Month: September 2022

An Interview With Fotis Georgiadis

Flexibility: Knowing things don’t always go as planned, being flexible makes it so you can still move 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 Pam and Sean Kesterson.

Pam and Sean Kesterson are a mother and son partnership. Both creatives, but function in different roles of the business of wearing many hats.

Hanging a holiday wreath signals the start of the year’s most beautiful season!

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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?

It all started in 1980 — Pam and her friend were hand-painting window signs at a burger restaurant for Halloween. While they were painting, a Property Manager from next door approached them. He asked, “Do you decorate for Christmas? Our mall next door is vacant, and we’re in need of holiday decorations to liven up the space. We want the mall to stand out on the map for other merchants to open their shops here. Interested?”

“Of course,” Pam said. “I’ll come by the mall and give you a bid.”

That night, Pam decided to go for it. She designed out the entire mall for the first time. Pam hand-painted every store window in that mall, while getting help to hang garland and lights on the building. It was a wild success.

Having discussed this idea, she knew different decorations needed to exist. There were already holiday decorations, sure. Holiday lights, too. Yet, nothing out there spoke to them. The current manufactured look of bows and wreaths were safe and unexciting. She envisioned bright, heartwarming, unforgettable experiences for the holidays. She wanted to showcase her own unique style to the world. That winter she started offering decorating services that included design and installation.

Each year, word spread. More projects came in and this idea was now a fun new business. She started decorating for the Portland Trail Blazers and Luxury Theater. It was wild!

As a “Thank you” to each client, she gifted them a holiday wreath to bring home to their families. Year after year, this gift turned into a tradition for each client. Soon enough, they wanted to buy wreaths for their own clients, family, and friends. This extension turned into Oregon Holiday Wreaths.

Today, we continue this tradition. We love this idea and hope our fresh holiday wreaths can bring together fun and happy holidays for the whole family.

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?

Oooof that’s a great question. Ha! There’ve been a lot of mistakes, some quite frustrating, but I think at the end of day, you end up laughing once the chaos settles.

The ‘funniest mistake’ was overlooking a FedEx pickup. We had the whole house full top to bottom with boxes. I mean, every room. Living room, kitchen, bathroom, and back deck was full of fulfilled wreaths waiting for shipping. It looked like a castle and two of our workers were poking their heads out like kids playing hide and seek. It was hilarious.

That mistake equaled no space to sleep that night until FedEx finally came and picked up the goods. The frustrating part was thinking the truck would come at a certain time, but then realizing later we never set up the appointment with FedEx like we thought we did. They were flexible and arrived later. Thank you FedEx!

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?

For me (Sean), I was always looking up to my parents to their will and drive. Those values pushed me to help create Oregon Holiday Wreaths with my family. When we all took the plunge to turn this from hobby to business, I harnessed my parents’ drive and their values. My dad was the business thinker, while my mom (Pam) was the master creator. Without those two, the idea of success wouldn’t have been baked into my head.

I think a cool story has been watching my mom think of these ideas to create. You talk with her in any situation and you can see the engine pistons firing off on all cylinders. Then hours later, a new prototype or invention pops out into reality. Seeing all of these creations from my mom over the years gave me a drive to try and bring in recognition and success for her. Very grateful to watch that blossom over the years.

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?

We’ve always felt community is a big part of our business. Our model is based around the holidays to bring joy to family and friends. When a customer buys from us, they are buying an experience for their homes. A sense and aroma that brings in nostalgia for the holiday season. That’s warm sweaters, a fireplace, candles and family. Our experience extends that feeling of coziness of bringing the family together and welcoming everyone into their homes.

When families are buying from us, they are sharing with us the experience they are looking for. Without customer service before and after the purchase, they may be lost. We strive to have the best customer service and experience possible to help bring in the holidays for everyone.

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?

We continue to learn from our mistakes. We’ve had some poor experience first hand and fixing those mistakes for future orders has always been a great learning experience for us. Sometimes a good experience for you isn’t good for the next. We think the disconnect is just that.

We’ve also taken customer feedback as a priority to better enhance the next experience that worked. Some companies overlook this, but customer feedback is very important in learning more about your own company. Both the good and the bad.

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?

We’ve always felt competition is good. It’s confirmation you are creating a good product that folks want. That affirmation is great for us. If it turns into an oversaturated market that is producing bad outcomes, that’s when the experience can get poor.

Sometimes the external pressures of fast returns (free shipping and getting something that exact day) can add to some anxiety. Not every company is Amazon and we feel that creating a premium product takes time. That elbow grease is our bread and butter.

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

Our ‘wow’ experience seems to happen on arrival. When you are looking around online or even in person to buy a wreath, the price difference can be pretty big. If you buy from a big box store, those wreaths can be very cheap, but the quality is poor. They refrigerate wreaths to preserve them but the wreaths aren’t very full. By full, we mean how thick and lush the wreath is.

When folks receive our products at home, the ‘wow’ is typically, “I can’t believe how beautiful and full the wreath is! We are blown away.”

Those moments have brought back repeat customers year after year. Once you see it in person, you are hooked.

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

It’s had a long-term effect for us. Our whole business has grown from repeat customers and word of mouth. One family has a holiday party, and the, “where did you get this wreath?” had an effect that has rippled down to more customers buying. It’s been monumental for us.

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.

Perfection: Have the freshest cedar boughs cut at the optimum time so they won’t wilt. This helps all our products to last the entire season for our customer’s enjoyment. This perfection is our top priority.

We also strive to have all the greenery and all the decorations flawless without wires poking out, ornaments misplaced, tails falling off a bow, or anything just thrown together.

We want all of our products to bring holiday joy to friends and family. That keeps us going every day 🙂

Goals and Teamwork: Creating company goals and forecasting. Before the partnership between Sean and Pam was created, Pam had goals, but they were all in her creative head. Sean brought them to reality by forming the business, complete with forecasts, budgets, financing, company meetings, networking, and full-on project management. Business forecasting helps goal-setting and for us to flow as a team.

Gratitude: Practicing thankfulness daily primes the pump for unlimited ideas. To be thankful for the smallest thing seems to make more ideas grow. This is the thankfulness effect. It’s a ripple of appreciation and acknowledgment that bursts forward, changing and inspiring us, refining our purpose, and pushing the boundaries; allowing us to do the right thing.

Compromise: Learning how to listen to both sides and develop a compromise if need be is a helpful tool for growth and functioning as a business where everybody is a valuable part of the team and has so much to offer by his or her gifts and special talents.

Flexibility: Knowing things don’t always go as planned, being flexible makes it so you can still move 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?

It all starts with the website or advertisement. The quality of the pictures and words captivate the viewer and they are compelled to act.

Any communication before or after a sale will reinforce that this is a great company to work with from the get-go.

We feel once the wreath box arrives, all of our customer’s expectations are confirmed as they open the box and the fresh aroma of cedar and juniper wafts out filling the room with the season! Along with the wreath, a personalized note stands out as a warm touch. If the wreath has a bow, then its tails are rolled up and tucked inside bow loops so creases and wrinkles cannot happen during the shipping process. Lastly, a beautiful hand-designed instruction sheet tells the recipient how to unleash the bow tails for a stunning effect, and how to keep the greens fresh all season long.

The packaging is simple, but crucial because as the recipient opens the box our goal is to instantly create a “Wow!” experience. The wreath or greenery is in perfect shape. The aroma reaches out and transfers a piece of the great Northwest into a fresh fragrant experience. The handwritten note connects the person to another in a captivating way. Lastly, the instructions walk them through step by step how to release the tails of the bow and twirl them down the wreath as if they had just been made. We love different venues like Etsy where customers can leave a review with pictures and their “Wow!” experience. We also have clients and customers that send out a live Christmas card each year. It seems like our repeat customers’ Christmas cards list grows each year as the word gets out. It’s a great way for them to send a personalized note to the giftee and create many, many wows. It’s the most organic way we’ve grown our business — the wreaths and word of mouth.

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 in the face of such strong competition?

From a shipping perspective, we’ve felt pressure from Amazon from day one. The “free-shipping” mentality that we’ve all grown accustomed to has directly affected us and our pricing model. Shipping is so expensive, we can’t offer that to our customers. This model can push future customers away as they have to pay extra for shipping.

For us price and quality are hand in hand. If there is an outside competitor producing cheaper products, it typically means they aren’t as premium. For us, all of our products are grown and produced locally here in Oregon. Outside companies abroad can produce synthetic wreaths, but the fresh quality and experience we offer, outperforms all outside competitors abroad.

That being said, we don’t mind competition. We feel competition is good for the economy and helps weed out the good and the bad. Over the years, that strive for perfection has helped build our brand from the ground up.

Our advice is to build community and a premium brand. If you create a premium product that folks love, cheaper, knockoff brands will only live in the short term. We always recommend looking 50 years into the future to build something great.

We feel there is no substitute for the real thing, hand made from greens in the Northwest. There is no way to “knock off” something that is real and fresh.

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. 🙂

Outside of our company ethos of sustainability, we strive to live that firsthand in our daily lives. The closest movement we live by is ‘go green,’ with a zero-waste attitude. The simplest way we’ve found to utilize this in a fun way is a neighborhood garden. Years back, Pam started a front-yard garden to grow her food. The neighbors were so impressed they began a garden as well. Years later, the whole neighborhood started planting gardens in their front yards.

It’s been a really fun way to build community in the neighborhood, along with growing our food and building new friendships. This going green mentality helps in a small way, but everything counts. These zero waste ideas and attitudes also follow into our business culture and ideals.

How can our readers follow you on social media?

The best way is to sign up for our newsletter on our website, along with following us on Etsy. We like to email out promo codes and new products that we release to our subscribers first hand.

Website: https://oregonholidaywreaths.com/

Etsy: https://www.etsy.com/shop/oregonholidaywreaths

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/oregonholidaywreaths/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/oregonholidaywreaths

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

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Pam and Sean Kesterson Of Oregon Holiday Wreaths 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.

An Interview With Fotis Georgiadis

Every business looks for loyal customers because they know these people will eventually bring more revenue into their business. You might sell once through your marketing and selling efforts, but building a loyal customer base will allow your business to stay profitable even during those “low” seasons.

As part of our series about how to create a trusted, believable, and beloved brand, I had the pleasure to Interview Diana Jakubcova.

Diana Jakubcova is the Founder and CEO of Deeply Rooted Studio, a branding and consultancy firm that serves female founders worldwide. Diana graduated from Fashion Design & Business in Denmark which is what inspired her to start her journey as a brand strategist & designer. With her branding and marketing background, Diana is a trusted expert and works with some of the most influential female founders and growing brands within the space.

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 always used to settle for less. I was known as the shy and quiet girl who didn’t know how to express herself. Someone who chose to make everyone else happy, except for myself. I used to hustle for what is rightfully mine.

Growing up with a single mom, having little to no choices was something that felt normal to me. Which resulted in feeling closed up and to some extent, angry and frustrated. No matter what I did or which career path I chose, I always felt like I was falling into similar patterns and nothing seemed to help me express myself the way I wanted it to.

After finishing my degree in fashion and working in the industry for a few years, my partner suggested that I help him build his company so that we could become digital nomads and move to Bali. Although the idea sounded amazing at the time, I quickly fell back into feeling unhappy and unsatisfied. This wasn’t my dream and this wasn’t my choice. I still didn’t feel like I was living up to my full potential. Now more than ever, what I truly wanted was to be seen, to feel heard, and to express myself in the ways that I choose.

Our move to Bali meant that we would need to shut down our business in Slovakia. A business that was “secure” and had almost 300 students enrolled and learning through the courses we had built. But what other choice did we have? If we wanted to move to Bali and live this new lifestyle, we had to make tough decisions like this. Although this time we still had no choice, the difference was that I decided to create my own path.

They say living a happy life isn’t about money, but money gives you the power of choice. You can’t choose to live in Bali if you don’t have the resources.

Deciding to use my own skills, knowledge and discipline to start my own business gave me the ability to make my own choices. It opened new doors to a life where I could be the one who makes the decisions. The bumpy ride has never prevented me from sharing my expertise with others, if anything it’s what makes me unique and has always pushed me forward in business. This journey has allowed me to work with some of the leading names in the industry and help them build brands that support the growth of their business in the most aligned way. I made the choice to choose myself and since then I have never looked back.

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 don’t really use the term “mistake” as I believe everything happens for a reason. Nothing happens to you but it does happen FOR you. I think every business owner knows that lessons are what comes with running a business and they are here to show us a better path.

But some of the lessons I’ve learned could include running ads to cold audiences and not having solid foundations before pressing the publish button.

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

I started Deeply Rooted Studio to help female founders be seen and heard. This mission has now evolved into a bigger vision where the passion I have for design is now connected with everything we do. Most of our clients work with us because they trust us to build their brands and turn them into their biggest asset. I believe that the true passion I have for design combined with my experience, skills and industry knowledge is what makes Deeply Rooted Studio stand out. We focus heavily on client experience and building strong, long lasting relationships which has resulted in over an 80% client retention rate, which is the ultimate goal when building a strong brand.

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

As a matter of fact, I am actually working on building a Directory and certification platform called Ethical Coaching in Diabetes Care for one of our clients, Lissie is a founder of Needles & Spoons Health and Wellness Coaching. Lissie has been with Deeply Rooted Studio for over a year now and I couldn’t be more excited to bring this project to life. This directory runs with a certification program that focuses on teaching coaches in diabetes care how to ethically run their businesses without sacrificing their values.

This is a sign that the coaching industry is changing. I believe it’s time to say goodbye to old marketing and selling tactics, and welcome new ways of offering our services, programs or products which are led by values not the society’s norms.

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?

It’s simple: Branding gives your product something to advertise.

Branding helps you communicate your message which is then translated into an advertising campaign where you are able to sell your product or services through that message. This message can only be fully understood and expressed if you have strong brand foundations and you know who you’re selling to. This is done through getting clear on who your target market is and what speaks to them most.

Can you explain to our readers why it is important to invest resources and energy into building a brand, in addition to the general marketing and advertising efforts?

I read this amazing book by Marty Neumeier called “The Brand Flip”. In this book Marty talks about the “traditional” way of building brands and what needs to change in the brand building process so that you can retain more clients and attract more aligned clients into your business.

To put it simply: Investing in your brand is crucial. A lot of online entrepreneurs jump into marketing and selling their products/programs and services without the foundations that only your brand can provide you with. And the cost is high! If you are spending way too many resources on actually selling your products or services, you need to come back to your branding.

It’s the branding aspect of your business that will help you build long lasting relationships with your clients and audience. Something that can only be done through creating a strong brand presence (brand touchpoints) that will help with client retention.

At the end of the day marketing and advertising is a form of selling your products. Branding gives your product something to sell.

Can you share 5 strategies that a company should be doing to build a trusted and believable brand?

Everything in your brand building process is connected. And by everything I mean EVERYTHING. Let me explain and you’ll know exactly what I am talking about.

1. Brand Strategy
   Please don’t skip this part. Ever. I know it’s tempting to start selling and marketing your offers right off the bat, but the purpose of your brand strategy is to solidify your brand’s purpose and mission. This is where you set the foundations for years to come. At Deeply Rooted Studio we came up with the Deeply Rooted Method that helps us build timeless, personality infused brands for our clients through full-circle brand approach. This approach helps us cover all parts of your brand so that we can connect the dots between your business and your ideal client.
2. Brand Direction
   This is the fun part! The trick to this is to make sure you do NOT skip the first step which is Brand Strategy. Your brand direction consists of several brand assets such as your Logo Suite, Typography, Moodboard and Color Palette. These assets are connected to your overall brand strategy and long term business goals. The aesthetics of your brand are here to tell us a story without using any words. This can be done through a strategically designed brand direction that is, to some extent, a reflection of you.
3. Creative direction (Photoshoots)
   The Creative Direction goes way beyond just using high quality images and studio headshots. If done right, your brand photos will act as the glue between your brand’s message and direction. At Deeply Rooted Studio we focus on all brand touchpoints and our client’s brand photos are one of them. This is how you’ll be able to seamlessly communicate your values and attract the right people into your business. If you want to go all in, hire a Creative Director to help you pull the vision together because as simple as it sounds, your brand photos can make or break your messaging.
4. Client experience
   As mentioned before, when building brands for our clients we look at all aspects of their brand. Your brand consists of different touchpoints that affect your brand’s client experience overall. Now, the client experience starts WAY before someone pays the invoice and signs their service agreement. Your client experience is reflected through your visuals, messaging, content, DMs, marketing, website, emails and beyond. All of these touchpoints show your audience/website visitors what you stand for and who you are as a business.

Every business looks for loyal customers because they know these people will eventually bring more revenue into their business. You might sell once through your marketing and selling efforts, but building a loyal customer base will allow your business to stay profitable even during those “low” seasons.

5. Find and stick to your own values
Lastly, I’d like to talk about values. This is how you can build an authentic brand everyone keeps talking about. This isn’t done through following the “norms” and other people’s opinions, It’s done through sticking to your own values and opinions. This is what will help you build a brand and movement where you’re the one leading the way. You don’t have to do this in the obvious way by listing all of your values on your company website. Although that isn’t a bad idea, what you want to do is simply just STICK to your values. Your values should be reflected in your copy, design, creative direction, brand voice….everywhere. Your brand is a reflection of a unique set of values that only you possess. This is the key to standing out.

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?

One of our clients, Melissa, is the perfect example of creating a brand that is not only believable and beloved by others, but a brand that stands time. Melissa is founder of Litchfield Media, a full service digital advertising and funnel building agency for small businesses and online entrepreneurs.

From the very beginning she has focused on building a solid brand presence through strong visuals, messaging and networking with other like minded online entrepreneurs. Deeply Rooted Studio has been a part of this journey for 2 years now and throughout our time together, Melissa has implemented all of the 5 steps we discussed today. In doing so, she has been able to secure many high level PR opportunities simply because she has built a believable, beloved and TRUSTED brand.

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?

The ROI on brand building is priceless. But how do you measure it? The ROI on branding will always be a question for many as it’s not measurable through the usual metrics, or at least not that quickly. Brand building is a long term process that requires a lot of research and specific tracking in order for you to determine its success. I also think that each business measures the success of their brand differently according to their own individual goals. However one of the best ways to measure the success of your brand is through brand loyalty/client retention. Whilst advertising brings you sales, it does not guarantee your business’ success. It’s a short term plan when one focuses ONLY on sales. Branding helps your audience create an emotional connection with your business which will result in a shorter sales period and more loyal/returning customers.

What role does social media play in your branding efforts?

Social media is a medium to spread your brand’s message. It’s a place to connect with your audience and it’s, most likely, the beginning point of your client’s experience. No matter if you love or hate social media, this is where you’re always going to look for customer reviews, services, previous product uses or simply who is the person you want to buy something from. And there is nothing wrong with that. But this is why it’s so important to build a strong brand presence because that is what allows you to communicate your message effectively.

You are a person of great influence. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger. 🙂

I’d love for us to be more mindful of what we’re putting out there. There are some brilliant ideas out there and there are also ideas that don’t really have a positive impact on others. Before I share something with my audience I always ask myself if it’s the “ego” part of me talking or if it’s the real message I want to share things that inspire others. I have learned a lot throughout my life and judging others is only a reflection of our own fears and desires.

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 really do quotes but I love this verse from The Road Not Taken poem by Robert Frost:

“I shall be telling this with a sigh

Somewhere ages and ages hence:

Two roads diverged in a wood, and I —

I took the one less traveled by,

And that has made all the difference.” — Robert Frost

I’ve always been a person who wanted to do things differently and this usually comes with a couple of lessons. But the reward is that you truly build something that is only yours and no one else’s. I love showing others that there is another way. There is more than just one strategy. There is more than just one method. There is always more than one way to succeed.

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. 🙂

I don’t follow or consume a lot but I would absolutely love to have lunch with Regan Hillyer and Juan Pa! Their programs have been transformational on my own personal development journey.

How can our readers follow you on social media?

My main social platform is currently Instagram. But if Instagram isn’t your thing, you can also connect with me on Pinterest for a daily dose of inspiration, Linkedin and through my Website if you’re looking for some Branding resources!

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

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Diana Jakubcova Of Deeply Rooted Studio: 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.

An Interview With Fotis Georgiadis

“Your job isn’t to ask a client what keeps them up at night, it’s to tell them what should be keeping them up at night”. This allows you to truly add value for your clients by highlighting potential blind spots that they may not have even considered.

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

Daniel Larson is an entrepreneur with over 15 years’ experience in technology and labor market solutions. In previous roles at SHI One Platform and Field Nation, he built two nine-figure revenue programs from the ground up, resulting in eight-figure revenue streams for each company during his tenure. This year he launched, Kyros, the first of its kind digital platform for recovery services, that harnesses the power of technology to connect and empower clients, providers and organizations. The company’s mission, to increase positive outcomes for the millions of Americans managing their own recovery, is already proving itself with Kyros’ seeing 90% percent growth quarter over quarter since launching.

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? And what led you to this career path?

Early in my career I worked at a company called Field Nation where I focused on contingent workforce solutions. During this time, while my professional interest in business development and disruptive technologies was being ignited, I was also struggling with substance use disorder. When I started my own recovery journey in 2019, I saw an opportunity to take the skill sets that I’d learned from working at these disruptive labor platforms and bring them into an industry underserved by technology. Throughout my life I’ve seen close family members fight addiction and sadly several of them did not make it. During my recovery journey, as well as those of family members, I saw people stumble because of administrative obstacles to finding support services and recognized a desperate need for technology-led improvement. From my past experience I knew that incorporating technology could be a game changer.

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

The addiction medicine industry is only 30 or so years old and there is still significant stigma surrounding it. While significant funding goes to small organizations and nonprofits in the form of donations and grants, there isn’t the same level of accountability to achieving specific performance metrics as would generally be required by private investors. These organizations do incredible work but there is little incentive to modernize the industry to offer services that are more effective and efficient at achieving long-term recovery. When someone goes into recovery they generally go into a program, after which they are on their own and given a list of support groups and services. They are not supported in any way by medical professionals, agencies or any other services. While this support often exists and is even within their reach through insurance, they either don’t know about it or don’t understand how to connect with it. This is where Kyros’ marketplace comes in– we do all the heavy lifting and connect them with a support team to reduce barriers to recovery. This is how we are disrupting the industry.

Can you share a story about the funniest mistake you made when you were first starting? Or can you tell us what lesson you learned from that?

I was born and raised on the east side of St. Paul, which is a lower income area with a diverse population. Our original office was in a house where we all worked together and lived together in extremely close quarters; you can imagine what five guys all working on Zoom and living in the same, small space was like. We were all doing interviews and onboarding employees on Zoom with everyone basically hearing everything. We would joke that every meeting or call was a group therapy session with three or four guys adding their comments and suggestions. While not a mistake per se, this was a happy accident and it led to the formation of our corporate culture. From day one we have had an open door, collaborative culture where everyone is encouraged to weigh in with their opinions and ideas.

We all need a little help along the journey. Who have been some of your mentors and can you share a story of how someone made an impact?

What’s different about my background is that I don’t have any formal training and didn’t go to college or business school. I rely heavily on mentors because they have been my “teachers” throughout my career. One such mentor was the former CFO at Field Nation who helped me view things realistically through a pragmatic business lens; learning to separate the “pie in the sky” ideas from the more tangible ones. He also gave me excellent advice on how to negotiate in both funding and legal areas. It has been incredibly helpful to have him as a resource since the beginning. I have been lucky enough to have others who I continue to rely on as we grow.

In today’s parlance, being disruptive is usually a positive adjective, but is disrupting always good? Do we still celebrate a system or structure that has stood the test of time? Can you articulate to our readers when disruption in an industry is positive but also when it may not be a good thing?

We built this company in the wake of one of the most predominant examples in recent times of the difficulties of scaling technology to support mental health. In mental or behavioral health, especially when you have a platform that’s prescribing, this is a system that almost literally and identically mimics addiction. People are in essence hitting all their appointments and markers which give the impression of success. From a technology perspective your adoption rate and your stickiness factor are both excellent which is what is measured. Yet without the contextual understanding of the recovery industry, you would never know there is inherent danger here.

This is a main reason the industry has not been entered in earnest by many technologists; many things that are inherent in most other industries just aren’t in our field. In most other industries a technologist can come in and solve your problem without knowing much about the industry. They know what to develop to make services better; how to get takeout food into the hands of a driver, how to aggregate suppliers of furniture and books and ship them to your house. They can do this without knowing anything about books, furniture, or take-out food, they just need to understand the assets of technology. With substance use disorder, you must understand the behavior of the people you are serving and the desire and the drive behind the providers. This is an example of how disruption is good but must be done carefully and contextually.

Can you share five of the best words of advice you’ve gotten along your journey, please give a story for each

I have some key `pieces of advice that have guided me since high school. I attended a Charter High School specializing in business where classes were taught by executives from around the Twin Cities — many who were leaders at Fortune 500 companies. My marketing and business management teacher was a Senior Vice President at Target Corporation and I remember walking in as a sophomore in high school, into my first business class ever. He explained what he considered to be the golden rule of business; Don’t just bring up a problem, but also bring a solution. When you start with, “I can’t bring up this problem unless I have the solution” then you’re already thinking ahead. You’re constantly in problem solving mode which allows you to break down barriers quickly.

I also love this quote about sales which I learned from a former colleague; “Your job isn’t to ask a client what keeps them up at night, it’s to tell them what should be keeping them up at night”. This allows you to truly add value for your clients by highlighting potential blind spots that they may not have even considered.

Another one of my favorite quotes is one I picked up from an early mentor regarding negotiations. “In the absence of logic, you look for motive” and you will see what they want. It’s very easy to walk into a conversation and understand the logic behind something. When it starts to not make sense, if you switch over to tracking their motive you can figure out what they are thinking and what they really want. When we started building this marketplace for recovery where the odds of return-to-use has historically been very high, it can be difficult to follow the logic. Much of the work we are doing at Kyros is emotional and motive driven. Why do they want to help these people? Why is it important to them? Looking for motivation helps you step outside of the business of an operation or of a platform or a technology, and it gets you to the essence of why something is needed.

We are sure you’re not done. How are you going to shake things up next?

There are a few things we’re focusing on at the moment. How we navigate our expansion is at the top of the list. We want to be in more states to help more people. We will be launching in two more states this quarter and then in ten in total within the next year. We are also working to create technology solutions to help gather and consolidate the data, in this case the notes from treatment providers, family members, and support services. Being able to share this data, will give anyone in substance use disorder treatment a more holistic view of what they are being challenged with and what they are accomplishing in the recovery process. We are developing tools that will take this all into consideration.

Okay, do you have a book podcast or talk that’s had a deep impact on your thinking? Can you share a story about that with us? Why it resonated?

I really love the podcast, The Jordan Harbinger Show. The host finds the world’s most interesting people, from all walks of life, and asks them questions about how they got to where they are. I like it for many reasons but primarily because his cross section of guests. His guests run the gamut from a CIA spy to a former drug kingpin, to a groundbreaking surgeon. On paper they have nothing in common but hearing how they critically think, what led them to where they are and the lessons, they have learned along the way reveals some interesting commonalities among people while also providing a new perspective and empathy for people from all walks of life.

We generally seek opinions from people in our own circle which typically results in the responses we expect. I think it’s important to be able to take any conversation that you have and to find the value in it, regardless of how you relate to someone at face value.

Can you please give us your favorite life lesson and how it is relevant to you?

For years I have lived by the saying “I will never be as stupid as I am today”. It may seem negative at first, but it keeps consistently in the mindset of humility and open to continuous learning. If you’re making the same mistakes tomorrow that you did yesterday, then you are not learning from them. When I’m unpacking my day, I make sure I understand the key learnings and mistakes and hopefully I don’t have to learn the same lesson twice.

You are a person of great influence, if you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most people, what would it be? You never know what your idea can trigger.

Today things are very black and white in this country. You are either a Republican or a Democrat, a conservative or a liberal. You are immediately categorized and put into your lane which means you generally don’t collaborate with anyone outside of that lane. I’d like to see people look beyond their cultural and political divides to listen and try to help one another solve some of the pressing issues of our time. Today many people immediately reject any ideas or solutions that come from outside their existing circle. This type of thinking does not foster collaboration or problem solving. I would like to see a movement where people are encouraged to collaborate and trust one another regardless of their beliefs, to help solve some of the serious issues we are all facing.

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

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Meet The Disruptors: Daniel Larson Of Kyros 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.

Ivaylo Yovkov Of Rewards Bunny On The 5 Things You Need To Understand In Order To Successfully Invest In Cryptocurrency

An Interview With Fotis Georgiadis

They need to know how blockchain works and the problems it solves.

Over the past few years, the Cryptocurrency industry has been making headlines nearly every week. Many people have gotten very wealthy investing or leading the cryptocurrency industry. At the same time, many people have lost a lot investing in the industry. In addition, more people have been scrutinizing the ecological impact of crypto mining, as well as its potential facilitation of illegal activity. What is being done and what can be done to address these concerns?

In this interview series called “5 Things You Need To Understand In Order To Successfully Invest In Cryptocurrency” we are talking to leaders in the cryptocurrency industry, as well as successful investors, who share insights from their experience about how to successfully invest in Cryptocurrency. As a part of this series, I had the pleasure of interviewing Ivaylo Yovkov.

Ivaylo Yovkov is COO and co-founder of Rewards Bunny. His passion for marketing enabled him to climb all the way to CMO of a FinTech Company specializing in P2P instant loans using smart data. He successfully sold two e-commerce businesses for over $150k in profits and, in 2021, began work on his innovative Web3 project alongside Rewards Bunny CEO and co-founder Jacky Goh.

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 little about your backstory and how you grew up?

I started making money on the internet at the age of 14. I’ve had a passion for online business even back in the days when it was mysterious and unknown to most people. I started out in the web/graphic design niche for a few years, then pivoted into the digital marketing world, and later began coaching other people on web design. After that, I took the role of CMO of a top-tier FinTech Bulgarian company. Since last year, I’ve been working with my co-founder to build an extremely exciting Web3 project called Rewards Bunny.

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’m so glad you asked that question! The book that comes to mind right away is “Rich Dad Poor Dad” by Robert Kiyosaki. I read it in high school, and it made a huge impact on my life and my thinking. In my opinion, it is one of the best books for young kids and teens with entrepreneurial spirits. It’s also great for parents looking for ways to awaken financial and creative thinking in their kids.

Is there a particular story that inspired you to pursue your particular career path? We’d love to hear it.

The first time I made money online was a crucial moment in my life. This happened way back in 2006 when I was 14 years old. During that summer, all my friends were working some pretty heavy labor jobs. We were all trying to make enough money to go on a vacation to the beach together. I found a small online forum looking for moderators, applied, and was chosen. I earned $250 a month — the same amount my friends were making. The difference was that I was chilling at home reading threads and comments with the AC on while my friends were sweating under the sun lifting heavy construction materials. I felt I was getting money in a smarter way, and that was when I was first inspired to dive deeper into online business.

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 made my most memorable mistake back in the days when I was drop shipping. At the time, I was creating the same product with different prices on a few listings because I hadn’t learned how to set up proper tracking. One of my products was a sample meant only for influencers.

One night, I was burning the midnight oil to create new Facebook ad campaigns and accidentally used the link to the free sample product instead of the one with the correct price of $29.95. I set the campaign for $300 per day and went to sleep.

When I woke up, I was ecstatic to see 200 orders, but when I looked at the numbers more closely, I found I had sold 200 pieces of free product — and paid $300 to do it. You wouldn’t believe the raging reviews I received from customers, but I inevitably had to close the store. Back then, I wanted to cry, but now it’s one of those things I look back on and laugh about.

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?

Trust me: when you’re starting out, you won’t get anywhere on your own. Back in the days when I was trying different businesses, my friend Tony was always there for me, motivating me and cheering me up when things went south. Now, it’s my fiancée Mariya doing the same. The moral of the story is that you always need a shoulder to lean on when things are not going your way.

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

Yes, Jacky Goh and I are the co-founders of Rewards Bunny, a marketplace that connects users and brands and introduces them to the Web3 space through crypto rewards and payments. We help users earn crypto rewards for online shopping by partnering with brands they love. It’s a great opportunity for people who are new to crypto.

Ok super. Thank you for all that. Let’s now shift to the main focus of our interview. The cryptocurrency industry seems extremely dynamic right now. What are the 3 things in particular that most excite you about the industry? If you can, please share a story or example for each.

Things are definitely happening quickly in the crypto industry today. The three things that most excite me in the space are decentralization, the Metaverse, and the ETH Merge.

I don’t think people realize the power of decentralization yet. Yes, they know what it means, but we have tapped maybe 5% of its potential. It was the same when the internet came out a long time ago. People were only building sites to display some text information — they didn’t know what could be done with that power — but look at us now! Imagine a DAO country where the smartest people and biggest holders in a nation are the ones making decisions, compared to a handful politicians. Imagine a voting day on the blockchain where results are completely transparent. Fake numbers when “counting votes” would be history. I can’t wait to see how Web3 evolves.

The Metaverse is something everyone is so hyped about, but we have so little to work with right now. All the tech giants are working on their own metaverse projects. It’s going to be chaos when they start releasing them. Think about what Zuckerberg said: the Metaverse’s potential is about combining and syncing all of these different virtual worlds. If you own virtual Nike shoes in one world, for instance, you will be able to wear those same Nikes in other worlds, too.

And we’ve already witnessed the ETH merge; it’s done, it’s all good, and we are all calm now. This was the biggest event in crypto history to date. Now that it’s over and done, everyone can relax. If there had been an error, though, things could have gone badly for the whole blockchain world.

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

While things are really exciting in the crypto space, there still are a few causes for concern. The three things I’m watching most closely are legal developments, decentralization, and news coverage.

We still don’t have clear legal terms and rules for our crypto assets. Countries around the world are still sorting out how they are going to deal with cryptocurrency. Most of them are scared to do anything because they’re worried about screwing it up. With so many unknown legalities in the crypto space, people are cautious about making big moves or discussing their assets with other people. We have yet to see how the whole world adapts to this new technology.

I’ve shared a bit about my opinion on decentralization. This new technology has so many great use cases, but it has its flaws, too. It’s sad to say, but certain things need to stay centralized. When something bad happens, people need to know what their rights are and who they can talk to. I think people realize that we need to exercise caution when implementing decentralization on a grand scale.

One of my biggest concerns stems from the news giants and the “not-so-independent” outlets people read every day. Most governments have connections controlling these outlets. The news they feed the public influences people and nations on a remarkably large scale.

Just look at how — seemingly out of nowhere — a huge number of outlets will share the same news, on the same day, about the evils of crypto and blockchain technology. People need to do their own research, have their own opinions, and make their own decisions. It’s a free world, after all, right?

What are the “myths” that you would like to dispel about cryptocurrency? Can you explain what you mean?

The myth I would most like to dispel is that crypto is the riskiest of all investments; it’s not. Cryptocurrency has a similar risk to any other investment. It can be steady or volatile, it can go up or down in price, it can make you a ton of money or lose it all. It’s all about your own research. If you take the time to research what you’re investing in, you will be successful.

You don’t have to have loads of technical knowledge or be a professional trader. With the internet, you have the superpower to search and read about the whole world. Don’t make investments based on online videos or tips you hear from friends. Take time to do your own research and due diligence.

My advice is to view cryptocurrency as a long-term investment. Yes, crypto is volatile if you check your investment value every day. However, if you look at the big picture over the past 3, 5, or 10 years, you will see that the value of crypto is rising and that it’s here to stay. It’s a long-term investment. You have to be patient.

How do you think cryptocurrency has the potential to help society in the future?

I’ve already shared a few ideas for implementing blockchain in the political world. Cryptocurrencies are decentralized — no bank can take away your crypto assets — they are yours, and yours alone. We all have bank accounts, but banks can go bankrupt or get hacked online. What happens then? Most banks don’t keep all their customers’ money on site. If something goes wrong, you can lose everything, even if you are not at fault. In the decentralized crypto world, however, you are the only one responsible for your funds. You own your money, you own your “bank account,” and you own the “bank.”

Other benefits may seem obvious, but crypto payments are fast, secure, transparent, and anonymous. The transactions made on the blockchain stay there forever. There is full transparency, but on the other hand, if you don’t want to share your address, nobody has to know it was your transaction. You can choose who has access to your personal information. On top of that, these transactions are almost instantaneous. You’ve got a new SEPA transfer? Don’t worry; it takes 3–5 days. You’ve got a cryptocurrency transfer? Check it in a few minutes.

Recently, more people have been scrutinizing the ecological impact of crypto mining. From your perspective, can you explain to our readers why the cryptocurrency industry is creating an environmental challenge?

Actually, cryptocurrency is not an environmental concern. This is one of the monopoly news trends designed to make crypto look dangerous. Mining was all about Bitcoin. Ethereum has just switched from Proof of Work to Proof of Stake. To put it simply, Ethereum does not need to be mined anymore.

Anyone can research Bitcoin mining. All the information is publicly available. Bitcoin mining’s electricity mix for the second quarter of 2022 is estimated to be 59.5% sustainable. That means bitcoin mining is ranked as one of the world’s most sustainable industries. By comparison, only 12.5% of US electric energy use comes from renewable sources. What about toasters or Christmas lights? Both of these consume more electricity than the 0.16% of total energy production that bitcoin miners consume. Christmas lights and toasters might even be considered “frivolous”, but would we ever dream of banning them? Of course not.

From your perspective what can be done to address or correct these concerns?

It’s simple — people and especially governments should actually check these reports before selling fake news. If it’s such an issue, it can easily be fixed by looking to countries like Norway, as an example. Norway ensures that bitcoin mining is 100% renewable by tapping into hydroelectric power.

Recently, more people have been scrutinizing cryptocurrency’s impact on illegal activity. From your perspective, can you explain to our readers why cryptocurrency, more than fiat currency, is seen as an attractive choice for criminals?

People are more susceptible to criminal activity in connection with crypto because the technology is still new. They just don’t know as much about blockchain and cryptocurrencies as they know about paper money. There will always be scammers and people trying to take advantage of you — not just in the crypto world, but in general. It’s a lot easier to lure someone into a trap when they’re in unfamiliar territory. Why don’t people click on the “You’ve won an iPhone!” emails anymore? Because they have been here for a long time now. Have people clicked and got scammed by it? In the beginning, a lot of people clicked and were scammed. This is how we learn, adapt, and improve.

From your perspective what can be done to address or correct these concerns?

To address these concerns, read, learn, and understand. As soon as you understand how blockchain technology works, the risks involved, and how to prevent yourself from becoming a victim, the better you will feel. There are a ton of articles, videos, courses, and information in general. You just have to ask Google. If you want to be safe, educate yourself. Nobody can do it for you.

Ok, fantastic. Here is the main question of our interview. What are “The 5 Things You Need To Understand In Order To Successfully Invest In Cryptocurrency?”

There are five things everyone investing in cryptocurrency should understand. First, they need to know how blockchain works and the problems it solves. Second, they need to know how to research a project properly. Third, they need to know the investment rules applying to cryptocurrencies. Fourth, everyone needs to educate themselves on how to stay safe when making investments. And finally, people should keep sight of the fact that this is a new technology. We are still in the early days of figuring it out.

What are the most common mistakes you have seen people make when they enter the industry? What can be done to avoid that?

I think the most common mistake I see people make is being impatient. You can’t get rich overnight by investing in cryptocurrencies, at least not in the beginning. Practice makes perfect. Be persistent and patient. Just like other investments, investing in crypto is long-term. Invest today — not to get rich tomorrow, but to have a better financial future in 5, 10, or 15 years.

Another common mistake is Ignoring security suggestions. Stay safe. It’s a new technology in a dangerous world. And please, don’t screenshot your password or seed phrase. I’m hearing about more and more people who take screenshots when creating wallets. These are probably the same people who take photos of their credit cards so they don’t have to pull them out while they’re shopping. Take your cyber security seriously. The criminals are getting smarter and inventing new ways to lure you in. Don’t be their sheep.

Do you have a particular type of cryptocurrency that you are excited about? We’d love to hear why.

Yes, I’m most interested in Ethereum and our future Rewards Bunny token. It will be really interesting to see how ETH continues to evolve after the merge and its switch to Proof of Stake work. I’m also really excited about what our future token will offer.

You are a person of great 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’d want to start a movement in the distribution of company salaries. I’d set a rule where 2% of our salaries are donated every month to people in need, especially children born in difficult circumstances. A lot of employees may not agree with this, but since we aren’t being generous on our own, simple kindness needs to be required of us. Trust me; even if you feel like you are stretched thin feeding your family, these kids are in worse financial spots. They eat less than you and your kids, and may not even have a family to rely on. With all this digitalization, we have forgotten how to be kind, how to help, and how to live together. This is something I’m really worried about.

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 🙂

Yes, I would love the chance to sit down with Marshall Mathers (aka Eminem). He’s not an investor or tech innovator, but this guy has had to deal with a lot. He’s been challenged with losing a best friend, family issues, and fighting drug addiction. A person has to be increcdibly strong and resilient to overcome all of this. In my opinion, he’s an incredible motivation for anyone who is struggling. I can’t say how much I admire him for his impact on the music industry and his influence as a magnificent human being.

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

Thanks so much for allowing me to share. It’s been a pleasure!

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Ivaylo Yovkov Of Rewards Bunny On The 5 Things You Need To Understand In Order To Successfully… was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

An Interview With Fotis Georgiadis

Reduced human error — Reduce human error and other predictable risks when you simplify and modernize processes and workflows using applications that are fully customized to your teams’ needs.

As a part of our series about “How To Use Digital Transformation To Take Your Company To The Next Level”, I had the pleasure of interviewing Alice Redmond.

Alice Redmond, Ph.D. is the Vice President of Europe Operations at Commissioning Agents, Inc. She has more than 29 years of experience in the lifecycle management of pharma facilities inclusive of regulatory compliance, facility & process design, technology transfer, commissioning, qualification, and validation. Previously Ms. Redmond worked for Sandoz/Novartis in Basel, Kundl, and Ireland in the areas of quality, validation, and technical operations. Following Novartis, Alice led the Global Regulatory, Commissioning, and Qualification Group for a Global Engineering Company for 13 years. Alice has large global project experience in green field facilities including fill finish, biotech, gene therapy, medical devices, small and large molecule API, and OSD from design through to operational readiness.

Thank you so much for joining us in this interview series. Before we dive in, our readers would love to “get to know you” a bit better. Can you tell us a bit about your ‘backstory’ and how you got started?

I’m an engineer, scientist, lifelong learner, and all in all a biotech “nerd.” I earned my degree in Biotechnology and Chemical Engineering, and from there, I grew a passion for all things engineering and biotechnology. Throughout my educational career, I pursued the path of cancer research, eventually finding a niche interest in multiple drug resistance in human tumors (lung and ovarian cancer). This experience is what ultimately led and inspired me to pursue a career in the pharmaceutical industry. Since then, I have never looked back, working across the globe in various different sectors and modalities of drug products. Mostly, I geek out about all the new modalities that are now becoming the norm and mapping the future of how patients are treated.

I’ve also spent a great deal of time promoting STEM throughout my career. It’s a passion point that I have fostered, both during my undergraduate and postgraduate studies, and then through different leadership levels. I’m a founding member of Women in Technology and Science (WITS), and on the ISPE Women in Pharma (WIP) steering team. ISPE WIP provides women in the pharmaceutical industry a forum for genuine collaboration and connection on technical and career advancement topics, and it’s an honor to work with and meet amazing, hard-working, intelligent women across the globe. Through this community, I’ve been fortunate to harness the power of networking, mentoring, and tapping into resources across all levels to gain and help foster balanced professional growth.

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?

Early in my career, I was tasked with the responsibility of executing a Good Manufacturing Practice (GMP) audit for the entire manufacturing site I supported at the time. Once I finalized the audit, my supervisor asked me to send a detailed email to the full site leadership team, inclusive of sensitive information regarding the site’s process, testing, training, and personnel. And while my supervisor asked me to copy a specific list of people, somehow I managed to send the email to the ENTIRE company. From then on, I always check…and recheck the target email addresses. It’s important to be careful when handling reports of a sensitive nature!

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

While completing my Ph.D. program, I met a female oncologist who had a very successful clinical practice. She did an inspiring job of balancing both a busy work life and a personal life — raising four children — while concurrently supporting many young female engineers like myself. To me, she was like Superwoman. Through drive and perseverance, she forged her own inspiring and successful career path and was always eager to learn and grow. She was a very influential person and I felt lucky to meet her during my undergraduate program. To me, her success was built on many fundamental skills and characteristics, but what struck me as a 21-year-old was her ability to connect with people of all cultures, ages, and all levels within healthcare, industry, and academia. Her communication style was customized, factual, diplomatic, and appropriate. Her feedback was spot on. When you asked her opinion on something she would always challenge you to think of many different aspects of the same scenario. I’ve carried this experience and interaction with me throughout my career, and today, I am grateful for the guidance she provided me so early on in my adult life. Even now, occasionally I ask myself that question, “what would Maeve say?” and attribute much of who I am today, both professionally and personally, to her. For other young professionals, I highly recommend making as many professional connections as possible throughout your career. There is so much to be learned from others’ experiences and beliefs.

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?

John Crowly’s story continues to inspire me. He is an American biotechnology executive and entrepreneur, currently chairman and CEO of Amicus. When his children were diagnosed with Pompe disease, John moved the family to be closer to the right doctor and got a job at Bristol-Myers Squibb to immerse himself in health research. Later, he co-founded Novazyme Pharmaceuticals then acquired by Genzyme, and was able to provide the enzyme replacement therapy for Pompe disease to his children. In 2006, he was profiled in the book The Cure: How a Father Raised $100 Million — And Bucked the Medical Establishment — In a Quest to Save His Children, and was then the inspiration for the movie Extraordinary Measures.

John’s story is one of true perseverance, science, and honoring the voice of the patient. A good friend of mine has two children suffering from Pompe disease, and ever since, John Crowly’s story has continued to inspire me.

Extensive research suggests that “purpose-driven businesses” are more successful in many areas. When your company started, what was its vision, and what was its purpose?

Since our founding in 1996, CAI has had one main purpose: to accelerate our clients’ path to success. We put the client’s interests first. We don’t stop until it’s right. And we’ll do whatever it takes to get there. We’ve developed and changed over the years to better serve our clients, but have always stuck to our core values and main mission.

At CAI, we believe that world-class operations successfully plan and integrate three areas: product, process, and end-user requirements; people; and equipment, automation, and facility technology. We focus on integrating these areas, as applied to regulated manufacturing, mission-critical facilities, energy-efficient buildings, patient-critical facilities, and complex operations.

Our clients demand technical and project management expertise, attention to detail, tenacity, innovation, and responsiveness to meet a wide range of requirements and overcome a broad range of contingencies. And since the beginning, we’ve tried our best to deliver consistently, expertly and completely.

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

At CAI, we have seen a shift in BioPharma Services requirements toward operational workforce support, due to a combination of market talent challenges. Our strategic positioning of an integrated Operational Readiness (OR) best-in-class early engagement model and Operational Excellence (OE) approach includes the support staffing plans and operational scheduling, SOPs development & Batch Record drafting, development of Training and Qualification programs and content and human error deviation closure & reduction.

We are conducting speed-to-patient OR workshops early in the project lifecycle, ideally during basic and front-end design. This helps to further develop key interactions, stakeholder management, and deliverables timing. The OR model deployment helps our client improve their comprehension of the activities necessary to achieve their goals. It is like putting together a jigsaw that has removed organization and process barriers and all the pieces mesh together.

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?

Absolutely! In simplest terms, Digital Transformation is the process of evaluating and implementing innovative technologies into business processes to transform the operations of an organization. If done right, it can provide a competitive edge that will ultimately lead to better services, both for customers, employees, and the communities the organization serves.

Digital transformation is the primary driver of the 4.0 stage within the manufacturing/pharmaceutical industry. There is a huge call for a mix of emerging technologies that tackle age-old industrial objectives: boost production, improve quality and reduce equipment downtime. Among the IT developments, manufacturers hope to harness include cloud and edge computing, 5G networks, and AI rank.

In our experience at CAI, we help our clients through the everyday challenges of digitally transforming — from identifying business processes ripe for transformation to rapid application design and implementation, business integration, and quality support and maintenance.

We work closely with our clients, existing technologies, legacy systems, and processes to streamline complex engineering and mission-critical project management workflows. Strategically leveraging the latest technology is imperative, not only for our client’s business growth but for survival in today’s fast-moving market and to stay ahead of the competition.

Which companies can most benefit from a Digital Transformation?

As we progress further into the phase of Pharma 4.0, the amount of companies within the industry that would benefit from the digital transformation has drastically increased. Many more industry sectors are able to leverage artificial intelligence (AI) technology and digital twinning to get over hurdles and provide the public with better products more efficiently. For example, there is now use in check transfer, in programming, in modeling, and in data analytics. With use in the developmental stages and now the following stages, we are able to experience a holistic digital transformation within the market.

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.

Digital technology and this transformation have impacted the industry from the point of facility design, product design, clinical trials, and the patient experience. For example, CAI and our clients are using digital twinning technologies for employee training and for process optimization. We have a human performance element to what we do, and a lot of that is based on the use of online technologies for training, specifically AI technologies for training. We are only tipping the iceberg now. For us, the use of these technologies of AI, machine learning, and blockchain have to be a part of the strategy to be able to compete tomorrow, but also to integrate and work with others from a global perspective.

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

In this day of digitization, manufacturing companies struggle to navigate their way through the digital transformation process. It’s challenging to introduce new technologies into your organizations, as the transition from the tried and true legacy systems and processes is difficult.

However, the macroeconomic forces and cost pressures along with technological improvements will result in inevitable digital transformation in the years to come and soon businesses will require a data-centric architecture.

At CAI, we have incorporated digital platforms, streamlined complex engineering, & mission-critical project management workflows to enable the clients with both a faster time to market and cost efficiencies, now with reduced risk and improved productivity.

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”?

