You are going to be very hard on yourself — truly your toughest critic. I’m not an overly self-critical person, but boy oh boy, that goes out the window after starting a business. Cut yourself some slack from day one because you’re going to need it.
As a part of our series called “Making Something From Nothing”, I had the pleasure of interviewing Alicia Pintwala.
Starting a business together was always a bit of a pipe dream for Alicia and her husband, Justin. But throughout the pandemic, when they found themselves at home with three little kids, they started building certain habits into their daily wellness routines to help them cope with ongoing stressors. They soon realized that what they really wanted didn’t exist. So they created it themselves.
Together they founded Slowlii — a wellness company helping busy people press pause. Slowlii’s first product, Restore, is a minty ashwagandha tablet that melts in your mouth in ~ 3 minutes. It’s the first supplement to incorporate a mindfulness aspect to it. While it’s formulated with clinically proven ingredients to reduce stress and anxiety, the melt-away feature prompts you to pause (put those phones down), check-in with yourself and find calm and clarity in the moment.
Thank you so much for doing this with us! Before we dive in, our readers would love to learn a bit more about you. Can you tell us a bit about your “childhood backstory”?
I am the youngest of four, growing up in Toronto, Canada. My siblings are quite a bit older than me so, at times, it felt like I was an only child — lots of people looked out for me. I had a fairly traditional upbringing and was very lucky to be raised by hard working parents who were always present. As a kid I was always very social and I’d say from day one, one of my biggest personality traits has been wanting to make sure everyone around me is happy — which I’ve learnt as an adult, can be a flaw as much as it is strength. I went to Queen’s University, studying Psychology + Health Studies. I sort of fell into the non-for-profit space after school and ended up working in fundraising for 12 years. It was a great “feel good” space to be in but I yearned for more creativity and autonomy. I really wanted to create something myself and give it my all.
Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share how that was relevant to you in your life?
“Understanding that failure is not the opposite of success, it’s part of success” I wouldn’t say I grew up with a ton of confidence in my abilities and as a result, putting myself out there, with the risk that I may fail, it’s always scared the heck out of me. But you’ve gotta do it, take the risks where you can, try new things, talk to different people, do stuff outside of your comfort zone.
Is there a particular book, podcast, or film that made a significant impact on you? Can you share a story or explain why it resonated with you so much?
Before we even came up with our own business idea, How I Built This, Guy Raz, was a huge inspiration for me. I love hearing about successful entrepreneurs who came up with an idea and followed through on it, how they failed and got back up again. I think it helped to give me the confidence that I could do that too — I just needed the right idea.
Let’s now shift to the main part of our discussion. There is no shortage of good ideas out there. Many people have good ideas all the time. But people seem to struggle in taking a good idea and translating it into an actual business. Can you share a few ideas from your experience about how to overcome this challenge?
I’ve wanted to start my own business for years and have tried a few things — I thought I would start a jewelry brand for a while. I launched a Moroccan carpet business which was a lot of fun — but I did it blindly and with only one foot in the door which didn’t make it very successful. Justin has owned his own business for years and is probably the one that inspired me to become more entrepreneurial over the years. I used to brainstorm the “million dollar idea” and he would always say, “don’t force the idea generation, it will come to you — it’ll be something you personally need that doesn’t exist and that’s when you run with it”. Then kids happened, 3 of them back-to-back, and I felt like my head was spinning. I was looking for ways to pause in my day. And that was it. The idea came to me, to us, because we needed it, just like he said it would.
Don’t just start something to start something — do it because you’re passionate about it, because you’re willing to sacrifice things in order to see this one thing be successful and because you want to add value to your community and the world.
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?
We relied heavily on google and social media and crossed our fingers (and toes) that nobody would come out with something similar before we launched. Obviously there are a lot of supplements-based products out there and wellness is a saturated market to be in right now. We knew our product had to be different — especially bootstrapping it like we’ve done, we just didn’t have the funds to compete with the big dogs. Our brand and product had to be able to differentiate itself.
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.
Research the space/industry as best you can — use every disposal at your fingertips for this. Talk to lots of people in the industry.
We created a formula that we loved based on our mission of helping people slow down. The supplement also had to literally help people pause, through a melt away tablet which was unique in the market.
The hero ingredient we used (ksm-66 ashwagandha) had never been used in a melt and we were actually told it wouldn’t work because the taste was too hard to mask. Even the manufacturer couldn’t do it with their in-house R&D team. So we used a flavor house that were pros and they suggested a flavor (peppermint) that they believed would help mask the earthy taste of ashwagandha (given it is a root found in India).
Finding the right co-manufacturer was a long process. We found one we really liked and actually put down a deposit with them to help us formulate a product but they ended up being way too expensive to make the economics work. Luckily they fully refunded our money!
Once you partner with a co-manufacturer to develop the product, the time it takes to receive a sample can be months, and then you need to iterate it many times to get it as near perfect as possible. And once you finish, it’s another few months to fulfill an order. So buckle in for the long haul and ideally keep your day job if you can so you aren’t too stressed.
We decided to start selling DTC through our website using a shopify site. It’s so great how many tools there are when setting up an e-commerce site. It is easy, but we did spend a lot of time getting our design right. We wanted everything on the site to feel like your mind slowed down. We know social media does the opposite (speeds your mind up) so our intention is to be a tiny little moment in your day to help you slow down and enjoy the moment.
Don’t be fooled, we still feel like we are not “successful” yet. We have a long way to go to build the product within retail stores and continually build the brand. It is not easy, but we do our best to stay focused on the day, and not get too scared about what the future holds. Our own product helps us with this which is nice! If we can help you make a plan to build out a product you have in mind, feel free to email or DM us over social.
What are your “5 Things I Wish Someone Told Me When I First Started Leading My Company” and why?
It’s not worth it if you’re not having fun with it. It’s kind of ironic to start a business dedicated to slowing down and de-stressing when there is nothing more stressful than starting a business. It’s easy to get caught up on it and forget why you’re doing it in the first place. At the end of the day everything we’re doing is to better ourselves and our family and if that’s being jeopardized, we need to ask ourselves if it’s worth it. We’ve had to pause and remind ourselves of this a handful of times over this past first year.
Make boundaries and commit to them. Working for yourself is no 9 to 5. Especially when it’s fun and you’re passionate about it, it’s easy to work every waking hour and log-in in the evenings or on weekends. But when you own your business with a small team of 3, you also can’t afford to reach that level of burn-out. It’s important to set boundaries for yourself. In my opinion, it’s not impressive to kill yourself over a job so don’t fall for burning the candle at both ends.
You are going to be very hard on yourself — truly your toughest critic. I’m not an overly self-critical person, but boy oh boy, that goes out the window after starting a business. Cut yourself some slack from day one because you’re going to need it.
Good things take time. When we did our soft-launch, we were sure we would see organic traffic to the site. Then when we started paid ads on social, we were certain that would do the trick and drive sales overnight. We were naive. Neither was the case, which was a hard blow to our egos. But our expectations were too high. We were excited about the business, the brand and we thought everyone else would be too. Building a business, a following, a customer base, building that social proof — rarely does it happen immediately. Make sure your goals and expectations are achievable so that you can celebrate the successes, even if they are small.
Your business is not a reflection of you. When you build a business from the ground-up, it’s hard for it to not become personal. We must remember that at the end of the day, it is a business and one of your goals is to generate revenue. Try not to get stuck on what you want and ensure you are making decisions that align with the mission and values of your business. For example, when we started Slowlii, I had a very specific consumer in mind, certain people in my life as well as influencers, that I was certain would fall in love with our product and speak to it. That wasn’t always the case and it’s taken a lot for me to become less narrow-minded and think about the brand more holistically rather than a reflection of me.
Let’s imagine that a reader reading this interview has an idea for a product that they would like to invent. What are the first few steps that you would recommend that they take?
Ask yourself how this product differentiates itself from what is already out there. And then determine its value-add — why do people need it and how is it going to help them?
There are many invention development consultants. Would you recommend that a person with a new idea hire such a consultant, or should they try to strike out on their own?
We can’t do everything well. I don’t think there is any shame in hiring a consultant to help you develop the product and, if anything, it may move things along for you faster than not. Coming up with the idea is half the battle. There are experts in every field and not taking advantage of that would be a disservice to yourself.
What are your thoughts about bootstrapping vs looking for venture capital? What is the best way to decide if you should do either one?
We are currently self-funded but I don’t believe there is a best way per-se. There are a lot of factors that go into whether or not external funding is the right option. For us right now, we want the autonomy to make our own decisions and take the company in our own direction but that’s not to say that things may change in a year or in three. If we needed a venture capitalist in order to see real growth and take Slowlii to the next level, we wouldn’t be opposed to that. But it would be important that they are 100% behind the mission of the company and our values — they need to be aligned with us in every aspect.
Ok. We are nearly done. Here are our final questions. How have you used your success to make the world a better place?
I’d like to think in a few ways. For one, we are relatable. Just like everyone else, we’re trying to manage it all, work, home, kids, relationships etc. and we are pretty outspoken about how hard it is. Days can be trying. I think there are a lot of people today that feel the same way. Sometimes it’s just reassuring knowing there are people out there getting met with the same challenges as you. We want to add value to the world by helping them — and ourselves — find ways to overcome daily stressors. To show up better every day.
Creating a giveback strategy was of the utmost importance from day one. We are committed to supporting organizations that work with families who don’t have the luxury of time on their side — primarily single parent and/or low-income households. Moments are fleeting and we want to help families make the most of them.
If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger.
We truly believe in slowing down to live more. Much of what we encounter on a daily basis is designed to speed us up. It becomes easy to let the small things, the fleeting moments, the laugh of a loved one, the smell of a home-cooked meal, the blue of a summer sky, pass us by without a thought.
We want people to slow it down, to find that pause button throughout their busy day. In doing so, we can find calm and clarity in the moment, show up with intention and perform better — whether that be a better business owner, better friend, better parent. Most importantly though, better and kinder to ourselves.
We are 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.
We are big fans of Dr. Andrew Huberman — he is a force. Seeing someone with the scientific background that he has, be able to to communicate his knowledge in such an easy to understand manner. That’s a skill and I think many of us are better off thanks to the advice he regularly shares.
I also can’t pass up the opportunity to say Gwyneth Paltrow. I’m so inspired by what she’s built with GOOP and well, if we had the opportunity to have Slowlii sold there, it would be a dream come true to say the least.
Thank you for these fantastic insights. We greatly appreciate the time you spent on this.
Makers of The Metaverse: Justin W Hochberg of Virtual Brand Group (VBG) On The Future Of The VR, AR & Mixed Reality Industries
An Interview With Fotis Georgiadis
Technical expertise is obviously urgent for certain fields, but if you want to be on the business or creative side, it’s no different from any other industry. You need to be able to tell a story. Storytelling is essential. None of the technology matters unless it’s something consumers can use at an endpoint. Nobody cares about the standalone possibilities of AR and VR. It’s all about showing people how it will change their life. Nobody knows what HTML stands for; they know that if they order a book from Amazon, it comes cheaper and faster. Same thing here. You need to be able to convert the technology into a benefit. You’ll always have a place at the table if you can tell that story.
The Virtual Reality, Augmented Reality & Mixed Reality Industries are so exciting. What is coming around the corner? How will these improve our lives? What are the concerns we should keep an eye out for? Aside from entertainment, how can VR or AR help work or other parts of life? To address this, we had the pleasure of interviewing Justin Hochberg, Co-Founder and CEO of Virtual Brands Group.
Justin W. Hochberg is the CEO and co-founder of Virtual Brand Group (VBG). VBG consults, builds, operates, and monetizes global brands and celebrities across the Metaverse leveraging all Web3 technologies. The company develops 360 strategies, go to market plans, builds immersive experiences, games, virtual fashion collections, marketing programs and new customer acquisition funnels. Hochberg’s team of global designers, technologists and billion dollar Hollywood box office storytellers developed VBG as a way for brands in all sectors (B2C and B2B) build new revenue streams and customers while empowering consumers of every age to virtually play, socialize, shop, create and earn new revenue.
Put more succinctly, we put “you” in the metaverse (fast). And we make you money in the metaverse.
Thank you so much for doing this with us! Before we dig in, our readers would like to get to know you a bit. Can you tell us a bit about your backstory and how you grew up?
I’m a city kid — capital “C” — who grew up on the subways and buses of all 5 Boroughs. I have three very NYC childhood memories that I feel deeply shaped how I arrived here today. One of my fondest, is eating with my dad every Sunday at a hole-in-the-wall dim sum spot on Mott St. in Chinatown. The place is long gone but there at ten, I conceived my first entrepreneurial venture. I liked the food so much that I approached the owner to sell it in grocery stores. This was decades before Dim Sum was in every freezer section. My father introduced me to grocery retailers and manufacturers. He helped me think about costs, marketing, and logistics. I never launched the business, but I vividly remember how much my dad believed in me and let me figure out what one must know to convert an idea (everyone has one) into a business (very few can build one).
Another legendary, only in NYC, memory was going to the 1977 World Series, where Reggie Jackson hit three home runs in a row off of three consecutive pitches from three different pitchers. This stands out beyond the improbable statistic (which can always be bested). What I took away from that was ‘timing’ is everything. Reggie was not an amazing all season player. He was ‘Mr. October’. At the right moment, at the very end when it was all aligned he was there. Many years later when I worked at Microsoft Bill Gates said to me as I started working on interactive TV, “remember being early is the same as being wrong”. Timing.
The third memory, and one that likely put me on a specific path to the metaverse, was visiting my first video arcade four blocks from my house. I scrounged every quarter I could to play Donkey Kong, Space Invaders, and, of course, Pong. From then on, I was hooked. I still have my original Atari logo hat.
Is there a particular book, film, or podcast that made a significant impact on you? Can you share a story or explain why it resonated with you so much?
I earned my undergraduate degree in History at the University of Pennsylvania, so I’ve always been hooked by stories and the “why” behind them. I read biographies as often as possible to not just understand what people were thinking in dramatic situations but to connect the dots among their mistakes, which is infinitely more useful. However, the modern-day author that’s had the most significant impact on me is social economist Malcolm Gladwell. I’ve read every one of his books, so it’s not any singular one that gets my top yelp review. It’s how he thinks about thinking about things that I try to internalize to guide me on a day-to-day basis.
For example, in The Unheard Story Of David And Goliath, the core message is that what seems obvious to everyone is often not the truth. Everyone perceived that Goliath would win the battle because, by standards of the day, he had all the obvious winning attributes. He was bigger, stronger, and able to wield a huge sword, and that’s what mattered most up until that moment in battle tactics and technology. David, who was much physically smaller, had no sword, and was only armed with a slingshot and pebble, was perceived as the weaker of the two with no weapon. What you learn from reading the book is that Goliath didn’t just lose, he was destined to lose and David was always going to win even before the fight.
Nobody understood at the time — except for perhaps David — that hand to hand combat was outdated and a new way of fighting was actually more efficient and about to disrupt the status quo. In Gladwell’s book, he cites a modern day research report from Israel in which a pebble from a similar slingshot demonstrated the power of a 38-caliber bullet, which could be launched from hundreds of feet, so far away that Goliath could never reach David with his sword. It’s the perfect analogy of the constant evolution of old vs. new, with the people who see the new before others often laughed at (slingshot or metaverse) until everyone realizes the earth really isn’t flat. And never was.
Is there a particular story that inspired you to pursue a career in the Metaverse industry? We’d love to hear it.
I believe every founder has two stories they tell about why they’re doing what they do. One is their public slide drcj pitch to investors about market size, MOATS, strategic advantage, return on equity, etc. At the same time, every founder also has a story that comes from the heart. You may never hear that one but it’s their raison d’etre — because creating a company is so hard, there is so much stacked against you that one must have it to survive the gauntlet. One has to have the personal why that has touched you so deeply that you’re willing to risk everything to do it — financially, reputationally, time with your family, etc.
My personal “why” is that I have two kids. At the start of the pandemic, they were nine and twelve. Before then, my wife and I were extremely unpopular for running a household that didn’t allow screens during the school week. When the pandemic hit without any warning, all of a sudden, what went from zero screen time turned into an 8-hour-a-day Zoom day.
My wife and I were frustrated because after those eight hours on screens, the kids would jump back online to play three hours of Roblox and Fortnite. Our first reaction was no way — ‘you just spent the day on a device. It’s time to do something outside’.
It was such a struggle to get them to stop, so instead of fighting them, I joined in. I played hours of Roblox with my daughter and Fortnite with my son. I quickly realized they were not playing a video game like I knew as a child — whether Donkey Kong or Call of Duty, which was simply to play the game and get to the end of it. What was so different about these early Metaverse platforms is that they are “social” worlds. Play patterns are open and creatively driven by the player, not the platform designers. Kids feel empowered, talk, build, make new friends, and even role-play (my son won’t pick up his shoes, but he has a job at a virtual pizza parlor — explain that to me?!). Often, I saw they weren’t even playing the game; they were hanging out, like one does at lunch or the mall. In short, I realized my kids were recreating the social and emotional infrastructure ripped from them by not being in school or surrounded by their friends.
Over the last 25 years, I have been at the intersection of three sectors: technology, storytelling, and brands. I have also been either fortunate or foolish — I’ll let you decide — to be early in new markets and new technologies. I founded the first private telecom in Eastern Europe based in Prague, Czech Republic when the wall came down. Then I spent five years with Microsoft developing all the interactive TV features that we now take for granted followed by working on streaming media that eventually broke the music business and enabled Netflix to disrupt Hollywood. Speaking of Hollywood, after years in Redmond and Silicon Valley I became a TV producer in Hollywood, helping launch the first billion-dollar reality franchise, “The Apprentice”. I created a team that partnered with hundreds of Fortune 1,000 brands from the NBA to Procter & Gamble, and Pepsi when reality TV was thought of as a fad. My innovation in 2004 was understanding digital video recording (DVRs) was scaring Madison Avenue and every advertiser that all of their ads would be skipped with the touch of one button. I knew everything about this because I worked on that at Microsoft. This was an inflection point that had a brand chokepoint. To solve it I built brands into the TV show format you could never skip. This not only showcased a company and products more in depth, but liberated them from a mere 60 seconds to create a truly engaging story. And we did it in a way that viewers didn’t view it as a distraction, but rather a curiosity revealing something they had never seen before. Who doesn’t want to know how the Coke formula is made? Or how the NBA thinks about expanding into China?
Did it work? We charged up to $6 million for each brand to be each episode, every week, every season. So yeh, I think it worked. After years creating about 30+ TV formats with Ron Howard, Kurt Warner, Marcus Lemonis and Zoe Saldana for dozens of networks I noticed a new shift. More precisely, the new shift was thrust upon me and everyone with Covid and we all went virtual overnight.
I jumped into the metaverse with VBG when I realized two of three legs existed of a metaverse stool. I saw how sticky new gaming platforms like Roblox were because it wasn’t a ‘game’ that had a traditional beginning, middle, and end. Then I realized that the technology was globally accessible (anyone can play from their iPhone, PC, Xbox, anywhere in the world — with no special tools, hardware required. Last, I realized how players were making up their own stories — the play patterns. Imagination was driving the story, not a designer at Activision who worked on a script for ten years. That covers two of the three key legs: tech + storytelling.
The missing piece was brands. At that very moment, I realized if I could be the bridge between global IP and this new behavior pattern, I could become a very significant player in shaping how companies engage with consumers and people enjoy brands differently in 3D worlds.
Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you began this fascinating career?
I had a conversation early on with a CEO who works for a global, very cool, in my opinion, brand that any child might be interested in. I was pitching why this CEO’s company should have a presence on Roblox 2 years ago at a time before companies were even considering activating in virtual worlds — so the decision wasn’t obvious. We couldn’t get past the idea that the executive “just couldn’t get it“. I was used to this because it’s hard to get anything if you’ve never seen it or used it. So to break the log Jam I made it personal. I suggested — instead of deciding himself — he let his son decide. The CEO went to his 12-year-old and asked what he thought about a brand experience on Roblox, to which the kid responded: “Dad, that’s awesome….tell me again what you do?.” The CEO said it was the first time in his life his son ever showed interest in his job, He thanked me profusely. Needless to say, we signed the deal. Never underestimate the power of making something viscerally personal, and not just business.
Can you share a story about the funniest mistake you made when you first started? Can you tell us what lesson you learned from that?
I get constant feedback aka criticism from my 12-year-old daughter about my personal avatar style. No matter what I buy, the way I wear it, it’s “lame”. After being on many virtual platforms for the past several years, I have quite a sizable virtual closet (I might be the virtual Cher from Clueless). Because I’m in the business, I get early access to merchandise, much like celebrities get free goods from famous brands in the real world. At first, my daughter was jealous, but then she saw how I was wearing it, and apparently, I was never on trend, even if I had the hottest clothing.
In response, I challenged her to work for me. So, now she — and her bestie crew reviews every new experience across platforms to advise what’s cool. You’ll find I often share their valuable insights on LinkedIn.
None of us can achieve success without some help along the way. Is there a particular person who you are grateful for who helped get you to where you are? Can you share a story about that?
Being an entrepreneur comes with both never-ending confidence and bouts of self-doubt. When you’re trying to do something that hasn’t been done before, one of two things is true: you’re either right or you’re wrong. And you never know which it is until it’s often too late. Most people’s brains are literal and cannot perceive what can not actually be physically seen. Intrinsically, being an entrepreneur means you’re somewhat irrational because you need to pursue things others tell you will never work. In that context, I think it’s essential to have people you trust to help refine your ideas and gut-check both your confidence and doubts. Triangles are nature’s strongest structure, which is why the Egyptian pyramids still exist and the Roman aqueducts have disintegrated. To that end I have a three sided support structure.
First and foremost, the best consigliere is my wife. An entrepreneur herself building a company called Sportifyit.com that is disrupting the sports content and consumer product business by focusing on stories not statistics. We’ve been together for 23 years. She has an off-the-charts EQ and separates noise from signal better than most C-suite executives. She knows my strengths and how I process experiences. More importantly, as a leader in unproven businesses, I have to be way out in front of others which can deliver phenomenal results but can also be perilous because one is never always right. What I value most is she is very effective at giving feedback in a way I can deeply hear it and use it (wanted or otherwise). I call her the Keyser Söze of criticism — you don’t even know it happened, so you listen and don’t resist.
The second leg of my consigliere trifecta is my long-time M&A lawyer, a partner at Paul Hastings, David Hernand. He has worked in media and entertainment for 35 years. More importantly he is a kinetic connector, so one small idea I have is amplified by many people very quickly. ‘Speed to impact’ is fundamental as an entrepreneur and David is a big part of increasing my idea’s velocity.
The third leg which has been most directly related to the Virtual Brand Group’s rapid growth is the virtual community. Six months before we launched, VBG committed the entire team deeply to being part of the many micro-communities of designers, builders, and influencers on each of the major platforms from Roblox to Sandbox, blockchain to decentraland. To each community’s credit and the spirit of web3, we were fully embraced. Each showed my team how they built their businesses and rooted for us to build ours. In fact, we got so deep into the community DNA one of the most senior partnership executives on one of the largest public metaverse platforms paid us the ultimate compliment — saying “no brand she had worked with had ever put so much effort into understanding and building up the community”. We even dedicated a section of the Forever 21 experience to Roblox community creators so they could show off their fashion designs; the first brand to ever do that. Building on that we now have over 30+ community works builders in seven countries.
Are you working on any exciting new projects now? How do you think that will help people?
3 things change the marketplace — each one attacking diff perspective.
VBG is working on three projects now we think will transform the virtual marketplace. First, we’ve been working with Forever21 to create its first ever real fashion line that was designed, tested and sold first virtually on Roblox that is now a real world collection in stores. It all started with just one virtual item in the collection which sold over 2M units in one year. Think about that, virtual items have no supply chain issues, no refunds and emit 97% less carbon than real clothing. The “Forever 21 Metaverse collection” went on sale December 1, 2022 available in stores, e-commerce, on Roblox and was featured on their Time Square Jumbotron. In addition, as the next iteration, at the same time we created a new limited edition virtual holiday collection where each item was only sale for only 24 hours. In short, we are at the forefront of creating the physical + virtual (aka “phygital”) retail environment that delivers new products and more revenue faster than ever that’s sustainable.
Second, VBG is creating a next generation loyalty programs for all our brand partners that is dynamic, adapts in real time to a consumer’s behavior and reacts to how they purchase, use the items in the real world and virtually. Right now IRL is an utterly disjointed customer experience among consumers or fans. For example today, if you buy a piece of clothing, a coffee, or go to a sports event, that brand has almost no insight into you or how you’ve interacted with it. For example, I live in Los Angeles and went to the Rams game recently. At the stadium, I bought a Rams hat and tacos, and I Ubered to and from the game. When I got home, I watched more football and ordered a gift online for my son. Neither the NFL nor the Rams know anything else besides the ticket transaction, and if a friend bought the ticket for me, they wouldn’t have even known I was in the stadium.
Imagine if all those actions could be connected so that fans were rewarded dynamically for all their touchpoints with the brand. And imagine if that brand knew what their fans were doing and could communicate 1:1 with them based on what their actions were so brand loyalists — like me — could be rewarded for being superfans.
Finally, one of the most exciting metaverse innovations is VBG’s new musical fan journey for the world’s largest TV series, “The Voice” (which airs in 145 territories). The only brand in the world in more countries than “The Voice” is Coca-Cola (and god, can I say that?). VBG first launched the show as an experience in Decentraland’s “Metaverse Music Festival” with NBC and its iconic celebrity coaches Blake Shelton, Gwen Stefani, Camila Cabello and fellow University of Pennsylvania alumnus John Legend. This was the first ever TV show to be part of the global festival (a virtual Coachella) which featured 180 acts from Ozzy Osborne to Bjork. The Voice was one of its top performing experiences with a musical game and our first NFT merchandise drop which sold out in three hours. Bigger picture, we also enabled people to apply to audition for NBC’s The Voice, tune in for NBC’s TV show and empower people to do blind auditions for the first time ever in a virtual world.
We believe Web3 will redefine how entertainment is created, how communities are built, how fans are rewarded, and how TV shows and films are made and distributed. It’ll become much more prominent than even now in the pop culture Zeitgeist.
Ok super. Thank you for all that. Let’s now shift to the focus of our interview. The VR, AR and MR industries seem so exciting right now. What are the 3 things that most excite you about the industry? Can you explain or give an example?
The first is mobile accessibility. One of the core principles of geometry is that the shortest distance between two points is a straight line. The current straight line amongst AR/VR/MR is people using devices they already have on them: their phones (as the saying goes, “What’s the best camera? The one you have when you want to take a picture”.)
Second is the increasing interchangeability of virtual and physical worlds — AR/MR are becoming part of our everyday behavior patterns. For example, when I’m at a football game, I can watch the game live and peek at my phone to see the same graphics I experience watching on my TV at home. Or, when browsing in-store, I can take a snapshot of an item on my phone to see what it’ll look like on my avatar and post it to Instagram to get my friends’ POV before purchasing.
Finally, I’m excited about the potential to unlock new business models. AR/MR is already part of our lifestyle. 10 years ago, a filter was color, and now it’s how you make yourself look like a dinosaur. This will only continue to grow dramatically because it’s how anyone under the age of 15 is using their phone.
What are the 3 things that concern you about the VR, AR, and MR industries? Can you explain? What can be done to address those concerns?
If you look at the beginning of social media, it had many great ways to add connectivity. You could share thoughts and be part of a dialog, but we realize now that it’s actually rigged to configure your brain in a completely different way. VR, AR, and MR are much more immersive than simply posting on Instagram.
When the internet became popular 27 years ago, there was an open “ethos” about everybody having equal access. However, years later, it feels like several large conglomerates have created an oligopoly and turned consumers into data like the Matrix uses humans for energy. As we move to Web3, there is a battle brewing — as Morpheus in the Matrix would say — for the soul of the metaverse. Will it be controlled by large corporations like Google, Facebook, and Apple again? Or, will its decentralized nature — the fact that anybody can be on the blockchain and that the cost to do so is so inexpensive — allow individuals to own their assets and not be subservient to these major corporations?
As a parent, and just a concerned citizen I’m always thinking about what any child is doing — whether in the physical or virtual world. Obviously, on a platform — regardless of who is monitoring it — if you’re unsupervised at a park or a virtual world, there are many people there. These worlds allow you to mask your identity, so I’m always very concerned about what controls are there as a parent and as a human so people can have a safe experience. This whole shift to virtual worlds won’t work if people don’t have trust in the experience. Regardless of their age, where they live, and gender, you have to know you can be safe. And that’s hard.
I’ve spent a lot of time with people who view the government as a negative in terms of blocking what they want to build and slowing down the technology pace. Still, people need to remember that legislation and government oversight can positively impact new markets.
For example, antitrust laws broke up AT&T in 1984, and out of that came a boom in telecom, fiber optics, hardware, and software that enabled everything the internet and many other tech are built upon. Government regulation was also instrumental in fostering internet companies by ensuring ISPs could only charge the same for every individual or company. Smart government regulation can help consumers and companies have an even and safe playing field.
One of the big problems with technology is that it is dominated by one viewpoint, principally white males based in a few cities — founders of Microsoft, Google, Apple, and Snap — are all white men. Unfortunately, 68% of tech workers are men. Only 8% of venture funding goes to Latin men and less than one percent goes to black women. So, having a more diverse set of people creating experiences and new technologies will be fundamental so every point of view can be represented and different perspectives and technologies can be achieved. If I achieve one thing, equaling the playing field and empowering everybody to have a voice would be my number one success.
For example, there was an exceptional documentary — “Coded Bias” — about facial recognition AI bias. Because the facial recognition technology was created by an all-caucasian team at MIT, it was tested and thus not built to recognize different shades of brown skin tone, so the majority of times it was used, it delivered a false result. The practical impact of that problem is everything from uncomfortable moments to false arrests and people going to jail for decades.
The two crucial things that need to happen are positive government enabling to keep markets competitive and ensuring everyone can have a voice as we develop this next generation of technology.
I think the entertainment aspects of VR, AR, and MR are apparent. Can you share with our readers how these industries can help us at work?
Ten years ago, 95% of people wouldn’t have believed it if you had said that AT&T introduced a video phone in the 1980s, and people hated it. Today, we are accustomed to spending most of our day doing video chats with our colleagues. So, we’re already fully down that path.
If you think about Zoom, there is nothing additive or remarkable about it in terms of the ability to collaborate — you’re just staring at a flat image. Virtual spaces will transform the workplace because they enable a more interactive experience; they create a more emotional experience because we humans react to space, size, structure, colors, and activity.
People have been talking about working from home for 20–30 years. When you start having the DNA of this next generation of innovators, building from a virtual perspective, they’re going to need virtual spaces to have their community and their interaction that are much more sophisticated than a bland Zoom call. The idea of whether to have a virtual workforce — especially amongst companies focused on millennials and GenZ — is not even a question.
Are there other ways that VR, AR, and MR can improve our lives? Can you explain?
The world of entertainment and gaming tends to get too much attention for many of these technologies because they are easily consumable and visually understood.
The truth is all the innovation we’re seeing today from a consumer perspective trickles down from the innovation that comes from the government and businesses pushing the technology further. If you imagine an iceberg, consumers are at the top, and most of the hard work you’re unaware of is happening below the water level.
For example, GPS was initially built as a government-invented technology that they then spent billions on and enabled consumers to use, transforming many different industries. Medical companies working with AR/VR are pushing the boundaries so you can do Pokemon Go. Entertainment companies creating movies like Toy Story in 1996 pushed the boundaries of computing time, and now that technology is being used on platforms like Roblox or Google Search. So, remember that consumer uses are sometimes the last to see the benefit because we’re above the water line.
What are the “myths” that you would like to dispel about working in your industry? Can you explain what you mean?
1.) The Metaverse is not profitable and only good for marketing like social media.
This drives me a bit crazy. Anyone who says that doesn’t know history. Typically every technology, from TV to DVDs, is first embraced by marketing departments. Which is where we are right now with the metaverse. However, if you look at the curve over time people started realizing the Internet was more than just a visual brochure but actually a way to conduct e-commerce which now is 40 or 50% of a brand’s total revenue. Virtual Brand Group’s perspective is why wait five years to figure this out, why not start from the onset with that perspective? Every partner that we onboard or consult with is all about how quickly we can convert your Metaverse business to be $20-$50 million.
2.) Metaverse is not for all brands — only for some brands like retail consumer/fashion, not for ones you can’t taste (alcohol) or smell (perfume) or B2B.
In my opinion and experience, everything is obvious that has already happened. That’s the trap. Right now, it seems obvious that consumer-facing brands like fashion are made for the metaverse. Historically though, would you say that e-commerce is only made for consumer-facing brands? Of course not. We now realize 25 years later that whether you run a tractor company or a fashion company, e-comm is the way to communicate more effectively. It’s the same for the metaverse. You can either believe what I’m saying, or you can find out after your competitors have believed it.
3.) The metaverse will only be built by large tech corporations that already dominate — Apple, FB, Google — and repeat the same problems we now have.
Big companies are always perceived as market leaders to start a new industry in any sector because, by their nature, they have resources and existing decision-makers know them. However, size does not dictate future success. The world is littered with dethroned incumbents that were toppled by challengers. When was the last time you bought Kodak film, rented at Blockbuster, or purchased a TV set made in America? What do you think of the Internet or social media? Is there any brand that existed 20 years ago? What’s always exciting to think about is how today’s Google will soon be toppled by tomorrow’s start-up. Although that’s a generic statement, what’s happening now more than ever is the cost for infrastructure, talent, and the diffusion of knowledge (coding) has made more competitors in more countries than ever before. It’s the most egalitarian time in the history of knowledge that’s ever existed.
4.) Metaverse is too complicated for consumers and only appeals to young people/gamers.
Today there are approximately 1.5 billion people, or 30% of the world, who use some form of NFTs, metaverse social games, or cryptocurrency. This is increasing by approximately 20%. In addition, more people are using virtual game currencies than ever before. Roblox just disclosed that they’ve increased virtual goods sales by 20% year over year. In some countries that don’t have stable currencies, cryptocurrency is much more effective to hold and own your assets than regular money. Imagine living in Ukraine right now you can’t depend on paper money.
5.) Metaverse is a fad
Our physical world may be beautiful for its wonder & quirks, BUT creatively it’s mundane and constraining. I don’t say that as an advisor, researcher, or agency that quotes some report but as someone in the trenches every day who sees people empowered that were disenfranchised by old tech, communities for everyone, unbridled enthusiasm, collaborations that make me smile, ideas that make me want to be a better person. As Steve Jobs famously said, the bicycle is to human travel as the PC is to the human mind. I say the metaverse is a rocket ship for creativity and community that allows anyone to DEFY the LAWS of GRAVITY.
6.) The final myth I’d like to dispel is that my daughter is correct. I do think my avatar fashion is on point. On a side note, I was recently on Randi Zuckerberg’s podcast, Crypto Café. She recounted the most Illustrative story about virtual fashion as the new spa day. She was feeling a bit blah but didn’t have enough time to do anything about it, so she bought a new virtual wardrobe for her avatar as a glow-up.
What are your “5 Things You Need to Create A Highly Successful Career In The VR, AR or MR Industries?”
To be successful in the VR, AR, or MR industries, you need three things:
Have a passion for being in a developing space.
This is an arena with no right answers. If you’re looking to solve a math equation where you know what X equals, you’re looking in the wrong industry.
2. Be a good storyteller.
Technical expertise is obviously urgent for certain fields, but if you want to be on the business or creative side, it’s no different from any other industry. You need to be able to tell a story. Storytelling is essential. None of the technology matters unless it’s something consumers can use at an endpoint. Nobody cares about the standalone possibilities of AR and VR. It’s all about showing people how it will change their life. Nobody knows what HTML stands for; they know that if they order a book from Amazon, it comes cheaper and faster. Same thing here. You need to be able to convert the technology into a benefit. You’ll always have a place at the table if you can tell that story.
3. Have a combination of both patience and urgency.
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. 🙂
Be the change you wish to see both in the world and your mirror and while aspiring to that perfection, never let it get in the way of settling for good enough (#voltaire). Also remember that if you’re always trying to fit in, you’ll never realize how amazing you can be.
We are very blessed that very prominent leaders read this column. Is there a person in the world or in the US with whom you would like to have a private breakfast or lunch, and why? He or she might just see this if we tag them 🙂
Play ping pong with Roger Federer, eat a cheat meal with Dwayne Johnson, design a park with Zaha Hadid, make a virtual pocket square line with Alessandro Michele and create the worlds biggest give away with Mr.Beast (#mars visit).
Thank you so much for these excellent stories and insights. We wish you continued success on your great work!
To Expect Cash Flow Issues: Realizing that creating this entirely new and unique fitness concept would come with its own challenges, I knew the only way to succeed was to remain resilient. For months, I used my own personal savings to pay my employees, and I struggled to keep personal trainers with the company long-term.
As a part of our series called “Making Something From Nothing”, I had the pleasure of interviewing Josh York.
Josh York, Founder & CEO of GYMGUYZ, the largest in-home and on-site personal training company in the world, is a true entrepreneur driven by passion. As a leader who knows the value of building a strong culture, Josh founded GYMGUYZ in 2008 from his parents’ dining room table. Now, the in-home and on-site fitness training provider services over 1,200 cities internationally, including the United States, United Kingdom and Canada. GYMGUYZ is the fastest-growing fitness concept in the U.S. with plans to open another 25 locations by the end of 2022.
Thank you so much for doing this with us! Before we dive in, our readers would love to learn a bit more about you. Can you tell us a bit about your “childhood backstory”?
When I think back to my early days, life wasn’t always the easiest; ultimately, this allowed me to grow up quicker than most and practically raise myself. Having a difficult childhood showed me the importance of always choosing to do the right thing. That is what’s fueled my drive to stay in shape and put all of my positive energy towards my goals and aspirations.
Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share how that was relevant to you in your life?
My favorite life lesson quote is simple, but something that has stuck with me my entire life, and that is “Knock em’ dead.” My grandfather would say this to me throughout my childhood whenever I embarked on a new adventure, and it has followed me into my work life. My grandfather was my father figure, and from him, I learned to give my all to everything that I set my mind to.
Is there a particular book, podcast, or film that made a significant impact on you? Can you share a story or explain why it resonated with you so much?
I would have to say Shoe Dog, which is a memoir by Nike co-founder Phil Knight. Similar to Phil, I have also created a new category in the fitness industry. I’ve always been inspired by his ambition and business decisions.
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?
From my experience, I’ve learned that the best way to overcome any challenge is to simply start and figure out solutions as you go. When it comes to entrepreneurship, you’re never going to have all of the answers, and failure is a big component to the whole picture. Failure is going to happen, it’s how you learn from it, figure out the next step, and make things happen that defines your success.
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?
The best way to research whether an idea has already been created is doing your due diligence online. This means looking at the trademark sites, checking YouTube, conducting various searches, etc.
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.
Having a vision is crucial in beginning the first steps of your business model. Once you have that vision, take action. Put your idea out there, ask as many questions as possible, talk to consumers, and listen to the feedback you receive. I trademarked GYMGUYZ based on my vision, and we became the first in-home mobile personal training and fitness franchise company.
What are your “5 Things I Wish Someone Told Me When I First Started Leading My Company” and why?
To Expect Cash Flow Issues: Realizing that creating this entirely new and unique fitness concept would come with its own challenges, I knew the only way to succeed was to remain resilient. For months, I used my own personal savings to pay my employees, and I struggled to keep personal trainers with the company long-term.
To Take Risks to get to the Other Side: I created GYMGUYZ from an idea and started the business from my parents’ dining room table in 2008. I started with a vision, a laptop, and one van. I quickly learned that in order to achieve success, risk taking is not an option, it’s a necessity.
To Embrace Fear: When you’re scared, you just need to go for it. You miss 100% of the shots you don’t take.
To accept that you will Struggle: I now credit my initial struggles as the key to my success, and I truly recognize the strength in suffering. I learned to continue to navigate the problems that arose until formulating a strong business model, and ended up creating the number one in-home personal training concept.
To Always Trial and Error: I founded GYMGUYZ with only $15,000, and I quickly discovered that without trial and error, you’ll never grow. Try new things, and if they don’t work out, try them again in a new way. Success comes from trial and error.
Let’s imagine that a reader reading this interview has an idea for a product that they would like to invent. What are the first few steps that you would recommend that they take?
Get with someone who has been there! One of the first steps should be collaborating with someone who has invented a product before. There’s no better way than to learn from the experts, as they are the ones achieving their goals.
There are many invention development consultants. Would you recommend that a person with a new idea hire such a consultant, or should they try to strike out on their own?
From my experience, it’s much better to try and strike out on your own, because that’s how you learn and grow. Unless the coach has done exactly what you’re trying to accomplish, rely on yourself, because ultimately, that’s who is going to get you exactly where you want to be.
What are your thoughts about bootstrapping vs looking for venture capital? What is the best way to decide if you should do either one?
While I don’t have personal experience with venture capital, I own 100% of my company, and if you’re going to bootstrap, determination is key. It’s very important to weigh your options and make the right decision based on your business venture.
Ok. We are nearly done. Here are our final questions. How have you used your success to make the world a better place?
It’s great to make a living, but it’s much better to make a difference. GYMGUYZ helps thousands of people achieve their fitness goals every day, and I couldn’t be prouder to stand behind that. We regularly receive calls from our clients who share how much our services have positively impacted their lives, and that’s all I can ask for.
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.
Talk and Walk: you can talk all you want about all the good things you want to do for the world, but the key is just being a good person every single day. Always do the right thing, be humble, put your ego aside, and put positive energy into the world. Do the right thing, and good things will happen for you.
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 want to have a private breakfast or lunch with Phil Knight, the co-founder of Nike. I’m truly inspired by his story and would love to compare notes on our experiences in breaking into completely new industries.
Thank you for these fantastic insights. We greatly appreciate the time you spent on this.
Data-Driven Work Cultures: Bryan Smith Of ThinkData Works On How To Effectively Leverage Data To Take Your Company To The Next Level
An Interview With Fotis Georgiadis
Make your data accessible: Once data is found, people need to be able to leverage it to scale projects or whatever they’re working on.
The proper use of Data — data about team performance, data about customers, or data about the competition, can be a sort of force multiplier. It has the potential to dramatically help a business to scale. But sadly, many businesses have data but don’t know how to properly leverage it. What exactly is useful data? How can you properly utilize data? How can data help a business grow? To address this, we are talking to business leaders who can share stories from their experience about “How To Effectively Leverage Data To Take Your Company To The Next Level”. As part of this series, we had the pleasure of interviewing Bryan Smith.
Bryan Smith is the Co-Founder and CEO of ThinkData Works Inc., a Toronto-based technology company whose platform is used by some of the world’s largest organizations to process and refine data into usable products. Prior to founding ThinkData, Bryan worked for the Canadian Government as a Sr. Policy Advisor to the President of the Treasury Board of Canada. In this role he helped implement the Government’s “Value for Money Ethic”, leading to over $7B in annual savings and the first transition from deficit to surplus in the past 20 years.
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?
Before I got into entrepreneurship, I got my start working for the Canadian Government as a Sr. Policy Advisor to the President of the Treasury Board of Canada. A highlight of my time there was helping implement the Government’s “Value for Money Ethic” initiative. I was really proud to support this project as it led to over $7B in annual savings and the first transition from deficit to surplus in the past 20 years.
Working in the government for several years, I became well-acquainted with how much data is publicly available, but I was also made aware of the challenge for organizations to access and put it to use. I made the jump to entrepreneurship because I wanted to create a conduit between the people making data available and the people wanting access to it. My co-founder and I recognized the value in data that organizations struggle to unlock to its full potential due to the barrier of the tedious, time-consuming task of cleaning and organizing data — otherwise known as data cataloging and data enrichment. ThinkData Works was founded to take care of these two steps so that data scientists can access data in a more automated way at scale, enabling them to focus more time on data science work.
Can you share a story about the funniest mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lessons or ‘take aways’ you learned from that?
When we first started ThinkData Works, we were bootstrapped and had to be extremely frugal. We ‘incubated’ our company in a shared space with many other companies that saw a lot of turn over (both failed ideas and companies graduating to “the next level”). In those early days, to keep operating expenses as low as possible, we used to have to cut all types of funny deals with other founders to trade them for desks, chairs, monitors, whiteboards, etc. In fact, one time we battled out a large portion of desks in a high stakes game of Super Smash Bros!
As your company grows and you accumulate more money, through revenue or fundraising, leaders tend to become less cautious and intentional with their spending. Sometimes I find companies who skipped the early-stage phase of bootstrapping find it harder than others to control costs and spend — especially as we go through the tech correction environment we’re currently facing. I’m not saying the lesson here is to gamble on Nintendo games, but remembering that we used to always find a way to make ends meet when we had nothing has given us the foresight now to have faith when navigating through difficult times — where there is a will there is always a way!
Is there a particular book, podcast, or film that made a significant impact on you? Can you share a story or explain why it resonated with you so much?
Two books come to my mind. First is ‘Good to Great’ by Jim Collins — we built ThinkData Works around the hedgehog principle developed in the book. The key learning is that focusing on how you can be the best in the world at something is what separates good companies from great ones. I really resonated with this idea and try to always think beyond what our team is just good at, to what we can be the best at in the world.
Another impactful book that is especially timely given the economic times we’re in, is ‘The Hard Thing About Hard Things’ by Ben Horowitz. As a founder, you encounter countless tough decisions and this book does a great job exploring how to navigate the diverse challenges of building a company.
Are you working on any new, exciting projects now? How do you think that might help people?
In terms of new and exciting projects, we recently announced our partnership with Dun & Bradstreet to help financial institutions improve their anti-money laundering (AML) programs with our data enrichment solution. We also recently launched our data catalog and enrichment services on Google Cloud Marketplace, to provide enterprise customers with reduced time-to-value and access to Google Cloud’s leading AI and data analytics capabilities. The partnership builds on a growing ecosystem of data and management tools available to customers of both organizations.
When it comes to directly helping people, I’m really proud of our Supply Chain Resiliency Platform (SCRP) in partnership with Palantir Technologies Canada, a leading software company specializing in big data analytics, and Martinrea International, one of the leading Tier One automotive suppliers of vehicle parts, assemblies, and modules. They successfully built and deployed an SCRP powered by trade data from multiple global sources that gives manufacturers and logistics companies deep insight that goes beyond their direct supply chain. This innovative solution is backed by the Government of Canada and the NGen supercluster, an industry-led not-for-profit organization that leads Canada’s Advanced Manufacturing Supercluster, whose mandate is to help build world-leading advanced manufacturing capabilities in Canada for the benefit of Canadians.
As the current global supply chain crisis will continue to negatively impact commerce in 2023 and beyond, the need for an innovative solution that safeguards manufacturers against risks and disruptions is becoming increasingly necessary, and I’m proud ThinkData Works is working to be part of that solution.
Thank you for all that. Let’s now turn to the main focus of our discussion about empowering organizations to be more “data-driven.” For the benefit of our readers, can you help explain what exactly it means to be data-driven? On a practical level, what does it look like to use data to make decisions?
Many organizations think of data as a physical asset that sits on a shelf. To be data-driven is to actively collect and use data to drive decisions. Consider this — a building full of books isn’t a library, it only becomes a library when a system exists that enables users to access, share and discover information. In the same way, organizations can only become data-driven once a system exists that enables users to access, share, and discover the data.
Making data-driven decisions looks like drawing conclusions from data insights — whether owned or external — and then using these conclusions to inform organizational decisions. For example, a coffee shop could look at data around weather patterns in the country from where they import their coffee beans from to foresee delays in their supply chain. If a drought is incoming, they can proactively seek out suppliers in a different region to avoid running out of coffee at their shop.
Which companies can most benefit from tools that empower data collaboration?
Being data-driven is sector agnostic. Taking the steps to become a data-driven company today is important to ensure the business will be around tomorrow, as data will become a core aspect of decision making for any company that wants to make it in the 21st century.
We’d love to hear about your experiences using data to drive decisions. In your experience, how has data analytics and data collaboration helped improve operations, processes, and customer experiences? We’d love to hear some stories if possible.
An interesting and perhaps unexpected way our data enrichment has supported organizations is with stamping out illegal activity through anti-money laundering (AML) efforts. Scotiabank was one of the first organizations to use our data enrichment portfolio to identify patterns in global trade to improve the outcomes of their AML programs.
