Talk With the Top: St. Louis

A BIT ABOUT ABBIE

Co-author of WTF? Why the face, Abbie Belliston uses facial diagnosis to determine what is going on physiologically with a person and also pick up on personality traits. Facial diagnosis can be helpful for medical practitioners, as well as teachers, parents, coaches, business owners, managers, people in HR, casting directors who can learn a lot about people around them just by looking at their face, and it's instinctual. While it is something we do all the time she outlines a structured way to determine what you're actually seeing on someone's face it's accurate 95% of the time.

Traditional Chinese medicine is the basis of facial diagnosis. Irises are a map of your body, your ears are a map, the bottoms of your feet, your palms, your tongue, it's all a map of the body. There are all these maps so that you can see what's going on or feel what's going on. While it sounds esoteric and crazy it's rooted in this ancient science.

Connect with Abbie on LinkedIn

Check out her book on Amazon 

Check out Shape Reclaimed

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A BIT ABOUT LAUREL

Dream interpreter and interfaith spiritual minister, Laurel Clark is a master at helping people discover their life purpose. Laurel is a visionary and dedicated teacher who shows people how to live more creatively and with purpose. She practices and teaches meditation, understanding night-time dreams, visualization, intuitive development, and creative expression.

Laurel loves aiding people to develop their full potential, drawing upon inner resources like dreams, meditation, visualization, and intuition and communication skills like listening, public speaking, and writing. She believes that each person has gifts to offer to humanity and envisions a world of people who are fulfilled because they discover and express their "uniqueness," helping one another as they fulfill their own destiny.

She is also the author of Intuitive Dreaming, Dharma: Finding Your Soul's Purpose, The Law of Attraction and Other Secrets of Visualization, Karmic Healing, Concentration, and Interpreting Dreams for Self Discovery. 

Connect with Laurel on LinkedIn 

Check out LaurelClark.Com

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A BIT ABOUT CAREN

Web designer, marketing specialist photographer and founder of Image Media, Caren Libby is a 

master storyteller who tells her clients’ stories in many different ways. She helps her clients express themselves through interesting stories that bring out their uniqueness and in doing so communicate with their target audience. She also enables her clients to tell their stories on their own by utilizing all that technology has to offer.

Clients hire her to elevate their branding and transform their digital assets. Her services are designed for entrepreneurs and small business owners who want to expand their audience and increase their sales. She specializes in communications, branding, marketing, web design, social media, portrait photography, event photography and much more.

Connect with Caren on LinkedIn

Follow Caren on Twitter 

Check out Image Media

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A BIT ABOUT BRIAN

Chief creative strategist at Seed Level Creativity Lab, Brian Lunt guides clients through a holistic process of building their own, customized user manual for their life or business with access to a comprehensive network of resources. He specializes in helping entrepreneurs and companies identify their primary mission and effectively deliver value to their current and prospective customers.

Prior to starting Seed Level Creativity Lab, Brian started out in the banking industry, working for his father. He believes that his time in banking gave him a solid financial background. After that Brian pursued his own entrepreneurial opportunities and co-founded  Medici MediaSpace — a collaborative, coworking community.

Connect with Brian on LinkedIn

Check out Seed Level Creativity Lab

 

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A BIT ABOUT JON

Talented filmmaker, director, and producer Jon Morgan is the executive producer at JM Films, a video marketing, and video production company. Jon is responsible for the creation of videos for social media that tell brand stories. He mainly works with small businesses and also large corporate clients who want to get more awareness for their brands.

Jon’s mission is to help companies get more clients through marketing videos that target a company’s ideal clients and then communicate what sets them apart from everyone else. Jon believes that to have effective videos you have to start with the target, then determine what content you want to target them with, what you are trying to communicate or what you are trying to say and what is the best way to say that through the shots and the scenes.

Connect with Jon on LinkedIn

Check out JM Films

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A BIT ABOUT ROGER

At Unleash Insight, Roger and his team help business leaders take the guesswork out of decision making by using data to make more informed decisions that eliminate waste and unlock opportunities. Roger has a long history in driven decision making and he has a knack for making these complex topics much more conversational. 

Show Highlights

(3:18) What was the moment where Roger decided this is what he wants to do?

