What CEOs Talk About

AJ Harper is an editor and publishing strategist who helps authors write foundational books that enable them to build readership, grow their brand and make a significant impact on the world. 

AJ is a writing partner to business author, Mike Michalowicz. Together they’ve written six books, including Profit First, The Pumpkin Plan, Clockwork, and their latest, Fix This Next. Through her Top Three Book Workshops and Retreats, AJ empowers authors with insider publishing knowledge and guides them through the book development, writing, and editing process. Along with Mike Michalowicz (Profit First) and book launch expert, Amber Vilhauer, AJ is the co-founder of AuthorUpLive, a one-of-a-kind book launch workshop. 

As a ghostwriter and developmental editor, AJ has worked with newbies to New York Times bestselling authors with millions of books sold. Her author’s books have received national and international recognition, including multiple awards each year, starred reviews from Publishers Weekly and Booklist, and inclusion in “Best of” lists in Publishers Weekly and Kirkus Reviews. 

AJ is the Head Writing Coach for Heroic Public Speaking, the premier public speaking training program founded by Michael and Amy Port, and developed their online speech development curriculum. She is part of the coaching team for TEDx Cambridge, one of the longest-running and largest independently organized TED events in the world. 

AJ lives with her wife and son in New York’s Lower Hudson Valley.

Here’s a glimpse of what you’ll learn:

• AJ Harper’s formative Gen X years in libraries
• How her son inspired her to turn away from theater into freelance writing
• The particular skill set that a good ghostwriter needs
• Why fast publishing is a discredit to authors
• Why a learning disability won’t stand in the way of someone writing a good book
• The different editors at each stage of the editing process and what they do
• Why a good nonfiction book really needs to consider the reader and what they need
• How to tell a really good book recommendation from a perfunctory one
• What trade review publications to trust
• AJ’s seventeen-item checklist that walks you through up-leveling your manuscript
• All the books AJ would recommend in a specific situation and why

In this episode…

AJ Harper is a current editor and publishing strategist who teaches workshops to help authors write transformational books and is the head writing coach for Heroic Public Speaking. AJ understands writing and books so the title of this episode, Write Better Books, is exactly on point and she leaves Martin and listeners with a lot to ponder.

Inspired to write by the character of Jo March in Louisa May Alcott’s “Little Women”, AJ eventually went freelance in the world of ghostwriting where she says her theater background helped her find author’s voices. What she also learned about the nonfiction genre is that people want to be moved to make a change. To that end, she considers a book’s promise to a reader as a sacred contract.  

In this episode of What CEOs Talk About, host Martin Hunter receives amazing writing encouragement from guest AJ Harper. AJ assures Martin that his dyslexia would not prevent him from writing a great book and explains the various editors and what they give to a book’s journey to print. AJ advises on how to find connection with your reader, why editors are there to discuss your motivations with you, and what book recommendations to trust. Dive into this episode and prepare to be inspired.

Resources mentioned in this episode:

• URGEO
• Contact email: [email protected]
• Martin Hunter on LinkedIn
• AJ Harper website
• AJ Harper LinkedIn
• ‘Write A Must Read’ by AJ Harper
• Michael Port
• Tim Ferriss books
• Ryan Holiday books
• Simon Sinek books
• ‘Love Medicine’ by Louise Erdrich
• ‘Intuitive Editing’ by Tiffany Yates Martin
• ‘Illusions’ by Richard Bach
• ‘The War of Art’ by Steven Pressfield

Sponsor for this podcast...

This podcast is brought to you by URGEO, Operational excellence in action through the Are you Ready Program!

https://www.urgeo.com/

Are you READY to free up your time?

Optimize your Organization?

Grow revenue and reduce costs?

Build your leadership team?

Partnering with organizations like yours, we work with you to implement our proven methodology designed to transform your operations, while providing accurate advice and support for real success.

Translating strategy into frontline operations, URGEO helps leaders and the people within their organization excel at safe, on-time, on-budget and on-spec delivery. Let’s touch base so we can learn how we can level up your business. Contact us today: https://www.urgeo.com/contact

Josephine Kwan is the Founder and CEO of Flow 2 Freedom Apparel. Josephine’s passion is to empower people to explore every opportunity by pushing through all uncertainties to unleash their potential. It's the reason she created Flow 2 Freedom Apparel and why she loves working with entrepreneurs at Spring Activator. Whether to ensure fair opportunities to participate by breaking down barriers for women and girls in sports or helping new immigrants successfully adapt their businesses in North America, it's watching others achieve their potential that drives her.

