The Summit Podcast

Ben Goldhaber is the Founder and CEO of Juked.gg, a platform for esports and gaming fans to discover and engage with the best events and content from across the global esports community.

Before Juked, Ben pursued his childhood passion for online gaming by accepting an offer to work at Twitch where he was a founding team member.

Twitch is the global leader in video game live streaming with over 100 million peak visitors that was acquired by Amazon in 2014 for nearly $1 billion. After spending nearly a decade at Twitch, he saw a problem in the online gaming community that needed to be addressed – toxic online behavior from users.

His mission with Juked is to contribute to a rapidly growing and thriving esports and gaming community while providing access to the most amazing content and experiences for users while providing an environment free of toxic behavior and commentary.

• Loved gaming
• Childhood dream
• Gave up convention job
• Worked at twitch
• There for ~10 years
• Company grew to 1000+ ppl; became corporate
• Toxic behavior was not a priority to solve
• Had good exit + financial stability
• Left to start juked
• Content + good environment + community / people
• Long term - help contribute to community
• Eposts and gaming are growing, still early days

Ben knew creating a healthier online social environment alone wasn’t enough so he aimed at content + engagement similar to combining Reddit & ESPN + a social platform all in one.

Please enjoy this episode & hope you learn more about the creator economy.

Justin True is a hybrid-athlete who’s bounced back from a turbulent upbringing where he questioned the value of his own life to creating the True Triathlon to raise $15,000,000 to support mental health awareness and help others.

Justin and his team want to the bridge the gap and help good people connect with the ones that need it the most around the world. By exploring and adventuring across the globe they have found people are fundamentally similar. Their hope is to bring awareness to the unseen hearts of this world through extreme expeditions.

Earlier in life, Justin was faced with the grim reality of his mother almost passing away due to a violent encounter that left Justin in a deep, dark place questioning the value of his own life. He found an escape and relief through intense physical activity from becoming a champion MMA (mixed martial arts) fighter to then pursuing extreme and ultra events.

After finding his calling with marathons, triathlons, and ultra athlete events, he decided to create the True Triathlon in his namesake to bring awareness to mental health awareness.

His story, passion, optimism, and positivity are infectious!

Whether you are an athlete pursuing your ambitions of become the leader in your field, or someone looking for more meaning and purpose in life, this conversation will uplift you and bring new perspectives on how to view challenges and the opportunities that emerge from overcoming those challenges.

Justin dives into his remarkable ascent from the lows to the highs and what it means to pursue a worthy purpose that benefits others in the process.

Join us in this fantastic episode!

Craig J. Lews is on a path to leave a legacy and build generational wealth. His vision and motivation is transparent from the start! Craig’s passion and energy is contagious. Craig started off his career in payroll and realized to leave his impact, he needed to build his own company.

Gig Wage is on a path to revolutionize the future engagement of the workforce. Gig Wage builds modern payroll, payments and banking tools for the future of work. Gig Wage is designed payroll that meets the demand of the on-demand workforce.

Craig is a former professional basketball player in Europe and those habits and lessons as an athlete have carried over into the professional world. He is known by living by many mottos:

• Go for it
• Don’t fear complex problems, face them
• You survive 100% of the things you’ve been through
• We have everything we need in us
• Be inspired and inspire somebody everyday
• The world is our classroom
• Success is not the absence of failure but the mastery of it
• The more you give, the more valuable you are

Craig dives into his bounce back mindset and how we must move on from the good & bad and focus on constant self improvement with the thought of wanting to learn from every interaction.

Join us in this fantastic episode!

Tommy Sobel is a World Class digital habits coach and the Founder and CEO of Brick, the leading digital wellness movement.  He’s helped thousands of business leaders and top-performers develop better technology habits.

He started Brick with a mission to create a world where healthy phone habits make us more present and connected.

Before Brick, Tommy worked as Steven Spielberg’s right hand man at DreamWorks Animation where he had various leadership roles focused on digital media and innovation.

While studying neuroscience at Duke University, he developed a deep understanding of the human brain and how technology is impacting us and our wellbeing in a hyperdigital, always-on environment. Before entering the entertainment industry, Tommy worked as the key researcher and co-author of neuroscience studies alongside PhDs at Duke University and UCLA.