Roger’s always been a numbers-driven person, that's always been his strength.

He was always helping with different analytical projects with Enterprise.

Early early in his career, he did a lot of things but was more focused on the financial aspects. 

Things really changed for him when he worked in the car cell division.

Roger started working on problems like how all the operational aspects of the business is tied together and how that ties into the financial level.

At that stage, Roger’s focus shifted from looking at financials or the outcomes, to what really drives the outcomes, the inputs.

Roger defines the inputs that drive outcomes as:

Do we have the right products and services? 

Are we offering them correctly? 

Are we marketing those? 

Do we have the right people to make that all happen? 

Are we focusing on the right locations or territories?

(4:42) Was there a big win that Roger looks back on?

He is most proud that they transformed the culture in the organization to be more data-driven.

Having the data meant that they could make more optimal decisions.

Rogers believes that the data helps solve three key issues:

It gives confidence and peace of mind to move forward.

Data saves time and eliminates debating issues without information.

It is a roadmap to success. The data sets a benchmark you can use to determine if you should move ahead.

(4:41) Do companies resist the transition to being data-driven?

The biggest resistance Roger identified is not that people don’t want to be data-driven, they just don’t know how to.

The biggest challenge is finding all the resources and knowledge to help connect all the pieces and deliver credible insights.

Although there is a lot of information available, Roger says that it is important to get the right information to help you make better decisions for your business.

People need to understand the technical side of data but it is also important that they understand the business side of the data. Finding people who are capable of doing that is a challenge.

According to Roger people don’t need to dive into big data or machine learning right away, they should take baby-steps and use simple studies and identify simple relationships.

(7:58) How can we know that we have good data?

The first step is to do an assessment. And that's where Roger believes it's not all about technology. 

It's first about doing studies and asking yourself how good the data is. 

An example is in marketing and the marketing side of things with your website. In some of your digital advertising spend, there's a lot of data available. But one of the first things you have to check and see is: Do people have goals, set up? Goals could be, did somebody get to my contact us page? Or did somebody buy products from us, that's the ultimate goal. You can have a million visitors to your site, but nobody buys anything that doesn't provide any value you. Ask yourself how good is the data? One of the first things we do is have the proper goals set up.

Roger often finds that people have no goals set up. He then sets up the goals so they can get some better information out of the system. 

Some times they look at the system and identify some things that they can do to get better information because they’re missing some key data points. 

(12:15) Roger’s transition from Enterprise to Unleash Insight

Roger says he was lucky to learn and have the privilege to work with a lot of senior leaders at Enterprise. It was a phenomenal experience and helped him get to where he is today. 

While he loved doing what he did at Enterprise he started wondering how he could help small midsize companies in the St. Louis area to grow and build their business to be highly successful. 

He left Enterprise in 2015. Although his strategy wasn't mapped out as well as he would have liked it actually worked out well.

Roger got connected to a marketing agency in St. Louis, and worked with them for a couple of years and did some consulting work with them. This experience helped him learn about marketing. 

In 2018 he decided that he wants to do his own thing again. He came out with the name of Unleash Insight with help from people in his network.

Unleash Insight’s goal is to open up some insight that will help companies, o eliminate waste, and unlock opportunities that their eyes just don't see.

(17:26) How does Roger identify who would be a good fit to work with?

Typically when a process can be repeated they would make a good fit, like retail, service providers, physical therapy centers, restaurants with multiple locations and those that are looking. Generally, they are looking for someone that’s looking to grow to add new stores or enter a new market.

As a business you're trying to grow and scale the business, scaling the business can be challenging as you get further away from your home market or your home location. With new locations, the business owner is further away, this is when it is really important to learn and leverage the data and apply it when making decisions.

(21:26) What is the hot button paint point of most of Roger’s clients?

Roger says that clients come to him when they struggle with their marketing. They know that something is wrong with their marketing but they can’t figure out what exactly. There is a lot of wasteful expenditure when it comes to marketing and the clients want their efforts more effective. After his assessment, he shows them the data and points out what is working and where they are losing money. Clients can then use that information to focus the money that is wasted on the marketing tactics that work.

