Self Made Strategies

Welcome back to another fantastic Self Made Strategies Hustle Story.

In this short sound clip, you will hear about how Marti and Pamela Lieberman knew they were onto something brilliant.  Their bright pink Mac and Cheese food truck, Mac Mart started to gain serious popularity and attention.  You can hear more with them on this week's Self Made Strategies podcast.

About the SMS Hustle Story

This is the Self Made Strategies Hustle Story about Marti Lieberman and Pamela Lieberman, of Mac Mart (https://macmartcart.com/).  Check out this short clip, where we learn about how Marti and Pamela got going on their entrepreneurial journey.

About Marti and Pamela

Marti Lieberman’s Mac Mart debuted on the streets of Drexel University’s campus in the winter of 2013.  Without much experience running her own business, let alone a food truck, Marti knew there were some kinks to work out but she was determined to succeed. While her cheese sauce was always a hit, she felt like there was something still missing.

Shortly after opening

Marti brought on two people to complete her team: Her sister, Pamela and her (now husband), Garrett Jablonski. By combining Marti’s background in public relations, Pamela’s love of all things culinary, and utilizing Garrett’s brawn for day-to-day operations, the bright pink truck became an instant hit at private affairs, night markets, and food festivals.

Catering for the likes of Forbes, Starr Events, Philadelphia Eagles, Philadelphia 76ers, Wawa CEO and Executive team to name a few, Mac Mart built up quite a following.

Opening a store

With a large social media presence all over the globe and constantly selling out of the famous Mac and Cheese, Mac Mart figured it was high time to open its first flagship store in its hometown of Philadelphia. After months of planning, Mac Mart opened its doors in Rittenhouse in the spring of 2016 with expansion plans already in the works!

Want to hear more with Marti and Pamela, or more about Mac Mart?  Tune in to the Self Made Strategies PodcastMake sure you tune in this Thursday to the Self Made Strategies Podcast, wherever you listen to your podcasts.

Welcome back to another great Self Made Strategies Podcast episode!

This week we sat down with Ken Sher, of Sher Coaching.  Ken is a great executive coach, who also volunteers his time to help individuals going through career transition.  Ken tells his story, on our show, about how he overcame a career transition after a long and illustrious career.

Check out this episode, but please remember to subscribe to our podcast, or to sign up for our email newsletter.

About this week’s guest Ken and his company Sher Coaching

Ken is passionate about Executive Coaching and his experience allows him to help business leaders and their teams reach their full professional potential.

 

Ken’s Executive Coaching and business experience is rooted in his 30 years of experience working with major Fortune 200 companies.  Ken has led 3 Johnson & Johnson Sales Training & Leadership Development teams, including one global organization, and his experiences have helped him to address a myriad of business challenges both in and out of the HealthCare market.

 

Previously, Ken was the Vice President, Executive Coaching Services with Velocity Advisory Group, a fast growing consulting firm specializing in coaching, strategic planning, and workshops/training.  Ken continues to partner with them to support their clients in various ways including as an Executive Coach.

 

Ken’s approach, when it comes to Executive Coaching or Career Coaching, is based on quickly developing a professional and personal connection that allows the client to be open and honest about their challenges regarding both personal development and business issues. From there, Ken works with clients to map out an action plan for success that is both practical and useful in day-to-day business operations.

 

For more information, visit http://www.shercoaching.com to learn more about how Coaching can help you.

 

Show Agenda

On today’s episode we will:

Get to know Ken and hear more about the strategies you can you to improve your business operations

Discuss coaching solutions as a whole

Explore the best ways to improve your efficiency as an executive or entrepreneur

 

What you will hear Ken talk about on this episode:

Ken’s main coaching methodology 

How entrepreneurs can improve themselves

Why authenticity is important, and why you need to keep it simple (and true to your core values)

The questions you should ask yourself to help find your “why”

The acronym “T.R.U.S.T.” (which stands for Transparency, Results, Understanding, Simply, and Team) and what each of those elements includes

The tools you can use to help entrepreneurs or executives gain self-awareness

How to clarify goals, achieve your development objectives, and unlock your potential

Best practices for an entrepreneur to assess your own strengths and weaknesses

The best ways for people to search for and address areas they may need to change about themselves 

The types of metrics you may use to measure your performance and improvement focus or to measure the shift in others’ perception of the you, as a leader

Ken’s 3 tips for developing strategic business initiatives to support ongoing growth

And so much more!

After you’ve listened to the episode, make sure you visit Sher Coaching (https://shercoaching.com/) to get more information about how Ken may be able to help you.  

