Makers of The Metaverse: Charissa Castillo On The Future Of The VR, AR & Mixed Reality Industries

Technology is constantly evolving. I’ve learned to embrace continuously learning, and staying updated with the latest technologies and trends. Adapting to change and being open to new ideas is instrumental to staying ahead of the game.

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

Charissa Castillo Co-Founder of The Da Vinci Eye Apps.

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

I was born and raised in Manila, Philippines, and I consider myself incredibly fortunate to have an amazing brother and supportive parents. My mom is a nurse, while my dad successfully ran a water distillation business. Growing up, I had two career paths in mind: dermatology and advertising. They were completely different, but I was always more drawn to the creative nature of advertising. I loved watching fun and captivating TV commercials and even recorded some of my favorites on my VHS tape recorder.

When I turned 20, my family made a life-changing decision to move to New York City. It was scary at first, but it turned out to be a very fulfilling and adventurous experience beyond my imagination. I was able to transfer to a new school right away and continue my undergrad education,making lifelong friends from all over the world along the way. While finishing my studies, I landed a part-time marketing position at an Austrian-based advertising trade magazine. Then two years later, I obtained my bachelor’s degree in Marketing.

Unfortunately, I graduated during the peak of the great recession, and job opportunities in the advertising industry were pretty scarce. I interviewed with ad agencies and marketing firms without much success. So, I decided to explore other avenues and sought any promising full-time opportunity that came my way. One fine day, I interviewed with an event entertainment company based in midtown Manhattan and instantly hit it off with the owner. It was a small company, and I would be responsible for running most aspects of the business. It was nerve-wracking, considering my limited experience, but with my willingness to learn and my boss’s exceptional level of patience and understanding, I gained invaluable knowledge about self-sufficiency, relentless tenacity, and the resourcefulness required in a small team serving demanding clients in a competitive city. However, the world of private events was also extremely fun and it allowed much room for creativity which I loved. I ended up staying with the company for over 10 years, and it became a formative period in my professional life.

When the pandemic hit in 2020, it was truly one of the most challenging times both personally and professionally. Obviously events were being canceled or postponed left and right, and just like many others, I was furloughed. The uncertainty never seemed to end, and every time it looked hopeful, a new wave or strain surfaced and prompted further lockdowns. Meanwhile, my significant other and current fiancé, who was also furloughed, experienced unexpected success after relaunching his AR drawing app called Da Vinci Eye, which he had originally created a few years back in 2016. By December, the app was thriving, and he asked me to be part of this journey to work on it full time together. I knew I was taking a big risk, but to this day I can confidently say that it was the best decision I’ve ever made.

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’ve come across many impactful books, but one particular title that holds a special place in my heart is “The Invention of Wings’’ by Sue Monk Kidd. It’s a few years old, but I’ve re-read it a number of times and it never fails to inspire me. At its core, it is a story about empowering women to change the world. I also love how it has a huge focus on compassion, and highlights how kindness and perseverance can go hand in hand when accomplishing amazing things together.

The best part is that it’s actually a fictionalized account of 2 sisters from South Carolina who were key figures in the abolitionist movement and early leaders in the fight for women’s rights!

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

I actually did not plan to pursue a career in the Augmented Reality industry. This path opened itself up to me during my darkest hour and I will always be grateful for that.

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

There have been so many memorable experiences that it’s truly difficult to pick just one. Each day brings a new story or a cool new discovery. One recent standout was the realization of how our apps have become a tool for decorating ceramics, specifically in Brazil, showcasing its accessibility and versatility. And just a few weeks prior, we learned that our apps were being utilized for commissioned projects for a prominent event in the US. It’s crazy to see how people find ways to use the app and we’re always blown away by it.

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

I’m not quite sure if this is the funniest mistake I made, but it’s certainly one that I still constantly laugh about. I had been trying to create captivating content for our social media accounts for months, and one day I thought that it would be fun to show us using the app to draw the “Inspiration Photo of the Day”, which was a cat looking off at a distance, then showing a montage of all the other drawings our users have already created of the same photo. I synced it to the music, added transitions, and made sure the pacing was quick. Then suddenly it became our first reel that got over 20k views in one day! I was so proud of myself until one person commented, “um, totally different cat?”
As it turned out, the cat in the photo and the cat in the drawings were two totally different cats! The photos were very similar but the major giveaway was that each cat was looking in completely different directions. I find myself randomly remembering this and laughing until today.

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 owe a lot to the people who have had a big impact on my life, but it’s my mom who has been the biggest driving force behind where I am today. If it weren’t for her, I wouldn’t even be here in the US, living a completely different life with a whole different career path. My mom is the hardest working person I know. Her work ethic is unparalleled, and her determination knows no bounds. Witnessing her relentless drive, especially from a young age, has truly paved the way for my own accomplishments.

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

We’re always working on new projects, finding ways to make technology more accessible for people who love creating physical art. It’s definitely an underserved market, with most technological advances catering to digital art and now AI art. We’ve always recognized this gap and are excited to carve our own path by creating modern digital tools geared towards creating traditional physical art.

Ok super. Thank you for all that. Let’s now shift to the main focus of our interview. The VR, AR and MR industries seem so exciting right now. What are the 3 things in particular that most excite you about the industry? Can you explain or give an example?

1. It’s mind-blowing how VR can transport you to different worlds. Imagine strapping on a VR headset and suddenly finding yourself exploring ancient Greece. I also think it would be super helpful as an educational tool or for people who want to travel and see the world but may not have the means to do it. I mean, I would personally enjoy being instantly transported to a terrace overlooking the Amalfi coast any day!

2. In its truest form, AR takes the real world and adds a layer of digital goodness. I am particularly excited for the advancements of AR in fashion. Imagine wearing AR glasses that let you try on clothes virtually before buying or see how your existing wardrobe would look on you (just like Cher’s virtual closet in the movie Clueless!). The current application of AR in home furniture shopping is already impressive, where you can visualize how a piece would fit in your space before buying it. However, I believe there is so much more potential for growth and it can only get better from here!

3. There are also a lot of promising applications of AR in the medical field. In fact, a study was already published in a peer-reviewed journal last year which utilized our flagship app, Da Vinci Eye, as part of their research in the use of AR as a tool in plastic surgery. This is definitely something we’ve never envisioned the app being used for but it’s certainly fascinating to hear about. There are endless possibilities especially with the continuous evolution and improvement of technology.

What are the 3 things that concern you about the VR, AR and MR industries? Can you explain? What can be done to address those concerns?

1. Accessibility remains a significant concern. The high costs and technical requirements make these technologies inaccessible to many individuals.

2. Ethical guidelines and regulations need to be enforced. As these technologies become more immersive, there is always a risk of misuse. Implementing ethical standards and regulations should be made a priority like safeguarding data privacy, managing content moderation, and ensuring responsible use in sensitive domains like healthcare and education.

3. There is a clear need for raising awareness regarding the capabilities and potential of VR, AR, and MR technologies. It is pretty common for individuals to possess limited knowledge or misconceptions about these technologies, which can impede their acceptance and widespread adoption. Educating the public about the benefits and possibilities of these technologies should help overcome these barriers.

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?

These technologies offer valuable applications at work. For instance, they excel in providing immersive and controlled training simulations.
Additionally, AR facilitates real-time information overlay, which can enable remote experts to guide and support colleagues or customers effectively.

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

It can definitely be used to make a positive impact on our mental health and general well-being. VR, AR and MR can create immersive therapeutic experiences and relaxation applications that can be life-changing. The best part is that these technologies are becoming more accessible to everyone, which would be a significant resource for a lot of people who may struggle to get help.

Let’s zoom out a bit and talk in broader terms. Are you currently satisfied with the status quo regarding women in STEM? If not, what specific changes do you think are needed to change the status quo?

I feel like there’s still a long way to go when it comes to women in STEM. We’ve definitely made some strides, but there’s still a significant gap that needs to be tackled. It’s important to keep encouraging and supporting girls from an early age, giving them access to the same resources, mentorship programs, and educational opportunities as their male counterparts. We should also continue our efforts in eliminating gender bias and discrimination when it comes to hiring and promoting women, especially in STEM fields. And let’s not forget the power of representation — we need to keep amplifying the achievements of women in STEM, share their stories in the media, and celebrate their contributions.

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

One misconception about working in this industry is that it requires you to be extremely tech savvy or to have extensive coding skills. In reality, some of the most time consuming aspects fall on non-technical roles. For instance, marketing is a huge part of our business. Getting the word out on our apps and making sure it’s communicated effectively and efficiently to the right people is a crucial part of our overall strategy and actually takes up the bulk of our time as a 2-person team.

What are your “5 Leadership Lessons I Learned From My Experience as a Woman in Tech” and why?

  1. Being an immigrant AAPI woman in the tech industry has taught me the value of embracing my unique perspective. I’ve learned to appreciate the importance and advantages of bringing my cultural background and diverse experiences to the table.
  2. Another important lesson I’ve learned is the significance of confidence. Self-doubt is notoriously noticeable and people can see right through that. Believe in yourself, your achievements, and your skills, and other people will, too.
  3. Technology is constantly evolving. I’ve learned to embrace continuously learning, and staying updated with the latest technologies and trends. Adapting to change and being open to new ideas is instrumental to staying ahead of the game.
  4. Creating an inclusive culture that appreciates and values the diverse contributions of individuals is incredibly essential. It not only drives innovation but also empowers everyone to thrive in the industry.
  5. Collaboration is key. Building strong collaborative relationships with our user base allows us to tap into a wealth of ideas. It has taken our products to a different level because our users give us the best insights we otherwise would have never taken into consideration. Also, creating a user environment where everyone feels like they are valued has been one of our most notable keys to success. We always talk to our users who reach out to us and we make them feel like we are all friends!

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

If I had the opportunity to inspire a movement that could bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, it would be a movement focused on promoting empathy and kindness. Especially in a world where social media dominates our day-to-day lives, it’s not hard to see how many people lose sight of the effect of their actions. Just go to any comment thread on any viral post, and you will always find arguments and unnecessarily mean comments geared towards total strangers. I believe that by fostering a culture of empathy, we can create a world where people genuinely care for and understand one another. It would be absolutely wonderful if we could encourage acts of kindness, compassion, and understanding towards all individuals, regardless of their background or circumstances.

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,

Although she is no longer around, I would absolutely love to have breakfast with the late Princess Diana. As a leader, she was not only intelligent and strategic, but she also led with her heart. She was given a mold that she did not want to fit into so she carved her own. She embodied strength but also compassion and this allowed her to connect with people on a much deeper level.

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

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

Meet The Disruptors: Nick Steward Of GALLIVANT On The Five Things You Need To Shake Up Your…

Meet The Disruptors: Nick Steward Of GALLIVANT On The Five Things You Need To Shake Up Your Industry

Be an original. Don’t follow the trends, don’t go along with what everyone else is saying is the next big thing. ‘Make your own kind of music’ is my daily mantra. There’s always a counter-culture, so don’t be afraid to be different.

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

As the founder of slow perfume brand, GALLIVANT , Nick Steward proves he is not only an original, inspired alchemist, but also a bona fide leader of the “perfume resistance”.

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 studied Arabic at university, so certainly have an atypical, outsider’s background for perfumery — but was lucky enough to fall into it, almost by fluke (the beauty of chance meetings!) — and have never looked back. I consider myself blessed to be in an industry with clever, curious, creative people.

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

The dominant business and entrepreneurial culture of our era is ‘move fast and break things’ so I consider that I’m swimming against the grain, swimming in my own lane; as my craft is about going slowly and respecting what’s come before me, respecting above all the materials and then the techniques honed and perfected over the years. The decision to go slow and steady under our own steam, that definitely feels very disruptive today, going against the big BS machine, and their ‘start-up’ ethos of raising investment, launching something (doesn’t really matter what) and cashing out quickly as quickly as possible.

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

One lesson for any entrepreneur : make your mistakes on someone else’s dime — isn’t that what they say ? years ago I did a perfume inspired by the metallic heat and adrenaline of a roller-coaster ride. Very conceptual and avant-garde, but it was not a commercial success, so that taught me that perfume needs to be spark joy, it should be a pleasure to wear.

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?

Before I went out on my own and started GALLIVANT, I worked for L’Artisan Parfumeur, the original ‘niche’ fragrance house in Paris and had two great mentors: the famous Master Perfumer Bertrand Duchaufour, who taught me to focus on your own creativity, ignore the ambient noise, the trends and everything else going on around you, and my boss Sarah ( now the CEO of CREED ), from whom I learnt that the important thing is to keep moving forward and trust your own instincts.

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

Disrupting an industry can be a positive when we’re talking about genuine innovation — but that comes along very rarely in any industry. And possibly we need to wait years before we can judge whether something is having a good or bad impact. Perhaps we need to be a little less ready to buy into whatever the hype machine is selling us ?

Certainly less positive is when Big Corporations use this ‘disruptive’ discourse, and their considerable resources and financial muscle to destroy smaller independent businesses, destroying and displacing other people’s livelihoods ( people who earn considerably less than those clever investment bankers) in order to maximise their own return on investment.

Can you please share 5 ideas one needs to shake up their industry? If you can, please share a story or an example for each.

1 . Be an original. Don’t follow the trends, don’t go along with what everyone else is saying is the next big thing. ‘Make your own kind of music’ is my daily mantra. There’s always a counter-culture, so don’t be afraid to be different.

2 . Be thoughtful and considered. Again, so much of ‘start-up culture’ tells us to ‘break things, go fast’ — can we slow down and build something better, with a respect for what has been done before we came along? that would feel genuinely disruptive in business at the moment.

3 . Build something authentic from the bottom-up. I’m so bored of reading about these overnight success stories. WeWorkeconomics, zombie businesses bloated on debt. That’s a narrative which badly needs to be disrupted.

4 . Keep it human and personal. So many of the ‘entrepreneur’ stories we hear about are all about technology, big data and scaling up, fast. It feels very disruptive to me to be building a human-scale product business from the ground up. I know my customers by name. As we’re all overwhelmed by Tech, AI, automation, it feels counter-cultural to be doing something so human, so analogue, physical manufacturing, on a boutique scale.

5 . Make something of quality, something timeless. Again, it feels disruptive now to set out to make something beautiful which will last, stand the test of time. So much of what I see is just fast consumption, an attempt to monetise everything as quickly as possible and move on, ignoring the consequences of what’s left in its wake — I’m not sure that’s good for any of us, never mind for our planet.

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

I have new perfumes in the works, but it takes us between two and four years to design and manufacture. Slow perfume indeed — but maybe that explains all the various awards we’ve won ! and I’m also working on perfumed products for the home.

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

There’s a brilliant perfume podcast I listen to, La Parfumerie, sadly only available in French. Those guys are the real rebels — they call out the bullshit of the perfume industry. A reminder that what perfume lovers are looking for is beauty and authenticity. Promoting a true perfume culture — not just following the PR-fed hype train. Honest perfumery, not in thrall to the business plan money-making schemes.

I don’t read business books, I find them boringly hubristic — but one book I go back to read is Vasily Grossman’s epic Life & Fate, which illustrates the strength of the human spirit to me. Being an entrepreneur demands perseverance and resilience.

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

From Shakespeare: “Truth needs no colour; beauty, no pencil.”

Keep it simple, and create something honest, that will prevail.

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

I think turning off social media would be a good place to start. On balance, are we sure it’s adding to the sum of human knowledge, human happiness ? That would certainly be a disruptive moment !

How can our readers follow you online?

WEB: https://www.gallivant-perfumes.com

IG: https://www.instagram.com/gallivant.stories/ @GALLIVANT.STORIES

FB: https://www.facebook.com/gallivant.stories

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

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

Estelle Cockcroft Of Catamaran Guru On 5 Ways To Create a Wow! Customer Experience

Stick to your word and never obfuscate the truth, even if it is hard to do. Customers might be unhappy about bad news at that time, but they will appreciate your honesty.

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

Estelle Cockcroft is one of the foremost experts on large catamaran sailing, living, buying, and selling in the world. She has traveled more than 70,000 nautical miles of remote waterways, explored 45 incredible countries, and, as Catamaran Guru Co-Founder, Co-Owner, and President, brokers dozens of catamaran transactions each year and manages the company’s $40M+ annual revenue. Estelle shares her passion for sailing through her blog on the Catamaran Guru website and as a qualified Royal Yachting Association captain and American Sailing Association instructor.

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?

