For those of you who don’t know, Ken Jackson is an economics professor here at Laurier, where he teaches a range of economics classes from your beginner micro and macro courses, to the economics of sports and poverty as well.

Ken has his undergraduate degree and PhD in economics from the University of British Columbia and has been working for Laurier since 2008.

On a personal level, Ken is such a genuine and kind person to chat with. Something that I really wanted to learn about was how he gained the skills to teach to 1000’s of people at a time while keeping them engaged and learning.

Overall, for years Ken has been such a positive influence for the Lazaridis school of business, and Laurier students that have come and gone through the years. He champions student’s growth and teaches to see them succeed.

Links for Matt:

https://linktr.ee/MattPuglisi

Marcel Morgenstern is an entrepreneur and small business owner in the wine industry within the Niagara region. He is a wine expert, a marketing creative, a father, soccer fan and above all an all-around nice guy.  Marcel is a close family friend and family business partner, so it’s awesome to have someone familiar come onto the show and chat about his experiences as an entrepreneur.

Marcel has been very vocal in the wine community within Niagara and even jumped on the opportunity to make the “Restaurants of Niagara” Facebook page when the quarantine lockdown hit, which is now a very active group of over 20,000 people.

We talk about his story and how he got into the wine and food industry, as well as his journey both as a sommelier and an entrepreneur. 

Links to Marcel:

Pondview Website: https://www.pondviewwinery.com/

Marcel Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/marcelmo/

Restaurants of Niagara FB group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/251444969356104

Links for Matt:

https://linktr.ee/MattPuglisi

NV:

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC_0RrklLLe3YhVzydLc7ANw?sub_confirmation=1

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nearlyverified/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/nearlyverified

This episode I have fellow Laurier students Lauren and Lucas Barnes chat about their social enterprise Last20!

Founded by Lucas and Lauren in 2018; they began as a sustainable clothing brand - Last20 Apparel. Their products are sourced from plastic bottles that would have otherwise ended up in our landfills and oceans, 6 plastic bottles in every shirt.

In 2019, they reviewed their operations and brainstormed industries that could benefit from upcycling plastic waste, they knew there was much more impact to be generated and this was the pivotal moment for the organization to focus on sustainable pavement!

Last20 has been apart of the Enactus incubator at Laurier as well. Enactus is something different for everyone. Globally, Enactus chapters include 72,000 students on 1,730 campuses and impacts over 1.3 million people.

Enactus fosters the development of social enterprises - businesses that don’t only focus on profits, but on giving back to the surrounding community. Successful social enterprises are those that are self-sustaining and don’t have to rely on grants and external funding to continue operations. All profits are reinvested back into the enterprises to help maximize social impact

Link to Guest:

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/last20pavement/

Linkedin:https://www.linkedin.com/company/last20apparel/

Website: https://last20.ca/

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCNdFYcpWbnKKv7Q6mscqgVg?sub_confirmation=1

Links for Matt:

https://linktr.ee/MattPuglisi

NV:

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC_0RrklLLe3YhVzydLc7ANw?sub_confirmation=1

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nearlyverified/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/nearlyverified\

Troy Osinoff is the Co-founder of JUICE, an NYC-based digital marketing agency credited by Facebook as being a top 1% agency and fastest-growing in NY, where he has helped clients such as Kenneth Cole, Paris Hilton d scale successful multi-platform marketing campaigns. Prior to JUICE, Osinoff helped a bankrupt shoe company reach profitability, grew a Grammy award-winning recording studio, created a viral media site called Make A Dare (which was featured on Dr. Phil), co-founded a media company with 1.7M visitors daily and created a viral Tumblr that was turned into a nationally sold book

Osinoff also leads digital marketing for the largest HVAC company in the world ($4.2B annual sales), created a group of eCommerce stores grossing 7 figures of revenue, and was Head of Customer Acquisition at BuzzFeed.

Troy is an incredibly driven and humble guy, and I really enjoyed getting the chance to speak with him.  We chatted about his story of coding at a young age, the many ins and outs of growth marketing at his agency Juice, as well as entrepreneurship from Troy’s lens and his advice to young people.

Links for Matt:

https://linktr.ee/MattPuglisi

NV:

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC_0RrklLLe3YhVzydLc7ANw?sub_confirmation=1

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nearlyverified/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/nearlyverified\

Link to Guest:

Website: https://www.thinkjuice.com/

Linkedin:https://www.linkedin.com/in/troyosinoff/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/yo?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Eauthor

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/troy/

I heard that there is a 7 episode curse when starting up a podcast. That 7 episode mark is where a lot of shows lose steam and fizzle out. I thought it would be fitting to take a second at episode 7 and reflect on what I've started here with Nearly Verified.

