Insights Through the Rear View Mirror

Insights Through the Rear View Mirror

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Insights Through the Rear View Mirror episodes

  • Jim Himes: A Political Perspective on Decision Making
    Paul welcomes Congressman Jim Himes. He has been the U.S. representative for Connecticut’s fourth congressional district since 2009, and was recently named Chair of the Subcommittee on national security, international development, and monetary policy of the House Financial Services Committee.
    38 min
  • Jim Weinstein: Charting The Path From Advertising to Advising
    Too many people equate decisiveness with urgency and snap judgements. This often leads to decisions that they quickly regret making. Today’s guest makes the case that the more time you take in making big decisions (within reason, of course), the more perspective you gain and, in turn, the more confident you become when you finally pull the trigger.
    25 min
  • Drayten Howell: Driving The Base Line From Hoops To Hemp

    Drayten Howell: How a 23-Year-Old Student Athlete Found Success in the Cannabis Industry

    Today’s guest is currently undergoing a journey that is nothing short of amazing. Only in his 20s and coming from a modest background, he was able to carve out a new path for himself in the incredibly competitive cannabis industry—in California, no less. Find out how he navigated the countless challenges involved in starting his business and the decision-making framework he uses to keep himself on course.

    We address:

    How can I discover the decision-making constructs that uniquely work for me?

    What do I need to keep in mind when starting a business in an incredibly competitive industry?

    Why does “being a consumer of my own business” lead to brand loyalty?

    Jon welcomes Drayten Howell, the young CEO of Indacut, the first cannabis delivery service licensed through the city of Santa Barbara. He has a fascinating story to share. At the age of 23, Drayten quit college with a full-ride basketball scholarship to start a cannabis business. Needless to say, he has made a number of major life-changing decisions.

     

    3 MAJOR POINTS DISCUSSED

    Have a decision-making framework and set of non-negotiable standards unique to you. There is no one-size-fits-all decision-making framework. Know what works for you, mentally, emotionally, and even spiritually. Drayten abides by three constructs that he goes through before making any big decision: Firstly, Drayten always seeks wise counsel, whether from his mom or grandma, coaches, and other close friends and acquaintances that he trusts. Secondly, as a believer in God, Drayten always prays before making a major decision. Finally, alongside prayer, Drayten meditates on every life-changing decision that comes his way.

    To build brand loyalty in your business, provide a product at a great price. Many new entrepreneurs tend to forget that they’re making a product for other people, not for themselves. You have to know what you’re providing, and you have to be providing what your target market wants right now. In the cannabis industry at least, Drayten recommends not following trends because “trends are saturated”. If you don’t provide your customers what they want now for the price they’re willing to pay now, they can go right down the street to your competitor.

    Be a consumer of your own business. Always put yourself in the shoes of your customers (and potential customers). Gauge the efficiency and effectiveness of your business processes by asking yourself whether you would be happy with the products you’re offering and the service that went into it.

     

    OUTLINE OF THIS EPISODE

    Drayten’s decision-making framework [02:35]

    How Drayten turned his life around created this incredibly unique path for himself [09:19]
    Applying Drayten’s early, mostly self-taught lessons on business in the real world [12:21]
    Getting the business underway while going blind [16:00]
    How Drayten went about attacking his deliverables in the early days of business [20:11]
    Drayten’s biggest obstacles to getting Indacut up and running [24:12]
    Building brand loyalty [26:49]
    The two biggest surprises Drayten has encountered so far and how he addressed them [28:50]
    Drayten’s plans for the growth of Indacut [30:42]
    Considering a franchise model in the future [33:28]
    How Drayten keeps up as the primary decision-maker in his business [34:48]
    Decisions that Drayten regrets since starting his business[36:50]

    ABOUT OUR GUEST

    Drayten began thinking about entering the cannabis industry in 2018 during his summer classes at SBCC. He knew the industry would be growing as the market opened for recreational use. Shortly after summer classes ended, Drayten was on his way north to attend NCAA Division 2 Holy Names University on a basketball scholarship.

