Days Past Tooncast

When was the last time you heard something for the first time?

 

How Two Crazy Visionaries Created a New Category of Podcasting & Music featuring Christopher Locchead and Nick Kullin

6 Minutes of Legendary is a new category of audio experience that combines real conversations from the Legends and Losers Podcast, with special effects and powerful music in a way that moves people. You can’t really read about this. So we urge you to listen to the first 6 Minutes of episode zero.

 

After listening to 6 Minutes of Legendary, we'd like to invite you to subscribe to the show on iTunes.

Enjoy.

 

Produced by Christopher Lochhead and Nick Kullin.

 

©2018 Legends and Losers Podcast

Today Isaac Morehouse, founder and chief executive of Praxis joins Christopher Lochhead to talk about the power and value of being an apprentice and why being your own credential is important. He also shares why it's seminal to build your own digital body of work.

 

 

Getting out there in the world and learning by doing is the best way to launch an entrepreneurial career. College degrees can be attained by almost everyone, but the experience of the bigger world is what ultimately determines one's success. Seeing what business is like will help you execute your vision, whether you know what it is or not.

People who want to do business are sometimes downtrodden by the mere fact that they have no business idea to begin with. Isaac Morehouse says that this is where working alongside someone who has a vision that they are able to execute can become your greatest learning experience. By exposing yourself to the methods of a mentor and understanding the technical aspects of the business world from a practical perspective, you’ll start to find that unique intersection of things that you're good at, things that people value, and things that pay money.

It doesn't matter if you're a genius who has come up with a life-altering epiphany. If nobody gets wind of your idea or anything that you produce, then it's practically devalued and good as non-existent.

 

Getting out in the world and becoming your own credential will guarantee a path to success. Experience is still the best teacher. You will have to acquire the skills by being exposed to the business world and exert effort to build the body of work that you'll be known for.

Bio: 

 

Isaac Morehouse is the CEO of Praxis. There’s nothing he loves more than seeing people break free of the conveyor belt and live life on their own terms (except maybe a Lions Super Bowl victory, but he’s not holding his breath on that one). Praxis is the incorporated version of his philosophy on life and education. He blogs at isaacmorehouse.com. 

 

 

Links: 

 

https://isaacmorehouse.com/about/ 

 

https://discoverpraxis.com/praxis-education-experience-differ-college-education-experience/ 

Kathryn Minshew, founder and CEO of career discovery platform The Muse talks about what it was like to start a company at the age of twenty-six. She shares how she overcame not one, not two, but over a hundred no's to get a yes from venture capitalists. All that with everyone refuting her innovative ideas.

"There are certain core things that I know and that I believe and those are remarkably consistent." - Kathryn Minshew

Three Things We Learned

One of the reasons why Kathryn started The Muse was she wanted a solution to a prevailing problem in the market. People type into search engines a job role and pull thousands of results that more often than not offer no help in truly advancing their careers. This transactional process had her thinking about how a brand built to support career-seekers in starting and growing in a community could be more effective.

While she was still starting out, Kathryn encountered countless well-intentioned rejections from experts and experienced business owners. Her job-and-content branding idea was dismissed as impractical, risky, and unprofitable. Undeterred, she stuck to what she believed in, maintaining that she had seen something beyond what conformists did for all the times they remained boxed.

To a certain degree, internal arguments can be resolved by rationales backed by data and evidence-based market research. But there are instances, few and far between, when it's time to make the call based on your instincts despite what observed trends say. Kathryn has had way too many experiences with this, and she has proven that sometimes faith in what we believe in is all that we need to move forward.

Kathryn is testament to how feeling strongly about one's idea of navigating the world can be key to success. This applies to many aspects of the human life and not just business. An awareness of where you stand in the grand scheme of things and an unwavering mentality to be consistent with it can make all the difference.


Bio: 

 

Kathryn is the Founder and CEO of The Muse, a career discovery platform that helps over 50+ million people a year in their career search, and helps over 700 companies looking to hire talent and grow their employer brand.  

Kathryn is also the co-author of “The New Rules of Work: The Modern Playbook for Navigating Your Career” (Crown Business, April 2017). 

 

Prior to founding The Muse, Kathryn worked on vaccine introduction in Rwanda and Malawi with the Clinton Health Access Initiative and previously worked as a management consultant at McKinsey & Company.  

 

When not at work, Kathryn is an avid globe-trotter and an adventurous cook. 