Join us in this thoughtful episode and learn how we can all improve our lives with a more mindful approach to using technology and interacting with others in a digital world.

Brandon Gil is a former Division 1 baseball player and scholarship recipient and a positive, hard-charging entrepreneur who is proactively building his dream life.

After leaving the corporate world where he worked at Fortune 500 companies, Brandon launched took control of his destiny and launched the eponymous Gil Ventures to help businesses with digital strategies and create his ideal life on his terms.

He has taken Gil Ventures from a concept to a profitable business venture with a large and growing list of clients in the CBD industry and a team of 40 professionals across the world that is growing.

In this episode, you will hear about the foundational habits and mindset that enable Brandon to build the life that he envisions. His life principles and approach to life, business, and personal improvement all come out in this fun and casual conversation.

After returning to Miami, I had a small stint of corporate positions with Fortune 500 companies but felt I could not accomplish my aspirations down that path. I then decided to hyperfocus on growing startups. After a couple of years successfully helping startups scale, I wanted to challenge myself by opening Gil Ventures - a holding company for private and public companies that use innovation to enhance the human condition through emerging concepts and industries.

Enjoy the episode!

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Matt Benson is an entrepreneur to the core. From a young age, Matt was building companies. First, it was a film company in high school, then in college he created SnappyCast, a software solutions company, to now eFuse, there is nothing stopping Matt in his pursuit for growth.

As a Forbes 30 under 30, Matt truly believes that his work ethic, win the day mindset, and finding others to better than himself to help scale the company are what have allowed him to achieve success. Now at eFuse, one of the largest platforms for gamers to meet, compete, & be discovered, Matt is leading a rapidly growing team to change the industry.

If you are not on the eFuse platform, https://efuse.gg/, sign up and see the massive network and future Matt and his team is building! Enjoy the episode!

Nikki DeMeré is a community-focused leader, CMO, and entrepreneur dedicated to elevating the groups of people around them.

Nikki currently is the CMO of Reeview.app which is an automated platform that finds, collects, and displays authentic user-generated video reviews for e-commerce businesses. With years of experience as a SaaS growth marketer, Nikki has sought to build relationships with the digital and physical communities around them to enable better customer success and relations.

Nikki helps startups move from initial product-solution fit to product-market fit and beyond to establish then strengthen brands.

In this episode, we discuss Nikki’s passion for community building and having a positive impact on people.

Join us for this wonderful episode with Nikki, Andrew, and Jeremy.

Priscilla Addison and Kimberly Addison are two dynamic and visionary sisters with a passion for honoring their heritage, elevating people, and building a global artisan chocolate business in Ghana, Africa.

The dynamic Pan-African sisters named their business “57 Chocolate” as a tribute to Ghana’s 1957 independence and “can-do spirit.” Both wear many different hats at all times and utilize each other's strengths and have trust that they can both execute their sides of the business.

57 Chocolate is delivering amazing chocolate products to the world while bringing awareness to Ghana which is the second largest cocoa exporter in the world.

Their bold vision is to drive development and self-sufficiency in Ghana and across the continent. Their mission is to add value to local resources by transforming them into high quality products that celebrate African art and culture.

In this episode, we discuss the sisters’ passion for chocolate, how they became involved in the industry, and what intrigued them about Ghana’s global role as a leading exporter of cocoa.

Priscilla and Kimberly are smart, passionate, resourceful, and on a mission to elevate the public consciousness and perception of Africa and all its enriching qualities and characteristics.

Join us for this thoughtful episode with Priscilla, Kimberly, Andrew, and Jeremy.

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Sahil Mansuri is an elite software sales executive, startup founder and CEO, investor, and evangelist for sales as a professional career choice.

His passion for sales, intelligence, and work ethic allowed him to achieve extraordinary levels of professional sales success. In his entire sales career, he has never missed an annual sales quota.

He was the #1 sales rep for six years at multiple software-as-a-service (SaaS) companies; spent five years as a VP of sales at multiple SaaS companies, and has been the founder and CEO of an investor-backed startup for the past three years.

