Technology Thursday | Hello Tech Pros

Clarence Washington is a manager of infrastructure architecture and engineering and has a strong belief in finding a way to give back to the community and blessing others with the things that you have yourself been blessed with. Clarence works with inner-city youth and uses sports (football) to reach children that we otherwise would not be able to reach. Although they have been a perennially successful and winning program, winning is not emphasized as the most important outcome. They believe in success. Wins and losses are short term outcomes, and even in an individual defeat successes can be found. Success on the field and in life comes with hard work, discipline, and perseverance. With those things there is no need to focus on the score, or even wins and losses on the field or in life because success is a byproduct of those things. Clarence and his team of coaches and mentors teach and live by that ethic.

Show notes at http://hellotechpros.com/clarence-washington-people/

What You Will Learn In This Episode

• The first thing Clarence teaches to young men and why it is critical to their development.
• Why athletics is a great way to educate youth in many areas of life.
• How the impact we make on 10-year-olds will change the future 25 years from now.
• How Clarence balances the relationships between his family and his team.
• Who's life you can change if you get involved today.
• The differences between winning the big game and driving home with a loss.

Travis Tidwell has been developing advanced enterprise software solutions for over 15 years ranging from Embedded GPS navigation products to Open Source web solutions. In 2008, he developed and founded the popular Open Source multimedia solution MediaFront (http://mediafront.org), but has since then created Form.io, a groundbreaking technology that provides a Form and Data Management system for Serverless Applications. Travis now serves as the CTO.

Show notes at http://hellotechpros.com/travis-tidwell-technology/

What You Will Learn In This Episode

• The evolution of early web to content management systems to web 2.0 apps to serverless apps.
• The change that has affected the development community because of mobile-first design.
• What serverless forms are and how they work.
• How to simplify the connections between your forms and APIs.
• A slick way to generate the API and bind to the data by designing the form UI.
• Where to find the code repos to deploy a serverless form in minutes.

Corey Grusden has been programming computers for 25 years, and has built software for government, education, and numerous companies. A few years ago he decided to cofound a software development consultancy to build web and mobile apps. They have been profitable since day 1. Corey's entire team works remotely, and through a dedicated process, build applications and platforms as efficiently as possible. Corey started programming at eight years old. He's been working on growing a software agency that builds web and iphone applications. He also recently moved to Philadelphia!

Show notes at http://hellotechpros.com/corey-grusden-leadership/

What You Will Learn In This Episode

• Why leaders need to stop thinking about competing with the other division leads and start collaborating across silos.
• What happens to the company culture when you don't listen to your employees.
• How a team lead should respond when presented a crazy idea that you don't believe will work.
• How to make calculated risks on innovation.
• The emotion that destroys people's ability to lead.
• What you can do today to improve morale in your team.

Jaime is an avid hockey fan. He loves the competitive spirit and the team aspect of the game. He enjoys the sport so much that he decided to integrate his passion for the sport into his passion for marketing. Jaime has been working in the sales and marketing arena since he left the US Army as a paratrooper for the 82nd Airborne Division in 1994.

Working for three different Fortune 100 companies, Jaime learned quickly how to build relationships. The challenging aspect of working for a large company was having the ability to be creative. This is the main reason he went out on his own and started his own business. His first business was as a partner in a small California-based real estate advertising agency and publishing company. After the housing bubble burst in 2008, Jaime had to start over.

As time progressed, Jaime found that he really enjoyed making websites for people and so he started Slapshot Studio in 2013 and never looked back. Jaime enjoys traveling, boating, playing guitar, hanging out with family, and playing hockey.

Show notes at http://hellotechpros.com/jaime-jay-productivity/

What You Will Learn In This Episode

• What can happen to your productivity if you don't have a clear vision, mission and core values documented.
• How to focus on the right things instead of everything.
• The first steps in creating a customer avatar.
• Specific books, tools and software Jaime recommends to business owners.
• The most productive thing successful people consistently do.
• Four common problems with which business owners struggle.
• How to niche down to increase results.

