Category: Featured

An Interview With Fotis Georgiadis

Brands are under increased pressure to be transparent in everything — manufacturing practices, hiring policies, and positions on social and political issues. Your brand needs to be clear about its values internally. Then make sure those values are represented in your policies and procedures, and that they align with your external branding and marketing efforts. An annual audit of your brand’s mission and values is a healthy checkup that your actions are aligned with your stated values. Brands have come under a lot of heat in recent years for not “walking the talk.”

As part of our series about how to create a trusted, believable, and beloved brand, I had the pleasure to interview Tess MacGibbon, director of Thought Leadership and Healthcare at The Lacek Group, based in Minneapolis.

Tess MacGibbon, director of Thought Leadership and Health Care at The Lacek Group.

Tess MacGibbon is an innovative and collaborative leader with 25+ years of experience developing and leading ground-breaking content and thought leadership strategies to positively disrupt markets and drive customer/potential customer engagement in start-ups to Fortune 100 companies. At The Lacek Group (an Ogilvy Experience company), Tess has developed the Thought Leadership and healthcare practices she designed and implemented the go-to-market healthcare strategy and lead multi-agency healthcare initiatives to broaden awareness and accelerate growth planning. Prior to joining The Lacek Group, Tess held several marketing and communication leadership roles at several leading health care organizations such as 3M Health Care, St. Jude Medical, Medscape, Coloplast and the Medical Alley Association.

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

Thank you for this opportunity! As I earned my bachelor’s degree, I worked as a temp in various roles and industries. Eventually, I landed at an event marketing/custom exhibit firm. After working there for a short time as a receptionist, I was asked to take on more responsibility in an account coordinator role. I was fascinated by an industry I didn’t even know existed. Soon I had a permanent role with the company, working on two account teams that supported global brands such as Kimberly-Clark and St. Jude Medical, alongside national brands such as LaCrosse Footwear and the 3M spinoff Imation. What I loved about the tradeshow biz was learning the marketing strategies behind bringing a brand to life.

After three years there, I dove headfirst into an event marketing and communications role at Medscape (now the professional portal of WebMD) during the dot-com boom. As the world was eagerly embracing the new digital frontier, it was vital for digital brands to have a physical presence; tradeshows and conferences allowed for that face-to-face experience. I traveled the country, met thousands of physicians, and introduced them to Medscape, a trusted resource for peer-reviewed content, accredited education, and clinical trials data. Our team built the largest online physician audience in the world, a claim I believe is still true today — more than 20 years later. So there I was: hooked on both the power of brand marketing and health care.

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?

Early in my tenure at Coloplast (a Danish medtech company), I built nine regional advisory boards of U.S. physicians, and 17 of advanced practice nurses. I collaborated with my colleagues in Denmark on content, speakers, and objectives. When my Danish colleagues proposed giving a room full of American physicians scissors, glue sticks, magazines, and poster board to create mood boards about talking with patients, I suggested we omit that segment of the agenda. My extensive interactions with healthcare professionals left me confident that activity wasn’t likely to garner enthusiastic participation. I was new to the company, though, and didn’t press further when my concerns were dismissed. When the activity was introduced, there was a distinct discomfort in the room, and the majority of the participating doctors got busy checking messages, returning phone calls, and using the restroom. It’s fair to say the scissors and glue sticks didn’t return. I learned not to underestimate my instincts, and to remember the value of knowing your audience well. I also learned to advocate for myself and for the businesses for which I worked.

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

The Lacek Group, an Ogilvy Experience company, has been designing and managing data-driven loyalty, experience, and engagement strategies for some of the world’s most respected brands for nearly 30 years. We’ve been recognized by Forrester as a national leader in loyalty, and we practice what we preach. We’ve enjoyed decades-long loyal client relationships, which is almost unheard of in the agency world. That’s because we’re a trusted source of expertise. And it helps that we have a proven track record as an unpretentious, hard-working agency that stands ready, even when the going gets tough. For instance, when the pandemic hit and the world came to a locked-down standstill, we created a Crisis Management blog series to help brands mitigate risk and deepen their customer relationships by creating value, convenience, and community and by exercising compassion. We also created the Lacek Loyalty Lounge, a client-exclusive, interactive webinar series to help our clients connect with industry peers and navigate through that challenging time.

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

We’re currently working on a series of strategic content that will help inform how healthcare brands can deepen relationships with their patients, customers, and partners. The pandemic uncovered inequities in access to care and accelerated the demand for affordable, personalized, and improved healthcare experiences. Studies reveal that only one-third of healthcare consumers have brand affinity to a health system, and that number is dropping. Creating trusted brand relationships by layering in value and engaging at all touch points in the patient or caregiver journey will not only create stronger bonds with the health system, it will also centralize care, help drive compliance, and create improved patient outcomes. Loyalty program strategies can be extended to healthcare across sectors, including payers, specialty care clinics, pharmaceutical companies, medical technology manufacturers, and even retail. Health is personal; health care isn’t. The Lacek Group is ready to help shift that paradigm to positively impact patient experience and outcomes, as well as organizations’ profitability.

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?

The goal of product marketing is to increase sales and grow market share by positively positioning a product or portfolio of products. Advertising/marketing activities are often focused on features and benefits that differentiate a product from its competitors and persuade a buyer to purchase it. Products are generally marketed to solve a problem or fill a specific need for customers. Advertising, sales pricing, and point-of-purchase promotion drive the majority of purchases of established products.

Brand marketing focuses on influencing key stakeholders — customers, potential customers, shareholders, analysts and partners — to drive awareness and relevance, and to forge and maintain enduring and trusted relationships. A positive brand perception elevates the products and services underneath its umbrella. More than ever before, in this era of mistrust, people are making conscious brand choices. And those decisions and brand relationships are often based on emotional and value-driven considerations.

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?

Branding has always been essential to building emotional and lasting connections with its customers rather than just selling them on the attributes of a particular product or service. Brand love has a cumulative halo effect. When a customer feels connected to the brand, one purchase in its portfolio of products is likely to extend to more as the brand’s reputation continues to live up to its promises. Think of the enduring relationship Apple has with its long-time devotees that in many cases, started a generation ago with the iPod or G3, and extended to the iPhone, Apple Watch, and Apple TV. They’ve consistently delivered on the promises of customer-centricity, quality, and innovation.

Brand marketing will play an even bigger role in customer loyalty going forward as Gen Z becomes the dominant purchasing block. As a group, they’re the most socially and politically engaged, and the most committed to shopping with brands whose values align with their own. We know from our recent brand loyalty research that customers are increasingly looking at those emotional drivers when considering and developing loyalty to brands. Shared values, personalization, and exceptional customer service are perennially important — and even more so to Gen Zers, who are more interested in the experience of interacting with a brand across all channels than previous generations. Take Nike, for example. It’s one of the first companies to truly invest in branding rather than advertising and the brand is beloved for it.

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.

Despite rapidly evolving consumer expectations, businesses today are well positioned to initiate, build, and retain trusted relationships with their customers and other key stakeholders. Here are five ways to do that.

1. Build trust through customer service

Effective, transparent, and personalized customer service is the foundation on which brand trust is built. Customers want to feel known, recognized, and valued. Every interaction — digital or in-person — presents an opportunity to earn or lose a customer’s trust. In fact, a 2019 Forbes study of 2,000 American consumers found that “70 percent of respondents said they would abandon their purchase if they had a bad customer service experience.” In The Lacek Group’s recent global research, 52% of respondents note exceptional customer service as a driver for brand loyalty.

Recently, I was shopping at a local Hy-Vee grocery store and the lines were so long, I took a $300 cart of groceries through the self-checkout aisle. The store manager came over, helped me bag my groceries, and told me Hy-Vee would pick up the tab on the rest of the groceries in my cart.

2. Own your mistakes

How a brand manages missteps really matters. It’s disappointing to consumers when a brand they love and support falls short of expectations. Whether it’s a product that doesn’t live up to the hype, an employee or customer discrimination situation, or an offensive marketing campaign — brands must take responsibility and apologize for the mistake. That means taking appropriate steps to address the issue and sincerely making amends with your customers. If you’ve previously established trust, and are proactive and transparent in handling the situation, customers are more likely to forgive a misstep.

Burger King’s UK division made a marketing misstep on International Women’s Day last year tweeting “Women Belong in the Kitchen.” The intention was to support females in the culinary field, however, that intention didn’t align with the recycling of an old sexist trope. The brand followed up, apologized and took responsibility for its error in judgement.

3. Be real and empathize

In times of crisis — or even in the event of an individual problem — brands can extend a helping hand in a personal way. Many brands offered courtesies to their loyal customers during the pandemic — e.g., extending payment terms or maintaining loyalty status even when purchasing minimums weren’t met. But showing empathy shouldn’t be limited to times of major crisis. If something goes wrong in production or in the supply chain, for example, reach out to customers with updates and adjusted shipping information, don’t just leave them waiting and wondering. Couple proactive customer service with a benefit — such as a discount or additional points — to nurture goodwill and encourage customers to stick with your brand, despite an occasional unintentional hiccup.

When traveling home on a Delta flight after learning about the death of my best friend, the flight attendants found a spot for me in first class where I could grieve more privately, and they provided an endless supply of tissues.

4. Be authentic and transparent

Brands are under increased pressure to be transparent in everything — manufacturing practices, hiring policies, and positions on social and political issues. Your brand needs to be clear about its values internally. Then make sure those values are represented in your policies and procedures, and that they align with your external branding and marketing efforts. An annual audit of your brand’s mission and values is a healthy checkup that your actions are aligned with your stated values. Brands have come under a lot of heat in recent years for not “walking the talk.”

In the wake of Supreme Court decision to overturn Roe v. Wade, several big brands announced publicly that they will support their employees by covering travel costs and expanding their health care benefits to afford employees time and expense coverage if access to reproductive care is not available in their home states. Those brands are publicly putting their values into action.

5. Treat others’ data as you want yours treated

Let’s call it a kind of data Golden Rule. Companies promise their customers protection and safety when they provide personally identifiable information, credit card information, preferences, and reviews. And members expect rewards and experiences that are correspondingly personalized and relevant.

Ongoing communication to customers about security and privacy protocols, upgrades, and regulations reinforces to consumers that your brand values their privacy and handles their data with care. In the event of a security breach, it is imperative to communicate quickly, clearly, and honestly. Outline the steps you are taking to remedy the situation and prevent future issues. If your response to a data breach is expedient, honest, and empathetic, customers will likely continue to put their trust in your organization.

I recently received a notification from our healthcare system that their data security had failed and that my daughter’s data may have been a part of the breach. They outlined the steps they were taking and contact info to discuss the matter further. While the notice was alarming, I appreciated the straightforward communication of the problem and resources for further support.

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’ve always admired St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital as a brand. I’ve been a donor for most of my adult life because the work of the organization is so powerful. As a nonprofit, funds to build a brand are frequently limited compared to a for-profit company. Year-over-year, St. Jude has enjoyed high public trust and high brand awareness across generations and regions. Reasons for that success include consistently living up to their brand promise, establishing and maintaining an emotional connection with the public at large as well as their donors, and a commitment to children and their families that has never waned. In fact, when the war in Ukraine began, and pediatric cancer patients were displaced because of inhumane civilian-targeted bombing, St. Jude quickly worked with global partners to coordinate their evacuations.

Brands can replicate St. Jude’s success by staying true to their mission and stated values. Continued commitment to delivering on your brand’s promise, whatever that may be, encourages and sustains connections with your stakeholders. Because consumers are increasingly watching what brands do in the social justice and political landscape, take actions that align with your brand, and resist the urge to publicly comment on matters that aren’t relevant to your brand, values, and organizational purpose.

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?

Even in a branding campaign, sales can be a metric of success, but it’s rarely the only one. The success of a campaign with the goal of building brand awareness or loyalty may be measured on a variety of other metrics, including increased engagement and followership online and within social media, audience reach and messaging of earned media, new unique visitors online, increased loyalty program membership among others. Brands can measure success in any number of ways, but the key is to establish clear criteria and goals before the campaign. Agreeing on what success looks like for that particular campaign will help determine strategy and guide messaging and tactics.

Another, but significantly more costly, initiative is a before-and-after brand study. These studies typically require a research partner, funding, and time. These studies reveal how a company is perceived by their target audience and measures how that audience feels about their stated brand attributes. A comparative study like this would best suit a long-term campaign to measure its impact.

What role does social media play in your branding efforts?

Social media is an integral part of our branding. It has been exciting to see how it has evolved and shifted over the years. We spoke of the importance of authenticity earlier. Social media is perhaps the most important example of that. When well executed, user-generated content is now considered more authentic and trustworthy than content delivered directly from brands, and instead of being perceived as an interruption of content, it is the content. Brands that forge connections with the right influencers and partners to develop authentic content see impressive results. On the other hand, social media campaigns that don’t strike the right tone, are overtly “salesy,” or rely on an influencer who doesn’t align with the brand or its values can have a negative impact.

We utilize our social channels to share compelling and forward-looking content with our audiences, which helps our brand build credibility in our areas of expertise, but also genuinely can be quite helpful for brands, customers or not. We also take advantage of our social channels to show off our culture and our values, backed by policy, charitable partnerships, and internal agency work.

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

I would love to inspire an “80% movement” that would bring the recently termed “exhausted majority” back together. The movement would aspire to reduce divisive rhetoric; create collaborative, safe, and bipartisan spaces where we can improve the national sentiment; and forge tighter bonds across aisles, ponds, country roads — all the places we can work together toward an equitable and peaceful America.

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

Winston Churchill once said, “If you’re going through hell, keep going.” Like most professionals, and human beings, I’ve had my share of challenges and defeats. When times are tough, this quote reminds me to persist, to never allow myself to get stuck, to strive for what’s waiting on the other side of the challenge.

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

I’d like to have breakfast with President Biden. I’d like to give him a pep talk to start his day and encourage him to keep going. With an unprecedented collision of crises, I believe the good work he’s done will eventually rise to the collective consciousness.

How can our readers follow you on social media?

Readers can find me on LinkedIn and follow @TheLacek Group.

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

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Tess MacGibbon Of The Lacek Group: Five Things You Need To Build A Trusted And Beloved Brand was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

The Future Is Now: Alexander Konovalov Of vidby On How Their Technological Innovation Will Shake Up The Tech Scene

An Interview With Fotis Georgiadis

Be cautious about what experts say. Asking for their opinion is necessary, but you don’t need to follow their vision to the letter. Listen to your gut and do it your way.

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

Alexander Konovalov, serial tech entrepreneur, business expert, and inventor with patents in the fields of voice technologies, e-commerce, and security. Alexander is the CEO and founder of vidby, AI-powered software that translates and voices videos across 70 languages with an unparalleled 99% accuracy rate. Prior to vidby, he launched Droid Translator, the world’s first video call service with automatic real-time voice-to-voice translation across 45 languages, which transformed into vidby in 2021. Alexander is also a member of the Forbes Technology Council.

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

When I was in the first grade, my grandfather, who was an inventor, gave me a construction toy which could be assembled as a radio. It’s worth noting that back then construction toys were nothing like what they are today. Today all you need to do is put several blocks together. But back in my day, you had a board, a mountain of spare parts, and instructions. When I built my first radio and it worked, I was on cloud nine!

That’s how I got involved in radio electronics. By the eighth grade, I was already earning my pocket money by repairing radio equipment for a recording studio. Tape recorders, amplifiers, equalizers — I could resuscitate any of them.

It was working out well, but then the Soviet Union collapsed. Everything was falling apart. That meant that there was no way my passion for radio electronics could turn into a profession that would allow me to earn a living. At first, I was thinking of going into finances, but you had to pay for this kind of education and I couldn’t afford it. That’s why I decided to become a civil engineer. The exams were hard, but there was an opportunity to study for free and even get a scholarship. I got in. Yet, by the end of my senior year at the university, I became a financial director at an industrial corporation.

As the time went by, I kept earning money and experience in the fields of finances, legal, and manufacturing. Meanwhile, my interest in technology and electronics never went away, albeit there was nowhere to act on it. Finally, in 2013, at the age of 35, I decided to quit everything and start anew.

That’s when I launched my first tech product — the world’s first automatic call translator dubbed ‘Droid Translator’ or ‘DROTR.’ I always knew I’d need to learn English to start a global business. But I also knew I was never good at learning languages. So, I decided to create DROTR, which had both hardware and software parts.

All the tech experts I turned to kept telling me: “Alexander, it won’t work.” It was just like the story of Henry Ford and his revolutionary V-8 engine. And just like Henry Ford, I never gave up. We made several unsuccessful attempts to develop a solution we needed. The problem was that we wanted to translate Skype calls, but we couldn’t get access to the microphone — Skype would lock it. Eventually, it dawned on me that we can make a second microphone. I bought a sound card with a microphone and had it delivered from China. It cost me $1. With the help from an electronics engineer, we assembled just the device I was looking for. DROTR officially launched in June 2013.

Personally, I used DROTR when having talks with partners and customers from around the world and even doing an interview for CNN. I was able to speak to the whole world while still using my native language. In 2021, we pivoted to our current product — vidby, AI-powered B2B solution for video translation and dubbing across 70 languages.

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

I was meeting a potential investor in Zurich. He was an experienced, wise seventy-something year old man. Our talks weren’t going anywhere until he asked me the following question: “What is the difference between a smart and a wise person?” I responded: “A smart person knows their way out of a difficult situation, whereas a wise person would avoid such a situation altogether.” My answer became a turning point in our conversation. These weren’t my words, I heard them somewhere. But I believe everyone can learn from them.

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

My team and I are working on vidby, an online service that uses artificial intelligence algorithms to help video creators of all kinds translate and dub their videos across 70 languages. What’s worth mentioning is that, unlike similar services, we can also engage humans who double-check the translation and fix mistakes, if any. This allows us to ensure an unprecedented 99%-100% accuracy of translation.

To summarize, at vidby, we are creating the technology of understanding. Our mission is to help people understand video and audio content in their own languages and preserve the linguistic diversity of humankind.

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

Sure! My team and I were going through hard times with our first tech project, DROTR. We knew we had to switch to B2B and video translation because it was and still is a more financially promising field. But we needed something to start with. And that’s when I saw a LinkedIn post saying: “I was offered a job for a higher salary than I expected. But I refused because I didn’t like the project. I do not want to do this”. I remember thinking: “This man is right!”. So, I decided to approach him saying that I had an interesting project, but I couldn’t pay him right away. And he accepted my offer. We started working together and, miraculously, I was able to pay him at the beginning of the following month. After that, I raised his salary by 50% and offered a company stock option. Everything else just followed. Soon, we found an investor and were able to bring together our first team.

That was a turning point. I found a believer who risked not getting anything in return for his work. And he took this risk. And I don’t think he has ever regretted it.

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

The first thing we need to do is to integrate with YouTube. This would be the most effective way to bring vidby’s technology to a wider audience. And we are working on it.

I’ve heard that YouTube is looking to develop a similar technology to vidby’s. And that’s ok. Competition is the driver of progress and growth. In 2012, when I first had the idea for Droid Translator, I heard that Microsoft was going to introduce video call translation. It’s 2022 and Microsoft’s project is still in the works. In 2015 or 2016, Skype also started working on video call translation. At first, everyone thought it was the end for Droid Translator. But eventually, it helped us a lot, because investors saw that Skype was trying to do the same thing and realized that we were on the right track.

So, we’ll keep going.

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

Indeed, voice technology has potential drawbacks to be aware of. One of them is a voice deepfake. By using a fake voice, you can engage into all kinds of fraud — from stealing money from the bank to using the “voice” of a celebrity in advertising to get their royalties. You name it. But the good news is that, as I believe, along with the rise of deepfakes, we’ll also see the rise of startups helping to handle these issues. Personally, I know a tech startup that does only one job: it checks the authenticity of photographs for law enforcement agencies.

Let’s go back to “Black Mirror.” For some people, it is just a feature film. But in reality, it is the greatest creation and a message to humankind about what awaits it if technologies get into in bad hands. It feels like the stuff of science fiction, but there is almost nothing fictional about it anymore. All the tech from the series is already here or will be here in the nearest future. The underlying technology necessary to make it happen already exists.

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

Thank you for this great question! Having been in business for almost ten years, I know that however innovative your invention is, if it doesn’t have the right business and marketing models, it is likely to fail. Did you know that the first video call was made in 1963. Yet, Skype emerged in 2004, forty years later. Why didn’t the idea take off the first time? Because of the wrong business model. So, your business and marketing models are what gives you a competitive edge.

As for vidby, we have already started introducing novel business and marketing models. One of them is crowdfunding as a payment method for video translation. Here is how it works. A content creator can order a translation and then send their friends and followers the payment link. As a result, they not only have their video translated for free, but even get a share of collected funds. This way, we are turning expenses into revenue for content creators.

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’ve had many opportunities to learn from various people I’ve met. But my first employer is my biggest teacher. People who didn’t know him well saw him as someone who was born with a silver spoon. They attributed all his success to the fact that he came from a wealthy family. But, in reality, it was all him as he managed to do even better than his parents.

What he taught me was to clearly understand whether I was an entrepreneur or an employee. It was and always is all about mindset. I started out as one of his employees and ended up as his partner. I made my first big money at the age of 28, because I chose to be an entrepreneur.

I’ve met a lot of people saying they would want to be entrepreneurs, but deep in their hearts still willing to have a steady income and not to worry about paying bills. And there is nothing steady about entrepreneurship. So, you either say yes to risks and not being paid regularly, or you stay in a safe harbor. It’s up to you.

In addition to this mindset thing, this man also gave me an opportunity to rise to the challenge. At his company, I was managing 19 factories as a chief financial officer and a de-facto operational director. This taught me a lot!

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

I believe that today knowledge is limited to one language. vidby’s contribution to bringing goodness to the world is to change this status quo. We can translate video content across 70 languages, which covers roughly 93% of the world population (and bear in mind that only 12% of people speak English).

This way, we can help spread knowledge about various cultures and countries, social and eco initiatives, educational projects, etc. For example, recently we’ve given out a grant to translate excerpts of the Bible into 70 languages, which can potentially change someone’s life. So, by giving people access to information, we can help move the needle, move the world forward.

Real innovation is about scaling the market. The way I see it, our task is to give voice to all the content that has been accumulating for a very long time. No one touched this treasure because translating it used to be an impossible task. It used to be extremely expensive and time-consuming. Today, the cost of translating a 60-min movie into one language would range anywhere from $30,000 to $100,000 plus a salary of a person managing the process. Imagine translating it into 30 or 70 languages. That’s why so many movies and other vidoes have been sitting on a shelf waiting for their time to come.

With vidby, you can translate such a movie for roughly $500 in a matter of days. Or, if you are a blogger, you can use our crowdfunding feature to invite your followers to pay for the translation.

That’s the change.

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

Sure!

• Be cautious about what experts say. Asking for their opinion is necessary, but you don’t need to follow their vision to the letter. Listen to your gut and do it your way.
• Build with the resources you have now, not with the resources you may have in the future. I had to learn it the hard way. One of our investors convinced us that we would have enough money to run five projects. So, we hired people and launched the development. Then the funding ended abruptly. We were forced to lay off people and suspend the projects.
• Delegate. And let me add right away that finding the right people is enormously hard. For example, we are still looking for a Marketing Lead. When we find this person, we’ll get ten times stronger than now.
• Never give up. This idea helped me go through the toughest of times. What is the difference between strong and weak people? In times of difficulty, strong people start working ten times harder, whereas weak people just give up. So, just keep going.
• Be extraordinary. Why do some people get paid a lot and others a little? It depends on how difficult it is to replace that person. So, my advice would be to choose a niche and become the best. Knowing it all is not the winning strategy. Knowing how to do one thing better than everyone else is. As people say, an expert is a person who has made every mistake possible in a very niche area.

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 start a movement to promote entrepreneurship. Everything that we use, from shoes to spaceships, is about entrepreneurship. Entrepreneurship is what allows us to develop technology and improve people’s lives in every area. And, coincidentally, it’s not taught anywhere. This needs to be rectified.

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

I love this idea that everything starts with your thoughts. As the saying goes: “A thought creates an action. An action creates a habit. A habit creates character. Character determines your destiny.” Everything starts with a thought. The destiny of a person begins and ends with a thought. Some goes for projects. Therefore, if you want your company to be successful, then start with the right thoughts.

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

We are creating a project that allows you to translate video and audio across 70 languages quickly, efficiently, conveniently and at an affordable price for the fast growing market of video and audio content. The world market of subtitles alone is valued at $30 billion, meanwhile IT solutions account for 3% of this market. This means that companies like vidby that create breakthrough solutions for this field have an enormous investment potential.

How can our readers follow you on social media?

I’d be happy to connect on LinkedIn!

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

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

An Interview With Fotis Georgiadis

Organizations also need process and infrastructure to help with recruitment, retention and development of talent.

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

Christine Sakdalan is a fearless leader driven by faith, family, friendships, and fun. In her extensive experience as a marketing leader for over two decades, she brings patient centricity to life through commercial, digital health, and organizational transformation. She creates vision, inspires innovation, and authentically shares the voice of the patient to shape actionable strategies and meaningful solutions that impact people’s lives.

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

I came to the U.S. as an immigrant when I was 15 years old and ended up going to college very early, graduating when I was 19. From there, I was hired by Pfizer, and originally I wasn’t really intentional about being in health care. My first job was in analytics. Then I went to Novartis and kept growing from market research to marketing to innovation and on to patient-centricity.

I just kept saying ‘yes’ to things. I was following a calling (unbeknownst to me at the time) to choose courage over comfort. I had a thirst to learn and be challenged. There were a few pivotal experiences that influenced my trajectory. The first was seeing how much healthcare mattered in making a difference in people’s lives. I was working at Novo Nordisk as the VP of Patient Centric Strategy and Solutions, which was one of my favorite roles. It was essentially cobbling together all the different marketing functions and bringing them together to better understand the patient journey and put ourselves in their shoes. My work in healthcare felt very personal and purposeful, and I saw that I needed to be the type of leader that embodied this patient-centric attitude in my work.

After Novo, I went to J&J, where I worked in the mental illness space, which is what I am doing again now at Otsuka Pharmaceuticals. This area is so near and dear to me because it is not only fulfilling from a professional perspective but from a personal one as well. My brother had schizophrenia. Other family members have struggled with depression, and my mother died of Alzheimer’s. My work feels more like a mission. It’s not just a job. We are not only impacting the lives of people living with serious mental illness — we’re impacting their families in a very positive way.

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 can tell you an impactful story that speaks to the challenges many face today. As an Asian American leader in healthcare, there are not a lot of people who look like me or come from similar backgrounds. So as I became a leader of leaders, I realized I needed to use my voice and sphere of influence to champion other women of color and to be an inspirational leader who could help others reach new levels.

This importance of this was further emphasized when I worked with someone who did not appreciate what I could bring to the table and perhaps had some biases and misconceptions — despite the fact that I was a senior leader. His biases became very real when he took over the employee reviews that I had done and lowered all the scores for the women and raised the scores for the men.

Around that time, I was with my daughter at a restaurant, waiting outside with a few other families, and overheard another family speaking loudly and using very offensive racist language in a casual way. I decided to stand up to them. The man told me to go back to where I came from because he was white and I looked like I didn’t belong here.

I thought, how can I turn these negative circumstances into something positive? I am at a place in my career where I have a voice, a platform, many professional connections and could do something more. So without any experience, I started a nonprofit with a couple of colleagues called Momentum and Value for People of Color, or MVP for short. Through our work, we help young people of color in their education, career, and other areas of their lives.

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?

To inspire people, don’t show them your superpower. Show them theirs. I have found time and time again that when I empower my team to realize and reach their potential, they are able to succeed and deliver greater impact for the people we serve. I’m so grateful to have had great teams around me throughout my career, and they are all a testament to this quote.

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?

My parents always spoke confidence and courage to me. When I was a young child, every time I walked in the room, my father would say, “how’s my little chief executive officer?” I was maybe three or four years old at the time! Both were high-level professionals. I’ve also been blessed with some wonderful mentors throughout my career. Finally, I am grateful for my husband, who never tries to change me but instead highlights who I am.

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

I, along with the two other co-founders of MVP, Tina Chang and Serene Hennion, are able to personally leverage our incredible and expansive network of executives and diverse professionals to help young people of color. Importantly, we also build in competencies to support other vital skills, with focuses on financial literacy and health and wellness. We’re not only preparing them as professionals — we’re preparing them for life.

Not surprisingly, we’ve already seen these young peoples’ lives transformed. One young woman had a very difficult time securing an internship and now, with our help, she’s engaged in her second one. Another young person wanted to be in the medical field, and we were able to introduce them to a variety of professionals. Now they have six mentors and an internship at an ad agency that focuses on healthcare. Another mentee was extremely shy and introverted but after being involved in our program was able to develop her voice and is now able to promote her accomplishments on LinkedIn and elsewhere with confidence. These are just a few of our success stories.

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

MVP has recently partnered with Jazz Pharmaceuticals to give these young people internships and exposure to the STEM world. We are developing a signature program that allows MVP to be the partner of choice for these internships and will help give these interns their very own personal “board of directors” to who they can go for advice and support. Diving into a career is daunting as is, and having experienced support and empowering allies on the career journey is crucial. I’m thrilled for how this partnership will impact young professionals to feel more confident in their work, provide them access to connections and future opportunities, and experience in their desired field.

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

As a young immigrant, I never would have thought that I’d get as far as I have. Sometimes I wonder if I had had different parents or circumstances, what would have happened? I don’t ever want to waste the blessings and opportunities that I’ve received. It’s important that I pay it forward and use my voice and platform to inspire and help others in any way I can.

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.)

1. It all starts with a solid commitment in order for it to become an organizational priority.
2. You also need championship to ensure there are people dedicated to focus on DEI.
3. Organizations also need process and infrastructure to help with recruitment, retention and development of talent.
4. There are also very tactical elements that need to be executed such as ensuring not only a diverse candidate pool but also a diverse interview panel.
5. Without a doubt, diversity fosters better ideas because you’re drawing from diverse backgrounds and perspectives. And better ideas breed innovation necessary for a company to grow.

Additionally, companies are faced with a variety of challenges, and, with a diverse workforce, you can tap different ways to create new solutions for more people.

Greater and more diversified representation within a company also sheds light to possible new customers that haven’t been reached, but that we can and should be serving.

Diversity that is genuinely embedded into a company’s culture also breeds natural brand ambassadors that can campaign for their organization’s mission with their circle of influence.

Diversity also fosters a deeper level of commitment from people within the organization because they know that they’re part of a larger societal change. This leads to better work and a more successful organization.

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

You have to inspire human brilliance in people because, in doing so, you get the most out of them, and they get the most out of themselves. To do so, it’s essential to establish a culture of purpose and mission because if people understand and reflect on their own “why,” then they’re going to yield better results for the company and themselves. They’ll be able to see the bigger purpose of what they’re doing. That’s important.

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

Trust the people you hired as experts at their job. Expect excellence and empower people to run, encouraging courage over comfort. That is when real change happens and transforms businesses. Through that change though, also share insight on the vision so that people can also have a sense of stability through transformation.

Oprah Winfrey because she is bigger than life, and she has such a big heart. She is a champion for women and a catalyst for people who are movement makers, and that’s what I try to be as well.

How can our readers further follow your work online?

You can find our work on MVP, as well as follow us on LinkedIn and Instagram. You can also connect with me on LinkedIn as well.

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

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Christine Sakdalan Of MVP On How Diversity Can Increase a Company’s Bottom Line was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

An Interview With Fotis Georgiadis

You have to determine your most important priorities and then stick to your plan. Now, if you ask your Public Relations people, they’ll tell you that PR should be number one on your list. And if you ask the Advertising people they will tell you that investing your time and money on that aspect should be your top priority. So, it’s important to discuss your goals and needs with a knowledgeable publisher who can help develop a plan that works for you — and then check off every box in their proper order.

As a part of our series about “How You Can Grow Your Business or Brand By Writing A Book”, I had the pleasure of interviewing Michael Stickler.

Michael Stickler is a highly respected author, producer, ex-felon, philanthropist, horseman, and internationally sought-after conference speaker. His ground breaking book, Cliven Bundy American Terrorist Patriot quickly made the bestseller’s list, revealing the truth of what is extensively and publicly known as the “Bunkerville Standoff.”

Michael’s most recent book, Life Without Reservations has been widely acclaimed in the Christian community. Michael’s newest release Ghost Patriot is his most exciting book to date: Ghost Patriot is a compelling fictional account, torn from modern headlines about the usurping of people’s freedoms, rights, and civil liberties by those who are sworn to uphold those same Constitutionally protected laws. It is the story of America, and how citizens rally to save her.

In addition to authoring four best selling books, Michael Stickler serves as the CEO of Leadership Books, an emerging powerhouse in book publishing. Dedicated to coaching novice authors from concept to completion and guiding experienced authors to even higher book sales, Leadership Books provides a new, proven way to help authors achieve success.

Thank you so much for joining us in this interview series! Before we dive into the main focus of our interview, our readers would love to “get to know you” a bit better. Can you share a story about what motivated you to become an expert in the particular area that you are writing about?

In 2013, I delivered a book to my publisher that I had spent months meticulously writing. Since the publisher’s job was to market and sell my book, I was expecting great results. But I quickly realized that my publisher wasn’t really doing anything with it, which was infuriating. And it really put me in a bind because if that book didn’t sell well, my consulting business for the following year would take a real hit.

So, I decided I needed to get my book back from my traditional publisher. And that was a very painful process because I literally had to pay them for the rights to my own book. My own book! But I bit the bullet and got it back. Having control of my manuscript made me feel better, but it really put me back at square one because at that time I was an author, not a publisher. And that meant I had to learn how to become a successful marketer, seller, speaker, promoter, and everything else that goes into successful publishing.

Fortunately, I had a brilliant writing mentor in Art Ritter. Together, we took a deep dive into the publishing world. And what we found was that the book publishing world was a mess. You had some old school publishers still selling the myth that all you had to do is hand off your manuscript and then sit back while the checks rolled in. You had some newer publishers offering techy ways to publish digitally, but they took a hefty percentage and offered little to no guidance on what to do next. And lastly there were the die-hard authors who chose to self-publish and ended up with a garage full of books they couldn’t even give away.

Once we determined how the existing approaches were failing authors, we came up with a system that actually worked for them. And as I’ve explained in speaking engagements, it was kind of like when a startup named Netflix studied a industry giant named Blockbuster video. Once they saw what the customer really wanted, they developed a better way to provide it. And the rest, as they say, is video history.

Can you share a pivotal story that shaped the course of your career?

Perhaps the best story to illustrate how profoundly my life changed after the experience I just described is by the book itself. It went from being “unsellable”, according to my old publisher, to selling over 300,000 copies once we created a new publishing methodology. So, because of that one stubborn little book that refused to die on the shelf, we created a whole new way to get the author’s books to the people who want to buy them and read them. And in the process, I was blessed to write and publish four best-selling books and create a system that helps other authors achieve their goals.

What are some of the most interesting or exciting projects you are working on now? Are you working on any new writing projects?

Well, one of the books I’m very excited about is one we are publishing right now is called, “Your Best Life Later.” The author is Andy McQuitty and he is a former Pastor from the Dallas area in Texas who created something truly unique. It all began 25 years ago when he decided to write a journal for each one of his five kids without them knowing about it. Each journal was chocked full of wisdom about life, what living a Christian life was about, some of the challenges he faced, some of the lessons he learned and other important things he felt his kids would need to know to succeed as adults. And when he took each of his kids to their first year of college and unloaded all their stuff in their dorm room, the very last thing he did was hand them their journal — one he had secretly been writing for them for the last 18 years of their lives.

What is so incredible about this story is that these journals were created solely as personal gifts for each of his children. But when he retired from his church, his congregation had a banquet in his honor and invited his family to speak. And unbeknownst to him, each of his kids — now all grown adults — brought their journals. One by one, each read some of what their Dad had wrote for them and revealed how it had impacted their lives. Needless to say, there wasn’t a dry eye in the place. And after the kids had shared, everybody kept coming up to him and saying, you have got to publish this because the world really needs to hear this now. Which, thanks to a kind soul who referred us, is how this project ultimately came into our hands.

When we saw the journals, we realized this was something truly special. So, our team sat down with Pastor McQuitty to formulate a strategy that would work. We went through each journal for each child and selected excerpts that truly impacted us. We included family photos and artifacts that served to illustrate the messages and increased the book size to mirror the composition books he’d originally written them in. In the end, it became a book that parents could use as a guidebook for raising healthy, successful kids. And when the media got a hold of the story behind every word of wisdom, humor, grace and purpose, the response to the book was simply incredible.

You are a successful author and thought leader. Which three character traits do you feel were most instrumental to your success when launching your book? Can you please share a story or example for each?

Well first, to be a good author you must be is an excellent observer of people. So, I spend a lot of time in public situations just watching how people act and react. I observe their strengths and their challenges. I watch how they comb their hair, how they flirt, what embarrasses and excites them, and what makes them laugh or cry. I think being an observer of people is deeply important to be an author because you cannot tell a good story if you don’t understand people’s behavior. Once you acquire that skill, you will be able to write with such vividness that the reader is able to see it in their imagination.

The second necessary character trait is that an author must be a great storyteller. I’m far more interested in someone who can tell great stories than someone who knows how to diagram a sentence or where to put a semicolon. Great storytellers can transport readers to a campfire next to a flowing river. They can make you shiver with the damp night chill or feel the warmth from the fire on your face. And it’s that ability to tell a great story that gets the reader excited to read your book from cover to cover, as opposed to the nearly 60 percent of all books that readers never finished.

The third important character trait is to engage people right where they are. Here’s an example: I was at a book signing one time when a woman walked up to me and she poked me in the chest with her

her index finger and said, “You are stupid!” Surprised, I kind of chuckled at her and I said, okay, well, why do you think that? And she says, “Well, in chapter seven in your book here, you tell this story about yourself that you kept doing this same stupid thing over and over again. And in my mind that makes you stupid.” Now, while no one likes to be called “stupid”, what I liked about that interaction is the realization that she was fully engaged. She had an emotional feeling opinion about me based on what she had just read. She didn’t realize that by the end of the chapter I would fully explain the rest of the story so it would have a meaningful lesson she could apply to her life. But hey, I’ll take someone’s passionate reaction to something they just read anytime over someone confessing they had to “slog through to the end”.

In my work, I have found that writing a book can be a great way to grow a brand. Can you share some stories or examples from your own experience about how you helped your own business or brand grow by writing a book? What was the “before and after picture?” What were things like before, and how did things change after the book?

If you write a book primarily to improve your brand or write it to have “a fat business card”. you have the wrong goal. Your goal should be to author a book that presents your unique thought leadership in long form. And if it is a great book, it will definitely improve your brand because people will respect your ideas.

What goes into writing a great book? Well, one of the key factors is writing it for the people will actually read it. Most novice authors think that their book should be read by everybody, but that is completely unrealistic. Instead, you should get a clear vision of whose life you want to impact, improve or influence and write it to them and for them. To that point, we coach some of our first-time authors by having them create an avatar of depicting their ideal reader. Who are they? Where are they in life? What are their dreams? What do they need to know to go to the next level and beyond? And what does the author need to say to land a message that stands out from everything else in the marketplace? We find that by doing that mental exercise, the new authors really hone in on who their readers are what it will take to turn them into loyal fans.

If a friend came to you and said “I’m considering writing a book but I’m on the fence if it is worth the effort and expense” what would you answer? Can you explain how writing a book in particular, and thought leadership in general, can create lucrative opportunities and help a business or brand grow?

If a friend came to me and asked me if it was worth it to author a book, I would ask if they have ideas, stories, insights or lessons they want to convey that are compelling enough that it will make people want to buy their book and read it? If they give that question some serious thought and the answer is “Yes”, then I tell them they should invest their time and resources in writing their book. Because when people consume and embrace your ideas, they are going to want to follow your larger business model. Therefore, if you offer consulting services, online courses, mastermind groups or public speaking services, your readers will want in on it and that will make your business more lucrative. And it also makes converting prospects into clients much easier because they have already bought into you. Consequently, there is no long courting process, it’s typically just a matter of determining what they actually need from you and then structuring it so it works for them financially.

What are the things that you wish you knew about promoting a book before you started? What did you learn the hard way? Can you share some stories about that which other aspiring writers can learn from?

Like most authors, I made some big mistakes starting out because I didn’t have anyone to coach me how to avoid them. But that’s okay because they ultimately became great lessons that I can now teach to others. A prime example is that I had to learn how to market my books online so I could compete with all the other books that are out there. It is a very complicated process and a lot of work, but without knowing how to market to the people who will buy and actually read your book, you are just spinning your wheels.

Another lesson I had to learn is how important it is to know exactly who is buying my books. Unfortunately, that’s something that big outlets like Amazon keep you from ever knowing because they keep all the data from the sale. So, you have no way of knowing if your buyer is your best client, most savage competitor or your supportive grandmother.

Another critical lesson I had to learn was that there’s a reason they call it the book “business”. Because like any other business, I had to provide customer service quickly and cheerfully otherwise there would be negative repercussions. For instance, if a reader wrote me with a complaint like a book arriving late or damaged, I needed to address that right away. Otherwise, their review or endorsement on a book they actually really liked could drop from four stars to two stars just because they felt slighted. And that lower rated endorsement definitely has an effect on how well a book sells.

Based on your experience, which promotional elements would you recommend to an author to cover on their own and when would you recommend engaging an expert?

Well, in a perfect world you could do everything an expert does — providing you are willing to put the time, effort and money into fully learning what they do. For instance, if you are selling books online, which is where people buy books now, you need to know the latest changes in Facebook’s marketing policy, Google’s new algorithm, and on and on. And unless you are really proficient in all of that, it is probably something you want the experts — who are paid to keep up with it — handle for you.

What most authors should do instead is wake up every day and answer this one simple question, “What can I do today to sell more books?” Should I do a podcast, do PR, write a post, talk to some

friends, call the bookstore, or follow up with that podcaster who said they might be interested? I can’t overemphasis how important that kind of personal involvement is. I coach all of our authors on how critical it is for them to dedicate the year after their book goes live to take the calls, do the book signings and speaking engagements and anything else necessary and productive to promote their book. Gone are the days where you write a book and just throw it over the fence and wait for the “mailbox money”. Because if you want it to be successful, you have to work as hard to promote it as you did to author it.

Wonderful. Here is the main question of our interview. Based on your own experience and success, what are the “five things an author needs to know to successfully promote and market a book?” If you can, please share a story or example for each.

First, you have to remember that most people today buy books online and most of them decide to purchase based on recommendation. So, if you have lots of money and you can pay for lots of advertising, that only addresses half the equation. The other half is that you need to have people who will endorse your book. The more endorsements you gather, the higher your star rating will go. And the more people that give you a great review, the more your book will sell.

Secondly, as I have said before, you have to be willing to work to promote your book once you’ve written it. I know of wealthy people who published a book and then spent anywhere from $50,000 to $500,000 in advertising in the New York market trying to get their book on the best seller list. And when it hit the New York Times best seller list for two days it almost immediately fell off because there were so many negative reviews.

Here’s a real-life example of how much difference a diligent, strategic post publishing effort can make. When former First Lady, Hillary Clinton published her book it immediately skyrocketed to the top of the charts. But because she didn’t do a ton of publicity on it, it fell down in popularity a few months later and soon after that was in the discount bin. But when another former First Lady, Michelle Obama published her book, it shot up to the number one best seller and stayed there for a long time. The last I checked she sold over 37 million books and even outsold her husband’s book by three times. Why? Because she worked tirelessly at it. She traveled relentlessly, did countless book signings, appeared on a variety of talk shows, and did continuous speaking engagements for years after she published.

Third, you must know how to present your book from the stage. I am privileged to work with some of the finest communicators in the world as a publisher, but many didn’t know how to present their books at events. So, I made it a policy with our new published authors to go out with them to their first events and coach them through the process. Because the right approach can make the difference between ten people and a hundred people standing at the merchandise table.

Here’s a case in point where a coachable author learned how to dramatically improve his sales in minutes. I was working with a well-known Pastor who had an audience of 10,000 people every Sunday. He was very gifted communicator and very good at what he did. But when I told him I was coming with him through his first book presentation, he was reluctant. He thought that because he had 20 years’ experience in public speaking, he would know instinctively what to do. Fortunately, I was able to convince him that I could help his sales and he was willing to listen and do what I suggested. Afterwards he came up to me and said, “I have never, ever had so many people in line to buy one of my books. And I have to tell you that it was because of what you taught me to do.” The truth is that it is not that hard or complicated. It’s just a matter of doing and saying the right things at the right moments that makes all the difference.

Fourthly, you have to determine your most important priorities and then stick to your plan. Now, if you ask your Public Relations people, they’ll tell you that PR should be number one on your list. And if you ask the Advertising people they will tell you that investing your time and money on that aspect should be your top priority. So, it’s important to discuss your goals and needs with a knowledgeable publisher who can help develop a plan that works for you — and then check off every box in their proper order.

Finally, number five is to understand that when you write a really good book and lots of people buy it, you are just getting started. Because if they love it, they are going to demand another one. As a result, you need to be actively planning your next book. The rule of thumb for keeping your audience and your book sales momentum is this: Your first year you work on writing and publishing your first book. The second year you work on marketing, advertising, and promoting that book. And the third year you write and publish your second book — one that stays in the same genre as your first successful book. A perfect example of someone who understands this principle is Freddy Davis, author of The Truth Mirage: An Introduction to Worldview for Biblical Christians. His first book so well that he recognized that there was a pent up demand for sequels. So, he systematically began planning his follow up books after publishing and marketing his previous one.

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, especially if we both tag them 🙂

Tough question. There are a lot of incredible authors out there, and I’ve had the pleasure of working with quite a few. But if you pressed me, I would have to say that the guy I would love to have lunch with would be Patrick Lencioni. His book, The Five Dysfunctions of a Team: A Leadership Fable was not just life changing for thought leaders, but it was written in a style that I really agree with. He took many of the crucial lessons learned as a business consultant and put them into a fictional story form. And his creative, entertaining format he called “a leadership fable” was a unique and highly effective way to engage his readers.

How can our readers further follow your work online?

LeadershipBooks.com

Facebook — https://www.facebook.com/LeadershipBooksOnline

Twitter — https://twitter.com/BooksLeadership

LinkedIn — https://www.linkedin.com/in/mikestickler/

Instagram — https://www.instagram.com/leadership.books/

Thank you for these excellent insights, and we greatly appreciate the time you spent. We wish you continued success with your book promotion and growing your brand.

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Author Mike Stickler Of Leadership Books On How To Grow Your Business or Brand By Writing A Book was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

An Interview With Fotis Georgiadis

Practice does not make perfect. What does perfect even mean? One of my Miluna-isms is “Practice means prepared and professional (PP&P). You don’t over-practice, you don’t memorize, but you give yourself plenty of time to practice and own your words. There is a reason we rehearse in the theater for weeks or months before opening night!

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. Miluna Fausch.

All the world’s a Stage, and as an Executive Voice Presence & Pitch Coach, Miluna Fausch uses her Vocal Archetypes℠ modules to help clients conquer stage fright, clear subconscious beliefs that hold them back, eliminate vocal and physical habits that diminish personal power, increase confidence, grow profits, and polish the Voice and presentation skills in order to be recognized, promoted and funded.

Dr. Miluna helps women CEOs, startups, executives and professionals grow their businesses through mastering their Public Speaking Performances! How? Through a unique combination of her performing background as a singer and actor, over 25 years of training in the Voice and care of the Professional Voice, through her creativity training, her experience in the corporate arena, and her love of entrepreneurs and the art of business.

In addition to running her business, Miluna contributes to organizations that she believes improve conditions in the world including Kiva, Amnesty International, Paralyzed Vets of America, Southern Poverty Law Center, and the National Trust for Historic Preservation.

Miluna Fausch has a B.S. in Music Business and a Ph.D. in Holistic Psychology. She is a Voiceworks® Associate and is a certified Level III Somatic Voicework singing teacher. She continues to study business success, money, care of the professional Voice, and the artist’s brain. Miluna and her husband live in Mountain View, California in the heart of Silicon Valley.

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 in Indiana surrounded by cornfields. I was a little kid with huge

dreams. When I was 7 years old my father passed away in a car accident. I learned early on the tragedy of a family that does not communicate about death, grieving, or speaking what I call the language of love. I felt heavily criticized and not heard, which is why I set out to find my own voice. I dreamed of being a superstar singer or race car driver.

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

I have always been in love with the voice — from singers and actors to musicians and entrepreneurs. I am also the “great experimenter” or manifestor in the Human Design system, which is around 9% of the population. What this means is that I feel an intense inner drive to experience things personally, whether it be skydiving, buying rental homes, or learning about how our voice really works.

Every job, experience, and class I took (hundreds) led me to understand how very different my perspective is around speaking, how we show up, and how we make presentations. I knew that working with conscientious executives and leaders on evolved and enlightened communication would combine all of my business experience, training in show business, and my spiritual studies and beliefs. It’s because these folks have so much influence and can use their voice for change and good in the world.

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

Many years ago I was living in Orange County, Calif., and went to see a show about Hank Williams at the Laguna Playhouse. There was a captivating singer/guitarist/actor on stage named Mississippi Charles Bevel. I was so intrigued by his music that I purchased his CD and discovered a song he wrote called “Woman.” I was haunted by the beauty and depth of the song. I was working as a singing teacher and performer and I tracked down Mississippi and asked if I could record the song with him.

And, do you know what? He said “Yes.” Yes with no hesitation or questions. Now, Mississippi happens to be an extraordinary, talented, and generous man. We flew him to Orange County and recorded the song at the studio where I was working. I share this story with you to illustrate the power of believing in your dreams and always, always asking for what you want.

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 can call this “funny” only because it was a few years ago! I was part of a live event where a few public speakers were interviewed for a television show. I did not feel good about the event or the person running the event, so I asked my coach to help me write the presentation. It was bad. I had stage fright and forgot my words. It was embarrassing. What I learned was that for me, I need to write my own presentations. Because this was written by someone else, it was not written in the particular way I would say it and it was not easy for me to remember.

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

I have had so many teachers and coaches, but I will mention my favorite voice coach of all-time, Lisa Popeil, who is based in Los Angeles. She has more curiosity, understanding, and intelligence about the voice than anyone I have ever met. Lisa even toured one summer with “Weird Al” Yankovic as one of his three background singers. Although she works mainly with singers, she has helped me deeply understand how the voice works when we are speaking or singing. I was even inspired to create my eBook, Care for your Voice the Showbiz Way, because of her dedication to caring for the voice.

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?

Yes. I believe it is to surrender to our fear of failure itself. It is for us to let go of the definition of failure or success, and follow our own path. Every single one of us gets to define what success is for us. We don’t want to look bad. We don’t want to make mistakes, but that’s what life school is! If we “fail,” we have learned something. We have figured out how to do something or how not to do something.

We know from history that some of the biggest failures have led to some of the biggest breakthroughs. When most people arrive at the end of their life, they speak about regrets. Not what they did do, but what they didn’t or were afraid to do. If you have something to share with the world, I say do it. You can’t possibly know where it will take you or what will happen, but you can say that you lived a life worth living.

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?

What drives me is the belief that I have something to say and that my words are impacting or touching someone else. My belief that I am a part of creating a better world that works for everyone. I know that together, we can build a peaceful world where all humanity and all life thrive.

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?

Well, thank you. I love making an impression on others! I am busy promoting and holding book signings for my first book UpLevel your Communication. I also recently felt the call to honor my own artistry and spiritual intelligence and just completed the creation of two new products — the eBook I mentioned earlier and “Dr. Miluna’s Spiritual Blessing for the Voice, which helps folks open up the energy in their throat and fifth chakra (located at the base of the throat) so that they can begin to speak their message to the world.

My own work is to continue to find new ways to express my voice and bring value to my clients. Next, I would like to work with a legendary resort or hospitality company that cares enough to speak their very best and values impeccable communication.

Can you please give us your favorite life lesson? Can you share how that was relevant to you in your life?

Yes, the reason we are here on the planet is simple. We are here to first “know thyself,” and second, to be “true to thyself.” These quotes seem to originate in Greek maxims, and Shakespeare used these proverbs abundantly. Our job as humans is to find out who we are and what we believe in. What we know to be true, not because somebody told us something, but because we have questioned it. We must know when to say yes and when to say no.

In the words of Dolly Parton, “Find out who you are and do it on purpose.” Steve Jobs said, “Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life.” Dolly and Steve are examples of living a big, bold life their way while contributing in a huge way! I say, “Find out what your superpowers are and get busy being, doing, and expressing them!”

Ok, thank you for all that. Here is the main question of our interview. What are your five things someone needs to be a highly effective public speaker? Please share a story or example for each.

1. Before you ever step onto a stage, whether live or virtual, know the intention of your speech. In other words, why are you there? Are you there to educate, motivate, inspire, get elected, raise funds, or preach? Get to your big why before you even begin to write your talk.