While at the top of his professional game, his ego also swelled to epic proportions. It became such a problem that it resulted in him getting fired – twice – while he was the #1 sales rep. After the second time, he reflected on his experiences and made a pivot that has enabled him to grow and thrive even more.

He lives by the thought, “if you’re not getting better, you’re getting worse.” He’s developed disciplined and focused ways of ensuring he is always improving – ruthlessly prioritizing your time, getting clear on what matters to you, and removing people and obstacles from what matters to you.

There are countless nuggets of wisdom from Sahil that will benefit you personally and professionally.

Sahil is thoughtful, methodical, calm, and his stories are thought-provoking.

Join us for this exciting episode with Sahil, Andrew, and Jeremy.

Brandon Clauser is a young, ultra-high-performing Sales Account Executive at Salesforce, the $200 billion global software giant.

He is extremely hard-working, determined, and has achieved an extraordinary level of success before age 30 — all without a college degree.

He credits his success to his intense work ethic, perseverance, doing the right thing, and finding ways to understand and help people as some catalysts for his success.

Early in his career, he found deep internal motivation from “the gift of desperation” — wanting to create a better life for himself and doing whatever it would take to achieve success.

He began his sales career doing cold calls to sell walk-in bathtubs. After achieving success in sales, he followed his intuition and pursued opportunities in software sales and quickly found his “path” to help technology companies grow.

As an individual contributor at various companies during his career, his personal performance had been greater than the sum total of the majority of people in the sales department.

Brandon has risen quickly to the top of the sales leaderboard within every organization he’s been a part of while supporting his team and gaining the trust and confidence of his customers.

At Salesforce, he is a leading Account Executive focusing on the healthcare industry. He works with senior- and C-level executives to deliver solutions that help his clients better serve their end-customers.

Brandon is positive, energetic, grounded, and has an inspiring story — a story for anyone seeking to improve their life with a vision, goals, and hard work.

He is an example of what is possible.

Ryan Davis is a highly successful young entrepreneur and a Co-Founder of BacklotCars which sold for $425 million in late 2020.

Before his remarkable entrepreneurial journey, he began his career on Wall Street as an investment analyst moving from boutique investment banks to the bulge bracket investment bank, Credit Suisse.

On Wall Street, he developed valuable quantitative analysis skills, the ability to synthesize complex concepts and communicate them in a concise and compelling manner, and an ultra-strong work ethic forged by routinely working 80+ hour weeks for years.

He credits his success to his basic (and effective) principles: controlling what you can control, working extremely hard, sticking with what you know, and combining data with ideas to solve meaningful challenges.

Ryan started BacklotCars with his brother to solve a major challenge in the automotive industry – making it easier for dealers to buy cars wholesale.

Over a five-year period, he grew BacklotCars from a 4-person team to an industry leader through effective go-to-market strategies, knowing the customer, doing more with less, and applying hard work and a heads-down approach to disrupting an old-school industry.

Join us for this exciting episode with Ryan, Andrew, and Jeremy.

Aaron Witt loves dirt!

He’s a remarkable young entrepreneur elevating the multi-billion-dollar world of dirt.

The world of dirt is an industry most people take for granted that literally makes civilization possible – it’s anything related to moving dirt for construction, reshaping our landscape, mining, and more.

Aaron is modernizing the way the dirt-moving industry communicates outside the industry, recruits new talent to amazing opportunities, and building and creating content to highlight the sophisticated tools and technologies in the industry, making it a more attractive potential career for future generations.

On his sixth birthday, Aaron spent the day at the local Caterpillar dealership and he hasn’t lost his passion for tractors and dirt.

He transformed his original desire to start a construction company into his current vision for changing the dirt industry as the Founder and CEO of BuildWitt Media Group.

BuildWitt Media Group partners with forward-thinking construction, mining, equipment, and demolition companies to solve problems ranging from marketing, recruiting, to business development.

In this episode, we explore Aaron’s passion and mission of “making the dirt world a better place.”

Ryan Loh is a leader in the Silicon Valley startup legal community. He’s been the head of legal at leading billion-dollar startup unicorns including Houzz and Bolt.

