Author: Fotis Georgiadis

Makers of The Metaverse: Nayeem Syed Of Exponentials TV On The Future Of The VR, AR & Mixed Reality…

Makers of The Metaverse: Nayeem Syed Of Exponentials TV On The Future Of The VR, AR & Mixed Reality Industries

An Interview With Fotis Georgiadis

Unity Developer — Unity 3D is quite popular in building Games and other content. Someone with strong front-end skills as well as backend programming skills could enter the 3D front-end programming world.

The Virtual Reality, Augmented Reality & Mixed Reality Industries are so exciting. What is coming around the corner? How will these improve our lives? What are the concerns we should keep an eye out for? Aside from entertainment, how can VR or AR help work or other parts of life? To address this, we had the pleasure of interviewing Nayeem Syed.

Nayeem Syed Chief Vision Officer at exponentials.tv. A web 3.0 media outlet that is focused on exploring the stories behind today’s greatest successes in various fields. We discuss a wide range of topics — wealth building, health improvements, blockchain technology, digital marketing, sports, media, influencers, celebrities, scientists, politicians, metaphysics as well as delve into the world that is not immediately visible.

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 first exposed to technology when I was 11 in ‘Computer Science’ lessons during the late 80s when GW BASIC was the language used. I started working professionally in the IT field when I was 17, teaching A Level Students and First Year University Students and subsequently moved to working in Software Development for the next 20 years before moving into Automation Engineering (DevOps) for the past 5–7 years.

Is there a particular book, film, or podcast that made a significant impact on you?

Rich Dad Poor Dad — the cashflow quadrant was very useful to understand the aspects of life and how the capitalist social system fits together.

Matrix — How reality is not what it seems but a matter of perception.

Holographic Universe — It’s like the matrix, but the scientific theory that conveys how this may very well be the case.

Quantum Meditation Method — I had been practising and following its meditation principles for the last 25 years.

Gary Vees Podcasts — He really dug into the metaverse, nfts and the new revolution and it really inspired me to take this technology stack more seriously.

These books, movies and techniques formed the foundation for a lot of my thinking.

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

Gary Vee’s predictions of the Web 1, Web 2 and Web 3 and how the Metaverse forms the base for the new and biggest revolution in technology really got me to dig in deeper into this. Subsequently Mark Zuckerberg’s bold stance of renaming a mega brand like Facebook into “Meta’’ got me to realize what’s coming is much much bigger than any of us and we can’t even begin to imagine the impact it will have on our lives.

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

The more I dig into it, the more I find I don’t need to go anywhere else to network and meet interesting people. There are already people from all walks of life involved in this, all the way from the most successful billionaires to people with very low tech understanding. They see the value in it and it creates a level playing field where everyone can participate in an equal standing.

Can you share a story about the funniest mistake you made when you were first starting?

Losing money by walking into online scams in the NFT space. I come from a very strong tech background and generally understand security and scams pretty well, but it was funny how I managed to also walk into scams in my earlier days of NFT investing (and even later down the line). But this is like learning Poker cant be done without losing some money.

Can you tell us what lesson you learned from that? None of us are able to achieve success without some help along the way.

I learnt a number of ways not to do things in this space. I think it is a very vivid real life example of how failure forms the pillar of success. Without learning to fail, it’s very difficult to succeed.

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?

Kevin McGovern. I went to his 58th Floor Penthouse in Manhattan to interview him for our Podcasts a few days before his first grandson was born. He shared a number of interesting details of his amazing entrepreneurship. He started working at 11, and presently operates 100s of businesses. He mentioned in order to do business in a country you need to know 3 very influential people in that country from Politics, Military and Religion. Also you need to network and hang out with the people you want to model after, this will automatically raise your own levels.

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

I am writing a book on “Metaverse” which will form the first of a series I am creating that covers a range of Web3 pillars as well as how it can be combined with life essentials such as money management, habit management, health and relationships and mind management. I think once this series is done, someone can soak in the information and apply it in their own lives to make a true difference.

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?

VR/AR/MR can really open some exciting frontiers that we are currently limited on.

3 examples would be:

1) Medical Science — Medical Students and Practitioners can learn/rehearse complex surgeries in advance using VRs. They can also participate across long distances using AR/MR for critical cases where they can’t make it in time physically.

2) Technical Support — If the car breaks down and engine needs to be repaired, a mechanic can attend remotely for faster access for inspection as well as basic level of repairs that can be done without external items, if other items are required they can use AR-goggles to know what the issue is before attending.

3) Architecture/Design — Cars/Houses/Buildings can be designed in advance in a VR world before they are created physically. They can even gauge the marketability well in advance.

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) Lack of physical development amongst children and young people is already an issue with the advent of the internet and children being glued to tablets/phones, reducing their ability to build real life social skills. This can go down a step further with VRs as the experiences are more comprehensive in the VR world, reducing more of the physical world experience from children/young adults. New legislation/methods need to be thought out so we can have a hybrid solution so people can still get a physical element.

2) Hacking/Exploiting/Scams — This can go to new levels as a combination of AR/VR, AI and better hardware could mean a very realistic impersonification can be done that looks very realistic, so another person attending could very well not be the real person but an AI implementation of that person that acts and talks just like the real person in the VR/AR world. Authentication and security measures need to be created and revised with all these in mind.

3) Greater dependencies on Technology and Hardware — cyber attacks can totally shut down societies as we start building greater dependencies on VR/AR for our day to day works as described above. Much tighter measures need to be taken on security and contingency plans thought out clearly as this can become critical.

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?

Meetings for one can be done from anywhere in a much more realistic way than today’s Zoom calls. After Covid remote working has already become a norm, but proper VR/AR will make it seamless and the work experience would be much further enhanced despite remote sessions.

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

360 Degrees virtual crime scene investigations can help us decipher complex cases, and with the combination of good tracking/monitoring, this can lead to better results in solving cases.

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

NFTs are currently seen as ‘digital arts’. It is far from it. NFTs (non-fungible tokens) form the backbone of the metaverse. Each element of a metaverse, from the wall to the avatar, you are using would be represented in the form of an NFT. In addition, NFT’s real use case is with providing a digital blockchain ledger that contains records of ownership/transactions of digital items and real life utilities can be seamlessly tied as benefits of the NFTs. The NFTs we mostly saw in the last year or two are hardly going to be the mainstream use case of NFTs as it evolves further.

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

There are going to be every type of application in the VR/AR/MR industries. So the skill sets needed can vary quite a bit depending on what you do.

Here are a few of the positions I can think of that can be towards forming the backbone:

1) 3D Designers — Maya, 3DS Max, Cinema 3D etc are some of the major tools used nowadays for building the 3D Designs.

2) VR Sound Engineer — will ideally be someone with some audio engineering background and well versed in different 3D audio tools and a creative mind.

3) Unity Developer — Unity 3D is quite popular in building Games and other content. Someone with strong front-end skills as well as backend programming skills could enter the 3D front-end programming world.

4) Programmers — There is an immense amount of calculations and algorithms needed to make efficient VR applications. A Programming Job would require a strong base/background in programming so they can easily transition to VR/AR/3D programming languages that are currently there as well as languages yet to come.

5) Automation Engineers — Today popularly known as SRE and DevOps engineers, this will become more automated with AI doing a bulk of the trenchwork and Automation Engineers will help steer the AI in the right directions. The Automation Engineers are needed to manage and create efficient infrastructure that is needed to host the blockchains and other VR/AR applications.

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

I would like to see ‘true freedom’ of thoughts and choices in the world we live in. There is so much propaganda and counter-propaganda in the media world, and people in mass are easily being manipulated in pretty much every culture and society of the world. This is an unfortunate case as news and media are meant to be mediums for sharing real information that goes around us rather than a tool for manipulating people’s thoughts and opinions.

With the advent of AI, Blockchain and Web3, a lot of these can be automated and assigned to machines that can work in a more decentralized manner, making it a lot more difficult for a collected few to manipulate the system so much for the masses. I still think there is enough good in mankind left to make this a reality.

We are very blessed that very prominent leaders read this column. Is there a person in the world, or in the US with whom you would like to have a private breakfast or lunch, and why? He or she might just see this if we tag them 🙂 Thank you so much for these excellent stories and insights. We wish you continued success on your great work!

3 People:

1) Elon Musk — I believe he is one of a kind and we are gifted as a generation to have someone like him walk amongst us. His thoughts, ideas and executions are truly revolutionary. He has shown how one person and their vision can make a difference for all of humanity. I would really love to get an insight into his thinking process and advice so I can share it in my book for my readers/viewers now and in future.

2) Warren Buffett — We are so lucky to still have the greatest investor of all time be amongst us. A lot of what I learnt on investing, money management and business was through studying his work as well as his recommended mentor Benjamin Franklin. I would love to speak to him to get more insight into his great mind and have a go at trying to fill him in on gaps in areas he is not well versed such as Blockchain, AI, etc which forms the next revolution.

3) Queen Elizabeth II — I write this on the day of her 70th anniversary on her Platinum jubilee. She is definitely one of the monarchs who has been through so much through her life and seen so much. I would love to learn more on her viewpoint on the world and how she has seen it evolve over time.

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

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

The Future Is Now: Laura Keily Of Immediation On How Their Technological Innovation Will Shake Up…

The Future Is Now: Laura Keily Of Immediation On How Their Technological Innovation Will Shake Up The Tech Scene

An Interview With Fotis Georgiadis

Sales is hard and is also the most important role in the organization, other than engineering. Most people who say they know how to do it, don’t.

As a part of our series about cutting edge technological breakthroughs, I had the pleasure of interviewing Laura Keily the Founder and CEO of Immediation, the leading online dispute resolution provider. Laura is a barrister (trial lawyer) and entrepreneur whose background spans M&A and corporate law at major international firms; company director, business advisor and in-house counsel for public corporations. In addition to her role as an attorney, she is a qualified arbitrator and specialist in corporate law and complex commercial litigation. Laura was awarded Australian Innovator of the Year by the Women’s Barristers Association in 2020 for her work in pioneering online mediation. She was also named “Australasia’s Most Influential Lawyer — Changemaker” in 2021 for her work in pioneering online dispute resolution.

<a href="https://medium.com/media/2bfd16dedbb55c1e880f4fbe67e7825f/href">https://medium.com/media/2bfd16dedbb55c1e880f4fbe67e7825f/href</a>

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 story about what brought you to this specific career path?

I was an M&A attorney for quite some time. I had a wonderful tenure at Slaughter and May in the UK before returning to my native Australia. It was at this point in my legal career that I realized that partnership with an Australian firm was not for me, so I decided to become a barrister. Barristers with a background in corporate and finance practice law are rare in Australia, and even more if they are female. I was admitted to the bar (how we term becoming a barrister) and began my career arguing before judges. During that time, I trained as an arbitrator as well.

The change into legal technology was definitely not something I planned. I vividly recall lying in bed thinking that my clients were spending $300,000 fighting for a claim that was worth maybe $200,000. I kept thinking there must be a better way. I came up with the idea of an online system that would mimic the hearing experience in every way — rooted in the rule of law and offering a workflow to help claimants settle disputes faster and with less acrimony. That’s how Immediation was born.

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

It was one of those moments that end up changing your life forever, and for me, this happened really just by chance. I had conceptualized the idea of Immediation, but as all ideas are, initially it was just a pipedream. I met with my superannuation fund manager about whether or not I could finance the idea of Immediation to get a prototype platform developed, and he loved the idea so much that he offered to invest! I did the math and realized that with a small initial investment from a few friends and family, I could actually turn the dream into a reality. The first version of the Immediation platform was born.

Later it was funded and built out as a much bigger offering. Covid-19 was a game changer for the legal industry, forcing proceedings to move online almost literally overnight — and we were the best offering (being purpose-built for legal). We have supported this online transition for legal matters and began delivering a solution for hybrid proceedings. The business took off so quickly that my side hustle became my full-time role.

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

As far as we can tell, Immediation is the only online dispute resolution platform that was built on the rule of law — meaning we are law first and tech second. All others are tech first and attempt retro-fitting into law. The reason that fails is that law is a very particular sector with specific rules, procedure and respect for precedent. Thus far, we helped the Australian court system during the pandemic — federal, state and family court cases were heard on our platform. Now we’ve moved into complex cross-border arbitration with two arbitration centers in two of four major geographic powerhouses for global arbitration. Ultimately, we are offering speed to resolution — helping courts with their backlog and end-users get on with their case, in order to protect and enhance the rule of law and reduce the impact of disputes.

How do you think this might change the world?

I told my children that other than them, perhaps my legacy will be to stop people from flying all over the world to settle disputes — aiming for something more than sustainability: Regenerative Resolution. And offering greater access to justice — to a system meant to protect people but many of those very people have no way to enter or access the system. They will have access with Immediation.

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

Funny you mention that, Black Mirror is fundamentally about the law of unintended consequences. We are the solution for that. Right now, courts, arbitration centers and mediators are using traditional video conferencing tools to conduct legal business. Basically they are using technology you use to talk to your grandmother to conduct court hearings. I’ve written a think piece about how this is already leading to new jurisprudence around online dispute resolution. The rule of law is centered around privilege and security — traditional video conferencing platforms do not provide this — and in fact, courts are already overturning decisions rendered using standard video platforms so in my view, we are not far from that same reasoning being applied to arbitration and mediation. Our platform solves for all that.

In that way, we are the solution to the Black Mirror dilemma!

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

That moment of lying in my bed fretting about how much money my clients were spending and the fact that I couldn’t resolve their issues (settle their disputes) was the moment it crystallized for me. Beyond that, it has been people — the ones who’ve invested in Immediation and the team we’ve hired. Hand on heart I can say this is the best group of professionals in this industry and I am honored to lead them. Immediation would not be the breakthrough product it is were it not for them.

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

Awareness. Understanding that if you are using a standard video conferencing platform for a legal use — you are using the wrong tool!

Immediation is leading digital transformation for dispute resolution. Developed more than five years ago, it is considered as the gold-standard platform for arbitration, mediation, court hearings and corporate resolution — offering unmatched security, accessibility and sustainability. Immediation is ideal for online hearings, arbitrations, mediations, negotiations, witness conferences and more and is used by Federal Courts, Government and law firms. Everyday more sign on as awareness about us grows.

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

As a start-up we have to stand out. Luckily, we hired a cracker-jack marketer from outside legal who understands how to make us stand out, get noticed in the most creatively strategic ways. Between the conferences we attend, the thought leadership events we hold and the collateral we produce, we clearly look different than other players in the field. And we are different — so all our marketing is truly authentic to who we are and what we do. As an example, at a court technology trade fair, where the theme was the “future of justice” our booth was designed as the Starship Enterprise — literally taking courts into the future. The legal field can be fussy so it’s nice to offer a bit of breathing room and show a better way and smile while doing it.

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

As they say, it takes a village. So many people have shared in this dream of making dispute resolution more accessible to all, and I wouldn’t be where I am today without the support of my incredible team, the backing and encouragement from investors and shareholders, and the trust in our great product from our clients. I am however incredibly grateful to my partner Troy, who ensures our household continues to run smoothly while I work long hours and is an amazing dad to our kids, and also to my parents.

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

I am in the practice of law as an officer of the court and now bringing technological change to my ancient and noble profession, from the inside out. To me goodness looks like equity and fairness — it looks like leading by example. I’m a barrister, a tech entrepreneur and a woman. Some say this makes me a unicorn. I’m not sure about that. Mostly, I’m the same friend, daughter, parent, sister, aunt, cousin, colleague, lawyer and professional I always was, but I try to let my light shine out into the world (Sint Lucernae Ardentes) and encourage my team to do the same. I lead from the trenches, next to them as a partner and friend, and to bring out the best in them. I don’t really know how to be anything other than authentic — my mother always said, “to thine own self be true” and I live by that mantra. I also try to be the change that I wish to see in the world, for women in leadership, for all professional women who also are mothers, and for change in the legal profession.

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

I wish someone had told me just how hard it was going to be to build a tech company, hire a seasoned team and get the product off the ground. Funding is just the first part. When you get the funding, you are suddenly responsible for everyone’s part in your dream. It’s daunting. But if I had known, I likely wouldn’t have done it — but I am so glad I did. It is paradoxical.
The difficulty in shifting the belief that justice, or dispute resolution, had to be administered in a traditional courtroom environment. While the pandemic helped initiate this shift in perception somewhat, there is still a way to go.
There will always be bumps in the road no matter what you do, so you need to be resilient and keep getting up each time you fall off. I inherently knew that anyway. Most of my life in the CEO role I feel like I am driving along the road, getting constantly side-swiped — by technology issues, team dynamics, people, customer success, all coming out of nowhere. ALL the time. And yet, despite the bumps, I persevere and thrive.
Have a clear vision of what you want to achieve and stay focused. Distractions pop up. That said, it is important to be able to adapt and in doing so, always remember the core vision.
Sales is hard and is also the most important role in the organization, other than engineering. Most people who say they know how to do it, don’t.

Increasingly, I am focused on the sustainability impact; helping to reduce the carbon burden associated with international dispute resolution. Immediation provides the legal industry with all the tools that are required for international dispute resolution to occur effectively online, hence reducing the need to pay the hefty financial and environmental costs of international travel for dispute resolution. If we can consolidate the use of sophisticated online dispute resolution platforms that do the job properly, we can capitalize on the rapid advances made during the pandemic to capture the long-term benefit for the legal industry, clients and the environment. My ultimate goal is to reduce the number and impact of disputes and also to ensure that we redress imbalances in equity, for women, for the community and for access to justice.

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

My late father always said, “if something is worth doing it is worth doing properly.” I embody that. I can’t do anything less than 100% and put massive action and effort behind it. I have a hard time with anything less than perfect, which has pluses and minuses. But in many ways, I credit that for getting me where I am today, I have had to teach myself to accept that things, people and situations are not always perfect and that is ok. But ultimately, my father was right. Show up, be a good person, do your best work, live your best life. I can’t do anything else. And frankly, the more I lean into that, the more it has worked.

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 🙂

Immediation is on a rocket ship taking the entire vertically and horizontally integrated market for dispute resolution, justice and legal. This team and this product are untouchable. Jump on board if you can catch up!

How can our readers follow you on social media?

You can follow our journey on our website and also our LinkedIn page.

Thank you so much for these amazing insights. This was so inspiring, and we wish you continued success!

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

Makers of The Metaverse: Art Lee Of Rove Concepts On The Future Of The VR, AR & Mixed Reality…

Makers of The Metaverse: Art Lee Of Rove Concepts On The Future Of The VR, AR & Mixed Reality Industries

An Interview With Fotis Georgiadis

Attention to detail is everything.

Don’t be afraid to take risks and experiment.

Challenge where the technology can take us.

Be patient.

Work with people that share your vision.

Art Lee is an ecommerce entrepreneur. He is the founder and CEO of Rove Concepts. Art has been active in leading edge ecommerce platform technologies from early days of web SEO optimization, proprietary IT development, ongoing evolution of SEM, to the beginnings of a meta realities economy via VR, AR, and XR industries.

In 2011, Art Lee set out to fill a gap he recognized in the online furniture space at the time. Noticing that companies like Amazon had started with books and CDs yet stayed away from furniture, he saw an opportunity to create a brand that elevated the online furniture buying experience. Thus, he came up with Rove Concepts — a DTC furniture company that would change the industry while maintaining the integrity of his grandfather’s business using a contemporary, global business model.

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

From a young age, I have always been intrigued by business, science, and technology — there is something about learning how our world works that is deeply engaging for my personal curiosity.

I realized that to effect change, building a business was the best platform for me. Despite attaining a Finance degree from university, entrepreneurship was always the only path for me right after graduation. I sold my secondhand car, my only possession that was worth anything at the time, and used the proceeds to fund my first business venture in ecommerce.

In 2011 from my small studio in South Granville, Vancouver, I founded Rove Concepts, a high-growth online-based furniture company that aimed to deliver quality, handcrafted stylish furniture to the masses.

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?

The 1997 film Gattaca. This story made me question the future we are all working towards as a society — if a better future is the goal. The story’s social dialog and the protagonist’s ambitions of going to space resonated with me metaphorically, if not literally.

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

When I started Rove, it was obvious to me ecommerce was the way to unlock the accessible luxury trend for the home furnishings space. Standing here today, it is also clear that the next evolution in digital retail will be more groundbreaking than the current ‘tech-enabled D2C’ model as we know it. As a brand that is thinking a generation ahead in digital retail technology, we are here to pioneer the way a brand should engage their customers through meta reality. I believe the key for a meta reality economy is decentralization in ownership, content, and experience. For example, the Oculus Headset is just one platform through which people can engage with virtual reality environments created by Rove. Once consumers can experience an immersive web, they will not go back to the old web.

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

One of Rove’s sectional sofas was spotted in the post-apocalyptic video game The Last of Us. Our products are designed in-house so it was easy to spot. To this day, we wonder how it got there.

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

As the hilarious epitome of a startup hands-on owner-operator — very early on I found myself on a given day writing ad copy, talking to developers, destuffing a container without a loading bay, driving out in a minivan to deliver a customer’s table, and taking customer calls while in the minivan. What I quickly learned was that I cannot do it all and started hiring people who specialized in different areas. I also learned that by doing it first myself, I could now fully relate to work done by team members, no matter how far I reach down into the organization.

While there are many people who I have met along the way that have helped me achieve success, I would like to particularly thank my grandfather for inspiring me. Growing up, I had always admired his passion for creating beautifully crafted furniture and I was inspired by his work of art. No matter what you do, you need to love what you do in order to keep yourself grounded, and my grandfather did just that. Even after his furniture company grew with many people working under him, he never stopped creating and designing furniture because that is what he loved to do. Whenever I feel that I am drifting off course, I always remind myself of the core reason I am in this business — creating beautiful modern furniture that is both accessible and affordable to the masses.

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

This summer we are launching a carefully designed and curated new furniture collection that can be viewed as functional art. The interesting thing about the collection is that the pieces will be tied to its virtual counterpart via NFTs. A feature of the future metaverse will be portability across platforms. What’s unique here for Rove’s collection is that you will get to own a functional piece of art both physically and virtually with a link between the two.

The ability to bring the entire Rove showroom into the customer’s home is exciting. The customer can design, create, and preview in photorealistic AR the full set of products in the live environment. For example, in our 3D planner one can pair a sectional with a coffee table, side table, rug, floor lamp, and media console, then drop the entire configuration into their living room to take pictures and videos and share.

Another is the potential to change the meaning of a home page for the user. How interesting would it be to invite your friends living in other cities around the world into your virtual home that you have carefully decorated? Items you collect in your digital journeys can be displayed in your virtual home as you do with souvenirs. Your avatar will be the one navigating these virtual environments. Someday you may put as much or more effort into this virtual world as you do today with social media.

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?

New technologies are double-edged swords. Some argue our virtual connections are robbing us of real connections. There is of course a philosophical debate of which is necessarily more meaningful. I do think it is a function of information — as of today, an in-person face-to-face meeting will give you much more than a video call. The natural progression of VR, AR, and MR would get us closer and closer to mirroring what we consider to be a full information environment. It may be de facto teleportation someday, if all the senses are being engaged.

As an industry, we do need to be careful about what experiences we put in front of people, especially our youth. While the same can already be said of TV, movies, and video games, there are still reference points for your mind that what you see is not real. As we move into fully realistic environments, we will want to be more thoughtful on what we put into our consciousness. As with most things, I would say arming individuals with knowledge is the best way to address these concerns.

Lastly, not unlike social media today, we would not want to give people the wrong priorities within the X realities over pillar values like health, family, and accomplishment. If done well, we should promote these values rather than distract from them with virtual technologies.

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?

There will be an evolution of working from home and staying engaged with your colleagues. We all lived through the pandemic routine of back-to-back-to-back video meetings. This will change if companies expect to keep team members engaged and still maintain the flexibility of remote work. As a stepping-stone towards full immersion, there will be widespread use of individual avatars for people to go into virtual offices. Gamification has proven to be a strong path to engagement for individuals. I believe Rove can play a big part in creating these beautiful, immersive virtual environments in the future, from architectural skyscrapers to exquisite interiors.

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

My hope is that the biggest impact for virtual technologies will be made to those lives, ironically, least touched by technology financially. For the vast majority of humanity, traveling around the world to experience new sights and sounds is simply not possible financially. With several more iterations in hardware and software, VR can be widely adopted like smart phones. Once that adoption has occurred, people around the world can connect with each other and with the world on a very different level. We will become more understanding of each other’s cultures, values, and dreams.

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

It may be common to think that virtual technology is what creates the content. In reality, it is absolutely the people behind the technology that create the vision. Virtual technology is like the paint and the brush for the artist or the camera and gear for the film director. It is a pure artistic pursuit that happens behind the scenes for an immersive virtual environment to be compelling.

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

Attention to detail is everything.

Don’t be afraid to take risks and experiment.

Challenge where the technology can take us.

Be patient.

Work with people that share your vision.

If I could start a movement or create change in people’s lives in some way it would be to push for personalized education. Personalized learning helps students take their strengths, and interests and build them towards a skillful set for further growth. Growing up, I knew that I wanted to create something that I could call my own but the paths that I was guided to seemed like a “one size fits all” approach. Through personalized learning, children can learn at their own pace, and create their own pathway for each individual’s personal and professional growth. In other words, learning to learn is the critical skill for our youth. Today, all knowledge is free and available at our fingertips. Like the legendary Ray Charles teaches, “life is notes underneath your fingers- you just have to play them baby!’’

Elon Musk — I started following his work before Tesla and SpaceX became mainstream in the media. If you go back to his old interviews, he has been very consistent in his goals to build an exciting future for humanity, and his ideas have been consistently unique and simple yet rational. What he is building through his companies today are obviously far from simple in terms of technological innovations. The goal of each company, however, is dead simple.

I would ask questions and hopefully learn answers to fascinating topics, with the view to one day pay it forward. This for me, would be like Elon’s equivalent of a private lunch with Franklin or Edison. He would surely ask them interesting questions.

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

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

Kelsey Formost Of Magic Words Copywriting On The 5 Things You Need To Be A Highly Effective Public…

Kelsey Formost Of Magic Words Copywriting On The 5 Things You Need To Be A Highly Effective Public Speaker

An Interview With Fotis Georgiadis

Specific to digital speaking engagements: Don’t look at yourself in the camera as you’re speaking! It makes you self conscious about how you appear instead of allowing you to focus on what you’re saying. Once you see your frame, change the view so you’re not just looking at your giant face.

At some point in our lives, many of us will have to give a talk to a large group of people. What does it take to be a highly effective public speaker? How can you improve your public speaking skills? How can you overcome a fear of speaking in public? What does it take to give a very interesting and engaging public talk? In this interview series called “5 Things You Need To Be A Highly Effective Public Speaker” we are talking to successful and effective public speakers to share insights and stories from their experience. As a part of this series, we had the pleasure of interviewing Kelsey Formost.

Kelsey Formost is a copywriting expert, marketing educator, speaker, podcaster & mental health advocate who helps entrepreneurs learn to write words that sell without sounding “sales-y”. She’s been featured in Business Insider, Ad Age, Glamour, Refinery29, Boss Babe & more.

Kelsey’s easy-to-understand copywriting courses & templates have helped take struggling businesses to six figures and beyond, but that’s not really what’s important to her. Kelsey’s mission is to de-mystify the process of communicating with an online audience, helping entrepreneurs feel empowered and inspired every time they need to write or speak about their business (and also, yeah, make more money in the process).

Thank you so much for doing this with us! Our readers would love to get to know you a bit better. Can you tell us the story of how you grew up?

I grew up an extremely shy kid splitting my time between San Diego, California and a teeny tiny town in Colorado. As an only child, I thrived inside my imagination but had a difficult time when put into large groups. My parents were worried about my social anxiety, so they took the “sink or swim” approach and enrolled me in a community theater production of “The Wizard of Oz”. I was horrified at the time, but as time went on and I became more comfortable in myself, performing became such a gift. Theatre gave me an outlet through which I could express myself and connect with others in a way that felt safe. From age 10 until age 30 I pursued acting, screenwriting, and performing professionally, starring in shows in New York City, writing scripts with Oscar winners, and landing prestigious film and TV roles in Los Angeles.

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

I always love to share the story of the moment I decided to go into business for myself and leave the entertainment industry for good. I think it’s important for people to know it’s safe (and actually incredibly positive!) to completely change your career path, even if you’ve already invested money, energy, and years of your life pursuing something else.

In my case, I decided to completely change my life after hitting rock bottom at 10pm on New Year’s Eve 2017…I was fresh off a devastating breakup, sitting in my childhood home, my mom and her dog snoring on the couch next to me. I doom-scrolled through social media, seeing the engagements, weddings, pregnancy announcements, and “we bought a house!” posts from all my 30-something contemporaries, the anxiety building inside me like pressure in a shaken up soda bottle. I was so tired of hustling for approval from Hollywood, tired of hustling for love from people in my personal life, tired of hustling for respect from myself.

I had a full out sobbing-on-the-bathroom-floor-style breakdown and made a commitment right then and there: I was no longer going to invest my gifts, time, or energy in people, projects, or work that didn’t fill my cup. I was getting off the Hollywood hamster wheel of comparison and burnout. Instead of waiting for other people to say “yes” to me, I was going to start my own business.

What started as the seed of an idea on the bathroom floor of my childhood home grew into a 6-figure copywriting career. Once I felt that rush of empowerment, I became obsessed with helping other women build their own successful businesses! I found I had a gift for helping people tell their story in a way that “sold” them without sounding “sales-y”. To this day, through my courses, work, and speaking, I teach folx to talk about themselves with confidence and clarity- it will totally change not just your business, but your whole ass life!

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

At the beginning of 2020, I released my signature course “Copy Class” that teaches entrepreneurs how to write words that sell without sounding sales-y. It took me months to create because I wanted to be sure it was highly valuable and informative while still being accessible, fun and easy to understand.

I thought “Copy Class” was going to resonate most with young female entrepreneurs in their 20’s. But when I started looking at the numbers, I found there was a huge portion of my student population who were 40+, many of whom were in their 60’s.

I was getting notes from so many older women who’d felt intimidated by the online business world who were now launching their own companies and projects! To this day I find it so fascinating to see that you’re never too old, and it’s never too late to pursue your dreams.

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

When I was first starting out, I had a hard time saying ‘no’ to people. I took on way too many clients for way too little money and I was on a one-way train to burnout town.

One day I was driving home after (yet another) coffee date with a potential client who wanted to “pick my brain” before hiring me. We’d met at a fancy cafe where I shelled out ten dollars I didn’t have on a tiny oat milk latte, and I’d spent almost two hours essentially giving her an entire business plan, for free. While I was in the car, she’d texted to say hiring me wasn’t going to work out but that she appreciated my time.

I was done.

I pulled into a parking structure with a roof deck that overlooked Los Angeles. I knew this because it was my favorite place to go cry. Which was exactly what I needed to do in that moment: have a good old fashioned mascara-running-down-the-face cry.

I found a great spot tucked away in a corner, put my beat up Ford Focus in park, hit ‘play’ on my “moody heart” playlist I save just for occasions such as these, and let loose. I sobbed and sobbed, and sobbed some more. I was sob-singing along to the song “She Used to Be Mine” from the musical “Waitress” (seriously, if you ever need a good cry, look it up) when all of a sudden, out of the corner of my eye I saw movement…I hadn’t noticed that a car had pulled in next to me, and there sat a girl behind the wheel, clearly listening in on my cry sesh and singing along with me and Sara Bareilles.

We locked eyes and the deep sadness of the song turned into a shared moment of belonging. We were just two musical theater nerds having a shitty day who’d happened across each other’s paths at the exact right time. When the song was over, we burst out laughing. I waved goodbye, put my car in reverse, and drove home.

I learned three lessons that day:

Say ‘no’ or set clear boundaries whenever someone asks if they can “pick your brain” about your area of expertise. It’s one of the most common ways entrepreneurs get taken advantage of.
Book fewer “dollars-for-hours” jobs and find other ways to create additional income through digital products. Dollars for hours work is impossible to scale- you’re just one human.
There is a transformative magic in shared emotion. Whether it’s a stranger, trusted friend or family member, sharing your heavy feelings will always make them seem lighter.

I am so lucky to have a best friend from college who has been professionally writing for years. She’s walked me through countless projects and answered hundreds of my questions. She’s been my cheerleader, and my most trusted editor. I truly wouldn’t be anywhere near where I am today without her help. It’s such a valuable lesson to remember that everyone is a beginner at the beginning. The fastest way to be successful is to ask for help!

You have been blessed with great success in a career path that can be challenging and intimidating. Do you have any words of advice for others who may want to embark on this career path, but seem daunted by the prospect of failure?

My mom told me a story once about a time when she was trying to decide whether or not to go back to school to get her graduate degree after being out of college for almost a decade. She was debating the topic with her mom, saying she felt like too much time had passed and that it was too late for her to become a student again.

My grandma’s words of advice for my mom in that moment were so profound. She said, “whether you go to school or not, the time is going to pass anyway. It’s up to you to decide where you want to be in five years, because those five years will pass no matter which path you take. It’s not about making the “right” choice, but rather, which choice will you look back on in five years and regret less?”

Time will pass no matter what you do. It’s so much better to collect failures that point you in the right direction than it is to always wonder “what if?”. Failure is simply an opportunity for re-calibration towards the next right choice.

What drives you to get up everyday and give your talks? What is the main empowering message that you aim to share with the world?

I show up with one main mission: to tell the WHOLE TRUTH about what it looks like to do what you love in order to fully de-mystify the process for others. Too often we’re only presented with the “end result”; the shiny 6-figure-generating Boss who appears to have it all figured out. This makes us feel intimidated at best and discouraged at worst.

I’m here to pull back the curtain to show two things:

First, no one feels like they have it all figured out. The most successful entrepreneurs are the ones who admit they don’t know everything and are open to learning.
Second, I want to show that while being an entrepreneur isn’t all champagne and roses, it absolutely is possible to be wildly successful doing what you love!

I’ve seen way too many people- especially women- hold themselves back because they’re intimidated. My mission is to give people the actionable tools they need to speak about themselves and their businesses with confidence while also helping them set up excellent systems to take care of their mental health.

You have such impressive work. What are some of the most interesting or exciting projects you are working on now? Where do you see yourself heading from here?

I pinch myself on the regular that I get to interview so many incredible experts on my podcast, “Find Your Magic”! I’m coming up on a year of content and I’m blown away each and every episode at the vulnerability and the value my guests are willing to share.

“Find Your Magic” sits at the intersection of mental health and entrepreneurship; my guests and I share actionable business advice as well as deeply personal stories about what it’s really like to do what you love. I’ve spoken with everyone from Google Ads experts to dating coaches to therapists who specialize in treating burnout. If you ever need a shot in the arm of inspiration or to feel less alone as you build your business, I hope you’ll tune in!

As to what’s next, I’m currently updating my entire suite of products — from my signature course, Copy Class, to my done-for-you email templates — and I’m also in the thick of building a new class on how to create passive income through digital products!

I’m also scared to tell you I’ve been quietly working on a book for the past 9 months…I’ve already written 40K words and am so excited (and nervous) to see where it takes me!

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

“You do not rise to the level of your goals, you fall to the level of your systems”… This was such a gut punch when I read it in James Clear’s famous book “Atomic Habits”. Goals can give us great direction, but it’s an absolute guarantee we will never achieve any of our goals unless we set ourselves up for success by implementing systems that work for us. Big success is the result of thousands of small choices.

Ok, thank you for all that. Here is the main question of our interview. What are your “5 Things You Need To Be A Highly Effective Public Speaker?” Please share a story or example for each.

Want to get booked repeatedly and gain a reputation for being an excellent speaker? Remember this copywriter trick every time you create a presentation: there is only ONE question in an audience member’s mind at any given moment, and that question is, “what’s in it for me?”

One trick is to use the title of your session to tell them EXACTLY what’s in it for them. For example, instead of titling my keynote, “Copywriting for Websites and Emails that convert” I’m super specific and tell my audience EXACTLY what’s in it for them: “3 Copywriting Tricks to 3X Conversions in 30 minutes”.

The best way to ensure you’re successful as a speaker is to make sure your audience has clear takeaways they can apply to their life and their problems after they leave your session. In the case of my session title, my audience knows exactly what they’re walking away with before they even attend. Plus, it helps me write my actual speech by simply answering the question, “what’s in it for them? What information is most helpful for this target audience?”

2. Understand and prepare for your unique physical needs and quirks before taking the stage. Speaking is an extremely PHYSICAL experience. You can be completely confident about the content of your presentation, but the physicality is often what trips people up most. Here are some ways you can set yourself up for success;

Wear clothes that hide sweat. Leave that long sleeve dark silk top at home. Trust me.
Understand you’ll probably feel an urge to pace. Plan moments of stillness when you practice (rather than thinking you should just stand still the whole time…which is boring).
On pacing: choose footwear wisely! You can wear heels but make ’em as comfy as possible because blisters suck. Actress trick: you can buy stickers for the bottom of your shoe that muffle any clicking sounds!
Plan for a pre-presentation pee. Getting onstage and feeling like you have to pee is the literal worst. Actually, schedule 15 minutes to find a bathroom and do what you need to do. Not kidding.

3. LISTEN UP because you don’t wanna miss this one- I use this trick CONSTANTLY! Are you ready? Here it is: Use trigger phrases to re-gain people’s attention in the moment. These can be phrases like: “Get your notebooks out”, “listen up, this is important”, “if you take nothing else from today I want you to hear this”, “write this down”. This is actually a psychological phenomenon where you’re using a verbal cue to prep the audiences brain’s to receive an important point. It literally makes people sit up and pay attention! (Yes, I actually used a trigger phrase at the beginning of this tip about trigger phrases).

4. Repetition is recognition! When writing your speech, it can be extremely effective to choose a keyword or phrase that you repeat throughout the presentation. Similarly, you can repeat a point in the moment to hammer it home. This trick works extremely well in tandem with the trigger phrase trick above. I’ll give you an example… Imagine I’m speaking to you about copywriting (my favorite topic) and in the middle of my speech I say “Businesses that invest in copywriting see three times more conversions than businesses that don’t. I’m gonna say that again because if you take nothing else from today I want you to remember this: Businesses that invest in copywriting see three times more conversions than businesses that don’t! That’s 300% better results!” You as an audience member are much more likely to remember that statistic because I repeated it AND used a trigger phrase to make sure you knew it was important.

5. Specific to digital speaking engagements: Don’t look at yourself in the camera as you’re speaking! It makes you self conscious about how you appear instead of allowing you to focus on what you’re saying. Once you see your frame, change the view so you’re not just looking at your giant face.

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

If you’re someone who gets nervous before speaking in public, remember that speech is actually mostly muscle memory. One of the best ways to alleviate anxiety as an actress was to know my lines so well I didn’t have to think about them. So if you’re a nervous speaker, simply practice saying your speech out loud. The more you repeat the words you’re going to say, the more your body actually memorizes what it feels like to say the words.

An example: Think about the ABC song that you learned when you were a child. Anyone almost anywhere in the world can ask you to recite your ABCs and you’d be able to do it instantly, right? It’s the same thing with public speaking! If you just repeat the words you’re saying over and over, they start to feel at home in your body. When you feel at home in your body you’re much more able to relax when speaking in public.

You are a person of huge influence. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be?

If I could inspire a movement it would be this: have the courage to incorporate your self work into your career work. Too often we compartmentalize the different areas of our lives, when in reality, all the aspects of our daily life and work are part of a holistic, symbiotic whole. Our mental health deeply affects our creativity, our ability to show up in relationships, the functioning of our physical body — everything.

Acknowledging how the wellbeing of our mental and emotional selves affect everything else in our lives is, I believe, the key to true fulfillment. It’s the only way we can show up to give our true gifts to the world in our fullest capacity.

Is there a person in the world whom you would love to have lunch with, and why? Maybe we can tag them and see what happens!

Gabby Bernstein has been a real North Star for me. From her books to her courses to her podcast to her speaking, I always walk away feeling inspired! I’m actually writing a book right now after taking her bestseller masterclass.

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

I spend the most time on Instagram @kelsey.writes sharing lots of funny informative videos on copywriting, marketing and mental health!

You can also learn more about how I can help you develop a unique brand voice that sells (without sounding “sales-y”) at www.kelseyformost.com.

Finally, I’d love it if you tuned into my podcast “Find Your Magic” on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google, or wherever you listen to podcasts. I invite a new expert each week and we talk about the intersection of entrepreneurship and mental health!

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

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

Makers of The Metaverse: Anton Bernstein Of Pocket Worlds On The Future Of The VR, AR & Mixed…

Makers of The Metaverse: Anton Bernstein Of Pocket Worlds On The Future Of The VR, AR & Mixed Reality Industries

An Interview With Fotis Georgiadis

At the stage we’re in now, with web3 still being fairly new to most consumers, traditional web2 tech individuals who successfully make the leap into web3 are generally naturally curious & early adapters. Of course this may be an oversimplification, but in my experience, web3 people find each other because they are continually seeking new experiences & new avenues for growth — financially or otherwise. However, I’ve found that the basic principles are similar, but the mediums have changed. In lieu of traditional networking events people meet in Discord channels, Reddit forums — or even in Highrise!

Anton Bernstein is co-founder and CEO of Pocket Worlds, the parent company of both Highrise and Everskies. With over 13 million installs, Highrise is a leading mobile-first metaverse serving over 2 million monthly active users who create avatars, build environments, host experiences, and trade collectibles. Since 2016, Anton has managed the virtual community with one vision — to expand Highrise into the largest digital nation on the Internet, where citizens can live, play, serve each other, and earn an income.

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?

Originally from Moscow, Russia, I moved to the United States in 1991 right when the Berlin wall came down at the mere age of 5. In Russia, My dad worked at a water power plant and due to the inability to earn an expanded wage in the Soviet Union, the plant paid him in computers when he performed well. Growing up, I was exposed to computers very early on and started playing and making games because one thing we always had was computers in our home. I spent most of my older childhood growing up in New Jersey, like most teenagers, playing games online with friends while talking on the phone. I’d also use map editors in Starcraft and Warcraft to build game modes, host Counter-strike servers, and make websites to earn a side income. Games were always a deeply social experience for me and a way to make an income.

For college, I attended The Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania to do “business” which I quickly realized was just finance and consulting — not appealing to me in the slightest. Out of college I worked for two venture companies: Insight and Redpoint, but quickly left to find Luxury Escapes in Australia which today generates over $300M in revenue. Luxury Escapes taught first-hand marketing and product development, I learned here that I am more motivated by creativity & empowerment than discounts & sales. That’s what eventually led me to initiate Pocket Worlds with Jimmy.

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?

My AIM screen name is still Sauron0796, growing up I loved Lord of the Rings. Tolkien’s incredible commitment to building a world, including its own language, was the most immersive and impressive concept to me. Ahead of its time, the story was a video game in book form. In my opinion, open world games have gotten closer to the feel of Lord Of The Rings, but Tolkien is a once in a generation genius. His work inspires me everyday & was a key inspiration for Highrise World, an accessible and mobile-first platform, providing the opportunity to build a custom experience with true digital ownership & autonomous governance. As far as games go, I was always so impressed by Bioshock and the world they created there. Bioshock was developed by a creative lead who incorporated ideas by 20th century dystopian and utopian thinkers such as Ayn Rand, George Orwell, and Aldous Huxley, as well as historical figures such as John D. Rockefeller, Jr. and Walt Disney.

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

In 2013, my co-founder Jimmy and I met in San Francisco back in through mutual friends, both hungry for a new career challenge. We both grew up gaming and quickly decided to embark on our own venture and launched Pocket Worlds with the vision of creating an app that would bring people together. Following the release of a few smaller projects, we turned our attention to what is now called, the metaverse. I’ve always been passionate about emerging technologies and creating new ways for people to form meaningful connections so we began building our first UGX mobile-first metaverse world, Highrise. The concept that really got Jimmy and I started was a strong belief that social networking needed to be more than just news feeds, messaging, and ad-driven business models that didn’t benefit the masses. Our goal was to have a richer, more human, better engaging online experience that becomes ubiquitous. We didn’t know what that would look like yet, but we knew it’d be accessible (on mobile) and built by its own user base & community.

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

As anyone who works in web3 will tell you, a career in web3 is the best way to meet captivating, intelligent, out-of-the-box thinkers from all around the world. Our first mobile metaverse, Highrise, has been growing year-over-year for the previous eight, both in revenue and user-base, but I will admit I was still somewhat shocked when I found out that Game of Thrones star Maisie Williams was a dedicated user and huge fan of the Highrise game. Maisie and her boyfriend, Reuben Selby have since become amazing friends and collaborators for our company. Maisie was recently the cover star for Hunger TV’s magazine and I was so honored when she approached and asked to interview me for a Q&A piece on the metaverse.

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

Well actually, the first app Jimmy & I created ended up becoming a huge flop. A good idea to start, Photoscore was a dating app in which women took the lead, assigning a numeric value to sort through and rank different fellas. Surprisingly, this was the first female choice-centered dating app of its kind at the time — Bumble didn’t appear in the App Store until late 2014. And yet, despite its progressive vision, Photoscore was rejected from the App Store, and the project likewise found no support from the growth accelerator Y Combinator. When their third party member decided to call it quits, Jimmy and I changed directions. Over the next year and a half, we would successfully launch two entirely new apps: Pocketz and Harvest Crossing. Both new apps were games with a focus on socializing, our lesson learned this was our sweet spot.

My first co-founder for Luxury Escapes actually taught me a lot about how to be more assertive and close deals. Although he wasn’t always right, he sure knew how to keep moving things forward. His decisiveness taught me the value of swift and committed decision making. There’s really nothing worse than stalling a company’s growth while you “think about it”, you’re really just delaying the decision making. Certainly, you have to do your own research but procrastination in decision making affects everyone in your company.

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

At the beginning of this year, we announced Highrise World, which we will be launching over the next couple of months. Worlds now gives our users the ability to create their own custom metaverse communities that live on the block chain. We’ve seen an increased demand for custom metaverse experiences in recent years and even months, but building one takes significant time and resources. We believe that the future of social connectivity lies in the metaverse, so we’ve removed those barriers to entry. We’re rolling out our world building tools, the same tools that our team used to craft Highrise into the successful, thriving metaverse it is today, and allowing anyone who owns LAND on our continent to use them and follow our roadmap to success. In short, anyone can create their own metaverse, simply dubbed a Highrise. This will help people by expanding access to the metaverse and allowing for greater access online. And, by building on our continent we’re ensuring it’s done in a fair, safe manner. By building an entire digital continent, parcels of which are available to own in the form of LAND, we’re fulfilling our mission of expanding digital ownership opportunities for all.

The most exciting concepts in the metaverse industry to date deal with digital ownership, the creator economy and the GameFi market. I believe that the future lies in the metaverse and our products, specifically Highrise World, are accessible and mobile-first, providing all the opportunity to build a custom experience with true digital ownership & autonomous governance. We are initiating a prosperous online economy that will enable new work opportunities for creators, collectors, and experience hosts from impoverished countries. A populated virtual world will bring the physical world closer and make you feel more connected within a community while helping to tear down global economic disparities and increase access worldwide. We also recently announced that our community-owned metaverse Highrise World will be supported by the Avalanche subnet — making it Avalanche’s first-ever metaverse subnet. This historic move merges the benefits of a GameFi economy with the existing, community-first infrastructure that’s contributed to the existing success of Highrise.

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

I would say the three most concerning areas in the metaverse today for me are equality, governance & protection. The Web3 mindset is for everyone to have the same experience and Highrise has set-up in game guard rails to ensure that everyone has an equal opportunity. Although I grew up playing social interactive video games, I know today they are not as safe or what they used to be. Cyber-bullying online is a huge problem and our goal is to diminish it by implementing AI features in chat rooms to detect inappropriate content and shut it down quickly. Lastly, MR governance is worrisome because in order for all these virtual worlds to stay spinning they have to work correctly, a failed example being Club Penguin. Highrise enables its users to have a healthy environment where the treasury is successfully managed & infrastructure is taken care of.

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?

After the isolation of the COVID-19 pandemic, people are even more hungry for real personal connection. Work teams are becoming increasingly more spread out — like mine which is all over the world — connecting people together & sharing experiences has become more important than ever. The metaverse allows people to escape & interact with a community so when they resume their WFH life they can focus more clearly on the tasks at hand their employer asks of them. Virtual worlds help make the real world more connected in an increasingly spread out globally diverse universe.

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

Our products, specifically Highrise World, are accessible and mobile-first metaverses, providing all the opportunity to build a custom experience with true digital ownership & autonomous governance. Not only do we provide the tools for any brand, community or individual to create a custom metaverse through the Highrise World Builder, but we also empower successful digital ownership through our dedicated subnet blockchain. With this transition, simply put, a shift from web2 to web3, creators have full ownership of their content. Landowners can govern and monetize their metaverse how they see fit & build unique in-world experiences that engage with their users. And, on top of that, Highrise has a robust and active existing user-base ready to make this leap into the metaverse. Unlike similar metaverse worlds, Highrise has true user engagement — providing a never-before-seen capacity for engagement & income for the people that use it.

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

One of the biggest ongoing MR myths, both in media and in practice is that the metaverse is primarily male dominated. Our virtual world, Highrise, is over 75% female based, and some of the top performing creators are female, like Maisie Williams. As of March 2022, a survey conducted in the United States found that metaverse interests in men were doubled that of women. My biggest rationale for this incorrect trend is the survey data recorded are from metaverses like Decentraland & Sandbox that don’t have true user engagement like Higrise, therefore cannot adequately interpret the trends at hand.

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

At the stage we’re in now, with web3 still being fairly new to most consumers, traditional web2 tech individuals who successfully make the leap into web3 are generally naturally curious & early adapters. Of course this may be an oversimplification, but in my experience, web3 people find each other because they are continually seeking new experiences & new avenues for growth — financially or otherwise. However, I’ve found that the basic principles are similar, but the mediums have changed. In lieu of traditional networking events people meet in Discord channels, Reddit forums — or even in Highrise!

Digital economies enable direct transactions between creator and consumer. In the physical world, you have a massive supply chain with rent seekers in between each stage. A worker in China works on a fabric that’s shipped to a factory where another worker builds a shoe that’s shipped to a distributor who sells to retailers who then resells to the end consumer. The workers ultimately see less than 5% of the revenue of those shoes they initiated. In the digital world, because there’s no physical limitations, the relationship between creator to consumer can be more direct. I believe in this new world, where the economic inequality that exists simply because somebody is born in a different country dissipates. The idea that anyone born in a lower class community in China, with less resources can build something of value and sell it directly to someone born into wealth all the way in America. In doing so, the world becomes more equal over time and is a huge reason why I love the creator economy.

I would love to sit and have a private meal with Tim Sweeney, founder and CEO of Epic Games, and the creator of the Unreal Engine, one of the most-used game development platforms. I think Sweeney would be the best candidate to build a mass adopted virtual world. Sweeney was chosen recently as person of the year for building and turning Fortnite into a social network with his company, hosting online events such as Travis Scott’s in-game concert which drew over 28 million viewers. He has his hands in the big next everything, to be able to sit down and expand our vision together would make Highrise even bigger success than it already is.

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

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

Meet The Disruptors: Nancy Bologna Of The Lives of CC Mercy On The Five Things You Need To Shake Up…

Meet The Disruptors: Nancy Bologna Of The Lives of CC Mercy On The Five Things You Need To Shake Up Your Industry

An Interview With Fotis Georgiadis

Be yourself, nothing else works. Go ahead, fake it now and then. Might last for a while. But all you really have is you.

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

Author and creator Nancy Bologna, of Rockford, Minnesota, is a Clinical Psychologist by profession but has had many other positions such as a senior executive in large corporations, an executive business coach, and a “behind-the scenes” writer. She created a new and exciting way to “consume content” — — a digital interactive novel where people can contribute to the ongoing story, expand or invent new characters, draw, paint, make music and so much more. Welcome to The Lives of CC Mercy, an inclusive place where artists from around the world can collaborate, let their creativity flourish, and receive the recognition they deserve.

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 have always loved to read and write, and have been drawn to the human experience from a young age. I’ve worked in several different fields, including the entertainment industry, retail and executive coaching. As a psychologist, I’ve been privileged to understand on a deep level how people think and feel, share their dark moments and their joys. But there are so many stories that are left untold, and I wanted to find a way for people to have their own voice in this noisy world.

So I created a digital, interactive novel called The Lives of CC Mercy. This is a place where creators have the freedom to express their creativity and get recognition for their work. This is a living story that will become a visual medium as more creatives join the community. I’m starting it with five seasons already, each with ten episodes, and more than a hundred unique characters already!

The story starts with 16-year-old CC Mercy who commits a murder. But the story quickly moves beyond her. Drama, action, love, and all the human elements emerge. The story is broken into episodes and seasons, much like a TV series. I hope this becomes a visual medium where artists and writers can create new characters, expand on established characters, move the plot forward, go back into someone’s past, or dig deeper into their present. Every month, we’ll ask for artists’ renderings of what characters look like and the winner’s work will become that character’s image.

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

I’m creating an inclusive space where authors, artists and other creatives can do just that… create. To my knowledge, there isn’t a website or novel like this out there that is strictly developed by the everyday person. This is a concept that is gaining momentum. We see it with YouTube and streaming services like Netflix. People have a desire to create something new and to shake up how audiences interact with media.

We see this disruption in other industries like Uber. Instead of calling a taxi service, you use an app on your phone to find a driver near you. People go directly to other people. The Lives of CC Mercy transports content, rather than passengers. Person to person without an intermediary.

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 certainly have made a string of big mistakes so it’s hard to pick one! I underestimated the complexity of creating a compelling website that gets the story out there and gets attention. Luckily, I chose an excellent website design and development company, and they have been a true partner to me. I wouldn’t be this far without them. I learned that writing the story and bringing the characters to life is what a writer does. Social media, not the covers of a hard copy book, is what brings life, attention, and people to a medium.

I had to learn to lean on people who work with these materials daily, and so many good people made this what it is today.

I also underestimated how much of the story there is to tell. I was concerned when I started that I wouldn’t have enough of a story for people to work with. Now that I’m writing everything, it’s all coming out — — characters, action!

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 had great parents who believed in me. I have a great husband who believes in me. I am moved by ideas, so great writers and great philosophers have been my mentors. I’m a voracious reader of both fiction and non-fiction.

I’ve been honored by the sheer number of professional supporters I’ve had over the years. While working on The Lives of CC Mercy, I have had old colleagues find the website and reach out. I’ve seen so many of them show up for me with this project, including following me on social media and sharing the website with their friends.

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?

Great revolutions in science, art, and technology usually don’t occur solely on incremental change. Often it takes a very disruptive concept, theory or idea to force profound change. Newton, Picasso, Mozart, Einstein — — the list goes on and on — — challenged and disrupted existing beliefs and practices.

In the artistic world, you have artists pushing boundaries and challenging “What is art?” You can see writers and filmmakers diving into subjects that others see as taboo. You have services like Netflix and Hulu challenging how people consume content. That is my goal with this novel, to push the boundaries of how a novel is written or a film is made. I’m creating an immersive experience where the community tells the story and drives the characters.

Failed disruptors aren’t always visible to the rest of us. Disruption that fails to stand the test of time can be seen as negative. This type of disruption can lead people astray and doesn’t move an industry forward. There is a sense that time, money and energy were wasted and companies can fold. However, from the ruins of this disruption, there is usually someone else who finds a way to innovate that idea and bring it to life.

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

Do what you believe in. In my life, I have left several high-paying jobs because I found no purpose in the work. Purpose is very personal and no one can define it for you. The simple act of reducing someone’s suffering — — one person’s pain — — matters to me. My clinical practice has given me that avenue. I am fortunate indeed.
Have some fun. Life is short and long at the same time. Better find some joy along the way. Keep your eyes, ears, and heart open to spot the little stuff along your way. Laugh at yourself and with others.
Don’t expect to be understood. People are busy trying to figure themselves out, trying to live their own lives. If you are different from those around you, don’t expect them to understand you. Understanding is an advanced relationship state, and doesn’t happen often.
Be proud of the little things you do. Count your invisible victories each day. Overcoming a hurdle, being kind when you’re tired and irritable, just do it. This is what hope is built on.
Be yourself, nothing else works. Go ahead, fake it now and then. Might last for a while. But all you really have is you.

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

I plan on disrupting the consumption of content. Giving people their voice, an outlet and platform to display what lies inside, their writing, their art, their music, their ideas. Tapping human potential, there it is. Perhaps loosen the controls of entertainment by the powerful intermediaries and take the reins ourselves. There has to be a structure for this and discipline. That’s what I’m here for.

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?

Writers, poets, songwriters, and philosophers have moved me and still do. Bob Dylan, VictorHugo, Jane Austen, Leo Tolstoy, Lewis Thomas — — this list goes on and on. I live in my head and am influenced by ideas.

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

Mother Teresa — “Do not do great things. Do small things with great love.”

This quote resonates with me. I believe in the power of little things because you have no idea how big they can get or what impact they might have. These days, it seems to be about the next big thing. But there is infinite power in the little things we do.

The greatest gift I could give this world would be for people to believe in themselves and have the courage to express their own voices. It’s so easy to be torn down by everything that is going on in the world and, often, other people. It’s amazing the power we really have to be part of this world as it is and as it could be.

How can our readers follow you online?

We’re just getting started, but we have big dreams for this platform. We are looking for submissions on our website, ccmercy.com. I don’t want to stop growing, so we are planning to have a newsletter and much more as we continue to build this community. You can also follow us on Facebook at @TheCCMercy and Instagram at @theccmercy. I’m reaching out my hand and asking for help on this creative endeavor because this is meant to be a community. Your work doesn’t have to be perfect; it just has to be you!

