Business podcast

Mark is a cross-functional collaborator with experience in strategic market growth, clinical and commercial operations, including manufacturing, market access, sales, training, contract negotiation and client interface at the C-Suite, as evidenced by successfully working with 21 teams on various projects.
He has expertise in strategic initiatives as evidenced by generating an innovative business, profit model that identified strategic key accounts, talent gaps and market dominating positions and enlisting new talent for two Sales Development Managers, a Marketing Director, and Account Management team leading to $4.1MM.

Nathan Lewis has written four books on economic topics, and has been featured in television documentaries in the U.S., South Korea, China, Russia, and Britain. He has spoken at events hosted by the Cato Institute, Heritage Foundation, the American Principles Project, and others. He has testified in Congress on economic issues. His writing has appeared in many media outlets, including Forbes, the Financial Times, Huffington Post, Nikkei Business, Daily Reckoning, Worth, and other publications. Today, he serves as a Fellow of the Wealth and Poverty program at the Discovery Institute.

He has fifteen years of experience in the asset-management industry. He formerly served as a macro analyst for institutional investors, and later helped manage money for hedge funds. Today, he is the editor of the Polaris Letter, an investment newsletter for individuals.

Matteo Tagliariol is the 2008 Olympic champion in épée fencing. Outside of being an athlete, he is a father and man of many interests including business.

He likes to create digital content and organize fencing camps at an international level where he teaches students to better manage competitive situations. Matteo also speaks for companies on motivational topics based on his experience gained at the highest level of competitive fencing.

Josiah is a three-time Olympian who flew the flag for Malaysia at Athens 2004, Beijing 2008, and London 2012.

In 2004/2005 he was awarded the Olympian of the year and Sportsman of the year awards. Josiah won Malaysia's first and only cycling gold medal at the Commonwealth Games, has been the top-ranked Keirin cyclist in the world, and won the World Cup title twice along with the Asian Champion title 3-times throughout his career.

Josiah also co-founded and was the CEO of Australian hospitality tech start up, Intertain.com.au. He is also a published author, TEDx speaker, and Asian Games Gold Medal Coach. Josiah's mission is to inspire and teach others to dream big, set goals, and acquire the skill sets necessary to achieve their goals.

Kate is an IFBB Professional Olympian Athlete. She now focuses on preventative medicine through the medium of lifestyle intervention. Kate does so by utilizing nutrition, movement, and mindfulness as paths to optimize longevity and enhance lifespan performance.

As she pursues her Masters of Science at USC in the evolving interdisciplinary field of Gerontology, she's thrilled to expand her food coaching business into a more specialized genre of preventative medicine, research, and counseling.

Kate thrives when creating age-specific resources for clients with specific issues such as processed food addiction, chronic illness prevention, sleep deficit, and C-level stress management.

In her spare time, she is a social researcher, a volunteer crisis counselor, and a yoga teacher and personal trainer.

Amit is the founder and chief consultant of Global Consulting Organization – a Globally-Positioned Project-Starting Firm that is visioning, branding & marketing the neighborhoods, communities and cities of the future. All of Amit's previous endeavors have provided him with practical, hands-on experience that he consistently calls upon to guide Real Estate Investment & Development clients through various challenges that may arise during a project. His ability to focus on an overriding vision–coupled with a keen sense of awareness for the needs of various stakeholders–helps to get complex Investment & Development projects off the ground & has helped to facilitate $105 Million in transactions to date. He serves as a member of CREW Network (Miami/Fort Lauderdale/Tampa & New York) and am a mentor to students within The George Washington University's Center for Real Estate & Urban Analysis.

In pursuit of an integration with entrepreneurial endeavors, he enjoys spending time with his wife (a writer and veteran yoga teacher), 23-year-old stepson (an up-and-coming powerlifter and personal trainer) and 11-year-old son (who is 11 going on 21). He loves playing pickleball, boating, and exploring all that South Florida has to offer. For inspiration, he loves reading, practicing yoga and taking long walks around cities - always thinking about turning ideas into reality.

Michael is a 14x Serial Entrepreneur who has created tens of billions of dollars in net worth from companies he has started.. As one of the pioneers of telemedicine, Gorton helped create, what is now a quarter TRILLION dollar industry. The lessons learned from building 14 companies are reflected in his best seller: Broken Handoff, a book that educates entrepreneurs, human capital experts, and investors.
Audacious goals and adventure have always been an integral part of his daily life. The results of these goals can be seen in industry changing results from companies he has founded like Internet Global, Teladoc, Palo Duro Records, Back To Space, and Principal Solar. The current goal is to continue developing new ideas and technologies that have a transformative foundation, and can generate returns for stakeholders. Two of his books have made Amazon Top 10 lists, with Forefathers and Founding Fathers reaching the #1 position. In the world of adventure, Michael and his family are climbing the highest point of elevation (mountain) in each of the 50 states. Michael has 42 complete with 8 to go. He is working on his 3rd degree black belt in Kenpo Karate from Jim Dryburgh's Power Kenpo Studio.

