Jhoanny Perez of Tín Marin Restaurant On The 5 Things You Need To Be A Highly Effective Public Speaker
An Interview With Fotis Georgiadis
Trust yourself, remember that once you’re up there your nerves will die and you’ll be in your zone of genius.
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 Jhoanny Perez.
Jhoanny is an immigrant from the Dominican Republic who teaches other immigrants the step by step formula to open their dream restaurants in order to create generational wealth and security for their families.
In 2012, Jhoanny and her family brought their dream to life. They built three 7-figure restaurant businesses in New York City Tin Marin Restaurant, Tilila Casa Pública & Cocina and Canave Cocina & Bar within nine years, each restaurant was completely built from the ground up. Since then, they have been featured in various media outlets for their success in accomplishing the American Dream as Latina immigrants. Some of these features include the New York Times, New York Post, The Riverdale Press, Riverdale Press #2, Edible Bronx Magazine, NYC CBS Local, Urban Matter and on The Patch.
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’m a proud 2nd generation immigrant, and I’m rooted in my Dominican heritage- thank you for asking to tell my story as it honors my ancestors.
Before arriving in the US, I lived in a rural town called Moca in the Dominican Republic. I was raised by two powerful women — My mother and grandmother. My father divorced my mom when I was born, remarried, and has another family now.
We were so poor that among the poor, we were still regarded as poor. I remember my grandmother telling me that the kind of toys she was privileged to have when she was young were carved out of trash. My favorite of her poverty stories has to be her taking leftover mango seeds then drawing eyes, a nose, and a mouth on them. At least she was creative with poverty.
My mother and grandmother made the sacrifice and migrated to the US without me in a bid to provide better lives for us. Our over limited finances won’t avail them the opportunity to take me along. I would later join them where seven of us will live in a one-bedroom apartment in the Bronx’s grand-concourse! Yes, I’m like Jenny from the Block (Jlo), or Cardi B, okurrr.
Can you share a story with us about what brought you to this specific career path?
What brought me to the speaking career path was my humanitarian work and my willingness to facilitate on video or in person if it meant making a difference in my community.
I think what brought me here has been the ability to take detours in life. We plan, and we choose a degree in school but life takes us to different corners and it’s up to us to figure out why. Why did I land here? Should I take it as a sign? Sometimes it’s from rejections and closed doors that we decide to make opportunities for ourselves and that my friend is called a detour.
I took the detour and now I get to tell my story of resiliency and hard work to audiences that relate to me. I get to tell my story of how I connect my failures and challenges in life to the person I am today.
Can you tell us the most interesting story that happened to you since you began your career?
I started college at a four year university and because of health issues my gpa dropped and I was ordered to go to community college.
Community college was where the leader in me was born. I wanted to be part of a student club and I ended up reviving one, recruiting members and club officers and becoming the president of the club. From there on, I was invited to student leader conferences and meetings where we were trained on public speaking and elevator pitches.
Starting over again was the best thing that ever happened to me. This led me to doing field work in Haiti, South Africa, Ghana, Honduras, and Panama. It led me to being appointed Youth Representative in the UN and landed me other precious opportunities.
Can you share a story about the funniest mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lesson you learned from that?
The funniest mistake I’ve made was centering my social media video or lives on me. It’s a common mistake to think people are interested in learning about yourself when indeed what they are looking to hear is why they should listen to you. First list the reasons why they should listen to you, then you introduce yourself and your credentials.
Every speech or talk must begin with facts that support your topic and how you are about to give value to the person watching.
None of us are able to achieve success without some help along the way. Is there a particular person who you are grateful towards who helped get you to where you are? Can you share a story about that?
I’m especially grateful for my mother and grandmother, two single women who raised me. They came to this country unable to speak the language and brought me when I was two years old. My grandmother worked long hours at a factory and my mother endured abuse at a store she worked long hours in. Their braveness has inspired me to do something for those trying to achieve what we achieved: the American Dream.
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?
Sure, I have a few tips that will help keep you motivated:
Ask yourself what’s your end goal in this career? What’s the big picture? Envision that and write down how you want to feel when you get there.
Break down this end goal into smaller goals. What are the pieces that need to be pieced together for this to happen?
What if they day no? Make a plan for how you are going to make the best of each detour in your career.
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?
My son is the reason I get up everyday and do everything that I do. When I give a talk my main empowering message is the American Dream can be achieved, you define it and it’s your job to take steps towards it.
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?
Thank you for complimenting my work. I owe it to the public for supporting me and the women I help. I am working on creating a nonprofit organization that will host food entrepreneurship programs in nyc public schools and online nationwide for the summer every year.
I hope to inspire young people to start their own business right from middle school and high school. We will focus on creating simple food businesses that can be scaled as they learn and grow: hot dog stands, at home food service, and food trucks. There will be a fundraising and saving component to the program so youth learn to fund their project.
and have them at the same time intern and work at restaurants. Working at restaurants shows to be beneficial and enhance critical thinking skills and problem solving skills for youth.
Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share how that was relevant to you in your life?
My favorite life lesson quote is “Start with what you have”.
For me, this life lesson quote eliminates any excuses we make for ourselves in order to start our passion projects. It means that you can start today the journey of a thousand steps with just taking the first one.
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.
Here are the 5 things You need to be a highly effective speaker:
The ability to hook your audience. Your talk needs to grab the attention of your audience. Make them curious and want to stay to listen to your entire talk. My Josh talk hook is How I went from being bullied to creating a restaurant empire with my family. My hook would make people who aren’t even interested in restaurants want to know how I accomplished that and what were my challenges that make my audience be able to relate!
That brings me to my second tip. As a public speaker you need to have the ability to tell your story in such a way that exemplifies your humanness and vulnerability so that your audience relates to you. In my talk, I describe how I’m an immigrant who came to the United States without knowing the language, and was raised by two single mothers. This is the story of many more immigrants in my audience. If they can relate to my upbringing, my talk then is able to motivate them further and say hey, if I made it, so can you!
You must be able to open your talk with facts and explain why someone should listen to you in the first place. After you listed that, then you can talk about who you are, your credentials and what makes you an expert in the topic
Your talk should be straight to the point, short, and engaging. My talk is 9 minutes long, it has an opening where I explain the benefits of opening a restaurant, then I go into the hardships we faced opening one, and then I tell my story, and end with motivating my audience to go after their dreams by embodying who they are and what they have been through to build their business.
Finally, as a speaker you must be willing to take constructive feedback and be able to implement it right away. To be a highly effective speaker you must be able to take pointers quickly without getting offended. Choose a mentor that will push you, and give you honest actionable feedback. When I was writing my talk, my mentor kept asking me to go back to the 90s and talk more about the days when I experienced pain and how that made me who I am today. Even if you don’t agree or like your mentor’s feedback, try it. It might actually push you out of your comfort zone.
As you know, many people are terrified of speaking in public. Can you give some of your advice about how to overcome this fear?
Speaking in public will always be something you will feel nervous about. Here is some advice on how to cope with it:
Pretend you are speaking to one person. Focus on that one person and relay your message.
Record yourself practicing so that you can notice your tone, and increase your confidence.
Go back to your WHY. What’s the passion within you that brought you to that speaking stage? Try to express that excitement.
Trust yourself, remember that once you’re up there your nerves will die and you’ll be in your zone of genius.
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?
A movement to pay relations to BIPOC and Indigenous people in the form of food business ownership opportunities. I would educate people on how our cuisines have been erased and how we can talk about paying folks back with business ownership.
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 Barack Obama just to pick his brain on what he thinks he could have done better while in office.
Are you on social media? How can our readers follow you online?
Makers of The Metaverse: Nils Pihl of Auki Labs On The Future Of The VR, AR & Mixed Reality Industries
An Interview With Fotis Georgiadis
Show the world something, don’t sell them something. If you put your sincerity, your craft and your art into what you are making, then you will connect with people. Build your road map around demonstrating value, be sincere, and invite the world to join you.
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 interviewingNils Pihl.
Nils Pihl is the co-founder and CEO of Auki Labs, a behavioral engineer, and social transhumanist specializing in the intersection of modern technology and human behavior.
Thank you so much for doing this with us! Before we dig in, our readers would like to get to know you a bit. Can you tell us a bit about your backstory and how you grew up?
I was born in Sweden, but I like to say that I grew up online. My parents were software entrepreneurs in the late 80s and 90s, so I had the good fortune of growing up very close to computers. By the time I was 14 years old most of my social interactions were online, and I found myself thinking in English rather than Swedish because so much of my identity and life was wrapped up in the early online communities that I was a part of.
You could almost say my “career” started around that time, in my teens, as a competitive gamer. I was very fascinated with social and behavioral dynamics online, and I started training a gaming team (or “clan”) in predictive behavioral models that we could use to get an advantage in the game we were playing. I was eventually recruited to train another team, where the clan leaders were more than 10 years my senior. We won the next four consecutive seasons. During that time, I met my first mentors, who encouraged me to continue to develop my interest in behavior. It’s thanks to them that I later ended up being a professional behavioral engineer, advising organizations like the World Bank, Weibo and Apple.
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 grew up on a diet of hard science fiction, cyberpunk and space operas. I felt a natural affinity to the cyberpunk visions of authors like Neal Stephenson because by the time I was old enough to read his books I was already living most of my life online. The concept of the “metaverse” didn’t seem like a very futuristic idea to me at the time — many of us were living in it already, spending more than eight hours a day in fully virtual domains.Rather than futurism, I found validation in cyberpunk culture — it empowered me to cultivate my digital identity. I would hear my online name spoken aloud more often than my real name, and had friends and even lovers who only really referred to me by that name. Books like Snow Crash encouraged me to think of myself and my friends as greater than our biological bodies, and ushered me into the transhumanism I espouse today. Cyberpunk and science fiction gave me the sense that history was not something that had passed already, but something that we are still writing and that my generation of internet-raised friends would have the opportunity to impact.
Is there a particular story that inspired you to pursue a career in the X Reality industry? We’d love to hear it.
The Japanese anime “Dennou Coil’’ left an indelible mark on my imagination, for sure. It takes place in a near future where AR glasses are commonplace and kids play with virtual pets and track down rare virtual beings and treasures. It was such a cool vision of the future that it was impossible not to feel a little cheated that I had been born decades too early!
I think that the drive for augmented reality is actually embedded deep in the human soul. I would argue that language itself is the oldest augmented reality technology, because it allows us to literally shape how we perceive the world. If you imagine that you and I walk through a forest together, and we come across a fallen tree, and I say “what a lovely couch to rest on”, then your perception of the tree changes. We have a deep desire to not only label things, but to annotate the world with depth and meaning. In a non-trivial sense, I actually think it is fair to say that augmenting reality with meaning and depth is one of the most important human endeavors.
Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you began this fascinating career?
If you set your mind on building something that you think could be impactful and good for the world, and you approach that undertaking with sincerity, then you will find yourself in a new force of creative gravity. You end up being drawn to people, and people are drawn to you, and you find common cause and align your intentions towards creativity and connectedness. Once you do that, the world unfolds itself with opportunity and possibility. The most interesting thing I’ve ever experienced is how connecting with people around you amplifies all of your creative energies. I am thankful for all the people and ideas I’ve connected with, and find it captivatingly interesting every day to see what we can build together when we take building seriously.
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 started working in AR in 2019, I — like most of the market — had an intuitive understanding of what phones were able to do that was deeply wrong. So at the time, I thought that it would be easy to create AR apps that could share the locations of virtual objects in a very precise way. I thought that if I could view something in AR with my phone, that someone else could view it with their phone in the same way. Of course, I was wrong. GPS, which is the default way for the phone to reason about its location, is a very imprecise source of location information. The phone barely knows it’s in the right building, so you can forget about using it as the foundation for shared AR.
This is what led to my “funny” mistake. I raised about $50,000 to start working on my first AR project, thinking that was all I would need. But then I started to realize that there wasn’t actually a way to share objects and experiences in AR in a precise way — and then I realized that this is something that major companies have spent hundreds of millions of dollars trying to solve. I had “drunk the kool-aid” of the promises of what AR could possibly do in the future without realizing how limited the technology was at the time.
That was pretty embarrassing. But the story has a happy ending — and in a way, I’m glad that I moronically made the mistake of starting an AR company when the tech wasn’t there, because otherwise I wouldn’t have discovered that there was a big opportunity to fix a major problem and create something new.
Are you working on any exciting new projects now? How do you think that will help people?
I’m really excited about the tools that Auki Labs is building to make AR experiences instantly shareable. I think as soon as people see augmented reality, their imagination starts racing — like, “Oh, I can create something really wonderful with this.” And people have made really amazing things with AR. But previously, these objects and experiences were not shareable in any kind of practical way.
And I think for augmented reality to be really meaningful, we need to be able to see the same things — we need to be able to share the experiences with each other. If I’ve got a virtual pet sitting on the couch next to me, but I’m the only one who can see it, that’s nowhere near as cool as if my friend and I can both see it. Sharing these kinds of experiences makes them more real.
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?
AR enables people to create new kinds of meaning. To me — because I have a background in behavior — one of the things I like about augmented reality (as opposed to virtual reality) is that we perceive it very differently because it happens in real space. We get to engage our proprioception: our sense of where we are in space, and we get to recontextualize the world we actually live in, which is pretty cool. For example, if you have a pet, you might know that that pet has a favorite spot on the couch, even when it’s not there. But the fact that you know where your pet’s favorite spot is makes you perceive the couch differently. You think: this is the spot on the couch that my pet likes. In that way, that place is colored with a sense of meaning. AR allows us to color spaces with meaning in the same way. This ability to color the real world with emotional context is really cool, and I think it has the potential to make people interact more frequently with each other in real life rather than online. It’s a more expressive kind of language than mere words!
The meaning created through AR allows us to create new kinds of experiences and perceive reality in new ways. The ability to “color” spaces that AR provides turns the world into a canvas. Imagine the virtual pet I mentioned previously — if that pet is sitting between my friend and I on the couch, we don’t both need to be consistently seeing it to know that it’s there. Even if I put my phone away, the fact that my friend can still see the virtual pet on the couch does something. It makes it feel like it’s still there, something that is temporarily invisible to me but still present. Something matterless, but still real. It’s very, very, very cool.
The meaning that AR can create provides companies with a new way to tell stories about their products. Augmented reality is incredibly exciting from a behavioral point of view when you think about what kinds of experiences can be created, and how they can impact consumer behavior. For instance, what can brands do when they have the ability to literally meet you where you are? And creatively speaking, what are the kind of stories you can tell when you can make it happen in the real world — when you can make the user really feel like they are a part of what’s happening? The potential for creative expression is amazing.
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?
One thing that concerns me is that we’re in a bit of a “hype bubble” now. This isn’t the first time that this has happened — the first AR hype bubble blew up when Magic Leap came out several years ago. At that time, expectations were so high that eventually, everything crashed down. We’re seeing the same thing now. There are so many new projects that don’t have the technology to support what they’re building — for instance, their demonstrations are created with CGI rather than actual footage of actual AR. There’s a lot of talking about what you’ll be able to do in the future, especially in the metaverse. But the industry has to be careful not to set people up for disappointment. This could really delay how long it takes to actually deliver meaningful experiences.
Another thing that concerns me about the AR industry at large is the hardware that many companies will require users to use. It’s not always practical — it can be expensive, and AR takes a lot of battery and computing power. There’s a part of me that worries that the hardware that is necessary to build the experience that people really want could be years away.
Beyond that, there’s also the risk that AR technology could reflect the trend towards hyper-personalization that’s currently a big problem in many areas of the online world. People’s experiences of the Internet are so customized that they are practically unrecognizable from one another. An AR world that reflects this siloed architecture could have a major negative impact on society.
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?
A lot of the largest adopters of AR and VR today are enterprises who use it for training purposes. This is partially because industrial hardware can be very expensive — so when people need to learn how to use it, VR and AR remove quite a bit of risk. One of the oldest examples of this is flight simulation, because it’s very expensive to train a fighter pilot. It’s risky to train people in how to use very expensive equipment, and XR allows us to simulate the experience and involve our muscle memory. AR and VR also have some very cool use cases in live inspection — for example, building managers could use it to see where pipes and electrical wiring are inside walls.
Are there other ways that VR, AR and MR can improve our lives? Can you explain?
I think that AR can help us express ourselves in really meaningful ways. I think that language itself is a kind of augmented reality technology — it informs the way we conceptualize things. If we’re walking through the forest together and come across a fallen log, and I say, “Oh, what a comfortable couch!” Doesn’t that change the way that you perceive it? In this way, I think as AR becomes a more accessible tool for people to express themselves, that it will genuinely and deeply improve human communication.
What are the “myths” that you would like to dispel about working in your industry? Can you explain what you mean?
I don’t know if it’s a myth so much as it is a common misconception, but I think most of us go about our days not thinking too much about the accuracy of GPS. Because today, we only use the technology to find large objects like restaurants and gas stations. We are rarely confronted with the fact that GPS can only locate things with rough accuracy that can vary by several meters.
On that note, there’s one persistent myth that many, many people seem to believe in — that GPS is a sufficient positioning mechanism for us to build all the cool applications on top of. It isn’t. I think a lot of people don’t realize that it is going the way of the fax machine. After all, it’s that’s hard to imagine — and similarly, if we went back fifty years ago and said “Hey, in the future, there will be better ways of real time communication,” it would have been hard to accept. Because what could have possibly been better than the telephone?
What are your “5 Things You Need To Create A Highly Successful Career In The VR, AR or MR Industries?”
Before you find a solution, find a problem — pick the problem that you want to be the best at solving. Make sure that you can clearly articulate what the problem is before you think of what the solution could be. If you’re the person that can really describe what that problem is, then you’ll be in a good position to succeed.
Use the power of language. As I said previously, I think that language itself is the oldest augmented reality technology, because it allows us to change the way we perceive the world. Choose your words carefully, and use them wisely.
When in doubt, NASA. In this case, NASA stands for Need, Acceptance, Solution, Acceptance. This is a persuasion technique that is extremely helpful for explaining your point of view. The idea is that when you want to persuade someone of something, the first thing you need to do is to make sure that both of you understand that there’s a need — a pain point. Make sure that the understanding of this need is freshly presented in the conversation, that it’s on everyone’s attention and not just in their memory. Stay on the topic of the Need until you have established a shared understanding, and then you can talk about what a solution might look like, with both of your minds present. You shouldn’t even get into your particular offering at this point, but rather establish together what a solution to the agreed upon need might be. When you have gotten buy-in from the other party, their Acceptance, then you are ready to make the right decision together.
Establish that there is a need, and get acceptance from the other party. Describe a solution together and reach an agreement.
Always build for a bear market. When the market is excited and exuberant, a lot of ideas and visions of the future will be laid out — and a large amount of them will gather enough momentum and funding to have a stab at building that future. Many will fail, some through well-meaning but inadequate efforts, many through scams and rugpulls, but some will survive the feeding frenzy and still be a project worth supporting in the bear market. We believe that our focus should always be on building the meaningful, not responding to the whims of the market. Build something that you would want to help build.
Show the world something, don’t sell them something. If you put your sincerity, your craft and your art into what you are making, then you will connect with people. Build your road map around demonstrating value, be sincere, and invite the world to join you.
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. 🙂
Spread good memes. Connect with each other. Build something. Build a village. Start from scratch.
The idea of memetics was invented in 1976 when the biologist Richard Dawkins wrote a great pop-science book called “The Selfish Gene” where he shared the lens of the neo-Darwinian synthesis, a new perspective on natural selection that had great explanatory power. It told us how natural selection, survival of the fittest, worked on a level below the species, below the tribe, below the individual — at the level of the gene.
Genes are these code-analogous biological packages that help describe how our bodies are made, and the neo-Darwinian synthesis suggested that it was here that natural selection had the biggest impact, where the hand of evolution was felt most firmly.
But we are not only our bodies. Our minds are formed by our collective experiences, and in one of the chapters of the book Dawkins asked the hypothetical question: Could we imagine something like a gene equivalent to culture?
He introduced the theoretical concept of a meme, a small piece of behavior or culture that can be observed by one person and transmitted to another. Everything from the songs we sing, to the fashion we wear, to the word “word” itself is a meme, and consciously and subconsciously we spread these behaviors to each other, and our collective behaviors create the products of our culture.
Memetics asks us to picture the world as a thriving, bustling and often competitive ecosystem of memes battling for the scarce resources of our attention. Some ideas will spread more often, some will be better remembered, some will fail to spread and be forgotten.
“Spread good memes” is my personal motto and its an ideal I try to hold myself to in my work and my personal relationships. It means that I want to take responsibility for my actions and their direct consequences, but also to be mindful of the memetic impact of my actions. From that first principle, that axiom, that we should want to try to embody and spread the behavior that we wish to see in the world, I build out the rest of my intention:
Let’s connect with each other. Let’s try to be present and sincere, strive for inclusion and intersubjectivity. Rather than building a big tent of faceless strangers, try to meet each other around a fire or anywhere else where we can feel truly present with each other. The best ideas are born in conversations between connected minds, so practice being present and connect with your peers. Let’s build things, make things better, spread that energy, and have our creative works bring us together. Stand on the shoulders of giants and the community, but take on the responsibility of building the world you want to see. Start from first principles, remember what is important, and let’s find each other and build that village. Spread good memes.
Thank you so much for these excellent stories and insights. We wish you continued success on your great work!
Learn to trust your inner voice. Early in my career, I put too much weight on others’ opinions and advice versus trusting that little voice inside.
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 Chris Cummings.
Chris is the Founder & CEO of Iconic Moments, the first NFT Marketplace for the Museum Industry. Prior to founding Iconic Moments, Chris founded Pass It Down, an award-winning digital exhibit design platform transforming how museums and cultural institutions engage their visitors. Pass It Down has been recognized globally as a pioneer in the museum field by the Museum + Heritage Awards, Coca-Cola, the Consumer Technology Association, Techstars, and the Society of American Archivists.
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?
Today, our work is powering digital experiences to preserve and showcase the history and stories of museums, libraries, and brands globally, but our original focus was on something much smaller — families. When I was a child, I saw my mom battle Multiple Sclerosis, and when I was 18, my mother was unfortunately diagnosed with early on-set dementia. As I saw my mom lose the ability to speak, I wanted to find a way to help every family capture and pass down the memories and stories of their loved ones.
I started Pass It Down in 2015, inspired by my mother’s courageous battle, to help families record their family stories. As news about our work started to spread, we were surprised when cultural institutions and large brands started to reach out with the same request: “Can your technology help us preserve and tell our story?”
We are about to launch Iconic Moments, the first NFT marketplace for the entire museum industry globally and our dedication to the power of storytelling and history has never been stronger.
Can you please share with us the most interesting story that happened to you since you began your career?
When we first started to work with museums and business archives on their history, I assumed that these stories and moments were never lost due to modern technology. Shockingly, this couldn’t be further from the truth. From the entire history of a Fortune 500 company crammed in a basement that would later flood, to a world famous football team’s entire photo collection deteriorating in black mold, to 100 other stories I could share, we’ve realized that an organization has to fight every day to preserve its history and moments or they can be lost forever.
Which principles or philosophies have guided your life? Your career?
If we want to make an impact on the world, we have to be willing to question and challenge the status quo. George Lois, one of my heroes, is famous for saying, “Your mission is not to sedate, but to awaken, to disturb, to communicate, to command, to instigate, even to provoke.” When our work provokes a strong reaction, I’ve learned to lean into that fully.
Live and stick to values, not plans. While I’m a huge proponent of planning and goal setting, I’ve learned that life tends to shake up even the best made plans. As Eisenhower noted, “In preparing for battle I have always found that plans are useless, but planning is indispensable.”
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”?
Our “Big Idea” is to create Iconic Moments, the first NFT marketplace exclusively for museums and historical brands. Our focus is on creating a digital first model for museums that enables these incredible cultural institutions to engage visitors digitally and drive revenue digitally to create sustainability within the industry.
The problem is that the economic model behind museums is broken, and COVID-19 has accelerated and amplified these issues. Today, up to 30% of museums globally are at risk of closing permanently, and here in the United States, 25% of museums have less than four months of funding to survive. Museums must evolve past a model built on in-person ticket sales, event rentals, and once a year galas if they are going to keep their doors open.
The blockchain and the Metaverse create the opportunity to build the museum of the future designed to engage a new generation of kids worldwide that are born in a digital first world. Our larger mission is to build a digital museum for every physical museum in the world.
Since announcing Iconic, we’ve had outreach from incredible museums across over 12 countries who are all excited about the technology we’ve built and the impact it will have on their visitors and the industry.
How do you think this will change the world?
When people first started to hear about NFTs there was lots of skepticism and concern (some well-deserved), but we also saw the opportunity in the technology. At Iconic, we are utilizing the decentralization of the blockchain to preserve the world’s history and stories while increasing accessibility. This is incredibly important to our team, and the world, because on average only 2% of a museum’s collection is publicly visible while the other 98% sits behind a vault.
To be clear, we aren’t selling original ownership of anything in the museum (that would pose serious ethical quandaries), but we are creating digital lithographs and limited edition prints that can be tied to ticketing and membership, which enables us to bridge the physical and digital world together. We are also creating a pathway to sustainability for museums through new digital revenue streams.
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?
With all new technology comes risk. All new technology has the potential to be used for good or for evil, and NFTs and the blockchain are a perfect example. The right way to use NFTs is to embrace regulations like KYC, to audit your smart contracts, to understand the differences and consequences between proof-of-work, proof-of-stake, and proof-of-authority algorithms, and to try and create new and more efficient ways for business and creativity.
Was there a “tipping point” that led you to this idea? Can you tell us that story?
When we first heard about COVID-19, we knew the impact on museums would be significant, but we severely underestimated the total impact. At the start of the pandemic, the prediction was that 15 percent of museums would close permanently. Fast forward twelve months later and that number had grown past thirty percent, and we started to see thousands and thousands of museum professionals get laid off globally.
As these problems ramped up, we saw an opportunity to push museums into the future to help save the industry and reach a digital generation of kids waiting to be engaged.
What do you need to lead this idea to widespread adoption?
Governments, businesses, and people worldwide are rapidly starting to embrace Web 3 technology and its ability to revolutionize the way that we live and work. Iconic Moments is fortunately an easy steppingstone into Web 3 and the Metaverse, as everyone loves museums!
What are your “5 Things I Wish Someone Told Me Before I Started” and why.
Learn how to ask great questions. Every mistake I’ve made in my career could have been avoided by simply asking better questions to identify unseen pitfalls.
Learn how to actively listen. It’s so easy to go into “default” mode in a conversation and to start to plan what to say next versus truly hearing what a person is saying.
Learn to trust your inner voice. Early in my career, I put too much weight on others’ opinions and advice versus trusting that little voice inside.
Don’t be afraid to provoke. When I was first interning for a law firm, I had a boss who always said, “Try not to shake the boat.” It took me years to realize that was terrible advice that just reinforced established/old ways of doing things.
Don’t be afraid to set a large vision. Big ideas are infectious and will attract incredible people that all want to tackle a huge problem.
Can you share with our readers what you think are the most important “success habits” or “success mindsets”?
I think it’s important for everyone to know the way they personally tick. I come from a family of night owls and have tried to embrace those late-night spurts of energy that will keep me up to 2–3 AM a few nights a week. I’ve found that if I don’t do a daily to-do list every evening for the next day then I will operate at only 20% capacity.
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 🙂
At Iconic Moments, we are creating an entirely new economic model for the $31 Billion dollar museum and archive industry, and it’s an industry most VCs know little about. What most people don’t realize is that there are more museums in the United States than McDonald’s and Starbucks combined.
In less than 15 months, we’ve been able to build a team of world-class professionals, have the backing of the top cultural consultancies around the globe, and have incredible partnerships with top museums across three continents.
Not only can we onboard all of our cultural heritage into the Metaverse, but we can make more money for a museum in an hour than they will make in a year.
How can our readers follow you on social media?
Check out iconicmoments.co to sign up for our NFT platform. You can also follow Iconic’s work on LinkedIn and Twitter. You can connect with me personally here.
Thank you so much for joining us. This was very inspirational.
Meet The Disruptors: Robert Stern Of The Social Leader On The Five Things You Need To Shake Up Your Industry
An Interview With Fotis Georgiadis
… I would want people to realize that there is no such thing as a one-size-fits-all approach to social media. The old adage “There are many various methods for accomplishing a task.” There are far too many individuals out there who claim that the only way to utilize social media is their own. I have shown and will continue to demonstrate, that everyone has their own technique of doing things, which is all that matters.
As a part of our series about business leaders who are shaking things up in their industry, I had the pleasure of interviewing Robert Stern.
Robert C. Stern, founder, and CEO of The Social Leader, a social media agency that helps individuals and small businesses create an army of raving fans and audience members on their social media platforms which catapult their business.
After using Social Media as a Real Estate agent in 2008, he had the insight and vision that social media would become the main way to advertise in the future.
As the creator of ETA’s (Emotional Trigger Actions) in content that helps gain more engagement than traditional content, Robert has helped over 1000 small businesses use social media to grow and expand.
Robert has spoken on over 70 stages worldwide, including London, NYC, Dallas, and Sydney.
Robert has been on NBC, CBS, ABC, Fox, YahooLife, The List TV show, Your California Life, and The PBNN Podcast with Jill Nicolini.
Thank you so much for doing this with us! Before we dig in, our readers would like to get to know you a bit more. Can you tell us a bit about your “backstory”? What led you to this particular career path?
I’ve always been an entrepreneur, working alone. For the next 23 years, I worked on a commission basis after graduation. In NYC, I served as a headhunter and in NJ, I practiced real estate. During my time as a realtor, I was introduced to social media. (Early 2000’s) In 2009, agents in my office started asking me to help them to understand the different platforms. In 2010, I decided to change careers and develop myself as a social media expert. As a result, The Social Leader was born. I discovered the thrill of assisting others in successfully developing their social media presence, which has made me very happy over the last twelve years. From the strategies for utilizing social media for businesses, to content development, new features, and the use of paid ads and organic combined.
Can you tell our readers what it is about the work you’re doing that’s disruptive?
There have been a lot of experts who advocate for automating their social media to be on all platforms at the same time throughout the years. I’m one of the few people that are willing to speak out about it. Each platform has its own character and personality. As a result, you can’t simply release the same material everywhere. I feel that each platform should be unique, and they should have a purpose for following you on all of your platforms. This implies that each platform should have exclusive material relevant to it. More content will be created, which means more time for the company to create it. At the end of the day, this translates into a tenfold return in revenue.
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 one time in the beginning of Live Streaming from your mobile phones, I was on Periscope. (2015) It had just started a few weeks earlier. I opened a stream and started talking, many people came in the room. I was giving tips out about using live streaming for your business. I was outside on a beautiful spring day. However, I forgot that pollen was strong that day. So, while talking I got that tickle in my nose. It built up slowly and hen out of the blue, I sneezed so hard I dropped my phone while I was live. I rushed to pick it up off the ground and was so embarrassed. I was about to say “So Sorry” to everyone when I saw the comments flying up. All of them saying G-d Bless You, or Gesundheit, and of course the LOL’s. Other people saying things like “Oh that would definitely be me doing that also live.” What this taught me right away was being human when talking live on social media. Don’t worry about foul-ups or mistakes. People love to see that you are human and not perfect. That is how you should think about your social media. Keep it real!
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 admire Gary Vaynerchuk a lot in the social media space. He just is himself on camera or in his writings. He teaches people that being oneself is more important than the company. The generosity he shows to assist others is incredible. Taking the time to talk with the 10-year-old kid or 60-year-old person who is starting over again. I believe I am someone who does things similarly.
Can you share five of the best words of advice you’ve gotten along your journey?
Be Yourself
Be Consistent
Believe in Yourself, not what Others Think
Think Outside of The Box
Kindness Matters
We are sure you aren’t done. How are you going to shake things up next?
The next step will be to shake things up as it has always been. I’ll keep demonstrating what I believe in, even if others disagree with me. Right now, I’m working on a book about tossing all the rules out the window and doing social media from the heart.
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?
None that I can think of on this question.
Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share how that was relevant to you in your life?
C. S. Lewis said: You can’t go back and change the beginning, but you can start where you are and change the ending. This has a massive impact on my life. We all begin our professional or business careers with grandiose ideas about what we’ll accomplish in life. Then, life happens, and curves are thrown at you that either disrupt your activities or force you to alter course. All it implies is that you must keep moving forward regardless of what your aspirations and goals may be. Dreams and objectives may shift over time, but you must remain focused on where you want to go.
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 want people to realize that there is no such thing as a one-size-fits-all approach to social media. The old adage “There are many various methods for accomplishing a task.” There are far too many individuals out there who claim that the only way to utilize social media is their own. I have shown and will continue to demonstrate, that everyone has their own technique of doing things, which is all that matters.
How can our readers follow you online? What services do you offer they should know about?
I can be found on all the platforms. The ones I use mainly are
I wish someone had told me how long it would take to reach my success goals. I started my company 7 years ago and while we are growing every year, my ultimate goal and valuation for my company have not been reached quite yet.
As a part of our series called “Making Something From Nothing”, I had the pleasure of interviewing Tick Man Dan Wolff.
Dan Wolff, or as he is known in the outdoor circuit, Tick Man Dan, is an avid outdoorsman, pet lover, and a devoted dad from Rockville, MD with a degree in business from Skidmore College. When he moved to the suburbs of Boston, he found the tick population was out of control and the act of preventing and removing them was a struggle with the products available to consumers. To combat this problem, he founded TickEase, Inc. and created an effective dual-purpose tweezer-like tick removal device. TickEase, Inc.’s mission is to provide safe and effective tools for removing and repelling ticks, facilitating tick testing, and educating the public about the prevention of tick-borne illnesses like Lyme disease. Dan spends a lot of his time speaking to groups at events to educate the public about ticks and proper removal. The TickEase tool, combined with Dan’s knowledge, has become incredibly useful and has become a Prevention Partner of the University of Rhode Island’s TickEncounter Resource Center, often contributing to research efforts around the US. More information can be found at www.tickease.com
Thank you so much for doing this with us! Before we dive in, our readers would love to learn a bit more about you. Can you tell us a bit about your “childhood backstory”?
I spent the first 13 years of my life living in the suburbs of Washington D.C. before moving to the Boston area with my family. My father worked for the government directing the National Institutes of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) and my mother was a Registered Nurse. Back in the 1970s, we did not have cell phones or internet and I spent most of my time playing the drums or hanging around outside with the neighborhood kids. Bugs have always fascinated me, and perhaps I developed a scientific curiosity from my dad who ran huge medical research laboratories dedicated to solving many widespread infectious disease concerns affecting people on a global basis. In 1977, I moved to Wellesley Massachusetts and continued living a happy well-adjusted life. Fast forward to the early 1990s, I became interested in hiking, hunting, and fishing and began spending a lot of time in the woods west of Boston. I had heard about Lyme disease but had never thought too much about it until I started finding ticks on my clothing. In the beginning, they seemed few and far between, but in the mid-1990s, something happened, and there appeared to be an explosion of deer tick numbers in my area. It seemed that every trip into the woods resulted in being literally covered with ticks. After one afternoon with my Golden Retriever Champ, I remember pulling more than 250 ticks off him!! Lyme disease cases were climbing fast as well as other tick-borne illnesses and as a father of 2 boys and 2 dogs, my concern was rapidly increasing.
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 used to tell me “Don’t let the dummies get you down.” He was raised in a poor section of Newark, NJ in the 40s and 50s and rose to become one of the most influential medical scientists of his time despite being told that he would never amount to anything. This was particularly relevant in my life whether I was overcoming obstacles or starting my own business. The main message I got from this advice was to stay focused, never give up and tune out those who would like to see you fail. Always move forward one step at a time.
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?
While in middle school, I read Homer’s Odyssey. This story chronicles one man’s journey home after the Trojan War. Faced with tremendous obstacles and danger, the main character pushes forward in the face of adversity and finally, in the end, triumphantly returns home. This story really has had a big impact on my life because it highlights the importance of persistence and even when things are tough; if you stay focused and never give up, you will succeed!
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 people are not able to act on their ideas for a few reasons.
First of all, they may not have the best timing. It would be very difficult to take the steps necessary to bring a good idea to life if one is involved with supporting their family or themselves full time.
Creating a product takes a lot of time and resources. If an individual is lacking one or both of these, the odds of success are very low.
Another reason is mental state and mindset. I truly believe that obsession or passion is a necessary ingredient to being a successful entrepreneur. One needs to live and breathe their idea 24/7 to make it. Lastly, the support of those closest can make or break this process.
If little or no support (or even negative support) exists, success is doomed.
Often when people think of a new idea, they dismiss it saying someone else must have thought of it before. How would you recommend that someone go about researching whether or not their idea has already been created?
The process of researching existing ideas and patents has become much easier with the ability to do internet searches. I came up with the original design for my Tick Removal Device by searching the internet and looking at what currently existed and creating a better “mousetrap” by combining some attributes of the existing items. Once I had developed a prototype from tin foil in my basement, I was able to contact a patent attorney who was a friend and have him research the design and application. I was lucky enough to eventually get a design patent on my product. I would suggest creating and utilizing your network of friends, families, and colleagues to get things done with minimal cost.
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.
There are books on this subject and it is certainly a comprehensive, arduous and complicated process. It took me a long time to get my product designed, manufactured, and marketed to consumers. Here is an outline of my experience:
Conception. Identify a problem and think of a product that solves it. Visualize and draw a design
Create a prototype
Conduct a patent search, and if warranted, apply for your patent
Identify reputable sourcing agents or direct factory representatives
Get a production sample and pricing.
Do not forget to factor in the costs associated with freight, customs, duties, taxes, etc.
Develop appropriate artwork and graphics for the packaging.
Create a sales deck that contains all pertinent information and specifications about the item for marketing.
Create an online store where customers can buy directly.
List the item on Amazon.
Begin contacting distributors and wholesalers and send samples and your sales deck.
Never give up!
What are your “5 Things I Wish Someone Told Me When I First Started Leading My Company” and why?
I wish someone had told me how long it would take to reach my success goals. I started my company 7 years ago and while we are growing every year, my ultimate goal and valuation for my company have not been reached quite yet.
I wish someone told me that I would experience crazy events that would greatly impact my company. It’s hard to expect the unexpected. The pandemic and the political state of the US have made things a bit difficult. In 2020, I lost a customer with 1100 stores due to COVID. Oh, and let’s not forget a war that will complicate things on many levels.
I wish someone had told me to be careful of predatory groups targeting new entrepreneurs and inventors. I have engaged with groups that claim to help develop and/or market my items.
Unfortunately, many of them will take advantage and charge large fees and not deliver what they say.
4. I wish someone would have told me to have backup options for manufacturing. My products are currently being made in China. Recently imposed tariffs have risen from 4% to 29%. This is on top of increased freight and production costs.
5. I wish someone had told me not to try to do everything by myself.
Oftentimes, entrepreneurs bootstrap and handle all aspects of the business. There comes a point where this is just not feasible anymore. It is important to identify those areas of the business that can be handled by the CEO, and those areas that can be handled better by experts in that field. Let the team focus on the areas they know best and let the CEO do what he or she does best.
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 suggest is that they look for someone they can trust and who would be willing to be a mentor. Preferably, someone who has successfully been down this road.
Stay away from those groups who claim to provide everything an inventor needs. There are many groups and resources for the beginner. I used a group called SCORE (Service Corps of Retired Executives) from the SBA. They will give you access to great mentors at no charge. In addition, there are many networking groups and local assistance centers that provide help for new inventors. The local Chamber of Commerce can help as well.
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?
If money is not a concern, these consultants may be a good idea.
Some may even help for future payments.
However, many of these consultants have developed a reputation for taking advantage of or stealing the IP of the client.
I would suggest finding a trusted mentor with experience as a first choice.
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 bootstrapped my company and laid it all on the line. However, I still own 100% equity. The inventor needs to evaluate what scenario works best for their situation. My goal is to retain as much equity as possible so that when I sell the company I will get the best return possible.
Ok. We are nearly done. Here are our final questions. How have you used your success to make the world a better place?
Absolutely! My products are designed to help people reduce the risk of tick-borne illnesses like Lyme disease. Tremendous suffering has occurred globally as a result of tick bites. My mission is to provide education, resources, and products to bring awareness and keep people and their companion animals safe.
You are an inspiration to a great many people. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger.
I would like to see a movement that focuses on providing our children with the right tools to live happy, healthy, and productive lives. Perhaps the education in schools could be directed at real-life skills in our modern society. How to run a household, manage money, raise their own families, and be accepting, but not influence other people’s lives. Everyone has their own beliefs. Live and let live!
We are very blessed that some of the biggest names in Business, VC funding, Sports, and Entertainment read this column. Is there a person in the world, or in the US, with whom you would love to have a private breakfast or lunch, and why? He or she might just see this if we tag them.
I would love to sit down with Elon Musk. Here is a man that stands up for what he believes, has created a company that is truly helping the world, and uses his vast resources to help those in need.
Thank you for these fantastic insights. We greatly appreciate the time you spent on this.
Meet The Disruptors: Khaled Hussein Of Betterleap On The Five Things You Need To Shake Up Your Industry
An Interview With Fotis Georgiadis
Success, especially in business, has never been a result of one person. It’s always been the people, the team, the culture, the drive, and the mission that got everyone together to make it happen.
As a part of our series about business leaders who are shaking things up in their industry, I had the pleasure of interviewing Khaled Hussein.
Khaled Hussein’s impressive entrepreneurial journey started when he launched Tilt — a social network for money, backed by innovators from Y Combinator to Andreesen Horowitz to Alex Ohanian. After selling Tilt to Airbnb, Khaled went on to found Stipple, a venture studio for incubating and investing in early stage startups. Next, after ongoing first-hand experiences with the shortcomings of traditional recruiting, Khaled then founded Betterleap to connect companies with more talent in less time.
Khaled is an active investor in over 40 startups and a trusted resource, mentor and advisor to many. Follow him on Twitter.
Thank you so much for doing this with us! Before we dig in, our readers would like to get to know you a bit more. Can you tell us a bit about your “backstory”? What led you to this particular career path?
I was born in Egypt in very modest circumstances where being an entrepreneur is basically a necessity to being able to afford living expenses. My father built and operated a number of small businesses so I was very fortunate to see my father’s experiences with hiring and growing his businesses at a young age.
Fast forward, I immigrated to the US and got my Masters in Human-Computer Interaction from Virginia Tech. After completing my Masters, in an attempt to learn more about tech entrepreneurship, I joined an early-stage startup called Webmail, that later got acquired by Rackspace, where I worked in many different roles ending with leading the strategic cloud strategy.
I then went back to my entrepreneurial roots and started a company called Tilt, which was a YC and we raised impressive capital from a16z, SVAngels, and others. Hiring and growing the team at Tilt fast enough was always a challenge, I was always left wishing I could deploy more resources on hiring.
We sold Tilt to Airbnb and my main focus then was on growing the payments teams. Recruiting was again a challenge at scale so my co-founder, Anna Melano — who used to be a product specialist at Airbnb, and myself decided to build Betterleap to make it much more efficient to engage with more external recruiting resources.
Can you tell our readers what it is about the work you’re doing that’s disruptive?
Betterleap is a platform that takes the hassle out of finding and working with vetted tech recruiters.
The traditional way of engaging with external resources limits the ability to scale quickly. Typically, a company has to find a good recruiting firm, interview them to make sure they are a good fit, then start the contract negotiation process where you go back and forth on legal language as well as pricing, then you eventually do a kick off call with that agency. All of that for one agency.
Addressing this challenge, we built a growing network of vetted recruiting firms/agencies at Betterleap. We standardized the contracts and terms of service, and made it possible for a company to just simply connect their Applicant Tracking System (ATS) and publish the roles they need help with. Once the roles are published, they’ll get automatically matched with a recruiting firm that specializes in that role. They’ll get to see a full profile (LinkedIn for recruiters) of the recruiter, their past customers, hires, reviews, …etc.
If a company doesn’t like the recruiter, they simply press the “rematch” button and they’ll get automatically matched with another recruiting firm right away. That’s magic. Using Betterleap, for the first time, companies can engage with multiple high-quality recruiting firms on multiple roles to hire great talent faster.
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 most impactful mentors have been Bill Boebel and Pat Matthews: Co-founders of Webmail, which got acquired by Rackspace.
When I first joined Webmail, I was still new to the field of technology and did a lot of IC type of work as an engineer but I was searching for more, so one day I ran into Bill, we started talking, and next thing I know I’m tasked to work on a high-impact partnership. I didn’t know anything about how partnerships worked or even where to start, so naturally, I started asking a ton of questions.
Bill then said “I’m going to leave you for three months here at your desk. Let’s chat when the partnership is done.” I was stunned! I pulled it off, made a bunch of mistakes along the way but learned that sometimes the best way to learn something new is to jump in and just do it.
I’ve taken this lesson to heart in the companies that I built after that, as well as when I mentor and coach others in the same boat.
Pat ended up investing in every company I built since then and has been a huge supporter and an operating mentor for me throughout the years.
In today’s parlance, being disruptive is usually a positive adjective. But is disrupting always good? When do we say the converse, that a system or structure has ‘withstood the test of time’? Can you articulate to our readers when disrupting an industry is positive, and when disrupting an industry is ‘not so positive’? Can you share some examples of what you mean?
To me, disruption in an industry, in a positive way, is about improving the quality of life. This could happen through improving efficiency, reducing costs, creating opportunities, and so forth.
The important key points in a good disruption include — Getting the timing right, as one of the most common reasons startups fail is their timing was wrong; The right team, as people talk about the right execution but really it’s about assembling the right team. That’s again why recruiting is probably one of the most important industries ever in the human history; And the right resources, this can be capital, material, partnerships, and so forth.
If you end up missing some of these key factors, this innovation is probably not going to work the way it’s intended.
Can you share five of the best insights you’ve gotten along your journey? Please give a story or example for each.
Make something people want — Paul Graham from YC.
I built Tilt, which was a YC startup, and I remember the first time Paul Graham saying that phrase to us. It was such a profound way to simplify the entire goal of finding product-market fit.
Be stubborn on the mission but flexible on how to achieve it — Jeff Bezos
Betterleap is definitely a good example here as our mission is to help companies grow by giving them all the recruiting resources they need. We’ve gone through a number of iterations and pivots before we landed on our current iteration and now we’re able to see it actually work and grow rapidly.
Consistency is the key to achieving and maintaining momentum. — Darren Hardy.
We don’t really chase that adrenalin of having one great day, or great month, or great year. If we keep stacking good days on good days, we’ll always have great months and great years.
If I only had an hour to chop down a tree, I would spend the first 45 minutes sharpening my ax. — Abraham Lincoln
To me, it’s about being strategic and not impacted by what other competitors are doing. Let’s focus on adding value, building the right product, having the right team, and eventually, you lift your head up and realize that you won.
If I have seen further, it is by standing on the shoulders of giants — Isaac Newton
Success, especially in business, has never been a result of one person. It’s always been the people, the team, the culture, the drive, and the mission that got everyone together to make it happen.
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 enjoyed reading The Compound Effect.
There are so many great things in this book but the two that stuck with me the most are:
You’re responsible for your own ___ (anything), happiness, actions, feelings, …etc.
It’s very empowering and energizing for you to realize you can do something about whatever it is you’re thinking through right now.
Success isn’t about this one big thing but it’s about the million other things that you consistently pile on top of each other to build something great.
In the early days of my career, I always thought success was about building this one big unicorn, and that anything else isn’t really successful. I worked so hard on making Tilt that success story and anything else was simply considered a failure.
However, as I got a little older and reflected a bit more, I realized that this is far from the truth. I’ve been fortunate to have had a lot of these “small” successes and hopefully, keep growing that stack and increase our impact on the world one step at a time.
Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share how that was relevant to you in your life?
Staying positive. Entrepreneurship is a marathon and full of ups and downs. This is one of my favorite quotes on being resilient and thinking positively no matter what it is you’re going through.
An arrow can only be shot by pulling it backward. So when life is dragging you back with difficulties, it means that it’s going to launch you into something great. So just focus, and keep aiming. — Paulo Coelho
Don’t compare — It’s easy to compare other successes with your own. Keep the focus on your own path.
As a part of our series called “Making Something From Nothing”, I had the pleasure of interviewing Ashley Wong.
Bookworm Baby was founded by Ashley Wong, a first-time mom and brand marketing vet who spent her time in New York at household beauty names such as L’Oréal, NARS and Butter London. She saw an opportunity to innovate in the teether category after noticing how often her little one gnawed on board books to soothe his achy gums. She created Basil the Bookworm teether — a first-of-its-kind, patent pending design with an adorable bookworm as the superstar to inspire a love of reading early on. With her extensive experience in marketing and newfound passion for little ones, Ashley set forth to bring safe, effective and best-in-class relief to all the little teethers out there.
Thank you so much for doing this with us! Before we dive in, our readers would love to learn a bit more about you. Can you tell us a bit about your “childhood backstory”?
I was born and raised in Texas. As an only child, I was fiercely independent starting at a young age. I was always driven, always determined and always had big dreams. I remember at the age of four, I took my dad’s tools, removed the training wheels off of my bike and taught myself how to ride. This pretty much set the tone for the rest of my childhood.
Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share how that was relevant to you in your life?
Decide what you want. Believe you can have it. Believe you deserve it and believe it’s possible for you. — Jack Canfield
As a child or even in my professional career, I always believed you can make things happen even if it appeared to be out of my league. Be confident, decisive and find a way to get it done. If there isn’t one, create one.
Is there a particular book, podcast, or film that made a significant impact on you? Can you share a story or explain why it resonated with you so much?
I think it’s only fitting for me to choose a baby book. The Snail and a Whale by Julia Donaldson is a story about a tiny, yet ambitious snail who longs to see the world. The snail hitches a ride with a giant whale and during their adventure, the whale ends up in trouble. The snail comes to the rescue and proves anything is possible with fearlessness and perseverance.
At the start of Bookworm Baby, I had a great idea and needed to figure out how to make it come to life. The process was very intimidating. I had no connections or a “launch playbook” and although I had a brand marketing background, it was in a completely different industry — beauty. Launching a new patent pending product was completely outside of my comfort zone. But with a leap of faith and plenty of hard work, I was able to bring a first-of-its-kind teether to market.
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?
Ideation should be rooted in authenticity, purpose and conviction. If you aren’t all-in on your own creation, why should the consumer believe in it? As part of the process, it’s critical to connect the creative with the business opportunity. Understand the market from all angles — the white space, both the target consumer & end users and the competitive landscape. Make sure the idea still has a strong likelihood to resonate with your market. Aside from all of this, my biggest piece of advice is there will never be a right time. Don’t wait, just start.
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?
Do lots of research and never stop. Based on my experience, my approach was pretty straightforward, and my team studied a few key items: the product category (both domestically & internationally), the origins of our concept and the USPTO database.
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.
Once our team solidified our concept, we set out to find the right manufacturing partner; a critical first step to our success given we were starting from scratch.
We identified a few best-of-breed manufacturers based on their client track record amongst other factors.The customer-centric partners who were willing to deploy their own engineering resources & vast expertise to help guide us through our first production process was key.Communication, follow-through & meeting deadlines were also top priorities.
As we progressed, we determined it was prudent to apply for a pre-launch, design patent to give us full protection. The patent process was a balancing act — understanding what type of patent paired with what should & can be submitted to provide the broadest coverage while maximizing the probability of an USPTO approval.
In terms of distribution, our launch strategy was D2C. We launched our website along with a social media rollout and soon thereafter, released our product on Amazon.
What are your “5 Things I Wish Someone Told Me When I First Started Leading My Company” and why?
Stay the course — For every 100 no’s there might be one amazing yes. Be persistent and keep moving forward.
Don’t compare — It’s easy to compare other successes with your own. Keep the focus on your own path.
Never self-doubt — There are always doubters, but never doubt your vision.
Progress is not linear — And that’s okay.
Don’t rely on anyone — Seldom surprised, often disappointed.
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 — see what already exists, identify key players in the space (strengths, weaknesses), size the addressable market.
Define the opportunity — what value-add or innovation can you bring.
Create an action plan — lay out, sequence & prioritize the key workstreams.
There are many invention development consultants. Would you recommend that a person with a new idea hire such a consultant, or should they try to strike out on their own?
It depends…for each piece of the puzzle, I asked myself can I already do it or figure it out? Going it alone allows you to set the vision, fully immerse yourself in the development process and most importantly, learn by iteration & failure. Be honest with yourself, know your limits and understand the timing implications.
For non-negotiable items that are critical to success and outside of your core competencies — for Bookworm Baby, it was the character art & 3D modeling — leave it to the pros.
What are your thoughts about bootstrapping vs looking for venture capital? What is the best way to decide if you should do either one?
Bookworm Baby is fully bootstrapped as I want full control of the decision- making process. If you can fully fund the go-to-market with 6–12 months of ample runway (R&D, inventory and marketing spend), self-funding may be a preferable route.
Alternatively, external funding is an option if additional capital is required. Along with the funding, the right partner may be able to provide strategic advice and/or connect with distribution partners. However, ceding full control along with ongoing reporting requirements and resources required for fundraising were the downsides leading to self-funding this venture.
Ok. We are nearly done. Here are our final questions. How have you used your success to make the world a better place?
Going back to my mission — I want to create innovative relief that brings smiles and inspires the littlest ones to have an everlasting love for reading and discovery.
You are an inspiration to a great many people. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger.
Be kind. Kindness brings the best out of people, and ultimately cultivates a more positive, inclusive community.
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.
Eric Carle. One of the most revered children’s illustrators and authors of all time. He has inspired many generations and his legacy continues to this day.
Thank you for these fantastic insights. We greatly appreciate the time you spent on this.
Jill Tietjen Of Technically Speaking On The 5 Things You Need To Be A Highly Effective Public Speaker
An Interview With Fotis Georgiadis
… When I was a senior in college, I competed at a regional student engineering conference. I was the last speaker of the day in the student competition and the only female — all of the other competitors (nine) were male. My knees were shaking so hard that I was gripping the podium so that I could remain upright. I never wanted to be that scared again. I have leaped at opportunities to be trained as a speaker. Each training has allowed me to become more and more confident in my speaking. After 16 hours of training over two days for my expert witness work, my confidence soared. Prepare, practice, and train.
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 Jill Tietjen.
Jill Tietjen is an author, speaker, and electrical engineer with twelve books published to date. She is a frequent keynote speaker as her positive energy and her ability to relate to the audience result in inspired and energized listeners. She has been inducted into the Colorado Women’s Hall of Fame and the Colorado Authors’ Hall of Fame.
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 am the oldest of four children and I grew up in Hampton, Virginia. For those people who have seen the movie Hidden Figures, that was set at what became the National Aeronautics and Space Administration at the Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia. That was where my father worked as an engineer for his entire career. Us four kids were always expected to do our personal best and we knew we were going to college. I was fortunate that by the time I was ready to apply for colleges, my first choice — the University of Virginia — admitted women as undergraduate women. I was in the third class that admitted women. I graduated from the School of Engineering and Applied Science and throughout my electric utility career, I have written and spoken — I was trained as an expert witness, wrote testimony and provided oral testimony on the stand before regulatory bodies — primarily state public utility commissions.
Can you share a story with us about what brought you to this specific career path?
I always say that the current path that I am on was started by an outreach program for the Society of Women Engineers in 1987 — an essay contest on great women in engineering and science. Researching those women in order to sponsor an essay contest for sixth graders, learning how little women’s stories and history are told — how little we learn about women in our formal education process — has galvanized me to write about women, to write women into history and to tell their stories through speaking as well. I did that in parallel with my engineering career for these many years since 1987. The large majority of my time is now spent speaking and writing about women through history, although I still occasionally undertake writing and speaking projects related to my engineering career. I have had 12 books published to date.
Can you tell us the most interesting story that happened to you since you began your career?
I don’t know that it is the most interesting but it certainly brought many elements of my career, my life and me personally together. While I worked for Duke Power Company (an electric utility based in Charlotte, North Carolina) in the 1976–1981 time frame, I became a member of Duke Power’s Speaker’s Bureau. Community organizations or schools or neighborhood organizations could request a speaker from Duke Power and a member of the Speaker’s Bureau was assigned to give the talk. I was assigned to give a talk to the “39 and Holding Club”. I was about 25 years old at the time. I am 5’2” tall.
It is pouring down rain when I arrive at the church where I am speaking. I walk in and check in at the registration table. The woman sitting there looks me up and down and says “I thought Duke Power was sending an engineer.” I said, “They did.” For whatever reason, maybe the rain, the sound system is picking up the local Top 40 station. I get all set up and we eat lunch. Oh, by the way, my topic is “Nuclear Power.” I have now figured out that “39 and Holding” means that the average age in the room is probably higher than 70 — it is a club for retired people. I am introduced and I get up to speak. Some older woman in the crowd yells out, “She’s so short.” This was back in the day when you turned off the lights to show 35 mm slides. The lights went out and almost everyone in the room went to sleep.
It was obviously a very memorable experience for me. I learned a lot because of it. I always try to find out as much as I can about my audience before I speak now.
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 arrived at a facility somewhere in North Carolina while I was a member of Duke Power’s Speaker’s Bureau with a slide projector with a three-pronged plug. This building was an older building and every outlet only accommodated two-pronged plugs. I did not have an adapter with me and the extension cord also had three prongs. After some very significant panic, an adapter was found. I always carry almost every piece of equipment I could possibly need when I speak today (of course, the equipment is different, but I still carry a three-prong to two-prong adapter!).
None of us are able to achieve success without some help along the way. Is there a particular person who you are grateful towards who helped get you to where you are? Can you share a story about that?
My boss’s boss at Duke Power Company, Bill Reinke, recognized my speaking ability when I was still pretty fresh out of college. He was the one who recommended that I become a member of the Speaker’s Bureau and saw that I had the training that was offered. I am forever indebted to him for that support — and I have told him that.
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?
In my 2022 book, Over, Under, Around, and Through: How Hall of Famers Surmount Obstacles, I tell fifty stories about women in halls of fame in Colorado, around the U.S. and around the world and how they overcame the obstacles in their lives. One of the “lessons learned” happens to be in my story. When my first husband and I were both 22 years old and had been married nine months, his parents died in a murder-suicide and his two brothers (14 and 18 years old) came to live with us. I learned from that portion of my life to prepare for the worst that can happen. I do not mean to dwell on it — just to examine it as one of the scenarios that might happen and to decide what you would do if it did happen.
So to people who are thinking about this career path but are afraid of failure, my advice is to think about what is the worst that can happen. What might that be? Having to go back to your previous job? Getting a different job? Getting training? Depending on someone else for housing or living expenses while you get on your feet? Look at the possible outcomes, figure out what you would do and then damn the torpedoes and full speed ahead on this career path.
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?
Women are important to the world. Women have value. When we value women and their accomplishments, society and the world will be better.
You have such impressive work. What are some of the most interesting or exciting projects you are working on now? Where do you see yourself heading from here?
I am looking to speak everywhere I can and having colleges and universities use Over, Under, Around, and Through as a community read. Building on the two books I have co-authored in the Her Story series : Her Story: A Timeline of the Women Who Changed America and Hollywood: Her Story, An Illustrated History of Women and the Movies, I am working on other books in the Her Story series as well and seeking additional speaking opportunities. Her Story Kenya, the first book in the Her Story Africa series, is in the book design process with a publisher in Nairobi, Kenya. Her Story Magic is almost completed and looking for a publisher. As series editor for the Springer Women in Engineering and Science series, I am always looking for volume editors. I am the lead co-volume editor for the Women in Power volume and will be providing chapters for the Women in Renewables volume. As you can tell, I am involved in many projects and love being busy.
Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share how that was relevant to you in your life?
A quote I use in many of my presentations comes from Thomas Edison and reads “Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work.” First, it means that you need to recognize that an opportunity is being offered to you. Then, you need to say yes to the opportunity. And finally, you need to work your hardest and put forth your best effort to take the best advantage of that opportunity.
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.
The key to effective speaking is preparation, preparation, preparation.
First, Learn about your audience and gear your talk to them. See the story above about the “39 and Holding” club.
Second, practice your speech. Practice in front of a mirror. If possible and someone you know is willing, practice with a live audience. Time your talk — timing is often very important — to honor the expectations of the audience to which you are speaking and the meeting organizers.
I received a call to speak to an audience of about 1,000 in Kansas City for National Engineers’ Week at a lunch. The first thing they told me was that the talk should be twenty minutes. One of my engineer friends who was on the organizing committee called me to tell me that the talk was twenty minutes. I received a third communication that the talk was to be for twenty minutes. Finally, I learned that this commitment to twenty minutes was the result of the previous year’s speaker — he had taken a full hour at the end of which there was no one left in the audience. You better believe I ensured that my presentation was no longer than twenty minutes!
Third, know your equipment so that you don’t have any surprises. See the story above about 3-prong to 2-prong adapters.
Fourth, know your material inside out and backwards. This story about knowing your material actually happened during the course of my expert witness work. The company president refused to attend the expert witness preparation. He got on the stand totally unprepared. When he was asked questions about meetings and meeting topics — he made stuff up. Then the attorney and the company employees had to do something called “rehabilitating the witness” — which is effectively correcting his mistakes in the record.
Learn everything you can about the material but when you are asked a question for which you don’t know the answer say “I don’t know.” If it is something you think you can find out, get the questioner’s contact information after your talk and follow up with them with the answer. If it is just a smart aleck question, you can say “I don’t know” and then forget about it. And, those do happen.
Fifth, prepare for the question and answer session. Write down every question you can think of that you might be asked. Prepare an answer. And don’t be surprised if you get questions for which you are not prepared. Two examples:
1. I was testifying before a state public utility commission for a permit for a new power plant. I had written multiple times in my prepared written testimony that this new power plant would provide safe, economic, and reliable power. The deputy commissioner asked me if the other possible types of power plants would be unsafe. Of course, the answer was no and I had not prepared for the question.
2. I was speaking to fifth graders in Connecticut about women in history. One of the fifth-grade boys asked me what I now call the most hostile question I have ever gotten — “Well, you know there were men in history, too.” I was not prepared but thank goodness the teacher bailed me out. I now have the answer to that statement/question nailed.
As you know, many people are terrified of speaking in public. Can you give some of your advice about how to overcome this fear?
When I was a senior in college, I competed at a regional student engineering conference. I was the last speaker of the day in the student competition and the only female — all of the other competitors (nine) were male. My knees were shaking so hard that I was gripping the podium so that I could remain upright. I never wanted to be that scared again.
I have leaped at opportunities to be trained as a speaker. Each training has allowed me to become more and more confident in my speaking. After 16 hours of training over two days for my expert witness work, my confidence soared.