Even though marketing is one of the biggest pain points, customers or come to him with HR problems or they want to do research before they expand or take larger strategical decisions.

(40:23) What small things can business owners do right now to use data to make better decisions?

The first thing they can do is to look at their executive reports. People can very quickly get a sense of how they are doing with their data by just looking at a couple of their top one or two reports. There are two things that should be there that often aren't. Do they have effectiveness measure?  They should not only look at the volume of their sales but also the effectiveness of their sales. They may know how much they spent on marketing but they should also know what their return on that spend is. There should be one dashboard, where they can see all their operational inputs and see how it drives the outcome. When they have a dashboard like this they can see how their financial performance changes.

(42:33) What advice does Roger have for young individuals transitioning into adulthood?

Roger says it's important to have a diversity of skill sets.

Education and technical skill sets are important. However, they're not everything.

You need a lot of the soft skills to be very successful, you need to be able to communicate and you need to be able to build relationships. 

Technical education in a specific technical skill is important, but you need to be well rounded and have more than just the hard skills, you also need those soft skills. That is what makes you successful.

Connect with Roger on LinkedIn

Check out Unleash Insight

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A bit about Janet

Janet Yarger and her team at Yarger Chiropractic and Acupuncture help patients with relief and wellness care. Yarger believes that health is amongst our most valuable possessions.  The initial stage or relief care is to uncover the underlying cause and suggest a plan to produce fast results. In wellness care, they teach patients that true health is a journey.  Through educational opportunities, they communicate the value of ongoing chiropractic care.

Associating weight loss and health with Chiropractor (4:25)

It's a different way of looking at the body from a neurological perspective

Her 1st patient came in because they had a brain cyst

Most patients come in because they have a health issue or they're overweight or they're struggling with diabetes or high blood pressure

2 Facets of Life Reshaped (6:15)

Lipomelt which is the light therapy which causes you to lose inches and basically speeds up the whole weight loss process

Shaped reclaimed is an anti-inflammatory program

Inflammation makes more fat which makes more inflammation which makes more fat which makes more inflammation. If you stay on this cycle too long it kicks over to autoimmune diseases like high blood pressure, diabetes, even sleeping problems

With shape reclaimed, because it's an anti-inflammatory program, you don't have to exercise

Anti-Inflammatory Program (11:15)

People come off meds for blood pressure and diabetes

The younger generations are looking for something that is more natural because they don't want to do medications for the rest of their life

Patients are sometimes in pain or just uncomfortable with how they feel physically for so long that they just assume it's normal

Lipomelt (16:00)

A good candidate would be typically someone who has a muffin top or love handles. They just want to lose that belly fat and they've struggled

In an anti-inflammatory program like shape reclaimed it's OK to start the Lipomelt at any phase

Anti-Inflammatory Diet (18:50)

Cut out the big inflammatory foods which are going to be no sugar, no gluten, most dairy, and corn because of those the 4 areas that most people have inflammatory reactions.

Shaped Reclaim’s drops have anti-inflammatory properties in it which help speed up reducing cravings, speeds up fat loss because it's reducing inflammation

3 Phases of Shaped Reclaimed (20:00)

The 1st phase is taking the drops

Phase 2 is 3 weeks of not taking the drops and studying your new metabolism

Phase 3 is the rest of your life and then you determine how to incorporate things back into your diet.

Good Candidates for Program (22:45)

Either overweight or blood pressure issues or diabetic issues those or any other type of health issues

If you have a health issue you have an inflammatory issue

It's a leap of faith you just have to say “I'm going to do this.  I'm going to just jump out and say I'm going to try something new because what they've tried in the past hasn't worked.”

If they’re not willing to change their diet this is probably not for you

Janet’s Business Background (35:30)

Wanted to start out on her own.  She didn't want to work for another doctor.