Specialties: Telemedicine, Engineering, Space, early and mid stage company building, serving on Boards, as Advisor or Director, development of corporate culture, writing, legal analysis, capital raising and problem solving. Michael enjoys working with early and growth stage entrepreneurs who have industry-changing ideas, but need help "avoiding the potholes."

MICHAEL'S CURRENT PASSION PROJECT: BackToSpace.com

Michal is a marketing professor and the Director of the Elfenworks Center for Responsible Business at Saint Mary’s College of California. She is also an honorary Research Fellow at the University of Wollongong in Australia. Michal earned her doctorate in marketing from the University of California at Berkeley. Her research focuses on how emotions affect decision-making. Her research has been published in the Journal of Consumer Research, the Journal of Marketing Research, the Journal of Consumer Psychology, the Journal of Business Research, Marketing Letters, the Journal of Nonprofit & Public Sector Marketing, and the Journal of the American College of Radiology. She is regularly quoted in the media on topics related to marketing, consumer psychology, prosocial behavior, and behavioral economics. She has won multiple teaching and research awards from more than one university. She is particularly passionate about helping people become happier, healthier, and more resilient. In today's episode, Michal shares talks about what she has learned from teaching her favorite course: The Science of Happiness and Well-Being.

To learn more about her research, watch Michal’s recent panel discussion with professors from Yale, the University of Michigan and the University of Texas on this topic: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h_Az9N0eBUY

To read Michal’s Psychology Today Blog go to: https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/contributors/michal-ann-strahilevitz-phd and

https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/your-money-and-your-heart

To read Michal’s Journal Articles go to: Saint Mary’s College Profile: https://works.bepress.com/michal-strahilevitz/

You can also follow Michal on Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/marketingprof/ and Twitter: @MarketingProf

Dr. Dileep Rao is a VC turned Reverse-VC. VCs finance after the 'Aha' moment. As a Reverse-VC, he teaches entrepreneurs to get to Aha!

Previously, Dileep financed ventures (~400 deals using equity, debt, leases, development finance) and managed business turnarounds (succeeded on 4/5) . Now he teaches Unicorn-Entrepreneurship:

* Small business is about low-growth
* Entrepreneurship is about take-off with VC -- but 99.98% of entrepreneurs should avoid VC and the rest should delay.

Unicorn-Entrepreneurship (U-E) is about taking off without VC:
* VC focuses on opportunities. Reverse-VC focuses on entrepreneurs.
* VC focuses on capital. Reverse-VC focuses on skills and smart strategies.
* VC funds hot ventures after Aha. Reverse-VC helps entrepreneurs get to Aha
* VC helps 20/100,000 ventures. Reverse-VC helps 100,000/100,000.

U-E trains entrepreneurs to grow from idea to Aha using the proven skills and strategies of u-entrepreneurs, which are included in his latest books:
• Finance Secrets of Billion-Dollar Entrepreneurs: discusses finance and launch secrets of u-entrepreneurs
• Nothing Ventured, Everything Gained: discusses opportunity and business secrets of u-entrepreneurs.

Dileep learned unicorn secrets by financing entrepreneurs, 9 of whom became unicorn-entrepreneurs, interviewing 33, and analyzing 80. 87 were billion-dollar entrepreneurs (BDEs):
• 1% got VC after Tech Aha. 5% got VC after Strategy Aha! These entrepreneurs were replaced by a CEO
• 18% used Reverse-VC till Aha. They got VC after Strategy and Leadership Aha and stayed as CEO.
• 76% used Reverse-VC, avoided VC, and stayed as CEO.

The 94% of BDEs who avoided or delayed VC retained 2x – 7x the wealth created. For more, see “The Truth About Venture Capital” (dileeprao.com).

Dileep's previous books were on venture financing, including Business Financing: 25 Keys to Raising Money (NY Times) and Handbook of Business Finance & Capital Sources (AMA, NY).
Inc. magazine noted: “Like the U.S. Cavalry, this Handbook enters the scene just in time.”

Dileep has consulted on venture development with entrepreneurs, Fortune 500 corporations, economic developers, the U.S. government, and community development corporations to help them bridge the VC gap from Idea to Aha. Dileep has served on boards of many companies and been the chair of one.

He has taught entrepreneurship, unicorn entrepreneurship, VC, and venture financing at Florida International University, Harvard, Stanford, INCAE, University of Minnesota and the Warsaw School of Economics.