 

HONORS & AWARDS 

 

Tom Szaky is the CEO and founder of TerraCycle, a company that makes consumer products from waste. They recycle everything from cigarette butts, toothbrushes to diapers. The beauty of it? It's all funded by producers! Listen in as Christopher and Tom talk trash about trash and how the economics of recycling benefits producers and consumers alike.

"Every 2-seconds, a garbage truckload of trash goes into the ocean." - Tom Szaky

'Diaper Demand' economics is real

Diapers make up 3% of our landfills. It's not just kids, 50% of men over 50 wear them.  Waste is something you pay to get rid of. There is a positive supply and massive quantities of it but a negative demand. While you won't buy a dirty diaper from me, you would probably buy it from me at a negative price. It's a huge fucking opportunity that not many see.

There's opportunity in trash

If you think about the super sexy industries, the ones everyone dreams about being there, they are crowded with amazing people. That makes it really hard to be unique and stand out. Everyone wants to be a rock and roll stars and there are so few spots. You don't get this in an industry that people are repulsed by. The waste industry is that kind of place. But those industries that are repulsing most are the ones to look out for. Waste is the law of death. Everything breaks. It's a predictable path. 

Disposability is an addiction

Floating in each ocean, and there are 5, are massive islands of floating trash, somewhere between 1-3 times the size of TX. BUT, that's only 5% of the waste! The other 95% sinks to the bottom.  Recycling is not the answer to garbage and to stop consuming is not the answer. The answer is to stop buying cheap disposable shit. Instead of buying stuff that lasts one use, we need to buy durable amazing stuff that lasts for a very long time. Think back to the durable products our grandparents, their parents and everyone before that used. Think of it in these terms, 99% of all products become garbage within one year. An average Western American woman buys 67 apparel items a year and uses them on average 5 times before throwing them out. Compare that to the 1920's when the same woman sewed her own clothes and probably had two outfits, total.

https://www.terracycle.com/en-US/ 

 

https://twitter.com/tszaky 

 

https://www.greenbiz.com/article/terracycle-eliminating-idea-waste-recycling-everything 

 

https://www.greenbiz.com/article/terracycle-pg-partner-love-hate-relationship-trash 

 

https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/308565 

David Sacks is a highly accomplished entrepreneur and investor in internet technology firms. He's got an eye for successful, cutting-edge investments like SpaceX and AirBnB. Listen in on his conversation with Christopher as they talk PEV's, mergers and acquisitions and the challenges of successfully implementing new category ideas. 

"Even if the number is attractive, if the odds of closing are low...it may not be something you want to do." - David Sacks on assessing an acquisition offer

Three Things We Learned

PEV's, the 2d electric revolution

David's latest venture is an electric scooter sharing service, Bird.com. Personal electric vehicles are more than a toy. With the advances in batteries, they've become a viable solution for the average 2-mile commute in cities. Instead of taking the time to grab an Uber or pedaling to your meeting, you can hop on an electric scooter and be at your destination in no time. It's a liberating, exhilarating and fun happy medium between cars and pedal power!

Viral ideas create categories

The landscape 10 years ago for category design was static with blogs and wiki's. To continue with the status quo was a recipe for failure. David looked a the trends in social media and drafted off of that exploding marketplace by applying that model to an enterprise environment. Within 2 years, Yammer was the new definition of enterprise communication software created out of a necessity to survive and thrive. A new category, Enterprise Social Networking was born. 

False starts are a brain-drain

What happens when a giant company, such as Microsoft shows up with an acquisition interest? The dance can be dangerous and detrimental, especially since most never see fruition. Rumors begin buzzing around and soon your workforce is more consumed with their future than focusing on work. The wheels grind to a halt and the dynamic workplace becomes somewhat stagnant. A game changer for David was to find a deal advisor to manage any outside interests in his company. They could interpret the process and stop the distractions and drain on his time and resources. 

 

David Sacks is a general partner of Craft Ventures, a venture capital fund he co-founded in late 2017. Previously as an entrepreneur, Sacks was the founding COO and product leader of PayPal[3] (acquired by eBay in 2002 for $1.5 billion)[4] and Founder/CEO of Yammer[5](acquired by Microsoft in 2012 for $1.2 billion).[6] 

 

In 2016, he led the turnaround of Zenefits as interim CEO.[7][8] 

 

In 2017, Sacks co-founded blockchain startup Harbor as an incubation of Craft Ventures.[9] 

 

His angel investments include Facebook, Uber, SpaceX, 

Darryl Strawberry is a pastor, author and speaker. He’s an advocate for mental health and addiction recovery.  For Darryl Strawberry, success in life is more than success on the field. Darry has been on the highest of highs and the lowest of lows through a professional athlete best known as a 4-time World Champion and his 17-year career in Major League Baseball.  Listen in on this candid conversation about abuse, fame, fortune, addiction, forgiveness and his struggle through it all. 