Prepare, practice, and train.
You are a person of huge influence. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be?
We must educate women worldwide and we must learn to value women.
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!
Melinda Gates. I want to work with her to educate women worldwide and demonstrate the value of women.
Are you on social media? How can our readers follow you online?
I believe stories connect with our audience. Furthermore, it becomes a bridge for information to pass through. For instance, when I speak or coach entrepreneurs, I like to tell a story of my first failed business and stories of current deterrents. I have found that my relatability increases when I am vulnerable, equating to the listener’s overall growth.
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 Chad Osinga.
Chad is a retired Army Sniper and combat instructor. He has trained thousands of men/women in self-defense and combat applications. He has been with his high school sweetheart for over 20 years, and have four children together. Three of his kids have special needs, with his daughter having a massive stroke at the age of 5 years old. Chad Osinga now uses his time to speak, write, and help others maximize their potential as a life coach.
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?
Life has been somewhat of a challenge since birth as I was born in the beautiful love state of Virginia with Erb’s Palsy. My mother worked vigorously to retrieve mobility to the left side of my body. Once I regained the strength on my left side. My mother relapsed into her first love of drugs and alcohol. Entering school, I was labeled a “special education” student early in life. I remember a teacher vividly telling me I was dumb because I did not comprehend the lesson taught in class. Comments like this throughout my early life would shape my subconscious — embracing the “special education kid” and allowing those words to define me.
I became a loner, began to rebel against authority and became angry at the world. Before I knew it, life spiraled out of control, my mom had become entirely dependent on crack cocaine, and her dealers moved in with us. I was barely going to school, which raised quite a bit of suspicion.
At fourteen years old, local, state, and federal law enforcement agencies raided my home. It was one of the scariest moments in my life. Our home had so many people inside that they did not have enough handcuffs. Instead of going to a juvenile detention center, I was placed on probation and shipped to Oklahoma with my aunt and uncle I barely knew. Before I arrived, I had been declared anemic due to the lack of nourishment I received. The drug dealers ate most of our food, leaving me with just scraps. Not realizing the circumstance forced upon me would lead me to another abusive scenario. While in my new environment, I was abused (physically, mentally, and emotionally) for minor incidents caused by my cousins. They would quote scripture and declare the name of the Lord to feel guiltless for their abuse. Meanwhile, my mother was sentenced and sent to federal prison.
Roughly a year and a half went by. Realizing I was just a paycheck and tired of my current state of affairs, I hitch-hiked to the airport, making my way back to Virginia. Breaking probation, willing to face the circumstance of jail, I was released in the custody of my grandmother.
My mother was released from prison and fell victim to her addictions. This time the drugs took her life. The ironic part is that she passed while doing drugs at a friend’s house from Alcohol Anonymous (AA).
I continued down a similar path as the woman who brought me into this world. I dropped out of high school after the ninth grade. During this period, I met a young lady unlike anyone I had ever met in my life. Despite the negativity swirling around my life, she was a bright light to a guy surrounded by darkness. This young lady would be the one who convinced me to stop selling drugs, get an honest job, and support my leap of faith to the US Army. She would become my wife, my rock, and the mother of my four children. Life growing up was quite the journey but made me the man I am today. I am thankful for the lessons that I have been fortunate to learn and overcome.
Can you share a story with us about what brought you to this specific career path?
I have two stories, actually; For years, friends and family members have tried to convince me to step out and talk about my life. My life has been unique because I have had to endure hardships consistently throughout my life. Whether it is how to overcome obstacles in your personal life, marriage, with your children, mental struggles, or physical injuries, I have been through them and fortunately overcame them. However, outside of the courses I was teaching for the military, I would not speak in front of people. I did not want to allow my fight to be known by everyone until my last two life-changing incidents.
After being medically retired from the United States Army, I began riding motorcycles to combat what I like to call “demons” (PTSD).
In 2018, I took a left turn at a stoplight on my motorcycle. As I was looking into the turn, a driver who was not paying attention blew through a red light. That driver plowed into me at forty-five miles an hour, putting my lifeless body into a guard rail.
Most of my friends thought I would die that night, but I didn’t. It took me a little over a year to recover and get the courage to get back on a motorcycle.
In 2020, just shy of two years after my first wreck, a van hit me again. While I was on I-95 with a few buddies riding, the driver, not looking in their mirrors, changed lanes, and my bike went into the jersey barrier as I went into a construction zone.
This wreck broke my femur, pelvis, and hip and fractured my neck. I died on the way to the hospital and before my second surgery. Yet, somehow I am here in this interview today.
While recovering from this incident, I realized that I had a purpose bigger than me. I knew that all I had been through was to help others. Moreover, to empower people by assisting them to maximize their potential through changing the way they think. I knew it was time for me to take action, and help as many individuals as possible.
Can you tell us the most interesting story that happened to you since you began your career?
When I began speaking, I did so in a military setting. I was teaching Soldiers. Up to this point, my clients were close to the base where I did most of my engagements.
I was doing a week-long course, and on the last day, a student walked up and introduced herself. She went on to say she had flown from Fort Brag to learn from me.
Taken back, I asked why and how she heard about me? The tiny but motivated woman said that my credentials spoke volumes at the highest level of her command. She then went on to tell me she was a Lt Colonel at Fort Brag. I had no clue that people were recommending me or that Soldiers were willing to travel to learn from me.
The craziest part was following that course; I began to have people fly in from all over the country to be taught by me, including the U.S Marshalls.
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 spoke in front of roughly forty people; this was the most audience I had been in front of to date. Everything was going well, and boom! Brain dump, I went completely blank, turned bright red, then began pacing. It felt like all forty people were staring a hole through my soul. After retrieving some notes, I finally got it together and was able to finish strong.
The main thing I learned from that moment was to relax and trust in my preparation. I had everything down before that class started. Once I got a little stuck, I allowed the moment’s pressure to affect my flow. I also learned that stuff happens, no one is perfect, and to push forward regardless of the mistake; if I drive on rather than allow the error to affect the overall performance, the audience rarely notices the minor mishap.
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?
A few people have strengthened my resolve, encouraged my entrepreneurship, and ultimately just believed in who I could be. One of whom is a phycologist I have known for seven years. One afternoon, he and I were talking about life in general. Before Covid-19 had hit the world, I was teaching at-risk children basketball. I relate quite a bit to these children, so I gladly went twice a week before school to help these kids learn the game. The only condition was that they had to do well in class, listen to their teachers, and respect their peers. Honestly, teaching those kids was like a form of therapy for me.
As we sat there and discussed life, I mentioned how I wanted to impact the lives of these children. Moreover, to grow my capacity to assist special-needs families as well. “There are considerably fewer finances with this type of work, but the joy it brings is genuinely priceless,” I told him. He looked at me and said, “you are an outlier.” I asked what he meant he said, “most that have experienced a life of such adversity do not have the same moral compass as you do. I see men who have far less adversity to them yet allow a singular event to alter their morals or beliefs regarding the world.
On the other hand, you have endured more than most on multiple different fronts of your life; the difference is that you have not permitted those struggles to poison how you view others. Nor have these hardships caused you to abandon your goodness toward those in need.” Little does he know that those words inspired me to move forward with my career as a speaker and mentor.
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?
Fall in love with the process. No matter how much success one achieves, there is always another level to attain. Understand that you either win or learn; the only time one fails is when we refuse the lesson. Know your “why” and cultivate the right belief system. I am not referring to anything religious instead, what we believe about ourselves. As an entrepreneur, you will face setbacks. If you do not know your “why” or your belief system is not changed, the friction felt will derail you from success.
Allow me to unpack what I mean by belief system. If we associate every mistake with failure, then every time we make one in the future, we will believe we failed and quit before giving ourselves a real shot. It is no different than why we associate alcohol with happiness, death with pain, or television with relaxation. One must revamp their thought processes to find success as an entrepreneur.
Lastly, “slow is smooth, smooth is fast” I preach action; however, it is unwise to “place the cart before the horse.” Let me explain; Floyd Mayweather (Professional Boxer) has some of the most vicious and accurate jabs in boxing. He tears opponents down with this punch. I can watch a YouTube video on throwing correct jabs, yet, it will not be anything like Mayweathers. Why? It’s simple; he has spent thousands of hours learning how to throw that one punch so effectively that he can revolve his entire style around it. So invest in yourself, learn, and never stop perfecting your craft. Do not rush the process, remember, “slow is smooth, smooth is fast.”
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 did not have someone to help me see the greatness within myself for most of my life. To help me see that everything I have ever needed I already had. To help me create and enforce the right belief system.
Despite rough beginnings, physical challenges, or a lack of opportunities, I could not just achieve my dreams but reach heights unimagined.
So I wake up each day in pursuit of empowering and being that individual I did not have. To strengthen the resolve of every listener, helping them target the foundation of success, their mind.
I hear many people talk about struggling in different areas of their lives and they have tried to no avail to achieve or stop something in their lives. The root of the issue is our beliefs, which is why even when people take action, they quit. Consistency can only be attained through the right mindset.
The aforementioned leads me to the message I aim to share; our decisions are tied directly to what we believe about this world, our lot in life, and ourselves. Moreover, changing our belief systems and maintaining what we believe is imperative to maximize one’s potential. Once people tap into the power of rewiring their mindset, there is truly nothing they will not be able to conquer or achieve.
You have such impressive work. What are some of the most interesting or exciting projects you are working on now? Where do you see yourself heading from here?
I am very excited to announce that I have started working on my first book, “The Legend Of An Outlier.” I also have been asked to be on a Podcast called “Good Life Great life” with Brian Highfield, and I m very honored to have such an opportunity.
Over the next year, I have several goals I will be setting out to accomplish. One is to start a podcast that focuses on revamping mindsets. Honestly, I can see no limits to where I will go from here.
As I mentioned, I am writing a lot now and will begin writing and publishing several different books I have had in my heart. However, the most significant accomplishment I will be setting out to tackle is helping my community. I am from an area where poverty has tremendously affected the youth. We also have many special needs children who do not have the resources to succeed. I have already started a yearly motorcycle rally that aims to raise money and provide items these kids need to live a better tomorrow. The next phase is to place mentors in their lives and give them a glimpse into the possibilities that await them if they put forward the effort.
Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share how that was relevant to you in your life?
“THINKING WILL NOT OVERCOME FEAR, BUT ACTION WILL” — W. CLEMENT STONE
This quote resonates to the very core of my being. Not because I have not accomplished a lot throughout my life, but rather because I have had many setbacks trying to place limits on myself and my fantastic family. A limit solely based on fear and doubt. From my daughter’s stroke to my wife having our third child while my daughter was in the Intensive Care Unit in Hamburg, Germany, until my last motorcycle accident, where I died twice.
Fear has been a predominant force I have had to face. Doubt has arose shaped in many different forms along this journey.
Many think I am crazy for getting back onto a motorcycle after being in two horrendous accidents, mainly as they were based on drivers not paying attention. For myself, however, it was about facing my fear and slaying that beast. Bringing the power and control back to me and proving I could do it.
I believed that I was cursed for longer than I wanted to admit. From growing up in such a challenging situation, all my injuries, and the struggles my kids faced, it seemed as if we would never have anything better in life. This type of thinking was based on fear, and I allowed it to control not just me but my family.
I found that the things I thought I couldn’t achieve or were too scary to try were all built up in my head. Once I started to take action, I saw how attainable it was and how brave those “things” were. It was all a figment of my imagination.
We were trapped until we found the skeleton key. The solution was taking action, and oddly enough, we gained freedom I had only heard about from afar. In the Army, we say “move or die”; doing something is always better than doing nothing.
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.
Understand who your audience is.
For example, when I speak in a room full of combat leaders, I am super poised; however, I cuss and use military slang that only they understand. Furthermore, if you do not understand whom you are speaking to and their needs, wants, or expectations, you cannot provide an impact.
2. Tell Stories.
I believe stories connect with our audience. Furthermore, it becomes a bridge for information to pass through. For instance, when I speak or coach entrepreneurs, I like to tell a story of my first failed business and stories of current deterrents. I have found that my relatability increases when I am vulnerable, equating to the listener’s overall growth.
3. Use verbiage that everyone can understand.
How we speak is crucial; if I am in front of Church staff speaking on leadership and begin to use profanity, I will lose the audience quickly. Additionally, our verbiage needs to be clear and concise; remember, you are the subject matter expert. How we speak confirms said expertise — using conciseness and a calm flow when speaking demonstrates our expertise to our listeners.
4. Ensure your message has a flow and is organized.
When I first started speaking, my thoughts were cluttered. I did not have my delivery structured. When I opened the floor for questions, it put me at a disadvantage. The audience was confused about what they would do first, second, and third. I went back to the drawing board and worked on not just organizing the information but bringing a personal flow. In return, this allowed my organized data to be personal and professional.
5. Allow your personality to shine. People love authenticity.
Out of all five tips I am giving, this one ranks at the top. I can vividly remember when I first started speaking. I was rigid and scared of making a mistake; I never allowed my personality to shine. Once I did, the flood gates opened. I began to have people recommend me to their bosses, co-workers, and family. I became known without doing anything but being myself, being vulnerable, and authentic.
As you know, many people are terrified of speaking in public. Can you give some of your advice about how to overcome this fear?
Everyone is different, and I believe in “different strokes for different folks.” But, a few things helped me when I began speaking. First, practice until you know the material by heart, and then practice some more.
Secondly, ensure you know the topic you are discussing. One thing people cannot stand is clueless individuals on whatever topic the attendees came to get instruction on. Being the subject matter expert is essential.
Lastly, and probably what has helped me more in my career in speaking and life in general, is envisioning my success. I learned this tactic from an old Green Beret, who told me the key to passing any selection course is to see yourself on the stage, graduating with your peers. I do this before every speaking engagement and in almost every area of my life. I don’t just envision the end of the event, but I imagine myself actively speaking and delivering my message with excitement, clarity, and a contagious fire. Doing this as many times as I need is imperative for my success, and I encourage you all to give this a try before your next speaking engagement.
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?
I was someone who struggled with my mindset, how I perceived the world I lived in, and how I saw myself. The most significant adaptation I did for myself was renewing how I thought. Therefore, the most remarkable impact on people is mindset alterations. This would have to be the movement I would aim to lead.
Take a few minutes, stand in front of a mirror, close your eyes, and envision every obstacle holding you back from achieving your desired life. Now I would ask that you remain with your eyes closed and imagine what you need to overcome your current situations and what is required in order to grab hold of that better version of the life you want.
Now open your eyes and look straight ahead into that mirror. You are staring at the source of everything needed to get to the place you just envisioned. Furthermore, what is in front of you has perpetuated and given strength to what has kept you from not rising above the circumstances that have held you back. Need a better relationship with your spouse or your kids? Everything starts with us. The same applies to finances, education, and entrepreneurship.
I had not attended formal schooling in over a decade when I went to college. Moreover, I was considered an individual with a learning disability. Knowing that I was much more than a label, I not only finished my Bachelor of Science in three years, but I made the Dean’s list every semester for the entirety of the three years.
Everything we have ever needed is within us; once people realize the power they hold within, there is genuinely nothing that person cannot accomplish. Therefore, I will spend the rest of my days shining a light on mindset and the power it can produce in our lives when utilized.
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!
There has been a person I have been following for several months now. I will be candid; I do not impress easily, as I have served with some of the bravest men in the world. However, this individual has impressed me with what I can see of his character, the ability to be himself, and most importantly, his mindset. Ryan Stewman would be the person I would love to sit down and have a bite to eat with. Every morning I read Ryan’s blog posts, listen to his podcasts, and anything else I can get a hold of that he has produced. In fact, I even joined his Break Through Academy/Apex Entourage, which has truly elevated my life. It is nice seeing successful people be givers, have a solid moral compass, and, most importantly, be themselves no matter the audience.
Are you on social media? How can our readers follow you online?
Makers of The Metaverse: Ainārs Kļaviņš Of Overly On The Future Of The VR, AR & Mixed Reality Industries
An Interview With Fotis Georgiadis
Passion for technology is the first — you have to love what you do to be in it for the long term.
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 interviewingAinārs Kļaviņš.
Ainārs entered the augmented reality (AR) sector a decade ago and founded Overly, the first AR development business in the Baltic States, in 2014. Today, alongside his co-founder and CTO, Gatis Zvejnieks, he runs a SaaS (software-as-a-service) platform that empowers people with no tech skills to create AR experiences from anywhere in the world. While many are hung up on Meta’s offer for virtual reality Metaverse, Ainārs is adamant that blocking out reality to enhance human connection is not a long-term solution. Instead, he believes that the long-term Metaverse will see us enhance the real world with digital layers through AR.
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 the capital of Latvia, Riga. I developed a passion for extreme sports early on — and what other extreme sports could I fall in love with living in a city if not skateboarding?
Skateboarding later led me to snowboarding, and both of these real-world hobbies took me into the world of digital technologies. I wasn’t just playing Tony Hawk on a PC as a teenager. I decided I wanted to be a businessman and started to sell computer games and software at school. I am not sure I cared about legal matters back then. Later on, I built my first website to create an online skating community in Riga. This was when I realized that I wanted to set up a technology business, but it was still a decade before I got to do it.
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 read regularly, and my favorite genres include self-help literature and books on doing business. I also enjoy a good read from real-life adventurers and mountaineers to rest my mind.
When it comes to business, I always aim to select books that add value to what I do. One of the books that has most impacted me is Multipliers by Liz Wiseman and Greg Mckeown. It was eye-opening to see what I have done wrong as a business owner. I realized how my limitations had impacted my business and led me to burnout along the way. This book taught me to step back, empowering my team to handle more responsibilities and take true ownership of their work.
Is there a particular story that inspired you to pursue a career in the AR Reality industry? We’d love to hear it.
I knew from my teens that I wanted to set up a technology company. The only thing missing was a business idea. So, similar to many millennials in the 2010s, I set up a blog. My website was dedicated to sharing the newest trends in the tech industry. In a sense, this site disciplined me to follow the industry news as I posted updates every day.
I was around half a year into my blogging career when I came across augmented reality (AR). It blew my mind, and I call it my aha moment! At that point, I knew I had no other choice but to set up an augmented reality business and needed someone who could develop an AR solution.
My blogging efforts dwindled as I switched my focus to finding software developers who could bring my idea to life. After more than a year and dozens of rejections from software developers who thought AR had no future, I found Gatis Zvejnieks. Gatis had also found out about AR some time back and developed mock projects. It was a serendipitous meeting. Together we co-founded Overly in 2014.
Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you began this fascinating career?
A lot of exciting stuff has happened in almost a decade since Overly was launched. However, as time goes on, we don’t notice that we start to live in this early adopter tech bubble where AR no longer is a novelty.
I remember we were creating an augmented reality 3D experience for a large brand a little while back. When our team delivered the content, I was not impressed with the result. Although the technologies we had did not allow for considerable improvements, I was sure that the client would also be quite disappointed.
Nevertheless, I went to present the first mock-up expecting some rather harsh feedback. Then something odd happened. After I finished the presentation, the board members of this large brand jumped out of their seats and started high fiving me. They were blown away by how incredible this experience was. Later on, their customers also shared the same enthusiasm.
It was an excellent lesson for me. When it comes to the general public, AR is still a novelty. We’re only now seeing the beginning of AR’s mass adoption. Many people still don’t know what AR means, that it exists and how they can use it, let alone about creating AR experiences themselves. If you look inside a tech company in the meantime, we cannot wait for hardware to catch up with software to deliver even more immersive experiences.
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?
A few years after launching Overly, I was invited to a large conference to speak about augmented reality. A few hundreds of people were in the audience, and I was excited to introduce them to our tech startup.
In all honesty, it is almost impossible to describe augmented reality without showcasing it. To ensure people understand what I’m talking about, I included a lot of technological hacks in my presentation. I was prepared to do mobile screen streaming to my laptop, switch between computer apps, and include live AR demos.
To ensure I could deliver all this smoothly, I needed a good Wi-Fi connection. I did plan on bringing my router but forgot it. Luckily, I could use my phone as a hotspot. Or so I thought.
Just as I was about to showcase AR demos, my mother called. This call disconnected all other devices from the hotspot, and I could not get them reconnected. Overall, my presentation did not go too well. I tried to finish it with a joke about myself, but it was not how I wanted it to end. Since then, I have done things quite differently to avoid missing an opportunity to share AR experiences with large audiences.
None of us are able to achieve success without some help along the way. Is there a particular person who you are grateful towards who helped get you to where you are? Can you share a story about that?
I agree, but it is also impossible to narrow it down to one particular person. As you build a business, many people along the way help you.
Out of all my friends, family, business mentors and teachers, the first person I’d have to thank is my girlfriend. She has been my biggest supporter from day one and cheered me on to chase my AR business dream even at first when Overly was generating zero revenue. She also helps me switch off work and look at things from a different perspective.
Overly’s co-founder, Gatis, is another key person on my journey. Before I met him, I was looking for software developers because my ego thought that I should lead the business by myself. Today I am so happy that I’ve been able to build Overly alongside Gatis. He is the person who has always been by my side. We could always rely on each other and celebrate our success together. We are very different people, and it plays a significant role in decision making. Only together could we build Overly into the business it is today.
More recently, my business mentor, Lauris Lietavietis, provided excellent support in helping me switch Overly’s business model to a software as a service (SaaS) platform.
Are you working on any exciting new projects now? How do you think that will help people?
Yes, indeed. Overly was an agency that provided personalized augmented reality solutions for more than eight years. Developing individualized AR solutions are more in-line with corporate budgets. Still, over the years we were increasingly approached by educators, nonprofits and SMEs. These organizations had terrific use cases in mind but limited resources.
That’s what inspired us to build a SaaS augmented reality creation platform that addresses all these issues. Launched in 2021, Overly Creator let us squash the high costs and scrap code-based development. We’re continuously updating the platform, and our most recent AR features include 3D content development and NFT (non-fungible token) visualization. Whatever a person or business wants to create in AR, we aim to make building augmented reality experiences just as simple as creating designs in Canva. No technical skills required.
Democratizing digital creation is more crucial than ever today. We see the Metaverse future described as a room in virtual reality where you hang out or build something. We, on the other hand, think that virtual reality is just the first step into Metaverse. The real Metaverse will happen in augmented reality. We will not go into an isolated room but rather bring digital assets into our worlds. I believe Overly will be a key tool that will enable everyone to create Metaverse solutions and experiences.
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?
If you’ve heard about Gartner Hype Cycle and tech adoption, you’ll understand that the most exciting thing is that augmented reality is entering the mainstream market and has left the hype stage way back in 2015/16.
Secondly, it is exciting that Metaverse is just entering its hype stage as it helps push AR and VR technologies back into news headlines.
Last but not least, I want to talk about non-fungible tokens in AR. As people embrace digital ownership, AR lets creators and NFT connoisseurs bring the objects they own or sell into the real world, increasing a sense of ownership. That’s one of the reasons we wanted to enable people to visualize their purchases through our platform.
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?
When it comes to augmented reality, firstly, it’s hardware. Software is developing much more rapidly than hardware which is a real bottleneck for augmented reality experiences. This includes both mobile devices and glasses. For AR to go mainstream, mobiles are the first step, but wider adoption will happen when we start using AR glasses. We’re still a few years away from being able to do this.
Hardware development links into my other concern: people who have experienced bad augmented reality content or its limitations automatically place AR into something that has little value. Businesses or users may reject the technology without realizing how far it has come and is yet to go.
There are also some ethical concerns in terms of privacy. Augmented reality puts digital layers into our environment or onto us. Face filters recognize our faces, and let’s be real, we’ve been teaching platforms to identify us for years through photo tags and selfies. In the future, AR glasses could scan the face of someone new we meet, and we’d see all about them in seconds. Is it something we’d want to happen to us? I am not sure.
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?
This is a great question. The thing is that entertainment can be viewed from two perspectives. For your customers or audience, AR and VR experiences provide entertainment. Great content inspires and educates people. However, if you look at providing these experiences to your audience from a business perspective, these technologies are tools that you use to drive engagement and boost your bottom line.
SMEs that fight in the same market as big brands need to do things differently. AR is more accessible than VR technologies as most of us own mobile devices. That’s all people need. Retailers can offer AR try-ons, which research shows makes people feel more confident about purchasing decisions. Museums use augmented reality to expand their exhibitions. Educators embrace the technology to provide a new, more visual form of learning. It was especially important during the remote learning scenarios. And to use AR successfully, organizations don’t even have to invest in hardware as people bring their own mobiles everywhere.
Are there other ways that VR, AR and MR can improve our lives? Can you explain?
This is the great thing and pitfall of mixed reality technologies. On the one hand, we already see a lot of ways to use these technologies. Yet, we are still taking baby steps to understanding where and how they can be used across various industries. Hardware and software continuously evolve. Almost every day we discover a new problem that can be solved with AR or a new hypothesis that begins testing.
To give you an example, let’s look back at the time when the world was hit by the pandemic and global lockdowns. Suddenly activities that people had been doing in their free time and at work for that matter were no longer available to them. Although Netflix streaming rocketed, the longer people spent indoors the more they needed inspiration and new ways to spend their time outside home. This is when we saw organizations and businesses step in and use augmented reality to launch interactive city tours and scavenger hunts, giving people a new form of entertainment. This is still one of our top enquiries today.
What are the “myths” that you would like to dispel about working in your industry? Can you explain what you mean?
First of all, I want to dispel the myth that augmented reality is virtual reality. Somehow, virtual reality is a better-known term for the general public. Given that it is almost impossible to explain augmented reality without showing it to a person, people often assume it is the same as virtual reality. But unlike virtual reality, which aims to teleport you into a completely digital world without any references to your existing environment, augmented reality lets you place and interact with digital objects in your real-world surroundings.
Another one I hear at times is that “augmented reality is on its way out”. Yes, AR has been through a period of hype where businesses used it because it was something new. But instead of disappearing altogether, we’re finally seeing organizations put novelty aside and develop valuable use cases.
And the last idea I’d like to squash is about AR goggles stopping people from thinking for themselves. With the development of augmented reality glasses, we expect that users will see digital information about their surroundings in real-time. Perhaps artificial intelligence will serve up relevant information without a person’s request. However, isn’t it something that mobiles do already? I believe that digital devices, including AR glasses, can allow us to be more present in real life. We can focus on living our lives by enabling digital support when necessary. We’re just changing a device that serves up information.
What are your “5 Things You Need To Create A Highly Successful Career In The VR, AR or MR Industries?”
Passion for technology is the first — you have to love what you do to be in it for the long term.
Open-mindedness is another one — AR is still a novelty at large, and we have to continue exploring different use cases rather than focus on one avenue we may already believe in.
You also have to be an early adapter, invest in new technologies, and take risks to build new use cases to convince other people to jump aboard.
Patience is a big one. Although it seems that technologies are developing rapidly, when you’re working with augmented reality, you see that the hardware is not quite there yet to meet all your ambitions.
Lastly, I think it is awesome if you have a background in a completely different field, like fashion or retail. This will let you come up with great applications for your particular sector.
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 eliminate greed! Without it, people would be more focused on things that are truly important.
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 🙂
This is a hard one, as there has never been a business leader I cannot learn anything from. I do not have a particular idol in entrepreneurship, but I would love to meet the grands like Tim Cook or Jef Bezos. I am fascinated by the ways successful people think and would want to learn more about their approach to life. If I did meet them, I would enjoy their company and try to persuade them to come to the advisory board of Overly.
If we spoke about augmented reality players, meeting with Ninantic’s CEO, John Hanke, would be most interesting. He is a true industry leader.
Thank you so much for these excellent stories and insights. We wish you continued success on your great work!
Don’t assume your investors know better than you — This advice I got from our investor Guy Katsovich is critical for disruptors. When you really disrupt, you are alone in the journey. Being a CEO of a startup that changes an industry is a very lonely place to be in. Yet, as human beings we seek reassurance, and in entrepreneurs it is usually from the investors. This advice gave me the courage to “do my thing”. Investors have great visibility into the industry and what other companies did, but in the end you are the only person that sees the full picture of your company’s challenges.
As a part of our series about business leaders who are shaking things up in their industry, I had the pleasure of interviewing Roy Cohen.
Roy Cohen, one of the Co-Founders and current Chief Executive Officer of Behavidence, has years of leading experience in advertising in digital marketing. He created one of the most disruptive frameworks for machine learning algorithms at Facebook. In between the full time building of Behavidence, he is currently finishing his second Masters, this one in Neuroscience.
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 been working for ages in marketing, advertising and business development. All these industries have been dealing with consumer behavior in some way or form. I’ve spent around five years at Facebook, working mostly with direct response advertisers and helping them utilize Facebook brilliant ML algorithms to grow their business. When you think about it, Facebook can predict what you would like to see next or even what you are going to buy next based on how you use their platform. Just around the time I left the company, I listened to a brilliant podcast interview with Dr. Moran Cerf, who left his job as a successful software engineer and had his own security assessment company, to study neuroscience. This interview sparked my interest in understanding our brain better. I decided to start a masters in Neuroscience at King’s College London. The more we got to dive deeper into Psychiatry and mental health, I have realized that this field in medicine lacks rigorous methods to measure and monitor mental disorders and even the classification method (DSM-5 / ICD-11) is based on observed symptoms rather than biomarkers or behavioral markers. I did my 1+1 and decided that I want to create an algorithm that will predict mental disorders the same way Facebook predicts your content preferences.
Can you tell our readers what it is about the work you’re doing that’s disruptive?
At Behavidence, we have developed a set of tools that can predict and measure your likelihood of having a mental condition based only on how you use your phone. Sounds creepy, doesn’t it? The thing is that we employed a “Privacy by design” methodology so unlike other platforms, we are not collecting any identifiable information. Today, we have the most accurate models to detect depression, anxiety and ADHD, and all that without asking the patient or user even a single question. This can enable psychiatrists to measure and tailor better therapeutic interventions and get unbiased reporting, but it can also help users to manage their way to optimal mental well being in an easy and fun way. Imagine that we can alert family members about a relative who’s depression is deteriorating and by that prevent suicide. Twenty-two veterans commit suicide in the US every day. Usually they become “silent” before they decide to take their lives. We can assist with identifying this for early interventions. But even in day to day scenarios, for example, when I’m dealing with accounting (I hate it) I can see my anxiety going up. I then stop everything and go out for a run. It really helps me get myself together at these stages.
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, one can say that I’m quite passionate about is what we are doing and about fixing the wrongs of the mental health industry. I could literally speak about it forever, more than that, I can argue about it for hours and hours. When we first started, our pitch deck was over 50 slides long. I wanted to cover psychiatry from the minute it was created until recent days and explain why it makes so much sense to do what we’re doing. The team at FusionLA, our first investors, saw it and virtually slapped me in the face. They have then taught me how to compress and translate the message to investors, payers and providers in a way that is compelling and addresses shorter attention spans. The funny thing is that for years, I worked with advertisers to minimize their messagings to address consumers’ short attention spans, but I guess that when you love what you are doing, it’s unavoidable that you’ll drill into their brains when they ask you “So why…”. My core learning is that every story could be compressed into three slides with the right metaphors and with schemes that the target audience is used to.
We all need a little help along the journey. Who have been some of your mentors? Can you share a story about how they made an impact?
I’m happy to say there are so many people that mentored me along the way. I should probably focus on apologizing to all those that I won’t mention here (Or, Girish, Janine, Jonathan, Ido, Elad — I’m sorry). But I’m lucky to have amazing investors that are also my mentors in this crazy journey. I have started, ran and sold a couple of businesses in my life, yet none of them were VC backed. It is a completely different world. I have Guy and Yair from FusionLA, Amir and Galit from Welltech and Raissa from Longevity Venture Partners that I call on every critical point of our business. Each one of them has such an extensive knowledge and overview of the market and I’m glad to say all of them have no issue telling me the truth to my face. I love this about mentors, I think it is worth much more than the money invested. One of my favorite quotes is from Guy of FusionLA who told me “Don’t assume that we (VCs) know what we’re doing… You run this venture and we’re only here to remove roadblocks and make you successful”. It shaped the way I’m looking at our investors and made me choose the most sincere and honest ones.
In today’s parlance, being disruptive is usually a positive adjective. But is disrupting always good? When do we say the converse, that a system or structure has ‘withstood the test of time’? Can you articulate to our readers when disrupting an industry is positive, and when disrupting an industry is ‘not so positive’? Can you share some examples of what you mean?
I had the pleasure of working with a brilliant person named Jill Gray both at Facebook and Vidmob. Jill told me recently a phrase that really resonated with me: “If you are not doing a reorg at least once every two years you are either not growing or you are doing something wrong”, so to the point of this question, I do think that any disruption is good, even if it fails. Disruptions are our way of calibrating whether we are on the right trajectory. Most of the disruptive products have failed the test of time, but they have paved the way to the next disruptor to success. In the case of Behavidence, a lot of companies tried presenting the concept of digital phenotyping to the world in the past. Most of them are no longer with us, either because the founders were heading in with previous assumptions, or the product was adding a lot of respondent burden to the user or they just collected sensitive and private information which made compliance impossible. We have learned from all of them and we appreciate our predecessors. But disruption is required for us to survive, even if you look at genetics, many mutations in our DNA can be lethal and cause horrible diseases, but the reason we are here today, still evolving as human beings, is those mutations. Eventually the disruption lands the right solution and then it is worth the historical failed disruptions.
Can you share five of the best words of advice you’ve gotten along your journey? Please give a story or example for each.
Done is better than perfect — This is my motto for life. It was on posters all over the Facebook headquarters. I think it represents the previous point, do things, release them, learn from your mistakes and re-iterate. Between March 21st and October 21st we have released 40+ versions of our app. We have sent notifications to users that had weird typos and mistakes. Yet I have always celebrated these mistakes internally. We are better in doing and learning than over discussion until everything is perfect. It will never be perfect, and in many cases the users know better than us what needs to be fixed.
Don’t assume your investors know better than you — This advice I got from our investor Guy Katsovich is critical for disruptors. When you really disrupt, you are alone in the journey. Being a CEO of a startup that changes an industry is a very lonely place to be in. Yet, as human beings we seek reassurance, and in entrepreneurs it is usually from the investors. This advice gave me the courage to “do my thing”. Investors have great visibility into the industry and what other companies did, but in the end you are the only person that sees the full picture of your company’s challenges.
This chaos, it defies imagination — This is actually a quote from a song by the band “Muse” that my partner is obsessed with. When you run a start-up that disrupts an industry, chaos is all over the place. You have to create new structures and figure out everything. Yet this is the only way to create something better and something new. This song, called “Panic Station” by Muse describes exactly that. I love this quote because it encourages me when everything feels in chaos. If you think of Behavidence’s algorithms, they are doing exactly that — they look at the chaos to defy what was possible up until now, and detect mental disorders in a far more accurate way than ever before.
If you were able to break it, you are able to fix it — A week into my first job in advertising my boss then, Eran Arden, sent me to present to the agency’s biggest client. I was scared as hell and kept begging him to send someone else, as I didn’t even know what an advertising agency was. He took me to his office and told me “Roy, I count on you. I’ve hired you because I know you can do it. Remember even if you’ll mess up this client pitch — if you have the power and ability to mess it up, you most definitely have the power and ability to fix it.” That has stayed with me ever since and got me through a lot of turbulent times. Eran stayed a life-long coach of mine and he was also the one who married my partner and I.
There’s nothing you can’t solve with a shot of vodka — My grandmother, may her soul rest in peace, was a holocaust surviver, immigrated to Israel, started a family, got through cancer, hip replacement and lived gracefully until she was 90. She had tons of influence on shaping me. She was taking part in the first ghetto uprisings during WWII. While running from the Nazis she was shot in her shoulder. She fell to the floor and found the strength to stand up and keep on running. With a wounded hand, she hid in the forests and joined the partisans. As time went on, the wound got contaminated and a doctor she met a couple of weeks later told her the hand had to be amputated.
My brilliant grandmother told him “Give me 2 shots of vodka. One for the wound and one for me.” Decades later she had her hand fully operational and a strong passion for vodka shots. She used to tell me, if life treats you badly, drink a shot of vodka, it fixes everything, even my hand. When she passed away, I created bottles of triple distilled high quality vodka with her name, Genia Galberstadt, on it. There was no better way to commemorate her.
We are sure you aren’t done. How are you going to shake things up next?
We have so much on our plate at the moment, we are not even 0.5% done. One of the things that excites me the most is that in our pipeline we have two groundbreaking technologies in development. The first — the ability to predict dopamine levels in the brain passively through your phone. The second is to predict connectivity between your prefrontal cortex, the part that helps you make rational decisions and your amygdala, the part that helps you make quick, fear based decisions, based only on how you operate your phone. It is a bit more long term product but initial signals are very encouraging.
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?
Tom Bilyeu has a great podcast called The Impact Theory, where he hosts amazing people to talk about their journeys to create more impact. Two of my favorite episodes are the one where he hosts Moran Cerf, and the other where he hosts V. S. Ramachandran. Both are brilliant neuroscientists. This podcast is actually the reason I embarked on my Masters in Neuroscience. Our brain is fascinating, yet we know so little about it. The faster we progress with understanding the way it works, the fast we will be able to live better lives and enjoy life more.
Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share how that was relevant to you in your life?
Allow me to be a Facebook nerd again. “What would you do if you weren’t afraid?”. That quote that was on posters through the offices, and quite often quoted by Sheryl Sandberg. It is also the one that made me leave Facebook at the end, pursue a Masters in Neuroscience and start my own neuroscience disruptive company. I had a great salary, comfortable life and a convenient thought leader position. I left it all because of that quote. If you are really honest with yourself when asking this question — you can achieve most of your dreams. It is amazing how much fear is involved in our day to day decisions. I keep challenging myself with this question and that serves as an engine in creating new things and pushing myself to redefine what I achieve in life.
You are a person of great influence. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger. 🙂
Wow, this is a tough one. I think that currently the business model of pharmaceuticals does not allow companies to develop solutions that are optimal for patients. When there is a revenue based model in research, it poses a lot of challenges. I would love to see a social movement that sponsors medication development that is not dependent on revenue. A movement that will encourage re-purposing medications with expired patents, medications that are cheap to produce and medications that will make researchers happy and not necessarily pharma companies happy. This is one of the sectors in our economy that must not be capitalistic in the R&D process. One day I might get to it.
How can our readers follow you online?
I am really bad at this. I post mostly on LinkedIn, so this would probably be the best platform to follow me on.
Meet The Disruptors: Anthony Pisano Of Game Over On The Five Things You Need To Shake Up Your Industry
An Interview With Fotis Georgiadis
Patience is a virtue — I know being patient is difficult but it is something that everyone needs to practice. When I was younger I struggled with a lack of patience. As I have gotten older I have come to realize that continuing to work hard and staying focused will eventually start to get me to where I wanted to be.
As a part of our series about business leaders who are shaking things up in their industry, I had the pleasure of interviewing Anthony Pisano.
Game Over CEO, Anthony Pisano has worn many hats in his career, including being an entrepreneur, DJ/producer, songwriter, marketing specialist and a recording artist signed to Ultra/Sony Music. With Game Over, Anthony is working to bridge the worlds for music, eSports and technology, to create more avenues for talent and brands across these categories to collaborate. He is currently working with brands like Atlantic Records, Columbia, Warner, RCA, Interscope, APG, NFL, Google Play, Faze Clan, Amazon Prime, Fortnite, Fiverr and more.
Thank you so much for doing this with us! Before we dig in, our readers would like to get to know you a bit more. Can you tell us a bit about your “backstory”? What led you to this particular career path?
For the first 15 years of my career I was a professional DJ/Producer signed to Ultra/Sony Records. Throughout my label career, I have always had a love for marketing my own music. In 2017, I started making music for Faze Blaze and saw the opportunity for marketing music within the gaming space. The engagement in the gaming community was unlike anything I’ve seen before at the time. After making music for Blaze that opened the door for me to work with multiple big brands in the gaming space, which then opened the door for me to work with the major record labels to market music within gaming content.
Can you tell our readers what it is about the work you’re doing that’s disruptive?
Game Over a one-stop-shop for all things related to gaming. From talent management, to our proprietary gaming campaign software, to the games and immersive worlds we are building, we can offer our customers an innovative solution that has yet to be seen anywhere else.
We all need a little help along the journey. Who have been some of your mentors? Can you share a story about how they made an impact?
My dad was in the casino business for 40 years on a very high level and I consider him to be one of my biggest mentors. No one worked harder than him and his work ethic definitely rubbed off on me. My dad got me started in the entertainment business booking me DJ gigs at several notable venues in Miami, while he also pushed me to pursue marketing. Another mentor of mine when I first moved to Los Angeles was Carte Blanche Founding Partner, Zach Katz. Zach played a pivotal role in really teaching me the business side of the music industry and I will always be grateful for the time I got to work with Zach. Lastly, I’m grateful for linking up with Faze Blaze who introduced me to the gaming space, which ultimately led to where I am today with Game Over.
In today’s parlance, being disruptive is usually a positive adjective. But is disrupting always good? When do we say the converse, that a system or structure has ‘withstood the test of time’? Can you articulate to our readers when disrupting an industry is positive, and when disrupting an industry is ‘not so positive’? Can you share some examples of what you mean?
I think the best example here is Napster. At first Napster took away a lot of income from record labels and major label artists, but it also marked the beginning of the transition into the digital download era. We are starting to see the next disruption of the music business now with blockchain technology and NFTs. Power will start to transition more into the artists hands and music labels will have to learn to adapt with the times. Exciting times ahead for music and content creators.
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. Patience is a virtue — I know being patient is difficult but it is something that everyone needs to practice. When I was younger I struggled with a lack of patience. As I have gotten older I have come to realize that continuing to work hard and staying focused will eventually start to get me to where I wanted to be.
2. Put in your 10,000 hours — Success does not come with cutting corners. Putting in the ample time and energy that it takes to become a master of your craft is very important. I’ve been on this journey for about 15 years now and I continue to be a student of the game every day.
3. Communicate — Communication is one of the biggest things for me. I strive to instill this into my talent and my team. I never like to hold anything in or hold anything back. Over the years I’ve learned that a lack of communication causes more issues and its best to handle things right away and keep it moving.
4. Be Consistent — Consistency is key! If you can’t be consistent then you can’t be anything.
5. Surround yourself with the right energy — Energy is super important to me and when someone in your circle lacks positive energy it will always cause issues and will effect everything and everyone on the team.
We are sure you aren’t done. How are you going to shake things up next?
Game Over doesn’t just focus on your traditional talent management and marketing. We are building IP that is going to drive the music and gaming industry forward. We’ve built proprietary software that is not only a growing database of gamers all around the world, but most importantly, a tool we use internally that allows us to filter which gamer is right for a campaign (for example, based on their geographical reach). We can now track the analytics around each campaign so that we can provide better visibility and data-driven decisions to our customers. In addition, we’re at the forefront of building games and immersive experiences where top artists in the music industry can expand their audience reach.
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 Alchemist — The book makes it clear that everyone has a “personal legend/destiny.” We discover that destiny early in our lives and to realize one’s destiny is a person’s only real obligation. When you really want something, all the universe conspires in helping you to achieve it.
Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share how that was relevant to you in your life?
Consistency and communication are really everything to me. Two words I live by.
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 really would like to create mental health content in the near future to help the masses. I am a big believer in mental health and I want to help expand on this issue, especially for creatives in the music business and content creators.
How can our readers follow you online?
You can follow me on Instagram @pisano and check out my agency Game Over at gameovertalent.com
This was very inspiring. Thank you so much for joining us!
The Future Is Now: Bob Messerschmidt Of COR On How Their Technological Innovation Will Shake Up The Film Industry
An Interview With Fotis Georgiadis
Everything is important, but not everything is equal.
Not everything deserves equal time and attention. Suppose you have a development plan, and there are a thousand different things to worry about. In that case, you must acknowledge the importance of each part but learn to prioritize and not worry about those thousand things equally. We used to say, “it’s easy to get twisted up in your underwear.” Don’t do that.
As a part of our series about cutting edge technological breakthroughs, I had the pleasure of interviewingBob Messerschmidt.
Bob Messerschmidt is a digital health and medicine futurist and serial entrepreneur with a 30 year career in health, wellness, optics and spectroscopy. He began his journey at the University of Pennsylvania, studying biochemistry, where he realized his interests in Analytical Biochemistry and Optics which remain at the core of his methods. He is a serial entrepreneur. He sold his last company to Apple and then joined Apple as a Platform Architect. He architected several technologies while there, most notably elements of the Apple Watch. Bob’s career spans optics, spectroscopy, digital health, invention, product/business development, thought leadership, and senior management. Bob was awarded the Williams-Wright Award in 1996. At COR, Bob is focused on developing a spectrometer that measures blood response to food and fitness interventions.
Thank you so much for doing this with us! Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you began your career?
I began my career as a biochemistry student at the University of Pennsylvania. I came from a middle-class family and was on financial aid to pay for college. Throughout school, I was searching for “work-study” jobs which were a requirement in order to maintain my financial aid support. On-campus jobs were hard to come by at that time, so when I saw an advertisement for a lab technician I immediately went to try and get the position, I discovered two professors who had both just arrived in the lab surrounding with boxes and steamer trunks strewn about — it was total chaos.
One of the professors came over to me and explained there were two job openings available: the first was a standard undergrad lab assistant, mixing solutions; sacrificing rabbits and homogenizing their muscle tissue, etc. The second job was to make operational all of the lab spectroscopy instrumentation that was still packed away in steamer trunks. The professor later told me that he saw my eyes light up when he mentioned the second job and knew instantly which one was for me. Electro-opto-mechanics was clearly my thing, and has remained so throughout my career.
Can you tell us about the cutting-edge technological breakthroughs that you are working on?
My magnum opus is COR, the world’s first in-home spectrometer to help individuals learn how specific nutrition and fitness ideas impact their unique body chemistry. You hear every day from “big wellness” that certain foods like pistachios, coffee, red wine, etc. are good for you, but those diet recommendations are all based on averages. What about your unique body chemistry’s response to those foods? Are some of those foods truly GREAT for you, while others have no impact? Getting answers to those questions is where COR comes in.
So how does it work? COR uses infrared spectrometer technology, which is like a multiple wavelength camera. Rather than looking at single snapshots, infrared spectrometers collect billions of pictures and build models. The process is similar to the way that Tesla builds vehicles that drive themselves through models from camera data.
We start by getting lots of high-quality data from blood through infrared spectrometers in homes. Using infrared spectroscopy, a painless finger prick, and a library of lifestyle programs, COR has created an entire in-home nutrition and fitness information ecosystem, combining hardware, software, and data analytics.
Unlike biomarkers, which developed for disease diagnosis and drug development, COR technology looks at blood not to diagnose, but rather as a way to rapid-test nutrition and fitness responses. In many ways, it turns blood information on its head.
This has never been done before.
The technology uses machine learning in large data sets from multiple users to train a model to identify a pattern which is consistent with, and evoked by, the doing of a particular fitness or nutrition intervention.
How responsive are YOU to pistachios? You can see this in a 21-day test during which all you do is a weekly finger-prick and a daily checklist of practices in the app. We know people are searching for this sort of personalized knowledge, the missing piece for self-efficacy in life improvement.
How do you think that it will help people?
80% of clinical decisions are made using data from your blood. Blood is the gold standard for measuring information on your health and wellness. Even still, we do not understand how to use the information within our blood to optimize our individual lifestyles. Even though each person is uniquely biochemically diverse, we have never been able to measure blood response at home, until now. You can use this information to make lifestyle choices that have the most lifelong impact.
Medical research studies have learned a lot about which lifestyle choices improve health, but even the most highly researched, well understood, and universally accepted lifestyle practices produce a large range of responses across people in clinical trials. The aggregate data shows that something like salmon is good for people on average, but with COR, you can determine precisely how impactful it is for you. Then you can use this information to continue food and fitness practices that can help you lead a better life.
How do you think this might change the world?
A couple of decades ago, if you said that hundreds of millions of people would be routinely wearing a device that measures pulse, blood oxygenation, near research-grade heart health via an ECG, activity levels, movement, and more, they’d probably say you’re crazy.
Well, my former boss at Apple famously said, “here’s to the crazy ones.” This is central to my belief system and to the culture of innovation in Silicon Valley. COR is looking to expand on what is currently possible with wearable devices. Despite incredible advances in technological capability, people today still have access to better analytics about the health of their toasters than about their bodies. COR aims to change that for every person, worldwide.
Eventually, I believe everyone will have a blood spectrometer in their home.
Keeping “Black Mirror” in mind, can you see any potential drawbacks about this technology that people should think more deeply about?
When I think about developing technology with a phenomenal consumer experience, I can imagine how users could be curious about how their spectroscopy data would be used. Keeping user data, privacy, and security is of paramount importance. We have spent copious amounts of time, energy, and resources to establish state-of-the-art security features in both the COR device and app. For COR users, all data is end-to-end encrypted, fully anonymized, and never shared by us. The user is able to decide to share their blood response with others if they want to, but we never will.
Was there a “tipping point” that led you to this breakthrough? Can you tell us that story?
A lot of the journey for any founder of a true startup involves long mental walks through dark tunnels and tremendous tribulations along with bouts of uncertainty. The breakthrough that led to COR was no different.
The tipping point for COR came from one day when I locked my door, put up some light blocking curtains, and started reading through thousands of medical journal articles and noticed something strange. There were lots of studies where food and fitness items were determined to be functional in improving outcomes of cardiovascular or metabolic risk or longevity, for example. It was clear food and fitness truly are the best medicine. But in every single study, there was a range of benefits across the population being studied. A BIG range.
I read the PREDICT study that looked at genetically identical twins and their metabolic responses to various inputs. Believe it or not, even genetically identical twins don’t have the same metabolic response to things. I realized that if diet and fitness advice was not made personal in a very objective and data-driven way, you may not be getting the benefits from that daily avocado or training for that marathon that you thought you would be getting. For anything that ultimately is shown to be an effective nutrition or fitness intervention, there is no guarantee it will work well for you specifically. The good news is that health is 80% about your choices, and bad genetics does not have to be a death sentence.
The tipping point that led to the breakthrough of COR was realizing that if you can determine exactly what one specific individual’s response is to a particular diet and fitness routine, you can adapt the diet and routine to precisely what is best for their body.
What do you need to lead this technology to widespread adoption?
Using COR is as simple as wearing a Fitbit or an Apple Watch in an effort to improve your fitness, and therefore we have the expectation of very wide adoption.
We have developed this technology to provide high-quality data right from the home, unlike anything seen before. Having worked in science for many decades, COR is some of the highest quality infrared spectra I have personally ever witnessed, at a fraction of the cost.
COR has three components: a WiFi-connected infrared spectrometer about the size of a kettlebell, a blood sample kit that you use with a painless finger prick once a week, and a cloud-based analysis engine. While Apple Watch can sense your pulse and blood oxygenation level from outside your skin, COR can get about 1,000 times more sensitivity from just one drop of blood. Since 80% of clinical decision-making involves blood diagnostics, now we want 80% of food and fitness decision-making to be based on blood response.
To have COR’s technology widely adopted, we need to reach people who care deeply about optimizing their food and fitness. I believe that once people start to experience the benefits of optimizing their lifestyle, widespread adoption will quickly follow.
What have you been doing to publicize this idea? Have you been using any innovative marketing strategies?
Journalists like John Koetsier at Forbes have picked up on the innovative work we are doing and have helped to spread the message.
We recently signed on with a world-class digital advertising team that is leaning heavily into short videos to share our story and the value that COR brings to every family. We say everyone will eventually have a COR spectrometer in their home and I don’t believe that to be an exaggeration. We are still in the early days of course, with a lot of work to do.
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?
In 2008, I went out on a limb and sent Steve Jobs an email (I guessed his email address). Instead of just sending it to spam, he actually answered with one sentence: “can I call you somewhere?” And the result? He acquired my company in 2009.
After the acquisition, I assembled and directed a platform architecture team. One day, I heard about a new project taking shape that was focused on a new wrist-worn platform — what would become the Apple Watch. I asked to be “read in” on the project and with Steve Jobs’ blessing, I was given access. My team and I conceived and architected the health sensor technologies for the device. When we had an inkling that we could develop something truly great, we would say “we think this is possible,” then make a prototype. Given the way I came to Apple, through a Steve Jobs-led acquisition, I never had any trouble getting access to interesting projects and for that, I am eternally grateful to Steve Jobs.
How have you used your success to bring goodness to the world?
COR’s mission is for each person to optimize their food and fitness and improve their lives, so we are literally all about goodness for the world. Ultimately, we want people to live better lives by making the best lifestyle choices for their bodies.
My successes in technology have given me the ability to live an exceptional and meaningful personal life. I am the dad to a daughter. I try to bring a scientific approach into her universe at every opportunity, with a lot of humor along the way. Along with my wife, an accomplished international law expert in her own right, we try to bring goodness to our portion of the world through dinner parties serving my own homemade wine.
What are your “5 Things I Wish Someone Told Me Before I Started” and why.
Progress is rarely linear.
Progress is depicted on a graph as uphill and to the right. In reality, it is uphill and vacillating wildly left and right. Progress is rarely linear but it is always uphill. If something seems easy, you should wonder if you are working on something meaningful enough.
2. Prepare for things to take longer than you expected.
It took years of research and development to get our technology to operate at our high standards. People ask me how I remained so calm. Remaining level-headed and keeping the team inspired by the vision has been and will continue to be essential to our long-term success.
3. Everything is important, but not everything is equal.
Not everything deserves equal time and attention. Suppose you have a development plan, and there are a thousand different things to worry about. In that case, you must acknowledge the importance of each part but learn to prioritize and not worry about those thousand things equally. We used to say, “it’s easy to get twisted up in your underwear.” Don’t do that.
4. Your best employees will find you.
If your vision is compelling enough, the best team will be beating down your door looking to join the squad. If you find you are spending half your time recruiting as a founder of a startup, your idea might not be strong enough.
5. Vision begets vision.
When I started COR, no one was developing this technology. I firmly believed in extending upon the great success we found with the Apple Watch and forged ahead in my conviction that it could be done. I pitched 400 venture capital firms before I got a ‘yes.” The key lesson for me was that “vision begets vision.” The 400 VC firms I pitched to were not the visionary ones, but when I pitched Vinod Khosla, he immediately saw the vision and wrote a $4 million dollar check. The vast majority of VC firms just couldn’t see or share in the sheer audacity of our vision, but Vinod Khosla, of course, saw it in a flash.
You are a person of great influence. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger. 🙂
The creation of COR is my magnum opus, so I genuinely believe in its ability to bring incredible goodness to our world. Optimizing our lifestyle is of utmost importance, and if I can help anyone feel better, feel empowered, and live longer through optimization, that is the goal.
Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share how that was relevant to you in your life?
“Ultimately, when you look at any biological question it becomes a chemical problem.” — Venkatraman Ramakrishnan, 2009 Nobel Prize in Chemistry
To me, this quote speaks to the primacy of chemical data. At COR, we follow the data, not the other way around. It has been my life mission to bring the best possible data to bear on any given problem. The good news is that technology keeps improving and so there is always new work for me.
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 🙂
Every body is different, so how do you optimize yours? COR is the world’s first in-home spectrometer to help individuals learn how nutrition and exercise changes actually impact their own unique blood and body chemistry so they can optimize better. COR is like a Fitbit for your blood response. We measure for a molecular response as you follow food and fitness experiments for 21 days at a time. People today don’t know there’s a huge range of responses to even the most medically validated food and fitness regimens. COR brings this information to light and provides unprecedented personalized insight.
Our long-term vision is a COR in every household. We want the type of personalized insights COR provides to its users to be available to everyone so anyone can optimize their food, fitness and lifestyle habits to include what truly works the best for them — not just what the health and wellness industry deems “healthy” for all.
Meet The Disruptors: Steve Gallion of MedTrainer On The Five Things You Need To Shake Up Your Industry
An Interview With Fotis Georgiadis
Believe in yourself. This sounds basic, but you will have good days, bad days, personal complications, investor disputes, and confrontations on all fronts. You should always believe in yourself and commit to that belief. If you are moving forward, you can always adjust the route, but all routes fail if you turn off the personal-drive engine.
As a part of our series about business leaders who are shaking things up in their industry, I had the pleasure of interviewing Steve Gallion.
Steve is the CEO of MedTrainer, the healthcare industry’s premier partner for healthcare education, compliance management, credentialing, and accreditation. He is passionate about using technology to support healthcare organizations. With a 100% customer-inspired product, internal healthcare thought leaders, and custom curated content, MedTrainer provides essential training, compliance, and credentialing technology for healthcare-industry.
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?
Since a young age, I have always been interested in the healthcare industry and in building companies. Much of my family was directly involved in the healthcare provider side of things, so I got to see the industry close-up. I have had a few other successful ventures to date, but where my career really found scale was here at MedTrainer. Before, I had experience working in corporate America, which taught me a great deal of humility, leadership skills, inclusivity, and how to work efficiently alongside other leaders. This experience prepared me for my last company in medical waste management, which grew rapidly and was acquired in 2013 by Stericycle.
I observed a large gap in how healthcare organizations handled regulatory compliance. With a passion for entrepreneurship, a visible problem, and an idea of how I might solve it, my co-founder and I got to work to provide training solutions. We set off by creating a plan — doing the market work to validate our market existed, mapping out the initial product MVP on paper — and then we were off to the races. Now, over seven years later, we don’t look back. It’s been an incredible journey that only continues to get better, and the possibilities of where we are headed are endless.
Can you tell our readers what it is about the work you’re doing that’s disruptive?
Disruption starts with solving problems that others may not have thought about through the same lens or angle. Working in healthcare for the past 15 years, I have seen many dysfunctional, disjointed, and disconnected solutions thrown at problems with a single-threaded approach. It became very apparent that the healthcare market was looking to accomplish multiple goals, bridge gaps, and solve departmental issues using a single solution that could be utilized to fulfill many different needs.
When we built MedTrainer, we looked at what problems existed for compliance in healthcare and found that organizations were so confused about what had to be done that they were using multiple platforms to solve problems, which was a failing approach. MedTrainer has disrupted healthcare’s traditional compliance solutions market by combining learning, compliance functions, and credentialing nativity with a single easy-to-use piece of software. In some instances, we see our system replacing 5–7 pieces of software that were previously in place. It’s simple, cost-effective, and unified data in a single platform, creating ease of access, training, and cross-product functionality. This is a big win for healthcare.
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?
MedTrainer started with a heavy focus on learning management. As we grew, we began to recognize market signals that the problem was much more extensive — spanning over into other compliance-related areas. We built out a section of our system to hold uploaded documents and third-party credentials, named “document and credential management,” but, in reality, it had nothing to do with the real credentialing process or credentialing product as it is today. During a sales call with our first big credentialing customer, they were touring the learning management system and asked, “Do you have anything that can help us with credentialing?” I answered in the affirmative, “Absolutely…we have an entire area just for credentialing!” After walking the customer through our product as it was, the feedback was not super positive. This was a mistake in the sense that I did not yet have an understanding of the product’s need for credentialing. It was about 2 minutes on a WebEx, which felt similar to the gif of Homer Simpson walking backward into the bushes. The good news is that the customer became a great advocate and part of our product steering committee for what is now a best-in-class true credentialing system. This experience was quite embarrassing at the time, but it is something to look back on as to how a simple mistake bore a new product line and an entirely different market.
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 have three core mentorship classes: unknown mentorship, professional mentorship, and practical mentorship. Mentorships are important, but only if you can humble yourself and look to your mentor for guidance, growth, and perspective. If you can do that, you can learn a ton. I continue to grow each day as the beneficiary of advice from these categories.
Unknown mentorship is mentorship where your learnings are based on following business leaders you respect but do not know personally. I think most of the world looks at Jeff Besos, Steve Jobs, Elon Musk, and those types of business moguls. My unknown mentorship group does include some of those folks but partially and more specifically, I follow folks like David Gogins, Josh James, and Tim Cook. Lessons learned from them are more philosophical and high-level.
Professional mentorship is the more traditional sense of a mentor. My mentors have come in many forms, from investors to other founders, entrepreneurs, and CEOs. I can say I have gained meaningful mentorship as a CEO. Mickey Arabelovic (founder Telescope Partners) and Jim Lacey (Zermed / Collective) both transformed how I look at high-growth SaaS companies, including how to grow into a real CEO role and think long-term strategically, and execute to plan.
Practical mentorship is one of the most important as it surrounds you with people who have real-life experience. Watching my Dad graduate from dental school at 41 years old gave me the strength I needed when I went back to get my law degree at night, graduating when I was 35. My brother-in-law and I were each other’s sounding boards for big business decisions and struggles, even though our companies were very different.
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?
If we can disrupt the status quo by offering more effective, affordable, and efficient products, you can drive real change at a micro and macro level. Minor changes, like increasing a business’s efficiency or lowering its expenses, can allow the business to run better, provide time back to employees, and give the company more consumable cash. They then can offer more benefits, including better pay, increased social programs, and even charitable support.
I see the disruption as negative when the purpose is self-serving to the disruptor at the expense of the end-users or the next layer affected by the disruption. Business leaders, founders, CEOs, investors, and board members must keep their eye on social impact to ensure the organizational disruption does not have unintended negative impacts while driving value and scaling their organizations.
Can you share five of the best words of advice you’ve gotten along your journey? Please give a story or example for each.
Map out what you want to do. When you lay out a plan, you are much more likely to stick to it. The plan doesn’t have to be correct, but you will figure out where it needs to adjust as you build into it.
“A shoemaker makes shoes.” Someone from our team in Mexico taught me this saying. In Spanish, it’s “Zapatero a tus Zapatos.” It means that you should focus on what you are good at and stick to what you know. When you are building a company, focus is essential. It’s important to embrace that and not try to do something out of the ordinary.
Don’t chase the new and shiny. I learned this lesson the hard way when I allowed new partnerships, potential customers, and even employees to convince me to push out products or services that weren’t ready for market. Sometimes the excitement of that “new” thing can consume you and pull you away from what’s important.
Believe in yourself. This sounds basic, but you will have good days, bad days, personal complications, investor disputes, and confrontations on all fronts. You should always believe in yourself and commit to that belief. If you are moving forward, you can always adjust the route, but all routes fail if you turn off the personal-drive engine.
You cannot do everything and most things you actually cannot do well. Building a company is like making a cake: you need the eggs, the milk, the sugar, and the flour. If you don’t have eggs, you cannot simply add more milk or sugar. You must get out there and find the eggs to make the recipe successful. This translates into one of the toughest lessons I learned as a young technology CEO. Great companies are built by great talent. Pushing for the best possible talent for the roles you need to fill will pay dividends that you cannot imagine until you have done it. Without doing this, you will be the controller of all, the master of none, and will most likely fall flat as you scale the business. Simply put, you need all aspects of talent which will be different from you, have different skill sets, and have different personalities that drive innovation. Want to go fast? Go Far? The answer lies in talent.