His journey from the law school to the board room has been extraordinary. You’ll be taken on the journey to hear how he turned an interview-gone-bad in law school into a remarkable opportunity that paved the way for him to join Silicon Valley’s top ranks.

Today, Ryan’s the VP of Legal at Bolt where he’s responsible for all things legal and compliance for the eCommerce innovator. He also manages the people operations, talent, and communications teams to ensure Bolt is attracting and retaining the best people.

Professionally, Ryan’s most important goal has been to take the learnings of his career and the insights that he’s discovered or has been taught, and to organize them into something useful for himself and for others.

Besides having incredible professional experiences, Ryan’s background, character, principles, views of the world, and his thoughtfulness can inspire anyone.

In this episode, get a front-row seat into Ryan’s adventure and experience how he’s navigated adversity to create a truly amazing personal and professional life for himself.

Brandon Proctor is a friend and global eCommerce executive who’s the CMO (Chief Marketing Officer) of MadeiraMadeira, one of the largest and leading eCommerce retailers in Brazil (“the Wayfair of Brazil”).

Before having a life-changing epiphany and embarking on a year-long sabbatical to regroup and reconnect with himself and his family, he was living the life of a hard-charging, succeed-at-any-expense executive.

And it showed with his professional performance.

Professionally, he had achieved a list of accomplishments by age 40 many people could only dream of achieving. He helped grow Build.com into the largest online retailer in home improvement in America as their CMO. He was part of a successful turnaround and company sale as the CEO of AutoAnything, a business owned by AutoZone that is the largest retailer of aftermarket automotive parts & accessories in the USA. And much more.

Brandon had risen to some of the highest highs at leading companies through a combination of his sheer will, a deep passion for learning, and an unrelenting work ethic.

That unrelenting work ethic was also the double-edged sword and catalyst for pursuing a sabbatical that changed his life and outlook on success, achievement, family, and more.

His story is impressive and we discuss how he made the pivot, gained an extraordinary opportunity to find deeper perspectives, and how that also helps him be the best version of himself in work and life today.

Scott Bedford is a highly successful hedge fund investor, entrepreneur, philanthropist, and helicopter snow ski guide. He has achieved extraordinary levels of professional success as a Wall Street investor and now as a helicopter ski company owner and operator where he is pursuing one of his greatest passions—snow skiing.

On this episode of The Summit Podcast, we explore what success means to a person who’s achieved extraordinary levels of success, both professionally and personally. In doing so, we uncover a special moment in Scott’s life in Patagonia that led to a wholesale reevaluation of his professional pursuits to refocus on his passion for snow skiing.

Scott defines success as a package—one that includes a well-rounded balance consisting of health, happiness, family, spirituality, and professional achievement.

Success is not as simple or as one-dimensional as “making a million dollars.”

But having a strong work ethic, passion for what you do, a willingness to do what others won’t, and mentors are foundational to living an extraordinary life.

Join us for this exciting episode with Scott, Andrew, and Jeremy.

Steve Scheer is the President of Brondell, which is a health and wellness company that specializes in manufacturing the infamous bidet. In this episode, Andrew and Jeremy pick Steve’s mind about his career journey, how he manages people and company culture, and how Steve focuses on delivering a product that makes a difference.

Steve graduated from Northeastern University with a degree in Finance in the year 1995. Immediately after graduation, Steve decided to go into business with his brother, and opened a restaurant. After two years of owning and operating a restaurant seven days a week, Steve realized that doing business with a family member was not the easiest. He sold out of the restaurant for two times the amount he had paid for it and decided to use his Finance degree to start Lead Traders, Inc. A few years later, Steve stumbled upon an opportunity with a company called Craigslist where he became only the third employee at the time. At Craigslist, Steve was able to help the company grow tremendously as they began to offer their service within many new cities, add more employees, and generate more site traffic. Steve used his skills in a couple of Operations jobs at Errigal and EcoTimber before he ended up joining Brondell, where he has been for the past fourteen years.

Join us for this exciting conversation with Andrew, Jeremy, and Steve.

