Gratitude Through Hard Times

Corey has been storytelling for two decades since he graduated from Millikin University with a BFA in theatre in 1996. His epiphany moment in storytelling came after he played the lead in a show at Millikin called “Jeffrey.” Three months after the show closed, Corey was called by a theatre 90 minutes away who was putting on the same show, but whose lead had fallen ill. Corey was asked to drive down immediately, block out the play that afternoon with their actors, and put on the show that evening. With the help of his previous director, Corey performed the leading role, on stage for the entire two-hour show, in front of 300 people that night. He was never afraid of taking the big swing again.

Working in Los Angeles for a decade, Corey was the face and voice behind a dozen Fortune 500 and Fortune 100 brands as a commercial and voiceover actor (his work won Belding, Addy, Cannes, and London International Advertising awards), before working as a film producer and director, as an author and award-winning publisher, and now as the founder and president of Round Table Companies.

Check out Corey’s TEDx talk, Vulnerability is Sexy and keep an eye out for Corey's HERMES and ADDY award winning short documentary by the same name.

Corey is the co-author of numerous books, including Edge! A Leadership Story (Finalist 2008 National Best Books Awards) and From the Barrio to the Board Room (Finalist, 2012 International Book Award) and its companion comic book Mi Barrio (Winner, 2011 Independent Publisher Book Awards; Winner Best Graphic Novel, 2012 International Latino Book Awards), which are being used around the country in schools and youth prisons to inspire at-risk youth. Corey's projects have been profiled or showcased in the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, Forbes, Inc., Barrons, Wired, USA Today, and on NPR and Bloomberg TV.

Corey is a member of the The Young Entrepreneur’s Council, the Stagen Integral Leadership Academy (Black Belt award recipient for Leadership), and is a sponsor of Conscious Capitalism and Social Venture Network. Corey is also a recent participant in the Gestalt Institute of Cleveland’s 18-month GTP program and now works with the Institute on programming for leaders. He is a frequent speaker and facilitator; his passion is using storytelling to create epiphany experiences and identity shift in people and organizations. Check out where Corey will be this year.

When Michael went from high school teacher to Broadway producer in under two years people started to ask him how he managed it. Michael began his career as a high school English teacher before producing Off Broadway and then on Broadway. This combination of experience in the arts and entrepreneurship led to Michael starting an arts incubator program to teach more artists about building and growing their own businesses (PLAE). Eventually, he decided to develop a workshop on networking which grew into a full time consulting practice and that became Small Pond Enterprises.

Michael took a short break to work as the V.P. of Operations and as a Director of Business Development for an NYC Ed. Tech Startup which introduced him to the New York Startup community. Most recently, Michael founded The Connecting Connectors Conference (ConnectorCon).

Dorie Clark is a marketing strategy consultant, professional speaker, and frequent contributor to the Harvard Business Review. Recognized as a “branding expert” by the Associated Press, Fortune, and Inc. magazine, she is the author of Entrepreneurial You (Harvard Business Review Press,), Reinventing You, and Stand Out, which was named the #1 Leadership Book of 2015 by Inc. magazine and one of the Top 10 Business Books of the Year by Forbes. It was also a Washington Post bestseller. Her books have been translated into Russian, Chinese, Arabic, French, Polish, Korean, and Thai.

Clark, whom the New York Times described as an “expert at self-reinvention and helping others make changes in their lives,” consults and speaks for a diverse range of clients, including Google, the World Bank, Microsoft, Morgan Stanley, the Ford Foundation, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, and Yale University.

A former presidential campaign spokeswoman, Clark is an adjunct professor of business administration at Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business and a Visiting Professor for IE Business School in Madrid, Spain. She has guest lectured at universities including Harvard Business School, the Harvard Kennedy School, Stanford University’s Graduate School of Business, the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School of Business, the University of California-Berkeley’s Haas School of Business, Georgetown, NYU, the MIT Sloan School of Management, and the University of Michigan.

Her work has been published in the Harvard Business Review Guide to Getting the Right Job and the Harvard Business Review Guide to Networking, and she is quoted frequently in the worldwide media, including NPR, the BBC, and MSNBC. She is also a regular commentator on Canada’s CTV and was named one of Inc. magazine’s “100 Great Leadership Speakers for Your Next Conference.”

A former New England Press Association award-winning journalist, Clark directed the environmental documentary film The Work of 1000, and was a producer for a multiple-Grammy-winning jazz album.

At age 14, Clark entered Mary Baldwin College’s Program for the Exceptionally Gifted. At 18, she graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Smith College, and two years later received a Master of Theological Studies from Harvard Divinity School. You can download her Entrepreneurial You self-assessment at dorieclark.com/entrepreneur.

Jonathan Gass - Episode 19 by Chris Schembra

Fariza Abidova is a serial entrepreneur, passionate about promoting global business collaboration to advance technological innovation.

In 2010 she established SOPHYS Corporation, a global human resource development company. Fariza currently provides global business solutions and seminars to the top 3 companies in Japan’s manufacturing, automotive, engineering, healthcare, IT and financial industries.

In 2016, Fariza launched her second start-up, Trusted Corporation, an online B2B community and search engine, that helps companies access business opportunities worldwide through cross-border and cross-industry collaboration.

Trusted Corporation has recently established a partnership agreement with one of Japan’s largest, world-leading banks. Through this partnership, Trusted Corporation is helping Japanese technology companies in the robotics, medical technology, automotive, and renewable energy industries establish R&D and joint venture partnerships with US and European companies.

All members of Trusted Corporation have access to opportunities to create innovative solutions, attract investment, M&A, and partnership agreements with large Japanese companies or start-up companies worldwide through the Trusted platform.

