Risk It! or Regret It! Whatever 'It' Is For You I Always Say. For Jim Campbell 'IT' was getting Bernie Madoff to talk to him and only him from prison to reveal for the first time and bizarrely the last time, the 'Untold Story Behind The Most Notorious Ponzi Scheme In History." That's the name of Jim Campbell's book he worked on for ten years. Bernie Madoff died in prison 2 weeks after Jim finally released the book. Today Jim joins me for an incredible conversation about what nobody else knew.

Reminder: In June 2009 to avoid trial Bernie Madoff pleaded guilty to 11 Federal crimes for defrauding up to 16,000 investors of 4.8 billion dollars. Their original investments were worth close to 19.5 billion. Madoff was sentenced to 150 years in prison. 

What motivated Bernie Madoff to launch the biggest Ponzi scheme in history?  The man who basically had the Gold Seal of Approval from every major investor as well as wealthy individuals and families ?

Jim Campbell in his first book ever, got the last word on this story about the man who built great wealth for many people and destroyed the well being and lives of many people without regret. Jim will admit he will never completely know why both the Madoff family members and Madoff himself decided to trust him to investigate and tell the story of who knew or didn't know what was going on for years on the 17th Floor of the Lipstick Building in NYC. 

Jim's book reveals incredibly that Bernie Madoff ran an honest business on 19th floor of the Lipstick building that was very ethically run by top caliber people. However, on the always 'locked' 17th floor of the same building, only young naive and unsophisticated workers being paid tons of money they couldn’t make anywhere else were allowed. It was a total fraud from day one. None who worked on the 17th floor knew they were operating a Ponzi scheme that would become the biggest criminal enterprise in history. 

The general perception of this human and financial tragedy was also that his family HAD to know. Jim Campbell gathered information that even the FBI did not have, to PROVE that Bernie Madoff's wife and his two sons did not know.  In fact, when Bernie Madoff came clean to his sons about the Ponzi scheme they immediately turned him in to authorities and never spoke to him again. Very tragically and likely from the stress of it all, both sons passed away. One from cancer the other from suicide. Bernie Madoff's wife Ruth survives and lives quietly in CT. Jim shares their very real conversations in his book. 

The personal family tragedy was also a financial tragedy that destroyed many other families and individuals who trusted Bernie with their life savings as well.

Totally insane this Ponzi scheme went on for so long as Jim Campbell also speaks to the fact that the SEC missed this incompetence for 40 years!

There's great insight in this book as to how Bernie Madoff's brain could operate in two complete separate worlds at the same time.  

PS I know Jim Campbell personally and like him very much from crossing paths often in the same radio studio over the years. Jim's nationally syndicated radio show 'Business Talk with Jim Campbell'  is known for his hard hitting interviews of leading figures from the world of business, politics and sports. 

I know Jim's integrity so I happily agreed to promote his incredible book. Right after we locked in an interview date, the biggest coincidence in the world happened to Jim who just finished working on this book after 10 years!  Bernie Madoff died in prison and CBS Sunday morning was interviewing him in his backyard. 

As of this post Jim now has a Hollywood agent who told him Netflix is making an offer on his book. I should mention the first agent Jim got tried and could not get anyone interested in his book. Life's like that.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Taxx Guy Mark Glazewski thinks it's funny that "The people that wait till the last minute to file their taxes never have enough time. You could give them a 7 year extension and on the 7th year on the last day they'd be scrambling till the last hour. The people who want to file and are set up to do that because that's how they work they get it done one way or the other. 

This was a particularly hard tax year for everybody including tax preparers like Mark who shared his own frustration trying to help his clients.  "This year was different they made a major tax change mid March which basically just paralyzed me where I basically I had to stop and figure out what the IRS was going to do. We couldn't file returns because we didn't know how to."

Mark says try to deal with the IRS as much as possible electronically because they're still working that end of communication efficiently particularly because there is zero human touch involved. On the other hand, if you've mailed stuff to the IRS and are waiting on an answer or maybe for money back, Mark says you may be waiting a long time. He got the inside word that there are actually  tractors trailers  illed with unopened mail outside the IRS filled with that  needs physical handling and they just don't have enough help to handle it.

Mark shared that most IRS folks are lovely people looking to help just looking not to get abused. He has gone to them representing some pretty sad cases and says they do have empathy but they can only do what they are able to do within the system. The IRS must abide to the rules and they do not have flexibility .

