The Entrepreneur Ethos

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Hey everyone. Stay tuned to the end of the interview where I’ll give you some actionable insights that I learned from my guest. These insights are also in the show notes. As always, thanks for listening.

Now on to my guest for today, Will McKissick, Chief Strategy Officer for mePrism, a company striving to give consumers more control over their personal data. mePrism offers an app that allows consumers to learn how their data is learned, secure it, and control it. 

Will joined mePrism while he was still studying economics at Middlebury College. His first year of college, he interned at an investment firm, thinking he'd follow the path many of his fellow economics majors were on. Then, after reading an article on Medium and doing some soul-searching, he realized he wanted to take a different path. In his coursework he was exploring the issues around the use of private data and serendipitously met the CEO of mePrism, which was working on a solution to the problem. 

Will explains that he sees mePrism as offering a way for companies and consumers to "walk the line" between controlling personal data and sharing it with companies. Our personal data is our property, something that nobody else can own, and up until now companies have had nearly total free rein to collect and use the data for marketing. mePrism wants to give control over their data back to consumers: how it's collected, used, and shared. With a growing movement for more control over personal data, businesses will need to develop other strategies for marketing. Building trust with consumers will need to become paramount. Will doesn't think he or his company has all the answers, but he sees the entrepreneurial journey about figuring it out as you go.

Now, let’s get better together.

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Hey everyone. Stay tuned to the end of the interview where I’ll give you some actionable insights that I learned from my guest. These insights are also in the show notes. As always, thanks for listening.

Now on to my guest for today, Anthony Orisses, CEO and founder of Rare Cut, a lifestyle brand built around pocket squares. 

The idea for Rare Cut pocket squares came to Anthony after he witnessed his manager prepare himself to go onstage for an award and speech. Anthony tried to help him with his pocket square and then later noticed in pictures that the pocket square was nowhere to be seen. He realized that here was a problem to be solved: how to keep the pocket square from falling. The result was the Rare Cut pocket square, which has the tag line, "the pocket square that stays up." 

After college, Anthony went into medical devices sales. He had no intention of starting a lifestyle brand. But he's clearly embraced the journey. He documented his challenges and successes of starting his company and when he launched in 2020, he quickly raised the funds he needed. Based in his garage in Queens, Anthony recognizes the importance of community, using his company to shine a light on the struggles small businesses have faced through the pandemic. In answer to the lack of a need for pocket squares with so many people staying home, he made and sold a T-shirt, with part of the proceeds going toward a fund to help small businesses. He also developed a campaign to raise money for breast cancer research. 

Anthony credits his success with consistency and just showing up. He also acknowledges the sacrifices made by others, in particular a grandfather who emigrated from Greece. 

Now, let’s get better together.

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Hey everyone. Stay tuned to the end of the interview where I’ll give you some actionable insights that I learned from my guest. These insights are also in the show notes. As always, thanks for listening.

Now on to my guest for today, Robbie Samuels, networking and virtual event expert, podcast host, community creator, and author of Croissants vs. Bagels: Strategic, Effective, and Inclusive Networking at Conferences and Small List, Big Results: Launch a Successful Offer No Matter the Size of Your Email List. 

Robbie Samuels started out working in nonprofits and developing expertise in networking. He wrote his first book, launched a group coaching program and podcast, and was a TedX speaker. His specialty was helping people with their networking skills at conferences. So when COVID hit, he had to do some major rethinking. The question he asked was: “How do I show up and add value?” 

His answer was to become skilled in hosting virtual events and doing virtual networking. He launched the free virtual #NoMoreBadZoom networking happy hour and soon was being called upon to help organizations host and facilitate virtual events with a focus on increasing engagement and participation. From there, his business really took off. His second book, Small List, Big Results, is based on his experiences building a business and helping others do so, too. Robbie explains how his vision of being of service is key to business-building and networking and how it’s helped him to succeed.

Now, let’s get better together.

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Hey everyone. Stay tuned to the end of the interview where I’ll give you some actionable insights that I learned from my guest. These insights are also in the show notes. As always, thanks for listening.

Now on to my guest for today, Jane Enright, author of Butter Side Up: How I Survived My Most Terrible Year and Created My Super Awesome Life. Jane and I will be appearing together on June 8 at the Commonwealth Club in San Francisco for more conversation and we hope you will join us. The link for a free ticket is in the show notes.