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

Meet The Disruptors: Nancy Bologna Of The Lives of CC Mercy On The Five Things You Need To Shake Up… was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Agile Businesses: Neal Hansch Of Silicon Foundry On How Businesses Pivot and Stay Relevant In The…

Agile Businesses: Neal Hansch Of Silicon Foundry On How Businesses Pivot and Stay Relevant In The Face of Disruptive Technologies

An Interview With Fotis Georgiadis

I think the most important role of a leader during a disruptive period is clarity on vision, clarity on the Northstar, and communicating that to the team, while providing a sense of direction. Certainly, the disruption happening will continue, but when you communicate clarity on vision, at least everyone feels like they know where they’re headed and what it will take to get there. It’s been a challenging few years, and we’re a relatively small business in the grand scheme of things, but this clarity is applicable whether you’re a team of 20 or 200,000 people strong, which is the operating size of some of our members.

As part of my series about the “How Businesses Pivot and Stay Relevant In The Face of Disruptive Technologies”, I had the pleasure of interviewing Neal Hansch, CEO & Managing Partner at Silicon Foundry.

Neal Hansch is the CEO and Managing Partner of Silicon Foundry, an innovation advisory firm that builds bridges between leading global corporations and the emerging tech economy. Hansch leverages over 25 years of venture capital, product management, technology operations, corporate development, and trusted advisory experience to lead the firm, which helps its member organizations navigate new technologies and market shifts, discover and engage with key emerging leaders, and unlock high-impact opportunities.

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

I started my career in the late 90s, otherwise known as Internet 1.0 during the dotcom boom, on the dark side as an investment banker. I was in this space during that first wave of technology companies that went public–companies like Netscape and eBay. Then, I moved to the venture capital side. I was involved in the funding of many of those companies, as they were our clients, and for taking them public as bankers. After, I spent nearly two decades as a venture capitalist, investing in early- and late-stage companies. I also did a stint in corporate development, at Macromedia, which was acquired by Adobe, as well as working within a handful of startups doing corporate development and strategic investments and acquisitions. And,,at Silicon Foundry, we put all that together. We operate at the intersection of startups, Fortune 2000s, and the venture capitalists backing those startups. My backstory led me, most naturally, to the role I’m in today.

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

I think the funniest mistake or maybe the most expensive mistakes would have been some of those Internet 1.0 startups we invested in because many may have been a bit ahead of their time. Or where, at the time, it was all about growth and growth as measured in eyeballs and activity rather than revenue. I think everyone may recall Pets.com. Well, Petopia was the equivalent. The logic made so much sense given how much people love their pets and spend on them. But the economics just don’t work when you ship 100 pounds of pet food and there’s only a $2 margin. We had a few companies who had similar stories. There was one where I think all that was left of our investment at the end of the day was a rubber football from when we sponsored a New Year’s Day college bowl. Thankfully, these mistakes happened early in my career when I was learning the startup game and venture business.

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?

With my career, it’s not any one person. I think I’ve been blessed at each place I’ve worked or participated as a banker or venture investor. I was always at least two or more years with these companies and projects, which seems to fly in the face of conventional practice these days. At each stop, whether it was investment banking, venture capital, or on the operating side, I always had an informal if not formal mentor–someone who invested their time in me and in turn helped me grow. Also when leaving a place, I always left in good standing. There are probably a half-dozen names that I could directly reference here.

Much of what we do here at Silicon Foundry and the roles I’ve been in, they’re very much apprenticeship roles, where it’s less about a hard, tangible technical skill set and more about learning the trade and learning the nuances.What’s great is that I am still in touch with those half-dozen people. We often find ourselves crossing paths. One of the things I really enjoy about Silicon Valley and the ecosystem here is the connectivity, and those relationships which are not measured in months or quarters, but years and, in many cases, decades. After time passes, we find ourselves working together again. A perfect example is several of our Silicon Foundry team members whom I worked with 10 and 20 years ago, and now I’m working with them day in and day out here.

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?

Silicon Foundry is, at its core, purpose driven. For us, it marries personal passion with a drive of helping small companies and large companies find each other and have success in working together, which is a win-win for both sides. We talk a lot about helping Fortune 2000 companies navigate the startup ecosystem. First and foremost, it’s about having the insights, intel, and an understanding of the landscape. But to do that, so that you can connect the dots in the right way, you have to separate the signal from the noise. You have to figure out which of these emerging companies are not only the best of breed and pulling away from the pack, but also which of these startups Fortune 2000s should be engaging. The goal is they either become customers of these companies and use their new technologies, platforms, services, and even business models as inspiration in their own businesses, or they develop partnerships with these companies or make strategic investments that happen alongside those customer or partnership relationships or acquisitions. I feel fulfilled, whether it’s when I’m coming home at night or as we look back and reflect at the end of the year, knowing we’ve helped generate, ideate, and facilitate these engagements for outcomes that helped startups grow and be more successful as well as fuel business for the incumbents.

Which technological innovation has encroached or disrupted your industry? Can you explain why this has been disruptive? What did you do to pivot as a result of this disruption?

For our business, it’s understanding the landscape, identifying the startups operating within that space, and filtering them on many different variables and vectors. Arguably, for us, the most disruptive innovation would be if there was a holy grail database that captured all the startups in the world along with all the data points, quantitative and qualitative; where someone could be sitting at their desk and find just the right potential startup and partner for their needs. The good news for our businesses is that this kind of database doesn’t exist and, in many respects, it’ll never exist because the most important data points about a company and the founders of that company are qualitative. They’re real-time and largely about personal judgment. Yet, there are companies like CrunchBase and PitchBook. We view these tools as a starting point.

Ultimately, the human eye, human judgment, and relationships aren’t resident in a database, but garnered over time through history, trust, and authentic interactions. These databases are a tool we use because of the sheer volume of startups globally. But could they disintermediate us? We don’t think so because once again this is more of a starting point, or the mid game, but we take it from there and do what we do. We operate beyond a database at the highest levels, building sound relationships and using keen judgment. With founders and corporate executives, these attributes will never be measured in bits and bytes. We view these technologies like CrunchBase and PitchBook as an asset rather than a competitive threat.

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

I’m actually the second CEO here at Silicon Foundry. I think the “aha moment” was when I talked to the original founders, as they were looking to bring in a new CEO for the next phase of the business. They described the fundamental value proposition and, given my background, it immediately struck a chord because I had been on both the startup side and corporate side. I had also operated as a VC. So, I knew the pain points, not just conceptually, but I lived and breathed these concepts. I also spent time in corporate development at a big tech company trying to find potential acquisition targets. I knew on the startup side that trying to connect with the right decision makers at corporates was a very challenging undertaking, but I learned how to navigate these behemoth organizations. I’d known as a VC that you always want global connectivity to decision makers at corporates for the benefit of your portfolio companies. If you could open those doors, they could be potential customers, investors, or acquirers. When I heard the founders describe the fundamental value proposition of Silicon Foundry, I immediately knew there was sizable business potential. And the pain points weren’t conceptual. They were very, very tangible to me, since I had experienced all of them in the prior 20 plus years in different ways.

So, how are things going with this new direction? Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you started this pivot?

Ours is very much a global business, where half, if not more, of our members or customers or clients are based overseas. It’s very much relationship driven. A big part of what we facilitate is the ability for these corporates to engage the startups and spend time with them. Covid, when the skies closed and borders were shut, was definitely a headwind to our business and yet we continue to grow and we continue to grow every year. I think the tailwinds through Covid, or perhaps silver linings as it relates to our business, is that digital transformation has accelerated. Digital became a must have rather than a nice to have. That was underway pre-Covid, but the pandemic really put a fine point on it. For us, this worked out to be a positive, because that’s at the very heart of what we do.

If we look at the macro environment right now, corporates leveraging external innovation will charge ahead, regardless of what the stock market is doing. We’ve only seen an increase over the last number of years. These are trends that have not just continued, but I’d say continued to grow and accelerate. We’re seeing the technology ecosystem and tech companies migrate further from Silicon Valley, which is still home of the greatest number of startups and venture capital funds flowing in the region. The Bay Area, Southern California, New York, and Boston, have generally been four of the top five ecosystems outside of the Valley. But Miami is gaining a lot of traction these days, along with Austin, Seattle, Chicago, and Detroit. There has also been a rise in international tech ecosystems in places like London, Stockholm, Hong Kong, Singapore, and Shanghai. Not too long ago, many of these were emerging markets. Today, the rise of these other ecosystems and the number of startups that are up and coming, only further plays into the hand, if you will, of our business.

We have a finger on the pulse of the best companies coming out of these ecosystems and the best companies in each category, regardless of where they’re based. These trends are positive for our business and increase the need to be able to monitor these ecosystems. We are champions of those startups and those entrepreneurs, and connect them to our corporate members and corporates in our network, regardless of where they are. The more distributed, the more challenging that is, of course. But for us, the more fun it is to connect a US startup with a Middle Eastern financial services conglomerate, or a startup based in Tel Aviv to one of our members based here in the states.

What would you say is the most critical role of a leader during a disruptive period? Based on your experience and success, what are the most important things a business leader should do to pivot and stay relevant in the face of disruptive technologies?

I think the most important role of a leader during a disruptive period is clarity on vision, clarity on the Northstar, and communicating that to the team, while providing a sense of direction. Certainly, the disruption happening will continue, but when you communicate clarity on vision, at least everyone feels like they know where they’re headed and what it will take to get there. It’s been a challenging few years, and we’re a relatively small business in the grand scheme of things, but this clarity is applicable whether you’re a team of 20 or 200,000 people strong, which is the operating size of some of our members.

To pivot and stay relevant in the face of disruptive technologies, it may be practical or relevant to just adopt those disruptive technologies and have them be an asset rather than a threat to your business. A number of years ago, pre-pandemic, we had 15 to 20 very senior folks from train companies based here in the US come out to Silicon Valley. We had several conversations about disruption from technology. These were train companies with billions of dollars of assets, hard assets, tracks laid on the ground, criss crossing the nation. When they came out to Silicon Valley, the lens was on disruption. Ironically, what came from these meetings was inspiring. It was less about disruptive tech eating into their business and more about the solutions they were seeing and how they could make their business more successful by cutting costs, streamlining operations, and increasing safety of their employees on the track. It was less a defensive posture, and more an offensive and a partner in the collaborative mindset. Here’s this traditional industry, right? Now, there is disruption from autonomous trucking to other modes of transportation and moving goods across the US. You could certainly take the lens and say these disruptive new technologies will impact their business. But the best leaders of the bunch were really looking at it as how can we embrace these disruptive new forces? How can we integrate them into our own businesses for more success, increased revenues, greater safety and happiness to the employees, and more productivity? This example is leadership at its finest.

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

I’d go back to clarity and vision and direction and purpose. Again, when employees understand where a company is headed, there’s greater job satisfaction and a sense of fulfillment. Today, one of the biggest challenges is how to drive culture in what’s now so often a hybrid and distributed workforce. Leaders today and going forward need to think about the fundamentals, which is the purpose and mission of their companies. They need to be thinking about what drives employees too. What do employees embrace and attach themselves to? In parallel, how do we drive a positive, engaged, reinforced, committed culture?

There’s no shortage of articles, thoughts, and commentary on these critical topics. But I believe we’re all in it together and learning what that looks like going forward. And you’re talking to someone who just came back from their team offsite, and realized there are some team members who had not met each other after a year of work, which is the last time we had one of these events for our business. Pre-Covid, 95 percent of our employees worked together side by side. Everyone lived in the same general zip codes. Now, about half our employees are outside of our headquarters in Silicon Valley. We have team members in Los Angeles, San Diego, Austin, New York, New Jersey, Boston, and Florida. So, we’re learning along with everyone else.

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

The most common mistake ties in with those experts and executives back in the 90s who referred to the Internet as a fad–people like Clifford Stoll. Some thought this technology could never be sustained. A huge mistake is not recognizing or appreciating some of these new technologies and their potential impact. These things move on a relative basis at lightning speed. Some of this tech fundamentally shifts either the competitive landscape or just the way business is done. There is a continuous library of quotes from CEOs weighing in on some of these new technologies or trends and putting them off to the side very quickly. It’s important to keep in mind the potential of how these will change the nature of business. And, it’s about applying it to the business, as much as anything else.

The element of these new technologies is that they open doors to new ways of providing services or entirely new business models, which incumbents often have a difficult time embracing. When they are successful, those new models gain not just traction, but they end up being the model of choice in many industries. One example is SaaS in the software business. When I started my career, enterprise software was largely a perpetual license business model with a big ticket, single purchase, and then yearly maintenance contracts. Today, SaaS is arguably the de facto business model for software companies and many software companies had to go through that phase where they shifted their entire business models. It changed the economics upfront and, over the long term, became a business model that Wall Street appreciated and valued, which was reflected in the market cap of those companies who were able to make that transition effectively.

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

“Change almost never fails because it’s too early. It almost always fails because it’s too late.” This maxim is one that in so many ways is a driver to our own business and a philosophy we share with our corporate Members, all of whom are going through their own digital transformations to varying degrees and speed of movements. At the same time, this also applies to our own firm and as we need to live by this philosophy, in the same way we espouse and support it with those companies we serve. During the pandemic change was certainly forced on us all in our personal as well as professional lives. Those who embraced, adjusted and in fact found ways to “lean into” that change as early and quickly as possible, I think we can all agree weathered the storm best over this period and perhaps even found the most silver linings during it. For example here at Silicon Foundry,, while our core value proposition remained the same, we embraces the need to shift so many elements of how we do what we do, how we deliver our services, how we collaborate as colleagues, and how we recruit and retain our current and future team mates, etc.

How can our readers further follow your work?

I can be reached by email at [email protected] or on LinkedIn and Twitter.

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

Agile Businesses: Neal Hansch Of Silicon Foundry On How Businesses Pivot and Stay Relevant In The… was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Makers of The Metaverse: Corey Hill Of Veritone On The Future Of The VR, AR & Mixed Reality…

Makers of The Metaverse: Corey Hill Of Veritone On The Future Of The VR, AR & Mixed Reality Industries

An Interview With Fotis Georgiadis

Forget the word impossible — Replace it with persistence, confidence and patience.

Corey Hill (also known as ‘chill’) is a self-realized technology expert with a dynamic career spanning multiple roles and industries. Collaborating to create value by leveraging technology and imagination is where he’ll tell you he’s living the dream.

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

I grew up with technology almost second nature to me. My father worked for a leading tech company, which meant not only being privileged to the latest ideas and innovation coming down the pike but also moving quite a bit — which spurred my love for travel and expanded my horizons early on. Being curious and having access to computers, I spent a lot of time tinkering with them during an era when you had to load the operating system from multiple disks. I learned a lot just by doing. So, when I went out into the world to start my career, I was intrinsically drawn toward technology. In school, I studied marketing and psychology, which rounded out my interests.

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?

The Alchemist by Paolo Coelho was a pretty impactful book. In fact, after reading it, I was inspired to make a choice for myself — for the first time — and started a new chapter, which involved many synchronistic meetings with people that led to career changes and pretty awesome opportunities. I think it was the scene in the story where Santiago is in the crystal shop and gets a job working for the merchant, who is afraid to fulfill his dream to go to Mecca. Santiago asks him why he doesn’t just go, and the merchant says the dream of going is the only thing that helps him face the drudgery of his days. If he goes to Mecca, what else does he have to live for? He represents a man who will never fulfill his dreams.

Two weeks after reading the book, I packed up and moved to Denver, which is ironic considering it only took Coelho two weeks to write the entire story. Further, the book was published two separate times by two different publishers. The first one lost faith in it. The English version was published by a third publisher years later, and that’s when it took off. It has been translated in many languages and has sold tens of millions of copies, and is even available for free download. It really resonates with me on many levels, but the most important being that you have to have faith in yourself, even if no one else does. And you must stay focused on your own journey.

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

I was pretty early to the business side of social media but began leaning in more on the technology side of things. But with that transition, I felt like I was missing out on this exciting technology, the VR, AR and MR innovation. So, this fear of missing out drew me in. Google was in the early stages of augmented tech and I was having discussions with friends about blending this tech with real life. For example, holding up your phone in a city like Chicago and visualizing the phone giving you information (via text or voice, or both) on that particular thing, be it a building or bridge or landmark.

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

Considering I wasn’t a “classically” or traditionally trained engineer, my transitioning from marketing to technology is interesting. I think it’s good for people who are like me to know they can come into these amazing companies and opportunities to be in a leadership position of their own accord. For example, I started my own social media and web development company where I created a multi-location digital signage network that worked over 3g. I built an entire business from the scripts to configure the hardware to the sales and marketing collateral to find and close investors and advertisers for the network. The success of the business gave me confidence that I could implement technical solutions but was still worried about doing it at the enterprise level. s. A friend actually convinced me to apply for more technical roles and I ended up landing a position as the technical analyst between the chief marketing officer and chief technology officer, for an airline’s e-commerce website. That’s as close to full circle as it gets.

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?

It was my first week in a new position, and I was on the plane waiting for the last passengers to boardt, trying to knock out a few updates. While sitting at the gate and trying to hurry, I accidentally deleted the wrong table from a customer’s production application, crashing a key service in their operations. Once I realized my mistake, I only had a few seconds to call the CTO to let him know what happened before they closed the doors and devices had to be put away. I didn’t find out the resolution until I landed two hours later. I was sweating it out the entire flight. Thankfully, they had a very robust backup policy, so the problem was likely solved before we even took off. The lesson? Don’t make changes if you don’t have the required time, and don’t expect the Wi-Fi to work on the plane.

My older brother was always significantly more technical than me and would spend hours on the computer learning and playing games. We actually used to fight over the shared computer so often, my parents eventually bought one for each of us. One of my earliest memories was in middle school, when he showed me how to use proxies to get to the anime sites that were blocked. I didn’t really understand what was happening until working on web development projects several years later.

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

Veritone is working on delivering a portfolio of metaverse andweb3 products! I think our expertise in the media and entertainment industry will help to drive additional adoption by those companies and help further drive the shift towards these emerging technologies. There are so many applications, and it’s exciting to see the impact our technology is having on companies focused on creating amazing content in digital formats. Our technology will create more immersive experiences, particularly as we move into metaverse environments.

AR — As mentioned, augmented reality can really boost our creative abilities, help expand our horizons and provide us with options for exploring the world around us. I always liked the idea of being able to point my phone at an object and learn about it. Or the idea of being in a car and the windshield providing information, like where the nearest gas or charging station is located.

VR Immersion — Just in the fields of healthcare and education, virtual reality can take us to places we otherwise may not be able to explore. For healthcare, virtual reality can help in training surgeons before a single cut is made. As far as media content, virtual reality is enabling us to use synthetic voice for translation and so much more. It’s exciting to be able to expand the capabilities of language that way.

MR — When we mix all of these realities together, we get a multiverse experience, whether totally digital, like the metaverse, or in everyday physical environments. Take cars, for instance. We now have vehicle-to-vehicle communication, vehicle to infrastructure and vehicle to pedestrian.

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?

Lack of diversity is number one. During these early stages, there’s the possibility the new realities miss the nuances of specific groups (ie accessibility like deaf, mute or blind) or cultures and they could end up being left behind. Part of the allure of the metaverse is inclusiveness and diversity of ideas! Two, the danger associated with people not paying attention while being immersed. Think about people looking at their phones crossing busy intersections. Or wearing a VR headset and falling into an object in the room. Then there is the danger of people losing touch with reality and getting addicted to the technology.

In everything, we need balance.

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?

AR, VR and MR offer so many unique ways for us to communicate, whether in the same room or half a world away. This can help make remote work feel less remote. Imagine a real virtual conference call with your photorealistic avatars sitting around the conference room, shaking hands and actually feeling that handshake. I also think the distribution/access/display of information can be improved significantly.

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

As mentioned previously, these technologies can greatly benefit education and healthcare, as well as manufacturing. I know that companies are already using these to develop digital twins (digital copies of an environment like a factory) and design products before moving to the physical stage. NASA has been using digital twins for decades. We’re already moving in this direction but these technologies have the power to eliminate language and geographical barriers, and help people to express their ideas and thoughts in ways that just aren’t possible with the current mediums.

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

I hear quite a few people saying the metaverse will lead to a dystopian future. Lots of things can lead to a dystopian future. It’s like fire. It can bring warmth and light and can destroy. We all need to be responsible for the power we wield in life.

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

Number one is imagination. You’ve got to have a good imagination if you’re going to be creating a new world or new interface to the existing one.

Number two: Forget the word impossible — Replace it with persistence, confidence and patience.

Number three: You need a high-level understanding of and the ability to align imagination with an understanding of the moving pieces of the necessary tech to put a more compelling story together.

An understanding of the gaps/needs of the space. Imagination and tech without and understanding the gaps where there are general needs may not go as far

Five Storytelling! If you’re able to summarize all of the above things into a compelling story, you’ll have an easier time collaborating, socializing and ultimately selling your ideas to stakeholders and customers.

Chanda Prescod-Wienstein , a theoretical physicist with extensive knowledge in string theory and other principle building blocks of our current reality. I think understanding more about how the forces of this reality work, will only help to drive tangibly more immersive experiences within the realities of the future. Besides, depending on who you ask, we may already be part of an extensive simulation!

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

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

Meet The Disruptors: Porsha Ellis Of Crown + Conquer On The Five Things You Need To Shake Up Your…

Meet The Disruptors: Porsha Ellis Of Crown + Conquer On The Five Things You Need To Shake Up Your Industry

An Interview With Fotis Georgiadis

Integrity, Curiosity & Resourcefulness are your best attributes. Use them to your benefit and for good!

As a part of our series about business leaders who are shaking things up in their industry, I had the pleasure of interviewing Crown + Conquer’s Managing Director, Porsha Ellis.

Porsha Ellis began her career in the marketing & events industry over 15 years ago; her first role working for the Super Bowl Committee as an Events & Community Relations Coordinator. That experience, coupled with her love for sports & entertainment, sparked her passion for client services and curating immersive, one-of-a-kind experiences. She launched her career with her move to New York City, where she produced events for brands like Victoria Secret, Samsung, HBO, and Microsoft to name a few.

Her journey continued as she transitioned over to the creative & sports marketing agency, Game Seven, where she made the move to Los Angeles, helping to open their offices on the West Coast. There she led campaigns and executed projects for brands like Nike and Beats By Dre; inclusive of spearheading a multi-year, multi-pronged Influencer Initiative, managing various digital and social talent, the first of its kind for Beats.

Five years ago, Porsha took the leap and transitioned over to newly founded creative agency, Crown + Conquer. As the Vice President of Accounts, she has overseen a wide range of brand campaigns and projects, leading influencer strategy & programs and managed a team to service clients such as Amazon, Spotify, Google, Airbnb and many more. Now in her role as Managing Director, she oversees business strategies and company operations including finance, legal, internal/client protocols, and processes to ensure growth & profitability.

I started in the industry over 15 years ago. My first exposure to the world of Experiential Marketing was around the Super Bowl, where I worked for the SB XL Host Committee while I was in college. There, I was exposed to the vastness of this industry and the different types of events that brands gravitated towards. After that role, I realized my love for creating & executing experiences that bring joy to others. Truthfully, planning & curating events has always been my specialty. In high school and college, I was always involved with organizations that put-on events, so I chose this career path because it allowed to be my most authentic self. I’m a planner at heart, anyone who knows me personally would say the same, so using my intrinsic skills to create magic turned out to be a perfect fit.

After college I moved to New York City to pursue a full-time career in Marketing; starting in Public Relations but then quickly realized that was not my calling. I double downed on producing events and landed my first full-time gig with Nike Communications (not to be confused with the “Just Do It” Nike). My work over the years has spanned across various Fortune 500 companies (Microsoft, HBO, Google, Apple) and I’ve built & executed a plethora of experiential work: Multi-City Tours, Exhibitions, Pop-Ups, you name it. I also found a lane for myself in the Influencer Marketing space over the last 8 years, creating bespoke strategies, executing campaigns & talent partnerships for Patron, Airbnb, Amazon & Beats By Dre to name a few. After a long stint in NY, Los Angeles became home where I helped build the west coast business of my last agency, Game Seven, which is also where I met & worked with my now boss, April McDaniel. I joined April in building Crown + Conquer over 5 years ago and have been developing our client relationships & growing our business to where we are today. Now, I’ve taken on the role as Managing Director, working with our Leadership team and Founder to ensure profitability and implementing business strategies as we continue to scale.

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

We create “Moments of Truth” and truth for us is being our most authentic selves, unapologetically, and always striving to be our best. Who we are at our core is a diverse group of creative alchemists who bring an alternative perspective to the table. There’s nothing traditional about us — we seek out what’s different and you’ll see that in every aspect of our business; how we hire, who we hire, the brands we work with, the type of projects we work on and how we execute the work… all of it matters.

Our work is more than just a service — we challenge ourselves to think outside the box and create waves in culture & we push our clients to do the same. Unfortunately, in this industry, there are so many people who are “all talk” but we’re all about action, showing up for ourselves, our clients, our vendors, and the community any way we can. This is who we have always been & what makes our work disruptive!

I’d be remiss not to mention that we are a female-led agency; our founder and our leadership team are all women (we also have some amazing guys that work on our team as well) so just by looking at us, you’ll see that we are different. Diversity is at our core — we live and breathe it every day because we’ve purposely & intentionally set ourselves up to gain as many perspectives as possible, which is what makes our work stand out.

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

Oh boy! There have been a handful of moments that I wished I could take back but ultimately, they all ended up becoming learning lessons that I’ve been able to apply even to this day. I’ve always worked in fast paced environments and when I first was given the task to create and send a budget estimate to a client, I knew that I was finally growing in my role. After getting the budget approved internally, it was time to send the budget out to the client, except I sent the wrong budget out, which had about a $30K discrepancy in it. Thankfully, we were able to smooth things over but that moment taught me a few valuable lessons in this business, especially when dealing with money.

1 — Double (and sometimes even triple) check your work. Being thorough is key.

2 — Take a second to slow down and breathe. While the work that we are doing is high pressure and urgent, we aren’t saving lives so taking an extra second to ground yourself will usually help in the long run.

3 — Own your mistakes, learn from them, and keep it moving!

Thankfully, I’ve redeemed myself over the years and I’m now known as the Budget Master by my team.

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 fortunate to have a collective of colleagues (namely women) around me throughout my career journey that have encouraged me, challenged me, supported me, kept me honest and celebrated me over the years. For me, I have learned from so many people in the industry that it would be too many to name but what I think is important is to always keep a tribe of people around you that you trust. People that have your best interest at heart and are willing to help you grow however they can.

My relationship with April, our Founder of Crown + Conquer, isn’t a typical one. I’m grateful for the journey that she has been on as a Founder and what she has learned & shared with me along the way. When I really think about it, this agency was built from scratch, and I came in at the beginning, so we’ve navigated a lot of spaces as first timers together. We’ve learned some things by trial and error, and I’ve taken the wisdom that she has passed on and have been able to apply it in a way that benefits myself and the business.

Being disruptive is all about intention. As an agency, we intentionally focus on how to be the most creative, the most inclusive, the most purposeful, strategizing on what would resonate best with the target audience; and have checks & balances to ensure we stay true to this. For us, being disruptive is all about stretching ourselves and our clients to try new things and to get out of our comfort zone. We are not a one size fits all agency and we pride ourselves on that, so our agency is naturally disruptive at its core.

What can be seen as detrimentally disruptive is when agencies/brands have no intention, no purpose and are performative in how they show up. It happens all the time! Agencies/brands just want to be a part of a certain conversation or moment, with no real idea of how to connect with a specific demographic and/or community and no real intention of talking to them past that particular moment in time. That’s an example of how things can start to become problematic.

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

I’ll share the top three that have been relevant to my journey within this industry:

Integrity, Curiosity & Resourcefulness are your best attributes. Use them to your benefit and for good!

I really believe these three things have helped catapult us in this industry. We have integrity when it comes to our work and the relationships we are building. We care about the people/brands we work with and that’s reflective of us working with people we like and resonate with us (one of our companies’ core values/mottos). We are curious and are always looking to learn new things, new trends, new ways of resonating with different audiences. We’re resourceful to a T — always finding a way to get things done.

Always trust your gut (unless your gut isn’t trustworthy, then ask for help!)

As a predominately female agency, it’s important that we trust our intuition and use it to benefit the business. We use our inner guide to help us navigate an ever-changing landscape, especially as we’ve found our way through the pandemic.

Walk away from things & energy that don’t align with your values.

I’m big on boundaries and finding fulfillment and purpose in the work that you’re doing (blame my Libra sun, Cancer rising, Pisces moon). Crown + Conquer has always taken a stand to stay true to our values and have prioritized working with clients who respect our voice and point of view.

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

This is just the beginning! As an agency, we’ve spent the last five years building a solid foundation and have invested a lot of time and energy into growing our team. Despite spending the last two+ years navigating a pandemic, now is the time for us to double down on our efforts and go after some of our bigger goals. The sky is truly the limit for us. I guess I’ll just leave it at that for now; you’ll just have to follow along and see what’s on the horizon, but I will say that the future is bright, and I can’t wait to share more with the world.

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

I’m big on books and podcasts as of late. A couple of my favorite books regarding business are Stephen Covey’s “The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People” and Todd Henry’s “Herding Tigers: Be The Leader That Creative People Need.” As a manager and leader at my agency, it’s important to continuously develop my leadership skills to support my team but also work on my own effectiveness and self-mastery to be my best self and both books helped me hone in on blind spots/areas that were important for me to stretch.

“Set Boundaries, Find Peace” by Nedra Glover Tawwab is another favorite of mine and I think it’s relevant to the current times of the Great Resignation. We’ve been forced to really look deep at our priorities and find space to reclaim who we are and what’s important to us. This book helped me establish boundaries both in my personal and professional life to create a better environment to produce my best work.

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

I don’t know if this is particularly my favorite but it’s very applicable to how I live and work these days. “Knowing is not enough, we must apply. Willing is not enough, we must do.” For me personally, application and action are sometimes what’s missing from the equation when we try to problem solve. While the curiosity and learning are important, what you do with that information is even more telling of who you are and what you value. This is where I have found success, in consistent & intentional application. Being solution oriented is imperative in my line of work, as things are always changing and the work requires you to be flexible and to think on your toes, so finding ways to make the work actionable is key!

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. 🙂

Hmmmm, that’s a really interesting question. This movement has already started so I don’t have a groundbreaking idea to share at the moment but in this industry specifically, I think it’s important that we continue to give opportunities and a platform to underserved communities. I’m proud that as an agency we have always done this through our client and agency focused work (i.e., our Beats HBCU Creator Program, which is in its third year currently, or our Getty Internship Program Partnership) and I am finding more ways to do this personally as well.

How can our readers follow you online?

You can follow me personally on Instagram — @ImRaisingWisdom and follow my agency Crown + Conquer — @WeAreCrownandConquer. To learn more about Crown + Conquer, feel free to check out our website, crownandconquer.com.

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

Meet The Disruptors: Porsha Ellis Of Crown + Conquer 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.

Making Something From Nothing: Josh Ebrahim Of ProFitX On How To Go From Idea To Launch

An Interview With Fotis Georgiadis

Product Research — We spent about six months designing the platform and creating the data needed to power it. This will be a continual process as the product evolves. Technology never stops.

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

As a former NBA agent who previously represented eight clients and worked with Drew Rosenhaus of Rosenhaus Sports Representation (RSR), Josh Ebrahim quickly came across numerous issues within performance and financial analysis that negatively impacted the real-time and projected value of his clients. To meet this challenge, Ebrahim reconsidered his career pursuits and created ProFitX.

ProFitX is a software company that provides access to real-time performance and financial insights and is powered by Artificial Intelligence (AI). The software Ebrahim created took three years of research and development and has been beta-tested with over 20 NBA teams. The Dallas Mavericks have since signed a multi-year deal with ProFitX and, as Mark Cuban has stated, the platform offers “advanced technologies [that] will provide us with the tools that allow us to gain a significant competitive advantage.” In addition, Forbes magazine suggests this could be the next frontier of sports analytics.

Thank you so much for doing this with us! Before we dive in, our readers would love to learn a bit more about you. Can you tell us a bit about your “childhood backstory”?

I grew up in a small town outside of Dallas, Texas, and was exposed to many sports. My family was

I founded my own boutique sports agency in 2016 after getting certified by the NBPA and had mild success signing two highly-rated prospects. Things didn’t work out the way I envisioned so I sought out a different opportunity and was hired by NFL Agent Drew Rosenhaus of RSR as a Certified NBA Agent and VP of Basketball Operations. I then represented eight NBA athletes during my career (including 1st round draft pick, Anfernee Simons).

As an agent, I needed to find a way in which I could make decisions on the fly with dynamic information during free agency to best represent my clients and get them the contracts they deserved in negotiations with NBA teams. In order to make this happen, I left my position in 2019 to create ProFitX and supply the necessary technology for all stakeholders while changing the sports ecosystem for the better by bringing transparency and balance to sports analytics.

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

My favorite quote is from the father of a player I was recruiting my first year at Ebrahim Sports. I was a finalist to sign a highly-rated prospect and asked him why I made it to the final round of interviews. I remember his father saying, “You’re a bulldog, Josh, you’re tenacious, you keep coming, and coming, and coming and that’s why I know you’re going to be successful.”

Even though he didn’t end up signing with me, I’ve always remembered that moment and it has been my mantra ever since. I’ve had a lot of ups and downs, but I continued to try to put myself in a good position to succeed and be persistent. Good things happen to people who are determined and he ended up introducing me to Rosenhaus Sports.

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?

Bill Simmons’, The Book of Basketball is one of my favorites. It resonates with me for a lot of reasons. Each chapter feels like a progression of the game. I get flashbacks from my earlier years because I got to witness almost three decades of basketball and read that change from his eyes. I feel like I have and will continue to be on that parallel journey with ProFitX and every sport for which we build.

Ok super. Let’s now shift to the main part of our discussion. There is no shortage of good ideas out there. Many people have good ideas all the time. But people seem to struggle in taking a good idea and translating it into an actual business. Can you share a few ideas from your experience about how to overcome this challenge?

I think a lot of it comes down to what problem you’re attempting to solve, and whether it will bring value to your end-users. Then, it’s important to focus on the quality of the product and get it validated. People are going to tell you “no” a lot at the beginning, but the key is to stay the course and push through. I originally pitched the idea to investors as a sports agency and was laughed at in multiple email responses. After I solidified the partnership with the AI company to build the platform, my uncle ended up investing before I even started and he understood the risk involved with no product. But his initial support gave me a lot of confidence heading into the project and it keeps me confident I’ll get it to the finish line. We also stupidly projected this project to be done in six months, yet it actually took two and a half years to complete with lots of ups and downs.

Often when people think of a new idea, they dismiss it saying someone else must have thought of it before. How would you recommend that someone go about researching whether or not their idea has already been created?

Trust your gut…listen to your intuition. Ask questions and do the necessary research.

For the benefit of our readers, can you outline the steps one has to go through, from when they think of the idea, until it finally lands in a customer’s hands? In particular, we’d love to hear about how to file a patent, how to source a good manufacturer, and how to find a retailer to distribute it.

I think there are a lot of things that need to align to get past the first phase. I actually took my time planning out the concept and going through the motions. It ended up being the right decision for me. I spent the first two months testing the concept of the contractual algorithms and integrating the CBA parameters to see what it would look like.

After validating the concept, I filed for a provisional patent application and spent about seven days sketching out the designs for the software and the models and drafting a write-up of what it would be. Once that was done, it was really about finding the right partner to carry out the plan. I did a lot of research, due diligence, and explored several options to make sure I felt comfortable with the development company I selected. Lots of testing was administered in order to release it to market, and once that happens, it’s about getting your brand story out there and educating the users as to why this will be beneficial for them in the long run.

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

Pivot when you need until you find the recipe that works.

We started development to create a consumer product to strengthen our overall business model, and eight months later, we have a growing list of partnerships and additional product offerings. Always be aware of the landscape in which you work and be ready to read the signs along the way to inform your decisions.

2. Believe in your vision and deliver quality.

It took three years to build, test, and configure my technology. It was built with love and I think that shows in the design. The vision was the only thing holding everything together to get to the end, and even then, the work is now just getting started, and I know there will inevitably be some resistance to our new innovation.

3. Be prepared to ride a roller coaster.

There are a lot of highs and lows as a startup. One of the most important things is to learn how to ride the wave and take the next best step for your company.

4. Get ready to work.

It’s a 24/7 job that requires a lot of grunt work. As the founder, you have to wear many different hats and that forces you to learn how to do every aspect of your business.

5. Be prepared for a lot of nos.

People are resistant to change, but I’m real and raw with every person and my story. They need to understand the story behind it and what it took to create.

Let’s imagine that a reader reading this interview has an idea for a product that they would like to invent. What are the first few steps that you would recommend that they take?

Market Research — You need to know what competitors are out there if any, and what the overall market looks like.
Customer Research — You have to know who you are going after as customers and how they will use the product.
Product Research — We spent about six months designing the platform and creating the data needed to power it. This will be a continual process as the product evolves. Technology never stops.
Patent Search — This was rigorous and done multiple times to ensure the likelihood of obtaining the patent.
Time Stamp Your Idea — Buy yourself some time, most founders won’t have the product ready but will have the idea ready. So it’s important to either file a provisional patent application once you have built and sketched out everything you need to bookmark your idea. Then you will file for a non-provisional patent application once you have the product developed out in the next year. I’ve also heard of a crafty technique that involves mailing the application to yourself.

There are many invention development consultants. Would you recommend that a person with a new idea hire such a consultant, or should they try to strike out on their own?

Two heads are better than one. It really depends on what you are lacking and your strong suits. The more versatile the product, the more leverage you have. Don’t be afraid to pivot to expand your offerings and find a sweet spot. I relied on my development team heavily to help me execute my vision and would not be here without their expertise.

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

I truly believe it depends on the mission and leadership of the company. Obviously having financial firepower can help every business. But my number one goal is to get the company to profitability as quickly as possible and expand from there. We are currently exploring venture capital but are mindful of how we want the company to grow organically and sustainably.

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

Teaching! I have been an Adjunct Professor at Monroe College for the past five years teaching business, accounting, and information technology.

I try to prepare my students with real-work experience, the importance of dreaming big, and being able to go and get what you want. I also plan to be heavily involved in philanthropic ventures soon. We just signed a corporate partnership with the school in which I teach and are exploring opportunities to revolutionize the classroom experience as well as the curriculum with ProFitX’s first piece of software, the Athledex.

We are also hosting interns and offering scholarships to students this year with the school so it’s been pretty exciting. I’ve also been fortunate to utilize the members of my team at ProFitX for an executive panel to provide students with further insights into the future of sports.

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

I think a serious climate and wildlife discussion needs to be addressed with more research and resources to actually start making a change. I aspire to be in a position where we can give back and bring more light to these issues we are facing.

We are very blessed that some of the biggest names in Business, VC funding, Sports, and Entertainment read this column. Is there a person in the world, or in the US, with whom you would love to have a private breakfast or lunch, and why? He or she might just see this if we tag them.

Pat Riley. He is an absolute legend in my books. I really admire his career and how he approaches the business of professional sports.

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

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

Meet The Disruptors: Fred Santarpia Of Endeavor Streaming On The Five Things You Need To Shake Up…

Meet The Disruptors: Fred Santarpia Of Endeavor Streaming On The Five Things You Need To Shake Up Your Industry

An Interview With Fotis Georgiadis

“Talk like a human being.” This was great advice I received early on in my career while trying to impress a room of senior executives. Since then, as a digital media and transformation executive that has worked in a lot of legacy industries, I’ve learned that it’s not realistic to expect your stakeholders to always learn what you want them to know. The onus is on you to make your strategy understandable, tangible and manageable for the individuals that you need to align your efforts with. To make meaningful connections, you need to talk like a human. If you need practice, try explaining your concept to a college friend or a spouse that’s not in your industry.

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

Fred Santarpia is a digital media and business transformation expert. He currently serves as president of Endeavor Streaming, where he spearheads the company’s global expansion strategy. Before joining Endeavor Streaming, Fred was chief operating officer at Moda Operandi and, previously, chief digital officer at Condé Nast, where he founded and launched the digital arm of Condé Nast’s entertainment division. Fred was also a founding member of the leadership team at Vevo and served as EVP & general manager. Prior to Vevo, Fred worked at Universal Music Group in a variety of senior leadership roles. Fred is a graduate of Villanova University and holds an M.S. in finance from Boston University. He currently resides in New Jersey.

My story began in the music industry at Universal Music. I joined Universal coming off the peak year of industry CD sales. As a young executive, I had a front row seat to music’s first wave of digital disruption: the unbundling of the album, the advent of peer-to-peer file sharing and the tremendous impact that had on the industry. That afforded me great learning opportunities in an industry that was going through tremendous contractions and convulsions as it grappled with change.

I got into the video and streaming space largely because Universal Music at the time, which was a business predicated on shipping product to wholesalers and consumers buying CDs in stores, became interested in pursuing alternate business models. One of which was thinking about how music and video content could be better leveraged on the internet. That gave me the chance to help think through the business model for what eventually became Vevo, which was incubated inside of Universal Music before it became a separate company.

I was able to look at our library of video assets, which were originally treated as a marketing expense to help sell physical albums, and ask “What if they were their own business? What would that look like?” We later struck a deal with YouTube to create an advertising business built on top of short form music video content. The challenge was to prove that we could monetize short form video content at scale in the same way traditional television was valued. We felt that because we had highly professional and produced premium content featuring the most socially relevant celebrities on the planet, we could turn that into a business. That turned out to be true.

In a way, my getting into the video streaming space was a stroke of good fortune. I just happened to be working in the music industry at a time when the industry was experiencing radical force change of consumer behavior. That gave me opportunity to think creatively about how an industry could evolve alongside change.

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

Endeavor Streaming operates at the very intersection of the real-time evolution of media creation and distribution. The “streaming evolution” is changing how people discover, consume and ultimately pay for content through subscriptions or advertising. What’s disruptive about this moment is the fact that it’s largely the very first time many media companies are building a direct relationship with the consumer around the delivery of their content rather than licensing to a third-party distributor who handles it for them.

When an organization decides to go direct-to-consumer, it impacts every element of operation. It’s introducing new, complex variables that it has never had to consider previously in running the business. At Endeavor Streaming, we’re helping companies navigate these challenges. We work with the top media companies in the world to build their direct-to-consumer strategies and drive return on their content and marketing investments. We bring technology, distribution and marketing expertise to help them deliver their new streaming services across every major consumer device while leveraging machine learning and predictive analytics to attract and retain their customers. It’s an incredibly exciting business to be in at a moment in time where more consumers are cutting the cord, if they ever had one to begin with.

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?

This isn’t necessarily funny, but it taught me an important lesson nonetheless. When I was in college and not paying attention to anything, my dad said I should major in accounting because I’d always have a job. So I did, and went right back to not caring about anything. My first job out of college was as a public accountant, and when I realized what that meant, I almost had a panic attack. I spent the next 10 years of my career trying to find my way out of the back office in the accounting profession and into an industry that was more in line with my natural tendencies and creative pursuits.

The lesson here is a simple one: you can’t outsource decisions about your career to somebody else. You have to care. If you don’t take agency, no one else is going to do it for you. If I learned anything from those years, it’s that if you aren’t paying attention, you could miss a key decision and alter the course of your career in very real ways that may not be apparent when you’re coasting.

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?

Truthfully, I haven’t had the benefit of many strong, long-term mentors in my own professional journey. As a result, I’ve made a lot of mistakes that someone with a bit more wisdom could probably have helped me navigate better. I think there is tremendous value in mentorship, however, so I’ve tried to act as a mentor to many friends and colleagues throughout my career. The most important thing you can do as a mentor is really listen and validate the challenge your mentee is experiencing as real. Bringing your own experiences to offer perspective and light a path for someone is always welcome, but definitely secondary. And third, which is often overlooked, is not making mentorship a one-time thing. There’s a tendency in mentorship relationships to only interact when your mentee is seeking one-off advice on a challenge, but what makes the relationship really valuable is your ongoing perspective.

I’ve worked in traditional media companies that were in desperate need of disruption because they had missed the boat in how the world around them was changing. The magazine industry comes to mind here. Originally, leadership tied the prestige and value or their core product (journalism and storytelling) to the physical print medium. Disruption in the magazine industry meant exploring how content originally created for physical magazine brands could make its way in other forms of distribution across the internet through search, social media, short form video, etc. For magazines, I believe that disruption, though still currently painful for their industry, will ultimately prove out to be a positive thing over a longer time horizon. The great magazine brands have upheld the integrity of their core product and maintained authority and authenticity with their customers in a very noisy and fragmented media landscape. I would argue that, from a popularity standpoint, some of those brands are more popular than ever thanks to technology’s disruption of their industry. Their bottom line will eventually feel the benefit of that.

An industry that I think disruption has been terrible for is local news. Local news has been absolutely decimated by internet economics. Because print infrastructure has basically collapsed and local news organizations are relatively small, they don’t have the capital to invest in digital. As a result, we’re seeing people without critical information about the communities they live in.

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

“Talk like a human being.” This was great advice I received early on in my career while trying to impress a room of senior executives. Since then, as a digital media and transformation executive that has worked in a lot of legacy industries, I’ve learned that it’s not realistic to expect your stakeholders to always learn what you want them to know. The onus is on you to make your strategy understandable, tangible and manageable for the individuals that you need to align your efforts with. To make meaningful connections, you need to talk like a human. If you need practice, try explaining your concept to a college friend or a spouse that’s not in your industry.

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

Vevo is now 12 years old and thriving. Conde Nast Entertainment, the digital video division that I helped launch during my tenure, is 10 years old and thriving. Right now, I’m totally focused on building Endeavor Streaming into a business that’s going to have that same long-term staying power. I’m assured in the things we’re doing to build the direct-to-consumer and streaming platform for the future of the industry. In 10 years, I’m confident Endeavor Streaming will be known as the gold standard in helping sports media and entertainment companies build their direct-to-consumer futures. Once we get to that point, I’ll start thinking about what’s next.

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

A book that really stands out to me is The Captain Class: The Hidden Force That Creates the World’s Greatest Teams by Sam Walker. The book examines 15 or so of the most dominant teams in sports history and looks for commonalities in what their leadership did to drive extended periods of success.

One chapter, titled “Carrying Water,” focuses on leading from the back. Walker finds that, on the greatest teams, the captain was rarely the star and never acted like one. More often, the captain shunned attention and gravitated toward whatever the team needed to be successful. When they had to, they carried the water. Instead of being the player to take a shot with the game on the line, the best captains put the best people in the position to succeed and ultimately drive the outcome.

This particular chapter resonated with me because, as the president of Endeavor Streaming, it’s really important that I set my team up for success. It’s not about taking victory laps and credits for wins, but putting the ball in the hands of the people most likely to drive the best outcome for the business. That’s the type of culture we’re building at Endeavor Streaming.

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

I’m a really big fan of Seth Godin, and I read his blog every day. A quote that has stuck with me throughout my entire career as my north star is “Make big promises and keep them.” The quote comes from a 2010 blog titled, “Simple Five Step Plan for Just About Everyone and Everything” — and I actually think it lives up to its title.

What resonates with me is the idea that you never have to ask anyone for permission to go and make an impact. It is entirely up to you how high you want to set the bar — just make sure that it’s high enough to matter.

I wish everybody could be more thankful. We tend to be so consumed with the drama of our day-to-day lives that we forget what a great gift each day is. I lost a really good friend of mine during COVID, and it reminded me how short life can be. Be thankful for what you have, be kind and help others get through their struggles when you can. That’s my message of love.

How can our readers follow you online?

Readers can follow my personal LinkedIn account as well as Endeavor Streaming’s official LinkedIn page.

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

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

David Mesfin Of INNOCEAN USA: How Diversity Can Increase a Company’s Bottom Line

An Interview With Fotis Georgiadis

You learn from each other and become a well-rounded person. When you live in a nation that is a melting pot, it broadens your horizons. You are able to understand others and their struggles.

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

David Mesfin of Huntington Beach, California is an award-winning creative director and multi-disciplinary designer with over 15 years of marketing and advertising experience currently working for Innocean Worldwide. He is involved in several professional and community outreach programs including the Innocean Worldwide INNclusion Council, the International Academy of Digital Art and Science, and serves as a mentor for both the Multicultural Advertising Intern Program and One School. A member of the Black Surfers Collective, he is an avid supporter of the sport and recently launched a multi-digital narrative journey titled “Wade in the Water,” which features a long-form documentary, a collection of fine art prints and NFTs that chronicle the Black surfer tradition.

Thank you so much for doing this with us! Before we dive into the main part of our interview, our readers would love to “get to know you” a bit more. Can you share a bit of your “backstory” with us?

I was born in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia and eventually migrated to the United States to live in St. Augustine, Florida for eight years prior to moving to Southern California to attend California State University, Long Beach, where I studied design and advertising. After completing my education, I worked at various agencies in the Los Angeles area. For five years, I also ran my own agency in downtown Long Beach. I was exposed to advertising and design while living in Ethiopia. My father worked for a firm called Neon Addis as the head of accounts, and I loved the nature of the industry and creative services they provided. I have never looked back. It has been one of the most fulfilling experiences.

Currently, I manage a team while working on the Genesis USA account at INNOCEAN USA in Huntington Beach California. I have been at INNOCEAN USA for over 10 years working on the Hyundai and Genesis accounts. My father was a Korean veteran, so it has been an interesting 10 years working for a Korean-owned company and the legacy of my father as a veteran of the war.

Can you share the funniest or most interesting story that happened to you since you started your career? Can you tell us the lesson or take away you took out of that story?

One of the most interesting projects I have ever worked on was for Hyundai where we traveled to Zagan, Poland to a remote military base to enable three United States soldiers to watch Super Bowl LI with their families. There were a lot of logistics to figure out for the project. We shot interviews during the first half of the show and then edited it until the game was over. We aired the just edited spot immediately following the game — almost as it was shot live. It was quite interesting to be on that base. It was the same base Hitler used for soldiers during World War 2 and the movie, The Great Escape, was filmed there. There was a lot of history there including the hotel where we stayed. The hotel very much reminded me of a scene from Wes Anderson’s movie, The Grand Budapest Hotel, with the symmetrical design and interior decorations. The owners and employees also had a charm and distinctive personality.

The most interesting moment of that shoot was the post Super Bowl party with the soldiers. They were grateful to be part of the Super Bowl, but most of all, a brand that took the interest to connect them to their family members in a memorable way. Even the other soldiers were thankful just to be part of the festivities and behind-the-scenes spots. The idea went a long way for a few of the soldiers who needed a change of pace. Several of them came up and thanked us for the experience.

I would say the lesson I learned from this experience is to not take people for granted. Every little decision you make as a brand or a person has an impact. You should always be mindful of your intentions.

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

“Failure is the secret to success.”

This quote came from the founder of Honda. I thought that quote was so interesting the first time I heard it. It just opened up a whole new world for me and how I approached certain projects. When you go to school, you learn this idea of following the rules. Once you build some confidence and you start to experience life, you tend to break the rules here and there. I was always very conservative in my ideas. But this quote helped me learn to take a leap and know that it is OK to fail sometimes by breaking out of the rules and trying different things.

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

I was lucky enough to have had two fathers in my life. They both had different personalities, and I gained a lot from each of them.

I lived with my birth father in Ethiopia until I was 14. He was a soldier, and he was very easy going. He was a person who had a lot of friends and was easy to work with. When I came to the United States, I was adopted by a Greek Orthodox Rev. Dimitrios Couchell (he is now a retired bishop). He is very organized with this time and budget. He is very methodical.

The one thing they both had in common was they were both very disciplined. It was a unique upbringing and gave me a perspective in life like no other. They both helped me achieve success in their own ways. That’s why at the age of 14, when I found myself in a completely different culture with a different language and completely different lifestyle, I was able to learn and adapt so well.

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

The 10 years I have spent with Innocean, I have learned that it is really about the people.

I enjoy getting to know my colleagues and learning about their lives and their families. That feeling of inclusion knowing you have built a relationship with these people and the history we collect together, that has really kept us all together, I am grateful for the family atmosphere.

This company, which employs over 500 people, does such an excellent job of taking care of its employees. They were incredibly supportive throughout the COVID-19 pandemic. Another incredible way they have been supportive came after the Black Lives Matter movement. About two years ago, our company started the Innocean Worldwide INNclusion Council, which I have co-chaired with my colleague, Tiana Goston. Our job is to make sure there is inclusion and diversity throughout the company. It is an investment that our company makes for the employees, and that speaks to the diversity and knowledge base we have. We develop different programs and bring in speakers as part of our “Real Talk” series. We also support small minority-owned businesses and nonprofits in the community. One example of this is The Lantern Network Project, a mentorship program for African Americans where we connected a mentee and mentor to offer support from college throughout their career.

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

I just launched the “Wade in the Water” documentary, fine art exhibit and NFT sale project. The entirety of the project highlights the history of surfing in the Black, Indigenous, and People of the Color (BIPOC) community. It is really nice that an agency allows you to do your own passion project and becomes so supportive of it. It allows us to express our feelings and creativity in another way. That really goes a long way for our employees. And with Innocean being so supportive of that kind of thing, it shows other agencies the benefits of allowing their employees to explore their passion projects and how that helps them become better employees and live more fulfilling lives.

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

I am a member of the mentorship program at One School, a portfolio program aimed at passing along my experience to others who have their sights set on working at the top ad agencies in the world. I enjoy sharing the knowledge I have, opening doors for people of color in the advertising industry. There is a small percentage of African Americans in this field. For me, the idea of mentoring and bringing people of color on board, it’s very important because that brings a different perspective to the work being done. We are able to bring out our culture and challenge the status quo. It’s healthy for America as a diverse nation to have a marketing and advertising space that resonates with everyone. That goes a long way for the bottom line of a company.

People from diverse walks of life and with different experiences can draw from their personal knowledge, share new insights and challenge the status quo. Diversity also impacts the bottom line: a study found that companies with more diverse executives were 36% more likely to see above average profits.

Ok. Thank you for that. Let’s now jump to the main part of our interview. This may be obvious to you, but it is not intuitive to many people. Can you articulate to our readers five ways that increased diversity can help a company’s bottom line.

1. Diversity drives innovative thinking. When you have a diverse group of people, it’s not only the color of skin. It’s the way they think. Having women, having those with disabilities, they all bring a unique perspective to a solution that others didn’t think of. It stems from their own personal experiences.

2. Diversity helps companies be aware of cultural sensitivities. A lot of time, organizations create campaigns not taking into consideration what a certain language or visual could mean to other people. So, a more diverse group may be able to see something in a script or visual and call it out in advance.

3. You learn from each other and become a well-rounded person. When you live in a nation that is a melting pot, it broadens your horizons. You are able to understand others and their struggles.

4. You better reflect the customers. A more diverse employee base is a bigger representation of the customer base. Whether it is the color of skin, gender, sexual orientation, or whatever the diversity of the situation is, the more people who can speak from their experience allows their colleagues to understand others more effectively.

5. Increasing the diversity among the leadership team can lead to more and better innovation and improved financial performance. That goes hand-in-hand with a diverse employee base. The more diversity you can fit into every step on the corporate ladder, the more effective the company will be in achieving success.

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

Make sure there is a representation of diversity in your leadership team. Not only does that help the company as a whole serve customers more effectively, but it also helps individuals within the organization learn and grow, both personally and professionally. The more exposure people have to a diverse group of others will lead to more acceptance of all of those in our society. That is achieved from learning and understanding, and for some who may not otherwise get that exposure in their lives, the workplace is a wonderful opportunity to provide that space for them.

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

In my team, I learn so much from individuals’ life stories, where they have been and what they are going through now. I learn from everyone — whether they are senior to me or junior to me in the company. My advice to business leaders would be to continuously have their finger on the pulse of their team. Even as the leaders, they can still benefit from what they learn from all of those around them.

We are very blessed that some of the biggest names in Business, VC funding, Sports, and Entertainment read this column. Is there a person in the world, or in the US whom you would love to have a private breakfast or lunch with, and why? He or she might just see this 🙂

Oprah Winfrey. I love her life experiences and how she overcame the trauma of her young age and her overall success in helping other people overcome their challenges. She is a great beacon, a voice, of individuals who are thriving to do good in our society.

How can our readers further follow your work online?

Wade in the Water Project

Wadeinthewaterproject.com

Personal Website

Davidmesfin.com

Instagram

@davidmesfinart

www.innocean.usa.com

Twitter: @innoceanusa

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

David Mesfin Of INNOCEAN USA: How Diversity Can Increase a Company’s Bottom Line was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Seeing Light at the End of the Tunnel: Gregg Coodley Of Atmosphere Press On The 5 Reasons To Be…

Seeing Light at the End of the Tunnel: Gregg Coodley Of Atmosphere Press On The 5 Reasons To Be Hopeful During The COVID Crisis

An Interview With Fotis Georgiadis

Our preventative tools are extremely effective. The Moderna and Pfizer vaccines and to a degree the Johnson and Johnson vaccine remain very effective in preventing severe illness, hospitalization and death. While we talk about the drop in antibodies over time, we often fail to note that vaccination gives the body a lasting memory of the virus that will allow it to meet repeat infections with boosted immune defenses, preventing the worst disease.

As a part of my series about the things we can do to remain hopeful and support each other during anxious times, I had the pleasure of interviewing Gregg Coodley.

Gregg Coodley is a primary care physician and director of the Fanno Creek Clinic. He is the author of three prior histories, most recently, in collaboration with David Sarasohn, The Green Years 1964–76: When Democrats and Republicans United to Repair the Earth.

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

My career has been guided by a deliberate decision, to become a primary care doctor, as well as by a series of chance events. First, a chance where I took my first job led me into the care of HIV patients, confronting my first epidemic. Circumstances led me to become director of the University General Medicine clinic, where I discovered skills and inventiveness to convert the clinic from a money loser to a revenue source while tripling the number of patients seen. My success there gave me the confidence to later leave to start my own clinic accompanied by many of the doctors and nurses who worked under my leadership as then chief of General Internal Medicine at the university. Twenty years later it still surprises me to have seen the business grow and prosper so much.