If you have some tax problems keeping you up at night should you talk directly to the IRS ? Without sounding self serving Mark said, "Would you represent yourself in court in a legal case? The same way you'd call on a lawyer if you got in a legal scrape to help you sort out your legal problems, is the reason why if you have tax concerns or issues you want a tax pro talking on your behalf.

If you need help communicating with the IRS 'Taxx Guy'  Mark Glazewski can help you. he gets great satisfaction from helping his clients sleep at night. You'll be in good hands as having Mark on this show has helped many people who have told me personally.

www.taxxguy.com

 

 

 

I would not have wanted to mess with Rena 'Rusty' Kanakogi, the  Mother Of Judo if I met her along the way but I do sure wish I had met her. She defied the rules and shattered the glass ceiling for  women to be taken seriously in sports.  I love stories of pioneers and triumph over adversity and thought you would enjoy this story too. 

Raised mostly by members of a boardwalk 'freak show' family on Coney Island in the 50's, this young jewish gal from Brooklyn was the leader of a girl gang who just wanted to fight. 'Rusty' had a lot of pent up energy and that was the way she released it. Until...

As a young married woman while accompanying her first husband to an AA meeting to support his battle with alcoholism, 'Rusty' met a friend there who was in unbelievable shape. She asked him what he did to get into that shape. He said 'Judo". She said. "What the heck is Judo"? So he picks up this big strong woman like a piece of paper onto his hip and she says, "That's it! Whatever it is you're doing I'm going to learn it. "

So next... this young Jewish woman walks into the Utica, NY Young Mens Christian Association (YMCA) a move unheard of at the time. and asks to take the class but they say, sorry women not allowed. Grrr. She persisted. It was 1959. They agreed to let her take a class some days if she also agreed to teach YMCA classes to other women other days. Ads for the YMCA classes in the newspaper read something like this. 'Come learn to be a good wife and serve your husband and press his pants but also come take a Judo class with Rusty'. LOL 

Then... The Utica YMCA Male Judo Team was competing in The Championships and was about to win, when a teammate got hurt. To save the day, the coach asked 'Rusty' to just go in and substitute so they didn't have to forfeit but said don't call attention to yourself. Just call a draw. Well that didn't happen.

'Rusty' who looked kind of androgynous with her short hair, wrapped her chest with an ace bandage and went in and beat the heck out of her opponent and won the Gold Medal. When they they found out she was a woman they asked her to give it back. She was soooo angry. She gave it back so  her team didn't have to forfeit but that anger set her off on a 50 year quest to make sure no other woman in sport would ever suffer that injustice.

Rena 'Rusty' Kanakogi founded, organized and financed the first Women’s World Judo Championships, held at Madison Square Garden in New York City on November 29 and 30, 1980, putting women’s judo on the map and earning the United States the international women’s level competition status required to qualify for inclusion in the Olympic Games. She has been recognized as “the  mother of women’s judo” for her inarguable contribution to the sport.  She was the first woman to rise to the rank of  seventh–degree black belt. In 2008 she was awarded the Order of the Rising Sun, Gold Rays with Rosette from the Emperor’s Order of Japan for her lifelong contribution to the  promotion of judo. Her ashes are interred in the Kanokogi Samurai family grave  site in Kumamoto, Japan, marked with the epitaph “American Samurai.” 

A street in Brooklyn has been named Rena “Rusty” Kanokogi Way.

Jean Kanogi considered  "the daughter of judo" joins me today. Jean spent her years on the mats with her Mom and these days is a Senior Special Agent for the U.S. Government, a fifth degree black belt and highly respected sensei (teacher) of judo. Most notably, Jean was one of the original signers of the American Civil Liberty Union suit to fight for women’s rights in the sport of judo. She mentors high-risk youth, earned her PhD (a promise to Rusty!) and serves on the evaluation committee for the Rusty Kanokogi Fund for the Advancement of US Judo, a scholarship program managed by the Women’s Sports Foundation.

"Rusty' passed 12 years ago and her daughterJean finally finished the book they started writing together which comes out June 1st.

Get Up & Fight: The Memoir of Rena “Rusty” Kanokogi, The Mother of Women’s Judo

By Rena “Rusty” Kanokogi & Jean Kanokogi, PhD

Foreword by Billie Jean King

Second Foreword by the late Dick Schaap

 

 

Anyone who has taken care of someone really sick at home knows how difficult and stressful it is. Yet care at home is what most people with serious illness want. Too often, they don’t know that's possible and don’t know where to turn.

I wish more people caring for a critically ill person knew, that rather than asking advice of doctors or friends or searching for advice online, they only had to make ONE phone call to get immediate world class 'in home' help regardless of where they live in the US and regardless of their ability to pay. Seriously. 