Stephen and I left Cape Town in 1992 on our 45ft monohull called Royal Salute on a sabbatical for two years. He was in the trucking industry and I was a fashion designer by trade. It was always Stephen’s dream to sail around the world in a 45ft boat. Our intent was to leave for two years to explore the oceans and return to our home and careers in Cape Town. Seven boats and 30+ years later, we are still living onboard and have sailed several oceans and around 70,000 NM or possibly more. We stopped counting a long time ago.

As early as 1992 when we first sailed on a friend’s Shuttleworth design catamaran in the Indian Ocean we realized the potential of these vessels. Cats were overbuilt and heavy with very low bridgedeck clearance in those days and slammed like crazy in any type of waves. So, while this was not the most pleasant experience, we knew that this was the future of sailing.

We could not afford a catamaran at the time, and we were still skeptical about their seaworthiness, but we followed the progress of catamaran design until finally we were able to buy our own and, in the process, buy ownership in a catamaran factory in Cape Town, South Africa in 2004. Stephen, his close friend Derek and a team of shipwrights built our first monohull, so Stephen had intimate knowledge of boat building which was a great foundation for our venture. We managed to sell 30+ Island Spirit Catamarans, designed by Phil Southwell, in the USA and it was a beloved brand. It was never our intent to be “salespeople” of cats but few people were knowledgeable about cats and we gradually went from advisors to owning several different brands of catamarans to selling cats.

The French catamaran brands like Catana, Privilege, Lagoon etc. were technologically more advanced and had a more stable industry so we moved on to sell catamarans manufactured in Europe. We also have owned and operated charter catamaran fleets in the Caribbean and have probably made every mistake possible in this industry. Which is probably why we are “well qualified” to help and guide buyers and sailors of catamarans.

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?

This might not be the funniest mistake, but it was a high value mistake that Stephen managed to “fix” with a bit of humor. Our customer, Roy requested information about a Lagoon 620 sailboat. Stephen by mistake sent him a brochure and specifications on a Lagoon 630 Powercat. Roy called up and told Stephen that this was not the boat he was asking about because there was no mast and questioned whether Stephen had any knowledge of this Lagoon product. It was rather embarrassing, but Stephen rolled with it and told him tongue in cheek that the mast is “extra”. They ended up chatting about the virtues of a powercat for his application, and they weighed the two options. Roy warmed up to the idea of a powercat, something that was never on his radar before. The upshot was that Roy flew to France with us to the factory and bought a Lagoon 630 without a mast (powercat), loved it and we became very good friends. The lesson: We all make mistakes. Admit the blunder, make light of it if you can and move on. Mistakes can take you in all kinds of directions and in this case, it was a blessing. The customer got exactly what he wanted and had an exceptional experience while he owned the boat.

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

When we first started Catamaran Guru, we were fairly new in the country and armed with only our knowledge and a vision. We wanted to become the best “help” and authority website for catamaran sailors. We had very little money, but we knew that what we had was valuable because so little was known about catamarans at the time. Not only that, but we were also one of the most sought-after sailing instructors in the Caribbean because our customer satisfaction was superior, and we sold many boats to our “students”. A customer turned friend, Ian Grant Smith, recognized that and encouraged us to start the Catamaran Guru website so that if people wanted to find out more about us, they could go there to research us and learn about catamarans. We had no idea what that even meant at the time because we knew very little about technology and even less about social media. But Ian, being a technology and financial whizz, encouraged us to build our brand and embrace technology. It was the best thing we could have ever done! We are currently building another technology-based company with Ian’s guidance that will change the landscape of our industry. We are excited about this development and will launch the product soon.

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

In today’s competitive market, products and services can often be similar. A business, therefore, has to deliver outstanding customer experiences to stand out. Exceptional service can become a unique selling point and help build a positive brand image.

By providing exceptional customer experiences, a business can generate word-of-mouth referrals that will attract new customers without significant marketing expenses. We all know that word-of-mouth marketing is very powerful. Happy customers will share their positive experiences with others and can significantly impact a business’s reputation and growth.

Retaining existing customers is more cost-effective than acquiring new ones, and satisfied customers are more likely to remain loyal and recommend a business to others. They become your strongest and most loyal brand advocates, which is crucial for sustainable growth.

For example, customers who attend our sailing schools when they first start out on their sailing journey to boat ownership receive an exceptional learning experience. Their experience during the weeklong liveaboard sail training fosters trust and confidence in these brand-new sailors. This sets them up for a lifetime of enjoyable onboard experiences, and they trust in our ability to teach them valuable lessons for becoming confident and safe sailors. Once that level of trust is established, they will always come back to us on their journey to becoming boat owners themselves. We know our products extremely well, and we guide the customer to make good decisions. We often become their brokers to buy the first boat, and when they are ready to sell their boat and buy another one, they come back to us to sell that boat and help them with the next one if they so choose. Some customers want to do expensive upgrades to their boats and, once again, they are confident in the knowledge that we will advise them properly.

The first and ongoing good experiences of the customer are crucial in fostering this loyalty.

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?

Often companies have an inadequate knowledge and understanding of their customer’s needs. It is tough to deliver a good experience if you don’t know what your customer needs, what the pain points are and how to deal with them. Management must instil a customer-centric culture with employees and be trained to prioritize the customer.

Our motto is: “We are the Can-Do” company. We can help our customer achieve the outcome that he/she desires. We guide them and give them the tools to make good and educated decisions about boat ownership.

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?

Yes, more competition generally helps force companies to improve the customer experience. Competition drives companies to innovate and find new ways to attract and retain customers. They invest in improving product quality, customer service and overall satisfaction. Companies that embrace technology to enhance the customer experience often gain a competitive edge.

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

One of our customers got a devastating cancer diagnoses shortly after he signed a contract and paid his 20% non-refundable deposit for a $700k boat. He told us about it and let us know that he would not be able to close on the boat. He knew that he would lose his deposit. It was a devastating thing to witness, and just on a human level, we could not see him and his family deal with his illness AND lose his deposit, which was substantial. We managed to find another buyer for his boat, with a small discount as an incentive, to buy this boat, and Peter was made whole again. We lost a sale obviously because we could have sold a second boat to the new customer, but it felt good to help someone in need.

We forgot about that and delivered the boat to the new owner a few months later. He loved the boat and sent us a note to express his satisfaction of the whole process. He then asked if we would pass a note to the previous owner that “he would love for him to use the boat for a vacation any time he liked in the British Virgin Islands for free”. In his words, “I was blown away that you returned Peter’s deposit to him and not imposing a penalty”. He received a discount as an incentive to buy the boat sooner than he wanted to, but it really worked out for him, and he wanted to pay it forward.

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

Yes, both families are strong advocates for our company. But more than that, we feel that we did the right thing. It is not always all about business. The business has a human face, and we must be mindful of that. A small kindness can make a big impact on someone’s life, and it makes us all better people and business owners.

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

  1. A wow customer experience is when service goes beyond simply doing the basic and necessary customer care. Our company culture is: “We are the Can-Do company”. We always endeavor to deliver a quality product, quality service and build quality relationships before, during and after the sale. We strive to exceed customer expectations. Success will follow.
  2. Know your customer and treat them well. They want to be known, understood and remembered. Stephen always says: “hold your customer in the palm of your hand”. Seemingly insignificant gestures that may not cost much or take much time, will leave a meaningful impression.
  3. Make it easy for the customer to buy your product. Streamline the process, respond quickly, know your product, offer solutions to problems and answer the phone!
  4. Stick to your word and never obfuscate the truth, even if it is hard to do. Customers might be unhappy about bad news at that time, but they will appreciate your honesty.
  5. We live and breathe the lifestyle that everyone who buys a boat from us wants, so we are believable, and our product knowledge is exceptional because of that. We don’t just sell this lifestyle; we live it and that goes a long way towards guiding and educating our customers to believe that they, too, can do this.

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?

Educate your customer and manage expectations. Our philosophy is to be absolutely honest with every customer. Some people are just not meant to own a boat and we have to be host enough to tell them that. We constantly tell all our employees “it is often easy to do the wrong thing. It’s very hard to do the right thing”.

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. 🙂

If we had superpowers and could change anything, we would clean up the oceans with the wave of our wand. Since that is not possible, we always try to advocate for sailors to leave the anchorages better than they found them, and to be honest, most sailors are very careful about what they leave behind and not to damage the coral reefs.

How can our readers follow you on social media?

www.facebook.com/catamaranguru

www.instagram.com/catamaranguru

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

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

Meet The Disruptors: Colin Johnson On The Five Things You Need To Shake Up Your Industry

Have a willingness to shed legacy structures. Consider Uber which completely reimagined ridesharing.

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

Freeport offers shares backed by fine artworks in the form of security tokens on the Ethereum blockchain. It is the first company of its kind to complete a Regulation A review with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission to launch a crowd-ownership blockchain platform for investment grade art. The platform is a major disrupter in the art industry — by offering fractional investing options backed by high value assets, fine art is now accessible to the masses. Colin Johnson is the CEO and Co-founder of Freeport.

Thank you so much for doing this with us! Before we dig in, our readers would like to get to know you a bit more. Can you tell our readers what it is about the work you’re doing that’s disruptive?

The art world is mature, established, and slow to change. The crypto world is the exact opposite. We’re looking to utilize new technologies — in a legally compliant way, with SEC qualification — to bring a new generation of collectors into the art world. At its core, fractionalization offers the opportunity for people to come together and own a piece of something that has been historically targeted to a specific group. That, in and of itself, is game changing. Taking it even one step further, to represent the value on blockchain opens up new methods of bringing communities together around their shared ownership. It’s a whole new ball game.

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?

Some would consider this funny, others, mightily painful. About 14 months ago we set out to raise a certain amount; we almost doubled it within a week and then stopped raising on the assumption we would just do so later. Then, to the surprise of many, the bottom fell out from the market entirely. We could have probably raised 4–5x what we originally did without much effort.

It’s been useful to train our muscles to err on the side of caution, but the lesson is clear — always take advantage of potential funding during strong markets, and always prepare for the downturn.

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

I’ve been incredibly lucky to have my brother, Jeremy, as one of my key advisors. He is ambitious, he dropped out of Princeton to start his own companies — one of which went public — and is absolutely fearless in the face of adversity. He taught me that you’ve never lose so long as you never quit, that you have to roll with the tide of the market, and that there’s no better time to start a company than right now (he convinced me to leave Apple in so doing). We’ve also had incredible support from our two early investors and advisors in the art world — Michael Haber and Jane Holzer.

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 — in the positive sense — occurs when a group of people decide to take definitive action on some sort of inefficiency or corruption in a system; or when they create a product that’s so much more valuable than what previously existed that the last iteration almost feels like corruption. In these cases, disruption moves humans forward to make us more efficient as a species.

But then there are scenarios where disruption can be catastrophic. Facebook and Twitter disrupted legacy channels of communication, allowing everyone to access a megaphone. I think we’re learning that — while freedom of speech is important — perhaps not everyone should have a megaphone. That disruption was lionized for many years, but the long tail impacts are now starting to be revealed.

Can you please share 5 ideas one needs to shake up their industry? If you can, please share a story or an example for each.

You need to do a few things to shake up an industry:

  1. Have a willingness to shed legacy structures. Consider Uber which completely reimagined ridesharing.
  2. Always use first principles thinking. Consider SpaceX, which decided that reusable rockets were necessary to drive costs down.
  3. Ignore the heat from those who disagree. Consider OpenAI, which most thought would have a hard time making a breakthrough by focusing on LLMs.
  4. Clearly paint a vision that others want to follow. Consider Tesla, which made environmentalism sexy. Who wouldn’t want to work on that?
  5. Focus diligently on what the customer wants. Everyone needs feedback, but the only feedback that truly matters is from the customer.

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

More financial products that expand on the utility of our offerings, although we can’t share them quite yet. Stay tuned!

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?

Thinking, Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman and Zero to One by Peter Thiel. Kahneman reimagines the fundamentals of how humans think. When you realize that people effectively have two brains acting in unique ways, you can start to adapt your leadership style accordingly — and better understand how your customers will act. Zero to One hammers home the importance of nonconformity. You’ll come out of reading it feeling more empowered to take risks.

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

“Whether you think you can or you think you can’t, you are correct.” This is a foundational quote for understanding what it means to believe in yourself — perhaps the most important quality a founder can have.

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.

Respect for truth. We’ve begun to remove the foundational anchors we used to build our communal understanding of reality. The more we can shed our group mentality the faster we’ll be able to remove the shroud of fear, mistrust and hate that’s become all too prevalent over the past decade. Then we can focus on the problems that really matter.

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

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

Brand Makeovers: Scott Seymour of 9Rooftops On The 5 Things You Should Do To Upgrade and…

Brand Makeovers: Scott Seymour of 9Rooftops On The 5 Things You Should Do To Upgrade and Re-Energize Your Brand and Image

An Interview With Fotis Georgiadis

To truly set your brand apart, it’s important to challenge yourself and envision what your brand could become. This means striving for greatness and setting your sights high, rather than settling for mediocrity. By creating a clear vision for your brand’s future, you can differentiate yourself from the competition and establish a powerful brand identity that resonates with your target audience.

As part of our series about “Brand Makeovers” we had the pleasure to interview Scott Seymour.

Scott Seymour is EVP & Chief Creative Officer at 9Rooftops — a global marketing agency fueling ambitious brands. He leads and inspires a talented team including an in-house content studio to create award-winning creative work.

Thank you so much for doing this with us! Before we dig in, our readers would love to “get to know you” a bit more. Can you tell us a story about what brought you to this specific career path?

I am originally from Upstate New York, where I began my career in design before venturing into the world of advertising. Fueled by my passion for creativity and driven by my entrepreneurial nature, I eagerly
seized an opportunity to relocate to Hilton Head Island, where I was able to establish a ground-up agency that thrived on creative possibilities.

In the early stages, I forged a partnership with the nearby Savannah College of Art & Design, assembling a team that would grow alongside our ambitions. As our agency expanded, we set our sights on establishing new offices and attracting talent from all corners of the globe. Our primary objective became finding exceptional creatives who love what they do, while creating the ideal environment that would enable them to produce their finest work.

Fast forward to the present day, and we stand tall with a formidable team of over 200 members. Our recent milestone includes the establishment of a brand-new office in the United Kingdom, marking our continued growth and global reach.

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

I’m certain I’ve made numerous mistakes throughout my journey, but here is an amusing one that comes to mind. Early on in my career, I was working on a tequila experience branding project where we were looking to connect with snowboard culture. We came up with the idea to create the first ever quarter-pipe competition and music festival in the U.S. that would result in snowboarders reaching new record-breaking vertical heights. We wanted a bold tagline that resonated with our audience, so we came up with “It’s all about getting high.” Shockingly, our client loved our implied double meaning and went on to design all the materials for the event.

However, a few weeks before the launch, the global brand team had second thoughts about the tagline, especially because the event was going to be televised. So, they asked us to swap it out for something safer. Disappointing, but understandable. We updated the language and sent out new design files.

Cut to the day of the event, and I’m checking out all the branding up and down the mountain when I see a group of snowboarders huddled in front of one of the huge banners with our original infamous tagline on it. I had a huge pit in my stomach. Somehow the bolder line made it on the final signage. We were going to be toast for sure. There were TV crews everywhere, and the global brand team was due to arrive any minute.

Thankfully, our client’s flight was delayed, and we had just enough time to swap out the banner before their arrival and the live broadcast. Crisis averted. The lesson learned — always triple-check everything and arrive early, just in case. Oh, and maybe don’t use taglines that could be misinterpreted by an audience that likes to “get high” in more ways than one.

Are you able to identify a “tipping point” in your career when you started to see success? Did you start doing anything different? Is there a takeaway or lesson that others can learn from that?

On a typical Wednesday, I found myself in the waiting area of Coca-Cola’s global headquarters for the first time for a creative presentation. I arrived very early, so I was reviewing briefing materials for the latest Harry Potter movie launch I was working on and then adding some finishing touches to an integrated campaign for Captain Morgan. As I juggled the demands of the day, I had the realization that somehow all the smaller project work had finally transformed into larger brand campaigns.

The creative challenge and possibilities were what I loved most, and I was right in the middle of it. I realized that trusted client relationships and word-of-mouth referrals fueled my progression, as clients looked for partners who could deliver consistent creative work that stood out. This focus on outstanding creativity, passion for their brands, and exceeding expectations was paying off.

During our daily hustle and bustle, it’s easy to forget to celebrate our wins, no matter how small. However, we need to take a moment to recognize and appreciate these victories as they happen.