Jane's journey starts with what most would consider a crisis: she was laid off from her job at a nonprofit. But her boss, a creative thinker, offered to work with her on a freelance basis. That was the start of a successful career that led to speaking and helping businesses, a career that would come to a halt after another crisis. One day, while at a volleyball tournament, an angry athlete hit the ball into the stands, hitting Jane hard on the head. Jane consequently suffered a traumatic brain injury. She experienced a decline in cognitive function, affecting her memory and speech and putting a stop to her previous activities. That same year, Jane's fiancé also suffered a traumatic brain injury that left him unable to walk - or to remember who Jane was. 

Jane's book, Butter Side Up, chronicles her journey and the key ideas that helped her to successfully re-invent her life as an author. Now instead of speaking, she writes her message. A forthcoming book, Jane's Jam, provides further ideas and inspiration for others to create their own "super awesome life." In our conversation, Jane and I talk about the importance of deciding to step back and inventory your strengths, cultivate resilience, and get comfortable with being uncomfortable. 

Now, let’s get better together.

When you are confronting a challenge: 

If you're in the San Francisco area, please join Jane and me for an in-person conversation at the Commonwealth Club on June 8, 6-8:30 p.m. You can still get your free ticket here.

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Hey everyone. Stay tuned to the end of the interview where I’ll give you some actionable insights that I learned from my guest. These insights are also in the show notes. As always, thanks for listening.

Now on to my guest for today, Matt Wool, CEO of Acceleration Partners and coauthor of the book Moving to Outcomes. 

Matt started out working in the movie business, first working on story development then moving into the business side. He realized he liked to make sense of things, to pull together disparate strands and implementing structure and order to them. He left the film industry to go to business school, where he met and worked with the entrepreneur Robert Glazer. After business school and some years working at other companies, he returned to working with Glazer, eventually moving up in Acceleration Partners to becoming CEO. 

In Acceleration Partners, Matt works on helping businesses grow by building relationships. He helps them set up affiliate, influencer, and other similar types of programs. Once established, businesses can expect to see 10 to 15% of their online sales come from affiliate partnerships. In order for a company to benefit from affiliate marketing, they need a good site and good conversion rates in order to maintain the partnership. Matt also explains why selling products through Amazon can be a major problem when trying to pursue successful partnerships. 

Now, let’s get better together.

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Hey everyone. Stay tuned to the end of the interview where I’ll give you some actionable insights that I learned from my guest. These insights are also in the show notes. As always, thanks for listening.

Now on to my guest for today, Mekkie Bansil, CEO and founder of Nonfik, which helps companies create, publish, and promote ebooks.

Mekkie studied journalism yet came to believe that most books simply retold the same message. When assigned to write an ebook in a marketing job, she was dismayed that it was just thought of as a tool and that it didn’t really matter that it was any good. An expert in branding and marketing, she created Nonfik in order to help businesses create good-quality ebooks for marketing and lead generation. Nonfik is both a service and a marketplace, offering business books for free on its own platform so people can continue to return to and learn from them.

Mekkie believes connecting with customers on an emotional level first is key. When working with companies, she encourages them to be open about their story and message, and to stand up for what they believe in order to set themselves apart. She uses both words and design to help tell their story and promote their brand, and Nonfik is the latest iteration in this project to help businesses do just that.  

Now, let’s get better together.

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Hey everyone. Stay tuned to the end of the interview where I’ll give you some actionable insights that I learned from my guest. These insights are also in the show notes. As always, thanks for listening.

Now on to my guest for today, Noah Healy, founder of Coordisc, an alternative market algorithm called the Coordinated Discovery Market (CDM).

Noah refers to himself as a “recreational mathematician,” part of a tradition of thinkers going back centuries interested in thinking about mathematical questions. He studied a wide variety of subjects at the University of Virginia, focusing on engineering and economics, but always anchored by an interest in math. He became interested in applying his curiosity to the problems inherent in current economic markets and proposes that what we need now is a change in the algorithm that forms the basis for our current market economy. 