On the side, Fariza holds seminars to renowned American business schools, Japanese universities and Japanese branches of American, German, Swiss and British Chambers of Commerce and Industry. She also writes media articles and columns in Japanese newspapers.

She also started LEGACY50+, a not-for-profit project (under Trusted) that shares the stories of Japanese Founders and CEOs to help inspire and motivate the next generation of entrepreneurs.

From her work and contribution to other businesses, Fariza was nominated for the British Chamber of Commerce in Japan’s Entrepreneur of the Year award in 2017.

Fariza currently provides business solutions and global business skills seminars to the top 3 companies in Japan's manufacturing, automotive, engineering, healthcare, IT and financial industries.With her deep knowledge of the Japanese language, economy, business culture, and international markets, Fariza is now developing practical solutions with IT technology for successful cross-border businesses.

On the side, Fariza holds seminars regarding successful business development in Japan, to renowned American business schools, Japanese universities, and Japanese branches of the German Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Swiss Chamber of Commerce and Industry, and British Chamber of Commerce. She has also started writing media articles and columns in Japanese newspapers.

In her spare time, Fariza helps mentor young entrepreneurs develop business ideas.

From her work and contribution to other businesses, Fariza was nominated for the British Chamber of Commerce in Japan's Entrepreneur of the Year award in 2017.

Fariza's newest venture referenced on the podcast: https://www.trusted-inc.com/

Chris Winfield – Editor at large at Arianna Huffington’s Thrive Global, columnist for TIME, Business Insider and INC. and a show host for Entrepreneur – knows this: looking out for yourself will only get you so far. But building relationships will get you further…

His writings have also appeared in Business Insider, TIME, Buffer and other top-tier publications. Chris has been featured in the Wall Street Journal, New York Times, NBC’s Today Show, USA Today, ABC News, Fast Company, Fox Extra, Forbes and over 200 other media outlets. Chris has shown clients – including people from companies like Disney, Bai Brands, Virgin, Intuit, Cali’Flour Foods and countless high profile entrepreneurs & authors – how to leverage their connections with the media and influencers for credibiility, authority & profit.

Spot Chris in the wild, doing intros at his NYC networking event, Unfair Advantage Live, and taking confessions from lonely hedge-fund managers while standing in line for groceries (he’s just that kind of guy).

Erica Keswin is a workplace strategist who has worked for the past twenty years with some of the most iconic brands in the world as a consultant, speaker, writer and professional dotconnector. Her forthcoming book, Bring Your Human to Work: Ten Sure-Fire Ways to Design a Workplace That is Good for People, Great for Business and Just Might Change the World, will be published by McGraw-Hill in the fall of 2018. Check here for book tour dates. In the meantime, Erica’s work and insights can be seen in varied media outlets, including Harvard Business Review, Forbes, Huffington Post, O Magazine, Better Homes and Gardens, Mogul, and Conscious Company. Keswin is the founder of The Spaghetti Project, a platform devoted to sharing the science and stories of relationships at work.

Steven Miller is a marketer, art consumer, and partnership director, but above all, he is a believer in the power of making the right connections. Over the last decade, he has created partnerships and opportunities that have launched new brands, designed award-winning licensed products, and created million in revenue by seeing connections that others miss. From being a case manager for adult schizophrenics to leading North American and UK partnerships for today's #1 networking app, Shapr, Steven's passion for finding a common thread has changed his approach on everything from business to personal growth. It is not about what is in it for you, it is about what is the best for everyone, and he is striving to find that in every interaction and problem he encounters.

“Honesty and transparency make you vulnerable. Be honest and transparent anyway." - Mother Teresa

Do you reveal and present your true self to the world? How can increased personal vulnerability result in greater professional successes? When considering gender roles, do you occasionally idealize a bygone era?

Join host Chris Schembra in this week's episode of his podcast series, 7:47 Conversations, as he welcomes performer and entertainment producer, activist, community leader, and former Disney Mouseketeer, Ray DeForest, who may also be known to some as his popular theatrical character, Doris Dear. Winner of the 2016 MAC Award, actress and comedienne Dear has been featured in numerous movie and TV productions, and has starred in her own sold out cabaret-style shows.

In addition to entertaining audiences and raising funds to support theatre development, Mr. DeForest is an Executive Board Member of the Pipeline Theatre Company and Member of the prestigious Dramatist Guild of America. It is through his lifelong love of theatre that Mr. DeForest nurtured his storytelling and comedic talents, as well as his ability to connect with an audience and take them on an emotional journey. "Art requires reaction," he proclaims.

Long before theatre life beckoned Mr. DeForest to Manhattan, he found himself growing up in 1950-1960s Staten Island, where idyllic "Americana" was a real-world version of Norman Rockwell's iconic paintings. But what is one to do when they don't fit the traditional mold? "Admitting who we are is never easy," states Mr. DeForest. But, this challenge of self-expression found a creative outlet through character development and performance, and continues to be richly rewarded by audiences who react to the experience and find a safe space in his character's maternal presence. Bravo!

In 2015, the 747 Club was founded by Mr. Schembra to create a conversational environment promoting Authenticity ~ Empathy ~ Vulnerability ~ Safety. In sparking dialogue between people from disparate backgrounds and experiences, with different interests and viewpoints, a sense of community has formed within this shared experience, creating real understanding and an acceptance of others. Through this podcast, a wider audience will now learn about the 7:47 Club’s incredibly important mission.

Learning, listening, and growing through shared experiences ~ Welcome to the 747 Club community.

Afdel Aziz - Good is the new cool by Chris Schembra