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

I am currently thrilled about a few projects. One of them is our Virtual 360° Reality Experience Series for South Carolina State Parks. While not all visitors have the time or ability to hike long distances, climb to the top of a lighthouse, or kayak the waterways, they will be able to immerse themselves in these experiences through virtual reality. We are currently capturing some amazing content to be used in simulating real-world experiences with sight, sound, and movement. Users will be able to enjoy breathtaking views from the Table Rock Mountain summit, kayak Landsford Canal amidst blooming Rocky Shoals Spider Lilies, and take in the scenic views from the historic Hunting Island Lighthouse. These activities that were once deemed impossible for some will be accessible to all.

Another dream project was designing a series of limited-edition Adidas tennis shoes to celebrate the legendary Stan Smith. These shoes were auctioned and raised a record-breaking $750,000 for the Boys & Girls Club of America. It even inspired us to launch the Shine Bright program, we are currently in the middle of, that mentors and inspires future designers from within the Boys & Girls Club.

We are also just finishing up a ground-up redesign of our brand-new office space in Chicago. It now fully embodies our creativity and passion with a vibrant energizing blue exposed ceiling that spans the entire area, complemented by floor-to-ceiling bold and colorful murals crafted by local artists. The result is an inspiring place designed to foster collaboration to ignite limitless creativity.

What advice would you give to other marketers to thrive and avoid burnout?

To avoid burnout and thrive, it’s great to surround yourself with free thinkers to collaborate with and be open to trying new things. Inspiration can come at any time, so stay receptive. Getting comfortable with being uncomfortable is also important for growth. Lastly, don’t forget to take some time to yourself to relax and recharge. Down time can really help you stay creative, productive, and mentally healthy.

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?

So, branding is basically all about showing people who you are and creating loyal fans. Marketing, on the other hand, is about getting your message out to make sales happen. When you nail the combo of branding and marketing, you can keep people engaged and loyal for the long haul. It’s all about making a great impression to stand out from your competition.

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?

You can’t just rely on regular marketing and ads. Your brand is the heart and soul of your business and can create deeper emotional connections with your customers and build trust. When your brand is perceived positively, you can charge higher prices, get better recognition, and the advertising performs better. Plus, building a brand takes a lot of precious time and energy, so you want to make sure it’s shown off in the best possible light to be seen and heard in the right way.

Let’s now talk about rebranding. What are a few reasons why a company would consider rebranding?

First off, it can make you more relatable, stand out, and differentiate you from competitors in your category. It also helps you refocus and bring clarity to what matters most, especially in today’s chaotic and noisy world. Great branding can showcase the very best version of yourself, giving you the edge, you need to succeed.

Are there downsides of rebranding? Are there companies that you would advise against doing a “Brand Makeover”? Why?

When it comes to rebranding, it’s important to keep a couple of things in mind: Firstly, if you already have a loyal fan base, you don’t want to risk alienating them with new branding. So, make sure you’re taking their preferences and opinions into account. Secondly, a rebranding shouldn’t be used as a band-aid to distract from underlying product issues that need to be addressed first. It’s important to tackle any problems with your products or services head-on, and then focus on creating a rebranding that reflects your improved offerings.

Ok, here is the main question of our discussion. Can you share 5 strategies that a company can do to upgrade and re-energize their brand and image”? Please tell us a story or an example for each.

1. Challenge Yourself to Aim Higher

To truly set your brand apart, it’s important to challenge yourself and envision what your brand could become. This means striving for greatness and setting your sights high, rather than settling for mediocrity. By creating a clear vision for your brand’s future, you can differentiate yourself from the competition and establish a powerful brand identity that resonates with your target audience.

When it comes to rebranding, it’s important to keep an open mind and be willing to explore all possibilities. This means being open to the idea that everything is on the table and that anything can change. To fuel your inspiration and creativity, surround yourself with examples of other brands that have done this well — even if they are from different categories. By broadening your perspective and seeking out inspiration from diverse sources, you can gain valuable insights and ideas that can help you create a truly unique and impactful brand.

To do it right, you need to dig deep and really do your homework. This means researching and assessing the entire landscape of your category and competition. Only then can you truly understand what it takes to stand out and create a brand that rises above the rest.

Oatly is a remarkable example of a category-defying branding and visual design system that is bold and cohesive, setting them apart from others in their industry.

2. Discover Your Unique Brand Personality

To create a powerful brand that resonates with your audience, you need to find your unique brand personality. This means understanding the role your brand plays and how it makes your audience feel.

When it comes to discovering your brand’s unique personality and creating a strong emotional connection with your audience, there are a few exercises that can be helpful. One effective approach is to imagine your brand as a person, a car, or a restaurant, and then articulate its personality traits and characteristics. By doing this, you can gain a deeper understanding of what your brand represents and how it should be communicated to your target audience. Ultimately, this exercise can help you create a brand that is relatable, authentic, and uniquely your own.

Liquid Death in the sparkling water category provides a striking example of utilizing a distinct brand personality that has truly connected with its audience. By adopting a bold approach and not taking things too seriously, is reflected in their branding and tagline “Murder Your Thirst.”

3. Tell Your Inspiring Story
In today’s crowded marketplace, simply pushing your products or services isn’t enough to capture your audience’s attention. Instead, it’s important to focus on telling your brand story in a way that is engaging and relatable. By sharing the story behind your brand, you can create a personal connection with your customers and differentiate yourself from your competitors. A compelling brand story can help you build trust, establish credibility, and increase brand loyalty over time.

When you focus less on selling and more on storytelling, you’re able to capture your audience’s attention and create a lasting impression in their minds. Ultimately, by crafting a powerful brand narrative that resonates with your audience, you can make your brand more memorable, and more successful in the long run.

Patagonia is an excellent example of a brand that utilizes compelling storytelling to show what they stand for and are committed to. They do this through their history and extend it through platform of editorial storytelling called “PatagoniaStories -to get you out there” and keep their audience inspired and engaged.

4. Express Your Brand Creatively

Get creative with expressing your brand. Visual design is a key component of your brand identity, but it’s not just about the logo. Think beyond the logo and consider how all aspects of your brand work together to create a cohesive brand identity system. This includes typography, color palettes, imagery, visual elements, iconography, photographic style that can help bring your brand to life. When it comes to creative expression, remember that it takes courage to be bold and stand out from the competition. So don’t be afraid to take risks and push the boundaries of what’s been done before. With a strong and creative brand identity system, you can make a lasting impression on your audience and build a successful brand over time.

The latest rebranding for Dunkin’ is an outstanding example of creative expression in a with its new custom typeface, expanded icons, bold orange and pink color blocking, DNKN’ abbreviated and stacked logomarks for packaging, proprietary patterns for employee uniforms, and motion graphics executions for social.

5. Design Details Matter

Don’t overlook the importance of design details when upgrading your brand. Every little detail matters, and now is the perfect opportunity to customize your brand articulation and make it truly unique. By paying attention to design details, you can communicate quality, trust, and passion to your audience. Re-branding is your time to upgrade everything, from your logo to your website to all your marketing materials. When done well, a cohesive and thoughtful design can help differentiate your brand from competitors and establish a strong connection with your audience. So, embrace the chance to upgrade and make your brand stand out with attention to every design detail.

The recent rebranding of Levi’s is a remarkable example where everything was purposely considered and refined to express their iconic pioneering spirit.

In your opinion, what is an example of a company that has done a fantastic job doing a “Brand Makeover”. What specifically impresses you? What can one do to replicate that?

One recent example that stands out is the rebranding of Jet-Puffed Marshmallows, a brand that has been in existence since the 1950s and had become a household staple with little emotional connection. However, the brand has now adopted a fun and playful identity with a fresh visual identity system and new packaging that features a bright and colorful puffy-style world. To inject more life into the brand and embody its new upbeat whimsical attitude, a set of Jet-Puffed characters were introduced. The brand’s voice was also revamped with a new positioning line “fluffy side of life” and infectious lines like “little buddies you want to hug with your teeth.” This is a prime example of remaining true to one’s roots while introducing fresh and innovative ideas. By leveraging the brand personality in a unique way, Jet-Puffed has created a differentiating brand identity that can continue to evolve in inspiring ways.

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

The power of creativity is truly amazing. Just imagine if we could harness the collective creativity of everyone to make a real difference in the world, especially for those who need it most. By coming together with empathy and a focus on emotional well-being, we could create something truly special for the greater good. Recently, a dear friend and colleague passed away who was a true inspiration in this regard. He expressed his love and kindness through his creativity every day, and we can all learn from his example. Let’s use the power of creativity to uplift others and make a positive impact on the world.

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

I find myself constantly looking to “find the goodness”. It’s a lesson that speaks to the importance of looking for the positive aspects of both people and creative work. When we focus on the goodness in others, we are more likely to bring out the best in them and their creative work while creating a positive environment for growth and collaboration. When we approach creative work with a focus on finding the gems and bringing out the best in it, we can create something truly exceptional. By being on the lookout for the goodness in everything, we can cultivate a sense of gratitude and appreciation that can lead to greater creativity and a more fulfilling life.

How can our readers follow you online?

LinkedIn linkedin.com/in/scottseymourcreative

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

Brand Makeovers: Scott Seymour of 9Rooftops On The 5 Things You Should Do To Upgrade and… was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Asaf Darash of Regpack On 5 Things You Need To Know To Successfully Scale Your Business

Get out of the way. In the beginning stages of a company, you need to keep things close to your chest. You are constantly evaluating if things work, if people understand how to use it, and you need to be hands-on. You want to talk and connect with customers early on. Once you reach the point of product-market fit, it is time to move aside. You need to create the tools for people to do their thing. You do not need to be in the middle or hands-on anymore.

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 Asaf Darash.

Asaf Darash is the founder and CEO of Regpack, an online payment management platform. With extensive experience as a developer, system architect, entrepreneur, and investor, Asaf has an innate ability to build versatile products based on achievable business models, which has helped him build three successful companies to date. He holds a Ph.D. from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem specializing in the way computer languages affect human action and has served as a visiting scholar and Fulbright scholar at the University of California, Berkeley.

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’?

The truth is I never intended to become an entrepreneur. I was set on being an academic that can research and build interesting things all day. But life has its ways, I guess.

It all started with my research. When I was a Fulbright scholar at Berkeley doing research for my Ph.D., I was looking for patterns to address one of the biggest problems with computers: the “private language problem.” The “private language problem” in computers means that you can create anything consistent because as long as something is consistent, it can work. So, on the one hand, it’s very easy to create a private language, or your own little world in computers, even without trying. But on the other hand, these are very complex machines, and you have to collaborate with other systems and code in order to get the machine to work as a whole. A private language hinders computer advancement. I think an example will explain it.

Let’s say I want to build software that will allow me to get alerts on changing stock prices in real time. I want to focus on that functionality alone. In order for that to happen, I need to be able to present information on a screen, connect to a network, and use computer memory. Then I also need to communicate with a system that will allow me to gather stock prices. I do not want to build all that. I just want to build the real-time functionality. So in order to create any type of advancement in computers, various lines of code and systems have to talk to each other, and it needs to be simple. So as you can see, the private language problem is critical. It means that if every developer creates their own private language, the systems cannot work together, and we would not have the computers we rely on today. So, my research focused on the various solutions that have been tried to solve this problem. Some failed, some succeeded, and there are multiple solutions in place today that work concurrently.

Normally when performing this type of research, it is best practice to present your theory in three different places for it to be considered a valid claim rather than a mere coincidence. So, in my research, I found this specific structure that existed in computer languages that enabled private languages to exist and, at the same time, to enable communication. I also found it in computer networking, but I needed to find it in one more place, and that place ended up being in databases. That was the key I needed to prove my theory.

After a lot of research, I eventually showed it in three places. The base of the private language solution is not to inhibit it, but rather to embrace it. Create endless private languages that have interfaces to communicate between them — basically, create something that has no constants. Then I got greedy. I asked, “Is it possible to create an application with no constants?” Or in other words: “Is it possible to create a meta-programming application for non-programmers?” Suffice it to say that it’s very complex to do that, but this question and searching is what eventually led to my company, Regpack.

[from a previous Authority Magazine article: https://medium.com/authority-magazine/asaf-darash-of-regpack-five-things-you-need-to-create-a-highly-successful-startup-2ac0fb31ebc2]

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?

I don’t think there’s a key decision, because I don’t think that’s how life works. People like to think that there’s this one key moment that makes things happen in your career or life, but it’s not true. I would say it is the very small choices you make every single day where you are deciding what is important to you and where you want to be.

If there’s one thing that really changed my life, it is the fact that I was not accepted to a program I wanted at MIT. Because of that, I actually got a Fulbright scholarship and went to Berkeley. That totally changed the way I think about business and computers and computer languages. Also, the people I met were very different than the people I would’ve met at MIT or at Harvard. So I would say that if you’re looking for one key decision, it’s actually my failure to be accepted to MIT, which may not be exactly what people want to hear. But, life is a little more complex than what people want to hear.

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

Teaching people that everything is their life. When you look at things that way, there is no disconnect between your wellness, your job, your hobbies, your family, your health, and your kids. It’s like the song by Lauryn Hill, right? Everything is everything. Once people are in that place, I do everything I can to inspire their creativity. It’s easy to go into this place in life where you’re just living it in a way like you’re waiting for something or you don’t exactly understand the impact that you have. Once you start living a life where you’re trying to create something, and it doesn’t matter what you’re creating — it can be that you’re creating your family or you’re creating your business — but, you’re creating something that is yours, that is connected to who you are. Something that is exactly you. That is when I think people flourish. They open up, and they change, and what they bring into the world is amazing. Until they’re at that place, they’re sort of just there.

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 two different mistakes that are interesting to learn from. One is the time we worked on a feature that was extremely complex, and it just didn’t work. It took three to four months to build a basic prototype, and we were really excited about it. Then we presented the feature to 10 or 15 of our biggest clients. At the end of each presentation, the clients said, “That’s nice, but what we really need is…” I thought, What!? Seriously!? And that made me understand that before you build something, you really need to make sure your clients will understand the feature or the product you’re building and that it’s something there is a need for. That is a big problem with tech people, we tend to build something very beautiful, shiny, and technically complex, but then there’s actually no big need for it or the use case is extremely small. Because tech people just love tech, right? So we want to build cool stuff, but we need to ensure there is a customer demand for it.

The other mistake actually became a success eventually. It is one of our most successful programs today. We built a program called Purchase Protection that allows people to protect their order for purchased services. In the first year, the overall annual revenue of it was something ridiculous like $50,000. But the revenue of this feature today is close to a few million dollars, and we’re only three years in. So, how did that happen?

The mistake we made at first was thinking people wanted to decide if and how they should use Purchase Protection, however clients didn’t understand how to use it or what it was. So we automated it and offered it as a built-in element, then its success skyrocketed. The same thing happened with our subscription installments payment feature. Once we automated it with AI to adjust variables on how installment payments should happen, we suddenly reached 45% of payments through the installments feature and customers using it are seeing a 30% revenue growth.

So to put the lessons together, I wouldn’t say it is about deciding for people, but I would say automating the product to a level that it shows value right away is the solution. If you are not able to show value right away and you demand a lot of work from the end user, they lose interest and lose focus. It’s just over their head. But once you are able to show specific ways to use it that create value, then they’re like “Yes, this is great!” It makes sense, because, when you get into your car, you just want to drive, right? You don’t care how the car actually moves and how the wheels connect to the other elements. You don’t care about the details, you just want to do your thing. The same is with technological products.

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

As a Ph. D student, and a postdoc, you’re mentored a lot. I had an amazing mentor, Professor Horowitz from the AI lab at MIT, who taught me a lot about how to approach a technical problem or how to approach a problem in general. He helped me to understand the limitations of research, and how to perceive the limitations of science and where intuition comes in. He taught me essentially how to be a scientist that is connected to their non-scientific part. A lot of people think science is very strict, and there’s always a method, but I would say science is more like an art. You have assumptions and you have a hunch, then there’s specific ways that you are able to check that hunch. Professor Horowitz taught me how to do that and taught me to trust my gut in a way, even when you’re using a lot of scientific technical methods. At the end, you’re ultimately making an attempt to understand how things work, but a lot of that comes from within. This is, btw, why I think all the talk about AI destroying the world is funny. There is a major difference between humans and AI. The difference is in our ability to base an action on something that is not intelligence. To be artistic, which happens in every aspect of life if you let it.