Wes Pinkston is an entrepreneur focusing on building and executing digital strategies. He is a leading Social Media and Digital Marketing consultant for real estate agents and brokers. He was recently named a Swanepoel Top 20 Social Media Influencer in Real Estate and is an Inman News Contributor and Ambassador.

Show notes at http://hellotechpros.com/wes-pinkston-motivation/

You Will Learn

• How our compulsive Do, Do, Do culture affects us.
• Why very successful people sometimes feel unsatisfied and void.
• Where to find the answers to your internal questions.
• How to achieve amazing results by having conversations with people.
• What our "monkey mind" is and how to put it in check.
• You mind is complex and your emotions are deep. So are your colleagues.
• How to create meaningful relationships through social media.

Kris Reid Computer geek and SEO super star based in the Philippines and Cambodia.

Show notes at http://hellotechpros.com/kris-reid-unplugged/

What You Will Learn in This Episode

• Why you should take extended time off for travel and where you should go.
• What happens to your mind and body when you make too many decisions.
• What the heck Ashtanga yoga is and how it can benefit you.
• How to live like a local, no matter where you go.

Kwame Christian is a lawyer that focuses on serving the needs of small businesses. He founded the American Negotiation Institute, a consulting firm that specializes in teaching entrepreneurs and professionals how to negotiate in the business world and is regularly invited to speak on the topic. In this role he helps individuals and companies create and implement powerful negotiation strategies. Kwame also hosts a podcast called Negotiation for Entrepreneurs where he interviews successful entrepreneurs and shares powerful persuasion techniques.

Show notes at http://hellotechpros.com/kwame-christian-entrepreneurship/

What You Will Learn in This Episode

• What types of things are negotiable.
• How to ask for more.
• How to negotiate without offending people.
• Why you should focus on the other person in the negotiation instead of yourself.
• The circumstances that increase and decrease your room for negotiation.
• How to spot negotiation tactics when they are being use on you and what to do to counter them.
• How to negotiate at the car dealership, over the phone with the cable company, even at Wal-Mart.

While working on his PhD in NeuroEconomics, Dalton Combs learned a lot about motivation and why people do what they do. Now he's the founder-CEO of Dopamine Labs. They've designed a product that makes it easy for any developer to increase retention and engagement by turning their app into a habit.

Show notes at http://hellotechpros.com/dalton-combs-people/

What You'll Learn in This Episode

• Why users "stick" to some apps and quit using others.
• The key to rewarding users in ways that surprise and delight.
• How dopamine works in the human brain and reinforces behaviors (even bad behaviors).
• The strategy to developing an app that is as addicting as Angry Birds.

Brad Folkens is Co-Founder and CTO of CloudSight, where he oversees all technical aspects of the image cognition technology. He earned his Bachelor of Science in Theoretical Computer Science and Mathematics from Northern Illinois University. Prior to creating CloudSight, he co-founded CityTech USA, notable for creating the web-based collaborative government website PublicSalary.com.

Show notes at http://hellotechpros.com/brad-folkens-technology/

What You Will Learn in This Episode

• The current differences between image cognition and voice cognition.
• The history of image recognition, pioneered by the postal and banking industries.
• How some companies are creating computer models that simulate the way the humen brain works.
• The industries that will most benefit from image cognition.

Tom Cooper, father of 7, started out his career as a computer geek. Along his journey he worked in big and small companies building teams, running projects, and building software products. Today Tom is a speaker, trainer and coach. He says he gets really excited when he works with people who want to become better leaders by getting better at planning, communicating and connecting with others.

Show notes at http://hellotechpros.com/tom-cooper-leadership/

What You Will Learn in This Episode

• What causes projects to fail when the teams consist of really smart people.
• The things a leader should be focused on (hint: it isn't the tasks).
• The difference between the success that come from geeky knowledge and the success that come from people knowledge.
• The 4 levels of thinking as a Geek Leader: how to self-assess and climb the ranks.
• What Uber Geeks need to focus on in order to get recognized.
• Why geeks are rarely self-aware and how it can kill their career.
• The issues our business customers want to talk about (hint: it isn't the technology).