We are sure you aren’t done. How are you going to shake things up next?
As Ricky Bobby and Cal Naughton Jr. once said, “with a little ‘Shake and Bake.” Shaking things up causes disruption, and once you pave the path, the sometimes forgotten step is to bake in the results.
I intend to continue pushing our company in a direction where products not only have an interesting, initial value but also grasp onto this value and “bake” it into their overall organizational operation, driving ripples of impact throughout our end markets and their patient and residence base.
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 Hard Things” by Ben Horowitz is a crucial read for any founder, executive, or even individual contributor looking at how trial and error, innovation, scaling, and disruption lead to succeeding through failure. Not only have I read this book multiple times, but you can find it on my office shelf heavily notated. Many concepts and practices from the book are great takeaways.
Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share how that was relevant to you in your life?
“We keep moving forward, opening new doors and doing new things, because we’re curious, and curiosity keeps leading us down new paths.” — Walt Disney.
No matter what problem you are solving or the direction you are currently facing, you will always continue to move forward. There is only one direction to take: forward, and that’s how I have lived my life. I am a big believer in surrounding myself with curious people. They are the ones who look to solve problems, innovate, and discover new things. I think Walt Disney is an excellent example of someone who was curious and innovative, and I strive daily to pave new paths with continuous curiosity.
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. 🙂
Outside of the core business at MedTrainer, healthcare technology leaders, inclusive of myself, can provide great automation, efficiency, and cost reduction to healthcare operations. The three core pillars mentioned above have an indirect ability to provide the right diagnosis, proper safety protocols, reduction in medical errors, correct insurance coverage benefits, more expeditious payments against claims, and increased confidence in providers. This application in healthcare can provide indirect benefits to the entire human population as they seek healthcare assistance. This sounds overly ambitious, but you do not have to solve the whole problem at once. Companies like MedTrainer, its competitors, adjacent technology solutions, and consolidated services will continue to eat away at core problems generating real, quantifiable, and manageable effects that directly pass through to the patient.
Making Something From Nothing: Craig Muttitt Of Maxim Financial Solutions & FOMO Mortgages On How To Go From Idea To Launch
An Interview With Fotis Georgiadis
Don’t be afraid of failure. Things do not always work on the first or even the tenth attempt. Don’t give up.
As a part of our series called “Making Something From Nothing”, I had the pleasure of interviewing Craig Muttitt.
Craig Muttitt is the Managing Director of Maxim Financial Solutions Ltd, a mortgage and protection financial services brokerage that currently has over 5000 UK clients.
Originally from South Africa, Craig studied Law and Business at the University of the Witwatersrand. Craig has been living in the UK since 2001 with his wife Natasha, daughter Ashleigh and son Wade. Craig has been involved in the mortgage and insurance industry for over 20 years and although the financial services industry has gone through a lot of changes and some challenging times over the years, Craig has loved every minute of it.
Helping clients achieve their goals of purchasing their very own home, whilst ensuring their families are protected from the terrible financial effects of death and illness, is why Craig finds his career so rewarding.
Maxim has always prided itself on the quality of our advice and exceptional level of client service, however, to most people, mortgages can feel a little complicated, cumbersome and confusing.
This is why with his latest venture, Craig wants to disrupt the financial services industry with a fresh, brand-spanking-new mortgage broker, FOMO Mortgages — watch out guys, there’s a new kid on the block!
FOMO’s mission is simple, to help people find the best mortgage deal for their needs.
What sets FOMO apart from any other mortgage brokers is its distinctive branding (have you seen how cute that little purple monster is), tone of voice and philanthropic efforts. For instance, for every mortgage written they’ll be supporting a chosen charity!
FOMO is all about the consumer, with existing marketing strategies underpinned by competitions and activations to give back to them, and the wider community.
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 South Africa with my parents and 2 younger brothers. We had a great childhood. We were always playing outdoors and running around in the warm weather. We played a lot of sports, rugby and karate were my two favourites.
My parents taught us the importance of hard work and education from a young age. They taught us that nothing in this world is for free and that you need to be motivated and have the drive to succeed. Sport taught me the importance of teamwork and the will to win, but also the importance of being able to lose gracefully and how to learn from defeat.
Can you please give us your favourite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share how that was relevant to you in your life?
I have always liked the motto of Sir Francis Drake, Sic Parvis Magna: “Greatness from small beginnings”.
Every great adventure has started with a first step. To achieve your lifelong goals, all it takes is making that first step, and if you are truly determined and focused, you will succeed.
Is there a particular book, podcast, or film that made a significant impact on you? Can you share a story or explain why it resonated with you so much?
Although I read the occasional motivational book or autobiography, I don’t actually read a lot.
I prefer to be inspired by people around me, and by people in the world doing great things who are making a positive impact in their industries and communities.
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?
A lot of us come up with great ideas but I agree, the difficulty is translating that good idea into a successful business and brand.
I truly believe that you must not be afraid of failing. You must be prepared to put in the hours and the hard work. You must not get disheartened by negative people, and believe me, there are always people wanting to rain on your parade.
I don’t like to associate with negative people, I always try to surround myself with positive like-minded individuals. With Maxim and FOMO Mortgages, the goal has always been to build a team around me of very talented individuals. Individuals with the same work ethic and mindset that I champion. In most cases, these individuals are a lot more talented and know far more than I do. Never be afraid of working with people who are better than you- it is the only way to learn and progress.
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?
Research and understanding your industry are very important, but you do not need to be deterred if something already exists. Believe in what you are doing and focus on the benefits and USPs your business can offer. Focus on your strengths. Our company FOMO Mortgages aims to disrupt what is already a very established industry by being innovative, embracing technology and offering our clients a fresh new approach to securing a great mortgage deal. All of this is facilitated with a simple customer journey and absolutely no confusing industry jargon!
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.
Our business is a customer services business. We are financial advisors specialising in mortgages and insurance so we didn’t have to file a patent or anything like that.
We registered our company and secured our trading names, styles and registered our company trademark and logo. I would always recommend when starting a business that you speak to and enlist the services of the right professionals. Speak to an intellectual property lawyer to protect your IP and ensure that all your legal paperwork, contracts and shareholder agreements are correctly drafted and in place from day one.
What are your “5 Things I Wish Someone Told Me When I First Started Leading My Company” and why?
Don’t be afraid of failure. Things do not always work on the first or even the tenth attempt. Don’t give up.
Have a plan but don’t be afraid if you need to change it.
Plan your diary and block out time for yourself. Don’t allow distractions to get in the way of the tasks at hand.
Although you like to think you know everything, don’t be afraid to delegate tasks to those more qualified or suited than yourself.
Remember to have fun. At the end of the day, your business will be far more successful if you are enjoying what you are doing.
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?
Speak to the people around you, your friends, your family and get their opinions. You might not like what you hear but take everything on board. Do your research, and understand your industry and your market. Have a clear objective of what you want to achieve. Read as much as you can and get a clear understanding of the things you are less competent in.
Formulate a plan, understand who you might need to bring onboard for assistance and guidance and have a clear understanding of your costs.
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 would personally try it on my own. There is a lot of information out there that is readily available and free- you just need to search for it. Development consultants can be very expensive and may want an equity share.
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’d always recommend steering clear of venture capital if you can.
With venture capital, you can lose control over your business and potentially lose valuable time pitching to them.
If you have the funds, try to do it on your own. Bootstrap until there is no other feasible way to scale by using outside investment. You may find that you make enough revenue to reinvest your profits so you can continue to grow.
Also, lean on your network, call in favours and offer contra deals where you can. This can be a great win-win as it provides the opportunity to swap expertise, meaning you both benefit from one another’s unique skill sets.
Ok. We are nearly done. Here are our final questions. How have you used your success to make the world a better place?
I would like to think that we have a positive influence on our clients’ lives ensuring that they achieve their goals and that their families are safe and protected. At FOMO Mortgages, we work closely with our charity partners to help improve our local communities by tackling homelessness, working with children and planting trees to help offset our carbon footprint. We also hope that we can be an inspiration to other businesses to help them grow and contribute to society.
You are an inspiration to a great many people. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be?
You never know what your idea can trigger.
I would love to be in a position where we could help eliminate homelessness and hunger and bring comfort to families less fortunate than ourselves.
We are very blessed that some of the biggest names in Business, VC funding, Sports, and Entertainment read this column. Is there a person in the world, or in the US, with whom you would love to have a private breakfast or lunch, and why? He or she might just see this if we tag them.
I would love to have lunch and a beer with Elon Musk, in fact, he went to school in Pretoria South Africa. Our schools played rugby against each other although I am not sure if Elon played rugby though?
Thank you for these fantastic insights. We greatly appreciate the time you spent on this.
Meet The Disruptors: Rishi Nigam Of Franklin Junction On The Five Things You Need To Shake Up Your Industry
An Interview With Fotis Georgiadis
Have Empathy — I was a manager for hundreds of employees while still in college; some were the age of my grandparents, so it was imperative to my success to manage people over profits.
As a part of our series about business leaders who are shaking things up in their industry, I had the pleasure of interviewing Rishi Nigam.
Rishi Nigam is a Georgia native with over 20 years of diverse hospitality industry executive experience in restaurants, sports and entertainment venues, and airports. He is the CEO and co-founder of Franklin Junction, a disruptive restaurant e-commerce platform known for pioneering the Host Kitchen® model, which allows any kitchen to optimize excess capacity in existing infrastructure by becoming a fulfillment partner for proven restaurant brands looking for rapid growth in new markets. This untapped intersection of scale and pent-up demand for content unlocks new revenue streams for hosts while presenting an unrivaled capital-free expansion opportunity for brands.
Thank you so much for doing this with us! Before we dig in, our readers would like to get to know you a bit more. Can you tell us a bit about your “backstory”? What led you to this particular career path?
My roots as a Southerner and the son of Indian immigrants merged with food as a central theme to the fusion of the two cultures. I began cooking professionally in college to “pay the bills” and never looked back.
After graduation with a degree in hospitality and tourism management, I had an opportunity to embark on a career path in a non-traditional vertical: sports and entertainment venues. After 8 years overseeing MLB, NFL, NBA, and other live event venues, I had the pleasure and immense challenge of rebuilding the venue experience at motorsports facilities as a vice president with NASCAR. Following my career in sports, I spent a few years as a partner in an airport concessions business where we turned around a legacy company and expanded to new major markets with innovative experiences and concepts.
This deep experience in high volume environments set the stage for understanding how to optimize kitchen capacity which became fundamental to our keys to success with Franklin Junction. With the adoption of food delivery, which was thrust forward several years during the pandemic, restaurants needed to evolve quickly to answer the rising consumer demand. Franklin Junction was borne out of a mission to not just help restaurants survive but thrive in meeting diners where they are with what they want and when they want it.
Can you tell our readers what it is about the work you’re doing that’s disruptive?
At Franklin Junction we unlock revenues for existing restaurants without any capital expenditure requirements. Restaurants, hotels, grocery stores, and any other professional kitchen can apply to join our network by becoming a Host Kitchen®, or fulfillment center, for other brands. We evaluate and accept only the most qualified operators for a controlled growth that focuses on food quality, employee training, and long-term profitability.
On the other end of the spectrum, we have proven restaurant brands who desire access to a new stream of customers by existing solely as a virtual restaurant whereby orders are prepared by hosts; we call these Cloud Concepts®. Both partners, the hosts and the concept, experience high margin growth with added risk mitigation to their existing revenue strategy.
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, it probably does not qualify as funny, but what was eye opening for me was going through the fundraising process with traditional venture capital investors. Almost every single one we spoke to tried to attach Franklin Junction’s metrics to targets that are incompatible with how restaurants adapt technology, evolve business strategy, and grow. We were fortunate to find the right matches that believed in our team, our mission, and the industry that we serve.
The lesson I learned is that you work with investors, not for them. It’s important to have lots of conversations, surround yourself with trusted advisors, and be an expert in your industry. There are many ways of raising funds and it’s one of the most important jobs of a CEO to identify the best fit for their company’s growth.
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 have come across a lot of great professional coaches, but undoubtedly, I have been fortunate to have the best lifelong mentors within my own family.
My parents, first and foremost, always provided the push for me to be well-rounded, helped me see opportunities where I was not able to, and showed me how to have the grit to turn my dreams into a reality. Growing up, I was also exceptionally close to my grandparents. They taught me how to lift others by being a good citizen and a servant leader through empathy, unconditional love, and by teaching me charity doesn’t require large sums of money.
I am the first person on either side of my family to be born in this great country. The selfless sacrifices I have seen my family make for future generations have instilled morals, values, and ethics that have shaped my character on which I rely as a compass for decision-making every day.
In today’s parlance, being disruptive is usually a positive adjective. But is disrupting always good? When do we say the converse, that a system or structure has ‘withstood the test of time’? Can you articulate to our readers when disrupting an industry is positive, and when disrupting an industry is ‘not so positive’? Can you share some examples of what you mean?
Disruptive innovation can be good if it’s not distracting or done out of vanity. Disruption is created by creating a product or service that appeals to a neglected segment of customers or by creating a new market.
One of my favorite examples of positive disruption is Airbnb. They created a platform for people to monetize excess capacity in their homes by offering a better price, personalized service, and more flexibility than legacy hotel companies offer. Franklin Junction has been called the Airbnb for restaurants which is a very flattering comparison and shows the opportunity we provide to restaurants.
Another favorite of mine is Napster. Talk about upending an industry! Some of my favorites (vulnerability) that missed the mark are Sony Betamax (compatibility, expense), New Coke (quality, authenticity, demand), and Google Glass (privacy). All these companies have been and still are product leaders in their industry, but they were not afraid to fail along the way. Disruption is a process!
Can you share five of the best words of advice you’ve gotten along your journey? Please give a story or example for each.
Have Empathy — I was a manager for hundreds of employees while still in college; some were the age of my grandparents, so it was imperative to my success to manage people over profits.
Stay Informed — One of my favorite philosophers is Socrates and I employ Socratic questioning to gather the necessary facts needed for making critical decisions leading to the best potential outcomes.
Talk Less — As I started to rise in the ranks, I learned to hire the best talent at any cost and trust them to solve business problems without my interference, which directly contributes to their development and preserves my resources where they are needed most.
Be Accountable — When I was completing my MBA, I received the guidance multiple times from my professors that I am a natural leader and that the trait calls for responsibility and accountability, not ego.
Laser Focus — I have fought the urge to be a multi-tasker and am completely obsessed with doing one thing as close to perfect as possible at a time.
We are sure you aren’t done. How are you going to shake things up next?
We are innovating in a highly competitive environment right now and will have exciting announcements to share in the future. I would tell you to keep an eye out for more integrated consumer experience that is more relational than transactional. You will also see us expand more into international markets soon which is very exciting for us and our brand partners.
Another interesting development for us is how we have diversified outside of restaurants to other kitchen facilities. In the past year, we have launched in groceries, hotels, and family entertainment centers. It’s been extremely well-received, and we continue to grow into new verticals every year!
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 voracious reader and a polymath so I love reading reference books. When I was young, I would go to the library and check out random books from encyclopedias and read them cover to cover. Obviously, I cannot retain a substantial amount of that information; however, it was fun and still is my favorite section in the library. This was highly impactful because it taught me to seek the “why” and “how” for an answer to a question.
Today, people can enter any question into a search engine and receive an answer instantly and immediately give it the credence it may or may not deserve. However, when we don’t know why it’s the answer or how we got to the answer, we lose the logic that can only be gleaned through rational arguments. I am a big proponent of being able to “explain your answer”.
Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share how that was relevant to you in your life?
I’m the biggest Elvis Presley fan you’ll ever meet. When I was young, I read a quote from him that sticks with me every day, “Don’t criticize what you don’t understand, son. You never walked in that man’s shoes.” It may be human nature to pass judgement but restraint to act without knowledge of a person or a situation takes an elevated mindset which requires deep practice.
You are a person of great influence. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger.
I am concerned about the growing rate of declining mental health among people. There are three areas of focus that I believe contribute to a positive state of mental health for me and I would encourage others to spend more time incorporating them into their daily routine.
The first is dedicating time to be actively disconnected from technology, especially if you spend a lot of time on social media, which I find to be obnoxiously toxic for the most part. Replace this time with genuine human interactions through meetings, conversations, or activities.
The second is by incorporating physical exercise and a healthy diet. These are two things that are really about a way of life than an event. Even if you can’t get to the gym or play sports regularly, an hour or two of daily walking goes a long way.
The third is spending time on resetting your mind. I tend to hyper focus on whatever I am doing so I use various mediums to clear my mind and restore my alignment. Some tactics that work for me include meditating, reading, or listening to music.
I have a higher stamina than most people I know in both, my professional and personal life. These three areas of my lifestyle have allowed me to recharge and maintain clarity in thought. Please take care of yourselves!
How can our readers follow you online?
Be sure to follow me and Franklin Junction on LinkedIn as we post exciting new content every week!
Janssen Pharmaceuticals’ Chumi Khurana On How To Develop More Grit
An Interview With Fotis Georgiadis
Take matters into your own hands: You own your future and career — do not rely on others to get you where you want to go.
As a part of my series about “Grit: The Most Overlooked Ingredient of Success” I had the pleasure of interviewing Chumi Khurana.
Chumi Khurana is a pharmaceutical executive with a successful track record of 25 years’ experience in marketing, sales and product management, commercializing a wide spectrum of innovative treatments across oncology and diabetes. She is currently the Global Marketing Head of the Prostate Franchise with Janssen Pharmaceuticals (a division of J&J). After growing up in Germany, Chumi came to the US to study international business, and currently resides in Philadelphia with her family.
Thank you so much for doing this with us! Can you tell us a story about what events have drawn you to this specific career path
From a very early age I was determined to follow in my father’s footsteps as a physician. I grew up in Germany and went through much of the training that was required to apply to medical school. However, around this time I also began to get interested in a business career that would allow me to work across a variety of markets. My family’s from India, and given that I have a multicultural background (German upbringing, Indian heritage) I found this pivot to be intriguing. I opted to pursue undergraduate and graduate degrees in International Business, and was fortunate that the first job I landed was in Pharma where I could marry my passion for international business and healthcare. As the Global Marketing Lead of an oncology franchise, I truly have my dream job.
Can you share your story about “Grit and Success”? First can you tell us a story about the hard times that you faced when you first started your journey?
I moved to the US for my MBA during the epic 1996 blizzard, when the snow on the ground was knee-deep from January through the beginning of March. I was pursuing my studies in Philadelphia and didn’t know a soul — I spent my first day alone in the US on my birthday. I remember feeling overwhelmed and hopeful at the same time. I have always had the ability to adapt to challenging situations which is where a lot of my grit comes from — within my first two years in the US I met and married my husband, completed my MBA and landed my first job at a Pharma company! The journey was marked by many obstacles as I had to navigate through the situation without a Green Card, wasn’t familiar with the culture and had absolutely no network to speak of. But I kept asking questions, meeting people and seeking advice, and in the end, it all paid off!
Where did you get the drive to continue even though things were so hard?
As a daughter of immigrant parents, working hard and not giving up was part of my DNA. At first, I wanted to do well to make my parents proud, but soon I realized that achieving what you set out to do can be addictive as well as fulfilling. To me, it’s not a status thing — pursuing the fancy office and big title — it’s about being successful at something you love to do. I wake up every morning and look forward to going to work — which definitely gives me the drive when things are hard. Most important, however, is that I have always worked to live not lived to work — my professional life is part of a larger personal mosaic that is not only gratifying, but also allows me to conserve my energy and continue forward when things get tough.
So how did Grit lead to your eventual success? How did Grit turn things around?
A lot of my grit comes from self-reflection; I am highly critical of myself and seek to improve constantly — how could I be doing things better? While this has helped my performance, especially when I take on stretch assignments, it does lead me through the imposter syndrome at times (do I really deserve this job?). However, as opposed to my natural tendency to keep my head down and plow through, I’ve learned to ask for feedback and help when problem-solving — and this has really changed things for me. I will never forget when I was in a more junior position and a senior exec said to me: “Don’t tell us what you think we want to hear. Please share what you have to say- because we know you have valuable things to contribute. I took that to heart, started speaking up — and it changed my career trajectory.
Based on your experience, can you share 3 pieces of advice about how one can develop Grit?
1 . Take matters into your own hands: You own your future and career — do not rely on others to get you where you want to go.
Early on I thought — just do a good job and you will get rewarded — your work will speak for itself. But I learned quickly that you have to be proactive in your life and career and seek the opportunities you want — even if it requires leaving a company you love or putting yourself in a completely unfamiliar situation like moving to a new country where you do not know anyone. No one is going to hand you anything, but by going after and achieving on your terms, you have complete ownership of your success.
2. How you do anything — is how you do everything: To develop grit you have to try to balance your life, but at the same time — wherever and whenever you do, you must show up 100%.
This does not mean you shouldn’t relax or practice self-care, but it means that your attitude should be the same towards the many things you pursue in life. For example- I love to exercise and even on the days when my body feels like it won’t play along, I give it a 100% of what I am capable of at that moment. This attitude applies to how I engage with my family as well as work.
3. Helping others find their superpower is my superpower: Why does this help with Grit?
Because nothing gives me more energy than helping others. When work is especially hard or I feel my energy waning — I seek out situations where I can coach or help others — even just have a positive conversation. Mentoring is extremely important to me — it helps to create a personal network that may have significant payoffs in the long run. The upfront effort is also extremely gratifying, watching people grow into their potential.
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 you when things were tough?
I am fortunate to have an incredibly supportive family — particularly my parents and husband! My father was a dedicated physician and coming to practice in Germany from India presented many significant challenges, for both him and my mother. They modeled grit and determination and basically made me feel that I could do anything I set my mind to do. My husband is my partner in all areas of our lives — family, work, play, and community! His steadfast support, along with my children, has made it possible for me to fulfill my dreams — he is my rock and my sage!
How have you used your success to bring goodness to the world?
In addition to focusing on delivering badly needed solutions to cancer patients, I am currently the Chairperson of the Board of the Eastern Pennsylvania chapter of the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society. We are the nation’s largest nonprofit dedicated to creating a world without blood cancers by supporting awareness and the development of new and innovative therapies. Our fund-raising and education initiatives are part of the nearly $1.3 billion invested in groundbreaking research, pioneering many of today’s most innovative approaches. It has become a family affair as my husband and children are deeply committed the work of the LLS.
I have also spent over four years on the Board of Junior Achievement, a national organization that provides economic empowerment through education. While I strongly believe in the importance of mentoring at work, I also feel that by working with young people during their formative years, we can have even greater impact. I have seen many of our young high-potential become successful business leaders, while making a significant impact in their respective communities.
Are you working on any exciting new projects now? How do you think that will help people?
I work in Oncology — so, I might be biased, but I feel that everything I work on is exciting and has the goal of changing the trajectory of cancer treatment. Our hope as a team is to prevent and or/cure cancers our medicines treat. There is so much innovation in the field and the goal seems achievable, especially when you look at our pipeline and clinical trials. For me, it’s a pleasure to wake up every morning and be able to work with a team of incredibly talented people focused on this goal. We have the capacity to help so many people, and the ability to directly connect our efforts to better health is extremely motivating.
What advice would you give to other executives or founders to help their employees to thrive?
It’s critical to meet your company associates where they are as you create/reinforce a culture that ensures they can bring their true selves to work. The beauty of a high functioning team is capitalizing on their different backgrounds and perspectives. This is not just about race, religion, gender or background, but also spending time to understand what makes an employee tick — where they’re coming from, what challenges they face as well as what motivates them. Early on, I spent too long in the shadows, not bringing my true self to work. Only when I felt free to evolve to a more genuine place did my career trajectory take off!
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 strongly believe in the importance of helping young women find their purpose in life when they are making critical choices. My fantasy job is to develop and run a non-profit consulting company, helping young women find their purpose and the strength to pursue it when they’re making critical choices. We would provide a safe and honest space for women to discuss things like career and balancing your family, making choices to align careers and personal goals, discussions around body image issues and the importance of self-care — how to seek help and learn how to say no. I know progress has been made, but there is still so much to do here — not just having discussions but actually finding solutions and creating a true movement.
Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share how that was relevant to you in your life?
As I mentioned above: To inspire people, don’t show them your superpowers. Show them theirs. It aligns with this saying, “Teach someone to fish and they’ll never go hungry.” While I have worked very hard to experience the success I have achieved, I’ve also benefitted from the experience of those who came before me. I stand on the shoulders of some extraordinary people who understood the importance and value of “paying it forward.” I continue to forge the chain of empowerment by doing the same.
Regret & fear. Regret for all the people in the world who haven’t heard my message yet. Fear that I’ll die one day not being able to create the most change that is possible. My main message is that anyone can with applied effort, focus, and tenacity create a better life for themselves.
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 Austin Iuliano.
Austin Iuliano is a revolutionary marketing expert who went from homeless to being seen on Forbes, Business Insider, Influencive, and Social Media Today for his unique social media expertise.
Austin helps public figures build their personal brands using his unique methodology of personal branding and social media marketing disruption.
Austin knows what it takes to disrupt the marketplace and generate attention. Austin has live-streamed to an extended audience of over 1 million followers with over 30,000 concurrent viewers. Austin has created viral content on almost all social media platforms and even before social media was big. Austin hit the front page of his local paper snowboarding down a mountain in nothing but a leopard printed thong when he was 18.
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?
Growing up in upstate New York, there wasn’t much to do. As a scrawny insecure kid, I was picked on relentlessly to the point where I almost committed suicide. I was standing in my bathroom with a knife to my chest ready to take the plunge and decided to try something different first. I decided that despite how much I hated myself, I was going to “lie” to myself until the lie became true. Every morning, and every night I would repeat to myself the same phrase. “You are handsome, you are confident, everyone loves you.” It took years but eventually, this lie became my truth.
Can you share a story with us about what brought you to this specific career path?
I never expected to be a public speaker. Instead, I focused my efforts on creating social media content and learning everything I could about building a business online. But like many others who’ve followed this path, I had massive failures. I lost everything and with no money, opportunities, or prospects I decided to drive down to NYC to invoke “Santra’s Law” If you can make it here, you can make it anywhere. While I was in New York City, I jumped into a new social media platform called Live Streaming and my first live stream had over 3000 people watching me. This fundamentally changed the way I was approaching social media and life. Leading me to where I am today.
Can you tell us the most interesting story that happened to you since you began your career?
I’ve always been on the cutting edge of social media, it’s a fundamental truth that being early on new platforms helps you gain massive exposure. Before Tiktok acquired musical.ly I jumped on that platform and started making content. Seeing that the far majority of the content creators were young kids, and I was a relatively old man, I decided to do something a bit different. I dressed up in a giant purple unicorn costume and started dancing around to music while live streaming, just to have a bit of fun. This went viral, like crazy viral and I had over 35,000 people watching me and talking to me. With any massive audience like that, you’ll get a lot of trolls and haters. Knowing that the majority of these negative comments were coming from young kids, I decided to kill them with kindness.
Teaching that those who say mean things online are saying it because they are hurting and don’t know how to express their feelings. Using the metaphor that all the water in the ocean can’t sink a ship if the water is on the outside of the ship, I started teaching these kids how to be more mentally resilient.
As this trend continued I received hundreds of messages from kids saying how they didn’t kill themselves because of what I taught. Everything I’ve ever accomplished in life is meaningless to those few messages.
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’ve made so many mistakes in my life it’s not even funny. But the master has failed more times than the apprentice has even tried. Most of my mistakes come in the form of trying to “growth hack” my way to success. Getting caught up in the metrics and seeing how I can grow faster. From printing out hundreds of Snapchat QR codes and handing out free stickers to get more people to join my tribe, to trying all the latest trends and tricks.
What I’ve learned from all of them is that the most important thing to focus on is the content you are creating and the community you are building. Nothing is a better growth mechanism than those two 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? Can you share a story about that?
Two people who have helped me the most in life. The first one is a friend of mine, Emelina Spinelli, she has the most incredible work ethic I’ve ever seen. I think I have an incredible work ethic and drive, but when I stand next to her it’s like trying to have a foot race against Usain Bolt. I’m incredibly appreciative of this though because surrounding yourself with others who outperform you is the only way to be the best.
The second is the members of my local Toastmasters group. Professionally speaking, through constructive criticism and guidance, I was able to grow massively as a speaker. My first time speaking on stage, I almost passed out in fright, but through their guidance and 4 years of hard work, I was able to speak on the world stage.
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?
Embrace failure, it is like Thanos…inevitable. The only way to be successful is to fail. Failure is how we grow, it’s how we learn. That doesn’t mean failure has to hurt. You can take baby steps so that way when you fall it’s not a big deal, but success only comes from pushing yourself into the unknown.
At 16 years old I became a snowboard instructor, and one of the core concepts we always taught is that you’re going to fall and fail. That is the price you pay for mastery. Just learn how to fall without getting hurt.
What drives you to get up every day and give your talks? What is the main empowering message that you aim to share with the world?
Regret & fear. Regret for all the people in the world who haven’t heard my message yet. Fear that I’ll die one day not being able to create the most change that is possible. My main message is that anyone can with applied effort, focus, and tenacity create a better life for themselves.
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?
One major project I’m undertaking is working with Skillshare to create a course on how to use social media to build your brand. Sharing my 15+ years of experience and creating an easy-to-follow system for anyone to use.
Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share how that was relevant to you in your life?
When I was a kid my mother told me a phrase that stuck with me. Take the good and leave the bad with everyone you meet. I like to believe that every single person has something good inside of them that you can learn from them. Even that person you despise at your work is in your life to teach you a lesson. Take the good that they have, and leave the baggage behind. Work on yourself to become the best version of yourself every day.
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.
The 5 things you need to be an effective public speaker are:
To be an expert.
Have a powerful story.
That shares an empowering message.
That you share with massive amounts of passion.
And you’ve practiced and refined.
One of the most famous speeches is Eric Thomas’s “How Bad Do You Want It?” speech that has over 7 million views on Youtube and launched his career. Eric has shared what he had to sacrifice to achieve his dreams. Being homeless, sleeping in his office, and working every day on that dream. He is an expert when it comes to motivation and tenacity.
In the video, the story he shares is massively powerful. A kid finds a master to teach him how to be successful, the master brings him into the ocean and shoves the kid’s head underwater. Holding him down until he is about to drown when the kid finally comes up for air the master asks him what he wanted at that moment. The kid says to breathe. The master says when you want to be successful as bad as you want to breathe then you’ll be successful.
Which is one powerful message. While it may not seem like it, reading a summary of a 15-minute speech. Eric has practiced and refined that speech thousands of times. To culminate into a powerful message he shares with deep amounts of passion.
As you know, many people are terrified of speaking in public. Can you give some of your advice about how to overcome this fear?
The only way to overcome your fear of public speaking is to get up on stage and speak. The easiest way to achieve this is to join an organization like Toastmasters.
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 for every single person on earth to create financial stability through creating a personal brand. The far majority of the problems we encounter daily are through a lack of financial security. Reducing this stress will help the majority of people and create a better world overall.
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!
Oh, I have a long list. I’d love to grab lunch with Eric Thomas or Tony Robbins. Two massive inspirations in my life. But there is one person I think is a very achievable goal. I’d love to grab lunch with you Yizi and see how this project has changed your life.
Are you on social media? How can our readers follow you online?
My handle is @austiniuliano on every social media platform. The latest platform that I’m focused on growing is my Youtube channel. Where I share public speaking tips, personal branding tips, and social media tips.
This was so informative, thank you so much! We wish you continued success!
Makers of The Metaverse: Jonathan Girroir Of Tech Soft 3D On The Future Of The VR, AR & Mixed Reality Industries
An Interview With Fotis Georgiadis
Similar to curiosity, you also need agility because the field is moving so quickly. All these technologies are leapfrogging one another: what is the standard today could be gone tomorrow, so you want to make sure you don’t paint yourself into a corner, so to speak.
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 interviewingJonathan Girroir, Technology Evangelist at Tech Soft 3D.
Jonathan Girroir is a Technical Evangelist at Tech Soft 3D. With his passion for 3D software, CAD, and innovation, for the last 22 years, Jonathan has been supporting software developers to build and utilize 3D visualization tools.
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 rural Vermont — small town, small high school — but I always had a real passion for technology and computers, and for graphics as well. From a young age, I loved to draw and to create technical 3D drawings. When I was first introduced to the Apple IIe personal computer, they had a graphics program called Logo, and I spent a lot of time fiddling around with that in elementary school.
In high school, I learned to program and taught myself BASIC, Pascal, and C++. When I was 17, I broke my back skiing, so I spent a winter writing a graphics engine based on the knowledge I gained from a college textbook on mathematics for computer graphics that I had picked up using Borland C.
Then, I went to university in upstate New York at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. My degree was in computer science, but I spent a lot of time in their program for the digital arts. I learned OpenGL, which is a higher-level language for graphics and ended up interning at a CAD company. After that, I worked at a graphics company where I helped write another graphics engine built on top of OpenGL for visualizing 3D data in biology and learned a bunch of other pieces of 3D technology.
Eventually, I made my way to my current employer, Tech Soft 3D. So, depending on how you count it, I’ve been involved with the 3D technology industry for around 25 years now.
Is there a particular book, film, or podcast that made a significant impact on you? Can you share a story or explain why it resonated with you so much?
For books, it’s definitely that college mathematics textbook I picked up while I had a broken back! That was a real gem to find.
As far as films, I’m a child of the ’80s and ’90s. There was a genre of tech films back then that are kind of cliche and cringeworthy today but were great at the time. I’m thinking here of any of those titles that centered around computers, like WarGames, Sneakers, or — this one is embarrassing — Hackers. Those movies portrayed programming as exciting and edgy, and I think that appealed to a lot of people to say, “Hey, this is a cool industry to be in.”
Is there a particular story that inspired you to pursue a career in the X Reality industry? We’d love to hear it.
I love building things — and not just on the computer either. I love working on tangible things, be it woodworking or mechanics. To me, XR is just an extension of this creating and building process. I’ve always loved trying to represent 3D on a 2D screen, but being able to move that out into reality, whether that’s mixed reality or virtual reality, is incredibly powerful, I think.
My involvement with XR has come about fairly organically, because one of the things we try to do at Tech Soft 3D is to provide tools that will future proof an application for any platform that comes along. Ten to fifteen years ago, that platform might have been mobile. In the near future, it may very well be XR.
The Oculus VR headset was one of the most popular gadgets last year, showing that VR is really becoming mainstream. People are using and becoming familiar with this new technology. Right now, the focus is mainly on gaming and entertainment, but the experience that people have with XR in those situations puts pressure on the engineering industry to start supporting XR devices and supporting XR workflows. So, we’re very interested in making sure we get out ahead of that trend and develop technology to support these new workflows.
Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you began this fascinating career?
One of the most fun projects I’ve worked on is when we started supporting the HTC Vive headsets about five years ago. We set up a green screen room and brought in a film crew to film our interaction with a race car in virtual reality, rendered from a third person’s point of view, and then we overlaid that with some separate video. That project brought me outside of the coding world and into this whole other video production world to do something pretty cool that really wasn’t being done by many at the time. We actually got on the front cover of Digital Engineering Magazine with that project.
Another fun experience — this was probably about 10 years ago — was when I was able to visit Canon’s Japanese office and experience their virtual reality lab. That place was definitely way ahead of its time. They were experimenting with virtual maintenance and training for Canon equipment using XR, so they had a head mounted display with a giant cord connected to a big stack of computers that rolled around, trailing the person wearing the headset. Being able to experience the first iterations of different pieces of groundbreaking technology has been pretty exciting.
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 feel like a funny mistake would be something like, “I had this XR headset on and felt like I was falling off a building, and I fell onto my coworker’s desk and spilled their coffee.” I think the worst that happens is that I get funny looks when I’m in my office wearing an XR headset and waving my arms around. Maybe that’s the lesson: stay in your office when you’re first getting used to an XR headset — don’t try to walk around.
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?
There was a teacher at an elementary school in Brattleboro, Vermont named Jack McKiernan who volunteered his time by hosting an after-school computer club at the school. I would get a ride down there after classes, and we’d spend a few hours coding. That’s where I first really learned graphics. In addition to the after-school club, he would host a computer camp for one week during the summer, and he also contributed to the local bulletin board service (or BBS, which was a precursor to the internet for those of you who weren’t around back then). He was really involved in the community and volunteered a ton of his time — and he really instilled a love of technology. Many of his students, not just me, went on to continue in technology and computer science.
Are you working on any exciting new projects now? How do you think that will help people?
Right now, I’m working on figuring out ways to prep real CAD data for being imported into the metaverse. That’s actually quite an important step because these head mounted devices still have a lot of technological limitations in terms of the amount of data that they can display and the speed at which they can do so. So, we’re taking a step back to take a step forward: We have to simplify the data and pre-process it in a way that delivers maximum performance in the head mounted displays. The data needs to deliver a much higher frame rate to make it feel real and also to make sure it’s not a nauseating experience.
Aside from not making end users sick when they experience XR, this work that I’m doing helps people by simplifying the workflow around making CAD data usable in XR. It makes the whole process more turnkey and accelerates ways to bring data into the metaverse and move data from one platform to another.
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?
Probably the #1 thing I’m excited about is populating the metaverse. There’s a digital file out there for almost all the buildings that have been built, as well as for most of the machinery and objects in the real world. Being able to bring that data out of these data silos and bring them into the metaverse is something that we’re really excited about.
Once you start to populate the metaverse, it enables workflows that can be accelerated via the digital context that the metaverse provides. Think of performing maintenance on a car engine. How much easier would it be to find the right component that needs to be replaced if you could overlay a 3D image on reality that identifies exactly where that component is, rather than trying to look at a 2D picture in a manual? Same principle applies for any complex machinery, or even for buildings-in-progress at construction sites when you’re trying to figure out where to put a support beam.
As a flip side of the maintenance scenario, telepresence becomes much easier and more effective with XR. Rather than repairing or fixing a complex piece of machinery yourself, as in the previous example, you can have an expert technician who lives on the other side of the country guide you through the process in real time as you interact with the machinery with a tablet or other device — no need to fly the expert 3000 miles.
The final thing that really excites me about XR is its ability to assist with design review. Companies like The Wild create a shared space where you can have two or more people doing a design review in virtual reality. They just got purchased by Autodesk, so we’re seeing big industry players take note of XR’s potential in this area.
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?
My biggest concern is just the amount of time we are tied to our digital devices. The big tech companies are already really good at finding ways to fill up our time. Web 2.0 has always been an industry of attention where companies are fighting for a slice of people’s mental bandwidth — and that’s going to become even more the case when we have even more powerful tools like XR.
So, how do we make sure that we use this technology for the benefit of humanity and not the detriment — and that we are able to continue to have productive relationships, and we’re not tied to our device and technology 24 hours a day?
To help ensure things don’t head in a dystopian direction, companies need to be very transparent around usage and very intentional around the ways they enable people to interact with the technology. For example, providing weekly reports on how much time you’ve spent on your device — and allowing the ability to set daily limits — is actually a very useful function. Companies need to be proactive rather than reactive in this area. They need to sit down and think “Okay, what could potentially be a societal problem resulting from these devices and these experiences?” and then work to proactively address it.
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?
The examples that I shared a little earlier around populating the metaverse, performing maintenance on complex machines, and doing shared design review are great examples of how XR can provide real value in industrial or engineering scenarios. In other words, XR isn’t all just “fun and games” — it enables people to get real work done and tackle key workflows more efficiently.
What are the “myths” that you would like to dispel about working in your industry? Can you explain what you mean?
People should know that we’re not going to get to a world like the one depicted in movies like Ready Player One anytime soon. What’s in the movies is a lot different than what is possible in practice. For instance, when you put one of these headsets on right now, particularly the AR headsets, it can still be a little underwhelming. Not to mention the fact that building these XR experiences takes a lot of work. There’s definitely a long way to go before we’re close to what Science fiction depicts.
What are your “5 Things You Need to Create A Highly Successful Career In The VR, AR or MR Industries?”
I think curiosity is a good quality in general, but it’s particularly well suited for XR. It’s an evolving industry and there’s a lot of stuff going on in the field. Trying different things out, asking questions, being curious about them and how they might be applied to your customers — all those things are key.
Another thing to know about the XR field is that it’s hard work. A lot of the elements around XR aren’t fully baked just yet. Because they are new technologies, they aren’t well documented, and you often wind up working with beta products. So, leaning into the struggle of learning a new skill or a new technology is really, really important.
Similar to curiosity, you also need agility because the field is moving so quickly. All these technologies are leapfrogging one another: what is the standard today could be gone tomorrow, so you want to make sure you don’t paint yourself into a corner, so to speak.
Another good example of agility in action is what Microsoft and Magic Leap have done. Their initial focus with their AR headsets was entertainment. Before very long, they made a major pivot towards industry and the enterprise. They realized that that’s where the real money is for these devices and their applications.
I think familiarity with both the hardware and the software is helpful for a career in XR. In other words, in addition to staying on top of the latest headsets and devices, you should be familiar with engines like Unity or Unreal and the technology stack from Tech Soft 3D for engineering-specific tooling. Those are probably some of the most important platforms in use right now in this space for authoring content.
At the end of the day, there are so many different careers in this space. There’s the hardware side, the software side, the content creation side, and a dozen other areas to focus on. I think knowing which aspect of XR you’re interested in is an important step in having a highly successful career in the industry.
You are a person of great influence. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger. 🙂
I think we need to be conscious about how technology not only can help us, but also can impact us in negative ways. We need more people to be asking questions — not just “what are the benefits of this?” but “what are the potential drawbacks?” and “how is this impacting me and those around me?” How do we make sure that we “do no harm”? How do we ensure that meaningful human connection is maintained? At a high level, this centers around knowing when and when not to use technology.
We are very blessed that very prominent leaders read this column. Is there a person in the world, or in the US with whom you would like to have a private breakfast or lunch, and why? He or she might just see this if we tag them 🙂
I think there are two people that come to mind. The first one is John Carmack, who was one of the foundational figures of 3D programming, particularly for video games. He was one of the lead programmers in the ’90s for some of the quintessential games like Doom, Quake and Commander Keen. He went on to be the CTO of Oculus VR. He also seems like just a really interesting person with some opinions on technology that we share. So, I’d love to have breakfast with him.
Another person at the top of my list is Guy Kawasaki. He was one of the first technical evangelists at Apple, and he’s very big on the concepts of community and connection. I’ve definitely grown up in his era, so I’d love to have breakfast with him as well. If it helps tip the scales, there’s a place called Chow in Bend, Oregon, where I live, that does a really good eggs benedict!
Thank you so much for these excellent stories and insights. We wish you continued success on your great work!
Rehearse under mild pressure. Then increase the pressure. Then increase it some more. Mild pressure might be your family. Increased pressure might be your co-workers. And more pressure might be other speakers. Do not rehearse for your cat, or in front of a mirror. You must put your body in a position of stress, because your body will physiologically betray you on stage. Knowing this and creating a level of stress for you to rehearse it, teaches you how to co-exist with fear.
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 Tricia Brouk.
Tricia Brouk helps high-performing professionals transform into industry thought leaders through the power of authentic storytelling. Her methodology centers around transforming her client’s authentic stories into an industry-leading voice and commanding media presence to gain wider recognition to become the go-to experts in their fields. With her experience as a seasoned and award-winning director, producer, and mentor to countless speakers, Tricia has put more than 60 speakers onto TEDx stages in less than four years. She has spoken at Forbes, Pride Global, The New York Public Library, Barnes and Noble, Ellevate, The Jumbo African Support Hub and The National Organization for Rare Disorders.
Tricia founded The Big Talk Academy where she certifies speakers in the art of public speaking. She was the executive producer of Speakers Who Dare and TEDxLincolnSquare and is the producer and host of The Big Talk, an award-winning podcast and YouTube Channel. She curates and hosts the Speaker Salon in NYC and is being featured in a new documentary called Big Stages. Tricia’s book, The Influential Voice: Saying What You Mean for Lasting Legacy, was a #1 New Release on Amazon in December 2020.
Tricia was awarded Top Director of 2019 by the International Association of Top Professionals and Top Ten Speaker Coaches in Yahoo Finance in 2021 and the Empowered Women Award in 2021 by the IOATP and Awarded Most Influential Leader in Media and Production by Corporate Vision in 2022 along with being featured on the cover of Brainz Magazine. Her documentaries have received critical acclaim — winning numerous awards including Best Documentary Short at The Olympus Film Festival and Los Angeles Movie Awards.
Thank you so much for doing this with us! Our readers would love to get to know you a bit better. Can you tell us the story of how you grew up?
I grew up in a small town 20 miles south of St. Louis, Missouri called Arnold. We lived in a house that my Dad and Grandfather built. We lived next to my grandparents where there was a well for water, an outhouse, and a large tree that we sat underneath. We grew corn and strawberries and had cows. And my grandfather taught me to shoot, so we could eat our lunch. We did have squirrels for dinner (which is what we called lunch) supper is what we called dinner. My Grandmother had an 8th grade education and never learned to drive a car. When I was seven, I went to see my sister’s dance recital. She was tap dancing on stage dressed as a pink poodle. And I knew right then, I was going to become a dancer. I immediately enrolled in dance classes and then became obsessed with dance.
Can you share a story with us about what brought you to this specific career path?
I’ve been working in film, television, and theater for the last three decades. And a few years ago, a friend who was a fan of my work over the years asked me to direct her TEDx. I said yes because I thought it would be fun, just like directing a one woman show. After we wrapped, she planted the seed, “You should do this.” I had no online presence. I was not on Facebook and did not know being a speaker was even a thing. With zero online credibility in the space, I started The Big Talk podcast with the advice of my friend John Lee Dumas. Then all these amazing speakers reached out to me, and I had no place to put them. As a producer, I know how to produce shows, so it was an organic next step for me to become the Executive Producer of TEDxLincolnSquare in New York City. What I love about working with speakers is that they want to serve at the highest level. Having global impact and being able to have a hand in this kind of ripple effect by amplifying and elevating voices is a huge responsibility and it’s why I founded The Big Talk Academy.
Can you tell us the most interesting story that happened to you since you began your career?
I’m not sure anything has ever happened to me — for me, yes. When Retired LT. CL. Alex Vindman reached out to me to support him in taking a TED stage, after he testified at the impeachment hearing of Trump, that was very interesting. He is a wonderful, kind, charming person, husband, father, and dog owner. That conversation was one of my most favorite I’ve ever had with a speaker.
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 before I had a team including social media and copywriter, I posted on social media about “pubic speaking”. What I learned was that I have really good friends, because they all called me immediately to alert me to it. And we laughed for a good 15 minutes as I corrected the typo.
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?
Sharon McGuire, my dance teacher from Missouri, had a huge impact on my life. She taught me how to have confidence, grit, discipline, self-love, and embrace humor. And my husband, Joe Ricci, has been my support system and champion every step of the way, always reminding me that I can do anything I desire and constantly says, “There is nobody else like you.” Jamie Broderick and Michael Roderick were two of my first mentors who taught me that the online space was a thing and that people paid good money for “hot seats”! Who knew! Hiring a phenomenal business coach and high-performance coach moved the needle in my business tremendously. I flew to Los Angeles for a one day coaching intensive with Emily and James Williams. In this one day, they opened my eyes up to greater possibility, and from there, my vision, my business, and my goals exploded. I finished all the homework they gave me on the five-hour flight back to New York from L.A. and said, “Okay, what’s next?”
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?
It all comes back to having humility and trusting that what you have to say matters. And you can count on failing. Embrace when you fall down on stage literally or figuratively this will help you to eliminate the fear and recover more quickly.
What drives you to get up every day and give your talks? What is the main empowering message that you aim to share with the world?
Whether I’m speaking to the check-out person at the grocery store, or Joe, my husband or to a room full of 500, it’s my desire to connect on a deep level and make the person I’m communicating with feel seen, heard, and valued. If I can have a positive impact on whomever my audience is and know that they are going to pass this feeling forward to the person they encounter, then my job is done. You are always an influential voice and what you have to say matters.
You have such impressive work. What are some of the most interesting or exciting projects you are working on now?
The Big Talk Academy is certifying speakers from all over the world. We have speakers from the U.K., New Zealand, Philippines, Australia, Sweden, Ireland, Austria, the USA and Vietnam. And my audiobook The Influential Voice: Saying What You Mean From Lasting Legacy is going to be available soon on Amazon.
Where do you see yourself heading from here?
I’m planning to write a second book about Buddhism and Leadership.
Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share how that was relevant to you in your life?
I always say, “No means not yet” and “Keep the story moving.” Hearing “no” my entire career as a dancer taught me that grit and fearlessness is a daily activity. I’m never afraid of failure, because if I can’t get through a door, I’ll build my own. And if you are going to spend one second of this precious life wallowing in the past or what went wrong, how are you going to get it all done? This doesn’t mean not allowing for the mourning period of any kind of loss, personal or professional; it does mean get on with it. I always keep the story moving.
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.
Coexist with fear.
Rehearse under mild pressure. Then increase the pressure. Then increase it some more. Mild pressure might be your family. Increased pressure might be your co-workers. And more pressure might be other speakers. Do not rehearse for your cat, or in front of a mirror. You must put your body in a position of stress, because your body will physiologically betray you on stage. Knowing this and creating a level of stress for you to rehearse it, teaches you how to co-exist with fear.
2. Having Context.
Asking yourself the questions: Why does this idea matter? Why does it matter to me? Why does it matter to the world, creates global impact. And this is important because you want your idea to inform everyone is some way. Kristin Smedley came to me to create a talk about rare eye disease. She has three kids, two born blind. We had to ask these questions because, if she talks about rare eye disease and her kids, I’m not going to be impacted. I don’t have kids and I don’t have blind kids. We asked these questions for context. Why does this matter? She wanted to created awareness. Why does it matter to Kristin? She has two blind kids. Why does it matter to the world? Because Kristin learned how to see the world through her son’s eyes. And when I learn to see the world through the eyes of someone else, I can have more empathy and compassion.
3. Understanding credibility, vulnerability, and relatability.
Being credible means having the lived experience. It does not require you to have a book or a PHD. Vulnerability means speaking from the scar not the wound. You must be healed from any trauma before sharing it from the stage. You are there to take care of us and if you are on stage re-living trauma, we feel obligated to take care of you. And, if you cry and become emotional on stage, you rob us from having our emotional experience. And being relatable means making eye contact, energetically connecting to your audience and being sure to speak authentically through your personal stories so that we can see ourselves in you.
4. Motivate instead of Manipulate.
I teach the acting technique of Objective and Action to my speakers. What do you want from your audience? And how are you going to get it? Motivating an audience to take action is a technique not a manipulation. If you want your audience to buy your book, how are you going to get them to take that action? As human beings we are unconsciously practicing this technique daily. For example: Maybe you want your kids to go to bed. How are you going to get them to do this? You could take them, bribe them, tickle them. It’s the same thing from a stage. You want your audience to pay attention? Then it’s your job to relentlessly go after your objective until you get what you want. And that means you may have to change your action. If nobody is paying attention to you and you are inspiring or teaching. Try something else. Perhaps entertain or even better…wait. If you wait in silence until they notice you are no longer talking, you’ll get their attention.
5. Choreography matters.
So many speakers wander around the stage aimlessly. Or they swing their arms or sit in their hips. Knowing how to block your talk for impact is essential. Using your script, block the movement stage right and stage left during beat changes. A beat change is a new thought. Know when you are moving and why. And know when you are still and why. If you move downstage towards us because you are saying something super intimate and want us to feel close to you, it will land. If you back up because you want to disconnect, you will. If you rush across the stage for effect, we will want to come with you because of the urgency. You are on stage and each part of that stage is an important part of your playground.
As you know, many people are terrified of speaking in public. Can you give some of your advice about how to overcome this fear?
Do something. Whenever my actors are struggling to play a scene, I give them something to do. Fold laundry. Wash dishes. Pack a suitcase. The moment they do something they stop thinking about themselves and the character and begin to play the scene. It’s the same thing for a speaker. If you are struggling with your nerves, rehearse while you’re doing something. And you’ll start to build the confidence muscle that you can deliver this amazing talk, without thinking about it and just being present.
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?
A project I’m currently initiating is called the “I am Project”. I want to inspire 100,000 women all over the world to own their voices and who they are with the statement “I am…”. When we fully step into the role of who we are in the world, anything is possible. If you are reading this, take a photo of yourself with your “I am” statement using #Iamproject and tag me on Instagram. Mine…I am a limitless creator.
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’d love to have lunch with Olga Smirnova, the Russian Ballerina who quit the Bolshoi because of the invasion of Ukraine. She’s a formidable woman.
Are you on social media? How can our readers follow you online?
Inclusivity leads to innovation. All too often, employees are asked to help problem solve, produce new ideas for business processes, products, and services. Having a mono-chrome workforce does not serve a company well in developing new products nor does it help satisfy the needs of a varied customer base. With a well-rounded employee base, there’s a greater inclusivity of differing ideas and points of view, leading to truly inclusive advancements.
As a part of our series about “How Diversity Can Increase a Company’s Bottom Line,” I had the pleasure of interviewing Frank Fawzi, CEO of IntelePeer.
Frank has been a guiding force in driving the company’s growth and achieving its mission to become a dominant Communications Platform as a Service (CPaaS) provider for enterprises. Frank founded and grew CommTech Corporation between 1990 and 2001 to be an early leader in the communications software sector before selling the company to ADC, a leading provider of broadband solutions for the telecommunications industry, for $178 million. Prior to founding CommTech, he worked at AT&T Bell Laboratories as the lead data communications architect for a $1.4B winning bid to the IRS.
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?
Just a few years after completing my master’s degree, I took a risk and founded my first company — CommTech — in the proverbial garage (or, in my case, a small empty room in my house). Having gained tremendous knowledge working at AT&T Bell Laboratories as the lead data communications architect to win a $1.4 billion contract for the U.S. Internal Revenue Service (IRS), I felt confident in my capacity to conquer the challenges of starting a telco business.
Recognizing the complexities in the telecommunications industry, I began CommTech with a mission to automate business processes. That intense desire resulted in growing the company from three employees (me, my sister and my wife at the time working from home) to about 400 employees in under a decade. After creating state-of-the-art management and provisioning software for the leading telecommunication service providers, the company was purchased by ADC Telecom for $178M in 2001. I stayed on in an advisory role for a few years, but that intense desire to build resurfaced, leading me to join IntelePeer in 2005. It was just a small team at the time; however, we’ve grown over the years to become a leading communications platform as a Service (CPaaS) provider for enterprises.
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?
There have been so many — funny and interesting. But the takeaway is always the same. Treat people as you would like to be treated. So simple, yet often the most difficult thing to remember.
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?
“When a caring, positive culture is fostered, there’s nothing a company cannot achieve.” (That’s a Frank Fawzi quote) This has certainly been the case for IntelePeer, which now has approximately 290 team members dispersed around the country. We attract exceptional talent and have a very high retention rate not because it’s an easy environment — actually, it’s quite demanding — but because it is an incredibly supportive and flexible environment.
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’ve had several mentors throughout my career and my extremely grateful for the insight and support they provided, especially when it came to navigating turbulent waters. On the other hand, from the beginning, my father was a constant source of inspiration. Watching him, a small business owner who went through daily business challenges, I learned at an early age what it took to succeed. At the heart of every new innovation, whether it is a software product or widget, is an individual or team driven by insatiable curiosity, persistence and tenacity.
What do you think makes your company stand out? Can you share a story?
IntelePeer has established strong core values and a solid infrastructure. So, when the pandemic hit, IntelePeer was at an advantage. That didn’t mean it was smooth sailing for everyone. Many had the added stress of children learning from home, not to mention the feeling of isolation with several rounds of shutdowns. With the inability to get together as a company for special events, as we had done in the past, it wasn’t long before employees were offering up and implementing solutions, from a morale committee to early-off Fridays and “time-out blocks,” which were basically do-not-disturb zones everyone respects when scheduling calls and meetings. These were all solutions to the numerous pandemic obstacles, and we were able to think, build and work through the problems and become better for it.
In fact, it was our collective realization of how the pandemic had put immense stress on families, schools, the economy and our country as a whole that led us to many ideas to help businesses and state agencies deal with the incredible demand by consumers and citizens for more information and interactions.
Are you working on any new or exciting projects now? How do you think that might help people?
We’re always working on exciting projects at IntelePeer. Recently, we launched Atmosphere Marketplace, a suite of low- and no-code communication apps — the industry’s first and only solution of its kind. It is an intuitive bundled multi-application solution featuring no-code and low-code applications, equipped with a step-by-step plug-and-play setup — backed by comprehensive support. With no-code/turnkey application solutions and fast and easy configuration in minutes, Marketplace modernizes the way businesses communicate with their customers without the need for drawn-out and costly development cycles.
What is your product’s key distinguishing feature?
Atmosphere Marketplace is segmented into two main levels. The first level, with its no-code/turnkey customer engagement applications, is ideal for new and current customers. It enables businesses to easily implement communications solutions such as intelligent Call Routing based on Natural Language Processing, plus easy interactive voice response (IVR), SMS, and voice auto-response without the need for developers. The second level contains low-code/advanced snap-in applications. These customizable and quick-to-deploy modules are perfect for high-value implementations such as Communications Workflow Automation, Payment Processing and Cloud Queuing and allow customers to tailor applications into their existing business workflows.
How have you used your success to bring goodness to the world?
Charity starts at home, and by home, I mean our team and families. Beyond that, home is our local communities where we live, the colleges we attended, and the small businesses we interact with on a daily basis. While I am involved with numerous charities and organization that have a worldwide impact, most of my time and wealth are invested in support groups and organizations close to home.
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.
We recently signed on to the CEO Pledge, which is part of the CEO Action for Diversity & Inclusion™ initiative co-founded and launched in 2017 by PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) and numerous other companies. At the core of this initiative is The CEO pledge, which outlines a specific set of actions the signatory CEOs will take to cultivate a trusting environment where all ideas are welcomed, and employees feel comfortable and empowered to have discussions about diversity and inclusion. In addition to being the right thing to do, having a diverse and inclusive workplace has many, positive business benefits:
A highly engaged, diverse workforce can greatly impact a company’s bottom line and ultimate success. Gallup recently estimated those organizations with a highly engaged workforce see approximately 23% greater profitability and approximately 15% greater productivity. The pandemic really brought this phenomenon to light, with those companies who were most diligent in fostering engagement, as well as diversity, reaping immense benefits.
Inclusivity leads to innovation. All too often, employees are asked to help problem solve, produce new ideas for business processes, products, and services. Having a mono-chrome workforce does not serve a company well in developing new products nor does it help satisfy the needs of a varied customer base. With a well-rounded employee base, there’s a greater inclusivity of differing ideas and points of view, leading to truly inclusive advancements.
Diversity leads to a greater understanding of one’s marketplace. To be relevant in today’s business world, companies must understand the underpinnings of what is driving the markets in which they operate. This understanding can only be accomplished via a diverse workforce who can provide insights into consumer behaviors that lead to product adoption, services needed to fulfill customer demand, and possibly the creation of new product categories within a marketplace.
With a diverse workforce, employees are more engaged. This engagement is directly correlated with employee well-being, a point critical to one’s business success. Business leaders have a responsibility to their employees to foster ‘career’ well-being, which will ultimately positively impact their personal and professional lives. Many businesses are already doing this in one fashion or another; for others, it’s critical that they start. Steps to take are easy — at IntelePeer, for example, we offer financial coaching, time off for volunteer activities, and career development resources. Other activities businesses could consider are health and wellness resources and the enactment of family-friendly policies.
Increased diversity in the workplace creates a strong value proposition for one’s brand. Those companies that champion diversity and embrace an over-arching ethos of inclusivity reap the benefits of a strong, resilient reputation which is invaluable to today’s consumers. Patagonia is a great example. Since day one, the company’s leaders were committed to being an environmentally responsible organization. They embraced this mantra and continue to live by it, and the company has reaped the rewards and its brand’s reputation reflects that.
What advice would you give to other business leaders to help their employees to thrive?
Give everyone in the company a voice. You never know who will have the next big idea.
What advice would you give to other business leaders about how to manage a large team?
When dealing with large teams, business leaders should focus on building a strong culture supported by core values that are reinforced throughout the workplace. A strong set of well-understood core values, when socialized throughout a company and embraced by all employees, helps organizations navigate everyday decisions independently.
Leaders should also set the overall direction of the company, relay that to his/her teams but encourage independent thinking as those teams work toward fulfilling established priorities. This is greatly aided by frequent, large-scale communication. It can’t be stressed enough how important it is to keep everyone throughout the organization informed about the business and for business leaders to encourage open communication and transparency within their departments.
We are very blessed that some of the biggest names in Business, V.C. funding, Sports, and Entertainment read this column. Is there a person in the world, or in the U.S. whom you would love to have a private breakfast or lunch with, and why? He or she might just see this 🙂
I would love to sit down and share a meal with Elon Musk. He’s a true creative genius that sees the future, excites others, and builds toward fulfilling his vision.
How can our readers further follow your work online?
Leaving the corporate world is harder than you think. There are benefits that you don’t see until you leave, for example, regular check-ins from mentors, organized calendars, a solid routine. It’s easy to think that you’re not doing enough, or the days seem to get shorter, but know that you are moving forward and putting in the hard work. This is a journey that I am still on.
As a part of our series called “Making Something From Nothing”, I had the pleasure of interviewing Sam Syed.
Sam Syed is co-founder, CFO and COO at Capsll App. With a lifelong passion for history and philosophy, Sam is excited to be making a difference in people’s lives by utilizing the Capsll App and helping them preserve memories of their legacy. In joining the Capsll team, Sam is “coming home” and excited to be working for the purpose-driven company, a place where users can gather their once-scattered memories into digital time capsules that can be shared privately with full user control.
He joined Capsll with almost two decades of experience in the financial industry. He started his career as an equity broker in London, United Kingdom, advising clients on Commodities, Equities and FX, eventually rising to the role of Derivatives Trader. He moved to Dubai in 2012, helping clients achieve their financial goals through all areas of wealth management, including retirement planning and estate planning, where he managed millions in assets. He then moved to the United States and began working as a financial advisor at Northwestern Mutual, where he helped families secure the future they desired.
Now at Capsll, he is excited to continue working to help families safeguard their legacies in a different way. He joins Capsll’s CEO Clint Davis and CPO Anton Devenish, Co-founder and CPO, and is excited to be on this adventure to build something meaningful and impactful with two close friends.