I’ve also mentored a lot of people as a CEO. I teach my managers that they need to create something that regardless of themselves, will still function. Another big thing I’ve mentored my managers on is to understand not all people function the same. Once you understand that, you are able to mobilize people in a way that is important to them and useful to you. It’s easy to think that everybody functions like you and thinks the way you do. But then you get caught off guard and you’re totally shocked when they don’t, ‘like, why aren’t you thinking this way’? You’re thinking ‘how come? this is the right way, no?’ As a manager, you need to understand that the diversity in ways of thinking and the type of people you have is what makes you strong. It makes you resilient and enables quick reactions to different situations. Without diversity, you would just have a bunch of people like yourself. That is very problematic, because there’s a single point of failure — you.

This is also connected to how we hire at Regpack. Regpack is very diverse and versatile because we have people from totally different backgrounds, because I really see value in that. Having people that think differently is not hindering your growth, it’s doing the exact opposite. It might not be comfortable and it can even be very annoying sometimes, but if you’re looking for “yes men,” you’re not going to get anywhere.

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 don’t try to model my leadership after anybody, and I don’t try to emulate anybody. I am a well-rounded person that has very different elements in my character, and I try to lead in a way that is true to myself. I hope every single leader does that. If they don’t, they shouldn’t be a leader.

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. Get out of the way. In the beginning stages of a company, you need to keep things close to your chest. You are constantly evaluating if things work, if people understand how to use it, and you need to be hands-on. You want to talk and connect with customers early on. Once you reach the point of product-market fit, it is time to move aside. You need to create the tools for people to do their thing. You do not need to be in the middle or hands-on anymore. Create the value, but then get out of the way. When you’re in the middle, your business can’t scale. This is really hard to do because you want to be there and you want to see how things are functioning, but you’re only getting in the way. As you grow, it is a numbers game, so you might be able to connect to some people, but you need to move away as the numbers grow and look at the company from above through reports, statistics, tools. This demands a different skill set, if you have it then you will continue growing, if not you need to move aside, and let someone that does, control the company.
  2. Create a machine that is not dependent on specific people and is process oriented. This is extremely important because, in the beginning, it is all about the founders or partners and how amazing these people are. The reality check is that this is not how the world works. You need a long-term process separate from yourself. You need to create a machine that is able to function for 95% of your clients. Maybe for 5% it won’t work, but 95% will still go through the machine and it will take care of them correctly. Your machine needs to be built in a way that if one person leaves and you need to replace them, that’s fine. Someone might think this hinders creativity but it is the opposite. Since the main parts are taken care of people have the ability to step in where the process is failing and be creative in their solutions.
  3. It’s not about you — leave your ego at the door. One of the things I tell people at the beginning of every meeting is “Nobody cares about you”. It’s true. Clients care about their problems and their needs. They don’t care about our processes, they only care about how we are going to create value in their business. Once you understand that it is not about you, and it isn’t personal, then you can understand that you need to look at things in a more functional way rather than an emotional way. If you look back to the example I gave of one of the things that failed at first, you can try and force a new product and show them why you think it is important, or you can stop and say ‘This is not about me and my hard work, but it is about how to properly show value.’
  4. Not everybody needs to know everything. You need to create a team that is supporting one another, but don’t expect everyone to know everything. This is important as you’re scaling. If I needed to pick one thing that really becomes a challenge as you grow it would be internal communications. Understanding each other and conveying the information internally is important since you’re trying to get everyone on the same page and to get all the teams to work in a holistic way. This is really hard when a company is growing. I found the best way to do this is to create sections of knowledge. For example, sales needs to know how to sell a product at a basic level, but when technical questions come up, they should bring in somebody who knows technical issues as their forte. Marketing doesn’t need to know how the sales team works, but they need to know what types of clients are our best clients so they can target them. Oddly, this is how object-oriented programming works as a theoretical level: Each unit functions independently, there is full encapsulation and in order to create a holistic program, there are open communication lines between the units only on parts that you should communicate about. The same can be applied to a company, this creates a holistic experience for the client.

If everyone needs to know everything, you would need employees who can do everything, but that isn’t realistic when you grow to a few hundred people. Start-ups attract high-performing people looking for a challenge. This is especially true of founders. Oddly, these people can become detrimental to the company very quickly since it allows you to rely on their amazing skills but in doing so you do not create a machine. Hence, you are stuck in a phase that you can’t grow out of. If you’re only using A-level people, you’re not creating a machine. In sports, if you have an amazing player that regardles of the rest of the team will always solve the problem, then the coach will never set the team up for consistent wins. Relying only on A-level people is not how you create a long-term business. Use the A-level people to create your processes, your machines, then tell them to move aside and work on new aspects of the business.

5. Watch the money. Businesses are about making money, it is that simple. This isn’t sexy or very “Silicon Valley”, but if you’re not focused on how to make money and are watching your cash flow and finances, you’re going to fail. Money for a business is like oxygen. It is the main tool a CEO or founder uses to develop the company. You need to focus on where the money is coming from, how it flows in the company, and where you’re allocating it to. It would be like an athlete not thinking about their breathing while running. They will fail. If you’re a technical person and not money-minded, once you get to mid-sized, just move aside. You won’t understand the level of focus needed to keep the company breathing. It is not what you are good at and that is fine, not everybody needs to know everything.

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?

People who can’t get out of the way. If you hold everything close to your chest because you want to control everything, that leader doesn’t create a machine, because they’re dependent on these A-level people. Then these A-level people suddenly leave and boom — nothing works anymore. These companies need to try to create holistic actions by realizing that not everybody can know everything.

Second, scaling and not watching the money. They might think, it’ll be fine, or ‘We’ll just make another million dollars’. But what happens if you don’t? You die. It is that simple.

I recently had this conversation with my kid when we were talking about mistakes. I told him, when you take a risk and you might fall into a pit, you need to make sure that it is a pit you can get yourself out of. Yes, it is great to take risks, and this is how we grow, but take risks that will not destroy you or that will not create a situation that you do not know how to get out of. I see this all the time with companies and people that do stuff with money that isn’t correctable. You see people buy houses that are above their ability or businesses investing in a change that if it fails will bankrupt the company. Then they become slaves to that mistake. As you grow the amount of resources at your disposal are larger. Therefore it might seem that “this cannot break us” but mistakes can compound and then once you have trouble making payments to continue the company functioning it is too late, the downward spiral is very fast.

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

The company culture and the department culture always comes from the head down. So you need to make sure your managers have the same goals you have Note I said “goals”, not that they need to be the same as you. Then those managers will trickle the culture down to their managers and eventually to the people that are doing the day-to-day job. Company culture is not created by you yapping around about it and telling people to behave a certain way. No, it’s about actually working with people in a specific way. A little like with children: if you tell your children to do one thing and act in a totally different way, it is not going to resonate with them no matter how many times you say it.

One example of this is something we do at Regpack, we have a culture where we say you’re treated as an adult. You have wings — use them! For example, if someone makes a mistake, you don’t come in guns blazing and say ‘Oh you idiot. What did you do?’ No. What you do is explain what was the mistake and you throw it back to them to fix it. Demand they come back with a plan on how you’re going to fix this mistake. Don’t fix it for them. Don’t tell them how to fix it. They need to come back with the solution for how to fix it and then they implement the fix. That is what being an adult means: owning your mistakes and fixing them. Very few people are malicious or do bad things on purpose, especially at their job. Everybody wants to be successful at their job and they want to be appreciated. If you give them the ability to do that you will be surprised how much people level up. It is pretty simple: don’t turn them into robots, don’t cut their wings but teach them they have them, don’t turn them into a child that just needs to do what they’re told. Trust them and believe in them, you will see them do amazing work.

So the company culture is really about how much you believe in people and what you believe people can do. If you’re trying to bend company culture to what you’ve heard a different company does and you try to mimic that, it won’t work. If you’re not already that type of person, you can’t force company culture to be that way.

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?

The technique I would recommend is the one we talked about where you are encapsulating knowledge into specific teams. I also talked about creating a machine, which are the procedures. I think that these are the main tools and techniques you need to use to successfully scale. Implement encapsulation of knowledge and understand that it’s more about processes than people. Then, make sure you get out of the way. I would say that those are the three main things that you need to do when you’re scaling your business.

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

I have no idea. This is connected to encapsulation, because I don’t need to know what to do. I am not HR, so I don’t need to know the actual ins and outs of what HR does. If you’re a CEO that knows the exact tools that you’re using for HR, you’re doing something very wrong.

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 think what’s lacking in the world today is being creative and not being the same as everyone else. Be yourself and create something in the world that you can look at and say, okay, I’m happy with that. Once more, when people create in the world and reach the point where they are satisfied with their creation, I think the whole world will be a much better place. People will be much less angry, because it’s not about what you have, where you went, what you believe in, or what you like. It’s about what you created in the world. And it doesn’t have to be an actual thing. It does not have to be code, jewelry, or a painting. It can be creating a concept, a way of life, or your own rhythm of the day. That’s something that is yours. And I wouldn’t know what to call that movement or how to do that, but I think that’s really lacking in the world.

[from a previous Authority Magazine article: https://medium.com/authority-magazine/asaf-darash-of-regpack-five-things-you-need-to-create-a-highly-successful-startup-2ac0fb31ebc2]

How can our readers further follow your work online?

Regpack blog: https://www.regpacks.com/blog/

Regpack on social:

https://www.facebook.com/Regpack/

https://twitter.com/regpack

https://www.linkedin.com/company/regpack/

https://www.instagram.com/regpacks/

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

Asaf Darash of Regpack On 5 Things You Need To Know To Successfully Scale Your Business was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

The Future Is Now: Matthew White Of Qebot On How Their Technological Innovation Will Shake Up The…

The Future Is Now: Matthew White Of Qebot On How Their Technological Innovation Will Shake Up The Tech Scene

Your network is your greatest asset, and one of your top priorities needs to be consistently growing it. It really is about who you know. The biggest deals, partnerships, and relationships I have were developed through connections. It’s always going to be easier to get a meeting with someone if you can be introduced rather than cold reach out, and the larger your network, the higher the chance you have a mutual connection.

As a part of our series about cutting-edge technological breakthroughs, I had the pleasure of interviewing Matthew White, CEO of Qebot.

Matthew White is the Co-Founder and CEO of Qebot. Matthew and his co-founder, Cornelius Lamb started Qebot in 2016 with the goal of making business technology simple, accessible, and productive for even the least tech-savvy business owners and managers. Years of experience in the agency and advertising world gave Matthew a unique perspective on what businesses really needed to be able to market and manage their organizations, and built a platform to bring all of that together in a single, integrate manner.

In 2023, Matthew is focusing his sights on a much larger target by launching an operating system for the internet. An evolution of the antiquated browser into a system that is more productive, secure, private, and personalized to how you actually use the internet. Matthew and team plan to completely overhaul how you access and use the internet across all devices.

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?

Thanks for having me! It’s funny, I look back at the beginning of my career and realize how much has changed, but also how much I really did have a direction I was shooting for. I started in healthcare staffing. I graduated college into the recession of the late 2000’s, and really any job that was still hiring is what I was going to take. But working for someone else, and having that looming feeling of “is this really what I’m destined for,” or “is this the week that I’m getting fired” just didn’t sit right inside of me. I remember being in my early 20’s coming home from work and sitting at my desk writing business plans for different companies I thought I could start. Friends and roommates all thought I was a bit odd as they went out, or watched the newest dancing with the stars while I sat at my computer, looking up business plan templates and toying with different ideas. I think I had plans for bars, clubs, social media platforms… I wish I still had those. I’m sure they are terrible.

A few years later, I actually did get fired from my job in healthcare staffing. It was actually the best thing that could have happened to me! Next, through a bit of perhaps embellishment on my resume, I landed a job in a large marketing agency, focused on tech and online presence for local businesses. That lead me into advertising, mobile advertising, and technology in general, which I really came to have a passion for. So, a few years later, after starting a few tech companies on the side myself, I finally had the idea for Qebot. Had the resources at the time to take the plunge full time, and here we are today.

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

Getting fired from my first job, after being there for about 3 years was gutting. But hindsight is so 20/20. I look back on that now as one of the greatest moments in my career. It’s the moment that really made me take a step back and rethink my life and career path. I remember being devastated at the time, not knowing what was going to be next. We had just bought our first house. Savings were pretty much non-existent.

But then I had a real conversation with myself and my loved ones about what I really wanted. I hated my job. I loathed walking into that place every day. I disliked the work, and a lot about the industry as a whole. I could have gone and found a similar job — actually I did and worked there for a week before jumping out the window as fast as possible. But I knew it was time to make a drastic change. And that’s what I did. I took a massive pay cut to move into a role in marketing and technology, and within a year, was loving what I did, making more money than I ever had, and was excited about where my future was heading. Bad things will happen to everyone, but that doesn’t mean it’s for the worst. Take everything as an opportunity to try something new.

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

Absolutely! In short, it’s time to ditch antiquated browsers for an operating system built for the internet.

The standard browser has become stagnant and outdated to how people actually use the internet. Browser tabs are a great example of this. Browsers were created to “browse” the internet, but that’s not how most people use the internet these days. Most of a person’s time is spent in applications for work, play, streaming, etc.

Having 50 open tabs across the top of your browser, and having to hunt for your email, calendar, or CRM is a huge productivity hog. The standard browser has not innovated to follow the changes and updates for how people access and use the internet; and so new, more agile, innovative companies like Qebot are stepping up. Imagine a browser that is based around the applications you use the most. That gives you the option of what you want done with your data. That businesses can set up to better control data and app access at the browser level. This is what people want, and why users are loving new options like Qebot.

How do you think this might change the world?

With a Web Operating System like we’re talking about, we can start to create a more standardized, personalized internet experience for each person across a multitude of devices. Imagine creating your Qebot profile, with all of your favorite applications, settings, tabs, etc. synced across devices wherever you are. Go to your smart fridge and pull up the recipe you were just looking at, and play music you were just listening to. Go to a hotel, and log into your Qebot profile on their smart TV to watch your Netflix, Hulu, HBO right from your account. Get on a plane, and use the in-seat computer to actually send emails, Slack your team, and catch up where you left off on your favorite show.

And for businesses — what a gamechanger. Better security, better device controls, simple setup. Imagine someone breaks their computer. Instead of getting them a new expensive computer, downloading all of the apps they need, getting them the access necessary, you hand them a cheaper, internet based computer, have them log into their Qebot account, and they are right back where they were within minutes.

This is what a centralized web operating system will enable. Better, more personalized internet access from wherever you are.

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

Hmmm. This is an interesting question. I’d say the fact that almost every system in our lives are now becoming “smart” has the potential to create issues. At a minimum, we all become so dependent on our technology that we start to lose touch with the real world as a whole — which some could argue is already becoming the norm with social media addiction. But if we want to get really dystopian — having all of your devices in your life smart and connected could create some level of all-knowing systems and organizations that can monitor every aspect of your life, and do with that information what it pleases. Technology advancement absolutely has its benefits and risks.

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

Qebot 1.0 was always a first step in our goals in creating a more integrated, broad-range platform that could be used for home, office, and family to make technology more productive and personalized. But we had seen that next iteration to the web operating system as something we’d work on down the line. At a certain scale point for Qebot.

Then the pandemic happened. We got hit pretty hard at the beginning. A lot of our business was from marketing agencies that were using our platform to manage all of their software needs for their clients. When businesses got shut down, the first thing they stopped was marketing. We saw a lot of our agency partners just completely go out of business during this time, and our revenues took a major hit.

We were able to weather the storm, and have since come back and surpassed our pre-pandemic levels, with a more diversified client base, but we also realized that we may want to look at moving forward on our goals of having a technology that was not so hyper focused on one thing. Something that can be used by both businesses and individuals. A platform that we could hedge against world changing events in the future. So, we started moving forward on our dream of the web operating system. It was literally a meeting in November of 2021 where we just decided to put all projects on the backburner, and all of our resources into building the future of internet access and usage. That was our real tipping point into pivoting into what we are today.

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

Honestly, people to just try it. The feedback has been overwhelmingly excited about what we’ve built and where we are going. Adoption, active usage, and peer sharing are through the roof after people see what this thing can help them do. Everything we are building now is directly based on user feedback, so the system is just becoming more and more what people want from the future of the internet, and I think people will see that right from the get-go.