I started writing books first to entertain my kids, with the first two books a fantasy of them going on an adventure with our pets. From there, I branched out into writing history which had always been my favorite subject. In November 2019, I decided to make my next book marry my interest in medicine, specifically epidemic diseases, with history to write a book chronicling the effect of major infectious diseases on American history. Two months later, Americans first heard of Covid-19. Like most doctors, my last two years have been shaped by the challenges of the Covid epidemic.

In researching my book on infection in American history, published last month, I learned so much I did not know from a whole host of well-written, interesting books dealing with specific disease episodes in the United States from smallpox in Boston in 1721, yellow fever in the then national capital of Philadelphia in 1793, plague in San Francisco in 1900, to AIDS in New York in the 1980s. It is encouraging to know that confusion about treatment, scapegoating of those blamed for the disease, fear and disruption didn’t start with Covid, but were present in so many of our past episodes. The Anti-Mask League started in 1919 San Francsico, while firing cannons was viewed as the best way to dampen the spread of yellow fever. In learning that our mistakes and stumbles during Covid mirror past American experiences, one also learns that Americans rose to the challenges of these epidemics. Each pathogen, through a combination of public health practices and medical advances, has been eliminated or brought under control. This gives us concrete reasons and evidence for hope.

Ok, thank you for all that. Now let’s move to the main focus of our interview. Many people have become anxious from the dramatic jolts of the news cycle. The fears related to the coronavirus pandemic have heightened a sense of uncertainty, fear, and loneliness. From your perspective can you help our readers to see the “Light at the End of the Tunnel”? Can you share your “5 Reasons To Be Hopeful During This Corona Crisis”? If you can, please share a story or example for each.

There are indeed five reasons to be hopeful about the future with Covid. First, it will never be as bad again. Even were the virus to mutate further, we will never be without the tools we have gained to deal with it. Even with the onslaught of the most transmissible variant yet in Omicron, it is not the same killer it was. While 300 deaths a day in the United States remains too many, it is not 3000 a day. The number of Covid infections in the United States may be as high as at any time in the pandemic, yet the number hospitalized and the number seriously or critically ill is far fewer. The preventative tools and treatments we have learned means that Covid going forward is currently more like a bad year of influenza, taking a toll among the elderly and debilitated, but not the massive killer of 2020 and 2021.

Second, our preventative tools are extremely effective. The Moderna and Pfizer vaccines and to a degree the Johnson and Johnson vaccine remain very effective in preventing severe illness, hospitalization and death. While we talk about the drop in antibodies over time, we often fail to note that vaccination gives the body a lasting memory of the virus that will allow it to meet repeat infections with boosted immune defenses, preventing the worst disease.

It has been disappointing that neither vaccination nor infection provides lasting immunity. As such, as currently stands we face a future where we are likely to need regular boosters to strengthen our immunity. Still, this is the worst case scenario. It is likely that we will develop even more effective vaccinations. Researchers are studying the possibility of vaccines that would target parts of the virus that don’t change so that immunity might be longer-lasting. Other research is looking into an intranasal vaccine, which would create maximum antibodies at the site of viral entry to reduce the frequency of infection. The knowledge we have learned about the virus isn’t going away; knowledge about vaccination will only increase over time.

Third, we now have effective treatments for Covid. When the pandemic started in early 2020, there was no treatment, leading to the advocacy of a host of untested and too often ineffective snake oils. All medicine could offer was supportive care such as oxygen and all too frequently intubation to help people survive critical respiratory compromise, and too many people died. We learned simple things first, like how to position patients for optimal oxygenation. The first anti-viral agent, Remdesivir, had modest benefit for hospitalized patients. From Britain we learned that dexamethasone, an inexpensive steroid, would dramatically cut the death rate among hospitalized patients. The next major advance was monoclonal antibodies that were shown to reduce patient deaths. All of these treatments were, to different degrees, difficult to administer except in a hospital setting.

Now, however, we have effective oral drugs, most notably Paxlovid. A study showed that Paxlovid reduced the chance that a Covid-infected patient would be hospitalized or die by almost 90%.

For many specific antiviral or antibiotic therapies, the organism can develop resistance over time. However, it beggars belief that our options for effective treatment will not continue to increase even further over time. This has certainly been the case for other viral infections, such as HIV, hepatitis C and herpes. The history of other infections suggests that the percentages of Covid-infected people who suffer severe illness or death will only continue to decrease over time.

Third, in early 2020 we knew very little about the virus. At first we did not know that infections could be asymptomatic or how the virus was really transmitted. We have learned much. We now know that masks do reduce transmission. We know that transmission is mainly respiratory rather than occurring by touching surfaces contaminated by viral infection. We know that infection is far more likely indoors than out. We know which activities, by spreading the virus into the air, are more likely to cause infection in others. Some might argue that too many of us don’t apply this knowledge, refusing to mask or now, after two long years, increasingly giving up on masking. Yet knowledge is never useless. At least those at highest risk know that they can reduce their risks by masking and avoiding activities, such as crowded indoor venues, most likely to cause infection.

Most importantly we have not learned all that we can or will. Our knowledge about the “long Covid” where disease symptoms persist is rudimentary. This will change, just as we learned what the complications of chronic HIV infection were once so many people were no longer dying of AIDS. We will understand Covid more and develop ways to treat it. Knowledge and understanding grows.

Fourth, we were woefully unprepared in so many ways for the onslaught of Covid. Doctors and hospitals were short of masks, short of ventilators, and short of the materials needed to do Covid testing. We know now what we were lacking and have taken steps to address these deficiencies. We have learned that amidst a global pandemic we could not simply rely on foreign suppliers for scarce items that everyone wanted. I believe that American production of many of those items found short has been ramped up. The powers that be will need to stay vigilant to make sure that we have adequate sources of needed medical equipment. I think this lesson has been learned to a far greater extent than pre-pandemic.

For now we are no longer short of test kits, vaccines, masks, ventilators or many other items. There are still medical supplies that are in limited supply due to supply chain issues, a euphemism that covers corporate decisions to manufacture so many medicines and other health care items in cheaper locations across the ocean. I am hopeful, if not completely confident, that this problem will never be as bad again as it has been. We do need to make critical drugs and other items in America, even if this imposes a (small) higher cost.

Public health has been crucial in the fight against Covid. I hope that we will build up our public health infrastructure to be better able to handle other diseases.

Fifth, the knowledge we have learned from the fight against Covid will be of great benefit in many other ways. The development of M-RNA vaccines that could be created in weeks will not simply allow for new Covid vaccines. The same technology can be used to quickly create new vaccines against other pathogens, both new and old. For example, for the infection of monkeypox, we know that our smallpox vaccines will be effective. We also could quickly make a new monkeypox vaccine using the new technology. The prospect is that future novel or newly spreading pathogens can be much more quickly prevented by quick development of vaccines.

Our newly developed drugs against Covid offer a reasonable hope that the same therapies could be rapidly developed against other diseases. Indeed Paxlovid is a combination of a specific anti-Covid-19 antiviral agent and a booster agent, Ritonovir, which came out of the treatment for HIV infection. We can learn from what has worked before to deal with other current and future infections.

Similarly we have learned that masking reduces the spread of respiratory infections. It is a tool that we can use, should we choose, to reduce the spread of everything from influenza to respiratory infection a, b and c of the future.

From your experience or research, what are five steps that each of us can take to effectively offer support to those around us who are feeling anxious? Can you explain?

It will be hard for us to forget the cost of Covid, especially for those who lost friends or family to it. Katherine Ann Porter, author of Pale Horse, Pale Rider, wrote of the 1918 influenza pandemic that sickened her and killed her boyfriend, “It simply divided my life, cut across it like that.” I think that we can draw from the lessons of history to support our friends, family, co-workers and others left anxious and stressed from the Covid pandemic. It helps to remember that we are not the only generation to be struck down by a great plague. Those in the past, with fewer resources and much understanding, persevered. Things do get better. We can tell people with complete accuracy that the worst of Covid has passed, that it will never get that bad again and that we are not the people so woefully prepared to confront Armageddon.

I think anxiety has been heightened by all the other world and national issues that have happened concurrently, from the invasion of Ukraine to natural disasters to shootings. I think it is helpful to try to replace the feeling of helplessness, which greatly aggravates anxiety, with the knowledge that each of us can help repair the world. Rather than feeling that the problems are overwhelming, it is empowering to feel that every effort, no matter how small, can help, that he or she who saves one life is as if they had saved the world. I often encourage my patients, if they have time, to volunteer in some activity they find interesting, for whether or not they help others, the effort often helps them.

What are the best resources you would suggest to a person who is feeling anxious?

I encourage people who are feeling anxious to try to reach out to family, friends or others. There is strong documentation that these social connections reduce anxiety and depression and improve our sense of well-being. To borrow a line from an old movie, “ Man needs his own kind, like them or not.” I also encourage all of my patients to find things, whether exercise or meditation or hobbies or otherwise, that makes them feel better when they are feeling badly. We all will have hard times and having these tools can be very helpful.

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

In The Lord of the Rings, Frodo says, “I wish it had not happened in my time.” Gandalf replied, “So do I and so do all who live in such times. But that is not for them to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us.” I find this quote helpful when I am feeling discouraged or feeling sorry for myself. It reminds us that our challenge is to make the best of our situation and think about what we can do about it.

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

I think we would most benefit if we could do our best to be tolerant of others and their differing views and perspectives.

My personal view is to think that as individuals and society we pay too much attention to what will make us happy no matter the consequences. I would argue to emphasize more our responsibilities rather than just talking about our rights. I think the fact that almost every religion and philosophy emphasizes the importance of right of honorable conduct as the path to a good life cannot be easily dismissed. I think trying to do good would be a good path for many people, but I also accept that my views are not those of everyone and would not presume to tell others how to act or think. I will leave starting a movement to others.

This being said, the consistent theme of my books is that progress is possible and that hope is not a misplaced emotion. I am more interested in the silver linings than the clouds. In writing about unsuccessful reformers in The Magnificent Losers, I looked at how their ideas often came to successful fruition later. The difficulty and the magnitude of the problems facing us cannot be a reason for inaction.

What is the best way for our readers to follow you online?

The website of the book TamingInfection.com is one way to contact me, particularly with regard to Covid and other infectious disease issues. There is a similar website for my most recent prior book The Green Years 1964–76: When Democrats and Republicans United to Repair the World, which looks at the years when most of the major environmental laws were enacted. My upcoming book Patients in Peril: The Demise of Primary Care in America looks at the problems of a crucial segment of American healthcare and offers a list of solutions. A website for this should be forthcoming.

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

Seeing Light at the End of the Tunnel: Gregg Coodley Of Atmosphere Press On The 5 Reasons To Be… was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Meet The Disruptors: Anthony Chavez Of Codelab303 On The Five Things You Need To Shake Up Your…

Meet The Disruptors: Anthony Chavez Of Codelab303 On The Five Things You Need To Shake Up Your Industry

An Interview With Fotis Georgiadis

People are the most valuable thing for any business, but even more acutely so for a company like ours. Fundamentally, my business sells access to incredibly talented specialists who work fantastically well together as a team. It is critical to find these people, establish meaningful professional and personal relationships, and invest in their success, growth, wellness, and happiness.

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

Anthony Chavez is a technical leader based in Boulder, Colorado who has a deep passion for executing well conceptualized interactive products. He’s the Founder & CEO of Codelab303 with over 20 years of experience in entrepreneurship and web technology. Codelab303’s team works as a go-to shop that helps to modernize and transform established businesses and set them up for rapid growth and success. Its mission is to “Build the Right Thing. Build the Thing Right.”

Thank you so much for doing this with us! Tell me how it all began, the origins of codelab303 as well as Anthony Chavez.

From a young age, I was really drawn to art and technology. As a child, I lived around the world: Mexico, Pakistan, Hong Kong, before moving to the US. I guess I found out that interesting art, cool technology, and good food, can bring people together in amazing ways, no matter the language they speak, what they look like, or their age… So, I started coding at about the age of 7 and experimenting with digital art, whatever that meant to me at the time, which started as ASCII art and what I guess you could call irreverent memes drawn up in MS Paint, or coded in VB.

I never really identified a “calling” towards engineering or entrepreneurship, but in 1999 before entering high school, I started a website and brand called The FreerideZone to showcase my main interest, skiing. What started as a pursuit against boredom, documenting the talents and antics of my friends, turned into a “real” business and online magazine within the span of a year. At the age of 14, I had contracted copywriters, photographers, a clothing line, a production and editing crew, and a team of athletes. When I got an opportunity to become the Web & IT Director of Freeskier Magazine, I dropped out of college in my freshman year, moved to Colorado, and have had an unpredictable, but great life ever since. Until 2008, my career was focused mainly on building web technology for the ski industry and getting as many powder days as I could.

My ski industry life segued into the rapidly growing Colorado startup and digital agency community. Always in pursuit of the most interesting and challenging work, I found myself working at several Colorado agencies and startups, including CP+B as a tech director, where I was able to work on some incredible, once-in-a-lifetime type projects for brands like Dominos, Paypal, and Infiniti. From CP+B, I went on to become a CTO for a connected retail startup and then for an innovation consultancy. Over a relatively short period of about 5 years, I got an incredible immersion into prestige-class ad agencies and startups of every scale and aspiration. Along this path, an idea worked its way into my head; “I think I can do this better…” “Better,” being a subjective term, to me, meant delivering a higher quality end-product, at the end of a much more efficiently run project, and with a team of super talented, friendly people.

Give me your “elevator pitch” about codelab303. In other words, what services does your business provide?

We are a boutique digital agency, meaning that we provide strategic, design, engineering, production, and support for websites, mobile applications, SaaS platforms, and custom software installations or deployments of all types and varieties. Our team is a combination of seasoned, international talent that has, as a requisite, deep experience in product design and development and brand or creative development. The unique combination of skillsets sets us apart as a “special forces team” that are able to do, what the large A-list agencies are incapable of, and within timelines and budgets that set new standards for excellence, that we hope to share with every new partner.

Our mission statement is to make sure that our partners, first, build the right thing, and then we make sure that the thing is built right.

What does it take to be a success in your business? Can you give me three characteristics that have made you a success?

Team, trust, and kindness.

The team is everything.

People are the most valuable thing for any business, but even more acutely so for a company like ours. Fundamentally, my business sells access to incredibly talented specialists who work fantastically well together as a team. It is critical to find these people, establish meaningful professional and personal relationships, and invest in their success, growth, wellness, and happiness.

Establish trust, and never take it for granted.

The larger enterprises that we have partnered with have all expressed becoming very jaded with the partners they bring in. We do our very best to understand our partner’s culture and remain hyper-focused on delivering value while understanding that “value” has a different meaning for different organizations. The same is true for our team, and we strive to be a better company to work for each day.

Be kind.

We all, as professionals, can get caught up in the deadline we’re trying to meet, the headline we’re trying to grab, the revenue we’re trying to earn, or some other combination of metrics. These goals are challenging, and they should be. However, it’s essential to realize that we are all humans working with other humans, and if kindness is not a priority, accomplishing all of those challenging goals as a team becomes a lot harder.

[ALT/ADD] Good enough, is never good enough.

As an emerging business, we have always needed to have a fierce eye on the quality of every deliverable. Partners are smart, and they understand the difference between work that just “got done” and work that is — special. In such a competitive world, not only the depth, but the finishing touches and thoughtful pride for all work really matters, whether it’s just an email or a massive finished product. Good enough is just that, and that’s not what we’re here for.

It’s amazing how you have navigated these difficult Covid-times and come out with such high-profile clients like Ulta and Carvana. Can you tell the readers more about this process?

To be fair, we went into COVID with Ulta and Carvana as clients, however, prior to COVID, I still had a full-time job. Bad, or good timing, depending on perspective.

A bit of an origin story. codelab303 started as a bit of an experiment, to see if I could do things better, and an excuse to continue working with some of my favorite people. In the year coming into COVID, we delivered an API product for ULTA, in addition to an internal social network for Carvana — our relationship with USA Cycling was expanding, and we had two 6+ figure deals in the works for a tradeshow installation for an electronics company, and an on-ship gaming platform for a cruise line. Given the influx of work, I left my full-time job at the innovation consultancy on March 1, 2020–9 days later, Biden issued a state of emergency, 4 days after that, Colorado went on lockdown, the same day my 2-weeks was up, and I left a very stable job to fully embark on the journey of entrepreneurship.

From the perspective of the IRS, we were a brand new company, with only 3 months of payroll history — only one W2, mostly contractors. Shit. PPP wasn’t going to help at all, we knew we were in a fight, not only one to establish ourselves, but suddenly, one to survive.

Long story short — we survived, with no team or partner losses, and were able to support our partners through innovation, and rapidly adapting to daily changes. A great example of this was Modern Market (Colorado) and Lemonade (CA/TX) restaurants. On a daily basis, we refocused activities to provide what was relevant — curbside pickup, grocery boxes with TP, mother’s day bundles, and ghost kitchens during the darkest months. If customers or staff at the restaurants asked for it, we figured out how to design and build it — quick. At this point, we had thoroughly adopted the “move fast and break sh!*t” model, we did, we glued it together, we were throwing things at a wall to try to save everyone’s jobs — ours included. But it worked.

Why are you called the “disruptor?” Can you give me the story behind that name? Why are you called this and is there a story behind this name?

Oh boy… I guess we’re a disruptor primarily because we’re a little bit crazy. Along our journey, we’ve done some work that others wouldn’t, we’ve turned some away that others would covet.

We’re a disruptor in our space because we unapologetically focus on getting the work done, trimming the fat, and saving our partners from the ceremonial and unnecessary bloat of a typical agency. Additionally, we work with a seasoned international team of vetted senior talent, providing our partners with direct access to them, as opposed to upsell-and-offshore models from most competitors.

While we deliver on a variety of fronts at codelab303, ultimately, everything we work on as a business turns into code. We believe that our whole team is fundamentally made up of engineers; whether they’re fabricating project timelines, a customer experience, or a series of APIs — our team is bound by a spirit of innovation, and experimentation, and in a digital space, together we are all contributing to this crazy laboratory together as mad scientists, in the best of ways.

Do you have any advice for others who would like to follow in your footsteps?

Take the risk; then go with the flow and follow your intuition.

Nothing worth doing comes easy, and nothing easy comes without an amount of risk. Become accustomed to taking risks and embracing failure as a strengthening experience. Accomplishment requires failure, failure, and vision, so be ready to take some hard punches while staying true to your aspirations.

Great things take months, or years to happen. Bad things happen quickly and escalate through a series of moments.

This is a way of saying that, “success is a marathon, but you can disqualify yourself very easily.” Be patient and look at your incremental successes, no matter how small; as opposed to being focused on the next big thing. On the other hand, be aware that decisive, bad things, tend to present themselves quickly, even if they’ve taken a lifetime to become an issue — it is important to maintain an awareness of yourself and aspects of your life and world external to the business.

Embrace the fear, embrace the brutality.

As entrepreneurs, the beginning is going to be really hard for most real people. We all know the 5-year survival stats. While we all want to build the perfect product or service, and team, the reality is that it’s going to be hard, it will require a lot of sacrifices, it’s scary, it’s brutal, it really sucks sometimes. The other side of this is the existential reward that comes when things go right. When you can see your amazing work go into the world, or celebrate an annual anniversary with a teammate, those brutal moments fade away, and there are few things more satisfying. Becoming accustomed to fear will let you make greater leaps, and the endurance through initial growth, will make you stronger and prepare you for greater competition.

What are your goals for the future?

Sustainable Growth.

My personal goals for the business are squarely focused on the sustainable growth of a talent-first organization. Functionally, this means scaling our offering to win the most interesting work, work capable of attracting and retaining a world-class team of individuals, and in a way that supports and enriches their lives. Overall, this means, building a portfolio of products, applications, and experiences that are used enjoyed, and truly valued, by millions of people around the world.

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

Meet The Disruptors: Anthony Chavez Of Codelab303 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.

Making Something From Nothing: Chris Pchelintsev Of Architecturalist On How To Go From Idea To…

Making Something From Nothing: Chris Pchelintsev Of Architecturalist On How To Go From Idea To Launch

An Interview With Fotis Georgiadis

Be ready to spend money–all of it: Building up your working capital is a challenge, but spending this money in time and high expenses is inevitable. Certain processes require a large investment so you shouldn’t be afraid or held back by that.

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

Chris is a Ukrainian-American entrepreneur who co-founded the online real estate company Architecturalist, LLC. and serves as the company’s CEO. After starting and handling multiple successful businesses, he started exploring his passion for architectural real estate. Architecturalist was initially an online publication exploring architecturally significant real estate in the United States, after working in this niche for several years the project grew into an online platform that helps agents who work with architectural homes get a better prices and terms for their clients by selling them to architectural enthusiasts using the online auction platform.

Thank you so much for doing this with us! Before we dive in, our readers would love to learn a bit more about you. Can you tell us a bit about your “childhood backstory”?

Thank you so much for inviting me, it’s a pleasure to contribute! I’ve always been passionate about business because it is a lot of creativity in building a company. I was born in Ukraine which was a brand new country created right after the collapse of the Soviet Union. Ukraine had to build everything from scratch. I think that boosted my love of business as I saw thousands of new businesses created every day. I was in University when I started my first successful business. It was a Digital Marketing company. I saw an opportunity in a relatively new area of business and took it. This is how I started.

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

I love this quote by George Bernard Shaw: “Life isn’t about finding yourself. Life is about creating yourself.” I always feel a strong positive energy when I think about these words as they make us reflect on what we want in life and how to get there. For me, for example, it means cold calling and constantly reaching out to potential leads, helping them understand why our solution can fit their needs. At the end of the day, sometimes you just have to do some tasks that you don’t necessarily want to do, to reach your goal and start doing the things that you love.

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

One man comes to mind. It is Richard Feynman, probably the most curious and open-minded man who comes to mind. He was an American theoretical physicist and Nobel Prize laureate. But in my opinion, it is not his scientific achievements that are interesting, but rather his willingness to keep trying new things, to challenge the unknown, and at the same time to keep an open mind. He did safecracking, studied different languages, worked in fields unrelated to his profession or interests (such as biology or philosophy), and tried his hand at art and samba music.

I highly recommend his autobiography, “Surely You’re Joking, Mr. Feynman!” to anyone who wants to know how important and yet how easy it is to discover new things, how it can change our vision and discover new meanings in the profession and beyond.

After all, not many of us define our life’s purpose is changing the world, but that is what we do, questioning the current state of things and offering new answers to existing questions.

Jobs, Kawasaki, and Edison, all said the same thing: “a good execution is more important than a good idea” or “vision without execution is hallucination”. I couldn’t agree more. I’m sure some brilliant ideas weren’t able to succeed because of the poor execution. That’s why it’s pertinent to have patience and double down on planning and strategizing. When you have an idea, stick to a plan, and don’t give up. Lots of ideas don’t transition into a real business because often, the team gives up when reaching the first challenge.

Many of my ideas had to be greatly adjusted to make way for a clear execution. Ensuring that the outcome is understandable, user-friendly, and intuitive is an indicator of success.

Whether or not someone had a similar idea shouldn’t be a reason to discourage them from following through with it. We are in a rapidly changing and evolving world, where you never know whether a similar idea is going to be executed and turned into a successful business. I’d say go for it even if you think someone else is working on the same idea. Healthy competition is always a plus, look at Uber and Lyft.

Remember that when it comes to executing ideas, it is not a race. It’s about making sure customers are aware of the importance of different solutions and why they need them.

For the benefit of our readers, can you outline the steps one has to go through, from when they think of the idea until it finally lands in a customer’s hands? In particular, we’d love to hear about how to file a patent, how to source a good manufacturer, and how to find a retailer to distribute it.

Architecturalist is a service business catering to B2B and B2C needs. However, it is always good practice and highly recommended to seek an expert and ask as many questions as you may have before diving into any legal processes. You can never have enough research on your hands in a fast-paced environment.

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

Don’t be afraid to delegate: Building and running your own business is never an easy task. For this, you are forced to wear multiple hats. From knowing how things should work in your business to actually executing these tasks, sometimes you find yourself without enough time, and here is when it’s time to start delegating. We all know the fear of having other people not complete the task as well as you would, but you must realize that even if it’s 70% similar to how you would execute a task, it’ll save you time and you can focus on other strategic elements to help grow your business.
People come and go: It’s tough to find and attract the right talent for your team. And when you’re lucky enough to work with a strong team, you must realize that they might not always stay working with you and there won’t be much you can do to retain them. For this, it’s important to analyze and restructure your model, there will always be hidden talent when given a new role and someone new will always come along.
Be ready to spend money–all of it: Building up your working capital is a challenge, but spending this money in time and high expenses is inevitable. Certain processes require a large investment so you shouldn’t be afraid or held back by that.
There are no days off: In a way, it’s a good thing that no one told me this because it may sound discouraging at first glance. However, this is true for any goal you may have in your personal and professional life. Substantial and strong rewards come with hard work around the clock. When building your business, your working hours will go beyond just 9–5, and often, there are no end-of-the-shift hours. Success takes a while to grow and even when you have a team to help you build it, they will depend on you. Just remember, hard work always pays off.
Seek investments, credits, or loans: To know what you’re doing and what’s going on with your business, you need your working capital to grow. This way you can have the right tools and talent to leverage your business.
At some point there’s only so much you can do on your own bucks, so looking for capital is not a bad idea, despite many people fearing it. Businesses are built on credit and you must realize that seeking help is not synonymous with selling your soul to investors.

Let’s imagine that a reader reading this interview has an idea for a product that they would like to invent. What are the first few steps that you would recommend that they take?

You should always start with research and due diligence on the market itself to understand competitors and overall sales trends. It’s never a bad idea to study and analyze competitors as customers to cater your solution to your target audience and add value to your company.
Large corporations and small businesses alike agree that customer service and satisfaction are of utmost importance, they bring you money and improve your business so it’s critical to keep them in the center of your strategies.
Working on a new idea may be tough at first, so leverage your research. It can be much easier to improve processes you learn from competitors than to start penetrating a market and tapping into new customers.
Growing a business takes considerable time and attracting your audience should be done cautiously. Invest in your processes, run a quick trial and error and once you know your idea works, invest in marketing and keep attracting customers.

There are many invention development consultants. Would you recommend that a person with a new idea hire such a consultant, or should they try to strike out on their own?

Consultants are never a bad idea. In any area of work, it’s highly recommended to ask people around you what they need. Many times leaders tend to go by their gut and assume they have the best solution. But why not be sure of it and learn something new while you’re at it? You need to ask questions and know what you’ll be solving.

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

As soon as you can get your business up and running, you should look for greater investments– that’s always a good idea.

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

We try to make our solutions accessible to everyone and especially put them in the hands of those that I believe would use them properly.

One of the main differences in building a business in the US instead of Ukraine is the larger investments that can bring our solution to larger networks. These connections can consequently reach and help more people out there in the industry.

A selfless and kind deed will always be to help others. And what better way to do this than through access to education.

Education may not always give you what you need and for what you do. For example, learning about how mortgages work, buying houses, and other daily activities alike can help you navigate real life better. Proper education should be guided into facilitating and understanding how the system works–teaching kids how to take out a loan, or how a credit score works for instance.

Currently, these processes are overwhelming and incomprehensible. So we must work towards an educated society where everyone has greater knowledge of what they’re doing. We should have free schools to teach these matters.

I would love to spend some time with one of the biggest architect names still here with us such as Ed Niles. His architectural style blew up in the 90s and is still widely used especially in California. I’d love to learn about what inspired him, where ideas take him, and how he works with so many big names.

I’ve always thought that if you can build a home in Malibu that will carry out your vision, it’d be interesting to talk to the architect that made this possible and what he thinks about it, how he started and saw it, up to how he completed this project.

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

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

Meet The Disruptors: Guy Melamed Of Exberry On The Five Things You Need To Shake Up Your Industry

An Interview With Fotis Georgiadis

Fail fast, iterate. We are a learning team. We’re not afraid to fail, but it’s important we keep track of our findings so we can fix things and do better each time so our company reaches its KPIs.

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

Guy Melamed is co-founder and CEO of Exberry, the exchange technology pioneer that is revolutionizing marketplaces. As a serial entrepreneur, Guy leads the way by being innovative, a results-driven product strategist, and passionate about bringing top notch products to the market.

Thank you for having me. I’ve been an entrepreneur ever since I can remember. When I was ten, I asked my parents if I could sell balloons in the local square on Saturdays, and they said yes! That first week, I went out and made it big! To everyone’s surprise (even me), I sold out and came home with a handful of cash. The following week, I was motivated to do even better. I knew I needed more manpower so I recruited 10 of my friends to cover the main shopping street! We did very well.

I have worked in tech for the last 20 years. Designing viable solutions for real business challenges has always intrigued me. I am most energized when we solve, not only for the immediate pain but for the future existence of the product we create.

I am also intrigued by the industries that are experiencing significant change and are undergoing exponential growth.

Over the years I was fortunate to work with gifted professionals in the areas of Education Technology, Natural Language Understanding, Shared Mobility, and Fintech, and specifically since 2016 in Blockchain. Finding real use applications and solutions that could be implemented and make an impact on our customers is a concept that becomes more important to me with each new product. Having solid tech is never good enough. The goal is to have tech that can change lives and businesses.

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

From a methodological point of view, we always start with the tech. Can the tech solve a problem? but that alone does not give the solution enough wings to fly. You can only claim true success when you master the other stages as well, from the product strategy, and customer experience all the way to GTM and penetration strategy.

This is a challenge when you are working towards innovations that will overlap with traditional industries. This is especially true when regulators are involved and the players are locked into lifetime contracts and legacy or proprietary tech.

The speed, cost of ownership, and performance at which we can help entrepreneurs and traditional markets launch their own exchanges or products is so fast, and in a SaaS model, this is really exciting to see! Until now, only the elite had access but now we are empowering big and small players that may have been previously closed off.

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

In my very first interview for a managing role in tech, a missile attack alarm went off ten minutes into the meeting. The HR director and myself were locked in the safe room for an hour and a half. It was a crazy. It was funny. And, definitely a scary moment. This was one of the best interviews I ever had. An intense interview resulted in one of the most transformational roles for me as a young manager. I landed the job and went on to build the largest UX/creative department in Israel at the time.

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

One thing I have definitely learned along the way is that you cannot do anything alone. There are four people that have made a massive impact on me.

Shmuel Meitar, is the Founder of Amdocs, he inspired me to switch from film and television to the tech industry. I learned from him how to dream big. He was a master at taking the most traditional industry (education at the time) and bringing it to the 21st century.

Shalom Passy, was a COO that I worked with at the same time. He was most influential in teaching me how to prepare a company for growth. I learned about recognizing the weakest links and taking action to correct them in order to build a stronger organization.

Uri Inx — Was a hire I made as an illustrator and art director for one of my product development teams. He has a unique way of thinking and is excellent to have when disintermediating. He knows how to ask tough questions. To this day, I make sure to bring him along to product and strategy meetings with some of the biggest players. Tech leaders are often surprised to see him sitting at the table, but I know that having smart individuals from different industries and with unique thought mechanics challenges us to be truly innovative. People love having him there.

We cannot grow without disruption. We cannot disrupt without listening to feedback.

The core value of disrupting an industry or tech is always a positive concept. Any negatives from disruption would be the ripple effects that come from the disruption. And, those negativities should be temporary, expected, and evaluated because your feedback loop is a top priority.

Artists need an audience. Stores need customers. And, in tech, we need traction, users, growth, engagement, and retention. Without those four elements, we cannot even speak of disruption. Being locked into your own predisposition and waiting to make it big is not enough to disrupt an industry.

Listen, yes…really listen, to the feedback you get from the market and your users, iterate and evolve. Sometimes, Exberry will integrate solutions from totally different industries to test new growth models and solution designs. Sometimes it’s these minor fraction points that create exponential change.

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

I recently asked my colleagues to share their thoughts on what they believed was the difference between wanting to get things done and actually getting things done. These, among others, were my favorite answers:

Knowing when to say NO and when to say YES. Especially, when working with a team. Sometimes, we need to say NO to things that don’t align with our big goals. However when you are working with a team, sometimes the correct thing is to say YES so that everyone in the room is heard, understood and given a chance.
Fail fast, iterate. We are a learning team. We’re not afraid to fail, but it’s important we keep track of our findings so we can fix things and do better each time so our company reaches its KPIs.
Have the right team next to you. There is no “I” in team. Cliche, I know, but it’s true! We are responsible to support each other and respect each person’s role in the company.
What happens…and when! If we don’t see results or change we know we need to recalibrate. So we pay attention to the results. Have we met our goals? If not, why not?
Action > emotion. We are our own bottlenecks. The key is not getting stuck in our own heads. Ask for a second opinion, take a walk, and make changes if necessary, but DO something instead of worrying.

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

We are just getting started with Exberry, and some exciting things are coming up! So what’s coming next is a positive disruption of the ecosystem. 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?

Apart from our podcast that is launching soon, one of the books that have guided me along the years is ‘How to Create a Mind’ by the futurist Ray Kurzweil. He suggests that the brain contains a hierarchy of pattern recognizers. This impacted me greatly in exploring how we can accelerate and create exponential growth by using new thought models. It’s a fascinating concept and opens your mind when trying to explore innovation.

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

“If the wave is up. Leave everything in the office and get in the water.”

Meaning, look for opportunities and go for them.

I think everyone should take on surfing! I live by the beach and I have surfed all my life! Water is an energy and movement in itself. But in all seriousness, we need to be inspired by the ocean and take care of it. Our children and their children will probably be living off of it. There are many environmental movements, but this one is near and dear to my heart. Take care of our ocean!

How can our readers follow you online?

Connect with me on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/in/guymelamed/

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

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

Making Something From Nothing: Panos Papadopoulos Of Panos Emporio On How To Go From Idea To Launch

An Interview With Fotis Georgiadis

Learn from children, because they know how to have fun, and they don’t know how to hate and be suspicious. That’s the best approach you can have to business and to life.

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

Panos Papadopoulos spent the past 35 years starting and developing Panos Emporio, one of the world’s leading brands in luxury swimwear, which today generates annual revenues of $20 million. Born in Greece, he is now based in Sweden. Panos recently published his autobiography PANOS: My Life, My Odyssey, in which he shares how he managed to leave his poor Greek village and went on to build a fashion empire.

Thank you so much for doing this with us! Before we dive in, our readers would love to learn a bit more about you. Can you tell us a bit about your “childhood backstory”?

I was born in Kertezi, Greece, in the spring of 1958. When I was two weeks old, my mother was working the fields, and a horse kicked me after being startled by a snake. She screamed, as I looked as though I could die, and an Orthodox priest baptized me on the spot — in line with Greek tradition he had to do this if I was to get a burial. That’s how I got my name, Panagiotis, though I was usually known as Panos (though my mother called me by the name the priest gave). Soon after, we moved to Paralia Aspropirgou, on the outskirts of Athens. We weren’t rich — in fact I know first-hand what it’s like to be very hungry. If you’ve seen how basic a refugee camp can be for a family, it wasn’t far from the life my parents, my two siblings and I had in those early days. I found it a real torment, especially as school was hard — my parents couldn’t afford the books that I needed. So it was a tough start, and one of my few solaces was to go see the films of Tolis Voskopoulos. I loved his music, and the films — about a man who has to overcome odds and great opposition — spoke to me. My parents, too, had amazing values, and they imparted them to me: believe in yourself, trust in yourself, and don’t wait for someone else to solve your problems for you. Listen to your inner self and let your best values guide you. Keep your word and respect others. These really formed whom I became and who I am.

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

There are plenty in my autobiography, but the one that sticks out is, ‘No risks, no history.’ This is what drove me to start my swimwear label in the 1980s. I love to challenge myself, and I love having my creativity stimulated. I’d get bored otherwise. I had to take a risk in order to have a business where I could determine what I wanted to do, and be the master of my own destiny.

Money comes when we do the things we love because they are the right things. We have to choose if we are to do the things we love or do the things we should. For me, it’s love every time, and it so happens that it meant I had to take risks, and do something no one else had done before. I had to create a swimwear line which genuinely appealed to women, was the most comfortable that money could buy, and was more colourful than anyone in Sweden, where I live, had seen before. No, it isn’t rational to sell swimwear in a cold country where hot summer days are few. But I wanted to have a life of freedom because that meant true luxury. That was the one thing I wanted above everything else. If I succeeded, I knew I would have my stage, my freedom to communicate my values and philosophy to others, to travel the world, to meet people, and, above all, to have unlimited creativity.

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 mentioned earlier Tolis Voskopoulos, who was my idol. His first songs and movies were like a balm for my vulnerable soul. He was a poor outsider trying to become a singer. His struggle for survival was met by less than kind people who wanted to exploit him, or just insult him. I recognized his struggle to make a career and the obstacles he faced along the way. He didn’t worship money like some did; he was a passionate person whose values attracted me. I knew most of his songs’ lyrics intimately, with so many feelings and so much respect. Every time I watched an interview with him, I could see how his words connected to his soul: simple, authentic replies, with a soft voice. There wasn’t that typical arrogance or a feigned air of superiority about him.

His way of acting and his life became a reflection of my later life. He was principled, and he wanted to be something of his own making without steamrolling others. His values have been my ones for my entire business life.

Sometimes, the only way to do it is to do it. If it’s something you’re genuinely passionate about, where you know deep down that you must follow that path, there’s more than a chance you have already analysed and processed everything you needed to in order to realize this passion. I know I did with my swimwear designs. I did my sociological market research — I majored in sociology at university — and knew what people wanted. I knew they weren’t being served by the labels out there. I also absorbed a lot of knowledge about fabrics and trends, and digested all of that. I innately analysed it all, and the answers were deep in my soul. The only way to uncover them was to do it. So often in my life, I would act first, then the realizations would come. I had to persevere. For me, it was a matter of survival.

In my case, it was 1994 when I started and there was no World Wide Web — at least not for me when I was trying to get by — so I didn’t even have that luxury. Everything I did, I had to figure it all out from step one. I kept it to myself, and I imagine I avoided many of the put-downs. And I knew no one had done what I proposed.

Why? One sunny day, I was with some friends at Långedrag beach, just outside Gothenburg. My friends jumped into the water, but I didn’t share their enthusiasm. I looked at the water, and it was grey. Everything around me was grey: the rocky beach, the sand, the stones, the rocks, and even the seawater. I saw the grey rocks, grey water — and these gorgeous blonde bodies. I started to look at the dark swimsuits, and, in my eyes, I could not understand why these bodies wore something just not to be naked.

Come late afternoon, the sun began going down and people started to head back, I said to myself: ‘Imagine if you could make these beaches with these gorgeous bodies more colorful.’ I didn’t think of being a designer. I just wanted to put some color on that grey beach.

While I did invent processes for print and for fusing two fabrics together, most of my intellectual property resided in my design work, which is covered by copyright, something far easier to record. I always had my sketches, so I could prove when I came up with a design. There doesn’t need to be a registration process.

Initially, I used a local manufacturer as not many were actually capable of producing the designs I wanted, though later on, I began sourcing from different parts of the world. The secret is to be very forthright about what you want to achieve, but, more importantly, to know their jobs as well as you know your own. I studied every stage of the manufacturing process. As a result, I was always very clear about what I needed a manufacturer to do. If they couldn’t do it, I’d know very quickly.

Finding a retailer was tough when I first started. I literally called everyone in the book and got knocked back by a lot of them. But I couldn’t feel down about this. Each time I called, I refined my approach a little. I stopped saying who was calling, as that seemed to be blocking my chances. Eventually, I found one retailer, run by two middle-aged women, who said they wanted to see me. They were intrigued and wound up stocking my first collection. I focused on that one triumph, and while I visited and chatted with them, I told them I had difficulties getting retailers. They put me on to a man called Pelle, who was a legend in Gothenburg in those days. He knew all the big retailers in the country and was very persuasive. Having made the introduction, I went to see Pelle, and he got me into my first major retailer.

Even then, they were unsure about my range — until everything started shifting far more quickly than they had imagined. You can read the full story in my book.

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

When you feel a passion for something, pursue it. Something inside you is telling you that you’re enthusiastic about something and you need to follow through. I felt it when I left Greece and I felt it when I started my business. It was always there as I grew my business.

Acknowledge who you are. I’m someone who works 18-hour days because it gives me a sense of achievement. I like competing against myself. But this might not be for you. However, denying this is denying who I am.

Learn from children, because they know how to have fun, and they don’t know how to hate and be suspicious. That’s the best approach you can have to business and to life.

When you have the most fun, that’s when you have the greatest success. I probably could have left my company at the 25-year mark. It was less fun after that, although I still managed to innovate and win prizes, for my work.

No matter what you do, at the core are three values: passion, respect, and love. I’ve found that no matter what I do, I always come back to these three things. Passion can prevail over logic, and I always had a knack for being able to synthesize a lot of information and make a decision. We need to trust that instinct. My father always went on about the need to respect others, and respect nature. As to love, why else would millions of songs be written about it?

Let’s imagine that a reader reading this interview has an idea for a product that they would like to invent. What are the first few steps that you would recommend that they take?

Learn about the people who might want to use your product. Don’t ask them, ‘Would you buy this product?’ as a lot of people can’t see a need for an item till it’s launched and presented to them. People can be rear-view mirrors when it comes to market research. Instead, ask about their jobs, what they see as important, and consider how your product addresses their concerns. If you think it will make a difference to their lives, then find a way to produce it and launch it.

There are many invention development consultants. Would you recommend that a person with a new idea hire such a consultant, or should they try to strike out on their own?

Do it yourself. You can’t wait for others to solve your problems for you. Plus, how would a consultant know what your passions are and how you feel about something? Only you know that.

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

It’ll be different for everyone, but I opted to bootstrap. I borrowed only to produce my first collection, but once I had my first sales, I never went to the banks or venture capitalists. The banks were ridiculous to deal with back then, anyway. One time I had a firm order from a major retailer, and the bank wouldn’t open a letter of credit for me on account of my being Greek! So I never bothered with them again. It’s why my former company was one of 450 limited-liability companies (out of half a million) that were platinum-rated by the government!

If you seek venture capital, then do so honestly. Be very clear about what it’s for, and if you realize that the funds might not be used for the purpose you sought them for, return them. You’ll earn more respect for doing the right thing. Better that than burn through it all and have nothing to show for it.

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

Beyond creating products that people love, and that they come back to time and time again, I’ve inspired many others to follow their dreams. I’m still continuing to do that with House of Panos, my incubator, where I mentor and coach people — and if you’re a student or under 25, I’ll even do two free 30-minute sessions. The world would be a better place if we each did the things we truly love, not the things we feel we are forced to do.

If there was a movement where we could encourage everyone to do the jobs they truly wanted to do, where every person loved every moment of their work, then I would be all for it. A job needs to stir your soul. I’d like to see this taught early on, so people learn to identify their passions. Every day they live their lives to the full! Let’s put this all online and see who might want to swap jobs!

I was at Jamie Foxx’s house many years ago when he had his wrap party for Django Unchained. When he asked me if I wanted to hang out for lunch the next day, it was on the very day I had flown to LA and I had some filming shortly after. I was so very jet-lagged. I had to decline and I know he was as disappointed as I was. So, Jamie, if you’re reading this, hit me up!

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

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

Agile Businesses: Denise Brinkmeyer Of JUMP Technology Services On How Businesses Pivot and Stay…

Agile Businesses: Denise Brinkmeyer Of JUMP Technology Services On How Businesses Pivot and Stay Relevant In The Face of Disruptive Technologies

An Interview With Fotis Georgiadis

Never stop improving — Your phase one was just the beginning. Technological innovation is happening at a pace that takes my breath away. You will never stop pivoting or you will go the way of Borders Books.

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

Denise Brinkmeyer (www.jumptechnology.com) is the author of Project Orienteering: A Field Guide For Project Leadership and president of Jump Technology Services®. She has over 20 years of diverse business experience with various-sized companies and develops business consulting service strategies. Brinkmeyer focuses on the development and implementation of software project management and software design methodologies that dramatically increase both customer satisfaction and department performance.

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

I was born as the oldest child of two oldest children so of course I was the first child, first girl of the generation in my family. Soon my brothers and cousins were born, but there were few girls. I had never let it bother me much until one day I was told that I couldn’t do something because I was a girl. Well, that was enough incentive to make sure I did accomplish that goal and never let anyone tell me I couldn’t do something that I had set my mind to do. My mother says that I have always had a stubborn streak. At the age of 13 months old when she put me in my crib to go to sleep when I wasn’t ready, she said I would bounce myself on the mattress until I could get my leg up and over the railing. I shimmied down the side, ran down the hallway and glared at my parents for putting me to bed when I didn’t want to go. My mother called it stubborn, but I prefer the word tenacious.

That tenacity showed itself when in my early 30s I decided to leave my career as a teacher to raise my children at home. I wanted a good life, a rich life where I did what I loved and made a difference in the world. I always loved teaching very much, but I had no love for a system so influenced by politics where my monthly take-home pay didn’t leave enough money to take care of my children. People at school told me I was crazy to give up my career, but I thought, if I’m going to be broke, it might as well be with me staying at home with my children.

While at home, I started a homeschool co-op at my church and learned some basic html programming for our church and co-op website. Programming intrigued me and my children were older, so I decided to re-enter the workforce as a computer programmer. When people told me I couldn’t change my career from drama teacher to computer programmer as a woman at the age of 35, I said, “Oh yeah? Watch me.”

Growing up I had always thought that we all had the same ability to achieve or become anything that we set our minds and hearts to do. I didn’t understand when people would give up. I didn’t understand the fears that prevent people from pursuing a big idea. I never thought that I had some unique ability, only that when I really wanted something, I would keep trying until I achieved it. I laid out a plan to increase my studies, then pass a Microsoft certification test to prove I knew what I was doing.

The result: I landed a job as a programmer at a startup company and eventually moved to a job as a programmer at my current company. In 2001, I was one of 11,000 women in the world who held the Microsoft Certified Solution Developer credential. In just a few short years I had developed my skills to be competitive in an industry that didn’t really accept women. But I didn’t let the way I was spoken to interfere with what I wanted to accomplish.

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

I wish I had a story that was funny. There was a lot of learning and takeaways from things that happened. I was observing and learning as quickly as I could. One example is on my first big assignment for an inventory control system. It was written by someone else and then handed to me when that person left the company. My job was to debug the modules installed on the office computers and then fly down to Houston with the team to deliver the software and collect payment.

Once on site, I was walking the customer’s team through the software and they were growing increasingly agitated. Keep in mind that I didn’t design the software. I had only fixed bugs that appeared in the operation. So, I began asking questions to get a better understanding of how the system was falling short.

The senior executive asked me if I’d like a tour of the operation and we spent the next hour walking the floor and discussing workflow. I could see quickly where the design fell short. He thanked me for being the only person in our company who appeared interested in the work they actually did. It left me a bit stunned as a new programmer, but I was also motivated to correct the issues. After a few more weeks we delivered an update to the software that supported the efficiency and automation that all of us had envisioned.

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

I am grateful to several people for their help. My friend, Angela, was a terrific coach. I met her early in my “Denise wants to be a programmer” phase when she was working for a computer training company. I shared my plan with her the day I walked in to sign up for a programming class, and we’ve been friends ever since. She cares very deeply about the people who seek her help. She goes above and beyond for everyone, never really realizing how incredibly rare that is.

My kids were also incredible during this time. They knew that I was on a path to ensure that we always had enough money for food, housing, and medical visits. They adapted extremely well from homeschooling back to public school. It wasn’t easy, but they are resilient and amazing people. I am so proud of them.

I met my husband at JUMP. His expertise as a software engineer gave me confidence that my instincts were correct even when my experience was questioned. Who we are as a company today has a lot to do with our partnership. I like to say that my job is to identify the forest and describe its boundaries. His job is to detail the bark on the trees.

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

The company I joined actually focused on software for manufacturing. I find manufacturing fascinating, so I enjoyed my work, but when the .dot com bubble burst and there was not enough work, we won a bid on a custom software system for health and human services. It was this project that led us into systems for vulnerable adult investigations. Up until that time my husband and I didn’t know about home- and community-based services or adult maltreatment.

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

We provide software as a service to state and county governments who provide services for older adults. These services include Aging and Disability Resource Centers, Senior Meals and services funded by the Older Americans Act programs, Long Term Care Ombudsman cases, and Adult Maltreatment investigations.

These programs use our software to support their operations and provide reporting to meet their local, state, and federal reporting requirements. Our customers interact with older adults as part of their daily mission. This means that our mission is to provide affordable software that helps them do their jobs without spending so much time behind the computer screen.

Our designs also collect very detailed information that helps program managers understand trends on interventions and outcomes.

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

Government programs prefer, as you can imagine, to control their data. Their responsibilities for privacy and security have always created a preference to keeping systems “in house.” As Software as a Service or cloud computing offerings became highly available to government programs, it became difficult for government programs not to take advantage of these systems because of the improved return on investment as well as total cost of ownership.

Just making the decision and following the process for procurement means one to two years before government programs even embark on projects for new technologies. These adoptions can take years to accomplish even though companies like mine with program-specific solutions can implement in a matter of months.

The next big area for adoption in government programs like social services will be integration of artificial intelligence to improve case documentation and improve the quality of services provided.

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

In 2010, we made the assumption that the commercial trend towards cloud computing would be followed by government program adoption. This was an easy leap since government programs are always slower to adopt new technologies and cloud computing has a lot of advantages.

We are also working on concepts related to artificial intelligence, but we can’t really discuss that until we get closer to product launch.

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

Our aha moment was really more that this technology would allow small, state-funded programs to collect data to help tell the story of vulnerable adult maltreatment and exploitation. It’s often said that “data drives dollars” when it comes to funding, but small programs had no data. They had no ability to collect data in their paper-based systems because they couldn’t afford what vendors were offering. We developed an affordable cloud-based solution with tiered pricing that helped even the smallest programs budget a data collection system.

So, how are things going with this new direction?

The product was launched in 2014 with the first customer in California. Today, we serve 54 government programs with that product, and have launched several other products to support Aging and Adult services across the United States.

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

I’d say really that things worked out the way we had hoped in our support of elder abuse programs. Supporting these programs became our mission. Eight years later, there is more funding and awareness of the abuse, neglect and exploitation of vulnerable adults. I am so happy to help Adult Protective Services demonstrate their outcomes through our systems.

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

It’s very difficult these days to move as quickly as you need to because of the rapid change in technology. Leveraging new technology gives you a competitive advantage over your competitor, but only if you can move quickly enough. This means that leaders must be great communicators. If you have cultivated a culture of concern and interest in the company’s products and services, you can explain how new projects and development keep the products in demand. Teams need to know that continual improvement protects the company from obsolescence. I don’t mean that you have to scare them into thinking their jobs are at stake, but instead you can motivate them to always produce leading products and services for their industries.

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

Frederick Herzberg is quoted as saying, “If you want people to do a good job, give them a good job to do — an enriched job.” Leaders must be clear in communicating their vision for the future and how the work being done today by every role intersects with an important mission.

I think it is critical that everyone has a sense of the value of their contribution.

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

Remember your people are the company. Make them successful, and the company will be successful. If you can’t make them successful, one of you needs to change.

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

1. Chasing the technology instead of the solution — Some businesses find technology so interesting they invest everything in adoption without linking the investment to specific, measurable outcomes. Technology is a solution to a problem. If you don’t know the problem, you have no solution.

2. Helping “Number One” more than helping “Every One” — Some business owners or managers see the project as their chance to climb. This can have a very negative impact on the outcome because it is very difficult to hide. Teams aren’t motivated by narcissistic leaders. Sure, everyone wants to feel proud of their accomplishments, but it often comes for free if you can solve an important problem for people (see #1 above).

3. Being immobilized by analysis — Some teams are so good at structure and administration, that when faced with an important change, they can’t move quickly enough. Sometimes it’s because they allocate too much time to the decision-making process, and sometimes it’s because they invite too many people into the decision-making process.

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

1. Be positive about your ability to pivot — Pivoting doesn’t mean abandoning what you are doing now. It means beginning to move in a new direction while retaining some continuity from where you were going. No one ever said pivoting means a giant leap. Staying relevant means doing what is important or could be important to your customers. Everyone may be shouting at you to build a mobile app, but if your customer base doesn’t want to give up precious space on their iPhones, you may find that a simple addition to the website is all that was ever needed.

2. Don’t be afraid to say goodbye — If steps in a new direction create a conflict with a percentage of your business, this is where you need to ask if that is the business you want to keep. Just because you have always served a particular sector doesn’t mean you have to do it forever, particularly if it is on a downward trend. The key to saying goodbye to these customers and retaining your reputation may be to identify some alternatives for them. As we moved to our social services solutions, we chose to say goodbye to website hosting and search engine optimization. Website hosting had become too competitive, and I had been convinced that by 2006 search engine optimization really worked best when it was managed in-house by marketing teams who could integrate SEO into the marketing plan. These two areas of the business were consuming too many of our resources, which we were ready to invest in our mission to serve adult maltreatment investigations. We helped the customers identify new hosting providers and move their SEO in house.

3. Adopt a phased approach to implementation — I’ve heard it said that “perfect is the enemy of done.” Where I see this most is in projects that include too many objectives in their first phase. They try to eat the whole elephant in one bite. You should be very clear about the “why” of your project with a business case analysis. Business objectives will need to be mapped to project requirements. Then, listen to your team about the best route to achieve the most important objectives by mapping out the best route to success. In my book, Project Orienteering, I suggest you think of your project like a journey. If you’ve ever driven from Oklahoma City to Los Angeles without stopping you know what I am talking about. People driving that long without sleep risk their health and safety (not to mention the safety of others.) In similar fashion, a project that drives to a big goal without incremental releases may be risky to the organization. If you’re a fan of agile methodologies then you already know what I am talking about.

4. Celebrate success with your team — Let your team have time to participate in the celebration of a job well done, no matter what this looks like. I don’t mean to frame it like a “break.” “A break” means that you were driving them too hard. This is a celebration of accomplishment that doesn’t take a lot of expense to be appreciated. This seems so obvious, but driven business leaders sometimes (myself included) forget to stop and smell the roses with their people. If you don’t do it, you can wear your people out. They need to know that you are human even if everyone thinks you operate like a machine. When you do take the time, they will be refreshed and ready for the next challenge.

5. Never stop improving — Your phase one was just the beginning. Technological innovation is happening at a pace that takes my breath away. You will never stop pivoting or you will go the way of Borders Books.

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

I like to remember John Maxwell’s quote, “Sometimes you win, sometimes you learn.” This means that every event is an opportunity, even if the opportunity is to learn to be better. I hate losing so much that it can derail me for hours, and I have too much to do to waste it on bad feelings. Since I started reframing loss as learning I am much better. It’s more than lip service, or something I say to myself. I look at the situation and say what could I have done differently to win, and then I do it. Some people say look for the silver lining in the cloud, and I do something similar. If you believe everything is an opportunity, then even when events don’t have the outcome you hoped for, if you look you might find an even bigger win hiding underneath the learning.

How can our readers further follow your work?

They can visit my website at denisebrinkmeyer.com and subscribe to my new podcast, Tenacity Rules from Forbes Book Audio on Spotify, Audible, and Apple Podcasts. The first episode drops in early May.

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

Thank you! I enjoyed it.

Agile Businesses: Denise Brinkmeyer Of JUMP Technology Services On How Businesses Pivot and Stay… 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: James Boyd Of Adyton On How Their Technological Innovation Will Shake Up The…

The Future Is Now: James Boyd Of Adyton On How Their Technological Innovation Will Shake Up The Tech Scene

An Interview With Fotis Georgiadis

Trust your instinct when it’s strong. There may be experts in the room, but they may not have done as much research and analysis as you have. Just because they are an expert does not mean that they are right.

As a part of our series about cutting edge technological breakthroughs, I had the pleasure of interviewing James Boyd.

James Boyd was born in the United States to British parents and grew up primarily in the United Kingdom. Electing to attend university in the U.S., James graduated from Stanford. Soon after, James enlisted in the Army and was assigned to the Army’s 1st Special Forces Group (Airborne) as a Special Forces Communications Sergeant. Following his service James went on to work at the military-focused, data analytics giant, Palantir. Now, he builds world-class mobile software for people who serve at Adyton, a builder of mobile software that links users in the field to enterprise systems.

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

This story is really a convergence of two journeys — two core parts of my identity. I’ve always been passionate about technology and the promise of bettering our experiences through innovation. When I was 12 my uncle Bob taught me how to build my first computer. As a teenager I read the biographies of Scott McNealy, Bill Gates and Jeff Hawkins. I’ve also been deeply motivated to serve others — to protect people. 9/11 happened my first week at Stanford, and shortly after I met a Special Forces Officer — Joe Felter — who was doing his PhD, and he encouraged me to enlist and try out for Special Forces. My parents were thrilled. Fast forward to 2010, and I found myself on my 3rd deployment with my Special Forces team, working to track down Bin Laden’s finance networks in South East Asia. I had been trying to pin point bomb makers in our local area, and follow the money to uncover the network. We had plenty of intelligence information but it came from different Army systems that didn’t talk to each other, which made it impossible to understand. While I was on the deployment I started writing code to bring this data together. We’d train our partner forces by day, advise them by night, and in the off hours I would hack together scripts and databases to fuse together information from different sources. Some guys from another team came in from Afghanistan and said, “you’ve got to check out Palantir”. I looked on the website and saw my friends from college and thought — “these are real software engineers at a real software company, building real software”. I knew that this was the path — combining my passion for engineering with my mission to protect people. It’s what took me to Palantir, and led me to found Adyton.

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

I’ve had the privilege of briefing heads of state, directors of intelligence agencies, and senior military commanders. I’ve worked in some punchy places on some things I can’t discuss, but for me the story that stuck with me the most was one about someone else. In 2019, my brother called me up from western Afghanistan. He and his team were at a remote outpost, and were faced with hostile forces on a near daily basis. He told me that he, his team leader, and their intelligence sergeant used two of the products that I had helped build and launch on a daily basis. They used these products to prepare for their missions, and over the course of dozens of operations had only failed to find their target one time. They had been so successful that the leadership of the NATO forces in Afghanistan came along with them on their missions. But most poignantly — they used these products to identify hostile forces planning an ambush and successfully evaded the attack. These were products that my team and I had built and sold to SOCOM and the Army — and there in western Afghanistan my brother found himself as a user of these products, and used them to keep himself and his teammates safe.