He splits his time between Denver, Colorado and Austin, Texas with his wife, Lauren. He and Lauren have one daughter, with another on the way. In his free time, Sam enjoys traveling, mountain climbing, and has an appreciation for opera and art.
“If Capsll can find purpose in people’s lives, I would have left a greater impact than I could have ever imagined.” For more information, please visit www.capsll.app/.
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 London, UK and raised in a working-class family with 5 brothers. Growing up in a big family was fun — lots of toys, lots of road trips and lots of amazing food. My Dad self-taught himself to be a great chef, which financially worked well because it saved a lot of money not having to eat out. I wasn’t always the best behaved in or out of school, but always had respect for my elders and was always a good kid. I had a passion for finance which led to a successful 15-year career in wealth management which started in London and brought me to Dubai and then to New York.
Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share how that was relevant to you in your life?
I would say Oscar Wilde’s “Be yourself, everyone else is taken” leads the way for me. I grew up with a fair share of racism directed at me as a young child with Portuguese and Pakistani heritage. That’s a pretty unusual mix, especially living in West London in the 80s! Although it was difficult to feel that I was being judged for the color of my skin, it not only toughened me up and taught me perseverance, but it’s also made me embrace who I am and what I have to offer to the world. We are all unique. It made me appreciate other people’s uniqueness. I enjoy bringing diverse people together that might not have otherwise met, which creates more interesting relationships and conversations.
Is there a particular book, podcast, or film that made a significant impact on you? Can you share a story or explain why it resonated with you so much?
I’m sure a few people have mentioned Napoleon Hill’s book “Think and Grow Rich”. But Chapter 1’s story of ‘Three feet from gold’ made a significant impact on me. It made me realize that quitting will never be an option. If I fail, I fail forward and learn — but I won’t quit. This fueled me when I moved to Dubai and built a successful practice, and then again when I moved to New York.
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?
The first thing that I would say is passion. Without passion, any good idea will fall through the cracks and be left for someone else with more passion to successfully build it. The second is to have an amazing team around you. So now you have a team of likeminded people who are passionate about building the same thing. The third is grit, or resilience. The reason why grit is important is because you will approach hard times, quiet times, lonely times and times where you just want to quit… and that’s where you need grit to remind you why you are building what you’re building.
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?
Take a look at the world, look at the market, look at the demographic of potential customers that you’re planning to appeal to. If you think someone has thought of your idea, what does the world say? Are they using it? Is it successful? Could it do with some improvements? Friendster & MySpace was out before Facebook, but we all know who won market dominance.
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.
My advice would be to surround yourself with trusted experts, mentors, professionals and friends that believe in your mission and see the potential in your idea. I believe no Co-Founder can juggle everything needed to build a successful company themselves. For example, our attorneys have filed our patents. My area of expertise is not on the legal-side, so I would rather an expert handle that portion. I can then free up my time and energy for more productive and income-generating solutions.
What are your “5 Things I Wish Someone Told Me When I First Started Leading My Company” and why? (Please share a story or example for each.)
1. If possible, co-found a company with friends. This has been my greatest joy. Yes, there’s a few heated discussions here and there, but I will always have their back and I know they have mine. That’s priceless.
2. Raising money is harder than you think. Be tenacious, be courageous, don’t fall ‘three feet from gold’. We have investors from the most unlikely referrals, and we have naysayers from our most promising pitches. Don’t take it personally. It’s your job to show them that you will succeed regardless.
3. Leaving the corporate world is harder than you think. There are benefits that you don’t see until you leave, for example, regular check-ins from mentors, organized calendars, a solid routine. It’s easy to think that you’re not doing enough, or the days seem to get shorter, but know that you are moving forward and putting in the hard work. This is a journey that I am still on.
4. It’s important to understand that not all your closest friends will catch your vision and be there for the journey. Even though you know that it would be an amazing opportunity for them.
5. Some people will just be cheerleaders — and that’s okay.
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?
Speak to those that you love and trust and get as much perspective as possible, not just about the product, but also the journey. But always lead with your conviction and go with your heart. You might succeed or fail, but you must always follow with your heart.
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?
Firstly, I would urge people to seek their internal consul (religious leader, friend, mentor, coach, business leader etc.). I would never start a company alone and if you need an advisor, it shouldn’t take the place of forming a close team. Secondly, figure out how much money you need to put upfront to initially build. This is where you could use a consultant to build out your plan. Thirdly, whether you use an external consultant or not, you will discover very quickly on the journey whether you need them or not.
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 would lean towards bootstrapping, not because of the rhetoric out there of what VCs might take as equity, but because your first investors through your family & friends are your biggest cheerleaders and believe in the mission. Those investors usually know other investors that also want to invest in the same mission. It’s all about relationships. Make sure the relationship fits your ethos, core values and your team. We have actually turned down money because we didn’t feel that the relationship was right. It’s hard to do that as founders, but we believe it’s the best approach for the long run.
Ok. We are nearly done. Here are our final questions. How have you used your success to make the world a better place?
I believe our company, Capsll, will make the world a better place. If I save my story I will understand my value. If I understand my value, I will understand that others have a story, and their value. This in turn means I engage other people differently based on their values, and that changes how humanity connects with each other.
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.
Check out http://www.capsll.app/ and download the app from the Apple Store or Google Play. We truly believe this will be a movement for the masses and bring the most amount of good in the most amount of people. For us, the joy comes from every individual story. Every investor we pitched, every person we have spoken to has thought more deeply about legacy, their own stories and their meaning. Every person is challenged to think about the meaning of their whole life.
We are very blessed that some of the biggest names in Business, VC funding, Sports, and Entertainment read this column. Is there a person in the world, or in the US, with whom you would love to have a private breakfast or lunch, and why? He or she might just see this if we tag them.
Elon Musk. It might sound like a common answer in these current times, but I feel he truly innovates to change the way we think, and to make the world a better place. Also, a ticket to Mars sounds pretty cool.
Thank you for these fantastic insights. We greatly appreciate the time you spent on this.
AR-enabled devices can also help employees visualize instructions while they are working on a physical task or view alternative items or products that can work as a solution without experiencing several trials and errors. AI-assisted skills will start making significant in-roads and there is a lot of latent utilitarian value & efficiency waiting to be tapped into.
As a part of our series called “Making Something From Nothing”, I had the pleasure of interviewing Sravanth Aluru.
Sravanth Aluru is the Founder and CEO of Avataar. Sravanth received his engineering degree from IIT Bombay and is a Wharton Business school alumnus. He is a lead inventor for 10+ US Patents across AI, computer vision and data transmission optimization over mobile wireless networks.
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”?
An engineer at heart, I spent my formative years in early 2000s as a Program Manager at Microsoft, where I first experienced the power of AI and Computer Vision. Post my MBA at Wharton I worked with the technology investment banking division at Deutsche Bank helping tech entrepreneurs strategize and scale their business globally; advising on transactions across mergers, acquisitions, and Nasdaq technology IPOs, cumulating over $100 billion in value.
I started Avataar in 2014, with a vision to uncover untapped potential from the confluence of self-learning AI and computer vision. My belief stemmed from a fundamental view, that advancements in computer vision (with cameras now surpassing the capabilities of a human eye) coupled with AI (analogous to the human brain-eye coordination) can bring about a paradigm shift in visual discovery experiences for consumers and businesses globally.
Is there a particular story that inspired you to pursue a career in the XR industry?
XR was more of a destiny than a choice for me. I was first exposed to the power of AI & CV, right at the onset of my career at Microsoft, where xBox used a depth sensing camera called Kinect to innovate on highly contextual gaming experiences. While the hardware was still nascent and limited to early adopters, the potential of an inflection point in the future seemed inevitable to me. Post my MBA at Wharton, as a Wall Street Technology investment banker at Deutsche Bank, I first-hand witnessed massive organic & inorganic investments going into a converging future vision across tech giants, that of a new computing device (that replaces today’s flat screen mobile devices), which would bring to life a true life-size 3D digital world. In parallel, the underlying hardware evolution of smartphones has made possible the “here & now” opportunity of introducing a third dimension to today’s digital visual discovery catered to all smartphone users globally. I truly discovered a glimpse of this utilitarian value we are trying to create, and this was an ecosystem that stood out to me.
Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you began this fascinating career?
I experienced consumer validation in 2019 at Avataar. I spent some time doing A/B testing, comparing 2D images to life-size 3D renders, and saw how consumers reacted to the new technology. We saw a huge uptick in Gen Z and Millennials’ engagement and this evolution happened while we were improving our tech stack at the time, further cementing our belief and vision.
Covid-19 made technology a necessity across industries since we were confined at home and were forced to order more online which led to digital commerce expanding rapidly. Since then, we’ve witnessed consumer shopping behavior to have reset and changed forever.
The moment we replaced 2D images with interactive 3D experiences, we saw brands sell 3x more, which has formed the thesis of our clients’ return on investment proposition. We were also seeing a very consistent increase in consumer shopping behavior, with over 4 minutes of average engagement time discovering digital commerce, regardless of category and geography. It exceeded our expectations and the industry too. We found that when consumers win, the brand wins — because they were selling more than ever before.
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?
Extended reality has the power to transform the way we interact with our reality. There is novelty value with these experiences, and I hope the industry doesn’t focus on one-time novelty, but more on delivering sustainable value to the consumer and overcoming adoptability across all age groups. Brands must think about the holistic consumer technology preferences, behavior and go to market with technology that appeals to consumers across all generations.
AR and VR headsets aren’t at the point where we can imagine a significant consumer penetration in the next 24 months. It will take both hardware and software to take it to the next level and will be an iterative process to extract value. The potential is immense as rightly being anticipated, but there is some distance to go to democratize 3D across the digital web.
Are there other ways that VR, AR and MR can improve our lives? Can you explain?
Physical reality will soon become even more dynamic such as driving a car while viewing a map that overlays the roads.
We can expect our homes to be half digital and half physical in the future as well as have wearables that can overlay rich digital information in our reality and change the way we interact with our physical world. Imagine a salesperson meeting with another person, and being able to view their LinkedIn profile, powered by AI-assisted search through a lens/ Google search results automatically pop up based on the topics that are being discussed verbally in real-time. Immersing in a digital world will be a far more ambient experience in our daily lives and will allow us to become superhumans and improve productivity.
As the industry continues to evolve, it will morph into being “always on & persistent”, opening up new degrees of freedom & presenting opportunities that we would never have imagined. There is a fundamental shift in digital visual discovery that will impact everyone sooner than we expect.
The moment technology succeeds, we humans will extract superhuman capabilities to assist us and will achieve our tasks in a far more efficient way. Between how we work, communicate, and live our personal lives, the internet won’t be a single destination we visit, but the transition where the connected world is where we live and it will become a part of our reality.
Are you working on any exciting new projects now? How do you think that will help people or businesses?
Avataar is currently transforming consumers’ online buying/browsing behavior by creating immersive, interactive shopping experiences and reimagining the visual discovery journey. It uses a first-of-its-kind XR+AR technology platform to take an AI-driven approach to scaling commerce with an unparalleled level of detail on photorealism (while we blend say a digital virtual couch over a physical consumer living space) to help consumers make more informed purchase decisions.
The Avataar platform leverages AI to instantly convert product videos & images into life-size 3D models at scale. Avataar accelerates its customer’s 3D catalog transformation through its AI driven platform and thereafter allows brands to iterate on consumer psychology with first-to-market consumer journeys geared to convert impulse & purchase intent.
With 10+ US patents and strategic partnerships with Facebook and Google, Avataar is deeply committed to re-shaping the digital commerce industry through delivering life-size 3D and XR+AR first experiences across all consumer touchpoints (web, in-app and social channels), using their proprietary platform.
Today, we work with the largest ecommerce and retail players in the world, shaping their customer journeys and delivering recurring, sustainable RoI (Return on Investment).
Samsung is one such brand we work with, specifically their consumer electronics division, which has increased customer engagement with their products. Avataar’s conversion of Samsung products (i.e. TV, refrigerators and mobile phones) into life-size 3D interactive XR experiences has positively impacted the company’s customer acquisition and growth.
Our new path-to-purchase experiences help customers of e-commerce and retail brands feel more confident in their purchases and leverage it as a helpful asset for future purchase decisions.
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?
It’s exciting to see how AR/VR has exponentially grown recently due to the increasing interest in the digital world. The virtual environment allows brands and customers to connect on a new level where stores are selling physical and digital products and consumers can digitally explore in the comfort of their home. As the VR, AR and MR industries continue to advance, it will inevitably change the way people engage with brands and shop.
Augmented reality is accelerating evolution of the consumer shopping experience and is integrating into more industries than ever before. It’s not only for retailers and e-commerce brands but it’s already integrating into social, media & entertainment, manufacturing, education, tourism, military, and more. For those who been there in late 90s and early 00s, it does feel like the beginning of internet all over again!
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 and MR are making their way into the workplace by supporting employees in their day-to-day tasks and improving productivity. For example, augmented reality eyewear can assist in training new employees who are in either medical or manufacturing fields to showcase real case scenarios and how to manage them.
AR-enabled devices can also help employees visualize instructions while they are working on a physical task or view alternative items or products that can work as a solution without experiencing several trials and errors. AI-assisted skills will start making significant in-roads and there is a lot of latent utilitarian value & efficiency waiting to be tapped into.
Human communication will undergo significant shift from AR technology as we start living in a hybrid work world. Corporate collaboration and streamlined communication are common business goals and extended reality can keep teams connected by enabling virtual communication and seeing one another (bridging an important gap of missing body language in virtual meetings). At a personal level, imagine two friends in different cities, shopping together in a virtual mall that’s located in Paris. Overall, internet will take yet another giant step in further reducing the gap that physical distances bring to human communication and relationships.
Thank you for these fantastic insights. We greatly appreciate the time you spent on this.
Dr Aida Martinez-Freeman of Taina Coaching & Training: How Diversity Can Increase a Company’s Bottom Line
An Interview With Fotis Georgiadis
Diversity will advance your company’s credibility and reputation.
While it is a no-brainer that diversifying your company can improve your company’ bottom line, the truth is that this is not a given. For companies to see the full benefit of their diversity and inclusion efforts, they must work to create a workplace culture where employees can be their authentic selves; must center the most historically excluded folks and the work environment needed for them to thrive; and accomplish the companies’ core values by aligning with the knowledge and experience of their diverse workforce. Without these strategic efforts, no business case for diversity will realize its promise. Diversity must be part of your company’s DNA.
As a part of our series about “How Diversity Can Increase a Company’s Bottom Line”, I had the pleasure of interviewing Dr. Aida Martinez-Freeman.
Dr. Aida Martinez-Freeman, CEO & Founder of Taina Coaching & Training, is on a mission to create a world of inclusive leaders. Often, leaders carry the responsibility of facilitating and guiding their organization’s diversity and inclusion efforts while strategically advancing metrics and profit margins. This sparked the idea to start a consultancy to help leaders elevate their inclusive leadership, understand their organization’s diversity and inclusion profile, and invest in their teams as a sustainable strategy to drive inclusion responsibly and growth.
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?
Thank you for having me. I was born and raised in San Juan, Puerto Rico by my Lebanese-Puerto Rican mother, and my Afro-Puerto Rican grandmother. I grew up in a household were my mother worked 3 jobs and my grandmother was tasked with ensuring I attended school, was fed, and helped with chores. My upbringing taught me resilience and the importance of community. My mother and grandmother inspired my passion for diversity, equity, and inclusion work.
From there, I attended Michigan State University followed Indiana University for my master’s degree. and North Dakota State University for my doctorate. These educational and professional experiences ignited a curiosity for inclusive leadership, workplace culture, and the power of teams in realizing diversity strategic plans.
In 2017, I founded Taina Coaching & Training to expand my vision of a more inclusive workplace culture and fearless leadership. Every client experience shares similar challenges from staff hiring and retention efforts that fail to yield results, to loss of focus and momentum with their DEI plan, lack of team cohesion, and more. It was clear they needed a serious course correction, a fresh perspective, and proven practical strategies. This is where my zone of genius ignited, the F.L.O.W. (Fearless Leadership Opens Worlds) approach and with that a new movement of inclusive leadership emerged.
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 pride myself in connecting culturally with my audience and clients. Many years ago, I was speaking to a group in a rural community. I decided to share my first experience riding a John Deere combine. As I was deep in storytelling mode, I said I had ridden a John Deary concubine. The crowd hollered and, in that moment, I realized what I had said. I was horrified. Thank goodness I’m quick on my feet and turned it into a great conversation on humor and how much laughter can serve as conduit for change. I’m sure to this day they still share that story. It will forever be a classic Dr. Aida moment. You’d asked about my lessons, stay humble, don’t lose perspective, and, when in doubt, join the crowd and laugh out loud with them. It makes you human.
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?
A quote that has guided me for years is one by Black feminist, lesbian, poet, mother and warrior, Audre Lorde. She said, “When I dare to be powerful, to use my strength in the service of my vision, then it becomes les and less important whether I am afraid.”
For a Latinx entrepreneur with a doctorate, you must navigate the trouble waters of sexism, racism, ageism, and classism every day. On a performance review, a former supervisor noted that I needed to learn my place in the organization, watch what I said and to whom it was said, to not be so defensive, and to work on my communication style. Here’s what I heard: “Aida, you need to be silent, shrink yourself to fit the mold, be passive. If you do this, you will be successful.” I pulled out this quote by Audre Lorde, took a deep breath, and resigned.
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?
We cannot do this work without a loving community and amazing cheerleaders being with you every step of the way. One person, who has been a constant in my life, is my dear friend and colleague, Fleurette King. We met at a conference in New Orleans and ended up in the same small discussion group. Flo, as we call her, was simply a ray of sunshine and pure brilliance. We quickly became friends and 18 years later, we still are still friends. We have seen each other through marriages, job changes, loss of family members, and new business endeavors. She sees my spirit, and accepts me just as the way I am.
What do you think makes your company stand out? Can you share a story?
We are on a mission to create a world of inclusive leaders. Our F.L.O.W (Fearless Leadership Opens Worlds) framework uniquely centers positive psychology, liberatory and healing justice approaches to address our clients most pressing diversity and inclusion priorities by translating their visions into transformative initiatives. We bring a fresh, equitable, and sustainable edge to our clients.
One of our clients was struggling to hire and retain a diverse staff. We did a deep dive on their values and fully infused them in every single policy, strategy, and day-to-day workplace practice. We centered their company values as a key cultural and wellness company strategy delivered and maintained by mid-managers and their teams.
Each value was used to resolve issues, maintain accountability, advance the work, and gain momentum across the company. It was so powerful to witness the synergy across teams. They went from working in silos, to pointing the same direction and moving as cohesive teams with clear vision, values, and accountability. The workplace culture shifted in such a way that the company went from 20% to 60% retention of staff in two and a half years.
Are you working on any new or exciting projects now? How do you think that might help people?
Currently, I’m developing an initiative called The Inclusive Mid-Manager Institute where we focus on building inclusive leadership practices at the mid-manager level for companies who are serious about creating a workplace culture that is conducive for diversity and inclusion to thrive. Mid-managers are a powerful group within organizations who are severely underutilized when it comes to advancing diversity, equity and inclusion strategies at any company.
Given the complexity of their responsibilities and the fast-paced work environments, mid-managers, and their teams are usually at the pulse of what is needed regarding diversity and inclusion and how to elevate the company’s profit margins. However, they need specific skills, tools, and frameworks to help them anticipate diversity related challenges, and opportunities. Our approach is practical, holistic, and can be implemented immediately.
How have you used your success to bring goodness to the world?
From inception I was clear that for Taina to be successful, the work must be done in community. We look for any opportunity to teach and lend strategic advice pro-bono to groups who are serving our most historically excluded communities. At local events, we are present feeding activists, and holding space for communities to heal. It is our responsibility to always stay accountable to community. We are proud of our efforts.
Ok. Thank you for that. Let’s now jump to the main part of our interview. This may be obvious to you, but it is not intuitive to many people. Can you articulate to our readers five ways that increased diversity can help a company’s bottom line. (Please share a story or example for each.)
Diversity will advance your company’s credibility and reputation
While it is a no-brainer that diversifying your company can improve your company’ bottom line, the truth is that this is not a given. For companies to see the full benefit of their diversity and inclusion efforts, they must work to create a workplace culture where employees can be their authentic selves; must center the most historically excluded folks and the work environment needed for them to thrive; and accomplish the companies’ core values by aligning with the knowledge and experience of their diverse workforce. Without these strategic efforts, no business case for diversity will realize its promise. Diversity must be part of your company’s DNA.
Diversity will attract and retain better candidates to your company
A key strategy for success entails recruiting talented diverse candidates. This does mean diversifying your executive and mid-management leadership. If your most diverse workforce sits in entry level positions only, your strategy is falling short. The truth is diverse candidates bring new perspectives, knowledge and experiences that are of great value to any company. Research shows that diverse teams are more effective, creative, and productive. By default, you will attract a new pool of candidates and improve your current employee’s experience. Keep in mind that you must recruit with retention in mind. Otherwise, you will a revolving door experience for employees with Glassdoor telling your story.
Diversity expands your client reach
As noted above, diverse candidates bring with them valuable experiences and an understanding of needs from untapped client bases which satisfy the bottom line and advance your work. A diverse workforce will help pinpoint client needs, problems and how your services can resolve them. This step diversifies your client portfolio, expands industries or sectors, and grounds your cash flow. Because diverse candidates are a powerful asset, your employees should be paid commensurate with their expertise. If you do not pay equitably, another company will.
Diversity increases adaptability and positions your company for growth
By building a diverse workforce, you foster a culture of adaptability. Teams will engage with each other’s across differences, experiences, identities, and ideas. With this, they will need to adapt and create new ways of working. Once companies recognize the need to adapt their approach to various demographics and sociocultural contexts, they ensure that diversity and inclusion initiatives align with the overall growth strategy. As you increase adaptability, an investment in learning plus a thoughtful manager, can do wonders in maximizing these amazing gifts and building trust.
Diversity generates creative and innovative solutions
While you may have an amazing product or service, you must stay abreast of the future of your industry, and predict client needs and gaps. Diverse teams are always thinking ahead. They interact daily with the current service or product, analyze the delivery, and quickly develop strategies to elevate the work. This prevents your company from becoming stagnant or lacking the ability to pivot with the times. This strategy ensures your loyal client base stays with you.
What advice would you give to other business leaders to help their employees to thrive?
The current employee wants to feel a sense of belonging at work. They want to work for a company that values what they have to say, actively engages diversity work at all levels, want to make a positive impact, and provide growth opportunities for them as professionals.
Every company would want to ensure they have culturally competent and inclusive leaders overseeing teams. Mid-managers can make or break a team morale which is harmful to the team and costly to the company. Make sure you build a relationship with team members, hear from them how they feel about the workplace culture including level of psychological safety. Do ask what you can do to retain them and be open to what they have to say. Then, do something about it!
What advice would you give to other business leaders about how to manage a large team?
Larger teams can put more demand on the manager, their management style, and priorities. I highly recommend the book titled “Teaming: How Organizations Learn, Innovate, and Compete in the Knowledge Economy” by Amy C. Edmondson.
She offers way to think about teams as working with a few people for a period on a particular project. When the project is complete, then this team disbands and a new one is formed with different people and different tasks. Organizations become more flexible, with fluid collaborations that give room to work with multiple teams and on a variety of projects. Teaming is grounded in reflection, psychological safety, breaking through group think and interpersonal dynamics that can stifle the flow of ideas. This way managers of large teams can help facilitate the initial teaming with clear goals, responsibilities, honoring each other’s diverse working styles and strengths while empowering teams to accomplish the task at hand.
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 🙂
Well, you might laugh. I’m an 80s child and a big fan of the British band Duran Duran. With their recent nomination to the Rock n Roll Hall of Fame and their 40th anniversary, I would love to have lunch with co-founder John Taylor. I’m just fascinated by his journey, tenacity, and creative mind. Between creating a unique Duran Duran sound, envisioning music videos in exotic locations, mixing music with fashion and art, I would be honored to meet him. Honestly, I would love to thank him for inspiring me to dream big.
How can our readers further follow your work online?
I’m always open to expanding my network. Let’s connect!
Meet The Disruptors: Max Firsau and Nick Tuzenko of Accel Club On The Five Things You Need To Shake Up Your Industry
An Interview With Fotis Georgiadis
“You need both humility and ambition to achieve great results.”
Humility and ambition are not mutually exclusive. On the contrary, we need to be both of that to be successful. Be real and open-minded because we do not know everything and there is always something we can learn from others. It is okay to take a backseat and let others do what they do best. It is equally important to be driven and challenge the status quo.
As a part of our series about business leaders who are shaking things up in their industry, I had the pleasure of interviewing Max Firsau and Nick Tuzenko of Accel.
Nick Tuzenko is a co-founder and Managing Director at Accel Club. He was previously Managing Director at Busfor marketplace for intercity road trips (acquired by French unicorn BlaBlaCar for c. $100M), and has spent several years at The Boston Consulting Group. He is a multiple winner of international physics and mathematics competitions.
Co-founder: Max Firsau is a co-founder and CEO at Accel Club. He is a serial entrepreneur with more than 15 years of experience in e-commerce. He was the founder and CEO of Yandex.Eats and Head of Yandex’ food-tech services (Y.Eats, Y.Lavka, Y.Chef) — the leading food-tech marketplace in the CIS.
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?
Max Firsau:
A mantra I have is to create value for people and the community. Whether it is a service or a product, it should add value to people’s lives by increasing their quality of life or improving efficiency through digital technology. That purpose led me and my friend to build our first startup, Foodfox, in 2015. It was the very first food-tech marketplace with its own logistics delivery platform in the CIS, and was backed by Target Global. Foodfox was later acquired by Yandex in 2017 and morphed to become Yandex.Eats where I stayed on as CEO.
For an entrepreneur, the desire to create and build something new was too great! I left Yandex.Eats in 2020 to spend time with my wife and children, and to work on my next business plan. During this period, I observed global shifts in eCommerce and the economy, and saw opportunities to bring value to consumers in the Aggregator space via improved market efficiencies, economies of scale and technology. I got to know Nick Tuzenko in early 2020 and we quickly realised we are very similar in our outlook toward technology and how we can disrupt the digital economy meaningfully. We envision Accel Club to be more than just an Aggregator. We are a data-driven and tech focused “club” of brands on Amazon and DTC ecommerce.
Nick Tuzenko:
Since I was a child, I enjoyed problem solving and tend to be curious about how things work, and it is imperative that I become excellent at what I do. That mindset and level of curiosity enabled me to focus and master subjects such as Physics, and during my younger days, it led me to partake in numerous international physics and mathematics competitions. This experience interacting with different cultures contributed to my outlook in life and my career. Exchange of ideas and contributing to a community is extremely fulfilling.
During my professional career, I had the privilege to debble in management consulting at Boston Consulting Group, and developed solutions and strategies to business problems. I later went on to become the Managing Director at Busfor, a bus transportation marketplace which was acquired by BlaBlaCar in 2019. Collectively, Max and my journey as eCommerce entrepreneurs provided invaluable insights into the way e-commerce merchants operate and what difficulties they face on a daily basis. This knowledge allows us to efficiently structure our transactions, and to swiftly unlock value post integration and acquisition.
Can you tell our readers what it is about the work you’re doing that’s disruptive?
Max and Nick:
We see how quickly the e-commerce market is changing, when classic consumer goods companies are losing online space to small independent brands that provide the same or even more value for customers with their products. We are building a global tech-driven consumer products platform that will offer significant value to millions of customers across the globe by leveraging our expertise in technology, marketing, operations and supply chain.
We choose to instead focus our resources on building an A-team of data scientists, analysts, developers, supply chain specialists and marketing experts to realise the true value of the brands entrusted to us by their founders. Besides unlocking capital for these founders by acquiring their brands, we aim to further unlock the value they’ve created and build on their success to deliver value to consumers through product development, more geographical locations and platforms.
At Accel Club, we have a department dedicated to marketplace efficiency. They analyse data, develop proprietary tools and build customised dashboards using existing technologies in collaboration with marketing and operations departments to optimise sales planning, inventory, pricing, and inform on our acquisition strategy among many others. On top of that, we invest in in-house capabilities for new products and creative development. We want to pave the way forward in enabling online marketplaces to become more efficient and benefit consumers.
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?
Max Firsau:
Processes are an important cornerstone in every aspect of a business. Even the most banal workflow is not to be overlooked. And that common sense is not so common. I learnt that at my first startup, Foodfox, a food delivery service.
Many would know first hand this uncontainable excitement and anticipation of hot crispy crust pizza with all your favourite toppings delivered to your doorstep. I mean, you can almost feel the warmth of that pizza box in your hands as you wait for the delivery guy to arrive.
Imagine opening your front door and you put out your arms to receive your pizza box, and the courier guy hands it over Vertically as if it is a shopping bag! The pizza is crushed and floppy. That is exactly what happened to a customer of ours who happened to be our investor as well!
With that experience, we immediately implemented protocols and training for our couriers, not just for pizza delivery but handling of food.
2 learning points:
Things you assumed are a given are not necessarily the case for everyone else. Never assume anything.
When you’re building a company from the ground up, processes are not always in place and that is okay, you can’t wait for everything to be perfect. We learn and improvise along the way. Sometimes we just got to be brave with a touch of madness to make it succeed.
Building a startup can be akin to jumping out of a plane without a parachute and making one on the way down!
When we embarked on our very first fundraising campaign, we didn’t yet have a company name and we had to conjure up one quickly for our pitch deck so we came up with ‘Tiger & Tiger’ in jest. Although we successfully raised a few millions dollars in that first round, we quickly realised that ‘Tiger & Tiger’ might not be the best name so we went back to the drawing board and agreed that ‘acceleration’ best described what we aim to do in this space. “Accel’’ also sounds like excel which is short for excellent. ‘Accel Club’ then became our company name. We are tech and business people so branding is not in our wheelhouse. Of course now, we would advise entrepreneurs to give consideration to branding from the get-go. It is about forming your identity.
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?
Both of us do not have mentors in the traditional sense. In this digital era with information readily available at our fingertips, we all have the opportunity to discover other founders’ journeys, and learn from peers as well.
Max Firsau:
We could talk about what shaped my thinking and helped me embark on my entrepreneurial journey. In earlier part of my career, I joined a startup in the oil and gas industry, and I was probably the #10 employee. The founders were 32 years old at that time, young and dynamic, and they started from scratch. Within 2.5 years, they brought the company to IPO in London with a USD 2.5 Billion valuation. My time there gave me the first glimpse of how to build a start-up and what it entails. More importantly, it left a deep impression about hiring the right people. As an entrepreneur and employer, it is paramount that I enlist people who are team players, who possess the right qualities to move the business forward.
I’m still on this journey of educating myself, keeping an open mind, absorbing ideas and learning about how the world works through observation, interaction and reading resources.
Nick Tuzenko:
Who we are today is a cumulation of our experiences.
Boston Consulting Group (BCG) built the discipline in me to build processes in a systematic manner on the go, to see structure and patterns within massive information and data, and educated decisions.
Looking back, I appreciate the opportunity to catch on to the entrepreneurial spirit from the founder of Busfor. As the Managing Director, I worked alongside the founder and as one team, we propelled the company forward. The experience was very different than at BCG. At Busfor, I gained exposure in what I call intuitive decisions, using data and leveraging sense of the market and experience to make quick but informed decisions. You can only understand how the market works through building relationships with partners and every entrepreneur should know they don’t work solo but in a larger community.
In today’s context, our mentors are not limited to who we know. With knowledge so easily available in the last decade, I could learn from multiple leaders and peers in different industries and cultures, how they make decisions and how they deliver value to stakeholders, customers.
I think as society and the way of working evolved, it is less about mentorship in the traditional sense, but more about talking and engaging different people.
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?
Max and Nick:
The world is accelerating way faster than before, the status quo, “standard” market practices or systems become irrelevant quickly and we’re disrupting this status quo. Though, we must add that disrupting in itself is not the goal.
Disruption also happens in the way we compete with big conventional brands. We cannot compete with them in physical retail stores. But online, we can. Small businesses can. There are already successful digital brands born out of TikTok and thriving. New digital channels and technology change the way the next generation consume information and influence consumers’ needs and habits. Online marketplaces have influenced consumers’ purchasing journey and getting people to trust smaller brands through reviews. Disruption is only possible if we provide more value than existing big businesses.
Brave people challenge the status quo.
For us as a start-up, we believe “disrupting” is to challenge or create a hybrid of market practices in order to be more productive and efficient. The mindset of being flexible and pivoting is important, we’d change the business model if required and to think out of the box. For instance, there is no precedence for the due diligence process in acquiring Amazon FBA brands. We have to innovate, review in-house core competencies and service providers to be efficient with our process, time and cost. When it comes to M&A, the common market practice available in the market is costly given the specialty and tools. This challenge poses an opportunity for us to build something new, to accelerate growth, and use technology and software to expand and interact with different markets.
We are guided by our goal to add value to our community and users, our customers and Amazon sellers whom we work with. We assess how best to meet their needs and demands using technology. It could be creating something new or improving an existing process, product or service. Building a sustainable business model is the goal, from a business point of view. And we must stay flexible and continuously evolve. When people come together with a common goal to contribute to something greater than themselves, it will ignite a change whether we intend for it to happen or not. We are lucky to have a team of dynamic talented people at Accel Club who are not only experts in their fields such as data scientists, analysts and supply chain specialists but are enthusiastic to create a positive impact in the ecommerce space.
Can you share five of the best words of advice you’ve gotten along your journey? Please give a story or example for each.
Max Firsau:
“Diversity strengthens a team.”
With diversity comes multiple perspectives. When a company comprises team members of different backgrounds, ethnicities, cultures, and experiences, they are more likely to be innovative and engage in creative strategic thinking. This is how we are building Accel Club.
“It is okay to be wrong.”
We all make mistakes, what is important is that we face the truth, acknowledge it and do better.
“You need both humility and ambition to achieve great results.”
Humility and ambition are not mutually exclusive. On the contrary, we need to be both of that to be successful. Be real and open-minded because we do not know everything and there is always something we can learn from others. It is okay to take a backseat and let others do what they do best. It is equally important to be driven and challenge the status quo. I believe this mantra contributed to the success of my first venture, Foodfox.
Nick Tuzenko:
“Be proactive to the ebb and flow of business.”
As entrepreneurs in a culture of innovation and disruption, we have a tendency to go against the flow. But if you see something is working or a talent is performing, invest in that. It could be scaling a process or giving the employee more responsibilities to grow and excel. Leverage and build the momentum. If something is failing, cut the loss and stop. It can be hard to quit when you have invested so much resources and we want to be different. We were objective and proactive.
This leads to the second word of advice I live by;
“Do not be afraid to pivot.”
Do not be afraid to admit when things are not working out. In a startup like Accel Club, every team member has the opportunity to shape the company and their contributions are tangible and it can be highly fulfilling work wise. However, working in a startup comes with uncertainty and it is critical for each member to be brave and have the right mindset to join a startup. If over time it has been proven that individuals don’t fit within the culture, we have to come to a point to admit it is time to let these individuals go respectfully.
“Conceptualize your business to be laser focus”
What this means is to strategically organize your business, articulate the growth plan and enable team members to focus on key metrics and goals that matter. And this is an iterative process. As we grow exponentially and have more employees joining us, and acquire more brands, we structure the company organization into different pillars and performance metrics to align the people and bring focus. We can’t give out long pages of business plan. When concepts are clear, everyone in the company will understand one another, and move forward in the same direction.
For instance, in acquisitions of brands, there are many metrics we can look at to value a business but while we should work the fundamentals, we should not get overwhelmed by details and data, as such we focus on key metrics that matter e.g. sales volume, profit margin, and potential growth.
We are sure you aren’t done. How are you going to shake things up next?
Max and Nick:
We aim to become the tech wizards in this eCommerce space and continuously leverage technology to optimize our processes, sharpen our marketing tactics and automate our supply chain. To do so, we are now focused on financing buyouts of great online brands and scale them with our operational excellence and generate growth opportunities for these brands which sellers have entrusted us with. Our next step will be to launch new products, which could be digital tools and consumer products, leveraging our expertise and technology to bring the best products to markets. We’re excited to share more in due course.
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?
Max Firsau:
For me, the book that comes to my mind is “Pour Your Heart Into It: How Starbucks Built a Company One Cup at a Time” by Howard Schultz, ex-CEO of starbucks. He shared his quest to make great coffee part of the American experience, his spirit of excellence and principles to create an impactful and sustainable company inspired me to go out there and create something of my own. Well, it did take me about 8 years after reading this book to start my own company.
Nick Tuzenko:
“The hard things about hard things” by Ben Horowitz. He delivers the hard truth on running a business and I highly recommend this book for aspiring CEOs and entrepreneurs. His sharing was easy to grasp, gave insights on how it is like to be a founder (“it can be a lonely job”) and how we can be one small step to success or failure. There is no formula per se to success and as a founder, I make decisions the best I can.
That said, I do think reading and learning of different stories shape the way we think, and different stories give us different perspectives.
Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share how that was relevant to you in your life?
Max Firsau:
“Everything around you that you call life was made up by people that were no smarter than you and you can change it, you can influence it, you can build your own things that other people can use.” This is a quote from Steve Jobs.
To me, this means you can change the world even if you think you are not the smartest person in the room. You can make a difference.
Nick Tuzenko:
Nietzsche once said “There are no facts, only interpretations.” How true! It is all about perspectives, isn’t it? In life and at work, we can be provided with data sets but it boils down to how we interpret reality and live by our truth.
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. 🙂
Max Firsau:
People’s voices matter. Everyone deserves to be in an environment where they feel empowered and feel safe to be bold and voice their thoughts and opinions without repercussions. As more people find their voices and take a chance at pursuing their aspirations, society as a whole can benefit from the creativity, innovations, and positive change that come with it. This is not just in a workplace, but at home, across communities etc. I have 2 young children and I would love them to grow up being able to find their voices to speak up for themselves and for others.
Nick Tuzenko:
I think the world will be in a better place if we can put aside our differences and solve big life issues that people face. This could be about healthcare, financial challenges or societal problems. We are a global community today thanks to technology but we are still very much divided. We can achieve much more together and do good for society if we can innovate and figure out solutions collectively.
How can our readers follow you online?
We’re both on LinkedIn and are more than happy to connect, exchange ideas and learn.
Always trust your gut feeling. I cannot count the times when I doubted myself or my gut feeling and it almost always makes for bad decisions. Trust in your gut.
As a part of our series called “Making Something From Nothing”, I had the pleasure of interviewing Michael Stausholm.
Michael Stausholm was born and raised in Denmark, one of the most sustainable countries in the world, which makes sustainability a natural business approach and value for him.
Stausholm has been working with sustainability in the business world for more than 20 years. He has lived in Asia for 14 years where he worked as a consultant for companies such as Nike and Walmart.
He founded Sprout World in 2013 and is the founder and CEO of the company headquartered in Copenhagen, Denmark. The company also has an office in Boston, USA.
Sprout World was named the second most sustainable company in Europe in 2020 by the American media FAST COMPANY, and Michael Stausholm was included in the Worthy 100 list in 2021 by Worth Media who pays tribute to 100 entrepreneurs in the world who use their business to do good.
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”?
Today entrepreneurs and founder are often billed as rockstars and heroes etc.
When I grew up, my father was the local firechief and saved lives, even risked his own doing so.
I admire those kind of heroes, i.e. nurses, doctors, firefighters, police.
Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share how that was relevant to you in your life?
JW Marriott said:
“If you take care of your people, your people will take of your customers, and your business will take care of itself”
In my world that is how you must run your business. Find and surround yourself with the right people. Take care of them first and foremost, nurture a work culture where people are included and feel responsible as individuals and as teams for driving the growth and vision of your business. Then your business will grow almost by itself.
Is there a particular book, podcast, or film that made a significant impact on you? Can you share a story or explain why it resonated with you so much?
I read alot when I have time. Especially when travelling. Mostly fiction, but also history and current event issues.
I could mention a lot of inspiring books, but actually would like to mention a film that really touched me, which was the Danish Oscar winner (Best international movie) 2021 “Another Round”. On the surface it is about the Danish alcohol culture in connection with what we call “hygge” but in reality the movie is about celebrating life and trying not to get caught up in daily routines and forget yourself. A very fun and very touching story.
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?
In my opinion, Ideas are the easy part. Especially if you have an entrepreneurial mind. I get on average 4–5 new ideas every day. New product development, new ways of doing things, change this or that. If I shared all those ideas with my management team, they would run away and never come back. The real challenge is to keep focus and to sort through all those ideas.
95 % of the ideas I get will never see the light of the day.
It is more about following your gut-instinct and it has very little to do with the idea itself.
Anyone can get those, but what matters is the team you put together to execute on the idea.
A great idea and a bad team will make for failure, while a great team will often be able to execute on what from the outset looks like a bad idea.
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?
My company is mostly known for our patented Sprout pencils you can plant.
It is actually a very simple idea that combines 2 things. Writing instruments and seeds.
In the beginning I often heard the sentence “I could have come up with that idea, it is so simple” and my answer would always be the same — — “But then you should have done it!”
Ideas are all about execution.
The important thing to remember when talking about product development is that it is almost impossible to invent completely new things today, but it is very much possible to innovate or develop on existing ideas by combining refining (i.e. more sustainable raw materials etc) on existing products. Always however keep immaterial rights in mind. Do not infringe on existing patents, protected designs, or other IP.
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.
Making a prototype these days is very simple using materials such as a 3D printer, but to file a patent you don’t even need a physical product sample. You need to describe the product in detail, and you should do so together with a patent agent or lawyer. They will help guide you through the process and help you file the patent if possible to do so, and nothing like it already exist.
Keep in mind you must do this as a first step before you market or publicly announce your idea.
Manufacturing is also very important. Any product idea can be really fantastic on paper or as a sample, but if production is too expensive or even worse, too complicated or impossible to mass produce, then your idea is useless. Look for local, national or regional manufacturing close to where you plan to sell. For many reasons I would never produce in Asia to sell in USA or Europe.
With Sprout, we produce in EU only for the European market and we produce in Minnesota for the No rth American market. This is faster, more reliable, and you can controi raw materials and working conditions. Something you cannot do in China.
The hardest part is when you are finally ready to sell your product. You can cold call but will probably experience lots of rejection which you will just have to ignore and keep pushing on. Many retailers however have special programs for start-up products or innovations or locally produced goods.
My experience however is that PR works. From the very beginning of my company we focused on PR.
Good PR, which is easier to get when you have a good story and a unique product , is for me the best way to reach a lot of potential customers. No matter B2B or B2C. What happened for us was that it created enormous interest and customers came to us instead of the other way around. And still today we literally receive hundreds of requests every week from companies all over the world who have read about or heard about our company and products through the media
What are your “5 Things I Wish Someone Told Me When I First Started Leading My Company” and why?
1:That leadership is about being present.
I once spent almost a full year looking for investors, as the company was growing fast. Too fast. That meant I was physically and mentally away from the daily life of the company and that had a lot of consequences to the culture of the company which took me another year to rectify.
2: That being a founder and CEO is about letting go and trusting your team to be better and smarter than you.
It took me many years to understand that I did not need to be in every detail of the running of a company.
Once I learned that the people and the company could grow without limitations.
3: Always trust your gut feeling.
I cannot count the times when I doubted myself or my gut feeling and it almost always makes for bad decisions. Trust in your gut.
4: Don’t be afraid to admit when you are wrong.
Once during a brainstorm an employee suggested we expand our range of product with plantable makeup liners (as our patent would also cover such a product). Contrary to what you should never do during a brainstorm, I shut down the idea as bad. How big could that market really be? Then she and many of the other employees around the table started to open their bags and it turned out they all had such liners. I realized I was wrong and it turns out it is a billion dollar market. We launched the product last year!
5: Employees matter more than customers.
As earlier discussed when you build the right team around you, they will make sure the customers come.
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 research and more research. Google is your friend. You can also search patent databases if you think your idea is so unique that it is patentable. Talk with some close friends or with people you know in business to get some feedback on what they think. In the end however always trust you own gut-feeling. If it feels right, then go for it.
There are many invention development consultants. Would you recommend that a person with a new idea hire such a consultant, or should they try to strike out on their own?
I would never use a consultant for that. At the idea stage of any idea, one important thing is to keep cost as low as possible. The money will definitely be needed later if the idea is workable.
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’m actually not a very big fan of VC or business angels, but if you do need, make sure that their values align with you, and that they bring actual knowledge about your business to the table.
My advice would always be to try and hold on to your shares for as long as possible and not get diluted much too early. Bootstrap if you can. When I founded Sprout I implemented from the start that business customers should pre-pay the orders which is not always easy for a new company to request, but nevertheless more often than you think will be possible. That meant we from the beginning had a positive cash-flow which helped build the business and helped me still today to retain full control over the company I founded almost 9 years ago. Even today. with sales in 80 countries, pre-payment is still our standard payment policy.
Ok. We are nearly done. Here are our final questions. How have you used your success to make the world a better place?
As I grow older, money in itself is actually becoming less important to me in the sense that I’m more concerned with what we do with the profits we create. I’m concerned with how we spend natural resources and being a company that uses wood, it makes sense for us to do afforestation. We are purchasing land where we produce and are planting forests. Not to be used to make pencils, but to simply help increase natural habitats and biodiversity. It is investments in the future, but investments with no profit business-wise.
With the products we make which you can plant and grow new plants from, I also want people to think about other products. If you can give a simple pencil a second life, what other things can you develop to have a second life?
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’m working in and concerned with the field of sustainability. It is important to remember that sustainability and making an impact is a journey, not a destination. The important thing is to get started and start with the small every day actions that when added up will make a big difference. Ask what little thing you can do today and work from there.
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.
My company is B-Corp pending and I would love to meet Patagonia founder Yvon Chouinard. He is a great inspiration
Thank you for these fantastic insights. We greatly appreciate the time you spent on this.
Brian Schiegg Of Schwan’s Consumer Brands: Five Things You Need To Build A Trusted And Beloved Brand
An Interview With Fotis Georgiadis
Be prepared to fail on occasion. If you don’t sometimes push the envelope, you are at risk of being stagnant or boring. I’m proud to say that we have tried many new ideas. Some have worked and others have not. The key is to learn from your mistakes and know when to pivot or stop.
In January 2021, Brian Schiegg joined the company as president of Schwan’s Consumer Brands, Inc. The business unit markets and sells delicious foods from iconic brands such as Red Baron®, Freschetta® and Tony’s® pizza, Mrs. Smith’s® and Edwards® desserts, and Pagoda® and Bibigo® Asian-style foods. Brian has accumulated more than two decades of leadership experience in the consumer and packaged goods industry. He most recently served as chief operating officer of Ocean Spray Cranberries, Inc. and president of Ocean Spray International Services, and spent many years in leadership roles for subsidiaries and departments of Mars, Inc. At Mars, he gained a broad range of experience, including in areas such as general management, business transformation, supply chain leadership, procurement, manufacturing, product development and energizing retail brands. Brian earned a bachelor’s degree in economics and English from St. Olaf College in Northfield, Minnesota, and a master’s degree in business administration from the University of Southern California.
Thank you so much for doing this with us! Can you tell us a story about what brought you to this specific career path?
Ironically, my career started far away from brands as my first job was in commodities. After graduating college, I had planned to attend law school but thought it would be valuable to gain some work experience. I was fortunate to have the opportunity to start my career at Cargill as a commodity trader. I loved the fast paced, analytical side of the work, as well as the relationship building side of the business. The role exposed me to branded companies and the connection these brands have with consumers.
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 designing a retail experience for the Asian market with an agency, we had come up with designs that we were really excited about and thought would work wonderfully in the market. Before we locked the design, we socialized it with local colleagues and found that we could have potentially offended our customers. Luckily, we avoided a mistake by being cautious and taking this step. It also put a local lens on a global idea!
What do you think makes your company stand out? Can you share a story?
From a performance standpoint, Schwan’s is one of the fastest growing companies in the frozen-food industry. We have great-tasting products across the pizza, desserts and Asian food categories, with iconic grocery store brands such as Red Baron® and Freschetta® pizzas, Edwards® desserts, Pagoda® and Bibigo®, among others. Through our Asian-food portfolio, we bring authentic Korean flavors to the U.S. market with our Bibigo® brand, which is incredibly popular in South Korea and, increasingly, in the U.S. We’re also investing capital across our manufacturing network to meet the growing demand for our foods.
We all believe a key to a great business is a great culture. Our culture is built on the
idea of one table, one team. We value one another’s opinion, are open to healthy debate and care about the success of our teammates. The concept of a table is quite literal, as we find ourselves at food tastings across all teams tasting new product innovations. It’s a complete meal with Asian food offerings, pizza and, of course, dessert.
Are you working on any exciting new projects now? How do you think that will help people?
Although the frozen pizza category is quite mature, we still see growth potential as consumers continue to make pizza a must-have on their grocery lists. To keep the category exciting for consumers, we see a need for more premium ingredients, single-serve options and new innovation. These past few years, we launched Red Baron® Pizza Melts, Red Baron® Stuffed Crust Pizza and most recently, our Red Baron® Fully Loaded™ Pizza.
Across the U.S., we are also working with retailers to revolutionize how consumers shop for frozen Asian food products in-store. We’ve created “Asian Destination,” which is a merchandising set designed to bring all frozen Asian-style food brands into a two-to-three-door section, making it easy for shoppers to find complete solutions for Asian meals. The set that we propose to retailers was created using a proprietary category review process to highlight current opportunities for retailers within their frozen Asian food offerings. These opportunities include selling authentic Asian products, like Bibigo®, and flavor profiles typically found only at specialty Asian markets. This combined with local availability gives consumers the opportunity to easily find and try new foods in the Asian foods category.
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?
Our vision is to create a global-lifestyle company that inspires a life of health, happiness and convenience for our teammates and consumers. All of our brands operate within this framework. Over time, marketing has evolved from highlighting rationale product attributes to creating more of an emotional and aspirational connection to a product. Successful branding means connecting with consumers over more than just what a product is or what it does. For example, our Bibigo® brand represents authentic Korean cuisine that’s both approachable and convenient while allowing the consumer to explore cultural cuisine. This provides excitement for consumers, and the opportunity to expand their at-home meal options in exciting new ways.
To truly build an iconic product or brand, I believe we need to devote energy to creating a brand that has a distinct point of view that connects with the consumer on an emotional level.
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?
A strong brand evokes a feeling and emotion in the consumer that transcends evolving product offerings. Over time, the best brands continue to reinvent themselves to be relevant to the ever-changing needs of their consumers. Brands are also aspirational and allow consumers to feel connected to something bigger than themselves. When done right, a brand can help the consumer project something about themselves to the world. Investing the resources to building a trusted, beloved brand takes time, but it also pays off in the end with the consumer loyalty gained — and eventually brand enthusiasts and influencers who help advocate for and build the brand organically.
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.
1.Hire people who believe in your brand and its mission. We are fortunate to have a great team that believes in our brands and their potential. As we build our team, we look for people who are excited about what we are trying to accomplish and are energized to dig in.
2. Do a deep-dive on the data. It’s important to know your market and category inside-and-out. Strong marketers are storytellers at heart, but they also need to excel as general managers. This can only be achieved by fully understanding the consumer and the customer landscape.
3. Numbers don’t lie, but they don’t tell the full story. It’s important to explore beyond the data. To do well, a company needs to engage with and listen to its consumers, and pay attention to what they think, believe and feel. This is where storytelling comes into play — by finding the right insight to connect the brand to the consumer’s life in a compelling way.
4. Be prepared to fail on occasion. If you don’t sometimes push the envelope, you are at risk of being stagnant or boring. I’m proud to say that we have tried many new ideas. Some have worked and others have not. The key is to learn from your mistakes and know when to pivot or stop.
5. Don’t force purpose when it’s not there. Many brands that are developed and uniquely positioned around a purpose are very successful. Existing brands can certainly pull it off, but careful planning and consideration of the brand’s mission and purpose is necessary to ensure that these efforts are seen as authentic to consumers.
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?
The work by CJ CheilJedang on the Bibigo® brand in South Korea is great example. It is known across the country in multiple food categories for delivering great-tasting and convenient foods, and its grown tremendously over the past decades. During my career, I was also fortunate to work on the M&M’s brand at Mars. M&M’s continues to remain relevant to all consumer cohorts by evolving its communication and product innovation with the ever-changing culture while remaining true to its core and having an authentic brand voice that projects fun and enjoyment for all consumers.
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 general, it can bechallenging to measure the success of a brand-building campaign as it doesn’t necessarily translate directly to short-term sales. With my background in general management, I believe it is important to ultimately tie the branding efforts to sales in the long-term, otherwise you risk not knowing how well your resources are being allocated.
Some common methods of measuring the success of a branding campaign can be done through deep dives on individual consumers, where you can see if the brand messaging is resonating, and if consumers are taking notice of your brand over competitors. Additionally, awareness and household penetration are great measurements that companies should be paying attention to in order to see if campaign efforts are making a difference — look for a steady increase in each.
For all branding campaigns, it is important to build in brand insights and drivers to ensure all marketing activities serve the larger needs of the brand while also driving sales.
What role does social media play in your branding efforts?
Building a strong social media brand identity is a terrific way to connect authentically with consumers and share the brand’s personality regularly and consistently. We have work to do in this area and are accelerating our efforts in social media. Last year, we pulled together a team of talented individuals who focus on graphic design, video, social media, public relations, customer experience and more who make up an internal creative agency called “The Pulse.” The Pulse routinely partners with our marketing teams to develop compelling content that resonates with our brand loyalists, while also attracting new consumers to our brands.
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. 🙂
Empathy. The past two years generated a huge appreciation for front line workers in all industries. I truly appreciate what our frontline team members did and are continuing to do throughout the pandemic across our factories, distribution and DSD teams to keep shelves stocked in our retail partners’ freezers and our consumers’ homes. I am personally committed to ensuring that this groundswell of appreciation and empathy continues as we move forward.
Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share how that was relevant to you in your life?
“I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel,” by Maya Angelou.
I find truth to this every day. If you start with genuine care for people, the business results will naturally follow.
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. 🙂
My father. I don’t see him enough, so he is my first choice.
How can our readers follow you on social media?
I can be found on LinkedIn. I also encourage you to follow Schwan’s Company and our several brands on most popular social channels such as Instagram, Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn.
Thank you so much for joining us. This was very inspirational.
Lighting, lighting, and lighting! The number of times I’ve had bad lighting in person or on a zoom call it can mess with you, if you’re in person you don’t want to get to hot only adds to the pressure. Online turn off your self-view, or get a detachable lighting ring over the camera.
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 Liam G Donaldson.
Liam Donaldson is a recent graduate from Curtin University who joined Infor as an associate consultant. Prior to this, he had the opportunity to perform at Disney, interned at CSIRO to redevelop applications, and participated as a finalist in the Top 100 Future Leaders of Australia. These experiences led Liam to find his passion in information systems, as it enables users to do more with less.
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?
It’s a bit of a tail, I was born in Perth Australia and would live in Spain over the summer to visit my mother’s family in La Coruna. This shaped and showed me how the world is bigger than just you, and all I knew was I wanted to do it all! However, before I could jet set around the world doctors discovered I had heavily scared eardrums after my talking ability wasn’t progress as fast as expect which started the next 8 years to gain my hearing. I could hear but imagine a constant bubble around your ears, no background noise just you and my mother’s dulcet voice trying to grab my attention.
After my last surgery when I was 12, I started to understand how important speech, cadence, and rhythm where to communicate and disseminate information. I started out hating public speaking in high school as no one really wanted another speech on the book of the month during library class. When I started working as a demonstrator for a large vacuum company, I realised I love to teach and disseminate information.
Can you share a story with us about what brought you to this specific career path?
Passion for talking, and a computer science lecturer from the university I ended up completing my degree majoring in Logistics Supply Chain Management, and Business Information Systems. I originally started out with an event management and marketing major but found it wasn’t the kind of challenge I was looking for, neither was the PR, or business analytics major.
I always loved talking hearing or not and making any sense or not. It was the way I communicated that early on opened many doors that I didn’t think would be in my realm of possibilities growing up. From school council secretary, backstage tours of visiting musicals, and working as a performer for Disney world. I tried to home in my language capabilities and found I enjoy demonstrating or finding what the needs of a given client would be.
While with the technology side I always enjoyed showing what it could do and learn what it enabled users to do. When the lecturer showed up in my year 12 computer science class, I wasn’t fazed at first until the teacher whose name escapes me said you could do that. I always remembered her saying that and so after my fourth major change I decide to go into what I graduated with. From day one it blew my mind how technology could impact the world at large in ways we still can’t comprehend.
Merging these together I knew I wanted to head into the enterprise software industry, and after doing my degree part time with internships, several degree changes, and eventually finding what I enjoyed was systems implementation. It doesn’t have the sexiest jingle to it however to do a successful implementation need impactful communication, workshops, presentations, and many, many meeting to ensure a complex end-to-end system can meet the requirements of the client.
Can you tell us the most interesting story that happened to you since you began your career?
Probably the impact of covid. When youre here the title associate consultant in a tech company you assume that this would involve travel and a flash navy blue suit. But due to covid everything I’ve done has been online at my apartment in Melbourne Australia. Even I was delayed by 5 months and we still aren’t in the office. I think this is so interesting because what ever post-covid is it has shown so much of the communication we do and process configuration we achieve is all manageable on the hole at home.
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 would have to say my first client presentation, wow was that a train wreck that was. At this point through university and extra curriculars I’d done I had a firm public speaking ability…Until this happened. I was getting ready to talk and my heart just started racing, my head went blank, and my throat dried up. It was for only 20 minutes, but I felt every second. I could speak and I’ve never lost me during a flu or cold. We eventually had to re-do the entire presentation but that took some coaching to get back to where I was capable of.
The lessoned learnt was something so simple and obvious, KISS — Keep it simple Stupid. For me to elevate to the level needed to communicate a presentation I have to believe and understand the basics, due to not understand the brief to the best of my abilities I did a rookie error everyone talks about and that make assumptions on what was needed. Never assume always ask, and always assume that you are wrong unless an email proves you right.
None of us are able to achieve success without some help along the way. Is there a particular person who you are grateful towards who helped get you to where you are? Can you share a story about that?
My mother, she was always there for me. We had our ruff times we are both very strong-willed individuals that want to do it our way, but she always was there to pick me up. She also would push me down if I was being too lazy, I will add.
A story is hard to share about someone like my mother, she shows through doing. She is the most giving and caring person I’ve meet. She would give the clothes of her back if it would help someone. But she never wavers either, she always stands up to inequality and ensure everyone feels welcomed and included. She would always make a lesson learnt out of how import it is to show up for people and what inclusion can do for someone mental health. Also never comment on a topic you don’t have valid information on, she would say even when I was young, I don’t know, we can look it up later. She valued the important of people, knowledge, and self-worth. I learnt a large portion of my soft skills set from watching her.
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?
Get comfortable in the uncomfortable, there’s a great David Bowie quote about life is like swimming out as far as you can and then just a little further. Anyone who I’ve idolised or been in the arena with during my success has failed more time than you can’t count. But failing is truly the only way to success, be the first to give it a go. You might always set it wrong, but it shows an eagerness to try and learn something new. The individuals who do that are always highlighted because everyone knows through seeing their actions they won’t back down to complexity of a task.
What drives you to get up every day and give your talks? What is the main empowering message that you aim to share with the world?
Solving a problem is why I enjoy my work. I’m enabled to talk, find, and execute issues our client is facing using some of the best solution cloud driven software in the game. During a workshop or client meeting as a junior my goal is to ensure we are on task and meeting their needs. You hear horror stories at university of projects not working due to the implementation team adding value by their own metrics vs the companies need.
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?
Right now, I’m focusing on learning new systems for future client that we need more resources dedicated to in the APAC arena. I’m excited after completing my associate consultant certification what project I get to be involved next, will it be fashion, food and beverage, or even equipment management.
I see in the future more learning and more opportunities to take on responsibility that I currently have a knowledge short fall for. I hope that through these experiences I can start finding more ways to enable individuals to loosen up with presentation and enjoy the process of clients asking questions, high stress situations, or even a disagreement of a process flow.
Can you please give us your favorited “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share how that was relevant to you in your life?
Ceteris Paribus meaning all thing unchanged and equal. Effectively everything must equal, any input has the same output. You put in the work to learn a new process, present ideas in an easier manner, or going to the gym, all things require input. Throughout my life I’ve heard that quote and its always rang true for me. If your able to push yourself forward and try new things there will be an outcome. No not always what you wanted or good, but a learning opportunity at the minimum.
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?”
1. Always breath and focus on your breath before you start.
2. The client, stakeholder, or audience is always more interested in the content then you. So, use that to your benefit, talk to the PowerPoint and the audience by gesturing towards key talking point. Don’t have a PowerPoint, then use the stage to walk around it will lower your stress automatically.
3. Lighting, lighting, and lighting! The number of times I’ve had bad lighting in person or on a zoom call it can mess with you, if you’re in person you don’t want to get to hot only adds to the pressure. Online turn off your self-view, or get a detachable lighting ring over the camera.
4. Confidence is nothing but lying. Fake it till you make it! Don’t think about questions they will ask (chances are they won’t) think about how to make the content interesting. Start with the good old 2 facts and a joke format.
5. Structure and build, every painter has a base, every speaker has an introduction. Build your speech and practice it till you can almost remember it! Having an arch in anything from ERP implementation software, to how to train your dog, you need to give a narrative to the audience.
As you know, many people are terrified of speaking in public. Can you give some of your advice about how to overcome this fear?
Remember everyone is human and 9/10 you are the one with the upper hand, it’s your information they want and as long as you find a structure that best fits the information you are communicating then it’s a formula for gold!
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?
Use technology to forecast worldwide supply chain shortages, if each system was able to talk to one another we could figure out when a shortfall is coming and reduce the inherent risk by upping manufacturing, increasing a more diverse range of suppliers making sure that no one is a roll short on the toilet.
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!
Elon Musk is an engineer turned one of the worlds best last scale talent management in two of the largest companies in their respective fields. It would be great to just ask him what is the first thing you think of when meeting potential talent for your companies?
Are you on social media? How can our readers follow you online?
Agile Businesses: Kirk Byles Of FreeWave Technologies On How Businesses Pivot and Stay Relevant In The Face of Disruptive Technologies
An Interview With Fotis Georgiadis
Understand you will make a lot of mistakes but that is OK as long as you keep moving in the right direction.
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 Kirk Byles.
Over the last 25 years, Kirk has done his best to stay on the cusp of cutting-edge technology. His interests focus on providing 21st-century tech to the remote parts of the world, while continuing to stay at the forefront of mainstream development.