Josephine’s mission is to change the perception of periods through menstrual education and our line of patent-pending, eco-friendly leakproof activewear by providing tangible solutions to give women and girls the peace of mind and confidence to own their potential. Focus on the game and never let your period dictate what you can and cannot do.

Here’s a glimpse of what you’ll learn:

• How Josephine Kwan’s love of sports, business, and desire to leave a legacy combined to create Flow 2 Freedom
• The truth about the distinct lack of menstruation education
• How fear shapes what we will and won’t talk about in society
• Why ‘own your potential’ fits as the tagline for Flow 2 Freedom and the title of this episode
• Statistics on how many period-havers suffer from heavy periods and their isolation despite how common it is
• The pervasive negative popular media casts on periods and period products
• How dads and male coaches can help break the taboo and keep girls and young menstruators in sport
• Why Martin believes in giving these topics space on his platform
• Josephine’s advice on how to treat and track periods and symptoms holistically

In this episode…

Josephine Kwan was born and raised in Vancouver, BC, and graduated with a degree in kinesiology from her hometown. She worked as a strength and conditioning coach, spent thirteen years in the commercial real estate industry, and though she was doing well, she felt something was missing. She wanted to contribute to society. And that’s when she drew on her personal history of heavy periods to develop the sports menstruation apparel line Flow 2 Freedom.

Josephine struggled through her formative years with a heavy period and little to no education about her cycles from any source. She had been humiliated by a volleyball coach openly shaming her for needing to leave the court during a game, so she chooses to devote her efforts to ensuring young menstruators stay in sports and have education and support surrounding them.

In this episode of What CEOs Talk About, host Martin Hunter and Josephine Kwan talk about the taboo surrounding the topic of menstruation and how to combat that innate fear. Martin shares his views on the importance of inclusion and Josephine details physiological realities for women and menstruators, how education and nutrition can help combat period symptoms, and why regarding periods holistically and without shame will benefit everyone.

Resources mentioned in this episode:

• URGEO
• Contact email: [email protected]
• Martin Hunter on LinkedIn
• Josephine Kwan on LinkedIn
• Flow 2 Freedom Apparel
• Flow 2 Freedom Instagram
• What CEOs Talk About Episode 63 ‘If You Don’t Have Inclusion, You Don’t Have Anything’ with Katarina Polonsky
• Dr. Georgie Bruinvels
• Wild AI app
• Fitr Woman app

Sponsor for this podcast...

This podcast is brought to you by URGEO, Operational excellence in action through the Are you Ready Program!

https://www.urgeo.com/

Are you READY to free up your time?

Optimize your Organization?

Grow revenue and reduce costs?

Build your leadership team?

Partnering with organizations like yours, we work with you to implement our proven methodology designed to transform your operations, while providing accurate advice and support for real success.

Translating strategy into frontline operations, URGEO helps leaders and the people within their organization excel at safe, on-time, on-budget and on-spec delivery. Let’s touch base so we can learn how we can level up your business. Contact us today: https://www.urgeo.com/contact

Jayesh Parmar was born in Saskatoon, Canada and now calls Vancouver, British Columbia home. He was the former CEO/Co-Founder of Picatic.com, which was acquired by Eventbrite in 2018. Jayesh is an active investor, a lifelong student, and has jumped back into being a Co-CEO/Co-founder of Gunkii, the world's sexiest tongue scraper. Gunkii incorporates his Indian roots and the Ayurveda system of medicine while embracing his teaching background and love of helping children. 

Giving back to the community and those in need has always been at the heart of what drives Jayesh’s passion, alongside his mission is to build profit and purpose companies with team cultures that are immersed in giving, cheekiness, fun, and adventure.

Jayesh is married to an amazing partner, Nicole. Together they are the proud parents to an incredible tiny human, Jai. When not spending time on building businesses, Jayesh loves spending his “off-time” coaching and hanging with his family.

