it came to solving problems. I have also pushed myself out of my comfort zone by taking on difficult tasks that I was initially scared of. Additionally, I have invested in personal health with regular meditation and exercise, which enables me to stay focused and productive. Finally, I have surrounded myself with people who are more experienced and skilled than me, and who can help guide and mentor me.

Often leaders are asked to share the best advice they received. But let’s reverse the question. Can you share a story about advice you’ve received that you now wish you never followed?

The advice I received often that I misunderstood is to delegate all of my tasks as CEO. On the surface, it sounded like a great idea, but I soon realized that it’s important for CEOs to stay hands-on and connected to all of the teams. You can only effectively connect the dots and make decisions when you stay involved in every aspect of the business. In startups, it’s better to delegate tasks that are not essential or core to the business than to completely hands-off your responsibilities.

Can you tell us a story about the hard times that you faced when you first started your journey?

When I first started my journey, I faced many challenges. The most difficult obstacle was finding the right resources and support to help me move forward. I had no experience, mentors, or advisors to turn to, so I had to learn everything on my own and make informed decisions based on the limited information available to me. Not only that, but I also had to figure out how to balance my day-to-day responsibilities with the demands of starting a new business. Through persistence and dedication, I eventually overcome these obstacles and was able to launch my company and begin my journey as an entrepreneur.

Where did you get the drive to continue even though things were so hard? What strategies or techniques did you use to help overcome those challenges?

The drive to continue despite hard times came from my belief that showing up every day is key to success. No matter what happened yesterday, or what will happen tomorrow, we can only focus our energy on the present moment. I used this mindset as a strategy to keep myself motivated and focused on the tasks at hand. I also worked hard to create a support system of mentors and advisors who could provide guidance and feedback. Through resilience and resourcefulness, I was eventually able to overcome my obstacles and find success

The journey of an entrepreneur is never easy and is filled with challenges, failures, setbacks, as well as joys, thrills and celebrations. Can you share a few ideas or stories from your experience about how to successfully ride the emotional highs & lows of being a founder”?

The journey of an entrepreneur is never easy and is filled with challenges, failures, and setbacks, as well as joys, thrills, and celebrations. To successfully ride the emotional highs and lows, it is important to focus on the present moment. Showing up each day and focusing your energy on the task at hand is key to staying motivated during difficult times. It also helps to create a support system of mentors, advisors, and friends who can provide guidance and advice. Finally, leveraging techniques such as mindfulness and self-care can help you manage your emotions and keep you in control of the situation. By harnessing these strategies, I was able to find success despite all the ups and downs.

Let’s imagine that a young founder comes to you and asks for your advice about whether venture capital or bootstrapping is best for them? What would you advise them? Can you kindly share a few things a founder should look at to determine if fundraising or bootstrapping is the right choice?

It really depends on the individual situation and goals of the founder, but there are a few key factors to consider when deciding between venture capital or bootstrapping.

First, the founder should think about their timeline and how quickly they need to grow their business. Bootstrapping offers more flexibility but often takes longer. Venture capital can help speed up growth but usually comes with increased pressure in terms of expectations and timelines.

Second, the founder should consider what resources they can access. A startup may need more than just capital to succeed, and a venture capital firm may be able to provide access to valuable networks, mentors, and other resources.

Third, the founder should evaluate the potential returns from different sources of capital.

Ok super. Here is the main question of our interview. Many startups are not successful, and some are very successful. From your experience or perspective, what are the main factors that distinguish successful startups from unsuccessful ones? What are your “Five Things You Need To Create A Highly Successful Startup”? If you can, please share a story or an example for each.

Successful startups typically have the following five factors in common:

1. A Strong Vision and Mission — Startups need to have a clear vision that guides their business decisions and is something that stakeholders can easily understand.

2. Leadership: You need strong, passionate, and experienced leaders in order to make sure that your startup succeeds. A successful leader is one who knows how to motivate their team, can make tough decisions, and take risks when needed. Elon Musk is a great example, as he has been able to motivate his team, take big risks and stick to his long-term vision.

3. A Solid Business Model. At the end of the day, businesses must be able to generate value in the market to stay competitive. And as Peter Thiel puts it, you need to be able to capture some of the value you create. That’s the only way to build a sustainable business.

4. Passion and Enthusiasm — A successful startup needs to have passionate and enthusiastic founders and employees who believe in and dedicate themselves to achieving the company’s goals.

5. Focus and Execution — Startups need to be able to focus on the tasks at hand and execute them quickly and efficiently in order.

What are the most common mistakes you have seen CEOs & founders make when they start a business? What can be done to avoid those errors?

One of the most common mistakes that CEOs and founders make when starting a business is not getting started early enough. Too often, entrepreneurs become overwhelmed with all the details of starting a business and thus spend too much time “planning” and not enough time “doing”. This can lead to missed opportunities, or even worse, failure to launch. To avoid this mistake, it is important for entrepreneurs to take action quickly and be prepared to pivot their strategy if necessary. Finally, it is important to surround yourself with experienced individuals who can provide advice and guidance along the way. When I started I used to go to meetups to meet people who were a lot more experienced than me.

Startup founders often work extremely long hours and it’s easy to burn the candle at both ends. What would you recommend to founders about how to best take care of their physical and mental wellness when starting a company?

Building a company is a marathon, not a sprint, and it’s important to take care of yourself. Working out and meditating can be great ways to take a break and recharge, and often it is during these times when some of your best ideas come to light. Additionally, it is important to make sure to develop strong relationships with your team and colleagues in order to have a supportive network that you can rely on.

If I could start a movement that would bring the most good to the most people, it would be focused on developing sustainable and impactful solutions to the global garbage problem. I believe that in the next ten years, AI and robots will improve recycling and waste management processes. Therefore, I would strive to encourage startups to innovate and create environmentally-friendly solutions to fundamentally change how we recycle. By investing in these technologies, we can make the world cleaner, safer, and healthier for everyone.

We are blessed that some very prominent 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 anyone in the world, it would undoubtedly be Elon Musk. His impact on this world is absolutely amazing, and I believe that spending some time with him would be an incredible opportunity to hear his unique perspective and gain insight into his thought process.

How can our readers further follow your work online?

Follow me on Twitter or Linkedin.

This was very inspiring. Thank you so much for the time you spent on this. We wish you continued success and good health!

JT Giri Of nOps On Five Things You Need To Create A Highly Successful Startup was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Making Something From Nothing: Alicia Pintwala Of Slowlii On How To Go From Idea To Launch

An Interview With Fotis Georgiadis

You are going to be very hard on yourself — truly your toughest critic. I’m not an overly self-critical person, but boy oh boy, that goes out the window after starting a business. Cut yourself some slack from day one because you’re going to need it.

As a part of our series called “Making Something From Nothing”, I had the pleasure of interviewing Alicia Pintwala.

Starting a business together was always a bit of a pipe dream for Alicia and her husband, Justin. But throughout the pandemic, when they found themselves at home with three little kids, they started building certain habits into their daily wellness routines to help them cope with ongoing stressors. They soon realized that what they really wanted didn’t exist. So they created it themselves.

Together they founded Slowlii — a wellness company helping busy people press pause. Slowlii’s first product, Restore, is a minty ashwagandha tablet that melts in your mouth in ~ 3 minutes. It’s the first supplement to incorporate a mindfulness aspect to it. While it’s formulated with clinically proven ingredients to reduce stress and anxiety, the melt-away feature prompts you to pause (put those phones down), check-in with yourself and find calm and clarity in the moment.

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 am the youngest of four, growing up in Toronto, Canada. My siblings are quite a bit older than me so, at times, it felt like I was an only child — lots of people looked out for me. I had a fairly traditional upbringing and was very lucky to be raised by hard working parents who were always present. As a kid I was always very social and I’d say from day one, one of my biggest personality traits has been wanting to make sure everyone around me is happy — which I’ve learnt as an adult, can be a flaw as much as it is strength. I went to Queen’s University, studying Psychology + Health Studies. I sort of fell into the non-for-profit space after school and ended up working in fundraising for 12 years. It was a great “feel good” space to be in but I yearned for more creativity and autonomy. I really wanted to create something myself and give it my all.

Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share how that was relevant to you in your life?

“Understanding that failure is not the opposite of success, it’s part of success” I wouldn’t say I grew up with a ton of confidence in my abilities and as a result, putting myself out there, with the risk that I may fail, it’s always scared the heck out of me. But you’ve gotta do it, take the risks where you can, try new things, talk to different people, do stuff outside of your comfort zone.

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?

Before we even came up with our own business idea, How I Built This, Guy Raz, was a huge inspiration for me. I love hearing about successful entrepreneurs who came up with an idea and followed through on it, how they failed and got back up again. I think it helped to give me the confidence that I could do that too — I just needed the right idea.

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’ve wanted to start my own business for years and have tried a few things — I thought I would start a jewelry brand for a while. I launched a Moroccan carpet business which was a lot of fun — but I did it blindly and with only one foot in the door which didn’t make it very successful. Justin has owned his own business for years and is probably the one that inspired me to become more entrepreneurial over the years. I used to brainstorm the “million dollar idea” and he would always say, “don’t force the idea generation, it will come to you — it’ll be something you personally need that doesn’t exist and that’s when you run with it”. Then kids happened, 3 of them back-to-back, and I felt like my head was spinning. I was looking for ways to pause in my day. And that was it. The idea came to me, to us, because we needed it, just like he said it would.

Don’t just start something to start something — do it because you’re passionate about it, because you’re willing to sacrifice things in order to see this one thing be successful and because you want to add value to your community and the world.

We relied heavily on google and social media and crossed our fingers (and toes) that nobody would come out with something similar before we launched. Obviously there are a lot of supplements-based products out there and wellness is a saturated market to be in right now. We knew our product had to be different — especially bootstrapping it like we’ve done, we just didn’t have the funds to compete with the big dogs. Our brand and product had to be able to differentiate itself.

Research the space/industry as best you can — use every disposal at your fingertips for this. Talk to lots of people in the industry.
We created a formula that we loved based on our mission of helping people slow down. The supplement also had to literally help people pause, through a melt away tablet which was unique in the market.
The hero ingredient we used (ksm-66 ashwagandha) had never been used in a melt and we were actually told it wouldn’t work because the taste was too hard to mask. Even the manufacturer couldn’t do it with their in-house R&D team. So we used a flavor house that were pros and they suggested a flavor (peppermint) that they believed would help mask the earthy taste of ashwagandha (given it is a root found in India).
Finding the right co-manufacturer was a long process. We found one we really liked and actually put down a deposit with them to help us formulate a product but they ended up being way too expensive to make the economics work. Luckily they fully refunded our money!
Once you partner with a co-manufacturer to develop the product, the time it takes to receive a sample can be months, and then you need to iterate it many times to get it as near perfect as possible. And once you finish, it’s another few months to fulfill an order. So buckle in for the long haul and ideally keep your day job if you can so you aren’t too stressed.
We decided to start selling DTC through our website using a shopify site. It’s so great how many tools there are when setting up an e-commerce site. It is easy, but we did spend a lot of time getting our design right. We wanted everything on the site to feel like your mind slowed down. We know social media does the opposite (speeds your mind up) so our intention is to be a tiny little moment in your day to help you slow down and enjoy the moment.
Don’t be fooled, we still feel like we are not “successful” yet. We have a long way to go to build the product within retail stores and continually build the brand. It is not easy, but we do our best to stay focused on the day, and not get too scared about what the future holds. Our own product helps us with this which is nice! If we can help you make a plan to build out a product you have in mind, feel free to email or DM us over social.

What are your “5 Things I Wish Someone Told Me When I First Started Leading My Company” and why?

It’s not worth it if you’re not having fun with it. It’s kind of ironic to start a business dedicated to slowing down and de-stressing when there is nothing more stressful than starting a business. It’s easy to get caught up on it and forget why you’re doing it in the first place. At the end of the day everything we’re doing is to better ourselves and our family and if that’s being jeopardized, we need to ask ourselves if it’s worth it. We’ve had to pause and remind ourselves of this a handful of times over this past first year.
Make boundaries and commit to them. Working for yourself is no 9 to 5. Especially when it’s fun and you’re passionate about it, it’s easy to work every waking hour and log-in in the evenings or on weekends. But when you own your business with a small team of 3, you also can’t afford to reach that level of burn-out. It’s important to set boundaries for yourself. In my opinion, it’s not impressive to kill yourself over a job so don’t fall for burning the candle at both ends.
You are going to be very hard on yourself — truly your toughest critic. I’m not an overly self-critical person, but boy oh boy, that goes out the window after starting a business. Cut yourself some slack from day one because you’re going to need it.
Good things take time. When we did our soft-launch, we were sure we would see organic traffic to the site. Then when we started paid ads on social, we were certain that would do the trick and drive sales overnight. We were naive. Neither was the case, which was a hard blow to our egos. But our expectations were too high. We were excited about the business, the brand and we thought everyone else would be too. Building a business, a following, a customer base, building that social proof — rarely does it happen immediately. Make sure your goals and expectations are achievable so that you can celebrate the successes, even if they are small.
Your business is not a reflection of you. When you build a business from the ground-up, it’s hard for it to not become personal. We must remember that at the end of the day, it is a business and one of your goals is to generate revenue. Try not to get stuck on what you want and ensure you are making decisions that align with the mission and values of your business. For example, when we started Slowlii, I had a very specific consumer in mind, certain people in my life as well as influencers, that I was certain would fall in love with our product and speak to it. That wasn’t always the case and it’s taken a lot for me to become less narrow-minded and think about the brand more holistically rather than a reflection of me.

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?

Ask yourself how this product differentiates itself from what is already out there. And then determine its value-add — why do people need it and how is it going to help them?

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?

We can’t do everything well. I don’t think there is any shame in hiring a consultant to help you develop the product and, if anything, it may move things along for you faster than not. Coming up with the idea is half the battle. There are experts in every field and not taking advantage of that would be a disservice to yourself.

What are your thoughts about bootstrapping vs looking for venture capital? What is the best way to decide if you should do either one?

We are currently self-funded but I don’t believe there is a best way per-se. There are a lot of factors that go into whether or not external funding is the right option. For us right now, we want the autonomy to make our own decisions and take the company in our own direction but that’s not to say that things may change in a year or in three. If we needed a venture capitalist in order to see real growth and take Slowlii to the next level, we wouldn’t be opposed to that. But it would be important that they are 100% behind the mission of the company and our values — they need to be aligned with us in every aspect.

Ok. We are nearly done. Here are our final questions. How have you used your success to make the world a better place?

I’d like to think in a few ways. For one, we are relatable. Just like everyone else, we’re trying to manage it all, work, home, kids, relationships etc. and we are pretty outspoken about how hard it is. Days can be trying. I think there are a lot of people today that feel the same way. Sometimes it’s just reassuring knowing there are people out there getting met with the same challenges as you. We want to add value to the world by helping them — and ourselves — find ways to overcome daily stressors. To show up better every day.

Creating a giveback strategy was of the utmost importance from day one. We are committed to supporting organizations that work with families who don’t have the luxury of time on their side — primarily single parent and/or low-income households. Moments are fleeting and we want to help families make the most of them.

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 truly believe in slowing down to live more. Much of what we encounter on a daily basis is designed to speed us up. It becomes easy to let the small things, the fleeting moments, the laugh of a loved one, the smell of a home-cooked meal, the blue of a summer sky, pass us by without a thought.

We want people to slow it down, to find that pause button throughout their busy day. In doing so, we can find calm and clarity in the moment, show up with intention and perform better — whether that be a better business owner, better friend, better parent. Most importantly though, better and kinder to ourselves.

We are big fans of Dr. Andrew Huberman — he is a force. Seeing someone with the scientific background that he has, be able to to communicate his knowledge in such an easy to understand manner. That’s a skill and I think many of us are better off thanks to the advice he regularly shares.

I also can’t pass up the opportunity to say Gwyneth Paltrow. I’m so inspired by what she’s built with GOOP and well, if we had the opportunity to have Slowlii sold there, it would be a dream come true to say the least.

Thank you for these fantastic insights. We greatly appreciate the time you spent on this.

Making Something From Nothing: Alicia Pintwala Of Slowlii On How To Go From Idea To Launch was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Makers of The Metaverse: Justin W Hochberg of Virtual Brand Group (VBG) On The Future Of The VR, AR…

Makers of The Metaverse: Justin W Hochberg of Virtual Brand Group (VBG) On The Future Of The VR, AR & Mixed Reality Industries

An Interview With Fotis Georgiadis

Technical expertise is obviously urgent for certain fields, but if you want to be on the business or creative side, it’s no different from any other industry. You need to be able to tell a story. Storytelling is essential. None of the technology matters unless it’s something consumers can use at an endpoint. Nobody cares about the standalone possibilities of AR and VR. It’s all about showing people how it will change their life. Nobody knows what HTML stands for; they know that if they order a book from Amazon, it comes cheaper and faster. Same thing here. You need to be able to convert the technology into a benefit. You’ll always have a place at the table if you can tell that story.

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 Justin Hochberg, Co-Founder and CEO of Virtual Brands Group.

Justin W. Hochberg is the CEO and co-founder of Virtual Brand Group (VBG). VBG consults, builds, operates, and monetizes global brands and celebrities across the Metaverse leveraging all Web3 technologies. The company develops 360 strategies, go to market plans, builds immersive experiences, games, virtual fashion collections, marketing programs and new customer acquisition funnels. Hochberg’s team of global designers, technologists and billion dollar Hollywood box office storytellers developed VBG as a way for brands in all sectors (B2C and B2B) build new revenue streams and customers while empowering consumers of every age to virtually play, socialize, shop, create and earn new revenue.

Put more succinctly, we put “you” in the metaverse (fast). And we make you money in the metaverse.

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’m a city kid — capital “C” — who grew up on the subways and buses of all 5 Boroughs. I have three very NYC childhood memories that I feel deeply shaped how I arrived here today. One of my fondest, is eating with my dad every Sunday at a hole-in-the-wall dim sum spot on Mott St. in Chinatown. The place is long gone but there at ten, I conceived my first entrepreneurial venture. I liked the food so much that I approached the owner to sell it in grocery stores. This was decades before Dim Sum was in every freezer section. My father introduced me to grocery retailers and manufacturers. He helped me think about costs, marketing, and logistics. I never launched the business, but I vividly remember how much my dad believed in me and let me figure out what one must know to convert an idea (everyone has one) into a business (very few can build one).

Another legendary, only in NYC, memory was going to the 1977 World Series, where Reggie Jackson hit three home runs in a row off of three consecutive pitches from three different pitchers. This stands out beyond the improbable statistic (which can always be bested). What I took away from that was ‘timing’ is everything. Reggie was not an amazing all season player. He was ‘Mr. October’. At the right moment, at the very end when it was all aligned he was there. Many years later when I worked at Microsoft Bill Gates said to me as I started working on interactive TV, “remember being early is the same as being wrong”. Timing.

The third memory, and one that likely put me on a specific path to the metaverse, was visiting my first video arcade four blocks from my house. I scrounged every quarter I could to play Donkey Kong, Space Invaders, and, of course, Pong. From then on, I was hooked. I still have my original Atari logo hat.

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?

I earned my undergraduate degree in History at the University of Pennsylvania, so I’ve always been hooked by stories and the “why” behind them. I read biographies as often as possible to not just understand what people were thinking in dramatic situations but to connect the dots among their mistakes, which is infinitely more useful. However, the modern-day author that’s had the most significant impact on me is social economist Malcolm Gladwell. I’ve read every one of his books, so it’s not any singular one that gets my top yelp review. It’s how he thinks about thinking about things that I try to internalize to guide me on a day-to-day basis.

For example, in The Unheard Story Of David And Goliath, the core message is that what seems obvious to everyone is often not the truth. Everyone perceived that Goliath would win the battle because, by standards of the day, he had all the obvious winning attributes. He was bigger, stronger, and able to wield a huge sword, and that’s what mattered most up until that moment in battle tactics and technology. David, who was much physically smaller, had no sword, and was only armed with a slingshot and pebble, was perceived as the weaker of the two with no weapon. What you learn from reading the book is that Goliath didn’t just lose, he was destined to lose and David was always going to win even before the fight.

Nobody understood at the time — except for perhaps David — that hand to hand combat was outdated and a new way of fighting was actually more efficient and about to disrupt the status quo. In Gladwell’s book, he cites a modern day research report from Israel in which a pebble from a similar slingshot demonstrated the power of a 38-caliber bullet, which could be launched from hundreds of feet, so far away that Goliath could never reach David with his sword. It’s the perfect analogy of the constant evolution of old vs. new, with the people who see the new before others often laughed at (slingshot or metaverse) until everyone realizes the earth really isn’t flat. And never was.

Is there a particular story that inspired you to pursue a career in the Metaverse industry? We’d love to hear it.

I believe every founder has two stories they tell about why they’re doing what they do. One is their public slide drcj pitch to investors about market size, MOATS, strategic advantage, return on equity, etc. At the same time, every founder also has a story that comes from the heart. You may never hear that one but it’s their raison d’etre — because creating a company is so hard, there is so much stacked against you that one must have it to survive the gauntlet. One has to have the personal why that has touched you so deeply that you’re willing to risk everything to do it — financially, reputationally, time with your family, etc.

My personal “why” is that I have two kids. At the start of the pandemic, they were nine and twelve. Before then, my wife and I were extremely unpopular for running a household that didn’t allow screens during the school week. When the pandemic hit without any warning, all of a sudden, what went from zero screen time turned into an 8-hour-a-day Zoom day.

My wife and I were frustrated because after those eight hours on screens, the kids would jump back online to play three hours of Roblox and Fortnite. Our first reaction was no way — ‘you just spent the day on a device. It’s time to do something outside’.

It was such a struggle to get them to stop, so instead of fighting them, I joined in. I played hours of Roblox with my daughter and Fortnite with my son. I quickly realized they were not playing a video game like I knew as a child — whether Donkey Kong or Call of Duty, which was simply to play the game and get to the end of it. What was so different about these early Metaverse platforms is that they are “social” worlds. Play patterns are open and creatively driven by the player, not the platform designers. Kids feel empowered, talk, build, make new friends, and even role-play (my son won’t pick up his shoes, but he has a job at a virtual pizza parlor — explain that to me?!). Often, I saw they weren’t even playing the game; they were hanging out, like one does at lunch or the mall. In short, I realized my kids were recreating the social and emotional infrastructure ripped from them by not being in school or surrounded by their friends.

Over the last 25 years, I have been at the intersection of three sectors: technology, storytelling, and brands. I have also been either fortunate or foolish — I’ll let you decide — to be early in new markets and new technologies. I founded the first private telecom in Eastern Europe based in Prague, Czech Republic when the wall came down. Then I spent five years with Microsoft developing all the interactive TV features that we now take for granted followed by working on streaming media that eventually broke the music business and enabled Netflix to disrupt Hollywood. Speaking of Hollywood, after years in Redmond and Silicon Valley I became a TV producer in Hollywood, helping launch the first billion-dollar reality franchise, “The Apprentice”. I created a team that partnered with hundreds of Fortune 1,000 brands from the NBA to Procter & Gamble, and Pepsi when reality TV was thought of as a fad. My innovation in 2004 was understanding digital video recording (DVRs) was scaring Madison Avenue and every advertiser that all of their ads would be skipped with the touch of one button. I knew everything about this because I worked on that at Microsoft. This was an inflection point that had a brand chokepoint. To solve it I built brands into the TV show format you could never skip. This not only showcased a company and products more in depth, but liberated them from a mere 60 seconds to create a truly engaging story. And we did it in a way that viewers didn’t view it as a distraction, but rather a curiosity revealing something they had never seen before. Who doesn’t want to know how the Coke formula is made? Or how the NBA thinks about expanding into China?

Did it work? We charged up to $6 million for each brand to be each episode, every week, every season. So yeh, I think it worked. After years creating about 30+ TV formats with Ron Howard, Kurt Warner, Marcus Lemonis and Zoe Saldana for dozens of networks I noticed a new shift. More precisely, the new shift was thrust upon me and everyone with Covid and we all went virtual overnight.

I jumped into the metaverse with VBG when I realized two of three legs existed of a metaverse stool. I saw how sticky new gaming platforms like Roblox were because it wasn’t a ‘game’ that had a traditional beginning, middle, and end. Then I realized that the technology was globally accessible (anyone can play from their iPhone, PC, Xbox, anywhere in the world — with no special tools, hardware required. Last, I realized how players were making up their own stories — the play patterns. Imagination was driving the story, not a designer at Activision who worked on a script for ten years. That covers two of the three key legs: tech + storytelling.

The missing piece was brands. At that very moment, I realized if I could be the bridge between global IP and this new behavior pattern, I could become a very significant player in shaping how companies engage with consumers and people enjoy brands differently in 3D worlds.

Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you began this fascinating career?

I had a conversation early on with a CEO who works for a global, very cool, in my opinion, brand that any child might be interested in. I was pitching why this CEO’s company should have a presence on Roblox 2 years ago at a time before companies were even considering activating in virtual worlds — so the decision wasn’t obvious. We couldn’t get past the idea that the executive “just couldn’t get it“. I was used to this because it’s hard to get anything if you’ve never seen it or used it. So to break the log Jam I made it personal. I suggested — instead of deciding himself — he let his son decide. The CEO went to his 12-year-old and asked what he thought about a brand experience on Roblox, to which the kid responded: “Dad, that’s awesome….tell me again what you do?.” The CEO said it was the first time in his life his son ever showed interest in his job, He thanked me profusely. Needless to say, we signed the deal. Never underestimate the power of making something viscerally personal, and not just business.

Can you share a story about the funniest mistake you made when you first started? Can you tell us what lesson you learned from that?

I get constant feedback aka criticism from my 12-year-old daughter about my personal avatar style. No matter what I buy, the way I wear it, it’s “lame”. After being on many virtual platforms for the past several years, I have quite a sizable virtual closet (I might be the virtual Cher from Clueless). Because I’m in the business, I get early access to merchandise, much like celebrities get free goods from famous brands in the real world. At first, my daughter was jealous, but then she saw how I was wearing it, and apparently, I was never on trend, even if I had the hottest clothing.

In response, I challenged her to work for me. So, now she — and her bestie crew reviews every new experience across platforms to advise what’s cool. You’ll find I often share their valuable insights on LinkedIn.

None of us can 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 about that?

Being an entrepreneur comes with both never-ending confidence and bouts of self-doubt. When you’re trying to do something that hasn’t been done before, one of two things is true: you’re either right or you’re wrong. And you never know which it is until it’s often too late. Most people’s brains are literal and cannot perceive what can not actually be physically seen. Intrinsically, being an entrepreneur means you’re somewhat irrational because you need to pursue things others tell you will never work. In that context, I think it’s essential to have people you trust to help refine your ideas and gut-check both your confidence and doubts. Triangles are nature’s strongest structure, which is why the Egyptian pyramids still exist and the Roman aqueducts have disintegrated. To that end I have a three sided support structure.

First and foremost, the best consigliere is my wife. An entrepreneur herself building a company called Sportifyit.com that is disrupting the sports content and consumer product business by focusing on stories not statistics. We’ve been together for 23 years. She has an off-the-charts EQ and separates noise from signal better than most C-suite executives. She knows my strengths and how I process experiences. More importantly, as a leader in unproven businesses, I have to be way out in front of others which can deliver phenomenal results but can also be perilous because one is never always right. What I value most is she is very effective at giving feedback in a way I can deeply hear it and use it (wanted or otherwise). I call her the Keyser Söze of criticism — you don’t even know it happened, so you listen and don’t resist.

The second leg of my consigliere trifecta is my long-time M&A lawyer, a partner at Paul Hastings, David Hernand. He has worked in media and entertainment for 35 years. More importantly he is a kinetic connector, so one small idea I have is amplified by many people very quickly. ‘Speed to impact’ is fundamental as an entrepreneur and David is a big part of increasing my idea’s velocity.

The third leg which has been most directly related to the Virtual Brand Group’s rapid growth is the virtual community. Six months before we launched, VBG committed the entire team deeply to being part of the many micro-communities of designers, builders, and influencers on each of the major platforms from Roblox to Sandbox, blockchain to decentraland. To each community’s credit and the spirit of web3, we were fully embraced. Each showed my team how they built their businesses and rooted for us to build ours. In fact, we got so deep into the community DNA one of the most senior partnership executives on one of the largest public metaverse platforms paid us the ultimate compliment — saying “no brand she had worked with had ever put so much effort into understanding and building up the community”. We even dedicated a section of the Forever 21 experience to Roblox community creators so they could show off their fashion designs; the first brand to ever do that. Building on that we now have over 30+ community works builders in seven countries.

Are you working on any exciting new projects now? How do you think that will help people?

3 things change the marketplace — each one attacking diff perspective.

VBG is working on three projects now we think will transform the virtual marketplace. First, we’ve been working with Forever21 to create its first ever real fashion line that was designed, tested and sold first virtually on Roblox that is now a real world collection in stores. It all started with just one virtual item in the collection which sold over 2M units in one year. Think about that, virtual items have no supply chain issues, no refunds and emit 97% less carbon than real clothing. The “Forever 21 Metaverse collection” went on sale December 1, 2022 available in stores, e-commerce, on Roblox and was featured on their Time Square Jumbotron. In addition, as the next iteration, at the same time we created a new limited edition virtual holiday collection where each item was only sale for only 24 hours. In short, we are at the forefront of creating the physical + virtual (aka “phygital”) retail environment that delivers new products and more revenue faster than ever that’s sustainable.

Second, VBG is creating a next generation loyalty programs for all our brand partners that is dynamic, adapts in real time to a consumer’s behavior and reacts to how they purchase, use the items in the real world and virtually. Right now IRL is an utterly disjointed customer experience among consumers or fans. For example today, if you buy a piece of clothing, a coffee, or go to a sports event, that brand has almost no insight into you or how you’ve interacted with it. For example, I live in Los Angeles and went to the Rams game recently. At the stadium, I bought a Rams hat and tacos, and I Ubered to and from the game. When I got home, I watched more football and ordered a gift online for my son. Neither the NFL nor the Rams know anything else besides the ticket transaction, and if a friend bought the ticket for me, they wouldn’t have even known I was in the stadium.

Imagine if all those actions could be connected so that fans were rewarded dynamically for all their touchpoints with the brand. And imagine if that brand knew what their fans were doing and could communicate 1:1 with them based on what their actions were so brand loyalists — like me — could be rewarded for being superfans.

Finally, one of the most exciting metaverse innovations is VBG’s new musical fan journey for the world’s largest TV series, “The Voice” (which airs in 145 territories). The only brand in the world in more countries than “The Voice” is Coca-Cola (and god, can I say that?). VBG first launched the show as an experience in Decentraland’s “Metaverse Music Festival” with NBC and its iconic celebrity coaches Blake Shelton, Gwen Stefani, Camila Cabello and fellow University of Pennsylvania alumnus John Legend. This was the first ever TV show to be part of the global festival (a virtual Coachella) which featured 180 acts from Ozzy Osborne to Bjork. The Voice was one of its top performing experiences with a musical game and our first NFT merchandise drop which sold out in three hours. Bigger picture, we also enabled people to apply to audition for NBC’s The Voice, tune in for NBC’s TV show and empower people to do blind auditions for the first time ever in a virtual world.

We believe Web3 will redefine how entertainment is created, how communities are built, how fans are rewarded, and how TV shows and films are made and distributed. It’ll become much more prominent than even now in the pop culture Zeitgeist.

Ok super. Thank you for all that. Let’s now shift to the focus of our interview. The VR, AR and MR industries seem so exciting right now. What are the 3 things that most excite you about the industry? Can you explain or give an example?

The first is mobile accessibility. One of the core principles of geometry is that the shortest distance between two points is a straight line. The current straight line amongst AR/VR/MR is people using devices they already have on them: their phones (as the saying goes, “What’s the best camera? The one you have when you want to take a picture”.)

Second is the increasing interchangeability of virtual and physical worlds — AR/MR are becoming part of our everyday behavior patterns. For example, when I’m at a football game, I can watch the game live and peek at my phone to see the same graphics I experience watching on my TV at home. Or, when browsing in-store, I can take a snapshot of an item on my phone to see what it’ll look like on my avatar and post it to Instagram to get my friends’ POV before purchasing.

Finally, I’m excited about the potential to unlock new business models. AR/MR is already part of our lifestyle. 10 years ago, a filter was color, and now it’s how you make yourself look like a dinosaur. This will only continue to grow dramatically because it’s how anyone under the age of 15 is using their phone.

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?

If you look at the beginning of social media, it had many great ways to add connectivity. You could share thoughts and be part of a dialog, but we realize now that it’s actually rigged to configure your brain in a completely different way. VR, AR, and MR are much more immersive than simply posting on Instagram.