Fighting global organized crime with data enrichment solutions is just one example of the power of modern data science to achieve not only business objectives, but also advance environmental, social, and governance (ESG) initiatives. Other applications we’ve seen include manufacturing firms using our data enrichment and cataloging services to optimize their supply chain through crises, as well as federal governments developing data-driven policy based on pulling together assets and making decisions with hard data.
Has the shift towards becoming more data-driven been challenging for some teams or organizations from your vantage point? What are the challenges? How can organizations solve these challenges?
Yes of course, with any change there is always friction and growing pains. Historically, organizations have looked at data requirements as a storage and security problem first and as an access and discoverability problem second. This creates friction between data stewards who are owners and protectors of data and data practitioners who put data into use.
The reason data cataloging is so important is because the big challenge for organizations to overcome with their data strategy is to introduce proper governance that does not inhibit discoverability and usability. This requires continuous data cataloging as businesses transition to become data-driven.
Ok. Thank you. Here is the primary question of our discussion. Based on your experience and success, what are “Five Ways a Company Can Effectively Leverage Data to Take It To The Next Level”? Please share a story or an example for each.
First and foremost, to effectively leverage data to take it to the next level in an organization, you need to start with a strong data strategy. To develop a strong data strategy, I would break it down into the FAIR principles of data (findable, accessible, interoperable and reusable):
Make your data findable: In order to use data, it has to be discoverable across organizations.
Make your data accessible: Once data is found, people need to be able to leverage it to scale projects or whatever they’re working on.
Make your data interoperable: Data needs to be able to be used across multiple functions — it needs to be standardized as opposed to siloed.
Make your data reusable: As you don’t want to build from the ground up every time, you have to be able to reuse assets to get the most value out of them.
These principles are why data cataloging is one the fastest growing industries from a Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) perspective.
The name of this series is “Data-Driven Work Cultures”. Changing a culture is hard. What would you suggest is needed to change a work culture to become more Data Driven?
I think the first step is changing the focus of the work culture. The mistake most organizations make is focusing on the storage and security of data from the get-go — while this is important, the data is useless to your team unless it’s accessible and discoverable. Once you establish a culture and system where those who can benefit from the data can easily find and access it, then you can focus on the data’s storage and security.
This kind of cultural shift is admittedly difficult, as data is ultimately the crown jewel of many organizations and how you handle it should not be taken lightly. Instead of doing a complete 180 cultural shift, my suggestion is to find ways to start implementing a transition towards openness and discoverability, and leverage positive results from this shift into a larger culture change.
The future of work has recently become very fluid. Based on your experience, how do you think the needs for data will evolve and change over the next five years?
At the end of the day, data needs to be discoverable and accessible. Data is like a vascular system, it needs to flow to various parts of organization to be used; it can’t be segregated or walled off. As data science becomes an integral part of all organizations, it will be increasingly important to incorporate data enrichment and data management systems into every aspect of a business.
How can our readers further follow your work?
You can keep up-to-date with what I’m working on by following me on LinkedIn.
Don’t give negative feedback in front of others. Wait until you can schedule a time to talk with that person one-on-one. I’ve seen people cry when negative feedback was delivered in front of their teammates. They quit shortly after that. This advice applies both to in-person and virtual feedback, especially when you have a large group meeting on Zoom or Meetings.
As a part of our series about “How To Give Honest Feedback without Being Hurtful”, I had the pleasure of interviewing Dr. Janelle Barlow.
Janelle Barlow, Ph.D., is the founder of A Complaint Is a Gift. She is a bestselling author and global speaker. Her ideas have been adopted as the complaint-handling mindset by hundreds of organizations using her service recovery map. To learn more, visit AcomplaintIsAGift.com.
Thank you so much for joining us! Our readers would love to “get to know you” a bit better. Can you tell us a bit about your backstory and how you got started?
I’m passionate about education, especially adult education. I began speaking in contests at age 6 and continued through high school and college debate. I wanted to continue working with motivated groups but didn’t know how to pursue that. So, I dabbled in corporate education, working for training departments. After setting up several entrepreneurial ventures, I began working with a European international training organization and spoke worldwide. I then set up my US-based organization, primarily in customer service, culture change, result performance, and complaint handling. Now I’m entirely focused on complaint handling.
What do you think makes your company stand out? Can you share a story?
One of our biggest and most successful clients has been Viking, both Rivers and Oceans. I set up a team that conducted a two-day service culture program that I developed. Viking moved to the top of the ratings with the launch of their first ship. It was an exciting, rewarding, learning experience. Viking is still at the top of their game. They licensed my program in-house, continuing to use the concepts we covered. I see them as a great entertainment and hospitality company, and I’m proud to have worked with them!
Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you started your career?
The pandemic has shaped me more than any other event over the past 30 years. I’m fully committed to working virtually at this point with online Complaint Is a Gift training and trainer certification programs.
Can you share a story about the funniest mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lesson you learned from that?
Twice in my career I got food poisoning, which showed up just as I was ready to begin a program. What can I say… I’ve learned to be careful about eating mushrooms from local vendors! I’m not so sure this was the funniest mistake I’ve made, but I laugh now that I look back on it! While in it, I was so sick, I couldn’t continue. I had some assistants who took over, but that was sheer luck. They aren’t always around! I learned that being in front of a group is a total body experience!
What advice would you give to other CEOs and business leaders to help their employees to thrive and avoid burnout?
People need to be engaged to continue loving their work. You can see engagement on people’s faces and body language when they walk into work. And, believe me, if you see disengagement, then, guess what, so do your customers.
How do you define “leadership”? Can you explain what you mean or give an example?
There are a lot of components to being an effective leader. Indeed, one of them is displayed behavior and how you empower people around you. Honesty matters, though I think transparency may be overrated. There’s information about any business that shouldn’t always be shared.
In my work, I often talk about how to release and relieve stress. As a busy leader, what do you do to prepare your mind and body before a stressful or high stakes meeting, talk, or decision? Can you share a story or some examples?
Whenever I get on stage to speak to a group (or in front of a video camera), I make contact with my love for my audience. They are giving me their time, and I want to respect that gift and where they are in their life’s journey.
Ok, let’s jump to the core of our interview. Can you briefly tell our readers about your experience with managing a team and giving feedback?
I admit that I have sometimes blown it when giving feedback. I remember an incident when I observed one of my trainers teaching one of my programs. I think she didn’t understand the impact she was having or the content she was delivering. She assured me she knew the materials like the back of her hand. It turns out she didn’t. I told her in no uncertain terms what I thought of her delivery. I felt responsible about all the other times she delivered this same material and probably did an equally lousy job. I think I did damage to her self-esteem with my over-the-top feedback. As bad as she was as a trainer that day, I think I was even worse as her manager.
This might seem intuitive but it will be constructive to spell it out. Can you share with us a few reasons why giving honest and direct feedback is essential to being an effective leader?
It’s like complaint handling. Honest and direct feedback from customers is extremely valuable for your company. You can’t learn from your customers if they don’t tell you what’s happening or what they don’t like. If, as a manager, you don’t tell your staff what’s bothering you, they’ll continue to engage in the same behaviors, producing the same results. When you don’t speak out, you’re rewarding behavior that can do genuine damage to your business if it’s not changed.
One of the trickiest parts of managing a team is giving honest feedback in a way that doesn’t come across as too harsh. Can you please share with us five suggestions about how to best give constructive criticism to a remote employee? Kindly share a story or example for each.
1.Don’t give negative feedback in front of others. Wait until you can schedule a time to talk with that person one-on-one. I’ve seen people cry when negative feedback was delivered in front of their teammates. They quit shortly after that. This advice applies both to in-person and virtual feedback, especially when you have a large group meeting on Zoom or Meetings.
2.Check your mindset and emotions. Make sure you have the right mindset and emotions when providing feedback. If you’re angry, even if you planned every word, your comments probably will sound aggressive. Your mindset should be “How can I help this person change so I can create a better relationship with them?” or “How can I add value with my feedback?” and not “How can I make them feel bad?” The example I provided above about how I gave feedback to someone was about me wanting to make her feel bad. Honestly, I have to say that was my mindset. It’s not good. Don’t do it.
3.Ask questions. Once you have their agreement to talk about the issue, then ask questions. We often go directly to what we want to get off our chest instead of asking the other person first what they feel or think. Maybe that person will tell you exactly what was on your mind. They may know what they did was wrong, or they’ll provide information you didn’t know that explains their behavior. For example, instead of saying, “I think it was rude of you to interrupt me in front of my clients. It made me feel put down,” ask, “How do you think the meeting went?” or “How did you like the way the conversation went? What about your behavior? I honestly thought you interrupted me quite a bit. How did you feel? How do you think others felt when they watched you interrupt me?”
4. Steer clear of giving mixed messages. Despite how often the “sandwich technique” is taught in management seminars, I don’t advise using it. This old technique says you must start your feedback with something positive. Then sandwich in the negative things you have to say, and finally, close with a positive statement. Instead, praise someone when you need to, and deliver negative feedback constructively when you have to, but don’t unnecessarily mix the two. Finishing with a positive comment after the negative is useless as it takes power away from what you just said and what the person needs to work on. Be straight and direct. Mostly I’ve seen that the sandwich technique results in people not hearing the criticism, or not hearing the positive comments. Use one or the other.
5. Utilize leading questions to show the impact of poor behavior. In the case of negative feedback, if the person doesn’t see the effect of their behavior, ask leading questions, such as “Can you see why I get annoyed when you interrupt me in front of others?” I’ve watched people finally grasp the feedback they’re given when prompted by a leading question. I’ve been asked leading questions from time to time when receiving negative feedback, and it opened my eyes to the impact of my behavior.
Can you address how to give constructive feedback over email? If someone is in front of you, much of the nuance can be picked up in facial expressions and body language. But not when someone is remote. How do you prevent the email from sounding too critical or harsh?
This is tough because oftentimes the only opportunity to give feedback is by email or voice mail. I recommend saying that you would rather deliver this feedback in person, but it isn’t possible today, and you don’t want to let too much time go by without saying something. You want the person to fully understand your feedback’s importance. Be sure to state that you have confidence that when they review the incident, they’ll understand why you are giving the feedback you are and that this person will make a concerted effort to change. Tell them you are looking forward to discussing the issue in person.
In your experience, is there a best time to give feedback or critique? Should it be immediately after an incident? Should it be at a different time? Should it be at set intervals? Can you explain what you mean?
It’s always better to give feedback close to the incident at hand. Otherwise, your staff member may think, “Why didn’t they say something earlier?” Stories change over time, and neither of you may be positive about what happened. Sometimes it’s impossible to communicate immediately after an incident, but you can lay down a marker that you want to talk about what happened. Explain this isn’t a good time, but you want them to know this incident needs to be discussed. Perhaps phrase the incident as a question — that you want to know what they thought when something happened. Is it better to give feedback shortly after the incident? Yes. But that isn’t always possible, so go for Plan B when Plan A isn’t available.
How would you define what it is to be a “great boss?” Can you share a story?
A great boss encourages, pushes, and supports. The main task is to demonstrate to the person that you believe in them, have their back, and see their potential. As a leader, you offer opportunities for people to stretch themselves. But you must understand (or ask) when someone isn’t ready. It’s a tricky business because there are times when someone thinks they aren’t prepared to explore what they can do when that’s precisely when they need to be pushed. Experience and intuition help when making decisions like this because you don’t want the person to fail.
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. 🙂
At this point, I would get people to change their mindsets about complaint handling. I heard a great metaphor that you can’t get an elephant to take medicines (which I assume tastes awful to an elephant) unless you wrap it in food they like, such as a banana, for example. Then they’ll eat it with pleasure. A Complaint Is a Gift is a metaphor that wraps difficult-to-handle situations into a mindset that lets you “eat” unpleasant customer feedback so you can get to the gift that the complaint offers.
Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson” quote? Can you share how that was relevant to you in your life?
After writing several books on complaint handling, I’ve learned how to change my go-to responses of simply getting angry when someone criticizes me and substitute a better behavior. I must say, I used to think, “Well, what about you!” when hearing negative feedback. I’ve stopped doing that. Whatever anyone thinks about me is irrelevant. What matters is whether we can work through issues we face without taking their criticism or attacks personally. That’s such a valuable life lesson. And it’s not easy to achieve!
How can our readers further follow your work online?
Rather than share the best advice I’ve received, I’d like to share the advice I wish I had received. I spent the first decade of my tenure trying to run the previous senior team’s business and not trying to run the business as I might see it. Perhaps it was because I was young and respected these managers so much. I wish someone had taken me aside and given me the advice: “Run your own business your own way.” Eventually, I came to this conclusion myself — maybe as my experience grew — and that is when the business began the transformation into the different and successful one it is today.
As a part of our series about business leaders who are shaking things up in their industry, I had the pleasure of interviewing Jon Pundyk.
Jon Pundyk is the Chief Executive Officer of Glamorise Foundations. Glamorise is a 101-year-old intimate apparel brand that has been focused on size-inclusivity since its founding in 1921. Glamorise currently offers bras in sizes 30 to 58, and cups B to K — more sizes than any other bra brand.
During Jon’s 30+ year tenure, Glamorise transitioned from a semi-branded manufacturer to a 100% brand and marketing-driven company. Glamorise has developed expertise in performance marketing with best-in-class proprietary technology that combines data analytics, game theory and merchandising strategy.
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?
After getting an MBA I started my career at Procter & Gamble in their brand marketing program. From P&G, I went to Booz-Allen and worked in their strategy consulting group focused on retail growth strategies. I originally came to Glamorise as a way to combine my interest in product-based brand marketing and corporate strategy.
What I didn’t fully understand until I got here is that Glamorise is not just another company. Glamorise is likely the country’s first size-inclusive brand — focusing on curvy women since 1921. A century-long focus on inclusivity brings a mission to the company that I had not expected. Glamorise is obsessively focused on making our consumers’ lives better in a small but important way. The fact that we have been doing this for so long gives us all a genuine sense of purpose. It may sound like a small thing but making a great bra in a full size range is really hard to do. There are no shortcuts, and it takes real skill and experience. As a team, we all live this dedication every day. This energy is not something that comes from a mission statement or a snappy tagline — it comes from a century-long tradition that we all carry forward today.
Can you tell our readers what it is about the work you’re doing that’s disruptive?
Glamorise is a 101-year-old bra company that has one of the few design centers still located in NYC. In the same space, Glamorise has a world-class data analytics and ad-tech team that creates proprietary performance marketing optimization techniques that measurably outperforms our competition, and outside agencies.
Glamorise competes successfully against global billion-dollar companies and sells to massive global retailers who command great market power. While Glamorise makes great bras as reflected in our 100’s of thousands of online reviews, making great products is not enough in today’s world. The challenge is to reach our consumer despite the cacophony of marketing noise from both competitors and retailers. We are not mass marketers; we are signal-based marketers. We try to find the right consumer at the right time with the perfect product. Our proprietary techniques respond to consumer signals (especially purchase search behavior) to try to find this moment. The fascinating thing about our algorithms is that to a large degree they are optimizing a path to consumer happiness. We are only successful if the consumer is happy at the end of the process. While it is our simple neural network doing the work, the outcome should be the same as if someone walked into a super-responsive local shop.
Can you share a story about the funniest mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lesson you learned from that?
I have been involved with model fitting sessions since my first day at Glamorise. In those earliest days I was extremely uncomfortable working with our fit models. As a young man in a room with scantily dressed fit models, I was as awkward as a person could be. Super respectful, but super awkward. In retrospect, I would have been best to tell the models I was a rookie, which likely would have helped a lot.
We all need a little help along the journey. Who have been some of your mentors? Can you share a story about how they made an impact?
When I came to Glamorise there were a crew of executives who had already been at the company for decades. Their level of experience was amazing. One key mentor was our president who was first and foremost a great salesman. I remember traveling with him once, and we were having a bad run of meetings at that time. I’m sure my disappointment was starting to show. He saw this and gave me what can only be called a confidence transplant. He told me we needed to always carry ourselves with confidence, never blink, and always show the other side we knew what we were doing. He did more for me in those two minutes than two years of business school. I carry that advice with me to this day.
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?
There has been a wave of disruption in the business model for making bras. I’m sure everyone can recall a new bra company — especially in the DTC space. Much of what these disruptors have brought to the market is new, valuable and indeed positive disruption. But for many of these companies, the idea of being a disruptor does not allow the embrace of many hard-won techniques central to making great bras. Yes, using globally distributed resources is a great way to get into business quickly and save money. This business model often has designers, merchandisers, and sewing rooms on different continents and working via Zoom and FedEx to perfect designs. While this seems an efficient and disruptive model, it pales in comparison to working with a design team, an engineering team, professional fit models, and a sample team colocated in a single location. Glamorise has one of the last live design centers in NYC. Our design team can collaborate to iterate design changes in a single session while the distributed design teams may take weeks to do the same thing, if they can do it at all.
Can you share five of the best words of advice you’ve gotten along your journey?
Rather than share the best advice I’ve received, I’d like to share the advice I wish I had received. I spent the first decade of my tenure trying to run the previous senior team’s business and not trying to run the business as I might see it. Perhaps it was because I was young and respected these managers so much. I wish someone had taken me aside and given me the advice: “Run your own business your own way.” Eventually, I came to this conclusion myself — maybe as my experience grew — and that is when the business began the transformation into the different and successful one it is today.
We are sure you aren’t done. How are you going to shake things up next?
Glamorise is two companies: the world’s first size-inclusive bra company, and a state-of-the-art signal-based marketing company. Our next challenge is to integrate these two core functions by allowing data to help us design our products. While we have long used consumer feedback, consumer reviews and consumer research to help us evaluate our products, we have only just started to integrate data science into the design process itself. Currently, we are using some basic AI analytics to review millions of consumer search terms to help us better understand unmet consumer needs. While this has been helpful, we are only scratching the surface. Glamorise is uniquely positioned to make progress here, and it will be fun to see how it develops over time.
Do you have a book, podcast, or talk that’s had a deep impact on your thinking? Can you share a story with us? Can you explain why it was so resonant with you?
Perhaps because of my past as a consultant, I read a lot of writing on strategy from the major consulting firms. Even though they write with Fortune 500 companies in mind, these papers tend to be data driven and very thoughtful. One such article was from a McKinsey Quarterly piece on what made some CPG companies outperform their peers. There were many reasons cited, but one particularly resonated. The article noted that overperformers were best at moving resources to where they could have the biggest impact regardless of organization or other boundaries. I looked at Glamorise, and rather than thinking about departments or divisions as a Fortune 500 company might, I reconsidered my team. I asked the question “Is every person working against the issues where they might have the biggest impact?” Because of this reset, I realized we had a few mismatches. Fixing these issues meant changing how we organized ourselves relative to international borders, but the results were dramatic. This fundamental question from the McKinsey article is one I try to revisit from time to time.
Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share how that was relevant to you in your life?
I like to think that decision-making is deciding what mistake we are willing to make. All important decision-making is making choices under uncertainty. In an outcome analysis, we need to decide which bad outcomes or mistakes we think are most tolerable. Decision-making writers call this a regret minimization framework, but I think the idea is broader than that. For example, as managers we often have the choice of giving too much latitude or not enough. While there are measurable risks and rewards of each, there are also longer-term cultural risks and rewards. How we frame these decisions builds the organization and its values. So when I ask the question “What mistake do I want to make?” I am really asking not only about that decision itself but also about the cultural legacy that decision makes and its impact on the long-term performance of the company.
You are a person of great influence. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger. 🙂
I’m not sure I am a person of great influence but the area where I feel somewhat qualified to offer some advice is in managing people and organizations. Historically, Glamorise has virtually zero turnover. There are likely many reasons for this, but one of them is among the simplest and one I rarely hear mentioned in management writing. I encourage everyone to rely on that most empathetic of guidelines, the Golden Rule. At Glamorise, we try to treat people how we would like to be treated ourselves. You would be amazed how many seemingly complex HR problems have clearer answers when one just tries to treat everyone as they would like to be treated. I know it sounds oversimplified, but it is actually super powerful. Such things as giving people the benefit of the doubt, not second-guessing people’s motives, and considering how executing a decision might hurt someone’s sense of self all are byproducts of this ethos. I find it works, and it also helps engender a culture of trust.
How can our readers follow you online?
I am on LinkedIn and always find time to talk with fellow entrepreneurs. I am especially interested in sharing my experience with folks who face my challenge: How do you steer a long-standing business in an ever-changing world?
This was very inspiring. Thank you so much for joining us!
Defining company culture from the outset is critical. While that may seem obvious, it’s only become de rigueur in company creation relatively recently. It used to be that culture was merely an extension of the founders’ attitudes, created through a penchant for hiring those that thought alike… Now companies are defining their governing values and overall culture from the outset and publishing those for jobseekers to see upfront, as a way of attracting the right people. That’s proven to be the best way of preserving a meaningful company culture and ethos.
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 Steve Colberg.
Steve Colberg is Head of Growth at Rocketlane, a world leader in customer onboarding software.
He has a wide range of experience and an impressive track record of results in all forms of marketing and growth for both startups (a number of which were funded or sold) and billion-dollar companies. His specialty is accelerating growth by concentrating on a specific set of metrics for sales enablement and conversion, coupled with a marketing strategy of combining multichannel efforts with an omnichannel focus to create a seamless customer journey in the B2B space.
Thank you for joining us in this interview series. Our readers would love to “get to know you” a bit better. Can you tell us a bit about your ‘backstory’?
I started my career with creative assignments in media, mainly writing and editing. I’ve been really fortunate in joining some great companies that had both vision and product market fit. My career style has always been to join a company when it was still early. I help create both a demand-gen process and a marketing/content engine. I stay on past initial success, such as funding rounds or sales, before moving on and doing it all over again.
You’ve had a remarkable career journey. Can you highlight a key decision in your career that helped you get to where you are today?
Early on as a marketer I realized that to be effective I’d have to really understand the product I’m selling, in addition to understanding the market and staying up to date on effective marketing strategies. Since then, I’ve made a point to do deep dives into the product(s) we’re selling in order to understand and better communicate the value to prospects and customers.
What’s the most impactful initiative you’ve led that you’re particularly proud of?
At several different organizations, I’ve set up initiatives for “continuous improvement” on some key marketing metrics that moved the needle on sales. That’s not a new or original idea, but it’s sometimes absent in marketing, where processes can be seen as antagonistic to creativity. Keeping everyone on the marketing team focused on experimenting and tweaking the levers that produce better leads does a lot for maintaining a healthy partnership with sales and in measurable results, generally pipeline generation.
Sometimes our mistakes can be our greatest teachers. Can you share a mistake you’ve made and the lesson you took away from it?
That’s a tough question because there are so many. I’m an inveterate tinkerer and I encourage everyone I work with to be the same, because spending a bit of money and effort to learn what doesn’t work can lead to efficiencies in the long run. Some of the most interesting examples haven’t been mistakes I made but are instances where I’ve been mistaken — where an idea or initiative I thought would never work ended up being highly successful. Those are welcome instances where being proven wrong has great benefits.
How has mentorship played a role in your career, whether receiving mentorship or offering it to others?
I believe in the value of mentorship but haven’t really had that type of relationship, in either direction, in my career. There are colleagues that I stay in touch with and exchange ideas with, but those are peer relationships more than mentorships.
Developing your leadership style takes time and practice. Who do you model your leadership style after? What are some key character traits you try to emulate?
My leadership style is delegative — I have no desire to be a micromanager and I think everyone wins when everyone is empowered. I don’t say “no” a lot, and when I do it’s based on policies rather than opinion. There are a lot of leaders that have led with a delegative style, though I tend to look more to politicians and social leaders rather than business leaders for inspiration.
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.
Many of the basic processes for scaling from a startup to a large company remain constant at every stage, and that understanding brings discipline, methodology, and desirable stability through the growth process. The main changes come when processes and programs are added at each growth stage, as funding and bandwidth allow.
A few examples (it’s both difficult and rewarding to limit to just five) are below.
1) Realistically assess where your company and your product are in the current ecosystem.
Founders can default to the idea that their product is a disruptive, brand-new technology worthy of creating a new product category in one or more industries. Is that really accurate? It’s an important distinction because the tactics for “category creation” are different from the tactics for entering an established market. If your product has great new capabilities that move an established category forward, you may want to position yourself as a disruptive newcomer rather than a completely new, category-creating technology. A lot of initial planning depends on how you define yourself at this stage.
A good rule of thumb: If another company has been around for more than two years that does most of what you do — even if you do it better — you’re not creating a new category, you’re entering the market with a better offering and you should approach the market with that positioning.
2) If you haven’t verified product market fit, then… wait.
This concept goes with #1. It may appear to be completely obvious, but it’s worth stating because of the sheer number of entrepreneurs who skip this step. As a history buff and an idea person, I truly admire the person that invented (not just thought of, but actually invented) the wheel; but I also acknowledge the person that found a way to make a superior wheel in ancient Rome, where business was run by carts that crisscrossed the empire. In which situation would you rather be: a wheel-seller — where you have to explain the concept of a wheel and then explain what a cart might look like — or where you have to describe why your wheel is better for a cart that someone uses every day? It goes back to category creation vs. improvement in an existing market; knowing product fit is essential to making informed decisions about a company’s viability and approach to the market.
3) It really is all about ARR.
Again, it’s nothing new, but driving this concept home across every department means that everyone in the company is on the same page. It means marketing will research and go after high-growth customer segments; sales will push some deals based on growth potential rather than chasing whales; finance will see the value on long-term program spending beyond what’s working right now; and your success group will understand the true value of their accounts. Using ARR as the North Star goal is essential in startups, but because it’s revenue-based it stays relevant through all the stages of a company’s evolution.
4) Focus and discipline rule.
It’s an adage that persists because it’s applicable everywhere in the company. It’s especially important in startups because it prevents smaller teams from promising and trying too many things. Experimentation is desirable but data rules, and you should mainly focus on improving what’s working. That doesn’t contradict other statements here about the importance of trying new things; but if those “new things” are more than a third of what you’re doing, you’re gambling against the odds in a scenario where the house usually wins.
5) At the employee level, at all stages of a company’s evolution and across every department, there are two attitudes that are paramount: “it’s not if, but when;” and “yes, if.”
This involves aspects of company culture that are addressed in another question here, but the main takeaways are that every employee should understand and believe that your product must be on every prospect’s shortlist, and that internally, every employee’s response toward any task that contributes to growth should start with “yes” and ends with a “yes, if.” That ensures that everyone is open to new ideas but also that they’re measuring the right things, dropping initiatives that aren’t working, and doing it all based on data rather than on personal opinion.
Can you share a few of the mistakes that companies make when they try to scale a business? What would you suggest to address those errors?
A company can struggle by trying to do too much from the start. One example would be having a product plan that moves from MVP to one that does absolutely everything in just a few years; another example would be a belief from marketing that you have to be in all possible channels to reach every possible lead right from the start. In the marketing example, it’s a better strategy to put a laser focus on a few, well-performing channels and create SEO-driven content on just a few important topics rather than trying to become a thought leader on day one (and SEO strategy is a whole topic in and of itself).
Scaling includes bringing new people into the organization. How can a company preserve its company culture and ethos when new people are brought in?
Defining company culture from the outset is critical. While that may seem obvious, it’s only become de rigueur in company creation relatively recently. It used to be that culture was merely an extension of the founders’ attitudes, created through a penchant for hiring those that thought alike… Now companies are defining their governing values and overall culture from the outset and publishing those for jobseekers to see upfront, as a way of attracting the right people. That’s proven to be the best way of preserving a meaningful company culture and ethos.
Many times, a key aspect of scaling your business is scaling your team’s knowledge and internal procedures. What tools or techniques have helped your teams be successful at scaling internally?
There are so many good, extant project management and communication tools that I hesitate to call any out here. Rocketlane is in that space, so I see the value of that every day. That said, I encourage and always budget for training programs that team members feel would make them better and more efficient.
As for techniques, there’s no viable replacement for ongoing, scheduled 1:1 meetings and conversations among — and across — team members.
What software or tools do you recommend to help onboard new hires?
I really believe Rocketlane’s onboarding platform is the best available because of its scope, flexibility, and the people in the organization (full disclosure — I’m biased, but it’s an informed bias). There’s a burning desire at Rocketlane to be both customer-centric and to have the best available product on the market, and those two things don’t necessarily have to — and don’t always — go together.
Also, without calling out specific products or methodologies, I’m a proponent of using tools that identify a person’s overall personality structure, particularly how they like to communicate. Having an accurate personality profile and a description of a person’s preferred way of communicating can create a better working atmosphere for both managers and employees. At one of the most fun (and most successful) places I’ve worked, we all did a personality evaluation and created a personality profile that we posted by all our desks. That both created a shared experience and made people better and more effective communicators.
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.
I’ve always been interested in the cyclic nature of history. Samuel Clemens’ quote comes to mind: “History doesn’t repeat itself, but it does rhyme.” If we could examine our past and decide that our main responsibility as a society is to do better than those who have come before, to break the cycle and empower only those ideas that help us evolve, then we can collectively change the world for the better. Of course, what we mean by “better,” and how that’s defined, is what always seems to trip us up.
How can our readers further follow your work online?
I spend my working hours researching methodologies and ideas and putting them into practice in business, so I don’t really do a lot of writing or posting beyond what I do for wherever I’m working at the time. That said, I am always open to new relationships and conversations — reference that on LinkedIn and let’s connect.
Meet The Disruptors: Garrett Smiley Of Sora Schools On The Five Things You Need To Shake Up Your Industry
An Interview With Fotis Georgiadis
Lean into the hard conversations. Delegate less– a founder’s job is to understand and integrate every area of the organization. It is never proper to delegate the “why” behind a team’s work. Take care of your body — your mind is an emergent property of the body; mental health and acuity begin with the body and the fuel you provide it. The body is where your energy, drive, and happiness originate. Painful lesson.
As a part of our series about business leaders who are shaking things up in their industry, I had the pleasure of interviewing Garrett Smiley.
Garrett Smiley is the Co-Founder of Sora Schools, an education startup based in Atlanta. Sora is a virtual, project-based high school where students explore their interests, learn however is best for them, and gain exposure to future careers and fields of work.
Prior to Sora, Garrett co-founded a charity which built wells in developing nations called Drops of Love. Garret also directed a university startup incubator called Core Founders at Georgia Tech, and started an education non-profit that worked with foster children to develop financial literacy called Flip. Garrett studied Computer Science at Georgia Tech. Garrett also worked as a Venture Partner at Contrary Capital where he scouted, invested in, and mentored startups in the Atlanta area.
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?
As a child in a military family, I attended many different types of schools; some worked for me, but most didn’t. This constant experimentation in my schooling sparked an early interest in education — I was curious how different classrooms could operate so differently. I thought, do we not know the best way to do this by now? And, although the game of school came easily to me, I always felt I was learning more through my extracurriculars than in the classroom; challenges I took on like starting a water nonprofit with my sister, becoming a black belt in Tae Kwon Do, or spending a summer at Stanford University learning Einstein’s theory of relativity, all contributed to my worldview and future much more meaningfully than any textbook, lecture, or test. Carrying this passion for education through college at Georgia Tech, I threw myself in the middle of the conversation about school reform — with all of the forceful opinions I had developed — and then also got my hands dirty co-founding a non-profit focused on game-based learning on financial literacy for Georgia’s foster youth. Then, looking to pair this passion with an understanding of innovation more broadly, I worked as a venture partner at Contrary Capital, supporting and investing in Atlanta-area startups. After that, I extended my knowledge of entrepreneurship by partaking in a short fellowship with renowned venture capital fund True Ventures. After that, although I was still quite young, I felt so strongly about school reform that I just had to get involved as soon as possible. Enter Sora!
Can you tell our readers what it is about the work you’re doing that’s disruptive?
Most of the education industry is looking for two or three percent improvements on the margins — schools have pizza parties if their test scores improved 0.2%. Fortunes are made and lost playing that game. But, most people ignore — and it’s convenient to ignore — the elephant in the room: school, the thing every student has to do for eight hours a day for 13 years, doesn’t work for many people. At Sora, we’re attacking that big challenge head-on, bringing the latest learning science and wisdom from fancy private schools to scale a transformative education to everyone, grounded in tenants like real-world, interdisciplinary learning, mastery-based assessment, and student-led curriculum based on their interests.
Can you share a story about the funniest mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lesson you learned from that?
Too many to count. For every lead we got through the website or an event, all three of us cofounders would drive to their house (separately), blocking their driveway in the process, and rant at them about education reform until we either closed the sale or got asked to leave. Our research, passion, and hustle were the only things we had to break into an industry dominated by legacy and bureaucracy.
We all need a little help along the journey. Who have been some of your mentors? Can you share a story about how they made an impact?
Almost every education innovator or entrepreneur has been extremely generous with their time. We have only been able to make it this far by following their wisdom. There are too many to answer a question like this — I would worry about leaving one of them out.
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?
Our lead investor, Hemant Teneja from General Catalyst, has written an excellent book on this topic called “Intended Consequences”. The short version: being disruptive can be terrible if not approached mindfully. The era of “move fast and break things” is over. Companies must change their mindset from simply “increasing shareholder value” to a more nuanced goal of doing good, avoiding harmful consequences, and innovating responsibly. To achieve this, companies need to rethink their business model and incentives from the ground up to actively encourage adherence to those values. For example, there are millions of truck drivers in the country, making it one of the most popular occupations. Assume that overnight, a company could produce millions of autonomous trucks that were faster and safer than a driver. That innovation alone could meaningfully increase the nation’s unemployment and cause tens of millions of people to have profoundly negative feelings toward that technology and technologies like it — it could destabilize society. We saw a similar story play out with companies like Uber and even Facebook. That hypothetical autonomous truck company should take personal responsibility for the broader implications of the innovation; one possible method is tracking Key Consequence Indicators like “percentage of displaced truckers upskilled” alongside more traditional metrics like revenue and gross margin.
Can you share five of the best words of advice you’ve gotten along your journey?
There are dozens of lessons in education, but I’ll focus on the leadership principles I come back to over and over. Read more books and read them slowly — books represent lifetimes of wisdom, indulge often. But treat each book as a meditation, don’t read to “finish”. One of the only common traits I can identify between top performers is their consumption of a ton of nonfiction. Slow is smooth and smooth is fast — stolen from the Navy Seals, don’t sprint through life or decision; move carefully and thoughtfully. Minimize the adrenaline as much as possible. As Ray Dalio says, “nothing has been more instrumental to my success than meditation.” Don’t be a coward — the burden of leadership is making the necessary, hard decisions that can cause pain. But someone’s got to do it or the mission will not be accomplished. Lean into the hard conversations. Delegate less– a founder’s job is to understand and integrate every area of the organization. It is never proper to delegate the “why” behind a team’s work. Take care of your body — your mind is an emergent property of the body; mental health and acuity begin with the body and the fuel you provide it. The body is where your energy, drive, and happiness originate. Painful lesson.
We are sure you aren’t done. How are you going to shake things up next?
This is a big growth year for Sora. We’ve been working on our school model for the last four years in close collaboration with our families, and we’ve landed on something everyone’s really excited about and I’m seeing it make a huge impact in many students’ lives. So, our goal this year is to grow our capacity to help many, many more students who desperately need a school like Sora.
Do you have a book, podcast, or talk that’s had a deep impact on your thinking? Can you share a story with us? Can you explain why it was so resonant with you?
It’s hard to choose just one. After I got sidelined from sports in my 8th-grade year, I became obsessed with reading and haven’t stopped devouring hundreds of books yearly; each one molds my mind in some unique, unpredictable way. When I was a kid, I remember reading books like Abundance by Steven Kotler and Peter Diamandis, being absolutely mesmerized by the power of technology to help people. At the time, I was under the impression that the world was getting worse all of the time — thanks to the news — but at that moment, I realized the world is always getting better, primarily thanks to the innovations of people who cared enough to try. Now, I’d recommend The Beginning of Infinity by David Deutsch, a beautiful case for optimism. Some other childhood favorites are Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, Marcus Aurelius’ Meditations, and Isaacson’s biography on Steve Jobs.
Can you please give us your favorite Life Lesson Quote? Can you share how that was relevant to you in your life?
“Love the struggle”. The foundation of the learning process is adopting a growth mindset which is the self-fulfilling belief that skills and intelligence can be improved through hard work. People with a growth mindset learn to love failure and see it as information to guide their learning. These individuals consistently reframe failure away from a personal attack to an exciting and necessary step towards the final destination. Understanding how to “fail well,” see instruction in roadblocks, and embrace iteration is foundational to the learning process. When you’ve steeped yourself in a growth mindset, you come to really crave those moments of struggle because, quite literally, struggle is the moment of maximum learning. Every moment you can sit in the struggle, you are improving at the fastest possible rate.
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. 🙂
Exactly what I’m doing! Building a new school system to inspire students to challenge themselves and chase a meaningful contribution to the world. If we create a million students on fire for making an impact, leading with love and empathy for others, the world would be completely transformed. Nothing is more important or impactful!
How can our readers follow you online?
Twitter at @gw_smiles
This was very inspiring. Thank you so much for joining us!
Alexey Khursevich (https://www.linkedin.com/in/akhursevich/), CEO at Solvd, worked as a freelancer and then gathered a group of like-minded software developers who later became his colleagues in a newly-established firm. In 12 years it has grown from just a small group of freelancers into a 700 associate strong world-wide business whose client list includes Fortune 500 clients.
Thank you so much for joining us. Our readers would love to “get to know you” a bit better. Can you tell us a bit about your ‘backstory’ and how you got started?
I started my career as a Software Developer in a huge service company while I was a third-year university student. Financial independence was my main motivation to start earning money as soon as possible. The mix of having a full-time job and university studies was a pretty tough period in my life, I must say. Fortunately, I was introduced to my future partner in the US and I started working as a freelancer. Right after graduating from university, I decided to start my own business. Most of my friends and university mates that I recruited when we got our feet off the ground are still with the company and are now working in managerial positions at Solvd.
Can you tell us a story about the hard times that you faced when you first started your journey? Did you ever consider giving up? Where did you get the drive to continue even though the conditions were so challenging?
It was pretty hard for the first 4 to 5 years when I was deeply engaged in most of the software solutions that we were delivering. We worked with our west coast customers under wide time zone differences: that meant our working days ending late after midnight (our time). Most of all, my decision to leave the safety and security of being at a huge service company where I started, to do a startup created a lot of uncertainty that made me feel a bit nervous.
So, how are things going today? How did your grit and resilience lead to your eventual success?
I strongly believe that successful businesses are based on the ability to take calculated risks and their ability to do the same routines perfectly, which, over time, will grow the business.
My most important career decision was the one I made at the beginning when I chose to leave a huge corporation to launch my own IT business. I wasn’t fully confident in my future success but was motivated to stay the course with the choice I made.
I’m convinced that when we make mistakes it’s an opportunity for us to learn new approaches and skills, and to develop more refined solutions. Back in 2015–16, I worked as an engineer and later as a CTO for an Ukrainian startup that was trying to create an Uber-killer app. We planned this out as a turn-key project, so we were beta-testing too many features that we considered critical, but ultimately didn’t allow the app to get to the market. We were mistaken, as we didn’t factor in the importance of getting early user feedback to potentially save the project from failure. Now, I know that the most efficient and rational way in terms of time and resources is to first create a Minimum Viable Project, which comprises minimum functionality, release it to the market, let early adopters test it and then enhance it based on the resulting feedback. Nonetheless, I think this experience was a valuable part of my success on my journey from being a software engineer to CEO of a global company.
It has been said that our mistakes can be our greatest teachers. Can you share a story about the funniest mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lessons or ‘takeaways’ you learned from that?
At the very first stage I hosted a mobile device farm at my home-based office. Over time, I noticed that some of the devices were starting to inflate (as a result of battery degradation). I was trying to repair them by myself and I started a small fire at my home! Since then, we utilize the services of a third-party provider to audit and repair batteries for our device farms. And of course we’re keeping them on metal shelves in air-conditioned rooms.
What do you think makes your company stand out?
I see our QA and Test Automation expertise, embodied in the products we develop, as a powerful differentiator and advantage we have in the market. Another strong point of ours is Solvd Laba (our proprietary training course) which helps boost company growth by attracting talented and loyal engineers who do an excellent job for our customers and on our internal projects.
Which tips would you recommend to your colleagues in your industry to help them to thrive and not “burn out”?
It is hard to recommend something in this regard, but I would say it’s important not to be afraid to ask for help if you need it. Communication with others and alternative ideas can make your life easier and less stressful. Getting and sharing experiences is often the best way to improve.
None of us are able to achieve success without some help along the way. Is there a particular person to whom you are grateful towards that helped get you to where you are? Can you share a story?
Yes, there is a “supervisor” who helped me all the way through, but it’s best if he stays unnamed. I’m grateful to the original team we started this business with and they’re still looking in the same direction as I am. They motivate me to go forward, both in business and personal life.
Ok, thank you for all that. Now let’s shift to the main focus of this interview. How do you evaluate the company’s growth, and which parameters are key for you?
While running Solvd Inc. as a global technology consultancy and software engineering company, it’s better to measure the amount of the spheres we partner with and the team that is growing daily across the world, including Latin America, North America and Europe. Our company is proud to service Fortune 500 clients. 320+ completed projects celebrate the results of working with clients across fintech, retail, media and entertainment, software, and health and wellness industries.
This means that today Solvd has become a global reliable IT partner that is trusted to resolve different tasks, no matter their technical complexity, to exceed the expectations of our clients and create win-win values.
How do you measure the results, which Solvd is delivering to clients?
The amount of successful projects and satisfied clients are the best KPI for our business. By now, over 200M users across the world are using our software and mobile solutions, created by our engineers for Under Armor, Starbucks, Stanford Medical School, Nerdwallet and other tier-1 partners.
Thank you. Here is the main question of our discussion. Based on your experience and success, what are the five most important things one should know in order to create a successful business delivering best software solutions?
First of all, you need to understand the business of each client as your own. In Solvd we are continuously searching for how every client can do business better with our solutions. Building long-term partnerships with customers is a top priority of our management. We choose quality instead of quantity.
Invest in talents. We engage in our proprietary educational initiative called Solvd.Laba. Our best tutors teach quality assurance, test automation and JavaScript development in these courses. They share knowledge and train in skills applicable to real-life projects. 80% of students become Solvd’s employees after course graduation. You need to be for people and about people.
Work with the best engineers. Our clients appreciate the competence of Solvd’s people, their high professionalism, productivity and motivation to create best software solutions.
Be proactive: responsive project management and top-notch daily communication with clients is a must.
Carry about the product: our clients really treat a team from Solvd as an integral part of their teams. So partners and clients recognize us as a reliable partner who can consistently meet deadlines and commitments.
Always exceed expectations: turn it into a core value that your company gives to partners.
This was very inspiring. Thank you so much for joining us!
Never stop learning: While I had, shall we say, a hit-and-miss relationship with higher education, I consider myself a life-long learner, forever curious about the Next Big Thing.
As a part of my series about “Big Ideas That Might Change The World In The Next Few Years” I had the pleasure of interviewing Spencer Steliga.
Spencer Steliga is the Founder and CEO of shuddl, an innovative platform for sustainable B2B logistics for the Web3 era.
Spencer believes that supply chain can achieve a net neutral future via dismissing old ideas in favor of multi-party orchestration across enterprises. The inside out approach lends itself to immediate exception resolution, real time visibility, and a rapid efficiency increase for all organizations involved.
Thank you so much for doing this with us! Before we dig in, our readers would like to get to know you a bit. Can you please tell us a story about what brought you to this specific career path?
Growing up in the Chicago suburbs, I always wanted to be in sales, like my dad. But when I got into that field years later I discovered I was a horrible sales guy, while at the same time discovering that the product I was selling was substandard. I came to realize that I just had to create good products around me, because I want to be about something that brings me value. Then it’s very easy for me to sell it.
Can you please share with us the most interesting story that happened to you since you began your career?
I started my first business when I was 14, mulching neighbors’ yards in between two-a-day football practices in the late summer. I carried that through my junior year, at which point I had five other people working for me. So I would just have to drive around during two-a-days, rather than do the mulching.
Which principles or philosophies have guided your life? Your career?
There’s always more money. If I don’t pursue my purpose — whatever my brain decides that is — I’m going to get very, very ill, very, very quickly. I’m not just going to feel well as a human being. I wish I could tell you it was some conscious choice here, but I’m always in transition, and that transition has got to be an upward trajectory, or I’m in trouble.
Ok thank you for that. Let’s now move to the main focus of our interview. Can you tell us about your “Big Idea That Might Change The World”?
I founded Shuddl, an innovative on-demand cargo pick-up and delivery service in 2022, the idea being that efficiency solutions lie at the nexus of technology collaboration, relationships and experience. Our aim is to scale sustainability applications through resource optimization.
How do you think this will change the world?
Our payment structure is broken. Being a business owner and seeing how money actually flows drives that point home, as when somebody charges you 36 percent three times over, just to get food delivered from another country. A lot of people make a lot of money off of people not having immediate cash flow. Our company is going to change things by maximizing technology. I’m already putting in a dual-sided wallet, so I can real-time pay myself, basically. So that’s the driver’s wallet; it’s on him to get it out.
But as far as blockchain goes, we’re just scratching the surface. Nobody actually uses blockchain. When I finally got connected, it was through this Visa thought leader that introduced me to this girl. She’s the only one I could find that actually has something to do with blockchain.
Keeping “Black Mirror” and the “Law of Unintended Consequences” in mind, can you see any potential drawbacks about this idea that people should think more deeply about?
No. These innovative projects simplify tracking, reduce carbon footprints, allow for greater supply chain flexibility, and address major concerns in cybersecurity.
Was there a “tipping point” that led you to this idea? Can you tell us that story?
At one point in my life I was a commodities trader, and I really got into probability. Every single thing in my career has been based on some level of mathematical probability that I’ve followed and applied. So yeah, I like sustainability, but sustainability really follows probability, if you apply it correctly, because that follows efficiency.
What do you need to lead this idea to widespread adoption?
Awareness. Shuddl’s supply chain solutions hold the honest potential to solve a myriad of systemic frustrations in logistics & transportation. While everybody (to varying degrees) is aware that our supply chain is inflexible and wasteful, few know that the answers to many of our problems don’t require a paradigm shift.
The irony is that blockchain technology, for instance, isn’t new. Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT) has been around in other forms for decades. It was only when we started thinking comprehensively about unexamined applications in finance and data management that things like cryptocurrency and NFTs became available.
What are your “5 Things I Wish Someone Told Me Before I Started” and why.
Never stop learning: While I had, shall we say, a hit-and-miss relationship with higher education, I consider myself a life-long learner, forever curious about the Next Big Thing.
Embrace weirdness: I have no problem being the outlier. It’s actually, probably, where I’m the most comfortable. A lot of things don’t make sense to me. I wish I didn’t know a lot of things I do. It’s been an interesting ride, particularly these last two years, but I’ve loved them.
Understand the speed of life: The pace of learning in the world is perfect for my brain. There’s new stuff coming out every single day, and I fully embrace it.
Can you share with our readers what you think are the most important “success habits” or “success mindsets”?
Every single thing you think would be one’s weakness is probably my greatest asset to my career or my daily actions. I’ve been blessed with a lot of different experiences, and I always have a lot of ideas.
By leaning into my perceived weaknesses, I refused to let them become handicaps. In elementary school, it hinders your performance to daydream while you should be taking notes. As an entrepreneur, however, my creativity and enthusiasm for brilliant ideas are critical to my success.
Some very well known VCs read this column. If you had 60 seconds to make a pitch to a VC, what would you say? He or she might just see this if we tag them 🙂
We have an algorithm that predicts what space is going to be wasted at a future point in time that doesn’t exist yet. This technology can then pick up a vendor’s product at a given point in time and go across the country and deliver it at a different date and time. In essence, we’ve figured out mathematically what friend had an extra seat in their car to Coachella. That’s the best way to put it. Almost like carpooling, but for trailer space.
We’re also just scratching the surface with blockchain. I don’t believe that any transportation and logistics company is leveraging distributed ledger technology to its full effect — and it’s going to be crucial to supply chains moving forward.