1. Regulatory Compliance — Fast track regulatory compliance and site management tasks and issues with customized applications that automate the process for you
2. Use cloud technology as a competitive advantage — Deliver new drugs, MedTech, and other devices to market faster than your competitors with a digitized core.
3. Reduced human error — Reduce human error and other predictable risks when you simplify and modernize processes and workflows using applications that are fully customized to your teams’ needs.
4. Modernize your data management program — Take advantage of cloud flexibility and scalability by transforming how you manage data security and data protection and use real-time data dashboard analysis tools.
5. Manage operations more efficiently — Improve productivity, automate manual and repetitive tasks, and track your operations more efficiently.

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

CAI has always, first and foremost, been committed to our people. We are a global company that prides itself on fostering and supporting a diverse workforce of people from different backgrounds and experiences. Because we work in the office spaces and factories of many of our clients as we serve them, we often find ourselves in many diverse places and among many diverse people. At our core, we are built on relationships with the people we serve inside and outside of the organization.. Providing the best customer service through our talented team of employees is core to our value proposition. We recognize that great service is built through trusted relationships. An organization can establish this by fully understanding who they’re serving, clients knowing the organization on a deeper level, and then providing a high-level performance. Through trust, an organization possesses the power to integrate both its talent team into other varying corporate cultures and geographies and the ability to adapt quickly. We stand firm with the belief that a positive experience with a client will blossom if these global learnings are applied, but on the flip side, it can also quickly deteriorate.

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

“The journey of your success will always begin with the small step of taking a chance. In business, in relationships, and in life, it all begins with a small step grounded in a desire and determination to be better and do better.”

Each small step I took in the journey helped me to grow and learn from those experiences. Each small win and mistake was what I needed to grow in my career, and I’m grateful for it all.

How can our readers further follow your work?

Those who would be interested in following me can do so on LinkedIn. If you are interested in others outside of just me, I’d encourage you to check our CAI resources page. There you can read the latest and greatest sources written by our team of experts — with everything from role-based talent planning for operational readiness to industry survival in the face of an evolving workforce — case studies of our client success stories and more. We also have a company blog where we share our newest ideas and thought leadership hot takes!

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

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Alice Redmond Of CAI 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.

An Interview With Fotis Georgiadis

Simplify everything. The sales process, the set up of the product, the product itself. The easier the product is to buy, adopt and use, the better, more sticky and successful it will become.

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 Ross McCaw.

Ross McCaw is a software entrepreneur who founded Cap2 solutions in 2009, which was acquired by Jonas Software (part of CSI) in 2011. Ross then went on to found team communication and engagement platform, OurPeople, in 2016 to help deskless teams navigate their internal communications. Since its inception, OurPeople has raised $3.75m and has worked with a number of high-profile clients including West Ham United Foundation, Virgin Active UK, Paulton’s Park and Serco Leisure.

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’?

“Prior to setting up my own business I lived a pretty normal life. I went to university and was running a web design business outside of those hours. In 2009, I founded the course management system, Cap2 solutions and grew it exponentially across the globe. In 2014 I was able to sell it to a North American firm, Jonas Software and then focus on my next venture — OurPeople.

“OurPeople was founded in 2017 to fill a gap in the market. I found that there was no safe, secure or efficient communication platform available for deskless workers. I wanted to provide a central platform for businesses to engage, manage and train their remote teams — no app required. And provide business leaders with the certainty that their messages have been delivered and seen by their employees.

“The need for such a platform was highlighted during the pandemic. While desk-based workers could work from home, most deskless workers remained on the frontline. Having a strong internal comms infrastructure proved critical to keeping teams intact during this busy, unpredictable and unprecedented period.”

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?

“As a British entrepreneur the done thing is to stick by the ‘made in Britain’ tagline. But the turning point for me and my business was when I recognised the opportunities that other markets presented. The US market is ten times the size of the UK market and has an audience who are considerably more receptive to trying new technologies in a shorter period of time due to their quicker buying cycle. By recognising this, I was able to scale and sell my first business and OurPeople is following in its footsteps.”

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

“The most impactful was noticing that the industry really needed a platform like OurPeople. However, the government isn’t doing enough to get platforms like OurPeople into the hands of people and businesses that need it most.

“The UK is on a mission to be the leader in innovation and home to the very best talent. One of the ways we can collectively put our best foot forward is by supporting our tech innovators to roll out their solutions to the masses, helping them connect with potential customers.

“One initiative introduced by the UK government is G-cloud 13. While on the face of it this seems like a great initiative to encourage and enable mass innovation, instead it is doing the complete opposite. We have been on a personal mission to call out the government on this and for better structures to be put in place in order to connect the UK’s greatest developments with councils to do their best work.”

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

“My biggest mistake was that I was blind to the opportunities presented by other markets for way too long. Realising that the American market is quicker, less risk averse and more willing to try new products is when I started to see real results and it’s something I wish I knew earlier on.

“However, it is worth noting that it is almost impossible to sell to the American market as a Brit. While American’s do trust and respect UK tech companies, it is crucial to have feet on the ground selling your product for it to succeed.”

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

“I’ve been lucky enough to meet some incredibly successful software entrepreneurs and software acquirers over the past 10 or so years. These are the kind of people you won’t have heard of, because they focus on their work and not on their personal brand.

One of these early mentors made it incredibly clear to me that work is about the people that you meet. They said, “If the fit between the people isn’t right, it’s never going to work” and this advice has definitely stuck with me over the years.“

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?

“Nowadays young people are fed information online that to be a ‘successful entrepreneur’ you need to wake up at 3am, run 50 miles, read 5 books and then start your highly productive work day — while this is possible, it’s not realistic and it most definitely does not define success.

“Characters like this sell the ‘vision of a visionary’ when in fact, what you really need to focus on is communication with your team and how to actually get the work done. The days that make me happiest are when I deliver something meaningful — specifically working on the great product we are building. Social media is full of people talking about themselves and how they are the best but it does make you wonder — what are they doing that is actually meaningful within the company? What value are they delivering? It should always be about what you are building, not about building your own personal brand.”

Thank you for sharing that with us. Let’s talk about scaling a business from a small startup to a midsize and then large company. Based on your experience, can you share with our readers the “5 Things You Need To Know To Successfully Scale Your Business”? Please give a story or example for each.

1. Differences between US and UK purchasing culture: By noticing that there are advantages in other markets can help grow your business to new levels. I was able to sell my business seven years after it was founded because I ditched the ‘made in Britain’ tagline and explored other opportunities
2. Make sure you are building something that people need in order to do their job properly. In the early days of a software startup, it is very easy to listen to your loudest customer and end up building something that is only really useful to that one company. It’s really important to get what you are building into the hands of as many people as possible. Often founders are worried about how their idea might be “stolen”. But just consider how hard you are working to get your idea off the ground in the first place.
3. Simplify everything. The sales process, the set up of the product, the product itself. The easier the product is to buy, adopt and use, the better, more sticky and successful it will become.
4. Don’t be influenced by what you see online. Just because Instagram, TikTok and LinkedIn are telling you that you need to get up at 3am, run 50 miles and read 5 books to be a successful entrepreneur doesn’t mean you have to listen to it. You can be a success story without having to abide by these outlandish routines. Simply believing in yourself and your product is enough to get you there.
5. Communicate well with your team and trust them to do a great job. In the early part of my career, I found it incredibly difficult to delegate and trust the team that was working with me. Fast forward a few years, I have learnt to stand back and trust the great people we have in the 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?

“One of the biggest mistakes that I see happening time and time again is businesses taking investment too early. Before you give any of your business away, it’s important to build as much value in the company as possible. Most entrepreneurs are too eager to take money from investors too early on, forgetting that when they do so, they give away a proportion of their business which comes with risks during the early stages.

“Many businesses also don’t prioritise cash flow and break even as a goal, often putting significant growth at a huge cost, ahead of building a lasting, sustainable business.”

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

“As OurPeople operates in the deskless space, it is even more challenging to ensure a good company culture and ethos. Colleagues have less face-to-face interaction as most of their communication happens through technology.

“Therefore, your internal comms infrastructure will be the core to maintaining a real sense of community, identity and purpose as employees can not benefit from the same environment provided by an office. You should have a platform that has features specifically designed for harnessing company culture amongst a deskless workforce. OurPeople allows business leaders to send short questionnaires to employees where they can provide anonymous feedback on working practices. This makes employees feel valued and listened to. Your digital platform should be used to enhance the in-person relationship between employee and employers — this can help build trust and rapport which is key for the long-term success of the business. Having high levels of engagement with deskless staff can reduce staff turnover and help build a recognisable and attractive company culture.”

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?

“This is an area where we have focused heavily on over the past 12 months. Taking sales as an example, when a new sales rep joins the company and you have a small team, that new rep becomes a huge drain on the time of others, and there is always the possibility that the same problem will replicate in other areas of the business too.

“We have spent a significant amount of time working on internal documentation, internal inductions and processes to ensure new people are brought up to speed as quickly as possible. I never really used to see the value of this but now that we have it, it is invaluable and means that when new people join the team, while there is always an inevitable period where things will slow down, they grow into their role quicker and feel more confident.”

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

“Onboarding new employees plays an important role in setting the tone of the company, its values and what it expects of every team member. A thorough and positive experience will ensure staff feel prepared for what they’ll face and better equip them for work. This means giving them the resources and documents needed to start, provide training for their roles and ensure they have ways to communicate with other teams and management.

“Being able to do all of this on one platform, allows you to keep it in one place. Through you can create a staff onboarding process that’s easy to follow, understand and complete from start to finish. You can include engaging content that makes everything clear for a new starter and share the files and documents they need to read, complete and use in their role.”

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.

“Think for a moment about how easily distracted you can become during a working day. Everyone wants a piece of your time. A single text message can interrupt the flow of the task you are trying to complete. Often the best work is completed when you just focus. I often actually find public spaces/coffee shops are a great place to avoid distractions. A pair of noise cancelling headphones and putting your phone away works wonders. I call it the get sh*t done movement. Stop talking about it and just get on with it.”

How can our readers further follow your work online?

You can visit our website and get in touch or connect with me on LinkedIn!

Website: https://www.ourpeople.com/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ross-mccaw/

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

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Ross McCaw Of OurPeople 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: Jack Lifton Of One World Lithium On The Five Things You Need To Shake Up Your Industry

An Interview With Fotis Georgiadis

You do not find truly disruptive innovations from very large companies. If you truly want transformative, disruptive innovations, that will be found from an emerging enterprise. The largest companies can’t simply put aside how much money they have already invested (sunk costs) in the old technology.

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

Jack Lifton began his career in 1962 as a physical chemist specializing in the ultra-purification of rare metals and the preparation of their chemical compounds and alloys for use in the solid-state electronics and energy storage industries. He coined the now widely-used term “technology metals” in 2007 to describe those metals whose electronic properties enable the miniaturization of electronic technologies. In addition to his Advisor — Physical and Chemical Engineer role with One World Lithium, he also serves as Editor-in-Chief for Critical Materials InvestorIntel.com and is the Chairman of the Critical Minerals Institute, www.criticalmineralsinstitute.com

Thank you so much for doing this with us! Before we dig in, our readers would like to get to know you a bit more. Can you tell us a bit about your “backstory”? What led you to this particular career path?

I was still in graduate school in 1962 when I first worked on the electronic properties of lithium on a contract with the then Lithium Corporation of America to look for electronic uses of lithium. It was the age of scientific advancement that began with WWII’s enormous deployment of capital to make marginal materials available not just for study but for use no matter (then) the cost. Uranium, plutonium, germanium, gallium, tellurium, and the rare earths, were all, for the first time, produced in quantity and used to create atomic weapons, portable radio and radar, practical electronic television, and right after the war, the transistor.

I was a Sputnik inspired student of science. We patriotic high school students were told that it was imperative to beat the Russians in rocketry after their German scientists beat our German scientists to deploying SPUTNIK, a MOUSE, A minimum orbital unmanned satellite of the earth. In college we were thrilled and inspired by John Kennedy’s admonition to “land a man on the moon in this decade and bring him safely back to earth.”

I later did my part in that program by developing a method to deposit cadmium sulfide in tubes the diameter of a human hair which allowed the construction of a solid-state image intensifier (used in night vision binoculars) for the Army and NASA.

Did I mention that my group made the first memory chip constructed in Michigan and that I actually made the first solid state memory cell that came to the market 50 years later as the SSD? My employer came up with the concept. My job was to produce an example.

You can see I like to reminisce, and I have a lot of stories about the development of modern electronics, energy storage, and critical materials’ processing.

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

The critical elements of today were mostly laboratory curiosities up until WWII. What are critical elements? Energy critical elements (ECEs) are elements integral to advanced energy production, transmission, and storage. This category includes lithium, cobalt, selenium, silicon, tellurium, indium, and rare earth elements (REEs).

After WWII, there was a flowering of production of all these new critical element materials and the ones we know today are the ones that survived due to their utility. For example, today, you can make a mini magnet that is as strong as an iron magnet which was totally unknown decades ago as “researchers have created extremely small, thermally stable magnets. These nanoparticles have magnetic properties comparable to some rare earth magnets, the strongest permanent magnets ever created, but at sizes as small as 5 nanometers, a million times smaller than an ant.”

At One World Lithium, we are developing game-changing direct lithium extraction (DLE) technologies. How is DLE defined? The National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) states: “DLE technologies can be broadly grouped into three main categories: absorption using porous materials that enable lithium bonding, ion exchange, and solvent extraction.

Scaling up any of these techniques to full production capability remains a challenging task. For example, developing a solid material that bonds with just lithium is a huge challenge for use in geothermal brine that contains many minerals and metals. Successful DLE implementation will depend on expanding innovation and creating new technologies.”

“It’s such a game changer. There are huge opportunities,” U.S. Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm told an energy conference in April 2022 about DLE.

Lithium is the ‘driving’ force behind electric vehicles, but the industry is not able to keep pace with demand. In February 2022, the Biden administration announced plans to invest $2.9 billion to strengthen the battery supply chain and the production of advanced batteries. New technologies that will expand the sources of the supply of lithium must fill the gap.

As reported by The Wall Street Journal, new lithium extraction technologies are attracting attention as these “methods “could help increase supplies, while attracting investors for their potential to speed up production and reduce the environmental impact compared with most current lithium-extraction methods, are, so, far unproven at commercial scale.”

So, what’s disruptive about the DLE technology developed by One World Lithium? In March 2022, One World Lithium announced the signing a licensing agreement with the US Department of Energy’s National Energy Technology Laboratory (NETL) division for a patent developed by the NETL for selectively recovering lithium from solutions of mixed metallic ions.

One World Lithium Inc.’s option agreement with the US Department of Energy and its National Energy Technology Laboratories (NETL) is focused on the potential to profitably separate high purity lithium carbonate from a brine. The DOE patent is an advanced direct lithium extraction (DLE) process for the extraction of lithium from natural brines, rapidly generating a pure lithium carbonate.

The method uses a unique multi-step high pressure/temperature application of carbon dioxide injection-mixing to ultimately directly and selectively precipitate lithium carbonate from brines. One World’s DLE technology competes favorably vs. competitors since:

• The process requires no solvent, electrodes, membrane, or sorbents and only uses carbon dioxide which can be sourced commercially or from industrial waste streams or even ambient air.
• It significantly reduces capital and operation costs, process time, energy requirements, and, paradoxically, overall carbon dioxide emissions.
• The process is fully operational at the brine source, eliminating transportation of brine derived solids to a chemical processing facility to form pure lithium carbonate.
• Deployment of this technology will reduce dependence on foreign lithium sources.

Can you share a story about the funniest mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lesson you learned from that?

While the experience is not ‘funny,’ it was a great life lesson and speaks to lost opportunities and what can be learned from that. The catalytic converter (a device built in the exhaust system of a motor vehicle which includes a catalyst for converting pollutant gases into less harmful ones) was invented by Eugene Houdry, a French mechanical engineer in the 1950s. However, manufacturing development started in earnest after the Environmental Protection Agency’s emissions control regulations began in the early 1960s. The USA made the fitting of a exhaust emission control catalytic converter mandatory beginning in the 1976 model year.

The catalyst component of a catalytic converter is usually platinum (Pt), along with palladium (Pd), and rhodium (Rh). All three of these platinum group metals are rare but have a broad range of applications in addition to catalytic converters. Back in the 70’s, I contracted with a major auto manufacturer to collect and recycle used catalytic converters. However, timing is everything. While this proved to be an extremely lucrative business in the 1980’s and ’90s, with widespread use of the part beginning around 1975, before that there simply were not enough catalytic converters around to recycle as American cars are recycled, on average, once every 12 years. People I know who got into that business then made a fortune. Needless to say, I was correct that there was a huge market for catalytic component recycling, but I was ahead of my time.

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?

Stanford Ovshinsky, who was my first employer, and the inventor of the phase-change memory, the precursor of the solid-state memory that is used in computers today. Ovshinsky was an inventor, engineer and scientist who was granted over 400 patents predominately in energy and information. Stan transformed industries and made groundbreaking contributions to sustainable energy and information technology including the nickel-metal hydride battery, which has been widely used in laptop computers, digital cameras, cell phones, and electric and hybrid cars; continuous web multi-junction flexible thin-film solar energy laminates and panels; flat screen liquid crystal displays; rewritable CD and DVD computer memories; hydrogen fuel cells; and nonvolatile phase-change electronic memories.

I worked with Ovshinsky at a company he founded, Energy Conversion Devices, which was at the forefront as a development laboratory whose products built new industries, many which aimed to make fossil fuel obsolete. ECD continued (through joint ventures and license partners) to be a leading solar energy and battery production firm).

I was going to leave Stan’s company as I was looking to complete my master’s degree. Stan said to stop and told me that I would learn infinitely more working for him than in school. I believed him and I did just that I worked alongside him as he was developing the original solid state memory unit. Decades later, Samsung came out with a variation of Stan’s invention — 40 years is generally the time it takes ordinary folks to learn anything.

Stan was a 10th grade dropout who created entire industries who Smithsonian magazine dubbed the ‘most prolific inventor you never heard of. Their article says that “it’s hard to look around in today’s technology-driven world and not see something that exists because of inventor Stanford R. Ovshinsky. When you turn your flat-screen TV on with the click of a remote, when a Prius silently drives past, when you see solar panels powering a home, when you save a photo on your smartphone, you have Ovshinsky, in part, to thank.”

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?

You do not find truly disruptive innovations from very large companies. If you truly want transformative, disruptive innovations, that will be found from an emerging enterprise. The largest companies can’t simply put aside how much money they have already invested (sunk costs) in the old technology.

Consider lithium processing. Here in the United States where we don’t recycle our valuable energy metals, we are now trying to get in the game and start lithium mining in force. For our world to reach its environmental goals, it is important to understand the necessity of acquiring an ample supply of lithium from geopolitically stable countries.

Chile and Australia are the largest current producers of lithium. Australia, China and Chile are currently cited as the top three reserves holders, eclipsing the rest of the world’s reserves and China dominates the global supply of refined lithium products. As EV demand is now skyrocketing, stable countries with major lithium resources are starting to play a greater role in the world’s energy shift, with the goal of creating a powerful positive feedback loop of stability, prosperity and industry leadership. The goal is to convert these resources to reserves and drive significant “new” production.

The United States holds about 8 million metric tons of lithium in reserve, ranking it among the top five countries in the world, reports the USGS. Yet it only currently produces about 1% of the world’s supply at one solitary lithium brine mine in Nevada called Silver Peak, run by Albemarle Corp.

Lithium is the clear incumbent metal of choice in the race to use rechargeable batteries as part of future energy consumption. The paradigm shift is accelerating, and as lithium-ion batteries are more widely used in automobiles and power storage devices, demand is accelerating as well.

Lithium extraction processes use a lot of water — approximately 500,000 gallons per metric ton of lithium produced. Mining can consume the majority of a region’s water, which negatively impacts the community and reduces the number of locations that are feasible. Lithium extraction technologies also have the potential for toxic chemicals to leak from the evaporation pools, or membrane filters, into the water supply. This includes hydrochloric acid, which may be created in the processing of lithium, and waste products that are filtered out of the brine.

This is why direct lithium extraction technology (DLE) will be the gamechanger. And, yes, the DLE innovation that takes hold will not come from a giant corporation, but a nimble upstart. You wait and see! DLE techniques dramatically improve lithium recovery rates, increase the concentration of lithium and eliminate 99% of impurities.

Can you share some of the best words of advice you’ve gotten along your journey? Please give a story or example for each.

• “When a great genius appears in the world you may know him by this sign; that the dunces are all in confederacy against him.” ― Jonathan Swift, Irish Satirist. I think to my time working for the great Stanford Ovshinsky and he widely mocked the scientific community in his early career. Later, however, it was not unusual to see Nobel-prize winning scientists in his research lab. It’s a win when the dunces depart and the fellow geniuses take notice.
• Natural selection is called economic viability — I am continually approached by companies showcasing the next-big thing. However, these innovations are usually tripped up by the day-to-day realities of what it actually costs to bring that innovation to the market. Universities often shower money on scientists who generally have no business sense. When someone comes up to me with a new way to process lithium or any rare earths, I ask what will it cost to process kilogram.
• Retirement means doing what you have fun doing. — After my ‘retirement’ over twenty years ago, I became busier than ever, and having fun doing what I love. Helping companies understand the value and path forward for their critical elements/rare earth projects as well as plot out the most effective and low-cost extraction and refining processes continues to be a challenge I love and have decades of experience in.

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

First and foremost, my goal is to see that One World Lithium’s Direct Lithium Extraction (DLE) technology becomes the ‘gold standard,’ or should I say ‘lithium standard’ in the industry. Yes, One World Lithium is a nimble, emerging company, and having reviewed most of the available DLE technologies on the horizon, I believe that One World Lithium’s is the best.

My advisory group, Jack Lifton LLC, advises governmental agencies, both at home and abroad, on metals industries supply chain issues and engages in extensive due diligence on mining, refining, and the fabrication of metals for financial institutions globally.

I am a member of numerous professional societies and a frequent speaker at both professional and industry events on both the markets for technology metals and materials, and on the use of new and newly applied technologies for the extraction, refining and fabrication of rare metals and materials.

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?

Because my mentor Stan Ovshinsky was among a very small list of American inventors who helped to shape the modern world over the past century, but yet remains largely unknown by the masses, I recommend that your readers review his personal stories and contributions as profiled in the book, Inventing Modern America.

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

“I hope climate science becomes a big thing. And then what I want is electrical engineers to solve the world’s energy problems, energy distribution problems. I want mechanical engineers to make better transportation systems. I want chemical engineers to develop better solar panels, and so on.” — Bill Nye, The Science Guy. As a scientist, engineer, inventor as well as a comic and author, Nye’s goal is to “help foster a scientifically literate society, to help people everywhere understand and appreciate the science that makes our world work.”

Nye’s quote and life’s work resonates as he reinforces in a light-hearted way the true gravitas behind the scientific community and the work they do.

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. 🙂

In China, they have industrial policies to ensure that they have enough scientists, electrical engineers, etc. Here in the United States, we graduate very few people who are majoring in electrical engineering. We do not have enough scientists and engineers needed for lithium processing in the United States. If I could inspire a movement, it would be to encourage young men and women who have aptitude in the sciences to consider studying electrical engineering, geological sciences, chemical sciences, etc. For our nation, to be energy independent and begin processing our natural resources, we need a true commitment from the next generation to join this journey.

How can our readers follow you online?

Please follow One World Lithium on our website, Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter.

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

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Meet The Disruptors: Jack Lifton Of One World Lithium 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.

Agile Businesses: Steven Lin Of Semarchy On How Businesses Pivot and Stay Relevant In The Face of Disruptive Technologies

An Interview With Fotis Georgiadis

If you don’t plan, you’ll never get to the next step of your dream. Be good at both. Ask yourself, “What are the immediate next steps?”

As part of my series about the “How Businesses Pivot and Stay Relevant In The Face of Disruptive Technologies”, I had the pleasure of interviewing Steven Lin.

Steven Lin is the product marketing manager at Semarchy, responsible for executing the go-to-market strategy for the awarding-winning data company. Prior to joining Semarchy, Steven was a Technology Strategy consultant at Ernst & Young advising large-scale data initiatives for global & national firms. He holds a Bachelor of Science in Marketing & Technology Management as well as a Masters of Science in Information Systems from Indiana University — Kelley School of Business.

Thank you so much 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’ and how you got started?

I’ve always been interested in business. I grew up working at a restaurant with my parents, which has always been a part of my life. When I went to college, I decided to pursue marketing because it is one of the most general business degrees you can earn. I realized that I liked it and was good at it, so I ended up staying with it in college. Later, I realized I wanted to pursue technology-intensive fields, so I pursued a master’s degree in Information Systems.

After college, I ended up working at EY as a technology transformation consultant. During the latter half of my studies, I was super focused on the technology and strategy sides. Now at Semarchy, I have been able to marry these worlds with my passion for marketing more tightly. That’s how I ended up here as the product marketing manager.

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?

Probably my funniest mistake was not setting proper standards for myself. Without getting into all the details, I’ll say it like this: When you begin your career, you think everyone else has it all figured out, and you’re playing catch-up. And so you put everyone else on a pedestal. This can put you in a tight spot where instead of asking questions and figuring things out, you allow yourself to stay stuck in a cycle of self-doubt.

The key takeaway is to go into your career confidently, regardless of your rank, title, or the people you work with. You were hired based on what you offer — for many, at the beginning of their careers, you are hired because you are fresh, young, and have a brand new set of eyes to look at the industry. You offer a different perspective, and I think that is the key lesson to take away here.

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?

In eighth grade, my class took a tour of the focus areas we could choose in high school. The only two options available were biology and engineering because we grew up in such a small town. It was a given that if you were a boy, you took the engineering track, and if you were a girl, you took the biology track.

I actually wanted to become a doctor for the longest time, so I started taking the biology route, but I got lost on my way to that class and ended up in the basement. There was literally a light at the end of the hallway that happened to be the engineering room. Walking in and watching the teacher talk to his students about 3D printing changed everything for me. If I had not “gotten lost,” I may never have thought about pursuing technology, STEM, and ultimately, business. I am so grateful for that chance encounter with the engineering teacher who ultimately helped me develop my problem-solving and technical skills.

Honestly, every step of the way throughout college and my professional career, I had great mentors. I can’t thank all of them enough.

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?

One of the things that drew me to consulting was my passion for problem-solving. The prior consulting firm I worked for had a motto to the effect of “Asking questions and building a better world.” This was an inspiring statement for a fresh graduate because it points to the future. Later, what drew me to Semarchy was its creative page, which talked about embracing humor and humanity. At the end of the day, all of the problems we solve involve people. This is why I think it is such a powerful message.

Thank you for all that. Let’s now turn to the main focus of our discussion. Can you tell our readers a bit about what your business does? How do you help people?

We’re a master data management company. In a nutshell, we bring data together to make it easier for people to use. For example, many companies have data in 15 or 20 different systems, and they don’t know what is “the truth.” Semarchy makes sure that data all goes to one place where meaning can be made out of chaos.

Ultimately, data is very powerful, but what makes it that way is when people have access to it. Semarchy enables more people to derive power from data by making it easier for the people that have access to it. Data is powerful, but everyone wants to keep it to themselves. We help simplify data by making it more accessible, allowing companies to create more value out of their information.

Which technological innovation has encroached or disrupted your industry? Can you explain why this has been disruptive?

There are a lot of disruptive technologies, such as AI and machine learning technologies. I would say that the biggest disrupter to technological innovation in our space is new language and words that are not yet standard. New buzzwords, like data fabric, data mesh, data AI, etc. can be confusing. No one has a cohesive understanding of their meaning. The ever-evolving language throws people off because they are unsure of your company’s solutions.

We need to extract some of this noise and say what we are trying to solve. Technology is hugely disruptive, but how people bring up new buzzwords disrupts our industry in a negative sense. We must ask ourselves what actual value we bring with our technology and what kind of education we need to provide our audience.

What did you do to pivot as a result of this disruption?

The main pivot we have to make as a company is internally aligning our language and messaging. So we are beginning by internally aligning at Semarchy to determine what we mean when we talk about “data integration” or “data management,” for example. Companies need to focus on who they are, what they do, and determine common language when discussing specific topics.

If we can have a united front in our messaging and internally, we can better approach our prospects. For example, whenever a new buzzword appears, we can take it and see if it applies to us. Or, if new terms are accepted within the industry, we can pivot and shift our language as necessary. Operations are much more manageable when companies are aligned internally — and alignment begins with having a common language.

Was there a specific “Aha moment” that gave you the idea to start this new path? If yes, we’d love to hear the story.

Whenever you are hired into a new role, you come in with a big vision and grand objective of what you want to do. I’ve been with enough clients to realize that 90% of the time, their issues involve communication and people. That was my “aha moment.” So, I began asking questions about who we focus on as our audience, our value, and how we win in the market. Are we not communicating how we’re winning throughout the funnel? Where’s the friction there?

I’m coming in to facilitate and distill these conversations, which are going well. Now, we have a much better understanding of where we are winning. In addition, we have been seeing more success targeting specific personas after our pivot to improve our messaging. This internal communication exercise has proven to work so far in my career.

So, how are things going with this new direction?

Yeah, so it’s going well. We have worked together to analyze thousands of customer comments about what they like and don’t like about us. After that, we pare it back with what our internal team says about where we are succeeding and where we are failing. We toss all of this on a dashboard. We’re humans, and we love to see things tangibly, right? So when some kind of number is attached, things make sense because there is less friction. Data is clear. If you can show something simply on one slide or on a dashboard, you have already won. The rest of it is explaining how you got there.

Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you started this pivot?

Probably the most interesting thing that happened after pivoting our sales/marketing team to leverage this insight dashboard is how much more aligned and communicative we’ve become as a whole. We’re now less in the dark about our customers and competitors and more data-driven in terms of making decisions. A lot of companies don’t drink their own Kool-Aid so to speak — meaning they don’t follow what they preach. If you don’t evangelize your own products, services, and approach, how can you expect your customers to trust that you can actually solve their problems?

On a more personal level — I found it interesting that I left consulting just to be put into a more consulting role. It’s quite amazing the fundamental shift a company can have by simply having all their data in one place and a few pretty visuals or charts. Once this happens, you spend a lot less time digging up the past to understand and more time looking into the future to what’s possible.

What would you say is the most critical role of a leader during a disruptive period?

The role of the leader is to dream, guide, and plan. Of course, a good leader does all three, but a great leader understands the grand vision. It’s really easy to dream, but it’s challenging to plan the immediate next steps for an organization. The most important role for a leader in a disruptive period is to stay firm in those three roles. If you can’t do all of them, you will be the one disrupted and not the one disrupting.

When the future seems so uncertain, what is the best way to boost morale? What can a leader do to inspire, motivate and engage their team?

Dream, guide, and plan. I think that’s the most important role of a leader to keep their team engaged during disruptive periods or times of uncertainty. It’s all about understanding the issues at hand, dreaming up the best-case scenario, and offering realistic solutions to get those employees motivated.

Is there a “number one principle” that can help guide a company through the ups and downs of turbulent times?

It boils down to communication. I see companies spend millions of dollars bringing in consultants just because they don’t know how to initiate a conversation between two important entities. During these turbulent times, everyone has thoughts on what can be done better, why they need more resources, and why everyone else is wrong. This is just human nature.

The less you communicate these issues in some capacity, the longer you will draw it out, and the more extreme things will get. You can quickly fix these problems and stay on track when you communicate. When you don’t, you end up putting a band-aid on a wound that will probably never close until someone says, “Hey, let’s spend a good hour understanding and communicating, and let’s see where we can go from here.”

Can you share 3 or 4 of the most common mistakes you have seen other businesses make when faced with a disruptive technology? What should one keep in mind to avoid that?

One of the most common mistakes I’ve seen is when a disruptive technology is put on the market, companies will immediately purchase it without understanding why they need to. In some cases, companies don’t actually end up using these products. And then people ask themselves, “Why did I buy this again?” Don’t hitch your company to that wagon without knowing what you are hitching yourself to.

Another mistake goes back to communication. It occurs when one party decides that it is their way or the highway, dragging everyone else along. Difficulties arise when everyone is pulling their feet to move forward.

Lastly, I would say a big mistake is not being proactive enough. While some people can anticipate too fast, others may not anticipate enough. When we anticipate too early, we fail because we fail to grasp the larger perspective that comes with time. When we anticipate too late, we fail because we are playing catch-up. So be safe and pragmatic in what you do and have a good sense of what is out there. Being aware and understanding timing and when to act is key to making sure you can be the disruptor and not the disrupted.

Ok. Thank you. Here is the primary question of our discussion. Based on your experience and success, what are the five most important things a business leader should do to pivot and stay relevant in the face of disruptive technologies? Please share a story or an example for each.

A business leader should:

• Communicate: If you can start a good cadence of communication with your team, you’ll be in a much better spot than 90% of your competitors.
• Dream Big: If you don’t dream, you’ll never reach your potential.
• Plan: If you don’t plan, you’ll never get to the next step of your dream. Be good at both. Ask yourself, “What are the immediate next steps?”
• Anticipate and Participate: Find the sweet spot for anticipating change. Don’t participate too early, but don’t anticipate too late. We’ve seen a lot of companies like Facebook do this. They’re not the first social media platform, and they probably won’t be the last, but they didn’t participate at the very beginning because everyone else had to work out the bugs first. Someone eventually has to be the pioneer and work out the bugs, but it brings me to my point — when something new and shiny comes, don’t just hitch your wagon there, but also don’t disregard it. If you blink, you might miss it, and your whole company might have missed the train.
• Be Human: Behind every disruption or wave of innovation is a human (or many humans) making it happen. If you only look at technologies without appreciating that people drive adoption or rejection — then you’re doomed to fail. Technologies don’t have KPIs, metrics or goals — humans do. Appreciate this and help educate people who buy and use your technology to solve their problems or make their lives easier.

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

I think this is a Greek quote: “A society or civilization becomes great when the men who plant the trees don’t get to sit in their shade.” I may have butchered it a bit, but its meaning goes to that principle of dreaming. In business, you should be able to accomplish the dreams that you have set out to do. If you only want to build something for the short term and not for something you can’t see, you probably won’t create something that’ll make a lasting impact.

How can our readers further follow your work?

I am not a blogger yet, per se, but they can follow my LinkedIn. I don’t post much, but if people want me to post more, I can do that!

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

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Agile Businesses: Steven Lin Of Semarchy On How Businesses Pivot and Stay Relevant In The Face of… was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Non-Fungible Tokens: Amr Samaha Of Tykes On The 5 Things You Need To Know To Create a Highly Successful Career In The NFT Industry

An Interview With Fotis Georgiadis

Utilize your network. Your community has your biggest supporters and believers. If you can provide value to them, they will do the same for you.

Many have observed that we are at the cusp of an NFT boom. The thing is, it’s so cutting edge, that many people don’t know what it is. What exactly is an NFT and how can one create a lucrative career out of selling them? To address this, as a part of our interview series called “5 Things You Need To Know To Create a Highly Successful Career In The NFT Industry”, we had the pleasure of interviewing Amr Samaha.

Amr Samaha is a serial entrepreneur, multiple award-winning architect, and real estate developer, as well as the founder and CEO of seven figure companies SAMAHA Studio and Samaha Holdings. In addition to co-founding Tykes, Samaha has spearheaded commercial and residential real estate design and development projects in California, Tennessee, Arizona, New York, Kuwait, and more.

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 in Cairo, Egypt, and I moved to Kuwait City when I was 3 years old. My father was a real estate developer, and he developed many war-torn properties, inspiring me to get into the industry. I was an artistic kid and was very interested in design, so I decided to attend architecture school in Cairo, where I ended up getting my architectural engineering license and began my career in real estate. After that, I lived in New York for a few years working in venture capital, and I used what I learned during that experience to find my own company, Samaha Holdings, which is an architectural design and real estate development firm. It wasn’t until this year that I broke into the web3 space with Tykes.

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

I can’t say that there is one person who I am the most grateful for because I wouldn’t have been able to reach the point where I am today without my entire team. My partners and employees have been there every step of the way to support my vision and turn it into a reality.

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

This year, I co-founded Tykes with my business partner Ryan Pineda, which I am confident will help many people, and it already has started to. Tykes is a web3 real estate company focused on community learning and real estate syndications. Tykes holders are granted access to an incredible community of real estate investors of all levels of experience. They have already started doing real estate deals together since we minted our project in August. We also provide weekly real estate, crypto, and business training. We have even more features coming out soon such as the Tykes Marketplace, where Tykes can list their services for other Tykes to utilize, and there will be a Tyke Tank, where Tykes will have the opportunity to pitch their businesses to our most prominent members for the chance to be funded by the community. These are just some of the ways that Tykes is providing value to its community, and I can’t wait for everyone to see what else we have planned moving forward.

Ok super. Thank you for all that. Let’s now shift to the main focus of our interview. I’m sure you get this question all the time. But for the benefit of our readers, can you explain in your own words what an NFT is, and why people are spending so much money on them?

An NFT is a non-fungible token, which is a unique asset on a blockchain with its own metadata and identification codes. Unlike a currency, an NFT is not interchangeable with other tokens. When an NFT is traded or transferred, its ownership is recorded on the blockchain. The reason people are willing to spend so much money on NFTs is that they act as a key to a community. Tykes NFTs, for example, provide access to a community of like-minded real estate investors. Bored Ape Yacht Club acts as a social club for high-net-worth individuals. If you own one of these NFTs, you gain access to a community where, in theory, your relationships with others in the community could prove more lucrative than the NFT itself.

The NFT industry seems so exciting right now. What are the 3 things in particular that most excite you about the industry? If you can, please share a story or example for each.

The first thing that excites me about the NFT industry would have to be the massive room for growth and application. The vast majority of NFTs right now are focused on artistic expression with very little utility in the real world, but there is a huge opportunity right now to merge the two. For example, I am working on another NFT project outside of Tykes that will act as a private hospitality group. Tykes, on the other hand, is a members-only real estate community focused on the innovation of real estate and web3. It’s amazing to see how we can utilize NFTs to create new opportunities for us as a business as well as for our community members!

The second thing would be the opportunity that NFTs provide to enter the tech industry by utilizing community support. Many NFT projects have been able to afford to sustain themselves and grow solely because of their community. Without this, these projects would likely have needed some other donor or they would cease to exist. Because of the community support of certain NFTs, there is a smaller barrier to entry into the tech industry. Ryan and I could have decided to create a tech company and done syndications online in a more traditional manner. Instead, we are financing by giving our community access to the utility we have, and we already have a baked-in client pool that is interested in what we are building.

The third thing that excites me about NFTs is the real-life applications of NFT contracts. From real estate syndications and transactions in general to holding ownership under an NFT-type contract, it is exciting to see all the new possibilities that web3 is bringing to the world, and NFTs play a huge part in that.

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

Firstly, security breaches are a big concern in this space. A great way to combat this that can be done immediately is to bring as much awareness around this issue to NFT communities as possible. Tykes, for example, teaches people how to protect their wallets and provides information on how to prevent being spammed to its community members through Discord, Twitter, and online courses.

Another concern is that the NFT space is riddled with volatility and speculation. The space moves fast, and if NFT projects aren’t delivering on their word, the communities don’t take kindly to that. For the creators behind the projects, this volatility is taken into consideration, but the stability of our project and seeing it through is what we are the most focused on. So in that way, the volatility and stability are at odds with each other as there will be stretches of time where a lot of work is happening but hasn’t materialized yet. During that time communities could create self-harming obstacles due to increased volatility for no reason other than that nothing new has come out in 2–3 days. The pressure of having a communications strategy on a weekly, even daily basis is highly unstable and very costly and it requires a whole team of people. Over time, I see this problem resolving itself as stronger projects with more utility find their long-term holders versus a small number of speculators.

High gas fees are also a concern when it comes to the Ethereum blockchain. A gas fee is a fee for the energy required to perform a transaction. While they have been historically high, the recent Merge promises to lower fees within the next year.

What are the “myths” that you would like to dispel about NFTs? Can you explain what you mean?

That NFTs are purely expensive art. That is not the case, aside from a few art-focused projects, which is great! But projects become extremely expensive not because of the art, but because of what the NFTs themselves provide. Bored Ape Yacht club, for example, is a social club and gaming company. Doodles is involved in the music industry. Tykes is a web3 real estate company with community access that at this point is worth around 3 ETH for membership. So, while each NFT project does have fun and artful things that live through their story, that’s not the main focus.

What are the most common mistakes you have seen people make when they enter the NFT industry? What can be done to avoid that?

On the one hand, many projects over-promise and under-deliver. On the other, NFT holders have unrealistic expectations of milestones and product delivery. For founders, not separating and implementing short-term and long-term strategies is a huge mistake. A long-term strategy should help you achieve your overall goal, but your short-term strategy needs to help manage the community sentiment and expectations or your project will fall apart as your community loses faith in your company and leadership.

How do you think NFTs have the potential to help society in the future?

NFTs will digitize contracts and speed up bureaucracy by keeping track of all ownership data and credentials across industries. When it comes to real estate in particular, NFTs will digitize and store dynamic data and vastly improve the efficiencies of deals and transactions.

Ok, fantastic. Here is the main question of our interview. What are your “5 Things You Need To Know To Create a Highly Successful Career In The NFT Industry?”

1. This is going to sound counterintuitive, but you need to do something outside of NFTs to do something successful with NFTs. NFTs are perceived as an industry on their own, but actually they area group of different industries coming together under one umbrella of similar technology. You would have to come from another industry and know how to utilize blockchain and NFT technology for your respective industry to create a successful NFT project. Whether it’s music, real estate, or finance, if you have a track record of being successful in your career, you should have a following of people who will believe in your project. If you aren’t doxed, you are less likely to be seen as credible. My advice would be to focus on what you know, and then see how you can apply it to web3.
2. Surround yourself with a great team. If you want to have a successful project with real-world utility, you need to have multiple departments. You need artists who can create the NFT art itself, as well as promotional art and materials down the line. You need a strong marketing team to constantly push out information and spread your message. You will need a legal team to ensure that you are protecting yourself, and even more importantly, your community. You need project managers to carry the project forward and ensure that all the departments are working together. You need experienced developers to build the code and designers to make sure that the front-facing products are user-friendly. You also will need community managers who will be constantly in contact with the community on Discord and through support channels. NFT projects are so much more than just a picture, so make sure you are equipped with a caring, detailed, and thoughtful team to make your project the best that it can be.
3. Utilize your network. Your community has your biggest supporters and believers. If you can provide value to them, they will do the same for you.
4. You need to have a purpose. A lot of people in the NFT space think they can just create the art and some hype and they will become rich, but this isn’t usually the case. People who buy those NFTs are going to figure out that there isn’t much to back them up eventually. If the purpose of your project is art, then that’s great. Go with that! However, if you are telling people that if they buy your NFT they are going to reap some other reward and you don’t deliver on your promise, your project isn’t going to succeed.
5. Strategize! Once you know the purpose of your project, you need to figure out a business plan to achieve that purpose. As I previously mentioned, the NFT space is volatile, and if you aren’t being transparent or communicative with your community, your project isn’t going to last long. Create short-term and long-term strategies that will help you fulfill your project’s purpose and bring value to your community, and you will succeed.

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 one we are doing right now with Tykes! We currently have about 1400 members, and we hope to continue to grow with time to provide real estate and web3 education to our community and bridge the gap between the industries to create more opportunities for people all over the world.

We are very blessed that very prominent leaders read this column. Is there a person in the world, or in the US with whom you would like to have a private breakfast or lunch, and why? He or she might just see this if we tag them 🙂

I would like to sit down with Jack Dorsey, both for his interest in web3 and for building one of the most reputable companies in the tech industry from basically nothing.

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

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Non-Fungible Tokens: Amr Samaha Of Tykes On The 5 Things You Need To Know To Create a Highly… was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Meet The Disruptors: Frank Toral Of ‘Neighborhood Kids Schools’ On The Five Things You Need To Shake Up Your Industry

An Interview With Fotis Georgiadis

Teamwork– You cannot achieve your dreams by yourself. Bring others along for the journey. When you help them succeed, then you will succeed.

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

Frank Toral is an attorney, pastor, Founder and President of Neighborhood Kids Franchise Solutions and its affiliates. Prior to founding our franchise organization, Mr. Toral was CEO of Toral Law in Fort Lauderdale, Florida from 1995–2016. From 2016 through 2020, Mr. Toral was the Pastor of Promise Life Chapel, a non-denominational church in Wellington, Florida.

Thank you so much for doing this with us! Before we dig in, our readers would like to get to know you a bit more. Can you tell us a bit about your “backstory”? What led you to this particular career path?

My journey to owning and operating early education centers was improbable at best. Since I was 7 years old my only dream was to become an attorney. That too was unlikely given that I am a first generation Cuban American whose family never made it past high school and my own abysmal high school academic record. But I believed in myself and persevered. 7 years later I was holding my law degree. Within 3 years I would found Toral Law, a statewide boutique law firm that had a 20 year successful run. However, my heart began to change.

I wanted to devote my life to a greater purpose. Consequently, I became involved at a local church and eventually served on the Executive Leadership Team. A few years later our family would leave everything behind, move to an unfamiliar place and start a church. What I didn’t anticipate is that the church would be unable to cover our living expenses. Therefore, we took our retirement savings and invested them into purchasing two Wellington, Fl based preschools. That became the investment of a lifetime! After improving operations at every level, the schools quickly took off. We would open 3 more in the ensuing 2 years. Later, a providential meeting at an educational conference led to a new dream: franchising Neighborhood Kids Schools in neighborhoods across the US. Today, our mission is to give future franchise owners the same opportunity that was given to us of building a business that provides a better life for them and blesses their community.

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

Neighborhood Kids is the first Faith-based Early Education Franchise in the US. We are a values-based Early Education School that emphasizes a biblical foundation and provides exceptional early education in a safe, fun and learning environment.

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 somehow thought that a school with a good reputation would market itself without any need for a marketing strategy. For a while it appeared to be true. Until Covid hit. Within a month, we went from 250 students to 13 students. The lesson? You must advertise to be seen and heard. We did that counterintuitively during the pandemic and it worked. Amazingly well.

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 former Pastor, Troy Gramling from Potential Church in Fort Lauderdale, Fl taught me that we all have God-given potential. That it is our responsibility to discover, pursue and develop that potential with a sense of humility, honor and passion.

In today’s parlance, being disruptive is usually a positive adjective. But is disrupting always good? When do we say the converse, that a system or structure has ‘withstood the test of time’? Can you articulate to our readers when disrupting an industry is positive, and when disrupting an industry is ‘not so positive’? Can you share some examples of what you mean?

Disrupting an industry can be positive when you add transformative value to the ecosystem. For example, by adding faith to an early education system in America you help transform the lives of little children by instilling faith, hope and love which are enduring values that remain with a person for a lifetime.

Disrupting an industry can have adverse consequences. For example, if you are selling a service cheaper than everyone else such as childcare you can damage the reputation and consumer confidence in the childcare industry. The early education industry is heavily reliant on qualified and caring educators. They are difficult to attract and retain with low tuition rates which would have an adverse consequence on the quality of early education.

Can you share five of the best words of advice you’ve gotten along your journey? Please give a story or example for each.

1.Perseverance- It takes commitment and a consistent belief that what you are doing will succeed.

2.Faith- It will take faith in God and yourself to achieve your God-given potential.

3.Vision- you must see a future that does not exist and move toward that every day.

4.Teamwork– You cannot achieve your dreams by yourself. Bring others along for the journey. When you help them succeed, then you will succeed.

5. Leadership– devote yourself to continuous improvement.

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

By partnering with franchise owners that want to change the world. There is a lot of work still to be done. Let’s Go!

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?

My favorite bible verse is: “I can do all things through Christ who gives me strength” — Philippians 4:13

I relate to this verse because I would not have the opportunity, I have today were it not for God guiding me every step of the way.

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

Favorite Quote:” Your attitude determines your altitude” This is relevant because I have discovered that a positive “can do “attitude can help you overcome almost any adversity in life.

You are a person of great influence. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger. 🙂

To instill in children and young families in Neighborhood Kids Schools across America that ‘God loves you and has a purpose and plan for your life’.

How can our readers follow you online?

www.neighborhoodkids.com or on LinkedIn : Frank Toral

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

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Meet The Disruptors: Frank Toral Of ‘Neighborhood Kids Schools’ 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.

Jordan Morrow Of BrainStorm On How To Use Digital Transformation To Take Your Company To The Next Level

An Interview With Fotis Georgiadis

Learn Fast — Build a true culture of iteration and learning fast. If people feel that if they fail with data or digital technology, they may not want to use it. Empower them to know that they can use the data and technology without fear of reprisal. Let them learn.

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 Jordan Morrow.

Jordan Morrow is known as the “Godfather of Data Literacy”, having helped pioneer the field by building one of the world’s first data literacy programs and driving thought leadership. Jordan is Vice President and Head of Data & Analytics at BrainStorm, Inc., and a global trailblazer in the world of data literacy. When not found within data and analytics, Jordan can be found with his family or within another passion of his, fitness.

Thank you so much for joining us in this interview series. Before we dive in, our readers would love to “get to know you” a bit better. Can you tell us a bit about your ‘backstory’ and how you got started?

I would say that I have had a love of mathematics for a long time, but my career in data and analytics got its foot hold while working at a large financial services company. I then had the pleasure of joining Qlik, where I helped pioneer and invent the entire field of data literacy. My first idea for data literacy, which no, I had no idea that’s what I was diving into, was when I was with the large financial services firm. While there, I would train users on the dashboards or things we built, but that is not training people on how to use data. I created a plan to teach them to do basic statistics or whatever else, it has been a while and I don’t remember the exact plan, but it was denied, I was told no. So, I did not build it there, but a job at Qlik opened the door and the rest is history, as they say.

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?

This was a funny mistake during my time in data literacy, but not at the beginning. This was one where it was more in how I was traveling than doing things in data literacy. Over a 10-day period, I was traveling to three different continents and in five countries. The whole of the trips maybe have been 3 weeks, but in that 10-day period, I was very tired. I got home on a Friday afternoon, wanted to stay up, and before I know it, I was out. I did not know when I woke up again, maybe the middle of the night, but I was exhausted.

