805conversations

Julie Samson, is the Executive Director of the Scheinfeld Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation at Santa Barbara City College, met with host Mark Sylvester to talk about the excitement of working with energetic young entrepreneurs. Julie also is the regional representative of the Small Business Development Corporation and the Deputy Sector Navigator of the CITD, focusing on Global Trade and Logistics.

I'm in love with the spark of the students.”

Topics included;

Building a tight loop between the school and the business community

The New Venture Challenge and how it's inclusion of local High Schools is making a difference in the startup community

Cultivating hands-on experiences for the students

The Enterprise Launch Class - 16 weeks to launch a new business idea

How she sorts down to the best 10-12 ideas, then forms teams to validate the concepts

The best part of the class for her? When she experiences the students excitement after they've met with real customers

Great success story, Lifecycle Gardens, and how Justin's idea morphed over time - as all businesses do

The 5 Metrics used by the SBDC to gauge business potential (Ray Bowman, Director of the SBDC in Ventura was on 805conversations talking more about the program - listen)

How to determine if the founder has the fire needed to make the company successful

What motivates new customers today is a sense of belonging to the brand

How to find the consciousness and soul of the business

Julie is genuinely excited about working with startups and entrepreneurs. This conversation would have played well on video so you could have seen her face as she talked about the work she's doing.

John is the CEO, and Chairman of Davies sat down with host Mark Sylvester to talk about how he's arrived at an innovative method for active listening. This process helps him and his team find the idea that's buried in a bunch of words. You'll hear him break down how to take hours and hours of conversation, distill them into a single word, or two.

John has been a part of the Santa Barbara leadership landscape for over 30 years. He's nationally renowned and recognized for the work he and his team do. Though he won't admit it, he's one of the top public relations, crisis communications and marketing strategists in the country. This session plays more like a Master Class than an interview.

I love it when we find their True North.”

Topics included;

How you find the message, that needle in a haystack

How he collaborates with a small group of people most effectively

How to dig deep and listen - then what you do once you've listened

DOS - Danger - Opportunity - Strengths and why that's a better acronym than SWOT

Why he prefers phone interviews over in-person sessions

How to listen to the words and the music - the music is the excitement and tone of voice when you can't see the person's face

How they present their findings in a way that makes them actionable

How his recommendations after the interviews contain three dangers, three opportunities and three strengths

His one-word for the one-word response (You'll have to listen to learn it)

The Donut Story - with a nod to previous 805conversation guest, Robert TenEyk

What it means to motivate, educate and cultivate your staunchest fans

Why he never presents Pros and Cons (simple answer)

A great discussion on Fear and how it affects your communications

This conversation was a rare treat to get John for an uninterrupted 45 minutes. You'll want to bookmark this episode to listen to a second time, and take notes.

Andrew is the founder and principal at StonePark Capital in Santa Barbara. He met with host Mark Sylvester to talk about his current entrepreneurial journey into the hospitality industry. Andrew comes from a long line of entrepreneurs and has deep roots in the area. His story starts with a newsletter he created when he was seven years old, that first brush with the media has served him well his entire career.

Our local Universities are breeding thought-leaders .”

Topics included;

Getting started and his early mentors

His new hotel in San Luis Obispo, La Quinta Inn

Working with the various entities in SLO

His relationship with his grandfather, Leonard Firestone and how those conversations shaped him

How it's hard to be an entrepreneur when you look at all the regulations that stand in the way

What keeps him up at night

His thoughts on participation communities and non-profits

Growing up in the Santa Ynez Valley on a vineyard

His brothers' successful operation at Firestone Walker Brewery, home of 805 Beer

A brief discussion of what it was like 13 years ago to be the on the third season of The Bachelor on TV when reality television was just getting started

Andrew was quite humorous during the conversation and said his greatest attribute, according to his three kids is, he's hilarious. We'd agree.

Jordan is the founder of Skyview Projects. She's a strategic consultant helping businesses and non-profits define, sculpt and share their story. She sat down with host Mark Sylvester to discuss her fascination with stories told well and the power of a well-crafted message.

