Mindshare Matters

Cydni Tetro puts a lot of emphasis on family, in fact it was her family that encouraged her from a young age to go down the path that became her career. As a high school senior in STEM programs, she had the opportunity to intern as a software tester, which she says completely changed her planned career path and sent her to BYU to major in computer science. A theme of her life was always not being sure which direction to take when she got to an intersection in life or her career, so she would always keep all options open. That open-mindedness eventually led to a thrilling chapter working for Disney Research. That was the moment where she realized she’d be the architect of her own career path, building her own skill set and then deciding what to do with them.

Lianna Kinard has seen and experienced a lifetime’s worth of change. She grew up in Hawaii with parents working multiple jobs to get by, moved on her own to live with extended family in Utah and to attend the University of Utah, got married, had children, and took a winding career path that started in a surf shop on the North Shore and led her to a large insurance company. On a chance meeting of strangers one night in Park City, she decided to apply to Harvard, getting accepted on her third and final try, finally achieving her graduate degree in Management. But as she looks back on the trials and tribulations that led her to where she is now, she sees an accumulation of life lessons. Instead of a “woe is me” attitude, Lianna makes the most of every situation she encounters, and now passes that knowledge and mindset on to her two young kids.

What a winding road Todd Deeken has had. As a child he moved from south Texas to England, spent a year in Finland, and came back to Texas all before he had graduated high school. His creative juices started flowing in junior high, when he became a prolific fiction writer, following that passion and making a successful career in Hollywood, working on some of the biggest blockbusters in history. After Hollywood, he moved to Park City, building a thriving business marrying two of his loves; filmmaking and automobiles. Now, he grinds out podcasts, YouTube videos, broadcast TV shows and feature length films full time.

A lot of people talk about living a quality life, but Guido Balocco truly did, both personally and professionally. Guido grew up in Northern Italy, learning the concepts of hard work that permeated the region. As a young man he competed in world-class auto racing. Soon after, he ended up the CEO, and eventually the owner, of Persol, the Italian luxury eyewear brand that was bought by giant Luxottica in 1995. There, he stressed the idea of “total quality”, everything from the glasses themselves to the highest-quality t-shirts the company would use in marketing efforts.

In his 50s, Guido moved his family to the United States, settling in Miami where he led the Edward Beiner Group with the namesake founder, a company they finally sold just two years ago. Now as a retiree, Guido is focusing on the next phase of his “total quality” life, spending time with grandchildren, traveling, and getting back into his passion of racing cars.

Mike grew up in the looming shadows of an early Silicon Valley, before it developed its now-infamous reputation. Being surrounded by such entrepreneurial-minded people, including within his own home, Mike felt the pressure, yet was also humble enough to realize how lucky he was to know so many smart minds. He attended Stanford with a plan to go into engineering, yet after relocating to the Boston area where his brother was attending college, he began to explore the world of venture capital. Forty years later, Mike hasn’t looked back. He’s been involved in countless corporate successes, although he will admit he was a part of far more failures. Now living in Park City, he talks of going back to school to reignite some of his early passions, while also looking for the next early-stage business opportunity.

Despite growing up with a homebuilder as a father, Joel Shine vowed to never go into the industry himself. Decades later, and Joel has ironically become synonymous with homebuilding. Joel started off with a passion for photography, even receiving a scholarship from Eastman-Kodak to attend the Rochester Institute of Technology. Soon after, he returned to Southern California to study business. As a senior, he dabbled in buying apartment buildings as investment properties, and after a few successful years, he “woke up” as CFO of his father’s business, sometimes working through the night to ensure he was never seen as “daddy’s boy”. After years of both running homebuilding companies and managing the financial aspects of the industry, he now has been able to take a step back, slow down, and “chill out” in ways he never allowed himself during his younger years.

After a childhood that forced him to grow up faster than a typical kid, Dylan Ramsey went from the University of Pennsylvania to a year in Russia teaching English in the Peace Corps. After graduating law school, Dylan ended up managing the legal team for one of the biggest names in outdoor retail. Learn how his unique childhood shaped his future, and how that has molded his parenting style today with his own children.

The author of the acclaimed book, Red Shoes Living - Stand Out For The Positive in How You Work and How You Live, Lonnie Mayne has spent years helping to bring humanity into the business world. Drawing inspiration from his professional wrestler father, Lonnie strives to ensure he, and the businesses he helps, treat others as people first and employees or customers second.

It all started because of football for Julian Castelli. A burst of confidence after joining his high school team propelled Julian to the height of Wall Street with Goldman Sachs. There, he learned, listened, and absorbed all that he could, eventually turning to entrepreneurship with the founding of VacationRoost in 2007. Since, Julian has immersed himself in the SaaS world, and found his true passion in the connection he has with his children. From Wall Street to the sidelines as coach of his son's football team, Julian Castelli shares his wild ride with the Mindshare Matters audience.

Jason Ellis grew up in a trailer park in Rapid City, South Dakota, where he learned entrepreneurship at a young age. He took his skills upselling lawn care services and put them into selling cell phones. From co-founding retail pioneers Spring Mobile and Simply Mac to a seat at the head table of GameStop, Jason has been a part of the confluence of retail and technology for over a decade. But when a health scare put him in the operating room in 2012, he decided to make a major pivot, and has turned his eye toward small businesses, his family, and giving back to the community.