    While Drayten was attending Holy Names University as a full-time student athlete, he started doing all of the backend work for Indacut. He began drafting business plans, Googling how-to guides, and working with his accounting tutor on pro formas.

    In November of 2018, Drayten found his cannabis-zoned facility from his dorm room. A few weeks later, Drayten decided it was best to leave Holy Names University.

    He moved back home and got started right away on the licensing process in January of 2019. Since then, Drayten has successfully made Indacut the first cannabis delivery service licensed through Santa Barbara County. God, hard work, and a killer team made all of this possible.

    Drayten is back to serve the place he calls home. Providing legal, quality, lab-tested products to help clients lead a healthy and active lifestyle. He plans on expanding his cannabis ventures around the state/worldwide, and is currently working to become fully vertically integrated in Santa Barbara County.

    https://www.indacutca.com/

    Instagram: @drayhowell

     

    ABOUT OUR HOSTS

    JON  KRAMER:

    Jon Kramer, Managing Director JMK Solutions www.jmk-solutions.com is a marketing services veteran with 35+ years of experience working with leading agencies, and major consumer packaged goods brands.

    Most recently, Jon was the Enterprise Sales Marketing lead at WestRock, a $16B packaging and display company, responsible for interfacing with their largest clients. Earlier, he was CMO of the RockTenn Merchandising Division where he created a shopper-marketing team, and go-to-market strategies for the Henkel company. He was also responsible for providing the selling organization with insights into the evolving US retail environment.

    Previously, Kramer served for 10 years as CEO of J. Brown, the Shopper Marketing agency of Grey Worldwide. He was responsible for creating the organizational positioning and strategy, and led all new-business efforts. During his tenure, J. Brown became the leading U.S. shopper marketing Agency, virtually defining the discipline.

    PAUL KRAMER:

    Paul Kramer’s distinguished marketing career is characterized by a long track record of building high performance communication organizations. His expertise is a unique blend of creativity, technical marketing analysis, and a keen business sense for strategic positioning. Paul’s earlier career included being the CEO of Catapult Marketing, President and COO of Hyper Marketing Inc and President and COO of D.L. Ryan Companies and has sat on Epsilon’s Strategic Management Team.

    Paul is skilled in all areas of marketing. He is especially strong in strategic planning, national brand management, marketing communications, and business development. In addition, he has a solid management foundation with accomplishments in P&L management, intellectual property, forming and maintaining strategic alliances and building business.

    Today, Paul is the General Partner of Riverside Consulting, a strategic consulting company working with senior leadership to help guide their business’ success.

     

    RESOURCES

    Visit our website: rearviewinsights.com

     

     

    40 min
  • David Marchi: Transformational Decisions from World Class Marketer to World Class Artist

    Today’s guest acquired the skill of an artist, making him internationally renowned, as a direct result of a broken back from a boat accident in 2015. As he shares his story, it quickly becomes clear that his refusal to allow external circumstances to dictate his path makes up a large part of his decision-making framework.

     

    We address:

    How can I look past my weaknesses and capitalize on my strengths?

    Why does embracing challenges and adversity tend to lead to unforeseen breakthroughs?

    What lessons can I take from the past to inform my decisions in the future?

    Paul welcomes visual artist David Marchi. He shares the decision-making framework that led him down his unique and storied career, going from being a highly successful, world-class marketer to becoming one of the most innovative and artistic painters in the world today.