Brooke is a growth and performance marketer who specializes in working with wine industry and consumer goods businesses. Particularly those who do most of their business online or that want to do more and better business through digital channels. She has been in the wine industry for close to 20 years and worked in DTC sales management and wholesale/import sales management before moving over to the digital online strategy side more recently.

Brooke has worked with companies as:

- International wine education and certification organizations (B2B and B2C)
- Wine Importers with a DTC/Wine Club business model
- Online wine clubs
- Small to mid size wineries
- Groups of wine bars and retailers (local chain)
- Language Immersion Program Providers
- Tour Companies with DTC wine sales and/or online wine club
- Boutique Hotels and B&B's
- B2B Software startups

Brooke loves connecting people with businesses/brands/products/people that are a great fit for them and businesses with the right audiences. She offers strategies and implementation of those strategies to drive increased website visits, online and on-site sales, and brand awareness. This includes overall marketing strategy, email marketing strategy, online ad campaigns, content marketing strategy, and SEO content strategy.

She looks at the big picture and long term when it comes to sales, marketing and brand building with educated decisions based upon previous experience in both the DTC side (DTC sales management) and the wholesale and import side of the industry.

Zach joined Pure Crypto during launch in January of 2018 as the head of operations and investor relations. Prior to joining Pure Crypto, Zach worked on the operations team at CMT Asset Management, a proprietary trading and alternative asset management firm working in the cryptocurrency space.

Additionally, he brings some entrepreneurial experience having helped launch Thunder Strength LLC and Betasol Consumer Products LLC. Mr. Lindquist received a B.S. in Physics from Wheaton College.

Pure Crypto is an investment firm dedicated 100% to the emerging digital asset class of blockchain technology and cryptocurrency. Their goal is to create diversified investment allocations to the most compelling strategies across an array of crypto market segments and opportunities

Meaghan B. Murphy is an author, editor, on-air personality, lifestyle and health expert and influencer, a home-hack master and certified trainer. Meaghan was recently named Editor in Chief of Woman’s Day (the #1 selling magazine on newsstands), charged with energizing the brand across print and digital. This follows a 6-year stint as executive editor at Good Housekeeping, where Meaghan helped dust off and reimagine the 130-year-old megabrand with a soup-to-nuts redesign that took a more modern, fun and can-do approach to domesticity, boosting the magazine’s cool factor and its readership in the coveted 18-to-34 category without losing its core, older audience.

Along with guiding Woman’s Day creative vision, which reaches 18 million readers each month, Meaghan also develops strategic partnerships across all platforms, conceives of new ways to generate revenue and promotes WD in the media as a regular guest expert on “Live with Kelly & Ryan,” “Today,” “GMA”, “The Dr. Oz Show,” and many more. Additionally, she’s been featured on many radio shows and podcasts (she co-hosted “Conversations with Maria Menounos” on SiriusXM!), Fashionweekdaily.com’s “The Daily Front Row,” The Everymom.com, The Newsette, Macaroni Kid and more, and recently launched her own podcast entitled Off the Gram with fellow wellness influencers.

Jason currently focuses on managing and scaling his first independent venture, TapRm, an e-commerce based platform acting as a launch vehicle for the next generation of culture and story-led brands. TapRm's omni-channel platform builds beer, cider and hard seltzer brands by combining traditional beer distribution with direct-to-consumer e-commerce for the first time in the United States

With over 7 years of experience successfully driving investment, acquisitions and corporate strategy for a versatile range of companies from Fortune 100s to early stage startups, Jason's expertise is inventing new, more powerful and profitable ways to launch game-changing customer focused ideas.

Prior to TapRm, he managed investments and acquisitions decisions into a host of beverage businesses including e-commerce, CPG, technology and logistics startups at Zx Ventures, the global incubator and venture capital team funded by Anheuser Busch InBev, the leading global brewer. There, he helped grow them into thriving, capitalized businesses, each designed to scale into high value assets.

Jason holds a J.D. from Harvard Law School and a B.A. from Harvard College with a concentration in economics with time spent studying global finance at the National University of Singapore.

Sharon Rich runs a business growth consulting and leadership coaching firm called Think Business Growth, where she works with business owners and leaders as their Fractional Chief Accountability Officer. This means that Sharon serves on the leadership team and is responsible for driving clarity in strategy and planning, creating aligned team and leadership behaviors, and supports the team in identifying and removing obstacles and otherwise being 100% accountable for creating their desired outcomes.

As a professional speaker, Sharon teaches business leaders how to leverage the hidden game being played in their organizations without their knowledge.

In fact, Sharon wrote the book Your Hidden Game about ten invisible agreements that prevent businesses from achieving their goals — and demonstrates through examples how simply getting what is hidden out on the table where it can be renegotiated, predictably, dramatically and sustainably improves business performance.

As a result of Sharon’s work, her clients see measurable improvement in leadership, teamwork, execution, and especially, business results.