This was a humbling learning experience overall for me, not just this trip, but what my work with data literacy did. I got burned out; I went out too much. Through this experience, I learned to scale back, I hope, and to take better care of myself. I hope I’m better now at being smart with my time and doing things right.

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 is multiple. First, Kevin Hanegan, the Chief Learning Officer for Qlik. He is the one who hired me and gave me freedom to do my thing with data literacy. Second, Helene Kerper at Qlik. She is in marketing and helped push things forward for me. Helene getting me in front of the marketing there, and the marketing group did a lot for me…If I am not mistaken, she may have been the one who told me to be on LinkedIn and may have used the term “Thought Leader”. Finally, and certainly not least, but at the top is my wife. She dealt with constant traveling and still puts up with my hectic schedule at times, but throughout she has been wonderful and supported me in such a way to keep data literacy rolling for me.

Is there a particular book, podcast, or film that made a significant impact on you? Can you share a story or explain why it resonated with you so much?

First, I would say it is the podcast “Trail Runner Nation”. I love to push my limits and see what I can do. It may have been through that podcast that I was motivated to run my first ultra-marathon. I am not sure I would have known of that world without that podcast. I have now run multiple ultra-marathons and fitness is an exceptionally large part of my life.

Second, there are too many books to share, but here are a couple to think about: the Freakonomics series, such an interesting set of books to help us think differently on data. “Can’t Hurt Me” by David Goggins, which, if you can get past the language, you may want to then run through walls. Third, “Steve Jobs” because, well, it is a terrific book.

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?

I think this is an interesting question, because “purpose driven” could mean many things. Let me speak to my world of data literacy, which for my career, is something I do through speaking, helping, and writing. The purpose was, and still is but bigger now, to empower those without data skills to gain data skills, while assuring people they don’t have to be data scientists in order to do so. When you are trying to help empower millions upon millions of people, and that is not exaggerating, data literacy is for all. That leaves a lot of ground to cover. No, I can’t do it all and there are other leaders doing similar initiatives to also empower within this space. However, the bottom line is loving what I do and having a positive benefit on the end of it, that’s a good thing for driving success.

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

Things are usually spinning in my head and being worked on. I am currently writing my third book on digital literacy and how transformative the world of data literacy is especially as latest trends continuously get discovered or innovative ideas come forward.

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?

Digital transformation is empowering organizations to be successful in using the digital technologies that are now present in the world today. It is simple to define, but complicated and complex to implement successfully.

To engage in a digitally transformation is to have a strategy that will tie the digital work you are doing to your business strategy. It is to invest in and go all in, strategically, on the tools and technologies you are working with. It is the not just buying tools and technologies and think that is going to get you there, you must set aside the time to train employees to become digitally literate. To achieve digital transformation, it is about true strategy and empowerment.

Which companies can most benefit from a Digital Transformation?

This is an interesting question. Certain industries that have not been technology or digitally driven would be where people would think, maybe manufacturing, but the answer is more generic than that. All companies who are laggards behind where they need to be, they will most benefit from digital transformation. That makes sense, but the reality is, if we went into organizations and looked at adoption rates of the technologies they have invested in, I would guess the adoption rates are not where they would like them to be.

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.

I have worked in what we may be able to call a specific area of digital transformation, and that is with data literacy. I have had the pleasure of speaking to numerous organizations across the world. I’ll give you an example of one:

I had the pleasure of working with a large military organization. I spoke to one area specifically this past summer and oversaw while they looked to change the mindset of its people, as it isn’t in their background or history to question things. However, data and analytics is at its most useful when we begin to question things. To see one of their leaders, I believe their direct leader, tell them to change their mindset is a wonderful thing.

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

Yes, it can be. Within the data and analytics space, the biggest roadblock to success is the culture of the organization. The easy answer would be technology, or the data itself, but the reality is the culture is the biggest challenge. Are people used to doing things a certain way? Does the company do things off gut feel instead of using the data or possibly technology? Well, that is hard! You must drive the evolution of the culture to use these tools and technologies for people’s benefit.

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”?

1. Tie Your Digitally Strategy to Your Business Strategy — I think this may be thought of as a no brainer, but when I work with data, I don’t see companies using a holistic strategy to make it happen. Again, yes, they probably talk about it, think that is what they are doing, but use your business outcomes to drive your data and digital strategies.
2. Digital Fluency — Get people within your organization speaking the same language around the digital tools and technologies you are using and/or investing in.
3. Combine the Technology and the Human — Don’t let people feel they are going to be left in the dust through your digital transformation. Let them know their experience and background has a place at the table, they need to be a part of the discussion.
4. Learn Fast — Build a true culture of iteration and learning fast. If people feel that if they fail with data or digital technology, they may not want to use it. Empower them to know that they can use the data and technology without fear of reprisal. Let them learn.
5. Culture of Learning — Ensure you have the proper learning and tools in place to help people truly succeed with the learning. Make sure they have a purpose, know the why, but don’t just send them mandatory training emails. Do webinars, TED Talk like sessions.

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

Truly helping a workforce to know the “why” behind things is powerful. Buying tools and technologies is not a strategy. Buying “shiny” objects is not a way to drive digital transformation. Instead, build the strategy correctly and get people to understand the why, where they fit in, and help them find the places they can go to learn.

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

One quote I am fond of and share often comes from a hero of mine, Nelson Mandela: “I never lose, I either win or learn”. What a powerful way to look at life! Don’t think you have failed, don’t think you have lost, but pick yourself up and learn from the experience.

Now, being a mountain boy, I like John Muir quotes:

“The mountains are calling and I must go”.

“And into the forest I go, to lose my mind and find my soul”.

“Of all the paths you take in life, make sure a few of them are dirt”.

“Between every two pines is a doorway to a new world”.

How can our readers further follow your work?

I am an active voice on LinkedIn, posting regularly, please come find me there, give me a follow, connect with me. If you want to read up on my work on data literacy and digital transformation, my newest book Be Data Driven is out now and sold wherever books are sold.

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

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

Author Susan Merlo On How to Effectively Leverage The Power of Digital Marketing, PPC, & Email to Dramatically Increase Sales

An Interview With Fotis Georgiadis

Flexibility is essential to have a successful career as a digital marketer. When it comes to digital, you must plan for things to go wrong because a lot can go wrong with every aspect of this job. When technology is involved, things can often take longer than expected. One tiny piece of data in the wrong place can throw off a massive project.

Marketing a product or service today is easier than ever before in history. Using platforms like Facebook ads or Google ads, a company can market their product directly to people who perfectly fit the ideal client demographic, at a very low cost. Digital Marketing tools, Pay per Click ads, and email marketing can help a company dramatically increase sales. At the same time, many companies that just start exploring with digital marketing tools often see disappointing results.

In this interview series called “How to Effectively Leverage The Power of Digital Marketing, PPC, & Email to Dramatically Increase Sales”, we are talking to marketers, advertisers, brand consultants, & digital marketing gurus who can share practical ideas from their experience about how to effectively leverage the power of digital marketing, PPC, & email.

As a part of this series, I had the pleasure of interviewing Susan Merlo.

Susan Merlo, author of the forthcoming book The Digital Distributor and owner of Next Level iMedia and The Digital Distributor Program, is a digital sales and marketing strategist. She helps distributors digitally communicate their value to generate, then qualify, leads so that they can have businesses that are working for them in a way that their buyers prefer. As a consultant, Susan walks hand-in-hand with distributors as they integrate digital marketing solutions into their digital sales systems.

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?

Sure. I started my work career on a very traditional corporate path. I started as a secretary, taking night courses in college. Once I graduated, I worked in human resources for about 15 years.

In 2002, I went on maternity leave, which was right around when sites like eBay and Amazon were catching fire. At that time, Amazon was well-known for selling used books and CDs and eBay was known for selling everything else. So I started selling everything I could get my hands on via eBay or Amazon. I quickly discovered there’s nothing I like better than waking up to unexpected money in my bank account. From there, I built my first eCommerce store and sold small kitchen appliances.

I ran that business for about three or four years, and in doing so, I learned how to build websites. After that, the eCommerce business evolved into selling websites. And that was my first step into marketing, which, at the time, I knew nothing about.

Can you share a story about the funniest marketing mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lessons or ‘takeaways’ you learned from that?

Oh my gosh, yes! During my time selling websites, there were various platforms available (this was before WordPress was around.) The platform I worked with allowed the site owners to add various elements for the site such as the title and subtitle of the website, the content for the about page, contact information, etc. One of the fields where you could contribute were the keywords. When my clients asked me what they were supposed to write in the keyword section, I would tell them it didn’t matter. Because I had never heard of a keyword before, I just assumed that if keywords were necessary, I would have heard of them. I know that today this sounds ludicrous, but back then, there wasn’t much published about search engine optimization or keywords.

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?

Yes, I have a few people to thank for helping me get to where I am today. But, the one who stands out the most is John Assaraf. In 2009 he created a program called “Having it All,” a program meant to improve every aspect of one’s life. The members of the program met with John every week. Some weekly guests brought knowledge that I never even knew existed. Friendships and connections were formed during that program, which are still invaluable. It was life-changing.

Then coming out of that program, I enrolled in John’s business coaching program, which taught me a lot of what I know about marketing today. I worked with John’s coaching group in one way or another for what turned out to be some very formative years for me. Between the Having it All program and the business coaching, it was a time that significantly shaped my future.

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

For the past eight or so years, I’ve worked as a marketing consultant exclusively in the wholesale distribution industry. The wholesale distribution industry is unique because they’ve depended solely on face-to-face sales and traditional marketing for many years — until COVID. Digital was simply not in their DNA.

Needless to say, before COVID, serving this industry was an uphill battle. But I was determined because I knew what they didn’t know, and it was my mission to help my clients utilize digital marketing strategies. So what makes me stand out? Well, two things. The first is that I think I’m probably the only nut that stuck it out and continued to fight that good fight. Today, of course, there are a few others. The second is that I am a woman in a male-dominated industry, which added to my uphill battle.

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?

The first character trait would be my ability to form lasting relationships with my colleagues, whether employees, clients, or mentors. I have a few of each that have stuck with me for close to 10 years.

The second character trait I would point to would be my resilience. When I started building my business, I had a newborn, and a few months before my son was born, my son’s father, my boyfriend, was diagnosed with cancer. So, suddenly, I was a full-time caretaker to both for three years until Ken passed away. After that, I was a single mom with no support whatsoever. But, because of the program I mentioned earlier, John Assaraf’s “Having it All,” I was able to bounce back from a very dark time in my life.

The third character trait I would say is resourcefulness. Building this business was tough but extremely necessary to keep a roof over our heads. Because I had a baby and a very sick man in my life, I needed to be able to control my time and my income, which was incredibly difficult at times. There were many “borrowing from Peter to pay Paul” situations. I could barely put food on our table at times, and my mortgage has been leveraged so much through these past years that it won’t be paid off until I’m 95! Nevertheless, I kept the business running, my clients happy, and my employees always got paid.

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

Yes, very exciting, in fact. I’m having a new book published next month by a very well-known publisher in the wholesale distribution industry. The fact that they are publishing it gives it a lot of credibility. I wrote the book to help distributors understand why and how they must implement digital sales and marketing strategies.

As I mentioned above, this is an industry built on face-to-face sales. But, because of COVID, customers no longer want to do face-to-face meetings, and they have learned that turning to the Internet for answers is a lot quicker than speaking to a salesperson.

Ok super. Now let’s jump to the main questions of our interview. As we mentioned in the beginning, sometimes companies that just start exploring with digital marketing tools like PPC campaigns often see disappointing results. In your opinion, what are a few of the biggest mistakes companies make when they first start out with digital marketing? If you can, please share an example for each.

A big mistake I see is a person’s lack of setting goals and measuring success. If you don’t measure something, you will never know whether or not it’s working. The nice thing about digital is that everything is measurable. People must take advantage of that to understand what’s working and what isn’t. This way, they can do more of what’s working and less of what isn’t. It used to be that people would say, “I know half of my marketing is working … I just don’t know which half!” That shouldn’t be the case any longer.

Another mistake I see is a lack of patience and poor budgeting. It can take a while to realize or recognize a good ROI on your marketing investment. New campaigns will always need to be tweaked. Again, because everything is measurable, if a campaign is not working or performing, you must isolate different aspects of the campaign to see what’s off. And this could take a lot of time. Companies need to budget for the time it takes to correct a campaign that’s not performing. It could take anywhere from 30 to 60 to 90 to 120 days. And when it comes to pay-per-click, that can get very expensive. So the best rule of thumb is to start slowly and test everything before diving into the deep end.

If you could break down a very successful digital marketing campaign into a “blueprint”, what would that blueprint look like? Please share some stories or examples of your ideas.

The first step of a successful digital marketing campaign begins with knowing who the target audience is. You’ve got to know their demographics, their pain points, their goals, the obstacles they’re facing, and what your company or your customer’s company can do to help. Helping your audience achieve a goal or overcome an obstacle should be the key focus of any campaign.

The next step would be to plan and create content to communicate to your audience that your mission is to do just that, help them overcome pain points and obstacles, and meet goals. But it’s more than it sounds.

When you’re face to face with your audience, it’s easy, but from a digital standpoint, you must use fairly sophisticated marketing automation to ensure your target audience sees those messages that convey that information. So a vital part of that blueprint is understanding the buyer’s journey, creating content that will appeal to a customer or target audience throughout their journey, drawing them closer to the bottom of the sales funnel.

The next critical item would be to ensure your marketing automation system supports the buyer’s journey you’d like to lay out. You’ll need a keen ability to recognize the difference between a sales-qualified lead and a marketing-qualified lead, ensuring a sales-qualified lead is passed to a salesperson at the right time. All of this falls under the umbrella of marketing automation.

The blueprint would include two other essential elements. The first would be a solid alignment between the marketing and sales teams, and the other would be the ability to measure the success of every step in that sales cycle. I don’t think any of these items I’ve named can be skipped, although I’ve seen many companies try to cut corners and ignore many of these steps. But, of course, these are the same companies that will say things like “marketing automation doesn’t work,” or “their CRM doesn’t work,” etc.

Let’s talk about Pay Per Click Marketing (PPC) for a bit. In your opinion which PPC platform produces the best results to increase sales?

My thought is that it’s a tie between Facebook and Google when it comes to effective PPC campaigns.

Google has perfected its ability to have users laser target market their audiences. Google provides the tools, KPIs, training, and everything someone would need to know to run a successful PPC campaign. Plus, Google has a tremendously far reach. We rarely see websites that host advertising but don’t run Google ads on their page. So when you combine all of that with Google algorithms, it’s a home run.

I’m also a big fan of what advertisers can do using Meta (formerly Facebook and Instagram). Especially with the ability to zero in on and re-market to an audience. Meta’s demographic data is gold for a B2C advertising campaign. I believe it can also be beneficial in B2B business because although people aren’t using Facebook or Instagram for business resources, they still go on it and see the ads.

Can you please share 3 things that you need to know to run a highly successful PPC campaign?

Those three things would be:

1. A clear understanding of who your audience is.
2. A good keyword strategy.
3. An understanding of the platform on which you’re advertising. For example, while Meta is incredibly data-rich, they keep changing their platform, which wastes precious time if you’re not keeping up with the changes.

Let’s now talk about email marketing for a bit. In your opinion, what are the 3 things that you need to know to run a highly successful email marketing campaign that increases sales?

I sound like a broken record but knowing your audience is critical for email marketing. There’s nothing more annoying than receiving and opening an irrelevant email. It wastes time when you send people things that don’t pertain to them.

The second thing I would say is to have a segmented list that is up to date. If your email list is outdated or stale, there’s a good chance that your email client, the company you used to send your email, will not send to your entire list because those outdated or stale emails will bounce. In other words, if you have too many undeliverable email addresses on your list, you will get penalized, affecting your ability to land in someone’s inbox.

The third key I will point to is to have a good copywriter. When your salesperson can’t get in front of a prospect, you may need your email to do the selling for you. With that in mind, you’ll want to have compelling email messaging with a strong call to action. It’s also worth mentioning that your customers are looking for value from you, so don’t send many sales emails. Instead, send them email that will help them with their business or a problem that you can solve for them, but don’t make it salesy. Use the 80/20 rule where you send 80% helpful information and 20% sales-related. Better yet, go for 90/10, and your email recipients will love you for it!

What are the other digital marketing tools that you are passionate about? If you can, can you share with our readers what they are and how to best leverage them?

Well, I’m incredibly passionate about marketing automation. Marketing automation can mean a few things, but in a nutshell, anything you can automate while still having your messaging personalized, such as email marketing or live chat on a website, is incredibly valuable to your marketing capabilities. It adds efficiency, saving time and money, and in many cases, extending your reach in your market.

Good marketing automation tools can personalize communications and track prospects throughout their sales journey, alerting the sales team when that prospect is ripe for a purchase.

A CRM is an essential digital marketing tool because that is where all of the data that your marketing automation system acquires is going to be stored and accessed by a salesperson. A salesperson’s job must be as frictionless as possible. Without sales, there is no business. So the more data collected about a prospect, the better prepared the salesperson will be.

Here is the main question of our series. Can you please tell us the 5 things you need to create a highly successful career as a digital marketer? Can you please share a story or example for each?

The first thing would be a plan. Your plan should dictate the direction you want to take your career and the path to get there. For example, digital marketers come in many different shapes and sizes. Some digital marketers only do social media, or perhaps they only do pay-per-click advertising for customers, or maybe they only do search engine optimization tasks or copywriting. Of course, many digital marketers will do all of the above. Still, in my opinion, when you specialize in one area or another, it’s easier to build your platform as an authority.

The second thing would be a passion for the industry. There are a lot of digital marketers out there, and it can be competitive and it can be frustrating. You can also have customers who make your job tricky. However, having that passion and love for doing your work will get you through difficult times. Remember that regardless of how many digital marketers are out there, there will always be plenty of work. A digital marketer’s job is never done.

The third thing I will say is knowledge. Digital tools, how they work, and what they can do, change constantly. You must stay updated and familiar with any changes that affect your customers or the work you perform. Knowing the value of the various digital tools is important as well. Try to find the tools from which you get the best ROI. Tools like Canva, WordPress, HootSuite and other social posting tools — there are so many that are free or require a small investment on which you can build an entire business. Choose wisely and stay up to date with all of them.

The fourth thing someone would need to create a highly successful career in digital marketing is confidence. While I said above that it’s important to stay knowledgeable, it’s impossible to know everything. Sometimes, a customer or a prospect will ask you a question, and you won’t know the answer. How you respond in this situation can be the difference between whether or not you land them or keep them as a client. So always be confident, be honest about what you know or might not know, and answer with a promise to get the information requested. Remember, when it comes to digital marketing, if you stay up to date as best you can, chances are you’ll always be the most competent person in the room.

The last thing I would say is flexibility is essential to have a successful career as a digital marketer. When it comes to digital, you must plan for things to go wrong because a lot can go wrong with every aspect of this job. When technology is involved, things can often take longer than expected. One tiny piece of data in the wrong place can throw off a massive project.

Digital marketing is not a nine-to-five job, but when you plan your time well, it’s a business that can give you a lot of freedom. For example, when I started, I would jokingly say all I needed was a phone and a computer. But, of course, you need a lot more than that. But once you do have the five things I mentioned above, you really only need a computer and a phone. And in many cases, in fact, you just need the phone!

What books, podcasts, videos or other resources do you use to sharpen your marketing skills?

My most valuable resource regarding what I do for a living is Google. I use Google for everything. Everything I wonder about or might have a question about, I go to Google. And I learn a lot from other marketers by doing so. I use Google to look up words, find synonyms, find shortcuts for different software or operating systems, check facts, find images, get ideas, and the list goes on.

To sharpen my marketing skills, I listen to podcasts and watch videos from David Meltzer, Roland Fraser, Joe Polish, and anything from Strategic Coach I can get my hands on. In addition, I read books that keep my mind sharp and organized, like Atomic Habits by James Clear and Limitless by Jim Kwik. I will also go onto the Clubhouse app to see what other marketers are up to. Some very forward-thinking marketers there share tremendously valuable information for free. It’s an outstanding resource for sharpening one’s marketing skills.

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 think the world today lacks kindness, so I would love to start a movement that would catalyze kindness in every human being, myself included. I could never understand why kindness is not an automatic go-to in our society. I think we all work too hard, we’ve become too materialistic and competitive, and I imagine the pressure that brings affects how we treat others. So with that, I would say my movement would be toward a mandatory four-day work week.

How can our readers further follow your work?

The best way to follow me would be via LinkedIn at: https://www.linkedin.com/in/susanmerlo/ . I have a newsletter there and share a lot of articles and tips about digital marketing. Please reach out and connect with me! I’d love to meet all of the readers here at Authority Magazine.

This was very inspiring. Thank you so much for the time you spent with this!

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Author Susan Merlo On How to Effectively Leverage The Power of Digital Marketing, PPC, & Email to… 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: Cision’s Chelsea Mirkin On How To Effectively Leverage Data To Take Your Company To The Next Level

An Interview With Fotis Georgiadis

Connect Outputs to Outcomes: Data savvy organizations know to consider more than just outputs, or activity metrics. In the earned media world these outputs include volume, reach, sentiment and share of voice metrics. While these traditional KPIs remain an important part of any measurement program, leading communications teams go several steps further, connecting earned, owned and paid media outputs with metrics and datasets which indicate a specific behavioral or attitudinal outcome.

As part of our series about “How To Effectively Leverage Data To Take Your Company To The Next Level”, I had the pleasure of interviewing Chelsea Mirkin.

As the head of the Cision Insights Global Analysis, Chelsea oversees a team of 600 analysts, managers and directors in the delivery of research-based consulting to enhance corporate and brand reputation. The work she and her team provide fuels the world’s most admired organizations with actionable insights and strategic guidance to inform communications and marketing strategy. Prior to her role on the leadership team at Cision, Chelsea served as a senior research practitioner and consultant at PRIME Research, specializing in the design, execution, oversight and evolution of global research-based consulting programs across a variety of sectors.

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?

After graduating from the University of Michigan, I took on a data entry job for a small German start-up in a field I was not aware existed at the time — PR measurement. It turned out to be a great decision. I worked my way up from data analyst in 2005 to leading the US Operation by 2015 and watched the organization grow from a team of 5 to a team of 150 in the US. It was a blast to be part of such explosive growth and afforded me opportunities to get in front of senior-level, data-driven communications executives at major Fortune 100 organizations very early on in my career. I am thankful to have had wonderful mentors throughout my career who trusted me, believed in me, and taught me how to translate data into actionable insights.

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?

I can’t think of a great example of one specific funny mistake, but when I first started out one of the core ways in which our performance was measured was our efficiency in conducting content analysis. In other words, we were measured on how many articles could we “code” per hour. I was consistently at the bottom of the list. Being a competitive athlete all of my life, I found this underperformance to be extremely embarrassing. More than 15 years later, my manager has pointed out my strong preference to be “extremely thorough,” which I had never properly considered as a core tenant of my working style until now. The same quality that impacted my coding inefficiency has both propelled my success as well as held me back at various points in my career. For instance, this “perfectionist” mindset comes in very handy when you have been asked to interrogate the fidelity of the data in a report a customer is delivering to the board, but it can be a hindrance when you are trying to make decisions at speed. My learning: Sometimes 75% certainty or effort is “good enough.” There can be diminishing returns attached to that extra 25%. There are so many applications for this in the data world. For instance, we so often have to counsel clients facing budget restrictions that they can make the same decisions based on a sample of 2,000 articles that they can on a sample of 10,000 — so long as they choose the most impactful media outlets. Speed and accuracy/thoroughness are often a balancing act — in the data world, and in the working world — and I have learned that perfection can sometimes be a hindrance to progress.

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?

My deep appreciation for data as a tool to guide informed decision-making extends from my professional life into my personal one. As a mother of two kids under five, I have very much leaned on the work of Emily Oster, an Economist and author of books which leverage data to address common topics and questions that arise during pregnancy and parenthood. For me, her books have been the antidote to mom guilt and helped me ground my parental decision-making in sound research. And when I am not thinking about work or my small people, you can find me falling asleep 20 minutes into watching the latest binge-worthy Netflix show.

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

My team and I, together with our customers, have been very focused on connecting media outputs to reputational and business outcomes. With communicators’ roles and the media landscape rapidly changing and evolving, data-driven consultants need to work harder to bring the pieces together. Most communications and marketing teams are swimming in data, and very often, this data does not link back in a material way to behavioral, reputational, or business shifts.

At Cision, we are trying to answer questions like “Which messages and campaigns have the potential to drive increased purchase consideration amongst intended audiences?” and “How can a company pivot and focus resources on the journalists and influencers that are most likely to reach these audiences?”. It is exciting to have the talent on our team and enthusiasm and support from top clients pushing us to dive further into this space. We are confident that this new product offering will help many communications organizations struggling to connect their function to the broader business conversation. Communications professionals have historically been at a disadvantage in the boardroom, but we believe that this does not need to be the case.

Thank you for all that. Let’s now turn to the main focus of our discussion about empowering organizations to be more “data-driven.” My work centers on the value of data visualization and data collaboration at all levels of an organization, so I’m particularly passionate about this topic. 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?

In simple terms, organizations use data to accomplish one or both of the following objectives — to prove value or to improve performance. We have worked with many clients who look to data to validate a hypothesis or to tell a success story (prove value). When the data disagrees with the gut feeling or does not tell a positive story, some individuals and teams can be quick to dismiss the data and discredit its integrity. On a foundational level, being data-driven requires an openness to leveraging data proactively, and buying-in to the fact that data should be used directionally and iteratively. Companies who do this well feature data as a central part of daily, weekly, monthly, and quarterly team meetings where planning occurs, ideas are discussed, and successes and failures are examined in a safe, transparent, and honest way.

Which companies can most benefit from tools that empower data collaboration?

While any organization stands to benefit from shared data collaboration workspaces — especially in today’s hybrid work environment — I have found that companies who have many different stakeholders and who need to collaborate across multiple business units, markets, and languages are most in need of these types of solutions. Empowering these teams to speak the same data language and to centralize planning and evaluation around a single source of truth is powerful, and unlocks greater opportunity for best practice sharing. We have helped so many teams move from a fractured, regional data ecosystem to a global, central dataset grounded in consistent methodology, common key metrics frameworks and, ultimately, a shared vision of “what good looks like.”

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.

We spend roughly one-third of our lives at work, so it is only natural that with so much time and energy invested, it can become an emotionally-charged environment. My favorite thing about data is that it can immediately neutralize emotion. We once had a CEO client who was adamant that a specific top financial publication was biased toward their company. This client was refusing to engage or take interviews and asked a colleague to confront the outlet and its top beat journalist. The colleague knew this would lead to missed opportunities and diminished credibility. They commissioned our organization to study the presence of systematic bias in media coverage in this specific outlet, in relation to other top US financial sites. Through a combination of a journalist survey and content analysis, we were able to definitively prove that there was no discernable bias in the coverage. After being presented with the findings, the CEO reversed their position, saving the colleague from a potentially damaging confrontation with this top publication.

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?

There is a common phrase tied to teams or organizations who are reluctant to adopt data into their way of working: FOFO, or “fear of finding out.” We have actually had Chief Communication Officers tell us that they would rather forgo being a proven success than run the risk of being a proven failure. Organizations need to reorient their culture and their teams around the idea of failing safely — and then be ready to measure and report back on what is working/not working, iterate, and adjust.

Ok. Thank you. Here is the primary question of our discussion. Based on your experience and success, what are “Four Ways a Company Can Effectively Leverage Data to Take It To The Next Level”? Please share a story or an example for each.

In my years of working with leading communications functions at F1000 organizations across all markets and industries, I have noticed that the teams who effectively measure the impact of PR and communications share the following four attributes in common:

• Leverage a smart combination of Tools, Talent, and Technology to Drive Actionable Insights: There are no shortage of tools or data available. The right talent will know not only how to use these tools effectively to drive toward the most meaningful outputs, but also how to provide guidance to transform the data into meaningful, tactical advice that can be leveraged to improve outcomes. Ideally, the talent deployed understands the function they are supporting, as well as the industry the company operates within. With many of our most sophisticated customers we employ an “embedded consultant” model where our resource is tasked to sit in on all internal meetings in order to anticipate research-driven needs. These resources commonly leverage social media monitoring platforms, where they vet and flag topics rising in interest or importance to facilitate crisis-mitigation as well as opportunity identification. In one such instance, we helped a popular credit card brand detect a surge of acceptance issues arising with specific types of merchants (in this case taxis and convenience stores in NYC) before the issue rose to critical levels. The brand was able to respond quickly with further support and education dispersed through their merchant network to mitigate the issue and reduce complaints.
• Develop Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) that Align with Overall Business Objectives: Leading data-driven teams know the importance of aligning on a shared definition of success with key stakeholders — both within and outside their direct functional responsibility. When we started working with a major enterprise technology company in 2018, the objectives focused purely on driving a market-leading share of voice in earned media. The problem with this approach was two fold 1) Metrics drive behavior, and departmental leaders focused purely on quantity of media coverage vs. quality 2) Because the results were so singularly-focused, and because the goal was not reasonable given historical performance, it was impossible to demonstrate the effectiveness and value of the department’s contributions to the overall business objectives. The result? The department was finding itself fighting to justify budget. We counseled the organization to shift its focus to achieving higher key message penetration in core media we determined to be most effective in reaching target audiences, which aligned well with the company’s intentional shift to be known for it’s newer and more innovative products. The result is that this drove more focused and thoughtful behavior across the teams, and more control over the department’s ability to demonstrate success at the ELT-level. It also allowed us to streamline our measurement program, focusing less on clip-counting, and more on deep measurement in target media. With the repurposed funds, we were able to expand upon the measurement program and we are now connecting the media outputs to the changes in awareness and behavior resulting from the team’s efforts, bringing the department even closer to demonstrating the impact of it’s efforts in shifting the more tangible reputational and business outcomes, and helping secure a flat budget heading into a year where many face budget cuts.
• Connect Outputs to Outcomes: Data savvy organizations know to consider more than just outputs, or activity metrics. In the earned media world these outputs include volume, reach, sentiment and share of voice metrics. While these traditional KPIs remain an important part of any measurement program, leading communications teams go several steps further, connecting earned, owned and paid media outputs with metrics and datasets which indicate a specific behavioral or attitudinal outcome. This capability unlocks so much potential to optimize for improved performance. At a leading B2B tech company, for instance, we’ve connected earned media data to website visits and software downloads to uncover the specific media outlets most likely to generate interest amongst core target audiences (CIOs and CTOs). Leveraging this data, we were able to help the company narrow their 3,000-title publication list to the 150 that had the highest penetration amongst these C-Suite executives. This more narrow focus helped the company “do more with less” and drove improved results for a fraction of the cost.
• Use Their Measurement Solution to Prove value AND Improve Performance. One final element that sets data-driven organizations apart is that they think of measurement not only as a report card that proves value, but as an ongoing tool to improve performance over time. They bring in research and data not only at the end of a campaign, event or initiative, but at the beginning to inform strategy as well as in the middle to make adjustments along the way. With one banking customer we were advising, we were asked to research the way in which a data breach was being discussed in organic social conversations prior to articulating a response to the incident. Why? Because the company rightly anticipated this same phrasing being used by their customers when leveraging search engines to research the impact of the breach. They were able to “SEO” their own press release response, ensuring it rose to the top of search engine results, and therefore improving upon likelihood that their indented messaging would rise to the top for those seeking additional detail. The result was a significant reduction in critical commentary when compared to prior incidents, and a much shorter reputational recovery period — sentiment leveled off to normal levels within 24 hours (vs. the 48+ hours observed previously).

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?

Change starts from the top. We rarely see data-driven teams succeed without a supportive executive-level team member setting the tone for the organization, and aligning teams around a set of measurable objectives which are meaningful (connected to business goals that resonate and have buy-in from the CEO down to the individuals on the team) and reasonable (achievable, rooted in historical trends).

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?

I expect that the demand for the convergence of datasets from all areas of the business will only continue to accelerate. In our part of the world, we’re seeing this appetite emerge across communications and marketing teams in the form of omnichannel measurement. The lines between earned, owned and paid are becoming increasingly blurred, forcing communications and marketing professionals (and the consultants who support them) to become fluent in the language of data across all of these channels in order to provide actionable insight.

Does your organization have any exciting goals for the near future? What challenges will you need to tackle to reach them? How do you think data analytics can best help you to achieve these goals?

We are fully poised to support our customers through the evolution I’ve just discussed above. Not only are we looking at meaningful and statistically significant ways to connect outputs to outcomes on behalf of our customers, but we’re leaning in on the data-as-a-service (DaaS) model to empower our customers to have more flexibility and agility to plug our data into their own BI environments. We are also investing heavily in upskilling our teams to be fluent in all data languages across all channels to allow us to consult our customers more holistically in this converging space.

How can our readers further follow your work?

You can follow me on my personal LinkedIn page, and the work of my team on Cision’s official social channels: LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and our resources page.

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

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Data-Driven Work Cultures: Cision’s Chelsea Mirkin On How To Effectively Leverage Data To Take Your… 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: Angela Fox Of Bright.md On How To Effectively Leverage Data To Take Your Company To The Next Level

An Interview With Fotis Georgiadis

View Analytics as Storytelling. Build a data analytics team that includes people who are skilled at turning numbers into stories and insights. This can help make overwhelming data streams more easily digestible and helps to inspire others across the organization to get excited about data. It also helps you communicate big ideas simply and clearly to stakeholders.

As part of our series about “How To Effectively Leverage Data To Take Your Company To The Next Level”, I had the pleasure of interviewing Angela Fox.

Angela Fox is the Head of Analytics at Bright.md, a leading asynchronous telehealth solution trusted by health systems to automate clinical workflows and administrative tasks, improve patient and provider engagement, and drive operational efficiency. In her role, she leads all aspects of analytics and business intelligence to bring to life key data stories that inform business strategy, measure the impact of product improvements, inspire customers, and strengthen the brand. She is a healthcare analytics leader with a deep understanding of risk-based financial models, measurement best practices, and population health strategies.

Thank you so much for joining us in this interview series. Before we dive in, our readers would love to “get to know you” a bit better. Can you tell us a bit about your ‘backstory’ and how you got started?

I got started in data pretty early on in my career. I studied math in college, and my first job out of school was in analytics doing statistical reporting for a property and casualty insurance company. Eventually, I found my way into healthcare analytics and worked for Providence Health & Services for nine years in the population health division. That led me to my current role at Bright.md, where as Head of Analytics, I lead all aspects of data analytics and business intelligence to inform business strategy, measure the impact of product improvements, inspire customers, and strengthen our brand.

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?

Mistakes when it comes to data are rarely funny! I still cringe to think about calculation errors, data refresh failures, and awkward presentations from those early years. We have all done them. Enough said!

One big mistake I did make earlier in my career was thinking it was just a matter of how you present the data that will get someone to respond to it. So, if people were not reacting, I thought I must not be presenting it correctly. I spent a lot of time spinning my wheels and iterating and refining my visualization skills to present data in a way I thought would inspire people and encourage them to take action.

Although it was a great learning experience and allowed me to hone my skills, I eventually realized that sometimes organizations are just not going to respond to the data, no matter how well you present it to them. Whether that’s because there are other strategic considerations at play, they need time to consider their next move, or they are just slow to act, the root cause is not the analyst presenting the data. Learning this lesson was very freeing. I now recognize that sharing data is like telling stories — some will resonate with your audience and others will not. It’s not always obvious to me what is going to inspire people and now I think that’s one of the things that makes my work so interesting.

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 think my real-life experiences have had a more significant impact on me than any book or podcast. I’ve learned valuable lessons from my colleagues and mentors about how they’re approaching data, how they’re measuring performance, and how they’re creatively working with imperfect information. I have found that learning from your peers and having a curious mind has been essential to a successful career in data.

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

One of the things we’re currently working on at Bright.md is an overhaul of our customer-facing dashboards. There has been a realization when it comes to reporting that just seeing numbers isn’t quite getting anyone where they want to be. What organizations really want are insights to help guide them to success. To achieve this, we’re building a robust, customer-centric reporting package that really equips our customers with the information they care about most — patient experience, provider efficiency, clinical quality and overall value. We’re hoping to translate the large amount of data at our fingertips into data stories that will help customers make program decisions and get the most out of asynchronous care.

We’re showing them data about provider variation that can spark conversations among clinical teams. These conversations often lead to process improvements around quality and efficiency. We’re highlighting trends in patient experience that will reinforce workflows that best meet patient needs. Through industry benchmarks and comparisons with similar customers, we’re helping our health system partners understand what’s possible and inspiring them to think bigger and broader.

We’re excited to serve up data stories that will ultimately improve healthcare for years to come.

Thank you for all that. Let’s now turn to the main focus of our discussion about empowering organizations to be more “data-driven.” My work centers on the value of data visualization and data collaboration at all levels of an organization, so I’m particularly passionate about this topic. 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?

To be data-driven, you need to be leveraging data to make better decisions. Metrics should be used as feedback to evaluate how you are doing and if you are on track, and not as a measuring stick or a punishment tool. You can almost think of data as street signs or GPS, guiding you in which way you need to go to get to your destination. Listening to that data as a guide and responding to it is ultimately how you succeed in becoming data-driven.

On a practical level, I have seen a lot of companies focus on success metrics which are often outcome-based measures. It can take a long time to get that information, and in healthcare in particular it can often take years. While you wait for those results, your program could be headed way off track and you may waste a lot of time, money and resources. So, you must learn to be comfortable with leading indicators — these are the activities that are most likely to result in the desired outcomes. They are easy to measure, can be tracked early and often. Then, you need to listen to that data frequently and tweak your strategy in response.

Which companies can most benefit from tools that empower data collaboration?

Absolutely all of them! I can’t think of an organization that wouldn’t benefit. Within Bright.md, we have a lot of different divisions. I’m working with product and engineering all the time to measure whether the product feature had the impact we hoped it would, if it is driving more business, etc. Then I’m working with sales and marketing to discuss how we talk about the product, what quality metrics it is hitting, and how that is ultimately helping physicians to deliver better healthcare. At the same time, I’m working with finance, and customer success to monitor volumes and ensure we’re delivering financial value. There is a place for data in all organizations and throughout all departments.

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.

One of the things I appreciate most about Bright.md is the truly data-driven leadership team we have in place. The planning phase of every new initiative, project, and product feature includes a set of success metrics and predetermined measurement plan. These are co-designed with analytics to ensure the measures will be available, reliable, and timely. As soon as the project is implemented, tracking begins and the entire organization can watch the progress through company-wide dashboards.

One great example of this is when we launched Navigate, a digital front door for our customers. With this product, patients can go to their provider’s website, search for their condition, and get directed to the recommended care option in the health system based on their symptoms. When we released this, we also implemented a pathway that enabled patients to choose Bright.md through the digital front door and begin an asynchronous visit.

Because we were so closely monitoring the funnel of patients entering Navigate and then at key points along the journey, within an hour of releasing the product we were able to see significant drop off at one point in the funnel. We quickly brought a team together to develop a few hypotheses around why this might be happening. As we tested each hypothesis with product tweaks, we could track the impact nearly in real time. After just a day, we uncovered the root problem in the patient journey. Within a few days we repaired the issue and cleared the blockage in the funnel.

This was only possible due to our culture of early collaboration with analytics, defining key success metrics, making data visible company wide, being comfortable responding to early feedback and leading indicators, and embracing data as a source of guidance.

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?

I think the shift towards becoming more data-driven has been challenging because a lot of organizations may recognize the need for data, but never make it beyond the foundational stage. They start out on the right track with establishing data governance for reliability, developing driver metrics for tracking and accountability, and ensuring access to data for visibility. But then they stumble on building a data-driven leadership team to evangelize and set the tone for the organization, integrating analytics into strategic decisions, and figuring out how to get comfortable taking action on early indicators.

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.

1. Establish the Analytics Team as a Strategic Partner. Whether it is the product, marketing, or operations departments, incorporating analytics expertise early in the organizational process is pivotal to ensuring teams can track and measure progress. The involvement of the analytics team will also help to improve data literacy across the organization through modeling, coaching, and partnering. Including them in conversations early will help to steer the organization to success and ensure that the necessary information is captured.
2. Involve Data Decision-Makers in Leadership Discussions. So many companies position analytics as order takers — this is a mistake. Leadership should come to the analytics team with big questions and a starting hypothesis or two and let them take it from there. If your analytics team understands the business and where it’s headed, they can anticipate what key information leadership will need to get there. Sometimes it will mean new data they have to start collecting and incorporating into the data infrastructure
3. View Analytics as Storytelling. Build a data analytics team that includes people who are skilled at turning numbers into stories and insights. This can help make overwhelming data streams more easily digestible and helps to inspire others across the organization to get excited about data. It also helps you communicate big ideas simply and clearly to stakeholders.
4. Get Comfortable with Leading Indicators. It’s all about frequently listening to what the data is saying and tweaking your strategy to respond accordingly. Data will not be perfect — and you need to be OK with that. This sentiment is particularly true within healthcare and with any kind of innovation, as outcomes that are statistically significant can take months or years. Do your research and rely on existing studies in the interim to pick the right early indicators.
5. Reward Measurement that Leads to Action — Don’t Obsess Over Outcomes. Of course, you need to have success metrics and target setting for new initiatives to hold teams accountable. However, it’s the way you hold them accountable that really matters. So many organizations get data wrong by viewing this in terms of black and white. It’s not — we met/we didn’t meet (pass/fail). It’s about what have we learned and how are we responding to it. This requires risk-taking and building a culture where it’s okay to fail sometimes in order to promote innovation in the long run.

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?

To create a data-driven culture, you really need data-driven leaders that understand and recognize the importance of data. Having that data literacy at the top will help to reinforce the importance of data within the company culture. I would reiterate the importance of having storytellers on your analytics team, as they will be the ones to get people excited and help them realize the possibilities that data can provide. At Bright.md, we have a big Slack culture, and the analytics team is constantly posting insights on team channels about new trends we see emerging that might be interesting to that team. This opens up the conversation and continuously keeps the organization excited about the work we are doing.

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?

I think the need for data is absolutely evolving, and it’s not just the need for data itself anymore — it is the need for insights and stories. Early in my career, I saw this big movement to simply have access to data and capture it correctly. From there, it evolved to creating dashboards and providing public access to this information, regardless of the fact that it was overwhelming and indecipherable to most people who weren’t specialists. Now, we’re in an age of insights and storytelling which is really inspiring people to see the value in data. From my perspective, our next data frontier will be leveraging big data for predictive analytics and machine learning, where we’re already seeing a lot of innovation. I think we’re only at the beginning of that journey and I’m excited to see where it goes next.

Does your organization have any exciting goals for the near future? What challenges will you need to tackle to reach them? How do you think data analytics can best help you to achieve these goals?

We have some exciting things coming up on our product roadmap at Bright.md, including deepening our EHR interoperability, improving our patient and provider experiences, and widening access to make it easier for more people to use asynchronous care. Analytics will continue to partner with the product team to set success metrics, provide real-time feedback and tell those key data stories that emerge.

Coming out of discussions with our health system partners who are struggling with massive financial losses and workforce shortages, we’re refining our approach to measuring the value of telehealth investments–and asynchronous care in particular. We’re analyzing large customer data sets so we can better project future visit volumes, quantify the impact of key value levers and articulate the distribution of value across multiple cost centers. Healthcare is complex and we want to make it easy for our customers to deliver fast, high-quality, convenient care to those who need it most.

How can our readers further follow your work?

You can find out more about the work Bright.md is doing by heading to our website or following us on LinkedIn or Twitter.

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

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Data-Driven Work Cultures: Angela Fox On How To Effectively Leverage Data To Take Your was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Monét A. Ledbetter-Glaude Of Inet Productions Inc.: 5 Things You Need To Know To Successfully Run a Live Virtual Event

An Interview With Fotis Georgiadis

Test your live stream in advance and make sure all your software is updated. This is done so there are no technical difficulties.

As a part of our series about “5 Things You Need To Know To Successfully Run a Live Virtual Event”, I had the pleasure of interviewing Ms. Angel Mone’t.

Monét A. Ledbetter-Glaude better known as (“Ms. Angel Monét”), is a songwriter, performer, vocalist, pianist, playwright and is the creator of “Jack’s World”, a children’s family musical filled with inspirational messages of Love, Family and Self-Esteem. Ms. Angel Mone’t is also the President of Inét Productions Inc. (www.inetproductionsinc.com), a music production company that specializes in the development of instrumental, vocal, performance skills and her children’s music program, “Peppy People’s Music” which provides a multicultural music curriculum with resources that teach children the fundamentals of music and addresses the needs of music in early childhood education.

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 bit about your “childhood backstory”?

I was blessed to have a wonderful childhood. I grew up with supportive parents and three loving siblings. One thing I loved doing at a very young age was playing the piano, singing and writing songs. The piano was how I expressed myself. I used the piano to get all my thoughts and feelings out as it became my outlet. When my friends were outside playing, I would be in the house for hours playing the piano. By the time I turned nine years old, I would sit in my room writing and performing skits. This was the start of my experience producing plays. I was active in the church and also participated in Girl Scouts and the 4-H Club. At age fourteen I started playing professionally in the church. A couple of years later I joined a local gospel group called the Mighty Quintets. We traveled all through the Midwest and south as the opening act for the professional gospel group Maggie Ingram and Ingramettes. I graduated from John Yeates high School and later attended Berklee College of Music.

Can you tell us the story of what led you to this particular career path?

When I was little, I knew music was the career path I was born to take. Although I had a love and passion for music, seeing how it had the power to make people feel better about their circumstances, lift their souls and encourage them motivated me to want to pursue the career path of becoming a musician. I’ve always loved to encourage and empower people. But having the opportunity to do this through my music is something I knew I would always do. I also loved being able to create something and share it with the world. Music has the power to make people happier, healthier, and more connected.

Can you share a story about the funniest mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lesson you learned from that?

I remember being very nervous before performing in a talent show. When my name was called, I walked on stage to the piano and forgot some of the words. I couldn’t show that to the audience, so I started making up words and improvising throughout the song. I believe I saved myself from major embarrassment but wasn’t sure if the words even made since once I was done. It was an unforgettable experience. That experience taught me to relax more and practice breathing exercises to help me be calm before a show. A few years later I managed a teen band called So Amazing. During black history month, the band had the opportunity to perform at a major event. I was so nervous and excited about the performance I forgot my shoes at home, and I ended up wearing my bedroom slippers instead. I learned to slow down and breathe and always have a checklist before an event.

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 Bible — In the bible there are stories to inspire and encourage you during times of trials and tribulations. The word of God has had a significant impact on my life. It’s the word that gives me the faith to pursue my goals and dreams. When I’m feeling down or discouraged, I will read a passage in the bible, and it always encourages me to not give up. It is the word of God that has kept me together during some of the most difficult times in my life. The film Fame that came out in the 80’s made a significant impact on my life. The movie showed students at a performing arts school from all walks of life pursuing their dreams through perseverance and hard work to obtain their dreams. Fame was the ultimate goal. Seeing Artist in different disciplines of the Arts was refreshing to me. It taught me that if I wanted to be a professional Artist, I had to work hard by practicing and believing in myself.

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 “A closed mouth will not get fed” — this phrase has been with me forever — I don’t hesitate to ask for help or ask questions if I do not know something. If you don’t ask for what you need or for what you want, you will never know of the possibilities.

Ok, thank you for that. Let’s now jump to the primary focus of our interview. For the benefit of our readers, can you tell us a bit about your experience organizing events in general?

I have many years of experience organizing events. Throughout my childhood, I was helping to organize events for the gospel group I was part of. I helped to organize our anniversary show and the fundraiser when we had to raise money for our different expenses in the group. After college, organizing events took off when I started my own business called Inet Productions, a music production company that provides private and group instructions, children’s music programming, and music entertainment. For example, I would have various events during the year for my students, such as music bingo night, and holiday parties. My major event during the year was the annual music recital. This was a showcase for my students to perform for their families and friends. During this time, I would also recognize them for their accomplishments throughout the year. I also produced and directed an original stage play called Jacks World. This is a children’s musical about a boy searching for love and family. In addition, I organized various events for my inspirational teen band called So Amazing Band and more. Since COVID and not being able to meet in person with my students and others, God gave me the vision to do the Ms. Angel Monet show, and virtual award shows. Although, The Ms. Angel Mone’t Show was not able to meet in person, I still felt it was important to empower and inspire children and still recognize people for their accomplishments. We have done various award shows, for example, we had an award show for teachers and ministries. To date, I am working on a music festival for the House of Inspiration Network called the HOI Family Music and Arts Festival scheduled for July 29, 2023.

Can you tell us a bit about your experience organizing live virtual events? Can you share any interesting stories about them?

I have many years of experience organizing events. Throughout my childhood, I was helping to organize events for the gospel group I was part of. I helped to organize our anniversary show and the fundraiser when we had to raise money for our different expenses in the group. After college, organizing events took off when I started my own business called Inet Productions, a music production company that provides private and group instructions, children’s music programming, and music entertainment. For example, I would have various events during the year for my students, such as music bingo night, and holiday parties. My major event during the year was the annual music recital. This was a showcase for my students to perform for their families and friends. During this time, I would also recognize them for their accomplishments throughout the year. I also produced and directed an original stage play called Jacks World. This is a children’s musical about a boy searching for love and family. In addition, I organized various events for my inspirational teen band called So Amazing Band and more. Since COVID and not being able to meet in person with my students and others, God gave me the vision to do the Ms. Angel Monet show, and virtual award shows. Although, The Ms. Angel Mone’t Show was not able to meet in person, I still felt it was important to empower and inspire children and still recognize people for their accomplishments. We have done various award shows, for example, we had an award show for teachers and ministries. To date, I am working on a music festival for the House of Inspiration Network called the HOI Family Music and Arts Festival scheduled for July 29, 2023.