     

    3 MAJOR POINTS DISCUSSED

    • When in doubt, be honest and authentic and just put everything out on the table. When he came out as gay to his wife and children, a huge weight was lifted off David’s shoulders and that decision propelled him into the next stage of his life. He initially planned on laying out his intentions in “phases”: to come out first, then to speak about divorce, etc. But he found that the best way to maximize understanding and empathy between all parties is to simply tell the truth, and tell all, right away.
  • Turn your disability into ability. Always find a way to push past your limitations (perceived or otherwise) and focus on fulfilling the potential you, uniquely, are capable of fulfilling. On the more extreme end, David helped Jack, a young boy with autism, to paint for the first time by dipping his paintbrush in his favorite color. “If you give someone a chance, and if you give them the tools, you can be a big part of where they may go.”
  • Thoughtful decisions are based on previous decisions. Look back at the big decisions you’ve made in the past, as well as those smaller ones. Evaluate, with an objective eye, which of those decisions have led to success and which have led to failure or disappointment. The lessons you extract from these varied experiences will help you create a structure for the decisions you make today.

    •  

    OUTLINE OF THIS EPISODE

    • David’s decision-making framework [03:52]
  • Entering the marketing world [06:11]
  • Leaving the advertising industry [11:50]
  • Being President of Ryan Partnership and collaborating with well-known brands [20:50]
  • Working with Pepsi [27:15]
  • Moving to TracyLocke [35:19]
  • Coming out as gay after having a family [40:47]
  • Becoming a world-class artist [45:34]
  • Finding out about his acquired savant syndrome [50:30]
  • Painting with Jack and Max [53:30]
  • David’s parting advice on making more thoughtful decisions [56:51]

    •  

    ABOUT OUR GUEST

    David is the son of an Italian immigrant mother and a father with roots in Italy and Argentina.

    The methodology to David’s art is a spiritual and subconscious process. He dreams the colors and painting structures first, imprinting the image in his head. In his studio, he sits on the floor, looks at the negative space and starts to pick the colors from the shelf leading to a thoughtful completion.

    His passion for painting was the direct result of a broken back from a boat accident in 2015. Prior to this, David never painted. In 2019, he was diagnosed by Dr. Darold Treffert with Acquired Savant Syndrome. This is where dormant savant skills emerge after a spinal or brain injury or disease in previously non-disabled persons.

    Today, David's life is his painting. He is currently studying with Larry Poons and Peter Bonner at the Art Students League in New York City and has traveled to Hamburg, Berlin, Paris, Sao Paulo and London to paint with other artists.

    His work is collected world-wide and is currently being critiqued by Pulitzer prize and New York Magazine art critic, Jerry Saltz. Through his art, he supports Positive Exposure, The Human Rights Campaign, and Lady Gaga’s Born This Way Foundation.

    Recently, he started the "Smile" Campaign, raising money to support our front-line nurses during the Covid0-19 pandemic.

     

    https://www.gallerymarchi.com/

    Instagram: @marchiart

     

    ABOUT OUR HOSTS

    JON  KRAMER:

    Jon Kramer, Managing Director JMK Solutions www.jmk-solutions.com is a marketing services veteran with 35+ years of experience working with leading agencies, and major consumer packaged goods brands.

    Most recently, Jon was the Enterprise Sales Marketing lead at WestRock, a $16B packaging and display company, responsible for interfacing with their largest clients. Earlier, he was CMO of the RockTenn Merchandising Division where he created a shopper-marketing team, and go-to-market strategies for the Henkel company. He was also responsible for providing the selling organization with insights into the evolving US retail environment.

    Previously, Kramer served for 10 years as CEO of J. Brown, the Shopper Marketing agency of Grey Worldwide. He was responsible for creating the organizational positioning and strategy, and led all new-business efforts. During his tenure, J. Brown became the leading U.S. shopper marketing Agency, virtually defining the discipline.

     

    PAUL KRAMER:

    Paul Kramer’s distinguished marketing career is characterized by a long track record of building high performance communication organizations. His expertise is a unique blend of creativity, technical marketing analysis, and a keen business sense for strategic positioning. Paul’s earlier career included being the CEO of Catapult Marketing, President and COO of Hyper Marketing Inc and President and COO of D.L. Ryan Companies and has sat on Epsilon’s Strategic Management Team.