And as serious illnesses go, heart disease and heart failure are at the top of the list. Heart disease is the silent pandemic that affects every American family. Unlike Covid it is never going to end. 1 in 3 Americans have heart disease and 1 in 4 eventually die of it. My own fabulous father was one of those people. He passed away soon after I returned home from college from heart failure at the age of 55. I remember the pain my Mother and brothers and I went through watching him suffer. Heart failure takes hearts and breaks a lot of hearts like mine.

Though Covid has consumed out attention this past year you should know that heart failure is still the number one cause of death and the leading cause of hospitalization. "Tens of thousands of heart failure patients wind up dying alone in a hospital room or ICU", says Steve Cone, Chief of Communications, Marketing and Philanthropy of Capital Caring Health. "Many of those hospital stays could have been prevented and many of those patients could have lived longer and better lives through palliative /advanced illness and hospice care delivered directly to where they live, be it their home or a family members home or in an assisted living facility. In-home care, so patients don’t have to be rushed to the hospital and caregivers don’t have to call 911 and people don’t have to end up dying by themselves."

Capital Caring Health one of the largest not-for-profit hospice and advanced illness care providers in the nation are also a leading provider of in home advanced cardiac care. Their highly respected President and CEO Tom Koutsoumpas, came up with this national advanced cardiac home care initiative and got 70+ other not-for-profit hospice and advanced illness providers who offer at-home care in communities nationwide to join him.

The organization is called 'National Partnership for Healthcare and Hospice Innovation' and Tom serves as  it's CEO. Together they have made a national toll free hotline available to help families find a care provider near them, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.Families in need of hospice or care for an advanced illness can call to find a care provider near them.

HOTLINE: 1-844-GET-NPHI (1-844-438-6744)

(NPHI) National Partnership for Healthcare and Hospice Innovation

The joint mission prioritizes patients and not profits. Thus, regardless of ability to pay — they turn no patient and their family away.  Ever.

NPHI and the American Heart Association jointly released a Free Advanced Cardiac Care Patient and Caregiver Handbook. They  believe every family in America should have a copy and provide the handbook at no cost on their respective websites.

People in the heart business with heart!

Doing my part to share this important information and also share the enlightening conversation I had with Steve Cone of Capital Caring Health.  

Please share this information with anyone you may know who needs it.

Thank You,
Debbie

capitalcaring.org

https://www.heart.org

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  

 

 

 

DEBSERVATION: "Divorce Is A Broken Dream And Everyone Deserves Another Happily Ever After."

That won't happen, 'especially in a late life divorce' if you don't get the right financial guidance in advance. (Yoo Hoo, what you don't know CAN hurt you!)

I've watched Lili A. Vasileff over the years become a nationally recognized divorce financial expert. She's a pro and a warm and wonderful woman who understands the power and impact of divorce on you and your family. Step one she says is to get some fire power on your side so that no details are overlooked.

'Over 50' divorces have doubled for first-time long-term marriages and the older you are, the more complicated the divorce typically is financially. "Late life divorce raises many difficult questions, centering on fairness, expectations and all the “what if’s”. 

Lili has worked with thousands of divorcing individuals and couples. Most want expert guidance to make informed decisions with dignity, confidence and a sense of security.  

Her latest blog is called 'Late Life Divorce – Divorce and Negotiate as an Equal'. Find it on wealthptotectionmanagement.com.

Married  A Second Time? Lili can also help you NOT get divorced again.  She's written 3 books. "Money and Divorce", "The Ultimate Divorce Organzier" and "The Divorce Planner Checklist".

There's also a Free Guidebook on her website: "7 Steps To protect your Wealth During Transition"   

A Heart to Heart about the reality of divorce  in this conversation with Lili. A. Vasileff who also shares some signs you should be aware of that may tip you off you're headed for one.

 

If You Are An Inventor or Have An Idea For a Product You Need To Know The Name Warren Tuttle And You Need To Read His Book "Inventor Confidential - The Honest Guide To Profitable Inventing".

Warren was the guy behind the launch of several highly successful products like MISTO, The Gourmet Olive Oil Sprayer and the SmartSpin Storage Container System.

For many years now, Warren Tuttle has overseen the Open Innovation product programs for several industry leading companies including Lifetime Brands in the housewares and table top arenas (Farberware, Kitchen Aid and 40 other brands), Techtronics Industries Power Tool Group in the power tool and hardware industries (Ryobi, Rigid, Hart Tools and other brands) and Merchant Media in the Direct Response Television category (Smart Spin, True Touch and other brands).