Here’s a glimpse of what you’ll learn:

• Jayesh Parmar’s pride in being born in Saskatchewan
• How Picatic sprang from a problem Jay wanted to solve for himself
• What the term ‘value consideration’ means to Jay
• How Martin defines ‘operational excellence’
• What shifted for Jay during COVID that led to founding Gunkii
• The lessons about failure that Jay learned in San Francisco
• Why Jay advises to “chop wood and carry water”
• What Jay is focused on now and what it means to him

In this episode…

Jayesh Parmar is a proud native of Saskatoon, Saskatchewan who now resides in Vancouver. His entrepreneurial spirit was evident right from university when he started a party company with a BDC $3,000 student business loan in 1997. Eventually that little company started doing their own events, and those events led to a problem Jay wanted to solve: namely, how to streamline the then-burdensome record store physical ticketing system. This is how he came to found the online ticketing and management company, Picatic. Picatic was eventually acquired by Eventbrite, in 2018. 

Jay is currently co-founder of Gunkii.com - the world’s sexiest tongue scraper - with his wife, Nicole. He learned a lot of valuable lessons about leadership and operational excellence through his business journey, and he carries those lessons with him today. During his time at Picatic, he valued customer experience so much that in the early years he’d help organize events and work the door, and his presence at events continued as the company grew. He always wanted to know if the customer was happy.

In this episode of What CEOs Talk About, host Martin Hunter and guest Jayesh Parmar delve into why failure is, to quote Jay, “a data point” and something that imparts valuable information about your process and growth. Jay explains some of his own failures and how he is proud of them, despite their difficulty. He speaks to the importance of perseverance, radical candor, and redefining what success looks like for him. His sincerity and insightfulness are not to be missed.

Resources mentioned in this episode:

• URGEO
• Contact email: [email protected]
• Martin Hunter on LinkedIn
• Gunkii.com
• Jay Parmar on LinkedIn
• Jay Parmar email: [email protected]
• Sadhguru
• ‘Atomic Habits’ by James Clear
• Harvard Business Development course: The Authentic Leader

Sponsor for this podcast...

This podcast is brought to you by URGEO, Operational excellence in action through the Are you Ready Program!

https://www.urgeo.com/

Are you READY to free up your time?

Optimize your Organization?

Grow revenue and reduce costs?

Build your leadership team?

Partnering with organizations like yours, we work with you to implement our proven methodology designed to transform your operations, while providing accurate advice and support for real success.

Translating strategy into frontline operations, URGEO helps leaders and the people within their organization excel at safe, on-time, on-budget and on-spec delivery. Let’s touch base so we can learn how we can level up your business. Contact us today: https://www.urgeo.com/contact

Founder and Principal of Better Your Best Business Performance Specialists for over 12 years, Carolyn de Voest works with leaders to achieve and exceed their best. Through coaching, consulting, training, and speaking, Carolyn and her team of associates equip organizations to enhance their leadership, optimize their teams, and get results. She believes that to be successful, businesses need to put their people first, foster cultures of ongoing learning, and continuously engage in courageous conversations. 

Carolyn has a degree in Education from McGill University and numerous coaching certificates, including the Co-Active Coaching Certification through the Coaches Training Institute. She is the past chair of the Strachan Hartley Foundation and is a current volunteer coach for West Vancouver Field Hockey, as well as instructor in the local Junior Achievement program.

Here’s a glimpse of what you’ll learn:

• Carolyn de Voest’s first business ventures
• What everyone’s purpose in life should be
• How Carolyn defines the word coach
• Why Carolyn likes to ask questions of leaders and clients
• The three questions she likes best
• Why wanting to earn money, in the context, according to Martin and Carolyn, is not evil
• Tactical ideas for creating a coaching culture
• The coaches Carolyn looks up to
• The books Carolyn recommends to feed the head, heart, and soul of leaders

In this episode…

Carolyn de Voest was instilled with an entrepreneurial and independent spirit by her father in childhood. She learned to make her own opportunities and incorporated her first business, called Play Like A Girl Athletics, at age 21. She translated that natural passion to lead, and to coach others to achieve their best into Better Your Best: Performance Business Specialists.

Carolyn chose the title Walking Each Other Home because she believes it’s important to remember that it’s our humaneness that connects us and that our purpose is to help and serve each other. Through coaching, she strives to empower people, to lead them into the autonomous ability to solve their own problems and face their own challenges. She asks questions of leadership: What do you want? Who are you? How are you going to make it happen?

In this episode of What CEOs Talk About, host Martin Hunter and guest Carolyn de Voest discuss leadership and coaching, why connectedness and a sense of service are important to retain, and how she views the responsibilities of coaching in a business context. Martin and Carolyn explore the values of personal awareness, how to quantify Walking Each Other Home, and the realities of caretaking one’s health and wellness in this vital conversation.