Jordan is very well connected in the local community, sitting on several non-profit boards and has an enthusiasm for each that is infectious.

I love stories. I love strategy.”

Topics included;

- Starting with your Why and a shout out to Simon Sineck

- How to look at a story and see all the potential connections to be made

- How the Hero’s Journey can help you craft your story

- What’s the difference between your Why and your Mission and Vision statements?

- The importance of a Style Guide and why it also includes your ‘voice’

- Book recommendation: Seth Godin’s Purple Cow – read about it here

- Current favorite book: Blue Ocean Strategy

- How she went from a pre-law career to one in Communications

- Who’s her Ideal Client? Note: Who’s yours?

- Listeners of the podcast may recognize Jordan’s last name. Yes, her father is Noah BenShea, a friend of 805conversations. You may want to listen to his episode next. Keep a pencil handy as there are more quotes per minute in that show than any we’ve ever done.

Stephen is the Founder of Bija Advisors. For nearly thirty years, he has applied cognitive science to institutional investment management. He sat down with host Mark Sylvester to talk about the common thread that runs through all of his pursuits. He has been fascinated with Decision Analysis and in this conversation will convince you that you’re probably not thinking hard enough about most challenges in your life.

Stephen is also a professor at UCSB in the College of Engineering, an internationally recognized speaker, drummer and the creative genius behind the Yarnbomber.com project.

In this quick moving talk he and Mark cover a lot of ground including:

• The difference between cognitive strain and cognitive ease and why you want t opal attention to this part of the conversation very closely

• “We don't like to think too hard…”

• Why you shouldn't trust your intuition

• Why you should think deeply, especially when you don't have to

• What is cognitive bias and why does it lead to systematic errors in judgment

• Question everything

• The belief based life vs. the fact based one

• A simple four-point way to look at life

o What’s the problem?

o What can you control?

o What can’t you control?

o What options does that leave you?

• Cultivating an insatiable curiosity

• His five-year quest to find a cause worth dedicating his energy towards solving

• The League of Professional Educators (LINK TheLPE.com) and why we should have teachers that make $1M a year

He suggests that you should look at the world as it really exists.

Rick Stollmeyer, the CEO and co-founder of MINDBODY and host Mark Sylvester had a fascinating discussion about wellness, building a business, why the Central Coast is so easy to attract people to and some background skills you might not imagine would be helpful to a major public SaaS company's leadership.

Topics covered include:

- How Mindbody became so focused on going onsite to understand their customers, early on.

- Functional fitness and fitness trends

- How health and wellness is a megatrend

- What it's like to work at MINDBODY - practicing what they preach. ps. they're hiring

- Recruiting locally

- You've heard this one before, getting started in the garage

- The MINDBODY origin story - from outer space to inner space

- Learn about Rick's empathy for small businesses

- The experience you get from working in high-impact software environments

- How boutique fitness is transforming lives, and Mindbody's role in that ecosystem

- How they came to their mission of Building the world's leading platform for wellness

- How they help thousands of businesses manage their client - relationships

- Regarding software development: "The product will never be done..."

- Branching out from fitness and how their model expands

How Design Thinking is woven into how they work

- How to maintain empathy with your clients as you scale

- Rick's background: Graduate degree in Nuclear Engineering from the US Naval Academy and worked at Vandenberg Air Force Base on satellites and studied Russian. Yes. Great story about why.

- Learn the difference between nice to have and mission critical as it affects how you positioning the company

- Regarding the Central Coast and the 805 region - why Mindbody sees their role in the ecosystem as important

- Glassdoor and what that platform means to the Company and investors. Note: They are one of the top places to work in the country!

- How the way you treat your team is your ultimate competitive advantage

- What's the Holy Grail for Mindbody? Helping small businesses succeed in running their company and attracting more customers. Note: 50% have excess inventory, and 50% lose 50% of their clients a year

The conversation was rich in detail and an excellent background for anyone that has dreams of growing a business from their garage to a publically traded international operation with more than 50,000 clients and millions of their customers using the Mindbody app every day.

MINDBODY is a sponsor of the 805connect project and we want to thank Rick for their continued support.