Liz Lee is an outstanding business woman and is an ultra-high performer in the field of software sales. Liz graduated from the University of Southern California (USC) where she achieved a Bachelor’s Degree in Accounting. Upon graduation, Liz used her accounting degree to launch a career in Tax Consulting with Deloitte, one of the “Big 4” accounting firms. Throughout her time working with Deloitte, Liz was able to experience working abroad in Amsterdam as well as spending time working in their Los Angeles office.

After her experiences with Deloitte, Liz made the transition from Corporate America to the Start-Up World when she accepted a position with a start-up company that helps healthcare practices like dentists and medical professionals better serve their patients and business called PatientPop. Starting at PatientPop as an entry-level Sales Representative, Liz paved her path to success by shattering her sales quotas, sometimes by up to almost 250%. This led to Liz achieving the title of Senior Sales Director in just three years!

Liz came to the realization that sales and the World of Start-Ups was her true passion. After her time with PatientPop, Liz joined Verkada, which is a rapidly growing startup that provides security systems to large companies. Liz helped Verkada  grow tremendously during her time with start-up as a Mid-Market Account Executive. Now, as of December 1st of 2020, Liz is entering a new role as the Senior Sales Director for a start-up called optimize.health.

Join us for this exciting conversation with Andrew, Jeremy, and Liz.

Alistair Kwenin is a successful management consultant with a leading global consulting firm where he specializes in international business.  In this episode, Andrew and Jeremy dive into Alastair’s background and motivations for moving from his home country of Ghana, West Africa to America to create an excellent life for himself.

Alastair shares his love for soccer which took him to Truman State University.  After realizing his dreams of playing professional soccer were unlikely, he shifted his focus to business and wealth creation. He discusses the process of organizing his thoughts, creating a plan, and executing the plan.  Alistair is the consummate hustler who is smart and resourceful which enables him to balance working full-time as a global management consultant and also investing in real estate, the stock market, and managing other side hustles to create his financial freedom.

Join us for this exciting conversation with Andrew, Jeremy, and Alistair.

Jon Schram is the Founder and CEO of Purple Guys, a rapidly-growing 7-figure IT support firm based in Kansas City, Missouri.  The Purple Guys has become the Midwest’s premier provider of IT support services which Jon started with his wife and partner.  Together, they have successfully grown and operated multiple 7-figure businesses. They’re committed to helping their hundreds of customers succeed by solving their IT problems in a dynamic and ever-changing technology industry.

Jon shares his motivations to become an entrepreneur and to take control of his destiny. He describes what it’s like to partner with his spouse and how partnering with extended family can create massive conflict.  As is the case with entrepreneurship, Jon also shares the highs and lows of what it’s like to own a business for listeners to get a sense of if the path is for them.

There are key lessons and nuggets of wisdom you will find valuable if you are a small business owner, or an aspiring business owner.

Romeen is an accomplished young executive who’s achieved substantial success in a short period of time. Today, he is the President of Metasys Technologies, a leading talent firm that works with leading global brands to help them attract, engage, and retain top talent.

In addition to his executive responsibilities, he’s an active early-stage investor having invested in nearly a dozen companies with a goal to invest in many more. Previously, he was a top-ranked management consultant at McKinsey & Company, a leading global management consulting firm.

Romeen received a B.A. from Duke University where he graduated magna cum laude and his J.D. from the Harvard Law School where he was a member of the Executive Board of the Harvard Law Review as a Senior Editor.

Having spent time as a management consultant and operator at early-stage startups, Romeen has developed a keen sense of what it takes for companies to become successful.  Romeen credits his drive and motivation to pursuing goals and experiences that make him happy, fulfilled and energized.

Romeen believes that surrounding yourself with the right people, working hard, and producing value are recipes for long-term growth and progress.

This episode is packed with nuggets of wisdom and guidance that will help anyone become more successful in life or work. Get a peek through the window into the mind of a top-tier performer to understand what it takes to perform at the highest levels and achieve great feats.

Jenica Blechschmidt is an accomplished business woman and the Founder/CEO of Lovebug. Lovebug helps parents and newborns get better sleep, and more of it.

Before starting her entrepreneurial journey, she had an impressive career as an investment banker and leader at a high technology company, Box.  As an investment banker, she was involved in over $100 billion in transaction volume and advised companies on mergers and acquisitions (M&A), initial public offerings (IPOs), and raising capital from venture capital (VC) and private equity (PE) investors.