 

Make sure you subscribe to the Self Made Strategies Podcast on your favorite podcasting platform.

This is the Self Made Strategies Hustle Story about Ken Sher, of Sher Coaching (http://www.shercoaching.com).  

About Ken Sher and Sher Coaching

Ken is passionate about Executive Coaching and his experience allows him to help business leaders and their teams reach their full professional potential.

 

Ken’s Executive Coaching and business experience is rooted in his 30 years of experience working with major Fortune 200 companies.  Ken has led 3 Johnson & Johnson Sales Training & Leadership Development teams, including one global organization, and his experiences have helped him to address a myriad of business challenges both in and out of the HealthCare market.

 

Previously, Ken was the Vice President, Executive Coaching Services with Velocity Advisory Group, a fast growing consulting firm specializing in coaching, strategic planning, and workshops/training.  Ken continues to partner with them to support their clients in various ways including as an Executive Coach.

 

Ken’s approach, when it comes to Executive Coaching or Career Coaching, is based on quickly developing a professional and personal connection that allows the client to be open and honest about their challenges regarding both personal development and business issues. From there, Ken works with clients to map out an action plan for success that is both practical and useful in day-to-day business operations.

 

For more information, visit http://www.shercoaching.com to learn more about how Coaching can help you.

 

About the SMS Hustle Story

Check out this short clip, where Ken tells us how he has pushed past adversity (later in his career), and how he got started on his entrepreneurial journey.

 

Make sure you tune in to the Self Made Strategies Podcast this Thursday, wherever you listen to your podcasts, to hear Ken’s episode.

This episode of the Self Made Strategies Podcast is sponsored by: Lopes Law LLC (www.LopesLawLLC.com).  If you want to work with a firm that cares more about you than their billable hours, email or call Lopes Law LLC at [email protected] or (267) 777-9117.

 

About this week’s guest Bruce and his company Employee Cycle

Bruce knew he wanted to be an entrepreneur since as far back as when he was in college at West Chester University, and would purchase clothing to sell on campus to other students.  That experience taught him how to market himself, brand himself, and how to make a profit. 

Bruce created his first tech startup, while at West Chester, UniversityBay (basically a Craigslist for college students).  It was essentially an exchange platform, where students could exchange sneakers/watches/gear for textbooks, or simply buy/sell items to other students.  Additionally, students could look for jobs, internships, and housing, on the platform. Bruce likes to say that it “failed gloriously.” 

At the age of 19, Bruce also managed Patti LaBelle’s Philadelphia based studio for a while.  Bruce then worked as a media planner and marketer (doing search engine marketing) for companies and brands that were new to him (like J&J, and some others).  Bruce believes that marketing should be HR’s big brother. Data should also drive HR, and you should treat your employees like customers. First and foremost, you should stop “fucking up job postings” and tell people about the jobs that they will actually be doing.

Bruce also co-founded several other tech startups, for example: Defined Clarity (a software firm that built, customized, and provided support services for web frameworks and enterprise applications); and, gatherDocs (a mobile hiring tool that simplified the hiring process for the hourly workforce).  Bruce was also the VP of Business Development & Marketing for Efficient Hire, which started from a partnership, which then eventually merged into another.

Soon thereafter Employee Cycle was born.

Bruce frequently speaks at Disrupt HR, at other tech or startup conferences, is an active member of Philadelphia’s startup community. 

Employee Cycle is dedicated to helping organizations leverage HR data to make data-informed and data-driven business decisions.  They do this by creating user-friendly workforce dashboards, that are super easy to use, with internal and external HR data, financial data, and other relevant information that shows the impact on the bottom line.

 If you're interested in better understanding and optimizing the efficiency of your workforce, you should email Bruce right after you finish listening to how awesome he is.

You can read more about Bruce here: (https://employeecycle.com/about/).

 

Show Agenda

On today’s episode we will:

Get to know Bruce and Employee Cycle 

Discuss HR data – specifically why HR needs to be data driven (similar to the way Marketing campaigns are run); and how HR data storytelling helps visualize the story around diversity (ethnic groups and level of engagement), engagement, performance, employer reputation, etc.

Learn about how HR data helps increase employee retention and engagement, and why you need to create EE goals from the start (because Bruce believes that “having a transparent and organized career path creates an environment of retaining key employees”)

Then we will dive into the trials and tribulations of co-founding tech startups as well as some best practices for tech startups (because Bruce has a lot of experience in the startup space)

What you will hear on this episode:

How Employee Cycle transforms “disconnected HR Data" into one centralized...

