Justin Nguyen is an entrepreneur, a speaker, and a podcaster. He’s currently the host of the Declassified College Podcast, an iTunes top 50 podcast that provides college students the "cheat codes" to succeed in their higher education. He is also the founder and CEO of GetChoGrindUp, a company he built along with his girlfriend and best friend while still in college. While in school, Justin landed multiple internships with companies like Lockheed Martin, Cooper Canyon LLC and Northwestern Mutual. Additionally, Justin has an online course to teach students how to optimize their LinkedIn profiles called Accelerate Your Career with LinkedIn. 

In this wide-ranging conversation, we talk about his first consulting business, building a massive audience on Linkedin, choosing the entrepreneurial route, biggest challenges, podcasting, TikTok, corporate sponsorships, analyzing key metrics, finding internships, and much more!

Today's episode features the Sydney Von Arx. Sydney is a co-founder and current director of Bit by Bit Coding, a student-led nonprofit located in Portland with a mission is to diversify the community of ponderers and creators by equipping the next generation with the tools of technology, thinking, and leadership to improve the world, bit by bit. Sydney also helps run Stanford Effective Altruism and works with the Stanford Existential Risks Initiative. Effective Altruism is a growing social movement based on the idea that good intentions alone, while admirable, are not enough to have an impact. Instead, EA is committed to combining compassion with reasoning and evidence so that our choices do the most good possible. Sydney is currently a sophomore studying Computer Science and Biomedical Computation at Stanford University. We talked about her experience being the only girl in her high school STEM classes, getting a grant from the National Center for Women in Information Technology, running a coding camp for girls in her community, having confidence, thinking locally vs. globally, getting introduced to Effective Altruism, our power to address major issues, how her friend is addressing animal welfare, existential risks, EA opportunities for high school students, and much more!

 Apply for the EA high school summer program: https://bitbybitcoding.org/uncommonsenseseminar

Today's episode features my conversation with the free-spirited changemaker Monica Chen. Monica is the Executive Director of the Factory Farming Awareness Coalition, a non-profit dedicated to educating people about the impacts of their food choices as they relate to public health, social justice, and the environment. Previously she worked for Nature Bridge as an Environmental Science Educator and taught at Teach for America. She also volunteers as a Course Instructor for the Prison University Project. She holds a Bachelor’s degree from UC Berkeley in American Studies and a Masters's Degree from the University of New Mexico in Education.

In this conversation, we talked about her experience dropping out of high school to “create her own school”, rethinking education, the value of exploration, self-designing her major at UC Berkeley, lessons from working as an educator, defining your values, leading a non-profit, the effects of factory farming, her theory of change, and much more!

Today's episode features my conversation with the fascinating Vivian Tan. Vivian is a Social Entrepreneur and Public Speaker. She founded Student SEAS, an organization dedicated to empowering students to navigate the seas of adulting through personalized guidance, tailored resources, and skill-building opportunities. She is also a 4x TEDx Speaker and Personal Branding Coach.

Today's episode features the incredibly humble and generous Phiona Mutesi. From living in the streets in the slums of Katwe to learning chess in a Sports Outreach Institute missionary program to becoming one of her nation’s top chess players competing in international competitions, Phiona Mutesi has come a long way from the 9-year old girl who came for a cup of porridge. The subject of the Disney movie “The Queen of Katwe,” Phiona is an inspiration to millions, and especially to girls in a nation where girls are particularly marginalized. Phiona is dedicated to using her platform to elevate African souls by providing education and supplies through her work with the Sports Outreach Institute Chess Academy and the Mutesi Phiona Foundation. 

Support the Phiona Mutesi Foundation here: https://www.gofundme.com/f/mutesi-phiona-foundation

Connect with Phiona directly: [email protected]

This episode features my conversation with the wise and hilarious Siddharth Sridhar. Sid is the CEO of TILE.org, the world's largest student-driven conversion series. He is a student intra/entrepreneur studying for a coordinated dual-degree at the extremely selective UC Berkeley Management, Entrepreneurship, and Technology Program. He is also a student lecturer for Impact Investments and Social Enterprises at Berkeley Haas. Some of his other eclectic accomplishments include being an Improv Acting State Champion for New Jersey, Congressional Bronze and Silver Medal Recipient, aNJSDL & Cal Leadership Scholar, and a voice actor for The Marble Report.

This live episode of 21st Century Visionary in partnership with TILE.org features the billionaire entrepreneur and philanthropist Naveen Jain. Despite growing up in a remote village in India, Naveen had the audacity to shoot for the moon-quite literally! His company Moon Express was actually the first private company to receive U.S. government approval to send a spacecraft beyond Earth’s orbit. Naveen is clearly driven to solve the world’s biggest problems founding groundbreaking ventures such as Moon Express, World Innovation Institute, Viome, TalentWise, Intelius, and Infospace.  

In this conversation, you will learn: The 3 framing questions Naveen asks himself before tackling any audacious goal; The importance of asking the right questions; Why non-experts are best positioned to disrupt industries; Why it is actually easier to solve a big problem than a small one; How to build and recruit a world-class team and enroll them in your vision; Advice to secure investor funding for moonshot ideas; Naveen's vision for education; Why Naveen believes we will look back at COVID-19 as the best thing that could have happened; The importance of solving the root cause, not symptoms; Shifting your mindset to look for opportunities; the advice he gives his children; learning about exponential technology; creating a flywheel to stay ahead of your competitors; and his thoughts on disrupting the education system!

Today's episode features my conversation with Tamar Hela. An entrepreneur based in Shanghai and the COO of the N°1 LinkedIn Marketing Agency, Genius Encel, Tamar helps Fortune 500 companies generate leads through LinkedIn. She is also the Co-President of LinkedIn Local Asia, a network of communities for LinkedIn lovers, and grew the Shanghai community to over 3000 members. Tamar also teaches the next generation of digital marketers as a Professor at Emlyon Business School. 

In this wide-ranging conversation, we talk about her elevator pitch, marketing like a CIA spy, early entrepreneurial endeavors, working with celebrities in the publishing and filmmaking industries, the myth of a linear career path, the power of ambition, discovering Shanghai through food, the fast-paced business ecosystem in China, Building a 3000+ member Linkedin community, Linkedin branding for young entrepreneurs, optimizing social media use, psychology in marketing, and much more!

Today's episode features Iris Guo. Iris is an international student from China who came to Canada alone with a big dream of changing the world. She found her passion in creating products as a founding member of the non-profit OpenMeal--which is aimed at alleviating hunger while addressing racial inequality. Since then, she has held multiple internships in product management at companies like Blackberry, FoundersBeta, KuzoKlass and will join Microsoft as a PM intern next year. Meanwhile, she is building her sustainability venture Neutrify, which empowers users to understand their carbon footprint based on their shopping cart. 

In this conversation, we talk about her pivot from finance to product management, networking on Linkedin, moving from China to Canada for school, the future of education, how she helped raise $20,000 to alleviate food insecurity, lessons from leading a 40+ person team, building her sustainability startup, her top career advice, cold outreach, retrospective thinking, staying organized, investing, and much more!

"It's close to impossible to fail if you do what the customers tell you to do." 

Today's guest is the ever-insightful Jason Shatsky. Jason is the President of Babson College's entrepreneurial community, ETower, and founder of TicketRev, the first-ever reverse marketplace for event tickets.