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

We are working to revolutionize the way militaries and similar “hard hat industries” interact with their field personnel. Today the allied militaries and large enterprises operate in a world with decades of legacy IT investment in architectures that are secure but brittle. They were designed for a world of mainframes, terminals and offices, not a world where the primary computing device is carried in the pocket of field workers who operate in far flung places — on flight lines, under the decks of ships and on job sites. To truly empower these workers in the enterprise environment — it takes leveraging the infrastructure that the private sector has built out and the consumer carries in their pocket, and to do that you have to reimagine trust. We are building out applications that help field workers do their jobs more effectively and safely, and turns them into data generation engines for the enterprise. But the key to this is the set of foundational technologies we built that power these applications and allow them to work securely in a zero trust paradigm. They enable enterprises to extend trust in a world where you may not trust the network, and you may not really trust the devices that they run on. Once you can do this — for the end users this is huge. We’ve had over 100 soldiers and marines identify PTSD and mental health issues using our application Mustr. We’ve had Navy sailors tell us this gives them more sleep and more time with their family, and we’ve had Air Force deployment officers tell us that this helps them get troops to where they are needed more quickly and more efficiently.

How do you think this might change the world?

At the individual service member level — we are working to change expectations. That their time is valuable, that their work is important, and they deserve to have great tools that help them do their jobs more effectively. At the enterprise level it’s building a foundation for more agile forces, and challenging mental models for what is possible. Aspirationally we envision this as the backbone of productivity that helps allied forces collaborate and work together more fluidly. I remember being in Baghdad in 2016 when there was an imminent threat warning at our base. There were NATO forces running the operations, but communication between countries was incredibly high friction. There was one network that they could communicate on, but not everyone had access to it. I remember seeing a NATO officer strolling into the office the next morning, coffee cup in hand, and log into the computer that they can communicate on and check his email. He threw his hands up in the air in exasperation as he saw that there was an immiment threat 8 hours earlier. It’s just absurd that we are so hamstrung in our collaboration that he couldn’t receive threat warnings except by email on a computer in a different building on the other side of base. That’s the kind of absurdity that we are working night and day to change.

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

Caveat — I’ve never seen black mirror

We’ve spent a lot of time listening to the leadership teams of the units that use our software. Leaders have to realise that there is a fundamental shift taking place in the same way that technology impacts our social lives. This is technology that adds leverage leadership. It’s not a substitute for it. Leaders recognize that our application Mustr gives them more time to spend mentoring and coaching their personnel. It gives them a new mechanism to control risk to their force and their mission. It gives them a new means to engage with their personnel, and a new tool to establish open door policies. It’s not a bandaid though. A negative organization culture is still a negative organization culture — micromanagers are still going to micromanage, but with greater power. We’ve been fortunate to work with innovators and thought leaders who are seeking ways to improve the quality of work life for their personnel. At the same time, there are leaders out there who shun technology, who would look to block any interaction between their leaders and their personnel through mobile technology. We see this as a missed opportunity, and a failure to recognize that as the world evolves, we have to evolve with it.

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

In 2018 I had been doing some research on the Apple Secure Enclave. That’s the tamper resistant chip built into iPhones that runs the cryptographic functions. I had been tinkering reflecting on the communications security architecture in the military, and the physical devices I used to haul around in my backpack which stored the cryptographic keys. I realised that fundamentally what mattered was where you trust the math — the algorithms and random number generators that are used to generate and process cryptographic key material. If you trusted the math you could do anything in between. I built out a few proof of concepts for structured data interactions across a distributed group of users using what’s called a fanout architecture — it allowed you to send an instruction or message to tens of thousands of people a the same time. As I was considering applications for this I caught up with a friend from In-Q-Tel — that’s the venture arm for the CIA. He had also been in the Army and he immediately thought of the applicability to the military. By coincidence the next day, a Navy SEAL commander I had worked with previously in Iraq called me up lamenting the time wasted by his instructors capturing structured data in training environments. He explained that his instructors could spend their time mentoring students, but instead were doing data entry — and yet, they didn’t have adequate structured data to analyze and prevent their injuries. It was this coincidence, this connection that drove home that it was the military that needed this technology.

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

In technology we often talk of the early adopters — the innovators that are keen to try new solutions. For our technology, for Mustr — I think it’s pain. It’s leaders in organizations that feel pain, that believe there has to be a better way, and that it doesn’t have to be this painful. Those are the people that are willing to try, and those are the leaders that change their organizations. Once they try it, they recommend it to their colleagues, they take it with them to their next assignment. It builds up a groundswell, a movement of people that want to see things better.

There have been so many people that have helped me — from childhood, through college, the military, Palantir, and now at Adyton. You learn different things from different people. One thing that always struck me is how much luck is involved. I count myself particularly fortunate to have worked for a man named Rod — sadly who passed many years before his time. He and I shared a mission — to transform intelligence in Special Operations. We were both dedicated and hard working, but had our different ways of doing it, and occasionally butted heads. Sometimes it was heated. If I’m honest, I was probably not the easiest person to work with at the time — I had little patience for others who didn’t experience the same urgency. It was Rod’s feedback that taught me one of my most important lessons. He said, “If there was someone who had James’s talent and Paul’s attitude (one of our other colleagues), I’d work for them in a heartbeat.” I realised that you can’t go it alone. It takes a team, and to build that team it takes a lot of investment in the soft stuff. The soft stuff is the hard stuff. It’s why we’ve invested so heavily in culture at Adyton to build the strongest, most resilient team possible that can tackle any challenge.

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

The men and women that use our products create the most goodness in the world. They use our products to coordinate firefighting for wild fires in California, to mobilize nurses for emergency rotations in New York during COVID, and to respond after natural disasters and tornadoes. For my part, I’m proud of the team that we’ve built, and the culture we’ve grown together at Adyton. We’ve created opportunities for people with passion and talents to contribute them towards impact. We are proud to say that we have no ceiling at Adyton, and have brought together a diverse group of people — veterans, military spouses and engineers from post-conflict countries — people from all over the world who are united in a belief that we can build products to make things better.

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

Trust your instinct when it’s strong. There may be experts in the room, but they may not have done as much research and analysis as you have. Just because they are an expert does not mean that they are right.

When something keeps you up more than one night — it’s time to solve the problem. The problem may seem large up close and that you have to endure it for a better time, but more often that not it’s best to just eliminate it.

Luck comes from surprising places. It may be the last place that you would think to look. We thought our strongest traction would come from the Special Forces community because of our network. It turned out to be the Air National Guard — a place we had no relationships.

That people lead their interactions with empathy. When we come from a place of empathy, we understand that everyone is living their own lives, in their own worlds, with their own set of experiences that have shaped their reality, and to truly connect with others we have to first be empathetic with ourselves. From this place of compassion with the self, we can be open to others, and when we are open to others we can understand them — and that understanding is the foundation for communication, cooperation, and creating a better world together.

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

“Winning is a habit. Watch your thoughts, they become your beliefs. Watch your beliefs, they become your words. Watch your words, they become your actions” — Vince Lombardi

I’ve been consistently lucky. I lucked into the right habits that carried me through some challenging situations. Sometimes you don’t realise that these were important habits until later — until you are struggling in a different situation. The way we think is so important. The words we use in our thoughts influence how we perceive ourselves, how we shape our personas to the world, how we consider the value of our own worth. Winning takes a vice like mental discipline to build positive attitude and resilience patterns, and at the same time be able to clinically and rationally self-assess to determine what is true.

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 🙂

This is not about us at Adyton — this is about investing in the companies that are working to strengthen the institutions which defend democracy, freedom and the values we hold dear. I’ve seen first hand what insecurity and instability looks like. It looks like a child holding a rifle. It looks like food and starvation used as a weapon. It’s looks like elections that are manipulated by oppressors. The institutions of national security matter. The companies building products that help protect our security matter. The allocation of capital and investor talent matters. These companies aren’t building apps that exploit the attention of our youth — they are building technologies that keep us safer. This is a sector that is ripe for innovation, but it demands bold and diligent capital to fuel it. An investor that is looking to plug some numbers into a spreadsheet to fit a model that works in the B2B or B2C sector is the wrong investor. This sector needs investors that want to go deep — that want to understand how the transactions happen, that want to understand where the value is created, that want to understand the physics of growth. The growth is out there for the taking, but it takes investors willing to do the work, who believe that the world can be safer, and know that they have not just a role to play, but a responsibility to participate in the ecosystem that defends our freedoms.

How can our readers follow you on social media?

You can follow us on

Twitter: Adyton JJ Wilson

LinkedIn James Boyd

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

The Future Is Now: James Boyd Of Adyton 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.

Modular Plant Solutions: Russell Hillenburg’s Big Idea That Might Change The World

An Interview With Fotis Georgiadis

No matter what you’re doing, it takes more money than you think it will. This one coincides with the first one because as they say, time is money, and I’ve found that to be very true.

As a part of my series about “Big Ideas That Might Change The World In The Next Few Years” I had the pleasure of interviewing Russell Hillenburg.

Russell Hillenburg is president and co-founder of Modular Plant Solutions (MPS), a global engineering firm specializing in process modularization and project implementation, as well as president of Houston-area fabrication business Woven Metal Products.

In the last two decades, Russell has embodied entrepreneurship, including taking over his family business and launching multiple new companies, all servicing the refining and energy industries. Russell was instrumental in developing MPS’s flagship product, MeOH-To-Go®, which enables users to create AA grade methanol for immediate market utilization from natural gas from a variety of grey sources, including pipeline, stranded and flared, as well as various compositions of syngas derived from newly developed green or blue sources.

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

I got started in the energy and petrochemical industry through my family’s business, Woven Metal Products (WMP), a premier fabrication business my grandfather founded over 50 years ago in the Houston area. I grew up in and around the energy industry and have held positions of all levels within that company, giving me valuable experience and insights into what’s next for the industry — and what customers are looking for.

My deep experience with customers in those industries led me to start up Modular Plant Solutions (MPS). In collaboration with my chemical process engineering partner, we developed the design idea for a small-scale, easily transportable, modular plant that saved on upfront capital costs, and we later co-founded MPS in 2016 to bring that design to market.

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

Our Modular Plant Solutions team has traveled the world to source the materials for our products, developing relationships with vendors in multiple countries. We’ve formed some fantastic friendships and relationships over the years, all of which started as business partnerships. It’s been so interesting to experience different cultures around the globe from the lens of not only business, but also good relationships. For example, when we travel to Italy for business, our partners bring us to their homes and give us a local experience. It’s really a great feeling.

Which principles or philosophies have guided your life? Your career?

For me, it’s about honesty, integrity and loyalty — in both my life and career. These three things build successful relationships. When you do what you say you’re going to do, people trust you and want to work with you. Also, the golden rule — treat others you want to be treated — is one I live by. You’ll make strong relationships that way, and that’s a large part of what has made Modular Plant Solutions successful.

Ok thank you for that. Let’s now move to the main focus of our interview. Can you tell us about your “Big Idea That Might Change The World”?

At Modular Plant Solutions, we actually like to say that small is big in the world of modularization, and that’s exactly what makes the small-scale methanol plant, Methanol-to-Go®, we developed so appealing. For the last five decades, larger scale plants were more economically feasible, but with Methanol-To-GoⓇ we’ve broken that cycle, making small-scale make sense. Our plant modules are designed with our patent-pending idea that everything can fit in an ISO-1496 container. That way, plant components can be produced in several areas of the world, put in a shipping container, and then easily shipped by truck, ship or rail. It’s akin to building blocks, where you can fabricate parts in different locations and assemble them on-site / snap the pieces together. The combination of shop-fabricated modules, a standardized design, and lower transportation costs make our approach competitive with world-scale plants.

What’s really cool about this idea is that depending on a customer’s resources and needs, we can use different feedstock options and technology processes for Methanol-to-Go®, as well as add on back-end technology processes, to create AA grade methanol, gasoline or other end products.

For example, earlier in April, we made our first sale of a Methanol-To-GoⓇ plant to Arbor Renewable Gas to use in the first-of-its-kind green gasoline plant. Methanol-To-GoⓇ will be a key component in the process chain of green gasoline production at the plant. We were able to set up our small-scale methanol plant to receive syngas produced from woody biomass as feedstock, and the resulting methanol then goes through an add-on process that results in renewable gasoline. The bottom line: customization with a Methanol-To-GoⓇ plant can meet a variety of customer needs and desired outputs.

How do you think this will change the world?

With Modular Plant Solutions’ modularization techniques, we are breaking the curve to make small-scale plants economical. There are so many possibilities, the sky really is the limit. Options for where and what we could modularize to improve a situation somewhere are endless.

By modularizing plant components, most of the work is done in a fabrication facility instead of on-site, which takes away a lot of construction risks and costs, as well as increases the consistency and quality of the final product, not to mention the ability to repair any issues before assembly in the field.

The original design of the Methanol-To-GoⓇ plant takes previously unusable stranded natural gas that could be anywhere — and a potential pollution source if flared — and turns it into something useful and profitable. Our customers are able to get closer to their natural gas feedstock by building plants in more remote locations, from South Dakota to Africa, Texas to Europe.

Looking at our other current plant products, because the inputs and outputs can change, we can use a variety of feedstocks to create a range of outputs that are most needed for any given situation. With our current plant designs, we can use natural gas from a variety of grey sources, including pipeline, stranded and flared, as well as different compositions of syngas derived from newly developed green or blue sources to create AA grade methanol for immediate market utilization. And that methanol can be used to create several different products and chemical building blocks for other applications.

Keeping “Black Mirror” and the “Law of Unintended Consequences” in mind, can you see any potential drawbacks about this idea that people should think more deeply about?

While our goal is to build on a smaller scale, we still have to balance what makes sense economically with the optimal size for our plant design. While a smaller footprint can be advantageous for several reasons (less materials and less assembly at less cost to operate), we have to ensure the economies of scale are still logical for our plant or any client project.

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

Several years ago, an upstream and midstream company brought me in as a plant expert and partner, and I recognized a need to turn unusable stranded natural gas into a profitable commodity.

I started talking about the challenge with my business partner, David Townsend, a newly retired chemical engineer, and that’s when the idea for Methanol-to-Go®, our small-scale methanol plant, was born. We wanted to figure out a way to convert the stranded natural gas into something transportable and profitable, even though the gas was in a remote location, not easily reachable nor near a pipeline.

That’s what led us to co-found Modular Plant Solutions and develop the design for Methanol-To-GoⓇ, a small-scale, easily transportable, modular plant that uses stranded gas to produce market-ready, grade AA methanol.

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

There’s a lot of interest in our modularization capabilities, and we have several potential customers who are drawn to the ingenuity and uniqueness of what we’re doing. They are really interested in our techniques and ideas.

But as you can imagine, one of the key aspects to gaining more adoption is getting our first project off the ground. And that’s what we’re doing with the sale of Methanol-To-Go® to Arbor Renewable Gas. We will also be modularizing many plant components for their project, as well as managing the engineering and technology partners for the entire plant. Our team will also advise on procuring the needed equipment, help oversee construction, commissioning and start-up.

All in all, we anticipate that even more customers will want to buy into our small-scale methanol plant concept once they can see it in action.

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

No matter what you’re doing, it will always take more time than you think it will. This one probably hits home the most as I’m more of a visionary and don’t always see the implementation details needed. I tend to think we can achieve the results in a fraction of the time. My team continues to advise me and think through the logistics.
No matter what you’re doing, it takes more money than you think it will. This one coincides with the first one because as they say, time is money, and I’ve found that to be very true.
Just because you can see the vision doesn’t mean that others can or are willing to accept it easily. I’ve found that often where we end up is beyond what I originally had planned or thought. As we work through details on a plan, there are more customers and a greater market need that drives future products, projects and plans. Because its far-reaching, I do a lot of selling of a vision that isn’t always realized by others.
It takes more than just hard work to succeed. It takes ambition, diligence and optimism as well.
The people involved in your business are critical to the long-term success. This couldn’t be truer for me and my experience. The people I have at my helm are some of the brightest in their areas of expertise and because of that, it allows me to not have to focus on those details. I can trust them to do what they know is best for various segments within each company.

Can you share with our readers what you think are the most important “success habits” or “success mindsets”?

Be open minded. Stay true to who you are. Demonstrate dedication through hard work.

There will always be times when it’s easier not to stay true to those values, but stick to your guiding principles. People appreciate it when you are forthright with them.

Some very well-known VCs read this column. If you had 60 seconds to make a pitch to a VC, what would you say? He or she might just see this if we tag them 🙂

What we’re doing with Methanol-To-GoⓇ is breaking the world scale idea that you have to go bigger to build a cost competitive chemical plant. We chose to produce methanol because it’s a building block for a significant number of chemicals and other end products. And with Haldor Topsoe’s licensed process technology powering Methanol-To-GoⓇ, we have proven technology that has been in the industry for years backing the process, so it’s not just our word for it. We have developed a small-scale, long-lasting product we are excited to bring to market.

How can our readers follow you on social media?

Feel free to connect with me on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/in/russell-hillenburg/. Also follow MPS on LinkedIn for updates. Check out our website at https://modularplantsolutions.com/.

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

Modular Plant Solutions: Russell Hillenburg’s Big Idea That Might Change The World was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Wisdom From The Women Leading The VR, AR & Mixed Reality Industries, With Gloria Gavin Of Resonai

An Interview With Fotis Georgiadis

Having diversity of thought and representation in the workplace, in contrast to a homogeneity echo chamber, is good for business. I’ve worked for many user experience teams for products that were so homogenous that when we actually went to market, it didn’t resonate with actual consumers, who had not been represented in the market research sample. So we had to go back to the drawing board.

Gloria Gavin, Chief Business Officer, Resonai

Gloria serves as the Chief Business Officer at Resonai, a high-growth AI and spatial computing company based in Tel Aviv, with business operations in the U.S. Previously, Gloria founded and led a consulting practice providing strategic product launch and go-to-market services to high-growth startups, as well as large, public companies such as Google, Facebook, PwC, WalmartLab, and eBay. In her 25+ year career, Gloria has held senior management roles in global sales, marketing and business development at several private and public companies including Palm/HP, Volera, Inc., Yahoo, Inc., and Worldtalk Corporation.

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

I‘m the daughter of immigrant parents, who came to this country as young people from Mexico in search of the quintessential American Dream. I grew up focused on education and striving, and got excited early on about technology. It was the late 1980s, and computers were just coming into play. Macs were this neat, new technology. When I was in high school, my family got a Mac computer, which was both a big deal, and extraordinarily expensive for an immigrant family like mine. Tooling around with that first computer is where I got my first love of technology. I spent many years thinking about studying engineering, but ultimately it wasn’t for me. I was even more drawn to politics and policy — domains through which I could envision myself helping immigrant families like mine, as well as women, and other underrepresented groups. So I ended up studying international relations and political science at UCLA (University of California, Los Angeles). This shaped me and gave me a love for global issues, while giving me the realization that global business is one of things that connects us.

I was then given the opportunity to do international business development early in my career. I traveled all across Europe, Asia, and Latin America setting up sales, marketing, and partnerships on behalf of Retix, an enterprise-software-for-email startup that had just gone public, and then WorldTalk, a small company that then grew, went public, and got acquired. Both companies were great starting points because many of their senior executives went on to become serial entrepreneurs.

I continued to work with many of them throughout my career in various roles at various companies. Those early postings provided me with tremendous opportunities. It’s where I got my training from executives that had themselves been trained as management consultants or had experience in major corporations.

From Retix, I got recruited to WorldTalk to move from Southern California to Northern California, and was convinced to work for this 30-person company. Previously, I had not planned to stay in the technology industry at all. WorldTalk grew to be much bigger and by staying on, I continued to learn, and went on to have many roles within the corporation. I took advantage of the huge growth that Silicon Valley was going through, and I became hooked on growing companies from startup, to mature corporations.

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?

Yes, Educated: A Memoir by Tara Westover. It’s written by a woman who was raised in the mountains of Idaho, homeschooled, and isolated from mainstream society. The book is about how hard it was for her to get an education and draws attention to the disparities between people who have access to education and the global economy, and the people who don’t. Even in the U.S., that disparity can be stark. It’s an amazing story of human will. To me that resonates and ties back to my own story.

When my parents came to the United States, I have the impression that the country was more open and idealistic, and there were more opportunities for immigrants. Growing up I felt accepted. The world was our oyster. My impression is that it is much harder now. We forget that our immigrant communities have been and continue to be the backbone of growing our country and its economy. The places that immigrants come from changes but the concept remains the same. We need to get back to a time when America was seen as a beacon of hope for all.

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

My path to a career in augmented reality leads through my career in technology. I am passionate about growing startups into thriving businesses. When I came across my current company Resonai, I had already worked in technology for 25 years. My career includes time working at a startup, in the early days of the internet, that was acquired by Yahoo. I watched the internet grow from nothing into a thing that permeates every aspect of our lives. I remember what it felt like to be part of a major shift in technology and its effects on every part of society. Similarly, as I learned more about Resonai and the AI and mixed reality industry, I came to understand that we are at the infancy of another major shift as our digital and physical worlds are merging to create a new Metaverse. I knew I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to join the team and help be part of this new frontier.

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

Getting a front-row seat to watch the development of technology over time is definitely something I feel lucky to have participated in. One of those moments was 1999, when the internet was really taking off. Another was the unveiling of the iPhone in 2007, and the opening of the App Store in 2008. These are moments in history that I find myself sharing with my children who can’t imagine a world without the internet or their mobile phones. It’s fascinating that to generation Z and beyond, even email seems old school. It’s not something they like to use. I imagine that by the time I am a grandparent, I will be sharing stories about the beginning of the Metaverse.

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 on in my career I fell victim to the bias that was pervasive in the tech world. I was in Germany, for an internet conference, sitting in a room with 20 other people, all of whom were men, all of whom were wearing business suits. A young, casually dressed woman came into the room and I assumed she was a member of the event planning staff setting up for the next speaker, and I addressed her as such. She immediately made it clear, in a kind way, that she was a speaker at the conference, not a member of the staff. In fact, she turned out to be a Silicon Valley entrepreneur who is prominent in the industry. I have to admit I’ve made that kind of mistake on more than one occasion, and I’m still embarrassed by it. What I learned from it is how ingrained biases can become in one’s mind, even if you yourself are an example that proves the bias is incorrect. I’m encouraged that the numbers are changing and that we are seeing more women going to engineering schools and embracing technology careers. And while I’m no longer the only woman in the room in general, we still have a long way to go on management teams and corporate boards.

I’ve been fortunate to have many mentors and colleagues in my career who have shared their time and management skills to help me build my career. One in particular stands out because of the timing. Katie Mitic — an entrepreneur, technology leader and board director — provided me with pivotal help finding a path back into the working world, after I had taken two years off to raise my first-born daughter. Like many career women who take a pause to focus on child rearing, there came a time when I knew I was ready to go back to work but found it hard to find the on-ramp. As a mom and career woman, Katie understood the challenges and provided me with not only reassurance but also shared some of her network to help me launch my consulting firm. Key introductions to the venture capital community led to many assignments and provided a strong foundation for the future growth of my consulting business.

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

I try to use my professional experience to support the efforts of under-represented groups in technology, such as women and the Latino community. I volunteer with organizations that offer help to entrepreneurs and I help advise them with their fundraising as well as go-to-market strategies, and I’m an LP at an angel investment firm. Examples include Muze Music, a platform for booking and monetizing live music events, where I’m an advisor, and Trqk, a music royalty intelligence startup where I’m an investor.

It’s not one feature of this technology that excites me. It’s how mixed reality helps lead a major shift in merging our digital and physical worlds. Right now, you have to experience internet content and services through your phone or computer. In the future, every building will be a digital canvas with embedded intelligence so that as we navigate our built world, the internet will essentially come to us. It will be all around us providing information exactly when we need it to guide us, inform us, provide more personalized experiences. This Metaverse will create new ways to live, work and play in and around physical structures and will help grow a new set of businesses and revenue models that we are only beginning to imagine.

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?

Instead of three concerns, what concerns me is the fragmentation and noise of the industry, caused by dozens or even hundreds of new market entrants. The noise is confusing and overwhelming to both consumers and businesses. My concern is that businesses will end up adopting technologies that aren’t as useful, that are too expensive, and that don’t provide enough value.

The sooner that the big and small technology companies and new VR, AR, and MR industry leaders can agree on quality standards, the better. It’s important for the industry to regulate itself. Once technology becomes interoperable, it will really take off. It’s important that we employ strong security, data privacy, and content regulation so that consumers and businesses alike feel confident about using and deploying these new technologies.

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?

There are many examples of business applications that are being used today. Some of the leading examples include AR training. Turnover is a big and on-going problem in many industries, and training is a big expense. Instead of sending trainers around the country, new employees can self-train by getting an immersive AR experience that is shown to provide deeper engagement, while employers can monitor the progress of training and update materials remotely. AR training is also being used in the medical industry to provide an immersive way to teach future doctors how to use equipment and perform surgical procedures.

AR navigation and wayfinding is another example. In shopping malls, airports, hospitals, and large office campuses, businesses are using mobile AR navigation to guide consumers, but also enable consumers to access AR content at critical junctures, like when they do self check-in. Guided tours inside entertainment centers and museums is another wonderful application for AR.

Finally, we are seeing that as entire buildings transform digitally, they become a digital canvas for AR advertising, promotions, and brand experiences. Malls, retail stores and entertainment venues are offering consumers AR navigation apps and guides to engage them, while capturing aggregate consumer data inside their buildings that enables them to provide personalized digital advertising.

Advertising led the way in the early days of the internet, creating a revenue model that enabled companies to grow. By transforming a physical building into a digital canvas and embedding that ability to create new digital media units, advertising can provide an important monetization opportunity for property owners.

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

Integrating augmented reality into a shopping, museum, or educational experience, will help increase the individual’s level of engagement. It’s one thing to read an article, see a picture, and watch a video. It’s another thing to actually feel like you are there, within the experience. Mixed Reality opens up the ability to consume content in a whole new way, much more immersive and detailed, and do it remotely as well as just at the right time and place. It will give us even more access globally to gain a richer and deeper understanding of global business, entertainment, and culture.

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’m thrilled to see more women going into STEM and staying in STEM. My daughter is at Cornell University, at the College of Engineering, and about 50% of her graduating class are women. Where I’m disappointed is how long it’s taken to see women at the senior management level of technology companies and on the supervisory boards. Once that starts to change, you’ll see a more even playing field for women in the field of technology, up and down the corporate ladder.

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

We are too focused on the Silicon Valley “bro” culture, and not telling the stories of women CEOs and entrepreneurs, and the huge support system and network of women executives that exists in Silicon Valley. While there’s no question that Silicon Valley continues to be male-dominated, the negative narrative discourages women from entering the industry in the first place, which in turn makes them miss out on the incredible opportunities the industry has to offer women as well as men.

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

1). Because I was a woman in a male-dominated industry, I overcompensated in my style of work by being tough and never revealing emotions. As a result, I ended up not being myself. When hiring, I also judged others by how tough they were, or seemed to be. That didn’t make me a great leader. It didn’t help me to understand my direct reports. And it caused me to bypass many potential hires who would have been great employees, and who ended up being very successful at other companies. I grew my emotional intelligence later in my career and really value the range of personalities that I have the pleasure of working with.

2). I misjudged how taking a career break to have children would have on my value in the working world. I was convinced I had lost my edge. But it turned out that having children, and running a household, actually made me more competent and more efficient at work in many, many ways. This lesson has three audiences: women themselves, their employers, and policy makers.

The message I want to convey to women is that while the technology industry may seem all-consuming and not compatible with having a family, it does not have to be, and giving yourself the grace to return to the workforce can be incredibly satisfying, and definitely worth trying for. To employers I would say we need to make more effort to create on-ramps for women after they’ve taken a step away to have children, because we don’t want to lose these women from the workforce entirely and the technology industry in particular. Finally, I want to tell U.S. policymakers to take some inspiration from Europe, where parental leave policies, more affordable and accessible childcare, and other business benefits, make it easier for women to come back.

3). Always be learning. By starting my own consulting firm, I had the privilege of working with a wide variety of executives, and technology companies, and venture capitalists in Silicon Valley. I would work with one or two new key clients every six months to two years. That afforded me the ability (and necessity) to pick up new industries on a continuous basis, and helped me stay abreast of a wide swath of technologies. This gave me the confidence and foundational knowledge to tackle the next project and to take on the next client.

4). Having diversity of thought and representation in the workplace, in contrast to a homogeneity echo chamber, is good for business. I’ve worked for many user experience teams for products that were so homogenous that when we actually went to market, it didn’t resonate with actual consumers, who had not been represented in the market research sample. So we had to go back to the drawing board.

5). Have fun! We work long hours in the U.S. It’s part of our business culture. Connection to other humans, and fun, is not ingrained in the work culture. Observing and experiencing other work cultures, such as in Europe, has brought home to me the benefit of taking vacations as a chance to decompress, and the benefits of creating time to socialize with work colleagues during business hours. I now try to make sure that my team is both building in personal down time as well as making time at work to build stronger personal connections. Teams that get to know each other are more empathetic and collaborative, and it makes work more fun.

If I could inspire a movement, it would be one focused on creating opportunities and breaking down barriers for upward mobility for a wider swath of people than currently exists in America. I’d like to return the American experience closer to the positive story that both I and my parents experienced. My movement would involve pushing America to deliver on its fundamental promises, as it imagines itself to be at its best. We’ve all heard that the middle class in the U.S. is eroding and that we have bigger disparities than ever between rich and poor. This is not good for our democracy and breeds the discontent that seeds anti-democracy movements.

I’m a huge admirer of Hillary Clinton. Her story is a heartbreaking one. It takes us through the period in American history when opportunities for women were opening up in a big way, but climaxes at a moment of peak divisiveness in this country. I would like to thank Hilary, face-to-face, for paving the way for other women, to applaud her for her incredible achievements, in particular those focused on women and children’s issues, as well as for her life’s work in its totality. And I’m sure her story is not over, and that she will continue to contribute, perhaps in a quieter way than before.

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

Wisdom From The Women Leading The VR, AR & Mixed Reality Industries, With Gloria Gavin Of Resonai was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Meet The Disruptors: Robbie Ferguson Of Immutable On The Five Things You Need To Shake Up Your…

Meet The Disruptors: Robbie Ferguson Of Immutable On The Five Things You Need To Shake Up Your Industry

An Interview With Fotis Georgiadis

Radical focus.

A sense of urgency.

Whoever learns fastest wins.

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

Robbie Ferguson is Co-Founder and President at Immutable, the leading layer-2 scaling solution for NFTs on Ethereum. Ferguson spent over a year in Data Analytics and Blockchain with KPMG Australia and is an active member of YPO Sydney Pacific and a Thiel Fellow with The Thiel Foundation. Immutable is currently one of the fastest growing unicorns in Australia with a $2.5 billion valuation and a vision to bring blockchain gaming to the masses.

My brother James and I have both been building tech companies together for the majority of the last decade. We also grew up as massive gamers — playing Runescape, Maplestory, Neopets — basically anything with an economy growing up. After a couple of startups we built together building a self-wagering application for League of Legends, and a machine-learning Shopify competitor which automatically optimized your store, we came across Bitcoin in 2014 and Ethereum in 2015. We were instantly obsessed with Ethereum and the possibilities that could be built from it.

We built crypto trading/arbitrage bots for a couple of years while we were studying at university, but when we saw CryptoPunks come out in mid 2017 — we realised we had to jump on the possibilities this technology unlocked, as essentially the first ever NFT. Although it was purely experimental, we saw this as the first real opportunity to build a meaningful mainstream use-case with crypto technology: using NFTs to allow players to truly own and trade their in-game items. We built the first ever multiplayer game on a blockchain — Etherbots — in December 2017. The entire game was on-chain, and playing a game today will cost you thousands in gas fees — it was completely decentralized and extremely inefficient. We learned a lot early-on about the right balances to strike in terms of what should be tokenized in a game (assets and core economic logic) versus what shouldn’t.

We were extremely interested in building NFT infrastructure, but back then no game developers had heard of — or knew what NFTs could do. We decided to build a flagship piece of content which could showcase the value of NFTs — Gods Unchained. This was a trading card game where you can own and trade your digital cards like you can physical Magic: The Gathering or Pokemon cards. Gods Unchained was and still is a very successful game built on Ethereum, but at its inception the technology supporting it was far from robust and we ran into scaling and liquidity limitations that impacted the user experience. So instead of asking how do we build a better game, we asked how do we build a better platform to support our games?

In the same way Valve created CS:GO and leveraged that marketplace into Steam, we knew we had to make a hit game that showcased the power of web3 for game developers to build a platform which would truly solve for their needs.

We’d experienced the problems with scaling on layer-1 Ethereum and the insane complexity and risk of smart contract development first-hand, and decided to build a platform that was secure, scalable and ridiculously easy to use to enable any game developer to build a web3 game. We made an early bet on roll-ups — now well established as the number one way for blockchain’s to scale — and went all in with ZKsync for support, and soon Ethereum founder Vitalik Buterin went public saying these would be end-game for applications built on ETH.

Today, we are proud to have built the first multiplayer game on blockchain, the first layer2 solution for NFTs and to be the first to introduce Zk-rollups for NFTs.

We’ve also launched three tokens, set up our company the right way to last the test of time in a fast-growing industry, and have garnered interest from the likes of Tik Tok, Disney, GameStop and others. We’ve kept our mission and vision clear from day one — we’re a sustainable company with zero rug pulls and a dream to transform the gaming industry. At Immutable, we are bringing strength and scalability to the sector, and we’ve really only just begun.

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

Immutable is transforming the video game industry. Never have players had the opportunity to be more autonomous, more economical and more permission less in this space thanks to play-and-earn, in-game NFTs. Play-and-earn is about making games that are fundamentally fun to play, and having true digital ownership as the underlying technology that empowers players — which is the whole reason for playing. If you have to sell the technology, rather than the value to players, you haven’t built a game with an economy — you’ve built a gamified economy.

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?

It’s hard to pinpoint just one mistake when we were first starting out, but I’d definitely stay putting all of our game’s logic on-chain, and having that cost around $5–6,000 per turn was an interesting first foray into web3 gaming. We realized pretty quickly what should belong on-chain vs. not. The industry is quite technical so bumps in the road like this, especially when first starting out, were not uncommon.

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

One of my mentors has definitely been James, my brother and Immutable’s CEO and Co-founder. Since we grew up together we’ve always been driving and motivating each other, even from the earlier days. He’s not just a great mentor but an excellent accountability coach and someone I can trust and lean on. Something we specifically do to support one another is recommend books to each other to consistently push for self improvement and personal growth. I’m also a big fan of the Collison brothers, the founders of Stripe. Their story is super admirable.

Good disruption inspires meaningful, cutting-edge change in some of the largest industries and companies. Challenging the status quo is critical to the evolution of our existence — if we’re not questioning everything and trying to make it better, we’re not growing as a society. Right now, traditional gaming as we know it is a staple for so many but the industry as a whole has experienced relative growth. With blockchain gaming, we’re disrupting web2 juggernauts with an idea that incentivizes gameplay and transforms the way players conceive the value of digital items and ownership.

Disruption can go too far when it’s not inclusive of traditional concepts and ideas. At Immutable, we’re not trying to diminish the long-established way to game. We’re introducing new, innovative and evolved ways to play by promoting earning and ownership. Adoption will be slow and there will be resistance (as there is with any disruption) but our end goal is to improve our industry, not disturb existing pillars of the space, to create a better gaming experience for all stakeholders — gaming companies, developers and players.

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

Instead of five words of advice, I have three core values that I tend to manage my day-to-day by.

Radical focus.
A sense of urgency.
Whoever learns fastest wins.

While working in a fast-paced environment I like to keep these three values in the back of my mind to stay on the top of my game.

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

Our long-term vision is to bring blockchain gaming mainstream and make play-and-earn universal in the gaming space. We’re bringing blockchain gaming to the masses and welcoming both web3 and traditional gamers to join the fun — Immutable is on track for rapid global expansion, and with that we’re hiring some of the top gaming talent from around the world to generate next-level user experience.

The metaverse will be built by gamers, for gamers and will no longer be something players conceptualize. Play-and-earn is a real, tangible experience and as more players get a taste of what’s possible with this new era of gaming, web3 adoption will be in full swing.

And with that, we’d definitely advise watching this space — we have tons of integrations, partnerships, collaborations and more with well-known companies lined up for the year ahead.

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

I’m a big fan of the book The 15 Commitments of Conscious Leadership by Jim Dethmer, Kaley Klemp and Diana Chapman. My brother James and I were best friends growing up, and building a global business put huge strain on our relationship at times. This book helped us create the frameworks of communication needed to have hard conversations compassionately — and we scaled these lessons learned to the entire Immutable organization. It’s a big part of the reason we have the culture we have today. The “above the line / below the line” from the book model is standard practice for us and instills a high degree of self-awareness in our leadership qualities.

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

American tech entrepreneur Justin Waldron gave my brother and James and I some sound words of wisdom a couple of years back that still really resonates with the two of us as we move forward on our journey — “a sense of urgency.” James and I are constantly learning and growing in this ever-evolving space. We’re passionate about Immutable’s next-level growth and the only way to excel here is to adapt, to absorb and to anticipate change. We love learning new things and we do it quickly because that’s the greatest recipe for success.

Immutable is our movement — we’re on a journey to build world-class web3 games with zero technical limitations. On this path we plan to embrace the full effect of NFTs, including demanding real property rights from your in-game items from game developers. Ownership is extremely important to us (and to the web3 mission and vision) and Immutable is a strong component in pushing this forward.

How can our readers follow you online?

Check out Immutable’s Twitter, Linkedin, Telegram, Medium.

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

Meet The Disruptors: Robbie Ferguson Of Immutable 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.

Making Something From Nothing: Neal Desai Of Kafene On How To Go From Idea To Launch

An Interview With Fotis Georgiadis

Pay yourself well. Your time is the most valuable commodity. Of course the bottom-line matters, but your time is even more important. You need to be all-in to be a successful founder, so make sure your compensation is sustainable for you, and then roll up your sleeves with one less worry on your mind. At the beginning, I tried to cut corners here too much with myself. This should never be an issue so try and get it right from the get-go.

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

Neal Desai is the CEO and Co-Founder of Kafene, a one-stop-shop point-of-sale payment partner and underwriting technology platform that helps merchants offer flexible lease-to-own (LTO) purchase options for prime and nonprime consumers.

Thank you so much for doing this with us! Before we dive in, our readers would love to learn a bit more about you. Can you tell us a bit about your “childhood backstory”?

Both of my parents immigrated to the United States from India shortly before I was born, and we lived in Atlantic City, New Jersey for the first few years of my life before settling in Cherry Hill, New Jersey, an idyllic, quaint suburb of Philadelphia. I was a pretty carefree kid who spent most of my time outside of school riding bicycles and swimming, but I took academics seriously. Over time, I developed a real love for science and math to a point where I competed at the state and national level.

When I attended Princeton as an undergrad, it was somewhat of a culture shock at first because I was from a community that was small and insular, while Princeton (both the college and the city) felt much larger, more diverse, and far more open. There was an initial adjustment, but I grew to love what the wider world could offer. I’ve been a city dweller ever since and I’m happy to be raising a family in New York City with both of my children in school here.

My time at Princeton also helped progress my interest in math toward game theory and statistics, which helped me land a job as a derivatives trader on Wall Street after I graduated. I did that for a decade, got the entrepreneurial bug, received my MBA and joined a small specialty lending startup as an early employee. The company grew and I rose to CFO. A few years ago I struck out on my own.

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

I tend to live by a couple of quotes, one for work, and one for my personal life — neither of which I can actually attribute to a specific person, but each of which resonates with me.

Professionally, I believe you must always “put yourself in a position where lightning can strike”. Or, in other words, you need to work to put yourself in a position where you can get lucky. You have a better chance of being in the right place at the right time if you make a habit of being in the right place. Whether your goal is meeting the right co-founder, generating outsized economic return — or something entirely different — you should always be asking yourself what the best possible outcome could be in your current job or position. With some planning and a few breaks, it just might happen.

Personally, my favorite saying is “You can’t eat risk-adjusted return”. The meaning of this is that if you only take the risks you are sure to win, you won’t have enough reward at the end of the day to put dinner on the table because the opportunity set is too small and too limiting. As an avid student of game theory, I don’t believe in taking every risk, but I know that success doesn’t happen without risks being taken so in all walks of life, I make sure I don’t get in my own way.

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

The most impactful book I’ve read is “Predictably Irrational” by psychologist and behavioral economist Dan Ariely. It’s about how people think, and it really changed my perspective on how I understood myself as well as other people. The book challenged the idea that people think and behave rationally. Instead, it said that people are actually irrational but predictable. Everyone carries a great deal of inherent biases around with them each and every day — some of them are relatively intuitive but others are literally baffling and even comical at times. We act against our own self-interests all the time without realizing it. What it taught me is that even when I’m positive I’m right about something, I might not be — and it’s important to be very open-minded because of how imperfect our thoughts can be.

A film I also found impactful was “Meet Joe Black”. I appreciated the concept that Anthony Hopkins’ character was chosen to be a shining example of a life well-lived. Despite clear flaws, it was evident in watching the movie that William Parrish (Hopkins’ character) was ultimately motivated by caring for his children, building his company, and being uncompromising in his values. Money wasn’t really part of his compass, which was refreshing.

My advice to any aspiring entrepreneur is that it’s not always necessary to “think big”. Sometimes, the demand that thinking big forces us to place on ourselves actually results in perfectly viable ideas being overlooked and opportunities missed. It can be stifling.

There are plenty of age-old industries that remain highly fragmented and inefficient. Maybe your “idea” isn’t really a new product, but more of a fresh approach to and old problem that hasn’t ever been solved in an efficient way. That’s perfectly okay, so long as you understand the competition and how you’ll be acquiring customers.

At the idea phase, whenever possible, I’d recommend soliciting feedback from investors — maybe those who do seed investing, or even VCs who might chat with you informally. Investors have worked with so many people and companies who have faced the same questions on how to go from idea to business. More often than not, they can help you draw up an informal plan of action over lunch and they might be able to connect you with experts in your field that they’ve run into along the way. This can be extremely helpful because it often takes a village.

Lastly, a big reason startup founders tend to be younger is because becoming a founder is inherently high-risk. Once you have a mortgage and a family, it’s harder to take big risks. Timing life with your career and your ideas can be elusive. If you think you have a good idea and life seems like it’s at a good point, act. The world moves quickly and you never know how long your window will last.

I acted later than most, and it was harder to do. But it’s been deeply satisfying and I never knew how happy it would make me. That’s had positive spillover effects in all facets of my life.

Don’t worry so much about whether someone has already created your idea. Google created a business based on a search engine and it wasn’t the first to do so. It simply executed better than the rest and it figured out how to create a search experience that was easy and convenient for people. Facebook also was by no means the first popular social network — nor did it have a meaningful monetization model for its first few years.

Most often, you’ll find something that pretty closely resembles to your idea that’s already out there. Chances are that said company hasn’t executed well enough to corner the market. It could be a function of the business model, the founders, or something entirely different.

Stick to it and keep looking into whether what you’re offering would be the best option for customers. Put yourself in the customer’s shoes. The best businesses are often not the ones that reach an idea first, but the ones who follow and figure out how to do things a little bit better.

We aren’t a company that happens to hold patents but I think the most important thing broadly for companies that manufacture, offer services, etc. is to find a champion (or two) who is likely a potential early customer who is willing to suffer with you while you iterate. This can take a while sometimes, so It’s totally okay to pay this customer, because you need real feedback and you need to know when it’s time to go to market versus when it’s time to go back to the drawing board.

Let this customer see and interact with early prototypes. They will be your early MVP. For us, as a company in the financing space, there are elements of the journey that were significantly different from those of a manufacturing company, but at a high level, I’d strongly support the idea of having potential customers be part of the process early on.

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

The first thing I would recommend to anyone considering becoming a founder is to make sure there’s full buy-in from your family because if you think it’ll be an emotional roller-coaster for you, it’s probably even more so for them. I did do this, but I didn’t realize how important it was until the COVID-19 pandemic hit. The company was just a few months old at the time, and we’d just rolled out a beta of our product. We quickly went into hibernation of sorts for a few months, and it was unclear to me whether we would survive. As a CEO and founder, I knew there were eyes on me, and my family got me through that time.

Next, pay yourself well. Your time is the most valuable commodity. Of course the bottom-line matters, but your time is even more important. You need to be all-in to be a successful founder, so make sure your compensation is sustainable for you, and then roll up your sleeves with one less worry on your mind. At the beginning, I tried to cut corners here too much with myself. This should never be an issue so try and get it right from the get-go.

Third, don’t layer in any infrastructure ahead of scale. I had been CFO at a 125-person company so I spent too much time early on thinking about what infrastructure I’d be building and when because that’s what was familiar to me. What I found was that it put too much pressure on me to drive volume and that is another area I course-corrected quickly because we needed to be patient with the product to make sure it was ready.

Fourth, when scale does start to come along, make sure to begin to delegate hiring as much as possible. Founders will always be involved in hiring somewhat, but it shouldn’t be taking half your time. I’m someone who is always thinking through productivity hacks and I realized that I was spending too much time on hiring. I’d recommend turning to someone who can focus full-time on hiring once your organization reaches five people.

Lastly, spend your time doing and thinking about only the things that the CEO can do. There have always been times in my career when I’ve tried to do it all, but as founder there is so much that it’s necessary to delegate in order to see real success. Spend real time thinking about how to deal with important — and sometimes existential — tasks that must be done but aren’t urgent. All too often, we tend to let these things slip just because there’s not a deadline associated with them, and the only things we get done are whatever is urgent. These are two separate buckets and they’re both equally important.

Let’s imagine that a reader reading this interview has an idea for a product that they would like to invent. What are the first few steps that you would recommend that they take?

The first thing you need to do is to assess what demand might look like for your product. Do you have at least a small group of people who would likely use your product initially and then tell their friends? Having a core audience — however small — to work off of initially and solicit feedback from is important. If you don’t have this, you may want to keep tinkering.

If you’re trying to determine whether you have this, consider paying to conduct surveys for market research. If you already have a prototype and you’re trying to figure out pricing and business model, A/B tests using Facebook and Google, routing potential customers to websites you’ve created can be extremely helpful and informative. You could also run a Kickstarter campaign, although the risk is that you alert your potential competition of your presence and give them a head-start.

If demand looks good, then it’s time to build and determine how much seed funding that might require — either from you or from friends and family. Stay patient. Things will remain lean throughout those first few hires and there will be plenty of existential seeming moments.

There are many invention development consultants. Would you recommend that a person with a new idea hire such a consultant, or should they try to strike out on their own?

Personally, I think running a company is extremely rewarding but it’s not easy. I would say that if you have an idea, you should just go for it. If you need a consultant on day 1, I’m not sure you’re going to be able to run a company.

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

Bootstrapping may potentially inhibit your growth as well as your diversity of thought, but at the same time, it leaves founders with full equity and control of a company and some founders certainly prefer that.

I chose to go with venture capital. The expertise that a good VC can bring to the table, not just operationally but in terms of Rolodex, I think is well worth it. I’m trying to build a very large company that becomes the go-to option for point-of-sale financing for all merchants. We have well-funded competition. I saw VC as a force multiplier in everything I was looking to do and I view them as thought partners that I’m happy to have on my side.

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

I consider myself to be early in my journey still as a founder, but I think creating and nurturing a thriving business that puts workplace and people at the center of everything is where I want to leave my mark. I want there to be more instances of this and if I can add one proof of concept to the conversation, I’ll be thrilled.

I tend to agree with those who say that America has an unhealthy relationship with work within the greater context of life. I want my teams to be collaborating, listening to one another, and executing seamlessly. I think doing that requires creativity and clarity of thought that comes with a full night’s sleep as well as satisfaction and intellectual stimulation from the job itself.

I hear these discussed as buzzwords all the time, but the Great Resignation was evidence that there’s more to be desired and workplace is an area I’ve been hyper-focused on investing in and focusing on in the early stages, knowing that the culture established in the early going can often be enduring. I’m very proud of what we have today and as our company grows, our sustainable workplace will create a positive legacy.

Additionally, looking outward from our own workplace and to the people we serve, what we’ve built serves a wider purpose. We help an underbanked and overlooked segment of people that’s far bigger than many people realize, and we get them access to what they need in an affordable and debt-free way. I’m proud of that and I think we have a lot of room to run.

I want people to see their full potential and realize that they can shoot their shot and try and build more things. I want those close to me to see that they, too can be entrepreneurs. I am unique in that I made a mid-career switch from trading to becoming a founder, but it’s because I saw that I could make a greater impact. I think there are many people like me who instead settle for careers that don’t allow them to fulfill their potential and that don’t do much more than supply a steady paycheck.

I want to show that it’s never too late — go take capital, add your sweat equity, and make sure that 1+1=3. It’s hard work, but it’s not as scary as it seems. You sometimes have to try things out, trust that you’ll rise to the occasion, and see where things lead.

As someone who takes academics very seriously, I have been so impressed with Success Academy Charter Schools and its founder and CEO Eva Moskowitz. She is truly uncompromising in her ideals and in the process has scaled a phenomenal model as a business. She’s proven that anyone can learn anything at the highest level if properly resourced. Both of my children are enrolled at Success Academy and they are years ahead of where I was in math, and I competed at a very high level in that area. Not a day goes by that I’m not blown away by how they’re learning.

I’m someone who wants to see more people learn to build, and Eva Moskowitz is the best I’ve seen at educating people so that they’re able to build. She’s someone I’d love to meet.

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

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

Agile Businesses: Roman Stikkelorum Of Verve Agency On How Businesses Pivot and Stay Relevant In…

Agile Businesses: Roman Stikkelorum Of Verve Agency On How Businesses Pivot and Stay Relevant In The Face of Disruptive Technologies

An Interview With Fotis Georgiadis

Watch, talk and learn: You’re not the first company that encounters disruptive challenges. There are a lot of existing playbooks, methodologies and people around that have been in your shoes. You might be able to adopt certain methodologies that have worked in another company, and reaching out on LinkedIn for a quick call is easier than ever. Expand your network and share amongst each other.

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

Roman Stikkelorum is co-founder and managing director at Verve Agency. With a solid brand story foundation, Verve builds outspoken visual identities and digital platforms that convert clients into loyal fans. The branding agency has made their mark in the industry by turning ambitious unicorns like Miro and leading organizations like Juni, Tuum and Dutch Design Week into love marks.

With a background in design, Roman addresses complex issues using the design thinking method, which means starting from an overarching vision to create positive online and offline experiences. Working from the inside out, he builds strong brands, brand strategies and online strategies that result in value, growth and impact.

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

My name is Roman Stikkelorum, I’m one of the three founders of Verve. Verve is a digital branding agency, founded after the shared insight that Dutch Design could play a big role in branding the digital world. I started at the Royal Academy of Arts in The Hague, where my companions Rindor Golverdingen and Michael Danker and I grew into self-taught entrepreneurs and managers. We moved from designing and selling t-shirts and events, towards more and more digital products. Now, we’re fully focused on digital branding projects for fast-growing companies all around the world.

Within my role as managing director, I’m always looking for the opportunities to learn more and it brings me joy to seeing my team develop and grow within our journey to becoming “The #1 Digital Branding Agency in the World.”

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?

Every mistake is a learning opportunity. Although that sounds like a cliché, we’ve always looked at the bright side of things and pivoted when necessary. We’re grounded in this Pippi Longstocking-mentality: the belief that if we’ve never done it, we definitely can do it. This belief has always brought us further, rethinking situations and changing directions without losing track of our core. That’s why a lot of decisions we make do not really feel like mistakes. We’ve always fought our way through it. With success.

In hindsight, some might consider our name a funny mistake. Around 2007 when we founded our agency, it was a trend to name your company as a funny, weird word. We chose Vruchtvlees (literal translation: pulp). We liked it, because there’s a duality in it. It sounded weird, hence the reason people always remembered it. However, once we started growing and doing bigger assignments, we always had to explain what we do and why we were named as such. We started adding a descriptor to it to make it even clearer.

At the same time, we welcomed more and more international clients, attended conferences, won awards and every time we had to pronounce our name multiple times and then people thought “whatever”. The Dutch word with the hard “G” is very hard to pronounce and to remember if you’re not Dutch. Although the name brought us a lot of recognition and appraisal within the design field, it was only when we rebranded to Verve that everything really took off.

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?

We have encountered multiple clients that gave us an enormous amount of trust.

One of them is Irma Benliyan, former project lead of the online Literature Museum. She dared to invest in a huge project, when we were still a small agency at the time. She believed that we could build that ambitious project, even though we had never done it before. Irma chose to be highly involved in the process and to offer the right feedback, direction and guidance. With her mentality, mindset and vision, this project became a huge success. Her approach also taught me a lot about collaboration. You have to give full confidence to your team, but also roll up your sleeves and continue to direct and give feedback.

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

The goal has always been to bring digital and branding closer together. We like to bring strong brands to the internet. Even though we’re now 15 years in and the world has changed a lot, our purpose remains the same. We see potential in organizations, people and the world and we aim to realize that to its fullest potential. We have been holding on to our values ever since the start: to sense, to challenge and to simply love what we do. This has been our strong suit from the start. And even though we’re no longer just the three of us, this DNA and shared mission is what brings the team together.

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

At Verve, we turn good brands into great ones. We create brand strategies, visual identities and digital platforms that stand out in a sea of sameness. We like to work for rapid-growing brands that make us enthusiastic and challenge us as a team. We see these branding exercises as real collaboration with in-house teams, so we can offer a valuable addition.

Within our work, the common denominator is optimism and positivity. In this day and age, brands have a lot of influence in building the world of tomorrow. To make that happen, they have to become lovemarks and expand their reach. In this way we hope to make the world around us more fun and beautiful.

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

I think we’ve all experienced a huge shift in how we work. Even before the pandemic hit, our profession as branding specialists was about to change. The ability to co-create remotely within tools like Miro, Figma and Zoom did not only make our processes much more efficient, but also changed the nature of our profession. This has helped to create more agile brand identity systems and motion-driven identities. But it has also opened up the world as our playing field. It’s now easier than ever to collaborate with the best people across the world. Before, we were stuck sending over Adobe Illustrator files, keynote templates and numbers of emails back and forth, now we can actually collaborate on everything at the same time.

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

We embraced the opportunities and took a big leap with our proposition. We changed our name from the unpronounceable Vruchtvlees to Verve and decided to shift our positioning from being a local player to one with a more international perspective. We started hiring a more international team, streamlined our marketing assets and target persona and branded ourselves as the go-to branding agency for rapidly growing companies. Our working methods were already grounded with digital tools, so to move fully digital felt like a natural evolution for us.

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

There have been a number of moments when we have come to realize that changing our name and positioning was the best way forward. The real “Aha moment” came when we won the rebranding pitch for online whiteboarding tool Miro. Being a company focused on global and online collaboration, we got our first taste for a full remote rebranding project within an international context. With an ambitious timeline, a tight-knit collaboration with the client and working across timezones, we felt like a fish in the water.

The launch, trust of the client and quality of work, sparked a lot of enthusiasm and pride across the team, and we realized we wanted to do these kinds of projects more often. We immediately knew that to make that happen, we had to rethink our positioning and our name.

So, how are things going with this new direction?
It’s going even better than we could ever have imagined! The Miro rebranding might have kicked off our new direction, but the real growth potential happened after our own rebranding. We’ve found better ways to pitch our vision, and have found our niche in rapid growing, business-to-business focused companies that are looking for outspoken and creative brand strategies and identities.

We’re now in the fortunate position that we are getting more requests than we can handle, so we have the luxury to choose who we’re going to work for, which is an amazing position to be in.

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

We were often seen as the underdog that had a shot with the Miro rebrand. After the rename, we no longer had to prove our vision and the Miro rebrand opened even more doors. Now we’re talking to C-level executives that already see the importance of branding. We can really tie together product, business and brand as one holistic entity. We’re involved early on, in a pivot phase for these rapid-growing businesses and that translates into real partnerships.

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

For us, it has always been very important to involve the team with big company decisions. Because our purpose has always been clear from the start — become “The #1 Digital Branding Agency in the World” — we figure out the best way to get to Z along the way. We know our way from A to B, and we know where Z is. But all the small steps in between are still to be considered.

We share our goals, wins and challenges every quarter, and include a cross-section of the team in crucial business decisions. What we’ve learned, mostly during the Covid-crisis and working from home, is that being vulnerable and acknowledging current challenges is the best way to move forward as a leader in a disruptive period.

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

We always aim to take our team on a journey. They are important players in reaching our business goals, and realizing our mission. At the moment, one of our biggest challenges is expanding our team. We ask a lot from the team, and we acknowledge that this is one of the growing pains in our growth journey. What works for us, is a general stand-up every Monday to share the current status of the company including the wins and challenges of that week. Every quarter, we invite every unit (strategy, design, digital design and development), to showcase a success story. We do a lot that we can be really proud of, but in this transition period — and working from home — we too often take it for granted. Working hard is good, but having fun as a team is just as important.

To boost morale, we have introduced a party commission and given them a budget to celebrate small and big events within the company. We never really know what to expect, but they’ve been introducing small gestures with big impact. On Valentine’s Day, they gave out small compliments to the entire team, during Easter a spontaneous egg hunt took place and an airhorn can catch us by surprise when we’ve achieved a personal or professional win.

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

Communication is key! Always be sincere and honest with your team to ensure everyone knows how things are going. By regularly sharing information about the current state of business, everyone stays involved. Transparency is super important, both in good and bad times. And don’t forget to celebrate the small wins!