2. Practice. Practice does not make perfect. What does perfect even mean? One of my Miluna-isms is “Practice means prepared and professional (PP&P). You don’t over-practice, you don’t memorize, but you give yourself plenty of time to practice and own your words. There is a reason we rehearse in the theater for weeks or months before opening night!

3. Develop your own charisma. Charisma is defined by Merriam-Webster as “a personal magic of leadership arousing special popular loyalty or enthusiasm for a public figure; a special magnetic charm or appeal.” Cultivating your own style and making the most of what you have makes for a more interesting speech. The boring speakers are those in love with their “topic,” placing that above any connection they could establish with their audience.

4. Ditch FOOPO! Yep, this is another Miluna-ism. FOOPO is the Fear Of Other People’s Opinions, which drains the life force energy right out of us. Your job is to care. Any time you are speaking about something that matters, you will be questioned. Life-changing concepts are seen as controversial, as they are not spoken by most people who simply follow others.

5. Have fun up there! Have you ever been to a presentation that was awkward and the speaker seemed to be in some pain — but magically, when they left the stage they had a personality? What happened? The person on stage should be the best version of you! The person on stage should be you turned up and tuned in! If you enjoy yourself, so will we.

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

Yes, it is a huge fear. I don’t believe that everyone should be a public speaker. Perhaps your voice is meant to be heard as a writer. For those who are compelled to speak, here are some simple, effective techniques to start with. First, understand that fear of public speaking, or stage fright, is your body’s natural reaction to being in an unnatural situation. The reptilian part of our body experiences being in the spotlight as a threat. Your sympathetic nervous system signals to your brain to release adrenaline. The blood rushes to our hands and feet and away from our core to prepare for fight or flight. Physically we tremble, our voice is unsteady, and we forget everything! It becomes all about us. We know we are being judged and we feel vulnerable. If we understand this and honor our body as just trying to protect us, we can begin to interrupt our fears.

One technique is to pause, breathe and think of your big toes; this will help you stay grounded and in your body. Another technique is to squeeze your butt muscles, which helps the blood and oxygen stay in the core of your body. I also teach a technique where you imagine a flashlight or light coming from the middle of your chest just under your heart, and it’s shining on your audience. This helps you to focus on them, not you, and stay in the present moment. Speaking in public simply means sharing and should be a gift to your audience.

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 see that folks don’t know the power of their own voice or what speaking up could do. I imagine a world that matures and evolves to a place of civil and respectful speaking.

My personal movement is educating people in the practice of what I call the six C’s of language arts: Consciousness, Clarity, Courage, Courtesy, Compassion, and inClusion.

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

I appreciate that! I am a huge fan of Formula 1 race car driver Lewis Hamilton, who is changing the face of racing for many reasons — diversity, his own sense of fashion, and the way he stays true to himself. This season has been a challenge for their race team. Lunch with him would be a fascinating and delightful experience to learn from someone who has accomplished what he has (and will)!

Are you on social media?

Yes.

How can our readers follow you online?

My website: https://www.milunafausch.com/

On LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/drmiluna

On Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/DoctorMiluna

My YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCqbcSLET0M_NUL9ScJyDY9w/videos

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

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Dr Miluna Fausch On The 5 Things You Need To Be A Highly Effective Public Speaker was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

An Interview With Fotis Georgiadis

Be Yourself. I hope for most leaders, this suggestion doesn’t fly in the face of everything else I just shared, but it’s so important to be true to yourself. If you get excited about one element of the business, let it show. If you know less about another function, don’t pretend — be vulnerable, ask questions and learn. No one is expected to know everything. We all want to be accepted for who we are, and we want to genuinely know who we’re working alongside of. I have seen firsthand how this authenticity can lead to such a positive work environment where people genuinely enjoy working tether, because they genuinely enjoy who they are working with.

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

Alan Cole is a seasoned eCommerce executive with over 25 years of experience leading businesses in the internet sector. He is currently the President and CEO of GovX, a membership-based eCommerce site built for those who serve. Alan earned a BS in Civil Engineering from Santa Clara University and received his MBA from the University of Texas at Austin.

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 earned my undergraduate degree at Santa Clara University — which is nestled in the heart of Silicon Valley. After working as a Project Engineer for a couple of years in Palo Alto, one of my classmates and I moved down to San Diego to start a ‘web development’ business. The web was still so young at the time, and we found a niche building dynamic, database-driven sites, which was a novel feat at the time. After running the company for nearly ten years, I realized there was so much I still needed to learn from a business standpoint, so I headed back to school to get my MBA at the University of Texas at Austin. UT has such a great program for entrepreneurs as it allowed me to get practical work experience that filled so many voids I didn’t even know I had. During my time in Austin, I worked for an early stage Venture Firm and also worked at several local startups in a variety of sales and marketing roles. This experience translated well when I headed back to San Diego and took a job at The Active Network — a venture-backed online registration company that was growing fast. For most of my tenure at Active, I was responsible for the consumer media properties, which set the foundation for my subsequent roles. Prior to joining GovX, I was the COO at TakeLessons, another venture-backed company that built a platform to match students with private instructors. The company was at a much earlier stage, which allowed me to develop my operational toolkit and prepare me to step into my current role. I have been the President and CEO at GovX for over five years now. Even though I have been in the eCommerce space for over two decades, there is always more to learn, especially in the current environment.

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

GovX is an eCommerce business. Today that can mean so many things, but at the core, everyone in this space is doing the same thing: building connections with consumers. That said, companies competing against Amazon and Walmart have to develop more than a transactional relationship.

At GovX, we have created a platform that enables us to understand our visitors before they shop, which in turn allows us to deliver a unique experience to our members. Our catalog is still at the core of the site — and it just so happens that we offer the coolest selection of products anywhere. Beyond shopping, our members will find that we invest in fundraising programs to support important nonprofits that are focusing on serving those who serve. This program, GovX Gives Back, is so core to the experience and every month we advocate for a different nonprofit, donate 5% of sales from our GovX Gear line, contribute 100% of the proceeds from our Patch of the Month and work with great brands to match donations. We leverage our platform to truly support those who keep our countries and communities safe. In order to connect with your customers in a way that is memorable and meaningful, you need to invest back into the community in a genuine and sincere way.

When it comes to our business model, one of the ways we have been able to scale so quickly this year is by tapping into the Shopify platform. In addition to reducing the friction for merchants, Shopify has also made it super easy for service providers to connect with their millions of sellers. For GovX, this has allowed us to build a new business that complements our legacy retail model. More specifically, any merchant on Shopify with relevant products can easily publish directly onto GovX.com as an affiliate partner — all within their Shopify dashboard. This has accelerated catalog growth (which provides more value to our members), and it has enabled thousands of brands to connect with our community through a platform they are already familiar with (and with no code, no cookies, no tags).

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?

At my first company, we provided web and tech support for the San Diego Sports Arena. As part of that agreement, we had the opportunity to set up a booth at San Diego Gulls Games. (For technical context — this was in the early 2000’s.) So we hauled down an early all-in-one Mac, hooked up a Connectix webcam and set up a booth for ‘Email Postcards’. Our plan was to allow people to take a (small, grainy, black & white) photo with the webcam, which we would save, and send to an email address they provided once we got home (no internet connection available at the booth). We would add a marketing message to the email and were hoping to generate some buzz. But, as it turned out, no one could remember their email address! So, the obvious lesson learned was to understand your audience. If we had set that up at CES, it might have been a different story. But we learned a valuable lesson to put yourself in your audience’s shoes. Be aware of the situation and look through the lens of your customers.

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 honestly never felt comfortable seeking out a mentor. I’m an introvert — so I don’t learn very well in real-time conversations, I need to digest and process feedback. So while I didn’t have any formal mentors outside of work, I learned a great deal from my managers and peers at every stop along the way by observing, processing and doing. It’s just tough for me to internalize ‘advice’ for some reason. I need to see something in action so I can absorb it. So with that said, I’d have to say that my long-time manager at Active, Jon Belmonte, made the biggest impact in my career. The most important lesson that still sticks with me today is to proactively take care of your team. Fair comp is obviously critical, but more importantly, he taught me to be thoughtful around roles and responsibilities and make sure that great folks are given opportunities to grow.

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?

A disruptive product is an order of magnitude better than its predecessor. Shopify is a great example. Self-serve eCommerce storefronts weren’t a new innovation. But Shopify just made it so much easier and built an ecosystem that added exponentially more value for merchants. This is a win for small business owners who can operate their businesses more efficiently and a win for consumers, who have direct access to a wider variety of products online.

I also view Roblox as an incredible platform and truly disruptive in the gaming and creator spaces. The platform obviously allows gamers to access an endless library of content. But more importantly, it offers tools that allow new creators to build games and develop worlds with such low barriers that it fosters creativity and empowers the imagination. Speaking from first-hand experience, my son started creating games on the platform when he was thirteen, and has been able to publish games, collaborate with other creators and even learn about running ad campaigns to drive traffic. This experience is just unmatched and opens so many doors.

It’s also easy to spot disruption that’s ‘not so positive’ when you look at something like Buy Now Pay Later. Positioned as ‘fintech’ companies for some reason, these businesses found a way to layer more debt on consumers without a credit check. I’m not entirely sure how a new form of lending has received so much credit for revolutionizing shopping, but it’s certainly an example of a ‘disruptive’ offering that’s driving consumers backwards.

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

Per my earlier comments on mentors, I’m not great at ‘taking advice’ per se. Instead, I’d rather learn by watching others’ actions. So here are the top lessons I’ve learned along the way by being a student of my surroundings:

• Be Attentive. This is so important in so many situations. Whether it’s having a 1–1 conversation or presenting to a large team, it’s just critical to observe what’s happening around you by watching and listening for feedback. Leaders must be situationally aware so they can react in the moment. And this only comes by preparing so well that you’re comfortable reading the room. I have seen so many speakers get tunnel vision and just focus on getting through their material without any concern for how the receiving party is reacting. This goes well beyond meetings, and into the overall energy of the business. Leaders must recognize what’s happening within the organization, so they can prioritize accordingly.
• Simplify. Overly complicated words are not only out of place in an operational setting, but they also add the risk of a misunderstanding. The strategy, goals and operational plans should be plain simple. Is it easy for everyone to see the destination and understand how to get there? Is there a dead easy roadmap that we can follow to make sure we’re on the right track? At a previous company one of our executives was just so good at this. Whenever we had a new rollout that required customer adoption, he would ask us to put together a simple grid that articulated the priorities and easily measured progress. Simplicity wins.
• Be Decisive. This sounds so obvious, but it’s surprising to see how hard it is for some people to make a decision and own it. And per the prior point…articulate clearly why that decision was made — with a strong point of view. There are times when it makes strategic sense to wait, and even that is a decision if it is framed with thoughtful rationale. An organization with managers who are not decisive will spin their wheels trying to figure out what’s important, where to head and ultimately what made an impact. There is no such thing as perfect information, and most of the time, the best way to learn is by moving forward.
• No Egos. Entrepreneurs certainly need to have above-average self-confidence to believe they can start and grow a successful business in the face of all statistics showing that most companies are doomed to fail. That said, with very few exceptions, it takes a team to build a business. And from my experience, most people don’t like working with folks who think they know it all. The most impressive people I’ve seen along the way are incredibly smart, extremely accomplished, and just so humble. People who possess those qualities have the ability to bring out so much more from their team because they are focused on the success of the organization, not their own headlines.
• Be Yourself. I hope for most leaders, this suggestion doesn’t fly in the face of everything else I just shared, but it’s so important to be true to yourself. If you get excited about one element of the business, let it show. If you know less about another function, don’t pretend — be vulnerable, ask questions and learn. No one is expected to know everything. We all want to be accepted for who we are, and we want to genuinely know who we’re working alongside of. I have seen firsthand how this authenticity can lead to such a positive work environment where people genuinely enjoy working tether, because they genuinely enjoy who they are working with.

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

My focus is squarely on GovX. We have so much room to grow here and we have a number of exciting announcements on the horizon that will continue to underscore how we’re investing in eCommerce innovation.

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

My approach to managing people stemmed from many of the lessons I learned from the book Intrinsic Motivation at Work. It’s such a good book for individuals who are exploring their own career paths, and it was particularly interesting to me regarding how managers can more effectively work with their team. It all boils down to ownership. Empowering the team to own solutions and take responsibility for the outcomes. And more specifically, to stay out of the way. While managers may feel like they are being helpful with incremental suggestions, most feedback truly just reduces the employee’s ownership of the outcome. Once the course is set and the strategic priorities are identified, managers need to trust their teams to make forward progress using their own creativity. Finally, and I’ll quote this one directly because it’s so important: “part of your job as a leader is to buffer the team from low-return demands”. It’s easy for folks to be busy. It’s harder for folks to stay productive. And its productivity that drives engagement, moves the business forward and creates overall job satisfaction.

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

“There is no trophy for most hours worked.” Ok, that’s something I said to one of my junior employees when I was running my first startup about 25 years ago. And my sentiment holds true today. I’m not suggesting that you shouldn’t be a dedicated team member who works hard to achieve a common goal. To the contrary. I’m just saying that you should focus on how to make the biggest impact, and have a relentless focus there — so you can get the highest return on your invested time. This will enable you to focus on what matters more — your life outside of work — which in turn fuels your professional 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. 🙂

As an entrepreneur, and a father of two teenagers, I would really like to see businesses find a way to hire more kids. It seems like everyone in my generation has some old story about working when they were in grade school. For me, it was a paper route I had when I was in third grade, delivering papers before school around my neighborhood in Arlington, Virginia. That experience taught so many lessons from sales, communication skills, customer service and financial management. Today, it’s extremely hard for a 14-year-old to find a summer job! Early employment opportunities build self-confidence, teach the value of money and reduce idle time during a very vulnerable age — where boredom and questionable judgment can lead to really bad outcomes. By providing more kids with the opportunity to learn new practical skills, contribute to a team, and earn a paycheck, we’ll help them build their self-worth from an early age.

How can our readers follow you online?

Feel free to connect on LinkedIn, and be sure to check out GovX.com

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

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

An Interview With Fotis Georgiadis

I wish someone had told me that there are very few experts in any new marketplace and that you will spend time and money learning that the hard way. Along these lines, I also wish I had known in advance the heavy impact that bad actors and their lousy products can have on retail access in general.

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

Tom is a seed/growth stage company executive operator and investor with 25 years of experience building and advising organizations in technology, entertainment and consumer goods. After receiving a Bachelor’s Degree from Tulane University and an MBA from Suffolk University, Kurz began his career at Lehman Brothers before moving into the world of venture capital. Most recently he co-founded Remedy Products LLC, producers of the Remedy+ line of plant-based, performance supporting nutritional supplements, topicals and snacks. Today, Kurz serves as Managing Member, driving operations in R&D, product management, sales, distribution and marketing. He has also established himself as a product and brand innovator within his industry.

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 fairly typical American upbringing. Though I was born in Sweden to European parents, (German father, Swedish mother) my folks emigrated from Europe shortly after my birth and we ended up settling in Westfield, NJ. I have 3 younger siblings, all born in the US. I was definitely a bit of a nerd growing up in that I loved watching Star Trek and other reruns, and playing Dungeons and Dragons. I was also always looking for ways to make money- whether it was cutting neighborhood lawns or shoveling driveways — in order to support my album buying habit. Things weren’t always easy peasy and adjusting to life in America posed certain challenges for my parents which, in turn, impacted family dynamics. But my folks instilled a certain work ethic and drive that remains etched in my DNA. They also taught me to be curious about things and that opportunity is out there if you are willing to get after it.

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

“Be Curious!” There are certainly different variations and attributions to this but as I touched on above, it’s a mantra that keeps me motivated in everything I do. It’s what drives both learning and innovation. When I think back to collecting stamps as a kid, it was really borne out of my curiosity around geography and the world that I couldn’t yet see or experience. When I left Wall Street to pursue venture investing in the new “internet” economy, it was because I wanted to be at the forefront of this new digital universe that was beginning to form. Today, it’s a core ethos of Remedy Products. Curiosity around design and ‘what can be’ fuels our product R&D as we look to harness the power of plant-based compounds in ways previously unthought of. It’s easy to say this is the way things are done and then rinse and repeat. But if you want to go beyond and create new things never before envisioned or completed, you need to be curious.

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?

As it pertains to books, I love pretty much everything penned by Malcolm Gladwell. He is so good at telling stories and providing cause for questioning preconceived notions and expectations. In terms of movies, there are 2 films that immediately come to mind. ‘To Sir With Love’ and ‘Good Will Hunting’. Both movies center around a relationship between teacher/counselor and rudderless students. And without being preachy, both do a great job at debunking stereotypes, finding good where others couldn’t and celebrating the joy that comes with defying expectations and overcoming odds.

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?

Making the transition from idea to actual business operations generally requires a combination of due diligence, intelligent road mapping, access to capital, operational execution and lastly, a bit of luck. I would also emphasize that there is no one size fits all recipe for getting something off the ground. An individual running a freelance copywriting operation as a side hustle does not require the same effort as a team that might be looking to bring a new video game or industrial enterprise software solution to market.

This said, any entrepreneur or team of entrepreneurs should first take some time to do due diligence on their idea and the ecosystem that their idea fits into. It’s extremely important to understand how one’s product or service will impact the way things are currently done. Are you planning on completely disrupting an industry in a way that requires distributors, wholesalers or customers to rethink how and why they might make a decision? Is your offering an order of magnitude better than anything out there? Does the customer buying the product or service really care if the offering is better? These are just some of the things that need to be considered. The more ‘hard’ questions you are able to ask of yourself, the better. And although not specific to due diligence, it’s also super important to make sure that the founding team is completely committed to the endeavor and that each member is contributing something essential to the success of the business that is commensurate with their stake in the company. Boats that are unbalanced will capsize. Startups are no different.

Once you have determined that the team is good and the endeavor worth taking on, you will want to map out a plan for developing and bringing the product or service to market. Again, there is no one size fits all for how to do this but this can be a great place to seek the advice and counsel of experts in the ecosystem you are looking to penetrate. Obviously, one needs to tread carefully here so as to not let your idea slip into the wrong hands. But understanding how decisions occur between the time you make a product and the time it ends up in a customer’s hand is very important. Likewise, having an awareness around potential external factors that can impact operations will be important as you map out your Go-To-Market (GTM) strategy.

Simultaneously to mapping out your pathway into the marketplace, you will want to consider capital requirements and what is necessary to launch the business. Can you bootstrap your way into the marketplace or do you need to raise capital? If you are planning to raise money, then the first two things I talked about will become even more important as you will have to demonstrate your understanding, not just of your product or service, but of the entire ecosystem you are seeking to disrupt.

If you’ve made it this far, that is, you’ve done your due diligence, assembled a top-notch team, mapped out a smart GTM strategy and raised necessary funds to launch things, now you’re ready for the hard part. Execution is extremely key and no classes or books can properly prepare someone for the challenges that come with taking a business live. This said, I have found it extremely helpful to break any business down into operational buckets. With Remedy Products, I break the business down into the following buckets: 1.) Product Management, 2.) Systems & Logistics, 3.) Sales, 4.) Marketing, 5.) Corporate & Administration. Each of these buckets will intersect with one another at different levels but it is really important to make sure that operational buckets are functional and able to deliver on what is expected from them.

I know I also mentioned something about needing a little bit of luck. That can come when you are doing all the other things correctly. You can’t build luck into your business model, but if you take the time to do the little things correctly in the beginning, then good things tend to follow.

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?

Initially, I would simply use search engines testing for various relevant words and phrases. If I wanted to go deeper, I might research companies that operate in the ecosystem I am interested in to see what they are up to in terms of new products and innovation. And if you are considering filing a patent for some type of idea or product, you might want to consult an IP attorney to see if there are any holders of patents that might cover concepts or designs that you are interested in protecting and monetizing.

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.

As I alluded to before, there really is no ‘one size fits all’ approach, but let me take a stab at some of these points. I touched on a few important considerations earlier, specifically, the need to stress test an idea to determine if it’s viable and worth the endeavor. That means answering tough questions around market need, competition, viability, etc.

But let’s say we have established a market opportunity, assembled a great team and completed a demo of sorts to share with potential investors, distributors and customers. Where should one go from here?

For starters one should absolutely look to protect intellectual property where possible. This is why startups, brokers, investors and established operators often ask for mutual NDAs to be signed before entering into any discussions. For products or services that are potentially patentable, I would strongly recommend having a conversation with an experienced IP attorney, and preferably one with expertise in your area of interest. This is especially important if you plan on outsourcing the production of your product. It’s important to note that your IP attorney may indeed be different from your corporate counsel that advises you on other matters. If you don’t have direct access to a list of IP attorneys, your corporate counsel should be able to direct you.

When it comes to sourcing a manufacturer for your product, the obvious areas of consideration are price and quality. Everyone wants quality production for the best possible price. But there are other less obvious things to consider when evaluating manufacturing partners. For instance, does the potential manufacturer produce similar products for competitors? This can be helpful in evaluating a facility’s capabilities. If a company can manufacture something for the satisfaction of ‘XYZ’ Fortune 500 company, then perhaps they should have some underlying qualification to produce on your behalf.

You may want to know if a manufacturer is set up for large scale production runs. While you might not need to do a large scale run now, you will if your business takes off and then you will want to scale. On the other hand, you might be faced with a manufacturer that is only willing to do large scale runs at affordable prices in which case it might be cost prohibitive to work with them when you are just coming out of the gate. Along these lines you will also want to know what the lead times are for getting on a production schedule. Contract manufacturers will work with numerous companies seeking different sized production runs and typically larger runs will get precedence over smaller runs on the production calendar.

You will also want to gauge whether a manufacturer typically stores parts or ingredients crucial to your production runs or do they purchase items on an as needed basis. This is an extremely important consideration given current supply chain challenges. And if you rely on parts or ingredients from overseas, it becomes even more important to the overall analysis.

Is your potential manufacturer cGMP (current Good Manufacturing Practices) compliant? While this rating and others such as NSF (National Sanitation Foundation) might not matter to you, they will matter to your distributors and retailers. If you plan on reaching customers via major retail channels, you want to make sure you give consideration to such rating systems.

Lastly and perhaps most importantly, you will hope that you can figure out if your point of contact at the manufacturer is someone you can rely on. Is he or she readily available and responsive to questions, emails, calls, etc? There may be times when production runs are tight, orders are backed up and quality control (QC) is not where it needs to be. It’s during these times that you need a responsive partner at the facility. Sales reps can be great at winning business. The question becomes are they great when you are actually in business with them.

In addition to choosing a manufacturing partner, you will need to determine where you will store your product after it is manufactured. If you don’t have your own warehouse and logistics system in place, you will likely seek out a third party logistic provider (3PL). These companies will store your product until it’s sold and can help with packaging, inventory management and distribution when it comes time to ship goods.

Which takes us to the last point of the question, specifically how do you find a retailer willing to take your new product on their shelf. As with everything else, there is no one right answer or pathway and each industry will have its one unique way of doing things. But broadly speaking, most retail driven industries are populated by middlemen (brokers and distributors) who act as gatekeepers and product evaluators for category managers and buyers that work for the retail channels. The reason these gatekeepers exist is simply because there are just too many products and brands for retail channels to deal with and evaluate on an individual basis so they rely on trusted relationships to bring them products that they expect will move quickly off their shelves. Shelf space is extremely expensive and if you are looking to bring something new to the market, you will need strong representation along with a well-funded marketing plan. None of this happens overnight and you can’t expect that everyone will love your product no matter how great it may be. But if you have done your homework, built something special and stay on point with regards to the underlying value proposition, you will have a fighting chance of breaking through the clutter and landing on a shelf somewhere.

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

Hah, well aside from all the challenges posed by Covid and the lockdown, I wish, when we were mapping out the launch of Remedy+, that someone had told me…

1. …How expensive and complicated it would be to market products containing hemp compounds. To be more specific, I wish I had known from the beginning that Google and Facebook were so restrictive when it came to promoting anything with Cannabidiol. Digital ad spend and effectiveness is largely ruled by these two organizations and understanding what works and doesn’t is of vital importance when trying to target by way of interests and geography, new audiences that are consuming news and entertainment through their mobile devices. This ties into the second thing I wish I knew early on.
2. I wish someone had told me that there are very few experts in any new marketplace and that you will spend time and money learning that the hard way. Along these lines, I also wish I had known in advance the heavy impact that bad actors and their lousy products can have on retail access in general.
3. We figured this out fairly early and were fortunate we did so I think it is worth mentioning how important it is to have your storage and fulfillment operations (or ‘3PL services’) within a short driving distance when you are first starting out. Operationally, so many things come together in these facilities. The flip side to that is that so many things can go wrong, especially when you are in the early life cycle of your business. As an example, we were once faced with a production run that did not complete as expected. There was a whole bunch of unusable inventory that was mixed in with ready for shelf stock. We had to go in and sift through everything to separate the good from the bad, and then we had to go back and modify packaging to account for new production dates. Had we been faced with managing that process from afar, the costs would have been significantly higher and the quality control much worse.
4. I wish I had known how difficult it would be to secure quality representation as a start-up. I mentioned earlier how important it is to work with quality brokers if you want access to major retail channels. In this regard, the food & beverage industry is somewhat similar to wall street. There are thousands of brokers who claim to have relationships but in reality, the number of firms and individual brokers with inside game and connections is much smaller. Developing strong ties to quality representation is key.
5. I wish someone had prepared me for the fact that the food & beverage / supplements & nutrition industry moves at a much slower pace than the financial, technology and media industries. This by itself is not a big problem and understanding the logistics and numerous other things that must work in sync with one another, the slower pace makes sense. However, having spent so much of my previous work life in the other industries, I found myself having to adjust expectations on multiple fronts.

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 earlier, I think it is very important that any ‘would be’ entrepreneur go though some serious self-examining due diligence. Ask yourself the following:

1. Will your product or service replace an existing product or way of doing things?
2. Will this product or service improve a user experience or benefit (financial or otherwise) by an order of magnitude?
3. Will the end user care enough about this benefit?
4. Can you (or your team) make or design a prototype on your own?
5. Do you have a clear pathway for getting this into a user’s hands?
6. Have you thought through capital requirements?
7. Do you have access to industry experts that can advise and/or help you with networking?
8. Is your idea something you want to pursue more than anything else in the world?
9. Are you prepared to work long hours and long days with little to no light at the end of the tunnel?
10. Are you prepared to risk everything and fail with nothing to show for the effort?

If you can answer yes to these questions and are ready to take the plunge, I would say go for it. Launching a company can be lonely and hard. But if things go well, the rewards are amazing and you can smile knowing you left things better than they were when you got to the starting line.

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?

Let me caveat my response here by acknowledging that this is not an area where I have much if any experience. I have had experiences where ideas, business models and marketing campaigns that I created and shared with people and organizations in the hopes of winning business were subsequently deployed by the very same organizations that said thanks but no thanks to me. Sadly, this happens even when NDAs are in place. With this said, I would always recommend trying to build as much internally as possible.

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 decision that is more often than not driven by necessity and availability. The decision will also be heavily influenced by the type of business one is trying to build. For many, especially those making their first foray into launching a business, access to an array of capital sources is something that might not be available. These entrepreneurs may have some friends and family that they can reach out to and see if they might be compelled to take a flyer on their initiative. But for most, bootstrapping is the only way forward until proof of concept is complete.

As a concept/start up begins to take shape and show signs of viability, it will become easier to share the story and pitch potential investors beyond friends and family. But capital raising that extends beyond those who are close to an entrepreneur(s) can still require an inside game. Lack of connections can make raising seed rounds very difficult, if not impossible.

All this said, if one finds oneself in a situation where there is an opportunity to go in one direction or the other, I would almost always advise that the decision be driven by consideration for scaling the business and accessing consumer markets. Again, I am assuming that a start-up, in this situation, could go in either direction. And if this is the case, then I would almost always want to bring aboard an investment/VC partner that could, in turn, bring capital, industry insight and connections to the table. This would allow me to more effectively scale my business and capture market share, whether it be a B2B or B2C marketplace.

It’s important to note that most founders are not going to be fully aware of all the drivers that may influence an ecosystem. Every industry has its own unique matrix of resources and distribution that can be controlled by various levels of personnel at differing organizations, all of whom have their own goals and purpose within the said ecosystem. VCs can be very helpful in connecting the dots in ecosystems where they have experience and relationships. This, of course, would come at a cost. But, that cost just might be worth it.

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

This is a very pertinent question given the complicated times in which we live. I’ll avoid the rabbit hole of detailing all the various challenges we face, but suffice it to say I don’t really contemplate making the world a better place via success but rather I think how important it is to stoke change and improve things locally, from the ground up; first at home and then beyond that, extending into communities, centers of education and the like. Our abilities to communicate and share information have grown exponentially in the digital age and yet on another level it seems like open and honest information sharing has actually decreased as people seek comfort within their own tribes and information echo chambers.

For me, family is the ultimate legacy and starting a pathway for influencing the next generation. If you can impart upon your children the benefits and value of hard work, commitment to cause, curiosity, and empathy, then you are already playing a role in making the world a better place. After that, I look to neighborhoods and communities. Can those values become rooted within the communities where we reside? Are there better ways to share and communicate them inside schools and on the playing fields? Are people able to communicate freely and openly about what concerns them or moves them or are they afraid of being shut down? Perhaps it is too much of a pipe dream given where we are but ultimately, I would love to see a recalibration of how we as a nation think about these things and how we deal with each other. We can’t ask the world to follow us when we can’t figure out what we’re doing in our own backyard. And I guess if having some level of success allows me access to speaking to a broader audience about our need to recalibrate, then that’s fantastic too.

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 so many things I would love to see a movement around. I would love to see people move away from social media as their main source of news and entertainment. I would love to see kids worry less about being TikTok famous. I would love to see adults take greater accountability for their views and actions. I would also love to see a movement that would bring James Bond back to life and turn anchovy pizza into a thing that everyone says yes too. But, assuming those are too much to hope for, I think it would be really cool if I could convince people to pick up a second language if they only spoke one. I am a little of the mindset that if everyone had a deeper connection to the world at large, we might all be a little more welcoming and understanding of things. And from a trickle up basis, this could be a great thing for everyone.

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 be amped to have breakfast or lunch with Tim Ferriss. Why? Well first off, I am a fan and regular listener of his podcast. I have actually read Tools of Titans cover to cover. And I can’t think of a better source for tales and anecdotes pertaining to some of the smartest people in the world. He has also built and sold a nutritional supplements business and has advised and invested in numerous successful startups. Who knows, maybe he would want to take a ride on the Remedy+ train!

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

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

Meet The Disruptors: Jonathan Friedman Of Demostack On The Five Things You Need To Shake Up Your Industry

An Interview With Fotis Georgiadis

1. Look for oversized signals when starting a project.

2. Look for levels of excitement with new technology concepts.

3. Remember that the journey is a marathon not a sprint. It’s a musical piece meant to be enjoyed, not consumed as quickly to get to the end.

4. Nothing is worth losing yourself: hardship is part of being an entrepreneur.

5. Find others like you.

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

Jonathan Friedman is a co-founder and CEO at Demostack. Jonathan created Demostack in 2020, the first demo experience platform that lets users accelerate revenue with better product storytelling, and spin up a sales demo environment in minutes. The company recently raised $34M in a series B round. He attended The Wharton School.

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

I have always been attracted to the magic of entrepreneurship. It started in the summer when I was 14 years old. I wanted to make some money, but because I was too young, nobody would give me a job. I grew up in Israel and there were not any “real jobs” for a 14-year-old.

One day, I walked into the supermarket and had a Eureka moment. At the time RC Cola had just been introduced in Israel, and the stores had just started selling it. People really liked the soda, and I was watching lots of consumers purchase it at the checkout. My family and I lived just above a busy intersection, and my brilliant idea was that I could buy several dozen cans of the soda and sell them to people in their cars at the intersection. My friend joined me, and the first day we started selling, we learned a lot.

It is very hot in Israel, and we didn’t initially think about cooling the cans of soda, and so no one wanted to buy a hot can of soda. It wasn’t a great first day of sales. But, we learned from that first day; and on the second day, we bought a cooler of ice, and put the sodas in the cooler and it flew off the shelf. We were so amazed how we were able to generate money “out of thin air” because we quickly were able to fill a need. That stuck with me. I also learned that I don’t need anyone’s permission to take my destiny and my future into my own hands. I learned that day to create something out of nothing. We sold cans of soda every day that summer vacation, and for a kid, made a great deal of money.

That moment led me into entrepreneurship — I was hooked.

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

In software sales, a big part of every discussion is showcasing the product by creating a sales demo. A demo can go horribly wrong at any time, even from some of the greatest technologists and entrepreneurs. Bill Gates, Steve Jobs and even Elon Musk have fallen victim to a demo that didn’t go the way they had planned. It certainly isn’t because they didn’t prepare, of course they did — but mistakes and glitches happen often.

Demostack is a company that was created in 2020 that allows non-technical sales teams to essentially build and customize a sales or product demo to showcase the company’s product in the best way. The no-code platform allows teams to spin up a demo in minutes, and sales teams can now trust the demo environment because it’s not dependent on the complex underlying product anymore. It is easy to create, easy to customize and easy to use.

We are giving sales teams back control over product stories, helping build their confidence and creating a new way of doing things in the demo environment. In the past, demos were created by the R&D teams or by technical sales engineers. Demos were not customized, and they took a long time to create. Many times, the demos created didn’t have a clear owner, were unstable or showcased generic or test data that had nothing to do with the customer’s problems or pain points because they were not created by the sales team who had gotten to know the customer.

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 had to be from the previous story about when I was selling soda as a kid in Israel. We bought soda to sell, but never bought ice to cool it down. No one wanted warm hot soda on a hot day. I learned that you have to find ways to assess the situation, then to adjust (Pivot) and then go back at it again and again. Success doesn’t often happen on the first day. Small changes can have a dramatic effect on customer demand.

We 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?

Tomer London, CPO and do-founder at Gusto has been a major mentor for me. He has helped me decide whether I should become an entrepreneur again. I was reluctant whether I wanted to start another company while I was contemplating it during my times at Tripactions Liquid, an expense management product. But Tomer encouraged me to take this crazy journey again. He has also helped me think and deal with the regular stress that comes with being a CEO.

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?

The word “disrupting” has a bit of a negative feel to it. I think essentially, what I would want to say instead of disruption is that we are having an impact on the industry that is causing a major shift or change. For some, change is always hard, but for others, change is absolutely for the best, and embraced. (i.e. societal changes in social equity or diversity). But change also comes with growing pains, and sometimes, discomfort. For example, when cars came along, horse and buggy operators suffered and were displaced. This doesn’t mean that innovation should not happen. There is a balance to finding a way to make progress but also not forgetting about those who could be left behind by it.

Technology and innovation are going to move ahead, regardless, there’s no way anyone can stop it. But sentiment is constantly changing. We might have 50 years of thinking that things like nuclear energy, or plastic are positive, and then in a few years it can suddenly appear like they are not (They are actually great innovations). Reality is not discrete, so when something new comes along, it needs time to be fully settled in and examined from all angles. Rarely will it be “good” or “bad” but rather, a tool that can be deployed.

Can you share five of the best words of advice you’ve gotten along your journey?

1. Look for oversized signals when starting a project.

2. Look for levels of excitement with new technology concepts.

3. Remember that the journey is a marathon not a sprint. It’s a musical piece meant to be enjoyed, not consumed as quickly to get to the end.

4. Nothing is worth losing yourself: hardship is part of being an entrepreneur.

5. Find others like you.

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

We are just getting started. We believe that demo assets will probably be the most important piece of any sales discussion. The demo is essentially the blueprint for a company’s product and if done right, it can reflect everything that is learned about the customer during the sales cycle to help capture the intention of the customer perfectly. We truly believe that eventually everyone will be using a no-code platform that handles every part of the demo environment.

Do you have a book or podcast or talk that has a deep impact on your thinking? Can you share? Can you share that with us and explain why it resonated?

I love the podcast “All in.” It is hosted by a bunch of VC thought leaders in the investment space. They have real conversations from around the “poker table” and speak their mind, which is refreshing. The Culture Code is also the book that comes to mind. It is a simple read and helps find the human side of business and shows how simple concepts empower people to do their job.

Can you give us your favorite life lesson? Quote?

“Life is not waiting for the storm to pass. It’s about dancing in the rain.” I love that quote by Vivian Greene and I use it every day.

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?

I would probably want to help kids from disadvantaged places and provide them with better access to education. Talent can be distributed around the world and there are countries that seem to have less of it. It’s usually because people are not given the right opportunities, not because people are less smart people. The next Einstein can be born anywhere. And if this person happens to be born in a place that doesn’t have the right infrastructure for them to meet their destiny, then we lose this Einstein and we don’t get his/her brilliance.

How can our readers follow you online?

LinkedIn is the best place to find me: Jonathan Friedman.

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

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

An Interview With Fotis Georgiadis

Create extraordinary systems. Are you working on the business or in the business? You must create systems that help your business stay organized and sets you up to scale and grow.

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

Manning Sumner, Founder and CEO of Legacy and No Days Off, has been transforming lives for over 20 years. Throughout his career, Manning has defied odds, overcome adversity and innovated where no one else could see opportunity. His acute sense of purpose, encapsulated in the No Days Off philosophy, has been the foundation of his success. He has inspired everyone from professional athletes to kids and grandparents to never take a day off on themselves and their communities.

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

After breaking my back junior year of High School, doctors told me I would never play sports again and I ignored them, rehabilitate myself with the help of my chiropractor. I ended up earning a scholarship to play at Auburn University as a linebacker/fullback. I lettered but ended up breaking my back again my redshirt junior year. I decided to really dive into my major Exercise Science/Health Promotions so I could help prevent others from what I went through.

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

From 2005–2007 I traveled all over the United States training a high profile clients. We went to multiple gyms in New York, New Jersey, Los Angeles, Miami, Fort Lauderdale, Georgia, Utah, Texas to name a few. I started to notice that almost all the gyms were the same. Front Desk, offices, cardio section, machine section & free weight section and huge locker rooms. Most were not clean & organized, most had a strange energy and almost all of them did not have a system of service to actually help people reach a healthier lifestyle. I wanted to create something that combined my college weight room days, teamwork, energy, community & was results oriented.

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 I made when starting was trying to find employees that were just like me. I went through 19 trainers my first two years because I had an expectation that everyone had to do things the way I did them. I was not easy to work for and had to learn how to pour into my staff, use their strengths and put them in the best position to help the company & themselves.

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 my biggest influence. He instilled discipline in me at an early age, attention to detail, never give up attitude and always showing up regardless of how you feel.

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?

Are you disrupting to spark significance & a positive change or are you disrupting for attention and ego. Disrupting an industry is about building something that goes beyond the business, product or service. You have to create a cause that is bigger than self and that has an impact that can carry over in all aspects of life.

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

Create extraordinary systems. Are you working on the business or in the business? You must create systems that help your business stay organized and sets you up to scale and grow.

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

We are currently developing our own NO DAYS OFF beverage line. Starting with Still & Sparkling reverse osmosis water with added electrolytes, then an energy enhanced water and a healthy low ABV beer.

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 Infinite Game by Simon Sinek. Infinite-minded leaders understand that “best” is not a permanent state. Instead, they strive to be “better.” “Better” suggests a journey of constant improvement and makes us feel like we are being invited to contribute our talents and energies to make progress in that journey. Coming from a sports background I always thought I had to be the best, I had to win, be first… but in business & in life there is no such thing as winning. You go through different seasons, obstacles, setbacks… it’s not about winning it’s about improving constantly, learning and becoming.

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

“Now Faith is the substance of things hoped for the evidence of things unseen.” Hebrews 11:1

You have to listen to your Intuition and truly believe in your vision for your life and have faith regardless of the position you are in.

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

I hope I have started a movement in NO DAYS OFF. No Days Off is never taking a day off on you. It’s a commitment to becoming your best self. It’s never to late to become rather than be.

How can our readers follow you online?

Instagram:

@manningsumner

@nodaysoff

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

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

The Future Is Now: Colin Gounden Of VIA On How Their Technological Innovation Will Shake Up The Tech Scene

An Interview With Fotis Georgiadis

Don’t bend to peer pressure. I was working in Paris (pre-internet days) and a colleague who knew I was from Canada asked me “What’s the capital of Canada? Toronto or Montreal?” I said, “Ottawa.” He said “Never heard of it.” He then asked the lady who shared our office and she replied “Toronto, or maybe Montreal.” The guy turned back to me very smugly and said “See!”

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

Colin Gounden is CEO and co-founder of VIA, having recruited the top 20 global utilities and the U.S. Department of Defense as co-developers and now major users of VIA’s Trusted Analytics Chain™ (TAC™), a data privacy-enhancing blockchain-based platform. With seven patents issued and ten pending, TAC™ is the bridge that securely connects infrastructure data, distributed across many locations, to AI solutions. Previously, Colin was the first investor and board director of five MIT and Harvard spinouts, focused on energy and deep science technologies.

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

Career is a funny term. It makes me think I’m a pharmacist or dentist who studied one subject and specialized in it my whole life! Over 30 years, I’ve done a lot of different things. I’ve been a software programmer, a partner at a PE firm, and a board director of a drug company.

The thread is that I’ve never been fixated on either financial income (how much will this pay?) and instead focused on emotional income (do I love what I’m doing?) and learning income (is this new and challenging?).

I studied molecular biology at Harvard, but I always loved computers and took whatever courses I could in that area. That led me to join IBM out of college instead of pursuing a PhD in biochemistry. From then, there always seemed to be new opportunities for my exploration and contribution.

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

Over 30 years, there are a lot of stories. Early on at my first startup, I was trying to make payroll in the first few months. I was in my 20s and while I had worked for IBM, that didn’t teach me about business elements like cash flow, balance sheets, and accounts receivable.

We had a big contract with a bank that was pending and I thought if we could sign that, we’d be in a good position for months for payroll. I went to the CIOs office at 7:30 a.m. In those days, building security was lax and anyone could more or less just walk in. I waited until his administrative assistant came in around 8:30. She asked if I had an appointment and I responded ‘no.’ She said the CIO was all booked up that morning, and I said that I would wait anyway.

The CIO came in at 9, saw me, and agreed to give me ten minutes. I told him I needed his signature on a contract which, since we’d been discussing it for some time, he agreed. I then asked him when I could get a check. He said, well, 45 days. Maybe 30 if we pushed it. I was shocked … and I needed the cash. He then explained about accounting and cash, etc. I literally said to him “You’re a bank. You have the money.” I must have looked so desperate that he agreed to pay in seven days, an agreement that I could live with. I could never get away with that today because I know better. The big lesson I learned is that necessity is the mother of invention. There’s always a way to do something if you’re motivated enough.

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

The biggest technological breakthrough our team at VIA is currently working on is Zero-Knowledge Proofs (ZKPs). I think that when we look back 20 years from now, ZKPs will be seen as one of the biggest innovations of our time. Simply put, ZKPs are math that helps balance privacy and knowledge. You can prove to someone that you know or did something without having to share the details of you, your knowledge, or the action. It’s at the core of Bitcoin, for example, and enables true peer-to-peer collaboration.

How do you think this might change the world?

ZKPs enable true peer-to-peer collaboration. Increasingly as a society, we are comfortable asking people that we don’t know to send us something, drive us somewhere, or stay in their homes. In a traditional world, we have Amazon, Uber, and AirBnB to help mediate if something goes wrong. Who mediates in a true peer-to-peer transaction? ZKPs solve this problem. We believe ZKPs enable a whole new model for collaboration and “C2C” businesses that were previously untapped.

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

It’s complex. Most people have a phobia about math to begin with so something like ZKPs are not a thing everyone will want to learn about. I think where the issues will lie is where it gets misrepresented or people who don’t understand it try to work around the proofs. As ZKPs become more and more familiar to everyone, I believe these fears and questions will begin to dissipate and more people will begin to adopt and take interest in them because of the benefits they can have.

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

I was in Switzerland earlier this year and we were discussing our JARVIS product with commercial real estate companies. We had a number of back to back meetings where everyone, in their own way, was saying “we need data from our tenants, but they don’t trust us to share it with us.” This is a great use case for ZKPs. We realized that being able to confirm a specific energy usage or carbon footprint for the building owner without the tenant revealing any specific information about them or their usage is a great fit for a ZKP and can help change the way we consume and manage energy.

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

Well, articles like this help. We are also working with leaders in the space who have experience but work in other industries and academics to validate our math.

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

We have blog posts and, maybe a bit controversially, we have open sourced some of the code and put together videos of how what we do works. We believe this helps build awareness and trust in the community, as well as an understanding of how they work.

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

My co-founder Kate has always been an incredible inspiration and moral compass for me in a way. There are three Harvard Business School case studies on the founding of VIA where she’s the protagonist with the bright idea and I’m the one getting in the way. Maybe she should be the one being interviewed here!

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

VIA is a great example of this. After I sold my second company, I spent time at Harvard and MIT (I live in Cambridge, Mass.) looking at deep tech startups that could have a big, positive impact on the world. After a while, it seemed that in order to really make an impact, you have to have a mission and be rigorous enough to stick to it, even when bigger money comes your way. We started VIA with a mission to make communities cleaner, safer, and more equitable, and managed to stick to that. Even in how we go to market, we have chosen to be particularly strong proponents of underserved communities. For example, we are focused and investing heavily in Georgia, Oklahoma, and Mississippi rather than the traditional New York and California clean tech markets.

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

1. Do what you love. Years ago, I sold my company and after a year, left and sold all my shares. That happened to be three days before the market bubble burst. I decided to leave and sell, not because I was timing the market (that was just luck), but because I stopped loving what I was doing. I agonized over the decision to leave and sell but in hindsight, I shouldn’t have worried so much. This has repeated itself several times. At VIA, we have a value: “Love in = Love Out.” That is, do what you love and it will show.
2. Relationships matter. Recently, we ran into an issue where a third-party couldn’t get us access to data that we needed. We contacted another party we had been working with who got us access in under an hour. In this case, it wasn’t money or self-interest that made them so responsive. We had gotten to know them personally over the past few months and when we asked for a favor, they were enthusiastic to support us. I always say that emails are answered in the order in which someone likes you, not the order in which they were received.
3. Inquire more, advocate less. I mentioned the story earlier about visiting customers in Switzerland. By listening to the needs of the customers, we found something of higher impact and value to them rather than trying to slog away at providing something they weren’t sure they would use.
4. Be kind to strangers. I’ve had a lot of airline stories where being nice to the check-in staff was well rewarded. I remember one time trading jokes with the person at check in. Later, my flight was canceled and I was waiting in line to figure out an alternative. That original staff member saw me, pulled me aside, got me on the next flight, in first class, without me even asking for it. He didn’t have to do that. I like to think that a little kindness paid up front made an impression.
5. Don’t bend to peer pressure. I was working in Paris (pre-internet days) and a colleague who knew I was from Canada asked me “What’s the capital of Canada? Toronto or Montreal?” I said, “Ottawa.” He said “Never heard of it.” He then asked the lady who shared our office and she replied “Toronto, or maybe Montreal.” The guy turned back to me very smugly and said “See!”
6. I learned an important lesson that it doesn’t really matter what others think or say. Just because many people believe or say something doesn’t make it right. That’s true in technology too. When I started using an Internet tech stack in 1996 for my first startup, many customers asked why. They used Novell IPX / SPX instead of TCP/IP and Microsoft Windows instead of a browser. They wanted to know why we weren’t standard. A few years later, we sold that company for $98M (a small fortune back then). We were lucky because we had invested in doing something we thought was right rather than listening to conventional wisdom.

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 the idea that VIA is promoting now around individuals taking control of their energy data and using their individual actions to support renewable energy is the movement I care most about. New York City was minutes away from a blackout last summer. They avoided that by calling up energy consumers and asking them to turn down consumption. We think getting more people involved in the process on a real-time basis could help meet the gap between renewable energy supply and energy demand.

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

I like the Paul Saffo quote related to your article’s title. “The future is now, just unevenly distributed.” I use that a lot to look to find a solution that is already solving a similar problem somewhere else in a different context versus having to invent and test out something brand new.

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 🙂

VIA’s been in Web 3 (blockchain and smart contracts) for more than 5 years. We’re just hitting the inflection point for really big adoption (single digit millions to double digit millions). We’ll make investors look brilliant for backing our growth to get to that $Bn+ valuation mark and, at the same time, doing it with a terrific sustainability mission.

How can our readers follow you on social media?

You can follow me on LinkedIn and Twitter (@colin_gounden). You can also connect with VIA on LinkedIn as well.

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

Thank you!

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

Erwin Wils Of Millionaire Life Strategy On The 5 Things You Need To Be A Highly Effective Public Speaker

An Interview With Fotis Georgiadis

Your speech should have engagement. You don’t want your story to be a monologue. Engage your audience. Make sure to check with the audience if they’re still following your story and if the points you’re making hit base. Involve your audience by asking questions, raising hands, asking for feedback.

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 Erwin Wils.

Erwin Wils, mindset and business strategist at Millionaire Life Strategy and international speaker on stages large and small, empowers female and tech entrepreneurs to boost their business and themselves, so that they can confidently deliver their added value without feeling like an imposter. Wils programs, mastery and systems transform his clients into the person that will achieve their dreams, goals, and beyond. As a Master of Science in Electrical Engineering by education and certified professional hypnotherapist, master Soulkey therapist, EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing) and IEMT (Integral Eye Movement Therapy) practitioner by training, Wils brings over 25 years of experience to show his clients how they can use their expertise to make a positive impact in the world and make a good living doing it. Everything comes together in the signature program “Profitable Passion Program™ “ that transforms businesses and business owners in 12 months. Wils recently launched his podcast “Follow your Passion” in which he interviews his clients and other entrepreneurs on how they followed their passion and created a fulltime living with it.

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?

Of course! I grew up as an only child with two loving parents. Like many people, I was taught: “Do your best at school, get a degree and get a job” and that’s what I did. In my teenage years I competed in judo on subnational level, training 20 hours a week. I didn’t need to work, so I spent most of my time training. I graduated as a Master of Science in electrical engineering at the University of Delft and started my corporate career. I fulfilled several roles within several companies for just over 20 years before I became a fulltime entrepreneur in 2017. A common thread throughout my career was process optimization, I felt that was my way of adding value and that’s what I loved to do most.

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

Sure! In 2014 I came to a realization: “you can optimize a process and have all the numbers and graphs to support it, but if the people that use the process don’t change, the process itself won’t change. So how do I get those people to change as well?” I heard about an NLP training (Neuro Linguistic Programming) and thought about taking it; then I did some research and got intrigued by hypnotherapy. I tuned into my first webinar about hypnotherapy, the host was talking about regression and I thought that regression stuff could actually help my two adopted boys. My wife thought the same and we decided to follow the offered hypnotherapy training, if only we could help our boys with it. That decision totally changed my destination. After the first training weekend, I just knew I wanted to do this for a living some day. Everything I loved doing came together. I love to help people in a coaching way; my work needs a challenge; and I’m optimizing the most complex processes that exist: those of the internal human being. What started out as a future dream in about 5–10 years, became a reality in 2 years when I left my corporate job and started coaching full time. That first year of being fully self-employed was also the first year I decided to invest in a business coach and that changed my business. One of my business coaches introduced me to the wisdom of Napoleon Hill by means of the quote “Whatever the mind can conceive and believe, it can achieve,” and that actually changed my life. That quote has become my personal mantra.

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

Oh wow, there are so many stories to choose from. I have seen wonderful transformations with my clients and those are the reasons I do what I do. But personally, I think it is saying yes to opportunities when they appear. For example, in October 2017, I said yes to an opportunity and a month later, I found myself on stage in Anaheim, Calif, USA, being interviewed on stage in front of 2,500 entrepreneurs and millionaires from 74 different countries and meeting several A-List celebrities backstage, like John Travolta, Steve Wozniak, Hugh Hilton, Marc Wahlberg, Charlie Sheen, Mel Gibson, and Christie Brinkley to name a few. I never expected to meet them, but when you do, you realize they are not that different from you and me, just hardworking people, and very smart entrepreneurs.

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

In hindsight, I think it was the desperation to make money at the start that had me following and buying the programs of others who seemed successful. “You should blog, FB adds, webinars, videos, etcetera.” Since I was eager to make my entrepreneurship a success asap, I tried almost everything, only to find out it didn’t work for me. The only way to make it work was to become a clone of the “guru” and that didn’t work for me. Besides, the “gurus” didn’t take all factors that made them a success into consideration in their coaching. It could have been the timing, the network they had, some natural talents they were unaware of, and thus didn’t include in their courses. It wasn’t until I started to focus on the principles behind it that I truly took the learnings and applied it in my own business. Now I can laugh at it, realizing what a newbie I was back then, but in the moment it was actually quite frustrating.