Resources mentioned in this episode:

• URGEO
• Contact email: [email protected]
• Martin Hunter on LinkedIn
• Better Your Best
• Carolyn de Voest on LinkedIn
• Carolyn de Voest on Twitter
• Canada Suicide Prevention Service
• Tracy Hutton, Lululemon
• Kathy McLaughlin, McLaughlin & Associates
• ‘Dare to Lead’ by Brené Brown
• ‘Measure What Matters’ by John Doerr
• ‘The 15 Commitments of Conscious Leadership’ by Jim Dethmer, Diana Chapman, & Kaley Warner Klemp

Sponsor for this podcast...

This podcast is brought to you by URGEO, Operational excellence in action through the Are you Ready Program!

https://www.urgeo.com/

Are you READY to free up your time?

Optimize your Organization?

Grow revenue and reduce costs?

Build your leadership team?

Partnering with organizations like yours, we work with you to implement our proven methodology designed to transform your operations, while providing accurate advice and support for real success.

Translating strategy into frontline operations, URGEO helps leaders and the people within their organization excel at safe, on-time, on-budget and on-spec delivery. Let’s touch base so we can learn how we can level up your business. Contact us today: https://www.urgeo.com/contact

Kasey Jones is founder of A Better Jones and a growth consultant, executive coach, and leadership trainer to entrepreneurs and their teams. She has consulted, coached, mentored, or trained 100s of Founders to help them grow their revenue and themselves. She has a knack for doing big things with limited resources and helping people find their purpose and unlock their potential.

Here’s a glimpse of what you’ll learn:

• Insight into Kasey Jones’ childhood and tumultuous teenage years
• How she went from graduating Reed College to sales before eventually landing in marketing
• The experience two years ago that landed Kasey in hospital
• The kinds of trauma we can experience in life
• How Kasey healed from her experience and what she learned
• Why Kasey views telling your story as positive and healing
• How social media can help get your story into the world
• What the podcast title means to her personally and professionally

In this episode…

Kasey Jones, founder of A Better Jones, joins Martin Hunter to explore the topic of “Get Your S**t Together”. Kasey shares some of the early life experiences, like changing schools three times in three years, that shaped choices her parents made in response to her acting out. She reveals how ultimately the experiences made her independent and very gritty. 

Kasey shares how an experience she had two years ago that gravely injured her, actually gave her time to address her life and heal not only from that major Trauma, but from all the cumulative “little t” traumas she’d gathered in life and not dealt with. She and Martin discuss the revelations of her journey and what she learned.

In this episode of What CEOs Talk About, host Martin Hunter and guest Kasey Jones break down how traumas and personal trials can accumulate if we don’t learn to deal with them. They discuss the positive power of social media, not being afraid to identify your message and share it, and how self awareness is not only personally healing but professionally powerful. Kasey Jones’ story and advice is profound and directly applicable to whatever stage of life’s journey you’re on.

Resources mentioned in this episode:

• URGEO
• Contact email: [email protected]
• Martin Hunter on LinkedIn
• A Better Jones
• Kasey Jones on LinkedIn
• Kasey Jones on Instagram
• ‘Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less’ by Greg McKeown
• ‘Who Not How’ by Dr. Benjamin Hardy and Dan Sullivan
• ‘Rocket Fuel’ by Gino Wickman and Mark C. Winters

Sponsor for this podcast...

This podcast is brought to you by URGEO, Operational excellence in action through the Are you Ready Program!

https://www.urgeo.com/

Are you READY to free up your time?

Optimize your Organization?

Grow revenue and reduce costs?

Build your leadership team?

Partnering with organizations like yours, we work with you to implement our proven methodology designed to transform your operations, while providing accurate advice and support for real success.

Translating strategy into frontline operations, URGEO helps leaders and the people within their organization excel at safe, on-time, on-budget and on-spec delivery. Let’s touch base so we can learn how we can level up your business. Contact us today: https://www.urgeo.com/contact

Martin Hunter is the managing partner of URGEO and host of What CEOs Talk About. He is not afraid to roll his sleeves up and get into the guts of a business. Martin has the exceptional ability of translating vision into frontline operations. He is an energetic, authentic, and engaging leader who lives to inspire people of all ages and walks of life. His strengths in leadership were learned through 10 years of active military experience where he learned the implementation of KAIZEN systems.