When the internet became popular 27 years ago, there was an open “ethos” about everybody having equal access. However, years later, it feels like several large conglomerates have created an oligopoly and turned consumers into data like the Matrix uses humans for energy. As we move to Web3, there is a battle brewing — as Morpheus in the Matrix would say — for the soul of the metaverse. Will it be controlled by large corporations like Google, Facebook, and Apple again? Or, will its decentralized nature — the fact that anybody can be on the blockchain and that the cost to do so is so inexpensive — allow individuals to own their assets and not be subservient to these major corporations?

As a parent, and just a concerned citizen I’m always thinking about what any child is doing — whether in the physical or virtual world. Obviously, on a platform — regardless of who is monitoring it — if you’re unsupervised at a park or a virtual world, there are many people there. These worlds allow you to mask your identity, so I’m always very concerned about what controls are there as a parent and as a human so people can have a safe experience. This whole shift to virtual worlds won’t work if people don’t have trust in the experience. Regardless of their age, where they live, and gender, you have to know you can be safe. And that’s hard.

I’ve spent a lot of time with people who view the government as a negative in terms of blocking what they want to build and slowing down the technology pace. Still, people need to remember that legislation and government oversight can positively impact new markets.

For example, antitrust laws broke up AT&T in 1984, and out of that came a boom in telecom, fiber optics, hardware, and software that enabled everything the internet and many other tech are built upon. Government regulation was also instrumental in fostering internet companies by ensuring ISPs could only charge the same for every individual or company. Smart government regulation can help consumers and companies have an even and safe playing field.

One of the big problems with technology is that it is dominated by one viewpoint, principally white males based in a few cities — founders of Microsoft, Google, Apple, and Snap — are all white men. Unfortunately, 68% of tech workers are men. Only 8% of venture funding goes to Latin men and less than one percent goes to black women. So, having a more diverse set of people creating experiences and new technologies will be fundamental so every point of view can be represented and different perspectives and technologies can be achieved. If I achieve one thing, equaling the playing field and empowering everybody to have a voice would be my number one success.

For example, there was an exceptional documentary — “Coded Bias” — about facial recognition AI bias. Because the facial recognition technology was created by an all-caucasian team at MIT, it was tested and thus not built to recognize different shades of brown skin tone, so the majority of times it was used, it delivered a false result. The practical impact of that problem is everything from uncomfortable moments to false arrests and people going to jail for decades.

The two crucial things that need to happen are positive government enabling to keep markets competitive and ensuring everyone can have a voice as we develop this next generation of technology.

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?

Ten years ago, 95% of people wouldn’t have believed it if you had said that AT&T introduced a video phone in the 1980s, and people hated it. Today, we are accustomed to spending most of our day doing video chats with our colleagues. So, we’re already fully down that path.

If you think about Zoom, there is nothing additive or remarkable about it in terms of the ability to collaborate — you’re just staring at a flat image. Virtual spaces will transform the workplace because they enable a more interactive experience; they create a more emotional experience because we humans react to space, size, structure, colors, and activity.

People have been talking about working from home for 20–30 years. When you start having the DNA of this next generation of innovators, building from a virtual perspective, they’re going to need virtual spaces to have their community and their interaction that are much more sophisticated than a bland Zoom call. The idea of whether to have a virtual workforce — especially amongst companies focused on millennials and GenZ — is not even a question.

Are there other ways that VR, AR, and MR can improve our lives? Can you explain?

The world of entertainment and gaming tends to get too much attention for many of these technologies because they are easily consumable and visually understood.

The truth is all the innovation we’re seeing today from a consumer perspective trickles down from the innovation that comes from the government and businesses pushing the technology further. If you imagine an iceberg, consumers are at the top, and most of the hard work you’re unaware of is happening below the water level.

For example, GPS was initially built as a government-invented technology that they then spent billions on and enabled consumers to use, transforming many different industries. Medical companies working with AR/VR are pushing the boundaries so you can do Pokemon Go. Entertainment companies creating movies like Toy Story in 1996 pushed the boundaries of computing time, and now that technology is being used on platforms like Roblox or Google Search. So, remember that consumer uses are sometimes the last to see the benefit because we’re above the water line.

What are the “myths” that you would like to dispel about working in your industry? Can you explain what you mean?

1.) The Metaverse is not profitable and only good for marketing like social media.

This drives me a bit crazy. Anyone who says that doesn’t know history. Typically every technology, from TV to DVDs, is first embraced by marketing departments. Which is where we are right now with the metaverse. However, if you look at the curve over time people started realizing the Internet was more than just a visual brochure but actually a way to conduct e-commerce which now is 40 or 50% of a brand’s total revenue. Virtual Brand Group’s perspective is why wait five years to figure this out, why not start from the onset with that perspective? Every partner that we onboard or consult with is all about how quickly we can convert your Metaverse business to be $20-$50 million.

2.) Metaverse is not for all brands — only for some brands like retail consumer/fashion, not for ones you can’t taste (alcohol) or smell (perfume) or B2B.

In my opinion and experience, everything is obvious that has already happened. That’s the trap. Right now, it seems obvious that consumer-facing brands like fashion are made for the metaverse. Historically though, would you say that e-commerce is only made for consumer-facing brands? Of course not. We now realize 25 years later that whether you run a tractor company or a fashion company, e-comm is the way to communicate more effectively. It’s the same for the metaverse. You can either believe what I’m saying, or you can find out after your competitors have believed it.

3.) The metaverse will only be built by large tech corporations that already dominate — Apple, FB, Google — and repeat the same problems we now have.

Big companies are always perceived as market leaders to start a new industry in any sector because, by their nature, they have resources and existing decision-makers know them. However, size does not dictate future success. The world is littered with dethroned incumbents that were toppled by challengers. When was the last time you bought Kodak film, rented at Blockbuster, or purchased a TV set made in America? What do you think of the Internet or social media? Is there any brand that existed 20 years ago? What’s always exciting to think about is how today’s Google will soon be toppled by tomorrow’s start-up. Although that’s a generic statement, what’s happening now more than ever is the cost for infrastructure, talent, and the diffusion of knowledge (coding) has made more competitors in more countries than ever before. It’s the most egalitarian time in the history of knowledge that’s ever existed.

4.) Metaverse is too complicated for consumers and only appeals to young people/gamers.

Today there are approximately 1.5 billion people, or 30% of the world, who use some form of NFTs, metaverse social games, or cryptocurrency. This is increasing by approximately 20%. In addition, more people are using virtual game currencies than ever before. Roblox just disclosed that they’ve increased virtual goods sales by 20% year over year. In some countries that don’t have stable currencies, cryptocurrency is much more effective to hold and own your assets than regular money. Imagine living in Ukraine right now you can’t depend on paper money.

5.) Metaverse is a fad

Our physical world may be beautiful for its wonder & quirks, BUT creatively it’s mundane and constraining. I don’t say that as an advisor, researcher, or agency that quotes some report but as someone in the trenches every day who sees people empowered that were disenfranchised by old tech, communities for everyone, unbridled enthusiasm, collaborations that make me smile, ideas that make me want to be a better person. As Steve Jobs famously said, the bicycle is to human travel as the PC is to the human mind. I say the metaverse is a rocket ship for creativity and community that allows anyone to DEFY the LAWS of GRAVITY.

6.) The final myth I’d like to dispel is that my daughter is correct. I do think my avatar fashion is on point. On a side note, I was recently on Randi Zuckerberg’s podcast, Crypto Café. She recounted the most Illustrative story about virtual fashion as the new spa day. She was feeling a bit blah but didn’t have enough time to do anything about it, so she bought a new virtual wardrobe for her avatar as a glow-up.

What are your “5 Things You Need to Create A Highly Successful Career In The VR, AR or MR Industries?”

To be successful in the VR, AR, or MR industries, you need three things:

Have a passion for being in a developing space.

This is an arena with no right answers. If you’re looking to solve a math equation where you know what X equals, you’re looking in the wrong industry.

2. Be a good storyteller.

Technical expertise is obviously urgent for certain fields, but if you want to be on the business or creative side, it’s no different from any other industry. You need to be able to tell a story. Storytelling is essential. None of the technology matters unless it’s something consumers can use at an endpoint. Nobody cares about the standalone possibilities of AR and VR. It’s all about showing people how it will change their life. Nobody knows what HTML stands for; they know that if they order a book from Amazon, it comes cheaper and faster. Same thing here. You need to be able to convert the technology into a benefit. You’ll always have a place at the table if you can tell that story.

3. Have a combination of both patience and urgency.

Be the change you wish to see both in the world and your mirror and while aspiring to that perfection, never let it get in the way of settling for good enough (#voltaire). Also remember that if you’re always trying to fit in, you’ll never realize how amazing you can be.

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 🙂

Play ping pong with Roger Federer, eat a cheat meal with Dwayne Johnson, design a park with Zaha Hadid, make a virtual pocket square line with Alessandro Michele and create the worlds biggest give away with Mr.Beast (#mars visit).

Thank you so much for these excellent stories and insights. We wish you continued success on your great work!

Makers of The Metaverse: Justin W Hochberg of Virtual Brand Group (VBG) On The Future Of The VR, AR… was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Making Something From Nothing: Josh York Of GYMGUYZ On How To Go From Idea To Launch

An Interview With Fotis Georgiadis

To Expect Cash Flow Issues: Realizing that creating this entirely new and unique fitness concept would come with its own challenges, I knew the only way to succeed was to remain resilient. For months, I used my own personal savings to pay my employees, and I struggled to keep personal trainers with the company long-term.

As a part of our series called “Making Something From Nothing”, I had the pleasure of interviewing Josh York.

Josh York, Founder & CEO of GYMGUYZ, the largest in-home and on-site personal training company in the world, is a true entrepreneur driven by passion. As a leader who knows the value of building a strong culture, Josh founded GYMGUYZ in 2008 from his parents’ dining room table. Now, the in-home and on-site fitness training provider services over 1,200 cities internationally, including the United States, United Kingdom and Canada. GYMGUYZ is the fastest-growing fitness concept in the U.S. with plans to open another 25 locations by the end of 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”?

When I think back to my early days, life wasn’t always the easiest; ultimately, this allowed me to grow up quicker than most and practically raise myself. Having a difficult childhood showed me the importance of always choosing to do the right thing. That is what’s fueled my drive to stay in shape and put all of my positive energy towards my goals and aspirations.

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 quote is simple, but something that has stuck with me my entire life, and that is “Knock em’ dead.” My grandfather would say this to me throughout my childhood whenever I embarked on a new adventure, and it has followed me into my work life. My grandfather was my father figure, and from him, I learned to give my all to everything that I set my mind to.

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 would have to say Shoe Dog, which is a memoir by Nike co-founder Phil Knight. Similar to Phil, I have also created a new category in the fitness industry. I’ve always been inspired by his ambition and business decisions.

From my experience, I’ve learned that the best way to overcome any challenge is to simply start and figure out solutions as you go. When it comes to entrepreneurship, you’re never going to have all of the answers, and failure is a big component to the whole picture. Failure is going to happen, it’s how you learn from it, figure out the next step, and make things happen that defines your success.

The best way to research whether an idea has already been created is doing your due diligence online. This means looking at the trademark sites, checking YouTube, conducting various searches, etc.

Having a vision is crucial in beginning the first steps of your business model. Once you have that vision, take action. Put your idea out there, ask as many questions as possible, talk to consumers, and listen to the feedback you receive. I trademarked GYMGUYZ based on my vision, and we became the first in-home mobile personal training and fitness franchise company.

What are your “5 Things I Wish Someone Told Me When I First Started Leading My Company” and why?

To Expect Cash Flow Issues: Realizing that creating this entirely new and unique fitness concept would come with its own challenges, I knew the only way to succeed was to remain resilient. For months, I used my own personal savings to pay my employees, and I struggled to keep personal trainers with the company long-term.
To Take Risks to get to the Other Side: I created GYMGUYZ from an idea and started the business from my parents’ dining room table in 2008. I started with a vision, a laptop, and one van. I quickly learned that in order to achieve success, risk taking is not an option, it’s a necessity.
To Embrace Fear: When you’re scared, you just need to go for it. You miss 100% of the shots you don’t take.
To accept that you will Struggle: I now credit my initial struggles as the key to my success, and I truly recognize the strength in suffering. I learned to continue to navigate the problems that arose until formulating a strong business model, and ended up creating the number one in-home personal training concept.
To Always Trial and Error: I founded GYMGUYZ with only $15,000, and I quickly discovered that without trial and error, you’ll never grow. Try new things, and if they don’t work out, try them again in a new way. Success comes from trial and error.

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?

Get with someone who has been there! One of the first steps should be collaborating with someone who has invented a product before. There’s no better way than to learn from the experts, as they are the ones achieving their 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?

From my experience, it’s much better to try and strike out on your own, because that’s how you learn and grow. Unless the coach has done exactly what you’re trying to accomplish, rely on yourself, because ultimately, that’s who is going to get you exactly where you want to be.

What are your thoughts about bootstrapping vs looking for venture capital? What is the best way to decide if you should do either one?

While I don’t have personal experience with venture capital, I own 100% of my company, and if you’re going to bootstrap, determination is key. It’s very important to weigh your options and make the right decision based on your business venture.

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 great to make a living, but it’s much better to make a difference. GYMGUYZ helps thousands of people achieve their fitness goals every day, and I couldn’t be prouder to stand behind that. We regularly receive calls from our clients who share how much our services have positively impacted their lives, and that’s all I can ask for.

Talk and Walk: you can talk all you want about all the good things you want to do for the world, but the key is just being a good person every single day. Always do the right thing, be humble, put your ego aside, and put positive energy into the world. Do the right thing, and good things will happen for you.

I would want to have a private breakfast or lunch with Phil Knight, the co-founder of Nike. I’m truly inspired by his story and would love to compare notes on our experiences in breaking into completely new industries.

Thank you for these fantastic insights. We greatly appreciate the time you spent on this.

Making Something From Nothing: Josh York Of GYMGUYZ On How To Go From Idea To Launch was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Data-Driven Work Cultures: Bryan Smith Of ThinkData Works On How To Effectively Leverage Data To…

Data-Driven Work Cultures: Bryan Smith Of ThinkData Works On How To Effectively Leverage Data To Take Your Company To The Next Level

An Interview With Fotis Georgiadis

Make your data accessible: Once data is found, people need to be able to leverage it to scale projects or whatever they’re working on.

The proper use of Data — data about team performance, data about customers, or data about the competition, can be a sort of force multiplier. It has the potential to dramatically help a business to scale. But sadly, many businesses have data but don’t know how to properly leverage it. What exactly is useful data? How can you properly utilize data? How can data help a business grow? To address this, we are talking to business leaders who can share stories from their experience about “How To Effectively Leverage Data To Take Your Company To The Next Level”. As part of this series, we had the pleasure of interviewing Bryan Smith.

Bryan Smith is the Co-Founder and CEO of ThinkData Works Inc., a Toronto-based technology company whose platform is used by some of the world’s largest organizations to process and refine data into usable products. Prior to founding ThinkData, Bryan worked for the Canadian Government as a Sr. Policy Advisor to the President of the Treasury Board of Canada. In this role he helped implement the Government’s “Value for Money Ethic”, leading to over $7B in annual savings and the first transition from deficit to surplus in the past 20 years.

Before I got into entrepreneurship, I got my start working for the Canadian Government as a Sr. Policy Advisor to the President of the Treasury Board of Canada. A highlight of my time there was helping implement the Government’s “Value for Money Ethic” initiative. I was really proud to support this project as it led to over $7B in annual savings and the first transition from deficit to surplus in the past 20 years.

Working in the government for several years, I became well-acquainted with how much data is publicly available, but I was also made aware of the challenge for organizations to access and put it to use. I made the jump to entrepreneurship because I wanted to create a conduit between the people making data available and the people wanting access to it. My co-founder and I recognized the value in data that organizations struggle to unlock to its full potential due to the barrier of the tedious, time-consuming task of cleaning and organizing data — otherwise known as data cataloging and data enrichment. ThinkData Works was founded to take care of these two steps so that data scientists can access data in a more automated way at scale, enabling them to focus more time on data science work.

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?

When we first started ThinkData Works, we were bootstrapped and had to be extremely frugal. We ‘incubated’ our company in a shared space with many other companies that saw a lot of turn over (both failed ideas and companies graduating to “the next level”). In those early days, to keep operating expenses as low as possible, we used to have to cut all types of funny deals with other founders to trade them for desks, chairs, monitors, whiteboards, etc. In fact, one time we battled out a large portion of desks in a high stakes game of Super Smash Bros!

As your company grows and you accumulate more money, through revenue or fundraising, leaders tend to become less cautious and intentional with their spending. Sometimes I find companies who skipped the early-stage phase of bootstrapping find it harder than others to control costs and spend — especially as we go through the tech correction environment we’re currently facing. I’m not saying the lesson here is to gamble on Nintendo games, but remembering that we used to always find a way to make ends meet when we had nothing has given us the foresight now to have faith when navigating through difficult times — where there is a will there is always a way!

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?

Two books come to my mind. First is ‘Good to Great’ by Jim Collins — we built ThinkData Works around the hedgehog principle developed in the book. The key learning is that focusing on how you can be the best in the world at something is what separates good companies from great ones. I really resonated with this idea and try to always think beyond what our team is just good at, to what we can be the best at in the world.

Another impactful book that is especially timely given the economic times we’re in, is ‘The Hard Thing About Hard Things’ by Ben Horowitz. As a founder, you encounter countless tough decisions and this book does a great job exploring how to navigate the diverse challenges of building a company.

Are you working on any new, exciting projects now? How do you think that might help people?

In terms of new and exciting projects, we recently announced our partnership with Dun & Bradstreet to help financial institutions improve their anti-money laundering (AML) programs with our data enrichment solution. We also recently launched our data catalog and enrichment services on Google Cloud Marketplace, to provide enterprise customers with reduced time-to-value and access to Google Cloud’s leading AI and data analytics capabilities. The partnership builds on a growing ecosystem of data and management tools available to customers of both organizations.

When it comes to directly helping people, I’m really proud of our Supply Chain Resiliency Platform (SCRP) in partnership with Palantir Technologies Canada, a leading software company specializing in big data analytics, and Martinrea International, one of the leading Tier One automotive suppliers of vehicle parts, assemblies, and modules. They successfully built and deployed an SCRP powered by trade data from multiple global sources that gives manufacturers and logistics companies deep insight that goes beyond their direct supply chain. This innovative solution is backed by the Government of Canada and the NGen supercluster, an industry-led not-for-profit organization that leads Canada’s Advanced Manufacturing Supercluster, whose mandate is to help build world-leading advanced manufacturing capabilities in Canada for the benefit of Canadians.

As the current global supply chain crisis will continue to negatively impact commerce in 2023 and beyond, the need for an innovative solution that safeguards manufacturers against risks and disruptions is becoming increasingly necessary, and I’m proud ThinkData Works is working to be part of that solution.

Thank you for all that. Let’s now turn to the main focus of our discussion about empowering organizations to be more “data-driven.” For the benefit of our readers, can you help explain what exactly it means to be data-driven? On a practical level, what does it look like to use data to make decisions?

Many organizations think of data as a physical asset that sits on a shelf. To be data-driven is to actively collect and use data to drive decisions. Consider this — a building full of books isn’t a library, it only becomes a library when a system exists that enables users to access, share and discover information. In the same way, organizations can only become data-driven once a system exists that enables users to access, share, and discover the data.

Making data-driven decisions looks like drawing conclusions from data insights — whether owned or external — and then using these conclusions to inform organizational decisions. For example, a coffee shop could look at data around weather patterns in the country from where they import their coffee beans from to foresee delays in their supply chain. If a drought is incoming, they can proactively seek out suppliers in a different region to avoid running out of coffee at their shop.

Which companies can most benefit from tools that empower data collaboration?

Being data-driven is sector agnostic. Taking the steps to become a data-driven company today is important to ensure the business will be around tomorrow, as data will become a core aspect of decision making for any company that wants to make it in the 21st century.

We’d love to hear about your experiences using data to drive decisions. In your experience, how has data analytics and data collaboration helped improve operations, processes, and customer experiences? We’d love to hear some stories if possible.

An interesting and perhaps unexpected way our data enrichment has supported organizations is with stamping out illegal activity through anti-money laundering (AML) efforts. Scotiabank was one of the first organizations to use our data enrichment portfolio to identify patterns in global trade to improve the outcomes of their AML programs.

Fighting global organized crime with data enrichment solutions is just one example of the power of modern data science to achieve not only business objectives, but also advance environmental, social, and governance (ESG) initiatives. Other applications we’ve seen include manufacturing firms using our data enrichment and cataloging services to optimize their supply chain through crises, as well as federal governments developing data-driven policy based on pulling together assets and making decisions with hard data.

Has the shift towards becoming more data-driven been challenging for some teams or organizations from your vantage point? What are the challenges? How can organizations solve these challenges?

Yes of course, with any change there is always friction and growing pains. Historically, organizations have looked at data requirements as a storage and security problem first and as an access and discoverability problem second. This creates friction between data stewards who are owners and protectors of data and data practitioners who put data into use.

The reason data cataloging is so important is because the big challenge for organizations to overcome with their data strategy is to introduce proper governance that does not inhibit discoverability and usability. This requires continuous data cataloging as businesses transition to become data-driven.

Ok. Thank you. Here is the primary question of our discussion. Based on your experience and success, what are “Five Ways a Company Can Effectively Leverage Data to Take It To The Next Level”? Please share a story or an example for each.

First and foremost, to effectively leverage data to take it to the next level in an organization, you need to start with a strong data strategy. To develop a strong data strategy, I would break it down into the FAIR principles of data (findable, accessible, interoperable and reusable):

Make your data findable: In order to use data, it has to be discoverable across organizations.
Make your data accessible: Once data is found, people need to be able to leverage it to scale projects or whatever they’re working on.
Make your data interoperable: Data needs to be able to be used across multiple functions — it needs to be standardized as opposed to siloed.
Make your data reusable: As you don’t want to build from the ground up every time, you have to be able to reuse assets to get the most value out of them.

These principles are why data cataloging is one the fastest growing industries from a Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) perspective.

The name of this series is “Data-Driven Work Cultures”. Changing a culture is hard. What would you suggest is needed to change a work culture to become more Data Driven?

I think the first step is changing the focus of the work culture. The mistake most organizations make is focusing on the storage and security of data from the get-go — while this is important, the data is useless to your team unless it’s accessible and discoverable. Once you establish a culture and system where those who can benefit from the data can easily find and access it, then you can focus on the data’s storage and security.

This kind of cultural shift is admittedly difficult, as data is ultimately the crown jewel of many organizations and how you handle it should not be taken lightly. Instead of doing a complete 180 cultural shift, my suggestion is to find ways to start implementing a transition towards openness and discoverability, and leverage positive results from this shift into a larger culture change.

The future of work has recently become very fluid. Based on your experience, how do you think the needs for data will evolve and change over the next five years?

At the end of the day, data needs to be discoverable and accessible. Data is like a vascular system, it needs to flow to various parts of organization to be used; it can’t be segregated or walled off. As data science becomes an integral part of all organizations, it will be increasingly important to incorporate data enrichment and data management systems into every aspect of a business.

How can our readers further follow your work?

You can keep up-to-date with what I’m working on by following me on LinkedIn.

You can also learn more about ThinkData Works at our website, https://www.thinkdataworks.com/, and follow us on Instagram,, Twitter, and Linkedin.

Thank you so much for sharing these important insights. We wish you continued success and good health!

Data-Driven Work Cultures: Bryan Smith Of ThinkData Works On How To Effectively Leverage Data To… was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Janelle Barlow: Giving Feedback; How To Be Honest Without Being Hurtful

An Interview With Fotis Georgiadis

Don’t give negative feedback in front of others. Wait until you can schedule a time to talk with that person one-on-one. I’ve seen people cry when negative feedback was delivered in front of their teammates. They quit shortly after that. This advice applies both to in-person and virtual feedback, especially when you have a large group meeting on Zoom or Meetings.

As a part of our series about “How To Give Honest Feedback without Being Hurtful”, I had the pleasure of interviewing Dr. Janelle Barlow.

Janelle Barlow, Ph.D., is the founder of A Complaint Is a Gift. She is a bestselling author and global speaker. Her ideas have been adopted as the complaint-handling mindset by hundreds of organizations using her service recovery map. To learn more, visit AcomplaintIsAGift.com.

<a href="https://medium.com/media/5845d572be17ab3798603f4c8ebf1ff4/href">https://medium.com/media/5845d572be17ab3798603f4c8ebf1ff4/href</a>

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’m passionate about education, especially adult education. I began speaking in contests at age 6 and continued through high school and college debate. I wanted to continue working with motivated groups but didn’t know how to pursue that. So, I dabbled in corporate education, working for training departments. After setting up several entrepreneurial ventures, I began working with a European international training organization and spoke worldwide. I then set up my US-based organization, primarily in customer service, culture change, result performance, and complaint handling. Now I’m entirely focused on complaint handling.

What do you think makes your company stand out? Can you share a story?

One of our biggest and most successful clients has been Viking, both Rivers and Oceans. I set up a team that conducted a two-day service culture program that I developed. Viking moved to the top of the ratings with the launch of their first ship. It was an exciting, rewarding, learning experience. Viking is still at the top of their game. They licensed my program in-house, continuing to use the concepts we covered. I see them as a great entertainment and hospitality company, and I’m proud to have worked with them!

Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you started your career?

The pandemic has shaped me more than any other event over the past 30 years. I’m fully committed to working virtually at this point with online Complaint Is a Gift training and trainer certification programs.

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?

Twice in my career I got food poisoning, which showed up just as I was ready to begin a program. What can I say… I’ve learned to be careful about eating mushrooms from local vendors! I’m not so sure this was the funniest mistake I’ve made, but I laugh now that I look back on it! While in it, I was so sick, I couldn’t continue. I had some assistants who took over, but that was sheer luck. They aren’t always around! I learned that being in front of a group is a total body experience!

What advice would you give to other CEOs and business leaders to help their employees to thrive and avoid burnout?

People need to be engaged to continue loving their work. You can see engagement on people’s faces and body language when they walk into work. And, believe me, if you see disengagement, then, guess what, so do your customers.

How do you define “leadership”? Can you explain what you mean or give an example?

There are a lot of components to being an effective leader. Indeed, one of them is displayed behavior and how you empower people around you. Honesty matters, though I think transparency may be overrated. There’s information about any business that shouldn’t always be shared.

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?

Whenever I get on stage to speak to a group (or in front of a video camera), I make contact with my love for my audience. They are giving me their time, and I want to respect that gift and where they are in their life’s journey.

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?

I admit that I have sometimes blown it when giving feedback. I remember an incident when I observed one of my trainers teaching one of my programs. I think she didn’t understand the impact she was having or the content she was delivering. She assured me she knew the materials like the back of her hand. It turns out she didn’t. I told her in no uncertain terms what I thought of her delivery. I felt responsible about all the other times she delivered this same material and probably did an equally lousy job. I think I did damage to her self-esteem with my over-the-top feedback. As bad as she was as a trainer that day, I think I was even worse as her manager.

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?

It’s like complaint handling. Honest and direct feedback from customers is extremely valuable for your company. You can’t learn from your customers if they don’t tell you what’s happening or what they don’t like. If, as a manager, you don’t tell your staff what’s bothering you, they’ll continue to engage in the same behaviors, producing the same results. When you don’t speak out, you’re rewarding behavior that can do genuine damage to your business if it’s not changed.

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.

1. Don’t give negative feedback in front of others. Wait until you can schedule a time to talk with that person one-on-one. I’ve seen people cry when negative feedback was delivered in front of their teammates. They quit shortly after that. This advice applies both to in-person and virtual feedback, especially when you have a large group meeting on Zoom or Meetings.

2. Check your mindset and emotions. Make sure you have the right mindset and emotions when providing feedback. If you’re angry, even if you planned every word, your comments probably will sound aggressive. Your mindset should be “How can I help this person change so I can create a better relationship with them?” or “How can I add value with my feedback?” and not “How can I make them feel bad?” The example I provided above about how I gave feedback to someone was about me wanting to make her feel bad. Honestly, I have to say that was my mindset. It’s not good. Don’t do it.

3. Ask questions. Once you have their agreement to talk about the issue, then ask questions. We often go directly to what we want to get off our chest instead of asking the other person first what they feel or think. Maybe that person will tell you exactly what was on your mind. They may know what they did was wrong, or they’ll provide information you didn’t know that explains their behavior. For example, instead of saying, “I think it was rude of you to interrupt me in front of my clients. It made me feel put down,” ask, “How do you think the meeting went?” or “How did you like the way the conversation went? What about your behavior? I honestly thought you interrupted me quite a bit. How did you feel? How do you think others felt when they watched you interrupt me?”

4. Steer clear of giving mixed messages. Despite how often the “sandwich technique” is taught in management seminars, I don’t advise using it. This old technique says you must start your feedback with something positive. Then sandwich in the negative things you have to say, and finally, close with a positive statement. Instead, praise someone when you need to, and deliver negative feedback constructively when you have to, but don’t unnecessarily mix the two. Finishing with a positive comment after the negative is useless as it takes power away from what you just said and what the person needs to work on. Be straight and direct. Mostly I’ve seen that the sandwich technique results in people not hearing the criticism, or not hearing the positive comments. Use one or the other.

5. Utilize leading questions to show the impact of poor behavior. In the case of negative feedback, if the person doesn’t see the effect of their behavior, ask leading questions, such as “Can you see why I get annoyed when you interrupt me in front of others?” I’ve watched people finally grasp the feedback they’re given when prompted by a leading question. I’ve been asked leading questions from time to time when receiving negative feedback, and it opened my eyes to the impact of my behavior.

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?

This is tough because oftentimes the only opportunity to give feedback is by email or voice mail. I recommend saying that you would rather deliver this feedback in person, but it isn’t possible today, and you don’t want to let too much time go by without saying something. You want the person to fully understand your feedback’s importance. Be sure to state that you have confidence that when they review the incident, they’ll understand why you are giving the feedback you are and that this person will make a concerted effort to change. Tell them you are looking forward to discussing the issue in person.

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?

It’s always better to give feedback close to the incident at hand. Otherwise, your staff member may think, “Why didn’t they say something earlier?” Stories change over time, and neither of you may be positive about what happened. Sometimes it’s impossible to communicate immediately after an incident, but you can lay down a marker that you want to talk about what happened. Explain this isn’t a good time, but you want them to know this incident needs to be discussed. Perhaps phrase the incident as a question — that you want to know what they thought when something happened. Is it better to give feedback shortly after the incident? Yes. But that isn’t always possible, so go for Plan B when Plan A isn’t available.

How would you define what it is to be a “great boss?” Can you share a story?

A great boss encourages, pushes, and supports. The main task is to demonstrate to the person that you believe in them, have their back, and see their potential. As a leader, you offer opportunities for people to stretch themselves. But you must understand (or ask) when someone isn’t ready. It’s a tricky business because there are times when someone thinks they aren’t prepared to explore what they can do when that’s precisely when they need to be pushed. Experience and intuition help when making decisions like this because you don’t want the person to fail.

At this point, I would get people to change their mindsets about complaint handling. I heard a great metaphor that you can’t get an elephant to take medicines (which I assume tastes awful to an elephant) unless you wrap it in food they like, such as a banana, for example. Then they’ll eat it with pleasure. A Complaint Is a Gift is a metaphor that wraps difficult-to-handle situations into a mindset that lets you “eat” unpleasant customer feedback so you can get to the gift that the complaint offers.

Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson” quote? Can you share how that was relevant to you in your life?

After writing several books on complaint handling, I’ve learned how to change my go-to responses of simply getting angry when someone criticizes me and substitute a better behavior. I must say, I used to think, “Well, what about you!” when hearing negative feedback. I’ve stopped doing that. Whatever anyone thinks about me is irrelevant. What matters is whether we can work through issues we face without taking their criticism or attacks personally. That’s such a valuable life lesson. And it’s not easy to achieve!

How can our readers further follow your work online?

My website: www.acomplaintisagift.com

LinkedIn: janellebarlow-cspphd

Thank you for these great insights! We really appreciate the time you spent with this.

I appreciate your very worthwhile questions!

Janelle Barlow: Giving Feedback; How To Be Honest Without Being Hurtful was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Meet The Disruptors: Glamorise CEO Jon Pundyk On The Five Things You Need To Shake Up Your Industry

An Interview With Fotis Georgiadis

Rather than share the best advice I’ve received, I’d like to share the advice I wish I had received. I spent the first decade of my tenure trying to run the previous senior team’s business and not trying to run the business as I might see it. Perhaps it was because I was young and respected these managers so much. I wish someone had taken me aside and given me the advice: “Run your own business your own way.” Eventually, I came to this conclusion myself — maybe as my experience grew — and that is when the business began the transformation into the different and successful one it is today.