About this week’s guest Chris and his company NTH Watches

As the owner of Janis Trading Company, Chris is the founder of two watch microbrands, Lew & Huey, and NTH (https://nthwatches.com/collections/subs). Janis has been profitable since its founding in 2012, and has consistently grown at double-digit rates every year, with customers in more than 50 countries, and retail distribution in seven.

 

A serial entrepreneur and military veteran, with a background in finance, and extensive experience in both retail and wholesale sales at a national and global level, Chris brings a diverse skill set to running his business, a role which requires competency in strategy, finance, operations, sales, and marketing.

 

When Chris Vail started Lew & Huey, he was out to prove something, mostly to himself. He has always said the philosophy behind the brand is inherently optimistic, and it is, although, if he’s being honest, for Chris it was always optimistic in the Sparta vs Persia, “we’re outnumbered, not out-manned” sense.

 

For Chris, the Chinese Mandarin phrase “luen huey”, for rebirth, always meant “You can beat me down, but I’ll keep coming back. You’ll never destroy me. Eventually, inevitably, I’ll win.”

 

That’s not the sort of theme which easily translates to the design of a watch, not literally.

 

Figuratively, it was the dog logo, which Chris always saw as being equally ready to meet friend or foe. It was the wild colors. It was the complete disregard for convention. It was Chris telling everyone who challenged him to go pound sand. Chris took great pleasure in proving all the doubters, haters, and trolls wrong.

 

A friend may have said it best, when he told Chris (in 2018), “You need to be the Johnny Cash of wristwatches – American, talented, slightly dangerous, but unmistakable.”

(About NTH Watches)

Why NTH? What does it mean? Is it “Enth” or “N-T-H”? In algebra, N represents an unknown value of infinite possibilities. The process of solving an equation to find the value of N is a process of reducing the unknown and infinite down to the known and finite. It's a lot like the process of design, where we start with a blank page, but through a process of refinement end up with a final design. Sometimes the design process is an attempt to come up with something completely new, but often it's a process of taking existing ideas further. Each NTH model puts a new spin on a classic, vintage design, so you can think of NTH as standing for “Nod to History”, or as an expression of their goal to take their designs as far as they can go, to the “Nth degree”.

 

Show Agenda

On today’s episode we will:

Get to know Chris and hear more about NTH Watches

Discuss how Chris has grown his company and brand over the last six years

How Chris is innovating his business and maintaining the brand that has made him popular with their “Nod to History” brand story

Then we will dive into the organizational strategies Chris uses to continue to grow a brand in a very crowded marketplace

 

What you will hear from Chris on this episode:

Chris’ process for developing your band story, and the philosophy he used for his brands

Chris has written that “microbrands are part of a larger trend of change within the industry; as a group, we need to up our game, if we want to continue growing in importance.”  He discusses his strategies for “upping your game”

Why Chris thinks collaboration with your competitors is so important

Chris also discusses how his business grew 40% from year one to year two; then,

This is the Self Made Strategies Hustle Story about Chris Vail, Founder of NTH Watches (https://nthwatches.com/collections/subs); and founder of Lew & Huey.  

 

Self Made Strategies Hustle Stories are quick short stories about our upcoming guest’s entrepreneurial journey.  This is exclusive content, brought to you, so that you can get a glimpse of what is coming up this Thursday (on the full episode).

 

Check out this short clip, where we Chris tells us an interesting story about a special watch that got away from him.

 

Make sure you tune in to the Self Made Strategies Podcast this Thursday, wherever you listen to your podcasts, to hear our episode with Chris.

About this week’s guest Chris and his company NTH Watches

As the owner of Janis Trading Company, Chris is the founder of two watch microbrands, Lew & Huey, and NTH Watches (https://nthwatches.com/collections/subs). Janis has been profitable since its founding in 2012, and has consistently grown at double-digit rates every year, with customers in more than 50 countries, and retail distribution in seven.

 

A serial entrepreneur and military veteran, with a background in finance, and extensive experience in both retail and wholesale sales at a national and global level, Chris brings a diverse skill set to running his business, a role which requires competency in strategy, finance, operations, sales, and marketing.

 

When Chris Vail started Lew & Huey, he was out to prove something, mostly to himself. He has always said the philosophy behind the brand is inherently optimistic, and it is, although, if he’s being honest, for Chris it was always optimistic in the Sparta vs Persia, “we’re outnumbered, not out-manned” sense.