Currently, Noah explains, the market operates as an information and communication system. However, there is a lot of noise in that system. A healthy market processes signals to reduce noise, but that is not currently happening. In fact, he says, the noise in the market is “off the scales.” The basic problem is that with the rise of computerization, industries have vastly increased their ability to be more efficient. But the cost of that efficiency is that one error in the system can lead to catastrophe. It also fosters the rampant corruption we now see in our economy. While Noah acknowledges he’s still in the early stages of promoting this idea, there’s been a lot of receptivity to it, because even those businesses that are “status quo” are seeing that problems are structural and can’t be simply “papered over.”

This episode just scratches the surface of a much bigger idea, but it is packed with some food for thought on what's at stake and offers some solutions on how we might re-invent our economy.

Now, let’s get better together.

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Hey everyone. Stay tuned to the end of the interview where I’ll give you some actionable insights that I learned from my guest. These insights are also in the show notes. As always, thanks for listening.

Now on to my guest for today, Alper Cakir, founder of Xtensio, a SaaS platform tool that enables users to easily create and share documents and deliverables.

Alper moved to L.A. from Istanbul in 2003 to pursue a career in music. To make money, he began to offer his services as a designer, primarily in web design, eventually making that his full-time career and starting a design agency with his wife.

Xtensio came about from a tool that he and his team built in order to solve the problem of document sharing and visibility across various platforms and devices. It grew out of his work with his clients as they collected information, asking them key questions such as: what problem are you trying to solve and who are your primary customers? He began offering the templates his team developed for in-house use as a lead generator and tool for his clients. In 2015, he decided to make it the focus of his business. Xtensio’s popular “User Persona” template page now has ten-thousand plus downloads a month. 

Alper still plays guitar, but he enjoys simply playing for himself. From the very beginning Alper has looked for ways to be his own master: from seeking work that enabled him to still play his music; to starting his own agency; and to building a company without outside funding. He channels his creativity into problem-solving and strategizing on how to continue to offer solutions for other companies and to continue to grow and innovate on his own terms.  

Now, let’s get better together.

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Hey everyone. Stay tuned to the end of the interview where I’ll give you some actionable insights that I learned from my guest. These insights are also in the show notes. As always, thanks for listening.

Now on to my guest for today, Kison Patel, an expert in mergers & acquisitions. He is the CEO and founder of DealRoom (which is part of M&A Science), a platform to help manage the M&A life cycle; podcast host of M&A Science; and author of the book Agile M&A: Proven Techniques to Close Deals Faster and Maximize Value, A Practitioner’s Guide.

Kison started out working as an advisor in mergers & acquisitions in Chicago, first with private clients and working up to corporations in various industries. He began his entrepreneurial journey with a tech startup, where he found he enjoyed working with engineers and also saw an opportunity to apply project management tools to the M&A industry. 

With DealRoom, he learned to face all the challenges of a tech startup, from working with a team, figuring out product market fit, and strategies for going to market. In 2017, a friend encouraged him to start a podcast. His show, M&A Science, seeks to help those working in the field to better understand the process and learn from others. The show gradually grew and Kison realized there was a demand for more information and resources. He wrote his book and created the M&A Science Academy, for corporate team members to more quickly learn insights and skills others usually take years to learn on their own. 

Now, let’s get better together.

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Hey everyone. Stay tuned to the end of the interview where I’ll give you some actionable insights that I learned from my guest. These insights are also in the show notes. As always, thanks for listening.

Now on to my guest for today, Allen Adamson, cofounder of Metaforce, the “special forces” of marketing, and author of several books on branding and marketing.

Allen studied filmmaking in college but realized he didn’t have the drive for making films he saw in others. This realization - that you need to have both passion and talent for what you spend your life doing - has been a guiding principle. After earning an MBA at NYU’s Stern School, he went to work in advertising, starting with Unilever, then moving into agency work and eventually leading Landor Associates, a global branding firm. Allen made the leap to entrepreneurship six years ago when he decided to write his next book.

At Metaforce, Allen seeks first to listen and understand what his clients’ problems are, and then work with them on finding a solution, rather than simply offering a service that may or may not be effective. As someone who has worked for years in advertising and marketing, Allen has found himself at the intersection of creativity and business, straddling the line between offering innovative solutions but also recognizing the constraints of budgets and deadlines. Key to succeeding in this area, Allen says, is embracing non-linear thinking. In writing his books, Allen has found he connects naturally with a community of colleagues and potential clients while also learning and then sharing what he’s learned. 

Now, let’s get better together.

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