As a part of our series about business leaders who are shaking things up in their industry, I had the pleasure of interviewing Jon Pundyk.

Jon Pundyk is the Chief Executive Officer of Glamorise Foundations. Glamorise is a 101-year-old intimate apparel brand that has been focused on size-inclusivity since its founding in 1921. Glamorise currently offers bras in sizes 30 to 58, and cups B to K — more sizes than any other bra brand.

During Jon’s 30+ year tenure, Glamorise transitioned from a semi-branded manufacturer to a 100% brand and marketing-driven company. Glamorise has developed expertise in performance marketing with best-in-class proprietary technology that combines data analytics, game theory and merchandising strategy.

After getting an MBA I started my career at Procter & Gamble in their brand marketing program. From P&G, I went to Booz-Allen and worked in their strategy consulting group focused on retail growth strategies. I originally came to Glamorise as a way to combine my interest in product-based brand marketing and corporate strategy.

What I didn’t fully understand until I got here is that Glamorise is not just another company. Glamorise is likely the country’s first size-inclusive brand — focusing on curvy women since 1921. A century-long focus on inclusivity brings a mission to the company that I had not expected. Glamorise is obsessively focused on making our consumers’ lives better in a small but important way. The fact that we have been doing this for so long gives us all a genuine sense of purpose. It may sound like a small thing but making a great bra in a full size range is really hard to do. There are no shortcuts, and it takes real skill and experience. As a team, we all live this dedication every day. This energy is not something that comes from a mission statement or a snappy tagline — it comes from a century-long tradition that we all carry forward today.

Can you tell our readers what it is about the work you’re doing that’s disruptive?

Glamorise is a 101-year-old bra company that has one of the few design centers still located in NYC.
In the same space, Glamorise has a world-class data analytics and ad-tech team that creates proprietary performance marketing optimization techniques that measurably outperforms our competition, and outside agencies.

Glamorise competes successfully against global billion-dollar companies and sells to massive global retailers who command great market power. While Glamorise makes great bras as reflected in our 100’s of thousands of online reviews, making great products is not enough in today’s world. The challenge is to reach our consumer despite the cacophony of marketing noise from both competitors and retailers. We are not mass marketers; we are signal-based marketers. We try to find the right consumer at the right time with the perfect product. Our proprietary techniques respond to consumer signals (especially purchase search behavior) to try to find this moment. The fascinating thing about our algorithms is that to a large degree they are optimizing a path to consumer happiness. We are only successful if the consumer is happy at the end of the process. While it is our simple neural network doing the work, the outcome should be the same as if someone walked into a super-responsive local shop.

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 with model fitting sessions since my first day at Glamorise. In those earliest days I was extremely uncomfortable working with our fit models. As a young man in a room with scantily dressed fit models, I was as awkward as a person could be. Super respectful, but super awkward. In retrospect, I would have been best to tell the models I was a rookie, which likely would have helped a lot.

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?

When I came to Glamorise there were a crew of executives who had already been at the company for decades. Their level of experience was amazing. One key mentor was our president who was first and foremost a great salesman. I remember traveling with him once, and we were having a bad run of meetings at that time. I’m sure my disappointment was starting to show. He saw this and gave me what can only be called a confidence transplant. He told me we needed to always carry ourselves with confidence, never blink, and always show the other side we knew what we were doing. He did more for me in those two minutes than two years of business school. I carry that advice with me to this day.

There has been a wave of disruption in the business model for making bras. I’m sure everyone can recall a new bra company — especially in the DTC space. Much of what these disruptors have brought to the market is new, valuable and indeed positive disruption. But for many of these companies, the idea of being a disruptor does not allow the embrace of many hard-won techniques central to making great bras. Yes, using globally distributed resources is a great way to get into business quickly and save money. This business model often has designers, merchandisers, and sewing rooms on different continents and working via Zoom and FedEx to perfect designs. While this seems an efficient and disruptive model, it pales in comparison to working with a design team, an engineering team, professional fit models, and a sample team colocated in a single location. Glamorise has one of the last live design centers in NYC. Our design team can collaborate to iterate design changes in a single session while the distributed design teams may take weeks to do the same thing, if they can do it at all.

Can you share five of the best words of advice you’ve gotten along your journey?

Rather than share the best advice I’ve received, I’d like to share the advice I wish I had received. I spent the first decade of my tenure trying to run the previous senior team’s business and not trying to run the business as I might see it. Perhaps it was because I was young and respected these managers so much. I wish someone had taken me aside and given me the advice: “Run your own business your own way.” Eventually, I came to this conclusion myself — maybe as my experience grew — and that is when the business began the transformation into the different and successful one it is today.

We are sure you aren’t done. How are you going to shake things up next?

Glamorise is two companies: the world’s first size-inclusive bra company, and a state-of-the-art signal-based marketing company. Our next challenge is to integrate these two core functions by allowing data to help us design our products. While we have long used consumer feedback, consumer reviews and consumer research to help us evaluate our products, we have only just started to integrate data science into the design process itself. Currently, we are using some basic AI analytics to review millions of consumer search terms to help us better understand unmet consumer needs. While this has been helpful, we are only scratching the surface. Glamorise is uniquely positioned to make progress here, and it will be fun to see how it develops over time.

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?

Perhaps because of my past as a consultant, I read a lot of writing on strategy from the major consulting firms. Even though they write with Fortune 500 companies in mind, these papers tend to be data driven and very thoughtful. One such article was from a McKinsey Quarterly piece on what made some CPG companies outperform their peers. There were many reasons cited, but one particularly resonated. The article noted that overperformers were best at moving resources to where they could have the biggest impact regardless of organization or other boundaries. I looked at Glamorise, and rather than thinking about departments or divisions as a Fortune 500 company might, I reconsidered my team. I asked the question “Is every person working against the issues where they might have the biggest impact?” Because of this reset, I realized we had a few mismatches. Fixing these issues meant changing how we organized ourselves relative to international borders, but the results were dramatic. This fundamental question from the McKinsey article is one I try to revisit from time to time.

Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share how that was relevant to you in your life?

I like to think that decision-making is deciding what mistake we are willing to make. All important decision-making is making choices under uncertainty. In an outcome analysis, we need to decide which bad outcomes or mistakes we think are most tolerable. Decision-making writers call this a regret minimization framework, but I think the idea is broader than that. For example, as managers we often have the choice of giving too much latitude or not enough. While there are measurable risks and rewards of each, there are also longer-term cultural risks and rewards. How we frame these decisions builds the organization and its values. So when I ask the question “What mistake do I want to make?” I am really asking not only about that decision itself but also about the cultural legacy that decision makes and its impact on the long-term performance of the company.

I’m not sure I am a person of great influence but the area where I feel somewhat qualified to offer some advice is in managing people and organizations. Historically, Glamorise has virtually zero turnover. There are likely many reasons for this, but one of them is among the simplest and one I rarely hear mentioned in management writing. I encourage everyone to rely on that most empathetic of guidelines, the Golden Rule. At Glamorise, we try to treat people how we would like to be treated ourselves. You would be amazed how many seemingly complex HR problems have clearer answers when one just tries to treat everyone as they would like to be treated. I know it sounds oversimplified, but it is actually super powerful. Such things as giving people the benefit of the doubt, not second-guessing people’s motives, and considering how executing a decision might hurt someone’s sense of self all are byproducts of this ethos. I find it works, and it also helps engender a culture of trust.

How can our readers follow you online?

I am on LinkedIn and always find time to talk with fellow entrepreneurs. I am especially interested in sharing my experience with folks who face my challenge: How do you steer a long-standing business in an ever-changing world?

This was very inspiring. Thank you so much for joining us!

Meet The Disruptors: Glamorise CEO Jon Pundyk On The Five Things You Need To Shake Up Your Industry was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Steve Colberg Of Rocketlane On 5 Things You Need To Know To Successfully Scale Your Business

An Interview With Fotis Georgiadis

Defining company culture from the outset is critical. While that may seem obvious, it’s only become de rigueur in company creation relatively recently. It used to be that culture was merely an extension of the founders’ attitudes, created through a penchant for hiring those that thought alike… Now companies are defining their governing values and overall culture from the outset and publishing those for jobseekers to see upfront, as a way of attracting the right people. That’s proven to be the best way of preserving a meaningful company culture and ethos.

Steve Colberg is Head of Growth at Rocketlane, a world leader in customer onboarding software.

He has a wide range of experience and an impressive track record of results in all forms of marketing and growth for both startups (a number of which were funded or sold) and billion-dollar companies. His specialty is accelerating growth by concentrating on a specific set of metrics for sales enablement and conversion, coupled with a marketing strategy of combining multichannel efforts with an omnichannel focus to create a seamless customer journey in the B2B space.

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 started my career with creative assignments in media, mainly writing and editing. I’ve been really fortunate in joining some great companies that had both vision and product market fit. My career style has always been to join a company when it was still early. I help create both a demand-gen process and a marketing/content engine. I stay on past initial success, such as funding rounds or sales, before moving on and doing it all over again.

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?

Early on as a marketer I realized that to be effective I’d have to really understand the product I’m selling, in addition to understanding the market and staying up to date on effective marketing strategies. Since then, I’ve made a point to do deep dives into the product(s) we’re selling in order to understand and better communicate the value to prospects and customers.

What’s the most impactful initiative you’ve led that you’re particularly proud of?

At several different organizations, I’ve set up initiatives for “continuous improvement” on some key marketing metrics that moved the needle on sales. That’s not a new or original idea, but it’s sometimes absent in marketing, where processes can be seen as antagonistic to creativity. Keeping everyone on the marketing team focused on experimenting and tweaking the levers that produce better leads does a lot for maintaining a healthy partnership with sales and in measurable results, generally pipeline generation.

Sometimes our mistakes can be our greatest teachers. Can you share a mistake you’ve made and the lesson you took away from it?

That’s a tough question because there are so many. I’m an inveterate tinkerer and I encourage everyone I work with to be the same, because spending a bit of money and effort to learn what doesn’t work can lead to efficiencies in the long run. Some of the most interesting examples haven’t been mistakes I made but are instances where I’ve been mistaken — where an idea or initiative I thought would never work ended up being highly successful. Those are welcome instances where being proven wrong has great benefits.

How has mentorship played a role in your career, whether receiving mentorship or offering it to others?

I believe in the value of mentorship but haven’t really had that type of relationship, in either direction, in my career. There are colleagues that I stay in touch with and exchange ideas with, but those are peer relationships more than mentorships.

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?

My leadership style is delegative — I have no desire to be a micromanager and I think everyone wins when everyone is empowered. I don’t say “no” a lot, and when I do it’s based on policies rather than opinion. There are a lot of leaders that have led with a delegative style, though I tend to look more to politicians and social leaders rather than business leaders for inspiration.

Many of the basic processes for scaling from a startup to a large company remain constant at every stage, and that understanding brings discipline, methodology, and desirable stability through the growth process. The main changes come when processes and programs are added at each growth stage, as funding and bandwidth allow.

A few examples (it’s both difficult and rewarding to limit to just five) are below.

1) Realistically assess where your company and your product are in the current ecosystem.

Founders can default to the idea that their product is a disruptive, brand-new technology worthy of creating a new product category in one or more industries. Is that really accurate? It’s an important distinction because the tactics for “category creation” are different from the tactics for entering an established market. If your product has great new capabilities that move an established category forward, you may want to position yourself as a disruptive newcomer rather than a completely new, category-creating technology. A lot of initial planning depends on how you define yourself at this stage.

A good rule of thumb: If another company has been around for more than two years that does most of what you do — even if you do it better — you’re not creating a new category, you’re entering the market with a better offering and you should approach the market with that positioning.

2) If you haven’t verified product market fit, then… wait.

This concept goes with #1. It may appear to be completely obvious, but it’s worth stating because of the sheer number of entrepreneurs who skip this step. As a history buff and an idea person, I truly admire the person that invented (not just thought of, but actually invented) the wheel; but I also acknowledge the person that found a way to make a superior wheel in ancient Rome, where business was run by carts that crisscrossed the empire. In which situation would you rather be: a wheel-seller — where you have to explain the concept of a wheel and then explain what a cart might look like — or where you have to describe why your wheel is better for a cart that someone uses every day? It goes back to category creation vs. improvement in an existing market; knowing product fit is essential to making informed decisions about a company’s viability and approach to the market.

3) It really is all about ARR.

Again, it’s nothing new, but driving this concept home across every department means that everyone in the company is on the same page. It means marketing will research and go after high-growth customer segments; sales will push some deals based on growth potential rather than chasing whales; finance will see the value on long-term program spending beyond what’s working right now; and your success group will understand the true value of their accounts. Using ARR as the North Star goal is essential in startups, but because it’s revenue-based it stays relevant through all the stages of a company’s evolution.

4) Focus and discipline rule.

It’s an adage that persists because it’s applicable everywhere in the company. It’s especially important in startups because it prevents smaller teams from promising and trying too many things. Experimentation is desirable but data rules, and you should mainly focus on improving what’s working. That doesn’t contradict other statements here about the importance of trying new things; but if those “new things” are more than a third of what you’re doing, you’re gambling against the odds in a scenario where the house usually wins.

5) At the employee level, at all stages of a company’s evolution and across every department, there are two attitudes that are paramount: “it’s not if, but when;” and “yes, if.”

This involves aspects of company culture that are addressed in another question here, but the main takeaways are that every employee should understand and believe that your product must be on every prospect’s shortlist, and that internally, every employee’s response toward any task that contributes to growth should start with “yes” and ends with a “yes, if.” That ensures that everyone is open to new ideas but also that they’re measuring the right things, dropping initiatives that aren’t working, and doing it all based on data rather than on personal opinion.

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?

A company can struggle by trying to do too much from the start. One example would be having a product plan that moves from MVP to one that does absolutely everything in just a few years; another example would be a belief from marketing that you have to be in all possible channels to reach every possible lead right from the start. In the marketing example, it’s a better strategy to put a laser focus on a few, well-performing channels and create SEO-driven content on just a few important topics rather than trying to become a thought leader on day one (and SEO strategy is a whole topic in and of itself).

Scaling includes bringing new people into the organization. How can a company preserve its company culture and ethos when new people are brought in?

Defining company culture from the outset is critical. While that may seem obvious, it’s only become de rigueur in company creation relatively recently. It used to be that culture was merely an extension of the founders’ attitudes, created through a penchant for hiring those that thought alike… Now companies are defining their governing values and overall culture from the outset and publishing those for jobseekers to see upfront, as a way of attracting the right people. That’s proven to be the best way of preserving a meaningful company culture and ethos.

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?

There are so many good, extant project management and communication tools that I hesitate to call any out here. Rocketlane is in that space, so I see the value of that every day. That said, I encourage and always budget for training programs that team members feel would make them better and more efficient.

As for techniques, there’s no viable replacement for ongoing, scheduled 1:1 meetings and conversations among — and across — team members.

What software or tools do you recommend to help onboard new hires?

I really believe Rocketlane’s onboarding platform is the best available because of its scope, flexibility, and the people in the organization (full disclosure — I’m biased, but it’s an informed bias). There’s a burning desire at Rocketlane to be both customer-centric and to have the best available product on the market, and those two things don’t necessarily have to — and don’t always — go together.

Also, without calling out specific products or methodologies, I’m a proponent of using tools that identify a person’s overall personality structure, particularly how they like to communicate. Having an accurate personality profile and a description of a person’s preferred way of communicating can create a better working atmosphere for both managers and employees. At one of the most fun (and most successful) places I’ve worked, we all did a personality evaluation and created a personality profile that we posted by all our desks. That both created a shared experience and made people better and more effective communicators.

I’ve always been interested in the cyclic nature of history. Samuel Clemens’ quote comes to mind: “History doesn’t repeat itself, but it does rhyme.” If we could examine our past and decide that our main responsibility as a society is to do better than those who have come before, to break the cycle and empower only those ideas that help us evolve, then we can collectively change the world for the better. Of course, what we mean by “better,” and how that’s defined, is what always seems to trip us up.

How can our readers further follow your work online?

I spend my working hours researching methodologies and ideas and putting them into practice in business, so I don’t really do a lot of writing or posting beyond what I do for wherever I’m working at the time. That said, I am always open to new relationships and conversations — reference that on LinkedIn and let’s connect.

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/stevecolberg

This was truly meaningful! Thank you so much for your time and for sharing your expertise!

Steve Colberg Of Rocketlane On 5 Things You Need To Know To Successfully Scale Your Business was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Meet The Disruptors: Garrett Smiley Of Sora Schools On The Five Things You Need To Shake Up Your…

Meet The Disruptors: Garrett Smiley Of Sora Schools On The Five Things You Need To Shake Up Your Industry

An Interview With Fotis Georgiadis

Lean into the hard conversations. Delegate less– a founder’s job is to understand and integrate every area of the organization. It is never proper to delegate the “why” behind a team’s work. Take care of your body — your mind is an emergent property of the body; mental health and acuity begin with the body and the fuel you provide it. The body is where your energy, drive, and happiness originate. Painful lesson.

As a part of our series about business leaders who are shaking things up in their industry, I had the pleasure of interviewing Garrett Smiley.

Garrett Smiley is the Co-Founder of Sora Schools, an education startup based in Atlanta. Sora is a virtual, project-based high school where students explore their interests, learn however is best for them, and gain exposure to future careers and fields of work.

Prior to Sora, Garrett co-founded a charity which built wells in developing nations called Drops of Love. Garret also directed a university startup incubator called Core Founders at Georgia Tech, and started an education non-profit that worked with foster children to develop financial literacy called Flip. Garrett studied Computer Science at Georgia Tech. Garrett also worked as a Venture Partner at Contrary Capital where he scouted, invested in, and mentored startups in the Atlanta area.

As a child in a military family, I attended many different types of schools; some worked for me, but most didn’t. This constant experimentation in my schooling sparked an early interest in education — I was curious how different classrooms could operate so differently. I thought, do we not know the best way to do this by now? And, although the game of school came easily to me, I always felt I was learning more through my extracurriculars than in the classroom; challenges I took on like starting a water nonprofit with my sister, becoming a black belt in Tae Kwon Do, or spending a summer at Stanford University learning Einstein’s theory of relativity, all contributed to my worldview and future much more meaningfully than any textbook, lecture, or test. Carrying this passion for education through college at Georgia Tech, I threw myself in the middle of the conversation about school reform — with all of the forceful opinions I had developed — and then also got my hands dirty co-founding a non-profit focused on game-based learning on financial literacy for Georgia’s foster youth. Then, looking to pair this passion with an understanding of innovation more broadly, I worked as a venture partner at Contrary Capital, supporting and investing in Atlanta-area startups. After that, I extended my knowledge of entrepreneurship by partaking in a short fellowship with renowned venture capital fund True Ventures. After that, although I was still quite young, I felt so strongly about school reform that I just had to get involved as soon as possible. Enter Sora!

Can you tell our readers what it is about the work you’re doing that’s disruptive?

Most of the education industry is looking for two or three percent improvements on the margins — schools have pizza parties if their test scores improved 0.2%. Fortunes are made and lost playing that game. But, most people ignore — and it’s convenient to ignore — the elephant in the room: school, the thing every student has to do for eight hours a day for 13 years, doesn’t work for many people. At Sora, we’re attacking that big challenge head-on, bringing the latest learning science and wisdom from fancy private schools to scale a transformative education to everyone, grounded in tenants like real-world, interdisciplinary learning, mastery-based assessment, and student-led curriculum based on their interests.

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?

Too many to count. For every lead we got through the website or an event, all three of us cofounders would drive to their house (separately), blocking their driveway in the process, and rant at them about education reform until we either closed the sale or got asked to leave. Our research, passion, and hustle were the only things we had to break into an industry dominated by legacy and bureaucracy.

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?

Almost every education innovator or entrepreneur has been extremely generous with their time. We have only been able to make it this far by following their wisdom. There are too many to answer a question like this — I would worry about leaving one of them out.

Our lead investor, Hemant Teneja from General Catalyst, has written an excellent book on this topic called “Intended Consequences”. The short version: being disruptive can be terrible if not approached mindfully. The era of “move fast and break things” is over. Companies must change their mindset from simply “increasing shareholder value” to a more nuanced goal of doing good, avoiding harmful consequences, and innovating responsibly. To achieve this, companies need to rethink their business model and incentives from the ground up to actively encourage adherence to those values. For example, there are millions of truck drivers in the country, making it one of the most popular occupations. Assume that overnight, a company could produce millions of autonomous trucks that were faster and safer than a driver. That innovation alone could meaningfully increase the nation’s unemployment and cause tens of millions of people to have profoundly negative feelings toward that technology and technologies like it — it could destabilize society. We saw a similar story play out with companies like Uber and even Facebook. That hypothetical autonomous truck company should take personal responsibility for the broader implications of the innovation; one possible method is tracking Key Consequence Indicators like “percentage of displaced truckers upskilled” alongside more traditional metrics like revenue and gross margin.

Can you share five of the best words of advice you’ve gotten along your journey?

There are dozens of lessons in education, but I’ll focus on the leadership principles I come back to over and over. Read more books and read them slowly — books represent lifetimes of wisdom, indulge often. But treat each book as a meditation, don’t read to “finish”. One of the only common traits I can identify between top performers is their consumption of a ton of nonfiction. Slow is smooth and smooth is fast — stolen from the Navy Seals, don’t sprint through life or decision; move carefully and thoughtfully. Minimize the adrenaline as much as possible. As Ray Dalio says, “nothing has been more instrumental to my success than meditation.” Don’t be a coward — the burden of leadership is making the necessary, hard decisions that can cause pain. But someone’s got to do it or the mission will not be accomplished. Lean into the hard conversations. Delegate less– a founder’s job is to understand and integrate every area of the organization. It is never proper to delegate the “why” behind a team’s work. Take care of your body — your mind is an emergent property of the body; mental health and acuity begin with the body and the fuel you provide it. The body is where your energy, drive, and happiness originate. Painful lesson.

We are sure you aren’t done. How are you going to shake things up next?

This is a big growth year for Sora. We’ve been working on our school model for the last four years in close collaboration with our families, and we’ve landed on something everyone’s really excited about and I’m seeing it make a huge impact in many students’ lives. So, our goal this year is to grow our capacity to help many, many more students who desperately need a school like Sora.

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?

It’s hard to choose just one. After I got sidelined from sports in my 8th-grade year, I became obsessed with reading and haven’t stopped devouring hundreds of books yearly; each one molds my mind in some unique, unpredictable way. When I was a kid, I remember reading books like Abundance by Steven Kotler and Peter Diamandis, being absolutely mesmerized by the power of technology to help people. At the time, I was under the impression that the world was getting worse all of the time — thanks to the news — but at that moment, I realized the world is always getting better, primarily thanks to the innovations of people who cared enough to try. Now, I’d recommend The Beginning of Infinity by David Deutsch, a beautiful case for optimism. Some other childhood favorites are Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, Marcus Aurelius’ Meditations, and Isaacson’s biography on Steve Jobs.

Can you please give us your favorite Life Lesson Quote? Can you share how that was relevant to you in your life?

“Love the struggle”. The foundation of the learning process is adopting a growth mindset which is the self-fulfilling belief that skills and intelligence can be improved through hard work. People with a growth mindset learn to love failure and see it as information to guide their learning. These individuals consistently reframe failure away from a personal attack to an exciting and necessary step towards the final destination. Understanding how to “fail well,” see instruction in roadblocks, and embrace iteration is foundational to the learning process. When you’ve steeped yourself in a growth mindset, you come to really crave those moments of struggle because, quite literally, struggle is the moment of maximum learning. Every moment you can sit in the struggle, you are improving at the fastest possible rate.

Exactly what I’m doing! Building a new school system to inspire students to challenge themselves and chase a meaningful contribution to the world. If we create a million students on fire for making an impact, leading with love and empathy for others, the world would be completely transformed. Nothing is more important or impactful!

How can our readers follow you online?

Twitter at @gw_smiles

This was very inspiring. Thank you so much for joining us!

Meet The Disruptors: Garrett Smiley Of Sora Schools On The Five Things You Need To Shake Up Your… was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Alexey Khursevich Of Solvd On 5 Things You Need To Know To Create a Successful App, SaaS or…

Alexey Khursevich Of Solvd On 5 Things You Need To Know To Create a Successful App, SaaS or Software Business

An Interview With Fotis Georgiadis

Always exceed expectations: turn it into a core value that your company gives to partners.

As a part of our series about the “5 Things You Need To Know To Create a Successful App or SaaS”, I had the pleasure of interviewing Alexey Khursevich.

Alexey Khursevich (https://www.linkedin.com/in/akhursevich/), CEO at Solvd, worked as a freelancer and then gathered a group of like-minded software developers who later became his colleagues in a newly-established firm. In 12 years it has grown from just a small group of freelancers into a 700 associate strong world-wide business whose client list includes Fortune 500 clients.

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 started my career as a Software Developer in a huge service company while I was a third-year university student. Financial independence was my main motivation to start earning money as soon as possible. The mix of having a full-time job and university studies was a pretty tough period in my life, I must say. Fortunately, I was introduced to my future partner in the US and I started working as a freelancer. Right after graduating from university, I decided to start my own business. Most of my friends and university mates that I recruited when we got our feet off the ground are still with the company and are now working in managerial positions at Solvd.

Can you tell us a story about the hard times that you faced when you first started your journey? Did you ever consider giving up? Where did you get the drive to continue even though the conditions were so challenging?

It was pretty hard for the first 4 to 5 years when I was deeply engaged in most of the software solutions that we were delivering. We worked with our west coast customers under wide time zone differences: that meant our working days ending late after midnight (our time). Most of all, my decision to leave the safety and security of being at a huge service company where I started, to do a startup created a lot of uncertainty that made me feel a bit nervous.

So, how are things going today? How did your grit and resilience lead to your eventual success?

I strongly believe that successful businesses are based on the ability to take calculated risks and their ability to do the same routines perfectly, which, over time, will grow the business.

My most important career decision was the one I made at the beginning when I chose to leave a huge corporation to launch my own IT business. I wasn’t fully confident in my future success but was motivated to stay the course with the choice I made.

I’m convinced that when we make mistakes it’s an opportunity for us to learn new approaches and skills, and to develop more refined solutions. Back in 2015–16, I worked as an engineer and later as a CTO for an Ukrainian startup that was trying to create an Uber-killer app. We planned this out as a turn-key project, so we were beta-testing too many features that we considered critical, but ultimately didn’t allow the app to get to the market. We were mistaken, as we didn’t factor in the importance of getting early user feedback to potentially save the project from failure. Now, I know that the most efficient and rational way in terms of time and resources is to first create a Minimum Viable Project, which comprises minimum functionality, release it to the market, let early adopters test it and then enhance it based on the resulting feedback. Nonetheless, I think this experience was a valuable part of my success on my journey from being a software engineer to CEO of a global company.

It has been said that our mistakes can be our greatest teachers. 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?

At the very first stage I hosted a mobile device farm at my home-based office. Over time, I noticed that some of the devices were starting to inflate (as a result of battery degradation). I was trying to repair them by myself and I started a small fire at my home! Since then, we utilize the services of a third-party provider to audit and repair batteries for our device farms. And of course we’re keeping them on metal shelves in air-conditioned rooms.

What do you think makes your company stand out?

I see our QA and Test Automation expertise, embodied in the products we develop, as a powerful differentiator and advantage we have in the market. Another strong point of ours is Solvd Laba (our proprietary training course) which helps boost company growth by attracting talented and loyal engineers who do an excellent job for our customers and on our internal projects.

Which tips would you recommend to your colleagues in your industry to help them to thrive and not “burn out”?

It is hard to recommend something in this regard, but I would say it’s important not to be afraid to ask for help if you need it. Communication with others and alternative ideas can make your life easier and less stressful. Getting and sharing experiences is often the best way to improve.

None of us are able to achieve success without some help along the way. Is there a particular person to whom you are grateful towards that helped get you to where you are? Can you share a story?

Yes, there is a “supervisor” who helped me all the way through, but it’s best if he stays unnamed. I’m grateful to the original team we started this business with and they’re still looking in the same direction as I am. They motivate me to go forward, both in business and personal life.

Ok, thank you for all that. Now let’s shift to the main focus of this interview. How do you evaluate the company’s growth, and which parameters are key for you?

While running Solvd Inc. as a global technology consultancy and software engineering company, it’s better to measure the amount of the spheres we partner with and the team that is growing daily across the world, including Latin America, North America and Europe. Our company is proud to service Fortune 500 clients. 320+ completed projects celebrate the results of working with clients across fintech, retail, media and entertainment, software, and health and wellness industries.

This means that today Solvd has become a global reliable IT partner that is trusted to resolve different tasks, no matter their technical complexity, to exceed the expectations of our clients and create win-win values.

How do you measure the results, which Solvd is delivering to clients?

The amount of successful projects and satisfied clients are the best KPI for our business. By now, over 200M users across the world are using our software and mobile solutions, created by our engineers for Under Armor, Starbucks, Stanford Medical School, Nerdwallet and other tier-1 partners.

Thank you. Here is the main question of our discussion. Based on your experience and success, what are the five most important things one should know in order to create a successful business delivering best software solutions?

First of all, you need to understand the business of each client as your own. In Solvd we are continuously searching for how every client can do business better with our solutions. Building long-term partnerships with customers is a top priority of our management. We choose quality instead of quantity.

Invest in talents. We engage in our proprietary educational initiative called Solvd.Laba. Our best tutors teach quality assurance, test automation and JavaScript development in these courses. They share knowledge and train in skills applicable to real-life projects. 80% of students become Solvd’s employees after course graduation. You need to be for people and about people.
Work with the best engineers. Our clients appreciate the competence of Solvd’s people, their high professionalism, productivity and motivation to create best software solutions.
Be proactive: responsive project management and top-notch daily communication with clients is a must.
Carry about the product: our clients really treat a team from Solvd as an integral part of their teams. So partners and clients recognize us as a reliable partner who can consistently meet deadlines and commitments.
Always exceed expectations: turn it into a core value that your company gives to partners.

This was very inspiring. Thank you so much for joining us!

Alexey Khursevich Of Solvd On 5 Things You Need To Know To Create a Successful App, SaaS or… was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Shuddl: Spencer Steliga’s Big Idea That Might Change The World

An Interview With Fotis Georgiadis

Never stop learning: While I had, shall we say, a hit-and-miss relationship with higher education, I consider myself a life-long learner, forever curious about the Next Big Thing.

As a part of my series about “Big Ideas That Might Change The World In The Next Few Years” I had the pleasure of interviewing Spencer Steliga.

Spencer Steliga is the Founder and CEO of shuddl, an innovative platform for sustainable B2B logistics for the Web3 era.

Spencer believes that supply chain can achieve a net neutral future via dismissing old ideas in favor of multi-party orchestration across enterprises. The inside out approach lends itself to immediate exception resolution, real time visibility, and a rapid efficiency increase for all organizations involved.

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 please tell us a story about what brought you to this specific career path?

Growing up in the Chicago suburbs, I always wanted to be in sales, like my dad. But when I got into that field years later I discovered I was a horrible sales guy, while at the same time discovering that the product I was selling was substandard. I came to realize that I just had to create good products around me, because I want to be about something that brings me value. Then it’s very easy for me to sell it.

Can you please share with us the most interesting story that happened to you since you began your career?

I started my first business when I was 14, mulching neighbors’ yards in between two-a-day football practices in the late summer. I carried that through my junior year, at which point I had five other people working for me. So I would just have to drive around during two-a-days, rather than do the mulching.

Which principles or philosophies have guided your life? Your career?

There’s always more money. If I don’t pursue my purpose — whatever my brain decides that is — I’m going to get very, very ill, very, very quickly. I’m not just going to feel well as a human being. I wish I could tell you it was some conscious choice here, but I’m always in transition, and that transition has got to be an upward trajectory, or I’m in trouble.

Ok thank you for that. Let’s now move to the main focus of our interview. Can you tell us about your “Big Idea That Might Change The World”?

I founded Shuddl, an innovative on-demand cargo pick-up and delivery service in 2022, the idea being that efficiency solutions lie at the nexus of technology collaboration, relationships and experience. Our aim is to scale sustainability applications through resource optimization.

How do you think this will change the world?

Our payment structure is broken. Being a business owner and seeing how money actually flows drives that point home, as when somebody charges you 36 percent three times over, just to get food delivered from another country. A lot of people make a lot of money off of people not having immediate cash flow. Our company is going to change things by maximizing technology. I’m already putting in a dual-sided wallet, so I can real-time pay myself, basically. So that’s the driver’s wallet; it’s on him to get it out.

But as far as blockchain goes, we’re just scratching the surface. Nobody actually uses blockchain. When I finally got connected, it was through this Visa thought leader that introduced me to this girl. She’s the only one I could find that actually has something to do with blockchain.

Keeping “Black Mirror” and the “Law of Unintended Consequences” in mind, can you see any potential drawbacks about this idea that people should think more deeply about?

