Defining Moments

Defining Moments

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Defining Moments episodes

  • Dave Saylor | Ingredients for Long-Term Restaurant Success
    The restaurant business was tough even before COVID-19, but Dave Saylor, owner of Acadiana Café in San Antonio, Texas, believes two crucial ingredients make up the recipe for success.
    “What's let us prosper and stay in business for 34 years are our employees and our community involvement,” he says.
    On this episode of Defining Moments, Dave explains how and why community service is so important to him and his business, how he’s kept his employee turnover rate so low, and why Cajun food is the best in the world.
    32 min
  • Paul Adams | Embracing the Path You’re Given
    When a door you spent years opening is slammed shut in your face, don’t waste time shouting at it. Instead, find another door. Paul Adams, founder and CEO of Sound Financial Group, learned that the hard way.
    Paul spent a decade working for a large financial institution, only to be fired weeks before his stake in the struggling firm they’d tasked him with rescuing was coming due.
    On this episode of Defining Moments, Paul explains how he buried his anger and embraced the unexpected positives of the new path he was sent down, and how watching a story about a potato from the creator of the Dilbert comics changed his life.
    49 min
  • Nick Loper | Following Your Side Hustle Dreams
    Forget your parents’ advice: Nick Loper wants you to quit your day job. The founder of Side Hustle Nation and host of podcast The Side Hustle Show has made a career out of helping other people follow their non-9-to-5 dreams.
    Nick will be the first to tell you that doesn’t mean climbing on a desk at the next staff meeting and shouting your resignation. As someone who traded corporate life for self-employment, he knows it takes planning, structure, and emotional support.
    In this episode, Nick defines the difference between a side hustle versus a second job, explains how to know when it’s time to switch to a new career and lays out what you need to do before taking that full-time step.
    41 min
  • Scott Porter | How Customer Experience Can Set You Apart
    No matter what industry you’re in, the one thing that can set you apart from your competitors is excellent customer experience, says Scott Craig Porter, founder, and CEO of San Diablo Churros.
    To call Scott’s career eclectic would be an understatement. He’s worked in PR and as a nursing home administrator, founded a subscription airline, and now he’s selling churros. But his focus has always been making customers and staff happy and eager for more.
    In this episode, Scott explains why it’s always a good time to motivate your staff with a shared mission, what customers really want from companies, and why making people happy is also good for business.
    44 min
  • Luke McElroy | Choosing Optimism
    Optimism is a vital ingredient for entrepreneurs. As Luke McElroy, founder and president of Orange Thread Media, says, if you can’t believe in your own crazy idea, who else will?
    Luke has been an optimist and an entrepreneur since he was a teenager. And with a company built around live events, he’s needed that hopeful attitude more than ever recently.
    In this episode, Luke explains why A+ loyalty is more valuable than A+ talent, why he doesn’t take the hustler approach to business and how leading during a crisis made him rethink the point of fear.
    42 min
  • Brian Smith | The Good, the Bad and the ‘UGGly’
    Surfing can teach you a lot about business. UGG founder Brian Smith learned that in both, you have to keep pushing toward the next opportunity — the next wave — or you’ll go under.
    Today, UGG is well-known around the world for its sheepskin boots and other products. But Brian weathered many storms to keep the company afloat.
    In this episode, Brian tells the story of making UGG the It brand for surfers, losing control of the company, getting it back, and how Oprah helped make UGG boots winter wear everywhere.
    49 min
  • Andrew Vasylyk | Grow by Going Remote
    Once you’ve made it past the “start” in startup, you realize that was the easy part. Scaling, says Andrew Vasylyk, is the real challenge — and he should know.
    Andrew and his brother and business partner Alex are startup-obsessed. As co-founders of StartupSoft, they help early-stage tech companies scale their engineering teams remotely.
    In this episode, Andrew explains why tech companies are looking abroad to scale their teams, how he took on Facebook (and lost), and the secret to his working relationship with his brother.
    32 min
  • Miha Matlievski | Succeeding at Failing
    Bragging about success is easy: opening up about your failures — and learning from them — takes hard work. Even self-described “Fail Coach” Miha Matlievski admits it took him years.
    In 2009, the recession put Miha $5 million in debt. Bankrupt and hounded by creditors, he contemplated suicide — until he realized he had failed, which meant he could also change.
    In this episode, Miha outlines his rollercoaster ride from a multi-million dollar businessman to broke and suicidal, the surprising insight he learned from his lowest moment, and why he’s not afraid to talk about failure.
    36 min
  • Mike McKim | Cold Brew, Hot Commodity
    Persistence and persuasion open doors. This combination took Mike McKim from the Navy to sales in the midst of the dot-com boom and eventually to his real passion: high-quality coffee.
    Whether working his way into a Naval academy, selling telecoms or espresso machines, or starting his own coffee company, Mike doesn’t take ‘no’ for an answer.
    In this episode, Mike lays out his rocky road from getting into and dropping out of the Merchant Marine Academy, to introducing craft coffee to Texas wa before it was cool — and then making it cooler (literally.)
    38 min
  • Jeremy Stewart | Handling a Career Flip Flop
    Having a particular set of skills doesn’t have to limit you to one industry. You can always follow in the footsteps of Hari Mari founder Jeremy Stewart.
    Jeremy spent a decade as a political consultant: But after two presidential campaigns in Indonesia, he and his wife Lila were burned out. Their next move was something completely different — they started selling flip flops.
    In this episode, Jeremy describes the lessons he learned from getting into a totally new industry, how selling shoes is like selling a political candidate, and how Hari Mari is helping people with more than just their footwear.
    37 min

About Defining Moments

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Everyone fails. It’s one of the few guarantees life provides us, regardless of ambition or status.