Here’s a glimpse of what you’ll learn:

• The intent behind meetings
• Why being transformational in relationships is important
• How meetings factor into relationship building and maintenance
• What message your unexplained lateness or absenteeism sends
• How to factor an attention refresh into your meeting preparation
• Fostering respect through communication in regards to unavoidable lateness
• Why your intention in meetings must be deliberate
• Being thoughtful in regards to time

Sponsors for This Episode

This episode is sponsored by STS Capital Partners and Altruvest Charitable Services.

In this episode…

Host Martin Hunter addresses punctuality and calendars to examine what messages you may be sending through lateness or breaking appointments without communication. Martin takes the time to break down why schedules matter to both parties involved and how relationships are both built and maintained through mutual respect.

Martin asks vital questions of everyone in this episode. Are you putting your meetings back to back and therefore not giving yourself time to be transformational in your relationships? Do your meetings actually matter? Even in a Zoom meeting, he points out that there is an actual person on the other end of that meeting with their own desire to talk and listen. Respect for that time is key.

In this episode of What CEOs Talk About, host Martin Hunter breaks down what sharing information is all about and why respecting the time and humanity involved in meetings is important. He asks listeners to consider what message being late sends, how to schedule time for preparation between meetings, and why notice of emergent circumstances that may disrupt your schedule is key to respecting relationships.

Resources mentioned in this episode:

• URGEO
• Contact email: [email protected]
• Martin Hunter on LinkedIn
• What CEOs Talk About
• Let Martin know what tools you use to manage your time. Share your thoughts.

Sponsor for this podcast...

This podcast is brought to you by URGEO, Operational excellence in action through the Are you Ready Program!

https://www.urgeo.com/

Are you READY to free up your time?

Optimize your Organization?

Grow revenue and reduce costs?

Build your leadership team?

Partnering with organizations like yours, we work with you to implement our proven methodology designed to transform your operations, while providing accurate advice and support for real success.

Translating strategy into frontline operations, URGEO helps leaders and the people within their organization excel at safe, on-time, on-budget and on-spec delivery. Let’s touch base so we can learn how we can level up your business. Contact us today: https://www.urgeo.com/contact

Greg Moser is an E-Commerce professional with over 20 years of experience in Online Marketing, Operations, Software & Fulfillment for E-Commerce businesses along with more traditional brands & retailers in aiding their transition online. In his role as President & CTO of ShipCalm, an E-Commerce Fulfillment company, and 3PL, he oversees all activities of ShipCalm’s leadership team and works with hundreds of small and midsize business owners to help them optimize their operations and scale.

ShipCalm is an E-Commerce fulfillment company and third-party operations & logistics provider for small and midsize businesses. With a modern approach to technology, and fulfillment facilities strategically located on both the east and west coasts, ShipCalm is the perfect partner to scale your company’s operations.

Here's a glimpse of what you'll learn:

• How a birthday present changed a 12-year-old’s life
• Why he had to “ground” himself to build software after he made a recommendation that flopped
• How hard lessons open new doors
• Why adversity builds bright futures
• What laser-focused means
• Why you need to have milestones in business
• Why do you need to hear 100 “No”s
• Why you need to understand your values

Sponsor for This Episode

This episode is sponsored by STS Capital Partners and Altruvest Charitable Services.

In this episode…

Greg Moser was that surfer kid that grew into running a successful company ShipCalm. He explained that acting was never going to be his career; however, his laser focus brought him to software programming and building ShipCalm into a successful company. Greg talks about why tenacity and milestones in place will help you stay on track with clear direction.

Greg talks about ShipCalm’s values as a company and the importance of understanding the people who are working for you. Your top-level executives have different needs than your factory and front-line workers. Workers need various incentives.

In this episode of What CEOs Talk About, host Martin Hunter and guest Greg Moser, the President & CTO of ShipCalm, discuss the importance of having tenacity in business. Greg talks about why you need to pick a north star, grind through, and inspire your team to join you on the journey. One of the questions is: “How do you build a subculture within your organization?”

Resources mentioned in this episode:

• URGEO
• Contact email: [email protected]
• Martin Hunter on LinkedIn
• ShipCalm
• Greg Moser on LinkedIn
• Harland Sanders - The KFC Founder and A Story of Being Rejected 1009 Times
• Volodymyr Zelenskyy
• Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World

Sponsor for this podcast...