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

The beauty of having been in business for a number of years and having success in our first venture was that we were able to really tap into our network to get our initial user-base. People had loved and trusted the technology we built before, so they were excited to jump in on what we were launching. We got a very nice boost from the beginning, and we provide perks and freebies to users for inviting other users. That has been very helpful in initial growth.

We also have a great partnership program. We work with a number of large companies and organizations that we can provide free upgrades and benefits to their customers or members — they in turn get more perks to offer their customers or members for marketing and retention, and we get growth. The Better Business Bureau has been a great example of this. Accredited Businesses get to take advantage of free upgrades to our premium business tiers, and discounts on tools and our privacy+ program.

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 be nowhere without two people in particular. My wife, and my co-founder. My wife has been incredibly supportive throughout this whole process. From the beginning when we were just trying to get our first customer, to the mess the pandemic caused, to the financial investment I put in. I know how frustrating all of this can be on a spouse, and she’s been right there, marching along, being my greatest cheerleader and confidant the entire time.

And my co-founder, Cornelius. I can’t believe what we’ve been through together with this business. We’ve had early employees come and go, seen ups and downs, and have made sacrifices together that seem utterly insane to most people. But each time we get on a call, he’s the first to say he 100% believes in what we’re building, and that together we can really change lives. His fortitude to keep going, even when things were hard has been a huge inspiration to me to keep fighting and pushing.

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

Oh wow… That’s a tough one. I’d say there is a lot that we hope to do with our success — helping democratize technology for better and easier use to as many as we can. I know that we’ve done some part in helping small businesses be able to compete and find their niche, which is something I’ve always been passionate about. But I guess, at this point, I hope I’ve been able to give good advice to others starting their founders journey. I hope I’ve been able to be an inspiration because you never know who you might touch — what that one person that you inspire might end up doing to create something the world needs.

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

1. Your network is your greatest asset, and one of your top priorities needs to be consistently growing it. It really is about who you know. The biggest deals, partnerships, and relationships I have were developed through connections. It’s always going to be easier to get a meeting with someone if you can be introduced rather than cold reach out, and the larger your network, the higher the chance you have a mutual connection.

2. You’re about to find out who your real friends are. Being a startup founder can be a grueling life at times. People aren’t going to understand when you can’t make it to functions, get togethers, etc. Or, if you’re like me when I founded Qebot, I took a big pay cut, so those invites to group trips and vacations weren’t possible. And then the invites stop coming. You’ll also see which friends are your cheerleaders, and which are spectators.

3. Rejection is an opportunity for learning and growth. And, there will be a lot of it… Investors, prospective customers, potential partners, that perfect hire. You’ll have to grow some thick skin and keep moving ahead. The ability to take those rejections and not get beaten down by them, but instead use them as learnings to evolve your pitch, or understand what’s not resonating, and pivot your messaging, or even your product. That’s where success lies.

4. Embrace change. You might have what you think is the perfect idea — but the market may think differently. Your idea may be close, and all you need to do is make a few tweaks. Some of the most successful businesses have made complete pivots from what they initially launched. And that’s completely fine. It’s better than fine. It’s listening, learning, taking your ego out of the situation, and forging towards success using real world feedback. It’s the businesses that don’t embrace change and innovation that eventually fail — just look at Blockbuster.

5. Building the product is only about 10% of actually starting a company… Most people can build something. Can you fund it? Can you market it? Can you find market fit? Can you sell? Can you hire? Can you lead? Can you remove your ego and make changes and pivots when it’s necessary? You’ll find things along the way that you won’t be good at, and that’s when you find the right people to help. But getting a product built, and taking a product to market is the difference between success and failure.

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

I think one of the most disheartening things I see today is the anger and hate we see everywhere. Much of it on the internet, but also heavily spilling over into real, everyday life. The best times I’ve had, and greatest lessons I’ve learned have been from people that are different than me. People that shut that off in their life are missing so much. So, I think the movement I would want to strive for would be to help people of different walks of life connect in meaningful ways. It’s hard to hate someone when you truly get to know them. The repercussions of people getting to know others not like themselves is also so far reaching. Hate causes so much strife — all the way from hometown racism to intercontinental war. If we can find ways to connect, see each other for who we are, and see that maybe all of us really aren’t that different. I think that would make the world a much better, wealthier, and happy place.

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

Do it! Do it now!

-Arnold Schwarzenegger

I know, it’s silly. But it’s also very relevant. There’s always an excuse to put something off until tomorrow. I knew people growing up that always had their “million-dollar idea” but never took a step to make it happen. Then they see someone else on TV years later making a success out of that idea and having a melt down about it. But you never did it. Everyone has an idea — it’s the people that execute that idea that change the world. So stop talking about it and “DO IT! DO IT NOW!”

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 🙂

If you’ve ever thought to yourself, the way we access and use the internet seems antiquated. How are we still getting lost in a sea of browser tabs? What’s happening with my data? There has to be more secure ways of using the internet.

If you think we’re on the precipice of a new internet revolution — well then, come with us on this journey. We’re going to make some huge waves.

How can our readers follow you on social media?

Matthew:

LinkedIn — https://www.linkedin.com/in/matthew-white-4b4bb527

Instagram — https://www.instagram.com/mattewhitey

Twitter — https://twitter.com/MWayneWhite

Qebot:

Website — https://www.qebot.com

LinkedIn — https://www.linkedin.com/company/3645932/

Instagram — https://www.instagram.com/qebot

Twitter — https://twitter.com/QebotHQ

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

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

Sean Samuel Of C15 Solutions On 5 Things You Need To Know To Successfully Scale Your Business

Team. Hire to build a culture, not to fill roles.

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 Sean Samuel.

Sean Samuel is Vice President of Sales and Marketing at C15 Solutions, a technology company that delivers a life sciences-based eQMS platform tailored for the global cannabis sector and adjacent industries. Sean has a sales and business development background that spans the tobacco and finance sectors. Currently, Sean manages the sales process at C15, spearheads marketing initiatives, establishes key strategic partnerships, executes product demos, and secures valued customers. Sean has helped grow the company from scratch to 65+ corporate customers across 8 countries.

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 career is an intersection of three things I love — cannabis, technology, and innovation on a global scale!

When Canada initially mulled over federal legalization, I was working at the Bank of Montreal and had long been speculating on the early medical cannabis companies in small-cap portfolios. Shortly after Canada passed adult use, C15 Solutions was formed, and it was C15’s partnership with Veeva Systems (VEEV:NYSE) that really intrigued me. They have long been an established tech provider to the Life Sciences and CPG industries, working with multinational corporations like Kraft, Nestle, Bayer, Pfizer, Unilever, and more. Cannabis always struck me as an amalgamation of agriculture (cultivation), pharma (medical), and consumer packaged goods (adult use) so, adopting best practices from those established sectors and adding to the quality and safety of cannabis production was a mission I could embrace.

I was already keen on trying to help accelerate the sector’s trajectory when it came to being a leader in the industry, especially as it globalized. The opportunity to work with such an innovative and supportive partner in Veeva, as well as being able to build something from scratch (opposite of my situation at BMO) with a fantastic management team at C15, was what ultimately drove me in this direction!

You’ve had a remarkable career journey. Can you highlight a key decision in your career that helped you get to where you are today?

Yes, as a matter of fact, it was a literal fork in the road. In 2017, I was working on Bay St. for one of the ‘big 6’ banks and was offered two new jobs — both were with start-ups (my type of culture/working environment) but one was in finance and the other, cannabis. The finance job came with significantly better pay and a small equity stake. The cannabis job was a riskier one that paid less and required commuting (vs. a 15-minute commute to Bay St.) and yet, the decision really wasn’t one I lost much sleep over, picking C15 with conviction.

Five years later, the start-up on Bay St. I almost joined is killing it, but I still have zero regrets in my decision. Why? Because this is my passion. Navigating the ‘wild west’ cannabis landscape and building a brand from scratch has been my most rewarding professional experience. Plus, I’m extremely proud of being part of the legalization of a wonderful plant with genuine medicinal properties.

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

That’s easy — C15 Solutions! Our mission is to raise the quality and compliance bar for the entire cannabis sector, globally. That’s a lofty mission statement, however, we are unequivocally doing just that; we’ve taken a technology that is widely adopted in other regulated sectors like pharma, life sciences, and CPG, and we’ve tailored it specifically for cannabis operators, regardless of the jurisdiction they operate in. The result is higher-quality, safer cannabis products and maturing, compliant cannabis companies.

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

Mentorship has played a massive and pivotal role in my career. I would say I’ve had three professional mentors over the course of my career thus far and each was instrumental in either inspiring me to change my professional trajectory or refine and accelerate my existing one. With that said, I’d love to give a quick shoutout to Rob Butler, Carter Davidson, and my father, Scott Samuel, for their wisdom and inspiration over the years. All three have meant so much to me for different reasons.

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 genuinely do not have a single leadership ‘model’ in mind. I’ve been fortunate enough to work with a variety of executives (at big and small companies) and to play with many captains and coaches during my competitive hockey days. This has allowed me to adopt specific traits such as direct, transparent communication and identify ones that are not my style such as immediate, cut-throat judgment. I don’t think there’s a ‘perfect leader’ out there, rather, perfect fits of team and leadership.

Based on your experience, can you share with our readers the “5 Things You Need To Know To Successfully Scale Your Business”?

Efficiency. As C15 grew, we had to listen to what the market was telling us and learn and adapt our sales and service strategies to become more efficient. Whether it’s tinkering with your outbound process or how you engage with your customers, we’re constantly looking to become more efficient so that our customer acquisition cost is lower, and our customer engagement is higher.

A Growth Plan. Whether it’s new products or new markets, research and analysis MUST be done and a ‘growth at all costs’ plan will often result in self-destruction. In the cannabis sector especially, which is both highly competitive and highly regulated, a growth plan must be well thought out, deliberate, and ideally vetted by trusted stakeholders.

Team. Hire to build a culture, not to fill roles.

Partners. As the saying goes, ‘it takes a village to raise a child’ and in business, it takes the right partners to reach the next level. In our case, C15 has the best tech partner we could possibly ask for in Veeva Systems, as well as incredible shareholders like Emily and Morgan Paxhia from Poseidon Asset Management.

Financing. This is kind of a technicality more than anything. Obviously, capital is required to scale but I think nuance lies in what kind of financing… Debt? Equity? What terms? Who are the shareholders? It takes strong, experienced leadership to nail this part.

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?

Hiring for a job vs. hiring the right person and finding them work to do was a mistake we made in the beginning. As a start-up, you might have an idea of how you want your company to be structured and how it looks down the road, however, one of the lessons I’ve learned is that building the right culture is integral for a young company and maintaining that culture as you scale is just as important. This is why we’re now more in tune with the ‘people’ we hire vs the ‘role’ we hire.

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

Answered in the above question — hire for people, and not roles.

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?

I think we do two things extremely well at C15 to scale our knowledge AND our culture.

  1. Hybrid work model — We employ roughly a 70/30 work-from-office/work-from-home model. This hybrid model is very important to us as it enables us to learn from each other and collaborate much more efficiently while simultaneously delivering a work/family balance that is quite rewarding.
  2. Lunch & learns — We schedule periodic lunch & learns (on the days when most of the team is in the office) and everyone rotates through being the ‘teacher’. They will speak to role-specific issues, team-specific issues, or even macro/tech-related issues and this usually generates some colourful team discussion!

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

Our Sales Team uses Hubspot as our CRM of choice and that’s a big part of our onboarding process — the entire sales journey and pipeline is effectively captured here. The Customer Success Team leverages Totango to track the deployment journey and customer health, so that’s also integral to the onboarding process of new hires.

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.

My answer to this hasn’t changed since I last spoke with Authority Magazine, so I’d still say make the conscious decision to step away from your devices and other digital distractions, in order to fully engage with the present moment and the people around you. I find myself in a similar position of looking for the right balance when it comes to tech of any kind, but especially AI. I absolutely see some of the merits of AI but I’m similarly apprehensive about some of its potential as well — look no further than Chaos GPT…

How can our readers further follow your work online?

You can keep up with C15 on Twitter and LinkedIn.

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

Sean Samuel Of C15 Solutions On 5 Things You Need To Know To Successfully Scale Your Business was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Meet The Disruptors: Doug Milburn Of Advanced Glazings On The Five Things You Need To Shake Up Your…

Meet The Disruptors: Doug Milburn Of Advanced Glazings On The Five Things You Need To Shake Up Your Industry

Disruption is change, change is inevitable, and ‘withstanding the test of time’ will not last forever. When disruption happens there are positive and negative aspects. I think this is true of every disruption.

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

As a long-time entrepreneur and innovator, Dr. Doug Milburn thrives on solving problems. For more than 35 years, he has brought his vision and passion to manufacturing, engineering, software development and process engineering. Throughout his leadership, Dr. Milburn has aimed to create great workplaces by shaping a company’s success through corporate values and ethical guidelines. Born and raised in Nova Scotia, Canada, , Dr. Milburn earned his undergraduate and Master’s degree in physics at Mount Allison University, before finishing his studies with a PhD in mechanical engineering at the University of Waterloo. In 1995, Dr. Milburn and his wife Michelle co-founded Advanced Glazings, which developed and manufactures SOLERA light diffusing glass, which enables architects to create beautifully daylighted buildings that are incredibly energy efficient. In 2001, Dr. Milburn co-founded Protocase with Steve Lilley. Protocase helps engineers, innovators and scientists accelerate their project timelines by manufacturing custom metal enclosures and parts in 2–3 days, with no minimum order requirements. Lilley and Dr. Milburn took the entrepreneurial leap once more in 2014, with the start of 45Drives. As a new enterprise company, 45Drives helps companies manage and scale their data-storage needs with ultra-large storage servers and clusters that are powerful, flexible and affordable.

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’m a technology person, proudly ‘geek’, from a rough and tough steel town. I had no idea what I wanted to do with my life, but I was really good at all things academic, but especially math and physics. I drifted my way to university, and when I first experienced experimental physics, I really connected to it. I continued through a Masters degree in physics, then a PhD in mechanical engineering at the University of Waterloo in Ontario Canada, specializing in solar energy materials. I had a great job offer when I finished, but I always had entrepreneurial ideas. Waterloo is Canada’s capital of innovation business, so it was a natural thing to consider. I took the plunge and started Advanced Glazings Ltd. to commercialize technology that had been developed in the lab where I did my research, and, as they say, the rest is history!

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

The companies I’ve started are all disruptive in their own areas. Advanced Glazings Ltd is about changing the way that people think about natural light in buildings. Truly great buildings need a connection to the outdoor environment, via view and daylight. But just using a lot of regular ‘vision glass’ creates uncomfortable buildings that have painful levels of glare, are too hot and cold, and are very energy inefficient. This isn’t good for the occupants, the owner, nor the environment. We created our unique Solera glass to address this problem. It is translucent and powerfully diffuses sunlight, turning it into white, clean, gentle daylight and spreading through the interior of the building preventing glare and overheating.

It is also the best insulating glass in the world (up to R25!) so it can save large amounts of energy vs. Regular glass. But this also allows architects and developers to create beautiful all glass buildings that meet the new energy codes that are being adopted in developed nations. So we are helping society avoid creating buildings that are unattractive dark caves, as an unintended side effect of these code changes.

On top of this, we’ve developed a new system for putting our glass, as well as vision glass on buildings. It is a glass panel system that goes onto buildings directly over the primary structure without the use of framing. This avoids the use of a whole lot of aluminum, resulting in faster build, lower installed cost, and better energy efficiency because we’ve removed these thermal short circuits that breach the building envelope. This product has only been out for a few years, but it looks like it has the potential to combine with other building technologies to create fast-build cost effective buildings that check all the boxes with respect to natural light, view, aesthetics, and indoor environmental quality.

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?

Early in my career, I had a situation with a contractor who was involved in a building project that we were supplying glass for. These guys were really getting on my nerves. They sent an email with what I felt was a ridiculous demand. When I got the ridiculous email, I quickly expressed my feelings unambiguously in what I thought was an email to my VP Sales (I said something like ‘these guys are so f&%%ing stupid I can’t believe it’. I hit send on my ‘forward’, then quickly realized I had actually hit reply. Whoops! It was after hours, i got up, sprinted to the server room, yanked the network cable on the email server, but the electrons were faster than i was. So I learned how to grovel and apologize at the same time. That’s the sort of situation that humor was created for!

We all need a little help along the journey. Who have been some of your mentors? Can you share a story?