She had to move her practice numerous times because she had to get the right location

She had to make a decision on being a cash practice or insurance practice

If you just give good care and you treat your patients nice they're going to refer and your practice is going to grow

Rivalry of Chiropractors and MDs (43:30)

It goes back a long time probably 100 years

When we started out in this country all they had was homeopathic schools

Pharmaceutical  companies started popping up and they got investors to start supporting pharmaceuticals and the production of drugs

They convinced these homeopathic schools that if you will transition your doctors over into this will pay for your schools and all that

All doctors used to be trained homeopathic and they transition because of money to all medical

In 1987 there's a huge lawsuit between the American Medical Association and the Chiropractic Association

Phases of disease (45:30)

1st phases you know something's wrong.  A gut feeling something's just not right but you have no symptoms

2nd phase is now you have some symptoms but they're going to run every test on you (blood work,  x-ray) and they're not going to find anything wrong

3rd phase is now you have some more symptoms and they run tests and if something's wrong with your blood work or your M.R.I. or X-rays and they see stuff, that's where the medical world shines

Our goal with traditional Chinese medicine with chiropractic and health and wellness and nutrition is to catch you in phases one or 2 because then you can easily turn it around

Lessons for Entrepreneurs (47:00)

Surround yourself with positive people and people that are on your side and will encourage you

Don't have such a big ego that you can't take advice from someone who's done it before you

Budget budget budget

It is good to set goals but even better to reassess them

You have to spend money to make money

Crazy questions (57:30)

Cadaver class

What characteristic are you most grateful that you possess

Advice to focus on not just as a chiropractor but also as an adult

What can someone do right now to be happier

What will have changed in one year

Book Recommendation (1:05:00)

The Bible

My experience with the Lord has changed my life there's no way I would be here if it wasn't for him

Facial Analysis with Traditional Chinese Medicine or anything about the 5 Elements of a Traditional Chinese Medicine.

It is so amazing you can really figure out about a person's health and even their personality and how they function and think.

Last piece of advice (1:09:00)

Be open to something different.

Follow Janet on Twitter

Check out Yarger Chiropractic and Acupuncture

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A bit about Denise

Brand You Media owner, Denise Naughton, has always had a fascination with video. As a child growing up in rural Missouri, video connected her to her favorite team, the St. Louis Cardinals. When she got to college she knew video storytelling was her career path. After graduating, Denise moved to Arizona and began a long career in television broadcasting where she won an Emmy award and received multiple Emmy nominations for her work.

When Denise received the opportunity to work in New York City, she knew she had to take it. She spent 4 years working there as Executive Producer of a national entertainment news show with 3.5 million daily viewers and multiple 1-hour national specials.

After all that, Denise still felt something was missing so she quit and returned to her roots in Missouri to tell stories about the area and its entrepreneurs. In addition to Brand You Media, Denise is also the Founder of STL Verified, which shines a light on the hidden gems in St. Louis.

Show Highlights: 

(3:18) How did Denise end up doing videos? 

Denise left traditional television because she wanted to tell more authentic stories, stories about people who were passionate. People who would quit their corporate jobs and bet on themselves. She found these people and their stories unique, with an individual personality, and she knew that these were the authentic stories that she wanted to tell and share.

(5:41) What led her to New York?

As a country girl, Denise never really envisioned herself moving to New York. At the time that she was working in Phoenix Arizona, Denise had done and produced every type of local television production. The next step for her would have been management, but not wanting to lose the creative element of her career, she ended up taking an opportunity to produce a show that was based in New York.

(14:36) How did the production experience she gained in New York influence her work in St. Louis

Denise feels that it actually directly influenced her work in St. Louis.  While working as an executive producer for an entertainment news show, she was asked to produce a one hour special on the life of Prince. Although she was working crazy hours, she always felt excited to work on this and put the story about the star’s life together. So this leads her to her next step, which was the storytelling element.

(19:36) How to transition from top-level broadcasting to local production?

She does not really feel that it is that different. For Denise, a great moment was when she realized that everyone is trying to figure out social media, and at the end of the day, it is just media. Although the content differs, there are great similarities between social media and television stations. The only difference is that now, you can engage with the audience in real-time.

(20:35) What type of success Denise has had with Facebook videos and why?

At the start of Small Business Week Denise really hit the ground running. Already being trained by working in the news industry to turn out stories quickly. She realized that this was a great opportunity to market herself, and showcase her skills. With simple engagement, she generated a lot of great responses, and before she knew it, her engagement skyrocketed.

(22:10) Her secret formula on what to produce.