Heroes Of The Homeless Crisis: How Evonne Biggs Of Venice Family Clinic Is Helping To Support Some Of The Most Vulnerable People In Our Communities
An Interview With Fotis Georgiadis
While it may be challenging, you don’t have to accept that working in homeless services is a Sisyphean task. We must maintain hope that we will one day create a fully functional system that is successfully designed to ease and eliminate suffering. The daily work to get there is often a challenge, but I remind myself daily not to accept the status quo and I believe that my work is a piece of the puzzle in creating more equitable systems.
As a part of my series about “Heroes Of The Homeless Crisis” I had the pleasure of interviewing Evonne Biggs, Program Manager, Homeless Services & Health Equity at Venice Family Clinic.
Evonne Biggs currently serves as the Program Manager for Homeless Services and Health Equity at Venice Family Clinic, a nonprofit community health center that provides care to over 45,000 people at 17 sites across the greater Los Angeles area, where she is responsible for the development, implementation and overall performance of the clinic’s homeless program, including its three mobile clinics and nine street medicine teams that deliver care directly to unhoused patients regardless of location.
Her educational background includes a Master of Public Health from California State University, Northridge, where her curiosity for identifying the root of health disparities among the most vulnerable began. Evonne has experience in providing direct care to families experiencing homelessness and previously served as a supervisor in the single adult interim housing and engagement service areas.
Evonne values serving as a catalyst for systemic change at the intersection of homelessness and healthcare, by both participating in and facilitating collaborative efforts with people who provide direct care, community partners and representatives of local government.
Thank you so much for joining us! Our readers would love to ‘get to know you’ a bit better. Can you tell us a bit about your personal background, and how you grew up?
I am the eldest of my siblings, born in Los Angeles, California. I spent most of my childhood in the rural area of northern Los Angeles County. I grew up with quite a few household pets and animals throughout my childhood, but my favorite were our horses. I’m slowly but surely getting back to the groove of horseback riding, as it is my happy place.
While our family of six didn’t live close to many of our extended family, we were faithful churchgoers. The folks we worshipped with every week became our family. I was introduced to people who continue to be in my life and heart to this very day. These people had a tremendous impact on my life in my formative years. I would say this church family was my introduction to the concept of interconnectedness and the importance of community support. Although my beliefs and practices have changed over time, I attribute my introduction to faith as a foundation to who I am and how I show up.
The most memorable parts of my childhood were the summer road trips I would take with my grandmother, her sisters and cousin to visit my great grandmother and extended family in Birmingham, Alabama. Exposure to the culture of southern hospitality and our rich family history made a lasting impact on my life. Although I was born and raised in Southern California, my grandmother’s southern roots are a part of my being. I think the time spent with these elders may have something to do with the “old soul” some recognize in me.
Is there a particular story or incident that inspired you to get involved in your work helping people who are homeless?
I was inspired by my Master of Public Health programming in graduate school. My curiosity deepened as we delved into investigating root causes of our health and social welfare outcomes. During the same time, I observed the community in which I lived. It was generally considered affluent but had plenty of areas where folks lived with less. When you walked the streets, there was a clear distinction between the haves and have nots. I continued to be curious about signs of increasing poverty that I witnessed in such a seemingly affluent area.
During my last year of graduate school, I took a grant writing elective that allowed me to dig into history of how the local community approached homelessness and the model of service. While I was curious about the activity in my environment, I also reflected on the complexity of navigating my own personal housing insecurity challenges despite having access to community support. My faith foundation reminded me of my responsibility to serve and do good. It was at that point when my mind shifted to wanting to help find a sustainable solution.
After finishing graduate school, I decided to take my newfound public health knowledge to the social service sector. I knew I wanted to design and implement programs and inform policy, but to do that I needed to understand what was happening on the front lines. I was blessed to be given the opportunity to understand the complex world of families who were experiencing homelessness and assist those in need. When I began my work at Venice Family Clinic, I was able to take what I learned from within the social service sector to establish the Clinic’s existing homeless services infrastructure. Although homeless services were by no means new to the Clinic, this experience helped me and my wonderful colleagues build sustainable structures that support the hardworking staff who treat and help patients experiencing homelessness.
Homelessness has been a problem for a long time in the United States. But it seems that it has gotten a lot worse over the past five years, particularly in the large cities, such as Los Angeles, New York, Seattle and San Francisco. Can you explain to our readers what brought us to this place? Where did this crisis come from?
At Venice Family Clinic, we take pride in the high quality comprehensive health care that we provide to families and individuals who might otherwise go without the care they need. 64% of our patients live below the federal poverty line, and we have pioneered a robust street medicine program featuring nine teams and three mobile clinics that treat people experiencing homelessness by delivering care directly to where it is needed.
While it is tempting to discuss the causes on a local or even individual level, I think it’s important to first explore the root causes of homelessness across America. I’m reminded about an experience from my childhood that might serve as a helpful metaphor: When I was younger, my brother and I were expected to tend to our front and back yard nearly every Saturday morning. My primary role was to pull weeds, and I hated it with a passion — eventually learning how to cook breakfast just to avoid this chore. And I learned that some tools made it easier to remove the visible weeds without getting my hands dirty, and that helped get me back inside faster.
Despite these handy tools, the weeds would quickly return, ready for me to struggle with them the next week. It didn’t take long to realize that the real solution to preventing this overgrowth was to attack the source of the issue — the roots themselves. So, I got down in the dirt, got my hands dirty and dug up the roots entirely.
This metaphor can be a helpful tool to understand homelessness: Where we find latent discriminatory practices, injustice is usually not far away. While stagnant wages, lack of affordable housing, mental illness and substance use are all key factors involved in homelessness, I would also point to a history of the general lack of equitable investment in all people. We need to recognize our nation’s history of discriminatory housing practices and redlining, which historically occurred nationwide and has evolved into questionable redistricting practices even today. These root injustices affect access to quality education, employment and even access to high-quality healthcare — something that we pride ourselves on providing to Venice Family Clinic’s patients, regardless of creed, income or immigration status.
As a society, I believe we have done more reacting to the homeless crisis than responding. While it is important to appreciate progress we’ve made to this point, we must also recognize that we have a long way to go as a society. We must continue to address immediate needs, but we must also be mindful in practically addressing long-term causes and consequences of the homelessness crisis. It is a balancing act: reacting is natural but responding is sustainable. Responding requires preparation and strategy. It also requires us to listen to, involve and properly compensate people with lived experience so we can make informed decisions and determine root causes.
At Venice Family Clinic, we try to respond to these root causes by providing quality healthcare to those in need in ways that address the whole person. We tend to our patients’ medical and behavioral health needs, whether in the clinic, on the street or in a shelter. We also provide connections to community resources and housing through our community partners, healthy food distributions to local communities through our health education programming and early child education for children and families of children 0–3 through our Early Head Start programming.
For the benefit of our readers, can you describe the typical progression of how one starts as a healthy young person with a place to live, a job, an education, a family support system, a social support system, a community support system, to an individual who is sleeping on the ground at night? How does that progression occur?
At Venice Family Clinic, we serve about 45,000 people each year — 91% of whom live below 200% of the federal poverty line and almost 5,000 of whom are experiencing homelessness.As the Clinic’s Program Manager for Homeless Services and Health Equity, I have found that one of the major challenges to addressing homelessness is that there is no typical progression. There are so many layers associated with how someone ends up sleeping in their car or on the sidewalk. I have encountered people experiencing homelessness who at one time had more wealth than I may ever see, and I have sat with people who have had the same experiences as me and just so happened to land in a different place. I oftentimes ask myself, why not me?
When I think of homelessness, my mind returns to the concept of root causes. I think about Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs), defined as potentially traumatic events that occur in childhood (0–17 years),the importance of healthy connections and the ability to rethink existing systems. As I reflect on my own story and hundreds more I have heard from people without a stable home, common themes appear: The need for access to tools to be successful in life and the connections that support healing and help people address their root issues.
Some who have high exposure to ACEs may find themselves in despair despite access to tools that support a healthy lifestyle (great education, material wealth, loving family and friends, etc.) because they were isolated from supporting connections and did not have the opportunity to do the hard work of addressing roots of harm they experienced. Others may have those connections but lack the proper tools to succeed.
While not everyone without these tools and connections will end up experiencing homelessness, it is clear to me that there is a direct correlation. There are times where the tools help us chop away at the weeds enough to present well, but the root issues were ignored and kept growing so that there was no way to sustain a healthy lifestyle. And without the proper tools to empower growth, those connections may still not be enough.
A question that many people who are not familiar with the intricacies of this problem ask is, “Why don’t homeless people just move to a city that has cheaper housing?” How do you answer this question?
Many people ask this question with good intentions, but I find that we often miss the opportunity to ask through the lens of equity. Under our current climate, cheaper housing often correlates with less available resources to help stabilize and support folks who are just coming out of homelessness.
For people who have recently experienced homelessness, there is often an adjustment, and sometimes even grief, associated with moving away from social support. This could contribute to having another experience with homelessness at worse, and difficulty in adjusting and accessing much needed resources at best. Social support and equitable access to resources are vital, so cheaper housing in and of itself doesn’t always solve for everything.
Housing is crucial to our health and ability to thrive, but so is the quality of the larger environment and community that surrounds the place where one lives. Ideally, we want to create an environment that makes room for individuals to self-determine and tap into their own values as they work with the social service professionals to exit from homelessness.
When I was a Housing Navigator for a previous organization, there was a concerted effort to have people move to the Antelope Valley because it was cheaper to live there. This was no malicious act, and not unique to this organization, but it was a solution made with limited options and not enough consideration for the local environment — what we call a ‘community health assessment.’ What wasn’t considered was the lack of available resources for those people to continue care with their existing healthcare team, inadequate transportation to attend important appointments, school and work and limited access to schools with adequate resources for students. So yes, the housing was cheaper, but for many people it was not the healthiest move.
If someone passes a homeless person on the street, what is the best way to help them?
I would encourage people to practice empathy and be willing to safely acknowledge our unhoused neighbors. I know from personal experience that a simple smile goes a long way, and I will always engage if a conversation is started. My daughter is involved in a club at her school which creates hygiene packets. She makes sure I have hygiene packets with a flyer with resources listed in my car, so we can hand them out if needed.
For people experiencing homelessness who need access to quality health care and lack money or insurance, we welcome them to contact Venice Family Clinic. We have 17 brick-and-mortar locations across Los Angeles with 500+ staff members and almost 1400 volunteers, as well asnine street medicine teams and three mobile outreach clinics. At Venice Family Clinic, we see almost 5,000 patients experiencing homelessness annually, and we are always here to help however we can — whether that is through direct medical care and counseling, medical and housing referrals or even if you just need someone to talk to.
What is the best way to respond if a homeless person asks for money for rent or gas?
If a person has the means to give cash, and this action is consistent with their values, then giving money is great. I believe in the effectiveness of mutual aid and communal care, having personally benefitted from both, and I will be forever thankful my community was able to assist.
On a larger scale, as a society we must make it a priority to address the complexities of financial insecurity and homeless prevention. I believe the knowledge and experience of community organizations offering these resources, like Venice Family Clinic, will be invaluable to helping those experiencing homelessness access the wraparound services they need.
Can you describe to our readers how your work is making an impact battling this crisis?
I know that my work overseeing projects that improve access to quality healthcare to people experiencing homelessness has an impact, and I understand the importance of having basic needs met in a way that allows for services to be delivered with dignity. Projects that I oversee, like building customized mobile clinics, allows patients better access to care while making room for clinicians to engage with their patients’ complex needs in meaningful ways. Another example, Venice Family Clinic’s street medicine training program and curriculum, has helped educate residents, medical students and healthcare professionals across the nation on best practices in treating and helping our unhoused neighbors. With the help of Clinic partners and using the knowledge I’ve gained from professional and personal experience, I work to update patient care operations, inform advocacy opportunities and continuously improve our Clinic’s high standard of care for all of our patients — regardless of their housing status.
How has the COVID-19 pandemic affected the homeless crisis, and the homeless community? Also how has it affected your ability to help people?
I often refer to 2020 as the year of vision. While there has been so much misfortune throughout the pandemic, I believe the silver lining is that we have been given a glimpse of what must be done differently. The pandemic caused immense suffering, but it also shone a light on growing health and social inequities along with lack of safe and affordable housing nationwide — factors that significantly impact and contribute to people experiencing homelessness.
Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, Venice Family Clinic never closed. Instead, with the help of telehealth and our resourceful staff, we made significant updates to the Clinic’s infrastructure to meet the needs of our patients. This included using telemedicine to diagnose and treat patients, providing pop-up and mobile COVID tests and vaccines, and addressing social determinants of health beyond COVID-19 by hosting food drives and working with partners to identify housing for those without. This has been a natural evolution in Venice Family Clinic’s mission to treat our patients as a whole person by taking care of needs that go beyond basic medical care.
Can you share something about your work that makes you most proud? Is there a particular story or incident that you found most uplifting?
Although most of my current work is behind the scenes, I am most proud when I can see how the work has impacted the people we strive to serve. I recently ran into a former program participant of mine who had previously experienced homelessness. Being able to have a candid conversation with this person who is now housed, and especially seeing their children thrive, was such an uplifting moment. We talked about the challenges we both faced as they relied on me to assist with navigating their experience with homelessness and their journey to secure permanent housing. They explained to me how helpful it was to have access to supportive services at the time. In addition to securing a place to live, those services allowed them to reconnect with their community, expanded their social support and helped introduce them to new ways of thinking and being.
Without sharing real names, can you share a story with our readers about a particular individual who was impacted or helped by your work?
I can recall an individual patient whose needs I helped address during my time providing direct services. Together, this experience and this person encouraged me to work more closely at the intersection of healthcare and homelessness. The individual was a parent who reentered the coordinated entry system, or the network that aligns homeless services in Los Angeles County, on multiple occasions. They regularly experienced housing and employment instability and had a challenging relationship with the other parent of her children.
During a scheduled session, the patient revealed she was expecting another child. She said she felt some shame in this declaration, as it appeared that each time she returned, there was another addition to the family. I took a deeper dive into the intake questions about previous healthcare interactions and current connections and discovered the patient did not have adequate health coverage and very little access to reproductive healthcare. I shared a nearby community health center’s information and helped connect the patient to supportive medical and behavioral health services. After a series of health center visits, the patient was able to engage in creating a housing plan and meet the goals she set to safely house her family. She continued to work with case managers to assist her family in stabilizing in their new home. That small, extra step I took helped ensure this patient was able to address her most basic needs with dignity and put her on a pathway to creating a better quality of life for herself and her children.
Can you share three things that the community and society can do to help you address the root of this crisis? Can you give some examples?
First, I encourage people to do a heart scan. I believe an invitation to open your heart will eventually lead to changed minds. A regular examination and critique of one’s values can keep us grounded, and hopefully help us understand how we can contribute to fixing this crisis.
When I think about root causes of homelessness, I think about the need for shared equitable power. I would encourage communities to examine the ways in which they are complicit in upholding systems of oppression. These oppressive systems leave one unimaginative and unable to dream dreams outside of the structures built for them. As I reflect on my own experiences, I would compare this to the hard work of kneeling to the ground in the garden and digging up roots with our hands, as opposed to using tools to temporarily paper over the problem.
Lastly, I would encourage communities to support advocacy efforts that promote affordable housing solutions and the overall health of the communities in which they live.
If you had the power to influence legislation, which three laws would you like to see introduced that might help you in your work?
Expand protections from discriminatory practices as outlined in our Fair Housing Act and ensure that safe and healthy housing be formally recognized as a human right.
Ensure equitable access to health care, which includes access to skilled nursing facilities and specialty treatment accommodations, through a healthy balance of private and public resources that are responsibly regulated.
Expand Medi-Cal’s and Medicaid’s respective abilities to ensure reimbursement for nontraditional delivery of care, including important services like street medicine.
I know that this is not easy work. What keeps you going?
When I was providing direct services to people experiencing homelessness, I came to realize that I had the heart for the work that I was doing but not the stomach. I had to tap into understanding my unique talents, and I realized that working towards self-actualization is a major part of what keeps me doing this work. Most importantly, I ground myself in a “love ethic.” One of my favorite authors, Gloria Jean Watkins who also goes by her pen name “bell hooks,” defines this love ethic as utilizing all dimensions of love including care, commitment, trust, responsibility, respect and knowledge.
I feel a responsibility to make positive and sustainable changes for communities in need, and a personal responsibility to care and have respect for fellow human beings. Although it is sometimes a heavy lift, I commit myself to be a lifelong learner. I believe it is important to evolve our thinking by constantly learning and adapting as circumstances change. There are always new ways of being and new ways of doing to be discovered. That simple fact keeps me going and gives me the hope needed to continue to work to improve the world around me.
Do you have hope that one day this great social challenge can be solved completely?
I do believe the challenge of homeless has potential to be solved completely. At minimum, I believe we can both achieve and maintain “Functional Zero,” or the point when a community’s homeless services system is able to prevent homelessness whenever possible and ensure that when homelessness does occur, it is rare, brief and one-time.
However, there are times when I question whether my hopes are too lofty. For positive change to be sustained, there will need to be a complete change of hearts and minds. While I would like to remain systems focused, I believe it will take all of us as a collective to be brave enough to examine, uproot and rebuild equitable systems. That is a heavy lift, but I believe it can be done. Maybe not in my lifetime, but it can be made possible if the foundational work is done now.
What are your “5 things I wish someone told me when I first started” and why. Please share a story or example for each.
Having the heart to serve is oftentimes not enough, you also must have the stomach for this work. I have the heart of a helper, but I wish I was prepared for the challenges and energy exchange that often occurred as I stepped into another person’s world. Sometimes it was too much, and I found myself ill-equipped to walk alongside a person whose burdens were so heavy.If I had originally approached my work with this mentality, I would have entered my current career path as a program manager and thought leader sooner and been better able to provide guidance that enhances the delivery of care.
Eventually, you will see yourself in those who you serve. This will be your opportunity to look away from the mirror or continue to explore your own path, privileges and vulnerabilities. I thought I knew how vulnerable I was to circumstance and environment before I began my work, but the more people I engaged with the more I realized it. Throughout my work, I met people with similar experiences who took far different paths. To this day, I continue to explore the factors that create different outcomes between patients so that we can better learn how to proactively assist those in need.
Establish strong boundaries and prioritize both self and communal care. This should have been a given, but I did not understand personal boundaries early on and my self-care was subpar. I came in as the helper, the giver, a mother and with the baggage of the older child syndrome. There is so much information out now around best practices for those in helping professions. However, this is one area I wish I would have grasped earlier on.
It is important to “tune” your voice for the appropriate audience: As one example, some people may not understand that dark humor often serves as a coping mechanism for healthcare workers. Those who know me intimately know that I can be extremely goofy and will rarely pass up a good laugh. Often, I laugh to keep from crying when I work. Selectively engaging with people who have a fully intact sense of humor, despite their unfortunate situations, allows me to connect with them effortlessly, but it doesn’t always translate well to the general population. I have learned to tune, or adapt, my voice to better communicate with different audiences and care for individual patients depending on their needs and sensitivities.
While it may be challenging, you don’t have to accept that working in homeless services is a Sisyphean task. We must maintain hope that we will one day create a fully functional system that is successfully designed to ease and eliminate suffering. The daily work to get there is often a challenge, but I remind myself daily not to accept the status quo and I believe that my work is a piece of the puzzle in creating more equitable systems.
You are a person of enormous influence. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger. 🙂
I would propose that each community participate in coordinated efforts to address the needs of their neighbors experiencing homelessness, right where they are. These communities would be filled with people who have embraced a change of perspective, and an open heart as to who they consider their neighbor. No more pushing people out because they no longer fit in the boxes we deem acceptable.
In an ideal world, moving people away or relocating people would be a last case scenario. I would propose each community embody the value of communal wealth, where it would be the collective responsibility of everyone to gather resources to tend to the needs of the most vulnerable among us. This would mean equipping all communities with myriad supportive services to assist people in times of need, while also ensuring equitable systems are in place to prevent future misfortune. Each community would be equipped to foster a sense of belonging for those who choose to be a part of it, without fear of being “othered” and cast aside.
Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share how that was relevant to you in your life?
My personal favorite is a quote from Octavia Butler: “I can write my own stories, and I can write myself in.”
This quote is relevant to me personally because I have lived a life in which I believed I needed to show up in a specific way to get things done the “right” way — to follow rules and not make messes, to stay in my lane and the boxes I created for self.
As I do my inner work, I cannot help but see the parallels in how we approach many social challenges. Determining how I want to show up requires me to give myself permission to imagine a story that is mine, without thinking about the outside gaze. It allows me to be brave when I speak about oppression and unfair practices. It allows me to ask questions that may not have immediate answers and be okay with uncomfortable silence as others do the hard work of processing.
Is there a person in the world, or in the US whom you would love to have a private breakfast or lunch with, and why? He or she might just see this, especially if we tag them. 🙂
This is a tough one! The first person which comes to mind is Dr. Wilda Gafney. She is a biblical scholar, priest and professor of Hebrew studies who engages in womanist thought. As previously mentioned, my faith foundation sustains me, but my faith journey has not been without struggle. Dr. Gafney’s work transformed my way of thinking and paved the way for renewed hope. I’m not sure if I would be so chatty if I was in her presence though — I would definitely be ‘fangirling’ the entire time.
How can our readers follow you online?
For more information about how I am working with Venice Family Clinic to address the homelessness crisis and assist communities across Los Angeles and the nation, please visit our Clinic’s website https://venicefamilyclinic.org/ and follow us on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and LinkedIn.
Find the right investors, not just the first investors: I can get into many horror stories but will just say it is much, much easier and more effective to grow a company with investors that you trust and can bring something to the table vs. just money, especially if this IS your first rodeo.
As a part of our series called “Making Something From Nothing”, I had the pleasure of interviewing Ned Hill.
Ned Hill is the founder and CEO of Position Imaging (PI), a pioneer in advanced tracking technologies. Under Ned’s strategic vision and guidance, PI has developed industry leading AI and computer vision-based platforms, Smart Package Room and iPickup, that improve package delivery logistics efficiency for residential and retail markets. He has also raised over $40 million in funding, driven technology, product, and application development, and created a global partner ecosystem including industry leading couriers, hardware and software companies, and service providers. Ned graduated from University of Massachusetts, Amherst with a B.S. in Economics and is the inventor or co-inventor of over 60+ patents/patent applications. He has been a leading industry speaker on topics such as eCommerce Fulfillment, Asset Tracking Technology, Smart Retail Technology and Artificial Intelligence.
Thank you so much for doing this with us! Before we dive in, our readers would love to learn a bit more about you. Can you tell us a bit about your “childhood backstory”?
Sure. I am the product of a single mom with an absentee dad, living hand to mouth for most of my childhood. My father was always the “unfulfilled potential” example to me growing up; a brilliant mind, full boat through Harvard MBA, a great athlete (won state tennis singles championship), great career with the Navy, etc. But, he never lived up to his potential. He was a problem drinker and lacked the drive and work ethic that are crucial to success in business and life. My mom always taught me that no matter how smart you think you are, if you don’t put in the work, you will never amount to what you could be in life. That lesson combined with being a relatively poor kid taught me that if I wanted to make something out of my life and live without the same financial hardships I knew as a kid, I better get to work!
Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share how that was relevant to you in your life?
I have several Life Lessons that I repeat here at the company all the time. As strange as it sounds, I think you can really help yourself through difficult times if you remind yourself of certain key quotes or sayings that you have in your back pocket.
One saying I often use is the question: “How do you eat an elephant?”….One bite at a time!” This is particularly useful to our company as we work to make an enormous impact in the world and as a small company we need to be focused and not get overwhelmed by the gravity of the venture as a whole. Stay focused on the small bites and before you know it, you’ve eaten an elephant!
Another saying I use often at work and at home is “The hard road and the right road are often the same.” Sometimes you are faced with difficult decisions on paths to take in work and in life. Most times, if you really analyze the options, the harder roads are the right ones, even though it is human nature to take the easier path, because, well, it’s easier! I’m not saying you should always take the harder road, I’m not a masochist! BUT, I do think that if you look back at the important choices you have made in your life, most of the right decisions were also the heaviest lifts….
Another saying I use all the time is “He who laughs last, laughs best.” I remind my teammates and my son often that this is a very powerful notion and true aspect of life. If you’ve put up the hard work, remain focused on your convictions, and believe in yourself, you will end up in a good place and will be able to laugh knowing, in the end, you were right and earned the rewards!!
Is there a particular book, podcast, or film that made a significant impact on you? Can you share a story or explain why it resonated with you so much?
Glengarry Glen Ross is a movie that struck me as a kid. First, it was tense and showed a sign of sales that is dark and scary. I never wanted to end up in a boiler room schlepping products or services like they did in this movie. That was very depressing to me and guided me to avoid ending up in that environment. Second, it showed a good tool in sales, “ABC” (Always Be Closing). While I don’t subscribe to pressure sales, I do appreciate that even if you aren’t willing to become a prototypical pushy salesperson, you still need to ask for the order!
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 often say there are millions of million dollar ideas and the reality is, that’s true. There is no shortage of great ideas but only a few have the “stuff” to become actual businesses. Although I could never be the judge and jury on idea quality, I can say there are some helpful guidelines to narrow the field.
The first is that you need both uniqueness and leverage for a winning product. Important elements of your solution should be either difficulty to replicate or painful to get around. These elements can be from patents, trade secrets, special teams, or key relationships with big partners in the industry you are targeting. Somewhere in your solution there needs to be a protectable position because, if the market opportunity is big enough, big players will eventually come in to challenge you. As Archimedes said, “Give me a place to stand and a lever long enough and I will move the world”. In this case, know where to stand (what are your strengths) and develop that lever with relationships and/or IP and you can leverage and, if done right and with some luck, you CAN actually move the world!
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 think one of the most under-utilized resources when evaluating new ideas is doing patent searches. When you develop your idea into a tight and concise description, you can either have a patent attorney do some research or you can do it yourself (made much easier today via uspto.gov). Issued patents can tell you not only what is already protected, they can also tell you what is NOT protected. If something isn’t protected yet, then you have a good path ahead. If something is already patented, that also may be OK because every good idea is based on other existing products or ideas. You can use those existing patents/products to either circumvent the patented solution or think about what is next AFTER this patented solution. Thinking two steps ahead is always a better approach for both getting patents and getting to a truly unique and trailblazing solution. Don’t think about how great your product may be today, think about how great the NEXT product is going to be tomorrow and use that knowledge of the existing patents/products to help get to that next product.
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 steps for getting products to market are many but I would always start with a patent search on your idea. This tells you if you need to innovate beyond the initial idea (in case the idea is already patented) or file a patent on your concept. You need to produce a description of the product and then use those key phrases to do a patent search. You can do these initial searches yourself and then, depending on the results, bring in a patent attorney to do a formal search.
Once you have developed the patent concept and filed an application, you can work to build that innovative product. You may have to do some work to build this product but you’ll need something because in the end, very rarely will anyone fund or sell just an idea. So, this is where you put in the work and potentially where you have to spend some money. This initial product may be a proof of concept or simple prototype but without it, you just have an idea, and that just isn’t enough.
After you have developed this product, you can start to look for the right partner to help you sell it. But, this partner will need to be convinced you have something that is protected and valuable and after filing the patent (so you can tell them it’s “patent pending”), you need to produce metrics to show how big the opportunity is, who your customer is, and how you are going to execute. This business plan doesn’t need to be a 1000 page report but does need to be compelling. You need to do your homework and show why this is an important product/solution in a large and growing market. This takes doing your homework, a lot of homework, but needs to be done because you won’t convince anyone to invest or partner with you if you haven’t done your research to show why you may have the next killer product opportunity.
What are your “5 Things I Wish Someone Told Me When I First Started Leading My Company” and why?
Find the right investors, not just the first investors: I can get into many horror stories but will just say it is much, much easier and more effective to grow a company with investors that you trust and can bring something to the table vs. just money, especially if this IS your first rodeo.
People love to be naysayers or tell you that “they” thought of this before: Forget about them, they are jealous of your drive and ambition. Stay focused, take any empirical data from them that makes sense, then forget the rest. This is your baby and you should know that if you are honest and true, you will overcome limitations or shortcomings in your product (it’s never perfect and the best products evolve with real world data).
It’s harder and will take longer than you think: The days of killer apps getting funded then bought for huge money are over. You need to do the work to create something unique and valuable and that takes time. Be prepared for that. This is a marathon, not a sprint.
You can do more than you think: When I started, I used to leave the “tech” talk to others and just be the “idea guy”. That was a lazy and unrealistic position and cost me in the end. You need to become an expert in all things or at least well versed in all aspects of your company. This will help you, the product, the company, and your likelihood of success.
Find a great life partner: Entrepreneurship is hard and is a long road. If you have a good spouse or life partner by your side that will support your hard work and understand the kind of grind you will endure to get this dream realized, then you have already won, the rest is house money. Coming home to a loving partner will be invaluable to your efforts when most of the day will be dealing with people telling you no or that your idea isn’t good. You need support and if you are lucky enough to find that person, I’d say you’re lucky enough.
Let’s imagine that a reader reading this interview has an idea for a product that they would like to invent. What are the first few steps that you would recommend that they take?
I would do a ton of research on the market the product idea would be addressing and see what else is out there. If the market is clear of competitors or even if it has competitors but you can evolve the product idea into something that is better than what is currently out there, then you’re ready to do some patent searching. When both market competition and patents look clear, then you’re ready to file your patent to at least get to that critical “patent pending” status. When you have patent pending status, you show that there is something that MAY be protectable AND you have a confidential position to leverage (no one can see your patent details when it’s pending). When this product and patent research work is done, then you’re on the way to build it!!
There are many invention development consultants. Would you recommend that a person with a new idea hire such a consultant, or should they try to strike out on their own?
NEVER, EVER hire a product consultant to do the work for you. For one thing, they likely don’t know as much about the product or market as you do. They also would rob you from doing the critical research to identify and codify the product opportunity. You need to learn about what you are trying to build, not use someone else to do it for you. Strike out on your own, make mistakes, and if you have to, bring others in to help you with the work, but not do it for you.
What are your thoughts about bootstrapping vs looking for venture capital? What is the best way to decide if you should do either one?
I am a big fan of bootstrapping vs. venture capital but in the end, it’s likely a moot point anyway. Unless you are a Nobel laureate, no VC will fund you unless you have done some bootstrapping to bring the solution far enough along to fund. Those paper napkin blank check days are over! Do the work, bootstrapping as you go, and eventually, if needed, you’ll find the money.
Ok. We are nearly done. Here are our final questions. How have you used your success to make the world a better place?
I look around my company, at the great people that I get to work with everyday, and know that if I didn’t take the risks and work this hard and eat crow for years, none of these people would be working here. I am lucky enough to have created a special company with a unique culture that I guarantee will lead to other future companies and future innovations. In the end, these people will make the world a better place. Using the scar tissue I now have to help my team prepare themselves for their next adventures, mentoring them to become the next great business and technology leaders in the US, is a huge source of pride in what I do and energizes me to keep pushing ahead.
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 am personally committed to giving back after my company. “Giving back” doesn’t mean donating money because that would be the easy part. After the journey I have had creating technologies/products and the lessons I have learned as a result, I realized long ago that after I leave this company, I will apply that experience to other pressing issues that are important to me. I have become a technologist and product person from this work and am committed to leverage that knowledge to help the world mitigate climate change.
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.
Steve Jobs was always a hero in business to me and incredibly we have people in this company that used to work with Steve. I always wanted to meet and engage with him on product and technology challenges but sadly he is no longer with us. Today there are many people that I think are groundbreakers; Jeff Bezos, Bill Gates, Brian Cornell, Max Levchin, Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz, Dean Kamen, and of course, Tom Brady!….OK, I’m a big Patriots fan!
Thank you for these fantastic insights. We greatly appreciate the time you spent on this.
Communication is a two way street. Allow room for the recipient to process the feedback, make comments and ask questions. It’s important the feedback loop remains open until all items for discussion are addressed with an acceptable degree of closure.
As a part of our series about “How To Give Honest Feedback without Being Hurtful”, I had the pleasure of interviewing Sasha Laghonh.
Sasha is a Founder and Entrepreneur of an educational and entertainment platform that integrates self & professional development into nurturing meaningful outcomes. As a speaker, broadcaster and author, she partners alongside different clients to capitalize upon their talent and resources. She is the host in residence for KreativeCircle.com and Global Ambassador for Style My Soul, a Lifestyle & Interests Community. To learn more, please visit www.sashatalks.com.
Thank you so much for joining us! Our readers would love to “get to know you” a bit better. Can you tell us a bit about your ‘backstory’ and how you got started?
I hail from a business background having contributed to the private and public sectors among a wide variety of industries. This granted me an opportunity to better understand how to manage different types of businesses from an agile and waterfall perspective. Over time these lessons needed to be shared through a versatile outlet with business minds and individuals wanting to evolve with their performance management skills in life. Sasha Talks was founded on the premise to focus on the human condition of the mind and heart which require learning how to live an impactful life.
What do you think makes your company stand out? Can you share a story?
Sasha Talks focuses on integrating the deeper layers of human insights by exploring different dimensions of the mind and human behavior which contribute to performance enhancement. At one point it was perceived to be an informational source rather than the community it has become over the past decade. What stands out are the people that I’ve collaborated with who host remarkable grit to earn their merit as well exhibit strength to overcome challenging conditions from failures to tragedies in their lives; YET they still choose to operate from a place of love instead of fear. When I think of the community, I think of a beating heart which translates to life thriving among us.
Whether a person is down on their luck or they feel the odds are against them, I believe the world of Sasha Talks can clearly convey that our setbacks in life sometimes serve as a set-up for the stories we’re meant to actualize through our belief & efforts. Move forward and onward — it is easier said than done but it’s worth the effort. I have never honored any other opportunity that has taught and challenged me at the same time teaching me the human capacity to love life in its rawest form. We’re conditioned by society to appreciate things and people when they become the ‘finished product’ but in reality we’re all works in progress. This in essence is an on-going lesson for how I can take better care of myself.
In hindsight, most of my engagements through collaborations stress the theme of detachment. When we focus on the present by detaching our emotions and expectations for the future, we’re able to perform better by clarifying our focus on what we can control within our human means today.
Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you started your career?
I would say meeting people that I’ve looked up to as professional contributors and role models. I believe focusing on my work and letting it speak for itself has helped. Sooner or later the right people seek me out.
Can you share a story about the funniest mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lesson you learned from that?
I partnered with an academic institution to recruit senior talents for a program. Instead of telling me they had pre-selected the candidates to meet with me, they had forwarded the profiles for consideration without context. I thought they were prospective clients instead of candidates seeking to work alongside me. The crossing of wires resulted in botched communication leading the candidates to believe they applied for the wrong opportunity. I’ve learned when working with a team of people, especially external parties, to always reiterate the content of the message because people have a bad habit of initiating side dialogues which have no relevance to the core matter at hand.
What advice would you give to other CEOs and business leaders to help their employees to thrive and avoid burnout?
Make an effort up front to learn how your employees work well optimally together. Subjecting everyone to adhere to a fixed cadence will compromise the quality of communication, information flow and productivity over time. Understanding people have priorities outside of work can allow creative ways of working which welcomes input from contributors within the company. The top down command and control environments are slowly becoming extinct because employees have become proactive in seeking a professional environment that aligns with their needs.
How do you define “Leadership”? Can you explain what you mean or give an example?
Knowing yourself before guiding others to actualize their best potential when honoring a mission. The best leaders that I have witnessed are those that know themselves well from their strengths to their weaknesses. There is a human thread of vulnerability that welcomes people to trust their guidance; at the same time inviting people to share constructive feedback. A leader doesn’t necessarily work out of a 20th floor loft overseeing a city view, a leader resides within each one of us. A leader exists from within the crossing guard at a kid’s school to someone helping an elderly member shop at a grocery store.
In my work, I often talk about how to release and relieve stress. As a busy leader, what do you do to prepare your mind and body before a stressful or high stakes meeting, talk, or decision? Can you share a story or some examples?
I typically adhere to a self imposed rule of blocking out at least half an hour, or one hour of time prior to an important engagement. If the stakes are high, I will block out more time so I will not allow distractions to enter my mind and physical space.This may even extend to not entertaining calls, or any form of correspondence. I can use the time to enjoy a good cup of tea, listen to music to ease any angst of the day, review a preread, or sit still without having the urge to ‘do something’ for the sake of it. I’ve come a long way in my development that I can sit still without feeling guilty. If it’s a major decision, 9 out of 10 times I will sleep on it. I’m a walking alarm clock on some days due to the number of engagements I need to honor. If there are time constraints, I recommend people to focus on their sleep and hydration leading up to their big engagement.
Ok, let’s jump to the core of our interview. Can you briefly tell our readers about your experience with managing a team and giving feedback?
I’ve managed teams of varying scale and scope when it comes to business, sports and social engagements. Context matters when providing feedback given the objective of feedback and the recipients receiving it. It’s important to craft the feedback in a manner that yields a respectable utility value. Communicate it in a dignified manner by stressing the objective of the feedback by ensuring the successes are mentioned as well the opportunities for further learning are addressed. If the constructive guidance provides value then the recipient will likely apply it in their next engagement, including other areas of their life. It’s rare that our life experiences are so isolated that they can’t translate to lessons for other people.
Some feedback is crucial to deliver in person, on a video call or even a phone call. Other feedback is viable to address in writing if necessary. I prefer the live method because acknowledging the recipients in real-time is important to me because I want to know their thoughts and reactions which provide an opportunity to explore a conversation while allowing me to answer their questions even though they can follow up later in time. Such conversations hold the most value in the present. For example, when the feedback is delayed, it creates a vacuum for any behavior modification to take place sooner. Also voicing appreciation should not be delayed. Feedback can be celebratory, informational, acknowledgment of effort, a quick check-in; etc. Feedback is basically communication. It’s important to me that I treat people with the respect that I would appreciate in return when it comes to feedback. We can only grow together as a whole, otherwise we’re all scattered pieces waiting for something to miraculously glue our efforts together. I know how it is to be on the receiving end of feedback that I’m sensitive to acknowledging the presence of other members.
This might seem intuitive but it will be constructive to spell it out. Can you share with us a few reasons why giving honest and direct feedback is essential to being an effective leader?
Honest and direct feedback is essential for an individual to develop themselves to reach their best potential. Sugar coating concerns doesn’t allow anyone to achieve their best potential, instead the leader is throwing a hurdle in this person’s path or even drilling a pothole for the individual to trip over themselves later in time. Direct feedback delivered with integrity saves time, energy and resources for people to move forward in terms of ROI.
There are leaders who struggle with providing authentic feedback because they, by nature, lack the ability to be honest with themselves; therefore they project their personal dilemmas onto others in their role. Sometimes the leaders are honest with themselves but they lack the skill to exercise effective communication skills because they make it about themselves in some fashion. When the feedback is strictly addressed in a specific context, it’s not impossible to be honest and direct.
The word honest has questionable stigma attached to it. If people respect themselves, they are likely to respect others through exercising honesty. It’s not always the delivery of the honesty that can be overwhelming for one but handling the recipient’s reaction in response to the honesty. This is why it’s important to be mindful of the tone, diction, timing and setting of how the feedback is delivered. It may not be the feedback that upsets a person but the lack of situational awareness of how the message is delivered. If a leader knows how to read a situation well, then they should be able to provide feedback that can only benefit them and the overall group. If the leader is trusted to do well, providing respectful yet truthful feedback is an opportunity to contribute to an individual’s personal and professional growth.
One of the trickiest parts of managing a team is giving honest feedback, in a way that doesn’t come across as too harsh. Can you please share with us five suggestions about how to best give constructive criticism to a remote employee? Kindly share a story or example for each.
Respect. All feedback should have an objective so the sender and recipient of the feedback understand why the conversation is taking place. Craft the message and/or plan the conversation in an organized manner. Have your key points ready to discuss including action items and questions you may have for the recipient. This is professional feedback not a session to dispense personal opinions or to shoot the breeze. Respect all aspects (the recipient & the message) of the meeting at all times.
Timing. Pick a time that works for both parties without being rushed during the conversation. If these are regular feedback meetings that occur on a cadence, then a 15 minute or half an hour block works. Otherwise quarterly, semi-annual or annual meetings deserve a greater time block. If this meeting is on the calendar, then create a running agenda where the recipient can add their topics to discuss prior to the meeting.
Mind your words. What and how you communicate needs to deliver value by assuring the employee they are acknowledged, valued and how their contribution impacts their professional environment. Stay on point, make each word count without relying on filler words. Honest and direct feedback works best. Employees respect employers who respect their time and character. No one wants to be lied to with false promises. Serious matters need to be addressed in a sensitive yet firm matter. The recipient shouldn’t have to think whether you’re making a statement or asking them a question. Be clear to avoid misunderstandings.
Empathy. You’re human and so is the recipient of the feedback. Be in the moment. Communicate in a dignified manner while allowing yourself to acknowledge the reactions and responses in return. Do not make it about you, nor should you become defensive if questioned about the feedback. Take accountability of your feedback rather than blaming the content of the feedback on another member to avoid any rebuttals.
Communication is a two way street. Allow room for the recipient to process the feedback, make comments and ask questions. It’s important the feedback loop remains open until all items for discussion are addressed with an acceptable degree of closure.
Can you address how to give constructive feedback over email? If someone is in front of you much of the nuance can be picked up in facial expressions and body language. But not when someone is remote. How do you prevent the email from sounding too critical or harsh?
Email can be impersonal at times since it lacks the tone and inflection that is needed for such situations. Emojis do not count nor are they appropriate for such conversations. Constructive feedback can still be given in a formal yet amicable manner by focusing on the content and formatting of the feedback. Again, context matters. If this is a regular member of the team or an acquaintance offering feedback, it makes sense to consider the professional relationship in how you manage to frame the message. It’s not always the feedback that is harsh but rather the recipients are not seasoned enough in character and personality to co-exist with such realities of life.
Feedback can range from telling one employee to work on their personality and demeanor in how they interact with their colleagues to another member being coached on how to better execute a leadership meeting. For example, it’s important to approach the feedback with care in writing and in live circumstances by knowing whether it’s a task/performance based matter, or a character development that requires attention. Certain types of feedback, per company protocol, require vetted members (i.e. HR, senior manager or a vetted witness) to be on the email message for record keeping and performance tracking purposes. When it comes to everyday collaborations and feedback, it is best to keep it solely among those that are engaging one another for a professional task. The feedback’s goal is to accomplish progress in some form, not extend invitations for reprimands. Feedback should also be shared when there is progress exhibited, achievement in real-time and moments when extraordinary effort is invested by members.
Feedback should be executed with balance in mind. Be generous with justifiable praise. Be mindful in how you extend constructive feedback. When there is nothing to say on either counts, remain silent and patient. The passage of time always provides some material to assess and report on whether there is progress, no change or cause for potential concern.
In your experience, is there a best time to give feedback or critique? Should it be immediately after an incident? Should it be at a different time? Should it be at set intervals? Can you explain what you mean?
It depends what the critique is for at work. If it’s about a major board meeting that took place then it makes sense to schedule a debrief following the event within the same week to discuss the hits, misses and next times that can be taken into consideration. If it’s critique for on-going work, then it can possibly be integrated in a weekly, or set 1:1 meeting with the manager or member managing the progress. When the feedback is related to small day to day items, the critique should be given in real-time when it happens, or after it happens when there is an appropriate time, place and audience present. Some feedback is casual that can be shared in general before people so others can learn too; other feedback is critical yet sensitive which should be delivered in only the presence of the recipient.
The convenience of logistics should not trump integrity and respect when providing feedback.
How would you define what it is to “be a great boss”? Can you share a story?
A great boss is someone that is confident in themselves while being aware of their strengths and weaknesses. All of whom I regard as great bosses were grounded people who were people of integrity, fair, strong communicators and foremost they didn’t care whether people liked them. They were still human but they didn’t hide it. They encouraged people to actualize their best selves.
It reminds me of a quote by Seth Godin, “ If you’re remarkable, it’s likely some people won’t like you. The best the timid can hope for is to be unnoticed. Criticism comes to those who stand out.”
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. 🙂
Since it’s the holiday season, it’s an opportunity for all of us to assess our belongings and decide whether there are items which qualify for donations to help those in need. Whether it’s an item that was bought a while ago and not used, or an item rarely used, there are charities in need of donations since demand is high and supply is low. Sharing new items is always welcomed. If sharing physical items isn’t an option, there are charities that welcome written letters that are shared with the elderly, military personnel and children situated in different circumstances. If people know creative ways of alleviating another person’s loneliness this holiday season, extend that hello and let them know.
Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share how that was relevant to you in your life?
No one is going to pick you. Pick yourself. — Seth Godin
It’s important that we become our own advocates instead of relying on our external environment to validate us. No amount of external validation will fill one’s cup until they start filling it with their worth. You don’t get to join the game of life when it gets better, you’re part of the formula to make it better. Pick yourself. Ask yourself — is life happening to you, or are you happening to life?
How can our readers further follow your work online?
People are welcome to visit Sashatalks.com.
Thank you for these great insights! We really appreciate the time you spent with this.
Thank you all for your hard work to educate audiences around the globe!
Every brand experience with your audience is an opportunity to reinforce or undermine your brand. If you surprise and delight at every opportunity people will talk about you. Word of mouth is the most powerful advocate you have.
Adam Boita is Chief Marketing Officer at Ecologi, the UK’s leading climate action platform which is helping businesses and individuals to play their part in tackling climate change. With over 17 years of experience in brand marketing at iconic technology, entertainment, and lifestyle brands, Adam joined Ecologi in early 2022. Since its inception in 2019, Ecologi has planted over 53 million trees and avoided over 2.3 million tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2e) from the atmosphere.
Thank you so much for doing this with us! Can you tell us a story about what brought you to this specific career path?
I’ve worked across a broad set of industries to date from gaming, alcohol, government and now green tech. I started off my career at PlayStation working across both the brand and software divisions launching PlayStation Portable, PlayStation 3 and PlayStation Network. I then changed industries to work at Pernod Ricard on ABSOLUT vodka as well as many other brands in their portfolio including Jameson, Beefeater, Plymouth, Havana Club, Malibu to name but a few. It was my work on ABSOLUT and our limited edition bottle supporting the LGBTQ+ community that opened up the door to more purpose-driven marketing. This led me to then work for NCS (National Citizen Service), the UK’s leading youth programme for 15–16 year olds, ensuring they get the life skills they don’t teach in school. 600,000 teens benefitted from that programme. Whilst there I also launched a sustainable bag brand on Kickstarter as a side hustle which opened up the world of sustainability. A friend and co-founder of Ecologi got in touch, which then led to some consultancy for Ecologi which turned into a full time job at Ecologi as CMO. When I look back I like to think that at PlayStation I entertained a generation, at ABSOLUT I helped them party, at NCS I prepared a generation for adulthood and now I’m helping to protect our planet for future generations.
Can you share a story about the funniest marketing mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lesson you learned from that?
I’m not sure about funny mistakes but the craziest / funniest moment in my career was promoting a PlayStation game called SingStar ending up dancing and singing on stage with Vanilla Ice at Glastonbury. The lesson learned is you never know where your career can take you, enjoy these moments off the back of hard work.
What do you think makes your company stand out? Can you share a story?
As a founder-led business Ecologi was born out of asking ‘What if?’. Our CEO Elliot asked himself, what if I put the money from my morning coffee into climate action? The cup of coffee that led to funding over 53 million trees and 38,000 members. It’s a human story that people can connect to instantly. Ecologi makes people feel and see how easy and rewarding it is to take climate action. It creates a sense of momentum that other people can get behind — the power of collective action.
Trust and transparency is at the very core of our fundamentals — we publicise our financial information, customer revenue data, impact data, and our board meeting minutes. This has made us one the top 5% of B Corps globally in 2022 for Environment and Governance. Ecologi not only helps to fund a range of climate solutions, from reforestation to renewables, but we also maintain that we only support those carbon-reduction projects that are certified at the very highest level by the Gold Standard or the Verified Carbon Standard.
Are you working on any exciting new projects now? How do you think that will help people?
Next year we are launching Ecologi Zero, a game changer in Net Zero. We remove the barriers to Net Zero by enabling businesses to calculate their emissions for free. Our easy-to-use dashboard gives businesses a thorough understanding of their footprint, automatically measures and tracks emissions, and helps them to take climate action on their way to achieving net-zero. It connects to common accounting software allowing businesses to analyse their entire supply chain — which often accounts for 90% or more of emissions. Over 2,000 businesses are already signed up on the waitlist and are currently being onboarded as part of our open beta.