In your opinion, what is an example of a company that has done a fantastic job creating live virtual events? What specifically impresses you? What can one do to replicate that?

A great example of a company that has done a fantastic job creating live virtual events would be the Massachusetts Conference for Women — this virtual conference is so well organized and put together — breakout rooms, content, informative, sponsors, presenters, and user-friendly. To replicate such an intricate event would require a dedicated group of knowledgeable people to host, engineer and well-prepared to run the event.

What are the common mistakes you have seen people make when they try to run a live virtual event? What can be done to avoid those errors?

Not starting their live virtual event on time due to technical difficulties. It’s always a good idea to have a technical/dress rehearsal before your live event. This way you can lessen your chances of technical issues or timing troubles on the day of your event. Some issues may arise regardless, but most can be avoided with a little bit of practice. A week before an award show we have presenters join in from the room and computer they will be using to present on the day of the event. This allows them to test their camera, lighting, and audio. We also test the PowerPoint and supporting videos they may be using. This helps to identify glitches beforehand and gives everyone involved time to practice. We run through the entire program as if it were live. Writing out a timeline of the show and sticking to it as much as possible would avoid the show running too long.

Which virtual platform have you found to be most effective to be able to bring everyone together virtually?

Using OBS in conjunction with Zoom streaming on YouTube and Facebook.

Are there any essential tools or software that you think an event organizer needs to know about?

Google applications and Microsoft Office is a good software to use because using the excel sheets is good for writing out a timeline to share with everyone.

Ok. Thank you for all that. Here is the main question of our discussion. An in-person event can have a certain electric energy. How do you create an engaging and memorable event when everyone is separated and in their own homes? What are the “Five Things You Need To Know To Successfully Run a Live Virtual Event” and why?

An interesting Topic to discuss along with exciting guest helps to create an engaging and memorable event. The first thing I do is to meet with the HOI (House of Inspiration Network) team and let them know the idea I have for a show. Next, the team and I meet to talk about the ideas and put them to action by inviting the guest to be on the show. Once we have the interviewees and the date is set, we are ready for the show. We try and make people feel welcome from the very beginning by introducing our guest, having good eye contact, smiles, pleasant facial expressions, looking into the camera, being well prepared, and portraying excitement.

For my Children’s shows, I use puppets, upbeat music, lots of smiles and look directly into the camera to ensure good eye contact with the children. Calling and singing their names is a sure way to keep them engaged.

“Five Things You Need To Know To Successfully Run a Live Virtual Event” and why?

1. Know your objective — You need to know what it is you hope to achieve by putting together your virtual show.
2. Know what virtual platform you will use for your show along with technical needs such as microphones, headsets, interface, internet, lighting and laptop/desktop.
3. Write out a timeline and script so the show doesn’t run too long as well as keep the guest and yourself on topic
4. Test your live stream in advance and make sure all your software is updated. This is done so there are no technical difficulties.
5. Relax and have fun. Your energy creates the atmosphere of calmness or chaos.

Let’s imagine that someone reading this interview has an idea for a live virtual event that they would like to develop. What are the first few steps that you would recommend that they take?

1. Set your objective — know what you want to accomplish by putting on a live virtual event.
2. Know your audience.
3. Make sure you have all the technical supplies you need for your live virtual event.
4. A good virtual platform, good lighting, headsets, interface, internet, lighting and a laptop/desktop.

Super. We are nearly done. Here are our final questions. 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.

Bringing people together to invest in the movement of Love, Respect, and Self Esteem through music and performing arts.

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.

Tyler Perry — He has been very inspirational to me in how he has been very successful in producing his plays and movies. His messages of hope are inspirational and speak to real-life situations. I admire his wisdom tenacity ambition, fortitude, resilience, and his willingness to help others. I have followed the career of Tyler Perry and I know it was not easy for him but he never gave up. I feel we have so much in common around our desire and will to pour hope and positive messages into people all over the world. He is a determined individual who believes in God and has faith to work hard to overcome any obstacles. He truly was my inspiration when I was producing my Children’ family musical “Jack’s World”. I would love to one day collaborate with him on my project or better yet have him produce my musical Jack’s World!

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

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Monét A. Ledbetter-Glaude Of Inet Productions Inc: 5 Things You Need To Know To Successfully Run a was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Michelle James Of The Emotions Facilitator On 5 Things You Need To Know To Survive And Thrive After A Divorce

An Interview With Fotis Georgiadis

Allow yourself to feel these feelings without acting on them or suppressing them in any way (such as overeating).

As part of our series about the “5 Things You Need To Know To Survive And Thrive After A Divorce Or Breakup” I had the pleasure of interviewing Michelle James.

Michelle is the CEO of The Emotions Facilitator. She is an Energy Healer Certified in The Emotion Code, PYSCH-K®, Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT Tapping), Hypnotherapy, Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP), and Social Work (DipSW).

Thank you so much for doing this with us! Before we dig in, our readers would like to ‘get to know you’. Can you tell us a bit about how you grew up?

Yes I’d love to.

I was brought up in multicultural London, whereby race, colour, or creed was not a factor with who we formulated friendships.

Being raised in a typical Jamaican household, my mum was a very strict disciplinarian who never spared the rod. Although life was tough at times as a lot of responsibility was left on me, ie household chores I did have a very good relationship with my mum at times. My dad was a very gentle man who always did things for a quiet life and never wanted to do anything to upset mum.

I was always creative. I loved acting, singing and taking part in productions. I thrived on all of that. I also belonged to Brownies, then Girl Guides, and the local youth centre. I had fun going camping and doing parade drills with the flag at church. It was great being a member of the community and participating in the festive activities there.

Looking back now especially when I compare my childhood to my children’s, we had so many opportunities and great experiences that my kids have not had.

Now thinking about it, I’m wondering if this was the only way I was able to get out of the house so I wasn’t on my own as I was raised as an only child by my maternal grandparents aka mum and dad.

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

In 2017 mum passed away. I had a major falling out with my family. I was struggling to process my emotions and questioned my feelings as I showed no signs of grieving.

I realised that I was stuck and did not want to continue this way, so I sought a therapist to help me process the emotions and feelings I was experiencing.

I went off on a private 5 day, 1–2–1 retreat in Spain in which I underwent an intensive healing programme. After this, I felt a massive shift within and knew from that day that I wanted to offer a similar service to women who were feeling the same way prior, who were stuck in their lives. This experience made me realise that after 14 years in social work to effect change all change work needs to be done on a subconscious level. This realisation led me to take several different courses from Emotional Freedom Technique to Hypnotherapy and here I am, The Emotions Facilitator.

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

Yes of course. I regularly foster kittens from the animal shelter that have come from some sort of traumatised background, such as losing their mother and in some cases also or losing their siblings. On one occasion I brought home three kittens around 5 weeks old. one of the kittens (Riley) was very sociable but the other two Cannon and Cali always hissed and hid away.

I used The Emotion Code on them as I wanted to know what trapped emotions and trauma they were dealing with so that I had a better understanding of how to work with them.

What was interesting to me was that the trapped emotions and trauma I found resonated with the behaviour they displayed, such as abandonment and fear. After the first session of me releasing those trapped emotions and trauma, they started becoming less anxious and agitated, the transformation was so fast.

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 was working with a client who had severe anxiety and depression, which amplified after he had been attacked on the street on two different occasions, so he now had a fear of going outside and travelling in certain areas or taking public transport.

I had been working with him for a few months so we were both comfortable with each other. I had learnt a new guided meditation technique and asked if he was open to trying it out. Everything was going well until he started to abreact and got stuck in the process.

We were working via zoom so as I was guiding him through the process I noticed his arms were fixated in the air. I encouraged him to lower his arms but he could not. I thought the zoom had frozen. I must admit I went into a bit of a panic as I had no idea how to get him out of it.

I went into overdrive and started talking to his subconscious mind and slowly but surely his hands started to come down. What a relief that was for me. I did ask him after if he was scared and he said no because he knew, I’d know what to do.

The next time I spoke to my mentor I asked him what did I do wrong. He advised that he had indeed had an abreaction and advised me how to deal with these situations. He advised that I was getting close to the real reason he was depressed and suffering from anxiety but his subconscious mind was trying to protect him and was not ready to deal with the issue. The ‘in the moment’ solution was to guide my client from fright to releasing the issue.

Do you have a favourite “Life Lesson Quote”? Do you have a story about how that was relevant in your life or your work?

It’s a Jamaican saying. See me and live with me are two different things.

When I first met my husband, he came off as perfect on paper. He was so generous, had a soft and gentle nature, etc. I thought he was the ideal partner for me.

It wasn’t until we started living together that I began to notice the laid-back nature of my boyfriend, which had once been so endearing, as being annoying.

The moral of this story is that you shouldn’t judge someone based on appearances alone. By getting to know someone better, you’ll see their good qualities as well as their flaws.

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

I have a few projects in the works. I’ve been working on creating some journals and motivational cards, as well as building a membership site for my clients. The journals will be a tool my clients can use to jot down their feelings and emotions so they can understand what they’re feeling, which will help them shift and heal more easily and the membership site will give them access to lots of resources that will help them along the way.

I’m also branching out into speaking, which is something I’ve wanted to do for years. Right now I’m working on my speech for domestic-violence awareness month, which is coming up soon.

Ok. Thank you for that. Let’s now shift to the main part of our discussion. Can you tell us a bit about your experience going through a divorce, or helping someone who was going through a divorce? What did you learn about yourself during and after the experience? Do you feel comfortable sharing a story?

I am very comfortable sharing my story. You never know how your story might resonate with someone else, by sharing you can offer hope and light at the end of the tunnel.

As a Child Protection Social Worker, I experienced many women who were in abusive relationships but would not leave the abusers. The children were being affected but they found it hard to leave the abusive partner and put the needs of the children first.

Ironically, I ended up in an abusive situation but fortunately because of my background I had to practice what I preached. The day my husband put his hand on me was the last time he stayed in my house. That was the end of the relationship. I filed for divorce on grounds of unreasonable behaviour.

To be completely honest with you, I felt like a failure. This was my second marriage that had gone down the drain. I started beating myself up. But one thing I must say is that, even though I was hard on myself, I never doubted that I made the right decision. My children were my main priority and it meant more to me to instil a message that it’s not acceptable under any circumstances for anyone to be physically abused in a relationship.

The most important lesson I learnt from my divorce was that it was more important for me to have peace of mind and know that I was living in a peaceful environment whereby my children were not being affected by constant arguments and friction in the home.

As long as my kids were happy, that was the main thing for me.

In your opinion, what are the most common mistakes people make after they go through a divorce? What can be done to avoid that?

I have a few, however, I’m going to just focus on these as the list is plenty.

I would say the first mistake that many people make is not getting legal advice before starting the divorce proceedings. You should always seek legal advice before you begin a divorce, even if you think that it is going to be an amicable separation. This will ensure that you understand your rights and obligations and that your case is handled correctly.

The laws in Florida are different from those in my own country. I found it difficult to understand these laws and get them straight. For example, my husband moved into my home, but the property was still technically mine even though he paid nothing toward it. The situation becomes more complicated when married couples separate and try to decide who gets what property.

A very common and unfortunate occurrence is when parents decide that they no longer want to be together, but continue to use their children as pawns in an effort to get back at their estranged partner for leaving them. Although there are many ways in which children can suffer in a divorce, one of the most troubling aspects of a relationship ending is when the parents continue to use their child(ren) as a tool for getting back at each other.

Another common mistake parents make when separating is refusing to co-parent. You’d think that this would be an easy concept, but many parents seem to struggle with it. Refusing to co-parent means refusing to communicate with your children’s other parent, refusing to consider their opinion, or refusing to include them in major decisions about the children.

A lot of parents have trouble separating their feelings about the other parent from their feelings about the kids. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve heard, “I don’t want to have anything to do with my ex, but he’s a good father.” This isn’t fair to the kids. They should not be punished for the divorce. The parents need to work together for the sake of the children, even if they don’t like each other.

And the last one I’m going to throw in is rebound relationships. It’s normal to want to date again after a divorce or breakup, but going into a rebound relationship too soon can cause problems for you in the long run. I believe you should wait until you are emotionally ready before getting involved with anyone else. If you do decide to start dating again, make sure that you take your time as there is no rush.

People generally label “divorce” as being “negative”. And yes, while there are downsides, there can also be a lot of positive that comes out of it as well. What would you say that they are? Can you share an example or share a story?

A positive side to a breakup is that you can figure out what went wrong to avoid making those mistakes again.

I believe another positive side to divorce is that You’ll learn to appreciate yourself more. When you are no longer living with the person you used to be married to, it’s easy to see the things that made you feel less than great about yourself. Divorce allows you to start fresh and embrace self-love in ways that you might not have otherwise been able to do.

You’ll also get better at prioritising your time and energy. When someone else is relying on you for their happiness, it’s easy to lose track of what makes you happy too. Divorce allows you the freedom to prioritise what matters most in your life and spend time on those things instead of being consumed by the needs of others around you (even if they’re still around).

Some people are scared to ‘get back out there’ and date again after being with their former spouse for many years and hearing dating horror stories. What would you say to motivate someone to get back out there and start a new beginning?

It would be impossible to answer in just one paragraph, but I can tell you that the most important thing is to “be gentle with yourself” as you start all over again. Be gentle, accepting, and forgiving towards yourself for any mistakes you may have made during your marriage and for any emotional pain you may have caused others.

I know it sounds difficult but making this choice will give you a lot of strength and energy to move on. It’s okay to feel sad now and then, but remember that you are not weak nor are you guilty because life is like this. Again, manage your time, try to find moments of joy, new hobbies or interests, and get back in contact with old friends. Call on your family whenever you need support.

I think it’s important to remember that divorce doesn’t mean failure, it means life has changed and it’s time to adapt accordingly. You can still be happy even if your relationship didn’t work out as planned or as hoped for.

You’ll never really be alone in this because many people will help you if you ask them. Sometimes the simplest gestures are enough to make us realise that we are loved by others, without even knowing it!

What is the one thing people going through a divorce should be open to changing?

Themselves. I am not saying they have to try to be someone they are not, but be willing to explore how they can maybe work on their flaws and accept constructive criticism so that they can make positive changes in how they are in relationship settings.

Ok, here is the main question of our discussion. If you had a close friend come to you for advice after a divorce, what are 5 things you would advise in order to survive and thrive after the divorce? Can you please give a story or example for each?

1. Take care of yourself first.

It may sound cliché, but it’s true: You can’t help anyone else if you don’t take care of yourself first. Make sure you’re eating well, exercising regularly, and getting enough sleep so that you feel healthy and ready to tackle whatever comes next in your life.

Make new friends and spend time with family members who support you through this transition period in your life — or both if possible! If you don’t have any other close friends or family members around who understand what you’re going through right now, consider joining an online support group or finding a therapist who specialises in divorce recovery counselling so they can give you some much-needed advice on how best to cope with this difficult situation.

2. Do not beat yourself up, it will not do you any good mentally or physically. Going through a divorce is like going through a bereavement. In fact, if you think about it, it is a bereavement. You are grieving the loss of your relationship, your partner, who could be your best friend and you need time to grieve but also heal from the loss.

3. One way to cope with a breakup is to write down the things you liked and disliked about your ex. This can help you see your relationship from a different perspective, which may make it easier for you to move on. I recommend this exercise to all my clients who are having trouble separating their ex’s negative behaviour from the positive aspects of their relationship.

4. If you are thinking about contacting your ex, don’t. The main focus should be on yourself and healing. If you do, you should be prepared for the possibility that they will tell you they miss you or that they made a mistake. If this happens, do not get your hopes up that this is the beginning of getting back together. In fact it could have the opposite effect and lead to deeper hurt and humiliation.

5. To make your heartache feel less painful, it might help to keep busy. If you spend a lot of time thinking about your ex or looking at pictures or videos of the two of you together, it will only make you feel worse. Instead, try focusing on other things such as spending time with friends, going out and traveling, or finding new hobbies. I know this is easier said than done as they are constantly on your mind, however as time goes by it will get easier.

The stress of a divorce can take a toll on both one’s mental and emotional health. In your opinion or experience, what are a few things people going through a divorce can do to alleviate this pain and anguish?

If you want to feel better about yourself, try taking some time to do something nice for yourself. For example, you could go to a spa and get pampered, or buy something new for yourself — new clothes or a new hairstyle. Or maybe you’d like to go on a short vacation — any of these things can improve your mood.

A big thing that gets overlooked is forgiveness. Forgiveness is not for your partner, it is for you. It is to help you feel better about the situation.

It’s important to understand that forgiveness doesn’t mean condoning or excusing someone’s behaviour. It simply means letting go of the negative emotions surrounding what happened and moving on with your life. If you continue to hold onto those feelings, they’ll only hurt you in the long run.

While forgiveness is an ongoing process, here are some helpful tips for getting started:

Take some time to reflect on what happened and why it happened. You may want to write down your thoughts or talk them out with someone else who knows about your situation (like a therapist).

Here are six steps to help you forgive someone who has hurt you:

1. Recognise your feelings.

2. Allow your feelings to be present without judging them as good or bad, right or wrong, happy or sad.

3. Allow yourself to feel these feelings without acting on them or suppressing them in any way (such as overeating).

4. Give yourself permission to feel whatever emotions arise for as long as they need to be felt in order for them to pass away again on their own accord (this may take hours or days).

5. If necessary, express your feelings verbally (by saying something like “I feel angry/sad/upset”) rather than acting them out physically by punching someone or yelling at them).

6. After feeling your emotions, ask yourself if there is anything else that needs healing before moving forward with forgiveness.

Accept that it’s okay to feel angry, betrayed, or sad about what happened — but don’t let those feelings take over your life. Try not to let negative emotions cloud your judgment when dealing with others, especially if there are children involved in the situation (or if you’re still involved with someone who hurt you).

When thinking about forgiving someone who has wronged you, consider how they’ve changed since then (if they have) and whether they’ve apologised for their actions — and if so, be willing.

Do you have any favourite books, podcasts, or resources related to this topic that you would recommend to our readers?

When my marriage broke down again I started questioning myself, I wanted to know if there was anything I could have done to make it work after all this was not my first divorce.

I brought the book A Lasting Marriage by Martin Tashman and Karla R Dougherty. I know it might have seemed counter-productive because the marriage was already broken but I wanted to learn so that when I embarked on my new relationship I was equipped with the right skills.

One of the most important things I learned was to pick my battles. I also learned that it’s better for me to listen than always react. When I kept silent and waited for the situation to diffuse, it helped me to communicate with my ex-husband. So much so that we remarried!

Because of the position that you are in, you are a person of great influence. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger. 🙂

The movement that I would want to see in the world that I believe would bring the most amount of good to most people is… Inner healing is the process of releasing old wounds and addressing the emotional, mental, and physical issues that may be holding us back from living our best life. It’s about knowing what we want, where we want to go, and how we want to get there.

The goal of inner healing is to inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people. These days it seems like everyone is trying to make money or find happiness in material things but how many people have really found true happiness? How many people are truly happy with their lives?

I believe that if more people knew how to live life on purpose and follow their dreams then there would be less depression, anxiety, and other negative emotions in this world.

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 and why? He or she might just see this if we tag them 🙂

I’d love to meet Lisa Nicholls

I used to be friends with Lisa on Facebook when I was in a network marketing company called Arydss. Lisa was one of our trainers.

Watching Lisa’s growth has been truly inspirational to me. Although I didn’t know her personally remembering her when she was our trainer to see her develop into an Icon is mind-blowing to me.

I have been on summits where Lisa has been a speaker. I would love to get some coaching tips from her regarding speaking on stage, she has an amazing way of putting a story together. I feel she is very down-to-earth and wants everyone to succeed.

Thank you for these great insights and for the time you spent with this interview. We wish you only continued success!

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Michelle James Of The Emotions Facilitator On 5 Things You Need To Know To Survive And Thrive After… was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Women Of The C-Suite: Diane K Adams Of Sprinklr On The Five Things You Need To Succeed As A Senior Executive

An Interview With Fotis Georgiadis

You don’t have to figure out your five year plan. At any time in our lives, our priorities can change and impact what we want with our career. Listen to your heart. It’s that simple!

As a part of our series I had the pleasure of interviewing Diane K. Adams, Chief Culture and Talent Officer, Sprinklr.

Diane K. Adams is the Chief Culture and Talent Officer at Sprinklr, a provider of enterprise software for unified customer experience management (Unified-CXM). She has a proven track-record of scaling businesses that in turn, have doubled, tripled and increased their revenue streams 10x, during tenures at four public companies. Diane’s teams have hired more than 100K people and led 135 acquisitions. Prior to Sprinklr, Diane served as Chief Culture and Talent Officer for McGraw-Hill Education, Qlik Technologies, Allscripts, and led HR for 35K people in 152 countries at Cisco Systems. She is also the author of “More than Casual Fridays and Free Coffee: Building a Business Culture that Works” and serves as a Director Emeritus for the International Board of Directors of JDRF.

Thank you so much for joining us in this interview series! 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?

Funny enough, my Mom decided my major for me — business administration. I would follow my wise mother anywhere!

At 17, you really don’t know what you want to do with your life and Mom’s advice was to choose a major that played to my strengths and would give me lots of career options along life’s journey.

I started my career in finance which was a great foundation for the business world. I soon realized that my passion in life was making a meaningful difference in the lives of others and what better way to do that than to join Human Resources (referred to as Culture and Talent in my world).

After being a recruiter for six months where I was loving the thrill of helping others find their next opportunity, I was offered a significant promotion to go back to the finance organization. At 24 years old, this level of promotion was really tempting.

After lots of thought, I decided to stay in Human Resources and do what brings me joy. I’ve always thought about this simple, yet powerful, life lesson — do what brings you joy — it was a defining moment for me. I’m forever glad I made the choice to stay with what I love and not be tempted in the short term by money. There’s nothing better than “doing what you love and calling it work”, a line from one of my favorite country songs!.

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?

John Chambers, CEO of Cisco Systems, and Rick Justice, former CRO of Cisco Systems; believed in me, cared about me personally and professionally, and allowed me to thrive in all areas of my life without regrets. Most notably, they gave me opportunities, visibility, and flexibility.

When my role would typically be in Silicon Valley, they gave me the flexibility to move back to North Carolina when my Dad had prostate cancer. Long before the pandemic changed the world, they trusted me and my team to deliver. In addition to being amazing business leaders, they showed that caring about your people and creating a culture where people thrive personally and professionally are the differentiators for an amazing growth story.

I’m now fortunate to work with John Chambers again, as he now serves as a member of Sprinklr’s board of directors since September 2017.

Rick Justice is soaring in heaven and I think often of him and his legacy — always treat people with dignity and respect. I remember when Rick left Cisco. He received hundreds of emails thanking him and wishing him well. He responded to each and every message. That’s leadership!

These mentor relationships have been some of the most rewarding and influential partnerships of my life. Today, serving as both a mentor and a mentee continues to be a crucial element of my own personal and professional development.

Ok, thank you for that. Let’s now jump to the primary focus of our interview. Most of our readers — in fact, most people — think they have a pretty good idea of what a CEO or executive does. But in just a few words can you explain what an executive does that is different from the responsibilities of the other leaders?

Whether you’re in an executive role or a leadership role, the role itself is the same — it’s the impact that’s different. As leaders, we must think through the impact of every decision on tens or hundreds or thousands of people, internal and external. My parents taught me from an early age — be fully informed and always, always think ahead!

The best leaders always get these two things right! First — leading with empathy, and second — driving extraordinary results. When you lead with empathy, listening to your people and showing you care, you create a space where everyone feels like they belong. Creating a culture where everyone can thrive personally and professionally starts with showing you care and communicating to inspire and engage. By setting these high standards, only then can you expect outstanding results.

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

1. Define your personal mission statement and purpose.

Make annual personal, intellectual, emotional, physical, and spiritual goals.

2. You don’t have to figure it all out.

You don’t have to figure out your five year plan. At any time in our lives, our priorities can change and impact what we want with our career. Listen to your heart. It’s that simple!

3. Prioritize.

Do a few things extraordinarily well.

4. Do a good job of the things you simply wish you didn’t have to do.

5. Be intentional with your learning.

Every week, I schedule time with someone that I know will spark my thinking and start energizing conversation. Whether this is someone I know or not, I always strive to expand my relationships!

What advice would you give to others who are trying to shift their careers or achieve a professional promotion?

At Sprinklr, we help brands listen to customers, learn from them, and show them love. But this is also important for anyone in any job — listen, learn, and love. To me, this means staying curious and connecting with people. Ask people their stories. Whenever I ride in an uber, I always make sure to have a conversation with my driver. It’s so important to me to listen and learn from perspectives different from my own, and show people that I care. Change happens when people feel seen and heard. Theodore Roosevelt said it best, “People don’t care how much you know, until they know how much you care.”

And of course — be true to yourself in a BIG way. I like to say, be as you are XL!

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

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Women Of The C-Suite: Diane K Adams Of Sprinklr On The Five Things You Need To Succeed As A Senior was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Meet The Disruptors: Orville Wright Of OH YEAH BEATS On The Five Things You Need To Shake Up Your Industry

An Interview With Fotis Georgiadis

While it’s important to get to your goals with priority, rushing to the finish line will never make you the ultimate winner. You will only catch yourself on the mistakes and forget about the greatest objective of all which is the journey itself. Life is all about lessons and if we aren’t learning, we aren’t living and growing completely. I have made so many songs for others. One of those songs is attached to a huge public figure and I had my good friend listen to it before sending it off into space. I may have been eager to have her listen but the song needed work. The message was there but the quality regarding time and the delivery required additional work (especially if I would have other executives take a listen). Thankfully this friend told me what I needed to do for success and perfection if I took my time.

As a part of our series about business leaders who are shaking things up in their industry, I had the pleasure of interviewing Orville “OH YEAH” Wright.

OH YEAH is an amazing musician and humanitarian who creates music for a variety of professionals & content creators. He is trailblazing with incredible Theme Songs that are bringing a completely new angle to numerous industries and how business is conducted. OH YEAH is also catching the attention of celebrities, public figures, and business executives so we are here to find out exactly how he is able to do this with so much passion.

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?

Indeed it is such an honor to join you all for this collaboration and I thank you! My backstory has everything to do with inclusion and advocacy for others. I love connecting with people on a mental, social, and musical wavelength. As a person who stood up to bullies for others, I found myself aligning with more people around me, no matter their race or gender. I have always had the desire to make not only myself happy but others as well and I found the perfect balance when I added music into the equation. Throughout my entire life, I have observed that it is easy to do these three things with the help using your core values. The three things are connecting with others through music, making others smile, and continuing to build people up. I discovered that I was always applying this method in life to achieve success but learning exactly how I should “Purpose” this method with my personal and business brand. Being heavily influenced by Musical Artists such as M.C. Hammer, Boyz II Men, Kriss Kross, Madonna, Beyoncé, and so many more, I knew that I wanted to use music as my number one guide to success for myself and others. Prior to being a music producer, I was a rapper and songwriter. I put the pen down to hone my skills as a music producer, creating and composing background music. Creating music for artists and content creators all across platforms, I gained the realization that industries are similar and we can all become connected in a community of all who want success and work hard for it. With this in mind, I began to go to work more than I ever have before. I stepped back into the recording booth to lay down vocals of my perspective to further build up others around me. Now I am truly doing what I was born to do.

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

Definitely! The disruptive wave that I am creating is with my “Theme Songs” or anthems for others. I know that we all remember theme songs originating with commercials and our favorite television shows that influenced us to recite them even when the programs didn’t air. I am successfully bringing this wave back but now it is here to highlight people and their empowering work to large communities. Often many individuals do all the footwork with little desire to receive the spotlight on themselves. The selfless acts often fuel me to truly learn about the individuals and speak loud on them in these songs. It is so disruptive for a few reasons. We are all elevating at the same time for each theme song. I am empowering collaborators and the respective communities for more opportunities. One example is by collaborating with amazing voice-over actors and allowing them to share the spotlight and some royalties from the songs with them being seen as “musical artists”. What occurs simultaneously is cross-pollenation for discovery of all parties in new industries. The songs are also disruptive because I am demonstrating a new practice of business conduct. There have not been any music producers or artists performing as selfless as the examples that I am setting. I have worked with so many artists and producers who think only of themselves in the equation instead of how all parties can succeed (including their customers and fans). The music industry majorly has the foundation of “dog-eat-dog” mentality. I am simply using every one of my skills and talents to correct that flaw in society. I am here to erase the hate in the system and I will continue to be disruptive for the success of everyone with Theme Songs and more!

Can you share a story about the funniest mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lesson you learned from that?

The funniest mistake I have for you involves the first music video I did decades ago. This is when I was simply an artist and was listening to the film director. The budget for the video was low but we were still successful in completing all of our tasks. One scene I am in a local shopping mall and running up to EVERY single person I can asking them to listen to my music with my cheapest pair of closed-back headphones. The mistake was how I approached a majority. It was humbling but ironic because I believe it not only depicted my desire for success as an artist, but also made me look like a salesman or “hustler” that approaches you after you exit a store. This was humbling because I discovered in that moment what is consistently required to succeed along with the talent. Any individual striving for success needs to be able to always connect with each member of their audience. Some women I approached thought that I was trying to take them out on a date and a few thought I was trying to hypnotize them. It was a minor mix up but funny nonetheless. As I approached each person, I needed to think fast on the proper way they would receive being approached by a stranger… musician or not. I never forgot this lesson because now in my delivery of messages in music, it is important more than ever to reach their ears, hearts, minds, and souls. We have to always find the best ways to connect with others.

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?

Oh my goodness, I am so thankful for so many icons that I consider to be my mentors and dear friends. Life indeed has been a mentor because the ups and downs in it have constructed and molded me to understand how and when I need to adjust. As I focus more, I am thankful for The Most High (spiritual) because everything that is for me is delivered right in my hands or close by with a little hard work of my own. Rose Rosen, C.S.A. is a huge TV and Film mogul who I have a healthy personal relationship with. She often shows me what it takes to bring my talents and skills up to the next level. Theme songs and anthems will be for, her for life! Bobby Del Rio (100 K) was one of the other moguls who told me to stick with the theme songs. He too knew that nobody else was bringing this to the world in the ways I am. Cheryl Bedford is definitely a mentor to me because daily she lays down the example of how to speak up and stand up despite any adversity present that tries to block our paths of success. Through her organizations of WOCU and The JTC List, along with her many interviews I was influenced heavily that I had a strong desire creating a theme song for her. I truly believe that anyone can be our mentors and demonstrate how we should or should not conduct ourselves. With that being said, THANK YOU to all of you who support me and challenge me to be greater than who you see me as the day prior.

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?

Definitely disruptive (in my perspective) is what stops anyone in their tracks on how they were going to go about something regarding others. Disruptive is a great thing when the mission and message align with the core values of others. Let’s use “OH YEAH BEATS” as an example of good disruption. This business and brand revolve around the mission of bringing success to everyone involved. We are going to make certain that the positivity of someone (and their mission) is “spotlighted”. For those simply seeking a “voice” in musical form, what is going to be provided is branded music that makes the individual feel has been accurately orchestrated. This exceeds expectations that the music will be placed everywhere desired. Look at this in the perspective of the theme songs and discover that the songs are published everywhere for the world to hear that without the mission and message it would not normally be present. This isn’t self glorification but it is the demonstration of how positive disruption occurs. The desire for human connection has always been present, though it hasn’t always been exercised. I believe that music certainly remains disruptive, bringing to the forefront the true messages of others. It is always evolving due to the changes of society each era. It definitely withstood the test of time, remaining to be a necessity in all of our lives. The time that disruption is not as positive is when great division is created between us all. Take for instance the way certain record labels pretend to care about diversity and inclusion by signing certain brands and entities that misrepresent a particular race. Once the truth is revealed, imagine how artists and fans feel deeply dismissed discovering this. What takes place next is the expected artists and fans leaving. Competition rises and with a force behind them with possibility and enough power to dismantle that original label and business. The lesson that should be learned is that disruption by misleading (or not being fully aware of your investments) can be detrimental if not transparent and intentional to align with the matters of the public. Misrepresentation occurs quite often but more of those faults are coming to the light thanks to the unification of our core values to include those who bring true value from completely different worlds.

Can you share five of the best words of advice you’ve gotten along your journey? Please give a story or example for each.

The best advice that I have received on my journey involve taking your time (patience). While it’s important to get to your goals with priority, rushing to the finish line will never make you the ultimate winner. You will only catch yourself on the mistakes and forget about the greatest objective of all which is the journey itself. Life is all about lessons and if we aren’t learning, we aren’t living and growing completely. I have made so many songs for others. One of those songs is attached to a huge public figure and I had my good friend listen to it before sending it off into space. I may have been eager to have her listen but the song needed work. The message was there but the quality regarding time and the delivery required additional work (especially if I would have other executives take a listen). Thankfully this friend told me what I needed to do for success and perfection if I took my time. I took those notes and applied each one to the project and then, viola! The final project is now perfect for pitching and delivering. I apply this to all of my theme songs for sure because I know the effect that I want the songs to have on the listeners.

You should use all of your skills and talents to succeed and exceed expectations. I have witnessed a lot of people that use their skills to get to the lower tier of their goals but not work as hard to rise above and stand out. For myself, I believe that in order for my contributions to make others shine and rise, I have to give it my everything and then some! For every theme song, I focus hard on the individual and ideal audiences to display the highest form of elevation that I desire them to receive. To simply put out the bare minimum is hardly going to gain the attention of anyone.

Your core values should be identified in order to relate with your audience (old and new). It feels amazing to know that there are a lot of others out there in the world who share the same beliefs as me when it comes to the desire for everyone to win. What I am ecstatic about is being able to identify that and witness the alignment with more like me.

The determination is also key in anyone’s success. They need to have a burning desire to succeed. I also have the desire for others to win just like me, which is I often mention others for their opportunities.

Some other great advice I have is making sure to have a good product and to deliver to the public ready to grab the attention from as many as you can. I chose to use Theme Songs as my ideal model that would highlight the missions and values. It’s most important on my journey to make sure that the world knows about this model.

I have also been taught about my accessibility and exactly how it should be limited when it comes to everyone. Many can hopefully by now understand how giving I am of my time and talents. In fact, I stated in the last interview exactly what I am touching on right now. Learning to limit and balance my availability to others took time to master but with the help of two celebrities on a past project, I became able to realize what I need to do moving forward with everyone (even outside of the music realm). I worked on two projects at the same time and both groups had me going between several means of communication. To complicate matters more, the times of the day or night that members wanted to communicate were not realistic or even reasonable. Near the end of the projects, I vocalized how mentally exhausted I was as a result of the conversations and the timeframes. They were not fair to myself nor was it fair for my family. I learned from that point on that it is our responsibility to set boundaries and limits that we accept when dealing with others.

Earlier in this interview I spoke on the first music video that I did. In that moment I learned about truly connecting to each individual in an audience. It is important to always remember how to connect with the human in every one of the others around. I practice this daily in my services and hope to continue influencing the others that observe me doing this for the greater picture of everyone’s success. I couldn’t create a theme song without being able to connect with the soul of someone first. Now, we are creating the greatest ever for everyone.

The advice again is to take your time, use your skills and talents to rise, identify your core values that match others, connect with others, have a strong determination, and limit your access with boundaries.

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

I plan on continuing the disruption by going to news stations, where there can perhaps be room for more collaborating. I want to continue building up the voices of others with this music so that may be another good place to start. Time will tell but I am certain that my talents will be the vehicles I use to cause giant ripple effects in the waters of the public eye.

Do you have a book, podcast, or talk that’s had a deep impact on your thinking? Can you share a story with us? Can you explain why it was so resonant with you?

There is a podcast called the Heart of Show Business with Alexia Melocchi. Alexia is a proud Italian Hollywood Producer who interviews all experts in numerous fields but gets in tune with their hearts behind the business. She connects on a deeper level and reveals the human soul of each interviewee. I hear such passion in her voice and learned about some of her most intimate stories that inspired me to create a theme song for her too. I admire her for her work of inclusion and making sure that everyone can tell their stories on what drives them. It was such an honor to create her theme song “Heart Felt” with Giovanna Inverso. I have love for the both of them. Once again, we are able to connect with more souls and build up success for all parties.

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 “You Reap what you sow”. I heard this first from my English teacher. I later read it in the Bible too. I was a slacker in middle school and that teacher was not going to stand by, watching me fall behind. Instead, she would tell me often that I needed to invest in myself with that saying. I indeed saw little return on my little efforts or investments in my education with lower grades. I had to work twice as hard to catch up and then succeed. Most times certainly, I was told that I would reap what I sow. I then began seeing much better grades and was empowered. It resonates with me even today so much that I felt the need and desire to add this in a line on my upcoming song release entitled “Real Results”. I will never forget that you truly “Reap what you Sow”.

You are a person of great influence. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger. 🙂

I am so appreciative of that compliment. There are a lot of movements taking place right now for humanity. My current mission particularly with these theme songs is just helping magnify the voices and presence of others. With the success of the audience that they are capturing, I know that this is moving and inspiring more to find ways of collaborating and building up others too. I want to just reiterate that real success comes with building up those around you.

How can our readers follow you online?

Readers can follow me by searching for “OH YEAH BEATS” across all platforms Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, and definitely look for my music under “OH YEAH” and “OH YEAH BEATS”. For those that find me through this article, comment with the headphone emoji and a heart because I want to connect with you all through the two.

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

Thank you for this incredible opportunity in helping my voice! I wish you all the absolute best!

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Meet The Disruptors: Orville Wright Of OH YEAH BEATS 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.

An Interview With Fotis Georgiadis

Workers enjoy working for companies that are modern and advanced and make it so that they are able to actually work, instead of tinker around with outdated technology. The better the technology, the better the workplace.

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 Yasaman Javadi.

Yasaman Javadi is a global chief marketing officer and digital transformation consultant working internationally to advise clients in transformation and strategy to become industry authorities. Javadi earned a Bachelor of Science in Industrial Engineering at Azad University — Tehran.

Thank you so much for joining us in this interview series. Before we dive in, our readers would love to “get to know you” a bit better. Can you tell us a bit about your ‘backstory’ and how you got started?

I started my career in interior design because of my passion for aesthetics and cultivating an environment through strategic design of spaces. Through interior design, I experienced professional growth that would become integral to marketing. When I started in interior design I began learning how to supervise and execute on plans, monitoring sites and then grew from my first role to exhibition booth design, office design, and then even worked in villa design and residential lobby design.

I began working in sales leading projects and analyzing data to identify opportunities for improving operations, resolving conflicts and negotiations. I built pipelines and expanded company success. I continued working in sales, eventually becoming active in media management and collaborating with marketing teams, designing campaigns and managing marketing functions.

I decided to get into consulting to help more companies learn how to design successful marketing divisions and campaigns. I continuously garnered opportunities to commission and conduct market research and oversaw market data analysis and evaluation, developing pricing and budgeting strategies, collaborating with cross-functional teams.

From there, I became a chief marketing officer, driving revenue, building advanced plans and metrics and collaborating with executives to make high-level decisions. I have a passion for creating value to businesses and consumers, because when businesses thrive, people thrive. When individuals thrive, they lift up communities, nations and as a result the world. It can sound esoteric or aspirational, but it is in fact truth. I have worked around the world, and opportunity creates more advancement and peace.

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?

Names are important to people. I met an owner of a large company and I kept referring to him by a totally wrong name and at the end of the meeting he pointed to his name… My take away from that was that knowing someone’s name is a simple, easy thing to do, to show that you care and are attentive and while it’s not a grave mistake in the scheme of things, it is important to get right.

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 grateful to leaders I’ve worked with — there are so many — who helped me navigate complex relationships and networks, and for the leaders who ensured professional security. I’ll explain more.

When I’ve been in many roles, I’ve countered many people’s considerations, false ideas and needless barriers or limited thinking. As a result, this can cause disagreement and some do not always handle that well. I am diplomatic and professional, but I also have expertise and proven outcome-driven success that informs my approaches and strategies. Professionals can position themselves for success by working with and for leaders who understand that and help create firewalls to maintain your place in a company.

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?

Humanocracy is a powerful book. It is about creating human-oriented workplaces and stomping out needless bureaucracy.

Gary Hamel, Wall Street Journal’s number one business thinker, and well-noted consultant Michele Zanini, wrote what I believe is a revolutionary manifesto and applicable manual for freeing the human spirit at work. I believe that all people want to create value and have significance in society and their communities, and families. Architecting systems and frameworks that amplify the individual’s potential is crucial and companies, consultants and junior professionals as well as students, all would gain from reading Humanocracy and listening to the valuable courses offered by the authors.

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?

Purpose-driven businesses require purpose-driven leadership. You can’t create value if you don’t have the right people in the right positions able to do their jobs to the fullest extent possible.

My vision was to learn as much as I could about as many sectors and companies, in as many countries possible. To learn about global systems and the intersection of business, finance and diplomacy is eye-opening. And, to be able to market across national lines and cultural lines is fundamental to my work.

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

I continue to work with companies to leverage their past successes in marketing, overcome barriers holding them back from their fullest potential and I’m working on expanding my work in America to help address the digital crisis that has unfolded in the country. Billions of dollars is being wasted and lost as a result of failed digital transformations. I think it is exciting to look at an impact on this front, because the ability to help government and industry alike translates to improved outcomes across the board. Whether we are talking about streamlined, improved institutions that are better able to serve citizens, or companies delivering superior products and services to consumers and other businesses.

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?

Digital transformation is not to be taken lightly. It is also not to be looked at as daunting or impossible to get right. Unfortunately, especially in the United States, most digital transformations fail, or do not measure up to expectations. That doesn’t have to be the case though. In order to understand what Digital Transformation means, we ought to break this down.

First, Digital means all things digital, everything, from automation to artificial intelligence, to data, to channels, to the strategy you are executing in optimizing and utilizing these capabilities. Second, Transformation is the succesful evolution of an organization. So with these two words, we have the key to unlocking an organization’s new world potential.

On a practical level, it looks like remodeling and redesigning a house. Things have to get broken down. Things take getting granular about processes and getting the details right. You have to be ready to get to work and see it through.

Which companies can most benefit from a Digital Transformation?

There isn’t a company on the planet that cannot benefit from Digital Transformation. There isn’t a single company that should not be figuring out how to undergo a Digital Transformation.

As we continue moving forward, amid grand changes across society, the future of work, geopolitics, you name it — we must Digitally Transform the world. Great gains can be made through Digital Transformation.

Companies that want to be valuable, have longevity and increase revenues and create better, more fulfilling jobs will do so through Digital Transformation.

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.

Many of the company’s first transformative processes focus on digital marketing strategies. These are most frequently digestible when presenting new ideas to leadership and stakeholders. Instead of focusing on technologies they do not thoroughly understand, this focuses on the value provided by changes.

The agility necessary to compete in an increasingly crowded industry or niche echoes throughout the marketing and advertising departments. Using new tech intelligently helps scale-up success, expand the scope of business offerings, and increase the efficiency of all efforts. The result — higher ROI — is something every executive and team members appreciate.

Digital transformation is a pro-growth, highly profitable advancement for businesses to amplify sales and expand their customer base. However, it’s important to remember that success doesn’t happen overnight.

Present organizational inertia and limited understanding of leaders in an organization can get in the way of the type of digital transformation mandated to thrive in today’s economy. Leaders adjust and change their minds, when they learn more about the potential of new technologies, explore case studies and see data from markets and competitors, and get their own better results from new digital marketing strategies. A shift in company culture from tried-and-true success to calculated innovation is a prerequisite to transformation and growth.

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

You resolve challenges of Digital Transformation through prevention. Any organizations that have not yet stepped into the digital transformation world have already been left behind in today’s world of online, global commerce. Emergent technologies infiltrate product and service development, online marketing strategies, and day-to-day operations like customer relationship management. It takes knowledge and a clear benefit presentation to implement the changes that will genuinely make a difference in this new business world.

It is about employing technology to structurally change the way you do business. Leaders who accept the need to transform still lack innate understanding. Options like artificial intelligence (AI), the Internet of things (IoT), and blockchain are perceived as juicy buzzwords, not actionable plans.

Take the time to identify which ones have the ability to help you accomplish your goals; you can focus your efforts and make the most of your digital transformation. Technology can help you improve customer communication, streamline processes, and boost efficiency.

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”?

1. Boost company morale and worker satisfaction.

Workers enjoy working for companies that are modern and advanced and make it so that they are able to actually work, instead of tinker around with outdated technology. The better the technology, the better the workplace.

2. Better please consumers.

Companies should adopt advancements so that they are better pleasing the people they provide products and services. Not only that, with Digital Transformation, you can better attract the right people so that you are bringing in people that will be more pleased than consumers who are not as ideal of a fit.

3. Bolster performance.

The company’s operations will be expanded and improved through the auditing required to execute a strong and successful Digital Transformation. It will make it so that from the beginning of the process, you are fine tuning your company’s internal and external aspects.

4. Exponentially grow revenues.

Profits follow Digital Transformation. Period. You can bring in more revenue as a result of undergoing a sound and sustainable Digital Transformation.

5. Better monitor company executions to continuously garner data to improve company.

There is no wondering if things are working. With a Digital Transformation, you will know exactly what is happening, in real-time.

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

By doing it. So many people talk about “culture.” Culture is not created by talking about it, it’s done by living it and experiencing it, and cultivating it on a continuous basis. Digital Transformation should be underscored as the chief key to unlocking a culture of innovation.

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

I am not sure who came up with this quote, but a friend shared it with me: “create, create, create, for there is no barrier you cannot out-create.” I think about the power of this statement whether in your personal live or your professional career, that you have the ability to overcome strife, barriers, setbacks, through creating and being innovative. Any marketing issue can be solved through creating. Even “pr nightmares” for companies can be transformative and solve problems. There is a great deal of power in your mindset and it drives the way I operate.

How can our readers further follow your work?

You can follow me on LinkedIn here.

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

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Yasaman Javadi 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.

Makers of The Metaverse: Dan Wallace-Brewster Of Scalefast On The Future Of The VR, AR & Mixed Reality Industries

An Interview With Fotis Georgiadis

Be everywhere your customer is. This includes social media, in-person, virtual goods, and more. Be educated with advancements in technology but be sure to not act too quickly. These changes should be thoroughly thought through and implemented with the utmost of quality in order to protect the consumer experience and overall brand.

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 Dan Wallace-Brewster.

Dan Wallace-Brewster is the Senior Vice President of Marketing at Scalefast, the leader in end-to-end digital commerce solutions. Dan leads the public relations, creative, content and lead generation engines for the company as it accelerates an already-exponential growth curve. In his role as SVP, he deployed a new marketing and technology stack to ensure multi-touch attribution and increased funnel velocity and accountability for maximum ROI.

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?

Sure. I joined Scalefast in 2020 after serving as the SVP of Marketing and Digital Commerce at Planet Blue, a shopping destination for boho styles in the aughts. I led the integration of digital into the brand’s cross-channel sales and marketing operations. Before joining Planet Blue, I was the principal of Marketing Endeavors Consulting, bringing close to three decades of integrated marketing experience to a portfolio of CPG, retail and technology clients. My background includes sports and event marketing for the Los Angeles Dodgers and the University of Southern California, B2B lead generation, corporate communications and leading B2C digital marketing strategies.

I earned my MBA in Marketing and Entrepreneurship as well as a bachelor’s degree in Public Relations from the University of Southern California and currently live in Redondo Beach, CA with my wife and two kids.

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’m enjoying the Pivot podcast by Scott Galloway and Kara Swisher. They bring a healthy skepticism to tech and its role in the economy and society.

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

My account team and I went to visit a client in the Bay Area, a daytrip from our Los Angeles office. The client happened to sell adult toys. When you work in eCommerce, similar principles apply to all businesses, but this client had unique challenges navigating ad restrictions, retargeting, and other privacy issues you would expect for any adult products. They were appreciative of our work and gave us each “goodie” bags to take home. Since we didn’t check luggage, the chuckle that the TSA x-ray operator had over three consecutive passengers was priceless.

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

I had two former bosses who helped me immensely early in my career. Gerry McGoldrick hired me in my first formal eCommerce role. When I look back, I knew so little about the industry, and it took a lot of faith that I would pick it up quickly. The other mentor would be Michael Wang, my former CEO who after I got a little high and mighty, knocked me down a few pegs while still giving me a chance to redeem myself in the company. Outside of having children, there has never been an experience that went further toward making me a better leader.

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?

First and foremost, we’ve reached a tipping point for user adoption of these technologies. Broadband and phone advancements have brought VR, AR and MR end points to people’s pockets. That has generated the critical mass needed for the market to develop hardware and software that continues to push innovation forward.

Second, and most relevant to me, is that innovation is leaking from gaming and entertainment into more routine use cases, like shopping. Only a few years ago, most stores’ sales were limited to the foot traffic that could physically walk through their doors. Even with the expansion of eCommerce, there was a significant gap between what shoppers could experience and learn about a product online vs. in a store. AR and MR are closing that gap and, in some ways, enhancing the overall shopping experience online and offline. Further, VR is establishing an entirely new channel for shopping that will not only expand the experience but expand product catalogs beyond what we have ever even conceived.

The third thing I’m excited about is the potential for product personalization. Traditional manufacturing makes unique or limited designs extremely expensive. As more of our experience takes place in an augmented or virtual reality, DIY digital enhancements to every day products put more creative power than ever in the hands of customers.

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?

An important consideration when it comes to these technologies is the abundance of personal information that brands have a responsibility to protect. For example, when a customer utilizes virtual try-on through their virtual assistant or even facial recognition to unlock their phone, details about their body, face, eye movements, and speech are observed — elements of biometric data which uniquely identifies a person. Companies may use that data for a variety of purposes such as retrieving insights into customer’s interests and preferences, raising concerns over how these companies are storing data and whether such data could be compromised or sold. Brands like Sephora and Louis Vuitton have already been caught in legal battles over data privacy laws for their virtual try-on features, so brands should be aware of the local and national laws before implementing any biometric data capturing technology. Also, any privacy policies should be reviewed for inclusion of biometric data.

