The Entrepreneur Ethos

On this episode of the podcast, I speak with Denise Shiffman who discovered the power of group therapy after experiencing chronic anxiety when she was an executive at multi-billion-dollar companies where her hectic lifestyle was starting to catch up with her.

Having grown up believing that only weak people went to counseling, she realized that therapy, and in particular group therapy, can be a key element in someone’s overall health. That’s why she’s now developing a means for professionals and therapy-seekers to find groups that work for them through an online, data-driven platform, called GroupWell. 

She believes that a virtual way for people to connect, but also experience well-constructed and well-run group therapy is an idea whose time has come, especially now that healthcare is embracing more online tools to deliver care. Critical to GroupWell’s success will be combining the age-old need for connection with technological innovation.

Launching this product poses many challenges, but it’s a project that she believes meets a great need at a time when people are feeling more isolated than ever. I agree with her since I have had my fair share of challenges with grief and loss and therapy helped me navigate it. What Denise is doing is sorely needed and will only become even more relevant as COVID-19 continues on.

Now, let’s get better together

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After 25 years of teaching, J. Thorn wanted more -- he wanted more challenge and more money. So he did what he warns people exactly not to do: quit his job with only a month’s salary to survive. 

At first, he thought he’d devote himself full-time to writing. But he found he couldn’t spend all day doing the same thing. So he channeled his expertise and energy into a different kind of teaching—through podcasts and other venues to help writers. 

He’s co-authored two series of science fiction books, Dustfall and Final Awaking as well as several books on writing, including The Three-Story Method and 9 Things Career Authors Don’t Do. I actually met J through a Story Grid seminar a couple of years ago and I really like how he approaches writing.

In this episode, J shares his struggle with wanting to act quickly on his ideas before testing them out, and how getting feedback from new followers helps him to determine how to build his next new service. He’s found teaching has also been an invaluable way to connect with and grow his audience. He also stresses how important diversification is not only for his own work but also for his bank account. He also shares his key to productivity -- something he calls time-blocking. 

Now let’s get better together

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Today I talk with Mark McGuiness who hosts the 21st Century Creative Podcast, where he interviews creatives and entrepreneurs of all types, because in this day and age, “there's a lot more opportunity for creatives and a lot fewer excuses for playing small.” Mark’s also a poet who finds that poetry helps him relate to the creative struggles his clients face.

I have known Mark for the better part of ten years and at one point, he was my creative coach.

He has authored several books, including 21 Insights for 21st Century Creatives and Productivity for Creative People. 

Mark has always wanted to find out a way to make a living helping others, first through hypnotherapy, and then through coaching creatives, years before the idea of a “life coach” was even heard of. 

He now coaches entrepreneurs in creative industries who are well into their careers and are looking to further develop their potential.

Rather than holding his clients accountable, Mark explains, he makes a space for them and encourages them to enlarge their perspective, and most of all, helps them break through the wall of fear. 

Mark believes there is more than one way to grow as both an entrepreneur and a creative and has found that working with a specific type of client, rather than trying to scale up his business, has worked well for him.

Mark also talks about the intimacy of podcasting and the importance of listening to feedback to make a podcast that the creatives who listen to him can respect and appreciate. 

Now let’s get better together.

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My guest today is Japanese graphic designer and entrepreneur Ryo Kikuchi.

Ryo credits a research fellowship at the Rhode Island School of Design with completely changing how he looked at Design. Now, he hopes his company, ZeBrand, will change how entrepreneurs and business owners look at branding. 

Using algorithms, ZeBrand develops a branding plan in minutes for anyone. As Ryo explains it, ZeBrand does about 70% of the work, so more effort can be allotted to the creative side of branding. He also makes it part of his mission to teach entrepreneurs about the vital importance of branding and explains that while art is “zero to one,” design is “one to ten” and can be broken down into a process that repeatable.

We talk about how the shared core values of his leadership team and an appreciation of each other’s strengths help them work in harmony to deliver an innovative platform that helps companies create great branding.

Now Let’s get better together

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My guest today is Melinda Wittstock who was dubbed “disruptive” by her grandmother at a young age, and it’s a label she’s proudly lived up to as the enterprising female founder of several companies. 

While a business reporter for the London Times in her early 20s, she gained a lot of insight into entrepreneurship and building a business from scratch. 

After climbing the ranks of the news media world, she helmed the development of a crowdsourcing app, NewsiT, founded and ran Capitol News Connection, and is CEO and founder of Verifeed, a company that helps businesses leverage social media to grow. 