Warren Tuttle served as President of the United Inventors Association Board of Directors for 12 years and is currently a member of the National Pro Bono Patent Commission and the United States Patent and Trademark Office’s National Council for Expanding American Innovation. 

He personally interacts with thousands of inventors every year and has initiated over 100 new consumer product licensing agreements that have collectively generated over a billion dollars in retail sales.  

Warren Tuttles'  book "Inventor Confidential - The Honest Guide To Profitable Inventing" is a heads up to inventors and those with new product ideas of what to be aware of and what to watch out for. 

BTW: Prior to developing and marketing products for the housewares industry, Warren owned 5 of his own gourmet specialty kitchenware stores (The Complete Kitchen of Southern CT), a prepared food and catering business (The Good Food Store of Darien, CT), a nationally recognized cooking school and a partnership in a kitchen design business. Food and Wine magazine once described The Complete Kitchen as “one of the finest gourmet stores in America”. He  began his career as a department store buyer of cookware and small appliances in New York City (Abraham and Straus of Brooklyn, NY).

If you need help with building prototypes, filing patents, licensing a utility patent or getting an idea to market I'm pretty sure Warren Tuttle is your guy.  Besides being brilliant at what he does - he's warm and fun . Listen in to our conversation.   Best! Debbie   https://tuttleinnovation.com  

 

 

Wellness Wednesday!

When Taylor Smith's 96-year old grandmother got news she was deficient in protein Taylor started doing some research about it. She discovered that many elderly not only lack certain nutrients but also have trouble with taste receptors.

Taylor, who earned her Masters Degree at NYU in food studies, decided to try and do something about it. She started testing recipes and finally hit upon one she thought her Grandma might like that had just the right amount of protein and tasted good too. In doing do she also hit on a new product! 

It's called BROMA. A healthy dark chocolate almond spread created with lentils and other healthy stuff. 5g of protein per serving; vegan, keto, and gluten free.

Grandma liked it for sure but so did everybody else and so the requests for orders started coming. Realizing she had a business Taylor then asked her childhood friend Stanley who has a finance background to join forces to help bring the brand to life.

BROMA has since added 2 new flavors; Dark Chocolate Coconut Spread and Dark Chocolate Cherry Spread.

Giving up Nutella might not be so hard now.

Woman Owned and Grandma approved sounds like a winner to me.

Enjoy the conversation with this young female entrepreneur on The Debbie Nigro Show.

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Cannabis Conversations Are Picking Up And There's A Company Gearing Up To Pick It Up And Drop It Off To You Anywhere It's Legal In the U.S.

Two years ago while on vacation in Montana a magazine at a rest stop called WOMEN & WEED caught my eye and peaked my curiosity so I bought it. I just finished reading it LOL. The story of one woman stuck with me. The one about Claudia Post.

Claudia Post is a driving force in the cannabis industry and a professional in the 'driving' industry. She's about to smash her two passions together. Claudia is the President of MOST, a full-service cannabis consulting, marketing, and design firm in Philadelphia, and also the CEO of Green Bar Supply Co. purveyor of the finest quality CBD infused ingredients.

Eleven years ago, Claudia's son (a famous glass artist named Snic Barnes) told her the cannabis industry was about to 'blow up' and she should parlay her amazing business skills into it. What skills?

Claudia built and ran a multi-million dollar transportation company with 12 warehouses up and down the East Coast. Her courier service, started with one location and four employees and grew to having up to 2000 drivers on the road at any one time.

This woman obviously knows a few things about logistics! Claudia has moved many things medical during her career, including human organs for operations. She's served on every trade association board in her industry and has a network of relationships across the country. She knows how to get things done. She knows the rules. She knows the laws. So now what? Combining her passions and compassion! 

Claudia and her company of professionals hope to soon be delivering medical cannabis to patients nationwide. "Discreet secure and compliant delivery" is the company tag line.

Though Cannabis is not federally legal, it is legal in many states and so it's likely the company will morph into the recreational market as well. 

Should be interesting to see how her story rolls...and it was sure interesting to chat about it all with Claudia who fits right in with the spirit of my show which is..."Risk It! or Regret It!"  

If you're curious about the cannabis industry and women in cannabis this conversation should peak your interest. 

mostcg.com

 

Post Pandemic Silver Lining ? Office space will be cheaper! But these prices won’t last forever and that’s a fact so make your deal now says Jodi Pulice, Founder and CEO JRT Realty Group, Inc. the nation’s largest certified Minority- and Woman- Owned Business Enterprise (M/WBE) commercial real estate firm. 