    Paul is skilled in all areas of marketing. He is especially strong in strategic planning, national brand management, marketing communications, and business development. In addition, he has a solid management foundation with accomplishments in P&L management, intellectual property, forming and maintaining strategic alliances and building business.

    Today, Paul is the General Partner of Riverside Consulting, a strategic consulting company working with senior leadership to help guide their business’ success.

     

    RESOURCES

    • Visit our website: rearviewinsights.com

     

    1 hr 2 min
  • Michelle Adams: Using Core Strengths to Make Better Decisions

    How far can your gut feeling take you when you’re faced with important decisions? Today’s guest makes a case for leaning on your natural strengths and the things that give you energy, and simply taking the plunge when making big, career-defining choices.

     

    We address:

    How can I use my core strengths to inform my decisions?

    What are some actions steps I can take today to be able to thrive in a post-pandemic world?

    Where should I focus my attention to avoid making career choices that I may later regret?

    Jon welcomes Michelle Adams, Founder and President of Marketing Brainology, a company focused on the latest in Behavior Economics, Virtual Shopping, Eye-Tracking, and NeuroScience research. However, that’s just the latest stop on her journey spanning high school teacher and coach to heading up Shopper Marketing at PepsiCo.

     

    3 MAJOR POINTS DISCUSSED

    • Know your towering strengths. Michelle’s decision-making criteria is based heavily on Marcus Buckingham’s StrengthsFinder tool. What are the core strengths that you bring to the table that you are naturally gifted with? Whatever you decide to do must align with those strengths as well as the things that give you energy when you do them.
  • Sometimes, all you can do is take a leap of faith based on calculated risks. Making a decision as life-changing as going into business after a decade or two in the corporate world is grounded in many factors; but more often than not, the choice to make these decisions are ultimately based on faith. This faith is informed by considering all the factors related to the decision at hand, as well as taking your strengths into consideration, trusting yourself to handle wherever direction this decision will take you.
  • When making decisions, it’s really important to have a network surrounding you. If you have a big career goal (or any type of big goal, for that matter), it pays to immerse yourself among people that support those goals. For example, Michelle’s dream is to be able to speak professionally on a regular basis, so she became a very active member of the Dallas chapter of the National Speakers Association.

    •  

    OUTLINE OF THIS EPISODE

    • Michelle’s decision-making framework [03:11]
  • Why Michelle took up a PhD in Political Economy [04:28]
  • Why Michelle became a policy analyst [08:36]
  • Working for M/A/R/C [13:19]
  • Adjusting to Frito-Lay’s corporate culture [17:12]
  • How Michelle’s clients are adjusting due to COVID-19 [23:17]
  • Leaving corporate America to found Marketing Brainology [26:23]
  • Taking a leap of faith when making a drastic career pivot [37:04]
  • Building up your network over time [41:34]
  • Is there anything that Michelle would have done differently? [44:38]

    •  

    ABOUT OUR GUEST

    Michelle Adams has a unique educational and professional career. She has an extensive business background and is a Ph.D. who stays well-connected to the most recent academic research and leading thought leaders. She founded Marketing Brainology over eight years ago to better measure human behavior and nonconscious thinking.

    She worked for Frito-Lay & PepsiCo for 10 years, running the SMART Learning Center which conducted sophisticated neuroscience research experiments that drove major initiatives thru-out PepsiCo. As VP of Customer Strategy and Shopper Insights, she consulted senior leaders from PepsiCo’s top retailers; including educating teams on male/female brain differences. As President of Marketing Brainology, she speaks and consults across the globe on NeuroScience, NeuroMarketing, and Influencing positive change within organizations. She is a member of the National Speakers Association, a TEDx SMU Speaker, 2014 Distinguished Alumni for The University of Texas at Dallas, and current board member.

