The Journey

In this episode, we wrap up season 1 and recap our journey so far! It's been a lot of fun and hopefully, everyone has enjoyed the show so far! 

In this episode, we discuss the latest with the company and some of the realities of starting a business! 

In this episode, we discuss our thoughts and opinions on feedback in the workplace! From constructive criticism to seeking insights from others, we talk about the spectrum of reactions to feedback: moldable and coachable to principled and stubborn. Comment below and share your thoughts on how you take feedback!

In this week's episode, we were inspired by Justin's two-week vacation in Alaska to focus on taking off time from work for leisure time. We each give our opinions on being away from work and how these viewpoints have changed throughout our business careers. Listen in to hear our thoughts on technology usage, staying connected on vacation, and an overarching theme of work-life balance. 

In this week's episode, we talk about our successes and failures of the Clean Layer's Beta, make comparisons to the beginning of defi SOLUTIONS, and discuss the decisions balancing a B2B and B2C approach. Listen in to hear our recap over the past month and our newfound strategy for the near future!

In this week's episode, we discuss our thoughts and experiences on the culture of business. From defining the importance of culture to determining the right fit for an individual with a team, we bring up questions like: "Should culture be managed?" and "When is the right time to implement culture?" Tune in for our opinions on how to adapt, scale, and create consensus in culture!

In this week's episode we discuss how to build and launch a game on Kickstarter. Earlier this year Stephanie approached me with an idea for a card game and wanted to know if I knew of anyone who could design the game. I said well I can draw and decided to help out. We discuss the process including the challenges along the way and whether we'd do it all over again!

In this week's episode, we talk about mission statements. We get into definitions and each of our perspectives on the importance of this to an organization. What stage of a company might you want to establish one and should you revisit it on some frequency? 

In this week's episode, we talk about something most of us are experiencing - working from home!

Justin, who was always an office guy and very rarely worked from home, now says he may never go back into an office!

There are many tools and tricks and tips out there to help companies and team members make the most out of working from home.  However, there are a lot of challenges, as well.  How do you balance work and random chores, requests, and family-time?  It's not a natural balance.

In this week's episode, we talk about Passion Projects!  What are they??  We had all heard the phrase, but we had to dig in to understand it.  Are they hobbies?  Does it just mean working for free?  After you listen, comment, and tell us about your passion project!!

In this week's episode, we talk about pruning an organization. This can be a very uncomfortable situation especially when people are involved. We get into various situations where you might be faced with these tough decisions and how you might approach it. 

In this week's episode, we talk about lists. These can be pretty powerful for tasks and remembering things you need to get done. We give a peek into each of our styles and approaches to managing our work and the thought process behind them. Ultimately you have to have the discipline to get things done regardless of the tool you use to manage it as with most things. If you have a unique way of keeping track of the things you do we'd love to hear it! 

In this week's episode, we talk about building a business financial plan. We all need them. We may not all love creating them. Do you start with guessing your revenue?  Start with expenses? There are a lot of ways to approach, we spend time this episode digging into Johns's experience building financial plans.

In this week's episode, we get into being bigger than you are. Often times we find ourselves in "fake it until you make it" situations that can be very disingenuine. We get into how we've grown companies and positioned ourselves for success in our journeys as we've faced these situations. 

In this week's episode, we give another update on Clean Layer! We had our first demo of the product to investors which went very well. It was a good milestone for us as a team and allowed us to capture some feedback from some fresh eyes. The next big milestone is our private beta which is on track to launch in June! 

We hope everyone is staying safe! Enjoy the show!

In this week's episode, we talk about how to identify a market. There are no shortages of ideas to build a business. One of the most obvious steps is identifying customers who are willing to pay for that product or service. We dig into some details on how we approached this for our journey and some of the tactics that we used.

In this week's episode, we talk about pivoting your business. In the book The Lean Startup, Eric Ries has a great definition of a pivot. He says a Pivot is a "structured course correction designed to test a new fundamental hypothesis about the product, strategy, and engine of growth.".  It's something always top of mind for us especially in the early stages of building a company. We are constantly trying to validate our assumptions against the market. At the end of the day, the market decides and you oftentimes find yourself having to pivot to capture the most upside. These course corrections can vary in levels of effort and with everyone feeling a little constrained due to the coronavirus right now they can even feel unstructured or reactionary. I think that's normal and a lot of businesses are facing challenging times and having to make tough decisions to get through. We hope everyone is staying safe and healthy! 

In this week's episode, we sit down with Doug Jones. Doug is a Senior Vice President & Principal at RHSB commercial insurance. He has more than 25 years of experience in risk management and commercial insurance. His goal is to help clients free up resources so they can focus on their objectives! He was named a Power Broker™ by the Risk & Insurance® Magazine in 2010, 2011, 2013 and 2016. He has also received the Cyber Risk Management Leadership Award in 2015 and 2016 from INSUREtrust.

We get into all sorts of fascinating discussions around insurance. One, in particular, is around business interruption insurance and whether that includes pandemics or not. This was a really eye-opening discussion and brings a lot of things into perspective at a time where there is a lot of uncertainty. This was a helpful discussion for us at Clean Layer and we hope you enjoy this episode!