 

For Chris, the Chinese Mandarin phrase “luen huey”, for rebirth, always meant “You can beat me down, but I’ll keep coming back. You’ll never destroy me. Eventually, inevitably, I’ll win.”

 

That’s not the sort of theme which easily translates to the design of a watch, not literally.

 

Figuratively, it was the dog logo, which Chris always saw as being equally ready to meet friend or foe. It was the wild colors. It was the complete disregard for convention. It was Chris telling everyone who challenged him to go pound sand. Chris took great pleasure in proving all the doubters, haters, and trolls wrong.

 

A friend may have said it best, when he told Chris (in 2018), “You need to be the Johnny Cash of wristwatches – American, talented, slightly dangerous, but unmistakable.”

(About NTH Watches)

Why NTH? What does it mean? Is it “Enth” or “N-T-H”? In algebra, N represents an unknown value of infinite possibilities. The process of solving an equation to find the value of N is a process of reducing the unknown and infinite down to the known and finite. It's a lot like the process of design, where we start with a blank page, but through a process of refinement end up with a final design. Sometimes the design process is an attempt to come up with something completely new, but often it's a process of taking existing ideas further. Each NTH model puts a new spin on a classic, vintage design, so you can think of NTH as standing for “Nod to History”, or as an expression of their goal to take their designs as far as they can go, to the “Nth degree”.

 

Make sure you subscribe to the Self Made Strategies Podcast on your favorite podcasting platform.  You can find us on: Apple Podcasts<...

About Brandon and Soothe

Soothe  is a health and wellness company producing products to support mind and body recovery.  Soothe aims to make a positive impact in mental health awareness and to get rid of the opioid epidemic.   

Soothe your mind.  Soothe your body.

Brandon is passionate about health and wellness, as well as destigmatizing the traditional taboos around mental health.  Brandon started Soothe which mainly provides CBD products, but will soon expand their product offering to include new solutions for mind and body wellness.  Brandon is also a pro at developing companies with philanthropic tie-ins. 

Show Agenda

On today’s episode we will:

Get to know Brandon and hear more about Soothe 

How to best use network effects to establish your brand

Why you should establish brands that “give back” or have a cause associated with them

Lessons learned from leveraging Ivory Ella’s Twitter following

What you will learn on this episode:

How to use “organic” guerilla marketing (even in the digital age) to increase your brand awareness

How to leverage “network effects” to grow your brand

The right ratio for generating solid content that is engaging while avoiding putting too many advertising messages in front of people

Why you should reverse engineer your own data (rather than doing A-B testing) to determine the best content to put in front of your audience

How to increase your customer base’s lifetime value and loyalty, using cause marketing campaigns

How Brandon leveraged his involvement in Ivory Ella (https://www.ivoryella.com/) to create a following he has carried with him to other brands

Why focusing on your content should be your number one priority (when it comes to your content marketing strategy)

How to get high quality content into your target audience’s field of vision, without annoying them (a large part of your content distribution strategy)

How to build a large Twitter following (how much content you need to produce and how often you should be sharing)

How CBD may be able to help people destress

What Brandon and Soothe are doing to destigmatize mental health issues

How CBD may help you reduce inflammation and oxidative stress

How CBD interacts with your endocannabinoid system

Tips to reduce your stress levels on a daily basis  

And so much more!

After you’ve listened to the episode, make sure you visit Soothe (https://soothelife.com/) to get more information about new products and all that Soothe is doing to support health and wellness.  

Make sure you subscribe to the Self Made Strategies Podcast on your favorite podcasting platform.  You can find us on: Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, iHeartRadio, and Spreaker. 

Do you want even more awesome Self Made Strategies content?  Make sure you follow Self Made Strategies on social media:  Facebook - Instagram - LinkedIn - Twitter

This is the Self Made Strategies Hustle Story about Brandon Bahr, Co-Founder and COO of Soothe™ (https://soothelife.com/).

Soothe is a health and wellness company producing products to support mind and body recovery. Soothe aims to make a positive impact in mental health awareness and to get rid of the opioid epidemic.

Soothe your mind. Soothe your body.

Brandon is passionate about health and wellness, as well as destigmatizing the traditional taboos around mental health. Brandon started Soothe which mainly provides CBD products, but will soon expand their product offering to include new solutions for mind and body wellness. Brandon is also a pro at developing companies with philanthropic tie-ins.

About the SMS Hustle Story

Check out this short clip, where we learn about how Brandon has built an incredible health and wellness organization, Soothe™, and how he got started on his entrepreneurial journey.