Ok let’s now jump to the core part of our interview. In a nutshell, how would you define the difference between brand marketing (branding) and product marketing (advertising)? Can you explain?
Brand marketing is all about design, consistency, and the experience of creating an emotional connection with people. It has a long-term duration of effect and if done well is highly memorable. Brand marketing is broadly targeted to reach all potential buyers and influencers and creates mental availability & consideration. It will influence future sales and makes next year’s product targets easier to achieve.
Product marketing is more short-term with more behavioral prompts to act now and is less memorable. It’s tightly targeted to people likely to buy very soon. It exploits brand building and the mental availability and consideration already built up.
The two have to work hand in hand and the split between the two is very important depending on what industry you’re in as per Les Binet and Peter Fields research into the ratio between brand building and activation.
Can you explain to our readers why it is important to invest resources and energy into building a brand, in addition to the general marketing and advertising efforts?
Your brand is your differentiator in the market versus the competition. It reinforces everything you stand for. If you have a strong brand then it makes the more general advertising efforts much more effective.
Can you share 5 strategies that a company should be doing to build a trusted and believable brand? Please tell us a story or example for each.
One red thread
A single brand idea will help tie all touchpoints together, so brand consistency creates cumulative positive benefits.
2. Everyone owns the brand
The brand does not sit within a specific department. Everyone is a brand ambassador who needs to live and breathe the brand on a daily basis
3. Authenticity and transparency
No brand will be trusted from the get-go, you have to earn it. Back up words with meaningful, long-term actions that are consistent, day in, day out.
4. Be more human
We are all people. Talk to people like people. Mistakes will be made, especially if a business is in its early stages. It is better to own up to the mistakes made and engage on a human level on how you can do better moving forward.
5. Word of Mouth
Every brand experience with your audience is an opportunity to reinforce or undermine your brand. If you surprise and delight at every opportunity people will talk about you. Word of mouth is the most powerful advocate you have.
In your opinion, what is an example of a company that has done a fantastic job building a believable and beloved brand. What specifically impresses you? What can one do to replicate that?
All birds. The company unapologetically marches to the beat of their own drum. A small sneaker company started by two people with no experience in footwear is a great story. It’s a human story that people can connect to.
They gave people something different than Nike and Adidas and took a stand on a key issue, sustainability, dubbing themselves ‘the most comfortable shoes in the world made from sustainable wool’.
They focused on brand marketing, cultivating a following of people interested in their shoes and their eco-friendly lifestyle with a brand rallying cry their future community could get behind #weareallbirds.
They spoke to and listened to their community to improve their shoes.
Their content is consistent, fun and engaging, and they don’t take themselves too seriously.
They don’t do deals and increased their prices for Black Friday by $1 pledging to match every extra dollar they earned during Black Friday, and donate the extra proceeds to support Greta Thunberg’s Fridays for Future movement to combat climate change.
In advertising, one generally measures success by the number of sales. How does one measure the success of a brand building campaign? Is it similar, is it different?
Brand-building campaigns work hand in hand and make sales activations more effective. It’s been proven time and time again. Brand building is measured by share of voice, awareness, and impact statements, as well as engagement and helps, drive healthy long term sales revenue
What role does social media play in your branding efforts?
Social media does play a huge role — particularly for a startup to scale up like us, as it offers everything in one place from brand building and activation, to ongoing community engagement. Like all media, it is only one channel and needs to be part of an integrated media strategy to ensure you are reaching people at multiple touchpoints.
You are a person of great influence. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger. 🙂
I’m in the movement I want to be in. Climate change is the single biggest threat humanity faces and communicating that to make people and businesses take action is literally a once-in-a-lifetime brief for a brand marketer.
Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share how that was relevant to you in your life?
I recently watched ‘Stutz’ on Netflix where Johan Hill turns the tables on his therapist. He talks about the three realities of life — pain, uncertainty, and the need for constant work. We all have to face these 3 things no matter who we are or how famous someone is — if you can learn to live with them, accept them, then I think life is just so much easier, it’s certainly allowed me to cherish and live in the moment more.
We are blessed that very prominent leaders in business and entertainment read this column. Is there a person in the world with whom you would like to have lunch or breakfast with? He or she might just see this, especially if we tag them. 🙂
Sir Richard Branson. He’s been consistently the best brand builder. Himself.
How can our readers follow you on social media?
You can find me on LinkedIn, feel free to get in touch!
Thank you so much for joining us. This was very inspirational.
We need to close on the thinking. So, we need the perception to be moving in the right direction. We also need to close on the emotion that is connected with that desired perception. Then, we need to close on the behavior which is what most people think of as “closing.”
Stephen McGarvey is the author of Ignite a Shift: Engaging Minds, Guiding Emotions and Driving Behavior and Founder & President of Solutions in Mind, and a world-leading authority on unconscious communication, positive persuasion and influencing with integrity. He is a sought-after speaker, presenting to a variety of international audiences in a myriad of venues, ranging from the American Psychiatric Association Conference to numerous Fortune 500 companies. McGarvey is a Certified Master Practitioner and Trainer of Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP) and a Certified Master Hypnotist. Employing the empowering modalities of neuroscience and the latest in behavioral psychology, he hosts The Stephen McGarvey Podcast and is known for bringing contagious enthusiasm and a powerful presence to the professional speaking circuit.
Thank you for doing this with us! Before we dig in, our readers would like to learn a bit more about you. Can you tell us the “backstory” about what brought you to this career path?
Although successful now, I faced challenges early on. As a child I was identified as having a learning disability. I struggled in school and failed grade two. I persevered and continued my lifelong love of reading and learning, propelled by a fascination with how different people think and process information.
I entered university as a mature student where I discovered the fields of neurolinguistics and hypnosis, topics that ignited my curiosity. Fascinated, I changed my focus of study to neurolinguistics.
After graduation I began a private practice in counselling and coaching. One of my clients was a corporate trainer who found my techniques so helpful, she asked me to speak at her company’s sales and marketing event. I really enjoyed that experience and in 2001 my wife Natalie and I launched Solutions in Mind, a boutique consulting firm specializing in the psychology of persuasion and influence.
The team at Solutions In Mind help people understand how their own brain works — that thinking impacts emotion which drives behavior. Now, 21 years later, I’m an internationally renowned speaker and best-selling author whose expertise is relied on by C-suite leaders and teams around the world.
I love being able to positively impact the way people think and communicate. I am grateful that through the success of our businesses, Natalie and I are able to give to a number of charities like Ratanak International, which supports survivors of human trafficking.
Can you share with our readers the most interesting or amusing story that occurred to you in your career so far? Can you share the lesson or take away you took out of that story?
I was once invited as a guest lecturer on a World Residences at Sea cruise. As part of the preparation, the cruise line advised me about how they expected me to interact with their residents. I was told that most of the residents were billionaires and that this was their home at sea, so I should “not speak until spoken to”! They also warned me that I may only have a few people attend the lecture because while residents liked to have the option of coming to lectures, they generally skipped actually going to the talks.
Rather than settle with lecturing to a few interested residents, I felt challenged to build rapport with all the residents. For the first lecture only, a few people came and with each subsequent lecture the audience grew as word spread. By the fourth and final lecture every resident who was on board the ship attended!
One of the people I built rapport with was an Arabian Sheik. We hit it off so well that he invited my wife Natalie and me back to the Mediterranean for an extended cruise as his personal guests with all expenses paid.
The lesson of the story is if you’re committed to an outcome there is always a way to achieve it. I saw being told ‘not to speak until spoken to’ as a challenge to work around. I focused on building rapport with the residents so word would spread organically which drew residents in to my lectures.
In this example, as with everything in life, if you assume you can’t do something, you never will do it. If you assume there is a way, you will figure out that you can accomplish it.
Are you working on any exciting new projects now? How do you think that will help people?
I just finished my first book Ignite a Shift and I’m currently working on a digital eLearning companion that will be launched next year. The eLearning companion will take participants through the book, chapter by chapter, to enhance and deepen their learning in application of the skills covered in the book.
The book and eLearning companion are designed to help people:
become more effective persuaders and influencers
improve their communication skills
influence with integrity
learn more about how the brain works
understand how thinking impacts emotion which drives behavior
None of us are able to achieve success without some help along the way. Is there a particular person who you are grateful towards who helped get you to where you are? Can you share a story about that?
I am here today because of the love and support of my wife and business partner, Natalie. Also, I’ve been fortunate enough to be surrounded by an amazing team and the book Ignite a Shift would still be a work in progress if it wasn’t for Natalie, Kimberley, Ken and Carol who were integral in its success.
I’ve also had two very powerful mentors who have taught me to look beyond what’s best for Natalie and I and instead focus on how our actions can benefit everyone.
The first mentor actually did the opposite of this. He was a masterful communicator and as a result often manipulated people, using those around him for his own purposes. I learned what not to do from him, which is just as valuable a lesson. From this experience I learned how important integrity is and why it’s essential to have the best interests at heart of those you have around you as part of your journey towards success.
The other mentor I work with in a coaching capacity. She is a super successful real estate developer and businesswoman who has built and sold multiple businesses. Under her mentorship and encouragement Natalie and I launched our second business My Home Suite Home. She’s been a big cheerleader for us, particularly as we’ve grown our real estate portfolio and our other investment portfolios.
She has been a real role model for me in seeing that the more successful you are, the more generous you can be and that giving of yourself including your time, knowledge, wisdom and resources is more rewarding and joyful than just the dollars in the bank or the achievements in and of themselves.
The other piece worth mentioning is that mistakes are part of the journey. I’ve made mistakes in my career that have been very costly. Instead of feeling discouraged and quitting, I told myself that anyone who has been successful has made mistakes and lost some money and so when I make mistakes, I keep moving forward and learn from them.
For the benefit of our readers, can you tell us a bit why you are an authority on the topic of sales?
I have an background in psychology and neurolinguistics as well as influence and persuasion. Large corporations throughout the pharmaceutical and medical industries bring me in to train their sales and leadership teams in persuasion and influence.
The number one thing we need to do is sell ourselves and our skillset and do that in a context that adds value. Learning how to build rapport and sell ourselves and the value we bring in a way that resolves challenges for others is what selling is all about. I think that true sales is serving others in the context of fulfilling their need(s).
Ok. Thanks for all that. Let’s now jump to the main core of our interview. As you know, nearly any business a person will enter, will involve some form of sales. At the same time, most people have never received any formal education about how to be effective at selling. Why do you think our education system teaches nearly every other arcane subject, but sales, one of the most useful and versatile topics, is totally ignored?
This is one of life’s biggest mysteries! Sales is a core competency. No matter what industry we’re in we are selling, whether it’s our ideas, projects, or ourselves. We’re selling our vision of the future, or our vision for a product or service.
Thinking back to my definition of selling, if we think about serving others then this becomes something that would fulfill the needs of society, which should be included in the educational system.
This discussion, entitled, “How To Be Great At Sales Without Seeming Salesy”, is making an assumption that seeming salesy or pushy is something to be avoided. Do you agree with this assumption? Whether yes, or no, can you articulate why you feel the way you do?
Yes, I agree completely.
When people have a negative view of selling, they think about being conned, bullied, or talked into something they neither want nor need. When someone leaves you with that feeling, it’s because they want to push something on you with their own best interest at heart, and they also typically lack rapport. Rather than focusing on fulfilling your need, these salespeople are focused on talking you into something or getting you to buy something.
My mindset is the opposite.
I believe sales is about fulfilling needs. If what I am selling is misaligned with what someone needs then I would rather point that person in the direction of something else that will.
Sales has a bad reputation because of the self-serving individuals out there who have their own needs at heart. Instead, our focus as salespeople should be on sales as a way to help others, and when you do so, you add significant value.
The seven stages of a sales cycle are usually broken down to versions of Prospecting, Preparation, Approach, Presentation, Handling objections, Closing, and Follow-up. Which stage do you feel that you are best at? What is your unique approach, your “secret sauce”, to that particular skill? Can you explain or give a story?
Let’s talk about handling objections — I don’t believe in it. This usually shocks senior sales people.
As an amateur magician, I know that the audience’s attention will go where my attention is. This fact applies to sales, too. As a salesperson, if my attention is on handling objections then I keep the other person’s focus and my own on that objection. Instead, I believe in perception management, and I think about the objection in terms of asking myself three things:
What is the person’s current perception?
What is the desired perception I want them to have?
How do I engage skillfully in a conversation that reframes or alters their perception in the way I want them to proceed? This is a skill that I cover in my book, Ignite a Shift.
I was recently in a training with a new client who was doing root cause analysis and objection handling. The whole focus was on the problem itself as opposed to thinking about their client’s current perception, what the team wanted the perception to be and how they could influence the client’s perception in that direction.
Sales processes are different and vary from industry to industry. As far as a sales approach, Challenger Sales and to a lesser extent Spin Selling are good models. My favorite of all the models I’ve evaluated is the Sandler Sales System. The reason I think Sandler is the best one is because it is the most comprehensive and complete, and instead of just focusing on steps it looks at the psychology of influence as part of the sales process.
What we specialize in at Solutions In Mind is mastering persuasion and influence which integrates, enhances and improves any existing sales process. We can take any step of a sales model and enhance how that step is done.
Lead generation, or prospecting, is one of the basic steps of the sales cycle. Obviously every industry will be different, but can you share some of the fundamental strategies you use to generate good, qualified leads?
It’s really simple. Add enough value to create a pull and your product or service will spread by word of mouth. That’s been our secret to success in the 20 plus years we’ve been doing this. We’ve never once cold called or prospected during that time and the business has taken us around the globe completely through word of mouth.
That has worked for us, and obviously different industries require slightly different approaches. There are various models, and you need to find the process that works for you. My philosophy is to add enough value to create a pull and from that word will spread.
In my experience, I think the final stages of Handling Objections, Closing, and Follow-up, are the most difficult parts for many people. Why do you think ‘Handling Objections’ is so hard for people? What would you recommend for one to do, to be better at ‘Handling Objections’?
The reason handling objections is difficult is because it keeps the focus, and the client’s focus on the objections. As mentioned, I recommend salespeople stop handling objections and start managing perceptions.
Reframe objection handling as perception management — what is the current perception and what is the desired perception? Then have meaningful conversations that influence the person’s perception towards the desired outcome. As you do that effectively they will be mentally and emotionally closing themselves as part of the sales process.
‘Closing’ is of course the proverbial Holy Grail. Can you suggest 5 things one can do to successfully close a sale without being perceived as pushy? If you can, please share a story or example, ideally from your experience, for each.
I believe we need to close in three different ways.
First, we need to close on the thinking. So, we need the perception to be moving in the right direction. We also need to close on the emotion that is connected with that desired perception. Then, we need to close on the behavior which is what most people think of as “closing.”
The reality is if I’m attempting to close you on a behavior and I haven’t closed on the thinking or emotion then closing on the behavior is difficult. If I have closed on the thinking and emotion, then closing on behavior is very easy.
Closing to me is the easy part. If I have clearly identified a need and demonstrated I’m the unique and appropriate solution to that need, and if I have a track record of results, then closing is the thing I put the least amount of energy into because it happens as a by-product of the person believing I am the solution to their need.
Too often, people think of closing as talking someone into something, which goes back to the negative perception of salespeople. I think of closing as demonstrating I understand their need and having them realize that we’re the best solution to that need. When I do this well, the closing happens automatically.
I know that closing differs from industry to industry because all sales cycles are different. I don’t prospect because word of mouth brings in the prospects. Instead, I focus my preparation on creating a comprehensive needs analysis. My approach is to demonstrate we are a proven solution with a track record of success and that collaborating with us will resolve the client’s problem.
Ultimately, we need to have passion and congruently communicate that passion as part of how we present ourselves as a solution. I always tell people if they don’t believe what they are selling is the best solution then go and sell what you believe the best solution to be. In doing so, you’ll be better able to represent and sell that solution as you’ll be more passionate about your job and more congruent in how you approach sales.
Finally, what are your thoughts about ‘Follow up’? Many businesses get leads who might be interested but things never seem to close. What are some good tips for a business leader to successfully follow up and bring things to a conclusion, without appearing overly pushy or overeager?
I think it comes back to what our intention is. If we approach leads from a state of curiosity and a genuine desire to fulfill a need then people will welcome a follow-up call.
If we approach from a perspective where we’re focused on making a sale or are being pushy then the person will be resistant because they’ll think they’re being sold something they don’t need.
Follow-up to ensure needs are being met. Again, if I’m not the solution I am always happy to say that and use my network to refer to the person who would be the best solution.
As you know there are so many modes of communication today. For example, In-person, phone calls, video calls, emails, and text messages. In your opinion, which of these communication methods should be avoided when attempting to close a sale or follow up? Which are the best ones? Can you explain or give a story?
The answer depends on the dynamics between you and the customer. I have clients I can text or email because I have a history with them.
Personally, if it’s a first-time interaction I would rather have it face to face because it’s more personable and easier to build rapport given that you have more information to calibrate.
In fact, my preference is usually face to face for that reason. During COVID we had some new clients where we had to meet virtually. Some of those clients brought us in to teach them virtual presentation skills to be more effective in this new norm. So, your mode to communicate is case dependent and needs to be evaluated in the context of the situation. I have clients during COVID who I have texted. I worked on multiple projects with these clients and have a bank of credibility with them, so I can text them and they feel comfortable texting right back.
In other cases, I have newer clients where I will coordinate a zoom call. If I have a choice between email or a virtual call, then I will choose virtual because I have more information to calibrate. I’m more comfortable on the phone than email and I find there is less room for miscommunication on a phone call than with an email, and there is even more room for miscommunication over text than there is with an email.
When I talk about having information to calibrate, really what I’m referring to is a concept I discuss in Ignite a Shift which is deleted information. When you communicate by email you miss tone, etc… and with phone, email and text you miss out on the physical facial expressions and hand gestures are that are an essential part of communication (which is why a virtual call may be better than a phone call).
The fact is a completely new work environment is part of the evolution of going through COVID. The pandemic forced us to re-evaluate what is essential and what isn’t to get things done. One of the results is that corporate work spaces have gone the way of the dinosaur.
As a leader, consider this. If the people who you surround yourself with have integrity and they love what they do, then you can be confident that they are more productive working remotely than they would be wasting an hour each way commuting to the office. If those individuals are not effective at the office, then I would be suspicious if they are working effectively at home. I think it’s about surrounding yourself with people who have integrity and a passion for what they do.
Ok, we are nearly done. Here is our final “meaty” question. You are a person of enormous influence. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the greatest amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger. 🙂
I think instead of inspiring a movement I would find one that is already in place that I could get behind and support. Then, I can do what I do best and support others who inspire me by what they’re doing to help others in the world — those who are being taken advantage of or who are dealing with disadvantages. I really think about how we can use our resources in the most exponential way by supporting others who are already doing something that we feel is worthwhile.
I mentioned that Ratanak International is one of the organizations that we support, they are doing great work in Cambodia. Last month, we also decided to support a missionary in Cambodia on a monthly basis. They’ve dealt with long-term COVID effects and have been struggling and we’ve decided to back them.
Ultimately, I believe in finding a movement that you believe in with similar beliefs and values to your own, and then stretching yourself to support others to do what they do best.
Thank you for the interview. We wish you only continued success!
Thank you! As a token of my gratitude, I’d like to offer a free eBook to your audience. Simply visit https://bit.ly/IgniteAShift to receive a free electronic copy of Ignite a Shift
Know your belief, purpose and vision: Everything begins with belief. Why does your business exist beyond making money? Ultimately, this is your brand, and ignites your purpose. What is your company going to do about your belief? Vision is then the bold, ambitious, but accessible future that your company will create.
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 Hancock.
Scott is Partner and CEO at San Diego based branding agency BLVR. He brings over a decade of award-winning creativity, strategy, design and business-building experience to global brands like Andis, Vessel, Futures Fins, and TravelWifi.
Passionate about redefining the role of business for a positive impact on society, Scott is a founding board member of B Local San Diego, a community of certified B Corps driving change. He also serves on the board of Love Light + Melody, a non-profit organization working to amplify the stories of vulnerable children and bring them hope through the power of education.
Thank you for joining us in this interview series. Our readers would love to “get to know you” a bit better. Can you tell us a bit about your ‘backstory’?
I graduated college with a degree in Fine Art but quickly discovered that making a living as a painter and installation artist would be tough. After a brief stint as a chef, I left to work at a publishing company where I learned digital design and the publishing trade.
After two years of designing and laying out books, I launched my first startup, Risen Magazine — an award-winning pop culture publication distributed nationally at Walmart, Barnes & Noble, and Virgin Mega Stores, to name a few. Risen shared the stories of some of the world’s most influential influencers, such as artist Shepard Fairey, actor Adrian Brody, and the band Kings of Leon. From hiring a team to fundraising to managing distribution, it was a crash course in entrepreneurship and running a fast-paced business.
With a newly discovered passion for business and entrepreneurship, I co-founded another startup called Glue Network. Glue was a global digital marketing platform connecting consumers with brands such as Cisco, TOMS, and Hurley to fund projects by non-profits including World Vision, Red Cross, and Surfrider Foundation. Over five years, we helped raise nearly five million dollars in donations and inspired thousands of young people to get involved in making a difference.
It was through Glue Network that I reconnected with a college friend, Adam McWethy, who had a small digital agency with his brother in San Diego, CA. They had a unique opportunity to work with a new golf brand, Vessel. I joined them as a contractor to conduct the initial research, build a purpose-driven strategy, and give the company its name. We realized that we worked well together and shared a similar heart for using business as a force for good. Eventually, I became Partner/CEO, renamed the agency, and shifted our focus from simply building websites to building belief-led brands that create categories, challenge markets, and shape culture. Today, BLVR is a global belief company and certified B Corp that works with fearless brand leaders to transform businesses, people, and the world.
You’ve had a remarkable career journey. Can you highlight a key decision in your career that helped you get to where you are today?
When I look back over my career, there’s a string connecting everything I’ve done. Whether painting pictures, plating food, or starting and running a business, it has always been about trying to improve the world we’re in. In the thick of it, I didn’t understand it, I didn’t see this string. If I did, my efforts could have been more of a bullet than a shotgun blast. When you know what you believe to be true about the world, you gain the perspective and power to do something about it — you get clarity of purpose. Uncovering this truth has profoundly affected my life as a creative business leader.
What’s the most impactful initiative you’ve led that you’re particularly proud of?
I have been lucky to be a part of many incredible initiatives and collaborate with brave leaders who make a difference in the world. They have inspired me and shaped my perspective on business, philanthropy, creativity, and many other things. One initiative I’m very proud of at BLVR is our commitment to becoming a certified B Corporation. For over twenty years, we’ve provided pro bono work and monetary donations to support humanitarian organizations that provide disadvantaged children and families around the globe with opportunities to thrive. In 2020, we joined over 4,000 like-minded companies on a global scale that share our commitment to creating a positive impact in the world. B Corp certification recognizes our purpose-driven efforts and reinforces our commitment to using our business as a force for good.
Our first major initiative as a B Corp was our 2020 partnership with Love Does, an extraordinary organization started by bestselling author Bob Goff. Love Does brings light and joy to the world by fighting for human rights and providing education to children in conflict zones. Through our partnership and their Love Does Launch program, we have been able to fund full-ride college scholarships for twelve students in Northern Uganda. I’m proud of our team and the impact we’ve been able to make, especially at a time when we were navigating so many challenges with the start of the pandemic.
Sometimes our mistakes can be our greatest teachers. Can you share a mistake you’ve made and the lesson you took away from it?
I have had many failures in my career, and a few of them have been pretty challenging and painful to get through. I’ve experienced great depression, loneliness, and even doubt after going through various career-related events.
But the one I’ve learned the most from is to not go it alone. Early on, I tried to do too many things on my own, things I had never done before. I was reluctant to stop and get advice or counsel. Looking back, I could have prevented a lot of challenges, pain, and setbacks if I had just asked for support. Today, when coaching other entrepreneurs, I emphasize the importance of having many counselors and mentors — people you trust and who want to see you succeed.
How has mentorship played a role in your career, whether receiving mentorship or offering it to others?
The older I get, the more I realize how important it is to have a mentor who has been through similar situations before, who can offer insight and advice but, most importantly, reassurance. I have a handful of mentors that I meet with regularly — some for business, some for spiritual and life mentorship.
My co-founder at Glue Network, Shawn, also founded a global brand development agency called Bulldog Drummond. I was lucky to know him before joining as CEO/Partner at BLVR. He’s been an invaluable guide, sharing his own experiences with me — the things that he found helpful, and just as importantly, not helpful.
Like Shawn has done for me, I get to pay it forward by mentoring others. It truly is one of the most gratifying things in life — fellowship with another person and walking together. We aren’t supposed to go it alone.
Developing your leadership style takes time and practice. Who do you model your leadership style after? What are some key character traits you try to emulate?
The most critical leadership characteristic I’ve discovered is belief and having the bravery to live it out no matter what. Yvon Chouinard, the founder of Patagonia, has modeled this exceptionally well. From ocean waves to mountain peaks, nature happened to Yvon, and it drives his purpose to this day — to save Mother Earth. It’s a mission that his employees believe in, and his customers align to. Many business and brand leaders celebrate the summit Yvon has reached, but few will follow his lead. The cost is too high, and the promise is too hard to keep. But it’s this fearless conviction that has led to his success.
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. Know your belief, purpose and vision: Everything begins with belief. Why does your business exist beyond making money? Ultimately, this is your brand, and ignites your purpose. What is your company going to do about your belief? Vision is then the bold, ambitious, but accessible future that your company will create.
2. Behavior: Behavior is where the rubber meets the road — how your company lives through its marketing and communications, product innovation, employee experience and culture, customer experience, and corporate stewardship.
3. Positioning: Whether or not you’re aware of it, your brand and product already have positions in the marketplace. And if you aren’t standing out, you’re not positioning yourself well. Think about where you want to be, and how you want to be perceived.
4.People: Great talent with shared values and a dedication to shaping culture together is critical for a business to scale well. Organizational structures, accountability, growth plans, processes, tools, etc., are all there to support and empower your team to achieve a shared vision.
5.Strategic & Operational Plans: Understanding the difference between an “operational plan” and a “strategic plan” is essential. The strategic plan is about setting a direction for the organization, devising goals and objectives, and identifying a range of strategies to pursue so that the organization might achieve its goals. The operational plan presents highly detailed information to direct people to perform the day-to-day tasks required to run your organization. Management and staff should frequently refer to the operational plan in carrying out their everyday work. The operational plan provides the what, who, when, and how.
Can you share a few of the mistakes that companies make when they try to scale a business? What would you suggest to address those errors?
One mistake leaders make when trying to scale their company is not putting belief at the center of their business strategy. Belief is the new benefit. It’s a company’s guide for understanding the world. Great brands don’t just sell products; they sell a belief about what the consumer is becoming by engaging with this brand. This informs their ideas on personal potential, purpose, and even destiny. Beliefs are the center of meaning. This is the real magic that both your consumers and employees are going to buy into.
Another mistake companies often make is misbehavior. If a company claims to believe something, it must live it out consistently through every action across the entire business. Behaviors can become compromised when key stakeholders push to scale. Companies quickly lose sight of their conviction as growth and money become their new why. Don’t allow this to happen, never forget your why.
Scaling includes bringing new people into the organization. How can a company preserve its company culture and ethos when new people are brought in?
People are the backbone of any organization and key to shaping its culture and ultimately, its success. Executive leaders should act as guides helping to create the right environment for the rest of the team. One of the best ways to preserve company culture is to hire carefully. Be sure that new hires aren’t just qualified but are a good fit. Use a team approach when interviewing. Look at how candidates interact with the people they will be working with on a daily basis. Share with them why the company exists and what your core values are to ensure alignment. Ask the team for their thoughts. It matters.
Many times, a key aspect of scaling your business is scaling your team’s knowledge and internal procedures. What tools or techniques have helped your teams be successful at scaling internally?
At BLVR, we are a close-knit team of specialists with a lot of overlap. With everyone being so dependent on one another, it gives us a lot of opportunities to share knowledge and resources rather than being in siloed teams.
We have just shifted to a pod operational structure that flattens our organization, empowers everyone on the team, and creates deeper levels of accountability. Everyone knows our numbers, and we have regular executive and departmental team planning meetings. As a team, we constantly look for new technologies and tools to try. Ways to improve our processes and save time and money. Opportunities to protect and increase joy and wellness.
What software or tools do you recommend to help onboard new hires?
For years, we’ve followed principles from the book ‘The Ideal Team Player’ by Patrick Lencioni. He talks about finding people who are humble, hungry, and smart.
Humble people are quick to share credit, praise others freely, and celebrate the team’s collective win. They demonstrate strong alignment towards the team’s goals and are self-confident without being arrogant.
Hungry people are always looking for more. They are intrinsically motivated and diligent, constantly thinking about the next step and the next opportunity (for the team).
By smart people, Lencioni refers to emotional intelligence and interpersonal awareness. These people ask good questions, listen to what others say, and stay engaged in conversations intently. They have great judgment and intuition around the subtleties of group dynamics and are fully aware of the effect their words will have on the team.
Lencioni argues that when a team member significantly lacks one or more of these virtues, the process of building a cohesive team becomes hard, and in some cases, impossible. I would agree. So, look for people who demonstrate these attributes and actively develop these qualities in the people you already have.
How can our readers further follow your work online?
Meet The Disruptors: Grant Singleton and Dan Orkin Of PangoBooks On The Five Things You Need To Shake Up Your Industry
An Interview With Fotis Georgiadis
“Don’t carry failures, climb them” — myself. Failures can be a burden or a platform depending on how you position them. I used to carry the burden of failure in a crippling way. Now I look at failure as an opportunity to grow and actually go into the next round better because of them.
As a part of our series about business leaders who are shaking things up in their industry, I had the pleasure of interviewing Grant Singleton and Dan Orkin.
Grant Singleton is the founder and CEO of PangoBooks, a marketplace app for people to buy and sell used books. After serving overseas in the U.S. Navy, he completed his undergraduate degree in computer engineering at Texas A&M University, where he discovered his passion for building consumer technology that gives power to the individual. He identified a lack of innovation in the physical book industry and decided to build a disruptive platform for everyone who loves to learn and read. PangoBooks is a peer-to-peer marketplace for books, with an emphasis on the individual readers that make up the platform. He lives in Nashville with his wife and four young children.
Dan Orkin is CMO at PangoBooks. Prior to that, Dan was part of the founding team at Reverb, a successful marketplace in the music gear industry. As part of the Pango team, Dan focuses on creating the most welcoming, streamlined and fun way for people to buy and sell books imaginable.
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?
Grant Singleton: Before starting Pango, I worked as a Software Engineer at Raytheon, earned my engineering degree from Texas A&M, and spent four years overseas for the US Navy. PangoBooks was born out of the pandemic. Like many others, I developed a pandemic hobby. Mine was reading, and I fell back in love with books. I wanted to combine my passion for building tech with reading; with that, PangoBooks was born. Our goal is to connect the world through reading.
Dan Orkin: Before getting into tech and startups, I studied history and journalism in college. When I joined the team at Reverb, I was able to combine my love of storytelling with my passion for music gear. With PangoBooks, we are endeavoring to do much the same with the amazing world of books.
Can you tell our readers what it is about the work you’re doing that’s disruptive?
Dan Orkin: The vision with PangoBooks is to make the easiest possible way for folks to sell their books and in turn, provide book buyers with an amazing selection of used books at fantastic prices. While there are certainly other venues for folks to buy and sell used books, our emphasis on empowering individuals to sell — and the personal connections that come with that — really sets us apart. For example, our buyers are always talking about getting thoughtful thank-you notes in their book packages. That’s not something you typically encounter when buying from larger entities.
Can you share a story about the funniest mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lesson you learned from that?
Grant Singleton: There are so many. The one that comes to mind is a small adjustment I made to our DNS setting that took the website offline. A startup is a unique environment where speed is necessary. But that same speed can cause mistakes. Balancing speed while minimizing the downside is a good skill to learn.
Dan Orkin: When PangoBooks first launched, our expectation was that it would be used mostly for school books,textbooks and the like. We quickly learned that the easy selling process we designed was actually super inviting for folks who love fiction, especially fantasy, romance and related genres. It’s not funny exactly, but just goes to show that your intended audience may not actually be where your product finds its best fit.
We all need a little help along the journey. Who have been some of your mentors? Can you share a story about how they made an impact?
Grant Singleton: My best mentor in business has been David Kalt. His experience of starting a tech company and raising money in the dot com crash has been huge for navigating the current economic conditions. He’s run successful companies through every type of economy and condition imaginable.
Dan Orkin: PangoBooks is very lucky to count David Kalt as one of our investors and key advisors. David was the founder of Reverb and prior to that, OptionsXpress, a successful FinTech platform. David is always prepared to make bold bets centered on an obsession with delighting our customers. That spirit of doing things with customer obsession in the foreground has guided much of our decision-making with Pango.
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?
Dan Orkin: At its best, disruption works when every stakeholder benefits from new technology or new ways of approaching a problem. We like to think that our marketplace empowers everyone interested in those arenas to buy and sell more efficiently than older models in a widely beneficial way. The converse of this is when disruptive technologies or platforms simply consolidate an industry in ways that are not beneficial to everyone involved.
Can you share five of the best words of advice you’ve gotten along your journey? Please give a story or example for each.
Grant Singleton: “Don’t carry failures, climb them” — myself. Failures can be a burden or a platform depending on how you position them. I used to carry the burden of failure in a crippling way. Now I look at failure as an opportunity to grow and actually go into the next round better because of them.
Dan Orkin: An early manager of mine explained to me the idea of important vs urgent, and how tasks we encounter can be important but not very urgent and therefore never get done (as compared to things that seem urgent but aren’t actually very important). This idea has really resonated with me. In a startup environment, there is always more to do than there is time or resources to accomplish, so it’s crucial to step back and really question if the tasks you are taking on are actually going to make a difference.
We are sure you aren’t done. How are you going to shake things up next?
Dan Orkin: At PangoBooks we have big plans to make our app even more fun and engaging with a suite of new features for book discovery and sharing. The experience is already very social in how it’s designed, but we think these tools are really going to enhance the social experience for our users.
Do you have a book, podcast, or talk that’s had a deep impact on your thinking? Can you share a story with us? Can you explain why it was so resonant with you?
Dan Orkin: At PangoBooks, we’re big fans of “Thinking Fast and Slow” by Daniel Kahneman. The idea of being mindful of how your brain makes decisions can be really impactful, and stopping to think about how you’re thinking is a useful practice for everyone to engage in.
Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share how that was relevant to you in your life?
Dan Orkin: There’s a very simple quote from one of my favorite authors, Kurt Vonnegut: “you gotta be kind.”
It’s not a super elaborate thought, but I try to seek people in my life and work who care about others’ well-being and who practice kindness.
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. 🙂
Dan Orkin: As an extension of PangoBooks, thinking about how items can be reused and recycled more readily in support of lessening our global environmental impact could be hugely important.
How can our readers follow you online?
You can find us at @pangobooks on social media and download our app via Google Play or the App Store!
This was very inspiring. Thank you so much for joining us!
A great team: As mentioned earlier, nobody can do this alone or build a great company by themselves. Earlier this year, I hired a VP of Finance & Operations as well as a VP of Marketing. I can say with all my heart that my life (both in business and personally) has drastically improved with those two hires. Not only are we running the business in a much better way, but I now have the time to truly think, strategize, analyze, and focus on where this company is going vs. being in the weeds every day. In order to build a truly spectacular business, having a great support team is essential to any leader looking to thrive.
Startups have such a glamorous reputation. Companies like Facebook, Instagram, Youtube, Uber, and Airbnb once started as scrappy startups with huge dreams and huge obstacles. Yet we of course know that most startups don’t end up as success stories. What does a founder or a founding team need to know to create a highly successful startup? In this series, called “Five Things You Need To Create A Highly Successful Startup” we are talking to experienced and successful founders and business leaders who can share stories from their experiences about what it takes to create a highly successful startup. As a part of this series, we had the pleasure of interviewing Riley Stricklin.
Riley Stricklin is the Co-Founder and CEO at Lume Cube, the leading brand in Personal Lighting for Creators and Innovators. Since 2014, Riley has been leading the charge at Lume Cube and navigated the rocket ship growth they have experienced over the last 4 years. Riley and the company are based in sunny Southern California (San Diego) and continue to design innovative lighting tools for Creators and Innovators around the world.
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 thing! I’m an East Coast guy born and raised (originally from Rhode Island) and as a kid, always had a ‘California Dream’ to live by the Pacific Ocean and surf every day, so after college at 22 I moved to San Diego and have been here ever since. I bounced around a few jobs in the Sales/Marketing world trying to find something I was passionate about, and realized I just loved the grit and grind of startup life (had worked for 2 startups) and the process of building something from scratch, so myself and 2 close friends decided to jump ship at the company we worked for and start our own thing. Among many ideas we tried, Lume Cube showed the most opportunity so we pivoted our resources to focus on this and as they say, the rest is history.
What was the “Aha Moment” that led to the idea for your current company? Can you share that story with us?
I’d say it was less of an “Aha” moment and more of an identification of a gap in the marketplace. Myself and the other Founders were working in the Photo/Video industry at the time, so were traveling to tradeshows and very well connected within the space. We saw all the BIG lighting companies selling products that were hundreds of dollars (if not thousands) to all the high end photo/video consumers who had these larger professional DSLR cameras. Lighting is a necessity in creating high quality content, so it made sense. At the same time (2014/2015), two major events were happening in the world of Content Creation. First, the iPhone 6 had launched with a revolutionary camera which was delivering the first 4K camera into everyone’s pocket (GAME CHANGING in the journey to making everyone with a smartphone a content creator). The second major event was GoPro was taking over the world in 2014, had just done an IPO, and was selling about 25M cameras a year becoming the largest camera company in the world (billions in annual revenue). We looked at the market opportunity and realized while we were playing in the world of high end photographers/videographers, MOST of the photos and videos that were being captured and posted to Instagram were being taken on these smaller devices (iPhones and GoPro’s). We were shocked that there wasn’t any lighting company delivering a small, portable light that was specifically designed to pair with those devices and get better photos and videos on your iPhone or GoPro. So, we decided to make a few prototypes and put a 4 minute video on Kickstarter for “a portable, powerful light designed for the iPhone & GoPro’’ to see if people resonated with the idea. What happened over the next 30 days blew our minds. We set a goal of $56,000 (which we hit within 72 hrs) and 30 days later had $230,000 in pre-orders of a $50 product. Put simply, the proof-of-concept was completed, the idea was validated, and off we went to build the company!
Was there somebody in your life who inspired or helped you to start your journey with your business? Can you share a story with us?
There have been many who have impacted my personal story along the way. In the beginning, we collectively idolized GoPro, so the inspiration behind Nick Woodman’s story of Grit & Tenacity to get GoPro off the ground was an inspiration for our entire team. I’d also like to acknowledge our original CEO and the one behind inventing the first actual Lume Cube, Mornee Sherry. He has a brilliantly innovative mind and really showed me that if you can dream it, you can build it. The tenacity he brought to the team around going after your dreams and not taking no for an answer still exists in me today. The two other callouts I’ll mention are my current partner who joined me as a partner, mentor, and friend in 2018, Mike Bieker. He is a seasoned businessman from Michigan who took me under his wing and taught me an incredible amount about operating a stable business, financial management, and leading a team. The last callout would be Michael Beal, a friend and mentor who helped me navigate tough times in the business through the partnership transition and was our secret sauce when it came to supply chain and inventory through our explosive growth during 2020 and 2021.
What do you think makes your company stand out? Can you share a story?
Similar to the previous question, I’d say it’s our grit, tenacity, and ability to pivot quickly. Many entrepreneurs get stuck on a vision and refuse to change course (i.e. wanting to build company X which will then be acquired by company Y). We have a unique ability to not change the destination (build a great company and the leading brand in Personal Lighting), but the willingness to change course, pivot strategy, or adjust our offerings quickly when the market or demand changes. In the early days, we were a GoPro Accessory company as GoPro was all the rage. When Drones became a big hit, we innovated a line of Drone Products to enter that market. As GoPro and Drone sales declined in 2018, so did our sales of those accessories, so we tightened our belts, explored new markets, and in 2019 created a line of Video Call lights to snap onto your laptop for Zoom Calls to help balance out the declining Drone/GoPro accessory sales (as you might imagine, 2020 was quite the year for the Zoom Light product line). As TikTok/YouTube took off these last few years, we’ve stepped into creating lights for those customers (Ring Lights, Mobile Creator Kits for Smartphones, etc), and now have some even more innovative products in the roadmap for 2023. We’ve stayed true to our vision of building the leading brand for lighting, but didn’t get stuck on one single course (i.e. become a GoPro Accessory company or an Action Sports lighting company). Had we remained married to those strategies, we would be long out of business as those markets have fluctuated greatly. Even with the COVID Remote Working boom, which was great for us in 2020, in 2021 demand for those products dropped significantly. We planned for that, pivoted quickly and launched some new products to offset the changing demand in other categories.
How have you used your success to bring goodness to the world?
I’ve identified 3 areas where we can deliver good to the world.
Our Product Line. We’re entering a world (2022 and beyond) where Content is everything, you can make a living creating content from your living room, and every major platform is incentivizing video creation. The future generation will be native content creators, and lighting is an essential need. We’ve set up a secondary warehouse where we exclusively send product out for free and donate 100% of all returned product (we sell no refurbished or returned product, it all gets donated). We’ve sent product to film schools, local high schools, and others to send free product to those who could benefit from it, yet may not be able to afford it.
Financial. When we’re able to, we donate a percentage of our profits to local organizations. When we grew exponentially in 2020, we donated $10,000 to the local San Diego Food Bank which provided thousands of Thanksgiving meals to local families who couldn’t access proper meals for the holidays. As the team has grown, we’ve continued these donations in either financial donations, or hosting fun competitive office competitions around the holidays such as Canned Food drives, clothing donations, etc.
Our Time: As the team grows (nearing 30 people now), we have more hands to offer time and energy to things we’re passionate about. We have a fun Beach Clean Up coming up soon, and have a few really exciting donations of time planned in the coming months (food banks, environmental clean ups, etc). As we succeed and are able to hire more people, the team that’s able to donate time gets larger, thus a larger social impact. These types of events are great bonding experiences for the team as well.
You are a successful business leader. Which three-character traits do you think were most instrumental to your success? Can you please share a story or example for each?
Grit: Without this, the world of entrepreneurship will grind you down. It’s such an uphill battle that this has to be one of the core traits in every entrepreneur. Days will come where it seems like the world is collapsing, and having the grit to endure and outlast the competition is required to be successful in this world. There’s been a few times over the course of the business where we’ve had a negative bank account, skipped payroll, and it seemed like our time to hang up the gloves had come. Grit allowed us to buckle down, find ways around what seemed like sky high obstacles, and keep going.
High Emotional Intelligence/People Skills: I don’t care if you have the next great invention, the next big billion-dollar idea for an app, and maybe even you’ve built/designed/launched the product or company. Nobody can build a great company by themselves, it is a team effort and required a lot of great people. One of my favorite quotes is “To build a world class company, you’ve got to have a world class team”, and to recruit/retain world class talent, you’ve got to have emotional intelligence and people skills. This means patience, empathy, the ability to communicate effectively, manage different personalities, etc. I’ve seen some GREAT products/companies that could have scaled to millions go bankrupt because the founder/CEO didn’t have the skills needed to manage and retain a great team.
Humility: As the classic Mike Tyson saying goes, “everyone has a plan until they get punched in the face”. Building a business will mean a lot of gut punches, a lot of “being wrong”, and requires a lot of learning. For me, this is my first business, so I didn’t come in knowing much (and have made just about every mistake along the way I could have). I’ve had to put my Ego away many times, accept that I’ve been wrong many times, and understand that if something I try fails, it’s simply a lesson learned and I need to pick myself up, implement whatever I learned in the failed experiment, and keep going. Quick example: Just recently I gave some critical feedback to the creative team on a piece of content they were implementing into our Facebook Ads account. I didn’t like it, didn’t feel it was on brand, and forecasted that it wouldn’t work…turns out, I was dead wrong…and I mean DEAD wrong. They tested it against all other creative that month, and it ended up being the winner by a mile and leading to over $100,000 in new revenue that month. I was wrong, apologized to the team, reframed my thought-process around what “I thought was right and I personally liked”, and decided to further empower them to experiment and get creative. If my Ego led that situation, I wouldn’t have been able to accept that I was wrong, would have come up with some other excuse on why it worked, deflated the morale of the Creative team and left them feeling frustrated. Instead, we laughed about it. I shared with the whole company in our Monthly Meeting what a learning experience it was for me and how wrong I was, and acknowledged the Creative team for crushing it that month. The team became proud of their accomplishments and felt empowered to try more things knowing that I would support them regardless. We as leaders are going to be wrong, so if we can’t admit it and take ownership of our mistakes, it sets a terrible example for others and breeds an unhealthy culture. Stay humble is the best advice I can give.
Often leaders are asked to share the best advice they received. But let’s reverse the question. Can you share a story about advice you’ve received that you now wish you never followed?
Oh, how many of these I could share! I have countless. The one that we’ve fortunately fixed most recently has to do with our Website, so I’ll share that. When we exploded in 2020 and grew 500%, we were doing millions of dollars each month and had all these “experts” giving us advice. With the exploding sales happening online, we were advised that in order to truly become a premium e-commerce business and capitalize on the momentum, we had to build an entire new website from scratch, fully customized with all these crazy features so that we could “stand out from the crowd” and have this unique website experience. So, I made the decision to go forward and build the custom website… we invested well over 6-figures into the project & it lasted nearly a year. The project became a nightmare, any small change needed so much custom development (which was incredibly costly) and it ended up having the reverse effect and stunting our growth, eating up resources (internally and externally), and we ended up scrapping it entirely after 18-months. Looking back, my gut told me to do something simpler & more efficient (work off a Shopify Theme), yet I listened to the advice of others and it sent me down an expensive path full of headaches. But hey, was a valuable learning experience so took the lesson and kept on going!
Can you tell us a story about the hard times that you faced when you first started your journey?
We hit some hard times in 2017. Had some cash-flow issues internally, manufacturing issues, and a few more things that led to a “perfect storm” of things going downhill. If I’m being honest, we had a date circled on the calendar that was a “shut down operations” date if we didn’t figure a few things out. I had to do a mass layoff and let go of 70% of our company at the time, letting go of many people I considered friends and had developed relationships with. We had made some bad decisions and they didn’t work out. Those days are the hardest, when you must make decisions to keep the company alive, but it negatively impacts the team. There’s no training for days like that, and it never gets easier. This is a great example where the trait I mentioned earlier, GRIT, is so important. It would have been so easy to close shop, give up, and take a job that had more stability. Instead, we dug down, found a path forward, ended up finding a way to bridge our financial needs, being able to hire some of the staff back, and the following year grew the business over 100%.
Where did you get the drive to continue even though things were so hard? What strategies or techniques did you use to help overcome those challenges?
It may have been to an almost unhealthy level at the time, but I had a true belief in the vision of the company and my ability to “figure it out”. I had put years of my life into the business by that point, and we had multiple friends/family invest in the idea, and I just couldn’t accept letting them down. That was a major driver for me, having friends invest in me early on. If I was the only one at risk, perhaps I would have given up, but I had a few hundred thousand dollars on the line of other people’s money, and losing their money was not an option for me. I had no idea what the path forward was, but knew I had to give it everything I had. While it worked and we figured everything out, I did learn later that in giving everything I had to the company, it took a toll on my health (both physical and mental), and it took much recovery, coaching, and deep work to rebuild. I unfortunately learned a bit too late the importance of balance and mental health, and would highly encourage any other leaders out there to prioritize personal health and wellness from day one. You’re a better leader when you’re operating from the best version of yourself.
The journey of an entrepreneur is never easy and is filled with challenges, failures, setbacks, as well as joys, thrills and celebrations. Can you share a few ideas or stories from your experience about how to successfully ride the emotional highs & lows of being a founder”?
In 2018, after a rollercoaster of a year in 2017 where we nearly folded, I found a peer group of other business leaders (EO, the Entrepreneurs Organization). It changed my life to find a tribe of other business leaders who were navigating the same issues I was. My main experience share here would be to find a support group or peer group of other entrepreneurs as soon as possible. It can be a lonely ride, so just having that support group, not to mention mentoring from other successful leaders, has changed my life in so many ways.
