Evolving Your Workplace

“The future of work is changing, but also the future of travel,” Andrew says, “People are staying gone longer, they’re seeing that things are actually better in another place potentially for them, they don’t have to wait until they retire.”

Andrew co-founded Insured Nomads, an insurtech and travel-tech platform aimed at helping travelers, ex-pats, and digital nomads explore and live with their well-being in mind. Insured Nomads is disrupting the industry with much-needed technology updates to make traveling and living abroad easier, Andrew says. 

In this episode, Andrew walks us through the main issues his company solves for people and the red tape involved in attempting to innovate in a highly regulated space. Carol and Andrew discuss outsourcing and how Insured Nomads aims to give companies other options than outsourcing. 

Andrew co-founded his business with others, one being his wife, so you’ll hear how that dynamic works on an everyday basis. 

Learn more about Andrew Jernigan and Insured Nomads.

You can find more information on all our episodes at Vertical Elevation, and you can find Carol on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Instagram.

Chad Pytel began freelancing as a developer in high school and continued throughout college to make ends meet. Later he joined a startup that failed quickly and led him to form a new company with the team he built. 

He founded thoughtbot, an end-to-end product development and design consultancy. thoughtbot aims to bring a company’s idea to life and eventually give them the tools to have their own development team. 

In this episode, Chad tells us about his journey in zeroing in on a niche and realizing the necessity of saying “no” to certain prospective clients. 

Carol and Chad discuss strategies for gaining business and how Covid affected thoughtbot and its ability to stand out. 

You’ll also hear about Chad’s journey when growing the company from a small team to now a workforce of over 100 employees and the fear he had of becoming a large organization. 

Learn more about Chad Pytel and thoughtbot.

You can find more information on all our episodes at Vertical Elevation, and you can find Carol on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Instagram.

When Ravi Maddimsetty began his start-up he had a vision of connecting the physical with the digital to help businesses engage with customers – not necessarily through QR code technology. But after trial and error, Ravi and his co-founder Sharat knew QR codes were the technology they had been looking for. 

Today their company, “Beaconstac” employs over 60 people and has worked with brands such as Pepsi and Amazon.

Ravi and Sharat grew up together in the same city in India. And after both moving to the US decades later, they wound up being roommates in New York City, both working for large organizations at the time. Ravi says they constantly discussed start-ups and it was only a few years later that they began Beaconstac together. 

In this episode, Carol and Ravi explore the QR code space and how it’s rapidly growing in popularity. Ravi tells us about his goals moving forward with Beaconstac.

When talking about hiring, Ravi tells us about what he calls the “10,20,30 rule” that he uses for any new employee.

Learn more about Ravi Maddimsetty and Beaconstac.

You can find more information on all our episodes at Vertical Elevation, and you can find Carol on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Instagram.

Scott Snider began his entrepreneurship journey in high school when he started mowing lawns. His side gig quickly turned into a full-blown operation with several employees. With mentorship from his dad, he grew the business and strategically sold it seven years later. 

Scott now uses his dad’s same methodology to help other businesses. As the president of the Exit Planning Institute (EPI), Scott provides learning experiences, performance-enhancing resources, and strategic tools designed to help businesses exit in the best way. Whether it’s a one-man operation or a large manufacturing company, EPI aims to train advisors to help them grow and exit effectively. 

In this episode, Scott delves into the ins and outs of his industry and how the last few years have affected it. 

Carol and Scott also discuss his militant leadership style and how feedback from his closest employees made him change. He tells us about a value he upholds at EPI that he calls “putting it on the table” and why that is so significant.

Learn more about Scott Snider and the Exit Planning Institute.

You can find more information on all our episodes at Vertical Elevation, and you can find Carol on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Instagram.

In an effort to solve the growing issue of service technicians leaving the field, Aaron Salow co-founded XOi Technologies to help the workforce by providing much-needed data. 

XOi Technologies is an all-in-one communication tool connecting field service technicians, offices, and customers. His company now has over 90 employees. Aaron says a large part of the product's success comes from the fact that it’s built on actually listening to technicians and what they need. 

Aaron’s family worked in manufacturing and farming, leading him to have a passion for blue-collar work from a young age. And after seeing many companies struggle to find the right technician for specific work, his idea came to mind. He knew if he could connect the new technician on their first job with the man who had been repairing for 45 years, he’d close a wide gap. 

In this episode, Carol and Aaron discuss whether people have a price when it comes to accepting a new position or if the company culture is always the most important factor. They also talk about how insecurity played a part in his business creation.

Learn more about Aaron Salow and XOi Technologies.

You can find more information on all our episodes at Vertical Elevation, and you can find Carol on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Instagram.

Yotam Segev aims to lead the way in the new and expanding cloud data security market. The space is part of the larger cyber security market and is growing quickly as data security becomes more and more complicated, Yotam says. 

Yotam’s company, Cyera, is a cloud data security firm that, while only being a year-and-a-half old, has already raised a large sum of capital. Carol presses Yotam on why he feels he is a “leader” in this emerging space. 