I’ve been really lucky to have had a number of mentors in my professional life. My PhD supervisor, Dr. Terry Hollands of University of Waterloo was a huge influence and taught me so much about research and communications. I had a very good friend and Mentor, William Bugg, who ran a university CAD CAM machining centre. He was one of the sharpest manufacturing minds I’ve ever met, and taught me a huge amount. Dr. Paul Cant, Physics professor and my undergraduate thesis supervisor inspired and taught me — he was one of those people who could visualize and create without effort and helped me see that it was reasonable to chase my own visions. Herman Koza was my first VP Sales and Marketing. Herman had retired from a successful career where he had led a company from basically startup to nearly $1B in sales but came to work for me after becoming bored in retirement. He taught me much of what I know about sales and marketing. I have many more, and I deeply enjoy being around people who’ve achieved in their lives and are willing to share.

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 change, change is inevitable, and ‘withstanding the test of time’ will not last forever. When disruption happens there are positive and negative aspects. I think this is true of every disruption. The personal computer disrupted minicomputers — — the result over time was improvement for every person and organization that use computers. It also created huge new wealth for the new companies, and their employees and shareholders. But there were losers too, amongst the stakeholders of the minicomputer companies that were destroyed. So there are two sides to everything. This revolution was fairly net-positive, but we can pick other disruptions that have darker sides. So like so many things in life, its complicated.

Lead generation is one of the most important aspects of any business. Can you share some of the strategies you use to generate good, qualified leads?

We’ve been successful with a number of different approaches in lead gen. Advanced Glazings Ltd goes to market largely through architects. We have very successfully used the profession’s continuing education requirements to get attention for our dramatically new ideas which generate project leads. But we’ve been very successful at using technical content creation for promotion and lead gen in my other businesses in metal fab for science, and for open-source enterprise data storage. But underlying it all is a very intentional strategy to deliver a truly remarkable experience to our customers which results in new leads from word of mouth and referrals.

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

I have a whole lot on the go right now. There are big tailwinds behind Advanced Glazings Ltd right now. Highly energy efficient buildings with great natural light and lower operating costs are totally in. So I’m going to grow it into what it can be and change our view of what a great building is.

My other companies are also on a roll. Protocase is a leader in mass custom manufacturing, and we can manufacture things like electronic enclosures, sheet metal parts, and machined parts faster than anyone else in the world. We are just launching an aerospace division, Protospace MFG, ‘The fastest aerospace manufacturer in the word’, that helps an industry where late penalties can be crippling but the supply chain is old school. And its storage computer manufacturing division makes some of the largest enterprise data storage servers in the world under a ‘new enterprise’ business model that makes it an order of magnitude lower in cost than the legacy enterprise vendors or cloud.

So I have lots to do!

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 think the classic books Crossing the Chasm by Geoffrey Moore, and The Innovators Dilemma by Clayton Christenssen, really helped me understand the basic patterns of technology adoption.

I’m also a huge podcast listener and listen to way too many to list. But I might mention a podcast called Storybrand. I think they have a crystal-clear view on emotions in marketing, and the need for simplicity and clarity. Their ideas go miles farther than the standard dogma of business school. It’s small business oriented but the principles are universal and can be adapted to technology and growth business.

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

“What goes around, comes around.” Treat people well and they’ll look after you. This especially applies when you are in a position of power. Look after everyone around you, and you’ll get looked after.

You are a person of 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 grew up in a old steel town that was once hugely prosperous (we’d be called ‘rust belt’ in the US). People took it for granted that the mill would always be around creating wealth. Steelworkers were well paid relative to the rest of the economy, but there was always an anticapitalist undercurrent working away to create conflict and an adversarial relationship to the goose that laid the golden eggs. Then, in my lifetime, the steel market went bad, and that, along with the internal turmoil from the marxist factions, destroyed it. I watched the government and unions try to save it, then create alternative wealth. But they completely failed, and decades later the community is only now starting to recover. I watch that anticapitalist sentament grow all across the developed world. But my experience tells me exactly what happens if it takes over.

With this experience in mind, I’ve shaped our companies in a way that protects it from these attitudes. We’ve created a culture around a ethics statement that says the company only succeeds when its stakeholders succeed, and vice versa. We teach it and live it. Its created a positive and energetic workplace that is productivity focused. This makes the company strong and employees and shareholders and suppliers successful. We believe we have a template for new capitalism.

If I had the time I’d like to try to spread our ideas around and create a movement to embrace and reshape capitalism in a more human way. Killing the goose that laid the golden eggs would be a tragedy, as it was in my hometown. Conversely, creating companies where people can join and find a social group and opportunity for achievement and mastery, while generating prosperity, is a beautiful thing.

Where can we go to keep up with your work at Advanced Glazings?

www.advancedglazings.com

https://www.facebook.com/AdvancedGlazingsltd/

https://www.linkedin.com/in/advanced-glazings-ltd-848b4625/?originalSubdomain=ca

https://twitter.com/Solera_Daylight

https://www.instagram.com/advancedglazingsltd/

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCLHPmKrhHJCVhhWzar1wN1w?view_as=subscriber

https://www.pinterest.ca/advancedglazings/

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

Meet The Disruptors: Doug Milburn Of Advanced Glazings On The Five Things You Need To Shake Up Your… was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Rana Salman Of Salman Consulting On How To Be Great At Sales Without Seeming Salesy

Being responsive and reliable: Timeliness and reliability play a significant role in building trust and maintaining a positive impression. Respond promptly to customer inquiries, provide accurate information, and follow up on commitments.

As a part of my series about how to be great at closing sales without seeming pushy, obnoxious, or salesy, I had the pleasure of interviewing Rana Salman, MBA, Ph.D.

Rana Salman, M.B.A, PhD is a renowned expert in the sales industry who is transforming the performance of sales teams worldwide. With a background in marketing and years of experience in enterprise-level B2B sales, she has established herself as a trusted partner for global organizations seeking to elevate their sales strategies and execution. As the founder of Salman Consulting, LLC, Salman collaborates with midsize and Fortune 500 IT companies to create tailored sales strategies, develop compelling sales content, and deliver impactful training sessions. She is also the author of Sales Essentials: The Tools You Need at Every Stage to Close More Deals and Crush Your Quota.

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?

Certainly! My name is Rana Salman, and I am the CEO of Salman Consulting. Our focus is on enhancing the performance of sellers through comprehensive strategies, impactful content, and targeted training. My personal journey into the world of sales and sales consulting began during my Ph.D. studies. As I was completing my degree, I had the opportunity to take a course in consulting, and I was immediately drawn to the field. I decided to give it a try and little did I know that this initial curiosity would lead me to where I am today, decades later, still passionate and dedicated to this work.

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 takeaway you took out of that story?

I’ve had numerous interesting and amusing experiences throughout my career. One particular story that stands out is when I started my own company six years ago and secured my first deal under its name. It was an exhilarating moment that taught me valuable lessons.

To land that first deal, I diligently followed the best practices we teach our sales representatives. This included customized prospecting, disciplined preparation for sales calls, conducting effective discovery, focusing on the customers’ perspective, and tailoring solutions to their specific needs. Throughout this process, I gleaned several key takeaways:

Firstly, I learned the importance of patience and grit in achieving success. Building a business and securing deals takes time, effort, and perseverance. This experience reinforced the significance of staying committed and determined even in the face of challenges.

Secondly, I discovered the value of trusting the process. By adhering to proven strategies and methodologies, I witnessed firsthand how a structured approach can lead to positive outcomes. Trusting in the process allowed me to remain focused and confident, knowing that I was following a proven path to success.

Thirdly, I realized the power of maintaining a positive mindset. Approaching each interaction and opportunity with optimism and enthusiasm created a positive energy that resonated with potential clients. It taught me that maintaining a positive attitude not only attracts positive results but also fosters stronger relationships and connections with customers.

Lastly, this experience highlighted the importance of celebrating even the smallest victories. Securing that first deal was a significant milestone, and it taught me the value of acknowledging and appreciating progress along the way. Celebrating those little wins boosts morale, motivation, and ultimately contributes to long-term success.

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

Definitely! I’m actually pretty excited about a new project I’ve been working on. It’s my first sales book called Sales Essentials, which will be published by the renowned McGraw Hill this June. The book is a practical guide designed to assist sales reps at any stage of the deal, and I’ve made sure it’s easy to navigate.

Sales Essentials covers all the essential elements needed for success in sales. As someone who is a sales practitioner, I understand that time is a precious resource for salespeople, and we need to make the most of it. That’s why I wanted to create something that provides reps with what they need, when they need it. No fancy jargon or beating around the bush here. I’m laying it all out — straightforward and to the point.

The book is packed with data, insights from my own experiences as a seller and training salespeople around the world, and real-life stories. It covers everything from what to do before a sale, during the sale, and even after the sale. Additionally, I’ve included case studies and helpful sales tools for both reps and their managers.

I believe this book will be a valuable resource for sales professionals, equipping them with the knowledge and strategies they need to excel. It’s all about providing practical guidance that can make a real difference in their day-to-day work. I’m genuinely excited to share these insights and help people achieve their sales goals with Sales Essentials.

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 firmly believe that none of us can achieve success on our own. There are several people who have played a crucial role in getting me to where I am today. We’ll quickly run out of space here if I were to mention everyone individually, so let me summarize the key contributors for you.

First and foremost, my teachers from grade school to postgraduates hold a special place in my heart. When my family immigrated to the United States when I was 11 years old, I faced the daunting task of adapting to a new country and school. The kindness and unwavering belief of my teachers in me were invaluable, even at times when I was questioning myself every day. They nurtured my potential, supported me, and played an essential role in shaping my path.

My parents deserve immense gratitude as well. They embarked on the journey to the US with limited resources, driven by their aspiration to provide my siblings and me with a better life. I watched them day in and day out, working tirelessly and showing unwavering determination to create a better future for us. Their relentless efforts taught me the true meaning of grit and courage.

In addition, I have a remarkable support system at home, especially my husband. His love, support, encouragement, and feedback have propelled me forward. He has been instrumental in helping me grow and achieve my goals.

Lastly, I owe a significant portion of my success to my customers. From the early stages of my career, they took a chance on me, allowing me to prove my worth and showcase my abilities. Their trust and partnership have been crucial in my professional development.

For the benefit of our readers, can you tell us a bit why you are an authority on the topic of sales?

Fair question! I’ve been involved in marketing, sales, and sales consulting for 20+ years. To put it into perspective, my kids were babies when I started consulting, and now they’re almost done with college and high school. So, you can tell it’s been quite a journey! 😊

Throughout my career, I have successfully sold to diverse clients, including medium to large IT organizations, higher education institutions, non-profit entities, and healthcare providers. This breadth of experience has provided me with a comprehensive understanding of the sales landscape across various sectors.

As a sales consultant, I have worked diligently to create and implement effective sales enablement programs. These programs have been developed with a practical focus, allowing sales representatives to navigate each stage of the sales process with confidence and achieve tangible results. My approach is rooted in actionable strategies supported by research and data, ensuring that the solutions I provide are not merely theoretical but grounded in real-world effectiveness.

I am truly honored to have been selected by McGraw Hill as the author of a sales book, which serves as a testament to both my years of experience and the trust placed in my expertise. This opportunity further reinforces my commitment to delivering valuable insights and guidance to sales professionals seeking to enhance their skills and achieve greater success in their respective roles.

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?

Speaking from personal experience, when I first entered the world of sales, there weren’t many resources available to guide me. Many of us from my generation and older stumbled into sales by chance and had to learn the ropes through trial and error. It was definitely a challenging journey. However, I have to say that the situation has significantly improved over time.

Nowadays, there are effective formal sales programs offered by reputable universities such as Texas A&M, TCU, Northern Illinois University, University of Texas — Dallas, Florida International University, and more. I’ve had the opportunity to interact with some of the professors leading these programs, and they are true rockstars who genuinely care about the sales profession. They have developed a compelling curriculum and actively involve industry practitioners to enhance the learning experience.

So, while there may have been a historical lack of formal education in sales, it’s reassuring to witness the positive changes and increasing availability of quality programs that prepare individuals for success in the sales profession.

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?

In my opinion, it’s important for sales representatives to avoid being pushy. However, it’s crucial to differentiate between being pushy and demonstrating persistence while conducting value-based follow-ups. When a sales rep adopts a pushy approach, it often indicates an inward focus, where the conversation revolves around the salesperson’s agenda rather than considering the customer’s needs and perspective.

This inward-focused approach can be a major turn-off for customers as it fails to prioritize their interests. It hampers empathy and connection, both of which are vital in developing strong partnerships and high-trust relationships. When a salesperson becomes pushy, it triggers the customer’s defenses and can have a detrimental impact on future sales opportunities. It’s important to remember the simple rule of treating people as we would like to be treated.

By avoiding a pushy demeanor, sales professionals can ensure that the customer remains at the forefront of the conversation. This customer-centric approach fosters a deeper level of understanding, enhances trust, and paves the way for mutually beneficial partnerships. Ultimately, it’s about maintaining a genuine connection with customers, respecting their needs, and building long-lasting relationships based on trust and 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?

So, I love prospecting and landing new logos, and it’s one of my favorite programs to train reps on. While I don’t have a secret that makes me exceptionally good at it, there are several key factors that contribute to my success in this stage. Here are some of them:

  • First and foremost, discipline and consistency are essential in prospecting. Consistently allocating dedicated time throughout the week to prospecting ensures a healthy and robust pipeline. Without regular prospecting, the pipeline can suffer, so maintaining a disciplined approach is crucial.
  • Another vital aspect is having a clear understanding of the buyer profile and buyer persona. Identifying the specific buyers who see value in your solution allows for a more targeted and effective approach. This knowledge helps in crafting personalized outreach that resonates with the intended audience.
  • Utilizing tools such as LinkedIn Sales Navigator is instrumental in creating a smart and targeted prospect list. Leveraging different channels, including social media, email, phone, and events, helps build familiarity, establish connections, and expand reach.
  • Effective follow-up is key. Each follow-up should provide value and demonstrate genuine interest in addressing the prospect’s needs. It’s essential to customize and personalize the experience rather than relying on generic outreach, as personalized communication stands out and grabs attention.
  • When there’s interest expressed, it’s important not to delay. Booking appointments promptly is crucial, as the longer the time gap, the less likely you’ll secure a spot on their agenda.

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?

Lead generation, or prospecting, is an essential and foundational step in the sales cycle. While every industry has its unique characteristics, there are fundamental strategies that can be employed to generate good, qualified leads. I’ve shared several in my answer above. And I’ll share more here.

  • Familiarize Yourself with the Industry: It’s crucial to have a deep understanding of the industry you operate in. By immersing yourself in the industry’s trends, challenges, and opportunities, you can identify key milestones and events where there is a heightened need for your solution. For instance, in my practice, IT customers often hold sales kickoffs during specific times of the year. Recognizing this, I align my prospecting efforts to coincide with these compelling events, which increases the chances of capturing their attention and interest.
  • Leverage Analytics to Understand Customer Behaviors and Triggers: Utilizing analytics tools can provide valuable insights into customer behaviors and triggers. By analyzing data such as website interactions, content engagement, purchasing patterns, social media engagements, you can gain a deeper understanding of your target audience’s preferences and needs. This information allows you to tailor your lead generation efforts to align with their interests and pain points, increasing the likelihood of attracting qualified leads.
  • Utilize Your Network: As the old saying goes, “Your network is your net worth.” It is a valuable asset in lead generation. Tap into your professional network, industry connections, and relationships with existing customers. Leverage these relationships to seek referrals and introductions to potential leads. People are more likely to trust their internal referral network for recommendations.
  • Revisit Lost Deals and Reengage with Prospects: No surprise, but in the world of sales, we encounter many instances where we lose deals. And it’s not always because we didn’t do a great job, but rather because the timing, pricing, or product didn’t align perfectly with the prospect’s needs at that specific moment. And during this process, many times we genuinely click with the prospect despite not closing the deal initially, which is why it’s important to re-engage with your prospects that you clicked with and stay in tune with what’s happening in their world because there is still potential for future opportunities.
  • Make it part of your process to ask for referrals : Referrals are a powerful tool in lead generation. Ask your loyal customers to refer you to their peers and colleagues within their own organization and outside.
  • Also, don’t forget about the power of expanding within existing accounts. There are leads within these accounts that you need to pay attention to. Treat prospecting within existing accounts with as much diligence as if you’re prospecting into new accounts.

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’?

Yes, the process of handling objections can be particularly challenging for individuals, and there are a few reasons why this is the case.