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 other interviews I ‘ve always mentioned my wife and soulmate, yet this time I would like to mention my two adopted boys. They were the very reason that inspired me to attend my very first hypnotherapy training that catapulted my entrepreneurial journey. And they are still my motivation to do whatever it takes to make my entrepreneurship a success. I want to set an example for them, to show them that with perseverance and determination you can achieve whatever you want and to leave a legacy for them. My oldest son has some very big dreams and although they might seem impossible, I’m not denying them. Because, like the quote from Napoleon hill says, “Whatever the mind can conceive and believe, it can achieve.”

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?

Well, honestly, whatever you think is true, will be true. So when you’re daunted by the prospect of failure, don’t even start your entrepreneurial journey, because you will fail. Don’t focus on the problems, focus on the possibilities and opportunities that will appear on your journey. Like one of my guests from my podcast said, “Feel the fear and do it anyway.” The only way to grow is to get out of your comfort zone (or, like others like to say “grow your comfort zone”). You will get some resistance from the people around you because they won’t understand what drives you and what you’re doing. You will change as a person, and they would like to have the old person back. Surround yourself with people that will elevate you. A nice reminder that one of my coaches told me, is, “People that pull you down, are below you.”

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 love to inspire people and make a positive impact. I believe everybody is here for a reason and to make a positive impact. I want to put everybody in the right direction. Without realizing it, most everyone is limiting themselves. I have a very simple yet effective challenge to prove that. Until now, I have a near 100% success rate with that challenge. First step in changing is becoming aware, and in my opinion, that’s what this challenge does.

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 created my signature year program “Profitable Passion Program™” at the end of last year and am using this year to create momentum. This program allows me to scale my business to the next level. I also started my own podcast “Follow your Passion” in which I interview my clients and other entrepreneurs that are following their passion and make a great living doing so. Next step for my business is to have several coaches working for me using the Profitable Passion Program™ to transform our clients and me speaking on even more stages to share my story and inspire the audience to make a positive impact.

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 the quote from Napoleon Hill that I have mentioned many times: “Whatever the mind can conceive and believe, it can achieve.” Since mindset is my expertise, this quote really appealed to me and still does. It transformed my own mindset from “They are very successful, I will never be able to achieve that,” to “If they can do it, why wouldn’t I be able to do that?” and it drives me to chase my goals and dreams. I just know and feel I will achieve my goals. It’s not a matter of “if,” it’s a matter of “when.”

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.

Tip 1: It’s never about you, it is about your audience. What’s in it for them. This means you need to know what kind of audience is attending your speech and what you can share on stage that will add value to their lives.

Tip 2: You should be able to give your speech without any tools. Meaning, PowerPoint is supportive to your speech, not leading. So are other tools. I notice a lot of speakers are focusing on creating amazing slide shows, but when technology fails, they almost fall apart. Think of one of the greatest speakers in history. Did Martin Luther King have any slides or tools?

Tip 3: Your speech should have engagement. You don’t want your story to be a monologue. Engage your audience. Make sure to check with the audience if they’re still following your story and if the points you’re making hit base. Involve your audience by asking questions, raising hands, asking for feedback.

Tip 4: Remember that people have their own preferred representation system. Some people just want to see it (visual reference), some want to feel it (kinesthetic preference) and others want to hear it (auditory preference). When you want to deliver value and make an impact, include those 3 systems in your presentation, so that you are reaching the majority of your audience. For instance: “Imagine yourself one year from now. You are sitting on a terrace by the beach, overlooking the sea. It’s a nice, sunny day, you feel a slight breeze coming from the sea. You smell the salty water, hear the seagulls fighting for a little piece of bread, children playing. You just ordered your lunch and realize that you already hit your year goals and still have two months left. You take off your shoes and let your toes play with the sand. In the window of the restaurant, you see your own reflection smiling at you, you feel your body relaxing while taking a deep breath, and you say to yourself: “I’m taking this afternoon off to celebrate my achievements.” That can become your reality, when you decide to work with me. Do you see how that works?

Tip 5: Facts tell, stories sell. Put all your learnings, information, data into stories. When the audience is able to associate with the stories and main characters in it, they will remember it for sure. Just look at the example I just shared. I bet you also saw yourself sitting at the beach, didn’t you?

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

Most people have made up an image of themselves how they would like to be on stage, and when that image is different from how they are feeling at that very moment, they get nervous. The bigger the difference, the more nervous they get. While they just need to be the same person that woke up that day.

Also, when you take tip one from above: when you focus on your audience and how you can add value to them, the focus isn’t on you anymore, making public speaking a lot easier. If it helps, you can even mention at the beginning that you are nervous. As you said, many people are terrified of speaking in public, meaning many of them are also in your audience. So when you mention you are nervous, the audience can certainly relate to that and might even consider you as being one of them, and that helps in building rapport with your audience.

And last, but not least, the only person that knows if you forgot something to tell, or made a mistake, is you. Nobody in the audience knows what you are about to share, so don’t worry about forgetting something, accept that you might forget something and continue.

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 love to inspire the policy makers and content creators of the educational system, especially primary schools. I truly believe that current education has the wrong focus. It still dates from the industrial era and the focus is on getting the low scoring children to the average. There are two fundamental problems with that. First, it’s a mission impossible, because an average is exactly what it is: 50% is below average and 50% is above average. When you want to get the low scoring children to the average, they must become as good as the best performing kids in the class and that’s simply not possible.

Besides that, an even bigger problem in my opinion, is that the focus is on the skills you’re no good at. When you have issues reading, you get additional attention and lessons. Same for math. When you’re good at reading or math, you’re doing okay, no additional attention nor lessons needed. So the focus is on our weaknesses and not on our strengths. And all subjects at primary school are fixed, so you could say we are creating clones. Of course, we need a solid base, but I believe that by changing the focus towards children’s strengths and supporting and encouraging them to reach the next level, will have a big impact on the long run, in a positive sense.

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 president Barrack Obama. Not because of his political background, but just because I admire his speaking skills. I’ve seen several speeches of him and I think he is a great role model for many on that aspect. I would love to know more about that part and get some tips from him.

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

Yes I am! You can find me on Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/millionairelifestrategy) or Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/millionairelifestrategy). You can also connect with me on LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/in/erwin-wils) or follow my podcast “Follow your Passion”(https://www.follow-your-passion.biz or the well-known other platforms (Apple, Spotify, etcetera)).

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

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Erwin Wils Of Millionaire Life Strategy On The 5 Things You Need To Be A Highly Effective Public… was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

An Interview With Fotis Georgiadis

Failure can be your greatest teacher. Don’t be afraid of it, you are not going to die. I had many “failures” in my life but every single one of them taught me an important lesson.

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

Umberto Mezzadra is the Founder of PlayPauseBe, a deck of cards that help Yogis become more independent, focused and aware in their Yoga practice. Multifaceted professional, he helped many companies bring new ideas to the market while exponentially growing their business online. His strong analytical approach combines behavioral science and visual communication.

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 Pavia, a small city in northern Italy. My father was a brilliant geophysicist working in the oil industry. His biggest passion was art so I grew up surrounded by it. Books, exhibitions, artworks, by the time I was 3, I was already able to recognize a number of artists. As I grew up I struggled to find my purpose, pulled by the creative and analytical sides I inherited from my father and conditioned by the “fixed workplace” of Italian culture. I ended up studying Business and working in quantitative marketing for companies like FedEx & Mars.
In 2012 I made the life changing decision to refuse a well-paid management position in the corporate world; I resigned and moved to Rome to found a Startup with a guy I met at a Startup Weekend Milan the year before. We got funding, some traction and an acquisition proposal but we ended up failing.
After the startup failure, I started collecting a number of experiences in very different fields. I became a ski instructor, traveled the world as a photographer (a passion I had since the age of 7) and became a very successful consultant to startups and brands on how to profitably grow their business online, particularly through advertising. A field where I felt I was able to combine both the analytical and creative parts of myself. These 7 years completely changed me, and for the better.

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

You can’t connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. — Steve Jobs.

This has been so true for me. For 30 years I have been doing so many completely different things, apparently disconnected from one another. Now that the “dots” are finally starting to connect I am able to see how even small things or what I thought to be failures, helped me to achieve my goals.

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 difficult question to answer. I read a lot and I can think of many books having had a significant impact. I am going to choose Narziß und Goldmund — Herman Hesse. When I was 14 it made me reflect on the importance of both rationality and instinct and the search for our truth. And in recent years Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson which made me look at my business (and myself as an entrepreneur) with different eyes. Also Thinking Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman which I believe is a must to read for everyone doing business.

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?

First of all: be prepared for the fact that obstacles and difficulties are going to be there from the beginning and you cannot avoid them. It’s all part of the process.
It is super important not to get discouraged and lose traction. When something challenging happens I always stop for a moment and think “ what am I learning here? “ Is there a positive upside I am not seeing right now? ”.

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 fact that something exists is a positive indicator that there is room in that market. Someone has already validated the general idea and there is a demand, which is a good thing. What comes next is finding a way to craft something better or different than what is already there. Analyze the market, get a clear vision and make it happen. The idea is 10–20% of the equation, the rest is execution.
If you realize that your idea is going to open a new market space and create new demand, then focus on validating it first. There are many great ideas for which the market might not be ready or responsive. The sooner you know it, the better.
Lastly, never be afraid of sharing your ideas, the perceived risk of being “copied” or having an idea “stolen” is just not real. Competition will eventually come but as a result of your success.

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

1. Define your target customers and understand how your product will benefit them.
2. Clearly define all the characteristics of your product in order to make it fulfill its promise
3. Once you have a map of all the features of your product, start working on them one by one. Don’t try to do everything yourself, get help and eventually build a team.
4. Once you have a prototype (but sometimes just a render will do the work) build a good landing page, some ads and get a feel of how the market responds. If you are creative you can land the first customers at this point.
5. Be clear on how you are going to make money long term. This is often more important than the product itself.
   You can have the best product in the world but if you are not able to sell it, you are going to be in a bad position. I saw too many founders focusing only on getting funded by investors instead of building a sustainable “selling machine” for their products.
   I believe the best long term solution is to create a direct relationship with your customers instead of just looking for retailers or selling on marketplaces like Amazon. Yes, it is more complex but it can be a very strong asset if you do it well.
6. Manufacturing is super important, you need to be on top of every single detail and double check everything. You have a big responsibility on what your manufacturer delivers.
7. If your resources are limited, I believe that IP protection should be a concern only after your product starts selling. There are lawyers specialized in these kinds of matters, it is pretty straightforward.

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

1. Pay attention to who you involve in your project. Friendship and business are 2 completely separate things, don’t mix them. I had a very bad personal experience. I involved friends with the goal of helping them change their life for the better but I ended up being extremely disappointed. I now learned that I need competent people, not friends to build a profitable business. After that experience I started looking at my businesses as a team instead of a family. A great football team strives to get the best players, when someone is not performing, they get a new one.

2. Failure can be your greatest teacher. Don’t be afraid of it, you are not going to die. I had many “failures” in my life but every single one of them taught me an important lesson.

3. When things are going well don’t relax, that is the time to build even more momentum. As humans we tend to relax once things start working well. I have seen successful businesses stop striving to get better once their revenue reached a certain amount and once things started changing they were not able to face the crisis ahead.

4. You are going to get compound interest on all your efforts. Persist.
“Compound interest is the eighth wonder of the world. He who understands it, earns it; he who doesn’t, pays it” — Albert Einstein Often we are not able to see what our present effort will translate in 5–10 years from now. We have the feeling that even though we are working hard nothing is happening. Until at some point everything starts to fall into place because every single action mattered and helped you reach that final goal. Once I realized this I became much more resilient and able to face big challenges.

5. It is not going to be easy. Prepare to face crises and challenges.

When you think about an idea and you try to visualize the steps to get to where you want to go with it, everything seems easy. 10 years ago everything looked easy. I have now learned that things don’t work out the way you planned them and challenges are going to be there all the time.

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

Make a deep market research. Define what your product is going to help your customer do/achieve. Run some numbers to see how you can make your idea profitable. Study, do not take anything for granted.

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

Never worked with one of them but I am sure it can be helpful in some cases. What I think is super important is to get a strong marketing strategist and someone experienced in advertising. I personally worked with companies struggling to stay in business but with the right marketing strategy were able to grow their profits 10–15X in less than 6 months.

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 have been in the startup world for quite some time and think that often venture capital is overrated or at least seen the wrong way.

A lot of young entrepreneurs literally spend their time just looking for venture capital, when they instead could (and should) come up with solutions to create revenue from the very early stages of their entrepreneurial adventure. Which then can lead to getting much better funding later on, accelerating towards a bigger goal. Then, of course there are projects that absolutely need venture capital from an early stage, but often this is not the case.

In our case for example I know that one of the projects we are working on, at some point, will very likely require additional funding to be able to scale. But right now, since we are able to generate revenue in other ways, I am focusing on making it profitable and have a very clear idea of what we need to make it ready to scale.

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

The ultimate goal of what we are doing with PlayPauseBe is making people feel better through Yoga and Mindfulness. If we succeed (we just got started!) we are confident we’ll be able to contribute to making the world a better place. Personally I like to help people in need and support causes I believe in.

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.

Nowadays people live with a high level of unnecessary stress. If we all had the knowledge to better understand and take care of ourselves we would see a much better world.

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

Elon Musk. I am fascinated by how he was able to handle two very difficult ventures at the same time (SpaceX and Tesla). I have a few questions ready for him 🙂

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

Thank you for the opportunity you gave me! It was a pleasure!

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

An Interview With Fotis Georgiadis

Don’t be afraid to start. It’s okay to not have every step mapped out. Just start your journey and the path will form with each step. Don’t spend years like I did delaying your own progress out of fear or the belief there is a prefect path, because that does not exist.

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

Melissa Jaggernauth is the owner and creative genius behind OneZnality, an adjustable onesie. The birth of her daughter and feeling unprepared as first-time parent inspired her to take the modern day onesie and give it a twist. The goal is for OneZnality to be a staple product for all parents to have in their home for their bundle of joy. Melissa believes every baby is unique and should have clothing to accommodate their uniqueness.

Melissa was born in the Caribbean West Indies on the island of Trinidad & Tobago and raised in Queens, New York. She received her undergraduate degree in Finance from St. John’s University and her MBA from Wake Forest University. She currently lives in Charlotte, North Carolina where she is watching her inspiration behind OneZnality, her daughter, grow up right before her eyes. When Melissa is not dedicating time to growing OneZnality, she is working for an organization that builds affordable housing for low-income families, and she is traveling and creating memories with her family.

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

I am an island girl. I was born in Trinidad & Tobago to very young parents who wanted to give their children the opportunity to experience the American dream. We relocated to the United States when I was very young and I spent much of my life in Queens, New York. My mother made so many sacrifices to ensure we had just a chance to be whatever we dreamed of. I remember vividly her doing the little things to make our small world seem so big. Whether it was our weekly tradition of dinner at Burger King or playing “I spy” on our daily hour plus bus rides, she made everything an adventure.

Our little family was (and still is) a very strong unit. We did everything we could to support each other. For example, I remember once working three summer jobs so we could afford our first family car. It was a salvaged vehicle that I drove till the wheels fell off. Six days a week my routine was, drive two hours to take mother to work, go to school, go to work (retail), and head back two hours to take my mother home. We had very humble beginnings. My mother, siblings and I shared a one-bedroom until I moved after college to North Carolina. I look back and now realize we did not have many material possessions, but it didn’t even matter because I was truly loved.

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

I’m a firm believer that “all NO’s are redirections to ‘YES’.” This mantra and my unwavering faith have kept me on-track. Throughout my academic, professional, and entrepreneurial journeys, I heard countless No’s. The most recent ‘No’ happened when I was searching for my ideal manufacturing partner. My original goal was to have my adjustable onesies made in the USA. However, that was a harder challenge than obtaining my patent. I held countless meetings with manufacturers and they all sang the same tune. They stated this type of project wouldn’t give them the margins they were looking for. During one meeting the manufacturer representative suggested that I drop the onesie idea and consider developing sushi or burrito blankets for babies. Another manufacturer wanted to work with me but only under one condition, I had to purchase the equipment needed to make the onesies; however, I would not own the equipment. They attempted to pitch it as a $50k investment in my dreams. I decided to be nimble with my goals and outsource manufacturing overseas. I was then able to connect with a wider pool of potential partners that were all eager and more open minded. I secured my manufacturer, and my onesies went into production after four years of redirections.

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?

Hidden Figures is the one movie that makes me believe anything is possible. Like I tell my daughter, a glass ceiling is only created if you allow it. Many women before our time have faced harder struggles, imposed by society, and paved the way to their own success regardless of the obstacles. Think about it . . . the woman in that movie lived a life full of restrictions, dealt with many stereotypes placed on them, and flourished despite the challenges. For me, this movie mirrors my journey not only as an entrepreneur but also as a minority woman in my everyday life.

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?

JUST DO IT! Do not allow fear or the belief that there is a perfect approach to launching a business get in your way. Because there isn’t! Develop the business plan and start taking steps. Even if its baby steps, it’s still progress, and any action is better than no action.

I spent years overthinking the launch of my business. I wasted so much time because I believed I had to develop this perfect road map for taking my concept to reality. I read countless ‘How To’ books and I even convinced myself I needed to get my MBA to be successful. I believed that I would fail if I had any missteps in my approach and refused to be open to walking a less ridge path. In retrospect I clearly see that I was creating delays in my journey purely out of fear. I caution all entrepreneurs to not allow fear to hold them back. Remember the saying: “A bird sitting on a tree is never afraid of the branch breaking, because her trust is not on the branch but on its own wings. Always believe in yourself.” There is no right or wrong way to do it. The only thing you must do is start somewhere and embrace your mistakes. It’s all a part of the journey.

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?

Be savvy and very thorough in the way you conduct your research. In addition to internet research, here are some tips that I used when developing my unique product:

• Use reputable sources. There’s a saying ‘garbage in is always garbage out.’ Therefore, your sources matter. A great source is the United States Patent Office website. This website allows anyone to search for any product/idea that has intellectual claims to them, even if the claim is for an idea that has yet to be brought to market.
• Create a list of product keywords and descriptions. When researching your idea to see if it is already in existence, I highly recommended creating a list of keywords and synonyms that describe your idea and the potential uses. Search these keywords and do not limit your search to your respective country. Remember the internet is worldwide and sometimes your search engine needs a nudge to look broader. I kept a thorough log of my searches and the respective results. This documentation becomes important in the event someone claims they had they idea an before you and/or if you pursue your own patent. This step was valuable for me and saved me money when I started the process to obtain my patent. My attorney was able to utilize my logs to support there were no prior claims. Double win for me!
• Connect with subject matter experts in the industry that most relates to your idea. The gems they drop are priceless. These networking opportunities can help in so many ways because it does take a village and I do not suggest you do it alone. Don’t be shy and ask questions, suggestions, and referrals. Utilize these opportunities to learn from their lessons learned. Ask about the trends, barriers to entry in the market for newbies, and what other resources did they find helpful to bridge your learning curve.
• Immerse yourself into the industry. Visit tradeshows, listen to relevant podcasts and/or following some of the big names in the industry on your social media.
• Boots on the ground approach. Personally, I wanted to hear directly from my target market and know what they thought of my idea, so I asked. I would visit the baby section at Target or the YMCA and ask random people if they had a moment to spare. I would explain that I was in the process of trying to launch a product that I think they would find useful and thought their opinion was extremely valuable. Nine times out of ten I got their attention and most importantly their feedback, which I took seriously, as it shaped my design.
• Create and test your prototype. Once you get closer from having an idea to having something tangible, create a prototype or test out the service you would like to offer. This step is critical because you will learn a lot about the product once you start to put it in use. Here is where you start to refine and/or redesign.

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

The first step to filing a patent is conducting a patent search for prior intellectual art. This is key! Many believe that once a patent is created their goods/services automatically go in production. But that is false. Many patents are filed and many don’t make it further in the process. Just because you have an idea that you believe is not in existence, you still need to confirm. At a minimum, I highly recommend working with a patent search professional to ensure this search was thoroughly conducted. Filing a patent is time consuming and expensive, so it’s best to ensure you don’t get denied because you are infringing on prior art. Specific to my process, I felt that it was in my best interest to work with a well-known patent attorney. I vetted multiple firms and found one that I felt the most aligned with. This was important because I wanted a good partnership, especially since filing a patent can take up to a year or longer.

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

1. Your connections matter and will prove to be one of your greatest assets. Every connection has led to another very meaningful connection. For example, my website designer, introduced me to my photographer, who then introduced me to my PR firm. All are highly respectable women entrepreneurs that are following their own paths, which makes them relatable resources. The best part is not only are they great assets, but they also end up being some of your biggest cheerleaders and motivators.
2. NOs are just redirections to yes. If I allowed all of the NOs I heard over the course of four years to overshadow my dreams, I would have never persevered until I received my first Yes. I am now working with an amazing manufacturer, who uses eco-friendly manufacturing techniques. They have helped me to create a high-quality product.
3. Trust your inner compass. If it feels wrong, then it’s wrong. There were many moments that I questioned if not producing my product in the USA was going to hinder my chances of success. This caused me to question my decision on not making that “$50k investment in my dreams”. My gut told me to keep trying, it will work out in the end. So glad I listened to my inner intuition.
4. Don’t be afraid to start. It’s okay to not have every step mapped out. Just start your journey and the path will form with each step. Don’t spend years like I did delaying your own progress out of fear or the belief there is a prefect path, because that does not exist.
5. Do not marginalize or underestimate your brand because it’s a small business or a startup. I sometimes feel timid to compare my product to the larger sized competitors only because of the of size of my business and the fact that I am a new start up. I am 1000% confident that my product is by far superior, but I allowed the size of my business to intimidate me. Once I started to sell my onesies and heard firsthand how game. changing they are I began to build the confidence I needed. That’s when I realized that one should never marginalize their brand because of it being new to the market. Remember, Amazon started out in a garage.

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

I recommend taking following steps:

• Conduct research on the product idea.
• Connect with others in that industry.
• Develop some form of business plan or guide to keep things in logical order as you roll it out.
• Be open to feedback and/or lessons learned from others.
• Be patient with the process.
• If possible, hire professionals.

I found the feedback to be very helpful in developing and launching my product. I initially had a vision of how I wanted to adjust my onesies, however, working with a prototype design firm my vision needed to be tweaked. We spent a year working through and testing various ways to adjust the onesie’s inseam. Being open to critical feedback was something I needed to ensure I was developing a high-quality product that would last long term and provide the comfortably I strived for.

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 is a personal choice. As I mentioned previously, there is no right or wrong approach. If a development consultant is an avenue you would like to explore, then explore it. Before you go down this path, identify for yourself what do you expect to get from using this service and what aspect of your development process do you want to utilize them for. Once you are firm in your expectations, then share this information with whomever you engage with because some firms might not be able to meet your expectations, or some might elaborate on how they can benefit you in other ways that you didn’t think of. As you start to engage firms, I would suggest that you get an idea upfront of their general process, affiliated companies, and fee structure. I have seen where some consultants are paid per sale, and some have minimum fees regardless of sales. Also, I would strongly advise limiting the number of firms you share your idea with, have everyone involved in these conversations sign an NDA, and thoroughly vet the consultant’s resume/experience. If this is a resource that works within the budget, then there is nothing wrong with incorporating this resource into your business plan, especially if it gives you an expertise that you find beneficial, and it helps to bring your idea to reality sooner.

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 personal choice. As I mentioned previously there is no right or wrong approach. Simply do what is best for your business and personal situation. As a small business owner, most are leveraging personal assets to develop or start their business. Whether one decides to leverage their assts or utilize a venture capitalist, there is some level of risk involved. Always weight your pros and cons. I personally funded my project because I didn’t want to sell a stake of my company or add any personal debt. In my situation, rolling out my project over the course of a few years benefitted me financially. I was able to pace myself, manage my personal expenses, and budget both my personal and business-related startup expenses. I know this approach may not work for everyone, so develop your budget and timeline and determine which type of financing gets you where you want to be in that time frame. Don’t forget to factor the risks associated with your choice.

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

Life happens quickly and most times we are all reactive. Speaking from experience, I wish there were more tools available to parents to help plan for the what ifs and the curve balls of life. Through OneZnality, I want to help parents be more prepared, to provide a stronger sense of readiness, avoid awkward growth gaps, and give parents the best bang for their buck for something we know children will grow out of. I also want to provide comfortability to those beautiful growing babies. As a parent, we utilize things in our daily lives to give us an assist . . . robot vacuums, daily reminders or alarms courtesy of our phones, takeout food on demand. Why not get an assist on children’s clothing as well.

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 believe in ‘paying it forward’. It is important that we continue to share, to mentor, and to selflessly bring others along your journey to entrepreneurship. I am a firm believer that generational wealth can be formed beyond the realm of family. It can be amongst our peers. If one finds the secret formula, better known as knowledge, why not share that? There is room for everyone to win. It just takes one act of sharing and paying it forward to accumulate into a powerful movement of growth. I would love to start a movement of angel entrepreneurs and investors, where small businesses are able to help other small businesses. Pooling our wealth and talent to help one another achieve the ultimate success.

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.

Hands down without a doubt, Rihanna. She is inspiring in every sense. The beautiful thing about her story is that she always stays true to herself, and she never waivers. I secretly tell myself that are stories are so much alike, except I’m not a billionaire, yet! We are both island girls building a brand. It would be an honor to break bread with her and learn from her. My goal is to be the Rihanna of onesies.

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

Thank you for the opportunity to share my story. I hope it inspires others. I’m happy to connect with other entrepreneurs at https://www.oneznality.com/, on Instagram at @OneZnaliity, and on Facebook at OneZnality.

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

Jeff Marinelli Of Art and Living Magazine: 5 Things You Need To Know To Create a Highly Successful Career In The NFT Industry

An Interview With Fotis Georgiadis

… NFT is a smart contract tied to an asset. That offers so much value because this smart contract through blockchain is posted on a public ledger. Just like when this article is published on a website, you can search and find it anywhere. When an NFT is created, all details can be seen on the web. What makes this so important is I can now track when the blockchain creates a transaction, and because of NFT smart contracts, it automatically executes the terms outlined in the agreement. So why is this powerful? The argument is if an artist creates a work and gets 100, and ten years later, the artwork sells for millions. How is this fair to artists, and wouldn’t the artist be compensated? In the past, there was no way to do such a task. Now with smart contracts, it can be set that every sale, the artists could get a fee, and it’s automatic. That’s the power of NFTs.

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

Jeff Marinelli founded Art and Living Magazine to feature creators behind the scenes and for almost two decades has created an international brand. Now Jeff has launched NFT Expo (https://artandliving.com/nft-expos/) that will look at every business aspect to show how brands and creators can enter into the NFT business successfully.

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 Buffalo, NY and at age 21 went to be part of the Houston, Texas boom and ended up at Enron managing the West Texas Pipeline as in the world of technology. In 1993 I launched a consulting company and ended up partnering with Peoplesoft which later became a solution of Oracle, working with Fortune 500 companies. In 2005 I headed to California to launch Art and Living Magazine and with a worldwide footprint of featuring some of our world’s greatest creators and visionaries. We knew we were a success when we became the sponsor for the World Expo in Shanghai in 2010 for the 70 million attendees.

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

My close friend John Wright at 21, had the most profound impact on me as he introduced me to Zig Ziggler. To this day, we stay focused, and goal orientated with the tools that Ziggler taught. To the degree every hour is accounted for in the task list. When I have 12 or more things going on simultaneously with sub-lists for these 12 significant tasks, I assign not only dates but times of completion. It forces you to create a subconscious mental note that you’re missing your targets. The job is to get it back on schedule or improve time management.

Is there a particular story that inspired you to pursue a career in this new industry?

I’m in NY for fun and came across a magazine conference that I decided to attend. It came at a time in my life I was going through a life change at age 43 and trying to figure out what I wanted to be when I grew up. I came up with an idea that Los Angeles needed a great art and design magazine that can feature our creators, so we started just that. Midway through, I had a trusted advisor, Clifford Einstein, founding partner of Dailey Advertising, help with my dilemma. I had created a high-profile art and design magazine on established creators to win NY. But I had a passion for all creators, including the up-and-coming. So at dinner one night, Cliff came up with NOW for legends and NEXT for the up-and-coming. I look back and laugh because the next day, I called Cliff and said, “you’re off,” and he said, “are you aware of the three-day rule?” I told him I was not, and he told me let major decisions always resonate for three days, then let’s talk. So, on the third day, I had a meeting with marketing a major enterprise and shared what we were about to do with Art and Living NOW and NEXT, and their first response is we love it and the president is a perfect NEXT. I laugh because this person is a total legend to me and would have thought she would be perfect for Art and Living NOW. So, Art and Living NOW and NEXT still lives.

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

It was when I was invited to Singapore to be with a private group of 70 as the Sands Casino opened. Sitting at the table of Sheldon Adelson and family as Guy Savoy cooked for us and Diana Ross sang for us was the experience of a lifetime. It became one of my best stories when I was with a legend of architecture, Moshe Safdie, who created this casino in which a 180-foot pool stood atop three structures above the Singapore skyline. When I met with Moshe, he said he loved this project, but one of his most fabulous creations I must visit was the Yad Vashem in Israel. Moshe had set up plans for me to visit. So, I flew to Israel. To this day, Yad Vashem has profoundly impacted me the most. His creating vision is simply brilliant.

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?

That one is easy because I can remember it as if it was yesterday and it was a long time ago. When you get busy publishing and run-on deadlines, you will make mistakes, and boy, did I make one. I was pursuing one of the greatest creators, Nancy Dubuc, to ask if she would accept our Art to Life award. That day I had a long conversation with David Lynch and what he had created for the National Geographic Channel. So, his name was on my mind. As I wrote the letter to honor Nancy, instead of using Nancy’s name, I used David’s. Nancy did not accept my invitation.

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 fortunate enough to have a partner that has sold seven companies and understands contracts, public and private companies, and her whole life has dealt with some of the largest VC firms in the world through doing deals. With that said, I’m naturally protected. So, my partner protects me and eliminates my need to worry. I get to create.

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

I just completed a project that took ten years to complete, and that is finishing a book on relationships. The book is called You’re Right, I’m wrong, and it was just released on Jun 1. The most exciting project I am working on is launching NFT Expo, which kicks off July 28 in Los Angeles. There are so many unknowns regarding NFTs, and most conferences around this topic include so many other issues simultaneously, making it even more confusing for people to keep up. Our conference is only focused on educating on NFTs and will not add web3, metaverse or crypto, or bitcoin in the same conference. This will teach how to be successful with NFTs.

Can you explain in your own words what an NFT is, and why people are spending so much money on them?

NFT is a smart contract tied to an asset. That offers so much value because this smart contract through blockchain is posted on a public ledger. Just like when this article is published on a website, you can search and find it anywhere. When an NFT is created, all details can be seen on the web. What makes this so important is I can now track when the blockchain creates a transaction, and because of NFT smart contracts, it automatically executes the terms outlined in the agreement. So why is this powerful? The argument is if an artist creates a work and gets 100, and ten years later, the artwork sells for millions. How is this fair to artists, and wouldn’t the artist be compensated? In the past, there was no way to do such a task. Now with smart contracts, it can be set that every sale, the artists could get a fee, and it’s automatic. That’s the power of NFTs.

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

That NFT started with digital imagery and is now working its way into the physical world. Art and Living is all about the physical art, and we are now in a position to help artists sell their physical art that can be tied to an NFT smart contract. We also see other benefits with NFTs that we are about to implement to help artists following projects get funded by using NFTs. The third exciting thing about out of Art and Living is our launch of a metaverse allowing artists and creators to have their virtual gallery to display their works internationally.

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

The absolute lack of understanding of NFTs and what they are. Most think it’s apps or crypto punks. NFTs are way more than that, and they will affect every industry. Think of anything that’s an asset that needs a contract, such as an exclusive one-of-a-kind watch or liquor. These are perfect uses of NFTs as it authenticates the investment and allows you to keep track of it. The second misconception is that the avg sales price for an NFT is now under $2K but all you hear is $100K, so everyone enters the NFT market thinking they can do 100X, and it’s just not the case. The last is the most complex, and it’s by nature that creates the problem. It’s a non-governed world. There is no accountability. For example, on Opensea, I bought 12 NFTs that I thought were cool, and two days later, I went into my account, and they were gone. For no reason, but I can only assume they have stolen IP and removed it. With no email, explanation, or refund. This was a hard lesson.

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

NFT is a digital piece of art. NFT is a contract that is tied to a digital image and the likelihood to make a profit is 50%. Since 50% of venture investments return less than the capital invested.

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

It’s the rush to be in and not doing their homework. It takes a lot of work to understand what you are buying. There are a lot of scams out there, and like everything else is a sales job; and if you take the bait and the NFT fails, so do you. NFT is all about the complexities of digital art tied to the smart contract. It also takes a community and successful storytelling that make an NFT successful without those elements in a successful launch.

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

Music, art, animation, one-of-a-kind video, and creative projects can now be tied to a smart contract — NFT. There are so many NFT marketplaces you now have an option for your work for the first time. You can directly sell your works like a new song to your fans, and as you build your community, you can now offer it to your fan base every time you launch a song. This fully independent and managing your client base never existed. It does now. That’s the future.

What are your “5 Things You Need To Know To Create a Highly Successful Career In The NFT Industry?”

What are you building, why, how, what blockchain will you use, and what are your limitations and tradeoffs? What story will you create that is compelling for buyers to get excited? Make sure you set the vision for your project and understand accurate metrics and expectations. How will you build your communities to launch your brand successfully? What will your team look like, and what value are you bringing with your project?

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

I’m building it now. It’s to connect worldwide creators on one platform through communities where they can communicate with others in native languages. With the tools to be able to collaborate. But more importantly, our marketplace gives the creators the tools to sell their works and become self-sufficient. That is my next journey. Connect the world of Creators.

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 🙂

Jeffrey Katzenberg is about making a difference in the creative world, and so are we. Mark Zuckerberg’s metaverse is about what Art and Living is about — connecting communities. With our access to the established creative world, Meta is a natural fit in many ways.

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

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Jeff Marinelli Of Art and Living Magazine: 5 Things You Need To Know To Create a Highly Successful… was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

An Interview With Fotis Georgiadis

Doing things right is hard. To create something special is hard work. It takes close to a decade to become a surgeon, years of hard work to develop a drug, and many failures along the way for both.

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 Dr George Magrath.

Dr George Magrath, 38, is the CEO of Lexitas, a 140-person company which partners with pharmaceutical firms to develop novel eye care drugs by running clinical trials.

Dr Magrath is a trained ophthalmologist who, despite his busy day-to-day work leading Lexitas, still takes one day out every week to maintain his practice and treat patients with rare eye conditions. In fact, he is the only physician in his home state of South Carolina with fellowship training in treating cancers in and around the eye.

Dr Magrath has an extensive medical and business background, having studied at the Medical University of South Carolina for an internship in general surgery and a residency in ophthalmology. He also completed a fellowship in ocular oncology at Wills Eye Hospital in Philadelphia. Dr Magrath also has an MBA from The Citadel and a Masters in applied economics from Johns Hopkins University.

Following his studies, Dr Magrath worked as an equity analyst at Edison Investments Research before transitioning to drug development as medical director at Hovione, where he spent five years in the fields of dermatology, ophthalmology and inhalation. He joined Lexitas as CEO in 2021. He has led Lexitas from 45 employees to 140 and tripled the number of trials Lexitas is running at any time. He is certified by the National Association of Corporate Directors (NACD) and serves as either an advisor or director to several companies.

Dr Magrath lives with his wife and four children in Charleston.

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 knew from an early age I wanted to help people through drug development. It’s why I studied biochemistry as an undergraduate, though unfortunately I wasn’t a very good chemist! I subsequently went to medical school, the Medical University of South Carolina, which set me on my path.

After medical school I completed an ophthalmology residency, treating eye diseases. But in this part of the US it wasn’t possible to treat eye cancers, and it came with stark consequences. Children had to be referred to specialists 650 miles away in Philadelphia. With treatment often a three-year process, it was an arduous ask for any family. One mother found it so overwhelming that she flew straight back home with her child after landing at the airport in Philadelphia. With no treatment available in South Carolina, I was part of a surgical team which had to remove the child’s eye.

That stuck with me, and was why I moved to Philadelphia for two years to learn the treatment from experts at the Wills Eye Hospital. I was then able to bring this treatment back to South Carolina in 2016. In the meantime, I had also studied for an MBA, as well as an applied economics degree, and this combination of medical and business nous forms the basis of my work as CEO at Lexitas.

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

In ophthalmology we’re blessed with the opportunity to do surgery in the developing world to help with one of the world’s leading causes of blindness, cataracts. The surgery can be completed quickly, safely, and with minimal equipment, making it suitable for the developing world. I was fortunate to be invited to travel with the US Army to Panama to perform these surgeries for a few weeks.

I’ve been on several of these trips, but this one was special because of the size of the organization and the number of surgeries we were able to complete. It was an amazing thing to be involved with.

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

I remember forming my core philosophy when I was 10 years old while watching Jimmy Valvano’s acceptance speech for the Arthur Ashe Award on ESPN. His quote cuts to the core of how I try to live my life.

“To me, there are three things we all should do every day of our lives. Number one is laugh. You should laugh every day. Number two is think. You should spend some time in thought. Number three is you should have your emotions moved to tears — whether that’s happiness or joy. Think about it. If you laugh, you think, and you cry, that’s a full day. You do that seven days a week, you’re going to have something special.”

In my roles leading Lexitas, as a surgeon, and as a father and husband, I try to laugh, think, and have my emotions moved every day. It’s an amazing way to live life and makes it a lot of fun!

In my career I’ve always focused on people. That’s what it’s all about: how can we help the people in our lives? Whether patients or co-workers, I try to do something to help every day. This gives me the most satisfaction in my work and I’ve found that it pays off in ways you could never imagine.

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”?

Similar to the “tech-for-good” movement, we need a “pharma-for-good” movement.

In the US the allocation of resources for drug development doesn’t always go to the most needed or most promising drugs. The private sector is incentivized towards drugs with a reasonable market size and reimbursement schedule, sometimes leaving important programs on the sidelines.

Nonprofits, the National Institute of Health, and other government agencies try to fill this gap but don’t have the scale or capabilities to fully develop drugs. The system needs venture capitalists to fund this because it simply doesn’t happen with philanthropic-only funding, and the country needs our healthcare system to reward medicines which make a positive and dramatic impact on people’s lives.

Better aligning the private sector and the healthcare system to direct more funds towards transformative programs would have amazing benefits. We’re starting to see this in some therapeutic areas, but we need more.

Pharma-for-good is so under-developed in the US. We need more venture capital firms with a profit focus, while at the same time having an overall mission towards something bigger. Being interested not just in the bottom line, but all stakeholders in society who could benefit from the drug.

How do you think this will change the world?

Adapting the “tech-for-good” philosophy to develop “pharma-for-good” would increase collaboration, innovation, and change the paradigm of treatment for so many diseases. It’s incredibly hard to develop transformative medicines, so we all need to get behind big ideas and help progress them forward. By working together — as scientists, physicians, funders and payers — we can make sure that the best ideas have the best support.

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?

We obviously live in a world of finite resources, meaning there are only so many dollars and drug developers to go around. Every time we select a project to develop, others are shelved. Changing the incentives and the patterns of drug development will alter which drugs are developed, and we as a society need to decide how much resources and where to apply them to get the maximal utility.

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

I have personal experience of the limitations of philanthropic funding. Five years ago, I received a grant from the Duke Endowment for specialist cameras to carry out proactive eye exams for diabetics in rural areas who can’t afford, or don’t have access to, eye care. The point was to identify problems early and prevent future blindness: a major problem in vulnerable populations is diabetes, which is a leading cause of blindness.

It’s been a brilliant project and we’ve read 10,000 images. But five years on it’s a question of: “How do we do it now?” People are no longer being compensated to do it so there cannot be the same level of vigor. When they are doing it voluntarily, it’s naturally a different level of commitment.

This is representative of so many philanthropic projects in healthcare and pharma. There is an early energy and amazing data generated. They get their early work done but then it comes to the first big clinical trial and they need $30m to run it. The funding has run out and the funding community doesn’t see the market yet, so the drug doesn’t progress any further. It’s really sad: a potentially vital treatment gets to the 20-yard line but can’t score the goal.

To be clear, this is not a complaint about the grant, more an example of where a pharma-for-good movement could make a difference: identifying an area of medicine where there could be a return on investment, while at the same time driving health benefits — and cost savings — to society in preventing people getting sick.

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

This idea needs authentic buy-in and collaboration from all stakeholders, it’s really a complex problem that needs to be attacked from several different angles. I think each stakeholder group really genuinely wants this concept to be successful, it’s a matter of working together to make it happen.

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

1. Nobody ever makes it alone. Every aspect of our life is touched by the people in our lives. I’ve been blessed to be surrounded by wonderful people who have mentored, advised and helped me at every step along the way. Relationships are so important.
2. Whenever you give, you’ll receive it back in spades. I’m always amazed and inspired by the joy and thankfulness that I receive from my patients, when they’re in tough circumstances and don’t owe me a thing. I’ve found throughout my life that the more I put in, the more that comes back, and most of the time is unexpected.
3. Doing things right is hard. To create something special is hard work. It takes close to a decade to become a surgeon, years of hard work to develop a drug, and many failures along the way for both.
4. It’s important to laugh. We all have serious and stressful lives, it’s critical for this to be cut by levity and laughter. I’ve been incredibly privileged to see the power of laughter even in horrible situations, like blindness. Life really is about helping people and having a good time while you’re doing it, so I try not to ever take myself too seriously.
5. Don’t ever give up. I’ve been blessed to get into great schools and get some great jobs, but I’ve been denied and declined so many more times. It has to be literally hundreds of applications or proposals that I’ve poured my heart into that have been declined. Most of which were done so in unceremonious ways that leave you feeling down and inadequate. It’s amazing though, as all of these have led to even better opportunities and I’m convinced that perseverance has led me to a place where I’m most effective, fulfilled and happy.

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

I’m not sure I have any special habits, but I would say that a servant leadership mindset has worked very well. I try to approach every problem in a collaborative manner and actively look for ways that I can help elevate the people around 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 🙂

It’s simple, I’d ask them to look at the amazing success that tech-for-good has had and think critically about how amazing it would be if we could replicate that in pharma. It’s going to take a wide collaboration of talented people to replicate tech-for-good, but it starts with each individual VC looking at projects with a lens of both profit and utility for patients.

How can our readers follow you on social media?

They can follow me on LinkedIn.

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

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Pharma-For-Good: Dr George Magrath’s Big Idea That Might Change The World was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

An Interview With Fotis Georgiadis

I recommend breadth-first: create a matrix of the technologies you find interesting, read their white and yellow papers, join their communities, and engage with the problems. You’ll start to see patterns, and you’ll find which areas you are interested in, and then you can dive deep. The sentiment of an expert is that no problem is unworthy of further examination, while simultaneously being realistic about how many hours are in a day. Optimize accordingly.

As a part of our series about Wisdom From The Women Leading The Blockchain Revolution, had the pleasure of interviewing Sara Drakeley of MobileCoin.

Graduating from MIT with a degree in mathematics and computer science, Sara joined Walt Disney Animation Studios as a technical director on Oscar-winning animated movies. At Disney, she led the procedural geometry software engineering pipeline on many family-loved films, including Frozen, Wreck-it-Ralph, Big Hero Six, Zootopia, and Moana. Following Disney, Sara moved to Wall Street to implement trading infrastructure and data engineering platforms, then joined the SpaceX simulation team before joining the MobileCoin team.

Thank you so much for doing this with us! Can you share with us the story of how you decided to pursue this career path? What lessons can others learn from your story?

I’ve always loved math and physics. As a teenager, I wanted to be Richard Feinman. He was the “cool” scientist, playing bongo drums and participating in the countercultural movement. I went to MIT to realize my dream of being a physicist, but after the Automata, Computability, and Complexity course with Scott Aaronson, my mind was blown by the sheer possibilities of computation from a theoretical perspective (and infinite Turing tapes are really cool). I discovered computer science was my true passion. I went on to work for Disney Animation as a software engineer with a specialization in procedural geometry (think, for example, the trees in Frozen, the fur in Zootopia, and the water and waves of Moana). From there, I became fascinated with financial systems, which can even be viewed as giant backpropagating optimization simulations, and I spent time on Wall Street building trading and data platforms. Eventually, I was lured back to California to work on rocket simulations at SpaceX, before Josh Goldbard, MobileCoin’s CEO, convinced me to join MobileCoin and work on the future of payments. From there, I went on to become the CTO of our little startup Unicorn, helping to build the next generation of global payment infrastructure and experiences. The lesson I would impart to others is: the best way to get up to speed in a new environment is to engage. For any problem, whether you have prior experience or not, engage with it. Chew on it, talk about it, and share it with others — that’s the fastest way to build expertise

Can you tell me about the most interesting projects you are working on now?

Some of the most interesting projects we’re working on at MobileCoin include: improving our novel oblivious remote computing platform which enables self-custody of funds on mobile devices while allowing the user to fully control what data they share with service providers. Another key project is evolving our blockchain protocol to include multiple confidential assets, as well as bridges to other chains to provide wrapped assets. We’re also developing a first-in-class global payments experience led by our head of product, Bob Lee, former CTO of Square, who built CashApp.

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?

Early in my career, I don’t think I fully understood what mentorship meant in the broader context of personal development, but looking back, I recognize that Maryann Simmons, a technical leader at the forefront of innovation in the field of graphics, was critical to my development as an engineer. Maryann is an incredible representation of what it means to be an impactful leader in technology. She and I developed a deep friendship, traveling together to film festivals and for snowboarding trips, while she simultaneously guided me on how to be a better engineer. I remember once when I was trying to solve a complicated problem surrounding digital feather generation, she said, “Why don’t you start with the tests. What should it be doing? Write those and see where that gets you.” It was a gentle (but direct) introduction to test-driven development, and an “aha” moment for me on how to structure my approach to problems by starting with what success looks like and working backward from there.

What are the 3 things that most excite you about blockchain and crypto? Why?

The thing that excites me most about blockchain and crypto is the speed of innovation. It lies at the intersection of distributed verifiable computing, remote services, deep math, and cryptography. Thus, it has attracted some of the greatest minds across academia and industry. It feels like we are early enough in the development of this industry that there are so many low-hanging novel contributions to pluck while building toward a clear vision for applications that exist with a level of speed, trust, confidentiality, and resiliency we have never seen before. I’m also excited by the diversity of contributors in the field. I recall seeing recently that Uniswap’s workforce is 50% women. At MobileCoin, we’ve attracted a diverse range of backgrounds to our engineering team that I’m really proud of. Lastly, I’m very excited about the progression of digital assets and their use cases. At MobileCoin, we’ve been laser-focused on the payments use case because there is a clear need to provide a global settlement platform where users control their own data. When people say blockchain is too complicated, we point to the global financial system which is rife with unnecessary intermediaries (who all take fees) and complicated settlement regimes that are no longer necessary with the current state of technology. Blockchain removes these intermediaries, and with our technology, the payment is final within seconds as opposed to days.

What are the 3 things that worry you about blockchain and crypto? Why?

The thing that worries me most about blockchain and crypto is the challenge of replacing existing systems with superior technology. Even when you have a superior product to solutions with widespread adoption, the catalyst to change has to be enough that it’s worth it to the user. We’ve seen in several innovations around the world that sometimes the best bet is to look for geographies where you can “leapfrog.” For example, this was the case with the development of cell phones. There was more adoption in countries where telephone line infrastructure had yet to be built, and the population could easily adopt the newer technology of mobile devices. Similarly, we are looking at geographies where payments infrastructure may be ready for a leapfrog event.

Another thing that worries me is the general lack of privacy in most blockchain solutions. It is untenable for payments to lack privacy. With a public blockchain, if you try to buy a coffee, the barista, the person behind you, a foreign government, or your ex could all be watching your payment address and see everything you’ve ever bought and will buy in the future. It’s even possible to track your real-time location, as the virtual addresses of merchant establishments are also public on the chain. Many projects are building on this assumption of public data, but I think adoption requires that we put control of data in users’ hands.

How have you used your success to bring goodness to the world? Can you share a story?

I’m a very mission-driven individual. I believe what we’re building at MobileCoin has the potential to change lives for the better, improve access to payments infrastructure, provide a digital option to existing establishments that can only accept cash due to small margins, and shift the paradigm around remote computing so that users can demand oblivious services and complete control of their data and financial lives. A great example is Ideas Beyond Borders, which is working to translate the world’s knowledge into Arabic. They have previously found it a challenge and prohibitively expensive to deliver payments to their contributors over existing rails. MobileCoin provides a viable option to streamline global payments while eliminating the risk for individuals who may not otherwise want to be identified.

As you know there are not that many women in your industry. Can you share 5 things that you would advise to other women in the blockchain space to thrive?

I recommend becoming an expert as quickly as possible. I’m not saying that to be glib, because there are concrete steps to develop expertise. I love the expression that self-esteem is built by completing esteemable acts. Similarly, expertise is built by approaching problems as an expert would (Dunning-Krueger effect notwithstanding). For any new technology, the space seems bottomless, but you can cover a great swath of it if you are efficient in your exploration.

I recommend breadth-first: create a matrix of the technologies you find interesting, read their white and yellow papers, join their communities, and engage with the problems. You’ll start to see patterns, and you’ll find which areas you are interested in, and then you can dive deep. The sentiment of an expert is that no problem is unworthy of further examination, while simultaneously being realistic about how many hours are in a day. Optimize accordingly.

Another recommendation to women in the space is to build friendships. This is the fastest way to gain confidence. When you are in a room with people you trust, you know that you can say something that might seem stupid, and your friends will still believe in you. A simple step to friendship building: ask about your coworkers’ weekends. You’ll start to see their life outside of work and care about them as people rather than as output machines. Last, I’d say that for me, it has been important to recognize that gender is often a performance, and the art and authenticity of how you perform yourself is vital to who you are. I have gone through phases where I performed my femininity differently, and whatever way I showed up was valid. It is important to me to look back on the women who fearlessly performed their femininity in all manner of ways, and how they were successful because they were authentic to themselves.

Can you advise what is needed to engage more women into the blockchain industry?

We need to examine the funnel and pinpoint where we lose people. By the time I was in college, the numbers still weren’t great for women in STEM, and it’s all a game of attrition from there. I’m also a new mom, and it was critical to me that MobileCoin was able to offer paid leave while still allowing me to contribute so that I didn’t lose my identity or sanity in the transition to motherhood. I’d like to see programs across the industry to support women and their health and invest in women for the long term. An important aspect of my life that allowed me to become a scientist and mathematician was encouragement from a young age to explore what interested me. Similarly, if we can identify women with applicable skills in other fields, we can help attract them by showcasing what is special and interesting about blockchain, encouraging nascent interest in the technology at any age, and making sure it is clear that there is a home for anyone in this industry.

What is your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share a story of how that had relevance to your own life?

My favorite “Life Lesson Quote” is an anti-proverb that Mark Twain falsely attributed to Benjamin Franklin in an essay lampooning aphorisms: “Never put off till to-morrow what you can do day after to-morrow just as well.” Even wrapped in satire, I take comfort in this quote from the “lazy-load” approach to prioritization. If it’s not important enough to do today, is it really important enough for tomorrow? In the film industry, we have a concept of a “CBB,” or “Could Be Better.” The idea is that if the director watches a shot at some point in its development before the final frames are rendered, they can tag something as “Could Be Better,” which means, “Don’t hold up the shot now. Let’s push it through and see.” This happened in a shot on Frozen where Elsa’s hand looked really strange in animation dailies, but the scene was meant to be darkly lit, so the directors, Chris Buck and Jennifer Lee, gave it a CBB. In the end, you couldn’t see the hand anyway. If they had blocked production, it would have held up all shots that the animators had queued up behind that one, when in the end, it didn’t matter one bit that the hand looked weird. We use CBB at MobileCoin for issues that may ultimately improve things, but don’t obviously affect the user experience, performance, and scalability of the system, or developer ergonomics. I like to say, “It’s only Tech Debt if it costs you something.”

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.

With many issues close to my heart, the mission I care about most (and to which I am currently devoting my career) is privacy, and specifically user control of data. Users should have the technology and the right to conceal or share their own data and communications. From advertising campaigns that mine data for sensitive information (like the notorious case where Target determined that a girl was pregnant before her father did), to oppressive regimes that surveil in order to enforce doctrines that may even violate human rights, it is vital that we empower individuals with the tools to protect themselves. Moxie Marlinspike’s beautiful essay, We Should All Have Something To Hide, captures the necessity of private communication quite well. Signal, the end-to-end encrypted communication platform, now supports MobileCoin payments.

How can our readers further follow your work online?