The next thing I would caution against is distracting or disrupting core business objectives for the sake of ancillary technology. Any innovation should be used to augment a brand’s value proposition, not replace it. Test small and learn. Prices will drop while technology and user adoption improves.

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?

Work-from-home has had a halo effect of globalizing teams. Augmented and virtual reality are key players in opening the restrictive nature of remote communication and collaboration in the workplace. AR, VR, and MR have the power to create highly immersive communication experiences between employers, employees, and clients, and in many industries this level of communication is imperative to uphold the highest quality of work and relationships between peers. For example, a virtual watercooler could be where employees from all around the world chat about the latest episode of “The Bachelor.” Communication between team members that was once taking place in the real world and has since migrated to Slack and could be enhanced by Avatars or even holograms in the near future. It seems trivial, but simulated human interaction is better than none at all.

Companies like ScopeAR are using this technology to show users how they can actively interact and collaborate with each other in real-time, particularly in the industrial and healthcare fields where assistance can be provided and displayed onto the users’ field of vision, using AR to overlay digital information on top of pictures.

The past two years have provided many challenges for the future of work but have also propelled it forward. Alternate realities can play a significant role in the way that we interact with colleagues and employees and these technologies are ever improving, bringing us closer to a seamless and well-connected work experience.

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

Our realities are increasingly becoming augmented, virtual, and mixed, creating an immersive and engaging world around us. It’s important for brands to be aware of the trends and developments that are specifically relevant to their business. We are on the verge of an entirely new form of blended reality which will radically change the way humans interact and transact.

These new technologies have the potential to shape how we imagine, design and create, not to mention experience, everything from shopping and gaming to attending and enjoying events, virtual trainings and learning experiences. Consequently, these everyday experiences backed by augmented and virtual reality technology will be more convenient and at our fingertips than ever before, and each will be laced with personalization and customization to the individual and their needs and preferences. Soon the days of window shopping and indecisiveness as consumers could be a distant memory, as brands and businesses will be able to serve us exactly what we want when we want it.

What are the “myths” that you would like to dispel about working in the AR, VR, and MR industries? Can you explain what you mean?

I think there is has been a demonization of using customer data in retail — as if it’s being used for the nefarious purpose of selling people things they don’t want. That may be the case in rare instances, but most tracking of customer behavior is to help customers find what they want faster. If you could walk into a virtual store and know that it was custom designed and merchandised specifically for you, would you? Would you be willing to fill out a survey of your likes and preferences to enable that store’s design? I’m a marketing guy, but my sense is that most people below the age of 50 would say yes. These generations have grown up with the Internet and understand that it is a dynamic environment that can only evolve with input from its users, whether that be responses to a formal survey or responses to real-time behaviors like clicks or mouse-movements.

I think the next big myth is that Web3 and the metaverse began with Meta’s re-brand. Consumers have been interacting in virtual worlds for years through their gaming platforms. The only thing that’s new is a vision where virtual worlds are mainstream enhancements to everyday experiences outside of video games. The tipping point will be the cost of hardware coming down far enough for a more households to enjoy enhanced AR and VR experiences beyond what they can already do on their phone.

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

1. Be adaptable. Technology always changes so brands must adapt along with it. When the pandemic hit, brands turned online and those that could not make the switch were affected negatively. Now, in 2022, brick-and-mortar has seen a recent uptick, and more people are wanting an immersive, personalized experience with a heightened sense of sustainability. Brands must understand their unique customer needs alongside these changing technologies.
2. Educate your customer on AR, VR, and MR. As relayed in the metaverse research by Scalefast, many folks are uneducated on the possibilities these technologies provide. Brands should find creative ways to dive into the conversation and show customers how participation can improve their experience and ultimately their lives. This education will create a foundational framework which brands can leverage for product offerings down the road.
3. Understand your full customer journey from start to finish. Utilizing AR, VR, and MR to not only provide a seamless cross-channel experience, but to understand the type of purchaser your target is, how they are persuaded to visit and or purchase your store, what type of payment options they need, and more is essential for the success of any business, especially when it comes to retail. The value of using these technologies in exactly the way your customer needs allow brands and retailers to provide a smooth shopping experience no matter where someone is, physically and financially.
4. The work begins in-house. While using this technology to increase sales and revenue by focusing on the consumer needs is great, there are so many opportunities to implement technologies that better the experience at work for employers and employees. The industries of travel, retail and education can all greatly benefit from the accuracy of informative 3D renderings and digital environments. The presence of AR, VR and MR here can allow employees to train and learn remotely, higher-ups to identify holes and missed opportunities between staff and consumer, and to see models of the products before they sell them all from the comfort of their own homes — thus allowing staff to stay safe indoors, know the consumer journey back and front, and decrease missed conversion opportunities.
5. Be everywhere your customer is. This includes social media, in-person, virtual goods, and more. Be educated with advancements in technology but be sure to not act too quickly. These changes should be thoroughly thought through and implemented with the utmost of quality in order to protect the consumer experience and overall brand.

You are a person of great influence. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger.

I’d love to start an “anti-perfectionist “movement. It’s more than being inclusive, a movement that’s well underway. It’s about not letting perfection get in the way of the good. With our society so polarized, people need to remind themselves that every journey begins with a single step and that success only comes after overcoming mistakes.

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!

As a storyteller, I have a lot of admiration for Jon Stewart. Not only did he help create a machine for talented comedians like Stephen Colbert, Steve Carrell, John Oliver, Samantha Bea and Michael Che, but he and his writers had an innate ability to break down very complex topics into short, easy-to-digest segments that made the news entertaining and inspiring at the same time. His thought-provoking style is now being emulated across television and plays a significant role in inspiring actions and movements that define a generation.

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

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Makers of The Metaverse: Dan Wallace-Brewster Of Scalefast 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.

An Interview With Fotis Georgiadis

I wish someone told me to factor in extra weeks on my launch timeline when it came to production and shipping my products from overseas.

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

Ahriana Edwards is the proud Founder and CEO of Vaila Shoes (est 2021), where she provides women of forgotten shoe sizes (size 9–14) with access to modern dress shoe options that they desire and deserve. Ahriana noticed that the fashion industry has made strides in plus-size apparel, but there was still a gap within the plus-size footwear market (specifically dress shoes) that needed to be addressed. Vaila utilizes the trends of today to create a seasonal dress shoe brand that satisfies size variety, fashion flexibility, and event-specific shopping. She’s on a dual mission to redefine beauty and retailer representation in the footwear industry.

Ahriana has participated in business accelerators with notable organizations such as Black Ambition by Pharrell Williams, Future Founders, and Techstars to push the needle with the success of building Vaila. In addition, she used her background in sales and marketing to raise over $70K in non-dilutive funding from pitch competitions before Vaila launched. She also utilized her network to formulate an advisory board with over 35 years in the footwear, apparel and e-commerce industry. Her efforts and outreach has led her to be affiliated with organizations such as Entrepreneur, Black Enterprise, Combs Enterprises and Ebony Media (to name a few).

Aside from her business, she has a background in Business Entrepreneurship at Fayetteville State University and a certificate at the Fashion Institute of Technology in Footwear. She professionally held several sales and marketing roles with industry leaders such as Toyota, Nestle, and Facebook while also serving on the board of the Women’s Business Center of Fayetteville and mentoring with the Future Founder Entrepreneurship Junior Program.

At her core, Ahriana is motivated by creating a generational legacy and aims to use her innovative mindset and creativity to create a social impact for the undervalued, underestimated, and underrepresented.

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”?

My long for entrepreneurship honestly started when I was really young. My mom knew that I was going to be an entrepreneur before I knew (as she says). I found myself always being a problem solver and innovative thinker at a young age. Whenever I ran out of ingredients for my easy-bake oven and my mom didn’t have the money to buy me more; there I was googling ways and testing out baking formulas with household ingredients for an easy bake oven. When I was in middle school and I wanted to save up money to attend a summer camp, I sold candy (airheads were my bread and butter too!). When I lost all of my childhood weight and didn’t have enough money to buy clothes, I bought a sewing machine and taught myself how to hem my pants tighter. Whenever I didn’t have a solution to solve my problem or desire, I always found a way to get it done. So even as a young girl — I believe entrepreneurship was naturally engraved in me.

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

“You can’t say the right thing to the wrong person and you can’t say the wrong thing to the right person.”

Whenever I’m hearing all of the no’s and rejections as I go through my entrepreneurship journey, it reminds me that the right person and opportunity will be for me and there’s nothing that needs to be unnaturally forced to get there. I’m a very futuristic individual, so it reminds me to calm down and truly take things for what they are and not forcing it. If it is the wrong person or opportunity, it doesn’t matter how pretty you paint the picture or how much effort you give — the opportunity or person just won’t be for you. But if it is the right person or opportunity, the situation will naturally work itself out and be in your favor regardless of what presents itself.

Is there a particular book, podcast, or film that made a significant impact on you? Can you share a story or explain why it resonated with you so much?

I’m a huge podcast person. I listen to multiple podcasts that help me in all aspects of my life. There are two podcasts that I cannot go a week without listening to and they are “Slay Girl Slay” and “The Product Boss”. Slay Girl Slay has had a significant impact because it comes out on Mondays and it gets my mindset ready for the week. Ashley preaches about all aspects of boss women trying to accomplish their dreams (between the good and the bad). Whenever I’m struggling through this (sometimes) lonely journey of entrepreneurship, I can always count on that podcast to get me out of my negative state of mind. The Product Boss is also an amazing tangible podcast that really helps breakdown strategies on how to achieve success as a product-based business. Many of my systems are based off of that podcast.

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?

You are very correct, there are NO shortages of good ideas out there. I think it’s very important to know that even though you have many ideas, you don’t have to only choose just one and throw away the rest. But rather, it’s important to start with one umbrella idea and build and incorporate the others as you go along. That’s how entrepreneurship works and in fact, that same level of innovation is exactly why a lot of companies stand strong for years. When I first started Vaila, let’s be honest. It wasn’t the company that it is today. I thought it was going to be a subscription or even a marketplace. However, I had to go through so many iterations processes to get down to what the main problem was and figuring out how to build the best company to solve that problem for my customers. When ideas start, they are one-sided because they only live in your head. But an idea definitely translates into reality once you start talking to your ideal customers. Being heavy in the customer discovery phase (in the beginning and to this day) is exactly how I overcame idea overload because I was able to figure out if the business idea was valid or not. But as mentioned earlier, all of the other ideas are still there.. But it may not be the best time to reveal those yet and that’s okay.

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?

There’s two ways that you can go about this: Primary Research & Secondary Research.

When I started Vaila, I was heavily researching competitors and other companies who were doing something similar to my idea. Guess what, I found a couple of companies who were doing exactly just that: an extended-size shoe store for women. However, that didn’t stop me. Because I was my ideal customer, I still felt that there was a gap within the market but I couldn’t pinpoint what it was and most importantly, why women like me were still complaining. I had to go back to my drawing board because I needed to figure out how I was going to set myself apart from the others. I started digging deep into Primary Research (research that you collect yourself — ie. customer interviews) and Secondary Research (research collected from others — ie. articles). From my customer interviews, I made sure to ask “where do you currently shop”, “when do you shop for shoes” and “what type of shoes are you looking for that you could never find”. Sure enough, they knew of stores where they could find shoes in general, but it was never convenient for them because whenever they would shop, they could never find heels or cute shoes for classy or formal occasions”. With my secondary research, I also found that dress shoes were the hardest category for them to find. At that moment, I knew exactly what my differentiation was within the market: Dress shoes for the Workplace & Afterhours.

I would’ve never found my “AHA” moment if I didn’t conduct primary and secondary research. Through those avenues, you can see exactly what is missing in the market and how you can carve out your niche.

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.

1. Once you have your idea, you conduct customer discovery and research to find out if your idea is valid and how you can win within the market with your competitive advantage
2. At this point, you should have a company name and good understanding of who you are → You go on to register your company (example — LLC). Make sure that the name isn’t taken on the trademark website or
3. You start getting your name out there about your business, you start a social media and landing page to capture emails from potential customers
4. Then you participate in mentorship centers or programs such as pre-accelerators or incubators to help your flesh and sharpen your idea out
5. Depending on your company, you can decide whether you want to bootstrap, get bank funding, or raise funding via equity or non-equity (I went the Pitch Competition Route and raised over $70K+ when Vaila was just a concept) — -> Regardless, make sure your business bank account is open to put the money there.
6. From there, you use your network/mentors to help connect you to a good manufacturer → You test out a manufacturer by their communication (how often do they communicate), their capabilities and their understanding of your company and what you’re trying to build, and their quality of production (you will ask them to create samples of shoes that you’re interested in making)
7. While this is going on, you’re building your relationship with your customers on your email list who are passionate about what you’re building and you gauge interest on exactly the type of products that they are looking for
8. Once you receive your samples, test them out and have your customers on your email list/social media to vote on their favorite styles to bring to market first (you don’t want to have too much inventory upfront) → Also gauge their size to estimate what sizes you need to order
9. Start developing relationships with those who will assist in your operations → Fulfillment centers? Duty/Freight Broker if product is overseas? Packaging Partnerships? Etc
10. Production starts for your product and this is the perfect time do marketing and outreach → Create a line list of your products and start pitching to retailers to distribute your products (Starting with online marketplaces and working your way up to boutiques and large retail stores) → Make sure to always have your competitive advantage and be ready to prove how your product benefits their product assortment and establishment
11. You’re getting ready to launch, make sure that before you launch.. You have your legal entities/organization processes in order (trademarks, patents, business organization documents, insurance, website, terms and conditions, return policy, standard operating procedures, etc).
12. LAUNCH YOUR COMPANY!! You have now made your first sale and your product has made it’s way to your first customer.

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

1. I wish someone told me about Customs/Duty/Freight/Brokers when it came to receiving product from overseas.
2. I had already started production and when 75% of the production was finished, I learned that there was an extensive process and documents that I needed to complete in a timely fashion to make sure that my goods passed to Customs. It costs me extra.
3. I wish someone told me to factor in extra weeks on my launch timeline when it came to production and shipping my products from overseas.
4. There were multiple factors, such as production & shipping delays and US custom ports being backed up, that were out of my control that consistently kept on pushing back my launch date. It came to a point where I finally announced my launch date to the public and my shipment was running behind, however, it showed up in my fulfillment center three days before launch (whew).
5. I wish someone told me to not only have a plan B, but have a plan C when things went left.

As entrepreneurs, most of our job is being problem solvers and thinking on our feet. When I planned my launch date, I hoped for the best with my shipment arriving on time. You could only imagine how stressful it became when you didn’t have your operations in order. At one point, I thought about scenarios and what would happen if something went wrong. If the product didn’t show, then I would have to pivot to do pre-orders. But then, what if your timeline was off for pre-orders.. What would you do? Early on, that process taught me to think many steps ahead of time (especially within the fashion industry)

I wish someone told me that not all advice is good advice.

In the beginning, I participated in many programs and I was seeking advice from anyone who could give it. But at a certain point, when my business was clear and established.. The quality of advice that I was receiving didn’t match up. I was seeking advice from those who didn’t understand the industry, business, and let alone vision. This often led me to being confused, delayed, and even questioning the company that I was building. Find those mentors who have your best interest at heart and who actually “gets” your company. It will save you alot of time

I wish someone told me that there is no standard journey in entrepreneurship — for anyone. Anything can happen at any stage in your company. Follow your path and you will be successful.

I started doubting my capabilities in entrepreneurship in the beginning. I saw people on my timeline and feed making “6 figures in 2 months!” and thought that I wasn’t doing enough. Then, when I started getting big deals with retailers as a “rookie” in my business, I started having imposter syndrome because I didn’t see anyone my age in retail. I had to realize early on that my journey does not have a perfect path and that I should not compare it to anyone else’s.

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?

1. Register your business and file a trademark and/or patent to protect your company
2. Set a timeline and factor in extra weeks with delays
3. Build a community around your product — even if it isn’t there yet
4. ALWAYS remember why you started your company and use that as fuel to keep going when it gets hard

There are many invention development consultants. Would you recommend that a person with a new idea hire such a consultant, or should they try to strike out on their own?

I believe that you need both. One must be able to understand their idea to help the consultant understand their idea and have the first basic steps solidified. Then, once they need more assistance taking it to the next level, it would be best to work with a consultant to put the idea into execution.

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 fan of bootstrapping and non-equity fundraising in the beginning of your journey of entrepreneurship. It’s a great way to hold on to equity and have full control over the business. However, if you have an extremely capital intensive product that exceeds loans, grants, and pitch competition money, then it’s best to look into venture capital (more suitable for tech-based options).

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

At Vaila, we are redefining beauty and inclusiveness within the women’s footwear industry. For decades, women who wear a shoe size larger than the standard 8, have been viewed as unfeminine and unworthy of attractive footwear options. It is our mission to serve women of forgotten shoe sizes with footwear that they desire and deserve. One woman at a time. Our foot sizes are only getting bigger and it is time to be the representation that we want to see.

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.

That’s a great question — It would have something to do with making the fashion industry more inclusive of other aspects besides the standard clothes and shoes. Something like apparel, undergarments, etc. It would also be great if there was a program/movement to get more women to make shoes — since the industry is dominated by men.

We are very blessed that some of the biggest names in Business, VC funding, Sports, and Entertainment read this column. Is there a person in the world, or in the US, with whom you would love to have a private breakfast or lunch, and why? He or she might just see this if we tag them.

I would love to have a private breakfast or lunch with Serena Williams. She is a mogul not only on the court but in business and she is also on a mission to create an inclusive clothing line while investing in top notch companies. Lots of her engagements align with the mission at Vaila Shoes. But most importantly, she is an individual that gets our mission because she has an extended shoe size herself. I would drop everything to have a conversation with her!

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

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Making Something From Nothing: Ahriana Edwards Of Vaila Shoes 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.

An Interview With Fotis Georgiadis

Keep learning. You may think you know everything there is to know in your business but there is always something you can improve on or learn more about. You should also spend time developing your leadership skills so you can successfully communicate your goals to your team.

As a part of our series called “Making Something from Nothing”, I had the pleasure of interviewing John Akhoian.

As CEO of Rooter Hero, a plumbing and HVAC company serving residential and commercial locations in California and Arizona, John Akhoian’s mission is to help others maximize their careers and live fulfilling, comfortable lives. He is the author of five books, including, “Creating 99 Millionaires,” “Values First: Principle Driven Leadership” and “Temporarily Broken: The John Akhoian Story.” For more information, visit www.rooterhero.com.

Thank you so much for doing this with us! Before we dive in, our readers would love to learn a bit more about you. Can you tell us a bit about your “childhood backstory”?

I was born in Armenia but moved to Hollywood, California when I was 3 years old in 1975. My grandfather was already here and helped my parents secure a visa to come to this country. We didn’t have much, so my family lived in a one-bedroom apartment until I was in high school and that’s when we bought a house in north Hollywood.

After living there for a little more than a year, my Dad had a heart attack and passed away. I had been attending North Hollywood High School and had to drop out to start earning a living to help pay the bills after my father’s passing. I began working in the trades for a family friend where I learned plumbing as an apprentice for $25 a day. I was eventually able to run his truck by myself.

Since the money I earned there was not enough, I started doing extra plumbing work on the weekends for my own clients. I was finally able to buy my own tools and go out on my own. I started my first plumbing company at the age of 19.

Now, I employee between 400–500 people with Rooter Hero, and we are the largest plumbing company in the state of California and it all started because I had to help make the mortgage so we didn’t have to move back into that one-bedroom apartment I hated so much.

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

My favorite quote is from the great businessman and motivational speaker, Zig Ziglar, who said, “If you want to achieve your goals, help others achieve theirs.”

Because of this quote, I have always tried to put other people first, find out what they want to accomplish, and determine how I can be of assistance to them. That quote is in the lobby of Rooter Hero’s office.

Looking at the quote reminds to always consider other people and put their needs first.

Is there a particular book, podcast, or film that made a significant impact on you? Can you share a story or explain why it resonated with you so much?

I’m an avid book reader, but the one that sticks out right now is “The Slight Edge” by Jeff Olson. I read it years ago, but its message about the habits of successful people still resonates with me. I still go back and listen to the audiobook from time to time.

I like a lot of books on leadership, such as “Good to Great” by Jim Collins and strive to be what he calls a Level 5 leader. A Level 5 leader displays both personal humility and indomitable will. I work on that every day.

I also enjoy the movie, “The Shawshank Redemption.” It’s just a powerful movie about determination and the will to succeed and how he makes a plan that develops over time.

Ok super. Let’s now shift to the main part of our discussion. There is no shortage of good ideas out there. Many people have good ideas all the time. But people seem to struggle in taking a good idea and translating it into an actual business. Can you share a few ideas from your experience about how to overcome this challenge?

I think taking an innovative idea into business requires a lot of thought. Running with an idea before it’s well thought out can be a mistake. You must consider the pros and cons. You also have to be prepared to let something go in order to make this new idea come to fruition. You can’t just continue to start new ideas, or you’ll forever be “doing” instead of “accomplishing.”

It’s also a good idea to consider how this new idea affects your team. You should discuss your new ideas with your team to see if it can be implemented and executed.

Often when people think of a new idea, they dismiss it saying someone else must have thought of it before. How would you recommend that someone go about researching whether or not their idea has already been created?

Never second guess yourself. Even if someone did come up with an idea before you, you can always come up with a new and improved version and make it your own.

Too often, people give up on their ideas too quickly before taking the time to research them and how they can be implemented.

My advice is that if you come up with an idea that works for you, pursue it. It doesn’t matter if someone has already thought of it, just take the idea and improve it so that it makes sense for you and/or your business to implement.

For the benefit of our readers, can you outline the steps one has to go through from when they think of the idea, until it finally lands in a customer’s hands? In particular, we’d love to hear about how to file a patent, how to source a good manufacturer, and how to find a retailer to distribute it.

In my business, the key is to test out your idea before you bring it to market. You can also involve your family and friends in the testing phase by either bouncing the idea off of them or having them physically test it with a tangible product.

When I think of something, I gather opinions and then test it to see if it’s something that is sustainable.

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

1. Be patient. You can’t expect things to happen overnight. Work hard and give your ideas time to germinate and grow.
2. Try not to suffer from FOMO disease. When you have a fear of missing out, you think you need to try everything. It’s been my experience that you probably aren’t missing out on much.
3. Keep learning. You may think you know everything there is to know in your business but there is always something you can improve on or learn more about. You should also spend time developing your leadership skills so you can successfully communicate your goals to your team.
4. Hire slow, fire fast and value your employees. You should pay people well for the work they do and let them know their value to you.
5. Take time to plan before executing. Of course, this will take more time, but doing the groundwork for an idea to flourish will give you the foundation you need to make your ideas successful.

Let’s imagine that a reader reading this interview has an idea for a product that they would like to invent. What are the first few steps that you would recommend that they take?

The first thing you need to consider is what problem you want to solve. The greater the problem, the more the opportunity you have by providing a solution. Whether it’s through your personal experiences or as a result of market research, your first steps should be to ensure that your product or service can be properly implemented to solve that particular problem.

There are many invention development consultants. Would you recommend that a person with a new idea hire such a consultant, or should they try to strike out on their own?

I have always been a fan of seeking advice and assistance from professionals who know the subject matter. Of course, this is subjective because some people do better striking out on their own, but it’s been my experience that reaching out to those who have a greater knowledge in the field you are researching provides you with the background you need to succeed.

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

I’ve always bootstrapped, myself, but have had friends who sought out venture capital and were quite successful.

Both can work but you need to be realistic about it. If you decide to bootstrap your ideas yourself, you should know that it may take longer to reach the pinnacle but the results belong to you alone. If you decide to pursue venture capital, you will have a larger safety net but you will need to give up more of your ownership and control sooner than you would if you were funding the idea or business yourself.

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

I’ve tried to impart my experiences and knowledge to others who might be starting where I did years back. Hopefully, by passing along my advice on what works and what some of the roadblocks a new business owner might face will help them avoid the mistakes I made as I was building my business. It’s my hope that I help others succeed more quickly than I did because they are armed with knowledge.

You are an inspiration to a great many people. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger.

I would like to lead a movement of people who want to become lifelong learners. I truly believe that life only gets better when you get better and the way you get better is to learn. Whether you are learning more about new technologies in your industry or learning to be a better leader, you are continuing to challenge yourself with new knowledge, skills or methods to improve.

Is there a person in the world, or in the US, with whom you would love to have a private breakfast or lunch, and why? He or she might just see this if we tag them.

My first choice would be Christ. It would be an honor to sit with him to discuss faith and his dedication. But, if we are choosing someone now living, I would have to say that I would like to meet former President Donald Trump. I’d like to pick his brain on some of the challenges he had to overcome in moving from business to governing.

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

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Making Something From Nothing: John Akhoian Of Rooter Hero 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.

An Interview With Fotis Georgiadis

“Fail fast, fail often” — This is a core value to bttn as an organization and something that I always refer back to. We are trying to turn an established $300B+ industry on its head, which is no easy feat. This requires taking big swings, not little, measured swings. To make progress toward big, audacious goals, you must be willing to fail constantly. At bttn, we embrace failure and learn from it every day.

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

JT Garwood started his career in Enterprise Sales at Microsoft and learned from some of the best and brightest mentors in the industry. He combines GTM expertise with vision and charismatic leadership to create trusted relationships with customers, partners, and advisors while inspiring the team. JT earned his Bachelor’s in Business Administration with a focus on International Business and a minor in Asian Studies from the University of San Diego and his Master of Business Administration from Syracuse University’s Martin J. Whitman School of Management.

Thank you so much for doing this with us! Before we dig in, our readers would like to get to know you a bit more. Can you tell us a bit about your “backstory”? What led you to this particular career path?

Starting my career at Microsoft in government sales was foundational to me leading bttn as CEO. I have always been drawn to sales and business, so it was not surprising when I felt the entrepreneurial side of my brain itch.

As the COVID-19 pandemic hit, news channels were full of stories about companies and hospitals being price gouged or defrauded when trying to obtain PPE and medical supplies. Wanting to explore this problem, I decided to start my first startup company. Our goal was to connect medical supply manufacturers abroad with hospitals and health systems in the United States via blockchain. While we sold that business within a year, the experience enlightened me to the healthcare industry’s issues in sourcing issues, supply chain, and transparency. Add in the extreme lack of customer service for the price of medical supplies, and it was clear there was a ripe opportunity to disrupt a massive industry, while improving efficiencies for everyone.

My co-founder Jack Miller and I decided to act, and bttn was born in March 2021.

Now, in September 2022, we are up to over 80 full-time employees, with +10,000 customers who have transparent access to over 2.5 million medical supplies from name-brand manufacturers. We are on a mission to reduce the cost of healthcare for all.

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

At its core, bttn is forcing the U.S.’s slow-moving, $250 billion-dollar medical supply industry to pivot by incorporating price transparency, technology and an easy-to-use user interface. We are building a modern way to purchase Grade A products at wholesale prices as a B2B retailer. Our online platform shows the prices of products — what you see is what you pay. By enabling selection, trust, and technology, we can offer price savings on medical supplies between 20–40% versus the incumbent model.

Every one of our incumbents — the reputable, big-name players in the medical supply industry — still play the old game: field sales reps, minimal-to-no price transparency, contracts, and MOQs. They don’t have an easy way for customers to easily purchase products online, on their own time.

Can you share a story about the funniest mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lesson you learned from that?

I’ll be the first to admit that I make a comical number of mistakes. But what separates good, successful entrepreneurs from others is the ability to be comfortable with failure and recognizing that it isn’t the end of the world — these are just learning moments.

I’ll never forget when my co-founder Jack and I went to raise our pre-seed round — our first actual capital raise. During the first call where we got commitment from the lead investor, they suggested that we raise the money via a SAFE. We didn’t know what a SAFE was, but we nodded our heads and agreed on the path forward. When the call ended, we opened our computers and proceeded to spend the next 24 hours researching and learning what exactly a SAFE is (God bless Y-Combinator and the internet)!

By the next morning, we could answer any question, comment, or concern regarding SAFE’s and had one ready to use for the raise.

We closed the round and secured $1.5 M in funding.

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

I credit much of my success to having worked alongside and being mentored by some incredibly knowledgeable leaders.

One person who’s had a profound impact on not only myself but also bttn, is our President Steve Nielsen, who served as the former CEO of McKesson Medical and LABSCO. Steve doesn’t just bring a wealth of medical supply industry knowledge to the table, he also brings decades of leadership, customer excellence-based business building, and a genuine passion for helping others.

He left retirement to join the company because he believes that bttn has the power to disrupt the medical supply industry at large and reshape everything he knew to be true.

In today’s parlance, being disruptive is usually a positive adjective. But is disrupting always good? When do we say the converse, that a system or structure has ‘withstood the test of time’? Can you articulate to our readers when disrupting an industry is positive, and when disrupting an industry is ‘not so positive’? Can you share some examples of what you mean?

Disruption can be positive and rewarding of every stakeholder if done correctly. Typically, we see positivity in tech when disruption, improves processes and leads to innovations. To produce “positive disruption,” informed intention and strategic decision-making must play an integral role in the change.

As a student of marketplaces, Amazon’s impact fits squarely into “positive” disruption. Providing access and transparency to every item in the consumer goods space was a lofty goal, but they did just that. Amazon’s prices and convenience have saved consumers billions, while also enabling new categories of technology as the company has expanded.

Disruptors that don’t make it are those who are inundated with complex processes, unsustainable practices, and are hell-bent on doing things only one way.

To disrupt, you must be nimble.

The difference between your product or service and that of your incumbents matters — this is the real value your company brings to the market. You must know what you’re running towards, while simultaneously understanding that the boat that you’re currently on to get there might get a hole. At this point you can either throw in the towel and remain stagnant or figure out how to keep moving.

Can you share five of the best words of advice that you’ve gotten along your journey?

1. “Fail fast, fail often” — This is a core value to bttn as an organization and something that I always refer back to. We are trying to turn an established $300B+ industry on its head, which is no easy feat. This requires taking big swings, not little, measured swings. To make progress toward big, audacious goals, you must be willing to fail constantly. At bttn, we embrace failure and learn from it every day.
2. “Do things that don’t scale” — When you’re starting a company, you’re always presented with options on how to deploy your capital. Oftentimes, you’re presented with the best solution first. That might mean going with the big expensive CRM instead of manually managing sales opportunities when you first launch. That’s ok. Everything is fixable at an early stage; do as many things as possible that don’t scale until you have to change.
3. “Don’t stop”– Since bttn’s launch, there were countless times when things looked bleak. These were opportunities to stop, pause, and see how things would play out. The big secret to entrepreneurship is knowing that it’s just a matter of 1) doing it and 2) staying in the game for as long as you can.
4. “Embrace the suck” — As an entrepreneur, every day can feel like you’re waking up to get punched in the stomach. Growth and disruption are not easy. You will be challenged every single day. The power comes in being able to embrace the suck and see everything instead as a strength.

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

The great thing about the healthcare and medical supply market is it’s filled with opportunities. While our current focus is providing affordable, bulk wholesale medical supplies online to medical practitioners, businesses, and consumers, it is by no means our only way to impact the market. The industry is wide open and ready for the taking.

As for what is next, bttn is going to continue scaling to lower the cost of healthcare for all. Our next strategic move, whether it be a new product, service, or expanded line of business, will directly support this vision. We want to be the one-stop shop for everything a medical practice or everyday consumer needs to buy. The more products that we can provide our customers with, the greater our impact will be.

Do you have a book, podcast, or talk that’s had a deep impact on your thinking? Can you share a story with us? Can you explain why it was so resonant with you?

I consider myself a lifelong learner with a huge passion for books, podcasts, and anything else I can get my hands on. Three books stand out to me as truly influential.

1. “Multipliers”- Liz Wizman

This book was my bible when I became a part of a large organization and started leading one of my first teams. It taught me how to optimize teams for what they are good at and multiply the results.

2. “The Hard Thing About Hard Things”-Ben Horowitz

I consider this essential reading for any entrepreneur. Ben has a way of sharing so plainly the challenges that you will face as a founder and leader at a startup.

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

1. As a major history and US President nerd, it would have to be “The Man in The Arena” by Theodore Roosevelt.

“It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.”

This quote has had a profound effect on everything I do. This is rocket fuel for an entrepreneur and encapsulates why we do it. This quote has propelled me to make many life decisions, from applying for big tech jobs to becoming an entrepreneur.

You are a person of great influence. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger. 🙂

I want to inspire people to pursue what they are most passionate about. Not just for a day or a year, but for decades.

By acting on an idea and helping solve a problem I’m passionate about, I’ve been lucky enough to surround myself with the right people to help bring my vision of transforming the entire medical supply chain ecosystem to life.

I’d love for people to pursue roles that get to the heart of their motivations so they can bring unparalleled passion and energy day in and day out. Imagine how much more we could achieve if we pursued what we were passionate about not just in improving our own lives but also in the lives of others.

How can our readers follow you online?

Readers can connect with me on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jtgarwood/ and follow me on Twitter & Instagram @JtGarwood

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

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Meet The Disruptors: JT Garwood Of bttn 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.

An Interview With Fotis Georgiadis

Focus is key. This is how you get your creative ideas to flow easier. Formulate a continuous development plan because as your community grows, they’ll want to see consistency.

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

Tahem Verma is the Co-Founder and CEO of mesha, an all-in-one smart money management tool for Web3 companies and DAOs. Mesha is a global platform that gives companies access to easy-to-use treasury and expense management tools to help Web3 teams scale their financial operations. Mesha enables startups to effectively manage their assets, access DeFi, and diversify tokens or earn yield. They provide startups with detailed insights into their finances and a corporate card program, allowing crypto-native teams to function seamlessly between the worlds of Web2 and Web3.

Tahem is a serial entrepreneur and previously founded the English-learning app Enguru. He received his BA at the University of Pennsylvania and MBA at Cornell Tech. He is also the host of the podcast Debug the Future, where he breaks down the fintech industry and helps audiences understand its potential and inner workings.

Thank you so much for doing this with us! Before we dive in, our readers would love to learn a bit about you. Can you tell us about the cutting-edge technological breakthroughs that you are working on? How do you think that will help people?

Mesha is the all-in-one smart money management tool for Web3 organizations such as DAOs, NFT projects, and Web3 startups. We provide a super easy-to-use treasury and expense management tool that helps teams scale their financial operations. Mesha helps Web3 startups with crypto assets, by actually managing those assets and securing them in a multi-signature wallet, which teams can access and use to make payments to vendors, DAO contributors, and employees. Users can also access DeFi solutions, so if they need to make token swaps because they’re earning in a non-stable currency, for example, mesha has streamlined this process for converting to a stablecoin. In addition, users get valuable insights into their finances. We also help bridge the gap between crypto assets and fiat payments with a corporate card program. You can think of mesha as a crypto-native bank and card program. Our goal is to let the best projects focus on building while we help them scale their financial operations, enabling the ecosystem to grow as a whole.

How do you think this might change the world?

A lot of Web3 teams overlook the traditional fiat rails that still exist. There are many bills that teams will need to pay in fiat, vendors that don’t accept crypto, and losses incurred while converting crypto to fiat. We’ve designed this global platform to expand the ecosystem and let innovators innovate. We have for too long seen Web3 teams and DAO contributors struggle with converting crypto to US dollars, making payments, and reconciling these transactions, so we make it a lot easier and a lot faster for them to do so. This means Web3 projects no longer need to hold their crypto in a centralized custodian. We underwrite users based on their decentralized wallet rather than their fiat bank account. What’s really exciting is that we enable Web3 projects to pay in fiat using their credit card while being able to pay back their balance in crypto, so we’ve designed the program to bridge the fiat requirements for crypto-native teams.

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

As a Web3 company, I and my team suffered all the same problems. Converting fiat to crypto is a really complicated and tiresome process and to top it off it’s expensive. We realized the space is still growing and for the moment it’s quite broken. So, the tipping point was when we learned that we could make an impact and help teams focus on what they’re good at, which is building.

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

It’s about executing and listening to our customer’s needs. That’s all that matters. With community-focused projects, it’s not enough to declare that you are all about the people. People want to see consistent growth because it’s an indication of how strong your team is and how dedicated they are the mission.

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

We are community-focused, so we work with our communities, from Twitter Spaces to our Discord servers, to make sure they build with us, and because our community genuinely believes that our service is solving real-world problems, they spread the word about our project and the work that we do.

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

It’s really important for us to give back and do our part because there are deep-rooted inequalities in the world. We donate one percent of whatever we earn to help female education around the world. Our community can vote to increase this percentage, but never decrease it. We hope that in the future mesha’s pledge will no longer be relevant- but until then, we will help empower girls in the world.

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

1. Take your time with hiring the right people. Your team and company culture is key to a successful business, especially in Web3. You need people that believe in the vision and are willing to put in the work for the long haul.
2. Spend time talking to users before building. You can’t settle for the ideas in your head. You need to be talking to users consistently in order to understand what they want to get out of an experience, and you need to be fully transparent. If you’re not committed to active engagement with your users as a founder, then you’re already missing one of the core reasons to create a business with Web3 principles.
3. Focus is key. This is how you get your creative ideas to flow easier. Formulate a continuous development plan because as your community grows, they’ll want to see consistency.
4. Stay healthy and find balance. Finding a balance between your work and private life is vital to avoiding burnout. I realized that being dedicated to your job doesn’t have to come at the expense of having boundaries and [it’s important] to let go of the idea that you have to be able to do it all on your own.
5. Build relationships. Web3 is all about people coming together as a community and building relationships take a lot of time. Be clear with your intentions and foster an environment where people feel comfortable enough to self-signal their intentions.

You are a person of great influence. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger. 🙂

If more of us built for the world, and not for making money quickly, we could tap into the next wave of uplifting society and people around the world. We have the opportunity to change this narrative, and we should all start by uplifting those marginalized by society.

How can our readers follow you on social media?

Readers can follow me on my personal accounts: Twitter, LinkedIn, and my brand accounts: mesha, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Youtube.

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

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The Future Is Now: Tahem Verma 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.

Meet The Disruptors: Arun Pattabhiraman Of Sprinklr On The Five Things You Need To Shake Up Your Industry

An Interview With Fotis Georgiadis

You start building out your growth, brand, and product marketing engines with subject matter experts and start driving more accountability across brand and revenue enablement functions.

As a part of our series about business leaders who are shaking things up in their industry, I had the pleasure of interviewing Arun Pattabhiraman is Sprinklr’s Chief Marketing Officer.

Prior to joining Sprinklr, Arun was Chief Growth Officer at Freshworks, where he led a global team of 400+ marketing, operations, and sales development professionals and played a critical role in helping Freshworks become the first Indian B2B SaaS company to list on NASDAQ in September 2021.

Prior to Freshworks, Arun ran global marketing at Disney+Hotstar, and also served as the CMO at InMobi, India’s first unicorn. Arun holds a Bachelors in Electrical Engineering from Anna University and a Post Graduate Program in Management from the Indian School of Business, Hyderabad.

Thank you so much for doing this with us! Before we dig in, our readers would like to get to know you a bit more. Can you tell us a bit about your “backstory”? What led you to this particular career path?

I didn’t always know I wanted to have a career in marketing. I actually started studying electrical engineering for my bachelor’s degree. But, I come from a family of musicians and artists, so creativity has always been in my blood. My dad is an English and Tamil poet. He used to be a writer in Ananda Vikatan, one of the oldest Tamil weekly magazines. He’s also a pencil portrait artist. My mom is a Carnatic musician. And my grandmother used to sing on All India Radio, the national public radio broadcaster of India.

Even though engineering was my major, creative activities filled up my free time. I sang music for a band, and loved creating pencil sketches. Towards the end of college, I realized that engineering wasn’t my passion, and that I needed a balance of art and science in my life. I shifted my career path and decided to get an MBA.

After my MBA, I spent three years at the telecom company Airtel before moving to the mobile advertising tech company InMobi. I joined InMobi during its early years and helped the company grow rapidly, which led to me assuming the role of global CMO. After nearly 7 years I moved on and soon joined Freshworks as the Chief Growth Officer, where I built several functions from scratch and played a critical role in helping Freshworks become the first Indian B2B SaaS company to list on NASDAQ in September 2021.

In early 2022 I was looking for my next challenge, and had an opportunity to join Sprinklr as Chief Marketing Officer. Sprinklr went public in 2021, and has tremendous growth potential as a B2B software company that helps the world’s most valuable brands break down internal silos in order to deliver seamless customer experiences on social media and messaging channels.

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

Tackling the challenge of making marketing a predictable, profitable area of growth for the business is something I’m focused on right now. Building a brand requires creativity, but translating that into a profitable area of growth for a business is tricky and requires analytical skills to predict where a business could land. It’s a complex science, and very difficult to strike a balance between brand-led growth and sales-led growth.

As companies transition from selling to SMBs to targeting mid market and enterprise companies, the sales motion typically moves from inbound to outbound. While most small and medium buyers can be attracted using inbound marketing techniques such as digital and content marketing, mid-market and enterprise customers need outbound sales.

In today’s parlance, being disruptive is usually a positive adjective. But is disrupting always good? When do we say the converse, that a system or structure has ‘withstood the test of time’? Can you articulate to our readers when disrupting an industry is positive, and when disrupting an industry is ‘not so positive’? Can you share some examples of what you mean?

I don’t think marketing leaders can come into a role with a standard disruptive playbook. And it’s actually a negative thing when people go into a role wanting to “disrupt” without deeply understanding the company. If the stage of company and market strategy is not aligned, disruption is not good.

Even the most astute leaders can’t figure out the transformation required before they understand the stage the company is at and where the company is on its growth journey.

There are four to five stages as a company goes from seed to scale. The first stage is what I like to call the growth stage. These are the early years of the company where marketing teams are largely focused on driving acquisitions.

The second stage is really brand establishment. Once you have product-market fit, you have a better understanding of what the value proposition is, and you are in a better position to define what your brand essence is.

Third stage is scaling and specialization. You start building out your growth, brand, and product marketing engines with subject matter experts and start driving more accountability across brand and revenue enablement functions.

Fourth or fifth stage is when your brand is well established and you can invest in customer marketing, driving cross-sell and upsell programs, and even referrals as a new acquisition channel.

For many companies, creating this sustainable growth playbook is incredibly disruptive if the company doesn’t have it in place.

Can you share five of the best words of advice you’ve gotten along your journey? Please give a story or example for each.

As a data-driven marketer, leaders want data all the time to make decisions. But, over a period of time, I’ve realized that the collective experiences in life always provide you with information you shouldn’t discount. When I look back at decisions I’ve made — sometimes moving sideways in my career instead of up — I knew that if I pursued my passion and stayed true to myself I would end up where I needed to be.

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

I haven’t executed a massive rebrand yet, and I’ve always wanted to architect this, but I want to do it when there is a real need.

Predictions for 2023?

I think there is a movement against lead generation towards demand generation and capture. Every B2B company is so used to gated content that we’ve lost touch with the true art of creating demand. What about creating demand rather than just capturing demand?

There is a growing realization in the B2B space that there is a lot of value that gets added to things you do that can’t necessarily be measured precisely. On the other hand, we have tools like Sprinklr that are helping brands get much better at measuring the value of social and PR, and showing how it impacts the brand.

Do you have a book, podcast, or talk that’s had a deep impact on your thinking? Can you share a story with us? Can you explain why it was so resonant with you?

I’m not someone who reads many business books. I’m always interested in stories of people who have gone down different paths. For example, I love the Autobiography of a Yogi about Paramahansa Yogananda, because it’s an interesting look at the science of Yoga and the tradition of meditation — something that gets me out of my daily B2B marketing world.

How can our readers follow you online?

• LinkedIn: https://in.linkedin.com/in/arunpattabhiraman
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/arun_pattabhi

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

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Meet The Disruptors: Arun Pattabhiraman Of Sprinklr 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.

An Interview With Fotis Georgiadis

Don’t be afraid to ask: Most people are willing to help out or give you advice along the way. Wether it’s a manufacturer or someone else in your same field, almost everyone wants to help.

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

Dominican Republic born, New York City raised, Suveria Mota launched SUVERIA in 2019. The first 100% vegan luxury lifestyle brand. As a former Hollywood actress in her post college years, her passion for the limelight, arts and fashion all came together in synergy when conceptualizing her brand.

A true trailblazer making strides with a vegan luxury brand, merging elegant designs with luxurious craftsmanship and tastefully timeless designs. Perfectly suited for today’s generation of modern compassionate fashionables. SUVERIA proves that vegan fashion can co-exist in the luxury market.

Thank you so much for doing this with us! Before we dig in, our readers would like to get to know you a bit more. Can you tell us a bit about your “backstory”? What led you to this particular career path?

Sure! Thank you for having me. I was born the Dominican Republic. My parents migrated with my sister and I to NYC when I was four years old. I lived In New York City until I graduated from college. Since a young age I had always wanted to be in Hollywood or in show business. After graduating college, I decided to move to Los Angeles and pursue acting. While in L.A, I had a few acting parts and then a big lead in a made for tv movie and that was great. However, after some time, I was feeling like acting wasn’t my passion anymore and decided to step back and take a break.

In the summer of 2015, I watched a documentary on cetaceans in captivity and it immediately changed the way that I viewed sea-quariums and parks that have animals performing acts for entertainment. I never went to them because I always felt uneasy, and then the documentary solidified my instincts.

After watching the documentary I became interested in animal rights and veganism. Which then led me to realize that my luxury items were all non vegan. Cleaning out my closet was the catalyst for how it all started.

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

When I started the brand in 2015 and launched in 2019, luxury in the vegan market wasn’t popular. Most people saw vegans or anyone interested in cruelty free products as a population that wasn’t included in the luxury conversation. I launched SUVERIA as a truly vegan luxury lifestyle brand. There were other brands that offered luxury vegan products but still offered other items with wool or silk, or vegan shoe brands but then didn’t have the luxury packaging or branding which is also part of the luxury experience in retail.

Manufacturers for example didn’t understand when I’d say, that I wanted to offer my customers packaging and the level of craftsmanship on par with their other luxury accounts.

Can you share a story about the funniest mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lesson you learned from that?

I’ll call this a funny mistake even if it’s not a “thing” per se. When I started I didn’t realize how important it is to include your followers in the process of creating a brand or product. That the buildup can also help you to see if anything needs to be changed before production. I’ve learned now to showcase any new products to receive feedback and also ask questions. It’s best to ask your customer base if possible at every stage. Tease to see how it will be received.

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

From a far I look at other founders in the fashion industry as inspiration. Tom Ford for example is a living legend whom I admire. He started in the industry as a model and actor. I didn’t attend fashion school and so it’s easy to feel like one doesn’t belong if you don’t have the “credentials”. Knowing that Tom Ford was in the same field as myself before making his way into fashion is very encouraging and exciting.

In today’s parlance, being disruptive is usually a positive adjective. But is disrupting always good? When do we say the converse, that a system or structure has ‘withstood the test of time’? Can you articulate to our readers when disrupting an industry is positive, and when disrupting an industry is ‘not so positive’? Can you share some examples of what you mean?

Yes, disruption is good. Change is good. Only when we disrupt something is when we realize that the old way wasn’t right or working correctly. So many times because of a disruption we find better ways to do the same thing and better. Like many businesses having to pivot during the pandemic only to find better practices for everyone involved.

There’s also no harm in trying right? Let’s try this new disruptive way, and see how it goes, and if it fails, then there’s learning in that too.

In my field, deciding to use fabrics and textiles that don’t come from an animal, has contributed to manufactures finding new technologies and ways to make cruelty free materials. The disruption has gone as far as the most luxurious fashion houses who have been doing it their old way, to now they’re coming out with vegan sustainable offerings created in house.

Can you share five of the best words of advice you’ve gotten along your journey? Please give a story or example for each.

1. It’s not who you know, but who knows you. This one comes from my acting and modeling days. It’s imperative to meet people and place yourself in rooms where you can meet friends or good acquaintances in your field.
2. Dress for success: Dress for the life you imagine and dress
3. Perfectionism doesn’t exist: I’m a perfectionist at fault. I’ve learned that it is ok to let the idea that something has to be perfect all the time. I’ve delayed launching products until they were “perfect” only to have to tweek it down the road.
4. Don’t be afraid to ask: Most people are willing to help out or give you advice along the way. Wether it’s a manufacturer or someone else in your same field, almost everyone wants to help.
5. Sample, sample!: I received one sample box for our new shoe packaging and loved it. From just glancing at it, the dimensions were perfect and so I ordered many. Once I had orders and needed to ship, we realized that they were slightly too big for our mailing boxes! So we had to scramble and order them really fast which delayed our customers shipping.

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

No, not done. My goal is to build a truly vegan luxury lifestyle brand. We’d like to offer homewares, jewelry, skincare. All with luxury in mind.

Do you have a book, podcast, or talk that’s had a deep impact on your thinking? Can you share a story with us? Can you explain why it was so resonant with you?

Yes, there are a few. Style Your Mind podcast by Cara Alwill, Overnight Success book and podcast by Maria Hatzistefanis and the book, The Widow Clicquot by Tilar J. Mazzero.

I’ve also watched countless of motivational talks on YouTube on entrepreneurship and veganism. I think that the idea is to find one online whenever you need a quick surge of motivation.

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

Audaces fortuna iuvat which losely translates to fortune favors the bold (brave). I’m a perfectionist and while that may be great for many things, it’s also a clutch. I tend to overthink and don’t take brave decisions when I should. I constantly remind myself of my younger days when I packed my bags and moved cross country without knowing anyone to follow my dreams.

You are a person of great influence. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger. 🙂

That we should all find out where leather, wool, silk, fur and feathers really comes from. The vast majority would be truly schooled and surprised. I think that education in that matter will greatly bring a lot of good.

My brand is also actively working to help with cetaceans in captivity and trying to change how people view shows with whales and dolphins. I’d love for a world were all animals are respected. Not just pets. Awareness of what cetaceans go through would be a great movement.

How can our readers follow you online?

They can visit the site www.suveria.com and click on their favorite social media platform.