Let’s imagine that a young founder comes to you and asks for your advice about whether venture capital or bootstrapping is best for them? What would you advise them? Can you kindly share a few things a founder should look at to determine if fundraising or bootstrapping is the right choice?
Bootstrap, bootstrap, bootstrap (when young and starting your first business). It teaches you so many great habits around conserving cash, being overly careful about how you spend money, and you’ll become an expert at understanding your financial situation because bootstrapping just requires you to obsess over every dollar. Those I know who’ve gone the VC route too early in their career developed some bad habits of cash flow management. Money is always accessible so they don’t learn those valuable skills until it’s too late. Unfortunately we’re seeing this currently in a lot of the VC markets where companies are collapsing left and right as the economy tightens up. Once you’ve proven the concept for your business, know your numbers & have developed some strong financial management behaviors, then go find capital to help grow your business.
Ok super. Here is the main question of our interview. Many startups are not successful, and some are very successful. From your experience or perspective, what are the main factors that distinguish successful startups from unsuccessful ones? What are your “Five Things You Need To Create A Highly Successful Startup”?
Sure thing. Note that I’m in the Direct-To-Consumer world & that’s where I’ve been my entire journey at Lume Cube, so some of these may be more directed towards DTC, but should be pretty generic!
Clearly defined vision/mission: What is it they say? “Vision without Action is a daydream, but Action without Vision is a nightmare”. As the team grows, the founder/CEO gets further removed from each employee, so you lose that ability to personally impact each person in the company. We had a bit of an alignment crisis last year where departments weren’t working together. By developing a clear vision of where we want to go, who we want to be, and what the end goal is, not only did we see retention increase and employee engagement skyrocket, but we saw performance improve as well. Think of the sport Crew (rowing). All members on the boat may be rowing, but when they start rowing in-sync, on the same rhythm, and with the same intensity, it drastically improves performance and the team that’s aligned towards the same vision will surely outlast the team that’s uncertain what the vision is. This has led to further employee engagement and retention as well, people feel they are part of a larger vision/mission vs. just coming to work for a paycheck.
Ability to sell: I don’t care if you’re a service business, SaaS company, product company, or just a freelance consultant. The ability to sell your vision, your product, your value propositions is the #1 skillset I could state for any leader hoping to be successful. Selling will come into play when recruiting key team members, potential investors, potential customers, potential partnerships, etc. I don’t care how good your product is, if you can’t sell the vision, the “why”, the dream, it’ll be challenging to assemble a great team, get the funds you need, or close the customers you want. Back in 2017 when we had a financial crisis in the business, nothing on paper looked like a good investment, but my ability to sell the vision, the potential, and what this company could be closed a 7-figure investment round as well as a number of high level employees over the following 2 years. Had that skill not been as sharp as it was, the situation would have turned out much differently.
Unit Economics that make sense: If I were to give my younger self one single piece of advice, it would be to have a better grip on my numbers. The product may be world-changing, the team may be fired up to sell it, but if unit economics don’t make sense, the company will fold (or burn cash, which is never sustainable). We’ve seen this happen in a big way over the last 18 months. As acquisition costs have increased post iOS14 (along with import duties/tariffs & freight costs), I’ve seen countless companies that had great product, great branding, and even great teams go bankrupt and fold. The core reason, the team didn’t know their numbers and the Unit Economics didn’t make sense anymore. If there isn’t some path towards profit or the ability to cover your expenses (people, marketing, operations, etc), the business will fold. Unfortunately the world of burning cash, growing at all costs and being funded by VC’s only applies to a very small set of businesses and much of that is behind us (the past 10 years were full of this). Moving forward, know your numbers, it’s all about unit economics and the ability to scale.
A great team: As mentioned earlier, nobody can do this alone or build a great company by themselves. Earlier this year, I hired a VP of Finance & Operations as well as a VP of Marketing. I can say with all my heart that my life (both in business and personally) has drastically improved with those two hires. Not only are we running the business in a much better way, but I now have the time to truly think, strategize, analyze, and focus on where this company is going vs. being in the weeds every day. In order to build a truly spectacular business, having a great support team is essential to any leader looking to thrive.
A great product/market fit: There’s a lot that comes into play here. Timing is a big factor as well. Think of companies like Uber or Lyft. Phenomenal concept, but if they tried to execute in the early 2000’s, it wouldn’t have been possible. Enter a world where everyone has a supercomputer in their pocket (smartphones), and suddenly the timing for an idea of that nature becomes possible. There’s countless stories of phenomenal ideas coming at the wrong time. Maybe the market/customer base just isn’t ready for it. Maybe the technology needed to offer the product at a reasonable price point isn’t quite there yet. Take Lume Cube for example, we launched our Video Conference light in January 2019…needless to say, it was a flop and not a successful offering. Enter 2020 and the market conditions, there was a need and we were able to fulfill it, and suddenly we were selling in 1 month the same volume we did the entire YEAR of 2019. Similarly for our Ring Light. A few years ago, content wasn’t as big of a topic and Ring Light sales were low. Fast forward a few years with YouTube, TikTok, and the “Creator Economy” booming, we’re selling millions of dollars worth of Ring Lights and one of the largest suppliers in the US for that product category. Timing & product/market fit is essential to building a great business. Now, the best leaders out there continually adjust their product offering to fit the market needs. Understand what the problem is your core customer is looking to solve, and build something that delivers them a solution at a price they are willing to pay. That’s what innovation is all about.
What are the most common mistakes you have seen CEOs & founders make when they start a business? What can be done to avoid those errors?
The primary one, and we’re guilty of it early on, is not knowing your numbers. No matter how good the idea is, if a business runs out of cash or doesn’t have unit economics that make sense, it’s game over. Invest in education, professional help, or whatever is needed to ensure you understand your numbers. Most CEO’s/Leaders are not accountants, but need to be dangerous enough in Excel or basic Financials to keep the business intact.
Startup founders often work extremely long hours and it’s easy to burn the candle at both ends. What would you recommend to founders about how to best take care of their physical and mental wellness when starting a company?
More hours does not mean more success. I learned this too late unfortunately. I’d rather work a healthy 40- 50 hr week, be recharged over the weekend and excited to come to work on Monday, than burn the candle through the weekend and come Monday, be tired, grumpy, burned out, etc. Especially if you have a team, the team needs a healthy leader, so balance, support, eating well, sleeping well, all are key to being a great leader. Don’t get me wrong, I’ve pulled countless 100+ hour weeks building this company, those are unavoidable in the process, BUT, don’t make a habit out of it. Develop some sort of routine where you are able to recharge, disconnect, and refill your cup. What I’ve found is actually some of my best ideas pop into my head when I’m recharging! Whether it’s going for a walk, or on a chairlift during a quick snowboard weekend getaway, sometimes my best ideas that have led to our success hit me when I’m “off the grid” because I’ve been able to clear out the noise and just connect with my own thoughts. If I was spending those days behind the computer cranking emails, I can guarantee many of those ideas would have never come to me.
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. 🙂
Be kind. It’s that simple. We live in a world today where it’s tough to get away from the news, where it’s impossible not to compare yourself with others, and anxiety/depression is at all-time highs. While there’s SO many great innovations we get to experience in 2022, many of them can lead people down some tough paths, and you never know the battle someone else is fighting. Whether it’s in the office, on the street, or at the grocery store, I wish I could start a movement to elevate kindness to strangers. Sometimes something as small as a smile, holding the door, a simple “hey how are you?” can change someone’s day for the better. Let’s be kind to each other, it can be rough out there, and kindness cures all.
We are blessed that some very prominent names in Business, VC funding, Sports, and Entertainment read this column. Is there a person in the world, or in the US with whom you would love to have a private breakfast or lunch, and why? He or she might just see this if we tag them.
Big fan of what Roy and Ryan Seiders built at Yeti. They created a premium product (and brand) in a commodity category, as well as built a community unlike any other. Would be thrilled to sit with them over coffee to hear their view of how they built Yeti & why they believe the brand has become as massive as it has.
How can our readers further follow your work online?
Meet The Disruptors: Elizabeth Goodstein Of Madison Wells On The Five Things You Need To Shake Up Your Industry
An Interview With Fotis Georgiadis
Run towards the fire is the best piece of advice I’ve gotten along the way. What this means is that as a young professional, if you join a giant bureaucratic organization, you might not receive opportunities for growth or acceleration vs. if you join a young or more dynamic organization in which you can operate in a smaller pond.
As a part of our series about business leaders who are shaking things up in their industry, I had the pleasure of interviewing Elizabeth Goodstein.
Elizabeth has spent her career empowering badass women to share their stories. Prior to joining Madison Wells in 2019, Elizabeth worked at Hello Sunshine during her MBA, focusing on amplifying Reese’s Book Club. Before that, Elizabeth was an Agent Trainee and worked for the Head of Lit, Books-to-Film-and-TV, and Live Events at WME. She is a graduate of Johns Hopkins and Columbia Business School.
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?
While I have no personal connection to the entertainment industry, I grew up in a household where my father was a cinephile and my mother a theater nerd. This meant that a lot of our free time was dedicated to watching great films and singing showtunes. Like for so many others, stories were my escape. I always wanted to work alongside creative people and empower them to share their gifts with the world. It was with this background in mind that I started working for Florentine Films at the age of 16 and convinced ICM to take a chance on me as an undergraduate intern. Those opportunities were transformational and helped solidify my passion for pursuing a career in entertainment.
Can you tell our readers what it is about the work you’re doing that’s disruptive?
At Madison Wells we are uniquely built in such a way that enables stories and/or relationships in one medium to translate into another. I believe this is one of our competitive advantages. There are numerous examples of us walking that walk — whether taking a story from a company we invest in and adapting into a television series or having our creative teams decide that a book initially optioned for Film/TV would be better served by starting as an adaptation in Live theater. The practice of adapting source material in and of itself is not disruptive. However, the internal systems we’ve worked hard to hone enable this kind of nimble decision making and action.
Can you share a story about the funniest mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lesson you learned from that?
I didn’t realize a boss at WME needed a visa to get into India. She was leaving in 72 hours from when I discovered this. I learned about the power and importance of building real relationships outside of one’s day-to-day. Those relationships often prove essential, most of the time when you least expect it. Let’s just say my boss made it to India.
We all need a little help along the journey. Who have been some of your mentors? Can you share a story about how they made an impact?
A person I have turned to a few times — when I really needed someone whom I admired to show up for me — is Strauss Zelnick, of ZMC, Take-Two Interactive, etc. He might not realize it, but Strauss has taught me lessons big and small — i.e., to always answer emails within 24 hours, to take the professional road less traveled when you care deeply about what you’re doing, to directly ask for advice when you need it, among other best practices. While I don’t speak to Strauss all the time, when I have made it clear I have needed his wisdom, he has always been there. When recruiting post-business school, Strauss had a clear POV on the paths I was deciding between. The impact he made on me in that moment was: 1) recognizing the importance of building relationships in which a mentor can be honest and 2) inspiring me to want to grow up to be someone like Strauss, who countless young professionals rely on for guidance, etc.
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 is a term that is both overused and not necessarily a good thing, although it has become synonymous in today’s world with cool and innovative. From my perspective, disrupting an industry is positive when the disruption leads to a more equitable environment within that industry or ecosystem. An example of positive disruption would be some of the disruption that has taken place in the healthcare industry. For example, it is now possible to access quality healthcare from the touch of one’s phone or laptop, enabling access for those whose work hours are inconvenient for receiving in-person care and/or who live far away from an in-person facility. On the “not so positive” side of the coin, I am biased, but I do not believe in the newfound economics created by the streaming model. 1) Independent producers have been completely disadvantaged by the back-end buyout/buy all rights strategy of the streamers, even though these producers are often essential in the ‘making’ of a film or television series, and 2) I’m not reinventing the wheel when I say that the business model of streaming doesn’t make sense from a profitability perspective (see: most recent earnings reports and the big media market correction).
Can you share five of the best words of advice you’ve gotten along your journey? Please give a story or example for each.
Run towards the fire is the best piece of advice I’ve gotten along the way. What this means is that as a young professional, if you join a giant bureaucratic organization, you might not receive opportunities for growth or acceleration vs. if you join a young or more dynamic organization in which you can operate in a smaller pond. Operating in a smaller, more high growth environment allows one to make more of an impact in the day-to-day (and also contributes to more learning than if everything is already figured out for you).
We are sure you aren’t done. How are you going to shake things up next?
There is a major injustice in how venture capital dollars are allocated in this country (and world). We invested in a female-founded podcast company called Lemonada Media earlier this year, and I’d like to continue to deploy capital into early-stage businesses we believe in, whose mission aligns with our north star at Madison Wells, and whose founders might be adversely impacted by the biases that exist in traditional fundraising.
Do you have a book, podcast, or talk that’s had a deep impact on your thinking? Can you share a story with us? Can you explain why it was so resonant with you?
The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls and The Diving Bell and the Butterfly by Jean-Dominique Bauby have had the most impact on my thinking in recent years. The former because Jeannette’s story teaches that resilience and perseverance are possible, even against the greatest of odds. The latter because we should all strive to live a life of fulfillment, with respect and care for others — as opposed to regretting how we behaved after it is too late.
Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share how that was relevant to you in your life?
“Everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of the human freedoms — to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one’s own way.” — Viktor E. Frankl. In the context of Man’s Search for Meaning, Frankl teaches that no matter what atrocities or horrors a person experiences in their lives, one may choose one’s attitude and thus choose one’s own way in response. And that ability to choose is the very definition of liberty and freedom. This is true in every trivial aspect of life, too. It is a reminder that we are (mostly) in charge, even when it feels like we have lost our way or are deeply frustrated or feel like it is all too much.
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 not a person of great influence, but if I could inspire a movement it would be to actually codify the separation between church and state. Meaning, reproductive rights and marriage rights, etc., would be deemed human rights (and in no way politicized by our politicians because of religious beliefs, powerful lobbying groups, etc.).
Meet The Disruptors: Jim Donnelly Of Restore Hyper Wellness On The Five Things You Need To Shake Up Your Industry
An Interview With Fotis Georgiadis
Surround yourself with good, talented people, and let them have the freedom to do great things.
As a part of our series about business leaders who are shaking things up in their industry, I had the pleasure of interviewing Jim Donnelly.
Jim Donnelly is the co-founder and CEO of Restore Hyper Wellness®, a disruptor in the personal health and wellness category that delivers expert guidance and an extensive array of cutting-edge health modalities, such as IV drips and cryotherapy, integrated under one roof. Before Restore, Jim served as an Officer in the U.S. Army and spent years working at leading brands, including Jell-O Pudding, Bell South, Coca-Cola, and Citibank. Jim began his entrepreneurial journey when he co-founded IgoUgo.com, which became the leader in user-generated travel website content, won a Webby Award as the top travel website in the U.S. and was sold to Sabre Holdings / Travelocity all in less than five years.
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 spent my early life surrounded by entrepreneurs. My father was regularly engrossed in different initiatives, from commercial fishing boats, to an accounting company, to bringing the Russian ballet to the United States to tour. His ventures weren’t always financially successful, but I loved my dad’s enthusiasm. He never lost his zest for trying something new.
While my father sparked my passion for business, I decided to take a different professional route than he did. I completed my undergraduate degree and MBA in four years and started my first business at 21. The military funded my education, so while I was on active-duty, the person I hired to run my business actually stole the money and disappeared. That was my first entrepreneurial lesson learned — be extremely careful who you trust with your business.
After completing my military service, I knew I still wanted to be an entrepreneur, but I didn’t want to jump back in without a solid foundation. I developed a strategy to gain knowledge across different industries which led to me working for Kraft General Foods, AT&T/Bell South, Coca-Cola, and Citibank.
One day I was introduced to an entrepreneur at a social event. As we talked, he asked me about my work history with all of these blue-chip companies, essentially questioning my commitment to entrepreneurship. A week later, I quit my job. I took a page out of my father’s handbook, determined to explore something new every five years.
First, I explored the travel industry, where I started a company that provided custom travel content that suited niche audiences. I also ran a luxury condo company where I bought abandoned bank buildings, flipped them into condos, and sold them to the likes of Michael Jordan and Cam Newton. In my business ventures, I, of course, wasn’t always an expert in whichever industry I entered. In turn, I realized I couldn’t outdo my competitors in their game, so I had to create my own.
Founding Restore was an easy decision. I was training for a triathlon, and my body hurt from the punishing training regiment. A friend suggested I join him for a cryotherapy appointment. I thought, Why not? I fell in love with the experience immediately but recognized treatments were way too expensive, housed in a horrible retail environment, and the people running that particular studio did not belong in the wellness industry. So, when the opportunity arose to change that, I once again said…why not?
Can you tell our readers what it is about the work you’re doing that’s disruptive?
As you know, access to proper healthcare in the United States is limited to those who can afford it. Simply having your blood taken can cost hundreds of dollars without insurance — many people self-manage their chronic pain or illnesses because of their current healthcare inaccessibility. While do-it-yourself versions of alternative medicine have increased in popularity since the Coronavirus outbreak, alternative medicine clinics present the same barrier as traditional medicine: cost. We all deserve the opportunity to have access to a healthy lifestyle. Restore’s new category of care — Hyper Wellness® — combines groundbreaking science, expert guidance, and innovative retail experience with the sole goal of reducing the ever-growing gap between lifespan and healthspan. Alongside my Hyper Wellness Team and CMO David Fossas, we designed our program to be not only easily accessible but also affordable with the hopes that fewer Americans have to decide between their health and their wealth.
Can you share a story about the funniest mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lesson you learned from that?
I’m going all the way back to my first company. The company was called Repeat Performers. It was a golf ball recovery business. We would get the contract from golf courses to retrieve lost golf balls from their water hazards. A typical golf course produces thousands of golf balls. Being located in the Southeast, we saw alligators and all kinds of snakes in every water hazard.
A funny mistake; I had a bunch of new divers show up at a job at Jekyll Island. We had a large order from Wal-Mart and needed to “harvest” a large number of golf balls. We got to the first hazard and saw a dozen alligators on the far bank. None of the new divers would get in the water. I was wearing my work clothes and wasn’t prepared to go in the water. But I had to. I grabbed scuba gear, jumped in the water in my khakis and golf shirt, and started retrieving golf balls. Slowly, the rest of the divers entered the water, and we had a successful day. It got to the point where the gators simply ignored us, and the divers ignored them.
The mistakes I made and learned from:
My team wasn’t fully trained and I put them in a potentially dangerous situation. They hadn’t been educated on diving with alligators, and they were justifiably scared. That’s on me. Today, the health and safety of my team and my customers are paramount.
I probably picked the worst possible course to harvest, given the experience of my team and the conditions. Based on this experience, we changed our training and onboarding process, making safety the centerpiece of our practices. .
I didn’t show up prepared to lead by example. Getting people over the hump required a “show me, don’t tell me” mentality.
We all need a little help along the journey. Who have been some of your mentors? Can you share a story about how they made an impact?
My main mentor was my father. He had a long military career and transitioned to entrepreneurship from the military. Unfortunately, the military provides a terrific baseline for entrepreneurs but not all of the necessary skills. So my father struggled as an entrepreneur. He started some pretty cool ventures but never seemed to be able to get a business beyond a certain point. Having said that, he taught me a few things that form the foundation for how I do everything:
Enthusiasm and optimism matter.
Be the same person in good times and bad times.
You learn the measure of a person at two different points: when there is a lot of money to divide up and when they are out of money.
Surround yourself with good, talented people, and let them have the freedom to do great things.
My father also provided a quote I always remember. He said, “Son, there is no debtor’s prison in the U.S. If you fail, you can start something new the next day.” Essentially his construct was work hard, do what you promise to do, don’t risk other people’s money if you aren’t risking yours first, and never break the law or lie.
I took these lessons from my father and added the notion of getting the experience I needed to become a subject-matter expert as the launching point for becoming a great entrepreneur. That is why my career includes all of the stops in corporate America. I made sure I had the right experiences to help me be successful and overlaid that with the lessons from my father.
In today’s parlance, being disruptive is usually a positive adjective. But is disrupting always good? When do we say the converse that a system or structure has ‘withstood the test of time’? Can you articulate to our readers when disrupting an industry is positive, and when disrupting an industry is ‘not so positive’? Can you share some examples of what you mean?
To be disruptive is to provide a service unique to your intended industry — to turn heads so to speak. To be a disruption is to impact industry standards and ongoings, moving forward in either a positive or negative manner.
I chose to be disruptive by observing America’s healthcare problem as a whole and finding a compromise that benefits each affected party to some degree. If I had entered Restore with the single-minded goal of profiting from simply the popularity of cryotherapy, we would have never expanded our services into a full-fledged wellness clinic offering programs targeting various health concerns.
Being disruptive is always positive when one’s goal is to improve the standard quality of life. However, an action I consider to be helpful may not be beneficial to someone else. How I choose to be a disruption is to lead my company, and eventually, the wellness industry with the goal of maximizing efficacy, not dollars. If you make people feel better and maximize their health benefits, guess what they’ll do? They’ll return again and again. I believe some smaller operators function off of slated hierarchies because they rely on a single source of income to keep their business afloat. In turn, they may make the misguided decision to offer any products their customers are willing to pay for regardless of their benefits or risks. We do not operate under that construct.
Can you share five of the best words of advice you’ve gotten along your journey? Please give a story or example for each.
Anytime you deal with high-level, successful human beings, you must expect the unexpected. Sometimes I forget that our lifestyles, no matter how we lead them, can send people in different directions. I had to recognize that my franchisees are my partners in business and life, and in their daily lives they can have marital problems, health problems, and general life problems. People are multifaceted, and I had to strike the right balance of empathy and emotional intelligence to make Restore a great company to work with. We’re inventing together, we’re taking a chance together, and we’re creating our own playbook together.
We are sure you aren’t done. How are you going to shake things up next?
My Restore team and I work with the goal of improving the customer experience and efficacy. We already make the best full body cryotherapy chambers in the world. Now, we want to make the most appealing studios to host those chambers. I believe beauty and aesthetics play a large role in a customer’s experience and therefore the success of a business. If you have ever walked into a medical hyperbaric unit, you would compare it to an ICU unit. Hospitals aren’t relaxing. There’s so much innovation that we can bring to the space, and while I’m not a social media connoisseur, I want our locations to be as relaxing and Insta-worthy as possible.
Do you have a book, podcast, or talk that’s had a deep impact on your thinking? Can you share a story with us? Can you explain why it was so resonant with you?
I am a voracious reader as well as a consumer of podcasts so it is very difficult to narrow this to one. So I would like to mention a book I’ve read in the last few years. The book is A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles. It is the story of an aristocrat in Russia that is sentenced to house arrest at a fancy hotel in Moscow after the communists take over after World War I. It isn’t a business book, but I loved it for all the lessons it provided. The main character always made the most of his situation, he was incredibly optimistic, and he treated everyone with dignity. As a former aristocrat he recognized that the waiter was just as important as the politician. The book had whimsy, it provided some really cool historical perspective (I believe you learn from history), he gravitated toward clever solutions to problems, and many lessons were embedded throughout the book. It was truly a lovely story and affected my approach to people in personal and professional settings.
Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share how that was relevant to you in your life?
I don’t believe in the concept of “failure” — to me, these moments are opportunities to learn, grow and try again.
My father once reminded me that there’s no debtor’s prison in the U.S. — you don’t go to jail here just for failing in a business. As long as you work hard, do what you promise to the people involved, and don’t break the law, you can try again the next day. It was a powerful insight into who he was and how he felt about the things he pursued. Where there’s an opportunity, there’s an equal opportunity to succeed or fail. But you can learn from both, and neither is a reason to not try to do something new.
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. 🙂
Shifting the perception of healthcare from reactive to proactive. For those people who can afford it, our preventative care usually amounts to annual checkups to see how or if things are functioning the way they should be. For many people, their care comes through urgent care clinics or emergency room visits. What about all of that time in between? It’s not enough to tell people what they should be doing and then trust that they know how to proceed or that they have the means to proceed. Instead, we wait until someone’s health situation is so dire that urgent (and expensive) measures need to be taken. There’s one important piece missing from the greater puzzle of the healthcare system at large, and that’s providing education on the efficacy of being proactive about your health and increasing your healthspan. A critical second piece focuses on equity, ensuring that people are not only able to receive and understand that information, but are provided equitable access to the kinds of care that will help them thrive.
How can our readers follow you online?
Keep up with my career and Restore’s ongoings on LinkedIn or follow me on Facebook @JimRestore.
This was very inspiring. Thank you so much for joining us!
Learn and practice as much as you can. My personal mantra is: There’s Nothing You Can’t Learn. This is what helped me pivot my career.
The Virtual Reality, Augmented Reality & Mixed Reality Industries are so exciting. What is coming around the corner? How will these improve our lives? What are the concerns we should keep an eye out for? Aside from entertainment, how can VR or AR help work or other parts of life? To address this, we had the pleasure of interviewingHelena Dong.
Helena Dong is a designer and creative technologist based in NYC, interweaving conceptual undercurrents from fashion, performance and AR. Since engaging with creative tech in 2020, Helena has designed, developed and directed AR experiences for a multitude of distinguished brands, including A24, Coachella, Estée Lauder, Meta, Nike, Prada and Vogue. Currently, Helena is an Art Director at BUCK where she collaborates with a global team on experiential projects driven by immersive technologies.
Thank you so much for doing this with us! Before we dig in, our readers would like to get to know you a bit. Can you tell us a bit about your backstory and how you grew up?
I spent my childhood in China before immigrating to Australia at the age of eleven. As early as I could remember, I was soaking up my mom’s creativity: I observed her as a florist and later an event stylist, often digging through her books on ikebana whilst toying with Barbie dolls and anime figurines.
After we moved to Australia, my obsession shifted to fashion and internet flash games, which evolved into a fascination with the experiential and performative potential of clothing. This curiosity sustained me through university, where I studied fashion design through an interdisciplinary lens. It also encouraged me to specialize in creative technology in recent years, and now I get to combine these worlds through working on AR effects for brands like Fendi, Prada, and Nike.
Is there a particular book, film, or podcast that made a significant impact on you? Can you share a story or explain why it resonated with you so much?
One of the biggest impacts is thanks to the Viktor & Rolf SS09 show. At the time of encountering this digital performance, I was in grade six and my interest in fashion was just developing. As you can imagine, I was fully mesmerized by clones of Shalom Harlow walking down a CGI runway, and this was thirteen years before Balenciaga’s SS22 ‘Clone’ collection! This was one of my earliest memories of a virtual fashion show, and it radically expanded my perception as a twelve year old, on how designs could be experienced and disseminated beyond traditional formats.
Is there a particular story that inspired you to pursue a career in the X Reality industry? We’d love to hear it.
I began exploring AR out of sheer curiosity after moving to NYC for an opportunity in fashion. Despite having no background in computing, I downloaded Spark AR upon noticing a rapid surge of Instagram AR effects published by independent creators. Initially, I saw AR as a viable tool for prototyping designs that would otherwise be constrained by cost and manufacturing feasibility. I never imagined it would become an alternate career trajectory. The first wave of COVID lockdowns in 2020 called for introspection, and I dove deeper into AR development and 3D modeling. The act of learning brought me immense joy in that moment. I was playing with these tools purely for personal reasons, until I was commissioned to work on American Vogue’s first AR-enhanced beauty editorial for the iconic September Issue of 2020.
Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you began this fascinating career?
The fact that I get to play in the world of AR as a career still feels ridiculous to me. The most interesting story has been the journey itself, and this process of learning on the go. Oftentimes, I take on projects beyond my capability. With impending deadlines and client expectations, I need to learn whatever skill or tool required to realize the project. And for some miraculous reason I’ve always managed to pull them off. Many brands that I once dreamed of working with while I was in fashion school have become my clients, such as Prada, Fendi, Nike, Byredo, and Vogue. This is something that has surprised me, how my career path has changed within two years, simply by starting with watching online tutorials and experimenting.
Can you share a story about the funniest mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lesson you learned from that?
When I first decided to pivot to creative tech, I reached out to over 200 creative studios over a period of 6 months. I wanted to learn from leaders in the field, see if I could collaborate with their team, and get some advice on whether I could actually make a career out of AR. This process was so beneficial, and I am grateful to every person who spent time with me helping me understand this space.
Before you embark on this process, be clear about your goals, and have your case studies and work samples ready to be presented. Looking back, I wish I had been a bit more prepared as there were times where I fumbled with my phone to find relevant examples during the call.
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?
Of course, I am very grateful to all the people who have encouraged me along my journey, but it would be impossible to name only one person! I’d really like to give a shout out to my generous and talented colleagues at BUCK as well as fellow creators and mentors in the Meta Spark community, who have taught me so much over the past few years and fostered my confidence to build a career in creative technology.
Are you working on any exciting new projects now? How do you think that will help people?
There are many new AR projects I am working on in various stages of completion and although I can’t share any specifics just yet, I can’t wait for the world to experience them. Keep an eye on the @BUCK_Design Instagram account for the latest 😉
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?
There are three things that excite me about this space:
How by using VR, AR and MR, we can transcend physical limitations and cheat space. My inner child is thrilled by the prospect of an Anywhere Door or the Deluxe Light from Doraemon that comically transforms everyday objects into deluxe versions of themselves. Existing objects acquire new and various connotations as they’re prescribed with alternative contexts.
The endless immersion of a narrative. With the integration of deep learning models, the stories in AR, VR or MR experiences could be shaped entirely by the audience. Choose-your-own-adventure narratives no longer need to be limited by pre-destined plotlines.
The ongoing improvements in hardware capacity and the eventual elevation of visual fidelity so that people can stop associating AR/VR with a low-fi aesthetic.
Are there other ways that VR, AR and MR can improve our lives? Can you explain?
VR, AR and MR bear immense potential to enrich the ways in which we perceive and interact with the world, particularly with heightened convenience, immersive education and expansive leisure. Having said that, these improvements won’t derive from technology alone, they will only be made possible through practices that are inclusive, design-centric, and are able to evolve with our values. Only time will tell just how these technologies will integrate with different lifestyles and abilities. I’m excited to see what comes next and be part of the developments.
What are the “myths” that you would like to dispel about working in your industry? Can you explain what you mean?
There is a myth that being excited about VR, AR and MR experiences equates to abandoning the “real world.” The fact is that VR, AR and MR experiences exist in the real world: our world. This conversation that we’re having about the expansion of these experiences is really no different from the one we instigated over a decade ago with the rise of the internet and social media, contesting just how much of social media and the use of 2D interface on a pocket device would dictate our day or day lives. It’s a different, and more integrated way of interacting with content and participating with digital communities, which is probably why it feels like a bigger threat to our existing way of life.
What are your “5 Things You Need To Create A Highly Successful Career In The VR, AR or MR Industries?”
Keeping in mind, I am new(ish) to this field myself, here are some things that I share when asked about working in the world of AR:
Foster your curiosity. Everything in creative technology moves fast, new things are constantly being introduced. The only way to sustain a career in emerging tech is to be curious and inspired by the unfamiliar.
Learn and practice as much as you can. My personal mantra is: There’s Nothing You Can’t Learn. This is what helped me pivot my career.
Have clear intentions. Don’t build tech for the sake of it. Think about what drives you to create VR, AR, or MR experiences. Ensure that your work, and that of your collaborators is backed by genuine and clear intentions. VR, AR and MR are tools that have no agenda on their own. So, what is your agenda?
Project your ideas, your intentions, your art, and your capabilities in front of key stakeholders. Be patient and prepared to explain your stance and educate others who are unacquainted with these technologies.
Teamwork. Understand that you don’t have to do everything on your own. AR experiences require a multitude of inputs: not only technical capabilities, but design theories, psychology, scenography, narratives, and more. As a creative technologist specializing in social AR, there’s often a perceived need to be your own creative director, designer, 3D artist, developer and producer. While it certainly helps to know a bit about everything, it’s not practical to expect yourself, or anyone, to master all tasks. Know that it is ok to seek support and collaborators.
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. 🙂
Eliminate traces of gatekeeping mentality. Everyone in the industry should be willing to offer mentorships.
Thank you so much for these excellent stories and insights. We wish you continued success in your great work!
Turn Conflict into Trust; The conversations you’re avoiding or handling poorly will be the reason people leave as the speed of scale increases. Learn how to turn avoidance into engagement and your leadership team will be exponentially more resilient.
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 Adrian Koehler.
Adrian Koehler is a leadership engagement expert whogets real to get real results. He is the founder and managing partner at the executive coaching firm, Take New Ground where he coaches executives and entrepreneurs in the art and science of leadership for themselves, their teams, and clients to create new, unprecedented results and experience fulfillment in their work.
Thank you for joining us in this interview series. Our readers would love to “get to know you” a bit better. Can you tell us a bit about your ‘backstory’?
My natural passions and inclination toward taking initiative have lead me into four distinct careers and across the globe. I have a background in philanthropy, ministry, activism, and medicine, and all of those shaped me into the leadership coach I am today. I have always been drawn to get involved in times of crisis and chaos where I know my commitment to a worthy future and desire to help people connect will be a massive value add. Prior to my work as an executive coach, I was the founding executive director of The Cornerstone Project, a grant-giving foundation that supports positive life transformation and spiritual reconciliation for the incarcerated and those with criminal histories. Before moving to Los Angeles in 2005, I worked as a pediatric intensive care specialist at Children’s Memorial Hospital in Chicago and also served as a pastor and community organizer at Mosaic LA and founded Serve LA, Mosaic’s community dedicated to holistic development for the marginalized and vulnerable in Los Angeles.
You’ve had a remarkable career journey. Can you highlight a key decision in your career that helped you get to where you are today?
Moving from being the best independent player or best player on an unimpressive team to being a key player on a team of rockstars. A key decision was to partner with a mentor of mine. We are both world class at our unique approaches and make each other better on a daily basis.
What’s the most impactful initiative you’ve led that you’re particularly proud of?
After working for years in the streets of Los Angles as a leadership mobilizer, a funder asked me to start an organization that would make an intense splash. I started The Cornerstone Project, a grant-giving foundation that supports positive life transformation and spiritual reconciliation for the incarcerated and those with criminal histories. I built a team of experts and established a program where we did 3-day leadership intensives with murderers in prison. We then trained them to be the trainers of their fellow in-mates. Thousands of inmates are still going through this program, living with rigorous honesty, serving others and finally generating the life they want for themselves and their community.
Sometimes our mistakes can be our greatest teachers. Can you share a mistake you’ve made and the lesson you took away from it?
One mistake I made was not seeing the difference early enough between being Hight End Performer and being a High Performing Leader. Being great is not enough. Focusing on making others great and getting results through them.
How has mentorship played a role in your career, whether receiving mentorship or offering it to others?
Mentorship has been everything in my career. I’ve followed leaders more than opportunities throughout my entire career.
Developing your leadership style takes time and practice. Who do you model your leadership style after? What are some key character traits you try to emulate?
I model my leadership style after those leaders who are hyper-committed to results while generating creating an environment of motivation and respect. A leader like President Dwight Eisenhower has always been an icon I model. Serious man, taking on world-wide challenges while taking the time to build camaraderie and warmth with those under his charge. Love leaders who take the mission seriously and others intentionally; not themselves.
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.
The top 5 things founders and entrepreneurs can and should be doing in order to scale up in 2023 are:
Spend to Scale; If you’re not investing in leadership development for your team, you’re starving your most vital resource.
Turn Conflict into Trust; The conversations you’re avoiding or handling poorly will be the reason people leave as the speed of scale increases. Learn how to turn avoidance into engagement and your leadership team will be exponentially more resilient.
Respect Reality; not all of your employees want to scale as you do, some are all in, some are resistors, and a majority are fence sitters. They are waiting for you to recognize the sacrifice needed. Do it.
Sometimes scaling up is scaling out: Some of your key leaders who were effective at stage 2 aren’t right for stage 3. Not everybody who got your here can get you there. So thank them and release them.
A Look in the Mirror: You are your greatest asset. Before you attempt to scale it’s important to get real and increase your personal and leadership capacity. The areas for us to exponentially move forward are invisible to us, so get feedback from a trusted colleague or coach about what you need to be able to remain at the helm of a moving and growing business.
Can you share a few of the mistakes that companies make when they try to scale a business? What would you suggest to address those errors?
The first mistake companies often make when trying to scale a business is going too fast too soon. It is very tempting to try to keep up with peers or sprinting to a sale. Part of our work with founders is helping them slow down, focus on quality, and build for resilience. If you don’t slow down and look at what your challenges are now, you will assume they are still the old ones you were fighting before and not what you need to address now. The second is ignoring the feedback. Founders want to grow in a silo where their ideas are always right. They need to pay attention to what feedback they are receiving from the market and their team; beyond paying attention, seek feedback. Be a pro at owning current reality.
Scaling includes bringing new people into the organization. How can a company preserve its company culture and ethos when new people are brought in?
A company can preserve its company culture by being clear about what their culture is at the start. A company can’t invite somebody into a culture if they don’t know what it is. Invite the new voices to add to the order and clarity that’s already established, not add their history to the unexplained chaos.
Many times, a key aspect of scaling your business is scaling your team’s knowledge and internal procedures. What tools or techniques have helped your teams be successful at scaling internally?
Testing the communication within your organization is key to being successful at this. A company needs to be on top of how your teams are both listening and talking to each other in order to get results. Siloing and politics will always handicap brilliant people.
What software or tools do you recommend to help onboard new hires?
I recommend the Harrison Assessment to help onboard new hires. It’s not a personality assessment, instead it’s a work-enjoyment assessment. Most processes show you if they are eligible for the position. This assessment reveals the “black box” of hiring…how ELIGIBLE they are for the position, revealing their attitude about themselves, others and the work. It’s a tool to understand culture, how people relate to each other and whether new hires will feel they are filling a missing piece for the team.
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.
I’d say become people focused. Companies don’t exist without human beings and we need to see the human being in all its complexities for us to thrive.
How can our readers further follow your work online?
You can follow us by listening to our podcast, The Naked Leadership Podcast and check out our Youtube channel, Fearless Leadership with Adrian Koehler.
This was truly meaningful! Thank you so much for your time and for sharing your expertise!
Jorge Lopera Of LATAM & Industry, FarEye On How To Create A Fantastic Retail Experience That Keeps Bringing Customers Back For More
Flexibility — Give consumers the ability to change orders, delivery windows and destinations after an order is made.
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 Jorge Lopera.
Jorge Lopera has over 15 years of global logistics experience in senior roles encompassing customer growth, product management, and strategy. As Vice President, LATAM & Industry, Jorge is responsible for FarEye’s expansion into the LATAM region, overseeing commercial and operational activities including sales, account management and channel & ecosystem partners. Jorge serves as FarEye’s industry expert, contributing to major publications and supporting analyst relations.
Prior to FarEye, Jorge was VP of Customer Growth at Bringg. Before Bringg, Jorge led the DHL e-commerce product development team and was instrumental in introducing a technology-first approach to a last mile service offering in the Americas and Asia-Pacific. Previously, Jorge worked in private equity, responsible for financial and business analysis for key strategic growth opportunities. He holds a BS in finance and real estate from DePaul University.
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?
Like many people, I fell into logistics via consulting. I initially started working for a small start-up focusing in areas of financial planning and analysis. In order to prepare investor reporting and fundraising material, I learned about pricing, operations, marketing and product. I fell in love with the complexities involved in taking a package from point A to point B.
Can you share a story about the funniest mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lessons or ‘takeaways’ you learned from that?
Earlier in my career, I was supporting the evaluation and eventual sale of the company I was working for. In a hurry and deep into multi-tasking I booked my flight first thing in the morning for an important meeting. I arrived at the airport, checked in only to find out I booked it for the wrong city — I entered DTW (Detroit) instead of DFW (Dallas), an expensive mistake. Luckily, I made it to the meeting. Always look twice before confirming a flight.
None of us are able to achieve success without some help along the way. Is there a particular person who you are grateful towards who helped get you to where you are? Can you share a story?
I am a fond believer in paying it forward and have both given and received some great support throughout my career. I can say I wouldn’t be where I am today without the support of Rick Rover. I reported to Rick who at the time was the SVP of Operations at DHL and he took the role of mentor over boss. He constantly looked for ways to challenge me and arranged the opportunity for me to spend a summer in Europe to learn about global operations and product management. In that summer, I was given the opportunity to develop new delivery concepts with a global lens and subsequently traveled to Asia, Europe and LATAM deploying these concepts into live markets. Not only was that especially rewarding professionally, I was able to see parts of the world I had never seen before!
Is there a particular book, podcast, or film that made a significant impact on you? Can you share a story or explain why it resonated with you so much?
When I made the pivot into technology it was a very different world and the first thing I wanted to do was to learn and listen from our customers first hand (“voice of the customer”). It was quite the experience as I watched customers go from excited to see flashy technology to staring at their watches waiting for the hour to expire (in some cases, making up excuses to leave). Many on the team, including our CRO, required us to read The Great Demo. All I can say is that the book really showed me how customers want to buy software solutions and “why should they care.” The main learning lesson…show the last thing first!
What do you think makes your company stand out? Can you share a story?
FarEye has the best and easiest to use last-mile delivery platform on the market and I truly believe it is because of our company culture that facilitates close collaboration across teams. We do a great job of understanding what aspects of delivery are most challenging for current and potential customers and design our products with their needs in mind.
Which tips would you recommend to your colleagues in your industry to help them to thrive and not “burn out”?
Be calm and practical — don’t sweat the small stuff.
Ok super. Now let’s jump to the main questions of our interview. The so-called “Retail Apocalypse” has been going on for about a decade. The Pandemic only made things much worse for retailers in general. While many retailers are struggling, some retailers, like Lululemon, Kroger, and Costco are quite profitable. Can you share a few lessons that other retailers can learn from the success of profitable retailers?
Retailers must look to become fully omnichannel, integrating both in-store and online channels to give consumers greater choice and flexibility in how they shop. Consumer convenience is a long-term driver of brand loyalty and eventually future sales and profitability. Prioritizing the consumer experience by giving them more options and better delivery experiences will separate the retailers that we’ll see in ten years versus those we won’t.
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?
Many of the emerging DTC companies based in China that ship to the West have very long delivery timelines, as their last-mile is actually thousands of miles. The delivery experience oftentimes has poor visibility, long delays and failed deliveries, where orders are delivered with missing or damaged products. The low-cost model competes solely on price at the expense of consumer convenience. For U.S. and European brands to compete (price aside), they’ll need to strengthen their delivery experiences to truly stand out.
What are the most common mistakes you have seen CEOs & founders make when they start a retail business? What can be done to avoid those errors?
Many successful retail founders fail to properly plan to scale their businesses. The internet has enabled thousands of retail entrepreneurs to succeed quickly and many have found that the demand for their products has outstripped their ability to source and supply products in their supply chains. Further, when their business really takes off, packing and shipping orders manually and using small-business partnerships with carriers like UPS and FedEx can create long delivery times and poor customer experiences. This is where last-mile delivery platforms can truly shine, simplifying the delivery orchestration process and freeing up time for founders to focus on core competencies.
This might be intuitive, but I think it’s helpful to specifically articulate it. In your words, can you share a few reasons why great customer service and a great customer experience is essential for success in business in general and for retail in particular?
We have a strong research arm here at FarEye that has uncovered a wealth of insight showing how important the consumer delivery experience is for brand loyalty and repeat sales. We know that poor delivery experiences, high shipping costs, poor returns policies, etc. all impact the consumer appetite to shop with retailers. There is a reason retailers like Amazon, Alibaba and MercadoLibre have become so profound in recent years — they prioritize the consumer and make the delivery experience easy and affordable. That has translated into strengthened brand loyalty and market share dominance. I think it is important for smaller retailers to know that they too can achieve consumer delivery experiences at a similar level.
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?
I think as retailers become larger, it becomes harder for them to create and maintain relationships with customers and resort to a one-size-fits-all approach which inevitably fails in certain situations. Retailers offer a limited set of options for products, price, delivery, etc. and fail to customize solutions that fit specific customer needs. We see this in store operating hours, delivery options, customer service knowledge, loyalty programs — you name it. And the reality is, it is difficult for companies to address everything at once. As supply chains become more automated, agile and customer centric, the retail industry will become more adaptable to specific customer needs. Technology will lead the charge here and the companies that adopt this technology will gain competitive advantages quickly in the form of better consumer experiences.
Can you share with us a story from your experience about a customer who was “Wowed” by the experience you provided?
I’ve worked with a wholesale food service delivery company that was challenged by inefficient routing processes that came to me looking for a solution. Our solution not only made their routes more efficient, but reduced their carbon footprint and even contributed to their increased sales in the process. Where we “wowed” the customer was that our solution was extremely easy and fast to implement, and we had them up and running months before they had expected to be. It felt good to be a part of that.
A fantastic retail experience isn’t just one specific thing. It can be a composite of many different subtle elements fused together. Can you help us break down and identify the different ingredients that come together to create a “fantastic retail experience”?
Choice, flexibility, speed, affordability and sustainability are the key ingredients to creating a fantastic retail experience. Giving consumers greater choice and customization in both the product itself and how it gets to them is critical. Allowing them to amend these after an order is made is as well. For example, changing the products ordered or the delivery destination or window while enroute, etc. Doing all of this quickly (same-day, for example) and at a low cost (ideally free) can really take a retail experience from great to fantastic. Lasty, as sustainability increasingly becomes a consideration for consumers, minimizing the carbon footprints of supply chain and delivery operations is the icing on the cake. Efficiency across the supply chain, and specifically in the last mile, can tie all of these together to create a fantastic experience.
Ok super. Here is the main question of our interview. Based on your experience and success, what are the five most important things one should know in order to create a fantastic retail experience that keeps bringing customers back for more? Please share a story or an example for each.
Expanding on the above question, here are the most important factors for a fantastic retail experience, all of which can be accomplished with more automated, adaptable supply chains.
Choice — Allow consumers to customize products and how those products get to them.
Flexibility — Give consumers the ability to change orders, delivery windows and destinations after an order is made.
Speed — Get products to consumers on the same day the order is made, or faster if possible.
Affordability — Offer free or low cost shipping on all delivery modes.
Sustainability — Minimize the carbon footprint across the supply chain and offer carbon neutral delivery modes.
(Bonus) Communication — Inform consumers in real time of the status, ETA and location of their order.
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 like this idea of a ‘Nirvana’ delivery state, where consumers can order anything from anywhere in the world and have it delivered on the same day to anywhere in the world with a limited carbon footprint. Developed countries are slowly moving in this direction but there are billions of people in underserved regions where such a goal is far out of reach. I’d like to be a part of making that happen.
Really only one, that the privacy move by Apple and regulators killed small companies’ online customer acquisition business models, and that marketing would need a total reinvention, with Facebook targeting efficiency reduced by three! Yet, not sure we really gained privacy, so probably a big loss for all!
As a part of my series about “Big Ideas That Might Change The World In The Next Few Years” I had the pleasure of interviewing Pierre Lagrange.
Pierre Lagrange is Executive Chairman of Huntsman and Mrs Wordsmith. Before acquiring Huntsman in 2014 and Mrs Wordsmith in 2021, Pierre co-founded GLG Partners, acquired by Man Group in 2010, and sat on the Man Group executive committee. Before founding GLG, Pierre worked at Goldman Sachs from 1990, where he managed global equity portfolios. He started his career in finance at JP Morgan, where from 1985 he worked in government bond sales and trading. Pierre holds an MA in Engineering from Solvay Business School in Brussels.
Pierre has regularly invested in movie productions, executive producer of Kickass and Hollywood blockbusters Kingsman: The Secret Service and the sequel, Kingsman: The Golden Circle.
Father of four, Pierre lives with his husband Ebs Burnough between Monaco, London, Hampshire and New York.
Thank you so much for doing this with us! Before we dig in, our readers would like to get to know you a bit. Can you please tell us a story about what brought you to this specific career path?
Pierre: I am an engineer and as such always think I can create a process for everything. I watched friends during lockdown struggling with kids who do not study academics, but would go to extraordinary lengths to study how-to get to next steps in video games. So I thought what if the curriculum was the game, how much can we learn from playing?
Can you please share with us the most interesting story that happened to you since you began your career?