I post blogs on mobilecoin.com/news somewhat regularly (check out our Explain Like I’m 5 series to get technology explanations at multiple levels of complexity), and I’ve hosted a few of our Privacy is the New Celebrity podcast episodes, including Episode 21 with Joe Grand, hardware hacker who recovered millions from a Trezor Hardware Wallet; Episode 27 with Bunnie Huang, hardware hacker who reverse-engineered the Xbox; and Episode 26 with Henry Holtzman, one of the early members of the MIT Media Lab and product executive, where we explore why MobileCoin is building a Stablecoin, and the current challenges in the industry with Stablecoins.

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

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Wisdom From The Women Leading The Blockchain Revolution With Sara Drakeley of MobileCoin was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

An Interview With Fotis Georgiadis

Once you believe you have a proof of concept, then you want to establish your production costs and file for patents and trademarks.

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

Tyler Deeb is a designer, creative director, entrepreneur, family-man, and business owner. His company, Misc. Goods Co., first became known for its monstrously-successful Kickstarter campaign for a deck of playing cards Deeb completely re-designed. Since then, Misc. Goods has created a whole collection of different products including ceramic flasks, leather wallets and cologne. Deeb has carved out a niche with his brand by focusing on everything good — from the usefulness of the products to customer service to remaining ethical in all manufacturing.

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 Louisville, KY with two older brothers with strong personalities which left me more aloof and passive. I really didn’t find myself thinking and working independently until I was twenty, which led me to creative work as a graphic designer and has now shaped me into an entrepreneur and director of brands.

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

In 2015 I was asked to speak for CreativeMornings Louisville and took the opportunity very seriously, spending over 60 hours contemplating my life and work and what I’ve learned. During that time, I developed a phrase that I still very much believe in which is “Don’t Chase the Glory, Work Hard, and Be Satisfied.”

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

I’m an unpaid ambassador of the podcast How I Built This. I have come to really appreciate the way Guy Raz and his team can take founder stories no matter what the industry and find the common themes of entrepreneurship. Making every episode interesting and often applicable to the challenges I face in growing Misc. Goods.

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 the most important thing about taking an idea to market is being energized by the vision of that project. If you don’t really believe in it and it doesn’t energize you, I can’t imagine it ever being successful because of the amount of work and effort and risks that building ideas takes.

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

I think more importantly than wondering if someone else has made it is to look at the market and see if there’s growth opportunity there in general. It’s ok to have competition as long as the market can support both. In that case, it’s not really a competition, it’s an opportunity for both businesses to grow people’s awareness of that category or product.

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

Step 1 is to have the idea. Step 2 is to look at the market and research and if people are really interested in investing in that thing or buying that thing. Step 3 would be prototyping. Step 4 would be testing that prototype with friends and family or a small market.

Once you believe you have a proof of concept, then you want to establish your production costs and file for patents and trademarks.

Next would be building the brand assets and website and social media.

Lastly would be preparing for launch by corralling every single friend and family to help share about it, along with any PR opportunities you can find and media outlets.

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

I definitely don’t have five because most of what you learn has to be experienced in real time and can’t be told or taught without real experience. The things that I wasn’t told or taught but kept me going was confidence in what I was doing and making, willingness to take risks and work hard, and comfort in making way less money than if I worked for someone else.

The one I would say for sure is don’t be afraid to sell yourself. As an artist, it’s hard to want to market yourself and your ideas because you want them to speak for themselves. But in business, you have a responsibility to your company and market to clearly communicate who you are, what you do, and how to get it. In some ways, this can be an act of service even though it’s an act of serving.

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 the type of business you’re trying to build and the opportunity in that market. If you need to move fast and hard, a good consultant can help you network and establish the brand much more quickly. But they can also put a big strain on you financially. If you have an idea that needs time to figure out how to sell and market, they may not be able to get you there faster than if you spent time working on it independently.

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

There’s no one answer that fits all for that type of situation. It depends on the business you’re building and what you want out of the business.

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

I think people put too much emphasis on macro change, but what I love about the perspective we have at Misc. Goods is doing good on a micro level. That starts with designing good products that are useful, to working with producers that are working ethically and treating their teams well, to encouraging our own team to have a healthy work life balance.

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

To encourage people to see an opportunity to love their communities and families through the work they do no matter what industry or title they have. Living simply and generously and all together being good.

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

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

Meet The Disruptors: Micah Kinsler Of MiCamp Solutions On The Five Things You Need To Shake Up Your Industry

An Interview With Fotis Georgiadis

Never forget that you are only as good as your reputation and name; you lose those, you will never succeed in the Fintech business and, more importantly, in life.

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

An Inc. 5000 entrepreneur and serial entrepreneur, Micah Kinsler is a known, established leader in the payments space, and is president of financial technology firm, MiCamp Solutions.

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?

The idea behind MiCamp Solutions started in October 2006. I owned a franchised business and was frustrated with the high fees I paid to process credit card transactions. After doing some research, I discovered that many merchant processing companies were taking advantage of the business owners they were supposed to help. With a desire to help other business owners like myself, I moved into the payments industry, looking to save money for as many businesses as I could, while helping those businesses grow.

In early 2007, I launched MiCamp Solutions with just four employees and a vision of offering secure credit card processing that would also help customers maximize their profits.

MiCamp’s portfolio was soon labeled the fastest growing portfolio on Fiserv radar. Since then, MiCamp Solutions has grown into a company with over 150 employees around the country, we have 25,000 clients worldwide and process 15 billion payments annually. It is a Top 5 Fiserv ISO and Fiserv Chairman’s Circle Member.

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

As fintech disrupters we are always developing new cutting-edge technology that put people first. As a company, we spend a lot of time and resources so that we stay five-years ahead of everyone else.

For example, our new free point of sale (POS) program frees companies from being beholden to their current POS system and gives the merchant ownership of the POS equipment rather than continually leasing it. We offer free training, on-site installation, 24/7 onshore customer service and will even partner with the merchant’s POS vendor of choice. This program also incorporates our revolutionary WAVit cash discount program, which allows merchants to drastically reduce their credit card processing fees and earn significant cost savings.

Our goal is to continuously develop new technology that reinvents aspects of the merchant experience for greater efficiency and effectiveness, so that there are more and more ways for the client to save money and grow.

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 just got into the payment processing industry, I was working on signing a very well-known and well-established liquor store with over 100 locations. During our conversation, I asked the owner if he would like to be able to cash out on a Saturday and receive funds on Sunday (because at the time I thought that’s how it worked). To my surprise this made him upset, and he basically chased me out of his store, cigarette in hand, because he thought I was lying to him to secure the deal. After going back to the office, I learned what I said was wrong. I called him back to apologize and explain that I knew what I said was incorrect. We’ve been working together for over 15 years, and I now live by the motto he said to me during our call: “Never ask a question you don’t already know the answer 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?

My mother is my biggest inspiration and mentor. There is nothing she would not do for her family. She worked extremely hard every day, no complaints to make sure that our family never went without. Every time I think that things are tough, I think of everything my mother sacrificed for us and I keep going. If I could be half the parent my mother is, I will have made it in life!

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?

In our case, we think being disruptive is always positive. It’s important to constantly be thinking ahead, creating and driving new innovative technology and embracing the turbulence that goes with it. When we disrupt, other businesses follow and then it becomes the standard. For example, we launched our WAVit program in 2016 and today it’s becoming the standard both customers and merchants expect.

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. Don’t get complacent. Continue to challenge yourself, improve and do what scares you.
2. Always remain authentic and transparent in every aspect of your business: on the internal, business side and on the external, client-facing side.
3. Stay true to your values and principles. Have a great work ethic and a strong backbone.
4. You can’t control other people’s actions, but you can control your reaction to them.
5. Never forget that you are only as good as your reputation and name; you lose those, you will never succeed in the Fintech business and, more importantly, in life.

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

Very simple, continue to put people first, continue to develop and advance our technology, and always be at least five years ahead of our competition in every product offering within the fintech space.

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

Iacocca: An Autobiography

Lido (Lee) Anthony Iacocca was known as a bold, charismatic leader who excelled at hiring and inspiring great people. His career was the model of resilience, drive and innovation.

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

“Don’t be afraid to give up the good to go for the great.” –John D. Rockefeller

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. 🙂

More support for teachers.

Teachers aren’t paid nearly enough, and they feel less appreciated, more stressed and less supported than they have in the past. My wonderful wife is a kindergarten teacher and I’ve seen it firsthand. We need to advocate for higher pay and support for teachers.

How can our readers follow you online?

Visit our website at www.micamp.com and follow us on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter @MiCampSolutions.

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

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

An Interview With Fotis Georgiadis

You will learn just as much about yourself as you do your business- I did not anticipate that I would learn this much about myself when this journey began, but when you are working on something that is bigger than you, it is important to make sure you understand who you are so it does not affect the company.

As a part of our series called “Making Something From Nothing”, I had the pleasure of interviewing Simone May, CTO and Co-Founder of Clutch.

Simone is the CTO and Co-Founder of Clutch where she leads the company’s efforts in translating their customer’s needs into their product and technical functionality. Her interest in the world of technology and seeing what software can do began at a young age as she grew up with two engineers as parents and developed a passion for math, science and tinkering with all sorts of technical gadgets and projects that her parents worked on. Prior to Clutch, Simone was a Consultant at Accenture where she learned how to build a product from the ground up focused on learning first what the product’s clients’ needs are and then how to translate their needs into something technical. She has a passion for democratizing access to information and innovation that no one has had before, and leveraging technology to make the world a more equitable place.

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

I am originally from Atlanta, GA. I grew up with both parents who were engineers, I thoroughly enjoyed Math growing up and I also loved to tinker with things, especially when my mom got her first laptop. I was always playing with it when I could and exploring all aspects of the software. I think because of the encouragement I got from both of my parents, it led to my confidence and interest in the STEM field.

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

“Grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, courage to change the things that I can and the wisdom to know the difference.”

I think this is relevant to my life because I am a young black woman in Tech and although I grew up with a privileged background, that never changed the fact that I was still black and had to learn how to operate in spaces that I was not always comfortable or seen. This quote has helped me to get through life by focusing on the things that are within my control.

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?

Michelle Obama’s book ”Becoming” resonated with me a lot in my early adulthood. I truly appreciated her transparency throughout the book and it honestly made me feel seen in my own way. Here is this amazing woman who so many people have admiration and reverence for and she is able to be so open and vulnerable about her feelings, mistakes and judgements along the path of her life. It made me realize that even Michelle Obama, was not perfect and still isn’t, even when she had to be the best to get to where she was at.

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 for us, part of translating an idea into a business was literally just working on it a little bit everyday in order to reach the goal. Understanding what your goal is, is also important. When I first called Madison with the idea, we literally got on the phone the next night and made a super messy google doc with an outline and brain dump of our idea and how we wanted to execute it. We kept flushing that out by conducting research around it and seeing if it made sense. At the time we did not have all the tools but we were equally motivated to see where the idea could go. Our original idea was to actually create a platform for students to use on their university campus that would allow them to order food to their seat at sporting events. From there, we did research on who else was doing something similar and started thinking about what kind of product would make the most sense (big mistake, but that’s a story for a different day). I leveraged my connections in the university space to hire college students in exchange for a credit to help us kickstart our MVP. Madison leveraged her dad as an entrepreneur to help us become incorporated and be a legitimate business. From there, the rest is history.

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?

This is actually something that I learned over time, competition is actually your biggest validation. If someone else has already done or attempted to do what you are doing, it means you have identified a real problem and maybe your unique perspective might create better results for the people in the space you decide to serve. I actually think one of the most important things you can do when you have an idea is conduct competitive analysis and try to find as many people out there who are doing what you are trying too. I would say they are a good resource for identifying how you can avoid reinventing the wheel while also keeping the solution personal to your vision. In terms of how, I think Google is honestly your best friend but also just start talking to people in your network about your idea, they might actually know a competitor of yours without you realizing it. I would also recommend deciding what questions you are going to ask yourself upon conducting your research so you do not become inundated with all the different competitors out there. Last but not least, figure out what they are doing and how you make it special and valuable.

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

I can speak from my perspective as CTO building a software solution:

1. Ensure you have a good understanding of the audience you are trying to serve and the problem you are trying to solve.
2. Create a project plan, something that outlines all of the requirements you have as an owner to create the product — it can be a brain dump at first but then streamline it over time before you put anything into action.
3. Create process flows for yourself around those requirements, something that allows you to think through (i.e. creating a process flow for “User can sign up” requires you to think through the requirements of how does your particular user need to sign up and what information is important to collect during their initial interaction with the system?
4. Create deadlines and priorities around your requirements so you can prioritize what is most important to complete in order for your audience to see value and feel satisfied.
5. Just Do It (like Nike says) — I came from a Software Engineering background, so I knew where to research and find the right tech stack, however if you are completely new to this space, leverage your network and friends to see if they can point you in the right direction to get started. I would also recommend educating yourself on the space you are trying to enter and trust that whatever knowledge led you to this point is something that is also extremely valuable.

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

1. Do not build a product, build a solution — Having an in-depth understanding about the problem you are solving will make your product that much better and it will be something people might actually want to use.
2. It is important to bring your team along the journey — If your core team is not bought in on what is going on, their motivation to work with you and on the business will diminish.
3. You are not perfect and you will fail at a lot of different things — I always prided myself on basically having all of my ducks in a row, but when you are doing something this new and challenging, life will get messy and you have to learn to roll with the punches and quickly learn from your mistakes.
4. You will learn just as much about yourself as you do your business- I did not anticipate that I would learn this much about myself when this journey began, but when you are working on something that is bigger than you, it is important to make sure you understand who you are so it does not affect the company.
5. Everything will be okay if you remain honest, ethical and diligent — there are a lot of obstacles we have faced and I know we will continue to face, but just remain humble and understand that regardless of how things go, you will be okay and this is a journey (marathon) not a sprint. Everything will work out how it’s supposed to, but not how you expect it too.

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

I would recommend that they start by writing everything down that they have in mind and finding a way to tweak it until they can put some action behind it. If you are building a software product, I would recommend that you learn what Agile Methodology entails so you do not become overwhelmed with building everything at once.

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

I think it depends on the person’s level of experience in what they are trying to build or the industry they are trying to tackle. I would not recommend hiring anyone until you have fully decided on the solution you are building and why you are building it.

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

Venture Capital is something I would not seek out until it is absolutely necessary unless you can find an investor that cares about your iterative growth as a company and not the bottom line (which is rare). Bootstrapping until you cannot anymore is a way to have full control over what you are building without someone breathing down your neck to produce real results. Angels or Accelerators are another good way to ensure that you are able to build with more control as well. Eventually, if you want to scale your solution, VC is definitely the way to go.

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

There are 2 main ways I have been able to pay it forward so far. One is we are constantly prioritizing diversity in the workplace and I believe our team is a reflection of that. I do my best to remove my implicit bias when it comes to hiring. Additionally, I am invited to speak a lot and I tend to be as transparent as possible; I do not believe in gatekeeping strategies or what’s really going on in the world of building companies in my perspective.

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 want the leadership in the workplaces across the United States to reflect the diversity and intersectionality of this country.

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 meet with Michelle Obama to be honest — I know that is so cliche but she just seems so direct, honest and transparent, I would just love to talk to her about life.

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

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

An Interview With Fotis Georgiadis

Switching to pandemic mode and adjusting to supply chain or economic volatility Pandemics are not new to humanity, it’s about making sure that operations can always be tweaked to ‘pandemic mode’. For example, through our parent company Santa Fe, we regularly provide up-to-date travel regulations and this has helped customers to gain confidence in working with our company.

As a part of our series about the The Future of Travel in The Post-COVID World, I had the pleasure of interviewing Doreen Wang — Head of Strategy and Implementation, Sanelo.

Doreen Wang is the head of strategy and implementation of Sanelo, a global move management company. With the ultimate goal of making its customers moving home happy, she works very closely with Sanelo executive team to transform the relocation service offering. She is also leading the green projects in Sanelo to fight against climate change.

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

I started my career in the Logistics and Shipping industry, where I had the wonderful opportunity to work in different sectors. I was placed in various positions to absorb industry knowledge and understand the commercial and operational processes and the technology that supports the business operation.

When I moved on to work closely with Chief Executives, I gained experience looking at businesses from all aspects and learned to focus on business strategy and its implementation. Since then, I have been focused on delivering strategic projects and helping businesses grow and thrive, especially by leveraging the latest technologies.

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

I was in Shanghai when the World Expo 2010 took place. Back then, I worked very closely with the Danish Pavilion’s project management team to ensure that the construction and exhibition project was delivered. It was an exciting experience for me, especially since we shipped the original little mermaid all the way from Copenhagen to Shanghai.

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

Once, I helped my line manager move internationally. We went through a lot of work organizing everything for him and his family, including young children. Just when we thought we had managed everything, they were stuck before going to the airport, because all their passports were packed during the move and already in transit to the destination. As a result, they had to stay for an extra month to apply for new passports.

The biggest lesson learned was to seek professional assistance from relocation companies. Usually, they will give advice and guidance to make one’s moving journey stress-free.

Which tips would you recommend to your colleagues in your industry to help them to thrive and not “burn out”? Can you share a story about that?

Screen off time.’

As the leader, be a role model who creates a culture of efficiency.

Organize staff engagement activities.

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

I am a huge fan of the book ‘Good to Great by Jim Collins, and I am grateful that one of my first bosses introduced it to me, together with many other good books. From him, I learned how important people are in the organization and how to lead and inspire the team to help them achieve their potential.

Thank you for that. Let’s jump to the core of our discussion. Can you share with our readers the innovations you are bringing to the travel and hospitality industries?

E-commerce has changed the entire world since it was born, allowing us to reimagine how our business can operate after 130 years in the global relocation industry.

We are amid expanding our service offerings with an online marketplace. By sourcing for different partners globally, across multiple service categories, our marketplace seeks to provide our customers with a ‘one-stop-shop solution.

This means that moving internationally is no longer a journey into the unknown. Our customers could easily book different services in the destination, including travel and hospitality.

Which “pain point” are you trying to address by introducing this innovation? How do you envision that this might disrupt the status quo?

Relocation is one of the most stressful events in life. There are multiple moving parts and too many uncertainties during the journey. Most people have limited experience when it comes to moving too. Whether setting up a bank account in a foreign country, searching for a new home in a new state, or getting your child into an international school, you will not know how to do these things until circumstances determine that you must do so.

Our marketplace exists to provide timely and holistic assistance to our customers. By engaging partners across multiple categories, including guides and checklists, we aim to empower our customers with a better understanding of the necessities of relocation and point them towards a service provider or a Sanelo team member, to resolve their pain points.

You are a “travel insider.” How would you describe your “perfect vacation experience”?

As a relocation expert and strategic project manager, my perfect vacation experience is one where I cover all bases, even before the trip begins. I appreciate ideas, suggestions, and guides of places I can go to and having a one-stop booking platform where I can get things like visa, insurance, hotels, and car rental settled all at once. The cherry on the cake would be having someone I can contact quickly whenever I require additional assistance on the trip, and of course, a beautiful and restful accommodation.

As you know, COVID19 changed the world as we know it. Can you share 5 examples of how travel and hospitality companies will be adjusting over the next five years to the new ways that consumers will prefer to travel?

1. Business continuity and flexibility is now a priority for companies.

Switching to pandemic mode and adjusting to supply chain or economic volatility Pandemics are not new to humanity, it’s about making sure that operations can always be tweaked to ‘pandemic mode’. For example, through our parent company Santa Fe, we regularly provide up-to-date travel regulations and this has helped customers to gain confidence in working with our company.

2. Hybrid work models are here to stay.

There will be more remote working and outsourcing happening across various industries, and travel and hospital companies should ensure that their product offerings match the travel trends that emerge from this way of life.

3. In-person contactless technologies to support operations are more crucial than ever.

Not only does automation allow companies to channel resources into other areas but also gives customers flexibility and assurances on their safety. In Sanelo, we’ve actually implemented virtual surveys whereby we use video and AI technology to create an inventory of items for your international move.

4. Creating and streamlining digital touchpoints to enhance customer experience. For Sanelo, this looks like building an integrated marketplace that houses a variety of relocation-related service offerings that our customers can purchase.

5. Both consumers and businesses now view insurance as necessary hedges against unforeseen circumstances.

During the pandemic, many companies offer travel protection. And even for Sanelo, we make sure to give our customers the ability to get shipment and movement protection for their personal belongings and household items during their local and international moves.

6. COVID-19 has changed the way consumers purchase forever.

More people are buying online than ever. But the volatile shipping situation is something that serves as an ever-present challenge for online retailers. With storage facilities, relocation and retail companies can avoid heavy demurrage charges (penalty fees paid to shipping companies for not offloading your cargo on time).

Can you share with our readers how you have used your success to bring goodness to the world?

Families are the basic building blocks of societies worldwide. My success at work has helped many families move happily, safely, and swiftly across the world. A big move puts inevitable stress on anyone, and I am simply happy to be able to alleviate some of that pressure with Team Sanelo’s help. From packing and moving out to unpacking and settling in, we derive immense joy from journeying with our customers from their origin country to their destination. We hope to improve the world by facilitating positive moving experiences for families that engage in our services.

You are a person of significant 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?

I am someone who identifies as an environmental advocate, so if it were up to me, I would start movements to save the earth. I am grateful that there are already quite a few campaigns and initiatives, but we have a long way to go green as a world.

As a pledge of Sanelo’s determination and commitment to supporting the cause, we included a ‘Carbon Offset’ project in our 2022 roadmap.

Our organizational mission is to help our customers move home happy. To achieve that, we must contribute to making a positive impact on the environment.

How can our readers follow you on social media?

https://www.linkedin.com/company/sanelo-movehomehappy/

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

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The Future of Travel in The Post-COVID World With Doreen Wang Of Sanelo was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

An Interview With Fotis Georgiadis

Get comfortable with being overlooked when you first start out. Many people/influencers want to see that you’re successful before they agree to try out your product.

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

Suzie Mirzaians is the mindful spirit behind Miss Careful and she’s endlessly inspired by her personal self-care rituals. Over the years, hair care has become her go-to daily routine because it adds the perfect touch of glamour to her life.

Her passionate pursuit of comfort and protection during her pampering sessions has led to that must-have, can’t live without, why didn’t I think of that product!

Miss Careful Ear Covers are the first, but not last, of a series of self-care game-changers that cheer: “Style away, you got this!”

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 Yerevan, Armenia. My family moved to the states in the early 90’s to give me, my older brother and younger sister a better life. Now that I’m older, a few years older than my parents when they uprooted their family across the world, I realize what a huge endeavor that was for them. My parents worked two to three jobs at a time, to put food on the table and provide a safe and balanced lifestyle for us. The only obligation we had as kids was to be good students and not forget our native tongue. Even though we didn’t have a lot, I have the fondest childhood memories. We have a very tight family bond and remain close until today. Watching my parents achieve everything they had set out to do, is beyond inspiring. My motivation comes from knowing that I can accomplish anything, especially with all the resources that are available to me. My parents were able to do what they did 30 plus years ago with countless obstacles. I am fortunate and forever grateful for all the wonderful opportunities I have today. Their hard work and sacrifices would be in vain if I didn’t take risks and make something of myself.

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

“Every experience, no matter how bad it seems, holds within it a lesson of some kind. The goal is to find it.” If you’ve ever owned your own business, you know how hard it is. Now, you throw in an invention and a new concept altogether, the difficulty is next level. I am always dealing with ups and downs. Sometimes it feels like more downs than ups. Through those challenging times, I have learned great lessons. Lessons that have guided me in a different direction, that will stick with me forever and won’t allow me to make the same mistake twice. There is no roadmap for when you first start a business. You have to figure it out as you go. The one thing I always say to myself is, “this is happening FOR me, not TO me.” Learn the lesson and move forward. You can’t grow if you’re constantly looking back.

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?

Recently, I read a book called Educated, By Tara Westover. It is a memoir that describes her growing up in a devout mormon family in rural Idaho. As a young girl, Tara worked in her fathers scrap yard and had no formal education. Her life was completely controlled by her father and their religion. She longed for a normal life and a chance to be educated. She did everything in her power to make that happen for herself. Today she has a PhD from Cambridge University, and is a best selling author. Her story really resonates with me because she’s the epitome of what we try to instill in our girls, “ You can do anything you put your mind to.” Tara had many obstacles, but she overcame them all because she knew there was more out there for her. She believed it, worked hard for it and stayed focused on the big picture no matter how difficult it was. It’s a riveting memoir and definitely a must read.

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?

DO THE RESEARCH. I can’t stress this enough. You may have a great idea, but when you don’t have the right tools, you will burn yourself out by trying over and over again to get others to see how great your idea is. Know who your demographic is, “when you speak to everyone, you speak to no one.” Narrow down who your interested audience is, and engage with them. Also, make sure you have a great attorney. Get a patent, and protect yourself and the business that you work so hard for.

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?

Make sure you hire a professional to do this part. Hire a patent attorney to do extensive research. Sometimes, a similar product may already exist, but due to a unique feature your product might provide, you will still be eligible for a patent.

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.

Hire a patent attorney to do the research first. If you have the green light, start with a provisional patent while you’re looking for a manufacturer. There are a lot of great manufacturers in the US that help people bring their ideas to life. There are also many overseas, it’s up to you what you’re more comfortable with. Once you have found a manufacturer you’re happy with, make sure you have your business plan and your pitch deck in place, your pricing/profit margin, whether you’re going to be direct-to- consumer or strictly amazon, for example. After figuring all those details out, you will have a better understanding of what your next steps will be. No matter what, you want to make sure you know your target audience.

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

-I wish I knew how hard and time consuming it is to create content and manage social media platforms.

-I wish someone told me that a lot of people you meet along the way are going to disappoint you.

-Starting a brand is more than a fulltime job. You have to get familiar with things you’ve never done before because in the beginning, you don’t have the budget to hire professionals.

-Get comfortable with being overlooked when you first start out. Many people/influencers want to see that you’re successful before they agree to try out your product.

-With time, and a lot of trial and error, you get more savvy. You begin to grow thick skin and become shrewd. You need to go through everything I mentioned above to have the skills to become successful. It’s bittersweet, but the significance of success is greater when you have gone through the hardships.

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?

Definitely do the research and see if something like it already exists. Also, see if there is a need for your idea. Need for whom?

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 all depends on the budget. If you have the budget, sure. However, keep in mind that branding/marketing is going to be very expensive. Don’t burn all your money before you get to the marketing phase.

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 think this is a personal preference and a financial decision. It was important for my business partner and I to fund our own business because we wanted to be the sole owners of our business. I understand that things can get very expensive and for some, this is not an option. That is why there are so many options to take advantage of. I would imagine with an investor, you can get your business to grow a lot faster than if you were to personally fund it, but then you have to give away a stake in your company. It’s a tradeoff, but it’s nice to know that the options are there. My advice would be to do whatever makes sense for each individual. You have to be comfortable with whatever decision you make.

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

I am not waiting to become crazy rich to make the world a better place. I am a true believer in always living a healthy and balanced lifestyle, teaching our kids to care for our planet, making sure we are not being wasteful and gluttonous. We are always looking for ways to improve as a company and as a family. At Miss Careful, we recently changed our packaging from a small cardboard box to reusable bags. There’s always room for growth and we are always looking for ways to do better.

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 create a sustainable food source that is free of major corporations involvement, pesticide/roundup, and make it available around the world. I would teach all the countries the methods to be able to feed their people.

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.

There are so many, but the first that comes to mind is Bethenny Frankel. She started off as a broke reality star, and is now a very successful business woman, an entrepreneur and philanthropist. She is a real success story. She created a prepackaged margarita line named Skinnygirl, and was able to sell it for $120 million. She understands business very well, and uses her platform, money and power to do good for the word. I have the utmost amount of respect for women who make it big using their own efforts. She is an inspiration to everyone who came from nothing and made something of themselves. She dominated the alcohol industry the way no other woman had before. In recent years, she used her resources and founded an organization that helps people around the world who have been impacted by natural disasters. She is a great role model for all.

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

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

Parisa Bady Of Meros Media On How to Effectively Leverage The Power of Digital Marketing, PPC, & Email to Dramatically Increase Sales

An Interview With Fotis Georgiadis

Don’t forget to build up your own brand. Sometimes digital marketers get so focused on helping their clients to build up their brand that they forget about their own digital marketing company’s branding.

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

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

As a part of this series, I had the pleasure of interviewing Parisa Bady, CEO of Meros Media.

Parisa Bady merged her background in engineering and project management to become the founder and CEO of Meros Media. She believes in using data-driven approaches and strategic blueprints to help businesses expand and grow. In 2018 Bady started Meros Media as a one-person company, primarily focusing on growing private medical practices. The Iranian native has since grown the business, welcoming 20 employees, and accumulating an impressive roster of high-profile clients, including Cellaxys, Solaris, and The Sanctuary.

The impressive entrepreneur obtained her undergraduate Bachelor of Science degree in Materials Science and Engineering in 2013 from Sharif University of Technology, widely known as Iran’s top engineering school and one of the most highly accredited universities in Asia. Bady continued on to work as a quality manager at an automotive manufacturing company in Iran before moving to the United States in 2011.

Determined to live the American dream, Parisa Bady moved as a 21-year-old immigrant, carrying everything she owned and a few hundred dollars in her pocket. Bady was excited to reach the traditional milestones of adulthood, diving right into higher education. She attended the University of Texas at Arlington, taking on a research assistant position while working to earn her Master of Science degree in Materials Science and Engineering.

Upon graduation, Bady secured a position as a project manager at Metco Engineering. In 2013, she accepted a position at a 15 billion-dollar company, TE Connectivity, where she worked as the youngest project manager in the company’s history. After multiple years in the engineering and project management space, Bady decided to say farewell to the corporate world and become her own boss.

However, it wasn’t an easy road, after starting a couple of failed businesses due to a lack of marketing efforts I learned that a lot of businesses fail — not because of products or services or even operations — but mainly because of a lack of right marketing strategies and implementation.

Through her role as CEO at Meros Media, Bady has encouraged and led her clients to incorporate philanthropy into their strategic communication campaigns. Bady has spearheaded multiple charitable campaigns including matching donations for Relay For Life, providing a $5,000 donation to Veteran’s Care Charity in honor of Military Appreciation Month, and making a generous donation to the relief and recovery efforts in Ukraine in March of 2022.

In May 2022, the multi-faceted entrepreneur was included in Real Vegas Magazine’s prestigious honor, “Women Who Wow.”

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

I started off in the engineering space, earning my undergraduate Bachelor of Science degree in Materials Science and Engineering in 2013 from Sharif University of Technology, (widely known as Iran’s top engineering school and one of the most highly accredited universities in Asia). I then went on to work as a quality manager at an automotive manufacturing company in Iran before moving to the United States in 2011.

I came to the United States as a 20-year-old immigrant, carrying everything I owned and a few hundred dollars on me, willfully determined to live the American dream. I wanted more than anything to reach the traditional American milestones of adulthood, so I began to further my education. I enrolled at the University of Texas at Arlington and took on a research assistant position while working to earn my Master of Science degree in Materials Science and Engineering.

After graduation, I secured a position as a project manager at Metco Engineering. Then in 2013, I accepted a position at a 15 billion-dollar company, TE Connectivity, where I worked as the youngest project manager in the company’s history!

After multiple years in the male-dominated engineering and project management space, I decided to say goodbye to the corporate world and start my own strategic media marketing agency — and that’s how Meros Media was born.

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?

Yes, I do!

So, I first started Meros Media as a single-person company and since it was just me I was convinced that I had to prove to my clients that I could do better than a company with a whole team. As a result, I spent all of my time focusing on producing results for my clients, sometimes even forgetting to eat.

Finally, I realized that there are talented individuals that can achieve better results than I could if they had the right manager. I came to the revelation that my biggest role in the company is hiring the best people for the specific role in each project.

I learned that it’s okay not to do everything myself and that sometimes it’s necessary to delegate work to others and in some cases those who are more capable. If I had kept going the way I was, then I probably would’ve burnt out by now and wouldn’t have allowed my business to reach the success it has.

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?

My husband is my greatest supporter and my rock. He’s also a leader in the medical field and just seeing how empathetic he is towards his patients inspired me to want to help private medical practices and clinics with their digital marketing.

My husband helped me to better understand the medical industry, which helped me gain the ability to better digitally market for medical practices. He always says ‘we are healing the world together,’ — him through his medicine and me through helping market cutting-edge private medical practices, thereby increasing awareness of these medical practices.

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

Meros Media mixes creativity with analytics. We have an amazing team, comprised of talented and unique individuals who complement each other by merging aspects of the creative world with numbers and analytics. Utilizing the leverage of an analytic mindset, we make decisions that are in the best interest of our clients and set them up for success, taking the guesswork out of marketing.

My media company has ample experience marketing medical practices, which makes us stand out from companies that work with companies in a variety of different industries.

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

Absolutely — I’m helping brand and market a very innovative and technologically advanced medical clinic called Cellaxys. This project is particularly fascinating because the clinic uses the power of orthobiologics and the body’s healing mechanisms to help patients extend their youth and live a much higher quality of life.

I really love projects like this because they allow me to connect people with medical professionals who will help improve their health and quality of life.

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.

The biggest mistake I see in the beginning phases of digital marketing is not having a unified brand and messaging that resembles the target audience. People often advertise based on what they “think” their target audience wants and likes, not what they actually want. Marketing is a psychological game, you have to enter the minds of your target audience and think the way they think.

It is crucial to target your marketing campaigns to your target audience or ideal customer, speaking to them in a language they understand.

I ask my clients to describe their target audience during the onboarding process, and many of them can’t do it. They’re afraid to specify their target audience because they don’t want to exclude anyone and lose customers. However, trying to appease everyone is actually counterproductive. Brands that define their target audience have better digital marketing success. Many clients don’t understand that digital marketers need to empathize with their audience to succeed.

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.

In my experience, a successful digital marketing campaign, specifically for cash-based medical practices, is comprised of a combination of 4 key elements:

1. High-Value Patient acquisition, which includes lead and opportunity management, designing the patient journey, marketing automation, Email/SMS marketing, and webinars.
2. Robust sales Blueprint development, which includes sales and conversion training, patient care plan presentation, customize sales processes, and a patient follow-up framework.
3. Establish Market Authority: Social media presence, high visibility on google through SEO practices, creating a unique brand identity, patient testimonials, and content library.
4. Last but not least — Reactivating the current patient list through direct mail, email newsletter, SMS campaigns, and retargeting digital ads.

By implementing this blueprint we have doubled our medical client’s business in less than 3 years!

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

My favorites are Google and Facebook ads. The most popular ad network is Google Ads because of its reach and Google’s high search engine volume. Billions of searches are typed into Google’s search engine a day, making it an ideal platform for PPC advertising. Additionally, both Facebook and Google allow you to target a specific audience, ensuring that your ads get in front of the right users.

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

1. Determine your ad goals prior to starting your PPC campaign, this way you have a way of measuring the success and efficacy of the campaign.
2. Use market research to identify and empathize with your target audience, so that you can use messaging that they understand. I always start by identifying the biggest problem or challenge that the target audience faces, and then try to market how they’d feel if they solved that issue.
3. Choose the right platform for your brand to run your PPC campaign. For example, if a majority of your target audience uses YouTube then run your ad campaign on YouTube. If you are targeting an older audience, utilize Facebook or Google.

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?

1. Clean your email list! Cleaning your email list to ensure email deliverability is the foundational first step of any email marketing campaign. This step needs to be repeated every few months. Email deliverability can drastically impact your email marketing campaign and your ability to even send emails.
2. Put extra effort into your subject line. The subject line determines whether or not your email will be opened, deleted immediately, or worse — sent to spam. Never use all caps in your subject line. Also, don’t type your whole email in the subject line, I’ve been seeing people do that a lot lately.
3. Make sure the design of your email is visually appealing and aligns with your brand. For example, have you ever gotten an email that looks like a bunch of gobbly goop, and if so, did you trust that brand? Most people would answer no, so make sure your emails look professional.

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?

Canva is my absolute favorite tool! Canva is a graphic design tool that makes digital design super easy. I love it because I’m more of a strategizer, not a designer but with Canva I can create some really professional and clean designs for my marketing campaigns or help establish a client’s brand.

Hotjar is an extremely useful tool that functions as an analytics & feedback program, allowing marketers to track user behavior on the website. This is a great way to measure human behavior with easy metrics that you can understand and check if your website is meeting its established marketing goals.

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

1. Empathy — A skilled digital marketer is able to empathize with the target audience, placing themselves in the target audience’s shoes and understanding the ins and outs of their struggle.
2. Align your messaging to how your target audience speaks. People tend to enjoy being around people that are similar to them, so to gain the trust of your audience, you must build a rapport with the target demographic.
3. Appeal to your audience’s emotions. You’ll have better luck selling a feeling than product benefits, for example, if I said that these new earphones have no wire that’d be a feature. If I said, experience the freedom of wire-free headphones, that’s a feeling. As much as we like to believe that as humans we’re rational creatures, the truth is that we run on emotion and then fabricate rationalizations after.
4. Don’t forget to build up your own brand. Sometimes digital marketers get so focused on helping their clients to build up their brand that they forget about their own digital marketing company’s branding.
5. Remain open to learning new strategies and techniques. The one thing guaranteed in life is change, and the same is true in the digital marketing sphere. As new technologies and innovations are brought to market, digital marketing strategies will change. The best way to stay on top of your game is to constantly stay updated with what is going on in the realm of digital marketing.

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

I listen to the Marketing School podcast a lot. It’s a digital marketing podcast, that talks about helpful online marketing tips. The hosts are Neil Patel and Eric Siu.

The Online Marketing Made Easy with Amy Porterfield podcast is also pretty good! I listen to this one a lot while I’m driving. The host does a great job of breaking down complex ideas and strategies into actionable steps, that’ll actually help to maximize the success of your digital marketing strategy.

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. 🙂

Wow, that’s a great question!

If I could start a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, I would start a movement to have more emotional fulfillment in life. I believe that regardless of someone’s financial or relationship status, it’s possible to be more emotionally fulfilled by making small adjustments to the way we perceive things.

How can our readers further follow your work?

I would love for your readers to follow my work! My digital marketing website is MerosMedia.com and my LinkedIn page is: https://www.linkedin.com/in/parisasahebi/

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

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Parisa Bady Of Meros Media On How to Effectively Leverage The Power of Digital Marketing, PPC, &… was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

An Interview With Fotis Georgiadis

* Develop your own unique voice and style.
* Let your audience know who YOU are.
* How you got this far.
* What life has taught you.
* Craft stories and lessons from your own experiences.

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 Steve Gamlin.

As The Motivational Firewood® Guy, Steve has been (since 2004) blending back-to-basics Positivity, Visualization & Humor, teaching his clients to SEE their desired outcomes, understand their WHY, and build ACTION PLANS to achieve them. He does this on-stage via his keynote speeches, and off-stage via his Vision Board Mastery learning program, 1-to-1 and Group Coaching, plus Live and Virtual events. Bottom line: Steve teaches people to identify what their goals LOOK like, FEEL like, SOUND like…even SMELL like.

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 had a very enjoyable childhood. Great family and friends. Spent plenty of time riding my bike, playing baseball in Little League and basketball in the driveway. We had a pool, which was really great.

When I was 11 years old, a seed was planted when I first saw a radio DJ named Dr. Johnny Fever on a sitcom called ‘WKRP in Cincinatti’. That was the ‘big bang’ for me. I also wanted to be a stand-up comedian (thank you Steve Martin), an author and a teacher of people (non-classroom), inspired by my 5th grade teacher Mrs. Feren, whom I adored.

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

When I was 13, an embarrassing moment in the 7th grade Spelling Bee crashed my confidence, and thus began a slide in my grades and classroom participation which lasted all the way through college…where I barely graduated by 62/1000ths of a point. Summa cum ‘this close’.

At the age of 24, at the urging of a friend, I finally took steps to enter the radio industry, although I lacked the confidence in my voice to be an on-air DJ.

Instead, I thrived as an off-air Rock Morning Show Producer, although I still wished I had the guts to get on the microphone. That role didn’t happen until my 8th year when, due to our Morning DJ leaving, I ‘had’ to be the voice of the show…or the owner was going to put the whole station back on satellite radio (ugh).

Several days of awkward attempts at ‘trying to sound like a DJ’ ended when I turned on the microphone and simply said, wearily: “Hey everybody, Steve here, NH’s Classic Rock Big 101.5…(sigh)…you know, I may stink as a DJ but if you tolerate me reading the weather for the next 42 seconds, I’ll play you an awesome rock song”.

The resulting knock on the door (which I assumed would lead to me being canned) was my boss ‘Evil’ Jack (who was a really nice guy) saying: “Brother, that was the funniest thing you said all week. Just be yourself!”

That lesson continues to serve me today as a speaker, writer, coach, podcast host, etc.

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

In June 2011, my marketing person called me in a panic: “Hey Steve, I sponsored the 9th hole at a fundraising golf tournament tomorrow. I need someone to measure how far people can hit a marshmallow with a golf club…and I thought of you!”

After I stopped laughing, I replied: “I’ll be there!”

Early the next morning as I sat in a golf cart with a gym bag full of marshmallows in my lap, a woman climbed in and asked: “What are you doing with all those marshmalows?
My response: “I’m measuring how far people can whack them with a golf club!”
Her reaction: “What do you do for a living, because I can’t imagine this is it?”
Me: “I’m a motivational speaker, blending back-to-basics positivity and humor.”
Her: “Do you have a card?”

Fifteen months later, she called.

It turns out I’d been sitting next to the Team Leader/CEO of one of the most successful real estate offices in the area, who quickly became my biggest client and referral source for the next few years.

The big lesson: Be aware of ‘opportunities’ at all times!

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

Not sure if it would be classified as ignorance or arrogance, but when you start out as a speaker it can be very easy to believe: “Hey, I can talk to ANY audience!”

Wrong. Ohhhhhh, so wrong.

After securing a speaking engagement for a very prestigious client, one of the HR Directors at the organization reached out and asked: “While you’re here, could you also do a presentation for my small group of engineers?”

In the ignorance/arrogance of my early days, my reply was: “Sure!”

The first event went okay (despite losing my remote clicker for a panic-stricken 30 seconds at the beginning).

The second event started rough, as the person who was introducing me crumbled up the sheet of paper which contained my introduction and a lead-in for the first words I would deliver, threw it over his shoulder and said to the attendees: “I Googled this guy and he seems okay. Come on in, Steve!”

I walked into the room in a sheer panic, was immediately blinded by the sun glaring through the window, then attempted to high-five a bunch of engineers…who do NOT enjoy having people ‘violating their space’.

Here’s how I describe that presentation now:

“You know those old World War-2 movies, when a plane gets shot? How it spews a little oil, then catches fire and trails smoke until it finally crashes? Basically, I got shot 2 minutes into a 75-minute speech and trailed smoke the rest of the way”.

It was ugly. Really ugly. And that second HR Director was furious with me. Looking back, I can’t blame her.

She demanded, and received, a significant refund.

The lesson: Know who you are, as a speaker. Know your audience. Make sure you understand their pains, their needs, their style and their language. And if you are not the right fit, have a conversation with the person in charge and, at the very least, attempt to refer another speaker more suitable for their needs.

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?

Almost a decade ago, I saw a post inside the National Speakers Association Facebook Community from a woman named Nancy Vogl. She was about to re-launch her speakers bureau. I had no idea who she was, but took a moment to respond with a comment wishing her all the best.

Several months later, she reached out to me: “Hi Steve, I just wanted to thank you for taking the time to cheer me on. I’ve been checking out your speaking videos and I think you’re really good. I also looked at your website and marketing materials…and WOW, they need some work! I’m not sure if I will ever find the perfect event for you to speak at, but I want to help you any way I can.”

We got on an hour-long phone call shortly after, and I took several pages of notes from her suggestions.

Nearly a year later, as I was driving home after an appointment, Nancy called. As I live in a state which discourages (complete with a $100 fine) being on the phone while driving, I pulled into the parking lot of a local cemetery and answered.

“Hey Steve, write down this phone number and call them immediately. I just met with the Executive Director of (organization) and she is very excited to have you headline their event next May!”

That turned into the biggest speaking event I’d ever been part of.

Even now, Nancy is a treasured mentor and friend…and she is still looking out for me.

P.S. Every time I drive past that cemetery, I smile.

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?

I share this advice with people who are interested in becoming speakers, podcasters, video presenters, etc:

“If you are afraid to start because you are worried that you ‘might’ not be great, let me take those fears away from by saying: YOU WILL STINK on your first attempts!”

There’s a message that my Dad used to tell me over and over: “You can’t get any better if you’re not willing to screw it up a few times.”

What do many of my most-requested stage-stories consist of now?

The many (cough cough) ‘learning experiences’ which occurred in my early years.

Another thing I caution people to avoid doing: Do not go back and mock, erase or delete your earliest attempts, no matter how bad they may be. I get it, they can be cringeworthy to re-live, but here’s the gift they contain: they demonstrate how far you’ve come.

I used to be very critical of my earliest performances. These days, I simply look back and say: “Oh my gosh…that is adorable. Look at me, just getting started! If you glued macaroni and glitter around the edge of that speech, my Mom would hang it on the fridge!”

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

I see the world as a giant event. There are people who choose to be in the front row, connecting with every word and movement. Then there are people who are still ‘part of the crowd’, but prefer to be a little farther from the stage. Then there are those who sit way in the back, in the shadows. These may be people who lack the confidence to sit up front, or anywhere ‘in the light’. They may have come in late, having sat in their cars wondering if they even belonged there. They rarely make eye contact, and very likely will not raise a hand or participate. These are the people that I work the hardest to reach, every time.

Why? Because that used to be me.

My biggest message to everyone who makes the effort to attend one of my events, listen to my podcasts, watch my videos or follow me on social media: “If anything I share inspires you to think one more positive thought, to speak one more kind word (especially to that person in your mirror) or take one more positive action to create success in your life or business…then our time together is huge win.”

My aim is to help these people believe in themselves a bit more, to see their potential, and to intentionally take action to improves their lives, businesses, relationships, health, etc.

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?

As challenging as things were at first, one gift of the past couple of years has been the shift to virtual presentations versus having to be in-person. Do I think virtual will ever fully replace being live? No, but it has allowed me to expand my business reach.

My most popular product is Vision Board Mastery, an audio learning program designed to teach people how Visualization ‘really’ works (beyond ‘wishing’ with an Arts & Crafts project). As more and more live events and conferences got canceled, my team and I created a way for corporate clients to access my program on-line, and benefit from ‘team’ coaching…without having to all be together in the same room.

And my clients are loving this opportunity to connect this way.

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

This is something I learned by observing my grandfather. He never actually said the words, but he lived them:

“Leave at least one situation, every day, better than you find it.”

For him, it was as simple as seeing that a neighbor’s fence was broken. Having been a lifelong carpenter, he’d go to their house with his tape measure and pencil, head back to his workshop to make a new piece, then go fix it for them. And they might never be aware that Al Dionne had even been there.

For me: as a speaker, writer, coach, humorist, podcast host and video content producer, I go into everything I create with the same attitude. I simply want to leave as many peoples’ lives as possible, better than they were when I arrived. That means I must be consistent, and go into every situation with that outcome in mind.

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

1) Authenticity (Develop Your Unique Voice and Style)

I recently had the opportunity to speak to several groups of new and eager speakers. My opening line went like this: “Please do not ever let me hear you telling stories about starfish on a beach OR how Michael Jordan was cut from his high school basketball team! Both of these topics have been ground into the dirt.”

Develop your own unique voice and style.
Let your audience know who YOU are.
How you got this far.
What life has taught you.
Craft stories and lessons from your own experiences.

2) Watch How You Talk About Yourself

If self-deprecation was an Olympic sport, I would have taken home a pile of gold medals from my 20s into my early 40s. Under the guise of using my worst experiences in life as teaching lessons, I set myself up as a punching bag for all to see and hear. How could I not see the damage that I was causing (to myself) for so long? Because I was getting laughs, and thought that made it okay.

It’s one thing to admit that you’ve made mistakes in the past, but when you continuously label yourself an idiot, you instantly lose credibility with others…and keep yourself from growing.

I’ve often used this analogy: It’s like a circus clown who willingly takes pies to the face and falls down for the audience, all day long, to make people laugh, then walks home sad and alone in the dark when the show is over….and nobody cares (not even teh clown, at that point).

You need to see your value before anyone else can see it. Make sure you honor yourself, on- and off-stage.

3) Experience (What Life Has Taught You)

One of my favorite stories to share is how I became a speaker: In August 2003, during a particularly low point in my life, I took out my frustrations on a $3.00 bucket of golf balls at a driving range, in a thunderstorm, barefoot in the wet grass, under power lines…daring the lightning to hit me.

After sharing that incident with my brand-new life coach, he stopped laughing long enough to ask me: “Have you ever thought about being a Motivational Speaker or a Stand-Up Comedian?”

Within two weeks, I was pursuing both…and now I get to re-live my unique story, over and over.

If you are willing to look hard enough at everything you’ve gone through (or even just survived) in your life, you will find plenty of messages you can share as a speaker, writer, podcast host, video creator, etc.

Always remember this; Even though some things may seem boring or not very profound to you, they may contain the exact spark or nugget of encouragement for someone else. Become a miner and dig up your own valuable nuggets to share. Your story makes you very unique and interesting. It can make you attractive in a very magnetic way as well.

4) Know Your Target Audience (and Their Pains)

As I shared earlier with my audience of engineers, oh boy is this an important lesson! In my early days, I assumed I could speak to any audience. How wrong I was. It is very important that you understand the struggles that your audience is experiencing, and how they communicate, so that you can provide effective solutions. These days, whenever a potential client reaches out to inquire if I am available for a particular event date, my first questions include:

Who will be attending (industry, demographic information)?
What is the theme of the event?
What are the challenges that these people face?

Let the answers to these questions determine whether or not you are a good fit.

If not, but you take the stage anyway, you run the risk of uncomfortably uttering that line from the old Southwest Air commercial, mid-speech: “Wanna get away?”

5) Treat Your Speaking Like a Business (Know Your Value)

Of all the lessons that I learned early on, this one cost me the most.
I love being a speaker, I really do.
But in my early years, I was more interested in getting in front of as many people as possible, occasionally spending several hours driving to nly speak for 15 minutes, justifying it by saying: “It’s okay, I needed the practice.”

So what did I do? I took every stage that I could, whether or not people (or organizations) had any money to pay me.
And what did that tell the world? That I’d speak for free, anytime and anywhere.

That also extended into the pricing for my training and coaching programs. I was practically giving them away. And how much value do people place on things when they are free? Not much.

Over the past decade, I put the right people in place around me to make adjustments to my speaking and program pricing.

And wouldn’t you know it: as the prices increased, the right people began to see the value of what I had to offer and that, if they did the work, they could create better results in their lives and businesses by investing in me.

Bottom line: know your value, and learn (it can take time, belive me) not to flinch when people ask “How much?”

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

Number 1: Do NOT (never, never, never) follow that old advice about ‘imagining your audience in their underwear’!

I do recall saying this on-stage once, as I covered my eyes and laughed: “Someone told me to imagine you all in your underwear…and WOW, a few of you made some very ‘interesting’ choices!”

Number 2: Here is something that helped me, early on: If you have a story, a bit of advice or a lesson that could help someone else, would you regret letting them get away without telling them? I would.

And yes, a room filled with people can be very intimidating, but here is how I describe it:

Every time I am on-stage, I am having an intimate conversation with as many individuals as possible, sharing what life has taught me, personally and professionally. I connect directly with as many eyeballs as I can, making my way around the room, to create as many ‘head-nodding moments’ (if you’re a speaker, you know exactly what I mean) as possible.

I honestly am not chasing after applause. I am pursuing impact and connection.

Basically: How would you have a conversation, one-on-one with someone? Take that approach and expand it to reach a group of people, all of whom could benefit from you sharing your message all at once.

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?

For me, this speaks directly to (and from) the 4 Core Values that are written on the wall above my desk:

Build the best relationships.
Create a vivid vision with every client.
Cultivate kindness with every conversation.
Be fun as heck to work with!

I believe we can all benefit from being aware of, and living by, our core values. To know them is to put yourself on a path to creating the best version of yourself. Get enough people on their own authentic path and wow…the ripples you help to send through the world could be amazing.

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!

My favorite person in the personal development world has long been Jack Canfield. His messages, style and energy have inspired me to become the type of speaker, author and coach that I am today. I had the great joy of speaking with him for several minutes before a conference 7 years ago (during which he asked for a copy of my Vision Board Mastery program) and I would love the opportunity to continue the conversation.

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

I am…a lot, ha ha!

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Steve.Gamlin.Author.Speaker.Motivationalist
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/stevegamlin/https://www.instagram.com/stevegamlin/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/stevegamlin/

And coming soon to TikTok!

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

I am honored to have been invited to share this conversation. Thank you very much for having me!

