The Hot Mic @ Arch DevOps

Talking with fellow St. Louisan Steven Slutzky today, founder of Mobile Workflow. We've known each other for a bit now and I invited him on to talk about his journey. He originally started off in the aerospace industry and like many entrepreneurs, didn't plan on being a business owner. He sort of just fell into it. Turns out we have that in common! From working at NASA and McDonnell Douglas to now serving multiple companies with a customizable compliance platform that he created, he's finding new ways to both impact peoples' lives and continue learning about himself. It's been a wild 20 years for Steven, so get ready to learn his advice for both beginning and seasoned entrepreneurs. When you're ready to talk with Steven about how to make sure your large company is keeping compliant so you can save millions of dollars annually, find him at mworkflow.com or on LinkedIn. Keep listening for more. 

Craig Lewis used to live in the United States, and went through some really hard challenges in life. So much so that he needed to get away from everything. Most other people, when faced with the reality of everything they relied on crashing down around them may lose themselves in self-pity and negativity. But Craig? Bro this guy's built different. He's lived around the world and learned how to build amazing tribes of people that mutually support each other with respect, friendship and love. And he's using his battle scars of life to equip others to fight and live on their terms too. Join us and hear about mental health, living the life, and enjoying the company of the community cats where he lives now in Mexico. If Craig resonates at the same frequency as you, find him on his site coachcraiglewis.com, or email him directly at [email protected]. Let's listen in now.

Fellow entrepreneur and podcast host Matt Sodnicar's company started as a hobby. Warm Front makes a variety of chest warming apparel for skiiers and cyclers to keep them just warm enough to enjoy the sport. And as a resident of Colorado, he knows the importance of this. Starting his career off as a software engineer, he realized he had a crazy idea that he wanted to make into a reality. And through his time building his company, he's done not only that, but built amazing relationships with people he otherwise wouldn't have met. Matt's got some awesome tips at the end for people just starting or already on the entrepreneurial path, and they're so good I asked him to email them to me so I can print them off for myself and tape them up near my computer. If you're feeling the nip of weather setting in and you're getting chilly, find Matt at thewarmfront.com, email him at [email protected] or find him on LinkedIn. We're talking about weather, pizza and bowling here, so let's hop in. 

John Paragon started off his entrepreneurship journey by building a software dev company, with no software dev experience. And it ended up working out pretty well! He's since sold most of it off and pivoted to become a powerful business coach. I personally had a great time talking with him an learning some things about my own business, and I'm we're both sure you'll get a lot out of this episode. Expect to learn about what it means to overcome Impostor Syndrome, creating a scalable business and how to build one even on a bootstrap budget. John's readily findable on LinkedIn and Facebook and on his site, paragon30.com. Enjoy the listen. 

Kathleen Celmins literally started her company AmplifiedNOW in August 2020. In that short time, she's learned a ton about herself and the market at large. The main thing: video is incredibly important for small and large business owners. Not only are people more like to watch videos because of being on social media more than usual, but the normal ways of building rapport with people aren't quite in vogue these days. Coffee, lunch, networking events and many other close-quarters type events aren't happening. Video may just be the only option a business has to gain more business. But not just any video--it needs to be videos that talk about problems that you solve, so that the viewer can put themselves in those shoes and relate to you and how you can help define and resolve those pains. If you'd like to reach out to Kathleen, find her website at amplifiednow.com, and at @kathleencelmins all over social media. Let's learn more about her journey now. 

Jay Shifman's been deeply involved in helping people understand substance addiction for years. Recently he started up a public speaking business, but COVID put a damper on that. In today's episode, as we talked about the challenges of Jay getting to where he is today, we got to go pretty deep into some different things about addiction that many people don't realize, and also how vulnerability leads to empathy. Too often we think that sharing about our struggles is oversharing, when it's not really. And too often we go too long without opening up about what we're dealing with, and it goes unhelped. You'll get some cool insights about mental health, entrepreneurship and recovery in this episode. After listening, reach out to Jay at jayshifman.com, and listen to his podcast called The Choose Your Struggle Podcast. Also find him all over social media under the names jayshifman or chooseyourstruggle. Let's listen in now. 

Today's guest, Ange Dove, started up her initial company 20 years ago. Coming from a corporate background, she felt the call to start something herself. And even though a lot of friends told her she was crazy, her husband said, 'Go for it'. She had plans to work from home, but since this was the dawn of the mainstream internet and cloud computing wasn't a thing, she had somewhat painted herself into a corner with success. She got big enough that she needed to hire people, which meant the need for office space. It's been a wild ride since then. We talked about the good old days before Google, and about dialup internet, along with some key concepts that have helped both of us in business. Things like: nothing in nature is a straight line. Nothing is ever going to be perfect. Nothing is ever as bad as you think it'll be. But ultimately: if you feel the call toward entrepreneurship, just do it. If you'd like to find out more about Ange, head over to angedove.com, and maybe even book an appointment to chat further with her. Let's jump into the episode already in progress.

During the 'pre-show show', fellow owner Sharon Davies and I talked about how it's gotten much easier to build community with people because of covid. So many are struggling to have the togetherness from the olden days of just a little over a year ago, and the speed at which we can form bonds is incredible. Turns out it's a really good superpower to have in the world of sales. Sharon shared how she was working for corporate clients but ended up being made redundant in 2016. When she switched to contract work, a common challenge people came to her with was: we're having trouble selling and having difficulty managing our team. Enough people came to her about this that she realized: the universe is trying to tell me something, and I need to listen. The result? Sales2Success. She custom fits sales training to teams of any size, and with more than 30 years of experience in the world of sales, you'll be in good hands. Find her on LinkedIn, or email her directly: [email protected]. Let's get started with the first podcast of the new season now.

Raj Subrameyer is an international keynote speaker, author, and tech career coach who helps people to land their dream job and become successful leaders. He has helped countless individuals discover their zone of genius and leverage it to live a life that they love. He is a sought-after speaker at various conferences and has been featured in numerous podcast and publications, including Authority Magazine, Thrive Global, Addicted2Success and The Good Men Project. He is also the author of the new book – Skyrocket Your Career. In his spare time, he loves traveling with his family and discovering new experiences which includes craft beer. You can connect with him on LinkedIn, on Twitter @epsilon11, or his website www.rajsubra.com. Enjoy the listen

It's a sobering statistic that about 78% of people stress about money. And it's no secret that the more of it you have, the more problems turn up. Many of the problems that occur take place at the relationship level. While most people would either meet with an accountant or a marriage counselor, today's guest realized, "why not both?" 

Simi Mandelbaum is the Founder of PROSPR Financial Wellness, and she learned that -how- we view money, and the mindset set have, is vastly more important than what we do with it. When a family isn't in lockstep about what to do with finances, it definitely causes problems that take a blend of both psychology and finance to figure out. She takes her clients through the process to uncover the root of their stresses with money. 

Her personal mantra is, "Live like no one else, so you can live like no one else," and she applies that every day with the people she serves. Find out more about Simi's endeavor at www.prospr.fit. And as always, enjoy the listen.