No. These innovative projects simplify tracking, reduce carbon footprints, allow for greater supply chain flexibility, and address major concerns in cybersecurity.

Was there a “tipping point” that led you to this idea? Can you tell us that story?

At one point in my life I was a commodities trader, and I really got into probability. Every single thing in my career has been based on some level of mathematical probability that I’ve followed and applied. So yeah, I like sustainability, but sustainability really follows probability, if you apply it correctly, because that follows efficiency.

What do you need to lead this idea to widespread adoption?

Awareness. Shuddl’s supply chain solutions hold the honest potential to solve a myriad of systemic frustrations in logistics & transportation. While everybody (to varying degrees) is aware that our supply chain is inflexible and wasteful, few know that the answers to many of our problems don’t require a paradigm shift.

The irony is that blockchain technology, for instance, isn’t new. Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT) has been around in other forms for decades. It was only when we started thinking comprehensively about unexamined applications in finance and data management that things like cryptocurrency and NFTs became available.

What are your “5 Things I Wish Someone Told Me Before I Started” and why.

Never stop learning: While I had, shall we say, a hit-and-miss relationship with higher education, I consider myself a life-long learner, forever curious about the Next Big Thing.

Embrace weirdness: I have no problem being the outlier. It’s actually, probably, where I’m the most comfortable. A lot of things don’t make sense to me. I wish I didn’t know a lot of things I do. It’s been an interesting ride, particularly these last two years, but I’ve loved them.

Understand the speed of life: The pace of learning in the world is perfect for my brain. There’s new stuff coming out every single day, and I fully embrace it.

Can you share with our readers what you think are the most important “success habits” or “success mindsets”?

Every single thing you think would be one’s weakness is probably my greatest asset to my career or my daily actions. I’ve been blessed with a lot of different experiences, and I always have a lot of ideas.

By leaning into my perceived weaknesses, I refused to let them become handicaps. In elementary school, it hinders your performance to daydream while you should be taking notes. As an entrepreneur, however, my creativity and enthusiasm for brilliant ideas are critical to my success.

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 🙂

We have an algorithm that predicts what space is going to be wasted at a future point in time that doesn’t exist yet. This technology can then pick up a vendor’s product at a given point in time and go across the country and deliver it at a different date and time. In essence, we’ve figured out mathematically what friend had an extra seat in their car to Coachella. That’s the best way to put it. Almost like carpooling, but for trailer space.

We’re also just scratching the surface with blockchain. I don’t believe that any transportation and logistics company is leveraging distributed ledger technology to its full effect — and it’s going to be crucial to supply chains moving forward.

How can our readers follow you on social media?

You can find me on Linkedin or at @SpencerSteliga_ on Twitter.

Thank you so much for joining us. This was very inspirational.

Shuddl: Spencer Steliga’s Big Idea That Might Change The World was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Heroes Of The Homeless Crisis: How Evonne Biggs Of Venice Family Clinic Is Helping To Support Some…

Heroes Of The Homeless Crisis: How Evonne Biggs Of Venice Family Clinic Is Helping To Support Some Of The Most Vulnerable People In Our Communities

An Interview With Fotis Georgiadis

While it may be challenging, you don’t have to accept that working in homeless services is a Sisyphean task. We must maintain hope that we will one day create a fully functional system that is successfully designed to ease and eliminate suffering. The daily work to get there is often a challenge, but I remind myself daily not to accept the status quo and I believe that my work is a piece of the puzzle in creating more equitable systems.

As a part of my series about “Heroes Of The Homeless Crisis” I had the pleasure of interviewing Evonne Biggs, Program Manager, Homeless Services & Health Equity at Venice Family Clinic.

Evonne Biggs currently serves as the Program Manager for Homeless Services and Health Equity at Venice Family Clinic, a nonprofit community health center that provides care to over 45,000 people at 17 sites across the greater Los Angeles area, where she is responsible for the development, implementation and overall performance of the clinic’s homeless program, including its three mobile clinics and nine street medicine teams that deliver care directly to unhoused patients regardless of location.

Her educational background includes a Master of Public Health from California State University, Northridge, where her curiosity for identifying the root of health disparities among the most vulnerable began. Evonne has experience in providing direct care to families experiencing homelessness and previously served as a supervisor in the single adult interim housing and engagement service areas.

Evonne values serving as a catalyst for systemic change at the intersection of homelessness and healthcare, by both participating in and facilitating collaborative efforts with people who provide direct care, community partners and representatives of local government.

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 personal background, and how you grew up?

I am the eldest of my siblings, born in Los Angeles, California. I spent most of my childhood in the rural area of northern Los Angeles County. I grew up with quite a few household pets and animals throughout my childhood, but my favorite were our horses. I’m slowly but surely getting back to the groove of horseback riding, as it is my happy place.

While our family of six didn’t live close to many of our extended family, we were faithful churchgoers. The folks we worshipped with every week became our family. I was introduced to people who continue to be in my life and heart to this very day. These people had a tremendous impact on my life in my formative years. I would say this church family was my introduction to the concept of interconnectedness and the importance of community support. Although my beliefs and practices have changed over time, I attribute my introduction to faith as a foundation to who I am and how I show up.

The most memorable parts of my childhood were the summer road trips I would take with my grandmother, her sisters and cousin to visit my great grandmother and extended family in Birmingham, Alabama. Exposure to the culture of southern hospitality and our rich family history made a lasting impact on my life. Although I was born and raised in Southern California, my grandmother’s southern roots are a part of my being. I think the time spent with these elders may have something to do with the “old soul” some recognize in me.

Is there a particular story or incident that inspired you to get involved in your work helping people who are homeless?

I was inspired by my Master of Public Health programming in graduate school. My curiosity deepened as we delved into investigating root causes of our health and social welfare outcomes. During the same time, I observed the community in which I lived. It was generally considered affluent but had plenty of areas where folks lived with less. When you walked the streets, there was a clear distinction between the haves and have nots. I continued to be curious about signs of increasing poverty that I witnessed in such a seemingly affluent area.

During my last year of graduate school, I took a grant writing elective that allowed me to dig into history of how the local community approached homelessness and the model of service. While I was curious about the activity in my environment, I also reflected on the complexity of navigating my own personal housing insecurity challenges despite having access to community support. My faith foundation reminded me of my responsibility to serve and do good. It was at that point when my mind shifted to wanting to help find a sustainable solution.

After finishing graduate school, I decided to take my newfound public health knowledge to the social service sector. I knew I wanted to design and implement programs and inform policy, but to do that I needed to understand what was happening on the front lines. I was blessed to be given the opportunity to understand the complex world of families who were experiencing homelessness and assist those in need. When I began my work at Venice Family Clinic, I was able to take what I learned from within the social service sector to establish the Clinic’s existing homeless services infrastructure. Although homeless services were by no means new to the Clinic, this experience helped me and my wonderful colleagues build sustainable structures that support the hardworking staff who treat and help patients experiencing homelessness.

Homelessness has been a problem for a long time in the United States. But it seems that it has gotten a lot worse over the past five years, particularly in the large cities, such as Los Angeles, New York, Seattle and San Francisco. Can you explain to our readers what brought us to this place? Where did this crisis come from?

At Venice Family Clinic, we take pride in the high quality comprehensive health care that we provide to families and individuals who might otherwise go without the care they need. 64% of our patients live below the federal poverty line, and we have pioneered a robust street medicine program featuring nine teams and three mobile clinics that treat people experiencing homelessness by delivering care directly to where it is needed.

While it is tempting to discuss the causes on a local or even individual level, I think it’s important to first explore the root causes of homelessness across America. I’m reminded about an experience from my childhood that might serve as a helpful metaphor: When I was younger, my brother and I were expected to tend to our front and back yard nearly every Saturday morning. My primary role was to pull weeds, and I hated it with a passion — eventually learning how to cook breakfast just to avoid this chore. And I learned that some tools made it easier to remove the visible weeds without getting my hands dirty, and that helped get me back inside faster.

Despite these handy tools, the weeds would quickly return, ready for me to struggle with them the next week. It didn’t take long to realize that the real solution to preventing this overgrowth was to attack the source of the issue — the roots themselves. So, I got down in the dirt, got my hands dirty and dug up the roots entirely.

This metaphor can be a helpful tool to understand homelessness: Where we find latent discriminatory practices, injustice is usually not far away. While stagnant wages, lack of affordable housing, mental illness and substance use are all key factors involved in homelessness, I would also point to a history of the general lack of equitable investment in all people. We need to recognize our nation’s history of discriminatory housing practices and redlining, which historically occurred nationwide and has evolved into questionable redistricting practices even today. These root injustices affect access to quality education, employment and even access to high-quality healthcare — something that we pride ourselves on providing to Venice Family Clinic’s patients, regardless of creed, income or immigration status.

As a society, I believe we have done more reacting to the homeless crisis than responding. While it is important to appreciate progress we’ve made to this point, we must also recognize that we have a long way to go as a society. We must continue to address immediate needs, but we must also be mindful in practically addressing long-term causes and consequences of the homelessness crisis. It is a balancing act: reacting is natural but responding is sustainable. Responding requires preparation and strategy. It also requires us to listen to, involve and properly compensate people with lived experience so we can make informed decisions and determine root causes.

At Venice Family Clinic, we try to respond to these root causes by providing quality healthcare to those in need in ways that address the whole person. We tend to our patients’ medical and behavioral health needs, whether in the clinic, on the street or in a shelter. We also provide connections to community resources and housing through our community partners, healthy food distributions to local communities through our health education programming and early child education for children and families of children 0–3 through our Early Head Start programming.

For the benefit of our readers, can you describe the typical progression of how one starts as a healthy young person with a place to live, a job, an education, a family support system, a social support system, a community support system, to an individual who is sleeping on the ground at night? How does that progression occur?

At Venice Family Clinic, we serve about 45,000 people each year — 91% of whom live below 200% of the federal poverty line and almost 5,000 of whom are experiencing homelessness. As the Clinic’s Program Manager for Homeless Services and Health Equity, I have found that one of the major challenges to addressing homelessness is that there is no typical progression. There are so many layers associated with how someone ends up sleeping in their car or on the sidewalk. I have encountered people experiencing homelessness who at one time had more wealth than I may ever see, and I have sat with people who have had the same experiences as me and just so happened to land in a different place. I oftentimes ask myself, why not me?

When I think of homelessness, my mind returns to the concept of root causes. I think about Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs), defined as potentially traumatic events that occur in childhood (0–17 years), the importance of healthy connections and the ability to rethink existing systems. As I reflect on my own story and hundreds more I have heard from people without a stable home, common themes appear: The need for access to tools to be successful in life and the connections that support healing and help people address their root issues.

Some who have high exposure to ACEs may find themselves in despair despite access to tools that support a healthy lifestyle (great education, material wealth, loving family and friends, etc.) because they were isolated from supporting connections and did not have the opportunity to do the hard work of addressing roots of harm they experienced. Others may have those connections but lack the proper tools to succeed.

While not everyone without these tools and connections will end up experiencing homelessness, it is clear to me that there is a direct correlation. There are times where the tools help us chop away at the weeds enough to present well, but the root issues were ignored and kept growing so that there was no way to sustain a healthy lifestyle. And without the proper tools to empower growth, those connections may still not be enough.

A question that many people who are not familiar with the intricacies of this problem ask is, “Why don’t homeless people just move to a city that has cheaper housing?” How do you answer this question?

Many people ask this question with good intentions, but I find that we often miss the opportunity to ask through the lens of equity. Under our current climate, cheaper housing often correlates with less available resources to help stabilize and support folks who are just coming out of homelessness.

For people who have recently experienced homelessness, there is often an adjustment, and sometimes even grief, associated with moving away from social support. This could contribute to having another experience with homelessness at worse, and difficulty in adjusting and accessing much needed resources at best. Social support and equitable access to resources are vital, so cheaper housing in and of itself doesn’t always solve for everything.

Housing is crucial to our health and ability to thrive, but so is the quality of the larger environment and community that surrounds the place where one lives. Ideally, we want to create an environment that makes room for individuals to self-determine and tap into their own values as they work with the social service professionals to exit from homelessness.

When I was a Housing Navigator for a previous organization, there was a concerted effort to have people move to the Antelope Valley because it was cheaper to live there. This was no malicious act, and not unique to this organization, but it was a solution made with limited options and not enough consideration for the local environment — what we call a ‘community health assessment.’ What wasn’t considered was the lack of available resources for those people to continue care with their existing healthcare team, inadequate transportation to attend important appointments, school and work and limited access to schools with adequate resources for students. So yes, the housing was cheaper, but for many people it was not the healthiest move.

If someone passes a homeless person on the street, what is the best way to help them?

I would encourage people to practice empathy and be willing to safely acknowledge our unhoused neighbors. I know from personal experience that a simple smile goes a long way, and I will always engage if a conversation is started. My daughter is involved in a club at her school which creates hygiene packets. She makes sure I have hygiene packets with a flyer with resources listed in my car, so we can hand them out if needed.

For people experiencing homelessness who need access to quality health care and lack money or insurance, we welcome them to contact Venice Family Clinic. We have 17 brick-and-mortar locations across Los Angeles with 500+ staff members and almost 1400 volunteers, as well as nine street medicine teams and three mobile outreach clinics. At Venice Family Clinic, we see almost 5,000 patients experiencing homelessness annually, and we are always here to help however we can — whether that is through direct medical care and counseling, medical and housing referrals or even if you just need someone to talk to.

What is the best way to respond if a homeless person asks for money for rent or gas?

If a person has the means to give cash, and this action is consistent with their values, then giving money is great. I believe in the effectiveness of mutual aid and communal care, having personally benefitted from both, and I will be forever thankful my community was able to assist.

On a larger scale, as a society we must make it a priority to address the complexities of financial insecurity and homeless prevention. I believe the knowledge and experience of community organizations offering these resources, like Venice Family Clinic, will be invaluable to helping those experiencing homelessness access the wraparound services they need.

Can you describe to our readers how your work is making an impact battling this crisis?

I know that my work overseeing projects that improve access to quality healthcare to people experiencing homelessness has an impact, and I understand the importance of having basic needs met in a way that allows for services to be delivered with dignity. Projects that I oversee, like building customized mobile clinics, allows patients better access to care while making room for clinicians to engage with their patients’ complex needs in meaningful ways. Another example, Venice Family Clinic’s street medicine training program and curriculum, has helped educate residents, medical students and healthcare professionals across the nation on best practices in treating and helping our unhoused neighbors. With the help of Clinic partners and using the knowledge I’ve gained from professional and personal experience, I work to update patient care operations, inform advocacy opportunities and continuously improve our Clinic’s high standard of care for all of our patients — regardless of their housing status.

How has the COVID-19 pandemic affected the homeless crisis, and the homeless community? Also how has it affected your ability to help people?

I often refer to 2020 as the year of vision. While there has been so much misfortune throughout the pandemic, I believe the silver lining is that we have been given a glimpse of what must be done differently. The pandemic caused immense suffering, but it also shone a light on growing health and social inequities along with lack of safe and affordable housing nationwide — factors that significantly impact and contribute to people experiencing homelessness.

Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, Venice Family Clinic never closed. Instead, with the help of telehealth and our resourceful staff, we made significant updates to the Clinic’s infrastructure to meet the needs of our patients. This included using telemedicine to diagnose and treat patients, providing pop-up and mobile COVID tests and vaccines, and addressing social determinants of health beyond COVID-19 by hosting food drives and working with partners to identify housing for those without. This has been a natural evolution in Venice Family Clinic’s mission to treat our patients as a whole person by taking care of needs that go beyond basic medical care.

Can you share something about your work that makes you most proud? Is there a particular story or incident that you found most uplifting?

Although most of my current work is behind the scenes, I am most proud when I can see how the work has impacted the people we strive to serve. I recently ran into a former program participant of mine who had previously experienced homelessness. Being able to have a candid conversation with this person who is now housed, and especially seeing their children thrive, was such an uplifting moment. We talked about the challenges we both faced as they relied on me to assist with navigating their experience with homelessness and their journey to secure permanent housing. They explained to me how helpful it was to have access to supportive services at the time. In addition to securing a place to live, those services allowed them to reconnect with their community, expanded their social support and helped introduce them to new ways of thinking and being.

Without sharing real names, can you share a story with our readers about a particular individual who was impacted or helped by your work?

I can recall an individual patient whose needs I helped address during my time providing direct services. Together, this experience and this person encouraged me to work more closely at the intersection of healthcare and homelessness. The individual was a parent who reentered the coordinated entry system, or the network that aligns homeless services in Los Angeles County, on multiple occasions. They regularly experienced housing and employment instability and had a challenging relationship with the other parent of her children.

During a scheduled session, the patient revealed she was expecting another child. She said she felt some shame in this declaration, as it appeared that each time she returned, there was another addition to the family. I took a deeper dive into the intake questions about previous healthcare interactions and current connections and discovered the patient did not have adequate health coverage and very little access to reproductive healthcare. I shared a nearby community health center’s information and helped connect the patient to supportive medical and behavioral health services. After a series of health center visits, the patient was able to engage in creating a housing plan and meet the goals she set to safely house her family. She continued to work with case managers to assist her family in stabilizing in their new home. That small, extra step I took helped ensure this patient was able to address her most basic needs with dignity and put her on a pathway to creating a better quality of life for herself and her children.

Can you share three things that the community and society can do to help you address the root of this crisis? Can you give some examples?

First, I encourage people to do a heart scan. I believe an invitation to open your heart will eventually lead to changed minds. A regular examination and critique of one’s values can keep us grounded, and hopefully help us understand how we can contribute to fixing this crisis.

When I think about root causes of homelessness, I think about the need for shared equitable power. I would encourage communities to examine the ways in which they are complicit in upholding systems of oppression. These oppressive systems leave one unimaginative and unable to dream dreams outside of the structures built for them. As I reflect on my own experiences, I would compare this to the hard work of kneeling to the ground in the garden and digging up roots with our hands, as opposed to using tools to temporarily paper over the problem.

Lastly, I would encourage communities to support advocacy efforts that promote affordable housing solutions and the overall health of the communities in which they live.

If you had the power to influence legislation, which three laws would you like to see introduced that might help you in your work?

Expand protections from discriminatory practices as outlined in our Fair Housing Act and ensure that safe and healthy housing be formally recognized as a human right.
Ensure equitable access to health care, which includes access to skilled nursing facilities and specialty treatment accommodations, through a healthy balance of private and public resources that are responsibly regulated.
Expand Medi-Cal’s and Medicaid’s respective abilities to ensure reimbursement for nontraditional delivery of care, including important services like street medicine.

I know that this is not easy work. What keeps you going?

When I was providing direct services to people experiencing homelessness, I came to realize that I had the heart for the work that I was doing but not the stomach. I had to tap into understanding my unique talents, and I realized that working towards self-actualization is a major part of what keeps me doing this work. Most importantly, I ground myself in a “love ethic.” One of my favorite authors, Gloria Jean Watkins who also goes by her pen name “bell hooks,” defines this love ethic as utilizing all dimensions of love including care, commitment, trust, responsibility, respect and knowledge.

I feel a responsibility to make positive and sustainable changes for communities in need, and a personal responsibility to care and have respect for fellow human beings. Although it is sometimes a heavy lift, I commit myself to be a lifelong learner. I believe it is important to evolve our thinking by constantly learning and adapting as circumstances change. There are always new ways of being and new ways of doing to be discovered. That simple fact keeps me going and gives me the hope needed to continue to work to improve the world around me.

Do you have hope that one day this great social challenge can be solved completely?

I do believe the challenge of homeless has potential to be solved completely. At minimum, I believe we can both achieve and maintain “Functional Zero,” or the point when a community’s homeless services system is able to prevent homelessness whenever possible and ensure that when homelessness does occur, it is rare, brief and one-time.

However, there are times when I question whether my hopes are too lofty. For positive change to be sustained, there will need to be a complete change of hearts and minds. While I would like to remain systems focused, I believe it will take all of us as a collective to be brave enough to examine, uproot and rebuild equitable systems. That is a heavy lift, but I believe it can be done. Maybe not in my lifetime, but it can be made possible if the foundational work is done now.

What are your “5 things I wish someone told me when I first started” and why. Please share a story or example for each.

Having the heart to serve is oftentimes not enough, you also must have the stomach for this work. I have the heart of a helper, but I wish I was prepared for the challenges and energy exchange that often occurred as I stepped into another person’s world. Sometimes it was too much, and I found myself ill-equipped to walk alongside a person whose burdens were so heavy. If I had originally approached my work with this mentality, I would have entered my current career path as a program manager and thought leader sooner and been better able to provide guidance that enhances the delivery of care.
Eventually, you will see yourself in those who you serve. This will be your opportunity to look away from the mirror or continue to explore your own path, privileges and vulnerabilities. I thought I knew how vulnerable I was to circumstance and environment before I began my work, but the more people I engaged with the more I realized it. Throughout my work, I met people with similar experiences who took far different paths. To this day, I continue to explore the factors that create different outcomes between patients so that we can better learn how to proactively assist those in need.
Establish strong boundaries and prioritize both self and communal care. This should have been a given, but I did not understand personal boundaries early on and my self-care was subpar. I came in as the helper, the giver, a mother and with the baggage of the older child syndrome. There is so much information out now around best practices for those in helping professions. However, this is one area I wish I would have grasped earlier on.
It is important to “tune” your voice for the appropriate audience: As one example, some people may not understand that dark humor often serves as a coping mechanism for healthcare workers. Those who know me intimately know that I can be extremely goofy and will rarely pass up a good laugh. Often, I laugh to keep from crying when I work. Selectively engaging with people who have a fully intact sense of humor, despite their unfortunate situations, allows me to connect with them effortlessly, but it doesn’t always translate well to the general population. I have learned to tune, or adapt, my voice to better communicate with different audiences and care for individual patients depending on their needs and sensitivities.
While it may be challenging, you don’t have to accept that working in homeless services is a Sisyphean task. We must maintain hope that we will one day create a fully functional system that is successfully designed to ease and eliminate suffering. The daily work to get there is often a challenge, but I remind myself daily not to accept the status quo and I believe that my work is a piece of the puzzle in creating more equitable systems.

You are a person of enormous 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 propose that each community participate in coordinated efforts to address the needs of their neighbors experiencing homelessness, right where they are. These communities would be filled with people who have embraced a change of perspective, and an open heart as to who they consider their neighbor. No more pushing people out because they no longer fit in the boxes we deem acceptable.

In an ideal world, moving people away or relocating people would be a last case scenario. I would propose each community embody the value of communal wealth, where it would be the collective responsibility of everyone to gather resources to tend to the needs of the most vulnerable among us. This would mean equipping all communities with myriad supportive services to assist people in times of need, while also ensuring equitable systems are in place to prevent future misfortune. Each community would be equipped to foster a sense of belonging for those who choose to be a part of it, without fear of being “othered” and cast aside.

Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share how that was relevant to you in your life?

My personal favorite is a quote from Octavia Butler: “I can write my own stories, and I can write myself in.”

This quote is relevant to me personally because I have lived a life in which I believed I needed to show up in a specific way to get things done the “right” way — to follow rules and not make messes, to stay in my lane and the boxes I created for self.

As I do my inner work, I cannot help but see the parallels in how we approach many social challenges. Determining how I want to show up requires me to give myself permission to imagine a story that is mine, without thinking about the outside gaze. It allows me to be brave when I speak about oppression and unfair practices. It allows me to ask questions that may not have immediate answers and be okay with uncomfortable silence as others do the hard work of processing.

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, especially if we tag them. 🙂

This is a tough one! The first person which comes to mind is Dr. Wilda Gafney. She is a biblical scholar, priest and professor of Hebrew studies who engages in womanist thought. As previously mentioned, my faith foundation sustains me, but my faith journey has not been without struggle. Dr. Gafney’s work transformed my way of thinking and paved the way for renewed hope. I’m not sure if I would be so chatty if I was in her presence though — I would definitely be ‘fangirling’ the entire time.

How can our readers follow you online?

For more information about how I am working with Venice Family Clinic to address the homelessness crisis and assist communities across Los Angeles and the nation, please visit our Clinic’s website https://venicefamilyclinic.org/ and follow us on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and LinkedIn.

This was very meaningful, thank you so much!

Heroes Of The Homeless Crisis: How Evonne Biggs Of Venice Family Clinic Is Helping To Support Some… was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Making Something From Nothing: Ned Hill Of Position Imaging On How To Go From Idea To Launch

An Interview With Fotis Georgiadis

Find the right investors, not just the first investors: I can get into many horror stories but will just say it is much, much easier and more effective to grow a company with investors that you trust and can bring something to the table vs. just money, especially if this IS your first rodeo.

As a part of our series called “Making Something From Nothing”, I had the pleasure of interviewing Ned Hill.

Ned Hill is the founder and CEO of Position Imaging (PI), a pioneer in advanced tracking technologies. Under Ned’s strategic vision and guidance, PI has developed industry leading AI and computer vision-based platforms, Smart Package Room and iPickup, that improve package delivery logistics efficiency for residential and retail markets. He has also raised over $40 million in funding, driven technology, product, and application development, and created a global partner ecosystem including industry leading couriers, hardware and software companies, and service providers. Ned graduated from University of Massachusetts, Amherst with a B.S. in Economics and is the inventor or co-inventor of over 60+ patents/patent applications. He has been a leading industry speaker on topics such as eCommerce Fulfillment, Asset Tracking Technology, Smart Retail Technology and Artificial Intelligence.

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”?

Sure. I am the product of a single mom with an absentee dad, living hand to mouth for most of my childhood. My father was always the “unfulfilled potential” example to me growing up; a brilliant mind, full boat through Harvard MBA, a great athlete (won state tennis singles championship), great career with the Navy, etc. But, he never lived up to his potential. He was a problem drinker and lacked the drive and work ethic that are crucial to success in business and life. My mom always taught me that no matter how smart you think you are, if you don’t put in the work, you will never amount to what you could be in life. That lesson combined with being a relatively poor kid taught me that if I wanted to make something out of my life and live without the same financial hardships I knew as a kid, I better get to work!

Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share how that was relevant to you in your life?

I have several Life Lessons that I repeat here at the company all the time. As strange as it sounds, I think you can really help yourself through difficult times if you remind yourself of certain key quotes or sayings that you have in your back pocket.

One saying I often use is the question: “How do you eat an elephant?”….One bite at a time!” This is particularly useful to our company as we work to make an enormous impact in the world and as a small company we need to be focused and not get overwhelmed by the gravity of the venture as a whole. Stay focused on the small bites and before you know it, you’ve eaten an elephant!

Another saying I use often at work and at home is “The hard road and the right road are often the same.” Sometimes you are faced with difficult decisions on paths to take in work and in life. Most times, if you really analyze the options, the harder roads are the right ones, even though it is human nature to take the easier path, because, well, it’s easier! I’m not saying you should always take the harder road, I’m not a masochist! BUT, I do think that if you look back at the important choices you have made in your life, most of the right decisions were also the heaviest lifts….

Another saying I use all the time is “He who laughs last, laughs best.” I remind my teammates and my son often that this is a very powerful notion and true aspect of life. If you’ve put up the hard work, remain focused on your convictions, and believe in yourself, you will end up in a good place and will be able to laugh knowing, in the end, you were right and earned the rewards!!

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?

Glengarry Glen Ross is a movie that struck me as a kid. First, it was tense and showed a sign of sales that is dark and scary. I never wanted to end up in a boiler room schlepping products or services like they did in this movie. That was very depressing to me and guided me to avoid ending up in that environment. Second, it showed a good tool in sales, “ABC” (Always Be Closing). While I don’t subscribe to pressure sales, I do appreciate that even if you aren’t willing to become a prototypical pushy salesperson, you still need to ask for the order!

I often say there are millions of million dollar ideas and the reality is, that’s true. There is no shortage of great ideas but only a few have the “stuff” to become actual businesses. Although I could never be the judge and jury on idea quality, I can say there are some helpful guidelines to narrow the field.

The first is that you need both uniqueness and leverage for a winning product. Important elements of your solution should be either difficulty to replicate or painful to get around. These elements can be from patents, trade secrets, special teams, or key relationships with big partners in the industry you are targeting. Somewhere in your solution there needs to be a protectable position because, if the market opportunity is big enough, big players will eventually come in to challenge you. As Archimedes said, “Give me a place to stand and a lever long enough and I will move the world”. In this case, know where to stand (what are your strengths) and develop that lever with relationships and/or IP and you can leverage and, if done right and with some luck, you CAN actually move the world!

I think one of the most under-utilized resources when evaluating new ideas is doing patent searches. When you develop your idea into a tight and concise description, you can either have a patent attorney do some research or you can do it yourself (made much easier today via uspto.gov). Issued patents can tell you not only what is already protected, they can also tell you what is NOT protected. If something isn’t protected yet, then you have a good path ahead. If something is already patented, that also may be OK because every good idea is based on other existing products or ideas. You can use those existing patents/products to either circumvent the patented solution or think about what is next AFTER this patented solution. Thinking two steps ahead is always a better approach for both getting patents and getting to a truly unique and trailblazing solution. Don’t think about how great your product may be today, think about how great the NEXT product is going to be tomorrow and use that knowledge of the existing patents/products to help get to that next product.

The steps for getting products to market are many but I would always start with a patent search on your idea. This tells you if you need to innovate beyond the initial idea (in case the idea is already patented) or file a patent on your concept. You need to produce a description of the product and then use those key phrases to do a patent search. You can do these initial searches yourself and then, depending on the results, bring in a patent attorney to do a formal search.

Once you have developed the patent concept and filed an application, you can work to build that innovative product. You may have to do some work to build this product but you’ll need something because in the end, very rarely will anyone fund or sell just an idea. So, this is where you put in the work and potentially where you have to spend some money. This initial product may be a proof of concept or simple prototype but without it, you just have an idea, and that just isn’t enough.

After you have developed this product, you can start to look for the right partner to help you sell it. But, this partner will need to be convinced you have something that is protected and valuable and after filing the patent (so you can tell them it’s “patent pending”), you need to produce metrics to show how big the opportunity is, who your customer is, and how you are going to execute. This business plan doesn’t need to be a 1000 page report but does need to be compelling. You need to do your homework and show why this is an important product/solution in a large and growing market. This takes doing your homework, a lot of homework, but needs to be done because you won’t convince anyone to invest or partner with you if you haven’t done your research to show why you may have the next killer product opportunity.

What are your “5 Things I Wish Someone Told Me When I First Started Leading My Company” and why?

Find the right investors, not just the first investors: I can get into many horror stories but will just say it is much, much easier and more effective to grow a company with investors that you trust and can bring something to the table vs. just money, especially if this IS your first rodeo.
People love to be naysayers or tell you that “they” thought of this before: Forget about them, they are jealous of your drive and ambition. Stay focused, take any empirical data from them that makes sense, then forget the rest. This is your baby and you should know that if you are honest and true, you will overcome limitations or shortcomings in your product (it’s never perfect and the best products evolve with real world data).
It’s harder and will take longer than you think: The days of killer apps getting funded then bought for huge money are over. You need to do the work to create something unique and valuable and that takes time. Be prepared for that. This is a marathon, not a sprint.
You can do more than you think: When I started, I used to leave the “tech” talk to others and just be the “idea guy”. That was a lazy and unrealistic position and cost me in the end. You need to become an expert in all things or at least well versed in all aspects of your company. This will help you, the product, the company, and your likelihood of success.
Find a great life partner: Entrepreneurship is hard and is a long road. If you have a good spouse or life partner by your side that will support your hard work and understand the kind of grind you will endure to get this dream realized, then you have already won, the rest is house money. Coming home to a loving partner will be invaluable to your efforts when most of the day will be dealing with people telling you no or that your idea isn’t good. You need support and if you are lucky enough to find that person, I’d say you’re lucky enough.

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 do a ton of research on the market the product idea would be addressing and see what else is out there. If the market is clear of competitors or even if it has competitors but you can evolve the product idea into something that is better than what is currently out there, then you’re ready to do some patent searching. When both market competition and patents look clear, then you’re ready to file your patent to at least get to that critical “patent pending” status. When you have patent pending status, you show that there is something that MAY be protectable AND you have a confidential position to leverage (no one can see your patent details when it’s pending). When this product and patent research work is done, then you’re on the way to build it!!

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?

NEVER, EVER hire a product consultant to do the work for you. For one thing, they likely don’t know as much about the product or market as you do. They also would rob you from doing the critical research to identify and codify the product opportunity. You need to learn about what you are trying to build, not use someone else to do it for you. Strike out on your own, make mistakes, and if you have to, bring others in to help you with the work, but not do it for you.

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 am a big fan of bootstrapping vs. venture capital but in the end, it’s likely a moot point anyway. Unless you are a Nobel laureate, no VC will fund you unless you have done some bootstrapping to bring the solution far enough along to fund. Those paper napkin blank check days are over! Do the work, bootstrapping as you go, and eventually, if needed, you’ll find the money.