    Follow Marketing Brainology on Facebook, Twitter @marketingbraino or MarketingBrainology.com

     

    Michelle Adams, Ph.D.

    214-491-9638

     

    ABOUT OUR HOSTS

    JON  KRAMER:

    Jon Kramer, Managing Director JMK Solutions www.jmk-solutions.com is a marketing services veteran with 35+ years of experience working with leading agencies, and major consumer packaged goods brands.

    Most recently, Jon was the Enterprise Sales Marketing lead at WestRock, a $16B packaging and display company, responsible for interfacing with their largest clients. Earlier, he was CMO of the RockTenn Merchandising Division where he created a shopper-marketing team, and go-to-market strategies for the Henkel company. He was also responsible for providing the selling organization with insights into the evolving US retail environment.

    Previously, Kramer served for 10 years as CEO of J. Brown, the Shopper Marketing agency of Grey Worldwide. He was responsible for creating the organizational positioning and strategy, and led all new-business efforts. During his tenure, J. Brown became the leading U.S. shopper marketing Agency, virtually defining the discipline.

     

    PAUL KRAMER:

    Paul Kramer’s distinguished marketing career is characterized by a long track record of building high performance communication organizations. His expertise is a unique blend of creativity, technical marketing analysis, and a keen business sense for strategic positioning. Paul’s earlier career included being the CEO of Catapult Marketing, President and COO of Hyper Marketing Inc and President and COO of D.L. Ryan Companies and has sat on Epsilon’s Strategic Management Team.

    Paul is skilled in all areas of marketing. He is especially strong in strategic planning, national brand management, marketing communications, and business development. In addition, he has a solid management foundation with accomplishments in P&L management, intellectual property, forming and maintaining strategic alliances and building business.

    Today, Paul is the General Partner of Riverside Consulting, a strategic consulting company working with senior leadership to help guide their business’ success.

     

    RESOURCES

    • Visit our website: rearviewinsights.com

     

    48 min
  • John Bouman: Committed To Changing Laws To Change Lives
    There are few places that require more skill in negotiation and a thicker skin than the political sphere. Today’s guest, a public interest lawyer with over four decades of experience, shares how he makes decisions that affect entire communities—and potentially the entire country—and does so navigating a profession where conflict and adversity among different parties is his day-to-day reality.
    41 min
  • Michael Golden: Following The Golden Path To Provide Scholarships To Underprivileged Youth

    Michael Golden: How to Use The Golden Mean to Make Better Decisions

    Have you ever thought about your decision-making process? Do you even have one? Every one of us has a fascinating story made up of many decisions over the course of our lives. It’s the sum of these decisions that dictate the direction of our journey.

    We address:

    Should you ever rely on your gut when making big decisions?

    How do I minimize the amount of decisions I end up regretting?

    What is The Golden Mean and how can I use it to make better decisions?

    Jon and Paul welcome Michael Golden, social entrepreneur, award-winning journalist, political reformer, and communication specialist. With a successful, multifaceted career under his belt, Michael demonstrates how even someone with varied passions and continuously shifting interests can still adopt a decision-making framework that allows them to lead a purposeful life and career.

     