In this episode, Carol and Yotam discuss his company’s culture and Yotam challenges the widespread sentiment on work-life balance, saying some people prefer the fast-paced challenge of building something rather than being at a laid-back company. They also talk about the difficulties involved in being in such a new space and hiring employees. 

You’ll hear about his time in the renowned Talpiot Program in Israel and how it propelled him to be the leader he is now. Yotam says a big part of his culture is being open with each other about mistakes and discussing them as a team. 

Learn more about Yotam Segev and Cyera.

You can find more information on all our episodes at Vertical Elevation, and you can find Carol on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Instagram.

Years ago, Shane Foss had a back issue and checked into a nearby urgent care facility to get help. After getting services, he was billed $800. Fortunately, Shane had worked in the healthcare space and knew how to negotiate it down to $75. 

That’s when he got the idea to start Hooray Health, a company aimed at providing limited healthcare benefits to hourly workers that won’t break the bank. Shane’s business now has contracts with urgent care centers in major cities that keep the bill to $25, no matter the services needed. 

Shane says the healthcare benefit space needed innovation, especially in current times with many Americans unable to afford major medical benefit plans.

Shane’s journey began in the airforce where he assisted with surgeries. He fell in love with medicine and later worked for several organizations in the field. Eventually, a friend asked him to help lead a healthcare benefits company, and that’s what gave him the knowledge to form his own.

In this episode, Carol and Shane discuss how his company gained credibility in the industry and the mistakes he made in the process of raising capital. Shane tells about his talent strategy and balancing contracted employees versus permanent employees. 

Shane also opens up about his goal of implementing a culture of feedback and why the company doesn’t have one yet. 

Learn more about Shane Foss and Hooray Health.

You can find more information on all our episodes at Vertical Elevation, and you can find Carol on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Instagram.

Meet Jaci Russo: a mother of four and the founder and CEO of BrandRUSSO, a strategic branding agency. Beyond that, she also wrote a book on branding and created courses for people to learn how to brand their companies independently. 

“To me, it’s just about saying yes. That seems like a good idea. Sure I’ll try that! That seems like an awesome opportunity, yes let’s do that!” Jaci tells Carol. 

It was moving from Louisiana to Los Angeles and working at a large, well-known agency that changed Jaci’s mindset and gave her the confidence to do anything, she says. She eventually left her job to work at a start-up and then formed her own agency. 

Jaci says many of her clients simply don’t understand their target audience, in turn losing the effect of their messaging, so she acts as a translator. BrandRusso stands out from its 74,000 competitors in the way they do business, including how Jaci charges for services. 

In this episode, Carol and Jaci discuss the benefits of writing a book and how it can help a business. Jaci also tells us the common marketing mistakes she sees companies make before coming to her.

You’ll also hear about the ten years of mistakes she’s made with hiring and how she moved past it and now prefers a “lean and mean” organizational structure. 

Learn more about Jaci Russo and BrandRUSSO.

You can find more information on all our episodes at Vertical Elevation, and you can find Carol on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Instagram.

One value Guillermo Elizondo looks for in his employees is a “force of spirit” which he refers to as the spirit within someone that pushes them to meet a goal despite obstacles. With globalization and facing worldwide problems, Elizondo believes it’s our force of spirit that will help change the world. 

Elizondo co-founded Territorium, a global education technology leader providing an education delivery, measurement, and tracking ecosystem. With over nine million users worldwide currently, Territorium recently expanded into the U.S. partnering with major companies like Microsoft.

The goal of Territorium is to help students in their transition from education to work. Territorium focuses on the skills students obtain in school and how they will apply them in the field. 

Guillermo took on the role of CEO as a teenager. He says it helped him in some situations because he was a student and saw many leaders as mentors, but it also led to mistakes. 

In this episode, Carol and Guillermo talk about the “million-dollar mistake” he made early on and about the transforming landscape of higher education in today’s world.

Learn more about Guillermo Elizondo and Territorium.

You can find more information on all our episodes at Vertical Elevation, and you can find Carol on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Instagram.

“Business is really simple. We make it so complicated. If you just take care of people, if you just want what’s best for them and you treat them like human beings—it’s amazing what will happen to your business,” says Wayne Mullins, founder and CEO of Ugly Mug Marketing: a marketing, social media, web design, and graphic design agency.

Wayne says one key to success is thinking of clients as people rather than transactions and getting personal beyond the job at hand. It all comes down to two humans connecting, he says. 

In this week’s episode, you’ll hear how Wayne and his team prioritize human connection with clients. And then Carol and Wayne take a step back to dive into his journey from landscaper to founder of a marketing company. 

They discuss the company culture he’s created and an idea he lives by: Discomfort is necessary for growth. And he tells us how he implemented that concept among his employees. You’ll also hear how he chose his employees’ wellbeings over the expansion of his company and the tough decisions that came with that. 

Wayne speaks candidly about the marketing industry and what he believes many agencies are doing wrong: Measuring results based on “vanity metrics” rather than true leads.

Learn more about Wayne Mullins and Ugly Mug Marketing.

You can find more information on all our episodes at Vertical Elevation, and you can find Carol on Twitter @carolbschultz or on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/carolbschultz/.