Most recently, she founded Wings Media and hosts the Wings of Inspired Business podcast, where she interviews women entrepreneurs. Seeing a need for podcasters to better monetize their businesses, her company developed Podopolo, an app to help podcasters grow and monetize their audiences. 

While she’s always been involved in the world of media, Wittstock sees herself primarily as a problem-solver and innovator, hallmarks of any entrepreneur. In the podcast, we talk about how working from a mindset of abundance, rather than scarcity, is one of her primary motivators. 

Now Let’s get better together.

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Today, I talk with John Burton who has been on and off the entrepreneurial track but definitely now prefers being an entrepreneur. John started his career as an electrical engineer and was tapped to run a start-up in Ireland, where he learned how to build a company from the ground up. He’s founded and ran several businesses, most recently a fast-growing software services company which he cofounded with two Apple veterans, called UrsaLeo. 

UrsaLeo comes from the central idea of a company providing a “digital twin” that allows for virtual monitoring. UrsaLeo is uniquely positioned to help companies manage buildings in the time of social-distancing with the use of 3D technologies. 

John is finding that some companies are eager to use this time to implement new processes and strategies, proving that there might be hope for a quickly rebounding economy.

John has seen his fair share of dealing with hard times, having had to settle in mediation with a former partner at this old company. He talks candidly about how he handles stress, and how yoga and classical guitar are keys to helping him get through his day. 

Now let’s get better together

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On this episode, I speak with Nadine Cino, who drew on her experience in design to develop a sustainable, cost-effective moving box and system called Tyga Box. She’s now turning her attention to solving the next set of problems because of COVID -- ones that she hopes will save lives. 

Nadine came up with the idea for more sustainable moving boxes when she was attempting to move her design consultancy business. She and her husband, Marty cofounded the company together and have now expanded what they offer via Tyga Tracks, a system to track all sorts of things, including their boxes.

The idea for Tiga Box came about when moving companies pointed out that they needed something different than the traditional throwaway cardboard box. They got to work building and designing reusable boxes and invented a new kind of dolly to help movers, move things quicker. 

Nadine continues to look for problems to solve, seeing them as opportunities to get to work. On the podcast, she shares her challenges of developing viable businesses that are both cost-effective and environmentally sustainable, as well as her latest idea for pivoting to a business that addresses the needs in the time of COVID-19.

Now, let’s get better together

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On this episode, I speak with Jeremiah Adler, the founder of UP(st)Art Creative Living, a unique co-living community for artists, musicians, and other creatives in Los Angeles. He recently founded Agile Medical Systems, which takes the living pods his company developed for Up(st)Art for use in hospitals and as shelters to address COVID-19 challenges. 

Jeremiah has always been an entrepreneur, starting from when he was doing yard and agricultural work as a teen in Portland, Oregon. After writing and shooting a TV pilot, he moved to Los Angeles to pursue his dream of working in television. He became a leasing agent to make money and soon found himself in the lucrative Los Angeles real estate market.

Dissatisfied with having to turn down young, creative people because of their incomes and credit, he developed an affordable, cohousing community for young creatives, adopting Japanese-style pods for individual living spaces. 

He has now redeveloped these pods for use in hospitals to address the challenges of COVID-19 under the new business, Agile Medical Systems. Full disclosure, I’m an investor in Agile Medical Systems and also advise them.

We talked about what makes an entrepreneur different from being self-employed, and how being a CEO of a company is as much about telling its story as it is about ensuring its growth and stability. 

Now let’s get better together

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Today on the podcast I speak with Dilip Venkatraman, CEO and cofounder of VideoTap, a video experience management platform. He reflects on breaking free of the one-sided experiences of news delivery to engaging consumers with video experiences, and how belief in a vision, luck, and humility are all critical factors for success. 

Dilip credits much of his success so far to luck, but also in believing in a vision. After working in cable news for many years, he saw a need for a more personalized, targeted means of delivering content, one that disrupts the linear narrative of standard video. 

He and his wife cofounded VideoTap in 2016 to solve one of the biggest challenges for companies now—engaging their audience. The company works with advertisers and other types of companies to design a more interactive experience for consumers in order to keep them engaged and help them make the best use of their most valuable resource—their time. 

Dilip says the “secret sauce” of success is that he and his wife have a shared vision, commitment, and excitement for innovation that keeps them going every day.

Now let’s get better together.

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