Esben Friis-Jensen is the Co-Founder of Chief Growth Officer at Userflow, a no-code builder for in-app onboarding and surveys, allowing SaaS businesses to be more product-led. Prior to Userflow, Esben Co-Founded Cobalt, which today is a 200+ employee company. At Cobalt, Esben was a part of a product-led growth initiative and the piqued his interest to go all in and join a company in the space.

Dr. Georges is a passionate life and career coach, resume writer, award-winning author, motivational speaker, organizational trainer, and university lecturer who helps clients and students RESCRIPT dis-empowering self-talk, maximize their strengths, get unstuck, and take empowered action to achieve their life and career goals and dreams. She provides positive psychology-based life and career coaching and resume writing to clients across the nation, leads local community wellness groups, and delivers workshops and speaking engagements for corporations, educational institutions, non-profits, healthcare organizations, professional associations, and beyond.

Colleen is also a Rutgers University Lecturer in counseling and women’s leadership/social justice and a member of the Rutgers Speaker’s Bureau. In her TEDx Talk, “Re-Scripting the Stories We Tell Ourselves,” she talks about the impact our internal dialogue has on our relationship with ourselves and the world around us.

She received a Doctorate in Counseling Psychology from Rutgers University, is a Nationally Certified Psychologist, Licensed Professional Counselor, Certified Comprehensive Positive Psychology Coach, and holds over a dozen certifications in life/career coaching and positive psychology.

Dr. Georges is author of the 8-time award-winning, international best-selling book, RESCRIPT the Story You're Telling Yourself, which received a Reader’s Favorite 5-star review, was featured on New 12 Long Island’s Elizabeth & Elisa Morning Show, and recognized in Aspire Magazine’s Top 10 Inspiring Books List. Colleen is also a co-author of 10 best-selling self-growth books and a Huffington Post contributor. Her expertise has been featured in various media outlets including News12, RVNTV, Live Happy, Inspire Me Today, Mashable, Rewire Me, The Job Network, Care.com, New Jersey Family Magazine, and The Trenton Times.

Learn More about Dr. Colleen Georges at:
www.RESCRIPTBook.com
www.ColleenGeorges.com

Louis Spagnuolo is a serial entrepreneur and currently serves as the Chief Executive Officer for Don't Look Media LLC, a highly recognized privately held Internet Monetization Company.  During his career Louis Spagnuolo has worked with Professional Athletes, Entertainers, National Business Leaders, Heads of State and countless genuinely fantastic people, while sharing in the financial dreams of all his clients to the tune of over $884 Million Dollars in deal participations.  Louis Spagnuolo has been recognized in over 278 major media publications such as Forbes Magazine, The South Florida Business Journal, The Palm Beach Post, The Sun-Sentinel, South Florida Business Leader Magazine, Fox Business News, BankRate.com, South Florida Opulence and The Associated Press. Louis Spagnuolo is a nationally sought after expert in Internet Monetization, with an emphasis on asset acquisitions that can be leveraged to generate liquidity events.  Louis Spagnuolo is a graduate of the University of Miami, where he earned a degree in Finance and previously held a recognized tenure at both The Royal Bank of Canada as well as two Venture Capital companies before becoming an Internet Entrepreneur.

Jeff Sweetman is Founder and CEO of Franchise Makeovers LLC. Jeff is a seasoned executive in the franchising industry with over three decades of operational and leadership experience across different types of franchising concepts. Steve now helps fast-growing franchises and franchises seeking to reach their new phase of growth.

Fabricio F. Costa has a Bachelor’s in Science, a Ph.D. in Genomics, a Post-Doctoral Degree in Molecular Genetics from Harvard University and an MBA from Startup Health Academy in the USA. He has contributed extensively to academic research with more than ninety peer-reviewed articles and three patents worldwide. In addition, Fabricio has more than 20 years of experience in top academic labs and companies such as Harvard University, University of Chicago, Startup Health Academy, Singularity University, Google (NASDAQ: GOOGL) (Ventures, Higher Education and Startups), Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) and others. Fabricio is also a serial entrepreneur (co-founded and founded four startups; two were successfully sold). Finally, Fabricio is a data science and technology leader known for successfully identifying and developing revenue producing opportunities in the technology, life sciences and drug development markets.

Connect with Fabricio: https://www.linkedin.com/in/fabriciofcosta/

Neil Newcomb, CEO of Franchising for Kelly's Roast Beef joins us. 

More info: KellysRoastBeef.com

Connect with Neil: https://www.linkedin.com/in/neil-newcomb-5171688/

Interview with Xeniapp CEO Sachin Narode and COO Rachel Obenshain.

Visit Their Company: Xeniapp.com

Connect with Sachin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sachinnarode/

Connect with Rachel: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rachel-spector-obenshain-5692a8/