Straight out of college, I began my career at Exxon because they paid new graduates well. My first boss suffered a stroke shortly after I started and I was pushed into her role, where I was producing accounts for the earnings report the next month. I saw in one month what the next 5 years of my career would look like and did not like that look, so was lucky to move to JPMorgan instead without wasting much time!
Which principles or philosophies have guided your life? Your career?
Curiosity did not kill the cat! Curiosity is the mother of invention, progress, and joy as discovering new stuff is super exciting.
Ok thank you for that. Let’s now move to the main focus of our interview. Can you tell us about your “Big Idea That Might Change The World”?
Game based learning can close the learning gap.
How do you think this will change the world?
Kids who can’t read by 5, or don’t have enough vocabulary by 10 don’t stand a chance to finish high school, so inequality starts with early age literacy. If you solve some of that problem early, you can have a very big impact.
Keeping “Black Mirror” and the “Law of Unintended Consequences” in mind, can you see any potential drawbacks about this idea that people should think more deeply about?
Not at all. There is no drawback to increased literacy either from an early age, or broadening to less favoured kids.
Was there a “tipping point” that led you to this idea? Can you tell us that story?
Yes, it was watching people with kids younger than mine struggling with studying. Whereas kids would study games from their own will. It made me consider how we can allocate some of the game time to learning time in order to get kids ahead at school and foster a passion for academic life.
I also thought of my daughter. It is for her and her generation that my husband and I decided to work at Mrs Wordsmith to make education engaging and therefore productive!
What do you need to lead this idea to widespread adoption?
We’re looking for partners to spread the gospel. The game-based learning products are amazing, yet people still think video games might be a waste of kids’ time! We need to change the perception of adults who have the strings of the purse.
What are your “5 Things I Wish Someone Told Me Before I Started” and why.
Really only one, that the privacy move by Apple and regulators killed small companies’ online customer acquisition business models, and that marketing would need a total reinvention, with Facebook targeting efficiency reduced by three! Yet, not sure we really gained privacy, so probably a big loss for all!
Can you share with our readers what you think are the most important “success habits” or “success mindsets”?
The power of vulnerability to paraphrase Brene Brown. The other one is the power of playing devil’s advocate, which game studios call fail fast! Another side of agile development that saves time and lots of money! Then last but not least, asking questions, delegating, and making sure one has better, smarter people around them.
Some very well known VCs read this column. If you had 60 seconds to make a pitch to a VC, what would you say? He or she might just see this if we tag them 🙂
Mrs Wordsmith has engaging products with proven efficacy that can solve many literacy issues plaguing our world, and can scale to reach millions of children. From pre-learning to reading, to tweens’ vocabulary and digital literacy.
Paul Alex Of ATMT Together: Five Strategies I Used To Grow My Business To Reach Seven Figures In Revenue
An Interview With Fotis Georgiadis
Creative Thinker. Having vision and being able to articulate the vision to your team will increase your employees to work harder because now they have something to look forward to. Creative thinkers are also able to come up with new solutions that could increase productivity and overall help companies grow.
As a part of my series called “Five Strategies I Used To Grow My Business To Reach Seven Figures In Revenue”, I had the pleasure of interviewing Paul Alex from ATMTogether.com
Paul Alex is a former law enforcement officer turned multi-millionaire entrepreneur. He has experience in sales, public speaking and digital marketing consulting. He founded ATMTogether.com Automation Services to help clients establish their first Automated Teller Machine (ATM) locations. The company has helped educate an excess of over 48,000 aspiring entrepreneurs nationwide regarding the ATM industry and currently has over 1,500 clients enrolled into their ATM Automation program. For more information, please visit his website.
Thank you so much for joining us in this interview series! Before we dive in, our readers would love to learn a bit more about you. Can you tell us a story about what brought you to this specific career path?
In 2014, I joined the police force in northern California. I was able to become a Detective within 2 years of being a beat cop and during my 7-year law enforcement career, I established a side hustle with automated teller machines (ATMs) on my off days from work. Within 18 months, I was able to make a 5-figure income from the ATM Industry as a side hustle and was able to be financially free from my monthly bills. I decided to leave the police force and leverage my time with building a digital online offer within the ATM Industry.
In January 2021, I launched ATMTogether.com, which is a company primarily focused on helping 9–5ers create another source of income through ATMs. In March 2021, I surpassed my first 6 figures in revenue in one month. I hired and scaled the company since then into a multimillion-dollar company with 18 employees serving over 1,500 ATM automation clients nationwide in the United States. During the process, I also created the largest Facebook group in the ATM Industry called “ATM Business for Beginners’, where I do weekly FREE live training sessions to over 48,000 members nationwide.
We are on track to generate over eight figures by Q1 of 2023 and I’m officially launching a brand-new offer with Crypto ATMs as well!
Can you share the most interesting or funniest story that happened to you since you began leading your company? Can you tell us what lesson you learned from that?
To be fully transparent, I have several funny and interesting stories. The life of an entrepreneur is basically “controlled chaos”. I find it being more difficult as an entrepreneur now than when I was a detective investigating criminal cases. Even with a team of 19 employees and 3 managers, I have learned very quickly that I have to motivate my team to keep employee morale up in the workspace and assist my managers with problem solving and mindset development.
In order for me to stay disciplined and productive on a daily basis, I have several white boards in different rooms of my home. I have a morning, afternoon and evening checklist with different tasks that need to be completed daily.
In order for me to keep track of my priorities, I always focus on tasks that are going to generate revenue. Marketing & Client Acquisition are always on the top of my lists!
It’s the bread and butter of any business!
I’m an author and I believe that books have the power to change lives. Do you have a book in your life that impacted you and inspired you to be an effective leader? Can you share a story?
This may sound cliché, but a single book opened my eyes to start investing into digital marketing. It’s called “Digital Millionaire” by Dan Henry. It’s a very compelling story of rags to riches and how he was able to generate around $45,000 dollars from a single webinar online. Dan Henry is just a regular guy like me and I said to myself “if this guy can do it then why can’t I?” That’s when I decided to buy into his online program that shows beginners how to launch their own online program based on their expertise or niche. Since I had social proof within the ATM industry, I decided to launch my own online program on ATMs and the rest was history.
Are you working on any exciting new projects now? How do you think that will help people?
There are a few projects that my team and I have been working on for the past 6 months. Let’s go down the list.
Consulting for Influencers (Consulting Task Force LLC) — This new offer will be for anyone who is an expert in their niche (Digital Marketers, Real Estate Agents, Fitness Trainers & etc.) that has never leveraged the online space to expand their business to new consumers. This offer will also be great for anyone in a 9–5 job that wants to create their own online business just like I did 2 years ago. I also guarantee new clients that they will be able to generate a minimum of $10k in revenue within 90 days! This offer will change thousands of lives in 2023 and create new digital millionaires all over the world. I’m excited to launch in January 2023.
Crypto ELITE Automation (ATMTogether.com) — This new offer will be under the ATMTogether.com brand, which will be a plug and play offer for new clients. This offer will be 100% passive for any investor or new entrepreneur in the ATM industry. We will be including a brand-new crypto ATM, location for placement, professional installation and we will take care of filling up the ATM monthly with our armored guard services. We will be offering this package to 38 states in the United States for now. This will be launching on December 1st, 2022. This will help everyone in the United States generate another source of passive income while focusing on what they want to do in life. I believe in building generational wealth to help everyone and their families. I already invested into three crypto ATMs myself and plan on expanding to 20 crypto ATMs in San Diego, CA.
Awesome! Let’s now jump to the primary focus of our interview. Let’s talk about what you are doing now, and how you achieved the success that you currently enjoy. Can you tell our readers about the business you’ve created?
I am currently in San Diego, CA right now focusing on building the new offers I stated above and getting ready to launch for 2023. I am also focusing on building a bigger team and infrastructure currently for ATMTogether.com. Based on the amount of growth we have experienced in 2022, I can say that we will be expanding from 20 to 40 employees by the middle of 2023. I am planning on also moving to Miami, Florida towards the end of 2023 and opening corporate offices in the Brickell area of Florida. I want to be able to have our clients join us for in person training with our consultants and also offer exclusive in-house training for ELITE clients as well! I’m very excited for this move.
I was able to reach this level of success because I decided to invest in myself 2 years ago. I have invested over $200k in self education to learn how to build wealth in the ATM industry, digital marketing, public speaking and most importantly mindset. Mindset is everything in life. I had to go through the bad experiences and failures in life in order to realize that it made me stronger and I learned from all those life experiences. Pain is the best teacher in life.
For anyone that is reading this right now, find a mentor that currently has the results or lifestyle you want to live. Invest in yourself as soon as possible. Your life can change in 12 months with knowledge from people that are more successful than you. You have to learn in order to earn.
ATMTogether.com is the first ATM Automation program that helps aspiring entrepreneurs build another source of income through ATMs. What is so special about this program is that we are a one stop shop, which includes a brand-new ATM, internet modem, FREE processing network, one location for ATM placement and a full team of consultants that will help you throughout the 4–6-week process from starting your LLC to ATM Installation. Your success is our success. This is a long-lasting relationship with our company. Let’s ATMTogether!
What do you think makes your company stand out? Can you share a story?
The story behind why I started in entrepreneurship was the foundation behind building my tangible ATM business and ATMTogether.com.
I come from an immigrant family that lived in poverty. The most important factor while I was growing up was family and still is. Family is my “Why”.
When I was building ATMTogether.com, I launched the company by myself and I executed everything. I was waking up at 4am every morning to have consultations with clients before heading into the office to do my 9–5 job as a Detective in law enforcement. It was a grind, but within the 3rd month, I generated over $100,000 dollars within one month and that’s when I decided to leave my 9–5 job to grow the company. I even sold my house in Walnut Creek, CA and decided to move everything to San Diego. I ended up choosing to rent a Penthouse with the view of the city of San Diego and Coronado Island, which inspires me every single morning to push myself. I have the view of ocean front mansions that are worth over tens of millions of dollars. I love it. Keeps me wanting to level up every day. It’s been over a year now and I scaled ATMTogether.com from $1.7 million to $8 million dollars in revenue. We are going to cross over 10 million dollars in revenue within a few months and the company now has over 19 employees in 2022. I was able to also on board one of my good friends Gedam Yonas from my prior 9–5 job as my Chief Operating Officer for ATMTogether.com.
The story on how everything was built and how it started is very unique since there are not a ton of entrepreneurs in digital marketing that come from law enforcement. Both professions are very different.
Majority of our 1500 clients can relate to our story and that’s how we are able to establish a foundation with our audience. The story behind the company or face of the organization helps the growth of any business tremendously.
What was your vision when you started this business? What’s the WHY behind the work that you do?
The vision behind starting ATMTogether.com was simple. ATMtogether.com helps anyone who does not have enough time or knowledge to build a sustainable income while being able to leverage our infrastructure to help them get to the level of success faster within the ATM Industry. When I started my own ATM business while working as a detective in law enforcement, I went through a ton of road blocks and mistakes that cost me thousands of dollars. If I would’ve been able to utilize the systems and support ATMTogether.com offers then I would’ve become a millionaire faster than it took me figuring everything out on my own. We have helped thousands generate another source of income successfully.
My “Why” is my family and to help others succeed in entrepreneurship. I have worked a 9–5 job majority of my life and I know how it is to struggle daily with going to a job you may not enjoy on daily basis. I want to give the people the opportunity to be their own boss if they chose to invest in themselves and become financially free like I did.
We’d love to explore the traits that help you achieve your success. What were the mindset obstacles that you had to overcome in order to reach the place of earning a million dollars?
Solution Driven. There will always be hiccups or roadblocks in your entrepreneurship journey. This is why you are getting paid the big bucks. I do not dwell on the past and I keep my eye on the prize. This pushes my team and myself towards our goals.
Confidence. You have to have self-esteem to admit mistakes when you make them, and the commitment to seek new solutions to address the mistake.
Creative Thinker. Having vision and being able to articulate the vision to your team will increase your employees to work harder because now they have something to look forward to. Creative thinkers are also able to come up with new solutions that could increase productivity and overall help companies grow.
What were the external obstacles that you had to overcome in reaching these milestones? And how specifically did you overcome them?
One of the biggest external obstacles my team and I had to overcome especially being in the digital space was dealing with scammers online. In the beginning it was extremely difficult building trust with potential clients due to the high number of consumers that have had a bad experience or been taken advantage of in the online space with other programs or consultants. I was able to overcome this external obstacle by being proficient with storytelling.
Storytelling and authenticity are the two biggest factors when it comes to personal branding. If it wasn’t for law enforcement and having years of experience with writing very detailed police reports on a daily basis, I believe I would have not been able to articulate my stories as well as I do when I speak on stage or during live webinars.
If you are currently building your personal brand, you have to have a story and be able to relate your story to what niche or industry you are currently in. Majority of your audience or cliental will relate, build a foundation and trust you. If you are selling services or a product then that would mean that you will have loyal clients.
Most new entrepreneurs have a major issue with storytelling because of fear. Most people are afraid of what other people might think of them. My best piece of advice would be to not care what anyone else thinks and to just execute.
If you want to be considered successful in the near future then you will have to fail in order to learn how to be successful.
Was there ever a point where you wanted to give up on your journey to creating a multi-million-dollar business? How did you work through that panic point? Please share a story.
When I installed my first 6 ATMs within 2 weeks of starting in the ATM Industry. 3 out of 6 ATMS were a bust! I barely made $50 dollars from 3 ATMs total.
I felt like a HUGE failure. I actually wanted to quit and start a new business.
Being that this was not the first time I have experienced failing in business, I did a few things to overcome this.
Analyze what went wrong. Being that I had over a decade in sales experience and I was at the time a detective in law enforcement, I believed that starting the ATM business was not going to be a problem whatsoever. I actually thought it was going to be quite simple. I realized that I did not know what I was really doing and I needed to learn how to analyze locations to place my ATMs.
Found a Mentor. What you don’t know is what you don’t know. Self-education is everything in entrepreneurship. I initially had a chip on my shoulder and thought my own experience would be more than enough to have a successful ATM business, which I had no prior experience in before. I realized that I needed to learn what works in this specific industry before I invested any more funds towards trying to scale a failing business. When I was able to hire a mentor that had over 1000+ ATMs and a successful business himself, I was able to adapt quickly. I removed the 3 failing ATMs and placed the ATMs in GREAT locations. Within my 3rd month of my new ATM venture, I was profiting around $3,000 dollars monthly. Getting a mentor is a game changer for any entrepreneur!
Invest in self education. Spending over $200,000 dollars in mentors and self-education has been the biggest needle mover for me. I have been able to 40x my initial investment within a couple of years and have multiple businesses now. Self-education is the key to financial freedom.
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?
As I reached over $100,000 monthly in revenue by my 3rd month of launching ATMtogether.com as a one-person team, I realized quickly that it was not sustainable to try to grow a company by myself. The hardest part of building your own business or company is hiring the right people for the tasks you need covered.
Now as a team of 19 employees, we have quadrupled our business revenue since 2021.
I truly believe we have been able to scale our revenue tremendously due to having the right team in place and making sure everyone does their part. Team work makes the dream work and I am very grateful for the leaders of my organization that execute every single day.
My team is the best in the industry.
Great! Here is the main question of our interview. What are your “Five Strategies I Used to Grow My Business To Reach Seven Figures In Revenue”. Please share a story or an example for each.
Self-Education
I invested in my self-education as much as possible. I think it’s a very critical aspect to being an entrepreneur and growing your mindset in business. What you don’t know is what you don’t know. We are very fortunate to have access to great entrepreneurs all over the world, thanks to the internet and we can learn from other individuals that are exactly where we want to be in the future. I remember paying my consultant $30,000 dollars for a 1-year mentorship back in 2021. The ROI in that $30,000 dollars helped me think differently as a marketer and try different strategies that helped me scale ATMtogether.com to over 8 million dollars in revenue since January 2021. In order to earn you have to learn until you can take away the L.
Routine I am huge on checklists. I always recommend every entrepreneur or even person who works from home to purchase a whiteboard. Structure your day the night before you go to bed. As soon as you wake up then you have a clear overview of what you have to accomplish for the day. By doing this daily, it’s going to help you with your mindset, but also is going to help you become more proactive by executing on your checklist. The greatest feeling at the end of the day is marking every task off my checklist that is accomplished. It will give you purpose.
Being Relentless “No matter how good you are, you are replaceable.” We can be the best in our niche or industry, but there will always be others that are working towards the same goals, same ideas and trying to be better than you. This is why it is important to always develop your skills as much as you can and keep learning. Be obsessed and relentless with your craft. I had a ton of close friends and family members tell me that I made the wrong choice for leaving my 9–5 job as a Detective in law enforcement. A few years later, everyone tells me how proud and how they always knew I would be a multi-millionaire. Nothing in life comes easy, you have to give it your all everyday no matter what.
Solution Driven There will always be hiccups or roadblocks in your entrepreneurship journey. This is why you are getting paid the big bucks. I do not dwell on the past and I keep my eye on the prize. This pushes my team and myself towards our goals.
Creative Thinker Having vision and being able to articulate the vision to your team will increase your employees to work harder because now they have something to look forward to. Creative thinkers are also able to come up with new solutions that could increase productivity and overall help companies grow.
We are sure that you are not done. What comes next? What’s your next big goal and why? What plan have you put in place to achieve it?
Simplicity equals success. I am going to focus on scaling ATMTogether.com with our new Crypto ATM offer starting December 1, 2022. I will then execute Consulting for Influencers in January 2023 and help thousands of entrepreneurs start their online business. I love helping others become successful and I want to mentor individuals who share similar backgrounds like I had. Life is short and sometimes we need that extra push to get to the next level. Help is here and I’m ready to mentor anyone who is looking for my help.
You are a person of enormous influence. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger. 🙂
The #1 piece of advice I would give to everyone is to stop caring so much what people think about you. We are all human and no one is perfect. In order for anyone to reach a certain level of success means that they have failed before and know what not to do in order to succeed.
I was always afraid of what others would think about me. As I got older with more life experience, I finally realized that it does not matter. Most people do not care if you succeed or lose. Everyone is worried about their own life and you should be worried about accomplishing what you have to do. Life is too short to worry about what the next person is doing.
When I was younger, I always wanted to be perfect and wanted the stars to align with everything that I was going to do. In entrepreneurship, this rarely happens and to be honest, there are several days where I do not feel like getting out of bed at 5am to get that workout in or working that extra hour to finish a piece of content for my marketing content, but I stay disciplined and get it done. The “boring work” will get you to success. Stay disciplined and just get started.
We are very blessed that very prominent leaders read this column. Is there a person in the world, or in the US with whom you would love to have a private breakfast or lunch with, and why? He or she might just see this if we tag them 🙂
I would love to have coffee with Joe Rogan. I believe the breadth of discussion and freedom from norms is the heart of his podcast. Joe Rogan is real and that’s what I like to provide as well to my clients and audience. Uncut and as real as it gets in entrepreneurship. I believe I could have an awesome podcast show with him that the masses would enjoy listening to.
Thank you so much for taking the time to share with us and our readers. We know that it will make a tremendous difference and impact thousands of lives. We are excited to connect further and we wish you so much joy in your next success.
Thank you for the opportunity to tell my story and I hope the readers enjoy it! This is just the beginning. For more information about our ATM ELITE Automation package, please check out my website
Frank Goldblatt Of SYSCOMGLOBAL SOLUTIONS On How To Use Digital Transformation To Take Your Company To The Next Level
An Interview With Fotis Georgiadis
With most of the companies we work with, we suggest starting out by optimizing your customer’s experience. Your customers make your business a business and should be a priority in this process.
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 Frank Goldblatt.
Frank Goldblatt is currently a Business Solutions Specialist in the NY Office at SYSCOMGLOBAL SOLUTIONS. He has been in the IT game for some time — over 25 years, in fact. His career predates modern tech giants and stretches back to the halcyon pre-dotcom crash days of the late 90s. When he started out, the average internet connection download speed for the biggest corporate clients was 1.5MBPS (today, that connection would be 1GBPS).
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?
Thank you for having me. The start of my career actually predates modern tech giants beginning in the dot-com days. When I started out, the average internet connection was 1.5MBPS T-1, while today that connection on average would be over 1GBPS! When we started recommending Firewalls many companies didn’t think they needed them! Helping business owners understand the “why” something was needed allowed me to move from providing internet connectivity services to IT Consulting and Management, where I designed and implemented corporate IT Systems and Networks. I hold many IT certifications including Security Architecture, but for the most part, my job is still helping bridge the gap between business and IT; understanding business goals, and ensuring IT solutions meet business objectives. That is why I’m excited to work with our team here providing Digital Transformation Services that, when done properly, can have such a positive impact on a company.
Can you share a story about the funniest mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lessons or ‘take aways’ you learned from that?
When I first started in IT I was working on an office relocation; overseeing the build of their new network infrastructure including, something brand new at the time, Wireless Access Points! I had my piece covered… And the IT Director had everything planned out from the timing of the server breakdown, to how to pack the mouse and keyboard. He even thought about how to pack the truck (servers in last so they can be removed first). You get the idea. On the day of the move, we arrived at the new IT room and found we couldn’t plug anything in! The IT Director never coordinated with the architects or electricians to ensure he had the right power for his equipment. Everything was sorted out with many extension cords and the electrician returned in a few days to replace the receptacles, but the lesson I learned is that it is not enough to understand our own component in a project; we need to think about the whole picture! This is what Digital Transformation means to a business… Looking at the operations with a view of how everything works together and how to make these pieces work together more efficiently. Needless to say, moving forward, with every office move I was involved with, I checked in with the electricians.
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 so many people I would need to thank or who have had a big impact on me (I’m impressionable) however my wife not only supported my career by providing a stable home life but she is also the reason I am in IT, to begin with. I saw an ad in the New York Times (back when it was actually made of paper) for a salesperson at a new ISP but they wanted someone with experience. She insisted I apply for the job which I did and got! I think the lesson there is don’t hold yourself back. If you want something go out and get it. And I think that’s our philosophy with Digital Transformation as well. Don’t let existing business processes hold you back. Talk to experts, learn and grow personally, and the business will benefit as well.
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?
Good to Great by Jim C. Collins discusses what it takes to take your business to the next level. He explains that businesses must overcome the “status quo” to stay competitive and succeed. For example, how a company uses and adapts technologies sets them apart from its competition; however it’s also not enough to have the latest and greatest. Technology needs to be deployed intelligently and only incorporated into your business plan when it will clearly benefit employees and customers. This is where our philosophy around Digital Transformation begins. What we strive for is to understand our client’s business processes and then give their employees the tools to get their jobs done efficiently and effectively; what will help them succeed, not create more work.
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 our CEO, Seishi Sato, founded SYSCOM GLOBAL SOLUTIONS in the Spring of 1990, he saw a need for a trusted partner to guide firms through the exponential changes that technology would soon be undergoing. We were established before the tech boom of the 2000s when most companies might not even have a computer at every desk, but there were still new IT tools available that called for an advisory hand to help clients steer the ship. We started with that goal — being a reliable, guiding partner — and have stayed true to that purpose ever since.
Are you working on any new, exciting projects now? How do you think that might help people?
Our team just launched a brand-new offering for small- to medium-sized businesses called Business Central Standard Pack, an offering from Microsoft Dynamics 365. Business Central was developed with the speed, resources, and growth potential of Small- to Medium-Sized Businesses (SMBs) in mind while connecting them with the family of Microsoft business tools and functions. It integrates with Office, updates over the cloud, and boasts robust security. Based on SYSCOMS’ experience as a trusted advisor for more than a thousand companies over thirty years, we’ve built out a customized selection of options and settings based on the most common feedback we’ve heard. — The result is a cloud-based solution that will help SMBs improve business efficiency with limited resources and minimal downtime, and we’re happy to be one of the first companies to provide this total solution.
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?
Like any business endeavor, it’s important to think of digital transformation in terms of its results: reducing time spent, creating more efficient workflows, and empowering AI to find the insights and opportunities we may otherwise miss. Practically, it comes down to four steps: digitizing your data, automating your data collection, visualizing data trends, and using it to make predictions. There has been a recent explosion in the number of tools and methods that can be used to achieve that four-step process, but that’s what’s at the heart of it.
Which companies can most benefit from a Digital Transformation?
Digital transformation in a company means using digital technology to not only improve workflow and create new business models; but also, to break away from legacy systems and change the corporate culture. For example, by digitally transforming operations that were previously performed manually and depended on individuals, it is possible to organize data that had been black-boxed. As a result, overall costs can be reduced, time can be saved, and human labor can be redirected to higher-value work. With that said, firms with many vendors, customers, and inventories, with manufacturing processes, would probably see more direct benefits more quickly. One of the digital transformation’s key benefits is finding more efficient ways to get more done. We have helped many companies with their digital transformation, from infrastructure to operational parts, so if you are not sure where to start with your digital transformation, please contact us.
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.
One of my clients that had been manually managing everything from marketing to sales, accounting, inventory management, and customer service using Excel, etc., decided to implement Dynamics 365 because they wanted to optimize their operations.. We had discussions with the client about their business operations, confirmed what Dynamics 365 could do, and spent time with them to develop ways to improve their business operations. We started with minimal functionalities but connected all the data for the major activities from marketing, sales, logistics, and customer services in one platform. With that, the client could visualize and manage customer data across the entire company beyond each department. As the next step, we plan to implement additional Portal and BI/Data analysis functions of the Dynamics 365 series.
Has integrating Digital Transformation been a challenging process for some companies? What are the challenges? How do you help resolve them?
We often speak with customers who have been managing data manually with Excel and are now trying to improve operations. Still, end users are uncomfortable with implementing a new system and changing the way data is entered. The Dynamics 365 applications we provide are Microsoft products, so they are highly compatible with Office/Microsoft 365 (Excel, Word, Teams, Outlook), which many companies use on a daily basis. We can configure the solutions to allow you to modify data in Excel and post it to the system (one click), and the information will be reflected in the system. Also, Dynamics 365 applications are user-friendly/familiar interfaces so that users can use the applications intuitively. After introducing all the benefits of Dynamics 365, the end user, who had been reluctant to participate in the project, began cooperating with us.
Also, we usually give application demos and training in our projects to support users to feel comfortable moving on to the new system. Digital transformation gives the impression of drastically changing business operations, and many people are afraid of the change. Still, with Dynamics 365, you can gradually get used to the system and the flow of business improvement. Based on our more than 30 years of experience in helping customers with digital transformation in one form or another, we offer Dynamics 365 as a solution that is familiar to all the people involved in the company’s operation.
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.
Scaling one’s business is a matter of finding the right time and market, a unique challenge that’s complicated enough on its own. In a world that now requires constant connection and data analysis, digital transformation can make that process easier. The idea is to utilize technology to manage and automate processes that allow your staff to engage with clients.
1) The first thing we’d suggest is to sit down with a trusted partner (like SYSCOM) to answer the question — why are you looking to do this for your company (business goals/objectives)? Why do you want to achieve these goals? It’s not the what, it’s the why. That will then help lead us to find the right IT solutions to bring your business to the next level.
2) With most of the companies we work with, we suggest starting out by optimizing your customer’s experience. Your customers make your business a business and should be a priority in this process.
3) Next is to automate internal manual processes and to integrate what could be existing disparate solutions (like the CRM and Accounting software currently in use) into a single platform.
4) Once we’ve mapped out the above, we’d suggest an integrated plan to help your workers adjust to the transformation and understand the new tools we have provided. Getting your employees on board while implementing a new digital process is essential to its success.
5) Lastly, we’d recommend re-evaluating the IT solution every 6 months to ensure that it’s continuing to help bring your company to the next level.
In your opinion, how can companies best create a “culture of innovation” in order to create new competitive advantages?
In business and even digital transformation, a company wins and loses based on its people. At SYSCOM, we encourage all of our employees to reach out to anyone in the company, from their peers to their managers and all the way up to the CEO, with any questions or ideas for doing things better. We’ve found over and over again that this creates opportunities for innovation — some of our best ideas, like the Business Central Standard Pack, come from this openness — and it’s also an excellent way to attract and retain top talent.
How can our readers further follow your work?
We’re constantly evolving with business needs in an ever-shifting tech environment, so to keep up with everything we’re doing you can connect with me and SYSCOM Global Solutions via Linkedin at https://www.linkedin.com/company/syscom-global-solutions-inc/ or visit syscomgs.com to continue to learn more about what we offer. Also, feel free to contact me directly at [email protected]. Looking forward to connecting with you!
Thank you so much for sharing these important insights. We wish you continued success and good health!
A prophet is never respected in his hometown. If you do something really influential, you will get loads of criticism, especially from narrow minded people. Accept useful feedback and ignore the rest.
As a part of our series about business leaders who are shaking things up in their industry, I had the pleasure of interviewing Taavi Kotka, CEO and Co-Founder of Koos.
Taavi is a serial entrepreneur and was named one of the Brightest Business Minds in Northern Europe in 2016. He was the first CIO for the Government of Estonia, was an angel investor in Wise and was a special advisor to the European Commission VP Andrus Ansip on the European Digital Single Market. He started Koos, which received $4,5m in funding in April this year, to disrupt the equity model.
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 started my career as a programmer, rising up to be the Managing Director of the largest software development company in the Baltics, WebMedia — now known as Nortal. As an engineer, I then moved on and drove forward a number of initiatives, which included working with the Estonian government as their first CIO, to oversee the country’s development as the most advanced digital nation. While there, I co-founded the country’s national e-residency programme, which was the first of its kind globally and also worked on things like data embassies, country-as-a-service (CAAS), the no-legacy policy, VAT fraud detection and so forth.
Since then, I’ve moved back into the private sector, helping startups develop and consulting large enterprises and governments on digital transformation.
I also worked as a special advisor to the European Commission’s Vice President Andrus Ansip on the European Single Digital Market.
Can you tell our readers what it is about the work you’re doing that’s disruptive?
We think that communities are not properly used in modern capitalism. Every company has a community of fans, helpers, friends, customers etc, but only few are able to properly use their energy and effort. The industry standard at the moment is to ask free-lunches — for example emails asking for feedback, but instead of bothering your customer-base, unleash the energy by offering micro equity-stakes in your company.
Giving equity-stakes has been difficult and that is why it has not been used widely. We at Koos.io have solved that problem.
Can you share a story about the funniest mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lesson you learned from that?
When developing Estonia’s eResidency programme, we made an interesting mistake in that we developed it for people outside of the EU so they could easily run their company and do business wherever they lived. It turned out that 70% of Estonian eResidents are from the EU and this strategy didn’t make any sense. Looking back, it makes sense now — entrepreneurs in Germany and other EU countries deal with a lot of bureaucracy. I guess a learning from that is, in the beginning, you never know where the sweet spot is for your business.
We all need a little help along the journey. Who have been some of your mentors?
In the early years when I was starting out my career as a programmer, I was lucky to be mentored by some of the best programmers in Estonia. The stuff we built together was amazing, even though I was likely more of a distraction than an asset!
Can you share a story about how they made an impact?
In software engineering, it is very important to find a balance between the business needs and the product’s capabilities. You need to understand that companies grow and their business changes, but there is no point in building a rocket at the beginning! You need to design and plan your outcome carefully and you need to be willing to throw it away sometimes and completely rewrite it, which can be frustrating. Legacy can kill innovation.
In today’s parlance, being disruptive is usually a positive adjective. But is disrupting always good? When do we say the converse, that a system or structure has ‘withstood the test of time’? Can you articulate to our readers when disrupting an industry is positive, and when disrupting an industry is ‘not so positive’? Can you share some examples of what you mean?
Disrupting an industry is positive when the end user benefits from the new model. The benefits can vary from convenience, personalisation, cost or efficiency, for example. A fairly simple example would be online banking — for years, customers used bricks and mortar bank branches, which were more effort on the customer’s part and today, a customer can simply access any banking services on their mobile phone, wherever they are in the world.
On the other hand, a negative disruption is one that doesn’t pose much additional benefit to the end user. Most of the time, I believe this stems from a disconnect between the idea and the real world. It may be that the idea is great but the product is more difficult to use or integrate with other products, or that it’s expensive and not accessible to most of the end-users, for example. It’s why testing a product with its key users and getting ongoing feedback is key.
Can you share five of the best words of advice you’ve gotten along your journey? Please give a story or example for each.
It is not important what you dream, it is important what you actually do or execute!
There is no point being a know it all about lots of different things — become a specialist in what you know.
If you see something that is wrong or missing and you can do something, go for it.
A prophet is never respected in his hometown. If you do something really influential, you will get loads of criticism, especially from narrow minded people. Accept useful feedback and ignore the rest.
Never expect any glory.
We are sure you aren’t done. How are you going to shake things up next?
For now, I’m focusing on Koos, specifically, working with early adopters to show all the different types of use cases for our platform. Social capitalism is the future. Watch this space.
Do you have a book, podcast, or talk that’s had a deep impact on your thinking? Can you share a story with us? Can you explain why it was so resonant with you?
It wasn’t a book, but at the age of 19 I had Hodgkin’s disease, a form of cancer. I spent a year in the hospital and had loads of time to think. It was 1999–2000 and what genuinely bothered me the most was the waterfall development model in software engineering and I kept thinking about how bad it was. Endless time was spent writing documents before coding. I also wasn’t sure how much time left I would have in this world, so I decided to start looking for an opportunity to do software in a new way, focusing on prototyping and early releasing. Today, this kind of approach is totally normal, but 22 years ago it was not used. My high-school desk-mate started a new company which gave me an opportunity to try this out and after 4 years, we were the biggest software engineering company in Estonia.
Can you please give us your favourite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share how that was relevant to you in your life?
Focus on execution, not ideas!
You are a person of great influence. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger. 🙂
My wife and I started a girls-only technology school in 2018. It is fully funded by our family, with locations all over Estonia and we have 2 200 girls studying, with a long wait list. We wanted to prove to the politicians and government officers that girls want to study technology and “lack of teachers or funds” cannot be an excuse. So I guess, back to my previous point — ideas are nothing, execution is everything!
Meet The Disruptors: Betsalel J Medioni Of WeVisu On The Five Things You Need To Shake Up Your Industry
An Interview With Fotis Georgiadis
Persistence- Some days feel easier than others and some days feel impossible. We learned we have to keep fighting even on the days it feels impossible but you just have to show up everyday. That’s what has gotten us this far.
As a part of our series about business leaders who are shaking things up in their industry, I had the pleasure of interviewing Betsalel J Medioni.
Betsalel J Medioni was born and raised in Israel, eventually emigrating to the United States in 2013, where he landed a job as a runner for a construction company in San Francisco, California. However, Medioni’s thorough experience in construction couldn’t satisfy his thirst for turning original ideas into innovative business solutions. So he founded WeVisu as the first platform that gives customers, contractors, designers, and vendors access to custom digital showrooms, where they can see finished materials, products, and pricing in real time.
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?
Like every other licensed contractor, Betsalel J Medioni would spend weekend after weekend visiting physical showrooms to find the right layout and materials for a space, gather samples, and later pay for 3D renders to visualize it for his clients. With a newfound perspective and background in startup solutions, Medioni realized this chasm in the preparatory stage was costing contractors, designers, and homeowners far too much time, money, and aggravation. He began constructing a blueprint to streamline the process and eventually partnered with his cousin and global sales leader, Jeremy Medioni, in 2020. A year later, he founded WeVisu as the first all-in-one home improvement platform that gives customers, contractors, designers, and vendors access to custom digital showrooms, where they can see finished materials, products, and pricing in real time.
Can you tell our readers what it is about the work you’re doing that’s disruptive?
We are taking an archaic style of home remodel/design and bringing it into the digital age with direct-to-consumer pricing on finished materials. This allows a win — win — win situation for contractors, homeowners and manufacturers.
Changes: instead of contractors/clients driving around to multiple physical showrooms, or shopping across multiple websites for the different materials →
WEVISU = one stop shop for Bathroom, Kitchen, Bedroom, Hallway, etc… FROM THE COMFORT OF YOUR OWN HOME, 24/7, on your schedule.
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 had many of our vendors send us large amounts of samples to our small office. At one point we had to refuse a few shipments. We learned that we need to make sure the whole point of what we do is to avoid showrooms.
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?
Dr. Gerard Medioni. He encouraged us to build tenets and an unshakable mission statement. That has helped us stay on track to support the customer and contractor in every improvement we make to the platform. If we have a brilliant idea or new functionality, and it does not accomplish a better use scenario for customers, move in from it and refocus on your customers’ needs.
Can you share five of the best words of advice you’ve gotten along your journey? Please give a story or example for each.
Persistence- Some days feel easier than others and some days feel impossible. We learned we have to keep fighting even on the days it feels impossible but you just have to show up everyday. That’s what has gotten us this far.
Teamwork- Communicate and rely on your team for the most success. In a startup you wear many hats. It’s important to know when you can lean on your team or when you have to do it on your own.
Belief- Without it, you don’t stand a chance.
Sleepless-The wheels never stop, and you never know when something might click, could be 3 in the morning.
Hope- Hope for the best, prepare for the worst. Your next big break could be right around the corner so don’t give up.
We are sure you aren’t done. How are you going to shake things up next?
Developing 2 new algorithms to better match customers with the products they need for a complete job, and matching contractors with the best customer profiles for their skill-set.
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 had a conversation with my uncle and I said to him we have so many ideas and so many things we want to do.. He said it is important to stay on track and focus on what you are trying to solve. You will always have many new ideas but don’t get off track from what your main goal is.
Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share how that was relevant to you in your life?
‘I never lose because I never quit’
You are a person of great influence. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger. 🙂
A movement to be consistent and be a believer.
Every idea and any project can be done. Be consistent and be a believer. If you don’t have that, nothing can be done. With money or without money you can always start anything you want. Just start.
Feedback: Survey your audience, and give them space to express feedback. For ten years we’ve run a thorough annual survey after each Christmas season and benchmarked the current responses with those from previous years. We’ve also implemented a live mini survey to get instant feedback during the season and analyze this data with our BI specialist.
As part of my series about the five things a business should do to create a Wow! customer experience, I had the pleasure of interviewing Alexandre Bérard.
The founder and CEO (Chief Elf Officer) of PNP-Portable North Pole, Alexandre Bérard, was born and raised in Quebec, Canada. Alexandre’s idea for creating PNP-Portable North Pole came from an idea of upgrading the tradition of sending letters to Santa. Alexandre and his wife wanted to make celebrating the magic of Christmas more visual and engaging for all, so in 2008, this family-run business was established and began connecting the children of the world with Santa using the PNP website and mobile apps.
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?
The whole idea was to ‘’update’’ the tradition of writing letters to Santa. First, because young children are usually much more visual and a lot of them still don’t know how to read and write at this age! Or, as we like to say, a group of inventor elves contacted us to help create a console so that Santa could be in contact with all the children of the world, straight from his village. And, the Portable North Pole (PNP) was born!
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?
Believing we were going to be quieter during the off-season! People are always joking that we are off half of the year. They don’t understand how busy we are all year long to be ready for the next holiday season. Video filming for the next season starts at the end of January (pre-production in October through December), and we are in post-production up to the launch of the new season on October 1 and even after. The new features, innovations, and updates on the coding part of all platforms (web, iOS, Android, and Amazon) have a never-ending list of ‘ ‘to dos’’ or stories to work on.
Is there a particular person who you are grateful towards who helped get you to where you are? Can you share a story?
I have to say, my wife, because she had the idea of PNP first. She was my girlfriend at that time, so considering the success of the platform, I had to marry her. We’ve been together for almost 20 years, and we have three marvelous elves. I am also grateful for my business group of entrepreneurs. For nearly ten years, I was a member of a group of entrepreneurs who met every six weeks for half a day to help each other with our challenges. It’s very practical to share with colleagues that can understand clearly what you live in the business but also in your personal life. I would recommend this to all new entrepreneurs.
In your words, can you share a few reasons why great customer service and a great customer experience is essential for success in business?
Customer service and a positive customer experience are critical for business success, especially for an online B2C business, with all of the various ratings, comments, and platforms available to customers, such as the Apple App Store or Google Play. If they are unhappy or having difficulty using/understanding your product (especially in the first few seconds of downloading your app), they will not have the patience, and you may be judged very quickly. We are proud to have kept our mobile apps rating at 4.8 and 4.7 stars after all these years.
Moreover, for the last two years, we have been investing in our AI chatbot. Online users are more willing to ping a bot now, but you need to be sure he is answering the right thing. We also run an annual survey after every season to thousands of customers, we receive loads of answers, especially in open text recommendations, and we read them all and try to implement the most frequent requests.
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?
Not every company is a ‘’product-driven’’ company. I believe it’s strongly related to the interest/passion of the founder(s). The easiest/known example is Apple and Steve Jobs. They have been devoted to producing amazing products technologically with superb innovations on top. This mix of these 2 key ingredients are at the basis of their success. People don’t realize how tough it is to get there, especially for a digital B2C product. Technology and user behaviors evolve so rapidly that you have to adjust/update constantly. To have success in this special world, you need to be passionate about it upfront, because you will need to put loads of recurring efforts to get there.
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?
Of course! Competition is at the heart of almost all business. I believe it is also healthy for an economy, as it drives everyone to work harder and innovate, including the customer experience. Again, I would say with all the multiple ways a customer can express themselves on social media and give feedback on their experience with a product, this gives a recurring ‘’temperature’’ of your product with your customers, rapidly you get what needs to improve on customer experience. To some extent, just think how important the introductions years ago of these five small stars ratings on Amazon for any product sold on this platform.
Can you share with us a story from your experience about a customer who was “Wowed” by the experience you provided?
We are very lucky to develop an application and content on such a magical theme: Christmas and Santa Claus. It is such a passionate and strong emotional moment, especially for families with young children. Because of this, we get thousands of great comments from our users across multiple platforms, including parents/grandparents, writing us that they have cried (of overwhelmed positive emotion) when they see our Santa messages, considering their children’s reaction to our personalized messages but also about themselves and their own memories of Santa Claus and their holidays when they were a child. Not sure how you can get more than this with a customer reaction!
Did that Wow! experience have any long-term ripple effects? Can you share the story?
Amazing customer feedback is usually shared by our customer support lead and myself to the rest of the team. I think it brings us all back on ‘’why’’ we do this and how lucky we are to create such a positive reaction. Not a lot of companies have this connection/privilege with customers, and clearly, it gives a ripple effect on the team first. It’s very important because it’s extremely demanding for all the team considering the very short period of time we have to deliver on many different things.
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.
Feedback: Survey your audience, and give them space to express feedback. For ten years we’ve run a thorough annual survey after each Christmas season and benchmarked the current responses with those from previous years. We’ve also implemented a live mini survey to get instant feedback during the season and analyze this data with our BI specialist.
It may sound obvious, but the leadership team needs to find quiet time and play with your application regularly. Use it like a user (not with your role in the company in mind). Take all the steps a customer would, check all details, words used, colors, tone, etc. on all your platforms.
Talk and most importantly LISTEN to your ‘neighbors’ that use your application, and ask them what they think, what they understand, challenges, etc. Live feedback like this gives you the opportunity to capture emotions/reality that are not captured in a written survey. For example, during COVID we recognized that children around the world might need additional support during this time. We created a free Santa message to ‘Be Strong’ to help our little ones understand that Santa knows times are strange right now, that they miss people who are far away from them but to be strong and that their loved ones are always connected to them through love.
Look at what other players are doing, including other industries. As a customer yourself, we also have a great experience, see how you can apply this to your own product. For example, we are an entertainment app, but the platform still has complex functionalities to use, with two main different sections with different objectives (Parents vs Kids), which is not common for an app. I like to see how Airbnb is doing in their own app because it’s a complex app with two main different sections, one for hosts to manage their guests and another for renters to book a place to stay.
Realize it’s a ‘’never ending job’’ and take nothing for granted. Be sure this part (increasing customer experience) is included in your top-of-the-list yearly deliverables. To progress, first, you need to find ways to measure this aspect correctly and secondly, have SMART goals. For example, we are not only measuring our global stars rating on Apple/Google Play, but the score we get on a weekly basis to see if we are above or under our aggregate scores.
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?
Invest as much as possible in creating an amazing product (content), sound obvious…? But not easy to do. You need to survey/exchange with your customers and understand their feedback, emotions, etc. about your product. Keep a close eye on what is new out there, not only in your industry but across social media, what is the trend? Then you need to maximize the halo effect (sharing online content for us), again sound obvious, but to do it the right way, for all type of platforms and type of content, it’s not a one size fits all solution and you need to keep in mind the full flow of the customers, from their first contact with your product to the new customer you are trying to inboard. Going through all the tiny steps and think!
If you could start a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be?
Definitely, it will be about nature/environment, because we all live on the same planet and more and more humans will be challenged by climate change in the future. It’s quite easy to see this coming slowly but surely with all the science study we have done. We really need to push our government to take drastic measures now. It’s their role to lead the way on this to have a ‘’structured’’ way to change our behavior as a consumer, society, and business.
How can our readers follow you on social media?
Discover the magic by visiting portablenorthpole.com, downloading our free app on your iOS or Android and Amazon device, or following along on social media via Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, TikTok and YouTube. And please, share your experience and let us know your feedback!
This was very inspiring. Thank you so much for joining us!
Thank you from the heart! I really enjoyed contributing, inspiring, and being inspired!
Meet The Disruptors: Chaz Perera Of Roots Automation On The Five Things You Need To Shake Up Your Industry
An Interview With Fotis Georgiadis
“Be Inquisitive” — What better way to learn quickly than asking people to talk about themselves or the things that interest them most. It’s afforded me an unusual collection of connections and perspectives that have helped me immensely throughout my leadership journey.
As a part of our series about business leaders who are shaking things up in their industry, I had the pleasure of interviewing Chaz Perera.
Chaz is the co-founder and CEO of Roots Automation. In his 20-year career, Chaz has launched new products, grown global businesses, and helped companies save money by leveraging data science, robotics, and AI. He’s led teams with thousands of employees, at one point leading a team of 7,000 people across 50 countries. Before founding Roots Automation, Chaz was AIG, Inc.’s Chief Transformation Officer and also its Head of Global Business Services.
Thank you so much for doing this with us! Before we dig in, our readers would like to get to know you a bit more. Can you tell us a bit about your “backstory”? What led you to this particular career path?
I grew up in different parts of the world, but I’ve called New York City home for the better part of my life. New York City exposed me to a variety of innovative people and companies who ultimately were able to make big leaps because they had the support of an insurance company acting as their backstop as they took big risks. It made me appreciate the power of the insurance product and led me to start my career there. I spent 14 years at AIG in a variety of roles, including having global responsibility for parts of claims, operations, and strategy — each of which allowed me the space to be “entrepreneurial” and learn in a supportive environment. I also wanted to venture out and start something from scratch, and AIG afforded me the space to figure out what that was and to meet the people who I would be able to do that with.
Can you tell our readers what it is about the work you’re doing that’s disruptive?
We combine machine intelligence and human ingenuity to create intelligent Digital Coworkers, providing organizations with AI-powered, digitized employees that can think, read and intuit like people.
Digital Coworkers dramatically improve efficiency and increase capacity within stretched insurance companies by providing business leaders a turn-key, experienced worker in digital form to support their daily operations.
It’s critically important because talent is increasingly harder to hire and retain, and companies are turning to automation/AI as a solution, but those efforts typically fall short, are expensive, and intended value can be elusive. We’ve figured out how to help insurance companies overcome this burden and see ROI and improved EX on day-one with a Digital Coworker.
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?
Some of the best advice I got from a senior insurance leader and mentor was to focus on experiences and skills as opposed to role and salary. Her advice was that seniority and remuneration will come from learning how to take and mitigate risk on behalf of a company and showing that you could be an innovative yet safe pair of hands at the wheel. The only way to get that exposure was to focus on core skills and experiences, some of which could be a step down on the career ladder or a lateral move. It’s definitely something I live and appreciate.
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 or transformation simply to do things differently makes no sense. A company’s decision to change itself has to be founded in aiming to improve three things (in my opinion): (1) What Customer Experience (CX) are they aiming to create; (2) How do they want to be perceived in the broader market; and (3) What revenue or cost improvement does accomplishing the first two things do for the company. Importantly, the market has to be ready or near-ready for the change.
From an internal perspective, many embark on expensive transformational projects without first considering the bigger picture — the ultimate vision for the change connected to my previous point — which is why we see anywhere from 50% — 70% of large-scale digital transformation programs fail.
Can you share five of the best words of advice you’ve gotten along your journey? Please give a story or example for each.