Bart Thielen, the CFO/COO of Blue Microphones, a Westlake, CA company sat with host Mark Sylvester to talk about their phenomenal products and the role of the CFO in business. This enlightening discussion gave a new point of view of how important the CFO is and at what point in the lifecycle of the business you bring one on.

"It's all about getting closer to the customer"

Topics covered include:

- Blue Microphones and how it is that they are located in Westlake, CA

- 805conversations use the Yeti Pro microphone once we learned that they are a local company.

- Mentoring at California Lutheran University

- How the CFO helps the CEO strategize across all aspects of the business - not just counting the numbers

- The importance of the CFO doing the forecasting and not the sales team - interesting

- The technology behind these amazing microphones

- Why Gamers love them as well as Podcasters

- How the CFO plays along with the branding discussions

- Why the Retro style of the design works so well

- What's the Holy Grail in advanced audio recording?

Buzzword Bingo - Reshoring

Cathy Feldman, the founder of the Spirit of Entrepreneurs (SOE) Foundation chatted with host Mark Sylvester about the upcoming SOE Awards. The conversation covered a lot of ground, especially the role of women in the workplace, in the startup ecosystem and how Cathy has been documenting Women in Business nearly her entire career.

"Women in the Winners Circle"

Topics covered include:

- The upcoming Spirit of Entrepreneur Awards and call for Nominations - click here to nominate - Deadline is March 7, 2016. Nominees must be located in Santa Barbara County.

- The 11 categories for winners and the background of the Organization

- How the SOE helps fund entrepreneurial enterprises at the High Scool and Community College level

- The judging process and how it works having people outside of the area weigh in on the applications

- Discussion about the seriousness that Kymberlee Weil took when submitting her application - she went on to win in 2014.

- The ongoing discrepancies for women in business - locals, investments and more

- Where women and girls fit into the STEM stream - going into these types of careers

- The idea of a speaking tour for the winners of the SOE the past several years

- Cathy's 25-year background as a writer and publisher at Blue Point Books, including her many books that feature women's successes

Guy Smith, part of the core faculty at Antioch University in Santa Barbara met with host Mark Sylvester to talk about his career as an educator, networker, SCAMP’r and lifelong student of Communications. Guy was one of the original members of the 805connect project and worked with Mark on several projects over the 20+ years that they’ve known one another.

Guy focuses on communication in all forms. He started as an English teacher and now helps students understand the impact of Advertising on our culture. He recently invited Mark into his class, Advertising and Culture to talk about Mark’s experience working with McCann Worldgroup and J Walter Thompson company.

We covered a lot of ground in this conversation, including:

Information on demand

How education needs to be more applied and less theoretical

The role of advertising in our culture

One of his projects for students, to interview someone in the ad business and another which is to develop an ad campaign – here’s the twist – you have to do it for two different counties (this gets to the culture piece he’s so focused on)

Who’s Hofstedes and what is his Cultural Dimensions theory?

Individualism v Collectivism

What it means to repeat an ad, over and over and over and over and over …

How to apply big thinking to small business

Social media works for small businesses on tight budgets

How millennials don’t realise that they’re being sold to (all the time)

Why Malcolm Gladwell’s TED talk on Spaghetti Sauce is important to consider in the context of advertising

Buzzword bingo: DeMassification – look it up here, in a blog post by Harrison Stelle

Fish will be the last to discover water.

Carla Blanco, VP of Business Development at T/O Printing in Westlake and Mark Sylvester sat down to talk about the expanded role of the commercial printing firm in today's business. There's a lot more to the value proposition than just printing brochures. Carla talked about how they really dig into a company's business to best help them reach their goals and objectives.

T/O focuses on helping local, regional and entertainment businesses leverage the same technology and solution that T/O has been putting forth on behalf of their larger regional and Fortune 500 clientele for the past decade.

Topics included:

How to model your audience.

Web to Print

How to maximize List Buying to be most effective

Oh, you need promotional materials too?

How to use print to help build your brand

How to improve your customer acquisition and retention using print

Unique public service project she started recently: The Umbrella Drive