I take the time to look back at my 6 guests and share what our conversations meant to me, and what I took away from them. Also, I wanted to share a few key takeaways from starting a podcast in general.

I also needed to send a shoutout to my guy Q for helping me out along the way.

Thanks so much for following along!

Links for Matt:

https://linktr.ee/MattPuglisi

NV:

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC_0RrklLLe3YhVzydLc7ANw?sub_confirmation=1

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nearlyverified/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/nearlyverified\

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Sponsor:

Blue Springs Irrigation & Lighting

Website: https://www.bluespringsirrigation.ca/

Shay Rowbottom is the Queen of Linkedin, a marketing wizard, an expert in video, a storyteller, a new podcast host, and overall just a passionate person whose energy is contagious. She has worked with companies such as Petco, Yahoo and Buzzfeed, creating viral video content generating 10 of BILLIONS of views over her career.  In this episode we discuss content creation, leaping into new experiences, and breaking down societies shame culture.

Shay is such a genuine human being and I want to thank her so much for the time she took to come and speak with me as well as the positive energy she brought to the table. So so cool to have gotten the chance to learn more about her life! Hope you enjoy it.

Links to my stuff:

https://linktr.ee/MattPuglisi

NV:

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC_0RrklLLe3YhVzydLc7ANw?sub_confirmation=1

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nearlyverified/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/nearlyverified\

Link to Shay:

Linkedin: http://www.linkedin.com/in/shayrowbottom

Youtube: http://www.youtube.com/shayrowbottom

Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/shayrowbottom

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/shayrowbottom

Website: https://www.shayrowbottom.com/

Today we have on Mark Metry, who is a phenomenal dude that has accomplished a ton at 23. He is on Amazon Prime's TV Docuseries "The Social Movement"  attempting to solve some of the world's biggest problems.

Mark is also the host of the Global Top 100 podcast called Humans 2.0 featured by Forbes, NASDAQ, and Yahoo Finance as the "Top 21 Growing Podcasts you must listen to in 2019." Mark's show has been listened to over 10 million times and features the greatest leaders of our time and frequently converses with Billionaires, Professional Athletes, and New York Times Bestselling authors for a shortlist.

In 2013 he started the World #1 Minecraft server and as a result, was earning 6 figures at the age of 15. Once upon a time though, he couldn’t make direct eye contact with anyone and suffered from social anxiety, health issues, and feeling woefully unfulfilled. It’s for this reason and the fact that many others go through life feeling like this, that Mark decided to write and publish a book called Screw Being Shy, currently available on Amazon. This book is a guide on how to manage social anxiety and be yourself in front of anyone.

Mark's Website: https://www.markmetry.com/

Mark's Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mark-metry/

Mark's Book: https://www.amazon.com/Screw-Being-Shy-Anxiety-Yourself/dp/B085KQ2KMG

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Sponsor:

Blue Springs Irrigation & Lighting

Website: https://www.bluespringsirrigation.ca/

This week I have the pleasure of speaking with Carol Leaman who is the CEO at Axonify. What is Axonify you may be asking? It is an online learning and communications platform built for frontline employees which are more important than ever now and is used by giant companies around the world such as Walmart, Bloomingdales, Rogers, and Longos to name a few. 

Carol has an undergraduate degree and masters from the University of Waterloo is a decorated entrepreneur in the tech space having a successful track record of past CEO roles, as well as she sits on the boards of a variety of Canadian high-tech firms.

To put it simply, Carol Leaman is a badass entrepreneur CEO and thought leader in the space and we are very happy to have her on the podcast!

Buster Scher is the 19-year-old that has created a basketball empire on social media. He is founder of Hoops Nation, host of the Buster Show, and unfortunately a life long Knicks fan. He has hosted various shows for the NBA and done online consulting for hip-hop artists and NBA legends.

On this episode, we talk about the rise of sports cards, Buster's path to social media stardom, as well as tips for young people looking to chase their passions. 

Congrats on reaching 1M followers on Insta man! 

Buster's Instagram:

@Buster

@Hoopsnation

This episode I have Sam Lister come on to chat! He is a 20-year-old LinkedIn phenomenon that started creating videos on his phone to document his journey of entrepreneurship, and inevitably people started catching on. He is the founder of Blnk Slate media, host of the Starting Blnk podcast, and a keynote speaker.  At the age of 18, Sam got his first client from his Linkedin content and the rest they say is history.