“Be Inquisitive” — What better way to learn quickly than asking people to talk about themselves or the things that interest them most. It’s afforded me an unusual collection of connections and perspectives that have helped me immensely throughout my leadership journey.
“Demonstrate Respect” — There’s an old adage that being respected has little to do with your station in life. It’s earned by being reverent to others and patient throughout. I continue to practice being this as it’s easy to let slip.
“Extend Trust” — Assuming positive intent in people’s words, actions, and behaviors is something I try to follow everyday. It’s difficult, but you have to give people the space to learn and extending trust enables that.
We are sure you aren’t done. How are you going to shake things up next?
We’ve more than tripled the usage of Roxanne, our Claims Assistant Digital Coworker, and yet we’re only processing a tiny fraction of US-based claims activity. We aim to further expand Roxanne’s ability to read, understand, and process unstructured insurance documents and use insurance software without prior training or scripting. If she works at CNA today, she should be able to work at Travelers tomorrow without any extensive training/rework.
We are striving to liberate Claims Adjusting personnel to engage and focus on their end-customer when that customer needs them most. This is why people buy insurance, and it’s where the insurance product is made real to its customers.
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?
As a leader in an AI company, I’ll share a book that I recommend people read to get a base understanding of a technology that people need to understand and appreciate as its becomes more and more pervasive in our lives (whether they realize it or not): You Look Like a Thing and I Love You by Janelle Shane.
You are a person of great influence. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger. 🙂
It might be due to how politics and points of view manifests itself on social media but I notice we assume the worst in people or at least don’t offer the benefit of doubt. So, without being cynical about it, were I able to wave a magic wand, I’d want us all to assume positive intent in the words, behaviors, and actions of the people around us. It will allow us to listen better and to hear more. And if we can get there, then we can find shared problems, shared achievements, and shared satisfaction.
Budget as accurately as possible. Vague estimates can do more harm than good.
As a part of our series called “Making Something From Nothing”, I had the pleasure of interviewing Arthur Revechkis.
Born in Moscow, Arthur Revechkis immigrated to the United States when he was seven years old and moved to Washington Heights in NYC then northern New Jersey where he lived until he left for college. He has fond childhood memories associated with the Russian style of drinking — his parents would host frequent dinners and parties with tons of toasts. People would write funny things to say and sometimes, depending on the occasion, they would be heartfelt and emotional. But it was always with a shot glass in hand. The night would often end with someone sitting at the piano and everyone singing some old Russian song. Now as an adult, he continues to make similar memories — times spent catching up with friends over a drink and holiday parties that bring the whole family together.
Since Revechkis was so young when he and his family left Russia, most of his memories of Russian culture come from his father, mother, and friends. Through their memories and the way they kept traditions alive once in the United States, he is now able to share the same culture and traditions with his friends.
Having sold his business the year before COVID-19 shut much of the world down, during the lockdown, Revechkis found himself with plenty of free time. He had wanted to be part of creating something that had meaning to him so he began toying with the idea of creating a shooting vodka. He was able to explore his interests in various kinds of alcohol and how they’re made, and little by little he was able to speak with people willing to share their expertise to slowly get to a point where it became achievable. Loving the challenge of developing a new brand with a unique application to this country, the various aspects of marketing, design, distribution, and growing the brand, all of those things, present fascinating puzzles to solve and successfully execute.
When he’s not kicking back and sipping his chilled vodka with his friends and family, you can find Revechkis writing and recording music and playing live shows.
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”?
First, I really appreciate you asking me to do this. I immigrated to the United States with my family in 1988 from Russia. My parents had been trying to come to the United States for a while, but at that time, it was very difficult to leave. Both of my parents were in the arts; my mother was a classically-trained pianist and my dad was involved in theater and played music. They both lost their jobs and were viewed as deserters; it was a tough time for them. We left when I was seven and my brother was one year old. We immigrated through Austria and Italy and finally ended up living in NYC in an apartment that my mother’s parents got for us. A couple of years later we moved to northern New Jersey and we lived there until I went to college. My parents have always loved entertaining, so my childhood was filled with many people at the dinner table telling jokes, having drinks, playing piano, and singing old songs.
Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share how that was relevant to you in your life?
I’ve always been partial to Oscar Wilde’s, “Everything in moderation, including moderation.” It’s nice to remember that while even-keeled approaches to things are valuable, on occasion, it’s nice to indulge.
Is there a particular book, podcast, or film that made a significant impact on you? Can you share a story or explain why it resonated with you so much?
One of my favorite movies is Adaptation. In that movie there are twin brothers; Charlie is very introverted, isolated, and lacking in confidence, while Donald is outgoing and popular, essentially the opposite. At some point, Charlie asks Donald how he can be so confident and happy and Donald says something to the effect of, “We are who we love, not who loves us.” I’ve always loved that line, it’s so empowering. I’m not sure there’s a particular moment that stands out for me, but in general, it’s a line I think about often. In all sorts of situations, it helps to keep in mind that my value and my emotions come from inside and can’t be superimposed on me. Whether it’s someone’s road rage, unrequited love, a job I didn’t get, or dropping a delicious slice of cake on the floor by accident, it helps me frame these moments from the inside out and really helps keep perspective.
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?
There’s a great Paul Simon lyric, “You want to be a writer? Don’t know how or when? Find a quiet place, use a humble pen.” If I’m starting from scratch, I think step one is to learn all you can and be humble. I started this business without any experience in this industry. I’ve never been a waiter or a bartender or worked as a distributor or retailer, my only experience has been as an enthusiastic consumer. So I went out and spent about a year just talking to anyone and everyone I could and learning as much as I could. People have been unbelievably kind with sharing their knowledge and experience, even complete strangers.
One person I spoke to had started his own spirit business, and his piece of advice was, “If I had to do it all over again, I wouldn’t.” It’s not always going to be good news and positive reinforcement. If your resolve isn’t tested, something is very wrong I think. Even if you’re in an industry in which you have experience, be open and approach every conversation as a valuable learning opportunity.
The next thing I did was to try and think of reasons why I couldn’t do this. I thought about all the hurdles, the funding, the licensing; the list goes on and on. But little by little, with more and more research, the hurdles became shorter until I didn’t have any excuses left. Then, I would say the most important and hardest step is doing the first thing. For me, it was starting the LLC. It made everything real for me. I had documents, a tax ID number, and a legal entity with the name I wanted, not to mention I had to spend some money. Small achievable goals really helped. Open an LLC, call five distilleries, and get samples, for example. Things that can move the narrative forward.
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?
The vast majority of products that are on the market were not the first. Products have all sorts of unique aspects like their story, specific uses, price points, accessibility, ease of use, general improvements on existing products, and so on. I wouldn’t get bogged down about being the first. For me, that falls into the category of an easy excuse to stop.
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.
Specifically in the world of spirits, it’s been a lengthy process to get the product to consumers. I haven’t had to file any patents, but I did have to do a trademark. Sourcing a distillery was just a lot of legwork. I made a list of 50 or so distilleries across the United States then reached out to all of them and requested samples of their vodka. Then spent the better half of quarantine blind taste-testing all those vodkas. I settled on one that had a great product, locally sourced wheat, and great people running it. Distribution was more complicated because of all the legal restrictions on alcohol, but I ended up going with a company called Libdib which was recommended by several people in the industry.
What are your “5 Things I Wish Someone Told Me When I First Started Leading My Company” and why?
Everything takes longer than you think it will.
There will be days when you question why you’re doing what you’re doing. Imposter syndrome is very real. Figure out ways for you to deal with it in your own way. I tend to try and concentrate on an aspect of my project that I’m excited about to bring me out of the funk. Sometimes you have to let yourself be down for a day, then dust yourself off the next day and get back to work.
2. Budget as accurately as possible. Vague estimates can do more harm than good.
Spend more time than you think on understanding your brand and being able to tell your story in 30 seconds, 5 mins, 30 mins. When you start to do promotions, interviews, and podcasts, various mediums have different lengths. You need to be able to tell your story in print, orally, and visually, and it needs to be consistent.
3. Spending money is easy, you can always pay someone to do something. But make sure it’s necessary for your business. I had a tendency early on to find someone more seasoned in a field and pay them for their time, before allowing myself to really understand what I needed. Now I make sure I can give clear goals and direction and have metrics that can measure the value added.
Let’s imagine that a reader reading this interview has an idea for a product that they would like to invent. What are the first few steps that you would recommend that they take?
Make a list of people you know in and around the industry that’s relevant to your idea. Call those people and ask them a bunch of questions. Some of them will be helpful and some won’t. Some will be encouraging, some won’t. Some might even refer you to other people. Use social media to follow a bunch of people in that world. Reach out to some and ask if they do any sort of consulting work. All of them will have useful information. Once you’ve done that, the first steps should be much more apparent to you. Also, speak to a couple of lawyers that specialize in your area to get a sense of what legal hurdles you need to jump. Then, figure out how you’ll fund this project and try and get a sense of how much it will cost. That will help chart your next steps.
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 there’s value in striking out on your own first. Understand your industry a bit, make some mistakes, and gain some perspective. Then when you speak to a consultant, you can at least have a frame of reference. It’s very easy to spend money and think you’re moving the needle and there’s no shortage of people who are trying to convince you of that.
What are your thoughts about bootstrapping vs looking for venture capital? What is the best way to decide if you should do either one?
For me, venture capital is great when you’ve brought your business and idea as far as it can go. If you have the bootstrap option, I would always take that route first. Once you’ve reached that inflection point where your idea goes from small business to medium business, that’s when venture capital could be very useful. For me, it is/was important to run my business long enough to understand what I would even do with venture capital.
Ok. We are nearly done. Here are our final questions. How have you used your success to make the world a better place?
I responded to every question before returning to this one. I have no idea if I’ve made the world a better place. I hope I’ve made my household a better place. I hope I’ve shared the success I’ve had with the people who’ve helped me achieve it. I hope I show kindness to the strangers I meet in the course of my days.
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.
To me, nothing brings more good than freedom of education. Access to learning about the world, science, language, etc. Jump-starting children’s imaginations, motivating them to pursue being poets, walking on distant planets, teaching literature, building cars, or whatever their interest may be.
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 just watched The Rehearsal on HBO and would love to talk to Nathan Fielder about it. It was one of the most interesting and unique things I’ve seen on TV in a long time.
Thank you for these fantastic insights. We greatly appreciate the time you spent on this.
Don’t be afraid to ask questions. I wish I found a mentor to guide me. Sometimes it’s very hard to do it on my own. But I have found when I get stuck, I am happy to hire outside help.
As a part of our series called “Making Something From Nothing”, I had the pleasure of interviewing Jennifer Tufaro Nolley.
Tiny Easel was developed by Jennifer Nolley, a mom of three with a master’s in interior design with a love for painting on her own and with her kids, looking for approachable art supplies and art activities for her kids. Why Tiny Easel? The name takes on several meanings…creating small, less-intimidating art, for kids of all skill levels, while achieving a small masterpiece with the hope of developing a love and appreciation for art and design!
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”?
Art has always been a part of my life. I grew up with dyslexia, school was always a challenge; my art classes and being creative were always such a comfort and a source of happiness. One of my earliest memories of painting with watercolors was with my mom and sisters, painting by the water on vacation. We would get up early to paint together. For me, art was such an important part of growing up.
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” would be from Oprah “Be still and the answers will come…” I think about this often when I struggle making decisions. In a household with three kids and two working parents, we’re in a state of constant motion, it’s loud, it’s chaotic and when faced with challenges, it isn’t intuitive to create a moment of inner calmness to make a decision. I have recently started to embrace this more.
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?
Movies are a big part of our home. My husband and I both worked in the film industry and met on a movie. Wes Anderson films are my favorite. As for Wes’ style, although they are so design-heavy, there’s such a handmade and even child-like quality to the world in which they exist. You get the feeling that every detail is somehow sourced from something in his childhood. In film school, I visited Cinecitta, the famous Italian film studio. I had the opportunity to visit the Art Department for The Life Aquatic and meet the designer. This was a very important moment for me as it not only reinforced my love of film design and art direction, but it showed me that there is a world where one can be creative professionally.
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 spent a good couple of years stirring up various creative ideas with the hope of finding something that would bring me joy and fulfillment. It wasn’t until I had my 3rd kid, George, when a light bulb went off. As a mom who always enjoyed arts and crafts with my kids, it quickly became stressful leaving my kids to create independently while being with my newborn. Like a lot of popular products, mine was born out of my own genuine need for something that didn’t exist: a quality art experience with affordable supplies that are safe and re-usable; one that doesn’t require arms-length supervision. I immediately saw an opportunity to develop something fun and inspiring for my kids while always keeping parents in mind… leading to specialty art kits with original activities, washable, toxic-free supplies, a splat mat and spill-proof water cup.
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 knew what I was looking for and couldn’t find it available… so I need to make it myself. My kids are the best resources, along with all of the local museums, parks and children’s activities in Baltimore which inspired me to create the drawings for the watercolor books. We tested several supplies to find the perfect ones making sure that they could be fun for kids starting at the age of 3 and be stimulating enough for kids up to age 12. Using bright, vibrant watercolors, a variety of tools and simple techniques, using crayon resist, watercolor crayons, watercolor pencils, masking tape and more, kids can enjoy the process, at any skill level.
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.
To keep my budget as low as possible, I tried to do everything myself until I couldn’t. One of the things I am very proud of is I got a registered Trademark for my name, Tiny Easel… without a lawyer! I did it myself, and you can too. I will say, my brother-in-law did encourage me to do that, and gave me a few pointers which gave me the confidence to go ahead on my own.
What are your “5 Things I Wish Someone Told Me When I First Started Leading My Company” and why?
Go with your gut. Sometimes I find myself making decisions when I feel rushed, or someone suggests something I should make that doesn’t feel right… those items usually don’t sell well.
Always get a sample. Again, when I try to rush something and don’t pay attention to every detail, usually something isn’t quite right.
To help with communication, always provide examples in writing and visuals/ sketches. I communicate with my manufacturers in China via email very early in the morning and very late at night, which can be tough when making design decisions. It always helps when I provide descriptions in writing and with an image or sketch to be on the same page.
Research the right platform to use. I chose one that was user-friendly and easy for me to update. But I don’t think it is as good for customers… and doesn’t provide as many selling options. Because it’s hard to transition from platform to platform, make sure you research the ease of use for you as the founder, but also the ease of use for your customers.
Don’t be afraid to ask questions. I wish I found a mentor to guide me. Sometimes it’s very hard to do it on my own. But I have found when I get stuck, I am happy to hire outside help.
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?
Figure out your brand and mission first. Then, write down your mission and keep coming back to it every day. Every time you are faced with a company decision, ask yourself “Does this choice align with my mission?” If the answer is “No” then you’re at risk of compromising your brand and short selling your followers. My mission is to make art fun for kids and easy for parents.
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?
With any creative idea, I personally think it is best to write down your idea, develop it as far as you can go until you can’t. Then, I think it’s good to hire the necessary help.
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 wish I knew the answer to this one. I have continued to work within my budget without any outside funding. That is what works for me, but to grow, I do believe at some point I will need to look for outside resources. And when that time comes, I will make sure to find partners who align with the goals of Tiny Easel.
Ok. We are nearly done. Here are our final questions. How have you used your success to make the world a better place?
My hope is to provide an accessible art experience for kids, of all skill levels, so that they can enjoy creating without the pressure of a final product. I want kids to find joy and satisfaction in the process. I think creative kids will make the world a better place.
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 really find it very helpful as a busy mom to find a creative space, whether it is to create a business or just to have some time to reflect. I also think within the mom community, it’s important to lift each other up. What I have loved about starting a small business is how supportive this mom and creative community has been in giving me the courage to keep going. My movement would be to create something and go for it. You will learn along the way.
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.
As a longtime fan of Shark Tank, I would be lying if I didn’t say it sparked something in me to create a product. I would love to have a private breakfast or lunch with Lori Greiner. As a successful woman entrepreneur, who started with one idea and turned it into a multi-million-dollar brand, I would love to get her thoughts on how to scale my business.
Thank you for these fantastic insights. We greatly appreciate the time you spent on this.
Teamwork, vision, grit, a willingness to learn from your mistakes, and the do-it-yourself bootstrapping attitude.
Startups have such a glamorous reputation. Companies like Facebook, Instagram, Youtube, Uber, and Airbnb once started as scrappy startups with huge dreams and huge obstacles. Yet we of course know that most startups don’t end up as success stories. What does a founder or a founding team need to know to create a highly successful startup? In this series, called “Five Things You Need To Create A Highly Successful Startup” we are talking to experienced and successful founders and business leaders who can share stories from their experiences about what it takes to create a highly successful startup. As a part of this series, we had the pleasure of interviewing Matthew Mead.
Matthew (Mattie) Mead is the founder and CEO of Hempitecture, a nonwoven materials manufacturer that uses biobased, carbon-capturing inputs to create healthier, high-performing products for a more sustainable planet. An Idaho-based, adventure-seeking entrepreneur, Mattie has a passion for re-envisioning the materials traditionally used in construction and beyond. On a mission to discover tangible solutions to the climate crisis, Mattie founded the Hempitecture concept in 2012 during his studies of architecture, environmental sciences, and entrepreneurship at Hobart College in Geneva, New York.
In 2016, Mattie had the honor of speaking at TEDx on the topic of “Building a Better World,” and just two years later, Hempitecture was formally founded alongside Co-Founder Tommy Gibbons, as a Public Benefit Corporation. Mattie’s work with the sustainability-driven brand also awarded him a spot on the Forbes “30 under 30” list in 2020. Previously, Mattie served on the Board of Directors of Idaho BaseCamp, a non-profit organization that connects underserved communities to the outdoors, for three years. In his home of Ketchum, Idaho, he was the Vice-Chair of the Planning and Zoning Commission for five years and the Chairperson of the Historical Preservation Commission for one year as a founding member.
Thank you so much for doing this with us! 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 interest in sustainability and architecture began as a student at Hobart and William Smith Colleges in Geneva, New York. Thanks in part to the liberal arts curriculum at the school, I was able to gain exposure to varying subject areas. By my senior year at Hobart, I decided to launch a thesis research project that explored the nexus of our built environment, architecture, and the impacts of the built environment on our natural world. This thesis study, titled “The Contemporary Relevance of Earth Architecture,” served as the foundation for the Hempitecture concept.
What was the “Aha Moment” that led to the idea for your current company? Can you share that story with us?
My a-ha moment was when I realized that buildings in their operations are responsible for nearly 40% of our domestic carbon footprint, which makes up the largest portion of our domestic carbon emissions, more so than transportation, industry, and manufacturing. If building operations make up the most significant portion of our carbon footprint, it could also be a great opportunity to enact solutions to change that statistic. Through my thesis study and with an understanding of this problem within the built environment, I began to research bio-based solutions, utilizing materials that are adept at capturing carbon dioxide. In essence, the Hempitecture concept was born.
Was there somebody in your life who inspired or helped you to start your journey with your business? Can you share a story with us?
Personally, I have had many mentors along the way, and as a business, we have had fantastic advisers and members on our Board of Directors who have helped chart the future of Hempitecture. Early on, I relied heavily on my college’s entrepreneurship department to help shape the earliest patches of Hempitecture. In 2013, I presented at my college’s pitch competition as a finalist with a grand prize of $10,000 in seed funding to launch the start-up. This was five years before industrial hemp was federally legal. The judges laughed at me — they couldn’t believe that I was proposing to build houses and buildings using materials derived from a schedule one substance (industrial hemp). I did not win the contest, which was extremely disheartening at the time. I graduated college, and I did not know what was next. Soon after, I began working for a sustainable development in Saint John in the U.S. Virgin Islands designing and building eco-cottages at Concordia Eco Resort that are solar-powered and rainwater harvesting. One day my phone rang and it was a gentleman from Idaho. He asked if I wanted to come to Idaho and build a hemp home for his nonprofit organization. I was unaware of where Idaho was even located on a map, having never traveled there. He found Hempitecture through a news article that was shared on Facebook. Through the power of social media, Hempitecture had its first opportunity to build a proof-of-concept project in the mountains of Idaho.
What do you think makes your company stand out? Can you share a story?
Hempitecture is unique because we are one of the first companies in the United States to build multiple homes across the country using hemp and lime as a material. When combined, this material is often referred to as HempCrete. It is an insulating thermal envelope material that is cast around a structural frame. In the years of working to bring this material to scale we realize that while HempCrete presents great opportunities as a carbon-negative building material, there are also significant challenges. Some of these challenges include a workforce not knowing how to work with HempCrete and a misalignment of building codes that don’t understand or accept HempCrete in the United States. Additionally, due to the subcontracted nature of buildings in the United States, every subcontractor, including design professionals, must understand how to work with a design for a HempCrete envelope. This led us to our pivot. In 2018, our cofounder, Tommy Gibbons, a high school classmate of mine, joined the team, and we re-incorporated Hempitecture as a public benefit corporation with a mission to scale bio-based, carbon-negative, and sustainable building material solutions in a way that could be integrated into conventional building assemblies. That led us to bring our flagship product, HempWool insulation, to market.
How have you used your success to bring goodness to the world?
As a public benefit corporation, doing good for people and the planet is at the core of our business model. We sell, manufacture, and distribute building materials that are carbon negative and healthy. We believe that our materials and solutions create healthier homes and habitats while also sequestering carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. And in doing so, we believe that we are bringing goodness to both people and the planet.
Which three character traits do you think were most instrumental to your success? Can you please share a story or example for each?
Tenacity, vision, and grit have been at the core of Hempitecture‘s journey to success. Hempitecture as a concept was founded in 2013, but it is not until today in 2022, that we fully realize this vision by bringing our building materials, particularly HempWool to scale in the United States. Over the years, there have been multiple instances where people have not taken our building materials seriously, due to the common misconceptions surrounding industrial hemp. Today, this is very different because industrial hemp is legal in all states and is federally legal. It is no longer a schedule one substance, as it is now recognized distinctly from cannabis that produces THC and has recreational or medicinal value. Despite being told no by many clients, architects, and even investors who looked at our business, we have fundraised nearly $5 million to build our flagship facility. This flagship facility is proof of our concept at an industrial scale that we can grow materials that support rural communities to create high-performing sustainable building materials
Often leaders are asked to share the best advice they received. But let’s reverse the question. Can you share a story about advice you’ve received that you now wish you never followed?
As an entrepreneur, you are often given lots of advice — this advice is like a mosaic. You need to decide where and when this advice is applicable and fits into place. One piece of advice that we were given was that we should move away from industrial hemp entirely and focus on other plant-based resources due to the schedule-one substance nature of industrial hemp. I am glad we did not do away with industrial hemp because it is the core ingredient that enables our building materials to be carbon-negative, long-lasting, insulating, and high performing.
Can you tell us a story about the hard times that you faced when you first started your journey?
There have been many difficult times starting a business in the United States and essentially uncharted territories. Initially, as a business, we were traveling from job site to job site, helping construct HempCrete homes using hemp and lime. Oftentimes there would be obstacles in between projects that hindered our cash flow. There have been multiple points where we thought we would have to close the doors of Hempitecture and move on. Thanks in part to two committed co-founders who have self-funded the business and bootstrapped it to success today, we have been able to stay in business to ultimately realize our vision of mass-producing sustainable products such as HempWool thermal insulation.
Where did you get the drive to continue even though things were so hard? What strategies or techniques did you use to help overcome those challenges?
The drive to continue pushing Hempitecture forward came from the core belief that what we are doing is needed in the world and that it truly has the potential to help decarbonize the built environment. Decarbonizing the built environment and making our homes and buildings more sustainable requires a comprehensive approach, strategy, awareness, and education. Education has been the cornerstone of our success: we educate architects, builders, homeowners, and even distributors who are interested in looking at our products. Statistics in the information of our product speak for themselves. Once you learn the benefits of our products compared to what is conventionally available on the market, It shows that we have truly unique offerings that are able to impact the built environment and our natural world positively.
Can you share a few ideas or stories from your experience about how to successfully ride the emotional highs & lows of being a founder?
As a founder, there are many highs and lows. One thing that is essential is that you must celebrate the wins, even small ones, and keep in perspective where you have come from and where you are going. Without celebrating and recognizing the small milestones, you can lose sight of the greater vision and all of the traction you have made to date.
Let’s imagine that a young founder comes to you and asks for your advice about whether venture capital or bootstrapping is best for them?What would you advise them? Can you kindly share a few things a founder should look at to determine if fundraising or bootstrapping is the right choice?
I would advise every entrepreneur to always bootstrap for as long as possible before responding. Sometimes this can be difficult; however, if you can successfully bootstrap your company to the point of being able to raise fundraising, you will give away less of your company in exchange for an equity investment. Also, if you are considering raising funding to launch your products or grow your business, structuring your fundraising round through a safe agreement is a great way to delay your valuation and allow you to gain proof of concept. We fundraise through a unique means; we utilized community funding on a platform called WeFunder. We have over 1,800 investors who have contributed to our goal of raising nearly $5 million, which has been deployed to build our manufacturing facility.
Many startups are not successful, and some are very successful. From your experience or perspective, what are the main factors that distinguish successful startups from unsuccessful ones? What are your “Five Things You Need To Create A Highly Successful Startup”? If you can, please share a story or an example for each.
Building a cohesive team is essential to having success as a start-up business. It is critical that your founders are committed and determined and can recruit talent that is equally committed and determined to see the success of the company grow. As a public benefit corporation, all of our team members are aligned around the understanding and realization that buildings need to be improved, and that building materials are a pathway to doing that. In our hiring process, we often ask prospective employees about their perspectives on sustainability. If they do not share the same vision that we have, then we know they will not be a great fit for our business because we are a mission-based business, and having alignment around that vision is essential. Five things that are essential to creating a highly successful start-up are as follows: teamwork, vision, grit, a willingness to learn from your mistakes, and the do-it-yourself bootstrapping attitude. Early on when we had the opportunity to build our first proof of concept project in Idaho, we faced many roadblocks. One of which was that industrial hemp was not yet available in the United States at the time. Because we had to import the raw materials to build this home, which ultimately became the first public-use HempCrete building in the United States for a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, we fundraised through Kickstarter to support the purchase and import of the raw materials for the building project. Our Kickstarter rate is $27,000 and that $27,000 went largely to realizing the proof of concept project, not for our own internal operations, marketing, or anything else other than the building. That first building gave us the momentum we needed to show that building with hemp in the United States is indeed possible, and further highlighted the need to bring an industrial hemp supply chain to the country.
What are the most common mistakes you have seen CEOs & founders make when they start a business? What can be done to avoid those errors?
When launching a new company, CEOs and founders often think they need large amounts of money to get their product, service, or concept to market. This is not the case; there are plenty of strategies to raise funding through non-dilutive sources including Kickstarter and community rounds on platforms such as WeFunder. A founder dedicated to seeing their company succeed should do everything they can to bootstrap their company before soliciting outside investment. If you solicit outside investment at an early stage in your business, you’re likely to give up large amounts of equity and therefore you begin to give up control of your business before it even starts.
Startup founders often work extremely long hours and it’s easy to burn the candle at both ends. What would you recommend to founders about how to best take care of their physical and mental wellness when starting a company?
Starting a new business or any start-up requires dedication, determination, and a clear vision to align yourself and your team around. This can lead to burnout and discouragement when you’re not getting the traction you hope to get. Our company is based in Sun Valley, Idaho, and while we have a mostly remote team across the United States, we encourage our employees to get outside, go hiking, ski, snowboard, and do anything that helps them connect with nature. We also allow our employees to take mental health days with no questions asked. If they have something going on in their personal lives or just need a day off to recalibrate and recuperate, we allow that because it gives them the opportunity to recharge their batteries and return to working towards our collective vision and goals with more energy and enthusiasm.
If you could start a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be?
Our flagship product HempWool thermal insulation — it’s a scalable one-to-one replacement for conventional insulation products. We believe the scalable nature of this product, which can be used in lieu of things such as fiberglass and mineral wool, allows us to reach more homes and buildings across the United States because it is so easy to implement. We believe the movement of decarbonization within the built environment, and subsequent federal tailwinds, such as the Inflation Reduction Act are bringing the importance of sustainable building materials and carbon-negative building materials to the forefront of thought within the architectural and design communities. We believe that more architects and builders need the education to understand why sustainable building materials like HempWool are ideal for decarbonizing the built environment and creating healthier homes and habitats. This movement is growing, and organizations like Architecture 2030 and Builders for Climate Action are bringing this awareness and knowledge to the forefront of the architecture and building communities.
We are blessed that some very prominent names in Business, VC funding, Sports, and Entertainment read this column. Is there a person in the world, or in the US with whom you would love to have a private breakfast or lunch, and why?
Today, many business moguls have reached billionaire status and are contributing their funds to sustainable and environmentally friendly causes. Take for instance breakthrough energy ventures ABC Firm which are investing in the future of sustainable innovations. There are also climate funds set up by Bill Gates, Jeff Bezos, and even entrepreneurs like Elon Musk that are lending their exorbitant profits towards sustainable causes. It’s hard to say that there would be one person I would want to sit down with, but rather, I would like to have the opportunity to speak to a consortium of these individuals to highlight the need to develop and build with more sustainable materials. Anyone who is a VP focused on sustainability and building materials has an open spot on my calendar. I would love to tell them about how Hempitecture is just part of the solution to solving some of the biggest challenges that face the built environment and our globe today.
Thank you for these fantastic insights. We greatly appreciate the time you spent on this.
With social media these days, it’s so easy to compare yourself to others. All my peers are always posting on Instagram and TikTok either about how great their lives are, how much fun they’re having, or how successful they’ve been. That’s all fine and good, but make sure you don’t start comparing yourself to them. The only person you need to measure up against is yourself. If you’re satisfied with how you’re doing that’s all that matters.
As a part of our series called “Making Something From Nothing”, I had the pleasure of interviewing Ethan Haber.
Ethan Haber is the CEO/Founder of Happy Habitats (https://www.happyhabitats.net). An aspiring entrepreneur, and avid animal lover, Ethan identified the small pet space as the perfect place to make his mark. Join him on his journey of small pet enrichment, one hamster at a 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 grew up in Roslyn on Long Island and had a pretty normal childhood. People who knew me growing up would tell you three things: I was always creating stuff, I loved animals, and I don’t take no for an answer.
Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share how that was relevant to you in your life?
I really love the quote by Woody Allen, “80% of success is showing up.” Simply put, the people that try are the ones that succeed. I’ve found that most people don’t risk trying for fear of failure. They talk about their dreams but never go after them. If you actually give it a shot you’ll be surprised how far you go. Anyone can have an idea, but it’s the execution that matters.
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 favorite show is It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia. I’ve watched the whole thing start to finish at least a dozen times. The main cast makes for quite the interesting group of role-models. They always have some scheme or adventure they’re in the process of. The characters themselves are terrible people and they rarely succeed. But, the creativity and tenacity they exhibit are things I’ll often think about. I guess it just goes to show, you can learn from anything-haha.
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 have three examples I can share:
Growing up I loved stuffed animals. There were always ones I wanted that I couldn’t buy, characters from video games and comics I wanted to see in the real world. When I was 12, I started learning how to sew. For the past 11 years I’ve been hand sewing stuffed animals from scratch. I’ve used this skill to leverage myself many times. Most notably, in college I became a hired contractor for the video game studio, Squanch Games. One semester I drove 96 miles to their office in Raleigh every Friday. I must’ve made them over 100 custom stuffed animals throughout my relationship with them.
I’ve been writing a comic in my free time, and it’s a long arduous process. My neighbor liked my illustrations and asked me to write a children’s book with him. He had this great idea about whales he shared with me. I said to him “if you write the thing, I’ll illustrate it.” Nothing has happened since then.
My startup, Happy Habitats began because there was something I wanted for my hamster that didn’t exist. I saw the opportunity to create something new in a niche market with a high barrier to entry. My father and I partnered with the design firm P9 design and haven’t looked back. After a lot of time and work we’ve created a unique product that’s one of a kind. One problem we’ve been having trouble with recently has been finding a sales rep. Most reps only take on businesses with a whole catalog of products. Every sales rep so far has told us they love our product, but they can’t give us the time we deserve. Due to this, I’ve become a one man sales army. Over the next two weeks I’ve managed to set up several meetings with major buyers. My dad and I are actually flying to Florida for one meeting. He jokingly said, “who needs a sales rep when you have Ethan.”
In each of these examples there’s a common theme. I didn’t just talk about doing something, I actually did it. My friend Ryan Gomez is a fellow budding entrepreneur. He makes amazing music and goes by the artist name Rygo. He always loves to say, “how do you eat an elephant?” The answer, one bite at a time. Start doing something today and you’ll be closer to your goal tomorrow.
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 no such thing as a new idea. The world is so big and people are so creative, odds are if you’ve thought of something, someone else has too. Don’t let that discourage you, it should actually encourage you. If your idea is that good, other people are bound to think of it as well. The question is, will they act on it? Will you act on it? Someone’s gotta do it, why shouldn’t it be you? For an idea to have value, it needs to be executed. And if someone else is already doing it, who’s to say you can’t do it better. Before the 7 minute ab routine there was the 10 minute ab routine.
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.
First you have to identify a problem. There’s two types of problems, headache problems and migraine problems. Headache problems are things that are minor annoyances that may not need a solution, while migraine problems are issues people will pay any amount of money to solve. Generally speaking, you’ll know you’ve found something when you identify a migraine problem.
Now that you’ve found your problem you need to discover a solution. A perfect example is what Sara Blakely did with Spanx. She needed an undergarment for her outfit that the market didn’t offer. She discovered that by cutting the feet off of a pair of pantyhose she was able to solve her garment issue. Sara asked around and found that many women experienced the same issue she did.
With a problem addressed and a solution to solve that problem, you need to take action. It’s not enough to just solve your issue. You need to create something people can buy and see what the market says. You don’t need some grand operation to test your product. For example, if you have a cool new pet product you think people would buy, you may offer to stock a few in a local store near you for free and see if people buy them. That’s a very low cost to see how your product does on shelves.
If you’ve made it this far and you really have something you’ll want to file a patent. There’s two types of patents you can apply for, design patents and utility patents, depending on your idea you may need one or both. I went to avvo.com and searched for an attorney that fit my needs. After connecting with Eddie M Holder, Happy Habitats was able to file patents for the Halo. I’ve attached his link below if you’d like to connect with him. Eddie is a great attorney who cares about his clients and charges fairly.
With your idea protected you can now look for a manufacturer. It’s important to leverage any and all connections you may have. Happy Habitats connected with our manufacturer, BRH2, through a friend’s connection. If you’re a student, you can ask your faculty and university for help too. The student card is a huge asset so make sure to use it liberally.
Lastly, when it comes to retail, never underestimate the power of cold calls. We’ve all gotten them, a call from some strange number talking about something. You may brush them aside, but cold calls really do work. Thanks to cold calls Happy Habitats has talked with plenty of stores, from Mom and Pop Shops all the way to Big Retailers. Persistence is key here. Don’t give up after reaching someone’s voicemail once. I’ve been told it takes seven interactions with someone to gain their trust. Happy Habitats follows a 15 step sales sequence that includes: emails, linkedin messaging, and phone calls.
P.S. It never hurts to find a mentor. Identify someone in your field who has a wealth of knowledge and ask them to mentor you. You’ll be surprised how receptive they can be, but believe it or not, they were once in your shoes. I’ve been receiving mentorship from the founder of Petsmart, Jim Dougherty, all because I reached out to him on Linkedin.
What are your “5 Things I Wish Someone Told Me When I First Started Leading My Company” and why?
Everything takes longer than you think it will.
Happy Habitats was founded in 2019 before the Covid pandemic. Everything you can imagine took longer than it was supposed to. There was scarcity of raw materials, then our molds were stuck on a ship because of the whole shipping fiasco, and now there’s cardboard shortages. Be prepared for things to take longer than you planned.
2. Don’t compare yourself to others.
With social media these days, it’s so easy to compare yourself to others. All my peers are always posting on Instagram and TikTok either about how great their lives are, how much fun they’re having, or how successful they’ve been. That’s all fine and good, but make sure you don’t start comparing yourself to them. The only person you need to measure up against is yourself. If you’re satisfied with how you’re doing that’s all that matters.
3. Prepare to be surprised.
This one skews both ways. Prepare to be pleasantly surprised and unpleasantly surprised. I was not prepared at all for when Jim Dougherty gave me a call, I was actually preoccupied with something else. But, once he said who he was I stopped what I was doing and we spoke for over an hour. That was a pleasant surprise. On the other hand, after waiting 8 weeks for our retail box to be manufactured the box that arrived is not what we approved. It’s flimsy and not fit for shelves. Because of this we had to reorder our retail boxes and be extra anal about the gauge of the cardboard. That was certainly an unpleasant surprise.
4. It’s Never Over Till It’s Over.
Remember, it’s never over till it’s over. One of our first retail partners placed an order for 16 units and my father and I were ecstatic. Then however, it took two weeks for him to send over the payment. Until the deal is signed in ink everything’s up in the air. Another customer placed an order and never got back to me on payment. A verbal agreement is far from the final thing. Make sure not to count your chickens before they hatch.
5. It’s important to dream in the short term too.
Everyone fantasizes about what they want and where they want to be. Unfortunately, we often dream of the end result without thinking of all the steps it takes to get there. It’s important to dream in the short term too. Set up daily/weekly goals and do your best to hit them. Every time I cross something off in my planner I feel good about myself. Creating visual signifiers to remind you of what you’ve done and how far you’ve come is a great way to prevent burning out.
Here’s a linked video where I talk about the 5 things listed above:
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?
It depends on what type of product they want to create. Is it a software, a hard good, or a service? Depending on the idea the direction one needs to follow will change. Broadly speaking, first you need to make sure the problem you want to solve is real. Interview no less than 100 people to see what they have to say. An interview doesn’t have to be in person. You can create a survey and have people fill it out. I did this for Happy Habitats way back before we put a single dollar into the company. Just make sure not to ask guided questions. Instead of asking “would you pay x for this?” Ask, “how much would you pay for this product/service?” Let the consumer tell you their thoughts, rather than leading them to what you want to hear.
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?
Happy Habitats would not exist were it not for our partnership with P9 Design. They are a top of the line design firm that innovates from soup to nuts. Other than Happy Habitats, they create products for major consumer brands: Honeywell, OXO, Swell. Though I had an idea, I didn’t have all the tools in my kit to make it a reality. If you have a great idea I encourage you to see how far you can get on your own. But, if there’s things your idea needs that you can’t provide then find a partner. Just make sure they’re a good partner who’s equally invested in your idea. A bad partner can kill a great idea.
What are your thoughts about bootstrapping vs looking for venture capital? What is the best way to decide if you should do either one?
A penny saved is a penny earned. Bootstrapping is a must for any aspiring entrepreneur. Capital is finite and hard to come by. It’s important to try and stretch your dollar as far as you can. Venture capital is great but you likely are not going to reach that opportunity if you don’t bootstrap first.
Ok. We are nearly done. Here are our final questions. How have you used your success to make the world a better place?
That’s something I’m still working on. The most recent example I can think of is with TTPM: Toys, Tots, Pets, and More. They’re a great company that reviewed the Halo. When I visited their office I saw the sheer volume of toys they had, either extras they were sent for review (they only need one) or products they already reviewed. Every year my father and I do a toy drive to help provide gifts for children of impoverished families on Long Island (where we’re from). I mentioned it to TTPM and they donated over a carload of toys! I personally loaded the car and drove the toys to Hempstead. As your rolodex expands so does your ability to impact your community.
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.
For my bar mitzvah project I raised funds for a water well in Sudan. Even though that was 10 years ago, somewhere today people are still benefiting from that well. It’s a crazy thing to think about. Everyone deserves access to food, shelter, and most importantly water. In the future I’d like to help more areas develop access to clean drinking water.
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.
Either Justin Roiland or the Creators of Always Sunny (Charlie Day, Rob McElhenney, and/or Glenn Howerton). While we’re in different industries I draw a lot of inspiration from their creativity. If you look at their respective creative journeys and what it took for them to get where they are, both are entrepreneurs in their own right. I almost got to meet Justin Roiland once a few years ago because I’ve made so many stuffed animals for his company, but it didn’t pan out. If any of y’all see this, know that lunch is on me!
Thank you for these fantastic insights. We greatly appreciate the time you spent on this.
Meet The Disruptors: Daniel Shaddock Of Liquid Instruments On The Five Things You Need To Shake Up Your Industry
An Interview With Fotis Georgiadis
When it comes to your career, you have to make time for the big stuff, and not worry if some of the little things fall off your plate along the way. It’s just the way it is, and you have to be OK with it. Cut yourself a break. You’re not going to be able to do everything for everyone all the time. It’s up to us all individually to prioritize the things that are going to matter in five years. And don’t be afraid to try something new. The people who keep trying new things throughout their careers, no matter how senior they get — those are the ones who really go a long way.
As a part of our series about business leaders who are shaking things up in their industry, I had the pleasure of interviewing Daniel Shaddock.
Daniel Shaddock is CEO of Liquid Instruments and professor of physics at The Australian National University. He also served as a Director’s Fellow at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory and a Fellow at the American Physical Society, where his publications have been cited over 20,000 times. His research focuses on precision measurements using advanced digital signal processing. At Liquid Instruments, Daniel is pioneering the move from a physical, hard-wired approach to test and measurement towards a computer-based system that uses intelligent software.
Thank you so much for doing this with us! Before we dig in, our readers would like to get to know you a bit more. Can you tell us a bit about your “backstory”? What led you to this particular career path?
I’ve always enjoyed the aspect of problem solving within science and figuring things out for the first time. My mentality is if you’re going to solve problems, they might as well be useful. I’m attracted to the enduring impact you can have in science, and the immortality of discoveries. Initially, I was fascinated by exploring big topics, such as understanding the universe and gravitational wave detection. Over time, I became more interested in the practical applications of technology and how it can help people in daily life, which is what led to the creation of Liquid Instruments.
Can you tell our readers what it is about the work you’re doing that’s disruptive?
The test and measurement industry goes back to at least the 1930s, when Hewlett-Packard began making oscillators. Over the last few decades, there hasn’t been much innovation in this space, which is surprising given how many high-tech sectors it serves. When I was an engineer at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, we developed a laser interferometer to measure between spacecraft, a sort of extreme LiDAR. This interferometer was at the heart of the Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment Follow-On (GRACE-FO) mission to map the world’s water reserves from space with unprecedented accuracy. The super-flexible, FPGA-based instrumentation developed for GRACE-FO became the technology that launched Liquid Instruments. As a longtime user of conventional test equipment — bulky, expensive, fixed-function pieces of hardware — it was obvious that there was an opportunity to modernize and disrupt this space by making it more software-centric, while also making it more affordable. This is why we created Moku:Lab, Moku:Go, and Moku:Pro — to bring engineers and scientists versatile, high-performance test instrumentation that’s easy to use. Our software-defined instrumentation can be reconfigured on the fly and allows test engineers to upgrade equipment with over-the-air updates to add more functionality as their needs evolve. Our technology is turning heads — we recently raised a $30 million round of funding to expand what we’re doing into additional industries.
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 did have a challenge in coming up with the name “Moku.” We were a bunch of physicists 100% focused on building the technology and bringing a real product to life. We had our first big trade show — a physics conference. We got to the point where we had to print out banners with the name of the product on them. But we still didn’t have a name. There were lots of spreadsheets of potential names and many people making suggestions. Some of us were in California, and others were in Australia. As we were listing names, we thought about the geographical midpoint between us, which is somewhere near the Hawaiian Islands. That led us to think about the question, “If you could only take one piece of test equipment to a deserted island, what would it be?” Of course, the answer was our device. At that point, we downloaded a Hawaiian dictionary and settled on Moku, which is inspired by the Hawaiian word for “island.” What’s really mattered over time is the meaning that we’ve given to the name, rather than the name itself.
We all need a little help along the journey. Who have been some of your mentors? Can you share a story about how they made an impact?
One weird thing about me is even though I’m a professor of physics, I wasn’t interested in science or engineering as a kid. I was much more interested in playing sports and computer games, or going to the beach. In high school, I had a really funny and engaging physics teacher. He lit a spark in me, and it was at this point that I decided to study physics. It’s true that one teacher can make such a huge difference in the lives of many students. There was a whole group of us from my class who all went on to have careers in physics. That’s because our teacher showed us that there are so many cool things to do in that area of science.
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 for the sake of disruption isn’t something I would recommend. There are situations where something is perfectly fine as is, and doesn’t need to be changed. This type of disruption could lead to more issues than the original problem someone was trying to solve. At NASA, I saw firsthand that there was a major opportunity to make things better for engineers and scientists by modernizing and democratizing test equipment. At the time, there were huge advances being made in areas like connectivity and cloud services, and user interface design, and it seemed like a no-brainer to apply these concepts to test and measurement. I like to think of test equipment as the technology behind technology. If test equipment is outdated and difficult to use, how can you expect it to help deliver great breakthroughs? Our flexible, software-defined approach is making a positive impact and accelerating engineering progress.
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 it comes to your career, you have to make time for the big stuff, and not worry if some of the little things fall off your plate along the way. It’s just the way it is, and you have to be OK with it. Cut yourself a break. You’re not going to be able to do everything for everyone all the time. It’s up to us all individually to prioritize the things that are going to matter in five years. And don’t be afraid to try something new. The people who keep trying new things throughout their careers, no matter how senior they get — those are the ones who really go a long way.
We are sure you aren’t done. How are you going to shake things up next?
Over the past few years, our team has been busy expanding Moku software-defined instrumentation, which is now available on three hardware devices: Moku:Go, Moku:Lab, and Moku:Pro. After initially focusing on the optics and photonics, academic and government research, and education markets, we now have users in aerospace, defense, semiconductor, LiDAR, quantum, and other industries.
Following our recent round of funding, we’ve accelerated our growth plans and look forward to introducing new offerings that connect lab measurements to more cloud services to improve workflows. This will enable more use cases and allow our customers to increase insight and efficiency exponentially, so they can do what they do better and more quickly. We’re excited to see the benefits this will bring to our customers and the work they’re doing.
The interest in our products is exploding. We’re on track to add more new users this year than the previous six years combined. We know this is just the beginning of what we can do. We want to bring Liquid Instruments to more people around the world, and we see a lot of opportunity to do so in the industrial and educational sectors. We’re already doing a lot of work in aerospace and defense, and we will continue to expand our capabilities there. Overall, the next 12 to 18 months will be critical for our growth. We look forward to executing on our ambitious vision for the company.
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 technology fan in general and have become particularly interested in how it intersects with and improves people’s lives. I was in graduate school when Steve Jobs came back to Apple and launched the iMac. I would set my alarm at like 3 a.m. in Australia so I could stream Jobs’ keynotes live from California. After this, my daily routine became opening up a bunch of tabs on my browser and checking out the latest Apple rumors. It was an incredibly interesting time, because the things Apple was doing and how the company was accomplishing them felt so next-level. I think that Tesla’s focus on its product has a similar feel of building something transformational in many dimensions simultaneously. Just like with Apple, Tesla has taken its time rising to the top. I believe that if you build a product that your users genuinely love, and keep your company growing the right way, then greatness awaits.
How can our readers follow you online?
We encourage you to stay connected with us! Follow us on LinkedIn, subscribe to our YouTube channel, and check out our latest company news, events, product updates, and more at liquidinstruments.com.
This was very inspiring. Thank you so much for joining us!
Today, data are gold and invaluable for business decisions. One way that organizations can use digital transformation to “take it to the next level” is to use data to inform your business model. Take jet engines: They are now sold based on the miles they have the capacity to fly. Usage data are collected to predict engine lifespans and maintenance schedules. Those data are used by human experts who can provide better pricing models, better business strategies and better overall service. In the end, they’re providing a better experience to employees, customers and the pilots and passengers of the jets.
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 Karl Chan.
As a business leader and technologist, Chan sets Laserfiche’s strategic vision for innovation and growth. With over 30 years of experience in the technology industry, he has played a significant role in the development of Laserfiche business process automation and forms, as well as the company’s focus on Laserfiche Cloud. Chan is passionate about providing solutions that address business challenges and enrich the world. He has a master’s degree in computer science and bachelor’s degree in engineering. In 2015, Chan received the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Los Angeles Business Journal.