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Steve Gamlin On The 5 Things You Need To Be A Highly Effective Public Speaker was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

The Future Is Now: Paul Coggins Of Adludio On How Their Technological Innovation Will Shake Up The Tech Scene

An Interview With Fotis Georgiadis

Be flexible in your approach to dealing with people — everyone is slightly different and you need to adapt to lead and connect.

As a part of our series about cutting edge technological breakthroughs, I had the pleasure of interviewing Dmitry Semenov, CTO.

Paul Coggins is the CEO of global technology company Adludio which has grown exponentially since its launch on the market in 2015. Its mobile advertising platform puts creativity first, and this approach has led to its expansion to several countries around the globe at a rapid pace. Paul has over 20 years as a commercial leader developing mobile startups into multi-million dollar companies. Previous to his current role, Paul was part of the management team that launched Getmein (later acquired by Ticketmaster) and led the post acquisition integration project. Subsequently, Paul launched global media platform Teads into the UK market, where he grew the business into a multi-million dollar offering, and then launched the company’s global mobile offering.

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

I’ve been working in digital media since the mid-1990s, I started when the entire digital media economy would meet up once a month in a pub in London. I was in advertising, and I felt that advertising should be targeted where consumers’ eyeballs were, which was increasingly a computer screen. Logically, that’s where their messages need to sit, as simple as following the eyeballs.

That same basic intuition could be applied to the metaverse and web 3.0 — if the eyeballs happen to be in a virtual simulated world then that’s where advertisers need to go. So for me, it was about looking at the behavior of consumers and assessing where people will be providing most of their attention.

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

One of my most enjoyable roles was launching ‘Get me In’, a ticket reseller website. It was acquired by Ticketmaster and has subsequently been shut down. The biggest issue within the ticketing world was locating the source of secondary ticket markets — everyone was convinced it was entirely down to a mass of bots. But in reality, most of these secondary tickets came from promoters looking to maximize return.

In 2007 there was a British governmental inquiry into this process, and I readied our company for the incoming wave of PR that was to come as the press looked to us for expert opinions. I was right, and we gained a swathe of opportunities, including TV appearances on the BBC covering the story.

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

Cracking the data measurement behind creative. The most valuable commodity is data, but we need AI and analysis tools that make this data useful for brands. Adludio’s niche is creative — how do you accurately measure the effectiveness of design in advertising?

Privacy is very important, you can’t just take people’s data and monetize it without any consent, so we’re anonymously measuring how users interact with advertising instead. This might be whether they swipe left or right on an ad, or how long they stay fixed interacting with it — in this way, historical engagement data can help advertisers optimize campaigns without personal information from consumers.

How do you think this might change the world?

This is going to help build a responsible and privacy-first open web in the future. We need to remember that advertising is still good and beneficial — the average person would have to pay hundreds of dollars a year to access the same content without an open web funded by advertisers. So many ecosystems and businesses have been created by this business model and if we can maintain these benefits while providing consumers with rights over privacy, we are building a positive vision for everyone.

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

AI is a frequently miss-used and broad term that generally refers to automated digital processes. This is distinct from the literal translation of Artificial Intelligence which many people rightfully view as comparable to human thinking. The type of ‘AI’ which is most prominent now cannot do anything more than efficiently automate niche tasks at scale — it’s about fixing smaller problems such as, how do we improve the creativity in advertising? How do we make cars safer? How do we increase food supplies? These are very different from the dystopian AI that can think and solve problems that are wide-ranging. If such technology will ever exist, we’re a long way off.

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

For me, there wasn’t a specific tipping point. Our business has been an evolution in technology and strategy. We didn’t wake up one morning and develop our technology, instead, we have adapted to changing markets and hardware, developing a technology that continually improves. It’s about understanding the market dynamics and ensuring your product survives.

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

In my mind, this is a natural progression and links back to my point about our technology being a result of evolution. We shouldn’t overstate the importance of our technology beyond its specific functionality, but within its industry and niche, it’s helping provide advertisers, brands, and consumers with the means to operate in the next iteration of the open web.

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

We are developing innovative marketing strategies…as a business! We believe that with optimized creative and engagement built into advertising, consumers respond at a greatly improved rate. Our business is focused on providing brands with the most innovative marketing solutions.

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 used to work for Viz Comic, John Brown from John Brown publishing led that publication. I learned there how valuable a good working culture was in business — people understood and got along with each other, developing lifelong friendships. It wasn’t my first job, but it was the first that I took such a heightened level of enjoyment. I realized then that work didn’t have to be boring and I have tried to maintain this ethos in my own business today.

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

One of the biggest shifts in the last 15 years is ESG — environment, social governance. While we still have a lot to do in that area, every company, from the smallest startup to the largest scale-up, needs to take this seriously. You need a diverse workforce, you need a workforce focused on being environmentally conscious and ethical, and a business that instills these values at every level of the company. I have made sure these values are core to my business.

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

1. Don’t be afraid to evolve the business model.
2. You will most likely fail more than you’ll succeed.
3. It’s pivotal to hire better than you and build a great team.
4. Be flexible in your approach to dealing with people — everyone is slightly different and you need to adapt to lead and connect.
5. Learn how to raise money — I had to learn that on the job and I wasted a long time trying to get my head around it.

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?

I really like the idea of a universal basic income — if I were elected, I would push this policy forward. This would be used as a means of leveling up the lower-income communities and close the gap with the wealthiest.

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

“Treat others as you want to be treated yourself”

Some very well known VCs read this column. If you had 60 seconds to make a pitch to a VC, what would you say?

Ad tech is cyclical, it has its ups and downs. Currently, the biggest concern is that Google and Facebook have won but I don’t believe this is the case. Advertising is always evolving and always will — there will be new platforms emerging and old platforms dying. As a VC, you should be looking 5 or 10 years into the future, ad tech will continue to adapt and provide huge returns to investors.

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

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

Meet The Disruptors: Jake Rothstein Of UpsideHōM On The Five Things You Need To Shake Up Your Industry

An Interview With Fotis Georgiadis

Don’t manage the way you want to be managed; learn what makes your team members tick, what motivates them, and what challenges them.

As a part of our series about business leaders who are shaking things up in their industry, I had the pleasure of interviewing Jake Rothstein, CEO and Co-Founder of UpsideHōM.

Jake Rothstein serves as CEO of UpsideHōM, whose mission is to enhance the quality of life for older adults everywhere. UpsideHōM is the first and only fully managed, shared living option for older adults, providing a turn-key, affordable and appealing alternative to traditional senior living. Jake also previously co-founded Papa based on experiences with his own grandfather (who he called Papa).

With a background in technology sales, operations and management, Jake has experience building and running successful, international teams.

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?

Before starting UpsideHōM, I co-founded Papa — a company that pairs older adults and families with “Papa Pals” for companionship and assistance with everyday tasks. I launched Papa with my cousin after I faced these challenges with my own grandfather. Witnessing the wide-spread nature of loneliness, isolation and unaffordable housing options for older adults, I was inspired to conceptualize the idea for Papa — and eventually UpsideHōM with co-founder Peter Badgley.

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

Our business model itself is disruptive as we’re utilizing existing non-senior living real estate to create alternative options for independent older adults. By doing this, we have been able to create intergenerational communities and connections, which we’ve seen support longevity and wellness.

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 starting UpsideHōM, we initially thought that we should focus on single-family homes. It was a big challenge because consistency in quality was hard to come by in the single-family home market. We learned that you can’t make assumptions about what people may want; you need to put yourself out there in the market and learn then iterate based on those learnings.

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

One of my former bosses, a sales leader, has made a tremendous impact on my career. He really helped me learn how to scale teams, build organizations, and manage people. Most importantly, he taught me that you cannot manage people the way you want to be managed. You need to manage them the way they need to be managed and come to understand their motivations and work style to manage them effectively.

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?

Unfortunately, disruption means displacement in many cases. Displacement can be a negative for some people, but with any disruption there are winners and losers. As it pertains to UpsideHōM, we don’t see ourselves as disrupting the market but more so additive. We’re creating a new segment rather than disrupting the existing one. We’re disrupting the space while growing the market rather than trying to forcefully carve out a space for ourselves. The best businesses are the ones that bake a new pie rather than steal someone else’s piece.

Can you share five of the best words of advice you’ve gotten along your journey?

• Persistence is key when you’re trying to build something new. Those who persist are going to be able to face the obstacles that inevitably pop up along the way.
• Treat everyone like they’re your own parents or grandparents and lead with empathy. Good things will come when you treat your customers well.
• The road to success is not a straight line. You have to paint a number of paths to success; don’t ever limit yourself to just one.
• Don’t make assumptions without putting into practice first.
• Don’t manage the way you want to be managed; learn what makes your team members tick, what motivates them, and what challenges them.

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

Eventually, we want to take UpsideHōM internationally as we’re seeing this demographic face the same challenges around the world. Before doing so, we’re tackling the U.S. and plan to expand into 100 new markets by the end of the 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?

The Lean Startup by Eric Ries. It changes your thinking on how to build a company. Don’t overbuild; the key is to test and iterate so that you don’t veer off too far in one direction before you know what you’re building and how you should be building it to succeed.

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

Be a good person before anything. By simply being a good person, you can earn people’s trust, which is critical to building relationships — personally and professionally.

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 inspire people to improve the life of older adults everywhere. If we’re lucky, we’re all going to be older adults someday and we should work to build and improve options for the lifestyle that we hope to one day live.

How can our readers follow you online?

You can check us out at www.upsidehom.com or on social media — including Instagram, Facebook and LinkedIn.

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

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

Meet The Disruptors: Cassandra Y Branch Of Lisa’s Believe Ministries On The Five Things You Need To Shake Up Your Industry

An Interview With Fotis Georgiadis

Don’t be afraid of the pull you feel inside of you to go in a different direction that feels uncomfortable.

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

Cassandra Y. Branch is the founder & Leader at Lisa’s Believe Ministries. A Personal Development Coaching & Consulting Ministry designed to lift women to believe in their self-worth and use their unique abilities to bring their dreams to life.

Cassandra believes that there is always another path to success and is passionate about encouraging women to grow with Jesus beyond pain into a Rising Women of Faith.

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?

Well, I started mentoring in the late 90’s teenage girls who needed a safe outlet through a mentoring program and soon realized that I was also mentoring their single mothers who just needed someone to believe in them and point them in the right direction with a listening ear.

While operating my Early Childhood Program and providing valuable parenting education, I often found clients in my office wanting to talk and in search of a listening ear. In all this, I saw how the Power of conversation built a community for families to create a structure for success.

I felt an urge to help more, but I didn’t know exactly what this could look like. Around 2010 I saw a need for teen foster parents and became a single foster mama, mainly teen girls, but I also fostered young children, tweens, and teen moms. I connected with several of the biological parents. I witnessed a need for parenting coaching, and I thought providing parenting training was my path with my sympathetic heart.

Beginning in 2016, I launched Lisa’s Believe Ministries, particularly for mentoring and parenting training. After a few years, I still had a need to build something outside of parenting training but did not know how to identify my true purpose. I was everywhere trying to figure out what am I supposed to be doing that will bring me more inner peace. How can I make an impact and stay original to myself? It was not until I was willing to take the lesson of my own life experiences and open to the idea that my voice was needed that I began to walk a new path. I had to develop my mindset to recognize that my story had value, not shame. My journey is what has made me who I am today.

Today, Lisa’s Believe Ministries has manifested into a personal development ministry that focuses on the mind, body, and spirit. This is accomplished through personalized 1:1 coaching and through my Rising Woman Programs.

Helping others bounce back from setbacks and see their transformation is what drives my success!

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

It’s kind of interesting; I thought hiding my personal story would work best for me, but that did not work! But what did work was looking back at my past to gain wisdom from it. This helped me to take action toward my own success.

At this point, I feel people are struggling with their own life experiences. And they are running from something or to something.

The message behind my coaching programs is that I believe in building on what’s already in you. For my clients to be enlightened and have freedom by showing them what is possible by looking at life experiences as something that builds up rather than down. Rather than disconnect from the truth, I believe in delving into truth, so that truth can no longer be a distraction to see success; however success may look to you. My goal is to deliver convenient services that support you mentally, physically, and spiritually to live a life that is genuinely yours.

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

OH YES, I have a couple of funny mistakes that come to mind, but one funny mistake I made years ago, was when I was trying to get used to video chatting platforms. I propped my phone to stand up to take an important conference call from my bathroom. In doing so, I thought I had pushed talk (audio only), maybe not, and was actually on video. The good news is that I was fully dressed, but I was doing my hair, and we all know how a girl’s countertop looks when she is getting ready! I didn’t realize that I was on video mode being watched applying gel and whatever else to my hair until I looked again! Needless to say, we all got a good laugh, but I’ve been cautious with my phone buttons after that. Besides, there have been some significant improvements with our smart devices, so no worries, I haven’t made that mistake again!

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?

There have been so many people in my life who have fed into me, especially my brothers. Seeing their grit and their resilience keeps me focused. Because of them, I want to be more and do more. I have six brothers (I’m the only girl)! They make me proud, and I want to make them proud!

Outside of family, I am a huge fan of @tamronhall and look up to her. I admire her boldness and how she believes in herself through all her setbacks! She continues to keep at it strong and is now an Emmy Award-Winning Journalist and has her own talk show! She never gave up. I am a #tamfam because I see a female leader pushing through and showing up with confidence and keeping it real! When I see her, I see me.

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

A disruption is not always good, but we should always expect one.

Disrupting an industry is like a calm wind that comes at the right time. Think about how Airbnb showed up. Although the hotel industry slowly started realizing the disruption the consumers saw the beauty of the disruption immediately and wanted more!

The breeze feels good, and everyone talks about how good the breeze feels up against the heat. Even When you can’t feel the wind blowing, you know it’s still there because as you look up, you can see the branches on the tree gently swaying. Every time it blows, it feels a bit different, leaving you anticipating feeling the wind blowing again. Disrupting an industry is about providing convenience. Disruption is flexible, persistent, can make changes quickly, and is open to innovation. Disruption feels good; it adds real value and forces people to stop and look up, anticipating what will happen next. Disruption is not disrespectful. It does not show up with an intention to destroy everything in its path.

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. Don’t deny what makes you the individual that you are.

It took me years to accept my resilience as part of my story. I saw my story as a shameful one. I didn’t want the world to know my personal history; who does, right? People who know your journey can relate and connect with you authentically.

2. You have a choice; to either ignore your truth and become something you are not, or decide what makes you the individual you are, including the good and the bad.

Hiding your truth is like serving a wonderful store-bought meal to friends. Dressed up with added toppings or extra ingredients while proudly taking the credit for the whole meal creation. You feel great receiving compliments until your friend asks you for the recipe. The problem is you only have the dressing-up portion of the ingredients. The same thing about your story; you feel great about leaving out the not-so-good stuff until you realize there is no true message behind your why.

3. Don’t compete but differentiate yourself from your competitors.

We live in a time when being an influencer is open to anyone. No matter what social media platform you turn to, you see people from all over doing their thing, and that thing may just be your thing. Instead of focusing on how to compete, your focus should be on how you can stand out and the primary value that you provide to your clients.

4. Don’t be afraid of the pull you feel inside of you to go in a different direction that feels uncomfortable.

I’ve always known that I was meant for something much bigger than I could imagine. Still, I was afraid and uncomfortable with the direction I was being pulled into. There is no reason to be scared when God gives you repetitive messages that align with His words. Feeling uncomfortable is part of the journey. I think God shakes us up to wake us up.

5. REST!

Have a plan for recharging to avoid major burnout. Burnout is real, and it does not feel good. Resting for me includes a sleep routine, daily walks, short and long breaks throughout my day, time for friends and family, saying no, letting go, meditation & time with God, music, being present, laughing daily, and being grateful every day.

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

Shaking things up is a requirement! I’m anticipating what my clients will need in the future, so I’m working on new distribution methods. I love to write, so perhaps a best-selling Christian Book, I don’t know, you’ll just need to stay tuned!

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

Clint Smith’s TED Talk “The Danger of Silence” really resonates with me. I learned some deep stuff about myself in 4:23 minutes and thought, WOW, I must do better!

I have kept silent when I should have spoken but didn’t dare because I was scared or didn’t want to lose a client or friend. Kept silent because I did not want to be left out. I struggled with my silence because I feared the world would make fun of me if I opened my mouth. Now, if I can use my voice to make a change, save a soul, warm a heart, I do it because I am better!

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

One of my favorite quotes by Ruby Dee goes like this:

“The Divine Impulse-It’s always safe to follow it. We’ve got to trust it and go wherever it takes us. Especially women”.

I love Ruby Dee and her wisdom! She reminds me that when the direction feels uncomfortable, know that it’s going to be alright. That I can trust my inner spirit. I can believe in the woman I was created to be and never give up on believing in the impossible.

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

If I could inspire a movement, it would be to help children (who are able) to be reunited with their families.

There is over 400,000 foster youth nationwide. This number is enormous, and everyone should be offended by this. These 400,00 plus children are our future! There needs to be more funding state-wide to provide families with resources, training, and mentorship. We should be more concerned about getting to the root of the cause, providing services and support that will strengthen families and programs that keep children out of the foster care system.

How can our readers follow you online?

https://www.facebook.com/cassandraybranch (for program updates, & inspiration).

https://www.facebook.com/groups/risingwomenoffaith (private FB Group for connection & support).

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC4q5wGT5HGsXussN6TiIh0g

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

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Meet The Disruptors: Cassandra Y Branch On The Five Things You Need To was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

An Interview With Fotis Georgiadis

Set out to achieve large audacious goals and work with your team as the experts they are to break down the steps to achieve those goals into quarterly, monthly, and weekly plans. I think this is particularly important in an increasing remote labor environment. The more aligned we are on the task at hand, the more supported each of us will feel and the more accountability you can expect from your team.

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

Eddie Simeón grew up in a multicultural family in Oakland, California. Throughout childhood, connecting to his roots meant cooking and eating foods from both his Mexican and Filipino heritage. So it made sense that he got his start at one of the Bay Area’s trendiest fine dining establishments, À Côté; not in the kitchen, but behind the bar as a barback. It was there at the green age of eighteen that he was first introduced to the delightfully bubbly and bracing Bitters & Soda that he is best known for today.

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?

Absolutely. It’s a pleasure to be here. I’m the CMO and a co-founder of Hella Cocktail Co. We make botanically inspired mixers and beverages. Before starting the company, I was on a commercial career track developing websites for large media companies like MTV, ADWEEK and Martha Stewart. And before that I was an audio engineer working in Los Angeles. Interestingly, I can draw a through line between all three chapters: the intersection of business and creativity.

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?

Sure! Since Hella’s inception, we’ve seen partnerships as fundamental to our growth. And in our 10-years of business, we’ve had some amazing partnerships. But one sticks out as the most interested and, honestly, surreal. My partners, Jomaree, Tobin, and I were once cast to feature in ads for a global Gin brand along with a handful of other small businesses. Additionally, I guess to ensure that everyone on camera looked good, they had a bunch of professional models on set. It was super exciting to participate in the professional photoshoot but in the end most of the ads just had models! One shot, however, featured me prominently locking eye with one of the models. What’s not obvious in the picture is that the model was so much taller than me that they had me sitting on a booster seat! That was fun. And it was funny/interesting/strange to see my mug plastered across billboards for a few months throughout NYC.

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?

Malcom Gladwell’s quote, “Who we are cannot be separated from where we’re from,” gains more and more relevance for me personally each year. As the grandchild of immigrants, I have inherited a certain instinct to assimilate. But, as the quote would suggest, I don’t feel I could live my values completely–personally or professionally–without remaining connected to my heritage and my history. That’s why I’m so proud of the brand we’ve built at Hella Cocktail Co. Our mission is to inspire confidence so that people can bring their most authentic self to the celebration. And for many Americans, that means bringing the unique tastes of your culture into the celebration too.

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?

Without a doubt I would not be where I am today without the support and encouragement from my wife, Rebecca. I jokingly call her my biggest investor, but she truly has enabled me to focus on my business for the past ten years and never let me lose sight of the true meaning of success: to remain fulfilled in my work and to keep learning.

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

While Hella Cocktail Co. is the only minority-led beverage company for sale in all fifty states, I’ve learned what makes us truly unique in the beverage world is our focus on profitable growth. Launching a beverage brand is extremely capital intensive. As such, many new entrants in the space start by raising a lot of capital from investors and spend down on that in order to grow quickly in time to raise the next round of financing. Lately, I’ve heard this approach described as the boom bust cycle.

Hella Cocktail Co. never had the vision– or the opportunity–to run our business this way. Instead, we took the slow and profitable road. For the past decade, Inventory, Marketing, Operations have mostly been funded by Sales. This cashflow approach combined with our inclusive message is what makes us so unique in the beverage business.

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

While we’re always looking to the future, the latest investor announcement with Uncle Nearest is focused completely on increasing and accelerating sales of our existing product portfolio. One exciting project slated to go live in the third quarter is a new Pop-up event in Brooklyn! There you will be able to learn about the craft of Bitters and how it connects to the modern cocktail culture.

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

Doing good with our success is a priority for the business and for each of us as individuals. In order to solidify a culture of doing good, we are committed to giving 1% of our Time, Talent, and Treasure to social causes focused primarily on the issue of Voting. Voting is the keystone of our American Democracy and we believe the more people we can influence to be informed and vote the better this world will be.

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.

Increased diversity absolutely helps the bottom line. Here are five examples of how Hella Cocktail Co.’s approach to diversity has made an impact in our business.

1. Diversity amongst the founding team has led to amazing partnership opportunities. From American Express to Diageo, partners understand that Hella’s story of diversity and inclusion resonates with a broad audience of consumers. The results have, honestly, been beyond our wildest dreams. Jomaree was featured nationally in an American Express television commercial that brought massive referral traffic to our website. And the entire team was present in Tanqueray billboards throughout NYC. I attribute this attraction from partnerships in large part to our interesting and diverse team.
2. Often the largest company have government commitments to award a certain percentage of contracts to certified diverse business, such as Minority Business Enterprises and Female-Led businesses. So if you goal is to land a very large account like an airline, sports stadium, or distributor always check to see if they have a dedicated diversity team and what their goals are. In the past, Hella has been told that if our bid was tied in quality and price with a competitor that our MBE status would give us the edge.
3. Diversity as a strength in leadership builds loyalty among a diverse staff and broadens your talent pool. At one point prior to the pandemic, Hella Cocktail Co. had 15+ brand ambassadors in-house. Their job was to facilitate retail sampling events in key retail accounts like Total Wine & More and Whole Foods. The fact that the Hella executive team is diverse led to increased pride and confidence in the team of brand ambassadors who were also from all walks of life. In turn, shoppers responded well to the enthusiastic and confident connection to the diversity of the founders.
4. Diversity allows a brand to multiply its efforts in marketing. While Hella Cocktail Co. has a single mission, because the team is make of a multitude of cultures we can retell our story through each unique perspective. This approach increases the volume of content we can create with less effort while remaining on brand.
5. Investing in Representation puts your brand and company-culture on the right side of history. There are so many forces in America today that are pulling us apart. I, for one, as a busines leader choose to build a company with an inclusive narrative intended to bring people closer together again. If entrepreneurs only capitalize on a homogeneous cultural story, we run the risk of alienating ourselves further. The more cooperative and connected we are, the more we can prosper together in an economy built to elevate more people from all American backgrounds.

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

Make 1:1 facetime (virtual or in-person) a priority. Create a process where each employee has weekly 1:1 check-ins with their boss. Sometime these sessions will have an agenda related to performance but it’s just as important to remain available for more casual/personal conversation. The latter often reveals some of the greatest insights.

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

Set out to achieve large audacious goals and work with your team as the experts they are to break down the steps to achieve those goals into quarterly, monthly, and weekly plans. I think this is particularly important in an increasing remote labor environment. The more aligned we are on the task at hand, the more supported each of us will feel and the more accountability you can expect from your team.

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 🙂

Ever since its inception I’ve been very interested in the B-Corp model. And since meeting with other founders has always been my preferred method to learn what to do with my own business, I’d say breakfast or lunch with the likes of Mark Cuban or Blake Mycoskie would be a huge honor.

How can our readers further follow your work online?

Please follow the brand on Instagram @hellacocktailco.

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

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Eddie Simeón Of Hella Cocktail Co: How Diversity Can Increase a Company’s Bottom Line was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Meet The Disruptors: Dan Bernier Of Brokerfied On The Five Things You Need To Shake Up Your Industry

An Interview With Fotis Georgiadis

Culture eats strategy for breakfast. We revert back to our cultural frames of reference whenever there is an opportunity, so set up the best culture from the outset so that your strategy is an expression of your culture — not in conflict with it.

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

Dan Bernier is a commercial real estate veteran whose extensive experience as a broker has provided valuable insights on the shortcomings of the industry. He founded Brokerfied to address the needs of mom-and-pop CRE owners who have faced immense hurdles in listing and marketing their properties. Dan envisions run-down, vacant storefronts coming back to life, leading to bustling activity that will revitalize businesses and neighborhoods.

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 ran a contemporary art gallery for about 10 years which was great experience that taught me valuable lessons on commercial real estate from the perspective of a tenant. Art galleries are always looking for the most space at the best price in the right neighborhood to reach their audience, and once they move in, they can transform entire neighborhoods. I watched what happened in Miami’s Wynwood, as well as Chelsea and the Meatpacking District in New York, and I was thrilled about the potential for a single commercial space to elevate its community.

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

Brokerfied helps commercial landlords sell and lease their properties without a broker. We’re the first company to break the traditional paradigm that one must pay a big commission to make their deal happen.

In its current state, the commercial real estate market is pay-to-play — with an emphasis on “pay.” Thousands and thousands of landlords and potential investors can’t even access the market without paying huge, often unaffordable brokerage fees. Brokerfied will allow this neglected group to essentially list and rent out or sell their spaces without the middleman, leveling the playing field between the CRE giants and the mom-and-pop landlords, tenants, and investors. In summary, Brokerfied will improve access, open up the market, and simplify the process from end to end.

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

When I first started this disruptive project, I ended up disrupting my own sleep schedule. I was always working on or thinking about Brokerfied, and I used to joke that it felt like I was becoming the app itself. But quickly, I learned this was a big mistake — to avoid burnout, I needed to hone this passion while also prioritizing my own wellbeing. First, as we all know, sleep is necessary to perform well in anything. And second, work-life balance is essential for success. A successful lifestyle begins with investing in all aspects of one’s health — mental, physical, and financial. When one of these starts to deteriorate, the rest start to fall as well. So, get your sleep! Everything else functions a little bit better with some good hours of rest.

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?

Of course, I have to credit my faithful colleagues, family, and friends that have continuously supported all of my creative ventures. Beyond that, when I think of one individual who has always inspired me to work hard and smart, I think of architect Robert Kennard, a fellow Angeleno.

While I come from the perspective of a broker, I have always had a unique appreciation for the creative minds behind the spaces we share with our communities. Kennard revolutionized the architecture of our public spaces in a way that had never been seen before, all while maintaining an authentic ethos and a goal to inspire future generations. Each project I have worked on, including Brokerfied, has come from my intention to improve the world. Kennard has inspired me to lead initiatives that uplift communities, expand opportunities, and alleviate some of the inequities running rampant throughout our communities. Since I can have the greatest impact on the real estate space — my area of expertise — I see Brokerfied as a vehicle for improving socio-economic conditions for individuals that have been sidelined for far too long.

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 believe it comes down to the purpose and effects of the disruption. While I firmly believe in innovation and progress, there is also an argument for the saying: “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.” In other words, if there is a need for a disruption — whether it’s some form of injustice caused by the current situation, or a system working against its original intention — and the disruption intends to fix these issues, then the phrase “disrupting an industry” is positive. Amazon, travel websites, and other direct-to-consumer platforms have positively disrupted industries by cutting out the middlemen.

The commercial real estate industry needs to be disrupted for both of those reasons. The broker-commission system works well for high-value properties and high-rent leases, but there are thousands of landlords with properties that will never be considered “valuable” enough to get the attention of the establishment.

Like the examples listed earlier, Brokerfied will positively disrupt the CRE industry by providing a direct-to-consumer service for landlords, lessees, renters, buyers, and investors of all sizes to access and participate in the market.

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

I strongly believe in hiring the right people for the job and focusing on their strengths instead of avoiding weaknesses. If you need a great illustrator, and you find an amazing one, but their communications skills aren’t so strong, don’t pick a more mediocre talent who is a better communicator.

Culture eats strategy for breakfast. We revert back to our cultural frames of reference whenever there is an opportunity, so set up the best culture from the outset so that your strategy is an expression of your culture — not in conflict with it.

Our culture is centered on service. If we can help our customers, we’ll be ok. We provide a needed service and add value to our customers. As long as we can find our customers and explain our value, we’ll thrive.

Do what’s in front of you. It’s so easy to get caught up in what happens next that we can lose sight of what happens now. This advice is related to the next piece of wisdom-

Do the work and stay out of the results. We aren’t in charge of the results. We can only control our attention and efforts. Work on what you can do right now. Try to make good decisions. Work hard. Have faith.

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

We’re working on providing even more services to our customers on a flat-fee basis. Our goal is to be responsive to our customer’s needs so, as our client base grows and we receive more feedback, we’ll add more tools.

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?

“Give and Take” by Adam Grant is a book I would recommend to all of your readers. Adam is an exceptional writer that redefines what it means to be “successful” and how to achieve that success. It centers around the idea that helping others can drive our own success, which I find fascinating and true as I reflect on my career. Grant also demonstrates power of giving and selflessness, including unconventional ways to uplift those around you and build a supportive network. The ideas laid out in this book were part of the many inspirations that went into starting Brokerfied.

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

Over the years, I have been lucky enough to receive plenty of helpful advice from many leaders in the industry. But every time I feel stuck, especially in work, I come back to a simple quote by Thomas Edison “to invent, you need a good imagination and a pile of junk.” From my first project — turning a derelict building into one of Los Angeles’ most visited galleries — to Brokerfied, every project has been born from a mere vision. I have learned that no matter how humble the beginning, there is always possibility of greatness. I have dedicated my life to seeing the beauty in every project’s potential, and that requires patience and passion.

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. 🙂

As a real estate crisis sweeps the nation and we enter what looks like a recession, thousands of properties across America lay vacant, landlords are unable to list their properties, and potential tenants and investors face tremendous difficulty in finding properties that meet their needs. Meanwhile, the big-name brokers and property owners are locking out competition and reaping the rewards of a closed market.

I sincerely believe Brokerfied is the antidote to this systemic issue. I believe this platform will inspire a movement that will benefit millions — a Renaissance of commercial real estate that simplifies the process, expands access, and rewards individuals evenly and accurately across every point of the market. The potential is here — we just need to tap into it.

How can our readers follow you online?

Your readers can follow Brokerfied’s journey and learn more at www.brokerfied.com

And please feel free to follow me on Linkedin at https://www.linkedin.com/in/dan-bernier-89b01b6/

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

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

An Interview With Fotis Georgiadis

Begin and end your day with a purposeful routine. Routines help give people a sense of stability and structure, which becomes more important during retirement.

As a part of my series about the “5 Things You Should Do to Optimize Your Wellness After Retirement” I had the pleasure of interviewing Alexander Moore.

Alexander (Alex) Moore is the CEO & Co-Founder of Yümicare (you-me care), a Jacksonville-based digital marketplace which specializes in helping seniors and their families find trained local caregivers. He has 20+ years of healthcare system experience, working for local organizations like Florida Blue health solutions, Guidewell Connect and Brooks Rehabilitation. Alex received his master’s degree from the University of North Florida in healthcare administration & management, and he’s a Certified Aging-in-Place Specialist (CAPS). He has also volunteered with the Society for Healthcare Strategy & Market Development (SHSMD) for over eight years.

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

According to AARP, 80% of people prefer to avoid facilities and age comfortably in their home. But every day in the U.S. 10,000 people turn 65, which will more than double over the next several decades to top 88M people and represent over 20% of the population by 2050. More people than ever will need help in their home.

I witnessed this struggle firsthand when I saw my parents trying to find a private caregiver for my 95 year old grandmother a few years ago. They couldn’t find a caregiving option they were happy with so brought her to live with them. So, the idea for Yümicare was born. I wanted to create a platform that could offer a truly differentiated experience for both caregivers and families.

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

We recently learned one of our customers, Dores, saw her neurology / memory scores improve after spending time with her caregiver, Alfreda. Importantly, Yümicare caregivers are trained to prioritize independence and help seniors do tasks together if they can vs. for them, which can help with cognitive function. You can see Dores and Alfreda’s story here.

Can you share a story with us about the most humorous mistake you made when you were first starting? What lesson or take-away did you learn from that?

Years ago I reached out to a friend who did a lot of work for physician lobbying. I was interested in learning more about Direct Primary Care. He was gracious enough to introduce me to a prominent name in the DPC field. We arranged to have a call on a Saturday morning. The only problem was, it was the same Saturday that my wife was running her very first half marathon. I was in charge of watching the children while she ran the race. In all of the chaos I missed the call. It was not a good feeling. Since that time no matter who it is, I always try to be on time. It’s a matter of respect.

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 so many people who have helped me become who I am today, but the person who stands out the most is my wife. She’s one of those people who truly does it all. She’s at the top of her game in her career, makes our house a home, and ensures that we have stability in our lives. If you look at how much work goes into a startup, her career, and raising our two children — our lives should be chaotic, but she truly brings balance to our home. She supports me, inspires me, and is always there to provide an objective opinion on things. I absolutely would not be as successful as I am today without her.

What advice would you suggest to your colleagues in your industry to thrive and avoid burnout?

I’m an avid runner, and some days it’s hard to find the motivation to get out and hit the streets. But if you’re committed, you do it anyway. you just take one foot and put it in front of the other.

Similar to running a startup, it’s not about how fast you go or how you feel, but about putting work in consistently. Doing something challenging takes time and persistence, and it becomes infinitely worth it if you keep going despite the hardship, and eventually you will get there. It’s a marathon.

What advice would you give to other leaders about how to create a fantastic work culture?

Give your employees flexibility if you can, and it will help retention.

For example, at Yümicare we offer caregivers a gig-based community that allows them to book appointments in close proximity and on their own time. Traditional caregivers are contracted out to seniors for a minimum of about 8 hours, and some caregivers have to drive long distances to and from appointments. But we try to make smart matches between our caregivers and seniors so it’s convenient for both parties. We also match our clients and caregivers so they can build a relationship and be paired on a routine basis vs. the traditional model where a senior may be paired with a different caregiver each time.

Our caregivers also earn 60% more than market doing what they love and get paid immediately vs. the traditional model of every two weeks.

The industry standard caregiver retention rate is 31%, but Yümicare’s is 77% and growing. It seems we’re doing something right!

From your point of view or experience, what are a few of the reasons that retirement can reduce one’s health?

Retirement is a total shift in mindset. People go from working 40+ hours a week and raising a family to a lack of daily structure and the sense that friends and family members are “moving on” without them almost overnight. A few reasons why people struggle during retirement:

1. Loneliness. According to the CDC, 1 in 4 seniors over the age of 65 are considered to be socially isolated, a term coined before that of COVID-era social distancing. Social isolation (just as with social distancing) increases the risk of disordered sleep, intrusive thoughts, and a variety of other mental and physical conditions.
2. The word, retirement. I know this might sound confusing at first, but many people miss the “hustle and bustle” and sense of accomplishment that comes with working in a traditional work environment. Retirement often means elderly people find themselves living an increasingly sedentary lifestyle, which can double the risk of cardiovascular diseases, obesity, and diabetes.
3. Depression. About 1 in 4 retirees are depressed, according to a 2020 study by PMC. The lack of structure people face during retirement can lead to intense feelings of resentment, hopelessness, and confusion as seniors struggle to navigate new lifestyles, friends, and families.

Can you share with our readers 5 things that one should do to optimize mental or physical wellness after retirement? Please share a story or an example for each.

There are so many ways to create a fun and purposeful retirement. To optimize mental and physical health during retirement, I recommend you:

1. Make a plan. Set goals on what you want out of retirement and how you want to maximize your golden years. Having a good attitude about what it means to grow older can unlock your potential to grow and learn during the latter part of your life. Becca Levy, a professor at the Yale School of Public Health, even found that a good attitude about aging could extend one’s lifespan by 7.5 years.
2. Begin and end your day with a purposeful routine. Routines help give people a sense of stability and structure, which becomes more important during retirement.
3. Plan for 7–8 hours of sleep. Sleep is very important, and it can be easy during retirement to fall into the trap of staying up late because you don’t have work in the morning. However, a disruptive sleep schedule can lead to insomnia and a host of downstream health issues.
4. Make a plan to do things with other people several times a week. Humans are inherently social creatures, and socialization has innumerable benefits from increased cognitive skills to a greater sense of well-being. As we age, mobility, transportation, and health issues can impact our ability to socialize. Using third-party apps like FaceTime and Zoom or planning in-person events ahead of time can help combat these barriers to social interaction.
5. Exercise daily. According to the CDC, adults need at least 150 minutes of moderate activity each week, and those aged 65 years or older should also introduce activities to improve balance. By doing so, you can help reduce chronic conditions such as arthritis and improve flexibility and joint mobility.

In your experience, what are 3 or 4 things that people wish someone told them before they retired?

We often don’t recognize that retirement lasts for around 20 years on average. These are transformative years where we can learn new things, try different hobbies, and enrich relationships with family and friends. Before going into retirement, I wish people knew:

1. Retirement isn’t the end. Due to medical technology and increased quality of living, the life expectancy at 65 is now 19.6 years, according to the CDC. Retirement can feel like the end of a career journey for many, and it’s daunting to enter a new phase of life without direction, routine, or the traditional “9–5” feel. So, it’s important to.

view retirement as the start of a new chapter — instead of the close of another. These are years that you can accomplish so much in, and it’s important to view them as such.

2. It is okay to ask for help. The concept of getting support from others often comes with a negative connotation. But it’s easy to forget we are all interdependent, and we all need support. Accepting assistance as we age presents challenges for both the aging person and their support system. According to Dr. Bill Thomas, a physician, professor, entrepreneur, playwright, and performer whose work explores the terrain of human aging, it’s time to shift the mindset from a deteriorating and declining view to one of support and reverence for an aging population.

3. Find support that fits your unique needs. Caregiving is not a one size fits all solution. While some retirees might need caregivers to help buy groceries, others might want a companion or someone to help them with daily exercises. At Yümicare, we match caregivers with retirees based on their unique needs. An Aging in Place Specialist helps you build a detailed profile, then the Yümicare algorithm matches you to a caregiver by proximity, availability, specialization and psychosocial characteristics.

Is there a particular book that made a significant impact on you? Can you share a story?

I love adventure stories, especially ones from the mid to early 1900s Explorers Club. Thor Heyerdahl, Sir Edmund Hillary, and Ernest Shackleton had a huge influence on me growing up. The courage it took for them to explore the unknown is unimaginable.

Thor Heyerdahl was a member of a small WWI veterans group who built a raft and sailed from the South American coast all the way to Tahiti with nothing more than a radio and a video camera. Sir Edmund Hillary and his Sherpa Tenzing Norgay were the first duo to summit Everest in 1953. However, my favorite adventure story was always that of Ernest Shackleton. Shackleton’s account of his ill-fated Antarctic expedition details true leadership and grit after he was forced to lead his crew through a 600-mile trek to safe land after his ship was crushed by ice. Shackleton was able to generate hope when there should have been none.

I use lessons from these stories — around courage, resilience and resourcefulness — every day of my life.

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

I would love to see more families and seniors find safety, security, and general help through our platform. I know first-hand how difficult it can be to watch a loved one get older and start to struggle. My mission is to help as many people as possible with our services and hopefully grow to different parts of the country where we can do even more good.

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

I avoided reading Dale Carnegie’s How to Win Friends and Influence People for the longest time. Before I picked it up, it seemed like a trite book filled with cute witticisms. But I finally did give it a try, and it really changed me. The quote that stands out to me the most is, “be hearty in your approbation and lavish in your praise, and people will cherish your words and repeat them for a lifetime.” Carnegie knew that abilities and motivation “wither” under criticism and blossom under praise. I took that to heart and keep it with me every day, utilizing positive reinforcement and uplifting messages with my team.

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 if we tag them 🙂

I would get a kick out of eating lunch with Chris Voss, author of Never Split the Difference: Negotiating As If Your Life Depended. I found his book to be so relevant in every aspect of my life. From parenting, to marriage, to owning my own business — it’s all a negotiation.

What is the best way our readers can follow you on social media?

Readers can learn more about Yümicare at www.yumicare.com, as well as on our Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, and YouTube.

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

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Alexander Moore Of Yümicare On 5 Things You Should Do To Optimize Wellness After Retirement was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Meet The Disruptors: Travis Goad Of Pelorus Equity Group On The Five Things You Need To Shake Up Your Industry

An Interview With Fotis Georgiadis

Stay curious and keep learning. It’s important not to be complacent in your career journey. You should always be pushing to learn more and grow your skill sets to better understand your industry and opportunities within it.

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

Travis Goad brings more than a decade of experience in commercial real estate (CRE) investing to his role as Managing Partner at Pelorus Equity Group. His background in equity investment spans across all CRE asset classes and distressed mall acquisitions, along with seeding early-stage, cannabis sale-leaseback REITs. He is a tremendous asset to the Pelorus team as they work to provide high-performance loans to cannabis businesses operating in the highly regulated marketplace, and drive value for their investors.

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 finished grad school just before the global financial crisis ensued. Given the economic situation at the time, I found a place working out distressed debt on the lender side, where I did some of the largest debt restructurings in commercial mortgage-backed security. After that, I spent time in institutional real estate doing both debt and equity investments. Previously, I was at a New York-based hedge fund, led Special Situations investing for a real estate private equity group and founded TG Capital Advisors, which advised on over $1 billion in distressed debt restructurings.

Over the last 10 years, I saw too much capital chasing, too few deals and risk-adjusted yields across asset classes at historic lows. I invested personally in some of the early Canadian operators, which did not go well, but it taught me some key lessons and got my eye focused on the opportunity set in cannabis. In the U.S., I noticed that cannabis was one of the few sectors where I saw the inverse — multiple interesting deals happening, but not enough capital. While doing special situations at the private equity group, I got them to do their first cannabis investments. We were early stage investors in Green Acreage REIT and Treehouse REIT — both of which are sale-leaseback REITS in the cannabis sector. As our firm allocated capital to the equity side, I wanted to see who was doing interesting things on the debt side, which is how I initially met my current partners. I saw a great opportunity to get into a new industry early on and apply the skills I’d developed in the non-cannabis world. That led me to my partnership with Dan Leimel and Rob Sechrist, the co-founders of Pelorus — and the rest is history.

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

We’re disruptive because we’re on the cutting edge of lending in an entire, new industry, and providing capital when most traditional lenders won’t, given the conflict between state and federal policies. By taking lessons we’ve learned over our careers in non-cannabis real estate lending and applying it to this new industry, we’re bringing institutional rigor to the cannabis lending market. Most lending markets are built on years of data, when coming up with default and loss rates. Cannabis is still very new, so you don’t really have those robust, historical data sets to work with. It’s been fun and challenging to create the right credit underwriting box to lend capital in this space successfully. We’ve created our own proprietary data analytics platform to support the industry.

Pelorus is the longest running cannabis real estate lender in the sector. My partners closed their first cannabis loan in 2016, and we’ve since funded over $350M in loans and have over 24 payoffs. It’s satisfying to have a lending model proof itself over time, and we can really see the worth from our particular brand of disruption.

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 first big mistake was actually two mistakes rolled into one. While I was in grad school, I had my first big job interview in New York City. I had to get to a dinner that was part of this larger interview day. Not knowing my way around and worried I’d be late, I made the first mistake of taking a rickshaw to dinner. My second mistake was telling people I took a rickshaw to dinner. They laughed, I did not get the job, and I learned the importance of appearances when interviewing — and that walking is the most efficient way around the city.

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 completely agree with that sentiment. Everyone that’s made progress in their career received help from someone along the way, whether it was a boss or mentor. For me it was both. One of my longstanding mentor relationships is with Steven Fischer, a real estate investor in South Florida. Early in my career, he took me under his wing and taught me a lot about how to think about risk and reward in investing. His guidance was critical in my learning process and did a lot to speed up my professional development. Additionally, I received a lot of support from a former boss of mine, Steve Gordon, while positioned at the New York hedge fund. He gave me my first job on Wall Street and really elevated me in that world at a critical time in my career. The learning experiences I had while working under him were invaluable, and helped to forge many of the opportunities I still benefit from today.

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

I’d say all disruptive forces in an industry are a mix of positive and negative, depending on which stakeholder’s perspective you’re considering. For instance, take the developments in automated truck driving. While such an advancement would be incredibly positive for trucking companies by lowering the cost to ship goods across the country, it would be very negative for people who currently hold those jobs. Employment demand for drivers would fall — but demand for other jobs would potentially increase. That’s the creative destruction of capitalism in a nutshell. Any individual view on the positivity or negativity of disruptions entirely depends on where that individual’s interests lie.

However, I also believe other things that claim to be disruptive have yet to play out as such. I’d highlight cryptocurrency as an example. Crypto has been massively disruptive as a new speculative asset class, and created wealth for a select group of people. So far, it’s unclear to me which medium of exchange problems its creation was intended to solve. Very few transactions happen via cryptocurrency when compared to normal banking transactions, and those transitions that do occur are typically more expensive and less efficient to complete. It’s been more than 10 years, and blockchain has yet to displace meaningful industries. The use-case to me is unclear, except to speculate and trade.

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

First and foremost, stay curious and keep learning. It’s important not to be complacent in your career journey. You should always be pushing to learn more and grow your skill sets to better understand your industry and opportunities within it. Secondly, but equally important — bet on yourself. As you grow in your career, or in other avenues of life, be willing to take calculated risks where the outcome — good or bad — is largely dependent on the dedication of your own performance. It can feel uncomfortable and scary at times, but that internally sourced motivation to succeed can push you to achieve really great things. Lastly, take risks. It really does come back to avoiding that risk of growing complacent and stagnating where you are. Nothing ventured, nothing gained is a life lesson that remains relevant for all aspects of life.

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

We plan to continue to fill vital capital needs within the ever-evolving cannabis sector. We’re always looking at new markets to enter, international and domestic, in addition to considering new vehicles of funding we can launch to tackle those opportunities we see in the industry. In a space as young and fast-moving as cannabis, there are always dislocations and opportunities to put capital to work.

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 book I read recently is Drunk: How We Sipped, Danced, and Stumbled Our Way to Civilization by Edward Slingerland. It’s an interesting read; typically in a historical context, things like alcohol and cannabis are treated as a footnote, despite evidence of substance use dating back to the earliest civilizations. Slingerland argues that rather than being a footnote to history, these substances were actually crucial to the formation of civilization because of how they relax the prefrontal cortex. This subsequently allows trust to be built between people more easily, as well as enhancing creativity and relieving stress. Overall, the book does a great job addressing that without intoxication, we would not have civilization. It’s an interesting perspective and a fun read.

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. 🙂

Making efforts to improve outreach and provide better educational resources to people in smaller towns, while focusing less on affluent areas, could be greatly beneficial in terms of identifying real talent and it would help people in underserved communities achieve great things. I come from a small town and had a very modest upbringing. I’ve seen so many other smart, capable people grow up that way, but they have such limited exposure to the broader world that they can’t realize their ideal career path or even know what they’re missing out on. It took me a lot of trial, error and hard work to figure out what opportunities were already out there and how to find them. Whether it’s finding the right college to attend or the industry that’s best suited for their skill set, it’s really important to make people aware of all the options they have. I’d love to see more programs that give students in small towns better access to varied industry professionals — people who can share their career story and the path they walked to get there. With the expansion of Zoom and remote technology, there are a lot more resources now that we can utilize to educate kids who are growing up in similar situations that I did, and deserve just as much consideration as I’ve received.

How can our readers follow you online?

I am personally active on my Linkedin profile, but readers should also keep an eye on my wider work with Pelorus — particularly any real estate owners out there with cannabis-use properties, and big and larger operators in the space that are in need of timely financing for mission-critical construction or build-outs for tenant improvements. For any borrower/broker inquiries, you can always email us at [email protected]; and for investors who have inquiries about the Pelorus Fund, you can reach out to [email protected].

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

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

An Interview With Fotis Georgiadis

Work on self love. There are always going to be haters. I’ve had haters, people who don’t understand you or your business. But if you stay true to who you are, and you work on self love, no one can get doubt into your head. Because you know what you’re doing and you believe in yourself, and that all comes with mental health.

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

Razan Talebian is the Founder and CEO of a new social media platform where women and nonbinary folks can join support and interest groups. The app promotes harmony with the way members communicate through its vetting process — short educational videos on different aspects of social interaction, where members need to watch these videos and earn their badges to join certain groups. InPower has teamed up with behavioral psychologists, researchers, and influencers to educate members on empathy, conflict resolution, perspective taking, and everything that falls under emotional and social intelligence, as well as expertly curated information on important topics like xenophobia, racism, and offensive terms in different cultures. Razan and the InPower community really believes this app will be the highest standard of healthy communication compared to all social media platforms existing today. Previously, her and many volunteers helped run a Facebook group of women and nonbinary folks surpassing 30 thousand members whom all wanted a safe space. Her and the InPower community worked together with brainstorming and suggesting many ways to make this ongoing online social issue a reality. Once it was clear that positive reinforcement of healthy social behavior and misinformation were two key factors of online bullying, Razan began her journey to develop a truly independent network where members can interact with each other and professionals based on shared standard sets and a pledge to be supportive and kind to one another.

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’ve lived in North Vancouver my entire life, went to Capilano University to get my Arts & Entertainment Management Diploma, then Langara College to get my Digital Film Production Certificate and Singer-Songwriter Certificate. I wanted to tie in all of my education to put on charity events, create videos/documentaries on bullying and songs about the struggles I’ve faced as a victim of bullying and tragedies I’ve experienced. I’ve always been in the industry of connecting, because it helps me connect closer to myself. I remember always thinking I wanted to change the world as a child, not knowing what that meant at the time. My parents used to say I had the “golden heart” because every time there was a conflict with anyone around me I’d do everything in my power to make it right and make everyone feel safe and happy.

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

“We are our experiences.” The lens in which we see the world is based on these experiences. We have no idea the path anyone has walked. We don’t know their triggers. As humans we always try to make sense of things, so that’s why we usually project our thoughts onto others because that’s our experience, and we may not have taken the time to realize there are so many pieces to the puzzle that others have gone through that made them that final masterpiece. This quote really helped me interact with people on a mutual level. If someone was being difficult in my life, I know now who I am and the impact I want to make on people, so I give unconditional love and express myself with kindness. I hope for this to be an inspiring experience they can add to their puzzle pieces and hopefully give that back into the world.

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?

Avatar. My favorite movie of all time. It shows how everyone works together in harmony. The love and the connection they emit to each other is exactly the kind of universe we are trying to create on InPower. I had a spiritual awakening after that movie. I started to understand how everything is connected. These Avatars work in sync because they understand why they are there and the meaning and duty of life. We are all different, yes, and that’s what makes the world beautiful, but I think we can all agree that connecting with respect, love, and kindness is something we all need to have in common. I know when I started being around those who were on this level, a lot of voids were filled, and my depression was slowly fading away. Humans need connection. Let’s make those connections into positive ones.

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 was blessed to have the InPower community online (before creating it into an app) to build ideas with. I asked for input on literally everything from name generation, choosing a logo, features on the app, and community guidelines, for an end result of the community’s needs.

The best advice I can give is talk to people, a lot of people. Don’t just ask those who you think are in your market, ask those who you’d never even imagine being buyers or users. They typically have more challenging questions to ask you. Always ask why they wouldn’t buy/use. Where would you have to take it for them to? They might say “if it had this and not that,” or maybe they’ll just say it isn’t for their age group — great — you’re closer to understanding your target audience. Or maybe they just raised another problem that you didn’t think of, which could have potentially happened down the road — great — now you’re thinking about all of these outcomes. In the start of the InPower Facebook group, we targeted only women. As we grew bigger, the community was suggesting we expand to nonbinary folks as well. Having a community or group with the same goals as you and your business will make your company stronger because their input and ideas are the way to success.

Since you’re still in the ideation phase, you don’t have much to lose with just talking to people about it. Have fun with it, make a little presentation with your idea and ask your family and friends to chime in. Input input input! It’s very valuable. The beginning of your business should be exciting and fun!

My second piece of best advice — source out freelancers! You don’t need to spend thousands of dollars with big companies to help you, especially in the beginning. So many people have come to me scared to start a business because they don’t know if it will work out and it’s super expensive to start, and I am shocked at how little people know about freelancer websites, like of course it would be scary to start a business when you type in on Google and big companies are charging $10K for a logo!! Hire a freelancer for $50–100 to make you a logo! My go-to website is upwork. That’s where I met my CTO and she’s the best thing that has happened to my business. Also, you have a great opportunity to ask questions. If you post a job for “funding and grant writer,” get on a call with them. Be completely honest — say you have no idea how this works. They are trying to get hired, so they’re going to give you all the information you need to know. Very valuable information! After this — you won’t feel the weight of the business hanging on your shoulders since you have support from a click of a button!