This podcast is brought to you by URGEO, Operational excellence in action through the Are you Ready Program!

https://www.urgeo.com/

Are you READY to free up your time?

Optimize your Organization?

Grow revenue and reduce costs?

Build your leadership team?

Partnering with organizations like yours, we work with you to implement our proven methodology designed to transform your operations, while providing accurate advice and support for real success.

Translating strategy into frontline operations, URGEO helps leaders and the people within their organization excel at safe, on-time, on-budget and on-spec delivery. Let’s touch base so we can learn how we can level up your business. Contact us today: https://www.urgeo.com/contact

Brenda Chamulak joined Tekni-Plex to lead the company's newly created Packaging Products division. She has nearly 30 years of packaging industry experience and brings a strong reputation for leveraging both growth-oriented and talent strategies to deliver double-digit returns for businesses. She is well versed in the broader packaging market. She has developed long-term relationships with key brands in several sectors – including healthcare, beauty, and food – to foster a spirit of partnership through a market- and solution-centric mindset.

Here's a glimpse of what you'll learn:

• How strength and warmth is the common denominator among inspiring leaders
• Why you should embrace your natural abilities
• What is your common purpose
• How to define yourself, your market, and drive growth
• Why asking the right questions is essential, and listening for the answers
• What is the difference between transformational and transactional change
• What are people's motivators?
• Change can be difficult for some people

Sponsors for This Episode

This episode is sponsored by URGEO.

In this episode…

Brenda Chamulak explains how being influenced by strong leadership from a young age and her career helped build her as a leader. When she joined Tekni-Plex she discovered that their customers did not know who Tekni-Plex was or how to ask them for help. Brenda moved Tekni-Plex from a customer-responsive organization to understanding the need of the markets by creating a strong guiding light for everyone in the Tekni-Plex organization to follow.

Brenda and Martin discuss that when driving transformational change, you need to build trust, create clear direction, and provide regular transparent updates about the positives and negatives. Why do organizations need to have a flexible mindset when seeking to grow their businesses? Ultimately, by investing in transformation components, you make the entire organization so much better.

In this episode of what CEOs Talk About, host Martin Hunter and guest Brenda Chamulak deep dive into transformational change. Brenda explains how giving everyone a seat at the table can add value and be part of the organization's alignment to help everyone see where they are going. Brenda tells us about fighting for the right acquisition to fill gaps in the organization and how it turned into the largest acquisition for Tekni-Plex.

Resources mentioned in this episode:

• URGEO
• Contact email: [email protected]
• Martin Hunter on LinkedIn
• Tekni-Plex
• Tekni-Plex on LinkedIn
• Tekni-Plex on YouTube
• Tekni-Plex on Twitter
• Connect, Then Lead
• ’ Servant Leadership: A Journey Into the Nature of Legitimate Power’ by Robert K Greenleaf

Sponsor for this podcast...

This podcast is brought to you by URGEO, Operational excellence in action through the Are you Ready Program!

https://www.urgeo.com/

Are you READY to free up your time?

Optimize your Organization?

Grow revenue and reduce costs?

Build your leadership team?

Partnering with organizations like yours, we work with you to implement our proven methodology designed to transform your operations, while providing accurate advice and support for real success.

Translating strategy into frontline operations, URGEO helps leaders and the people within their organization excel at safe, on-time, on-budget and on-spec delivery. Let’s touch base so we can learn how we can level up your business. Contact us today: https://www.urgeo.com/contact

Arun Vijayaraghavan is a software leader in Broadcom Software, leading a central engineering group responsible for the DevOps infrastructure and Machine learning services. Over the past decade, Arun has led engineering, and product management teams focused on modernizing traditionally legacy products used in mission-critical areas such as supply chain management and core infrastructure software.

Here’s a glimpse of what you’ll learn:

• Why legacy software is still relevant
• What DevOps developers do
• What is the Modernization of technology
• Why you would want to modernize technology
• Why people and culture is an integral piece to modernizing techniques
• The impact of AI on modernization practices
• How COVID affected digital infrastructure
• The connection between speed and simplicity
• Three key points to modernizing technology

Sponsors for This Episode

This episode is sponsored by STS Capital Partners and Altruvest Charitable Services.