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

What’s interesting about our work is that companies come to us when they’re on a pivoting moment of their business journey. What we’ve encountered are the following three things:

1. Jump on every opportunity
Before businesses take a step back and look at their core business, they tend to jump on every business or marketing opportunity. This does not only confuse the team, but also their customers. Make sure to streamline efforts and rethink what fits your core DNA best, before jumping on every opportunity. How will it benefit your brand? How much time will you spend in overhead to make it happen?

2. Not involving the team
Don’t just stay in the C-suite, take your team along the way. Acknowledge the challenges and be open. And who knows, your team might surprise you with out-of- the-box solutions that will actually solve and shift focus to what’s really the main issue.

3. Don’t be afraid when people leave
You might lose some of the team members along the way. If they don’t fit the vision or lack the belief in the new direction, thank them and say goodbye. You don’t need people holding you back or longing for the good old days. Maybe their time has come to leave and the best way to do that is to support their decisions and stick to your vision.

1. Work in shorter time frames: When things are changing rapidly, check up on your team. We use daily stand-ups to wrap our heads around impediments rapidly, do motivational Monday status updates of the company and the direction we’re moving towards. We’ve also moved from year plans to quarterly plans. Our audacious goal is still clear, but we’re taking smaller steps to get there, one focal point at a time.

2. Keep an open mind: There’s this saying that in rapid-growing companies, you can expect your role to change every six months. The league you’re working in is changing, your team is growing rapidly and so are the expectations of your clients. What used to be normal, can be completely out of date within a few weeks or months. When we first started out, we as a management team were involved on many different levels. Now that we’re growing, we have to let go of certain tasks and specialize more in our roles. This allows us to grow and become stronger leaders.

3. Iterate, iterate, iterate: What you think might be the best solution, might not actually work. Iterate on your first ideas, fail, adjust and win harder. When you’re working in shorter time frames, it allows you to quickly adapt to specific situations. At Verve, we’re really focused on improving our processes. Every project is a learning opportunity and we adjust our processes every time and every time we improve, test and learn.

4. Watch, talk and learn: You’re not the first company that encounters disruptive challenges. There are a lot of existing playbooks, methodologies and people around that have been in your shoes. You might be able to adopt certain methodologies that have worked in another company, and reaching out on LinkedIn for a quick call is easier than ever. Expand your network and share amongst each other.

5. Keep an eye on your BHAG: Whatever you do, do not lose track of your “big hairy audacious goal”. It takes courage to get there, you have to keep your vision alive for yourself, but also for your team. So whenever we’re faced with specific challenges, we keep our eyes on the price of becoming “The #1 Digital Branding Agency in the World”. All new things we have to solve are always presented within that context whether they are positive or negative.

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

At Verve, we always liked the idea of “It’s not how good you are, it’s how good you want to be” which is a famous quote by Paul Arden, creative director of Saatchi and Saatchi. By setting ambitious goals and projecting yourself always one step ahead, I’ve learned that you can actually bring those ambitions to life if you set your mind to it. This has helped me, but also the team to reach higher goals I couldn’t have dreamt of a few years ago.

How can our readers further follow your work?

If you’d like to hear more about our vision on branding, you can follow Verve on LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/company/vervetheagency/) and Instagram (instagram.com/vervetheagency), or head to verveagency.com.

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

Agile Businesses: Roman Stikkelorum Of Verve Agency On How Businesses Pivot and Stay Relevant In… 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: Tasso Argyros Of ActionIQ On How Their Technological Innovation Will Shake Up…

The Future Is Now: Tasso Argyros Of ActionIQ On How Their Technological Innovation Will Shake Up The Tech Scene

An Interview With Fotis Georgiadis

Trust your instincts. When I feel something is wrong, it usually is. Early in my career I waited too long before I would do something, because I wanted to be certain something or someone is a problem. Not anymore.

As a part of our series about cutting edge technological breakthroughs, I had the pleasure of interviewing Tasso Argyros.

Tasso Argyros is the Founder and CEO of ActionIQ. Tasso left the Stanford PhD program to start Aster Data, which was acquired by Teradata for $325M. At Teradata, he continued to solve big data problems for Fortune 500 enterprises. Tasso’s passion for empowering business users led him to start ActionIQ, with the mission of bridging the gap between data & action.

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

My father is a Professor of Mathematics, and since college I have been searching for ways to use Mathematics to make an impact in the world. Turns out it takes a lot of math to do proper data work, and that was the answer I was looking for. So, I became obsessed with data, and the systems we use to capture, manage and analyze it. The beauty of data is that you can abstract it and then use mathematics to extract knowledge and information from it. Customer data has its own opportunities and challenges, and we are just getting started in terms of figuring out how to make the most out of it.

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

I am not sure about the most interesting, but I can tell you that the most rewarding is when a customer that has made a bet on our company and product, generates so much success for their company that they are promoted, largely because they selected ActionIQ.

And similarly, when old employees of mine become experts in their field under my watch, or even become entrepreneurs themselves. My job is to build great products but at the end of the day it’s all about the people.

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

The world is changing fast — third-party cookies that marketers have come to rely on are going away, both consumers and regulatory bodies are driving increased privacy and security protections, while consumers and B2B customers are becoming more hesitant to spend money in the face of economic downturn and instability.

To survive, enterprise brands must focus on their existing customers — one of their biggest assets and a big challenge. They must undergo a customer experience (CX) transformation — to place a strategic focus on CX and ensure their CX systems and processes can unify all the brand’s customer data, democratize intelligence and orchestrate personalized customer experiences at scale and across all channels. Moreover, companies need to be flexible and agile in meeting their customers’ needs.

Not an easy task, given that there are more than 10,000 martech solutions alone. With this many solutions, the capability gap to meet the CX requirements is closed. The biggest challenge now is closing the agility gap — automating and scaling data-intensive processes across teams, channels and use cases. Governing them, maintaining them, seamlessly adapting those processes to remove inefficiencies, gain speed and capture the fleeting revenue opportunities.

The core of the CX stack — the axis that all operations revolve around — is what we call the CX Hub. ActionIQ is the only CX Hub powered by a CDP that leverages all customer data, actions on the intelligence insights and orchestrates powerful experiences to operate at the speed and scale demanded by the enterprise. The result? A single user-friendly solution that delivers the performance, agility, and actionability not possible with channel-centric solutions or legacy marketing clouds.

The AIQ CX Hub empowers organizations to leverage the solutions flexibly and securely they need to power personalized customer experiences at scale. Our solution offers the best of both worlds, with technology teams able to retain control of the data and governance, while business users can securely access the customer data, they need to become more independent, data-driven and effective in orchestrating both real-time experiences and omnichannel customer journeys for the right audiences.

This is a huge breakthrough for enterprise brands in an environment where personalized experiences are a key differentiating factor.

How do you think this might change the world?

Our mission is to help make every customer interaction useful, engaging and fun. This can lead to better day-to-day experience for hundreds of millions of people that are touched by our enterprise customers. What builds brand loyalty and increases CLTV is CX.

Even before the current business downturn many companies realized that they had to offer impactful, personalized experiences to their customers if they were to retain them and increase customer lifetime value (CLTV, a key metric of driving revenue and profits). This is what will help future-proof these enterprises and help them stand out from their competition.

CX transformation is no longer a luxury — it’s a business imperative, and what will separate winners and laggards is how effectively they can close the agility gap in delivering personalized, differentiated customer experiences at scale.

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

Customer experiences depend on the quality of customer data, and with third-party cookies going away, that means brands must have a solid first-party data strategy in order to create personalized experiences at scale. There has to be a solid underpinning ensuring data security and privacy. ActionIQ has a long-standing commitment to privacy and security — safeguarding our clients’ data is our top priority as an enterprise Customer Data Platform and something we will never compromise on as we move forward as a CX Hub.

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

Before ActinoIQ, I was the founder of a database company that was sold to a Data Warehouse leader, Teradata. At Teradata I observed how many big enterprises had massive amounts of customer data in their data warehouses — and today, in their data lakes — but the business was struggling to extract business value from it. I figured that customer data getting locked up in data systems is a huge opportunity and decided to start ActionIQ to help the business to do more with customer data.

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

More and more enterprise brands are realizing the need to deliver what their customers are demanding — personalized, consistent CX. However, this is a crowded market, which leads to buyer confusion — I mentioned that there are more than 10,000 martech solutions alone out there. This is an opportunity for ActionIQ, where we can help bring order to the CX chaos by pulling together fragmented customer insights and putting impactful customer experiences in motion, while helping brands make every team member a CX champion. AIQ CX Hub is the axis that the CX martech stack revolves around.

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

We have a three-prong marketing strategy:

Letting our customers speak for us on why CX is a key business imperative and tell their transformation stories,
We continue to educate the market on the different approaches to orchestrating personalized CX at scale and which use cases ActionIQ is best at supporting, and
Being a thought leader in the market. For instance, we recently published our first annual CX IQ Index — primary research on the state of customer experience from both the business and consumer perspectives. Interestingly, we found a significant disconnect — a gap of 38% — between how highly businesses grade themselves on their customer experience versus the real scores from customers.

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

I credit my father for helping me discover a love for science, mathematics and computers. My advisor at Stanford, David Cheriton, a brilliant Professor who also happens to be the first investor in Google, taught me the principles of building great software and instilled in me a passion for applying science to solve real-world problems. When I was considering starting my first company, I asked him if I should do both my PhD and the startup. His response was that doing both would be fun, however “the problem with doing two things is that I would be competing with people doing only one”. He has a great way of thinking about the world.

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

I like to think of my impact in the world is primarily through my employees and my customers. Both are groups of people that I feel both grateful for working with me and responsible for helping them succeed. On the employee side, we think a lot about training & development, having an inclusive culture, diversity in the workplace and in general creating an environment where our employees can thrive. On the customer side, I strive to create a customer-first organization, putting the success of our customers above all other business objectives.

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

Be direct. Helps build trust and saves a huge amount of time for everyone.
Startups are marathons, not sprints. You can push your team to work nights and weekends and that’s great when you are running a sprint. But what wins marathons is a fast, steady pace that you can maintain for a long time.
Trust your instincts. When I feel something is wrong, it usually is. Early in my career I waited too long before I would do something, because I wanted to be certain something or someone is a problem. Not anymore.
Operate on principle. If something has to do with a principle — e.g., the value of inclusion in our workplace — then you have to go ahead and do the right thing. Don’t try to justify it or think of the negative implications, if there are any; doing the right thing works out in the long run 10/10 times.
The value of Why. Your team will go very far to achieve a goal if they understand why they are doing it, and why it’s worthwhile. Leaders can be a lot more effective talking about the why vs the what or the how.

I wish all of us could adopt a more sustainable lifestyle. Buying fewer things (but of higher quality that last longer), using more natural, sustainable materials and getting rid of plastics, getting rid of pollution in cities and around the world. People talk about climate change, which is important, but overconsumption and pollution are equally bad. This movement exists but we need to build a lot more momentum to make a meaningful difference for the world our children will live in.

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

“Don’t confuse luck with skills”. For example, most people want to hire employees from the most successful companies, which at some level makes sense. But I also love hiring people that did just okay but in a highly adverse or challenging environment — whether on the personal or business domain — because they had to go above and beyond to overcome that adversity and achieve even modest success. And these people, placed in an environment with more potential, can truly excel. On the other hand, some folks find themselves in the right place at the right time and become very successful with little skill or effort, and these people will likely struggle to repeat that success. Telling the two apart is difficult but indeed critical.

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 🙂

The Customer Experience stack is being reborn, and ActionIQ has what is perhaps the most valuable role in the new world order. We have phenomenal customer retention (very proud of that), very fast revenue growth but above all a highly differentiated product in a massive, exploding market.

How can our readers follow you on social media?

LinkedIn — https://www.linkedin.com/in/tasso/

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

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

Grace Francis Of WONGDOODY: How Diversity Can Increase a Company’s Bottom Line

An Interview With Fotis Georgiadis

You can read endless consulting reports on talent acquisition and retention, but the most human story I can tell you is that when I was interviewing with my current company and saw an Asian-American surname above the door, I knew this was a place that encouraged people to embrace their identities and that I would be able to do the same. I was right.

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

Grace Francis is the Global Chief Creative and Design Officer of WONGDOODY, a creative agency with 21 offices around the world, each obsessed with designing for the human experience. Their personal mission is to bring more meaningful creative work into the world and not add to the noise.

I started off in tech, dot com bubble darlings working out how to bring soul to the early days of the internet when it felt like the whole world lived on the same six websites. Since then, I’ve always loved taking roles where we need to write the rule book ourselves, working things out along the way. You can only do that with people who are interested in collaborating.

Can you share the funniest or most interesting story that happened to you since you started your career? Can you tell us the lesson or take away you took out of that story?

I remember joining a new company and watching a leader open a question to the room. Regardless of specialism or seniority, people were comfortable giving opinions, sharing ideas and taking risks. Each time someone said something that resonated he lifted them up and shared exactly why he liked the idea. A month later, a different leader sat in the same room with the same group and no one spoke. A leader always sets the tone.

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

I grew up in a house where ‘what’s mine is yours’ was a popular mantra from the adults. Not just generosity with possessions, but also time and acts of kindness. When that principle is applied in abundance, you can’t help but grow up to give the same. Today, I have 1,200 staff across the world and set aside time to hear from any of them each week. There doesn’t have to be a reason for conversation; it’s about connection. When we spend time together, I feel rejuvenated and fortunate.

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

I have a very dear friend who started off as a colleague. He saw my potential and took me into his department, where he became my boss, then later a creative partner. We haven’t worked together for well over a decade, but when I am seeking advice, or clarity, or comfort, the first thing I do is open a blank email and type out his name. He doesn’t always have the answer, but he always replies.

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

We’re built on creative democracy, the concept that anyone and everyone has something of value to add to the work we create. This principle is one of inclusion — both intersectional identity and lived experience — and it runs through everything we do. When I joined WONGDOODY, I met with a junior team member who told me that this is the first place she has worked where she doesn’t have to represent everyone who looks like her, she can simply be herself and her contribution is valued. This is the bar.

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

In London, we just released a climate change game for the Financial Times that uses real-world predictive data to teach players about the impact we can have on the planet, if only we try. In Germany, we have a digital make-up emulator that is designed for people of all skin colors. Both projects are essential in my eyes. Contributing to the world can take many forms.

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

Still perhaps the most important thing I do is mentoring. I have a free practice at elsewherestudio.org that uses design thinking to help people answer challenges in life and work. As an English person, I also make an excellent cup of tea.

So much of business is invention and innovation — we cannot solve problems from a single point of view. Diversity helps us reach better answers, sometimes entirely new answers, which leads to greater business success. Organizations like Folx Health are a brilliant example of this.

Diversity expands our client reach, both the types of organization and clients themselves that we can authentically connect with in a meaningful way. The creative industry is built on our ability to rapidly understand and add to an industry or company we’ve just met. We would not be able to do this if we were all the same.

You can read endless consulting reports on talent acquisition and retention, but the most human story I can tell you is that when I was interviewing with my current company and saw an Asian-American surname above the door, I knew this was a place that encouraged people to embrace their identities and that I would be able to do the same. I was right.

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

You can create a space where people can authentically be themselves but you cannot ask them to give that part of themselves to their work. If you create a safe environment that promotes equity whenever possible, I find employees give all they have without even being asked.

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

As a leader, have your fingerprints on everything and your signature on nothing. This empowers your team while you set the vision.

I’d love a breakfast with Jen Wong, COO of Reddit, to learn more about shaping one of the most influential corners of the internet. Being part of Reddit, we know Jen is versed in the fine art of AMA.

How can our readers further follow your work online?

Don’t — surely, you’ve had enough of me in these five minutes!

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

Grace Francis Of WONGDOODY: How Diversity Can Increase a Company’s Bottom Line was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Veronica V. Sopher On The 5 Things You Need To Be A Highly Effective Public Speaker

An Interview With Fotis Georgiadis

Be authentic — It is paramount that you show up as the real you and not some polished version of you that you think people will connect to. Some of my best talks have been ones where I shared personal stories that the audience could relate to. For example, I once spoke about imposter syndrome and the example I used was being concerned that my Spanx might be showing. The female audience roared with laughter as they all nodded their heads in agreement- they made the connection with me and it helped me keep them engaged for the rest of the talk.

Veronica V. Sopher is an award-winning communications professional with more than 25 years professional experience. She is a gifted storyteller and is passionate about connecting with audiences to inspire and create a sense of purpose. Veronica has lead teams of all sizes and has spent the last 15 years in the C-suite driving narratives that moves her organization’s brand forward. She believes her purpose in life is to connect others to create synergy that will transform the world.

Thank you so much for doing this with us! Our readers would love to get to know you a bit better. Can you tell us the story of how you grew up?Can you share a story with us about what brought you to this specific career path?

I come from a family of storytellers, on both sides. In the Mexican-American tradition, stories are a way of connecting and sharing values from generation to generation. I would hear “tales” of relatives and there was always a morale to the journey — it was often a traditional hero’s journey. I was raised in Houston by a single mother who sacrificed dearly to support all of the activities that my brother and I wanted to participate in. We were scrappy, resourceful and eager to impress. Education was the foundation of our upbringing and we knew how valuable an education would be to shaping the trajectory of our lives.

I remember wanting the Little Tykes play kitchens that had a little sink, refrigerator and even boosted a kitchen window with a tranquil countryside view. I would see it advertised on television on Saturday mornings while I watched cartoons, and my mom knew she wasn’t going to be able to buy me one. But, she didn’t let that stop her from making sure I had a play kitchen of my own. She used a large cardboard refrigerator box and using her art skills, she drew on a 3-D image of a sink, refrigerator, cupboard, and even cut out a window with a real fabric curtains. The dials that were drawn on, were true to oven dials and when I think of the effort she put into designing and creating my kitchen, I appreciate how deeply she wanted me to connect to my imagination.

My imagination and attention to detail have played a large part in my success and my ability to connect with others with my storytelling skills.

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

I was a sophomore journalism student at the University of North Texas when I walked into the newspaper lab and was told that there had been a bombing in Oklahoma City. I was dispatched to try to get some “color” from the scene, even though I was about three hours away from the site. I immediately started calling friends and colleagues that I lived in Oklahoma and after a few failed attempts, I was able to talk to a friend’s father who had just made it home from his office, just a few blocks away from the bombing site. One of the quotes I received from a contact was used in the university newspaper on the front page the next day. My journalism career had begun. I was thrilled to see my name printed and I was proud of my accomplishment. Days later, I was watching TV and I “saw” the damage to the building and my heart sank. I was so emotional to see the devastation, and to finally understand the loss of life and terror. At that moment, I decided that I did not want to be a professional journalist, and changed my path to public relations. I still wanted to tell stories and create opportunities for others. I had found my calling and I haven’t looked back.

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

As the spokesperson for a large school district, I was the face of a historic discovery where 95 African American graves were discovered on the construction site of a new school. After the discovery, historians and archeologist determined that the site was an unmarked cemetery of victims of the state-sanctioned convict leasing system that allowed the South to recovery economically after the Civil War. It was a profound discovery that shed light on a part of part that was not talked about or taught in our state curriculum. Three years later, I am proud to share that the state curriculum was modified to now include convict leasing in various grades and the site is being memorialized appropriately. The cemetery is open to the public and there are museum-quality learning exhibits on the site so visitors can lean more about our shared history. Being able to share amazing stories like these have been a highlight of my career.

I am blessed to have had a number of mentors and inspiring people in my life who shared their insights, gifts and experiences that helped me learn and grow. One in particular was a high school teacher, Ms. Lita Javors, who has since passed. She was one of those educators who understood the value of developing soft skills and leadership skills in young people. I remember how she encouraged me to put my name in for a state-leadership position for an extra curricular organization. I was scared, I had imposter syndrome, AND I had her support. Once I was elected, she helped me understand how to be a leader and taught me how to earn social capital. She would attend business luncheons with me where I learned business protocols and how to interact with business leaders. Without her guidance, I would not have had the courage to put my name forward for subsequent leadership positions. I am forever grateful for her investment in me.

Failure is the greatest teacher of all time. I am most grateful for every failure I have ever had as it taught me to get back up, to reevaluate my processes and decision-making processes and to put safety nets in place to avoid making the same mistake. Don’t hang your head down in shame, own it! Own your failures like a badge of honor and share your learning with others so they can avoid the same missteps. I express gratitude for my life time of learnings, good and bad, because they have shaped me, my leadership and my success.

What drives you to get up everyday and give your talks? What is the main empowering message that you aim to share with the world?

Seeing others step into their power and leadership is what drives my passion to get up every day and share my message. When I see someone connect to their why and take action, I cheer them on and encourage them because I know their work will positively impact others. My main empowering message is that we each have a purpose, and once we tap into that purpose, providence steps in and all is possible!

You have such impressive work. What are some of the most interesting or exciting projects you are working on now? Where do you see yourself heading from here?

I have narrowed my focus coming out of COVID to share my message of self-care for leaders so they can maximize their skills and talents and create a healthier balance between home and work life. My talks and courses are designed to help C-suite leaders and female entrepreneurs find their calling and tap into their greatness. I see myself continuing on this leadership journey and inspiring others step into their power. I am a connector and will continue to create synergistic relationships that can change the world.

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

“Jump and find your wings on the way down” has been my favorite life lesson quote and has driven so many of my professional decisions. Often when I wasn’t sure if I should take a risk, I learned how to tap into my intuition and have faith. A great example is when I was offered a position in another market and I had doubts and concerns about the potential move on my family. I made a list of pros and cons with my husband and at the end of the day, we had to make a decision based on faith. We actually used that quote as part of our deliberation and we pulled the trigger and moved. We built the plan along the way and learned that taking the leap of faith was the right move for our family.

Ok, thank you for all that. Here is the main question of our interview. What are your “5 Things You Need To Be A Highly Effective Public Speaker?” Please share a story or example for each.

1. Be authentic — It is paramount that you show up as the real you and not some polished version of you that you think people will connect to. Some of my best talks have been ones where I shared personal stories that the audience could relate to. For example, I once spoke about imposter syndrome and the example I used was being concerned that my Spanx might be showing. The female audience roared with laughter as they all nodded their heads in agreement- they made the connection with me and it helped me keep them engaged for the rest of the talk.

2. Be interesting — This can be done several ways, but the most effective way for me to be interesting is to share real examples that keep people’s interest. When I take the stage and use data in my talk, I always offer a relatable example that helps the audience make a connection.

3. Be energetic — Clear your mind and be present! This will help you keep your energy up. Don’t be afraid to use your body language to help tell your story. Your physical energy can be felt by your audience and when you are clear and present to your talk, your energy will be more powerful and more effective. I always take time to clear my mind before I take the stage and the times when I haven’t, I always regret it. Don’t skip this step.

4. Bring value — An effective talk is one where people are entertained, inspired and have actions that they can take with them. Your audience wants to learn and when you can summarize your tips, strategies and suggestions, your audience will be more likely to take action. I always offer a takeaway for my audience, even if it is a digital document or handout.

5. Offer bonus content — It is all about value! So as a speaker, you want to bring more value than expected. I offer my contact information for audiences to connect with me, and when they do, I send them some bonus content. Sometimes it’s tip sheet, additional digital content or courses, or suggested readings to continue the conversation on the topic. You always want to exceed expectations!

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

It is all about mindset. When you are clear that the information or insight you are sharing is going to help people, then it becomes less about you and more about the message. If your message is clear and is value-packed, then you will have a compelling desire to share it with others and this drive changes your mindset when you are on stage. A power public speaker is deeply connected to this desire and will always take the stage with humility and gratitude.

You are a person of huge influence. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be?

If I could help female leaders tap into the value of self-care, I believe I could help them grow in their leadership, their health and well-being and grow in their roles as mothers and spouses. When a women can find a healthy balance between her career in home life, she is more effective, more efficient and happier. I believe in this COVID recovery time, it is more important than ever to focus on healing, both emotionally and physically. Self-care is paramount to growing and moving forward.

Is there a person in the world whom you would love to have lunch with, and why? Maybe we can tag them and see what happens!

I would love to have lunch with Nathalie Molina Nino, the author of Leapfrog: The New Revolution for Women Entrepreneurs. After reading her book, my eyes were opened to the value of social capital and it’s impact on potential success in the American economy. While I had been a C-suite executive for many years, I didn’t understand the inter-workings of how it all worked, until I read her book. I was inspired to truly tap into the connections I had and to offer my services and expertise to others so they too could grow in their fields.

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

https://www.facebook.com/veronicavsopher

https://www.linkedin.com/in/veronicavsopher/

https://www.instagram.com/veronicavsopher/

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

Veronica V. Sopher On The 5 Things You Need To Be A Highly Effective Public Speaker was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Meet The Disruptors: Jason Tiger Of Bubble Universe On The Five Things You Need To Shake Up Your…

Meet The Disruptors: Jason Tiger Of Bubble Universe On The Five Things You Need To Shake Up Your Industry

An Interview With Fotis Georgiadis

Never give up. You need to have grit. You can never fail if you don’t quit. I heard this from my Dad at a young age, and it is part of who I have become. I was always underestimated, even as a young kid. I was the shortest in my class and it was tough to be short in my favorite sport, soccer. I was told I could never be on the varsity team because of my height. I ultimately proved the coaches wrong, and scored a header guaranteeing me a spot on varsity. I never gave up even when I was told I physically couldn’t do it.

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

Jason Tiger is a 29 year old entrepreneur who loves disruption. He started his career in Hong Kong for 5 years as Managing Director, running the world’s largest bubbles manufacturing company. There he gained the knowledge to launch Bubble Universe and permanently change how kids, adults and even pets experience bubbles forever.

I really appreciate the opportunity to tell my story. I always knew I wanted to control my own destiny and be the captain of my own ship. I knew I had to start somewhere where maybe I was not the main captain, just yet. I was very fortunate to get the opportunity to go to Hong Kong to live and learn freely on how to run the Asian operations of my family’s large bubble company.

At first many, if not all of the employees there did not want change nor respect me. I began by introducing myself to all managers and department heads. I quickly learned the areas I wanted to focus on. I wanted to implement change to our sourcing/purchasing as well as product development department. I knew if I was able to decrease costs via purchasing I would be able to get the confidence from the US to implement more changes.

As I quickly began integrating into the purchasing/sourcing department, in just a few months the entire purchasing department resigned on me in one day. These were people who had been with the company for 40+ years. I immediately began searching and hiring people like crazy. I was able to bring on better people from much larger companies to align with my vision and build loyalty.

Eventually during my 5 years of similar integration into the multiple departments, I was able to grow the company’s sales 3x and profitability by 40%. I was told I was going to run the entire company including the U.S., but my family decided to sell.

The best way for me to learn was to be thrown into a tough situation at 23 years old and either sink or swim. For me there was no option to sink, only to swim and thrive. I learned how to run a company top to bottom, deal with numerous roadblocks and power through them, thrive in the chaos and ultimately reach solutions. This confidence led me to the opportunity of starting and running my own bubble company.

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

I started Bubble Universe to disrupt the bubble industry which has been around for hundreds of years and it has not changed. Currently, most bubbles are worse than detergent soap mixed with water from China. We heard from and then partnered with top pediatric allergists who said that kids were coming into their practice with allergic reactions and digestive issues regarding bubbles.

We wanted to solve this issue by creating the world’s safest bubble solution, so safe you can lick it. Our bubbles are made of food and USP (pharmaceutical) grade ingredients, made in the USA, and work with all bubble toys. We partnered with a top natural flavors lab to provide a one-of-a-kind sensory experience of flying food/beverage/candy for kids, pets and adults.

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?

Originally when we purchased the bottles and caps for our bubbles, I did not personally test to see if they would completely seal when twisted on and tightened. I then launched the company and had numerous people saying their package smelled like chocolate, watermelon and other flavors because drops of solution were leaking into the shipping box. It was extremely stressful then, but funny now. You live and learn…

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

Some of my mentors consist of my Dad, the CEO of a large tech company, the founder of StartEngine and other entrepreneurs in startups. I would say each person has made an impact on me, but I would say my Dad has been the most impactful. My Dad moved from South Africa at age 18 with nothing to pursue the American Dream. He worked very hard to become a CPA. He left his comfortable job to raise/borrow the money to buy the bubble company. I would say his story of starting from nothing and never quitting to pursue his dream of owning his own large company is what I strive to be. To risk it all for glory. You only live once, so you might as well go for it.

No matter the disruption there is always early positivity and some minor or even major negative impact. The scale is different, depending upon the speed of the consumer behavior change. I would say an industry disruption is mostly positive when the positive outcome stays consistent incrementally and beneficial longer term. A positive change for the economy, as well as the human environment over time is better. People need time to fully adapt and change. I would say most people do not like change. An example would be the electric vehicle industry. I believe it is the right time to change proportion.

With disruptive technology, job numbers typically have to catch up or change incrementally to avoid more negative impact. This seems to be the biggest negative I have seen. An example could be the dotcom disruption boom. When everyone realized that the internet would disrupt numerous industries, money began pouring in. This happened too rapidly, so people began rushing to invest or change jobs too fast. People also became fearful of losing their jobs, companies, etc., because they could not keep up. Too much optimism on the adoption of the new technology, caused it all to collapse. It had to hit an equilibrium of time and change. Rapid disruption on the consumer behavior rather than incremental change can have rapid negative backlash and impacts.

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

Never give up. You need to have grit. You can never fail if you don’t quit. I heard this from my Dad at a young age, and it is part of who I have become. I was always underestimated, even as a young kid. I was the shortest in my class and it was tough to be short in my favorite sport, soccer. I was told I could never be on the varsity team because of my height. I ultimately proved the coaches wrong, and scored a header guaranteeing me a spot on varsity. I never gave up even when I was told I physically couldn’t do it.

Build and harbor loyalty within your team, and they will do anything for you. Dustin Castillo, a major investor in my company Bubble Universe and mentor to me, was an army captain. He explained this type of loyalty to me. It has led me to bring on people who are the hardest working, solution minded and aligned with my philosophy that you either grow, adapt, or die. My Bubble Universe team is loyal and will do anything for the success of the company.

To love and be loved is everything in life. My grandpa Siggy who I looked up to because he was married for 55 years and worked till he was 82. I believe the love he received and gave kept him going. His purpose was to make an impact on people.

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

I believe my next venture will be in 3-D printing. It’s similar to how the computer used to be. Too expensive, too slow, too corporate and not user friendly. This industry is ripe and poised to completely disrupt e-commerce. With the ability to print anything in seconds. I would love to be part of it. It will be a must-have tool for everyone like a computer.

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 truly love and cherish Steve Jobs’ Stanford graduation commencement, so many wise words and experiences to live by.

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

It’s hard to pick just one, but two major life lesson quotes are how I run my life.

Invictus: “I am the captain of my ship, the captain of my soul”.

This quote is one of my favorites because it speaks about how life may throw you curveballs but you have the control and will to power through them.

My other favorite quotes are from Steve Jobs’ commencement speech, “No one wants to die. Even people who want to go to heaven don’t want to die to get there. And yet death is the destination we all share. No one has ever escaped it. And that is as it should be, because Death is very likely the single best invention of Life. It is Life’s change agent. It clears out the old to make way for the new. Right now the new is you, but someday not too long from now, you will gradually become the old and be cleared away. Sorry to be so dramatic, but it is quite true. Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t be trapped by dogma — which is living with the results of other people’s thinking. Don’t let the noise of others’ opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.”

“Stay hungry and stay foolish.”

You must always follow your dreams and go for it. Keep moving forward. Take risks and follow your gut.

Greatness comes from overcoming difficult and extreme situations. So go out there and take as much as calculated risk as you can to put yourself in a position to learn, fail and repeat, until you are successful.

How can our readers follow you online?

My linkedin https://www.linkedin.com/in/tigerjason

Instagram @jasontiger

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

Meet The Disruptors: Jason Tiger Of Bubble Universe 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.

Meet The Disruptors: Javon Frazier Of Maestro Media On The Five Things You Need To Shake Up Your…

Meet The Disruptors: Javon Frazier Of Maestro Media On The Five Things You Need To Shake Up Your Industry

An Interview With Fotis Georgiadis

I believe that disrupting the industry is positive when you create opportunities for other people. Disruption can be negative when it creates some sort of advantage that only benefits you. Where you’ve cornered the market on something, and then you raise the price on that thing and you’re doing something only for the benefit of yourself. I think that’s where it becomes extremely negative.

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

Javon Frazier is a veteran digital strategist and serial entrepreneur with experience in nearly all divisions of the media and entertainment industry, including film, television, music, games, web and mobile.

Javon is the founder and CEO of Maestro Media, a first of its kind full-service strategic product and business development firm that works with creators and entrepreneurs to deliver experiences and products directly to consumers through engagement and positive brand sentiment.

Javon is also a leader in the crowdfunding world, with previous crowdfunding projects amassing over $15 million in funding. In 2021 alone, he has driven over $6 million in crowd fundraising through Maestro Media.

I served as the Chief Product Officer for Studio71, one of the top multimedia influencer companies in the world. I’ve done over 100 creator campaigns with varied executions, from t-shirts, print on demand products, subscription boxes, tabletop games, and more. I’ve really become an expert in working with talented influencers and helping them to monetize their brand through merchandise and products, and have a long, extensive experience of success in the space.

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

It’s our non-traditional licensing. We’ve been able to develop a global, multinational organization with our products. We’re also hyper-focused on fans. We’re giving the fans unique experiences and innovative products. We are authentically interacting with them, listening to what they want and delivering. Which doesn’t sound like a lot of disruption, frankly, it sounds like, “Oh, that’s a no brainer.” However, you’d be surprised at the amount of people that take a swing and a miss based upon just trying to get the biggest IP and the biggest name to sign, and then watching that blow up in their face. It’s not about the biggest name, it’s about who has the most loyal and passionate fanbase, and how you can surprise and delight them in exciting ways.

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 think one of the people that I really attribute a lot of success I currently have in the space would be Reza Izad, the previous CEO of Studio 71. Reza and I had a thesis to make influencers the brand and develop merchandise licenses around these creators, the same way with the same veracity that you would license around Disney, Marvel, The Avengers, etc. And that’s what we did. I built a monthly subscription box around a kid that played with toys online and sold 350,000 boxes to every country in the world over a three-year period. Reza supported my audacious projects like that, and I’m grateful for his belief in me.

I believe that disrupting the industry is positive when you create opportunities for other people. Disruption can be negative when it creates some sort of advantage that only benefits you. Where you’ve cornered the market on something, and then you raise the price on that thing and you’re doing something only for the benefit of yourself. I think that’s where it becomes extremely negative.

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

Enjoy the journey is probably some of the best advice I received. I know it’s only three words, but it’s three impactful words. I think if you’re always chasing the end and are always like, “Okay, I’ll be happy at the end,” you’ll never be happy, because the journey is the fun.

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

I’m really focused on finding other unique games, IPs and communities. I love taking unique IPs, video games, concepts, etc and working with their fan bases to turn them into board games and creating something that you wouldn’t consider to be successful, into something incredibly popular!

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?

People Time & Money: Inspiration and Wisdom for Every Entrepreneur by Rich Russakoff is a must read for any leader. It provided me with a lot of foundational tools, such as making sure that people are working in their zone of genius, and how to get the best out of people.

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

If you believe you can or you can’t You’re right.

How can our readers follow you online?

Check us out at MaestroMedia.com and give me a follow on LinkedIn at linkedin.com/in/javonfrazier.

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

Meet The Disruptors: Javon Frazier Of Maestro Media 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.

Dustin Whitney’s Big Idea That Might Change The World

An Interview With Fotis Georgiadis

Be curious. Allowing your mind to wonder produces very rich thoughts that may not otherwise happen.

As a part of my series about “Big Ideas That Might Change The World In The Next Few Years” I had the pleasure of interviewing Dustin Whitney.

Dustin Whitney is an entrepreneur and a futurist. He operates at the intersections of enterprise, innovation, and design. Dustin’s current focus is around global demographics and the future of work.

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

My career began to take shape at an early age. I became a manger when I was young, and I realized I had much to learn. I was fortunate to get involved in a leadership development program which had a profound impact on me. What began as executive training morphed into a deep and impactful personal journey. Early goals of becoming a better manager and boss quickly turned to how to be a better friend, a better father, a better husband. It has allowed me to approach topics with balance and clarity.

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

While I always thought I’d be in business and probably working in an office environment, I never thought I would climb mountains or ride motorcycles in far and remote areas. Encouraged to get out of my comfort zone and to put my trust in others, I joined a team that promotes leadership and adventure. We’ve led many expeditions and have helped many.

A particularly memorable trip was in 2013 when we journeyed to Africa to climb Mt. Kilimanjaro. We always include a charitable component in every one of our adventures, so before our trek we first brought much needed supplies and resources to an orphanage in Tanzania. We climbed and successfully summited the mountain after a great day of playing soccer with the kids.

Which principles or philosophies have guided your life? Your career?

I try to incorporate servant leadership in everything that I do. It’s a practice that is incredibly rewarding, produces results, and brings the best out of people. It’s amazing what can get done when people are treated with respect and without concern of who gets credit.

Ok thank you for that. Let’s now move to the main focus of our interview. Can you tell us about your “Big Idea That Might Change The World”?

The world is facing a shortage of working age people. While it is true that the global population has tripled since 1950, doomsday predictions of overpopulation are misleading and could be based on flawed interpretation of widely propagated demographic statistics. Heavily relied upon models have not been accurate — predicting too many births as well as too many deaths.

In short, the population has grown dramatically over recent decades largely because fewer people have died — not because of increases in births. The result is an unexpected shift in the makeup of our society — many more older people than expected and a whole lot fewer young people.

How do you think this will change the world?

The implications are broad and deep. These demographic shifts are going to present tremendous challenges for business and society. We need to re-evaluate the fundamental components of our economic systems and rethink our approaches to infrastructure, community development, and healthcare systems. Prospects of automation, the use of robotics and deep learning machines are not threats, but potentially important solutions. Likewise, today’s immigration debates are not merely matters of humanity and justice, but of economics and of future prosperity.

Keeping “Black Mirror” and the “Law of Unintended Consequences” in mind, can you see any potential drawbacks about this idea that people should think more deeply about?

Bad decisions are made when based on flawed facts and well-intended policies could make bad situations even worse. Proper planning with market driven solutions is needed, yet some may look for easy answers. Having more children can correct this unforeseen and disproportionate drop in working age populations. How does a society produce more babies? Encourage childbirth with incentives and support? Some may pursue increasing births in ways that mother nature didn’t intend to. The potential of a Supreme Court reversal of Roe vs. Wade is certainly creating divisive opinions. Is the world willing to clone people? What about birthing camps? How about technologically driven artificial wombs? Will some societies go down that path?

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

The tipping point for me was when I realized there was a flaw in the numbers that everyone seems to use. Virtually all analyses performed by governments, economists and major investment operations associated with numbers of people, their geographic regions, and ages are based upon the same projections. The U.S. government entitlement and pension trajectories, the balance of economic power — as determined by the World Bank — and virtually all major public and private spending programs use the same numbers.

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

A willingness to put aside biases, review the facts, and to commit to intentional, sincere engagement.

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

Be curious.

Allowing your mind to wonder produces very rich thoughts that may not otherwise happen.

2. Prioritize flexibility.

Balance is incredibly helpful and leads not just to productivity, but deeper levels of satisfaction and happiness.

3. Thoroughly consider opposing views.

Other people’s opinions matter and there is a reason behind them.

4. Surround yourself with virtuous people.

Virtue leads to a happy and meaningful life.

5. There’s never a right time — don’t wait.

It’s better to seize the opportunity of the day rather than letting it pass you by.

Can you share with our readers what you think are the most important “success habits” or “success mindsets”?

Humility.

Ego can be poisonous.

I always like to remember that we stand on the shoulders of those that came before us.

Aristotle had it right in his definition of a leader — ethos, pathos, logos are all necessary components.

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 🙂

These changes are a global topic that is impacting the entire world.

This isn’t something that may happen or could develop at some point in the future.

This is happening now, and the numbers show it.

There is virtually no part of American life that this will not impact.

Want to know more? Call me.

How can our readers follow you on social media?

I welcome collaboration. People can follow me on Twitter (@dwhitneygroup) and I produce a newsletter with more in-depth analysis. Email is the best way to communicate with me ([email protected]).

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

Dustin Whitney’s Big Idea That Might Change The World was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Making Something From Nothing: Emily Oberman Of ‘copy edit design’ On How To Go From Idea To Launch

An Interview With Fotis Georgiadis

Your work is never finished.

Even when your work day is done, the endgame of your business needs to be everlasting — If you plan on continuing to grow. As important as it is to not get pulled in too many directions, it’s also important to not get stuck in the cushy plateau stage for too long either. The world as we know it is always evolving and innovating, and as a visionary, it’s important to be cognizant of that in order to stay above the competition.

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

Emily Oberman is the founder and CEO of copy.edit.design., a creative studio for content creators that focuses on omni-channel marketing through repurposing strategies. She has over 10 years experience in copywriting, digital design and operations. Her sweet spot is capturing the authentic voices of the brands she works with. By utilizing automations through technology on the backend as part of this process, Emily and her team create a seamless content machine that saves time.

Thank you so much for doing this with us! Before we dive in, our readers would love to learn a bit more about you. Can you tell us a bit about your “childhood backstory”?

As the daughter of Russian-Jewish immigrants, I was born and raised in the city of San Francisco, CA. I spent my childhood conceptualizing different “entrepreneurial” ideas, whether it was a babysitting service for my neighborhood or a magazine that I tried to pitch to my elementary school principal in 4th grade. At University, I studied Broadcasting and Fashion, and later Graphic Design while living in Los Angeles for 7 years. Always wanting to try new things, I jumped from industry to industry spending way too long being everyone else’s assistant, which eventually brought me to my breaking point and the decision to start my own company. Working as a right hand to so many influential individuals, showed me what kind of business owner I wanted (and didn’t want) to be.

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

While working for the design department at Pottery Barn, my desk directly faced a wooden art piece on the wall. On it, in large block letters, it said, “If you are waiting for a sign, this is it.” I would gaze at this quote when my mind wandered, thinking of what else was out there past the proverbial corporate ladder. One day, my floor was purging a bunch of stuff, and that art piece sat leaning against a railing waiting to be tossed. Without sounding cliche as hell, I took that for my own sign and brought it home. It’s now three years into my entrepreneurial journey, and I still often look at it — except it now lives above my own CEO desk and when I glance at it, I revel in how far I’ve come by taking its 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?

My daughter received a children’s book called, “Joseph Had a Little Overcoat” for her birthday when she was about three (she’s 7 now). As juvenile as it sounds, bear with me because I believe this book teaches the best lesson of all time for both kids and adults. The protagonist, Joseph, has an overcoat that he wears until it is no longer wearable. He then repurposes it into a scarf. When that article of clothing is no longer viable, he creates something else with it until all that’s left of it is just a button. But then, spoiler alert, he loses the button. Now, this is a big turning point because there are so many paths he could have taken, however, he chooses to write a book about his experience. This is a major teaching moment because it shows the reader that you can always make something out of nothing — just like this series!

This message speaks to me on so many levels. As the daughter of immigrants whose family came to this country with literally nothing and were able to make a great life for themselves (as entrepreneurs in their own right), I can attest to this concept. I’m also a huge advocate for teaching kids entrepreneurship. It helps them develop a growth mindset at a young age, and arms them with the skills to be resourceful so they never feel like they can’t do something — especially young girls!

I also love the line in the movie, “The Social Network,” where they reference Harvard students as the ones who don’t just take jobs, but who invent their own. I think for many, this is a novel concept that needs to be talked about more and not just in institutions for only those who can afford an Ivy League education.

Speaking as a service provider, I think it really just comes down to the equation of: (your zone of genius) + (what you’re passionate about) = foundation for a business.

Are you a whiz with numbers, but love all things creative? Start a bookkeeping service for creative businesses. Are you a good writer? Do you have a passion for rescuing animals? Figure out a way to bridge the gap between animal shelters and mass media.

You can literally plug anything into this equation and you will get something.

On the flip side, think of all the ludicrous products you’ve seen out there selling — it’s because someone took a chance to take their idea one step further than just an idea they didn’t think anyone would care about.

Yes! It took a long time for me to come to this, but what’s crucial when it comes to a good idea is not worrying so much about reinventing the wheel. People think that just because someone else is doing it, there’s no point in even trying. Well, I’ve got news for you — this is proof of concept at its finest. In fact, this shows that you’re definitely onto something because you can see that people are actually buying this type of service or product.

Your job? Taking the concept of what’s out there and working, and making it your own. The product or service doesn’t need to be unique to sell — your perspective and brand story are what will make you stand out from the competition.

Speaking as a service provider, it’s really all about honing in on your offerings and figuring out how what you do is going to help your ideal client. I’m really big on systems and processes, so my biggest advice for someone trying to bring a product to market is to make sure they have internal systems in place as well as a stellar customer experience strategy. The worst thing a person or business can do is spend all this time filing for patents and figuring out how and where to sell, only to have things fall apart after they’ve acquired an initial customer. Sure, a sale is great, but if you’re thinking big picture and have plans to scale, then this step is crucial.

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

Create sustainable boundaries.

When you’re first starting out, it’s easy to work around the clock and respond to any inquiry immediately. Mainly because you’re so excited about this new venture, but also because you’re so worried about disappointing a potential customer. However, creating boundaries for yourself and your clients actually helps you increase productivity and show up better. Studies show that there’s only a specific amount of time in a day that our brains are hard-wired to get work done, so it’s important to set these boundaries early on to avoid burnout and produce the results your clients hire you for. If that means not responding to an email until the next business day, then so be it.

2. Focus on your zone of genius and outsource what you’re not great at.

When you’re first launching, it’s almost inevitable that you’re going to be wearing many hats. It’s definitely a learning experience and important to know all the different parts of your business. But there will come a time when you’ll start realizing what you’re really good at, and what you’re not so great at. Lean into that and hire others who have the zone of genius for things you struggle with. Just because you started a company, doesn’t mean you’re going to be great at all the parts of it, and that’s ok.

3. Know your “why.”

In the beginning stages, you may not know why you’re doing what you’re doing outside of trying to create a business to make a profit for, you know, life. But it’s important to do the work to figure out why you’re doing what you’re doing past just making a paycheck. You need to figure out your brand’s story and the core pillars of who and what your brand is because that’s what will sell your product or service. It’s all in the messaging, and you can’t have a clear message if you don’t know your “why.” Think of it like this — if there are two identical products on a shelf, the customer’s decision lies solely on which brand they connect to more — oftentimes, this trumps even price objections.

4. Be an excellent communicator.

So many things get lost in translation when it comes to running a business, especially if you’re online-based and working remotely. Luckily, there are a ton of amazing tools at your disposal — learn to use them! Working internally with team members and contractors who support me, I make sure I task them with all of the information they need to get the job done. I use Asana for project management and am constantly creating screen casting videos via Loom or Descript, breaking down exactly what I need. I am also really big on checklists when it comes to repeatable tasks. On the client-side, the single best skill I deliver is stellar communication. I never shy away from jumping on an extra call or sending a voice note to clarify things if needed.

5. Your work is never finished.

Even when your work day is done, the endgame of your business needs to be everlasting — If you plan on continuing to grow. As important as it is to not get pulled in too many directions, it’s also important to not get stuck in the cushy plateau stage for too long either. The world as we know it is always evolving and innovating, and as a visionary, it’s important to be cognizant of that in order to stay above the competition.

Let’s imagine that a reader reading this interview has an idea for a product that they would like to invent. What are the first few steps that you would recommend that they take?

The first thing I would do, is map out exactly what their product does. The second thing I would do, is figure out exactly what kind of customer would buy this. What most people get wrong, (and I sure have been guilty of this myself), is they’re afraid to niche down and try to market their product or service to as many people as possible. However, the more you niche down, the more successful and profitable your product will be. When you speak to a niche market, you really learn who your customer is — their desires, wants, and needs.

There are many invention development consultants. Would you recommend that a person with a new idea hire such a consultant, or should they try to strike out on their own?

I believe mentorship is one of the best investments someone can make in their business. On the other hand, just because someone advises you on something, doesn’t mean you should always follow exactly what they say. It’s really a mix of trusting your gut, but also being open-minded enough to trust the expert you hire to help you.

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

That’s a tough one. I personally have bootstrapped my entire business, but it really depends on the type of business you’re building and what your goals are. When you work with a VC, you’re giving up equity in your business and it’s really up to you to know if that’s something that’s worth it for you in the long run. Not every business has the intention of becoming a mass-market entity, and that’s not to say that a small business can’t be super lucrative without getting to that point. It’s important to know what your personal goals are first and foremost.

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

I love working with my clients to figure out creative ways to tell their unique stories through their marketing and creative assets. My bigger goal though is to bring awareness of entrepreneurship to children, with my success being a true marker that you can literally create any job for yourself with the right mindset, skills, and resources. This is something I am working on as a passion project, so stay tuned.

I LOVE entrepreneurship and would love to create a type of movement that supports other entrepreneurs. I truly believe that we can all work collectively and collaboratively together without feeling like someone is above us.

For the longest time, I felt unfulfilled at work, even though I was seemingly working in industries that interested me. When I realized that my success always seemed to have a cap, I had the epiphany that my path lay in entrepreneurship. Of course, it’s a double-edged sword because I can’t always guarantee X number in profit, but the tradeoff of the autonomy that comes with entrepreneurship is worth it to me. And unfortunately, the freedom that comes with this can never be found in a corporate environment.

My dream is to one day build a collective community where we all work together on an even playing field and share in the vision and mission of one another’s businesses while respecting each other’s personal goals.

There are quite a few! However, right now I am super girl crushing on Brit Morin. I’ve actually connected with her before, first when I was a student in Selfmade, and then again when her company hired me to support their program launch through their email marketing initiatives. However, having one on one face time with her would be an absolute dream. I’ve been following Brit + Co’s journey since they first began over 10 years ago I think, and Brit still maintains this amazing approachability I haven’t seen anywhere else when someone gets to her level. She’s launched a new venture now — a community focused on educating women in the world of crypto and web3 — and I am here for it.

I would also love to meet Lori Greiner. I watch Shark Tank religiously and am always in awe of how kind she is, even in such a “sharky” environment. I think she’s a true example of why women in business should never be underestimated.

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

Making Something From Nothing: Emily Oberman Of ‘copy edit design’ On How To Go From Idea To Launch was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

David Raskin Of DuroMax: Five Things You Need To Build A Trusted And Beloved Brand

An Interview With Fotis Georgiadis

Unique and original product: Teaching people about the unique usages and offerings of a product or service builds brand credibility by demonstrating how to use a product or service in a new and more approachable way.

As part of our series about how to create a trusted, believable, and beloved brand, I had the pleasure to interview David Raskin.

With 20 years of experience in the power equipment industry and his commitment to safety, reliability, and industry-leading performance, David’s passion heads the DuroMax team in the pursuit of Powering Everyone… Anywhere! His dedication to putting our customers first continues to elevate DuroMax daily as a nationally recognized brand.

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

As a second-generation business owner in this line of work, I grew up immersed in this industry, which allowed me more visibility into areas of opportunity in a market that was dominated by older players. I began my career selling products from other brands, which led me to become more familiar with the power tools and generator market. Through this early experience, I was able to hone in on what people really wanted and bridge the gap in the industry to successfully market DuroMax’s product line. With this in mind, we developed our first portable generator with the flexibility to be used for multiple functions, and invested in R&D to develop multi fuel type units running on gasoline, propane, and recently natural gas.

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

Around 10 years ago, we originally intended for one of our company logos to be in full color but instead, we made an error on the file that was submitted to the print company/design house and we left off the color layers. The logo ended up going out to the public in black and white. We originally looked at this as a major error and were quite disappointed with ourselves, however, the black and white version of the logo was very well received by our customers and actually upon further review was a more appealing logo than the colorful one we were going to go with. This showed me that sometimes even something that is perceived as a mistake can work out for the best, and the glass really is half full.

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

Something key that remains crucial to DuroMax’s success is that our company really listens to our customers, and we strive to ensure that our products meet all the needs of our consumer base. DuroMax does not sacrifice quality as we are the only company in the industry that uses all copper windings in our gensets, all metal construction in our frames, and the most multi-fuel option models to ensure every DuroMax generator can deliver reliable power for years.. Keeping this in mind, we offer an industry-leading 5-year warranty because we truly believe in our products and want to make sure we are delivering only the best to our customers.

Perhaps most importantly though, transparency and communication with our customers have made a huge impact on our business strategy. At DuroMax, we are not trying to hide behind novelty price points. We only promote truth in advertising to our customers and that has and will remain a cornerstone in our business. Our plan is to continue to push the envelope with new and exciting innovations while keeping our customers happy!

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

We recently launched our first Tri-Fuel generator, the XP13000HXT, which is the largest Tri-Fuel portable generator on the market. Following this successful initial launch, we’re working on perfecting our Tri-Fuel technology to release more units in the future.

Something else that’s been on our radar for a while now is continuing to be more environmentally conscious in how we are developing our products. We have put a lot of our resources into natural gas and propane, which result in 70% fewer carbon emissions than if you run on gasoline alone. When developing these cleaner fuels, we are continuing to perfect and expand our research and development to ensure we are only putting out the highest quality products and doing our part in protecting the environment.

In the next 6 months, we plan on releasing new inverters for a quieter generator experience. By implementing new and improved inverter technologies, we hope to reduce the common complaints of seemingly loud generator experiences.

Ok let’s now jump to the core part of our interview. In a nutshell, how would you define the difference between brand marketing (branding) and product marketing (advertising)? Can you explain?

Brand marketing is getting your name out there and for example, making “DuroMax” synonymous with home power backup let’s say — it’s a less direct and less individual product focus than product marketing. It’s connecting with someone who is not thinking about generators or power equipment but is shown why they could use them through an explanation of who we are at DuroMax and what we do in a much more top-of-funnel way (think with a simple name, logo, or mission statement).

Product marketing is much more direct. Here we explain the advantages of a particular DuroMax generator or product and how it is the best in class by honing in on key features of what that product can do. The goal of this method is to educate and eventually lead the customer to purchase a specific product through selling points.

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?

Our goal when building our brand is to become synonymous with portable generators as Kleenex is to tissues. Having proper branding means that something as simple as a name can also stand for core values, quality, credibility, and more. For example, at DuroMax we have built a brand where our customers know they will be taken care of, with a quality product, nationwide service technicians to assist with any issues, and tips for how to properly use our products.

Keeping this in mind, it is so important to be original when branding– when you invest in your brand you are also building trust and confidence with your customers and you want to make sure you stand out! DuroMax is a brand our customers remember because of our unique packaging, design, and most importantly performance. I cannot stress enough how, as a brand, it is crucial to develop relationships with customers — when you take care of your end-users it opens the door for future customers.

Can you share 5 strategies that a company should be doing to build a trusted and believable brand? Please tell us a story or example for each.

Commitment to service — Since COVID, we have employed and stationed customer support/tech representatives around the country for optimal phone call coverage and support. We have brought on text message and chat software as well as email support to communicate with our customers however they choose to interact with us. We are so committed to this idea that our top leadership has traveled across the country to meet with our customers in their homes and check out their home power backup setups and learn from them.
Unique and original product: Teaching people about the unique usages and offerings of a product or service builds brand credibility by demonstrating how to use a product or service in a new and more approachable way.
Building and nurturing relationships with customers: It is so important to build relationships with a community of like-minded people to bounce ideas off of each other for different uses and functions of our product. At DuroMax, we have built a diverse network of people who all learn from each other. For example, we created our original Dual Fuel and Tri Fuel products because we were listening to what our customers and community were saying on platforms like Facebook. We were able to see that there was a large market there purely because of our network of innovative customers.
Quality & Innovation — At DuroMax, we are very committed to being an industry leader when it comes to innovation and improving our overall product offering based on the direct feedback we seek from our customers. We pride ourselves on leading the industry with full-loaded power panels, all-metal constructions, all copper Genset windings, and more 10,000+ Watt models than any of our competitors. A huge driving force behind our innovation in multi fuel portable generator evolution to run from Gasoline only to Dual Fuel to Tri Fuel was inspired by feedback we sought out from our customer communities that we helped establish and nourish.
Strength in messaging: Brand ethos and brand messages provide a foundation for word-of-mouth communication, which ties into our strong customer relationships.

In your opinion, what is an example of a company that has done a fantastic job building a believable and beloved brand. What specifically impresses you? What can one do to replicate that?

There are two brands that come to mind when thinking about companies that have done an impressive job in building themselves up, those companies being Apple and YETI. In regards to Apple, everything about their presentation of their products and services, as well as how they market their products and themselves as a brand makes them stand out. The way they are constantly listening to their customers’ demands and desires is also extremely impressive as it contributes to their innovations and improvement of their products, it also has built brand loyalty unlike any other.

When it comes to YETI, we admire YETI because of the quality of the products they offer to their customers. YETI has done a great job of creating a story for its users and creating ways for them to feel immersed in the brand. Along with this, YETI also created a whole new market and successfully launched and maintained its brand.

In advertising, one generally measures success by the number of sales. How does one measure the success of a brand building campaign? Is it similar, is it different?

In regards to measuring the success of a brand-building campaign, it is important to pay attention to people who are passionate about the brand and want to represent the brand on their behalf. Without loyal customers or brand fans, a brand-building campaign is unlikely to succeed. It is also important to look at metrics as well, to see if people are discovering your brand through your website, or if they are typing your brand’s name directly into search engines across multiple channels. Increased brand understanding and knowledge of the brand before its product offerings is another way that a brand-building campaign is successful. For example, people who are looking to buy a portable generator aren’t typing “portable generator” into their google search engines, instead, they are typing “DuroMax” in their search because they know DuroMax as THE brand that offers the product they are looking for.

What role does social media play in your branding efforts?

Social media plays a large role in how we build relationships with our customers. We truly enjoy engaging with DuroMax users online because it allows us to have one on one interactions with them making it feel like a more personable relationship for both us and them. We have come to learn that our customers are extremely creative. They are constantly coming up with unique ways to use our product and we are able to be a part of this journey through their YouTube videos.