Make sure you tune in to the Self Made Strategies Podcast this Thursday, wherever you listen to your podcasts, to hear Brandon’s episode.

You can also connect with us on:
• https://www.facebook.com/selfmadestrategies/ •
• https://twitter.com/SelfMadeStratGs •
• https://www.instagram.com/selfmadestrategies/ •
• https://www.linkedin.com/company/self-made-strategies/ •

About Kwame and the American Negotiation Institute

Kwame Christian, Esq., M.A. is the Director of the American Negotiation Institute where he conducts negotiation and conflict management workshops around the country. As an attorney and mediator with a Bachelor of Arts in Psychology, a Master of Public Policy, and a law degree, Kwame brings a unique multidisciplinary approach to making difficult conversations easier. In addition to his role with the American Negotiation Institute, Kwame also serves as a professor at The Ohio State University Moritz College of Law, the top ranked dispute resolution program in the country, and Otterbein University’s MBA program.

He is the author of the best selling book Nobody Will Play With Me: How to Use Compassionate Curiosity to Find Confidence in Conflict and his TEDx Talk, Finding Confidence in Conflict, was the most popular TED Talk on the topic of conflict of 2017. Kwame also hosts the top negotiation podcast in the world, Negotiate Anything. The show has been downloaded over 1,000,000 times and has listeners in 183 different countries.

Show Agenda

On today’s episode we will:
• Get to know Kwame and hear more about the American Negotiation Institute
• How to deal with deception
• How to establish credibility and authority
• How to increase your likelihood of success in a negotiation
• How to use negotiation jiu jitsu to resolve conflicts
• Best practices for negotiations
• How to be more persuasive

What you will learn on this episode:
• How the American Negotiation Institute helps entrepreneurs sharpen their negotiation skills
• Why your “negotiational awareness” is important in any negotiation
• How you can identify and deal with deception
• How to establish credibility and authority before and during a negotiation
• How to increase your likelihood of success in a negotiation
• What “negotiation jiu jitsu” is and how you can use it to create leverage in negotiations
• Why active listening is the most important skill to have in any negotiation
• Kwame’s best practices for any negotiation
• How you can improve your persuasiveness in negotiations
• And so much more!

After you’ve listened to the episode, make sure you visit the American Negotiation Institute’s website (https://americannegotiationinstitute.com/) to get more information about negotiation seminars, or to listen to Kwame’s Negotiation Anything Podcast (https://americannegotiationinstitute.com/negotiate-anything/).

Then go to www.SelfMadeStrategies.com for more information about our show, exclusive content and to contact the Self Made Strategies hosts.

You can also connect with us on:
• https://www.facebook.com/selfmadestrategies/ •
• https://twitter.com/SelfMadeStratGs •
• https://www.instagram.com/selfmadestrategies/ •
• https://www.linkedin.com/company/self-made-strategies/ •

This is the Self Made Strategies Hustle Story about Kwame Christian, Director of the American Negotiation Institute (https://americannegotiationinstitute.com/).

Kwame Christian, Esq., M.A. is the Director of the American Negotiation Institute where he conducts negotiation and conflict management workshops around the country. As an attorney and mediator with a Bachelor of Arts in Psychology, a Master of Public Policy, and a law degree, Kwame brings a unique multidisciplinary approach to making difficult conversations easier. In addition to his role with the American Negotiation Institute, Kwame also serves as a professor at The Ohio State University Moritz College of Law, the top ranked dispute resolution program in the country, and Otterbein University’s MBA program.

He is the author of the best selling book Nobody Will Play With Me: How to Use Compassionate Curiosity to Find Confidence in Conflict and his TEDx Talk, Finding Confidence in Conflict, was the most popular TED Talk on the topic of conflict of 2017. Kwame also hosts the top negotiation podcast in the world, Negotiate Anything. The show has been downloaded over 1,000,000 times and has listeners in 183 different countries.

About the SMS Hustle Story

Check out this short clip, where we learn about how Kwame has built an incredible organization, the American Negotiation Institute, and a podcast that has been downloaded or listened to over 1,000,000 times.

Make sure you tune in to the Self Made Strategies Podcast this Thursday, wherever you listen to your podcasts, to hear Kwame’s episode.


You can also connect with us on:
• https://www.facebook.com/selfmadestrategies/ •
• https://twitter.com/SelfMadeStratGs •
• https://www.instagram.com/selfmadestrategies/ •
• https://www.linkedin.com/company/self-made-strategies/ •