Having seen what her future would have looked like by observing people older than her, she decided to listen to her intuition and trust her instinct.  She knew a pivot was needed to allow her to pursue new career goals that would re-energize her.  The next move was to Box, a leading digital file storage and collaboration company where she worked with the Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) and led the development of a new product.

Ultimately, her diverse set of experiences brought her to starting Lovebug after observing the pain and struggles she observed with new parents who were desperately needing more sleep.

Her story is fascinating and will help you see things from another perspective, how to navigate challenges, and become a better listener for when it’s the right time in life to make moves that will make you happier and more successful.

Maha Abouelenein is a passionate, successful, and energetic executive. She has experienced significant successes and has transformed how companies communicate with the world throughout her career as an entrepreneur and global communications executive.

Today, she is one of Gary Vaynerchuk’s top executives where she has a leading role as the Chief Value Officer and EVP of Business Development at VaynerX. She is responsible for working with some of the largest corporations on their global communications strategy and execution.

From an early age, Maha recalls the influence of her father (a university dean) and the principles he instilled in her -- notably, being a life-long learner, adding value in any situation, and working hard.

Maha’s story is energizing, intriguing, and an excellent example of what is possible with dedication, applying the principles of being a life-long learner, and what it means to find ways to add value to people and companies.

Kris Rudeegraap is a young, successful serial entrepreneur who left a $200,000/year job to start a company and pursue his dreams of starting a company that would afford him financial freedom and the ability to do work that made him happy.

He is the Founder and CEO of Sendoso (https://sendoso.com/), a leading technology company that makes it ultra-easy for companies to send gifts and tokens of appreciation to their customers and sales prospects. Kris has raised over $50 million in investor capital to grow Sendoso as the idea has been proven in the market and rapidly gains momentum.  Kris began his entrepreneurial journey in college and sold his first company, AllStudentRentals.com, shortly after graduation to a leading payments processing company where he became a sales director.

Kris shares what inspires him, how he defines success, and the nitty-gritty details of how he made the decision and took action to pursue his dreams.

Kris can be reached on LinkedIn and by email.

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rudeegraap/

Email: Listen to the end of the podcast.

Marcus Brown is a World Class Professional Waterskier, accomplished filmmaker, and amazing person. He has positively impacted the lives of thousands of people over the course of his professional skiing career, as an ambassador for the sport of water skiing, through his short films and documentaries, and connecting with communities across America.

As a professional waterskier, Marcus was ranked #3 in the world for the Men’s Slalom event and competed at the highest levels on the world stage. The slalom event entails a skier being towed behind a ski boat that is traveling 36 mph straight down a narrow boat path while the skier must zig and zag around six staggered buoys that are approximately 150 feet apart (3 on each side of the boat path) and where the skier is accelerating to speeds upwards of 70+ mph between buoys.

Marcus’ many accomplishments include the Gold Medal at the Moomba Masters in Melbourne, Australia, 1st place at the University World’s championship in China, tying a Collegiate All-Star tournament record of 2 buoys at 41’ off, and 1st place at the US Open.

In addition to skiing, Marcus is an advocate for the sport of water skiing and an accomplished filmmaker and drone pilot. He created the Face to Face tour where he traveled across America to interact with people in local communities and offer free ski clinics to expose people to the sport.

Today, Marcus resides in Northern California where he skis, coaches skiers, and is building a business that offers online water ski instruction, preparation, and coaching so anyone can benefit from Marcus’ expertise and years of experience as a pro skier.

Marcus can be found on numerous social media channels, including Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube.

FB: https://www.facebook.com/marcusbrowntv

IG: https://www.instagram.com/marcus_brown_

YT: https://www.youtube.com/user/FlowPointTV

Andrew Gazdecki is a wildly successful serial entrepreneur who has the distinction of being an Inc. Magazine 30 under 30 winner and has sold two successful companies before he turned 30 years old. His first company, BiznessApps, was started in college on a shoestring budget that was ultimately responsible for creating 5% of all apps in the Apple App Store (read that again - 5%!!). Following BiznessApps, Andrew started and later sold Altcoin, a decentralized exchange (DEX) and peer-to-peer trading solution for cryptocurrency in the FinTech (financial technology) sector.