Firstly, the fear of the unknown plays a significant role. When faced with objections, salespeople may feel uncertain about how to respond effectively and worry about the outcome. Additionally, there is a strong desire to preserve the hard work put into the sales process and avoid losing the opportunity. This fear of losing can make handling objections feel overwhelming and daunting.

Furthermore, the fear of making a fool of oneself or seeming incompetent can hinder individuals when it comes to addressing objections. Sales professionals often want to appear knowledgeable and capable, and objections can sometimes trigger insecurities about their expertise or ability to address customer concerns.

Another reason why it can be difficult for individuals to handle objections is the emotional attachment they may develop towards their offerings, which can make it feel like someone is calling their baby ugly when objections are raised. This personal attachment can create a sense of defensiveness and hinder their ability to respond objectively and constructively.

Limited experience in sales and a lack of product knowledge, particularly for new sellers who are suddenly faced with customer questions, can contribute to the difficulty of handling objections. The pressure and intimidation of trying to respond to objections without sufficient knowledge or experience can be overwhelming.

To be better at handling objections, I recommend a few strategies. Firstly, preparation is key. It’s crucial to anticipate objections in advance and prepare thoughtful responses. By understanding common objections in your industry or product/service, you can proactively address them during the sales conversation.

Additionally, active listening and empathetic communication are essential. By genuinely understanding and acknowledging the customer’s concerns, you can respond in a more personalized and reassuring manner. This helps build trust and demonstrates that you value their perspective. Furthermore, do not hesitate to seek clarification by asking questions. Occasionally, you may discover that the customer’s intention is entirely different from what you initially assumed.

Also, when faced with objections, be aware of your body language, tone of voice, and overall demeanor. If you come across as nervous or speak hastily, these behaviors can be perceived as signs of insecurity or lack of confidence, potentially undermining your ability to address the objections effectively.

‘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 that a sales rep sets themselves up for a successful close from the first sales call by implementing specific strategies throughout the sales process. Here are five key approaches they can employ to close a sale without being perceived as pushy:

  1. Selling value: Rather than focusing solely on the product or service features, emphasize the value and benefits it brings to the customer. Show them how your solution addresses their specific pain points and improves their overall business. For example, during a sales pitch for a project management software, a sales rep could highlight how the software streamlines processes, reduces costs, and increases team productivity by sharing success stories of other satisfied clients who experienced similar benefits.
  2. Collaborating with the customer on the solution: Involve the customer in the decision-making process and co-create a solution that aligns with their needs. Actively listen to their concerns, preferences, and goals, and work together to find the best fit. Throughout my sales career, I have encountered situations where I successfully collaborated with customers on various aspects, including uncovering their challenges, designing a customized solution, identifying payment terms and SOW structure that works for both parties, and developing a phased approach.
  3. Identifying the internal decision-making process: Understand the customer’s internal decision-making process by identifying the key stakeholders, decision-makers, and influencers involved and their role in the sales process. By doing so, you can tailor your approach and communication to address their individual needs and concerns.

I learned a hard lesson in my career when I assumed an executive was the one signing the contract and approving the purchase order (PO) for a significant deal. With this assumption, I confidently included the deal in my sales forecast, expecting a successful close.

To my surprise, I was shocked to discover that the proposal actually required approval from the board. This revelation caught me off guard and put the entire deal at risk. This situation could have been avoided if I had taken the time to unpack the internal approval process more thoroughly.

4. Always going back to the customer’s “why”: Continuously remind the customer of their initial motivations and goals. By revisiting their original pain points and objectives, you can reinforce how your solution aligns with their desired outcomes. For instance, during a negotiation with a potential client for an onboarding program, instead of solely focusing on the program’s features and logistics, I made a deliberate effort to bring the conversation back to the core purpose. I revisited the primary goal of reducing ramp-up time and demonstrated how our proposed strategy effectively achieves that objective.

5. Being responsive and reliable: Timeliness and reliability play a significant role in building trust and maintaining a positive impression. Respond promptly to customer inquiries, provide accurate information, and follow up on commitments.

For example, I vividly remember an incident that highlights the importance of being responsive. I was in the airport when I received an email notification informing me that a buyer had downloaded a contact me form and wanted to discuss a project. Despite the hectic environment, I found a quiet corner at the airport, quickly researched the buyer, and promptly gave him a call. He expressed sincere appreciation for the immediate response. We were still talking while I was boarding the plane.

During our conversation, we discussed his initiatives and the challenges he was facing. By the end of our call, I had qualified the opportunity and already scheduled a follow-up in-person meeting to delve further into the solution and scope. This swift and attentive approach left a lasting impression on the buyer, demonstrating my commitment to providing exceptional service.

I believe that speed is a competitive differentiator. By prioritizing responsiveness, I not only fostered a positive customer experience but also gained a competitive edge because I was able to get in first and help in developing the vision. Promptly addressing customer needs and initiating meaningful conversations can lead to accelerated sales cycles and increased customer satisfaction.

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?

First and foremost, it’s crucial to ask yourself before sending a follow-up, “What value am I adding to the prospects?” Simply sending a generic follow-up like, “Just checking in if you received my last email!” is unlikely to grab your prospect’s attention. Instead, consider leveraging personalized insights. For example, if you come across something the prospect posted on LinkedIn, you can follow up with an email that attaches a relevant resource related to their post. This demonstrates that you’ve taken the time to understand their interests and needs and provided something of value.

Another approach is to stay informed about the initiatives their company is focusing on. Suppose you discover that they are leading a specific initiative. In that case, you can consider inviting them to an event that addresses a relevant topic related to their work. By extending this invitation, you showcase your interest in their success and provide an opportunity for them to further engage with you.

The key to successful follow-up is adding value. Instead of merely checking in, aim to offer insights, resources, or opportunities that align with the prospect’s interests and goals. This approach demonstrates that you’re invested in their success and establishes you as a valuable partner rather than an overeager salesperson.

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?

In considering the best approach, it’s important to acknowledge that the effectiveness of communication depends on various factors and contexts. However, when it comes to closing a deal and securing a verbal confirmation, it’s generally advisable to avoid conducting strategic conversations solely over email. The written format can easily lead to misunderstandings or crucial details being overlooked. Instead, opt for video calls or face-to-face meetings where you can actively engage, be present, and maintain attentive communication.

It might be tempting to simply send a proposal via email and ask the customer to review it and provide feedback. However, this approach carries the risk of your message getting lost in the sea of countless emails they receive daily. To make a lasting impression and foster meaningful dialogue, prioritize personal interaction. Utilize video calls to visually share your proposal, allowing you to establish a connection and delve into the customer’s underlying motivations, needs, desired business outcomes, and challenges. By understanding their perspective, you can present a proposed solution that directly addresses their concerns.

Engaging your buyers in real time through video calls presents an excellent opportunity for immediate input and clarification. This enables you to promptly identify and address any potential oversights. During the video call, you can also inform them that you’ll be sending a final proposal via email, incorporating their input and checking for their availability and desired deadline. By establishing this communication beforehand, there are no surprises when they receive the final proposal, setting the stage for a quicker turnaround.

Reflecting on my early career, I vividly recall an incident that serves as a valuable lesson about relying too heavily on email communication. I had sent the Statement of Work (SOW) and followed up several times, but all I received in return was silence. It took me a week to realize that my executive sponsor was on vacation — a clear oversight on my part. This situation could have been easily avoided had I taken a more proactive approach, such as scheduling a video call and guiding them through the proposal while considering their availability. Valuable lesson learned!

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. 🙂

If I could ignite a movement that maximizes positive impact for the greatest number of people, it would be to inspire individuals to recognize their power in making a difference. I know it may sound cliché, but I genuinely believe it from the depths of my being. Each one of us, regardless of our background or origins, has the potential to contribute something remarkable to our society and be a catalyst for change. It doesn’t have to be something big. I remember a personal experience that exemplifies this. My math teacher, during my senior year in high school, convinced me not to drop calculus after I failed my first test ever. In that moment, he believed in me and shared the valuable lesson that giving up after one failure is not the answer. It was just a 30-minute conversation, but it made an enormous impact on me. This incident taught me a lifelong lesson. It showed me that even seemingly small actions can create significant change and influence others in profound ways. So, let’s remember that every interaction and act of encouragement, no matter how brief, holds the power to inspire and transform lives.

How can our readers follow you online?

You can follow me on LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/ranasalman1. And of course, to learn more about the topics we discussed, your audience can pre-order my book at Amazon.

Thank you for the interview. We wish you only continued success!

Rana Salman Of Salman Consulting On How To Be Great At Sales Without Seeming Salesy was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Cam Franca Of Packaging Price On 5 Ways To Create a Wow! Customer Experience

Trustworthiness.

As a part of our series about the five things a business should do to create a Wow! customer experience, I had the pleasure of interviewing Cam Franca, CSR Manager at PackagingPrice.com.

Cam Franca is an enthusiastic customer service professional with over 20 years of experience in the packaging, construction, and steel industries. Dedicated to exceeding the expectations of Packaging Price’s customers, her specialty is making each customer feel valued by listening and following through to the end. Outside of work Cam enjoys traveling and spending time with her 7 wonderful grandchildren who really keep her on her toes!

Thank you so much for joining us! Our readers would love to “get to know you” a bit better. Can you tell us a bit about your ‘backstory’ and how you got started?

My grandfather, who I affectionately called Hammy, has been a driving force through most of my life. Hammy’s life lessons shaped me both personally, and professionally. As a wife, mom of four, and “Gigi” to seven, I cherish the lessons I’m now able to pass down to the next generation.

Hammy owned an insulation company and often brought me to work with him. I sat at his desk, messing it up I’m sure — but marveled in the magic of the business surrounding me. The most prominent of my memories was Hammy with his customers. Even now, the warmth envelopes me thinking of the relationship Hammy had with everyone he met. Nice firm handshakes, enthusiastic smiles and a hands-on approach, Hammy showed me what great customer service was before I was old enough to articulate the words.

These life lessons from Hammy carried me as life threw its curve balls my way. They carried me when I co-owned my own insulation company, during my time in the steel industry, as a purchaser, as a seminar organizer, and in my many roles within customer service. All of this experience and knowledge translated into a skill set I find to be an asset to my team.

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?

Rejoining the work force after being a stay-at-home mom is intimidating. I remember sitting at my desk after being asked to convert data sheets into a usable spreadsheet shared among the team. I thought I knew how to use excel proficiently and I’m also sure I reassured my boss at the time I could manage the task. We all know where this is going, don’t we?

I learned in about five minutes that I must have been lying to myself! I resorted to the very professional strategy of texting my teenage children for help. After we all had a good laugh, I turned to watching YouTube videos. I learned so much about the use of the internet and excel. The takeaway was important though. I was more than capable of problem solving and I was more than competent to make it professionally when armed with Hammy’s life lessons and a little elbow grease.

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 would be remise if I only mentioned a few names out of all those who have helped me. The truth is at some point most professional relationships turn into friendships. I’ve had so many colleagues and past managers who stand out because of the role they played in my career development. These colleagues — or friends, challenged me, taught me, encouraged me throughout my career and truly grew me into the professional I am now.

I feel so lucky to be in this role at Packaging Price where I can utilize those skills and share them amongst my team. It is amazing what we can accomplish when we all help each other be the best employees for ourselves. The teamwork atmosphere Packaging Price promotes generates a healthy dynamic where I’m still learning from my colleagues today and hopefully imparting my wisdom back to them.

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

When I think back on the customers I’ve helped over the years, I smile. Knowing that I helped them achieve their own goals is such a rewarding and powerful feeling. That feeling carried over to my professional success within customer service. Throughout any business’s life cycle, growth is arguably the most fun. Customers are the driving force to growth, security, and stability. Arguably, this is why customer experiences are the foundations to a successful and thriving business. When you can showcase your brand identity through treating customers with humility and kindness, it gives your company credibility and reputation. I’m lucky to be a part of that process.

The ultimate positive customer experience is what I constantly preach to my team. We are tasked with aligning customers’ beginning expectations and final take aways, in partnership. If you can provide a quality experience, customers will associate your brand with that fond memory and will always remember their encounter.

My approach to this partnership with customers is if I know there is an issue, I’ll get it done. Correctly. It’s simply the right thing to do and I’m so lucky Packaging Price allows and encourages us to do the right thing by our customers.

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 believe the customer experience is lost when companies prioritize their bottom line over customers. The way a brand makes you feel draws you in to try their product but how a company treats you is how you become a long-term customer. When a company values money above all else, the customer experience dwindles.

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

About a decade ago, in a previous position, part of my role was assisting internal personnel coming to our Chicago location for short and long-term work trips. A group of recruiters, customers, and current employees had all flown in and were working together on a time-sensitive project. One afternoon we had a terrible storm which resulted in our air conditioning units being ripped from the building adjacent to where these “guests” were working.

The event caused an urgency to move this team from one floor of our building to another due to deadlines and already lost time because of the storm. Utilizing my knowledge of our internal software and onboarding procedures, I was able to quickly jump into action and relocate the entire team. By managing expectations, questions, moving everyone to new desks, and finding available equipment I was able to quickly get this team back on track with their project and they met their deadline.

One of the recruiters was so appreciative he gave me a glowing review on LinkedIn!

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

Yes, I am still friends with the recruiters, and they even placed me in my current position at Packaging Price!

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

1) Trustworthiness

2) Transparency

3) Brand Identity

4) Problem Solving

5) Listening

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?

I’m so privileged to work for a company that really empowers us as employees to provide a positive customer experience. Even with the best of intentions, life happens, and so I work by these philosophies about customer service. First, keeping your word no matter what. Second, approach everything with thoughtfulness. There is rarely a situation you cannot fix or handle with these two mindsets arming you. Building longevity in business relationships is paramount and trust is of the utmost importance.

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

I would say a lot of small things make big waves. Having a mass amount of people doing small acts of kindness has a huge ripple effect. As Hammy would say, no matter what you do to help others, having compassion and humility in your everyday life can be the small contribution you make to the big wave.

How can our readers follow you on social media?

https://www.linkedin.com/in/cam-franca-hauser-780884a5/

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

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

Female Disruptors: How Kylen Ribeiro Of Lightbody Has Shaken Up the Legal and Energy Industries

Always think about how you can improve the lives of your employees, if you have them. The more you do for your most valuable assets, the more your business will thrive. For example, can you give them a better work schedule or give bonuses as a thank you for growing revenue? Knowing what is important to each person in your business will help you make these decisions.

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

Kylen Ribeiro is the co-founder and Chief Executive Officer at Lightbody, the premier supplement company for Digital Wellness and today’s modern lifestyles. Using the latest research and knowledge from her team’s relationships with doctors, physicians, researchers, biologists, scientists, and formulators, she created the world’s only supplements designed to support and optimize the body’s overall health and cellular resiliency. Lightbody is the only supplement company that addresses health issues caused by the overuse of digital devices and other toxins.

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 a cozy suburb of Raleigh, North Carolina. When I was three years old my childhood friend joined a swim team and I couldn’t resist jumping in too! Little did I know that this early exposure to swimming would ignite a lifelong passion for competition and maintaining optimal health. Through my passion, training, and dedication, I became a Division 1 collegiate swimmer at Florida State University.

After earning my Masters in Business Administration, I began my career as an executive at the renowned international grocery retailer, ALDI. For more than a decade, I delved into every aspect of store operations, from humble tasks like scrubbing toilets to managing hundreds of employees. It was through this experience that I honed my leadership skills. I continued my passion for health and fitness during this time and became a registered Yoga instructor.

As I entered the next phase of my career, I was inspired to make a meaningful impact in the wellness sphere, especially after reevaluating my life in the midst of having my first child. I joined DefenderShield, a startup in St. Petersburg, Florida, whose mission is to help people reduce their exposure to digital signals that come from all devices like cell phones, tablets, and laptops. In this rapidly emerging market, I was positioned as a thought leader, and helped the company set the bar for pioneering the Digital Wellness industry.

While the company was successful in protecting people from electromagnetic fields (EMFs), I became increasingly aware of the need to bolster the body’s internal cellular resilience. Realizing that the supplement industry lacked a solution, I linked up with business partners, experts, scientists, and formulators to create something new. Drawing on the latest research, we developed Lightbody’s innovative formulations, designed to support the body’s natural resilience to the challenges posed by toxins and overuse of digital devices.