When our users create content, we always make sure to share what they are creating. At DuroMax we want to embrace our customers’ innovative minds as well as use this as a way to create even more of a community among fellow DuroMax users and ourselves.

DuroMax would like to continue supporting Americans in overcoming the perceived obstacles when it comes to reliable backup power and power independence. Our goal is to inspire people to not lose the technical “know-how” of past generations. As daily tasks, tools, and equipment become more automated we need to remember the life lessons of the past and how quickly daily comforts we have become accustomed to can be taken away. It’s so important to remain prepared for anything and not become reliant on being taken care of. Being ready to take care of yourself, and planning is most important in disaster-prone areas. Even if a particular place hasn’t experienced many power outages historically, this doesn’t mean it won’t experience issues in the future.

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

One of my favorite quotes is “Far and away the best prize that life offers is the chance to work hard at work worth doing.” by Theodore Roosevelt. This really resonates with me as it ties into how DuroMax has continued to stand behind its mission statement to power everyone anywhere. We remain on a path to truly impact people with our work and are proud of the work we do for our community.

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

We are inspired by how Steve Jobs at Apple brought his unique vision to the world when it came to the personal computer and what evolved into iPhones, etc. In their way, they had a similar vision as we do… “Powering Everyone, Anywhere”. Apple literally changed the world and put a personal computer in the world’s pocket.

How can our readers follow you on social media?

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

David Raskin Of DuroMax: Five Things You Need To Build A Trusted And Beloved Brand was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Meet The Disruptors: Nick Fellingham Of Condense Reality On The Five Things You Need To Shake Up…

Meet The Disruptors: Nick Fellingham Of Condense Reality On The Five Things You Need To Shake Up Your Industry

An Interview With Fotis Georgiadis

If you surround yourself with people you like and respect and you work on something that really excites you, you will find that most people want you to succeed. We have been incredibly fortunate to build an incredible team who are all passionate about our product and our company and we have received backing from some fantastic investors.

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

Nick Fellingham is CEO and Co-Founder of Condense Reality, the company that’s on a mission to make the metaverse the number one destination for live events, transforming the way millions of people engage with music, sports and each other.

I know some people leave university and jump straight into trying to start a company because it’s their dream and they think “why waste any more time?”

I came at it with a different approach though — in fact starting a business straight away was the last thing I wanted to do. I wanted to ‘pay my dues’ as it were. I knew I was going to start a company eventually, but what would make me a better founder would be knowing how to actually build products too.

Think of a piece of tech that’s growing in importance like, say, machine learning. Nobody could — or should — just decide to set up a business around it, without having a real depth of understanding of what it is and what it’s capable of. You need to have played around with it — a step I think it is important not to skip.

So, having been programming since I was about 11, I left uni and went off to build things — eventually moving into product ownership and product management roles. I worked at a number of different startups around Bristol — which was an invaluable experience.

During that time, I got to understand what it takes to run a business, experience the responsibility of owning a product, and develop my own set of skills. I got to see first-hand what the technology industry is like, and where and how it can be disrupted. And I got to have a few years of engaging with and learning from other people.

With all that under my belt in just a few short years, I felt I was better prepared to start Condense.

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

Well, any company working in or on the metaverse is already being disruptive, because they’re puncturing this idea that the metaverse is just a theory — a far-off vision that might never be realized. That’s absolutely not true — we’re already seeing tons of people spending time inside 3D worlds playing games and socializing with each other, a trend that’s only going to get bigger and bigger.

The thing about Condense that’s disruptive and unique to us — and why I love what we do so much — is we’ve adopted an enabling role. We are creating the infrastructure for anyone to live stream real-world events in 3D into the metaverse — which opens the door to anyone and everyone to be disruptive by creating content the like we’ve never seen before.

Disruption doesn’t need to be just a single individualized act — it can be giving others the tools to be disruptive too.

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?

Running a business is about enabling the people around you to do good work. If they excel, so does the company. So that’s why I’m always open to hearing other people’s ideas and suggestions — because they might be what solves a problem or takes the business forward.

Within that, they might also offer insight that helps with personal development. So I see mentorship less as a top-down thing — more as something I can get from a large number of people around me.

Two people who have stayed with me — quite literally — are Dan Fairs and Andy Littledale. I met both at SecondSync, the company they started, where I had my first tech job. SecondSync was acquired by Twitter, and they both now work with me at Condense — Andy is now our COO and Dan is our CTO. Our roles have shifted, but they continue to give me great guidance — which underlines the idea that mentorship doesn’t have to be one senior person telling a junior how something is done — it’s back and forth, and evolving over time.

Disruption is ‘good’ when it’s demanded by consumers because things are therefore transformed for a reason.

If people’s habits and technological capabilities have shifted, and large, slow-moving incumbents have failed to respond, then it’s a good thing that someone else is stepping in to fill the gap. Take the automotive industry for an example. If VW had provided what consumers wanted, there would be no need for Tesla — but they weren’t, and that’s why Tesla has outpaced these industry giants.

I think it’s good, because there’s value creation for the user, who gets something new or improved, and value creation for the company because they’ll make money from it. We’re seeing that in the metaverse right now. People are already spending their time in 3D worlds — which has created a gap for companies to fill by providing gaming, shopping, services — you name it.

It’s not positive when a company decides to disrupt and transform purely based on cost-saving at the expense of the customer. I’ll use the example of AI creating written content for publications. It would be a new approach, and it would save a publication money by no longer needing to pay writers — but it diminishes the quality of the reading experience for the user. There’s no value for the customer — and eventually, none for the publication, whose readers would walk away to a publication that understood how and when disruption is necessary.

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

1. Generally people overestimate what can be done in a year and underestimate what can be done in five. Interestingly, I think this idea often causes entrepreneurs to embark on projects which are not ambitious enough and therefore fail as businesses.

Starting new things has a significant time cost and knowledge gained working on a specific problem compounds. Because of this, five years spent on five separate (unrelated) projects will generally yield significantly worse results than five years spent on one.

Before starting Condense Reality I had worked on a number of small projects with friends in my spare time. We frequently underestimated how long these projects would take to complete. Months over our self imposed deadlines we would often realise that the time required to complete the project was not worth the value it would provide.

By choosing ambitious, hard projects which really move the needle, you have the potential to show what can be achieved after many years of focussed work. If you don’t have experience building companies you will likely be behind schedule at year one, but way ahead after five.

2. It is extremely hard to change customers’ habits. Products which adjust to the natural changes of consumers’ habits quicker than incumbent products are able to can be very disruptive. If you are pushing to change habits then either the user experience needs to be extremely well honed or the change needs to be subtle.

Early in building Condense Reality we realised that our technology is incredibly compelling when viewed inside augmented reality however consumers do not currently watch content this way. Rather than try to push down the route of trying to change consumers’ habits we chose to focus on bringing content to where consumers are already spending their time, inside 3D worlds.

I am extremely bullish about spatial computing (VR and AR) and I think that XR will become the next computing platform. However, by focusing on routes to market which do not require us to change our customers’ behaviour we are able to provide value to our customers today and we do not preclude ourselves from continuing to provide value when their habits inevitably change.

3. If you surround yourself with people you like and respect and you work on something that really excites you, you will find that most people want you to succeed. We have been incredibly fortunate to build an incredible team who are all passionate about our product and our company and we have received backing from some fantastic investors.

I think business can often be portrayed as a zero sum, dog-eat-dog game. However, whilst building Condense Reality I have often felt that the majority of people who I meet are willing us and our business forward and pushing for us to succeed.

I believe this comes from the passion we have for our mission and the respect we have for the people working with us to help us achieve it.

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

Some people are still debating whether or not the metaverse is going to materialize. As I said, it already has. We’re at the very beginning of a tectonic plate shift in how we socialize, game, and live — and we’re only a tiny fraction of the way there.

It’s incredibly exciting — the question for many companies now is, are they going to start working out where they fit in, or are they going to ignore and allow themselves to drift into obsolescence? And I really think there will be some major brands that allow this to happen to themselves.

For Condense, we’re looking to work with the ones on the right side of this shift. We want to help them make that transition — a transition that will take a long time, but will eventually lead us into the next generation of the internet.

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?

Music is actually my biggest passion. I love dance music, especially drum and bass. Not only is it the perfect thing to listen to while programming, but having gotten into producing drum and bass, it’s taught me a lot about programming itself. Producing is a very mathematical process, and requires lots of hours messing around using different software — all of which has helped build up my programming skills and my understanding of what makes good software.

In terms of books, I find The Dip by Seth Godin really useful to go back to and read when I’m trying to build really hard things, and Ego is the Enemy by Ryan Holiday is great for advice at any stage of life.

More generally, I’ve really leaned into YouTube for personal development videos, skills guides, how-tos etc. Whether I need a tutorial because my boiler has broken down, or I want to master a new piece of software, there’s always something on there I can turn to — and I think the fact that all the people who make these films are doing so because they want to contribute to the world — to push other people along — is really admirable. It’s an ethos I share, and everyone at Condense shares.

I want people to spend their time online more wisely — to get more out of it. Sometimes I tell friends how long gamers — people like myself — will spend every day in 3D worlds. It’s usually a few hours, and this time is generally spent gaming, building, and being creative.

They immediately recoil, despite the fact that if I checked the screen time on their smartphone, the time spent would be the same. The difference however is that the time they spend on phones is most often spent using apps with algorithms designed to keep them hooked in and addicted, idly scrolling a newsfeed. These newsfeeds offer none of the satisfaction and development of playing a team game or hanging out with friends in a metaverse or going to a virtual concert or sports event.

As the next stage of the internet continues to develop, if we are deliberate about the products we are building and the products we use I believe that the human experience will be transformed for the better.

How can our readers follow you online?

You can find me on LinkedIn here.

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

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

Meet The Disruptors: Jeffrey Hood Of Theia Analytics Group On The Five Things You Need To Shake Up…

Meet The Disruptors: Jeffrey Hood Of Theia Analytics Group On The Five Things You Need To Shake Up Your Industry

An Interview With Fotis Georgiadis

“Focus on asset creation — Product!” Let me expand on this. Asset creation is everything, and two primary assets matter most — product and revenue. The former relies upon the latter, making sequencing extremely important.

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

Jeff Hood is the founder, CEO and Chairman of the Board of Theia Analytics Group (TAG), a provider of a complete suite of quantitative, proprietary, data-driven products for simplifying, clarifying, and measuring risks related to regulatory changes that impact organizational governance.

With more than 30 years of experience in institutional trading and equities research in both New York City and London, Jeff’s extensive experience covering the world’s most significant hedge funds, mutual funds, and pension funds gives him a unique perspective on the regulatory risks faced by global stakeholders. In his dual roles at TAG, Jeff leads the company’s product development of proprietary tools for mitigating regulatory and policy risks and drives strategy, business development and execution.

I spent 30 years working on Wall Street at some of the most noted trading desks, as well as the number one equity research firm in the world at the time. My extensive experience covering the world’s most significant hedge funds, mutual funds and pension funds gives me a unique perspective on the regulatory risks that many global stakeholders face. Later in my career, I brought my Wall Street experience to Washington, D.C., and began helping large businesses navigate the ever-shifting landscape of regulatory changes. We were selling Theia Analytics Group (TAG) services and analytics to these same clients during that time. It became clear that demand existed for a much more quantitative approach, so we transformed our company into the FinTech SaaS model that exists today.

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

The regulatory, governance, and risk management industry landscape is 100% qualitative. As a result, companies make billion-dollar decisions on outdated, expensive, and unreliable opinions.

Making decisions in this manner is almost like going in blind. TAG offers mathematically verifiable risk quotients and materiality-based market position reporting for every publicly traded company. This means that companies can understand not only their market position but also that of their competition and other industries. Think of it as creating an “outside-in” view of a company’s position within its marketplace.

Companies can play offense and defense simultaneously while saving time and money with this information.

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

I was regularly taken advantage of by sophisticated D.C. operatives, who were threatened by the quantitative products I was building, who said my idea would never work! Initially, I listened to this advice but later realized it was wrong. Specifically, I had many people tell me that what we are currently doing was impossible, and yet, here we are. It was, and is, absolutely possible.

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 relied on a few clients who I have known for 20+ years to guide me through what I dreamed would be possible using my unique skill set and my view of the D.C. world, which was very skeptical of the qualitative process of how they conduct business. These clients became the Angel Investors of TAG and continue to play a big part in our growth.

The fundamental truth is that we live in a universe of systems moving through time, so disruptive change (good or bad) is a constant fundamental underpinning of the nature of reality.

In an absolute sense, no one can say if one particular disruptive change is “good” or “bad” because such things are decided by the arch of history, not any one person. What I can say is that the reason we built TAG is to disrupt the underlying nature of the governance space as a way to add lasting material value to companies, fiduciaries, stakeholders, and employees globally.

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

“Focus on asset creation — Product!” Let me expand on this. Asset creation is everything, and two primary assets matter most — product and revenue. The former relies upon the latter, making sequencing extremely important.

“Operational flow” (business gearing) is the predicate of “money flow.” Therefore, focus on who is doing the doing and optimize those people and processes to serve the larger business goal, i.e., revenue.
Businesses are value creation engines. Never think anything else. Doing so may hurt you.
Double-checking is the cornerstone of success! This is a culture at TAG. We weave it into everything we do and beat its drum often and loudly.
You are a measure of success, not the other way around! We sign our names to our work, and our life-force is embedded inside in each action. You matter — act like it!

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

Ultimately, we will have the world’s first fully unsupervised governance-focused artificial intelligence engine. In the future, the nature of governance itself will be inseparable from TAG. To expand, by ingesting all past, current, and future governance documentation from all companies, all verifiable sources, and all outcomes, TAG positions itself to be the governance authority of record globally.

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?

Coming from the financial world and having to shift my thinking to the tech world took a lot of reading and soul searching. One of the first books I read was “Start with Why” by Simon Sinek, who also has some fabulous Ted Talks.

The reason this book was so enlightening was my background was so opposite from tech that it took a lot of introspection to understand the road I was going down, and it still does. One example I wrestled with was my world was driven by P&L, and the tech world is top-line driven.

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

“Watch your thoughts, for they become your words; watch your words, for they become your actions; watch your actions, for they become your habits; watch your habits, for they become your character; watch your character, it becomes your destiny.”

Propriety, decorum, and mindfulness in all things are the name of the game and have served my personal life as well as my professional life.

The six “P” Principles; proper planning prevents piss poor performance.

Movements are all about ideas, and one of the ideas that have been a great influence in my life is the quote from Winston Churchill, “Never, Ever, Give Up.”

The exploration of that is going through a very difficult divorce and my best friend dying in the same 18 months, which was devastating! These life lessons continuously remind me not to give up and keep my nose to the grindstone while pursuing my dreams.

For instance, most recently, with TAG, I had to re-boot the company into a SaaS/FinTech company which took a herculean effort to transform. This process required taking four years of written material and transforming it into complex mathematics and lengthy algorithms. Extremely difficult!

How can our readers follow you online?

You can keep up to date with what we are doing at Their Analytics Group on our website as well as our LinkedIn and Twitter accounts.

You can also connect with me on LinkedIn and Twitter.

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

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

Meet The Disruptors: Joshua Schwartz Of Viking Pure On The Five Things You Need To Shake Up Your…

Meet The Disruptors: Joshua Schwartz Of Viking Pure On The Five Things You Need To Shake Up Your Industry

An Interview With Fotis Georgiadis

Pick something you are passionate about — a new venture will never be successful unless the founders/leaders are passionate.

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

Joshua Schwartz is the President of Viking Pure Solutions, a sustainable cleaning innovation company that is changing the way facilities clean and disinfect with non-toxic, on-demand solutions that are better for people and the environment. He is an active developer of medical real estate and supportive housing. He began his career in the financial industry, first in investment banking at Citigroup and then at private equity firm Apollo Management.

Prior to co-founding Viking Pure Solutions, my business partner and I had developed a large network of medical business and medical real estate over a 15 to 20 year period. We owned and operated various medical businesses including diagnostic and treatment centers, surgery centers, urgent cares, cancer centers, imaging centers and laboratories focused on providing quality medical care in underserved medical areas. We also developed medical real estate for our own businesses and many of the major New York City hospitals.

Given our experiences with our own medical business and interactions with our hospital partners, we became increasingly alarmed about Hospital Acquired Infections (HAIs), which infect 2.5 million people and kill 100,000 people a year nationally. We were also concerned about the safety of our employees, who were increasingly using harsh and dangerous chemicals to clean our facilities to combat these pathogens. We started researching innovative infection control technologies, and after years of research, stumbled upon the concept of electrolyzed water. We were so enamored with the incredible safety and efficacy of hypochlorous acid and sodium hydroxide that — five years ago — we decided to exit our other medical businesses and focus on developing Viking Pure.

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

Our society has become accustomed to the concept that cleaning and disinfecting solutions must be harsh and toxic to be effective against killing viruses, bacteria and other pathogens. The status quo is that if you’re using green products, you must sacrifice efficacy. Viking Pure’s combination of efficacy and safety with our solutions is dispelling this myth and disrupting the massive cleaning and disinfecting industry. It is a true David versus Goliath story as upstart Viking Pure is competing against massive companies in this space — brand names like Clorox, Ecolab, Diversey, etc. — and winning business!

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

Starting a business from scratch is so stressful and terrifying yet exhilarating at the same time, so “funny” is hard to come by! One comedic experience comes to mind from a couple of years ago… For context, we try to provide electrostatic sprayers for all our clients as it is an extremely efficient and effective way to dispense our disinfecting solution. During the pandemic, these could not be found anywhere. After long days, I would be up for hours during the night bidding on eBay auctions from around the world to source them. One night, I realized that one of my business partners was doing the same and the two of us were outbidding each other on eBay sprayers at 3 am! Neither of us could believe this was what our lives had become.

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?

Over the last 15 years my primary mentor has been my business partner, Bob Slingsby. Bob is a classic entrepreneur — brilliant with lots of high level great ideas. He is genuinely a very charitable person with his time and resources which has led him to form incredibly strong relationships professionally and personally. My background prior to meeting Bob was in the very structured world of investment banking and private equity, so we are a good match of skillsets. Over the years, Bob has really helped me be more focused on seeing the big picture and taking the long view on projects and relationships which has really helped in my professional development.

At Viking Pure, I don’t think we are driven to be disruptive just for the sake of being disruptive. We are excited to go to work every day because we have developed an innovative technology that is safer and more effective than the status quo products that people have used for years. These patented solutions will dramatically help the safety of cleaning workers while also keeping all of us safer. The fact that our technology can be used in any environment allowing it to have a tremendous impact on the safety of our society is an incredible bonus.

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

Be patient — there is nothing quick or easy about starting a business.

Be flexible — any businesses, especially young ones need to be able to adjust quickly.

Pick something you are passionate about — a new venture will never be successful unless the founders/leaders are passionate.

View the big picture / take the long view.

Never burn bridges and have an openness to take as many meetings as possible — you never know where new relationships can lead in business.

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

Although we have already achieved some major milestones at Viking Pure, we think we are in the very early stages of disrupting this industry and there are many more lives to save and market share to gain against the toxic chemical producers. That said, we are constantly investing in our existing technology and looking at new innovations in the space of environmentally friendly, safe cleaning and disinfecting. We have a team of a dozen engineers working on R&D projects daily. There are several new concepts we are working on but it’s too early to share!

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?

When I helped start Viking Pure, I had been managing a host of small businesses for over 10 years but I had not helped start any of them from scratch. I did spend a good amount of time reading books about start-ups and leadership. Three that really stood out to me are listed below. They all provided great lessons on making sure that the leaders of the company provide a clear vision of the company’s mission, inspiring the workforce and customers is critical and being best in class with products/service is key. At Viking Pure, we have striven to be all of these.

Zero to One: Notes on Startups, or How to Build the Future

Start with Why: How Great Leaders Inspire Everyone to Take Action

Extreme Ownership: How U.S. Navy SEALs Lead and Win

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

I played a lot of competitive sports growing up. One of my coaches always liked to quote famous coaches including Vince Lombardi, who said, “It’s not whether you get knocked down; it’s whether you get back up.” Although cliched, it is very relevant to the start up world, where everyday I feel like I am in a prize fight getting knocked down, but when you are passionate about what you are doing you need to have belief to keep pushing through the setbacks and have the confidence to know it will all be worth it in the end.

This is what we hope to bring about with Viking Pure! We want to inspire a movement to remove toxic cleaning chemicals from commercial spaces, where they cause harm to our workers, our patrons, and our environment. I have read countless journal articles and seen numerous studies about the horrible effects these chemicals can have on our health — from aggravating issues like asthma to causing severe burns and cancer. We don’t need these chemicals to clean effectively! In fact, their use has been shown to cause bacterial resistance and allow superbugs to develop on surfaces that we suppose are clean. With electrolyzed water, we can effectively clean and disinfect using non-toxic solutions that are completely safe.

How can our readers follow you online?

They can follow me on LinkedIn or visit our website.

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

Meet The Disruptors: Joshua Schwartz Of Viking Pure 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.

The Future Is Now: Edward Scott Of ElectrifAi On How Their Technological Innovation Will Shake Up…

The Future Is Now: Edward Scott Of ElectrifAi On How Their Technological Innovation Will Shake Up The Tech Scene

An Interview With Fotis Georgiadis

Focus — you cannot be all things to all people. You need to solve client pain points better, faster, and cheaper than the alternative.

As a part of our series about cutting edge technological breakthroughs, I had the pleasure of interviewing Edward Scott.

Edward Scott is the CEO of ElectrifAi, a leading US-based machine learning software company serving Fortune 500 and mid-sized enterprises. Ed has over 25 years of experience in the technology and private equity sectors. Ed started his career in Drexel Burnham Lambert and joined the Apollo Investment Fund in 1990. Ed was a partner at the Baker Communications Fund and held senior-level positions at Napier Park Global Capital and White Oak Global Advisors. Ed graduated from Columbia University and earned an MBA from the Harvard Business School with second-year honors.

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

I started my career at Apollo and got heavily involved in TMT. That experience led me deeper into tech and helping to invest in and build Akamai and ultimately building Europe’s largest data center business called InterXion. And then finally to machine learning and computer vision at ElectrifAi where we help companies solve enterprise problems with data and pre-built machine learning software solutions.

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

It’s a collection. I have had the great fortune to work in the energy patch, mining industry, private equity industry, and technology industry. This has provided a great perspective. I have seen how these businesses work operationally from the ground floor and how automation, data, computer vision, and machine learning can help these and many other firms optimize quickly and drive margin improvement and cash flow creation.

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

We are helping “productize” machine learning software solutions primarily for Tier 1 and Tier 2 companies that struggle with data. We help them turn data into a strategic weapon to solve basic enterprise problems (drive more revenue, cut costs, and optimize operations). We have automated the data and machine pipelines and brought to the market relevant pre-built machine learning software solutions that are easy to deploy in any cloud environment or on-premise if necessary. These pre-built solutions leverage all of the domain expertise we have captured dealing with large, global Tier 1 companies over the years in multiple verticals. The Tier 2 can take advantage of the same solutions as the big players and turn their data finally into a competitive weapon. Think about it as productizing machine learning.

How do you think this might change the world?

Tier 2 companies face an existential moment. Become a data-driven organization or face falling even further behind competitively or worse — perish. The trouble is how to achieve this given a world where data engineers and data scientists are in short supply or when your organization struggles with data engineering, data quality and machine learning. We have scaled those mountains, so our clients don’t have to. Clients can leverage our data expertise and automation, vertical domain knowledge, and pre-built machine learning software solutions.

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

I don’t. Our solutions are based on open source, and we show clients exactly how and why our solutions work. No black boxes.

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

We saw Tier 1 companies struggling with data: data acquisition, data relevance, data quality, model creation, performance, accuracy deployment, monitoring, and management. These are the foundations that drive downstream ML performance and accuracy. And we felt if the Tier 1 players struggled, then the lift in Tier 2 must be extraordinary indeed. That’s when the light bulb went off to productize and automate this as much as possible and help the Tier 2 accelerate and catch up.

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

A compelling value proposition: We will solve your basic business problems (top-line growth, cost reduction, and operational optimization) leveraging data (first party and third party), automation of the data pipeline, domain expertise, and pre-built machine learning solutions. All in 6–8 weeks. It’s all about compelling ROI and time to value. Our clients need results now and cannot afford to suffer long, expensive engagements associated with large systems integration firms.

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

Starting with Medium and other world-class outlets. Let the customer success stories do the talking.

My father taught me the value of discipline and hard work. He started as a professional hockey player who grew up in very modest circumstances in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn. Imagine that. Tough guy but humble. He persevered despite trying circumstances, got a hockey scholarship to a D-1 school, and played professionally for a short time before heading to law school and business — ultimately becoming a senior executive at one of the US’ largest life sciences firms. He taught by example: perseverance, humility, and loyalty. Other than that — all the original leaders of Apollo (current and former). And finally, Michael Hoffman (Smith Barney, Blackstone, and Riverstone). All tough, fair, and incredible mentors. Friends still to this day.

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

I tutored math and science in the Bronx as part of the City Squash program. 1–2x per week focusing on the kids who had little confidence and whose families were struggling. I prioritized this over my busy travel schedule at a p/e firm. Very rewarding. All the kids I worked with got scholarships and that’s on to college.

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

1. Focus — you cannot be all things to all people. You need to solve client pain points better, faster, and cheaper than the alternative.

2. Focus on cash. Cash is the oxygen of any firm. Companies that control their destiny survive.

3. If something isn’t working, tear the problem apart using First Principles to find a better way and don’t be afraid to pivot.

4. Hire the best people and get out of the way.

5. Stay humble.

The next great entrepreneurs will come from unexpected places, not the wealthy zip codes or the fancy Ivy League colleges. Sorry, Harvard and Columbia! We need to bring an understanding of data and coding into the grade schools at very early stages, prioritize and let the creative process begin. The future of the US depends on it.

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

“Sell your cleverness and buy bewilderment” (Jalaluddin Rumi 13th C). The basic point is to embrace curiosity and lifelong learning. In other words, always be inquisitive and humble.

Some very well-known VCs read this column. If you had 60 seconds to make a pitch to a VC, what would you say? He or she might just see this if we tag them :-).

We provide pre-built machine learning and computer vision software solutions that solve basic enterprise problems around demand forecasting, Dynamic Pricing, Spend Optimization, Contract NLP, Customer Engagement (new client acquisition, retention and product cross sell up sell etc.). This is high margin Annual Subscription (ARR) model. We drive operating leverage by (i) going to market mainly through GSI, cloud, platform, RPA, BPM and consulting partners, (ii) focusing on certain verticals, and (iii) re-using solution IP across the globe. We do this today for large global Tier 1 financial services firms, retailers, manufacturers, energy and petrochemical firms, and universities. We are now bringing this same capability to global Tier 2 firms. This is a very large market. Tier 2 firms understand the importance of data but lack the necessary data engineering and data science resources to realize the benefits of data and machine learning and to become a data driven organization. We can help the Tier 2 firms to cross this data chasm and accelerate with pre-built machine learning solutions. And we can leverage our data expertise to show them how to build data pipelines, focus on relevant data, and establish clean data consistently. It’s all about time to value and high ROI. Our solutions plug into any data platform and are deployable in any cloud or as part of any RPA or BPM orchestration. Becoming data-driven shouldn’t be so daunting for companies. We help make that a reality. And we are free cash flow break even. As one large VC in CT said to me: “free cash flow break-even? We haven’t heard those words in 10 years”. 😊

How can our readers follow you on social media?

https://www.linkedin.com/in/edward-scott-74354923/

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

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

Meet The Disruptors: Jeff Charney Of MKHSTRY On The Five Things You Need To Shake Up Your Industry

An Interview With Fotis Georgiadis

Parading your clients in the media is just a self-serving and back-handed way for MKHSTRY and any agency to acquire new clients. Because we’re an invite-only collective that already has enough business, we don’t have to be a slave to that circular process.

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

Jeff Charney, the “Ad Age 2021 Brand Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) of the Year,” is a high-energy innovator and founder of MKHSTRY, a disruptive invite-only marketing industry collective, focused on helping companies, brands and individuals make “history” through code-cracking ideas. The company’s scarcity model approach is unique in any industry — especially in the marketing industry. Charney has stuck to his “history speaks louder than words” mantra by not granting any in-depth interviews since his new business was announced in late February 2022.

The former CMO of Progressive Insurance, Charney was responsible for developing a range of brand icons including the perky salesclerk “Flo” and the parental-life coach, “Dr. Rick.” In addition to character creation, Progressive quadrupled its marketing budget, becoming the nation’s #3 spender according to Ad Age. Also, during his time as CMO of Aflac, he was the boss of the annoying, yet widely known Aflac Duck. He and his teams have received more than 100 national and international marketing and creative awards. Charney was also named “Brand Genius: Top Marketer of the Year” by Adweek Magazine in 2011 and has a track record of success at driving bottom-line results across three decades of work, which includes QVC and startup Homestore.com (parent of Realtor.com) now Move.com.

Thank you so much for doing this with us! We know you don’t do many of these types of in-depth interviews. 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 career path?

I grew up in rural South Carolina, but oddly enough, my love for Ohio State University quite possibly ignited my early passion for marketing. While my childhood friends cheered for Clemson or the University of South Carolina, I was all in with the Buckeyes. Their football helmets caught my initial interest because I noticed they were a little too plain. Maybe it was a subconscious early marketing challenge.

My Dad explained that players earned Buckeye stickers for their on-field achievements. It was early in the season so obviously the helmets were blank, waiting to be adorned with Buckeye stickers. I was ready for the transformation. All it took was a few games and those helmets suddenly morphed, gaining more and more Buckeye stickers, which really demanded fan attention.

I think that somewhat disruptive Ohio State aesthetic planted the idea of what you could do to engage people with a little creativity … and stickers.

And how did you apply those “Buckeyes” throughout your career?

As I’ve moved through my life, I’ve used that simple sticker example as added motivation to help track my achievements:

Accept a fellowship at Ohio State and graduate with honors with a Master of Arts in journalism? That’s a Buckeye sticker.

The first national brand launch at QVC when I was senior vice president and CMO? That’s a Buckeye sticker.

Join Aflac, where I took a second look at modernizing that plain white Aflac duck? That’s a Buckeye sticker.

Go to Progressive Insurance and be compelled to develop “Flo” into a more relevant personality as well as develop a dozen more characters to complement her? Sticker.

It’s about making something more appealing, authentic, and relatable.

Marketing is everything and everything is marketing; I just didn’t know it when I was 11. Even this year, in an odd way, “history repeated itself” when, many years later, my son was accepted to Ohio State, starting in the fall as — drumroll please — a marketing major! Sometimes life takes you full circle.

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

I truly believe that everyone is one idea away from making history. If you really grasp that point, you can understand why I’m so intent on disrupting and modernizing the marketing industry. I structured this national marketing collective to work with very brave, invitation-only corporations, advertising agency leaders, and individuals who are ready to accelerate an idea that may just have been sitting there. Maybe it’s a transformative idea they haven’t even had yet.

Do you know that at the time the pandemic started (over two years ago), marketing firms and ad agencies were still operating with essentially the same service model that was developed back in 1869 by Francis Ayer, who started the first advertising agency, N.W. Ayer & Son. That’s a whopping 153 years ago and the industry still abides by Ayer’s 15% commission model. This is a $300 billion industry that needs to be disrupted — in a good way.

We need to get people to evolve, and we need to do it quickly. We need to turn those traditional print, radio, TV, and digital marketing models on their heads and speak creatively in ways that engage and include more people, more ideas, and more communities. We also need to complement these existing mediums using modern technology, like the blockchain, Web3, crypto, NFT, and the metaverse to get us there.

How do you get companies to change their mindset into not only doing great results-oriented marketing but also to getting over the high bar of making history?

It’s not easy and it really is a journey of change. To help people reach that point, I created a simple 4-C focused approach:

Coaching the new game-changing model and mindset — immersive speaking “with” clients/audiences and not “at” them; plus
Consolidating the existing external agency model with the formation of an innovative internal/in-house model; plus
Code-cracking creative between the two entities, applying the modern-day blockchain and Web3 principles; equals
The fourth C, Cultural relevance in the external market, balanced with internal cultural impact among existing — and potential — employees and customers.

The most important “C” that’s not included above is CHANGE. Unfortunately, no matter what people might profess, they’re just not open to it — either professionally or personally. And in order to really be open to making history, you have to really be open to changing yourself, your brand, your company and ultimately your industry.

In the most simplistic terms, MKHSTRY is part accelerator/lab for industry-changing ideas, part creative partner/agency catalyst, and part lifestyle brand. It’s a hybrid for 2022 and beyond. It’s the perfect model for the new virtual “in-home” agency world.

Can you share a story about one of the toughest mistakes you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lesson you learned from that?

I will give you my tough dilemma, but you’re going to have to “wait for it” … while I give you a bit of background.

The MKHSTRY collective is unique in that it operates as an invitation-only model. Before us, companies looked for creative agency partners by submitting detailed, extensive, and expensive Request for Proposals (RFPs). Then, they would use fee-laden matchmaking firms to lead a search which can sometimes take 6 to 12 months. MKHSTRY turns this model on its head by doing just the opposite. We look for a good area of disruptive “white space” and spend weeks combing through companies and individuals based on the breakthrough approach that we as a collective offer. Then, we send a detailed correspondence to the company CEO or the key decision maker within the company.

It’s the simple scarcity model. We figured that scarcity would scare most people off, but it did just the opposite and within the first week we received hundreds of invitations from brands, individuals, and companies wanting to “get-in” and get an invitation. We never expected it, but we’ve become a modern-day version of Studio 54, which is exciting, yet daunting all at once.

For a small start-up like us, that kind of dam-breaking reaction was almost the equivalent of our internet servers going down. Right after launch, we had to “turn off” all media interviews (and we have maintained that stance except for this one) and social because the demand was too great. We responded to as many requests for invites as we could and when people didn’t like the answer they received, they went to my social channels and pinged me there. When they still didn’t like the answer, they went even further, somehow finding my cell number and trying to reach me there. The cycle continues. We’ve had to be very reactive and explain to them why they weren’t brave enough for our model, but in the long run, we are still meeting some good folks and learning a lot.

So, you’ve turned the industry on its head by interviewing your potential clients rather than have them interview you. Is there an analogy you use to explain this approach?

MKHSTRY’s client acquisition approach is like searching for your lifelong mate. We want a relationship that is long-lasting because we don’t want to have a messy creative “divorce.” Divorce hurts the “kids” (your staff), the “family” (your brand), and the industry (your business). You can’t marry everyone — we’re in search of the right one and we have a proprietary way to find that match which I will go into later.

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

I’ve had wonderful mentors at different stages in my career, but the one who most likely helped me the most was Bruce Karatz, chairman of a large homebuilder, KB Home. It was very early in my career and when I started with KB, I was their head of communications. He told me that if I was as “creative as I appeared to be” that one day I could leave all the PR pitching behind and become the company’s CMO.

A few weeks into my career he quickly proved good on his promise. He called me into his office and offered me the “brass ring” of the CMO job. Rather than holding my hand through the transition process, he said that he trusted me to figure it out and then the next day he went on a business trip to France for a month. He knew exactly what he was doing. I didn’t want my hand held and knew he didn’t want to hold it. Even though I failed early and often, I knew my boss always had my back in the process.

For more than 25 years, I’ve held the top job as a CMO. I’ve never wanted nor required a hand holder and I lead my team in the same way.

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?

Those are great questions and really speak to why I have formulated the MKHSTRY collective. My belief is almost every industry can and should be disrupted and you can test me on that belief. We need to make new history, not live in the systems and structures of the past. We are constantly evolving as humans and so should the way we express ourselves.

I think of the example I gave earlier of the marketing/ad agency approach that is 153 years old and still in practice today. Come on — that is just not acceptable — especially for a person who loves the industry as much as I do. Additionally, the pandemic rocked that existing system to its core with the work from home movement. MKHSTRY will work only with courageous corporate leaders, visionary agencies, and firms to maximize remote work productivity and modernize their aging traditional business models — helping them adapt to the new creator economy, blockchain, Web3, and Metaverse worlds. Either you make history, or you will be history — it’s that simple.

That’s the good news. As I stated before, what started as a simple “invite-only business” has ballooned into a modern-day version of Studio 54. The response has been overwhelming with everyone trying to get beyond the velvet rope to work with me and my “Oceans 11” virtual team. It really shows that there is a problem with the old way of doing marketing and that our company offers the more modern way to get historic results. But you must be brave.

On the negative side, you can’t just jump on the disruptive bandwagon for the sake of disruption. The block chain crypto craze is the perfect example. It became the trendy thing to do, and people ran in with their hair on fire, trying to crash in and cash in without knowing what they were getting into. Some did well, but unfortunately many lost their life savings in the process. Don’t follow the disruption trend without having the disruptive gene in your DNA. If you’re lucky enough to be a first-mover and lead the trend, great. After that, be deliberate and measured in your research, approach, and ultimately action.

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

Huge question. Rather than just talk about pieces of advice that I might find out of a self-help lecture or textbook, I will give you five “original” pieces of advice that I continually give myself now and through the years.

The first is “Why Not?” This came indirectly from my Mom, who was a teacher in rural South Carolina. As a kid, I was probably a little too worried about academics and I studied A LOT. I remember in the 4th grade, I was over-studying for a simple spelling bee. My mother drove me to school that day and as I got out of the car, I asked her, in an insecure, sheepish, kind of way, “Mom, do you think I will win today’s spelling bee?” My mother took a long drag out of her cigarette (which unfortunately was normal in those days), looked at me, and said, quite simply, “Why not? You’ve done the work in studying for it. Why not just go win it?”

Although it wasn’t the most motivational thing I could hear at that time, it still impacted me. When I was up on that spelling bee stage, I thought about it and fortunately the preparation paid off and I actually won! Now, I apply those two words every day. If somebody’s going to win, it might as well be me, my teams, or my brands, because I’ve come in well prepared — having already “done the work.”

The second is “Outcreate not Outspend.” I know my strengths and I know my weaknesses. I’m never going to be the absolute smartest person in the room, but I AM going to be the most creative. It’s what I’ve always done. It’s who I am. It’s easy to throw money at a problem–it’s tougher to outcreate your way out of a situation.

Sure, as a CMO I believe in the “science” around the data, but I believe much more in the “art” of my creative instincts and judgment that have been well-honed over 20-plus years as a Fortune 500 CMO. I know I go against the grain of my CMO colleagues by over-indexing on the “art,” but that’s part of the reason why our teams have been so successful. We deeply understand human insights and we quickly get things in the market today, by making decisions today vs. waiting on the data to eventually come in sometime in the future.

“Relevance” — It’s THE most important nine-letter word in marketing. The minute you are not relevant is the minute you need to hit the eject button and rocket yourself out of marketing. Just like you exercise every day to keep your body healthy, you better find some creative regimen to stay relevant.

“Fire yourself” — Huh? When you find yourself getting complacent; when you find yourself starting to settle; when you find yourself not being as relevant as you should be, look in the mirror and say, “Jeff…you’re fired.” Then the next day when you go back in, think about what you would do starting a new job as Jeff Charney, replacing yourself as Jeff Charney. Let the “fire yourself” concept marinate for a bit — really understand it. It will change you and give you that kick in the butt that you need — I do it every 12–18 months.

“Don’t change. Be.” I’ve always been a square peg in a round hole. All the times that I’ve tried to really “fit in” hasn’t worked for me. I just wasn’t myself. “Fitting in’’ was like me wearing a suit and tie to work when I really wanted to wear sweats. Once I became comfortable with being me and had secure enough bosses that let me be me, was when my career really started to take off. There’s never been a better time in marketing to be a “square peg” round hole than right now. It’s literally the “Roaring 20s of Marketing” right now with blockchain and Web3 technology helping to rewrite the marketing world. Maximize it!

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

We’ve developed the proprietary MKHSTRY Index (MHI), a pre-engagement mutual bravery barometer index that gauges client/agency risk tolerance, relevance, flexibility, and ability to evaluate and perpetuate change. I’ve refined it over two decades, and it has proven highly effective in identifying and inspiring “one idea away” clients and developing launch-ready concepts. For the right clients, the MHI is the absolute best thing that could happen and for the wrong clients, it’s the absolute worst. It’s already a game-changing tool and we continue to refine the MHI to increase its pinpoint accuracy.

On a lighter scale, we also created the MKHSTRY Hybrid Line of clothing designed for the way we work today. The clothes are comfortable meant to last through history and to make a strong, simple long-lasting fashion statement about who we are and how we manifest our creativity. It’s not only a great company, but a great brand and we’re still searching for the right brave clothing partner to upend the fashion world. The hybrid line will also operate with the scarcity model. Only a few pieces of clothing exist now and will for the foreseeable future. Finally, in all of this, I will be shaking things up by asking folks to join me in giving back to our communities. A portion of the proceeds from the Hybrid Line will go to the national Little Free Library, which is a nonprofit organization focused on expanding book access, creating history by inspiring young readers.

Who are your earliest and bravest clients and is there a specific case study you and is there a sneak peek you can share with us and our readership?

This is a seemingly easy question and let me unpack my broader, more provocative answer.

People always ask me, who are you working with…who are your clients…has anyone passed the MHI, etc.? When can I see the work and when will you release it to the marketing trade press, etc.?

“History is always in the making” and, trust me, we always have something up our sleeve…and we have a lot of sleeves. However, part of that history is just letting it happen without necessarily beating your chest about it.

I’ll tell you now, one of the countless and controversial differences between us and any other creative firm on the planet is that we have a “No Megaphone Rule” about the pre- and post-business we do for our clients. As a scarcity brand, we operate just like the movie “Fight Club.” For those of you familiar with the cult classic: “The first rule of Fight Club is…don’t talk about Fight Club.”

Why not talk about your clients and your work? Isn’t one of the 4Ps of marketing, Promotion?

There are four simple reasons we operate with this “Fight Club” philosophy.

First, parading your clients in the media is just a self-serving and back-handed way for MKHSTRY and any agency to acquire new clients. Because we’re an invite-only collective that already has enough business, we don’t have to be a slave to that circular process.

Second, this kind of promotion allows the creative agency to take the chest-beating credit for overall agency-client partnership accomplishments. You’re only as good as your client direction and we drive a no-bragging “team first” approach.

Third, explaining your campaign strategy and creative details in the media just gives too much of an alert and a playbook for your competitors. All that self-promotion is an ancient relic left over from the fictional bravado of Don Draper and the Mad-Men days where confidentiality wasn’t in their vocabulary. Draper is dead and so should the “work and tell” practice.

Still, it’s probably the single and hardest thing for me and my team NOT to burst out and talk about the work we do for our clients on a 24–7 basis.

Which brings up the fourth and final reason. Quite simply, we’ve talked to countless clients and when pressed–they just don’t want it. They never liked it, but it was just another assumed client mandatory practice to “keep the agency partners happy.” I wish other agencies would stop this practice and realize what a competitive advantage a “no megaphone” philosophy could be for them. It definitely has been for us.

Our clients are paying us to do work that will make history. If one day, they choose to talk about it, that’s great. It’s their story to tell. Us running to the media to scream and shout, is just not what we do now, nor what we’ll ever do.

Again, your “Fight Club/No Megaphone” philosophy is disruptive and a very complex thing to understand. Could you relate this to a simpler analogy?

You could equate this to going to an exclusive night club with a velvet rope. If you’re in, you’re in. The club does not reveal who else is on that list alongside you, nor do they share that you got entry with the rest of the people attempting to gain access themselves. People just want to go to the club, be left alone and to have a good time. We will do the same and choose not to share this private information about our clients.

Finally, if you can’t relate to the club analogy, go way back to the ancient Chinese proverb. Those who know don’t talk. Those who talk don’t know.

History does speak louder than words…and people. Trust me, everyone will get the “credit” when history is made.

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?

First, I’m definitely a recovering pop culture junkie. I have a rack of four televisions outside of my office going all the time. Podcasts are on nonstop and I’m constantly skimming as many forms of news and entertainment as humanly possible.

But for now, I’ll focus on books. I’ll share one that’s very old that I always return to and one that is relatively new that I constantly apply in a more tactical way.

As far as older books go, Joseph Campbell’s “The Hero with a Thousand Faces” is a true classic. It’s heavy narrative, but as marketers, we are all first and foremost, story tellers. The “hero’s journey” that takes place in the book is the foundation and a touchstone for many of our stories today. Many of the great epic stories that exist — from Lord of the Rings, Harry Potter, Star Wars, Wizard of Oz, and on have their roots in that hero’s journey. The same patterns apply to modern-day movies, theater, and pop culture. Finally, for me, it says clearly that we are all heroes in the making, always on that journey of transformation, always changing, always evolving, always existing way out of our comfort zone to fulfill that inner call. It inspires me to this day and is the foundation of my three favorite six letter words: G-R-O-W-T-H, B-E-T-T-E-R, and C-H-A-N-G-E.

A more tactical book that has really influenced me was Michael Farmer’s Madison Avenue Manslaughter, which is a sobering read and for anybody in marketing. Whether you agree with Farmer and the book’s title or not, it is a real wake-up call for all of us in the marketing and advertising field. For me though, it made the problem we all face much more vivid. Rather than keep whining about the problem, I started MKHSTRY to really do something about it.

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

My most inspirational quote comes from perhaps the person who in my opinion is the greatest and yet most controversial marketer of all time, Muhammad Ali. It’s very simple — only ten words — but it speaks to me.

Here goes: “If your dreams don’t scare you, they’re not big enough.” Just think about that and it goes back to the roots of MKHSTRY. You really can’t be brave without fear.

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?

Quite simply, I know it sounds a little too soft, lofty, and overly-motivational, but I try to live this.

I just wish I could inspire people to really reach their full potential and be their best selves — whoever and whatever that may be. To do that, unfortunately, sometimes they just need to find a way to get out of their own way. It’s not their boss, their spouse, their company that’s holding them back; it’s themselves. There’s no blame game here. Period.

And when we took all the vowels out of MKHSTRY…in exact order, A, E, I, O — the only one that was left out was U. That’s when it hit me. U is the only thing holding folks from making history. U is one thing within our control. Once you realize that, you’ll never be the same. Once you realize that, you’ll also realize that we’re not getting any of this time back. Once you realize that, you’ll make every moment of your life count. It’s simple stuff, but you must be committed to it. If you do, it’s amazing what you can really accomplish.

Even in our name, we disrupt. Nearly all of the older, traditional agencies are someone’s name: (i.e., Ogilvy, Burnett, Fallon, Chiatt-Day, Hal Riney & Partners, on and on.) These were all pioneers, but they all unfortunately passed away. Our name is who we are. Our name is what we do. It will live on forever. We make history–and just as we have modernized an old word, we’ll modernize an old industry. It’s really exciting!

How can our readers follow you online?

Thank you so much for taking the time to get all of this out of my system. Your questions seem simple, but they forced me to really dig deep as I am the one usually on the offensive in asking the tough questions. And they’ve prompted so many new ideas for me.

Readers can find me through my website but can also connect with me on Twitter, LinkedIn, and Instagram. Still, as mentioned in our “no megaphone rule” about client confidentiality, realize that there are some things I CAN say on those channels, but many things I just can’t. With an invite-only and scarcity model, you have to live by the sword and die by the sword, so I hope your readers can understand. Bottom line, we have a high bar and our team is incredibly busy. History is always in the making and our team is committed to continually making history. When it happens, the work will speak for itself. You’ll see.

Thanks so much.

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

Meet The Disruptors: Jeff Charney Of MKHSTRY 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.

Mark Homza Of Funday Agency On Five Things You Need To Build A Trusted And Beloved Brand

An Interview With Fotis Georgiadis

Authenticity is something consumers crave these days. Anyone can sell a product or market a service but being authentic in the process helps customers not only relate to the individuals behind the concepts but the products and services in a new way. People don’t buy products, they buy people, experiences, and feelings.

As a part of our series about how to create a trusted, believable, and beloved brand, I had the pleasure to interview Mark Homza.

Mark Homza is the Co-CEO and Co-Founder of creative storytelling and global marketing ecosystem, Funday. Previously known as Flixel, the hollywood-loved company known for re-defining photography through Cinemagraphs (also known as “living photos”), Mark is now working to future-proof brands through world-class storytelling. Built to lead companies in the Web3 space, Mark and Funday breathe, live and understand the inner workings of what it means to be a Web3 company because they are one. Mark is a prosumer and pioneer with a proven track record and has used this expertise to successfully grow and scale notable, global brands and the Funday ecosystem.

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

While I was growing up in Montreal, Quebec, I always had a desire to see the world. I wanted to experience different cultures and contribute to society. It was important to me to be surrounded by brilliant people who were shaping and changing the world as we know it. Initially, I thought being a musician was the career path for me. Musicians get to go on tour and travel the globe. When I realized only around 0.01% of artists become successful I knew those odds were not in my favor, so I decided to pivot. I looked towards entrepreneurship and creating companies, which at the time, had about a 4% success rate. I have always had a creative mindset and I knew if I was going to do any shaping of the culture or contribute to this world I’d have to create things from scratch. And so that’s what I did. When I was 24 years old, I met Phil LeBlanc. We started our first company together, a health and wellness business. That’s when and where it all started.

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

When we first launched our app, Flixel, it hit 100,000 downloads in 21 days. Right from the start, it was a major success and so the initial push into the market was quite impressive. We received tons of organic press and thought we were set. Unfortunately, doing this a second time with version two of the Flixel app, didn’t go so well. We didn’t put our best foot forward in terms of providing a more in-depth product or any enhanced messaging. We assumed that because we had been carried by that initial wave and presence in the market that anything following would have win public attention, which ultimately just wasn’t the case. That was a good lesson. You constantly have to bring world-class content into the process no matter what stage you are in within the business development process. You can never sit around with what you did yesterday to carry you through. It was a good reminder that you have to continuously follow up and have relevance. If you don’t have substance, you’re going to be ignored.

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

I think what makes us stand out is our entrepreneurialism. It’s the entrepreneur or entrepreneur mindset all of us have that makes us so special. The distinguishing fact is that we can practice and be ourselves in the shoes of a decision-maker as well as a leader when we work with early-stage startups or Series B. There’s a certain genuine authenticity — how we connect and how we understand one another because of our experience. Having empathy is critical and it’s a rare thing to learn to do while being in the driver’s seat. The pioneering sort of mindset has enabled us to again become synonymous with an up-and-coming challenger type industry, the web 3.0 space. And so that’s a reflection of the type of clients we have. It creates a certain degree of separation because even within that space, we’ve been very successful. Everyone is growing and trying to change the “status quo”. People are trying to redefine what organizations are going to look like via DAO’s or even what the financial system is. Web 3.0 is the next wave of the internet’s biggest change since web 1.0, so to speak. Entrepreneurialism becomes the core varying separator for us.

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

The most exciting project that is underway is gmgn supply co, the very first consumer packaged goods CPG) DAO (decentralized autonomous organization). It takes a very democratic approach to the consumer packaged goods industry. The goal of gmgn is to bringmore transparency, healthier products, and mindfulness of the environment to the industry. And so, with the introduction of gmgn, specifically through the structure of a DAO , we’re trying to experiment with the changing organizational culture and processes and governance. gmgn supply co is a web3 business model where members of the DAO are owners and can vote on major decisions from what they eat to what products are being sold and/or marketed. gmgn is well-understood Web3 speak for good morning and good night and it broadly represents the sense of unity that’s been cultivated between web3 natives in the new, borderless, and hyper-connected world. In addition to community participation via the DAO, gmgn will foster Web3 collaboration with each brand it develops. Every box of gm Cereal will include rewards, like an NFT, token airdrop, merch, or collaboration to further fuel community participation.

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?

Branding is what your company believes in, how consumers feel about the product or services, and why it exists in the first place. Branding is the story. Marketing is how you sell your product or services. You can’t successfully have good marketing without building a good brand. You need each to work hand in hand with each other to achieve optimal success.

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?

Building a brand is important to long-term success and growth. To build a business, you HAVE to build a brand. Having a brand that is credible and real will make marketing and advertising easier. Your brand will tap into the emotions of your customers and reach more people. With such a competitive market, you need something that makes you stand out in the crowd. Having a recognizable brand including a logo, a key message and a mission can be the difference between success and failure. Your brand should represent you, your employees, and what you stand for. This is something worth investing in. The brand is the first step in the equation. You can’t funnel dollars into marketing and advertising before you develop who you are.

Can you share 5 strategies that a company should be doing to build a trusted and believable brand? Please tell us a story or example for each. ✅

Communication: Do you have constant communication with your community? The only way to build a community is to communicate and be accessible. The key to success here is engagement. Creating good conversation and dialogue is crucial for growth. Making sure someone is accessible to answer questions, solve problems or talk through solutions is something you will need to have in place. There are different strategies within this vertical to ensure your customers are happy, connected, and engaged.

Transparency: Operating in a way that’s as transparent as possible is another fantastic strategy. It is important to share how you operate, who you are, your brand mission, who you are targeting, and what your goals are. These key factors will help you reach the correct customers and clients.

Authenticity: Authenticity is something consumers crave these days. Anyone can sell a product or market a service but being authentic in the process helps customers not only relate to the individuals behind the concepts but the products and services in a new way. People don’t buy products, they buy people, experiences, and feelings.

Honesty: Be honest. You have to implement honesty when you’re developing a brand. Like authenticity, honesty is something people also need to have. When there are issues, consumers want straightforward answers. This also helps them feel a little more empathy and compassion. Being truthful is crucial for any business or brand.

Consistency: Consistency is key. This relates to almost everything in life. The more you start being consistent the more successful you will be. If you work out consistently you will see results. If you practice a skill consistently you will improve. This goes for branding as well. The more you stay on your targeting brand the more aligned you will be with your audience. Sticking to key messaging is important. This allows consumers to recognize your brand for exactly what it is. The longer you are established as a certain “brand” the more credible you will be.

My key to long-term success was to stay on track and stay consistent. I find for a lot of young entrepreneurs, will fall off and stop pushing ahead. It’s very, very tough. But, one of the most important parts of developing a successful brand.

In your opinion, what is an example of a company that has done a fantastic job building a believable and beloved brand. What specifically impresses you? What can one do to replicate that?

From a brand perspective, Apple and Tesla have both done a tremendous job. When you look at Tesla, the company hasn’t done any type of traditional marketing whatsoever. But why is it so relevant? They have a CEO that has a flair for being in the public eye but the company itself acts almost as its own marketing vehicle. It has become synonymous with this idea of the green movement, electric vehicles, and the automotive industry as a whole. When you think about electric cars you don’t think of anything other than Tesla. You know that’s extremely, extremely powerful. For a company that hasn’t done any traditional advertising yet, it has such a profound place in the market — it’s impressive.

When it comes to Apple, we all know they put a lot of money into their campaigns. If you don’t have any money, it’s tough. You have to be smart in terms of how do you capture everyone’s attention? Everyone’s eyes are on social and digital platforms. If you’re starting up and you don’t have a lot of money, it makes it more of a challenge to get the attention you may need to thrive. Do you have a product with innovative capabilities or features? Does your product or service have that you can tie it to some form of movement, some form of change or can it make a significant contribution to the market. Will it get some journalists or get some folks interested to say they need to cover this because something new is happening. At the end of the day, if you don’t have a product that fixes a problem in the marketplace, or has a new twist or take on something else, it’s going to be difficult. If you’re going to try to compete and win something in a market that’s saturated, it’s going to be hard.

In advertising, one generally measures success by the number of sales. How does one measure the success of a brand-building campaign? Is it similar, or is it different?

When you measure a brand-building campaign you don’t usually base the success on sales metrics like the number of leads brought in or ROI. Ultimately it will lead to sales but brand-building campaigns are about brand recognition, creating awareness that you exist and about what you stand for. The KPI’s or “Key Performance Indicators” look like website visits, clicks, downloads, a low bounce rate, and time spent on individual webpages. This is a good way to gauge if people are curious, looking you up, or interested in more information. Another way to measure is by social channels. How many views is your post getting? Are your posts being shared? Commented on and engaged with? Social media is a natural way to measure performance. Lastly, if you have an app then you can measure the number of downloads, retention rate, session lengths, and reviews. Technology is evolving fast and these days there are dozens of ways to measure success without seeing “sales”.

What role does social media play in your branding efforts?

Social media plays a major role in branding efforts and should never be underestimated or overlooked. Social platforms can help you develop your brand identity and also connect you with customers. Social platforms allow you to approach people in a more natural way and engage in a two-way conversation stream. Social media posts can also be conversation starters and be used, shared, and leveraged to again, help measure your KPI’s. You have to be careful with what you post on social media but if used correctly it can boost your brand in amazing ways.

You are what you eat. This is something that people say but can be rooted in goodness and longevity if addressed. I have always been passionate about the food and beverage space, especially in recent years. Many people turn to processed products for convenience and rarely choose healthy options because frankly there are not that many out there. Companies have to do a better job. As a civilization, we also have to be more responsible with what lands on our store shelves or gets delivered to doors. In many ways, that’s the mission of gmgn supply co. We decided to create an organization that says, hey, we’re putting better food out in the marketplace while society is moving faster than ever before. We want to provide better options and an overall better experience.

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

“What you feed grows.”

As an entrepreneur, in the areas where I’ve consistently nurtured my career, there’s been a tremendous amount of growth. Despite challenges and many obstacles, which is par for the course, what helped me grow was continuously being consistent and feeding my career. Even in the face of tremendous obstacles, such as the pandemic to facing challenges as early entrepreneurs during the Flixel days, and near bankruptcy, we always pushed ahead. These types of issues coupled with trying to find our product-market fit, trying to survive and live out the dream without giving up — was a true test and is also what showed us we were able to succeed. This doesn’t just apply to entrepreneurship, it applies to all aspects of your life. It applies to those relationships that are important to you; if you feed them they will grow and get better with time. Growth is at the core of any healthy relationship and that translates back into the business. What I’ve seen with such clarity is that a lot of our success over the years, has been a byproduct of community, it has been a byproduct of getting certain access and getting access to certain individuals and communities and people. All of that comes from fostering relationships. And so you have to seed your new yourself to get yourself better.