In this episode, we sit down with Kevin Vela. Kevin is the managing partner at Vela Wood. He focuses his practice in the areas of M&A, venture financing, fund representation, and gaming law. In recent years, he has represented both startups and investors in hundreds of equity financing transactions ranging from angel rounds through Series C rounds. Kevin was named a 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, and 2018 Super Lawyer Rising Star, was honored by D Magazine as a Best Lawyer in Dallas in 2016, and is a Texas Bar Foundation Fellow, an honor granted to 1/3 of 1% of Texas attorneys. 

Disclosures: Vela Wood represents Clean Layer and some members of Vela Wood are investors in the company. Members of the Clean Layer team also participate in the Mockingbird Ventures and Blossom Street funds. 

In this week's episode, we are joined by Annissa Deshpande. 

"HR sucks...but it doesn’t have to."

In this episode, we give an update on Clean Layer! Things are moving along and we are starting to play around with the product and prepping for our investor round table this month where we are going to demo the product and start to solicit feedback! To this point, we've sort of been in an echo chamber of our own thoughts so it will be a great time to widen that feedback loop!

With everything going on right now in the world we have adjusted how we are recording the show which in some ways has afforded us the ability to push out some content much quicker than before. Since we are completely remote and not using our typical setup, we are getting to explore other options and all of the challenges that come with that. I think you can expect that there might be dogs barking, kids yelling and birds chirping at times but just like everyone else we are adjusting to the times and continuing to focus on putting out great content!

Agile.  The word means completely different things to different people.  Some use it synonymously with SCRUM; others use it generically to indicate flexibility.  How agile functions within an organization has to adjust as the size of the team does.  Definitions vary, and so do our opinions.

Former CEO and Leadership Coach, Staci Tubbs, joins us to talk about transformation, the benefits of peer groups, personal development, sales, and more. We dig into questions like can people really change, especially after a certain age and level of success.  And the key characteristics of a teachable leader.

And most importantly, we try to get Staci to tell us who is easier to coach – men or women!

Feel free to contact Staci at her website

Revenue – aka sales – drives most companies.  Without revenue, expenses are tough to pay!  Join us as we chat about our own experiences with sales, our feelings on being “salespeople”, sales compensation ponderings, and the pains of moving a company from a small to a larger sales team.

Navigating the waters of funding your business is something nearly every entrepreneur faces. The top two reasons small businesses fail are related to money. This episode will not be the only one we do on raising capital given the criticality to business, but for now, jump in with us as we dip our toe in the water.

Some of us dream of being our own boss; others desire security and a steady paycheck. In this episode, we chat about what it means to work for yourself and the advantages and disadvantages it brings.

Entrepreneurship hasn’t always had the cache it does today. Colleges are creating degree programs for entrepreneurship, and negative social stigmas are evaporating. These changes lead us to ask the question – can you create entrepreneurs? Or does the social change allow those born to be entrepreneurs to come out of their shells?

In this week's episode of The Journey, we debate names and whether they matter. We get into some pretty funny discussions around some of the popular brands we all know and love today when we find out the name they started with like Nike and Pepsi!

In Episode 5, we chat through the newly formed business, what we have completed, and what we are currently working on.

From completing a capital raise to agreeing on the MVP definition to finding a team – there is no shortage of things to do in the first months of starting a business.

Join us as the hosts of The Journey ask and answer a variety of questions about themselves. We hope it provides some insight into the voices you will be consistently hearing during our podcast.

To move forward with the podcast, we went with the name “Get Back-Up.” In this episode, you get to hear the Great Podcast Naming Debate, where Stephanie describes where the name came from, and John and Justin give their initial thoughts on the podcast name. We have an entire general podcast on naming a business or a product, but for this episode, you’ll get an inside listen to specifically coming up with a name for this podcast. As you will see by the new name, it did lead to a rename! Best learning from the podcast – don’t chew gummy bears while talking on air!

Are you an idea person? Product ideas? Business ideas? What do you do with those ideas? Write them down? Convince yourself they are dumb? Try and execute them? 

In Episode 2 of The Journey, we talk about ideas! The founders of Clean Layer each have entirely different personalities, perspectives, and life experiences. We dig into why we are like we are and reminisce about past ideas we have each had. 

Join John “the idea killer,” Justin “the idea-list maker,” and Stephanie “the idea doer” as we dig in.

While it’s not as certain as death or taxes, finding yourself without a job is a fairly common experience.  But the way we each deal with it varies greatly.

In Episode 1 of The Journey, some members of the team of Clean Layer share their experiences.  The way we have each experienced and dealt with these surprising life changes varies based on our individual personalities as well as where we each were in life and in our careers.

We jump into questions like the emotions you feel the moment you get the news.  From being embarrassed to feeling free to feeling nothing.

We try to determine if seeing it coming makes it easier.  If not, what does make it easier?  Does having savings in the bank make it easier?  Having no dependents?  Your age?  Whether you have been through it before?

And post day-one, how do you feel about the future?  Excited?  Neutral?  Scared?