Ok. We are nearly done. Here are our final questions. How have you used your success to make the world a better place?

I look around my company, at the great people that I get to work with everyday, and know that if I didn’t take the risks and work this hard and eat crow for years, none of these people would be working here. I am lucky enough to have created a special company with a unique culture that I guarantee will lead to other future companies and future innovations. In the end, these people will make the world a better place. Using the scar tissue I now have to help my team prepare themselves for their next adventures, mentoring them to become the next great business and technology leaders in the US, is a huge source of pride in what I do and energizes me to keep pushing ahead.

I am personally committed to giving back after my company. “Giving back” doesn’t mean donating money because that would be the easy part. After the journey I have had creating technologies/products and the lessons I have learned as a result, I realized long ago that after I leave this company, I will apply that experience to other pressing issues that are important to me. I have become a technologist and product person from this work and am committed to leverage that knowledge to help the world mitigate climate change.

Steve Jobs was always a hero in business to me and incredibly we have people in this company that used to work with Steve. I always wanted to meet and engage with him on product and technology challenges but sadly he is no longer with us. Today there are many people that I think are groundbreakers; Jeff Bezos, Bill Gates, Brian Cornell, Max Levchin, Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz, Dean Kamen, and of course, Tom Brady!….OK, I’m a big Patriots fan!

Thank you for these fantastic insights. We greatly appreciate the time you spent on this.

Making Something From Nothing: Ned Hill Of Position Imaging On How To Go From Idea To Launch was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Sasha Laghonh Of Sasha Talks: Giving Feedback; How To Be Honest Without Being Hurtful

An Interview With Fotis Georgiadis

Communication is a two way street. Allow room for the recipient to process the feedback, make comments and ask questions. It’s important the feedback loop remains open until all items for discussion are addressed with an acceptable degree of closure.

As a part of our series about “How To Give Honest Feedback without Being Hurtful”, 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, broadcaster and author, she partners alongside different clients to capitalize upon their talent and resources. 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 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 hail from a business background having contributed to the private and public sectors among a wide variety of industries. This granted me an opportunity to better understand how to manage different types of businesses from an agile and waterfall perspective. Over time these lessons needed to be shared through a versatile outlet with business minds and individuals wanting to evolve with their performance management skills in life. Sasha Talks was founded on the premise to focus on the human condition of the mind and heart which require learning how to live an impactful life.

What do you think makes your company stand out? Can you share a story?

Sasha Talks focuses on integrating the deeper layers of human insights by exploring different dimensions of the mind and human behavior which contribute to performance enhancement. At one point it was perceived to be an informational source rather than the community it has become over the past decade. What stands out are the people that I’ve collaborated with who host remarkable grit to earn their merit as well exhibit strength to overcome challenging conditions from failures to tragedies in their lives; YET they still choose to operate from a place of love instead of fear. When I think of the community, I think of a beating heart which translates to life thriving among us.

Whether a person is down on their luck or they feel the odds are against them, I believe the world of Sasha Talks can clearly convey that our setbacks in life sometimes serve as a set-up for the stories we’re meant to actualize through our belief & efforts. Move forward and onward — it is easier said than done but it’s worth the effort. I have never honored any other opportunity that has taught and challenged me at the same time teaching me the human capacity to love life in its rawest form. We’re conditioned by society to appreciate things and people when they become the ‘finished product’ but in reality we’re all works in progress. This in essence is an on-going lesson for how I can take better care of myself.

In hindsight, most of my engagements through collaborations stress the theme of detachment. When we focus on the present by detaching our emotions and expectations for the future, we’re able to perform better by clarifying our focus on what we can control within our human means today.

Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you started your career?

I would say meeting people that I’ve looked up to as professional contributors and role models. I believe focusing on my work and letting it speak for itself has helped. Sooner or later the right people seek me out.

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 partnered with an academic institution to recruit senior talents for a program. Instead of telling me they had pre-selected the candidates to meet with me, they had forwarded the profiles for consideration without context. I thought they were prospective clients instead of candidates seeking to work alongside me. The crossing of wires resulted in botched communication leading the candidates to believe they applied for the wrong opportunity. I’ve learned when working with a team of people, especially external parties, to always reiterate the content of the message because people have a bad habit of initiating side dialogues which have no relevance to the core matter at hand.

What advice would you give to other CEOs and business leaders to help their employees to thrive and avoid burnout?

Make an effort up front to learn how your employees work well optimally together. Subjecting everyone to adhere to a fixed cadence will compromise the quality of communication, information flow and productivity over time. Understanding people have priorities outside of work can allow creative ways of working which welcomes input from contributors within the company. The top down command and control environments are slowly becoming extinct because employees have become proactive in seeking a professional environment that aligns with their needs.

How do you define “Leadership”? Can you explain what you mean or give an example?

Knowing yourself before guiding others to actualize their best potential when honoring a mission. The best leaders that I have witnessed are those that know themselves well from their strengths to their weaknesses. There is a human thread of vulnerability that welcomes people to trust their guidance; at the same time inviting people to share constructive feedback. A leader doesn’t necessarily work out of a 20th floor loft overseeing a city view, a leader resides within each one of us. A leader exists from within the crossing guard at a kid’s school to someone helping an elderly member shop at a grocery store.

I typically adhere to a self imposed rule of blocking out at least half an hour, or one hour of time prior to an important engagement. If the stakes are high, I will block out more time so I will not allow distractions to enter my mind and physical space.This may even extend to not entertaining calls, or any form of correspondence. I can use the time to enjoy a good cup of tea, listen to music to ease any angst of the day, review a preread, or sit still without having the urge to ‘do something’ for the sake of it. I’ve come a long way in my development that I can sit still without feeling guilty. If it’s a major decision, 9 out of 10 times I will sleep on it. I’m a walking alarm clock on some days due to the number of engagements I need to honor. If there are time constraints, I recommend people to focus on their sleep and hydration leading up to their big engagement.

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?

I’ve managed teams of varying scale and scope when it comes to business, sports and social engagements. Context matters when providing feedback given the objective of feedback and the recipients receiving it. It’s important to craft the feedback in a manner that yields a respectable utility value. Communicate it in a dignified manner by stressing the objective of the feedback by ensuring the successes are mentioned as well the opportunities for further learning are addressed. If the constructive guidance provides value then the recipient will likely apply it in their next engagement, including other areas of their life. It’s rare that our life experiences are so isolated that they can’t translate to lessons for other people.

Some feedback is crucial to deliver in person, on a video call or even a phone call. Other feedback is viable to address in writing if necessary. I prefer the live method because acknowledging the recipients in real-time is important to me because I want to know their thoughts and reactions which provide an opportunity to explore a conversation while allowing me to answer their questions even though they can follow up later in time. Such conversations hold the most value in the present. For example, when the feedback is delayed, it creates a vacuum for any behavior modification to take place sooner. Also voicing appreciation should not be delayed. Feedback can be celebratory, informational, acknowledgment of effort, a quick check-in; etc. Feedback is basically communication. It’s important to me that I treat people with the respect that I would appreciate in return when it comes to feedback. We can only grow together as a whole, otherwise we’re all scattered pieces waiting for something to miraculously glue our efforts together. I know how it is to be on the receiving end of feedback that I’m sensitive to acknowledging the presence of other members.

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?

Honest and direct feedback is essential for an individual to develop themselves to reach their best potential. Sugar coating concerns doesn’t allow anyone to achieve their best potential, instead the leader is throwing a hurdle in this person’s path or even drilling a pothole for the individual to trip over themselves later in time. Direct feedback delivered with integrity saves time, energy and resources for people to move forward in terms of ROI.

There are leaders who struggle with providing authentic feedback because they, by nature, lack the ability to be honest with themselves; therefore they project their personal dilemmas onto others in their role. Sometimes the leaders are honest with themselves but they lack the skill to exercise effective communication skills because they make it about themselves in some fashion. When the feedback is strictly addressed in a specific context, it’s not impossible to be honest and direct.

The word honest has questionable stigma attached to it. If people respect themselves, they are likely to respect others through exercising honesty. It’s not always the delivery of the honesty that can be overwhelming for one but handling the recipient’s reaction in response to the honesty. This is why it’s important to be mindful of the tone, diction, timing and setting of how the feedback is delivered. It may not be the feedback that upsets a person but the lack of situational awareness of how the message is delivered. If a leader knows how to read a situation well, then they should be able to provide feedback that can only benefit them and the overall group. If the leader is trusted to do well, providing respectful yet truthful feedback is an opportunity to contribute to an individual’s personal and professional growth.

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.

Respect. All feedback should have an objective so the sender and recipient of the feedback understand why the conversation is taking place. Craft the message and/or plan the conversation in an organized manner. Have your key points ready to discuss including action items and questions you may have for the recipient. This is professional feedback not a session to dispense personal opinions or to shoot the breeze. Respect all aspects (the recipient & the message) of the meeting at all times.
Timing. Pick a time that works for both parties without being rushed during the conversation. If these are regular feedback meetings that occur on a cadence, then a 15 minute or half an hour block works. Otherwise quarterly, semi-annual or annual meetings deserve a greater time block. If this meeting is on the calendar, then create a running agenda where the recipient can add their topics to discuss prior to the meeting.
Mind your words. What and how you communicate needs to deliver value by assuring the employee they are acknowledged, valued and how their contribution impacts their professional environment. Stay on point, make each word count without relying on filler words. Honest and direct feedback works best. Employees respect employers who respect their time and character. No one wants to be lied to with false promises. Serious matters need to be addressed in a sensitive yet firm matter. The recipient shouldn’t have to think whether you’re making a statement or asking them a question. Be clear to avoid misunderstandings.
Empathy. You’re human and so is the recipient of the feedback. Be in the moment. Communicate in a dignified manner while allowing yourself to acknowledge the reactions and responses in return. Do not make it about you, nor should you become defensive if questioned about the feedback. Take accountability of your feedback rather than blaming the content of the feedback on another member to avoid any rebuttals.
Communication is a two way street. Allow room for the recipient to process the feedback, make comments and ask questions. It’s important the feedback loop remains open until all items for discussion are addressed with an acceptable degree of closure.

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?

Email can be impersonal at times since it lacks the tone and inflection that is needed for such situations. Emojis do not count nor are they appropriate for such conversations. Constructive feedback can still be given in a formal yet amicable manner by focusing on the content and formatting of the feedback. Again, context matters. If this is a regular member of the team or an acquaintance offering feedback, it makes sense to consider the professional relationship in how you manage to frame the message. It’s not always the feedback that is harsh but rather the recipients are not seasoned enough in character and personality to co-exist with such realities of life.

Feedback can range from telling one employee to work on their personality and demeanor in how they interact with their colleagues to another member being coached on how to better execute a leadership meeting. For example, it’s important to approach the feedback with care in writing and in live circumstances by knowing whether it’s a task/performance based matter, or a character development that requires attention. Certain types of feedback, per company protocol, require vetted members (i.e. HR, senior manager or a vetted witness) to be on the email message for record keeping and performance tracking purposes. When it comes to everyday collaborations and feedback, it is best to keep it solely among those that are engaging one another for a professional task. The feedback’s goal is to accomplish progress in some form, not extend invitations for reprimands. Feedback should also be shared when there is progress exhibited, achievement in real-time and moments when extraordinary effort is invested by members.

Feedback should be executed with balance in mind. Be generous with justifiable praise. Be mindful in how you extend constructive feedback. When there is nothing to say on either counts, remain silent and patient. The passage of time always provides some material to assess and report on whether there is progress, no change or cause for potential concern.

It depends what the critique is for at work. If it’s about a major board meeting that took place then it makes sense to schedule a debrief following the event within the same week to discuss the hits, misses and next times that can be taken into consideration. If it’s critique for on-going work, then it can possibly be integrated in a weekly, or set 1:1 meeting with the manager or member managing the progress. When the feedback is related to small day to day items, the critique should be given in real-time when it happens, or after it happens when there is an appropriate time, place and audience present. Some feedback is casual that can be shared in general before people so others can learn too; other feedback is critical yet sensitive which should be delivered in only the presence of the recipient.

The convenience of logistics should not trump integrity and respect when providing feedback.

How would you define what it is to “be a great boss”? Can you share a story?

A great boss is someone that is confident in themselves while being aware of their strengths and weaknesses. All of whom I regard as great bosses were grounded people who were people of integrity, fair, strong communicators and foremost they didn’t care whether people liked them. They were still human but they didn’t hide it. They encouraged people to actualize their best selves.

It reminds me of a quote by Seth Godin, “ If you’re remarkable, it’s likely some people won’t like you. The best the timid can hope for is to be unnoticed. Criticism comes to those who stand out.”

Since it’s the holiday season, it’s an opportunity for all of us to assess our belongings and decide whether there are items which qualify for donations to help those in need. Whether it’s an item that was bought a while ago and not used, or an item rarely used, there are charities in need of donations since demand is high and supply is low. Sharing new items is always welcomed. If sharing physical items isn’t an option, there are charities that welcome written letters that are shared with the elderly, military personnel and children situated in different circumstances. If people know creative ways of alleviating another person’s loneliness this holiday season, extend that hello and let them know.

Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share how that was relevant to you in your life?

No one is going to pick you. Pick yourself. — Seth Godin

It’s important that we become our own advocates instead of relying on our external environment to validate us. No amount of external validation will fill one’s cup until they start filling it with their worth. You don’t get to join the game of life when it gets better, you’re part of the formula to make it better. Pick yourself. Ask yourself — is life happening to you, or are you happening to life?

How can our readers further follow your work online?

People are welcome to visit Sashatalks.com.

Thank you for these great insights! We really appreciate the time you spent with this.

Thank you all for your hard work to educate audiences around the globe!

Sasha Laghonh Of Sasha Talks: Giving Feedback; How To Be Honest Without Being Hurtful was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Adam Boita Of Ecologi: Five Things You Need To Build A Trusted And Beloved Brand

An Interview With Fotis Georgiadis

Every brand experience with your audience is an opportunity to reinforce or undermine your brand. If you surprise and delight at every opportunity people will talk about you. Word of mouth is the most powerful advocate you have.

As part of our series about how to create a trusted, believable, and beloved brand, I had the pleasure to Interview Adam Boita.

Adam Boita is Chief Marketing Officer at Ecologi, the UK’s leading climate action platform which is helping businesses and individuals to play their part in tackling climate change. With over 17 years of experience in brand marketing at iconic technology, entertainment, and lifestyle brands, Adam joined Ecologi in early 2022. Since its inception in 2019, Ecologi has planted over 53 million trees and avoided over 2.3 million tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2e) from the atmosphere.

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’ve worked across a broad set of industries to date from gaming, alcohol, government and now green tech. I started off my career at PlayStation working across both the brand and software divisions launching PlayStation Portable, PlayStation 3 and PlayStation Network. I then changed industries to work at Pernod Ricard on ABSOLUT vodka as well as many other brands in their portfolio including Jameson, Beefeater, Plymouth, Havana Club, Malibu to name but a few. It was my work on ABSOLUT and our limited edition bottle supporting the LGBTQ+ community that opened up the door to more purpose-driven marketing. This led me to then work for NCS (National Citizen Service), the UK’s leading youth programme for 15–16 year olds, ensuring they get the life skills they don’t teach in school. 600,000 teens benefitted from that programme. Whilst there I also launched a sustainable bag brand on Kickstarter as a side hustle which opened up the world of sustainability. A friend and co-founder of Ecologi got in touch, which then led to some consultancy for Ecologi which turned into a full time job at Ecologi as CMO. When I look back I like to think that at PlayStation I entertained a generation, at ABSOLUT I helped them party, at NCS I prepared a generation for adulthood and now I’m helping to protect our planet for future generations.

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’m not sure about funny mistakes but the craziest / funniest moment in my career was promoting a PlayStation game called SingStar ending up dancing and singing on stage with Vanilla Ice at Glastonbury. The lesson learned is you never know where your career can take you, enjoy these moments off the back of hard work.

What do you think makes your company stand out? Can you share a story?

As a founder-led business Ecologi was born out of asking ‘What if?’. Our CEO Elliot asked himself, what if I put the money from my morning coffee into climate action? The cup of coffee that led to funding over 53 million trees and 38,000 members. It’s a human story that people can connect to instantly. Ecologi makes people feel and see how easy and rewarding it is to take climate action. It creates a sense of momentum that other people can get behind — the power of collective action.

Trust and transparency is at the very core of our fundamentals — we publicise our financial information, customer revenue data, impact data, and our board meeting minutes. This has made us one the top 5% of B Corps globally in 2022 for Environment and Governance. Ecologi not only helps to fund a range of climate solutions, from reforestation to renewables, but we also maintain that we only support those carbon-reduction projects that are certified at the very highest level by the Gold Standard or the Verified Carbon Standard.

Are you working on any exciting new projects now? How do you think that will help people?

Next year we are launching Ecologi Zero, a game changer in Net Zero. We remove the barriers to Net Zero by enabling businesses to calculate their emissions for free. Our easy-to-use dashboard gives businesses a thorough understanding of their footprint, automatically measures and tracks emissions, and helps them to take climate action on their way to achieving net-zero. It connects to common accounting software allowing businesses to analyse their entire supply chain — which often accounts for 90% or more of emissions. Over 2,000 businesses are already signed up on the waitlist and are currently being onboarded as part of our open beta.

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?

Brand marketing is all about design, consistency, and the experience of creating an emotional connection with people. It has a long-term duration of effect and if done well is highly memorable. Brand marketing is broadly targeted to reach all potential buyers and influencers and creates mental availability & consideration. It will influence future sales and makes next year’s product targets easier to achieve.

Product marketing is more short-term with more behavioral prompts to act now and is less memorable. It’s tightly targeted to people likely to buy very soon. It exploits brand building and the mental availability and consideration already built up.

The two have to work hand in hand and the split between the two is very important depending on what industry you’re in as per Les Binet and Peter Fields research into the ratio between brand building and activation.

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?

Your brand is your differentiator in the market versus the competition. It reinforces everything you stand for. If you have a strong brand then it makes the more general advertising efforts much more effective.

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.

One red thread

A single brand idea will help tie all touchpoints together, so brand consistency creates cumulative positive benefits.

2. Everyone owns the brand

The brand does not sit within a specific department. Everyone is a brand ambassador who needs to live and breathe the brand on a daily basis

3. Authenticity and transparency

No brand will be trusted from the get-go, you have to earn it. Back up words with meaningful, long-term actions that are consistent, day in, day out.

4. Be more human

We are all people. Talk to people like people. Mistakes will be made, especially if a business is in its early stages. It is better to own up to the mistakes made and engage on a human level on how you can do better moving forward.

5. Word of Mouth

Every brand experience with your audience is an opportunity to reinforce or undermine your brand. If you surprise and delight at every opportunity people will talk about you. Word of mouth is the most powerful advocate you have.

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?

All birds. The company unapologetically marches to the beat of their own drum. A small sneaker company started by two people with no experience in footwear is a great story. It’s a human story that people can connect to.

They gave people something different than Nike and Adidas and took a stand on a key issue, sustainability, dubbing themselves ‘the most comfortable shoes in the world made from sustainable wool’.
They focused on brand marketing, cultivating a following of people interested in their shoes and their eco-friendly lifestyle with a brand rallying cry their future community could get behind #weareallbirds.
They spoke to and listened to their community to improve their shoes.
Their content is consistent, fun and engaging, and they don’t take themselves too seriously.
They don’t do deals and increased their prices for Black Friday by $1 pledging to match every extra dollar they earned during Black Friday, and donate the extra proceeds to support Greta Thunberg’s Fridays for Future movement to combat climate change.

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?

Brand-building campaigns work hand in hand and make sales activations more effective. It’s been proven time and time again. Brand building is measured by share of voice, awareness, and impact statements, as well as engagement and helps, drive healthy long term sales revenue

What role does social media play in your branding efforts?

Social media does play a huge role — particularly for a startup to scale up like us, as it offers everything in one place from brand building and activation, to ongoing community engagement. Like all media, it is only one channel and needs to be part of an integrated media strategy to ensure you are reaching people at multiple touchpoints.

I’m in the movement I want to be in. Climate change is the single biggest threat humanity faces and communicating that to make people and businesses take action is literally a once-in-a-lifetime brief for a brand marketer.

Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share how that was relevant to you in your life?

I recently watched ‘Stutz’ on Netflix where Johan Hill turns the tables on his therapist. He talks about the three realities of life — pain, uncertainty, and the need for constant work. We all have to face these 3 things no matter who we are or how famous someone is — if you can learn to live with them, accept them, then I think life is just so much easier, it’s certainly allowed me to cherish and live in the moment more.

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 lunch or breakfast with? He or she might just see this, especially if we tag them. 🙂

Sir Richard Branson. He’s been consistently the best brand builder. Himself.

How can our readers follow you on social media?

You can find me on LinkedIn, feel free to get in touch!

Thank you so much for joining us. This was very inspirational.

Adam Boita Of Ecologi: Five Things You Need To Build A Trusted And Beloved Brand was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Stephen McGarvey Of Solutions In Mind On How To Be Great At Sales Without Seeming Salesy

An Interview With Fotis Georgiadis

We need to close on the thinking. So, we need the perception to be moving in the right direction. We also need to close on the emotion that is connected with that desired perception. Then, we need to close on the behavior which is what most people think of as “closing.”

As a part of my series about how to be great at closing sales without seeming pushy, obnoxious, or salesy, I had the pleasure of interviewing Stephen McGarvey.

Stephen McGarvey is the author of Ignite a Shift: Engaging Minds, Guiding Emotions and Driving Behavior and Founder & President of Solutions in Mind, and a world-leading authority on unconscious communication, positive persuasion and influencing with integrity. He is a sought-after speaker, presenting to a variety of international audiences in a myriad of venues, ranging from the American Psychiatric Association Conference to numerous Fortune 500 companies. McGarvey is a Certified Master Practitioner and Trainer of Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP) and a Certified Master Hypnotist. Employing the empowering modalities of neuroscience and the latest in behavioral psychology, he hosts The Stephen McGarvey Podcast and is known for bringing contagious enthusiasm and a powerful presence to the professional speaking circuit.

<a href="https://medium.com/media/1fcd7ed7c5b506ada69e1dc545807aa4/href">https://medium.com/media/1fcd7ed7c5b506ada69e1dc545807aa4/href</a>

Thank you for doing this with us! Before we dig in, our readers would like to learn a bit more about you. Can you tell us the “backstory” about what brought you to this career path?

Although successful now, I faced challenges early on. As a child I was identified as having a learning disability. I struggled in school and failed grade two. I persevered and continued my lifelong love of reading and learning, propelled by a fascination with how different people think and process information.

I entered university as a mature student where I discovered the fields of neurolinguistics and hypnosis, topics that ignited my curiosity. Fascinated, I changed my focus of study to neurolinguistics.

After graduation I began a private practice in counselling and coaching. One of my clients was a corporate trainer who found my techniques so helpful, she asked me to speak at her company’s sales and marketing event. I really enjoyed that experience and in 2001 my wife Natalie and I launched Solutions in Mind, a boutique consulting firm specializing in the psychology of persuasion and influence.

The team at Solutions In Mind help people understand how their own brain works — that thinking impacts emotion which drives behavior. Now, 21 years later, I’m an internationally renowned speaker and best-selling author whose expertise is relied on by C-suite leaders and teams around the world.

I love being able to positively impact the way people think and communicate. I am grateful that through the success of our businesses, Natalie and I are able to give to a number of charities like Ratanak International, which supports survivors of human trafficking.

Can you share with our readers the most interesting or amusing story that occurred to you in your career so far? Can you share the lesson or take away you took out of that story?

I was once invited as a guest lecturer on a World Residences at Sea cruise. As part of the preparation, the cruise line advised me about how they expected me to interact with their residents. I was told that most of the residents were billionaires and that this was their home at sea, so I should “not speak until spoken to”! They also warned me that I may only have a few people attend the lecture because while residents liked to have the option of coming to lectures, they generally skipped actually going to the talks.

Rather than settle with lecturing to a few interested residents, I felt challenged to build rapport with all the residents. For the first lecture only, a few people came and with each subsequent lecture the audience grew as word spread. By the fourth and final lecture every resident who was on board the ship attended!

One of the people I built rapport with was an Arabian Sheik. We hit it off so well that he invited my wife Natalie and me back to the Mediterranean for an extended cruise as his personal guests with all expenses paid.

The lesson of the story is if you’re committed to an outcome there is always a way to achieve it. I saw being told ‘not to speak until spoken to’ as a challenge to work around. I focused on building rapport with the residents so word would spread organically which drew residents in to my lectures.

In this example, as with everything in life, if you assume you can’t do something, you never will do it. If you assume there is a way, you will figure out that you can accomplish it.

Are you working on any exciting new projects now? How do you think that will help people?

I just finished my first book Ignite a Shift and I’m currently working on a digital eLearning companion that will be launched next year. The eLearning companion will take participants through the book, chapter by chapter, to enhance and deepen their learning in application of the skills covered in the book.

The book and eLearning companion are designed to help people:

become more effective persuaders and influencers
improve their communication skills
influence with integrity
learn more about how the brain works
understand how thinking impacts emotion which drives behavior

I am here today because of the love and support of my wife and business partner, Natalie. Also, I’ve been fortunate enough to be surrounded by an amazing team and the book Ignite a Shift would still be a work in progress if it wasn’t for Natalie, Kimberley, Ken and Carol who were integral in its success.

I’ve also had two very powerful mentors who have taught me to look beyond what’s best for Natalie and I and instead focus on how our actions can benefit everyone.

The first mentor actually did the opposite of this. He was a masterful communicator and as a result often manipulated people, using those around him for his own purposes. I learned what not to do from him, which is just as valuable a lesson. From this experience I learned how important integrity is and why it’s essential to have the best interests at heart of those you have around you as part of your journey towards success.

The other mentor I work with in a coaching capacity. She is a super successful real estate developer and businesswoman who has built and sold multiple businesses. Under her mentorship and encouragement Natalie and I launched our second business My Home Suite Home. She’s been a big cheerleader for us, particularly as we’ve grown our real estate portfolio and our other investment portfolios.

She has been a real role model for me in seeing that the more successful you are, the more generous you can be and that giving of yourself including your time, knowledge, wisdom and resources is more rewarding and joyful than just the dollars in the bank or the achievements in and of themselves.

The other piece worth mentioning is that mistakes are part of the journey. I’ve made mistakes in my career that have been very costly. Instead of feeling discouraged and quitting, I told myself that anyone who has been successful has made mistakes and lost some money and so when I make mistakes, I keep moving forward and learn from them.

For the benefit of our readers, can you tell us a bit why you are an authority on the topic of sales?

I have an background in psychology and neurolinguistics as well as influence and persuasion. Large corporations throughout the pharmaceutical and medical industries bring me in to train their sales and leadership teams in persuasion and influence.

The number one thing we need to do is sell ourselves and our skillset and do that in a context that adds value. Learning how to build rapport and sell ourselves and the value we bring in a way that resolves challenges for others is what selling is all about. I think that true sales is serving others in the context of fulfilling their need(s).

Ok. Thanks for all that. Let’s now jump to the main core of our interview. As you know, nearly any business a person will enter, will involve some form of sales. At the same time, most people have never received any formal education about how to be effective at selling. Why do you think our education system teaches nearly every other arcane subject, but sales, one of the most useful and versatile topics, is totally ignored?

This is one of life’s biggest mysteries! Sales is a core competency. No matter what industry we’re in we are selling, whether it’s our ideas, projects, or ourselves. We’re selling our vision of the future, or our vision for a product or service.

Thinking back to my definition of selling, if we think about serving others then this becomes something that would fulfill the needs of society, which should be included in the educational system.

This discussion, entitled, “How To Be Great At Sales Without Seeming Salesy”, is making an assumption that seeming salesy or pushy is something to be avoided. Do you agree with this assumption? Whether yes, or no, can you articulate why you feel the way you do?

Yes, I agree completely.

When people have a negative view of selling, they think about being conned, bullied, or talked into something they neither want nor need. When someone leaves you with that feeling, it’s because they want to push something on you with their own best interest at heart, and they also typically lack rapport. Rather than focusing on fulfilling your need, these salespeople are focused on talking you into something or getting you to buy something.

My mindset is the opposite.

I believe sales is about fulfilling needs. If what I am selling is misaligned with what someone needs then I would rather point that person in the direction of something else that will.

Sales has a bad reputation because of the self-serving individuals out there who have their own needs at heart. Instead, our focus as salespeople should be on sales as a way to help others, and when you do so, you add significant value.

The seven stages of a sales cycle are usually broken down to versions of Prospecting, Preparation, Approach, Presentation, Handling objections, Closing, and Follow-up. Which stage do you feel that you are best at? What is your unique approach, your “secret sauce”, to that particular skill? Can you explain or give a story?

Let’s talk about handling objections — I don’t believe in it. This usually shocks senior sales people.

As an amateur magician, I know that the audience’s attention will go where my attention is. This fact applies to sales, too. As a salesperson, if my attention is on handling objections then I keep the other person’s focus and my own on that objection. Instead, I believe in perception management, and I think about the objection in terms of asking myself three things:

What is the person’s current perception?
What is the desired perception I want them to have?
How do I engage skillfully in a conversation that reframes or alters their perception in the way I want them to proceed? This is a skill that I cover in my book, Ignite a Shift.

I was recently in a training with a new client who was doing root cause analysis and objection handling. The whole focus was on the problem itself as opposed to thinking about their client’s current perception, what the team wanted the perception to be and how they could influence the client’s perception in that direction.

Sales processes are different and vary from industry to industry. As far as a sales approach, Challenger Sales and to a lesser extent Spin Selling are good models. My favorite of all the models I’ve evaluated is the Sandler Sales System. The reason I think Sandler is the best one is because it is the most comprehensive and complete, and instead of just focusing on steps it looks at the psychology of influence as part of the sales process.

What we specialize in at Solutions In Mind is mastering persuasion and influence which integrates, enhances and improves any existing sales process. We can take any step of a sales model and enhance how that step is done.

Lead generation, or prospecting, is one of the basic steps of the sales cycle. Obviously every industry will be different, but can you share some of the fundamental strategies you use to generate good, qualified leads?

It’s really simple. Add enough value to create a pull and your product or service will spread by word of mouth. That’s been our secret to success in the 20 plus years we’ve been doing this. We’ve never once cold called or prospected during that time and the business has taken us around the globe completely through word of mouth.

That has worked for us, and obviously different industries require slightly different approaches. There are various models, and you need to find the process that works for you. My philosophy is to add enough value to create a pull and from that word will spread.

In my experience, I think the final stages of Handling Objections, Closing, and Follow-up, are the most difficult parts for many people. Why do you think ‘Handling Objections’ is so hard for people? What would you recommend for one to do, to be better at ‘Handling Objections’?

The reason handling objections is difficult is because it keeps the focus, and the client’s focus on the objections. As mentioned, I recommend salespeople stop handling objections and start managing perceptions.

Reframe objection handling as perception management — what is the current perception and what is the desired perception? Then have meaningful conversations that influence the person’s perception towards the desired outcome. As you do that effectively they will be mentally and emotionally closing themselves as part of the sales process.

‘Closing’ is of course the proverbial Holy Grail. Can you suggest 5 things one can do to successfully close a sale without being perceived as pushy? If you can, please share a story or example, ideally from your experience, for each.

I believe we need to close in three different ways.

First, we need to close on the thinking. So, we need the perception to be moving in the right direction. We also need to close on the emotion that is connected with that desired perception. Then, we need to close on the behavior which is what most people think of as “closing.”

The reality is if I’m attempting to close you on a behavior and I haven’t closed on the thinking or emotion then closing on the behavior is difficult. If I have closed on the thinking and emotion, then closing on behavior is very easy.

Closing to me is the easy part. If I have clearly identified a need and demonstrated I’m the unique and appropriate solution to that need, and if I have a track record of results, then closing is the thing I put the least amount of energy into because it happens as a by-product of the person believing I am the solution to their need.

Too often, people think of closing as talking someone into something, which goes back to the negative perception of salespeople. I think of closing as demonstrating I understand their need and having them realize that we’re the best solution to that need. When I do this well, the closing happens automatically.

I know that closing differs from industry to industry because all sales cycles are different. I don’t prospect because word of mouth brings in the prospects. Instead, I focus my preparation on creating a comprehensive needs analysis. My approach is to demonstrate we are a proven solution with a track record of success and that collaborating with us will resolve the client’s problem.

Ultimately, we need to have passion and congruently communicate that passion as part of how we present ourselves as a solution. I always tell people if they don’t believe what they are selling is the best solution then go and sell what you believe the best solution to be. In doing so, you’ll be better able to represent and sell that solution as you’ll be more passionate about your job and more congruent in how you approach sales.