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

It would be interesting to sit down with Elon Musk and get a sense of what is truly going on. If I sat down with him I wouldn’t speak at him or to him but try to get as much of his perspective and insight as possible. I want to know what got him here and what major challenges he’s overcome. He would be a fascinating person to talk with because he is truly a pioneer and a successful entrepreneur.

How can our readers follow you on social media?

Twitter: Mark Homza

Website: https://www.funday.agency/

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

Mark Homza Of Funday Agency On Five Things You Need To Build A Trusted And Beloved Brand was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Meet The Disruptors: Jonathan Kite Of Rent Ready On The Five Things You Need To Shake Up Your…

Meet The Disruptors: Jonathan Kite Of Rent Ready On The Five Things You Need To Shake Up Your Industry

An Interview With Fotis Georgiadis

Never go it alone, always start a business with co-founders to share the emotional burden of what you are trying to accomplish. I have been incredibly fortunate to have started a business not only with one cofounder, but with two. Having someone to share the wins and celebrate with, but also to share the pains and difficult decisions with is paramount to your survival. Running a company is incredibly lonely — if you have the chance to share that with someone else, you would be foolish not to!

As a part of our series about business leaders who are shaking things up in their industry, I had the pleasure of interviewing Jonathan Kite, the CEO of Rent Ready.

Jonathan Kite is the CEO and Co-Founder of Rent Ready, a technology company that uses an integrated services portal to deliver an end-to-end make-ready service for apartment communities. Based in Charlotte, NC, the startup introduces a modern day solution to an age-old apartment industry problem with the first automated turn board in the marketplace, connecting community staff with service professionals to schedule work orders for all turn services including painting, cleaning, wall repairs, tub/counter resurfacing and more.

I grew up in Charlotte, NC where Rent Ready is currently headquartered. Even as a child, I was enamored with the process of creating and I got into technology because I was obsessed with its use as a creative problem-solving tool. Immediately out of college, I started my career at Microsoft where I held different roles that allowed me to interact with hundreds of different companies, learning how they developed, supported, and evolved software to solve business problems. In my last role at Microsoft, I had an incredible opportunity to work on a team with advanced internal access to cloud technologies that would eventually become Microsoft Azure.

It was an experience that demonstrated first hand how quickly cloud first technologies could enable the transformation of a business idea to execution at a rate never seen before. So when approached by my two other co-founders with the idea of Rent Ready, I knew the time was right to leverage my experiences at Microsoft to help build a company. Ryan McMillan, my first co-founder, worked directly in the multifamily industry, observing and living the challenges of getting vacant units ready for new residents by working with fragmented labor sourced through local vendors without the aid of technology to facilitate the apartment turnover; a highly sequenced and timed multi-stage delivery that must be completed in order to move in new residents. Will, my second co-founder, came from a background in finance and private equity and quickly identified the enormity of market opportunity the turnover process represents in the multifamily industry.

Each of us came at solving this problem from unique backgrounds, a keen observation of the challenge facing the multi-family industry, the business background to identify a go to market plan, and the technology expertise to build and scale a national company.

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

The apartment industry prepares recently vacated units for new residents in an entirely manual or analog manner. Apartment managers find and source local vendor relationships across 4–5 different vendors who each provide a unique service that is required in the sequenced process for getting a unit ready for a new resident. They are responsible for coordinating the scheduling of services in that sequence using traditional communication methods. It’s not uncommon for an onsite apartment manager to call, text or email their orders across their 4–5 vendor relationships each time a resident moves out and a turnover is triggered — tracking availability, confirmation and service progress manually on a dry erase board or excel spreadsheet.

This is a time consuming process that eats up anywhere from 4–6 hours of a manager’s time on a weekly basis. Rent Ready is applying technology to help solve that problem by providing apartment managers access to web and mobile applications, connected to a network of skilled vendors also utilizing mobile technology to seamlessly connect the two together. With a few clicks, apartment managers can specify their desired service profile, sequence, and timing requirements, and Rent Ready will automate the rest of the process, suggesting service availability dates, timing, and automatically scheduling work against its network of service providers all with one click. Service providers receive real time notifications of work assignment, and interact with technology that allows managers to gain real-time insight into work progress and timing.

This is a radically different and simplified approach that uses mobile technology to help remove friction and improve the process for both apartments seeking work to be performed, and service professionals providing that work to apartments.

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?

Rent Ready is designed to help make the lives of onsite managers easier, and the technology that Rent Ready provides apartments helps connect them to a marketplace or network of service providers. Building out a network of service providers has been an iterative journey of discovery over the years and one full of lessons. Validating a prospective service providers skill set has always been difficult, and in the early years, it took us time to realize that almost everyone will tell you they have the ability to perform a skill set.

Painting is a great example where if you ask most people if they know how to paint, you will almost always emphatically be told “yes” only to have that individual show up to paint an apartment with a single paintbrush. Early on, that happened more times than I care to admit and was a great lesson in adopting the “trust but verify” mantra needed to build expertise in assessing skilled trades to service our clients.

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

One of the most impactful mentors I ever had was actually my first out of college in my first role at Microsoft. Her name was Ellis, and she was a long-time veteran of Microsoft who had been there for over a decade and served in many roles on many teams. She was an inspiration in helping me to realize that there are things in life that are fundamentally more important than work, which is a lesson I hold true even to this day. She famously helped work for and supported several U.S. Military organizations on behalf of Microsoft and was always great at reminding me of the criticality of what I did on a daily basis.

When things were stressful for me or I felt like the world was falling down around me, she constantly reminded me that there are things in life that are truly critical — like ensuring that software systems are operating and functioning to help in aiding tasks like landing pilots on aircraft carriers, things that truly impact life and safety. Those reminders always helped me put things into context with the problems that I faced, and it’s a lesson I try to repeat to my teams on a constant basis whenever they are feeling stressed in the high paced environment of working for a startup. Yes, helping our customers get units turned is critical to our business and important, but we aren’t landing fighter jets on aircraft carriers and there are no lives at stake.

You often hear the term “10x” thrown around when thinking about what startups seek to achieve. They are seeking to disrupt an industry by solving a difficult problem by delivering a solution through either new technology or business process that is not just better, but truly 10x better than anything a competitor can offer. You see that every day as companies seek to reduce friction in an industry by providing 10x solutions that make the old way of doing something seem obsolete.

As obsessed with technology as I am, I have always been torn between the new and the old, still loving and preferring the preservation of old experiences that so many new companies have disrupted today. The convenience of streaming music is certainly an example of an experience that is 10x better than consuming music in analog with a CD or record, but as a music enthusiast I still prefer the process of seeking out and collecting music in analog, which is why I continue to collect and have amassed a huge collection of records. While I can’t deny that the experience of streaming music overall is a positive disruption for 90% of the addressable market, it has had a negative impact on the enthusiasm and culture of the remaining 10% of loyal fans who will always prefer the hobby of collection and music appreciation.

Sometimes disruption can be so focused on the tangible measures of an industry; cycle time, cost, convenience, etc that you lose sight of the intangibles of an industry that make it truly unique.

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

1. Take care of the people, the products and the profits in that order — The culture that we built at Rent Ready has always been focused on creating an incredible work opportunity for our employees and putting them first. When the pandemic hit we were singularly focused not only on surviving but preserving as many jobs as possible, even if that meant that all of us had to make a sacrifice to do that — most companies did not make those types of decisions, instead laying off, focusing on profitability first. We took another path, and most of our team stuck with us not only through the toughest of times in the pandemic but all the way back to our eventual return to work.

2. The difference between success and failure is not a combination of brilliant strategic moves, or innovative ideas, it is the willingness to never quit and to continue to grind it out. I was once told that a C+ plan carried out with 100% commitment and execution is infinitely superior to an A+ plan carried out with 80% commitment. There are countless examples within our business of a truly “great idea” not panning out, which can often be a demotivator to those helping to build our business, but we consistently try those failing ideas again and again until they succeed.

3. You only experience 2 emotions running a startup: euphoria and terror. Nothing better highlights this lesson than the challenges of raising capital to continue to survive and grow your business. The agonizing lead up to closing a successful funding round to the sheer bliss of actually signing the documentation to close a round, immediately followed by the realization that you have zero time to celebrate because the expectation of your success has only raised exponentially only helps to highlight how true this statement is.

4. Never go it alone, always start a business with co-founders to share the emotional burden of what you are trying to accomplish. I have been incredibly fortunate to have started a business not only with one cofounder, but with two. Having someone to share the wins and celebrate with, but also to share the pains and difficult decisions with is paramount to your survival. Running a company is incredibly lonely — if you have the chance to share that with someone else, you would be foolish not to!

5. Always ask yourself, what am I not doing that I should be doing? It’s a question I try to ask in each 1:1 I have with employees, especially those I don’t directly manage. Some of our best ideas come from those who help support our customers in the day to day — and simply asking that question, what am I not doing, or what are we not doing that we should be doing almost always sheds light on a new process or business idea that can fundamentally change the business.

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

Rent Ready continues to see the challenges of fragmentation in not only the labor that is provided into the multi-family turn process, but also the advanced acquisition of materials and other services. While we have been predominantly focused on normal turnover services such as painting, cleaning, and carpet cleaning; one missing component is our ability to help apartments facilitate more complex turns that require more in depth services like flooring replacement in a unit that is being made ready for a new resident.

This is a different product offering vs. what Rent Ready traditionally provides, and while apartments have access to much larger nationally relevant service providers offering this service, the same challenges of coordination and incorporation into the larger turn sequence still persist. Rent Ready can help improve that through our technology interface for customers, but can also help provide value to these service providers by building technology that can help these companies improve their business operations and customer interaction too.

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 Hard Thing About Things by Ben Horowtiz is the absolute best book anyone starting a company should read. It’s full of not only inspiration and practical advice but also recognition of the journey you are on starting a company. It’s not a management book full of self-evident observations or recommendations of optimizing an already established or well performing business that completely miss the mark on how you handle the extreme highs and lows you will face. Instead, it highlights the harsh realities you implicitly feel but can’t articulate by pointing out truths like: your emotions are at odds with your logic, and things are hard because you are both doing things and making decisions about things that you have no experience with and there is a high likelihood that no one else does. This has been such an impactful book for me, because it operates more like a soul piercing therapy session than a management book, acknowledging that the way you feel is normal, the challenges you are facing while unique to you, are not unique to starting a business and that things will only continue to get hard, not easier — and if that’s not for you, then you shouldn’t be running a business.

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

“You have to lie down to be a doormat” is a life lesson taught to me at an early age that has always resonated with me. For me, it is what has always sparked my relentlessness, which not only helped me in starting a business but to continue to build that business and overcome the many obstacles we have faced. Oftentimes people are too quick to accept the response of “no,” or resign themselves to accept defeat, be that through bad luck, bad negotiation or a lack of self confidence in pushing back. Advocate for yourself, don’t be shy to ask “why,” when even if you do hear “no” — you deserve to know why so you can constantly improve yourself and get to “yes” the next time you try it again!

I’ve always been obsessed with bicycles as a form of transportation, ever since I was a kid. When I lived in Seattle and worked at Microsoft, I never drove, I biked literally everywhere; to see friends, to grocery shop, or to get to work. Americans often feel like cars are a necessity, and in many cities that aren’t bike-able or don’t have great public transportation that may be true, but it doesn’t have to be. Making decisions about where we live and what we need in our lives are all related, and oftentimes most don’t see that by making trade-offs like not owning a car, many of us can afford to lead different lifestyles like living closer to work.

I wish I could find a way to help inspire and encourage others to adopt a car free lifestyle, to help change the way our cities in America are designed, flow and operate so others can find ways to adopt a more urban and dense way of living led by the bicycle!

How can our readers follow you online?

You can follow me on LinkedIn or the Rent Ready blog here.

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

Meet The Disruptors: Jonathan Kite Of Rent Ready 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.

Minna Taylor Of Energize Your Voice On The 5 Things You Need To Be A Highly Effective Public…

Minna Taylor Of Energize Your Voice On The 5 Things You Need To Be A Highly Effective Public Speaker

An Interview With Fotis Georgiadis

Never seek perfection. Perfection does not exist in the realm of human behavior and frankly it’s boring to watch. People want to experience aliveness, immediacy, and witness humanity in action. The fun is in the flaw. Be prepared, be professional, but do not seek perfection.

Minna Taylor is the author of The Confident Body and the Founder of Energize Your Voice (WBE), a NYC based communication coaching and training firm. With an experiential approach, rooted in the principles of play and performance, she and her team support organizations, individuals, and entrepreneurs to explore their full potential in public speaking, storytelling, and leadership communication. Notable clients include UBER, Red Bull, Citi, and E&Y. Minna earned her BFA from NYU Tisch and went on to earn her MFA in Performance with a concentration in speech and vocal production. Beginning her career as an accent reduction specialist, Minna went on to transfer her theater training to developing an innovative approach for professional development.

Thank you so much for doing this with us! Our readers would love to get to know you a bit better. Can you tell us the story of how you grew up?

My pleasure! Let’s refer to this as my origin story, the conditions under which I was formed. I grew up in Appalachia Virginia on a farm. This was pre-internet, so the fields, forests, and mountains were our entertainment. I have two sisters, one is an identical twin, and we would play make believe for hours in the pastures amidst the cows. Growing up in such a small town in the Blueridge Mountains, people relied on community and knowing your neighbors. I was exposed, at a very early age, to the power of personal story and the impact of sharing that story with others. That is how we learn, that is how we build relationships, that is how we survive. This wisdom took on a whole new meaning when I began studying acting at NYU. Storytelling became a physical activity and an expression of my deepest need. Through my theater training, I came deeply in touch with my purpose and my impact on others.

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

At NYU I took speech and voice as part of my training. I really clicked with the process of phonetic construction. I would walk around the streets of Greenwich Village working out the precision of how to eliminate sibilance when creating an ‘s’ sound, the nuanced shift of the tongue when moving from an ‘ee’ sound to an ‘i as in will’ sound. It was like math for the mouth: 1+1=2. Place your tongue here, get this sound, etc.

As soon as I graduated, I became a TA for speech with the Atlantic Theater Acting School NYU track. I continued to coach speech after graduate school, where I studied the same phonetic principles. I started contracting with a company coaching accent reduction for corporate clients.

It was there that I first witnessed the pervasive habit of humans disconnecting from their need to speak. They weren’t breathing. Their voices were not free to create the sounds. Their bodies were tight and unexpressive. They were conducting themselves in accordance to what they thought they needed to be rather than allowing themselves to embrace fully who they were.

After three years of this exposure, my calling became clear. I had to transition out of acting and pursue confidence and authentic communication full time in order to transform the way people understand what is possible for the way they interact with their lives.

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

It’s the moment when I first discovered the power of play to impact human performance. I was asked by a friend of mine, who was working for a small advertising agency, if I would lead a workshop on presentation skills and public speaking. Now at this point in my work, I was really only doing accent reduction and a little presentation coaching when called for. I had not taught a group workshop before or even considered how the heck I would be able to pull it off, but I said yes first and figured it out later.

I came up with two guiding premises: I would treat this as a theater director to help the “actors” reach peak performance and I would impart public speaking skills such as confidence, vocal presence, and body language through the use of improv games. Well, the training was a huge success and served as the catalyst for the company I would one day build — Energize Your Voice where we playfully explore public speaking, storytelling, and authentic communication for leaders and teams.

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

In retrospect it’s funny, but felt more consequential at the time. Such is the journey of many moments in life, I suppose. I agreed to do a presentation to a professional organization comprised exclusively of CEOs who had the requirement of grossing millions a year to qualify for membership. It was mostly older white men, no women present, except for me and the woman putting out refreshments. I was in my early 30s at the time. From the moment I started talking, I could tell they were not interested in taking this program seriously. The topic was how to create more empowered space for female leadership within their organizations. The funny mistake was in thinking that I could bring a topic for which I felt passionately, but was not an expert in at that time, to a group of men who were not willing to take me seriously, much less my idea for organizational change. The humor is in the hindsight. Ripe with social satire.

It would be impossible for me to single out one individual. I am very deliberate about maintaining my community, both my close friendships and my family. They serve as confidants, champions, cheerleaders, raving fans, thought partners, disciplinarians, and safe spaces. I am a very autonomous person, but I have built a vibrant life through the support of my invaluable community of humans. They know who they are.

Failure is the gift of new information.

Humans are inherently fallible.

Failure is inevitable. Do it anyway.

No one pays to see perfect.

What drives you to get up everyday and give your talks? What is the main empowering message that you aim to share with the world?

I see a world filled with humans who know there is more to the life they are living, but are uncertain how to uncover that illusive potential. The secret is simpler than we think — Play. Humans have an innate desire to play, but we resist this desire out of conditioned conformity, propriety, and fear. The world would be a better place if we allow ourselves to play fully and rediscover how to play well with others. I like to believe that the ability to look silly is a superpower

You have such impressive work. What are some of the most interesting or exciting projects you are working on now? Where do you see yourself heading from here?

My work is three-fold: my thought leadership, my corporate work, and my private practice. They all have exciting moments ahead.

I am heading into a speaking tour for my book, The Confident Body, that is bringing me around the world.
We are activating very meaningful workshops for our corporate clients, which means we are able to donate more trainings to our nonprofit partners as part of our B1G1 Social Impact Program.
In my private practice I am working with innovators, visionaries, and change makers to help them bring their voices to a global stage.

I feel truly blessed and hold tremendous reverence for the position I have in this world. From here, I see a global vision for a movement toward play, kindness, creativity, and purpose.

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

“Invent nothing. Deny nothing.” — David Mamet

This was a principle under which I was trained as an actor, but translates so beautifully into life. Life is not happening to us, it is happening with us and before us. So many of us, myself included, get trapped in worry, anxious reflection or anticipation, and it is not serving our presence and wellbeing. There is tremendous freedom in seeing what is and honoring the truth, free from speculation, attachment, or creative interpretation. It is what it is and what it is is just as it should be.

Ok, thank you for all that. Here is the main question of our interview. What are your “5 Things You Need To Be A Highly Effective Public Speaker?” Please share a story or example for each.

Public speaking is never about you. It is about your audience. Your primary job in public speaking is to demand the attention and energetic participation of your audience. Keep them engaged and hold them tight through your intention and desire to be heard. It does not matter if they like you, approve of you, or validate your worth. It is not you against them and some level of unspoken acceptance will make it all okay. Be there in service, not self-interest. It will transform your mindset and confidence when you step on stage.
Never seek perfection. Perfection does not exist in the realm of human behavior and frankly it’s boring to watch. People want to experience aliveness, immediacy, and witness humanity in action. The fun is in the flaw. Be prepared, be professional, but do not seek perfection.
Memorize the thoughts, not the words. Keep it consistent, but never scripted. We assume safety in having every word or moment planned out. But what happens is that if anything goes wrong — a word forgotten, an unexpected glitch in lighting, a tech mishap — we have undermined our ability to continue with purpose because we have not practiced with any space for the unplanned, surprising moments that delight both us and our audience. By memorizing the essential ideas or points rather than the exact words, one after another with no variation in their order, you leave yourself open to being intentional in your communication while remaining responsive to your audience and the moments as they unfold. It leads to a deeper level of freedom, even in the absence of perceived safety. Trust me on this one. It feels counter intuitive to not memorize every word, but I have seen it time and time again. People are so focused on each word, that they stay in their heads and disconnect from the heart, which is where all great speakers are connected to. Thoughts over words always.
Practice playfully first. Polish last. The default mode of practice, and what has been promoted in traditional (and frankly antiquated) public speaking training, is to practice in front of a mirror like you were presenting in front of an audience. This should be the last stage of practice if at all! You must practice in playful ways, engaging the voice in dynamic expression and the body in large expansive gestures. Move around, sound ridiculous, go fast, go suuuuuuper slow, get big, or play a character. Lean into the silly. Then, move to a more polished practice. Why this is important is because when we meet the moment when called to rise to the occasion of public speaking, our adrenalin will kick in and our bodies will likely tense up. If we have practice only in polished form, we will shrink ourselves, get tight, and lose connection to our breath. If we practice playfully, in expansive and expressive ways, we build muscle memory around our content that lends itself to maintaining dynamic, authentic expression even in the face of fear.
The moment before and the moment you begin are the most important moments in your talk. Breathe and land your focus outside of yourself. Do not rush to begin. You will run the risk of starting before you’re ready. This will lead you to spend the first few moments disconnected from your audience while you’re in your head trying to catch up to yourself. Giving yourself a moment to transition both your energy and the energy and attention of the audience into a space of readiness, will allow you to create a sense of relationship and allow for the energy to calibrate so everyone is focused and prepared to move forward with a shared intention.

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

Breathe. Lower your expectations for how you think you should be and give yourself permission to show up as you are. People place tremendous energy in questions like, where should I look and what do I do with my hands? If you are unwilling to show me your humanity, I don’t care what you do with your hands. The audience desperately wants to see you, flaws and all. Give them that gift. No one is rooting for you to fail. You are all in it together.

You are a person of huge influence. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be?

Kindness as a global value.

Is there a person in the world whom you would love to have lunch with, and why? Maybe we can tag them and see what happens!

Krista Tippett, host of the On Being podcast. She has a remarkable capacity to engage in simple conversation over complex topics that inspire both curiosity and a sense of shared and intuitive wisdom.

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

Instagram is always a safe bet. @minnataylor_eyv

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

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

Meet The Disruptors: Chris Ritter Of C-90 On The Five Things You Need To Shake Up Your Industry

An Interview With Fotis Georgiadis

“You could never work here.”

I’ve heard this from dozens of places I’ve interviewed with or tried to work at. In hindsight, almost all of them probably wouldn’t have known what to do with me, anyway. I tell people all the time that I’m “unhireable.” That’s the real reason I’m an entrepreneur.

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

Chris Ritter is an award-winning designer, artist, and co-founder of C-90. Throughout his design career, he’s worked with notable brands such as adidas, GE, lululemon, and the New Orleans Pelicans. As an artist, he’s collaborated with and has had his work shown beside notable artists such as FAILE, The London Police, Ivan Crush, Vinz Feel Free, and Gene Spatz. He’s the Co-Founder and a Creative Director at C-90, a full-service creative agency and culture lab serving clients that need to be noticed, refuse the status quo, and need co-conspirators.

Even at a young age, I’d always been aware of graphic design. In fact, I’m a rare second-generation graphic designer. My great-grandfather was a commercial artist in Cincinnati from the pre-war era until he retired in the 1980s. Most of his work I’ve seen was illustrative in nature. Personally, I went to college as a chemistry major with a dream to work in a medical lab. After two years, I was failing all my chemistry classes. I decided I needed to make a change, and a guidance counselor suggested I should try to take some design classes. I quickly fell in love with it and here I am today.

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

“Disruptive” is a word that’s thrown around so much these days, I feel like it’s lost much of its meaning. At C-90, we talk a lot about providing a distinctive point-of-view on problems. This allows us to focus our thinking and come up with creative ways to help our clients. I feel like this approach is increasingly rare in a world where everyone seems to be tactics-driven and chasing the latest trends.

What we do is work hard to define problems that we can solve through creativity and design. If our team comes up with a particular solution that requires our clients to do something outside the norm, we consider that a great thing because it sets our clients apart from their competition and allows us to explore truly new opportunities. For this reason, we work best with ambitious clients who are comfortable challenging the status quo.

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?

It wasn’t so funny at the time, but earlier in my career I was leading a fairly substantial design project for Mountain Hardwear. As I remember it, it was our first big meeting with the client and we were building a big presentation with lots of fun design ideas and some work that our team was really proud of. We got on the call with the client to present and after exchanging some pleasantries, the client abruptly stopped the meeting. He said, “Everyone does this, so you get a pass. Our name is ‘Mountain Hardwear.’ W-E-A-R. Not Mountain Hardware. The second time it happens, you’re fired.” We had misspelled the company name in huge, bold letters on the first slide. To add insult to injury, their name was also misspelled in the footer of every slide in the presentation.

I absolutely didn’t make that mistake twice. Luckily, the work was well received and we were able to recover from the rocky start.

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?

That statement is so true. I’ve had many great mentors throughout every stage of my career and I make a point to keep in contact with as many of them as I can. College professors, people I’ve had job interviews with, old co-workers, former bosses, ex-business partners, design school classmates, famous designers — these relationships have all helped me through some of my ups and downs. I even like to keep in contact with some of our direct competition to talk shop. That’s actually how my partner Emmit Jones and I got so close. We were owners of competing firms and I found myself in a complicated work situation. I reached out to him because I needed some good advice from someone who’d been in my situation before. Three years later, we co-founded C-90 together.

“Good design is long-lasting.” That’s a Dieter Rams quote, but it’s also something we say at C-90 frequently. Disruption and timelessness are not mutually exclusive. We build design systems on top of disruptive insights. Designing systems make the assets we create usable, memorable, and timeless. I think our recent work for NMUGS&R is a great example of this. It’s built on insight, looks radically different from other graduate schools, but is also systematic in its execution.

Misguided disruption is pointless. If you don’t have a problem to solve, there’s no reason to innovate. Any good designer will be diligent in identifying a specific problem to solve first. Once the problem is agreed upon, innovate away. Chances are, if you’re thorough in your work, solving one problem will uncover another problem to solve.

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

“Pioneers take all the arrows.”

Words from my late business partner, Mike Amann. It was a casual comment he mumbled under his breath after a tough meeting. It’s a constant reminder for me that if you’re going to take the road less traveled–the disruptive route–there will be many more obstacles along the way.

“Son, you’re from Erlanger. You’d never survive in the country and you’d never survive in the city. But if you’re smart, you’ll be able to play the line in almost any situation.”

Growing up in a blue collar suburb in Northern Kentucky taught me much about being street smart and dealing with people. These were words my father said to me when I was about 8. I took it to mean that I had an opportunity to find common ground with almost anyone I meet.

“You’re fearless.”

This isn’t really advice, but more of an insightful comment. A fellow creative director told me this after we had finished a brainstorm for a big, well-known client. It was clearly said as a compliment. We were both really excited with the ideas we landed on. In that moment, I also realized that pushing towards new directions can legitimately be scary for some people.

“You can either be afraid to fail or be afraid to succeed.”

Fear is a part of life everyone deals with in the early days of running your own business. Fear gives you a choice. You can let your fear of failure build determination and drive you forward or let your fear of success (and the work that goes into it) keep you from reaching your potential. Pro tip: be afraid to fail.

“You could never work here.”

I’ve heard this from dozens of places I’ve interviewed with or tried to work at. In hindsight, almost all of them probably wouldn’t have known what to do with me, anyway. I tell people all the time that I’m “unhireable.” That’s the real reason I’m an entrepreneur.

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

Currently, C-90 is focused on expanding to take on more national work. We’re always searching for ambitious clients that want to do some truly interesting work. Recently, we hired our first employee in New York City and are looking to expand our team there.

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

I mostly read books for self-improvement. Here are four that have shaped me as a designer.

Josef Müller-Brockmann, Grid Systems In Graphic Design

Massimo Vignelli, The Vignelli Canon

David Carson, The End of Print

Sefan Sagmeister, Things I have learned in my life so far

Two books from pioneering modernists and two books from avant garde designers. All four are classics that walk through design philosophies in meticulous detail. I’ve read all of them multiple times. When I’m creating, it’s rare that I don’t recall some detail from one of these books.

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

This would have to be the same quote I shared before from my dad. What I didn’t mention before is that moments after saying that, he taught me how to box. Pretty soon, we were bobbing and weaving right in the middle of our kitchen. I think what he was trying to add to the conversation was that even if you do find common ground with others, you still need to balance it by being tough and being able to stick up for yourself.

I think I’ve always had that mentality in work and in life. It fuels my “fearlessness” while allowing me to connect with my clients.

That’s an interesting question. I’ve never thought of myself as a “charismatic leader” per se, but more of a great “worker bee” type that inspires others by example. There are so many people and organizations doing great positive work for social causes, I’d likely team up with someone who’s got some positive momentum.

I’ve had a chance to work indirectly with Parley For The Oceans when I was doing a project with adidas. Parley’s mission inspired me to think differently about cleaning up the oceans and caring for the environment. Maybe I’d do some work with them. Climate change and the environment has to be the biggest global issue, right? The consequences are literally world-ending.

How can our readers follow you online?

You can learn some more about C-90 and see some of our work at c-90.com. We’re on Instagram at @c_90studio. Or you can always email the studio at [email protected] to say hello or start a conversation.

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

Thank you for having me!

Meet The Disruptors: Chris Ritter Of C-90 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.

Reducing Unprocessed Trauma: Rosanna RozyGlow Hanness’ Big Idea That Might Change The World

An Interview With Fotis Georgiadis

… Don’t do anything until you put your higher self, the ‘you’ that already has what you desire and the wisest aspect of your consciousness, in charge. This is the first step I teach in my coaching work. Otherwise, you are operating from your conditioning or ego programming, and this is not the elevated consciousness that will lead you from where you are to where you want to be.

As a part of my series about “Big Ideas That Might Change The World In The Next Few Years” I had the pleasure of interviewing Rosanna RozyGlow Hanness, the Maverick behind the StarPeace Movement, a MultiDimensional Success Coach, Galactic Healer, and CEO. Rosanna created the StarPeace Movement to shift a global fear, stress and struggle addiction to one of love and thriving, via the entertainment industry. With more than 22 years working in fertility, pregnancy, birth and conscious parenting and based on her extensive research into early influences, Rosanna’s pioneering approach addresses the roots, causes and symptoms of intergenerational trauma.

Rosanna has been featured in Forbes and was listed as one of the New York Weekly Times’ Most Inspirational Women of 2022.

<a href="https://medium.com/media/752bef2cfcb2f6432a815535ea309043/href">https://medium.com/media/752bef2cfcb2f6432a815535ea309043/href</a>

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

My journey into recognising how our early influences shape us began when I was 14. I was depressed and felt like I didn’t belong on this earth, so had the first of several rebirthing sessions. Understanding how our birth experience dictates what we expect from life started me on a path I’ve been on ever since.

During this lifelong exploration of the connection between my human and soul self, I have trained extensively as a healer and yoga teacher, specializing in fertility, perinatal and early years. I am always amazed at how little is known in the mainstream about the research in pre- and perinatal psychology, epigenetics and quantum physics, which, if integrated, would be transformational for humanity.

The work of Dr Bruce Lipton underpins a lot of my studies, inspired me to retrain as an Emotional Mental Detox coach with Suzanna Kennedy. My coaching career took me deeply into the world of metaphysics, as I learned how to co-create my reality in alignment with my soul consciousness (higher self).

My physical and spiritual practices opened me up to be a channel of my higher self, which is expressed as the galactic consciousness, RozyGlow. I started to receive psychic downloads, including, on 31 October 2020, the Sovereignty Prayer, which activated my soul mission. I was given crystal clear guidance that ‘The Light has won, let humanity know that peace has been declared in our universe’. This was the birth of the StarPeace Movement.

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

By far the most potent lesson I witness again and again is how our ancestral influences play out in our lives, and how our cellular memory will seek out opportunities to heal past trauma.

I am three-quarters Greek, born in Oxfordshire (middle England), and have lived in many countries, yet I was drawn to live and set up my yoga business in South Croydon, a town in south London, UK.

I subsequently discovered that my maternal grandfather, my only English grandparent, was actually born and raised in the same town. After being called to specialize in pregnancy and birth yoga, I ended up working with the maternity services at Croydon University Hospital. It was only then that I found out my grandmother had given birth to a stillborn boy, my mother’s older brother, at the very same hospital.

A UK National Birth and Motherhood Survey found that more than 80% of all women are frightened of giving birth (Mother & Baby Magazine, October 2002). It is a vicious circle — women become fearful after consuming negative information, and this stress makes birth more complicated. I became an advocate for pregnant and birthing women, supporting them to overcome their fears, and in the 10 years I worked with them, the maternity unit went from being one of the worst to one of the best in the country.

I ended up living in South Croydon for 12 years. I tried to move sooner, but until my work was done, my DNA wanted me to stay.

Which principles or philosophies have guided your life? Your career?

Change your view of the world and the world around you changes.
Nurture the mother and she will nurture the child.
Love always wins — its vibrational frequency is higher than fear.
Treat others as you would like to be treated.
There is no such thing as ‘I can’t’ — if you believe it, you can achieve it.
No guilt, no blame, no shame — these states indicate a misalignment with our soul consciousness.
Money is neither good nor bad — it is what you do with it that counts.
Scared is sacred scrambled — fear means GO not NO!

Ok thank you for that. Let’s now move to the main focus of our interview. Can you tell us about your “Big Idea That Might Change The World”?

I believe the entertainment and media industry can change the world for the better, because of how our collective consciousness responds to what we consume as entertainment.

There are two important areas to consider:

1) The content and depiction of what we consume via screen, books and audio.

2) The consciousness of those who create and perform this content.

We are heavily influenced by what we watch, read and listen to1. Pop culture is a form of art, and all art is informed by the artist’s life story. I believe that by working with the creators of entertainment and media to explore their early influences and process their unresolved pain, whether directly experienced or inherited, we can shift the collective consciousness, changing the trajectory of humanity for the better.

We have more than 60 years of pre- and neonatal research2 to prove that we are not born a blank slate. The development of a fetus is influenced by both unprocessed pain and stress from previous generations, and also by what the mother consumes through her senses.

Our DNA expression changes according to our environment3. Collective events such as wars, famines, genocides and plagues, leave their mark, as do any personal experiences felt as loss, shock or pain. If we are never given the time, space and support to recover from this trauma, the pain is stored in our cellular memory for the next generation to inherit. This helps explain why we keep recreating the same stories over and over again. We are literally programmed to expect it, and then we reinforce the same messages through what we consume as media and entertainment.

The most influential ‘philanthropists’ and political leaders are all post-war babies. Politics and media have always been strongly linked. We use television to Tell-A-Vision, but is that vision helpful for humanity?

What our mother watches, reads and listens to, while we are in the womb, influences our perception of ourselves and the world. Babies develop an expectation of stress and struggle, which they will continue to seek out later in life, even if uncomfortable, as it feels familiar. The brain is wired to survive or thrive according to maternal conditions. Minimizing the exposure to potentially damaging prenatal influences will help to lessen their impact and support a better start in life.

The vast majority of current media and entertainment stimulates adrenaline and induces stress. Consider all the bad news, horrors, thrillers, action movies, dramas, soap operas and violent computer games, as well as the unrealistic and unachievable perfection propagated by social media. The brain cannot tell the difference between real and imagined stress, so what we choose to consume in our leisure time is of paramount importance. All of the above have a negative impact on young, developing brains, stoking the stress addiction and affirming unhelpful narratives that keep us stuck in a cycle of fear.

We can break free from this cycle, by helping the creators of pop culture to evolve beyond their subconscious programming and pain story. This allows them to rewrite their personal narrative and create from their highest consciousness, paving the way for a tsunami of positive storytelling and characters who model the very best of human behavior, even during their most difficult challenges.

I have guided thousands of people through this journey, which changes their whole perception of life and what is possible, enabling them to co-create the reality they desire rather than fear. When soul consciousness guides our human mindset, the impossible becomes possible. Add to that the recent explosion in technology, and we are perfectly placed to amplify and feed these positive messages to a ravenously hungry audience.

How do you think this will change the world?

I believe that in just one generation we can significantly reduce the unprocessed trauma of previous and existing generations and reset our expectations of the future. Instead of being born into this world already addicted to adrenaline, stress and struggle, babies will grow in an environment that engenders an addiction to the love hormone, oxytocin. We will become hard-wired to thrive instead of merely survive.

Women will consistently see, hear and read how to sit, breathe and deal with challenging events while pregnant, and prepare for the best possible birth outcomes. We will see everywhere, role models of healthy relationships, communication styles and conflict resolution, and so evolve our expectations and habits.

The world is full of trauma experts, therapists and coaches who can raise awareness and facilitate a global ‘platform upgrade’ from fear to love. What if the norm was to be healthy instead of sick? Happy instead of stressed, anxious and depressed? Thriving instead of surviving? Wealthy instead of struggling financially?

The subconscious is 90% more powerful than our conscious mind, so we are subliminally programmed by what our senses consume. Consequently, entertainment and media coverage has the power to take us from where we are to where we want to be, through conscious, heart-centered storytelling.

Imagine a world where the very best of human behavior is modeled consistently on screen, in music, and on the pages of what we read. Humanity adjusts its expectations of what is ‘normal’ and how to show up in life. We change our view of the world, and as result, the world around us changes.

Keeping “Black Mirror” and the “Law of Unintended Consequences” in mind, can you see any potential drawbacks about this idea that people should think more deeply about?

There is potential for my big idea to be criticized for sugar-coating what is really going on, and for portraying a reality that is just too far removed from the current status quo to seem achievable.

We must meet people where they are, using storylines that accept and acknowledge the current collective mindset and present how they can evolve into a new consciousness. Only then will we empower the audience to cross the bridge from the old world of fear and struggle to a new world of love and thriving, exploring a reality beyond what we currently know is possible.

Black Mirror and many other TV series focus on negative storylines, exploring possible avenues for the future of humanity that are anything BUT about thriving, healing and living consciously. There is very little that invites us to imagine how things COULD be. For example, what would a planet that has evolved beyond war look like? What if all extraterrestrials were not the threat we imagine them to be? What if they were teachers from other dimensions coming to help us evolve beyond our struggles?

I don’t deny that there IS already a movement towards positive storytelling — in movies, TV series, social media, gaming, even news — but it makes up only a small part of the output. We need to flip this on its head and shine a light on what is already helping humanity to evolve in a positive direction.

My big idea has the potential to provoke anger, among the people who use the entertainment and media industry to spread propaganda, and among consumers, as they realize how they have been manipulated.

Anger is a normal part of the process of awakening. As we explore a relearning of history, if you like — we need to focus attention on how we can evolve into a thriving world. It is important to practice creative responsibility, using entertainment and media content to help people learn how to process emotions in a healthy way, and how to focus on solutions rather than the problem.

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

The tipping point for me was realizing that the majority of what we consume as entertainment is detrimental to our wellbeing. I stopped watching mainstream TV and news years ago, when I realized that all it did was lead me into fear and struggle. But just turning it off is not enough.

What do we want instead? How can we use media and entertainment to enhance wellbeing, including our collective mental, emotional and physical health? Can we shift our subconscious programming from fear and struggle to trust and thriving, through what we watch, listen to and read?

Already, streaming services allow us to pick and choose what we give our attention to. Where attention goes, energy flows, so if we choose to focus on positive narrative, this is what we will experience. Through my research and experience in pre- and neonatal psychology, desensitization to violence, neuroscience, epigenetics and quantum physics, I believe that imagination is the key.

Pop culture has the power to open us to new ideas and elevate our consciousness, helping us to see things differently, and empowering us to make different choices. Creativity is fuelled by imagination. This is art. If life imitates art, let’s make that art exceptional and let’s make it work for all of us.

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

We now have scientific research that highlights the impact of our everyday choices on our personal and collective consciousness. We also know how to shift the world from its current pattern of fear, conflict and struggle, by minimizing and preventing trauma from passing from one generation to the next. If we want things to change, we must make this information widely available, and apply it.

We need everyone — the creators, the influencers and the consumers — to play their part.

I need to work with the creators of entertainment and media at the highest level. As they heal their unprocessed trauma, they will elevate their own consciousness. This will allow them to ‘download’ their creative inspiration from their soul consciousness (higher self), rather than from their subconscious conditioning (ego programming), which will always seek to tell the story behind the trauma. Once they are creating from their higher self, they have the potential to raise the vibration of the human race.

We also need to work with those who consume entertainment and media. As consumers, WE have the buying power. We can swing the vote, simply by refusing to fund that which is detrimental. We need to raise awareness of what people are currently buying into, and the impact this has on their wellbeing, so they can make choices aligned with what they want to energize in their lives.

Social media plays a crucial role as it is a very powerful way of amplifying messages and reaching a vast audience. Once key influencers adopt an idea, it goes viral, and this has a deep and long-lasting effect on the collective consciousness. Why not make the algorithms work for us?

Everyone knows Star Wars, the seemingly endless battle between good and evil. Everyone needs to know about StarPeace, the potential reality beyond the battle. We need #StarPeace to go viral, as both a word and a concept, spreading imagery and messaging around living as a peace-loving, rather than fear-mongering, planet. Talking about #StarPeace in both original and shared content, shows a personal alignment with a solution-focused mindset. Using #StarPeace in social media posts, print, lyrics, conversation, storylines and fashion becomes a way of saying “I AM choosing to see the world through eyes of love, I AM choosing to shift the narrative in my own life, I AM powerful”.

Once the general public is in possession of this information, it has the potential to change the face of social media, advertising, program creation and, as a result, politics, healthcare and education. As this positive approach is widely adopted, the negative fear narrative will simply fizzle out.

Find out more about StarPeace and how to get involved at

www.rosannahanness.com/starpeace-consciousness

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

1. Put your soul in control and follow its instructions.

As pioneers and visionaries, we are multi-talented and have a myriad of ways we can express our gifts. What is optimal? Your soul already knows. What is the most graceful, easy and joyful way I can impact this world with my gifts? Ask and listen. Create space for the answer to come and have faith your question has been heard. This allows you to create from the highest inspiration.

The ego resists the soul so expect resistance! Keep tuning into what you most desire, and align these wishes with the Highest Good and the Win Win Win. This inspires the most auspicious mindset and links you to everyone that has a soul purpose connection to your divinely-inspired project.

2. Dream your biggest dream and get straight to it.

This is reverse engineering. How would it FEEL to have accomplished your biggest dream? Let this inspire your action. Ask yourself, ‘What is the next step I need to take to bring this vision closer to reality’? You are on a journey. You have aligned with what you desire to actualize, and you can now trust that everything you encounter along the way is part of the plan.

I had the download about shifting my attention to the entertainment industry nearly a year before I really started to listen. My subconscious conditioning (ego programming) argued with my soul consciousness (higher self) as my dream felt too big, so I spent six months and a lot of money procrastinating. Once you’ve had a memo from your higher self, align yourself fully with it and TAKE ACTION!

3. Don’t try to figure it ALL out. Because you can’t.

The next step will be revealed, one at a time. Map out what you do know and trust the gaps will be filled as you step forward. Take time to process each bit of information you receive, in dreams, meditation, or as a consciousness download. Write down your epiphanies and dialogue with the part of you that is planting these seeds in your consciousness. Notice what subconscious resistance, which is just your ego programming, comes up and work on clearing that first. This is a big part of the work that I do.

4. We can’t build a new world from an old world program or way of being.

We are learning how to create with grace and ease, moving away from the old world theory that the only way to achieve is through over effort. If you approach your big vision expecting blood, sweat and tears, this is how it will be. You can’t force the process of creating from your higher self. Yes, there will be times when you have to push through, when you feel uncomfortable and want to give up. When you feel like giving up, know this precedes every big leap. This is part of the process of birthing a new level of yourself.

The good news is that in order to help things unfold more efficiently, the key is to take care of yourself! Make it a daily priority to fill up with what brings you joy. Listen to your body and what it needs. There is no point in pushing through when you require rest. When you find yourself hitting a wall, let go and lean back into everything you have achieved so far. Choose to align with divine right timing and many of the obstacles will be removed. All you need to do is enjoy the journey and watch the magic happen.

5. Give your body time to recalibrate each time you take a step towards your dream.

This will allow your nervous system to catch up with the changes happening to your body, mind and spirit. You are upgrading your circuitry. When I first had my big idea, I didn’t know this. I pushed through and ended up bed-bound for 10 days. My body needed time to rest and recalibrate, as my consciousness had been blasted to another level. Once you get clear on how to share what inspires and delights you with the most impact, you will need lots of rest and relaxation so you don’t burn out with all the energies you are hooking up to. You will also need to replenish yourself, by seeking out things that nourish and delight you (good food, meditation, yoga, dancing, making love, having fun) in order to keep your vibe high.

Can you share with our readers what you think are the most important “success habits” or “success mindsets”?

Believe in yourself, and get whatever support you need to bolster this self belief.

If there isn’t an existing program in your subconscious to support what you want to experience, then pay to work with someone who already has what you want. This is how you ‘download’ it.

2. Surrender control to your soul.

Don’t do anything until you put your higher self, the ‘you’ that already has what you desire and the wisest aspect of your consciousness, in charge. This is the first step I teach in my coaching work. Otherwise, you are operating from your conditioning or ego programming, and this is not the elevated consciousness that will lead you from where you are to where you want to be.

3. Embrace any resistance that comes up as a sign that you are on the right path.

Learn how to spot the many clever ways your ego conditioning tries to limit you, and do not allow this to stop you. Resistance will show up as fear, procrastination, self-criticism and judgment, as the world around you reveals where you are not yet fully aligned with what you desire.

4. Scared is sacred scrambled.

Feeling scared is not a sign to give up. Lean into the uncomfortable, the unfamiliar, the doubt — there is treasure in there. Learn to challenge limiting beliefs and create new beliefs from them, ones that serve your vision and expand your energy.

5. Evolve beyond living in F.E.A.R. (False Evidence/Emotion/Expectation Appearing Real).

Learn to trust your inner authority, your intuition. Looking outside of yourself for validation when you are a pioneer does not work. Only seek advice from those who are already ahead of you on your chosen path. Expecting someone who does not aspire to your goals, or who is of a lower vibrational frequency than you, to bolster your confidence, will not work.

6. There is no need to force the river, it flows on its own.

Resist the urge to rush. When you feel inspired, act, and when you feel depleted, don’t. Let go of the need to overplan. Map out the steps that are clear to you, and you will find your way. Taking imperfect action as soon as you are ready allows you to build confidence and forge ahead on your path. Your personal inner work will create secure foundations for the structures you wish to build. Strengthen the banks of the river so it can truly flow.

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 🙂

@richardcurtis

Would you like to co-create StarPeace with me?

StarPeace is a huge blockbuster movie, a bestselling book, a triple platinum album, an award-winning soap opera, a world-changing documentary, a radio station and a media platform that has the potential to shift humanity’s consciousness from fear, stress and struggle, to love, thriving and peace.

We know that fear and sex sell, but nobody has fully explored just how lucrative LOVE can be. StarPeace is the evolution of StarWars. What exists BEYOND the battle between good and evil?

This is uncharted territory, with infinite potential for the exploration of positive narrative. Combining the extensive research we already have with creative storytelling, we can move from a global addiction to stress and adrenaline (the accumulation of intergenerational trauma), to a global addiction to love. By creating content that stimulates the love hormone, oxytocin, our bodies will shift from survival mode to thriving, rewiring our circuitry and enabling us to co-create a world beyond struggle and drama.

I am calling the most well-intentioned minds, hearts and souls, who desire to have the greatest impact in the shortest time, to step forward and use their status, power and influence for the Highest Good of ALL.

How can our readers follow you on social media?

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Rosanna.Hanness

Facebook StarPeace: https://www.facebook.com/groups/527683555268183

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

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rosannahanness/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/rozyglow

To find out more, and how you can get involved, check out

www.rosannahanness.com and www.iamstarpeaceconsciousness.com

References

https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/Nature%2C-Nurture-and-the-Power-of-Love-Lipton/9638146b7f24cd3ef79b1f2ee2ac1ff78856354b

https://balancedbodiescst.com/2021/10/27/how-our-surround-affects-our-babies/

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

Reducing Unprocessed Trauma: Rosanna RozyGlow Hanness’ Big Idea That Might Change The World was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Makers of The Metaverse: Lyron Bentovim of The Glimpse Group On The Future Of The VR, AR & Mixed…

Makers of The Metaverse: Lyron Bentovim of The Glimpse Group On The Future Of The VR, AR & Mixed Reality Industries

An Interview With Fotis Georgiadis

Being a part of the VR/AR industry also means being a part of the VR/AR community. People interested in a career need to integrate themselves into VR/AR communities, whether it’s local or online. It’s a great way to network, learn from others, and if you’re like me, eventually found your own company.

Lyron Bentovim is the CEO and President of The Glimpse Group, a NASDAQ listed Virtual Reality and Augmented Reality company. Founded in 2016, Glimpse is made up of multiple subsidiary companies all developing enterprise VR/AR solutions for a variety of use cases. Lyron is a serial entrepreneur with over 25 years of leadership experience in technology and finance companies and holds an MBA from the Yale School of Management as well as a Law degree from Hebrew University.

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

I was born and raised in Israel, but from K-12, I went to nine separate schools in three different cities across two countries. So growing up I learned to adapt to new environments quickly and not be afraid of new challenges. I needed to orient myself in a new school, a new home, and a new city all the time growing up.

I have always been an entrepreneur. I started several businesses as early as middle school, the most successful of which was a computer configuration business. Basically, I’d take an average computer and personalize it for that particular customer. That was my first business in the tech industry and it showed me how important user experience was when it came to personal devices.

Eventually when I was 21, my friend and I saved up enough money to buy a local ice cream shop. At the time, it was a regular ice cream shop, but we quickly turned it into much more. We bought an espresso machine, began serving coffee, and eventually expanded to a whole menu offering breakfast foods. My parents loved coming into the shop so that I would cook them breakfast. That was fun for them.

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 love Star Trek. I’ve seen all of Star Trek, and I don’t just mean the original series, but all of it. Every single episode of the original series, The Next Generation, Deep Space 9, Voyager, all of the movies, everything.

The reason I think VR is so powerful is definitely tied to Star Trek. Immersive technologies allow you to create your own reality, and I think that idea is present across all of the Star Trek series. I always wanted to recreate the technology you see in Star Trek and, in a way, VR is our version of the holodeck.

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

I came into the world of VR and AR through a simple Google search…. In Early 2016 it dawned on me that we are in the very early days of a new tech cycle. Since I lived in the New York City area I wanted to better understand the local scene , and so I Googled the term “NY VR.”, little did I know that this simple search will lead to the founding of a NASDAQ listed company (this should be a movie or at least a google commercial) Coincidentally, DJ Smith — who is now my co-founder and Glimpse’s Chief Creative Officer — was hosting his “NYVR Meetup” that afternoon.

I connected with DJ and we went to lunch to talk about VR, AR, and the idea of starting a company in that new industry. It was an exciting time to join the VR industry: the Oculus Rift had just been released, and organizations like the NYVR Meetup were starting to form all around the world. I knew that VR technology was promising, but communities like NYVR showed that there was a real public interest in immersive technology.

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

One of our earliest subsidiary companies was called Kabaq (since rebranded as QReal), during the early days they focused on creating life-like 3D models of restaurant dishes.

When we would meet with investors — and we had to pitch to a lot of investors in the early days — I used Kabaq’s 3D model of a cheeseburger as part of our early demos. People were always drawn to the burger model. Many nights after a demo (usually around dinnertime) I’d get a call or a message from the visitor saying, “Guess what I’m eating right now?” It’s funny, but I think it illustrates an important point. VR has this ability to replicate reality so convincingly that if you see a burger in VR, you suddenly want a burger in real life.

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?

Starting the company was a mistake — I’ve been stuck with it ever since!

Once DJ and I decided to found the company, we realized we were starting from a tough position. Most companies start with at least one of the parts you need to operate, whether it’s manufacturing capabilities, a prototype, money, things like that. We had a great idea and a unique company structure, but no ability to make anything and no money.

So at that stage, it was challenging to pitch to investors. When we reached out to investors with a demo — this was in 2016/2017 — we would use the Oculus Rift, which had just come out. Everyone was so impressed because they hadn’t seen VR before, but the question we’d always get was, “So is this your VR device?” When we said no, the next question was, “Well when is yours coming out?” Like I said, we had no money and no ability to make anything, so it was difficult convincing people to invest at that stage.

Convincing tech startups to join Glimpse was also tough in the beginning. Obviously, people are very attached to the business they founded, and everyone’s certain it will eventually be worth millions. Since we had no money, we were offering to buy out companies with shares in Glimpse which, again, was worth nothing at the time. Our company structure also means that Glimpse financially supports our subsidiary companies, which we couldn’t do either. It was a difficult problem to solve.

Eventually, we figured out that getting investors and subsidiary companies to join Glimpse was kind of like starting a party. When you invite someone to a party, the first question they ask is, “Who else is coming?” That’s when we’d reach out to a second investor, who was also potentially interested depending on who else joined. Eventually, we got enough maybes that we created a big presentation event and hosted a dinner for all of the potential investors. When they looked around the table and noticed how many other people were there, they noticed, “Oh, this is really something real now.” Joining Glimpse became much easier from there.

I really never had the perfect mentor growing up. I’ve been searching for a mentor all my life, and I’m still searching. I’ve had lots of unintentional mentors because, more than anything, I’ve learned from other peoples’ mistakes. Observing other leaders in the tech industry, both today and in the previous tech cycle, was a big part of my learning process.

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

Our partnership with North-Star Care (NSC), a tele-health alcohol treatment program provider, comes to mind. Our subsidiary company Foretell Reality focuses on soft skill development and therapy, developing tools and environments for social connection in VR. Foretell is working closely with NSC to develop VR experiences for their remote treatment programs.

NSC’s goal is to reduce barriers to addiction treatment. They offer remote treatment programs for addiction, providing access to those who aren’t able to receive treatment in-person. This is a great example of how we can use VR for important social good, because VR is the perfect medium to enhance NSC’s remote treatment programs. Non-verbal communication (hand gestures, body movement) is only possible using avatars in a shared virtual space, and it allows users to connect more meaningfully with one another than over the phone or Zoom. Foretell’s VR environments also offer group activities and shared media, so treatment is a more communal process. The social potential for VR is quite powerful.

Today, hardware is more affordable than ever. When we did demonstrations for investors in 2016, the Oculus Rift was the most affordable headset on the market at $600. The HTC Vive was even more expensive at $800 and for either you needed a “gamer” high gPU PC that would cost you an additional $2500, in addition you also had to lug around a whole setup of sensors and poles to make it work. Nowadays, we have the Oculus Quest 2 at $299, and it’s entirely self-contained, no PC or smartphone required. That’s a huge leap forward.

Haptic feedback is another exciting development in VR/AR hardware. Haptic feedback uses vibrations and motions to recreate the sensation of touch, which is great for VR because of the lack of traditional tactile devices like keyboards, controllers, or a mouse. Conveying the feeling of picking up a virtual object, rather than just visually picking it up, is a major advancement in how immersive VR feels and a sign of the future of immersive technology.

Meta’s upcoming AR glasses, codenamed “Project Nazare,” also represent an important upcoming development in the world of VR/AR. For a technology to reach mass adoption, not only does the hardware need to be affordable, but consumers need to want the technology in the first place. Devices that are not only priced for consumers but are clearly useful in their daily lives will massively accelerate mass adoption, and we’re finally starting to see signs that those kinds of devices are on the horizon.

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?

The first thing is a lack of patience across the board. Few people understand how tech cycles work, they don’t understand the specifics of this particular tech cycle we’re now in. Tech cycles are 30–35 year cycles and development takes time, and we’re currently in year 7–8 of this cycle and we are right on schedule in line with previous cycles. But people are expecting a fully-formed metaverse by tomorrow, and that doesn’t happen overnight.

My second concern is about public excitement around emerging technologies. People are way too excited about the potential of new tech and they overestimate what it’s currently capable of. So when they realize it’s not as advanced as they think, the pendulum swings the other way, and they become very dismissive of the new tech. We will eventually get to a place where excitement around new tech is more consistent and in line with the actual development of the technology.

My last concern is on the hardware side. Despite what I just said about patience, I am surprised that nobody has really solved the field of view issue with AR yet. I knew that problem was going to take time to solve, but I was expecting more progress than where we’re currently at. That’s a major issue holding back mass adoption of AR, and once we get that solved, things will accelerate pretty quickly leading to mass adoption by consumers and businesses.

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?

VR/AR has a place in every industry, from healthcare to manufacturing to education. Let’s take the architecture, engineering, and construction (AEC) industry as an example. In AEC, architects have to model buildings either by hand or using 2D screens before construction can begin. Poor visualization is the leading cause of rework costs, which can eat up to 20% of the total project budget. By viewing building plans in VR, plans can be visualized in a 3D space that’s more intuitive for architects and more impressive to investors.

Corporate training is another great example. Studies show that conducting employee training in VR leads to more effective and efficient employees. Not only do employees come out better trained, but the training process itself takes significantly less time and less resources from the company generating better outcomes and a strong ROI. Bringing a new employee up to speed as fast as possible is a priority for any company, and VR training is the best way to do it.

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

The digital technology cycle created for the first time a connected world. Thanks to technology we can now work together with colleagues around the world and have video calls with family members that live on the other side of the world. Immersive technologies will truly make earth a global village, the Metaverse will allow us to travel, work, shop and get entertained together in an immersive world regardless of where we live.

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

This goes back to what I said about patience, the metaverse is not here today! Since Meta’s rebranding announcement last fall, people often think that the metaverse is already here, or that it’s entirely owned by Meta. Neither is true. The metaverse — once it’s fully realized — won’t be owned by any single corporation or person. All the time, I hear people saying, “I’m building my own metaverse!” What they really mean is, they’re building a 3D world. The metaverse will contain many 3D worlds, but that one 3D world is not the metaverse.