Losing is a part of life if you don't experience that you will never be successful. It's about how you decide to get up. - Darryl Strawberry

Three Things We Learned

Forgiveness leads to freedom

Darryl grew up with an abusive alcoholic father who was absent for most of his life until he made it to the big leagues. That was painful for Darryl. He discovered through his personal forgiveness from God that it's important to forgive those that have hurt you and you've got to ask them for forgiveness in return. We don't know what's happening or happened to that person through the course of their life. The perfect home on the outside is not necessarily perfect on the inside. it could be crumbling, on fire and full of dysfunction. 

Be an active participant in family

Every parent does the best they can. They're your parents, they love you. However, some expressed it in appropriate ways while others might have been physically or mentally abusive or may be absent altogether. In spite of the wrongs, they always loved you. Every family goes through some sort of struggle, it's important to overcome the challenges and struggles as a child and then as a parent. You learn to battle and to learn and to make family your priority.

Be careful what you ask for

Fame is a really lonely place. There is a serious price you live with when you become famous. your life becomes an open book, no matter where you are or what you are doing. Fame is also fleeting. The fame will eventually die out and won't last forever. To survive, you've got to learn how to deal with the public eye and be nice to people. Most famous people are not nice. Remember, it's not the fans or people that made you famous, it's something you yourself wanted. 
 

Throughout the 1980s and early 1990s, Strawberry was one of the most feared sluggers in the sport, known for his prodigious home runs and his intimidating presence in the batter's box with his 6-foot-6 frame and his long, looping swing that elicited comparisons to Ted Williams.[2][3] 

 

During his career, he helped lead the New York Mets to a World Series championship in 1986 and the New York Yankees to three World Series championships in 1996, 1998 and 1999.   

 

A popular player during his career, Strawberry was voted to the All-S...

Amy Morin is a licensed clinical social worker, psychotherapist, and a lecturer at Northeastern University. She’s been dubbed the “self-help guru of the moment,” by The Guardian and Forbes refers to her as a “thought leadership star.”

You can still be mentally strong and have a mental illness, it's like working out to get strong while having diabetes, you still have diabetes. - Amy Morin

Three Things We Learned

It can be tempting to make your life revolve around your child. But kids who think they’re the center of the universe grow up to be self-absorbed and entitled. Mentally strong parents teach their kids to focus on what they have to offer the world — rather than what they’re owed and it's ok to let your child make mistakes. Running to the rescue of forgotten soccer cleats or a gym bag isn't the parent's responsibility. Children need to realize there are consequences to their actions, good and bad. 

 

We could all easily could be diagnosed with something in our lives, some sort of disorder or a mental health issue. Statistics from the CDC say that 17% of us are functioning at optimal mental health at any given time. We look at people and say either you're mentally healthy or you're mentally ill instead of realizing there is a spectrum and we're all at different points in our lives at different points in that spectrum. You can build mental muscle and you can prevent some illnesses - you can't prevent it all - just like physical strength, working out is good for your body and working out is good for your mind, too. 

Today we hear a lot that we don't punish our kids enough. You have to realize the difference between discipline - encouraging our kids to want to do better versus punishment which is shaming our kids to do better. Parents post pics or videos of their kids behaving badly in an attempt to shame them into behaving better. Shaming most likely makes kids feel like losers versus kids that have healthy consequences can say 'yeah I've made some mistakes but my parents have taught me how to behave better'. 

 
Bio:

Amy’s advice has been featured by a number of media outlets, including Parenting, Time, Fast Company, Good Housekeeping, Elle, Business Insider, Cosmopolitan, Success, Oprah.com, Health, Fox News, US News & World Report, and The Washington Post. She has also provided on-camera interviews for Fox Business, Forbes, TheBlaze TV and an upcoming documentary with Red Bull. She’s a frequent guest on a variety of radio shows as well. 

 

Amy serves as Verywell’s Parenting Teens Expert and Child Discipline Expert. She’s a regular contributor to Forbes, Inc., and Psychology Today. 

 

A sought-after speaker, Amy loves to share the latest research on resilience and the best strategies for overcoming adversity and building mental muscle.