It is fair to say that his entrepreneurial side is willing to take some risks and invest in new technologies that may help a small community of users upfront as long as there is a potential for global uptake along the way.
In his current role as FreeWave CEO, Kirk brings a passion for technology, people, and adventure to work every day. As someone who has spent much of his life looking for the next big thing, Kirk treats his role at FreeWave as a leader who brings a desire to learn and make a difference helping FreeWave to pioneer solutions for IIoT in order to make the world more intelligent with actionable data at the Edge.
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?
How did I fumble my way into technology? Honestly it came out of a need, like so many other things, I’d been enjoying a wonderful life traveling the globe, working odd jobs and writing a bit. I’d gone back to college to get my BFA and MFA in writing and was living in a crappy little oil town along the Mexican coast with my wife teaching English to oil executives when I was informed, we were going to have a baby. I’m still not sure how that happened…just kidding. Anyway, I called my brother who’d been working in technology in Boulder, told him the situation and that I needed to come home and get job. He called back an hour later and let me know I had an interview in 10 days. We loaded up our ’72 Plymouth Valiant, drove to Denver and I aced my interview…it helped the interviewer was my brother’s good friend and business partner. Anyway, I got a job working in tech just as the internet bubble was expanding. I didn’t know much but like anyone during that time I figured it out and did very well selling routers, switches and firewalls. The rest is history…I got into wireless and cyber and took steps to further my career until I landed here at FreeWave.
Can you share a story about the funniest mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lessons or ‘take aways’ you learned from that?
When I started, I didn’t know much of anything with regard business let alone the internet business. My boss just told me to make or take 100 phone calls a day and be on the phone for at least six hours. If I did that, I’d be successful. In his words, “nobody understands this stuff, so just quote as much as you can using this spreadsheet.” I guess he thought I at least understood how to quote pricing. I used the spreadsheet and started quoting. I was killing it quoting small deals and large deals over $500K. At the time, it scared me because all my other colleagues were quoting $20K deals and making a big deal about them. What I learned was they were all selling hard drives and desktop computers the legacy business. I was the only guy dedicated to networking products. Well, one of my quotes came back as a PO on the Fax machine and my boss gave it to me and asked how much margin I built into it. You can imagine his face when I asked, “Margin? What’s margin? I just used the spreadsheet numbers.” He about fell on the floor because he knew I’d sent out at least 100 quotes by then . . . at our cost. We started scrambling to pull up all my quotes and redo them with this new thing called “margin” built in. We’d just gotten started when I noticed an email from our main vendor with the headline, “Updated Price Sheet”. Thank God. All the prices had dropped and my quotes where all at 10–30 points of margin. More POs started coming in and within my first quarter of work I was the top salesperson parking my ’72 Plymouth in the “Salesman of the Month” parking space by the front door. I was number one for months after and my boss would complain all the time about the piece of junk parked in front of the office. After we had the baby, he forced me to buy a newer car.
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 probably had more help than most…my older brother and his business partner, for sure, as I mentioned but more importantly my father, as cliché as that sounds, my father was responsible for providing me the work ethic and moral authority I have today. Dad was a lifer with HP. He started in that legendary garage in Palo Alto while at Stanford working side-by-side with Hewlett and Packard. He did a number of things at HP that shaped him, and the HP way was forefront in daily undertakings. He taught us if we were going to do something to do it exactly right, that we could figure out what was right by looking at the work whether it was cutting the lawn or cleaning the gutters and ask ourselves would we do it any better. If so, if wasn’t finished. He’d walk around with us when we were young and point out how we could do better, but nicely and send us on our way to “Finish the Job.” Till this day I can’t just do something half-ass; I just have to finish the job. He also felt very strong about doing what was right at every turn. He wasn’t religious but he did hold the “Golden Rule” as his compass and that was passed down to myself and my brothers. It’s funny my daughter gave me a Father’s Day card last year that said something to the effect, “When I’m confused or can make a decision I just ask myself what would Dad do?” It meant a lot to me even if a bit Hallmarky. It is also what I’ve done most of my life when I’m having difficulty with a decision…I ask myself the same, “What would Dad do?”
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?
Very simply put our founders saw the need for remote rugged wireless connectivity in the industrial markets, specifically Oil and Gas. They focused in on providing a way for O/G companies to get their SCADA data from the middle of nowhere Texas to the headquarters. They were laser focused on this market and it took off. Later they added government and defense, agriculture, and utilities, but the initial focus on O/G was how they got the company off the ground and so profitable.
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?
In a nutshell, today we provide wireless edge solutions for the industrial markets…Huh? you are probably asking. There are millions of pieces of equipment placed in remote locations from oil wells and storage tanks to autonomous trackers to pivot irrigation devices to fixed wing drones able to travel over a 100 kilometers to seismic stations on top of volcanoes. We allow these types of customers and so many more to see their data from anywhere in the world by either a satellite or radio or cellular connection and have that data automatically make changes to the function of the remote equipment through various sensing technologies. Blah blah blah. When you see a big green tractor perfectly going back in forth anywhere in the world, not weaving even a half an inch, that is being done through FreeWave technology. When you hear about the only Made in the USA commercial drone delivery company worth more than $1 billion and how they are delivering medical supplies in Africa, India, South America and so on that is FreeWave under the hood helping to ensure those drones get to their destination without fail. When you hear there was an earthquake in Alaska or almost anywhere else in the world that information is passed to the USGS or its global equivalent via FreeWave technology. We provide a backbone and intelligence at the very edge to allow equipment to be optimized in real time without any human interaction allowing companies or entities to focus on their profit-making vs decision making.
Which technological innovation has encroached or disrupted your industry? Can you explain why this has been disruptive?
Standards-based wireless technologies and edge applications have been by far the most disruptive. For years the industrial giants across all verticals didn’t trust the wireless carriers or the standards based wireless technologies to carry their data; it wasn’t considered dependable or secure. Proprietary radio systems were considered much more reliable. Well, as we know the carriers and standards are much, much more reliable and secure that they were 25 years ago and get better and better all the time. We got a late start on adapting but today we offer any type of connection standards or proprietary in order to stay competitive. Edge applications, meaning something as simple as a store and forward application where the data rests on site until a connection comes available and pushes it to the server to something more intelligent where an irrigation device is reading soil sensors to make decision on the fly whether to provide more — or less — water, or fertilizer, to optimize yields without human interaction are taking over so much of the industrial spaces. When we first launched our Edge intelligence, we honestly didn’t know how it would be used, now there are literally thousands of applications utilized to optimize efficiencies. It is stunning how fast the Edge came to be so important. Certainly, the cloud is big business but in the remote industrial world the edge dominates the decision making.
What did you do to pivot as a result of this disruption?
FreeWave has had sure up its legacy product line, its main profit center, to ensure we could afford to make this pivot. Once that was done, we began the long road of focusing on the new standards bases products and intelligence on the edge to provide packaged sensing solutions to our existing base of customers while maintaining our legacy business. It has been a long road and quite difficult to have an engineering team go back and forth between the old and the new and a sales team do the same. The new is obviously the most important area to focus but human nature pulls everyone back to what may be considered easier or more profitable. So, we’ve had to make extremely difficult decisions with regard personnel, profits, and what is best in the long term with regard FreeWave’s survival and value. It’s cost us good people and some customers but in the long run I’m certain we are doing what is best for FreeWave and for our customers.
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.
One of largest customers, who had deployed 10s of thousands of our legacy radios came to us with an opportunity to bid on the same network being upgraded to a standards based technology and edge. This is a Fortune 10 company in the world, and we didn’t have anything to offer. Eventually they didn’t forklift us out of the network, but it was definitely an “Aha” moment — pivot or die.
So, how are things going with this new direction?
Honestly, it’s been a lot of work, but we are seeing the light at the end of the tunnel. Two big investments in software and edge visualizations and solutions have paid enormously. We are no longer following our competitors with an arm tied behind our backs. Rather we can compete head on in much of the markets where we focus and are winning our fair share of opportunities. Certainly, there is still a long road ahead but at least we are finally moving much faster down that road.
Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you started this pivot?
After years of being a one trick pony with an amazing customer base, finding out just how much our customers have embraced our pivot and are looking to us for advice. They have problems and we have solutions or can make the solutions they need fairly quickly. Case in point is a large pivot irrigation company with a global footprint, who came to us when we were talking about problem solving and asked if we could provide a proposal on how they can better support their customers through data acquisition and real time edge intelligence. Well, that was what we’d been pitching, so in short order we came up with a proposal on how we could take all the hardware decision making out of the equation. But better yet, how we could allow them to acquire all their customer’s data, analyze it at the edge while pulling it into the cloud for deeper larger group analytics. They are now on a path to provide their customers exponential optimization at the edge while gathering massive amounts of environmental, soil, and weather data to provide their customers valued longer-term analysis.
What would you say is the most critical role of a leader during a disruptive period?
Keeping laser focused on the vision and continuously reminding our employees and customers of the vision. We can NOT waiver or be distracted for an instant or I believe we will run adrift. We’ve had to say, “No” quite a bit and that is the hardest thing a for profit company can do, but when “Yes” would mean pulling folks away from our solutions and vision it is best but isn’t always appreciated by our employees or some of our customers.
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?
Wins and more wins. Honestly, there were a lot of naysayers along the way, but when we got our first big win, we hyped the crap out of it internally. We discussed how it came about, how we as a team came together to close the deal and reminded folks why it was important. Our next win was probably more important as we showed everyone from employees to customers, we had created something of value, and it was repeatable. As a leader, I feel it is my job to remind individuals of the importance of the work they have done and what we are doing for our customers…in one case we supplied a large utility a solution to shutting off underground equipment that is overheating and possibly going to blow up and start a fire, effectively saving lives and preventing fires. These types of things make our employees want to do more and they can go home at night knowing they are doing their part, even if small, to make the world better, more environmentally safe, and in some cases saving lives.
Is there a “number one principle” that can help guide a company through the ups and downs of turbulent times?
Know hard decisions will be made every day but communicating the vision constantly will allow employees and customers know why you are making them. They may not like them, but at least they will appreciate the choices made.
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?
Being blinded by what has worked in the past as a way forward.
Not finding a way to invest in the future while pulling back from the past while remaining profitable.
Expecting all your employees to be able to make the pivot.
Understand nothing in the company can stay the same if you are to compete in a disruptive marketplace.
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.
Have a clear and concise vision. Without that the company will be adrift.
We took weeks to refine our strategy and vision. We started with senior staff sitting in meeting rooms, then taking middle management to off sites to discuss what we’d come up with and to see if it resonated. We’d go back and continue to refine and update. Finally, after many late nights and arguing we came up with what we believed was a winning vision and when we presented it, we only got a lot of nodding and excitement. If your folks don’t believe, then you will be stuck in the mud.
2. Communicate constantly internally and externally.
Pre Covid, we had monitors all around the office stating our vision and mission as well as highlighting wins. We wanted everyone to see progress whether an engineer came up with a new edge application or a sales guy closed a big deal to our customer’s letting us know we had provided them with a wonderful solution. Communicating wins as much as possible no matter how small makes a huge difference.
3. Understand you will make a lot of mistakes but that is OK as long as you keep moving in the right direction.
We came up with our Edge technology, we were super excited so brought about a dozen of our best customers into an all-day briefing. Man we were absolutely head over heels we’d put together a winning product for our customers. So, after we’d finished presenting our latest and greatest advancement in 20 years, crickets. Being a hardware company, we thought like a hardware company so hadn’t even imagined the only question to come out of the group was, “what the hell are we supposed to do with compute power at the edge?” We didn’t have an answer. We thought they would tell us. It was great. Honestly, we finally understood. They wanted us to provide them value and make it easy. That was when we knew we needed software guys more so than hardware.
4. The naysayers are a cancer and if they can’t get on board they should probably not be taken on the journey.
You need believers or you will not succeed. When we started the pivot, we asked folks if they would come along many of them left, which was tough but it allowed us to find others who did believe and they are the leaders taking us forward. It’s no good to have folks grinding out a paycheck. If they are not engaged others will feel it and it pulls down the whole organization.
5. Hire experts and visionaries with the experience to get you where you want to go.
It’s tough to do but when we started this journey, I knew I needed to surround myself with the best folks I could find. That is an old adage, but just as important is finding the best and the most willing to sacrifice a to achieve greatness. There is always a shinier object to chase, and opportunities abound. What you don’t want is to lose your best and brightest leaders, so you need to look for folks who want to finish what they started and trust them to do the job. Our senior leadership and middle management are top notch. They could go anywhere, have job offers every day, but they want to finish what we started, they are committed to the journey. A company won’t go far without the right people to carry water. Honestly, having the folks we have on board has made this journey all the more fun and worth the stress and hardships that have come along.
Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share how that was relevant to you in your life?
“Never Content” I have that quote on my email signature. I was in my early 20s. I was out of money and my decision-making had been less than stellar. I knew this as I was sleeping in a leaking tent in Key West, unemployed and penniless. I took a hard look at what had happened to get me to where I was and decided if I could get myself out of this predicament, I’d never allow myself to be content with where I was in life or any circumstance. Sure, I could be satisfied with a job well done but NEVER CONTENT. There would always be something more for me to do and I would chase whatever that was as hard as I could: always. To this day, I live every aspect of my life with deep satisfaction but at the same time looking for ways to do more and better.
Thank you so much for sharing these important insights. We wish you continued success and good health!
Meet The Disruptors: Amy Ronneberg Of Be The Match BioTherapies On The Five Things You Need To Shake Up Your Industry
An Interview With Fotis Georgiadis
Learn to dance in the rain. That has certainly been a great reminder these past two years. There are times that are extraordinarily hard, but as leaders we need to press forward. We can’t wait until everything is sunshine and rainbows. Our most important time to lead is when there are clouds and rain. That is when leadership is most needed.
As a part of our series about business leaders who are shaking things up in their industry, I had the pleasure of interviewing Amy Ronneberg.
Amy Ronneberg, CEO of Be The Match BioTherapies, leads an organization of more than 1,300 professionals and 3,000 volunteers, fighting so all people, irrespective of background, receive the life-saving cell therapy they need. With nearly 30 years experience, she joined the organization in July 2013 as the CFO. Amy earned a Master of Business Administration from Capella University, Minneapolis, Minn., and a Bachelor of Business Administration in Accounting from University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire.
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 knew I wanted to do “something” in business but wasn’t clear on what that something was. A neighbor said, “Whatever you do, don’t do accounting, it is impossible”. That was the challenge I needed. I took an accounting class and realized this was a solid path in business. After spending five years at Ernst & Young I joined Capella Education Company a small start-up looking to offer accredited degrees in an online platform. Today this is part of all student’s experience, but in 1999 it was cutting edge. It was an incredible journey as I was part of taking a company public, growing a company from $10 million to $500 million, starting new programs, implementing SOX 404, and heading up operations. I loved making a difference in people’s lives while still doing what I enjoyed. This led me to healthcare.
As I was interviewing with NMDP/Be The Match I was received the call on May 7 that no one wants to receive, “You have cancer.” NMDP/Be The Match hired me knowing I had a long road of chemotherapy and surgeries ahead of me. They gave me hope. I realized that I was part of something truly special in that at we give thousands of patients hope — hope for another tomorrow. I know I am exactly where I was meant to be. My patient perspective is always top of mind and every decision we make is rooted in what is best for the patient.
Can you tell our readers what it is about the work you’re doing that’s disruptive?
Bone marrow transplant has been around for decades and although significant progress in outcomes has occurred over the years, the way of procuring stem cells has been relatively unchanged. In 2020, when the pandemic hit our whole world was rocked. Historically we put a volunteer courier on a plane with the cells which were collected in concert with the patient’s transplant preparation putting significant urgency on the donor collection. The donor was expected to have up to seven visits for their preparation.
When the travel ban from Europe was issued in mid-March 2020, we saw a greater than 80% reduction in flights in and out of the US, a 47% drop in couriers, and a 39% probability of donor unavailability. Overnight, thousands of patients in the world lost hope. They would not be able to get their life saving cells. In the face of border closures, travel bans, and flight cancellations. Be The Match secured the only known blanket program European travel waiver from the CDC. It required close collaboration and negotiation with State Department, Department of Health & Human Services, US Customs and Border Protection, former Vice President Mike Pence, the Center for Disease Control, and the Department of Homeland Security, to secure the exception so that patients in the US could receive the bone marrow transplants they need.
But we still had to facilitate the actual travel and transport of cells. The week of March 16, 2020 alone we had a 159 total collections scheduled from an international donor center. We recruited and trained 300+ couriers and partner courier companies to move products, arranged and rearranged private flights, and negotiated travel approvals from local and national governments around the world. The logistics required to pull this off were truly bold — from staff literally driving across entire countries to hand cells across borders, to securing a seat on a humanitarian flight as the only path out of a fully locked down country. Through these efforts, Be The Match did not miss a single transplant and went on to have a record-breaking year.
In 2020, Be The Match impacted more lives than ever before in our 30 year history, — at 6,660 lives including a record-breaking single month in June. By securing 325+ CDC waivers allowing foreign nationals entry into the US and the associated reorganization of our courier logistics, we served more than 2,000 international patients during the pandemic months of 2020. We facilitated nearly 3,000 imports or exports of collected product during that time as well.
For the first time ever, some of our cell product was not hand transported by courier, owing to our innovation of a hub-and-spoke delivery model. We executed 1,475 deliveries this way in our first year and reduced courier travel distances by 30%.
Life-saving services to blood cancer and disease patients surpassed goals in 2020. We met 58% of first requested collections vs. 45% for fiscal 2019. All products were delivered to patients who started their conditioning regime. Be The Match improved donor experience while also reducing time to transplant for patients, acknowledged as a key contributor to a patient’s successful outcome.
Be The Match was also able to further establish its leadership in several spaces in the industry. We organized and participated in multiple webinars regarding COVID-19 through partnerships with the Blood and Marrow Transplant Clinical Trials Network, the American Society for Transplantation and Cellular Therapy, the International Society for Cellular Therapy, and the World Marrow Donor Association. We provided worldwide leadership and guidance on donor work-up criteria throughout the pandemic and guidance to the CDC on vaccinations, boosters and transplant recipients.
One specific innovation that supported our changed travel and logistics approach was the mobilization of our Be The Match BioBank capabilities for the cryopreservation of collected product. Cryopreservation had not been used widely prior to this time. Thanks to a Be The Match and Center for International Blood and Marrow Transplant Research (CIBMTR) study during the first six months of the COVID-19 pandemic, we were able to show that cryopreservation of allogeneic hematopoietic cell grafts did not adversely affect early post-transplant survival. This lead to a lasting change in practice with the use of cryopreserved products growing from 8% in fiscal 2019 to 95%+ in 2020.
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 don’t know about the funniest but certainly have made several mistakes which quite frankly are offer the biggest opportunities for learning. When I was a second year auditor at Ernst & Young we were having a social event with the team at ADM. The CFO said who wants a ride back to the office. I jumped in his car. Now this is an $85 billion organization and that offer was clearly for the audit partner on the job. After being “educated” on my naivety I could have been embarrassed or mortified. Instead, I reflected that in life you need to go-for it. At times it may not work but most of the time when you go for it, it has a big pay-off.
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 very blessed with mentors and sponsors along my journey and I firmly believe you need both in your career. One of my greatest mentors passed away unexpectedly this year, but his words and advice are in my thoughts every day. When I was uncertain of myself or not confident in my ideas, he always set me straight. He would ask, how many times have you gone from a role and failed? How many times have you put your heart and soul in an idea and it didn’t move forward? The answers were of course very few times. And if there was a failure, what was the worst that happened? My ego was a little bruised. That is nothing compared to the impact an idea can have. And, to be able to say that you have no regrets because you tried or you went for a role you wanted is a great way to live.
In today’s parlance, being disruptive is usually a positive adjective. But is disrupting always good? When do we say the converse, that a system or structure has ‘withstood the test of time’? Can you articulate to our readers when disrupting an industry is positive, and when disrupting an industry is ‘not so positive’? Can you share some examples of what you mean?
I think it comes down to the “why.” Why is disruption being planned? If its for the sake of disruption or to elevate your resume or status, then it’s a problem. If a system or structure has withstood the test of time, it doesn’t mean it couldn’t be better. At the end of the day, we need to ask ourselves in this industry if the outcome and quality of life for patients is the absolute best (similar to life before their diagnosis or better). If not, we are obligated to disrupt. If the patient is the driver for disruption than it will be positive. If it is about bottom line, ones own career, and so on, then it is not so positive.
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. Surround yourself with the strongest people possible. Early in my career I thought I needed to be the smartest person in the room to be a good leader. I have since learned that the best leaders bring together the best teams with different experiences, opinions and backgrounds.
2. Always keep the end customer in mind. This guides my team’s decision making today. What is best for the patient? Ultimately this space is about creating more cures, improving quality of lives, and giving patients hope. We can never lose site of that.
3. Stay Humble and Be Kind. That might even be from Cinderella but so incredibly relevant. This gets back to being one’s authentic self and knowing that no matter what your title or your role, everyone around you wants to be treated with respect. If you want people to follow you, especially when times get incredibly tough, you have to be respectful, kind, and humble.
4. Learn to dance in the rain. That has certainly been a great reminder these past two years. There are times that are extraordinarily hard, but as leaders we need to press forward. We can’t wait until everything is sunshine and rainbows. Our most important time to lead is when there are clouds and rain. That is when leadership is most needed.
5. Your are only a leader if you turn around and people are following you. So true! A leader needs to have a vision that everyone in the organization can understand and connect to personally. Then leaders must communicate, communicate, and then communicate some more. If you are pushing a vision, initiative or disruption forward without the organization following you, you will fail. If the entire organization is behind you and understands the end game and how they fit it, you will move mountains.
We are sure you aren’t done. How are you going to shake things up next?
We are far from done. We have made incredible advancements but until every patient that hears those three words You have cancer knows that there is hope through technology, we must push on. I want my kids to know that cancer is not a debilitating disease. Today, we are able to serve about a one-third of all patients with blood cancers/diseases that need a life saving therapy. And, there is a significant gap between a white and black/African American patient. If you are a white patient you have a 79% chance of finding a suitable match and receiving a life saving transplant. If you are a black/African American patient you only have a 29% chance of finding a suitable match. This has to change. I know our organization will continue to disrupt and solve this problem so all patients, irrespective of background, will find their life saving cell therapy.
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?
Hamilton the Musical. I saw this when it first came to Broadway in 2015 before it was so popular, so I went into it having no idea what I was going to see. It has had a deep impact on me. This idea that it doesn’t matter where you came from or your pedigree, but that hard, honest work and being your authentic self is what matters is profound. Early in my career I would be intimidated by the Harvard degrees in the room or the family histories in business. Here I was from a small town in Wisconsin, the first to go to college in my family, and a graduate of a state school in Wisconsin. I thought I didn’t belong at the table at times. Hamilton reminds me that its not the past or your pedigree that matters, but what you do today and the importance of just putting yourself in the room. It’s about hard work. Building something today that will impact the future is what is important. If its important, don’t take no for an answer. Find a way to make it happen. Do not give up. Fight for what you believe in. This became so important for our organization during COVID-19 when at every corner we turned there was a NO. We didn’t stop. We pushed and pushed for the patients that needed a life saving cell therapy and because of this we were able to help more patients than ever in our history during the pandemic.
Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote?” Can you share how that was relevant to you in your life?
I am a quote geek and absolutely use life quotes all the time, so it is hard one to name just one. I would say one of my favorites is, “Be yourself because everyone else is taken.” I think it has taken me 40 years to truly realize this. If I could do one thing for my kids it would be to have them truly believe this and live. I found myself early in my career trying to act or be like leaders that I admired. I would change who I truly was because I wasn’t confident enough in myself. I thought, “Well they have advanced in life so I should be like them.” I now know that being truly myself and bringing my authentic self to work is my superpower. People see right through the act, but they respect and appreciate someone who is authentic, mistakes and all. When we are truly comfortable in our own skin we can let go of the time and energy we spend trying to be someone else. That is when we can do great things!
You are a person of great influence. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger.
If every healthy 18–25 year old signed up for the NMDP/Be The Match registry we would have a suitable match/donor for every patient in the world that needs a life saving transplant each year. We could ensure every child, mother, father, sister, grandparent, and friend has a suitable donor to provide optimal outcomes. If each person was willing to swab their cheek (5 minutes) and donate their cells (a day or two of their life in total), they would give a patient another tomorrow. We could cure all patients with a blood cancer or blood disorder in the world.
Solve problems, don’t fall in love with a solution. A startup’s solution may change many times, but the problem you are solving should stay the same.
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 Valtteri Salomaki.
Valtteri Salomaki is an MBA graduate from University of California Riverside with a concentration in Information Systems & Marketing Strategy. He dedicated his time to understanding global markets and their economic transformation due to new emerging technologies.
Valtteri is the co-founder of two companies, EDGE Sound Research and Free Logic Inc.
EDGE Sound Research brings realism to sound with our patent-pending audio platform called Experiential Audio, which allows you to reliably HEAR and FEEL sound in high fidelity, providing the missing layer to bring content to life.
Free Logic Inc. is a digital strategy consultancy specializing in designing and implementing scalable digital strategies for venture funded start-ups, traditional businesses with an advantage in the digital era, and mission-driven organizations.
In his free time, you can find Valtteri traveling to new places and learning about new cultures. He enjoys meeting people from different backgrounds and capturing moments through photography or drawings that express a certain emotion or story. Valtteri is also an avid gamer and sports fanatic!
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 have always been obsessed with competition, playing multiple sports in high school and enjoying competitive video games in my free time. When I started college, I was no longer able to play sports, which left a void in my competitive nature. I quickly turned to pursuing entrepreneurial endeavors to fill this void as they allowed me to explore creative ways to solve complex problems. There is nothing more competitive than building a business, as at the end of the day, the market defines who is successfully solving a problem.
While pursuing entrepreneurship, I attempted to build multiple ventures, which led to multiple failures due to my limited knowledge. However, I kept pushing forward, which ultimately led to me starting a consulting company, Free Logic Inc., to help transform traditional businesses for the digital era. My passion to problem solve and create unique experiences allowed me to research trends in how new emerging technology impacts consumers, which prepared me for the unexpected origin of EDGE Sound Research.
Can you please share with us the most interesting story that happened to you since you began your career?
The most interesting story in my career was the first month of founding EDGE Sound Research. Ethan Castro, our co-founder and CTO, had just shown me his PhD research to feel sound in high fidelity, and within a month we were invited to present at the 2020 Consumer Electronics Show. Without knowing how to properly articulate our new invention, I was on stage presenting to a crowd of over 100 tech enthusiasts at the biggest tech convention in the world. Within 6 months, I completed my MBA studies, quit my day job working at a tech company, ESRI, moved back home with my mom, and went all in to change how people experienced sound in every aspect of their lives. It was a gamble, but looking back it’s a decision I would make every time.
Which principles or philosophies have guided your life? Your career?
My personal philosophy is if your actions do not match your ambitions, then your ambition means nothing at all. It is ok to dream big, but it requires rigorous work to actualize a vision.
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”?
EDGE Sound Research brings realism to sound with our patent-pending audio platform called Experiential Audio, which allows you to reliably HEAR and FEEL sound in high fidelity, providing the missing layer to bring content to life. We do this by turning any physical object into the sound system by vibrating the surface like an instrument to emanate clean sound that fills space creating an endless ‘sweet spot’. A user can enjoy any of their favorite content as they do now and automatically enjoy immersion like never before.
Our first product, the ResonX, is designed for gamers and audio engineers to attach to the back of a chair, turning it into a sound system and enriching any experience. These are the building blocks to realize our vision to fundamentally change how we perceive reality by including the tactile dimension to sound reproduction.
How do you think this will change the world?
By introducing Experiential Audio, we see a future where gamers are fully immersed in the virtual landscapes created by a developer. We see teenagers and concertgoers listening to strong music, instead of loud music, staving off years of self-induced hearing loss. We envision sound playing a more intimate role in the future of IoT and smart-home devices, by making the response of your favorite virtual assistant more personal and visceral. This is achieved by making their voice come through the nearest piece of furniture, be it a mirror, table, counter, or refrigerator.
We see a future with full-bodied sound and immersive experiences from impossibly small and portable devices. We see individuals not thinking twice about tapping into a desk or conference room table to instantly connect their portable device to the built-in audio system in order to gently emanate rich, full-frequency sound from the table’s surface, or even from the walls of a classroom, theater, or boardroom.
We see the possibility of a virtual world and real world experiences feeling one and the same. This is the future of sound: a more inclusive and intimate world of sound that changes our perception of reality.
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?
These are some of the deepest conversations our team has about the world we are building with experiential audio, as it is the building block to our concept of experiential reality, where any real world experiences can be replicated in a virtual environment. This actualizes an idea like the Matrix, where the blur between what is real and what isn’t is very slim. It is our belief that the real world should always be more enjoyable than any virtual world; however, that is up to the consumer to decide.
Was there a “tipping point” that led you to this idea? Can you tell us that story?
My co-founder, Ethan Castro, was born hard of hearing and unable to enjoy simple things, such as listening to a song. His doctor said, “Just don’t go into music.” However, Ethan loved music. He would hug his father’s speakers to feel every note of a techno song. This passion led him to become a professional audio engineer and composer, against his doctor’s advice. Now Ethan is completing his PhD in Digital Composition and researching how he perceives sound by combining hearing and feeling into a new audio format. Ethan asked me to help him get a small grant to fund his research, but as soon as I experienced feeling sound in high fidelity, I immediately said, “Holy Sh*t, this changes everything!” From there, we found a team of engineers and started the pursuit of introducing this new experience to the world.
What do you need to lead this idea to widespread adoption?
To reach widespread adoption, we need to introduce our audio format, Experiential Audio, into all the main entertainment hubs (stadiums, cinemas, live event venues, etc.). This is because, similar to how audio evolved from mono to stereo to surround sound, it all started with natural places of consumption — such as movie theaters — to demonstrate to consumers the experiences they were missing out on. After someone enjoys Experiential Audio, there is no going back.
What are your “5 Things I Wish Someone Told Me Before I Started” and why.
The five things I wish someone told me before I started:
Solve problems, don’t fall in love with a solution. A startup’s solution may change many times, but the problem you are solving should stay the same.
Ask for help. I have always tried to solve complex problems by myself; however, in a startup, time is your enemy. It is always better to ask for help and keep moving an idea forward than make mistakes because you think you can do it by yourself.
Take care of your mental health. Taking a day off won’t kill your company. I personally deal with anxiety and on multiple occasions I have pushed myself past healthy limits with work as I obsess over an idea. Taking time off to make sure you take care of mental health is important, as it allows you to be more productive. Taking a day off of work will not kill a company, but burning out just might.
Hire slow and fire fast. This is a valuable lesson I have learned over the past few years as attracting top talent is vital for the growth of a venture. To build something extraordinary requires extraordinary people. However, a hiring decision shouldn’t be made quickly, as it is expensive for a company to get it wrong since a new employee can make or break the company culture and burn a whole company down in its early stages. It is better to take the necessary time to hire and fire quickly if problems arise.
Overcommunicate the vision. While a vision may be clear for the founders of a company, it is important that all employees understand where the company is headed. This reduces ambiguity and increases morale as everyone moves towards a common goal.
Can you share with our readers what you think are the most important “success habits” or “success mindsets”?
Failure is a moment in time, not a permanent state, so it is ok to fail, but fail with the intention of learning. If you do not fail, you are not pushing yourself past existing boundaries and it is hard to grow.
Delegate tasks to others even if you can accomplish them yourself. There is only limited time in a day, so it is better to focus all your efforts on the roles you can perform the best to bring value to a venture and delegate everything else to others.
Treat everyone with respect. Whether you are speaking with a billionaire or a janitor, your interaction should be the same.
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 last major innovation in sound was more than 30 years ago with surround sound, but even this format still uses the fundamental technology that was invented back in the 1920’s. Audio peaked at surround sound because existing speakers are directionally pushing air pressure towards you, which limits any new experience from feeling realistic because natural sound is chaotic. It is the result of vibration, which is why you can both hear and feel when a car drives by. This is impossible to reproduce with today’s audio technology.
EDGE Sound Research brings realism to sound with our patent-pending audio platform called Experiential Audio, which allows you to reliably HEAR and FEEL sound in high fidelity, providing the missing layer to bring content to life. A user can enjoy any of their favorite content as they do now and automatically enjoy immersion like never before.
With bootstrapped capital, we have been able to turn our heavily researched IP into a commercially viable product, the ResonX, in under 2 years. This has attracted the interest of Grammy-nominated and Emmy Award winning producers, as well as Twitch gamers, to join our Alpha Program for early access to our ResonX Bundle. In addition, we are implementing our first stadium experience with the Minnesota Twins as we build the lego blocks for new immersive experiences to be enabled at any seated venue.
This is the first step in our journey to fundamentally change how we perceive reality.
You’re going to fail to the extent that you’re going to feel embarrassed to even tell your family about what you’re doing with your life at times. Some people were just lucky and succeed off the bat. And I think they’re at a big disadvantage. I think there’s a huge advantage to not just failing playfully, but like the devastating lows of failure and the shame that comes with it and sticking with it is useful.
As a part of our series called “Making Something From Nothing”, I had the pleasure of interviewing Michael Rosenburg.
Michael is a startupentrepreneur, multimedia artist, hardcore traveler, technology designer, and soon to be published author. He dedicated 10+ years to helping build communities of technologists across a dozen countries. He has lived extensively in Sub Saharan Africa and is a global pro at remote work and cross-cultural collaboration. The common theme to these life experiences mirrors a central theme for the novel Paradigm: a fascination with social transformation through the communal creation of technology.
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 had a moment in my life when I was about 14 years old. When I decided that I wanted to stop feeling like a silly little kid and started wanting to feel like a superhero.
Two things happen around this time. One is that I signed up to take martial arts and I ended up really excelling at martial arts and becoming a martial arts teacher, which was a lot of my background in like helping communities learn and transform.
And the second thing is my dad took me to my high school and demanded that they give me a work permit so that I could go get a job at a local restaurant. He said at that moment, you will not sit around and play video games for another summer. And he repeated that story to me every year for the rest of my life.
Ever since then, I’ve been applying the lessons of what I learned in martial arts about how you can take ownership of yourself and transform yourself and shape yourself into this sort of personal superhero. But also it caused a lifelong endeavor of rebelling against my dad and proving that you don’t need to stop playing in order to enter the world of work and become an adult.
Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share how that was relevant to you in your life?
There’s this funny quote, which is “Just because you’re paranoid doesn’t mean they’re not out to get you.” There’s a variant of that quote which is “Just because you’re overly optimistic, doesn’t mean everything is going to turn out okay.
What both of these quotes have in common is that you can acknowledge your mental state and you can recognize that your mental state is different from reality. Just because I’m paranoid or just cause I’m flooded with optimism doesn’t determine what the world is like and how I’m going to be able to make use of it.
I determine what the world is like for me and how I’m going to respond to it. These quotes are playful and funny, but they remind us to kind of step outside of our world experience and step back into like an intentional relationship with our environment.
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 matrix. I think the matrix is a metaphor for culture. It’s a metaphor for what I learned when I started taking martial arts, which is that, we’re inside of this paradigm that we don’t realize that we’re inside of.
We think it’s normal. We think it’s how it has to be. How we operate and the metaphor of the matrix for me is that when you step outside of that paradigm and you see it from the outside, you can reenter the paradigm.
For example, the American paradigm is that this is the land of the brave and the free, and it’s the greatest country on earth. It’s the best place to get the American dream, which is the desirable life to have a house, a family and everything that you could afford to buy.
I was raised in that paradigm combined with a paradigm that America is racist, broken and stuff like that. And it wasn’t until I stepped out of that paradigm by traveling, exploring other modes of thought like Taoism, and different religions and different philosophies that I was like I can actually come back to America and participate in that paradigm.
That this is the land of the free and the brave/ a racist broken system. And I can see it with fresh eyes and not be trapped in it and assume that it’s just how things are. And that gives me this super ability to interact with it, shape it, respond to it and be myself in it.
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?
My first thought is that there’s no such thing as good ideas. They are just ideas and what we do with them. If you come up with a thousand ideas and you find the one that feels promising, powerful, energizing and inspiring, and then you completely forget about it, it wasn’t a good idea. It was just an idea.
Good ideas are the ideas that we give our attention to and follow through. Step one is deciding which ideas you want to honor with love and attention. I was working with a team earlier today where they were saying it’s so important for us to connect as people.
I was like, okay, great. Do you want to carve out 20 minutes of this meeting so that we can just connect as people? And they were like, oh no, we should get to work. And I’m like, all right, then that wasn’t a good idea because we’re not honoring it with space and attention. When that team decides to actually take time to connect, instead of just describing how good that would be in the hypothetical future, that’s when it becomes a good idea.
Step one is to make a conscious decision to put time aside to give this idea love and attention, and then it becomes a question of, okay, is this idea worthy of devotion and risk taking? If the answer is yes, then the main thing, in my opinion, is to focus on steady progress.
How can I get a meaningful win each week in service of this idea? And that wind could just be sharing it with people to see how they receive it. That wind could be asking somebody if they want to pay for it and getting a no that when could be putting that idea into a social media post and sharing it and seeing how it resonates with people.
Over time, those little wins take a life of their own. Then the idea starts to ask us for stuff. It starts with love and attention and then, you give it devotion and follow through. Eventually, the idea will fizzle out and morph into something else.
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?
It does not matter if somebody else has thought of an idea or if somebody else has worked on an idea. Ideas are not about our ego or claiming ownership or having the best one or having all of them. It’s, it’s not necessary. That’s separate from a business. You probably shouldn’t invest in a business that doesn’t have a good shot of succeeding.
I’m not going to start a business that is an Uber competitor out of my backyard right now, because I’m not going to succeed. I’m not going to create a competitor to a business that is obviously going to out-compete me. But the idea of better transportation in my community or how can we facilitate transportation around by community? It doesn’t matter that a thousand people have asked about that idea. We should keep asking about that idea.
We have to clear out our minds a hundred per cent. This idea of has somebody else thought of this? Should I even pursue this? That’s a relevant question when we’re talking about investing our time and resources in a competitive company that has to deal with competition. It is not a relevant question when we’re trying to vet whether or not we should pursue ideas. We should pursue ideas if they’re meaningful to us and we believe that pursuing them can serve our dreams in life.
If we feel that they’re meaningful and they could serve our needs and we’re inspired to pursue them, then we should pursue them and we should give them life and tired. And if they become a business model where we want to be smart about how much time and energy and funds and resources we invest in that business model, then we start asking the question about competition and viability of the idea in a certain business.
For the benefit of our readers, can you outline the steps one has to go through, from when they think of the idea, until it finally lands in a customer’s hands? In particular, we’d love to hear about how to file a patent, how to source a good manufacturer, and how to find a retailer to distribute it.
This idea of finding a patent and sourcing the production work is I think a sort of the wrong question. Everybody’s process is different. Startups didn’t exist for our parents’ generation. Somebody created the concept of a startup as a new novel way to take their idea to the market. So the idea that anybody can give you a step-by-step process for taking an idea to a market is misguided.
A self-sabotaging approach to thinking about this is that now there are experts out there. There are patent lawyers, and fulfillment professionals. Some people think about the production line from end to end. And when it’s time, you can hire those people and get wisdom from those people to accelerate your process.
But the key here is not having some prescribed sequence that we go to and bring our idea to the market. That is a completely misguided way to approach taking an idea from zero to one. The better question is which of these problems are already solved and which are new. So if I’m trying to get a new product to people, shipping and distribution are already solved, I shouldn’t be trying to innovate on how I ship and distribute our products to people.
I should turn to people who’ve already solved that problem and learn from them. I should focus my intention on the unsolved part, which has a lot more to do with the actual product that I’m trying to get in their hands in the first place. So don’t worry about patents. Don’t worry about whether you’ve got some toolkit or sequence for how to get your idea out there.
Focus on the unsolved problems. And then for the already solved problems, just seek the people who already know how to do it and get their support.
What are your “5 Things I Wish Someone Told Me When I First Started Leading My Company” and why? (Please share a story or example for each.)
One is that I feel like all the literature about how failure is part of the process for entrepreneurs is way too fluffy.
You’re going to fail to the extent that you’re going to feel embarrassed to even tell your family about what you’re doing with your life at times. Some people were just lucky and succeed off the bat. And I think they’re at a big disadvantage. I think there’s a huge advantage to not just failing playfully, but like the devastating lows of failure and the shame that comes with it and sticking with it is useful.
I remember around Christmas time a year and a half ago, I kind of shrugged off people’s requests for updates because I didn’t have good updates. And now I’m just so proud to share with my family and friends where we’re coming from.
Number two is that I can’t underestimate the benefit of having a partner. It doesn’t have to be a dedicated co-founder, but somebody who can stick with you through the process or better yet a community of people who can stick with you for the process and the route you are on. A community that can root for you and cheers you on is very beneficial.
The third thing is to focus on small, weekly wins, as opposed to the big, ambitious milestone just to keep the thing moving. Once you’re in the habit of keeping the thing moving, then you can aim for much bigger things.
My co-founder and I coordinate with each other for a while. We kind of coached each other and hung out when we were both between jobs and then one day kind of deliberately invited each other into co-founding together. It was that slow process of staying in each other’s corner and then eventually opting into more that works for us.
That brings me to my fourth suggestion, which is, don’t take co-founding seriously. Don’t just think of co-founding like marriage. Don’t just flippantly invite people to co-found with you. Think about really tapping into your network, dating different potential collaborators, quote, unquote metaphorically, and let yourself discover which relationships want to serve the work.
Lastly, side hustles are part of the strategy. If you need to get a side gig for a while to pay the bills, don’t look at it as quitting. Look at it as the next smart move you have to do, to not compromise your business by running out of money.
If you need to get a job that you don’t really like, that takes up half your week to not lose your apartment, and have to give up completely on the entrepreneurial stuff, that’s okay. That’s part of your strategy. So see side hustles as part of the strategy to serve the dream, not as giving up and running away.
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?
If you start with an idea at the very beginning of the process and you’re attached to what it should look like at the end, then it’s unlikely that you’re going to get there without a lot of grief and hardship along the way. Because 99% of the time outcome is that the idea you have changed because you learn about how it operates in the world. So if we’re attached to it, becoming a business or becoming a product or becoming a patented innovation then a lot of times. Make it harder for ourselves to see, uh, like what the idea wants to become and how it can become the thing that grows and works in the world.
The second thing I would suggest is to share it with people, share it with as many people as you can. Share it with them to get them to confirm it. Don’t be like, I have this idea. I’m so excited to share it with you. It’s Uber for cats. Don’t you think that’s awesome? Share it with them because you are trying to gather more perspectives on this thing that you can’t stop thinking about. Like, I keep thinking about Uber for cats and I just want more people. Input on that. How does that sound? Does that sound stupid? Does that sound cool? Does that sound weird? Does that sound like something you’d pay for?
Share it with people and get their authentic and constructive input on it. Let that guide you to where you want to go.
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 researched scientifically strong inventions that could then get infusions of funding that can turn them into businesses. The research showed that what they realize is that if you try and flood scientific inventions with resources, it’s almost always going to fail because nobody wants fancy scientific inventions.
There are some industries where a faster jet engine is what they want, but for the vast majority of inventions, what makes them good in the world is the fact that people embrace them and use them. Some consultants can take you through the process of getting your patents and setting up your products/services for marketing and stuff like that.
But a lot of the time, those consultants do not result in the invention succeeding. There isn’t a really rich customer research component that proves that people want this and sets it up for what people want. If you’re some niche scientist who really doesn’t want to interact with any customers, yeah. You can hire some people who will research the product for you and validate it.
But that research is either going to be very expensive or you’re going to have to look out and find somebody who deeply cares about whatever it is you’re trying to invent. Otherwise, unless you have a lot of resources and are good at hiring talent, you need to take responsibility for getting your idea out there in the world.
You can’t hire somebody else to take you through some imaginary prescribed 10-step process to get your idea out there. It’s a fantasy. Some highly paid professionals know how to do technical things like that.
But all of that just amplifies the core work, which is getting your idea out there in the world, sharing it with people, validating that it’s wanted, letting it evolve and change instead of just holding on at all costs to what you think it should be.
And then you can complement that core work with people who need to know how to do the technical skills of patent law and marketing etc.
What are your thoughts about bootstrapping vs looking for venture capital? What is the best way to decide if you should do either one?
This has a lot to do with capacity. If you have the resources or the ability to do consulting work so that you can bootstrap your company, or if you can get people to enable you to do paid R and D because you’re providing a service while developing your idea, those things are great.
Bootstrapping can go wrong. I knew somebody who sold their car and moved out of their house and moved into their ex-girlfriend’s couch so that they could quote-unquote bootstrap their business. That is not the way to do it. You’re compromising your business by overspending and overtaxing yourself and impoverishing yourself. This business needs your resource. You need to be reasonable to lead this idea into the world.
Bootstrapping is good. All my businesses right now started bootstraps. I’m not rich. I was able to connect with somebody who had a little bit of extra disposable income that they could put into the business. And also we were able to set up these R and D relationships. People would pay us to do the work.
Fundraising is also possible. You can ask your friends and family, you can go for institutional investing. You can go for fundraising. You can look for grants like the NSF grant in the United States, for technical inventions that relate to a Ph.D. level research.
But all of those funding things come with trade-offs and requirements for getting access to them. So you need to have the network, you need to know who can provide that investment in either angel investors or friends and family with disposable income or the venture capital round. And then especially if you’re going for venture investment, it is a famously ugly process.
Founders hate that word. The best, most effective founders I know tend to see that work as an unfortunate, necessary distraction from the real work. Any time that you spend meeting with prospective investors is time that you don’t spend building the product and getting it out there in the world.
So you gotta be down for that and you gotta lean in. And then you also have to realize the trade-offs that come with that, especially venture to invest. They’re going to expect growth and not all ideas are capable of scaling at that level. Not all ideas can survive 10x growth without losing their soul.
So you need to look at whether the idea requires a massive scale to succeed, or will be harmed by the massive scale and make it harder for that idea to come to life.
Ok. We are nearly done. Here are our final questions. How have you used your success to make the world a better place?
I’m stepping into this new chapter right now. I’m moving from like a young spunky hustler that takes any job. If it’s meaningful enough, regardless of the pay to somebody who’s established, incredible and esteemed and getting paid for it.
I think that that success has been built on me, just like really going into the belly of the beast of my work. Going to places that are very challenging and being in it. Being at places like Trenton, New Jersey, where I worked in high schools, places like Lagos, Nigeria. When I worked in startups, places like Cape Town, South Africa, where I worked in nonprofits and diving into these places and working on them on my terms.
None of these places was a place where I followed the rules and did what everybody else was doing. Even if it grossed me out just to get ahead in all of these places, I held back to that childhood spirit of play, and also this belief that we can step outside of the paradigm that we came from and the status quo and gain these sort of superpowers to step back in. Sorta like that matrix metaphor.
I’ve done that everywhere I’ve gone. I’ve looked at things differently and I’ve looked at things through the lens of what could we make out of this situation in this environment, as opposed to, how do I just play by the rules?
It’s been slow coming, but the fact that doing that for 10 years has resulted in me feeling like a respected and esteemed entrepreneur in the world that’s getting well compensated for it, I think that is a model for others. You don’t have to fall in line and play by the ugly rules of the status quo to carve a life that feels prosperous and purposeful.
The impact I want to have on the world is I want to share that gift. Look at the world for what it could be. That means looking at the world like we’re opening our eyes to what is going on here in this crazy place where we live. We’re also taking responsibility for it. For what it could be, how we could shape it, and how the clues that lie in reality to what this world could be if we just kind of take responsibility for our relationship with it and our capacity to shape it.
You are an inspiration to a great many people. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger.
I would advocate for reformative movements. There’s always something in the social structure that I seek to change. Encouraging the mass to think more independently. You don’t have to fall in line and play by the ugly rules of the status quo to carve a life that feels prosperous and purposeful.
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.
If I could connect with one entrepreneur out there in the world, it would be Adrian Marie Brown. I think that her work is incredible and it is extremely relevant, grounded, and down to earth while also being profound, earthly, and visionary. I feel a responsibility in my life to translate some of them. The essence I see in her work into places that otherwise might not know how to find their way to it like African businesses that are maybe starting from a place of, including people who, are involved in this conversation. About what we owe and what our needs are and how we can form a community together.
White male leaders who are having a hard time unsticking themselves and following up, figuring out how to be in solidarity. We don’t need allies. We need solidarity. So white men in leadership who don’t know how to be in solidarity with moving the world towards being a more inclusive, connected place that honors everybody and their dignity and their capacity to build this world in the image that we deserve and we’re ready for as humanity.
I would definitely love it if I could have a private conversation with Adrian Marie Brown and trade some thoughts on these ideas.
Thank you for these fantastic insights. We greatly appreciate the time you spent on this.
Makers of The Metaverse: Tim Ruse of Zero Latency On The Future Of The VR, AR & Mixed Reality Industries
An Interview With Fotis Georgiadis
Open Mindedness: You have to be open to things you disagree with or think may not work. When we first started messing around with ramps in VR, I thought it wasn’t going to work. But it turned out to be a key mechanic in our games that truly blew people away. As the CEO, you have enormous power to shut things down, but you need to wield that power very carefully. You have to be humble and accept that you are not always right,
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 Tim Ruse.
Tim Ruse is the CEO and co-founder of Zero Latency, one of the global leaders in immersive entertainment working at the cutting edge of VR and location-based experiences. Under Ruse’s leadership, the company has experienced massive growth, now offering award-winning, mind-blowing adventures in over 26 countries for up to eight customers at a time. Zero Latency has also partnered with the biggest names in the technology and gaming industry, including HTC, Ubisoft, Microsoft and HP.
Before creating Zero Latency with his partners Scott Vandonkelaar and Kyel Smith, Ruse worked as a project manager and business analyst at Roadhouse Digital, where he was responsible for leading web and mobile development projects for companies in the health care, entertainment and government sectors. He has also held many positions in the legal field, including research and development officer at the Department of Justice and business analyst at Victoria Legal Aid.
Ruse earned a bachelor of business degree in Business Informations Systems from RMIT University. He is currently based in Melbourne, Australia.
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 the most isolated capital city in the world, so there really wasn’t much to do growing up. I have always loved creating–be it art, music or products. I wasn’t a sporty or academic kid, so I spent a lot of my childhood roaming the street in imaginary worlds, playing video games and dreaming of inventions.
I was really into doing installation art projects and playing in bands in my 20’s, and I actually think that those experiences–working together with people to create something special, collaboration and compromise, finding an audience, promotion and monetization–were key skills for the pre-funding years of ZL. All those skills are pivotal to building an early stage business.
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?
Neuromancer by William Gibson was a pivotal book for me. His vision of an always on, connected society where data is the most valuable resource and people’s digital lives were as real as their meatspace lives was so compelling. It seemed plausible, but at the same time, so futuristic. As the years went by, and more and more of what he described started to manifest itself IRL, you could see what an amazing visionary he was (and still is). I always wanted to be a part of making the good things in his books a reality. The fact that he wrote it on a typewriter in the early 80’s when people were still debating if the personal computer would be a “thing” made it all the more mind-blowing to me.
Is there a particular story that inspired you to pursue a career in the X Reality industry?
I have always wanted to build a business. When Scott, Kyel and I started Zero Latency, we were actually contemplating starting a drone company; we even had the business plan and funding requirements drawn up. But we were just too pumped about the potential of free-roam VR and thought “well, if it all doesn’t take off, at least we will get to play some awesome games.” I think that passion for the product was really key to the success of ZL. We wanted to manifest the dream into reality to play what we built, as much as we wanted to build a business out of it.
Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you began this career?
There are so many stories. Cruising around San Francisco with one of the guys that started EA games (and helped build some of my favorite childhood PC games) was a highlight.
The day we demoed our system to Michael Dell was definitely a highlight. We were working with Alienware, and he posted a story about it on Facebook. So I DM’d him, not thinking he would reply, but he did, almost immediately! So we set up a demo for him at a TV station in Austin, Texas, and he came and played, which was cool. As any self-respecting founder would do, I pitched him the business. He got back to me with a no, because it wasn’t one of his strategic priorities, though he liked the product. He was also really responsive and considerate, as at the end of the day Zero Latency was a solid six-figure customer for Dell. I thought, here’s a guy that runs one of the biggest tech companies on the planet, and he still has the humbleness to take the time for a little guy like me and to take us seriously. But he is laser focused on the big picture, and won’t get distracted by shiny stuff like VR companies. What I learned from that was focus and customer service.
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?
Our early prototype used magnetometers, which are easily messed with by strong magnetic fields. Our first ever proper public demo was in a venue that sat over a massive railway station. We didn’t realise that until we set up that it was basically a giant electro-magnet. Needless to say, the demo as planned was a write off. So, we pivoted. We rebuild the game from 5x5m to 1mx1m, so it would work in the only space the interference was not as present and Scott re-coded the system to account for the interference. We pulled an all-nighter and got it done. The public absolutely loved it! I learned that there is almost always a path out of any problem but if you give up, then you are done. Iterate or die was our mantra from then on!
None of us are able to achieve success without some help along the way. Is there a particular person who you are grateful towards who helped get you to where you are? Can you share a story about that?
I started thinking about VR years before Zero Latency came to life, but it wasn’t until I met Scott Vandonkeelar and Kyel Smith that it became a reality. Scott and I worked together, and one day over a Subway he said “I’ve had this idea” and he went on to explain the broad strokes of what is now Zero Latency. I was hooked immediately, the vision was so clear, I could taste it.
We started working on our first prototype in Scott’s garage and within 12 months we had our public demo unit up and running. It’s unbelievable to think this all started 10 years ago with a crowdfunding campaign, and we’re now in 56 cities around the world.
Are you working on any exciting new projects now? How do you think that will help people?
We have a huge announcement coming up with a leader in tech innovation. While we can’t share too much about it yet, it will help people connect with others and experience mind-bending worlds in impressive new ways. Our aim has always been to transport people to places that they can only dream of, and do this in the most seamless way possible. Our next release is a quantum leap on this path.
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 rise of immersive technology: Immersive entertainment is a relatively new trend, but already a huge industry. Audiences continue to value experiences more than anything else, and what’s more immersive than VR? The ability to transport guests to extraordinary worlds is valued now more than ever.
Return to in-person experiences: After a long period of restrictions and social distancing, people are craving human interaction more than ever before. Collaborative group experiences such as Zero Latency allow guests to fulfill that need for human connection and shared excitement. In recent months, we’ve seen more groups visiting Zero Latency to play and engage with each other.
The metaverse: Everyone is talking about Web 3, which reminds me of the early stages of VR technology. While it’s still a work in progress, it is a fascinating concept. The metaverse will be shaped by the technology we use to access it, which could, of course, include virtual reality. I can’t wait to see where it goes from here.
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?
Safety is something that we really need to pay close attention to, especially when it comes to emerging technologies such as the metaverse. In virtual reality worlds, we can guarantee the content and experiences you’ll come across, but it’s different in interconnected spaces. There are measures being taken already to prevent safety threats, of course, and I think we can learn a lot from virtual reality experiences and how the industry has approached these issues.
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?
A lot of businesses come to Zero Latency for team building and retention events. Sharing experiences in mind-blowing worlds like these is really impactful; people love it! On the productivity side, VR, AR, and MR are changing industries around the world: creativity, commerce, communication. The applications are endless and we’re barely scratching the surface on what’s possible.
Are there other ways that VR, AR and MR can improve our lives? Can you explain?
We’ve noticed many of our customers are using Zero Latency as a workout session, even replacing their gym membership with VR. It’s easy to get fully immersed in these worlds and, without even realizing, they’re running, moving, dodging, carrying weight and burning some calories while having a great time. Not to mention it’s an activity they can enjoy with friends–a much needed way to connect with others after being home for a while.
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 you need to be tech-savvy, or even a gamer, to enjoy VR. We offer a fun experience that anyone can enjoy. Our team takes care of the tech part so everyone can just come in and enjoy an effortless experience.
What are your “5 Things You Need To Create A Highly Successful Career In The VR, AR or MR Industries?” (Please share a story or example for each.)
Customer first: You aren’t building things for you; you are building something for an audience. Understand who that is and how best to service their wants, needs and desires. At the beginning of Zero Latency, we had all these really complex and realistic game-play ideas, but we rapidly realized that people want to have an adventure and feel like an action hero. They don’t want some complex reload mechanic that makes them feel like a noob, even if it’s more realistic. They want to roll in and be the hero.
Tenacity: Building the future is hard and you need to show up everyday with a positive mindset and a belief that it’s possible. There are 1000 reasons why you can’t do a thing, you need to find the way that you can do it. And sometimes that path can be super narrow and hard to see.
Open Mindedness: You have to be open to things you disagree with or think may not work. When we first started messing around with ramps in VR, I thought it wasn’t going to work. But it turned out to be a key mechanic in our games that truly blew people away. As the CEO, you have enormous power to shut things down, but you need to wield that power very carefully. You have to be humble and accept that you are not always right,
Creativity: You need to have a mindset of looking at what the platform is natively and how best to use it. You aren’t building a PC game or a mobile game. You have to look at things differently: Iteration, testing, experimentation and learning are so critical. I always think of “pinch to zoom” as an example of this. It is so obvious now, but for a while tablets had little + and — buttons on them, because people were treating it as a PC. You have to look at it with fresh eyes and see the possibilities that the new medium offers, not how you shoehorn old ideas into the new medium. I think a lot of early VR experiences didn’t have that mindset and they suffered for it, versus something like Beat Saber which is a classic example of thinking from first principles about what the medium is actually good for and what new mechanics it allows.
Reductionist thinking: So many people try and add and add and keep adding to make things better, but then you can end up with complex, bloated and unintuitive products. You have to have the discipline to start at the beginning, “why are we doing this? Is this the best way to do this, knowing what we know now or with the technology we now have?” This can be tough, as it can mean throwing away work or slaughtering sacred cows. But the practise is vital. Something you need to deconstruct to rebuild.
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 and dialogue. I feel that at the moment, more than ever, we have lots of people yelling at each other from different sides of things. We need to be able to meet in the middle, break bread and hear other people’s points of view. When we are at our best as a species is when we are collaborating with each other and build empathy. Even if you don’t agree with the other person’s point of view,–especially when you don’t agree with the other person’s point of view.
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?
I would say William Gibson. I love his ability to take what’s happening now and take it to its logical extension into the future. The guy is a true prophet for our times.
Thank you so much for these excellent stories and insights. We wish you continued success on your great work!
Treat your employees and consumers as if they were part of your family — customer service is key to a company success.
As a part of our series about how to create a trusted, believable, and beloved brand, I had the pleasure to interview Lyndsi Edgar.
Founder and CEO of eLuminate Marketing, providing branding and digital marketing to firms ranging in size from $2M to $15B in annual revenue within the fields of law, education, manufacturing, home services, hospitality, start-ups, healthcare and nonprofits. Her company was recently selected as one of the Five Top Marketing Companies to Hire in 2022. She is also featured in Huffington Post, Forbes Women, Business Collective and Black Enterprise as well as nominated for South Florida’s Up and Comers by South Florida Business & Wealth.
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 received my master’s degree in Integrated Marketing at Florida State University, while in college social media was in its infant stages and a few innovative companies wanted to pursue this new thing called “Facebook.” I interned at these companies, discovering a true love for the industry. In 2014, I decided to start my own marketing company and it was the best decision I have ever made. For over seven years, I have had the privilege of working with some of the most talented individuals and developing incredible marketing campaigns. eLuminate Marketing is a boutique firm focusing on digital marketing. We help mid-to-large companies increase their brand awareness on social platforms by developing creative and innovative marketing campaigns.
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 putting together an email marketing campaign, after clicking send I realized I spelled “beaches” incorrectly (which was in the subject line, mind you). Thousands and thousands of people received an email that said “beachers.” I spend at least 30 minutes reading subject lines before clicking send.
What do you think makes your company stand out? Can you share a story?
I’d like to put it in four buckets: First, the content we create is authentic, original and on-brand. Every piece of content developed is tailored to your company, with your logo, look and feel, and messaging. Second, we tap into what’s trending. We develop content about what is trending online. Your brand stays relevant, entertaining and is at the forefront of what everyone is talking about. We’re optimized, we develop highly targeted advertising segments to identify your ideal consumer. Through the process of advertising optimization, we can pinpoint exactly who will purchase your product or service and exactly what to say. Lastly, we’re nimble. We are constantly staying up to date with what is trending and what’s working.
Are you working on any exciting new projects now? How do you think that will help people?
With the growth of social media accounts including Instagram, LinkedIn and TikTok, personal branding is becoming so important. In addition to providing content for companies, we are also developing marketing strategies for their CEOs and employees. eLuminate Marketing will be launching personal branding packages where a videographer will come and film a variety of short 1-minute education videos, or the individual can film these videos on their phone and we will handle the post-production process. From there, we will edit those videos and post on social media on their behalf. This is a great opportunity for business owners, sales members, influencers, lawyers and more.
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 vs. product marketing. What comes to mind when you think of eLuminate Marketing or Lyndsi Edgar? That is how I think of brand marketing. It’s the adjectives and descriptions your consumers are saying about your company. Product marketing focuses more on tangible details such as pricing and how this device/product can benefit you.
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?
We live in a different world. Companies are more than just selling a product or service. Consumers are demanding transparency, responsible choices for the environment, high standards for their employees and education behind their products. These are all aspects of brand building and can be done through video, social media, email marketing and two-way communication online.
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.
1. Have a great product — if you don’t, you will never succeed.
2. Be willing to test, advertise, and try new things to get your brand out there. We are always researching new ideas, competitors, and practices to stay ahead of the game.
3. Feedback — use feedback and reviews as a means of enhancing your brand and understanding what consumers want.
4. Be Transparent — tell your story, be authentic.
5.Treat your employees and consumers as if they were part of your family — customer service is key to a company success.
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?
I have the privilege of working with Sawyer Products. They sell outdoor products such as water filters and insect repellents. Consumers are extremely brand loyal because their products work. In fact, they test their water filters 3 times before leaving the warehouse to ensure consumers are receiving a high-quality product. In addition, every Sawyer product you buy is a donation to our common humanity. Providing clean water through 140 charities in 80 countries with their long-lasting water filters. Their success is providing top-of-the-line products as well as give back.
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?
When you have a large brand-loyal consumer base. No matter the cost, no matter the circumstance, they will reach for your product every time.
What role does social media play in your branding efforts?