In addition to his professional achievements, he’s passionate about giving back to founders and executives within the startup community that aspire to build amazing products and companies. He’s wanted to be a CEO since his early childhood and he worked tirelessly to create his dreams.

Join us in this episode as we talk about Andrew’s growing up, his motivations to be a CEO as a kid and how he worked persistently to make his dreams come true to create the life that he wanted.

Susan Liu is a successful venture capital investor with a leading, top-tier VC firm, Scale Venture Partners. She has been recognized as a Forbes 30 under 30 for Venture Capital recipient and has invested in leading technology companies, including Lever, Namely, Textio, TalkIQ, WalkMe, Wrike, and others.

Started her career in technology investment banking in San Francisco before moving into a career in venture capital. She is a thoughtful, genuine, and ambitious woman doing impressive things and backing amazing entrepreneurs. In addition to her professional success, she believes her relationships with her family and friends are the most important aspects of life. This episode will cover an exciting array of topics from how Susan grew up without any knowledge of exposure to the business world and how she has risen to where she is today.

We recap Episode 5 & 6 about Crystal Landsem, CFO at Lulus.com and Mark Josey, CEO at Social Apex Media and Kansas City Pioneers.

Both Crystal and Mark have scaled roles quickly in their industries through building a strong network of mentors, having a head down, work hard approach, and being energized to work with passionate co-workers.

We discuss the how and why behind finding mentors and ways to be authentic and genuine when reaching out. 

Mark Josey shares with us on how he went from the corporate world at Verizon and Sprint to building and creating multiple startups from a marketing agency, Social Apex Media, to founding Kansas City’s Professional Esports team, The Kansas City Pioneers.

In addition to his Instagram-famous beard, Mark’s enthusiasm, passion for winning as a team, and connecting with like-minded individuals has been a driving force for his success. He notes that having a desire to help others around him succeed and building relationships with mentors to help guide him in the right path for success.

Social Apex Media: https://www.socialapexmedia.com

Kansas City Pioneers: https://www.kcp.gg

Crystal Landsem is a genuine, passionate, and hard-working executive atop one of the leading eCommerce companies in the USA, Lulus.com. She's helped the company raise hundreds of millions of investor capital from leading investors. She shares why her success has stemmed from doing work she enjoys and is passionate about and working with people she likes - in her words, it's like "tumbling up the mountain."

If there is one theme that stands out among the rest, it's PASSION. Finding your passion can be challenging, so having an open mind and exploring opportunities and navigating career changes with grace can be a major asset.

Andrew and Jeremy review and reflect on the conversation with Robert Strazzarino (Founder and former CEO of College Scheduler) and dive into the most impactful nuggets of wisdom he shared, from how big ideas start from grassroots efforts, to how conventional jobs will always be a safety net for entrepreneurs who courageously create their own path.

Robert Strazzarino is a young, successful technology entrepreneur and investor who achieved financial freedom after selling his highly successful company, College Scheduler, at 32 years old.

College Scheduler helps over 2 million students each year create their perfect college course schedule.  After over a decade building the company that he retained 100% ownership of, he was able to sell the business and embark on an early (but temporary) retirement to focus on life, health, wellness, and personal development.

Rob shares his motivations and thought process to leave the comforts and security of working with Chevron after an internship with the FBI.

On the 2nd episode, Andrew and Jeremy dive into a recap of their interview and discussion with Brendan Thomas. They discuss ways to be effective as well building comfort in the discomfort.

Brendan Thomas is a young, driven technology executive at the multi-billion-dollar startup, DoorDash. Brendan oversees billions in annual revenue through building and growing relationships with over 40 of America’s top restaurant brands while conquering triathlon and Ironman races.

Before stepping into the uncomfortable position of completely switching careers, Brendan was a young, up-and-coming leader within the global investment bank, J.P. Morgan where he evaluated strategic opportunities and strategic acquisitions for the firm.

Learn about the process of navigating uncomfortable situations of switching jobs and how to get clarity of mind in the process so you can be confident you are making the best decision for your life and growth.