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

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Meet The Disruptors: Suveria Mota Of SUVERIA 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.

Making Something From Nothing: James R Langabeer Of Yellowstone Research On How To Go From Idea To Launch

An Interview With Fotis Georgiadis

I wish somebody would have told me was that it just isn’t as fun as you think to be your own boss! You have nobody to blame, or go to for help. Try to find a mentor, or somebody that’s more experienced than you in a similar business or venture. Ask for their help — and take their advice!

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

James R. Langabeer, PhD is a management strategist, entrepreneur, and professor. He has founded or led several successful companies, including a healthcare information technology company and a business intelligence software firm. He has also developed several large-scale community initiatives and programs as an endowed professor at UTHealth Houston. James is best known for his expertise on management decision-making and founded Yellowstone Research, LLC to provide strategy consulting for leaders in healthcare, supply chain, and consumer goods firms. He was named a finalist for the 2022 Success Magazine most influential leader award, and his writing has been published in Forbes, Psychology Today, and over 125 academic journals. His latest book is The Quest for Wealth: Six Steps for Making Mindful Money Choices (Routledge Press, 2022).

Thank you so much for doing this with us! Before we dive in, our readers would love to learn a bit more about you. Can you tell us a bit about your “childhood backstory”?

I was very fortunate to have been born overseas in Tokyo Japan, the middle child of an Air Force officer/Certified Public Accountant, and a loving and energetic mother. They were both from the heart of the Midwest in Peoria, Illinois. We moved around quite a bit, which showed me that growth in life is fed by new opportunities and new scenery. We shouldn’t get complacent, or remain in one place, literally or figuratively, too long. With a military family, you learn a lot about discipline, and I was also taught the importance of money and how to make solid conservative financial choices. Our parents constantly tried to model how important it was to exercise leadership, whether in your work or personal life. I tried to lead, travel, and take advantage of as many opportunities as I could to keep moving forward.

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

One thing my father used to always goes something like “a coward dies a thousand deaths, a hero only one.” He encouraged us to take chances, get out there, and do something despite potential consequences. He wasn’t afraid of much, and “action” was always preferable to inaction. I’ve been lucky because I believe that risk-taking is essential for innovation and entrepreneurship, so those early lessons have helped me immensely with my ability to get things done.

Is there a particular book, podcast, or film that significantly impacted you? Can you share a story or explain why it resonated with you so much?

I loved the short story “The Secret Life of Walter Mitty” by James Thurber. We read it in high school I believe, and then much later I saw the film version with Ben Stiller. The story made a lasting impression on me. At its core, I believe it is about the difference between dreamers and doers. There are some people who wish they had a better, more exciting, heroic life. And others who go out there and are brave and courageous. Most importantly, it shows that you can go out there and change your life, and make it all come true.

Also, I read in business school the book “Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance” by Robert Pirsig. I don’t remember much of it, but what stuck with me was the idea that you can be actually grounded in daily rational thinking (about consequences, the future, planning) yet still be present in the moment. That there can be a balance between being analytical and still be mindful. I think that’s really important for us, since we tend to think of things in extremes rather than harmony, and prefer one way over another. Since I focus on how people make big (strategic) choices, I like to know that you can be congruent between these perspectives.

Ok super. Let’s now shift to the main part of our discussion. There is no shortage of good ideas out there. Many people have good ideas all the time. But people seem to struggle in taking a good idea and translating it into an actual business. Can you share a few ideas from your experience about how to overcome this challenge?

I think this is completely correct. So many people think they have ‘killer ideas’, but don’t act on them. Some times, these are just re-do’s of what is already out there. But in other cases, people have really good ideas, but can’t figure out the first few steps. It’s really rare to find somebody with a good idea, that can actually pull it off. That’s why entrepreneurs who can get an idea to the commercialization phase are fairly rare. When I’m advising young entrepreneurs, the first thing I always ask them to do is to make a few notes, briefly detailing these points:

• What’s the core concept?
• Why does this inspire you?
• Why is this unique?
• What business problem or need does this solve, and for whom specifically?
• Why are you the right person to tackle it?
• How might this be monetized?

These just need to be a sentence or two for each point. I don’t recommend a detailed business plan at first. Details in a traditional business plan just bog people down in a writing exercise and make you think about the “practical” matters. Not having answers at first, is what you have to get comfortable with! So don’t worry about all details at first, try to remain conceptual. We tend to go right into the details, and gloss over the most important aspects. This creates too much focus on the wrong components of planning, which are virtually unknowable at this point. I see people worrying about their pricing strategy (how much to charge) when they really don’t even know who they are solving a problem for. These details will all come later, but first, start with the concept and the innovation.

Often when people think of a new idea, they dismiss it saying someone else must have thought of it before. How would you recommend that someone go about researching whether or not their idea has already been created?

People often dismiss their own abilities and their own originality. I think it’s because people are thinking about ideas for things in the wrong way. Even an incrementally better service, product, or even process enhancement can all be ideas that can be innovated. It’s not necessarily just one ‘big thing’. The best way to really know if this is a unique idea is to more carefully explore it. Write down the answers to the conceptual questions earlier. Try asking a few people what they think of this idea, especially those people who might have the need for the product or service you are thinking about. Then, as we all do, “Google it”. See what exists that is out on the public domains. I wouldn’t worry about a patent or trademark or legal matters at this stage — start by asking questions and doing some basic research.

For the benefit of our readers, can you outline the steps one has to go through, from when they think of the idea, until it finally lands in a customer’s hands? In particular, we’d love to hear about how to file a patent, how to source a good manufacturer, and how to find a retailer to distribute it.

Even before this, let’s talk about what’s most important — developing your ‘story’ about this big idea. You want to work on creating a compelling pitch that will seize people’s interest immediately, yet not too much where you lose them. Think of a 15 or 30 second pitch around your vision. Don’t try to confuse people. Simplify as much as possible, as if you’re talking to somebody who knows nothing about this! That is the most important thing — simplify your ideas, and what it could mean for them or others. Give people a reason to be excited and wanting to hear more.

Then, you’ll need to work through the mechanics. You have to have a solid grasp of competitive intelligence — who are the competitors in this area. Not only other companies but competing products that might fill the same need. What are the gaps today? You want to end up with an idea of the size of the market potential. What is the opportunity? What is the up-side?

Once you have this, people should get some validation on their ideas. You tossed the idea around to a few people earlier, but now you need to get serious with some research. A/B testing is a good way to try to see what potential customers might prefer, if you can narrow things down. Surveys, interviews, or small focus groups might help provide insight. Before investing a lot of your personal money, or that of an investor, validate that this makes sense to potential real customers.

Then think through what you need to make this happen from a value-chain perspective: Do you need to manufacture a product? Open a retail location? What suppliers would you need? What are the start-up to do this in the beginning, and and ongoing costs once fully scaled? What would a team or organization look like for this? This is the heart of the financial projections you’ll need to consider.

With all this information, you should be able to now create a revenue model. Think of a small pilot to deploy this, and always build in a lot more time than you think you need to get something out there. In my projections, I usually expect zero revenue for many months, and only expenses. You’ll need to make sure you have at least 6–12 months of expected expenses saved to get going. This is where you might need to consider financial alternatives: self-funded, angel investors, venture capital, or debt (loans).

See how easy it is to get mired down in details? There is a lot to plan. So take it one step at a time!

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

The first thing I wish somebody would have told me was that it just isn’t as fun as you think to be your own boss! You have nobody to blame, or go to for help. Try to find a mentor, or somebody that’s more experienced than you in a similar business or venture. Ask for their help — and take their advice!

Second, I’d say to others don’t sweat all the details too early on. You just get too overwhelmed. At the same time, I wish I would have thought through financial alternatives earlier too. You might reach a point of financial ‘vulnerability’ or even desperation, where you think of don’t have any alternatives. I have found myself taking funding from companies that probably weren’t in the best interest, but I thought I had no other choices at the time. Strategic planning can help you prepare for these times!

I also think I under-estimated the value of a solid team at start-up. Whiel everything starts and stops with you, it’s not just about you anymore. It has to be about finding partners and employees that share your vision and can take it to the next level. When I started up a healthcare information organization, I brought in a few people immediately that could absorb the vision, and create passion and energy. This is essential to the first year of a new venture.

I sometimes wish I wasn’t always so frugal. For instance, now I know that spending money on outside consultants can be useful. I often find myself thinking through things by myself and probably didn’t reach the best option. If I would have spent a little money on an independent management consultant or market research firm, they could have played a more active role in helping me do the research, simulate alternatives, and come up with a better path forward. I strongly recommend the use of a consultant to help go through these steps from idea to implementation.

Lastly, I wish I had thought through this important question a little more closely: “what does success look like”. We get worked up with a few things, such as customer counts, or dollar volumes of sales. Yet, these aren’t the best indicators for most companies. Entrepreneurs often want to create a product and become rich, successful, or well-known — or just create a useful product or service. But articulating that a lot more clearly, with detailed performance indicators and specific goals, could help you gauge success better.

Let’s imagine that a reader reading this interview has an idea for a product that they would like to invent. What are the first few steps that you would recommend that they take?

The very first step is to be able to articulate the vision into a story. Work on refining the message so well that you can literally tell people what it is, what it does, and why they need it without seeing them yawn or turn away. This crafting of a compelling, yet concise, story is what successful entrepreneurs master. Think about your role this way:

• Messaging. You own the story, the brand, and the vision.
• Master Planning. The most important choices are yours to make. Develop and maintain a strategy blueprint.
• Mobilizing. You have to think about your leadership team, resources, partners, and suppliers. These are all vital to early-stage success.
• Momentum. Focus your energy on maintaining momentum and moving toward your 1, 3, and 5-year goals.

There are many invention development consultants. Would you recommend that a person with a new idea hire such a consultant, or should they try to strike out on their own?

No, not an invention development consultant. But, I would definitely consider using an independent consultant for helping do some of the initial research and providing advice on markets and competitors. You must own the vision the concept, but you can use a consultant to gather the intelligence and the research to create prototypes. Use a consultant to help you with revenue or cost projections. Or, use them to help work on validation and implementation. They can be worth their weight in gold, and allow you bandwidth to focus on what really matters — your message and momentum-building.

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

There are some advantages to both. Generally, for most people, I recommend using your own resources for as long as possible. You’ll hold on to more of your “sweat-equity” and future profits. But this can also limit growth considerably. For some types of companies, such as information systems or those requiring significant capital expenditures, it might be necessary to consider outside investors, such as venture capital firms (VC). VC funding can be great and can help the company sustain years of losses since they aren’t always focused on short-term profitability. I’ve gone through multiple rounds of funding, and each time, you lose a little bit more of your ownership. So make sure the growth of the firm outweighs this ownership devaluation. It’s a hard choice to make. In the end, do the one you feel most comfortable with and can sleep best with. If you go the VC route, make sure you do all the due diligence to find the right partner, future board member, and advisor. That relationship is key to your growth and success.

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

To me the most important societal areas we have to address with bold ideas are around mental health, homelessness, climate changes, substance use, and immigration. I have tried to create a few programs to address a few of these, but so much more is needed. One really successful project I have created is helping those who are struggling with substance use and mental health disorders, especially opioids. One of these programs, the Houston Emergency Opioid Engagement System (or HEROES) helps provide free integrated treatment and recovery services for people struggling with substance use disorders in Texas. We’ve helped re-build thousands of lives for individuals and their families. As with any initiative, I think it’s important to define a future state that is better than where you are, and do something rather than nothing. We need innovators in these areas, and I applaud the work of people like the Gates Foundation who are using their resources to combat important social issues.

You are an inspiration to a great many people. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger.

As somebody who is highly vested in the technology world, I’d have to controversially say that we need a better way to manage mobile technology has taken over our life. We need some kind of controls over how phones and technology are dominating our brains! We need better mental health interventions that can help reduce loneliness and suicide rates. I think mobile technology is one area which can be improved significantly.

We are very blessed that some of the biggest names in Business, VC funding, Sports, and Entertainment read this column. Is there a person in the world, or in the US, with whom you would love to have a private breakfast or lunch, and why? He or she might just see this if we tag them.

Being a big fan of great leaders and brand-builders, I would love to meet Oprah Winfrey. She’s so smart, always well prepared, and seems to know everything! Everything she touches turns to gold it seems, from her magazine, books, films, podcasts, and other business ventures. She is a terrific role model!

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

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Making Something From Nothing: James R Langabeer Of Yellowstone Research 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.

Howard Beader Of Catchpoint On How To Use Digital Transformation To Take Your Company To The Next Level

An Interview With Fotis Georgiadis

Automating manual processes — This is where there may have been a paper process in the past and I have seen many organizations transform this into a digital process across department across the enterprise.

As part of our series about “How To Use Digital Transformation To Take Your Company To The Next Level”, I had the pleasure of interviewing Howard Beader.

Howard Beader is the Vice President of Product Marketing for Catchpoint, where he’s responsible for driving the go-to-market strategy, solution marketing plans and tactics globally across Catchpoint’s solution portfolio.

Before joining Catchpoint, Howard was Sr. Director of Product Marketing for ServiceNow, where he was responsible for bringing Creator Workflows and the Now Platform to market, building the developer program & the CreatorCon event, and the ServiceNow App Store.

Thank you so much for joining us in this interview series. Before we dive in, our readers would love to “get to know you” a bit better. Can you tell us a bit about your ‘backstory’ and how you got started?

I got started in this space working for a small custom electronics manufacturer after implementing an ERP system end to end, which I didn’t think was anything special at the time, but it in fact led me to join SAP, and my career went from being a consultant to helping bring SAP BW to market, to then creating and launching SAP Mobile.

Can you share a story about the funniest mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lessons or ‘take aways’ you learned from that?

Early on in my career, I worked in the restaurant business and in one job, I worked in an open kitchen where the patrons could always see me. I was trying to look cool, flipping burgers in the air, and dropped one on the floor. Not thinking about it, I picked it up, put it back on the grill and eventually served it to a customer. Well, that customer had watched the whole thing, complained and of course I got in trouble. This experience defined a key lesson for me: that living and working with integrity is very important and it’s one of the traits that people remember you by.

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

There are a number of folks that have been a huge help throughout my career, but one of the most pivotal was Pascal Gibert who hired me to join his team at Microsoft. We then worked closely when he joined SAP, and later, he brought me into ServiceNow. Pascal taught me the value of building relationships across the organization, and that work can also be fun.

Is there a particular book, podcast, or film that made a significant impact on you? Can you share a story or explain why it resonated with you so much?

I am sure many are also inspired by by Geoffrey Moore’s books, Crossing the Chasm and Inside the Tornado. They continually resonate with me as I have always worked with new technology solutions in the enterprise software space, and the lessons learned are hugely valuable.

Extensive research suggests that “purpose driven businesses” are more successful in many areas. When your company started, what was its vision, what was its purpose?

When Catchpoint started, we were extremely purpose driven. It was about being the best cloud monitoring company in the space, by providing our customers with the maximum ability to test, analyze and identify issues before they cause problems.

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

We are currently working on our upcoming Q4 launch, and there are many great new capabilities and enhancements which will increase network observability, improve usability, grow our global observability network, and expand integration and automation capabilities.

Thank you for all that. Let’s now turn to the main focus of our discussion about Digital Transformation. For the benefit of our readers, can you help explain what exactly Digital Transformation means? On a practical level what does it look like to engage in a Digital Transformation?

There are many definitions of digital transformation, but let’s keep it simple and call it automating a process digitally that was once manual. Most organizations had to dramatically accelerate their digital transformation journeys over the past few years due to Covid. This could involve a restaurant ensuring it’s easier for their customers to order and pay online and notifying the staff that they have arrived to pick up. Or it could be an enterprise moving an application or workload to the cloud from their own onsite data centers.

Which companies can most benefit from a Digital Transformation?

All companies can benefit from digital transformation, but those that adopt and go all in will see the benefits sooner than those that are just dipping their toes in the water.

We’d love to hear about your experiences helping others with Digital Transformation. In your experience, how has Digital Transformation helped improve operations, processes and customer experiences? We’d love to hear some stories if possible.

All of our customers today have achieved some level of digital transformation, and as a result, we have seen huge increases in site traffic, especially in eCommerce. Many of our customers (and we have 9 of the top 10 Forbes Digital Companies among them) have also come to realize that their DT is only as good as the resilience of the internet. In a brick-and-mortar store, you can still go in and buy something with cash if the internet is down, but for eCommerce, if there is no internet, there is no experience. At a time when the frailty of the internet is often demonstrated by slowdowns or outages, and so much of the digital delivery infrastructure that delivers the ultimate digital experience is beyond IT’s direct control, troubleshooting can be very difficult. The companies we work with recognize that they need a robust end-user observability solution to proactively monitor the entire digital delivery chain to determine if there are issues in different regions/states/countries and make necessary adjustments before their customers are impacted. We have a number of stories up on our website that speak to just this, including one close to my heart by my prior employer, SAP who use Catchpoint for their eCommerce platform to ensure internet resilience for their 2000+ customers.

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

I believe I just covered this above.

Ok. Thank you. Here is the primary question of our discussion. Based on your experience and success, what are “Five Ways a Company Can Use Digital Transformation To Take It To The Next Level”? Please share a story or an example for each.

Organizations can use Digital Transformation in a huge number of different ways. The top ones that come to mind are:

1. Automating manual processes — This is where there may have been a paper process in the past and I have seen many organizations transform this into a digital process across department across the enterprise.
2. Moving workloads to the cloud — Many companies still have critical applications running in their own data centers. Moving these to a cloud service (and benefiting from greater scalability, flexibility and efficiency) is a path to DT.
3. Re-define your processes — This is where it’s not just about automating a process, but rather re-thinking that process to leverage new digital capabilities.
4. Digital = Agile — Digital transformation doesn’t mean one and done, it’s more so a continuous process of innovation.
5. Shifting from a reactive to a proactive approach — The most successful organizations have made the shift from reacting to failures when they arise to constantly observing their systems, services and sites to catch any issue before it impacts the end user, and make the necessary changes proactively.

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

This is about building a growth mindset in the team and constantly learning as you go to leverage your differentiators.

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

This is one of my favorites: “Learn from yesterday, live for today, hope for tomorrow. The important thing is not to stop questioning.” — Albert Einstein

How can our readers further follow your work?

The best place to follow me is either on Twitter @hbeader or on LinkedIn.

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

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

Todd Hedberg Of The Lacek Group On How to Effectively Leverage The Power of Digital Marketing, PPC, & Email to Dramatically Increase Sales

An Interview With Fotis Georgiadis

Resilience: Best-laid plans often don’t work out, especially with digital advertising. But embracing a “fail fast” mentality of refining and testing ad components leads to success. So much can be learned from digital ad platforms, even when response is much lower than anticipated.

Marketing a product or service today is easier than ever before in history. Using platforms like Facebook ads or Google ads, a company can market their product directly to people who perfectly fit the ideal client demographic, at a very low cost. Digital Marketing tools, Pay per Click ads, and email marketing can help a company dramatically increase sales. At the same time, many companies that just start exploring with digital marketing tools often see disappointing results.

In this interview series called “How to Effectively Leverage The Power of Digital Marketing, PPC, & Email to Dramatically Increase Sales”, we are talking to marketers, advertisers, brand consultants, & digital marketing gurus who can share practical ideas from their experience about how to effectively leverage the power of digital marketing, PPC, & email.

As a part of this series, I had the pleasure of interviewing Todd Hedberg.

Todd Hedberg has 20 years of experience driving strategic marketing from client roles in the healthcare, financial, and medical device industries, along with agency work leading digital marketing client services. In his current role as the director of digital strategy at The Lacek Group, he provides strategic digital engagement recommendations to support clients’ loyalty program growth and performance. He holds an M.B.A. degree from the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul, Minn., where he also serves as adjunct faculty for the Executive Education program for advanced digital marketing certification courses.

Thank you so much for joining us in this interview series! Before we dive in, our readers would love to “get to know you” a bit better. Can you tell us a bit about your ‘backstory’ and how you got started?

My passion for marketing was ignited at a young age through seeing my mother manage large-scale marketing campaigns. Her experienced varied from Fortune 100 companies to rapidly growing startups. I found it fascinating how effective marketing can positively change perceptions and purchasing behavior with key audiences.

Can you share a story about the funniest marketing mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lessons or ‘takeaways’ you learned from that?

Early in my career I was working on direct marketing for a consumer medical goods company. My role was to support our partner clinics by executing their local marketing. I accidentally swapped mailing lists on a fall direct-mail campaign — sending a Florida clinic’s direct-mail promotion to a batch of New York zip codes. Lo and behold, several months later the Florida clinic was flooded with snowbirds bringing in the mail piece and looking to purchase. This accident unlocked an insight that most snowbirds wait to make purchasing decisions until they settle in their winter destination. Sometimes accidents lead to useful insights — which is a reminder to stay open to new discoveries, whatever the source.

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

I’ve been extremely fortunate to have managers who were committed to helping me reach my potential. A few years into my career, my manager encouraged me to take the next step in my growth by presenting to large audiences at customer training events — and I was nervous. In fact, the first time I co-presented with my manager I froze up during the introductions! Eventually, though, I flourished in these speaking engagement opportunities — gaining the skills and confidence to lead seminar rooms filled with hundreds of people on numerous occasions. That manager’s confidence — and prodding! — helped me grow in ways I wouldn’t have imagined, and I remain grateful.

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

The Lacek Group is best known for building many of the world’s most iconic loyalty programs. In fact, a new client came to us recently solely because they wanted to work with the agency that built the Marriott Bonvoy program, which Lacek still manages today. But I think it’s the culture and people at Lacek that truly differentiate us from other agencies. The level of collaboration among employees is unparalleled, as is the degree of trust in our leadership. These internal strengths shine through in our client work — so much so that many of our new clients come through recommendations from brand leaders who’ve worked with Lacek before.

You are a successful business leader. Which three character traits do you think were most instrumental to your success? Can you please share a story or example for each?

For me, curiosity and passion are the biggest drivers of success. The ever-changing digital marketing landscape really sparks those traits in me. I’m continuously immersing myself in innovations and exploring new and practical ways to apply to existing strategies. A third key trait I’d add is gratitude. After pausing much of the work I was leading in a previous role — due to the impact of the pandemic — I’m fortunate to have opportunities to help brands look forward again and thrive in our new, post-COVID business landscape.

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

Yes, the last few months have been filled with a variety of exciting new projects. I’ve been supporting work for clients looking to accelerate their growth and customer loyalty in industries that include electric vehicles, home siding, facial aesthetics, and more. I’m always fascinated by marketing commonalities — and idiosyncrasies — across apparently disparate industries.

Ok super. Now let’s jump to the main questions of our interview. As we mentioned in the beginning, sometimes companies that just start exploring with digital marketing tools like PPC campaigns often see disappointing results. In your opinion, what are a few of the biggest mistakes companies make when they first start out with digital marketing? If you can, please share an example for each.

A successful digital marketing strategy needs to be rooted in a strong sense of the target customer’s online behaviors and preferences. For example, in a past role I lead digital strategy for a hearing aid technology company. We determined that Facebook was a prime advertising channel, but Instagram was not, due to the age-related usage patterns. Thus, removing Instagram from our ad placements on Meta, ensuring only Facebook delivery, was critical to achieving a positive ROI instead of a negative one. We dove deeper to learn that news feed posts greatly outperformed Facebook Stories and other placements on the channel.

Also, search is a critical piece for achieving sustainable success in all industries, especially e-commerce brands and even B2B companies. The best way to achieve a high ROI with lasting results is a strong search-engine optimization (SEO) strategy. Not only knowing the right keywords to optimize for your target customers but also finding those nuggets of high search volume but low competition is vital. Brands who neglect SEO need their paid efforts to work miracles for them on a regular basis, often resulting in a high level of performance volatility.

This is especially important for the razor-thin line between success and failure. The biggest failures I commonly see with digital pay-per-click (PPC) campaigns is insufficient strategic planning to ensure proper campaign setup. Much like search-engine optimization, so much technical work is required during setup to ensure effective ad delivery. Reliance on the default platform settings and AI tools typically results in skewed keyword context and missed audience targeting.

If you could break down a very successful digital marketing campaign into a “blueprint”, what would that blueprint look like? Please share some stories or examples of your ideas.

A digital marketing road map should start with website and SEO development. No ads should run without a demonstrated ability to capture and convert leads organically. Implementing CRM capabilities for lead nurturing and scoring is also essential. If your brand relies on lead management for hand-off to distribution or retail partners to convert the sale, then that aspect needs to be established as well.

Once the bottom-of-the-funnel is leak proofed, it’s time to start running digital advertising campaigns to drive demand. The easiest and most effective way to start is social ads prioritized to the channels where your brand finds the highest organic engagement rates. Paid search can also begin at this point — but it typically takes a few months for a quality score to be established and campaigns to rise in page rankings. I generally take a wait-and-see approach with programmatic ad campaigns given the typically low ROI from display ads. If your brand is solely focused on awareness (and not ROI) out of the gate, which is usually a mistake, then programmatic may make sense. Though pay close attention to where those campaigns are running and their response rates.

Let’s talk about Pay Per Click Marketing (PPC) for a bit. In your opinion which PPC platform produces the best results to increase sales?

Google. I know there are stories of better success found for large brands on Bing and other secondary search engines, but I’ve rarely encountered that myself. Small and medium-sized brands don’t have massive budgets to own category searches, making secondary search engines less strategically helpful. Google’s plethora of viable platform options within the ecosystem are useful. For e-commerce brands, for example, ads optimized for Google Shopping and YouTube tend to have the greatest lift. Google Maps promotions are strong drivers of in-store traffic for retail stores. Analyzing the best placement of ad funds within Google is critical for any brand spending money on that platform.

Can you please share 3 things that you need to know to run a highly successful PPC campaign?

1. Channel opportunities: PPC extends into placement opportunities beyond standard search with maps, shopping, video, and more.
2. Keyword research: The best path to success is unlocking relevant keyword targets around your product or service that have high search volumes but low competition. Often that requires extensive research and testing to uncover those prime keyword opportunities.
3. Campaign optimization: Whether it’s adjusting campaign bids and content to meet audience behavior changes or platform algorithm updates, PPC campaigns require an always-on approach to conversion rate optimization.

Let’s now talk about email marketing for a bit. In your opinion, what are the 3 things that you need to know to run a highly successful email marketing campaign that increases sales?

Email strategy is fundamental to digital marketing. While best practices for content and layout have essentially remained the same over the last couple of decades, innovations in AI have changed the game. Brands that rely on email marketing as a key customer communication channel must embrace and leverage AI optimization tools for delivery time, imagery, natural language, and promotional offer personalization to every recipient.

Here are three key critical aspects of email marketing success:

1. Content: Does the message add immediate value to the recipient based on expressed interests? If not, don’t send it.
2. Cadence: Does the frequency of your emails drive greater engagement or unsubscribes? Paying attention to performance data often makes or breaks email marketing campaigns.
3. Tone: Given the reality that most people are flooded with marketing emails, can your email cut through the clutter to brighten their day? Whether your brand achieves 1:1 content personalization or not, knowing what tone to use helps generate opens and ongoing engagement.

What are the other digital marketing tools that you are passionate about? If you can, can you share with our readers what they are and how to best leverage them?

I love leveraging back-end marketing automation capabilities to deliver value at scale. This involves automated touch-point delivery across email and social as well as automation of core components of demand generation programs, such as lead routing and lead management.

Instilling personalization in lead-nurture and triggered-repurchase communications represents the apex of effective digital marketing. No matter if you use HubSpot, Marketo, MailChimp, or another automation platform, this practice is vital to achieving high performance over time.

Here is the main question of our series. Can you please tell us the 5 things you need to create a highly successful career as a digital marketer? Can you please share a story or example for each?

1. Humility: The digital marketing landscape changes every day. Expertise in any aspect of digital marketing is a mirage, but that’s what keeps it so exciting for me. In my teaching engagements at several universities, I have to regularly overhaul many of my platform strategy slides monthly to stay up to date with the latest best practices.
2. Curiosity: The digital world offers limitless possibilities. To stay curious, to keep seeking valuable insights, digital marketers need to continually ask “What if … ?”
3. Diligence: While digital campaigns move quickly, maintain a marathon mentality to drive sustainable success. Often small campaign insights captured after a few iterations unlock insights that catapult digital marketing efforts forward. Those key insights can’t be discovered without diligent review of analytics and research.
4. Resilience: Best-laid plans often don’t work out, especially with digital advertising. But embracing a “fail fast” mentality of refining and testing ad components leads to success. So much can be learned from digital ad platforms, even when response is much lower than anticipated.
5. Tenacity: This attribute is the most important, from my perspective, for driving ongoing results. Without a clear focus on execution strategies, the success of digital marketing campaigns, paid or unpaid, is often fleeting or sporadic. Leaving the heavy lifting to platform algorithms to guess the placement and targeting approach usually yields average results. High-performing campaigns, however, come from a tenacious desire to continuously revise and optimize based on key insights and opportunities.

During my time in the banking world, I inherited aggressively run PPC campaigns aimed at driving growth with retail banking products (e.g., checking accounts and mortgages). I was initially humbled by the deep level of understanding I’d need for these products’ user journeys to effectively hyper-target our messaging to trigger moments. My curiosity led me to further explore new journey moments around mobile banking that could drive consideration and conversions. Through my diligence in reviewing campaign performance analytics, I discovered a large percentage of the ad spend was dedicated to branded campaigns that produced a fraction of the conversions when compared to nonbranded campaigns. My resiliency proved pivotal for driving greater successes both with internal change management to garner approval to reallocate the branded campaign budget to new mobile banking-focused, nonbranded campaigns as well as overcoming initial flops with these new campaigns. Through my tenacity, these campaigns became a key driver of incremental conversions with new, younger audiences.

What books, podcasts, videos or other resources do you use to sharpen your marketing skills?

I love podcasts, especially when I’m driving or jogging. My mix spans a wide range of marketing topics, but I particularly recommend the Digital Marketing Podcast by Target Internet. The hosts blend a strategic and executionary view of digital marketing best practices. It’s refreshing to learn from those who understand the challenges and pains of implementing strategies to meet the latest trends. They provide quick-hit recommendations to get started with relative ease.

Thank you for all of that. We are nearly done. Here is our final ‘meaty’ question. You are a person of great influence. If you could start a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger. 🙂

I love this question. I think we need to direct our attention to the nature of public discourse on social media platforms to foster greater decency and useful dialogue. Nearly five years ago I wrote an op-ed on this topic for the Minneapolis Star-Tribune, “Can Brands Save Social Media?” It’s still highly relevant. The crux of the article is that while general social media users engage anonymously and nefariously on social media, cluttering it with negativity, brands thrive by behaving cordially and providing inspiration for their followers. I’d love to see more brands set an example. In addition, we may also want to enforce constructive content contributions in social media.

How can our readers further follow your work?

While I used to maintain my own blog on social media strategies, The Social Media Frontier, I have more regularly contributed to teaching engagements and the Thought Leadership content at The Lacek Group.

This was very inspiring. Thank you so much for the time you spent with this!

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Todd Hedberg Of The Lacek Group On How to Effectively Leverage The Power of Digital Marketing, PPC… was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Ali Shalfrooshan of International Assessment R&D, Talogy On How Diversity Can Increase a Company’s Bottom Line

An Interview With Fotis Georgiadis

Diversity in the workplace has shown to lead to a higher rate of innovation and creativity. Innovation is critical for organizations as it enables them to differentiate their services and solutions from that of others. The wider set of perspectives that diversity brings can fuel a team’s ability to consider a wider range of approaches and identify more novel ways of doing things.

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

An award-winning business psychologist at Talogy, Ali Shalfrooshan has a true passion to help organizations improve performance through their people.

Ali believes that by identifying the right people and giving them the right development opportunities it can lead to a huge business impact for organizations. His expertise has enabled him to design, implement and deliver a variety of assessment and development solutions to help organizations thrive and get the best out of their talent.

Thank you so much for doing this with us! Before we dive into the main part of our interview, our readers would love to “get to know you” a bit more. Can you share a bit of your “backstory” with us?

I have always been fascinated by how humans work and the amazing machine that is our minds. From a young age, I wanted to understand the mechanics of what motivates us, how we think and how we feel.

As a teen, I didn’t really know that the career I currently have could exist, so at university I studied biochemistry, as I always loved science. Despite my day-to-day activities, being an IO psychologist does not require much laboratory expertise, or the ability to clone sequences of DNA, but I am always grateful for that chapter in my life as it provided an insight into the building blocks of how humans work at a genetic and biological level. It enabled me to appreciate how truly complex and magnificent the creation and maintenance of life is, and the fundamental importance of nurture, when it comes to our nature.

After a litany of job roles, I happened upon a work experience opportunity in IO psychology and the rest, in many ways, is history. When I discovered IO psychology, I found my calling, as the industry enables me to utilize the evidence in psychology, the medium of technology and the art of business to enable organizations to enhance their effectiveness via their greatest strength, their people.

Can you share the funniest or most interesting story that happened to you since you started your career? Can you tell us the lesson or take away, you took out of that story?

This is a great question. However, most of my funny work-related stories didn’t lead to any specific lessons, other than that people are very complicated and the universe has a sense of humor.

Arguably every interaction, project and experience has the power to provide a foundation for learning. However, working with organizations throughout the pandemic has been a great crucible for helping me truly understand what the meaning of work can be. In many ways the answers to many of the questions in life have already been answered, but only through our experience can we truly understand it. In my role where we support organizations globally, the lesson I truly learnt is that we have much more in common than we have differences.

Employees, wherever they are, not only like community but need it to truly thrive and feel alive. How we define community and connection may be different, but if you are an introvert, an extrovert, if you are in China or Finland, we humans are truly social animals and love metaphorically building things together.

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

One of my favorite life lesson quotes is from Marcus Aurelius, “You have power over your mind-not outside events. Realize this, and you will find strength.” I love this quote as it encapsulates the power of how we think and is one that I deploy personally when feeling overwhelmed.

When working with organizations, the life lesson quote I use the most is “Diversity is being invited to the party. Inclusion is being asked to dance.” This is a quote by Verna Myers, which very succinctly describes the importance of both diversity and inclusion for organizations. It highlights what differentiates the importance of each element and why they are needed together.

With a personal lens, it is a useful reminder that when engaging with anyone, sometimes we all need to actively make people feel welcome, an invitation alone is not sufficient.

None of us are able to achieve success without some help along the way. Is there a particular person who you are grateful towards who helped get you to where you are?

I have been blessed to be surrounded by amazing people throughout my career as an IO psychologist. My managers have all been inspirational, values driven, and have taught me so much. I have also been surrounded by an amazing team, who have made me look great consistently, all of whom I am eternally grateful to. However, if I had to call out specific individuals Dan Hughes, Philippa Riley and Mary Mescal all deserve eternal kudos from me.

Despite all these amazing people, directly mentioned or alluded to, I inevitably must take this opportunity to thank my parents and my wife. Not only did my parents kindly create me and give me the gift of life, but they also enabled me to fail on numerous occasions, and despite some ‘interesting’ times, they never gave up on me and helped me find my calling. My wife has also enabled me to focus on my career and is my partner in crime. They have all supported me through thick and thin, and anything I have or will achieve is directly due to them.

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

Talogy is an organization that is comprised of genuine experts in their field, both in the world of psychology and in technology. This enables us to offer a very wide set of solutions around identifying and developing talent within organizations. What differentiates us is our deep expertise across a range of fields and our global nature, this enables us to deal with very specific challenges that other organizations may potentially not be able to.

The sheer range of clients and types of client problems that we deal with are reflective of that diversity of expertise that we have. We work with large corporates to small startups, and across so many industries for example manufacturing, aeronautics, government, social care, public safety, technology, banking, sports, pharmaceuticals, healthcare are all sectors that we work intimately in. We have helped measure human potential in so many ways including resilience, emotional intelligence, inclusion, competence, manual dexterity, cognitive ability, judgement, leadership, engagement, wellbeing to name a few.

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

Over a decade ago, we developed a solution that helps enable people to build and develop their resilience, we have used it with many clients internationally with a focus on helping people effectively manage challenge and change. In many ways overcoming setbacks, have been a constant throughout human existence. The pandemic made the challenges that people experience feel more universal, and the true value of wellbeing became clearer to everyone.

During the pandemic and lockdowns, we made the solution freely available to our clients and delivered training and the solution itself for no cost, to help support people with their wellbeing, during that particularly challenging and surreal time.

The project we are working on now is to help enhance this solution, delivering something that can be used globally and enable people to develop their own resilience practice using our technology solutions. The hope is that this solution can make it easier for people to access the tools and protocols and learn about the skills that can enable them to overcome challenges and changes in their lives, so they can survive, adapt, recover, and fundamentally thrive.

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

Being able to work with organizations, leaders, and employees as part of my role is a privilege. Fundamentally the workplace is not just where we get a paycheck, but also the way many of us can make meaningful change to the world around us. Therefore, helping organizations be more effective via their greatest asset — their people

I am very lucky to have a role where we can bring a little bit of goodness to organizations as part of my position. I also volunteer in order to bring some of the work we do to an audience that I don’t typically interact with i.e., people who are not currently working. Therefore, to bring greater goodness to the world I also try to support employability initiatives with younger people, who are still in education, as the knowledge within the psychological literature may have even greater resonance at this stage of our development.

Ok. Thank you for that. Let’s now jump to the main part of our interview. This may be obvious to you, but it is not intuitive to many people. Can you articulate to our readers five ways that increased diversity can help a company’s bottom line.

The research and evidence around how diversity can deliver organizational success is very clear. Diversity is sometimes perceived to be solely about ensuring your organization is reflective of underrepresented racial, ethnic and gender demographics. Despite this being a very important part of an organization’s diversity, the concept is much more complex and is reflective of a mix of experiences, identities, sexual orientations, ages, personalities, religions, ideas, and opinions. Ultimately what makes us who we are is very complex and so this needs to be accounted for when we discuss the topic of diversity.

There are many examples of the benefits of diversity, but I will highlight the core themes that seem to come up most regularly:

1. Greater Innovation:

Diversity in the workplace has shown to lead to a higher rate of innovation and creativity. Innovation is critical for organizations as it enables them to differentiate their services and solutions from that of others. The wider set of perspectives that diversity brings can fuel a team’s ability to consider a wider range of approaches and identify more novel ways of doing things.

According to research, more diverse and inclusive companies are 1.7 times more likely to be innovation leaders in their market. The study found a strong and statistically significant correlation between the diversity of management teams and overall innovation.

2. Better Decision Making:

Research has also shown that diverse teams are better at making decisions, estimating that diverse teams make better decisions 87% of the time, in comparison to non-diverse teams. A reason for this is that decision-making can be impacted negatively by the assumptions we make and our hardwired biases. Therefore, diverse voices can mitigate this and highlight potential blind spots.

Diversity in decision-making equates to profitability in the global economy as evidenced by a 70% likelihood of capturing new markets by companies with a diverse workforce. Companies with diverse teams are better able to meet the needs of a diverse customer base, which leads to another very tangible benefit.

3. Better Financial Results:

Many organizations with greater diversity in their leadership teams and organization show better financial performance. For example, 20 of the most diverse S&P 500 companies perform better financially over five- and ten-year periods, in comparison to non-diverse firms. These more positive financial results are arguably tied to the better innovation and more effective decision making referenced.

Harvard Business Review provided another example of compelling evidence when they surveyed more than 1,700 companies across eight countries (the U.S., France, Germany, China, Brazil, India, Switzerland, and Austria). What the research showed, was that companies with higher-than-average diversity had both 19% points higher innovation revenues and 9% points higher EBIT margins, on average.

4. Attracting Talent:

Organizations that are dedicated to making their workforce more diverse are seen as more human and socially responsible, which ultimately creates a better reputation in the market. Diversity in the workplace enhances employer brand and has been shown to attract top talent.

A survey by Glassdoor highlights this, where it reported that 67% of active and passive job seekers said that a diverse workforce is an important factor when evaluating companies and job offers.

5. Engaging Millennials and Gen Z:

Millennials and Gen Z are a significant proportion of the workforce and are a very important component of an organizations current and future success. Consequently, keeping them engaged and happy is critically important.

According to research by Deloitte, 83% of millennials and Gen Z candidates report being actively engaged when their organization fosters an inclusive work environment, versus 60% who report being actively engaged when their organization does not. Therefore, diversity can not only attract employees but ensure that they are able to deliver effectively at work.

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

All industries are going through some significant changes at the moment. Organizations need to look at the big picture and focus on the activities and initiatives that truly create an inclusive and diverse culture, as a sense of belonging is going to be a significant differentiator. As described in the previous section, there are many benefits in creating a diverse workforce. However, it is worth noting that one change in strategy won’t make the difference — it needs a whole suite of changes.

Talogy’s ABC model of inclusion provides a useful framework to help leaders and employees support and advocate an inclusive culture. This model accounts for the fact that all of us are on our own ‘diversity and inclusion journey’ and that we may all be at different stages. The goal is to create an organization of allies, who are keen to promote and encourage diversity and inclusion. So that everyone, in all their uniqueness, can be treated fairly and work together effectively.

Without leaders acting as allies leading the efforts, organizational messaging and behavior can be incongruent and inconsistent. Therefore, they play a critical part in changing culture, and the ABC detailed below can help facilitate a culture that can help employees thrive.

Appreciate: inclusion is the antecedent of change

Allyship begins with an individual’s awareness and appreciation of the issues and experiences of others. This stage is reflective of an individual’s growth in awareness. It may involve an initial step of accepting that equity in society is something worth striving for. Individuals in this phase are identifying the challenges to create an inclusive environment, and becoming open to learn more about their need to act.

Build: an inclusive climate by behavioral change

This stage moves on from an individual gaining awareness and being open to address the challenges of inclusivity to directly building an inclusive environment. Individuals in this phase are helping to build an inclusive, fair and equitable climate by their actions. They are proactively building relationships with others, gathering diverse perspectives, empathizing, actively listening and communicating transparently.

Champion: change by acting as a catalyst for others

The last phase of allyship is one of advocacy. Individuals at this stage take their behavioral commitment to another level. They tend to look for opportunities to affect change formally and informally. To be successful at this stage, individuals need to be courageous, action-oriented, composed and willing to commit.

Having leaders act as allies who appreciate the challenges, are willing to build an inclusive culture, and are eager to champion the changes they would like to see in the world, will ensure the foundation for organizational change is possible

We are very blessed that some of the biggest names in Business, VC funding, Sports, and Entertainment read this column. Is there a person in the world, or in the US whom you would love to have a private breakfast or lunch with, and why? He or she might just see this 🙂

I would love to speak to David Zaslav, the Chief Executive Officer, and President of Warner Bros. Discovery. He has a stellar track record, and with the recent acquisition of Warner Bros has a very exciting challenge ahead. As a movie, television, and music nerd, I would love to understand how he is planning on leading during a time of significant flux for the media industry.

Warner Bros and HBO are some of the most important brands in media and have produced some of the most culture shifting entertainment over the years. I would love to understand more about his general approach to leadership, business and art, and get an insight into how he plans to execute his strategy.

How can our readers further follow your work online?

Follow me on the most exciting social media platform of them all LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/ali-shalfrooshan-b3009314/

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

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Ali Shalfrooshan of International Assessment R&D, Talogy On How Diversity Can Increase a Company’s… was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

An Interview With Fotis Georgiadis

“Find your best technologist in the company and make them CEO.”

As a part of our series about “How To Use Digital Transformation To Take Your Company To The Next Level,” I had the pleasure of interviewing Mohannad Ali.

Mohannad Ali is the CEO of Hotjar, the Product Experience Insights software of choice for SMB and mid-market businesses. He brings a decade of leadership experience to the company, first serving as VP of Engineering at HelloFresh, and then joining Hotjar as their VP of Product and Engineering. With his talent for mentoring and developing distributed technical teams, Mohannad soon moved into the role of Chief Product and Technology Officer at Hotjar before transitioning to CEO. His cross-functional expertise allows him to speak to a variety of business development strategies, sharing pivotal insights on scaling organizations from early stages, high-growth, and implementation. Mohannad’s passions include radical transparency in remote work environments, of which he continuously replicates through his leadership practices at Hotjar.

When Mohannad isn’t connecting with and mentoring other Hotjarians, you can find him pursuing his passion for music by trying (and failing) to play the drums.

Thank you so much for joining us in this interview series. Before we dive in, our readers would love to “get to know you” a bit better. Can you tell us a bit about your ‘backstory’ and how you got started?

I started quite early in the tech space. From a young age I was interested in the internet, computers and so on. I was always fascinated by the whole technology side of things. I still remember the first day I got on the internet. I think I was about 10, or 11 and it opened a whole new world for me.

Pretty quickly I started making websites for fun as a hobby, building online communities — things like that. By 15 I was making money as a developer. That’s how I got into tech. A little by accident and a little from sheer interest. I didn’t even know that you could make money from it at the time, I just stumbled into it and enjoyed it.

As an engineer, I’ve done a bunch of different things. I began freelancing in Egypt doing a lot of agency work, but had my sights set on being able to work on a single product. There is an analogy I like to make, and it’s kind of like a football player who has been playing in a local league who wants to play in the European Champions League. So I was looking for an opportunity to join the startup scene in a city where there was a more interesting, growing tech scene. For me, that was Berlin.

I ended up working for a tech startup there that scaled quite rapidly. Through that experience, I was able to tap into another passion of mine, which was the more commercial side of tech and the product. I always thought of myself as an engineer who was interested in tech beyond just the technical side. That really grounded me as a whole I think.

Because of that experience and interest, I joined Hotjar to initially lead product and engineering but I ended up working closely with our CEO, my predecessor, to get heavily involved in the strategy and how we built the company. So when he decided to change roles and move into a chairman of the board position, he offered me the job and I haven’t looked back. I was very lucky to have this opportunity and that’s how I got here.

Can you share a story about the funniest mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lessons or ‘takeaways’ you learned from that?

So my previous job was in D2C subscriptions. I got into a leadership role quite early on in this role and . I think the funniest mistake I remember was in the early days when my team broke the checkout function of the checkout funnel. We didn’t notice that it had been broken for several days, and so for the next three days — customers could not buy anything. This was a good lesson in safety to fail. The CEO was not the kind of person who held mistakes like this against you or fired employees over these kinds of things. Instead, he showed us the numbers and shared how much money we lost over the weekend because of this mistake. How he approached this mistake was a big takeaway for me. It taught me that it’s okay to make mistakes and as leaders, we need to create that safety for our employees to fail but at the same time, allow them to learn and understand the magnitude of the work we are doing.

One of the things that I always think about in my line of work is how lucky we are to talk and learn from our mistakes. Facebook has this famous saying that goes something like: move fast and break things. And everyone talks openly about making mistakes. This is a luxury that most people in a lot of jobs don’t have. Imagine being a doctor or an architect, no one tells you to move fast and make mistakes while in tech, we have a unique opportunity to fail and try again and again.

None of us are able to achieve success without some help along the way. Is there a particular person who you are grateful for who helped get you to where you are? Can you share a story? and, you know, say that they’re funny and things like that.

The first person that comes to mind is my first and longest boss. He was the CTO of the company I worked for at the time. I was working hard and trying to prove myself, but he very quickly saw potential in me. He kept giving me one opportunity after the other, and because of this, my career trajectory was very, very steep. And it’s thanks to him believing in me and what I’m capable of. I really owe a lot to where I am today because of him.

Is there a particular book, podcast, or film that made a significant impact on you? Can you share a story or explain why it resonated with you so much?

There is a book by Marty Cagan called Inspired. In my opinion, this is the product manager’s Bible. It is timeless and I think if you really internalize the learnings and understand the points the author is trying to make in this small book, it can change who you are as a product manager and as a commercial person in general. So much of what’s in this book clicked in my mind and it has had a fundamental change in my success.

For example, one of the things that the author talks about is that there are two hard truths in product management. The first hard truth is that most of the ideas that we think will have an impact on the business or the customers will most likely not have that same impact. He says at least 50% of your ideas aren’t not going to work and good teams plan for maybe 75% of their ideas to flop. The second hard truth is that the few ideas that will work and have an impact on the business, they are unlikely going to work from the first iteration — you’re going to have to try it a few times until you really unlock it. What you end up seeing in current product cycles is a number of companies spending three months, six months, sometimes even nine months working on something only to have it dead on arrival when you release it to the customers. Customers don’t care for the idea and it makes zero impact.

If we really internalize all of these learnings from the book, we have to consider the risks, the assumptions, and the things we need to validate changes and products upfront so we can build products that consumers actually want and need. We also need to figure out how to do it fast so we can capture those learnings and move on. So instead of something taking months, it should really only take days or weeks.

The author tries to separate these hard truths into two areas of work, one that he calls discovery and the other delivery. Discovery is when you’re really optimizing for speed and validation of the assumptions you are making about how customers will interact with your product. Delivery is the next step now that you’ve validated your assumption, you can spend time working through your ideas and updates in a way that is scalable, maintainable and impactful. This book has fundamentally changed the way I think about work, especially in product and this is something I constantly share with my teams at Hotjar. Validating and empathizing with your users is key to building good products.

Extensive research suggests that “purpose-driven businesses” are more successful in many areas. When your company started, what was its vision, and what was its purpose?

When we start to think about why Hotjar exists and look to the origin story of how David founded and built Hotjar, you’ll see right away that it was always to inspire change through empathy — so together we can change the world for the better. This is our governing principle and the why across everything we do in a nutshell.. The way this is manifested or articulated has changed slightly over time but at its core, the mission remains the same.

When David, our previous CEO and founder, was building Hotjar, he was doing a lot of agency work for conversion optimization, and user experience improvements for his customers. He found himself using all of these really expensive tools to try and create real empathy with the user. As he continued using these tools, he felt that they were very exclusive yet essential, powerful tools to understand and connect with the users as you build products and online experiences.

Small and mid-sized businesses who needed these tools the most could not afford these tools so his vision was to take this and democratize it to make it more affordable for small teams. And even for the people who have the budgets for these solutions, it was important to make Hotjar accessible with a low barrier to entry for as many people as possible. That has been really the fuel for Hotjar’s growth and it has gotten to a point where we’re now collecting data from approximately one million websites today and providing product teams with the insights needed to understand and build empathy with their users to ultimately create better experiences.