The Government of Canada website also has all of the steps and information you need to start your business!

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?

Patent & trademark database online. If it’s too complicated for you, hire an attorney to do the research for you. (Freelancers!). Also an extensive research on Google. Believe it or not, a lot of startups don’t patent or trademark their ideas until a lot farther into their business. If you see your idea has been created, just remember this — ideas are not created, they are simply reinvented. See how you can reinvent the wheel!

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 only experience is all through freelancer websites, I had someone help me through all of the steps since I started this knowing nothing about how to run a business. Throughout the meetings and hiring, I made some great connections whom I can always go back to if I need some help. I think as my first venture it was really important for me to hire someone knowledgeable to have on my side through every process so that I didn’t mess anything up. Now for my next venture — I’ll know what to do. Every business is a bit different so there’s not one-way-fits-all, like we started creating our application before even making our business plan! For really detailed advice — go to Starting a Business on the Government of Canada website and they will give you every step there as well!

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

1. Know the basics of all the departments of your business.

I’m not a technical person, yet I’m the CEO of a tech startup! My CTO is happy to always educate me, even the most complex technical sides of the app. I can hold the conversation in our standup meetings and know what’s going on, make suggestions, and conduct interviews with my CTO. It’s super important to know these basics so you can tell if someone is trying to take advantage of you and your business. Plus, you don’t want to sound clueless when someone asks you any questions about your business. I understand how marketing, branding, technology, funding, law, and everything works (just the basics remember!). That’s why bootstrapping with freelancers is good in the beginning because you’re learning with them as you go.

2. You don’t need to hire expensive companies!

If you look online for companies to help you with your business (coding, branding, marketing) you’ll come across super expensive rates. I would not recommend this especially for early stages of your business. As I mentioned above, freelancers all the way. If your business is getting established enough for more people on the team, there’s a great website called Riipen.com, where teachers post upcoming internships where students are looking for a placement! I hired a very expensive branding company and in the end, I ended up creating the final logo and input of the inPower members.

3. There is so much help out there.

Whether that’s grants, crowdfunding, seminars, networking events! There is a lot of free help. My app was being created during covid so there were not many networking events, but there are so many online! I went to a 5 day seminar where they had over 15 meetings throughout the day with various topics like, choosing the right bank, what to expect with angel investors, what legal documents you need and more. Vancouver Startup Week was my holy grail. Definitely subscribe and see when their upcoming events are, and other startup seminars!

4. Encubate me.

I had a mentor/partner in the beginning of this process who was teaching me a lot. It was very unconventional though, we went right into the creation of the code before any of the other steps. In our case, it worked, since we already had a community needing this product with over 30 thousand members, so we were already in good standing and the concept was proven. After I moved on from that partner, I was searching for mentorship programs. I came across this website, encubate.me. It’s a mentoring program where you pay an extremely affordable one-time fee for a year and get 12 hours of one-on-one mentor calls while you go through different modules from creating your idea into a business. It will set you up for success, provide all the tools, work, articles and information you need to know! Then you get to go on your 20–30 minute call with your mentor who reviews all your work and guides you through it all with expert advice!

5. Work on your mental health.

Starting your own business is going to be taxing on you physically and emotionally. Problems are inevitable. When you’re under stress, you naturally go back to your habits. So prepare yourself to make those habits healthy.

Work on self love. There are always going to be haters. I’ve had haters, people who don’t understand you or your business. But if you stay true to who you are, and you work on self love, no one can get doubt into your head. Because you know what you’re doing and you believe in yourself, and that all comes with mental health.

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? 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?

Try a mentorship program (like the one I mentioned above) so you can have expert advice while learning the steps from the ideation phase to the business model. You want to have a good idea of all of the steps included instead of hiring someone to do all the work for you (unless you’ve done this before and you already know how it goes!).

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

It would probably be hard for someone to go up to a VC and say “this is my idea, I’ve done nothing towards creating it because I need money to do it.” It doesn’t really show them that you’re that invested in it and you want to risk their money instead of your own. Bootstrap in the beginning (especially for your first idea/business!). You’ll get to learn so much this way.

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 created a platform for people to grow out of their negative traits and connect with people in the most genuine way possible in a place where they can learn to give and receive love.

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.

A movement that inspires empathy.

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.

Sutian Dong and Anu Duggal — Female Founders Fund! They are all about diversity and they have invested in some of the fastest growing-led female startups nationwide. It would be an honour to meet with them and even work with them!

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

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

An Interview With Fotis Georgiadis

Get to Know and Understand Your Audience — Remember that no two organizations or businesses are alike, nor are the operating realities that they face — getting to intimately understand your clients and the products and services that they offer, as well as the changing industry landscapes within which they operate, is crucial.

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 Scott Steinberg.

Scott Steinberg is a top expert on leadership, change, and innovation. A strategic adviser, consultant, and thought leader for over 1000 brands from American Express to Zynga, he’s the bestselling author of 25 books, e.g. Think Like a Futurist and Make Change Work for You. A strategic adviser to CEOs + four-star generals, firms like IBM, PwC, and the US Dept of Defense regularly seek his insight. As CEO of BIZDEV: The Intl. Assoc. for Business Development + Strategic Partnerships, and management consulting + market research firm FutureProof Strategies, he helps partners stay ahead of emerging trends. A noted content strategy, social media + communications expert, and expert witness + board member, he’s been seen in 700+ media outlets from CNN to The Today Show.

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 just an average suburban kid who grew up obsessed with computers, comic books, music, pro wrestling, video games, and all things high-tech. Luckily for me, all of these passions tended to combine attributes like fun and creativity with concepts like entrepreneurialism and DIY business know-how — and reflected a strong sense of dynamism and showmanship. Each of these spaces also tended to change and evolve quickly: From one month to the next, companies and personalities could quickly go from being on top of the world to falling behind the pack. I didn’t know it at the time, but these interests taught me (a) the value of doing things big and making a splash (b) the importance of knowing how to handle your business and © how critical it was to regularly learn, adapt, grow, improvise, and reinvent yourself on a running basis. Likewise, I was fortunate enough to experience the early days of home computing, where bedroom coders and armchair hackers were constantly (and often successfully) locked in a technological arms race with billion-dollar corporations. It taught me to keep an open mind, that innovation can come from anywhere, and that there’s always a better, more clever way to be doing things — I still get a kick out of how 16 year-olds are often able to outthink and outfox teams of world-class engineers and computer programmers.

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

I started out as an author, business analyst, and management consultant who worked with hundreds of companies and media outlets to help audiences stay one step ahead of emerging technologies, trends, and events. But like many individuals, I grew up somewhat shy and uncomfortable with the concept of public speaking. Then one day, randomly, I read a magazine article that offered a shockingly insightful little tidbit of advice to the effect of “if you’re not good at speaking up and putting yourself out there, try walking up and practicing speaking to a stranger for 2 minutes every day.” As I was in my early twenties at the time, I was already going out on the town quite often, and decided to put this principle in practice, and put in the daily work at restaurants and bars around town.

Amusingly, within about 6 months, I was able to walk up to virtually anyone and start a conversation, and — if I wanted — even hold 15- or 20-minute conversations with myself in the mirror. In other words, I learned the art of public speaking the classic way: By hanging out and shooting the breeze at happy hour with folks from all walks of life and backgrounds. To this day, I’m still the guy who can walk up and say hello to anyone in a crowd, which my single friends greatly appreciate (and often seek to capitalize on) to no end. Thankfully, I was able to port these practical skills, combined with years of experience tracking and analyzing new trends, into a career speaking about and consulting on what’s coming next in the future, and how to adapt to it.

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

Hmm, perhaps it’s the time I got hired by one of America’s top military leaders to fly out to one of the country’s most storied destinations and help dozens of the nation’s top commanders innovate and adapt to increasingly fast-changing operating environments. Maybe it’s that moment I found myself hefting a UEFA soccer trophy on stage following the combination DJ/live orchestra set after giving a talk for MasterCard’s 20th anniversary in Poland. Then again, there’s something to be said for that solo trek I made across the desert on a camel to hoist a falcon on my arm while the sun set and sand swirled around me after IBM asked me to pop into Dubai and say a few words about what it takes to succeed in tomorrow’s business world to CEOs across the Middle East and Africa. Having been fortunate enough to often live like a touring musician for the last 25 years, and go around the world twice, the bucket list is looking a little lean at the moment, and there’s no shortage of interesting stories here. 😊

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

Absolutely — all credit goes to Florence de Martino. As a college student, I wanted nothing so much as to work in the videogame industry. But being on the East Coast at a time when the industry was largely West Coast, no one wanted to hire me — even as an unpaid intern. Luckily, thanks to dumb luck, E3, the big videogame convention, was being held in the city where I lived that year. So I started up an online magazine and obtained a press pass, with an eye towards actively looking to meet prospective employers.

The night before the show though, a friend who was driving us around got into a car accident, and my head went into the windshield. The next day, still limping and wiping glass out of my hair, I nonetheless staggered over to the show, where at the back of the smallest hall, I ran into a stand for a French game publisher called Microids, whose games my friends used to download back in high school. I was super excited to see them; they were excited someone in America knew them and was a fan. By the time I left the show, not only had Florence gone out of her way to ensure that I received my first internship at the company, but also lent me her apartment for the summer. So ironically, my first internship wound up being in Paris, France — and by the time I left, having helped the company discover and sign hit products like SHOGO: Mobile Armor Division, I was named VP of Product Acquisitions, and the rest is history…

Mind you… None of it would’ve been possible if she didn’t take a chance on me though, which taught me an important lesson: All it ever takes is one person to open a door, and a moment’s kindness can open up a world of opportunity. Noting this, I always do my best to make a point to pay things forward.

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?

Absolutely. Number one: Persistence pays. It can take weeks, months, and years to win and get ahead in this business, but the only way to ever lose in it is to give up and quit. Life is poker… sometimes you’re up, sometimes you’re down, but as long as you keep playing the hand you’re dealt, things will come around again. Number two: Don’t stop believing in yourself. The world is full of folks who won’t share your enthusiasm and vision − you’ve got to have faith in your approach and be your own biggest cheerleader. Third: It’s critical to differentiate yourself − you can’t stand out if all you’re trying to do is fit in. Fourth: Make a point to regularly reinvent yourself. Just like companies, brands, and musicians, working professionals need to regularly update, revise, and repackage their skill sets, insights, value proposition, and experiences to maintain relevancy in others’ eyes. Fifth: Learn how to learn, constantly work to grow your skill set and experience, and keep an open mind − in a fast-changing world, the only surefire way to continuously get ahead is to stay adaptable, flexible, and open to new influences, perspectives, and opinions.

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?

It would help to know a few things up front:

• As the last 2 years alone have proven, we are all innovators at heart, and all possess the essential skills that it takes to successfully move forward time and time again, no matter what the future brings — even if that sometimes means having to find ways to do more with less.
• You don’t need specialized training or insight to do a futurist’s job either — just a willingness to ask better questions and apply a little more critical thinking.
• In a world of growing uncertainty, flexibility is the essence of future-proofing, and agility is fast becoming the ultimate source of competitive advantage.
• Likewise, you don’t have to be particularly talented or brilliant to get ahead in a world of growing change or uncertainty, just more thoughtful and resilient… in effect, it’s not about having to be a genius in business anymore as it is a little bit more clever and ingenious instead.

Noting this, we all have the capabilities and basic building blocks that we need to consistently get ahead in life and business. I simply think of it as my job to provide some helpful reminders here. And, for that matter, to try to do my best to equip folks with the vital tools, techniques, and insights that they need to adapt to the future, no matter what tomorrow brings.

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?

We’re gearing up to introduce the world to The 7th Estate™: A new breed of subject matter expert and thought leader who wields an unparalleled ability to help leaders lead, and is capable of influencing even today’s most well-known influencers. Likewise, we also recently launched POP FUTURE™, a new learning and development system that makes new topics, trends, and technologies easier to talk about, teach, and understand. It’s a great way to accelerate training and development. In addition, we just debuted new book Think Like a Futurist 2022: The Next Normal™ and video series FAST FORWARD: Get Smarter Faster™, which can help anyone stay ahead of the curve more effectively and learn to spot and adapt to new developments and breaking events more rapidly. In coming months, we’ll be bringing you more books, teaching tools, training guides, online classes/courses, events, and other surprises — needless to say, we won’t be getting much sleep here! 😊

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

There’s a great quote in the movie Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade that I never hear anyone mention. It effectively goes: “You lost today, kid — but that doesn’t mean that you have to like it.” I interpret this to mean as follows: Never mistake a defeat for final defeat. And just because you may have encountered a roadblock or setback doesn’t mean you can’t find a way to steer around it in the end, so long as you are willing to push ahead. In other words, never stop trying: Every problem is simply a puzzle to be solved. It’s your job to keep trying different combinations of ideas and actions until you find the solution.

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

1. Get to Know and Understand Your Audience — Remember that no two organizations or businesses are alike, nor are the operating realities that they face — getting to intimately understand your clients and the products and services that they offer, as well as the changing industry landscapes within which they operate, is crucial. Noting this, you need to customize every presentation to the individual audience and company, keeping in mind the types of day-to-day challenges and concerns that your audience routinely confronts, and incorporating stories or learning which address or parallel viewers’ hands-on experiences. Where multiple stakeholders, departments and initiatives are involved, it further helps to couch presentations in terms that are universally applicable — what matters is context and strategic takeaway, not granularity. By way of illustration, a talk that I give on how to innovate and adapt to the future of business for C-level leaders at an international bank will take a different form than one I give to frontline salespeople at a top global manufacturer who needs to adapt its solutions to address the growing rise of automation and artificial intelligence.
2. Keep Things Short and Simple — In a time of shrinking attention spans and growing Zoom fatigue, people’s patience is becoming increasingly limited. As a result, various presentations that you give should be simple and straightforward to follow, and get to the point quickly, not to mention lead with attention-grabbing stories and takeaways right out of the gate. Remember: You don’t have to harp on a subject ad nauseum, cover every topic in-depth or dissect every nuance of a scenario to make a difference. Even just a handful of actionable takeaways presented to a receptive audience can make an impact. I like to focus on providing 3 or four key learnings and lessons, break each into its own section of 15 minutes maximum length and balance out every 2 slides of content with one fun, easily understandable story or anecdote.
3. Be Approachable and Engaging — Even if your subject is serious, you can often boost audience interest, relatability, and engagement by tackling it in a more approachable or informal fashion, so long as you’re still being insightful and professional. Bearing this in mind, speakers are often better advised to avoid being overly formal and lead with humor, empathy, and relatable stories that capture audiences’ attention out of the gate and invite them to let their hair down than to adopt a similar posture as they might in drier corporate meetings or training videos. Professional speakers aren’t generally given much time to grab audiences’ attention and get a message across and, when speaking to audiences who may be dealing with challenges in their business, may be seen as outsiders trying to tell others how to do their job. An effective way to bridge this gap is to let folks know that you take your subject matter, but not yourself, too seriously — and that you’re not there to offer answers as much as help them come with better answers on their own. For instance, as a general rule, I like to keep conversations casual, acknowledge that the new normal isn’t so new or all-that-normal anymore, and remind folks that we’re all in the same boat at present. Not only does doing so make virtual speeches feel more relatable and approachable, it also helps invite viewers into the conversation and reminds them that they won’t be talked at until they tune out.
4. Promote More Interactivity and Audience Involvement — Shocker: As they’re the ones operating on the everyday frontlines of their organization, your audiences are routinely far better attuned to what’s happening in their business — and have a better idea of how any lessons you present can be applied to their situation at-hand. That’s why it’s super-important to get them more involved in the keynote speaking process. Many simple strategies can help you boost audience engagement, awareness, and takeaway here. For instance, online polls and surveys, app-based feedback tools and fun little animated explainers can serve you well in your battle to capture and hold audiences’ attention, as can inviting meeting attendees to participate by submitting questions and suggestions prior to your presentation. However, few exercises hold a crowd’s attention as much as interactive activities that invite participants to perform a task together or call and response sequences that invite them to speak up and share. Similarly, you can also liven up online programs with the sudden and unexpected appearance of surprise guests beaming in from afar, or by implementing games, challenges, or breakout workshops that viewers can participate in from home. In effect, the idea here is that speeches shouldn’t be a one-way street where you’re talking at an audience, but rather more of a two-way conversation where you’re talking with them.
5. Be Contemporary and Up to Date — Sorry, Charlie: Audiences have heard enough about Apple, BlackBerry, Blockbuster Video, Circuit City and other familiar Jurassic Age business examples and case studies for a lifetime. Likewise, even in a time where thousands of employees are starting to return to the office, the last time many visited a workplace (or got the chance to make watercooler jokes about increasingly outdated professional norms) was roughly 2019. Today, we operate in a business world that’s been completely redefined by digital transformation, the rise of COVID-19 and a growing jump in virtual/flexwork. Stories, examples and images that you highlight in your online presentations (let alone jokes and references) should all be adapted to feel contemporary and current. As you go about assembling your presentation, be sure to audit everything — references, jokes, etc. — to be sure it feels fresh and up-to-date. Today’s business world moves quickly, necessitating frequent change: Your command of any given topic and preferred approach to presentations should continue to evolve over time, too.

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

Certainly — for starters, remember that no matter how big your audience is, you’re not trying to change thousands of people’s minds, just one. In other words, if all it takes is one person to open the door to your next project, passion, experience, job, or opportunity, don’t let the fact that you’re speaking to a sea of individuals intimidate you. Likewise, if you’re not comfortable looking folks directly in the face, look to the top of their heads — it will still appear as if you’re looking at the audience’s eyeline. In addition, don’t let yourself be overwhelmed by the size of a crowd or disheartened by negativity from individual participants: Instead, look for an advocate or two (someone who’s nodding, smiling, or dutifully keeping along with your talk vs. yawning or scowling) and focus on them from time to time as a source of encouragement and energy instead. And practice, practice, practice. By the time you give a speech, you should have delivered it enough times that it should roll off the tongue. Also, don’t forget: Audiences want you to succeed, and are rooting for you. If you make a mistake or hiccup on stage, own it, shrug it off, laugh about it, and move on. They’re on your side, and they’re right there along for the ride with you.

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’d be teaching more entrepreneurial skills − and how to innovate, be more creative, and be more resilient − in public schools to children of all ages, starting at the youngest possible opportunity. While technical aptitude and book learning can take you far in this world, grit and resilience and often proven to take you just as far, if not further. Moreover, I’d also be teaching the art of futurism and adaptation to others on a running basis and looking to consistently reeducate them as well. As far as I can tell, humans are incredibly strong, resourceful, resilient, and adaptable creatures — but we often don’t take the time out of our busy day to plan and prepare for the future, or steps to plot ahead and plan for hiccups or bumps in the road in life or business before they arrive. In addition, as I outlined in bestselling book Make Change Work for You, people also have unlimited potential — but seven fears tend to hold us back in our work and personal lives as well. Noting this, I’d also be working to raise awareness for how to be braver and more courageous − and yes, these are skills that can actually be taught. I’d probably also be opening up a network of nationwide community centers, as I absolutely love seeing people succeed and do well, and teamwork and collaboration will only become more critical to getting ahead in tomorrow’s fast-changing world. Together, we can create a brighter future, and lead the way forward.

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

Shark Tank star and billionaire entrepreneur Mark Cuban. It’s not easy being a self-made businessperson, but he’s managed to successfully find ways to make all sorts of incredible and imaginative ventures work over the years, while also seemingly managing to stay relatively approachable and humble. You don’t get that far in life without picking up a few helpful insights and tricks. I also have a feeling he’s got some fun stories to share from the journey along the way 😊

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

You can find me on Facebook, LinkedIn, or at my website, www.FuturistsSpeakers.com. We also drop regular videos, articles, eBooks and more that you can download or enjoy online. Also be sure to check major online retailers such as Amazon.com for our latest works. We’re often light on sleep, but always up to something interesting!

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

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Scott Steinberg On The 5 Things You Need To Be A Highly Effective Public Speaker was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Arran Stewart Of Job.Com On Why Diversity Is Good For Business

An Interview With Fotis Georgiadis

Better internal knowledge of the customer base. With a lack of diversity, creating products and services to represent your customer base can be difficult. It requires a diverse team to make sure a business represents its customer base. Diverse companies give themselves a competitive advantage by having a more inclusive workforce geared towards delivering more inclusive products and services.

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

Arran Stewart is the Co-Founder and CVO of blockchain-powered recruitment platform Job.com. Arran has spent over a decade working to disrupt the recruitment industry with innovative, first-of-its-kind technology. His expertise on hiring, recruitment, technology, and macro job market trends has been featured in Forbes, Inc., Reuters, Wired, Fortune, and Nasdaq, among others.

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?

As a happily married man with five children, my family is by far my greatest achievement. I was born and raised in a town called Luton in the UK. However, my family and I moved to the USA in 2017 and turned Austin, Texas into our home.

For the past 15 years, I’ve worked in the Recruitment Technology industry. My passion, and Job.com’s mission, is to help as many people feed their families and pay their bills as possible. I love what I do and look to use technology throughout the hiring process in order to remove friction and make it easier for people to get hired.

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?

In 2015, I had a humbling experience while working to raise money for Job.com. I’ve spent a lot of time raising money and my role has often been to be the presenter. At the time, I was looking to raise major capital from the global investment market and was invited to travel to LA to give a presentation to a group of foreign investors who were meeting me there.

This was my first time doing an investment presentation to international investors and I was nervous to say the least. I arrived at the venue and was greeted by two well-dressed and extremely articulate individuals, whose English was perfect. I remember thinking how impressive it was that these foreign investors spoke English so well — it even made me reflect on my own ability to speak other languages.

Not wanting to waste any time, I jumped straight into my pitch and presentation, being sure to give it my all in order to convince these investors that Job.com was worth investing in. We went through the presentation quite quickly and the two investors were incredibly positive with both expressing positive words and body language. In my mind, I felt it was a great success and some sort of funding was in the bag.

When I got to the end of my presentation and asked the two investors what the next steps were, they both looked at me with some level of confusion and responded that the “next steps were to give the presentation to the investors.” Needless to say, I was completely confused and asked what they meant.

It turned out that the two well-spoken, well-dressed investors I thought I was talking to were actually the interpreters who were hired to translate for me. I was so embarrassed, and it was such an eye-opening experience. The biggest lesson that I learned from this was to always qualify who you’re talking to and what their role is, before you do or say anything (especially before you give a presentation!).

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

I actually heard this life lesson quote much later in my career, but as of late I find it more relevant than ever — especially when it comes to my focus. The quote is simple, but powerful: “if it’s to be, it’s down to me.”

A really great work colleague and friend told me this, Bill Klehm. It resonated really strongly with me as I’m sure we’re all guilty of waiting for things to sometimes magically work out in our lives, but the reality is, in pretty much all cases, we make our own destiny and outcome.

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 far more than one person that has helped me get to where I am — it’s been several people and I’d like to take a moment to thank all of them: Lester O’Halloran, Paul Sloyan, Chris Smith, Tony Gerone, Keegan Caldwell and of course my wife, Jemma Stewart.

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

We look at things differently — our mission is to help as many people feed their families and pay their bills as possible. We build our strategy around achieving this goal and it leads to a few outcomes: it creates a strong culture in the business, helps us drive product that is designed to put the users’ needs at the heart of it, and lastly, because our intentions as a business are pure, it’s the driver of our success.

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

We are constantly working on creating the most frictionless process for driving successful hires in the workplace. We obsess over this and its key to helping people find the best opportunities in their careers.

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

I believe my job and career with the business is centered around bringing goodness to the world because we help people do one of the most important things in their careers and lives: find good opportunity. It’s why I love what I do so much.

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.)

1. Better internal knowledge of the customer base. With a lack of diversity, creating products and services to represent your customer base can be difficult. It requires a diverse team to make sure a business represents its customer base. Diverse companies give themselves a competitive advantage by having a more inclusive workforce geared towards delivering more inclusive products and services.

2. Employee Knowledge Base. The saying two heads are better than one is true, but what if those two minds think completely alike? Is it still better? Increasing your diversity, culture, and viewpoints is essential for making sure your company has a broader knowledge base.

3. Customer Confidence. What customer wants to buy from a company with a closed-minded mentality and a lack of inclusiveness? No one. Customers buy values of a business and diversity is a clear demonstration of that.

4. Culture. Culture is the key to a successful company and diversity is a major culture builder — it’s one of the core roots to a company’s long-term success.

5. A larger hiring pool. Why limit a company to only hiring a certain type of employee? There is a plethora of great talent within the BIPOC community, which offer further continued strategic hiring opportunities.

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

Lead from the front — people look for inspiration and leadership. Leading is not based on telling people what to do, but instead showing them by being an example they can get behind and even feel motivated to follow your lead.

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

Get personal with your team (appropriately and professionally of course). People and individuals matter, no matter how big the team is. Make sure you make time for even the most junior person in that group and know something about them and what they’re doing. It’s important that the entire team feels connected to leadership.

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 🙂

Julie Sweet, she’s a CEO and I would love to pick her brain just to understand her view of the future of business, emerging tech, and economies.

How can our readers further follow your work online?

You can follow me on Nasdaq, LinkedIn, or Twitter.

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

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Arran Stewart On Why Diversity Is Good For Business was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Agile Businesses: Don Gray Of Givex Corporation On How Businesses Pivot and Stay Relevant In The Face of Disruptive Technologies

An Interview With Fotis Georgiadis

We did not shrink from the task ahead of us and knew we had to build something new fast or be left behind.

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 Don Gray.

Don Gray is the Founder and CEO of Givex Corporation. Givex offers omnichannel POS, gift card, loyalty and stored value ticketing solutions which drive sales for clients; helping them better understand, reward and entice their customers and ultimately make better-informed business decisions. With over 16 billion transactions worldwide and counting, the company’s goal is to empower their merchants with knowledge and knowhow by delivering high quality customer engagement solutions on time. Whether it’s 24/7 support or hassle-free upgrades, Givex clients know that they can count on them to provide everything necessary for their success.

Gray brings over 30 years of experience in startups and turning around companies in a wide range of industries including IT, Gaming, Hospitality, Consumer Goods, Security Systems and Healthcare.

Outside of work, he enjoys sailing and golf and he is an active member of the Young Presidents Organization/World President’s Organization.

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 first company at 18 and have been running my own show for most of my business life. My dad was an entrepreneur and started from very humble beginnings. He taught me a lot about salesmanship and I realized from an early age that nothing happens without someone selling something to someone. I started out as a salesman and still consider myself a salesman.

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

I have started many companies and all come with some sort of mistake — some funny, some not so much. When I was very young, I was having lunch with my very first bank manager. I squeezed a lime into my water glass and it squirted the wrong way — directly into his eye. It was funny but also horrifying. But he still gave me the loan.

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?

The most important person and the one I am most grateful towards is my wife, Debra. We have been business and life partners for almost 30 years and it has been a great adventure. Debra also helped finance our very first business and she only knew me for a few months at the time.

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

The purpose of Givex has always been to help our clients experience excellence from the services we provide, and to do that, we work very hard to “keep our promises no matter what.” We believe this is one reason we have clients and team members who have been with us for many years.

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?

Givex is a global fintech company providing merchants with customer engagement, point of sale and payment solutions, all in a single platform. We are integrated with 1000+ technology partners, creating a fully end-to-end solution that delivers powerful customer insights. We sell engagement (gift card and loyalty), POS and payment solutions that we integrate in the same platform. This reduces friction in IT and allows our clients to focus on their business and let us gather the data they need to make good business decisions.

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

The biggest disruption over the last 10 years has been the pervasive nature of the internet. This has allowed cloud-based services of all kinds to emerge, from POS to payments. Without the internet and the ability to connect servers to operators easily we would still be dealing with legacy systems and poor data.

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

We built the Givex system in the cloud starting in 1999 before the internet was anywhere near as universal as it is today. In 2014 we introduced our cloud-based POS system to further enhance our ability to support the communication needed between a merchant and their customer.

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 were doing well as a cloud-based engagement platform when tablets were introduced. It became clear to me that we needed to add a tablet to our existing platform so we could start providing our clients with a tool to greatly enhance their data collection ability at a reasonable price. It took some time but we now have a very rich POS offering connected to our engagement platform.

So, how are things going with this new direction?

We are now signing clients with 700 POS locations on our platform, but more importantly, we are getting invited to participate in more and larger POS RFP’s which I believe will result in significant new POS rollouts in the years ahead.

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

We converted one of our long-time engagement clients to use our POS services and they replaced a legacy POS system. This transaction established our POS credentials.

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

The most critical role of a leader during a disruptive period is to establish the vision and maintain the courage to stay the course and not get distracted with manageable failures.

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?

Team members want to feel they are part of a company that will be able to adapt to disruption and provide opportunities to grow and be challenged. To do that, a leader needs to walk the talk, i.e., keep your promises.

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

Our number one principle is and has always been “Keep your promises, no matter what.” This includes promises to clients, team members, vendors and partners. It’s not always easy to do but without the intent, it is easy to slip.

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?

• Not recognizing there is change coming.
• Not adapting fast enough.
• Being afraid to change established practices.
• Not enough capital to pivot.
• Not getting the team engaged in the change fast enough.

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.

Our pivot to adding POS to our cloud-based engagement platform is an example of all these things.

• We recognized that cloud-based POS was coming fast.
• We moved quickly to hire a team to start developing the software.
• We had tablets built to our spec to simplify the install and support process.
• We did not shrink from the task ahead of us and knew we had to build something new fast or be left behind.
• We had to sell the concept to clients and convince our team it was worth their time.
• We were also doing well financially so we could invest a significant amount of our profit over the last 8 years to build this out.
• We had the capital to pivot but it came with risk, which I was willing to take.

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

“Keep your promises, no matter what.” I learned this lesson a long time ago when I thought it was OK to say yes without paying attention to the promise it often comes with. This lesson relates to business, friends, family, spouse and whoever else you say yes to for whatever reason. Living by this mantra has been great for both my emotional and financial health.

How can our readers further follow your work?

www.givex.com

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

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

An Interview With Fotis Georgiadis

Make sure you surround yourself with the right people. Starting a company — though immensely rewarding — is a very difficult professional endeavor. When you make the leap to go out on your own and put your idea into action, you want to make sure you are bringing smart, measured people along with you.

As a part of our series called “Making Something From Nothing”, I had the pleasure of interviewing Mike Leven, a legendary business executive and visionary philanthropist. Inspired by Warren Buffet’s and Bill Gates’ Giving Pledge, Mike co-founded the Jewish Future Pledge to carry on his family’s commitment to Judaism.

Mr. Leven currently serves on the boards of The Marcus Foundation; AEPi Fraternity Foundation; Birthright Israel Foundation; Board of Advisors of Prager University; HERSHA Hospitality Trust; Independent Women’s Voice; Turning Point USA Board of Advisors and SESTRA Group.

Professionally, Mike ended his tenure in 2019 as the chairman and chief executive officer of the Georgia Aquarium to devote more time to charitable endeavors like the Jewish Future Pledge. In the past, he has served as president and chief operating officer of the Las Vegas Sands Corporation, the chairman and chief executive officer of US Franchise Systems, the president and chief operating officer of Holiday Inn Worldwide, and the president of Days Inn of America.

Mr. Leven is a co-founder of the Asian American Hotel Owners Association (AAHOA), an organization that has more than 19,000 members owning more than 40,000 hotels.

Mike is the author of Can’t Do It Yourself: How Commitment to Others Leads to Personal Prosperity, which shares his roadmap to personal and professional success, ending each chapter with a lesson to live by in business and life.

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

Thank you so much for the opportunity. I really appreciate it. I grew up in Boston, Massachusetts in a three-story walkup. We lived in a Jewish neighborhood, a 20th-century shtetl, with 86,000 people within a three-square-mile radius.

My mother’s parents were immigrants, and we would often have family come and stay with us. My grandfather was vice president of a synagogue, so I grew up with a lot of involvement in the Jewish community. I grew up eating kosher food, attending Jewish summer camps and singing in a Jewish choir. Jewish life was a very important part of my upbringing.

I also worked quite a few odd jobs when I was a kid, such as delivering groceries, setting up bowling lanes, and working at a pharmacy and in a kitchen. I was interested in talking with people, including non-Jewish people, and I studied the Old and New Testaments. In terms of my education, I attended Boston Latin School for high school — the oldest public high school in the United States — and then I went to Tufts University.

What is your favorite life lesson quote? Can you share how that was relevant to you in your life?

I live by the quote “Status quo is a prescription for failure.”

I’ve always tried to look beyond the typical ways of doing things. From my career as a hospitality executive to my work investing in the future of Jewish life through the Jewish Future Pledge, I’ve always looked for innovative approaches to old challenges. I believe this is the best way to achieve one’s goals and leave a lasting impact in the long term.

This view is also related to a quote from Albert Einstein, “Insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results.” You can’t keep doing the same things, the same way, time and time again. You need to innovate to grow.

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’ve always loved Broadway musicals. One show that resonates with me is The Music Man, which is about a music teacher named Harold Hill. That character really sold imagination. He is an interested person — that’s the reason for his success. I relate to Harold Hill in his desire to be interested rather than interesting.

There is no shortage of good ideas out there. Many people have good ideas, but struggle to translate those ideas into an actual business. Can you share a few suggestions from your experience about how to overcome this challenge?

You must understand your product. Is there already a market for it? If not, you need to create the market. Your product has to fulfill a need. Just because you have a good idea — an idea that you personally like–doesn’t mean it makes a viable business. Once you do your research, you need to decide on the type of organization and people you need to build and deliver that product. I thought there was a niche to fill in the travel industry, so I worked in budget hotels. I knew there were going to be customers who needed them.

Similarly, I developed the Jewish Future Pledge, a commitment that from the funds you leave to charity at your passing, at least half will be earmarked to support the Jewish community and/or the State of Israel, in accordance with this very strategy — filling a gap within a market. In this case, the gap was Jewish giving, and the market, philanthropy. Many Jews are interested in supporting the institutions that have built our community — the summer camps, the synagogues, the community centers — but maybe didn’t know how or didn’t feel there was an organized effort, to support the Jewish future. I believe the over 6,000 pledge signatures we’ve received over the last two years show just how deeply that gap was felt within our community.

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 doesn’t make a difference if it’s already been created. You’ll just have the look at the other person’s product and see what they left on the table. Find an opening to create another product within this market. Remember that products change and evolve over time. For example, cars became more efficient, and phones became smaller. It’s not so much about originality as it is about differentiation.

Consider the Giving Pledge. This initiative was founded by Bill Gates nearly a decade ago, well before the Jewish Future Pledge. The Giving Pledge urges the ultrawealthy to give vast sums of their wealth to charitable causes. While the organization has been very successful in securing donations to a range of wonderful organizations, many donors wanted to make their impact felt specifically within the Jewish community. There was an opportunity — so we created the Jewish Future Pledge. The Jewish Future Pledge applies a similar concept to a different situation, creating an opportunity for everyone, no matter their age or net worth, to give back to Jewish causes.

Even within our organization, we’ve seen the need for differentiation. For example, we realized that we needed to figure out a way to reach younger people — who do not yet have access to the same financial resources as older generations. With that in mind, we launched the Jewish Youth Pledge to help young people establish a lifelong commitment to the Jewish community. Instead of asking young people to commit money to the Jewish future, the Jewish Youth Pledge urges them to give their most precious resource — their time — to Jewish causes through volunteer work. So far, over 7,000 young people have signed the Youth Pledge. Had we worried that the concept behind the Jewish Youth Pledge was too similar to the Jewish Future Pledge, or the Jewish Future Pledge too similar to The Giving Pledge, we may not have been able to reach these thousands 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.

The basic principles are applicable to pretty much any business.

Find people who know what they are doing. If you look at Jewish Future Pledge, I hired people to create an aesthetically pleasing website. I then asked important Jewish influencers to sign the pledge so that it went viral.

Make sure you look at distributors and decide how your product is going to be sold and released to the world. You can go through third parties, for instance.

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

1. Make sure you surround yourself with the right people. Starting a company — though immensely rewarding — is a very difficult professional endeavor. When you make the leap to go out on your own and put your idea into action, you want to make sure you are bringing smart, measured people along with you.

2. Don’t think you’re right about everything. Instead, ask others for input. Surrounding yourself with “yes” people will only create echo chambers, which are rarely effective at innovating or problem-solving. Instead, recruit talented folks with the expertise to offer sound advice and the disposition to provide it regularly.

3. “Are you sure your product works?” There’s no way around this one. If your product or service doesn’t work, your business won’t go anywhere. Make sure your product lives up to its promise before bringing it to market.

4. What will you actually need to do business? Things are going to be slower than you think. No Fortune 500 company was built overnight. Developing a customer base takes time. Be prepared for the first few months to feel slower than anticipated. But use this as an opportunity to test your business model and refine your approach.

5. Do what you think is right, even if someone is trying to convince you otherwise. Not everyone has what it takes to be an entrepreneur. If you took the risk to make your dream a reality, trust your intuition. Many people have great ideas; few have the drive and perseverance to translate those ideas into successful businesses. There’s a reason you are where you are. While you should seek outside advice and second opinions, at the end of the day, go with your gut.

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 that I would recommend they do is: figure out if there is a need and a void in the market that their product could fill. From there, they should think about how long it will take to create the product, how much it is going to cost to do so, and when an initial profit can be expected.

It’s a lot more fun to build an innovative product than it is to address logistical questions like these. But even if your business is driven by an excellent product, it won’t achieve success unless it’s underpinned by a strong foundation. That starts with your business plan.

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 how complicated the product is and how much you already know. You need to hire people who can fill in the gaps where you have weaknesses. You could bring together a panel or committee that has the knowledge and work together and complement one another. You can meet and brainstorm together.

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

It depends largely on the nature of the business.

Venture capital (VC) may work well for some businesses, but it is important to remember that venture capitalists have certain things they’re looking for. If you’re seeking VC dollars, you’ll need to make sure you have the right concept and a plan for what you’ll do with their money. Many VCs expect returns within five years — that’s standard industry practice — so you’ll want to clearly lay out how you intend to deliver within this window.

You need to really try to understand the business. Bring on advisors if you need to in order to understand business and how venture capital works. Make sure that your goals align with your funders’ goals as well.

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 given away around a third of my net worth and had a foundation for a while. I wanted to give once I took care of my family.

You have to know what’s really important to you. For me, that’s the Jewish people and the State of Israel. That’s why I’m prioritizing those causes through the Jewish Future Pledge. That more than 12,000 people have already taken the Pledge and shown their commitment to sustaining the vibrancy of Jewish life for future generations, is a source of great pride for me.

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

I think it’s absolutely disgraceful that children lack basic learning skills. I want to improve early childhood education. A better education product will lead to a better society overall.

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

I would want to have a private meeting with Abraham Lincoln. I’d ask him how he was able to manage and run everything. How did he handle it all? Some other people I’d love to meet with are George Washington, Aristotle, and Jonas Salk.

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

Thank you!

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

Personal Brand Strategist Amanda Melissa: Five Things You Need To Build A Trusted And Beloved Brand

An Interview With Fotis Georgiadis

Build a community — From McDonald’s to Amazon they all have the loyal fans who trust them and buy no matter what. Think of building a community online like a softball or soccer team. What do your teammates know about you that no one else knows? Do your teammates have the same beliefs and values as you? And remember you build a community with one to one relationships, it might take awhile but it is so worth it.

As part of our series about how to create a trusted, believable, and beloved brand, I had the pleasure to interview Amanda Melissa.

Amanda Melissa is a personal brand strategist for women coaches and service providers who want to attract the right clients using social media. She helped her client go from zero online sales to earring $30k in 30 days. Her mission is to help women grow authentic and influential personal brands so that they can create more impact in their industry and earn more money.

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

Absolutely! I worked in corporate marketing after college. Then on the weekends I did freelance social media management for small businesses. But what I learned from talking to so many business owners, was that so many wanted to go viral but so many didn’t have a message. When I asked them what made them different they didn’t know. That’s why I saw the need to help women business owners work on their brand and discover what makes them unique instead of only focusing on the vanity metrics. Because when you can clearly communicate your brand message it’s a lot easier to hire a team, save money on ads, and save time and stress by having a simple marketing strategy.

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?

Ohh yes! The funniest marketing mistake was being scared to put myself out there and record videos. I came from working in corporate marketing so I was never in the videos, I just had to record and post. So being a business owner, I had to also put myself out there despite feeling imposter syndrome. The reason why this is funny is because that’s exactly I how I help my clients. I help them be confident with feeling seen and putting themself out there. I learned that this is exactly what my clients go through and I know what it’s like to feel scared of feeling seen, but ultimately what I’ve learned is that visibility is your responsibility as a business owner.

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

Growing up I always knew I wanted to be in marketing but it wasn’t until I started interviewing that I noticed that I didn’t see very many Latina’s in the industry. Every interview I went to the teams were filled with “bro marketers.” So as a strategist what makes me stand out is that I’m Latina and I lead with my feminine energy instead of masculine.

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

The biggest project I have now is working with clients who want to be influential in their industry. For instance I’m working with a money coach who wants to make sure women get clarity on their money moves and personality that way they can better learn to manage their money in their life whether they are navigating sticky relationships, difficult family life, or unstable jobs. She is really helping women with their money and so it’s full circle. If I help my clients get visible online they help other people with their service.

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?

I love this question! Product marketing is so much easier because you can literally film a banana and the different recipes you can use with it, and then people will want to go out and buy a banana. But brand marketing is when you create a community that is loyal to you. So if you have an email list who is always opening up every email you send because they love the content, that is brand marketing. You are creating the right brand messages to earn awareness and gain community that will buy from 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?

Yes! I help provide brand clarity to my clients by strategizing their message, target audience, and content strategy. And building a brand is so important because if you invest in a podcast, social media content, and email list, it’s very hard to stay on brand with all the things unless you have brand clarity. Investing into your brand clarity affects your lead generation strategy, content strategy, hiring/outsourcing, sales, and marketing. A past client came to me after spending almost $30K in 3 years on Facebook ads and they realized that it didn’t result in any sales. And that’s why it’s so important to invest in your brand that way it saves you a ton of money and time. Not too mention it will be able to help you communicate to your marketing team your vision and then they will all speak the same language whether it’s ads or a podcast.

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. Get clarity around the message you are sending — ask yourself from your audience’s perspective would you clearly understand how you are different than the competition?! Is it easy for them to understand what you do and who you do it for?
2. Build a community — From McDonald’s to Amazon they all have the loyal fans who trust them and buy no matter what. Think of building a community online like a softball or soccer team. What do your teammates know about you that no one else knows? Do your teammates have the same beliefs and values as you? And remember you build a community with one to one relationships, it might take awhile but it is so worth it.
3. Share stories that relate to your audience — What was your favorite story as a child? And what was the overall message you learned from it? Let’s say for example you learned how to make friends from the story. This is a prime example about what you need to showcase to your audience.Tell the story about why you are passionate about what you do, or the story about the biggest challenges you had to overcome as it relates to your audience and what your personal brand is about.
4. Be vulnerable — Every personal brand shares their vulnerabilities but only as it relates to their audience. What struggles have you gone through that you share with your target audience? If you are a CEO of a health company and let’s say you sell protein bars, share a vulnerable story that way you audience can connect with you. Did you love chocolate as a kid and that’s why you had to create the best chocolate protein bar? Or did you create the best pie protein bar because you secretly eat pie any time of the year and not just on holidays? Be vulnerable but only as it relates to your audience and the service and product you are selling to them.
5. Use video — I started a podcast for my brand and it was amazing but I learned it was easier for me to connect with my audience when I was on video. Video is one of the easiest ways to build trust. That’s why there are more YouTube stars vs. Instagram stars. Focus on delivering a clear message over video and it will be so much easier and faster to build trust and a believable brand.

In your opinion, what is an example of a company that has done a fantastic job building a believable and beloved brand. What specifically impresses you? What can one do to replicate that?

One of the best brands right now is JLO’s. She is beloved by the Latinx community and they stay loyal to her by watching her movies, buying her music, and wearing her clothes. One thing I love that she is doing is she is moving her social media followers to her email list, that way they are the first to know about music, movies, or brands she is involved with. I love this because she also knows she can’t ever buy her followers but she can own an email list. Her brand is secure because she can spread messages about what is important to her and they obviously want to be a part of it and will buy from her. Her brand has also lasted for over 20 years and is beloved by women all over the world. The best thing you can replicate is to notice that building a brand takes time, but it’s important to stay the course and keep building fans that love you.

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?

A brand building campaign is like McDonald ads. Their ads aren’t saying go buy our hamburgers they are saying if you buy our hamburgers we promise you will be happy and love it. They are building a community who wants to be happy after eating at McDonald’s. So if I were to define it a brand campaign is how you can emotionally connect with your target audience so that they can be part of your community and eventually buy from you.

What role does social media play in your branding efforts?

Social media is a big part of it because it’s a great way to build community and brand visibility. But the other component is email content. Having your own email list is key because we can’t own our followers like you can own an email list. My philosophy is using social media to grow my client’s email list.

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

I want to inspire other Latina’s to start their business and to build their dream life by being themself. I think too often in the Latinx community we want to please our family and friends but we forget to focus on our own dreams instead of fulfilling everyone else’s.

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

My favorite mantra is keep it simple. I think too many times as entrepreneurs we try to overcomplicate things. I’m all about seeing the big picture and making it simple. If we make things simple it’s a lot easier to take action and implement.

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

I would love to have lunch with JLO. I think she is so inspiring as a Latina and she is multi-passionate and able to juggle so many projects and still build a successful brand. I think it’s amazing that she has been able to adapt and grow a social media following and stay in tune with her audience for over 20 years.

How can our readers follow you on social media?

Follow me on Instagram at @amandamelissa.co and TikTok at @amandamelissa.c

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

Thank you so much! I appreciate it.

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Personal Brand Strategist Amanda Melissa : Five Things You Need To Build A Trusted And Beloved… was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

An Interview With Fotis Georgiadis

Access to the broadest talent pool.

Given the challenges ahead of us we need access to a broad talent pool, we need the right people with the right skill set on the job regardless of their gender, race, ethnicity, sexual orientation or disability. We cannot afford to leave great talents out because of them being members of an underrepresented group. Especially younger generations who take a close look at the DE&I agenda of future employers.

As a part of our series about “How Diversity Can Increase a Company’s Bottom Line”, I had the pleasure of interviewing Silke Muenster, CDO, Philip Morris International.

Silke was appointed Chief Diversity Officer (CDO) at Philip Morris International (PMI) in March 2020 — a newly-created role reporting directly to the CEO. She joined PMI in 2011, where she was director, Market and Consumer Research until 2012 when she became vice president, Market Research.

At PMI, she is known for being incredibly proactive on inclusion and diversity (I&D) — she is a coach and mentor to other women, has built a women’s network at PMI and prior to her current role, worked closely with senior leaders across the organization on workplace strategies and tactics to advance I&D. Over the past months, she has successfully expanded the focus of the company’s I&D strategy and established a number of global Employee Resources Groups (including on gender, race and ethnicity, and LGBTQ+ inclusion) with the purpose of creating a space for community and connection among employees, and to foster a sense of belonging, visibility, and greater understanding of different experiences and dimensions of diversity at PMI.

Prior to PMI, she led research roles at the Coca-Cola Company, Apollinaris & Schweppes and Marbert Kosmetik. She began her career at Research International after earning her degree in mathematics from Ruhr University, Bochum in Germany.

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

I began my career at a Market Research agency called Research International owned by Unilever, shortly after earning a degree in mathematics from Ruhr University in Germany. I subsequently spent more than 30 years in market research, marketing, and strategic planning roles for several companies including Coca-Cola. At Philip Morris International (PMI), I led market research until I was appointed to the newly-created role of Chief Diversity Officer in 2020.

I’ve been passionate about diversity, equity, and inclusion (DE&I) initiatives throughout my career, coaching and mentoring several female colleagues. As a working mother of three sons and a mathematician by trade, I’m no stranger to being the only woman in the room. This would often make me feel isolated and unwelcome. That’s why, in my current role, I’m committed to cultivating an environment that enables everybody to feel the joy of belonging to a workforce that celebrates individuals and encourages all perspectives.

I have a two-year-old granddaughter, and I’m determined to help pave an easier path for her and future generations.

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?

Unfortunately, I can’t share most of the funny stories but my takeaway is that a lot of failures become funny stories in hindsight. It is always good to remember that what seems to be a drama today is something you might laugh about in a couple of years.

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 standard you walk past is the standard you accept.” Lieutenant General David Morrison, retired senior officer in the Australian Army.

To sustainably and rapidly drive progress, we cannot only rely on leaders to foster workplace inclusion. Everybody has a role to play, which is what Lieutenant General David Morrison’s alludes to. We need to drive education and awareness to establish an environment where microaggressions and unfair treatment of others — because of gender, sexual orientation, race, religion, or any other diverse characteristic — are called out. Individuals who are willing to speak up in this way become allies, helping to influence the behavioral and attitudinal changes needed to achieve a workplace where everybody can be their best, true selves.

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?

The list of people who helped me to get me where I am is really long. I had many fantastic bosses during my career. Although interestingly enough, I had only two female managers, but they are the ones I am most grateful towards. They were my mentors and role models at the same time.

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

I believe we stand out because we’re walking the talk of change and progress. In 2019, PMI became the first multinational company to receive the global EQUAL-SALARY certification from the independent not-for-profit EQUAL-SALARY Foundation — confirming that we pay men and women equally for equal work in the 90-plus countries where we operate. In May 2022, we were global EQUAL-SALARY re-certified. Recently, we also reached our global company-wide target of at least 40% female representation in managerial roles by the end of 2022. This was an important step in our efforts to improve gender balance at PMI, and I’m delighted that we achieved this goal ahead of time. But, of course, we still have a long way to go — so it’s critical we continue to drive progress. Our next aim to foster gender balance in our organization is to achieve 35% of women in senior roles by 2025.

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

We recently announced the results of our cutting-edge “Inclusive Future” study, which explores how businesses can measure inclusion and foster a culture of equity and belongingness. The publication of the study follows a yearlong academic research project conducted independently by the International Institute for Management Development (IMD). It examined a broad range of qualitative and quantitative approaches and practices that organizations can implement to drive organizational change in this vital area.

The project investigated the impacts of Covid-19, Black Lives Matter, MeToo, and socio-economic disparities on inclusion and inclusive leadership, highlighting the need for a more comprehensive measurement approach that examines all six key dimensions of inclusion: psychological safety, uniqueness, fairness, participation, belonging, and authenticity.

It also recommended the Inclusion Net Promotor Score (iNPS), a practical new pulse tool that we’re currently piloting to measure inclusion using a single question.

This pioneering research provides PMI — and other companies — with a broad range of methods and tools to help foster a culture where everyone is accepted and celebrated for who they are.

We’re only at the beginning of our journey. But step-by-step, we’re building an organization where every employee feels able to bring their best, authentic selves to work.

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

Fairness is one of the most important values one can have in my opinion. Over the years, I have spoken up whenever I noticed something that wasn’t right, or unfair, whether that be at work or in general. I have been a mentor to many people especially women and in my current role I have the opportunity to make sure that at PMI we use our influence to bring change to the world, especially when it comes to DE&I.

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

1. Driving creativity and innovation.

An inclusive and diverse organization cultivates an environment where creativity and innovation can flourish, driving a company’s ambitions. At PMI, our ultimate goal is to deliver a smoke-free future. This means we are transforming from a traditional manufacturing and distribution business with a single product line to a science and technology leader in smoke-free products that are a much better choice for the millions of men and women who would otherwise continue to smoke. To achieve this, we need to unlock the full potential of all. That’s why building a truly diverse and inclusive organization is so pivotal to our success.

2. Driving consumer centricity.

At PMI, a diverse workforce that represents the consumers we serve is critical. In order to better understand the needs of our global consumers, we need inclusion and diversity. Women make up half the world’s intelligence and university graduates, influencing 60–70% of today’s consumer spend — so tapping into this talent pool to better reflect the needs of our consumers is a business must. That’s why we are committed to closing our gender gap at PMI.

3. Access to the broadest talent pool.

Given the challenges ahead of us we need access to a broad talent pool, we need the right people with the right skill set on the job regardless of their gender, race, ethnicity, sexual orientation or disability. We cannot afford to leave great talents out because of them being members of an underrepresented group. Especially younger generations who take a close look at the DE&I agenda of future employers.

4. Consumer expectation.

In today´s world consumers expect brands to have a point of view and companies to act responsibly. Creating a diverse and inclusive culture is simply the right thing to do — for our employees and for society. We have a duty to lead by example and we’re committed to building an inclusive culture that enables each employee to contribute their best work.