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 really got into technology through computer games when I was a kid. I could never beat my brother, so I hacked into the games’ software and found loopholes, which became a new interest for me entirely.
I ended up following this passion to Harvey Mudd College, where I got my B.S. in engineering before getting my M.S. in computer science from California State University, Long Beach. I’ve worked in a variety of technology focused roles, but I think I’ve always held onto that notion that technology has great potential to make things easier for us. It used to help me beat my brother at computer games, but today at Laserfiche, we’re solving some of our customers’ biggest problems — whether that’s helping their workforce be more productive or bringing more value to their employees’ everyday lives by eliminating boring, repetitive tasks.
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’ve been at Laserfiche for more than 30 years now, but when I first started at the company I was working as a programmer. Back then, when everyone would go out to lunch, I would stay in the office since I brought mine to work. I’d be the only technical person in the office and ended up doing tech support during lunch. It was at this time I clearly was made aware of the difference between how we intended the software to be used and how it was actually used in the field. These were the real-world problems that we were solving, and our users were pushing the boundaries of our software’s capabilities. It gave me a better understanding of the impact that Laserfiche had on the world.
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?
Laserfiche founder Nien-Ling Wacker started the company as a consulting firm. She identified a need to help organizations work smarter — at the time, every business ran on paper, which created issues with storing, finding and managing information. She transitioned the company to focus on developing software, and Laserfiche technology has evolved from there. We’re now a cloud-first technology company that focuses heavily on process automation rather than simply helping businesses go paperless. But our purpose remains the same: Empower people everywhere to work smarter, so that together, we can create innovative solutions that enrich our world.
Are you working on any new, exciting projects now? How do you think that might help people?
Laserfiche recently introduced the Laserfiche Solution Marketplace, an initiative that I’m very excited about because it really embodies our business purpose and has the potential to have a huge impact on organizations’ digital transformations. The Solution Marketplace is a collection of solution templates to help jumpstart process automation and digital initiatives such as integrations — we’re aiming to help organizations address digital transformation needs and accelerate innovation enterprise-wide by taking a low-code approach to solution development.
Users can build and deploy their own automated workflows or connect Laserfiche to other applications faster using pre-built solutions, which are vetted by experts and follow industry best practices. There are hundreds of solutions available in the Solution Marketplace today, which represent common business processes as well as individual industry or organization needs, from new hire onboarding and accounts payable to public records requests and patient information authorization for healthcare organizations.
We are constantly adding solutions to the marketplace, and I’m excited about being able to provide these innovative templates to our customers so that they don’t have to automate or integrate from scratch.
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 the use of technology to fundamentally change an organization’s operations to deliver more value. Digital transformation is also the cultural change necessary to adopt new technology and processes, and constantly try new things to solve problems or challenge the status quo. On a practical level, this means breaking down existing processes and asking how you can change them to better serve your customers. Once you begin answering that question and envisioning different outcomes, you can apply solutions that have the potential to be transformative. Many organizations will take on initiatives like creating a new website, updating a legacy ERP or CRM system or simply moving digital assets to the cloud and call them “digital transformation.” This is digital optimization — it may be an improvement, but if you are not transforming the human experience, it’s not transformation.
Which companies can most benefit from a Digital Transformation?
I believe all companies can benefit from digital transformation, particularly because digital transformation is never “complete.” Organizations’ needs are constantly fluctuating; employee and customer expectations change — and the technology evolves. There’s no finish line. There’s always room for innovation.
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 transformation has the potential to reinvent the way things have always been done. I’ve seen startups build faster, more innovative ways of working using digital transformation, but I’ve also seen 100-year-old institutions reimagine core parts of their business to increase revenue. One story that recently stood out to me: Bergen Community College is a Laserfiche customer that start out wanting to replace a legacy document management system that was approaching end-of-life. They embraced digital transformation, however, when they assessed the student experience at their student center. They made the choice to digitize and automate many routine student services, only requiring students to come into the student center for high-touch student support services, such as advising and counseling. The result was reducing about 50% of the foot traffic to the student center, making the center more responsive to student needs and enabling staff to focus time on providing quality service. The college’s team estimates that the time and resources saved from their ongoing transformation are approaching $1 million.
Has integrating Digital Transformation been a challenging process for some companies? What are the challenges? How do you help resolve them?
Digital transformation isn’t a product you can buy and install — for that reason one of the biggest challenges I see when organizations are attempting to digitally transform is that they forget about the people part of the equation. How are your employees going to react to change? What can you do to accelerate adoption? What is the real impact on your customers? There are a lot of questions that organizations need to address before undertaking digital transformation, and many of them have to do with people, company culture, and employee and customer experience. Any digital transformation that does not keep people at the center of the initiative is bound to fail.
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”?
There are countless ways that digital transformation can produce extraordinary results for organizations:
Today, data are gold and invaluable for business decisions. One way that organizations can use digital transformation to “take it to the next level” is to use data to inform your business model. Take jet engines: They are now sold based on the miles they have the capacity to fly. Usage data are collected to predict engine lifespans and maintenance schedules. Those data are used by human experts who can provide better pricing models, better business strategies and better overall service. In the end, they’re providing a better experience to employees, customers and the pilots and passengers of the jets.
For some companies, ensuring that the correct people have access to information and insights at their fingertips can be transformative. One Laserfiche customer rethought the way that parents of children on the autism spectrum communicated with the organization’s behavioral therapists by creating online forms that enabled a more collaborative approach to care. Enabling real-time updates also accelerated the administrative tasks associated with care, and at times even sped up the progress families were able to see with their children.
In today’s hiring climate, many companies go to great lengths to bring on and retain top talent. As identified by the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM), however, 50% of hourly workers leave new jobs in the first four months, and half of senior outside hires within 18 months, citing poor onboarding processes as a key contributor. Gallup also found that just 12% of employees report receiving a good onboarding experience. This is where digital transformation can have a positive impact: Automating processes like new hire onboarding can help to get employees onboarded seamlessly, and get them engaged with their teams and projects as quickly and efficiently as possible. By creating a streamlined experience, you’re making a great first impression on your new employee, and more likely to retain them.
Digital transformation can also help remove friction from government processes, which are historically known for being frustrating and marred in bureaucratic red tape. Many local governments are now implementing technology to automate processes like applications for financial assistance, giving citizens more visibility into the process. One local government in North Carolina even integrated a chatbot with their online form for financial assistance, which helped guide citizens through the application. Initiatives like these are transformative not only because they help governments to provide better service to citizens, but they ultimately help to build trust in the institutions — something that is severely needed today.
Finally, I’ve seen organizations use technology in transformative ways by empowering even their non-technical employees to build digital solutions. This can be done using low-code or no-code solutions with drag-and-drop interfaces — tools that are easy to use and don’t require any technical heavy lifting. This democratization of IT helps to build a culture of problem solving and innovation. One Laserfiche user who was not in the IT department used Laserfiche to build a Secret Santa form and process, for their office’s holiday festivities. This isn’t something they would want to ask IT to do for them, but because the platform was so easy to use, they were able to do it themselves.
In your opinion, how can companies best create a “culture of innovation” in order to create new competitive advantages?
As I mentioned previously, give your people the tools they need to innovate, whether that is a low-code/no-code automation platform or access to a digital repository from which they can pull insights and make better business decisions. Additionally, business leaders need to set clear visions for their organizations — ensure that every single employee knows your company purpose and values. Innovation without purpose isn’t innovation at all.
How can our readers further follow your work?
I am on Linkedin, and Laserfiche is on all social channels.
Thank you so much for sharing these important insights. We wish you continued success and good health!
The Future Is Now: Trevor Dowswell Of Hotel Internet Services On How Their Technological Innovation Will Shake Up The Tech Scene
An Interview With Fotis Georgiadis
If you’re still alive, it means that you’ve been more right than wrong. If something feels off or doesn’t seem like the right decision, it’s likely you’re right and it probably is off and it probably isn’t the right decision. Don’t place implicit trust in another just because they’ve been doing something longer than you have. Tenure doesn’t always equal competence, so you have to find a balance between trusting others and trusting yourself.
As a part of our series about cutting-edge technological breakthroughs, I had the pleasure of interviewingTrevor Dowswell.
For the past seven years, Trevor Dowswell has been the Chief Technology Officer at Hotel Internet Services, a multi-national enterprise networking and software development company. He directly oversees all product architecture and technology adoption and implementation for the company.
Trevor is a specialist in the architecture and configuration of converged, large-enterprise wired and wireless networks. He is a Cisco certified engineer who has personally directed the installation of hundreds of public access WiFi networks, as well as large-scale video-on-demand and IPTV systems.
Additionally, he is a specialist in public access and hospitality authentication systems and network security, a web designer and Ruby developer, and has years of experience in top tier support, troubleshooting obscure issues with advanced and complex networks.
On top of his technical experience, Trevor is a published writer and editor, and previous to his involvement in the tech industry, worked extensively in marketing, live audio/visual, and the motion picture industry. He uses this textured background to provide fresh insight and vision into product design and rollout across Hotel Internet Services’ many verticals and brands, enabling the company to set new industry trends.
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 had been managing a post-production audio studio for movies and TV in Burbank, California for a few years, and it was, in general, rewarding, creative and interesting. I had the opportunity to work on some great projects with all manner of intriguing people, from Jim Cameron to Carmen Electra. However, I had started to feel like I was hitting a ceiling in both my career and financially, so I was on the lookout for something new.
I struck up a conversation on social media with an old friend from high school, and she just happened to be hiring for someone to coordinate their web development and installations. I had only scratched the surface of web development at USC years prior and knew virtually nothing about enterprise computer networking. However, I love a challenge, so I thought “perfect” and jumped in head-first. I somehow managed to convince them that I could do the job, started a couple weeks later…and quickly went back to college on the evenings and weekends.
I happen to be a quick learner, so within six months, I surpassed our most experienced engineers and moved from a coordination role to Director of Installations, project managing all network projects and performing all advanced configuration, as well as bringing in-house our web development for all guest-facing properties.
Funnily, it wasn’t until I became the Director of Installations that I realized I had inadvertently followed in my father’s footsteps. For years, he worked as an Electrical Engineer for Motorola, overseeing the installation of the first wireless computer systems in police cars around the globe.
Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you began your career?
This is perhaps the wrong sort of interesting, but it’s what popped to mind. I got a call from one of my install technicians, who I had sent to Brooklyn for a hotel Wi-Fi installation. He was standing outside of the property and was concerned that he wasn’t at the right location. It didn’t look like a hotel, there was no front desk, just a locked door and a tinted, bullet-proof window next to it with a little slot at the bottom. We double-checked the paperwork, verified the address with the account manager, and he was indeed at the correct location.
I told the technician to just to go and see if he can get in, scope it out, meet with the client, and find out what the deal is. He called me back a bit later. He had managed to get into the building and walk the site, and he was positive this wasn’t a hotel. When I asked him why, he said, “The door to every room was open and there were only mattresses on the floor and TVs playing pornographic content.”
This client had hired us to install a pay-for-use Wi-Fi system, so we spoke to him, trying to understand why he wanted Wi-Fi. Was it even going to be used? He told us a story about how they recently acquired the property and were going to upgrade and change things. So we went ahead and installed his network, assuming they were converting to a proper hotel.
We were not shocked when they later requested that we start charging for the Wi-Fi by the hour. We uninstalled that network pretty quick.
Can you tell us about the cutting-edge technological breakthroughs that you are working on? How do you think that will help people?
As a networking company, we’ve been working quite hard to create a seamless environment for apartments, student housing, senior living and hotels that ties together all of the disparate and disjointed internet-enabled technologies that exist in the market and makes them simple to use. We want a regular person to be able to walk into their apartment on move-in day, start our setup wizard, and within five minutes have their personal Wi-Fi network up and running, TV live and have a simple interface moving forward to manage any future devices they wish to onboard, including smart lights, cameras and appliances. Additionally, that private network they just created is instantly available no matter where they are on the property, not just in their apartment, with the same speeds and all the same features.
We are doing away with having to wait days, if not weeks, for underwhelming, overpriced internet to be activated, and which only provides the most basic services.
Our Wi-Fi is properly designed for full coverage in all areas, both living spaces and common areas, with enough bandwidth to satisfy the heaviest consumers, and it even provides features for more advanced internet users who need things such as static public IPs or who want to host LAN parties.
How do you think this might change the world?
I am a strong believer that technology should be used to augment and enhance the human experience, not supplant it. Thus, day-to-day technology should blend into the background, often forgotten and infrequently noticed. Therefore, the changes we expect might often feel intangible, such as less stress, more quality time, increased productivity, better focus on the things that matter.
The other factor is simply providing better internet to more people. We are becoming more and more reliant on the internet for both work and play, so one’s quality of life can be largely dependent on the quality of internet you have readily at your disposal.
Keeping “Black Mirror” in mind, can you see any potential drawbacks of this technology that people should think more deeply about?
I feel that every conversation about connecting all things to the internet warrants reflection on security. Every pathway out is theoretically a doorway in. Do I think you might stumble out to the kitchen one morning and have your toaster try to kill you? No, not likely. Could I envision someone hacking a surveillance account to determine when someone isn’t home so they could be robbed? Yes.
Security is everyone’s responsibility — the service providers, developers, hosting services, users. So everyone managing their piece of the pie correctly is critical in surviving the world of the Internet of (every)Thing.
Was there a “tipping point” that led you to this breakthrough? Can you tell us that story?
For some time, we have been able to create the networking environment to support a fully-managed, secure, simplistic internet experience, but the industry as a whole has just not been there. So there have been a few of us championing for the correct advancements and adoption of technology to make all of this possible, and that has been a slow climb for the past ten years. The final tipping-point was when a partner of ours was able to fully crack internet-delivery of bulk TV service. That was the final piece in the puzzle for creating the end-to-end solution that we felt was truly complete.
What do you need to lead this technology to widespread adoption?
FCC 22–12 (an FCC ruling from earlier this year to further promote competition in multi-tenant environments and to do away with internet and TV service provider exclusivity contracts that have stifled innovation) helps clear the way for opportunity. I feel like better managed internet and TV is an inevitability at this point. There are too many players demanding its existence, and it is the most logical path moving forward for building developers, owners, and managers.
What have you been doing to publicize this idea? Have you been using any innovative marketing strategies?
Our company is very keen on surveys. We like to know what people are actually thinking and doing out there, and we also love sharing that data with everyone. So we have put a lot of time in collecting information and opinions from thousands of real users, owners and managers regarding Wi-Fi, entertainment, and IoT, and our marketing team continually puts that data out using every channel they possibly can.
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 would say that I would not be doing what I’m doing today without Rafael van den Berg, who built up the tech side of Hotel Internet Services during its infancy, is currently our Director of R&D, and was my first networking mentor. When I came in to interview all those years ago, I was only armed with random, disjointed pieces of data about networking that I had gleaned from Google searches over the previous two days. Rafael was the one who accessed my technical knowledge during the hiring process. Looking back, I truly knew nothing; my answers were an absolute joke. Rafael knew that I knew absolutely nothing, but he was willing to take a leap of faith, and I’m sure glad he did.
Since that time, we’ve built most of Hotel Internet Services’ products together. We are each other’s sounding boards, and I think having two people who can balance each other out and challenge each other is invaluable.
How have you used your success to bring goodness to the world?
In presentations, speeches, articles, conversations with clients, prospects, vendors, and competitors, I have always preached unity. Let’s all work together and build great things. There is already too much divisiveness in our world. We don’t need people throwing blame around; blame never solved a problem. What the world needs is simply good people, doing good things, making good products, and having a good time.
So I’ve tried to lead by example, as well as worked to actively inspire goodness. My wife and I flow a lot of energy towards people and groups who are helping others, helping the planet, and in general those striving to make big, positive impacts around the world.
What are your “5 Things I Wish Someone Told Me Before I Started” and why?
Wow, this is a tough one. I’ll give it my best shot:
Everyone is Pretending
It’s not just you. A lot of people are still waiting for that ethereal moment when they suddenly become a grown up. Because I felt like I was pretending to be an adult, it took me a little while to realize that I knew more about my fields of expertise than any client or other vendor I spoke with. The moment I realized I was the authority of my field and that everyone else also felt like they were pretending, I fully owned every phone call and meeting. I was confident, decisive, and I could get things done.
Trust Your Instincts
If you’re still alive, it means that you’ve been more right than wrong. If something feels off or doesn’t seem like the right decision, it’s likely you’re right and it probably is off and it probably isn’t the right decision. Don’t place implicit trust in another just because they’ve been doing something longer than you have. Tenure doesn’t always equal competence, so you have to find a balance between trusting others and trusting yourself.
Following is Way Easier Than Creating
Creating the future, creating the vision and writing out the plans, getting agreement and cooperation, and pushing new projects from implementation through to completion is way, way harder than following a path that has already been paved. When you become an executive, or if you start your own company, you have to be willing to become your own power source. It takes a lot of mental fortitude, and it burns though so much mental energy.
Find a Really Good Rubber Duck
In software development, there is a practice called “rubberducking” where you debug your code by describing each function in normal language to a rubber duck (or your object of choice). This practice is just as effective in business as it is in programming. I don’t have an actual rubber duck on my desk, but I do have a person who will listen to whatever I have to say without judgement and who can often give me a unique perspective and sage advice. And sometimes you just need to get out of your head. Describing a problem to someone else often makes the solution spring to mind — sometimes just opening your mouth to start talking is enough to make the answer materialize.
Be Willing to be Wrong to be Right
It’s really hard to get anywhere substantial without being willing to just throw yourself out there and suffer the consequences, both good and bad. You have to be just as willing to be wrong as you are to be right, because if you’re never doing something because you might be wrong, then you are simply never doing anything. Sounds like 1st Grade logic. It probably is. But it’s true, so who cares.
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. 🙂
Ha! That is a rather generous description of me, but I’ll roll with it.
I would say, be responsible. Whenever you’re at a crossroads where you can either take less responsibility or more, go with more. You can take baby steps. It doesn’t have to be huge every time. But if everyone gradually took just a little bit more responsibility for their health, for their emotions, for their child’s education, for their partner, for the quality of their products, for their company, for the effects of their actions on others and their environment, for making at least one person happier today, for that guy that no one else is letting into traffic, then we would collectively, eventually solve all world problems.
Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share how that was relevant to you in your life?
One I’ve used over and over is, “There are no such things as problems, only conversations.” And this is one I actually don’t just preach.
I did an experiment with this when I was working in building maintenance in my late teens. At the time, it seemed like every few days someone was mad at someone, and often, it was directed at me. I decided to see if I could resolve every upset simply with communication. For example, if a bathroom was out of service, could I not fix it and then make everyone happy and able to move on just by talking to them? It worked 100% of the time.
However, you have to do it right. You have to actually fully communicate, meaning truly listen, understand and acknowledge the other side, and the intent of your communication needs to be to make them right, not wrong. I completely shocked a partner of a company I was working for a number of years ago with how powerful this is. He asked me to have a call with a client that was threatening legal action and had been quite nasty in their emails and letters. I got on the call, I listened, I told the client that they were right, we hadn’t delivered what was in the contract nor could we, that the contract was wrong, and laid out what we were actually able to do, and that was it. Afterward, the partner got with me and was just completely baffled. He said, “I don’t understand, no one yelled at you. They didn’t even seem upset. I don’t get it.”
It wasn’t a problem, it was simply a conversation.
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 🙂
Managed Wi-Fi, TV, and smart home is a market with significant growth. There are a number of players in the residential arena (Google, Samsung, Control4, etc.) with products well suited for single-family dwellings, but these products can start to fall apart in a multi-tenant environment. At the same time, property developers, owners and managers are fleeing from the behemoth service providers that have dominated this market for decades. Therefore, the market is primed for disruption and a significant “land grab” with a solution that integrates all of the strongest residential technology players together and provides a centralized interface to manage them from a property level, as well as a tenant level, and that’s what we’re offering with our product.
Jamal English Of EDM Network On How to Effectively Leverage The Power of Digital Marketing, PPC, & Email to Dramatically Increase Sales
An Interview With Fotis Georgiadis
Education — invest time into resources or money into accelerated knowledge.
Marketing a product or service today is easier than ever before in history. Using platforms like Facebook ads or Google ads, a company can market their product directly to people who perfectly fit the ideal client demographic, at a very low cost. Digital Marketing tools, Pay per Click ads, and email marketing can help a company dramatically increase sales. At the same time, many companies that just start exploring with digital marketing tools often see disappointing results.
As a part of this series, I had the pleasure of interviewing Jamal English.
Jamal English is the CEO and Founder of EDM Network, a dominant lead generation and marketing company revolutionizing strategic marketing, technology, and distribution innovation. English is an entrepreneur and investor with deep expertise in the needs of the insurance, financial services, and home services industries. They develop unique marketing campaigns that attract quality leads and produce fast results for their clients. The core of their service is lead generation, and their goal is to help businesses achieve continuous profitable and scalable growth.
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 unifying goal is centered around aligning synergies where they exist. I founded a marketing company to serve the need of the insurance, financial services, and home services industries as a whole, providing lead generation to many large distribution partners. I also co-founded many life and health insurance agencies, and established EA International Holdings as the investment arm of our portfolio, investing in multifamily developments, insurance agencies, and technology.
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?
I’ll start by telling the story of my first time advertising. Growing up, my father was a partner in a nightclub in which I spent my time cooking in the kitchen. One summer, I asked my father and his partner if I could host a one-night Sunday event when the bar was closed for kids.
They agreed, and I spent $250 on creating fliers for the event and advertising it on Twitter. On the night of the first event, we had a total of 8 people show up. The next week I told myself I would post about it every day and do everything I could to spread the word. That Sunday, 6 people showed up. It crushed my ego, and I almost threw in the towel. After checking my Twitter to see if anyone was looking to come, I saw these two guys that went to my rival school that announced a party, and EVERYONE showed up. I DM’d the guy driving everyone to the party, who was also a DJ, and asked him to come to the club to see me the following week. To my surprise, he showed up in awe of the fact that I was so young working at a 21+ club. I asked him to DJ the party, and I gave him $100 for doing so. Then I told his friends that everyone that brought their flier to the club would receive $2 per person that came. That next Sunday, we had a packed house of over 600 people. I was blown away; each of those people paid $25 to come to the party. I learned the most valuable lesson about advertising that day: you can not do everything alone. It takes a network to make the dream work.
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 was an event held in Dallas where I met my business partner Reda. We were both building insurance agencies in the final expense vertical. He was a prolific salesman with a keen awareness on how to communicate with people. He was writing a lot of business and spending a lot on leads for himself and his agency. He was writing more business than me, but I was making more money than him because I understood the fundamentals of cost per acquisition. We teamed up and grew our agency to $500,000 per month within 90 days.
What do you think makes your company stand out? Can you share a story?
The people of EDM make our business unique. We feel a responsibility to serve the consumers we engage with each and every day. When I was five years old, my father died, leaving my mother with four kids on her own and no real pathway to prosperity. I think about the men and women who are unsure about their future, and we strive to serve those consumers with the tough conversation many try to avoid.
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?
Foresight
Perseverance
Self-Awareness
Are you working on any exciting new projects now? How do you think that will help people?
Data Authentication Blockchain Technology
DNC Suppression Software
Retail Lead Marketplace
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.
Thats the problem; they are doing pay-per-click. They should consider Pay Per Call.
If you’re doing e-commerce, the pay-per-click models can be profitable, however, the vast majority of commerce done worldwide is solidified over the phone through multiple touchpoints. Understanding this is where you can provide a lot more value to companies.
Currently, our marketing company generates north of 30,000 calls per day, making us one of the largest distributors of live transfers and inbound calls in the country. Most entrepreneurs want to start with crazy goals, which are often unattainable. I break my goals down on a daily basis, and scale budgets as allocation and demand grow. Our initial goal for the company when we first started was to sell 80 calls per day. Then the 80 turned into 800, then 8,000, and continues to grow, but that only happens if you are profitable from the start and you understand your margins from the beginning.
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 blueprint would include a combination of good images, solid copy, and focused targeting.
For example, good images would include things that pop and are distinguishing. Vibrant colors stand out when people are scrolling, but think about abnormal things that people don’t see every day. So that always captures attention.
When it comes down to copy, less is more. Try to get your point across in the shortest way possible and make it relevant to your audience’s challenges. A good example is opening up with a common question relevant to your partnership. Ask yourself, would they want to learn more about this from one question?
For targeting, it is crucial to ensure you’re reaching out to the right audience. You must be able to segment by social factors, which will usually be higher triggers for the target market you’re trying to speak to.
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?
While there are several strong PPC platforms, the reason why pay-per-call is so important is that it’s the only way that you can really start to figure out the math and mechanics of your business.
For example, if you only had to pay when you actually spoke to a customer, versus them just visiting a website where they can’t directly interact with you, which one would you rather pay for? This becomes the ultimate conversation. Most business owners would rather pay for a call with someone producing high leverage to convert that customer, especially if you sell anything high ticket versus e-commerce products. If you’re selling ecommerce products, you will want to pay for clicks, but for 90% of the world that still operates brick-and-mortar for intangible products or services (even in a digital format), this is a deciding factor.
For example, doing anything telesales. It makes more sense for them to pay for calls versus clicks, where the cost leverage becomes so much greater. Also, you can keep those people productive and busy on the phones all day. Would you rather have someone that’s able to talk to people six hours a day, or two hours a day? Which one is going to be more productive? That will be the biggest difference between pay-per-call and pay-per-click.
Can you please share 3 things that you need to know to run a highly successful PPC campaign?
Synergistic opportunities. I don’t think there’s anything that trumps that. If you’re gonna run a pay-per-click campaign, you have to have a synergistic interest as that person or a synergistic audience. So if you think in terms of social brands, their value is super high because their click-through conversion rate is going to be high. The people that follow them are loyal, versus somebody who’s just trying to run traffic and spend the money. They need to have the established audiences that you retarget with your unique product or service that comes at a lower cost per click, where there’s a leverage point. This only works where there is a synergy.
Appealing offers
Solid funnel process
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?
The biggest concern with email marketing is spam. I do not recommend email marketing as the strongest campaign. Spamming is a very big issue right now, and buying email lists is not a viable method for starting an email campaign. Building email lists can be valuable, especially if you have engaged people, but buying them is not very authentic. Many of those emails will get flagged and sent right to junk.
Email can be used for promotional campaigns, though. Promotional emails are viable, but trying to get customers to purchase products from an email campaign won’t be as successful since the ROI is very small. If you want to inform people about new offers or events, sure, but the ROI will likely not be outstanding.
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?
Let’s go through some of the re-engagement tools:
There is automated software that can pretty much completely facilitate the re-engagement process with all of the prospects and consumers that you already have. This type of technology is where the future of AI is going to start taking over, because some of that human interaction is no longer going to be required. I do think CSR positions are going to become automated through completely comprehensive workflows eventually, and automated, pre-recorded messages can even be more responsive than a human being. This will be one of the most impactful changes. There are sequences now that run email, SMS, and phone calls. Automation is innovation, and there are various technologies for re-engagement that help improve efficiency.
Can you please tell us the 5 things you need to create a highly successful career as a digital marketer or as a manager?
Attention to detail.
Patience.
Trust but verify: mistakes can be costly.
The belief that if one can, all can.
Education — invest time into resources or money into accelerated knowledge.
Can you please share a story or example for each?
One example of the belief that one can, all can, is ‘bad’ employees. If one employee is struggling or underperforming compared to the rest of the team, there are ways to support them and lean on strategies that worked in the past before deeming them unfit for the role. Taking the time to understand why they are struggling will help managers and marketers assist and support them to get where they need to be.
What books, podcasts, videos or other resources do you use to sharpen your marketing skills?
Emotional Intelligence.
Built to last.
Measure what matters.
Principles.
Bluefishing: The art of making things happen.
Building a story/brand.
Influence: the psychology of persuasion.
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. 🙂
As a lifelong student, I want to encourage continuous unconventional learning.
Meet The Disruptors: Mark Lawrence Of SpotHero On The Five Things You Need To Shake Up Your Industry
An Interview With Fotis Georgiadis
What you say no to matters.
It’s very common for people to focus on saying “yes” to everything and everyone, especially at startups. I’ve found that what you say “no” to is just as powerful. By saying “no” to expansion beyond Chicago in our first 3 years, we were able to create a smooth playbook for scaling to additional cities in the future.
As a part of our series about business leaders who are shaking things up in their industry, I had the pleasure of interviewing Mark Lawrence.
Mark Lawrence is Co-Founder and CEO of SpotHero, the digital parking leader and only independent off-street parking marketplace in North America. Millions of drivers use SpotHero’s mobile apps and website to find, book and access off-street parking in over 8,000 locations across 300 cities in the U.S. and Canada.
As CEO, Mark drives the overall vision and strategic direction for SpotHero, recognized by TIME magazine as one of 50 Genius Companies inventing the future. Before founding SpotHero, Mark was a Financial Analyst at Bank of America, and graduated with a B.S. in Finance from Bradley University.
Thank you so much for doing this with us! Before we dig in, our readers would like to get to know you a bit more. Can you tell us a bit about your “backstory”? What led you to this particular career path?
I didn’t necessarily follow a particular career path per say, but more so set out to solve a personal problem. Funny enough, the idea for SpotHero started because I was getting a lot of parking tickets. At the time, I believe I had racked up about $5,000 dollars in parking tickets. I loved to drive, but parking was beyond frustrating, and I knew there had to be a better way.
The more research I did, the more I realized that the problem wasn’t a lack of parking but rather no efficient way to use parking that was already widely available. SpotHero started with one parking space by Wrigley Field in 2011. This year we became the official parking partner of the Chicago Cubs — a true full circle moment for the SpotHero team.
Can you tell our readers what it is about the work you’re doing that’s disruptive?
Almost everyone has to worry about parking. When creating SpotHero, we figured, why not make something that we’re forced to do even easier? With SpotHero, you can find your parking spot and know how much you’re going to pay, all before you leave your house. Our app is disruptive in the best way; it gives back the one thing customers value the most — time.
Think of the many moments that are often interrupted when you’re stuck, searching for parking — showing up late to an interview, missing the beginning of a show or worse, your flight. The list goes on and on.
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 first year I started SpotHero, I trekked through Chicago’s snowy streets, going door to door, asking if people wanted to list their parking spots with us. Mistake number one was thinking people would want to open their doors in that horrible weather!
The true mistake here was thinking that we needed to bring parking to the market. In reality, there was plenty of existing parking to work with — it just wasn’t easy for drivers to access. With my initial approach, it took a year for us to get 50 parking spots in Chicago on SpotHero. In year two, I had lunch with a parking company and left the restaurant with 1,000 new spots to add to SpotHero.
There are two takeaways here: You don’t always have to build from scratch, and there are ways to scale your business without involving snow boots.
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?
Sam Yagan is a member of the SpotHero board, and he’s been my top mentor ever since we started SpotHero in 2011. When the business first started, we were growing fast and facing challenges none of us had experienced before. One of those challenges being that we started SpotHero with only $6,000.
Sam was on the board at the time and suggested raising money. Back then, I didn’t understand venture capital, let alone that there were people out there willing to help fund us.
Since then, Sam has continued to be a resource for the company and me. He also happens to be THE top user of the SpotHero app and is always providing feedback and helping us create more efficient, user-friendly experiences for the customer.
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’ve always found disruption in an industry to be a positive thing, especially if it adds significant value to the user experience. Often a disruption occurs, and you can’t imagine what life was like before it because of how much value it brings to the table.
With that being said, if it simply extracts value — meaning it doesn’t better the customer experience or add to it in any way — then what’s the point? Since the beginning, SpotHero has made it a point to only introduce features that add value. Otherwise, it’s not worth it.For instance, look at our new partnership with Lyft — we’ve integrated ridesharing and parking, two different parts of the transit industry, as we continue to seek ways to transform the parking and mobility space by adapting to shifting user preferences and thus, adding value.
Can you share five of the best words of advice you’ve gotten along your journey?
1. Ignore the Echo Chamber Du Jour.
People often conflate current topics or trends to be indicative of the past or future. It’s important to be able to cut through the noise and determine what matters. Business problems can feel like the weather. When there’s a hurricane, you may forget there will be sunny days. But don’t lose sight of the complete forecast. There will be snow, sunshine and everything in-between; all temporary and always changing.
2. Do what’s right and the rest will follow.
I created SpotHero to make life easier for drivers. Doing right by our drivers has always been my top priority, even when that’s created challenges. For example, we refunded all reservations in March of 2020, including millions of dollars in reservations for future events that were “postponed” during the initial COVID shutdown. Not all businesses made this choice, but we knew that this was the SpotHero way of doing things, to put our drivers first. Decisions like this have kept people coming back to SpotHero. Drivers know we’re dependable and looking out for them.
3. Solve problems instead of finding problems.
This empowering advice allows us to take control of the issues that bog us down. For me, starting SpotHero wasn’t about becoming a founder or entrepreneur; it stemmed from racking up thousands of dollars in parking tickets and wanting to make parking easier. The desire to solve this problem still drives our decision-making today. When you encounter a problem, there’s an opportunity for innovation — challenge yourself to work through potential solutions.
4. What you say no to matters.
It’s very common for people to focus on saying “yes” to everything and everyone, especially at startups. I’ve found that what you say “no” to is just as powerful. By saying “no” to expansion beyond Chicago in our first 3 years, we were able to create a smooth playbook for scaling to additional cities in the future.
5. How you spend your time matters.
This may seem obvious, but I’ve found that we often default to autopilot when it comes to scheduled meetings or ways of working. It’s so important to be thoughtful with how you spend your days. I block out hours each week for focused flow work and honor that the same way I would a meeting.
We are sure you aren’t done. How are you going to shake things up next?
Even though SpotHero is number one in the mobile parking app space, digital parking is still a fairly low percent of the overall market — 30 to 50% of parking is still paid for in cash.
Think of how many places you park that still require you to physically walk up to a machine and manually pay for your parking spot. Moving forward, our main focus is to continue to bring more and more parking online and build better experiences for our drivers and parking operator partners.
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?
Without a doubt I would say the book, “The Hard Thing About Hard Things” by Ben Horowtiz. This book resonated with me, because simply put, building a company is really hard. Sometimes, the public perception is that it’s easy to raise a bunch of money and start a company overnight. This book offers a great perspective on resilience, an honest account of the hardships involved when building a company and overall, great lessons and takeaways. Personally, I still go back to this advice, “No matter how difficult things get, it’s going to be ok.”
Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share how that was relevant to you in your life?
It’s difficult to choose just one, but I would say my favorite quote is, “Life is too important to be taken seriously.” So often, life is taken very seriously, including things that shouldn’t be. Little things in life always seem to feel like a big deal when you’re in the moment, so I find it helpful to take a step back, evaluate the situation and decide how easily (or not) we can find a solution.
A few others I’ve always really liked are:
O “Whether you think you can or think you can’t, you’re right.” Henry Ford
O “The word impossible is not in my dictionary.” Napoleon
How can our readers follow you online?
You can learn more about SpotHero by visiting our website at spothero.com or check out our social channels — find us @spothero on Instagram, @SpotHero on Twitter, or @SpotHero on Facebook.
This was very inspiring. Thank you so much for joining us!
Start with dessert — Do not introduce yourself to start. Someone probably just did as you took the stage. My approach is to JOLT the audience with a powerful stat or statement as my first words rather than the traditional small talk start.
At some point in our lives, many of us will have to give a talk to a large group of people. What does it take to be a highly effective public speaker? How can you improve your public speaking skills? How can you overcome a fear of speaking in public? What does it take to give a very interesting and engaging public talk? In this interview series called “5 Things You Need To Be A Highly Effective Public Speaker” we are talking to successful and effective public speakers to share insights and stories from their experience. As a part of this series, we had the pleasure of interviewing Chris Smith.
Chris Smith is the cofounder of Curaytor (an Inc. 500 fastest-growing business) and he is one of the four best marketers under 40, according to the American Marketing Association. His book, The Conversion Code, is taught at colleges like Johns Hopkins University and he has been a guest lecturer at NYU.
Chris used the blueprint in his book to quickly grow his own company to eight figures in annual recurring revenue, without raising any venture capital. His work has been featured in Adweek, Forbes, Fortune, and many other publications.
Thank you so much for doing this with us! Our readers would love to get to know you a bit better. Can you tell us the story of how you grew up?
I grew up in a small town around orange groves, chicken farms, and cow pastures. It’s called Polk County and so people joke that Polk stands for People Of Little Knowledge. I spent every other weekend with my mom in various trailer parks.
Can you share a story with us about what brought you to this specific career path?
My dad used to say that if I could get paid to talk I would be rich. He was right. My start presenting was doing inside sales. Then I moved to outside sales. Then to training. Then to trade show panels. Then I finally started speaking on my own.
Can you tell us the most interesting story that happened to you since you began your career?
One speaker story that comes to mind was when I was visiting Calgary for a keynote and the other keynote was Mr. Wonderful. As I was going through customs they were grilling me and nothing I could say would appease them. They eventually asked me to prove I was a professional speaker by showing them the event website.
When I pulled it up it was me and Mr. Wonderful. They got super excited and were immediately like, “oh you know Mr. Wonderful come on in. That is the day I learned he was a Canadian.
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?
Well I’ve almost peed myself on stage because when I first started I never drank any water before the talk so my voice would get raspy by the end. So, I over corrected and drank WAY too much water one time and ran off the stage out a side door to find the nearest urinal the second my speech was over.
None of us are able to achieve success without some help along the way. Is there a particular person who you are grateful towards who helped get you to where you are? Can you share a story about that?
One thing I’ve learned about family, mentors and role models is that you actually benefit as much or more from the terrible ones than you do from the good ones. You learn what not to be. They teach you how not to act. They show you what not to do.
Those are more valuable lessons in my opinion.
You have been blessed with great success in a career path that can be challenging and intimidating. Do you have any words of advice for others who may want to embark on this career path, but seem daunted by the prospect of failure?
Failure is a required ingredient of success. You can’t become a business legend without some.
What drives you to get up everyday and give your talks? What is the main empowering message that you aim to share with the world?
Stop chasing leads and start attracting clients. Marketing and salespeople are annoying and consumers are tired of it. The byproduct of my teaching people how to be better at marketing and sales is that it benefits all who their marketing reaches. Not just them.
You have such impressive work. What are some of the most interesting or exciting projects you are working on now? Where do you see yourself heading from here?
I’ve got a mobile app for kids called Slumber and a collectibles company called Business Legendz coming soon. Both are passion projects with massive upside.
Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share how that was relevant to you in your life?
Ignore the noise. There is a lot of it. If you aren’t positive in sales you don’t eat. Enthusiasm is a major key to success.
Ok, thank you for all that. Here is the main question of our interview. What are your “5 Things You Need To Be A Highly Effective Public Speaker?” Please share a story or example for each.
Start with dessert — Do not introduce yourself to start. Someone probably just did as you took the stage. My approach is to JOLT the audience with a powerful stat or statement as my first words rather than the traditional small talk start.
Nail the first minute — I don’t practice my talks but I do think deeply and specifically about the first minute. My goal is to get an interaction and a laugh. After that, I’m golden.
Perform — It’s a stage and you are giving a performance. You are a verbal artist. An orator. The audience wants to be moved and inspired and fired up when they leave. That requires tons of energy on your end and embracing that while up there you shouldn’t be yourself you should be the two notches higher version of yourself.
Make them laugh and make them cry — Being funny is my security blanket. I know what gets a laugh and when I need to get back on track I reach for a joke I know will slay. Even though I am funny throughout I added poignant moments too. Because I don’t take that route often it makes it even more powerful when I do.
Close — Your talk is not over unless you have clearly outlined the next steps in working with you or keeping in touch. Tell them to follow you right now. Put your email or phone number up and say message me right now. Getting good at closing from the stage can be the difference between a career as a speaker or it being a hobby.
As you know, many people are terrified of speaking in public. Can you give some of your advice about how to overcome this fear?
The only way is to tackle it head on and get up there. In most cases AFTERWARDS it wasn’t as bad as it was in your head. You will always get butterflies your goal is to get them to fly in a line.
You are a person of huge influence. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be?
Equal opportunity for entrepreneurship. There are so many people who have amazing ideas and are willing to do the work but they don’t get a chance.
Is there a person in the world whom you would love to have lunch with, and why? Maybe we can tag them and see what happens!
I would be okay with Seth Godin joining me for lunch. I’m his heir apparent he just doesn’t know that yet.
Are you on social media? How can our readers follow you online?
You can’t solve big problems alone. It’s impossible to overstate the importance of connecting with the right people both within your team and outside your organization. Diverse perspectives and areas of expertise are vital for startups. Broaden your network and prioritize connection and collaboration across backgrounds and industries.
Startups have such a glamorous reputation. Companies like Facebook, Instagram, Youtube, Uber, and Airbnb once started as scrappy startups with huge dreams and huge obstacles. Yet we of course know that most startups don’t end up as success stories. What does a founder or a founding team need to know to create a highly successful startup? In this series, called “Five Things You Need To Create A Highly Successful Startup” we are talking to experienced and successful founders and business leaders who can share stories from their experiences about what it takes to create a highly successful startup. As a part of this series, we had the pleasure of interviewing Synergy Life Science CEO Chris Gerlach.
Chris has worked successfully in the creation, distribution and supply of high-purity, quality ingredients for the last 25 years. Chris served in the US Army for 10 years prior to co-founding Essential Ingredients, Inc. (EI), where he held various positions for the accomplished personal care/cosmetic company, including President and Director of Business Development, before also managing Essential Innovations®: a unique product line exclusively offered through EI and its intellectual property portfolio, which consists of patented raw materials and Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients (APIs), including Curoxyl®, Meristant®, Curcylic®, and Vitacon®. Most recently, Chris’ attention has turned to breakthrough technology in the rapidly emerging hemp CBD market as the CEO of Synergy Life Sciences, Inc., which offers high-purity formulations, extraction and the manufacturing of ingredients while keeping a laser focus on safety and efficacy.
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 serving in the United States Army, my career has been focused on making commonly-used ingredients better. I spent 25 years developing and commercializing innovative, new ingredients for the personal care and pharmaceutical markets, and I now focus on the cannabis/hemp industry. Currently, I am the CEO of Synergy Life Science. We create safe, effective cannabinoid ingredients to supercharge our clients’ products.
What was the “Aha Moment” that led to the idea for your current company? Can you share that story with us?
I first became interested in the cannabis/hemp space when I saw an urgent need for innovation and safety standards. This industry is just beginning to take shape, and the potential to help people is vast. I saw an opportunity to improve upon outdated, inefficient technologies by developing breakthrough specialty cannabinoid ingredients for various conditions and applications.
Was there somebody in your life who inspired or helped you to start your journey with your business? Can you share a story with us?
In 2011 my wife developed an acute, airborne, anaphylactic allergy to cinnamon. After many exposures, emergency calls, 14 ICU stays and a year in a wheelchair, I became her first responder, carrying her anaphylaxis kit (backpack) with us everywhere we went. Life changed drastically for our family, as every place we went needed to be contacted in advance to check for potential cinnamon exposure risk. I recall a time when we were house-hunting in a remote location when a cinnamon candle triggered a severe reaction. We immediately headed home, hoping that we could keep the reaction under control, but as her throat closed and her ability to breathe stopped, we fortunately found a small gas station with an ice machine out front. We quickly unplugged the ice machine and plugged in her nebulizer and were finally able to get her breathing again.
After all that time and so many exposures, she had become “EpiPen resistant,” meaning an injection of epinephrine would only keep her airways open for two to three minutes max. Today, my wife is completely recovered, and Synergy Life Science is thrilled to announce the launch of the patent-pending Nebi™️ device, which is the first pen-sized, acute respiratory nebulizer. Her struggles directly influenced the creation of this product, as the need for a portable, battery-operated nebulizing device became clear.
How have you used your success to bring goodness to the world?
When I worked in the personal care industry, I was inspired to take action with my sphere of influence. Over 2 billion people don’t have access to soap and water to wash their hands at home. It’s humbling to realize that even the most basic personal care products I worked with every day in my career are inaccessible to a staggering proportion of the global population. I was honored to make a positive impact when I worked with a nonprofit organization that shipped tons of soap to countries worldwide.
Often leaders are asked to share the best advice they received. But let’s reverse the question. Can you share a story about advice you’ve received that you now wish you never followed?
“Never take risks” is awful advice. Risks have always been fundamental to my professional success, especially in a new industry like cannabis. Avoiding risks would stifle the bold innovation we need to set ourselves apart from the crowd.
Can you tell us a story about the hard times that you faced when you first started your journey?
When I started my regulated market journey, I quickly realized that short-term sacrifices were necessary for long-term success. A clear vision is critical. However, I also learned to stay flexible and adaptable while maintaining solid personal relationships. When new evidence comes to the forefront, a focused and flexible decision-making framework allows us to pivot and see challenges as opportunities.
Where did you get the drive to continue even though things were so hard? What strategies or techniques did you use to help overcome those challenges?
Defining and leaning into a niche is key to overcoming challenges. If you’ve created a product or service that solves a problem or meets a demand for a specific group of people, you can become the top in your area. Continue to dominate your niche while growing slowly outward to diversify products and services. That strategy has helped me overcome unexpected challenges and use them as opportunities to pivot.
The journey of an entrepreneur is never easy and is filled with challenges, failures, setbacks, as well as joys, thrills and celebrations. Can you share a few ideas or stories from your experience about how to successfully ride the emotional highs & lows of being a founder”?
A key strategy for me has been to grow in phases. That allows testing at each stage to determine how well each venture performs. It also gives time to determine if there is potential for long-term success and to allocate resources. Phased growth as a strategy helps put risks and opportunities into perspective for decision-making.
Let’s imagine that a young founder comes to you and asks for your advice about whether venture capital or bootstrapping is best for them? What would you advise them? Can you kindly share a few things a founder should look at to determine if fundraising or bootstrapping is the right choice?
I think the most important thing for young founders is to consider what they truly need from investors. Common mistakes include asking for too much money or wanting too much control over its use. Make sure you understand all the factors so you have realistic expectations. Become comfortable with communicating articulately and concisely what you need from investors and what you will do with the investment.
Ok super. Here is the main question of our interview. Many startups are not successful, and some are very successful. From your experience or perspective, what are the main factors that distinguish successful startups from unsuccessful ones? What are your “Five Things You Need To Create A Highly Successful Startup”?
Develop a niche product or service that solves a specific problem.
At Synergy Life Sciences, it was immediately apparent that there was a huge need for better tools for product formulators. We set out to develop effective, functional ingredients that they could use to create the next generation of cannabis products. CannaSorb CB Active is our flagship product and the ingredient foundation for a handful of specialty ingredients that give formulators the tools they need to develop advanced products that can modernize this industry and truly unlock the potential of this amazing plant!
Grow in phases toward your long-term vision.
Focus on solving big problems you see in the world, but plan your growth in phases. That will help you collect real-world validation of your ideas and be able to pivot when situations change while continuing steadily toward your long-term vision.
Don’t be afraid to experiment.
In my 25-year career in the regulated consumer product space, my job was to minimize risk. However, innovation requires some amount of experimentation. Learn how to experiment in phases and apply the information you gain to the subsequent stages of your business.
Constantly inspect and adapt.
In a future-focused industry like cannabinoid technology, we adapt to rapid change constantly. Look for ways to improve your offering and make changes as needed.
Build long-term relationships.
You can’t solve big problems alone. It’s impossible to overstate the importance of connecting with the right people both within your team and outside your organization. Diverse perspectives and areas of expertise are vital for startups. Broaden your network and prioritize connection and collaboration across backgrounds and industries.
What are the most common mistakes you have seen CEOs & founders make when they start a business? What can be done to avoid those errors?
Especially in science and technology innovation, inflexibility is a serious pitfall. In the rapidly evolving cannabis space, CEOs and founders must adapt daily to the market and regulatory changes in an industry in its infancy. Always encourage your team to think creatively to develop new ideas and solutions.
Startup founders often work extremely long hours and it’s easy to burn the candle at both ends. What would you recommend to founders about how to best take care of their physical and mental wellness when starting a company?
I can’t think of a single day-to-day priority that is more important than health. I’m in the ingredient innovation business because I want to contribute substantially to people’s wellness, so it would be contradictory not to prioritize my own health. Think of health as an investment. It can be tempting to neglect my physical and mental self-care to save time in the short term. Still, entrepreneurs must recognize the long-term importance of investing in the wellness of themselves and their team.
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