In this episode…

Would you rebuild a train station or airport? Or would you build and improve upon the current facilities? It is similar to legacy software. Sometimes it is better to build on to the current system instead of starting from scratch. There is always a way to expand what you have with modernized technology without disrupting its core. Arun Vijayaraghavan the R&D Director at Broadcom Software uses his experience in supply chain software and interest in machine learning to help teams move towards technology goals from a development operations (DevOps) perspective.

Businesses who have specific goals and metrics in mind when looking at technology will have better success if they work backward from that goal or metric. Arun explains how legacy infrastructure can be modernized with current technologies allowing for expansion and protection, which can significantly speed up processes and simplify the experience for the consumer. Arun discusses that AI and COVID are pushing companies to seek technology modernization.

In this episode of What CEOs Talk About, host Martin Hunter and guest Arun Vijayaraghavan discuss the importance of modernizing legacy software to serve consumers better. Modernization is about improving and investing in what you have. Arun summarizes what he thinks is essential to this process; having a goal in mind, not assuming software can’t be modernized, and the importance of people and company culture.

Resources mentioned in this episode:

• URGEO
• Contact email: [email protected]
• Martin Hunter on LinkedIn
• Arun Vijayaraghavan on LinkedIn
• Broadcom
• Broadcom on LinkedIn
• Broadcom on Twitter
• What Do CEOs Need To Know and Do For Cyber
• ’The 4 Hour Workweek’ by Timothy Ferriss

Sponsor for this podcast...

This podcast is brought to you by URGEO, Operational excellence in action through the Are you Ready Program!

https://www.urgeo.com/

Are you READY to free up your time?

Optimize your Organization?

Grow revenue and reduce costs?

Build your leadership team?

Partnering with organizations like yours, we work with you to implement our proven methodology designed to transform your operations, while providing accurate advice and support for real success.

Translating strategy into frontline operations, URGEO helps leaders and the people within their organization excel at safe, on-time, on-budget and on-spec delivery. Let’s touch base so we can learn how we can level up your business. Contact us today: https://www.urgeo.com/contact

Sam Chang is a serial entrepreneur who started his journey as a door-to-door meat salesman in college. After making nearly $2000 on his fourth day on the job, Sam decided to drop out of school and work with a door-to-door sales company. While he was there, he helped grow that team from 25 agents to 300 agents selling for one of Canada’s largest telecom companies. Since then, Sam has helped scale companies of all industry types and sizes, including the most recent company he started, VTMEMBER, which he scaled from 0-65k a month in monthly recurring revenue in 6 months.

Here’s a glimpse of what you’ll learn:

• Why the dog-eat-dog mindset will be the downfall of the corporate world
• How VTMEMBER combats taking advantage of lesser income countries
• Why cold calling is a superpower
• How leading from the front produces the best results
• When was the last time someone told you no
• How failure and success correlate
• How Sam’s business plan builds loyalty and accountability

Sponsors for this episode

This episode is sponsored by STS Capital Partners and Altruvest Charitable Services.

In this episode….

How does being a door-to-door salesman inspire someone to start their own business and earn over $65,000 a month in their first six months? Sam Chang, a Taiwanese Canadian out of Vancouver, did just that. After dropping out of university at 19, he used his sales experience to climb the corporate ladder. He now uses his expertise in sales and cold-calling to guide his company VTMEMBER, a virtual assistant company, to new heights.

Sam recalls two instances where the dog-eat-dog way of the corporate world caused him to snap and leave. The corporate world's structure employs what Sam termed the “Golden Handcuffs”. However, through this adversity, he rose and built VTMEMBER. By creating opportunities for employees within the company, he has created a space that encourages career development and growth.

In this episode of What CEOs Talk About, host Martin Hunter and Sam Chang discuss how the corporate world keeps people within its clutch with Golden Handcuffs. VTMEMBER extends worldwide and was built with both employees and consumers in mind. Applications like Zoom have allowed businesses to take on global expansion. Sam and Martin discuss how his unique business structure challenges global inequalities and builds loyalty within his company.

Resources mentioned in this episode:

• URGEO
• Contact email: [email protected]
• Martin Hunter on LinkedIn
• VTMEMBER
• Sam Chang on LinkedIn
• Sam Chang on Instagram
• Sam Chang on Facebook
• ’The 4 Hour Workweek’ by Timothy Ferriss
• Book: Wolf of Wall Street
• Movie: Wolf of Wall Street

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