Finally, what are your thoughts about ‘Follow up’? Many businesses get leads who might be interested but things never seem to close. What are some good tips for a business leader to successfully follow up and bring things to a conclusion, without appearing overly pushy or overeager?

I think it comes back to what our intention is. If we approach leads from a state of curiosity and a genuine desire to fulfill a need then people will welcome a follow-up call.

If we approach from a perspective where we’re focused on making a sale or are being pushy then the person will be resistant because they’ll think they’re being sold something they don’t need.

Follow-up to ensure needs are being met. Again, if I’m not the solution I am always happy to say that and use my network to refer to the person who would be the best solution.

As you know there are so many modes of communication today. For example, In-person, phone calls, video calls, emails, and text messages. In your opinion, which of these communication methods should be avoided when attempting to close a sale or follow up? Which are the best ones? Can you explain or give a story?

The answer depends on the dynamics between you and the customer. I have clients I can text or email because I have a history with them.

Personally, if it’s a first-time interaction I would rather have it face to face because it’s more personable and easier to build rapport given that you have more information to calibrate.

In fact, my preference is usually face to face for that reason. During COVID we had some new clients where we had to meet virtually. Some of those clients brought us in to teach them virtual presentation skills to be more effective in this new norm. So, your mode to communicate is case dependent and needs to be evaluated in the context of the situation. I have clients during COVID who I have texted. I worked on multiple projects with these clients and have a bank of credibility with them, so I can text them and they feel comfortable texting right back.

In other cases, I have newer clients where I will coordinate a zoom call. If I have a choice between email or a virtual call, then I will choose virtual because I have more information to calibrate. I’m more comfortable on the phone than email and I find there is less room for miscommunication on a phone call than with an email, and there is even more room for miscommunication over text than there is with an email.

When I talk about having information to calibrate, really what I’m referring to is a concept I discuss in Ignite a Shift which is deleted information. When you communicate by email you miss tone, etc… and with phone, email and text you miss out on the physical facial expressions and hand gestures are that are an essential part of communication (which is why a virtual call may be better than a phone call).

The fact is a completely new work environment is part of the evolution of going through COVID. The pandemic forced us to re-evaluate what is essential and what isn’t to get things done. One of the results is that corporate work spaces have gone the way of the dinosaur.

As a leader, consider this. If the people who you surround yourself with have integrity and they love what they do, then you can be confident that they are more productive working remotely than they would be wasting an hour each way commuting to the office. If those individuals are not effective at the office, then I would be suspicious if they are working effectively at home. I think it’s about surrounding yourself with people who have integrity and a passion for what they do.

Ok, we are nearly done. Here is our final “meaty” question. You are a person of enormous influence. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the greatest amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger. 🙂

I think instead of inspiring a movement I would find one that is already in place that I could get behind and support. Then, I can do what I do best and support others who inspire me by what they’re doing to help others in the world — those who are being taken advantage of or who are dealing with disadvantages. I really think about how we can use our resources in the most exponential way by supporting others who are already doing something that we feel is worthwhile.

I mentioned that Ratanak International is one of the organizations that we support, they are doing great work in Cambodia. Last month, we also decided to support a missionary in Cambodia on a monthly basis. They’ve dealt with long-term COVID effects and have been struggling and we’ve decided to back them.

Ultimately, I believe in finding a movement that you believe in with similar beliefs and values to your own, and then stretching yourself to support others to do what they do best.

How can our readers follow you online?

Social:

https://www.facebook.com/stephenmcgarveyone

https://twitter.com/Solutionsinmind

https://www.linkedin.com/in/stephenmcgarvey/

https://www.instagram.com/stephen.mcgarvey/

Website:

http://solutionsinmind.com/

And please buy and leave reviews of the book!

https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/ignite-a-shift-stephen-mcgarvey/1140400305#:~:text=In%20Ignite%20a%20Shift%2C%20internationally,persuasion%20and%20influencing%20with%20integrity.

https://www.chapters.indigo.ca/en-ca/books/ignite-a-shift-engaging-minds/9781631958069-item.html?ikwsec=Books&ikwidx=3

Thank you for the interview. We wish you only continued success!

Thank you! As a token of my gratitude, I’d like to offer a free eBook to your audience. Simply visit https://bit.ly/IgniteAShift to receive a free electronic copy of Ignite a Shift

Stephen McGarvey Of Solutions In Mind On How To Be Great At Sales Without Seeming Salesy was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Scott Hancock Of BLVR On 5 Things You Need To Know To Successfully Scale Your Business

An Interview With Fotis Georgiadis

Know your belief, purpose and vision: Everything begins with belief. Why does your business exist beyond making money? Ultimately, this is your brand, and ignites your purpose. What is your company going to do about your belief? Vision is then the bold, ambitious, but accessible future that your company will create.

Scott is Partner and CEO at San Diego based branding agency BLVR. He brings over a decade of award-winning creativity, strategy, design and business-building experience to global brands like Andis, Vessel, Futures Fins, and TravelWifi.

Passionate about redefining the role of business for a positive impact on society, Scott is a founding board member of B Local San Diego, a community of certified B Corps driving change. He also serves on the board of Love Light + Melody, a non-profit organization working to amplify the stories of vulnerable children and bring them hope through the power of education.

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 graduated college with a degree in Fine Art but quickly discovered that making a living as a painter and installation artist would be tough. After a brief stint as a chef, I left to work at a publishing company where I learned digital design and the publishing trade.

After two years of designing and laying out books, I launched my first startup, Risen Magazine — an award-winning pop culture publication distributed nationally at Walmart, Barnes & Noble, and Virgin Mega Stores, to name a few. Risen shared the stories of some of the world’s most influential influencers, such as artist Shepard Fairey, actor Adrian Brody, and the band Kings of Leon. From hiring a team to fundraising to managing distribution, it was a crash course in entrepreneurship and running a fast-paced business.

With a newly discovered passion for business and entrepreneurship, I co-founded another startup called Glue Network. Glue was a global digital marketing platform connecting consumers with brands such as Cisco, TOMS, and Hurley to fund projects by non-profits including World Vision, Red Cross, and Surfrider Foundation. Over five years, we helped raise nearly five million dollars in donations and inspired thousands of young people to get involved in making a difference.

It was through Glue Network that I reconnected with a college friend, Adam McWethy, who had a small digital agency with his brother in San Diego, CA. They had a unique opportunity to work with a new golf brand, Vessel. I joined them as a contractor to conduct the initial research, build a purpose-driven strategy, and give the company its name. We realized that we worked well together and shared a similar heart for using business as a force for good. Eventually, I became Partner/CEO, renamed the agency, and shifted our focus from simply building websites to building belief-led brands that create categories, challenge markets, and shape culture. Today, BLVR is a global belief company and certified B Corp that works with fearless brand leaders to transform businesses, people, and the world.

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?

When I look back over my career, there’s a string connecting everything I’ve done. Whether painting pictures, plating food, or starting and running a business, it has always been about trying to improve the world we’re in. In the thick of it, I didn’t understand it, I didn’t see this string. If I did, my efforts could have been more of a bullet than a shotgun blast. When you know what you believe to be true about the world, you gain the perspective and power to do something about it — you get clarity of purpose. Uncovering this truth has profoundly affected my life as a creative business leader.

What’s the most impactful initiative you’ve led that you’re particularly proud of?

I have been lucky to be a part of many incredible initiatives and collaborate with brave leaders who make a difference in the world. They have inspired me and shaped my perspective on business, philanthropy, creativity, and many other things. One initiative I’m very proud of at BLVR is our commitment to becoming a certified B Corporation. For over twenty years, we’ve provided pro bono work and monetary donations to support humanitarian organizations that provide disadvantaged children and families around the globe with opportunities to thrive. In 2020, we joined over 4,000 like-minded companies on a global scale that share our commitment to creating a positive impact in the world. B Corp certification recognizes our purpose-driven efforts and reinforces our commitment to using our business as a force for good.

Our first major initiative as a B Corp was our 2020 partnership with Love Does, an extraordinary organization started by bestselling author Bob Goff. Love Does brings light and joy to the world by fighting for human rights and providing education to children in conflict zones. Through our partnership and their Love Does Launch program, we have been able to fund full-ride college scholarships for twelve students in Northern Uganda. I’m proud of our team and the impact we’ve been able to make, especially at a time when we were navigating so many challenges with the start of the pandemic.

Sometimes our mistakes can be our greatest teachers. Can you share a mistake you’ve made and the lesson you took away from it?

I have had many failures in my career, and a few of them have been pretty challenging and painful to get through. I’ve experienced great depression, loneliness, and even doubt after going through various career-related events.

But the one I’ve learned the most from is to not go it alone. Early on, I tried to do too many things on my own, things I had never done before. I was reluctant to stop and get advice or counsel. Looking back, I could have prevented a lot of challenges, pain, and setbacks if I had just asked for support. Today, when coaching other entrepreneurs, I emphasize the importance of having many counselors and mentors — people you trust and who want to see you succeed.

How has mentorship played a role in your career, whether receiving mentorship or offering it to others?

The older I get, the more I realize how important it is to have a mentor who has been through similar situations before, who can offer insight and advice but, most importantly, reassurance. I have a handful of mentors that I meet with regularly — some for business, some for spiritual and life mentorship.

My co-founder at Glue Network, Shawn, also founded a global brand development agency called Bulldog Drummond. I was lucky to know him before joining as CEO/Partner at BLVR. He’s been an invaluable guide, sharing his own experiences with me — the things that he found helpful, and just as importantly, not helpful.

Like Shawn has done for me, I get to pay it forward by mentoring others. It truly is one of the most gratifying things in life — fellowship with another person and walking together. We aren’t supposed to go it alone.

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?

The most critical leadership characteristic I’ve discovered is belief and having the bravery to live it out no matter what. Yvon Chouinard, the founder of Patagonia, has modeled this exceptionally well. From ocean waves to mountain peaks, nature happened to Yvon, and it drives his purpose to this day — to save Mother Earth. It’s a mission that his employees believe in, and his customers align to. Many business and brand leaders celebrate the summit Yvon has reached, but few will follow his lead. The cost is too high, and the promise is too hard to keep. But it’s this fearless conviction that has led to his success.

1. Know your belief, purpose and vision: Everything begins with belief. Why does your business exist beyond making money? Ultimately, this is your brand, and ignites your purpose. What is your company going to do about your belief? Vision is then the bold, ambitious, but accessible future that your company will create.

2. Behavior: Behavior is where the rubber meets the road — how your company lives through its marketing and communications, product innovation, employee experience and culture, customer experience, and corporate stewardship.

3. Positioning: Whether or not you’re aware of it, your brand and product already have positions in the marketplace. And if you aren’t standing out, you’re not positioning yourself well. Think about where you want to be, and how you want to be perceived.

4. People: Great talent with shared values and a dedication to shaping culture together is critical for a business to scale well. Organizational structures, accountability, growth plans, processes, tools, etc., are all there to support and empower your team to achieve a shared vision.

5. Strategic & Operational Plans: Understanding the difference between an “operational plan” and a “strategic plan” is essential. The strategic plan is about setting a direction for the organization, devising goals and objectives, and identifying a range of strategies to pursue so that the organization might achieve its goals. The operational plan presents highly detailed information to direct people to perform the day-to-day tasks required to run your organization. Management and staff should frequently refer to the operational plan in carrying out their everyday work. The operational plan provides the what, who, when, and how.

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?

One mistake leaders make when trying to scale their company is not putting belief at the center of their business strategy. Belief is the new benefit. It’s a company’s guide for understanding the world. Great brands don’t just sell products; they sell a belief about what the consumer is becoming by engaging with this brand. This informs their ideas on personal potential, purpose, and even destiny. Beliefs are the center of meaning. This is the real magic that both your consumers and employees are going to buy into.

Another mistake companies often make is misbehavior. If a company claims to believe something, it must live it out consistently through every action across the entire business. Behaviors can become compromised when key stakeholders push to scale. Companies quickly lose sight of their conviction as growth and money become their new why. Don’t allow this to happen, never forget your why.

Scaling includes bringing new people into the organization. How can a company preserve its company culture and ethos when new people are brought in?

People are the backbone of any organization and key to shaping its culture and ultimately, its success. Executive leaders should act as guides helping to create the right environment for the rest of the team. One of the best ways to preserve company culture is to hire carefully. Be sure that new hires aren’t just qualified but are a good fit. Use a team approach when interviewing. Look at how candidates interact with the people they will be working with on a daily basis. Share with them why the company exists and what your core values are to ensure alignment. Ask the team for their thoughts. It matters.

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?

At BLVR, we are a close-knit team of specialists with a lot of overlap. With everyone being so dependent on one another, it gives us a lot of opportunities to share knowledge and resources rather than being in siloed teams.

We have just shifted to a pod operational structure that flattens our organization, empowers everyone on the team, and creates deeper levels of accountability. Everyone knows our numbers, and we have regular executive and departmental team planning meetings. As a team, we constantly look for new technologies and tools to try. Ways to improve our processes and save time and money. Opportunities to protect and increase joy and wellness.

What software or tools do you recommend to help onboard new hires?

For years, we’ve followed principles from the book ‘The Ideal Team Player’ by Patrick Lencioni. He talks about finding people who are humble, hungry, and smart.

Humble people are quick to share credit, praise others freely, and celebrate the team’s collective win. They demonstrate strong alignment towards the team’s goals and are self-confident without being arrogant.
Hungry people are always looking for more. They are intrinsically motivated and diligent, constantly thinking about the next step and the next opportunity (for the team).
By smart people, Lencioni refers to emotional intelligence and interpersonal awareness. These people ask good questions, listen to what others say, and stay engaged in conversations intently. They have great judgment and intuition around the subtleties of group dynamics and are fully aware of the effect their words will have on the team.

Lencioni argues that when a team member significantly lacks one or more of these virtues, the process of building a cohesive team becomes hard, and in some cases, impossible. I would agree. So, look for people who demonstrate these attributes and actively develop these qualities in the people you already have.

How can our readers further follow your work online?

https://www.linkedin.com/in/scottsetonhancock/

https://www.linkedin.com/company/blvr/

https://blvr.com/

Thank you so much for these excellent stories and insights. We wish you continued success in your great work!

Scott Hancock Of BLVR On 5 Things You Need To Know To Successfully Scale Your Business was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Meet The Disruptors: Grant Singleton and Dan Orkin Of PangoBooks On The Five Things You Need To…

Meet The Disruptors: Grant Singleton and Dan Orkin Of PangoBooks On The Five Things You Need To Shake Up Your Industry

An Interview With Fotis Georgiadis

“Don’t carry failures, climb them” — myself. Failures can be a burden or a platform depending on how you position them. I used to carry the burden of failure in a crippling way. Now I look at failure as an opportunity to grow and actually go into the next round better because of them.

As a part of our series about business leaders who are shaking things up in their industry, I had the pleasure of interviewing Grant Singleton and Dan Orkin.

Grant Singleton is the founder and CEO of PangoBooks, a marketplace app for people to buy and sell used books. After serving overseas in the U.S. Navy, he completed his undergraduate degree in computer engineering at Texas A&M University, where he discovered his passion for building consumer technology that gives power to the individual. He identified a lack of innovation in the physical book industry and decided to build a disruptive platform for everyone who loves to learn and read. PangoBooks is a peer-to-peer marketplace for books, with an emphasis on the individual readers that make up the platform. He lives in Nashville with his wife and four young children.

Dan Orkin is CMO at PangoBooks. Prior to that, Dan was part of the founding team at Reverb, a successful marketplace in the music gear industry. As part of the Pango team, Dan focuses on creating the most welcoming, streamlined and fun way for people to buy and sell books imaginable.

Grant Singleton: Before starting Pango, I worked as a Software Engineer at Raytheon, earned my engineering degree from Texas A&M, and spent four years overseas for the US Navy. PangoBooks was born out of the pandemic. Like many others, I developed a pandemic hobby. Mine was reading, and I fell back in love with books. I wanted to combine my passion for building tech with reading; with that, PangoBooks was born. Our goal is to connect the world through reading.

Dan Orkin: Before getting into tech and startups, I studied history and journalism in college. When I joined the team at Reverb, I was able to combine my love of storytelling with my passion for music gear. With PangoBooks, we are endeavoring to do much the same with the amazing world of books.

Can you tell our readers what it is about the work you’re doing that’s disruptive?

Dan Orkin: The vision with PangoBooks is to make the easiest possible way for folks to sell their books and in turn, provide book buyers with an amazing selection of used books at fantastic prices. While there are certainly other venues for folks to buy and sell used books, our emphasis on empowering individuals to sell — and the personal connections that come with that — really sets us apart. For example, our buyers are always talking about getting thoughtful thank-you notes in their book packages. That’s not something you typically encounter when buying from larger entities.

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?

Grant Singleton: There are so many. The one that comes to mind is a small adjustment I made to our DNS setting that took the website offline. A startup is a unique environment where speed is necessary. But that same speed can cause mistakes. Balancing speed while minimizing the downside is a good skill to learn.

Dan Orkin: When PangoBooks first launched, our expectation was that it would be used mostly for school books,textbooks and the like. We quickly learned that the easy selling process we designed was actually super inviting for folks who love fiction, especially fantasy, romance and related genres. It’s not funny exactly, but just goes to show that your intended audience may not actually be where your product finds its best fit.

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?

Grant Singleton: My best mentor in business has been David Kalt. His experience of starting a tech company and raising money in the dot com crash has been huge for navigating the current economic conditions. He’s run successful companies through every type of economy and condition imaginable.

Dan Orkin: PangoBooks is very lucky to count David Kalt as one of our investors and key advisors. David was the founder of Reverb and prior to that, OptionsXpress, a successful FinTech platform. David is always prepared to make bold bets centered on an obsession with delighting our customers. That spirit of doing things with customer obsession in the foreground has guided much of our decision-making with Pango.

Dan Orkin: At its best, disruption works when every stakeholder benefits from new technology or new ways of approaching a problem. We like to think that our marketplace empowers everyone interested in those arenas to buy and sell more efficiently than older models in a widely beneficial way. The converse of this is when disruptive technologies or platforms simply consolidate an industry in ways that are not beneficial to 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.

Grant Singleton: “Don’t carry failures, climb them” — myself. Failures can be a burden or a platform depending on how you position them. I used to carry the burden of failure in a crippling way. Now I look at failure as an opportunity to grow and actually go into the next round better because of them.

Dan Orkin: An early manager of mine explained to me the idea of important vs urgent, and how tasks we encounter can be important but not very urgent and therefore never get done (as compared to things that seem urgent but aren’t actually very important). This idea has really resonated with me. In a startup environment, there is always more to do than there is time or resources to accomplish, so it’s crucial to step back and really question if the tasks you are taking on are actually going to make a difference.

We are sure you aren’t done. How are you going to shake things up next?

Dan Orkin: At PangoBooks we have big plans to make our app even more fun and engaging with a suite of new features for book discovery and sharing. The experience is already very social in how it’s designed, but we think these tools are really going to enhance the social experience for our users.

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?

Dan Orkin: At PangoBooks, we’re big fans of “Thinking Fast and Slow” by Daniel Kahneman. The idea of being mindful of how your brain makes decisions can be really impactful, and stopping to think about how you’re thinking is a useful practice for everyone to engage in.

Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share how that was relevant to you in your life?

Dan Orkin: There’s a very simple quote from one of my favorite authors, Kurt Vonnegut: “you gotta be kind.”

It’s not a super elaborate thought, but I try to seek people in my life and work who care about others’ well-being and who practice kindness.

Dan Orkin: As an extension of PangoBooks, thinking about how items can be reused and recycled more readily in support of lessening our global environmental impact could be hugely important.

How can our readers follow you online?

You can find us at @pangobooks on social media and download our app via Google Play or the App Store!

This was very inspiring. Thank you so much for joining us!

Meet The Disruptors: Grant Singleton and Dan Orkin Of PangoBooks On The Five Things You Need To… was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Riley Stricklin Of Lume Cube On Five Things You Need To Create A Highly Successful Startup

An Interview With Fotis Georgiadis

A great team: As mentioned earlier, nobody can do this alone or build a great company by themselves. Earlier this year, I hired a VP of Finance & Operations as well as a VP of Marketing. I can say with all my heart that my life (both in business and personally) has drastically improved with those two hires. Not only are we running the business in a much better way, but I now have the time to truly think, strategize, analyze, and focus on where this company is going vs. being in the weeds every day. In order to build a truly spectacular business, having a great support team is essential to any leader looking to thrive.

Startups have such a glamorous reputation. Companies like Facebook, Instagram, Youtube, Uber, and Airbnb once started as scrappy startups with huge dreams and huge obstacles. Yet we of course know that most startups don’t end up as success stories. What does a founder or a founding team need to know to create a highly successful startup? In this series, called “Five Things You Need To Create A Highly Successful Startup” we are talking to experienced and successful founders and business leaders who can share stories from their experiences about what it takes to create a highly successful startup. As a part of this series, we had the pleasure of interviewing Riley Stricklin.

Riley Stricklin is the Co-Founder and CEO at Lume Cube, the leading brand in Personal Lighting for Creators and Innovators. Since 2014, Riley has been leading the charge at Lume Cube and navigated the rocket ship growth they have experienced over the last 4 years. Riley and the company are based in sunny Southern California (San Diego) and continue to design innovative lighting tools for Creators and Innovators around the world.

Sure thing! I’m an East Coast guy born and raised (originally from Rhode Island) and as a kid, always had a ‘California Dream’ to live by the Pacific Ocean and surf every day, so after college at 22 I moved to San Diego and have been here ever since. I bounced around a few jobs in the Sales/Marketing world trying to find something I was passionate about, and realized I just loved the grit and grind of startup life (had worked for 2 startups) and the process of building something from scratch, so myself and 2 close friends decided to jump ship at the company we worked for and start our own thing. Among many ideas we tried, Lume Cube showed the most opportunity so we pivoted our resources to focus on this and as they say, the rest is history.

What was the “Aha Moment” that led to the idea for your current company? Can you share that story with us?

I’d say it was less of an “Aha” moment and more of an identification of a gap in the marketplace. Myself and the other Founders were working in the Photo/Video industry at the time, so were traveling to tradeshows and very well connected within the space. We saw all the BIG lighting companies selling products that were hundreds of dollars (if not thousands) to all the high end photo/video consumers who had these larger professional DSLR cameras. Lighting is a necessity in creating high quality content, so it made sense. At the same time (2014/2015), two major events were happening in the world of Content Creation. First, the iPhone 6 had launched with a revolutionary camera which was delivering the first 4K camera into everyone’s pocket (GAME CHANGING in the journey to making everyone with a smartphone a content creator). The second major event was GoPro was taking over the world in 2014, had just done an IPO, and was selling about 25M cameras a year becoming the largest camera company in the world (billions in annual revenue). We looked at the market opportunity and realized while we were playing in the world of high end photographers/videographers, MOST of the photos and videos that were being captured and posted to Instagram were being taken on these smaller devices (iPhones and GoPro’s). We were shocked that there wasn’t any lighting company delivering a small, portable light that was specifically designed to pair with those devices and get better photos and videos on your iPhone or GoPro. So, we decided to make a few prototypes and put a 4 minute video on Kickstarter for “a portable, powerful light designed for the iPhone & GoPro’’ to see if people resonated with the idea. What happened over the next 30 days blew our minds. We set a goal of $56,000 (which we hit within 72 hrs) and 30 days later had $230,000 in pre-orders of a $50 product. Put simply, the proof-of-concept was completed, the idea was validated, and off we went to build the company!

Was there somebody in your life who inspired or helped you to start your journey with your business? Can you share a story with us?

There have been many who have impacted my personal story along the way. In the beginning, we collectively idolized GoPro, so the inspiration behind Nick Woodman’s story of Grit & Tenacity to get GoPro off the ground was an inspiration for our entire team. I’d also like to acknowledge our original CEO and the one behind inventing the first actual Lume Cube, Mornee Sherry. He has a brilliantly innovative mind and really showed me that if you can dream it, you can build it. The tenacity he brought to the team around going after your dreams and not taking no for an answer still exists in me today. The two other callouts I’ll mention are my current partner who joined me as a partner, mentor, and friend in 2018, Mike Bieker. He is a seasoned businessman from Michigan who took me under his wing and taught me an incredible amount about operating a stable business, financial management, and leading a team. The last callout would be Michael Beal, a friend and mentor who helped me navigate tough times in the business through the partnership transition and was our secret sauce when it came to supply chain and inventory through our explosive growth during 2020 and 2021.

What do you think makes your company stand out? Can you share a story?

Similar to the previous question, I’d say it’s our grit, tenacity, and ability to pivot quickly. Many entrepreneurs get stuck on a vision and refuse to change course (i.e. wanting to build company X which will then be acquired by company Y). We have a unique ability to not change the destination (build a great company and the leading brand in Personal Lighting), but the willingness to change course, pivot strategy, or adjust our offerings quickly when the market or demand changes. In the early days, we were a GoPro Accessory company as GoPro was all the rage. When Drones became a big hit, we innovated a line of Drone Products to enter that market. As GoPro and Drone sales declined in 2018, so did our sales of those accessories, so we tightened our belts, explored new markets, and in 2019 created a line of Video Call lights to snap onto your laptop for Zoom Calls to help balance out the declining Drone/GoPro accessory sales (as you might imagine, 2020 was quite the year for the Zoom Light product line). As TikTok/YouTube took off these last few years, we’ve stepped into creating lights for those customers (Ring Lights, Mobile Creator Kits for Smartphones, etc), and now have some even more innovative products in the roadmap for 2023. We’ve stayed true to our vision of building the leading brand for lighting, but didn’t get stuck on one single course (i.e. become a GoPro Accessory company or an Action Sports lighting company). Had we remained married to those strategies, we would be long out of business as those markets have fluctuated greatly. Even with the COVID Remote Working boom, which was great for us in 2020, in 2021 demand for those products dropped significantly. We planned for that, pivoted quickly and launched some new products to offset the changing demand in other categories.

How have you used your success to bring goodness to the world?

I’ve identified 3 areas where we can deliver good to the world.

Our Product Line. We’re entering a world (2022 and beyond) where Content is everything, you can make a living creating content from your living room, and every major platform is incentivizing video creation. The future generation will be native content creators, and lighting is an essential need. We’ve set up a secondary warehouse where we exclusively send product out for free and donate 100% of all returned product (we sell no refurbished or returned product, it all gets donated). We’ve sent product to film schools, local high schools, and others to send free product to those who could benefit from it, yet may not be able to afford it.
Financial. When we’re able to, we donate a percentage of our profits to local organizations. When we grew exponentially in 2020, we donated $10,000 to the local San Diego Food Bank which provided thousands of Thanksgiving meals to local families who couldn’t access proper meals for the holidays. As the team has grown, we’ve continued these donations in either financial donations, or hosting fun competitive office competitions around the holidays such as Canned Food drives, clothing donations, etc.
Our Time: As the team grows (nearing 30 people now), we have more hands to offer time and energy to things we’re passionate about. We have a fun Beach Clean Up coming up soon, and have a few really exciting donations of time planned in the coming months (food banks, environmental clean ups, etc). As we succeed and are able to hire more people, the team that’s able to donate time gets larger, thus a larger social impact. These types of events are great bonding experiences for the team as well.

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?

Grit: Without this, the world of entrepreneurship will grind you down. It’s such an uphill battle that this has to be one of the core traits in every entrepreneur. Days will come where it seems like the world is collapsing, and having the grit to endure and outlast the competition is required to be successful in this world. There’s been a few times over the course of the business where we’ve had a negative bank account, skipped payroll, and it seemed like our time to hang up the gloves had come. Grit allowed us to buckle down, find ways around what seemed like sky high obstacles, and keep going.
High Emotional Intelligence/People Skills: I don’t care if you have the next great invention, the next big billion-dollar idea for an app, and maybe even you’ve built/designed/launched the product or company. Nobody can build a great company by themselves, it is a team effort and required a lot of great people. One of my favorite quotes is “To build a world class company, you’ve got to have a world class team”, and to recruit/retain world class talent, you’ve got to have emotional intelligence and people skills. This means patience, empathy, the ability to communicate effectively, manage different personalities, etc. I’ve seen some GREAT products/companies that could have scaled to millions go bankrupt because the founder/CEO didn’t have the skills needed to manage and retain a great team.
Humility: As the classic Mike Tyson saying goes, “everyone has a plan until they get punched in the face”. Building a business will mean a lot of gut punches, a lot of “being wrong”, and requires a lot of learning. For me, this is my first business, so I didn’t come in knowing much (and have made just about every mistake along the way I could have). I’ve had to put my Ego away many times, accept that I’ve been wrong many times, and understand that if something I try fails, it’s simply a lesson learned and I need to pick myself up, implement whatever I learned in the failed experiment, and keep going. Quick example: Just recently I gave some critical feedback to the creative team on a piece of content they were implementing into our Facebook Ads account. I didn’t like it, didn’t feel it was on brand, and forecasted that it wouldn’t work…turns out, I was dead wrong…and I mean DEAD wrong. They tested it against all other creative that month, and it ended up being the winner by a mile and leading to over $100,000 in new revenue that month. I was wrong, apologized to the team, reframed my thought-process around what “I thought was right and I personally liked”, and decided to further empower them to experiment and get creative. If my Ego led that situation, I wouldn’t have been able to accept that I was wrong, would have come up with some other excuse on why it worked, deflated the morale of the Creative team and left them feeling frustrated. Instead, we laughed about it. I shared with the whole company in our Monthly Meeting what a learning experience it was for me and how wrong I was, and acknowledged the Creative team for crushing it that month. The team became proud of their accomplishments and felt empowered to try more things knowing that I would support them regardless. We as leaders are going to be wrong, so if we can’t admit it and take ownership of our mistakes, it sets a terrible example for others and breeds an unhealthy culture. Stay humble is the best advice I can give.

Often leaders are asked to share the best advice they received. But let’s reverse the question. Can you share a story about advice you’ve received that you now wish you never followed?

Oh, how many of these I could share! I have countless. The one that we’ve fortunately fixed most recently has to do with our Website, so I’ll share that. When we exploded in 2020 and grew 500%, we were doing millions of dollars each month and had all these “experts” giving us advice. With the exploding sales happening online, we were advised that in order to truly become a premium e-commerce business and capitalize on the momentum, we had to build an entire new website from scratch, fully customized with all these crazy features so that we could “stand out from the crowd” and have this unique website experience. So, I made the decision to go forward and build the custom website… we invested well over 6-figures into the project & it lasted nearly a year. The project became a nightmare, any small change needed so much custom development (which was incredibly costly) and it ended up having the reverse effect and stunting our growth, eating up resources (internally and externally), and we ended up scrapping it entirely after 18-months. Looking back, my gut told me to do something simpler & more efficient (work off a Shopify Theme), yet I listened to the advice of others and it sent me down an expensive path full of headaches. But hey, was a valuable learning experience so took the lesson and kept on going!

Can you tell us a story about the hard times that you faced when you first started your journey?

We hit some hard times in 2017. Had some cash-flow issues internally, manufacturing issues, and a few more things that led to a “perfect storm” of things going downhill. If I’m being honest, we had a date circled on the calendar that was a “shut down operations” date if we didn’t figure a few things out. I had to do a mass layoff and let go of 70% of our company at the time, letting go of many people I considered friends and had developed relationships with. We had made some bad decisions and they didn’t work out. Those days are the hardest, when you must make decisions to keep the company alive, but it negatively impacts the team. There’s no training for days like that, and it never gets easier. This is a great example where the trait I mentioned earlier, GRIT, is so important. It would have been so easy to close shop, give up, and take a job that had more stability. Instead, we dug down, found a path forward, ended up finding a way to bridge our financial needs, being able to hire some of the staff back, and the following year grew the business over 100%.

Where did you get the drive to continue even though things were so hard? What strategies or techniques did you use to help overcome those challenges?

It may have been to an almost unhealthy level at the time, but I had a true belief in the vision of the company and my ability to “figure it out”. I had put years of my life into the business by that point, and we had multiple friends/family invest in the idea, and I just couldn’t accept letting them down. That was a major driver for me, having friends invest in me early on. If I was the only one at risk, perhaps I would have given up, but I had a few hundred thousand dollars on the line of other people’s money, and losing their money was not an option for me. I had no idea what the path forward was, but knew I had to give it everything I had. While it worked and we figured everything out, I did learn later that in giving everything I had to the company, it took a toll on my health (both physical and mental), and it took much recovery, coaching, and deep work to rebuild. I unfortunately learned a bit too late the importance of balance and mental health, and would highly encourage any other leaders out there to prioritize personal health and wellness from day one. You’re a better leader when you’re operating from the best version of yourself.