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

In order to work in the VR/AR industry, developers need to learn a programming language and become familiar with a platform. Each VR or AR device is built on a platform using a particular coding language, so developers first have to decide whether they want to focus on VR or AR. From there, you can decide what device you want to program for, whether it’s a VR headset like the Oculus Quest 2 or AR-powered iPhone apps. Once you’ve decided, you’ll know which programming language to learn and which platform to become familiar with. A VR experience on the Quest 2 might be built on Unity using the C# programming language, so you should learn how to program in C# for Unity. If you’re interested in developing AR apps for iPhones, you should learn Swift and download Xcode.
Whether you want to do operations, programming, or graphical design, anyone in the VR/AR industry needs an education. That doesn’t mean you need a traditional college degree, but you have to pick up the skills needed for your job before you can get hired. Plenty of our developers at Glimpse arrived at that position in different ways: some have a computer science degree, some took a bootcamp course online like XR Terra, and some are self-taught. It doesn’t matter how you get there, but focusing on your education is key.
Because the VR/AR industry is relatively new, employees in the industry need to be flexible and adaptable. VR/AR employees don’t benefit from the established industry standards which older industries have, but they’re not tied down by those standards either. Working in a new industry like ours requires creative thinking and responsiveness to new challenges, but that’s part of what makes VR/AR so exciting.
As with any new industry, the world of VR/AR is constantly evolving. It’s important to stay informed on the latest industry news and upcoming developments, especially given how fast the technology is improving. Keeping your ear to the ground is key to succeed in the VR/AR industry.
Being a part of the VR/AR industry also means being a part of the VR/AR community. People interested in a career need to integrate themselves into VR/AR communities, whether it’s local or online. It’s a great way to network, learn from others, and if you’re like me, eventually found your own company.

Education. Education is so important, and one of the biggest mistakes we make as a society is not investing enough in education. When we focus on educating all kids, it creates so many more opportunities for those kids to succeed. And I’m not just talking about the K-12 level or the university level, but even before that, at the pre-K level. Most countries aren’t taking any responsibility for pre-K education, leaving it solely to the parents to figure out, and that’s a big mistake. Bringing high quality education to all kids everywhere is a major personal passion of mine, and I think VR and AR can play a huge role in achieving that.

A few major figures come to mind, but a relevant one for this interview would be Mark Zuckerberg. Although we differ greatly on how we run our businesses, we see the future from a very similar lens (both would be very interesting topics for discussion). I would focus our time together on understanding the true strategy behind the founding of Facebook. As someone that has taught Entrepreneurship I think Facebook is one of the companies that has solved the classic start-up “chicken and the egg” problem better than anyone. When Facebook was founded, it started with a very small user base, initially just Harvard sophomores. Creating enough value to engage them and then growing by expanding to all Harvard students and then to Ivy League schools, all colleges nationwide, then the entire US and then the entire world.

That step-by-step expansion was perfect for the service they offered. If Facebook started at the global level where anyone around the world could make an account, you could have 100,000 users, but none of them would know each other. Starting in small communities where people wanted to connect with others and building out from there, was a perfect example of how to grow a business’s user base organically and deliberately.

So if we got lunch together, I’d ask him whether he knew he wanted to take that approach from the start, or if it just happened naturally and he lucked into it.

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

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

Making Something From Nothing: Gus Drakapoulos Of Sin City and Show Palace On How To Go From Idea…

Making Something From Nothing: Gus Drakapoulos Of Sin City and Show Palace On How To Go From Idea To Launch

An Interview With Fotis Georgiadis

Compliment your staff. Say thank you, even for the smallest things. Make your staff feel appreciated and heard.

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

After overcoming challenges with the past, Gus Drakopoulos (aka “The Boss Man”) was 19 years old when he got hired as a cold caller and became the embodiment of “The Wolf of Wall Street”. As a registered stockbroker, he then closed one of his first deals with a successful immigrant and night club owner, and knew he wanted in on the same fun, exciting life.

Fast forward to 2002, Gus opened his first night club, Sin City in The Bronx (the adult dance establishment a million blockbuster movies have been shot in — Hustler with Jennifer Lopez, Billions, The Sopranos and more- In 2011 he opened another adult nightlife venue called Show Palace in Queens and soon after, Sin City in Philadelphia.

Thank you so much for doing this with us! Before we dive in, our readers would love to learn a bit more about you. Can you tell us a bit about your “childhood backstory”?

I’m born and raised in Queens NY. Predominately a Greek/Italian neighborhood. Went to school in a Greek/American HS, and sheltered from other cultures until I graduated. Today I see all people, from all different ethnicities, races and cultures as the same. We all have the same values, and people are not as different as we are made to think they are. The neighborhood was tough and it created tough guys. We all had nick names and 30 years later, all the people we grew up with, we are still friends.

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

If you can think it you can achieve it! It’s thoughts’ are things, your thoughts’ become your reality.

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?

Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill. As I climbed up the ladder of success, pinching myself if this is reality, I often asked why is it not happening to others that came from where I came from. The book goes into why one has and other do not. The book is my bible, not only for business, but life in general.

Many reasons!, just like failure has many reasons, I don’t focus on why they can’t or why one fails, I focus on how one did and succeeds. Those traits are few, and all we have to do is follow suite. If I had to guess a few reasons, the one that probably is the top of the list, is passion. Without it, you lack drive, work ethic, and an unstoppable desire to achieve your goals. It borderline an obsessive disorder you have to create.

Depends on the idea, however if it’s that unique, even if it’s been created before, maybe yours will be better. Blockbuster rented videos, Netflix did the same with a different twist to how they did it in the 90’s.

For the benefit of our readers, can you outline the steps one has to go through, from when they think of the idea, until it finally lands in a customer’s hands?

In particular, we’d love to hear about how to file a patent, how to source a good manufacturer, and how to find a retailer to distribute it. A successful person over time sharpness his abilities. No one has all the answers how to do something, not even Elon Musk. However, from my personal experience, over the years, I sharpened my capabilities to navigate and find the right people to get me what I need. I was able to do that by constantly networking and meeting different people, and identifying what they can offer. So, If you need to patent something it’s about finding the right lawyer to do so. Thru your network you build over the years, you should be able to do that. If your network is not there yet cause of age, or what not, find a mentor who already has a network.

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

Compliment your staff. Say thank you, even for the smallest things. Make your staff feel appreciated and heard.

Let’s imagine that a reader reading this interview has an idea for a product that they would like to invent. What are the first few steps that you would recommend that they take?

Research everything about the industry you are about to go into, identify the leaders in it, and find out who are the people behind those leading companies. Reach out to them to help you become a leader in that industry next.

There are many invention development consultants. Would you recommend that a person with a new idea hire such a consultant, or should they try to strike out on their own?

Hire a consultant! Henry Ford was once called an ignorant man by a newspaper. He took them to court for defamation, during the court proceedings the opposing council examined Mr. Ford on the stand and started asking him some ridiculous questions to prove to the court how ignorant he was. Mr. Ford replied and said, why should I fill my brain with such non useful knowledge? Let me remind you that on my desk I have a row of buttons and by pressing the right one it summons a professional on the topic of issues I need an answer too.

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

I try to give back with inspiration, helping others who can help at the moment themselves and my life’s journey and knowledge I’ve gathered to the ones who want to follow a similar path.

Puff Daddy, aka Diddy! He has a passion and drive, create and win like no other! Or at least he is very vocal about it. He also, has a great family structure, and has had a great loss having him reflect on what important and what is not.

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

Making Something From Nothing: Gus Drakapoulos Of Sin City and Show Palace On How To Go From Idea… was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Makers of The Metaverse: Anand Srivatsa Of Tobii On The Future Of The VR, AR & Mixed Reality…

Makers of The Metaverse: Anand Srivatsa Of Tobii On The Future Of The VR, AR & Mixed Reality Industries

An Interview With Fotis Georgiadis

Vision — Understanding the kind of company you want to be a part of and aligning with their vision is essential. Setting the vision or aligning your vision with what the company is trying to build is crucial because we are talking about creating technology for the future.

Anand Srivatsa is the chief executive officer of Tobii AB. He first joined the company as division chief executive officer for Tobii’s previous business unit Tobii Tech in 2019, bringing two decades of high-tech industry experience. Previously, he was vice president of the Client Computing Group and general manager of Intel’s Desktop, Systems and Channel Groups. Anand holds a MSc in electrical engineering from Stanford University.

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

I grew up in different parts of the world and moved around a fair amount. I was born in India, in the city of Bangalore. But I grew up for most of my life in Mumbai, which is the financial and culture capital of India. I had the chance to go to boarding school relatively early in life. But in general, my experience was one of moving around in different cities, meeting new people, and making new friends. Then when I was 11 years old, my family moved to the United States, to New York City. That was a major opportunity for me to experience a new culture and new lifestyle. And I’ve been fortunate this has been a trend that has continued throughout most of my life.

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?

My response here is not actually related to a book, film, or podcast. But I would say watching Michael Jordan play basketball had one of the biggest impacts on my life. In Michael Jordan, I saw somebody who was highly skilled. But at the same time recognized he needed to put a lot of work in to make himself successful. And that was something that I unconsciously internalized from a young age. So I understood that to be successful or make an impact, you need to have a combination of talent, discipline, and commitment. Otherwise, it will be very difficult to achieve what you want.

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

Even though it is not specific to the virtual reality industry, the first story that stands out to me is the book Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card, which has some elements of science fiction and future fiction. Parts of the story show what the Internet could become in terms of driving a public opinion from concealed actors. I enjoyed the book very much from a pure science fiction perspective. However, over the last four or five years, I saw how science fiction could portray not just the technology we use but what kind of social outcomes are possible with it. In the book, we see how mass communication platforms can be used to shape public opinion in a way that is not transparent. And over the last few years, we’ve witnessed polarization in our society, in many cases being driven by people online, and it’s unclear who’s driving the agenda. So, understanding how some of these technologies, like the metaverse and virtual reality, will have a broader implication on society is one of the things that inspired me to work in the industry.

I’m also a big Star Trek fan, so I see the metaverse playing out like the hollow deck type of construct. This is a space where you can make whatever you need for that particular exercise, whether it is a simulation or training or enjoyment or entertainment. And in my view of the metaverse, we will be able to go and enjoy all kinds of different scenarios that are either dangerous or impossible to get to in our physical world. Through the metaverse, we would be able to transcend those limitations.

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

One of the most significant risks I’ve taken was the decision to move from the United States to take a sales job in Taiwan. It was a professional risk because I was moving away from my comfort zone, moving into a new culture, and working with a team at Intel I did not know very well and in a different part of the business. On the personal side, my wife was pregnant with our first child, and we were going to move when the child was less than eight weeks old. When I got the opportunity, my wife was in the second trimester. But we discussed it and decided that despite all risks, there were a lot of exciting opportunities both personally and professionally. I got the job and what was left was to go and see Taiwan, which we had never been to before. We take the trip, and on the plane, my wife says, “Ok, I’m looking for a sign”. For me, that meant there was no way we were moving. Five days of the seven-day trip go by, and no sign apart from the fact that it was a nice place. That day, we took the subway during rush hour, and as we were standing on this crowded train, my wife felt this tug on her arm. A very kind older woman guided her to a seat reserved for pregnant women and the elderly. And my wife then said, “yes, that was the sign”. So that’s how we decided to move to Taiwan. And the rest of my career has been a consistent willingness and ability to take risks. I can tell you that if I had not taken the risk to move to Taiwan, my career would’ve been quite different.

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?

This is something that happened during the launch of one of Intel’s marquee gaming products. At the time, I was leading the desktop business, and we were always on the lookout for the next best gaming processor. And I had the opportunity to lead the product definition. This was a product that was going to set the bar for processors, and I planned a big launch event for it in New York City. We knew this was going to be the best technology out there at the time, so we made sure everything about the launch was perfect. After the event was over, I took my team out for pizza to celebrate. But all of sudden, the PR team on the west coast calls to say the press was writing that Intel was faking benchmarks. This is one of the few times we had worked with a third-party company to set the benchmarks rather than waiting for the press to create them after the launch. And it turned out that the benchmarks provided by the third-party company, and shared during the event, had a mistake in how they configured one of the competitors’ parts. The data was going to show that Intel was by far the best product, but the ones we provided showed us doing better than expected, which became the center of attention after all. This turned into two months of crisis communications. The lesson here is that you can never control everything, even when you think things are perfect.

I give a lot of credit to my wife for helping to drive me to be the kind of person I am. Being Indian and growing up in a fairly conservative Indian family, there’s a bias towards being quite conservative in your choices and not taking too much risk to go outside your traditional norms. And as expected, I was an engineer, did a master’s degree in engineering, and got a job as an engineer. But as I started my career, I realized my interests were in many ways outside of this realm and in places like business or sales, which were quite different than what I studied. These would also put me outside of my comfort zone and the safe environment I had been preparing myself for. So the person who encouraged me to take these risks was my wife. I look back now, and most of the success I’ve had has been thanks to the ability to go and take risks, putting myself in new situations to demonstrate I can contribute. Without a doubt, the diversity of my experience has been a key asset in allowing me to grow, try new things, and be chosen for challenging tasks. If I had not been able to take risks with the encouragement of my wife and or the support of my family to move around the world, I certainly would not be where I am today.

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

The technologies we work on at Tobii have immense opportunities to make the world a better place. In fact, this is part of our mission statement to improve the world with technology that understands human attention and intent. The application of these technologies can drive some massive improvements across the globe. For example, there is a lot of potential for contribution in areas like education, where our technologies can be used to help more broadly assess how students are learning and help them learn in a way that is better for them. This can be a huge tool towards bridging the education divide we see between developing and developed nations and helping children everywhere achieve their potential.

We also see our technologies helping power new medical diagnostic devices, enabling more accurate brain health or eyesight-related diagnostic devices. We have tremendous opportunities in many fields, and I’m excited to see that future become a reality.

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?

The most exciting part to me, both in VR and AR, is that these types of devices can give us experiences beyond our physical limitations. For example, it can enable us to simulate or train in environments that are not possible to replicate safely. Or we could all experience being in a different environment, like Mars or the Moon. Those kinds of things are super exciting in the VR and AR space. These can also help transcend our limitations, whether that is the ability to remember all the information we need, help improve our lives or make us more productive. Hopefully, these devices will also save us some time to help us get more free time to enjoy our lives.

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?

First, we have a physical challenge. These devices will be on people’s heads, so they need to be comfortable and something they will want to wear for extended periods of time.
Second, there is a technology challenge. On the VR side, we need to deliver on the promise that users will be able to use these devices to mimic what would be an experience that they could not have in the physical world. We need a level of immersiveness that is not available today. This is something our technology at Tobii can help enable more quickly.
The third challenge is users are concerned about more of their data being tracked or stored by companies. We are now entering a new type of digital and physical experience, so the feeling is their data will be more exposed. Today we already have scenarios where we feel companies are tracking our data in ways that are not transparent to the user. To make these kinds of experiences successful and something users really want, the tech industry as a whole has to think about how we are going to put users in control of their data, so as they are experiencing these great new immersive environments, they aren’t worrying about what is being tracked. In fact, at Tobii, we have a Data Transparency Policy all clients using our technology must agree to.

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?

Today, from a work perspective, we are looking to transcend our physical limitations more than ever before. We’ve seen this in the last couple of years when as we’ve dealt with the pandemic and needed to collaborate with our colleagues without meeting them face to face anymore. VR can potentially help make those collaboration experiences more immersive and efficient than just being on a video conference. So from that perspective, it will help bridge colleagues across the world. It will hopefully create an environment where people from all over the world can collaborate and be more productive.

With AR, there are also significant opportunities to improve and create new tools for frontline workers or people who need information at their fingertips while working. Today many frontline workers, like surgeons, are in scenarios where they are using their hands, so they cannot carry a tablet with them at all times. And if AR can enable them to get the information they need to be more productive, I think there’s a massive opportunity for commercial use cases around augmented reality as well.

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

VR, AR and MR can help create more online communities where people can meet others with similar interests and break down barriers. Typically, we’re only limited to interacting with people in our own community, city, or country. But the metaverse could help make the world seem like a smaller place and create more of a sense of community. That hopefully is something that will manifest itself when the metaverse becomes more real.

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

There are a couple of different myths.

First, if we look at it from the context of high tech, there is a myth assuming almost everybody in the high-tech industry is an engineer or has studied engineering. But there is a tremendous opportunity when we look at the kind of products that we deliver for a range of backgrounds to create value to build the future these devices and our technologies will enable. And this ranges from sociologists to finance people, to technologists, and on and on. So, I think the myth that the industry is only populated with engineers is probably overstated.
The second myth is that companies aren’t thinking about the impact of technology. So maybe they don’t see both the positive and negative elements of the technology created. This is something that at Tobii, we debate a lot. How is our technology used, and what is the intention with the technologies we put out? I think that is quite a common scenario in most companies. People, in general, are not just building technology for the sake of it. But we’re really trying to develop products to make people’s lives better.

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

Vision — Understanding the kind of company you want to be a part of and aligning with their vision is essential. Setting the vision or aligning your vision with what the company is trying to build is crucial because we are talking about creating technology for the future.
Persistence — This industry has been through a hype bubble where people have expected VR to already have become quite mainstream. And, of course, these technological changes take much longer than expected. Thus, sticking to your guns and being persistent about what you think will be the future and create value is necessary.
Innovation — Technology challenges us to overcome difficulties to create solutions that delight users. So constant innovation is key.
Creativity — Creativity is also very important and needs to be paired with innovation to go back in and think about how you can continue to deliver experiences even if the technology doesn’t currently meet everything you need.
Setting the right expectations — There is no big explanation here, but setting expectations internally and externally is an integral part of a constantly-evolving industry.

Justice in education would be my personal passion. Every child should be able to access education that can help them reach their potential. If all children had access to high-quality education, it would give people a similar kind of start. So I would love to be part of a movement that enables that and makes that real.

That person would be Barack Obama. He is a leader who has broken through numerous barriers. I would love to hear from him how he was able to persevere, despite the obvious challenges in getting to the positions that he’s gotten to.

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

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

Wisdom From The Women Leading The Blockchain Revolution With Arina Dudko Of CEX IO

An Interview With Fotis Georgiadis

Don’t be afraid to go public. Go out of your comfort zone. Stand in the spotlight. It’s the only way progress is made.

As a part of our series about Wisdom From The Women Leading The Blockchain Revolution, had the pleasure of interviewing Arina Dudko.

With 15+ years of experience in banking, payments, client relations and crypto exchanges, Arina Dudko previously held leadership roles at Swedbank, IBC Company Formations and Industra Bank. Now Head of Corporate Payment Solutions at CEX.IO, she can address a range of topics including Banking & Payments, Corporate Finance, Business Strategy, Investments and Financial Analysis.

Thank you so much for doing this with us! Can you share with us the story of how you decided to pursue this career path? What lessons can others learn from your story?

Growing up, I had a passion for finance. At 19, I decided the banking industry was the place to channel it. It offered stability to a young woman living in an unstable, post-Soviet Union member country.

My first employer was Swedbank. I enjoyed quick success in a sales/client service role and was designated “Best Client Customer Manager”. This designation led to additional training opportunities and progression to a leadership position.

After taking time off for the birth of my children, I held a succession of roles in corporate finance and business strategy. I became a private banker with a portfolio of complicated institutional clients in the IT/Fintech space. Among these was my current employer, CEX.IO. The company’s CEO asked me to join his team.

Can you tell me about the most interesting projects you are working on now?

We just finalized the addition of PayPal as a platform funding method on CEX.IO, as well as within the CEX.IO Wallet product. PayPal integrates seamlessly into the CEX.IO ecosystem, and adds an additional secure and simple payment method for web and mobile transactions that creates added peace of mind for our customers.

We continue to source new payment and funding options, with the goal of opening up the crypto ecosystem up to as many market participants as want to enter the space. A newcomers’ crypto buying experience should be as easy as purchasing a cup of coffee.

It may sound strange, but the most important mentor in my career was simple want. I was raised in an uncertain socioeconomic climate and understood very early that I’d have to make my own way. I was literally hungry.

Today I enjoy mentoring and giving back to the industry. For example, my former assistant is now a successful financial industry professional in his own right.

What are the 3 things that most excite you about blockchain and crypto? Why?

1) The “New Age” economy is evolving and happening right now. The last time the world saw such a notable, rapid economic shift was during the Industrial Revolution.

2) The extraordinary speed of mass adoption. The Web 3.0 user base is growing at rates faster than any mass technology we have seen before. Yet even so, we’re still at the early stage of understanding and taking collective advantage of all the possibilities. It is so exciting.

3) The boundaries of how far a person can travel in the crypto space are only located in imagination and drive. We are reinventing the world as it turns. The sky’s the limit!

What are the 3 things that worry you about blockchain and crypto? Why?

1) The extreme volatility of assets at this stage/phase of crypto industry development is something to pay attention to.

2) Potential overregulation in the space, countered by an equal concern that the lack of a common approach is just as dysfunctional. Self-regulation, freedom of experimentation and above all, cooperation, is what makes the industry blossom.

Some clear and common rules of the game are clearly needed, but if crypto is perceived as a danger to current government economic models, overreaction is possible.

3) Bad actors. Unfortunately, the rate of scam activity is still very high, and creates obstacles for good actors. For 99% of the brilliant crypto minds who want to make the world a better place, there’s the 1% who will always try to misuse it.

How have you used your success to bring goodness to the world? Can you share a story?

Sharing is caring, right? I believe in giving generously of my time and experience, helping younger generations find their way with perhaps more clarity than I first had when I began my career. I will answer almost any question I am asked.

As you know there are not that many women in your industry. Can you share 5 things that you would advise to other women in the blockchain space to thrive?

1) Just start doing and don’t be afraid to experiment. It might look scary from the outside, but once you enter, you will see that the crypto community is quite open, friendly and helpful.

2) Forget about the Imposter Syndrome. The industry is so new, and women have never been afraid to pioneer.

3) Share your viewpoint — openly and without fear. The current male dominance of the blockchain industry comes at a significant product cost — offerings built for and by men. True mass crypto adoption is impossible without everyday use by women. We are 51% of the global consumer population.

4) Don’t be afraid to go public. Go out of your comfort zone. Stand in the spotlight. It’s the only way progress is made.

5) Read a lot and monitor industry trends. The speed of development is breathtaking. We all need to stay on top of it.

Can you advise what is needed to engage more women into the blockchain industry?

In order to engage more women, we need more public attention on the gender imbalance and how it ultimately holds the industry back. Many different skills and professional backgrounds are needed for success. Women must see that they are welcomed and necessary in this industry, as well as any other.

What is your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share a story of how that had relevance to your own life?

I can’t hold myself accountable with a quote, however I can and do standby a word — “resilience”.

Resilience is found in all aspects of my life: work, family and, my country. The environment and conditions in the game called life are forever changing. You need to align yourself with what is happening. Focus on the result with positive thinking and pivot as needed to achieve those results.

This is championed by me and my close circle of women friends: financial independence — be the owner of your life.

In post-Soviet Union countries (such as Latvia, where I’m from) there are still far too many women dependent on men. Especially financial dependence, which worsens when it comes to child bearing. Family stability is a wonderful thing, but you never know what will happen. From my perspective, a modern woman must always rely on herself in terms of her financial stability, security and confidence.

I hope that my lived example of how a woman can be a player in a male-dominated field like finance and crypto, alongside being a mother (which I’ve not sacrificed for my career) can serve as another model for successfully combining the best aspects of life.

How can our readers further follow your work online?

Connect with me on LinkedIn.

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

Wisdom From The Women Leading The Blockchain Revolution With Arina Dudko Of CEX IO 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: Isaac Brodsky Of Foursquare On How Their Technological Innovation Will Shake Up…

The Future Is Now: Isaac Brodsky Of Foursquare On How Their Technological Innovation Will Shake Up The Tech Scene

An Interview With Fotis Georgiadis

Be aware of cultural differences that impact how you design systems. Differences in names, dates, addresses and more are everyday occurrences. For instance, different countries might write the parts of a street address in different orders, or they may have entirely different parts to their addresses — only the US calls postal codes ZIP codes after all. It requires research, thoughtfulness, and attention to detail.

As a part of our series about cutting edge technological breakthroughs, I had the pleasure of interviewing Isaac Brodsky.

Isaac Brodsky is a principal engineer at Foursquare. He co-founded and was COO of Unfolded, which was acquired by Foursquare in 2021. Prior to that he worked at Uber on marketplace data systems. He is an active contributor and leader of the H3 open source project. He lives in Burlingame, CA.

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

My journey started in college at Webster University where I majored in computer science. After college I ended up at Uber working with geospatial data on the engineering team. My team was working on marketplace systems which was my first true introduction to big data and geospatial data. I got hooked on this type of work quickly. Uber divided the world into hexagons with the H3 system, and I found the work both technically challenging and rewarding. I wanted more of it.

After I left Uber, I co-founded Unfolded in late 2019 with my colleagues Sina Kashuk, Ib Green, and Shan He. Unfolded is a geospatial analytics platform for data unification, enrichment, and visualization. My work with Unfolded presents never ending opportunities to continue to work on cutting edge open source geospatial software.

Unfolded was acquired by Foursquare in mid 2021, in fact, we just passed the first anniversary of the acquisition. I’m excited about what Unfolded can do and be within the Foursquare ecosystem, and we’ve made some great advancements since coming here. And there are more coming down the pike. I’m grateful to be part of this team.

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

Without a doubt the most interesting part of my career has been starting a company. Coming from the tech side of things, there is a lot that goes into the day-to-day operations of building a business from the ground up that I had not previously considered. Everything from hiring to making sure employees have health insurance to accounting for and filing taxes is something that requires skill and attention. While working on the technology remains my favorite part of the job, it was a valuable experience and I learned a lot. It gave me a new respect for business owners, and for the people who handle all of those tasks so people like me can focus on what we do best.

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

I spend most of my time on Foursquare’s Unfolded platform, which includes technologies like Hex Tiles. Unfolded and Hex Tiles help people work with large geospatial data sets. A lot of technologies that help people work with this data are open source. However, the knowledge needed to effectively use these data sets and tools is quite niche. This means that a lot of companies are sitting on incredible geospatial data that they do not know how to use.

In particular, Hex Tiles is a huge technological breakthrough. It is a new next gen tiling system for working with large, hexagon-gridded datasets. Before we launched Hex Tiles, the tools needed to work with these datasets were very burdensome and complicated for the user to set up. In addition to that, it was difficult to visualize the data. Hex Tiles brings accessibility into this process, making a method that used to take days be shortened into mere hours, saving data scientists time, energy, and company’s resources.

How do you think this might change the world?

I think this technology could help save lives. Take Foursquare’s partnership with Kontur, a geospatial analysis firm, where we use data visualization and mapping to help humanitarian organizations manage the worst impacts of the climate crisis. The analyses we produce with Kontur helps humanitarian organizations pre-position aid and work with local authorities to set up cooling stations and hospital space in the areas most likely to be hit by wildfires, extreme heat, or other deadly natural events.

There was a time not long ago when visualizing this data would have been impossible. Creating clear, detailed maps, after all, relied upon 20 years’ worth of data on temperatures, wildfire paths, and a host of other inputs. Displaying the full, living map online, with updates in real time, requires tremendously efficient data processing, and Hex Tiles is the first program to enable it at this scale.

Companies can use large geospatial datasets and data visualizations to make better decisions, too, of course. They do, and that improves their bottom line. They can do some truly world-changing work. It is the example with Kontur, though, where we can see most directly how technology like Hex Tiles can literally save lives.

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

At its heart, Black Mirror is about morality, with a backdrop of amazing technology. That’s not an argument to stop making technological advancements; it’s an argument to consider the moral implications of technologies that people create and use.

One of the reasons I’m happy at Foursquare is that the company does a great job instituting and living by a moral code. We are committed to the principle that data is a privilege. We have strict rules in place to protect individual consumers. In order to ensure that all consumers are protected from harmful practices, we filter out visits to sensitive locations such as religious centers, women’s shelters, military locations, and LGBTQ centers, among others. Further, we do not provide audience segments for locations where children under the age of 18 may frequent.

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

One difficulty when working with geospatial data is working with large hexagon-indexed datasets. I remember discussing this problem with my Unfolded co-founder Sina Kashuk. It was a problem he encountered on a regular basis.

This conversation, one that at the time felt like normal work chatter, ended up being the impetus to think about different ways of storing and computing hexagon-indexed data. This eventually became Hex Tiles, which Foursquare launched a few months ago. Hex Tiles gives data scientists like my co-founder Sina the ability to easily unify diverse spatial datasets, conduct on-the-fly analytics, and quickly visualize and explore big data on a planetary scale.

Moral of the story, there are oftentimes solutions for the problems that seem unsolvable and a normal part of our work routine. Don’t take those seemingly routine conversations with co-workers for granted, they could be a source of inspiration for your next big idea!

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

While tools like Hex Tiles are only used by a select group of people who work directly with geospatial data, the impacts of this technology are far reaching and cast a much wider net than only those involved in the day to day.

At Foursquare, we believe in the power of location. All of our products are created with the purpose of helping our customers understand that where people go, and how they spend their time in the physical world is a reflection of their values and what they care about. Geospatial data in particular is a powerful way to visualize this, especially at enterprise scale.

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

To publicize our innovative technology we’ve been making a number of datasets available to the public for free as part of the Unfolded Studio data catalog. It has been exciting seeing that people are able to get their hands on this great data.

A few people come to mind for this question. First, one of my college professors who opened the doors of computer science and programming to me. When I began at Webster, I was not a computer science major. But I enjoyed this professor’s classes and she showed me a path through school that I enjoyed much more, which greatly impacted my career trajectory. I would not be where I am without her.

Next a few of my former colleagues from Uber come to mind. I had the pleasure of working with a few senior engineers who embodied the characteristics that I want to develop myself. They had great empathy combined with technical expertise and dedication. They were curious and always on the journey of learning more. I remain grateful for the time I spent working with them.

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

In my personal time, I volunteer with the Spinal CSF Leak Foundation, an organization that plays an important role in my life. In my role on the Patient Advisory Panel for Research, I am able to utilize my working knowledge of data and statistics by helping the Foundation look at data heavy research proposals and discussing with academics and researchers since I work with both of those groups on a regular basis in my professional life. It is nice to know that my skills as an engineer can be translated into things that I know are making a difference in the lives of so many people and would encourage others to do the same.

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

Before I started working in the technology industry as a whole and particularly with geospatial data, there are a few things I wish I would have known or kept in mind.

You must be able to communicate the unique value proposition of your technology in a way that translates through the industry. It’s important to explain the value of the product you’re working on while also explaining what is different about it to more technical audiences. Other engineers and scientists want to quickly learn how your product builds on knowledge and skills they already have.
Something else I wish I would have had a stronger grasp of when working with geospatial data is to let go of our attachment to the exact coordinates and think of the data we are working with as a grid system. In real life, that looks like calling an Uber. The GPS might not know what side of the street you are standing on. While that is an important detail, it is not always the one the system needs to be designed for. And while systems like GPS are considered the true standard, there is always some error involved because the signals GPS works with are complicated and noisy.
If you see something strange in the data you are working with, ask why. Speaking from personal experience, you may be tempted to come up with a conclusion about why the data looks the way it does, or why it seems harder to work with, and move on to the next thing. However, I would encourage those working with data to dig into it — you may be surprised by what you learn. Sometimes people can be intimidated by asking the tough questions without a clear idea of where the answers will take them, but in the long run it is worth it.
I have a saying I frequently use, and that is “time is relative, clocks are hard.” This translates to the fact that working with temporal (time) data is difficult and requires its own way of thinking. For example, even basic concepts like what day the week starts on are not settled concepts — some would say Monday, while others would say Sunday. This comes up practically when analyzing data over a week-long period. Clocks are complex things, and two people chatting on an app might have phones that show different times!
Be aware of cultural differences that impact how you design systems. Differences in names, dates, addresses and more are everyday occurrences. For instance, different countries might write the parts of a street address in different orders, or they may have entirely different parts to their addresses — only the US calls postal codes ZIP codes after all. It requires research, thoughtfulness, and attention to detail.

If possible, I would love to inspire a movement that combines the missions of public libraries and book fairs. There are many foundations that put this concept into action. Many cities have a non-profit foundation supporting their public libraries. Getting involved with these foundations is a wonderful way to support free and low-cost educational resources in your area, and to connect with new books, movies and music.

Oftentimes, library foundations and nonprofits will host book sales to sell off library books that are out of circulation or donated. I have wonderful memories of the book fairs where I grew up in St. Louis. These systems, both public libraries as well as fairs where books are sold at a steep discount, help young people invest in their interests, particularly if those interests go beyond what they are being taught in the public school system. For instance, if you learned about the basics of physics in your science class and wanted to do a deep dive, you can head to the library. It is applicable to any topic. Reading opens doors to knowledge and learning and should be widely accessible.

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

“You never know until you try.” This saying resonates with me both in my personal life and as a technologist. Personally, I find meaning in this quote in “breaking out of one’s comfort zone” and being open to new ideas, people, and activities. As an engineer, I find meaning in this in prototyping and demonstrating new systems, as well as maintaining a healthy skepticism of claims until proven.

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 🙂

The COVID-19 pandemic has drastically changed the way that people live and move in the physical world. On top of that change, we are seeing an ever increasing use of data driven decision making, including artificial intelligence. Foursquare sits at the intersection of those changes and as the industry leader in location technology, we are at the forefront of this revolution. Thanks to our location data, organizations’ investments in location intelligence are driving positive business outcomes.

Technology can change the way people interact with their surroundings forever. With the digital transformation in full effect, it is necessary for businesses to make greater investments in technology solutions in order to stay ahead, especially with consumer demand and behaviors more varied than ever before.

How can our readers follow you on social media?

You can follow me on Twitter at and keep up with all the work I am doing with Foursquare and Unfolded.

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

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

Making Something From Nothing: Anurag Gupta Of Shoreline io On How To Go From Idea To Launch

An Interview With Fotis Georgiadis

Different is better than better. If you’re trying to disrupt an existing space, being 10% better or even 100% better, doesn’t matter. Your competitors are also talented, have a head start, and are lower risk. Ideally, you can be at least 10x better on two separate axes that your customers care about. When I launched Amazon Redshift, AWS’s cloud-native data warehouse, we led with a tagline of being “10x faster, 10x cheaper.” In that market segment, it was transformative and led to what, for a time, was AWS’s fastest growing service. We couldn’t have done so without building and selling differently from market segment incumbents.

As a part of our series called “Making Something From Nothing”, I had the pleasure of interviewing Anurag Gupta, founder and CEO of Shoreline.io.

Anurag is the founder of Shoreline.io, a DevOps company focused on incident automation — making it easy to automate away commonly occurring incidents and possible to quickly and safely debug and repair new incidents. Before Shoreline, Anurag was a VP at AWS, where he was responsible for transactional database and analytic services, growing this business a thousand-fold over his time there. He has also been an early member of three startups, with one IPO and two acquisitions.

Thank you so much for doing this with us! Before we dive in, our readers would love to learn a bit more about you. Can you tell us a bit about your “childhood backstory”?

I grew up in New York City. My parents moved to the US from India when I was 4. It was hard for them, but it gave me access to world-class libraries, museums, music, magnet schools, etc. We’re all shaped by our childhood experiences — I’m probably more direct, more passionate, and have more varied interests because I grew up as a New Yorker than if I grew up somewhere else.

After college, I came out to the Bay Area, working at Oracle. While Oracle was already a billion-dollar company, database development was just 20 people. I learned a lot there — most importantly, that you can do large impactful work with a small team. I then did 3 startups and eventually landed at AWS, which was just getting going at that time. It was a great place to build, innovate, and grow services that mattered to customers. After that, I started Shoreline, which is the next chapter in my life.

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

Since we’re talking about making something from nothing, let me give you a quote from an email I wrote to one of my teams when we were about to release our first version.This quote is about the principle of reflexivity.

“As you shape your work, your work shapes you. If you work on things that are easy, you become indolent. If you work on things that are dull, you become dull. If you work on things that are commonplace, you become commonplace. Conversely, if you work on things that are hard, you hone your ability. If you work on things that may fail, you gain courage. And, if you work through times of ambiguity, you become a leader.

That’s why it is worthwhile working on these difficult, ambiguous projects that aren’t all that likely. You come out the other side a better person than you came in. And, at the end of the day, that’s pretty much all you carry from project to project, team to team, company to company. Yourself.”

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

There are so many! One I’ll pick is “Material World: A Global Family Portrait” by Peter Menzel. In this book, 16 of the world’s foremost photographers traveled to 30 nations to live for a week with a statistically average family. At the end of the visit, they took a portrait of the family outside their home, surrounded by all their possessions and holding the one they found most precious. There’s also wonderful descriptions about their daily routines, their income, what they most want in their lives etc. I must have given at least 10 copies away over time.

I’ll never travel to all these places or meet all these people. The book gives me a chance to do so through reading and careful observation. I learned so much! It reduced some of my biases that came from living in one environment surrounded by people much like myself with many of the same concerns. Peter did a similar book called “Hungry Planet” showing families surrounded by a month of the food they eat. It’s also fascinating.

When we think about startups, we generally only think about the ones that succeed. But, 90% of startups will fail. Creating something from nothing is hard. For most of us, it is the hardest thing we can do over our careers. There’s no question it will be a struggle.You may have a great idea but have gaps in how to execute or reach customers. As a founder, it is important to attract people who are better than you on these things. In the beginning, people are joining because of you, not the specifics of your idea. That’s also true of investors — you need to create a precise, succinct description of what you’re embarking on has potential. You’ll get lots of objections. That’s OK. Use it to make your idea better. You’ll be spending the next years of your life working on this so the feedback is a gift.

Launching first isn’t critical. Understanding the product your customers want is. Microsoft Zune launched a year before the Apple iPod. Zune’s tagline was “Welcome to the social.” iPod’s tagline was “1,000 songs in your pocket.” Apply understood its customers better than Microsoft did and that was reflected in the success of these two products over time.

If the market you will serve is of any meaningful size, it will support multiple vendors. Many of the world’s largest companies were not first to market. As a startup, you’re usually not competing with other vendors, but with non-consumption. Figure out what you can do differently or better than others in a way at least a portion of your target customer base will find overwhelmingly important.

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

Different is better than better. If you’re trying to disrupt an existing space, being 10% better or even 100% better, doesn’t matter. Your competitors are also talented, have a head start, and are lower risk. Ideally, you can be at least 10x better on two separate axes that your customers care about. When I launched Amazon Redshift, AWS’s cloud-native data warehouse, we led with a tagline of being “10x faster, 10x cheaper.” In that market segment, it was transformative and led to what, for a time, was AWS’s fastest growing service. We couldn’t have done so without building and selling differently from market segment incumbents.
Celebrate the small victories. Day to day, it can seem like little is changing at your company. Your team will be heads down focusing on all the work that needs to be done. You need to regularly lift the teams’ eyes to see not just how far they have to go, but how far they have already come. Each new customer, new hire, and new release is a victory worth celebrating. No one outside your company, even your family, will understand these as well as the people you work with.
Simplicity is a killer feature. Your customers struggle with the cognitive load of all the products intended to make their lives better. A simple solution, elegantly designed, purpose-built for the task they want solved will win over more sophisticated solutions that take time to learn. At one startup, we were in a POC requirements meeting along with the others involved in the bakeoff. By the end of the meeting, our solutions architect had finished building a model of what the customer needed while the other team had just created the requirements doc. Guess who won?
Founder depression is real. Being a startup founder is difficult. Expectations are high. Your investors, first and foremost, have invested in you, as have your employees. You will need to keep an uplifting and optimistic demeanor for everyone but you’re also the person who they’ll reach out to for all their problems. It can create dissonance between the person you portray and your inner landscape. Many (most?) founders suffer from anxiety and depression. It is important to know that we all go through it and you will too. Perseverance is the most important quality for a founder.
It isn’t a competition. Every day, you’ll hear about some great funding round or some awesome launch from some other company. The people you used to work with have gone on to do amazing things. It doesn’t matter. You’re not competing with them and there’s no point second-guessing your decision once you’ve set your path. Stay true to your vision and keep walking forward.

Let’s imagine that a reader reading this interview has an idea for a product that they would like to invent. What are the first few steps that you would recommend that they take?

The single best thing you can do when formulating a new idea is to have hundreds of conversations with your prospective customers. They may not understand what you plan to do or the underlying technology you’ll use. But, they can talk about whether they currently have pain or how this might enrich their life. This will also help you pare down what you are doing to the core value you’ll provide.

Second, you need to see if you can excite others to spend the next 5–10 years of their lives building and scaling the company. Startups are exceptionally risky in the beginning and none of us can succeed on our own.

If you can check both of those off, you’re in good shape and can plan what it takes to build the minimum awesome product that adequately meets your customers’ goals.

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

It depends on how much money one needs to have a testable hypothesis, to build a product, and to have others provide feedback. All founders are optimistic — you have to be a little crazy to do something as unlikely as starting a company. It helps to assume it’ll take twice as long to get your initial product built and twice as long to get to break even. If you can reduce burn, make the numbers work out, and don’t have to worry about others entering your space, you should certainly bootstrap — or at least delay fundraising until you have a lot to show. Of course, even if you raise, it is simply pragmatic to remain frugal and make the money last, just as though it came out of your own savings.

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

Over the past dozen years, my wife and I have focused our giving towards improving the quality of life of children and adults on the autism spectrum, with a focus on those considered severe. We do this in three ways. First, we fund basic science and translational research on interventions that improve quality of life for children and adults on the autism spectrum — such as support for the Suramin Phase I clinical trial at UCSD, the MTT Phase I clinical trial at ASU, pre-clinical research on mitochondria and metabolism in autism at Phoenix Children’s Hospital, and basic science research at Stanford on the pathophysiology of neurobehavioral exacerbations. Second, we believe children should be able to achieve based on their abilities, not their disabilities. We fund initiatives that help individuals with ASD who cannot speak fluently or handwrite access an age-appropriate education, such as support for the Autism and Communication Center at California Lutheran University. Third, through support for Communication First, we help educate the public, advocate for policy reform, and engage the judicial system to advance the rights, autonomy, opportunity, and dignity of people with speech-related communication disabilities and conditions.

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

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

Makers of The Metaverse: Erik Ashby Of Helpshift On The Future Of The VR, AR & Mixed Reality…

Makers of The Metaverse: Erik Ashby Of Helpshift On The Future Of The VR, AR & Mixed Reality Industries

An Interview With Fotis Georgiadis

Be connected; These experiences will grow as we connect to each other, and leverage each other. Some of the most powerful experiences will be based on open, decentralized technology. As someone who is making a career, this also implies a level of flexibility as you navigate to connect with others.

Erik Ashby is the head of product at Helpshift, the world’s leading in-app mobile customer service platform that has been deployed on more than 2.5 billion mobile devices. Erik has spent his 25 year-career leading digital innovation in communication across the decades, working on such products as Microsoft Exchange, Office 365, and Microsoft Outlook. At Helpshift, Erik leads the company’s product and design teams as it creates the next generation of in-app customer service experiences for both mobile and the future metaverse.

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

I grew up in Southern California during the home computing revolution of the 80s, where I spent countless hours after school tinkering with an original Apple II computer, dialing into every mainframe I could find the number to, and playing every type of game that I could access, buy, still or copy. At my age, I was amazed at how enabling technology could be and even back then, how it was leveling the playing field.

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?

The classic technology science fiction writers such as Isaac Asimov (The foundation series), Orson Scott Card (Ender’s Game), and now Earnist Cline (Ready Player One) all land at the top, and all require frequent re-visits. All these writers had a wonderful way of taking the technology and exploring the human aspect that is so important. Advances in technology are driven by our real and ongoing need to improve the human state.

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

For me X-Reality is not about technology but instead about advancing the human connection. This comes from the first day, on my first job, where I was introduced to, what at the time was groundbreaking technology…. ‘Email’. It was amazing to me that with only a few keystrokes on my computer, plus a local area network, plus a server in the basement, plus a modem, plus a LOT of software, I could communicate with anyone in the world, provided that they also had a computer, and local area network, and server in their basement and a modem. It was amazing, and I knew that this was going to change the world, not because of the technology but because it connected humans, and I wanted to be a part of it.

It has been amazing to watch and be a part of the technology shifts over the years that have resulted in a world that is now more connected than ever in more engaging experiences all designed to enable and connect humans.

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

It is interesting sometimes how being at the right place at the right time can set you down a path that will last a lifetime. My first entry into my career started with a very short interview where I was asked 2 simple questions. The first question was, “do you know what email is”. I answered ‘Yes’, although email was not at all common at that time, I had seen it briefly a few weeks before and was interested in what it could do. The second question was, “can you start tomorrow…”.

From there, there have been several global technology revolutions I have been able to witness and participate in — and I have enjoyed seeing how each has impacted the world.

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

(Not sure how funny it is, but it was a great lesson for me) Early in my career I was working with a US armed forces base as they were trying out some new software that I was developing. One morning I received a call that an entire US air-force base communication system was off-line that morning and it was suspected that my software was at fault. I did not believe it, but after investigating, I came to find out that there was indeed a bug in my software that was the problem.

I boarded a plane that afternoon with a fix on a floppy disk in my hand and by morning I was sitting with a 4 star general explaining how this mistake took down his base. I was sure that this was the end, the trial would be over, but before I left, I felt he at least deserved an explanation. However, to my surprise he asked me to stay, to work with his team as they rolled out my software (yes with the fix!) and brought back up the base.

He expressed that although he had worked with many technology companies, he had never had someone actually fly out and give this level of personal attention to a problem. I realized that, even though I can personally be credited for taking down a US base (at least for a few days), it is not the technology but the human connection that, in the end, is what is most important.

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

This is simple. At Helpshift we are focused on creating amazing customer support experiences, which are designed specifically to help people. In my mind there is nothing more important in the world that technology can be focused on than to enable humans to be able to help out and lift up other humans anywhere, and at any time. With the advances in mobile, VR, and AR technologies we now have so many more ways to engage, connect and help each other, and as such it is super exciting to be developing these enabling experiences.

As I look at these industries, and the advancement in technology, I get most excited about (A) the immersion factors, (B) the human factors, and © enabling factors.

A — These technologies are moving so fast and are creating worlds, experiences, journeys that we have never seen before, and it is so exciting every day to be introduced to something new, innovative that surrounds me, invites me in and has the power to invoke emotion.
B — To me what makes these interesting will be the human connections that are enabled through these new experiences. Beyond just the obvious chat rooms, and shared gaming experiences, brands will continue to push these new experiences to become more personal so that consumers are more connected. (Not less) (Think shopping, education/training, counciling, religion, etc).
C — This gets more into the decentralized technology that surrounds these industries, but as with previous technology revolutions, these technologies will create new economic opportunities as they continue to lower the entry requirements enabling more people to find new ways to contribute regardless of many of the factors that inhibit people today.

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?

There are the obvious concerns of any social, and immersive technology of abuse and overuse that will constantly need to be addressed, but also as an industry we need to be careful that we do not distance ourselves from humanity.

Although the promise is to enable and deliver new/innovative experiences with openness and freedom, this industry will also be a reflection of who we are (as a global community), and has the negative potential of expanding abuse and overuse that we see today often with technology today. We need to be careful to create experiences that are safe for everyone and that reflect the best of what we should be. And most importantly, we need to leverage this technology and industry to help us connect (and not disconnect) with each other.

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?

Just as with other technology transitions, entertainment is usually the first to the game and paves the way for other industries. Specifically, the largest experiences today are social games and experiences where people, technology and the entertainment experience are mixed together.

There will be obvious extensions to other industries where human/service is important such as training, consulting, health care, education, and retail where these mixed experiences will do well.

As part of this we expect the service industry will change completely as VR, AR and MR become standard — and as brands look for better and scalable ways to make engaging support experiences. Imagine being able to virtually connect with service to get a problem solved directly in the virtual world, or having service be able to leverage AR/MR to direct and guide you to solving a problem.

So much here !

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

AV, VR and MR are going to give brands new and better ways to serve and help their customers. Brands that see these experiences as an extension of their product / offering will also see how they can use these new experiences to support their customers.

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

The biggest myth is that VR, AR and MR are not mainstream experiences and are only for gaming. Often these are seen as gaming tools, and gaming experiences, but not for the broad consumer scenarios. This is not true. The goal of VR, AR, and MR is to create engaging human experiences that are backed by powerful, mobile technology. This is a shared goal across all industries and given the advancements in mobile, I expect we will see more and more of these experiences showing up in all aspects of our lives, often in very subtle ways. Before long many consumers will be interacting with experiences from these industries and not realize that they are actually immersed in one of these.

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

Be a human advocate; This industry will be great as we create experiences that use technology to solve human problems.
Be ready to help; This will be a new set of experiences for everyone; As you work with others in this field, as you work with consumers and as you create experiences, always include help, and support as part of the experience.
Be open to feedback; Again this is a new set of experiences for everyone, which means that we need feedback to make these industries great. Be willing to question everything you do, make, and be open to feedback. If you are creating experiences, create a feedback loop as part of the experience.
Be connected; These experiences will grow as we connect to each other, and leverage each other. Some of the most powerful experiences will be based on open, decentralized technology. As someone who is making a career, this also implies a level of flexibility as you navigate to connect with others.
Be different; This is a transition, this is a revolution, so as such we will need people that will create different and new experiences that have not been seen before and that will attract people to engage.

Very simple, let’s use this new medium to connect with each other to help and uplift.

Malinda Gates, as she has dedicated much of her life to helping others; and I am excited as to what we can do.

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

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

Mateen Motavaf Of SundaeSwap: 5 Things I Wish Someone Told Me Before I Became A CEO

An Interview With Fotis Georgiadis

You need to be passionate about your work — If you’re not passionate about your work, it’s going to be tough to succeed. You need to be willing to put in the hard work and dedication if you want to be a successful executive.

I had the pleasure of interviewing Mateen Motavaf. Mateen is the co-founder of SundaeSwap Labs, a decentralized finance (DeFi) protocol. Mateen is responsible for SundaeSwap Lab’s branding, business growth, talent acquisition, and UI/UX design.

In his work as a healthcare advocate, Mateen has pioneered two non-profit organizations where he manages and leads 20 researchers across the United States, publishing scientific papers and meta-analyses on a biweekly basis. The non-profits he currently runs are the Type One Advocates and Chronic Illness Education and Prevention Association Movement. These organizations aim to support people with type 1 diabetes and chronic diseases. Mateen makes a fervent effort to raise awareness regarding chronic diseases. Mateen and his team give lectures based on scientific education and modern research that help people with chronic illnesses to improve their quality of life through articles, healthy recipes, and motivational stories.

Thank you so much for joining us! Can you tell us the story about what brought you to this specific career path?

I have always had the approach that a career path should be one that is motivated by passion and making a difference. I believe that my generation has been one that really supports this type of thinking; that you should find an industry where you are driven and then the success will come naturally. Therefore, in areas such as my education, I pursued options that would help me to establish a solid foundation for the areas in which I care deeply. Additionally, I enjoy finding new and innovative solutions to modern-day puzzles. So when I have had opportunities to branch out into entrepreneurial ventures, I have been open to them. My background as a student of medicine has played a large role in being able to start the two nonprofits in areas where I am excited to be making a difference. Diabetes affects so many individuals around the world, as well as chronic pain. It seems as though more and more younger people are struggling with chronic pain while trying to lead busy lives as students, parents, business owners, and more. I am happy to support these ones and any that are struggling with the issues involving chronic pain and illnesses.

My start with using DeFi protocols came towards the end of 2020. Quickly after being introduced, I knew that I wanted to build something that contributed to this space myself. I chose Cardano due to it being the perfect blockchain to support Decentralized Finance in a way that would be even more user-friendly. Thus, SundaeSwap Labs was born.

Can you share one of the major challenges you encountered when first leading the company? And what lesson did you learn from that?

When you have a part in founding a business or nonprofit, everything is a new experience for you. I learned much about running a business along the way. While I was certainly up for this challenge, I still learned many valuable lessons throughout the process. For instance, I learned how to find the right people to work with. As I perfected the art of really being able to explain my vision to others, it became easier to find those whose values aligned with my own.

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

The funniest mistake that I made when I was first starting out was probably the time when I almost forgot my own name as I was introducing myself to a potential investor. Sometimes you just get nervous and so laser-focused on what you are going to say about your venture, that your brain blocks out small bits of info that it thinks isn’t important at that moment, like my own name, I guess!

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

I’m grateful to my team of people who have been with me from the beginning. They are passionate about what we’re doing and are always willing to work hard. It is also very important to have a great group of mentors guiding you along the way. I will always be forever grateful to my mentors. I would also like to thank our investors who have faith in us and continue to support us. My family and friends have been great sources of support. Without them, I wouldn’t have been able to achieve what I have today.

As you know, the United States is currently facing a very important self-reckoning about race, diversity, equality and inclusion. This may be obvious to you, but it will be helpful to spell this out. Can you articulate to our readers a few reasons why it is so important for a business or organization to have a diverse executive team?

First, having a diverse team allows for different perspectives and ideas to be heard. This can help the company make better decisions and grow in a more holistic way. Second, a diverse team reflects the community that the company is serving. It’s important for companies to be aware of and represent the diversity of their customers or clients. Finally, it is more likely to be successful in the long run. A recent study found that companies with more diverse executive teams are more profitable and have a higher return on equity. So, having a diverse team is not only the right thing to do, but it’s also good for business. When choosing with whom you will be working, you should be focused on those that share your vision, both short and long-term. Companies that do not demonstrate equality and inclusion will no doubt fail to have the right ones working. The ones that are going to propel the company into the future and that deserve to be part of the company.

As a business leader, can you please share a few steps we must take to truly create an inclusive, representative, and equitable society? Kindly share a story or example for each.

We need to be aware of the privilege that we all have. We need to listen to marginalized groups and learn from their experiences. We also need to take action. We can’t just talk about being inclusive and representative, we need to do the work to make it happen. This includes things like hiring a diverse team, creating an equal playing field, and giving back to the community. I think it’s important to start with small steps and gradually make more changes as we become more aware. As a business leader, I will always support equal pay as well. The pay you earn should be based on your ability to do your job, and nothing else. As someone who is working to improve the health industry through my nonprofits, I, unfortunately, see the very real and damaging effects that things like not having access to proper medical care can have on those that are being discriminated against face. I hope to be a big part in changing issues such as these. As a society we should not stand for anyone receiving less than adequate healthcare.

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

An executive is responsible for the overall success of the company. They make sure that the company is heading in the right direction and that all departments are working together towards common goals. They also oversee the financials of the company and make sure that it is profitable. Essentially, they are setting the tone for the whole company culture.

What are the “myths” that you would like to dispel about being a CEO or executive. Can you explain what you mean?

One is that you have to be ruthless and cutthroat in order to succeed. Another is that you have to be Ivy League-educated. I think both of these myths are damaging because they scare people away from pursuing these careers. The reality is that there are a lot of different paths to becoming a CEO or executive, and you don’t have to be perfect. You just need to be passionate about your work and be willing to put in the hard work.

What is the most striking difference between your actual job and how you thought the job would be?

There are a lot of long hours and a lot of responsibility, but it’s also very rewarding to see your company grow and succeed. I am also excited to see that the things I am accomplishing can make a big difference. Of course, you always want to make a difference and hope that you will, but actually seeing it and experiencing that you can have a far-reaching effect on people, is amazing.

Do you think everyone is cut out to be an executive? In your opinion, which specific traits increase the likelihood that a person will be a successful executive and what type of person should avoid aspiring to be an executive? Can you explain what you mean?

I don’t think everyone is cut out to be an executive. It takes a lot of hard work and dedication. You also need to be able to manage people and make tough decisions. I think it’s important to be humble and willing to learn. You also need to have thick skin because you’re going to face a lot of criticism.

What advice would you give to other business leaders to help create a fantastic work culture? Can you share a story or an example?

I would advise business leaders to be transparent and honest with their employees. They should also be willing to listen to feedback. I think it’s important to create a culture where employees feel comfortable speaking up and sharing their ideas. I remember having a job as a teenager where the work environment was not the best. I would see coworkers that were run down and not at all excited about their jobs. It came as no surprise to me when that establishment was shut down. You need to treat your employees well if you want to succeed.

How have you used your success to make the world a better place?

I think it’s important to give back to the community. I’m involved with a lot of charities and I try to donate money and time whenever I can. With my business and nonprofits, I also aim to help as many as possible, especially when it comes to bringing things into the hands of those that may never have been able to experience them before.

Fantastic. Here is the primary question of our interview. What are your “5 Things I Wish Someone Told Me Before I Started” and why?

1. It’s going to be a lot of work — I think this is the biggest surprise for most people. The hours are long and the job is demanding, but it’s also very rewarding.

2. Be prepared to make tough decisions — As a CEO or executive, you’re going to have to make a lot of tough decisions. Sometimes you’re going to make the wrong decision, but you have to be willing to take risks and learn from your mistakes.

3. You need to be passionate about your work — If you’re not passionate about your work, it’s going to be tough to succeed. You need to be willing to put in the hard work and dedication if you want to be a successful executive.

4. You’re going to face a lot of criticism — As a CEO or executive, you’re going to face a lot of criticism. You need to have thick skin and be prepared to take it in stride.

5. It’s important to give back to the community — I think it’s important to give back to the community and support charities. I also think it’s important to hire people from marginalized groups and give them a chance to succeed.

So, you are a person of great influence. If you could start a movement that would enhance people’s lives in some way, what would it be? You never know what your idea could trigger.

I would like to see a movement where people are more conscious about their spending and saving habits. I think it’s important for people to be aware of the importance of financial literacy and how it can help them in the long run. Educating people on the different aspects of finance can help them make better financial decisions for themselves and their families.

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

“Don’t be afraid to give up the good to go for the best.” This is a quote by John D. Rockefeller and I think it’s important to remember this whenever you’re making a big decision. You need to be willing to sacrifice short-term gratification for long-term success.

We are very blessed that some very prominent names in Business, VC funding, Sports, and Entertainment read this column. Is there a person in the world, or in the US with whom you would love to have a private breakfast or lunch with, and why? He or she might just see this if we tag them.

Someone that I admire, whom I would enjoy having a great conversation with, would be Thom Scher. We have some common interests as Thom is the CEO of Beyond Type 1. Beyond Type 1 is a nonprofit organization dedicated to redefining what it means to live with diabetes. Beyond Type 1 is uniting the worldwide diabetes community through platforms, initiatives, resources, and grants in order to provide solutions now.

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

Mateen Motavaf Of SundaeSwap: 5 Things I Wish Someone Told Me Before I Became A CEO was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.