Denise explains that for her it is always about providing great value. She says that not everybody is going to be able to be a storyteller, especially in their own business, because it’s just really hard to tell your own story. She says you need to move out of the sales mentality and share the same information you share in person on the video also.

(28:58) How Denise helps clients who have a small budget?

Denise says that companies need to find or set aside budgets for videos, the numbers that show the return on investment are out there and you can’t deny the statistics that everyone is predicting. So many people are trying to do a video on their own, and the transition in the market is clear. These self-made vides are not always great quality, and now is the time to spend some money to get it done right, and get ahead of the competitors.

(39:17) What should you focus on when telling your own story?

Denise says you should look at how many competitors are there in your region. What sets you apart, how are you different from others out there. Look for the gaps in the industry, and how you can provide what is different, needed, and sets you apart from the rest!

(46:35) Denise’s tips and tricks for getting great sound.

She explains the importance of having both good quality video and good quality sound. Denise says that there are some really great tools out there that can be used which cost as little as $30. From Lapel mics to Shure mics that cost about $150 which have amazing sound and plug straight into your phone.

(50:40) Her one tip that the audience can use right now?

Denise says it’s really having a plan, you know, know what you're going to talk about before you go in and identifying your beginning or middle and your end.

(51:40) What should the next generation focus on?

She says that you should just focus on doing what you love. You know this world is changing so fast. And we, these new generations are so outside the box thinkers, and she thinks it's amazing what they can create. So just dive into it and experience every opportunity that you can, and see what you like, and go for it and know that you can change your mind if you want.

Connect with Denise LinkedIn

Follow Denise on Twitter

Check out Brand You Media

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A BIT ABOUT JAMI 

Jami is the Senior Vice President at CMA

She focuses on providing direction to allow clients to shore up talent management efforts by providing insight that helps individuals be more effective in their roles. Her experience working internally at a large financial firm and external consulting experience from Accenture gives her a unique blend of perspectives that helps her empathize with the client while offering insight from other businesses or industries.

Jami received a Bachelor of Arts degree with a double major in Business and Psychology from William Woods University, and a Master of Science in Industrial/Organizational Psychology from Purdue University. Her Ph.D. in Organizational Psychology is from St. Louis University where her dissertation addressed transformational leadership and the identification of people at all levels within their organizations. She holds a Senior Professional in Human Resources certification and is a member of the American Psychological Association, Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology, Gateway Industrial/Organizational Psychologists and the St. Louis Organization Development Network.

A native of St. Louis and a diehard Cardinals fan, Jami enjoys spending time with her husband and three children, golfing and connecting with friends from high school and college.

A BIT ABOUT DANA 

Since starting at CMA in 2010, Dana Borchert has helped arm her clients with the tools to develop into the professionals they wanted to become. Drawing on her extensive experience, Dana works to understand each organization to help put them at ease. Her expertise is partnering with leadership to improve individual and organizational performance through succession planning, assessment, performance evaluation, team building and developmental coaching. 

Dana has a unique understanding of the brain’s many facets—both psychological and physiological—thanks to a Ph.D. and a Master of Science in Industrial/Organizational Psychology from Saint Louis University and a Bachelor of Arts in Psychology from the University of Iowa with an emphasis in neuroscience.

In addition to being recognized by the St. Louis Business Journal as one of the “30 Under 30” up-and-coming young professionals in 2012, she has co-authored publications and presented many professional papers throughout her career. She’s very active in community affairs, serving as chairs for the St. Louis Children’s Hospital Young Friends Board and as Chair of the United Way of Greater St. Louis Young Leaders Society for 2016 & 2017. 

An avid fitness enthusiast, she grew up skiing (and loves the cold of her native Madison, WI), attends weekly hot yoga classes and enjoys Crossfit.

Connect with Jami

LinkedIn

Connect with Dana

LinkedIn

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A BIT ABOUT XPERIENCE LAB  

Xperience Lab is in the business of business transformation and innovation. They have an unreasonable obsession with experience, tying business outcomes to process and human-centered design. Their unrelenting focus on the human, the emotional and the empathetic helps them understand key moments of truth and the opportunities they present to produce transformative interactions for your customers and workforce.

Connect with Xperience Lab

LinkedIn

Twitter

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