5. Stakeholder expectation.

There’s a growing expectation for companies to ensure their workplaces reflect the full diversity of their consumers and society, as well as contribute to a fairer, more equitable world. This expectation gained momentum during the global pandemic, which brought systemic inequalities and deep societal divisions to the forefront of the public agenda. Businesses have a responsibility to help address these chasms and deliver a better, fairer world for everyone.

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

Employees can be their best, true, thriving selves when organizations provide them with a psychologically safe environment — the backbone of an inclusive culture. The best way to ascertain if a company is truly inclusive is to measure it — because what gets measured gets done. By strengthening their methods of measuring inclusion, companies can better foster a culture of belongingness. Business leaders should encourage their employees to get involved in DE&I discussions. This will enable employees to experience that vital sense and joy of belonging, giving them the confidence and safety to speak up, ideate, create, innovate, and reap the personal and professional benefits of a fully inclusive culture.

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

It’s important to understand that, for a multinational company like PMI, our DE&I activities won’t work for every cultural group. For instance, what resonates for people in Western Europe may not for people in Asia, and vice versa. That’s why we embarked on our “Inclusive Future” deep dive in the first place — to better understand the nuances that exist and, in turn, developing new tools to tailor our initiatives. This will enable us to pilot activities in specific geographies. As businesses leaders, we have a responsibility to act, to measure, to identify, and to address any issues around inclusion that may exist. Then we must respond with precision and purpose to foster work cultures that celebrate, value, and include everyone equally.

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?

Given I am an extroverted and very curious person there is a long list of people I would love to meet! The top three on the list are Jason Sudeikis, as I am a real Ted Lasso fan and love the way they weaved inclusion topics into a TV series. Next one is of course Brenée Brown, I love her books, podcasts and speeches and I imagine her to be fun in a meeting! And the third one is Sam Harris, as I am doing his guided meditations, and I have one million questions — still.

How can our readers further follow your work online?

For a more comprehensive overview of our Inclusion & Diversity work, please visit the I&D section of our website: https://www.pmi.com/inclusion-diversity. Readers can also learn more about our “Inclusive Future” initiative here: https://www.pmi.com/inclusion-diversity/inclusive-future

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

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Silke Muenster Of Philip Morris International: How Diversity Can Increase a Company’s Bottom Line was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Meet The Disruptors: Sung Vivathana Of SpotOn Fence On The Five Things You Need To Shake Up Your Industry

An Interview With Fotis Georgiadis

Don’t be afraid to open yourself up to criticism or questioning. Part of learning and growing is questioning what you think is best and having others do the same. You’re not always right.

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

Sung Vivathana is Vice President of Engineering at SpotOn Fence, where he not only leads all technical aspects of engineering, product, and app development, but also invented GPS fencing technology itself. Sung’s experience developing extremely complex electronic systems ranges from commercial power supplies to life-saving electronic equipment used by the U.S. military. His unique perspective of making precision devices that must perform in any and every circumstance drives the accuracy and reliability for which SpotOn GPS Fence is known.

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 began my career, upon graduating from Widener University, as an electrical engineer. In 2007, I started working at InSight Technology with Ken Solinsky, developing and manufacturing advanced night vision and electro-optical systems for the U.S. military.

In 2010, InSight Technology was acquired by L3 Technologies and I stayed on until 2013, when I accepted a position with Optics 1, an electro-optical systems company in the defense industry.

Ken approached me with an idea: a truly wireless pet containment system. In 2015, I became SpotOn Fence’s first employee.

It was the first time I had ever developed a consumer product. My first working prototype was a series of boards and chips on a lunch-tray-sized piece of plywood.

For months, I’d stitched together printed circuit boards and developed custom software to process GPS signals. Imagine us carrying these big trays outside, creating virtual fences, and testing boundaries — in both summer humidity and winter snow. We’d let dogs roam and put down tape measures to collect statistical data and gauge accuracy.

Problems cropped up, like getting it to work under a tree canopy, where the signals were weaker, designing the collar so that the GPS antenna always faced up, and miniaturizing the technology so that it would work on smaller dogs. It was a lot of trial and error.

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

Before SpotOn, the concept of keeping pets contained in a virtual fence had never been successfully executed and there was no product that both kept your pet contained and let you know if it escaped. We’ve invented a multi-patented technology and applied it to the invisible fence — a system that had not been changed or upgraded in 40 years.

The SpotOn system is more accurate than the GPS on your smartphone or watch. By using a relatively large active antenna with high sensitivity to improve signal strength, and inertial navigation micro-electromechanical system (MEMS) components, such as three-axis accelerometers, magnetometers and gyroscopes, it provides additional movement information and corrects for possible satellite position errors. Most smartphones and watches use GPS only and non-active chip antennas for compact size.

This augmented GPS had never been used before in the consumer tech space, in which the only development had been pet trackers that use GPS and cell service. These devices aren’t very accurate and don’t update location frequently.

Our device is the first to have accuracy within 10 feet and update location every six seconds by using GPS data and triangulating with information from the European Galileo system, the Chinese BeiDou and the Russian GLONASS.

With this accuracy, SpotOn allows for greater flexibility than any other fence. Since you walk the boundary line, you can make the fence wherever you need it — even through water.

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

In our early development stages, I quickly learned that we should not be testing outside in hilly areas in the middle of winter. Once, we built a fence on a hillside with snow and ice. While testing, I slipped and the board flew up in the air, crash-landed and broke. That board took me months to make and was gone in an instant.

Another lesson was not to perform prototype testing in busy public areas. You get a lot of funny looks and questions when you’re holding a lunch tray full of electronics on your head.

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?

John Mason from Sunrise Labs was a good sounding board during development. We would talk through all the innovative things we needed to make this technology work and spent a year and a half directly developing concepts together that are now patented. He was knowledgeable and personable, and we worked very well together to create a solution that has the potential for a great market.

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’s always good to positively impact people’s lives, but there can be unintended, ‘not so positive’ consequences. Electric vehicles and solar panels are an example of this. While providing an alternative to combustible energy, a lot of the processes of developing and manufacturing “green” technology can have the unintended consequence of contributing to other environmental issues.

As we developed SpotOn to offer users flexibility, portability and customization of a fence, something that was always fixed and inflexible, we took extra steps to minimize any unintended consequences. For example, we conducted Specific Absorption Rate (SAR) testing of the product, something required for humans, but not dogs.

We also sourced and manufactured in the U.S., where possible, to create jobs, have better control of our supply chain, and be less dependent on offshore components.

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

For me, there are three that really stand out.

1. Never give up. When inventing a product, there can be so many “worst of times” moments and external dependencies that you can’t control. Being an inventor and running a startup can be so overwhelming that it becomes easy to focus on the things that go wrong. Instead, try to focus on the little victories, on what you can control, and never stop trying.
2. Surround yourself with positive people. If you are feeling down or low, surround yourself with others who can pick you up. Optimism helps to get through the worst days. When you feel like you will never meet your goals, a good team can really help flip your outlook.
3. Don’t be afraid to open yourself up to criticism or questioning. Part of learning and growing is questioning what you think is best and having others do the same. You’re not always right.

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

I am going to continue to develop products that improve the lives of our pets. We want to be disruptors through and through and continue to push the envelope of technology when it comes to pets. We have plenty of ideas in the hopper, but that’s all I can say.

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 don’t at this time. I would love to explore more, but right now, I’m busy raising three boys who are generally very curious about how things work. They’ve adapted a problem-solving attitude to their interests. I usually spend my free time helping them tinker with electronics, code, or design and build things.

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

“Treat others as you want to be treated.” I try to take this approach every day to the people around me. Whether with family or colleagues, it helps drive collaboration and respect. I grew up in an urban area that was a little rough, where kids often didn’t treat one another with respect. I’ve always made sure not to repeat that behavior.

When I was starting out, I had some bosses that I think failed me in their leadership — creating what felt like more of a dictatorship than a learning environment. There was one instance when I saw a senior engineer look at work and call it ‘crap.’ I made a promise to myself that I would never do that to anyone.

At SpotOn, we’ve implemented a culture of respect for and confidence in your coworkers, so that we can do great things as a team. It’s how we got where we are today.

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 make mental health just as important as physical health. In our society, mental health isn’t looked at the same way other illnesses are; there aren’t enough people paying attention to it.

Mental health issues affect not only the individual, but also the people around them, and have great consequences on society. I think of how we could use technology to develop systems that better read brain activity and get ahead of these issues.

Mental health deserves the same education and support that we give to cancer research and other physical ailments, and we should provide education to help society better understand mental health issues without judgment.

How can our readers follow you online?

Follow us at @spotonfence.

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

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

An Interview With Fotis Georgiadis

Be personable. Studies have shown that consumers like it when brands are funny or say things that they agree with, and plenty of stories have been written about viral tweets from brands like Wendy’s.

As a part of our series about how to create a trusted, believable, and beloved brand, I had the pleasure to interview Nadia Gonzalez, CMO, Scibids.

Nadia is the CMO for Scibids, the global leader in artificial intelligence for digital marketing. She brings more than 15 years of marketing experience to the position, including senior marketing roles at Google, AdMeld, Sociomantic, Orchard Platform and her own marketing services firm where she supported early-stage adtech and fintech businesses globally.

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 was brought to adtech by needing to find a different job early on in my career. One of my first jobs, at a law firm in New York City, was reminiscent of all of the awful elements of the “Devil Wears Prada” — non-stop phone calls on weekends, daily 8 am F-bombs from my bosses and forced phone calls where the all-male partners ridiculed the assistants. I was depressed, and couldn’t find a way out no matter how many interviews I lined up.

A career coach told me to expand my network and meet with as many people as possible, and I took that to heart. One day in 2007, I was introduced to Ben Barokas, who was working at an online advertising network. I told him about some previous experience I had in television production, hoping he could help me connect it to digital media as digital advertising startups were really taking off. He told me that my experience had nothing to do with adtech. I thought that was that, but six months later he called me. He had just started AdMeld, a yield optimization platform for online publishers, and offered me a job. Ben agreed to give me a chance to learn about adtech, and I would help him manage his quickly growing startup.

What I lacked in adtech experience I made up for in knowing how to run an office and how to find solutions to problems. From day one I was exposed to everything it takes to operate a software startup. It was amazing to be part of a team that was growing in such a hot industry. I could not have dreamed it at the time, but in 2011 Google bought AdMeld for $500 million, and I became a Google employee.

That experience and the Google pedigree led to opportunities for me to take a seat at the table in senior marketing roles in two additional tech acquisitions, including one in the fintech space. With more than fifteen years in tech, I’m now CMO of Scibids, a Paris-based technology company that builds artificial intelligence for digital marketing.

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?

One mistake I made in my early days in marketing was not paying attention to detail and rushing through proofing materials. When something goes to print and it’s misspelled, it is a significant problem. I was devastated when I realized my oversight. At the time, I had a boss that sternly looked at me and said, “I won’t tell anyone, but this will never happen again.” I made sure it didn’t.

My advice to less experienced marketers who have worked for me is to slow down, take a break and read it again before asking me to do a final sweep. It takes a team and it’s ok to ask for help, but it’s also important to do your best!

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

What pulled me to Scibids in the first place is exactly what makes us stand out. We create customizable, sophisticated AI that dramatically improves paid media performance without third-party cookies or other digital identifiers for ad decisioning — and does better than more traditional methods that aren’t consumer friendly. Our approach is all about putting privacy first. I’ve seen a lot in the adtech space, but I hadn’t seen technology like this before joining Scibids.

For example, when we began working with an online retailer, we had to build a better, more efficient video campaign on the open internet compared to the retailer’s efforts on YouTube. We didn’t need to look at the same data other companies would have — we built our bidding models on impression level data and conversion feeds.

With that, we reduced the cost-per-qualified-visitor by 71% compared to the YouTube campaign the client was running — and produced the kinds of results that our client was looking for.

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

Scibids continues to rapidly expand; we opened an office in Canada earlier this year. Right now, my biggest project is the global go-to-market strategy. As privacy becomes a bigger concern around the globe, my chief concern is making sure that we convey our privacy-friendly image first.

This will help people by making advertising less targeted in the sense that it uses less personally identifying information and data. The more Scibids grows, the more we’re able to give people some of their privacy back.

How would you define the difference between brand marketing (branding) and product marketing (advertising)? Can you explain?

Branding is about who you are as a company and how that makes consumers feel. It’s about eliciting trust, inspiring loyalty, and building a positive relationship with consumers. Companies like Google, Samsung, Amazon, and more put a lot of effort into their branding.

Advertising and product marketing, on the other hand, is about what you are offering to consumers — making them aware of what makes your product different or better and then encouraging them to make purchases.

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

It’s simple: people like doing business with people and, by extension brands, that they like. Edelman’s research, for example, shows that a brand relationship goes beyond just buying a product — it means eliciting real emotions, building a sense of kinship between the brand and the customer, and continued interactions.

While advertising and marketing are always important, especially to make the first contact with a new consumer, building a brand is what keeps that consumer with you in the long term. It’s what inspires their loyalty and turns them into evangelists for you, organically growing your business.

Can you share 5 strategies (and examples if you have them) that a tech company should be doing to build a trusted and believable brand?

1. Be personable. Studies have shown that consumers like it when brands are funny or say things that they agree with, and plenty of stories have been written about viral tweets from brands like Wendy’s.
2. Make sure your tech says what you say it can do. If you’re not reliable, you aren’t eliciting the positive emotions you need to build relationships with your consumers. Microsoft had spent years building relationships with techies around the world with its Office suite, Windows OS, and more, and then it launched the Zune, which not only had to compete with the iPod, but then had issues with glitches like Zunes freezing in 2009 because they were unable to handle leap years.
3. If you’re high tech, you need to be high touch. Low-touch advertising is easy for consumers to tune out. When I worked at AdMeld, we had some of the most sophisticated publishers entrusting us with their discretionary inventory because of the level of managed services we provided. Technology can do a lot that people can’t do, and we certainly know that at Scibids. AI is better than humans at certain tasks, like computing optimal prices to respond to bid requests, automating complex processes, and making data actionable. But more importantly, AI is also able to increase the quality of insights for humans to leverage and elevate our work, allowing us humans to use the human touch more effectively, which is what customers care about in the end.
4. Sing from the same songbook. No matter your communication method, make sure it adheres to your agreed-upon style. Take Coke’s legendary mistake of introducing New Coke and immediately discontinuing Coca-Cola — and getting rid of the iconic cursive logo in favor of something that looked hopelessly outdated to our modern eyes. It’s not just about logos, though; it’s about setting the right tone with each interaction, using consistent formatting, and more.
5. Use your customers to advocate for you and don’t forget thought leadership. Trust begets trust — so if a customer is willing to stick up for your brand, that signals you must be doing something right. Leverage those positive connections, and you’ll build a better brand each time.

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?

Suma Wealth. They are a small fintech startup, but they’re doing big things. Their founder and CEO, Beatriz Acevedo, has built big brands before, particularly media empires that know how to speak to U.S.-born Latino Millennial and GenZ youth. She did this once before with the video ad network Mitu, and she’s at it again with Suma Wealth, the leading financial technology company devoted to increasing prosperity, opportunity, and financial inclusion for young, U.S. Latinos. She’s teaching the next generation of Latinos to build wealth and does so in ways that are in-culture to build trust and speak to the Latino and American heritage that is their legacy. I wish this platform existed when I was in my 20s!

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?

It’s a little different because you’re not necessarily advertising to the masses. All the same, mindshare is very important in determining the success of a branding campaign.

What role does social media play in your branding efforts?

LinkedIn and Twitter are the most important in the B2B side of marketing and branding. While you have to keep it professional, there’s plenty of room to make fun, insightful content that sticks with your potential customers.

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

Take a break! I know it’s hard to do — but when you walk away, you’re able to reduce stress and may even get some new insights into a particularly difficult problem. I work for a French company and recently learned that it’s illegal to eat lunch at your desk! How about that for promoting work-life balance.

If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be?

Imagine a world where disinformation and misinformation just didn’t exist. We’ve seen the kind of role that disinformation can play in fomenting conflicts and otherwise weakening societies. If we could really make an effort to fight disinformation, I think we’d be much better off.

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

I learned this in a monastery from a Buddhist nun: “When in doubt, do nothing. Think about the task and ask.”

When I switched to adtech, I had to use this a lot. I didn’t know anything about adtech, but if I wasn’t able to stop and ask, I didn’t do anything that could have resulted in future problems until I could ask. The more I practiced this, the more I was able to learn and succeed together with the rest of the team, and I believe that teamwork is what made the company successful enough to be purchased by Google. I bring that lesson with me everywhere I go in my career.

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. 🙂

Stacey Vanek Smith: I loved her book, “Machiavelli for Women.” To take “The Prince” and break it down the way she did for today’s women in the workplace is not only thoughtful and insightful but also brilliant!

Dwayne Johnson: Does this need justification? I think he’s so cool and he’s a girl dad!

Dolores Huerta: Simply a legend. She’s a labor leader and civil rights activist on top of being Latina. I would keep pouring tea just to listen to her stories of struggle and triumph!

How can our readers follow you on social media?

You can find me on Twitter: @nadia_gonzalez or follow Scibids on Twitter @scibids or LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/scibids/.

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

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Nadia Gonzalez Of Scibids: Five Things You Need To Build A Trusted And Beloved Brand was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Meet The Disruptors: Nicolas Chammas Of Sentral On The Five Things You Need To Shake Up Your Industry

An Interview With Fotis Georgiadis

Focus on your strengths. I think that advice is really valuable because we often focus on our weaknesses, which is really important. But we tend to be so focused on improving our weaknesses that we don’t double down on our strengths. Finding your superpower and doubling down on that can pay major dividends.

As a part of our series about business leaders who are shaking things up in their industry, I had the pleasure of interviewing Nicolas Chammas, CFO at Sentral.

An investor turned operator, Mr. Chammas joined the company as Sentral’s first Chief Financial Officer. In his role, Nick oversees Sentral’s finance and accounting functions and is responsible for managing the annual budget and the capital planning process, financial reporting, forecasting, and fundraising and ensures Sentral remains appropriately capitalized for growth. Prior to joining Sentral, Nick served as Vice President of Strategic Finance and Investment Analysis at Sonder, where he led $900 million in fundraising and Sonder’s eventual 2022 IPO. Before merging his passions for real estate, hospitality, and finance, Nick worked for more than 15 years in growth equity investing and investment banking. Nick has led investments in growth-stage technology and technology-enabled businesses, and has advised public and private companies on M&A, capital raising, and IPO transactions, representing nearly $15 billion.

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

I grew up in Silicon Valley and started my career as an investment banker focused on disruptive tech and tech-enabled services companies. I really loved the deal business but I wanted to be closer to actually building companies so I transitioned to private equity where I was focused on investing rather than just advising growth companies. As an investor, I had an incredible amount of respect for entrepreneurs and start-ups that were transforming legacy industries and I began looking for opportunities to take on operational roles in growth companies. I also had the perspective that if you are going to be successful building a company, you need to be super passionate about the sector you are in and the problem you are solving. I’ve traveled all my life and have always been fascinated by real estate, and so the intersection of real estate and hospitality drew me in and led me to Sonder. After nearly three years there leading strategic finance at Sonder and taking the company public, I was introduced to Sentral’s CEO, Jon Slavet, and the Sentral team and was instantly drawn to Sentral’s vision of redefining home and building the world’s largest and most connected flexible living community.

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

The multifamily industry has relied on the same revenue model for decades: fixed 12 month leases of unfurnished units without the flexibility for residents and guests to reside or stay for shorter periods of time. However, due to radical shifts in technology, the work-from-home movement brought on by the pandemic and the desires of modern renters and travelers to become unburdened from a single long-term location, this model no longer works for a large segment of today’s consumers. In addition, short term rental (STR) operators, who have risen in prominence over the last five years, have developed a model where they can profit from running short term rentals in traditional multifamily buildings. This model provides owners with a fixed income stream, but all the upside goes to the STR operator. Sentral has taken a different approach — partnering with owners to share in the upside. Our unique approach to managing an asset is based on our ability to manage any length of stay — whether that’s a night, a month, or a year. We partner with owners to furnish a portion of their apartment units or the entire building based on the owner’s preferences — and we will manage any length of stay — from the traditional monthly leases to overnight stays. Through our ability to efficiently manage any length of stay, we are able to drive a 5 to 10 percent increase in owner NOI which we believe owners can’t get with any other partners.

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

Early on in my investment banking career, I had the good fortune of working with the amazing team at Google on their IPO. After I left investment banking, I remember my mother asking me if she should invest in Google stock. Having been through countless hours of training about insider trading, I was so paranoid about investing in Google that I told her not to invest, even after my insider knowledge had expired. I also held off on buying GOOG stock until several years later and by then the price had increased to 4x the IPO price. I’ve kicked myself ever since — timing is everything!

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 fortunate to have some really great mentors in my career, but a lot of the values I have today were formed early on in life by spending time with my grandfather who was a successful entrepreneur in his home country of Lebanon. He was respectful of others’ opinions and would listen before he spoke, taking time to understand all perspectives before weighing in with his thoughts. I think we are often so quick to speak in groups or in meetings because we want to get our point across that we fail to listen to the other thoughts around the table. So in life and in my career, I try to listen before I speak, and use the perspectives of others to help shape my views. I think this is something great leaders do well — they surround themselves with other great leaders, listen to their ideas, and make decisions after reviewing multiple points of view.

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?

As an investor earlier in my career, I tend to think about disruption with the framework of “better, faster, or cheaper.” A successful disruptor typically does one of these really really well. I’m old enough to remember when there were more than a handful of Internet search engines like AskJeeves, Altavista and others. Then Google came out with a wildly simple but much better search algorithm and quickly took market share from the other search engines, many of whom were eventually acquired or shut down. There are also examples of wannabe disruptors who failed in dramatic fashion. One recent example that comes to mind is Theranos. They attempted to disrupt the healthcare industry by using technology to deliver better and faster test results from small samples of blood, yet after burning through nearly a billion dollars of investors’ money, it was discovered that the technology simply didn’t work and the science was much more complex than the founders of Theranos had realized. At the end of the day, your product or service actually has to work — it can’t simply be faster or cheaper.

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

Focus on your strengths. I think that advice is really valuable because we often focus on our weaknesses, which is really important. But we tend to be so focused on improving our weaknesses that we don’t double down on our strengths. Finding your superpower and doubling down on that can pay major dividends.

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

At Sentral, we are just getting started. Our mission is to redefine home and build the world’s largest and most connected flexible living community. We manage about 3,500 apartments across the U.S. today and are rapidly expanding as property owners are desperate for ways to increase the value of their assets. The beauty of our model is that it truly is a win-win — our residents and guests have more flexibility, with the ability to stay a night, a month or a year in our properties, and our owner partners can get higher revenues and increase the NOI of their assets by partnering with Sentral. We think it is just a matter of time before the rest of the industry catches on and we are already in dialogue with many of the top institutional property owners to help transform their assets.

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

I’m a big fan of Patrick O’Shaughnessy’s podcast Invest Like the Best. I love his approach of bringing together successful investors and visionary entrepreneurs to tell their stories. My biggest learning from his various podcasts is that there are many paths to success, but one common thread among successful leaders is passion and relentless curiosity. Even the most successful leaders don’t claim to have figured it all out. Fortune 500 CEOs have mentors, leadership coaches, and learn from their teams along the way. As leaders we need to constantly evolve with the times and learn from those around us.

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

There are a lot of great life lesson quotes out there. One of my favorites is “Do easy things for a hard life, and do hard things for an easy life.” The takeaway is that if you end up always choosing the easy path, you will suffer later on. When we challenge ourselves and go outside of our comfort zones, that is where we grow and evolve and in the end leads to more fulfillment and happiness in our lives.

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 humility is one of the most important character traits a leader can possess, and I wouldn’t consider myself as having great influence, except perhaps with my kids. My wife and I have tried hard to raise our kids to be good people, who are respectful and kind, to other people and to animals as well. I think we could all make the world a better place through small changes in behavior like prioritizing kindness and respecting each other’s differences.

How can our readers follow you online?

I’m not super active on social media, but you can find me on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/in/nicolaschammas/ or on Twitter @nchammas.

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

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

Agile Businesses: Jarrod Johnson Of TaskUs On How Businesses Pivot and Stay Relevant In The Face of Disruptive Technologies

An Interview With Fotis Georgiadis

Be constantly innovating and thinking about your product or service and its value. You should always be thinking about how to make things better, easier, faster, more valuable — not just in times of disruption but always.

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 Jarrod Johnson, Chief Customer Officer at TaskUs.

Jarrod Johnson is the Chief Customer Officer at TaskUs. Jarrod leads the “Client Organization” at TaskUs, including global marketing, sales, client services (account management), their portfolio of global offerings, and the consulting organization.

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 spent ten years at IBM starting in technology consulting then moved into sales and account management roles. I became a market leader managing $100M in annual sales to Dallas-based retail and travel clients. Then I moved over to another large technology company that we sold to Xerox. I spent some time growing my career there, eventually becoming an SVP and Group President of IT Services.

After 16 years of working with large companies, I wanted to try something different. I wanted the experience of finding a $100 million dollar business and making it a billion dollar business. In 2016, I found the right business that was poised for growth, and joined TaskUs.

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

I made many mistakes in my early career, but there’s one that sticks out. When I first came out of college, I was starting as a consultant at IBM. At the time, there was a new fashion trend of square toed dress shoes. I needed new shoes for my job, so I decided to buy some.

Never have I made it so obvious that I was the youngest on the team than when I wore those. Everyone else was wearing traditional dress shoes, and here I was, wearing a trend. It even became a joke on my team — they would say, “Don’t bring me a bunch of square toes. I want the seasoned people.”

It taught me not to jump on a trend quickly, and to evaluate options before just going with what’s popular now.

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?

My mother is an incredible influence on my life. She was a very senior executive at several big companies, including Ernst and Young, CapGemini and Cognizant. While others found their coaches at work or school, I was born with the best executive coach available. Throughout my career, she has been someone I can bounce ideas off of and come to for genuine advice. No one could ask for a better mentor.

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

The original vision was that busy professionals would outsource tasks in their personal lives to people around the world who could do things better and cheaper, allowing the professionals to better manage their time and create personal freedom, such as in Tim Ferris’ “Four Hour Work Week.” That turned out to be a very tricky business to grow and do well and the TaskUs of today was born. We set out to work with technology startups and founders in Silicon Valley and Silicon Beach to help them scale their business rapidly, doing anything they needed more efficiently than they could do it themselves so they could focus on their core business.

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?

TaskUs provides digital outsourcing services to high growth technology brands around the world, including some of the largest technology brands. We’re a business process outsourcing (BPO) services and innovation company that delivers ridiculously good solutions to our clients. TaskUs serves clients in the fastest-growing sectors, including social media, e-commerce, gaming, streaming media, food delivery, and ride-sharing, HiTech, FinTech, and HealthTech. Our services help companies quickly grow and scale through outsourced digital services and next-generation customer experience.

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

Artificial intelligence has made everything we do faster and smarter. It’s also taken away a lot of the simple, task-based work that used to drive our industry. Instead, it’s left behind a world of complex problems. That has actually created an opportunity for the services industry to become more valuable, because humans are critical to solving complexity. In the future, you’ll see more of a combination human and AI approach to how work gets done.

Cloud technology significantly changed the game. It lowered the cost of entry for people to start creating technology and solutions. You don’t have to have tons of capital to build anymore. That opened the door for our company, but it also opened the door for competitors.

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

We were unique in that we started our company as some of these disruptions were already happening. From the start, we’ve been a web-based company, and we grew up on the cloud. Everything we’ve done has been over the Internet, and it’s been a big advantage; lower cost to build and faster speed to market.

Especially in 2020, being cloud-based was an incredible head start. We were able to quickly send people home, get work done and not lose productivity. Without knowing it, we were preparing our company to thrive in remote scenarios.

We’ve also doubled down on people. The human factor is so important to our business, and we realize that the best way to have the top people is to invest in them. It’s not enough to just have a good culture. When we were a young company, having a great culture and a ton of passion went a long way. Now, with 45,000 people around the globe, we need more to keep that passion alive.

We built extensive programs around wellness, benefits and diversity and inclusion. It’s been an important pivot away from a culture approach, to a holistic people-first approach. Culture is still important, but we also have real programs that affect people in tangible ways.

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.

The moment for me was when I saw the flywheel effect of investing in people happening in real time. The flywheel effect happens when small wins accumulate over time, creating a snowball of successes. That happened with our people.

When you invest in people, they do better work. Talent chooses to stay with you, their performance improves, and eventually the performance of whole teams is improved. These changes make your clients happier, making them invest more in your business. The company becomes more profitable. Then, you can afford to invest more into the next people program, and it continues.

The investments in people quickly pay off for your customers. It was actually surprising how fast we saw real results. It created a better environment for our employees, better service for our clients and better results for our shareholders.

So, how are things going with this new direction?

We’ve been incredibly successful with this new direction. TaskUs has experienced exponential growth. We’re now approximately 45,800 employees across 23 locations in 12 countries and we went public on Nasdaq in June of 2021.

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

I was surprised to see the number of clients who cared about the people doing the work for them at TaskUs. When you think about outsourcing, it’s often all about numbers and outcomes. While we care deeply about our people, we weren’t sure our clients thought much about it. What we found is that when you highlight your culture and your people as an asset, it’s phenomenal the response you will get from clients.

They have really bought into our mission, and appreciate that we’ve created a company that they would want to work at, too. Being people-first has actually helped us secure some of the best companies in the world as clients.

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

Stay calm and have a vision. There’s always going to be bumps and uncertainties in the road. You can see that in the market right now, we saw them 2 years ago when the pandemic began, and there were plenty of bumps before that when we were much smaller. When you, as a leader, stay calm and keep your team focused on the long-term vision, it keeps the company moving forward and staying the course. It can be easy to get distracted, and there’s nothing worse for progress than a distracted team.

There are things you can control and things you can’t. Stay focused on what you can, plot the path forward, measure your success and progress and go from there.

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

We overcommunicate to our people. Transparency, honesty and humility are the best ways to lead. Even if you don’t know what to say, if you communicate and are transparent with people, they will be generally understanding. Saying nothing at all is generally worse.

You want to keep people believing. If they still believe, you can calm everything down and keep moving.

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

Stay true to your core values and stick to what you’re good at. That tends to weather any storm. Sometimes you need to make a major pivot to adjust to the times, but often, things are temporary or small fluctuations in the market. The strongest survive and thrive in these circumstances.

Be true to yourself and consistent and clear with the market, and you will be in a better position to survive turbulence.

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?

While you should recognize and respond to true disruption, don’t make mistakes by overreacting.

Stay on your path and execute your plan — if the plan needs adjustment, then adjust it. Don’t lose focus because you see a shiny object.

Be thoughtful about emerging technology. People often fall for hyped up trends. Don’t give in to the chaos. You absolutely must have a plan for emerging and growth markets and product or service line extensions but it should be a plan and not a reaction.

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?

1. Know your market.
2. Talk to your customers… a lot
3. Talk to your employees… a lot. Especially those on the front line delivering service or creating your products
4. Give clear and concise direction in the face of challenge and change
5. Be constantly innovating and thinking about your product or service and its value. You should always be thinking about how to make things better, easier, faster, more valuable — not just in times of disruption but always.

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

John Stuart Mill wrote about the concept of there being no “absolute truth”, and that truth is found through consistent debate and even things we know are true need to be challenged and confirmed every once in a while. As a former political science student, that is one of my big personal philosophies.

Creating dialogues, exploring topics and having debates can help find a lot of clarity. Be open to those conversations when it comes to solving problems, and it might lead you to the best outcomes.

How can our readers further follow your work?

You can follow TaskUs on Twitter and Instagram at @TaskUs, and follow me on LinkedIn.

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

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

An Interview With Fotis Georgiadis

Access to talent. We are in a talent war, not just for service jobs but all jobs. Even with an impending recession, employers are struggling to find talent. A focus on diversity and inclusion will provide them with access to a wider array of talent and reduce the time it takes to hire people, particularly for those “hard to hire” roles. But it’s not just the diversity — you need to make sure the workplace is inclusive, or it won’t work. If you hire a person and they hear sexist, racist, homophobic, etc. comments or jokes, they’ll leave in a heartbeat. You need to ensure your workplace is inclusive to both attract diversity and ensure your team not only survives, but thrives.

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

Michael Bach is the founder of the Canadian Centre for Diversity and Inclusion and president and CEO of CCDI Consulting. He is nationally and internationally recognized as a thought leader and subject matter expert in the fields of inclusion, diversity, equity, and accessibility, bringing a vast knowledge of leading practices in a live setting to his work. He is the author of two best-selling books: Birds of All Feathers: Doing Diversity and Inclusion Right and Alphabet Soup: The Essential Guide to LGBTQ2+ Inclusion at Work.

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?

Most of my career was spent in the IT field but I always had a passion for what we now call “diversity and inclusion,” specifically in the LGBTQ+ communities and with women and immigrants. I was raised to believe that I had a responsibility to use my privilege to the advantage of others, but to be totally honest, that wasn’t a job that would pay what I wanted to make. Then, in 2006, while working in the IT Consulting practice at KPMG, I had the opportunity to write the business case for the creation of a role in diversity. That moment changed the trajectory of my career because it merged a personal passion with a profession. Those were early days in the D&I space. So, you could call me a pioneer — which is a nice way of saying I’m old.

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’ve been working for over 30 years, so picking just one isn’t easy. I think the one that jumps out to me is the time that I identified one of my own biases, which happened before I got into D&I as a profession. I was in the process of hiring a new administrative assistant. I went through the interview process and found the perfect candidate — she had everything we were looking for. I went to my boss and said, “I found the perfect candidate, but…” and then explained that she was a larger woman. After my boss stopped throwing things at me, she said, “why on earth would you bring that up? What does that have to do with her ability to do the job?” She was right. And it forced me to examine where that bias came from.

I was a heavy kid. I started high school at 5’3” — and that’s not a height, that’s a diameter (if you get geometry, you get the joke). I have lived with body image issues my entire life. And I didn’t realize that I had a bias against larger people. That moment got me thinking about my own baggage and how I might be applying it to others. Dragging that bias into the light means it’s no longer controlling me. It’s not perfect (I still see the fat kid in the mirror) but it’s a lot better than it was. The moral of the story is that we are all flawed individuals.

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?

“Shut up kid, you’re not digging ditches” — the immortal words of my maternal grandmother, Doris Kennedy. I wasn’t exactly the toughest child. I was a bit delicate and largely didn’t want to do anything where I might work up a sweat. One day we (my mother, sister, and I) were all working in her garden, and I was complaining about something (I’ve never enjoyed getting my hands dirty), and out it came. That lesson stays with me. Whenever I’m feeling a bit down about something, or like life is too hard, I think of old Doris riding my whiny tween ass. That woman would put any drag queen to shame.

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?

Just one? There are so many. If I had to pick just one, I would say Beth Wilson, who was my boss at KPMG. She’s the reason I have a job in diversity. She gave me a job that I was in no way qualified for, largely because no one really knew what the qualifications for such a job were. But she saw something in me, and she trusted her gut. I hope I’ve done her proud.

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

I think there are a couple things that make CCDI Consulting stand out.

1. We have the practical lived experience that so many consultants lack. There are many D&I consultants out there who have never done the work and just make things up as they go, stealing things from the internet. Lived experience matters but so does practical experience. Just because a person is from a marginalized community doesn’t make them qualified to do D&I work. The murder of George Floyd saw a huge increase in the number of D&I roles, many of which went to people because of their lived experience, not because of their skill. I mean no disrespect, and I have supported and mentored many of those people, but the employers were setting them up for failure.

2. We live our values. We’re not perfect, but I believe that anything we’d recommend to a client is advice we follow ourselves. Our values are not just words on a piece of paper. They are who we are, and they guide how we operate.

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

Well, I wrote another book. Because… you know… pandemic. It came out on March 29, and it’s called Alphabet Soup: The Essential Guide to LGBTQ2+ Inclusion at Work. I wrote it because, even after working in the LGBTQ+ inclusion space for over 30 years, I still see people struggling to grasp the basic concepts behind gender and sexuality. Beyond that, I also wanted to inspire people to take action. It’s nice that people say they are allied with the LGBTQ2+ communities, but I want people to step up and engage — to use their privilege as straight and cisgender people to the advantage of LGBTQ2+ people. Considering what’s going on in places like Texas right now, action is more important now than ever before. Maybe I need to send a few copies to the US Supreme Court.

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

I’m in a very unique position in that I often have the ear of very powerful people. Those people listen to me. They turn to me for advice. And as such, I can work behind the scenes to influence situations so that diversity can increase in places it hadn’t previously existed. The specifics don’t matter (mainly because I can’t share confidential information), but I’m making the world a better place in my own way.

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

1. Access to talent. We are in a talent war, not just for service jobs but all jobs. Even with an impending recession, employers are struggling to find talent. A focus on diversity and inclusion will provide them with access to a wider array of talent and reduce the time it takes to hire people, particularly for those “hard to hire” roles. But it’s not just the diversity — you need to make sure the workplace is inclusive, or it won’t work. If you hire a person and they hear sexist, racist, homophobic, etc. comments or jokes, they’ll leave in a heartbeat. You need to ensure your workplace is inclusive to both attract diversity and ensure your team not only survives, but thrives.

2. Increase in employee engagement. A great research paper from Deloitte called “Waiter, is that inclusion in my soup?” found a direct correlation between employee engagement and diversity and inclusion. Employers with a high focus on diversity, whose employees feel included, can see a lift in employee engagement by as much as 101 percent. High levels of employee engagement leads to higher levels of productivity, which leads to higher levels of profitability. If a person genuinely cares about their job (because their workplace is one that people can bring their whole selves to), they will be more engaged.

3. Increase in innovation and creativity. There’s a bit of a legend in D&I circles about a certain aviation company that attributes diversity and inclusion to the building of one of the most fuel-efficient airplanes ever built. Apparently, when putting together the teams to build this plane, they placed a particular emphasis on the diversity of the team members to ensure they had the skills they needed, but also a diversity of perspectives too. The team discussed their diversity at the project kickoff, and lo and behold, they managed to produce a revolutionary design. Diversity can lead to increased innovation and creativity, provided it’s done properly.

4. Access to different markets. There’s another famous story in the D&I world — but this one is verifiable. Frito-Lay (yes, the chip company) wanted to get into the Latinx/Hispanic market in the US. It’s worth billions, and they recognized they were missing out. They had tried a few different products, but they’d had little success. Then they turned to their Latinx/Hispanic employee resource group, called Adelante (which is Spanish for “ahead”), leveraging them as a de facto market research group. As Frito-Lay employees, they had a vested interest in the successful launch of a new product. Long story short, thanks to the input of the Adelante members and their family and friends, Frito-Lay launched Doritos Guacamole Tortilla Chips, generating $100 million in sales of that product in the first year — one of the best product launches in the company’s history.

5. Improve brand and reputation. A focus on diversity and inclusion can have a positive impact on an organization’s brand and reputation. Nowadays, if an employer doesn’t have a focus on D&I, they’re seen as out of touch at best. The world is changing, and people are concerned about who they work for. Research shows that employees want to work for companies whose values they connect with. Gone are the days of “a job for a job’s sake.” People want purpose and they want to know that who they’re working for aligns with their beliefs. A serious focus on diversity and inclusion can lead to an improved brand and reputation, which will help to attract talent and customers.

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

Do everything you can to be an inclusive leader. Deloitte published another great report called the “Six Signature Traits of Inclusive Leadership”. In it, they summarize six traits of inclusive leadership (hence the name). One of my favorites is courage. But not courage like running into a burning building; courage like being open and honest and admitting you don’t have all the answers. As business leaders, we’re often told that we need to appear to know everything, and never let people see our weaknesses. But that’s ridiculous and exhausting. Courage is about a willingness to be vulnerable — to not know everything and be honest about that. We need more of that.

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

Practice the Platinum Rule: Treat others how they need to be treated, not how you want to be treated. Recognize that every person is unique and will have their own needs and expectations. Get to know your people and what they need. As a leader, I’ve always felt that it was my job to make sure others can do their jobs. But to do that, I need to understand what my people need. Figure it out and create the workspace that allows people to grow and develop. The result will be high levels of engagement, high productivity, high innovation, and high levels of loyalty.

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 🙂

It’s a toss-up between Dr. Cornel West and Dr. Kimberlé Crenshaw. They’re both such inspiring, thoughtful visionaries. I’ve heard them both speak at different events and they’re just amazing. Listening to Dr. West speak is like being hypnotized. And Dr. Crenshaw is the mother of the concept of intersectionality. I’m not impressed by celebrity. I’m impressed by people who give their lives to help make the world a better place. Dr. West and Dr. Crenshaw have done just that.

How can our readers further follow your work online?

They can visit my website at michaelbach.com and they can connect with me on social media: I am @TheMichaelBach.

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

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

An Interview With Fotis Georgiadis

Patience — There’s a lot of heavy lifting you have to do without seeing the benefit for a while. But you have to be patient and keep going. If you keep doing things to move yourself forward, eventually you’re going to catch a break and something’s going to work.

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 Gabe Karp.

Gabe Karp is a captivating storyteller and one of the leading experts in the art of conflict management. His message on the value and strategies of productive conflict has transformed many organizations — whether they’re trying to revive a stagnant culture or take on a competitor that seems unbeatable. Karp doesn’t speak from the outside looking in. He’s been an executive, manager, and leader in a range of roles. When he speaks on the topic of constructive conflict, there are no hypotheticals — he’s been there, done that and learned from it. Widely considered the gold standard in conflict management and leadership, his approach, which has been honed over 30 years, can help any organization harness the power of constructive feedback, open negotiation, and conflict resolution. Karp has just authored, Don’t Get Mad at Penguins And other Ways to Detox the Conflict in Your Life and Business.

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

My dad was a lawyer — so I had to learn how to make a strong case and defend my arguments to get what I wanted in our house. I was also the youngest of four kids, and if any of us ever said anything that didn’t make sense, we would have three other people pointing out our flaws. So, from a young age, I learned how to articulate my thoughts clearly and concisely in that environment. I think that sounds like a harsher upbringing than it actually was — or at least that’s how I perceived it. Let’s just say it was an environment with a lot of healthy competition.

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

I spent the first decade of my career as a trial lawyer. I later joined a small technology startup as one of the key executives who grew it into one of the top digital promotions companies in the world. After we sold the company, I entered the world of venture capital. I currently sit on the boards of several companies and non-profits, and work closely with several CEOs as they confront the inevitable conflicts that come with growing a successful company.

Whenever I looked back 6 months or a year to sort of take an inventory of how I’d been spending my time, I realized I was always gravitating toward conflict. As a lawyer, I focused on escalating conflicts and then worked to resolve them. As a startup executive, I gravitated toward conflicts to drive efficiency. I found that when we sought out and embraced conflicts in a healthy way, we worked better as a team, our company grew faster, we developed stronger relationships with our clients, our team members advanced in their careers, and we produced better overall results compared to when we tried to avoid conflicts. I also found that avoiding conflict is an exercise in futility. Sure, you can delay having to deal with difficult issues for a bit, but that usually just allows the issues to get worse — and then you’ll have to deal with them once they’re unavoidable.

Overtime, I noticed that I was more comfortable in the midst of conflict than most people around me. So, I spent some time unpacking that, in an effort to figure out how to help others increase their comfort level with conflict. I started mentoring people to help them navigate difficult situations and to view conflicts as opportunities to drive efficiency, fuel growth, and strengthen relationships.

I also did a lot of public speaking in my early career — as a litigator in court, and as a startup executive at culture events, trainings, and conferences around the U.S. and Europe. When I entered the world of Venture Capital, we would host summits for the leadership teams of our portfolio companies, and I would present there as well. I’ve always enjoyed public speaking but what I enjoyed even more was when people would bump into me months and even years later and tell me they put a piece of my advice into practice. It not only fed my ego (which is always nice), it was great to hear that someone found benefit and value in what I said. People started asking me to come speak to their organizations. And I realized — okay, there’s something here; this is something worth pursuing.

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

While still at ePrize, we did a big promotion for WWE, and they asked for an executive from our company to speak at a press conference promoting the campaign. I show up, looking like an “executive” wearing a suit — and if you’ve ever seen wrestling fans, you know that the last thing they want to see at a press conference is some executive in a suit, especially right after John Cena just got them all fired up in a way that only he can. I remember walking out from behind a curtain into a wall of deafening noise, blinding lights and cameras. It was so loud, the only thing I could really make out were the insults that the wrestling fans were hurling at me. I said earlier that I’ve always enjoyed public speaking, but this was definitely an exception. In that moment, all the excitement over getting a chance to speak at a WWE press conference completely evaporated. Then the audience started chanting, “Who are you?! Who are you?!” All I wanted to do was go home and crawl under a blanket. But I just started talking and, somehow, I ended up turning the crowd around — to the point where they were all chanting my name. That was a crazy day. After the press conference, the WWE asked me to appear on WWE’s Monday Night Raw for three weeks in a row as part of the campaign we were running for them. They even gave me a championship belt with my name engraved on it to commemorate the experience. I’ve got a few degrees and certificates for things I’ve done in my life, but that belt was the only thing I put up on the wall of my office. I was a wrestling fan as a little kid and I’m still more proud of that belt than anything else. By the way, one of the biggest lessons I learned from that experience is never follow John Cena on stage — the only place to go from there is down.

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

When I first started as a keynote speaker, I had a great presentation deck with images, videos, and several slides with titles that were my cues for what to say next. The combination of the slide deck and my speech made for a compelling presentation. I was very excited to present at one of my first paid speaking engagements. When I arrived at the hotel conference room about 30 minutes before I was about to go on, I saw that it was a crowded and I thought, wow, this is really cool that I get to present in front of all these people. Then I realized there was no screen in the room, no ability to project my slide deck. I felt lost; I didn’t have the anchors I needed.

I did my best to describe what the videos would’ve shown, and I relied solely on my words instead of falling back on the images on the screen. It actually worked much better than I thought it would. From that experience, I learned that, while it’s always great to have slides, I need to be prepared for anything because the show must go on. Another lesson from that incident is that whenever anyone asks me to speak at their event, I not only ask upfront the details of how the room is setup (and whether I’ll be able to show slides), I learn what the meeting is about so I can customize my presentation to make sure it resonates with their specific audience.

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

Yes, Josh Linkner. He’s a keynote speaker, and he’s written two New York Times best-selling books. We were a year apart in high school, and he was the founder of the starup I joined. We’ve worked together and have been friends for a long time. He was the one who encouraged me to jump into the world of public speaking, and he helped me as I leaned into building a business. He’s been extremely generous with advice, sharing the insights he gained over the years through trial and error. It’s been great to have the benefit of his years of experience and wisdom. I can’t thank him enough.

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?

When starting any kind of business, it can be demoralizing when you hit a brick wall at 100 miles an hour. But you have to be able to get up, shake it off, and start running as fast as you can again. The only thing that’ll get you through extremely difficult times is passion for what you’re doing. If you don’t have that passion, you can’t do it. But if your passion sets you down the path of being a public speaker, any obstacles or fear that get in your way will be overshadowed by your passion to keep moving forward. By the way, there are people who are terrified of public speaking. If you’re one of them, definitely don’t go down this path. But if you’ve got a topic you’re really passionate about and want to share it with others, I say go for it. Don’t let anything get in your way. Of course, if you’re really passionate about it, you won’t care what I say anyway.

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?

Well, like I was talking about before, it’s the passion. I’ve done a lot of work to understand the anatomy of conflict — the things that give rise to it, how to defuse it, and how to leverage it. I’m convinced that embracing conflict in a healthy way is the single greatest driver of success and happiness. Many people shy away from conflict at all costs. Sure, there are certain conflicts you shouldn’t engage — like when someone steals your space in the parking lot, you don’t need to get out of your car and give them a piece of your mind. I would just shut up and go find another parking spot. But other forms of conflict — like dealing with a person who has a difference of opinion or who is behaving in a way that makes you really uncomfortable — bullying you or being dismissive of your value — I’m 1,000% convinced that avoiding conflict in these cases will always be the wrong move. I like thinking about this stuff, talking about it, sharing my perspective with others — it’s a genuine passion.

We should work through conflicts instead of running away from them. We’re always going to be better off for having gone through that experience. When we step into that discomfort, we’ll learn about ourselves, and will learn about how to manage conflict. I believe, wholeheartedly, that I have simple yet powerfully effective tools to detox conflict and leverage it to drive success and happiness. It’s not a talent you’re born with; it’s a skill anyone can learn and enjoy immediate benefits when they practice 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?

I recently wrote a book called Don’t Get Mad at Penguins — which came out two months ago — so I’m still in the wake of the book launch. It’s available everywhere books are sold (shameless plug). I really enjoyed researching and writing the book, and I’m proud of it. So that’s probably the most exciting thing at the moment. And then, of course, I’m excited to do more speaking. I enjoy mentoring people and sharing the lessons from my book and keynote — whether it’s on stage with several thousand people or one-on-one.

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

Someone recently told me, “A life without meaning and purpose is a pretty depressing existence.” It may seem obvious, but that statement stuck with me. I like the perspective and it’s caused me to be deliberate about how I spend my time, what I focus on, and the things I put energy into. Since I heard that, there have been times I have stopped putting energy into something because it didn’t contribute to a life of meaning and purpose. Today, this is what’s top of mind for me.

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

1. A great speech — this one is obvious but I’ve seen some speakers who have great stage presence but didn’t have anything compelling to say. You wouldn’t be doing yourself, or anyone else, any favors if you work really hard to get a speaking engagement, only to fall flat on stage with nothing to say.
2. Tenacity and resiliency — Having a great speech is critically important, but the real work of being a highly effective public speaker is actually getting booked as a speaker. You need to have urgency and a burning desire to get booked as a speaker– and then you need to start putting that burning desire into action. In most businesses, when you first start out, you’re going to get a lot of rejection. You need to have resiliency so that after you run into a wall going 100 mph, you are able to get back up and start running again. If you don’t have that, I wouldn’t recommend going down this path.
3. Freakishly fast responsiveness — When someone reaches out to you and says they have a speaking opportunity for you, you need to get back to them immediately. If you take 24 hours to respond, you’re not going to succeed in this business. You should measure your response time in minutes, not hours and certainly not days.
4. Commitment to the craft — You have to continually work and refine your presentation. Just in these past 12 to 15 months, the world has changed dramatically. I don’t care what it is you’re speaking about; your message should adapt and change to meet the demands of the current world. You also ask potential clients exactly what they want to get out of your keynote at their event. You customize your presentation to give them what they want.
5. Patience — There’s a lot of heavy lifting you have to do without seeing the benefit for a while. But you have to be patient and keep going. If you keep doing things to move yourself forward, eventually you’re going to catch a break and something’s going to work.

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

If you have to go into the water but it’s freezing, you just have to jump in. Don’t dip in your toe, don’t wade in. Just dive in and do it. When you’re nervous about public speaking, you just have to jump in and start talking. The worst thing that will happen is that you’ll screw up. And, yeah, you’ll be embarrassed — but no one is going to get hurt and it’s not the end of the world. Half the time, the audience won’t even realize you’ve made a mistake. Just be able to laugh at yourself. If you freeze up on stage, joke about it and say, “Wow, I just froze up,” and that’ll get you a laugh from the audience.

When I walked out to that WWE press conference, I didn’t want to be there; I just wanted to go home and crawl under the covers. But that wasn’t really an option so I just jumped in and started talking. For the first 30 seconds, I don’t even know what I was saying, but I forced my way through it. At some point, the stress and anxiety of the situation gave way to the fact that I had a reason for being out there, that I had something specific to say. So, I said it and things worked out.

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 think my kids would disagree with the premise of your question so will you please tell them that I’m a “person of huge influence,” and really emphasize the word huge? Seriously, I would want to start a movement to dispel the myth that conflict is a bad thing that should be avoided at all cost. I would want to start a movement for people to create and embrace the healthy conflicts that fuel success, strengthen relationships, and get them to a happier place. I would achieve that by telling anyone and everyone that I can.

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!

Volodymyr Zelenskyy, the president of Ukraine. Talk about conflict; I’m really impressed with how he has led through this war with Russia against his country. That’s a guy who has stepped up to his calling in the most dire of circumstances. He also is a pretty funny guy and probably great to hang out with. I really hope that he and his family make it through to the other side of this thing.

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

Yes, you can visit www.gabekarp.com. I’m also on LinkedIn at www.linkedin.com/in/gabe-karp-1b772a1b, Twitter at https://twitter.com/gabe_karp, and Facebook at www.facebook.com/gabe.karp.79.

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

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Gabe Karp On The 5 Things You Need To Be A Highly Effective Public Speaker was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

An Interview With Fotis Georgiadis

A mission is particularly powerful for brands, especially in a time where they are being looked at to act and respond to topics far outside of what their business may focus on. Defining the mission can help guide teams who are managing the brand to know not only what to respond to, but how to respond.