Social media is one of the key pillars to branding success. Not only to share your companies’ values and insights, but also to help build a community of customers. Social media allows you to listen to what you customers are saying about your brand.
You are a person of great influence. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger. 🙂
Have periods of the day where you are not near your phone. When I pick my children up from school, I place my phone in a drawer so I can be 100% present.
Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share how that was relevant to you in your life?
“Not to Worry.” This was a phrase often quoted by my grandmother and my mom my entire life. As an entrepreneur, mom and business owner, it’s easy to get frazzled over the little things. But in the grand scheme of life, I have my health, a beautiful family and I love what I do. There’s no need to worry.
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. 🙂
Richard Branson, I love his approach to life. He is smart, successful, treats his employees well and knows how to have fun.
Don’t try to do it all yourself! I was very much a “I can do it all myself” kind of guy. I have learned that this mindset leads to burnout. Find partners, business associates, or hire experts that can do things better than you so that you can spend more time operating in your zone of genius. There are plenty of production tasks that I can do, but it’s not always the best use of my time to do a simple job that anyone can do. It’s a better use of my time to be the biggest ambassador for our products, creating educational and engaging content, doing podcasts, fielding interviews. Not everyone can do that part and this is where I’m learning to spend more of my time and energy.
As a part of our series called “Making Something From Nothing”, I had the pleasure of interviewing Richard Pauwels.
A Native Angeleno, Rich Pauwels has spent his life being of service. While studying at UCLA he enrolled in the US Navy Reserves. When he was not attending sporting events as part of the championship cheerleading squad, he would spend time on the USS Wadsworth running drills on shipboard fires and general damage control. He was so inspired by the work that he joined the LA County Fire department and served 20 years as a firefighter and paramedic. Fighting the brush fires that have raged California, is no easy task. And getting food while on those fire lines can prove difficult to say the least. It was during this time that Rich developed his gourmet sprouted nuts to fuel himself and his crew on these grueling fires. Working as a first responder takes quite the toll on both the body and spirit of those who put themselves in harm’s way to save others. So, as someone who puts his all into his work, Rich sustained a series of injuries that resulted in his early retirement in 2019. He immediately went on a long journey of alternative healing and biohacking to regain his health, mobility and strength. He now devotes his time to his brand Rich Nuts and educating others on the value of sprouting as well as other biohacking modalities.
Thank you so much for doing this with us! Before we dive in, our readers would love to learn a bit more about you. Can you tell us a bit about your “childhood backstory”?
My childhood started out in the Chino Institute for Women, a California State prison. I was born there because my parents unfortunately had a heroin problem which landed them behind bars. My father often said the only reason I exist is because they got busted. During the time of their trial, my parents “kicked” their habit and that likely led to the conditions of my conception. Luckily, my father was able to stay clean and provide me with a working class upbringing in the suburbs of Los Angeles. My father was a plumber for the County of Los Angeles and many weekends in my pre-teen and early teen years were spent on “side-jobs” under houses, digging ditches, and unclogging toilets.
I was always fascinated by nature and my father encouraged me in that realm with fishing trips, odd pets (like snakes, turtles, and iguanas), and even a home vegetable garden. My grandmother had chickens & many fruit trees. I would enjoy summers in her backyard battling bees, wasps, beetles, and birds for delicious ripe figs, plums, and apricots. This is why I deeply understand that our food comes from nature and not from the store.My uncles would take me hunting and I learned that taking a life for food was a part of nature. Doing so with intention always seemed to make sense to me. To this day, I still hunt (for food not trophies), fish, and love to make food from wild foraged ingredients like mushrooms, elderflowers, and even cactus fruit.
In High School I focused my energy on sports and became an excellent wrestler, a decent distance runner, and a mediocre football player. I carried that athletic ability with me into college where I wrestled for a year and then transferred to UCLA where I became a cheerleader. Cheerleading was a complete surprise to everyone including me. It was a valuable lesson in learning how to work with a co-ed team. During this time, I also joined the US Navy Reserve program to help pay my way through college.
College was very busy for me with cheerleading, the Navy Reserves, and a part time job waiting tables. Little did I know that this busy pattern would continue my entire life. As a lifelong learner, I have always allowed my curiosity to guide me.
Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share how that was relevant to you in your life?
My best friend Johann Urb, is fond of saying “pay attention or pay with pain”. I have found this quote to be relevant in many situations. I also found that “pain” comes in many forms: sometimes physical, sometimes financial, and sometimes emotional to name a few.
One example of this lesson came when I was at deep creek hot springs in Southern California. I was so enamored with a beautiful woman that I set my phone down on a slippery, not so flat rock, and it of course fell into the river never to be seen again.
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?
That’s a tough one to narrow down because there are so many wonderful books and podcasts. I will say that the “Surrender Experiment” by Michael Singer came into my life at just the right moment. Which is really the point of the book: To stop controlling things and trying to “make” life happen, to start becoming aware of the opportunities that life is giving you and to open to what you never thought possible. This shift in mindset carried me through a difficult divorce and into a much broader & completely unimaginable future. When we let go or surrender to what is showing up, we might be surprised about where we end up.
In my experience, I surrender my career & my ex- wife, in a very short timeframe. Found new love, discovered a ton about self-love and self care and started Rich Nuts. It was a pivotal moment in my life and the repercussions are still unfolding to this day.
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?
This is a very good point. I was naïve when I started Rich Nuts. In all honesty, I was not trying to start a business, I wasn’t looking at trends, or market opportunities, and analyzing what would be a hit based on those metrics. I was simply trying to solve my own digestive problems. I worked in Malibu as a Firefighter and Paramedic for the last 12 years of my 20 year career with the LA County Fire Department. During my time in Malibu, we would go on plenty of brush fires. One thing I quickly discovered was that there was no healthy food on a brush fire. Our options were generally limited to: prison sack lunches, fast food, or MRE’s. None of that really worked for me, so I would eat raw cashews that I carried in my pack. I could eat a pound of raw cashews on a brush fire. Instead of getting the energy that I needed to sustain me on those 6, 8, or even 10 hr. grueling shifts, I got gassy, bloated, and experienced brain fog. Not exactly what I was looking for when I was trying to stay alive on the side of a mountain with smoke and fire all around.
I started doing a ton of research and it became apparent to me that the nuts were somehow causing my digestive woes. That’s how I discovered sprouting. I started experimenting with eating sprouted nuts and I quickly discovered that my digestive symptoms faded away.
I had a second “Ahh-ha” moment that led me to the discovery of what my friends and family began to call “The Best Nuts EVER”. Dehydration came to me when I realized that I couldn’t leave moist nuts in a bag until the next brush fire. It could be months and the moist nuts would get moldy. Dehydration solved that problem bringing back the crunch, locking in the flavor, and preserving them naturally. I also seasoned them lightly with sage and rosemary from my garden. I started sharing them with friends, family, and fellow firefighters. Within say 6 months, every time I walked into a room, everyone would stick out their hands and ask “have you got any nuts with you?”
Eventually I did an audit on my finances and realized I was spending $700 a month on organic cashews and giving them away. That’s when I told everyone they were gonna have to start paying me for the nuts. They responded with “Ok, how much do you want?” That’s how Rich Nuts started.
My next step was simple, low cost, and very prudent. I got a cottage food operators license which allowed me to sell in farmers markets. I knew that my friends, family, and fellow firefighters would pay me for delicious sprouted nuts, but what about strangers? The answers I discovered in the thousands of farmers market interactions with strangers helped me to shape my product line, tailor my flavor philosophy, and communicate our value proposition to customers. It also answered the most important question: will people pay a premium for sprouted nuts? It was a resounding YES!
From my experience, follow your curiosity, experiment, fail forward, and ask a lot of questions from your early adopters on what they LOVE about your product or service. Of equal importance, learn what they don’t like and do your best to solve those issues. Finally, learn to communicate why your product is unique. That’s where having a good authentic story is extremely valuable. Customers really love that our product was developed for the fireline. If it can get me through a brush fire, it can get you through whatever life throws at you.
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?
Well, the obvious thing to do is a bunch of Internet research to see if you can buy it or find information related to this particular good or service. If there’s nothing on the market yet, that could be good, but remember, you might be starting a whole new category and that is exciting, but also challenging. You can also ask people you trust that may have some experience or knowledge in this area to see if they have any thoughts about your idea and whether or not it is already on the market.
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.
For this question I can only speak to my particular process (after all, I was a firefighter/paramedic prior to this endeavor). In some ways it was simpler because I could not patent a naturally occurring process: “germination”. I would say make a prototype and use it a bunch, try to find out what works and what does not? What could make it better? How can it be improved? Take extensive notes on your process and the results you get. Try, fail, experiment, repeat. I still have my secret recipe book which is filled with experiments dating back to 2015. This was crucial to the development of our product line. I’m actually an “idea machine” and eventually my team had to put the kibosh on me creating any more flavors.
Once you get a decent prototype, take it out to your immediate and trusted circle of friends and family. Have them try it and get their honest feedback. Sometimes you may have to pry it out of them, but remind them that honesty will only make the product better. Then take all this new info and iterate, iterate, iterate. You will want to develop thick skin for this part because some people may not like it and they may be brutally honest. Instead of shrinking and taking it personal, do your absolute best to stay objective and remind yourself that this will only make my good or service better.
To be very vulnerable here, I was nervous and afraid to put this creative idea into the world. A part of me was worried that people would not like it. What would that say about me? Do they not like me? It’s a mind trick and I urge your readers to remember it’s not about you, even if your name and signature are on every bag!
Since our process was not a common one, we were not able to find a manufacturer to make it for us. We have continued to develop that process as we scale, taking equipment and ideas from similar production lines. It’s been a long and sometimes overwhelming process and this is why I believe Grit is such an important quality for a founder.
What are your “5 Things I Wish Someone Told Me When I First Started Leading My Company” and why?
Failing forward will only improve your product or service- learn something from every small mistake, keep getting better day by day minute by minute. As I mentioned above, my R & D Process was literally years in the making, trying, failing, getting feedback, iterating.
This is not a sprint and it will likely be the hardest experience of your life. If you’re blazing a new trail, you will have to fall down and make all the mistakes because YOU are the first one doing it. Get back up and keep going. For some reason I had this Idea in my head that since the product was great, everything else would magically fall into place and we’d be a huge success in no time. Although that is a possibility, it is not likely. This was especially true for me as I was completely new to business and firefighting had not prepared me for the challenges that entrepreneurial life would throw at me.
Pick your partners like you are picking a mate. You wouldn’t marry someone that you don’t trust completely. Don’t look past flaws or red flags. Trust your gut here as you will be deeply and intimately wed to this person as long as you’re in business together. Set boundaries in a legal context that makes sense for both of you. Early on, I had a partner that used emotional blackmail to try and get more and more equity. It was difficult to split, but in the end, it was the right decision. Just like a bad divorce, this creates years of stress in your life. In the end, nobody benefits from opaque or blurry boundaries.
Don’t try to do it all yourself! I was very much a “I can do it all myself” kind of guy. I have learned that this mindset leads to burnout. Find partners, business associates, or hire experts that can do things better than you so that you can spend more time operating in your zone of genius. There are plenty of production tasks that I can do, but it’s not always the best use of my time to do a simple job that anyone can do. It’s a better use of my time to be the biggest ambassador for our products, creating educational and engaging content, doing podcasts, fielding interviews. Not everyone can do that part and this is where I’m learning to spend more of my time and energy.
Don’t give up! This seems simple, and it is, but it’s NOT easy. Pivot if you need to, but don’t throw in the towel. This is why GRIT or TENACITY are known as one of the most important characteristics of a founder. Grinding it out and obsessing about how to solve the challenges of bringing your product to market is something you must do. Of course, you will build a team to help, but the ball is in your hands and if you want to win the game, you must be the driving force. You may want to give up at some point, so have someone that sees YOU and supports you unconditionally. Rely on this person when you feel like throwing in the towel. For me, this is my wife Samantha Coker.
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?
As I mentioned above, I’d say get a working prototype and get trusted feedback. Keep iterating until you can’t make it any better. Then and only then open it to larger feedback from non- friends and repeat the iteration process indefinitely.
There are many invention development consultants. Would you recommend that a person with a new idea hire such a consultant, or should they try to strike out on their own?
I have no experience with those consultants. What I would say is that it really depends on what you’re making. If you are an expert in that field, then you may only need advice on getting the product to market. If you are not an expert, then an expert in the field may be invaluable. Make sure you sign the appropriate contracts and do not give away too much of your business.
What are your thoughts about bootstrapping vs looking for venture capital? What is the best way to decide if you should do either one?
This is a very complex question. It really depends again on what you are creating and your personal assets. If this project is going to be capital intensive, you may want to tap into VC. They will of course want a significant piece of the business to compensate them for the risk they are taking. This is especially true if you are pre-revenue. It may also be necessary to utilize a capital influx to get you to market ahead of competitors. It could be a huge benefit to be the first mover in a given sector or it may be irrelevant. Just look at myspace vs facebook.
Ok. We are nearly done. Here are our final questions. How have you used your success to make the world a better place?
Wonderful question. Impact is a big motivation for me and we are still in the process of implementing my vision. In late 2016 or early 2017 I read a white paper about regenerative agriculture and its potential to sequester enough carbon to avert the climate crisis without any cuts to emissions. YES, you read that right. This was the most positive news I had heard in decades. My confidence in governments or legacy businesses making enough headway through emission cuts is basically zero. They’ve been talking about it for more than twenty years with very little progress. Meanwhile, it is very obvious that we are plunging headlong toward environmental disaster. In this white paper, they discuss the fact that Regenerative Agriculture not only sequesters 3–5 times the carbon per square acre in comparison to conventional agriculture, but it also produces up to 30% more nutritious food! That’s when it hit me, I could turn Rich Nuts into the world’s first carbon neutral and potentially carbon capturing nut company by utilizing regeneratively sourced ingredients in our supply chain. We are still in the process of navigating and implementing these highly disruptive changes, but we are on the path and I am personally committed to this goal. I believe that the children of this generation and future generations deserve a cleaner earth, a greener earth, and a more just earth. Business mindset of the previous generations looked at these problems as externalities, meaning that the costs and consequences were outside their business model. They made fortunes that have lasted lifetimes, to the detriment of mother nature. Well, I’m here to say that those costs and consequences are now coming due and we are paying the price of this narrow minded thinking. At Rich Nuts we like to support the triple bottom line, PEOPLE, PLANET, PROFIT.
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.
This all relates to my personal mission on the planet which is to connect people to nature, the source of all life on this planet. We have this misguided perception of dominion over nature. If I can help people reconnect to nature and get them to realize that we are as much a part of nature as nature is a part of us, it is my firm belief that we will stop mistreating nature. Then we will learn how to work in collaboration with this natural phenomena to regenerate the damage we have done to the ecosphere and potentially avert the climate crisis.
Think of it from this perspective, most of us live in a box, we move around in a machine, and we think food comes from the store. We think that we are somehow superior or separate from the very thing that sustains us. If we can shift that mindset to a collaborative or regenerative one then we have a slim chance of surviving. I think that is a good point to drive home, our survival is not guaranteed.
We are very blessed that some of the biggest names in Business, VC funding, Sports, and Entertainment read this column. Is there a person in the world, or in the US, with whom you would love to have a private breakfast or lunch, and why? He or she might just see this if we tag them.
I really love the questions you ask, because they make me pause and contemplate for a moment. This last one is no exception. As a Los Angeles native, I quickly filed through all of my favorite Lakers: Magic, Shaq, Kareem (fellow UCLA Alum), etc. Then I moved on quickly to those that have used their fame for the Benefit of the Planet: Ian Somerhalder, Adrian Grenier, Leonardo DiCaprio, Russell Brand, etc.
In the end, I finally decided on the Resnicks. This power couple has accomplished so many of the goals I have set for myself. First off, they have been married as long as I have been alive. That’s almost 50 years and is quite an accomplishment especially because this dynamic duo has been in business together the entire time, building an empire. They are also huge philanthropists and famously gave $750 million to Caltech in 2019 for research into solutions for climate change.
I would love to sit with them and find out what their relationship magic is based upon? I’d also like to talk to them about how they can reshape their massive agricultural empire to embrace Regenerative Agriculture and create a carbon sink that moves the needle in a massive and quantifiable way. I would love to hear Lynda’s take on our brand story and how to simplify and refine our approach to clearly communicate our value proposition.
Hopefully you can make this happen 🙂
Thank you for these fantastic insights. We greatly appreciate the time you spent on this.
Agile Businesses: Kimberly-Clark’s Susan Gambardella On How Businesses Pivot and Stay Relevant In The Face of Disruptive Technologies
An Interview With Fotis Georgiadis
Fail fast and learn early: Companies that embrace a growth mindset and empower teams to test and learn to continue to innovate are able to adjust and react in an agile way.
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 Susan Gambardella, President, Kimberly-Clark Professional North America.
Susan Gambardella joined Kimberly-Clark Professional (KCP) as President of North America in February 2020. She is responsible for leading KCP’s largest region, spearheading a transformational growth strategy that accelerates North America’s financial, strategic, and operational results. For more than three decades, Gambardella has been instrumental in building strong teams and delivering significant results. She spent 27 years with The Coca-Cola Company and held leadership positions in marketing, customer and general management, both domestically and globally.
In addition to her role at KCP, Gambardella recently joined the board of Shore Capital and serves on the national board of directors for Girls, Inc. and the University of Connecticut Foundation. Gambardella holds a Bachelor of Science degree from the University of Connecticut and executive education certifications from Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management and University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School.
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 at Procter & Gamble in their General Management Training Program. I spent 27 years at The Coca-Cola Company holding various leadership positions, including serving as the Chief of Staff to the CEO and Chairman; Senior Vice President, National Retail Sales; Group Vice President of the Wendy’s Global Account Team; and Senior Vice President of Coca-Cola North America’s Integrated Marketing team. In February 2020, I took a new role, which is my current position as President, Kimberly-Clark Professional North America.
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?
Starting my career in sales required me to drive thousands of miles covering the Northeast. This included getting up in the early dark hours of the morning to make it to that first sales call, sometimes two to three hours from my home. One morning, having left early, I was sitting across the desk from a known “very tough” buyer and I was focused on making the sale. During my presentation, I looked down and noticed I had a navy shoe and a black shoe on. And to make it worse, they were slightly different shoes and heel heights. I burst out laughing at my mistake and then of course had to tell the buyer why I was laughing. That moment humanized our interaction and we connected as people. We went on to have a very productive relationship, and of course, I made the sale that day. It taught me to laugh at my mistakes, take the learning and move on.
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 have been very honored throughout my career to work with leaders who invested in me and made an impact on my career. I have learned from each one of them. My purpose is to do the same for others and be a catalyst for positive change. One leader in particular taught me the importance and impact of great leadership. I have been a student of leadership ever since. He brought outside thinking in from business leaders, historical figures and other industries to use as case studies on leadership. He was impactful because of this emphasis and teaching on leadership, but he also supported me when I had my first child. I was about to reluctantly quit my job to provide the childcare stability I desired for our son after too much childcare disruption. He adjusted my current director position so that I could work part-time. I did that for six months and came back full-time to my first vice president role. We must find flexible work options to support parents as they move through life stages. This support allowed me to stay and flourish with the company for 23 more years!
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?
Kimberly-Clark Professional’s purpose is the same as Kimberly-Clark’s, which is to deliver Better Care for a Better World. Part of our strategy, which brings this purpose to life, is to test, explore and create ideas designed to perform and protect. Our latest innovation, the Kimberly-Clark Professional™ ICON™ Collection, elevates the washroom by offering differentiated solutions with market-leading reliability, efficiency and technology.
For end users, we strive to elevate hygiene and make their public washroom experience better, quicker and less frustrating. For the marketer, we are providing an innovative new way to reach customers and expand their targeting efforts. For the facility manager, our innovative dispensers require less maintenance, which is especially important given current labor shortages. Facility managers have also told us our dispensers will help them to attract and retain tenants. Overall, our goal has always been to create thoughtfully designed products that solve our customers’ and end users’ pain points.
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?
Kimberly-Clark Professional is a division of the Kimberly-Clark Corporation that is focused on providing B2B solutions to create workplaces that are healthier, safer and more productive. From innovative products to insightful solutions, Kimberly-Clark Professional is constantly in pursuit of the perfect working environment.
Which technological innovation has encroached or disrupted your industry? Can you explain why this has been disruptive?
More than technology innovation, the disruption in our industry has been COVID-19. In 2018, we were focused on strategies for elevating the washroom, but the global pandemic really accelerated our innovation and made us think differently about how to elevate hygiene during this time when we have all been focused on hand washing and following health and safety protocols. Fast dispensing speeds to help reduce restroom wait times and crowds in front of the dispenser, touch-free use and maximum efficiency during a time when businesses have been impacted by labor shortages, were key focus areas for us to respond to customers’ needs.
What did you do to pivot as a result of this disruption?
We launched the Kimberly-Clark Professional ICON Collection, a first-of-its-kind dispenser with technological advancements that offers interchangeable and customizable faceplate options to elevate commercial washrooms with added sophistication and enhanced functionality. While most dispensers are designed around the paper, the Kimberly-Clark Professional ICON dispenser is designed around the servicer, facility manager and end user — offering enhanced style, simple operation, cutting-edge technology and a human-centric experience. This innovative dispenser is built on our newest platform, with state-of-the-art, patented technology that maximizes performance with 99.99 percent jam free1 operation and it delivers more than 150,000 dispenses on a single set of batteries2.
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.
We all know handwashing and hygiene have never been more important, and it is time the products we use daily reflect the needs of those who rely on them. In the last year, we’ve heard a lot about the science of hand washing — from how long should you do it and how many stanzas of Happy Birthday you should sing while washing your hands to what motion you should use.
Our team started by truly listening to our customers and users to take a human-centric approach to every aspect of the Kimberly-Clark Professional ICON dispenser’s design and answer the questions — What if hand washing could be more than scientific? What if in those moments when we’re washing our hands, we added a little style to hygiene? What if we combined innovative design, striking branding and clever messaging to this moment of undivided attention?
This led us to our “aha moment” to create the Kimberly-Clark Professional ICON Dispenser. Based on our 150-year history of innovation, this bold idea combines hygiene with modern design, in a cutting-edge product designed around you — that looks as great as it works.
So, how are things going with this new direction?
The response to date has been overwhelmingly positive. Our customers have shared that they view ICON as a game-changing innovation. It addresses the needs of architects, interior designers and facility managers alike — bringing a branding and messaging opportunity to the washroom while making the user experience quicker, less frustrating and visually appealing. This is only the beginning as we continuously strive to design our products around the user and offer a human-centric experience.
Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you started this pivot?
Our pivot to human-centric design and combining hygiene innovation with modern design have been game changing for our customers.
Interestingly, our research shows that dependability and functionality are the primary needs customers seek in a dispenser, but aesthetics is a close second. Unsurprisingly, our customers want a dispenser that works and looks great. By partnering with leading designers to understand current design trends, testing these trends with people in a variety of locations, refining our selections and developing the technology to deliver designs our customers value has allowed us to deliver on all of these needs; technologically advanced dispensers, designed around our users that complement any space where they are installed.
What would you say is the most critical role of a leader during a disruptive period?
During a disruptive time, leaders need to reframe the game and be bold. It is critical to set the vision for the organization, mobilize the team, and then work to take the friction out of the organization. Leaders need to provide access to resources that will empower teams to capitalize on opportunities. Importantly, leaders need to push for change while at the same time demonstrating that they care about their teams, especially during times of transformation and change.
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?
My approach is to think about the things that are unique to my role and then I prioritize this work. One of the most important aspects of my job is culture. Caring is one of our Kimberly-Clark values. Leaders need to push for bold moves while at the same time letting their team know they care about their well-being and their careers. We have established a number of initiatives during the past two years to build our winning culture, including our Caring Conversations program, designed to build trust and further embed inclusion into our culture; Flex that Works to blend time in the office with working remotely to accommodate everyone’s diverse personal and professional obligations; My Voice Council, an employee-led initiative for employee listening and providing a platform to drive improvement within our culture; and our Inclusion and Diversity Council, which ensures that we continue to build an organization that looks and thinks like our customers and consumers around the world, and that our employees share different experiences and have varied backgrounds.
Is there a “number one principle” that can help guide a company through the ups and downs of turbulent times?
It is important to not only manage, but to embrace market volatility in order to position a company for growth in the future. Leaders can help guide a company through tough times by continuing to make step change improvements that focus the team on performing while transforming for long-term growth.
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?
When faced with a disruptive technology, companies should keep the following in mind:
Stay abreast of market shifts and don’t ignore change: Implement market and competitive research and processes to stay ahead of disruptive technologies emerging.
Embrace disruption: Companies that view disruption as an opportunity to innovate and embrace it can grow and enhance the customer experience. Avoid the pitfall of viewing disruption negatively or thinking it’s not a risk because you have tried a similar approach with limited success.
Fail fast and learn early: Companies that embrace a growth mindset and empower teams to test and learn to continue to innovate are able to adjust and react in an agile way.
Scale fast to maximize opportunity: Companies are often unable to scale fast enough. It’s important to have a clear purpose and value proposition to meet customer needs long-term, deep expertise, innovative technology that is human-centric and a strategic business model for sustainable, profitable growth.
In moments of crisis, we often tend to become very internally focused. Constantly pushing the team to continue to leverage more of an external and human-centric mindset while keeping our customers at the heart of everything we do is key to be able to react and move ahead of the market. In 2021, we were able to grow share in every category by doing this.
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.
Five ways business leaders can pivot and stay relevant in the face of disruptive technologies include:
Realize learning is for leaders too. During the pandemic, I realized I needed more knowledge on data, automation, AI and demand generation. I took an executive education class through Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management to build my competency in this area so that I could ask the right questions of the team to support them in our CX and marketing evolution.
Take some intelligent risks and let your team fail. A leader’steam needs to know that they are creating an environment for their team to learn — that is how leaders can drive true transformation and growth.
Empower your team. One of the best parts of being a leader is challenging a team with a problem, and then giving them the space and resources to solve it. Quite often the results will far exceed expectations.
Listen to customers, the industry and field teams. They have the true pulse of what is happening in the industry and market, and if leaders become too internally focused, they will miss when things begin to change.
Bring people along on the journey. Tell them why, involve them on where the company is going, and engage them in creating solutions as the organization is adapting.
Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share how that was relevant to you in your life?
I mentioned before that I am a student of leadership. I have had the opportunity to work with some unbelievable leaders and also learned from the ones who were not. There is a quote by Maya Angelou that says, “People will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.” I hope that my legacy is not only the results I deliver, but the environment and experience I create for my team and key stakeholders.
Give way more than you take and introduce people freely — I don’t know if there’s a specific story for this, it’s something that’s always come naturally for me and something I’ve seen from the best people I know. When great people get together great things happen and the pieces sort themselves out. It always balances in the end.
As a part of our series about business leaders who are shaking things up in their industry, I had the pleasure of interviewing Matt Widdoes.
Matt Widdoes is the CEO of Mavan, an exclusive network of senior leaders from the fastest-growing companies in tech who validate and grow startups — from series A to C. Matt has more than 15 years of experience working in growth marketing, user acquisition, and business development in the technology and entertainment industries. He’s built and led teams at various start-ups across Silicon Valley as well as iconic brands RedBull, Zynga, Intuit, and King. Prior to Mavan, Matt oversaw marketing operations and user acquisition with video game developer King from 2016–2019 and managed user acquisition for Zynga from 2015–2016.
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 career path?
I started my first company at 13, mowing yards in the neighborhood. I printed different fliers and posted them on different streets, each one listing different pricing and was unknowingly running my first A/B test. It was my introduction to understanding human behavior as it relates to business and just a few years later I chose advertising as my college major.
I graduated and got my first job at Red Bull in marketing. It was an awesome place to start, and I eventually left to pursue more lucrative role in technology sales. Despite excelling in sales, I soon realized I missed the testing and data gathering aspects of marketing that give you a clearer picture of the motivations behind people’s choices.
I ultimately got back into marketing by working at an early-stage gaming startup which kicked off a five-year stint in mobile acquisition at two of the largest gaming publishers in the world, King and Zynga. For many years, a close friend at Facebook had encouraged me to consider consulting given the amount of opportunity there was for people who had user acquisition experience at scale ($250M+/year). After many discussions spanning several years, I decided it was the time was right to start Mavan.
During these discussions, I came to realize a few fundamental truths that I believe about top talent. First, if you want to hire the best people in the world, you have to be willing to hire people all over the world. Second, truly world-class talent (top 0.5%) is capable of positively impacting more than one company at a time, 3–5 even. Third, attracting, acquiring, and retaining top talent is expensive and time consuming, but it doesn’t have to be if you could just build the best team once. That is how we ultimately arrived at our general approach to helping clients; by strategically tapping world-class talent with whom we have deep relationships with, and pairing that with a killer team of operators, we’re able to meaningfully accelerate our client’s growth trajectories
Can you tell our readers what it is about the work you’re doing that’s disruptive?
We’re disrupting in a number of ways: One is at the employee level. With Mavan Studio we’re pioneering a new funding model where we invest into our employee’s ideas with the safety net of a high-paying full-time role. For example, if they have an interesting business idea, we’ll put in the necessary funding and talent to get the idea through prototype and demand testing. Our employees are able to be entrepreneurs without having to give up their financial security as a trade-off.
Also, some people at Mavan.com are hired on a fractional basis and are able to continue working their full-time jobs. That flexibility allows them to impact different companies at the same time, which we’ve found leads to greater engagement. There’s also an element of “try before you buy” — every one of our full-time employees stared out as outside contractors and got a chance to learn what it’s like to work here before coming on full-time. This is very different from the traditional career gamble you’re forced to take every time you start a new role hoping that the team is as great as everyone said during the interview process.
We’re also disrupting how companies’ partner with agencies. For example, because of our depth of VP-level talent from the biggest companies in tech, with less than 10% of them being full time, we’re able to do many things well, across many verticals, whereas many traditional agencies focus on only a single element of growth. We’re able to help clients in a meaningful way across user acquisition, data and analytics, and predictive LTV methodologies. We also do UI/UX, engineering, brand, social media, and strategic finance. At the end of the day, meaningful growth comes as a result of many things across your business running in concert together, at different speeds and at different depths. We take a holistic approach to helping our clients because these elements are multiplicative and are required at most every stage of a business’s growth.
We’re also disrupting investment, which many startups struggle with. Founders often settle for only a million or so in initial funding, which is not enough to help cover basic salaries and attract world-class talent. Because we fund the seed round into our own ideas, we’re able to decide which concepts are worthy of more significant investment and that data paired up with our existing world-class team acts to derisk follow-on investment. Great people want to build and work on great things while being greatly compensated in cash and equity. With our model, Mavan is able to deliver on all those things at once.
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 we first got started, we ran the business a little too long without a bookkeeper. One of our key advisors, who previously led finance at a major venture studio, pushed us to get a bookkeeper immediately. The day we got a bookkeeper, the difference was night and day. Another thing was solely running on debit cards or cash when we could have accumulated cash bonuses from using a company credit card early on. If I remember correctly, we had nearly $10k in rewards within the first 90 days of opening the account.
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?
Honestly there’s too many to mention, I am here because of a lot of help from others. Bob Leppo and Craig Sherman are easily two of the most influential. Bob has taught me a ton about investment into entrepreneurs and the importance of giving them the room to make their own decisions and follow their intuition when they disagree with your advice. Picking a pony and watching the race. Craig Sherman has taught me a ton about the ability to make investments and other tough decisions without having to sacrifice things like compassion, kindness, or altruism. They’re both incredibly generous with their time and advice and continue to inspire and make me a better leader/investor/person.
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?
It largely depends on your perspective; sometimes you’re the bug, sometimes you’re the windshield. For the professional horseshoer at the turn of the century, the rise of the automobile would have likely been considered a pretty negative disruption. Ultimately there are secondary effects of all disruption and there are people that benefit and people that suffer as a result.
I also think that disruption is a natural state of things. Like many things in life there’s a risk of being too results oriented. Even if the net result isn’t positive, there is a positive in knowing that the net result wasn’t positive at that point in time under those specific conditions. This is all a very long-winded way of saying “it depends on where you sit.”
Can you share five of the best words of advice you’ve gotten along your journey? Please give a story or example for each.
“As a CEO, say ‘no’ more often than you think you should.” — I was on a company trip and asked our CEO, Justin Kitch, what advice he would give to someone who might be a CEO one day, and he said “You have to say ‘no’ way more than you think. Everyone’s going to want your time, your money, your energy, and if you don’t say ‘no’ constantly, you’ll never get anything important done.”
“If you don’t know where you’re going, any road will take you there.” — This is a famous quote from Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland. I received this advice in college, and it’s stuck with me ever since. Every five years or so I take the time to consciously sit down and map out what’s most important to me and where I’d like to be in the next handful of years. Doing that has highlighted so many paths that have led me to amazing things that I otherwise wouldn’t have even noticed. By having a clear understanding of what I’m looking for it’s made those things easier to spot.
“Play every show like you’re at Madison Square Garden” — This is basically getting at giving things your all even when it’s seemingly unimportant. Slow night at the restaurant you work at, the only table of the night wants to split an appetizer and two waters? Give them the best service you possibly can. You never know when you’re working on something that can be career changing until you’re looking back.
“Life can only be understood backwards, but it must be lived forwards.” — It’s a famous quote from Søren Kierkegaard but I remember hearing this from my father-in-law when I was torn between a few job opportunities. He told me that at many points in his career he thought he was potentially making a mistake but that it all made sense looking back. It was great advice for having faith that things would all work out.
Give way more than you take and introduce people freely — I don’t know if there’s a specific story for this, it’s something that’s always come naturally for me and something I’ve seen from the best people I know. When great people get together great things happen and the pieces sort themselves out. It always balances in the end.
We are sure you aren’t done. How are you going to shake things up next?
We’re growing quickly. We want to continue to expand Mavan as a consultancy and anticipate growing Mavan Studios in a more meaningful way in 2023. I think it’s entirely plausible that by 2025 we’ve announced a more traditional large venture fund. This would give us a stake in a highly operational team of top talent, a home-grown seed investment vehicle, and fund meant for later stage investments.
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?
One particular episode of the Naval podcast, “Play Long Term Games with Long Term People,” perfectly summarizes our approach to building relationships in business. In terms of books, three that always come to mind are: (1) Built to Last: Successful Habits of Visionary Companies by Jim Collins and Jerry I. Porras, which is a great resource for those who are leading their business through tough times; (2) Blitzscaling: The Lightning-Fast Path to Building Massively Valuable Companies by Reid Hoffman and Chris Yeh; and (3) Measure What Matters by John Doerr, which is excellent for those who are looking to quickly scale their startups.
Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share how that was relevant to you in your life?
“Call your shots” — It’s very easy to tell people after the fact that you knew something was going to happen. I see it all the time with stock advice, but people rarely tell you about how they just lost 30% in some stock they bought less than a month ago (ignoring r/wallstreetbets).
When you call your shots publicly or even with just a small group of friends it forces a few things.
1) Conviction. It takes some conviction to say what you’re going to do or to try and predict the future publicly. Elon Musk famously wrote “The Secret Tesla Motors Master Plan” in 2006, literally outlining what he’s been doing since, with a high degree of accuracy.
2) Accountability. When you email a group of friends to tell them that you’re going to be putting 10% of your investable net-worth into a company that you believe in, you become accountable to yourself and others. It’s easy to hide the loses and talk about the wins, not a lot of people call their shots.
This doesn’t mean to go around constantly trying to predict every single thing that’s going to happen, I’m not sure there’d be many people left to tell after long if you did. This means for those rare, all-in, “I think this thing is huge” or “I’m 100% going to do this thing that most people probably don’t even think is possible” — that it’s worth putting that out into the public.
I might even put together “The Secret Mavan Master Plan,” stay tuned.
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. 🙂
Reducing unnecessary meetings. Companies of all sizes are riddled with unnecessary meetings. Meetings that could have been an email, or key decision makers don’t show up, that there’s no agenda for; the list goes on. It often results in employees having to work during meetings, because if they didn’t, they’d have to work all night at home just to get through their inbox. We’re testing a product right now that aims to solve this and we’re expecting to release more details later this year.
“Be really selfish when building a company.” — When leading a company, you have to learn to set some clear boundaries around your life and time that, although they may seem selfish, will help push your goals forward in the long run. For instance, my sisters know not to call me during my 12pm-5pm work hours. Even though they are still going to call, you have to be selfish and strict about your boundaries because you are now stepping into something you have never done before, and you need to guarantee that you gave it your all.
As a part of our series called “Making Something From Nothing”, I had the pleasure of interviewing Ezinne Iroanya-Adeoye.
Ezinne Iroanya-Adeoye created SKNMUSE to serve as an intersection of beauty, culture and community for the modern Black woman. Raised by her mother to prioritize self-care as a right, a necessity and a source of joy, Ezinne uses the values instilled during youth and her experience in the luxury beauty space to fulfill the previously unmet skincare needs of Black women. SKNMUSE uses authentic clean beauty practices and nourishing ingredients to provide a sense of familiarity and comfort for the “firsts” and “onlies” of the room, giving the modern Black woman an indulgent self-care ritual to cater to her soul’s vessel.
Thank you so much for doing this with us! Before we dive in, our readers would love to learn a bit more about you. Can you tell us a bit about your “childhood backstory”?
I was born and raised in Lagos, Nigeria, one of the largest hubs in Africa. I was raised by my mother and grandmother, who showed me ways to move through entrepreneurship. My mother submitted one job application in her life and worked that job up into her retirement. But while working that job, my mother held different side jobs to help create a better life for us. I remember my first experience with entrepreneurship. My mom sold curtains, bed sheets — she would sew them and sell them; then she sold water, then she did retail, and finally opened a beauty salon. I grew up watching my mom allow herself to explore different avenues of revenue streaming. My mom held a great job as a Director of Irrigation but still desired more for herself and her family. As the only authority figure in my life, she instilled in me that there was more out there for me. Watching my mom put herself through school and attend classes with her inspired my hustle. When it was my time in school, I maintained the same hustle, understanding that there was always money to be made, and I was there to fill that gap. My mom was also very encouraging of our creative and explorative nature. From choir to dance, my mom was supportive in everything we did. I appreciate that, and it really imprinted on how I feel I am to just take the risk and bet on myself because I believe that God has my back, and the worst thing that could happen is that I would have to move back to my mother’s house and It’s comfortable there, so why not dream my biggest dream.
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 myself that I started saying to myself in my early 20s that stuck with me and that quote is “Stand in your truth, and the world will make room for you.” Before, I believed that I was never comfortable standing in my own truth. There was a turning point in my life where I just told myself, “be yourself!” That was one of the best years of my life, and I realized that people were readily accepting the vulnerable side of me and were okay with it. It reminds me to remain me even when I am in spaces where I am like, “How did I get here?”.
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 Mastery of Love by Don Miguel Luis — I read this around the time when I was ready to stand in my truth and set boundaries for myself. This book really helped me find it out for myself and showed me that it’s almost imprinted on them like a physical scar when human beings get hurt. As a result, we developed survival mechanisms and actions to try to protect ourselves that can transport to others as fears. And it also taught me how to be a better empathetic leader.
Ok super. Let’s now shift to the main part of our discussion. There is no shortage of good ideas out there. Many people have good ideas all the time. But people seem to struggle in taking a good idea and translating it into an actual business. Can you share a few ideas from your experience about how to overcome this challenge?
You really just have to overcome fear. We all are flowing with creativity to a certain degree; we express it differently. We are all capable of developing solutions to problems, and everyone is innovative in their own way. Still, the fear of judgment from others, fear of missing out, and failure can often get in the way of our greatness and stunt our growth. The moment you start doing the things you are most afraid of or complete that task you’ve been putting off, you realize that it’s not that bad. The most significant part is telling yourself that “What I am about to do is scary, it is going to have me judged for putting my choice of art out there, and what I am about to do, I might fail at it and be okay with that. You have to make a personal decision that I am about to do something insane, look at the mountain, and still decide to climb.
A Lot of people are also waiting for perfection. You should look at your last year’s work and be disgusted because life is about growth, but you cannot achieve perfection waiting for it to just show up. Just do it. Perfection is also a tool of procrastination. It’s never perfect for you because you don’t have the resources currently to get to your future goal. But once you start, you will get to where you want to be.
Lastly, it is good to realize that you can’t always operate on 10; it is impossible. So what I like to tell myself is just be consistent. Give what you can each day towards your goal and if you are constantly feeding your goal, the train will keep moving.
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?
Walk down the water aisle. As humans, we all have a central connection; that’s why trends happen. But when it comes to entrepreneurship, it is best to research what it is that YOU bring to the market and what solutions you solve.
We are not the first body butter company, but I stand firmly that SKNMUSE is the first skincare company to focus on luxury beauty by highlighting ingredients and products that are special to the Black and brown community. It’s safe to say we are the first company to target the modern black woman. And that is because we were able to provide a small solution for a large group of people. So I can represent a small conglomerate of people in an enormous sea of people.
For the benefit of our readers, can you outline the steps one has to go through, from when they think of the idea, until it finally lands in a customer’s hands? In particular, we’d love to hear about how to file a patent, how to source a good manufacturer, and how to find a retailer to distribute it.
Research! Conduct full product and market research into the field you desire to head into to fully prepare you for what you are about to get yourself into and what is needed to succeed in that space. From research, you will also have to conduct customer discovery. Like Uber, for example, is Uber for the riders? Or, the drivers? Uber knows this because they have done customer research to understand what it is and who it is, making their company needle keep ticking. This will also help you understand who your exact customer is.
Once you figure that out, you can start flushing out your niche, what your branding is, and your brand DNA. Your brand DNA will establish your brand identity and solidify your space in your industry.
From the day you decide you want to start your business, open a business account and start running your business from that account. This simple task will save you a lot of money in accounting fees in the long run and help you track your business finances more manageable. Then begin to trademark! You can start trademarking 6 months before having a physical product.
Lastly, don’t quit your job! You will need your 9–5 to help fund your business until it can float itself. Especially as Black and brown founders, we don’t have access to capital as easily as our counterparts, making starting a small business hard.
What are your “5 Things I Wish Someone Told Me When I First Started Leading My Company” and why? (Please share a story or example for each.)
“Be really selfish when building a company.” — When leading a company, you have to learn to set some clear boundaries around your life and time that, although they may seem selfish, will help push your goals forward in the long run. For instance, my sisters know not to call me during my 12pm-5pm work hours. Even though they are still going to call, you have to be selfish and strict about your boundaries because you are now stepping into something you have never done before, and you need to guarantee that you gave it your all.
“It can be very lonely at times” — While building your business and creating boundaries, it can sometimes become very lonely. The best way to navigate this is to find a community that understands what you are doing and your goals. They will understand and sympathize with the journey of entrepreneurship; good, bad, and ugly.
“Finances… Talk about Finances” — I’ve learned that no one really likes to discuss finances, but you need to be financially secure and realistic about your finances. Get comfortable with having uncomfortable conversations with people, even admitting that something is out of your payment capabilities. Get comfortable having financial discussions with your team because god-forbid something happens, and they need to immediately know their next steps. And if you don’t understand money, educate yourself. I have done extensive research, signed up for courses, downloaded apps, etc, to expand my knowledge base. And when all else fails, also hire an accountant.
“Grants” — People in the Black and brown community are not privy to the knowledge of grants available to them as entrepreneurs. But if we begin the conversations to help each other familiarize ourselves with grant processes, we can help each other succeed.
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?
As I mentioned before, the most important steps are extensive research into your market and your clients.
There are many invention development consultants. Would you recommend that a person with a new idea hire such a consultant, or should they try to strike out on their own?
It depends on your strengths and what you have access to. You are more than capable of turning your goals into fruition. But if you have a great idea and you know that you lack the expertise to get the idea where you need to get it, hire a consultant or invest in apps and books that will educate you.
If you can hire someone, YES! The time it takes you in trial and error will be cut in half and will save you from costly mistakes that you may find in the long run.
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 sucks! It is something that has been tied to the Black and brown community that has truthfully kept us stuck. Over time, we have used it as a tool to get our goals done. But I don’t think it should be like that. I believe that bootstrapping should be eradicated. Instead, I believe governments and states should instill some kind of capital specifically around entrepreneurship. Imagine if everyone was allowed to do what they were passionate about? We would all be happier to a certain degree.
I will say, even though bootstrapping sucks and is hard, it is necessary. Venture Capital comes with giving up a percentage of your company and a percentage of the owner in how you run the business. You would have to run ten times as fast as your competitors because VC money is money that you have to return within a specific timeframe. However, with VC money, the time you would take in building your own community and network in bootstrapping will be cut in half because you will now be plugged into their network.
You have to have an authentic conversation with yourself when deciding which route is best for you and your business. For example, ask yourself honest questions, like, “Do I want to run my business at 10 miles per hour, or do I want to take my time” “If I do take VC money, what is my exit plan?”, etc. Bootstrapping has allowed me to stretch myself as an entrepreneur and helped me create bigger dreams for my company and my team without having the pressure of having to produce for a VC company.
Ok. We are nearly done. Here are our final questions. How have you used your success to make the world a better place?
SKNMUSE is a premium beauty brand championing inclusivity and sustainability in luxury. With a vision of becoming a luxury goods conglomerate, we offer an elevated self-care ritual for the modern Black woman through body care. We create experiences that provide a long-lasting, culturally authentic, high-end experience.
SKNMUSE has also sponsored over 30 therapy sessions for minority children.
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 want to continue to elevate the beauty experience for the modern Black woman through the authentic reflection of Black women in the luxury beauty space. Through SKNMUSE, I want to inspire brands to be intentional when representing Black women in industries that generally overlook us.
We are very blessed that some of the biggest names in Business, VC funding, Sports, and Entertainment read this column. Is there a person in the world, or in the US, with whom you would love to have a private breakfast or lunch, and why? He or she might just see this if we tag them.
Issa Rae because I believe we share the same vision for enriching our community and raising a new standard of collaboration.
Thank you for these fantastic insights. We greatly appreciate the time you spent on this.
Increased diversity helps people bring their authentic selves to work. Specifically in the Black and Latino communities we have always felt the pressures of having to code switch for fear of being judged in the workplace. Speaking from experience, this is a heavy burden, and it takes so much energy to have to do that.
As a part of our series about “How Diversity Can Increase a Company’s Bottom Line”, I had the pleasure of interviewing Andrea Richardson.
Over the last two decades, Andréa Richardson Zeno Group’s Global Head of Diversity, Equity & Inclusion has provided strategic counsel to top global corporations, nonprofits and public entities on diversity, inclusion & equity strategies, multicultural marketing, crisis management, reputation management, branding, customer engagement and corporate social responsibility. Over the course of her career, Andréa has been named Out & Equal’s Outstanding Champion, Black Enterprise Magazine’s Top Female Executive in Advertising & Marketing and was recently named one of the 100 Most Influential Persons of African Descent in Business and Entrepreneurship as proclaimed by United Nation’s General Assembly.
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?
Definitely and thank you so much for having me! To start, I would consider myself incredibly blessed to have had early childhood exposure to a multicultural mindset. I was born into a family with a range of cultural and ethnic influences including Black, Caribbean/West Indian, Afro-Latino, Irish and of course American influences being born in the U.S. Virgin Islands. I’m very fortunate to have parents who took education seriously; sometimes too seriously. They both have MBAs and I felt like my entire life was about education and school even when I was at home on the weekends. I am more grateful now, but not so much back then. I’ve worked for media companies, non-profit organizations, PR/marketing/government affairs agencies and Fortune 100 companies. I’ve always been really focused on my career progression, graduated from high school at 16 and had an MBA by the age of 24. I am incredibly grateful to have had the unique opportunity to cultivate my marketing and communication skills while building a deep competence in multicultural marketing communication and diversity, equity and inclusion. My first relevant job was at the Better Business Bureau of New York doing multicultural communications even before I truly knew what it was. My role was to connect and engage small businesses to become members of the organization. Most of these small businesses were run by people of multicultural descent and this role required knowledge of various communities, their mindsets, needs, goals and lots of relationship building.
Can you share the funniest or most interesting story that happened to you since you started your career? Can you tell us the lesson or take away you took out of that story?
This is not so interesting, but perhaps funny! In 2006, my former colleague and one-time direct report who has since moved on to do some amazing things in her career had a nickname that is still true of my personality today: “Corporate Andréa.” She would tease me and say that she always knew when I was about to get down to business because my voice and mannerisms would change. Corporate Andréa still exists today, but I like to think of it as like pressing a button that says “Activate Boss Mode” and then, surprise, we have Corporate Andréa.
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?
The life lesson quote I carry with me is: No one cares how much you know until they know how much you care. As human beings it is natural for us to want to shout to the world all that we have learned and studied. My approach is generally listen first, speak later. I truly want to listen first to understand the needs of others in helping to find a solution for all parties involved. There is always a smart solution!
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 to say I have been blessed to have several allies and business sponsors who have given me amazing advice and said my name in rooms that I wasn’t in at the time or even challenged me to be fearless in my approach to my career and life in general. But there is one constant, and that is my Aunt Angela who has always provided a supportive listening ear. No matter how out of the box the ideas have been, her response has always been “go for it” and “trust your intuition — it hasn’t led you wrong yet”.
What do you think makes your company stand out? Can you share a story?
Daily, we do work that helps our clients achieve something better for humankind. Zeno Group’s purpose is to champion the courageous to achieve something better for humankind. It’s such a good feeling to work with people who are likeminded in this quest. It adds new meaning to work when we are empowered to act courageously in our day-to-day to get a better outcome for us all as human beings.
Are you working on any new or exciting projects now? How do you think that might help people?
I am especially excited about the equity work we are doing across various industries at Zeno. Do I think this will help people? Absolutely. I am confident that it will. For the most part, companies have begun their journey on the D&I aspects of DE&I, but in general have lagged on the equity component. It’s unknown territory for most companies and some companies are still struggling with the difference between equality and equity. It’s courageous to take on the challenge of equity because it may require doing things differently and that can be scary territory. I am always up for the challenge; in the end this work is too important, and it will create better outcomes for humankind.
How have you used your success to bring goodness to the world?
My job is innately impact and purpose led; I take this extremely seriously because I try to live a purpose-driven life. Some may say well it’s just a job; it’s how you pay the bills. Yes, it pays the bills, but I’m also grateful that the work I do helps people. It is very rewarding work. Work that makes people feel like they are welcomed and cared for in the workplace. Work that stands up for the least empowered voices in a room. Work that advocates for and creates more equitable experiences with businesses and in society. Work that holds organizations accountable and upholds inclusive corporate citizenship.
Ok. Thank you for that. Let’s now jump to the main part of our interview. This may be obvious to you, but it is not intuitive to many people. Can you articulate to our readers five ways that increased diversity can help a company’s bottom line. (Please share a story or example for each.)
Increased diversity helps people bring their authentic selves to work. Specifically in the Black and Latino communities we have always felt the pressures of having to code switch for fear of being judged in the workplace. Speaking from experience, this is a heavy burden, and it takes so much energy to have to do that.
Increased diversity makes way for more diversity of thought. This allows people with varying lived experiences to bring their best thinking and solutions to help a company navigate business challenges. The outcome of this is better innovation.
Better innovation leads to profitability and better financial performance.
With a truly diverse workforce, a company should have diversity at every level of the organization. From senior management to entry level, this is important because each person should see themselves represented across the organization. Representation matters, it’s difficult to aspire to a level when no one that looks like me has ever made it to that level at that organization.
Finally, it helps with retention. As human beings we are community seekers. If I am always the only one in the room, at some point I may ask myself if this is the right room for me. Whereas seeing people like me in the room makes me feel like this is a room that welcomes people like me.
What advice would you give to other business leaders to help their employees to thrive?
Be quick to listen and slow to judge. Create spaces for people to share their lived experience because there is always something we can learn from someone else. Collective learning helps teams grow and work better together.
What advice would you give to other business leaders about how to manage a large team?
Make the time to allow your team to share new and sometimes non-traditional ideas. We are such a productivity-driven society and sometimes we miss the opportunity to find better ways of working and smart ways to innovate because we are so busy doing.
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 🙂
Rihanna is a woman who makes me proud to be a woman of Caribbean descent. I see how she approaches business with a DE&I mindset in such a fearless way and it truly inspires me.
How can our readers further follow your work online?
… Remember nerves mean you’re alive. You are alive, if you are nervous, great, you’re alive, you’re breathing oxygen. And is there any other better way to be? Another thing here, never forget that no one cares about you as much as they care about themselves.
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 Judi Holler.
Judi Holler is an author, keynote speaker, thought leader, podcaster, improviser, and the creator and CEO of the Haus of {&}, a private label lifestyle brand that connects ambitious humans and their goals. Judi helps teams reconnect, fully engage, and uplevel their effectiveness through energizing keynote education and a proprietary methodology that leverages each team member’s unique skill set to execute and adapt better, reach new goals, and amplify their business.
Her top-rated podcast, “Yes, And” with Judi Holler, highlights her professional improv training, as an alumnus of Second City’s Conservatory in Chicago, bringing the improv mindset to you each week with a focus on mental health, high-performance habits, and spirituality.
For the last decade, Judi has worked with companies like Four Seasons, Zyia Active, Marriott, Bank of America, T-Mobile, The Boston Red Sox, The Ritz Carlton, and more teaching the power of the improvisational mindset. Each year Judi speaks on stages around the United States and beyond, to audiences of 10–10,000 sharing the power of the improvisational mindset with her interactive, high-vibe, and inspirational keynote speeches.
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 was born and raised in St. Louis so I’m a midwest girl at heart. I’m the oldest of four, I had an awesome 1980s and 1990s upbringing. I grew up in a diverse area which I loved because it has given me some perspective. And I grew up in a low to middle class family but we had everything we ever needed. But it also plays to my work ethic because I started working when I was thirteen years old. I started in hospitality and banquets and worked my way up from bussing tables to doing banquets, to working at a deli, to bartending, to hostessing. Mainly because I was brought up through the Catholic school system and I wanted to go to the all-girl Catholic high school so badly, so I worked to pay for it. This certainly is a big part of my story because it introduced me at such a young age to so many different kinds of people and to what it looks like to really work for and invest in the things you want. If I wanted a dress for prom, I was going to have to pay for it. My family didn’t have that kind of money. So I worked hard for everything I had and I still do.
Can you share a story with us about what brought you to this specific career path?
If we look back at our childhood, there are usually signs there of what is meant for us. Ask yourself what are those things you did before you got embarrassed, before you worried about people not liking you, before you feared judgment? What was the thing that lit you up before the world told you to dim your light? For me it was speech meets. I was that kid in grade school that did speech meets, I wasn’t in sports. I would go to speech meets and I would pick a monologue, memorize it and then compete by performing it. I would travel all over Missouri, compete, and collect ribbons, gold ribbons by the way, for these speeches. I had an early love of orating, storytelling, and performing. It was an awesome way for me to express myself. I loved how the audience reacted to the story and I loved how I could change the energy in the room. So if you’re ever feeling lost, look back on when you were a kid before the world told you that you needed to hide and before you started fearing failure because there are scenes in there that can illuminate what you’re true calling is.
A corporate story or secondary story that set everything on fire was when I was taking improv classes at the Second City Conservatory in Chicago. I was working my corporate job by day and by night I was taking improv classes. I was learning so many things from improv that I wasn’t learning in the corporate world. At my improv classes, I was being told to fail, to make mistakes, to be myself, to embrace my fear, to be more present, and lean into the discomfort. And by day, I was being told to be myself but make sure to let us know first before you take the risk. By day I had to fit into a box but with improv I was breaking out of that box. I was learning the framework to embrace fear. I was really brave on the improv stage which made me brave in the boardroom. I started asking for what I wanted. I started going to events by myself, asking the guy out on the date, asking for the promotion, it made me really brave in my 9–5, it made me really brave in my life. That reset changed the way I showed up in all aspects of my life. I knew I had to start sharing what I was learning with anyone who would listen. I started a blog, and I asked my boss if I could lead the sales meetings with my ideas. It began because I was a personal branding speaker but what it evolved into was a conversation around courage. We don’t put ourselves out there because we’re afraid to fail, we’re afraid to be judged, we’re afraid to be seen. What began as improv classes turned into an experiment in confidence and reframing of failure and fear which led me to quit my job and do this full time and then write my book. Those improv classes were the catalyst because I started getting braver but really what I do now is very rooted in what I was doing in fifth grade but I took a few diversions to get here. And that’s our job, which is to be a hummingbird. A hummingbird flies around and hits all these different flowers to get everything it needs and that shows that we’re not going to have a linear path. In your youth, you might feel called to something but you’re going to go explore and you’ll be in your twenties, thirties, and forties and figure things out. Your job is to play in the world and explore so you can take that back to your work to season it and amplify it, to put your own unique spin on it. Improv is the lens through which I see the world, but the profession of orating and storytelling has been in my blood, I feel like I was born to do this and improv poured gasoline on it.
Can you tell us the most interesting story that happened to you since you began your career?
This particular story continues to stay with me every single day and will help people as performers, help calm nerves, and get out of your head. I was giving a speech to about 800 people five years ago, and I caught a face in the audience. That happens when you’re on stage, doing your thing and you catch a face which is when you lock eyes with people who are smiling, nodding their head, and really engaged. This woman’s face, I kept catching her face and she had a resting b**** face, it looked like she couldn’t stand me, and it looked like she just wanted me to get off stage. It made me so awkward and made me get in my head. I did have a group of girls that were smiling and really getting into my speech but this woman just did not look happy and I kept catching her face. Once I get off the stage, there is an opportunity for the members of the audience to meet me, take selfies, sign books, and the group of girls who I could tell were engaged with my talk, were in line and it was great. Then I saw the woman with the resting b**** face and negative cues in line and I got so nervous. I didn’t know what to expect but when it got to her turn in line, she grabbed my hands and said, “I just want to tell you how timely this talk is for me, I just lost someone in my family and I have been waiting to make changes, I’ve been feeling sorry for myself, putting everything on hold because of it. I am a victim of this experience and your talk woke me up to the fact that now is the time and I can’t let fear call the shots anymore. I was so moved by your talk.” This woman was in tears and gave me a big hug. I was on stage completely misreading this woman and what she was going through. I was blown away. After the meet and greet, I went to the bathroom and the group of girls who were smiling at me and engaged in my talk were in the bathroom saying mean things about me. I thought by their body language and their cues, I thought they loved my talk whereas the woman with the cold face in the audience was completely ready to change her life because of my talk. The lesson here for any performer is to be careful. We never really know what’s going on with people, be careful about how we receive and perceive the audience. Be mindful about misreading cues. We’re never as good as they say we are, but we’re never as bad as they say we are. You never know who you’re moving and connecting with.
The other lesson on a lighter note: try not to use the public bathrooms before or after a talk or speech so you can keep your head in the game and a comment doesn’t take you out of focus.
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 spoke to Ohio State University’s medical staff. I did a workshop in the morning, stayed there for the day, and then in the evening I did an all-staff talk. In the audience were surgeons, nurses, doctors, and administrative staff. During a part of my talk, which is one of the things I teach from my improv background, “there are no mistakes, only gifts.” Then I look at the front row and there are ten surgeons just looking at me. I realized I didn’t do my homework. You have to know your audience because I could’ve flipped that but I wasn’t prepared. I could have found a way to make that lesson make sense. I could have said, “We’re all going to make mistakes so how do we train and empower our staff?” I’m sure surgeons can beat themselves up and can spiral when mistakes happen because in surgery you don’t want to make a big mistake. But surgeons are human too and they have to figure out how to recover and rebound when things don’t go as they should.
Moral of the story: Know your audience.
A secondary story: Get video of you on stage, hire a videographer. Back when I was first starting, I hired a relatively inexperienced videographer and I was wearing a bunch of chains and jewelry and when we re-watched the video, the audio was ruined because of the clanking chains and earrings I was wearing. We couldn’t use any of the videos. The videographer was inexperienced so he didn’t tell me to take it off, I was still a bit inexperienced as well so I didn’t know any better. So be mindful of your accessories while on stage.
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?
It has to be Amanda Zahner on my team, my first hire. We need to grow and hire. The faster you can do that, you can carve out the capital and space in your heart. I knew I needed to hire someone in order to get to where I wanted to go. I couldn’t do it alone, I was so in the weeds and I needed support. I put a feeler out in my community, my newsletter, and my social media. She was the first one to respond, we got over fifty responses and whittled it down to ten. I had a gut feeling it was going to be her who worked with me. Five years later, she’s still with me and she’s been here since the beginning. She is now my business partner, building the Haus of & brand with me, she is the chief integration officer, she’s my right hand woman and I wouldn’t be able to do what I do without her. The lesson here is to hire before you’re ready. Find someone who aligns to who you are as a human being and to the message you are putting out in the world. Amanda actually found me because she was in the audience at one of my talks, so she was already a part of my community. She ultimately took a risk by quitting her corporate, six-figure career to work with me full-time. We continued to grow from there. It’s a testament to look for help, look sooner than you’re ready, look inside your community. Get clear on what you’re looking for, find someone who is aligned on the message so they can build the future with you and become a business partner. Also, maybe find someone who doesn’t want to do what you do. I’m beyond grateful every single day for Amanda’s partnership, trust, and her dedicated support.
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?
One of the big things I teach in my work is the improv mantra: There are no mistakes, only gifts. We don’t fail, we win or we learn.
You have to reframe your perspective on failure. The career of being a professional public speaker, success depends on the repetitions. The more you do it, the stronger you get. Like with a marathon, you have to train and start somewhere. You have to start with your first speech. You have to start so begin.
There’s a big misconception that improvisers just wing it and we go with the flow. And that’s the furthest thing from the truth. The only reason improvisers are able to improvise in the moment is because they have prepared for the moment. They have used their training to succeed on stage in difficult and unexpected moments. Improvisers are the most prepared people you’ll meet which allows us to improvise. This means be prepared and rehearse. Before I put any talk on a stage, I have run it dozens and dozens of times. Have an outline on the lectern so if the tech goes down, you can stay on track. Know your material. I was once told that how prepared you are, is a reflection of how much you respect your audience. I respect my audiences. I’m there to serve and provide value. To connect people to something bigger. To help them think differently. To share a story that can awaken them. That can only be done successfully through preparation. Know your stuff and rehearse like a beast. It will serve you well when, not if, when technology fails, when slides disappear, when you have to shrink your talk down. Things will happen so be ready. The only way you can fail is number one, not trying and number two, not preparing. Preparation helps us not feel so daunted by the prospect of failure. We can control how we show up. Prepare, trust yourself, and then let it go.
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 am on a mission to get you to the other side of someday syndrome, that the transformative ideas and the empowering mindset from the improv theater can help you turn someday into today.