In 2018, after a rollercoaster of a year in 2017 where we nearly folded, I found a peer group of other business leaders (EO, the Entrepreneurs Organization). It changed my life to find a tribe of other business leaders who were navigating the same issues I was. My main experience share here would be to find a support group or peer group of other entrepreneurs as soon as possible. It can be a lonely ride, so just having that support group, not to mention mentoring from other successful leaders, has changed my life in so many ways.

Bootstrap, bootstrap, bootstrap (when young and starting your first business). It teaches you so many great habits around conserving cash, being overly careful about how you spend money, and you’ll become an expert at understanding your financial situation because bootstrapping just requires you to obsess over every dollar. Those I know who’ve gone the VC route too early in their career developed some bad habits of cash flow management. Money is always accessible so they don’t learn those valuable skills until it’s too late. Unfortunately we’re seeing this currently in a lot of the VC markets where companies are collapsing left and right as the economy tightens up. Once you’ve proven the concept for your business, know your numbers & have developed some strong financial management behaviors, then go find capital to help grow your business.

Sure thing. Note that I’m in the Direct-To-Consumer world & that’s where I’ve been my entire journey at Lume Cube, so some of these may be more directed towards DTC, but should be pretty generic!

Clearly defined vision/mission: What is it they say? “Vision without Action is a daydream, but Action without Vision is a nightmare”. As the team grows, the founder/CEO gets further removed from each employee, so you lose that ability to personally impact each person in the company. We had a bit of an alignment crisis last year where departments weren’t working together. By developing a clear vision of where we want to go, who we want to be, and what the end goal is, not only did we see retention increase and employee engagement skyrocket, but we saw performance improve as well. Think of the sport Crew (rowing). All members on the boat may be rowing, but when they start rowing in-sync, on the same rhythm, and with the same intensity, it drastically improves performance and the team that’s aligned towards the same vision will surely outlast the team that’s uncertain what the vision is. This has led to further employee engagement and retention as well, people feel they are part of a larger vision/mission vs. just coming to work for a paycheck.
Ability to sell: I don’t care if you’re a service business, SaaS company, product company, or just a freelance consultant. The ability to sell your vision, your product, your value propositions is the #1 skillset I could state for any leader hoping to be successful. Selling will come into play when recruiting key team members, potential investors, potential customers, potential partnerships, etc. I don’t care how good your product is, if you can’t sell the vision, the “why”, the dream, it’ll be challenging to assemble a great team, get the funds you need, or close the customers you want. Back in 2017 when we had a financial crisis in the business, nothing on paper looked like a good investment, but my ability to sell the vision, the potential, and what this company could be closed a 7-figure investment round as well as a number of high level employees over the following 2 years. Had that skill not been as sharp as it was, the situation would have turned out much differently.
Unit Economics that make sense: If I were to give my younger self one single piece of advice, it would be to have a better grip on my numbers. The product may be world-changing, the team may be fired up to sell it, but if unit economics don’t make sense, the company will fold (or burn cash, which is never sustainable). We’ve seen this happen in a big way over the last 18 months. As acquisition costs have increased post iOS14 (along with import duties/tariffs & freight costs), I’ve seen countless companies that had great product, great branding, and even great teams go bankrupt and fold. The core reason, the team didn’t know their numbers and the Unit Economics didn’t make sense anymore. If there isn’t some path towards profit or the ability to cover your expenses (people, marketing, operations, etc), the business will fold. Unfortunately the world of burning cash, growing at all costs and being funded by VC’s only applies to a very small set of businesses and much of that is behind us (the past 10 years were full of this). Moving forward, know your numbers, it’s all about unit economics and the ability to scale.
A great team: As mentioned earlier, nobody can do this alone or build a great company by themselves. Earlier this year, I hired a VP of Finance & Operations as well as a VP of Marketing. I can say with all my heart that my life (both in business and personally) has drastically improved with those two hires. Not only are we running the business in a much better way, but I now have the time to truly think, strategize, analyze, and focus on where this company is going vs. being in the weeds every day. In order to build a truly spectacular business, having a great support team is essential to any leader looking to thrive.
A great product/market fit: There’s a lot that comes into play here. Timing is a big factor as well. Think of companies like Uber or Lyft. Phenomenal concept, but if they tried to execute in the early 2000’s, it wouldn’t have been possible. Enter a world where everyone has a supercomputer in their pocket (smartphones), and suddenly the timing for an idea of that nature becomes possible. There’s countless stories of phenomenal ideas coming at the wrong time. Maybe the market/customer base just isn’t ready for it. Maybe the technology needed to offer the product at a reasonable price point isn’t quite there yet. Take Lume Cube for example, we launched our Video Conference light in January 2019…needless to say, it was a flop and not a successful offering. Enter 2020 and the market conditions, there was a need and we were able to fulfill it, and suddenly we were selling in 1 month the same volume we did the entire YEAR of 2019. Similarly for our Ring Light. A few years ago, content wasn’t as big of a topic and Ring Light sales were low. Fast forward a few years with YouTube, TikTok, and the “Creator Economy” booming, we’re selling millions of dollars worth of Ring Lights and one of the largest suppliers in the US for that product category. Timing & product/market fit is essential to building a great business. Now, the best leaders out there continually adjust their product offering to fit the market needs. Understand what the problem is your core customer is looking to solve, and build something that delivers them a solution at a price they are willing to pay. That’s what innovation is all about.

What are the most common mistakes you have seen CEOs & founders make when they start a business? What can be done to avoid those errors?

The primary one, and we’re guilty of it early on, is not knowing your numbers. No matter how good the idea is, if a business runs out of cash or doesn’t have unit economics that make sense, it’s game over. Invest in education, professional help, or whatever is needed to ensure you understand your numbers. Most CEO’s/Leaders are not accountants, but need to be dangerous enough in Excel or basic Financials to keep the business intact.

More hours does not mean more success. I learned this too late unfortunately. I’d rather work a healthy 40- 50 hr week, be recharged over the weekend and excited to come to work on Monday, than burn the candle through the weekend and come Monday, be tired, grumpy, burned out, etc. Especially if you have a team, the team needs a healthy leader, so balance, support, eating well, sleeping well, all are key to being a great leader. Don’t get me wrong, I’ve pulled countless 100+ hour weeks building this company, those are unavoidable in the process, BUT, don’t make a habit out of it. Develop some sort of routine where you are able to recharge, disconnect, and refill your cup. What I’ve found is actually some of my best ideas pop into my head when I’m recharging! Whether it’s going for a walk, or on a chairlift during a quick snowboard weekend getaway, sometimes my best ideas that have led to our success hit me when I’m “off the grid” because I’ve been able to clear out the noise and just connect with my own thoughts. If I was spending those days behind the computer cranking emails, I can guarantee many of those ideas would have never come to me.

Be kind. It’s that simple. We live in a world today where it’s tough to get away from the news, where it’s impossible not to compare yourself with others, and anxiety/depression is at all-time highs. While there’s SO many great innovations we get to experience in 2022, many of them can lead people down some tough paths, and you never know the battle someone else is fighting. Whether it’s in the office, on the street, or at the grocery store, I wish I could start a movement to elevate kindness to strangers. Sometimes something as small as a smile, holding the door, a simple “hey how are you?” can change someone’s day for the better. Let’s be kind to each other, it can be rough out there, and kindness cures all.

Big fan of what Roy and Ryan Seiders built at Yeti. They created a premium product (and brand) in a commodity category, as well as built a community unlike any other. Would be thrilled to sit with them over coffee to hear their view of how they built Yeti & why they believe the brand has become as massive as it has.

How can our readers further follow your work online?

Check out our website (www.lumecube.com), or feel free to connect with me on LinkedIn. That’s my platform of choice lately and I love connecting with like-minded individuals: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rileystricklin/

This was very inspiring. Thank you so much for the time you spent with this. We wish you continued success and good health!

Riley Stricklin Of Lume Cube On Five Things You Need To Create A Highly Successful Startup was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Meet The Disruptors: Elizabeth Goodstein Of Madison Wells On The Five Things You Need To Shake Up…

Meet The Disruptors: Elizabeth Goodstein Of Madison Wells On The Five Things You Need To Shake Up Your Industry

An Interview With Fotis Georgiadis

Run towards the fire is the best piece of advice I’ve gotten along the way. What this means is that as a young professional, if you join a giant bureaucratic organization, you might not receive opportunities for growth or acceleration vs. if you join a young or more dynamic organization in which you can operate in a smaller pond.

As a part of our series about business leaders who are shaking things up in their industry, I had the pleasure of interviewing Elizabeth Goodstein.

Elizabeth has spent her career empowering badass women to share their stories. Prior to joining Madison Wells in 2019, Elizabeth worked at Hello Sunshine during her MBA, focusing on amplifying Reese’s Book Club. Before that, Elizabeth was an Agent Trainee and worked for the Head of Lit, Books-to-Film-and-TV, and Live Events at WME. She is a graduate of Johns Hopkins and Columbia Business School.

While I have no personal connection to the entertainment industry, I grew up in a household where my father was a cinephile and my mother a theater nerd. This meant that a lot of our free time was dedicated to watching great films and singing showtunes. Like for so many others, stories were my escape. I always wanted to work alongside creative people and empower them to share their gifts with the world. It was with this background in mind that I started working for Florentine Films at the age of 16 and convinced ICM to take a chance on me as an undergraduate intern. Those opportunities were transformational and helped solidify my passion for pursuing a career in entertainment.

Can you tell our readers what it is about the work you’re doing that’s disruptive?

At Madison Wells we are uniquely built in such a way that enables stories and/or relationships in one medium to translate into another. I believe this is one of our competitive advantages. There are numerous examples of us walking that walk — whether taking a story from a company we invest in and adapting into a television series or having our creative teams decide that a book initially optioned for Film/TV would be better served by starting as an adaptation in Live theater. The practice of adapting source material in and of itself is not disruptive. However, the internal systems we’ve worked hard to hone enable this kind of nimble decision making and action.

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 didn’t realize a boss at WME needed a visa to get into India. She was leaving in 72 hours from when I discovered this. I learned about the power and importance of building real relationships outside of one’s day-to-day. Those relationships often prove essential, most of the time when you least expect it. Let’s just say my boss made it to India.

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?

A person I have turned to a few times — when I really needed someone whom I admired to show up for me — is Strauss Zelnick, of ZMC, Take-Two Interactive, etc. He might not realize it, but Strauss has taught me lessons big and small — i.e., to always answer emails within 24 hours, to take the professional road less traveled when you care deeply about what you’re doing, to directly ask for advice when you need it, among other best practices. While I don’t speak to Strauss all the time, when I have made it clear I have needed his wisdom, he has always been there. When recruiting post-business school, Strauss had a clear POV on the paths I was deciding between. The impact he made on me in that moment was: 1) recognizing the importance of building relationships in which a mentor can be honest and 2) inspiring me to want to grow up to be someone like Strauss, who countless young professionals rely on for guidance, etc.

Disruption is a term that is both overused and not necessarily a good thing, although it has become synonymous in today’s world with cool and innovative. From my perspective, disrupting an industry is positive when the disruption leads to a more equitable environment within that industry or ecosystem. An example of positive disruption would be some of the disruption that has taken place in the healthcare industry. For example, it is now possible to access quality healthcare from the touch of one’s phone or laptop, enabling access for those whose work hours are inconvenient for receiving in-person care and/or who live far away from an in-person facility. On the “not so positive” side of the coin, I am biased, but I do not believe in the newfound economics created by the streaming model. 1) Independent producers have been completely disadvantaged by the back-end buyout/buy all rights strategy of the streamers, even though these producers are often essential in the ‘making’ of a film or television series, and 2) I’m not reinventing the wheel when I say that the business model of streaming doesn’t make sense from a profitability perspective (see: most recent earnings reports and the big media market correction).

Can you share five of the best words of advice you’ve gotten along your journey? Please give a story or example for each.

Run towards the fire is the best piece of advice I’ve gotten along the way. What this means is that as a young professional, if you join a giant bureaucratic organization, you might not receive opportunities for growth or acceleration vs. if you join a young or more dynamic organization in which you can operate in a smaller pond. Operating in a smaller, more high growth environment allows one to make more of an impact in the day-to-day (and also contributes to more learning than if everything is already figured out for you).

We are sure you aren’t done. How are you going to shake things up next?

There is a major injustice in how venture capital dollars are allocated in this country (and world). We invested in a female-founded podcast company called Lemonada Media earlier this year, and I’d like to continue to deploy capital into early-stage businesses we believe in, whose mission aligns with our north star at Madison Wells, and whose founders might be adversely impacted by the biases that exist in traditional fundraising.

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 Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls and The Diving Bell and the Butterfly by Jean-Dominique Bauby have had the most impact on my thinking in recent years. The former because Jeannette’s story teaches that resilience and perseverance are possible, even against the greatest of odds. The latter because we should all strive to live a life of fulfillment, with respect and care for others — as opposed to regretting how we behaved after it is too late.

Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share how that was relevant to you in your life?

“Everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of the human freedoms — to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one’s own way.” — Viktor E. Frankl. In the context of Man’s Search for Meaning, Frankl teaches that no matter what atrocities or horrors a person experiences in their lives, one may choose one’s attitude and thus choose one’s own way in response. And that ability to choose is the very definition of liberty and freedom. This is true in every trivial aspect of life, too. It is a reminder that we are (mostly) in charge, even when it feels like we have lost our way or are deeply frustrated or feel like it is all too much.

I am not a person of great influence, but if I could inspire a movement it would be to actually codify the separation between church and state. Meaning, reproductive rights and marriage rights, etc., would be deemed human rights (and in no way politicized by our politicians because of religious beliefs, powerful lobbying groups, etc.).

How can our readers follow you online?

LinkedIn!

This was very inspiring. Thank you so much for joining us!

Meet The Disruptors: Elizabeth Goodstein Of Madison Wells On The Five Things You Need To Shake Up… was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Meet The Disruptors: Jim Donnelly Of Restore Hyper Wellness On The Five Things You Need To Shake Up…

Meet The Disruptors: Jim Donnelly Of Restore Hyper Wellness On The Five Things You Need To Shake Up Your Industry

An Interview With Fotis Georgiadis

Surround yourself with good, talented people, and let them have the freedom to do great things.

As a part of our series about business leaders who are shaking things up in their industry, I had the pleasure of interviewing Jim Donnelly.

Jim Donnelly is the co-founder and CEO of Restore Hyper Wellness®, a disruptor in the personal health and wellness category that delivers expert guidance and an extensive array of cutting-edge health modalities, such as IV drips and cryotherapy, integrated under one roof. Before Restore, Jim served as an Officer in the U.S. Army and spent years working at leading brands, including Jell-O Pudding, Bell South, Coca-Cola, and Citibank. Jim began his entrepreneurial journey when he co-founded IgoUgo.com, which became the leader in user-generated travel website content, won a Webby Award as the top travel website in the U.S. and was sold to Sabre Holdings / Travelocity all in less than five years.

I spent my early life surrounded by entrepreneurs. My father was regularly engrossed in different initiatives, from commercial fishing boats, to an accounting company, to bringing the Russian ballet to the United States to tour. His ventures weren’t always financially successful, but I loved my dad’s enthusiasm. He never lost his zest for trying something new.

While my father sparked my passion for business, I decided to take a different professional route than he did. I completed my undergraduate degree and MBA in four years and started my first business at 21. The military funded my education, so while I was on active-duty, the person I hired to run my business actually stole the money and disappeared. That was my first entrepreneurial lesson learned — be extremely careful who you trust with your business.

After completing my military service, I knew I still wanted to be an entrepreneur, but I didn’t want to jump back in without a solid foundation. I developed a strategy to gain knowledge across different industries which led to me working for Kraft General Foods, AT&T/Bell South, Coca-Cola, and Citibank.

One day I was introduced to an entrepreneur at a social event. As we talked, he asked me about my work history with all of these blue-chip companies, essentially questioning my commitment to entrepreneurship. A week later, I quit my job. I took a page out of my father’s handbook, determined to explore something new every five years.

First, I explored the travel industry, where I started a company that provided custom travel content that suited niche audiences. I also ran a luxury condo company where I bought abandoned bank buildings, flipped them into condos, and sold them to the likes of Michael Jordan and Cam Newton. In my business ventures, I, of course, wasn’t always an expert in whichever industry I entered. In turn, I realized I couldn’t outdo my competitors in their game, so I had to create my own.

Founding Restore was an easy decision. I was training for a triathlon, and my body hurt from the punishing training regiment. A friend suggested I join him for a cryotherapy appointment. I thought, Why not? I fell in love with the experience immediately but recognized treatments were way too expensive, housed in a horrible retail environment, and the people running that particular studio did not belong in the wellness industry. So, when the opportunity arose to change that, I once again said…why not?

Can you tell our readers what it is about the work you’re doing that’s disruptive?

As you know, access to proper healthcare in the United States is limited to those who can afford it. Simply having your blood taken can cost hundreds of dollars without insurance — many people self-manage their chronic pain or illnesses because of their current healthcare inaccessibility. While do-it-yourself versions of alternative medicine have increased in popularity since the Coronavirus outbreak, alternative medicine clinics present the same barrier as traditional medicine: cost. We all deserve the opportunity to have access to a healthy lifestyle. Restore’s new category of care — Hyper Wellness® — combines groundbreaking science, expert guidance, and innovative retail experience with the sole goal of reducing the ever-growing gap between lifespan and healthspan. Alongside my Hyper Wellness Team and CMO David Fossas, we designed our program to be not only easily accessible but also affordable with the hopes that fewer Americans have to decide between their health and their wealth.

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’m going all the way back to my first company. The company was called Repeat Performers. It was a golf ball recovery business. We would get the contract from golf courses to retrieve lost golf balls from their water hazards. A typical golf course produces thousands of golf balls. Being located in the Southeast, we saw alligators and all kinds of snakes in every water hazard.

A funny mistake; I had a bunch of new divers show up at a job at Jekyll Island. We had a large order from Wal-Mart and needed to “harvest” a large number of golf balls. We got to the first hazard and saw a dozen alligators on the far bank. None of the new divers would get in the water. I was wearing my work clothes and wasn’t prepared to go in the water. But I had to. I grabbed scuba gear, jumped in the water in my khakis and golf shirt, and started retrieving golf balls. Slowly, the rest of the divers entered the water, and we had a successful day. It got to the point where the gators simply ignored us, and the divers ignored them.

The mistakes I made and learned from:

My team wasn’t fully trained and I put them in a potentially dangerous situation. They hadn’t been educated on diving with alligators, and they were justifiably scared. That’s on me. Today, the health and safety of my team and my customers are paramount.
I probably picked the worst possible course to harvest, given the experience of my team and the conditions. Based on this experience, we changed our training and onboarding process, making safety the centerpiece of our practices. .
I didn’t show up prepared to lead by example. Getting people over the hump required a “show me, don’t tell me” mentality.

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 main mentor was my father. He had a long military career and transitioned to entrepreneurship from the military. Unfortunately, the military provides a terrific baseline for entrepreneurs but not all of the necessary skills. So my father struggled as an entrepreneur. He started some pretty cool ventures but never seemed to be able to get a business beyond a certain point. Having said that, he taught me a few things that form the foundation for how I do everything:

Enthusiasm and optimism matter.
Be the same person in good times and bad times.
You learn the measure of a person at two different points: when there is a lot of money to divide up and when they are out of money.
Surround yourself with good, talented people, and let them have the freedom to do great things.

My father also provided a quote I always remember. He said, “Son, there is no debtor’s prison in the U.S. If you fail, you can start something new the next day.” Essentially his construct was work hard, do what you promise to do, don’t risk other people’s money if you aren’t risking yours first, and never break the law or lie.

I took these lessons from my father and added the notion of getting the experience I needed to become a subject-matter expert as the launching point for becoming a great entrepreneur. That is why my career includes all of the stops in corporate America. I made sure I had the right experiences to help me be successful and overlaid that with the lessons from my father.

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?

To be disruptive is to provide a service unique to your intended industry — to turn heads so to speak. To be a disruption is to impact industry standards and ongoings, moving forward in either a positive or negative manner.

I chose to be disruptive by observing America’s healthcare problem as a whole and finding a compromise that benefits each affected party to some degree. If I had entered Restore with the single-minded goal of profiting from simply the popularity of cryotherapy, we would have never expanded our services into a full-fledged wellness clinic offering programs targeting various health concerns.

Being disruptive is always positive when one’s goal is to improve the standard quality of life. However, an action I consider to be helpful may not be beneficial to someone else. How I choose to be a disruption is to lead my company, and eventually, the wellness industry with the goal of maximizing efficacy, not dollars. If you make people feel better and maximize their health benefits, guess what they’ll do? They’ll return again and again. I believe some smaller operators function off of slated hierarchies because they rely on a single source of income to keep their business afloat. In turn, they may make the misguided decision to offer any products their customers are willing to pay for regardless of their benefits or risks. We do not operate under that construct.

Can you share five of the best words of advice you’ve gotten along your journey? Please give a story or example for each.

Anytime you deal with high-level, successful human beings, you must expect the unexpected. Sometimes I forget that our lifestyles, no matter how we lead them, can send people in different directions. I had to recognize that my franchisees are my partners in business and life, and in their daily lives they can have marital problems, health problems, and general life problems. People are multifaceted, and I had to strike the right balance of empathy and emotional intelligence to make Restore a great company to work with. We’re inventing together, we’re taking a chance together, and we’re creating our own playbook together.

We are sure you aren’t done. How are you going to shake things up next?

My Restore team and I work with the goal of improving the customer experience and efficacy. We already make the best full body cryotherapy chambers in the world. Now, we want to make the most appealing studios to host those chambers. I believe beauty and aesthetics play a large role in a customer’s experience and therefore the success of a business. If you have ever walked into a medical hyperbaric unit, you would compare it to an ICU unit. Hospitals aren’t relaxing. There’s so much innovation that we can bring to the space, and while I’m not a social media connoisseur, I want our locations to be as relaxing and Insta-worthy as possible.

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 am a voracious reader as well as a consumer of podcasts so it is very difficult to narrow this to one. So I would like to mention a book I’ve read in the last few years. The book is A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles. It is the story of an aristocrat in Russia that is sentenced to house arrest at a fancy hotel in Moscow after the communists take over after World War I. It isn’t a business book, but I loved it for all the lessons it provided. The main character always made the most of his situation, he was incredibly optimistic, and he treated everyone with dignity. As a former aristocrat he recognized that the waiter was just as important as the politician. The book had whimsy, it provided some really cool historical perspective (I believe you learn from history), he gravitated toward clever solutions to problems, and many lessons were embedded throughout the book. It was truly a lovely story and affected my approach to people in personal and professional settings.

Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share how that was relevant to you in your life?

I don’t believe in the concept of “failure” — to me, these moments are opportunities to learn, grow and try again.

My father once reminded me that there’s no debtor’s prison in the U.S. — you don’t go to jail here just for failing in a business. As long as you work hard, do what you promise to the people involved, and don’t break the law, you can try again the next day. It was a powerful insight into who he was and how he felt about the things he pursued. Where there’s an opportunity, there’s an equal opportunity to succeed or fail. But you can learn from both, and neither is a reason to not try to do something new.

Shifting the perception of healthcare from reactive to proactive. For those people who can afford it, our preventative care usually amounts to annual checkups to see how or if things are functioning the way they should be. For many people, their care comes through urgent care clinics or emergency room visits. What about all of that time in between? It’s not enough to tell people what they should be doing and then trust that they know how to proceed or that they have the means to proceed. Instead, we wait until someone’s health situation is so dire that urgent (and expensive) measures need to be taken. There’s one important piece missing from the greater puzzle of the healthcare system at large, and that’s providing education on the efficacy of being proactive about your health and increasing your healthspan. A critical second piece focuses on equity, ensuring that people are not only able to receive and understand that information, but are provided equitable access to the kinds of care that will help them thrive.

How can our readers follow you online?

Keep up with my career and Restore’s ongoings on LinkedIn or follow me on Facebook @JimRestore.

This was very inspiring. Thank you so much for joining us!

Meet The Disruptors: Jim Donnelly Of Restore Hyper Wellness On The Five Things You Need To Shake Up… was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Makers of The Metaverse: Helena Dong On The Future Of The VR, AR & Mixed Reality Industries

An Interview With Fotis Georgiadis

Learn and practice as much as you can. My personal mantra is: There’s Nothing You Can’t Learn. This is what helped me pivot my career.

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 Helena Dong.

Helena Dong is a designer and creative technologist based in NYC, interweaving conceptual undercurrents from fashion, performance and AR. Since engaging with creative tech in 2020, Helena has designed, developed and directed AR experiences for a multitude of distinguished brands, including A24, Coachella, Estée Lauder, Meta, Nike, Prada and Vogue. Currently, Helena is an Art Director at BUCK where she collaborates with a global team on experiential projects driven by immersive technologies.

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 spent my childhood in China before immigrating to Australia at the age of eleven. As early as I could remember, I was soaking up my mom’s creativity: I observed her as a florist and later an event stylist, often digging through her books on ikebana whilst toying with Barbie dolls and anime figurines.

After we moved to Australia, my obsession shifted to fashion and internet flash games, which evolved into a fascination with the experiential and performative potential of clothing. This curiosity sustained me through university, where I studied fashion design through an interdisciplinary lens. It also encouraged me to specialize in creative technology in recent years, and now I get to combine these worlds through working on AR effects for brands like Fendi, Prada, and Nike.

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?

One of the biggest impacts is thanks to the Viktor & Rolf SS09 show. At the time of encountering this digital performance, I was in grade six and my interest in fashion was just developing. As you can imagine, I was fully mesmerized by clones of Shalom Harlow walking down a CGI runway, and this was thirteen years before Balenciaga’s SS22 ‘Clone’ collection! This was one of my earliest memories of a virtual fashion show, and it radically expanded my perception as a twelve year old, on how designs could be experienced and disseminated beyond traditional formats.

Is there a particular story that inspired you to pursue a career in the X Reality industry? We’d love to hear it.

I began exploring AR out of sheer curiosity after moving to NYC for an opportunity in fashion. Despite having no background in computing, I downloaded Spark AR upon noticing a rapid surge of Instagram AR effects published by independent creators. Initially, I saw AR as a viable tool for prototyping designs that would otherwise be constrained by cost and manufacturing feasibility. I never imagined it would become an alternate career trajectory. The first wave of COVID lockdowns in 2020 called for introspection, and I dove deeper into AR development and 3D modeling. The act of learning brought me immense joy in that moment. I was playing with these tools purely for personal reasons, until I was commissioned to work on American Vogue’s first AR-enhanced beauty editorial for the iconic September Issue of 2020.

Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you began this fascinating career?

The fact that I get to play in the world of AR as a career still feels ridiculous to me. The most interesting story has been the journey itself, and this process of learning on the go. Oftentimes, I take on projects beyond my capability. With impending deadlines and client expectations, I need to learn whatever skill or tool required to realize the project. And for some miraculous reason I’ve always managed to pull them off. Many brands that I once dreamed of working with while I was in fashion school have become my clients, such as Prada, Fendi, Nike, Byredo, and Vogue. This is something that has surprised me, how my career path has changed within two years, simply by starting with watching online tutorials and experimenting.

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 decided to pivot to creative tech, I reached out to over 200 creative studios over a period of 6 months. I wanted to learn from leaders in the field, see if I could collaborate with their team, and get some advice on whether I could actually make a career out of AR. This process was so beneficial, and I am grateful to every person who spent time with me helping me understand this space.

Before you embark on this process, be clear about your goals, and have your case studies and work samples ready to be presented. Looking back, I wish I had been a bit more prepared as there were times where I fumbled with my phone to find relevant examples during the call.

Of course, I am very grateful to all the people who have encouraged me along my journey, but it would be impossible to name only one person! I’d really like to give a shout out to my generous and talented colleagues at BUCK as well as fellow creators and mentors in the Meta Spark community, who have taught me so much over the past few years and fostered my confidence to build a career in creative technology.

Are you working on any exciting new projects now? How do you think that will help people?

There are many new AR projects I am working on in various stages of completion and although I can’t share any specifics just yet, I can’t wait for the world to experience them. Keep an eye on the @BUCK_Design Instagram account for the latest 😉

There are three things that excite me about this space:

How by using VR, AR and MR, we can transcend physical limitations and cheat space. My inner child is thrilled by the prospect of an Anywhere Door or the Deluxe Light from Doraemon that comically transforms everyday objects into deluxe versions of themselves. Existing objects acquire new and various connotations as they’re prescribed with alternative contexts.
The endless immersion of a narrative. With the integration of deep learning models, the stories in AR, VR or MR experiences could be shaped entirely by the audience. Choose-your-own-adventure narratives no longer need to be limited by pre-destined plotlines.
The ongoing improvements in hardware capacity and the eventual elevation of visual fidelity so that people can stop associating AR/VR with a low-fi aesthetic.

Are there other ways that VR, AR and MR can improve our lives? Can you explain?

VR, AR and MR bear immense potential to enrich the ways in which we perceive and interact with the world, particularly with heightened convenience, immersive education and expansive leisure. Having said that, these improvements won’t derive from technology alone, they will only be made possible through practices that are inclusive, design-centric, and are able to evolve with our values. Only time will tell just how these technologies will integrate with different lifestyles and abilities. I’m excited to see what comes next and be part of the developments.

What are the “myths” that you would like to dispel about working in your industry? Can you explain what you mean?

There is a myth that being excited about VR, AR and MR experiences equates to abandoning the “real world.” The fact is that VR, AR and MR experiences exist in the real world: our world. This conversation that we’re having about the expansion of these experiences is really no different from the one we instigated over a decade ago with the rise of the internet and social media, contesting just how much of social media and the use of 2D interface on a pocket device would dictate our day or day lives. It’s a different, and more integrated way of interacting with content and participating with digital communities, which is probably why it feels like a bigger threat to our existing way of life.

What are your “5 Things You Need To Create A Highly Successful Career In The VR, AR or MR Industries?”

Keeping in mind, I am new(ish) to this field myself, here are some things that I share when asked about working in the world of AR:

Foster your curiosity. Everything in creative technology moves fast, new things are constantly being introduced. The only way to sustain a career in emerging tech is to be curious and inspired by the unfamiliar.
Learn and practice as much as you can. My personal mantra is: There’s Nothing You Can’t Learn. This is what helped me pivot my career.
Have clear intentions. Don’t build tech for the sake of it. Think about what drives you to create VR, AR, or MR experiences. Ensure that your work, and that of your collaborators is backed by genuine and clear intentions. VR, AR and MR are tools that have no agenda on their own. So, what is your agenda?
Project your ideas, your intentions, your art, and your capabilities in front of key stakeholders. Be patient and prepared to explain your stance and educate others who are unacquainted with these technologies.
Teamwork. Understand that you don’t have to do everything on your own. AR experiences require a multitude of inputs: not only technical capabilities, but design theories, psychology, scenography, narratives, and more. As a creative technologist specializing in social AR, there’s often a perceived need to be your own creative director, designer, 3D artist, developer and producer. While it certainly helps to know a bit about everything, it’s not practical to expect yourself, or anyone, to master all tasks. Know that it is ok to seek support and collaborators.

Eliminate traces of gatekeeping mentality. Everyone in the industry should be willing to offer mentorships.

Thank you so much for these excellent stories and insights. We wish you continued success in your great work!

Makers of The Metaverse: Helena Dong On The Future Of The VR, AR & Mixed Reality Industries was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Adrian Koehler Of Take New Ground On 5 Things You Need To Know To Successfully Scale Your Business

An Interview With Fotis Georgiadis

Turn Conflict into Trust; The conversations you’re avoiding or handling poorly will be the reason people leave as the speed of scale increases. Learn how to turn avoidance into engagement and your leadership team will be exponentially more resilient.

Adrian Koehler is a leadership engagement expert who gets real to get real results. He is the founder and managing partner at the executive coaching firm, Take New Ground where he coaches executives and entrepreneurs in the art and science of leadership for themselves, their teams, and clients to create new, unprecedented results and experience fulfillment in their work.

https://takenewground.com/

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’?

My natural passions and inclination toward taking initiative have lead me into four distinct careers and across the globe. I have a background in philanthropy, ministry, activism, and medicine, and all of those shaped me into the leadership coach I am today. I have always been drawn to get involved in times of crisis and chaos where I know my commitment to a worthy future and desire to help people connect will be a massive value add. Prior to my work as an executive coach, I was the founding executive director of The Cornerstone Project, a grant-giving foundation that supports positive life transformation and spiritual reconciliation for the incarcerated and those with criminal histories. Before moving to Los Angeles in 2005, I worked as a pediatric intensive care specialist at Children’s Memorial Hospital in Chicago and also served as a pastor and community organizer at Mosaic LA and founded Serve LA, Mosaic’s community dedicated to holistic development for the marginalized and vulnerable in Los Angeles.

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?

Moving from being the best independent player or best player on an unimpressive team to being a key player on a team of rockstars. A key decision was to partner with a mentor of mine. We are both world class at our unique approaches and make each other better on a daily basis.

