Next Matters Most

Leadership can have many different forms, but how do you know which one is right for you or your business? In episode 12 of the Next Matters Most Podcast, Walter Pinson, President of Smashing Boxes, talks with Nick Jordan about how he learned how to lead himself and his various teams through personal and business obstacles. Walter has a fair share of leadership experience, from building his own companies to companies like Microsoft and Unboxed. The two also discuss how CIO advisors can help businesses leverage expertise without paying large sums to accomplish their goals as leaders. 

-

Want to take this episode with you? 

anchor.fm/nextmattersmost

To learn more about Walter Pinson & Nick Jordan:

nextmattersmost.com/blogs/episode-12-walter-pinson

We've got more to offer on our social platforms! 

linktr.ee/_nickjordan

Thank you for watching this episode of the Next Matters Most Podcast! What did you think of this episode? Let us know in the comments!

We all know that entrepreneurship is tough; their many challenges, headaches, and stress points to overcome before starting a business. Keeping these points in mind, add the detail that the entrepreneur is in college, and the challenge of starting a business goes up exponentially. Despite these oppositions, Nina Barnett overcame them while being a female within a male-dominated space. In episode 11 of The Next Matters Most podcast, Nina, the owner and founder of Grooop, talks about how she overcame the ultimatum of being a female business owner while completing her own goals of graduating college at the top of her class.

Grooop is simple: college students use an intuitive app to feel confident on campus.  Anytime, Anywhere. Grooop is a platform that serves universities, workplaces, friends, and families through our service contracts and mobile app to make safety more fun, inclusive, intuitive, and non-invasive. Grooop is the best way to share safety status instantly. Grooop makes sure you have power in numbers, even if you're alone. Set up safe zones, create grooops of your friends, and update your safety status to alert others if you need help.

In this episode of Next Matters Most, we speak with David Morris & Patrick Lineberry, attorneys at law, about Opportunity Zones, Qualified Opportunity Zone Funds, Qualified Opportunity Zone Businesses, and what this means for investors, small business owners, and communities. Will this be just a rush towards faster gentrification, or will it be a reviving and renaissance effect on currently depressed communities? A tool for the rich to get richer, or for more underrepresented businesses to get funding? We discuss this and more. 

-

Want to take this episode with you? 

anchor.fm/nextmattersmost

To learn more about David Morris, Patrick Lineberry, & Nick Jordan:

nextmattersmost.com/blogs/episode-10-davidmorris-patricklineberry

We've got more to offer on our social platforms! 

linktr.ee/_nickjordan

Thank you for watching this episode of the Next Matters Most Podcast! What did you think of this episode? Let us know in the comments!

Why are community ecosystems important? What can they provide to a community? Today, Jim Roberts and Nick Jordan talk about what an ecosystem can provide to large and small communities. Jim has been involved in community ecosystem building for many years. With notable success throughout North Carolina and the United States. In episode 9 of the Next Matters Most podcast, Jim and Nick talk about why an ecosystem is important for all communities, how entrepreneurs can improve ecosystems, and where to start when building a successful ecosystem! 

Pierce Freelon is a musician, director and Durham City Council Member. Pierce is the founder of Blackspace, an Afrofuturism digital maker space for teens in Durham. He is the writer, composer and co-director of the PBS animated series, The History of White People in America. He is a co-founder of Beat Making Lab, a PBS web-series, which won Best Video Essay for its episode Heartbeats of Fiji at the 2015 Daytime Emmy Awards. His latest project is a children’s music album, titled D.a.D, which has been featured on NPR and Today Show.   

In episode 8 of the Next Matters Most podcast, Nick Jordan sits down with Pierce Freelon about what is happening in the world today and what he wants to do about it. Pierce has always been a voice for change and does not have a stop sign in sight! Pierce talks about what everyone can do to help misunderstand and misrepresent groups in our businesses and community today.

We have an opportunity to create an entirely new ecosystem for the entrepreneurship and intrapreneurship community that is responsible for driving innovation and change in business that puts diversity at the forefront of everything it does. The conversation in this episode will expand your thinking, articulate what is wrong, and provide proactive and positive solutions that will inspire us all. I end the interview w/ a Nobel Prize prediction. 

In episode 7 of the Next Matters Most podcast, you will meet (future) Nobel Prize Winner Doug Speight is a 5x entrepreneur, innovation commercialization expert, and current founder and CEO of Annex Tech Partners.  This man on a mission has lofty goals: to change the way the tech industry operates; close the wealth and opportunity gap for women and people of color; all while stabilizing our national economy. 

Our CEO & Chairman Nick Jordan recently sat down with business and mental health super guru, Don Azevedo, for an hour-long conversation for the podcast, Next Matters Most. 

Mental well-being is Don’s business, and he really knows his stuff. Nick and Don question why there isn’t more focus on the emotional well being of workers in the workforce, how to design the workplace and workforce of the future, and what it means to strive for authentic happiness. Can software or technology be built to assist in this movement towards better well being, or is this a process thing? Or is it just adoption and awareness? 

Jessica Mitsch is a major entrepreneurial powerhouse and a force to be reckoned with in the triangle. With a passion for education and equal access to the tools and resources people need to be job-ready, she is the CEO and Founder of Momentum Learning, a schooling system to provide coding skills training focused on the needs of the modern workplace. We are guided by the belief that education creates opportunity, and that knowledge has no bounds. We give career changers the skills and support they need to find meaningful work and see our role as a catalyst for positive life change.

Rewind a few months ago- Fresh off raising money, getting set up, and launching a new immersive code school, the pandemic hits, and everything gets thrown out the window. Luckily for my good friend and guest on our latest podcast episode Jessica Mitsch, she could get through the freak out moment and get her business pivoted to a highly active and successful remote service for her students. In the episode, we discuss many things, including but not limited to how to shift to remote even when you built your entire business around in-person interaction, the future of education, being an entrepreneur in the triangle, and more.

With the evolution of technology and the availability of information on Google, is using an attorney to help your business still important? Where does the balance exist between doing your own research to save money and paying a professional to save time? It turns out that, even in the midst of increased automation, sometimes the use of an attorney can be vital in any business plan. In episode 4, Nick talks with Jesse Jones, Founding Lawyer at Fourscore Business Law, about the evolution of the attorney’s role in business, and how businesses can best leverage this relationship to maximize efficiency and decision making.

In the midst of a pandemic, the task that many of us are focusing on is how to “return to normal.” The goal for many is the go back to the way things used to be before COVID-19 drastically changed life as we know it. Why does that have to be the case? Why can’t we use this time to get to a better version of how the world used to be? With a virus turning the conventions of our society upside down, we need to look at what we should keep and what we should change. In episode 3, Nick talks with Michael Levy, President of the Digital Health Institute for Transformation, about ways that the healthcare industry can better meet the needs of individuals rather than entire populations.

For full transcripts of episodes, head to our website: nextmattersmost.com

Facebook: facebook.com/nextmattersmost 

Instagram: instagram.com/nextmattersmost

LinkedIn: linkedin.com/next-matters-most

Twitter: twitter.com/nextmattersmost