And you can do that by opening new doors. Now, today, and the story that I opened my keynote with is a perfect illumination of this:
This notion that my realtor sold a house to a widow who lost his wife in her sleep at the age of 53. And when they were signing the papers, she had a brain aneurysm in her sleep. And so when they were signing the paperwork around his kitchen table, when he was selling the house, he asked my realtor and everybody there, if they wanted something to drink to which they said yes. So, he went to the Wedding China cabinet and got out all the water for crystal and poured everybody drinks in Waterford crystal to which my realtor said, “oh my God, this is so fancy.”
And he goes, “it’s our Wedding China. I watched this Wedding China collect dust for almost thirty years. My wife was always waiting for a special occasion. I know today is the special occasion.” He said, “I drink my morning orange juice out of this crystal every day.”
The point is: use the crystal, light the candle, wear the good perfume. Do it now, because now’s the time. The problem is we wait for someday.
So the message I want to share is that someday needs to become today. You can always make more money, but you can’t make more time.
I’m on a mission to get people to move and to do that in a way that feels doable. That’s my message.
We’re combating someday syndrome.
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?
Most certainly Haus of {&}, is the most exciting project that I’m working on.
It is a lifestyle brand rooted in the tenets of improv theater, fueled by the transformative power of &.
But most importantly, a lifestyle brand. I see myself working on my next book, growing a merchandise brand, a merchandise line, a physical store, live experiences, all wrapped around the transformational power of &, and how that idea can help people turn someday into today.
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 contrary to what we usually hear, “fake it until you make it.” My favorite life lesson quote is, “make it until you make it.” Cause I think there’s a lot of people out in the world that get so busy faking it, they never make it. And if we’re faking it, then we’re creating things that aren’t really who we are. And we end up miserable and jealous and overwhelmed and exhausted and deep in comparison, and we feel like an imposter. While we can’t avoid feeling those things, it is certainly not helpful to be anything but who you are.
And that requires you to go out and be a hummingbird in your life. Try a lot of things on, do a lot of things, meet a lot of people, get a lot of different perspectives and then make it until you make it, keep moving until you make it right.
Keep iterating and improvising and trying things until you make it. So that’s my favorite quote. “We make it until we make it.”
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.
Number one: you have to have a great speech, a great speech that has heartbeats.
I was once told by one of my very early mentors and coaches that a good speech sort of resembles the EKG on a heartbeat machine.
So you’ll see it go up and you’ll see it go down. And this really plays to the heartbeats that our talk should have because 50% of your audience is going to learn with their heart and 50% of your audience is going to learn with their head.
A good talk dances between those two lines, we teach and tell stories and use anecdotes and interaction to play to our heart.
And then we also use science, research, stories and data to play to the head. And that really makes a beautiful talk.
Number two, storytelling is a big part of that talk. I think it’s always strong when you think of a good speech to have a very strong opening story, and then coming back to it at the end, again, to sort of call back, we do a lot of callbacks in the improv theater to call back to it and tie it up in a pretty bow.
It really is 50% of the head, 50% of the heart. So do you, Bob and weave between those two things,
Number two preparation, someone once told me that how prepared you are, shows how much you respect your audience.
I think I talked about this in an earlier question. So make sure you are prepared, rehearse, rehearse, rehearse, rehearse, rehearse, know your stuff.
Number three, check your ego at the door. I was once told by an early mentor, that you’re never as good as they say you are, but your hustle never is bad.
Don’t be a jerk. And to remember, don’t tie your self worth or yourself success to a standing ovation, standing ovations are amazing and they’re incredible, but all it takes is one person. It could be your mama in the front row and she stands up. Guess what the rest of the room is going to stand up. So it’s humbling, it’s checking your ego and remembering you’re there to serve.
And no one is better than anyone and live in gratitude for the fact that you’re able to do this work and that you were hired to serve.
And that you were able to begin, you were given the gift of speaking on a stage. So gratitude and check your ego at the door.
Number four, have a thick skin. When you speak on stage, you’re going to have to keep moving. Despite someone getting up and leaving, despite someone in the audience that has a weird look on their face, that you may be misreading, despite somebody not liking you, despite someone leaving a negative review, all of these things are going to happen.
You just have to have a really deep confidence in yourself and a really deep self-love. One of the things I say before I go out on any stage is, I tell myself that I love myself.
No matter what happens up here, no matter what goes right, what goes wrong at the end of the day, when I put my head on the pillow at night, I’m going to love myself regardless.
And when you really put yourself in that position of deep self love and gratitude for the work that you do, you can’t fail.
So competence, thick skin, and self-love is important.
Number five, last but not least, I think what makes a highly effective public speaker is having a body of work. I think my speaking career really elevated when I published my first book and truly, that’s why I did it. I knew that it would be writing a book. I knew that it would be the best business card I could ever buy for myself or invest in for myself because it is not cheap to write a book, to produce a book, to launch a book, and market a book and all the things.
But it is awesome because it really validates your intellectual property and gives your audiences tangible tools they can take home with them. There’s more after the speech. And that is a really powerful tool.
As you know, many people are terrified of speaking in public. Can you give some of your advice about how to overcome this fear?
Well, number one, we need to realize that we will never overcome fear, but we can work with it.
So many people want to get rid of fear. You can’t, but you could work with it. So there’s some really powerful ways to work with your fear.
So number one, congratulate yourself. If you’re about to go speak somewhere, Congratulations! You have earned your spot on that stage. The bad news is that you can’t control or stop the nerves.
The good news is you can reframe it and make friends with it. So, here’s how you can do that. Number two, stop telling yourself you’re nervous and start telling yourself you’re excited.
Your brain doesn’t know the difference. So tell a new story. Nine times out of ten, by the time you put your little feet on the stage, and you’re 30 to 90 seconds into the talk, your nerves aren’t the star of the show anymore.
So write a new story, say thank you for the gift of being able to make an impact to share your story with others.
Lead with gratitude. Have gratitude backstage before you go onto that stage. It really helps me reset and reframe why I’m there.
It takes the attention off of me and onto the real star of the show, which is the value I’m going to provide to the audience.
Remember nerves mean you’re alive. You are alive, if you are nervous, great, you’re alive, you’re breathing oxygen. And is there any other better way to be? Another thing here, never forget that no one cares about you as much as they care about themselves.
Give them so much gold and realize you’re there to serve, not perform. And last but not least, I always anchor any scary thing that I have to go do with a fun treat on the other side. So after a talk, I always treat myself as something like a really good glass of champagne, a massage manicure, pedicure, a brownie. I’m always sort of anchoring something on the other side of my talk to reward myself for doing the scary thing.
And I think there are three things you can do before you get on stage to really reset your vibe. Before I get on any stage, I have a song I listen to. It’s unstoppable by SIA. I play a song that really gets me feeling confident while I’m doing that. I stand in a power pose.
So for the entire song, I am standing in a power pose. Google it. There’s a lot of science behind power posing. So that usually lasts a couple of minutes. And then, like I said, I tell myself, I love myself and I go out there and I do the work.
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?
I would eradicate ‘someday syndrome’ from the world. I would continue to shout from the mountain tops that the transformational power of & is the cure for moving small daily actions, adding something new when you feel stuck are the ways we combat it.
We eradicate it and we begin to change our lives. So I think that’s the movement I want to inspire in the world.
I want to show you that you can use the transformational power of & to turn someday into today. And that is what changes the course of your life.
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?
Yes. Amy Poehler. Let’s go.
Oprah too, but I feel like everybody says Oprah. Oprah, if you’re reading this, call me.
But Amy Poehler, for sure! I would love to talk about all things improv and comedy. And just basically become best friends with her.
This was so informative, thank you so much! We wish you continued success!
Vladimir Yordanov Of Presitely On How to Effectively Leverage The Power of Digital Marketing, PPC, & Email to Dramatically Increase Sales
An Interview With Fotis Georgiadis
You also need to have analytical thinking. As a digital marketer you need to be able to measure the success of your campaigns. Your decisions should be based on data and not just your hunch. That’s one of the great things about digital marketing, we now can have all the data we need to be successful. We just need to know how to use it.
Marketing a product or service today is easier than ever before in history. Using platforms like Facebook ads or Google ads, a company can market their product directly to people who perfectly fit the ideal client demographic, at a very low cost. Digital Marketing tools, Pay per Click ads, and email marketing can help a company dramatically increase sales. At the same time, many companies that just start exploring with digital marketing tools often see disappointing results.
As a part of this series, I had the pleasure of interviewing Vladimir Yordanov of Presitely.
Vladimir is the founder and CEO at Presitely, a full-service digital marketing agency that has helped many B2B companies worldwide grow their revenue online. They have been featured in Forbes, Inc., Entrepreneur, The Washington Post, and many other online publishers. Presitely is a Google Partner and a Founding Member at Hotjar.
Their clients are from different industries including fintech, SaaS, insurance, and blockchain. The agency is a one-stop shop for all their digital marketing needs.
Aside from juggling all kinds of responsibilities at the agency, Vladimir likes to spend his time exploring the great outdoors doing irresponsible things like paragliding, climbing, diving, skiing, and traveling a lot.
Thank you so much for joining us in this interview series! Before we dive in, our readers would love to “get to know you” a bit better. Can you tell us a bit about your ‘backstory’ and how you got started?
Starting my own agency had been my dream ever since I got introduced to the digital marketing world back in 2008. That’s when I joined the online marketing team at Philips in Amsterdam.
Then, in 2014, I founded Presitely. Initially, we were only 3 full-time employees working from the living room of my mom’s apartment. I had nothing to lose and so much to gain. Since then we’ve changed 3 office spaces and the team has grown a lot. And after the pandemic hit, we went fully remote and we’ve mostly kept it that way.
Nowadays, we work with some really awesome companies, both big and small. Most of them have been with us for years. This brings the best results for them and helps us establish a strong long-term digital marketing strategy.
Can you share a story about the funniest marketing mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lessons or ‘takeaways’ you learned from that?
I was presenting a technical SEO audit to a client. The slides were prepared by the dedicated project manager but I was the one presenting. We were in one of the meeting rooms in their office. I was presenting the slides on the big screen in front of their CEO and marketing team. The presentation was full of useful recommendations and everyone seemed really focused.
On one of the slides, there was a link that was supposed to take me to our spreadsheet containing our audit data. When I clicked on it, I immediately knew there was something wrong because a video started loading on the screen. And before I could react, the video had already loaded and was playing. It was a live performance of “La Marseillaise” by an Egyption orchestra and it was horrible. The title of the video literally was “Egyptian Orchestra BUTCHERS French Anthem! Cringe”.
Everyone in the room was puzzled at first, they didn’t know what was happening. But I knew exactly what was going on. My colleague had been watching this video while preparing the presentation, and had pasted the wrong link. I knew it because it wasn’t his first time doing this.
I managed to explain and everyone in the room started laughing. This actually helped break the ice and the presentation was much more relaxed after that. People felt comfortable joining the discussion and asking questions. As for my colleague, we still laugh about it to this day.
If you’re curious — here’s how the Egyptian orchestra butchers the French anthem.
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’m definitely grateful to the few people who believed in me from the very start even when I wasn’t sure if I would be able to make it work. As they say, do it even if you’re afraid and confidence will follow.
I’m also grateful to our first client. He knew me from my previous job as a digital marketing project manager. I remember when I told him I was going to start my own agency, he replied without hesitation “Count me in!”. He’s now probably one of our biggest brand advocates. Over the years we managed to do so many great things for his company. We did all the content, SEO, PPC, website redesigns, CRO, and everything in between. His business skyrocketed and recently he managed to sell his company and retire at an early age. True story. Of course he also helped us a lot. We managed to become the agency we are because of great partners like him. And it all started with that initial leap of faith.
Speaking of leap of faith, I owe a lot to Milena and Rosen who were the first to join Presitely back in 2014. They quit their full-time jobs to join me on this adventure, not knowing if we would make it for more than a month.
Of course, I’m grateful to everyone in our current team, who are so amazing, and who are pouring their hearts and minds into every project we do. We wouldn’t be where we are today without them.
What do you think makes your company stand out? Can you share a story?
There are a few important things that set our company apart from many other agencies.
As a full service digital marketing agency, we provide holistic solutions that can include the full spectrum of digital marketing services. However, we don’t enjoy providing services that bring in little to no results. What we focus on is resolving our clients’ problems and growing their revenue.
We also have a very transparent and coherent approach. This reduces the stress and hassle for our clients because they have one point of contact, backed by a full team of digital marketing experts.
Finally, we speak to our clients in “human”. This means that we first try to understand what they need and then we offer solutions.
Recently we had a client whose website was in a really bad condition. It was deindexed, it had malware, and it had hardly any traffic and leads. They also had a limited budget because they were going through very difficult times recovering from the pandemic.
Their high season was about to start but most probably they weren’t going to get any traffic or leads because of the fundamental issues their website had. It was clear that if they didn’t fix their website, they would probably go bankrupt soon.
We knew what had to be done to get the website back in Google’s good graces. So we told the client that we can fix the high priority issues now and they can pay us later after their high season is over and they’re financially more stable. And that’s exactly what happened. We managed to fix the malware and all major SEO issues in time. Eventually, the client saw a noticeable increase in traffic and leads and we got paid for our work.
In our place, many agencies wouldn’t even consider starting such a project. Some agencies don’t even want to start their research unless they are paid in advance. We believe that if we focus on delivering the promised results, profits will follow.
You are a successful business leader. Which three character traits do you think were most instrumental to your success? Can you please share a story or example for each?
If you don’t mind, I would like to share with you 4 habits instrumental to being successful.
Stay focused and prioritize. Make sure to get the 20% highest priority items for the day done and consider everything else a bonus. This will give you a sense of achievement and will help keep your happiness and motivation at a healthy level. If you don’t set priorities you can easily get scattered and at the end of the day you won’t feel happy with what you’ve done.
Learn to delegate. You don’t know everything and you can’t do everything on your own. You have limited skills, knowledge, and time. And that’s fine. Outsource and delegate the tasks that shouldn’t be performed by you and that distract you from achieving your goals.
Stay humble and treat people with respect. Even if you know more than someone else about a certain topic this doesn’t make you a better person. Being loud and arrogant means you’re focused on yourself and this prevents you from hearing others and learning from them. Everyone has their own way of doing things, and even though their approach might not be perfectly aligned with yours, it might still get you to the same outcome. Be open and try to understand others and you might even learn something new along the way.
Don’t be too hard on yourself. Know what you can bring to the table and know your price. If you are good and passionate about something, people will want to work with you. If you fail at something as a marketer, chances are your f*ckups aren’t as bad as you might think. Just pick yourself up, dust yourself off, and move on.
Are you working on any exciting new projects now? How do you think that will help people?
In the last couple of years we started creating explanatory motion graphic videos. This was new territory for us and initially we did it by using software with existing template libraries (e.g. vyond.com). Now we do everything in-house from scratch and I must say that with every new video we make, the results are getting better and better. The explanatory videos we create help our clients promote their businesses better. They give life to their brand and convey their message more effectively.
Ok super. Now let’s jump to the main questions of our interview. As we mentioned in the beginning, sometimes companies that just start exploring with digital marketing tools like PPC campaigns often see disappointing results. In your opinion, what are a few of the biggest mistakes companies make when they first start out with digital marketing? If you can, please share an example for each.
Lack of focus and targeting. Sometimes, business owners are afraid of narrowing down their focus, as if they’ll miss an opportunity. In reality, you will never win 100% of your potential customers. That’s why you need to focus 80% of your efforts on the top 20% of clients that matter the most to your business.
Lack of a dedicated marketing team. I’ve seen business owners underestimate the importance of working with a professional digital marketer. So they’ll delegate this responsibility to inexperienced internal team members to do it as a side job. I see this especially with social media marketing. But in reality, just because you have a personal social media account doesn’t mean you know how to advertise on this channel.
Focusing on the wrong channels. We had a client who was developing a fitness app. They were about to launch a fundraising campaign and were convinced that Google search was the right channel to advertise their app on, despite the fact that there was no actual product ready for the market yet.
As a result, they spent thousands of dollars on ads, depleting their advertising budget, trying to generate early subscribers who might eventually purchase the app. But they generated very few leads because of the poor content on their website. The concept of the app wasn’t really clear. What they had to do was simply create more content describing their concept so they would have a successful fundraising campaign.
If you could break down a very successful digital marketing campaign into a “blueprint”, what would that blueprint look like? Please share some stories or examples of your ideas.
The blueprint of a successful digital marketing campaign looks something like this:
Understand. Always start by researching and auditing. You need to understand the nature of your client’s business, their industry, and competitors. Audit their existing campaigns. See what’s worked so far and what hasn’t, and try to understand why. These are the fundamentals based on which you will plan your campaign.
Plan. Now that you know how your client’s industry and their business work, and you are aware of the performance of their previous campaigns, you can plan your course of action.
Execute. You execute your campaign based on your initial plan. Focus on the low hanging fruits first. This is how you show great results fast.
Analyze. Understand what worked and what didn’t. Make sure to spend enough time on this step and analyze your data.
Optimize. Fix the things that didn’t work based on your analysis. Repeat steps 4 and 5.
Let’s talk about Pay Per Click Marketing (PPC) for a bit. In your opinion which PPC platform produces the best results to increase sales?
The best advertising platform depends on the nature of your business and where your target audience is most active online.
Having said that, the majority of our B2B clients see the best results in Google Search. Our Google Ads campaigns have shown great ROI with the highest number of leads.
Before you jump on any of the advertising platforms, make sure to get to know your target audience first.
Can you please share 3 things that you need to know to run a highly successful PPC campaign?
Know your audience. Do your research in advance. You need to know the industry, the competitors, your target audience and their behavior online. If you’re running a search campaign, you need to know the search intent of every search query and what type of content visitors would expect to see once they land on your website. This really sets apart mediocre campaigns from the highly successful ones.
Know your tools. You need to have mastered the tools and advertising platform you’ll be using. While knowing your audience is vital, using the full potential of your advertising platform and tools is equally important for the success of your campaigns.
Experiment. Don’t be afraid to try new things. This could mean looking beyond Google Ads as an advertising platform, or simply experimenting with your ad copy and landing pages. Always try new things because this will eventually set you apart from the rest.
Let’s now talk about email marketing for a bit. In your opinion, what are the 3 things that you need to know to run a highly successful email marketing campaign that increases sales?
Know your audience. Here it’s important to know things about your audience like how you got your audience list, what they already know about your brand, what content they have already consumed, what they would be interested in reading next, and so on. Create different segments to help you better target your message. And always make sure you have permission to contact your audience.
Timing is key. You should send your emails when you most expect your audience to engage with them. Research what day of the week and what time of the day might make the most sense for your emails to be sent. Depending on your campaign, take into account any seasonalities as well.
Add value. The emails you send out should provide valuable information. Make sure the content you send to your audience is the type of content they have subscribed for. Don’t just send out emails to everyone in your list. Segment your list and send out your newsletter, available discounts, or new product releases to those who care to engage with them.
What are the other digital marketing tools that you are passionate about? If you can, can you share with our readers what they are and how to best leverage them?
I really enjoy trying out new tools. Usually each has its own unique features that could potentially make it the perfect fit for an existing or potential client.
Here are just a few of the tools I use on a daily basis:
SEMrush. This is my go-to tool for keyword research and tracking, competitors analysis, backlink research, and much more. They’re really trying to fit all digital marketing tools out there into one universal tool. I’m interested to see how this will pan out in the near future.
Screamingfrog. So far nothing beats Screamingfrog when it comes to technical SEO audits. I simply love this tool and the insights you can get with it.
Asana. This is our project management tool. It has everything we need to efficiently plan, and manage our tasks, keep track of the progress, coordinate with the team and our clients, and lot more.
Majestic. A great tool for in-depth backlink analysis. It provides much more data than SEMrush and many other SEO tools.
Hotjar. We’re one of the official founding members of Hotjar. We still use it a lot, recommend it to our clients, and they love it.
There are a lot more tools that I’m using, but I’ll need a separate post for this.
Here is the main question of our series. Can you please tell us the 5 things you need to create a highly successful career as a digital marketer? Can you please share a story or example for each?
To create a highly successful career as a digital marketer, the most important thing is that you need to live and breathe digital marketing. You truly need to be passionate about it.
When I first started, there was no one to help me and I was learning things on my own, the hard way. I tried reading every ebook I could find on the topic, I took all available certificates in Google Ads (Adwords back then), Google Analytics, Hubspot, and whatnot. My point is, if you expect someone to be showing you the way all the time without you taking the initiative, then maybe this isn’t your thing. It’s a very dynamic field where things change from one day to the next. For example, new tools pop up all the time, platforms such as Google, Facebook, and Twitter constantly make updates to their algorithms, which means you need to update the way you use them. To be successful, you need to stay on top of your game and this is what sets apart the great marketers from the rest, in my opinion.
You also need to have analytical thinking. As a digital marketer you need to be able to measure the success of your campaigns. Your decisions should be based on data and not just your hunch. That’s one of the great things about digital marketing, we now can have all the data we need to be successful. We just need to know how to use it.
What books, podcasts, videos or other resources do you use to sharpen your marketing skills?
Nowadays there are a lot of sources of information on the topic of digital marketing — so much so that one can easily get overwhelmed. Here are just a few of the ones that I follow in no particular order.
Google Search Documentation and Guidelines. If you’re new to SEO, you start here. Then you can move on and read the interpretations of SEO experts and gurus out there.
Moz. Even now that Rand Fishkin isn’t there, Moz is still a great and reliable source of information about SEO.
Annie Cushing. She has some great tutorials about all things data.
SearchMetrics. A great source of information about web analytics, dashboards, and reporting.
Aleyda Solis. A really good SEO expert with tons of guides and cheat sheets.
Backlinko. Very interesting articles on the topic of SEO. Recently Brian Dean sold the company to SEMrush.
SearchEngineJournal. SEJ keeps me updated on a daily basis with all kinds of news from the digital marketing realm.
Thank you for all of that. We are nearly done. Here is our final ‘meaty’ question. You are a person of great influence. If you could start a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger. 🙂
Education. In any shape or size, education and access to information is what the world needs.
Whatever you’re doing, do it sustainably. Consistent, incremental building over time is a powerful force in a business. The idea of blowing up a business overnight is seductive, but we often underestimate how much we’re able to accomplish when we take small steps forward everyday for years on end. To do this, you need to work sustainably and avoid burning yourself (or others) out.
As a part of our series called “Making Something From Nothing”, I had the pleasure of interviewingSam Harper.
Sam Harper is the c0-founder and CMO of Hippy Feet — a sock company on a mission t0 support homeless youth. Sam launched Hippy Feet in 2016 alongside co-founder, Michael Mader. Since its launch, the company has provided transitional jobs to over 150 young people affected by homelessness, donated tens of thousands of pairs of socks, and continues to evolve its giving model. Previously, Harper has held leadership positions across a number of technology organizations.
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”?
Entrepreneurship has been a part of my life ever since I was a kid. Coming up with ideas for businesses and selling just about anything to anyone was a form of play for me. My dad had his own small business and indulged all my curiosities about how businesses and markets worked.
Naturally, I gravitated to other people who were curious about starting their own businesses someday. This came full circle shortly after graduating from high school. A friend that I had gone to school with years prior had to start a business as part of a class project. He needed help in a number of different areas and turned to his community to help solve those problems. That class project gained quick traction, exceeding his professors expectations. I continued to help in different aspects of the business and by the time I was a senior in college, I had a seat on the board of directors. That company was generating mid-7 figure revenues at that point and still on a strong growth trajectory.
As my college graduation approached, I was faced with the decision of continuing with that existing company or moving onto something new. About 2 weeks after I graduated, I sat down with my current business partner to build a launch plan for Hippy Feet.
Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share how that was relevant to you in your life?
“Everyone you’ve ever met knows something you don’t know.” I’m not sure where I heard this originally, but I find it applies in many different parts of my life. At Hippy Feet, when a young person affected by homelessness walks through our door, they carry a life experience that is so drastically different than my own. There’s something I can learn from each one of them.
Similarly, when I’m working with my team, I know that each person has a different set of skills and knowledge that they bring to the table. I can empower each person to contribute to solving problems and generating new ideas. It fosters better teamwork and people are more satisfied with their jobs, knowing that their contribution is valued. No individual is as smart as the combined group.
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 podcast that has grabbed my attention recently is Lifespan by David Sinclair. We’re at a pretty amazing time in human history where scientific developments show promise for extending life and increasing the number of healthy years we have on this planet. As a result, I’ve began to think about how some of these longevity and health extending interventions may not end up being democratized. Conversations about different forms inequality are becoming more common, but I fear that longevity inequality will be added to that list as some portions of the population are able to access resources that help them live longer and others are not.
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?
The biggest mistake I see aspiring entrepreneurs make is thinking their idea needs to be perfected before getting it to market. Oftentimes, founders try to hone an idea in isolation without getting actual customer feedback. As a result, they waste time and resources creating an offering that doesn’t have product market fit.
First-time founders tend to be poor judges of what is truly important for the success of their business. They allow trivial issues to delay the process of actually building their business. You can alway rebrand, iterate, and pivot. What you can’t do is go back in time to take advantage of a trend or seize an opportunity that has passed.
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?
Before you dive into research, it’s worth framing your mindset around this differently. Yes, your business needs to be differentiated and you need a plan of how you’re going to do this. However, no matter how unique you think your idea is, someone out there already is working on it. It’s your job to execute better and get traction more quickly than them.
To illustrate this, understand that the typical VC firm/angel investor won’t sign a non-disclosure agreement before you pitch them. This is because they will likely be pitched on a similar idea in the future (or already have been), and may already be invested in one of your competitors. They understand that the success of a business is more contingent on the founder’s ability to execute than the idea.
The best way to understand whether your idea provides a unique offering to your target market is to immerse yourself in that customer group. This can be done online through forums and communities like Reddit or in person. It’s crucial to not only understand your potential customer’s problem, but also what motivates them to make decisions. From there, you can be sure that you’re differentiating in a way that provides real value.
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.
My expertise is in eCommerce and apparel brands, so that’s the best place for me to speak from.
Once you have an idea of a brand you want to build, you should start establishing an online presence on day one. This means standing up a website, social media accounts, and publishing content. Most clothing companies are differentiated on either the technical qualities of the garment they’re making or their brand. Unless your product is truly innovative, then you’ll be relying heavily on your brand. By establishing a brand presence as soon as possible, you start to build recognition among your target audience.
The next step is to begin sourcing your product. Some clothing items will require you to create a “tech pack”. Think of this as a blueprint that a manufacturer will use to know exactly what kind of cuts, seams, and features to add and exactly how to do it. Other products are very simple like screen printing a design on a premade t-shirt for example. The level of complexity will vary significantly based on the product you want to create.
Most apparel companies don’t own their manufacturing internally. Instead, you hire a factory for a period of time to produce your products. Finding these manufacturers can be tricky. While you can start by searching on Google or Alibaba for someone that makes a product similar to yours, I highly suggest that you try to get in touch with a person who has apparel sourcing experience. Often, these people will have standing relationships with manufacturers and be able to provide an introduction.
Once your product is actually created, it’s time to sell and fulfill it. One great thing about apparel is that there are multiple channels you can sell on. From establishing your own eCommerce presence, to selling promotional products, and wholesaling your product into stores — there’s a wide range of ways to generate sales.
What are your “5 Things I Wish Someone Told Me When I First Started Leading My Company” and why?
Learn to live with (and manage) risk.
I once asked a mentor “when did you feel like you were finally comfortable in your business?”, at which point he just laughed at me and said that he’s still not comfortable. Managing a growing business, you’re constantly balancing conflicting priorities like revenue growth, profitability, risk, and your own comfort. The numbers may get bigger as you become more successful, but if you’re in growth mode then you’re always assuming some level of risk.
Getting your idea out quickly is more important than perfecting it.
I’ve found that I’m much more likely to get a successful result in something if I start doing it and course-correct as I’m going, rather than trying to get everything right from the beginning. I see a lot of people get hung up on trying to get the perfect name or perfect logo for whatever they’re trying to start, then never actually get their business or social cause off the ground.
Whatever you’re doing, do it sustainably.
Consistent, incremental building over time is a powerful force in a business. The idea of blowing up a business overnight is seductive, but we often underestimate how much we’re able to accomplish when we take small steps forward everyday for years on end. To do this, you need to work sustainably and avoid burning yourself (or others) out.
Your idea may cost more than you originally thought.
Starting a business can be expensive, but there are often costs beyond the financial commitment. Unfortunately, almost every founder could tell you how their entrepreneurial journey has come at the cost of their own physical and mental wellbeing, relationships, or other things they didn’t expect to sacrifice. You should understand that bringing an idea to life may take more than you think.
You’re not doing surgery.
When you’re starting a business, you’re passionate about an idea and you’re taking on risk to make it a reality. However, we have the tendency of telling ourselves the work we’re doing is more important than it really is. You’re starting a business, not doing surgery. No one dies if something goes wrong (and things WILL go wrong). Just stay calm, work hard, and make the best decisions you can with the information you have.
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?
Early on, you need to confirm that there is actually a customer need and a sufficiently sized market to support your product. This means getting to know your customers, the issues that they’re facing, and understanding how they’re currently solving that problem. If there are enough people having that problem and you offer a better solution than what is currently available, then you have a strong foundation to build upon.
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?
This will vary from person to person. Do you have the skillset to prototype the product yourself? What about establishing cost-effective and scalable manufacturing? How about actually getting the product to market and selling it? Very few people have all of these skills. You’ll certainly need people along the way to help bring your product to market — deciding who these people are starts with an accurate appraisal of your own ability.
What are your thoughts about bootstrapping vs looking for venture capital? What is the best way to decide if you should do either one?
Since day one, we’ve bootstrapped Hippy Feet. This has led to slower growth than if we had sought outside capital, but we’ve been able to retain full control over our company as a result. This strategy wouldn’t have worked in other industries that are more capital intensive or are driven by product innovation. If you try to bootstrap your growth in one of these industries, another company will beat you to market and you’ll be pushed back into a product development phase in order to differentiate from them.
Ok. We are nearly done. Here are our final questions. How have you used your success to make the world a better place?
I’ve been fortunate to work with a couple of different companies that have had a massive social benefit. In particular, my work at Hippy Feet has had a direct impact on young people experiencing homelessness. We’ve been able to provide transitional job opportunities to over 160 young people affected by homelessness. This March, we just announced that we’re committing to donating 50% of company profits from this point on. These funds will be donated to nonprofit organizations that are serving homeless youth. This will enable organizations that are already doing amazing work to have an even greater impact for young people in need.
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.
There are plenty of problems for smart people to dedicate their energy and talents toward, but I’d love to inspire problem solvers to turn their attention to the food system. I believe we’re going to see greater disparities in health and wealth driven by access (or lack of access) to affordable, high-quality food.
We are very blessed that some of the biggest names in Business, VC funding, Sports, and Entertainment read this column. Is there a person in the world, or in the US, with whom you would love to have a private breakfast or lunch, and why? He or she might just see this if we tag them.
I’d love to have lunch with Lex Fridman. He’s fostering some really important conversations about the direction our world is heading and how the people driving that change can use their positions of authority responsibly.
Thank you for these fantastic insights. We greatly appreciate the time you spent on this.
Kyler Shumway Of Deep Eddy Psychotherapy On The 5 Things You Need To Be A Highly Effective Public Speaker
An Interview With Fotis Georgiadis
Learn to be yourself. Too many speakers get on stage and try to be Tony Robbins or Brene’ Brown. But speaking isn’t acting — speaking is sharing. The audience is there to hear you speak — not Tony or Brene’ — you. Some of the greatest impact you can create as a speaker will happen when you are able to be vulnerable and share stories from your life. Consider sharing stories or details from your personal life as they connect to your content, and you will come across as much more relatable and real. Let your human foibles shine. If you snort when you laugh, if you have a toothy grin, or if you like drinking diet Pepsi on stage, then more power to you. I know one speaker who refuses to wear dress shoes on stage because they dislike how they feel, even though they frequently speak to professional audiences. Remember, the audience is there to hear from you — so make sure you are the one they see on stage.
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 Dr. Kyler Shumway, psychologist and CEO of Deep Eddy Psychotherapy.
Kyler is a bestselling author, TEDx and frequent keynote speaker, psychologist, and CEO of one of the largest psychotherapy practices in Texas. He has been featured by Forbes, The New York Times, CNN, and more for his work in combatting the loneliness epidemic. His mission is to help people learn to love themselves and others, build satisfying and meaningful relationships, and find their place to belong.
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’m from a tiny town in the middle of nowhere in Idaho. And as a kid, I was a lot like most other kids. I grew up on a farm out in the country. I had a mom and a dad, three younger sisters, a younger brother, and a puppy. I loved playing video games and fantasy adventure, and I used to go out into the woods near my house with a broom handle (which I pretended was a sword) and I would pretend I was a brave, valiant knight protecting the realm. So yeah, I was a bit weird, but mostly, I was a lot like you.
But one thing that made me different from most kids is that I had a really hard time being around others. Starting from a really young age, I quickly discovered that people terrify me. I used to get so bunched up, tense, and nauseous when I needed to do anything social. I’d do whatever it took to avoid going to school, church, or even sleepovers and those sorts of things. I even played sick so that I could skip out, which led to my parents not believing me, which led to me puking all over the place during worship at church one Sunday. Although anxiety does run in my family, things became so much worse for me because of the bullying I experienced growing up. But that’s a story for another time.
See, what I didn’t know then that I know now is that I was suffering from unmanaged and out of control social anxiety. Each interaction felt like a performance, like I was being judged and criticized by everyone around me.
This impacted my life in so many ways. Any time I had a class that required a presentation, I would drop out. Anytime I looked into a career path that required socializing, I’d avoid it. I was an athlete, and a pretty good one — good enough to get a full ride scholarship at Duke University to throw shot put. But each time I needed to perform in front of a crowd, I would panic. My mind would race faster than my frantic heartbeat, and all those years of practice would suddenly leave me, causing failure over and over and over again. I never reached my full potential as an athlete because my anxiety held me back.
I didn’t reach out and make friends. I spent most of my time alone, playing video games or lifting weights. And in those moments of isolation, my anxiety would fade and be replaced by loneliness. And the more I withdrew and avoided, the worse things got for me.
Fast forward a few years. Here I am now, a full-time psychologist whose day job involves talking to people for hours on end. Not only that, but as the CEO of one of the largest therapy practices in the state of Texas, I serve as the chief spokesman and leader for a team of more than one hundred clinicians and support staff. I’m also a keynote and TEDx speaker, and I’ve given talks at conferences across the nation as well as spoken on live television. I have a wife, awesome friends, and so many fond memories of togetherness and connection.
So, how did I get from then to now?
As cliché as it may sound, I had to learn to face my fears to fully live the life I wanted. I went to therapy and began to understand my anxiety for what it was. I learned that avoiding the situation reinforces the fear — each time we avoid, we feel relief, which causes our minds to amplify the anxious feelings the next time the situation arises.
What worked for me will also work for you. You have to learn to have the anxiety without the anxiety having you. This means choosing to do the things that you value (or that will help you get there eventually), even if it’s uncomfortable. Just like going to the gym and exercising your muscles, you have to experience the strain of being social in order to get stronger and better at it. And just like how it’s easier to work out with a buddy, consider working with a therapist who can support you along the way.
And this is hard work! You have to purposefully put yourself in situations, over and over and over again, where your social anxiety will show up. Does this mean sign up to start giving presentations in front of large crowds? Not necessarily. You have to start small. If all you can handle is 5 minutes of small talk with a stranger each day, start there. As you build up a tolerance for those anxious feelings, you’ll quickly discover that not only do the feelings tend to fade, but that you are capable of doing more than you thought. And even if the anxiety doesn’t fully go away, at least you can live the life you want.
Can you share a story with us about what brought you to this specific career path?
Sweat oozed through my suit jacket as I nervously picked my fingernails to the point of bleeding.
“What am I doing right now?” I thought to myself. “Why did I say ‘yes’ to this? Stupid, stupid Kyler!”
An audience of women and mothers had filled the church gymnasium the point of standing-room-only. The Salem, Oregon chapter of Mothers of Preschoolers (MOPS) gathered from far and wide to hear the wisdom of my supervisor — a licensed clinical psychologist and expert on perinatal issues — to speak about women’s mental health.
Instead, they got me.
My supervisor fell ill to strep throat the day before, and so I was assigned a fate worse than death.
It was my first major speaking gig.
I had 24 hours to prepare a 90-minute talk. On women’s issues. To a group of mothers. As a man, with no children of my own.
This was exactly the sort of situation that I wanted to avoid at all costs.
See, social anxiety and I are lifelong partners. The dragon of racing hearts and frantic thoughts liked to rear its ugly head in any scenario involving social performance — and so, I became the master of avoidance.
As a child, I played sick to get out of school, church, sleepovers, you name it. Even during my undergraduate years, I dropped any course that required a class presentation. So, not only did I suffer from crippling stage fright, but I also had very little practice with public speaking.
It was a completely avoidable nightmare.
And normally, I would have tried to come up with some excuse or illness that would allow me to escape the discomfort of that stage. Except, I was in graduate school, learning to become a psychologist, and my classmates and I had just learned about experiential avoidance.
It was time to face my dragon.
The event organizer began reading my introduction before I went on stage, and my heart was pounding a hole through my sternum.
Maybe if I have a heart attack, they’ll let me go home?
“We are thrilled to have local mental health expert, Mr. Kyler Shumway, here with us today to talk about perinatal mental health. Let’s give him a warm welcome!”
I stood up, wiped a bleeding thumb inside my jacket pocket one last time, and forced a smile as I took the stage.
It was not an amazing performance. I read off my slides, I stammered and used lots of “ums” and “uhs,” and I had a few jokes that fell very flat. I also ran over my time by ten minutes and left no opportunity for questions.
To this day, I have no idea how I survived that first talk.
But I did. And little did I know that my life was about to change forever.
After the talk, a few mothers approached me to thank me, share their stories of hardship and depression, and tell me that they were ready to get help.
I couldn’t believe it — my bad talk helped someone! My soul soared through the sweat-deluge that was my physical form.
See, I’m not the world’s most natural, gifted speaker. Those people have it easy.
Instead, I’m someone who has fought tooth-and-nail to share from the stage. I went from avoiding speaking like the plague to being featured as a keynote speaker at conferences, guest-starring on live television, and sharing my story with the world. I built my speaker-self up from nothing — and now, this is one of the most rewarding aspects of my professional career.
If I can do it, so can you.
Speaking is so much more than managing the butterflies and remembering your lines. It’s more than having flashy slides and using a fancy clicker.
Speaking provides healing intervention, one that can change and even save lives.
Speaking instills insight, inspiration, and calls others to action.
But perhaps most importantly, speaking is freedom. Freedom to share your story. Freedom to break the silence. Freedom to unlock your highest potential as a person with a message to share.
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?
My best friend and colleague, Dr. Daniel Wendler (I call him Dan) and I are frequently invited to give co-led talks about friendship. One of our favorite things to do is open the talk with some special entrance that captures our playful dynamic while also ramping up the audience energy. Long story short, one of our first talks together involved galloping in with coconut shells like we were a couple of knights from Monty Python and the Holy Grail.
Just imagine two dudes, supposedly “respectable” professionals, skipping through the audience to the sound of “clickity clack” as the Monty Python theme blasts over the sound system.
Well, the first time we tried this, I made one crucial mistake — I forgot that leaping around and pretending to ride an invisible horse tends to ramp up your heartrate. And when you are socially anxious, an elevated heartrate can turn into a panic attack… which is exactly what happened next.
We galloped up on stage to tune of roaring laughter and applause, and my head was spinning. I couldn’t breathe. I felt like I was dying. My heart was pounding a hole in my chest. As I gasped for air, Dan noticed what was happening and stalled by doing our introduction solo.
Thank goodness I was training to be a psychologist, and thank goodness I was paying attention in our panic attack lectures.
I planted my feet, slowed my breathing, and started naming items in the room. Red chair. Black microphone. White laptop.
Breathe.
It took a minute or two, but I was finally able to settle. I turned on my mic, told the audience that they should always consult their doctor before engaging in Monty Python, and the rest is history.
None of us are able to achieve success without some help along the way. Is there a particular person who you are grateful towards who helped get you to where you are? Can you share a story about that?
My friend Dan is a “natural” speaker. He gave his first TEDx talk when he was still in high school. He can spin up a speech on the fly that will make you laugh, cry, and clap at the end. I say “natural” because Dan is also autistic, and for some folks on the spectrum, sharing ideas isn’t always easy. But ever since we became friends, I’ve looked up to him like the older brother I never had.
I still remember going to hear him speak at a conference very early in our friendship. After he finished and stepped off stage, he said, “You belong up there too, man. I know you can do it.”
Dan has always believed in me, long before I believed in myself. Every aspiring, socially anxious speaker deserves a Dan.
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?
People sometimes set themselves up for failure — not because they want to fail, but because they set their sights on the wrong definition of success. Does success mean you get a huge standing ovation at the end of your talk? If so, then seated applause will feel like a failure. Does success mean you deliver the perfect talk, line by line? If so, even the smallest mistake will feel painful.
Instead, set your goals around consistent practice, improvement, and controllable opportunities for impact. You can’t control whether the audience will laugh at every joke, but you can control whether you learn from the jokes that don’t land. You can’t control whether you’ll be invited to every speaking gig you want, but you can control how many applications to speak you submit.
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 gave a talk at a conference in Georgia a few years ago, and during the Q&A at the end someone said, “I wish I would’ve known this when I was a kid!”
I wholeheartedly agree with them. I wish I could’ve known then what I know now. And it’s not like I’m always sharing unique ideas and concepts — sometimes the simplest messages make the biggest impact. “You belong.” “You deserve love and kindness, just like everyone else.” “You can reduce anxiety by avoiding caffeine.”
Every time I speak, I think to myself, “If my words help even one person here, all of this was worth it.”
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?
Currently, I’m focused on growing my practice. Texas was ranked #2 for worst access to mental healthcare, and I hope to help change that by recruiting effective clinicians to serve our community.
Aside from that, I’m also working on rewriting my first book — The Friendship Formula — which was written while I was in grad school, and I’ve learned a great deal since then that I’d like to share. I continue to speak at conferences, about one per month and sometimes more, and am excited to start attending in-person events again.
Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share how that was relevant to you in your life?
I have two! One comes from my childhood hero, Fred Rogers:
“Everyone longs to be loved. And the greatest thing we can do is to let people know that they are loved and capable of loving.”
The other comes from the epic film Gladiator, where General Maximus speaks to his army as they prepare for battle:
“What we do in life echoes in eternity.”
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.
First, and most important, every effective speaker needs to embrace a growth mindset.
The growth mindset (Dweck, 2015) is all about believing that our traits and abilities can be improved upon and developed, that with hard work and a strategic approach, we can accomplish new heights. Someone with a “fixed” mindset believes that some people have it while others do not, that success is something you are born with, and that some things cannot be changed. If you believe that you just aren’t cut out for speaking, that you’ll never improve, you are probably right. But, if you can push yourself to have a growth mindset, if you can believe in your ability to adapt, change, and overcome, then who knows how far you’ll go? Instead of “I’m just not cut out for this,” tell yourself, “I’m just not cut out for this… yet.” After all, if speaking was an inherent trait, why would I waste my time trying to help people learn to do it? Be open to new experiences. Be enlivened by the idea of a challenge. Stay focused on making progress.
Second, learn to be yourself.
Too many speakers get on stage and try to be Tony Robbins or Brene’ Brown. But speaking isn’t acting — speaking is sharing. The audience is there to hear you speak — not Tony or Brene’ — you. Some of the greatest impact you can create as a speaker will happen when you are able to be vulnerable and share stories from your life. Consider sharing stories or details from your personal life as they connect to your content, and you will come across as much more relatable and real. Let your human foibles shine. If you snort when you laugh, if you have a toothy grin, or if you like drinking diet Pepsi on stage, then more power to you. I know one speaker who refuses to wear dress shoes on stage because they dislike how they feel, even though they frequently speak to professional audiences. Remember, the audience is there to hear from you — so make sure you are the one they see on stage.
Third, learn the art of mindsight.
Speaking should feel intimate. The best speakers are tuned into their audiences, fully present and connected with them. To do this, we must learn to enter their headspace and let ourselves connect with their experience. Our minds are capable of what psychologist Dr. D.J. Siegal calls mindsight — the capacity to understand someone else’s thoughts and feelings at any given moment. For example, we feel afraid during scary movies because we can imagine what the character might be feeling, which then recreates their experience in us. It’s a lot like empathy, except you can use mindsight to imagine the future and how someone might think or feel. You can develop stronger mindsight by getting in touch with your own emotional world through reflection, journaling, or even psychotherapy. And, as you learn to make friends with your thoughts and feelings, you’ll better understand the thoughts and feelings of those around you.
Fourth, passionately craft your content.
The mark of a powerful speaker is the ability to create powerful, creative, and relevant content. Your content is the active ingredient, the meat of the stew, the core of your presentation. People who are good at creating content can write excellent talks on virtually any topic and can fill the time with ease. (I once listened to a lecture on computer programming that kept me riding on the edge of my seat.) The more you know about a topic, the easier it will be for you to create content around it. Do this by writing, reading, and seeking inspiration in the world. Listen to other speakers and learn from their strengths. Refine and re-refine your message until it carries the weight you want.
Finally, fifth, is to seek feedback.
Feedback is absolutely essential for career success as a speaker. You need to know what the audience thinks of your work to improve it. A word of caution — not all feedback is helpful or even accurate. You may receive harsh criticism from an audience member who is feeling particularly salty for being forced to attend, for example. Or, perhaps worse, you may receive unearned praise and false affirmation. Like most mothers, mine was the poster woman for that kind of thing. Mom’s job is to make you feel good about yourself and what you do, and you are going to have some “moms” in the audience who will praise you no matter what. Conversely, feedback that keeps you up at night, makes you want to quit, or makes you feel dehumanized or less-than, disregard it completely. Triangulate your feedback and consider credible only what comes from multiple sources. Identify patterns and themes of positive and negative criticism. Make a gameplan to improve, keep your chin up, and focus on what matters most — the message, and your chance to make the world a better place.
As you know, many people are terrified of speaking in public. Can you give some of your advice about how to overcome this fear?
I was a sophomore in college, sitting in the office of Duke University’s head sports psychologist to get help with my performance anxiety.
I told him about the all-too-familiar pattern of somatic, emotional, and psychological anxiety symptoms that always came up during competition but never during practice. I shared the intense discomfort I experience around others, in crowds, and when being observed. I even told him about how I would drop any class that had mandatory presentations.
I asked him to make it go away.
“Well, I can’t do that. You have a social anxiety disorder.”
This was not news to me. After all, I was taking Psych 101, so I knew everything. But then he said something I’ll never forget:
“I might not be able to make it go away, but you can.”
It was not what I wanted to hear.
Also, it wasn’t completely true. Anxiety doesn’t just “go away.” In fact, when we try to push those feelings down, much like a beach ball held underwater, they tend to uncontrollably explode above the surface. And, even after all these years of public speaking and learning to cope with my feelings, anxiety continues to be a faithful attendee at my performances.
However, my psychologist was correct. I needed to take ownership, confront my fears, and learn to push through the discomfort — no one else could do it for me.
Some of you struggle with anxiety as I do, and I wrote what follows specifically for you. Unfortunately, this chapter alone cannot make your fears “go away.” You are the only one with that power — but I believe in you.
I went from completely avoiding the stage to becoming a national keynote speaker, a live television expert, and a courageous confronter of anxious fears.
If I can do it, I know you can. And here’s how.
First, you need to inoculate yourself from some of the most common irrational beliefs about public speaking. And second, you need to set aside the time to rehearse, master the content, and prepare to give a stellar presentation.
A brilliant study conducted by Jackson, Compton, Thornton, and Dimmock (2017) used an information inoculation technique to help undergraduates manage anxiety during a required class speech. Before the big day, students in the experimental condition were sent a brief handout designed to refute some of the most common irrational speaking anxieties people experience, resulting in decreased pre-speech anxiety, fewer somatic anxiety symptoms mid-speech, and improved post-speech attitudes regarding the impact of anxiety on their speaking ability compared to controls.
So, you can potentially manage your speaking anxiety by arming yourself with knowledge! Check out the fears and beliefs listed below and think about which ones might apply to you. I have included the ones included in the research by Jackson et al., as well as a few others.
Irrational Belief #1 — The Audience Will See My Nervousness
This belief comes from a psychological phenomenon called the “illusion of transparency,” which is the inaccurate assumption that others can tell what we are thinking and feeling.
People constantly tell me they would “never guess” I have social anxiety. I take it as a compliment, but I also think it has to do with how we perceive anxiety in others. Research has shown that audience members are not very good at guessing what speakers are experiencing internally (Savitsky & Gilovich, 2003).
Your heart might be pounding, your armpits might be drenched with sweat, and your cheeks might be twitching involuntarily, but the audience is probably none the wiser.
Irrational Belief #2 — The Audience is Judging Me
Known as the “spotlight effect,” this is the fear that others are judging and hating on how we look and act.
I believe this goes back to our need for belonging (as well as some narcissistic tendencies). We crave approval, we want others to love us, and we need a mechanism to alert us when those needs are in jeopardy. So, we are all too preoccupied with ourselves to notice those around us. Research has also shown us that people tend to be more focused on themselves than they are whoever is on stage (Gilovich, Kruger, & Medvec, 2002).
True, you are on stage and “in the spotlight.” However, you are probably overestimating the level of judgment being passed. Give yourself some compassion, keep your chin up, and focus on giving your best performance you can.
Irrational Belief #3 — My Anxious Feelings Will Ruin the Performance
Apparently not! The impact of anxiety appears to have more to do with how the symptoms of physiological arousal are interpreted by the speaker (Brooks, 2014). If your heart is pounding, breathing speeds up, and temperature rises, you could take those sensations as indicators of anxiety or excitement (or maybe some of both!).
The time and energy you invest in trying to push the anxiety away could be much better spent improving the content and preparing for success.
Irrational Belief #4 — I’m Going to Run Out of Time
Have you ever felt rushed during your talk? Did you speed up to make up for time? Did you run out of content much, much sooner than anticipated?
The experience of onstage anxiety tends to distort one’s sense of time (Bar-Haim, Kerem, Lamy, & Zakay, 2010). Some of us speed up and speak quickly in an effect known as “tachypsychia,” a rapid increase in processing speed to help us make rapid, adrenaline-fueled decisions in the pursuit of survival. My theory is that the speakers who ramble on and on past their time limit have little anxiety and conscientiousness.
Rehearsal will certainly help you stay on track and keep a good time table. However, you should try to remind yourself in those moments when you feel rushed to take a deep breath, check the clock, and focus on giving a good performance. If you go over time, the audience should at least enjoy it.
Irrational Belief #5 — If I Mess Up, My Speaking Career is Over
Depends on what you mean by “mess up.” If you get on stage and belt out a vulgar, racist, sexist rant, possibly strip naked, and assault an innocent bystander while the scene unfolds on live television, then yes: your speaking career is over.
Otherwise, your career as a speaker is over when you say it is over.
None of us give perfect talks. All of us stutter, forget the next line, click to the wrong slide, and give sloppy answers to audience questions from time to time. Messing up is part of the process. Learn as much as you can from your mistakes and mishaps, but don’t let them keep you up at night.
Once you’ve inoculated yourself from these beliefs, the other most important anxiety-reducing strategy is rehearsal.
Many early-career speakers will firmly agree with the following statement:
“If I could just manage my anxiety better, I would be an amazing speaker.”
Try replacing the word “speaker” with “heart surgeon.”
Just like doing a good job in heart surgery, doing a good job on stage requires much more than staying calm and collected. Often, speakers will feel anxious before and or during the performance because they are underprepared. Think about how you might feel if, and I’m assuming you aren’t a surgeon here, you were told to perform heart surgery in the next few hours. Furthermore, think about how you might feel during said surgery as you cluelessly poke around with tools and hope for the best.
The key to confidence is preparation.
The Greek poet Archilochus once said that “We don’t rise to the level of our expectations, we fall to the level of our training.” The more you prepare, the closer you will be to performing at the level you hope to achieve.
Heart surgeons probably feel anxious the first time they swing the scalpel, but by the time they perform an actual surgery, they know the routine frontwards and back. Why? Because they rehearse. Over and over and over, they rehearse the process. They practice each step ad nauseum. And even when they finally reach that point of flawless performance, they keep practicing. If you want to feel as confident as the heart surgeon in operation, you will need to practice like one.
Rehearsal provides anxiously wired people like us with an outlet. In fact, anxiety will fuel your fire. Anxiety will make you work harder than everyone else. Anxiety will keep you passionate, determined, and focused. If you were able to take it all away, you might not care as much.
So, how should you rehearse? Let’s dive in.
Rehearsal Tip #1 — Achieve Happy Birthday Level of Memorization
TED speaker Jim Urban once wrote about achieving “Happy Birthday level of memorization” when it comes to giving a talk. If I were to ask you to set this book down for a moment and sing everyone’s least favorite annual hymn, you could probably do it, word for word, without mistakes. You know the lyrics so well that you could probably improvise and sing it to a Reggae beat, change some of the words, and add in a few dance moves.
You want the content of your talk to be so ingrained, so well-rehearsed, that you can mindlessly spout out every word. This level of memorization allows you to improvise and be flexible at the moment. Speakers who memorize their content do not have to devote any of their attention to remembering the next slide or talking point, which gives them the ability to be fully present with and attuned to the audience.
Ultimately, the only way to learn the lyrics of Happy Birthday is repetition. You will have to put in the time to go over and over the content until it sticks. Jim Urban suggested you will know you have made it when you can give your talk while doing some other unrelated activity, such as cooking or cleaning. Put in the hard work up front, and your future onstage self will thank you for it.
Rehearsal Tip #2 — Script, Bullets, Blind
The first thing you should do is write out your entire talk as a full-length script. You will notice several benefits from scripting out the talk, such as being able to identify areas that need to be adjusted for length, but the greatest benefit comes from being able to polish your wording and pre-edit before memorization begins. Practice reading the script out loud while you time yourself to get a sense of how your talk fits within your allocated slot.
After a few scripted rehearsals, you can try editing your script down to a series of bullet points. Spend more time looking up from the page, practice the delivery, and how you might use your body to communicate the message. You might notice yourself stray from the original script on occasion, and you can use those moments to practice returning to your next bullet.
Once the bullet point rehearsals feel more comfortable, try moving on to the blind rehearsal. No notes, no script, just you and the imaginary audience. Feel free to transition from script to blind rehearsal in whatever way and at whatever pace feels best for you — some people will get creative by drawing it out using images on a whiteboard or voice record themselves reading the script and then listen to it on their commute.
Rehearsal Tip #3 — No More Do-overs
High-octane speakers typically do not pause mid-talk and say, “Whoops, I messed up, let me jump back five minutes.” Once the performance begins, the show must go on. Similarly, once you have the talk fairly well-memorized, you should give every rehearsal as if you were on stage. No more do-overs, no going back to restate something you messed up. Not only will this prepare you for some of the stage anxiety, but also it will help you practice improvisation and how you might pick yourself back up after a fall.
Rehearsal Tip #4 — Invite the Anxiety
According to my smartwatch heart rate monitor, the most anxiety-producing moments for me are at the beginning of the talk and the Q&A section at the end. My body doesn’t have those same anxious reactions during rehearsal, though, and so I would also feel caught off guard on stage, thus making the performance that much more difficult.
Just as you should practice with the content of your talk, you should also practice with the context. You need to practice performing with anxiety if you tend to get anxious on stage. So, ask a friend or family member to listen to your talk. Give sections of your talk at Toastmasters. You can even video record yourself to prompt some of those same “I am in the spotlight” thoughts and feelings. I sometimes even practice elevating my heartrate by doing pushups or jumping jacks to simulate the physiological symptoms during those high-stress moments. If you can push through your content with a pounding heart and labored breathing, the stage will feel like a walk in the park.
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?
I would want to spur people to embrace radical compassion and love in the face of hate. I recently gave a TEDx talk on this — here’s the link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7O-xEWq2tcI
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!
Harrison Ford! He also struggles with social anxiety, and he’s someone who really models what socially anxious folks can do, even though they feel scared and want to withdraw.
Are you on social media? How can our readers follow you online?
I’m on LinkedIn and Twitter.
This was so informative, thank you so much! We wish you continued success!
Makers of The Metaverse: Theodor Nielsen Of NIL Technology On The Future Of The VR, AR & Mixed Reality Industries
An Interview With Fotis Georgiadis
You must, in my opinion, devise simple and elegant solutions to complex problems. If you have a good technical solution and the right mindset, which includes being passionate, hardworking, stubborn, and open-minded all at the same time, I believe you have some of the key ingredients for success.
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 interviewingTheodor Nielsen, founder and CEO of NIL Technology.
Theodor Nielsen holds a master’s degree in nanotechnology engineering from the Technical University of Denmark (DTU). In 2006, Theodor founded NIL Technology together with his university classmate and friend, Brian Bilenberg. He has held the position as CEO ever since. Theodor has transformed NIL Technology from being a technology company to becoming a leading advanced nano-optics company in just three years. Today, the company focuses on the development and mass production of diffractive and meta optics for smartphones, consumer electronics, and AR/VR/MR.
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 the countryside, surrounded by horses. My family lived 30 kilometers (about 20 miles) north of Copenhagen, and despite the fact that both of my parents worked, my family bred racehorses. For the most part of my childhood, I believe we had around 15 horses. On the farm, my brother, sister, and I had a lot of responsibilities. In this sense, my childhood instilled in me many of the values and ambitions that remain central to my life today. Dedication, passion, taking responsibility, and, of course, a burning desire to win.
Is there a particular book, film, or podcast that made a significant impact on you? Can you share a story or explain why it resonated with you so much?
I’m afraid I must disappoint you. I know I’m supposed to say something sophisticated here, but the answer is ‘no.’ I enjoy using my brain to solve problems because the satisfaction is greater and the learning sticks more effectively when you have to exert some effort. I’d never had learning or wise words spoon-fed to me in such a way that they struck a deep chord with me. However, I enjoy the film “Pulp Fiction.”
Is there a particular story that inspired you to pursue a career in the X Reality industry? We’d love to hear it.
My sources of inspiration are twofold. Before Brian and I founded the company in 2005, we sought advice from seasoned business professionals. I don’t think they fully grasped the concept of nanotechnology, and their advice to us was to avoid pursuing our dreams with NIL Technology at all costs. We had to prove them wrong, of course. My passion stems from the ability to create extremely small objects with extraordinary precision. We have been delivering technology to many of the early pioneers in the X Reality industry for many years, and seeing our technology come to life is extremely inspiring. You can’t see the nanostructures, but you can see the end result. We did nanotechnology for many years before anyone “invented” X Reality, but we saw early on that our expertise was a perfect match for creating awesome XR solutions.
Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you began this fascinating career?
NIL Technology was founded many years before there was a clear use case for the company. We were confident in our technological abilities. It was exciting to realize that we should focus on optics and, as a result, decide to go all-in on optics. The greatest sensation, however, was the fall of 2021. We achieved several ground-breaking results, which we shared with the rest of the world. We had been developing extremely precise technology with complex nanostructures for more than a decade. When we combined this with optical design, we were able to demonstrate highly efficient diffractive and meta optics, which had never been demonstrated before. On a personal level, this was extremely rewarding.
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 a difficult question. I love to entertain with “war stories” on a stage, non-recorded but seems wrong in printed media. I can definitely say that you need to make, and learn quickly from, mistakes for the betterment of yourself and your company.
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?
Brian Bilenberg, without a doubt. In 2006, we co-founded NIL Technology. Since then, our academic and professional lives have been inextricably linked. Brian and I have been friends for over 25 years. We have a common vision and have been on the same mission for the past 16 years. Our partnership instills confidence. I remember looking at each other on the first day after starting NIL Technology and wondering why no one had called us, after all, we had told the entire world we were going to start the company. We realized we didn’t have a phone, so our first action as NIL Technology founders was to go to the mall and buy two cool smartphones, this was still back when you didn’t bother reading your emails on your phone.
Are you working on any exciting new projects now? How do you think that will help people?
We’re indeed working on something very exciting; metalenses, or meta optical elements (MOEs) as we refer them to. In 2019, World Economic Forum named metalenses as one of the top 10 emerging technologies. And not without reason, metalenses have powerful capabilities beyond traditional optical lenses as they have completely flat surfaces, with reduced thickness, and improved quality across all optical component use cases. They will be a game-changer for optical applications, for example, consumer products, smartphones, and AR/VR/MR devices. We experience great interest in our metalenses, our MOEs. At the end of last year, we demonstrated an efficiency of our MOEs at 94%. This is a result that has never been demonstrated before, so it was a very big thing. We have progressed a lot with this new, disruptive technology, and as a result, we’re now working with major OEMs to develop different meta optical solutions.
Meta optical elements have great potential of helping people as they can make sensors in optical applications smaller and more efficient. Just think about it, we have sensors everywhere. To give you some examples, they can improve medical imaging, driver monitoring, LiDAR, cameras used for eye-tracking and sensing and machine vision applications, presence detection in smart homes, object detection/avoidance in robotics, and health/biometric sensing, SWIR imaging to detect food freshness and food contamination. The list is never-ending.
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 AR/VR/MR industry is absolutely very exciting because there is so much innovation going on. Today, most hardware for this industry is heavy, bulky, and uncomfortable, but we will see a lot of improvements in this industry over the next 12 to 24 months. To give you an example, glasses will be smaller and lighter, so they are more comfortable to wear, and they will have more features, so you can do more with the glasses you wear. Yet, this is kind of a paradox, because users expect glasses and other hardware to become better and better over time, but one of the biggest challenges facing hardware manufacturers is component miniaturization. Things simply need to become smaller and lighter for them to be able to create the products that users want. If you look at the optics that are used in this hardware, it hasn’t seen much innovation in the last decade because it’s very challenging to change the form of the lenses that are used in sensors. The lenses are still bulky and curved and they are needed in the many sensors that AR/VR/MR devices have. So, to create smaller and lighter devices, you need smaller and lighter sensors. And this means that the optics need to be more compact as well. Working on flat optics for these devices is truly exciting.
Our technology is also perfect to create diffractive waveguides with very advanced nanostructures that eventually make great displays. The quality of what you see is directly linked to the quality and accuracy of the nanostructures in your display and this is exactly where NIL Technology excels. We are both providing technology to map the analog world into the digital using our sensors, and we provide technology to make the digital world visual in the analog world.