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

We just launched a product that will hopefully be one of many that we call Hotjar Trends. Hotjar Trendsis basically the story behind your customer data. If you look at traditional analytics like Google Analytics, you’ll get a snapshot of the user journey and their online interactions. But, with tools like Hotjar, you’ll actually be able to see the why behind it. For example, what are they clicking? Are they rage clicking versus normal clicking? Where are they going back and forth on your pages? What is sentiment like on your pages? But even then, these data points are super granular,

With Hotjar Trends, we wanted to complement this behavioural data with the option to start looking at aggregate data. Sometimes you’ll want to jump into very specific, granular behavioural data when building products but there’s so much value in having an aggregate view on that behavioral data as well. Aggregate data paints a bigger picture of trends over time and provides teams with a different lens of insights. For example with rage clicking, Hotjar Trends allows you to see where people are getting more frustrated or less frustrated over time — pinpointing what updates actually worked in the long run.We’re trying to create more powerful, aggregate analytics products that compliment our granular recordings.

Thank you for all that. Let’s now turn to the main focus of our discussion about Digital Transformation. For the benefit of our readers, can you help explain what exactly Digital Transformation means? On a practical level, what does it look like to engage in a Digital Transformation?

I think when it comes to digital transformation, it’s really important to acknowledge where we are today. In my opinion, this transformation alone, as a concept, doesn’t even cut it anymore. The customers have moved way past that. If you look at 10 years ago, when a lot of the businesses were moving online, customers were buying things or using services online to find specific items that were fundamentally better than traditional retail. For example, these online businesses had the widest selection and the best pricing. On Amazon, you have millions of items and options to choose from and you’re able to get a better price than in-store. It’s also more convenient to have your items shipped directly to your home compared to jumping in your car and driving to the nearest store.

Nowadays, almost all companies provide direct shipping. The expectations of the consumer have increased so much for the last few years that companies had to offer these options or else risk losing out on sales. So what businesses really need to do to stand out is to create experiences that truly delight your users. They need to understand what the customer needs are on a deeper level. How can you, as a business, be there for them at the right time and at the right place in the way that they expect you to show up? If you aren’t ready to participate in the ongoing digital transformation, you’ll be left behind.

Which companies can most benefit from a Digital Transformation?

A quote from a previous boss that I had that I think really answers this question is that there isn’t a situation today where a company is not a tech company. If you’re not a tech company, you simply can’t compete anymore.So really, when it comes to digital transformation, we’re getting to the point in 2022, where it’s becoming table stakes. It’s either you catch up or you get left behind. . I think it’s becoming not the question of how you can benefit from tech, but it’s more of a basic component of your business that is essential for survival.

We’d love to hear about your experiences helping others with Digital Transformation. In your experience, how has Digital Transformation helped improve operations, processes, and customer experiences? We’d love to hear some stories if possible.

There are multiple components to digital transformation. When we think about the business or the operations process as a whole, we also need to think about the customer experience. When you think about operations, software has replaced so much of what people think of as operations, whether it’s a company with an extensive supply chain and procurement network or even just logistics, technology has helped streamline businesses and in some cases, create purely digital businesses where most of the operations are happening through automated knowledge networks.

I think digital transformation is really important for businesses not only from an efficiency standpoint to match the higher pace of an ever evolving market, but to also have a much bigger impact on their bottom line. A lot of teams were able to make significant margin gains just due to automation and being able to create these efficiencies with digital transformation.

Creating more efficient structures will not just impact your margins and cost structure, but also impact the way your teams do and deliver work on a daily basis. People themselves are becoming a lot more effective and efficient with the right digital transformation. And when it comes to customer experience, of course, being able to use digital tools unlocks a new way to connect with your customers in a more personalized and faster manner. Customers are expecting a lot these days and the more convenience and speed you can provide them the better.

It’s very, very difficult to reinvent yourself at such a high pace, but companies that are able to focus on the right type of digital transformation will succeed. What most companies struggle with when it comes to digital transformation is they try to translate their analog processes directly into a digital equivalent. If your analog process was a bad process to begin with, going digital will just create a bad, digital process. It doesn’t fix the core problem so I encourage companies to not only transform with better tools and software, but also approach digital transformation with a digital-first mindset and process.

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

I think the challenges come from a combination of two things. One, as we mentioned before, is that companies are resistant to change for a long time. But another struggle I’ve seen in the tech industry is that there’s a gap between how fast the industry is moving and how fast the legislators are moving as well. A lot of the challenges we face in the tech industry are because the legislators are still operating in a context that is two decades old. Look at how long it took for digital signatures to become a valid form of identity proof. And even more so, how long did it take in different regions and countries due to legislation? If e-signatures are recognized only in specific jurisdictions and not others, what’s the point of having the innovation? Governments have a critical role to play in integrating digital transformation.

My advice would be to just be aware of what you can and can’t control. But also, don’t use what you can’t control as an excuse to not try at all, which is quite commonly the case. While you might feel sometimes there’s no point in doing it at all, there’s still a lot of gains that you can probably get from looking at the parts of your business that you can transform, and ultimately, it will be beneficial for you and for your customers.

Ok. Thank you. Here is the primary question of our discussion. Based on your experience and success, what are “Five Ways a Company Can Use Digital Transformation To Take It To The Next Level”? Please share a story or an example for each.

I’m going to share a bit of controversial advice that will also serve as my answer to the question. While I can think of five ways a company can take digital transformation to the next level, many companies that have been around for decades continue to struggle to implement any sort of digital transformation.

Marc Andreessen from a16z and the inventor of Netscape was once asked a similar question about companies who were struggling with the digital transformation promise and he said “find your best technologist in the company and make them CEO.” That’s how much he believed change needs to come from the top down and I agree with it. I’ve had friends in my network who’ve worked in big corporations for quite some time and it always comes down to the lack of political will at the top. There’s a lack of the right executive sponsors and the right executive decisions to make transformation possible so for me, I aim to always hire the right people, many times smarter than me, and ask them where they think opportunities for digital transformation lie.

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

First and foremost, safety to fail is the one factor that separates successful companies who have created a culture of innovation from declining companies. If you try to do difficult things, and try to do them fast, you will inevitably fail many times. Building a place where it’s safe to fail gives people the room to try something that may not seem possible at first. It’s important to share the notion that ideas can come from anywhere. Many companies are top down lead, where only the leadership team is expected to come up with the best ideas. Instead, leaders should aim to create an environment where everyone has access to information and has the ability to freely voice ideas and contribute to them properly.

On the other end of that spectrum. A lot of what companies are calling innovation is in my opinion, a waste because not all ideas are born equal. And what I mean by that is some people put in a lot of work, they do the homework by looking at the data, they understand their customers and then they form the model of their idea. They use data and insights to understand that this is something worth pursuing in the first place.Doing something just on gut feeling only, or just because it sounds cool, is often not enough for an idea to be truly impactful.

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

I can’t think of a specific quote, but perhaps more like a principle that I tried to live by. It’s this idea of trying to live life with no regrets, in a way. The fact is, you’ll try different things throughout your life and many people will say things like “take every opportunity you get and do everything you want” so you can live a life without regrets. But I don’t think that’s true.

I believe that your motivation to do something should not be driven by the fear of regret. Whether you do take a chance or you don’t, it should be because you chose to. Regardless of what choices you’ve made, there is no point looking back. What happened has happened. You can only look forward, and it’s and that’s the most important thing. You can take whichever lessons you need from the past, but there’s no point in getting stuck there.

How can our readers further follow your work?

They can follow me on LinkedIn, Twitter, and on my personal blog mohannadali.com, where I write business articles on the not-so-regular. To learn more about Hotjar you can visit Hotjar.com.

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

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Mohannad Ali Of Hotjar 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.

Scott Daigger Of Buddy Web Design & Development On 5 Things You Need To Know To Successfully Scale Your Business

An Interview With Fotis Georgiadis

Get operational back-up. As things ramp up, you’ll be busy with the day-to-day operations of serving customers, but as CEO, you’re also chief sales officer. When you have more prospective customers, you’ll be spending a lot more time on sales calls. And thus, you won’t be able to spend as much time on the day-to-day operations. So, whether that means more front line staff, more operational team members, a project manager, or chief operations officer, make sure you have people you can lean on to keep the business running smoothly as you’re pulled into more and more activities that will drive revenue growth.

Startups usually start with a small cohort of close colleagues. But what happens when you add a bunch of new people into this close cohort? How do you maintain the company culture? In addition, what is needed to successfully scale a business to increase market share or to increase offerings? How can a small startup grow successfully to a midsize and then large company? To address these questions, we are talking to successful business leaders who can share stories and insights from their experiences about the “5 Things You Need To Know To Successfully Scale Your Business”. As a part of this series, we had the distinct pleasure of interviewing Scott Daigger.

Scott is founder of Buddy Web Design & Development (www.BuddyWDD.com), an award-winning website development firm headquartered in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Scott is an alumni of the University of Wisconsin, with his undergraduate degree and MBA from UW’s School of Business. Scott’s professional background has been heavily focused on leading organizations and teams focused on technology development, start-ups, and innovation.

Thank you for joining us in this interview series. Our readers would love to “get to know you” a bit better. Can you tell us a bit about your ‘backstory’?

I’m originally from Wisconsin, went to UW-Madison for school, and spent a good portion of my career there. But, I’ve lived in Michigan for about 12 years now. My professional background is primarily in business operations and leadership, mostly focused on technology development, start-ups, and innovation.

What brought me to Michigan was around 2010 I was recruited to work for a large healthcare system in Grand Rapids and help lead up its innovations program. In that role, I worked with senior leadership, doctors, nurses, and clinical staff to help develop and launch new healthcare technologies, such as medical devices, software, and equipment.

That was a really cool job, but about three of four years ago, I started getting the itch for the next step in my career, and really wanted to focus more on software development. While I’d led up software projects before, I figured it would help my resume out if I learned some coding. So, I started learning web development on the side.

My intent at that point wasn’t necessarily to pivot and become a coder — I really liked the business side of things — but figured it would help out with my competency and credibility in software leadership roles. However, I ended up really enjoying web development. And, after about 6 months of learning and building out a portfolio, I actually started landing some freelance work on the side.

Around that time, I was feeling ready for a change and the next step. So, after discussing with my wife, I decided to leave my corporate job, and pursue freelancing. That’s how Buddy Web Design & Development got started.

Soon after I left my job, Covid hit, so that was interesting timing, and so my first year or two of freelancing was pretty up and down, balancing work with taking care of our daughter, who was starting virtual kindergarten at the time.

However, in the last year, things have really ramped up for Buddy. We’ve worked with bunches of new clients, grown our team, and really evolved from a solo freelancer to an actual team and growing business. It’s been a really fun and interesting journey, and I know we’re just getting started!

You’ve had a remarkable career journey. Can you highlight a key decision in your career that helped you get to where you are today?

Definitely. There actually was a key moment that kind of sparked all of this, at least with Buddy. Our family took a trip to Disney World back in the spring of 2019. Not sure if anyone else ever feels this way, but on the flight back home, I was having a little bit of the post-vacation blues, and was just thinking about what I was heading back to at my job. It was in that time of reflection I just sort of decided, what the heck, I was just going to dive in and start learning coding. It was something I’d dabbled with prior, but never really committed to. I wasn’t sure where it was going to lead, but I just decided that I wanted to pursue that, as I felt confident it would open up a lot of doors for me, even though I didn’t know what those would be at the time.

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

Coming from healthcare, where I was helping develop technologies to take care of patients and directly improve lives, the bar is really high when it comes to choosing just one impactful initiative. I had the opportunity to work across all sorts of patient types, but the ones that struck me the most were when we developed new products for babies in the intensive care unit. We developed several new technologies for neonates, in particular, and seeing them in person gives you a huge appreciation for how delicate they are, and how much care they need.

Developing websites is a pretty different realm, comparatively, but even so, it’s always really rewarding to help someone represent themselves or their business in a way they’re genuinely excited about. We recently launched a website for a local artist whose work is incredible, and he’s a genuinely great person, as well. Something that really struck me was when we first were working together, he mentioned he’d been doing art for over 20 years, but never felt proud of his portfolio website. Long story short, we were able to deliver an amazing site for him, and it was so nice to be able to help him finally have that online presence he feels excited about, and that really shows off his talents. Granted, it’s very different from something more literally life and death like in the hospital, but it’s still wonderful to really help people and make them really happy.

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

One of my first freelance clients provided a great learning experience! I had a client that I was really excited to work with. She was working in an industry I was really passionate about, and she was looking for a new website that sounded really straightforward. Basically, she had identified a pre-built WordPress template she wanted to use as a starting point. The plan was just to use that template, integrate in her logo, text, and photos, and that was kind of it. Super simple, on paper.

However, it didn’t end up that way. As we got rolling, she had a minor request here and there, just to tweak the design a bit. “Could you move that here,” or “Could you add in this.” Each request in and of itself was usually pretty easy. The project overall, though, evolved from something incredibly straightforward, to the never ending abyss of “just. one. more. thing.” It became a bit excruciating. My intent was to offer excellent service and make sure she was happy, but by the end, I probably should have charged 3 times what I’d proposed. Our billing was project-based, not hourly. And, it ended up being a hugely customized build, rather than the very simple site that she initially laid out.

Fortunately, I got a good customer review, and after that, I developed a really robust and detailed client contract template. Now, I’m much, much better about scoping out projects and the workload entailed, and have language in writing that talks about scope creep or how to handle additional work or changes as they come up. I still learn lessons with each project, and adjust the client contract for future customers regularly, but that one was a biggie for lessons learned.

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

Mentorship has been incredibly important, as no one has a monopoly on all the right answers. I’ve been very fortunate through college and grad school, and throughout my career, to have people to offer advice and guidance.

Now that I’m more established in my career — and have lots of mistakes and lessons learned under my belt — it’s nice to be able to offer mentorship to aspiring entrepreneurs, as well. Something I actually really enjoy about my role with Buddy now is, while operationally we help customers with websites, graphic design, etc., when I’m on sales calls with entrepreneurs, I’m able to really dive into their business, their goals, and their operations, and help leverage my experience to help not only with a website, but providing more broad guidance and consulting that can help them out, beyond just the site.

Developing your leadership style takes time and practice. Who do you model your leadership style after? What are some key character traits you try to emulate?

One of my favorite quotes on leadership is from speaker and author Zig Ziglar: “People don’t care how much you know, until they know how much you care.” While I’m definitely not a perfect leader, I really focus a lot on hiring outstanding people, and giving them a lot of runway to just do their jobs exceptionally well. And for me, that means quality of character is equally, if not even more, important than technical skills, when adding people to the team. It’s really important to me that the team is made up of rock stars, and it’s awesome to set up a situation where each individual team member is a high performer, and knows they’re surrounded by other high performers. It really helps create a high performance environment.

As a leader, then, when you have confidence in your team, their quality of work, and their ability to get their jobs done, you don’t have to worry as much about the day-to-day stuff — provided you have your operations in good order — and it lets you focus a lot more on your team members as people, building culture, and their success and growth. It helps you put them first as individuals.

I think beyond building that sort of team dynamic and culture, though, other key characteristics or priorities I try to focus on are integrity, transparency, work-life balance, growth, organization, and having fun.

Thank you for sharing that with us. Let’s talk about scaling a business from a small startup to a midsize and then large company. Based on your experience, can you share with our readers the “5 Things You Need To Know To Successfully Scale Your Business”? Please give a story or example for each.

First, get your operations in order. Something we talk about a lot at Buddy when it comes to operations, is that every client and every project will have its own nuances and variability, so we want to control variability as much as possible as we can on the behind the scenes operational stuff. We want everything we do to be as stress free as possible for our clients and our team, so we are incredibly organized. For us, this means we have processes established and in place. We have a central project management tool we use, and we use the same process for each project. We have document templates we use. Files are all stored in the same places and same ways. The more you can get organized and in a very simplified, easy to replicate routine, the better you’ll be able to scale up and serve more clients.

Second, get operational back-up. As things ramp up, you’ll be busy with the day-to-day operations of serving customers, but as CEO, you’re also chief sales officer. When you have more prospective customers, you’ll be spending a lot more time on sales calls. And thus, you won’t be able to spend as much time on the day-to-day operations. So, whether that means more front line staff, more operational team members, a project manager, or chief operations officer, make sure you have people you can lean on to keep the business running smoothly as you’re pulled into more and more activities that will drive revenue growth.

Third, figure out staffing before you need it. As you scale up, things can get busy quickly. Ideally, your focus should be on driving sales growth and serving customers. Having to scramble to hire people adds stress, pulls you away from the day-to-day work, and also can pressure you to hire less qualified people, if you just need to get help ASAP. By comparison, plan ahead on what your future hiring needs will be, and get hiring and onboarding plans laid out well in advance. So, when it’s time to pull the trigger, you either have potential candidates lined up, or, you can move quickly to fill roles. This might even mean finding several part time team members early on, that could grow into full time employees as workload merits it.

Fourth, don’t take on more work — or different kinds of work — than you can knock out of the park. This one might be a little more relevant to service businesses, but the bottom line is, you’re only going to be as successful as your reputation merits. People want to work with companies that have great reputations. So, while it’s tempting to go after any paying customer, if you can’t do an awesome job for them, it might make more sense to pass. In scaling up, you still need to think about the long term prospects of your business. You’ll do way better in the long term by doing great work for each customer, rather than trying to serve everyone, and only doing mediocre (or poor) work. Bad reviews, or a bad reputation, is a killer.

Fifth, keep on top of finances. As you’re scaling, revenues and expenses will be evolving quickly. Be diligent about reviewing cash flows regularly to maintain projections, monitor costs and revenues. As much as you can, start building up a cash runway for downtimes, because startups will ebb and flow — growth is not a straight line upward. Remember, cash is king, so make sure you’ve got more coming in than going out, and build up the cash reserves for inevitable changes or downturns.

Can you share a few of the mistakes that companies make when they try to scale a business? What would you suggest to address those errors?

There’s one big thing I see happen a lot when entrepreneurs scale up their business, especially less experienced entrepreneurs, and that’s trying to do too many different things, too soon.

In more detail, what I see happen is an entrepreneur will launch a business, and focus extremely hard on getting that company up and running, getting the brand established, getting early customers, getting a team in place, etc. However, once they start getting traction, they then get a bit of “shiny object” syndrome. They start thinking they’ve made it, as things are trending up, and their focus starts gravitating towards “what if we offered this!” (insert new product or service, or business model, here). They start thinking about different service lines, new products, new spinoffs or whatever. In essence, they start to take their eye off the ball from that initial product or service.

Just hypothesizing here, but I wonder if it might be a personality thing, that some people are wired as “starters” — that is, they love coming up with an idea, getting it rolling, and then moving on to the next thing. However, entrepreneurship, and scaling up a business, is a long-term endeavor. It’s not as easy as just starting it up, and handing it off, especially when you’re a small business.

My advice here would be to be patient, keep focused on whatever it is that you’re getting traction with, before you get distracted. Make sure you have predictable revenue. Get operational procedures and protocols in place. Get your team built out, with redundancies and back-up plans in place. Really make sure your initial, core business is sustainable and self-sufficient for the most part, before you start taking on your next big idea or initiative.

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

The biggest factor in creating and preserving a culture is to lead by example. You need to walk the walk, and reinforce that in others. Catch people when they’re doing the right thing, and call them out on it — recognize them in a group, especially. For example, things like, “Jane, that was awesome how quickly you got back to the client and fixed their problem. That kind of responsiveness really helps set us apart.”

As the company grows, and you’re not involved with team members as directly anymore, you can reinforce culture in the hiring and onboarding process, through education, creating and reinforcing your mission and vision, and sharing stories and communication with the team that reinforce your culture and values. Really, it’s all about consistent communication and reinforcement, and also being congruent to make sure you, and the business, are actually doing what you’re saying you value.

Many times, a key aspect of scaling your business is scaling your team’s knowledge and internal procedures. What tools or techniques have helped your teams be successful at scaling internally?

As things have grown, we’ve created standard operating procedures and templates, and baked these elements directly into our project management software to help keep things organized, and make sure we don’t miss any steps. We have lots of templates that are easy to use, and are consistent across projects.

On a regular basis, we’ll debrief after we complete a client project, and check in on what went well, and where we can improve, and we’ll adjust our procedures accordingly. This helps us always get better.

Regarding software, operationally, we try to use just a few software tools that are all easily accessible online. This helps keep things simple, organized, and easily available.

We use Asana for project management, and we have a handful of templates and checklists we use consistently for each project. So, that helps us keep on top of things, and everyone knows what to expect, process-wise. We use Google Drive for documents, and Slack for quick communication throughout the day.

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

Really, we just use the same tools for onboarding as we do for our other normal day-to-day operations. We try to just use a few software platforms online to keep things simple. So, as part of onboarding, we share Asana and Google Drive with new team members, and teach them about how we use each, but our actual onboarding processes are stored there, as well — so, everything’s all in one place.

For communication, we do lots of video calls together early on for live conversations and 1-on-1 time to make sure the new hire is up to speed and has questions or concerns addressed quickly.

Because of your role, you are a person of significant influence. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most people, what would that be? You never know what your ideas can trigger.

Because of my own journey, I’ve been a big fan of what’s been dubbed “the great resignation.” So, rather than creating my own movement, I’m more apt to piggyback on that one.

For me, and my team members, we’ve found so much satisfaction in doing freelance work and creating our own business together. We have so much more skin in the game, and are able to create a culture and work style that works for us — and that fits into our lives — compared to the more typical corporate life.

In my own life — and I’ve consistently seen this with others — it’s amazing how much work affects our personal lives. Logistically, our personal lives tend to be defined as just that time before we commute to work in the morning, and after we get back home at night. Stress from work is brought home, and is shared — either directly or indirectly — with spouses, children, and family members. When the normal job is wearing on you, it affects everything.

So, I’ve been really happy to see people say “enough”, and prioritize their own lives, their desires, and their own personal wellbeing. I think companies can do a lot more to really recognize people as people, not just cogs in a machine. I think by people resigning in mass and pursing their own endeavors, freelancing, starting companies, et cetera — or even just demanding better balance from their employers — it’s good for everyone, as it resets the benchmark on what’s normal and what’s acceptable for work and work-life balance.

How can our readers further follow your work online?

We post regularly on our blog with relevant information at BuddyWDD.com/blog, and I also share updates, advice, and insights on my LinkedIn profile at Linkedin.com/in/scottdaigger.

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

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Scott Daigger Of Buddy Web Design & Development 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.

An Interview With Fotis Georgiadis

Don’t be afraid to dream big.

My non-linear career path gave me the strength and courage to look beyond how we do things today, and question how things can be done differently. This translates to my role at Darwynn, where we’re reimagining what the e-commerce and delivery landscape currently looks like, and being unafraid to provide an alternative solution to compete with existing big players in the industry.

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

Reza Bafandeh is CEO of Darwynn Ltd., a fulfillment solution that is building a world-class ecosystem that enables anyone and everyone to compete in commerce. With extensive experience across the fulfillment and operations sectors, Reza’s goal is to ensure every company has access to an innovative solution — no matter if they have one order or one million orders. He hopes to democratize the industry and break down barriers to allow businesses of all sizes to thrive.

Thank you so much for doing this with us! Before we dig in, our readers would like to get to know you a bit more. Can you tell us a bit about your “backstory”? What led you to this particular career path?

It’s often assumed that the pathway to becoming a CEO is to get straight A’s, pursue higher education and excel in academics. But we know this isn’t always the case. Steve Jobs, Bill Gates and Mark Zuckerberg all dropped out of school — and like these folks, I also led a different path.

As a child, I played chess competitively — participating in tournaments and learning the ins and outs of the game. It taught me a lot about strategy, patience and perseverance.

Fast forward to my teenage years, I ended up dropping out of high school. That led me to begin working on the front lines of sales and business development for a number of years before I decided it was time to go back to school and pursue higher education. From there, I earned both an accelerated Bachelors degree and a Masters degree — graduating from both with honours. I truly believe that the same qualities I learned through chess, is what helped me accomplish this academic achievement.

Once I completed my studies, I went back to building my career. This time bringing both academic and previous professional experience, I worked across the fulfillment and operations industries — spanning waste management, distribution, global deployments and last mile transportation. I also spent some time building multiple businesses of my own in areas such as consulting, health, and beauty.

Much like the way chess taught me strategy, patience and perseverance, my non-linear career path gave me the perspective to look beyond the status quo. While my experience may be diverse, one thing has remained consistent in my professional career — I’ve always been involved at the intersection of merchants and consumers, and fulfillment and operations is my bread and butter. I noticed gaps in the current infrastructure, and seeing the opportunity to innovate this complex industry is what led me to Darwynn.

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

At Darwynn, we’re democratizing the fulfillment landscape by lowering the barriers to commerce so any seller can compete — no matter how big or small. We’re seeing increased consumer demands for expectations like two-day shipping, but traditional supply chain logistics haven’t risen to the challenge. We want to be the alternative option for sellers to have more control over their orders, have transparency to their data and get insight into the fulfillment process.

Our complete multi-tenant, multi-channel and multi-temperature fulfillment ecosystem is fully automated and manages most avenues of a business. By integrating with all major platforms, including enterprise resource planning (ERP) software, we’re making fulfillment and logistics as simple as possible. Because we’re enabling fulfillment with technology, merchants and sellers are able to gain access to unmatched data and insights to drive their business forward.

We’re rethinking the way sellers manage logistics, and putting operational ownership into the hands of businesses with more transparency and control over their fulfillment needs. The goal is to become the most innovative, seller-centric platform of choice — whether they have one order or a million to fulfill.

Can you share a story about the funniest mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lesson you learned from that?

Dropping out of high school wasn’t a mistake per se, but a key learning experience for me. Looking back, it’s funny to see that I ended up going back to school, not only for a Bachelor’s degree, but for a Master’s as well. What others may find even more fascinating is that I actually spent some time giving back to education by becoming an instructor myself at my alma mater. It was in no way easy for me to go back to school, but studying business after having had some formal job experience gave me the drive, determination and confidence I needed to embrace academics, and apply those learnings to my career going forward.

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

My father has been my main mentor throughout my life. Ever since I was a child, I’ve looked up to him — not only is he a loving father and a husband, but a great businessman, educator and role model. As a scholar with a PhD in Medical Nuclear Physics from the University of Massachusetts, his dedication to continuous learning and development has inspired my ambitions to get to where I am today.

In today’s parlance, being disruptive is usually a positive adjective. But is disrupting always good? When do we say the converse, that a system or structure has ‘withstood the test of time’? Can you articulate to our readers when disrupting an industry is positive, and when disrupting an industry is ‘not so positive’? Can you share some examples of what you mean?

Disruptors arise because we see a gap in the current market, or a problem with existing systems. I noticed a gap in the current infrastructure through my time working across fulfillment and operations, which led me to Darwynn.

Darwynn’s ecosystem will allow companies of varying order volumes to benefit from economies of scale because of our proprietary Automated Multi-Tenant Ecosystem. This allows for order consolidation within the fulfillment center, regardless of the merchant. By doing so, we’re putting sellers at the forefront while exceeding customer expectations. Furthermore, we’re creating a positive sustainability impact by decreasing the amount of packaging by combining orders and allowing greater efficiency for the courier. For example, when someone orders groceries and clothing from separate merchants, our platform can integrate these from the same consumer into one package, instead of one per merchant. This, to me, is positive disruption — one that benefits sellers by reducing packaging costs, the environment by reducing waste, and the end consumer.

Can you share five of the best words of advice you’ve gotten along your journey? Please give a story or example for each.

Here are some words of advice that have gotten me through my journey:

• Don’t be afraid to dream big.

My non-linear career path gave me the strength and courage to look beyond how we do things today, and question how things can be done differently. This translates to my role at Darwynn, where we’re reimagining what the e-commerce and delivery landscape currently looks like, and being unafraid to provide an alternative solution to compete with existing big players in the industry.

• There is no shortage of great ideas, what is missing is executing them
  This piece of advice resonates with me because I’m a big advocate for continuous learning. Not being afraid to pursue great ideas is critical to disrupting an industry and without execution, there will be limited opportunities to learn from failure or success.
• Make yourself the obvious choice.

There are many ways technology can be adapted to help solve existing problems in the fulfillment and operations industry, but what sets Darwynn apart is the combination of our industry expertise and our technological capabilities. This has helped us build our state-of-the-art fulfillment centers and truly scale our business this past year. Our approach to developing a fully-automated solution is what differentiates us to become the obvious choice.

• Business is a combination of war and sport.

As Darwynn grows, this piece of advice has stuck with me because it alludes to the importance of being able to challenge the status quo to be competitive, while balancing the role of a strategic and aspirational leader as CEO.

• In the midst of chaos there is always opportunity.

Whether it was stores lacking inventory on their shelves or back-ordered items online, many saw the impact of global supply chains first-hand this year — no matter where they are in the world. This piece of advice resonates with me because my team has been able to seize this opportunity to build Darwynn — and I believe our recent pre-seed raise is a testament that there is a clear demand for innovation to improve the fulfillment and operations industry now more than ever.

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

We’re shaking up commerce with our cutting edge technology and expertise in fulfillment, but we’re not stopping there. Our goal is to improve commerce in all aspects by disrupting supply chain and logistics as a whole — reimagining the way consumers receive goods from merchants and sellers whether online or brick and mortar.

Do you have a book, podcast, or talk that’s had a deep impact on your thinking? Can you share a story with us? Can you explain why it was so resonant with you?

I’m a big fan of audiobooks, and listen to 1–2 monthly. Most recently, I’ve been listening to Sapiens by Yuval Noah Harari and The Ideal Team Player by Patrick Lencioni. Books like these that challenge my thinking inspire me to continuously learn and grow, especially as a leader. When it comes to disrupting and innovating an industry, it’s important to me to be able to reflect and think differently about how commerce operates today and what the future of commerce could look like.

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

One quote that resonates with me is — “luck is for the unprepared”. As someone who didn’t follow the traditional trajectory from school to work, I’ve worked hard to get to where I am today. My experiences and education combined have prepared me to seize opportunities to succeed, whether luck is involved or not.

You are a person of great influence. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger. 🙂

Commerce (especially eCommerce) is heavily dependent on plastics and corrugated packaging. That’s why I think it’s important to reimagine the relationships between a seller, integrator, service provider and customer, and how the commerce journey can function without relying on so much waste. Eliminating packaging, not just minimizing it, is something I’m very passionate about, and the opportunities to innovate this industry by rethinking commerce is limitless.

How can our readers follow you online?

LinkedIn (Reza Bafandeh)

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

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Meet The Disruptors: Reza Bafandeh Of Darwynn 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.

Making Something From Nothing: Rob Martin of Icon Sports Management On How To Go From Idea To Launch

An Interview With Fotis Georgiadis

Less is often more. Don’t try to be everything to everyone or always try to perform every single service that your competitors offer. Instead, do everything you can to be the very best at what you do as people will come from far and wide to engage your services if you can truly give them that.

As a part of our series called “Making Something From Nothing”, I had the pleasure of interviewing Co-Founder and Managing Partner Rob Martin.

An MLB agent for more than 24 years, Co-Founder Robert (Rob) G Martin VI, Esq. of ICON Sports Management and Pastime With Purpose represents some of baseball’s premier talent. Martin has negotiated hundreds of MLB amateur draft contacts, dozens of MLB arbitration settlements, and numerous MLB free-agent deals. As the managing partner for an agency known for representing highly marketable athletes, Martin has negotiated some of the most innovative marketing and endorsement contracts in baseball’s history. Martin has been featured in numerous magazines from Slice to Boston College Law School magazine. He has also been a guest speaker at over a dozen Sports Law and Sports Marketing schools across the nation, a keynote panel member at the West Coast Sports Law Symposium and heard on several prominent radio shows including MLB Network Radio.

Rob Martin graduated Grinnell College with a Bachelors of Arts in Economics and worked for GSD&M Advertising in Austin, TX before co-founding ICON. After that, he graduated top of his class at Boston College Law School which is widely regarded as the #1 Sports Law school in the nation. Rob is also the father to three beautiful daughters.

Thank you so much for doing this with us! Before we dive in, our readers would love to learn a bit more about you. Can you tell us a bit about your “childhood backstory”?

When I was six, my parents moved our family from Albuquerque, New Mexico to the family ranch in Southeastern Oklahoma. I grew up on a beautiful piece of land that had green pastures, evergreen forests, four ponds, and beautiful mountain views where we ran cattle and had horses. My dad had a portable sawmill and built our homestead himself and my mom became the librarian at the local public school. Soon thereafter my Nana, Dr. Mavis D. Martin, retired and my dad built her a home above one of our ponds about 200 yards from our house that was just down the lane. What brought us together was the love for the American game of baseball. This passion for baseball that our family had created and after watching Field of Dreams together, my dad built me a baseball field in our pasture. We spent countless hours honing the craft each afternoon. My family and the ranch way of life taught me the value of a strong work ethic and a hard days’ work.

When I was in 7th grade my teachers nominated me to write an essay for a college scholarship competition sponsored by Ruth Norman and the Norman Family Foundation. After an interview process, shockingly the Norman Foundation offered me a full-ride scholarship to whatever college I chose to attend. Ruth and Dave Norman showed my family and I how much impact it has when you take time to remember your roots, choose to give back and create opportunities for others. There is no doubt ICON owes its early genesis to the mentorship of my parents, my Nana and Ruth Norman.

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

“There are no self-made people… All of us are bits and pieces of those whose lives have touched ours.” ~Frosty Troy

I loved this quote since I read it early in my high school career. No doubt my dreams and aspirations were significantly impacted by those around me at a very early age and I became determined to stay humble and try to pay it forward to others that my life might touch someday.

This concept became foundational for ICON as the inception of our agency began my junior year of college when I wrote a mission statement for a sports agency. The differentiating factor was that it represented role-model athletes with a philanthropic focus and utilized a partner non-profit to more effectively activate those athletes in their communities. The vision of how connectivity and purpose can intertwine to motivate people to stretch themselves beyond conventional expectations defines ICON and certainly aided in our early success. I mean, I really had no business getting clients when I was a 22 year old recent college graduate with no experience, no company, no mentors, and nothing but the concept of helping athletes live out a more fulfilling career path. So, instead of selling our experience, our agency capabilities, our industry connections or our company’s resources, we had to sell the idea of inspired action motivating people to fully embrace the potential they have to impact other lives. Fourntately, we were able to find some like-minded prospects and their families who put their trust in us and once we were able to illustrate how our approach truly added value, the rest was history.

Is there a particular book, podcast, or film that made a significant impact on you? Can you share a story or explain why it resonated with you so much?

Start with Why by Simon Sinek. A leadership mentor of mine shared Simon’s viral Ted Talk with me and, concedingly, I devoured the book. So much of what he articulated by what is known as the Golden Circle, clearly defined what I envisioned when I wrote the mission statement for ICON all those years ago. It also helped explain some of our early successes in this competitive industry when we had very little experience and were still growing our reputation in the industry. The idea that it’s not WHAT you do, but WHY you do what you do, that is what motivates people. In the long run it is how we’ve been able to establish ourselves among the industry leaders without following in the usual business model for the typical elite sports agency.

Ok super. Let’s now shift to the main part of our discussion. There is no shortage of good ideas out there. Many people have good ideas all the time. But people seem to struggle in taking a good idea and translating it into an actual business. Can you share a few ideas from your experience about how to overcome this challenge?

Phenomenal question. The first step is to identify your true passion and prioritize what matters to you the most. I believe so many people split their focus by not truly doing the tough work to prioritize what will bring them the most fulfillment. Then fully commit to doing the first thing first to make that dream a reality. This happens when you serve too many masters and try to be a jack of all trades. In my experience, and in researching my heroes, very few people have the genius to be phenomenal at everything. But the most truly impactful leaders became the very best at doing what they do and stopped at nothing until their vision became reality. Effectively you need to fully know yourself, identify your ultimate pursuit, and then fully commit to making it matter.

Often when people think of a new idea, they dismiss it saying someone else must have thought of it before. How would you recommend that someone go about researching whether or not their idea has already been created?

If you see an opportunity gap it typically exists or, at a minimum, a more optimal service could be offered. So you research your industry, speak to those involved and also on the periphery, and then hone your value proposition. If, after that intentional preparation, look for your first and best opportunity to prove your concept. That first success is key because you’ll learn a ton in the execution and it will also serve as a seminal moment for your endeavor.

For the benefit of our readers, can you outline the steps one has to go through, from when they think of the idea, until it finally lands in a customer’s hands? In particular, we’d love to hear about how to file a patent, how to source a good manufacturer, and how to find a retailer to distribute it.

I recommend spending considerable time looking into decision sciences and examining how people make decisions. Reading books (like Blink and The Challenger Sale) and listening to podcasts on marketing and presentations would be extremely valuable. In addition, many of our attorneys here at ICON have significant IP experience. So if you’re not an attorney, getting to know one with copyright, trademark, and patent expertise will be incredibly valuable. Such attorneys not only know how to protect you legally, but can be incredibly insightful in helping you hone your vision and your activation strategy BEFORE you launch it.

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

1. Prioritize surrounding yourself with the right people first and then put them in the best positions to succeed within the organization. Cultural fit is more important than skill set or aptitude.
2. Passion and purpose need to be woven into EVERYTHING you do and NOTHING should be allowed into your culture or your business model if it doesn’t further these two foundational principles.
3. Aggressively seek out and ask for mentorship. You would be surprised how many successful people will be willing to lend advice and a listening ear if you just show dedication and respect in how you ask. This will accelerate your learning curve and often give you valuable allies in your industry. True leaders love seeing (and helping) others be successful as iron truly sharpens iron.
4. Less is often more. Don’t try to be everything to everyone or always try to perform every single service that your competitors offer. Instead, do everything you can to be the very best at what you do as people will come from far and wide to engage your services if you can truly give them that.
5. If something is not working, shut it down. Innovation and evolution is always alluring and can often be incredibly exciting, but if you try something, and it’s not working, shut it down and don’t waste incredible time chasing your tail. Time, afterall, is the most valuable resource you and your company have, so wasting it is a travesty!

Let’s imagine that a reader reading this interview has an idea for a product that they would like to invent. What are the first few steps that you would recommend that they take?

Research it online, contact an IP attorney and get an airtight NDA so you can protect yourself before sharing it with anyone that could possibly execute it faster or better than you. Again, time is the most valuable resource you and your company have.

There are many invention development consultants. Would you recommend that a person with a new idea hire such a consultant, or should they try to strike out on their own?

As I mentioned before, get a good IP attorney and take their advice. I cannot reiterate it enough. They will make everything easier and make sure that you will be able to succeed within your specified field.

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

Making great decisions with entrepreneurial finance has been a critical skill set of the world’s most successful innovators. Sometimes, going at it alone is the best way to develop your vision without other influences. Other times, getting an influx of capital to expand within the market is the smartest thing to do. Here is where tireless research, sound strategy and great mentors can be invaluable in helping you decide whether to keep your entire endeavor or choose the proverbial benefit of the smaller piece of a much bigger pie!

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

ICON’s entire niche market is representing role-model athletes with a philanthropic focus. We’re also the only certified MLB agency with our own parallel run 501(c)3 Non-Profit (Pastime with Purpose), so giving back is imbued in everything we do. We have an incredible team here at ICON and all our agents and attorneys endeavor to break the mold of what people think of when they think of sports agents. Furthermore, all our athletes are hand-selected for their character, leadership and interest in giving back to their communities. Pastime helps execute all our charitable impact and activates our athletes in their communities. I am extremely humbled to be a part of these athlete’s professional careers and proud of the genuine impact they make on the lives around them. Our favorite quote is “A life is not important, except in the impact it has on other lives” by the luminary Jackie Robinson and asserting that as a core principle of why we do what we do. It has helped associate us with some of the game’s greatest people. That, and the change they catalyze, is truly the biggest success of my professional career.

You are an inspiration to a great many people. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger.

Many of us are blessed beyond what we deserve. If we can truly embrace that gratitude we would all be more motivated to pay it forward. I’d love to see more companies truly make giving back a core tenant of their daily operations, but I also wish more people understood the impact they can have on other individuals just by looking for the opportunities they have to lend time, resources or a helping hand to someone who would not only truly appreciate it, but who would also choose to do the same for another someday.

We are very blessed that some of the biggest names in Business, VC funding, Sports, and Entertainment read this column. Is there a person in the world, or in the US, with whom you would love to have a private breakfast or lunch, and why? He or she might just see this if we tag them.

Elon Musk. I believe his unique combination of innovator and risk taker is an outlier and has changed the trajectory of our way of life more than anyone since Steve Jobs. So getting even 5 minutes of his time would be a dream come true for me.

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

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Making Something From Nothing: Rob Martin of Icon Sports Management 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.

An Interview With Fotis Georgiadis

Better business performance: Study after study has confirmed that companies with more diversity outperform less-diverse companies. Ultimately, greater diversity equals better business performance and higher profits for various reasons — increased collaboration, higher performing teams, better decision-making, inclusive products and higher market share.

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

Tiffany is a senior consultant on diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging issues at employee listening company Perceptyx. She regularly researches DEIB-related issues in the workplace and works with Fortune 100 clients on crafting policy and action plans. Prior to that she worked as a consultant at talent management company Talent Plus. She has an MBA from UNC’s Kenan-Flagler Business School and a Master’s in Industrial and Organizational Psychology from East Carolina University.

Thank you so much for doing this with us! Before we dive into the main part of our interview, our readers would love to “get to know you” a bit more. Can you share a bit of your “backstory” with us?

For almost a decade, I’ve worked and studied in the Industrial/Organizational Psychology (I/O) industry. I help clients leverage data to discover insights and drive action– everything from coding qualitative interview research to conducting adverse impact analysis to measure if selection processes are negatively affecting historically marginalized groups, to designing large-scale listening programs for organizations with thousands of employees. Currently, I consult leadership teams on their employee listening strategy to help organizations create a more inclusive and engaged workforce that drives the success of their business.

Can you share the funniest or most interesting story that happened to you since you started your career? Can you tell us the lesson or take away, you took out of that story?

My interest in I/O Psychology piqued when I conducted research on people experiencing homelessness. It was truly a life changing experience for me. I had the opportunity to help people who had fallen or were experiencing tough times get back on their feet. I was able to do this by helping them hone in on their career goals and identify potential workplace challenges they might encounter and how to best navigate those.

This experience was a revelation for me. I realized that I/O Psychology has a tremendous capacity to benefit people who come from underprivileged backgrounds. Everyone deserves to have the tools they need to succeed in any aspect of life and it was extremely rewarding to help people get back on their feet however I could.

I entered the I/O Psychology field wanting to understand how to enhance our quality of life and workplaces, raise awareness, and overcome any challenges and blockades that groups might face. I hope to inspire individuals and organizations to rise to their highest potential by providing the tools and resources, so that, when met with opportunity, they are prepared.

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

Perceptyx gives organizations the opportunity to hear the voices of employees, who maybe haven’t always had a voice. We combine expertise with technology that allows us to look at the intersectionality of experience in a seamless fashion. It’s easy for organizations to only look at organization-wide data and assume that tells the whole story. In reality, that barely scratches the surface. The value of employee experience research is being able to get granular in the data to understand the unique experiences of individuals from different backgrounds within different groups of the organization.

For example, one customer I work with wanted to measure psychological safety in their organization, with the goal of creating an environment that’s conducive for creativity and innovation. When we analyzed the data, their scores were aligned with our overall benchmark scores, which would tell us that psychological safety is relatively strong in the organization. However, after diving into the results more, I learned that women felt significantly less safe to contribute their opinions. Women leaders especially felt their perspectives are not valued when compared to their men counterparts. Without our data and technology, we wouldn’t have been able to identify this pattern in our initial analysis.

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

Currently, I lead a team that’s been revamping our best practice Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Belonging solution. This new solution includes a robust survey item set that touches on everything from organizational commitment, psychological safety, fairness and belonging. You can take this survey and tailor it to the needs of the organization based on their level of maturity in DEIB.

We also recently released our “Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Belonging: A Playbook for Listening & Action Planning” that outlines the entire process of creating and driving change through a DEIB survey. Ultimately, this solution can help organizations create an environment where their employees feel like they belong, can be their authentic selves and contribute to the organization in meaningful ways.

Ok. Thank you for that. Let’s now jump to the main part of our interview. This may be obvious to you, but it is not intuitive to many people. Can you articulate to our readers five ways that increased diversity can help a company’s bottom line. (Please share a story or example for each.)

Increased diversity efforts can help a company’s bottom line in many ways, but there’s five that stick out to me:

1. Innovation: Research consistently supports the idea that companies with a more diverse employee base and leadership teams are more likely to be innovative. Collaboration among diverse teams means bringing more ideas to the table and thinking outside the box. In a landscape that’s going through significant transformation, being agile and innovative will be more important than ever.

2. Culture enhancement: In the past, organizations often had the goal of hiring people who “fit” with their culture. What this translates to in practice is hiring people similar to those already in the organization’s workforce — reinforcing a monoculture. HR has shifted its focus to cast a wider net and bring in new talent who differ from the existing workforce on a variety of attributes. The result is that HR recognizes the benefit of managing cultural diversity. Since culture is a key aspect of employee experience, employees benefit from a culture that’s enhanced by differing opinions, collaboration, and mutual respect.

3. Talent attraction recruitment: Companies that focus less on who “fits” with the existing culture — i.e. those who are most like the current workforce — have the benefit of accessing a wider pool of talent. Of course, employees still need to have the right skills and experience for the position, but it’s important to look for candidates who can leverage their differences to enhance the organization’s culture. Diversity begets diversity, and applicants who see diversity in the organization are more likely to see how they can fit within the organization as well.

4. Improvement in key metrics: Things that matter to the organization such as engagement and the employee experience can be enhanced by diversity. As the organization strives to ensure that the work environment is inclusive — often a prerequisite for engagement — all employees (and the organization itself) profit. One of the benefits of hiring a diverse workforce is that it incentivizes the organization to focus on inclusivity and creates an environment in which all employees feel supported and can succeed. Diversity and inclusion enable high-performing teams.

5. Better business performance: Study after study has confirmed that companies with more diversity outperform less-diverse companies. Ultimately, greater diversity equals better business performance and higher profits for various reasons — increased collaboration, higher performing teams, better decision-making, inclusive products and higher market share.

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

The first step to helping employees thrive is listening to them. Employee survey data is one of the most effective tools for mapping a path to improve the employee experience, and more importantly helping employees thrive. Unfortunately, there’s no one-size-fits-all approach. What’s most important to employees depends on many factors, such as the culture of the organization, their role, and individual differences. There’s no better way to help employees thrive than to ask the source themselves. Use that data to remove the barriers that are getting in the way of employees being successful.

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

Managing a large team means creating a space where team members can leverage each other to grow and develop, especially if in a large setting the manager doesn’t have the bandwidth to provide the individual development that each employee needs. Large teams that are rooted in collaboration are the most successful because they can leverage each other when trying to solve problems and in everyday learning. The environment of collaboration also has to have a foundation of psychological safety. Otherwise, team members may not feel comfortable raising their hand to ask for help or bring forth new and different ideas.

How can our readers further follow your work online?

Feel free to connect with me on LinkedIn, where I post regularly on the research that we’re conducting on DEIB. Also, visit our website at www.perceptyx.com.

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

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Tiffany Pires Of Perceptyx 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.

An Interview With Fotis Georgiadis

Authenticity by showcasing real stories and real people. Brands aren’t just relying on their typical content. They are introducing user-generated content, too.

As a part of our series called “The Future of AI Intelligence”, I had the pleasure of interviewing Maximilian Huc, Co-Founder, Brevity Pitch Inc.

Maximilian Huc attended Princeton University as a collegiate athlete and then earned a Masters Degree in Business Administration from the University of Virginia Darden School of Business. With experience co-founding multiple start-ups, Maximilian proved to be a perfect match for Ilera Healthcare post MBA, where he was tasked to create a world class sales organization from the ground up. Scaling revenue for 5M to 75M in two short years, Maximilian’s efforts proved instrumental in Ilera Healthcare’s eventual 9-figure acquisition. Setting his sights forward, Maximilian co-founded Brevity Pitch Inc., an AI-powered software guiding professionals to create persuasive pitches that sell. In short time, Brevity Pitch is set to become the #1 high stakes communications enablement software in the World!

Thank you so much for joining us in this interview series! Can you share with us the ‘backstory” of how you decided to pursue this career path in AI?

It was truly by happenstance. AI was something our team could leverage in trying to provide the best possible experience for our users within the Brevity Pitch software. It’s now an integral part of how the software functions, and will help users identify sub-optimal pitch language to the audience type they’re pitching or presenting to. It will also enable the user to recreate their content with the click of a button. All exciting things you must see for yourself when Brevity Pitch launches in October!

What lessons can others learn from your story?

The most important lesson I carry with me every day is to always exude relentless intent and belief in oneself — no matter the circumstance. I encourage others to remember that your path is uniquely yours, and no one else’s. Trust your instinct, trust your intuition, and follow that guiding light within yourself to manifest your dreams and make the world believers.

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

My family is undoubtedly my rock. Regardless of my successes or failures, they’ve always shown me unconditional love. I feel truly blessed for that. With that example set by my family growing up, I’ve always been determined to spread that same type of love and energy to others in need. Doing this has enhanced the substance and quality of my life in unimaginable ways. I thank my family for sharing this important lesson with me.

What are the 5 things that most excite you about the advertising industry? Why?

In no particular order:

1. Artificial intelligence and machine learning are making a real impact in terms of data analysis and efficiency.

2. Watching not reading! The introduction of short video ads have major stopping power. Shorter the video the better!

3. Authenticity by showcasing real stories and real people. Brands aren’t just relying on their typical content. They are introducing user-generated content, too.

4. Diversity! Consumers can now see themselves within an ad campaign. From same-sex marriages, and interracial couples, to people with disabilities. We are seeing more representation than ever.