The Wall Street Journal released a ‘News Exclusive’ this week titled “After Covid-19, Office  Leases Largely Come With Bargain Rates  - Companies looking for offices in large U.S. cities are seeking less space but longer terms.” There was an analysis of U.S. office-leasing trends prepared for the Journal that suggests many companies in the biggest markets—including New York, San Francisco, Chicago and Los Angeles—are embracing an emerging hybrid model: maintaining a shrunken office presence while allowing remote work at least part-time. (Sounds to me like this is what people always wished for no?)

New York based commercial real estate CEO Jodi Pulice, thinks technology was pushing the commercial real estate market in this direction anyway but the pandemic just sped up the process by 5 maybe even 10 years. The rents are coming down for sure she said, but the biggest thing she’s seeing right now are landlord ‘concessions’ in the form of free rent.  

Some companies are giving up space but not all are acting so quickly. When people do come back to the office they’ll want the 3 to 6 foot distancing so there will be a lot less people occupying spaces where there used to be a lot more people. The companies that are giving up space, are subletting. Sublet space, Jodi mentions, is at a 25 year high.

The good news? She’s noticed more people are coming back into buildings in NYC and there's more activity in general. She's still heartbroken for many of the wonderful restaurants in NYC which took a tremendous pandemic hit even though some were very creative with their outdoor seating on the  street. 

Retail is another another animal entirely said Jodi, who shares that all the empty retail up and down the avenues is - frightening. To her, retail is the pulse of NYC. Should the empty retail spaces be made into living space as has been suggested in various conversations and articles more than once? Jodi thinks it’s a really cool idea because a lot of retail locations do have courtyards in the back. For now she strongly suggests retail owners seriously consider giving a lot of free rent or maybe no rent at all to give  people in retail  change to get their feet back on the ground. 

And what about all the new buildings going up in NYC and more retail being built?  About that, Jodi says, she’s baffled.

Are there any trends obvious about what kind of businesses are  leaving NYC and what kind are coming in?  Jodi sadly reports the Mom and Pop businesses are getting buried and the businesses that had the misfortune to open 5 seconds before the pandemic hit, opened and shut. 

As for what businesses are coming in? She thinks the legalization of cannabis could bring in some more shops and she thinks it’s going to be a huge industry in NYC. 

Things move fast in NY so we will see. I do wonder personally if the cannabis influx to NY will start to make New Yorkers…slow down? LOL That would be an interesting twist. 

Finally BIG Congratulations to Jodi Pulice, founder and CEO of JRT Realty Group, who was recognized as this year’s recipient of The Real Estate Board of New York’s (REBNY) Bernard H. Mendik Lifetime Leadership in Real Estate Award!  

Great Insightful Conversation If You Have A Few Minutes To Listen.

Say Hello To My Easter Tradition. 'Olive Bread' from Madonia Bakery on Arthur Avenue in the Bronx, N.Y. that barely makes it to the car! This is No Ordinary Bread!  This is psycho delicious bread chock full of a zillion olives that will crack any dieting mortal.

It's the bread my friends and I traditionally drive from the suburbs to Arthur Avenue for, and wait on line for, peering over the shoulders of people in front of us, hoping nobody buys up all the loaves up before we get to the counter!

At the counter we wrestle with how many olive loaves to buy and then we spot the jalapeño bread and have to buy that, and then the other breads, cookies and pastries call our names. It's a 'time sensitve' adrenaline pumping counter decision!

Continuing this tradition this year! Madonia Bakery knows about tradition. They've been keeping the olive bread and family bakery business going for over 100 years! I invited Peter Madonia to join me today just to give him and Jason Lalima a high five!

Peter Madonia came back to the family business after 12 years as the Chief Operating Officer of the Rockefeller Foundation. He was also Chief of Staff to NYC Mayor Michael Bloomberg and serves on many foundation boards. He and Jason, whose father became a partner in Madonia Bakery years ago, both work really hard to keep the bakery running just as their fathers would like. Peter gives much of the credit for the bakery's success to all the really great people who've worked for them for a really long time. 

Enjoy the  inside scoop of why this bread is so famous from Peter Madonia who'll share how they've been coping through Covid and how incredible it is that his Grandfather actually started the business during the second wave of the Spanish Flu in the early 1900's.

And if you want to have some fun watching how Jason makes his fathers bread Google the cool video from Eater.com on You Tube.

Madonia Bakery is located at 2348 Arthur Avenue, The Bronx.