Another thing that is exciting about this industry is that it is a gateway to the metaverse that everyone is talking about. This pushes for even more innovation because we need the devices to be able to create the metaverse experience that is envisioned by some of the biggest names in consumer technology.
What are the 3 things that concern you about the VR, AR, and MR industries? Can you explain? What can be done to address those concerns?
VR/AR/MR is extremely exciting, and the companies that go “all in” have visions that challenge the wildest of dreams. This is very inspiring, and I see NIL Technology as a leader in this field. The timing of our solutions in terms of commercial implementation and take-off is obviously the most important concern for a cutting-edge startup. But I believe we are in a good position because our technology can be used in a variety of markets.
I am very concerned about the comparison between classical, old school, refractive optics like micro lens arrays (MLA) to nano-optics. No doubt that MLA has been a great technology with numerous use cases, but considering the formfactor, efficiency and functionality required by future applications I don’t see a future. Refractive optics have a curved lens. Future applications need a flat, compact lens. We see there are a lot of misinterpretations when it comes to nano-optics. It is a disruptive technology, and this requires a redefinition of how you think and design optics, because replacing one technology with another may change other aspects of the application in question. Therefore, we have put lots of effort into fast prototyping because you need to be able to test the new technology with other functions and see how the results excel.
When it comes to the heart of nano-optics, how we produce this technology, we use electron-beam lithography (EBL). EBL is a high-resolution, high-fidelity technology that is widely used in academic research. It takes a long time, but the results are unrivaled. I frequently hear that EBL cannot be used to manufacture commercial products. But I’ll tell you something: this is so old school. EBL is used for prototyping at NIL Technology. This gives us an unrivaled advantage in terms of turnaround time in nano-optics. Furthermore, we use the EBL’s precision to create masters for nanoimprint lithography (NIL), which is certainly scalable to mass production in the billions.
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?
XR devices have great potential for usage at work and there are already many industries that take advantage of this. For example, through visualization, navigation, interactive instructions, and remote guidance, as well as knowledge sharing and training. AR glasses present the possibility to blend digital content with real-world surroundings, by using a smart device camera, AR software to capture the surrounding environment, as well as GPS, lasers, or sensors to identify when and how to overlay information onto the display of the device. This gives the possibility of a mix of information that can be used in your work environment.
A great benefit of AR is the possibility of visualization of information. A person using AR glasses can basically be located anywhere, enabling them to fix a problem, interact with others, or get real-time information. Also, AR glasses can for example be great for navigation to a new location, but navigation can also be related to medical and surgical navigation to increase accuracy and efficiency. Precision imaging prevents errors and reduces the workload. It can also facilitate training, allowing surgeons and others to practice without causing errors and without involving patients. This example you can basically translate to any work situation where training, knowledge sharing, and navigation are used.
But let’s not try to make this too fancy at this point in time. Today, I prefer to fight zombies using VR/AR. 😉
Are there other ways that VR, AR, and MR can improve our lives? Can you explain?
It’s the “next big thing.” I believe you can speculate a lot and pretend to be a visionary, but it is extremely unlikely that you will get it right. I recall when I was a kid and some of my parents’ friends were among the first to obtain a portable phone. My mother, I recall, didn’t see the point of having a phone in the car. “Why can’t they wait until they get home?” she wondered. Nowadays, I believe I have the majority of my conversations with my mother while driving. I believe that, in time, AR, VR, and MR will have the same impact as the development of smartphones. Furthermore, the concept of remote guidance and assisting on repair, medical, and guidance topics is already very powerful today.
What are the “myths” that you would like to dispel about working in your industry? Can you explain what you mean?
Tricky question. But I believe it must be the understanding of refractive optics being the answer to everything. In the industry of optics, it seems like everyone thinks refractive. But the development of nano-optics has developed tremendously over the last decade. I want to kill the myth about the limitations of nano-optics. We have demonstrated that it works and that it works better than the mainstream technology, but you know, it’s not enough to have the best solution. You need to be able to sell the idea. To do this, we have put lots of effort into prototyping. Fast prototyping is a great solution to quickly respond to what the market wants and what the new technology can deliver.
What are your “5 Things You Need To Create A Highly Successful Career In The VR, AR or MR Industries?”
You must, in my opinion, devise simple and elegant solutions to complex problems. If you have a good technical solution and the right mindset, which includes being passionate, hardworking, stubborn, and open-minded all at the same time, I believe you have some of the key ingredients for success.
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 hope that the accuracy of our optics and the very small form factor will inspire more people to use optical sensing, and that it will be used for glorious and exciting decision making. I hope that our optical solutions will be used in self-driving cars and Lidar applications to improve traffic safety. I can easily envision health sensors, environmental sensors, and other similar devices. Very compact, high-quality data to help you make better decisions and live a better life, as well as save energy through optimization. In short, it would be incredible if I could be a part of inspiring other companies to use our flat optics to solve global challenges.
We are very blessed that very prominent leaders read this column. Is there a person in the world, or in the US with whom you would like to have a private breakfast or lunch, and why? He or she might just see this if we tag them 🙂
I would like to meet with any leader who is a visionary and a first mover, and who is passionate about integrating very advanced optics into products.
Thank you so much for these excellent stories and insights. We wish you continued success on your great work!
Slow down. We all need to slow down. The concept of “first-to-market” and “prototype something quickly” for revenues’ sake hinders progress for innovative processes. This is a fear-based survival mindset that embedded itself at the organizational level as a strategy. The consequence will always result in sacrifices and settling of the original mission. In reality, the need to be first-to-market presents itself as a small evolutionary step product as a feature rather than genuinely a revolutionary idea.
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 Haitham Al-Beik.
Haitham Al-Beik is the CEO and founder of a research lab called Wings, developing next-generation autonomous and pandemic-proof businesses. Haitham is driven to liberate creators by introducing new technologies, such as robotics and A.I., to people’s daily lives.
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 share with us the most interesting story that happened to you since you began your career?
As I started to approach the food industry, I decided to take it upon myself to manage a health-focused fast-casual restaurant that was considering closing down due to COVID. I saw this as an opportunity to throw myself into the fire while attempting to keep it afloat. I wanted to experience the pain points beyond any mathematical models observed from the outside. The experience taught me a lot about the industry and its sectors and the people involved in all aspects of the ecosystem — the managers, chefs, cooks, staff, partners, customers, etc.
Along the way, we took the opportunity to prototype many technologies to enhance our internal and external logistics while optimizing for healthier and cleaner operations.
Which principles or philosophies have guided your life? Your career?
We have only one life to express ourselves with our creative energies. Embrace every day as it’s your last and use it to express yourself the best way possible. Whether it’s through art or your career, your expression begins and ends with you.
Find the devotion within yourself that drives your creativity to new heights. The only expectation one can have is that your creativity is unique and will find friction and struggle in a world of many saturated ideas.
Brave through.
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”?
Human evolution has been for the most part bringing the world closer together. Transportation and telephony technologies played a huge part in making that bridge and closing the gap. As much as it is with human connection it also played a large role in bringing material objects closer to us and sooner.
Amazon and DoorDash work tirelessly to manifest your wants and needs in moments notice by pushing the envelope for delivery. We are seeing the next-phase of how external logistics evolved and finding its place in internal logistics and infrastructure.
Imagine if you will, smart buildings with short term storage and transportation built into it. Just as power and USB terminals are now part of every infrastructure, we will start seeing deposit and receptacle terminals within a building, offices, apartment complexes, hospitals, hotels, universities, and more. An intelligent smart building where it can store and deliver items (food or dry goods) to you whether you are home or not.
How do you think this will change the world?
Such a system removes non-value add labor from the workforce, bringing in more opportunities for a creative workforce. Increasing the creative force will bring in more entrepreneurs to any industry and further enhance the operations by simplifying our lives.
Shopping is a chore for the most part. The act of “shopping” will dwindle to your needs appearing at your home without you having to move from your place or while you are in the middle of creating your next masterpiece.
The world will change, because people will get more time back, and time is of the essence.
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?
From my perspective, technology should never be considered as the answer to a joyful and blissful life. Nor should technology be applied for the purpose of taking advantage of people. Let’s be fair; many new technologies in the market are being used in a way that is not congruent to people’s desires or their environments — knowingly or not.
In essence, we gave away our self-responsibility to technology. Giving it that responsibility will (for the most part) lead to chaos. Nonetheless, it is a powerful tool for computations, exploration, convenience, and abundance — liberating us from having to survive.
The consistent theme in Black Mirror is how we still work to appease the technology as part of a reward system. In a way, that future is already here, today! Any system that is based on a reward-based practice is a survival one.
People should think deeply about how to transition from this survival and reward mindset by building relevant solutions and technologies. These technologies intend to upgrade humans to move beyond their intellectual limitations and regain the time for a more conscious living.
Was there a “tipping point” that led you to this idea? Can you tell us that story?
The breakthrough was realizing we can manufacture and produce autonomous end-to-end businesses for anyone to operate without a business experience by removing the need for labor.
Initially, we attempted to introduce many of our technologies to current businesses that needed the most assistance and guidance during such difficult times. We started with the software. However, we quickly learned that we were so far ahead that the existing infrastructure was preventing us from easily integrating it and effectively moving the needle forward. This resulted in a complete rethinking from the ground up of how we needed to introduce our technology.
We started to look into how we can enable more creative energies within the businesses while the operations continue to be reliable, dependable and seamless. The most friction was in the workflow operations that, till today, has been heavily labor intensive making it difficult to rely on. More importantly, the operation was analog that prevented any type of potential enhancement or integration with other systems. This had to be elevated and it had to be done in a way that empowers the business.
What do you need to lead this idea to widespread adoption?
First, we need to continue having conversations about how such technologies will change how we look at and participate in life. Partaking in conferences, podcasts, and other media channels will help spread the message far and wide. Secondly, we will start applying these technologies in business with high-volume production before it becomes mainstream.
We are also contacting local universities and research labs to bring about the idea of HiveRobotics and what can be done to elevate the services industry for the future.
What are your “5 Things I Wish Someone Told Me Before I Started” and why.
These are few things that I have discovered within me through this life journey so far. It guided me in offering clarity to the process of and the symbiotic nature of people and everything else around us. Any clarity I gained around that framework naturally brought about a higher probability of manifesting a vision bigger than myself.
1.) We are here to create, not work.
All I ever wanted to do is create things driven by desires within me. The idea of work is creating for someone else’s desires and wishes. When one is creating from and for themselves, then they are playing. The consequence of such “plays” are guiding tools incidentally beneficial to others in their creative process. It is this framework of indirect helping that is most inventive and effective for collective enlightenment.
The idea of starting a company is essentially a research container to birth ideas for enhancing humanity. The only reason I’m creating a company the way it is today, in the first place, is simply due to the systems’ established language that was developed to facilitate and bring about new ideas. Inherently, bringing about any revolutionary idea to that language will always go against the grain.
I quickly realized that only a few are willing to change for a highly pivotal future when the right amount of energy, time, and space is invested. Hence, the first few who rallied in revolutionary ideas initially tend to be close by and stealthy (like a cocoon) due to today’s natural resistance. This can be observed by the close proximity of early advisors and investors to where I am.
I was surprised how deep topics about humanity and social infrastructure were not given the respected time to be discussed with many VCs until you have a working business model or a technology that excites the mind.
The platform is mainly designed (it seems) to invest in technology, not humanity. Where is the platform for the heart? We are all here to contribute to a singular mission to transition the “human condition” to “human being.”
2.) Never conclude, always realign.
Whatever idea one begins with will always yield to become something more significant than itself. In essence, the devotion behind the creation of that idea is alive, while the idea itself is guidance — a clue.
One of the major struggles for any entrepreneur is holding onto old ideas that are presumed to be the answer preventing them from taking a few steps back or starting over. When in reality, it is never a step back; it’s only so when compared to the previous idea.
This was significant in keeping the ideation and creative process ongoing while unraveling what Wings is. Technology became something we had to invent along the way. The idea of marrying hardware and software resulted from these processes and is now fundamental to Wings.
If we labeled or defined Wings early on as a software company, it would never have had the opportunity to unravel its hardware aspects. It’s not that the idea of starting out as a software company was wrong, but a necessity at the time to prepare and wise up for the hardware later.
Wings was guiding us to itself.
3.) Everyone is extraordinary.
Like any startup in its early stages, funds are scarce to acquire the necessary skills and resources. Believing that only investing in intellectual and most skillful people to bring about a solution will only lay down a path where the focus is on the skill rather than the solution.
We have people contributing their heart and intelligence from all aspects of life and industries — most have never written any software and are reluctant to technology and robotics since they have not served them well. These are the creative energies that can dream and imagine beyond any skill to start laying a path and a platform where technology is always second.
As such, people, given their time and opportunity to express themselves, become the process of invention — extraordinary!
4.) Too much noise — get to the point.
In ideation and creation, one is constantly faced with forming little conclusions on the way. These are based from third parties, research companies, news, customers, investors, etc. However, most acquired data is designed as a guide that has gone through many computational filters to create normalization — for the sake of simplicity. This is where humanity has been lost in that noise. Simply put, no matter how much data one obtains, it will only bring you a little closer to understanding the average of human input/output kinematics and mannerisms, but never really know anyone.
For example, one can use all the tech to understand the moon, but it takes one to ultimately go through training, traveling, landing, and experiencing it to get to know it — by that one astronaut.
Everyone in the company is here to throw themselves into the “fire” — truly experience what really is going on that may be difficult to capture with data.
Data — if not respected as what it is, a history, a memory of what has been done — will only mirror ourselves to it, and technology will keep us in that memory cycle, preventing us from seeing ourselves from all that noise.
5.) Slow down.
We all need to slow down. The concept of “first-to-market” and “prototype something quickly” for revenues’ sake hinders progress for innovative processes. This is a fear-based survival mindset that embedded itself at the organizational level as a strategy. The consequence will always result in sacrifices and settling of the original mission. In reality, the need to be first-to-market presents itself as a small evolutionary step product as a feature rather than genuinely a revolutionary idea.
It has become prudent for the entrepreneur today to consciously remove themselves from any survival mindset or dependence; otherwise, they’ll find themselves continuously balancing their heart and mind. This continuous balancing is like a tire stuck on mud — stress will eventually reveal itself, discouraging the self. Today, the population is stuck in a system that rewards “survivors” over creatives merely because there is an established and highly invested platform for them.
I wanted to minimize all that I had physically related to material things and mentally related to impressions from this life. I sold all I had — even today, I don’t own a car. I put myself first to focus on all aspects of my mind, body, and soul, so I can manifest what I need. I questioned everything and took no truths but as perspective words of guidance and wisdom. I surround myself with things that can and will only enhance what I can create at any moment.
We need to realize that anything that has ever influenced and changed the world came entirely from a devoted human being. Devotion requires time and energy in a loving-based environment. Companies, as such, will need to be devoted and take their time to seek it.
As much as we can plan things, the mind cannot fathom all possibilities. It’s only through slowing down that we can transcend our own intellectual limitations and become part of something larger than us.
Can you share with our readers what you think are the most important “success habits” or “success mindsets”?
Clarity and focus is key to taking small steps and moving mountains in the process. Everyday is an opportunity to move the needle ever-so-slightly that is new to you and the company you are building.
I personally do not see success as an important aspect of why I do what I do, since it’s just a mindset and unrelated to a joyful and fulfilled heart. There is a process to have milestones to reach your desired goals, but as I noted in the “5 Things I Wish Someone Told Me Before I Started”, success would then be based on what you have accomplished on that day.
We don’t have control over what will happen tomorrow, nor can we change what happened in the past, so focusing on the moment with all your energy is the only thing we can do, and as such can only be successful.
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 future of automation is in the digitization of the last-mile delivery value-chain. There are clearly segments of the chain that are not digitized and are creating a $1T bottleneck, which is the on-premise fulfillment and distribution supply chain.
Traditional logistics uses multiple systems to deliver orders that employ runners, sorting, storage, delivery, etc. With Wings’ LoS, these logistical systems are combined into a single system for an outstanding delivery bandwidth that is scalable and versatile, eliminating the need for labor and its error-prone operations.
We are developing the first hardware platform automating on-premise logistics to deliver online orders without human intervention. It’s the first Logistics-on-System (LoS) automation architecture integrating multi-channel deposits and receptors, storage, bidirectional workflows, and machine learning onto a single lightweight system.
How can our readers follow you on social media?
I’m on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram under the alias “albeik.” Readers can also visit my personal site for updates at albeik.com.
Thank you so much for joining us. This was very inspirational.
Makers of The Metaverse: Aaron Franko Of Saritasa On The Future Of The VR, AR & Mixed Reality Industries
An Interview With Fotis Georgiadis
Five things that are incredibly important for success in this industry are creativity, technical capability, hands-on experience, storytelling ability and empathy. As you notice technology is only a small part of what makes a great career in this industry. As with everything, hands-on experience is incredibly important in order to really understand how to make the most of this new technology. Creativity, storytelling and empathy are the three skills that really will differentiate good production from great production and are the bedrock of this technology becoming ubiquitous.
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 interviewingAaron Franko.
Aaron Franko has spent over 20 years working in different areas of technology and has achieved numerous technical certifications as well as an MBA from the New York Institute of Technology. He currently leads Saritasa’s Immersive Technology Business Unit focusing on Virtual, Augmented, and Mixed Reality for business.
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 a small town in Wisconsin’s farm country and my parents were both teachers. After high school I joined the Army National Guard and went to UW Stout for Marketing Education. My interest in tech began in the mid 80’s and has been part of my entire career. I started out in PC/Server sales and after a few years I transitioned into IT management for about a decade. After getting my MBA I moved into the technology consulting and services world for about a decade which led me to my current role as VP of Immersive Technology at Saritasa, a custom software development company.
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?
If I had to pick one author who really made a significant impact, I would have to choose Brené Brown. I was first introduced to her book “The Power of Vulnerability” in 2015 and it really changed my outlook significantly. As a guy, we grow up believing that being vulnerable is a weakness rather than a strength. Her books have helped me open myself up to the world and allowed me to achieve both personal and professional success that I don’t think would have occurred otherwise.
Is there a particular story that inspired you to pursue a career in the X Reality industry? We’d love to hear it.
I’d say it’s less of a story and more about luck. As Seneca said, “Luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity.” I’ve been lucky to work in a number of roles across many industries which have given me a background that has allowed me to thrive in this very creative and highly technical industry. I’ve always been drawn to the place where technology meets creativity so when given the opportunity to build a business around immersive technology, I was completely ready for the challenge.
Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you began this fascinating career?
Working for a custom software developer, I get to hear a lot of really incredible ideas from passionate and creative people. But I think the thing that has been the most interesting is hearing people talk about their first experience with immersive technology. Young, old, techies and newbies — every person I speak with finds this technology and industry to be mind blowing and I never get tired of hearing their stories which completely energize me.
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 will admit that I probably don’t laugh at myself enough so I can’t think of any mistakes that I’ve made that I found funny. However, I’ve definitely had my share of learning experiences. These are new technologies that are constantly evolving so I think making mistakes is a constant but the ability to recover quickly with little impact is the key to success.
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?
There are truly so many people in my life who have helped me get where I am today and it’s difficult to choose just one. I’ve been given so many chances to succeed and have learned from so many different people but I would say one of my previous bosses, Paula Winkler, definitely stands out. Paula has a super power when it comes to connecting with and coaching people and really was able to push me into difficult situations that she knew I could handle even when I didn’t. My time working for her definitely set me up to move to the next level in my career and I couldn’t be more grateful.
Are you working on any exciting new projects now? How do you think that will help people?
I truly enjoy all of the projects I am working on but, currently, one stands out in particular. We have a client who is a service-disabled veteran who runs a very successful dog training business that he’s expanding into VR. He wants to help anyone, with any ability to have the opportunity to learn how to better train and connect with their pet or service dog. I’m in awe of his commitment to his mission and am grateful we get to be a part of bringing Top Tier K9 Dog Training into the virtual world.
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 three things that I find particularly exciting about this industry right now are VR collaboration tools, AR headset development and overall adoption. As remote work and business travel have changed dramatically in the past 2 years, I find VR collaboration tools to be an excellent option to allow people to have a sense of presence and “togetherness” that so many are missing. In addition, many of these tools provide us with a more robust collaborative experience than even sitting together in a traditional meeting room.
As far as new technology goes, I couldn’t be more excited about the developments in Augmented and Mixed Reality headsets that will eventually allow us to have a seamless transition between the real and virtual worlds without limits. I believe we’re finally starting to see the type of advancements required to develop a lightweight and powerful headset that will drive mass adoption and utility.
Finally, overall adoption is critical for this industry to succeed and with the incredible improvements in hardware along with businesses finally beginning to incorporate VR into their training and operations, we are reaching an important point where immersive technology is close to becoming mainstream.
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?
Some things the industry and government really need to pay more attention to are privacy, security, and accessibility. When you consider privacy, it’s not just about data but also about how we protect individuals in public. For example, if I’m walking down the street and someone has AR glasses that can scan my face and provide personal information to that person who may then be able to target me for ads, or more sinister reasons, how can we ensure that I’m required to opt in to allow this? Or what if someone can decide they’re going to begin placing virtual advertisements on the side of my business for a competitor?
Additionally, there is so much data that can be collected from a viewing experience yet there is currently very little discussion about how to secure that data. Also, much like when mobile phones became popular, many people are introducing headsets into a corporate network with little understanding of how or what they can access.
Finally, as much as I’m inspired by the way that immersive technology can assist people of all abilities, accessibility requirements for VR and AR apps has really not been addressed as it has across other technologies. I think it’s an important design element for both the software developer as well as the hardware provider to consider so that all people can participate in this amazing experience.
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?
The bottom line is that most people enjoy being entertained. And if we’re enjoying ourselves, we will be more productive. “Gamifying” learning is a relatively new, but incredibly effective concept. Beyond leveraging the techniques of game development, the entertainment industry is driving much of the technology that is used in immersive technology. So it really feeds our industries at many levels.
Are there other ways that VR, AR and MR can improve our lives? Can you explain?
Immersive technology is truly a transformative industry. It allows people to learn new skills, experience things that they otherwise couldn’t and meet with new people to expand their horizons. Most of us spend our lives in a fairly small “bubble”. Immersive technology allows us to experience things and engage with people in ways that were previously impractical or impossible for very little cost or effort.
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 things I hear often about this industry that I don’t think are true. The first is that this is just for gamers and kids. Although I think that’s a great introduction for a lot of people and will expand the industry greatly, there are a large number of people using this technology for very productive purposes including the military. Second, is the idea that it’s all about the tech. I think you need brilliant technical people to build this technology but it’s most important that the creatives are involved to both build stunning visuals as well as compelling stories.
What are your “5 Things You Need To Create A Highly Successful Career In The VR, AR or MR Industries?”
Five things that are incredibly important for success in this industry are creativity, technical capability, hands-on experience, storytelling ability and empathy. As you notice technology is only a small part of what makes a great career in this industry. As with everything, hands-on experience is incredibly important in order to really understand how to make the most of this new technology. Creativity, storytelling and empathy are the three skills that really will differentiate good production from great production and are the bedrock of this technology becoming ubiquitous.
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. 🙂
After traveling to many parts of the world and spending a substantial amount of time in Mexico, I’m struck by the infrastructure challenges that many people face when compared with the US. I’m also inspired by the way mobile phone technology has allowed the farthest reaches of the planet to join the social and economic aspects of the rest of the world. For this reason, I’ve always been fascinated by the development of wireless electricity technology. Whether it’s phones, networking or electricity, wires have held us back for decades. Creating a safe way for those who have no other option to wirelessly charge devices, or cars without massive infrastructure investments or upheaval could bring an entirely new opportunity to help those around the world as well as drive mass adoption of electric cars if they could be charged as one drives, for example.
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 🙂
There are a lot of people who inspire me for different reasons. Growing up as a skateboarder in the 80’s, I always admired the passion and dedication of all the skaters I would read about in Thrasher. One person who has found incredible success due to his dedication to and passion for his sport is Tony Hawk. Even recently, he suffered a broken femur and has clearly shown incredible dedication to rehab that is allowing him to recover at a super human pace. For that reason, I can’t think of anyone who I’ve admired for more of my life who is still an inspiration and would love to meet.
Thank you so much for these excellent stories and insights. We wish you continued success on your great work!
Christie Love Of ‘Be Seen Be Loved’ On The 5 Things You Need To Be A Highly Effective Public Speaker
An Interview With Fotis Georgiadis
… To serve. Your goal should be to get the focus off yourself, redirecting your attention back to serving your audience with your message. Once you can do this automatically, you’ll soon get into the zone of delivering your message, and the nerves will dissolve away.
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 Christie Love.
Christie Love is the owner of Be Seen Be Loved. She is an expert in the communication and connection industry. She is an award-winning international speaker, public speaking and confidence coach, executive trainer, author, and global women’s empowerment visionary of The Powerhouse Women’s Collective. She is also a podcast host and TV show host for Win Win Women.
Christie supports female leaders who strive to provide excellent service through enhanced communication, which is directly associated with increased professionalism, career advancement, better relationships, and stepping into their power. Christie brings her keynotes and workshops to organizations and corporations of various sizes, including Stanford University, Stanford Medical, and Stanford Valley Care. She is known for her dynamic and motivating presence on stage that captivates and engages her audiences, leaving them with the tools they need to go out and immediately increase their level of success.
Thank you so much for doing this with us! Our readers would love to get to know you a bit better. Can you share a story with us about what brought you to this specific career path?
Of course! I was originally born in Detroit, Michigan. That’s where most of my family still lives now. My parents divorced when I was a baby, and my mother remarried when I was three. I have three half-siblings: an older sister with my father and a younger brother and sister with my mother. Life was a bit rough as we moved quite a bit, and I had to adjust to new environments. However, when I look back on it, experiencing new people and places made me who I am today as a lover of all cultures and diversity. I saw life as a struggle growing up, not fitting in, being bullied in school, and not getting the best grades, but I still tried to do my best. The struggles were real, but the journey was worth it.
I spent far too much time in my life and career, allowing limiting beliefs to hold me back. I didn’t feel “good enough” to speak with high-powered business professionals. I was sitting in the back of the room, avoiding others at all costs. I didn’t want to be seen or heard. I tried to remain invisible, even though I had a deep desire to do more with my life.
Can you tell us the most interesting story that happened to you since you began your career?
I suffered from glossophobia, which is essentially stage fright on steroids. It’s the fear of speaking in public that ended up being the motivation for writing my book, From Stage Fright to Super Star. It took a lot for me to finally acknowledge that I had a problem that needed to be fixed. When I decided to do something about it, I joined Toastmasters International. At first, it was the most frightening experience of my life, but I kept going back and doing it again and again because the feeling I got every time I ended a speech was liberating. After 19 years of perfecting my craft as a speaker, I can’t say enough about the doors and opportunities that open once you become a better communicator.
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’d have to say that the most interesting thing that happened in my career was when I transitioned to doing more virtual presentations. I have been speaking in front of local audiences for years, and speaking online is a totally different ball game. When I started public speaking, Facebook and LinkedIn, and camera phones were just a thought. I started on social media by joining a challenge to do three videos a day for four months. I created over 400 videos and gained a new skill that allowed me to become more visible to my market.
During the first speech I gave in front of a group of people, I nearly passed out. I experienced all the different types of nervous discomfort included in the definition of stage fright within five minutes. After the speech, I felt a rush of adrenaline and euphoria. I was eager to do it again! I know that sounds crazy, but I realized that on the other side of fear is your ability to shine. I also learned that every time a sensation of fear stands in my way, that’s usually the exact thing I need to do to reach my next, higher level.
None of us are able to achieve success without some help along the way. Is there a particular person who you are grateful towards who helped get you to where you are? Can you share a story about that?
I am blessed to be surrounded by some of the most amazing and supportive people. Specifically, regarding public speaking, there is a dear friend whom I am eternally grateful for, Mr. Tony Whatley. I had been speaking on small, local stages and mentoring people to become more confident speakers for 15 years. Then, I ran into Tony. I mentored him to become a more engaging speaker, and he ran with it, going on to become a best-selling author and speak on stages around the world. He heads a large community of business professionals, offering coaching, masterminds, and hosting retreats. When I told him I had a vision to become an influential speaker and coach like other powerhouse women I saw owning it in their field, he said, “the only difference between you and those women is that they put in the work. You can do every single thing they did. I know it! You can do that. I believe in you!”
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?
The best advice I can give others is to follow their dreams. Some days will be hard. You will fail, feel discouraged, want to quit, and want to believe the people who laugh at you and feel bad when people close to you don’t support you. But through it all, you need to stay committed, resilient, and keep moving forward. Remain visible and put yourself out there. Connect with new people every single day. Always show up at your best and do the work. Practice your craft, get better, and make your accomplishments known. Lastly, serve, serve, and keep serving at your best.
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?
My mission is to guide millions of people to break out of their shells and share their messages with the world. There are too many people whose lives are stuck feeling invisible because they don’t believe their voice is heard. They have allowed the negative words of others to push them down into living a life of complacency, scared to be their most authentic selves. On the other side, they know that they are made for more, deep down. There is a spark within them that is ready to ignite, but they don’t know how to own their voice and step into their power confidently.
My message teaches and inspires people that they can overcome whatever is holding them back, just as I did. They have a message to share. The world needs to hear their message because someone else’s life can be transformed thanks to them showing up and speaking from their heart.
You have such impressive work. What are some of the most interesting or exciting projects you are working on now? Where do you see yourself heading from here?
I am excited to have recently launched my TV show, Be Seen Be Loved TV, on Win Win Women. It airs on Roku, Amazon Fire TV, Apple TV, WinWinWomen.com, and Mintwave Radio. My show allows me to give back by sharing my knowledge to empower other women. I also get to interview powerhouse women who share their journey to success along with tips and strategies to help my viewers.
Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share how that was relevant to you in your life?
My motto is, “never give up and never quit.” It’s a quote taken from the Navy Seals. My husband is a retired Navy Seal, and reciting that motto keeps us going. To me, that quote means that it doesn’t matter if fear or a self-limiting belief is holding you back, continue to move forward no matter what. Don’t stop until you’ve perfected the skills you need to help serve others in a greater way. Becoming a servant to others is the best way to continue improving your craft.
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.
Maintain Your Mindset.
Becoming a confident speaker starts with your mindset. People who think they can simply conjure up a speech and then go out and deliver at their best with no preparation are in for a rude awakening. There are a few things you can do to prepare your mind for a great speech. The first is to disregard negative thoughts about yourself, and those you believe are imposed by the audience. When speaking, you want to get your focus off yourself and on serving your audience with your message.
2. Know Your Audience.
Before speaking to any group, ask questions to find out as much information as possible about who you will be speaking to and the purpose of the talk. For instance, you wouldn’t want to give a technical speech to a group of real estate agents. A more cohesive and results-driven talk would be to provide a motivational speech geared to inspire real estate agents to go out and sell at their best.
3. Deliver a Dynamic and Engaging Speech.
If anyone has heard me speak before, one thing they know for sure is that I don’t give a dry and dull presentation. My mission is to inspire, impact, motivate, and persuade the audience to take some action to benefit their lives. So, when delivering any speech or presentation, be sure to involve the audience. Mastering certain public speaking skills such as vocal inflection, body movements, and eye contact can significantly improve your performance.
4. Become an Expert in Your Craft.
Remember, you are being called to speak in front of a group because you are known as an expert on a particular subject. As the expert, make sure you know your stuff! Continue to learn, research, read, and talk with other leaders in your industry to gather more information about your subject. The more you know, the more value you can provide your audience and establish yourself from others in your industry.
5. Practice, Practice, Practice.
I cannot emphasize this topic enough. To improve at public speaking, you must practice your craft. For each of my clients, I encourage them to find multiple places, both online and virtually, to speak a few times each week. On top of that, you should be creating videos to share your message. The idea is not to only get visible but to practice various public speaking skills that make presenting seem effortless so you can focus on making an impact with the audience you are called to serve.
As you know, many people are terrified of speaking in public. Can you give some of your advice about how to overcome this fear?
I have a few tips to share with anyone experiencing the fear of public speaking.
The main reason why most people experience stage fright is that they think the audience will criticize, judge, or make fun of them in some way, or they are comparing themselves to others. Remember, the audience is there to support you. They want to hear the information that you’ve prepared for them and are eager for you to help them through your subject of influence.
One thing that helped me initially was creating an alter ego. I named it after a movie star from the show, Get Christie Love. I used the image of my superstar name to create the confident and dynamic person I wanted to be on stage. Now, I can’t seem to turn her off! Beyonce also created an alter ego called Sasha Fierce, which helped her perform on stage. Think of your best self performing on stage, and step into that person whenever your name is called.
As cliché as it may sound, breathing is vitally important to master as a public speaker. Most people speak from their throat area, which is shallow and can restrict your airways. On the contrary, you want to speak from your diaphragm and relax your stomach muscles as you inhale to allow enough air in to relax your body. You’ll also find that diaphragmatic breathing will enable you to have better control of your vocal cords and a stronger vocal inflection, which is needed to sound more engaging on stage and calm your nerves.
As stated above, it’s imperative that you practice your speech. For each 20–30 minute presentation, you should strive to practice the delivery, including eye contact, body movements, hand gestures, and vocal inflection, at least ten times. You don’t have to practice your speech word for word, but knowing your speech inside and out will be a tremendous help if you happen to forget your spot during your talk; you’ll immediately be able to pick up where you left off.
Lastly is to serve. Your goal should be to get the focus off yourself, redirecting your attention back to serving your audience with your message. Once you can do this automatically, you’ll soon get into the zone of delivering your message, and the nerves will dissolve away.
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?
Funny you ask, as I am currently building my community called The Powerhouse Women’s Collective. This is also the name of my new book, which will be a collection of powerhouse women, their stories, and their successes, as they share tips along the way to help others going through similar struggles. I plan to host more women’s empowerment/speaking events and retreats throughout the year, so definitely look out for that. Women have come so far, but we still have a long way to go. I want to be the person who inspires them to break out of their shell and helps them understand that they are made for more. I believe all women can own their voice, step into their power, and create the life they desire while supporting other women along the process. I’m living proof that it can happen, and I’m surrounded by so many other women with amazing journeys who are also willing to help. I’m so excited about the amazing things that are coming soon.
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 former First Lady Michelle Obama and Oprah. My inspirational attachment to Michelle is her inner strength. As a young girl, she used the attacks by others on her race and gender and her father’s failing health to fuel her to keep doing the work to achieve the highest level of prestige in her career. I would like to hear her speak on the importance of women supporting women as we strive to rise to greater heights in our profession.
To me, Michelle is the epitome of strength; once telling President Obama about a conversation she had with a restaurant worker who stated he was madly in love with her. Barack Obama told her, “So if you had married him, you would now be the owner of this lovely small restaurant,” to which Michelle Obama responded, “No if I had married him, he would now be President of the United States.” To that comment, I say, “Heck yeah!” That’s what valuing your strength as a woman is all about!
Are you on social media? How can our readers follow you online?
Sure. You can go to my website at www.beseenbeloved.com. I’m also all over social media. Here are links to the main platforms I’m on.
Makers of The Metaverse: Kent Lewis Of Anvil/Deksia On The Future Of The VR, AR & Mixed Reality Industries
An Interview With Fotis Georgiadis
… To have a highly successful in VR, AR & MR, I recommend following the same process: learn (read and watch the experts share their knowledge, attend classes, etc.), share (digest your learnings and share them via blog, social and other channels to build awareness and credibility as an enthusiast) and apply (start building virtual worlds on your own, for friends and family, pro bono/in-kind projects or if you’re lucky a paying client). Rinse and repeat. That is how I got into the world of search marketing in 1996 and most recently, the metaverse.
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 interviewingKent Lewis.
Lewis is currently Chief Marketing Officer for Anvil/Deksia. With a background in integrated marketing, he left a public relations agency in 1996 to start his career in search engine marketing. Since then, he’s helped grow businesses by connecting his clients with their constituents via the Internet. In 2000, Lewis founded Anvil Media, Inc., a measurable marketing agency specializing in search engine and social media marketing. Under his leadership, Anvil has received recognition from Portland Business Journal and Inc. Magazine as a Fastest Growing and Most Philanthropic Company. In March 2022, Anvil merged with Deksia, a Midwest-based agency specializing in strategy-driven creative.
In 2008, Lewis created Formic Media, a sister agency to Anvil, providing a similar set of digital marketing services to small businesses and strategic partners. He’s co-founder of a variety of organizations, including career community pdxMindShare, emailROI (now Thesis) and SEMpdx, a Portland-area SEM professional trade association. As a long-time entrepreneur, Lewis is an investor and advisor to a host of emerging Portland-based companies, including CareSpace, ShoeBio, Syndical, Tixie and ToneCommand. Lewis speaks regularly at industry events and has been published in books and publications including Business2Community, Online Marketing Institute and Portland Business Journal and SmartBrief.
Since 2000, he’s been an adjunct professor at Portland State University, where he’s taught an SEM Workshop, and tours nationwide as a regular speaker at the Digital Summit conference series. Active in his community, Lewis has been involved in non-profit charity and professional trade organizations including early literacy program SMART Reading, The Entrepreneurs’ Organization (EO) and Portland Incubator Experiment (PIE). Industry recognition and awards include Portland Business Journal’s Top 40 Under 40 Award, Top 25 Most Influential Pay-per-Click Experts and Marketer of the Year by American Marketing Association Oregon Chapter. Lewis was also named a Top 100 Digital Marketing Influencers by BuzzSumo.
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 Seattle and went to college in Bellingham, WA before starting my career in marketing. I transitioned from a public relations into digital in 1996, as it seemed like a new and interesting profession.After getting recruited to multiple agencies, I elected to do my own thing in 2000, and have been running Anvil ever since.
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?
All Seth Godin books have had a tremendous impact on me. So much so, I reached out to Seth to invite him to speak at a local conference in 2007 and it led to a discussion about promoting him as a presenter and author. That brief conversation resulted in a blog post. After that experience, I was fortunate to have lunch with Seth in midtown Manhattan a year later. I have his book, This is Marketing, on my desk.
Is there a particular story that inspired you to pursue a career in the X Reality industry? We’d love to hear it.
My original inspiration, as outlined in my first article about the metaverse, was a client asking for help building a presence in Second Life in the 2007 timeframe. I was not impressed initially with the platform, but I saw the potential. Now it’s a major focus for myself and our team at Anvil/Deksia in 2022 and beyond.
Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you began this fascinating career?
My best story about the metaverse relates to NFTs, in that our first foray into the blockchain world was an April Fool’s press release regarding our new capabilities (building virtual shoe boxes for the sneaker drops that were popular early last year). It led to actual client work and inspired this year’s April Fool’s press release.
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/we don’t make mistakes, but I’m happy to say the “fake” press release could have been considered a mistake by many, but it led to business and exposure we couldn’t have otherwise imagined.
None of us are able to achieve success without some help along the way. Is there a particular person who you are grateful towards who helped get you to where you are? Can you share a story about that?
My boss in 1997, Ryan, made a lasting impact on me. He helped me understand how agencies operate (and make money) and inspired me to think differently about music (the math behind the notes) and technology (his first PC was a K-Pro). He later recruited me to cofound an agency in 1999 and that forever changed my trajectory. Sadly, he passed away too early (at 42 years young) after we had a falling out and my biggest regret is not reconnecting with him before he passed to say thank you.
Are you working on any exciting new projects now? How do you think that will help people?
My primary focus is helping clients understand the Metaverse and support NFT drops. I enjoy educating people and brands and hope to help them navigate the new virtual world as I did nearly 15 years ago with Second Life.
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?
I believe AR (augmented reality) and XR (extended reality) have the greatest potential for brands in the future. I’m not a huge fan of VR, despite speaking extensively about the metaverse (primarily giving warnings and outlining concerns. Everyone has a smart phone and bandwidth and lives in the real world. VR provides an opportunity for brands to engage and add value on the most popular personal appliance in history. Helping visualize a sofa in your living room or trying on shoes or clothing from the comfort of your own home is true problem solving.
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 major concerns I have with VR in particular are: hardware limitations (cost of headsets), human limitations (comfort and use of headsets over time) and interoperability (being able to move seamlessly between virtual worlds with avatars and crypto currency). While you can make headsets more affordable, I don’t believe you can solve the human desire to be in the real world and not get motion sickness. Interoperability is a standards-based solution but will take time.
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?
While VR has been touted as a powerful remote collaboration tool, I don’t believe people will want to spend hours wearing a headset. Conversely, it has real value in terms of product design collaboration where hands-on is key for a distributed workforce. AR and MR have similar opportunities in terms of improving workflow and collaboration, but I’m still a fan of face-to-face interactions when possible.
Are there other ways that VR, AR and MR can improve our lives? Can you explain?
While VR can create immersive experiences (especially from an entertainment and education perspective), I’m more of a fan of AR in terms of being light, intuitive and more aligned with the future (making us more of a hybrid like Terminator in terms of additional information a screen can provide to a camera view of the world). MR is too similar to VR in terms of issues around headset use (human and hardware issues).
What are the “myths” that you would like to dispel about working in your industry? Can you explain what you mean?
The biggest myth about VR is that it’s here today and it’s a game changer. VR hasn’t evolved significantly in 20 years, despite improvements in resolution, computing power and internet speeds. I believe we’re 3–5 years away from useful metaverse interactions and commerce. In the meantime, I believe AR is here and ready for greater development and adoption.
What are your “5 Things You Need To Create A Highly Successful Career In The VR, AR or MR Industries?”
To have a highly successful in VR, AR & MR, I recommend following the same process: learn (read and watch the experts share their knowledge, attend classes, etc.), share (digest your learnings and share them via blog, social and other channels to build awareness and credibility as an enthusiast) and apply (start building virtual worlds on your own, for friends and family, pro bono/in-kind projects or if you’re lucky a paying client). Rinse and repeat. That is how I got into the world of search marketing in 1996 and most recently, the metaverse.
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. 🙂
While I’m a big believe in the Black Lives Matter movement, I’m most passionate about representing indigenous people of the United States (if not the World) as the original landowners. In September of 2022, I created the NFT Mural project in Portland to honor Portland’s BIPOC community. I’d like to further refine my focus to help local tribes create sustainable careers in the world of digital marketing to get them out of abject poverty and marginalization.
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 🙂
Ryan Reynolds has probably figured out by now that I’m a huge fan. While I respect him as an actor and producer, I’m in awe of his entrepreneurial and marketing talents. He revolutionized the advertising industry with ‘fastvertising,’ for example.
Thank you so much for these excellent stories and insights. We wish you continued success on your great work!
Makers of The Metaverse: Nick Rivero Of MEPTIK On The Future Of The VR, AR & Mixed Reality Industries
An Interview With Fotis Georgiadis
Create a network — Follow different studios on social media or on their websites to see what they are up to. See if they’re attending or hosting events or meet-up with people in the industry. Dig for the studios and people behind them and let them know you’re interested in connecting with them.
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 interviewingNick Rivero.
Nick Rivero, Chief Technologist & Co-Founder, MEPTIK.
With a background in technology and system design for multi-camera & live production, Nick has worked with concert artists ranging from Taylor Swift to Lady Antebellum.
Nick now leads a team of designers and technicians focused on innovating extended reality & ICVFX. With years of experience in content design and realtime workflows and systems, MEPTIK has worked with Fortune 100 companies, musical artists, films, and broadcast to create work that captures the imagination and creates new experiences.
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 sort of stumbled into it all really. I went to college to be a classical music major, jumped into studying film, ended up with a degree in sports television, then spent 10 years in the concert & touring industry. I never expected to be doing anything of the sort, but what I realized is that there was a thread through it all — I was passionate about video technology and innovation. I really followed that throughout my career, which brought me to today, working at the bleeding edge of video, technology, and innovation.
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 remember two in particular. The first was the movie A Requiem for a Dream. Darren Aronofsky’s work always fascinated me in how he told such deeply — often times, dark — stories in such a powerful way. He used filmmaking in such a creative manner that it really made me realize just how powerful a visual experience could be. This was furthered along by my reading of the book In The Blink of an Eye, by Walter Murch. He’s a storied film editor, director, writer and sound designer who gives a deep perceptive on the subconscious side of film editing — really the psychology behind how editing in film works. It made me realize there was a deeper side to how much went into something that was perceived as effortless; film editing.
Is there a particular story that inspired you to pursue a career in the X Reality industry? We’d love to hear it.
The older I’ve gotten, the more I’ve looked back at my career and tried to find the core of what makes me tick, and I’ve realized that it’s always been about innovation, video technology, and experiences and xR is really the culmination of that: It’s about combining lots of pieces together to form something entirely new. I feel that innovation is never about these big hurdles in front of us, but rather about putting together all the small pieces behind us to equal something entirely new.
Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you began this fascinating career?
Oh boy, this is always a tough one. Having spent a decade of my life having toured with musicians around the world, you get to see some fun things. I think the highlights for me were standing onstage with Mumford & Sons at the iconic Red Rock venue in Denver, CO, playing multiple nights with Taylor Swift at the O2 in London, or playing Radio City Music hall with Lady Antebelleum.
Can you share a story about the funniest mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lesson you learned from that?
There’s honestly so many mistakes I’ve made that it’s hard to point to a single one! What I always say to my team is this: every day you need to be learning something new, and sometimes those things we learn are good and sometimes they are bad, but at the end of the day they both push us forward. Innovation, in particular, is found at exactly this point — continually learning. Do you think Thomas Edison invented the lightbulb on his first try? Of course not! But what he did do was learn and improve until he did.
None of us are able to achieve success without some help along the way. Is there a particular person who you are grateful towards who helped get you to where you are? Can you share a story about that?
I had a teacher in college, at Florida State, named Jim Shaw. He not only taught me so much but he gave me incredible opportunities to really learn. He really believed in you learning through doing, which was something that always resonated with me. He also taught me one of my favorite quotes that I’ve always lived by: “When the show goes well, it’s thanks to the team, but when the show goes poorly, it’s the director’s (or person in charge) fault”. I always took that to heart in our company — that we are the success of our team, but when it goes off the rails, it’s my job to take responsibility.
Are you working on any exciting new projects now? How do you think that will help people?
Too many to mention! Overall, xR is about combining the digital and physical worlds to create entirely new experiences. I feel that’s the core of what we’re doing: helping our clients build things that were never before possible and helping at-home audiences experience visuals in an entirely new way.
We recently shot the NBA 2K22 League draft at OPTIK Studios, our studio in Atlanta that we operate with our partners Creative Technology. We created an entire virtual elite league basketball court around the hosts using extended reality and superimposed the NBA 2K22 League Logo on the physical desk via augmented reality. The event was produced & directed by Defacto Entertainment from Vancouver, the control room was in Toronto, there was a simultaneous live event in New York City, and the live-stream happened from Atlanta. It was an incredible experience to see it all come together in one livestream, which got more than 400,000 accumulated views on Youtube & Twitch.
Since people and businesses are increasingly interconnecting on a global scale, how we communicate with each other and visualize stories is key. I think extended reality will play a huge role. Extended Reality enables filmmakers, broadcasters and presenters to take storytelling to new heights. Without physical boundaries, they can tell stories in a way never seen before — and the viewers will take note.
Ok super. Thank you for all that. Let’s now shift to the main focus of our interview. The VR, AR and MR industries seem so exciting right now. What are the 3 things in particular that most excite you about the industry? Can you explain or give an example?
1. Being on the bleeding edge of a new industry is incredible. There are not many times in your career that you get to write a new chapter of the story, and this is it for an entire industry.
2. The Metaverse, to me, is really about this core idea of exploring how the digital and physical worlds will intersect themselves. It’s about realizing what our digital future in a physical world truly looks like.
3. We’re only at the tip of the iceberg. Just like any great invention or technology in time — the internet for example — its full effect isn’t realized until much later down the road. I feel that with these new technologies, we’re a long ways out from seeing the full effects on an entire generation.
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. There is still a lot to learn. We have a long way to go in really exploring what is possible, but also what the psychological impact will be on humans moving forward. It will be hard to tell and only time and experience will be able to teach us the true force of it’s impact.
2. There are a lot of negative impacts this can have on us too. I think we need to be cognizant of the darker sides of technology as we move forward. Just in the last few years, humanity has brought more attention to the fact that technology isn’t always friendly. Corporations exploiting user data and privacy becoming nill, for example, have left us realizing that we need to be aware that there are multiple roads these technologies can take us down.
3. Accessibility — in order for everyone to participate in these technological advancements, high-performance equipment is needed that not every person has access to. This barrier to entry might lead to inequality in access to information and social structures. These things will only be resolved with time as equipment becomes more accessible and affordable with a higher adoption rate.
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?
Entertainment is really core to the future of digital experiences. I think there’s so much to explore about how people connect and find enjoyment in these virtual paradigms. Games like Fortnite have really done a great job at exploring these possibilities and giving us a glimpse of what we might be seeing more of in the future.
Another application for this technology outside of the entertainment industry is the use of xR in virtual events and corporate communication. Extended reality is changing the way businesses communicate with their clients, potential customers, and employees globally. The technology allows businesses to illustrate their services and solutions from any place — the client’s factory, warehouse, manufacturing facility — any physical place can be recreated virtually. It allows them to reach their customers wherever they are, whenever they are available in a unique, and highly customized way. This also applies to products — products can be recreated virtually and be taken apart to showcase features and applications in detail, without ever having to physically disassemble them. This is a great way to educate both employees and external stakeholders on the products and services a company is trying to sell. We created a Virtual Capital Market Day for Ford’s investors last year, in which the speaker was placed inside a replicated manufacturing facility, and he was able to go from showcasing what their new cars look like from the outside to explaining and showing in detail how the technology works inside the vehicles in seconds.
Without interrupting business as usual, businesses can use this technology to interact with and educate their internal and external stakeholders in an entirely new, dynamic way.
Are there other ways that VR, AR and MR can improve our lives? Can you explain?
We call it the “Three R’s of Virtual”. The first is VR, which is about immersing ourselves in the digital world, the second is AR, which is about overlaying the digital onto the physical world, and the third is XR, which is about placing people into an immersive digital experience. They all serve varying purposes, but at the core, by interweaving the digital and physical, we’re able to do things like provide more information, tell more enriching stories and connect people in entirely new ways.
What are the “myths” that you would like to dispel about working in your industry? Can you explain what you mean?
The primary myth is that filming with xR is extraordinarily expensive. In fact, xR technology can save money on productions, especially when they require multiple locations. For us, changing a location can be done with a press of a button instead of having the whole crew travel across the globe. It significantly reduces production time. Plus, we can pull up that exact same location with the exact same look a year from now.
The second myth is that you have to fully understand the technology in order to use it for your production and that might scare people from using it in the first place. As a full-service virtual & xR production company, MEPTIK allows Creative Directors to come in with a vision, and we take care of the rest. We create the content, integrate the content with the LED Volume and provide full service production capabilities, so all they have to worry about is the actors’ performance. Virtual production makes it easy for directors to work with, it enables them to see exactly what the location looks like before they even step a foot on set. Time of day, placement of objects — everything can be predetermined and adjusted the day-of within minutes. Thanks to in-camera VFX, they can see the final shot on set instead of waiting for post-production to be completed.
What are your “5 Things You Need To Create A Highly Successful Career In The VR, AR or MR Industries?”
Curiosity & Flexibility — the desire to always learn and try new skills and approaches is a must. You always need to be looking outside of your bubble to find things that inspire you and get you out of your comfort zone. VR, AR and xR technologies are constantly changing, so always being understanding, accommodating, and flexible with new technology is key. Have the desire to want to figure things out. You don’t have to have all the answers right away, but as long as you have an attitude of, “Yes, I can” or, “how can I help?” and you’re always willing to figure things out, you’ll be successful.
3D skillsets — Anything in the 3D design space is key to understanding the future. Understanding 3D design concepts along with tools like Blender, Maya and Cinema 4D is crucial. We’ve found that visual effects and game design backgrounds have a lot of understanding as to the foundational building blocks for these technologies.
Create a network — Follow different studios on social media or on their websites to see what they are up to. See if they’re attending or hosting events or meet-up with people in the industry. Dig for the studios and people behind them and let them know you’re interested in connecting with them.
Design or Code — both skills are useful depending on what side you want to go into: if you like the creative side — study more art and design, but if you like more technically minded things — study things like coding basics. It never hurts to know a bit of both either! As kids, we were all taught to explore other verbal languages, and in the future, code is going to be one of those. As we speak, my daughter learns the core foundations of coding as a toddler because it’s going to be one the core languages of the future.
Understand the medium — Whether you build in AR, VR, or MR, you’ll want to deploy and test at scale. Whatever medium you’re working in, deploy it and understand how it works. Get friends and colleagues to give you their opinions — you’ll learn a lot. Understand how the 6 Degrees of Freedom applies to each platform.
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. 🙂
Always jump in and say, “How can I help?” I was around 30 years old when I realized the best approach in life is to ask how I can help those around me. Oftentimes this thought is more subconscious than vocalized, but it underpins how I think about the things I do. How can we help each other? How can we do things that would help others around us?
We are very blessed that very prominent leaders read this column. Is there a person in the world, or in the US with whom you would like to have a private breakfast or lunch, and why? He or she might just see this if we tag them 🙂
I’ve always been a fan of Roger Waters from Pink Floyd. The concepts and artistry which he brought to their music and their shows has always inspired me since I was a kid; my dad got to see them live in the 60’s and we’ve since seen Roger Waters solo in recent years. It’s really pretty incredible how much of a narrative he weaves into the work they do. From Dark Side of the Moon, to The Wall and beyond, there’s just so many iconic moments they’ve orchestrated.
Thank you so much for these excellent stories and insights. We wish you continued success on your great work!
Makers of The Metaverse: Nick Donarski Of Ore System On The Future Of The VR, AR & Mixed Reality Industries
An Interview With Fotis Georgiadis
Don’t back down. You’ve got to be able to stand strong against the wind and take it as it comes. Don’t be scared and afraid to fail.
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 Nick Donarski of ORE System.
Nick Donarski is the inventor of the multi-part ecosystem that’s the ORE System, comprising the ORE Token, the ORE Forge, and the ORE SDK. Holding a number of certifications together with MCSE+S, MCSA+S, MCSE, MCSA, MCP, and CEH, Nick is a cybersecurity expert and has been a featured speaker at a number of cybersecurity conferences and labored for a few of the greatest names within the trade. He’s fluent in several programming languages and blockchain applied sciences together with Web3, Ethereum, Polygon, Binance, BSC, and Sensible Contract Safety and Testing. Nick is a gamer at heart with an ardor to create video games for customers and assist game builders to notice their goals. The suite of instruments throughout the ORE Ecosystem is the means to that finish.
Thank you so much for doing this with us! Before we dig in, our readers would like to get to know you a bit. Can you tell us a bit about your backstory and how you grew up?
Sure! I grew up in Chicago. I grew up at home living with my mom because my parents were divorced. My dad was into computers, so that was where we connected and that’s where I got my start. I like to say that I was born and bred on the Internet. I was always a gamer at heart and still remember my first 56 K modem.
My dad was awesome. He was a fireman and paramedic, and my mom was an emergency room nurse. My dad always had a passion for computers and we had them at home. My generation is the last one that actually saw the early stuff and used it.
The very first program that I wrote was a Halloween-themed chess game all the way back in 1989. Instead of knights, there were horses that were pumpkins. That was what got to me where I am today, to where I am making video games for a living. That’s one of those things that helped me in the cyber security industry because people in that industry will never see those things happen as they did back then or live in the Wild West of the Internet.
Is there a particular book, film, or podcast that made a significant impact on you? Can you share a story or explain why it resonated with you so much?
One of my favorites was a made-for-TV movie by TNT called “Pirates of Silicon Valley.” Most people have no idea that this movie ever even existed, but it’s the story of Bill Gates and Steve Jobs and was made long before they became the cultural icons that they are today. Noah Wyle played Steve Jobs and Anthony Michale Hall played Bill Gates. This movie dives into their lives before they were cool, and you get some of the seedy stories of what really happened in the early days of Apple.
One interesting tidbit is the story of the mouse. Most people don’t know this, but the mouse was actually developed by engineers at Xerox. Xerox declined to market it because marketing something called a mouse was beneath their corporate image. They gave away the tech because they didn’t believe that ordinary people needed computers and that marketing something called the mouse was beneath them.
Is there a particular story that inspired you to pursue a career in the X Reality industry? We’d love to hear it.
It was just something that I love to do. I lived the big corporate life and I’ve worked for various different alphabet agencies in my time. I’ve worked for some of the biggest corporations all the way down to mom-and-pop companies and startups all through my career. I’ve traveled and taught at conferences, but at the end of the day, I love creativity. I love the ability to go in and play a video game. I’m fortunate that I got the opportunity to jump in and live my dream.
Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you began this fascinating career?
I would say the fact that we are still kicking and still here because honestly, the blood, sweat, and tears that every person on the team puts into this is really the story behind our success.
We are self-funded and we have no outside investors. We do what we believe is right. We do right by ourselves and what we believe in, and we really do right by the clients that want to work with us. That seems to bring the cool projects in the door.
For example, we have projects where we’re working with car collectors and insurance agencies. We do projects working with metaverse and virtual reality creation. NFTs are also huge right now. Our goal as an organization — and our tagline — is “White-collar tools for blue-collar folks.”
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 biggest mistake we made was that we tried to answer all of the questions instead of focusing on one question at a time. In the early days, it was hard for us to find ourselves because we didn’t really know who we were at that point. As we grew, and as we started to figure out exactly what we were trying to do, we’ve been kicking butt ever since.
My advice is don’t get frustrated in those early days. Having the idea of the dream is the first step, but don’t get frustrated when it doesn’t quite go your way. None of us are able to achieve success without some help along the way.
Is there a particular person who you are grateful towards who helped get you to where you are? Can you share a story about that?
My dad is the only reason that I have been able to do as much as I have done in my life. He was into sci-fi and having computers at home in the 1980s when nobody else had it was important.
His motto was “If you hack into my stuff, just know how you broke it.” The rule was to never hack from home. It was the fact that he was cool about allowing it to be a learning process. If you made a mistake, it was fine as long as you learned from it; success or failure, just learn from it. Without him, I wouldn’t have had the career that I have today.
Are you working on any exciting new projects now? How do you think that will help people?
Right now, the biggest thing is trying to break down the technical barriers, especially inside the blockchain world. The biggest misconception that we face is that blockchain is crypto and vice versa — it’s not. The technology of blockchain is closer to a database system than it is just crypto, but they’ve become so synonymous with one another that you assume one means the other.
We’re bringing blockchain to gaming and we’re doing it in a way that there is no underlying, what’s called, the layer-one coin. You don’t need Bitcoin, Ethereum, or anything like that to do transactions. It doesn’t require the user to actually go and purchase crypto or anything to use blockchains of technology.
Breaking those two parts allows us to not only increase the user experience, especially for gamers, but it also allows you to have those robust immutable systems that blockchain brings without the hurdles and the hiccups from the SEC restrictions around crypto.
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 cool part about this is that it bridges barriers and breaks down global lines. That’s one of the cool things that the Internet brought together: access.
The metaverse is a middle ground where you can start to build that community out a little bit. Its inclusion of AR and VR starts to break down some of those barriers.
The three things that are most exciting are:
The technology that’s going to be trickling down is exciting.
It’s going to be a smaller technology and easier to use. You’re going to see more events and a stronger sense of community because you’re breaking down that barrier.
The third is the fact that you are in a video game, so the ability to do almost anything that you want is there with more fun and fewer restrictions.
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 biggest concern is going to be security. With any new technology, you have a hurdle of trying to get there first but not doing your due diligence from the development side. Trying to be first to market doesn’t mean that you did all the steps that you’re supposed to. Coming from the cyber security side for 22 years, that is why I still have a job. People rush things to market, so security is going to be key.
As we go into the future motion of crypto payment-processing, this is also a concern. The transaction of PCI has to be the concern. You still have to use credit card processors and follow rules and regulations. I don’t think a lot of developers are taking this into account as they start to get in.
As much as I love technology, it does start to build a wedge between the real world and the virtual world. There’s a concern that we are actually accelerating the separation of humanity from interacting with one another by removing the requirement of interacting.
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?
We’re going to see more events and more gatherings. We already have virtual concerts and virtual sporting events. There are virtual meetings for work that break down the barriers, especially with remote working.
The flip side of that is that, for work purposes, I don’t know how much work versus play the metaverse really creates. If you’re in an office environment, you’re sitting there wearing a headset and still typing your emails. I don’t know if there’s a lot of value in that.
For presentational purposes and team-building events, we will continue to build. We’re so spread out these days, and it’s difficult to get everyone in the same place, so this creates an advantage.
Are there other ways that VR, AR and MR can improve our lives? Can you explain?
I don’t know if it will necessarily improve our lives. It’s another way to enjoy your life.
Gaming is not going anywhere and with VR, it grows the fun factor and draws people in, and makes you spend more time. For a developer, this coincides with more revenue generated by in-game purchases and licensing rights. From a business perspective, it’s a fantastic and leading-edge place to be.
What are the “myths” that you would like to dispel about working in your industry? Can you explain what you mean?
Metaverse is just virtual reality. Everybody wants to sell the buzzword of metaverse but virtual reality game events have been around for a long time.
What are your “5 Things You Need To Create A Highly Successful Career In The VR, AR or MR Industries?”
The first one is creativity. You have to love being creative and think outside of the box because everybody’s going to tell you that you can’t do it. Everybody is going to tell you that it’s hard, but you have to be creative and see things from a different angle.
Don’t back down. You’ve got to be able to stand strong against the wind and take it as it comes. Don’t be scared and afraid to fail.
Learn. Go out there and just try this stuff. Failure isn’t a failure if you learned something in the end. Edison said, “I have not failed. I just found 10,000 ways that won’t work.”
Find yourself a good team. You can’t get anywhere in this world by yourself.
Get away from the computer. That’s something I tell a lot of people in my industry. Take time and get away from the computer and spend time with family. Spend time with ones that love you because they’re the ones that end up getting neglected in the end when you spend all day in front of your machine or your computer.
You are a person of great influence. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger 🙂
My philanthropy goal is that I want to bring high-tech programs to rural areas in America. They’re not available in those places, and it’s a lost opportunity for kids to be able to have those experiences. It’s not that America can’t have high-tech jobs, it’s just that no one’s giving them the opportunity.
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 🙂
This is probably the hardest question, but it would have to be Adam Sandler. The reason is that throughout his career — from the early days on SNL to his movies — he’s experienced ups and downs, but how he handles it and makes light of it through humor strikes me as somebody that’s real. I love his movies and am a big Adam Sandler fan.
Thank you so much for these excellent stories and insights. We wish you continued success on your great work!