5. Enforcing ADA guidelines. The Americans with Disabilities Act, or ADA, has not always been adhered to. Now we are starting to have more web accessibility and internet inclusion for everyone.

What are the 5 things that concern you about the advertising industry? Why?

1. Privacy concerns. You’re online behavior is being monitored and analyzed at all times.

2. Data breaches are a growing threat. Whenever we provide our personal information, we are not immune to having it shared in unwanted places.

3. Misinformation continues to be an menecing concern that is omnipresent within the advertising industry and there are few checks and balances to prevent it.

4. Predatory marketing is especially concerning when addictive or harmful products are being advertised to our youth.

5. The advertising industry is leveraging highly addictive social media platforms to reach the masses.

As you know, there is an ongoing debate between prominent scientists, (personified as a debate between Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg) about whether advanced AI has the future potential to pose a danger to humanity. What is your position about this?

Anything without checks and balances can pose a threat to humanity. Advanced AI is no exception. What we should truly be fearful of is human nature. Without responsible oversight and implementation, advanced AI could become a threat to humanity. However, I also believe in its potential to truly make the world a better place. It’s really up to mankind to make the right decisions, that should keep in mind “human” prosperity and longevity first.

How have you used your success to bring goodness to the world? Can you share a story?

In co-founding Brevity Pitch (brevitypitch.com), an AI-powered software designed to help professionals craft persuasive pitches that sell, the most meaningful motivator for its creation was my partner and my experience witnessing the disparities in opportunity that exist between lower-socioeconomic and more affluent environments. We knew there needed to be a solution to level the professional playing field and help individuals overcome common communication barriers. Moreover, witnessing friends and peers struggle because they lacked the acumen to navigate more professional settings became something that I wanted to change.

What is your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share a story of how that had relevance to your own life?

When I was a kid, I once asked my father to buy me a Philadelphia 76ers basketball jersey. I wanted to fit in with the rest of my peers in elementary school. My father looked me in my eyes, and said “Son, if you want to wear that jersey, make a team.” Those words really resonated with me because it taught me from a young age that the greatest rewards in life require hard work.

You are a person of great influence. If you could start a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger. 🙂

To empower the misunderstood. Brevity Pitch (www.brevitypitch.com) is a movement doing just that. My partner and I are confident that its implementation will transcend global barriers in the coming years. Knowing that there are 67 English-speaking countries worldwide, we see Brevity becoming the number one, high-stakes communications enablement software in the world; helping individuals find their voice by guiding them along the pathway to creating clear, concise, and compelling language through intuitive software.

How can our readers further follow your work online?

Brevity Pitch (www.brevitypitch.com) is officially launching this Fall to the masses. Make sure to subscribe!

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

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Maximilian Huc Of Brevity Pitch On The Future of AI Intelligence was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

An Interview With Fotis Georgiadis

I don’t just mean rest — I mean taking some time away from the business to review where you’ve got to, how you feel about it, and where you want to go next. It means looking at your strategy and really investigating whether it’s still working. It’s creating a new path, even if you use the original map, and then rising to the next challenge.

As a part of our series called “Making Something From Nothing”, I had the pleasure of interviewing Emily E K Murdoch.

Emily E K Murdoch, USA Today Bestselling Author of historical romance. Her background in academia has led to studying in the Bodleian Library, designing exhibits at the Yorkshire Museum, and researching for Ian Hislop/BBC documentaries. With over fifty books published, she now writes full time.

Thank you so much for doing this with us! Before we dive in, our readers would love to learn a bit more about you. Can you tell us a bit about your “childhood backstory”?

I was born and raised in South East England, in a home that respected learning and understanding greatly. My parents encouraged me to read widely and to be creative, and from a very young age I knew I wanted to be an author. Though there isn’t really a particular career track for being an author, history and literature became my obsession. I studied History and English at university, and then a Mediaeval Studies MA because I just couldn’t leave academia with a little more knowledge! I was always writing as a child, and I completed my first novel at twenty one.

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

“Tomorrow is a fresh day, with no mistakes in it.” I might have quoted that slightly incorrectly (!), but it’s by L. M. Montgomery, the author of the Anne of Green Gables series. I’m the sort of person who just has bad days sometimes, nothing seems to go right, and those are the days that I take off creative work, do admin and almost nothing else, and try again tomorrow.

Is there a particular book, podcast, or film that made a significant impact on you? Can you share a story or explain why it resonated with you so much?

I adore the podcast “Witch Please”, an intersectional feminist literary podcast focused on the world of Harry Potter. It’s easy to feel like reading becomes ‘work’ when you are an author, and this is one of the podcasts that has helped me lose myself entirely in a fictional world.

Ok super. Let’s now shift to the main part of our discussion. There is no shortage of good ideas out there. Many people have good ideas all the time. But people seem to struggle in taking a good idea and translating it into an actual business. Can you share a few ideas from your experience about how to overcome this challenge?

I think firstly you have to be certain that this is an idea that actually works. I know that sounds daft, but it’s easy to get lost in an idea that you become obsessed with, stuck in an echo chamber of your own making. Checking in with other people to sense check is always a good idea.

Then I’d recommend considering whether you are willing to dedicate the next few years of your life to this. Are you willing to eat, sleep, live, and breathe it? Are you happy to leave all other ideas behind and focus on this entirely?

And thirdly, consider what you may have to give up to achieve it. For example, being a full time author has been a dream of mine all my life — but I knew it wasn’t just going to fall into my lap. I worked a full time day job for 8 years while writing on the side (about 80+ hours a week) to get there.

Often when people think of a new idea, they dismiss it saying someone else must have thought of it before. How would you recommend that someone go about researching whether or not their idea has already been created?

I mean…is it a terrible problem if someone else has thought of it?

Okay, stay with me. Obviously you don’t want to be plagiarising — it’s a common fear in the creative world, and most people who are worried about it are likely not to fall into it, by definition. But one idea can be executed in a thousand ways.

Take my books as an example. How many Regency romances are there about bluestockings who fall in love with dukes? Hundreds. Thousands. Perhaps tens of thousands.

But every single one of them has been expressed differently. Explored differently. Imagined differently.

And that means there doesn’t have to be a gatekeeper saying, “Sorry, that’s enough bluestocking meets duke books.”

If it’s a good idea, then there will be people desperate for it. No one decides not to found a chocolate company because there already are hundreds.

For the benefit of our readers, can you outline the steps one has to go through, from when they think of the idea, until it finally lands in a customer’s hands? In particular, we’d love to hear about how to file a patent, how to source a good manufacturer, and how to find a retailer to distribute it.

The creative world is often missing in conversations about entrepreneurship, but at the end of the day, I create a product, package it up, and people buy it all over the world.

So I’m going to approach this as a digital entrepreneur.

First, I have an idea — usually in series, because I want to have a good experience for the reader as they go through the set. Then I outline, plot, and then write the book. Obviously it’s far more complicated than that, but it would be an entirely separate interview to go in detail! I have a course specifically for authors that is designed to help speed up this process.

Then the process goes in one of two directions. If I am self-publishing, I’ll need to commission a cover, work with an editor, then a proofreader. Then I get the cover and manuscript back, and I format them into a digital version that Amazon and other online bookstores require. After upload, I can start selling.

On the other hand, if I’m sending the book to my publisher, then I’ll send it over to them, and they are wonderful enough to do the rest of the process.

But of course, it doesn’t stop there. Getting the book into the hands of readers means finding the readers. I have a newsletter, multiple social media channels, a website, and take part in multiple promos. My publishers run ads, book promos, and more.

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

1. You have to have passion but also organisation.

I always think that the best companies have a visionary and an administrator at the top. You need a big picture vision, an idea of where you’re going — but you also need to know how to get there. If you’re naturally leaning towards one, make sure you don’t neglect the other.

2. Good days will follow bad for no known reason.

It can be so frustrating to feel like you’re on a roll, but then everything just seems to tumble down. It’s not you. Honestly. At least, sometimes it is but most of the time, that’s just the randomness of the world. Allow yourself to wallow. Dust yourself off. Then keep going.

3. Holidays, vacations, and weekends are precious.

One of the challenges I found, as the only person in my company for so long, was rest. Rest, it turns out, is way more important than I thought! I didn’t have 2 consecutive days off in…eight years? And it was burning me out. Setting aside time to relax, switch off, and spend time with loved ones — and alone — is absolutely vital if you want your business to grow long term.

4. Never trust someone offering the world.

It’s so difficult to know sometimes who to believe when you’re out of your comfort zone, but trust your gut. If something seems to be too good to be true, then it probably is. Really question, and don’t worry about being too intrusive. If someone gets defensive if you probe into their promises, then their promises probably aren’t worth much.

5. Review, reset, and rise.

I don’t just mean rest — I mean taking some time away from the business to review where you’ve got to, how you feel about it, and where you want to go next. It means looking at your strategy and really investigating whether it’s still working. It’s creating a new path, even if you use the original map, and then rising to the next challenge.

Let’s imagine that a reader reading this interview has an idea for a product that they would like to invent. What are the first few steps that you would recommend that they take?

I know this probably sounds silly…but check that no one else has patented it before you! Intellectual property, patents, things like that — you want to make sure that you’re not accidentally treading on the toes of someone else. Even when these things are completely coincidental, you don’t want to be landed with a lawsuit. Most people don’t think of that!

There are many invention development consultants. Would you recommend that a person with a new idea hire such a consultant, or should they try to strike out on their own?

It really depends on their experience. If you have experience, theoretical and practical, then it might be that you can start off alone — but there’s never anything that can be created completely in isolation. You’ll always want to look to collaborate with experts in other fields.

But if you have no experience, or you’re not one hundred percent sure that you are the best person to go alone, then ask for recommendations and referrals. You want to be certain that who you work with has already succeeded at what you are asking them to do.

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

Well, I’m not a financial advisor! I bootstrapped: it doesn’t take a huge amount of money to start off as an author, but you still need to invest. Working with editors, formatters, proofreaders, cover designers, setting up a website…

It all costs.

But there will obviously be plenty of other launches that will require significant investment, and for those who don’t have ready money, venture capital may feel like the only option.

But it’s not — there are grants, bursaries, small investments, fellowships, support from creative industries or charities. You can take out a loan. You can crowdfund.

Venture capital might be an option, but it’s often difficult for people from marginalised backgrounds to be taken seriously by big faceless corporations. That’s why some of these alternatives, especially if combined, may make all the difference.

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

I’m really passionate about helping others up into the world that I’ve managed to enter. There weren’t any authors that I could ask advice from when I was young, and it was almost impossible for me to imagine what an author did every day, or how I could make it a part of my career.

So I’ve worked with Arts Emergency, an award-winning mentoring charity and support network. Our Network members share opportunities, contacts and advice, to offer work experience to young people who want to work in the creative writing industry. It’s actually been fascinating for me, I think I’ve got just as much out of it as my mentees have!

You are an inspiration to a great many people. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger.

More reading.

I know it’s a bit of a cliche, but I believe more reading will make the world a better place. More compassionate. More interested in the world around us and the people around us.

We are very blessed that some of the biggest names in Business, VC funding, Sports, and Entertainment read this column. Is there a person in the world, or in the US, with whom you would love to have a private breakfast or lunch, and why? He or she might just see this if we tag them.

I’d love to meet Dolly Parton. What a heroine she is! Everything she has created in the world has brought joy, and her dedication to getting children reading in America is truly inspirational.

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

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Making Something From Nothing: Emily E K Murdoch Of Authorpreneur 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.

Meet The Disruptors: Bertrand Nembot Of Billdr On The Five Things You Need To Shake Up Your Industry

An Interview With Fotis Georgiadis

Nobody will come save you: I lost my mother in 2019 and my world fell apart. She was my number one fan. I felt tremendously alone. Going through that grieving process made me realize that nobody, but myself, would save me from depression and that I needed to actively take care of my well-being.

As a part of our series about business leaders who are shaking things up in their industry, I had the pleasure of interviewing Bertrand (Bert) Nembot.

In 2011, Bert ventured into house flipping (buying, renovating, and selling property) for the first time. But he quickly realized the challenges within the industry, finding it difficult to source trusted contractors on the market.Through house flipping, Bert had first-hand experiences of working with contractors that didn’t deliver, including one general contractor going bankrupt, resulting in a loss of more than $20,000. After two years of flipping houses in the greater Montreal area, Bertrand devised a plan to improve the experience and process. Bildr was born.

Thank you so much for doing this with us! Before we dig in, our readers would like to get to know you a bit more. Can you tell us a bit about your “backstory”? What led you to this particular career path?

I was born and raised near Paris. My parents are from Cameroon and my upbringing was the good story of a kid raised by loving lower-middle income class immigrants: stay out of trouble, be great at school to make your parents proud and have a chance to shoot for a better life. After high school, I moved to Montreal to attend engineering school and graduated with a bachelor in mechanical engineering and a master in industrial engineering at Polytechnique Montreal.

I started my career as a strategy consultant before jumping into my first tech gig in 2015 at Uber. While at Uber, I held various positions in Canada and Sub-Saharan Africa: Operations Manager, Launcher and Head of Marketplace for Sub-Saharan Africa. I went deep into the inner details of launching and scaling a marketplace from 0 to 1, launching new services, products, and payment methods for 3 years.

After Uber, I joined a fintech startup called Branch that’s building a mobile bank in emerging markets where I held a Launcher role. I learned a lot about the global fintech ecosystem by literally studying the fintech landscape of the largest emerging countries in detail.

Those years building marketplaces and studying fintech ecosystems set the stage for creating my current company Billdr.

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

At Billdr, our mission is to make home renovation simple, transparent and efficient for everyone. Home renovation is a super stressful and time consuming experience for homeowners where the industry is plagued by a lack of transparency, efficiency and accountability. On the general contractors (GCs) side, they lack software tools to grow their business efficiently and serve their customers with excellence. Billdr solves both of these issues.

We’re building a market network or simply put the digital infrastructure to power the home renovation industry with three components: (1) a managed marketplace to streamline the experience between homeowners and GCs, (2) a Software as a service (SaaS) to automate the back office of GCs, (3) financial services built on top of the marketplace and SaaS.

Can you share a story about the funniest mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lesson you learned from that?

We launched the company in February 2020 and one month later, due to the spread of Covid-19, Canada entered quarantine for 3 months. Billdr has four co-founders and at the time of launching, three of us were living abroad and had left high paying tech jobs to pursue this. You can imagine all the voices in our head at the time: “What a dumb idea it was to leave our job and move to Canada to start a company only for society to enter in a pandemic!”.

However, little did we know that the pandemic forced us to reflect more on our business, product strategy and go-to market plans. The most important decisions of our first 18 months were made during the quarantine period between March to May 2020. Moreover, the pandemic drove a surge in demand for home renovations when society opened back up in June 2020.

We learned two big lessons between co-founders that carried us until today: (1) when the situation is dire, focus on what you can control, (2) magic happens when we work closely together even if our backs are against the wall.

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

I’m fortunate to have amazing mentors surrounding me. I’d like to highlight two mentors: Jean-Nicolas Guillemette (JN) and Cherif Habib, COO & CEO of Dialogue (TSX: CARE).

JN hired me when I joined Uber back in 2015 when I was 25 years old. He’s been like a big brother to me ever since. He has provided me with precious advice to advance my career along the way even when I changed departments while at Uber. I always say that a key indication of a good leader is if people that report to you actively seek your advice, while also providing guidance after you’re no longer managing them. JN is that guy. JN was the first person I called when I had the idea of Billdr back in 2018 and he’s been a close advisor on the business since 2019. His impact on my life went beyond the professional side too. JN has been there for me when I went through the most challenging times in my personal life.

JN introduced me to Cherif and he was one of our first customers back in the summer of 2020. Cherif has played a tremendous role in helping me better navigate the role of CEO and how to improve my fundraising skills.

In today’s parlance, being disruptive is usually a positive adjective. But is disrupting always good? When do we say the converse, that a system or structure has ‘withstood the test of time’? Can you articulate to our readers when disrupting an industry is positive, and when disrupting an industry is ‘not so positive’? Can you share some examples of what you mean?

That’s a great question.

To me, disrupting a system is only good if the output produced by the system ends up being sustainably higher post-disruption for all stakeholders involved. And the key word here is the word sustainably.

For example, I believe that if we manage to digitize the home renovation experience, it will bring more transparency and efficiency to both homeowners and GCs, which will result in a lot of positive externalities:

• Helps GCs handle more jobs with fewer resources and thus alleviating the current imbalance in a market that’s heavily undersupplied;
• Benefits transaction flows, unlocking an entire suite of financial services for both homeowners and GCs; and,
• Increases the size of the pie with more homeowners feeling less intimidated to perform renovations and hopefully create more jobs in the construction industry.

An example of a case where disruption wasn’t a complete positive for society was the creation of social media. We traded our time in person with people close to us and allocated that time to phones and trying to appeal digitally to strangers. Social media caused a disruption, especially within the advertising industry. A lot of good came out of it for businesses. However, I believe it caused a lot more harm to society. We traded our time in person with people close to us and allocated that time to phones and trying to appeal digitally to strangers.

Can you share five of the best words of advice you’ve gotten along your journey? Please give a story or example for each.

1. Nobody will come save you: I lost my mother in 2019 and my world fell apart. She was my number one fan. I felt tremendously alone. Going through that grieving process made me realize that nobody, but myself, would save me from depression and that I needed to actively take care of my well-being.
2. Be resilient: Five months after my mother passed away, we launched Billdr in February 2020 and the pandemic hit a month later. I learned that developing resilience is an unfair advantage as a founder.The ability to keep on moving forward despite going through some of life’s most difficult challenges makes you unstoppable.
3. Never chase, but attract: In Q2 2020, I started working on myself physically (4–5x per week in the gym), eating healthy, and mentally I started to recover from my depression. That’s when things started to click and ideas emerged to help propel the business forward and enticed investors along the way. Now I make it a priority to invest in myself in order to attract opportunities and supporters as I advance in this entrepreneurial journey.
4. Enjoy the journey and do not focus on the destination too much: As an employee, I used to focus so much on the next promotion. I’d work tirelessly over 80 hours per week and would get the promotions, but at a cost. By being too absorbed by work, I lost friendships. As a co-founder and CEO, I have to be honest and say that I’m still absorbed by work, but this time I have my best friends as co-founders so I get the best of both worlds (a real cheat sheet to learn how to enjoy the journey)!
5. Being kind is key, but don’t people please: In business and in life it’s important to be kind, give some of your time, and help another founder. One amazing connection will usually lead you to another one. I firmly believe, you reap what you sow. That said, being kind does not mean being a people pleaser. You also need to know to say no so that people respect your boundaries.

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

Billdr is only two and a half years old and if all goes well this company will be my focus for the next 10–20 years. I will continue to work relentlessly until Billdr becomes the number one home renovation platform to get quick access to all the services homeowners need for their renovations and all the services for construction professionals to grow their business.

Do you have a book, podcast, or talk that’s had a deep impact on your thinking? Can you share a story with us? Can you explain why it was so resonant with you?

I learned about fundraising by listening to This Week in Startups (TWIS) in 2019 so I’d like to thank Jason Calacanis for building this podcast. I was in a gym in Jakarta the first time I listened to TWIS. It was early 2019. I was listening to episodes where Jason was explaining best practices for fundraising, which helped me a ton in structuring my fundraising process for our pre-seed round in 2020 and our seed round in 2021.

Today, my favorite podcast is The All-In podcast. As a founder, the podcast helps me better understand the perspective of investors — from assessing the quality of a company to the macroeconomic context, to how it could impact my company to keeping up with the most pressing news in tech & American politics.

If I had to recommend a book, I would say Siddharta. I read the book twice while I was depressed in 2020. It narrates the story of a man going through multiple life stages, seeking what the essence of life is, and its purpose on this earth. I was going through a similar process at the time, and reading the book helped me move forward with my life reflections.

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

Minimize regrets in your life: I’m keeping this thought very close to my heart as I move forward in life. Whenever I have an opportunity to see family or friends, to get coffee with someone new, or when I have to make an important decision I ask myself “will I regret not doing this activity, taking that call or making that leap of faith 5 to 10 years from now?” If the answer is yes, then I do it. If the answer is no, I walk away and never look back.

You are a person of great influence. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger. 🙂

One of my dreams is to create a tuition-free school program dedicated to high IQ children across Africa. I’d like to build a scout team actively seeking gifted children even in the most remote villages. My thesis is that if we actively seek and develop the most brilliant minds across Africa, they will be the ones driving innovation and economic development through entrepreneurship on the continent. Yeah you can think of this program as the X-Men for gifted children and I’ll be Professor X 🙂

How can our readers follow you online?

You can follow Billdr’s innovation on Instagram at billdr_renovation and my personal journal on Twitter: @bnembot.

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

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Meet The Disruptors: Bertrand Nembot Of Billdr 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.

An Interview With Fotis Georgiadis

Have confidence in yourself and listen to your instincts. At the beginning I would second guess myself and not trust that I knew what was right for myself and by extension my business. So I learnt a few things the hard way.

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

Caroline Strecker’s Rag of Colts is a brand borne out of family history, love for British heritage and a passion for repurposing leather saddles that would otherwise be discarded in a landfill.

A few years ago, Caroline was having dinner with her friend David de Rothschild, when engrossed in conversation about bridle leather (the leather used in equestrian grade tack) she came up with the idea to create dog collars and leads made of repurposed leather. Born and raised in a family of artists and makers, armed with a childhood fascination for saddlery leather (Caroline’s great grandfather won the Gold in polo in the 1920s Summer Olympics) and entirely self-taught, she started experimenting with cutting and stitching until she created her first bag; out of necessity, just for her. A prototype was made. More bags followed, different shapes and styles for different clients, some well-known.

At Rag of Colts, Caroline makes everything by hand, from the very first cut, to the very last burnish. Each leather saddle is transformed into a unique bag, aged to perfection with its own one-of-a kind patina. The bags are each named after a family ancestor.

Thank you so much for doing this with us! Before we dive in, our readers would love to learn a bit more about you. Can you tell us a bit about your “childhood backstory”?

I grew up on my grandmother’s farm in Perthshire, Scotland. My grandmother was a force of nature and had very strong beliefs on how children should behave. She was a fierce disciplinarian but we also enjoyed incredible freedom and responsibilities some parents (myself included!) would probably consider beyond our years. Screens barely existed and were definitely banned anyway. We were kept very busy, and to some extent, put to work on the farm. She taught us all (my brother and my cousins included) to knit, to mend, to cook, to iron a shirt, to skin a rabbit, light a fire… to ride the farm ponies, take care of her flock of Jacob sheep.. the days were long and we spent almost all our time outside. It rains a lot in Scotland though so any inside time we were also occupied .. making things, mending things — sometimes we would spend hours just unravelling balls of tangled wool. She couldn’t stand ‘idleness’ and I think this really instilled in me a drive ‘to do’

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

My grandmother’s favourite quote and her take on just about any situation was ‘do as you would be done by’ and it’s something I always aim to live by.

Is there a particular book, podcast, or film that made a significant impact on you? Can you share a story or explain why it resonated with you so much?

Without wishing to seem ridiculously cliched, The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho is a book i return to and dip into often.

Ok super. Let’s now shift to the main part of our discussion. There is no shortage of good ideas out there. Many people have good ideas all the time. But people seem to struggle in taking a good idea and translating it into an actual business. Can you share a few ideas from your experience about how to overcome this challenge?

For me the idea for my business ( https://www.ragofcolts.com ) wasn’t a sort of ‘light bulb moment’ if that makes sense. It was gradual and organic. I started making bags almost by accident — then friends placed orders, then friends of friends .. and that was when I realised I might be able to make a business from what I was doing.

Often when people think of a new idea, they dismiss it saying someone else must have thought of it before. How would you recommend that someone go about researching whether or not their idea has already been created?

Sometimes I think too much research can be very inhibiting. I can only speak for my own creative experience- I did some research online, on Instagram etc. to see if anyone else was doing something similar to my idea — and there are hundreds.. thousands probably — of independent leatherworkers out there hand making bags .. but i couldn’t find anyone else using old saddlery and I also had confidence that the designs I was creating had merit.

For the benefit of our readers, can you outline the steps one has to go through, from when they think of the idea, until it finally lands in a customer’s hands? In particular, we’d love to hear about how to file a patent, how to source a good manufacturer, and how to find a retailer to distribute it.

This probably isn’t relevant to me because I haven’t done any of the above! I had the idea and just worked and worked until I got it right. I am still learning everyday and developing my craft. The joy of making is how continued experience and continued practice yields genuine results. I manufacture the bags by hand, myself and have kept everything in house. I have an assistant who I trained myself and I handle all the retail and distribution.

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

I’m not sure I have five but I’ll try! Have confidence in yourself and listen to your instincts. At the beginning I would second guess myself and not trust that I knew what was right for myself and by extension my business. So I learnt a few things the hard way.

Value your own time — I think it’s easy to forget your own worth when you spend so much time investing every fibre of yourself into something — for free. I try to always have in mind what it would cost me to employ someone else to do what I do.

Take a break. I am a perfectionist and I find it hard to step away from my work and take time off. Even when not in my studio I am always mentally engaged with it — so it takes quite a lot to snap out of that head space. I have learnt that it’s really important to take time out. Not only to rest but also to refresh one’s perspective.

Let’s imagine that a reader reading this interview has an idea for a product that they would like to invent. What are the first few steps that you would recommend that they take?

Make it! Do it! Create a prototype … you learn so much in the process.

There are many invention development consultants. Would you recommend that a person with a new idea hire such a consultant, or should they try to strike out on their own?

I think that probably depends very much on the person and on the idea. I think it’s important to know your strengths and limitations. I think the most important thing is to have confidence and be willing to try. It’s ok if it doesn’t work!

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

Gosh I’m not sure I’m quite at that level but I do what I can! I choose a charity each Year to donate to — last year I supported Project Mama who do amazing work taking care of pregnant and post-partum displaced and refugee women. This year I am supporting Alzheimer’s Association.

You are an inspiration to a great many people. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger.

Be Kind … as my grandmother always said… do as you would be done by.

We are very blessed that some of the biggest names in Business, VC funding, Sports, and Entertainment read this column. Is there a person in the world, or in the US, with whom you would love to have a private breakfast or lunch, and why? He or she might just see this if we tag them.

I’ll have to have a think about this one !

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

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Making Something From Nothing: Caroline Strecker Of Rag of Colts 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.

An Interview With Fotis Georgiadis

Literal and metaphorical diversity translates to recognizing and interpreting market opportunities that a homogenous group may overlook due to a one-track mindset. Sometimes the homogeneous culture is intentional, other times it’s a victim to limited diversity due to the type of business ownership and geography.

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

Sasha is a Founder and Entrepreneur of an educational and entertainment platform that integrates self & professional development into nurturing meaningful outcomes. As a speaker, mentor and author, she partners alongside different clients, from individuals to organizations, to capitalize upon their talent. She is the host in residence for KreativeCircle.com and Global Ambassador for Style My Soul, a Lifestyle & Interests Community. To learn more, please visit www.sashatalks.com.

Thank you so much for doing this with us! Before we dive into the main part of our interview, our readers would love to “get to know you” a bit more. Can you share a bit of your “backstory” with us?

I come from a commercial, public and private, business background that after investing years working for third party entities, I now work alongside them in crafting healthy collaborations.

Can you share the funniest or most interesting story that happened to you since you started your career? Can you tell us the lesson or take away, you took out of that story?

When hosting a silent auction for a private event, I recall a participant had dropped a diamond bracelet on the table when submitting their bid. I thought it was an item that was unaccounted for that needed its own table for receiving bids. When we went to announce the winner for the bracelet, there came a loud shriek from the audience. The owner of the bracelet had spent two hours searching for the bracelet only to be found later. Things were sorted out but I won’t forget the look of horror on the woman’s face.

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

“Success is not to be pursued. It is to be attracted by the person you become.” — Jim Rohn

Many people are conditioned in life to chase things when in fact it’s a detrimental and destructive philosophy. It’s sending the message that we’re not worthy of earning our desires that we must chase them. This is why most people struggle because they’re entrapped in this mental, emotional and physical chase leading them into oblivion. The fantasy and faux ambition is poisoning their being. Mr. Rohn’s wisdom resonates with me because creating and sustaining results is reflected by our self-development. If we exercise our free-will to release our manifestations, at least we’re doing so by choice.

None of us are able to achieve success without some help along the way. Is there a particular person who you are grateful towards who helped get you to where you are?

Addisu. I met Addisu, an entrepreneur, through a professional opportunity many years ago. We became friendly neighbors in the work building after a chance meeting. He shared his affinity for practicing wellness regimens as part of his daily lifestyle. Even though people around us didn’t understand our lifestyle interests, I recall him telling me to remain true to myself because my efforts would start to pay off. People told him that he was crazy for wasting time on these efforts but obviously they were wrong. He now owns multiple entities around the world. It all goes back to focus and learning to block unwanted noise.

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

Focusing on the human condition by leveraging the realities unfolding in our path. It’s important to develop ourselves by extracting lessons from our life experiences. Not everyone learns their lesson the first time around therefore it’s important to explore why. Individuals and businesses typically look outward for their answers when most of the solutions are situated under their roof. How does one learn how to recognize these opportunities? Not many businesses are ready to have uncomfortable conversations but if they truly desire solutions, Sasha Talks is available to explore opportunities to collaborate.

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

This is an external project, not directly associated with Sasha Talks. As the Global Ambassador of Style My Soul (stylemysoul.com), I am raising awareness for global contributors to come forward and educate worldwide audiences on different aspects of life for how we can nourish our soul. There are commercial services available through their portal too. The team has managed to attract wonderful contributors from different industries and parts of the world from medical professionals to entrepreneurs in the recreational lifestyle & outdoor industry. The possibilities are limitless in how people can exchange their professional and life insights among a family friendly community.

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

I’ve made it clear with the universe, when I’m doing well others around me are doing well because I can pay it forward through my creative endeavors and commitments. This includes being of service to the right people at the right time.

Ok. Thank you for that. Let’s now jump to the main part of our interview. This may be obvious to you, but it is not intuitive to many people. Can you articulate to our readers five ways that increased diversity can help a company’s bottom line.

1. Literal and metaphorical diversity translates to recognizing and interpreting market opportunities that a homogenous group may overlook due to a one-track mindset. Sometimes the homogeneous culture is intentional, other times it’s a victim to limited diversity due to the type of business ownership and geography.
2. The presence of diversity challenges people to learn and grow outside of their comfort zones to possibly address more strategic market risks to craft products and services that cater to a larger target market. Sticking to human stereotypes doesn’t deliver the best outcomes nor the best financial performances.
3. Hosting diversity provides an opportunity for people to grow outside of their comfort zones when it comes to personal and professional development. Developing some situational awareness outside of our mental, emotional and physical sphere can be overwhelming yet the rewards are greater when we understand a slice of the world better.
4. Welcoming lessons learned from a diversity perspective can also help us understand and refine business planning better to avoid business missteps as a local and global community. People learn from one another. Why are we keeping diverse talent at bay — especially in influential and visible positions? They hold the nuggets for introducing businesses to untapped opportunities. Listen and engage diverse talent to learn how to address the blind spots within a business.
5. Clear the rut. “It’s always been done this way.” Well, it’s time to change and grow. Some businesses love the rut because it makes them feel safe even when they are bottoming out on financial performance. Rip off the band-aid. Welcome better qualified diverse talent that is ready to work. Professionals who love the rut in third party businesses should be fired for enabling unhealthy business practices. Life is about change. Embrace the great possibilities that await you.

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

Focus on the quality of communication. Do not discount the power of healthy collaborations and business planning through communication. Less emails, more day to day engagement through creative means.

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

When managing large teams, make sure there’s a justification for why it’s large. Collecting people within a team without a primary objective dilutes the value of time, talent and resources. Make sure the channels of communication run both ways because there exists many ideas as well concerns that can brew among a large headcount. Find valid ways to welcome engagement that can refine the cohesiveness of the team through overall performance. Large teams do not always yield significant financial performances in the market. Pay attention to the size of the team, of course context matters.

We are very blessed that some of the biggest names in Business, VC funding, Sports, and Entertainment read this column. Is there a person in the world, or in the US whom you would love to have a private breakfast or lunch with, and why? He or she might just see this 🙂

Ed Mylett. I love reading and listening to his work because he comes across as approachable. When I have some downtime, I like to catch up with people who are contributing good work and inspiring others to up their life game. He’s on my list!

How can our readers further follow your work online?

Wonderful readers are welcome to visit sashatalks.com. Drop a hello here.

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

Thank you for sharing my insights.

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Sasha Laghonh Of Sasha Talks 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.

The Future Is Now: Christopher Kelly Of DroppTV On How Their Technological Innovation Will Shake Up The Tech Scene

An Interview With Fotis Georgiadis

I would say it’s important for people to maintain interests outside of work. People don’t realize how critical this is, and it’s something I wish I was able to do when I started my career at Goldman Sachs. Although it was an unbelievably great opportunity and experience, working there was tough — and it drove me to an all-consuming mindset that was not sustainable. When work is your whole world, you lose sight of what’s happening around you, making it difficult to maintain the very interests that might spark career growth down the line.

As a part of our series on cutting-edge technological breakthroughs, I had the pleasure of interviewing Christopher Kelly.

Christopher Kelly is the President of DroppTV, Inc. — the Web 3 enabler and “shopatainment” solutions leader based out of New York, NY. A skilled corporate finance strategist and seasoned growth specialist, Chris has many years of experience in the international finance and investment banking arena, having helped secure and structure financing for a variety of companies, countries, and organizations across the globe. In his current role as President, Chris led DroppTV’s successful $15MM Series A and have overseen the launch of its $75MM Series B funding rounds, signaling the company’s proven potential to seamlessly onboard the next billion brands and businesses into the Web 3 era.

Thank you so much for doing this with us! Before we dive in, our readers would love to learn a bit about you. Can you tell us a story about what brought you to this specific career path.

My journey to the world of tech was quite circuitous. I started in finance with a background grounded in investment banking. During this time in my career, I specialized in the field of commodity derivatives and worked on projects for a variety of companies, countries, and organizations. Bizarrely, this allowed me to start working with people in the Middle East, which would later have a huge impact on my career trajectory.

As I worked in the Middle Eastern market, I learned how underserved it was, specifically when it came to venture capital opportunities for investing in technology. Startups often complain about not being able to raise enough money, but when I was working with entities like Saudi Public Investment Fund (PIF), they would complain about the opposite. For the most part, U.S.-based tech investment opportunities would always come to them last. I was able to do my part to bridge this gap by helping them find lucrative, early-stage startup opportunities that were usually only available to Silicon Valley investors.

This was a pivotal turning point for me. I went from a relatively vanilla career in finance to helping introduce American early-stage tech opportunities to Middle Eastern money, which ultimately led me to Dropp Group (“dropp”). Similar to how overseas investment markets were behind the curve with respect to U.S. tech opportunities, American consumers were also slow to embrace and adopt new tech. While social commerce was growing considerably in eastern countries like China, the West was not catching on quite yet.

When I met dropp’s co-founder, Gurps Rai, he shared his vision to lead the charge in “shopatainment” — which would merge retail shopping with entertainment here in the U.S. I knew that my experience in corporate finance strategy could help make it a reality. Since we’ve joined forces, we’ve successfully completed a $15M Series A round of financing, with our $75M Series B round on the way soon.

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

There are so many moments that stand out, but there’s one particular memory that always makes me chuckle when I think about it. Last year, I had the privilege of speaking on the main stage of the Future Investment Initiative (FII) in the Saudi capital, Riyadh. FII is essentially known as the “DAVOS of the Desert.” I was asked to speak on stage with a microphone in my hand and just as I was to go up, they took my microphone and switched it for a headset. As I walked onto the stage, I remember feeling like Madonna on the front cover of Vogue. For the entire presentation, I couldn’t concentrate on anything I was supposed to say because I just kept thinking, “Do I look like Madonna right now?”

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

Our shopatainment technology remains at the cutting edge of content-driven ecommerce. Our object recognition and frame-by-frame analysis tool recognizes the products in moving content (whether it’s a video or social media content) and tags them accordingly in real-time. As a result, the technology enables people to select almost any item they see on movies, shows, or social media channels and allows them to purchase that item right then and there. It is truly revolutionary.

However, as a company, we are not only about revolution, but also evolution and continuous innovation. As such, we’ve been striving to enhance the consumer experience through content that is not only shoppable but also more community-driven and utility-based.

One example of this is our recently announced “Total Access NFT” project series — a music production experience done in partnership with famous musicians, where audiences that purchase the project’s NFT tickets can also become accredited executive producers of the final musical release (and even gain a percentage of the music’s royalties). It certainly takes the concept of the NFT to the next level. Until now, if you bought an NFT collectible from an artist, there was hardly anything else that you could do with it except resell it. We are changing the game by giving NFTs a more crucial role in making the consumer experience truly immersive and participatory. Our “Total Access NFT” projects signal the next step: allowing the creativity of content consumers to shape the very direction of that same content.

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

On the contrary, I would say that the transition from web2 to web3 actually signals an opportunity to put the control of data and technology back into the hands of the individual. A lot of what web3 is about is the disintermediation of the major platforms — that is, the ones that currently collect and control data flow. Sometimes, even our clients are held hostage by the distribution channels they work with when it comes to their ability to utilize first-party data in a timely manner. We are working toward a future where people are empowered by the value of their information and can ultimately get paid for it, while controlling and expanding the extent of their participation within any platform or technology.

I think many fear factors involving new technologies stem from what happened in the last technology cycle, where we essentially saw the abuse of the individual. Web3 returns that control back to the online user.

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

Dropp’s origin story is truly compelling because it highlights how our founding team finally solved a long-standing real-world problem in media and ecommerce. For a long time, industry leaders wondered if we could get to the point where someone could interact in an ecommerce fashion with digital content — that is, to see an item of interest floating on the screen and be able to buy it without ever leaving the video or platform they were watching it on. We found out that for at least 25 years, many companies tried to build this “see it, want it, buy it” experience without much success.

The problem was that the technology (or technology stack) did not exist to support that kind of consumer journey, and the landscape did not allow for that kind of technology to flourish. We knew that some serious monetary investment and effort would be needed to bring it to life.

The tipping point came when we realized that there was no one else attempting to make this vision a reality anymore. We decided that we would be the first to solve this problem. After putting in millions of dollars into research and development, we not only turned this dream into a reality, but along the way, we discovered other innovations that are now implemented within our company’s offerings — from our digital twin augmented reality technology, our “NFT Total Access” series, or any of our other web3-powered solutions.

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

Widespread adoption happens cyclically once you get what we call “tentpole” clients and consumers to use the tech. For every technology or platform that takes off — whether it’s an Apple product or the next big thing in a social media cycle — you always have early adopters. The current on-ramping from web2 to web3 represents yet another huge shift in technology. As a trailblazer in this transition phase, it’s our mission to drive and help marquee names get onboard. In turn, these blue-chip companies can lead the way for smaller companies to make the transition.

Getting these companies and other major influencers to use our technology also means that their communities will follow, which is what we are aiming for. We genuinely believe in our value proposition: which is to give them control over their data. I think they’ll be able to organically see the real-world value of this offering. Imagine no longer experiencing the continuous roll of ads that results from companies trying to monetize your data without your consent. That is the future we are striving to create.

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

We are the only tech company in the world that has cracked the code of being able to create unlimited moments of interaction between users and content. We feel the best way to market our company and product suite is by allowing users to experience it all firsthand. We want to build consumer confidence and excitement in our products organically. So, we are excited to share a lot of the cool stuff we have been developing with them — and we are planning to soon roll out some experiential advertisements on social media platforms.

In the past, we have worked with movie studios to enable movie-goers to virtually walk through and immerse themselves in the setting of the movie scene they are currently watching (e.g., an ice cream shop). In a similar way, through interactive Reels, users will be able to explore how the content can be experienced in multiple directions. It will really depend on which screen elements they choose to interact with. We are happy to put our technology out there so they can explore and develop an interest for the rest of what we offer.

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

Throughout our careers, Gurps and I have always strived to elevate those around us. As venture capitalists and entrepreneurs, we see this as the primary way to truly promote progress and innovation at both the individual and societal level. That’s why we’ve brought on tens, if not hundreds, of young, particularly underprivileged kids to join our teams. By providing that initial opportunity, we have seen them grow and become young executives at different companies throughout our system, ranging from investment banks to jewelry companies.

We’ve also embraced more traditional charity work. For example, we’ve hosted turkey drives in Brooklyn during Thanksgiving. We’ve built facilities in the Caribbean. Perhaps the most thrilling work we’ve done in this realm was when we helped build a boxing gym for the local underprivileged youth in the Cayman Islands. We even helped put together an exhibition fight to promote the project and help bring money to the island. We are proud to say that we’ve done a lot of good in this area, and we’re excited about how our work can help bring about more positive change in the future.

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

One of the lessons I learned late in life was the importance of networking. Networking is a skill set that every executive needs to develop and hone over time. But unfortunately, networking as an activity did not come naturally to me. What’s more, my career started in an era where there was a level of protectionism around one’s network. I remember when LinkedIn first arrived, I did not understand why anyone would put their entire network on a public platform, allowing everybody to see who they knew. But, of course, I couldn’t have been more wrong. I eventually realized that LinkedIn doesn’t inhibit one’s ability to network, it enhances it. So, the lesson that your “network is net worth” is something I wish someone would have driven home for me earlier. I would have definitely paid more attention to it from the start.

Secondly, I would urge people to cultivate their critical thinking. We try to teach our son as early as possible about the importance of critical thinking, because it’s easy to go through school, even all the way to university level, and blindly regurgitate the things you’ve learned and been told. We are moving into an era where everyone must think for themselves and be able to form their own ideas. There’s a growing trend of homogeneity in the messages we are receiving from various sources daily. You must develop a strong ability to critically analyze the information you consume and not just take everything you hear or read at face value.

Finally, I would say it’s important for people to maintain interests outside of work. People don’t realize how critical this is, and it’s something I wish I was able to do when I started my career at Goldman Sachs. Although it was an unbelievably great opportunity and experience, working there was tough — and it drove me to an all-consuming mindset that was not sustainable. When work is your whole world, you lose sight of what’s happening around you, making it difficult to maintain the very interests that might spark career growth down the line.

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

I think of the quote by Churchill, “Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts.” Although it can be cheesy to include a Churchill quote, I find this notion truly applies to the venture capital space, and to entrepreneurship overall. My team and I live by that quote every day. The ability to keep going is probably the most valuable attribute of being an entrepreneur.

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

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The Future Is Now: Christopher Kelly Of DroppTV On How Their Technological Innovation Will Shake Up… 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: Matt Waters of Unchained Music On How Their Technological Innovation Will Shake Up The Tech Scene

An Interview With Fotis Georgiadis

Trusted advisors are essential. Find people that you respect and are able to push back when you’re making a bad decision, and cheer you on when things are going well.

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

Matt Waters is an experienced professional musician, co-founder of Unchained Music, educator, holds a Masters in Music from UC Los Angeles, and is one half of the electronic/acoustic act, Intro to Music Theory. He is an owner of Hainan Music Productions, HMP Records, and is actively involved in building blockchain solutions for musicians.

In the past, he has performed and taught across four continents, formerly held the position of Professor of Low Brass and Co-Director of Bands at the Nanhai Conservatory of Music, as well as various other educational positions in Southern California. Before moving to China, he was an active freelance musician in Los Angeles.

He is currently residing in Denver and regularly performs in his spare time. Before the pandemic, he had recently finished an international music tour with Intro to Music Theory through China, New Zealand, and Thailand. Matt takes pride in a varied musical life, performing in concerts that range in style from classical to jazz, orchestral to solo, acoustic to electric, and everything in-between.

Thank you so much for doing this with us! Before we dive in, our readers would love to learn a bit about you. Can you tell us a story about what brought you to this specific career path?

I’ve been an independent musician my entire life, and as all independent musicians learn eventually, being an independent musician is not only about creating music. To manage my career effectively, I had to learn a little about everything- social media promotion, video editing, production, networking skills, etc. It’s a story that’s familiar to every independent musician out there, but it’s not the reason we started making music in the first place. Through my time in Southern California, it became exhausting to do all of the supporting work, and I took a break by moving to China to build a university music program out there. Slowly, I realized that helping other musicians was something that I was passionate about, and I started on the music industry path that led to Unchained Music being formed.

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

I’ve been an independent musician my entire life in some form or another, so it comes as no surprise that when I moved to Hainan Province, China with my co-founder Matthew Busch, we started a group called Intro to Music Theory that would tour the country. One of our most memorable gigs out there was in a place called RiYueWan, known as Sun Moon Bay in English, that is now a beautiful tourist destination, but back then was a little sleepy surf town. We showed up, and the owner pulled out a massive sub speaker that could have powered a party about ten times the size of the gig we were actually playing, but it was rusted from being in storage. We spent probably 4 hours pre-show rewiring this beast, and it turns out the amp they had couldn’t power it anyway after we finally had it working. Fun show even after all of that.

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

At the base layer, Unchained Music has built a no-cost distribution service that returns 100% of all streaming royalties to the artist through integration with a decentralized finance backend. This allows us to not only return a piece of the artist’s value back to them, but give them access to Web3, Cryptocurrency, and NFT tools that are missing from current platforms. In addition to all of this, we’re able to pay out these royalties via USDC, a stablecoin cryptocurrency, which allows us to work with musicians across the world that are unbanked or underbanked, and access music markets that are traditionally underserved by the current music industry.

How do you think this might change the world?

By realizing our vision at Unchained, we’ll be able to recenter the artist in the creative process, allow them to keep more of their value than is possible in the current iteration of the industry, and level the playing field for artists in markets that have a harder time accessing distribution. Using smart contracts and tokenizing this ecosystem allows us to broaden the access to tools that would otherwise be locked behind an application process or monopolized by labels.

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

In this world, code is law. Anytime we’re designing a system, we need to make sure that said system isn’t imbued with the preconceptions or biases of its creators, which could potentially create a system that disadvantages certain artists. Algorithmic bias is a possibility with code, and especially dangerous with immutable code on the blockchain.

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

At the tail end of winter in 2021, my personal musical project was hired by Charged Particles to perform for their virtual event series featuring some incredible visual artists. In learning about their project that allows interest bearing tokens to be held inside NFTs, Matthew Busch and I became fascinated with the possibilities of a decentralized endowment. Could we use defi and compound interest to plant trees a la Grandmother Grove? Could this be applied to our own lives as independent musicians? The idea to effectively use the interest on royalties to fund the tech stack for music distribution came from those brainstorming sessions, and the rest is history.

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

We need support and awareness from creators who want to take back more agency in their own lives as musicians. It’s not often that we have the ability to take back power from industry and return it to the little guy, but we do have such an opportunity here.

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

At the moment, most of our signups have been coming from word of mouth through local music communities. Music has always been a local industry first and foremost, so making sure that Unchained Music is in there, music community by music community, supporting those musicians that are in the trenches trying to make a name for themselves is important.

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

I think the person I’m most grateful for is one of my co-founders, Matthew Busch. We met over 13 years ago at Pacific Crest Drum and Bugle Corps performing in summer competitions together, and we absolutely hated each other’s guts. Nine years after that point, we ended up moving to China together to start a university music program, started multiple companies together, as well as our personal house music duo, Intro to Music Theory. He’s been an incredible sounding board and reality check when I get too ahead of myself, whether in business or my personal life.

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

In my mind, goodness is ensuring that we adhere to the golden rule that many of us learn as children. Treat others the way in which you want to be treated. Whether in business or my personal life, I try to build on that idea as a center point in my interactions with others, showing that there’s a way to be successful without being hard or inaccessible.

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

1. Creativity is just as important as hard work, and it comes from having the mental space to daydream. Take breaks and give yourself permission to wander off mentally every now and again.
2. Spend time hiring the right people. With the right team and the right cultural fit, you’ll achieve so much more than if you had rushed the process.
3. Trusted advisors are essential. Find people that you respect and are able to push back when you’re making a bad decision, and cheer you on when things are going well.
4. Ask for advice. The process of building a company doesn’t have to be isolating all the time. Asking for advice both helps share the burden, and gets buy-in from those you’re asking for help.
5. Track track track! Every metric you have the ability to automate tracking for, do it. I’ve found myself in positions where we need a piece of historical data, and we don’t have it, or need to go back and dig for it. If we would have tracked it from the beginning, all of that tracking would have saved us quite a lot of time.

You are a person of great influence. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger. 🙂

I would love to inspire more people to understand that being better, personally, professionally, whatever it may be, is a matter of constant small improvement rather than large steps. If you wake up one day and are having trouble with something, pick a small way in which you can get better in that area and work on it. Even if you only improve a small amount over the course of that day, you’ve made progress, and thousands of those days will absolutely add up sooner than you know. Getting better at anything is a game of consistency.

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

“It is the artists of the world, the feelers and the thinkers who will ultimately save us; who can articulate, educate, defy, insist, sing and shout the big dreams.” –Leonard Bernstein

Systems can be put in place, be broken, be trampled, or ignored, but ultimately, it is the artists, the musicians, the tinkerers, and the inventors that will shape whatever comes next. When things break in my life personally or professionally, I don’t retreat into analysis, but instead into imagination and daydreaming of what comes next through music and art.

Some very well-known VCs read this column. If you had 60 seconds to make a pitch to a VC, what would you say? He or she might just see this if we tag them 🙂

Unchained Music is the platform that will bring millions of musicians into Web3 and the greater blockchain community. They need no knowledge of the space to get started, while reaping the benefits of access to Web3 tools that are aggregated nowhere else, all while opening up traditionally underserved markets that were previously inaccessible due to banking and money transfer issues.

Unchained Music is the foundation for the next iteration of the music industry.

How can our readers follow you on social media?

https://www.linkedin.com/in/mattwtrs

https://www.twitter.com/unchaineddistro

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

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The Future Is Now: Matt Waters of Unchained Music On How Their Technological Innovation Will Shake… was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.