What’s the most impactful initiative you’ve led that you’re particularly proud of?

After working for years in the streets of Los Angles as a leadership mobilizer, a funder asked me to start an organization that would make an intense splash. I started The Cornerstone Project, a grant-giving foundation that supports positive life transformation and spiritual reconciliation for the incarcerated and those with criminal histories. I built a team of experts and established a program where we did 3-day leadership intensives with murderers in prison. We then trained them to be the trainers of their fellow in-mates. Thousands of inmates are still going through this program, living with rigorous honesty, serving others and finally generating the life they want for themselves and their community.

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 mistake I made was not seeing the difference early enough between being Hight End Performer and being a High Performing Leader. Being great is not enough. Focusing on making others great and getting results through them.

How has mentorship played a role in your career, whether receiving mentorship or offering it to others?

Mentorship has been everything in my career. I’ve followed leaders more than opportunities throughout my entire career.

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?

I model my leadership style after those leaders who are hyper-committed to results while generating creating an environment of motivation and respect. A leader like President Dwight Eisenhower has always been an icon I model. Serious man, taking on world-wide challenges while taking the time to build camaraderie and warmth with those under his charge. Love leaders who take the mission seriously and others intentionally; not themselves.

The top 5 things founders and entrepreneurs can and should be doing in order to scale up in 2023 are:

Spend to Scale; If you’re not investing in leadership development for your team, you’re starving your most vital resource.
Turn Conflict into Trust; The conversations you’re avoiding or handling poorly will be the reason people leave as the speed of scale increases. Learn how to turn avoidance into engagement and your leadership team will be exponentially more resilient.
Respect Reality; not all of your employees want to scale as you do, some are all in, some are resistors, and a majority are fence sitters. They are waiting for you to recognize the sacrifice needed. Do it.
Sometimes scaling up is scaling out: Some of your key leaders who were effective at stage 2 aren’t right for stage 3. Not everybody who got your here can get you there. So thank them and release them.
A Look in the Mirror: You are your greatest asset. Before you attempt to scale it’s important to get real and increase your personal and leadership capacity. The areas for us to exponentially move forward are invisible to us, so get feedback from a trusted colleague or coach about what you need to be able to remain at the helm of a moving and growing business.

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?

The first mistake companies often make when trying to scale a business is going too fast too soon. It is very tempting to try to keep up with peers or sprinting to a sale. Part of our work with founders is helping them slow down, focus on quality, and build for resilience. If you don’t slow down and look at what your challenges are now, you will assume they are still the old ones you were fighting before and not what you need to address now. The second is ignoring the feedback. Founders want to grow in a silo where their ideas are always right. They need to pay attention to what feedback they are receiving from the market and their team; beyond paying attention, seek feedback. Be a pro at owning current reality.

Scaling includes bringing new people into the organization. How can a company preserve its company culture and ethos when new people are brought in?

A company can preserve its company culture by being clear about what their culture is at the start. A company can’t invite somebody into a culture if they don’t know what it is. Invite the new voices to add to the order and clarity that’s already established, not add their history to the unexplained chaos.

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?

Testing the communication within your organization is key to being successful at this. A company needs to be on top of how your teams are both listening and talking to each other in order to get results. Siloing and politics will always handicap brilliant people.

What software or tools do you recommend to help onboard new hires?

I recommend the Harrison Assessment to help onboard new hires. It’s not a personality assessment, instead it’s a work-enjoyment assessment. Most processes show you if they are eligible for the position. This assessment reveals the “black box” of hiring…how ELIGIBLE they are for the position, revealing their attitude about themselves, others and the work. It’s a tool to understand culture, how people relate to each other and whether new hires will feel they are filling a missing piece for the team.

I’d say become people focused. Companies don’t exist without human beings and we need to see the human being in all its complexities for us to thrive.

How can our readers further follow your work online?

You can follow us by listening to our podcast, The Naked Leadership Podcast and check out our Youtube channel, Fearless Leadership with Adrian Koehler.

This was truly meaningful! Thank you so much for your time and for sharing your expertise!

Adrian Koehler Of Take New Ground On 5 Things You Need To Know To Successfully Scale Your Business was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Jorge Lopera Of LATAM & Industry, FarEye On How To Create A Fantastic Retail Experience That Keeps…

Jorge Lopera Of LATAM & Industry, FarEye On How To Create A Fantastic Retail Experience That Keeps Bringing Customers Back For More

Flexibility — Give consumers the ability to change orders, delivery windows and destinations after an order is made.

Jorge Lopera has over 15 years of global logistics experience in senior roles encompassing customer growth, product management, and strategy. As Vice President, LATAM & Industry, Jorge is responsible for FarEye’s expansion into the LATAM region, overseeing commercial and operational activities including sales, account management and channel & ecosystem partners. Jorge serves as FarEye’s industry expert, contributing to major publications and supporting analyst relations.

Prior to FarEye, Jorge was VP of Customer Growth at Bringg. Before Bringg, Jorge led the DHL e-commerce product development team and was instrumental in introducing a technology-first approach to a last mile service offering in the Americas and Asia-Pacific. Previously, Jorge worked in private equity, responsible for financial and business analysis for key strategic growth opportunities. He holds a BS in finance and real estate from DePaul University.

Like many people, I fell into logistics via consulting. I initially started working for a small start-up focusing in areas of financial planning and analysis. In order to prepare investor reporting and fundraising material, I learned about pricing, operations, marketing and product. I fell in love with the complexities involved in taking a package from point A to point B.

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?

Earlier in my career, I was supporting the evaluation and eventual sale of the company I was working for. In a hurry and deep into multi-tasking I booked my flight first thing in the morning for an important meeting. I arrived at the airport, checked in only to find out I booked it for the wrong city — I entered DTW (Detroit) instead of DFW (Dallas), an expensive mistake. Luckily, I made it to the meeting. Always look twice before confirming a flight.

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 am a fond believer in paying it forward and have both given and received some great support throughout my career. I can say I wouldn’t be where I am today without the support of Rick Rover. I reported to Rick who at the time was the SVP of Operations at DHL and he took the role of mentor over boss. He constantly looked for ways to challenge me and arranged the opportunity for me to spend a summer in Europe to learn about global operations and product management. In that summer, I was given the opportunity to develop new delivery concepts with a global lens and subsequently traveled to Asia, Europe and LATAM deploying these concepts into live markets. Not only was that especially rewarding professionally, I was able to see parts of the world I had never seen before!

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?

When I made the pivot into technology it was a very different world and the first thing I wanted to do was to learn and listen from our customers first hand (“voice of the customer”). It was quite the experience as I watched customers go from excited to see flashy technology to staring at their watches waiting for the hour to expire (in some cases, making up excuses to leave). Many on the team, including our CRO, required us to read The Great Demo. All I can say is that the book really showed me how customers want to buy software solutions and “why should they care.” The main learning lesson…show the last thing first!

What do you think makes your company stand out? Can you share a story?

FarEye has the best and easiest to use last-mile delivery platform on the market and I truly believe it is because of our company culture that facilitates close collaboration across teams. We do a great job of understanding what aspects of delivery are most challenging for current and potential customers and design our products with their needs in mind.

Which tips would you recommend to your colleagues in your industry to help them to thrive and not “burn out”?

Be calm and practical — don’t sweat the small stuff.

Retailers must look to become fully omnichannel, integrating both in-store and online channels to give consumers greater choice and flexibility in how they shop. Consumer convenience is a long-term driver of brand loyalty and eventually future sales and profitability. Prioritizing the consumer experience by giving them more options and better delivery experiences will separate the retailers that we’ll see in ten years versus those we won’t.

Many of the emerging DTC companies based in China that ship to the West have very long delivery timelines, as their last-mile is actually thousands of miles. The delivery experience oftentimes has poor visibility, long delays and failed deliveries, where orders are delivered with missing or damaged products. The low-cost model competes solely on price at the expense of consumer convenience. For U.S. and European brands to compete (price aside), they’ll need to strengthen their delivery experiences to truly stand out.

What are the most common mistakes you have seen CEOs & founders make when they start a retail business? What can be done to avoid those errors?

Many successful retail founders fail to properly plan to scale their businesses. The internet has enabled thousands of retail entrepreneurs to succeed quickly and many have found that the demand for their products has outstripped their ability to source and supply products in their supply chains. Further, when their business really takes off, packing and shipping orders manually and using small-business partnerships with carriers like UPS and FedEx can create long delivery times and poor customer experiences. This is where last-mile delivery platforms can truly shine, simplifying the delivery orchestration process and freeing up time for founders to focus on core competencies.

We have a strong research arm here at FarEye that has uncovered a wealth of insight showing how important the consumer delivery experience is for brand loyalty and repeat sales. We know that poor delivery experiences, high shipping costs, poor returns policies, etc. all impact the consumer appetite to shop with retailers. There is a reason retailers like Amazon, Alibaba and MercadoLibre have become so profound in recent years — they prioritize the consumer and make the delivery experience easy and affordable. That has translated into strengthened brand loyalty and market share dominance. I think it is important for smaller retailers to know that they too can achieve consumer delivery experiences at a similar level.

I think as retailers become larger, it becomes harder for them to create and maintain relationships with customers and resort to a one-size-fits-all approach which inevitably fails in certain situations. Retailers offer a limited set of options for products, price, delivery, etc. and fail to customize solutions that fit specific customer needs. We see this in store operating hours, delivery options, customer service knowledge, loyalty programs — you name it. And the reality is, it is difficult for companies to address everything at once. As supply chains become more automated, agile and customer centric, the retail industry will become more adaptable to specific customer needs. Technology will lead the charge here and the companies that adopt this technology will gain competitive advantages quickly in the form of better consumer experiences.

Can you share with us a story from your experience about a customer who was “Wowed” by the experience you provided?

I’ve worked with a wholesale food service delivery company that was challenged by inefficient routing processes that came to me looking for a solution. Our solution not only made their routes more efficient, but reduced their carbon footprint and even contributed to their increased sales in the process. Where we “wowed” the customer was that our solution was extremely easy and fast to implement, and we had them up and running months before they had expected to be. It felt good to be a part of that.

Choice, flexibility, speed, affordability and sustainability are the key ingredients to creating a fantastic retail experience. Giving consumers greater choice and customization in both the product itself and how it gets to them is critical. Allowing them to amend these after an order is made is as well. For example, changing the products ordered or the delivery destination or window while enroute, etc. Doing all of this quickly (same-day, for example) and at a low cost (ideally free) can really take a retail experience from great to fantastic. Lasty, as sustainability increasingly becomes a consideration for consumers, minimizing the carbon footprints of supply chain and delivery operations is the icing on the cake. Efficiency across the supply chain, and specifically in the last mile, can tie all of these together to create a fantastic experience.

Expanding on the above question, here are the most important factors for a fantastic retail experience, all of which can be accomplished with more automated, adaptable supply chains.

Choice — Allow consumers to customize products and how those products get to them.

Flexibility — Give consumers the ability to change orders, delivery windows and destinations after an order is made.

Speed — Get products to consumers on the same day the order is made, or faster if possible.

Affordability — Offer free or low cost shipping on all delivery modes.

Sustainability — Minimize the carbon footprint across the supply chain and offer carbon neutral delivery modes.

(Bonus) Communication — Inform consumers in real time of the status, ETA and location of their order.

I like this idea of a ‘Nirvana’ delivery state, where consumers can order anything from anywhere in the world and have it delivered on the same day to anywhere in the world with a limited carbon footprint. Developed countries are slowly moving in this direction but there are billions of people in underserved regions where such a goal is far out of reach. I’d like to be a part of making that happen.

How can our readers further follow your work?

Readers can follow me here where I will begin sharing contributing articles.

This was truly meaningful! Thank you so much for your time and for sharing your expertise!

Jorge Lopera Of LATAM & Industry, FarEye On How To Create A Fantastic Retail Experience That Keeps… was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Mrs Wordsmith: Pierre Lagrange’s Big Idea That Might Change The World

An Interview With Fotis Georgiadis

Really only one, that the privacy move by Apple and regulators killed small companies’ online customer acquisition business models, and that marketing would need a total reinvention, with Facebook targeting efficiency reduced by three! Yet, not sure we really gained privacy, so probably a big loss for all!

As a part of my series about “Big Ideas That Might Change The World In The Next Few Years” I had the pleasure of interviewing Pierre Lagrange.

Pierre Lagrange is Executive Chairman of Huntsman and Mrs Wordsmith. Before acquiring Huntsman in 2014 and Mrs Wordsmith in 2021, Pierre co-founded GLG Partners, acquired by Man Group in 2010, and sat on the Man Group executive committee. Before founding GLG, Pierre worked at Goldman Sachs from 1990, where he managed global equity portfolios. He started his career in finance at JP Morgan, where from 1985 he worked in government bond sales and trading. Pierre holds an MA in Engineering from Solvay Business School in Brussels.

Pierre has regularly invested in movie productions, executive producer of Kickass and Hollywood blockbusters Kingsman: The Secret Service and the sequel, Kingsman: The Golden Circle.

Father of four, Pierre lives with his husband Ebs Burnough between Monaco, London, Hampshire and New York.

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 please tell us a story about what brought you to this specific career path?

Pierre: I am an engineer and as such always think I can create a process for everything. I watched friends during lockdown struggling with kids who do not study academics, but would go to extraordinary lengths to study how-to get to next steps in video games. So I thought what if the curriculum was the game, how much can we learn from playing?

Can you please share with us the most interesting story that happened to you since you began your career?

Straight out of college, I began my career at Exxon because they paid new graduates well. My first boss suffered a stroke shortly after I started and I was pushed into her role, where I was producing accounts for the earnings report the next month. I saw in one month what the next 5 years of my career would look like and did not like that look, so was lucky to move to JPMorgan instead without wasting much time!

Which principles or philosophies have guided your life? Your career?

Curiosity did not kill the cat! Curiosity is the mother of invention, progress, and joy as discovering new stuff is super exciting.

Ok thank you for that. Let’s now move to the main focus of our interview. Can you tell us about your “Big Idea That Might Change The World”?

Game based learning can close the learning gap.

How do you think this will change the world?

Kids who can’t read by 5, or don’t have enough vocabulary by 10 don’t stand a chance to finish high school, so inequality starts with early age literacy. If you solve some of that problem early, you can have a very big impact.

Keeping “Black Mirror” and the “Law of Unintended Consequences” in mind, can you see any potential drawbacks about this idea that people should think more deeply about?

Not at all. There is no drawback to increased literacy either from an early age, or broadening to less favoured kids.

Was there a “tipping point” that led you to this idea? Can you tell us that story?

Yes, it was watching people with kids younger than mine struggling with studying. Whereas kids would study games from their own will. It made me consider how we can allocate some of the game time to learning time in order to get kids ahead at school and foster a passion for academic life.

I also thought of my daughter. It is for her and her generation that my husband and I decided to work at Mrs Wordsmith to make education engaging and therefore productive!

What do you need to lead this idea to widespread adoption?

We’re looking for partners to spread the gospel. The game-based learning products are amazing, yet people still think video games might be a waste of kids’ time! We need to change the perception of adults who have the strings of the purse.

What are your “5 Things I Wish Someone Told Me Before I Started” and why.

Really only one, that the privacy move by Apple and regulators killed small companies’ online customer acquisition business models, and that marketing would need a total reinvention, with Facebook targeting efficiency reduced by three! Yet, not sure we really gained privacy, so probably a big loss for all!

Can you share with our readers what you think are the most important “success habits” or “success mindsets”?

The power of vulnerability to paraphrase Brene Brown. The other one is the power of playing devil’s advocate, which game studios call fail fast! Another side of agile development that saves time and lots of money! Then last but not least, asking questions, delegating, and making sure one has better, smarter people around them.

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 🙂

Mrs Wordsmith has engaging products with proven efficacy that can solve many literacy issues plaguing our world, and can scale to reach millions of children. From pre-learning to reading, to tweens’ vocabulary and digital literacy.

How can our readers follow you on social media?

Instagram: @mrswordsmithofficial

Thank you so much for joining us. This was very inspirational.

Mrs Wordsmith: Pierre Lagrange’s Big Idea That Might Change The World was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Paul Alex Of ATMT Together: Five Strategies I Used To Grow My Business To Reach Seven Figures In…

Paul Alex Of ATMT Together: Five Strategies I Used To Grow My Business To Reach Seven Figures In Revenue

An Interview With Fotis Georgiadis

Creative Thinker. Having vision and being able to articulate the vision to your team will increase your employees to work harder because now they have something to look forward to. Creative thinkers are also able to come up with new solutions that could increase productivity and overall help companies grow.

As a part of my series called “Five Strategies I Used To Grow My Business To Reach Seven Figures In Revenue”, I had the pleasure of interviewing Paul Alex from ATMTogether.com

Paul Alex is a former law enforcement officer turned multi-millionaire entrepreneur. He has experience in sales, public speaking and digital marketing consulting. He founded ATMTogether.com Automation Services to help clients establish their first Automated Teller Machine (ATM) locations. The company has helped educate an excess of over 48,000 aspiring entrepreneurs nationwide regarding the ATM industry and currently has over 1,500 clients enrolled into their ATM Automation program. For more information, please visit his website.

Thank you so much for joining us in this interview series! Before we dive in, our readers would love to learn a bit more about you. Can you tell us a story about what brought you to this specific career path?

In 2014, I joined the police force in northern California. I was able to become a Detective within 2 years of being a beat cop and during my 7-year law enforcement career, I established a side hustle with automated teller machines (ATMs) on my off days from work. Within 18 months, I was able to make a 5-figure income from the ATM Industry as a side hustle and was able to be financially free from my monthly bills. I decided to leave the police force and leverage my time with building a digital online offer within the ATM Industry.

In January 2021, I launched ATMTogether.com, which is a company primarily focused on helping 9–5ers create another source of income through ATMs. In March 2021, I surpassed my first 6 figures in revenue in one month. I hired and scaled the company since then into a multimillion-dollar company with 18 employees serving over 1,500 ATM automation clients nationwide in the United States. During the process, I also created the largest Facebook group in the ATM Industry called “ATM Business for Beginners’, where I do weekly FREE live training sessions to over 48,000 members nationwide.

We are on track to generate over eight figures by Q1 of 2023 and I’m officially launching a brand-new offer with Crypto ATMs as well!

Can you share the most interesting or funniest story that happened to you since you began leading your company? Can you tell us what lesson you learned from that?

To be fully transparent, I have several funny and interesting stories. The life of an entrepreneur is basically “controlled chaos”. I find it being more difficult as an entrepreneur now than when I was a detective investigating criminal cases. Even with a team of 19 employees and 3 managers, I have learned very quickly that I have to motivate my team to keep employee morale up in the workspace and assist my managers with problem solving and mindset development.

In order for me to stay disciplined and productive on a daily basis, I have several white boards in different rooms of my home. I have a morning, afternoon and evening checklist with different tasks that need to be completed daily.

In order for me to keep track of my priorities, I always focus on tasks that are going to generate revenue. Marketing & Client Acquisition are always on the top of my lists!

It’s the bread and butter of any business!

I’m an author and I believe that books have the power to change lives. Do you have a book in your life that impacted you and inspired you to be an effective leader? Can you share a story?

This may sound cliché, but a single book opened my eyes to start investing into digital marketing. It’s called “Digital Millionaire” by Dan Henry. It’s a very compelling story of rags to riches and how he was able to generate around $45,000 dollars from a single webinar online. Dan Henry is just a regular guy like me and I said to myself “if this guy can do it then why can’t I?” That’s when I decided to buy into his online program that shows beginners how to launch their own online program based on their expertise or niche. Since I had social proof within the ATM industry, I decided to launch my own online program on ATMs and the rest was history.

Are you working on any exciting new projects now? How do you think that will help people?

There are a few projects that my team and I have been working on for the past 6 months. Let’s go down the list.

Consulting for Influencers (Consulting Task Force LLC) — This new offer will be for anyone who is an expert in their niche (Digital Marketers, Real Estate Agents, Fitness Trainers & etc.) that has never leveraged the online space to expand their business to new consumers. This offer will also be great for anyone in a 9–5 job that wants to create their own online business just like I did 2 years ago. I also guarantee new clients that they will be able to generate a minimum of $10k in revenue within 90 days! This offer will change thousands of lives in 2023 and create new digital millionaires all over the world. I’m excited to launch in January 2023.
Crypto ELITE Automation (ATMTogether.com) — This new offer will be under the ATMTogether.com brand, which will be a plug and play offer for new clients. This offer will be 100% passive for any investor or new entrepreneur in the ATM industry. We will be including a brand-new crypto ATM, location for placement, professional installation and we will take care of filling up the ATM monthly with our armored guard services. We will be offering this package to 38 states in the United States for now. This will be launching on December 1st, 2022. This will help everyone in the United States generate another source of passive income while focusing on what they want to do in life. I believe in building generational wealth to help everyone and their families. I already invested into three crypto ATMs myself and plan on expanding to 20 crypto ATMs in San Diego, CA.

Awesome! Let’s now jump to the primary focus of our interview. Let’s talk about what you are doing now, and how you achieved the success that you currently enjoy. Can you tell our readers about the business you’ve created?

I am currently in San Diego, CA right now focusing on building the new offers I stated above and getting ready to launch for 2023. I am also focusing on building a bigger team and infrastructure currently for ATMTogether.com. Based on the amount of growth we have experienced in 2022, I can say that we will be expanding from 20 to 40 employees by the middle of 2023. I am planning on also moving to Miami, Florida towards the end of 2023 and opening corporate offices in the Brickell area of Florida. I want to be able to have our clients join us for in person training with our consultants and also offer exclusive in-house training for ELITE clients as well! I’m very excited for this move.

I was able to reach this level of success because I decided to invest in myself 2 years ago. I have invested over $200k in self education to learn how to build wealth in the ATM industry, digital marketing, public speaking and most importantly mindset. Mindset is everything in life. I had to go through the bad experiences and failures in life in order to realize that it made me stronger and I learned from all those life experiences. Pain is the best teacher in life.

For anyone that is reading this right now, find a mentor that currently has the results or lifestyle you want to live. Invest in yourself as soon as possible. Your life can change in 12 months with knowledge from people that are more successful than you. You have to learn in order to earn.

ATMTogether.com is the first ATM Automation program that helps aspiring entrepreneurs build another source of income through ATMs. What is so special about this program is that we are a one stop shop, which includes a brand-new ATM, internet modem, FREE processing network, one location for ATM placement and a full team of consultants that will help you throughout the 4–6-week process from starting your LLC to ATM Installation. Your success is our success. This is a long-lasting relationship with our company. Let’s ATMTogether!

What do you think makes your company stand out? Can you share a story?

The story behind why I started in entrepreneurship was the foundation behind building my tangible ATM business and ATMTogether.com.

I come from an immigrant family that lived in poverty. The most important factor while I was growing up was family and still is. Family is my “Why”.

When I was building ATMTogether.com, I launched the company by myself and I executed everything. I was waking up at 4am every morning to have consultations with clients before heading into the office to do my 9–5 job as a Detective in law enforcement. It was a grind, but within the 3rd month, I generated over $100,000 dollars within one month and that’s when I decided to leave my 9–5 job to grow the company. I even sold my house in Walnut Creek, CA and decided to move everything to San Diego. I ended up choosing to rent a Penthouse with the view of the city of San Diego and Coronado Island, which inspires me every single morning to push myself. I have the view of ocean front mansions that are worth over tens of millions of dollars. I love it. Keeps me wanting to level up every day. It’s been over a year now and I scaled ATMTogether.com from $1.7 million to $8 million dollars in revenue. We are going to cross over 10 million dollars in revenue within a few months and the company now has over 19 employees in 2022. I was able to also on board one of my good friends Gedam Yonas from my prior 9–5 job as my Chief Operating Officer for ATMTogether.com.

The story on how everything was built and how it started is very unique since there are not a ton of entrepreneurs in digital marketing that come from law enforcement. Both professions are very different.

Majority of our 1500 clients can relate to our story and that’s how we are able to establish a foundation with our audience. The story behind the company or face of the organization helps the growth of any business tremendously.

What was your vision when you started this business? What’s the WHY behind the work that you do?

The vision behind starting ATMTogether.com was simple. ATMtogether.com helps anyone who does not have enough time or knowledge to build a sustainable income while being able to leverage our infrastructure to help them get to the level of success faster within the ATM Industry. When I started my own ATM business while working as a detective in law enforcement, I went through a ton of road blocks and mistakes that cost me thousands of dollars. If I would’ve been able to utilize the systems and support ATMTogether.com offers then I would’ve become a millionaire faster than it took me figuring everything out on my own. We have helped thousands generate another source of income successfully.

My “Why” is my family and to help others succeed in entrepreneurship. I have worked a 9–5 job majority of my life and I know how it is to struggle daily with going to a job you may not enjoy on daily basis. I want to give the people the opportunity to be their own boss if they chose to invest in themselves and become financially free like I did.

We’d love to explore the traits that help you achieve your success. What were the mindset obstacles that you had to overcome in order to reach the place of earning a million dollars?

Solution Driven. There will always be hiccups or roadblocks in your entrepreneurship journey. This is why you are getting paid the big bucks. I do not dwell on the past and I keep my eye on the prize. This pushes my team and myself towards our goals.

Confidence. You have to have self-esteem to admit mistakes when you make them, and the commitment to seek new solutions to address the mistake.

Creative Thinker. Having vision and being able to articulate the vision to your team will increase your employees to work harder because now they have something to look forward to. Creative thinkers are also able to come up with new solutions that could increase productivity and overall help companies grow.

What were the external obstacles that you had to overcome in reaching these milestones? And how specifically did you overcome them?

One of the biggest external obstacles my team and I had to overcome especially being in the digital space was dealing with scammers online. In the beginning it was extremely difficult building trust with potential clients due to the high number of consumers that have had a bad experience or been taken advantage of in the online space with other programs or consultants. I was able to overcome this external obstacle by being proficient with storytelling.

Storytelling and authenticity are the two biggest factors when it comes to personal branding. If it wasn’t for law enforcement and having years of experience with writing very detailed police reports on a daily basis, I believe I would have not been able to articulate my stories as well as I do when I speak on stage or during live webinars.

If you are currently building your personal brand, you have to have a story and be able to relate your story to what niche or industry you are currently in. Majority of your audience or cliental will relate, build a foundation and trust you. If you are selling services or a product then that would mean that you will have loyal clients.

Most new entrepreneurs have a major issue with storytelling because of fear. Most people are afraid of what other people might think of them. My best piece of advice would be to not care what anyone else thinks and to just execute.

If you want to be considered successful in the near future then you will have to fail in order to learn how to be successful.

Was there ever a point where you wanted to give up on your journey to creating a multi-million-dollar business? How did you work through that panic point? Please share a story.

When I installed my first 6 ATMs within 2 weeks of starting in the ATM Industry. 3 out of 6 ATMS were a bust! I barely made $50 dollars from 3 ATMs total.

I felt like a HUGE failure. I actually wanted to quit and start a new business.

Being that this was not the first time I have experienced failing in business, I did a few things to overcome this.

Analyze what went wrong.
Being that I had over a decade in sales experience and I was at the time a detective in law enforcement, I believed that starting the ATM business was not going to be a problem whatsoever. I actually thought it was going to be quite simple. I realized that I did not know what I was really doing and I needed to learn how to analyze locations to place my ATMs.

Found a Mentor.
What you don’t know is what you don’t know. Self-education is everything in entrepreneurship. I initially had a chip on my shoulder and thought my own experience would be more than enough to have a successful ATM business, which I had no prior experience in before. I realized that I needed to learn what works in this specific industry before I invested any more funds towards trying to scale a failing business. When I was able to hire a mentor that had over 1000+ ATMs and a successful business himself, I was able to adapt quickly. I removed the 3 failing ATMs and placed the ATMs in GREAT locations. Within my 3rd month of my new ATM venture, I was profiting around $3,000 dollars monthly. Getting a mentor is a game changer for any entrepreneur!

Invest in self education.
Spending over $200,000 dollars in mentors and self-education has been the biggest needle mover for me. I have been able to 40x my initial investment within a couple of years and have multiple businesses now. Self-education is the key to financial freedom.

As I reached over $100,000 monthly in revenue by my 3rd month of launching ATMtogether.com as a one-person team, I realized quickly that it was not sustainable to try to grow a company by myself. The hardest part of building your own business or company is hiring the right people for the tasks you need covered.

Now as a team of 19 employees, we have quadrupled our business revenue since 2021.

I truly believe we have been able to scale our revenue tremendously due to having the right team in place and making sure everyone does their part. Team work makes the dream work and I am very grateful for the leaders of my organization that execute every single day.

My team is the best in the industry.

Great! Here is the main question of our interview. What are your “Five Strategies I Used to Grow My Business To Reach Seven Figures In Revenue”. Please share a story or an example for each.

Self-Education

I invested in my self-education as much as possible. I think it’s a very critical aspect to being an entrepreneur and growing your mindset in business. What you don’t know is what you don’t know. We are very fortunate to have access to great entrepreneurs all over the world, thanks to the internet and we can learn from other individuals that are exactly where we want to be in the future. I remember paying my consultant $30,000 dollars for a 1-year mentorship back in 2021. The ROI in that $30,000 dollars helped me think differently as a marketer and try different strategies that helped me scale ATMtogether.com to over 8 million dollars in revenue since January 2021. In order to earn you have to learn until you can take away the L.

Routine
I am huge on checklists. I always recommend every entrepreneur or even person who works from home to purchase a whiteboard. Structure your day the night before you go to bed. As soon as you wake up then you have a clear overview of what you have to accomplish for the day. By doing this daily, it’s going to help you with your mindset, but also is going to help you become more proactive by executing on your checklist. The greatest feeling at the end of the day is marking every task off my checklist that is accomplished. It will give you purpose.

Being Relentless
“No matter how good you are, you are replaceable.” We can be the best in our niche or industry, but there will always be others that are working towards the same goals, same ideas and trying to be better than you. This is why it is important to always develop your skills as much as you can and keep learning. Be obsessed and relentless with your craft. I had a ton of close friends and family members tell me that I made the wrong choice for leaving my 9–5 job as a Detective in law enforcement. A few years later, everyone tells me how proud and how they always knew I would be a multi-millionaire. Nothing in life comes easy, you have to give it your all everyday no matter what.

Solution Driven
There will always be hiccups or roadblocks in your entrepreneurship journey. This is why you are getting paid the big bucks. I do not dwell on the past and I keep my eye on the prize. This pushes my team and myself towards our goals.

Creative Thinker
Having vision and being able to articulate the vision to your team will increase your employees to work harder because now they have something to look forward to. Creative thinkers are also able to come up with new solutions that could increase productivity and overall help companies grow.

We are sure that you are not done. What comes next? What’s your next big goal and why? What plan have you put in place to achieve it?

Simplicity equals success. I am going to focus on scaling ATMTogether.com with our new Crypto ATM offer starting December 1, 2022. I will then execute Consulting for Influencers in January 2023 and help thousands of entrepreneurs start their online business. I love helping others become successful and I want to mentor individuals who share similar backgrounds like I had. Life is short and sometimes we need that extra push to get to the next level. Help is here and I’m ready to mentor anyone who is looking for my help.

The #1 piece of advice I would give to everyone is to stop caring so much what people think about you. We are all human and no one is perfect. In order for anyone to reach a certain level of success means that they have failed before and know what not to do in order to succeed.

I was always afraid of what others would think about me. As I got older with more life experience, I finally realized that it does not matter. Most people do not care if you succeed or lose. Everyone is worried about their own life and you should be worried about accomplishing what you have to do. Life is too short to worry about what the next person is doing.

When I was younger, I always wanted to be perfect and wanted the stars to align with everything that I was going to do. In entrepreneurship, this rarely happens and to be honest, there are several days where I do not feel like getting out of bed at 5am to get that workout in or working that extra hour to finish a piece of content for my marketing content, but I stay disciplined and get it done. The “boring work” will get you to success. Stay disciplined and just get started.

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 love to have a private breakfast or lunch with, and why? He or she might just see this if we tag them 🙂

I would love to have coffee with Joe Rogan. I believe the breadth of discussion and freedom from norms is the heart of his podcast. Joe Rogan is real and that’s what I like to provide as well to my clients and audience. Uncut and as real as it gets in entrepreneurship. I believe I could have an awesome podcast show with him that the masses would enjoy listening to.

Thank you so much for taking the time to share with us and our readers. We know that it will make a tremendous difference and impact thousands of lives. We are excited to connect further and we wish you so much joy in your next success.

Thank you for the opportunity to tell my story and I hope the readers enjoy it! This is just the beginning. For more information about our ATM ELITE Automation package, please check out my website

Paul Alex Of ATMT Together: Five Strategies I Used To Grow My Business To Reach Seven Figures In… was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.