As part of our series about how to create a trusted, believable, and beloved brand, I had the pleasure to interview Marissa Shapiro.

Marissa is the founder of Martha, the NY-based consultancy that builds brands from the inside, out. Her and her team partner closely with clients to create brand identities that claim space in their respective markets and engage their audiences across all touchpoints. Her career has led her to work with companies big and small, from Forbes, Vogue and Nike, to startups just getting their feet off the ground.

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

Absolutely! I had a bit of a winding path. I had been working at a now defunct network within Viacom and a friend of mine was interviewing for an agency. At the time I didn’t even know what an agency was, but she described the roles they were looking for and it sounded a lot like what I had been doing — essentially production. They ended up hiring me and once I got there I was immediately exposed to the ins and outs of how brands, digital products, and campaigns were created. It was a very creative environment and I loved it. It took me going freelance to make the transition from production to strategy and creative. Once I did, I formalized that offering into Martha, which is about seven years ago now.

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?

Ok, when I was at that defunct network at Viacom (Spike TV), I was covering a live UFC fight in Las Vegas. We’d basically write up what was going on in the fight and post it via blogs and Twitter throughout the night. It was my first time doing it and I got a message from my boss a couple of fights in that was along the lines of, “way too much detail, you do not need to transcribe the fight, just give the highlights.” It was then that I learned the attention span of audiences is very low and you need to get your message across as efficiently as possible.

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

Based on what I’ve seen from other companies over the years, what makes Martha different is that we go deep. We do a lot more than create a consumer-facing brand and hand it off with guidelines. We build a foundation for the inside of a brand, detailing out who it is and why it is that way based on inputs from the team, the market, and the audience.

Martha’s first client was a fitness company. The operations person was the one who ultimately hired us, and it was clear that the founder was uneasy about what they were spending on the project given what she determined the value of a brand to be. We went through our discovery process and our first review was brand positioning. She had a tough demeanor when the meeting started. By the time we were done she was smiling and excited. Once she saw the work, she recognized how deep we go to extract what’s special about a company and its team, to understand the audience and their needs, and to identify real opportunities in the market to serve as the foundation of the brand. They still leverage the brand we developed for them today, nearly eight years later.

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

Yes! One project we’re about to wrap up is for a sustainability SaaS company. They’re building a real-time data platform that will help businesses measure their footprint, reduce and offset emissions, and communicate these efforts with ongoing transparency. There’s no question that more businesses need to become more sustainable and the positive impact that this transition will have on people and the world.

Ok let’s now jump to the core part of our interview. In a nutshell, how would you define the difference between brand marketing (branding) and product marketing (advertising)? Can you explain?

Brand marketing is building awareness and recognition around the brand itself. This means ensuring that the emotional impact the brand is meant to have on its audience is coming through and achieving reach and growth as a result. There may be no call to action, or the call to action will be more about engaging with the brand itself (think: subscribing to a newsletter, following on social, consuming content).

Product marketing is communicating value of a particular product, service or offering. Essentially you’re trying to find an engaging way to explain what the value is and get them to take action (think: purchase, get in touch).

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 brand is the thing that people connect with. It has personality and depth. It makes people feel things. It’s what people remember. When engaging with a brand you instantly store it in an emotional place in your mind: “that’s fun”, “that’s cool”, “they know what they’re talking about.” The brand is the vehicle for a lasting impression. Whereas general marketing and advertising efforts are typically in support of specific business-driven goals for the year. Even then, the brand comes into play because it guides how you present the product or service being marketed.

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. Brand Positioning.

A brand’s positioning is key in understanding what you want people to feel when they think of, or encounter your brand. An ideal position is one that is aligned with the special qualities of a business, while also differentiated from the competition.

There’s a lot of competition in the food space, so when we worked with a ready-to-eat meal company it was a challenge to find something that was truly own-able. We started by outlining everything the competition was already capturing for consumers — from being aspirational to accommodating their specific dietary needs. Then we looked at the brand we were working with to identify qualities or value props that weren’t already on the competitive map. It took some work, but we found it 🙂

2. Brand Tactics.

This is how we make the positioning actionable. We ask: If we want to be here in the competitive landscape, how do we get there?

Let’s take a previous client of ours from the fitness industry as an example. Team was a central part of what made their offering unique. So, we identified their strategic positioning as “The Team Captain” because research shows this role is consistently responsible for winning teams. From there we developed tactics that reflect top qualities of the most successful Team Captains of all time:

Having No Ego

Leading By Example

Sticking to Impactful Interactions Over Performative Ones

Finally, each of these tactics are then broken down into practical actions the brand can take across all touchpoints, including examples for now and into the future.

3. Mission.

A mission is particularly powerful for brands, especially in a time where they are being looked at to act and respond to topics far outside of what their business may focus on. Defining the mission can help guide teams who are managing the brand to know not only what to respond to, but how to respond.

I recently received an email from Daily Harvest informing me that a new product of theirs that I purchased should be thrown away due to complaints from customers about gastrointestinal issues. In communicating this, they called back to their mission of “taking care of food, so food can take care of you.” They went on to explain that this means “quality, safety, and transparency are and always will be our top priorities.” By doing this, I was reminded that things happen and that even when things go wrong I can trust this brand to be honest with me and take immediate action in my best interest.

4. Who we are and who we aren’t.

We always develop brand attributes in our process, which are essentially the personality traits of the brand. What I’ve found to be critical in developing these is to also identify what you are not. I’ve seen this done as two general lists, but I like to think of the attribute on a spectrum so we can narrow in much more closely on that personality. This ultimately results in a brand that is more clearly identifiable and consistent.

So, let’s say we want a brand to be Collaborative. We’ll look at that attribute and think, if we over-invested in this what might it become? And in this case we determined it was Friendly. Now, this isn’t a bad trait to have at all, but it’s not appropriate for this brand, which is dealing with crime and other serious matters. With this targeted approach, we gain a much more practical guide to executing on these attributes.

5. Brand awareness and sentiment tracking.

This is the practice of surveying and listening to your audience, both existing and prospective, to identify where your brand stands in their minds. Do they even know about it? If they do, do they have positive feelings about it? Do they associate any of your value props with the brand?

It’s always eye opening to hear what a client views as their brand’s core values and differentiators versus what the audience does. It teaches you how noisy the world is and how delicate brand messaging can be. We had a client that provided security of data and information exchange as their primary value, yet the audience all referred to the top value of the brand as being easy to use. That’s not a bad value to identify as, but it’s pretty baseline for a SaaS company these days. That’s not what is going to set them apart in the greater, noisier market. With that insight, we were able to help them refine their identity accordingly.

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’m always impressed by brands that last — the ones who know who they are and stand the test of time. Home Depot is a good example of this. What impresses me most is their ability to appeal to a range of target audiences — from young and old, to the professional contractor and the DIY homeowner. I never really want to go to Home Depot, but if I need materials for a home project, that’s the brand that comes to mind first.

I think what we can learn, or try to replicate is the simplicity and consistency. The brand doesn’t scramble to adapt or fit in as the tides change. It sticks to what it knows and presents it simply and consistently. Its campaigns don’t try to grasp at far-reaching concepts and tie it to home improvement. It speaks directly to who its customer is when they walk through their doors and what they’re going to get. This was evident once again in their new tagline unveiled in 2019 — “How doers get more done.”

Building any brand, especially a believable and beloved one, also takes time. When you combine simplicity, consistency and time in market, your odds of sinking in with consumers in a way that means something to them are pretty good.

I’d be remiss not to acknowledge the slack they’ve received for their political affiliations in recent years, which I touch on more below. It actually makes this an even more interesting example of how much a beloved and believable brand can do for a company. In this case, Home Depot will very likely be fine because the brand equity is strong enough to either overpower or outlast the consumer’s attention span around negative PR.

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?

It’s similar in the sense that you should absolutely be measuring both. When it comes to measuring brand building campaigns, you’re typically looking at awareness, reach, perception and sentiment. These are things you can measure with brand awareness studies. Ideally brands are doing these every quarter, setting a baseline and observing shifts as new campaigns and products roll out. This includes social listening and surveys to the target audience to understand if the brand messaging, attributes, and value props are being absorbed.

What role does social media play in your branding efforts?

Social media is a key input and output for branding efforts. During our discovery phase, we do social listening to identify trends in how the audience is engaging or thinking about the brand at that current time.

Then social media channels become a part of what we explore and test against as we’re developing the visual and verbal identity. Will the logo mark scale down to the Instagram profile icon size? How do we speak to consumers in a social ad versus an organic social post? Do we use emojis? There’s lots to consider when it comes to social media.

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

To stop brands from being able to donate to politicians and lawmakers. Bringing it full circle, Home Depot has recently been boycotted for donating to lawmakers that rejected the results of the 2020 presidential election.

Brands — even beloved and believable ones — can often be used as a facade to get people to buy things from companies that aren’t really living up to the values that they put out into the world. We’re always going to be consuming, that’s not going anywhere. But, it would be incredible if we could feel confident in the brands that we’re consuming and not have to worry about strings attached. Separating corporate and political power would be a good start.

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

There isn’t one single quote or mantra that I live by. I’m Type A so that can get dangerous (haha). I do work with a coach and she often likes to take key insights and turn them into mantras so we don’t lose sight of them. A recent one was “Hear the Hesitation.” It’s really just a more applicable way of saying “Go With Your Gut” for me. As a business owner, there are a lot of pressures and competing priorities, which can make finding your gut challenging sometimes. But one thing that always stands out to me is when I’m hesitating. When I listen to that, I find it’s my gut trying to tell me something and I remind myself to stop and listen.

This has been particularly relevant for me in deciding what companies and people that I want to work with. Martha is a boutique consultancy and we like to focus in on the clients and projects that we work with. As of 2022, we only accept four projects at a time. Needless to say, who we choose to engage with is of the utmost importance to our business.

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. 🙂

Definitely Jess Lee from Sequoia

How can our readers follow you on social media?

You can find me at https://www.instagram.com/marisshapiro/ and you can find Martha at https://www.instagram.com/hello.this.is.martha/

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

Thank you!

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Marissa Shapiro Of Martha: Five Things You Need To Build A Trusted And Beloved Brand was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

The Future Is Now: Dmitry Semenov Of Saritasa On How Their Technological Innovation Will Shake Up The Tech Scene

An Interview With Fotis Georgiadis

Learn to delegate quickly. You’ll save yourself a ton of time in the long run, and build up a team of competent people. Delegation is often the hardest part of leadership. It’s easy to do things yourself. It’s hard to ask for help.

As a part of our series about cutting edge technological breakthroughs, I had the pleasure of interviewing Dmitry Semenov, CTO.

Dmitry Semenov has over 20 years of experience building and managing technology projects. He is proficient in full software lifecycle development, with deep knowledge in PHP, .Net, iOS and Android. He is skilled in the architecture of high demand, high traffic systems and has worked extensively with complex databases and integrating diverse software environments.

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

Back in the 80s, I used to dream about having a computer at home. My mom worked in the software industry. Occasionally I got the opportunity to visit her workspace, meet with her colleagues, and play various games.

Through that, I met some extremely talented developers. Remember, back in those days there was no internet, no stackoverflow.com. People had to store a massive amount of information in their minds. They had no opportunity to find a quick solution and therefore they were required to understand the technology or the language at a very serious and deep level. So they were true masters of their craft.

I remember monochrome displays, IBM XT, then IBM XT286, IBM Keyboards, Magnetic disks, and 64 Kb memory. It is crazy how quickly technology evolved in 30 years. Then Quake, Doom, and Duke Nukem 3D. I got the 33.6 kb modem and spent hours of gaming with my best friend (and occupying the phone line). I got my first computer at home when I was in university studying computer science.

I loved programming. When the internet became somewhat available (very expensive back then, when you had to pay per MB). I learned PHP3 language and developed the first web reporting solution for the bank I was working in. Then I got a side gig and developed a full dating site using PHP language. That became my hobby — the internet and web apps. This hobby turned into a passion for me. I kept programming more and more. I was then hired as director of web development in a local ISP. Eventually, I formed my own development company.

In 2007 I met with my future partner in the USA by responding to his ad about development needs. We started working on several projects and eventually met in the USA and decided to join our companies. That is how I became CTO and concentrated on the technology side of things in Saritasa. I was always following the path of the “interest” — because I can only do great things if I love doing these great things. All these years — I still **LOVE** what I’m doing despite the stress, risk, weekend, and nightly work.

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

The most interesting stories are the stories of people I’ve worked with for many many years, shoulder-to-shoulder, that are growing, improving, maturing, and changing. Watching them change is very rewarding for me, as I know I’ve helped them, influenced them, or put a different perspective on things that were important to them. At the same time, these people changed me as well. They helped me become a better person, a better professional.

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

Over the years we developed many interesting, complex, and rewarding projects — “Mobile Medic” which helps paramedics on-scene, “Trivver” which changed how VR/AR advertisement can be done, and many many many more. We’ve built thousands of projects over the years. When you work on serious projects — the stability and the quality of the infrastructure solution becomes a key element. That element requires special skills, special people, and special culture. It is possible to create a great solution at the code level, but have the project fail because the infrastructure keeps failing or not performing under load. This is where the importance of DevOps comes in. DevOps, Cloud, Security, and Kubernetes have become a hot topic in the development world. The companies who get it done right will have a much better journey than the ones who don’t care where their code/apps are living.

How do you think this might change the world?

The Cloud, Security, Containers, Scalability, Observability, Continuous integration, Continuous deployment, and Kubernetes / nomad / terraform are very complex topics. Multiply each by nuances of their technology stacks (Go, Python, PHP, .NET, Java, etc), and it gets even more complicated. Developers don’t want to focus on them. It’s too complex. They want to use them. Just like you want to use your car without really worrying about how the gas is injected into the motor. You just want it to work whenever you need it.

The same is true for code. It’s said that development is a “black box” for non-technical folks. DevOps is an even blacker black box, but people still want it to work 24/7. DevOps helps hide these complexities from “consumers” — developers, end-users, managers, etc. DevOps are the “blood and heart” of the entire system. They’re in most cases hidden from their consumers but are critically important for any business/project/SaaS.

DevOps either allows consumers to show and do their best or renders them inefficient.

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

DevOps (and the tools behind it) is the culture. If we are going with the “Black Mirror” analogy, you could refer to it as a “cult”. Invest into it with care. Imagine you created your own “cult” and the primary spokesperson you relied on left. Now you have unmanaged followers and a power vacuum. An internal struggle is guaranteed. You may end up worse off than where you started.

So invest in DevOps only if you understand that this is a long-long-term investment. And ensure you have a team of people you can truly trust. You will get results in the future, but not in 3–4 months. The biggest risk is retention. If you hire someone who quits on you in a year just to find out that nobody can support what they have “crafted”. You’ll waste time and money.

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

The efficiency of the development team. If the team is not efficient you may lose 40 cents on the dollar. Which is huge, especially in the case of bigger and distributed teams. A proper process can save businesses an enormous amount of money and headaches each year. The wrong process can generate an enormous amount of expense and headache every day. The quality of your culture within the organization is the key point. A formal approach to DevOps is never a success. It is unique for each organization as each has different requirements, nuances, and usage of the technology.

What do you need to lead this technology to widespread adoption

Commitment. As I’ve said, DevOps is a culture, not a single technology or process. To implement and maintain a culture, you need to commit to it.

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

The people I work alongside every single day. One of them is my partner — Nik Froehlich. I used to be a black/white mentality person. The answer was either YES or NO. There was no in-between. He taught me to realize there are a lot of shades between black and white. This helped me in many areas — not just in technology, but with people and life in general. I rarely saw him being emotional through many years and many stressful scenarios. You get in the boat with him and you pull and pull. And then pull more. We pull and push every single day. This is fun and very rewarding. My best Vegas experience was with my partner and I remember it fondly. I hope to repeat it one day!

Back in 2008, I distinctly remember we were working in the office in Corona Del Mar. It was a sunny evening. We heard a loud noise outside and went onto the veranda just to see that his car was smashed by a drunk driver. His car at the time was an expensive convertible. The driver destroyed it. Nik was very calm, not angry at all, not a single thread of panic. When the police arrived, we told them we had a client meeting and left the scene. He never seemed to be upset and handled the situation with grace. I was very surprised because I would’ve reacted differently back then.

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

To teach people to become better people and better professionals.

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

Don’t start a business with friends or you will have no friends. Adding business and money complications into an existing friendship can lead to issues down the line. It’s better to focus on finding partners who you trust and growing those relationships based in a business mindset.

Learn to delegate quickly. You’ll save yourself a ton of time in the long run, and build up a team of competent people. Delegation is often the hardest part of leadership. It’s easy to do things yourself. It’s hard to ask for help.

You can’t change toxic people, regardless of how hard you try. Don’t waste your energy on people who you can’t help. It’ll be a drain of time and resources better spent elsewhere. Focus on the people you can help and you’ll be better off in the long run.

You can’t expect others to be like you or share and value the same ideas as you (but you should still keep trying to do that every day). Everyone has different life experiences which shape how they interact with the world. You should still try to help people, but understand not everyone has the same background as you do.

Other people have their own opinion, you don’t win if you overwrite their opinion. You win if both of you take something new from the conversation.

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. 🙂

Clean your own street/community/city. Just go out and do it once a day — meet other people doing the same thing. That way people unite as they live in the place they value and love.

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

You will regret that you didn’t do more than what you did.

How can our readers follow you on social media?

I don’t feed my brain from social media. I don’t post on Linkedin, FB, Instagram, etc. Why? I just don’t need to share my thoughts and life with the internet. There’s enough “noise” out there already.

You can follow Saritasa on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter though.

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

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

Making Something From Nothing: Kwame Ferreira Of Impossible & Bond Touch On How To Go From Idea To Launch

An Interview With Fotis Georgiadis

The company is part of your life. It is not your life. It’s a construct that exists to enrich your life and the life of others. When it can no longer do so, create another company.

As a part of our series called “Making Something From Nothing”, I had the pleasure of interviewing Kwame Ferreira, CEO & Founder of Bond Touch.

Kwame Ferreira is a serial impact entrepreneur who is leading Impossible, best known for creating Planet centric design. He is the CEO and Founder of the Impossible company Bond Touch, the pioneer in emotional wearables with a mission to touch hearts and enrich relationships. Kwame also co-founded Wiresglasses, combating waste in the eyewear industry, helped grow Fairphone, the world’s first ethical phone, and chairs Nikabot, another Impossible company, creating healthier happier teams.

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 Angola. My parents were working for the ministry of culture, filming and documenting tribes across Angola. From there I moved to Brazil and then Portugal. I was a curious kid, growing up in nature until I was 17. I worked in my family’s construction firm, which gave me the pragmatism needed to become an entrepreneur.

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

The future is already here, it’s just not evenly distributed, by William Gibson. It opened my eyes to the fact that not only do we have time zones but whole areas of the planet living in totally different epochs. It’s a quote that gave me perspective. I feel like I spend my life moving between different futures. It’s important we share our idea of the future with as many people as possible so we all work towards the same goal.

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?

Daniel J. Boorstin’s — The Discoverers: A History of Man’s Search to Know His World and Himself was a book that opened my eyes to the vast landscape of knowledge we build upon in order to discover new things. The greatest obstacle to discovery, Boorstin wrote, is not ignorance — it is the illusion of knowledge. We tend to curb our curiosity at an early age. His writings kept me curious.

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?

• Make small bets and see how the market behaves. This is the best advice I was given. Bet small, lose small. If you will, scale.
• People will tell you with words that they love your idea but they will tell you with their wallets that they love your product. Or not.
• Persevere. Build resilience in your daily life by modeling your behavior on people who have survived.

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?

Google. These days there are no excuses. If it has been created, great, someone has braved the market. What have they learned? How can you help solve the problem better?

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

1. I always start by feeling the problem. Describing it to my friends with very simple language as well as a potential solution. What I’m really doing is asking myself whether I am alone in this feeling. Do others feel what I feel? I always start with emotions and really try not to get too brainy.

After I’m convinced that my initial pitch has traction, I ask myself how will I know that the solution I propose is right? Do I have a framework to measure success? Is it revenue? Is it retention? Is it team growth? Is it cleaner oceans? Can I easily measure it? The answer lies in a finite number of indicators. Ensure they are clear. Measurable. Launching a product is so intense and time-consuming that you need to focus on what matters and only what matters.

You are not committed to a solution, you are committing to a problem. Committing to a problem is for the long haul. You may be launching several products in this problem space. Think 10 years. In ten years’ time will you be solving the same problem? The answer to this question determines how mission-driven you are. Mission is problem-connected, not outcome-based.

2. Pick your team. Ensure they are not like you. You can’t all play in the same position. Make sure they are a culture fit before they are a skill fit. Write them love letters as often as possible.

3. Get coaching as to how to manage people. Creating and launching products is all about people. You are not launching a product, you are launching a little vehicle that has all your team’s hopes and ambitions.

4. Patience. Breathe. Don’t try to disconnect. That’s not realistic. Instead try and connect with people outside your space. Learn how to meditate. It helps.

5. Set short-term goals aligned to long-term objectives. Do so with your team, as a team. Align everyone on a weekly basis. Celebrate when you reach your goals.

We are all made up of cognitive biases. Learn to discount these from your decision- making process. The best way to manage biases is by getting advice from those who have done it before. Take serious feedback seriously.

Try, fail, measure & learn. Try again.

Repeat 9 until point number 2 is positive.

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

1. A company is made of people. It all starts and ends with people. Get coaching as to how to manage people.
2. Keep things as small for as long as you can. Do more with less.
3. Trust your advisors. They’ve done it before. Model your behavior after them.
4. The culture you create will be modeled after your behavior, not your words. Lead by example. For more read Mimetic Desire.
5. The company is part of your life. It is not your life. It’s a construct that exists to enrich your life and the life of others. When it can no longer do so, create another company.

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?

Pitch it to friends in a social setting, like a bar, or a concert. A noisy place that will make you simplify your pitch. It’s important you are able to convince friends and family before moving on to the market.

Moving on to the market, if it’s physical, I would not create the product but rather a model you can use in a photoshoot to exemplify its value. I would create a website, a video and lots of photos before I invest too much into the product. Put it up on Shopify (if it’s a physical product) and see if you get any sales. If it’s b2b, get a customer to show interest. If it’s a service, look at how you can create the minimum loveable product.

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?

Go at it on your own in the beginning. You don’t have resources and that is a good thing, it forces you to focus. Consultants cost money and time. You don’t have either. Instead of consultants, get advisors, and mentors. They will impart their knowledge in a pay-it-forward model, i.e. for free, something you will then copy once you have gained experience and have success under your belt.

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

Always bootstrap. VC capital is great when you need to scale. Once you have product-market fit. In the beginning you are looking for market fit. You can do so without VCs.

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

The first thing is sharing knowledge. I spend a lot of time passing on what I have learned to others. This is how I got here and the best way to make the world a better place.

The second thing is measuring impact. Ensuring my teams are working with independent frameworks, like BCorp for example, that allow us to assess progress in key metrics: Governance, Workers, Community, Environment, and Customers.

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.

Tech for Biodiversity. A movement of tech people who work on solutions that have a net positive impact in increasing biodiversity.

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 like to have breakfast with Ridley Scott. He directed so many of my favorite movies I feel like the future I imagine is the future he has imagined. I wonder if he is a breakfast man though.

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

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Making Something From Nothing: Kwame Ferreira Of Impossible & Bond Touch On How To Go From Idea To… was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Meet The Disruptors: Keith Gelman Of Talent Partnership Advisors On The Five Things You Need To Shake Up Your Industry

An Interview With Fotis Georgiadis

There’s enough money to go around. A younger version of me was stressing over another company winning a business pitch. My boss said, don’t sweat it; we will get the next one; there’s enough money to go around. This has stuck with me in so many forms when I get frustrated that things aren’t going right. Money and opportunity are plentiful, so if one thing doesn’t go your way, don’t lose track of your overall plan.

As a part of our series about business leaders who are shaking things up in their industry, I had the pleasure of interviewing Keith Gelman, Founder and CEO of Talent Partnerships Advisors.

Keith Gelman is a highly-specialized entertainment, sports, music and culture marketing leader with over 20 years of experience.

He has built an impressive Rolodex, having directly represented the brand and talent sides with a keen focus on co-creating sponsorships and partnerships across multiple integrated global campaigns between brands and entertainment properties leveraging traditional marketing techniques, social media and streaming.

Talent Partnerships Advisors was born out of his love for fueling fresh perspectives, learning to listen for the big idea while channeling creativity and fresh storytelling into the brand’s program that feels real and makes sense for today’s consumer.

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?

A $10 an hour internship led to the opportunity to find former Chicago White Sox All-Star Magglio Ordonez a car trade deal with a local car dealership. I loved it — when I was 23 and thought it was the coolest barter deal ever. I then got other White Sox and local Chicago stars free cars… then cell phones… then I got a $250 gift certificate for a dinner out. I invited my two best friends — the bill came to $350.

Fast forward a few years later, I got the opportunity to represent top sports players on endorsements directly, brands and talent while at Live Nation and now Talent Partnership Advisors.

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

The work TPA is doing is disruptive because we stop, listen and look around to what is happening in pop culture. Many of our brand clients look for relevant opportunities and moments — this doesn’t always need to be a revolutionary breakthrough. Still, it is as simple as identifying that perfect talent whose show just ended, the talent had a baby, or there is an anniversary. A lot of times, it’s not necessary to spend on the A-List talent, some celebrities that aren’t household names per se but are fresh enough that the media wants to talk to them. We find the angles, create the narrative, and when it all comes together, it tees up opportunities for the brand to strike.

For an agency like TPA, there’s never been a better time to offer brands, agencies, and PR professionals a robust Rolodex of industry connections and an approach of responsiveness, fresh perspective, creative storytelling, and realness.

If coming up with the winning idea for the celebrity or brand isn’t enough, TPA’s specialty is cost savings to the brand of upwards of 28% by understanding how deals should be structured. We have a process to review talent at fair market value and create efficiencies by saving agency hours in talent research, proposal development and the little things like TPA’s knowledge on back-end deal points that typically impact budgets. This is a game-changer.

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

I haven’t thought about this for 15 years… but I was working with a top sports star who was presented with a Vitamin Water equity offer. This specific star was getting six-figure offers, and our team was focused on the big payday and didn’t take the time to research the equity play properly.

What did I learn? Well, we all know how that turned out for 50 Cent and others… lesson learned. Look at the long game.

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

Shoutout to Jerry Weintraub. Although I never met this man, I was reading his book “When I stop talking, you will know that i’m dead” at one of the most important points in my career. Irving Azoff had brought be on as a consultant to help get the talent-managed brand deals. Shortly after, he resigned as Chairman of the Board at Live Nation and left FrontLine Management. With a lot of dust that needed to settle on the state of the union at Live Nation, I was left in a predicament on my next steps. Jerry’s stories in the book gave me the confidence to keep working on a certain project that led me to a full-time job as VP, Artist Partnerships of Artist Nation (formerly Frontline Management).

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

Disrupting isn’t always good — Every few years, a new trend disrupts the talent partnership space. Think dot-com era or now, the web 3/NFT/Crypto boom. Brands that you never heard of are getting investment dollars and start spending on celebrities in a way that is not sustainable. Celebrities get in their head that overnight, they are worth, for example, $10M for the brand partnership, while realistically, that’s not the case for the average brand looking to work with that talent. Brands like these are throwing around money, and this ‘disrupts’ the everyday workflow for companies that play in the partnerships and endorsements space and end up hurting the talent in the long run as they miss out on fruitful strategic opportunities in the hope of the next big payday. It’s a trickle effect — once one celebrity hears that their friend got ‘paid,’ they expect it too… it’s a lose-lose outside of that one big payday.

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

I wouldn’t be a true disruptor if I didn’t push for these six best words — There’s enough money to go around. A younger version of me was stressing over another company winning a business pitch. My boss said, don’t sweat it; we will get the next one; there’s enough money to go around. This has stuck with me in so many forms when I get frustrated that things aren’t going right. Money and opportunity are plentiful, so if one thing doesn’t go your way, don’t lose track of your overall plan.

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

I have never been more excited to say, “I don’t know.” I genuinely don’t! I know that TPA has so much momentum behind them right as the new shop is on the scene, and we are free from the confines of a bigger organization that we are poised to win.

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?

Want to get inspired to pound the pavement and reach goals? Then the book, as mentioned earlier, “When I stop talking, you will know that I’m dead,” by Jerry Weintraub.

How can our readers follow you online?

Check us out on Instagram @ talentpartnerships or on LinkedIn.

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

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Meet The Disruptors: Keith Gelman Of Talent Partnership Advisors On The Five Things You Need To… was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Meet The Disruptors: Hemanth Puttaswamy Of Malbek On The Five Things You Need To Shake Up Your Industry

An Interview With Fotis Georgiadis

Learn to take rejection as a learning experience. Not all opportunities are right for you. In a single day, you may have five positive interactions and two negatives, and the negatives can quickly bog you down unless you are able to recognize that every negative can be turned into a learning experience.

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

Hemanth Puttaswamy is a technology entrepreneur. As CEO and co-founder at Malbek (A Contract Lifecycle Management solution provider), his vision is to redefine the quote-to-cash solution aimed for the age of AI. Hemanth is a hands-on leader with a passion for building a great team with an amazing culture that zealously works to make every customer successful. He is responsible for overall corporate strategy and product vision with a keen eye towards building the best solution interface that will delight every user.

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?

When it comes to my backstory and my current company’s origins, it starts with a major lesson I learned about taking corporate pain to entrepreneurial gain. Years ago, when I was working as an executive in a public company, a yearly audit of financials showed major issues with the way revenue was recognized across our 2,500+ customers. The company had to restate financials going back ten years. This is when I realized the impact of badly managed contracts and non-standard contract terms.

A light bulb went off that there is a clear need to have a solution that would standardize contracting processes with complete enterprise visibility for every business.

This sparked a fire, which led me to research the available solutions to manage contracts and ultimately found this innovative company in the contract lifecycle management space.

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

We make what can be considered boring — contracts — come to life. We accomplish this by using AI in every part of the contracting process and provide context so anyone who touches contracts — from finance, to procurement, to legal, to sales — have the context they need to take the actions that help them reduce risk, save time, and eliminate headaches that silos can cause along the way.

We are disruptive because we are solving a series of complex contracting problems with highly engineered, yet easy-to-use technology. We apply our patented AI in the entire contract lifecycle. We don’t just use our solution to address singular pain points, as some companies do. We look at every part of the process and address it by leveraging different algorithms throughout the contract lifecycle. This is the big differentiator.

We bring in persona-based AI recommendations to include everyone in the contracting process in a way that is dynamic and meets client needs. We also provide industry benchmarks in context so our users can get better results than their peers.

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 started the company, one thing I had in mind was people should be able to relate to the name of the brand. The challenge was to come up with one word that encapsulated what we were trying to achieve. Namely, bringing people and processes together in smart, new ways.

We came up with more than 100 names, but nothing reflected our personality — the fun, light-heartedness, and also something that people could remember. While we were working to revolutionize the contract space, we didn’t want the word “contract” in our name as we felt it was limiting. In the meantime, the placeholder name we chose for the company was Malbek (with a K) because the co-founders were brainstorming names over a bottle of Malbec. We finished the evening by toasting, “To Malbek!”

Afterward, we laughed at how we had the right name all along. To me, Malbek represents coming together and bringing our best ideas to the table just like when you enjoy a nice bottle of wine with friends or family. It symbolizes the power of what we can accomplish together, and it relates nicely back to what we do — bringing so many different people across departments together as they work on contracts.

We believe our platform, just like a good bottle of wine, brings sales, legal, procurement, and finance teams together to collaborate for a common mission and is just waiting to be uncorked at every organization.

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?

Mentorship is important because the right conversations at the right time can have a huge impact on careers and companies. I’d say my most impactful mentors have definitely been the CEOs I have had the chance to work with in my career.

They have been able to show how to resolve conflicts and deadlocks, particularly in negotiations. This is especially relevant given that I work in the contract space where negotiations happen all the time.

They were good enough to bring me along so I could see these negotiations and focus on what mattered. The first major lesson I learned was to keep a human focus on contracts and negotiations. The second lesson was being able to understand big, complex deals, and learning how to close them in a way that works for everyone involved.

Gaining a deeper understanding of and appreciation for managing people and cultivating a thriving company culture came from the mentorship of a prior Vice President of Human Resources. She showed me that empathy was one of the most important characteristics of any company culture. I’ve never forgotten that.

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?

Today, there are a lot of people who misunderstand what AI is, even those working in this space. Meaning, they seem to find a solution and then look for where the solution can fit into a problem. This is often seen in businesses that chase buzzwords and jargon instead of thinking of use cases where there exists a real and pressing problem that needs to be solved.

True disruption starts with understanding customer pain. When we truly understand and can empathize with what problems need to be solved, we are able to get to work to solve the entire problem in a completely new way. By thinking through the problem to the ideal solution, and then — and only then- identifying the ways to solve the problem, we are able to solve much bigger problems.

Understanding the problem in-depth, thinking outside of the box towards the end goal, and not constraining yourself with perceived technology limitations is at the core of true innovation and disruption.

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

• Listen to the customer. This is my first priority on any type of list. Listen more, talk less. You’ll learn a lot in the process.
• Don’t think the customer is right all the time. You may get 100 asks and those requests can be transactional in nature. Take all these disparate messages and identify themes so you have focus and know what to solve.
• Learn to take rejection as a learning experience. Not all opportunities are right for you. In a single day, you may have five positive interactions and two negatives, and the negatives can quickly bog you down unless you are able to recognize that every negative can be turned into a learning experience.
• Build broadly when it comes to hiring. Don’t always try to look for one group of people. Hire people from diverse backgrounds, who are open-minded, and who are hungry to learn. If you hire by one pedigree or from one particular school, you’re limiting the success of your company. Broader perspectives lead to more diverse approaches to solving problems, and one of those solutions could be your next goldmine.
• Empower your people and then great things can happen. This is rooted in trust. The best leaders instill a sense of responsibility and trust in their teams, which is refreshing in the corporate world. Encouraging ownership and ideas is key to building an innovative culture.

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

It’s a multiplication effect. Disruptive thinking multiplies when you’re able to empower employees and encourage them to always take risks and come up with different ways to solve a particular problem. When you do that, every department can produce ideas that blow you away. Given the platform and also freedom and trust a multiplication effect is created. I meet with every employee when they join, and meet again after 90 days to ensure the lines of communication are open.

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?

Amp It Up by Frank Slootman is an excellent read. In the book, he gives an almost unfiltered view of what it is really like to be a CEO.

As a leader, a lot of the outside world thinks you are superhuman, but the realities of what you are and what you experience as a leader are quite different. He covers the importance of focusing on both long-term vision and short-term tactics and how to handle all the things that come along the way.

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

Celebrate the good news only for a few milliseconds, and be ready for what’s next. How you gracefully handle the bad news you get in life is a way to turn challenges into opportunities.

As a leader, I’ve worked with customers who have been contemplating canceling their engagement, and rather than reacting defensively, or putting together a band-aid, we use the experience to not only solve the issue at hand, but also identify and solve a larger issue at hand, eliminating the pattern of problems at the root.

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. 🙂

There are so many things that come to mind. First, figure out a way to remove violence from this world. Valuing and respecting diversity is always a good place to start when building empathy.

I also think about how each of us can have a better impact on the environment. Small actions by many can make a big difference.

For example, looking at things like how much you drive, how much we consume, the type of energy we use, and if we recycle or reuse our things can start behavior changes that last for generations.

How can our readers follow you online?

https://www.linkedin.com/in/hemanth-puttaswamy-791ba5/

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

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

An Interview With Fotis Georgiadis

If you don’t have a strategy for PAID, EARNED and OWNED media you are dead in the water. POEM is a core building block.

As part of our series about how to create a trusted, believable, and beloved brand, I had the pleasure to interview Nick Kellet.

Founder Nick Kellet is a seasoned tech startup founder. His boardgame, GiftTRAP won 20+ awards and sold 100k units. He owns a lot of decks! As List.ly’s co-founder it grew to a top 5k website (per Alexa rankings). GiftTRAP and List.ly thrived on a strategy of crowdsourcing, community, and digital media.

He sold his Business Intelligence startup to Business Objects, now part of SAP. He’s an evangelist and community builder with a love for cardboard.

Deckible is backed by a world class development team and a great team of advisors.

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 have an inch thick binder of rejection letters from 1984. Despite that, I got meetings with companies including Milton Bradley or MB Games.

I pitched them a computer version of Connect Four. I was an early tech nerd and a wizard on the Commodore 64. I nearly quit university to invent games.

Funny story…MB Games said “we don’t think there’s a market for computer games”.

IBM said there was only a market for maybe 5 computers. People turned down the Beatles.

How do you process it when the world’s leading game company doesn’t see the potential for computer games! This was 1984.

Clayton Christensen didn’t write his book Innovator’s Dilemma until 1995!

I got used to rejection really young. “No’s” got me excited.

My parents were super-critical and I guess I got thick-skinned. I became my own feedback machine and I lived in my idea-palace.

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?

Holy, that’s tough competition. Mistakes are where the bullion is buried.

I placed an advert in Lotus User Group’s Magazine. We were advertising training for Microsoft’s database product. Microsoft and Lotus were rivals.

The ad had killer-copy. I got a 200x return. I’ve yet to trump that. And they wouldn’t take my next ad. That sucked! I should have booked a 3 year deal!

I learned; it pays to be controversial.

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

Standing out is all about story and metaphors.

We never explain anything from scratch. We use metaphors. Movie “X” is like the movie “Y”, but with a “Z”.

“x” is like “Jaws”, but in the jungle. Less is more.

Metaphors are gateway drugs. Powerful metaphors to get you curious and to try things.

Apple’s “1000 songs in your pocket” sold a lot of ipods.

I think of myself as a metaphor hunter.

I call Deckible “Audible for Card-Decks”. 4 words that pack a punch.

Deckible is about digitizing card-decks and that’s unique but the metaphor explains that.

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

I invent for a living. I’m always on to something new.

My new project is Deckible — “Audible for card decks”. We’re proudly repurposing the ipods tagline as “100 decks in your pocket”

You may be unaware of the size of the card deck market, but card decks are huge, and best yet, they have not been digitized until now. 100,000+ unique decks have been published. That shocks people who aren’t in the know.

People love decks, but they are bulky, so they get left at home. We fix that problem.

I love a good “Fro-To” — it should be a word.

From: Left at home

To: In your pocket

Movies, Books and Audio Books have all been successfully digitized. We know who won those marketplace wars…. NOT the creators.

With printing and shipping costs exploding, artists need new ways to sell their art. Digital Card-Decks on Deckible is a new profitable option for artists.

Deckible fills that void.

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 is about story. I buy into Apple’s story. You could call me an “Apple fanboy”. That’s brand marketing, but brand marketing is not infallible.

I thought the Apple watch sucked. That’s product marketing. They failed the product level, at least for me. I was not an early adopter.

The brand didn’t carry me into the watch category.

I’d buy an Apple car over a Tesla.

Our brains are made up of a bunch of complex decision trees.

Marketing is about decoding and leveraging these trees like levers.

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?

Passion is a proxy or pseudonym for energy and when it exists, you don’t need to pay for “energy”. So nurture, discover and gather an army of passionate fans.

Branding is about creating passion and curiosity for what you do.

Marketing budgets are finite and laden with friction. They come with burdens and responsibilities, so use them wisely.

Invest in removing friction so future marketing flows more easily,

I mentioned earlier that I believe in creating “living things”. Living things are alive and exude free energy. When your product is alive your customers propel you.

Create all the free fuel you can to launch your rocket. And you reduce the possibility of failure. Involve so many people that failure is not an option.

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.

I’m a big fan of “P.O.E.M.” Paid, owned, earned media. So that accounts for three elements of your media strategy.

If you don’t have a strategy for PAID, EARNED and OWNED media you are dead in the water. POEM is a core building block.

I prefer to use “S.C.O.P.E.” as a better model than POEM. SCOPE = Social, collaborative, owned, paid & earned media. SOCIAL and COLLABORATION are the 4th and 5th elements of my strategy.

SCOPE is about leveraging 1:9:90. Sadly many people haven’t heard of the 1% rule. It’s about nurturing the silent majority — the 90%.

1.9:90 is why social works. They are the building blocks that will lead you to success and make you mindful of creating a living brand based around audience participation and collaboration.

If your product/idea/brand is not shareable or collaboration-worthy then my simple advice is go back to the drawing board until it is.

My life experience validates SCOPE and this mindset.

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?

AlleyMan Tarot is the most funded tarot project on kickstarter. 22k units pre-sold.

I’m a huge fan of crowdsourcing and community and this project did it all. The deck was sourced from 100+ decks from 100+ creators. It’ was a mashup deck.

Their facebook fans group could not wait for the deck to arrive, so started mailing cards to each other to create their own mashup decks.

I used to love Jones Soda for this reason, but that’s an old example. Alleyman is a modern remake.

You can replicate this by stepping back from managing everything and letting your customers shine.

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?

I’d said it all comes down to SCOPE.

You want to nurture activity on all 5 dimensions. That’s like playing with a full orchestra.

The best thing about SCOPE is the elements all play off each other, perhaps Jazz is a better metaphor than a full orchestra.

I want my advertising to play into my brand and community and social.

What role does social media play in your branding efforts?

It’s woven in from the ground-up. It’s part of the DNA. It’s never lipstick on a pig.

Make it easy and compelling for anyone in your ecosystem to participate in social around 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. 🙂

I’ve been thinking a lot about “artists helping artists”. I love tools that let people collaborate at scale.

There’s a huge gap between musicians that make a good living and those that don’t. Artists are the same.

I think there is potential here creating something.

I used to love Twitter in the 2009–2012 period. The twitter chats, #followfridays and the retweets. So many cool cultural norms .Perhaps there is new hope under Elon’s watch.

Go share 5 artists you love and pay it forward.

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

“Who are you to the tiger?” is a question an early mentor asked me. I’ve used it on every project I’ve ever touched.

It’s just a great way of asking what is your role on the stage of life, where do you play in the picture. And who are the actors in your play?

Are you the hunter? The mosquito on the tiger’s back. The ringmaster at the circus. Or the audience at the Magic show in Vegas? Or the tiger’s next snack?

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

I’m a huge fan of Ryan Holiday. I’ve read every book he’s written since “Trust me I’m lying”. He got me into stoicism.

And now he runs a bookstore in Texas amongst other things.

How can our readers follow you on social media?

I’m @nickkellet on all the socials. And you can find me at

https://www.deckible.com

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

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Nick Kellett Of Deckible On Five Things You Need To Build A Trusted And Beloved Brand was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

An Interview With Fotis Georgiadis

Know thyself. Dating back to the ancient Greeks, the saying ‘know thyself’ has encouraged people to engage in a search for self-understanding. I once had a client that did excellent work, on a subject she was passionate about, but still found herself burned out, and about to leave her job. It didn’t take us many sessions to understand that her personality type didn’t work in conjunction with the way she worked and that although her field of work was her passion, she had to go about it in a radically new way. Traveling is one of the best ways to confront your values, dig deep into your subconscious and set aside time to reflect on your findings.

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 Hilde S. Palladino.

A connector, inspirator and crime author, Hilde S. Palladino is first and foremost a true explorer. Having lived on three continents, served as a consultant for embassies, NGO’s and travel agencies, she firmly believes that if we all travelled more consciously the world would be a kinder place.

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?

After having founded several businesses, as well as working in corporate for multiple years, I made a clear choice in 2013 to change my everyday life. I wasn’t burned out, just sick of a life where working and working out was all there was. I didn’t want to wait for the weekend to relax, Christmas to have to time to read a book, vacations to be happy. I wanted to be joyful every day, Monday — Sunday. One of my dreams was to write a book, another not having to go in to the office every day unless I wanted to. I also wanted to eat healthier, spend my days in surroundings that gave me energy instead of draining me and do more of the things that was important to me. I decided to quit my corporate job, sell all my belongings and move to Bali. I have moved around thirty times in my life, living on three continents, therefor the moving itself wasn’t the difficult choice. The hardest part was the feeling of starting all over, just a suitcase in hand, and the uncertainty of my choice.

The difficulty was also concerning the fact that I didn’t want to just move my life to a different location. I wanted a new life, one that was radically different from the one I had.

One of the things I did, was to not get a long-term visa for Indonesia, I got one that would require me to leave the country every 60 days. I have to admit I regretted that sometimes, but it forced me to travel, and that was part of what I wanted. Travel, explore, learn about new cultures and myself, that was my mantra.

And here is the clue.

After having travelled extensively for almost two decades, I noticed that all my major life-changing epiphanies came during some kind of journey. There was a pattern there, and it is this. — When we are out of our comfort zones, in a different place, eating different food, talking with different people, spending our days differently than at home, we start to think different thoughts. And when we think different thoughts, we can create massive change in our lives.

We can change our behavior, what we know to be true, and we can solve problems at rapid speed this way. I knew that this knowledge was something I had to share with the world, and thus I made this in to a business.

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

A woman contacted me a few years back and told me about difficulties at work. Her team wasn’t performing, she felt that communication was part of the problem, but none of the coaches and advisors she had previously consulted was of any help. She needed radical change.

In just one session we mapped out a journey for her. We set her intention, arranged for her to work for an NGO in Indonesia for one week. This was something she had wanted to do, but never gotten around to, mostly because she was worried about the language barriers.

Yes, there was work involved, there was sweating, strange food, miscommunication, but also laughs and lots of time for reflection. What she came home with was not only a clear solution to the issues at work, but a whole new understanding on how to address problems within her team. She saw who needed what, including herself, and with that, a way of thriving through the pandemic when most of her industry crumbled.

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

I always reach my goals, and the reason, I believe, is that I always think about the big WHY of the goal. Why is it important? Why should I change my life to obtain it? How will it enrich my life? If the ‘why’ isn’t big enough, or important enough, I don’t do it. I only go after goals that I’m highly motivated to reach.

If I want to start running again just to get slimmer, that isn’t a very inspiring goal to me. If I decide that I want to start running to get in better shape as part of a routine to climb a particular volcano, or to take care of my body to avoid getting cancer again, that is a much more inspirational goal to me, and one that will get me out of bed in the morning.

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”?

One of the most powerful tools for transformation, traveling is still often overlooked as a means for change. But think about it, — there is not a single adventure without the possibility to experience something new, see the world through new eyes, get new perspectives. Journeys have the power to transform us. If people can use traveling as a way to better their lives, and others, if they could take what they have learned home to their families and friends, I not only think they will have the transformation faster, I believe we could create a better world.

How do you think this will change the world?

We are always impacted by our surroundings, the people we see, meet or live with. But when we travel, what we now bring home are Instagram shots, and the occasional souvenir.

What if we brought a shifted mindset home instead? What if we solved a problem while traveling and brought that home, or to the office? What if we returned with ideas, inspiration, new visions for our lives?

Time and again I have seen that setting an intention for your trip, and looking at traveling as something more than checking a place off your bucket list, has changed lives, and thus the world.

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?

In the 90’s I was working in IT and we used to go on these team-building trips that required us to go white-water rafting, throwing ourselves into rough and freezing river waters in order to challenge ourself and thus build better teams. The problem was just that for some people it was way out of their comfort zones, harming them rather than helping them. And it certainly didn’t build better teams. If people think that Transformational Travel is about ‘toughening up’, that they have to climb the highest mountains to achieve success in their lives, they go about it the wrong way.

In order to transform your life, you will have to go outside your comfort zone, but there is a fine line were pushing yourself further isn’t beneficial anymore. That’s why I work with people to determine the best trip for each person, in regards to what you want the outcome to be.

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

Absolutely. I was diving in Indonesia a few years back, and although I have hundreds of dives under my belt, I have always been afraid of night-dives. One night though, I decided to face my fears in order to see a nocturnal animal, a Spanish dancer.

Only me and the dive-guide was in the water that night. I told him about my fears, and as we dropped in to the pitch-black sea, he assured me that everything would be alright. Well, it wasn’t. A few minutes into the dive, I panicked, started to cry, and had to surface.

Once back on the boat, the guide came over, telling me that I didn’t have to tell the others that I got scared. -Just say that we didn’t see the creature, he told me. It dawned on me then that we are all afraid of something, and that is nothing to be ashamed of. I obviously knew this mentally, but now the emotional realization was firmly established in me as well. It has guided me ever since. Whenever I have felt hesitant, whether I started a new business, publishing my first novel, my first time speaking on stage, I can always tell myself this, and recall the feeling I had. With that the fearfulness eases.

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

This is two-fold. Firstly, we all need to take solid look at the way we travel. The tourism can be a strain on the planet, we hear that all the time. Travelers are looked upon as culture-vultures, selfish consumers, rushing around without understanding what we’re looking at, or what our purpose for being there is. The industry itself can help changing this, by making us more aware of our actions and choices. And we as travelers need to take conscious decisions on what kind of people we want to be.

Secondly, on a deeper level the industry can also help the traveler see how they can make the journey be about something more than just the trip. By seeking to be partners in real change, the industry can guide and support travelers in setting intentions and defining desired outcomes for their travel experience.

I need to work with leaders within the travel industry. I need to partner up with the big players to get my message out there. As the industry start to see how they can create added value to their clients, and guests start to talk about their experiences, we can create real change in the world.

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

1. Start with why.
   We hear this all the time, but how often do we actually do it? In regards to traveling we often pick a destination we would like to visit and then search Google for what to see there. Let’s flip that on its head and think about something you want to change in your life. When we are clear on this, we can map out the journey that would be most beneficial for you.
   When I started traveling solo, it was purely to challenge myself to be more street-wise, get more confident, and practice traveling alone to destinations that none of my friends wanted to visit. I chose island-hopping in Thailand as my first solo trip. It was a safe travel, but also one that required me to figure out things by myself. I actually had some nasty episodes there that I had to deal with, and grew immensely on that trip. At the end, I returned home with a much stronger confidence than when I left. Now I travel solo most of the time.
2. Get out of your comfort zone.
   There is a disruption that happens when we decide to change our lives, businesses or relationships, but I don’t know a single successful person that hasn’t gone through uncomfortable pain to get through to their wildest dreams. Our greatest insights usually comes when we enter the spaces we are afraid to go to, and tackle the challenges that occur. Accepting discomfort is a way to elevate to something bigger, and when you take time to reflect upon what it means to you, magic evidently will happen.
3. Learn what drives you.
   Get curious, get passionate and find your purpose. As Steven Kotler says, these are the feelings that drive behavior. When we are doing the things we are curious about, it doesn’t feel like hard work. Although it can require effort, when we get curious or passionate, the work feels more like play. I frequently hear people say they don’t have a purpose in life, that they are not interested in anything particular. I certainly don’t think that everyone needs to have world-changing purposes, but most of the ones stating the above have never dug deep enough. They have often never asked the right questions. As I said to a young woman the other day — passion and purpose doesn’t necessarily drop into your head one day, just as often we need to get curious, involve our brain in what Steven Kotler calls pattern recognition or incubation. When we ask ourselves the right question, better answers will come.
4. Know thyself .
   Dating back to the ancient Greeks, the saying ‘know thyself’ has encouraged people to engage in a search for self-understanding. I once had a client that did excellent work, on a subject she was passionate about, but still found herself burned out, and about to leave her job. It didn’t take us many sessions to understand that her personality type didn’t work in conjunction with the way she worked and that although her field of work was her passion, she had to go about it in a radically new way. Traveling is one of the best ways to confront your values, dig deep into your subconscious and set aside time to reflect on your findings.
5. Use journeys as a problem-solving mechanism.
   I had always wanted to write a book, but finding my creativity in my everyday life was less than fruitful. It wasn’t until I moved abroad with a clear intention to do more of what I loved that my writing practice started to produce results. In our everyday lives, 97% of what we do is unconscious, and as much as 70 % of our unconscious thoughts were put there by someone else. A majority of our thoughts and actions are the same as the ones we had yesterday. Going on a journey lets us start disrupting that repeat pattern and create transformation in your life.

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

• Learn to thrive on change.
  This is my most important one. When I was working in the IT-industry in the 90’s, I saw how painful the new technology was for some of the older leaders. Some of them just retired early, some had their secretary do the work, but the most successful was that ones that had learned to thrive on change. The ever-changing technology of today is something that many of us master well, but recession, lock-down, change in management or anything that interjects with previous work or home routines can be just as daunting.

Challenges come in all shapes and forms. They can be physical, psychological, mental. They can come in solitude, or in relationships with others. To seek out change, and learn to love it, will put you miles ahead of the crowd.

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 🙂

https://www.linkedin.com/in/saschahausmann/

How can our readers follow you on social media?

Instagram @transformational_travel
website https://thetransformationaltravel.com/

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

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Transformational Travel: Hilde S Palladino’s Big Idea That Might Change The World was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.