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

When it comes to Digital Wellness, we’re talking about shaking things up and challenging the way we typically approach technology for future generations. It’s about finding a healthy and balanced relationship with our devices and taking charge of our well-being in the digital world. With everyone hyper-connected and reliant on technology, Digital Wellness is the next health frontier. My team and I have dedicated our work to tackling the downside of too much screen time, information overload, and constant connectivity. We are the only supplement dedicated to addressing these problems.

Everyone on the planet today is exposed to digital devices, EMFs, and toxins, which are all detrimental to health. However, children, due to their size and proximity to their devices, are affected even more by technology exposure through electromagnetic frequencies, blue light, and media content being consumed. They are at risk due to their developing nervous systems, social abilities, and longer lifetime exposure to ever present technology from birth.

Digital Wellness flips the script on our society’s long-held attitude towards technology: that it makes everything easier, faster, and altogether better. My company is committed to education about how to be intentional and how to engage with our digital devices in a healthy way. This mindset opens up exciting opportunities for ideas and products like Lightbody to help manage health in a holistic way.

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

During the early days of our business, we found ourselves overwhelmed with orders during the holiday season. We were still a small team, and it was all hands on deck. It was a sight to behold as we were transformed into a makeshift assembly line, clumsily trying to tape packages and slap on labels. Despite our best efforts, chaos ensued as we mixed up addresses, attached wrong labels, and even managed to include some unexpected surprises in the packages. We eventually got our act together, but those holiday shipping mishaps became legendary tales that still make us laugh whenever we reminisce about those early days!

The lesson I learned is the importance of adaptability and maintaining a sense of humor when faced with unexpected challenges. In the early stages of a business, it goes without saying that you must wear multiple hats and tackle tasks outside of your comfort zone. Embrace the inevitable mistakes and mishaps along the journey as valuable learning opportunities. Sometimes you’ll encounter situations that you have to laugh through to keep from crying!

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?

At the age of 14, my club swim team welcomed a new coach named Ron Turner and this marked a crucial turning point in my swimming journey. The timing was particularly significant as it coincided with the start of high school, when college recruiters frequently visited our school. I was already an above average swimmer when Ron became my coach, but he pushed me to the next level by increasing the hours I spent in the pool, while also requiring additional dry land and weight training. He encouraged me to consider how every aspect of my life outside the pool impacted my performance, including sleep and nutrition. Ron recognized my potential and pushed me beyond my perceived limits. Thanks to his guidance, I had the privilege of exploring various scholarship opportunities at Division I schools ultimately choosing Florida State University. There I became a team captain, made lifelong friends, and met my husband, who was also a swimmer.

At my first real job as a retail executive, Dave Rinaldo was my direct leader. He not only held me accountable, but also genuinely cared about me and everyone else that worked for him. When he visited the stores, he made it a point to chat with everyone that was working to get to know them on a personal level. He always remembered details about our lives because he truly cared about us as individuals, not just about how well we performed for the business. His leadership style created an environment where I wasn’t afraid to stumble and learn from my mistakes, all while setting the bar high for excellence. He took the time to understand what motivated me and tapped into those factors to help me reach my professional goals.

The most impactful mentor in my life has to be my current business partner, co-founder of DefenderShield and Chairman of Lightbody’s Board of Directors, Daniel DeBaun. It all started when I crossed paths with his son, Ryan DeBaun, a DefenderShield co-founder, during our Yoga Teacher Training program. As soon as I learned about their business, I felt an undeniable excitement and burning desire to be part of the startup journey. Dan and Ryan gave me the opportunity of a lifetime when they brought me on board. As we grew the company, I established Lightbody as another business venture. Dan’s wealth of experience and wisdom, empathy towards others, uncanny business intuition, and calculated risk-taking have become valuable lessons in entrepreneurship for me.

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 have two kids, so I can assure you that disruptive isn’t always a positive adjective for me! However, there are many times in which disruption within an industry can be positive. For example, the way we think about our health as a society needs major disruption. In my opinion, the Western medical industry treats symptoms and does not focus on getting people well by discovering the source of their problem or supporting their bodies in the healing process. We should take cues from healthier societies which prescribe less pharmaceuticals and use Eastern medicine with natural, centuries-old remedies to promote regeneration within our bodies. For example, little known but truly disruptive research by Dr. Robert Navieaux explores Cell Danger Response (CDR), the protective mechanisms triggered by cells in response to various threats (physical, chemical, or biological), aiming to understand and harness the potential for therapeutic treatments in disease and injury. By using specific interventions, including targeted supplements, roadblocks to healing are removed and the body can become well again.

While disrupting any industry can have far-reaching negative consequences, I believe that in the long run, the positive outcomes can outweigh the initial challenges. For instance, although there may be short term job losses and economic ripple effects, embracing new ways of doing things can lead to societal progress.

Can you please share 5 ideas one needs to shake up their industry? If you can, please share a story or an example for each.

  1. Embrace emerging technologies in a mindful way. There are many exciting new technologies to try, such as artificial intelligence (AI). Using new tech as a tool can be great, but make sure to always stay in the driver’s seat. Just like the relationship between health and technology, relying solely on it may have downsides. By being conscious of how we incorporate technology into our creative processes, we can ensure that it serves as a valuable tool rather than overshadowing our own unique vision and decision-making. For instance, while many businesses now have the capability to fully automate customer service, maintaining a personal touch might be the key to fostering long-term customer loyalty.
  2. Invest your time in optimizing high-growth platforms. For example, if you sell products, focus on e-commerce before brick and mortar.
  3. Address environmental sustainability. From small to large impacts, every business can do something to improve its impact on the environment. Attainable things every business can do are monitoring energy usage, implementing waste reduction and recycling programs, and supporting local and sustainable suppliers. At the end of the day, businesses and governments are where the real sustainability impacts are made.
  4. Increase your level of connection with people. Technology, while improving our lives immensely, reduces our face-to-face interactions and can cause other negative impacts to the mind and body. Whether it be having an in-office work environment, or events for your clients or staff, make sure you’re regularly connecting in person with your business partners, friends, and family as often as possible.
  5. Always think about how you can improve the lives of your employees, if you have them. The more you do for your most valuable assets, the more your business will thrive. For example, can you give them a better work schedule or give bonuses as a thank you for growing revenue? Knowing what is important to each person in your business will help you make these decisions.

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

Get ready for a revolution in the way we approach our health and wellbeing, because Digital Wellness is about to shake things up!

With technology infiltrating nearly every aspect of our lives, it’s time to pause and reflect on how it’s impacting us now and for the long term. Just think about it: After hours of screen time, how do you feel? Are your eyes dry and strained? Do you suffer from headaches? Is your precious sleep disrupted by too much screen exposure? Sometimes, when everything else is in check, we overlook the impact of our tech habits.

I’m especially passionate about empowering the next generation with the necessary knowledge and tools to navigate technology safely and responsibly. It’s crucial to me that we equip kids to make good choices to protect their well-being when it comes to screen time. By providing them with the right guidance, we can ensure that they develop healthy and balanced relationships with technology, enabling them to thrive in our increasingly connected world.

Lightbody has some pretty exciting things on the horizon. We are looking at the newest research surrounding novel ingredients for making even more bioavailable formulations to help the body’s cellular resilience. Equally as important is our commitment to embracing more sustainable practices, and one of the key areas we are focusing on is regenerative agriculture. Regenerative agriculture is an approach that goes beyond sustainability, aiming to restore and enhance the health of the soil, biodiversity, and ecosystem as a whole. By utilizing ingredients grown using regenerative practices, such as cover cropping, crop rotation, and regenerative grazing, we aim to not only reduce our environmental footprint but also contribute to the long term health and resilience of our planet for generations to come.

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 most impactful book I’ve read is The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho. This book opened my mind to what can happen if you embrace the unknown, follow your intuition, and stay attuned to the subtle signs the universe sends your way. The Alchemist also emphasizes the power of perseverance and resilience in the face of obstacles. The message is to stay determined and to view setbacks as opportunities for growth and soul-searching, while always keeping your eye on your goals and your purpose. The book touches upon the interconnectedness of individuals and the universe, exploring the idea that everything is connected. These timeless concepts resonate deeply with me, as they hold true in every aspect throughout life’s journey.

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

“If you love what you do, you’ll never work a day in your life” — Confucius, a Chinese philosopher

I haven’t always felt this way. There have definitely been times in my life when I felt stagnant and uninspired. Through trial and error, I have come to realize that my true calling lies in making a positive impact on people’s health and well-being, a purpose that is closely intertwined with being the best mother I can be to my two sons. Although both my careers as a business owner and a mother come with their challenges, I wake up each morning excited for what the day will bring.

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 on a mission to inspire a Digital Wellness movement where people of all ages recognize the vital role it plays in overall health and happiness, including precious young ones. Just like eating well, getting quality sleep, and moving our bodies is important, Digital Wellness deserves our attention. We must ask this for ourselves and our children: Is our tech helping or hurting our mental, social, and physical well-being? It’s time to be mindful of our screen time, the content we consume, and how we feel during and after being glued to a screen.

Sure, many of us need to be in front of screens for education or work, but we have the power to counteract the negative effects. Let’s explore the right supplements to optimize and promote cellular resilience, adopt rejuvenating practices for our bodies and eyes, and make a habit of taking breaks. We can reclaim control over our digital experiences and ensure they contribute positively to our lives and our chidlrens’ lives for generations to come.

How can our readers follow you online?

lightbodylabs.com

https://www.instagram.com/lightbodylabs/

https://www.facebook.com/lightbodylabs

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

Female Disruptors: How Kylen Ribeiro Of Lightbody Has Shaken Up the Legal and Energy Industries was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Ainslie Simmonds Of BNY Mellon | Pershing On How To Use Digital Transformation To Take Your Company…

Ainslie Simmonds Of BNY Mellon | Pershing On How To Use Digital Transformation To Take Your Company To The Next Level

Improve Engagement. When you move to an agile way of working, employee happiness goes WAY up. People love working in small teams. They love solving problems. They love being given autonomy. I see it happen every single time I am involved in a digital transformation.

As part of our series about “How To Use Digital Transformation To Take Your Company To The Next Level”, we had the pleasure of interviewing Ainslie Simmonds.

Ainslie Simmonds is a Managing Director and member of the Executive Committee for BNY Mellon | Pershing. She is the President of Pershing X, a new business unit that designs and builds innovative digital solutions for BNY Mellon Pershing’s Wealth Solutions clients, including broker dealers, registered investment advisors (RIAs) and trust companies.

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

I started as a marketer in consumer products. That taught me the importance of having great products, a powerful story and the value of a trusted brand. As the Internet continued to transform our economy, in 2001 I jumped into financial services because at my core, I believe that people need help with their money, and I saw so many incredible things happening. I spent the rest of my career building products and services to help people be more financially savvy and secure.

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 learned a funny but important lesson about knowing your audience very early in my career when I worked for the Campbell’s Soup company. I was responsible for throwing an event for grocery store managers. I organized a bus to a Buffalo Bills game and thought it would be “efficient” if I served them a boxed lunch on the bus. When I handed them the lunch, they all looked at me like I was out of my mind. They were expecting a tailgate of course. Someone must have been smiling down on me that day, because traffic was so bad, we didn’t get to the game until kick off, so the boxed lunch saved the day. But I will never forget the lesson about knowing your audience.

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 that I am grateful for in my career it’s very hard to pick out one person but I do often think back to a college professor that gave me some advice just as I was about to graduate. I couldn’t decide between jobs. And she said, take a newspaper (we still read hard copies back then!) and pay attention to the stories you read and the stories you skip. If you find work that is in and around the stories you read, you will have a great career. If you try and work in the stories you skip, you will never be happy. I still smile today when I happily read stories about the work we are involved in. It was great advice.

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

I am a big fan of life satisfaction research. I think we only have one trip on this planet and I have always been curious about making the best decisions related to meaning and happiness. So I listen to Dr. Laurie Santos’ “The Happiness Lab” podcast and she always says that our “minds lie to us” when it comes to making good decisions. We THINK optimizing for income will make us happy, but it never does. We THINK choosing work over family will make us happy, but it never does. We THINK the couch and a movie is better than a walk outside, but it isn’t. I have her in my head all the time when I am tempted to listen to “my lying mind” instead of driving toward a happy and meaningful life.

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

I was employee #1 at Pershing X (a technology provider and new business unit of BNY Mellon) and having previously worked at start-ups I fully understood the importance of a strong vision and mission. It took me five minutes to write both for us and of course it started with our mission, which is to help financial advisors to help more people. That has been my passion for almost two decades and my role at Pershing X is the biggest stage I had ever been provided to actually make that happen. Our vision is to become the industry leading advisory platform. That is a tall ambition given the fact that our competitors all have had large, established businesses. But we wake up every day believing we can get there.

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

Everything we are working on is both new and exciting. We are building a platform that will help advisors give better and faster service to their clients and we know that means that they will then be able to help more people. Advisors WANT to help everyone, but their business is so expensive to run they tend to only be able to be profitable at the higher end of the market. By helping them be more efficient, we know that they will take on a broader swath of individuals and families and provide them great service.

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?

Every business in the world is going through a digital transformation. Technology is the force that is shaping our time and we just keep seeing breakthrough after breakthrough from the Internet, to smartphones and now to artificial intelligence. The pace of change is breathtaking. So in most companies, leaders are working to retool their workforce to be able to take advantage of all of these things to drive their business forward. They need different kinds of talent (UX designers, data scientists, digital product managers, researchers) and new processes centered around agility and incremental delivery. It is a top to bottom change and it is a huge challenge.

Which companies can most benefit from a Digital Transformation?

There are few, if any, companies that won’t benefit from a digital transformation. Agility is what is required in our fast-changing world. You can’t be in a business today unless you can respond to market conditions quickly or pivot if something doesn’t work.

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 helps every division in a company. It ensures that the company is client-centric and focuses on delivering value — quickly. I’m observing the way digital transformation at BNY Mellon alone is changing the way people think, the way they work, and the way they measure success. But the most important story about digital transformations is it makes everyone happier. When I started at BNY Mellon | Pershing the employee engagement score for my group was low. After changing to a more team-centric, agile method of work that more quickly solved problems, our engagement score surged more than ten-fold in a brief period of time.

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

For companies to really be successful, it is critical to let some processes go. The biggest, most challenging thing for companies is to move from project-based thinking to product-based thinking. Projects have a start and an end. Products continuously grow, evolve and change. That impacts how you budget, how you measure success and how you govern. It’s a profound shift.

Ok. Thank you. Here is the primary question of our discussion. Based on your experience and success, what are “Five Ways a Company Can Use Digital Transformation To Take It To The Next Level”?

  1. Improve Velocity. Today it is not just large companies that win, it is the ones that can move and change the fastest that flourish. The majority of S&P 500 companies didn’t exist 20 years ago. So the most important thing a digital transformation should measure is velocity. Are you getting things done faster? We obsessively measure velocity and have increased it four-fold over the past year. I still believe there is so much more to be done.
  2. Improve Engagement. When you move to an agile way of working, employee happiness goes WAY up. People love working in small teams. They love solving problems. They love being given autonomy. I see it happen every single time I am involved in a digital transformation.
  3. Improve Client Satisfaction. When you start a digital transformation, if you are doing it right — you will become far more client-centric. You will put things in front of clients faster. You will value their feedback and you will be less afraid to fail. We put a beta version of our product in front of clients after only six months of working on it and we got so much valuable feedback, our second version is so much better.
  4. Lower Costs. Digital transformations should unlock some substantial cost savings. The agile approach means you put far more of the decision-making into small teams that are close to the client, prioritizing client needs.
  5. Improve Transparency. Because the agile way of working demands delivery of small chunks of work, you very quickly see which teams are producing and which ones are not. And at the team level — because teams quickly check in everyday, they quickly self-correct if someone is not pulling their weight. The transparency you get from a digital transformation is terrific.

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

A culture of innovation comes from having people who are learners. They are always asking “why” or “why not”? Why do we have to do this cumbersome process? Why can’t we enter this new market? What would have to be true to succeed? People who ask these kinds of questions are the ones who will drive companies forward.

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 is that you either win or learn. Everyone is so afraid of failure and it drives all kinds of strange behaviors. If you can simply consider failure as a fast way to learn, you really can have a wonderful career and life. I guess I have one other favorite thought that goes with the win or learn approach, which is that on the other side of fear is freedom. I try to remind myself to be free to try new things all the time.

How can our readers further follow your work?

Connect with me on LinkedIn.

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

Ainslie Simmonds Of BNY Mellon | Pershing On How To Use Digital Transformation To Take Your Company… was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.