    3 MAJOR POINTS DISCUSSED

    • Pay attention to your gut. While it isn’t wise to rely solely on your gut for every decision you make, it does indicate what’s driving you. Listening to your gut is a great way to remind you why you were brought to your biggest, most life-changing decisions in the first place, along with the smaller decisions downstream of those overarching ones. And, as it happens, there are times when your gut is what makes or breaks certain decisions. Sometimes, it pays off; other times, you make a decision you regret. In any case, you learn a lesson from the experience that informs your next decision.
  • Accept who you are and let that acceptance guide your decisions. Michael is the type of person whose interests change regularly, which explains the fascinating trajectory of his career. He is successful in spite of that because he doesn’t overanalyze his decisions and takes opportunities as they come. That is who he is as a person, and he refuses to criticize himself for following his gut. He doesn’t even say that it’s a good thing that he jumps around a lot. “It just is, so stop judging yourself about it.”
  • Take advantage of The Golden Mean to Make Better Decisions. The Golden Mean is an ancient concept elevated by the Greeks—Aristotle in particular. It is about finding the midpoint between extremes or finding the virtue between two opposite vices. It’s so easy for us humans to go to either extreme when pursuing anything in life. If you feel that things are starting to get a little too out of your control, you’re probably engaged in an extreme. Slow down, look at the rear-view mirror, and reevaluate your current path. The Golden Mean is ultimately about moderation.

    •  

    OUTLINE OF THIS EPISODE

    • Michael’s decision-making framework [04:22]
  • Why Michael made the transition from journalism to television [06:02]
  • How Michael made the decision to take control of his demons [11:10]
  • Understanding your objectives [18:40]
  • The common strand that informs all of Michael’s seemingly unrelated career shifts [22:06]
  • How accepting who you are influences your decisions [27:56]
  • Utilizing The Golden Mean in your decision-making construct [30:40]
  • Is there anything that Michael would have done differently? [34:08]
  • Why you should strive for self-acceptance [38:00]

    •  

    ABOUT OUR GUEST

    Michael Golden is a strategist and social innovator who excels at launching and accelerating mission-driven enterprises. His expertise stems from a 25-year career as a national award-winning journalist and co-founder of One Million Degrees, Newsbound, Complete the Degree and Golden Mean Strategies.

     

    Michael is also the author of Unlock Congress and serves as a Senior Fellow at the Adlai Stevenson Center on Democracy.

     

    His commentary has been featured in USA Today, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, the Chicago Tribune, FOX News, PBS, NBC, and NPR.

     

    ABOUT OUR HOSTS

    JON  KRAMER:

    Jon Kramer, Managing Director JMK Solutions www.jmk-solutions.com is a marketing services veteran with 35+ years of experience working with leading agencies, and major consumer packaged goods brands.

     

    Most recently, Jon was the Enterprise Sales Marketing lead at WestRock, a $16B packaging and display company, responsible for interfacing with their largest clients. Earlier, he was CMO of the RockTenn Merchandising Division where he created a shopper-marketing team, and go-to-market strategies for the Henkel company. He was also responsible for providing the selling organization with insights into the evolving US retail environment.

     

    Previously, Kramer served for 10 years as CEO of J. Brown, the Shopper Marketing agency of Grey Worldwide. He was responsible for creating the organizational positioning and strategy and led all new-business efforts. During his tenure, J. Brown became the leading U.S. shopper marketing Agency, virtually defining the discipline.

     

    PAUL KRAMER:

    Paul Kramer’s distinguished marketing career is characterized by a long track record of building high performance communication organizations. His expertise is a unique blend of creativity, technical marketing analysis, and a keen business sense for strategic positioning. Paul’s earlier career included being the CEO of Catapult Marketing, President and COO of Hyper Marketing Inc and President and COO of D.L. Ryan Companies and has sat on Epsilon’s Strategic Management Team.

     

    Paul is skilled in all areas of marketing. He is especially strong in strategic planning, national brand management, marketing communications, and business development. In addition, he has a solid management foundation with accomplishments in P&L management, intellectual property, forming and maintaining strategic alliances and building business.

     

    Today, Paul is the General Partner of Riverside Consulting, a strategic consulting company working with senior leadership to help guide their business’ success.

     

    RESOURCES

    • Visit our website: rearviewinsights.com

     

    44 min

About Insights Through the Rear View Mirror

From the publisher's feed

During the height of the Covid-19 Pandemic, marketing executives, and brothers, Jon and Paul Kramer were discussing the decisions each had made in their lives. The good, bad, big and small and how each of these decisions had informed and transformed their lives.