 

https://amymorinlcsw.com 

Apart from being successful professionals, Mike Bloch, Jon Diller and Ben Rewis are legendary fathers to young boys and loving partners to their legendary wives. In this episode, we get to hear about how they play these roles with a lot more enjoyment than expected.

"I've come to a conclusion that there's really no such thing as being balanced, but you strive for it," - Mike Bloch on being a dad in 2018

Three Things We Learned

To be a full-time career man and father means a hundred-percent commitment to both jobs. This means that setting aside time to spend with family when it's family day is just as important as focusing on work to pay the bills. Making an effort to show how devoted you are in their respective turns is a great way to be a role model to your children.

Forget about the age-old adage that behind every successful man is a woman. Having a partner who's as goal-minded and committed as you are will guarantee a joyful adventure.

Communication, compromise, and coupling are important aspects of being a partner and a parent. Communication is probably the most important tool to ensure lasting and enduring relationships, and technology can be a significant part of it. This isn't always true, though, because there are nuances to being a partner and a parent that communication through a screen can't touch and can only be resolved by sharing popcorn in the couch.

Being a father in this fast-changing world can be difficult. Maintaining a healthy relationship with your partner is another struggle. But being with the right people and having the commitment to succeed at it make all the difference.


BIO:

Mike Bloch is a long time resident of Santa Cruz and is “living the dream” with his wife Alissa and two boys in the Pleasure Point Neighborhood. Mike has over 15 years’ experience as a local Realtor specializing in Santa Cruz County Real Estate. And he’s grateful for being able to live  a good life! 

 

Jon Diller is first and foremost a husband to a beautiful wife of 12 years and dad to two incredibly fun 9 and 10 year old boys. He has balanced his family life in Santa Cruz with a 19 year career as an entrepreneur in Silicon Valley building several companies that continue to reshape how businesses find, hire and engage with skilled talent from around the world. 

 

Ben Rewis is a FinTech executive with decades of experience. He and his wife are empty nesters inOakland. His son attends college on the east coast. When he isn’t working on payments security and innovation, he’s in his beloved VAN DZL in search of surf, or volunteering to Save The Waves. 

 

Links: 

 

http://www.mikebloch.com 

 

https://www.linkedin.com/in/mikebloch/ 

 

https://www.linkedin.com/in/diller/ 

 

https://www.linkedin.com/in/benrewis/ 

Paul Holland is a partner at Foundation Capital and an expert in venture capital, taking startups from zero to $110M. He's also the producer of a critically acclaimed documentary and a champion of living a 'green' lifestyle.

Three Things We Learned

About the time Paul was preparing to build a new home, he attended a TED Talk by Bill McDonough, a leader in LEED design, technology and construction. His focus became environmentally regenerative design LEED for Home. His home "Tah.Mah.La" is the greenest home in America. Paul sees the future of green and how the current mindset of water and conservation has to change to save the land as we know it. 

Paul is lucky enough to own a part of Netflix. Around 2003 his buddy, one of the sharpest software minds of our generation was mailing DVD's from him home. He wanted a business he could easily run from his house in Santa Cruz. Many of the smart minds around him considered it a hokey business but we all know now what Reed Hastings built and 'the rest is history'.

Paul says it's important to associate with really successful people. But it's not always easy. A lot of the time, those people are not the ones you are socially comfortable with. He was fortunate and smart enough himself to associate with successful people and those early connections led him to his current place in life. Now where he's at, the Silicon Valley, it's a way of life and people are very comfortable combing social and commerce. It's become the way of life there.

Paul Holland is a partner at Foundation Capital where he invests in IT, consumer, and digital energy sectors.

 

Paul currently serves on the boards of Homesuite, Peerspace, SkyCure, Dreambox Learning, KiK and InsideView.

Past investments include Chegg (CHGG), MobileIron (MOBL), Coverity (acquired by Synopsys), Averail (acquired by MobileIron), Conformia (acquired by Oracle), Ketera (acquired by Rearden Commerce), RouteScience (acquired by Avaya), Talking Blocks (acquired by Hewlett-Packard), and TuVox (acquired by West).

Before Foundation Capital, he worked at -- and helped take public -- two software start-ups, Kana Communications with Mark Gainey, and Pure Software with Reed Hastings.
 

His two start-ups ended up being worth over $13 billion in aggregate.

He’s also the past president of the Western Association of Venture Capital.

 

Paul is co-executive producer of Something Ventured, a critically acclaimed documentary on the origins of the venture capital industry.

 

http://foundationcapital.com

http://www.tahmahlah.com/